EARLY ACCESS Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander | Pantlaza VS Hakbal VS Clavileño VS Admiral Brass

Deck Strategies

• 

  Admiral Brass, Unsinkable

  This deck seeks to mill pirates into the graveyard and then reanimate them, making them larger and more potent in combat.

• 

  Clavileño, First of the Blessed

  Clavileño's deck revolves around vampire synergy, aiming to amass an army of vampires and turn them into bigger, more powerful demon vampires.

• 

  Hakbal of the Surging Soul

  This deck leverages the explore mechanic to manipulate the top of the deck, grow creatures, and generate value. It aims to create a large board of powerful Merfolk and overrun opponents.

• 

  Pantlaza, Sun-Favored

  The Pantlaza deck focuses on dinosaur tribal synergies, aiming to flood the board with dinosaurs and gain advantage through the 'discover' mechanic which operates similarly to cascade.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Casting Branching Evolution dramatically increased the power level of the Hakbal player's board, demonstrating the strength of this card in a deck focused on +1/+1 counters.

• 2

  The Admiral Brass player interestingly avoided playing islands, which limited the effectiveness of the Islandwalk ability in the Hakbal deck.

• 3

  The early play of Soul Ring for Admiral Brass set a fast pace, but ultimately the board state developed by Hakbal proved more influential.

Notable Cards

• 

  Branching Evolution

• 

  Master of the Pearl Trident

• 

  Skeleton Crew

Summary

The game started off with all players ramping up and setting their boards. Wheeler, playing Admiral Brass, Unsinkable, got an early lead by casting his commander on turn two, followed by a Soul Ring. However, the real game-changer came when the player controlling Hakbal of the Surging Soul cast a powerful enchantment, Branching Evolution. This card, combined with Hakbal's explore mechanic, resulted in a swarm of increasingly powerful Merfolk creatures. The game reached a tipping point when a massive attack from the Merfolk army led by Hakbal dealt significant damage to Jim, who was playing Clavileño, First of the Blessed. Despite the other players' efforts to stabilize, the advantage gained by the Hakbal player proved too much to overcome.