Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr - MTG Arena Brawl Play Guide

Intro

My Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr brawl deck is a very resilient mono-white deck. The deck is almost entirely made up of spirits and enchantments, as that is what increases Katilda's power and toughness. The nice thing about Katilda is that if she dies, you can choose to leave it in the graveyard and cast it for the "disturb" cost as an enchantment on a creature. This gives another creature the same characteristics as Katilda, but likely without summoning sickness! This also serves as a way to dodge the commander tax, as you can cast the enchantment for 5 mana, then later cast Katilda again for 5 mana.

Enchantments that exile the opponent's commander work well in this deck, because even if they take the commander back, you still have an additional enchantment on the battlefield to buff Katilda's power. Enchantments that can make spirits, like Restoration of Eiganjo and Hallowed Haunting, are ideal in this deck.

There's a sub-theme of life gain in the deck, but it's not the central focus. I treat it as a nice-to-have, since a lot of spirits and enchantments naturally come with lifelink or a lifegain payoff. Often, the biggest benefit is that you gain enough life to get an extra turn or 2, which can mean all the difference.

Here's a video showing how this deck plays on Arena.

The decklist I use on MTG Arena can be found on Moxfield.

Starting hand

I like to start with at least a couple of cards that cost 1 or 2 mana, but there aren't a lot of hard requirements about the hand.

Early game

I try to play out my hand as much as possible before playing Katilda, because I want Katilda to have as much power and toughness as possible. It's usually worth it to save at least one enchantment that can exile the opponent's commander, though sometimes you just want to exile anything they have played to slow them down.

Late game

Once I have a board of enchantments and spirits, I'll play out Katilda. By this point, she's usually a 6/6 at least. If she dies, I try to keep jsome other creature around if possible so I can put the enchantment side of Katilda on that creature. Getting rid of the opponent's flying blockers becomes important so you can get in damage with a big Katilda.

Win-cons

Hitting for damage with a large enough Katilda only takes a couple of turns, and the lifelink helps keep you alive for an extra turn or 2 so you can get your damage in.

Bad matchups

There aren't a lot of really bad matchups, although for some reason you get matched against some pretty strong commanders. Any commander with repeatable enchantment removal or mass enchantment removal is going to set you back quite a bit.