Mishra, Eminent One · Ashnod the Uncaring
A Rakdos artifact deck led by Mishra, Eminent One, copy your artifacts each combat to flood the board with powerful tokens, sacrifice them for value, and bury opponents under exponential artifact advantage.
# set · BRC · 2 decks
Urza against Mishra, two artifact decks that play the same theme from opposite ends.
- Colors
Mechanics
Powerstones
A Powerstone token taps for one colorless mana that cannot be spent on nonartifact spells. Ramp with a restriction, which pushes both decks further into artifacts.
Affinity for artifacts
Affinity reduces a spell cost by one for each artifact you control. In decks that make Thopters and Powerstones, the discount gets large quickly.
Metalcraft
Metalcraft switches on once you control three or more artifacts. An easy threshold here, and the payoffs are worth building toward.
The set
The Brothers' War is the Urza and Mishra story, so the two Commander decks are the two brothers. Both are artifact decks, and the difference is temperament: Urza builds an alliance, Mishra copies and sacrifices.
Powerstones are the set contribution to the format. They ramp, but only into artifacts, so they keep the decks honest instead of turning into generic acceleration. A Powerstone on turn three is a real jump, and it also counts toward affinity and metalcraft, which is where the two decks find their second gear.
Both boxes also come with a second legend, so each has two possible commanders out of the wrapper. That matters more here than usual, since Ashnod and Tawnos play quite differently from the brothers they support.
Where to start
Mishra's Burnished Banner is the more interactive of the pair, and it plays better at a table that removes things, since it rebuilds every combat. Urza's Iron Alliance is easier to steer if you have not played an artifact deck before, because the plan is simply to have more artifacts than everyone and then attack with them.
The decks 2
Urza, Chief Artificer · Tawnos, Solemn Survivor
An Azorius artifact and token deck led by Urza, Chief Artificer, make your artifacts into menacing creatures, flood the board with Thopter tokens, and win through a flying swarm backed by Steel Overseer buffs.
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