Brawl is a competitive subset of the Commander format, using only 60 cards from Standard sets, only 30 life points, and no Commander damage.
Card Pool
The Standard card pool rotate over a two year period, and until Q4 2021 will include the following:
- Throne of Eldraine
- Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
- Core Set 2021
- Zendikar Rising
- Kaldheim
Banned and Restricted
Although it shares the same card pool with Standard, Brawl does not use Standard’s Banned & Restricted (B&R) list; it has its own.
Only the cards on the following list are illegal for Brawl decks, all other cards in the Standard pool are legal in your deck or for your Commander.
- Drannith Magistrate
- Runed Halo
- Lutri, the Spellchaser
- Sorcerous Spyglass
- Oko, Thief of Crowns
- Winota, Joiner of Forces
- Omnath, Locus of Creation
Companions
The rules for Companion were changed in August 2020, essentially redefining the Companion text. The Companion card type remains legal though, as either Companions to the Commander or as normal cards.
The two exceptions there are Lutri, the Spellchaser (see above) which is banned, and Yorion, Sky Nomad which is itself legal, but can’t be used as a Companion because it would make the deck illegal.
Unusable Companion
Notes – I
Wizards’ B&R list for Brawl is unfortunately out of date, but the above is correct as of Feb 2021, being a combination of their main Banned and Restricted list and their October 2020 announcement.