Deck & Commander Strategies
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
Aggressively utilize Grenzo's ability to put creatures from the bottom of the deck onto the battlefield, focusing on tribal goblin synergies and lords to amass commander damage quickly. The deck plays a high density of creatures, leveraging haste enablers and combat tricks to maximize early damage and pressure opponents before they can stabilize.
Prime Speaker Zegana
Control and card advantage through Zegana’s draw ability, supported by planeswalkers like Jace and Tamiyo to disrupt opponents and protect herself. The deck aims to ramp into powerful spells and extra turns to outvalue aggressive opponents over time, relying on drawing multiple cards per turn and controlling the board.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Activating Grenzo’s ability at the end of turn served as a pseudo-haste mechanic, allowing the player to cast creatures that could immediately impact combat on the following turn.
- 2
Careful timing of removing key planeswalkers like Jace was prioritized over Tamiyo initially, due to Jace's ability to fetch needed cards and disrupt draws.
- 3
Land screw significantly hindered the Zegana player’s ability to deploy threats and control elements, impacting their overall game plan.
- 4
The Grenzo player considered including niche counterspells like Red Elemental Blast or Pyroblast to answer blue spells and extra turn effects but found them situational in this meta.
- 5
Vampiric Tutor was held for a critical moment to tutor out haste enablers or specific answers, though the player missed an opportunity to use it in upkeep to optimize draws.
- 6
Repeated combat damage with goblin lords and tokens steadily chipped away at the opponent’s life total, highlighting the effectiveness of tribal synergies in commander damage-focused strategies.
Notable Cards
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Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
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Prime Speaker Zegana
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Duplicant
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Jace, the Mind Sculptor
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Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
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Mana Crypt
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Vampiric Tutor
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Goblin Assassin
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Paragon of Fierce Defiance
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Treasure Cruise
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Kodama's Reach
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Cyclonic Rift
Gameplay Summary
The game pitted a Grenzo, Dungeon Warden deck against a Prime Speaker Zegana deck with a strong focus on card draw and control elements.
Both players experienced slow starts, with the Grenzo player struggling with a weak opening hand and the Zegana player suffering from land screw, which significantly hampered their ability to execute their game plan effectively.
Grenzo's strategy revolved around leveraging his ability to put creatures from the bottom of the deck onto the battlefield, utilizing tribal lords and tokens to increase his commander damage output.
Despite some early setbacks, Grenzo managed to build a threatening board presence with multiple goblin lords and tokens, pushing consistent commander damage while carefully timing Grenzo's ability to avoid removal. Prime Speaker Zegana's deck aimed to maintain card advantage through her draw ability and utilize control tools such as Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Tamiyo, to disrupt Grenzo's aggression.
However, the Zegana player struggled with mana issues and was unable to fully deploy their control elements or draw into a winning combination.
The Grenzo player capitalized on these difficulties by applying steady pressure, attacking key planeswalkers, and carefully managing combat to maximize damage output.
Attempts to counteract Prime Speaker Zegana’s extra turn effects and other key plays were limited, but the Goblin tribal synergy and repeated activation of Grenzo's ability provided a consistent threat that ultimately dictated the flow of the match.
![Reyhan & Keleth vs. Grenzo Goblins [Duel Commander-EDH] - Magic: The Gathering thumbnail](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6lP5RcyQVz8/sddefault.jpg)
![Commander Versus Series: Marchesa v. Selvala v. Grenzo v. Muzzio [MTG Multiplayer] thumbnail](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_6xdmzdhTDg/sddefault.jpg)
