The Brothers War Commander: Urza’s Iron Alliance

With the release of The Brothers War, Wizards of the Coast have jumped back in time to a pivotal moment in Magic’s history. And what better way to tell the story of two feuding brothers building to all out war than by giving each of them a commander deck! It’s only fitting that a product set in the past comes with a little extra old school flavour, as both decks have been treated to the retro frame on every single card.

The first deck is fronted by Urza, the better known brother and one of the most famous characters in Magic’s history. Urza was a powerful wizard and gifted artificer from Magic’s past who sure does love him some robots! After discovering the Mightstone and Weakstone together, Urza and his brother began a sibling rivalry that would escalate into all out war (we’ve all been there). In this historic battle, Urza and Mishra fought head to head with their automaton armies and Urza eventually caused a blast so large it wiped out both armies, killed his brother and brought in the start of the Ice Age.

But enough of the story, let’s talk game plan! Urza wants to go wide, overwhelming the battlefield with an obscene number of artifact creatures and close the game out with some big payoffs for having so many buddies on the board. The deck contains plenty of ways to make artifact tokens whenever you cast spells, attack players or even think of the word Affinity. And once you’ve run out of space on your playmat you can start to buff up your army to a formidable size and overload on attackers. Urza himself can make your artifact army pretty difficult to block against and the Constructs you make on your end step are going to be large and in charge.

I usually pick a couple of key cards from the deck for each article but I struggled to whittle this one down! Cards like Chief of the Foundry and Indomitable Archangel can quickly give all of the artifact creatures you’re creating such an advantage that you feel unstoppable. And Bronze Guardian not only adds to the protection but deals out synergistic haymakers too. Vedalken Humiliator is a huge stand out card for me, reducing your opponents creatures to 1/1s is devastating and cards like Thopter Shop and One with the Machine will do an incredible job of keeping your hand stacked with plenty more options.

The retro frames were the main draw for picking up this deck but the way it plays and the artifact synergies it creates make you stick around for game after game. It really is well put together and a complete flavour win for the history-visiting Brothers War set. This deck is great fun at any table and well worth picking up a copy if you can. To grab your own, head on over to /shop/card-games/magic-the-gathering/commander-magic