Arena Brawl Meta

[Sharpened]

All the discussion of Brawl on Arena is currently focused on their Brawlidays extortion attempt. And I don't have a lot to add to that.

But Brawl is an interesting format that I'm surprised more people don't talk about. Maybe just because we are limited to only playing it on Wednesdays.

It's important to note that multiplayer can fix a lot of issues in a format, but since we are limited to 1 v 1 on Arena, that just won't happen here.

I think there is a clear tier 1 of brawl decks.

Nicol Bolas, Dragon God
Golos, Tireless Pilgrim
Niv-Mizzet Reborn

I think those 3 are the clear best decks. With Bolas probably coming out on top.

Now, there are other viable decks. And you can win without being one of the big 3. But those decks shape what you are up against.

Bolas dominates the board and generates massive advantage. Even when dealt with, his +1 keeps a steady stream of cards making him easier to recast. And don't get me started on Fires of Invention
Golos functions on a similar axis, and the fact that he ramps you everytime he's cast keeps his commander tax from being daunting.
Niv Reborn works differently, but the enters the battlefield trigger that is effectively draw 2-5 cards is a real haymaker.

I worry that these 3 squeeze out a lot of the fun things people can do. At the same time, there will always be best decks and these 3 can have plenty of interesting games with each other. It just sucks to try out a new brew, and run into one of these 3 over and over. Without multiplayer games and politics to balance them out, they tend to run roughshod over everything. It's just too hard to go under these decks and do damage fast enough. What are your thoughts on the format?

Sidenote: As a result of the dominance of these 3, I would recommend land destruction to disrupt them, but there are only 3 non-embarrassing options available:
Casualties of War
Ravager Wurm
Bedeck // Bedazzle
I'm stretching for that third one, although it's decent enough creature kill in the other half. Assassin's Trophy is important too, although that's because it's useful against Field of the Dead and less useful in preventing recasts in generally.

[Sharpened]

On a less whiny note, what are you playing or the fun things you are seeing?

I have a Kethis, the Hidden Hand deck that is a midrange value monster. He's mostly useful for reducing the cost of legendaries, and it's a wolf focused synergy machine.

Obviously, Yarok, the Desecrated is fun.

I've seen some pretty good mono-green decks. Mine is Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig although the Nissa, Who Shakes the World that are running around are good too. It helps that green has two of the best draw engines in the format, between The Great Henge and Guardian Project.

I've seen solid counterspell decks, usually Teferi, Time Raveler or even Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, that can lock down the games pretty well and often have recursive elements.

Torbran, Thane of Red Fell can obviously be strong, although I don't personally enjoy it.

I have seen very little of the brawl commanders, from the precons. That may be in part because people would have to craft them, but I think it has more to do with them being expensive creatures that you need to untap with to generate (INSANE) value from, and the big 3 brawl decks making that very hard to do. My own attempts with Korvold, Fae-cursed King have been lackluster at best.

[Dunharrow]

I have been playing a lot of brawl, and this is what I see the most:

UGx decks playing Thassa, Agent of Treachery, and a bunch of ETB creatures. Sometimes it Yarok, or Brokkos, or Kinnan, or Illuna...but basically, they are decks with ramp, card draw and they win with Agent of Treachery or another big spell that gets cloned or flickered.

I do see some Nicol Bolas.
I also see a lot of monogreen.

I have a few decks, but one I like the most is Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin. I won on turn 5 this week with Dreadhorde Arcanist recasting Burn Bright to give my army of tokens +4/+0.