A Brawl Remembrance: Elenda (Ixalan)

This is a fairly linear strategy: drop Vampires, beef them up once in a while, tutor for them once in a while, and as they die in combat, Elenda gets bigger. The End.

Legion Lieutenant is a good pick for tutoring.

It's a fairly liner deck... drop Vampires, protect them, win (if possible).

Here is a great end-of-game layout.

Forerunner of the Legion gives temporary boosts that come in handy.

There are several Vampires in this deck with Ascend.

Champion of Dusk will draw a card for each Vampire on the board. That can be quite the draw.

Here is the outcome.

Sorin has a +2 ability. I need to remember that.

Twilight Prophet was the pick here. Double draws each turn are great!

In solitaire no Vampires die. In a real game, they sure will, and then can be used to boost Elenda.

Here is another great layout of Vampires.

And another.

Profane Profession is a fantastic card. It cannot be modeled in solitaire because you want to exile opponent creatures. I have played it against real opponents, and it's a very disruptive card.

It's linear, all right; and it's also fun!

A Brawl Remembrance: Tatyova (Dominaria)

This is one of my favorite Legendaries from Dominaria. I so wanted to make it work, but it is one mana too heavy to be amazing. It's just fun at five mana. I love this deck, and it's a shame that this card will soon be rotating out of Brawl. This card and this deck make me nostalgic for what the first season of Brawl could have been... so much potential. The deck abuses (or uses) many cards that enable me to drop an extra land and is heavy on one of my favorite abilities: Proliferate.

Most of the screenshots here, because they are from solitaire, are completely fictitious. If any opponent lets you get this far with a counters deck, they don't know how to play Magic. I am just having fun here. While I did not capture Beast Whisperer triggers in these screenshots, this is one of the go-to cards in this deck.

Evolution Sage is a major abuser of Proliferate.

Song of Freyalise is amazing in this deck. Getting one counter on each creature when it exists is just amazing.

Proliferate away!

Proliferate away!

Proliferate away!

Simic Ascendancy can get to twenty no problem in this deck. In a real game, you won't get that far. I think this card is much better as a playset and a build around it. In this deck, it's just a side show entertainment.

Fictitious win!

Proliferate away!

I will miss the flip legendaries from Ialan.

Proliferate away!

Here, I am just getting started boosting Simic Ascendancy.

Proliferate away!

A Proliferate deck can maximize the use of Planeswalkers, and can help those Planeswalkers keep a high loyalty count.

Turning lands into creatures late game is fantastic.

Proliferate away!

Proliferate away!

Proliferate away!

Proliferate away!

Proliferate away!

This is the grand finale of an unstoppable combo of Proliferate triggers. I have zoomed out the board into three screenshots.

I have two cards left in my deck!!!

A Brawl Remembrance: Jhoira (Dominaria)

There were many more low cost artifacts for Jhoira when Kaladesh was in Standard. It's still somewhat viable as a casual Brawl Commander. This deck has a complex plan to make it work: you need good non-artifact cards before Jhoira comes in to set up steady mana, and a steady flow of low cost artifacts for after you cast Jhoira. Once the extra draws kick in, the deck can take off.

Most of the best low cost artifacts are equipment. Why not equip Jhoira?

Sai creates tokens when artifacts come in.

Saheeli also creates tokens.

Rampaging Ferocidon pings, and that's great steady damage.

Scrying helps the deck set up plays for before Jhoira and after Jhoira.

Here, Saheeli makes a copy of Awakened Amalgam.

Here, quasiduplicate makes a copy of Awakened Amalgam, and unlike for Saheeli, the copy stays.

With lucky early plays, the deck can get a strong board presence (true for any deck).