I always thought Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder was a hilarious card. The artwork by Anthony Palumbo conveys such attitude that you can’t help but create a story in your mind about Bruse’s life. Plus, it’s a solid Commander card – giving a creature double strike and lifelink is awesome for a deck that wants to rumble into combat.
I have to admit, when I first saw the new version in Outlaws of Thunder Junction, I was disappointed. I’m not a fan of the whole “exile a card and you can play it until the end of turn/end of your next turn” thing that Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has been pushing in their designs lately, at least when it comes to Commander.
Now granted, not everything needs to or should be designed with Commander in mind, but when it’s attached to a legendary creature, I can’t help but look at it through a Commander lens. The reason I don’t like that exile and play it in a limited window effect is because I prefer to play a lot of reactive cards that I don’t necessarily want to play immediately, but rather pick the right time when it’s needed most. Also, I’m a big fan of making my land drops in Commander, so exiling a land that I can’t play makes me cringe.
But you know what? When a Magic card doesn’t initially vibe with me, sometimes it’s cool to try and look at it through fresh eyes. Think outside your comfort zone, and maybe you’ll end up having unexpected fun! Bruse gives double strike to all Oxen you control, which is a powerful ability, and since I play almost 40% lands in my decks, a lot of the time Bruse will make his own Oxen.
Okay, let’s round up cards that might go in your Bruse Tarl, Roving Rancher deck!
Oxen
It doesn’t take long to realize there aren’t all that many actual Oxen cards that are worthy of slots in a Commander deck. I went through the deck database and pulled what I thought might be worth a slot , because even if it’s a seriously sub-par creature on it’s own, giving it double strike helps a lot. Of course, Giant Ox has zero power so that double strike isn’t helping, though if you’re playing some number of Vehicles it might be worth it? It is nice you can run Animal Sanctuary in the deck quite effectively since adding a +1/+1 counter to an Ox with double strike makes it doubly good. I might run a few of these in a Bruse deck, but I don’t think a full Oxen typal deck is viable – yet! Who knows, WotC might go to a plane one day where Oxen typal is a thing? They have intelligent Elephants with the Loxodon, so maybe we’ll get a society of intelligent Oxen. Gavin Verhey, Bruse is counting on you!
Changelings
When a creature type is thin on playables, you can always extend into creatures with the changeling ability, and while I don’t think there’s enough to make the deck full Oxen typal, I might consider playing some number of these too. Taurean Mauler is just a good card anyway, it tends to grow surprisingly fast and gaining double strike is going to make it hit really hard. Plus, it even looks like an Ox!
Mirror Entity is perfect for this deck. Its ability to turn all of your creatures into Oxen is going to lead to some really big combat steps. I’d be tempted to run Impostor of the Sixth Pride and Irregular Cohort to round out the mana curve, since double strike makes both of these quite formidable.
Amorphous Axe is a nice option to equip to Bruse, giving him +3/+0 and making him an Oxen means he hits really, really hard. Volatile Claws is an incredible combat trick to consider, giving your entire team +2/+0 and double strike (assuming Bruse is on the battlefield) can be game ending.
Set the Top of Library
It’s going to be handy to know what’s on top of your library and even better to manipulate what cards are there. Scroll Rack and Sensei’s Divining Top are best in class for this, though both are quite expensive these days. If you have them, run ’em for sure, and if you have Scroll Rack, you definitely should also run Land Tax for that classic card advantage engine, which will also ensure a steady supply of Oxen triggers without risking you missing your land drops.
Blink Bruse
Battlefields can quickly get too cluttered for Bruse Tarl to have easy attacks to get more triggers, so it’s probably a good idea to have some ways to “blink” Bruse to get that trigger from entering the battlefield. Permanent-based effects like Teleportation Circle and Conjurer’s Closet are nice since they trigger without additional mana investment, but you won’t get to exile the card until your end step.
Extra Attacks
Assuming you can get Bruse attacking successfully, Boros has excellent choices for extra attack steps – generating extra triggers along the way. I really love the new Outlaws of Thunder Junction card Great Train Heist (I keep wanting to call it “The Great Train Robbery”), it does so many awesome things! I put it here for the extra attack potential, but the other pieces of the puzzle can be good too, and even though the second option’s first strike might be redundant with Bruse’s double strike, that extra power can make a big difference. Plus, double strike makes that last ability generate tapped Treasures for a huge rush of mana for your next turn.
If you’re playing Scroll Rack and Land Tax, Waves of Aggression’s retrace ability becomes a pretty sweet reusable extra attacks engine.
Haste
Giving Bruse haste is a fantastic way to get two triggers out of him right away (assuming the coast is clear to attack), and Boros gives you access to a ton of them. Nahiri’s Resolve is an interesting choice since it provides haste and also lets you potentially exile Bruse and get more triggers. The one downside is that an absent Bruse means the double strike is gone, but that might not be a big deal. I’m a big fan of both Rising of the Day and Tuktuk Rubblefort since they come down the turn before you cast Bruse so he can enter the battlefield and attack right away. I also like Gimli’s Reckless Might since the formidable ability can potentially clear away a key blocker if you want to attack with Bruse.
Token Synergies
Bruse makes Ox tokens at least part of the time, so if you want to add more cards that make tokens then you can look into some of the token synergies available to Boros, with Anointed Procession being at the top of the list. What’s better than one 2/2 Ox token with double strike then two of them with Anointed Procession, or even Mondrak, Glory Dominus?
Kindred Charge will be amazing if you’ve got a way to make all your creatures the same type (hello, Maskwood Nexus!), especially if you’re doubling those tokens too, and if they all have double strike… boom!
Play from Exile
There are cards that care about playing cards from exile, so we’d probably want to have some number of these. Passionate Archaeologist is a fun enchantment that lets you dome opponents whenever you cast a spell from exile so long as Bruse is on the battlefield. Keeper of Secrets does a similar thing, while being attached to a significant threat in itself. I’ve been looking for a home for Flaming Tyrannosaurus from Doctor Who, and this deck seems like a perfect home. The damage it can dish out can clear away blockers to help Bruse get busy attacking, while it continues to grow, and its menace ability makes it problematic to block too. Plus, when it dies, it domes all of your opponents for significant damage. The War Doctor is another Doctor Who card that plays great here – getting time counters that can deal increasing amount of damage to potential blockers or directly to opponents’ life totals.
Commander Liara Portyr is a gem from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate that does a ton of work for decks that want to cast spells from exile, especially if you’re playing token creatures and are able to attack each of your opponents each attack step.
What cards did I overlook in this deep dive on Bruse Tarl, Roving Rancher? How deep do you go on Oxen in the deck, or do you lean heavy on the token strategies? Let me know what you think!
Talk to Me
Do me a solid and follow me on Twitter! I run polls and start conversations about Commander all the time, so get in on the fun! You can also find my LinkTree on my profile page there with links to all my content.
I’d also love it if you followed my Twitch channel TheCompleteCommander, where I do Commander, Brawl, and sometimes other Magic-related streams when I can. If you can’t join me live, the videos are available on demand for a few weeks on Twitch, but I also upload them to my YouTube channel. You can also find the lists for my paper decks over on Archidekt if you want to dig into how I put together my own decks and brews.
And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy.
Visit my Decklist Database to see my decklists and the articles where they appeared!
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