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A Guide to Playing Aggro in Commander I The Command Zone 296 I Magic: the Gathering EDH
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ส.ค. 2024
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Show Notes:
Aggro is a strategy that really struggles to be viable in Commander. On this week’s episode, DJ (Jumbo Commander on TH-cam) re-joins the show to go over some tips and tricks you can use to help raise the win percentage of your aggressive decks.
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Some aggro tips
Kill order: 1. Land decks, they are always a late game problem. 2. Heavy control decks, their secret strength/weakness is that they always go unpressured and get to spend extra time and resources on set up that is HEAVILY messed with by a good aggro deck
3 life leveraging strategies.
Contrary to their (command zone) advice, don’t latch on too hard. MAKE DEALS, leverage your damage for extra resources, always say “i have to attack someone to win, whos it gonna be” then make those deals.
Examples;
“Blow up his ghostly prison and ill attack him instead of you”
Someone casts vandalblast to kill all your equipment;
Say “ill attack him instead of you for three turns if you counter that”.
Essentially leverage your attack to get rid of cards that hose your strategy.
Or the ever so common “promise to not touch my stuff and ill promise it wont come at you”.
Assume you will only and always win the game in multiple waves. Be able to rebuild quickly and efficiently. Don’t sweat the first boardwipe, let the other players interact. Be that guy that progresses the game and only latch on to one player if the other two make you satisfactory offerings. Demand respect. Pressure the game, mess up everyone’s set up, win.
Also commander players would benifit greatly if they could learn to respect and appreciate aggro players for what they do a little better. If they could start cooperating with them better instead of building their decks to hose them more than necessary. Let’s be real artifacts and enchantments and lands and counterspells and graveyards are all far scarier than creatures. I think commander players would benefit from playing hose cards for those strategies over the propaganda type effects so often. Don’t get me wrong, propaganda is great, but nihil spellbomb is far more useful in my opinion because an aggro player can be talked to and channeled into eating up the late game control decks and combo decks that overrun commander.
Aggro players pretty much draw a ton of attention because all of their stuff is threatening and in your face. But in reality is it actually all that threatening if they almost never win?
In my opinion seeing an aggro player at the table is a breath of relief. I think, “thank god someone is going to pressure this 10 turn set up land/value/control deck”
What a sigh of relief 😂
It takes a lot to play the high risk deck that actually progresses the game and pressure state of it, so, try to not just hose them and start working with them instead. Trust me it makes for better, more enjoyable games. And I’d suggest thanking your local aggro player, 😂 i know im always hype to see one.
Happy hunting aggro players.
I love making deals with playets who have cards that read "target player gains a resource." It's not always correct, but sending damage elsewhere in exchange for an extra mana or card can sometimes break the game wide open.
Wesley Davis i understand what you are saying, and i agree, but i meant more like “blow up his ghostly prison and ill attack him instead of you”
Someone casts vandalblast to kill all your equipment
Say “ill attack him instead of you for three turns if you counter that”.
Essentially leverage your attack to get rid of cards that hose your strategy.
Or the ever so common “promise to not touch my stuff and ill promise it wont come at you”.
Also commander players need to learn to respect and appreciate aggro players for what they do and start cooperating with them better. It takes a lot to play the high risk deck that actually progresses the game and pressure state, so, try to not just hose them and start working with them. Trust me it makes for better, more enjoyable games.
@@griffinsalyer1804 Oh those are great too! I don't think it would work in my normal playgroup. I definitely overlooked this and sounds very reasonable out im the wild.
Not sure if it is just my lgs, this sort of deal never works, everyone evaluate the threat rationally and never keep their promises...(and they rarely make such deal at the first place)
Xiaoyu Yin it be like that sometimes, it depends on the players. I would contest aggro decks are mathematically not the biggest threat because for any one player at the beginning of a four player game, they are twice as likely to kill one of your opponents as they are likely to kill you. It’s actually good for the average player to have an aggro player at the table at the beginning of the game for this reason. unless you are defenseless you should love aggro imo.
Most players don’t threat assess very well, and an lgs can definitely not have a communicative play table, it’s hard with strangers.
I think the Command Zone underestimates the power of Aggro out in "the wild" partly because Craig Blanchette has had such a huge influence on their personal meta. Josh has talked a lot about how playing with Craig has caused him to change up his decks to include more early blockers etc to combat infect and damage-based builds. At my LGS and elsewhere, people are often much less prepared for an all-in aggressive strategy, so I don't even have to be playing optimally to dominate the board state and beat people down before their engines are online.
