Ranked Brawl has finally arrived in Magic: The Gathering Arena, and it's taken a lot of testing to get to the point where Wizards of the Coast is happy to let players compete to see who can build the best 100-card singleton decks in the arena.
Brawl has been around for a while in Arena as an alternative to Commander, but the format has had no competitive aspect, just a casual game mode, until now. A recent test of the ranked version went well enough to make the mode permanent.
When does ranked contention start in the MTG arena?
Ranked Brawl will begin on Tuesday, June 23, 2026 at the MTG Arena.
Game Mode will be available to play between June 2 and June 11 as part of a special modified event, with no entry fee required, although none of your wins will carry over to Ranked Mode.
Since its inception as an MTG Arena format, Brawl has quickly grown to become the game's second-most popular format. While Wizards of the Coast still hasn't ruled out Commander as a future format, it's the closest we have for now.
MTG Arena's Commander-like format skirmishes are finally getting ranked play
The long-awaited competitive game mode arrives in Magic: The Gathering Arena on June 23, and it considers deck strength in matchmaking.
Hierarchical contention ban list
A total of ten cards are restricted in ranked contention at the start of the format:
- Ajani, Nakatal Pariya
- Nadu, the winged wisdom
- Lutri, the spellchaser
- Oko, thief of the crown
- Old stickfingers
- Ragavan, Nimble Pilfer
- Rusco, watchmaker
- Tamiyo, the curious student
- Rain and six
- Tajik, military valor
While Wizards of the Coast has left the door open for more bans, it will monitor the new format closely, so if any game-breaking cards surface, they'll likely be dealt with sooner rather than later. If the cards you own are banned at a later date, you will be awarded one MTG Arena Wildcard for each copy you create.
How Ranked Brawl Works
Ranked Brawl will work just like any other ranked format in MTG Arena. This means a range of ranks from Bronze to Mythic.
Provides two steps on the progression track up to the Platinum rank; After that, each win grants only one move. You cannot lose track progress until you reach Gold rank, at which point you will lose one step for each loss.
You cannot drop out of the overall rankings by losing games, even in mythic rank. This means that if you manage to secure Mythic in a season but lose every game at that level, you will still be in Mythic and receive rewards for it at the end of the month.
Ranked seasons are monthly, and awards are given out on the first day of the month. Your rank is also reset, meaning you drop a few levels and have to work your way back up.
Players start at 25 lives and no longer have access to a free mulligan.
Outside of the above, the Brawl format is exactly the same as it is in casual mode, requiring you to assemble a 100-card singleton deck led by a commander.
Magic: The Gathering – Marvel Super Heroes Set Guide
Now that we've had our first in-depth look at this upcoming MTG set, we can take you through the release date, card previews, and all the products.
