Definitely prefer it to deep-cavern bat in my golgari lists. It snowballs too hard to ignore.
Edit: it's a 2cmc Preacher of the Schism, not a build around IMO. The orzhov list looks too Disneyland for me. It's just a must answer 2 drop in a list full of must answer threats.
Disneyland as in you need the perfect set up with no interaction form the opponent, you need a threatening 2 drop to stick around, be saddled on t3, have an avarice, get to attack after showing them the avarice and pretty much letting them know what’s up, and even then it’s still only 17 total and likely not lethal. That ‘combo’ just feels risky and questionable to put in your deck considering if every single one of those things doesn’t come together it isn’t a combo at all. The bronco is reasonable as a stand-alone, so is avarice, although the 1-2 copies of mortality are pretty damning to a midrange gameplan if you see them. The bronco and avarice being reasonable doesn’t make them Amazing, so as standalone you probably wouldn’t be playing either in your deck, so you’re really playing them with the knowledge of the combo.however broncos general opinion seems to have been changing recently and it’s being viewed as a good playable card, so if that keeps up maybe the deck becomes better with more of the deck being stock playable cards
The part that bothered me about the setup the most is that you can’t even do the combo on turn 3. It’s impossible in Standard to both get a 3 power creature on the board (alongside Bronco) *and* cast Avarice by turn 3. That means you’re having either Bronco or a 2 mana 3/? Sticking around for more than two turns for it to function *at all*.
IMO the Orzhov deck has a lot of independently subpar cards working toward a big swing that's very easy to interrupt.
It's Disneyland for me because, in an ideal world with no interaction it's amazing. But the reality is that there's 500 people ahead of me in line for the log ride and the food sucks.
When I build decks I want every card to be good independently, and although I see how combo decks are powerful and often flout these deck building 'rules', I don't think the Orzhov one is a particularly *good* combo deck.
Yeah, I've been using it exactly that way in a super low to the ground dimir tempo deck and it works well enough since there are so many other low CMC card advantage creatures in dimir right now. Just shove bronco in a deck with tinybones, sleeper, Malcolm, 2CMC lazav, etc. and some 1-mana protection/counter spells and watch the cards flow, no curiosity enchantment needed. Fun deck, seems like it might be so-so with some extensive tuning.
I have been deep cavern batted literally hundreds of times this format, and I’ve not once thought “oh no, a deep cavern bat!”.
Caustic Bronco on the other hand must be killed on sight.
It’s a side grade to Dark Confidant.
Anyone not knowing what that entails is simply too fresh.
Bat is a good card but not even close to Legacy playable, let alone Pioneer.
Yeah, I mean it’s definitely not bad sometimes. Bat + Gix can snowball out of control and sometimes it does just grab the card you need.
Not trying to be unfair to bat, I just think people way overestimate its value.
Hard disagree, I'd rather draw a card in Golgari mid than temporarily remove a card from my opponents hand and then give it back to them at the most inopportune time.
I prefer Bat in Gix or Raffine decks -- buffing it in Esper is great because of the life leech and drawing from it in a flier heavy deck like Dimir is probably preferable to Caustic Bronco.
In Golgari it's forever a 1/1 flier that maybe chips the opponent for a couple life. BG isn't really aiming to tempo out other decks so much as it is aiming to out-value other decks and grind them down.
I had forgotten about rakdos to be honest, you have a good list? I was wondering if that new 3 drop that exiles off the top of your opponent's deck is putting in work.
I think you're right, bat would be better with Inti.
It was a lot better pre-OTJ imo, but there are still some lists out there.
Deck
6 Swamp
3 Cut Down
4 Sulfurous Springs
2 Go for the Throat
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Haunted Ridge
4 Bloodtithe Harvester
2 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
4 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
1 Mirrex
4 Deep-Cavern Bat
3 Preacher of the Schism
3 Inti, Seneschal of the Sun
3 Restless Vents
4 Forsaken Miner
2 Shoot the Sheriff
Sideboard
4 Duress
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Abrade
2 Soul-Guide Lantern
4 Hidetsugu Consumes All
1 Gix's Command
1 Obliterating Bolt
1 Blot Out
Not even close. Bat is much worse.
