Deck Strategies
Gonti, Night Minister
A group hug style deck that generates value by drawing cards off opponents' libraries whenever creatures deal combat damage, exiling those cards to cast spells, and gaining treasure tokens to ramp, focusing on card advantage and versatile spellcasting.
Minn, Wily Illusionist
Mono-blue ramp deck that creates one-one illusion tokens on drawing a second card each turn and leverages the death of these illusions to cheat permanents from hand onto the battlefield, enabling explosive board development.
Kotori, Pilot Prodigy
Vehicle-centric deck focusing on crewing vehicles to generate card advantage and board presence, with the ability to recur vehicles from the graveyard and maintain aggressive pressure with trampling threats.
Mabel, Heir to Cragflame
A tribal mouse deck focused on creating and buffing numerous mouse tokens, equipping them with beneficial equipment like Sword of the Animist to ramp and apply pressure, aiming for an aggressive board state.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Using Gonti's combat damage triggers to exile and play opponents' cards while generating treasure tokens allowed for sustained card advantage and mana ramp.
- 2
Minn's ability to create illusion tokens on drawing a second card each turn combined with sacrificing those illusions to cheat permanents into play accelerated board development significantly.
- 3
Equipping Sword of the Animist on Mabel's creatures helped ramp mana by fetching basic lands, enabling faster deployment of threats despite slow land draws.
- 4
Kotori's vehicle strategy leveraged crewing and graveyard recursions to maintain a resilient and threatening board presence, with trample providing punch through defenses.
- 5
Players used combat damage not just to reduce life totals but strategically to trigger card draw and ability activations, emphasizing value over direct aggression.
Notable Cards
Ominous Seas
Sword of the Animist
Emberheart Challenger
Nether Traitor
Arcane Signet
Blacksmith's Talent
Summary
The game began with players developing their boards with early ramp and creatures, focusing on their unique synergies. Mabel's deck aimed to generate a swarm of mice tokens and boost them with equipment, while Kotori's deck revolved around vehicles and crew mechanics to maintain board presence. Gonti's deck utilized a group hug style of play, drawing cards off opponents' libraries and exiling cards to cast spells, creating value from combat damage interactions. Minn's deck was a mono-blue ramp build that generated illusions on card draws and used those creatures' deaths to cheat permanents onto the battlefield. Key turning points included Zach deploying Minn, ramping effectively and generating illusions to cheat in powerful permanents, and the emergence of a large indomitable vehicle that could be cast from the graveyard with enough crew. Becca used Gonti's ability to steal cards from opponents' libraries and gain treasures, allowing her to maintain card advantage. Mabel equipped her mice with Sword of the Animist to accelerate land drops and increase board pressure. Combat interactions, such as attacking with creatures that triggered card draws or exiling cards to play, shaped the tempo of the game. Attacks were often targeted to draw cards or activate abilities rather than solely to deal damage. The game unfolded with incremental advantage through synergy and card advantage rather than explosive combos, setting up a board with multiple threats and value engines.