If it weren't for the clause "as long as", I'd agree. Problem is that clause. Seems to me that if Stryfe was chosen first, the characters would get the Brotherhood team ability. Then Cypher would kick in and grant another team ability (Mystics in your example). At this point the "as long as" clause would kick in, notice that the chosen figures can now use Mystics, and then stop granting the Brotherhood team ability. With Mystics firmly in place, Brotherhood would not be re-granted - at least until Cypher was removed.

Choose Cypher first at game beginning, same net end result.

No. As soon as the other character can use another TA, then they can't use Brotherhood any more. There are two conditions for using Brotherhood:

1) Stryfe must not be KO'd.
2) The character can't use another TA.

If either condition is violated, Brotherhood goes bye-bye.

In other words, from a Brotherhood TA POV, it is almost pointless to build a team with both Stryfe and Cypher. Best case scenario is Cypher is KO'd and you've now got some Brotherhood TA as back up.

Yeah, should have read that more closely. At first it seemed that the conditional check was at the beginning of the game which is why I thought I could pass conditions then pile on the TA's. Reading further I see KO is also a conditional check so it extends the check period throughout the match.

Thanks for the clarity normalview.