Deck & Commander Strategies
Lightning, Army of One
Aggressive Boros (red-white) deck that focuses on efficient creatures with first strike, trample, and lifelink, leveraging Lightning's ability to double damage dealt to players she hits, creating pressure and punishing opponents who attack that player.
Zidane, Tantalus Thief
A red-white theft and treasure generation deck that steals opponents' creatures temporarily, untaps them for immediate attacks, blinks permanents for value, and generates treasure tokens as a resource advantage, aiming to outvalue opponents by using their own threats against them.
Sephiroth, Fabled Soldier // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel
An aristocrats-style deck centered around sacrificing creatures to draw cards and drain opponents' life, aiming to transform Sephiroth into One-Winged Angel form and generate an emblem that punishes opponents whenever creatures die, maintaining card advantage and incremental life loss.
Balthier and Fran
A Boros vehicles deck that boosts vehicles with +1/+1, vigilance, and reach, and uses additional combat phases when attacking with crewed vehicles to overwhelm opponents with repeated attacks and capitalize on vehicle synergies.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Lightning's ability to double damage dealt to a player created a dynamic where multiple players could gang up on the same opponent, increasing political tension and damage output.
- 2
Zidane's strategy of stealing opponents' creatures and untapping them to attack was a powerful tempo play that allowed him to use enemy resources for offense.
- 3
Sephiroth's sacrifice and life drain synergy provided steady incremental damage and card advantage, which pressured opponents to respond or lose life over time.
- 4
Balthier's capacity to generate additional combat phases after attacking with vehicles added significant combat pressure and forced opponents to consider multiple attack phases in their defense planning.
- 5
The interaction of multiple aggressive strategies forced players to balance attacking and defending carefully, with damage doubling and creature theft adding complexity to combat decisions.
Notable Cards
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Lightning, Army of One
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Zidane, Tantalus Thief
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Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel
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Balthier and Fran
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Spirited Companion
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Exotic Orchard
Gameplay Summary
The game began with each player establishing their board by playing lands and deploying early threats aligned with their commanders' themes.
Lightning, Army of One, focused on an aggressive Boros (red-white) strategy, deploying efficient creatures and equipment to maintain pressure and capitalize on the double damage effect her ability grants to any player she hits.
Zidane, Tantalus Thief, played a red-white deck centered around stealing opponents' creatures, generating treasure tokens, and leveraging blink effects to maximize value from stolen permanents.
Sephiroth's deck was an aristocrats-style build focused on sacrificing creatures to draw cards and drain opponents' life, aiming to transform into the powerful One-Winged Angel form and establish a life-draining emblem.
Balthier and Fran piloted a vehicles-themed Boros deck, utilizing vehicle synergies and additional combat phases to overwhelm opponents with multiple attacks in a turn. Key turning points involved early combat damage amplifications from Lightning, which made players cautious about engaging with her, as well as Zidane successfully stealing and abusing opponents' creatures to swing the board state in his favor.
Sephiroth's sacrifice and drain effects steadily chipped away at opponents' life totals while drawing cards to maintain board presence.
Balthier's ability to generate extra combat phases with crewed vehicles created significant pressure and forced defensive responses.
The game evolved into a dynamic battlefield with multiple threats and synergies interacting, emphasizing tempo swings through creature theft, combat damage doubling, and card draw through sacrifice.
Ultimately, the winner emerged by leveraging these synergies effectively, often punishing opponents for overextending or failing to manage the board state against multiple aggressive strategies simultaneously.