What is Brawl? Brawl is the newest SANCTIONED format created by Wizards of the Coast: 60 singleton Standard-legal deck with one of those cards (legendary creature or planeswalker) designated as the commander. Command zone and color identity rules apply. Standard banlist. No sideboard.
I'm cautiously optimistic. Mostly, I'm waiting to see what happens when hybrid hits standard again. If WotC rules that it's "or" for the purposes of color identity, rather than "and," I'm going all in.
Gabriel Gonzalez
>B-b-b-but the spirit of E- Fuck it. That shit was retarded from day one.
>Kozilek, The Great Distortion >No color identity >Can't use any of the devoid spells THEMATICALLY linked to the Eldrazi.
Fuck you, Sheldon. You are the heretic and WotC is the Spanish Inquisition.
Seems fun. I'm just gonna make draft chaff mediocre-stuff until i'm sure it catches on. The only thing that worries me is letting planeswalkers be the commanders. I hope that never leaks its way into EDH. The pre-con decks a few years ago that had planeswalkers as commanders was too close.
Austin Hill
>The pre-con decks a few years ago that had planeswalkers as commanders was too close.
Ok, user-kun, show me in this doll where the meanie Daretti touch you.
He touched me right in my Breya deck. I just don't want the floodgates of planeswalker commanded decks to burst open, especially now that they're harder than ever to hit.
Ayden Watson
The bad: >planeswalkers Planeswalkers are OP and they will dominate the format. There is no reason to use anything else. It's clear that this was the main reason for the format, to promote their mascots. >multiplayer Just play commander.
The good: >standard While most people hate standard, EDH's card pool is way too big. Same with Pauper. Modern would have been a better card pool but the format is FUBAR enough already. >8% chance to btfo EDH My guess is that Wizards wants to make Brawl a competitive format in the long term. EDH has become too big and Wizards doesn't feel comfortable with that. It's eating away at the other formats. They make money from the old farts who play EDH but the lifeblood of the game is new players and that is what they want from Brawl.
I like how they make it sound like it was a decision made on a whim. It wasn't. This is a highly choreographed and researched decision. You don't create a new format because some guy came to your office and you think it's "fun".
It's hard to know how successful it will be but my guess is that they are going all in and Dominaria will be successful at attracting new players (see: me).
Seems kind of pointless honestly. Having it be standard-legal sets only means there is going to be a LOT of overlap between decks, in any given color combination people are going to have lists that are 50-55 cards identical simply because they'll have to put in all the playables that exist in the format into their singleton deck. And allowing planeswalkers as commanders is going to make the whole format revolve around the planeswalkers.
I'd probably just play Commander since it's just a straight up better version of the same format and has way more players besides.
Jack Cooper
Brawl will only be a success if it replaces standard. It's not going to replace standard.
Luke Cooper
>EDH's card pool is way too big You're very boring.
Eli Lopez
Rumor has it we're getting Brawl league in MTGO on wednesday so we should be seeing the first consistent 5-0s by next monday.
David Reed
When you have a large card pool you would think that there are many fun options. What actually happens is that you either play with overpowered broken cards or lose. Vintage has the largest card pool but the smalled variety of cards because it is unbalanced.
Evan Evans
Vintage is not broken because of its large card pool, Vintage is broken because it refuses to ban any card no matter how blatantly, idiotically overpowered. Having a large card pool is a requirement for having more than 3-4 decks in the format.
Ayden Walker
Vintage is great except for the favoritism shown to Workshops.
Oliver Ramirez
>especially now that they're harder than ever to hit. Planeswalkers have pretty much always been fairly easy to deal with. Every color gets creatures, and creatures can attack them. Yeah, black gets less spot removal that works on them, but...green gets more.
Robert Morgan
>a new card type is introduced that mandates every deck include plenty of creatures >easy to deal with newfag
Samuel Morris
>The parts I hate about commander >Mixed with the non-good parts of standard.
Yuck. Well at least it isn't 100-card standard as well.
Nathaniel Morales
I was talking about how the new rules make lots of damage spells unable to hit planeswalkers that previously could.
Andrew Phillips
Commander is a garbage format, this sounds equally as garbage. I just want to play normal magic, not some boardgame that uses magic cards.
Connor Smith
Commander is a format for fun, it is not a garbage format.
Jackson Wilson
I'm playing a UW control deck in brawl, mostly have played against a teammate playing RG. Brawl was actually p-deece, but imo not as good as other constructed formats. I have a feeling its gonna evolve into midrange hell, so it wont be fast enough to play in between rounds of pptqs, which is where I was hoping it would exist.
Jackson Phillips
Seeing as I'm a humongous Commander nerd who drafts but rarely plays standard, I'll probably come up with some Brawl shitbrew and use that to judge interest in the format, then go from there. Personally I'm glad I'll potentially have a home for cards that would otherwise just rot in a binder. I expect the meta to look pretty similar to what standard looks like now, but just without a whole lot of crushing dominance from 1v1 stuff like mono red and The Scarab God, since they're pretty easily hated out in a 30 life multiplayer format. Personally I'll try to make a Jhoira and/or Sram-ios deck work.
