Joe Johnson is the Archenemy! | Commander Party #5 | EDH Magic the Gathering Gameplay MTG

Deck Strategies

• 

  The Lord of Pain

  A burn and disruption-focused Archenemy deck that punishes opponents for casting spells, drawing cards, or playing lands, while leveraging artifacts and powerful permanents to maintain board control and momentum.

• 

  Grist, the Hunger Tide

  A graveyard-based deck that uses artifact and creature synergies to generate value and disrupt opponents, focusing on creating incremental advantage through sacrifice and reanimation mechanics.

• 

  Narci, Fable Singer

  A Bard enchantment-focused deck that builds up constellation triggers and uses enchantments to steadily gain advantage and create board presence.

• 

  Isshin, Two Heavens as One

  A combat-focused deck that aims to maximize double trigger effects from attacking and casting spells, leveraging synergy between creatures and spells to generate multiple value triggers.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Joe's use of The Lord of Pain's ability to deal damage every time opponents cast their first spell each turn established a relentless damage stream, forcing opponents to play cautiously.

• 2

  The early Arch Enemy scheme forcing players to discard down to five cards severely disrupted the opponents' initial hands and limited their early options.

• 3

  Joe's sacrifice of Manifold Key to trigger Braids' ability drew him multiple cards, showing efficient use of synergy between permanents to maintain card advantage despite the damage being dealt.

• 4

  The opponents' shared life total and cooperative play allowed them to coordinate blocks and removal, but the constant pressure from Arch Enemy damage and schemes kept them on the defensive.

• 5

  The introduction of the new Duskmourn scheme cards added spicy and brutal effects that increased the challenge for the team, pushing them to respond quickly or risk falling behind.

Notable Cards

• 

  The Lord of Pain

• 

  Mana Vault

• 

  Gilded Lotus

• 

  Braids, Cabal Minion

• 

  Rest in Peace

• 

  Jukai Naturalist

Summary

The game was set up as an Arch Enemy Commander match with Joe Johnson playing the role of the powerful Archenemy using The Lord of Pain as his commander. Joe started with an elevated life total of 60 and employed a strategy centered around punishing opponents whenever they cast spells, draw cards, or play lands, dealing damage consistently to all opponents. He leveraged artifact and mana ramp to accelerate his game plan, including cards like Mana Vault and Gilded Lotus, which allowed him to cast impactful permanents such as Braids, Cabal Minion. His Arch Enemy schemes aggressively disrupted the opponents by forcing discards and creating treasure tokens, maintaining the pressure on the team of three opponents sharing 60 life.