The Ultimate Guide to Standard Brawl on MTG Arena

Last updated on December 22, 2025

Battle Brawler (Fate Reforged) | Illustration by Karl Kopinski

Arena's Standard Brawl format is constantly changing, from the effects of Standard rotation to internal meta shifts. Here we’ll provide an in-depth guide to playing MTG’s 60-card Brawl variant, as well as some strategy talk for deckbuilding. If you're looking for 100-card “Historic” Brawl, we've covered it.

Consider this your one-stop-shop for everything Standard Brawl, from paper Magic to MTG Arena and back!

What Is the Standard Brawl Format?

Savage Punch | Illustration by Wesley Burt

Standard Brawl is a game mode in MTGA that went live back in September 2019. It's kind of a Standard-esque substitute for the famous Commander format, with plenty of similarities. Commander is a popular format among veteran MTG players, and it's no overstatement to say that players love it.

Like Commander, Brawl is a best-of-one format without a sideboard.

Note the distinction between Standard Brawl and simply “Brawl” (formerly known as “Historic Brawl”). Today I cover only the Standard card pool and 60-card decks, whereas the more expansive Brawl format uses the entire Arena card pool and 100-card decks.

MTG Standard Brawl Rules

When it comes to Standard Brawl, the rules are kind of a mishmash between the Commander format and Standard. It’s a non-competitive format that tries (and in most aspects succeeds) to be the best of both worlds. So, let’s dive into what exactly that entails, shall we?

Rules for Your Deck and Commander

First, let’s get the basics out of the way: Your deck will contain 60 cards with only one copy of each card except for basic lands. You’ll have one “commander” card along with 59 other cards to support your commander.

All your cards come from the Standard card pool. First, you need to pick a legendary creature, vehicle, spacecraft, or planeswalker as your commander, which is placed in the command zone at the start of the game. This commander is available next to your hand in MTG Arena, and your opponent's commander will be visible as well:

Since your commander is not in your deck, you don’t need to draw it and can play it as soon as you have the mana. If your commander is removed from the battlefield (destroyed, exiled, sacrificed, etc.) then you can place it back in your command zone. Its mana cost increases by two () every time this happens, so you’re able to play it as many times as you can afford.

If your deck doesn't meet these deckbuilding restrictions, you get an “Invalid Deck” error message when to try to save the deck.

Color Identity

The next thing to keep in mind when it comes to choosing your commander is your “color identity”, which is dictated by your commander’s mana cost and any mana symbols () in its rules text. Your deck must then be built using cards that follow your color identity.

For example, if you pick Ral, Crackling Wit as your commander, you can only use red () and/or blue () cards for your deck. You don’t need to have every color from your color identity in the rest of your deck, so you can pick a multi-colored commander but build a mono-colored deck. Don’t forget that you need to fix your mana to cast your commander.

Quick note: If you select a colorless commander, you cannot use dual lands since those have a color identity that is not colorless.

Standard Brawl vs Commander

Mirror Match | Illustration by Steve Prescott

MTG's Standard Brawl is somewhat similar to the Commander format, but there are some differences:

• Players start the game at 25 life instead of 40.
• Your deck consists of 60 cards instead of 100.
• The commander damage rule (if a commander deals 21 damage to the opponent they lose) doesn’t apply.
• You get a free mulligan.
• Your deck must be Standard-legal.

Standard Brawl Ban List

There are no cards banned in Standard Brawl.

Standard Brawl can have a separate ban list from Standard, and though there are some cards banned in MTG Arena, none are for this format.

What it Means to be Singleton

Ayara, First of Locthwain | Illustration by Ryan Pancoast

Brawl is a Singleton format, which means that you can only include one copy of each card in your deck. Duplicating them during play with spells like Three Steps Ahead is fair game, though.

Singleton events show up on Arena occasionally and change the way you formulate your strategy. Because you can only have one copy of each card in your deck, you need to pick cards that have value on their own and don’t need multiple copies to work well.

