The Brothers’ War brings with it the first depiction of the wide-scale war that Urza and Mishra raged across Dominaria. This isn’t the first time that Magic: The Gathering took players back in time to visit the past, but does bring with it tons of powerful planeswalkers, creatures, and artifacts to the present.
Evaluating the cards in The Brothers’ War is unique, since it includes the normal cards that you’d find in a pack, plus the Retro Frame Artifacts. With such a high influx of valuable reprints mingled with the creatures and spells of The Brothers’ War, there are plenty of high-value cards for you to collect. These are the most valuable cards in The Brothers’ War based on TCGPlayer’s Market Average as of November 15, 2022.
Updated March 21, 2023 by Ryan Hay: The Brothers' War has been out for a few months now, giving time for prices to settle as many players have picked up the cards they need, and the vast majority of the product has been opened by players and collectors. As time has passed, many of the card's prices have changed, some more than others. Cards that were initially valued much lower have jumped up in price. While the serialized Retro Frame cards still dominate the top end of the list, there are plenty of great cards from the rest of The Brother's War to be excited about.
With the release of The Brothers’ War, an extremely limited number of cards received a serialized print run numbering 1 to 500. As of this writing, it is unknown how many of these cards have been opened, as determining a price for them is extremely difficult. For these reasons, we have opted not to include them in this list.
Honorable Mention 1: Ramos, Dragon Engine (Schematic) - $4.39
Ramos has fallen pretty far down the rankings as far as value goes. It is still a very cool card to add to your collection, though!
Another Schematic Retro Frame Artifact, Ramos, Dragon Engine is an extremely powerful Dragon Commander. The longer you keep Ramos on the battlefield and the more spells you cast, the larger Ramos grows and the more spells you can cast.
There are plenty of ways to build Ramos; mutate decks are pretty popular, as well as cascade-based strategies. Whatever your approach with Ramos, you can make your deck truly unique with the Schematic version.
Honorable Mention 2: Phyrexian Fleshgorger (Extended Art) - $7.53
Despite the stranglehold that mono-black decks had on Standard for a time, Phyrexian Fleshgorger failed to make a lasting impact in Magic, contributing to its drop in value since release.
Loaded with keywords and abilities, Phyrexian Fleshgorger is the premiere prototype card in The Brothers’ War. It is a massive threat when it drops on the board and can turn the tables on your opponent if not answered quickly.
Phyrexian Fleshgorger could easily find its way into mono-black decks or into a Reanimator deck where bringing the full power of the Fleshgorger out on turn three or four makes it extremely difficult to deal with. Whether you cast it for its full might or its cheaper prototype cost, Phyrexian Fleshgorger will likely earn its value.
13 Wurmcoil Engine (Schematic) - $16.52
Unsurprisingly one of the most powerful artifact creatures in Magic makes the list of most valuable cards from The Brothers’ War. This version of the Wurmcoil Engine is the alternate art Schematic edition, which shows how famous artificers from the set would design some of the most impactful artifacts from Magic’s history.
Retro Frame Artifacts are not legal in Standard, but their introduction in The Brothers War not only makes them more widely available but also is a handy way to introduce Wurmcoil Engine to Magic Arena.
12 Cityscape Leveler (Extended Art) - $16.99
The fearsome Cityscape Leveler had a brief time at the head of a deck built on generating tons of resources for yourself while at the same time denying your opponents of theirs. When Cityscape Leveler is cast, not even when it enters the battlefield, you get to destroy any nonland permanent in play.
Even better, this 8/8 creature will also destroy something when it attacks, letting you tear through their board if your opponent doesn't have an immediate answer to this massive threat. Even if they do, you can always unearth Cityscape Leveler to take
11 Awaken The Woods - $17.36
Awaken the Woods is a powerhouse of a card, creating one of the most unique tokens in the game while also fueling any additional copies of Awaken the Woods you might be holding in your hand.
Combine Awaken the Woods with all sorts of other powerful cards like Concordant Crossroads to give your Forest Dryad Tokens haste so you can tap them on the same turn you make them, or with cards like Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler, which allows you to use their ability to add mana as if they had haste.
10 Myrel, Shield Of Argive - $17.45
You might be looking to pick up a Myrel, Shield of Argive for a Soldier-based Commander deck, and if that’s the case, you’re looking at one of the more expensive cards from The Brothers’ War.
