The Brothers' War

The Brothers' War

 

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Jumpstart

 

Trivia

 

Card comparisons

 

Retro Artifacts

 

Art Series

 

The Brothers' War
[[File:{{#setmainimage:The Brothers' War.jpg}}|250px]]
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	A split cog
Design	Ari Nieh (lead) Mark Rosewater Emily Teng Miguel Lopez Kazu Negri Ken Nagle Noah Millrod Ethan Fleischer Yoni Skolnik Bryan Hawley
Development	Yoni Skolnik (lead) Ari Nieh Bryan Hawley Chris Mooney Zac Elsik David Humpherys Megan Smith Melissa DeTora Ben Weitz Daniel Holt Andrew Brown Corey Bowen
Art direction	Taylor Ingvarsson and Sarah Wassell
Release date	November 18, 2022
Plane	Dominaria
Themes and mechanics	Artifacts, Powerstones
Keywords/​ability words	Meld, Prototype, Unearth
Set size	287
Expansion code	BRO
Development codename	Kayaking
March of the Machine Standard
Dominaria United The Brothers' War Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Secret Lair Drop Series: Look at the Kitties The Brothers' War Retro Frame Artifacts

This page is about the set. For the event itself, see Brothers' War. For other uses, see The Brothers' War (disambiguation).

The Brothers' War is the ninety-fourth Magic expansion. It was released on November 18, 2022.

Set details

Expansion symbol

“

Reinvent the Past. Retake the Future

”

The Brothers' War was designed as an "event set", meaning that its mechanical structure was built around an event rather than a world. In this case, the set revolves around the story of the Brothers' War, a major event in Magic's timeline that was previously portrayed in the set Antiquities and various works of fiction such as the novel The Brothers' War by Jeff Grubb. The Vision Design team, working in conjunction with the Creative team, divided the story into three acts: Childhood – We see the brothers growing up together and making a huge discovery that creates a schism, Adulthood – We watch as things escalate into a war that lasts decades and Final Conflict – We observe the ultimate event that ends the war and changes Dominaria forever.

The Brothers' War contains 287 cards (101 commons, 80 uncommons, 63 rares, 23 mythic rares, 20 basic lands), and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. Artifacts with color identity are now numbered with their color, a change from the previous where they were placed like other artifacts, after the multicolored cards. The regular cards include 10 full-art "mech" basic lands that showcase locations and the mechanical behemoths that battled in the war (#278-287). Alternate card frames have a different card number than the original version. The Standard legal Jumpstart rares are #288-293, borderless planeswalkers, legendaries and pain lands are numbered #294-301. Extended artwork cards are numbered #302-377. The Buy-a-Box card is #378 and the Bundle promo is #379. The dark frame treatment cards from the Universal promo pack are numbered #380-384.

Storyline

Returning to a pivotal story of Dominaria's — and Magic's — history, what started as a feud between Urza and Mishra erupted into an all-out war that set into motion the future of the plane and Multiverse itself. Through the lens of Dominaria's locations, characters, and victims of the conflict, we'll see a plane-spanning conflict escalate with artifacts, giant artifact creatures, and beyond.

This is the second part of the four-set Phyrexian story arc where the fate of Dominaria — and the Multiverse — is set to unravel. As we follow familiar Planeswalkers traveling to one of Dominaria's key historical moments, we'll learn more about the people and places of the time. The fate of the future might be rooted in the past.

