Deck Strategies
Dionus, Elvish Archdruid
Ramp aggressively using elves that tap for mana, leveraging +1/+1 counters and untap effects to produce large creatures and multiple activations for value and combat pressure.
Zul Ashur, Lich Lord
Utilize graveyard recursion to flood the board with zombies, combining sacrifice outlets and treasures for resource advantage and incremental life drain through synergies like Blood Artist.
Cleon, Merry Champion
Generate red soldier tokens and pump them with storm-like effects to overwhelm opponents through combat damage and spell copying.
Niv-Mizzet, Visionary
Control the game with burn spells that deal damage to opponents while drawing cards, maintaining constant pressure and card advantage.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Zul Ashur’s graveyard recursion combo with Gravecrawler and Viashino Tumor created a loop enabling repeated sacrifices and recasts, generating significant board presence and mana advantage.
- 2
Dionus’s synergy with elves and +1/+1 counter mechanics allowed multiple untaps and mana generation, facilitating casting large creatures and multiple activations in a single turn.
- 3
Blood Artist proved crucial in punishing opponent creature deaths, converting board wipes or sacrifices into incremental life loss for opponents and life gain for the player.
- 4
Runaway Steam-Kin provided flexible mana ramp in any deck, proving to be a valuable resource for aggressive spellcasting and mana generation.
- 5
The use of Cavern of Souls prevented key creature spells from being countered, enabling the players to establish their strategies reliably despite potential disruption.
- 6
Combining token creation with pump and spell-copying effects allowed Cleon’s deck to maintain offensive pressure even in the face of removal or disruption.
Notable Cards
Dionus, Elvish Archdruid
Marwyn, the Nurturer
Zul Ashur, Lich Lord
Blood Artist
Runaway Steam-Kin
Gravecrawler
Wirewood Lodge
Cavern of Souls
Vampiric Tutor
Summary
The game began with a typical setup phase where each player established their mana bases and early board presence. Dionus, Elvish Archdruid focused on generating value by pairing with creatures like Marwyn the Nurturer to ramp and grow his army through +1/+1 counters and untapping elves for multiple activations. Zul Ashur, Lich Lord developed a zombie-based graveyard recursion strategy, using his commander’s ability to cast zombie creatures from the graveyard and going wide with tokens, supported by powerful synergies such as Blood Artist and Treasure generation for mana and value. Cleon, Merry Champion aimed to leverage pump and storm elements, creating multiple token soldiers to overwhelm opponents, while Niv-Mizzet, Visionary pursued a control and burn plan, drawing cards and dealing damage through spellcasting and direct burn effects.
