Deck & Commander Strategies
Celes, Rune Knight
A graveyard reanimator deck that aims to fill the graveyard and bring back large creatures using spells like Exhume and Necromancy, leveraging value from reanimated threats to control the board and win through overwhelming creatures.
Zurgo Bellstriker
An aggressive mono-red deck focused on fast, early damage with cheap creatures like Zurgo Bellstriker and Goblin Guide, backed by burn spells to finish opponents quickly before they can stabilize.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Zurgo’s early aggression and burn spells constantly pressured Celes, preventing her from safely executing her reanimation strategy.
- 2
Celes’s use of Necromancy to reanimate large threats was pivotal but ultimately too slow to counter Zurgo’s fast damage output.
- 3
Life gain from creatures like Mog Fanatic helped extend Celes’s survival but was insufficient against Zurgo’s repeated burn spells and aggressive attacks.
- 4
Flashback mechanics and discard synergies were important for Celes to maintain card advantage, though Zurgo’s tempo prevented these from fully paying off.
- 5
Careful sequencing of damage spells by Zurgo ensured Celes’s life total was kept low, forcing mistakes and limiting options.
Notable Cards
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Exhume
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Necromancy
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Inferno Titan
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Goblin Guide
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Lightning Bolt
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Seal of Fire
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Light Up the Stage
Gameplay Summary
The game was a fast-paced duel between Celes, a reanimator-focused deck, and Zurgo Bellstriker, a red aggressive deck.
Early turns saw Celes setting up graveyard strategies with discard and recursion spells like Exhume and Necromancy, trying to bring back powerful creatures such as Inferno Titan.
Meanwhile, Zurgo Bellstriker applied early pressure with aggressive creatures and burn spells, using cards like Goblin Guide and Lightning Bolt to chip away at Celes’s life total.
The reanimator deck struggled to stabilize due to continuous damage from Zurgo’s early attacks and burn spells. A key turning point was when Celes attempted to execute her reanimation plan but was slowed by Zurgo’s fast tempo and repeated damage from burn and aggressive creatures.
Despite some life gain interactions and attempts to assemble a board presence, Celes’s life total dwindled under constant pressure.
Zurgo’s consistent damage output and disruption eventually overwhelmed Celes, securing a win with a combination of direct damage spells and efficient combat damage.
The game highlighted the aggressive red deck’s ability to outpace a slower reanimator strategy in a duel commander setting.
