Brood Butcher MTG Card
2015-10-02 - Number 199s
2015-10-02 - Number 199
| Card sets | Released in 2 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 5 |
| Rarity | Rare |
| Type | Creature — Eldrazi Drone |
| Abilities | Devoid |
| Power | 3 |
| Toughness | 3 |
Key Takeaways
- Brood Butcher excels in card advantage and changing board dynamics by sacrificing creatures.
- The card mandates specific mana colors, potentially complicating deck synergy and construction.
- Its flexibility and combo potential offer significant value in creature-focused MTG decks.
Text of card
Devoid (This card has no color.) When Brood Butcher enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 colorless Eldrazi Scion creature token. It has "Sacrifice this creature: Add ." , Sacrifice a creature: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Brood Butcher, with its ability to exploit creatures for beneficial effects, can be an engine for card advantage. Sacrificing a creature to bolster another not only disrupts your opponent’s strategy but also enables you to manage your resources effectively and maintain pressure on the board.
Resource Acceleration: This card interacts seamlessly with decks that focus on token generation, thereby accelerating your resources. By utilizing the tokens as fodder, Brood Butcher helps in streamlining your creature base while enhancing your board state, acting as a catalyst for more powerful plays.
Instant Speed: The ability to weaken an opponent’s creature at instant speed gives you the flexibility to respond to threats on the fly. Whether you’re breaking an opponent’s combat math or eliminating a key creature post-blocks, Brood Butcher ensures you’re always prepared to manipulate the course of the battle in your favor.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: While Brood Butcher provides a way to leverage sacing creatures, it can be a setback if your hand is already depleted or when pivotal creatures are needed on the board rather than in the graveyard.
Specific Mana Cost: Brood Butcher demands a blend of black and green mana, which can pose a deck-building challenge and might not seamlessly fit into multicolor strategies that don’t support this specific combination.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: Requiring five mana to bring into play, Brood Butcher competes with other threats and utilities within the same mana range. This can often lead to tough decisions in the deck construction phase, prioritizing it over other impactful five-mana spells.
Reasons to Include Brood Butcher in Your Collection
Versatility: Brood Butcher thrives across a multitude of deck archetypes, particularly those that stand to benefit from sacrificing creatures, whether it’s for generating value, controlling the board or empowering synergies.
Combo Potential: This card opens up myriad avenues for intricate combos, especially when combined with other cards that create eldrazis or benefit from death triggers, elevating the strategic complexity of your game.
Meta-Relevance: In a game environment that’s dense with creature-based strategies, Brood Butcher provides a way to maintain control and sway the tide of battle in your favor while staying relevant in diverse MTG formats.
How to beat
Brood Butcher is a formidable creature in Magic: The Gathering, known for its ability to diminish the strength of your creatures while strengthening its own side. Encountering this card on the battlefield can be daunting due to its unique sacrificing ability that can disrupt your strategies. It is crucial to have a plan to counter such a threat.
To combat Brood Butcher, efficient removal spells are key. Cards that can exile or destroy creatures regardless of their size or abilities are highly effective. Consider including instant-speed removals in your deck such as Path to Exile or Fatal Push, which can take care of Brood Butcher before its controller can make use of its abilities. Another strategy is to employ counterspells to prevent the Butcher from ever hitting the field. Spells like Negate or Dovin’s Veto can be particularly useful in this scenario.
Furthermore, players might want to minimize the impact of Brood Butcher by avoiding overcommitting small creatures to the board. This can reduce the targets for its ability and limit the opponent’s opportunities for board control. By being prepared with the right cards and strategies, players can capably navigate the challenge posed by Brood Butcher>
Cards like Brood Butcher
Brood Butcher stands out in the pantheon of creature cards with its unique blend of abilities in MTG. Like Brood Butcher, Woe Strider is a card that provides a similar sacrifice outlet. However, Brood Butcher requires colored mana for its activated ability, where it not only sacrifices a creature but also puts a -1/-1 counter on a target creature, offering a subtle form of creature control on the board.
Attrition is another card that has a sacrifice mechanic, although it’s an enchantment and not a creature like Brood Butcher. Attrition allows the player to sacrifice a creature to destroy a non-black creature, serving a different niche with its targeted removal capability. Meanwhile, the Eldrazi Scion tokens created by Brood Butcher upon entry can fuel its activated ability, giving it incremental advantages in a match. Zulaport Cutthroat brings another angle of strategy, rewarding the controller with life drain for each creature sacrificed, which can be a synergistic companion to Brood Butcher’s creature-sacrificing scheme.
Each of these cards has its own strengths and when combined with Brood Butcher, can create a robust, synergistic deck strategy. Brood Butcher’s utility in providing both an offensive and defensive advantage through creature sacrifice aligns it closely with its similar cards, while also holding its own unique appeal.
Cards similar to Brood Butcher by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Brood Butcher MTG card by a specific set like Battle for Zendikar Promos and Battle for Zendikar, 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 Butcher 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 Magic products
Printings
The Brood Butcher Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2015-10-02 and 2015-10-02. Illustrated by Daarken.
| # | Release | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2015-10-02 | Battle for Zendikar Promos | PBFZ | 199s | 2015 | normal | black | Daarken | |
| 2 | 2015-10-02 | Battle for Zendikar | BFZ | 199 | 2015 | normal | black | Daarken |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Brood Butcher has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Brood Butcher card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2015-08-25 | A card with devoid is just colorless. It’s not colorless and the colors of mana in its mana cost. |
| 2015-08-25 | Cards with devoid use frames that are variations of the transparent frame traditionally used for Eldrazi. The top part of the card features some color over a background based on the texture of the hedrons that once imprisoned the Eldrazi. This coloration is intended to aid deckbuilding and game play. |
| 2015-08-25 | Devoid works in all zones, not just on the battlefield. |
| 2015-08-25 | Eldrazi Scions are similar to Eldrazi Spawn, seen in the Zendikar block. Note that Eldrazi Scions are 1/1, not 0/1. |
| 2015-08-25 | Eldrazi and Scion are each separate creature types. Anything that affects Eldrazi will affect these tokens, for example. |
| 2015-08-25 | If a card loses devoid, it will still be colorless. This is because effects that change an object’s color (like the one created by devoid) are considered before the object loses devoid. |
| 2015-08-25 | Other cards and abilities can give a card with devoid color. If that happens, it’s just the new color, not that color and colorless. |
| 2015-08-25 | Sacrificing an Eldrazi Scion creature token to add to your mana pool is a mana ability. It doesn’t use the stack and can’t be responded to. |
| 2015-08-25 | Some instants and sorceries that create Eldrazi Scions require targets. If all targets for such a spell have become illegal by the time that spell tries to resolve, the spell won’t resolve and none of its effects will happen. You won’t get any Eldrazi Scions. |
