Brazen Borrower #10 – Top 12 MTG Cards of 2019

This card was not on my top 12 list.

Disperse plus a warm body is a rather nice pairing of abilities, and Brazen Borrower is a perfect creature for tempo decks and decks that are more inclined to say “no”. Brazen Borrower also has flash as a way to threaten an answer of some kind before dropping it on your turn, which certainly adds to its value! Being a high-flying creature makes it slightly worse as a blocker, but a 3-power evasive creature is very good at ending games (as Insectile Aberration has taught us over the years). It’s not flashy, but Brazen Borrower is an excellent value card in a color well-equipped to take advantage of such value plays.

Constructed: 4.25
Casual: 4
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 3
Commander: 4

Phat
Pack
Magic
YouTube

Hello Everyone and welcome back to Pojo’s Card of the Day!

We’re looking at the top 12 cards of 2019 and today we’re taking a look at Brazen Borrower / Petty Theft which landed at #5 on my list!

This card is nutsobonkers awesome and its presence in almost every format in some manner is definitely validating my impulse purchase of a Foil Story Showcase version of it for my Powered Vintage Cube! The uniqueness of this cards ability boils down to the fact that Adventure is one of the best creature based mechanics that WotC has created in years. Essentially adding ‘Draw X creature card’ to every spell on the Adventure Time Cantrips.

Brazen Borrower happens to be one of my favorites of this signature Eldraine Mechanic because it’s power is useful in almost every deck. 1U for a Non-Land Boomerang is on par as a spell in general, but the creature on top of it is certainly worth a deck spot in conjunction with it.

The Brazen Borrower is a 3/1 flier that can only block other fliers, but it has flash! This is incredibly powerful for Tempo and Control Decks alike because you can undo an opponent’s Turn 2 play while dropping your own land and passing back, holding up countermagic as a bluff if needed, or if they try to play around your counterspells you can go on the offensive by dropping a 3/1 that’s going to start faerie-punching their face.

Unfortunately it seems that constructed is going to be where his home lies as his place in other formats simply won’t stand up against decks that are used to 2 for 1s and are usually not bothered by you bouncing their ETB creature or semi-efficient mana-rock. …Although you might snag a neat enchantment?

In Cube this guy has been an all-star that takes his tempo-offensive abilities in Constructed and dials them up to 11 because of how powerful each swing of the turn will be in Cube. And having access to an instant speed bounce that draws you a creature on the back-end that can be used as a removal distraction or a finisher on an empty board has made this guy a star and an early pick in the drafts for blue decks.

Constructed 5/5 – Standard. Pioneer. Legacy. This guy has stolen a few spots in the main 60 of various decks and it’s definitely worth it!

Limited 4/5 – He’s a mythic so you should pick him in your Thrones of Eldraine FNM and worth the cost of admission, he’s also pretty strong and worth building him into a U/x deck in your draft.

Multiplayer 2/5 – He’s not going to do too much here, but having a versatile bounce spell is fine for a few pesky circumstances.

Commander 2/5 – Similar to multiplayer, Commander isn’t usually much of a tempo format as it is a multiplayer political format, so in most cases he’s just going to be a bounce and a flying chump blocker.

Cube 5/5 – An All Star. And the showcase foil art of him snagging some pretty jingling keys is worth the buy!

Phat Pack Magic is a channel dedicated to Magic: the Gathering and creating awesome coverage of local events for formats like Cube, rare pack drafts, and now FNM Pioneer videos!

Check it out at YouTube.com/PhatPackMagic

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

This card was unranked on my Top 12 list.

Tempo tools are always powerful, and Brazen Borrower is one of the strongest such cards in recent sets. The pure flexibility is very hard to match, as he performs well as a bounce spell, a surprise blocker, and even just an efficient flying creature. Where he really shines, though, is the times you can use Petty Theft at the most inconvenient time (like combat) and then just have the Borrower hanging out in the adventure zone warning off your opponent from trying anything. Faeries excel at nothing more than mind games.

Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
EDH/Commander: 4/5