[Top 15] MTG Arena Best Brawl Commanders

Updated:

26 Dec 2022

Brawl is a format that thrives on the creativity of deck brewers which allows the format to be very diverse in terms of commander choices. It is then a really difficult and daunting task to rank the best Brawl decks of the current patch. We tried, however, to compile a list of some of the strongest decks that you can use in Brawl today.

15. The Reality Chip

The Reality Chip is a complete sleeper commander in Brawl. This 2-drop card opens up a lot of card advantages throughout the game with its ability. In a format like Brawl where combo pieces are important, having card advantage against your opponent can essentially give you the edge in the later stages of the game since you can assemble your pieces earlier.

What’s great about this card:

The Reality Chip is a good card in Brawl for several reasons. First, it has a powerful effect that allows you to look at the top card of your library anytime, which can be useful for sorting out your next draw steps.
Additionally, it has a low mana cost, which means you can play it early in the game and start taking advantage of its effect right away.
It is also a versatile card that you can use in any Blue deck even if you don’t use it as a commander

14. Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief

Cheap commanders are always great in Brawl since you can start taking advantage of their special skills earlier than your opponent. This is also particularly powerful for Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief since this card utilizes the targeted spells you cast. This means that you can start doubling up on your spells as early as turn 2.

What’s great about this card:

Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief is a good card in Brawl because it has a unique ability that allows you to gain control of an opponent's instant or sorcery spell. This can be useful in a variety of situations, such as stealing a powerful removal spell or counter spell.
Additionally, Ivy has the potential to generate card advantage, since you can use the opponent's spells for your own benefit. It is also a relatively low-cost card, which means you can play it early in the game and start taking advantage of its ability right away.

13. Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset

Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset is a must-have commander if you want to play control archetype in brawl. This card opens up a lot of counterspells, card draw and other forms of manipulation in the game. It also gives you a good sustain through its life gain whenever you activate its +1 ability

What’s great about this card:

Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset is a good card in Brawl for several reasons. First, it has a powerful effect that allows you to take an extra turn, which can give you a significant advantage over your opponent.
Additionally, it has the ability to protect itself, which makes it difficult for the opponent to remove.
Finally, its color identity (Blue-White) allows it to fit into a wide range of deck types, making it a versatile and valuable card.

12. Tovolar, Dire Overlord

Tovolar, Dire Overlord is a Wolf/Werewolf tribal deck that attempts to trample the opponent with a swarm of powerful attackers. There are numerous ways to make use of the wolves and werewolves present on the battlefield with this deck.

What’s great about this card:

As long as there are wolves or werewolves on the battlefield, some creatures have the ability to add +1/+1 counters to their stats. This means that a 1/1 Packsong Pup becomes progressively stronger as the game progresses
Kessig Naturalist's early-game ramp allows you to cast large creatures early, further enhancing your competitive edge.
There are numerous entertaining methods to win the game besides running over your opponent, including using Runebound Wolf, which inflicts damage on the enemy equivalent to the quantity of wolves and werewolves present on the battlefield.

11. Tatyova, Steward of Tides

Considering that this commander supports this tactic, this Blue-Green deck may be categorized as a Land Tribal deck. You can use your lands to mount a surprise attack on an unprepared opponent thanks to the abundance of lands. If that tactic does not succeed, you always have your huge animals to give the last blow.

What’s great about this card:

The ramp mechanism in this deck allows it to draw a number of lands in the early going. The deck benefits from being able to launch an attack using only lands and from being able to cast powerful creature spells early on.
Great beatdown potential. With the help of its lands or powerful creatures, this deck may overwhelm the opposition. The game normally ends when your side of the board launches a massive attack, regardless of how it happens.

10. Kaya, Geist Hunter

With its ability to allow the opponent to discard cards or target creatures for destruction, Kaya, Geist Hunter is a deck that tends to lean towards the control archetype. With the help of this deck, the opponent's board will be free of threats, allowing you to more easily put in your creatures and apply pressure on it.

What’s great about this card:

You are encouraged to summon additional creatures as Elas il-Kor provides a respectable lifegain, which increases your life total. As long as Elas il-Kor is on the battlefield, your creatures will also deal damage whenever they die.
Threats from your opponent can come in a variety of forms, and the planeswalkers in this deck deal with them all.
The abundance of removal spells and spells that can target particular cards in the opponent's hand makes this deck useful in control matchups.

9. Halana and Alena, Partners

This deck is a standard Gruul deck that mixes ramping in the early game with snowballing in the middle to late phases of the game. This deck has a lot of firepower that can be casted earlier, further surprising the opponent especially if their deck is on the less aggressive side.

What’s great about this card:

Ramp elements allow you to cast spells more quickly than your opponent can.
Fast snowball potential guarantees that you can dole out significant levels of damage even before the opponent has the chance to cast blocks. This also puts them in the back foot majority of the game
Halana and Alena can allow some creatures to immediately attack as soon as they enter the battlefield. This implies that the possibility of a large creature destroying the board exists at all times.

8. Jaya, Fiery Negotiator

A traditional burn deck allows you to target the opponent with burn spells if there are no other threats on the board and toss fireballs at any threats they make. This deck is quite powerful considering it contains a lot of enablers in the creature list.

