TL;DR;
Brawl + Artisan = Fun
Brawltisan Format
Brawltisan is a commander-style format focused on 1v1 games played exclusively with common and uncommon cards.
It is inspired by Brawl and Artisan, we could have called it Artisan Brawl, but we thought Brawltisan sounded better.
From Brawl we like it that has shorter games, oriented to 1v1 rather than multiplayer.
From Artisan we like the lower power level, that it is a less explored deck building space, and that it is cheaper.
In recent sets, the amount of uncommon legendary creatures has seen a massive bump, so the format is a lot more varied and viable now than a few years ago.
Finally, we felt that Standard didn’t had enough variety to make the format work, so we opened it up to all Commander valid cards.
We also feel like Brawl required a continuous investment as a rotating format, and that’s why we went with a non-rotating (a.k.a. eternal) format.
In summary: 60 cards (59+commander), singleton, 25 life, 1v1, only common and uncommon cards.
Rules
All rules for commander apply regarding deck building, color identity, command zone and casting commanders.
Same as for Brawl (differences with commander)
- Decks are 60 cards
- Players start at 25 life
- Players get one free Mulligan
- Any Planeswalker can be a commander regardless of whether they have the ability to become a commander or not
- Commander damage rules (from Commander) do not apply
And the Artisan restriction
- A card has to be printed as a common or uncommon rarity and be valid in Commander
Brawltisan is designed to be a non-rotating format, and the default set of cards is the same as Commander (there are many cool commander cards printed in Commander exclusive sets that are not valid in Modern). If you want a smaller card pool, feel free to try it with Modern, Pioneer, or Historic and let us know how it works for you.
Banned Cards
- Sol Ring
- Strip Mine
After long deliberations, we have decided to ban Sol Ring and Strip Mine
We find that Sol Ring is ok when you play Multiplayer, as the advantage tends to be counterbalanced with becoming an early target. It is also fine on 100 card decks, as the chance of drawing it in your opening hand is not that high.
However, on a 1v1, 60 card deck, we think it is an extreme outlier and many games tend to revolve around who draws it. The fact that the average power level of other uncommons is not that high only makes Sol Ring more of an outlier.
Similarly, Strip Mine is not great in multiplayer, but is extremely strong in 1v1, and it leads to unfun games, more so when the quality of uncommon dual lands is not great. Having access to both Strip Mine and Wasteland was too much. We are keeping Wasteland in the watch list.
Also, both Sol Ring and Strip Mine are colorless, which makes them an auto-include in every deck, and with the smaller deck size, it also impacts diversity and creativity. We already have Command Tower, Wasteland, Lightning Greaves and Arcane Signet as potential auto-includes in all decks. Having 2 more in that category will make 10% all all decks to be the same.
We are keeping an eye on other cards that while they are powerful, we think don’t need to be banned.
Watchlist:
- Wasteland
- Skullclamp
- Demonic Tutor
Why play this format?
This format focuses on shorter 1v1 games. We created it because:
- We rarely had time and/or players for a proper commander game
- We found Brawl to be slightly overpowered and having too much rotation
In general, we do not have much time to play Magic anymore, so when we make a deck, we want to keep it for a while, not changing it as rapidly as in Brawl, which is Standard based.
For the same reason, our limited time makes shorter 1v1 games fairly easy to arrange, while a “Commander Night” is most likely out of the question.
Also, the Artisan limitation makes it much more open to create your own brew and harder to have crazy overpowered decks.
If you do have time and people to play commander, but want to limit the power level, you might be interested in Artisan Commander or even Pauper Commander (a.k.a. pEDH) instead.
Some Commander Options
There are a few uncommon planeswalkers, mostly from War of the Spark, notably:
Similarly, there are a good amount of uncommon partner commander, and a lot of interesting uncommon legendary creatures.
From all the commanders available, here are some of our favorites (yes, we do like red a lot):
- Tatyova, Steward of Tides
- Reyav, Master Smith
- Aegar, the Freezing Flame
- Syr Carah, the Bold
- Tor Wauki the Younger
- Elas Il-Kor
And there are many more
Disclaimer
Not affiliated with WotC or anything else similar