Deck & Commander Strategies
Ureni of the Unwritten
Leverages spells and creatures entering the battlefield to draw cards and put +1/+1 counters on creatures, aiming to outvalue opponents through recursion and growth.
Hakbal of the Surging Soul
Focuses on ramping into powerful dragons and enchantments, using Hellkite Courser’s ability to cheat dragons onto the battlefield and maintain aggressive board presence with haste.
Marneus Calgar
Likely a combat-focused deck with unit buffs and thematic synergy, emphasizing board presence and tactical plays through ramp and creature deployment.
Breena, the Demagogue
Centers around drawing cards and growing stronger through combat damage, potentially exploiting political dynamics and enhancing board presence via card draw and counters.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Casting Hellkite Courser was a pivotal play, enabling the player to cheat dragons onto the battlefield and generate multiple combat triggers, significantly pressuring opponents.
- 2
Utilizing Hardened Scales early amplified the effectiveness of +1/+1 counter synergies, making token creatures more threatening quickly.
- 3
The interaction between Ureni’s ability to draw cards and add counters when creatures enter the battlefield created valuable card advantage and incremental growth.
- 4
Cybernetica Datasmith’s ability allowed for card draw and producing a 4/4 robot token, showcasing a unique form of resource generation and political play.
- 5
Players carefully managed attack targets and blockers to mitigate threats, as seen with selective attacking and creating indestructible tokens to stall aggressive creatures.
- 6
The use of lands that enter tapped unless certain conditions were met showed a balance between ramp efficiency and fixing mana colors for multicolor strategies.
Notable Cards
-
Hardened Scales
-
Hellkite Courser
-
Mind Stone
-
Arcane Signet
-
Arcane Sanctum
-
Cybernetica Datasmith
-
Opal Palace
Gameplay Summary
The game began with players establishing their mana bases and deploying early ramp and utility artifacts like Mind Stone and Arcane Signet.
Hardened Scales was played early to augment +1/+1 counter strategies, and Merfolk tribal synergies started to build with cards like Tyrant of Orasaka creating tokens and drawing cards.
Ureni of the Unwritten was utilized to leverage spells and creatures entering the battlefield, while Breena, the Demagogue focused on drawing cards and growing in power.
Hakbal of the Surging Soul ramped into powerful dragons and enchantments, culminating in casting Hellkite Courser, which allowed for aggressive board presence with haste and additional dragon drops from the top cards of the library.
Marneus Calgar represented a more thematic 40k-style deck, potentially focused on combat and unit buffs, though early turns mostly involved ramp and setup. As the midgame unfolded, key moments included the use of Hellkite Courser's ability to cheat dragons onto the battlefield and generate combat triggers, as well as synergy with Ureni’s ability to draw cards and put counters on creatures.
Hardened Scales amplified token growth, enabling Merfolk to flood the board with counters and threats.
The interaction between the command zone triggers and dragon tribal effects generated significant tempo swings.
Defensive plays like creating indestructible tokens and tapping down blockers were noted, but aggressive swings by dragons and Merfolk tokens pressured opponents, leading to a dynamic multiplayer tension.
The game’s win condition appeared to revolve around overwhelming opponents with large, counter-enhanced creatures and repeated commander casts enabled by synergy cards and triggered abilities.
![This Time, It's Personal! [Commander VS] | Magic: the Gathering Commander Gameplay thumbnail](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VibCoKEPrWU/sddefault.jpg)
![Warhammer 40,000 Upgraded [Commander VS 313] | Magic: the Gathering Commander Gameplay thumbnail](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/C5lxkOuAUw0/sddefault.jpg)