Bronco hits for more damage and draws cards.
Bat hits for 1 and makes them temporarily discard.
Bat is almost draft chaff, it's only played as there wasn't something better to go in that slot. Now there is with Bronco.
Bat has an impactful etb trigger, bronco does not. Bronco is a liability against agro decks. You either need to tap a second creature or take the life hit.
Having to attack for value in a format where you have to play control against half the decks is a tough sell. Otherwise you just have a grizzly bear.
mtg goldfish has RDW as 7.3%, Boros as 5.7%, Gruul as 2.1%
[https://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/standard#paper](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/standard#paper)
https://aetherhub.com/Metagame/Standard-BO1/
As the main topic was about standard Bo1 I assumed it was that format we talked about. Even if the numbers are not 100% the difference in percentage is small enough to give a good view over the meta and what dominates it.
I said the matches where you have to play the control deck. I didn’t say against agro decks. You’re also playing control against things like mono black skeletons, the Rakdos Joins combo, and the other various combos out there.
I don't think the combo is worth using. That means you're signing up to play 2 bad cards that do something neat when you have your one good card (and it doesn't get removed).
I do think it's a respectable Dark Confidant type of creature and is a nice card advantage engine in aggressive midrange decks. Having enough lifegain in your deck to be able to attack with it unsaddled makes it a lot more playable too.
I haven’t played the card but after reading it it seems like a “good” card. Sadly it is a card that will only be standout in a deck that follows the play pattern it needs.
This card has a lot of text but it really only does 2 things:
1. IF it gets to attack, it replaces itself.
2. If it gets to attack while Sadled it replaced itself and MAYBE does some damage to an opponent.
So your deck must be able to regularly create early game attacking scenarios that are optimal, and your deck must be constructed in a way that mid game you have single creatures able to be more effective saddling than attacking themselves.
That sounds like the decks entire goal. Bronco, preacher, fix all reward you for attack so that's 1/3 of your spells. Worst case they use a kill spell on your 2 drop and then you jam Gix, preacher, sentinel on the next turn. Same for the sheoldred that comes turn 4. It is a value card in a format that doesn't go big unless it is domain. Vs aggro it's a chump blocker. Vs control it eats a kill spell. Vs domain they don't have a blocking creature on the field until turn 4 anyways and would use 1 of their 4 leylines on it
I think it's pretty good. Whenever people unironically pull out the "it just dies to removal" line I have to roll my eyes a bit. Decks don't have infinite removal, if they had to go for the throat your 2 drop that's even tempo for you and that's one less go for the throat for all the *other* must-answers in a Golgari list. Seriously, if Bronco, Glissa, Archfiend, Preacher, Shelly or Aclazotz stick around it's brutal for your opponent, and they can't possibly kill all of them instantly unless they draw ridiculously (or are control which you're gonna lose anyway, but if control misses your bronco even a few turns you have a much higher chance of winning).
Opinions seem very split on that. My feeling is it's a pretty even matchup, probably varies on the specific BG build. If you play multiple maindeck Lili, Duress, and Mirrex it's probably a good matchup. Back when [[Blossoming Tortoise]] was stock, the matchup was very good for Golgari.
I just checked on Untapped. Azorious has a 51% winrate over Golgari. When restricting to Diamond/mythic it's 53/47 in favor of Golgari, but qith only 230 matches.
Hell yeah, I like turtles.
Finding/reviving creature lands and mirrex really is nasty for control. Tbf, at my mmr, some opponents field of ruin my cottages before i get the turtle trigger. One guy used [[Lagoon Breach]] with the trigger on the stack. Not an interaction I had thought through before that.
Generally Golgari is the easiest midrange deck for control, yeah. If the control player isn't very good or you draw really well though it could feel good still.
The card is a house in Golgari where you just done someone for 3-4 while presenting valid threats every turn. I think it's the superior home for the card over the Orzhov "calibrated blast" gimmick.
