Hey everyone! I am so hyped to play with all the new cards from The Hobbit, but we have one other event to take care of before I crawl into my draft cave. I’m sure I could make a joke about Midweek Magic being my precious, but that might be getting into creepy territory. Either that or my wife would get jealous and try to somehow fight them. So I’ll just get back to talking about the event…for now…
This week’s Midweek Magic is Brawl (formerly known as Historic Brawl), which, as an eternal format, doesn’t change a whole lot with the release of a new standard set. That means you can usually conserve a few wildcards by rocking decks full of cards that you already own. It’s not quite as good as the All Access events we used to get on launch day, but it’s still a good way to avoid blindly crafting thirty rares for a random event.
Alright, alright…I know why you’re really here. I’ll stop rambling and get to the deck lists. First, though, let’s quickly go over the event details.
Event Details
Bring a 100-card Brawl deck using any cards in MTG Arena, led by your favorite legendary creature or Planeswalker! (excluding those on the Brawl banned list)!
You can check out the upcoming Midweek Magic schedule here!
Duration: August 11th, 2026 @ 2:00 PM PST to August 13th, 2026 @ 2:00 PM PST
Format: Brawl
Entry Fee: Free
Ends After: You can play as much as you like for the duration of the event.
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is always one of my go-to commanders for these events. It’s absolutely brutal against anyone trying to durdle around and heavily punishes even the slightest stumble.
I always recommend this deck if you’re in a hurry because plenty of opponents will scoop before the game even really starts once they see the monkey sitting in the command zone.
The one concern this time around is that since Ragavan is banned in Competitive Brawl, there’s a chance Arena could prevent it from being played here as well. If that ends up being the case, we’ll have to pivot to another option. That shouldn’t be too difficult with a plethora of one red mana commander options available. This wasn’t an issue when we had this same event only a few short weeks ago, but I want to mention it due to WotC’s history of unannounced changes.
Tifa Lockhart is another great way to end games before your opponent ever gets the chance to set up. This deck essentially asks one question: “Do you have an answer, or are we done here?”
Even when opponents do have removal, it often isn’t enough thanks to the assortment of protection spells you’re packing, like Snakeskin Veil and similar effects.
If you’re looking to speed through your Midweek Magic games, this is another excellent option that can end things in a flash.
Ugin, Eye of the Storms is another commander that everyone loves to play against. There may have been a tiny bit of sarcasm there.
If your opponent doesn’t have a way to deal with Ugin, the game quickly spirals out of control. It generates card advantage, life gain, or extra mana as needed. That’s before you even consider that it effectively turns almost every spell in your deck into a free removal spell.
This is the type of commander that can completely dominate a game if left unchecked for even a turn or two, making it an excellent choice if your goal is to overwhelm opponents with sheer value.
Fair warning, it can be quite a bit slower than some of the other options. This is really for if you are interested in actually playing games during the event.
Old Stickfingers has plenty of joke opportunities attached to it, but I’ll go ahead and skip over those. My editor would just make me take them all out anyway, and I’m sure you can come up with a few on your own.
The game plan here is pretty straightforward. Cast Old Stickfingers for two mana and conveniently dump Ardyn, the Usurper and Ulamog, the Defiler into your graveyard. One reanimation spell later, and your opponent is suddenly sacrificing ten permanents. I’m pretty sure you can figure out how to win from there.
This is a fantastic option if you don’t particularly care about what your opponent is doing and simply want your games to end one way or the other as quickly as possible. Either your plan comes together and immediately ends the game, or it doesn’t and you’re onto the next match.
Hare Apparant is another easy way to get through this event without a huge investment. Most of the deck is built from commons and uncommons, making it a great option if you don’t want to burn a pile of wildcards on a one-off Midweek Magic event.
To be completely transparent, it’ll be harder than usual to steal wins against fully powered Brawl decks, but that’s the tradeoff for the low cost of entry.
That said, the deck is straightforward, easy to pilot, and can still overwhelm opponents if they aren’t prepared to deal with an ever-growing army of rabbits. If your goal is simply to complete the event, grab your rewards, and move on, this is a perfectly reasonable choice.
Thanks for reading! I’ll be back next week with your usual dose of Midweek Magic shenanigans. It’s Historic Pauper which is one of the most popular formats for MWM. 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.