The cards that represent the Story Spotlights in The Brothers' War are:

• Ashnod's Intervention
• Awaken the Woods
• Bitter Reunion
• Brotherhood's End
• Calamity's Wake
• Corrupt
• Desynchronize
• Diabolic Intent
• Dreams of Steel and Oil
• Epic Confrontation
• Fallaji Dragon Engine
• The Fall of Kroog
• Fateful Handoff
• Forging the Anchor
• Gruesome Realization
• Hostile Negotiations
• Hurkyl's Final Meditation
• Kayla's Reconstruction
• Loran's Escape
• Machine Over Matter
• Meticulous Excavation
• Mishra's Domination
• One with the Multiverse
• Overwhelming Remorse
• Portal to Phyrexia
• Raze to the Ground
• Shoot Down
• Sibling Rivalry
• Soul Partition
• Splitting the Powerstone
• The Stasis Coffin
• Stern Lesson
• Take Flight
• The Temporal Anchor
• Tocasia's Dig Site
• Tocasia's Welcome
• Union of the Third Path
• Urza's Sylex
• Visions of Phyrexia
• Wasteful Harvest

Magic Story

Title	Author	Publishing date	Set	Setting (plane)	Featuring
The Brothers' War - Episode 1: The End	Miguel Lopez	2022-10-20	The Brothers' War	Dominaria	Kayla bin-Kroog, Tawnos, Myrel, Raddic
The Brothers' War - Episode 2: The Beginning	Miguel Lopez	2022-10-20	The Brothers' War	Dominaria	Tawnos, Kayla bin-Kroog, Myrel, Jarsyl, Kaya, Teferi
The Brothers' War - Chapter 1: Stronghold	Reinhardt Suarez	2022-10-21	The Brothers' War	Dominaria	Teferi, Jodah, Elspeth Tirel, Kaya, Vivien Reid, Saheeli Rai, Wrenn, Seven
The Brothers' War - Episode 3: Sword One	Miguel Lopez	2022-10-21	The Brothers' War	Dominaria	Llora, Sanwell, Rica, Tawnos, Carlo, Aiman, Death
The Brothers' War - Chapter 2: Antiquities	Reinhardt Suarez	2022-10-24	The Brothers' War	Dominaria, Kaladesh	Saheeli Rai, Kaya, Gonti, Jodah, Jhoira, Sharaman, Xantcha, Mishra
The Brothers' War - Episode 4: The Ink of Empires	Miguel Lopez	2022-10-24	The Brothers' War	Dominaria	Farid, Karrak, Assad, Aiman, Ehsan, Usman, Laria
The Brothers' War - Chapter 3: Nemesis	Reinhardt Suarez	2022-10-25	The Brothers' War	New Phyrexia	Karn, Ajani Goldmane, Tezzeret, Elesh Norn
The Brothers' War - Chapter 4: The Dark	Reinhardt Suarez	2022-10-25	The Brothers' War	Dominaria	Elspeth Tirel, Wrenn, Seven, Chandra Nalaar, Nissa Revane, Jodah, Kaya, Saheeli Rai, Rona, Tezzeret, Ashiok
The Brothers' War - Chapter 5: Exodus	Reinhardt Suarez	2022-10-26	The Brothers' War	Dominaria	Chandra Nalaar, Nissa Revane, Kaya, Saheeli Rai, Teferi Akosa, Wrenn, Seven, Nahiri, Jace Beleren, Jodah, Elspeth Tirel, The Wanderer, Kaito Shizuki, Tyvar Kell, Lukka, Vraska
The Brothers' War - Episode 5: As Cruel, As Necessary	Miguel Lopez, Jeff Grubb	2022-10-26	The Brothers' War	Dominaria	Teferi Akosa, Kaya, Saheeli Rai, Urza, Tawnos

Marketing

Booster box depicting Mishra and Urza

The Brothers' War is sold in regular 16-card Draft Boosters (one card being a marketing card), Collector Boosters, Set Boosters, Jumpstart Boosters, the The Brothers' War Bundle (also in a Deluxe Edition), two Commander decks and a Land Station. The Draft Boosters feature artwork depicting a hulking artifact creature. The Set Boosters feature art depicting Urza, and the Collector Boosters feature a dragon engine. The Jumpstart Boosters feature art from Rescue Retriever. With the release of The Brothers' War, 75 cards were rotated into The List, many of which were thematically or mechanically linked to the set. These can be found in the Set Boosters.

There was no Welcome booster released with The Brothers' War. Stores received the Dominaria United one, instead.