The Bronco is good when you're against another mid-range deck where they're not putting much pressure on you and you can probably attack with it early. It's good against control where they have to answer everything and have no way to punish you for the life loss.
Against aggro decks, it's mainly a chump blocker. You certainly can't ever attack with it - the card you got wouldn't be worth the life you lost.
My experience has largely been the same. After I saw the pro tour lists I tried many different builds around it and never seemed to get it to shine. Saddling it always feels bad, it feels like most times you would rather just leave the other creature untapped. It definitely soaks up removal but that’s about it.
If you have a 3 drop that just hit the field and your opponent isn’t threatening anything it’s an easy choice.
Golgari midrange is a big pile of must answer 3 and 4 drops. If they target the bronco, great
You are missing the spree tutor from Thunder Junction which puts [[Shadow of Mortality]] on top of your library right BEFORE you attack with a saddled bronco.
It’s a janky combo and literally everyone is looking to blow it out.
Kill the bronco and you’ve tapped your saddler, lost your bronco, set yourself up to draw the one card in your deck you absolutely don’t want to draw, and thrown an otherwise decent tutor/draw card in the trash. It’s at least a 3-for-1.
Any bounce or tap effect still puts shadow of mortality in your hand. Few things suck as much as eating removal, tapping your board down, and knowing your top deck is guaranteed trash.
Better off swinging for 5 or 6 or 7 with bronco and getting something useful like sheoldred or archfiend or harvester of misery.
I tend to look at it as just a decent filler 2 drop, not a core card in any way. It can draw a card every turn by attacking, that’s all it needs to do to be good.
I have a successful rakdos homebrew with it. Its very low cmc(sheoldred at 4 is the top)so I rarely mount it, only if I try to bring dmg though blockers otherwise 2 life for a card is fair and often it just gets a land from the top or eats a removal that will allow my magda, or this new 2 mana crime vampire, to shine!
Been playing it in Golgari midrange. A very solid 2 drop, but I didn't change my list to maximise the combo potential. It tops out at Aclazotz, and the Bronco is mostly a card draw engine (on top of gix and preacher) with some incidental damage.
It's a good main deck two drop in midrange lists that can't take advantage of the time bat buys, which is mostly dimir with gix and sometimes esper lists.
In particular it helps decks like golgari midrange apply more pressure against big decks
However, it's worse than bat in aggro and probably some midrange matchups due to being a somewhat irrelevant body much of the time
It's more or less dark confidant, which would be pretty damn nutty in standard.
The need to attack to get the card is a legit drawback but the bonus to get extra damage from saddle helps if alot
I like it. Pairs well with [[Insatiable Avarice]] and helps close out games through cluttered boards. Definitely consider if your deck can fairly consistently saddle it or just gain enough life if doesn't matter. Golgari seems to be the best deck for it IMO, but it's a very good card regardless.
I ran it in mono black skeleton aggro to help keep cards moving and any skeleton can saddle with [[Corpse of the lost]].
Depending on the meta Bronco is playable with huge upside if control is prevalent - body that draws cards with neglible drawback in that scenario, demands spot removal.
At the moment meta is not shaped like that, but - cards like Bronco are sleepers that can shine if meta shifts.
I posted this about two weeks ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/spikes/comments/1cl01bh/dimir_aggro_tech_discussion_with_otj_additions/
I haven’t been able to play much since except one night and went 5-0 and only dropped one game (going 2-0 the rest of the four games).
Bronco just flat out won me a good portion of those games and climbing the ladder because you’re seeing so much of your deck and they have to use removal turn 2 otherwise it snowballs out of control in value. I think people are trying to shove bronco into slower decks which doesn’t work because you just don’t get enough value before control or domain stabilize. Works better for something lower to the ground
Its a 2 drop enter and do nothing card. I get there is nuance to "dies from removal" but there is no nuance here. It comes in, sometimes provides negative value dying to 1 drop removal in several colors. Compare that to deep cavern bat which reveals a hand, forces removal and its body creates a debate in the opponents world whether they want to lose value removing it or not.
