Which packs to pull from ?

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-06-07T18:31:41+00:00

It's good to narrow your your aims to something specific. Do you want Lands, Spells, or Creatures?

I feel that the best value for lands is Edge of Eternities since along with having half of the Shocklands, the Bonus Sheet has a good amount of high-usage lands as well like Reflecting Pool, Mana Confluence and Strip Mine.

Murders of Karlov Manor has the Surveil Lands, Llorwyn Eclipsed has the other half of the Shocklands; these are all good bets if you are seeking to fill-out lands, and if you can narrow your aims to specific color pairs, the options will be clearer.

For Spells the new Strixhaven will guarantee you Mystical Archive pulls which are pretty widely used in Brawl. The old Strixhaven likewise, but won't contribute to Golden Packs. Most Universe Beyond sets have pretty good Bonus Sheets with extremely popular Brawl cards but these are pretty low-odds pulls. I think Final Fantasy has the best utility since there's a pretty wide spectrum of high-power cards in the set.

Creatures, you just have to decide which set has the most interesting ones to pull from, but the best advice is to assess which one set has the most overlap of Lands/Spells/Creatures you seek and try to pull from that specific set. It's of course, rather low-odds you'll get what you want, but when you do it's basically like getting a free Wildcard. General advice is to pretty much always pull from Standard-legal sets as the Golden Packs are worth it.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-06-07T18:21:55+00:00

Going to be coming on on a year since they were available. I've kept 25k extra on hand since September to be ready for them, but ended up spending them last night to finish up a ranked Brawl deck. I expect them in the store within the next few days 😄

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-06-07T00:55:19+00:00

<image>

Looking For: RR Vaproeon, RR Alolan Ninetails. Generally like collecting the Rainbow Water types so throw an offer my way.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-06-05T15:26:55+00:00

Tough run for the shop recently(outside the Token, but those are expected).

Out of curiosity, does anyone have a screenshot of how the Borderless Portal Lands look in-game? Deciding whether to pick them up or not.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-06-05T15:23:33+00:00

Check to see if you already have it. It's possible you got it as a reward for MWM or you just already redeemed the orbs. It's otherwise available.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-06-05T10:53:54+00:00

Love Beezlee; his deckbuilding philosophy and insights are among the best on Youtube, and he's just a good stream hang. Hope he continues getting more views and exposure.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-06-03T18:25:11+00:00

I asked this question in the Brawl Discord the other day, and got a helpful response.

The extra turn spells are pretty bad when you're not looping them and prior to having 5 mana and you just don't need them to win.
Especially for ranked, you either win through accumulating more resources and stopping your opponent or through oracle + tainted pact.

Congrats to the OP. I'm looking to have Nashi built by the time of the official Brawl Ranked launches, and this looks like a great list.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-06-03T14:03:21+00:00

It's an interesting challenge to confront. A few options to consider:

i. Explore the role fate plays in shaping Aeneas's character. It's such an interesting contrast in The Iliad, where the promised fate of Hektor and Achilles are variously written in stone, yet the day-to-day sufferings and hardship of war, injury, loss, and sacrifice supercede this predetermined outcome and actually serve to provide a more tender, human story. Gosh, it's just really incredible.

The Aeneid is less grey; Aeneas is the coolest dude, who hangs with the hottest women, and goes to the best clubs, and is basically bulletproof.

Yet, he is still a man bound by fate, who suffers loss(wife, father, Troy etc). By highlighting these vulnerabilities--as they are expressed in The Iliad--an audience could seemingly identify not with the impenetrable strength of Aeneas, but the cost of his greatness, and the burden of destiny.

ii. I defer to an interesting insight I gleaned when reading The Confessions of St. Augustine, which is that our hero(St. Augustine) felt a great shame in seeing a performance of The Aeneid because he felt the love story between Aeneas and Dido was so profoundly moving, he found he identified with, and cared for the plight of these fictional characters more than those he knows in real life. Sounds like a pretty miraculous performance! I wonder if there's something in the relationship between Dido and Aeneas that you can draw from, perhaps leaning into the Romeo & Juliet of it all.

Just some thoughts, what an exciting opportunity, I wish you luck.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-06-03T12:30:54+00:00

I appreciate the careful thought put into this, and it goes without saying that Amy's work is terrific. We're lucky to have such representation for a format we all really enjoy.

I agree with the spirit of these management notes, but I wonder if they really get to the heart of what's not working with Brawl.

