Commander Clash S2 Episode 7: Competitive Commander
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. We're throwing away the usual budget and theme restrictions for this week and instead bringing the most ruthless, competitive decks we can find for the sole purpose of winning the game. Here's what we came up with:
- Seth pilots an all-in Doomsday Storm deck led by Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
- Richard stops everyone from playing Magic by running a tempo-based Stax deck with Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
- Tom stays true to his aggressive tendencies, going Voltron with Rafiq of the Many
- Tomer forsakes Blue this week to run a Stax / Combo hybrid led by Karador, Ghost Chieftain
A quick warning: there will a lot more mistakes in this episode compared to our usual games. These decks are far more complicated than the ones we usually play, being jam-packed with tutors for cards we aren't familiar with, and have specific win conditions that we also haven't experienced before. They require a couple games to get the hang of -- and these are our first time playing them!
As a special bonus, we're giving you not one, but two games this week! Hope you guys enjoy it! 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 (Jeleva)
Richard's Deck (Derevi)
Tom's Deck (Rafiq)
Tomer's Deck (Karador)
Post-Game Thoughts
Oh man, the amount of mistakes I made this game is incredible! While watching the footage, I have no idea why I didn't use Survival of the Fittest at the end and fetched Peacekeeper. Instead I blindly relied on Richard keeping me alive for some reason. What was I doing?
Also, this card, holy crap:
Overall, this game of competitive Commander was more enjoyable for us than the first time. I think the big difference was that Stax had effectively policed the board this time to stop games from randomly ending in the first few turns, which made things more interactive and interesting. The first time we did this, we only had one Stax deck at the table, which unfortunately never established much board presence due to poor draws. I would say that the amount of Stax swung a bit too hard in the other direction this time; Richard and I kept Seth from doing pretty much anything, and then we stopped each other from doing much as well. I can only imagine how miserable of an experience it must be to have three or more Stax decks at the same table.
Did you guys enjoy watching these competitive decks? Tell us your thoughts and we'll figure out if/when we'll do competitive decks again in the future.
Next Week: Lorwyn Tribal!
Each of us have picked a tribe that appeared in the Lorwyn block. Expect a lot of tribal shenanigans!
As always, we encourage you to leave us a comment on this article, on YouTube, or on Twitter @BudgetCommander. 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!
