Brazen Boarding MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Brazen Boarding offers the unique benefit of potentially seizing an opponent’s creature, providing you with not just removal of their threat but also the addition of a new asset to your side of the battlefield.

Resource Acceleration: Beyond the potential to gain control of an opponent’s creature, this card can also give you a Treasure token, which can be a crucial boost in mana resources, especially in decks that hinge on significant plays a turn early.

Instant Speed: The versatility of Brazen Boarding is amplified by its instant speed capability, allowing for reactive play during your opponent’s turn. This creates surprise shifts in board state and can disrupt your opponent’s strategy at a pivotal moment.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Brazen Boarding demands that you discard a card to unlock its full potential. This requirement must be strategically navigated as it can be detrimental when hand resources are sparse, undermining the card’s utility in tight situations.

Specific Mana Cost: With a casting cost that necessitates both red and generic mana, Brazen Boarding can clash with the mana base of multicolored decks. This can make it less flexible and sometimes a burden in decks that are not heavily red-centric.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: It hovers at a higher mana tier, which can overshadow its desirability especially when options for lower mana costs that provide similar or better effects exist within the game. This makes it challenging to prioritize Brazen Boarding in a tightly curated decklist.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Brazen Boarding offers flexibility for several deck archetypes, seamlessly integrating into strategies that require creature control or need a temporary solution against opponent’s threats. Its ability to bounce an opponent’s nonland permanent is a universal response that any deck could utilize.

Combo Potential: The synergy of Brazen Boarding with cards that capitalize on casting spells during an opponent’s turn or those that benefit from pirates is notable. Combining this card with such strategies can lead to powerful turns, disrupting your opponent while advancing your board state.

Meta-Relevance: Due to the fast-paced nature of many MTG metas, having quick answers like Brazen Boarding is crucial. In environments where tempo plays a significant role, the ability to deal with an emerging threat instantly and swing back can be game-changing.

How to beat

Brazen Borrower brings a unique twist as a versatile card in MTG, disrupting opponents with its instant speed Petty Theft ability and the threat of a flying creature upon casting Brazen Boarding. While tackling this card can be tricky, the key lies in timing and resource management. Preventing the Petty Theft effect is crucial, so holding onto instant-speed interaction like Counterspells or cards that grant hexproof to your permanents can counteract the disruption. Furthermore, considering Brazen Borrower can only block flying creatures, increasing the pressure with ground forces or removal spells that can target the borrower, like Fatal Push or Heartless Act, will neutralize its threat. Asterisks like instant-speed removal shine against Brazen Borrower, as they can dispatch it before it has a chance to apply pressure or after it has bounced one of your spells.

Additionally, employing cards that incur penalties upon spell casting or creature entering the battlefield, like Torbran, Thane of Red Fell or Tocatli Honor Guard, can make it less appealing for an opponent to utilize Brazen Borrower’s abilities. With strategic play and a knack for anticipation, overcoming the challenges posed by Brazen Boarding is entirely within grasp for adept MTG players.