Brutal Hordechief

Creature — Orc Warrior

Whenever a creature you control attacks, defending player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

{3}{RW}{RW}: Creatures your opponents control block this turn if able, and you choose how those creatures block.

Combos

• Archangel of Thune + Brutal Hordechief

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (43)

Crow-Umbra on Michigone

1 month ago

Hi there! I thought I'd try my best to answer the questions you left for me on my wall. I mostly play the "typical" 4-person EDH pod, with the occasional 5 person game here or there. All of my decks are built with a multi-player setting in mind. To answer your other questions as best as possible:

• 1 - What is my win rate with Isshin? - This is something I haven't kept close track of, unfortunately. In the past year, I've played at least 20 games with the deck, so I'd have a rough guess that it's won about 25% of the games it has played, and threatened wins another 15-20% of the time, but couldn't quite close it out for one reason or another. My primer has some game logs in the long list of updates if you want to try to read through those. I tried to capture the summary of some of my more memorable games, win or lose.

• 2 - How do you win with Isshin in multiplayer? - Damage, whether combat or group slug/drain damage. Any aggro or damage based strategy has to find a way to pump out at least 120 damage over the course of a game, or capitalize on openings made by other decks in peoples' defenses. My Isshin deck wins by making swarms of tokens, and antheming them up with Battle Cry, Melee, or some other static power/toughness boost. The times I've won with combat damage, was typically off the back of Iroas, God of Victory because I had a board that could swing away and was hard to block. This is why I also have the damage effects of Purphoros, God of the Forge, Mishra, Claimed by Gix  ^Meld, Commissar Severina Raine, Impact Tremors, and Brutal Hordechief. The group damage and combat damage help each other out. They both soften up your opponents and help make each other more viable. These damage effects also help you get "around" blockers.

"So what do I do? Lean more into group slug, i.e. put in Impact Tremors? Lean away from wipes and focus on ramp and draw? More protection for my creatures?"

These are all generally good ideas. Adding in more ramp and draw can help your deck with consistency, especially for staying gassed up in the mid-late game. While board wipes are helpful, I've found that sometimes it can get annoying to reset the game too many times. At some point someone has to win, and wiping the board 3+ times in a single game can make it tedious instead.

• 3 - "Is it mean/distasteful to eliminate the player that is the biggest threat, then finish off everyone else? Am I a bully?*" - Personally, I don't think so. I guess it depends on how well you know the people you are playing with. If the "threat" you eliminated has a deck that consistently pops off if it isn't dealt with, then I don't think it's wrong for them to sit one out. I've been a similar position numerous times with Isshin where I'll eliminate the player that might be the biggest threat to me specifically or could be the biggest threat to the table. If I become archenemy of that game, then so be it. Being archenemy can be fun, and it can be a compliment. Congrats, your deck is now the Big Bad Scary Thing. This is a game, and someone has to win each match up. Yes, EDH is supposed to be a "casual format", and that means a variety of different things to players, but after all is said and done, someone has to win. Ideally it can be you.

• 4 - "As the only deck in the meta with a robust removal suite..." - I will address the rest of the statement you left, but woof, it sounds like the group you played with this time around was maybe very casual? I found that when some of my friends first started playing EDH, they didn't run a whole lot of removal, often to their own detriment. As one friend and I like to echo, "removal wins games". I think you were correct in removing the Ghired's Anointed Procession, but left their other enchantment alone so they could have fun. Ideally, you shouldn't have to be the "Removal Police" and manage every threat you have the capability to. I typically use my removal to A) Address threats most pressing to me B) Address threats that are most detrimental to the table, but will buy me some good will and time to build afterwards. You can utilize removal for achieving parity as you see fit. In terms of this being a good strategy, I think a better question is more about was a fun game environment created? Being "Removal Police" is fun for some and not as much for others. Eventually, everyone else around the table might have to reconsider running more removal to stay relevant and interactive in games, if that's the type of play they want.

• 5 - "Board wipes made our games longer" - Going back to what I said a couple paragraphs up "While board wipes are helpful, I've found that sometimes it can get annoying to reset the game too many times" - I personally run 2 wipe effects in each deck. Most of my removal is single target, or can hit multiple things, but isn't quite a board wipe (Wear / Tear, Dismantling Wave, Grasp of Fate, Ashes to Ashes, or Druid of Purification). This is all personal choice though.

