Lazav vs Nicol Bolas vs Windgrace vs Marchesa [EDH/Commander Gameplay] 2020

Deck Strategies

• 

  Lazav, the Multifarious

  Utilizes graveyard manipulation and copying creatures in the graveyard to assemble combos and generate infinite mana, enabling game-winning sequences.

• 

  Nicol Bolas, the Ravager

  Leverages disruption and aggressive attacks combined with counterspells and removal to dominate the board and control the pace of the game.

• 

  Lord Windgrace

  Focuses on land ramp, graveyard recursion, and creating board advantage through lands and tokens, slowly building resources for a late-game win.

• 

  Queen Marchesa

  Employs the monarch mechanic to control card advantage and uses attrition and political pressure to maintain board presence and chip away at opponents’ life totals.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Lazav's player carefully set up the graveyard with Buried Alive to enable Necrotic Ooze combos, demonstrating the power of graveyard synergy in blue-black decks.

• 2

  Using Pilaf and Pila-Pala's untap and mana abilities with Necrotic Ooze created infinite mana, a crucial turning point that facilitated casting multiple spells and activating win conditions.

• 3

  Counterspell wars around reanimation and other key spells showed the importance of protecting combo pieces while disrupting opponents' plans.

• 4

  Lord Windgrace's use of Realm's Uncharted to find key lands like Field of the Dead and Glacial Chasm helped stabilize against aggressive attacks.

• 5

  Queen Marchesa's strategy of maintaining the monarch and dealing commander damage added consistent pressure but was ultimately outpaced by the combo deck.

• 6

  The final win was a layered combo involving milling the entire deck with Divining Witch's ability and winning with Laboratory Maniac, highlighting the synergy between graveyard recursion and card draw engines.

Notable Cards

• 

  Necrotic Ooze

• 

  Buried Alive

• 

  Mystic Remora

• 

  Animate Dead

• 

  Divining Witch

• 

  Laboratory Maniac

• 

  Arcanis the Omnipotent

• 

  Field of the Dead

• 

  Glacial Chasm

• 

  Krosan Grip

• 

  Abrupt Decay

Summary

The game began with players establishing early board presence through ramp and disruption. Lazav, the Multifarious developed a strong graveyard synergy by using Buried Alive to fill his graveyard with combo pieces like Necrotic Ooze, Pilaf, and Pila-Pala. Nicol Bolas, the Ravager aggressively pressured with early attacks and used counterspells to protect his threats. Lord Windgrace focused on land drops and graveyard recursion with cards like Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Field of the Dead, while Queen Marchesa aimed to control the board through the monarch mechanic and attrition effects. A pivotal moment came when Lazav transformed into a copy of Necrotic Ooze, gaining the ability to generate infinite colorless mana by combining the activated abilities of Pilaf and Pila-Pala. This infinite mana enabled casting powerful spells such as Jace, Vryn's Prodigy (which later flipped into Jace, Telepath Unbound) and setting up a complex graveyard combo. The game ended with Lazav’s controller executing a combo involving Divining Witch, Laboratory Maniac, and Arcanis the Omnipotent, effectively milling his entire deck to draw into Laboratory Maniac and win immediately. This victory highlighted the power of graveyard synergy and intricate combos in a competitive multiplayer game.