Deck & Commander Strategies
Dr. Beverly Crusher
Mono-white lifegain and extort. Mana rocks, Pearl Medallion and Smothering Tithe pay for lifelink and extort effects like Speaker of the Heavens, Blind Obedience and Archangel of Thune. Each lifegain trigger doubles up on Crusher, making her a huge lifelinking commander that wins through commander damage.
Captain Kathryn Janeway
Explore-based green ramp. Janeway lets the deck play extra lands, recur lands, fill the graveyard and fetch lands with Urza's Saga, Field of the Dead and Splendid Reclamation. It builds an enormous mana base, then finishes with storm spells and a mass of haste creatures.
General Chang, Cold Warrior
Klingon and sacrifice-themed black deck. It sacrifices creatures to add counters to the team, draws cards through death triggers and recursion creatures, and grinds value with zombies and treasures.
Badgey, Malicious Glitch
Mono-black artifact and mana deck built around Clock of Omens, which the commander needs to function. It pairs tutors and Cabal Coffers/Cabal Stronghold mana with Sensei's Divining Top to find big threats and artifact synergies.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Pearl Medallion and Smothering Tithe came down very early, giving Beverly's deck a mana and treasure advantage while the other players had to decide whether to pay for Tithe's tax.
- 2
Beverly's doubling of lifegain triggers, combined with Archangel of Thune and Speaker of the Heavens, let her grow rapidly. Archangel and Speaker stacked counters on the whole team.
- 3
Toxic Deluge was cast by paying a huge amount of life (down to 21). It reset the board against the growing white team.
- 4
Ugin, Eye of the Storms exiled Dr. Crusher, but because she was recast the commander tax mattered less than the tempo lost.
- 5
Chromatic Wheel was the turning point. Giving lifelink, double strike, flying and protection from colors let Beverly trigger repeatedly. She killed Janeway and took out Badgey with commander damage in a single combat.
- 6
After the big attack, Beverly's controller had no follow-up, which gave the table's strongest engine, Janeway's ramp deck, time to set up.
- 7
Janeway's explore-twice effects from Topography Tracker, plus lands recurring from the graveyard, let the deck snowball into a huge mana base, with Eternity Elevator, Avenda and Amulet of Vigor generating massive amounts.
- 8
Storm spells finished the game. A storm ooze produced a team that grew with each copy, and Hunting Pack added ten 6/6 Beasts. Landfall from Emeria, the Sky Ruin gave the whole team haste for an immediate lethal swing.
Notable Cards
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Smothering Tithe
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Pearl Medallion
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Ancient Tomb
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Blind Obedience
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Archangel of Thune
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Speaker of the Heavens
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Toxic Deluge
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Urza's Saga
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Ugin, Eye of the Storms
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Cabal Coffers
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Field of the Dead
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Splendid Reclamation
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Topography Tracker
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Amulet of Vigor
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Hunting Pack
Gameplay Summary
The game opened with explosive mana from Ancient Tomb, Pearl Medallion and Smothering Tithe, while several players built up treasures and Urza's Saga constructs.
Dr. Beverly Crusher came down early and grew quickly.
Blind Obedience's extort, Speaker of the Heavens' lifelink and Archangel of Thune's lifegain triggers kept stacking +1/+1 counters on her and the rest of her team.
Meanwhile, General Chang sacrificed creatures for value, Badgey's deck leaned on black mana from Cabal Coffers and Cabal Stronghold, and Janeway's explore deck started filling its graveyard and lands. The table's first big reset came when a player paid a huge amount of life for Toxic Deluge, wiping the board and cutting the Archangel/lifelink pressure.
Players rebuilt with Demonic Juncture, a Shadow Spear on Beverly for lifelink, Ugin, Eye of the Storms and Urza's Saga constructs.
Ugin exiled Beverly, but she was recast.
The pivotal turn came when Beverly's controller, with around 22 mana available from treasures and lands, cast Chromatic Wheel.
That gave the team flying, double strike, lifelink and protection from every color.
Each lifelink hit triggered Beverly several times, so she grew enormously.
She killed Janeway and hit Chang's commander.
She then finished Matt's Badgey with 24 commander damage. With Beverly's controller unable to find a follow-up, Janeway's deck took over.
Field of the Dead, Splendid Reclamation and a swarm of explore effects produced a flood of zombies and lands.
Amulet of Vigor, Avenda, the Waking Haven and Eternity Elevator generated huge mana, and Topography Tracker doubled Janeway's explores.
Storm spells then created a massive ooze team and ten 6/6 Beasts.
Landfall from Emeria, the Sky Ruin gave everything +1/+1 and haste, and Janeway swung with 36+ creatures to finish the game.
