Magic: The Gathering Arena Brawl Launch Details Revealed

Magic: The Gathering Arena is bringing one of the most-requested tabletop formats to the [...]

Magic: The Gathering Arena is bringing one of the most-requested tabletop formats to the free-to-play digital version of the collectible card game later this month. Wizard of the Coast announced during the Magic panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 that the Brawl format would be coming to Magic Arena. We now know that the format will debut with a special Brawl event running from October 24th through November 1st. The event will cost 1000 gold or 200 gems to play and offers five rare cards with their card styles as rewards. They are, in the order that they are unlocked: Mace of the Valiant, Faerie Formation, Taste of Death, Embereth Skyblazer, and Thorn Mammoth.

Once the event is over, Brawl play queues will be available every Wednesday beginning at 8 a.m. PT and lasting for 24 hours. While that's the only time you'll be able to find a random opponent to Brawl with, the Brawl format will always be available to play via direct challenge.

Brawl is a format similar to the popular Commander format that can be played in one-on-one or group games. The most significant difference from Commander is that Brawl is limited to Standard-legal cards and uses 60-card decks instead of Commander's 100-card decks. The format will be one-on-one only when it comes to Arena.

The official Magic: The Gathering website describes Brawl as, "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."

Here are the Brawl rules from the site:

"You deck:

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

The color identity of all cards in your deck must fall within the color identity of your commander (color identity encompasses colored mana symbols in both the card's cost and its rules text—for example, Shalai, Voice of Plenty's color identity is green-white).

Exception: if your commander is colorless, you can play unlimited copies of any one type of basic land.

The game:

  • 2–6 players
  • 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"

Are you excited about Brawl coming to Magic: The Gathering Arena? Let us know in the comments.

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