Magic: The Gathering Arena – 10 Best Foundations Cards For Brawl

Magic: The Gathering Arena‘s new Foundations set is a modernized return to the discontinued, yearly Core sets. Meant to catch new players up to Magic‘s modern age, the whopping 800-card set features both new cards and modern classics that will be allowed in Standard play until 2029.

With these cards being here for the long haul, it’s no surprise that many fan favorites have found their way into the set. With access to so many new cards to shake up the standard card pool, it may be difficult trying to find powerful cards for the Brawl game mode. As many Foundations cards are mainstays in paper Magic‘s commander game mode, there’s no question that some of these cards are going to have a huge impact on MTG: Arena‘s Standard Brawl game mode.

10 Felidar Retreat

Despite The Name, There Will Be No Retreating With This Card

The recurring feline Felidar boasts its most powerful version in Felidar Retreat, a landfall pay-off that can get out of hand if not dealt with quickly. Much of the strength of Felidar Retreat has to do with its versatility. It can be used both as a tool for establishing a powerful board state by creating 2/2 tokens and as an option to bolster an already oppressive board.

Felidar Retreat can work in any landfall deck running white, but is commonly paired in conjunction with red, a color which can complement white’s strong token generation. It also fits well into a variety of different landfall win conditions, such as buffing up mass token generation or winning with burn. If that wasn’t enough, the second choice also gives creatures you control vigilance, allowing for endless pressure on the opponent without fear of a brutal counter-attack.

9 Bloodthirsty Conqueror

The Combo Potential Of This Conquering Vampire Is Near Endless

Bloodthirsty Conqueror is a perfect addition to any Magic: The Gathering Arena Orzhov deck with a life theme. There is a near-endless number of combos that Bloodthirsty Conqueror can help facilitate, as Orzhov follows life-themed archetypes in almost every set. Pairing a Bloodthirsty Conqueror with Vito, Thorn of The Dusk Rose, is one such combo, effectively doubling the effectiveness of both cards.

The card is also helped by its solid stat line and keywords, but will likely be primarily used for its combo potential. Another strong feature of Bloodthirsty Conqueror is the vampire tag, meaning that it benefits from standard life-based decks but can also be a strong option in vampire tribal decks.

8 Temporal Manipulation

Gaining an extra turn is one of the most powerful effects in Magic. Coming in at five mana, this legendary blue card from 1998, Temporal Manipulation, can be game-winning in the late-game of a brawl match where its hefty cost won’t consume an entire mana pool. The card can still be used in the mid-game as well, allowing for additional triggers, card-draw, and combat phases, all of which can help with establishing a board.

If a deck engine is already functioning, Temporal Manipulation can often simply win a game. Regardless of the state of the board, though, there is zero downside to simply getting an extra turn. Extra turns are a powerful effect that dampens the agency of a controlling player’s opponent while giving the user more time to reach any current goal they may have within a game.

7 Fiend Artisan

Repeatable Tutoring At Two Mana Holds Extreme Value

Nearly all of Magic’s deckbuilding hinges on a core concept — consistency. Brawl makes achieving this within a deck more difficult, as there is only one copy of a card allowed within the format. Based upon the ultra-powerful two-mana Demonic Tutor, tutors are one of the strongest ways to generate this consistency within a deck, allowing the player to find any specific card from their library.

Fiend Artisan’s tap effect, while requiring sacrifice and mana, is a repeatable tutor. Being able to tutor a card each turn can fast-track your deck’s engine, or provide you with cards to disable the enemies. The sacrificing aspect of the card synergizes with itself as well, as it gains counters based on creature cards in its owners’ graveyard. For only two mana, the value on Fiend Artisan is near unmatched, with a powerful, repeating tutor effect and endlessly growing stat line to boot.

6 Tatyova, Benthic Druid

Sometimes, Simple Is Strong

Cards in magic don’t always need flashy effects to cement themselves within decks.Tatyova, Benthic Druid is a mainstay commander in paper Magic and will likely retain its popularity within Arena’s brawl. The popular merfolk commander’s landfall trigger allows its controller to gain one life and draw a card.

