Urza and Mishra, finally on cards
The Brothers' War tells the war between Urza and Mishra, the story Magic has referred back to since Antiquities in 1994. It is an artifact set almost end to end, and its mechanics are all about paying for large artifacts at a manageable rate.
Prototype is the design people remember. A prototype card is printed with two sets of characteristics, a big one and a small one, and you choose which you are casting. One card that is a cheap early play or a late-game threat, without the usual downside of modal cards being worse at both.
Themes
Prototype
The card has two costs, two sizes and two color identities. You pick one as you cast it. Casting it small keeps its abilities, so the cheap mode is a real card rather than a consolation prize.
Powerstones
A token type, joining Treasure, Food and Clue. Tap for one colorless mana that cannot be spent on a nonartifact spell. Ramp that only helps the artifact deck, which is how the set ramps without warping everything else.
Unearth
Pay a cost from your graveyard at sorcery speed to return the creature with haste. It is exiled at the next end step, so you are buying one attack rather than the creature back.
Meld
Specific pairs of cards combine into one oversized permanent. Back from Eldritch Moon, and used here for the story's biggest moments rather than as a format-defining mechanic.
Where You Can Play It
The Brothers' War has left Standard, but that is the only format it left. Here's where each code is legal now.
A bonus-sheet printing doesn't change a card's legality, so each card is legal wherever that card already was. The sheet itself is a Commander, Legacy and Vintage product.
The Brothers' War left Standard at the July 2025 rotation, the one Edge of Eternities triggered, alongside the rest of its rotation year. A rotation only ever removes cards from Standard, so everything here is still playable in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander. Commons from any set are Pauper-legal; that isn't listed per set here.
Limited
A full ten-pair format, and an unusually artifact-dense one. Almost every deck ends up with powerstones, which means almost every deck has a mana sink whether it planned one or not.
All ten two-color pairs
Full ten-pair format
Prototype cards are playable in any deck because the small mode fits any curve, so they spread across all ten pairs. Unearth concentrates in the aggressive black pairs and powerstones push the slower ones toward large artifacts.
Commander
Both artifact decks, unsurprisingly.
Urza's Iron Alliance
Urza, Chief Artificer
Artifact aggression, tokens and going wide.
Mishra's Burnished Banner
Mishra, Eminent One
Artifacts and token copies of what you cast.
Building one of these into something of your own? The precon buying guide covers how to judge a deck, and the Commander deck template is the shape to build toward.
FAQ
No. It left Standard at the July 2025 rotation, the one Edge of Eternities triggered, along with Dominaria United and the three 2023 sets. BRO cards are still legal in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander.
A prototype card is printed with two sets of characteristics: a large mana cost with large power and toughness, and a smaller alternative with its own cost, size and color. You choose which you are casting. The small mode keeps the card's abilities, so it is a real card rather than a consolation prize.
A colorless artifact token that taps for one colorless mana, with the restriction that the mana cannot be spent to cast a nonartifact spell. It ramps the artifact deck without ramping everything else.
Pay the unearth cost from your graveyard, at sorcery speed, to return the creature to the battlefield with haste. It is exiled at the beginning of the next end step, so you are buying one attack rather than the creature back permanently.
No. Retro Artifacts is a bonus sheet, and a bonus-sheet printing does not change a card's legality. Each card stays legal wherever it already was.
Two: Urza's Iron Alliance, led by Urza, Chief Artificer, and Mishra's Burnished Banner, led by Mishra, Eminent One.
All card names, art, and mechanics belong to Wizards of the Coast. The Brothers' War released on Nov 18, 2022; details reflect the set as published. Sources: Wizards of the Coast set pages and release notes, Draftsim, Untapped.gg.
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