The difference between Brawl and Standard is that WotC never positioned or promoted Standard as a casual or multiplayer format. Standard isn't designed to be inviting for casual players or to work well in a multiplayer setting, while Brawl is.
And ultimately it's not really true that competitive formats end up in an equilibrium where everyone plays a tier 1 deck. Like I said upthread, look at any video of someone playing through a Modern league on mtgo, you'll definitely see some Hollow Ones but you'll also see some nonsense. People play Magic to have fun even in competitive settings, and for a lot of folks building a deck and taking it into a competitive setting, or just testing out new ideas, is part of the fun.
Standard discourages that kind of play, which really affects how more casual players view Constructed in general. In Standard, the power level differential between cards is very sharp. You've got your Scarab Gods and Hazorets, and you've got your... Majestic Myriarchs. The presence of powerful rate cards makes linear strategies hard to pursue unless they're very robustly supported in the small Standard card pool. Standard has its virtues relative to Modern, definitely, but it's hard for a Standard format to be as diverse or as balanced as Modern currently is.
I think Brawl, being singleton, softens up those issues a lot. You can no longer build decks by picking a curve of nine of the best rate cards for your strategy and playing four of each. This means the impact of those cards is lessened overall, and the power level of decks if flattened out overall. Deck archetypes are looser, encouraging experimentation within an archetype; yeah sure you probably want Scarab God in your blue-black deck, whether at the helm or in the 59. But when you get deep into the slots, it starts looking a lot more debatable. Baral decks were degenerate but they were also scraping the bottom of the barrel for playables, including such C- draft cards as Horns***gle. It's less of a no-brainer whether, for example, you want to play Locust God with more burn or with more permission, for example, because it's no longer a comparison between running 4x of a counterspell or 4x of a burn spell. The average power of draws is lower, decks are less consistent, and that should lead to a "flatter" metagame where the distance between the tier 1 decks and the tier 2 decks is smaller, and so on down the chain. This makes brewing or playing quirky decks more inviting.
So overall, I think your fears of 1v1 Brawl discouraging people from looking into casual play or multiplayer are unfounded. I expect Brawl to get about the kind of suport Pauper currently gets - there's leagues on mtgo, wotc keeps the format from breaking with regular bans, and you can play at some stores and at side events in GPs.
But if Brawl turns out to be diverse and entertaining like I hope it does, I'd be stoked for something like a team Constructed Brawl GP.
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On average, Magic players are worse at new card evaluation than almost every other skill, except perhaps sideboarding.
None of the stuff about being singleton or playing mediocre cards makes much difference from where I'm sitting. Sure, more variation is good, but it doesn't solve the crux of what makes competitive constructed formats un-fun for someone like me. I don't like playing the same deck over and over. I don't like the concentration of netdecking. I don't like that deckbuilding skill and deep game knowledge are largely unrewarded. Sure, you can play constructed formats with a brew, and you can maybe do OK, but you're still ultimately going to lose to competent players who just built whatever the latest GP winner was. Again - I understand that people like it, and I understand why they like it, but it's just not something I'm ever going to be interested in.
As far as whether multiplayer brawl could be dominated by 1v1, I think it'll largely depend on tournament support. As long as it's on the sidelines at GPs, I don't see too much trouble. If it ever becomes a path to the PT, though, there will inevitably be grinders and I think it's very likely that 1v1 will become the default format, unless multiplayer already achieved a pretty massive, EDH-scale following. It's true that nothing like this has exactly happened - every competitive format has stayed competitive, and every casual format has never really been given tournament play, so afaik we're both speculating fairly blindly. But my intuition says that where there's major prizes, that's where most players are aiming to progress towards.