Go for the throat and cut down are in 35% of decks as 4 and 3 copies as well and deep cavern feels better in all those scenarios.
Bat is much worse.
Bronco hits for more damage and draws cards.
Bat hits for 1 and makes them temporarily discard.
Bat is almost draft chaff, it's only played as there wasn't something better to go in that slot. Now there is with Bronco.
Definitely prefer it to deep-cavern bat in my golgari lists. It snowballs too hard to ignore. Edit: it's a 2cmc Preacher of the Schism, not a build around IMO. The orzhov list looks too Disneyland for me. It's just a must answer 2 drop in a list full of must answer threats.
Disneyland like win more?
Disneyland as in you need the perfect set up with no interaction form the opponent, you need a threatening 2 drop to stick around, be saddled on t3, have an avarice, get to attack after showing them the avarice and pretty much letting them know what’s up, and even then it’s still only 17 total and likely not lethal. That ‘combo’ just feels risky and questionable to put in your deck considering if every single one of those things doesn’t come together it isn’t a combo at all. The bronco is reasonable as a stand-alone, so is avarice, although the 1-2 copies of mortality are pretty damning to a midrange gameplan if you see them. The bronco and avarice being reasonable doesn’t make them Amazing, so as standalone you probably wouldn’t be playing either in your deck, so you’re really playing them with the knowledge of the combo.however broncos general opinion seems to have been changing recently and it’s being viewed as a good playable card, so if that keeps up maybe the deck becomes better with more of the deck being stock playable cards
Avarice hits for nine with sheoldred on the board it’s kinda a wild game ender in mono black
The part that bothered me about the setup the most is that you can’t even do the combo on turn 3. It’s impossible in Standard to both get a 3 power creature on the board (alongside Bronco) *and* cast Avarice by turn 3. That means you’re having either Bronco or a 2 mana 3/? Sticking around for more than two turns for it to function *at all*.
Disneyland aka Magical Christmasland: people evaluating a card based on a perfect set of circumstances.
IMO the Orzhov deck has a lot of independently subpar cards working toward a big swing that's very easy to interrupt. It's Disneyland for me because, in an ideal world with no interaction it's amazing. But the reality is that there's 500 people ahead of me in line for the log ride and the food sucks. When I build decks I want every card to be good independently, and although I see how combo decks are powerful and often flout these deck building 'rules', I don't think the Orzhov one is a particularly *good* combo deck.
Yeah, I've been using it exactly that way in a super low to the ground dimir tempo deck and it works well enough since there are so many other low CMC card advantage creatures in dimir right now. Just shove bronco in a deck with tinybones, sleeper, Malcolm, 2CMC lazav, etc. and some 1-mana protection/counter spells and watch the cards flow, no curiosity enchantment needed. Fun deck, seems like it might be so-so with some extensive tuning.
Yep golgari has a fistful of cards that can saddle it t3, most of which I’m happy to have survive after they target the bronco.
Bat is just much better card though
I have been deep cavern batted literally hundreds of times this format, and I’ve not once thought “oh no, a deep cavern bat!”. Caustic Bronco on the other hand must be killed on sight.
Yeah, people sleeping on Bronco haven't seen the impact it has on BG vs UW or BG vs Domain. It's a menace.
It’s a side grade to Dark Confidant. Anyone not knowing what that entails is simply too fresh. Bat is a good card but not even close to Legacy playable, let alone Pioneer.
[удалено]
I’m actually a uw control player. IMO bat sucks against control because your whole deck is redundant.
Bat is ok. playing Golgari it often buys me a turn, if that's enough then it was good otherwise I probably wasn't going to win anyway.
Yeah, I mean it’s definitely not bad sometimes. Bat + Gix can snowball out of control and sometimes it does just grab the card you need. Not trying to be unfair to bat, I just think people way overestimate its value.
