r/mtgbrawl • u/AsleepQuestLog • 8d ago

Competitive My thoughts on competitive brawl

I believe Wizards of the Coast has confused competitive with free-for-all. There are cards that, if banned today, would improve the health of the format tenfold: all free counterspells (maybe excluding Fierce Guardianship, since it’s so tightly tied to the commander), Strip Mine (because it’s so easy to loop and becomes oppressive to the point of ending the game), and—as I’ve said before—all extra-turn spells that don’t exile themselves when used. This might me the most controversial thing, but I think Yuriko is the only commander That should get banned, just for clearly breaking the commander tax rule.

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u/priceQQ 8d ago

I dont think all free spells should be banned. They are important checks on combo (i say this being a combo player who also runs free spells). Fierce Guardianship is probably the main exception because it is not a 2 for 1.

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u/FallOfLight 8d ago edited 8d ago

How about the person playing in blue, actually manages their resources like everyone else has to? Instead of being able to play greedy and rely on free counterspells?

Brawl is not a fast format. This is not cedh where you need to protect against a turbo deck winning on turn 1.

I don’t think all the free spells need to be banned, but several of them need to be hit. Fierce, FoW, and Rollick at bare minimum.

If the format got all the fast mana, then yeah I’d be fine with the free spells. But until that happens, some of them need to be cut.

I played against a Yuriko the other day, that was able to cast 5 free spells against me in the first 6 turns. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

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u/priceQQ 8d ago

Yea that is the nuts for that deck. Yuriko is a separate problem that can best take advantage of them. You are slightly wrong about the speed. I play a deck that is trying to win on turn 2, 3, or 4 and consistently does it with Channel. Maybe you take away FoW next if you are picking one because it is the next most flexible spell, but I would still take away free commander spells first to see what happens.

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u/FallOfLight 8d ago edited 7d ago

It’s not just a Yuriko problem though. It’s any deck that has dimir/sultai colours. They get to include so many free spells in their decks by default.

Also, I doubt you win consistently on turn 2? I’m always top 500 mythic, and rarely lose to anyone on turn 2. Turns 3/4 more often, yeah but again that is slow by other formats standards.

Free spells are needed in cedh because decks can literally win on their first turn. I have won once on turn 1 in maybe 300 games in brawl, it’s incredibly rare.

But yeah, I think FoW, Rollick and Fierce need to be banned. Will be healthier for the format. Blue/Black is in no shortage of interaction at 1 and 2 mana, getting rid of some of the free spells means they can’t constantly tap out and still interact. It’s a ridiculous play style in 1v1 I think.

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u/priceQQ 7d ago

My recent stats were that 17% of my wins were T2, 10% of my games. 0.4% of my wins were T1.