I believe that simply waiting 2 years before rotations start, and then keeping 2 extra years worth of sets legal, would improve Brawl by dealing with most of the concerns people raise. First, it lets you seed strategies and mana fixing for Brawl in a way that will not impact Standard, as you will need cards no longer legal in Standard but legal in Brawl to make them work. Duals are the biggest thing here, you want it to be reasonable to make 3 color decks, and the amount of mana fixing thats needed to make that happen is a lot less in Standard than in Brawl, since you can run 4 of all the best duals, while in Brawl you only get 1 ofs. The amount of fixing needed to make 3 color work well in Brawl would make it too easy in Standard, and even make 4 or 5 color too easy. By spreading it out so that some of those lands have already rotated out of Standard but will remain in Brawl for 2 extra years, Brawl gets its extra lands without messing with Standard. The larger pool also increases deck diversity, allows for combos that might be too strong for Standard, and allows control decks to accumulate more decent answers (especially counters) to police the format with. It also allows for a greater diversity of decks by allowing more walkers and legends into the format without having to force more than are needed into every set. Right now, and for a couple years, Brawl will have the most options it will ever have because Dominaria is jam packed with legends. To avoid having to do a legend matters set every couple years to maintain this level, adding an extra two years of sets would allow this level of diversity to continue while spreading the legendary cards and planes walkers out at a normal rate.
Also, Commander suffered greatly during WotC's misbegotten attempt to take it over online so they could run leagues for it. They created a terrible 1v1 format curated for competitive play (awfully curated, I might add), and replaced real commander with it, forcing it into multiplayer. The result was instant disaster, and WotC almost immediately backtracked and reintroduced real commander, allowing you to choose the 1v1 banlist or the real banlist for both 1v1 and multiplayer games. I almost never see 1v1 banlist multiplayer games, and I often see real banlist and 1v1 banlist 1v1 games. Pushing tournament play is cancer to a casual focused format.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I agree that Brawl is at it's finest right now because of the chock-o-block legends from Dominaria. So going forward you might need to see the annual "commander" sets being legal for Brawl, and also realistically more actual legends printed in these sets as well. Otherwise the selection will go stale very quick, and the format will probably fail long term.
I should also point out that I think sets are designed about 2 years out from release, so it's super hard for Wizards to design around whether a format is successful or not.
Like even if they made the decision right now that Brawl looks to be popular, that you wouldn't actually see an increase in legendary creatures, over the next 2 years. Meaning that it might get a rut that just sees it becoming unpopular.
I feel like they already have printed more legends over the last few blocks as a direct result of commander, so I feel we'll still have a decent selection. The easiest way for them to support brawl selection immediately with sets not designed with it in mind would be to release brawl precons like the walker precons that have cards not available in standard sets but are standard legal but designed specifically for brawl, it just seems like a win-win for them. I could totally see something like a couple planeswalker decks and a couple creature decks and have the walkers be more tailored towards brawl.
I don't understand why anyone would want Scavenger Grounds banned.
I don't know how it is where you play at, but in my LGS's, I struggle to use anything yard-driven. I built a Muldrotha anyways, but it's a struggle because EVERYONE is running scavenger grounds. It makes embalm, aftermath, eternalize and any sort of useful recursion irrelevant. That's kind of an issue considering there's a whole block devoted to it. The fact people just jam random deserts to feed it without losing scavenger grounds just makes it worse. People were really on the Scarab God train, so it just got jammed in everywhere and stayed there. it's kind of like spyglass... why would you not just run one?
I don't know how it is where you play at, but in my LGS's, I struggle to use anything yard-driven. I built a Muldrotha anyways, but it's a struggle because EVERYONE is running scavenger grounds. It makes embalm, aftermath, eternalize and any sort of useful recursion irrelevant. That's kind of an issue considering there's a whole block devoted to it. The fact people just jam random deserts to feed it without losing scavenger grounds just makes it worse. People were really on the Scarab God train, so it just got jammed in everywhere and stayed there. it's kind of like spyglass... why would you not just run one?
Well spyglass is banned (if you weren't already aware).
It's a strong, flexible land but there's still good odds of not drawing it, plus it has a limited number of activations and costs a lot (3) to keep up, and it straight up does nothing vs aftermath or embalm/eternalize if you cast both halves immediately, and muldrotha can easily play around it, unlike TSG she doesn't lose tempo to in-response exile so just avoid filling your whole grave with value and play a little conservatively.
Also TSG and muldrotha are pretty disgusting value engines, so having a hoser for them is a positive thing imo.
