Away From Keyboard - Magic: The Gathering - The Brothers' War

Away From Keyboard - Magic: The Gathering - The Brothers' War

Feature

Away from Keyboard – Magic: The Gathering – The Brothers' War



The Brothers' War. One of the most important conflicts in Dominaria’s history, and one that devastatingly ends with the detonation of the Sylex. Urza and Mishra are two brothers with two very different destinies. They stumble upon two stones, two ancient and powerful artifacts, which set their fates in motion.

As with any new Magic: The Gathering card set, the Brothers’ War set provides players with some new (and in this case – returning) mechanics.

New mechanics



Prototype
Away From Keyboard - Magic: The Gathering - The Brothers' War

This ability (as its name suggests) represents the machines of war in two different stages of development. The prototype spell can be cast for a reduced cost but doing so will reduce its power and defensive score. Of course, the card can be cast using the full mana cost which will allow the full strength of the card to be used on the battlefield. All the abilities associated with the full-strength card are present with the prototype version.

During our playtest, keeping track of which prototype cards have been cast with the Prototype cost and those that have been cast a full cost was troublesome at times. Resorting to counters was the obvious solution, but apparently there are special Prototype tokens available.

Powerstones
Away From Keyboard - Magic: The Gathering - The Brothers' War

Powerstones can accelerate your mana count. A Powerstone is a colorless artifact that can be tapped for one colorless mana. The mana produced by a Powerstone cannot be spent to cast a nonartifact spell, but it can be spent on anything else. This includes artifact spells, activated abilities—even ones of nonartifacts—costs imposed by triggered abilities, any costs to attack or block you may have to pay, and so on.

I found the Powerstones to be somewhat useful for the activating the Unearth ability (see below) and to help boost your mana count quickly to bring more creatures onto the battlefield.


Returning mechanics



Unearth
Away From Keyboard - Magic: The Gathering - The Brothers' War

Unearth is an activated ability that allows players to retrieve a card from their graveyard. In most cases, these creatures will be used for one final attack, as they will have haste and then be exiled at the end of the next step in the combat phase.

As mentioned above, using any Powerstones you control to act as mana combines well with the Unearth mechanic, as they can be used to bring a creature back to the battlefield for one last hurrah.

Meld
Away From Keyboard - Magic: The Gathering - The Brothers' War

This is a cool mechanic that will only work when players have specific cards in their deck. Players will be able to meld together a creature card and an artifact to form one single more powerful permanent.

I didn’t get the opportunity to actually play the Meld card during our preview, as there are only a few of the cards available. But joining these cards together seems to grant a worthwhile advantage.


The Cards



Planeswalkers
Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim – Blue
Saheeli, Filigree Master – Red and Blue
Urza, Lord Protector (when Melded) – White and Blue

Away From Keyboard - Magic: The Gathering - The Brothers' War


Lands
The Brother’s War set contains a mixture of single colour, dual-colour and colorless lands, some of which have their own traits. Being that the set focuses on mech warfare, many of the land cards feature towering behemoths

Away From Keyboard - Magic: The Gathering - The Brothers' War


Variants – borderless
Also feature several different Artifacts cards not available in the regular deck. These have a completely different art style and font.

Away From Keyboard - Magic: The Gathering - The Brothers' War


Transformers
Fans of the cartoon series will love the artwork on the Transformer cards. Indeed, the Transformer cards themselves have two variations for fans to collect. With each card having two sides - one for the robot, and one for the vehicle, they are the must-have collectible cards of the set.

Away From Keyboard - Magic: The Gathering - The Brothers' War


Packs


● Commander Decks
● Set Boosters - 12 cards
● Collector Boosters - 15 cards (includes a Transformers card)
● Draft Boosters - 15 cards
● Jumpstart Boosters - 20 cards (of one colour)

We at Hooked Gamers would like to thank Wizards of the Coast for the invitation to the pre-release event and for the amazing limited edition Brothers' War slide puzzle box.

Away From Keyboard - Magic: The Gathering - The Brothers' War



As always, follow us on Instagram for news updates, reviews, competitions and more.