Universes Beyond: Transformers

For the first time, some Universes Beyond cards are distributed through a premier set, advertising another Hasbro brand. Transformers cards can be found in Set Boosters, Collector Booster and Bundles. Note that these are original designs, and not skinned cards. Transformers cards appear in 10% of Set Boosters. Shattered Glass Transformers cards appear in approximately 12% of Collector Boosters.

Retro Artifacts

Promotional Crystal Display with LED light for The Brothers' War (Mightstone and Weakstone)

Retro frame artifacts feature a unique set symbol and can be found in Draft, Set, and Collector Boosters. They come in three versions: regular retro frame, "retro schematics" and serialized "retro schematics" with double-rainbow foiling. The serialized versions are numbered with their number out of 500, and they'll only be available in Collector Boosters. Each Set and Draft Booster contains a retro artifact. It's an uncommon approximately 66% of the time, a rare ~27% of the time, and a mythic rare ~7% of the time. One-in-six retro artifacts will be retro schematics. Approximately 24% of The Brothers' War Set Boosters contain an extra retro or schematic artifact in their wildcard slot. Serialized retro schematic cards can only be found in Collector Boosters. Serialized cards are always in English but can be opened in Collector Boosters of any language.

Events

• Prerelease: November 11-17, 2022
  • At first sight, there are two different Prerelease Packs: Urza's Iron Alliance and Mishra's Burnished Banner. However, they have the same contents.
• Release on Magic: The Gathering Arena and Magic Online: November 15, 2022
• Launch party: November 18-20, 2022
• FNM: November 18, 2022–January 20, 2023
• Commander Nights: November 21, 2022–January 26, 2023
• Game Day: December 3-11, 2022
• WPN Premium-Exclusive Commander Party: December 16-18, 2022

  

  Bundle

Gift Edition Bundle

Promos

• Prerelease: a stamped card that can be any rare or mythic rare of The Brothers' War.
• Other events: cards from the The Brothers' War universal promo pack.
  • The seasonal dark-frame promos are: Lay Down Arms, Flow of Knowledge, Corrupt, Sardian Cliffstomper and Blanchwood Armor.
• Buy-a-Box: alternate art Mishra's Foundry.
• Bundle: foil alternate art Queen Kayla bin-Kroog
• Game Day: full alternate art Recruitment Officer (participation), Braids, Arisen Nightmare (Top 8) and Surge Engine (winner)
• 30th Anniversary promos: Wall of Roots, Wood Elves, Windfall and Chinese (simplified) Loyal Retainers
• Commander Party: Phyrexian Language Psychosis Crawler
• Korea: for Korean Magic players, Wizards of the Coast has released a special double-sided token in collaboration with famous Korean cartoonist Seung hoon Na, featuring Constructs without predefined Power/Toughness.

Tokens and markers

The Brothers' War has 12 tokens and 1 emblem.

1. 2/2 Spirit creature with vigilance and “Whenever you draw a card, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature”, for Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim.
2. 2/2 Bear creature, for Argoth, Sanctum of Nature, Fade from History and Titania’s Command.
3. 1/1 Forest Dryad land creature, for Awaken the Woods.
4. 2/2 Construct artifact creature, for Kayla's Command.
5. 0/0 Construct artifact creature with "This creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control", for Urza's Command.
6. X/X Golem artifact creature, for Mask of the Jadecrafter and Rootwire Amalgam.
7. Powerstone artifact, for Arbalest Engineers, Argothian Opportunist, Ashnod, Flesh Mechanist, Cityscape Leveler, Excavation Explosion, Fallaji Excavation, Geology Enthusiast, Gix's Caress, Great Desert Prospector, Hall of Tagsin, Horned Stoneseeker, Junkyard Genius, Koilos Roc, Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia, Powerstone Engineer, Repair and Recharge, Sarinth Greatwurm, Sibling Rivalry, Slagstone Refinery, Splitting the Powerstone, Static Net, Stern Lesson, Stone Retrieval Unit, Thran Spider, Urza, Powerstone Prodigy, Urza's Command and Visions of Phyrexia.
8. 1/1 Soldier artifact creature, for Conscripted Infantry, Emergency Weld, Mass Production, Mishra's Onslaught, Myrel, Shield of Argive, Platoon Dispenser, Scrapwork Cohort, Siege Veteran, Skystrike Officer, Third Path Iconoclast and Urza, Planeswalker.
9. 1/1 Soldier artifact creature.
10. 1/1 Thopter artifact creature with flying, for Saheeli, Filigree Master and Thopter Mechanic.
11. 3/3 Zombie artifact creature, for Ashnod, Flesh Mechanist and Transmogrant Altar.
12. Emblem for Saheeli, Filigree Master.