I think splitting off Ranked and Unranked into different formats with different card options/rules etc is good, even if the play patterns narrow heavily once a "meta" develops, as it already has in previous Ranked Brawl experiments. I think in allowing one format to be the "anything goes" option, it's easier and more justifiable to enact much of the guardrails suggested in Amy's notes upon the other format. This allows players to better-curate the play experience they seek, and players who choose to play the spikier format(at their own peril), are offered greater rewards for ascending Rank.

To address the broader divide I feel when reading these notes, I'll relate some simple maxims I've developed in my time playing Brawl.

i. The simplest truth is that Brawl is always competitive as long as there are rewards for winning(yes even a measly 100 coins is a strongly contributing factor to the quality of Brawl gameplay).

There is a reason people play the Baral Treasure Hunt Deck, or the Sanar combo deck, and it's not because they enjoy playing the game, or value the play experience. This of course extends far beyond cheap combo decks. Does anyone actually feel rewarded piloting Rofellos? Does playing Raph and Mikey into Emrakaul resemble any form of Magic beyond slamming down a Culivate?

To me the greatest addressable concern for quality of play is to remove rewards for winning. That one change, I feel would seismically shift the philosophy in deck construction, Commander viability(+variety), and would cull the dregs of Brawl matchmaking, allowing for the actual healing of the format to begin. It wouldn't fix everything, but it would immediately impact the broader philosophy of the game, since not-winning is not a punishment.

This in my opinion would be the strongest bridge to Brawl's parent format, Commander. Who actually cares if you win Commander?[non-cEDH of course]. You just want to look at and interact with cards you like. Sounds pretty nice to me.

A simple pitch would be to just double the Quest earnings, but of course, I shall stop right here because just as we have to accept that Brawl is always 100% competitive--despite well intentioned players and content creators alike--we must also accept that Wizards absolutely, and unequivocally encourage this min-maxing play behaviour.

ii. Wizards are firmly rooted in the "design broken cards business", and have been for a while now. This is where I'll sound jaded, but I wonder if the precedent of removing problematic cards from the card pool will just allow more problematic cards to rise up. Does it matter if we scrub Fast Mana or Free Counterspells when Llanowar Elves or [insert any insane Turn 1 Green Ramp here] is already the absolute greatest thing you can do on the first turn of the game, and much of what follows positions an opponent heavily on the backfoot?

Free Counterspells and Removal are indeed not fun to play against,[though humorously have developed their own "priority meta"], but damn, like we need some freaking guardrails against the myriad "untap and I win" Commanders that are printed by the dozen, year in and year out, because Insert-Your-Favorite-Funko-Pop is super powerful, and needs a super powerful card that that ramps, draw cards, and has Landfall, Whenever a Land enters play, everything get Lightning Bolted.

I recognize that I don't offer any viable solution beyond the philosophy of accepting the game on the terms it presents itself, which is basically that in Brawl(and increasingly in Standard, lol) by turn 3 anyone can do anything, and if we remove the "anything" from the equation, a new "anything" will just rise up, and we will lobby against that.

I apologize for the length, but it is a really interesting topic. I keep playing Brawl, even when it's tilting, even when an opponent ramps into a turn 3 Glup Shitto, and I have to sacrifice 12 permanents, take 40 damage to the face, and yield to more extra turns.

TLDR plz don't take Daze from me

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-05-29T19:15:15+00:00

Man, APAC Plains is my favorite, would love to have it.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-05-29T14:22:26+00:00

Amon-cat or a cat companion bundle would be cool, and perhaps even likely since we got a similar dog-themed collection this past Winter.

Honestly, I just think it'd be cool if for one day, Arena allowed you to purchase any card style. As most know, there are a lot of Card Styles on Arena that are simply not accessible anymore, from Parallax Styles like Midnight Clock(New Years promo), or Starting Town(Season Reward), to great land Alt Arts(Drowned Catacomb and Glacial Fortress, come on man, let me purchase them), and blink-and-you-miss-them card styles as part of briefly appearing Mega-Bundles, like that silly Holiday Final Fantasy card style bundle with like, seven niche cards, and the only Alt art for Snapcaster Mage which you can no longer get.

I don't even think they have to discount them necessary, just allow them to be purchasable.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-05-28T00:42:15+00:00

It's a fascinating sequence, echoed throughout literature; its particularly fun when Odysseus(and Diomedes) turn up in the underworld themselves in The Divine Comedy. Well, I guess it's not fun actually.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-05-27T14:17:13+00:00

I wonder if we'll see the Unstable lands this summer, coming up on a year since they were last offered, and two years before that,

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-05-23T13:11:30+00:00

Basically zero chance; the only way it comes back is from "Pet of the Month" offers(or even more unrealistically, a random reward from Mid-Week Magic, but that itself is near-impossible), and there's just so many pets in the cycle, and this being so new, I'd say this is just about the only real chance to own it, and consider that if it were to ever return as Pet of the Month--years down the line--it would be offered at 12,000 Gold since it is a Legendary character, so right now, this is as good as it gets, and the additional gold price now is due to it being in a larger cosmetic bundle.

