What was your favorite play in a game of EDH?

Commander (EDH) forum

Posted on July 3, 2020, 12:20 a.m. by SynergyBuild

There was a time that I was at 13 life. I had 3 cards in hand, and made myself the target of the table previously, and could win on my following turn. A friend, who I will call Sara just got a Craterhoof Behemoth AND Triumph of the Hordes out, on their turn, with 8ish creatures out, easily able to kill the table. This was the turn before mine, and I had basically no political power. A Korvold deck had the turn after mine, and seemed to be gripping his hand with all of the cards held together.

I'll call the Korvold player James. James told Sara to not swing at him this turn, or else he'd have to deal with her. She was initially like idc, I might give you another turn, because they had teamed up a bit before, and were on good terms. Assumedly he was just asking for an extra turn, however I knew Constant Mists was a popular card in those decks. I had to judge whether to play with the idea of pretending I had an answer and bluffing, or to attempt to force his possibility of having mists.

I decided I was gonna get tricky. Now I stated I can't win, Sara had me pinned, and shook hands. Then I told James I can't win, but because he was going to get another turn, I might as well make sure he wins, and I tap some mana to cast Swords to Plowshares on Sara's Phyrexian Revoker, which had named Squandered Resources. Now I had what I wanted. Just a few turns prior James said that Revoker stopped him from winning, and I knew there was a chance of him having a chance at winning, but this was a wheel and a few turns since, so I assumed he at least needed his turn. Additionally he cast a Splendid Resources since then, so I assumed he used it up.

As this was pre-combat, I had to force Sara to attempt to kill James and have James also have a fog, but this was my only chance.

Sara - I think you need to die now James.

James - No we had a deal!

Sara - No we didn't I said I might spare you a turn. Now you gotta go.

James - Trust me if you swing I will stop you.

Me - Wait you can stop over 100 infect? You have like 8 toughness, how much removal do you have?

Sara - Yeah I'm not scared, nice bluff (the table starts giggling which turns into laughter at James)

James - Screw it! Swing out, watch it.

And then, it happens, Constant Mists.

I got there, that swords to plowshares saved me from 100 trampling damage. I won the game next turn, with a fun little combo that involves Opalescence and Parallax Wave. It was a sweet game, and my favorite play to date.


What are your favorite plays? Any you made? Any deals? Any you've heard about or seen?

DuTogira says... #2

I was dragging out a game with my Sharuum the Hegemon deck because combo winning (I’ve since stripped the combos) always felt bad to me.
I asked the table “I have a game winning combo, do you all want me to end it?”
I’m at 17 life, but feeling good. There’s a Purphoros, God of the Forge deck.
The table agrees it’s time to end the game, so I tap completely out to get my combo going. The purphoros player plays Lightning Bolt + Price of Progress to lethal me for exactly 17 (I had 7 nonbasics in play). To this day, that game is the greatest and most satisfying loss I have ever suffered.

July 3, 2020 12:39 a.m.

that was quite a tale, I don't know if mine will be recounted near as eloquently, but here it is:

I was playing my Atla Palani, Nest Tender deck, and I had been lucky earlier in the game and hit a turn 6 Zacama, Primal Calamity. Now, I'd been swinging with her for a few turns since then, but she was my only threat. The two other players at the table had been eliminated, however (it was down to me and a Krenko, Mob Boss deck), so I felt a little less happy about how small my board was. Nevertheless, I began the tedious task of attacking through the 15 or so goblin tokens on my opponents' board. Then he played an Act of Treason, and hits me with my own Zacama. I'm like "ok, no big deal, I'll just ping his tokens for a turn until I can attack with Zacama again...", so I do so and pass. Then he Kari Zev's Expertise's, and hits me again with my own Zacama! I at this point am a little worried. Suffice it to say, I still won the game, but my opponent ended up attacking me FOUR TIMES with my own hard-hitter, don't ask me why he had so many Act-type effects in his Krenko deck :/

July 3, 2020 12:40 a.m.

plakjekaas says... #4

I was playing Rankle, Master of Pranks, just resolved a Gray Merchant of Asphodel in a 5 player game for 16, so I was at 102 life. I swing in with Rankle, put all three options on the stack. My Phenax, God of Deception opponent mills himself in response, turns his Lazav, the Multifarious into a freshly milled Tree of Perdition, taps it to exchange its toughness with my life total, untaps it with Thousand-Year Elixir, and uses his commander's ability to mill me for 102, the Rankle trigger resolves, and I'm dead for drawing on an empty library.

