Brawl

For complete information, including a link to the comprehensive rules, please refer to the official Magic: The Gathering website.

Introduction to Brawl

Brawl is a little like Standard, a little like Commander, and a uniquely exciting deck-brewing challenge. Build a deck around a specific legendary creature or Planeswalker from the Standard card pool, and battle against friends in one-on-one or multiplayer free-for-all games.

Important Note: Currently,Magic: The Gathering Arena only supports one-vs-one games.

Brawl Deck

A Brawl deck consists of the following:

• 1 commander card (any legendary creature or planeswalker from a set currently in Standard)
• 59 other cards (also from sets currently in Standard) that share a color identity with your commander.
• Only one copy of any card, except for basic lands

Color Identity

A card's color identity is not quite the same as a card's color: it can come from any part of that card, including its casting cost and any mana symbols in its rules text.

• Every card in your Brawl deck must only use mana symbols that also appear on your commander.
• Colorless cards are allowed in any deck.

Command Zone

This is the special game zone where your commander resides when it is not in play.

• Each commander starts the game face up in its controller's command zone.
• A commander can be cast from the command zone, as though it were in your hand, for its normal costs, plus an additional two mana for each previous time it's been cast from the command zone this game (informally known as the “commander tax”)
• If your commander would change zones (i.e., be put into your library, hand, graveyard, or exile from anywhere), you may return it to your command zone instead.

Starting a Game

• With 3 or more players, start at 30 life; with only 2 players, start at 25 life
• The first mulligan is to seven cards, then each mulligan afterward results in one fewer card (six, five, four etc.)
• All commanders start in their command zone
• Commanders can be cast for their mana cost, plus 2 mana more for each time they've been put back in the command zone
• Last player standing wins!

Welcome to the Eldraine Courtside Brawl!

The Eldraine Courtside Brawl is a special Brawl event for Magic: The Gathering Arena. During the event, players can pick from one of four preconstructed decks to play both Brawl and select cards from the upcoming Throne of Eldraine set for the first time ever!

Event Information

Event Dates: September 4, 9 a.m. PT – September 9, 11 a.m. PT
Entry Fee: None!
Event Format: Preconstructed Brawl (One-on-One, Best-of-One)
Event Record: Players will earn rewards based on the total number of wins; losses are not counted.
Event Rewards: These cards will only be available as event rewards during the Courtside Brawl! You will not be able to craft any Throne of Eldraine cards until the set officially releases on September 26.

• 1 Win: 4x (playset) of Heraldic Banner and 1,000 XP 
• 2 Wins: 4x of Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 3 Wins: 4x of Faerie Vandal
• 4 Wins: 4x of Savvy Hunter
• 5 Wins: 4x of Inspiring Veteran
• 6 Wins: 4x of Order of Midnight

Event rewards can only be earned once! You can keep playing once you’ve reached 6 wins, but you will not receive additional event rewards (games will still count towards any daily/weekly wins and quest progression).

Eldraine Courtside Brawl Decks

Players will be able to pick from one of four preconstructed decks based on the tabletop product that will be released later this year:

• Knights’ Charge*
• Savage Hunter*
• Wild Bounty
• Faerie Schemes

These decks use cards from throughout Standard, from Guilds of Ravnica all the way through Throne of Eldraine. They also contain unique cards that aren't found in typical boosters, but are still Standard legal and playable!

Want to learn more? Check out today’s card preview article, where we take a step inside the box to examine the Brawl decklists.

*These decks each have two different cards than the tabletop versions of these decks. Mask of Immolation and Izoni, Thousand-Eyed were added to the Savage Hunter deck. Additionally, Shivan Dragon and Tajic, Legion’s Edge were added to the Knights’ Charge deck. All four cards were added to replace cards in the tabletop decks that were designed for multiplayer play (so didn’t make sense for MTG Arena’s 1v1 event).

