Deck & Commander Strategies
Beorn the Fierce
A bear tribal deck. Beorn adds trample counters and makes creatures bears, and it draws cards when the player controls three or more bears. The deck uses Patchwork Banner, Herald's Horn, Ayula, Werebear, Bear Umbra and Gigantic Big Bear to win through huge trampling combat damage.
Thranduil, the Elvenking
An elf combo deck. Legendary elves entering draw and discard cards, and Thranduil lets the player use activated abilities of elves in the graveyard. Mana elves such as Wirewood Channeler, Shadowheart, Imperious Perfect and Deathrite Shaman chain into tap/untap loops with Devoted Druid and Evolution Witness, producing infinite mana and tokens to win.
Gandalf, Party Guest
A wizard and spellslinger deck. Gandalf casts cheap instants and sorceries for free at the beginning of combat based on the number of legendary wizards controlled. Jeskai Ascendancy, cantrips and counterspells support it, but the deck struggled to find wizards in this game.
Smaug the Magnificent
A treasure and burn deck. Smaug makes a treasure each upkeep and deals damage equal to the number of treasures when it deals damage. Reckless Fireweaver and Crime Novelist add pings and treasure synergy, but it was held back after Smaug was killed early.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Beorn's player used a bear to fight and kill Smaug right after it dealt commander damage. That removed the table's only flying threat and the Smaug player's main source of pressure.
- 2
Beorn's trample counter and bear-type effect each combat, plus Bear Umbra's pump and untap, made Beorn a 9/9 trampler. Controlling three or more bears drew extra cards every combat.
- 3
Chaos Warp on Ayula was used to stop Smaug's player from repeatedly fighting with the bear.
- 4
Thranduil's player used Shadowheart's sacrifice-and-draw ability together with Thranduil's copied abilities and repeated tap/untap of mana elves to generate large amounts of mana and cards in one turn.
- 5
The Devoted Druid untap loop with -1/-1 counters was initially limited by the counters. Evolution Witness's adapt removed them, allowing infinite mana and, through Imperious Perfect, infinite elf tokens.
- 6
Ruxa, Patient Professor was part of the final plan. Creatures without abilities, such as tokens, could assign damage as though unblocked, and a 'lose life equal to power' effect gave a finishing option.
- 7
Gandalf's player used Snap off the combat trigger as a cheap free spell to bounce Arwen and untap lands. He also paid attention to the Ascendancy trigger counts to draw extra cards.
- 8
Prismari Command's artifact mode destroyed Beorn's Herald's Horn, slowing the cost reduction and the library-top bear reveals.
Notable Cards
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Beorn the Fierce
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Ayula, Queen Among Bears
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Bear Umbra
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Gigantic Big Bear
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Werebear
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Patchwork Banner
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Thranduil, the Elvenking
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Imperious Perfect
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Wirewood Channeler
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Deathrite Shaman
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Devoted Druid
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Evolution Witness
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Voice of the Woods
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Gandalf, Party Guest
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Jeskai Ascendancy
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Snap
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Prismari Command
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Smaug the Magnificent
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Reckless Fireweaver
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Chaos Warp
Gameplay Summary
The game opened slowly, with every player hitting their land drops and developing mana.
Beorn's player set up with Patchwork Banner naming Bear and Herald's Horn, then landed Ayula, Queen Among Bears.
Smaug arrived on a later turn and hit for four commander damage in the air, but it was quickly fought and killed by a bear.
Gandalf's player built a small wizard-and-spells shell with Jeskai Ascendancy and Robe of the Archmagi.
He drew extra cards by equipping a creature and connecting.
Thranduil came down as a large legendary elf, and the Beorn player pressed the advantage. Beorn then took over combat.
Bear Umbra and Werebear stacked on top of Beorn's own trample counters and +2/+2 bonuses, and each combat drew extra cards for controlling three or more bears.
Beorn swung as a 9/9 trampler, with the table taking commander damage.
Gigantic Big Bear followed as a 13/10.
Gandalf bounced Arwen with Snap, and a Prismari Command destroyed Herald's Horn.
Smaug's player was unable to rebuild after losing the dragon early. The Thranduil player then ran an elf engine that decided the game.
Thranduil copied the activated abilities of elves in the graveyard, and Shadowheart, Imperious Perfect, Wirewood Channeler, Deathrite Shaman, Topiary Lecturer and Llanowar Scarblade produced huge amounts of mana and card draw.
The untap-and-tap loop with Devoted Druid and -1/-1 counters was refined with Evolution Witness's adapt, which removed the counters, so Thranduil could tap and untap indefinitely.
That gave effectively infinite mana, with Imperious Perfect making unlimited elf tokens.
Thranduil's player won the game.