You are correct, but they also try to help commander players 'in the wild' be better informed and make better non-cEDH decks which are prepared for such real threats.
"How to beat bad players" is not good advice, nor does it make for good content.
Playing Aggro in Commander:
Player 1: Plays an Island.
Player 2: Reaches over the table and punches Player 1.
XD good shit!
Player 2(second move): "burn the island"...
Accurate.
*sees Island, tilts out*
Then punches the rest of the players because aggro
How to play aggro:
1. Identify whos most likely to combo
2. Kill him
3. Die within the next 3 turns
4. Enjoy the beer and compliments for the 2 other players for stoping the lame combo player from ruining the game
Seems legit. It's a moral victory.
Lmao combo or die son
Two tips to playing conventional aggro in commander:
1. Add, then multiply. Linear damage output will be insufficient to deal 120+ damage (unless you are somehow cheating acceptable mana-to-damage-ratios using your commander). You will typically want to first make bodies, then add across-the-board buffs or an exponential growth engine. That is why tribal strategies dominate the aggro landscape--their lords give them a critical mass of those necessary multipliers. Among the non-tribal outlier decks, cards that are "anything tribal", like Craterhoof Behemoth and Cathar's Crusade, are prevalent because of this same principle.
2. Premptively disrupt as much as you need to, and not one iota less. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Hatebear aggro owes its entire existance to this principle. Furthermore, Armageddon is no less fair than Dramatic Scepter, and we should not suffer anyone to tell the aggro player otherwise. The only reason mana denial make games drag on is because their opponents don't know how to admit that they can't win, concede, and go to game 2.
Sometimes doubling then doubling is even better if you double damage 8 times all the sudden goblin grenade kills all 3 opponents.
3: or just go infinite.
Find sources of additional damage outside of just your creatures that deals with multiple players at the same time. Between shocks, fetches and incidental damage from other players you don't need to do 120 damage with your creatures. Cut into it even deeper if you can. Cards like Sulfuric Vortex, Purphoros, Pestilence, Basilica Screecher etc all deal plenty of damage that you may cause you the total life pool to be depleted to go really low. These ways also put all enemies in range of your alpha strikes at the same time, so you can always take down the most problematic opponent.
If the plan is to go infinite, the deck is a combo deck, so the advice here doesn't apply as much.
Purphuros is a very good multiplication card, multiplying 1/1s by six and removing the part where you need to attack. Sulfuric Vortex disrupts lifegain, presumably to the extent that your deck requires. Multiplication and disruption are sometimes hard to recognize, as they take a great many forms.
Shocks and fetches are common, but not ubiquitous. Combo-control will not see the utility in swinging in for two with a Trinket Mage at any point in the game. It is still wise to plan on dealing 120 unassisted.
1. Agreed for the most part... but land destruction, in my experience, slows games down because of trolls. If the one casting it does not have a winning game state, then they can fuck off.
2. Edgar Markov means each 1-drop makes 2 bodies. Shared Animosity means that the six bodoes you got off of three 1-Drops onturns one and two are now attacking for 36 on turn 3 and potentially killing somebody who uses fetch lands and shock lands which you attacked for 2 on turn 2.
3. Dictate of the Twin Gods can flip a game on its head after blockers.
Love to see DJ back for another episode! He brought a super cool perspective to the podcast when Jimmy was on the set of Mulan, and happy to have him be so willing to contribute to the community like this
Seems like this would have been a good episode to bring back Craig "Mr. Infect" Blanchette
The First Lord of Phyrexia.
Infect should always be considered in aggro strategies, throwing in Tainted Strike, whenever possible, if you know you can do 10 damage in a single strike or Triumph of the hordes for the go wide strategy can simply bring you back from no where with a quick KO
maybe in game knights aswell
"Vedalken Orrey" good in aggro decks, 4 mana do nothing... dont play aggro Josh, is not for everyone.
It does make some sense. Adding flash to everything does buy your threats an extra turn against sorcery speed removal and adds value to all of your nonland cards.
But as an aggressive deck, you probably just want haste instead to maximize the number of combats you get.
"We don't play Lightning Bolt in our format."
Cue Jimmy shouting from the background.
Tobraan be like: EXCUSE ME
@@LordKarnox Obosh would like a word. 1 mana, 6 damage? Yes please. It almost makes Lightning Strike viable. Almost.
