Brawl is a format that almost exclusively lives on Magic Arena at this point. The format is a Standard-legal derivative of Commander with 60-card singleton decks built around a legendary creature or planeswalker. Since its introduction, the format struggled to get going at local game stores. With Magic Arena, Brawl has found a home as a way to use more of people’s collections alongside its counterpart Historic Brawl.
Coming off set rotation, Brawl has a small card pool but there are still plenty of options for creative deck builders to have fun in the format. The format is benefitting from Wizards of the Coast printing more legendary creature cards than ever, giving players a variety of directions and archetypes to explore. While it does share the Standard card pool, it doesn’t play like Standard. The games are swingy and center around generating value through redundancy within the list.
With The Brothers’ War beginning to impact the Magic landscape, here are the top commanders and strategies to build the best deck in Brawl via Arena.
Jodah, the Unifier
For those looking to use all of their favorite Rare and Mythic Rare cards in one deck, look to Jodah, the Unifier as an excellent catch-all general in Brawl. The five-color Human synergizes with legendary spells.
Jodah is an excellent finisher because of his ability to buff the power and toughness of other legendary creature cards you control. Once you’ve amassed a large battlefield, Jodah can enter the battlefield and enable a game-winning alpha strike. Another way to use Jodah is as an overwhelming value engine. Jodah lets every legendary spell that is cast effectively Cascade into another legendary nonland card. If this ability is allowed to go off, there’s little chance the opponent will be able to come back barring a small miracle.
The most popular archetype to build around Jodah is a five-color Humans shell. Humans is a well-explored tribe in every Magic format and can pack a punch in Brawl. The deckbuilding isn’t too difficult, just play as many powerful Human cards as are available to you. This includes stax pieces like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to slow the opponent down and Ratadrabik of Urborg to ensure the opponent’s removal spells have little value. Kyodai, Soul of Kamigawa is an excellent card in a Jodah deck that can be both a threatening presence and protect Jodah from removal spells.
A Jodah list doesn’t need to be filled with exclusively legendary spells. Cards like Relic of Legends and The Celestus can help fix mana. Make good use of the tri-lands from Streets of New Capenna and Plaza of Heroes to keep up with the demanding color requirements.
Toxrill, the Corrosive
Toxrill, the Corrosive is one of the premier control decks in the format. This seven mana 7/7 creature can take over the game all by itself. A focused Toxrill deck won’t play this card until the control players feel they can turn the corner and take over the game. To get to this point, they will use a massive suite of counterspells and removal to make sure nothing threatening sticks around too long and the opponent is slowly drained of resources.
It’s a tough deck to pilot because it doesn’t run many threats and prefers to play more answers like Infernal Grasp and Rona’s Vortex. For threats with powerful enter-the-battlefield triggers, a good counterspell suite will comprise cards like Make Disappear and Urza’s Rebuff.
Recent sets have given U/B lists a handful of quality big-mana options that can help win the game if Toxrill continuously is dealt with. At seven mana, if Toxrill is removed even once it’ll be hard to cast as commander tax adds up. This is where Junji, the Midnight Sky and Invoke Despair come in to finish the game. For more long-term value and board control, there are several good options. Graveyard Trespasser and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse are hard-to-remove creatures that can take over a game. Planeswalkers like Sorin, the Mirthless and Liliana of the Veil can offer long-term value and help with control mirror matches.
Jetmir, Nexus of Revels
The leader of the Brokers crime family in Streets of New Capenna is one of the most threatening creatures in the whole format. Jetmir is a finisher that will likely only be cast when you’re ready to present lethal. A deck built around Jetmir will focus on a go-wide strategy, looking to flood the battlefield with creatures before using his ability to buff each creature and alpha strike for the win.
New Capenna is the first set to look at for great support cards for a Jetmir list in Brawl. Rabble Rousing; Torens, Fist of the Angels; and Squee, Dubious Monarch are good sources of consistent token generation. Rabble Rousing in particular can take over the game if left unchecked.
Generating tokens will help enable several of the secondary payoffs in the deck. Gala Greeters is worth running as a source of Treasure tokens and life gain. King Darien XLVIII will protect all the token creatures you create with his activated ability.
Board wipes will definitely hurt this style of deck. Depopulate, Burn Down the House, and Farewell will be a Jetmir player’s worst enemy. The damage can be mitigated by using cards that provide value throughout turns, helping you recover from having all creatures destroyed. Wedding Announcement is a stellar option for this task. Other cards that are worth running are Join the Dance, which can be played out of the graveyard, and The Restoration of Eiganjo for the second chapter’s graveyard recursion.
Soul of Windgrace
Soul of Windgrace is a classic Jund deck that focuses on slowly grinding out value into the late game and finishing off the opponent with a large lethal threat. This deck prioritizes discarding land cards to activate Soul of Windgrace’s ability, then getting those lands back on the battlefield with its attack trigger. The list is capable of creating some strong value loops and will likely persevere through whatever the opponent has to offer.
There are several cards that play well with the general land-based strategy of the deck. Look at Topiary Stomper, Mulch, and Dig Up to quickly fix your colors and ramp into Soul of Windgrace. Mulch offers extra value by filling up the graveyard.
With all the self-mill in the deck, there’s a likelihood that a couple of useful spells will end up in the graveyard. Use Shigeki, Jukai Visionary and Takenuma, Abandoned Mire to get key cards from the graveyard back in your hand. Takenuma will be great in this list because you can use the Channel ability multiple times by bringing it back to the hand with Soul of Windgrace.
Pack a suite of removal spells. Use the Black removal staples Soul Transfer and Infernal Grasp. You’ll also have access to Red’s damage-based removal spells Burn the Accursed, Burn Down the House, and Rending Flame.
After ramping through much of the early and mid-game, use a handful of finishers to close out the game. The best Green finisher in Brawl is Titan of Industry with its massive body and mountain of value when it enters the battlefield. Shivan Devastator is a great option that can catch the opponent with a surprise lethal attack in the air. Ziatora, the Incinerator can deal direct damage to the opponent and generate mana for later turns.
Tovolar, Dire Overlord // Tovolar, the Midnight Scourge
Werewolf tribal is a strategy that looks to blitz the opponent with large aggressive creatures. Tovolar turns Werewolves from a fun deck to a threatening force in Brawl. The ability to draw cards and transform your Wolves and Werewolves are key aspects of Tovolar. The deck doesn’t fall apart if you can’t resolve it, but it definitely loses a lot of its bite.
Innistrad: Crimson Vow introduced Avabruck Caretaker // Hollowhenge Huntmaster as one of the best top-end cards in a Werewolf deck. If this card flips to its Nightbound side, every creature gets Hexproof. This blanks targeted removal and the +1/+1 Counters it gives out will get out of hand quickly.
Other key cards are Reckless Stormseeker and Kessig Naturalist. Reckless Stormseeker is a powerful spell that gives other creatures haste. Kessig Naturalist is a necessary ramp spell that will enable two-spell turns.
Much of the support for Tovolar comes in both Innistrad sets, but there are solid cards that have been printed recently. Glorious Sunrise allows this list to have some late-game staying power with its upkeep trigger. Silverback Elder can crush decks that rely on Artifact and Enchantment cards. Both Defiler of Vigor and Defiler of Instinct will effortlessly slot into a Tovolar deck and make an impact when they hit the battlefield.
All images via WotC
