Full spoilers are up for Dominaria and with its release comes the very first Brawl environment! Brawl is a new official Magic format that mixes the Commander mechanic from the format of the same name with the challenge of 60 card constructed. Since the format was first teased and subsequently introduced, I’ve been excited to get brewing for Brawl! When our Rogue Deckbuilder Bad Brews challenge for Firesong and Sunspeaker came up, my first question was about adding Brawl to the Bad Brews lineup.

Kevin quickly came to share my enthusiasm for the format, and the Rogue Deckbuilder audience seem to be into it too. While this mixed Magic format opened to mixed reception among the wider Magic community, I believe Brawl will come to be known as one of Magic’s most beloved variant formats. You may have seen Kevin’s Brawl video deck techs on the Rogue Deckbuilder Youtube channel. Be sure to check them out, and read on with Sqrawn for Muldrotha, the Gravetide Brawl!

Muldrotha, the Gravetide is an eagerly anticipated commander candidate for Brawl who will be the only legendary creature with her specific color combination in the new Standard environment. She will also enjoy the distinction of being the first ever Standard Brawl commander in her colors.

Her Black, Green and Blue tri-color combination, commonly known as Sultai, is my personal favorite and one I hope to see more legends for in sets to come. Black, Green and Blue magic have a wide range of possibilities in Standard Magic, and no doubt there will be a wide range of approaches taken when brewing with Muldrotha in Brawl.

Her design is more open-ended when compared to Firesong and Sunspeaker, which makes brewing with her much easier in some ways and much more difficult in others. For one she doesn’t exile what comes back, it can be returned over and over. So it’s very easy to think about a whole mess of things that could be lumped together into Muldrotha. The difficulty comes from the need to justify these disparate choices together – she’s positively swamped with options which are all liable to muddying the focus of any strategy around her. Then there’s Firesong and Sunspeaker again –more focused, more calculated – they’re ready to cast two life gain spells and blast Muldrotha clean off the board. The color identity and style contrast between these two Brawl champion picks hints at a rivalry that will play out at many LGS tables in the foreseeable future.

Every one of your turns, an active Muldrotha allows you to replay a wave of permanents from your graveyard to the battlefield. Muldrotha is undoubtedly a potent value engine, and it is because she is a potent value engine that she is a lightning rod for your opponents’ removal.

She’s the kind of commander who enters the battlefield with a target on her head, and makes savvy players enthusiastic to see that you don’t get to untap with her. Such responses to Muldrotha that might seem righteous or petty are completely justified. Muldrotha naturally fits into an attrition strategy, the late game inevitability of which is an open threat to all opponents that they will become buried in card advantage.

The countermeasure chosen for such hostile responses toward Muldrotha in this deck is pressure.

Muldrotha’s late game inevitability is supported by a front line of early game threats to pressure opponents into spending removal. Greenbelt Rampager, Thrashing Brontodon, Steel Leaf Champion, Territorial Allosaurus, Verdurous Gearhulk. As befits a daughter of Multani, Green magic makes up the spine of the deck. I’m very pleased that Muldrotha’s design allows for the natural center of the Black, Green and Blue color combination to be the focus.

Tezzeret’s Touch and Bontu the Glorified are Blue and Black magic twists on Green’s stompy pressure. They offer additional perks in exchange for special requirements, and both excel with an active Muldrotha. Tezzeret’s Touch can be used to gain bonus value out of sacrificial artifacts like Glassblower’s Puzzleknot, Metalspinner’s Puzzleknot, Implement of Ferocity and Orazca Relic.

The more straightforward appeal of Tezzeret’s Touch is sufficiently supported for the early game. The 5/5 body can be accommodated by a host of 1 mana artifacts. Turn 3 can see an attacking 5/5 Merchant’s Dockhand, Renegade Map, Universal Solvent, Implement of Ferocity, or even Hope of Ghirapur. Muldrotha can continuously keep a Hope of Ghirapur coming back after crashing into the opponent. This way a soft lock scenario can be achieved against opponents who are more dependent on their noncreature spells.

Bontu the Glorified is a sacrifice outlet, who with a generous amount of late game mana can activate her abilities multiple times in a turn. Artifact creatures are especially useful with Muldrotha because only one of their card types need to be counted by her ability. Thus, an active Muldrotha means you could cast both a Hope of Ghirapur (choosing artifact) from your graveyard and then a Ravenous Chupacabra (choosing creature) from that graveyard to sacrifice each turn to Bontu. Other permutations of this certainly exist. Hope of Ghirapur, choosing creature can then be followed with casting Implement of Ferocity and choosing artifact. Walking Ballista can be cast the first time as an artifact, get completely spent, and then cast again as a creature to reload – repeatable every turn. This trick works as an alternative to Walking Ballista’s 4 mana activated ability, instead gaining the single +1/+1 counter from hard casting it for 2 mana.

