Deck & Commander Strategies
Kaalia, Zenith Seeker
A Mardu clerics tribal deck focused on synergy to tutor and cast key demons, using cleric synergies and Liliana's Contract as a primary win condition.
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
A mono-black control and combo deck utilizing sacrifice and recursion of small creatures to disrupt opponents’ boards and hands, aiming to eventually combo out.
Chainer, Nightmare Adept
A creature-based wheel and reanimation deck that forces opponents to discard and takes advantage of graveyard recursion to deal damage and control the board.
Vadrok, Apex of Thunder
A Gruul dwarves and vehicles deck leveraging mutate to turn vehicles into creatures, using non-creature spells and aggressive board presence to generate value and apply pressure.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Repeated sacrifice and recursion of creatures via Shirei enabled continuous discard and card draw, heavily disrupting opponents’ hand size and tempo.
- 2
Vadrok’s mutate ability was effectively used to turn vehicles into creatures, enabling multiple attacks and synergy with Shark Typhoon-generated tokens.
- 3
The use of wheel effects in Chainer's deck created opportunities to clear opponent hands and fuel graveyard recursion for damage and advantage.
- 4
A well-timed board wipe with Incendiary Command reset the board state but allowed players with graveyard recursion and wheel strategies to maintain momentum.
- 5
Jessica’s Will was leveraged from the graveyard to generate large amounts of mana and card draw, crucially supporting Vadrok’s late-game resource generation.
Notable Cards
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Liliana's Contract
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Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
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Burglar Rat
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Smuggler's Copter
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Shark Typhoon
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Incendiary Command
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Magus of the Wheel
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Painful Quandary
Gameplay Summary
The game began with players developing their boards through efficient early plays such as mana acceleration and utility creatures.
Vadrok used vehicles and creatures like Smuggler's Copter and Peace Walker Colossus to generate value and pressure, leveraging his mutate ability to turn vehicles into creatures.
Shirei disrupted opponents by recurring small creatures for incremental advantage, repeatedly sacrificing and returning creatures like Sky Scanner and Burglar Rat to force discards and draw cards.
Kaalia focused on assembling a synergy-heavy cleric tribal strategy with a demon-centric win condition involving Liliana's Contract, while Chainer aimed to wheel the game with creatures like Magus of the Wheel and capitalize on graveyard recursion to disrupt opponents’ hands and life totals with cards like Liliana's Caress and Painful Quandary. Midgame saw significant interactions around discard and reanimation loops, with Shirei's ability enabling continuous sacrifice and return of creatures, fueling incremental card advantage and disruption.
Vadrok’s use of mutate on Smuggler’s Copter, combined with multiple sharks generated from Shark Typhoon, allowed for aggressive board presence and crewed attacks.
A notable turning point was a board wipe triggered by Incendiary Command that reset the battlefield but left players with various resources in hand or graveyard to recover.
The game’s tempo swung heavily on the back of reanimation and wheel effects, with Chainer leveraging a full combo to clear the board and set up for a comeback.
The interactions culminated in Vadrok utilizing Jessica’s Will to generate mana and cards from the graveyard, maximizing his resources to maintain pressure and card advantage.
Throughout the match, the synergy between sacrifice, discard, and recursion mechanics shaped the flow, with multiple players jockeying for control through these interconnected strategies.
![Commander VS S6E9: Shirei vs Phelddagrif vs Dralnu vs Hixus [MTG] thumbnail](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vfgLmNwT_J8/sddefault.jpg)
