The Stomping Grounds: Be'lakor vs Heliod vs Shanid vs Ghalta // High Power Commander Gameplay

Deck Strategies

• 

  Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge

  Leverages casting legendary spells to draw additional cards and maintain card advantage, slowly building a powerful board presence through synergistic legendary permanents.

• 

  Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant

  Focuses on ramping heavily into large creatures and leveraging Ghalta’s size and haste to smash opponents quickly, often using spells and equipment to boost damage output.

• 

  Heliod, the Radiant Dawn

  Aims to flip Heliod into its Warped Eclipse form to punish opponents for drawing cards, generating extreme value and disrupting their game plans while controlling the board.

• 

  Be'lakor, the Dark Master

  Uses demon tribal synergies and damage dealing abilities to weaken opponents, alongside card draw and board control to steadily chip away at the game state.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  The activation of Agatha's Soul Cauldron to treat creatures as having one-one counters allowed for flexible sacrifice strategies and recurring threats, creating resilience on the board.

• 2

  Using Jarina, Wolfrider's sacrifice to grant indestructibility to humans before resolving Blasphemous Act effectively protected key creatures from a board wipe.

• 3

  The decision to cast Ghalta with haste and follow up with Craterhoof Behemoth provided a sudden burst of combat damage potential, threatening multiple opponents simultaneously.

• 4

  Strategic use of flash creatures like Fairy Mastermind enabled players to protect their resources and respond to opponents' plays dynamically.

• 5

  Players carefully managed life totals and damage timing, especially considering Ancient Tomb's life loss and Be'lakor's life-payment draw abilities, balancing risk and reward.

Notable Cards

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  Agatha's Soul Cauldron

• 

  Cabal Coffers

• 

  Ancient Tomb

• 

  Iroas, God of Victory

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  Craterhoof Behemoth

• 

  Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant

• 

  Heliod, the Radiant Dawn // Heliod, the Warped Eclipse

Summary

The game started with players ramping and developing their boards cautiously while setting up their primary strategies. Steve on Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge focused on casting legendary spells to draw cards and generate value, while Quaid with Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant aimed to flood the board with large creatures and overwhelm opponents with raw power. Spencer piloted Heliod, the Radiant Dawn, working towards flipping it into Heliod, the Warped Eclipse to punish opponents for drawing cards. Devin on Be'lakor, the Dark Master paired with Garuda Duma took a more aggressive approach, aiming to apply pressure through damage and demon synergies. Early turns saw some key ramp plays, including Ancient Tomb and Cabal Coffers, and card advantage engines like Fairy Mastermind and Agatha's Soul Cauldron influencing board states.