Tag: Aggro

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The Great EDH Challenge: Dune-Brood – Saskia, Soldier Girl

Decklist: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/saskia-soldier-girl/

Power Level: 6.1

<<< Hey guys, it’s been a long time. Life has been hectic this past year, and I have done a lot of moving around, but I’m back at home and ready to finally complete this challenge. Just three more decks to go after this one! >>>

Saskia was created to accelerate the aggro strategy in commander by allowing you to kill your opponents even more quickly. The way that Saskia puts pressure on the chosen player can overwhelm that person, even if they have blockers or pillow fort cards in play. Simply attack an opponent who can’t defend themselves, and watch that pesky protected opponent’s life total get whittled away. And if you want to be extra efficient, then you can attack the chosen player directly to do double damage. And with haste, this soldier girl comes out swinging. I always love a good hasty commander!

In this deck, Saskia leads an army of soldiers to storm and control the battlefield. We storm the board with creature tokens with cards like Call the Coppercoats and Deploy the the Front, while controlling the board with powerful legendary creatures such as Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Odric, Master Tactician. There are several powerful lords in the deck that really push our 1/1 tokens over the edge, such as Rick, Steadfast Leader and Captain of the Watch.

We are spending our first turns building up a board presence of creatures in preparation of Saskia’s arrival on the battlefield. Esper Sentinel into Ballyrush Banneret into Field Marshal and Valiant Veteran is one of the best curves you can get. When Saskia comes out, we want her to have enough bodies to do some real damage. This deck has several high-cost, high-impact cards, so be mindful that our early and mid-game tends to be quite slow. One-spell a turn is to be expected while playing this deck. And as always, there are a few infinite combos in the deck to close the game out in the late-game:

Ashnod’s Altar + Nim Deathmantle + Captain of the Watch/Torsten, Founder of Benalia = Infinite Creatures and Infinite Colorless Mana

Shielded by Faith + Siona, Captain of the Pyleas = Infinite Creatures

And add Warstorm Surge to either of these combos for infinite damage!

If you enjoy tribal decks with a lot of synergy, this is a pretty dependable option. It could be made more efficient and low-to-the-ground by replacing the high mana value cards with lower cost options. Soldiers are a tribe that are always being expanded, due to their prevalence in nearly every set and plane. This deck is a great template for those who like to improve their armies by tinkering with an ever-evolving deck. You can have fun with the deck as it already is, just be mindful that it is prone to being devastated by board wipes.

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The Great EDH Challenge: Gruul – Gallia the Party Girl!

Decklist: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gallia-the-party-girl/

Power Level: 3.71

Yo, Gallia is lit! She’s got haste, and I love commanders with haste! She’s a lord for one of my favorite tribes, Satyrs! She even has inherent card advantage built into her, synergizing with her aggro strategy! Man, this card just oozes synergy, and I truly realized that when I built this deck. Most Satyrs are 2 mana, making it easy to have a bunch of small hasty bodies to put pressure on my opponents. The only downside is that most Satyrs are pretty bad, especially in a high-power format like EDH. But who cares, let’s party!

The gameplan is to play Gallia as early as possible, alongside as many Satyrs as you can. When you have three attacking creatures, always utilize her triggered ability to discard a card at random and draw two. This ability is really what makes Gallia shine, as she lets you replace Satyrs as your opponents increasingly chump-block and board-wipe the annoying hasty party animals. You will oftentimes discard a useful removal or buffing card, but it is best not to lament what you’ve lost, but instead be happy for the 2 new cards that you’ve gained!

Choosing one opponent and focusing them is usually the best course of action when playing aggro, but it is okay to change targets if your chosen opponent starts playing fat-bootied blockers, or has pillow fort up. The biggest problem with Gallia and the Satyrs is that they are so small. We get around this by playing anthem effects like Door of Destinies , Shared Animosity , and an actual anthem, Gaea’s Anthem . Eldrazi Monument is amazing in this deck, as Gallia’s triggered ability usually lets us get more Satyrs to sac to the monument. We have a few more evasive measures to help us out during combat, such as Goblin War Drums to give our boys and girls menace, and Dolmen Gate to help them survive uneven combats. We also protect our team with Heroic Intervention of course, and the card I played before that one came out, Wrap in Vigor .

And of course, winning with a top-decked Triumph of the Hordes is always funny!

There is plenty of interaction in the deck, because sometimes you have to blow stuff up to win. Star of Extinction is always funny, and does a good job getting rid of a battlefield full of too many blockers. There are many Satyrs that destroy artifacts, so I usually don’t have a problem against those sorts of decks. Decimate is probably my favorite RG spell, as it usually decimates my opponents in the early game, haha.

There is one infinite combo in the deck that I’m aware of. This is a classic RG one, and I’ve always wanted to run it:

Druids’ Repository + at least 5 attacking creatures + Aggravated Assault = Infinite Combat phases and Main phases

I have a habit of calling Druids’ Repository -> Druids’ Suppository , so yeah, it’s always fun to play that card. I think it is a busted card in go wide decks, to be honest.

All in all, this is a very fun deck to play, even if most of my playgroup laughs at low-power decks such as this. This goes up great against a precon, and I enjoy having a fun, chaotic deck to play a table of new players. One thing is for certain; I’m always doing something when I’m playing this deck, even if it’s just playing my party girl for the third time. 😀