With a uniquely rare ability to completely shut down your opponents during your turn, Myrel stops all sorts of combat tricks from happening, giving you the freedom to safely cast your spells and attack into an open board. While Myrel is on the lower end of the most valuable cards now, don’t be surprised if it continues to climb once The Brothers’ War stops being printed.
9 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor (Extended Art) - $17.88
Sitting at three mana Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor slots right into the current Standard mono-black decks. In a black aggro or midrange deck, you can cast an Evolved Sleeper on turn one or a Tenacious Underdog on turn two, then cast Gix. You can swing in with one of your early creatures, and if your opponent doesn’t want to lose more life this turn, you get to draw.
Mono-black decks might have fallen off a bit, but there’s no mistaking the power that Gix can bring to the deck. Gix might make a splash in Commander too, incentivizing your opponents to attack each other and leaving you alone to set up your victory.
8 Urza, Lord Protector - $17.93
One half of the extremely powerful meld combo becomes Urza, Planeswalker. Urza, Lord Protector accelerates all your artifact, instant, and sorcery spells by reducing their casting cost by one generic mana.
There are tons of potential for Urza to see play in Constructed formats, with Standard, Modern, and Pioneer all having space for him. In Commander, Urza presents a massive threat to your opponents, as tutoring up the other piece needed to meld Urza, The Mightstone and Weakstone, is exceptionally easy to assemble.
7 Awaken The Woods (Extended Art) - $21.11
One of the most unique cards from The Brothers’ War, Awaken the Woods creates a unique land creature token. Awaken the Woods slots into pretty much every land-based Commander deck, like Lord Windgrace and Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor.
Combine Awaken the Woods with cards like Doubling Season and Parallel Lives, and you’ll very quickly have an out-of-control army of lands. Since they’re also creatures, you can’t tap them for mana the turn they are created, but with any way to give them haste, it could be devastating.
6 Portal To Phyrexia - $22.00
Portal to Phyrexia is likely going to be one of those cards that retain a high price thanks to Commander players and the impossibly huge impact it has on the board. In Commander, there are tons of ways to cheat Portal to Phyrexia into play many turns earlier than you normally would.
There are also multiple ways to sacrifice or exile Portal to Phyrexia just to bring it back on the same turn, forcing your opponents to keep sacrificing three creatures with each time it enters the battlefield.
5 Myrel, Shield Of Argive (Extended Art) - $23.38
You know a card is good when it's on a list twice, this time as the extended art version of the card. With the release of The Brothers’ War, the Soldier creature type got a huge boost in support with cards like Harbin, Vanguard Aviator and Siege Veteran.
With Myrel leading a Soldier deck, you’re free to attack without combat tricks with her ability. When you do attack, you get to double up on your Soldiers by creating new ones. Left on its own, Myrel can quickly close out a game.
4 Mox Amber - $31.00
As far as mana rocks go, Mox Amber has a very specific activation condition. A legendary artifact that costs zero mana, it fits perfectly into Commander decks as a free Arcane Signet.
While Mox Amber does require you to have a legendary creature or planeswalker in play to add mana, given the nature of Commander and the huge number of legendary creatures and planeswalkers Magic has been printing lately, it is very easy to activate.
3 Portal To Phyrexia (Extended Art) - $26.63
For a short while after The Brothers' War release, Portal to Phyrexia became a deck archetype to watch out for. Despite costing nine mana, players rarely if ever, cast it for that amount, instead bringing it back from the graveyard several turns earlier through one of several methods.
The impact it has on the board is immediate and nearly impossible to prevent early in a match. Short of countering whatever shenanigans you're doing to bring it back, there's not much your opponent can do to prevent sacrificing three creatures.
2 Mox Amber (Schematic) - $28.43
Taking the top slot for the most valuable cards from The Brothers’ War is Mox Amber, again, but this time as the Retro Artifact Frame version. Everything about this version of Mox Amber is unique, from the flavor text to the fantastic art from Steven Belledin.
Mox Amber sees plenty of play in the Modern deck Jeskai Breach where it becomes not just a fancy artifact but a combo piece as well. With the Retro Artifact Frame version of Mox Amber, you can combo off with some fancy upgraded cards.
1 Construct Token & Urza's Automaton Token - $80.00
These two impressive tokens might come as a surprise or perhaps even an error to anyone looking at the price. As it stands, these rare tokens have jumped in price because of their extremely limited availability outside their printed region. Both of these cards are considered promo cards, given away to players in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and other countries in the South East Asia region. These two tokens feature the stained-glass look that became popular in Dominaria United and join together with other tokens to create a panorama image.