Deck & Commander Strategies

Shorikai, Genesis Engine
Utilizes artifact synergies and powerful spellcasting with reduced colorless costs to generate incremental advantage and board presence.

Go-Shintai of Life's Origin
Focuses on enchantment-based jank and multiple potential win conditions, aiming to stumble into a combo or synergy that secures victory.

Winter, Cynical Opportunist
Leverages graveyard diversity and various card types to generate value and uses recursion and counters to maintain pressure.

The Wise Mothman
Executes a powerful and aggressive game plan out of the precon box, often making it a public enemy due to its raw strength and synergy.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Boosting Infesting Radroach with Na Nuke Launcher to grant intimidate and +3/+0 significantly increased damage output and rad counter pressure.
- 2
Milling nonland cards to trigger rad counter loss and life loss was a recurring theme, forcing players to balance aggression with resource management.
- 3
The synergy between different card types in Winter's graveyard enabled incremental growth on creatures, showcasing the power of diversity in graveyard strategies.
- 4
Wise Mothman’s strong precon synergy made it the early primary threat, shaping the opponents’ targeting and game pace.
- 5
Playing enchantments and cycling lands from the top of the library through Augur of Autumns provided future planning and card advantage opportunities.
Notable Cards
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Infesting Radroach
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Obsessive Skinner
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Lightning Greaves
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Happily Ever After
Gameplay Summary
The game began with players deploying a variety of preconstructed decks, each showcasing distinct strategies.
Early turns involved building board presence and setting up synergies unique to each commander.
Shorikai, Genesis Engine focused on artifact synergy and efficient spellcasting, while the Wise Mothman deck demonstrated powerful, unmodified precon strength that made it a prime target.
Go-Shintai of Life's Origin brought a toolbox of enchantments and jank-filled combos aimed at finding one of the deck's many win conditions, and Winter, Cynical Opportunist aimed to leverage graveyard diversity for incremental value and advantage. A key turning point occurred when the infesting radroach was boosted with intimidate and +3/+0 from the Na Nuke Launcher, allowing aggressive damage and forcing opponents to manage rad counters carefully.
Milling and graveyard interactions also played a significant role, as seen with Winter's obsessive skinner and the strategic cycling that increased delirium.
Despite some powerful setups, such as the radroach's aggressive counters and the enchantment-based combos in the Go-Shintai deck, the gameplay was marked by incremental board development and life loss from the game’s unique rules.
Haphazard milling and life payment mechanics created tension around maintaining health and board control. The game’s dynamic revolved around managing these various synergies while balancing life loss and board threats.
The Wise Mothman deck’s early dominance attracted focused aggression, while the other decks sought to leverage their unique mechanics to stabilize or push for a win.
The interplay of artifact recursion, enchantment combos, and graveyard diversity created a layered, chaotic battlefield where multiple paths to victory were pursued simultaneously.













![Go-Shintai vs Kaima vs Shorikai vs Satoru [Budget EDH/Commander, Magic The Gathering Gameplay 2022] thumbnail](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RtH14D2XE_M/sddefault.jpg)



























