Jim's THIRD FAVOURITE COMMANDER GAME (ALL TIME) | Arabella VS Lady Octopus VS Torbran VS Elminster

Deck & Commander Strategies

• 

  Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor

  A big artifact-focused deck playing large, often quirky artifacts to gain board presence and overwhelm opponents, using ramp and card advantage tools to cast high-cost artifacts.

• 

  Torbran, Thane of Red Fell

  Mono-red burn strategy aiming to deal damage to all opponents through direct damage spells and triggers like Impact Tremors, seeking to win by draining life totals quickly.

• 

  Arabella, Abandoned Doll

  Token and low-power creature synergy deck that generates numerous tokens with Hair Apparent and uses Arabella's drain ability to slowly drain opponents’ life totals while building a wide board.

• 

  Elminster

  A blue-white spellslinger deck focused on scrying to reduce the cost of large spells and generate value by casting big spells or exiling them to create fairy dragon tokens for board presence and damage.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Land Tax was leveraged early to repeatedly draw cards and tax opponents' land plays, providing card advantage and tempo.

• 2

  Impact Tremors combined with Torbran's damage boost created a recurring source of incremental damage that pressured all players simultaneously.

• 3

  Arabella's ability to drain life each combat was a steady form of incremental damage that synergized well with the token swarm from Hair Apparent.

• 4

  Elminster's scrying enabled significant cost reduction on large spells, allowing for explosive turns with big spells or token generation from exile effects.

• 5

  Jim's choice to include large, less optimal artifacts balanced fun and power to avoid overwhelming the table, showcasing a unique approach to artifact ramp.

• 6

  Players actively monitored land drops and used mana denial or taxing effects to impede opponents' tempo, notably through land tax activations.

• 7

  The interaction of continuous damage (Impact Tremors, Torbran triggers) with token generation and life drain created multi-layered board pressure, forcing players to respond carefully.

Notable Cards

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  Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor

• 

  Torbran, Thane of Red Fell

• 

  Arabella, Abandoned Doll

• 

  Elminster

• 

  Impact Tremors

• 

  Land Tax

• 

  Artist's Talent

• 

  Serum Visions

• 

  Academy Ruins

Gameplay Summary