Arcades for aggro! Most efficient creatures and spells within its context and the commander replenishes your hand.
He is a sleeper commander in great colors for a powerful deck!! One of my local LGS owners plays him as his casual deck.
Relies so hard on arcades, but thankfully there's back up plans.
I think that prossh is the best aggro deck, he doesn't really need other cards to kill fast
Having card advantage in your command zone is very helpful for aggro or having a way to make all your creatures 2 for 1 like Edgar markov make aggro more viable.
Driven // Despair
(Spilt card)
Such an underrated card
Driven 1G sorcery
Until end of turn creatures you control gain trample and "whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player draw a card."
Despair: 1B Sorcery
Aftermath
Until end of turn, creatures you control gain meanace and "whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player discard a card."
4 mana says +2 advantage for each hit, filling your hand up and empty out opponents plus trample meanace gives your a way to dodge blockers while almost certainly dealing damage
Cut // Ribbons as well is a hugely underrated card. It can be used as a removal spell early in the game, then you can just let it sit in your graveyard till you randomly dome everyone for 10.
@@anthonyolimpio3545 great way to end the game during late end or try to push in extra damage after the battle step
Thanks for the tip. Very good card indeed, didnt know it, but that color restriction must be why is so ignored I guess.
@@patonnight its golgari (black/green)
All my decks have 3 main goals,
Goal 1: fill board with fatties
Goal 2: turn sideways
Goal 3: bash face
I lose a lot
Lol you made me laugh. Thanks
My gishath deck feels this on a personal level. it's extremely powerful when unchecked, but its been put in its place a little too much lately!
Mtw31993 same here dude
That's my boy
Same. But it still feels so good
I love aggro decks. My key tips:
1. play the game on your terms, force the board to do as well... red has lot of punishment effects, tap one land... tap them all, tap a land on my turn sac it. haste for everything 1 mana. curses to incentivize opponents to attack others. effects that restrict how many things someone can attack you with (less ghostly prison ...think more so crawl space effects)
2, your deck is designed to beat face. dbl, triple, quadruple damage. your deck will benefit from it... no one's doing cutesy chump blocks, or "mind if i get in for 1 to draw a card" while i'm at the board. it's all balls all the time.
3. trick and trap. people think aggro is linear, surprise them. just as you want people playing on your terms you want them to sweat your open mana. swing out... someone tries to get fresh on the crack back, comeuppance/deflecting palm. board wipe sent your army's way... punish the moron running "destroy" based wraths by playing mass indestruct spells... boros charm or anything similar. mass blink. etc. hatred... infect. arcbond, that white counter spell. red/boros suicide extra turn spells. extra combat spells. mass reanimate effects. leverage whatever you have to... to punish people no matter what they do to try and stop you
4. have card draw. wheels. chaotic loot effects. whatever you can get ahold of in your colors. black... pitch 30 life to necropotence to find the spell that lets you live
Najeela i think touches on what would make aggro decks the best; you'll need all five colors lol
Also, hydra omnivore with infect will make people think infect needs to be changed lol
I think Yuriko is a good agro commander. My deck pretty much has to be answered every turn once you have 3 to 4 mana cuz any creature can represent 11 to 16 damage to each opponent
That's the aggro commander I have! Really fun to play hyperaggressive decks when your opponents usually do nothing from turns 1-4 =)
I had a friend who had a Yuriko deck. He won his first game with it. Then he died first every game he played with it after. So he now he doesn't have that deck anymore, lol.
Yuriko is so much fun to pilot but such a mess to play against. Why isn't there a commander tax on that damn commander ninjutzu? Why doesn't it read: "this abbility costs 1 more for every time it has been used this game."?
That's what happens when wizards prints cards that interact with the commandzone. It becomes unbalanced pretty fast due to lack of testing (best example darevi)
I wouldn't say yuriko is overpowered and should be banned or something like that but killing her 4 times and boardwiping twice doesn't even hurt her (a lot). Access to blue and black offer good carddraw, control elements (counterspells and removal) and lategame power to end the game by chaining an extra turn spell into an extra turn spell. Imo a tax on her ninjutzu wouldn't hurt her too bad since she never was a competitive deck, nor will she ever be one so getting her powerlevel a bit lower wouldn't have hurt.