Nicholas Jones
Okay, I'm sure playing against Bant Tamiyo will be really fun when they consistently power out an Omniscience emblem. You'll definitely get a chance to remove her with creatures first.
Jason Rodriguez
>mfw Standmander was wotc's secret tech to get people to buy more new release packs cany want for standardlegacy and standardmodern (totally different from frontier)
They want Brawl so they have an EDH variant to go up on Arena.
It's a fine idea for a format. Walkers as commanders is the only thing I'm iffy on but it's probably needed to have enough commanders in normal Standard environments where sets like Dominaria aren't shitting out legends left and right.
The real perks of the system are: -Draft chaff and buying booster boxes is enough to make a deck. -FotM meme decks like Ixalan tribes don't get drowned out due to lack of support. -Less powerful commanders don't have to compete against retardedly pushed precon commanders. Fuck Eminence.
Jace Adams
>implying any LGS will sanction 1v1 matches It's all going to be casual bullshit. Even though I wanna use Vraska but the key cards are too damn high.
Black has three tutor effects right now so it's consistent, and UB in general has no shortage of win conditions. Seems good.
>Draft chaff and buying boxes is enough to make a deck This. Brawl makes a LOT of otherwise unplayable stuff playable, which means a lower barrier to entry, more decks, fewer feelbads from packs, and more people playing, without a whole lot of impact on the secondary market. Jhoira in particular uses a lot of bulk from Kaladesh block yet still seems to work, which I'm pretty happy about.
Jordan Myers
All of this sounds grea.... >Standard Well fuck it, Shame it’s not modern, I play the fuck out of it, but Standard, fuck that!
I made an Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim deck for EDH just so I could have an actual Eldrazi deck. Its fun if not very competitive and since its mostly eldrazi spells the overlap of W/B cards doesn't hurt other decks. And I get to play with a waste or 2 just because.
Austin Barnes
Agreed, that and Legacy I would do.
Angel Scott
EDH player here, and yea thats what they're doing I think, I'll never go into standard, if they do a format wide type, legacy, modern etc. version then sure, I'd use Mindsculpture stasis all day.
Camden Barnes
Tamiyo isn't in standard, and her colors don't have any wraths.
Sorry I'm a retard and missed the context from previous posts. On a serious note, Pirates looks like a really fun deck for this format, though it might be soft to wraths.
Camden Sanchez
What is Fumigate and Hour of Revelation, Alex?
Aaron Myers
Oh hell yea son let me shell out 6k right fast on some shit for legacy EDH
I've been itching to make a merfolk tribal deck in some format, and I've been fond of the Ixalan merfolk.
Is brawl my best bet?
Eli Lee
The money-to-fun ratio seems good, since most Lorwyn merfolk are overpriced and Ixalan is cheap right now.
Worst case, you build a Kumena brawl deck and if it turns out nobody plays brawl, you have roughly half a merfolk EDH deck to work with.
Leo Martin
>Kumena You mean UG Nissa. Kumena ain't a PW. Hope you enjoy looking at shitty Nissa art, because that's all you're getting.
Oh shit, I just found another hitch to the format. You're just going to play certain planewalkers for their colors and almost never cast the motherfucker.
>RG players only have ugly ass samut >GW players only have STP Ajani >Rakdos only gets shitty pirate support or Flame Chained gudstuff >WU only gets Dovin >WR gets Mexi-bitch >Grixis is the only 3 color and God Pharaoh is the playable one. At least Bolas looks good >UR gets an ugly Pooinloo >UB has Tezzy >GB has vraska. At least her art is nice
You're pretty much locked into whatever Wizard wants the PW to do, unless you just use the pw for its colors. Reminds me a lot of Tiny Leaders, in that you don't have all the colors represented (you'd need to devote design space to always have at least 10 PW in standard for each of the color combos). And also of TL, where eventually it just became using the commanders for their colors
Brayden Brooks
You realize you can use creatures or Planeswalkers as your commander in brawl right?
Gabriel Jenkins
get ready for a brawl masters set, $10 packs of current standard reprints!
Asher Edwards
>only grixis you forgot samut the speedster :)
Mason Gomez
Kahili is my wife.
Matthew Williams
>he thinks legendary creatures can't be your commander >he heard "planeswalkers can be your commander" and thought legendary creatures weren't >he literally didn't see anything about brawl besides that before going on the warpath >he literally didn't take twenty seconds to read OP >he wasted ten minutes typing this >I wasted twenty seconds reading this >I wasted two minutes typing this
The Kumena lists people have been posting to Goldfish are somewhere on the $90's
Connor Thomas
>two cards in your singleton deck are your win conditions >neither can be your commander What do you think
Angel Cooper
Sounds awful >one mistbinder >one deeproot >one boon even Only saving grace is a consistent kumena
Thomas Kelly
Cool, I love how wotc decided to make a meme format in a desperate bid to drive pack sales and push standard as a format but will only succeed in driving up card prices, further prohibiting standard as a format.
