Brawl format

[WWolfe]

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/ways-play/join-brawl-2018-03-22

[Mostlynotgay]

It's rotating commander.  that's it.  A way to cash in on the commander craze while still making money from standard, since eternal formats don't really net them any cash. 

[ApothecaryGeist]

It's rotating commander.  that's it.  A way to cash in on the commander craze while still making money from standard, since eternal formats don't really net them any cash. 

That was kinda my take too.  A little watered down with only 60-card decks and no commander damage.  But it seems like basically Wizards hijacking the Commander format to try to sell more Standard booster packs.

[Morganator 2.0]

Remember Tiny Leaders, that commander variant that lasted for 2 months? I give this the same amount of time. Brawl is not going to be successful, because you have a limited card pool to work with, which means:

1. Garbage mana ramp
2. Garbage tutors (Whir of Invention is the only good one right now).
3. Less cards that combo with your commander. The Locust God just isn't the same without Windfall.

Because of this, some commanders will just be better than others. I'm going to make my prediction now: The Scarab God and Gishath, Sun's Avatar are going to be the best, because they can function with a small card pool (Gishath has dino-specific ramp, and all of the good dinosaurs. The Scarab God just steals everyone else's deck). Maybe Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca and Zacama, Primal Calamity might also see play. But none of the other commanders have the supporting cards to work.

[Mostlynotgay]

Actually I just thought of something.  If this format becomes "a thing," is there incentive for WotC to reprint cards that maybe aren't very good for the standard format, but WOULD be good for a cash-grab pseudo-singleton format? 

[WWolfe]

It's rotating commander.  that's it.  A way to cash in on the commander craze while still making money from standard, since eternal formats don't really net them any cash.

Pretty much what I thought.

As someone that primarily plays commander (with some Modern & Pauper mixed in), this format really doesn't interest me. The card pool would be just too limiting for this type of format, and then you're commander rotates out? There goes your entire deck unless a legendary is printed that does basically the exact same thing.

Maybe it's something that could be used to steer some players towards commander, which is another cash cow for WOTC.

[ladof]

Remember Tiny Leaders, that commander variant that lasted for 2 months? I give this the same amount of time. Brawl is not going to be successful, because you have a limited card pool to work with, which means:

1. Garbage mana ramp
2. Garbage tutors (Whir of Invention is the only good one right now).
3. Less cards that combo with your commander. The Locust God just isn't the same without Windfall.

Because of this, some commanders will just be better than others. I'm going to make my prediction now: The Scarab God and Gishath, Sun's Avatar are going to be the best, because they can function with a small card pool (Gishath has dino-specific ramp, and all of the good dinosaurs. The Scarab God just steals everyone else's deck). Maybe Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca and Zacama, Primal Calamity might also see play. But none of the other commanders have the supporting cards to work.

This has a better chance of getting a foothold than tiny leaders for one reason: MTG Arena. When Dominaria launches, it'll launch Brawl and give Arena another format to play other than constructed. People will like having alternatives and have a chance to test things before buying physical cards for the format. Tiny Leaders never really had that backing on MTGO.

[Mostlynotgay]

Remember Tiny Leaders, that commander variant that lasted for 2 months? I give this the same amount of time. Brawl is not going to be successful, because you have a limited card pool to work with, which means:

1. Garbage mana ramp
2. Garbage tutors (Whir of Invention is the only good one right now).
3. Less cards that combo with your commander. The Locust God just isn't the same without Windfall.

Because of this, some commanders will just be better than others. I'm going to make my prediction now: The Scarab God and Gishath, Sun's Avatar are going to be the best, because they can function with a small card pool (Gishath has dino-specific ramp, and all of the good dinosaurs. The Scarab God just steals everyone else's deck). Maybe Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca and Zacama, Primal Calamity might also see play. But none of the other commanders have the supporting cards to work.

This has a better chance of getting a foothold than tiny leaders for one reason: MTG Arena. When Dominaria launches, it'll launch Brawl and give Arena another format to play other than constructed. People will like having alternatives and have a chance to test things before buying physical cards for the format. Tiny Leaders never really had that backing on MTGO.

I didn't even think about that. Another thing to sell Arena with. I haven't been reading or watching aaaaaaanything about arena. Is that going to have modern?

[Kalaxis]

B/W Elenda vampire token could well be a thing in this, especially with Crested Sunmare. You can diabolic tutor and Mastermind's acquisition for targets. Also, you have a ton of decent removal spells.

[CardAgain Sweater]

I'll try this a few times, why not? I'm a standard player who cracks packs I win at my LGS, and do a few prereleases, but I don't buy packs otherwise. I buy playsets (or fill them out with singles if I get lucky pulls) for the standard brew I want to play.

Most players like me who are playing on a reasonably affordable monthly budget who get a single, high-$ mythic from one of their few packs sell it off to get the card(s) they want for their brew; and, in so doing, lose a lot of the value - or 'feelgood' from that lucky pull. As I figure I'm only getting half the value from a lucky pull I don't need and end up selling, I am less incentivized to buy more packs.

Buying more packs is what makes wizards $.

Now with Brawl, a player like me that got a Chandra or scarab god in a lucky pull and is not interested in building a deck with a full playset may not sell it for half-value but rather keep it for a Brawl Brew Idea. All of a sudden, lucky pulls from packs have double the value and I am doubly incentivized to buy another pack...or five.

This works the same way for Arena economy, btw. I can't see WotC not doing this to help bring in some edh players without having to debug all the interactions with old cards, as well as increasing the perceived value of random digital cards players get in Arena but don't fit in the constructed standard arena deck they want to play.

[WWolfe]

I plan on trying it out, already brewing a deck. We'll see how well it plays.

[TheWakaEmu117]

Its a cool Idea and has a lot of potential but has all of the problems previously mentioned although with the amount of legendaries we are getting in dominaria. it might have success until dominaria block rotates out if the decks you can build have the proper support.

[WWolfe]

It'll be interesting to see if this takes off. No one I've talked to has been super excited about it but most are willing to try it out. Like I said I'm building a deck but the biggest drawbacks to me are rotation and fear that it won't have proper support. The other drawback I see is it following the Standard ban list. Just because a card is broken in Standard where it can be 4x doesn't mean it will be broken in a Singleton format.

[ApothecaryGeist]

To me the big problem is the inherent contradiction.  This is being touted as a casual format.  I read that as meaning there will not be sanctioned events. 

The whole point of having a rotating format is to keep the tournaments/sanctioned events on a level playing field.  A rotating format implies an amount of competition and an amount of resources (time/money) required to maintain participation in that format.

The benefit of a casual format is that you can build a deck, put it on the shelf, pull it out a couple years later and take it to your LGS to play with random people and still have fun.  It isn't fun when everyone in the room is telling you that your entire deck isn't legal anymore because the commander has rotated out.   Calling it a casual format implies that you can play cards that you crack in packs and that you won't have to spend massive resources (time/money) in order to keep that deck viable.

I don't think casual players want to keep up with a rotating format.  Without mass amounts of LGS's holding Brawl events, I don't foresee the community as a whole desiring to maintain Brawl decks.  After a couple rotation cycles, I see the format falling flat for lack of participation.

What we need is a casual format where you can play your formerly-Standard cards once they rotate out.  A casual alternative to Modern.

Happy Brewing 

[ApothecaryGeist]

The other drawback I see is it following the Standard ban list.

I had this thought too.  Has there been an official statement from Wizards specifically addressing the Brawl banned cards?  I have not seen one.  Are we just assuming that it will be the same as Standard?

I would think the whole point of creating a new format that also uses Standard cards would be that it would have its own ban list.