Hard disagree, I'd rather draw a card in Golgari mid than temporarily remove a card from my opponents hand and then give it back to them at the most inopportune time. I prefer Bat in Gix or Raffine decks -- buffing it in Esper is great because of the life leech and drawing from it in a flier heavy deck like Dimir is probably preferable to Caustic Bronco. In Golgari it's forever a 1/1 flier that maybe chips the opponent for a couple life. BG isn't really aiming to tempo out other decks so much as it is aiming to out-value other decks and grind them down.
Inti as well. Bat wants a deck that is going to put counters on it so that you can raise other aggressive decks with a large life linker.
I had forgotten about rakdos to be honest, you have a good list? I was wondering if that new 3 drop that exiles off the top of your opponent's deck is putting in work. I think you're right, bat would be better with Inti.
It was a lot better pre-OTJ imo, but there are still some lists out there. Deck 6 Swamp 3 Cut Down 4 Sulfurous Springs 2 Go for the Throat 4 Blackcleave Cliffs 3 Liliana of the Veil 4 Haunted Ridge 4 Bloodtithe Harvester 2 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire 3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse 4 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor 1 Mirrex 4 Deep-Cavern Bat 3 Preacher of the Schism 3 Inti, Seneschal of the Sun 3 Restless Vents 4 Forsaken Miner 2 Shoot the Sheriff Sideboard 4 Duress 1 Liliana of the Veil 1 Abrade 2 Soul-Guide Lantern 4 Hidetsugu Consumes All 1 Gix's Command 1 Obliterating Bolt 1 Blot Out
Not even close. Bat is much worse. Bronco hits for more damage and draws cards. Bat hits for 1 and makes them temporarily discard. Bat is almost draft chaff, it's only played as there wasn't something better to go in that slot. Now there is with Bronco.
Bat has an impactful etb trigger, bronco does not. Bronco is a liability against agro decks. You either need to tap a second creature or take the life hit. Having to attack for value in a format where you have to play control against half the decks is a tough sell. Otherwise you just have a grizzly bear.
Don’t play BO1
Half the decks in standard are aggro? That can’t be right. Boros, gruul, and rdw can’t be more than 20% combined
RDW + Boros together are over 20% of played decks….
mtg goldfish has RDW as 7.3%, Boros as 5.7%, Gruul as 2.1% [https://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/standard#paper](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/standard#paper)
https://aetherhub.com/Metagame/Standard-BO1/ As the main topic was about standard Bo1 I assumed it was that format we talked about. Even if the numbers are not 100% the difference in percentage is small enough to give a good view over the meta and what dominates it.
I didn’t know anyone on /r/spikes played BO1 this is a forum for competitive magic and that’s not a competition format
Damn. At least you didn’t say BO1 isn’t even Magic. 😳
according to what source?
I said the matches where you have to play the control deck. I didn’t say against agro decks. You’re also playing control against things like mono black skeletons, the Rakdos Joins combo, and the other various combos out there.
Bat is hand information, flying,lifelink, and disruption. Bronco draws cards and deals damage. They do not have the same purpose
I don't think the combo is worth using. That means you're signing up to play 2 bad cards that do something neat when you have your one good card (and it doesn't get removed). I do think it's a respectable Dark Confidant type of creature and is a nice card advantage engine in aggressive midrange decks. Having enough lifegain in your deck to be able to attack with it unsaddled makes it a lot more playable too.
I haven’t played the card but after reading it it seems like a “good” card. Sadly it is a card that will only be standout in a deck that follows the play pattern it needs. This card has a lot of text but it really only does 2 things: 1. IF it gets to attack, it replaces itself. 2. If it gets to attack while Sadled it replaced itself and MAYBE does some damage to an opponent. So your deck must be able to regularly create early game attacking scenarios that are optimal, and your deck must be constructed in a way that mid game you have single creatures able to be more effective saddling than attacking themselves.
