Commander Clash S3 Episode 1: Season Premiere!
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 is the season premiere: we said goodbye to Richard at the end of last season, and now it's time to welcome the newest member to the group, Jennifer Long, who is better known as Mrs. Mulligan! You can find her streaming regularly on Twitch and can follow her on Twitter.
We're keeping it simple with the premiere and doing another Anything Goes week, where each of us bring any deck we want to play. Here's what we picked:
- Tom exiles cards from all the zones only to later process them for value with an eldrazi processer deck led by Wrexial, the Risen Deep
- Jennifer plays Reanimator, filling her graveyard with big scary creatures to later cheat into play, helped along by Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
- Seth sits upon the Iron Throne, declaring himself the monarch and defending his crown at all costs, with Queen Marchesa
- Tomer goes full-on Aggro, coming out the gates swinging with a Tribal Warrior / Barbarian / Berserker deck championed by Lovisa Coldeyes
A new season means a new beginning. Will old grudges carry on? Will Seth and Tomer be friends or "friends"? What role will Jennifer take in the group? 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 (Wrexial)
Jennifer's Deck (Sidisi)
Seth's Deck (Marchesa)
Tomer's Deck (Lovisa)
Post-Game Thoughts
Okay, so I played exceptionally bad this game. Sorry! My head wasn't in it. In my defense -- and hopefully long-time viewers notice this -- after I get a chance to play with a card for one game, I usually know how to play with it the next time I run it. I guarantee you that I will always remember what Akroma's Memorial does going forward.
As for the decks, I think we had a sweet showing. We haven't seen a straight-up Reanimator list before in Commander Clash, despite the archetype's popularity, so it was cool seeing what the archetype can do outside something like Tribal Zombies. We also got to see Eldrazi Processors and its unique synergy with Wrexial. Finally, the Queen Marchesa list was awesome and I'm delightfully surprised that MTGO brought the monarch mechanics online after all this time. Everyone fighting over the crown is just silly fun and great for the game.
As for my Lovisa Coldeyes deck, I liked it! I was initially pessimistic about the deck because the tribes just don't get a lot of love, but there were a couple neat synergy cards available, like Obsidian Battle-Axe for Warriors. A lot of the better cards either were able to fight (i.e. Cyclops Gladiator) or smash things if big enough (i.e. Bloodshot Trainee) so pump effects worked really well. Also a lot of the better creatures had doublestrike (Markov Blademaster) making equipment that care about combat damage (Sword of Light and Shadow) much better.
Lovisa's biggest downside is a lack of in-tribe finishers. Boldwyr Intimidator and other tribal creatures aren't going to end games for you unless your opponents just leave you alone for the entire game. If you want to win a game full of interaction and board wipes, you need to find ways to pump out a lot of damage in one turn when your opponents don't expect it. Extra combat steps (Savage Beating), big anthems (Akroma's Memorial), double damage (Gratuitous Violence), and yes, the big ol' Insurrection are the way to victory.
Next Week: Standard Commander!
All our decks next week must be constructed with cards that are currently Standard-legal. I'm very excited for next week, because I jumped at the opportunity to play my favorite new mechanic: Investigate! 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.
