Welcome to the State of Brawl thread, your one stop shop for all things meta related for Brawl. Here you can discuss any potential (or current) bans, the overall health of the format, new cards, reprints, and more.
This thread will be heavily moderated, so be sure to read the rules before posting; anyone who posts in this thread is assumed to have read and understood these rules.
Allowed topics
Bans, unbans, and all things related to a banlist and banlist policy
Metagame health and diversity
Reprint suggestions and reprint philosophy
New cards and design philosophy
Prices and Brawl finance
Archetype definitions
Format health, successes, and challenges
Anything that constructively relates to these different issues
Rules spotlight: No flaming (insulting other users) or trolling (baiting other users into a hostile response). Posts must be civil and respectful.
Rules spotlight: No spamming. Posts must be constructive, on-topic, and supported with evidence and argumentation.
No format bashing. If you don't like Brawl, that's fine, but constructively/respectfully explain why and be optimistic.
Similarly, do not use this thread to voice grievances, complaints, and personal gripes without constructive/respectful suggestions.
If you see a user flaming, spamming, trolling, or breaking any other rule, report him/her instead of responding to it.
The mod team will strictly enforce these rules. Please make this a place where people are unafraid to post constructive thoughts.
NOTE: This format, as of May 5, 2018, no longer has the same banlist as Standard. In addition, 1 vs. 1 Brawl has also changed to be 20 life, while multiplayer remains at 30. Multiplayer and 1 vs. 1 will follow the same banlist. Finally, colorless Brawl commanders may include as many copies of one basics land of the player's choosing (for example, a Karn, Scion of Urza deck may include 20 Forests or 20 Plains, but not both Forests and Plains). B&R Announcement Schedule:
"Banned and Restricted announcements will now be made both on the Monday after Standard-legal set Prereleases and five weeks after a Pro Tour, also on a Monday." from here.
One of the reasons I feel brawl is healthy is the size of the decks. I cooked up plenty of gimmick decks but I usually didn't have enough cards to keep the theme coherent for the last 80-99 so I usually fell back on goodstuff cards, begrudgingly. But the fun thing here is that isn't the case. Sure there is some goodstuff but now every slot matters.
24 lands for the average base + 1 brawler/commander? We only have 35 slots left so we need to make them count.
I am pretty excited to see how this format will shape out to be! One of this aspects of this new format that I think is pretty strong that makes it unique is allowing Planeswalkers as your commander. With Dominaria around the corner, definitely gives a lot of spice for what can come for synergies that may bloom. I personally am thinking about running Rashmi, Eternities Crafter as my commander and making the random bulk of standard cards I have from buying too much lately some reason now viable. I do think it can fluctuate prices of some standard cards where it was considered not good enough for the actual competitive scene, could be amazing in Brawl!
I'm having fun with the format so far, playing a Sphinx themed UW control list piloted by Azor, obviously. I'm inclined to say that the current standard banlist doesn't need to apply to this format as a lot of the cards were there due to their consistency, something that seems quite lacking for the singleton format. If anything, I'm most concerned by Smuggler's Copter as the most powerful card currently not allowed.
I've had so many brew idea running through my brain these past few days, I'm starting to believe it's all I'm thinking about. This format sounds so insanely fun. I'd be interested in looking at Standard seasons past and seeing what people could come up with. For now, I'll just be brewing decks at a mile a minute
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Don't believe everything you read on the internet." - Abraham Lincoln
Am currently not having fun playing against Scarab God decks. Hoping that I'm making a mountain out of molehill and he'll fade from popularity.
Sadly, I think the Scarab God will be the King of Brawl...he is Meta Knight. Two Strong Colors, Get Value from every Graveyard, Sets up your Draws for you, and He slowly ticks away everyone's life.
Am currently not having fun playing against Scarab God decks. Hoping that I'm making a mountain out of molehill and he'll fade from popularity.
Sadly, I think the Scarab God will be the King of Brawl...he is Meta Knight. Two Strong Colors, Get Value from every Graveyard, Sets up your Draws for you, and He slowly ticks away everyone's life.
If he gets the ban, I'll start playing. But as of now, eh. Too good for a sub-CMC10 creature.
Am currently not having fun playing against Scarab God decks. Hoping that I'm making a mountain out of molehill and he'll fade from popularity.
Sadly, I think the Scarab God will be the King of Brawl...he is Meta Knight. Two Strong Colors, Get Value from every Graveyard, Sets up your Draws for you, and He slowly ticks away everyone's life.
If he gets the ban, I'll start playing. But as of now, eh. Too good for a sub-CMC10 creature.
I forgot he even cheats the commmander cost unless he is exiled...dang is there anything the Scarab God cant do?
I don't think he gets banned mostly cause he can only crush for a few months until rotation.
I do however, agree with you that nothing is likely to challenge him, although it should really be no surprise that the most dominant Legend in Standard is the most powerful Brawl Commander.
