Trostani vs Shattergang vs Brago vs Kaalia EDH / CMDR game play for Magic: The Gathering

Deck Strategies

• 

  Kaalia of the Vast

  An aggressive deck focused on cheating powerful Angels, Demons, and Dragons into play to deal massive commander damage and quickly reduce opponents’ life totals.

• 

  Trostani, Selesnya's Voice

  A life gain and token synergy deck that aims to stabilize the board through life gain triggers, creating tokens, and controlling the game pace with defensive plays.

• 

  Shattergang Brothers

  A sacrifice and value engine deck that uses the Brothers’ ability to sacrifice creatures each turn, generating tokens and recurring threats from the graveyard to control the board and deal incremental damage.

• 

  Brago, King Eternal

  A flicker-focused control deck that leverages Brago’s ability to blink permanents for value, disrupting opponents and reusing enter-the-battlefield effects to maintain tempo and control.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Jeff’s use of Highmarket and Shattergang Brothers’ sacrifice ability created a recurring engine that repeatedly cleared blockers and maintained board control.

• 2

  Matt’s flicker plays with Brago allowed strategic removal of key threats and disruption of combat phases, buying time against aggressive decks.

• 3

  Chris’s aggressive use of Kaalia’s attack triggers to cheat in high-impact creatures like Avacyn and Moonveil Dragon pressured opponents heavily, forcing targeted responses.

• 4

  Trostani’s life gain synergy enabled multiple large life swings, helping to stabilize against fast damage and extend survival in the face of aggressive assaults.

• 5

  Equipping Blade of Selves on creatures like Casava Hydra and Trostani generated multiple combat triggers and tokens, amplifying damage and life gain significantly.

• 6

  Despite heavy aggression and token swarms, the game featured several back-and-forth momentum shifts driven by flicker, sacrifice, and recursion combos.

Notable Cards

• 

  Shattergang Brothers

• 

  Kaalia of the Vast

• 

  Avacyn, Angel of Hope

• 

  Moonveil Dragon

• 

  Reflector Mage

• 

  Ghostly Flicker

• 

  Blade of Selves

• 

  Regal Force

• 

  Bloodghast

Summary

The game began with players developing their mana bases and casting early ramp and utility creatures. Jeff, piloting Shattergang Brothers, gained early board presence through tokens and efficient sacrifice synergy, while Matt's Brago deck focused on flicker effects to maintain control and disruption. Chris, playing Kaalia of the Vast, quickly established an aggressive posture by casting Kaalia herself and leveraging her ability to cheat in powerful angels and dragons, such as Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Moonveil Dragon. The board state escalated as Chris dealt significant commander damage through multiple swings with Kaalia and her attackers, while Jeff continuously generated sapling tokens and leveraged sacrifice outlets to maintain pressure and value. The game saw pivotal moments when Matt utilized Ghostly Flicker on Reflector Mage to bounce threats and disrupt Jeff's tempo, and when players repeatedly gained and lost life to stay in the game, with Trostani's life gain and token generation providing resilience. Jeff's sacrifice and recursion loops with Shattergang Brothers and Highmarket enabled him to clear blockers and deal lethal damage to multiple opponents simultaneously. Chris's aggressive attacks combined with Kaalia’s triggers nearly ended the game multiple times, but Jeff’s persistence with tokens and sacrifice combos kept him alive. Ultimately, the synergy between token creation, sacrifice, and recursion proved to be a decisive factor, with Jeff's Shattergang Brothers deck managing to swing lethal damage and claim victory by exploiting board-wide sacrifices and overwhelming damage output.