@@ElementUser It has nothing to do with tempo or whatever. Even if the Yuriko player isn't doing anything to control the top card of their library, people don't like that there's even a possibility that Yuriko might drain them for a huge amount. People will always play as though Draco is constantly the top card of your library and focus on disrupting you and taking you out of the game.
@@ElementUser I never asked that. You replied to the wrong person.
I feel like the "gameplay" segment of this episode deserves a full follow-up episode. There are so many elements to address.
It's from the newest episode of game knights. If you didn't notice that already.
Playing aggro without massive card advantage?
*_Zada, Hedron Grinder has entered the chat_*
Fricking love zada she’s amazing in my feather deck
@@brandondrake4609 after playing her in feather I had to build her as well. She's ridiculous.
Marisi, Breaker of the Coil is my new favorite aggro commander. Once he starts connecting with his opponents and then lands something like a Gaddok Teeg it's really hard to stop the ensuing chaos.
im looking to build my first deck around marisi, do you have any tips? it looks like a really fun way to annoy my friends
I've had success with my Grenzo token deck, why? Some of the most brutal cards in the deck have been eldrazi monument and akroma's memorial, both allow mass evasion and can nullify boardwipes. However, what really makes this deck work is the same that would any other deck: exellent production of extra mana and cards. It has a 40 lands, 16 ramp spells (in mono red no less!) and ten-ish card draw effects in addition to the commander. The rest being mostly token generators.
Successful play pattern always involves continuous building up of resources, as you can't afford to run low while you still have multiple opponents remaining. Sun Tzu had it long ago in Art of war: "He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight".
Honestly the only aggro i truely play in edh is edric... the way you can refill your hand and have answers to almost everything is pretty awesome. and thats why edric is my fav aggro commander ever
Aggro in commander is about consistency. Your tempo is key, and the deck should have redundancy so you are likely to get the same effects in hand more or less by turn 6, 8, or whatever. Maintaining a slow burn is also important. I have a chandra aggro/superfriends deck that can provide hand advantage or burn depending on what I need. It's mana efficient, and it is explosive!
So there is a commander deck that solves all of these problems - Xenagos! You can not remove him in most cases, he gives your fat creatures haste, he doubles their power and toughness (solving the double life problem), and you can use cards such as Relentless Assault to double double your damage and take players out in one shot. The deck ignores most board wipes as well, needing only one creature to threaten and board wipes turn into a clear path for a hasty 40/40 Malignus.
Give it a try, it has turned out to be one of my favorite commander decks.
If these points aren't doing much for your deck, it might not be an aggro deck. If your Xenahos list runs much interaction, it might actually be better described as a midrange deck. Midrange is usually quite good in commander.
Furthermore, I have seen a number of Xenagos lists, similar to what you are descibing, where the plan is to deal 40 out of nowhere in a single hit. That is most accurately described a combo deck (the combo being 10*2*2=40), albeit an unconventional one.
I think the biggest flaw of most aggro decks is that they lack the ability to recover properly and manage creatures static abilities well, meaning if im playing aggro tokens and i get wrath'd and i suddenly dont have the ability to make more tokens quickly, im dead in the water.
My LGS considers me one of the better aggro players due to my ability when deckbuilding to not only build consistent recovery from most types of board wipes, but to slide in mild forms of control into these decks as well. Some examples of this:
My Rat Colony Tribal deck runs Athreos as its commander, making simply wiping all of the rats a less viable strategy as you are going to be 100% the target of those 3 life hits for every rat. This means you either pay a ton of life for your wrath OR you give me my 2 drop (able to be reduced to 1 drop!) rats back and they just come back all over again and you blew a wrath for nothing.
My Nikya deck runs 10 non-creature/non-land cards and all of them generate some form of card advantage while at the same time I take 0 issue running things to mess with control style decks with cards such as Ruric-Thar the Unbowed, Nullstone Gargoyle and Vorinclex. Since nikya prevents the use of non-creature spells while she is out you need to take advantage of what utility creatures can provide and control is one of them.
Aggro can be a viable strategy in Commander, you just need to focus on what happens when you lose tempo for any reason. Are you able to come back from that? If you cant come back from that consistently, you arent building your aggro deck properly or you are just building a linear aggro deck, which fails after 1 wipe.
I love your comment. I find sandbagging, quick recovery and late game card advantage to be just as important as disruption.
Edgar Markov can be effective in cmdr. Just need tutors to get things like “living death” and “patriarchs bidding” to recover from the inevitable board wipes. A coat of arms can kill the whole table if timed right!