The last token has The Brothers' War Commander expansion symbol and collector number.

• 5/3 Elemental creature, for Titania, Nature's Force.

Themes and mechanics

Prototype card frame

As could be expected, The Brothers' War has an artifact theme. Both of the main mechanics are exclusive to artifacts. The set lacks certain newer card types, such as Vehicles and colored artifacts to give it a "retro" feel, though many artifacts have color identities through ability costs.

Meld returns from Eldritch Moon with three meld pairs. Meld is a keyword action that changes the card with meld and one specific other cards into one oversized card. That single card only exists on the backs of the two other cards.

Unearth is another returning mechanic — “[Cost]: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step or if it would leave the battlefield. Unearth only as a sorcery.”

Prototype is the set's new mechanic. Each prototype card includes two sets of characteristics: First, a larger default mana cost, power, and toughness. The second set of characteristics exists as part of the prototype ability. There, you'll find an alternate mana cost and an alternate power and toughness. As you cast a prototype card, you choose the characteristics you use.

Limited archetypes

• : Soldier Matters
• : Second Card Matters
• : Unearth Combined with Sacrificing
• : Midrange Ramp with Powerstones
• : Artifact Entering the Battlefield Matters
• : Mana Value 3 or Less Matters
• : Noncreature Spells Matter
• : Graveyard Matters
• : Unearth Aggro
• : Big Powerstone Ramp

Card types

The set prominently features the Powerstone artifact type, as introduced in Dominaria United. Powerstone appears on predefined tokens with the ability “: Add . This mana can't be spent to cast a non-artifact spell.”

Urza appears as a planeswalker type for the first time in an eternal-legal set.

Cycles

The Brothers' War has seven cycles, including two vertical cycles and a mini-cycle.

Vertical cycles

Cycle name
Urza	Urza, Powerstone Prodigy	Urza, Prince of Kroog	Urza, Lord Protector
	Depicting Urza in various stages of his life.
Mishra	Mishra, Excavation Prodigy	Mishra, Tamer of Mak Fawa	Mishra, Claimed by Gix
	Depicting Mishra in various stages of his life.

Horizontal cycles

Cycle name
Mythic rare keyword artifact creatures	Platoon Dispenser	Arcane Proxy	Phyrexian Fleshgorger	Skitterbeam Battalion	Rootwire Amalgam
	Five mythic rare artifact creatures with generic mana costs and keyword abilities with colored mana costs. Platoon Dispenser is the only one without prototype, having unearth instead.
Commands	Kayla's Command	Urza's Command	Gix's Command	Mishra's Command	Titania's Command
	Each of these rare modal spells has four modes and allow you to choose two different modes, along with being named after a major character and illustrated by Dominik Mayer.
Basic land count spells	Lay Down Arms	Flow of Knowledge	Corrupt	Sardian Cliffstomper	Blanchwood Armor
	Five uncommon mono-colored spells which reward you for having many of a certain basic land type.
Self mill creatures	Airlift Chaplain	Fallaji Archaeologist	Ravenous Gigamole	Tomakul Scrapsmith	Blanchwood Prowler
	Five common mono-colored creatures which mill you for 3 on entry, then allow you to return a card of a certain card type milled this way to your hand or put a +1/+1 counter on the creature.

