Commander Clash S2 Episode 15: Anything Goes
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. Richard is on vacation and is absent for this episode in the next one. Worry not, however, because Jake, one of the original members of the crew, joins us once more! We'll be kicking things off with an Anything Goes episode, where each of us brings any deck we want to play. Here's what we brought:
- Seth sees if it's possible to make a viable Titania, Protector of Argoth deck on a budget
- Jake has chosen one of the least popular Orzhov commanders, Tirad of Fates, to explore what the guild offers as a Blink deck
- Tom durdles and draws tons of cards with Ephara, God of the Polis
- Tomer goes out of his comfort zone to play an aggressive +1/+1 counter deck led by Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
It looks like someone swapped our decks around this game: Seth and I, traditionally durdly Blue players, are instead playing aggressive decks, while Tom, the group's agressive Gruul player, is durdling and drawing cards. How will we perfom in our new roles? Let's see! But first, 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 (Titania)
Tom's Deck (Ephara)
Jake's Deck (Triad)
Tomer's Deck (Skullbriar)
Post-Game Thoughts
I loved seeing Jake's and Seth's decks in action. I don't think I've ever seen Triad of Fates played before, and while it's certainly not the strongest Blink commander since Blue offers more synergy than Black and the Triad themselves are veeeery slow, Black does bring some really powerful ETB triggers to the archetype which was cool to see. I've seen Titania decks in the past, but expensive fetchlands are staples for the deck and I didn't have a clue how viable a budget deck without those staples could be. It turns out being able to go all-in by turning all your lands into 5/3's with Copper-Leaf Angel is still quite effective. Very neat to see Titania, Protector of Argoth is viable even on a budget!
This was a weird game for me. I think I played that game mostly correct. I went with what I thought was the safest play to not die, by staying under an Asceticism and Spike Weaver. It turned out that my efforts to merely survive made me the primary target. Perhaps these cards are anti-politics in a way, or maybe I should've said / not said certain things. I was certainly seen as a much bigger threat than I really was.
Going forward I'll try my best to play more like Richard and Tom: in my opinion, both of them do a good job of keeping the focus away from themselves. I think the key part is they always have a non-threatening board state and then try to win the game in a single turn. Quite often this is done by having an army of innocent-looking 1/1's and then, when they see an opening, make the army lethal by cards like Coat of Arms and/or True Conviction to win "out of nowhere." The strategy has a very high success rate. Or Tom's turn of dropping Mycosynth Lattice + Vandalblast which very nearly won the last game. My Skullbriar deck was the opposite of that; clear threats on the table that grow, with no way to 1-shot everyone at once. I loved playing the deck, but it's fully transparent on what it intends to do and invites your opponents to stop it.
I think it's time for some janky combos.
Next Week: Viewer Submitted Decks!
Last week, you guys submitted decks that you wanted to see showcased in an upcoming Commander Clash. Next week we've each selected one of those decks to play. Thank you to everyone who submitted this time; there was a good selection to choose from and some sweet lists! 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.