Muldrotha encourages using a variety of different permanent types to take advantage of her ability.

Despite there being absolutely no instant or sorcery cards to be found anywhere in the deck, plenty of tricks are available to Muldrotha’s deck for interacting with the opponent or gaining card advantage. This is most often the work of Black magic, which helps secure the dominance established by Green magic. Black magic scores kills and prizes through Banewhip Punisher, Ravenous Chupacabra, Gonti, Lord of Luxury and Rite of Belzenlok. As one of the new Saga spells introduced with Dominaria, Rite of Belzenlok can be recast after running its course. Underhanded Designs rewards similar patience.

Each of the color-intensive 4 mana spells can be raced out on Turn 3 with the help of Channeler Initiate, Drover of the Mighty, and Servant of the Conduit. Channeler Initiate and Drover of the Mighty naturally become stronger over time, and make for great early game plays when your early game is light on the heavy creature pressure. Besides the aforementioned Turn 3 spells they can even help to cast the deck’s 4 mana planeswalkers early.

Tezzeret can ramp into Muldrotha, or repeatable and renewable removal thanks to Muldrotha being able to affect planeswalkers. In fact, all of the deck’s removal options are renewable. Karn, Scion of Urza is included from Dominaria for the -2 which capitalizes on the healthy artifact support still available from Kaladesh and Aether Reborn. Vraska, Relic Seeker rounds out the short list of planeswalkers, included for her multi-purpose removal that also ups the artifact count.

More planeswalkers could be included, namely Liliana, Death’s Majesty. She looks like she’d be a good fit in the deck, the trouble is her timing is off from the strategy chosen for Muldrotha, the Gravetide. Her -3 tends to be more useful with very large creatures and while her +1 delightfully feeds the graveyard for Muldrotha it doesn’t do much for the deck as a whole for the mana required.

Once Tezzeret the Schemer and his Simulacrum rotate out of Standard with the rest of Kaladesh and Aether Revolt, the strategy could be adjusted to make great use of Liliana. Muldrotha’s playability would then hinge quite heavily on what planeswalkers are released over the rest of its Standard run.

Wayward Swordtooth and Ipnu Rivulet are a great example of the inevitability belying the deck’s utility. With Muldrotha active, Ipnu Rivulet becomes a Nephalia Drownyard with a mill rate of 4 per turn instead of 3. An active Wayward Swordtooth alongside Muldrotha allows milling as many as 8 cards per turn for closing out a long game.

The only other mill cards present in the deck are similarly subtle. Gonti, Lord of Luxury and Dead Man’s Chest are chiefly means of scoring cards from an opponent. An active Bontu the Glorified or Rite of Belzenlok demon token provides a sacrifice outlet to recast Gonti or Dead Man’s Chest plus a Ravenous Chupacabra or Banewhip Punisher. While victory by decking is not the main strategy here, such opportunities will present themselves when playing this deck.

Ifnir Deadlands, Hashep Oasis, and Ipnu Rivulet are all repeatable sources of life loss that can rack up energy with Gonti’s Machinations. Greenbelt Rampager can be cast twice to go from 0 to 2 energy as required to activate Gonti’s Machinations. Architect of the Untamed is complemented by Wayward Swordtooth, Muldrotha and the suite of sacrificial lands as both energy engine and outlet.

It’s worth giving some thought to the reactions these two cards provoke in 1v1 play and multiplayer. In regular Standard constructed, Gonti’s Machinations tends to be ignored and Architect of the Untamed would be unceremoniously killed on sight, if only to stop the energy generation.

In multiplayer, things turn on their head. Gonti’s Machinations becomes very potent, and should be used with caution because of the heat you will likely pull for stealing 9-12 life in one shot. Architect of the Untamed enjoys much more peace in multiplayer gameplay. It’s likely she’ll be left alone by the entire table until the free energy you’ve been allowed to build up becomes the pretense for others to alpha strike you in turn. Brawl can be played fluidly between 1v1, 2v2, 4-way or 6 player free for all, so while decks will often be tailored for 1v1 games, it’s helpful to keep in mind how dynamics can change when playing with more people.

Muldrotha looks poised to take advantage of any metagame that isn’t prepared to deal with her attrition and spell recycling strategy. The Brawl format is wide open for players to explore a fresh Magic experience, and Muldrotha, the Gravetide is an example of the depth and variety the Brawl format has to offer.