Commander Clash 19: Commander 2011
Hello and welcome to another 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 going back to the first Commander preconstructed decks, building around the very first commanders that were designed specifically for the format. Here's what we've got:
- Seth goes gravedigging for value with The Mimeoplasm.
- Richard goes wide with giant token swarms buffed with +1/+1 counters led by Ghave, Guru of Spores.
- Jake plays giant spells, then doubles them with Riku of Two Reflections.
- Tomer draws all the hate by being the aggressor with Kaalia of the Vast.
While the preconstructed decks themselves were weak due to poor design, the commanders themselves were super powerful, and to this day are some of the strongest and most popular legendaries to sit in the command zone. Which one will come out 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.
Seth's Deck (Mimeoplasm)
Richard's Deck (Ghave)
Jake's Deck (Riku)
Tomer's Deck (Kaalia)
This game goes to show that politics (and emotions) shouldn't be underestimated in a multiplayer game. Mutually-assured self-destruction sometimes allows the guy with zero cards in hand to happily take the game.
I think my Kaalia of the Vast list is pretty sweet, but my draws this game were super clunky. I have a lot of ways to get out a turn 3 Kaalia, a lot of ways to protect her, and a good amount of card draw and graveyard recursion—but I drew them in the wrong order and then got land flooded. It's a shame that the deck didn't function like I think it usually will. That said, no matter how you build her, Kaalia is going to be a hate magnet: even with zero cards in hand, Kaalia was still a top priority kill target, just because of the threat of the unknown (which, let's be honest, is a justified fear). The fact that all of your opponents will be blowing up your board at every given opportunity severely hampers the deck's power and shouldn't be neglected. The best way to compensate for that is by denying your opponent mana so that they cannot blow up your board, but then you feed your opponents' fear and loathing of Kaalia with even more fear and loathing. The bottom line is that you don't play Kaalia "nice" and that you shouldn't play her in a "friendly" group. She's a mean lady and should only hang around other mean folk.
Submit Your Decks!
Special announcement! We've gotten a lot of requests in the past for an episode where we play viewer-submitted deck lists and now we've decided to do it. Please send us your deck lists that you'd like us to play on Commander Clash by linking the list in the comments section below or in the YouTube comments. We're mainly looking for two things in the decks:
- Under ~20tix on Magic Online. Our usual budget for these episodes.
- Entertaining to watch! An all-in turn three combo deck that wins the game in two minutes could be sweet to play, but would make for a poor episode to watch. Similarly, hardcore Stax where nobody is allowed to cast spells for two hours is not fun for the audience. We're okay with combo win conditions and some resource denial in decks, but just keep in mind that we're going to pick decks that we feel will make for an entertaining viewing experience.
The viewer-submitted decks will be showcased in an upcoming Commander Clash, likely two weeks from now. Show us what you've got!