I Hate Your Deck #61 Elesh Norn v Chiss-Goria v Drivnod v Tekuthal || Commander Gameplay MTG EDH

Deck Strategies

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  Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines

  Leverages doubling of triggered abilities on permanents you control to maximize ETB effects and disrupt opponents’ triggers, aiming to generate overwhelming value and stall enemy synergies.

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  Drivnod, Carnage Dominus

  Focuses on doubling death triggers to gain life drain and other benefits from creatures dying, using graveyard exile to protect itself and maintain board presence.

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  Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant

  Uses artifact affinity to flood the board with artifacts, exiling cards from the library on attack to cast artifact spells for free, ramping aggressively with mana rocks.

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  Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus

  Centers on proliferating counters on creatures, artifacts, and planeswalkers to grow indestructible threats and control the board through incremental growth.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Doubling triggered abilities (ETB and death triggers) created powerful synergies that allowed repeated value generation and disruption of opponents' strategies.

• 2

  Artifact synergies and affinity enabled Chiss-Goria to ramp quickly and cast multiple spells per turn, pressuring opponents with a growing board.

• 3

  Proliferation with Tekuthal added resilience and growth potential, forcing opponents to consider multiple layers of counters and indestructibility.

• 4

  Sacrifice outlets and graveyard interaction in Drivnod’s deck provided both value and protection, highlighting the importance of resource recursion.

• 5

  Careful timing of attacks and triggered abilities was crucial to maximizing value without overextending and becoming vulnerable to board wipes or removal.

Notable Cards

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  Animation Module

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  Urza's Saga

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  Soul Warden

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  Nested Shambler

Summary

The game featured four mono-colored commanders from the new Foraxia set, each employing distinct strategies centered on their unique triggered abilities. Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines focused on doubling triggered abilities from permanents the player controlled, aiming to maximize ETB (enter-the-battlefield) effects and disrupt opponents' triggers. Drivnod, Carnage Dominus sought to double death triggers, leveraging creatures dying for value and using graveyard exile to protect itself. Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant, a red dragon with artifact affinity, aimed to exile cards from the top of its library on attack and cast artifact spells from among them, flooding the board with artifacts to fuel its affinity. Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus centered on proliferating counters, making itself indestructible and growing stronger through counter manipulation. Early turns saw players developing their board states with key artifacts and creatures that synergized with their commanders. The Elesh Norn player prioritized cards that generate value on ETB and created servo tokens with Animation Module, leveraging the doubling effects. The Chiss-Goria player ramped with mana rocks and used cards like Liquid Metal Torque to turn permanents into artifacts, enabling affinity synergies. Meanwhile, Drivnod’s deck utilized sacrifice outlets to trigger death synergies and generate incremental advantages. Tekuthal’s proliferation theme began setting up with the accumulation of counters to enhance survivability and growth. The game’s pivotal moments revolved around escalating board states with doubling triggers and artifact-based casting, setting the stage for explosive turns where commanders could repeatedly trigger their powerful abilities. The interplay between Elesh Norn’s ETB doubling and Drivnod’s death trigger doubling created a complex dynamic, while Chiss-Goria’s artifact recursion and Tekuthal’s counter manipulation provided alternate avenues to victory. The game was a tense balance of incremental advantage and board development, with players carefully timing their deployment of threats and removal. No single player dominated early, but the synergy between doubling triggers and artifact interactions promised a late-game where one well-timed cascade of triggers or a large proliferation push could swing the game decisively. The game underscored the variety of mono-colored strategies in the Foraxia set, highlighting different approaches to maximizing triggered abilities, resource management, and board presence.