MTG Commander Gameplay | Andy Campbell vs Janel Santa Cruz vs Steven Ray Morris vs Blackneto TTJ 60

Deck Strategies

• 

  Don Andres, the Renegade

  Pirate-themed Grixis deck focused on stealing opponents' resources, generating Treasures, and leveraging value through theft and sacrifice mechanics.

• 

  Mazzy, Truesword Paladin

  Enchantress deck that utilizes enchantment-based card draw and life gain to outvalue opponents and find key combo pieces, particularly focusing on sacrificing and recurring value.

• 

  Lathril, Blade of the Elves

  Elf tribal and token generation deck that disrupts opponents by forcing sacrifices and builds a wide board of tokens to overwhelm opponents.

• 

  Malik, Grim Manipulator

  Control-oriented deck with graveyard hate, card draw, and exile mechanics, creating demon tokens and leveraging Tasha, the Witch Queen’s ability to reuse exiled spells.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Early use of Plaguecrafter disrupted the board by forcing opponents to sacrifice creatures, significantly impacting Blackneto's token generation.

• 2

  Andy Campbell's choice to tutor Sithus early set up a strong enchantment synergy and card advantage engine for Mazzy, enabling sustained pressure.

• 3

  Tasha, the Witch Queen's ability to exile opponents' instant and sorcery cards and then cast them for free was a key long-term value engine for Blackneto's control strategy.

• 4

  Mana acceleration with artifacts like Soul Ring and Manic Crypt allowed players to deploy impactful spells and creatures ahead of curve, influencing early board states.

• 5

  The interplay of enchantment draw effects and token sacrifice mechanics created tension, as players had to balance board presence against card advantage and disruption.

Notable Cards

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  Plaguecrafter

• 

  Worldly Tutor

• 

  Relic of Progenitus

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  Tasha, the Witch Queen

• 

  Vault of Champions

Summary

The game began with a fairly standard setup with each player establishing their mana base and early board presence. Andy Campbell, playing Don Andres, the Renegade, initiated the game aggressively with mana acceleration and a Worldly Tutor to set up a key creature on top of the deck. Janel Santa Cruz, piloting Mazzy, Truesword Paladin, focused on enchantment synergies, leveraging cards like Sithus and enchantress effects to draw cards and gain life. Steven Ray Morris with Lathril, Blade of the Elves, utilized a token-based strategy, quickly deploying Plaguecrafter to disrupt opponents' boards by forcing creatures or planeswalkers to be sacrificed. Blackneto's Malik, Grim Manipulator deck seemed to rely on card draw and control elements with the Relic of Progenitus and Tasha, the Witch Queen, to exile opponents' spells and generate demon tokens, slowly building a board presence while controlling the graveyard and removing threats.