Am currently not having fun playing against Scarab God decks. Hoping that I'm making a mountain out of molehill and he'll fade from popularity.
Ramunap Excavator + Scavenger Grounds. Hour of Promise to get the Scavenger Grounds and/or deserts. Silent Gravestone might become a staple for all decks, so anybody showing up with Scarab God could be in for a hard time. Look I know having to play specific cards to stop a specific deck isn't great, but there are kick backs like in any format, where people do have to adjust to the more broken things going on.
Am currently not having fun playing against Scarab God decks. Hoping that I'm making a mountain out of molehill and he'll fade from popularity.
Sadly, I think the Scarab God will be the King of Brawl...he is Meta Knight. Two Strong Colors, Get Value from every Graveyard, Sets up your Draws for you, and He slowly ticks away everyone's life.
If he gets the ban, I'll start playing. But as of now, eh. Too good for a sub-CMC10 creature.
I forgot he even cheats the commmander cost unless he is exiled...dang is there anything the Scarab God cant do?
I don't think he gets banned mostly cause he can only crush for a few months until rotation.
I do however, agree with you that nothing is likely to challenge him, although it should really be no surprise that the most dominant Legend in Standard is the most powerful Brawl Commander.
I concur in thinking that The Scarab God will dominate this format. Even in regular EDH, he is quite strong. Only a few months of his being in the format for Brawl, I sense that with Dominaria will make the format more open for options to where The Scarab God won't dominate for the short time it is legal.
Any of the O-ring creatures or enchantments are also effective removal (forcing the recast). I personally can't wait for a Scarab God player to throw him into their graveyard and watch me Disallow the death trigger so it can stay there for good.
Scarab God is certainly very good as a commander, but as long as you're packing the right hate (and you really should be), it's reasonable. I'd certainly prioritize killing the player piloting that deck at a Brawl table though. If left unchecked, it'll run away with games.
I'm just putting this out there, but all decks in Brawl should be playing Sorcerous Spyglass. It's ability to shut down planeswalker commanders, alone is good enough. But a lot of the creature commanders, also have activated abilities. I haven't put it into any of my lists yet, because I've been so focused on synergy. But I think if you want to win games, then it should go into your Brawl deck. Get one.
The fact that people suggest playing multiple gy hate cards just for Scarab God (are there any other viable gy strategy in t2 available?) is the very definition of format-warping. But is there a metagame breakdown for Brawl? I have seen a lot of complaints about Scarab God but not a lot of actual data (meta% and win%), just anectodal evidence.
How viable do we think Gishath, Sun's Avatar is going to be? I tried to build a casual Gishath deck with signets and the like but found that it was honestly just too slow to even get the guy out and summarily converted the deck to Legacy, but with the drop in consistency due to the format being singleton, I feel like maybe this is his chance to shine - especially with the myriad of dinosaurs present in Ixalan block.
2011: Best Mafia Performance (Individual) - Best Newcomer
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
The fact that people suggest playing multiple gy hate cards just for Scarab God (are there any other viable gy strategy in t2 available?) is the very definition of format-warping. But is there a metagame breakdown for Brawl? I have seen a lot of complaints about Scarab God but not a lot of actual data (meta% and win%), just anectodal evidence.
It's not just scarab god, there's a lot of recursion and things like embalm and eternalize in the format. Grave hate is important for that alone. The fact that everyone is on the Scarab God hype train just means you should be prepared to see them everywhere. Fortuitous Find, Torrential Gearhulk and Refurbish are pretty high up on play lists, even Wildest Dreams and God-Pharaoh's Gift might see play. This is just a bad format to not be running hate for that stuff.
How viable do we think Gishath, Sun's Avatar is going to be? I tried to build a casual Gishath deck with signets and the like but found that it was honestly just too slow to even get the guy out and summarily converted the deck to Legacy, but with the drop in consistency due to the format being singleton, I feel like maybe this is his chance to shine - especially with the myriad of dinosaurs present in Ixalan block.
Honestly, I think the Zacama lists are better as they don't rely on having tons of dinosaurs in your deck over more useful cards.
The fact that people suggest playing multiple gy hate cards just for Scarab God (are there any other viable gy strategy in t2 available?) is the very definition of format-warping. But is there a metagame breakdown for Brawl? I have seen a lot of complaints about Scarab God but not a lot of actual data (meta% and win%), just anectodal evidence.
It's not just scarab god, there's a lot of recursion and things like embalm and eternalize in the format. Grave hate is important for that alone. The fact that everyone is on the Scarab God hype train just means you should be prepared to see them everywhere. Fortuitous Find, Torrential Gearhulk and Refurbish are pretty high up on play lists, even Wildest Dreams and God-Pharaoh's Gift might see play. This is just a bad format to not be running hate for that stuff.
