The Brood

As a 40 life singleton format, Commander is not a very friendly place for cheap, efficient beaters. The format was designed in part to provide a home for high mana cost, interesting but otherwise-unplayable cards. Magic history is littered with interesting cards (usually rares) that are just too expensive to play in constructed formats. EDH was developed in large part to give those cards a home.

With this in mind, anytime you play a creature that costs less than six mana in EDH it had better have a very interesting or powerful ability (swarm and theme decks notwithstanding) because odds are its power/toughness is going to be quickly outclassed. Indirik Stomphowler for example is a valuable card not because he’s a 4/4, but because he is a naturalize and a body that can be sacrificed, equipped, or used as a chump blocker. Once those 7CMC fatties start hitting the table his main value is going to be absorbing one attack - not dishing out damage.


One of the most interesting of these beaters-with-a-cool-ability came out of coldsnap:

The problem with the Saurian is a lot of the time he is literally a 4/4 for 4. While sometimes this is aggressive enough to deal some damage, usually within 2 turns he has been outclassed around the table and is relegated to chump-block or sac-fodder status. Unlike a stomphowler where you’ve already gotten value and don’t mind this - the Brood does his thing the longer he sits on the table, so you don’t really want to sac him.

Despite this drawback, its almost a classic magic scenario where you find yourself thinking “if only I topdeck brooding saurian I could turn the game around”. Between the black mage’s reanimation and the blue mage’s control magics people are almost always using the property of others in their quest for wizardly dominance. The thing is nobody actually plays brooding saurian, so you never actually get to see that miraculous topdeck turnaround.

Now I am focusing on the Saurian but to be fair there are two other cards in his class that deserve mentioning: Brand and Homeward Path. Brand is awesome as its instant speed and can cycle if you have no use for the ability. The downside is it only goes off once, and only affects you (well, that could be an upside for example if you just cast reins of power).

Homeward path is a recent addition to Commander that in my opinion is just a little too strong for its own good. I really feel like its a no-brainer to drop homeward path in most EDH decks since the drawbacks are virtually nil. As a land its a hell of a lot more resilient than a creature, tapping for mana is always useful, its instant speed like brand, and gets creatures which most of the time are what people are moving around the table anyways.  While it gets the job done, its a pretty bland way to do it. You will get a lot more props for rocking the Brood or Brand.

Macaroni or Cheese?

Brooding Saurian is a defining element of a good macaroni salad. Its something you probably shouldn’t play, but can be hilarious when you do.