Commander Secret Santa | EDH Gameplay Ep 34

Deck Strategies

• 

  Eriette of the Charmed Apple

  Focuses on enchantments and auras to control attackers and drain life from opponents each end step, gaining incremental advantage and stabilizing through life gain.

• 

  Zedruu the Greathearted

  Leverages political gifting and card draw by giving away permanents to opponents, while generating incremental advantage through life gain and spell casting.

• 

  Gylwain, Casting Director

  Assigns roles to creatures entering the battlefield to gain various benefits such as card draw, buffs, or removal, enabling flexible board control and incremental advantage.

• 

  Nicol Bolas, the Ravager // Nicol Bolas, the Arisen

  Uses discard and removal to disrupt opponents early, then transforms into a powerful planeswalker to control the board and close out the game through overwhelming threats.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Airball's early discard with Nicol Bolas forced opponents to carefully consider which cards to keep or lose, maintaining pressure and control.

• 2

  Vwagen's strategy of assigning roles with Gylwain allowed flexible responses and incremental board development to adapt to the evolving game state.

• 3

  Melissa's difficulty finding enchantments early slowed Eriette's ability to leverage its life drain and defensive capabilities, highlighting the importance of early ramp and card selection in enchantment decks.

• 4

  Zedruu's approach of gifting potentially detrimental cards created complex political dynamics, influencing player decisions and interactions throughout the game.

Notable Cards

• 

  Nicol Bolas, the Ravager // Nicol Bolas, the Arisen

• 

  Beast Whisperer

• 

  Eriette of the Charmed Apple

• 

  Arcane Signet

Summary

The game began with players deploying mana sources and early creatures to establish their boards. Early plays such as Sarum Senior Edificer and Beast Whisperer helped generate card advantage for the enchantment and creature-focused decks. Airball, piloting Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, ramped up quickly with discard effects and the threat of transforming Nicol Bolas into a powerful planeswalker, applying pressure on opponents. Meanwhile, Melissa with Eriette of the Charmed Apple aimed to leverage auras and life drain mechanics though she initially struggled to find enchantments in her hand, slowing her early game impact. Veggiewagonyee's Zedruu the Greathearted deck focused on drawing cards and political gameplay, attempting to give away cards and generate value from gifting mechanics. Vwagen piloted Gylwain, Casting Director, assigning roles to creatures to gain various benefits and control the board dynamically. A key turning point involved Airball's discard strategy paired with Nicol Bolas' transformation looming as a major threat, forcing opponents to respond or face significant card disadvantage and board control loss. Vwagen's use of Gylwain's roles and Melissa's eventual aura development began to shape the board state, but Airball's aggressive discard and removal maintained momentum. The game featured ongoing political and resource management plays characteristic of a multiplayer Commander environment, with players balancing aggression and interaction. The eventual win condition centered on Nicol Bolas' planeswalker form dominating the board alongside synergistic enchantments and creatures steadily draining opponents' life totals.