"Compel Brutality: When Atraxa Turns Planeswalkers Into Weapons." by:

 "Compel Brutality: When Atraxa Turns Planeswalkers Into Weapons."

by: 

Virgilio F. De Leon Jr., MD

Compel Brutality is a two-mana instant coming out of Reality Fracture, and it immediately made me think of one of my favorite decks:

Atraxa Superfriends!

The first half of the card is something we have seen before: Green's version of spot removal based on the might of the creatures it targets.

So, with an Atraxa in play, you're easily looking at four damage to an opponent's creature or planeswalker. Given that there are plenty of planeswalkers with less than four loyalty when they enter the battlefield, this already makes Compel Brutality a very respectable spot-removal spell.

But then we get to the second half of the card.

And this is something we haven't really seen before.

Compel Brutality can target one of your planeswalkers and use its loyalty to deal that much damage to a target creature or planeswalker an opponent controls.

Think about what that means.

A planeswalker isn't just generating value for you anymore.

It's ammunition.

Planeswalkers like Garruk or Ugin, for example, can enter the battlefield with a healthy amount of loyalty, making them excellent targets for Compel Brutality.

And this is where things get particularly interesting in an Atraxa EDH deck.

Atraxa Superfriends is already a deck filled to the brim with planeswalkers. Then you add Atraxa's ability to proliferate at the end of every turn, and suddenly those loyalty counters start piling up.

Your planeswalkers get bigger.

And Compel Brutality gets nastier.

That Garruk that started with five loyalty?

That's potentially five damage.

That Ugin sitting there with a mountain of loyalty?

You can turn all those counters into a very unpleasant surprise for someone else's board.

So every time you cast Compel Brutality, you're not just casting a removal spell.

You're asking one of your planeswalkers:

"How much damage would you like to do?"

Of course, Compel Brutality is only two mana, which makes this even more interesting. You're essentially turning the loyalty you've already accumulated into additional removal without having to sacrifice the planeswalker itself.

For Atraxa Superfriends, that's a pretty sweet deal.

Your planeswalkers generate loyalty.

Atraxa proliferates that loyalty.

And Compel Brutality turns all of it into damage.

That's not just Superfriends anymore.

That's weaponized loyalty.