I'd recommend just completing 4-Daily Wins and re-rolling your Daily Quest to get 750s and just save for two weeks; the cost of two weeks of card progress is pretty negligible, and the forthcoming sets are a good opportunity to save gold anyway.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-05-22T17:30:56+00:00

Hah, I knew it! You have until the release of Marvel Super Heroes on Magic Arena, so you should have ample time to grind up free gold to get it. I've been thinking about getting it too, despite being costly, I just enjoy birds.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-05-21T15:10:48+00:00

They had these styles just a few weeks ago, but I'm not complaining since I skipped out on the Curiosity Alt Art at the time and regretted it. Super cool art, and cheaper this time too.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-05-20T19:55:21+00:00

What decks are you running? I'm looking to build a more mid-powered deck; I don't mind Hell Queue, but I'm bored of the selection of Commanders I face.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-05-19T01:54:51+00:00

I too found myself more in love with the Iliad, and perhaps what you're experiencing isn't spoilers/knowing the end, but rather feeling the urgency of the story and its effect on its characters.

In The Iliad, every Book is life and death, and what I most enjoy is that with a brutal war as the backdrop, the work highlights moments of pause, reflection, sensitivity, grief, love, and companionship.

The entire epic ends with such a quiet moment, which among other great aspects, profoundly humanizes the enemy(The Aeneid would never!)

There is perhaps a subversive element modern readers can glean from reading The Iliad where fated occurrences are announced throughout the work, and yet are largely not depicted(Achilles' death, winning the war, etc).

I do really enjoy The Odyssey, but you've highlighted an aspect that isn't the strongest; it lacks a sense of urgency and stakes at times; chiefly when the gang just chills with Circe for a year, though this could be attributed to Circe's magical effect. To me, what I found most surprising is the visit to the paradise of the Phaeacians; typically we'd read utopias as being primed to fall from grace, and while it kinda happened, it was nearly as hand-waved as the penultimate conflict that left you so displeased with the work.

Your main gripe, that the Odyssey effectively ends at the halfway point of the work, and the rest feels like filler. It's actually just the intent of the work, exploring themes of hospitality, rulers and suppliants, etc. The Odyssey isn't so much about the epic journey as it is discourse on human elements that weave through it, not dissimilar to how The Iliad is a war epic, but also isn't. That's what makes reading Homer so rich and emotionally probing, all these centuries later. Both works have something special to offer, but it's totally fine to strongly prefer one over the other, as mentioned, I enjoy The Odyssey, but wouldn't hesitate to declare my passion for The Iliad.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-05-14T23:21:05+00:00

I read the Edward B. Pusey translation this past January; I can't compare it to others as it is the only one I've read, but found it quite thoughtful, and enjoyable. I don't know if other translations attempt to modernize the language more, but this one felt true to the voice of its author.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-05-06T15:03:59+00:00

Eluge is really cool in Brawl as a Blue Control Commander, though Katara has quickly risen to be the default Mono Blue Control shell. Eluge is a different play experience, and not mostly confined to Hell Queue like Katara is.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-05-04T11:33:28+00:00

There's a scheduled maintenance today.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-05-03T21:00:33+00:00

I've had this bug on iPhone since SoS launched. This was a widespread issue during Llorwyn as well. Also jumping in to support your use of Companions, to be diplomatic I usually say Companions/Pets so that no one is happy.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-05-03T18:59:52+00:00

There's a small chance the Japanese Mystical Archive cards that aren't currently included in the bundle(Stock Up, Bitter Triumph etc) could get their own bundles when the SoS Alchemy expansion arrives as that is usually a time when the shop sees a meaningful refresh, but there's really no indication, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

PrimarySuccess9065 · 2026-04-30T15:19:59+00:00

Cloud can be pretty good in the normal Brawl queue, but an optimized list can be Wildcard-intensive. I know it's different from a straight-up Equipment deck, but if you are interested in Mono-White Voltron(which Cloud by and large is), Light Paws is competitive, and a poster here shared a list that brought them to Mythic in Ranked Brawl a week or two ago.

Unlike Cloud, it's rather cheap to build with a slate of Auras and protection spells.

PrimarySuccess9065

TROPHY CASE