Metagame: The Lessons and Decks from the Brawl Challenge

This weekend, Magic Arena held its first Metagame Challenge in the Brawl format—the digital platform's equivalent of Commander. Games consist of 1v1 Best-of-One matches, and the deckbuilding rules are similar in that a commander defines the colors of your deck.

Brawl is one of the most played on MTGArena, and many players view it as a casual format. Therefore, the shift in perspective with a Challenge tested its potential as a competitive game. Some players discovered that, when prizes and victories matter most, Brawl can be a very unbalanced environment.

Often, being in the play or on the draw makes a difference in the outcome due to the quick access to mana and the lack of free disruption that challenges some of the most explosive strategies and/or hinders the consistency of some archetypes in executing their game plans. The feeling in the community, according to comments on social media, is that Brawl needs a "big fix" before it can be treated as a ranked format, perhaps with more assertive bans on fast mana to balance resources between players and even the removal of more "unfair" Commanders.

Among these are Nadu, Winged Wisdom, which, despite lacking the loops of Shuko and having been nerfed in the digital platform, generates too much value if players don't constantly interact with it—which can be quite difficult in a 1v1 environment for a commander using two of the best colors for protection—, Ajani, Nacatl Pariah, whose Aggro shell and ease of being cast on the first or second turn and transformed make it difficult to interact with and/or reach the point where it's not even necessary for your deck to function properly; and Old Stickfingers, which enables a "one-card combo" in the Command Zone with only two creatures on the deck.

What's clear is that Brawl will need tweaks if it wants to be a competitive format on Magic Arena, and it may be a while before we see another Metagame Challenge event.

Reddit users shared their lists that achieved seven wins at this weekend's event, and while each offers some unique choices, they serve as a good template for what to expect from a more competitive and streamlined Brawl.

Ajani, Nacatl Pariah

Player Flaky_Praline shared his Ajani, Nacatl Pariah Aggro list, featuring a rising mana curve where creatures stack up snowball effects as the game goes on.

As mentioned above, one problem with Ajani's lists is that the individual quality of the cards used in the deck reaches the point where the Commander becomes redundant if the game goes on for a long time.

The above list was used by user Zunqivo and created by Brawl Discord moderator ImNotFine, finishing with an 86-21 result with three 7-0 runs during the event. A highlight is Ajani's interaction with Masked Meower (Skittering Kitten) to trigger the card's Planeswalker side as early as the second turn.

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

User PinkWard arrived at this result with a Teferi, Hero of Dominaria list running a classic combination of Control responses and threats, with Swords to Plowshares, Wrath of the Skies, Mana Drain, Counterspell and complementary win conditions with The Wandering Emperor, Torrential Gearhulk, and Shark Typhoon.

Wrenn and Six

Galacticfonz presented a variant of Wrenn and Six Midrange using interactions between lands and cards that allow reusing them to lock down the opponent or extract value from some targeted answers and Cycling effects while exerting pressure with some staples of this color combination, such as Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Tersa Lightshatter.

Vial Smasher & Thrasios

Retadon shared his list, the classic Goodstuff deck running the Partners Vial Smasher, the Fierce and Thrasios, Triton Hero with the best cards this four-color combination has to offer. As a bonus, it runs Training Grounds and Trackhand Trainer as a way to reduce the cost of Thrasios's ability to the point where it can be used for free.

Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student

Nistua1 closed the 7-0 with a Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student list blending elements of Ramp with Wilderness Reclamation, Primeval Titan, and a powerful sequence of extra-turn spells that, combined with the Commander's recursive ability, is capable of dominating the match and putting its controller in an unbeatable position.

Emry, Lurker of the Loch

Emry, Lurker of the Loch list by BoioDruid takes advantage of the Commander's interaction with the Paradox Engine to loop the mana generated by artifacts to cast more spells and untap them again. It's possible to use Stonecoil Serpent with X = 0 and Emry to generate infinite mana and/or create enough triggers to win the game with Aetherflux Reservoir, among several other possible combos with the other pieces in the list.

Nashi, Illusion Gadgeteer

Nistua1 also completed a full run with a Midrange Nashi, Illusion Gadgeteer list, designed to meet the demands of the format's early Metagame while running the classic stack of good cards available in this color, including Deathrite Shaman, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, among others.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!