With the upcoming batch of PlayStation Secret Lair drops, Magic: The Gathering is adding no less than five fan-favorite franchises to its ever-growing roster. Some of these legends, including Uncharted’s Nathan Drake and the titular Ghost of Tsushima, are making waves already. Surprisingly enough, the legendary creatures representing The Last of Us are flying under the radar right now. This is a shame, given how good Ellie, Brick Master, one of these legends, looks for MTG Commander.
While it looks like a fairly underwhelming modern Partner design at first glance, there’s actually a good bit of depth to this card. It’s both an effective Aggro threat and a powerful political tool in one neat package. It even offers some incidental support for a couple of different typal decks. When the dust eventually clears, Ellie is the Last of Us legend I expect to have the biggest impact on multiplayer Magic.
Ellie, Brick Master MTG
- Mana Value: 1R
- Type: Legendary Creature – Human Survivor
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Card Text: Distract the Horde — Whenever a player attacks one of your opponents, that attacking player creates a tapped 1/1 black Fungus Zombie creature token named Cordyceps Infected that’s attacking that opponent.
Partner—Survivors (You can have two commanders if both have this ability.)- Stats: 2/1
Ellie, Brick Master is the kind of MTG card that plays a lot better than its first impression. She doesn’t just care about any player attacking your opponents, but also how many opponents are getting attacked. This easily results in Ellie triggering multiple times on every combat step.
Once you wrap your head around this, Ellie becomes one of the best token generators we’ve seen in a while. Assuming you’re able to spread out your attacks, you can get three attacking 1/1s per turn with it. Ellie also doesn’t need to attack itself to trigger this ability, so it can have an impact right away. Whether you’re going for all-out aggression or Aristocrats shenanigans, this is a very efficient piece indeed.
Ellie is also a fantastic political tool. As long as it’s in play, your opponents have an extra incentive to attack each other rather than you. A simple 1/1 token can do an awful lot in Commander these days, whether it’s draw cards with Skullclamp or fuel Gaea’s Cradle. When offered the chance to grab one, many players will take it.
While Ellie is clearly aimed at the command zone, I actually think it’ll be a better card in the 99. It’s just a generically powerful token generator, which is something a lot of decks are in the market for.
Cunning Commander Combos
Of course, if you do want to run Ellie, Brick Master as your MTG Commander, you might as well run one of her potential Partners, too. The two Last of Us drops introduce the Partner – Survivors mechanic. This gives Ellie three possible running mates to choose from.
The best of these is undoubtedly Joel, Resolute Survivor. While it is five mana, it becomes an extremely potent draw engine with Ellie in play. You’ll likely draw at least one card a turn cycle from your own tokens dying, then potentially three more if all of your opponents decide to attack each other. Joel will also quickly become a huge evasive threat that can dish out Commander damage wins this way. Joel also gives you access to two additional colors, which is a big advantage over the other options.
Second prize here goes to the other Ellie among Magic’s Last of Us cards, Vengeful Hunter. This puts you in Rakdos and also pushes you towards a much more aggressive style of play. Vengeful Hunter can sacrifice the tokens you generate via Brick Master to burn down your opponents and protect itself in the process. Since you take just as much damage as you dish out here, it’s a pretty risky strategy. Unless you’re packing some Lifelink Equipment, this combo is unlikely to get you many wins.
Last, and indeed least, we have Abby, Merciless Soldier. It makes sense lore-wise that this would be the card that works worst with Ellie, so this isn’t a huge surprise. Honestly, Abby just isn’t a great card in general, since giving your opponents resources is pretty much never good.
Surprise Typal Support
Whether you’re playing it in the command zone or the 99, Ellie, Brick Master has one more trick up its sleeve. The tokens it creates, in addition to being 1/1 bodies on the board, also come with two relevant creature types: Zombie and Fungus. Given how efficiently it can generate said tokens, Ellie could make a great addition to decks focusing on either.
Zombie is a type with no shortage of support, but it is pretty novel to see it in red. You’ll definitely want to Partner with either Ellie or Joel if you want to try a Brick Master Zombies deck, since that gives you access to black, where most good Zombie cards are. Jund Zombies with Joel is probably your best bet, since the type makes a lot of tokens already. With all the lord effects the type has access to, Lord of the Undead, Undead Warchief, etc., those little 1/1s can end up hitting well above their weight.
Fungus is a much more niche type, with only a handful of real support cards to its name. There are still some excellent synergies available with Ellie, however, assuming you’re willing to pair her with Joel to gain access to Golgari. Brightcap Badger can turn all of your Cordyceps into mana dorks, while The Mycotyrant can feed off them to grow stronger. You can also tap into spore counter synergies, with cards like Thelon of Havenwood. This isn’t the most competitive typal deck, which makes Ellie all the more exciting as a new option.
Overall, Ellie, Brick Master has a lot to offer for a range of different MTG Commander decks. After Ghost of Tsushima, it may be the PlayStation legend most worth picking up come October 27th.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage!