Deck & Commander Strategies
Hakbal of the Surging Soul
Build a board of Merfolk using explore triggers to place +1/+1 counters on creatures, then leverage those counters with synergy effects and anthem spells to create a large, evasive army that wins through commander damage and combat pressure.
Abomination of Llanowar
Generate and multiply elf tokens with the commander’s ability to copy itself, buff the entire elf tribe, and use vigilance and menace to apply consistent combat damage, aiming to overwhelm opponents through sheer board presence and commander damage.
Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation // Temple of Civilization
Create numerous creature tokens with vigilance to maintain board presence, use +1/+1 counter synergies to strengthen tokens, and employ anthem effects to boost the team, focusing on wide board state and incremental pressure.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Timing the casting of Cyclonic Rift during combat to maximize disruption of opposing boards while maintaining momentum.
- 2
Doubling +1/+1 counters on Prime Speaker Zegana before she enters the battlefield to draw a massive number of cards and increase her power significantly.
- 3
Using the Abomination of Llanowar’s token copying ability multiple times to quickly flood the board with large elf tokens and boost all elves simultaneously.
- 4
Leveraging explore triggers early and often to grow creatures and generate incremental value and card advantage.
- 5
Choosing combat targets strategically to maximize commander damage while preserving key creatures with reach and vigilance.
- 6
Utilizing anthem effects like Intangible Virtue to enhance token durability and combat effectiveness.
Notable Cards
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Cyclonic Rift
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Prime Speaker Zegana
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Branching Evolution
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Intangible Virtue
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Poison-Tip Archer
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Metallic Mimic
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Mossbridge Troll
Gameplay Summary
The game featured a four-player Commander match with tribal themes centering on Merfolk, Elves, and token generation.
Early turns focused on ramp and board development, with players utilizing exploration and counters to grow their creatures.
Hakbal of the Surging Soul players (two different decks) leveraged exploring and +1/+1 counters to steadily build a wide board of Merfolk, while the Abomination of Llanowar deck aggressively generated elf tokens and buffed them for a large board presence.
Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation's deck focused on creating a swarm of creature tokens with vigilance and maximizing their value through anthem effects and counters. Key moments included the casting of cyclonic rift to disrupt opponents' boards, and Prime Speaker Zegana entering with a massive number of counters due to doubling effects and drawing a large number of cards, significantly advancing that player's board state.
The Abomination of Llanowar deck's ability to create multiple token copies of itself and boost all elves allowed for explosive growth, pushing high amounts of commander damage.
The Merfolk decks used synergy between exploring and counter doubling to keep expanding their board and drawing extra cards, maintaining tempo and pressure throughout.
Combat phases were marked by aggressive swings that leveraged flying and vigilance, steadily chipping away at opponents' life totals and commander damage thresholds.
The game showed how tribal synergies and counter manipulation can create powerful board states in EDH.
