Hello and welcome to the first edition of BrawlingInATopHat. I’m Zoe, sometimes known online as MonkeyInATopHat. Check the socials and follow me for more great articles to come. I’m a veteran Magic: the Gathering player that started during Urza’s Saga. I’ve been on Arena since the beta, and have been Brawling since the format’s inception on the client. It’s become my go-to format for finishing quests and doing dailies, and it’s also just a great way to mix things up after a tough game in a ranked format or competitive event.
My Deckbuilding Philosophy: Fun and Functional
I like to build decks that are strong enough to compete at their personal power level, and some Brawl metas can be hyper-competitive. I want to compete, but also to build something that is different from the decks that are more popular in the queue. The metagame a deck ends up playing in is determined by what cards are in said deck. Knowing how this meta system works will help with the deck building process, and let you play at the power level you enjoy. Nobody likes taking a new deck into queue only to learn it can’t keep up with anything it’s paired against.
Basically, every card in each deck has a weight, and so does each commander. Your 99’s total weight + your commander’s weight = who your opponent can be. This is how the “Hell Queue” works, and can be avoided or sought after, depending on a player’s preference.
Wizards has supposedly changed the weights of the cards since the initial leak of information that allowed this to be pieced together, but the system itself is likely to work similarly if not exactly the same. The numbers aren’t known anymore, but I can use my judgment and get a sense of how strong a deck will be by what cards I put in it. Stronger cards will have higher weights; even if I don’t know Thoughtseize’s weight, I can assume it will make my deck more powerful by the competitive nature of the card itself.
Today’s Brew
Today I want to show off my absolute favorite Brawl deck of all time. The commander is Mila, Crafty Companion, but I don’t really use her. Much like Sir Mix-A-Lot, I’m all about her back side.
Baby’s got back (side that I want to be my commander)
So let’s break down the side of the commander I use. He costs six, comes with five loyalty counters, and has three abilities. However, I only really care about two of them. His first ability is a +1, and is a “looting” effect, which means it draws and then discards a card like in Faithless Looting. It’ll also give you a bonus card if what you discarded was a creature. His second ability is a -2, and it “reanimates,” or returns a creature from the graveyard to the battlefield like in Reanimate, and gives it haste so you can attack with it right away. Then it gives that creature a triggered effect that exiles it at your next turn’s upkeep.
Okay, so those two look like they’re supposed to be used together. Discard a creature and then return it to the battlefield the next turn with the -2. But wait, it comes with FIVE loyalty? So I get two uses of the minus ability for free before I have to start plusing again. You see it, right, reader? That seems so extremely exploitable to me. Let’s see what I can do about it.
The Strategy
Our main strategy is reliant on three types of cards: ramp, looting, and bombs. We’ll try to ramp our mana ahead to six. Next we want to loot our big creatures, which I call my “bombs,” into the graveyard. And finally, we’ll cast Lukka and hit them with a devastating haste attacker. Wonder if I can pull that off…
Ramp Cards
Because our commander identity is red-white, that means our ramping, or spending mana early to get access to more mana later, has to come from artifacts, or mana rocks. The best mana rocks cost the least. Makes sense, right? The sooner you play them, the more turns you can activate them, and therefore the more they can pay out. And each one you play will make playing the next one you’re able to cast more efficient because it comes out that much sooner. Because of this, low-cost mana rocks are our biggest priority in the game. There are six mana rocks on the Arena client that cost two, and I want all of them.
I want to run about 10 cards that ramp because I want to see at least one in my opening hand every game, and with two mulligans that’s how the math works out. So I need to find four other ways to do that. If I’m paying three mana instead of two, then I want some sort of added effect that helps our strategy. There’s no shortage of three-mana rocks. These are the best three for me, and that last slot is going to go to Wayfarer’s Bauble. It costs three, but over two activations.
