Magic the Gathering (MTG) - Brave the Sands - A Useful EDH Toolbox Enchantment

by  R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network

Brave the Sands is an Enchantment from Khans of Tarkir that offers your creatures a couple of quite useful abilities. The first ability is Vigilance, meaning your creatures don't tap when they attack. The second ability gives your creatures the option of blocking an additional creature. Together, this makes for a potentially very useful combination that can benefit a number of commander decks.

Making an Ever-Vigilant Dragonlord

The Commander most directly affected by Brave the Sands is Dragonlord Ojutai. Since the mighty blue and white Dragon only has hexproof when untapped, making her vigilant means that your opponent's spells and abilities will never be able to target her. Being a 5/4 also means being able to block an additional creature is also relevant.

On the flipside, Ojutai often brings with her Heliod, God of the Sun and Angelic Field Marshal. Both of these creatures offer your creatures Vigilance, as well. However, the Field Marshal only gives Vigilance when your commander is on the board. Still, the presence of these two seems to make the 2 mana enchantment somewhat redundant. However, Commander is a format in which redundancy is perfectly okay.

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The Lands That Never Tap, Except for Mana

Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper is a fascinating commander who can turn all of your lands into creatures. One of his best friends is the Halimar Tidecaller, who gives all your land creatures flying.  Brave the Sands helps by giving your land creatures, and anyone else under your control,  the freedom not to tap. The greatest downside to turning lands into creatures is limiting how much mana you have left to tap. But what has made Celestial Colonnade so powerful as a creature land is having both flying and Vigilance. Turning so many of your lands info mini colonnades is quite a bit of fun.

Even better, Noyan Dar makes use of the 3 mana enchantment Terra Eternal which makes all lands indestructible. Having your land creatures each able to block an additional creature in combat makes the deck a lot more resilient. Brave the sands fits extremely well into this particular archetype. Lands not having to tap is a big deal, and well worth the initial 2 mana investment.

The Commander Who Became an Enchantment

Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant is from a short line of legendary creatures that actually can turn into legendary enchantments when certain conditions are met. In commander, you begin the game with 40 life. Rune-Tail flips at 30 life. So as soon as you cast him, Rune-Tail becomes an enchantment called Rune-Tail’s Essence that prevents all damage that would be taken by your creatures.

The big combo with Rune-Tail is to play cards like Palisade Giant. This behemoth makes all damage you would take redirect to him. As long as he remains in play, you can't take any damage. The deck revolves around a number of creatures such as Angelic Skirmisher and Guardian of the Gateless that on their own can accomplish much of what brave the sands does on their own.

However, Brave the Sands is only two mana, and Vigilance has a lot of value. Being able to block additional creatures is nothing to scoff at either - although guardian of the gateless can block as many creatures as she wishes to begin with. It's a bit redundant here, but being a defensive style deck, it's a useful piece should you choose to include it.

What About Aggro?

Odric, Master Tactician has plenty of friends that can offer him and his troops Vigilance. But it's extremely hard to pass up a two mana enchantment like brave the sands that can help make opponent counterattacks particularly difficult. Including the enchantment is a tactical decision, and while not heavily favored by Odric players, it's a useful card to consider.

Does Brave the Sands Counteract Menace?

Before we wrap up with considering the long term value of brave the sands, there's a common question we should try to resolve. The way it's worded, people wonder if Brave the Sands allows your creatures to block creatures with menace.

For those unfamiliar with the term, menace simply means a creature that can only be blocked by two or more creatures. Unfortunately, this cannot be counteracted by the additional blocker allowed by Brave the Sands. You'll still need at least two creatures to block a creature with menace.

The upside is that those creatures can then still block additional creatures, even others with menace. For example, two creatures with menace would ordinarily need a total of four separate blockers to stop them.  With brave the sands, you really only need two. Therefore, Brave the Sands does help against creatures with menace, even if indirectly just sort of evening things out.

Long Term Value

Being an uncommon from one of the more widely opened sets, there's plenty of copies of Brave the Sands out there. While it has been seen as a sideboard card in some Modern brews of Bogles, it's really a Commander-only playable. Copies will be trickling off of the market one by one rather than two, three, or four copies at a time. The foil would probably be the best place to put your money, as many Commander players prefer to park foil copies of cards that they intend to keep in decks for the long term.

Brave the Sands is definitely a useful enchantment that has a casting cost that belies just how much value it can produce in the right deck. Whether it ends up being a mainstay in some Modern sideboard or just a decent toolbox card in commander, it's one to hold onto.

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