Our Favorite Commanders (Now with 100% more Aaron!) | Big Deck Energy

Deck Strategies

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  Pharika, God of Affliction

  Utilizes graveyard interactions and milling to generate snake tokens and gain value from creatures dying, leveraging enchantments and recursion to control the board and outlast opponents.

• 

  Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos

  Focuses on Feline tribal synergy, generating and protecting a swarm of small creature tokens to overwhelm opponents through incremental board presence.

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  Sefris of the Hidden Ways

  Leverages the dungeon-venture mechanic by sacrificing creatures to venture through dungeons and resurrect creatures, combining graveyard value with continuous recursion and protection.

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  Bristly Bill, Spine Sower

  Employs landfall to place +1/+1 counters on creatures and can double these counters to rapidly grow a board of large creatures, aiming for quick, explosive growth before vulnerability becomes a concern.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Ryan's use of Mesmeric Orb to mill cards whenever permanents untapped created significant graveyard value fueling Pharika's strategy and pressured opponents simultaneously.

• 2

  Drew's Sefris effectively utilized dungeon ventures triggered by creatures dying to continuously bring back key creatures, enhancing board resilience.

• 3

  Aaron's Bristly Bill grew quickly through landfall and doubling counters but remained vulnerable due to lack of protection, highlighting the need to balance aggression with defense.

• 4

  Chase's Brimaz deck capitalized on small creature tokens and Feline tribal synergies, focusing on steady board development to support incremental pressure.

• 5

  Discarding Orcish Bowmasters to retrieve them later with graveyard recursion demonstrated clever resource management to maximize value from key creatures.

• 6

  The interplay between graveyard manipulation and recursion was a central theme, with multiple players leveraging dying creatures and graveyard interactions to maintain board presence.

Notable Cards

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  Mesmeric Orb

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  Tortured Existence

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  Dungeon Delver

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  Orcish Bowmasters

Summary

The game began with players deploying their commanders and setting up their board states, focusing on their individual synergies. Chase led with Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos, deploying a Feline tribal strategy centered on small creatures and tokens. Drew played Sefris of the Hidden Ways, leveraging its dungeon-venture mechanic by putting creatures into the graveyard and gaining value from completing dungeons to return creatures to the battlefield. Aaron piloted Bristly Bill, a landfall commander that grows creatures with +1/+1 counters and can double those counters, aiming for a rapid board presence that escalates quickly but lacks protection. Ryan took on Pharika, God of Affliction, with a graveyard-focused deck that mills cards and creates snakes while maintaining resource advantage through graveyard recursion and enchantments like Tortured Existence. Early turns saw significant interactions with graveyard mechanics, as Ryan's mass milling with Mesmeric Orb pressured opponents' hands and graveyards, fueling his Pharika deck's snake generation. Sefris triggered dungeon ventures through creatures dying, steadily advancing toward completing dungeons to resurrect valuable creatures. Bristly Bill started building counters through landfall, quickly growing his army, while Brimaz developed a swarm of tokens. Key plays included Ryan discarding and retrieving creatures to maximize graveyard value, and Drew amplifying dungeon triggers with Dungeon Delver. Although Bristly Bill aimed to overpower with counters, the lack of protection made him vulnerable, while Pharika's control over graveyard and milling effects shifted the game's tempo. The game revolved around managing graveyards and board presence, with Pharika's snake tokens and graveyard recursion posing a looming threat to all players.