Power Through Flexibility - Brazen Borrower | MTG Design | Recurring Insight Ep. 14

It takes a lot to stand out in a Magic: The Gathering set as powerful as Throne of Eldraine, let alone excel. On this episode of Recurring Insight, Patrick Sullivan analyzes the MTG design behind the powerful yet uniquely flexible mythic rare - Brazen Borrower!

Check out the latest TCG news and info!

More Magic: The Gathering Videos!

Star City Games is the world's premier TCG retailer & event organizer.

[SCGCommander]

Catch all of Patrick's SCG content over at:

[sealeo]

I'm here to show Harris a bit of love, good kitty.

[SirZapdos]

Also worth noting that the "an opponent controls" clause on Petty Theft leads to more proactive gameplay (e.g., I bounce your blocker) as opposed to reactive gameplay (e.g., I bounce my creature to save it from removal). Also, not being able to bounce your own permanents means that a player can't continuously loop two Brazen Borrowers, for whatever reason. Whether it's chumping a Serra Angel indefinitely, or benefiting some other way with cast triggers and ETB triggers. Can you imagine how obnoxious looping Borrowers would be with Lucky Clover or Edgewall Innkeeper on the battlefield?

[nickbrydels]

Harris makes this the best video yet. Super cute cat.

[tommyglisten]

Thanks for the informative video! Also hello Harris, glad you made it back home!

[MagicBawks]

Glad Harris is safe! Great stuff as always, Patrick.

[MrPinkpanzer]

I'm glad you got your cat back. I'm sure you must've been worried.

I would like to once again offer my request to have you do a video on abrupt decay.

I hope everybody has a good day.

[MaxYoung-Maxinfet]

I never noticed how this adventure creature broke the mold thanks for going over this card.

[johngagliano]

Much love to Harris. Have 4 kitties myself. Glad he is feeling well.

[pjrappa]

Huge flavor win having Petty Theft be the card in honor of Harris returning...

[mooseplays]

Yay Harris! Glad you are home safe and sound!

[chriss.]

Sounds like keeping with this week’s theme, Harris showed back up from his adventure. Glad to hear your cat came back, my wife was nerve wrecked when our can disappeared for about a week, so I am sure you guys are relieved.

[EiJoYuJo]

I'm glad you got Harris back pat!

[LionelJeid]

I'm just here for the algorithm this week.

Oh and Harris.

And the insight that recurred this week.

[scottmUTCS]

You have a tiny Tiger living in your house. Glad Harris made it home.

[someperson]

I've had great results with brazen borrower, both in a faeries brew and in an esper control (both modern), I've found that using petty theft to bounce opposing walkers is super fun, I see a lot of stoneblade decks so bouncing the germ token of batterskull is pretty funny at times, I recall a time that I was able to pull a seriously funny line when the opp resolved ensnaring bridge with low life and I was able to bounce said bridge and cast brazen borrower at the end of their turn, needless to say they didn't get another turn 🤣. People wonder why it's a mythic, I say play with it some and you will realize why it has a mythic rarity, the card is nasty af and can lead to some insane lines when you put it in the right type of deck, I was hesitant to even test it in my esper control but it replaced lingering souls and hasn't disappointed me yet, especially to hate on walkers

[PittsburghRocks]

This is a great example of a deceptively powerful card. Skill intensive, fun and full of value. Worthy of mythic rarity, though not necessarily obviously so on first inspection.

[KevinQuinn]

I do appreciate the pairing of an Adventure that's an Instant with a Creature that has Flash from a gameplay perspective. Even if they are doing different things.

[fenrisulvur]

Nice video! I agree that the gameplay of this design is good, but I just can't get past the fact that this card is a mythic. It's a common blue bounce effect stapled to a creature card that I could've sworn was already a common blue flash flier in a draft format I played at some point, and it feels like it wound up in mythic purely because they realized that the rate was very good. Why couldn't they reserve that blue mythic adventure slot in the file for a design that did something more special?

[magiccardmaster]

Brazen borrower and murderous rider are the only adventure cards I play on a daily basis maybe talk about the rider here is like borrower but to me better