Make sure that your cards have a good balance between value and synergy. Don’t worry, we’ll discuss strategies like this in just a bit.

How to Play Brawl in MTG Arena

What started as a special event is now a free, full-time play queue. Brawl has never been easier to find.

1. Select the orange “Play” button.

2. Go to Find Match, then find the Commander icon and select Brawl, then Standard Brawl. Select your deck, and hit the “Play” button once again.

The History of Brawl in MTG Arena

Brawlers' Guildhall

The Brawlers' Guildhall was the original MTGA Brawl Event from 2020, and it initially cost you 2,000 gems or 10,000 gold for the privilege to play for a month. The only reward was a copy of the “commander-of-the-month” after your first win. Yay.

Free Brawl Matchmaking Outside MTGA

To combat the exorbitant prices of Brawl⁠—and limited availability, such as events like Brawlidays—third-party websites came to the rescue to help people play for free.

Although you can play Brawl with players on your friends list, not everyone has friends on MTGA and you can't add opponents to your friend list.

Why Does MTG Arena Have Brawl and Standard Brawl?

The two Brawl modes have different card pools and deck sizes. “Brawl” on Arena uses 100-card decks and the Historic card pool, while Standard Brawl uses 60-card decks and the Standard card pool.

Is Brawl Exclusive to MTG Arena?

MTGA is by far the most popular place to play Brawl, but you can also play via MTG Online or in real life if you want. Keep in mind, though, that there's no Commander on Arena, and there aren’t many players who invest in Standard Brawl decks for tabletop play.

The good news is that you can play paper Brawl with 2-6 players, so if you like multiplayer games it might be worth getting your friends to play with you.

Available Brawl Products

WotC does have some 60-card tabletop Brawl decks if you want to play with your friends or local Magic players. Check out Amazon for the Knight’s Charge or Faerie Schemes precon decks, or get all four Throne of Eldraine precon Brawl decks at once.

Unfortunately, that's about the end of the collection of Brawl products. Fear not, though! You can also check out CardKingdom or TCGplayer for Brawl decks or individual cards if you’re itching for more.

Magic The Gathering MTG Throne of Eldraine: All 4 Brawl Decks!

$189.95

Buy on Amazon

Brawl Strategy and Deck Building

Now it’s time to talk about strategy. There are two main things to keep in mind when it comes to Brawl decks: First, your deck needs to be singleton, and second, you need a good commander.

Selecting Individual Cards for Singleton

Vanish Into Memory | Illustration by Rebekah Lynn

If you're fond of playing decks that stack multiple copies of a card, sorry to say you’re going to need to change your strategy. If you want to jam a bunch of Ajani's Pridemates, you need to find close equivalents like Hallowed Priest, and beyond that you'd better look for recursion creatures.

When it comes to MTG Arena singleton decks, you need to both choose and play your cards more carefully. If your high-value card gets removed, it’s probably going to hurt more.

Most control decks are going to suffer in a singleton format like Standard Brawl. You can’t have multiple copies of the same counterspells, so you need a variety of similar yet different spells. This often makes it more costly to play Brawl with a control deck, and the same idea goes for any deck that relies on multiple copies of the same cards. Insert shameless self-plug here: If you’re in need of more cards, check out our promo codes article if you haven’t already.

Choose Your Commander

Master Warcraft | Illustration by Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai

Choosing your commander can be tricky. It determines your color identity, it has to be a legendary creature or planeswalker, and thanks to Edge of Eternities, vehicles and spacecraft can also be your commander. If you want to get really crazy, you can even play a 5-color commander.

You need to stick with your commander's color identity when selecting the rest of your deck, and you have to account for the cost of your commander. Even though you can play it again and again with a higher cost, this can add up quickly if your deck isn’t well suited to protect your commander.

You should pick a commander that you’ll be able to use in coordination with your deck, and vice-versa. Commanders that have a powerful impact when they enter the battlefield or that immediately affect the battlefield somehow (by proliferating or giving your creatures some bonuses) are much more desirable than those that need to wait for your next untap step.

