EDH/Commander Gameplay #9 - Lynde vs Eligeth & Esior vs Evra

Deck Strategies

• 

  Eligeth, Crossroads Augur & Esior, Wardwing Familiar

  A dual commander deck focused on card draw and control, leveraging Esior to draw cards instead of scrying and Eligeth’s ability to generate value. The deck aims to either mill opponents out or win through value-based combos and card advantage.

• 

  Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor

  An enchantment and curse-based deck that applies pressure through curses and enchantment synergies, punishing opponents for attacking and controlling the board state with disruptive enchantments.

• 

  Evra, Halcyon Witness

  A glass cannon deck that aims to protect Evra and use its life swap ability coupled with powerful spells and creatures to execute a quick and lethal combo, often winning by drastically reducing opponents’ library size or direct damage.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Jack's use of Cut Your Losses combined with sacrificing Bronze Walrus triggered multiple casualty triggers, allowing him to mill half the libraries of multiple opponents twice, nearly ending the game immediately.

• 2

  Alex leveraged equipment tutors and card draw engines to maintain a steady flow of resources, ensuring he could pivot between winning through milling or value generation.

• 3

  Matt applied pressure through curses that punished attacking players, forcing opponents to make difficult decisions about combat and card discards.

• 4

  The interaction between milling half of an opponent's library and copying that effect demonstrated a potent, underexplored win condition in multiplayer Commander games.

• 5

  Players carefully timed their plays around Evra’s glass cannon style, attempting to mitigate the threat while developing their board states.

Notable Cards

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  Cut Your Losses

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  Bronze Walrus

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  Esior, Wardwing Familiar

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  Eligeth, Crossroads Augur

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  Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor

• 

  Evra, Halcyon Witness

• 

  Mystic Sanctuary

Summary

The game featured four players piloting distinct decks with unique strategies. Early turns involved setting up lands and minor plays, gradually progressing to more impactful spells and board development. Alex, running Eligeth and Esior, focused on card draw and controlling the game flow, utilizing equipment and auras to support his creatures and generate value. Matt's Lynde deck concentrated on curse-themed enchantments to pressure opponents and punish attacks, leveraging enchantment synergies to gain an advantage. Jack's Evra deck was a glass cannon strategy aiming for a swift, high-impact kill using Evra's ability to swap life totals and power, combined with powerful spells and creatures to close out the game quickly. A pivotal moment occurred when Jack used a combination involving the card Cut Your Losses and sacrificing Bronze Walrus to cascade casualty triggers, milling multiple opponents’ libraries by half twice, drastically reducing their deck sizes and setting up a near-instant win condition. This aggressive mill strategy showcased how Evra’s deck can leverage high-risk, high-reward plays to dominate. Throughout the game, players navigated around curses, card draw engines, and board control spells, with each deck executing its game plan while trying to disrupt others. The match highlighted the tension between aggressive combos and incremental value strategies in Commander multiplayer settings.