Magic: The Gathering Gameplay Episode 2 (Pay The One)

Deck Strategies

• 

  Edgar Markov

  A Vampire tribal deck that focuses on creating vampire tokens and draining opponents’ life totals through incremental damage abilities like Blood Artist, aiming to win by overwhelming opponents with aggressive vampire creatures and life drain effects.

• 

  Varina, Lich Queen

  A Zombie tribal deck that generates zombie tokens and grows its creatures by leveraging graveyard synergies and zombie tribal buffs, aiming to control the board and close out the game through attrition and overwhelming numbers.

• 

  Don Andres, the Renegade

  A Pirate tribal deck that quickly develops a board using low-cost pirates and enhances them with cards like Metallic Mimic and sacrifice outlets, aiming for aggressive tempo plays and incremental growth through tribal synergy.

• 

  The Ur-Dragon

  A Dragon tribal deck focused on ramping mana to cast large dragon creatures and dominate the battlefield with powerful threats, aiming to win by overwhelming opponents with big dragons and tribal synergy.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Using Metallic Mimic early to align creature types and gain incremental +1/+1 counters accelerated the Pirate deck’s board development.

• 2

  Blood Artist’s life drain ability synergized well with the Vampire deck’s tribal tokens, creating pressure through incremental life loss and gain.

• 3

  The Zombie deck’s Champion of the Perish became stronger with each zombie entering the battlefield, emphasizing the importance of token generation and tribal synergy.

• 4

  Players showed restraint in attacking early on, choosing to build boards and evaluate threats before committing to combat, demonstrating cautious pacing in multiplayer Commander games.

Notable Cards

• 

  Metallic Mimic

• 

  Blood Artist

Summary

The game begins with four players piloting distinct tribal-themed decks: a Dragon tribal deck, a Pirate tribal deck, a Zombie tribal deck, and a Vampire tribal deck. Early turns focus on establishing board presence with low-cost creatures and setting up synergies, particularly around tribal buffs and token generation. The Pirate deck quickly develops a board with multiple one-drop creatures that generate value through counters and sacrifice abilities. Simultaneously, the Zombie deck builds momentum by deploying creatures that grow with the number of zombies on the battlefield, while the Vampire deck leverages life drain effects and incremental damage through Blood Artist triggers. A notable interaction early in the game is the Pirate deck’s use of Metallic Mimic to boost creature strength by aligning creature types, enabling a strong tempo advantage. The Zombie deck attempts to capitalize on graveyard interactions and token synergy, while the Vampire deck's incremental life and damage swings create mounting pressure on opponents. The players demonstrate a cautious approach in the first few turns, with some attacking attempts to chip away at life totals, setting the stage for more aggressive plays. Overall, the game is a tense tribal battle where each deck aims to leverage its respective synergies and tribal bonuses to overwhelm opponents and secure victory.