Deck & Commander Strategies
Mister Negative
Utilizes its enter-the-battlefield ability to swap life totals with an opponent, capitalizing on gaining a higher life total to play aggressively and profitably. The deck includes lifelink creatures and damage mitigation to maintain board presence and protect its life total advantage.
Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor
Builds up ingenuity counters by drawing cards each turn, enabling the casting of artifact spells from hand for free at instant speed. This creates explosive tempo and synergy with artifact-based combos and value spells.
Killian, Ink Duelist
Focuses on casting cheap auras and enhancing creatures efficiently with reduced mana costs, leveraging Orzhov colors for control and incremental value through buffing and protection.
Temmet, Naktamun's Will
Plays a Zombie tribal theme from a preconstructed deck with room for upgrades, focusing on generating zombie tokens and overwhelming opponents with resilient creatures and tribal synergies.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Lady Octopus's ability to cast artifact spells for free at instant speed breaks normal timing rules, allowing for reactive and explosive plays that quickly shift board state.
- 2
Life total swapping with Mister Negative forces opponents to reconsider attacking and blocking decisions, as the player who gains a higher life total can leverage lifelink and damage spells more effectively.
- 3
Discarding cards to trigger card draw and Lady Octopus counters demonstrates efficient hand manipulation to fuel continuous artifact casting.
- 4
Building around cheap auras in Killian's deck allows for cost-effective creature enhancement and board control, supporting a flexible midrange strategy.
- 5
Using a preconstructed Zombie tribal deck with Temmet highlights the potential for gradual upgrades and synergy improvements in tribal-focused strategies.
Notable Cards
-
Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor
-
Mister Negative
-
Careful Study
Gameplay Summary
The game started with players setting up their boards and early plays, notably with Lady Octopus entering early and quickly accumulating ingenuity counters by drawing cards.
This allowed the player controlling Lady Octopus to cast artifact spells for free at instant speed, generating significant tempo advantage.
Meanwhile, the player piloting Mister Negative leveraged its unique ability to switch life totals with an opponent, enabling aggressive life manipulation combined with lifelink creatures and damage mitigation to maintain control of the game state.
Killian, Ink Duelist focused on cheap aura-based synergies to enhance creatures efficiently, while Temmet, Naktamun's Will utilized a preconstructed Zombie tribal theme with potential upgrades anticipated later. A pivotal moment came when Lady Octopus's ability to cast multiple spells each turn without mana cost overwhelmed opponents with artifact synergies and value plays.
The life total swap mechanic of Mister Negative forced opponents into difficult decisions around combat and resource allocation.
The game featured tense interactions involving board control, with players managing threats, life totals, and key artifacts.
The eventual win condition centered around leveraging the powerful artifact cheat-into-play effects alongside life manipulation and aggressive creature enhancements to outpace opponents and close out the game.
![Strixhaven $100 Budget Game!! Killian vs Extus vs Codie vs Rootha [EDH/Commander, MTG Gameplay] 2021 thumbnail](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Sa5f7O-_nZU/sddefault.jpg)
![Jenara Midrange vs. Killian & Lurrus [Duel Commander-EDH] - Magic: The Gathering thumbnail](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7Vb4o4rYWD0/sddefault.jpg)
