Sell-Sword Brute
Creature — Human Mercenary
When this creature dies, it deals 2 damage to you.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Ravnica: City of Guilds
- Price
- $0.02
- EDHREC rank
- #30643
Sell-Sword Brute is a 2/2 haste for two mana that drains you for 2 when it dies — a reasonable rate for aggressive red or black decks that want early pressure, but the death trigger works against you in any attrition game. Run it when the haste matters on turn two; cut it when your deck doesn't close games fast enough to ignore the life loss.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Sell-Sword Brute is fringe at best — a 2/2 that costs you life on death doesn't scale to four-player tables where you need every point of life buffer you can get. Pauper is where it has the most plausible home, slotting into aggressive red or black shells that want cheap haste bodies to push early damage before the opponent stabilizes. In Legacy and Vintage, the competition at two mana is simply too deep for Sell-Sword Brute to see meaningful play outside of budget or casual builds. Oathbreaker follows the same logic as Commander: the card is legal but not worth the slot.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.02 bulk tier
At $0.02, Sell-Sword Brute is deep bulk — you're paying for a card sleeve, not the card. That price is a floor and will stay there; there's no competitive demand pulling it upward.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.