7 Underappreciated Brothers’ War Cards

So far, we’ve known many of The Brothers’ War cards that made them into the near “staple” category. Soldier tribal, for instance, certainly welcomed the arrival of Siege Veteran, and especially Recruitment Officer. Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim was destined for Dimir Draw Two since spoiler day one. We also witnessed bombs in Limited formats like Ravenous Gigamole and Overwhelming Remorse take over a lot of the matches.

But, there's still a lot more value to discover. Here are some of the relatively lesser-popular, Brothers’ War cards that turned out (or will turn out) to be more useful than they seem.

Goblin Blast-Runner

Initially one of the most underrated spoiler cards prior to Brothers’ War being released. Not looking impressive given the required condition, after all. But now it's pretty much an instant Draft pick, as there are quite a lot of things you can auto-sac to keep this thing running amok. Soon you’d have multiple copies of these swinging at boards your opponent would have to overinvest in defending, lest they be swept away.

Aeronaut Cavalry

Five mana for a 3/4 flyer seems quite underwhelming as an investment. But its second effect actually provides the last efficiency push to win a game. It can be your definitive finisher, after the rest of the other grunts have already fought their way to victory. Still not a staple, of course, but definitely performs much better than initially expected within its intended formats.

Levitating Statue

Works similarly with Myth Realized, in that it sneaks around sorcery speed stuff, and might just become a wee bit troublesome if not dealt with quickly. Heck, Riddleform doesn’t even have flying when it’s not a creature. That's right, Levitating Statue also happens to be the very first non-creature, non-vehicle artifact that still has flying by default (hint: reanimate it with something else).

Moment of Defiance

At a glance, paying three mana for this thing doesn’t feel awesome, even if it cantrips. But instead of waiting for the perfect 3-for-1 opportunity, the trick is to just use it whenever you have a clear target. It’s not a Gaea's Gift or even an Overwhelming Remorse of course. But racing your opponent with it would still eventually pay off, since it’s never a disadvantage to just use.

In fact, if you manage to give this card some space for Draw Two decks…

Scrapwork Cohort

Scrapwork Mutt has been universally lauded for its potential synergy with many decks. But the same also applies to its slightly bigger version. May not be as easy to splash, and the curve is quite higher. Still, games with it tend to snowball quickly as well. Better gains for white players of course, though it is the non-white decks that seem far more interested in it.

Soul Partition

Basically, a white “bounce” card that taxes your opponent by two mana. At rare, it can feel quite limiting. But when used as a key piece in tempo plays, this might become far more useful in creating “bait and ransom” situations. Quite different from the “random switcheroo” strategy of Fateful Absence, but you at least have the target type versatility advantage.

Urza’s Command

Probably the only Command card in Brothers’ War to be lampooned quite hard by players. Value-wise, though, it’s not really that bad. You still get to drop two artifacts at instant speed for four; one an artifact ramp/ability engine tool and the other a potential Karnstruct (2/2 by default), albeit both being tapped. That’s still quite a functional deal even if other cards like Whirler Rogue can provide similar results. The versatility of draw and opponent-only Fog is also there, which helps it double as a combat trick as well.

It's quite troublesome to explain a Powerstone token effect with it though.