Mini-cycles

Cycle name	Mine	Power-Plant	Tower
Urzatron workers	Mine Worker	Power Plant Worker	Tower Worker
	Three common Assembly-Workers, one for each of the original Urza's lands, that give extra effects if you control all of them.

Double cycles

Cycle name
Gold signposts	Yotian Tactician	Evangel of Synthesis	Junkyard Genius	Arbalest Engineers	Yotian Dissident	Hero of the Dunes	Third Path Iconoclast	Skyfisher Spider	Fallaji Vanguard	Battery Bearer
	Ten uncommon dual-colored creatures, each a signpost for a draft archetype.

Pairs

The Brothers' War has two mirrored pairs and one matched pair.

Mirrored Pair		Description
Bladecoil Serpent ()	Clay Champion ()	Two mythic rare artifact creatures that cost and twice as much generic mana as colors in their color identity, which improve based on the amount and types of colored mana spent to cast them, in increments of two.
Urza's Rebuff ()	Mishra's Onslaught ()	Two common modal Instants with two effects to choose from, with mirrored flavor text depicting Urza's and Mishra's hostility towards each other.

Matched Pair		Description
Mightstone's Animation	Weakstone's Subjugation	Two common blue Auras that can enchant an artifact. They represent the powers of Urza's Mightstone - empowering an artifact - and Mishra's Weakstone - disabling an artifact - respectively with mirrored art.

Reprinted cards

• Blanchwood Armor, first printed in Urza's Saga, last seen in Mystery Booster.
• Blast Zone, first printed in War of the Spark, last seen in Secret Lair: Ultimate Edition.
• Corrupt, first printed in Urza's Saga, last seen in Duel Decks Anthology.
• Curate, first printed in Strixhaven: School of Mages.
• Diabolic Intent, first printed in Planeshift, last seen in Battlebond.
• Disenchant, first printed in Alpha, last seen in Commander Legends.
• Disfigure, first printed in Zendikar, last seen in Double Masters 2022.
• Epic Confrontation, first printed in Dragons of Tarkir, last seen in Mystery Booster.
• Evolving Wilds, first printed in Rise of the Eldrazi, last seen in Warhammer 40,000 Commander Decks.
• Fauna Shaman, first printed in Magic 2011, last seen in Ultimate Masters.
• Giant Growth, first printed in Alpha, last seen in Mystery Booster.
• Go for the Throat, first printed in Mirrodin Besieged, last seen in Warhammer 40,000 Commander Decks.
• Monastery Swiftspear, first printed in Khans of Tarkir, last seen in Double Masters 2022.
• Obstinate Baloth, first printed in Magic 2011, last seen in Iconic Masters.
• Painful Quandary, first printed in Scars of Mirrodin.
• Four Pain lands, first printed in Ice Age and Apocalypse. The other six were printed in Dominaria United.
  • Battlefield Forge
  • Brushland
  • Llanowar Wastes
  • Underground River

Functional reprints

• Aeronaut's Wings is a functional reprint of Kitesail
• Wing Commando is a functional reprint of Mistral Singer, save for creature type.

Notable cards

• Hurkyl, Master Wizard has two versions — the main set version and an extended art version found in Collector Boosters — that have two different rarities (Rare and Mythic Rare, respectively).

Preconstructed decks

The Brothers' War features two Commander decks that are released as a regular part of a set's product line.

Theme deck name	Color Identity					Commander
Urza's Iron Alliance	W	U	B			Urza, Chief Artificer
Mishra's Burnished Banner		U	B	R		Mishra, Eminent One

External links

• Dawn of the Phyrexian Invasion - Official Cinematic Trailer - The Brothers' War (Video). Magic: The Gathering. YouTube (October 30, 2022).
• Mark Rosewater (December 12, 2022). "Odds & Ends: The Brothers' War". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Mark Rosewater (July 31, 2023). "State of Design 2023". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.