Deck Strategies
The Jolly Balloon Man
Utilizes a combo involving Village Bell Ringer and artifact creatures to generate value and tokens, overcoming taxing effects like Blind Obedience. The deck aims to assemble a critical mass of creatures and artifacts to execute its combo and close out the game.
Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful / Thrasios, Triton Hero
A fast, card advantage-focused deck that uses Mystic Study and Ristic Study to draw cards and ramp quickly. It leverages tutors and mana acceleration artifacts to find and deploy powerful spells and combo pieces rapidly.
Marneus Calgar
A midrange artifact-centric deck which uses efficient creatures like Imperial Recruiter to find combo pieces and manages the board with artifact synergies. The deck plays a slower, more controlling game focusing on assembling a combo while disrupting opponents.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Casting Blind Obedience early created a taxing effect that slowed down aggressive artifact creature combos, forcing Jolly Balloon Man decks to find workarounds like Village Bell Ringer.
- 2
Using tutors like Demonic Tutor and Imperial Recruiter to fetch combo pieces was crucial for maintaining momentum and setup in a slow, control-heavy environment.
- 3
Mana acceleration with Gemstone Caverns and Chrome Mox allowed for explosive early turns but required careful sequencing to avoid disruption from taxing enchantments.
- 4
Players prioritized setting up their win conditions while respecting the taxing board state, highlighting the importance of patience and incremental advantage in cEDH multiplayer.
Notable Cards
Blind Obedience
Gemstone Caverns
Chrome Mox
Demonic Tutor
Imperial Recruiter
Grim Monolith
Summary
The game featured a four-player cEDH match with competitive decks piloted by skilled players. The game began with some significant mana acceleration plays, including early Gemstone Caverns and Chrome Mox, allowing fast deployment of key pieces. One of the early pivotal plays was the casting of Blind Obedience, which effectively slowed down the aggressive tempo of the Jolly Balloon Man decks by forcing creatures to enter the battlefield tapped and taxing opponents' creatures with extort triggers. This played a critical role in shaping the mid-game, as the Jolly Balloon Man pilots sought to assemble their combo pieces, specifically aiming to use Village Bell Ringer to bypass the tapping drawback and generate value. Meanwhile, the Thrasios/Yoshimaru deck focused on card advantage through Mystic Study and Ristic Study, leveraging mana rocks and tutors like Demonic Tutor to dig for powerful spells. Marneus Calgar’s deck was more methodical, using artifact interactions and utility creatures like Imperial Recruiter to find key combo components. The game’s tempo remained slow for much of the mid-game due to the control elements and board taxes in play, with players carefully setting up their win conditions. The Jolly Balloon Man deck eventually started assembling its combo pieces, copying creatures and generating tokens to push toward lethal, while the other decks kept a wary eye on disrupting the balloon combo. The game showcased the importance of tempo denial, resource management, and the interaction between hate artifacts and combo finishers in a competitive multiplayer environment.