July 3, 2020 2:42 a.m.

dbpunk says... #5

I have two

My friend and I were playing one on one, and he had a Kiku, Night's Flower and I had my Anafenza, the Foremost deck. He had just used ad nauseum to get most of his deck into his hand, then discarded his grave into his graveyard before casting Rise of the Dark Realms and getting about 70 power on the board. And the most I have is some spirit creature tokens and High Sentinels of Arashin at about 10 power.

I look at the board and see the only creature with flying is Rune-Scarred Demon. So I cast Path to Exile on it and swing in to win.

The other favorite is that the entire game I was managing to decently deal damage to my friend with my Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire deck and my friend has their Lord Windgrace, but am hellbent at that point with a Greater Good. So Im about to swing in for lethal next turn with an army of goblins and other creatures and Vaevictus on the board. He casts a Damnation and thinking I can get cards back to rebuild, Im about to sacrifice Vaevictus and all my other big creatures, and he casts a Krosan Grip. I now have no cards and no field, and he wins by Scapeshift with Lotus Cobra and Amulet of Vigor on board and burns me out.

July 3, 2020 4:07 a.m.

The Simic player popped off, spitting out loads of creatures with loads of +1/+1 counters, and swung out at me. I took 38 square on the jaw, dropped to 2. All I had in play was a Repercussion and a Glorybringer.

On my turn, I cast Insult, then a Dualcaster Mage on the Insult, then attacked with my Glorybringer and exerted. Glorybringer dealt 4 to one of the Simic player's creatures, which doubles to 8 then doubles to 16 - then Repercussion triggered, and shot the player for 16, which doubled to 32, which doubled to 64.

And that's how I killed someone from 40 with Glorybringer's attack trigger, while also 16'ing another player with the Glorybringer itself.

Let's just say my commander, Neheb, the Eternal, lived up to his flavor text.

This is what glory looks like.

July 3, 2020 6:27 a.m.

Also, once while playing my Toshiro Umezawa deck, my friend was playing Lord Windgrace, and cast their commander.

Now, Windgrace is pretty hard to deal with, because he often fuels the next time you've got to cast him, so removal isn't very effective.

My opponent goes to activate him, and I helpfully point out that he has a Strip Mine in play, and shouldn't he use the mine first, so he can get it back with his commander? My opponent agrees, activates strip mine before activating Windgrace, and since he's now passed priority, I respond with a non-delirium To the Slaughter, offering to let him choose aaaaaaaaaany one of his planeswalkers or creatures to sacrifice. Any one at all. Didn't matter to me one bit.

It's not MY fault he only had the one walker in play.

July 3, 2020 6:36 a.m.

Unlife says... #8

My friend is playing Karametra, God of Harvests, I'm messing around with a Nicol Bolas Act of Treason deck.

They play creatures, I steal them and swing them back, should be fun, right?

Nope, mana screw hits hard. He's ramping and ramping and filling his board, and I've managed to drop a Goblin Bombardment. I eventually hit a Treacherous Urge for his Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, but I'm not doing well.

He's ramped enough now to throw down Storm Herd.

Hey, I get to do something. Reverberate.

Now we both got an army of 1/1 fly pegasus but he's got the advatage still. Hmmm...

Oh, right. I've got Goblin Bombardment.

I manage to win the game by throwing all my pegasus at his face.

July 3, 2020 7:36 a.m.

Last_Laugh says... #9

It was down to 1v1, I only had Boros Reckoner in play and 1 card in hand, and I'm being attacked by 2x 11/11's and 3x 5/5's tokens, which was more than lethal.

I cast Boros Charm to give 1 of my opponents' 11/11 tokens doublestrike, blocked it, and redirected the 11 damage to his face for the win before the rest of combat damage was dealt. He was at exactly 11 life.

July 3, 2020 12:28 p.m.

Crazyknight says... #10

Playing a four player game and one player attacked with Kaalia of the Vast and put a Lord of the Void into play, tapped and attacking. The Lord hits so they exile the top seven cards and the attacking player takes a look.

Sadly for him, the only creature in the seven cards was Phage the Untouchable. Needles to say, that ended quick!

July 3, 2020 12:48 p.m.

fireball0093 says... #11

I was playing my Muldrotha, the Gravetide deck the other week, and late game it came down to me and one other friend duking it out. I had a lockdown going with Izoni, Thousand-Eyed by sacrificing Eternal Witness, then playing Witness to keep bringing back River's Rebuke to hand. I also had Tamiyo, Collector of Tales to return any counterspells I may have needed. Just kept swinging my board every time, then Seedborn Muse let me have a defense on his turn.

July 3, 2020 3:56 p.m.

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