Wizards of the Coast said in the Magic: The Gathering panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 that Brawl is coming soon to MTG Arena, bringing another format from the tabletop version of the card game to its digital counterpart.
Brawl is a format that is similar to the popular Commander or EDH format of tabletop Magic, primarily due to the deckbuilding limitation of only one copy per card. However, while Commander decks are made up of 100 cards with mostly legendary creatures designated as the commander, Brawl decks are made up of only 60 cards in the current Standard format with a legendary creature or planeswalker at the helm.
Brawl in MTG Arena will be slightly different in the digital version because games will only be one-on-one, while tabletop matches may reach up to six players at a time.
Introduced last year as a Commander variant, Brawl has struggled to attract players in official Magic events. In fact, at Grand Prix Barcelona last year, only one player showed up at a multiplayer Brawl event, so he was immediately crowned the winner by default.
It remains to be seen whether the addition to MTG Arena will inject some life into Brawl, though Wizards has not yet revealed a more specific timeframe for the format’s addition to the digital card game.
Brawl’s arrival to MTG Arena is part of a wider announcement on the new expansion for Magic, titled Throne of Eldraine. The SDCC 2019 panel for Magic revealed several pieces of artwork from the upcoming set, which Magic’s head designer Mark Rosewater described as “Camelot meets Grimm’s fairy tales.”
What kind of things can you expect to see in #MTGEldraine? We can't show any cards yet, but here's a look at the world and what to expect: pic.twitter.com/96oVbNZ57d
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) July 21, 2019
A few more art pieces from Mark's #MTGEldraine showcase. We're not entirely sure what's going on with these molten swords, but we want in on that. pic.twitter.com/0uQeQK0jfJ
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) July 21, 2019
The art showcase continues! Some of these moments and characters may look a little familiar, but all with that #MTGEldraine twist… pic.twitter.com/T9HxzVCHor
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) July 21, 2019
Throne of Eldraine will be released on October 4. The expansion will feature four preconstructed decks for Brawl to further boost the format, with each deck coming with seven new mechanically unique cards.
Wizards of the Coast recently overhauled its competitive structure to place a bigger emphasis on esports and MTG Arena, with a prize pool of $10 million to be distributed this year across the two major programs, the Mythic Championships and the Magic Pro League.
An animated series for Magic is also in the works for Netflix, with the project in the hands of Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo. Specific details on the series remains scarce, but it will focus on a new storyline featuring Magic‘s planeswalkers.
