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Railway Brawler

Creature — Rhino Warrior

Reach, trample
Whenever another creature you control enters, put X +1/+1 counters on it, where X is its power.
Plot {3}{G} (You may pay {3}{G} and exile this card from your hand. Cast it as a sorcery on a later turn without paying its mana cost. Plot only as a sorcery.)

CMC
5
Mana cost
{3}{G}{G}
Color identity
G
Rarity
mythic
Set
Outlaws of Thunder Junction Promos
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#2326
Buy on TCGplayer
Railway Brawler card art
Railway Brawler enters with a +1/+1 counter for each creature that died this turn — that's a threat that scales off your own sacrifice engine mid-combo. Pair it with Ashnod's Altar and a token generator and it arrives as a legitimately large body for three mana; Kellan, the Kid decks run it as both a payoff and a recursive threat in one.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Kellan, the Kid

Kellan, the Kid

43.3% of decks · synergy 0.40

Kellan, the Kid's go-wide, sacrifice-friendly gameplan turns Railway Brawler into a reliable late-loop finisher — after a wave of tokens hits the bin, Brawler enters as a massive threat that demands an immediate answer.

02
Bristly Bill, Spine Sower

Bristly Bill, Spine Sower

31.1% of decks · synergy 0.26

Bristly Bill, Spine Sower doubles +1/+1 counters, so Railway Brawler's death-count trigger doesn't just build a big body — it builds an obscene one, and every subsequent combat step compounds that advantage.

04
Helga, Skittish Seer

Helga, Skittish Seer

25.9% of decks · synergy 0.22

Helga, Skittish Seer generates value whenever a creature with counters dies, so Railway Brawler feeds her engine on both entry and exit — it's a two-way synergy piece, not just a payoff.

05
Indominus Rex, Alpha

Indominus Rex, Alpha

22.8% of decks · synergy 0.22

Indominus Rex, Alpha cares about creatures with specific keyword counters, and Railway Brawler arriving pre-loaded with +1/+1 counters makes it an immediately eligible target to clone or keyword-enhance under Rex's ability.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Railway Brawler earns its slot — sacrifice loops are endemic to the format, and a three-mana creature that scales its own power off your graveyard activity fits neatly into any Jund, Golgari, or Naya aristocrats shell. In Modern and Pioneer, the bar for a three-mana creature is high enough that Railway Brawler needs a dedicated sacrifice deck to justify inclusion, and those decks generally have more consistent payoffs already. Standard is its most accessible competitive context, where death-trigger synergies are more format-defining and the card can simply be a large attacker in the right shell. Legacy and Vintage are non-starters outside of fringe brews — Railway Brawler doesn't cheat mana or generate immediate card advantage, which are the entry requirements at those tables.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Pricing data for Railway Brawler isn't available at the moment, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the current market rate before picking up copies. Given its role as a synergy piece rather than a format staple, it typically sits in budget-friendly territory — worth grabbing a playset if the price is low and you're building the deck.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.