Although mtgbattlebox has been away for only a few weeks, it turns out that a few weeks is a long time in modern Magic. It turns out we missed the launch of not one, not two, but three new products.

Catching up is hard to do

Not only have two full draftable sets been released (Battlebond and Magic 2019), we’ve also seen the release of the first regional duel deck (rebranded Global Series, I guess because they were running out of letters for their duel deck abbreviations; they were up to DDU with Elves & Inventors ).

Instead of writing a full article for each of these sets, I will discuss each of them shortly in this article. You’ve seen all the cards already anyway, and there’s no point in trying to get you excited with old news. Instead, I’ll highlight the top Battle Box cards for each set and give you a ultra short review of each set.

First up: Battlebond

I like how Wizards is branching out in what it offers to players. No longer is Magic just a game for people that want to play Standard on Friday night. It is a game of Drafters, Commanders, Cubers, Battle Boxers, and miscellaneous other casual players. One of those other casual formats is Two-Headed Giant, or 2HG. It is played in two teams of two players, and players share one life total and take their turns as a team. They draw cards at the same time, attack the other team (not the individual players) as a team and block as a team.

Although I’ve only played 2HG once (at a local prerelease) I actually enjoyed the format a lot, and I think it is great that Wizards made a product that highlights such a relatively unknown format. When you examine the individual cards, it becomes clear that the main target audience for the set is not the handful of 2HG players out there, but Commander players instead (which I think is fine, and good business sense). Random suggestion for WotC: Maybe it’s an idea to make a product shining a spotlight on that other lesser known format, Battle Box, with a set that’s secretly aimed at Cube players. Just a thought…

Battlebond is not a great Battle Box set, unfortunately. The main focus is the partner with mechanic, which allows you to search your library for the partner of a certain legendary creature. That’s problematic, because we generally want to avoid searching the huge libraries that come with the format. The second new mechanic, assist, lets other players help pay for your spells. That’s fine in principle, but it means the base cost of the spells is a bit higher than you would normally pay for a similar effect. As it only works in multiplayer boxes, I don’t see big potential here either. The last “mechanic”, the friend or foe spells, let you give two different effects to players, one good, one bad. I think this mechanic will be great in multiplayer boxes, as it enables fun political plays.

I’m still on the fence on whether I should build a Battlebond mini Box. If I do, I will have to enable the partner mechanic in some way. That may be relatively easy, if I just leave half the partners in a separate partner deck to enable quick searching. But I also feel that the box should enable 2HG play, and I just don’t know if it’s realistic to support four players with a 90-100 card deck. What do you think? Leave a comment below if you think I should build a Battlebond box.

With the relatively small number of relevant mechanics, I limited myself to a Top 10 of best Battle Box cards:

Honorable mention: the multiplayer lands

These lands are a fantastic new asset for Commander players all around the world, and including them in multiplayer Battle Boxes would be like including the revised duals. That’s very powerful but it will take away any tension in building up the mana base. The question is whether that is such a big deal. In the Commander Box, the focus is on big plays and sequencing the cards you draw, not so much on sequencing your land drops correctly. And on the upside, including the duals will allow the cutting of the Mana Confluences, which will mean players will no longer get punished just for drawing cards that have 3 colored mana symbols. I think I will try them for a while to see how they fit.

10. Khorvath’s Fury

The first friend or foe card on the list. You can reset your own hand (and perhaps one or two others) and deal some damage to your opponents. It won’t be a blowout, but will push the game forward.

9. Together Forever

This is not a flashy play, but then 2 mana is not a lot and it will be more powerful in the late game. It will work especially well in a box with a +1/+1 counter theme.

8. Brightling

I think this is in line with Morphling, Thornling and Aetherling. That means it will be for higher powered boxes. It’s relatively cheap, which may make it too efficient, but it’s worth a shot.

7. Regna’s Sanction

When timed right this can boost your team while at the same time blowing out most blockers. Definitely not a high powered card, but has the potential for some fun.

6. Bramble Sovereign

Its ability scales with the power level of your Box, so this can find a home in any Box. Be aware that you don’t want too many spells that require constant mana investments, but if your Box has room for this, give it a try.

5. Inner Demon

Black’s variant on On Serra’s Wings. The creature boost is perhaps not as meaningful, although it will make most creatures scary enough. But the mini board sweeper will certainly be relevant at times and creates a nice tension in the card. Great Battle Box material.

4. Thrilling Encore

The dream play here is of course to play this after a successful board sweep. But the mana cost is a little high to manage that on your own turn. And you don’t want to keep up 5 mana in case your opponent has a sweeper either. What it is great for is cashing on a big combat phase where lots of creatures get traded. This is not that hard to do in Battle Box.

3. Virtus’s Maneuver

If I were a Magic designer and had to come up with friend or foe cards, this would have certainly been the first variant I would have thought of. It’s clean, it’s fun, it will be relevant most of the time. Can’t wait to play this.

2. Fumble

For Commander (where this will shine), this seems ridiculously cheap. I can’t see playing an interactive blue Commander deck and not including this. For Battle Box, its value depends a lot on how many auras and equipment you have in your Box. I would say you need a minimum of 5% auras/equipment to make this card work.

1. Stunning Reversal

This isn’t necessarily a Battle Box card, but I just like the design a lot. It has the potential to lead to some epic plays and miraculous comebacks.

To round up Battlebond, these are the cards I have decided to include in my boxes:

Battle Box:

Cheering Fanatic

Fumble

Inner Demon

Commander Box:

Brightling

Bring Down

Fumble

Khorvath’s Fury

Stunning Reversal

Thrilling Encore

Virtus’s Maneuver

5x Bountiful Promenade

5x Luxury Suite

5x Morphic Pool

5x Sea of Clouds

5x Spire Garden

What about you? Will you be including any Battlebond cards in your Box?