Commander Versus Series: Nahiri (Justin Parnell) Vs. Daretti (Stephen Green)

Deck Strategies

• 

  Nahiri, the Lithomancer

  Focuses on equipment synergy by placing counters on herself to put equipment onto the battlefield from the graveyard, enhancing her creatures with powerful auras and equipment to build an aggressive board state that applies continuous pressure.

• 

  Daretti, Scrap Savant

  Leverages artifact recursion and sacrifice mechanics to maintain board presence and card advantage. Uses artifact creatures like Junk Diver and looting effects to cycle through the deck, aiming to outvalue opponents and set up combos.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Nahiri’s use of her -2 loyalty ability to put equipment from the graveyard onto the battlefield creates significant board advantage by boosting her creatures without spending mana.

• 2

  Angelic Field Marshal’s anthem effect significantly shifted the board state, forcing Daretti to reconsider blocking and combat tactics against Nahiri’s boosted creatures.

• 3

  Daretti’s sacrifice and recursion of artifact creatures like Junk Diver allowed him to maintain card advantage and keep pressure on Nahiri despite her aggressive equipment strategy.

• 4

  Mentor of the Meek’s card draw was limited by opponents’ vigilance effects, demonstrating the importance of timing and synergy in maximizing value from creatures.

• 5

  The interplay between equipment buffs and artifact recursion highlighted the contrasting strengths of the two decks—aggression versus attrition.

Notable Cards

• 

  Sword of Vengeance

• 

  Angelic Field Marshal

• 

  Mentor of the Meek

• 

  Junk Diver

• 

  Skyhunter Skirmisher

• 

  Fire Diamond

Summary

The game started with both players establishing their mana bases and early board presence. Nahiri quickly placed three loyalty counters on herself and equipped a Sword of Vengeance to boost her creatures, while Daretti developed his board with artifacts and creatures such as Mentor of the Meek and Skyhunter Skirmisher, leveraging card draw and incremental advantage. Nahiri used her planeswalker abilities to generate equipment from the graveyard, strengthening her board and creating a threatening aggressive stance with a boosted Core Soldier token. Daretti responded by casting Junk Diver, a key artifact creature that returns artifacts upon death, and continued to cycle through cards with looting effects to find answers and maintain pressure. A pivotal moment was Nahiri's casting of Angelic Field Marshal, which granted her creatures +2/+2 and vigilance, making her already formidable army even more dangerous. This forced Daretti to adjust his combat approach and carefully pick blocks. Despite Mentor of the Meek being less effective due to vigilance preventing creatures from dying, Daretti kept deploying artifact creatures and utilizing sacrifices to maintain board presence and card advantage. Nahiri's aggressive equipment and anthem effects put Daretti on the defensive, but he managed to stabilize by recurring his general and deploying more artifact creatures, setting up for a late-game explosive combo or win condition. The game featured a strong interplay between equipment synergy and artifact recursion, with both players jockeying for board control and card advantage.