2014 and 2015 were good years for orcs. And not
just because World of Warcraft is still going
strong - Shadow of Mordor reintroduced them to
the video gaming world as the intimidating
threat they were intended to be (with a
curiously meritocratic society, to boot), and
the Tarkir block reintroduced them to Magic as
much the same thing. For aggressive decks, we
tend to look mainly at the one and two cost
creatures to start with, and occasionally forget
that your top end defines your chances almost as
much. Brutal Hordechief is an endgame all by
himself - even just one or two teammates can
make a difficult and vexing life swing each
attack step. And his activated ability, despite
looking more limited than Master Warcraft, is
actually just as devastating: you can make all
the opponent's creatures block your smallest
creature while your Gurmag Angler swims through
unhindered.
The number eight card of the year is Brutal
Hordechief which is a four mana Black 3/3 that
has the defending player lose one life and you
gain one life whenever a creature you control
attacks and for three and two White or Red mana
any opposing creature able to block must do so
and you choose how they block. This is a
very impressive and dangerous card that can
immediately halve the clock when it hits play or
outright win the game depending on the number of
creatures in play. The life gain is a nice
bonus and the potential to choose blocking when
running Red or White is an amazing combination
with Deathtouch, particularly if supported with
First Strike or other effects. Overall
this is a very strong card that will see play in
current formats and across different decks that
use Black, particularly Black/White tokens or
very aggressive Rakdos builds.
In Limited this is an easy first pick in Booster
that may not have the swarm support of a
Constructed build, but should still impact the
game with a noticeable swing in life points.
It is even stronger if the effect can be used
with White or Red to manage an alpha strike and
even as a four mana 3/3 it wouldn't be
unplayable. The life drain aspect with just one
Black mana in the base cost gives it a strong
position in Sealed as well and it should be
played whenever possible.
It's nice. Evasion/control of combat's a nice
ability to have, the hybrid cost of the ability
is nice for people who're running mardu colors,
not so much for R/B or B/W. It's a lot higher on
the list than I'd have it, but whatever. Cool
card, bro.
