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PLAY TO WIN vs I HATE YOUR DECK - Highpower Commander Gameplay

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Commanders featured in this video Reviewed & Verified

Decklists

Deck Strategies

  • Maelstrom Wanderer

    Maelstrom Wanderer

    Cascade into powerful creatures and spells to generate value and overwhelm opponents with chaotic and high-impact board states.

  • Samut, Voice of Dissent

    Samut, Voice of Dissent

    Aggressive combat-focused deck leveraging haste and additional combat phases to quickly pressure opponents while ramping mana and generating card advantage through parley effects.

  • Nethroi, Apex of Death

    Nethroi, Apex of Death

    Utilizes graveyard recursion by putting creatures and cards into the graveyard early to bring back powerful combinations and value creatures for tempo and board control.

  • Tergrid, God of Fright // Tergrid's Lantern

    Tergrid, God of Fright

    Capitalizes on forcing opponents to discard cards and then steals or reanimates those cards from graveyards to generate advantage, combining life gain and sacrifice synergies.

Gameplay Insights

  • 1

    Casting Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi as a board reset and hand disruption tool was a pivotal play that generated a large token army and severely disrupted opponents' plans.

  • 2

    Using Tergrid's ability to steal cards opponents discarded from their hands created a significant tempo swing and card advantage.

  • 3

    The synergy between Samut's haste-granting ability and repeated parley triggers enabled rapid mana gain and aggressive combat phases.

  • 4

    Efficient use of ramp spells and mana rocks such as Sol Ring and Nyxbloom Ancient allowed players to cast high-impact spells ahead of curve, maintaining pressure.

  • 5

    Discarding key creatures and spells to the graveyard early allowed Nethroi to leverage recursion mechanics effectively, maintaining board presence despite disruption.

Notable Cards

  • Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi

    Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi

  • Sol Ring

    Sol Ring

  • Birds of Paradise

    Birds of Paradise

  • Selesnya Charm

    Selesnya Charm

  • Demonic Tutor

    Demonic Tutor

  • Nyxbloom Ancient

    Nyxbloom Ancient

  • Breeding Pool

    Breeding Pool

  • Godless Shrine

    Godless Shrine

Summary

The game began with a slow early setup phase as players cautiously developed their mana bases and cast initial ramp spells. Early plays included ramp spells like Sol Ring, Birds of Paradise, and various land drops, as well as utility creatures such as Lurking Predator and Selesnya creatures that synergized with life gain and token generation. The player piloting Tergrid utilized graveyard recursion and life gain effects, while Maelstrom Wanderer and Nethroi focused on ramp and value creatures. A key turning point occurred when the player controlling Tergrid cast Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi, forcing all players to discard their hands and creating a swarm of zombie tokens, dramatically shifting board state and limiting available resources for opponents. This mass discard led to a flurry of graveyard recursion and token synergies as players scrambled to recover.

Description

Today we’re joined by I Hate Your Deck for some Casual/Optimized/High Power? commander!

We have:

Dylan on NethRites - www.moxfield.com/decks/7VtRZw_Pm0SJsWo25-rbqQ

Cam on Maelstrom Wanderer - www.moxfield.com/decks/QlZFVcQZWkGeQz1-GTQdrQ

Michael on Tergrid - www.moxfield.com/decks/KF_5fQbCm0m8fJzZrUx0dg

Joe on Samut - www.patreon.com/ihateyourdeck

Check out I Hate Your Deck - www.youtube.com/c/IHateYourDeck

CUSTOM ALTERSLEEVE, become a $10 or $20 Patron and it will be shipped at the end of the month - patreon.com/playtowin?utm_med

ALTERSLEEVES - www.altersleeves.com/playtowin

Check out more of John’s Alters - www.altersleeves.com/alterist/thedinkelist

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