Building for MTG Brawl on a Budget

Wanna try out MTG Arena's Brawl format without spending a lot on cards? Then check out this guide to the best commons and uncommons in Brawl.

Zoe
March 26, 2025

Images courtesy of Wizards of the Coast

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another Magic: The Gathering (MTG) Brawl article. I’m Command Zoe, and this week we’re doing something a little different. I received a few requests to do some budget Brawl content for newer players, so today we’re going over some common and uncommon cards that you can slot into your various Brawl decks.

The queen of PDH Elves only costs an uncommon in Brawl!

We’ll break this list up into four categories: ramp, interaction, card advantage, win-cons and bombs.

Ramp — Cards That Let You Play More and Better Cards

Some colors are better at ramping on a budget than others, but there are at least a few options in each.

White

White is tough to find ramp for, but it does exist. Using it combined with colorless can get you there. If you’re able to play a better color for your ramp, though, you should.

Blue

Blue has some decent options for ramping, but they’re hyper-specific to the card type they’re ramping out. Choose the ones that best fit your needs, but don’t take all of them and think it’ll work out. Only use them if you’re specialized enough for them.

Omen Hawker Tua? Is that anything?

Black

Dark Ritual costs a rare on Arena, unfortunately, so what we’re left with is not the best. Add a second color or stick to colorless options.

Red

Red is probably the worst ramp color there is. Your best option is to make Treasures, which are temporary. Colorless rocks will also help.

Green

Green is the best ramp color. It doesn’t have to work hard for its ramp card quality. There are a lot more options than this, but these are some that I like that cost the least. Search for “search land battlefield.”

Colorless

Only the finest rocks for every color! There are many decent budget rocks, but I think these are the best. Navigation Orb is one of my favorite budget options because not only does it grab two lands, but those lands can be the seek-gates so they turn on Domain effects and can get you non-land cards to boot. Value!

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Interaction — “No!” and Its Various Iterations

Interaction is crucial no matter what deck you’re playing in Brawl. About 10% of your deck needs to be interaction to remain competitive. You cannot compromise on running interaction.

White

The options in white aren’t as strong as in other colors, but they’re still decent. The budget options are actually okay for cheaper-costing spells. However, all of them come with at least one drawback.

Blue

Spell Pierce
Spell Snare
Wash Away (if you’re new, you will learn to hate this card)
Negate
Remand
Rewind
Into the Flood Maw
Fading Hope
Paths of Tuinvale
Divide by Zero
Housemeld
Nightclub Bouncer

What the hell is wrong with Fred?

Various types of counterspells and bounce are the strongest options in blue. Unfortunately, true Counterspell is a rare, but there are many good budget options. Search for “counter target spell” or “return target permanent.”

Black

Black has the strongest single-target removal of all the colors, as well as the strongest proactive interaction with spells that remove cards from hand. Search for “destroy target,” “exile target,” or “target player discard.”

Red

Red’s interaction is damage-based, but it can destroy artifacts very efficiently. Search for “damage target.”

I whisper “Justice” to myself in the Batman voice every time I cast this.

Green

Green’s interaction is mostly fight spells and preventative interaction involving hexproof. It can also easily remove artifacts, enchantments, and creatures with flying.

Colorless

Colorless interaction is few and far between.

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Card Advantage — How to Keep the Wheels Spinning

Card advantage is just as important as interaction. About 10-20% of your deck should be cards that give card advantage depending on the archetype of the deck you’re playing, and sometimes you might need even more.

White

White has a decent mix of mediocre card draw and conjure spells to get you things. Its a bit of a struggle.

Blue

Blue has the strongest card advantage spells in the game. You have your choice, so try to stick to instant speed so you can cast it at the end of your opponent’s turn.

Black

Black has a lot of card advantage, but most of it is tied to life loss. Be prepared to pay some life if you want to draw some cards.

Red

Red’s card advantage is mostly based in exiling cards off the top of your library that you will have to play that turn or the next turn.

Look at this magic card! Its kinda okay I guess…

Green

Green has a lot of card draw and seek effects across all types of cards, so if you search for “seek” or “draw” you’ll find decent budget options. This list is only a few of the available options.

Colorless

All of the good card advantage cards in colorless are rare, but there are a few budget cards that are passable, I guess.

Emphasis on the mid…

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Bombs and Win-Cons — Cards That Carry Your Deck to a Win

Every deck has them, and you need them to win. Budget bombs can be few and are between, though, so you might want to stick to specific archetypes that have lots of strong budget options.

The various types of bombs vary a lot, so peruse the list and find ones you like that fit your strategy

White

Blue

Everyone will still love you if you turn into a mill player. Its okay.

Black

Red

Green

Colorless

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Finalizing the Brawl Budget

Folks, it has been a blast showing you some of my favorite commons and uncommons in Brawl. If you want more of my content, follow and subscribe across my socials. If you missed last week’s feature on Boros Vehicles, be sure to go check it out here. Thanks for reading, and save up those rare wildcards for next time!

Zoe

Hello everyone I'm Zoe, also known online as Command Zoe! I am a long time magic the gathering player. I started when I was single digit years old, and the first pack I ever bought was Urza's Legacy. I opened a foil Tinker and a Delusions of Mediocrity, and so started a lifelong love for cardboard. When Arena came out I jumped into the beta as fast as I could, and when they introduced Brawl I fell hard. It scratches that itch of brewing fun, uniquely individual decks while still remaining competitive enough to keep me coming back for more. I am also a huge fan of all of Arena's Eternal Formats. I have finished inside the top 10 on the ladder playing both Standard and Historic. Magic has brought me so much joy in life, and I try to project that joy into my writing.

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