Brood of Cockroaches MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 2 |
| Rarity | Uncommon |
| Type | Creature — Insect |
| Released | 1997-02-03 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Visions |
| Set code | VIS |
| Power | 1 |
| Toughness | 1 |
| Number | 53 |
| Frame | 1997 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Geofrey Darrow & I. Rabarot |
Key Takeaways
- Brood of Cockroaches provides sustained card advantage and board presence, returning after death.
- Instant speed death trigger offers strategic advantages, keeping mana free during opponent’s turn.
- Requires careful balance as recursion comes with a discard cost and specific mana needs.
Text of card
If Brood of Cockroaches is put into your graveyard from play, pay 1 life and return Brood of Cockroaches to your hand at end of turn.
"It's like waking on a bed of a thousand olives during an earthquake of subtle force." —Afari, *Tales*
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Brood of Cockroaches provides a consistent source of card advantage, enabling you to return it to your hand from the graveyard after it dies. This ensures that you always have a creature to play, sustaining your board presence.
Resource Acceleration: While it doesn’t directly accelerate your mana resources, this card consistently returns to your hand for one black mana after it is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, lending you a creature to utilize every turn.
Instant Speed: The utility of Brood of Cockroaches extends to its death trigger which can be used at instant speed. This allows you to get the creature back at the end of your opponent’s turn, thus keeping your mana open during their turn for other responses and strategies.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: One of the drawbacks of Brood of Cockroaches is its recursion ability comes with a cost. After a damage-dealing event that sends it to the graveyard, you need to discard a card to see it return to your battlefield. This can put you at a disadvantages if you are holding a hand packed with key pieces or if you are aiming for card advantage.
Specific Mana Cost: Brood of Cockroaches necessitates specific mana for casting. With a cost requiring both black and generic mana, its placement in a multicolored deck can be challenging. It’s especially true in decks that might struggle with producing enough black mana consistently or are built around a tight mana curve.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: Although Brood of Cockroaches offers a form of resilience, its initial cost may seem high for a small creature. Priced at one black and one generic mana, other cards in the black pool may provide a greater impact on the game or demand less investment for a recurring effect.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Brood of Cockroaches provides a resilient creature base which can repeatedly come back to your hand after death. This makes it a unique inclusion for decks that thrive on creature recovery or demand sacrifices for various effects.
Combo Potential: Its ability to return to your hand when it dies gives it potential in combos that take advantage of death triggers or require constant creature sacrifice, fueling powerful synergies.
Meta-Relevance: In game environments where board wipes or removal spells are prevalent, Brood of Cockroaches maintains a presence on the field, ensuring players always have a creature at the ready. This can be crucial for maintaining pressure or defending against aggressive strategies.
How to beat
Brood of Cockroaches in MTG represents a unique challenge with its persistent ability to return to a player’s hand after death. Unlike other creatures, it simulates resilience and enduring presence on the battlefield, making it quite taxing to permanently remove. The key to combating this tenacious card lies in controlling the timing and conditions of its demise.
Utilizing graveyard removal spells or abilities can effectively neutralize the card’s innate recursion. Cards like Tormod’s Crypt, for instance, exile cards from the graveyard, nipping the problem in the bud. Another strategy involves making the cost of returning the Brood prohibitive, for instance through the use of cards that increase the life cost paid when it’s supposed to return from the graveyard to hand.
Understanding that constant damage from the Brood is a war of attrition, focusing on life gain strategies or shields against repetitive creature damage can diminish its impact. Thus, players who anticipate or spot this creature on the opposing side should plan for a long game, integrating control elements or swift, unanswerable threats to outpace the cockroaches’ inevitable return.
Cards like Brood of Cockroaches
Brood of Cockroaches emerges as a unique inclusion in the resilient creature department of Magic: The Gathering. It shares its enduring qualities with cards like Reassembling Skeleton, which can also return from the graveyard to the battlefield. The key difference lies in the additional life loss incurred when Brood of Cockroaches comes back to your hand, unlike the Skeleton which reanimates directly onto the battlefield.
Comparably, Bloodsoaked Champion presents a similar ability to recur from the graveyard. It requires an attack to trigger its return, which may not always be an option, thus showcasing Brood of Cockroaches’ reliability in almost any situation. Then there’s Endless Cockroaches, another creature with a recursive theme. Though it returns directly to the hand like our Brood, it does so only when it dies and doesn’t guarantee the continuous recurrence provided by Brood of Cockroaches.
When we observe the nuances and weigh the durability of these self-recurring creatures, Brood of Cockroaches holds a distinct position in Magic: The Gathering. Its guaranteed return from the graveyard makes it a persistent threat and a constant presence in the game, even if at the cost of a bit of life.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Brood of Cockroaches MTG card by a specific set like Visions, 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 Brood of Cockroaches and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Brood of Cockroaches has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Restricted |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Brood of Cockroaches card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2004-10-04 | The life loss and the return to hand both happen at the beginning of the end step as a single effect. It is not two separate effects. |
| 2004-10-04 | The loss of life is not optional. |