Also keep in mind that your commander is the one card that most affects your deck's Brawl weight for matchmaking.

Commander Recommendations

Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon

Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon | Illustration by Chris Rahn

For the aggro enthusiasts, Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon will prove to be a fun deck to play. Since their ability naturally fits in token strategies, I decided to add some payoffs and anthem effects for when you go wide and want to overrun your opponents.

Laughing Jasper Flint

Laughing Jasper Flint | Illustration by Francis Tneh

Laughing Jasper Flint is a midrange deck that wants to use your opponent's resources in your favor to gain insane card advantage thanks to its main ability. Of course, this gets better the more outlaws you run, so I decided to include as many good ones as possible. The rest of the deck is filled with removal and card advantage so as not to fall behind in long games, but in the early stages, the plan is to kill the small mana dorks that other decks run and add pressure with aggressive creatures against slower control decks.

Aang, Swift Savior

Aang, Swift Savior | Illustration by Tetsuko

One of the standout commanders from the new Avatar: The Last Airbender set, Aang, Swift Savior is incredibly good at locking down the battlefield. Think about it: By turn 3, you always have a soft counter or a temporary removal spell ready to slow your opponents just long enough for Aang to flip into a huge threat that buffs your entire team. When you add other flash creatures like Wan Shi Tong, Librarian or Tishana's Tidebinder, you can easily play a draw-go style and still keep momentum. This UW tempo deck punishes opponents who try to get ahead too quickly.

Tifa Lockhart

Tifa Lockhart | Illustration by Laurel Austin

Tifa Lockhart offers a completely fresh take on green commanders. Instead of ramping into massive creatures, Tifa converts ramp into pure damage by growing through landfall. With the right protection, Tifa can take out an opponent in a single turn. It’s not quite as explosive in Standard Brawl as in Historic Brawl, but the deck still keeps the pressure high. If you enjoy a strategy that snowballs fast and ends games out of nowhere, Tifa is a blast to play.

Terra, Magical Adept / Esper Terra

Terra, Magical Adept | Illustration by Clare Wong

In Historic Brawl, Terra, Magical Adept focuses on reanimation, but in Standard Brawl the plan shifts a bit. You still have tools like Yuna, Hope of Spira and Kavaero, Mind Bitten to bring creatures back, but the deck leans more toward a value-based enchantment strategy with strong enter-the-battlefield triggers. Impending cards become especially powerful—Overlord of the Balemurk practically doubles in value, because Terra copies them and stacks multiple ETB and attack triggers. Sure, cheating in Omniscience with Yuna is the dream, but the deck doesn’t rely on that to win. Terra keeps your resources flowing so you never fall behind.

Roxanne, Starfall Savant

Roxanne, Starfall Savant | Illustration by Ina Wong

Roxanne, Starfall Savant blends ramp and board control in a really fun way. Every time it enters the battlefield or attacks, it creates a Meteorite that pops something for 2 damage, giving you value just for keeping it active. What makes Roxanne especially strong is how hard it is to shut down—if your opponents deal with Roxanne, it ramps you on the way out, meaning you just need to play one land and it’s back on the field. Over time, this steady chip damage and natural mana growth set up massive finishers like Summon: Bahamut, turning the late game completely in your favor.

The Seriema

The Seriema | Illustration by Sergey Glushakov

Lastly, I wanted to add a spacecraft as a commander since, with the new rulings from Edge of Eternities, we can run them as commanders.  The Seriema is one of the most interesting choices you can build around. When it enters the battlefield, it tutors for any legendary creature, which keeps your deck consistent. Its station ability lets you tap your creatures to build up charge counters until it becomes a 5/5 flier, and once charged, it gives all your tapped legendary creatures indestructible. This creates a steady flow of value and protection that makes it easy to keep your best creatures safe while applying pressure.

Wrap Up

Gratuitous Violence | Illustration by Christopher Moeller

And that about finishes it all up for this guide on the third installment of the Super Smash Bros. franchise. Just kidding, thank you for coming, hope you had fun, don’t forget to tip your waitress!

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