I'm not t2 player so I have complately forgot about eternalize/embalm mechanic, it's not really used in any other format. If meta will have at least some of those then it makes a lot of sense to put graveyard hate in your deck. Fortunately Silent Gravestone and Scavenger grounds are basically free include and fit into deck under any color restrictions.
Currently I'm trying to figure out something with Jhoira but apart from Rashmi-style value deck I'm blanking out. Is there any way to combo with Paradox Engine in t2 cardpool?
I mean, Inspiring Statuary with treasure tokens has been mentioned as a thing with paradox Engine, but I really am not seeing much. I was trying to make it work in Tezzeret the Schemer with Quicksmith Spy and it feels pretty clunky still. I personally don't think engine has a good home right now. It might be good in Huatli, Radiant Champion after emblem with some more mana dorks, but even then.
Welcome to the State of Brawl thread, your one stop shop for all things meta related for Brawl. Here you can discuss any potential (or current) bans, the overall health of the format, new cards, reprints, and more.
This thread will be heavily moderated, so be sure to read the rules before posting; anyone who posts in this thread is assumed to have read and understood these rules.
Allowed topics
Prohibited topics and behavior
The mod team will strictly enforce these rules. Please make this a place where people are unafraid to post constructive thoughts.
NOTE: This format, as of May 5, 2018, no longer has the same banlist as Standard. In addition, 1 vs. 1 Brawl has also changed to be 20 life, while multiplayer remains at 30. Multiplayer and 1 vs. 1 will follow the same banlist. Finally, colorless Brawl commanders may include as many copies of one basics land of the player's choosing (for example, a Karn, Scion of Urza deck may include 20 Forests or 20 Plains, but not both Forests and Plains).
B&R Announcement Schedule:
"Banned and Restricted announcements will now be made both on the Monday after Standard-legal set Prereleases and five weeks after a Pro Tour, also on a Monday." from here.
The list of banned cards is here.
Latest B&R announcement as of Jul2, 2018 can be found here.
Next B&R Announcement: August 20, 2018
Current Banned List
Changes to Brawl
July 9, 2018 Updates to Brawl
Banned:
Unbanned:
My Helpdesk
[Pr] Marath | [Pr] Lovisa | Jodah | Saskia | Najeela | Yisan | Lord Windgrace | Atraxa | Meren | Gisa and Geralf
24 lands for the average base + 1 brawler/commander? We only have 35 slots left so we need to make them count.
Sadly, I think the Scarab God will be the King of Brawl...he is Meta Knight. Two Strong Colors, Get Value from every Graveyard, Sets up your Draws for you, and He slowly ticks away everyone's life.
If he gets the ban, I'll start playing. But as of now, eh. Too good for a sub-CMC10 creature.
I forgot he even cheats the commmander cost unless he is exiled...dang is there anything the Scarab God cant do?
I don't think he gets banned mostly cause he can only crush for a few months until rotation.
I do however, agree with you that nothing is likely to challenge him, although it should really be no surprise that the most dominant Legend in Standard is the most powerful Brawl Commander.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I concur in thinking that The Scarab God will dominate this format. Even in regular EDH, he is quite strong. Only a few months of his being in the format for Brawl, I sense that with Dominaria will make the format more open for options to where The Scarab God won't dominate for the short time it is legal.
Here's some good cards vs Scarab God in format;
Any of the O-ring creatures or enchantments are also effective removal (forcing the recast). I personally can't wait for a Scarab God player to throw him into their graveyard and watch me Disallow the death trigger so it can stay there for good.
R Norin the Wary: I've Got a Bad Feeling About This
UG Thrasios & Kydele: Knowledge is Power
RG Borborygmos Enraged: The Breaking of the World
BG The Gitrog Monster: All Glory to the Hypnotoad
WUR Zedruu the Greathearted: Endless Possibilities, One Outcome
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain: What's Dead May Never Die
Turn your junk into something great with PucaTrade!
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
{мы, тьма}
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
It's not just scarab god, there's a lot of recursion and things like embalm and eternalize in the format. Grave hate is important for that alone. The fact that everyone is on the Scarab God hype train just means you should be prepared to see them everywhere. Fortuitous Find, Torrential Gearhulk and Refurbish are pretty high up on play lists, even Wildest Dreams and God-Pharaoh's Gift might see play. This is just a bad format to not be running hate for that stuff.
Honestly, I think the Zacama lists are better as they don't rely on having tons of dinosaurs in your deck over more useful cards.
I'm not t2 player so I have complately forgot about eternalize/embalm mechanic, it's not really used in any other format. If meta will have at least some of those then it makes a lot of sense to put graveyard hate in your deck. Fortunately Silent Gravestone and Scavenger grounds are basically free include and fit into deck under any color restrictions.
Currently I'm trying to figure out something with Jhoira but apart from Rashmi-style value deck I'm blanking out. Is there any way to combo with Paradox Engine in t2 cardpool?