BrawlTalk

Brawl is a singleton format. Which means it has incredibly high variance and to make your deck dependable you need to figure out how to get the same effect multiple times or at least exactly when you most need it. There are three major ways to accomplish this.

1. Similar Cards

If you can’t have four copies of a card, the next best thing is four different cards that all do the same thing. Or even more, actually. The singleton counterspell suite I’ve grown fond of currently contains Negate, Essence Scatter, Cancel, Disallow, Supreme Will, and Syncopate. Any effect your deck is dependent on to execute its game plan should show up about as much as possible.

2. Recursion

But what if “as much as possible” is just once? Maybe it’s a combo piece, or maybe it’s just a really powerful card and people know to counter or remove it as soon as possible. Well then you need to get it back. This will vary a great deal depending on the card in question, your colors, and just what you need from it. For example, Gravedigger can get back a creature for you to cast again, while Rise from the Grave can get it right back onto the battlefield if all you care about is getting an enters the battlefield trigger off of it. 

3. Tutors

Black gets most of these and if you’re running a deck with black in it then you should seriously consider what tutors are available, though for the moment we’ve got the Forerunner cycle for tribes and a handful of other options. Running Diabolic Tutor is almost like having a second copy of every single card in your deck, just that this second copy costs 2BB more to cast. And while that’s a steep price tag, it’s nothing compared to the cost of losing a game because the card you need is nowhere to be found.

Brawl is a singleton format. Which means it has incredibly high variance and to make your deck dependable you need to figure out how to get the same effect multiple times or at least exactly when you most need it. There are three major ways to accomplish this.

1. Similar Cards

If you can’t have four copies of a card, the next best thing is four different cards that all do the same thing. Or even more, actually. The singleton counterspell suite I’ve grown fond of currently contains Negate, Essence Scatter, Cancel, Disallow, Supreme Will, and Syncopate. Any effect your deck is dependent on to execute its game plan should show up about as much as possible.

2. Recursion

But what if “as much as possible” is just once? Maybe it’s a combo piece, or maybe it’s just a really powerful card and people know to counter or remove it as soon as possible. Well then you need to get it back. This will vary a great deal depending on the card in question, your colors, and just what you need from it. For example, Gravedigger can get back a creature for you to cast again, while Rise from the Grave can get it right back onto the battlefield if all you care about is getting an enters the battlefield trigger off of it. 

3. Tutors

Black gets most of these and if you’re running a deck with black in it then you should seriously consider what tutors are available, though for the moment we’ve got the Forerunner cycle for tribes and a handful of other options. Running Diabolic Tutor is almost like having a second copy of every single card in your deck, just that this second copy costs 2BB more to cast. And while that’s a steep price tag, it’s nothing compared to the cost of losing a game because the card you need is nowhere to be found.

I used my removal almost exclusively on Edwin and it turns out it should have been exclusively on him because he got a Nexus of the Fate infinite turn lock and eliminated the rest of us all at once.

I used my removal almost exclusively on Edwin and it turns out it should have been exclusively on him because he got a Nexus of the Fate infinite turn lock and eliminated the rest of us all at once.

I used my removal almost exclusively on Edwin and it turns out it should have been exclusively on him because he got a Nexus of the Fate infinite turn lock and eliminated the rest of us all at once.

Brawl is a singleton format. Which means it has incredibly high variance and to make your deck dependable you need to figure out how to get the same effect multiple times or at least exactly when you most need it. There are three major ways to accomplish this.

1. Similar Cards

If you can’t have four copies of a card, the next best thing is four different cards that all do the same thing. Or even more, actually. The singleton counterspell suite I’ve grown fond of currently contains Negate, Essence Scatter, Cancel, Disallow, Supreme Will, and Syncopate. Any effect your deck is dependent on to execute its game plan should show up about as much as possible.

2. Recursion

But what if “as much as possible” is just once? Maybe it’s a combo piece, or maybe it’s just a really powerful card and people know to counter or remove it as soon as possible. Well then you need to get it back. This will vary a great deal depending on the card in question, your colors, and just what you need from it. For example, Gravedigger can get back a creature for you to cast again, while Rise from the Grave can get it right back onto the battlefield if all you care about is getting an enters the battlefield trigger off of it. 

3. Tutors

Black gets most of these and if you’re running a deck with black in it then you should seriously consider what tutors are available, though for the moment we’ve got the Forerunner cycle for tribes and a handful of other options. Running Diabolic Tutor is almost like having a second copy of every single card in your deck, just that this second copy costs 2BB more to cast. And while that’s a steep price tag, it’s nothing compared to the cost of losing a game because the card you need is nowhere to be found.

Still iterating on this with almost every spare moment I have and this is what I’m looking at now.

Helm of the Host Never//Return Search for Azcanta Arguel’s Blood Fast Gilded Lotus Walking Ballista Spell Swindle Rags//Riches

Of course to put any of these in, it would require cuts. And while a few of these I’d consider “better” than certain cards in my deck, I think they’re much less political options and I feel strongly that in a 4-person free-for-all it’s a mistake not to have political spells (more so than just any spell being political in so far as choosing targets goes).

I’m considering dropping my one board wipe (Hour of Devastation) in favor of Helm of the Host. Dropping a fresh new gearhulk or Bolas each turn demands an answer from them and likely lets me run away with the game if they don’t have it. Of course if I end up 1v1 against a token deck at the end of the game I may regret not having a board wipe available.

But back to the land trade, I have like 27 and 22 blue and black mana symbols in costs respectively (I don’t remember the exact count but it was close to that) and at least 6 of each of those are double costs. I can’t tell you how many times I had enough mana as far as CMC to drop a Liliana or even just an early Murder, but only one black mana source. Seemed to happen a lot less with blue mana for counterspells.

Do I add the best cards for Muldrotha, without just shoving in ‘good stuff’?

Do I add more flavorful/fun cards, keeping its power level low on the EDH scale?

Still iterating on this with almost every spare moment I have and this is what I’m looking at now.

Helm of the Host Never//Return Search for Azcanta Arguel’s Blood Fast Gilded Lotus Walking Ballista Spell Swindle Rags//Riches

Of course to put any of these in, it would require cuts. And while a few of these I’d consider “better” than certain cards in my deck, I think they’re much less political options and I feel strongly that in a 4-person free-for-all it’s a mistake not to have political spells (more so than just any spell being political in so far as choosing targets goes).

I’m considering dropping my one board wipe (Hour of Devastation) in favor of Helm of the Host. Dropping a fresh new gearhulk or Bolas each turn demands an answer from them and likely lets me run away with the game if they don’t have it. Of course if I end up 1v1 against a token deck at the end of the game I may regret not having a board wipe available.