Generic Commander Episode 21: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Deck Strategies

• 

  Ms. Bumbleflower

  Leverages group-hug effects to benefit all players, growing creatures and granting flying, while drawing extra cards on repeated spell casts to build a wide, evasive board.

• 

  Sydri, Galvanic Genius

  Animates artifacts and utilizes non-infinite combos with artifact synergies to generate value and apply pressure, avoiding full infinite combos for a balanced but potent approach.

• 

  Falco Spara, Pactweaver

  Focuses on accumulating and removing various counters to take multiple game actions, drawing cards and evolving creatures to enable combo potential and board development.

• 

  Syr Konrad, the Grim

  Employs graveyard shenanigans, discard, and milling to disrupt opponents while generating value from creature deaths and graveyard interactions to overwhelm the table.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Jarvis’s Ms. Bumbleflower deck leaned heavily into group-hug mechanics, offering card draws to opponents but gaining significant board growth and evasion, creating a challenging dynamic of mutual benefit.

• 2

  Jolly’s Sydri deck was built with many one-half infinite combos but intentionally excluded the actual infinite combos to maintain balance, leading to powerful but non-degenerate artifact interactions.

• 3

  HamHocks’s Falco Spara deck attempted to capitalize on multiple counter-based synergies, including evolve and proliferate, to maximize card draw and board presence through varied game actions.

• 4

  Russ’s Syr Konrad deck integrated graveyard recursion and discard with milling to apply pressure, setting up a slow but effective attrition strategy.

• 5

  The play of Isochron Scepter with Arcane Denial as a non-infinite but reusable counterspell showcased creative use of combo pieces without crossing into infinite loops.

• 6

  Gemstone Mine provided flexible mana for HamHocks but required careful management of mining counters, highlighting resource management as a key aspect.

• 7

  Interaction between Bitterblossom tokens and protective spells like Swan Song demonstrated early board presence and defensive plays.

Notable Cards

• 

  Ms. Bumbleflower

• 

  Sydri, Galvanic Genius

• 

  Falco Spara, Pactweaver

• 

  Syr Konrad, the Grim

• 

  Isochron Scepter

• 

  Arcane Denial

• 

  Gemstone Mine

• 

  Bitterblossom

Summary

The game began with players adopting decks themed around impersonating each other's playstyles, leading to unique interactions and strategic twists. Jarvis, playing Ms. Bumbleflower, focused on a group-hug style deck that rewarded opponents with card draws while growing his creatures and granting them evasion, aiming to leverage shared benefits for board presence. Jolly, piloting a Sydri, Galvanic Genius deck, embraced a non-infinite combo theme dense with artifact synergies and value pieces, carefully avoiding full infinite combos but aiming to capitalize on powerful artifact-based sequences. HamHocks, as Falco Spara, Pactweaver, pursued a game plan centered around counters—plus one plus one, charge counters, and proliferate—to maximize game actions and draw cards, striving for a multifaceted approach to combo and synergy. Russ, on Syr Konrad, the Grim, explored graveyard recursion, discard, and milling strategies, blending aggressive graveyard interactions with incremental advantage to pressure opponents.