What’s great about this card:

Excellent deck versus any archetype because you'll be primarily focused on eliminating impending threats and casting spells at your opponent's face.
The opponent won't have the benefit of speed against you because of the abundance of inexpensive spells.
Opponents will also have to worry about the enchantments and artifacts on this deck, despite only being three, since these are also sources of damage that can pile up in an instant

7. Hinata, Dawn-Crowned

Hinata, Dawn-Crowned is a card that provides a discount on the mana cost of spells, which is a big advantage in the Brawl format. It also has the Jeskai (Blue-Red-White) color identity, making it a good choice for control decks.

What’s great about this card:

Control decks often have expensive counter spells, making it difficult to deal with early threats. However, with Hinata, Dawn-Crowned as a commander, it is easier to cast counter spells and other spells due to its discount.
This deck also has the keyword "target," which means that all cards are covered by Hinata, providing a significant mana advantage.
The combination of big spells, counter spells, and removal spells can help secure the early game, making this a strong and intimidating deck.

6. Toxrill, the Corrosive

This commander provides a constant threat of wiping out smaller creatures by giving out -1/-1 counters at the end of each turn. It has a high mana cost, but other cards in the deck can help you hold out until then with a variety of control cards available.

What’s great about this card:

This deck has a lot of removal spells, counter spells, and card manipulation spells, making it easier to fend off the opponent's moves.
Against non-aggressive decks, this deck will have the advantage because it can weaken the opponent's attacking power with Toxrill's ability.

5. Kodama of the West Tree

Mono-green Brawl decks often focus on ramping out land and securing the game early. Kodama, of the East Tree, is a 3-mana commander that makes this easier to achieve. The more land you have on the board, the easier it will be to cast spells or rebuild if necessary.

What’s great about this card:

A typical Mono-Green deck uses its ramp abilities to gain an early advantage over the opponent.
With this deck, you can summon big creatures early in the game thanks to the mana advantage provided by your cards.
This deck also has a strong presence on the board from start to finish, allowing you to secure threats at all stages of the game and put a lot of pressure on the opponent.

4. Ob Nixilis, the Adversary

Ob Nixilis, the Adversary is a powerful card that can be devastating to face. This deck includes many creatures, which means you can have multiple copies of a non-legendary version of Ob Nixilis. This further increases your power level by damaging the opponent's health and strategy. Ob Nixilis has the ability to deal damage to the opponent and their creatures, as well as disrupt their plans by forcing them to discard cards from their hand. With multiple copies of Ob Nixilis in play, you can quickly gain an advantage over the opponent and put them on the defensive.

What’s great about this card:

This deck has a lot of single-target removal spells, allowing you to choose which threats to remove from play.
It also includes many discard spells, which can disrupt the opponent's strategy before it even reaches the battlefield.
The deck has a good balance of creatures and noncreature spells.

3. Jodah, the Unifier

Five-color decks are powerful in Brawl because they allow you to combine the best cards of each color in one deck. This is especially true for a Jodah, the Unifier deck, which is a Legendary Tribal deck, meaning that all of your creatures are Legendary. This benefits your commander, making the deck even stronger.

What’s great about this card:

A decent number of board wipes allows you to control the state of the battlefield for both players. This is especially effective against creature-heavy decks.
Each Legendary creature in this deck serves a specific purpose, ensuring that all bases are covered in terms of threats.

2. Esika, God of the Tree

It is not common to see control decks in this format, but this five-color deck is an exception. With access to all colors, this deck can include the best control spells from each faction. This includes board wipes, counter spells, card draw, and deck manipulation spells. These abilities allow the deck to gain many advantages in the game. Control decks typically aim to disrupt the opponent's plans and keep them from executing their strategy, and this deck has a wide range of tools to do just that. By using removal spells to get rid of the opponent's threats and counter spells to prevent their key plays, the deck can control the game and ultimately emerge victorious.

What’s great about this card:

Having all the best control spells from each color in one deck means that you have a wide range of tools to address any challenge you may face. This includes removal spells to get rid of the opponent's threats, counter spells to prevent their key plays, and card draw and deck manipulation spells to maintain a steady flow of resources.
With this combination of abilities, you can control the game and emerge victorious.
Control decks typically aim to disrupt the opponent's plans and prevent them from executing their strategy, and this deck has the tools to do just that. By carefully managing your resources and using your spells at the right time, you can keep the opponent on the back foot and dictate the pace of the game.

1. Balmor, Battlemage Captain

This Blue-Red deck is powerful due to its ability to play the commander early. With just 2 mana, you can summon your commander and use it to create winning moves with your instants and sorceries. This allows you to turn your small creatures into formidable attackers, while also gaining card and board advantage. The combination of these abilities makes this deck a formidable opponent.

What’s great about this card:

This deck has a very low mana cost, with only 4 cards costing 4 mana or more. This means that most of your gameplay is focused on the early stages of the game, where you can do a lot of damage while the opponent is still setting up their board.
The deck has a good balance of creatures and noncreature spells, which allows it to fully utilize the strength of its commander.
The low casting cost of the commander also enables you to bring it out early and re-cast it multiple times if it is destroyed. Overall, this deck is well-suited for quick, aggressive play.

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