Deck & Commander Strategies
Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines
Control and value generation by doubling ETB triggers and shutting down opponents' ETB abilities, supported by equipment and aggressive commander damage.
Drivnod, Carnage Dominus
Death triggers and extort synergy to drain opponents' life, create Pest tokens, and maintain board control through recurring threats.
Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch
Mirror tribal theme with artifact synergy, bouncing and recasting Urtet to maximize mirror tokens and utilize proliferate and poison counters.
Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus
Proliferate-focused deck leveraging artifact ramp and repeated proliferate triggers to increase poison counters and fuel various synergy combos.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Deploying Drivnod on turn two using Ancient Tomb and Dark Ritual created an early board presence that pressured opponents with extort and death triggers.
- 2
Kyle’s Elesh Norn effectively shut down ETB abilities, disrupting opponents’ strategies reliant on enters-the-battlefield effects.
- 3
Scott’s use of Rapid Hybridization to remove Drivnod triggered multiple extort and Blight Mound effects, turning a removal into a value and damage opportunity.
- 4
Proliferate effects from Tekuthal and Urtet steadily increased poison counters on all players, adding a ticking clock element to the game.
- 5
Sir Conrad the Grim synergized well with death triggers and extort, dealing consistent damage and generating tokens to maintain board presence.
- 6
Players adapted by using chump blocks and removal to manage aggressive threats while balancing poison counters and life totals.
Notable Cards
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Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines
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Drivnod, Carnage Dominus
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Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch
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Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus
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Ancient Tomb
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Crypt Ghast
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Blight Mound
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Inexorable Tide
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Rapid Hybridization
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Phyrexian Metamorph
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March of Swirling Mist
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Contagion Clasp
Gameplay Summary
Chris, commanding Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch, focused on a tribal artifact-mirror strategy, bouncing Urtet and proliferating poison counters alongside Scott's proliferate-heavy deck featuring Inexorable Tide and various poison counter synergies.
Scott's Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus, contributed proliferate triggers and mana ramp through artifacts like Scepter of Eternal Glory and Phyrexian Metamorph.
A key turning point occurred when Scott used Rapid Hybridization to remove Drivnod, triggering multiple extort and Blight Mound effects to generate Pests and deal damage, while proliferate effects steadily increased poison counters across all players.
Despite temporary setbacks, the game featured dynamic interactions between extort, proliferate, and death triggers, with players jockeying for board control and incremental advantages.
