Deck Strategies
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
A Stax-style deck that ramps aggressively with mana dorks and artifact lands to deploy lockdown pieces and control the board, aiming to restrict opponents' resources and win through incremental advantage.
Tymna the Weaver & Thrasios, Triton Hero
A draw and tutor-heavy deck that leverages card advantage engines like Ristic Study to find combo pieces or powerful spells, aiming to outvalue opponents and close out the game with a combo or overwhelming board presence.
Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator & Vial Smasher the Fierce
A Grixis Pirates deck focused on aggressive treasure generation and tempo plays with Ragavan, using combat damage triggers and disruption to pressure opponents while assembling combos or lethal damage quickly.
Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter
An artifact synergy deck that uses cheap creatures, artifact ramp, and combat tricks to generate value and incremental damage, aiming to win through combat damage while maintaining resilience via artifact recursion.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
The Selvala player’s early Karn deployment established significant stax control that shaped the pace of the game.
- 2
Grixis Pirates maximized treasure token generation from combat triggers to ramp into powerful spells and maintain board presence.
- 3
The Tymna/Thrasios deck exploited multiple Ristic Study triggers in a single turn to draw a large portion of their deck, accelerating toward their win condition.
- 4
Liberator’s flash play of a key artifact creature caught opponents off guard and helped swing combat phases in their favor.
- 5
The interaction of multiple draw triggers and stax effects required precise sequencing and resource management to avoid losing tempo.
- 6
Targeted removal and exile effects were crucial in dismantling combo enablers and mitigating the threat from opponents’ key cards.
Notable Cards
Karn
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Sensei's Divining Top
Carpet of Flowers
Grim Monolith
Orcish Bowmasters
Momentous Fall
Mishra's Workshop
Demonic Tutor
Summary
The game features a high-level cEDH multiplayer battle with four powerful decks: a Selvala Stax deck, a Tymna/Thrasios draw-tutor deck, a Grixis Pirates deck led by Malcolm and Vial Smasher, and a Liberator artifact synergy deck. Early turns saw aggressive ramp and setup plays, with Selvala accelerating into a Karn to impose Stax effects, while the others quickly developed their mana bases and card draw engines. The Grixis Pirates deck utilized Ragavan and treasure generation to fuel its tempo, while Tymna/Thrasios leveraged Ristic Study and tutors to dig through their deck. Liberator surprised opponents with a flash play and applied pressure using artifact creatures and incremental advantage from cards like Sensei's Divining Top. The midgame was defined by intense card draw chains, the use of stax pieces to lock down opponents, and tactical removal to manage threats—especially a pivotal moment when the Grixis Pirates player lost key resources to targeted removal and stax effects. The Selvala player maximized their board presence with tokens and combat tricks to maintain control, while Tymna/Thrasios focused on drawing and tutoring into combo pieces. Liberator’s artifact synergies and combat damage chipped away at life totals, culminating in the elimination of the Grixis Pirates player. The game highlighted the tension between stax lockdown and explosive card draw/combo potential, with the stax player striving to hold the ground against the relentless pressure from card advantage engines.
