Summary
One of the best game modes onMagic: The Gathering Arena, for the sheer variety of decks that can come from it and the constantly updated card base that shifts the meta, is Brawl. With the addition of Alchemy cards that can only be found on Arena, Brawl can be one of the most fun game modes to build for.
With hundreds of legendary creatures and planeswalkers to choose from, choosing a commander for your Brawl deck can be daunting, especially if you want to maximize your win rate. However, there are a handful of Brawl commanders that are not only reliable, but are essential for the top decks.
10Mythweaver Poq
Additional Land, Power, And Triggers
Mythweaver Poq is especially dangerous in Brawl for its ability to quickly double your access to mana while doubling your landfall triggers by conjuring another land every turn. With lands like Fabled Passage or Evolving Wilds, you are activating four landfall triggers in one turn.
Combined with Scute Swarm or Scapeshift, you’re able to quickly get a major board advantage in terms of both creatures and mana, which makes you nearly unstoppable if you can add card draw. Even just alone, Poq can lead you to humongous green creatures like Gigantosauras and The Tarrasque.
9Jodah, The Unifier
Legendary Creature Synergy
Jodah, The Unifier focuses on getting you as many legendary creatures on the field as possible while making each one stronger with every cast. Because Jodah is in five colors, this gives you access to all the most powerful legendary creatures in Arena while potentially putting them on the battlefield for no mana.
You have a lot of wiggle room when making a Jodah deck, as the only qualifier is that it contains mostly legendary cards. The other small part being color fixing and mana ramp to verify you get all the right colors, like Chromatic Lantern and Timeless Lotus
8Etali, Primal Conqueror
Turn Nine Win And Free Cards
Etali, Primal Conqueror’s main winning strategy is a combination of casting multiple cards for free, and being a strong beater on its own.The flip side of the card onto Etali, Primal sickness has a combination of indestructible, trample, toxic, and being 11/11, which is a one-hit kill if at least ten damage gets through.
Although you are held back by Etali’s high casting cost, in red and green you have easy access to mana spells and treasures. This can potentially get you to Primal Sickness in less than nine turns, and swing for an instant win.
7Voja, Jaws Of The Conclave
Elf And Wolf Synergy With Mass Counters And Card Draw
Combining the power of Wolves and Elves, Voja, Jaws of the Conclave can use only a few creatures on the board to draw multiple cards and mass buff all of your creatures every turn. Although Wolves can also trigger one of Voja’s abilities, you only need two or three cheap Wolves to get the most out of it.
Otherwise, there are dozens of powerful Elves in Arena that utilize +1/+1 counters, and Voja happily obliges. Cards like Marwyn, the Nurturer, Pelt Collector, and Allosaurus Shepherd can use +1/+1 counters to buff themselves with keywords, add extra mana, and massively increase the power of all your Elves.
6Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon
Artifact Synergy And Free Creatures
The two parts of Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon decks are using various buff spells popular in white to make it bigger so that it can create more Gnomes when it hits, while using artifact synergies to buff them all. This can quickly set you up for combat steps where you only need one creature to create dozens attacking simultaneously.
Cards like Luminarch Aspirant and Victory’s Envoy can reliably make Anim stronger every turn while also buffing your Gnome army. Combined with artifact synergies like Tempered Steel and Steel Overseer, you may have a very strong battlefield that is only weak to total board wipes.
5Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
Counter And Keyword Synergy
Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice is a commander that seems simple but can be used reliably in a lot of deck types, all of which rely on using various types of counters. The most obvious way to use Atraxais with +1/+1 countersto quickly ramp up your creatures on every turn.
Combined with planeswalkers, Atraxa can set you up to cast their ultimate abilities multiple turns early, which, on their own, are often game-winning emblems or effects. Even just alone, Atraxa only costs four mana, is a 4/4 creature, and is drowning in dangerous keyword abilities.
4Rusko, Clockmaker
Life Drain With Extra Mana And Blink Synergy
Rusko, Clockmaker seems like a weak card in terms of mana costs and abilities, but is surprisingly reliable and can be used to completely control the game soon after it lands on the battlefield. By including blink effects like Displacer Kitten and Essence Flux, you may add more Midnight Clocks every turn.
With just a bunch of cheap noncreature spells, you will find that you have answers to almost everything your opponent plays, while having enough mana and card draw to never run out. By playing Paradox Engine, you are also untapping all of your Clocks for free mana on every spell you cast.
3The First Sliver
Sliver Supremacy
There really is only one deck you can make with The First Sliver and that is if all of your creatures share the Sliver creature type. However, because nearlyall Slivers grant various buffsto all other Slivers, every creature on your battlefield gets exponentially more powerful with every cast.
This is how The First Sliver is perfect for Sliver decks, as it uses cascade to get as many slivers out as possible as fast as you can. This makes it more important as a commander than Sliver Hivelord, as in a best-of-one brawl game, you need to grow as quickly as possible.
2Roxanne, Starfall Savant
Artifact Synergy, Burn Damage, And Extra Mana
Roxanne, Starfall Savant is a type of card that can pay for itself and has so much value on the battlefield that you can easily use it play the biggest cards in the game. Roxanne’s most notable effect is that you get a free Meteorite, which is normally five mana.
Because all of the Meteorites and Treasure tokens you make will double their generated mana, Roxanne is perfect for quickly playing massive creatures like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger or Etali, Primal Conqueror. With cards like Panharmonicon, you are doubling this trigger and essentially getting a ten-mana discount, four damage, and four free mana.
1Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Cheap Commander With Extra Mana And Card Steal
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is probably thestrongest mono-red commanderfor Brawl, as it can generate additional mana in the form of Treasure tokens and steal your opponents' cards every turn. Besides just the additional mana and cards, Ragavan is perfect in best-of-one in that red decks excel in winning as fast as possible.
Most cards that synergize with Ragavan are burn cards like Lightning Strike, Abrade, and Lightning Bolt, which can be easily played with all the extra mana. With cards like Arcane Signet, Chromatic Lantern, and Mox Amber you’re able to ensure you always have the right color mana for casting your opponent’s cards, even without treasures.