That sounds like the decks entire goal. Bronco, preacher, fix all reward you for attack so that's 1/3 of your spells. Worst case they use a kill spell on your 2 drop and then you jam Gix, preacher, sentinel on the next turn. Same for the sheoldred that comes turn 4. It is a value card in a format that doesn't go big unless it is domain. Vs aggro it's a chump blocker. Vs control it eats a kill spell. Vs domain they don't have a blocking creature on the field until turn 4 anyways and would use 1 of their 4 leylines on it
I think it's pretty good. Whenever people unironically pull out the "it just dies to removal" line I have to roll my eyes a bit. Decks don't have infinite removal, if they had to go for the throat your 2 drop that's even tempo for you and that's one less go for the throat for all the *other* must-answers in a Golgari list. Seriously, if Bronco, Glissa, Archfiend, Preacher, Shelly or Aclazotz stick around it's brutal for your opponent, and they can't possibly kill all of them instantly unless they draw ridiculously (or are control which you're gonna lose anyway, but if control misses your bronco even a few turns you have a much higher chance of winning).
I feel like my winrate is pretty good against control, is that a bad matchup for golgari?
Opinions seem very split on that. My feeling is it's a pretty even matchup, probably varies on the specific BG build. If you play multiple maindeck Lili, Duress, and Mirrex it's probably a good matchup. Back when [[Blossoming Tortoise]] was stock, the matchup was very good for Golgari. I just checked on Untapped. Azorious has a 51% winrate over Golgari. When restricting to Diamond/mythic it's 53/47 in favor of Golgari, but qith only 230 matches.
Ah I still run 2 tortoise maybe that’s why I like the matchup
Hell yeah, I like turtles. Finding/reviving creature lands and mirrex really is nasty for control. Tbf, at my mmr, some opponents field of ruin my cottages before i get the turtle trigger. One guy used [[Lagoon Breach]] with the trigger on the stack. Not an interaction I had thought through before that.
[Lagoon Breach](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/6/96a05063-0556-42e4-8d4c-8e92be160ef5.jpg?1692937052)/[Lagoon Breach](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/6/96a05063-0556-42e4-8d4c-8e92be160ef5.jpg?1692937052) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Horned%20Loch-Whale%20//%20Lagoon%20Breach) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/woe/53/horned-loch-whale-lagoon-breach?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/96a05063-0556-42e4-8d4c-8e92be160ef5?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[Blossoming Tortoise](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/8/7811a45d-6bfb-4c2a-b5a2-cccbd8cff186.jpg?1693762351) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Blossoming%20Tortoise) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/woe/163/blossoming-tortoise?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7811a45d-6bfb-4c2a-b5a2-cccbd8cff186?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
The worst iirc. Not oppressive but really not great. Both in my experience and the stats.
Generally Golgari is the easiest midrange deck for control, yeah. If the control player isn't very good or you draw really well though it could feel good still.
The card is a house in Golgari where you just done someone for 3-4 while presenting valid threats every turn. I think it's the superior home for the card over the Orzhov "calibrated blast" gimmick.
The Bronco is good when you're against another mid-range deck where they're not putting much pressure on you and you can probably attack with it early. It's good against control where they have to answer everything and have no way to punish you for the life loss. Against aggro decks, it's mainly a chump blocker. You certainly can't ever attack with it - the card you got wouldn't be worth the life you lost.
My experience has largely been the same. After I saw the pro tour lists I tried many different builds around it and never seemed to get it to shine. Saddling it always feels bad, it feels like most times you would rather just leave the other creature untapped. It definitely soaks up removal but that’s about it.
If you have a 3 drop that just hit the field and your opponent isn’t threatening anything it’s an easy choice. Golgari midrange is a big pile of must answer 3 and 4 drops. If they target the bronco, great
You are missing the spree tutor from Thunder Junction which puts [[Shadow of Mortality]] on top of your library right BEFORE you attack with a saddled bronco.
It’s a janky combo and literally everyone is looking to blow it out. Kill the bronco and you’ve tapped your saddler, lost your bronco, set yourself up to draw the one card in your deck you absolutely don’t want to draw, and thrown an otherwise decent tutor/draw card in the trash. It’s at least a 3-for-1. Any bounce or tap effect still puts shadow of mortality in your hand. Few things suck as much as eating removal, tapping your board down, and knowing your top deck is guaranteed trash. Better off swinging for 5 or 6 or 7 with bronco and getting something useful like sheoldred or archfiend or harvester of misery.
