I'm basing my observations on a few factors. 1) I'm a commander veteran, and brawl is likely to play similar to commander. As a multiplayer format, I know that faster aggro decks generally don't work as well as midrange, combo, and control decks. 2) I've been playing a lot of substandard standard magic in the past week. By this I mean not top tier decks, but what you would expect in a more casual setting. 3) Net decks and youtube. There have been a lot of decks posted and I've noticed some trends in the postings.
The Hour of Devastation gods!
Some of the earliest decks to pop up in this format seem to focus on using the Hour of Devastation gods as their commanders, most notably The Locust God and The Scarab God. These are powerhouse card in other formats and it seems obvious they will rock in this more limited format as well.The Locust God plays well with Red and Blue's strengths, which include a lot of control and card draw. It's a standout commander in commander and does well here as there are still plenty of options for strong card draw.
The Scarab God is thought to be the strongest card in standard. Every time I've seen it when playing with standard limitations, it's held up to its reputation. It's going to be even stronger in Brawl, where there are fewer answers and most answers will only cast him back to the command zone. Blue/Black has plenty of answers to any threat you can pull out and can simply sit back on The Scarab God to finish out the game once they have control. This is probably the strongest commander in Brawl.
Planeswalkers
You are going to see planeswalkers as commanders, but don't worry too much about them. They are more here for the novelty of being able to be commanders and not their actual power level. That doesn't mean they aren't good, but they aren't inherently better just due to their card typing.
Nissa, Steward of the Elements seems to be a popular choice and I think she is about on par with her Merfolk counterpart in the merfolk deck that she will be leading. Being able to come down turn 3 and set up with scry puts her at 3 counters, enough for most merfolk I have encountered in these decks. The synergy with explore is huge as well.
Tezzeret seems to be the go to artifact commander, though that may change once Dominaria comes out depending on color preference.
Even when a planeswalker isn't the right choice for a commander, they are good to include in the decks. So, be ready to deal with them.
Pirates!
One of the earliest commanders to become popular in this format seems to be Admiral Beckett Brass. The pirate deck he commands seems to be a fun, casual deck to build and play, but it is deceptively strong. Pirates can be a quick aggro deck or a value midrange deck with little changes. The access to three colors give you plenty of options for controlling the board while Brass just comes along and starts stealing stuff, in true pirate fashion.
Merfolk
The Merfolk decks have a strong +1/+1 counters theme throughout and quickly seem to take over the game with a large force of pumped up creatures. Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca seems to be the most popular commander of choice, but is far from the only option. Exploring and unblockable are some of the themes to watch out for in these decks.
Dinosaurs
As a casual format, be ready for the casual popular tribe of dinosaurs. There are multiple variants to this deck and effective commanders for every color variant of RWG. RW can be commanded by the token every turn Hautli, Warrior Poet. The Green white one can use Radiant champion or better Ajani, the Unyeilding, while the green red one works perfectly under the command of Samut, the tested. Or you can run all three colors and still have 3 commanders to chose from: Gishath, Sun's Avatar; Zacama, primal Calamity; or Samut, voice of Dissent.
Others
There are some other tribes, such as vampires and minotaurs, and probably ones I'm unaware of that you are likely to encounter. There is a strong counters based B/G deck that will likely see play. There are a lot of token/embalm decks that I have encountered in casual play.
There are a ton of options for removal in this format, so don't get too attached to any one card and there are a ton of permanents that need to be removed of every type. I was somewhat shocked to see as many enchantments running around as there are.
Dominaria
This format is wide open, and Dominaria is almost here. With it comes a whole new slew of archetypes to play with and play around. Have fun brewing and exploring the format. Let me know what you see out there.
Special Note
A lot of people have been hesitant towards this format due to the rotation nature. Don't be afraid of this. I played standard, competitively and casually, for years. I never stopped playing a deck because it rotated. Every deck I played, I retired because I wanted to build a new deck. When I retire a deck I simply set it on a different shelf in my collection. I still to this day bring out my tribal merfolk from Lorwyn block and play them vs my Zendikar vampires or my zombies of Innistrad. Of course, this doesn't work for decks specifically designed to beat the top decks in the format, such as my drooling ogre deck that wrecked affinity and tooth and nail, but for the rest of them saving them is fine.
I have never been turned away from a semi-casual game of standard because I only had a deck from a former standard rotation. The key is the power level and I think that is what Brawl is really going to accomplish (if that is the intent or not). Brawl says this is the power level- singleton format within a standard rotation cardpool. If two years from now you come to my table and ask me to play a brawl game against your deck from today, you will not be turned away.
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