Bladecoil Serpent – The Brother’s War
Date Reviewed: January 13, 2023
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.75
Casual: 4.50
Limited: 4.75
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 3.50
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
A fairly unorthodox sort of payoff, Bladecoil Serpent benefits more from colored mana than most artifacts do, paying off in multiples of two. The most interesting ones are the blue payoff, drawing cards, and the red one, making it a potent punch through an opponent’s board on that turn. Six red mana for an 8/4 with haste and trample is not terrible, and you can do a lot. It’s also an acceptable mana sink if you have a lot of mana and nothing to do with it otherwise. The black mode isn’t terrible in a pinch, either.
I’d say Bladecoil Serpent is an intriguing little card with a lot of potential payoff, though it does have color-intensive demands to really shine. All the same, in a pinch, it’s an acceptable creature, but it really makes the most out of decks able to milk its effects.
Constructed: 3.75 (there’s a chance I’m underrating it, really)
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4.75 (this is mythic because of Limited concerns)
Multiplayer: 3.75 (the black mode might shine a bit more here; ripping everyone else’s hand apart is certainly tempting)
Commander [EDH]: 3.5 (the main knock is that its color identity consigns it to Grixis; it’s not bad there, but I think it might be a bit awkward)
It takes a moment or two to understand what exactly Bladecoil Serpent’s rules text is telling you, but once you know, you can summarize it very succinctly: it’s basically a build-your-own Titan. Funnily enough, it might have its maximum impacts in mono-colored (or at least two-colored) decks where you don’t have to make as many awkward choices and specific payments. It’s especially notable that its red mode makes for something like a more expensive but more resilient Ball Lightning, and its black mode is designed for multiplayer formats. Commander’s color rules constrain it to those more awkward manabases I mentioned (unless you build the deck with it in mind), but it’s worth putting out there.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
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