https://magic.wizards.com/en/article...awl-2018-03-22
I tried to pack as much info into the title as the character limit would allow...
Basically Brawl is a Commander variant with the following changes:
- 60 card deck (59 cards + Commander)
- Starting life is 30
- Only Standard-Legal cards allowed. If a card is banned in Standard, it's banned in Brawl
- Your commander can be a legendary creature or a planeswalker
This is a thing now...
I dont see this taking off. Its design is pure profit mongering by wotc. They should have chosen something like choose your own standard.
I don't see established EDH players adopting it (at least not right away, and reluctantly if ever). But this has the potential to be a successful alternative to Standard. It also makes buying a box more appealing because you can actually build a deck for FNM with it since you only need a single copy of the cards.
While initially skeptical, I think I support this move. As Brawl players' decks begin to rotate, they will hopefully adopt traditional EDH. And if ANYTHING could EVER get me to play a format limited to Standard-legal cards... this would probably be it.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
I pretty much exclusively play EDH and draft these days, and I'll probably make a brawl deck for the heck of it. I've got piles of draft chaff laying around that's never going to make any of my EDH decks, I couldn't care less about actual standard, and trading is more or less a waste of time...so sure, let's brawl. I figure if this sees any sort of play it'll be between draft rounds or something where a "real" EDH game isn't going to happen. I'm definitely not abandoning EDH for this, and I highly doubt I'd show up to some sort of brawl event...but a few games here and there between rounds is fine with me.
As far as the whole "blatant cash grab" angle, I don't really think that's it. In my opinion, this is the perfect format for a new player. You buy some packs or maybe one of the planeswalker decks, stick your favorite legend (or planeswalker) at the helm, and go to town on a more or less even footing with everyone else. There's no trying to collect playsets of whatever the current standard staple is, and there's no rolling into FNM with your 60 card pile and getting rolled by whatever a tier 1 standard deck looks like that week. I mean sure, you can run out and buy all of the bleeding edge standard cards to brawl harder than everyone else...but I'm not sure how many people are actually going to do that. I know that I'm certainly not going to buy standard legal cards I wasn't going to buy anyway just to improve my brawl deck.
My only real beef with the format is the whole shared banlist thing. I don't really see a card like Aetherworks Marvel or Smuggler's Copter breaking anything in a singleton format. Also, it's a nice outlet for whatever banned in standard card in the future.
If WotC gets their act together, the banned list concern will be a non-issue. But if they do not, and mediocre (from an Eternal standpoint) cards continue to get banned, I suspect they will announce the separation of the Standard and Brawl banned lists. I believe the lists are identical to drive home the point that only Standard-sets make up the card pool for Brawl.
Davran's take on building or playing Brawl decks is the same as mine. I have a 5 month old and suspect he will play Magic if the game is still around when he is old enough to follow the intricacies of playing. My approach (at least currently) to supporting his interest in the game would be by taking him to drafts. Brawl is ideal because he can legitimately use the cards he drafts toward decks that can be used in a competitive constructed environment without costing me a fortune.
Now that a little bit of time has passed since the announcement, I am fully supportive of this change. But I have no intention of building a Brawl deck.
Honestly, I'm fine with cards getting banned in standard. It means design/development are willing to push the envelope a little.
I do agree though that the same banlist is just meant to keep things easy for new players, which appears to be the main target for this format. Us old dudes with deep collections and pockets are just going to keep playing EDH and other eternal formats.
Sounds like a worse Standard and even worse EDH to me.
The thing that I like about EDH is the vast card pool. You can make something really degenerate or something Timmy.
Play All The Decks!
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