Despite its weak stat line, card draw is an essential element within any Brawl deck. Like tutoring, card draw is a means to achieve a level of consistency within a deck. With 99 cards, getting a specific combo online means fighting against the standard one-card-a-turn odds of your deck. At its weakest, Tatyova will likely allow for an extra card per turn. At its strongest, the card draw it provides can be absolutely chaotic.

5 Niv-Mizzet, Visionary

Niv-Mizzet Is An Entire Engine In One Card

Izzet is a color pairing that performs at its best when spells keep flying. In order to achieve this, card-draw is not just an added benefit to consistency, but a core component of Izzet’s win condition. Niv-Mizzet, the famed Izzet guildmaster, not only provides card-draw itself but also does away with the normal max hand size of seven, along with promoting a non-counter spell based blue deck to ease table tensions.

While expensive, Niv-Mizzet is powerful regardless of the state of the game. Top-decking a Niv when the situation is dire can immediately turn the tables with a single damaging spell. It assists in the already strong card draw of blue and red, and its trigger condition holds an abundance of options within red’s card pool. Niv-Mizzet is an entire engine on his own, and as such, he’s valuable as both a commander and a card in the 99.

4 Aurelia, The Warleader

More Combat Phases Means More Damage

Aurelia, the Warleader is a mainstay in any Magic: The Gathering Arena deck where the win condition revolves around tapping and attacking. Though her stats aren’t noteworthy, her keywords mean that her effect of an additional combat phase is not just strong, but also has explosive potential, as haste allows for the effect to trigger the same turn she is cast.

While she is expensive and requires a board presence to gain full effect, her potential synergies can allow for some truly deadly turns. Triggering an additional combat phase allows any creature-enhancing cards to persist through both combat phases, doubling the value of their effect. She also works exceptionally well with cards that trigger upon entering combat, allowing for those cards to trigger twice a turn.

3 Doubling Season

Doubling Season Can Summon Thousands In A Single Turn

For five mana, Doubling Season can turn a middling board into an overwhelming force in the span of one turn. Doubling Season is a prime example of a card that must be dealt with immediately. When paired with something like Scute Swam, it has the potential to create thousands of creatures in a single turn. Even without mentioning the sheer force of the masses of tokens that can be generated, any trigger revolving around ETB effects can become absolutely dominant.

The same is true with its other effect of doubling counters. Counters are a pretty broad term in Magic, making the card extremely useful with both standard +1/+1 counters and more niche counter options. Doubling Season can absolutely turn the tide of any game. There’s a reason it’s one of the most expensive new cards in Foundations; it holds one of the most powerful effects in Magic and is often reason enough to run green in any token-based deck.

2 Krenko, Mob Boss

The Goblin Who Sits At The Top

Krenko is one of the most popular commanders ever printed. Goblins themselves are a classic theme of red, with flinging them at an opponent being an eternally relevant game plan. Krenko is perhaps the most devastating commander of any goblin tribal deck. Owing to his strength, even if not running Krenko as a commander, almost every single goblin deck will auto-include him within the 99.

Krenko is a simple, mono-red goblin that does everything a goblin deck seeks to do — attack with an ever-increasing number of goblins. While his play is largely restricted to goblin tribal, Krenko sits at the helm of the entire archetype as a ubiquitous powerhouse, with multiple cards depicting the infamous character.

1 Sol Ring

A Card Every Deck Benefits From

The most powerful Foundation card for brawl can be none other than Sol Ring. Sol Ring, a powerul mana-ramp artifact, is likely the most common card in any commander-based format. Its low cost allows for an instant return on investment in terms of mana usage, and is extremely useful in getting a deck’s engine rolling quickly. A turn-one Sol Ring drop is perhaps one of the most sigh-inducing moves across the entire format.

Tied with Sol Ring are two other honorable mentions in Arcane Signet and Command Tower. While not reaching the same heights as their counterpart, these cards share a similar level of prevalence. With no restrictions for deck usage, any deck is more than likely to contain all three due to their unarguable versatility. While not as flashy as other entries on the list, they will eternally serve as the first three cards entered into a deck list in Magic: The Gathering Arena.