Who's the Best Duskmourn Commander in cEDH @thunderconductor Nashi/Master Keys/Balloon Man/Valgavoth

Deck Strategies

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  Nashi, Searcher in the Dark

  A Demir turbo combo deck focused on fast mana, Necropotence for card advantage, and milling to find key legendary or enchantment cards to fuel an aggressive and explosive start.

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  The Master of Keys

  An Esper stax-combo control deck leveraging Underworld Breach and infinite mana combos with artifacts like Mana Vault and Flesh Duplicate to generate massive mana and lock the game with powerful spells.

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  The Jolly Balloon Man

  A Boros combo deck using Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker lines combined with silence and stacking effects to create infinite combat steps or hasty tokens, aiming for fast kill combos.

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  Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls

  A stax-oriented deck that taxes opponents' actions such as playing lands or fetchlands and leverages incremental card draw and counters on Valgavoth to control the board while applying pressure.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  The Master of Keys player used Holbreaker to bounce Flesh Duplicate and Mana Vault repeatedly, creating infinite colorless mana and treasures, enabling large X spells and control over the board.

• 2

  Nashi's early aggressive plan was hindered by a misread tutor spell and lack of key mana sources, demonstrating how small errors can drastically affect explosive combo decks.

• 3

  Valgavoth's taxing effects combined with Smothering Tithe generated significant resource advantage but was ultimately not enough to stop the infinite mana combo.

• 4

  The Jolly Balloon Man's Kiki-Jiki combo lines require precise timing and instant-speed enablers, and missing these key pieces can stall the deck’s win condition.

• 5

  The game highlighted the power of combining stax elements with infinite mana combos to lockdown opponents and win decisively in cEDH metas.

Notable Cards

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  Necropotence

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  Underworld Breach

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  Mana Vault

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  Flesh Duplicate

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  Smothering Tithe

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  Demonic Tutor

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  Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Summary

The game opened with aggressive and fast-paced plays, with Nashi, Searcher in the Dark, leading an all-in tempo strategy that utilized Necropotence and Dark Rituals to quickly generate card advantage and pressure. Despite the explosive start, Nashi's pilot misplayed slightly by confusing key tutors and missing mana pieces, which slowed their initial momentum. Meanwhile, Esper Stax piloted by The Master of Keys focused on controlling the board with Underworld Breach and generating infinite mana combos, setting up a grinding control game plan. The Boros Kiki-Jiki deck tried to execute classic Kiki combo lines with silence effects and artifact mana acceleration, while Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls, built a taxing stax-based strategy punishing opponents for game actions and leveraging incremental value with its commander ability. Key turning points included the Master of Keys stabilizing with infinite mana by looping Flesh Duplicate and Mana Vault with Holbreaker, enabling a near-infinite treasure generation and mana production. This allowed them to cast their commander with a large X value and establish a dominant board presence. Valgavoth's pilot applied pressure with Smothering Tithe and Drath Magistrate, further taxing the table and drawing cards to maintain advantage. Despite Nashi's early explosive potential, the control and combo synergy from The Master of Keys proved overwhelming, culminating in the Master of Keys player winning once the infinite mana combo resolved and locked the game state. Overall, the game demonstrated the power of stax and combo synergy in cEDH, with the Master of Keys deck combining mana acceleration, control, and infinite combos to outpace more linear aggressive plans like Nashi and Kiki-Jiki. The taxing elements from Valgavoth added significant friction but could not match the raw combo execution. The Jolly Balloon Man deck provided typical Kiki-Jiki combo lines but lacked the speed to overcome the control elements on board.