Deck & Commander Strategies
Cloud, Midgar Mercenary
Cloud's deck focuses on early equipment ramp by fetching powerful artifacts like Sword of the Animist, doubling equipment triggers to generate extra mana and deal increased combat damage, enabling fast, aggressive board development and sustained pressure.
Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan
Felothar's strategy revolves around producing +1/+1 counters, sacrificing noncreature permanents to bolster creatures, and generating clue tokens to draw cards, aiming to build a wide, resilient board with incremental card advantage and trample damage.
Shilgengar, Sire of Famine
Shilgengar's deck is an angel tribal build that creates flying lifelink creatures, boosts other angels, and uses token generation combined with lifelink to stabilize life totals and outpace opponents through efficient air combat.
Strago and Relm
Strago and Relm's mono red deck leverages aggressive creatures and a unique blue mage effect to exile spells and creatures from opponents’ decks, casting them for free to disrupt enemy plans while maintaining constant board pressure.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Cloud’s early fetch and equip of Sword of the Animist accelerated his mana development, allowing faster deployment of threats and enabling his double-trigger combat damage synergy.
- 2
Felothar's sacrifice of clue tokens to place +1/+1 counters on all creatures created a powerful board state that pressured opponents and synergized well with trample.
- 3
Strago and Relm’s ability to exile and cast spells from opponents' decks disrupted Cloud's equipment-based strategy by removing key artifacts before they could be used again.
- 4
Shilgengar’s use of flying lifelink angels and anthem effects provided sustained life gain and board presence, helping to mitigate aggressive damage from opponents.
- 5
Board wipes and removal were impactful but Cloud’s ability to recur equipment and rapidly generate mana made removing him consistently challenging.
- 6
Players prioritized attacking the biggest threats—mainly Cloud and Felothar—to prevent any one player from snowballing out of control.
Notable Cards
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Cloud, Midgar Mercenary
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Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan
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Shilgengar, Sire of Famine
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Strago and Relm
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Sword of the Animist
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Stoneforge Mystic
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Arcane Signet
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Banisher Priest
Gameplay Summary
The game featured four unique Commander decks, each piloted by a player representing member-submitted decks.
Cloud, Midgar Mercenary quickly established board presence by entering on turn two and fetching powerful equipment, notably the Sword of the Animist, which helped ramp mana aggressively.
Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan leveraged +1/+1 counters and clue token synergies to build a wide board and gain incremental value, while Shilgengar, Sire of Famine focused on angel tribal strategies, generating tokens and lifelink boosts to sustain through damage.
Strago and Relm's mono red deck applied pressure with aggressive creatures and utilized a blue mage mechanic to exile and cast spells from opponents’ decks, disrupting their plans. A key turning point came with Felothar's sacrifice ability triggering to place counters on all creatures, significantly bolstering the board state.
Meanwhile, Cloud’s repeated equipment triggers doubled damage output and mana ramp, posing a constant threat.
Shilgengar maintained control through lifelink and flying creatures, while Strago and Relm applied pressure by exiling key equipment and spells from Cloud’s deck, trying to neutralize his advantages.
The game saw multiple combat phases where players coordinated attacks to keep the strongest threats in check, especially focusing on Cloud and Felothar as the biggest damage dealers.
Removal spells and board wipes were cast, but Cloud’s ability to recur equipment and ramp mana kept him resilient.
Ultimately, the interplay of +1/+1 counters, equipment synergies, and aggressive tribal strategies defined the flow of the game, with players maneuvering carefully to survive escalating threats and leverage their commanders' unique abilities.
