MTG Salvation

For those who haven't read it:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-preview/new-era-brawl-2019-07-22

So let's see, we've got:

-Brawl in arena
-Brawl precons
-Brawl events

Pretty much all the things I hoped for. We'll see if it sticks this time.

The only thing that worries me a bit is that, because of how arena works, and given how much the article talks about baral being a problem in the format (which was only ever true in 1v1) I suspect the format is going to gravitate toward a 1v1 format instead of a multiplayer one, but we'll see. The precons and the events seem multiplayer-oriented, but I can't imagine how arena would work smoothly for multiplayer.

I'm also curious how many stores will actually do brawl events, but with a product that they presumably want to sell, hopefully they'll be a little more gung-ho about it. I know my LGS at the time didn't really seem to give a rat's ass about the initial announcement of brawl, and they definitely didn't host any events or anything. But cross fingers it works out this time.

It's going to be 1v1. It says so in the very same article you posted.

"Before the year is out, you'll be able to play 1v1 Brawl on MTG Arena"

I think WOTC will try to force Brawl as a 1v1 format in the future, and Commander as a multiplayer format. Which is weird, since both can be both.

It does say 1v1 in arena by end of year, but theoretically it could be multiplayer later (because of how brawl works, I doubt it, but it could in theory).

It does also specifically say the brawl event will be multiplayer, though. So clearly they're not trying to move it to a strictly 1v1 format, at least for the time being.

And I think it's smart that they're trying to keep those events not prize oriented - although I dunno how stores will sell them as events. We've got a few stores locally that do events with a flat prize structure and it kind of drives me nuts, personally. If I wasn't so competitive, I'd just money draft every time and just hope I end up with a vaguely-playable deck. Less of an issue for a non-draft format, but then it still sorta feels like a waste of time. If an event is casual I'd rather it was totally casual, with no pairings or rounds or anything, just find people and play. Also I don't love that I'm basically being forced to buy packs. But we'll see how stores decide to host these, maybe it'll just be full casual with the hopes of selling the precons to generate revenue.

The only problem I see with this is that if Braw becomes popular and some commander is problematic in the format, will they ban the commander only in the Braw format or will they ban it from standard (looking at you, Mr T)(teferi)

Separate banlists, no issue.

The actual issue may be 1v1 vs multiplayer. Pws are mostly pretty weak in multiplayer but in 1v1 may dominate the format.