Deck & Commander Strategies
Shorikai, Genesis Engine
Control and value-oriented deck focusing on ramping mana, drawing cards, and using removal effects to control the board while generating incremental advantages through artifacts and creatures.
Arcades, the Strategist
Leverages creatures with defender by enabling them to attack as if they didn’t have defender, drawing cards from them, and creating illusions that grow stronger, culminating in a powerful board presence.
Zedruu the Greathearted
Card draw and life drain focused; the deck supports other players by gifting permanents and generating card advantage, while planning to drain opponents’ life and gain life in a big swing.
Teysa Karlov
Token generation and death trigger synergy, creating numerous tokens with vigilance and lifelink by doubling death triggers, aiming to dominate the board with wide, resilient forces.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Arcades leveraged creatures with defender aggressively, drawing multiple cards and creating illusions that scaled with the number of illusions on board.
- 2
Teysa’s double death trigger ability allowed for effective token generation that pressured opponents with lifelink and vigilance tokens.
- 3
Shorikai used well-timed removal and control spells like Grasp of Fate and Rotless Ringer to disrupt opponents' boards and maintain tempo.
- 4
Zedruu’s strategy of gifting permanents and forcing opponents to pay to keep them created resource tension while enabling card draw and life drain combos.
- 5
Players were careful about combat interactions to avoid handing key creatures to opponents due to Arcades’ ability, illustrating the importance of combat timing and target selection.
Notable Cards
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Wall of Omens
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Dark Confidant
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Propaganda
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Rally the Ranks
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Grasp of Fate
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Overgrown Battlement
Gameplay Summary
The game began with all four players ramping and drawing significant amounts of cards, establishing strong early boards.
Arcades, the Strategist focused on playing creatures with defender and leveraging his commander’s ability to turn those creatures into potent attackers while drawing cards.
Zedruu aimed at generating card advantage and draining opponents' life, preparing for a life-swing finish.
Shorikai, Genesis Engine played a control-oriented game, ramping mana and drawing cards while setting up for value plays with creatures and artifacts.
Teysa Karlov’s deck revolved around creating many tokens from death triggers and enhancing them with vigilance and lifelink, applying pressure through wide boards of defensive creatures turned offensive. As the game progressed, the constant card draw and mana generation led to large boards and many triggers, with Arcades drawing heavily from playing defenders and creating illusions, while Teysa created multiple tokens and leveraged double death triggers for value.
Shorikai disrupted opponents with enchantments and removal, including exile effects, to control the pace.
Zedruu aggressively provided resources to others but looked for the right moment to drain life and swing the game.
Throughout the mid-game, players carefully managed their resources, with several combat phases involving strategic attacks and blocks, and key plays involving sac effects and combat damage triggers.
The game’s turning points included Shorikai’s removal of problematic creatures, Arcades’ growing board presence fueled by defender synergy, and Teysa’s token generation enabling wide attacks with lifelink.
The gameplay highlighted a balance between aggressive board development and control, with the eventual win condition centered around overwhelming opponents through superior board presence and life gain.
![Commander VS S5E5: ??? vs ??? vs ??? vs ??? [MtG Multiplayer] thumbnail](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/IoN5gMmHpbg/sddefault.jpg)
![Commander VS S14E3: Teysa VS Rakdos VS Zegana VS Nikya [EDH] thumbnail](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WPW4CHlykqI/sddefault.jpg)
![Commander VS S12E1: Nicol Bolas vs Arcades vs Vaevictis Asmadi vs Chromium [EDH] thumbnail](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gtfErgL6f9U/sddefault.jpg)
