Deck & Commander Strategies
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
A superfriends deck focusing on ramping into powerful planeswalkers, then using proliferate and counter doublers like Doubling Season to build overwhelming loyalty counters and control the board.
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
A self-mill and reanimation deck that generates zombies each time cards are milled, then uses those zombies and reanimated creatures to overwhelm opponents and control the game.
Samut, Voice of Dissent
A Naya cheat-into-play deck that accelerates powerful creatures like dragons and angels onto the battlefield, leveraging haste and combat damage to quickly reduce opponents’ life totals.
Tymna the Weaver & Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper
An Abzan lifegain deck that combines lifelink and wither effects to gain large amounts of life, sustain through damage, and leverage synergies from life gain triggers.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Using Demonic Tutor and Belladros Reclamation Sage early to destroy Authority of the Council significantly slowed down the lifegain deck's momentum.
- 2
Garuk, Apex Predator’s removal of key creatures like Samut was pivotal in controlling aggressive threats.
- 3
Sidisi’s self-mill strategy generated multiple zombies but was unable to dominate due to timely board wipes and removal.
- 4
Atraxa’s use of proliferate during opponents’ end steps helped maintain planeswalker loyalty counters despite aggressive combat damage.
- 5
The Samut player’s strategy of cheating large creatures into play combined with haste allowed for strong combat phases that eliminated multiple opponents simultaneously.
- 6
Despite Atraxa’s slow but powerful planeswalker control plan, the acceleration and combat damage from the Samut deck proved decisive in winning before Atraxa could stabilize.
Notable Cards
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World Shaper
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Sylvan Library
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Demonic Tutor
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Toxic Deluge
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Gisela, the Broken Blade
Gameplay Summary
The game began with all four players setting up their mana bases and early board presence, with Atraxa focusing on ramp and planeswalkers, Sidisi self-milling to build a zombie army, Samut cheating large creatures into play, and the Tymna & Ikra Shidiqi partner deck generating life gain synergies.
Early turns featured ramp spells, signets, and a few key creatures and planeswalkers entering the battlefield.
Sidisi’s self-mill strategy quickly developed a board of zombies, while Atraxa aimed to proliferate counters on planeswalkers.
Samut’s aggressive approach involved cheating powerful creatures like dragons and angels into play to apply combat pressure.
Tymna and Ikra built a lifegain engine, leveraging wither and lifelink synergies to sustain through the early skirmishes. Mid-game, the board state shifted dramatically as removal spells and combat exchanges thinned the battlefield.
Atraxa’s player adeptly used proliferate alongside powerful planeswalkers to maintain control, while Sidisi’s self-mill and reanimation strategy continued to produce value.
Notable plays included Garuk, Apex Predator removing key threats and Atraxa casting Cultivated and Sword of the Enemy to maintain board presence.
A critical point came when a well-timed board wipe by Samut’s player decimated the field, leaving only a handful of creatures and players vulnerable.
This enabled the Samut player to push through lethal damage, eliminating two opponents.
Atraxa’s control and plane walker synergy proved resilient, but ultimately the Samut deck’s aggressive creature-based combat strategy clinched the victory before Atraxa’s slower planeswalker plan could take full effect.