Magic: The Gathering‘s upcoming The Brother’s War expansion set looks to bring a healthy dose of nostalgia to the game, as well as the Autobots and Decepticons from . Wizards of the Coast revealed new details about The Brother’s War set during a press presentation, shedding new light on the set’s narrative, new and returning game mechanics, collectability, Commander decks, and of course, integration of The Transformers into Magic: The Gathering gameplay. As part of Wizards of the Coast’s ongoing celebration of , it shouldn’t be too surprising that the company is leaning into warm feelings about Magic‘s past in the set.
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That nostalgic vibe is present across the narrative and gameplay in The Brother’s War. In a way, it seems like a gift to players with the longest histories in the game.
The Brothers’ War Story
Within the Magic: The Gathering story, The Brothers’ War is the conflict that broke out in Dominaria, Magic‘s original setting, between the brothers Urza and Mishra, two artificers who had discovered tech from an ancient civilization, which they used to power their war machines. Urza and Mishra’s names should be familiar to many Magic players thanks to the many cards named for them. Magic first chronicled the Brothers’ War’ story in Antiquities, the game’s second-ever expansion from 1994. However, Magic’s storytelling style was much different then, and the tale was mostly told through allusions and indirect mentions in flavor text (Jeff Grubb provided a fuller accounting in his 1998 The Brothers’ War novel, which unfortunately will not be reprinted for this occasion, but is available digitally). The Brothers’ War saw Mishra corrupted by Phryexians, biomechanical beings connected to the ancient tech the brothers used to fuel their war. It ended with Urza stopping their attempt at invasion at a cataclysmic cost.
The new The Brothers’ War set is the second part of Magic: The Gathering‘s current ongoing story arc. The first chapter, the previous expansion called , revealed that the Phyrexians are making another play for Dominaria, this time infiltrating the plane through sleeper agents. The heroes of Dominaria are already on the back foot after being taken by surprise and losing the planeswalker Ajani to Phyrexian “compleation.” In a bid to gain the knowledge needed to defeat the Phyrexians again, the time-walking planeswalker Teferi — with help from fellow planeswalkers Saheeli and Kaya — casts himself back into Dominaria’s history in order to observe Urza and his original battle with the Phyrexians in the hopes that he’ll discover the information needed to repeat Urza’s victory. This allows the set to offer a modern retelling of The Brother’s War, with multiple cards to represent both brothers, basic lands showing off their distinctive mech designs, and four reprinted “pain lands” representing the destruction the war inflicted on Dominaria.
The Brothers’ War‘s New Mechanics
The Brothers’ War is bringing two new mechanics to Magic: The Gathering. The first is Prototype, an alternate casting cost that appears only on artifact creatures. The Prototype casting cost is typically smaller than the base casting cost and may include colored mana, which could turn a colorless artifact into a colored permanent. In exchange for the reduced casting cost, the creature will have reduced power and toughness but maintains all of its abilities, adding versatility to these cards.
Powerstones are tokens somewhat similar to Treasure, Clue, and Blood tokens. These tokens tie into the set’s artifact theme by offering colorless mana (with simple tapping, no need to sacrifice) that cannot be spent to cast non-artifact spells. An important note is that, while the only spells you can cast are artifacts, the mana from Powerstones can still be used to pay for activated abilities.
The Brothers’ War‘s Returning Mechanics
The Brothers’ War will also bring back a few past mechanics, including Unearth. First introduced in the Shards of Alara set, Unearth is a keyword attached to mana cost that, when paid, allows a player to return the Unearthed card to the battlefield with haste, but then must exile the card at the end of the turn. The designers did tease in the presentation that, for the first time, the Unearth keyword will appear on some non-creature cards in The Brothers’ War.
Meld is also returning in The Brothers’ War. Previously used in the Eldritch Moon set to represent the otherworldy, cosmic horrors called Eldrazi, The Brothers’ War employs the mechanic — which combines two cards into one larger card — to represent three powerful beings: Urza after awakens as a Planeswalker, Mishra after he is fully corrupted by the Phyrexians, and Titania as she rages on Dominaria’s behalf against the war’s destruction.
The Brothers’ War Commander Decks
Who else would be the Commanders in preconstructed decks related to The Brothers’ War but the two brothers themselves, Urza and Mishra? The Urza’s Iron Alliance deck is a white-blue-black deck that wants to “go wide” with (play lots of) artifact creatures to overwhelm its opponents. By contrast, Mishra’s Burnished Banner is a blue-black-red deck that wants to turn non-artifact creatures into weapons by making creature copies of them.
The two Commander Decks are also special because they’re giving players a nostalgic throwback. Every card in these Commander Decks will have the classic, original Magic: The Gathering card frame designs that pre-date Eighth Edition’s redesign that has remained in place for years. This includes reprinted cards as well as some newer and Commander-specific cards that have never been printed in a classic frame before.
The Brothers’ Wars‘ Collectible Special Art and Frame Treatments
Wizards of the Coast promises a piece of Magic: The Gathering history in every The Brothers’ War set booster. Each booster contains at least one artifact card in the retro frame design, including some that have never been printed in that frame before. One in every six of those retro frame artifacts also has special artwork depicting the schematics used to build the device.
Additionally, Collector Boosters will have serialized versions of these schematic cards, with an extra rainbow foil finish, that are numbered out of a print run of only 500. Collector boosters also contain an extra unserialized retro frame or schematic artifacts.
Transformers in The Brothers’ War
There are 15 Transformers cards in The Brothers’ War representing iconic Autobots and Decepticons from the Hasbro-owned franchise, including Megatron and Optimus Prime. These cards are found in Collector and Set Boosters. Each bundle also has a random Transformers card. Each Transformers card is double-sided, allowing the card to transform (via a mechanic called Convert) from bot mode to vehicular form, and the cards are legal in Eternal format Magic: The Gathering play.
Out of the 15 Transformers cards, 14 of them also have Shattered Glass variants. The mechanics of the cards are the same, but they have a special purple “shattered” frame and the artwork depicts the versions of the characters from the Shattered Glass universe, where the Autobots are the villains and the Decepticons are the heroes. These variants are exclusive to Collector Boosters, and their foil versions are especially rare.
The Brothers’ War in Magic: The Gathering Arena
The Brothers’ War is bringing the usual updates to Magic: The Gathering Arena. That includes new loading screen art from the set, a new battlefield that looks like the site of one of the conflict’s battles, a new Mastery pass, and new player avatars representing Urza, Mishra, and Titania that can be purchased from the store.
It’s also introducing something completely new: Gold Packs. These special packs are meant to reward players for investing in the latest Standard set release. Purchasing 10 The Brothers’ War boosters from the store unlocks one gold pack, which includes 6 rare and/or mythic rare cards from current Standard sets (they do not include Alchemy rares and mythic rares). Players who pre-order The Brothers’ War pack in the Magic Arena store will also get 5 extra Gold Packs.
When Does The Brothers’ War Release?
Magic: The Gathering Arena will host The Brothers’ War early access event on November 10th. Tabletop pre-releases for the set will begin on November 11th.
The Brothers’ War will release on Magic: The Gathering Arena on November 15th. Its physical release will follow on November 18th.
