Budget Brawl: Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper VS Rafiq of the Many EDH / CMDR gameplay video

Deck Strategies

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  Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper

  This deck focuses on animating lands to create creatures and leveraging spells with instant and sorcery synergy to generate value. It aims to control the board through removal and incremental advantage while slowly building a defensive and offensive presence via land creatures.

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  Rafiq of the Many

  The deck aggressively attacks with creatures enhanced by exalted triggers and double strike, aiming to quickly reduce opponents' life totals. It uses cheap creatures and combat tricks to maximize damage output and card draw from combat damage triggers.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  The high casting cost of Noyan Dar slowed down the tempo, making it difficult for the deck to establish an early board presence.

• 2

  Rafiq's ability to stack exalted triggers and gain extra card draw through combat damage created a snowball effect that was difficult to stop.

• 3

  Noyan Dar's reliance on animating lands made the deck vulnerable to removal that could target lands, putting extra pressure on maintaining board state.

• 4

  The lack of ramp and card draw in Noyan Dar's deck contributed to falling behind in resources compared to Rafiq's aggressive strategy.

• 5

  Choosing not to block Rafiq's double strike attackers allowed the damage to come through unimpeded, showcasing the importance of evaluating tradeoffs in combat decisions.

Notable Cards

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  Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper

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  Rafiq of the Many

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  Darksteel Plate

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  Fabricate

Summary

The game featured a matchup between two budget decks led by Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper and Rafiq of the Many. Early on, Noyan Dar's player struggled to find a strong opening hand and faced setbacks with mana and card draw, which slowed the deck's ability to animate lands and leverage its sorcery and instant synergies. Meanwhile, Rafiq of the Many's player quickly established board presence with creatures benefiting from exalted triggers and double strike, consistently pressuring life totals. Key moments included Rafiq's aggressive attacks stacking exalted triggers and drawing extra cards, steadily pushing damage while Noyan Dar attempted to stabilize through land animation and removal. However, the high casting cost of Noyan Dar and lack of efficient ramp hindered recovery. The game essentially revolved around Rafiq capitalizing on fast-paced combat damage and incremental card advantage, while Noyan Dar struggled to keep pace and was ultimately overwhelmed by the exalted-fueled assaults.