I Hate Your Deck #111 Arabella v Gargos v Olivia v Kami || Commander Gameplay MTG EDH Magic

Deck Strategies

• 

  Kami of the Crescent Moon

  Focuses on massive card draw each turn to assemble a combo involving Omniscience, allowing free casting of large spells to dominate the game.

• 

  Arabella, Abandoned Doll

  Floods the board with low-power creatures, attacking to deal damage to all opponents and gain life, leveraging a swarm and burn damage approach.

• 

  Olivia, Opulent Outlaw

  Generates treasures through combat damage, then sacrifices them to distribute +1/+1 counters on all creatures, aiming for a powerful token and counter synergy.

• 

  Gargos, Vicious Watcher

  Uses ramp to cast large Hydra creatures efficiently, controlling the board by triggering fights and using vigilance to maintain pressure.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Casting Omniscience was a major threat that forced opponents to hold removal and counterspells, significantly shifting the game tempo.

• 2

  Arabella’s strategy of attacking with multiple low-power creatures provided consistent damage output while gaining life, creating a resilient board state.

• 3

  Gargos’s fight mechanic helped to control problematic creatures and maintain dominance in creature combat.

• 4

  Olivia’s treasure generation through combat damage created resource acceleration that enabled powerful board-wide counter distribution.

• 5

  Kami’s incremental card draw engine enabled explosive turns with multiple spells and combos, highlighting the importance of card advantage in multiplayer Commander games.

Notable Cards

• 

  Omniscience

• 

  Arabella, Abandoned Doll

• 

  Kami of the Crescent Moon

• 

  Gargos, Vicious Watcher

• 

  Olivia, Opulent Outlaw

• 

  Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

• 

  Counterbalance

• 

  Cultivate

• 

  Prosper, Tome-Bound

Summary

The game began with players developing their boards cautiously, with early plays focusing on ramp, card draw, and setting up synergies. Kami of the Crescent Moon quickly established a strong card advantage engine, drawing extra cards each turn to fuel a potential Omniscience combo. Arabella, Abandoned Doll aimed to flood the board with small creatures to trigger damage and life gain on attacks, while Olivia, Opulent Outlaw generated treasure tokens and aimed to bolster her board with counters. Gargos, Vicious Watcher focused on ramping into large creatures and using fight mechanics to control the board. A key turning point came when Omniscience was cast, signaling a possible game-ending combo if uninterrupted. This forced the other players to hold removal and counterspells to prevent a swift victory. Meanwhile, Arabella's player was steadily building a wide board of small creatures to maximize damage output and survivability through life gain. Gargos’s player maintained board presence with big creatures and strategic fights, while Olivia’s treasure generation and token manipulation threatened to overwhelm opponents. The interaction between card draw, board control, and token creation defined the midgame tension, with a looming win condition centered on Omniscience enabling free casting of powerful spells and Arabella’s swarm dealing massive damage.