3/2 for 1 as well as 4/3 Trample for 2 are better than 4/3 for 2, sure. However, these cards need the deck built around them or Else they suck (Brawler needs the deck to be Gruul and have a very solid manabase, Exemplar needs enough artifacts and White sources). Brawler has a much lower setup cost in terms of deckbuilding.

Also: Yes, RDW wants the card. You either discard the worst card in your hand turn 2 (possibly an excess Land) or you play it as the Last card from your hand (making it a strict 4/3 for 2).

As for Rakdos: I'm running him in my Rakdos Aggro list currently. The Madness cards? 4 Fiery Temper, that's it. Also the deck is not running Minotaur Tribal.

He's annoying to draw into when you mull to six

I still really like him

Ein?

Exemplar of Strength

Ok, let's see if the guy gets play in normal RDWs, not just in the madness/hellbent based ones...I doubt it, but who knows?

He's garbage compared to Voltaic Brawler.

Why we're comparing a Red card to Green cards? If you want to make meaningful comparisons, compare him to similar Red cards, like Furyblade Vampire or Ravenous Bloodseeker.

Both Brawlers are great.

But if we want to nitpick Bloodrage's issues, then Voltaic is color specific therefore limiting the decks it can be played in. It can potentially be an issue to curve into T2. It can run out of and end up just as a 3/2 and it will only ever block as a 3/2. More removal options are valid against Voltaic because of the 2 toughness. And still the card is great. So is Bloodrage. Although if I was forced to pick between the two for 'best of the brawlers' I'm not sure what'd I'd choose at the moment (gimme some time!!).


elk

It's kind of awkward because in green there's voltaic and if you have some serious madness subthemes and are playin black there's heir, and I'm not really sure that he brings that much to boros decks since we haven't got new artifact hate and vehicles are still strong.

I can see it work pretty well in decks hevily skewed toward red or an hypotetical r/b that plays next to no madness cards.

Brawler is 100% better than Heir.

Better than the Bloodseeker, who is crap, and slightly better than Fury, imo

Agree. But Bloodseeker shouldn't even be in this conversation, it's the worst card we've mentioned so far. Heir comes with evasion though, and is more flexable, so not 100% better. They both serve purposes and will probably share slots in some Madness decks.


Off Topic: Batista, you okay down there in Brazil? I seen some serious **** is going on down there. Looked like the riots were getting bad, and that's on American News which is notorious for watering down the levels of violence they show on TV, even when it's real, and deserves to be reported.

First impressions: I don't like this card. Unless you have discard synergies he just opens you up to getting 2-for-1'ed. With discard synergies he stops being a turn 2 play, when he's at his strongest, e.g. to Brawler + Fiery Temper on the same turn you need to wait to turn 3. Also being a 4/3 creature is bad: you die to Harnessed Lightning, Dynavolt Tower, and a plethora of 3/2 2-drops.

I could conceivably see this card in a deck looking to animate the discarded card (Necromantic Summons and what not) but in those decks you're trying to survive while discarding big creatures. Why would you run a 4/3 creature?

I'm starting to lean this direction. He's definitely not doing as well in Duels as he was in Sealed/Draft. I'm not completely soured on him yet though. He's deffinitely got a deck he fits in, just maybe not RDW or Gruul. Mono-Red Aggro Madness and BR Madness Burn.


What are some other cards that make this card worth playing late game? Archfiend of Ifnir? You get a solid body, a Madness outlet and -1/-1 to everything. Are there others? Besides the "Opponent loses 1 Life when a creature enters the battlefield" creatures.

I just think you have to accommodate him in your build. In some decks his discard isn't even a disadvantage, and consequently you can run him with little thought. I have him in a deck with fiery Temper, Scrapheap Scrounger, and Labyrinth Guardian, and he's performing very well.

But I will say this: although 4 power is quite a bit faster than 3 (5 vs. 7 turn clock), it's not needed unless the deck can fully accommodate the creature. Right now 4 toughness is much more relevant - probably always will be.

Cards to look at, and break at 2 before bothering with Brawler: Exemplar of Strength, Greenbelt Rampager, Lambholt Pacifist, Kessig Prowler (technically not a 1/2 drop, but still). (Edit: these may or may not all go in the same deck).

Not sure if there are any others.

This gives you a payoff group, which matches well with R for a beat down ish deck, or black for a recursive one. May also be good with blue for a tempo/AC deck. Not much reason to run white alongside it though.

Also, back on topic: for the record, the obvious color to pair with Bloodrage Brawler is Black, not Green. The reason he isn't that great is because there's a better deck to play in RB than Madness, imo (on the last sentence).

Want to break him, build a deck that's wants cards in the yard, and look for cards that are better when they are discarded.

Folks sure seem stuck on the discard. Makes me wonder if I should put Hazoret back in my R/G beatdown deck which was in just for starts with T2 Bloodrage. It did curve well when it was available.


elk

Yeah, he definitely belongs in Hazoret decks, no doubt about it. Which is kind of the point I was trying to make above. Just put him in decks that want him. Heh

Something else to consider (Barney and I were just discussing it) is card advantage. In my version of R/G beatdown, there are several cards that can gain advantage so we can offset any loss throughout the game making the brawler more playable.


elk

Ok I think I'm really starting to dislike Brawler. I was telling Elk that I mull aggressively so that card hurts me cuz I will have six card hands often

Also I was just playtesting Elks deck and I got TWO early Brawlers. I had to play them cuz opponent was White Exert and these early creatures were rough. I discarded an Aether Hub (no big deal) and Samut (I wasn't sure about getting to five mana and I wasn't discarding Nissa Vital Force, that's for sure

So that really hurt. On the bright side, I drew into both other Brawlers after with nothing to discard so that was easy and they won me the game

So you didn't like discarding but won? Also a late two drop was still live? I'm not seeing the problem here?



elk

Having to discard two cards early I think was really rough, but yeah I ended up winning

So, we all agree the Bloodrage Brawler is an amazing, awful, mediocre card. At least we've achieved consensus that it is, in fact, a Magic card.