Squirrels Gone Wild - $50 Budget Commander | Ep 7

Deck Strategies

• 

  Chatterfang, Squirrel General

  Generate large numbers of squirrel tokens and leverage sacrifice outlets like Blood Artist to drain opponents' life totals and control the board.

• 

  Jori En, Ruin Diver

  Draw multiple cards per turn by casting multiple instant and sorcery spells, enabling a spell-heavy tempo and value game plan.

• 

  The Archimandrite

  Gain life and draw cards while playing monk creatures with prowess, amplified by Jessica's Ascendancy to create a powerful spellcasting and board presence engine.

• 

  Kelsien, the Plague

  Aggressively deal damage and gain experience counters by killing creatures and using haste to apply early pressure, growing stronger over time.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Utilizing Warlock Class's level up ability to sift through the top cards of the library and fill the graveyard accelerated resource development and synergy setups.

• 2

  Kelsien's ability to tap and deal damage to creatures triggered experience counters that fueled aggressive board control through creature removal and combat.

• 3

  Jessica's Ascendancy combined with monk creatures enabled repeated prowess triggers and card draw, maintaining hand size and board presence.

• 4

  Chatterfang's squirrel token generation synergized well with sacrifice outlets to create incremental life loss across opponents, pressuring their resources.

• 5

  Early removal of key enchantments like Warlock Class was contested, highlighting its importance in sustaining card advantage engines.

Notable Cards

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  Cauldron Familiar

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  Warlock Class

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  Ivory Tower

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  Blood Artist

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  Reclamation Sage

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  Smuggler's Copter

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  Uvilda, Dean of Perfection // Nassari, Dean of Expression

Summary

The game features four budget commander decks vying for control with distinct strategies. Early on, players established their board states with resource engines and creatures, such as Cauldron Familiar and Warlock Class, setting up incremental life loss and card advantage. Kelsien, the Plague aggressively applied pressure with a growing commander that benefited from experience counters, leveraging damage and creature removal synergy. The Archimandrite focused on drawing cards, gaining life, and deploying monk creatures with synergy from Jessica's Ascendancy to generate prowess triggers and continuous card filtering. Chatterfang, Squirrel General, led a token swarm strategy, producing numerous squirrel tokens to leverage sacrifice and damage synergies, notably with Blood Artist. As the game progressed, players jockeyed for position through selective removal, incremental damage, and card advantage engines. The Warlock Class enchantment proved pivotal in accelerating card draw and board development. Key turning points involved Kelsien's aggressive attacks combined with experience counters to control the board, and the Archimandrite's ability to chain spells for multiple triggers and card draws to maintain tempo. Ultimately, the game revolved around maintaining board presence while exploiting incremental damage and card advantage to outpace opponents.