Brawl has been part of MTG Arena for a while now. It began as a smaller format but over the last couple of years has surged in popularity, and it is now clearly MTG Arena's second most played format. This growth is wonderful, and it's great to see more people enjoying Magic in additional ways, but it has also created some challenges.

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Alongside this growth in players, Brawl has also gained a wide variety of new cards. Powerful staples like Mana Drain and Strip Mine brought a lot of new power to the 99, and sets like Modern Horizons 3 brought multiple powerful new commanders. For some players, this opened up exciting new places they could take their decks. But for others, it seemed to reduce variety by adding cards they felt obliged to put into every deck or expected to face in every matchup.

Brawl began its life on MTG Arena as a fun, casual format where people were largely running pet or "for fun" decks. More recently, the increasing power available—particularly in the 99—has started to overwhelm this casual atmosphere. This is appealing to a certain type of player, but for others it can feel like Brawl was losing what made it great.

When a format grows as much as Brawl has, it's natural that it will need to change and possibly grow, and we've made some initial steps there. We've banned some of the most powerful cards to help keep the format more casual, and we intend to keep iterating on the format to help solidify it as the place where you can find a fun match with whatever commander you like. But we're also very excited by that more powerful, more competitive side of Brawl. Our recent Brawl Metagame Challenge showed that there are players interested in a different, more competitive form of Brawl. This is something we're interested in exploring and taking further.

So, here we are with a new Metagame Challenge for Brawl. There are a lot of different potential ways we could structure a more competitive flavor of Brawl. Should this be an "anything goes" format, like Timeless? Should it be closer to Duel Commander, where there's an extensive ban list? Over the next several months, you'll see us testing various takes in this space to learn more about what players are most interested in playing.

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This next iteration on the format focuses on removing the clear power outliers in commanders from the first event. Ajani, Nacatl Pariah dominated the first Brawl Metagame Challenge along with a handful of other powerful commanders that limited the deck diversity of the format. These cards will be banned both as commanders and in decks. We are also taking a lighter approach to cards in the 99 with no power-level bans. Unlike regular Brawl, powerful cards like Mana Drain and Strip Mine will be legal along with these five spells that are free if you control a commander: Flawless Maneuver, Fierce Guardianship, Deadly Rollick, Deflecting Swat, and Obscuring Haze.

As always, we're interested in hearing from all of you about this as well. We'll be paying attention to what you say about these events and watching who is engaging and how. We're excited to learn more about what kinds of new options will excite players in Brawl here, and we're eager to bring you all some options to try.

All-Access Brawl Modified Metagame Challenge

From December 16, 2025, to January 6, 2026, we will host a special competitive Brawl event on MTG Arena featuring a new ban list and structure. The event is ranked, uses ranked matchmaking, and is all-access. Unlike Brawl, there is no free mulligan in this event.

This event will be one in a series of events exploring different ways we could set up a competitive version of Brawl. For this iteration, we are banning some of the top-performing commanders from the prior Brawl Metagame event. Our goal is to open up a wider range of viable commanders for players to build around. With the 99, we've taken a much more open approach and removed all of the bans in Brawl. Long-banned cards like Pithing Needle or Drannith Magistrate, newly banned cards like Strip Mine, and new-to-MTG Arena cards like Deflecting Swat are all legal for this event. The event is also all-access, so players have the maximum freedom to play around with new styles and approaches.

Banned Cards

All collectable cards on MTG Arena are legal in this format except the following:

  • Oko, Thief of Crowns
  • Ajani, Nacatl Pariah
  • Rusko, Clockmaker
  • Old Stickfingers
  • Wrenn and Six
  • Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
  • A-Nadu, Winged Wisdom
  • Lutri, the Spellchaser

Note: This is the full ban list for the event. Cards banned in normal Brawl, like Pithing Needle, Strip Mine, or Deflecting Swat are legal in this event.

Event Details


  • Event Start: December 16, 2025, at 8 a.m. PT (16:00 UTC)
  • Signups End: January 6, 2026, at 8 a.m. PT (16:00 UTC)
    • You'll still have 3 hours to complete your current run, but you won't be able to join after this deadline. Matches in progress will be allowed to finish.
  • Event Ends: January 6, 2026, at 11 a.m. PT (19:00 UTC)
    • No new matches begin after this time, but matches in progress will be allowed to finish.

Entry Cost: 5,000 Gold or 1,000 gems

Format: Best-of-One Modified Brawl

Course Length: 7 Wins or 2 losses

Rewards:

  • Entry: 1 of 12 Individual card rewards:
    • Enlightened Tutor
    • Flawless Maneuver
    • Fierce Guardianship
    • Mystical Tutor
    • Deadly Rollick
    • Entomb
    • Gamble
    • Deflecting Swat
    • Worldly Tutor
    • Obscuring Haze
    • Arcane Signet
    • Swiftfoot Boots
  • 1 Win: No rewards
  • 2 Wins: 2 Historic-legal packs
  • 3 Wins: 250 Gems and 4 Historic-legal packs
  • 4 Wins: 450 Gems and 4 Historic-legal packs
  • 5 Wins: 900 Gems and 8 Historic-legal packs
  • 6 Wins: 1,350 Gems and 16 Historic-legal packs
  • 7 Wins: 1,800 Gems and 24 Historic-legal packs