Graveyard hate the has to be activated like Scavenger Grounds can be played around a bit. The thing with say Muldrotha is that they have to use it before your main phase. If they don't then you get priority and can play your land out from graveyard and then get to cast at least one spell from graveyard, then they can use it. So as long as you're not being too greedy about how you stack your graveyard, then you can mitigate these things a bit.
So normally they use it before your main phase, then you get to restart your graveyard plan.
Obviously if all the other players are playing them along with other deserts, then I'm sure it would be frustrating, but I personally haven't seen that many of them running about as people do like to play multi-colored decks, and colorless lands do come at a cost.
I'm used to seeing things like Hour of Promise or cycle Shefet Monitor to get it out (the monitor is super annoying because it's an instant speed effect). It's probably due to the high number of green decks I play against frequently (Huatli, Ghalta, Zacama, Vraska, etc), it's just extremely frustrating to include a number of grave-based cards and constantly have a scavenger grounds just chilling on the table every game.
I'm used to seeing things like Hour of Promise or cycle Shefet Monitor to get it out (the monitor is super annoying because it's an instant speed effect). It's probably due to the high number of green decks I play against frequently (Huatli, Ghalta, Zacama, Vraska, etc), it's just extremely frustrating to include a number of grave-based cards and constantly have a scavenger grounds just chilling on the table every game.
Well spyglass is banned (if you weren't already aware).
Oh, I'm quite aware, it was my way of shutting Scavenger Grounds off :/
Well there's still blood sun.
scavenger grounds can be a decent counter to many grave shenanigans, but I don't think it's a particularly great counter to muldrotha since she casts instead of targets. And like all answers in multiplayer, the benefit of using it to counter a random enemy spell is significantly lower. Sure, countering a rise of the dark realms-type card (PW deck lili ult?) is necessary, but using it to counter a raise dead is just 1:1ing yourself in multiplayer for no good reason. I would expect most spells that interact with the graveyard shouldn't cause scavenger grounds to be activated against a good player, unless you're already far ahead and need to be brought low.
So I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea to use some recursion cards, you just have to play a little more carefully. maybe play wildest dreams for x=1-2 instead of 3-4, and maybe avoid targeting things that the scavenger grounds player is going to hate, unless you want him to pop it. Or wait until they're tapped out. Or try to bait them. There are plenty of ways to play around it.
brawl seems really wide open from what I'v seen. I don't think anyone in my area from what I've seen has the same commander s someone else. Format is really fun and it's super easy to find games
brawl seems really wide open from what I'v seen. I don't think anyone in my area from what I've seen has the same commander s someone else. Format is really fun and it's super easy to find games
same
yes, you can break the format, but you just don't play with people that do that nonsense.
One vs one Brawl has received a few changes as of yesterday. Life totals are now 25, and you get one free mulligan.
As someone who plays Chandra, ToF as their commander, I'm kinda sad that I have to deal more damage to my opponent, but I don't perceive it being a huge problem.
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Anyone doing some brewing with M19? I look for games whenever I'm at the shop, but it's getting difficult to find people to play with. Hopefully M19 starts generating interest in my LGS.
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"Don't believe everything you read on the internet." - Abraham Lincoln
I think a lot of people are in my boat. M19 generated a little interest, but I am mostly waiting for Ravnica to start rolling out before I really work on anything else. I'm sure a lot of people would agree, watching Kaladesh and Amonkhet roll out and create an entirely new meta will rekindle interest.
Don't know anybody at my LGS who is playing brawl. Asking people got me answers which can be summarized into "why not commander"?
I would like to play, but sad there is no brawl tournaments here. I think the rotating format is keeping people away. As those who like it play standard and those who don't stick to commander or duel commander.
Don't know anybody at my LGS who is playing brawl. Asking people got me answers which can be summarized into "why not commander"?
I would like to play, but sad there is no brawl tournaments here. I think the rotating format is keeping people away. As those who like it play standard and those who don't stick to commander or duel commander.
I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head. Casual players, the kind Brawl seems to be marketed towards, absolutely hate rotating formats, so from their perspective Brawl very much looks like a worse Commander, and that's a shame considering the actual gameplay is probably better.
