Commander Clash S2 Episode 31: History Clash
Hello and welcome to Commander Clash, a video series where several MTGGoldfish contributors battle in a four player Commander game for fun and bragging rights. This week, we're showing off a chunk of Magic's history by building decks with cards that were printed in a specific time period. We started History Clash at the very beginning with Alpha and the last time we did this, we got up to Onslaught block. Now we're building with cards from Mirrodin block up to and including Lorwyn block! Here's what we've got:
- Tom builds a deck all about upkeep triggers, led by (oh no) Sliver Legion
- Richard pilots a Mono Green Spirits deck inspired by the art style of Miyazaki films, led by Kodama of the Center Tree
- Seth builds a tribal deck around the unbuildable tribe, Nephilim, with the help of Horde of Notions
- Tomer champions Braids, Conjurer Adept, hoping to get more value out of her trigger than anyone else
We have a good mixture of jank and legitimately good cards this time as we journey into modern Magic blocks. Which deck will wind up on top? Let's find out! But first, a quick reminder: if you like Commander Clash and other video content here on MTGGoldfish, make sure to subscribe to the MTGGoldfish Youtube Channel to keep up with the latest and greatest.
Tom's Deck (Upkeep)
Richard's Deck (Spirits)
Seth's Deck (Nephilim)
Tomer's Deck (Braids)
Post-Game Thoughts
Braids, Conjurer Adept has been a deck concept that I've been kicking around for a long time now as a potential Budget Commander. The goal of the deck is simple: get more value out of her triggered ability than your opponents. There are a few things you can do to accomplish this:
- Run more expensive cards. Braids lets everyone cheat stuff into play. You should be running a higher-than-average concentration of high-cost, high-impact cards, so the stuff you cheat into play is better than your opponents' stuff.
- Get more triggers for yourself. If you manage to get more upkeep triggers for yourself then you get more value out of Braids. Paradox Haze is a staple, but also taking extra turns with cards like Time Stretch means more stuff to cheat into play.
- Deny triggers for your opponents. If you flash in Braids right before your turn with cards like Vedalken Orrery then you get to use her trigger before your opponents do. You can deny your opponents from using her entirely by Vanishing her before their turns.
When this week's theme was decided, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to showcase the Braids deck that I already thought of but never got to actually play. I jammed in all the cards that I thought would work well with her within the time period. And it worked! Unfortunately, it worked a bit too well compared to the jank that everyone else had in mind. When I looked at Time Stretch (only 0.85tix online by the way) I said "sweet, two extra triggers for Braids!" without realizing, oops, Time Stretch just kind of wins games regardless of what you do after you cast it. I guess I needed a reminder.
I also learned that Timesifter, a card that I've never experienced before, is funny for exactly one game.
Don't worry, I'll redeem myself with extra janky decks in the upcoming weeks!
Next Week: Modern Masters 2017!
Next week, we celebrate the release of Modern Masters 2017 by building decks around the reprinted legendary creatures in the set! As always, we love to hear from you guys! Tell us what you like to see, what you don't like, any ideas that we can put forward for future videos, or anything else you'd like to tell us! You can reach us in the comments section below or tweet me @BudgetCommander.
