Boulderbranch Golem MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	7
Rarity	Common
Type	Artifact Creature — Golem
Abilities	Prototype
Released	2022-11-18
Set symbol
Set name	The Brothers' War
Set code	BRO
Power	6
Toughness	5
Number	197
Frame	2015
Layout	Prototype
Border	Black
Illustred by	Dan Scott

Key Takeaways

Boulderbranch Golem ensures ongoing card advantage and enriches strategic options in play.
Its resource acceleration and instant-speed interaction potential enhances deck versatility.
It demands strategic deck construction due to color specificity and discard requirements.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Boulderbranch Golem MTG card by a specific set like The Brothers' War, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Boulderbranch Golem and other MTG cards:

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Text of card

Prototype — 3/3 (You may cast this spell with different mana cost, color, and size. It keeps its abilities and types.) When Boulderbranch Golem enters the battlefield, you gain life equal to its power.

"Artifice is not the only form of creation." —Titania

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Boulderbranch Golem offers consistent card advantage. Once on the battlefield, its additional abilities can be the turning point in a tight match, ensuring that your hand remains full and providing you with more options every turn.

Resource Acceleration: This Golem doesn’t just stand firm on the board; it accelerates your resources. By possibly untapping lands or other mana sources, it smoothly integrates into decks that thrive on having ample mana to deploy multiple threats or answer opponents’ plays efficiently.

Instant Speed: Although Boulderbranch Golem itself might not be an instant, it can interact well with cards that are. Its synergistic potential with instant-speed spells means that you can keep your options open until just the right moment, responding to your opponent’s actions on-the-fly to maintain a dominant position on the battlefield.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Boulderbranch Golem demands that players discard a card to activate certain abilities. This requirement can prove to be a hindrance, especially in gameplay situations where maintaining a full grip of cards could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Specific Mana Cost: This creature card comes with a mana cost that includes Green mana, which necessitates a commitment to that color within your deck’s mana base. This can restrict deck building options, particularly for those looking to run a multicolor deck with minimal green sources.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a cost that could be considered steep for its base stats and abilities, players may find that Boulderbranch Golem competes for a slot with other cards in the same mana range that provide more immediate or impactful advantages on the battlefield.

Reasons to Include Boulderbranch Golem in Your Collection

Versatility: Boulderbranch Golem adapts well to a variety of deck themes, particularly those that capitalize on creature synergies or need sturdy blockers that can also turn into formidable attackers.

Combo Potential: This card has the inherent ability to mesh with strategies focused on golem tribal or artifact interactions, potentially unlocking new avenues for inventive deckbuilding.

Meta-Relevance: Given its resilience in face of common removal spells, Boulderbranch Golem can serve as a key asset in environments where maintaining a board presence against control decks is crucial.

How to beat

Boulderbranch Golem emerges as a solid contender in the artifact creature space, bringing unique dynamics to MTG decks. This animated arboreal artifact presents a respectable challenge with its formidable power and toughness. Players might find it difficult to bypass its sturdiness on the battlefield. But like every MTG card, it comes with its weaknesses that strategic players can exploit.

To effectively trounce Boulderbranch Golem, you need to consider spells that circumvent combat, such as direct removal or exile effects, since engaging it in combat could be costly. Enchantment-based removal like Pacifism hinders the golem’s ability to block and attack without having to confront it in a damage race. Additionally, playing cards that target artifacts specifically, such as Disenchant, allows you to remove the Golem from the field outright, neutralizing the threat it poses.

When planning your strategy against Boulderbranch Golem, focusing on these non-combat solutions can shift the tide of the game in your favor. Understanding and exploiting the intrinsic vulnerabilities of each MTG card is key to mastering the game and emerging victorious in your matches.

Understanding Boulderbranch Golem

The Boulderbranch Golem is an intriguing addition to the pantheon of creature cards in Magic the Gathering. With its substantial toughness and affinity for walls, it holds its ground alongside other creatures such as Wall of Runes and Gleaming Barrier. Each of these cards serves as a defensive bulwark, with Wall of Runes offering a scrying bonus when it enters the battlefield and Gleaming Barrier creating treasure when it’s destroyed.

Cards like Boulderbranch Golem

Boulderbranch Golem shares traits with the likes of Wall of Stone and Guardians of Meletis, both acting as reliable defenders. However, Wall of Stone boasts higher toughness, giving it an edge in durability. Guardians of Meletis, while having lower toughness, compensates with flavor text that reflects the lore-rich tapestry of MTG. But neither of these cards matches Boulderbranch Golem’s synergy with wall-type creatures—a unique tactical advantage for players building a fortification-based deck.

In comparing these creatures, it’s evident that each has a distinct role. Boulderbranch Golem is especially useful for players looking to reinforce their defenses while benefiting from other wall creatures on the field. Its place in MTG is secure as a valuable asset for those devoted to a strategy of stalwart defense.

Guardians of Meletis - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Boulderbranch Golem by color, type and mana cost

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Boulderbranch Golem has restrictions

Format	Legality
Standard	Legal
Historicbrawl	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Commander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Future	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Explorer	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Timeless	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Boulderbranch Golem card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2022-10-14	A prototype card is a colorless card in every zone except the stack or the battlefield, as well as while on the stack or the battlefield if not cast as a prototyped spell. Ignore its alternative characteristics in those cases. For example, while it's in your graveyard, Blitz Automaton is a colorless creature card with mana value 7. It can't be the target of Recommission, a spell that targets an artifact or creature card with mana value 3 or less in your graveyard.
2022-10-14	Casting a prototyped spell isn't the same as casting it for an alternative cost, and an alternative cost may be applied to a spell cast this way. For example, if an effect allows you to cast an artifact card without paying its mana cost, you could either cast Blitz Automaton normally, or as a prototyped spell.
2022-10-14	If Boulderbranch Golem leaves the battlefield before its enters-the-battlefield triggered ability resolves, use its power as it last existed on the battlefield to determine how much life is gained, not its power in the zone it moved to.
2022-10-14	If an effect copies a prototyped spell, that copy (as well as the token it becomes on the battlefield) will have the same characteristics as the prototyped spell. Similarly, if an effect creates a token that's a copy of a prototyped permanent or causes another permanent to become a copy of it, the copy would have the same characteristics as the prototyped permanent.
2022-10-14	Regardless of how it was cast, a prototype card always has the same name, abilities, types, and so on. Only the mana cost, mana value, color, power, and toughness change depending on whether the card was cast as a prototyped spell.
2022-10-14	The prototype ability functions in any zone that the spell could be cast from. For example, if an effect allows you to cast artifact spells from your graveyard, you could cast a prototyped Blitz Automaton from your graveyard.
2022-10-14	When cast as a prototyped spell, that spell has the mana cost, power, and toughness characteristics shown in its colored, secondary text box rather than the normal values of those characteristics. Its color and mana value are determined by that mana cost. The permanent that spell becomes as it resolves has the same characteristics. If the spell leaves the stack in any other way, or the permanent it becomes leaves the battlefield, it immediately resumes using its normal characteristics.
2022-10-14	When casting a prototyped spell, use only its prototype characteristics to determine whether it's legal to cast it. For example, if Blitz Automaton is exiled with the last ability of Chandra, Dressed to Kill, you would be able to cast it for (because it's a red spell), even though you wouldn't be able to cast it as a colorless spell for its normal cost.