• 5.1 "How do I recover more quickly after a board wipe than my opponents? Do I need more card draw? Do I need more protection to keep my creatures around? " - Card draw is always more helpful. Upping the amount of card draw is typically helpful. The tricky part is tuning the type of draw utilized and finding the balance that feels right for you. For me I have about 14 effects in my deck that can draw cards in either cantrip single instances, in multi-card bursts, or in consistent but slow manners. It takes plenty of playing to see what feels right for you. I also run about 11 different effects that protect my board. I've found that Flawless Maneuver and Teferi's Protection have saved my board and kept them in tact enough to maintain momentum the times I've successfully pulled them off. Clever Concealment is a new option that is especially good in token decks. Scapegoat is another cool and cheap option for token decks, and also lets you redeploy your board strategically. I also keep my overall average CMC of my deck as low as I can, so in the event that I don't have a protection effect, but have drawn into plenty of material, I can play cheaply costed creatures and removal/interaction/protection while everyone else is still rebuilding.

• 5.2 "when is the right time in an aggro deck to play a board wipe?" - This requires more nuance and playing IRL to determine what feels right to you. I typically board wipe when someone else is building a bigger board than me, and is out-pacing me in that regard, but I have things in hand to quickly rebuild with afterwards, or have a protection effect to spare my board from my own wipe. It also depends on the types of wipes you are playing. White has a ton of options such as Promise of Loyalty, Slaughter the Strong, Retribution of the Meek, Vanquish the Horde, Farewell, Austere Command, and By Invitation Only to name a few. I've found it can be helpful to maybe have 1 wipe that is somewhat asymmetric, usually by presenting each player a choice on what they get to keep. This is a double edged sword since.... people get a choice on what they get to keep. While this may not solve the threat you were looking to eliminate, this may at least make things more manageable. I know Ruinous Ultimatum is a popular option because of how one-sided it is, but the restrictiveness of the mana cost can be annoying. Isshin doesn't necessarily win in 1 big flashy play that seemingly comes out of nowhere, like a combo deck might, but does build up a board presence and aggro momentum over a few turns. If you can continue to build and maintain a momentum, and add in more damage modifiers or Impact Tremors effects, it may then open up the opportunity for a big alpha strike turn, or a turn where you make a bunch of tokens with krenko tin street king pin because it stuck around long enough and you also have Impact Tremors and/or Hellrider and will either make a metric ton of goblins when Krenko swings, or you already have a metric ton of goblins to swing with for Hellrider.

Ultimately this is about finding what is most fun and engaging for you to play, and balancing that out with what is fun for your group. Unfortunately, not everyone has the same definition of fun. Some people will think its unfun or boring to get token swarmed or killed with Impact Tremors, and that's okay.

Takeaways:

• Definitely add more draw and ramp. Cut down your mana curve and on splashy, but inconsistent effects where possible.

• Running robust removal and interaction is helpful, but don't think you have to be "threat/parity police" because of it. Other people can choose to step up their removal/interaction suites too. Less board-wipes can be a good thing.

• A variety of board protection effects will help you maintain the momentum you are building. A lower mana curve helps you go into aggro mode faster, and hopefully rebuild more quickly after wipes. Ideally, this also helps leave a little mana leftover for your Clever Concealments, Boros Charms, and other protection effects.

• Group Slug and combat damage help each other out and make each other more viable. You are trying to land 120 damage around the table to take out 3 other players, so ideally you should maximize your damage output and find what works best for you, and what is most fun and dynamic for you.

Best of luck and hope you continue to have fun playing this awesome commander.

KBK7101 on Isshin, Two Heavens As One - Eiganjo Uprising v1.0

3 months ago

Soltari Champion and Shared Animosity are great! Never thought about those two. Pretty sure I have animosity around somewhere, too. Totally forgot about Divine Visitation. Ogre Battledriver, Brutal Hordechief and Vault of the Archangel are definitely going on the maybeboard, as well.

Gonna have to pass on Commissar Severina Raine, sadly, due to my immense dislike of crossover cards. Maybe I'll add her in if they ever print an in-universe version, but I don't think that'll happen.

Thanks!

Last_Laugh on Isshin, Two Heavens As One - Eiganjo Uprising v1.0

3 months ago

Nice start. I have a few suggestions for you. I'll try to keep things budget(ish) friendly and break it down by category.

Card Draw: Breena, the Demagogue, Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant, and Emberwilde Captain are all budget friendly AND good card draw here. Plumb the Forbidden in your maybeboard I can't recommend enough.