Edgar markov is the 2nd most popular deck on edhrec so yeah, you could say he's effective lol
The coolest edgard deck I saw played possibility storm, will break any decks but yours hahaha.
I play edgar Markov and prefer to just load up on refilling my hand with card draw (Nekropotence, Minions' Murmurs, Promise of Power, Ad Nauseam, Wheel of Fortune, Wheel of Fate and so on). When 3 one drops result in 6 bodies, you are not even 'over extending' your hand or resources.
Coat of Arms is amazing. I've got a solid winning spree going with my Alela deck, and it's almost entirely down to Coat of Arms :)
@@ygaudreault How is that? All instants being removal spells, all creatures being vampires, all sorceries being tutors, etc.? :P
I suppose you'll get two vampire tokens for each vamp you play, which is sweet.
I LOVE DJ! So glad he's back! The two of you including Jimmy would be the DREAM
Do you guys know the card crescendo of war? It's an enchantment for 3 and a white that gets a counter on every players upkeep. Then all attacking creatures get +1/+0 and your blockers get +1/+0 for each counter on it. I feel like it definitely helps your smaller creatures deal with everyone's bigger ones and the blockers buff can help you trade your 1/1s for their 6/6s. I like it in my aggro decks
silly card. I run it occasionally.
I personally run Arahbo as an aggro deck. I only around 12 cats, all of which are the best 1 mana cats plus the infect and double strike 2 mana cats. The main benefit is running the green cards that draw equal to a creature's power, such as greater good and soul's majesty, to keep refilling my hand. Then I play midrangey threats like managorger hydra, god eternal oketra, sun titan and equipment to finish off the game. It works really well as a strategy because you get to apply pressure really early, you have the draw to keep the gas going, and you have powerful threats to finish the game off.
Nothing feels better than playing my underrated oketra God eternal, having a massive board state of 4/ 4 zombies with double strike, having someone go to cyclonic Rift and I Teferis protection
DJ!!! We missed you 😃
I have a sweet Kholagan deck that ends up forcing players to figure it out quick because if you don't those dragons are gonna get you while you're too busy ramping
@Jonah Goldenbird The Deck list good sir
Counts : 99 main / 1 sideboard
Creatures:36
1 Dragonlord's Servant
1 Burnished Hart
1 Dragonspeaker Shaman
1 Boneyard Scourge
1 Skyship Stalker
1 Thunderbreak Regent
1 Verix Bladewing
1 Boltwing Marauder
1 Demanding Dragon
1 Glorybringer
1 Scourge of Valkas
1 Skarrgan Hellkite
1 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Acid-Spewer Dragon
1 Dragonlord Kolaghan
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Hellkite Tyrant
1 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
1 Lathliss, Dragon Queen
1 Moltensteel Dragon
1 Noxious Dragon
1 Ryusei, the Falling Star
1 Scourge of the Throne
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Swift Warkite
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Bladewing the Risen
1 Dragon Mage
1 Drakuseth, Maw of Flames
1 Skyline Despot
1 Spawn of Thraxes
1 Thunder Dragon
1 Tyrant of Valakut
1 Tyrant's Familiar
1 Utvara Hellkite
Spells:30
1 Sol Ring
1 Animate Dead
1 Dragon Tempest
1 Dreadbore
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mind Stone
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Blood Moon
1 Chaos Warp
1 Deliver Unto Evil
1 Dragon's Hoard
1 Herald's Horn
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Icon of Ancestry
1 Sarkhan's Triumph
1 Sarkhan, Fireblood
1 Spit Flame
1 Theater of Horrors
1 Crucible of Fire
1 Ritual of Soot
1 Sarkhan's Unsealing
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Wrecking Ball
1 Crux of Fate
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Palace Siege
1 Sarkhan the Masterless
1 Vanquisher's Banner
1 Sarkhan, Dragonsoul
1 Fury of the Horde
Lands:33
1 Command Tower
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
14 Mountain
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Path of Ancestry
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Rocky Tar Pit
11 Swamp
1 Temple of the False God
Sideboard:1
1 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
Built with Decked Builder
Out of all the podcast ideas jimmy misses they do AGGRO?!?
I really appreciated this episode because I am the aggro player in my play group. It does help balance out some of the ramp into bomb deck strategies that are so common in commander. I have found that the key thing to aggro decks is recoverability. Board wipes are inevitable in edh and you need to be the first one out of the gate swinging after one happens. That's why I will hold up a card if I already have a great board state to allow me to better recover.
