Written by Andrew Grandstaff
Brobnar is big and it wants to fight. It is the house with the most powerful creatures and the highest average power. Their general play style is around board control until they can get to one or two of their big aember generating fight cards like Loot the Bodies or Looter Goblin. They also have some limited spot removal in the form of Punch and Lava Ball, but most of its non-combat based board control will be in the form of stun from Tremor or Smaaash!!. It weak points lie in its card draw/archiving abilities and reliance on situational cards to gain large amounts of aember.
| Top 5 commons | Top 5 Rares |
| Punch: B- | Tireless Crocag: B-/B |
| Headhunter: B- | Champions Challenge: B |
| FireSpitter: B- | Banner of Battle: B |
| Cannon: B- | Looter Goblin: B |
| Troll: B+ | Mugwamp: A- |
Grading Rubric
All of these cards are graded in a vacuum. I firmly believe every card can be good in the right situation, but the goal here is to try and figure out how good the card is on average. Without knowing anything about the rest of my deck and my opponent’s deck what is the expected value of this card.
A: Almost always provides an overwhelming amount of some resource and is generally difficult to remove or counter.
B: Almost always generates 2 aember or 2 cards or some combination of the two. Creatures and artifacts get a bonus based on how immediate of a threat they are.
C: Almost always generates 1 aember or 1 card. Creatures and artifacts get a bonus based on how immediate of a threat they are.
D: Cards that you are more likely to discard than play and gain you no aember.
F: Cards that are a trap and if you play are more likely to hurt you than help you.
Pluses and minuses are generally awarded for consistency or to acknowledge a powerful effect that will be relevant about half the time the card is played.
X//Y Grades: X is the grade of the card in a random deck Y is the grade in a deck it heavily synergizes with.
Anger: C+
- All it takes to make this card good is a creature on the board with a good fight or one Brobnar in your hand.
Barehanded: C
- I haven’t noticed artifacts being around that often so this card reads gain 1 aember and sometimes remove an artifact.
Blood Money: B-
- Basically, gain 2 aember if your opponent has 1 creature. So long as you aren’t way behind you should be able to cash in on this.
Brothers in Battle: C+/B-
- If this gives you 2 good fights that’s worth at least 1 card.
Burn the Stockpile: D
- Probably does nothing most of the time it’s in your hand.
Champion’s Challenge: B
- You need to have fewer creatures on the board than your opponent for this to be good, but I think you will likely be able to wipe their whole board and then deploy one or two more creatures.
Coward’s End: D
- I imagine you will want to discard this card more often then play it. You have to kill at least 4 more creatures than you lose for this card to go even in card advantage.
Follow the Leader: C
- Sometimes the extra house this provides will be better than Brothers in Battle. There are too many cases where I wouldn’t want/be able to fight with the extra creature, so the assured aember is better.
Lava Ball: C+
- Should be able to do 1 for 1 most of the time and 2 for 1 a fair amount of the time.
Loot the bodies: B-
- Let’s you fight without the cost of a missed reap. With 2 Brobnar creatures on the board, this is a solid B but does have the downside of potentially doing nothing if you no good fights. I think so long as your creature trades with loot the bodies activate it’s worth it.
Take that, Smartypants: C-
- There is a very real chance this card will only ever be worth 1 aember and in the games against a Logos deck how often will they have 3+ logos cards out and have 2+ aember. There are too many hoops to jump through to be considered worth anything more than 1 aember.
Punch: B-
- Very likely to 1-1 and comes with 1 aember.
Relentless Assault: C+
- If you have at least one creature on board and one Brobnar in hand I think this is a solid card. Bonus points for allowing Brobnar on the board to reap and fight in the same turn.
Smith: B-
- You get at least 1 aember. If you spend two Brobnar creatures fighting instead of reaping to meet the conditions for the extra aember; then it’s better than many of these ready and fight cards like Relentless Assault
Sound the Horns: B
- 1 aember and one playable creature almost guaranteed.
Tremor: C+/B-
- I don’t really know how to evaluate stun. This feels like really efficient removal that could let you spend a turn reaping at no cost. Sometimes this will just do nothing or only stun 1. The potential “3-1” here is enough upside I think it’s a reasonable card.
Unguarded Camp: C-
- Capture is a weak mechanic and this card doesn’t even guarantee the capture of 1. At least it gives you 1 aember so it isn’t completely worthless.
