Oko, Thief of Crowns was recently banned in Standard and Brawl, to the joy of players tired of losing to Simic and Sultai food-based decks. But not everyone is rejoicing. Some players invested heavily in cards for Oko decks and are now disappointed that they can’t use those decks any longer. Fortunately, there are plenty of other uses for Oko …
Planeswalkers in Brawl
In a much-anticipated move, Wizards of the Coast have used the Throne of Eldraine preview season as a chance to debut their Commander-lite format, Brawl, on Magic Arena. Fans of digital Magic finally have the opportunity to build decks commanded by their favorite legendary creature – or Planeswalker! Yes, one of the highlights of Brawl is that it allows you …
What Brawl Needs to Succeed
When Brawl was announced as a new format in spring 2018, my playgroup and I immediately started building decks for it. It’s my ideal format as a Magic brewer who loves the creative constraints of Commander and Oathbreaker, but finds the massive size of those formats’ card pools stressful to work with. But my playgroup and I were soon surprised …
Playtesting Brawl with Magic R&D’s Melissa DeTora
Thanks to having a government holiday off that Wizards of the Coast employees do not, I had the opportunity to travel all the way (three miles) to Wizards headquarters and talk to R&D’s Melissa DeTora about Brawl’s development and gameplay. We talked for over an hour and got on plenty of tangents (entirely my bad), but she had fantastic insights …
Selesnya Then and Now
There are three eras of Selesnya in Standard – and all of them have convoke. “Wait!” your expanding brain retorts. “Selesnya in Return to Ravnica had populate as its mechanic, not convoke!” “Aaaah,” my galaxy brain re-retorts. “Magic 2015 had several convoke cards, including reprints from Ravnica: City of Guilds.” What does this have to do with anything? With Guilds …
Brawling in Ravnica
Put on my blue-red shoes And I traversed the planes Touched down from the land of The Aether Flues In the middle of the Caustic Rain Dearest Trostani, Won’t you look down over me Yeah, I got a Privileged Position But I’m targetable as can be I was brawling in Ravnica Locking in an X of ten for Repeal I …
Chromium, the Mutable: A Brawl Deck Tech
Unlike every other shard, Standard hasn’t had a legendary Esper card since the days of actual Esper (Sen Triplets and Sharuum the Hegemon). For Brawlers, getting Chromium, the Mutable is the first opportunity to build an Esper deck, and it’s an interesting card to boot. While its flash, flying, and resistance to removal are best suited for a control deck …
Top 19 Brawl Cards from Core Set 2019
Did you have relatives who gave you dollars on your birthday equal to how old you were? I’m really glad they don’t expect quid pro quo on that…Regardless, the return of Core Sets with years in them enables top X lists, just like those old birthdays. Before we go through my top 19 Brawl cards from Core Set 2019, I …
Eternal Brawl: Black Devotion
Since the parameters of Brawl synchronize decks to a Standard environment, expanding Brawl historically into Eternal Brawl gives an opportunity to explore nostalgia for old Standard decks cheaper and in multiplayer. Nostalgic theme decks in Commander are hampered as a group by competing against 25 years of good stuff; Eternal Brawl restricts everyone to two years of good stuff, making …
Darigaaz: Two-Time Brawler
Expanding Brawl into older Standard formats allows for Dominaria to be an even more nostalgic set than it already is. When I went through my initial Eternal Brawl deckbuilding phase, I decided Darigaaz, the Igniter would be my Commander for Invasion block-era Standard, largely because Darigaaz Reincarnated was coming out. As I built the original Darigaaz deck, it turned out …