Commanders

Throne of Eldraine Set Mechanics

Two new mechanics from Throne of Eldraine will be playable as part of the Courtside Brawl event. For more information, check out the Throne of Eldraine set mechanics article.

Adventure

“You may cast this card as an Adventure, after you do exile it. You may then cast the creature later from exile.”

When you cast a card that features an Adventure, you will be given an in-game browser that lets you select which half you wish to cast:

If you cast the card as an Adventure, it will appear as a near-hand castable that you can play from exile:

When you cast the creature from exile, the creature half of the card will be highlighted while on the stack (the adventure portion will be dimmed).

Food

“2, Tap: Sacrifice this artifact. You gain 3 life.”

Food – Confirmation Interface

We’re trying out a new confirmation interface when sacrificing Food tokens: When you click the food token a small notification pops out of the card: clicking the notification or card itself confirms, clicking anywhere else dismisses:

Let us know what you think, as we're considering spreading this to more interactions!

Q&A

When will Constructed Brawl (the ability to build and play with your own Brawl decks) be coming to MTG Arena?

While we currently don’t have an exact ETA, but we hope to include Constructed Brawl as part of our October game update.

Can I make any changes to the pre-constructed decks?

The decks come “as is”, and you won’t be able to make any changes to the decklist.

Will the pre-constructed decks be added to my collection?

Nope.

Will the tabletop Brawl decks include codes for MTG Arena like the Planeswalker decks?

The tabletop Brawl decks will not include a code for MTG Arena.

How do I add the 20 unique Brawl cards to my collection?

You’ll be able to craft any of the unique Brawl cards using Wildcards – including the four that were swapped for this event. Please note that just like the Planeswalker decks, these unique cards will not appear in booster packs or as individual card rewards, but they are all Standard legal!

When can I craft cards from the Brawl deck?

You’ll be able to craft Throne of Eldraine cards once the set officially releases on September 26. This includes both the unique cards in the Brawl decks, as well as the event rewards!

Can I craft the event rewards?

Yes, we’re answering this one twice: Until the set officially releases, you can only earn the Throne of Eldraine cards by playing the Courtside Brawl event. Once Throne of Eldraine is available, the event rewards will appear in all the places cards can be found (booster packs, Limited Packs, ICRs, and through Wildcard redemption).

What about the cards that were swapped? Will those still be in MTG Arena?

Yep, and you’ll be able to craft them once Throne of Eldraine releases.

Do I get to keep the event rewards cards?

Of course! Once cards in your collection we have no intention of taking them away. You'll be able to play these cards in the Standard 2020 events, as well as any constructed formats once Throne of Eldraine releases.

Playing Courtside Brawl in MTG Arena

Choosing a Deck

Once you have joined the Courtside Brawl event, you will have an option to choose from one of the four preconstructed Brawl decks provided for you: Knights’ Charge, Savage Hunter, Wild Bounty, and Faeries Schemes.

Gameplay

Starting a Game

Per the Brawl format rules, each player is given a “free” mulligan.

Battlefield

The Eldraine Courtside Brawl will be played on the new Throne of Eldraine themed battlefield! Watch out for faeries!

Highlights:

• Each player begins the game with 25 life.

• When a player’s commander is in the Command zone, it will appear as a ‘near-hand’ castable. You can hover both your and your opponent’s commander card to view a larger version.
• The commander’s name is also listed below the both players; you can click this to view an enlarged version of the card as well.
• The total cost for the commander will automatically update when in the command zone. You can hover the card to see the mana cost (without the “commander tax”).

Casting Your Commander

Highlights:

• When played, the commander will have a distinct border on the battlefield.
• Commander cards also have a special hanger that will list the additional cost.
  • In the example above, Chulane has been played twice, so the next time the card is cast from the command zone it will cost an additional 4 mana.
• If your commander would change zones (i.e., be put into your library, hand, graveyard, or exile from anywhere), you will receive a prompt to choose which zone to send it to – sending it to the command zone is a may ability!