"3 Reasons to Brawl!"

"3 Reasons to Brawl!"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

One of the things that my playgroup has been discussing lately is the new format from Magic called Brawl. So basically it is a modified , standard legal , rotating EDH deck. A legendary creature at the helm from any of the standard legal sets and the components from those same sets. All you need is 59 other cards and you are all set to go.

One thing stands out in all of this and these are the words Cash Grab. Wizards of the coast has introduced a new format that is set to raise the prices of standard legal cards even further since a particular card will now be needed in another format other than Standard , Constructed and Modern. We all recognize it for what it is and while there are qualms about it there are some who look at this as another chance to make decks that are only available in a narrow spectrum and come up with a dominating or at least fun deck.

Here are my reasons to Brawl:

#1 It is another frontier opening.

I have often talked to my playgroup mates about making a standard legal EDH so when this opened up I was pretty happy that I was going to be able to test my deck building skills. 

While you might hit snags due to unavailability of efficient mana rocks or mana acceleration It is in this that you can see what will actually work to replace those rocks or mana acceleration. #EndSolRingDependence.

#2 Cards deserve a home!

Have one of those trash cards that you feel that you cannot use? Well this is the time for those cards  , you have another format to experiment in and check your well and tested decks if it can translate to this format.

Do you want to go tribal with Dinos or Pirates or Merfolks because of Ixalan? Want to go Robots and Vehicles from Kaladesh? There are a few archetypes that you might want to explore here. What about a super friends deck consisting of all those extra planeswalkers that you have no use for?

#3 Making your opponents go Oh and Ah.

When you play EDH you have around 25k individual pieces to work with from through out Magics 25 year history. However you are forced to narrow down to a couple of sets and now you look at cards that might not be as efficient but do the kind of thing that you might want. It also narrows down the boxes and piles that you have to go through.

In conclusion I think that Brawl is a good format addition and is worth trying out at least once. If you don't happen to like it then you can just go back to the formats that you prefer. Brawl might create another niche where players can thrive and that is never a bad thing.