Carson Myers
Turns out Paradox Engine is a little bonkers combined with new Jhoira, though I expect my ass to be thoroughly reamed by Kambal and most U/B/x players (which will probably be most players) after a few games so combo might not be an option if I don't want to play Archenemy.
Camden Cox
Got my Gideon of the trails Brawl deck ready!
Tyler King
I know this isn't relevant at this time, but do we have any confirmation on how hybrid cards are treated in Brawl rules? That is, does it follow the EDH rule where a blue-black hybrid can only be played in a deck with access to both blue and black mana, or could it be played in mono-blue or mono-black interchangeably?
Logan Cruz
There aren't any hybrid mana symbols in standard right now, so while the official brawl announcement doesn't explicitly mention hybrids... >The mana symbols that appear on your commander dictate what cards may be in your deck. Mana symbols that don't appear on your commander can't be in the deck.
Carter James
Yeah I'vee been playing this shit all week with my bros and tribals are limited tier shit. Kambal, Ghalta, Chandra ToD and Scarab God is where it's at.
Joseph Parker
Do you think the Locust God is any good?
Nicholas Collins
I play Ghalta in actual real EDH and he's a powerhouse. Green has a lot of good stuff in standard, so I feel like he'll be one of the better Brawl commanders - Steel Leaf Champion, Territorial Allosaurus, Wayward Swordtooth, Rhonas, Greenbelt Rampager, Rhonas's Monument, Longtusk Cub, and Prowling Serpopard are all great cards. Oh, and Rishkar's Expertise to draw more cards than anything else in standard.
Landon Cook
How does Scarab God look as commander? There's plenty of good ETBs to copy and some Zombie synergies in standard at the moment. Does exiling it from your graveyard put it into the command zone?
>There is no reason to use anything else. *laughing in Scarab God*
Kevin White
Woah, using the best single creature I'm standard as your commander? I can't believe nobody has thought of that yet...
Aaron Richardson
Why the fuck would it be different from Commander? The rules say hybrid mana is both colors, and Commander rules say both colors are in its color identity. Shouldn't be any different here.
Jaxon Rodriguez
Because Maro has issues with how hybrid is treated in EDH, and since this is a Wizards headed format, that rule might change. It's probably the only issue I can agree on with him.
Isaiah Bennett
>30 life >Multiplayer >1 drop aggro
Mason Bell
Chill man, just wondering if it gets exiled forever if someone exiles it from the graveyard
Brandon Lee
No, you can put it in your command zone. Quick google: >If your commander would be put into your library, hand, graveyard or exile from anywhere, you may return it to your command zone instead.
Ryder Turner
WOTC's article says "If your commander is countered or leaves the battlefield, you may put it back into the command zone instead of putting it anywhere else it would go." Just leave battlefield or countered
Zachary Mitchell
They clarified it later that it’s the exact same as commander.
Gabriel Wood
Oh, ok.
Noah Smith
Are you kidding? Most of Vintage wants Workshops restricted because the deck is too dominant. Hell, I know a guy who just bought his last Shop and *he* wants the deck restricted because it is too powerful. Shops is bananas man, it should go away.
If this wouldn't rely on standard, which is a cash grab, I would push this harder than commander because it's like a less intimidating gateway to commander for newbies who want to build and learn.
Jaxson Ross
No doubt it will at first, but consider that TSG has a monstrous reputation and this is a multiplayer format. People are scared of Scarab God decks, even people playing Scarab God decks themselves. Any WUB decks are going to be holding up instant speed removal the second you hit four lands, and RG will focus you from the start and the rest of the table will let them.
Sure, TSG will steal games, but it's waaaaay more fragile in a singleton format where three other people are paranoid and packing hate cards, sometimes specifically for your deck.
Hudson Ortiz
>Daretti >shit commander
lol
Jace Price
>standmannder >technically a tri color is this her time to shine?
It'll just be Naya goodstuff while Nicol Bolas is Grixis goodstuff
Carson Cox
Convince me the format will not be completely dominated by The Scarab God.
Gabriel Gray
zacama is probably a significantly better naya goodstuff commander
Jeremiah Torres
>the 9 drop Unlikely.
Jaxson Harris
If they have big dick ramp sure.
niggers tongue my anus
Josiah Martin
between treasure with mana and dino dorks, maybe it would be worth it. not enough land ramp thou.
Ryan Murphy
There's no way you're ever ramping more than one mana a turn in Standard singleton, which means you're sitting through at least 5 turns of Scarab God being out before you see Zacama. At least Samut is a decent bundle of effects even if she's almost unplayable in every other mode of play.
Isaiah Nelson
there are some ramping tricks. t1 prying blade and ornithopter nets you one from t2 and after. with arobor elf you have new horizons, unbridal growth, and gift of paradise. dowsind dagger nets three mana. growing rites can net you one for each dork or treasure maker. neheb can net some fuel for dino and his abilities. treasure trove too.
basically gonna boil down to ramp up to big guy or bug. but bug has the colors to stop ramping and even snatch it from their grave, but once dino gets going its over.
New format? Not buying your shit WOTC. Standard sucks ass and has since Khans. I'll stick to playing real EDH with real cards like Demonic Tutor and Counterspell.
