Brawl, Standard, and MTGStrategist...Where have you been?
Since the release of Brawl and the pre-release of Dominaria, I have been surfing a deckbuilding tidal wave that has prevented me from posting anything for a bit. As I attempt to get a grip on the new meta, several things have come to light (partial quote from the Dude).
1. Control in Brawl is the most popular (and dare I say...most effective) strategy that I have come up against.
This might be because, over the course of two weeks and close to 10 Brawl deck prototypes, I went up against Baral decks (this is no exaggeration) at least 80% of the time. The second most encountered deck was The Scarab God and the third was Vona, Butcher of Magan. The rest were assorted planeswalkers (mostly Angrath) and fringe cards...and one very interesting Mudrotha, the Gravetide deck.
What does this mean? I think it shines a light on a huge limitation in Brawl. The beauty of EDH is the nearly unlimited selection of Commanders. When playing Standard, the decks are only limited by the mana base. If you invest in a diverse and efficient mana base, you can play 4 and sometimes 5 colors. In Brawl, the limiting factor is the Commander. Since Baral, and to some degree The Scarab God, has an enormous amount resources that can be used when playing the control game, it makes it difficult to mount an attack against it. There is really nothing like it in any other strategy. Even if you try to slip an alternative win condition into the deck, for example...Approach of the Second Sun, you only get one of those win conditions. I'm not saying that you can't win against the control game. I'm saying that the tools to fight against it are limited and less synergistic.
You can put Prowling Serpopard and Carnage Tyrant into your deck to help get creatures onto the battlefield, but that doesn't provide a consistent defense. Prowling Serpopard can't be countered and it provides that ability to every creature coming out as long as it is on the battlefield. Carnage Tyrant can't be countered and has hexproof...the perfect answer, but unfortunately, you have to wait until turn 6. By then The Scarab God is out and you're falling behind. So ramping into these creatures is important. I'm sure there's a strategy out there that can put Baral into his/her place...I'm just going to work a little harder to find it.
2. Standard is fun.
I'm losing my mind building decks. I have honestly built and tested around 12 (some good some bad) Standard decks with unique win conditions. There are still more out there. The field is diverse, and I feel like any deck can move into a winning position at any moment. All of the Legendary cards are having a peculiar effect on how decks are assembled. We don't put full playsets of them in the deck, so we end up including a more diverse array of cards. This in turn makes our strategies more resilient but somewhat less consistent. Granted, we're still figuring out the meta, but I think, as far as deckbuilding potential goes, Standard is healthy and thriving.
3. Merfolk Trickster
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is my favorite card of the set. I can't even explain it fully. I haven't worked it into any real deck ideas, but that may be because I see real potential in this card. It's a clever thief. It's cheap. It can help put The Scarab God into the graveyard permanently.
I could go on about individual cards, but I just wanted to take a break from my fanatical deckbuilding schedule to check in and let you know that I'm still alive. There are some great things to come over the next couple of months. Chuckwagon MTG and I are brewing up some fun ideas that I'm looking forward to sharing. Until then...
1. Control in Brawl is the most popular (and dare I say...most effective) strategy that I have come up against.
This might be because, over the course of two weeks and close to 10 Brawl deck prototypes, I went up against Baral decks (this is no exaggeration) at least 80% of the time. The second most encountered deck was The Scarab God and the third was Vona, Butcher of Magan. The rest were assorted planeswalkers (mostly Angrath) and fringe cards...and one very interesting Mudrotha, the Gravetide deck.
What does this mean? I think it shines a light on a huge limitation in Brawl. The beauty of EDH is the nearly unlimited selection of Commanders. When playing Standard, the decks are only limited by the mana base. If you invest in a diverse and efficient mana base, you can play 4 and sometimes 5 colors. In Brawl, the limiting factor is the Commander. Since Baral, and to some degree The Scarab God, has an enormous amount resources that can be used when playing the control game, it makes it difficult to mount an attack against it. There is really nothing like it in any other strategy. Even if you try to slip an alternative win condition into the deck, for example...Approach of the Second Sun, you only get one of those win conditions. I'm not saying that you can't win against the control game. I'm saying that the tools to fight against it are limited and less synergistic.
You can put Prowling Serpopard and Carnage Tyrant into your deck to help get creatures onto the battlefield, but that doesn't provide a consistent defense. Prowling Serpopard can't be countered and it provides that ability to every creature coming out as long as it is on the battlefield. Carnage Tyrant can't be countered and has hexproof...the perfect answer, but unfortunately, you have to wait until turn 6. By then The Scarab God is out and you're falling behind. So ramping into these creatures is important. I'm sure there's a strategy out there that can put Baral into his/her place...I'm just going to work a little harder to find it.
2. Standard is fun.
I'm losing my mind building decks. I have honestly built and tested around 12 (some good some bad) Standard decks with unique win conditions. There are still more out there. The field is diverse, and I feel like any deck can move into a winning position at any moment. All of the Legendary cards are having a peculiar effect on how decks are assembled. We don't put full playsets of them in the deck, so we end up including a more diverse array of cards. This in turn makes our strategies more resilient but somewhat less consistent. Granted, we're still figuring out the meta, but I think, as far as deckbuilding potential goes, Standard is healthy and thriving.
3. Merfolk Trickster
I could go on about individual cards, but I just wanted to take a break from my fanatical deckbuilding schedule to check in and let you know that I'm still alive. There are some great things to come over the next couple of months. Chuckwagon MTG and I are brewing up some fun ideas that I'm looking forward to sharing. Until then...
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