My LGS started with a handful of people building Brawl decks (and a lot of resistance), but now Brawl is absolutely dead there. Judging from the lack of activity here, I assume the same is true for others.
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WUBRGMr. Bones' Wild RideGRBUW Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
Shame...I just learned about this format and I think it is an interesting alternative to standard. I would have liked to play this format instead of commander.
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"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
Casual players, the kind Brawl seems to be marketed towards, absolutely hate rotating formats, so from their perspective Brawl very much looks like a worse Commander, and that's a shame considering the actual gameplay is probably better.
Huh, that's not a generalization I would have expected to hold true. Why would casual players hate rotation? To me as a pretty casual player, the thought of having to buy old cards, or even to come up with a deck when cards from the whole vast history of the game are available, is so daunting as to make for a hard pass. So I have very little interest in Commander, especially when everything I hear about the getting-started-with-Commander products is that they're overpriced and generally horrible.
But maybe I'm conflating "casual" with "new"? I only recently got into paper Magic playing in a league of Dominaria, so I've got these modest collections of DOM and M19 and nothing I can really do with them except use them as backing cardboard for proxying. Brawl looks like the absolute perfect format for my situation, but yeah, it's like pulling teeth trying to round up 2-3 other people to play it.
And ultimately it's not really true that competitive formats end up in an equilibrium where everyone plays a tier 1 deck. Like I said upthread, look at any video of someone playing through a Modern league on mtgo, you'll definitely see some Hollow Ones but you'll also see some nonsense. People play Magic to have fun even in competitive settings, and for a lot of folks building a deck and taking it into a competitive setting, or just testing out new ideas, is part of the fun.
Standard discourages that kind of play, which really affects how more casual players view Constructed in general. In Standard, the power level differential between cards is very sharp. You've got your Scarab Gods and Hazorets, and you've got your... Majestic Myriarchs. The presence of powerful rate cards makes linear strategies hard to pursue unless they're very robustly supported in the small Standard card pool. Standard has its virtues relative to Modern, definitely, but it's hard for a Standard format to be as diverse or as balanced as Modern currently is.
I think Brawl, being singleton, softens up those issues a lot. You can no longer build decks by picking a curve of nine of the best rate cards for your strategy and playing four of each. This means the impact of those cards is lessened overall, and the power level of decks if flattened out overall. Deck archetypes are looser, encouraging experimentation within an archetype; yeah sure you probably want Scarab God in your blue-black deck, whether at the helm or in the 59. But when you get deep into the slots, it starts looking a lot more debatable. Baral decks were degenerate but they were also scraping the bottom of the barrel for playables, including such C- draft cards as Horns***gle. It's less of a no-brainer whether, for example, you want to play Locust God with more burn or with more permission, for example, because it's no longer a comparison between running 4x of a counterspell or 4x of a burn spell. The average power of draws is lower, decks are less consistent, and that should lead to a "flatter" metagame where the distance between the tier 1 decks and the tier 2 decks is smaller, and so on down the chain. This makes brewing or playing quirky decks more inviting.
So overall, I think your fears of 1v1 Brawl discouraging people from looking into casual play or multiplayer are unfounded. I expect Brawl to get about the kind of suport Pauper currently gets - there's leagues on mtgo, wotc keeps the format from breaking with regular bans, and you can play at some stores and at side events in GPs.
But if Brawl turns out to be diverse and entertaining like I hope it does, I'd be stoked for something like a team Constructed Brawl GP.
As far as whether multiplayer brawl could be dominated by 1v1, I think it'll largely depend on tournament support. As long as it's on the sidelines at GPs, I don't see too much trouble. If it ever becomes a path to the PT, though, there will inevitably be grinders and I think it's very likely that 1v1 will become the default format, unless multiplayer already achieved a pretty massive, EDH-scale following. It's true that nothing like this has exactly happened - every competitive format has stayed competitive, and every casual format has never really been given tournament play, so afaik we're both speculating fairly blindly. But my intuition says that where there's major prizes, that's where most players are aiming to progress towards.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Also, Commander suffered greatly during WotC's misbegotten attempt to take it over online so they could run leagues for it. They created a terrible 1v1 format curated for competitive play (awfully curated, I might add), and replaced real commander with it, forcing it into multiplayer. The result was instant disaster, and WotC almost immediately backtracked and reintroduced real commander, allowing you to choose the 1v1 banlist or the real banlist for both 1v1 and multiplayer games. I almost never see 1v1 banlist multiplayer games, and I often see real banlist and 1v1 banlist 1v1 games. Pushing tournament play is cancer to a casual focused format.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
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
Like even if they made the decision right now that Brawl looks to be popular, that you wouldn't actually see an increase in legendary creatures, over the next 2 years. Meaning that it might get a rut that just sees it becoming unpopular.
