Merieke & Friends
Commander / EDH
66 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS
Saturday Night COVID Commander —July 31, 2020
I busted out Halfdane for this evening's 3-player game, going against Ryan's Oona deck and Jeremy's new Kaervek the Merciless deck.
1
This game was surprisingly quick, due in large part to Jeremy's many sources of damage acceleration, which helped me and Ryan more than it helped him, since he did not get himself out to a significant early lead. I had a 4/5 flyer out that was doing 8 damage a turn; as soon as I cloned it, I was swinging for 16. That took care of Jeremy pretty quickly, but Ryan had quietly amassed just enough of an army to take me out in a couple turns.
I liked the balance here. I felt like I was playing my own deck with its ETB synergies and potential combos. At the same time, I was able to snag one of Jeremy's creatures, which allowed me to play a bit more aggressively, providing a nice new flavor to the deck.
2
The second game started out much more slowly, with a pretty even board presence through the first several turns. I was worried about the explosiveness of Oona, so I used Teferi, Time Raveler to get rid of her, which in turn allowed Jeremy to emerge as the main threat.
I proceeded to do the best I could to stay in "second." Jeremy's ire was directed at Ryan, not only because he'd won the last game but also because he'd used Oona to exile a bunch of Jeremy's cards. I had powerful spells in hand that I wanted to hold onto until I had just one opponent left. For example, a kicked Rite of Replication would pretty much win the game on the spot, given the absurd beaters Jeremy had.
Unfortunately, this approach just led to Jeremy shifting his attention to me for a while, resulting in me dropping to 10 life, just like Ryan, while Jeremy sat at 49 life. With his I Kaervek out, I couldn't string together the big mana turn I needed to get back in the game and lost, but at least I didn't reveal any of my combo secrets...
3
After losing two in a row, I was pretty sure I wouldn't be a target in our third and final game. Sure enough, Ryan did what he could early on to take Jeremy down a notch while I slowly built up a board presence and drew some extra cards. Jeremy was manascrewed and had nothing to defend against flyers, so soon both Ryan and I were hitting him, but after a turn of that Ryan started to hold back. My flicker effects and Primordial Mist were costing me since Jeremy's lone creature was a Rampaging Ferocidon, so I was incentivized to end him. I attacked him with everything, getting him down to 2 life, hoping Ryan would take him out on his next turn.
Naturally, Ryan decided to hit me instead, cutting me down to size, but I struck back for 25 in a turn. This was a risky move, because he still had plenty of juice. I still felt like I had the upper hand: I had slightly more creatures, and my swapping/cloning stunts had made it so that they were also the best creatures. However, a Cyclonic Rift changed things dramatically, and suddenly I was at 1 life.
To my great fortune, I drew a Rest in Peace with a Helm of Obedience already in hand. I would have liked to win another way, but I really didn't have another choice. I had just enough mana to play both and send Ryan's library into exile. Jeremy could have won with a single 1/1 with haste or a Lightning Bolt, but he had no such luck, so I milled him too on my next turn.
It was a little disappointing to lose off a generic combo, but it's only fair since I'm intentionally not playing any cubeable cards in this deck (such as Cyclonic Rift). In addition, copying or stealing cards from Ryan's Oona deck was a little less exciting since they synergize with each other and aren't as great on their own. In addition, he had some of the same tricks on hand, so he was able to get them back. Regardless, I like how I'm able to tap into the variety at the table. For whatever reason, picking which creature you want to steal somehow feels better to other players than randomly snatching cards from their libraries, so this deck is not as offensive as my Etali deck...and it's more fun for me because I'm getting to choose what to take!