Gifting 2023 Precons – Wheeler Gets Married Twice || Elder Dragon Social Club - Commander Gameplay

Deck Strategies

• 

  Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit

  Focuses on life gain through food tokens and leveraging the Ring’s temptation mechanic to draw cards, aiming for incremental advantage and board presence.

• 

  Bruna, the Fading Light

  Angel and human tribal deck that recurs powerful creatures from the graveyard and controls the board with flying, vigilance, and life gain.

• 

  Zhulodok, Void Gorger

  Eldrazi-themed cascade deck that casts high-cost colorless spells for free, aiming to overwhelm opponents with value and huge threats.

• 

  Davros, Dalek Creator

  Grixis artifact and token strategy that creates menace tokens and forces opponents to make villainous choices based on life loss, disrupting their hands and resources.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Nelson's use of cascade on Zhulodok allowed him to cast expensive colorless spells for free, generating significant board impact and card advantage.

• 2

  Graham’s Davros deck leveraged life loss triggers and villainous choices to force opponents into discarding cards, applying pressure on their resources while building a board of menace tokens.

• 3

  Wheeler maximized the synergy between food token generation and life gain to fuel card draw through Frodo's ring temptation mechanic, providing steady incremental advantage.

• 4

  Ben’s strategy of recurring angels and humans with Bruna established board control and life gain, which helped stabilize early aggressive plays from opponents.

• 5

  The dynamic between cascading Eldrazi spells and villainous choices created a tension-filled game state where players had to carefully balance aggression with resource management.

Notable Cards

• 

  Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit

• 

  Sam, Loyal Attendant

• 

  Bruna, the Fading Light

• 

  Zhulodok, Void Gorger

• 

  Davros, Dalek Creator

• 

  Trading Post

• 

  Seraph Sanctuary

• 

  Ruins of Oran-Rief

Summary

The game began with each player opening and playing preconstructed 2023 Commander decks, each with distinct themes and strategies. Wheeler piloted a flavorful Hobbit-themed deck featuring Frodo and Sam, focusing on life gain and card draw through the Ring's temptation mechanic and food tokens. Ben played a Bruna, the Fading Light deck with a strong angel and human tribal synergy, aiming to cast powerful creatures and leverage their abilities to control the board. Nelson’s deck centered on Zhulodok, Void Gorger, an Eldrazi-themed commander that cascaded into high-cost colorless spells, aiming to overwhelm opponents with value and big threats. Graham's deck, led by Davros, Dalek Creator, used a Grixis artifact and token strategy with a unique life loss and villainous choice mechanic that pressured opponents' resources each turn. Early turns saw players establishing mana bases and setting up their thematic engines, such as Wheeler generating food tokens and Ben gaining life from angel triggers. Key moments included Nelson casting large Eldrazi with cascade triggers and Graham producing 3/3 menace tokens each turn while forcing opponents into difficult hand decisions. Wheeler's deck synergized life gain triggers with card draw, gradually building advantage. The game turned on managing life totals and resource denial, with players leveraging their unique mechanics to control the pace and pressure opponents. The interplay of cascade spells, villainous choices, and life gain created dynamic board states and tactical combat decisions. Ultimately, the game showcased the diversity and flavor of the 2023 preconstructed decks, highlighting their distinct paths to victory and interaction.