Commander Clash 20: Shadows over Innistrad Themes
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. Last week, we showed off some of the new commanders from Shadows over Innistrad. We return to the set this week, this time showcasing the themes and mechanics. Here's what we've got:
- Jake focuses on the "horror" theme of Innistrad, filling his deck with spooky cards that go bump in the night with Seizan, Perverter of Truth.
- Seth shows his own unique spin on Tribal Spirits, going 5-Color symbolically led by Atogatog.
- Richard brings the beatdown with his Tribal Werewolves, with Xenagos, God of Revels leading the pack.
- Tomer assumes the role of a detective, running a Tribal Humans and Clues deck championed by Derevi, Empyrial Tactician.
A lot of you have been asking to see Tribal Werewolves, so here is your first look at it in action! Also, I cannot express how excited I am to be trying out a Clue deck. I've never been so hyped for a new mechanic since, well, ever. Let's see if I can pull off any neat tricks with them! 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.
Jake's Deck (Seizan)
Richard's Deck (Xenagos)
Seth's Deck (Atogatog)
Tomer's Deck (Derevi)
This game was wild: Edric, Spymaster of Trest gave me and Richard early leads, using poor Seth as a punching bad to draw extra cards. Then Seth took control with that insane play of Iname, Death Aspect into Patriarch's Bidding, dumping all his spirits into play. But in the end, Jake had the Last Laugh!
Despite the strong lead early game, I'm disappointed in my draws: I was running Human Clues with 23 Humans (and more cards that care about Humans) and 17 Investigate cards, but my draws this game didn't do a good job showing them. I also had some sweet synergies with Clue tokens: I can double them with cards like Parallel Lives and Second Harvest, gain life off them with Fangren Marauder, enable metalcraft for things like Dispatch, and sacrifice them for other purposes with Kuldotha Forgemaster / Krark-Clan Ironworks / Smokestack; really cool stuff! If there's one deck that I'd like to bring back for a future video redemption, it would be this one. The deck is a ton of fun and I highly recommend it.
I'm looking forward to revisiting some of these themes in Eldritch Moon. It's very likely that we'll see a couple of great additions for Tribal Humans, Spirits, Zombies, and Werewolves (come on, legendary RG werewolf!). I would really love to see the continuation of the investigate mechanic into the next set; nothing would make me happier than a GWU legendary Clue creature, like Innistrad's version of Sherlock Holmes.
Next Week: Viewer-Submitted Decks!
Last week we asked you viewers to submit your Commander decks that you'd like to see us play in an upcoming Commander Clash, and you folks delivered! We got a lot of sweet deck submissions and each of us have chosen one of them to play. It should be entertaining! As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated, be it thoughts on the game, ideas on how to improve the series, or suggestions for future themes; we read all of them and bring them up in discussions. Thanks for watching!