Looting Cards
Next I have my looters. Nothing too fancy, but I’m trying to avoid a certain type of card that I can get blown out with. I want to favor permanent cards like Bitter Reunion and Saheeli’s Lattice over cards that have the discard as part of the cost to cast it. This is because counterspells are very common, and if they counter it, I lose the card but don’t draw anything, which feels terrible.
Bombs
Finally, I have my list of bombs. I’ve chosen what I consider to be the strongest, but please feel free to pick your favorites. My choices tend to focus on destabilizing my opponent’s board or creating a board for me that’s too overwhelming for them to come back from. Be on the lookout for creatures with strong enters effects, or even better, Titan effects that trigger when the card enters and attacks. Effects that trigger when you damage your opponent are very good too.
I’ve also chosen several creatures that are just so large that a follow-up attack with them finishes the game. For example, I have 13/13 Emrakul and 12/12 Kozilek. Their on-cast effects don’t trigger, but you can still pull them out of the graveyard for a giant attack to steal a win.
The Rest
So the rest is going to be the nuts and bolts you need in any Brawl deck to be successful: interaction, card advantage, and synergy.
Spot removal is for individual threats. Don’t use these on just anything; they’re for things that will compromise the deck’s ability to execute its core strategy. That means cards that end the game fast, exile my graveyard, punish me for looting, or cause creatures to enter tapped. It can be tempting to remove something weaker that’s doing a little damage on an open board, but remember that we run board wipes that we can get to with our looting effects. Stick to the plan!
The other side of our removal package is the board wipes. These are cards that destroy all the creatures on the board, like Wrath of God and Sunfall.
When to board wipe can be pretty obvious a lot of the time, but I want to draw special attention to one interaction that can frequently come up in this deck. If you attack with a creature you brought back with Lukka and then board wipe, that creature will miss the exile trigger, so you can just reanimate it again the next turn. Isn’t that a fun little interaction?
Speaking of which, Teleportation Circle and Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd? What are they doing in the list? Well you see, dear reader, when you exile and return a creature that Lukka has reanimated, it forgets about Lukka’s “Exile at next upkeep” trigger. So you just keep it. Forever. Satisfy your cravings at the Circle of Value.
Tips and Tricks
I’ve played and tweaked this list in over a thousand games to operate in the meta. You will struggle with certain types of decks, so let me give you a heads up on what those decks are and what you can do to get around them. Our biggest threat are decks that can exile from our graveyard at will. They’re almost impossible for us to beat. Your best bet is to try to ramp over six mana, then play your looting effect the same turn that you play Lukka. That way you can try to avoid their exile trigger.
Commanders you see right before you lose.
The next threat is the dreaded control deck. For the most part they will be weighted high above us. The ones that do slip down to us can be quite a pain to get to; I am overly vulnerable to counterspells. The big mana nature of our cards means cards that can stop them for significantly less mana will blow us out. Be patient, wait for an opening, and don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Make sure to punish them every time they tap out. These are your best laid plans for overcoming this type of deck, and hoping for a little luck never hurts either. One thing to remember about this frustrating type of deck is that you can surrender to it when you’ve lost. Knowing the time to surrender comes with practice. So try to be aware of it, and don’t drive yourself mad.
Pictured: The card they always have.
Final Thoughts
The final list is never truly final, as I update it when each new set comes out. I’ve uploaded some gameplay of it to YouTube. It really feels like it’s in a nice place in terms of its power level and how well it operates. There are some strong cards that were intentionally left out, such as Sneak Attack and Gamble, to keep the deck out of counterspell-hell. You’re encouraged to take this list and fit it to your own gameplay style. Brew with it, get it to where you like it, pick your favorite bombs, and unleash hell!
I really hope all of you have as much fun with it as I do. Until next time, good luck, have fun, and good game.
For more Arena content, check out our Standard deck tech for Azorius Oculus. Or if you’re new to Arena, take a look at our Beginner’s Guide here.
