Dogmeat vs Lily Bowen vs Caesar vs Dr. Madison Li | MTG Commander Gameplay | Good Morning Ravnica #1

Deck Strategies

• 

  Caesar, Legion's Emperor

  Generate a wide board of creatures with token production and apply pressure through combat, leveraging abilities that punish opponents for attacking and granting lifegain.

• 

  Dr. Madison Li

  Create energy counters through artifact casting to fuel powerful activated abilities, including artifact recursion and potential board wipes, controlling the game pace.

• 

  Lily Bowen, Raging Grandma

  Focus on +1/+1 counter synergies, especially doubling counters with Doubling Season and Hardened Scales, to rapidly grow creatures and overwhelm opponents.

• 

  Dogmeat, Ever Loyal

  Use milling to fill the graveyard and recur important auras and equipment onto Dogmeat, building a single large, well-equipped threat to finish opponents quickly.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Lily Bowen's use of Hardened Scales combined with Doubling Season created explosive growth in +1/+1 counters, significantly boosting her creatures' power and toughness quickly.

• 2

  Caesar's creatures with the Skullwalk ability allowed him to push through damage reliably, forcing opponents to take hits or lose valuable blockers.

• 3

  Dr. Madison Li's artifact recursion via Buried Ruin and energy counters provided a steady stream of utility artifacts, enabling flexible responses to threats.

• 4

  Dogmeat's milling strategy was key to retrieving powerful auras and equipment from the graveyard, turning the tide by enhancing his main threat with unexpected boosts.

• 5

  The interaction between multiple board states and combat abilities made timing attacks and blocks critical, with players needing to carefully manage triggers and sacrifice effects.

Notable Cards

• 

  Dr. Madison Li

• 

  Lily Bowen, Raging Grandma

• 

  Dogmeat, Ever Loyal

• 

  Doubling Season

• 

  Hardened Scales

• 

  Sword of the Animist

• 

  Buried Ruin

• 

  Talisman of Progress

• 

  Nick Valentine, Private Eye

Summary

The game began with players establishing their board presence through ramp and early creatures. Caesar, Legion's Emperor focused on going wide with tokens and leveraging his creatures' abilities to apply pressure and gain life. Dr. Madison Li generated energy counters by casting artifacts and planned to use those counters for powerful activated abilities, including artifact recursion and board wipes. Lily Bowen capitalized on +1/+1 counter synergies combined with Doubling Season and Hardened Scales, quickly growing her creatures to threatening sizes. Dogmeat, Ever Loyal utilized milling to fuel graveyard recursion of important aura and equipment cards, aiming to assemble a strong creature equipped for a big finish. A key moment occurred when Lily Bowen played out her commander with multiple +1/+1 counters and started doubling them, rapidly increasing her board's threat level. Meanwhile, Caesar swung with creatures that had Skullwalk, making them difficult to block and steadily whittling down opponents. Dr. Madison Li's artifact-based energy engine allowed her to recur powerful artifacts like Sword of the Animist, building incremental advantage. Dogmeat's strategy of milling cards to return key auras and equipment from the graveyard provided resilience and surprise power boosts. The game grew tense as boards developed with large creatures and strategic combat maneuvers, setting the stage for decisive swings or combo finishes. Although the transcript cuts off before the conclusion, the gameplay highlighted strong synergies around counters, energy, and graveyard recursion as each player maneuvered for dominance.