Deck & Commander Strategies
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
Utilizes evasive ninjas and combat damage triggers to reveal and cast powerful cards from the top of opponents’ decks, aiming for fast, incremental damage and disruption.
Y'shtola, Night's Blessed
Focuses on life loss triggers and surveil to draw cards and control the board, leveraging incremental card advantage and synergy with spells that cause opponents to lose life.
Vivi Ornitier
Spell-slinging deck that aims to control the game with efficient spells and combos, leveraging Vivi’s abilities to generate value from instant and sorcery spells.
Marath, Will of the Wild
A token and counter-based strategy that uses Marath’s ability to distribute +1/+1 counters, create tokens, and deal damage to control the board and set up combos involving artifacts like Hardened Scales and Cryptic Trilobyte.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Brightsteel Gearhulk’s ability to tutor for low-cost artifact creatures and enchantments provided critical combo pieces early, accelerating Marath’s synergy.
- 2
Marath’s flexible ability to remove counters to generate tokens or deal damage was used both for board presence and targeted removal, keeping opponents in check.
- 3
Players prioritized stabilizing early and responding to emerging combo threats rather than aggressive early attacks, reflecting a cautious playstyle common in cEDH.
- 4
The incremental card draw and surveil effects from Y'shtola helped maintain hand advantage, allowing for more consistent answers to opponent threats.
- 5
Yuriko’s skulking creatures applied pressure while also providing information and disruption by triggering on opponents’ deck top cards.
Notable Cards
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Utopia Sprawl
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Hardened Scales
Gameplay Summary
The game began with players developing their mana bases and setting up early board presence, with typical ramp and utility plays such as Finhorn Elves, Utopia Sprawl, and various fetchlands.
Early turns were relatively slow, focusing on establishing resources and drawing cards.
Marath, Will of the Wild, entered the battlefield early accompanied by token generation and counter manipulation to prepare for mid-game threats.
There was a notable sequence where a player cast Brightsteel Gearhulk, tutoring for small artifact creatures and enchantments, revealing key combo pieces like Cryptic Trilobyte and Hardened Scales, signaling a potential combo-centric strategy emerging.
The board state remained relatively balanced with incremental value plays, card draw, and minor aggression from Yuriko’s evasive creatures and Y'shtola’s life-loss based card draw synergies. As the game progressed, players began to leverage their commanders’ unique abilities to pressure opponents and generate card advantage.
Morath’s ability to remove counters to produce tokens or deal damage was a consistent tactical tool for controlling the board.
The interaction between Hardened Scales and Cryptic Trilobyte suggested a combo line that could accelerate Marath’s growth or enable infinite combos, putting pressure on others to respond quickly.
Meanwhile, Yuriko’s skulking creatures and Y'shtola’s surveil effects contributed to incremental advantage and disruption.
The game’s primary tension revolved around preventing the combo player from assembling their pieces while others tried to stabilize or execute their own win conditions via incremental damage and board control.
