I Hate Your Deck #78 Aclazotz v Sauron v Marchesa v Aragorn || Commander Gameplay EDH MTG

Deck Strategies

• 

  Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal

  Disrupt opponents by forcing discard to generate value through flying bat tokens and damage from discard triggers, then transform into a mana-producing land to fuel further plays.

• 

  Sauron, Lord of the Rings

  Use reanimation and graveyard synergies to bring back powerful creatures quickly, supported by fast mana acceleration and control elements to maintain board dominance.

• 

  Marchesa, the Black Rose

  Apply +1/+1 counters through attacking and other means, then sacrifice creatures to gain value by recurring them at the end of turns, making the board state resilient and generating incremental advantage.

• 

  Aragorn, the Uniter

  Cast multicolor spells to create a large army of human soldier tokens while dealing damage and buffing creatures, leveraging legendary synergies and versatile combat tricks.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Players' preemptive discussion around Tempt with Discovery showed strategic restraint to avoid early land flooding, though Sauron pushed for aggressive land drops to ramp faster.

• 2

  The discard mechanic from Aclazotz not only disrupted opponents but also synergized with damage and token generation, making discard spells dual-purpose threats.

• 3

  Marchesa's ability to bring back creatures with +1/+1 counters created a persistent board presence that pressured opponents to respond promptly or lose value.

• 4

  Aragorn’s multicolor spells triggered multiple abilities, providing both board presence and direct damage, showcasing the power of color diversity in token generation and combat control.

• 5

  Fast mana artifacts like Ancient Tomb and Black Market Connections allowed Sauron to execute his reanimator plan more quickly, shifting the tempo in his favor early on.

Notable Cards

• 

  Skullclamp

• 

  Ancient Tomb

• 

  Tempt with Discovery

• 

  Black Market Connections

• 

  Cabal Coffers

• 

  Graven Cairns

Summary

The game opened with players quickly establishing their mana bases and early board presence, including ramp and utility artifacts like Skullclamp and Black Market Connections. Aclazotz focused on a discard strategy to generate bat tokens and punish opponents, aiming to disrupt and drain resources. Sauron played a reanimator-style Grixis deck, using graveyard synergies and fast mana sources like Ancient Tomb to set up powerful creatures. Marchesa leveraged her dethrone mechanic and +1/+1 counters to generate value through sacrifice and recursion, making her creatures difficult to remove permanently. Aragorn aimed to build a wide board of human soldier tokens while triggering his versatile damage and buff abilities through casting multicolor spells. A pivotal early moment was the group interaction around Tempt with Discovery, where players weighed the risk of flooding the board with lands early versus maintaining discipline, with Sauron ultimately pushing for maximum land drops to accelerate his strategy. As the game progressed, the players juggled aggressive plays and board control, trying to outmaneuver each other’s synergies. Key plays included exploiting discard triggers to create flying bats, recurring creatures from Marchesa's graveyard, and Aragorn generating tokens and direct damage. The game’s tension rose as players balanced resource management and board state control, setting the stage for potential explosive turns involving reanimation or token swarms. The overall gameplay highlighted the contrast between disruptive discard, graveyard recursion, token generation, and multicolor synergy strategies.