Pumps: Soltari Champion and Shared Animosity are excellent here. Shared Animosity will make just 4 matching tokens into 7/1's on attack... and it snowballs from there. Divine Visitation I guess goes in this category and is well worth a slot with this much token production.

Tokens: Launch the Fleet is something I've added recently to my own list. Good results so far but I've only seen it twice lol.

Finishers: Commissar Severina Raine and Brutal Hordechief will end people. Devilish Valet doesn't have an attack trigger but just 6 tokens entering makes him 64 power and 10 tokens is 1024 power. He WILL 1 shot at least 1 person out of nowhere.

Haste: Ogre Battledriver giving haste and pumping your tapped and attacking tokens works really well here.

Feel free to check out my list for ideas. Upvotes on any of my decks are appreciated. Isshin - Army of Darkness

Crow-Umbra on Musashi's Mosh Pit [Primer]

5 months ago

I'm super stoked for the new Mishra DawnsRayofLight. I submitted entries for New Mishra, Phyrexian Dragon Engine, & Meld Mishra earlier this morning. Hopefully they'll be approved sometime in the next week.

I for sure want to replace Brutal Hordechief with Mishra, Claimed by Gix. I'm not sure if I'll try to get the Dragon in here as well.

legendofa on Two Heavens as One

9 months ago

You managed to hit the land balance pretty much dead on--nice work! Unfortunately, I think you have a few too many lands. A good rule of thumb is to have 36-40 lands in a Commander deck, depending on speed and mana requirements. Since I don't see many non-land mana sources, and since you want to get a land drop every turn to reach the higher-cost cards, I recommend dropping to 39-40 lands.

Isshin, Two Heavens as One wants a lot of attack triggers, anything that says "Whenever such-and-such attacks...". You have some good choices with Kitsune Ace, Selfless Samurai, and Imperial Recovery Unit, among others, but there are more out there. If you can find cards like Campaign of Vengeance, Goblin Traprunner, and Gleam of Battle, or even Brutal Hordechief or Fervent Charge if you're willing to spend the money, you'll push this to the next level.

I also suggest finding some cards that let you draw more, like Greed or Read the Bones. {B} is a good color for this, but {W} and {R} have been getting more options recently. Top deck effects like your Abbot of Keral Keep are also useful in the same way. This will help keep your attacks moving and apply pressure to your opponents.

Finally, look for some direct removal, like Terminate, Rip Apart, or Vindicate to get rid of problems and threats your opponents put out. Dokuchi Silencer and Explosive Entry are the right idea.

This isn't the right deck for Sky-Blessed Samurai, with only three enchantments. You'll be paying full cost for it most of the time, occasionally getting a one-mana discount, and its stats aren't good enough to justify the cost. Save it for a more enchantment focused deck where it can reach its full potential.

Finally, you could use some more one-mana cards so that you have more options on turn 1 besides play a land and pass.

Overall, this looks good. You have solid card interactions, a good combat theme and Vehicle subtheme, and a strong foundation. Play it, test it, tweak it, feel out what you like and what might be improved, and above all, have fun!

Gidgetimer on Invasion Plans vs Brutal Horde …

10 months ago

Yesterday is absolutely correct. Continuous effects that modify game rules are applied after all other continuous effects, but are still applied in timestamp order and the Brutal Hordechief ability will have a later timestamp.

613.11. Some continuous effects affect game rules rather than objects. For example, effects may modify a player’s maximum hand size, or say that a creature must attack this turn if able. These effects are applied after all other continuous effects have been applied. Continuous effects that affect the costs of spells or abilities are applied according to the order specified in rule 601.2f. All other such effects are applied in timestamp order. See also the rules for timestamp order and dependency (rules 613.7 and 613.8).

613.7a A continuous effect generated by a static ability has the same timestamp as the object the static ability is on, or the timestamp of the effect that created the ability, whichever is later.

613.7b A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability receives a timestamp at the time it’s created.

Yesterday on Invasion Plans vs Brutal Horde …

10 months ago

The Gatherer page for Brutal Hordechief says that, if two players activate its ability in the same turn, the player who activated it most recently gets to decide. It follows that, if there's an Invasion Plans in play and you activate the Hordechief, you'd get to decide rather than the attacking player.

Chaospyke on Invasion Plans vs Brutal Horde …

10 months ago

If I have Invasion Plans in play and activate ability of Brutal Hordechief during my opponent's turn and my opponent attacks a different opponent, who determines blockers?