Commander Clash: Battle of the Budgets - Study Guide

Participant Deck Profiles and Budgetary Tiers

• Phil ($1,000$ Budget): Known as the "Noble" or "Royal" deck. This deck utilizes high-value staples and expensive land bases, including shocks and fetches. The primary theme revolves around the Noble card type and legendary creatures. Notable cards include Noble Hierarch, Jodah, the Unifier, and Lord of the Nazg9l.

• Crim ($100$ Budget): A "White Weenie Modified" aggro deck. The strategy focuses on creatures that utilize counters (flying, lifelink, and $+1/+1$) and indestructible modifiers. The commander is Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer, supported by Zack Fair and Spectacular Spider-Man (oversized variant).

• Morgan ($10$ Budget): A "Glass Cannon" combo deck centered around The Gitrog Monster. The deck is designed to exploit land-discard triggers to draw through the library and eventually win via a high-density land combo. Key pieces include Splendid Reclamation and Psychosis Crawler.

• Tomer ($1$ Budget): A high-risk "Meme" deck that relies on a specific "Cheese" strategy. The deck consists almost entirely of basic lands ($79$ to $99$ depending on the build) and a few key spells like Treasure Hunt and Seismic Assault. It aims to win consistently on turn $5$ if left uninteracted with. Basic lands are excluded from the budget calculation for this tier.

Key Card Mechanics and Definitions

• Sauron, Innovative First-Year: At the beginning of the first main phase, the controller reveals cards from the top of the library until revealing $X$ non-land cards, where $X$ is the number of colors among permanents controlled. For each of those colors, the player may exile a card of that color and cast it. This effectively functions as a "Discover $2$" mechanic in a multi-color setup.

• The Gitrog Monster: A $6/6$ creature with Deathtouch. At the beginning of the upkeep, the controller must sacrifice a land or the creature itself. It allows for one additional land play per turn. Whenever one or more land cards are put into the graveyard from anywhere, the controller draws a card.

• Seismic Assault: An enchantment costing $\text{RRR}$ that allows a player to discard a land card to deal $2$ damage to any target.

• Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer: This creature reanimates Selfless Spirit. If damage would be dealt to it, that damage is prevented, and a corresponding number of $+1/+1$ counters are placed on the creature.

• With Great Power: An enchantment that grants a creature $+2/+2$, Reach, and the ability to act as a damage sponge for the controller. All damage that would be dealt to the player is instead dealt to the enchanted creature.

• Aragorn, King of Gondor: A legendary creature that grants the "Monarch" status upon entering the battlefield. When it attacks, up to one target creature cannot block; if the controller is the Monarch, creatures cannot block at all that turn.

• Zack Fair: A $0/1$ creature that enters with a $+1/+1$ counter. For $1$ mana, it can be sacrificed to grant indestructible until end of turn to another creature, transferring its counters and equipment to that target.

Game One: Strategic Progression and The Cheese Attempt

• Early Game: Phil immediately utilizes his budget by cracking a Scouting Trek and fetching a Stomping Ground. He plays Noble Hierarch, the only "non-noble" that qualifies as a "noble" themed card. Tomer and Morgan focus on land-pass turns to preserve their minimal resources.

• Mid-Game Threats: Phil plays Faramir, Steadfast of Ithilien, but it is quickly removed by Crim using Splinter, Aging Champion, which also forces a card draw between Phil and Tomer. Morgan attempts to establish The Gitrog Monster on turn $5$, but Crim responds with an end-step Swords to Plowshares, effectively stalling the $10$ dollar deck's primary engine.

• The Combo Launch: Tomer attempts to win using Sauron, Innovative First-Year to find Seismic Assault and Treasure Hunt. Due to his deck containing $79$ lands, Treasure Hunt allows him to draw nearly his entire deck.

• Climax and Concession: Tomer manages to deal lethal damage to Morgan ($32$ damage) and Crim ($15$ damage) using Seismic Assault discard triggers. However, an interaction involving Lauren of the Third Path and various triggers results in a messy resolution where Tomer leaves Crim at $1$ life to allow the game to continue for a brief moment before they proceed to a second match.

Game Two: Oversized Cards and Damage Loops

• The Deck Shift: Tomer switches to a Borigimos strategy, and Morgan introduces Psychosis Crawler as a win condition. Phil brings out Jodah, the Unifier, aiming to leverage the cascade-like legendary trigger.

• The "Giant Card" Incident: Crim plays Spectacular Spider-Man, a giant-sized promotional card. He couples this with Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer and With Great Power. This creates a defensive loop where any damage directed at Crim is redirected to Anti-Venom, which then absorbs the damage to grow larger via $+1/+1$ counters.

• Late Game Voltron: Crim utilizes Abzan Falconer to give all creatures with counters (including the giant Spider-Man and Anti-Venom) flying. Phil plays Lord of the Nazg9l, which cascades into Aragorn, King of Gondor, but the board state is dominated by Crim's indestructible, flying threats.

• Outcome: Crim wins the second game by attacking with a flying, indestructible board. Phil attempts to use Settle the Wreckage, but Crim's ability to sacrifice Spectacular Spider-Man grants his creatures hexproof and indestructible, sealing the victory.

Questions & Discussion

• Q: How can a $1$ dollar deck be viable?

• A: It relies on "Cheese" strategies. By running nearly $100\%$ lands and a single card like Treasure Hunt, the deck can draw into a win condition like Seismic Assault and immediately have enough "ammunition" (lands in hand) to kill the table. This is often referred to as a "Zombie Hunt" variant.

• Q: Are basic lands counted in the budget?

• A: For the purposes of this challenge, basic lands are considered $\$0$ because most players have them in bulk or can obtain them for free from local game stores (LGS).

• Q: What is the benefit of the "Noble" theme?

• A: It is largely a flavor-based deck used to highlight the $1,000$ dollar budget. Cards like Path of Ancestry and Three Tree City synergize with the Noble type, and Jodah, the Unifier provides massive power buffs to legendary Nobles.

• Q: Which budget tier felt the most powerful?

• A: The consensus among players was that the $100$ dollar tier felt the most "legit" and stable, while the $1$ dollar tier possessed a disproportionate "inverse power"—becoming scarier the lower the budget fell because it forced the use of hyper-efficient combo "cheese."