Warsong: C
- Another worse version Relentless Assault. No extra actions just straight to the point. You just need some Brobnar creatures on the board and just as many good targets.
Autocannon: D+/C-
- All I see this doing is making it easier for your opponents creatures to trade up for yours. The 1 aember is nice though.
Banner of Battle: B
- Considering it helps even on non Brobnar turns it could let your small non Brobnar creatures trade up.
Cannon: B-
- Dodges elusive could be big and basically prevents your opponents from playing 2 power creatures.
Gauntlet of Command: B-
- If you can get two activations out of this then it has gotten the value I expect.
Iron Obelisk: C
- I don’t think increased key cost effects are very strong (feels too much like life gain in Magic the Gathering) but it is difficult to remove and might cause you to trade their creatures more aggressively.
Mighty Javelin: B
- Should be able to trade and earn you 1 aember 100% of your games
Screechbomb: C-
- One time use version of Pile of Skulls.
Pile of Skulls: C+
- This is probably a C but the power of a passive artifact that lets any house have a chance to prevent a key for a turn might be worth a card in your deck. Also works well with targeted removal.
The Warchest: B
- Being an artifact with a big upside is worth the cost of no upfront aember.
Bligum Avalanche: C+
- I’m mostly happy with any vanilla 5 power creature. That said I think you’d be lucky if it triggered 1 in 5 games and have it be impactful. The biggest problem is your opponent gets the final say on what the board looks like before the trigger.
Valdr: C+/B-
- Most of the time this is going to trade for 2 cards maybe more if they can’t protect a 2 or less power creature on the flank before you get your first action.
Bumpsy: C
- Opponent losing 1 is not close to gaining 1.
Earthshaker: B+
- I think its playability has a very good chance to net a card or two and has a bunch of power.
Firespitter: B-
- The armor and strong before fighting push to the B range.
Ganger Chieftain: B-
- Its anger except for you’re trading 1 aember for a 5 power body seems worth.
Grenade Snib: D+/C-
- Really small body, a weak effect, and your opponent can choose to activate before you.
Headhunter: B-
- There should almost always be a good fight for this guy. I expect to attack with him once and then have my opponent finish him off on their next turn. Earning 1 aember and 2 cards.
Hebe the Huge: B
- Big body, good play effect
Kelifi Dragon: C+
- Likely the Bait and Switch of Brobnar. Will be really good once or twice a game and you’ll be lucky if it’s in your hand at the right time.
King of the Crag: C+
- Goes up to B/B+ against other Brobnars.
Krump: B-
- If your opponent trades two creatures for Krump then the 2 lost aember is almost worth gaining 1.
Lomir Flamefist: C
- 90% of the time is just a 5 power creature.
Looter Goblin: B
- A great reap ability and elusive to help it live long enough to use it. Just need one other big burly dude to be active with him
Mugwump: A-
- Almost must be answered with a destroy card. Should be around long enough to earn a couple aember and trade for a kill spell.
Pingle Who Annoys: C+
- Thanks to elusive it will be hard to deal with but I don’t think 1 damage is enough to be considered a threat. Brobnar doesn’t really need help finishing off creatures. I think it’s more to support the other houses in combat.
Rock-Hurling Giant: C+
- Hopefully, I never feel like one of my Brobnar creatures is worth less than a card. But I could be undervaluing this ability. Maybe even a solid B.
Rogue Ogre: C+
- Only pays off when you have a large Brobnar board and can afford to just call Brobnar every turn.
Smaaash!: B-
- The stun should be enough that you get a reap on this guy.
Tireless Crocag: B-/B
- Should trade for at least two of your opponent’s creatures, but the times your opponent has little to no creatures makes it, not quite a B.
Troll: B+
- Should be very little that can stop this Brobnar efficiently from just reaping every turn.
Wardrummer: C+/B-
- Huge combo potential with a second and just good value if you have any other Brobnars out. If not then hopefully you can get a reap out of him or make a trade.
Blood of Titans: B-
- There is a lot of potential of being 2 for 1 here. The aember is nice and the 5 power means they need a kill play effect, so that might make up for it.
Phoenix Heart: B-
- If you have a substantial board presence you’ll probably just discard it. The fact that your opponent could activate and maybe wipe your board is a real risk. Aside from already being ahead on board, this is probably going to do some serious work.
Yo Mama Mastery: C+
- Again inherent card disadvantage and this time your opponent is encouraged to fight it. Only good if you have another creature on board or in hand that must be protected.
irebeldestiny.com 