Atraxa vs. Acererak - LTC#8 Saturday - SEMIFINAL - Duel Commander - EDH│MTG│bitzelberg

Deck Strategies

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  Acererak the Archlich

  Acererak's deck focuses on assembling a combo using artifacts like Carnival of Souls and leveraging dungeon progression for incremental value. It uses disruption and interaction, including casting Grief for free and employing life gain synergies with Black Monument, to control the game and eventually go infinite with Harmless Summoning to reduce commander costs.

• 

  Atraxa, Grand Unifier

  Atraxa's deck aims to control the board with removal and board wipes while building a strong board presence through proliferate and tokens. It uses efficient interaction like Abrupt Decay and Wrath of the Skies to disrupt opponents' combos and maintain tempo, eventually winning through overwhelming board state and incremental damage.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Acererak's use of Carnival of Souls combined with Black Monument allowed for a cost-effective combo that maintained life total while ramping mana.

• 2

  Casting Grief for free multiple times provided significant tempo advantage and disruption against Atraxa's control elements.

• 3

  Atraxa’s deployment of Wrath of the Skies was critical to reset the board and remove key artifacts and enchantments, slowing down Acererak’s combo execution.

• 4

  Harmless Summoning synergized with Acererak’s commander to reduce casting costs and enable infinite repeats of Aerok casts.

• 5

  Atraxa’s ability to generate tokens with Shikai helped stabilize the board and apply pressure, forcing Acererak into a defensive posture.

• 6

  The use of dungeon progression by Acererak to generate incremental advantages was pivotal but required careful timing to avoid being disrupted by Atraxa’s removal spells.

Notable Cards

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  Carnival of Souls

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  Grief

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  Abrupt Decay

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  Wrath of the Skies

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  Demonic Tutor

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  Psychic Frog

Summary

The game featured a duel between Acererak the Archlich and Atraxa, Grand Unifier, showcasing a clash between a combo/control-oriented deck and a proliferate-focused midrange strategy. Acererak established early synergy by successfully assembling combo pieces, including the key artifact Carnival of Souls, which required Black Monument to maintain life and mana balance. He leveraged disruptive elements such as Grief cast multiple times for free and utilized dungeon progression from Dungeon of the Mad Mage to grind out incremental advantages. Meanwhile, Atraxa utilized her proliferate ability and a suite of control tools, including Abrupt Decay and Wrath of the Skies, to manage the board and counter Acererak's threats. The presence of powerful artifacts like Shikai and strategic plays around mana acceleration allowed Atraxa to apply steady pressure and maintain resilience against the combo threat.