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 don't know how it is where you play at, but in my LGS's, I struggle to use anything yard-driven. I built a Muldrotha anyways, but it's a struggle because EVERYONE is running scavenger grounds. It makes embalm, aftermath, eternalize and any sort of useful recursion irrelevant. That's kind of an issue considering there's a whole block devoted to it. The fact people just jam random deserts to feed it without losing scavenger grounds just makes it worse. People were really on the Scarab God train, so it just got jammed in everywhere and stayed there. it's kind of like spyglass... why would you not just run one?
It's a strong, flexible land but there's still good odds of not drawing it, plus it has a limited number of activations and costs a lot (3) to keep up, and it straight up does nothing vs aftermath or embalm/eternalize if you cast both halves immediately, and muldrotha can easily play around it, unlike TSG she doesn't lose tempo to in-response exile so just avoid filling your whole grave with value and play a little conservatively.
Also TSG and muldrotha are pretty disgusting value engines, so having a hoser for them is a positive thing imo.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
So normally they use it before your main phase, then you get to restart your graveyard plan.
Obviously if all the other players are playing them along with other deserts, then I'm sure it would be frustrating, but I personally haven't seen that many of them running about as people do like to play multi-colored decks, and colorless lands do come at a cost.
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
Oh, I'm quite aware, it was my way of shutting Scavenger Grounds off :/
scavenger grounds can be a decent counter to many grave shenanigans, but I don't think it's a particularly great counter to muldrotha since she casts instead of targets. And like all answers in multiplayer, the benefit of using it to counter a random enemy spell is significantly lower. Sure, countering a rise of the dark realms-type card (PW deck lili ult?) is necessary, but using it to counter a raise dead is just 1:1ing yourself in multiplayer for no good reason. I would expect most spells that interact with the graveyard shouldn't cause scavenger grounds to be activated against a good player, unless you're already far ahead and need to be brought low.
So I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea to use some recursion cards, you just have to play a little more carefully. maybe play wildest dreams for x=1-2 instead of 3-4, and maybe avoid targeting things that the scavenger grounds player is going to hate, unless you want him to pop it. Or wait until they're tapped out. Or try to bait them. There are plenty of ways to play around it.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
same
yes, you can break the format, but you just don't play with people that do that nonsense.
As someone who plays Chandra, ToF as their commander, I'm kinda sad that I have to deal more damage to my opponent, but I don't perceive it being a huge problem.
I would like to play, but sad there is no brawl tournaments here. I think the rotating format is keeping people away. As those who like it play standard and those who don't stick to commander or duel commander.
My LGS started with a handful of people building Brawl decks (and a lot of resistance), but now Brawl is absolutely dead there. Judging from the lack of activity here, I assume the same is true for others.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
-Stay Frosty
Huh, that's not a generalization I would have expected to hold true. Why would casual players hate rotation? To me as a pretty casual player, the thought of having to buy old cards, or even to come up with a deck when cards from the whole vast history of the game are available, is so daunting as to make for a hard pass. So I have very little interest in Commander, especially when everything I hear about the getting-started-with-Commander products is that they're overpriced and generally horrible.
But maybe I'm conflating "casual" with "new"? I only recently got into paper Magic playing in a league of Dominaria, so I've got these modest collections of DOM and M19 and nothing I can really do with them except use them as backing cardboard for proxying. Brawl looks like the absolute perfect format for my situation, but yeah, it's like pulling teeth trying to round up 2-3 other people to play it.