Duel Commander | MU 082821 | Round 1: Keranos vs The Gitrog Monster

Decklists

Deck & Commander Strategies

The Gitrog Monster
Leverages land sacrifice and graveyard synergies to draw multiple cards and generate value. The deck aims to create a continuous loop of land drops and sacrifices, fueling card advantage and establishing overwhelming board presence.
Keranos, God of Storms
Focuses on controlling the board with instant-speed damage and card draw from Keranos's triggered abilities. The deck aims to manage threats while slowly accruing card advantage and finishing with direct damage or overwhelming spells.

Gameplay Insights

1
The Gitrog Monster player prioritized building a steady engine of land sacrifices and recursion to maintain a strong card advantage.
2
Keranos's ability was used both offensively to deal incremental damage and defensively to draw answers, but it struggled against the continuous value generation from The Gitrog Monster.
3
The timing of land drops and sacrifices by The Gitrog Monster player was crucial to maximize card draw and maintain pressure.
4
Keranos’s control elements delayed but could not fully disrupt The Gitrog Monster’s combo and value chain, highlighting the importance of early interaction in such matchups.

Notable Cards

The Gitrog Monster
Keranos, God of Storms
Crucible of Worlds
Life from the Loam
Brainstorm
Lightning Bolt

Gameplay Summary

The game featured a strategic duel between The Gitrog Monster and Keranos, God of Storms in a Duel Commander format.

Early turns saw The Gitrog Monster player focusing on land drops and leveraging the card draw and graveyard synergy intrinsic to the deck to build resource advantage.

Meanwhile, the Keranos player aimed to control the board and generate incremental card advantage through Keranos's ability to deal damage and draw cards.

Key turning points included The Gitrog Monster assembling enough lands and sacrifice outlets to trigger multiple draws and value engines, threatening to overwhelm Keranos with a flood of cards and board presence.

Keranos tried to stabilize by removing key threats and keeping pace with damage spells, but the overwhelming card advantage and synergy from The Gitrog Monster deck eventually led to a decisive board state where it was able to close out the game.

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