Deck & Commander Strategies
Brallin, Skyshark Rider / Shabraz, the Skyshark
A draw and combo-centric deck focused on cycling, card advantage, and assembling synergistic creatures like City of Traders and Floodcaller to enable a storm or combo kill through incremental resource generation.
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
A ramp and value deck that leverages mana dorks and mana drain to generate explosive mana, aiming to cast high-impact spells and combos quickly, often using creatures and spells to control the pace of the game.
Rakdos, the Muscle
An aggressive, disruption-heavy build that uses fast mana artifacts, Ragavan, and wheel effects to pressure opponents and disrupt their hands, while generating mana and incremental value for a combo or damage finish.
Celes, Rune Knight
A graveyard recursion combo deck centered on Underworld Breach and cards like Brain Freeze and Wheel of Fortune, aiming to generate massive card advantage and combo off by looping spells to mill opponents out or generate lethal damage.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Celes’s use of Underworld Breach combined with Brain Freeze and Wheel of Fortune created a powerful recursion loop that ultimately milled all opponents’ libraries.
- 2
Rakdos’s aggressive early plays with artifacts and Ragavan put pressure on opponents but were insufficient to stop Celes’s combo.
- 3
Kinnan’s ramp and disruption were hampered by hand disruption and inability to assemble the combo in time.
- 4
Brallin and Shabraz’s draw engines allowed them to keep pace, but they could not prevent the lethal recursion loop established by Celes.
- 5
The timing of casting Intuition and using Lion’s Eye Diamond to discard and recast spells was crucial in enabling Celes’s combo sequence.
- 6
Mindbreak Trap was used effectively as a countermeasure to disrupt opponent’s combos, showcasing the importance of interaction in cEDH.
Notable Cards
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Underworld Breach
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Brain Freeze
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Wheel of Fortune
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Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
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Mana Drain
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Lotus Petal
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Lotus Field
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Smothering Tithe
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Mindbreak Trap
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Lion's Eye Diamond
Gameplay Summary
The game began with players developing their boards cautiously, setting up mana and utility pieces to enable their respective combo strategies.
Brallin and Shabraz focused on drawing cards and assembling synergistic pieces like City of Traders and Floodcaller, while Rakdos leveraged aggressive mana acceleration and disruption tools such as Ragavan and Wheel of Fortune.
Kinnan prioritized ramp and control elements, including mana drain and mana dorks, aiming to fuel a powerful combo with creatures and spells.
Celes utilized a graveyard-centric combo approach, leveraging cards like Underworld Breach, Smothering Tithe, and Cabal Ritual to generate explosive mana and card advantage quickly. The turning point came when Celes managed to assemble the Breach and Savines combo, setting up a powerful recursion loop.
This allowed Celes to cast multiple spells and generate lethal advantage.
Despite attempts by other players to disrupt and respond, Celes executed a brain freeze and wheel loop that milled all opponents’ libraries, ultimately winning the game by decking them out.
The game highlighted the speed and resilience of graveyard-based combo decks in competitive EDH, especially when combined with efficient disruption and recursion.