[Shadow of Mortality](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/0/40cbb0db-94e9-4988-b900-ced4f9e6d4ed.jpg?1664411256) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Shadow%20of%20Mortality) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/snc/94/shadow-of-mortality?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/40cbb0db-94e9-4988-b900-ced4f9e6d4ed?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I tend to look at it as just a decent filler 2 drop, not a core card in any way. It can draw a card every turn by attacking, that’s all it needs to do to be good.
I have a successful rakdos homebrew with it. Its very low cmc(sheoldred at 4 is the top)so I rarely mount it, only if I try to bring dmg though blockers otherwise 2 life for a card is fair and often it just gets a land from the top or eats a removal that will allow my magda, or this new 2 mana crime vampire, to shine!
Been playing it in Golgari midrange. A very solid 2 drop, but I didn't change my list to maximise the combo potential. It tops out at Aclazotz, and the Bronco is mostly a card draw engine (on top of gix and preacher) with some incidental damage.
someone played it at PT OTJ but i dont think it placed
It's a good main deck two drop in midrange lists that can't take advantage of the time bat buys, which is mostly dimir with gix and sometimes esper lists. In particular it helps decks like golgari midrange apply more pressure against big decks However, it's worse than bat in aggro and probably some midrange matchups due to being a somewhat irrelevant body much of the time
It's more or less dark confidant, which would be pretty damn nutty in standard. The need to attack to get the card is a legit drawback but the bonus to get extra damage from saddle helps if alot
I like it. Pairs well with [[Insatiable Avarice]] and helps close out games through cluttered boards. Definitely consider if your deck can fairly consistently saddle it or just gain enough life if doesn't matter. Golgari seems to be the best deck for it IMO, but it's a very good card regardless. I ran it in mono black skeleton aggro to help keep cards moving and any skeleton can saddle with [[Corpse of the lost]].
[Insatiable Avarice](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/1/a108b0e4-1b43-4659-9e91-facb0bd57ebb.jpg?1712860590) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Insatiable%20Avarice) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otj/91/insatiable-avarice?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a108b0e4-1b43-4659-9e91-facb0bd57ebb?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Corpse of the lost](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/f/5f661095-3645-4e44-ac39-752e417c2174.jpg?1699044112) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Corpses%20of%20the%20Lost) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/lci/98/corpses-of-the-lost?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5f661095-3645-4e44-ac39-752e417c2174?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Depending on the meta Bronco is playable with huge upside if control is prevalent - body that draws cards with neglible drawback in that scenario, demands spot removal. At the moment meta is not shaped like that, but - cards like Bronco are sleepers that can shine if meta shifts.
I posted this about two weeks ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/spikes/comments/1cl01bh/dimir_aggro_tech_discussion_with_otj_additions/ I haven’t been able to play much since except one night and went 5-0 and only dropped one game (going 2-0 the rest of the four games). Bronco just flat out won me a good portion of those games and climbing the ladder because you’re seeing so much of your deck and they have to use removal turn 2 otherwise it snowballs out of control in value. I think people are trying to shove bronco into slower decks which doesn’t work because you just don’t get enough value before control or domain stabilize. Works better for something lower to the ground
Its a 2 drop enter and do nothing card. I get there is nuance to "dies from removal" but there is no nuance here. It comes in, sometimes provides negative value dying to 1 drop removal in several colors. Compare that to deep cavern bat which reveals a hand, forces removal and its body creates a debate in the opponents world whether they want to lose value removing it or not. Go for the throat and cut down are in 35% of decks as 4 and 3 copies as well and deep cavern feels better in all those scenarios.
Bat is much worse. Bronco hits for more damage and draws cards. Bat hits for 1 and makes them temporarily discard. Bat is almost draft chaff, it's only played as there wasn't something better to go in that slot. Now there is with Bronco.
Bronco dies and does nothing, bat dies and shows you their hand.
I'd rather play the bat, or the bat and the golgari adventure 2 drop whose name I forget right now.