Who is brawl for?

Last week I talked about what the Brawl format is and gave my initial thoughts on the rules and how they differ from commander. Today I want to talk about who this format is really for.

My Relevant Background

Before I get started on my thoughts, I should explain where I'm coming from. I've played magic on and off since 1997 (Tempest). I started playing standard and playing tournaments within months of starting magic. Up until a few years ago, every time was playing magic, which was more often than not, I was playing standard at the local magic shop and some larger tournaments. I can be highly competitive. A couple of my friends in my play group also play at this similar level. We love to throw down with decks that are properly tuned to be played against each other, trying to outplay one another. (Note: I would always rather play a precon vs your precon rather than my tuned deck vs your precon. Winning is less fun to me than a good game of magic.)

But, we also enjoy playing casual magic with fun decks. We played in a casual league and we never felt the need to break the game with competitive decks. We've played many different formats big magic, extended realms, tribal, and many more. I discovered EDH a little before it became rebranded as commander and it became our main casual format. I have delved deep into the format and have played commander more than any other format since I discovered it. Today, I consider myself a casual player.

I have not seriously played standard since dark ascension was the new set. This is mostly due to time constraints, a lack of opportunity in the area, and somewhat financial constraints. I love to draft. It's currently my main competitive outlet for magic, yet I realized as I was playing in a sealed this past weekend it was the first opportunity I had to open a pack of Rivals (oops).

I'm also very interested in joining the magic design team and am currently creating my own board/card game, so looking at things from a designer perspective comes naturally at this point in my experience.

Who is this format for?

I've seen the question asked by a few members of the community. Is this format to try and get standard players to play commander? Is this format trying to get commander players to play standard? Is it a replacement for either format? Is it just a way to get a commander like format into their new online magic program?

There is a lot of credibility to looking at the format as simply a way to get a commander like format on their new online program. It will be a long time, if ever, before the entirety of magic will be available on arena. Information is kind of all over the place on their intentions, but they may rotate cards out of the program and keep it standard only forever.

Replacement

First, let's be absolutely clear: this format will not replace commander or standard. I personally would love to play a standard like format with the commander feature, but this is very unlikely to ever happen. Brawl isn't even intended to be competitive as it's a multiplayer format. Commander is a hugely popular format, and they would be crazy to stop supporting it. I only see brawl as a way to help commander. Commander players want to be able to play with cards they have collected over the years.

New Online Program

As Commander is magic's most popular format, or at least one of (I haven't seen any true data), it seems a logical choice that they want to make a commander like format for their new program to encourage more people to try it. The commander format and brawl share the commander feature, which is one of the major draws of both formats. This allows a bit of extra immersion into the game. While this fulfills one of the draws of commander it does nothing to fill the other big draw - the ability to use their old cards. This tells me that even if brawl brings commander players to the new program, it won't satisfy their commander needs.

It's better than nothing though. If Arena brings new players into Magic then having a fun format like Brawl, as opposed to only one on one competitive magic, will encourage them to stay around.

A bridge between formats

Getting commander players to play in standard and getting standard players to play commander is certainly an intriguing argument to why they are introducing this new format. As I said above, I haven't played a serious standard game of magic for years, but today I spent time looking though only standard legal cards to build a brawl deck. I found myself brewing for standard a few times.

What I found really interesting while trying to gauge the community's opinions on the format is that standard players were also building Brawl decks. Maybe this format is a bridge that will get more standard players playing commander and more commander players in standard as there is a much smaller jump between the three formats than the two.

This is especially true for standard players who are not enjoying standard right now and/or commander players who aren't really enjoying commander right now.

So, who is it really for?

Maybe, Brawl is for magic players, like me, who like to play magic in as many different ways as possible. As I said, I play in every magic format I have ever read about and even created my own. Brawl, despite the name (Commander Jr. was the best name I've heard while watching community videos), brawl is a natural progression of commander. It is standard commander, and while I've heard more players asking for modern commander than standard, it is something the community has been asking for. There are some issues with such a small card pool, and some issues with commander in general, and (in my opinion) Brawl fixes these issues.

Maybe, It's for any players who are intimidated by commander, but like the idea of the format. Commander is really intimidating, both playing and building. Players have to know many obscure rules interactions that wont come up in standard play. If a player doesn't have a large card pool, they instantly feel they are at a disadvantage. The varied power levels between different decks and playgroups makes commander very intimidating to play with a new group.

Maybe it's for you, maybe it's not. Either way Brawl is good for you. New formats always breathe life into our hobby and it will be someones favorite format to play. Embrace it and embrace those players to enjoy it. More people playing magic always makes magic better.

Looking forward

I'm mostly happy with what Wizards of the Coast has done since making commander an official format, and I'm excited to see what they can do with this new format. I have many ideas/suggestions and have enjoyed speculating on what they can/will do. This is half the fun for me.

I'm personally looking forward to building a few more decks and playing them with my friends. I'm also looking forward to sharing my building experiences over the next few weeks.