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Mathas, Bitter Bounty

Commander / EDH* Bracket 3 Enchantment Group Hug Lifegain Multiplayer Pillow Fort RBW (Mardu)

njsagi

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Land (36)

Sorcery (7)

Enchantment (26)

Artifact (8)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Mathas, Fiend Seeker

Creature (11)

Instant (10)

Planeswalker (1)

Sideboard

Creature (4)

Instant (1)

Sorcery (3)

Enchantment (1)

Artifact (1)

This is my Mathas deck that I have been working on since the Pre-Con came out. In terms of labeling deck power, this is by no means a cedh deck. Nor, will I label it a 75% deck. I consider this deck to be a focused causal deck, a 65% if you were.

Why Mathas?

To be honest, I don't know. I guess it's part table politics, part chaos, and/or part trying a commander that many trashed as not very good.

Win Cons:

  1. Alt Win Cons Test of Endurance, Revel in Riches
  2. Go Wide Board Control board wipe and chip away with tokens created via enchantments and planeswalkers
  3. Blood Bond Combo Get exquiste blood and sanguine bond in the battlefield with a life gain activation to start an infinite combo of gaining and draining life to win.

Bounty Counters:

A few things to know about the bounty counters (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=mathas%2C%20fiend%20seeker)

  1. Bounty counter triggered ability still happens if Mathas is not on the battlefield

  2. Only bounty counters from Mathas will trigger

  3. YES, you can place a bounty on the same creature multiple times. Each counter will have its own trigger

Who/What to Target:

Based on my experience, they are two directions to go with the bounties.

One direction is to spread the love. In other words, making sure all of your opponents have creatures with bounties. The goal for this tactic is twofold. One, you are trying to not make yourself a target by making everyone else a better one. If they attack you, they get nothing. But if they attack a player with a creature that has a bounty counter, then there is a potential for a gain. Two, you are hedging your bets with the bounties. Eventually, one of these creatures will have to die, or get 100% benefit when you or someone else plays a wrath. For example, lets assume each of your opponents (in a 4 player pod) have 1 creature with a bounty counter. When a wrath is played, your opponents will each gain 4 life and draw 2 cards, but you will gain 6 life and draw 3. You are making the counters a semi-asymmetrical effect.

The second direction is to specifically target one opponent (bring the hate). By targeting only one opponent's creatures, you are giving a huge reason for the table to attack/target that one opponent. This can help get heat/hate off you. In addition, you are making quite an impact on the threat assessment. I have played games where the threat assessment has been all over the place or not targeting the one player who is the real threat. Placing 2-3 bounty counters on a single creature will cause everyone to think twice before declaring attackers or targeting spot removal. In addition, you are causing that opponent to be significantly behind in terms of card draw and life. Going back to the previous example. Instead of having each opponent with a creature that has a bounty counter, you have one opponent with three creatures that have a bounty (or one creature with 3). You are telling everyone, you could get 6 life and 3 cards if you attack him. Again, lets say all of those bounty triggers go off. The player that you were targeting is now 3 cards behind everyone in addition to 6 life (18 for the table) that he/she has to go through to win the game.

Why That Card?

Anointed Procession - I assume everyone knows why this card is so good. I just want to let everyone know that Anointed Procession doubles ALL TOKENS. Not just creature tokens. This means you will get double the gold and treasure tokens from Curse of Opulence, Revel in Riches, and Smothering Tithe.

Vona's Hunger - I cannot praise this card enough. I cannot believe that this card (as of the timing of this post) is a dollar or less rare. This is an instant speed semi-board wipe. You can set up this card nicely with the bounty counters. Place bounty counters on opponents lesser creatures or tokens. When you play this card, your opponents will have to decided to either keep their valued creatures and allow all of their opponents to gain life and draw cards OR keep their tokens and meh creatures and lose some valuable board pieces. Or, what I have done in a few games is wait for the token player to build up his army declare attacks then drop this card.

Deck in action:

I was lucky enough to have my deck filmed for two MTG Muddstah games. (great channel and videos, highly recommend them). Please excuse my misplay in the first game. Games 1 and 2 involved an earlier version of the deck.

Game 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1sJhXCDEkU

Game 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbIzfBkmM2g

Game 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzbEJsmKHC8

What I Need: Honest and fair feedback, comments, concerns, and suggestions. This is my pet deck that I am constantly working on when I have the chance. Thanks.

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92% Casual

Competitive