Hey everyone! We’ve been rolling right along with The Hobbit on Arena, and even if you’ve already had your fill of Middle-earth events, it’s time for second breakfast.
This week, we’re getting some Brawl Builder Challenge action. And yes, I’m well aware of the jokes I could make about the initials. I’ll be leaving all of those inappropriate ones to your imagination.
So grab your second breakfast (see how I said it twice because it’s second breakfast, I swear I am clever…sometimes), pick a commander, and let’s get brewing.
If you’re new here, Brawl Builder Challenge is pretty simple. It’s a normal Brawl (formerly Historic Brawl) event, but your commander has to come from the current set. This article from the Secrets of Strixhaven event is a good example of how it works. Sometimes Wizards also allows commanders from the accompanying Commander set, but I’m sticking to the main set so I don’t have to rebuild everything if they change the rules at the last minute.
I know what you’re really here for, so without further ado, let’s get to the decklists… right after these messages.
Event Details
Choose one of our The Hobbit commanders and build a 100-card Brawl deck using any cards in MTG Arena (excluding those on the Brawl banned list)!
Find out more details about this and upcoming Midweek Magic events HERE.
Duration: August 25th, 2026 @ 2:00 PM PST to August 27th, 2026 @ 2:00 PM PST
Format: Brawl Builder Challenge
Entry Fee: Free
Ends After: You can play as much as you like for the duration of the event.
I know this deck doesn’t really take advantage of Smaug outside of the value he generates on his own, but I had to include him because, well, he’s magnificent.
This is the usual plan where we replace Ragavan with an aggressive red commander and start turning creatures sideways. There really weren’t many options that were both good and cheap, so we settled for reasonably priced and powerful instead.
This one’s for the people who want to blast through the event as quickly as possible. Burn anything that gets in your way, keep the pressure on from the very beginning, and swing for the fences.
Kili the Resourceful is, unsurprisingly, great at making sure you never run out of resources. With all of the Equipment and Dwarves running around in this deck, he’ll draw you approximately a billion cards over the course of a game.
He’ll also almost always be turned on, which makes cards like Colossus Hammer an absolutely massive beating.
Take note, because these Hobbits are about to make things blow up more than the toilet after a Taco Bell bender.
If you like ramping into HUGE dudes, then these little guys are exactly what you’re looking for. Don’t let their size fool you—they’ll pile up mana in a hurry before dropping something enormous onto the battlefield.
All hail the King of Mirkwood! Thranduil can put in some serious work when he’s not too busy trying to rein in his crazy son, Legolas. I felt it was lore-appropriate to leave Legolas out of the deck because he’s probably off on an adventure God knows where.
Thranduil brings his own army with him while pumping them up to get the job done. Things start getting really crazy once you drop Chronicle of Victory or Banner of Kinship and turn that army into a serious threat.
I wouldn’t necessarily rank this as a Spike deck, even though it can certainly perform like one. Out of all the decks I tested for this week, this was easily the most enjoyable to play.
Big side note: When you cast the Adventure half of Thranduil, the game will ask if you want to put him back into the command zone. Don’t just auto-click that option, or you’ll basically be taxing yourself for no reason.
Don’t want to spend a ton of wildcards on a random Midweek Magic event? As usual, Hare Apparent is here to save you from that fate.
There are a variety of commanders you can pair with it, but I went with an uncommon that can apparent-ly protect your hares or add to the board early. It’s cheap, effective, and more than capable of stealing a few wins without emptying your wildcard stash.
Thanks for reading! I’ll be back in a week with your next edition of Midweek Magic where we discuss Foundations Middle Earth constructed. Until then, stay classy people!
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Josh is a member of the elite limited team The Draft Lab as well as the host of The Draft Lab Podcast. He was qualifying for Pro Tours, Nationals, and Worlds literally before some of you were born. After a Magic hiatus to play poker and go to medical school, he has been dominating Arena with over an 80% win percentage in Bo3 as well as making #1 rank in Mythic.
