Commander Clash: Archfrienemy Week

Commanders featured in this Gameplay Reviewed & Verified

Deck & Commander Strategies

Golos, Tireless Pilgrim
A scout tribal deck leveraging Golos’s ability to ramp and draw cards through scout synergies, focusing on incremental value and card advantage with underpowered but synergistic scouts.
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
A stax/control deck utilizing Derevi’s prowess with winter orb and stasis effects to lock down opponents, combined with efficient bird creatures and tempo plays to maintain board control.
Nekusar, the Mindrazer
A zombie tribal variant of Nekusar, avoiding the usual wheel effects to reduce randomness and focus on steady card draw and damage through zombie synergies and incremental effects.
Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
A food tribal deck centered on sacrificing food tokens and creatures to draw cards and generate value, with flavorfully themed cards to create a sustainable engine of advantage.

Gameplay Insights

1
Nekusar’s non-wheel approach mitigated the typical fast damage output, making the deck’s damage output more gradual and synergistic with zombies.
2
Derevi’s stax elements, including Winter Orb and stasis effects, created significant tempo disruption, forcing opponents to play around resource locks.
3
Golos’s scout tribal theme emphasized card draw through a tribal synergy that is usually underpowered, testing the limits of synergy in a high-power environment.
4
Korvold’s food tribal deck avoided fetchlands and typical powerful staples to maintain a fair but flavorful build, focusing on value from sacrifice and food token generation.
5
The interaction of incremental advantage engines and control elements created a balanced game flow, minimizing explosive plays in favor of strategic positioning.

Notable Cards

Howling Mine
Winter Orb
Fledgling Osprey
Dowsing Dagger // Lost Vale
Widespread Brutality

Gameplay Summary

The game featured four powerful but 'fairly' built commanders: Golos, Tireless Pilgrim with a scout tribal theme; Derevi, Empyrial Tactician focusing on stax and control elements; Nekusar, the Mindrazer in a non-wheel, zombie card draw variant; and Korvold, Fae-Cursed King leading a flavorful food tribal deck.

Early turns involved setting up mana and board presence, with key plays including ramping with Golos and deploying efficient creatures and stax pieces with Derevi.

Nekusar focused on incremental card draw and damage with zombie synergies, carefully avoiding the typical wheel effects to keep the game balanced.

Korvold built value through food synergies and card draw, slowly accruing advantage through sacrifice and incremental resource gain. The game’s turning points revolved around board development and control interactions, especially Derevi's stax effects attempting to slow the pace while Golos sought card advantage through scouts.

Nekusar's approach to damage dealt via card draw ticks and zombie synergies pressured opponents but lacked explosive wheel combos, making it a grindy match.

Korvold's food tribal engine generated steady card advantage and board presence, threatening to overwhelm opponents with value over time.

The interaction between these archetypes created a dynamic game state where control, incremental advantage, and synergy-driven damage battled for dominance.

The game emphasized fair, thematic builds of typically broken commanders, leading to a more strategic and measured gameplay experience rather than explosive combos.

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