We need a myriad commander! Simply just says “all creatures you control have myriad”
That's a little to strong how about instead just pick one at the beginning of combat
The etb’s would be INSANE, and would probably enable crazy combos. This is both good or bad I guess.
@@mj1mj3 crazy to think that 2 year later a commander would exist with exactly your idea
Not that you will see this, but I wanted to say something, I find it kinda hard to watch command zone anymore, it's really entertaining and interesting, but with my sights focused more on cedh then edh it's hard to watch advice for more slow casual deck, but with more recent episodes, I'm seeing a lot more cedh representation on the episodes, even if it's a mention here or a shout-out there, know I really appreciate it.
Creepercraft Hatridge so where does one go for cedh videos?
@@Cabalwannabe the two Ive seen with high quality are "playing with power", or "spike feeders", look up either of those, followed by cedh, and you'll find a lot of great content and gameplay
Iroas & Xenagos are the perfect exemple of aggro edh and how you could think aggro in the format.
Ghired, Rayami and Greven are new commanders to support the aggression strategies
Aurelia, Gisela, and Odric all work pretty well too. You want to build your agro deck so that each card you play increases the value of everything else. When I play my Odric deck, I'm often attacking for 10 damage on turn 5 but 80 damage on turn 7.
@@augustfilbert6305 God, especially Aurelia, the Warleader. There's a reason that damn angel is my favorite card in all of Magic. Seriously, TWO combat phases, haste, vigilance, and flying!?
Goreclaw is a good agro commander two. The game wil be over on turn 7 most of the time
FOUR TRICKS TO WINNING AS AGGRO IN COMMANDER THE SIMIC GUILD DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW
1. Armageddon
2. Ravages of War
3. Cataclysm
4. Ruination
FORGOT WINTER ORB. Orb is my favorite. you just lock em out the turn before they combo and watch em die. Its glorious :)
Also don't sleep on impending disaster!
❤️ Love destruction ❤️
HAHAHAHA
Easily my favorite Aggro deck is Merfolk, because with blue and green, you can do a teeny bit of ramp, and there's quite a few cards that say: "When a creature enters the battlefield under your control, draw a card." Things like Kindred Discovery, The Great Henge, and Vanquisher's Banner go a long way to providing longevity to the Aggro strategy.
Of course, you can play the durdle game plan, but sometimes you go 1-drop into Lord into Lord into Lord, and it's off to the races.
I made an Aggro deck that I have been tweaking for about 6 months and I'm quite proud of it. The Commanders are Bruse Tarl, and Tymna. The deck aggressively leverages my life total for card advantage and finishers like Necropotence, Bolas's Citadel (The 6 Cmc is effectively refunded by the ability to cast spells without paying mana), Aetherflux Reservoir, and Hatred (amazing with double strike and lifelink granted by Bruse).
Aetherflux, Bolas's Citadel, and Necropotence combo with each other, and the latter 2 can be used to help find the others.
I've been having a lot of fun and success with Syr Gwyn as a commander. Getting around the equip cost and drawing off of attacking in case of a wrath effect. Cards that give my knights sulk, double strike, indestructible, flying, vigilance, and combine it with flanking and trample have been very useful for me. I put down early game pressure and then use equipment later.
I started as a very aggressive player. Slap creatures down and hit people. My meta wound up with a lot of boardwipes, which felt abysmal. It definitely taught me how to rebuild and protect, and that extra reach makes a ton of difference.
My all in aggro deck right now is Grand warlord Radha. Spectacular for getting in early aggression while still boosting up the mana curve for the big threats to take people out. Multiple combat steps becomes very important to closing out a game veggie getting wiped, and anything that helps you squeeze extra card advantage while going off and after being wiped is huge.
Key cards are:
Aggravated assault,
Beast whisperer/ guardian project
Sunbird's invocation
Wild pair
Remember, enchantments are harder to kill, so are perfect for that extra reach and card advantage
I've got a sweet Saskia the Unyielding deck with a bunch of early ramp to get 4-6 drops out fast, and a bunch of boardwipe protection spells. Saskia brings the total damage needed down by half, from the command zone, as well as being the reach by naming the fastest value engine and hitting the slowest player, leaving you with the player that is of middling strength, board-wise.
I like that this duo develop their podcasting behave, back to the very first time both cast together they're kinda try to fight over each other's opinion and such but this time they listened and agreed to each other's opinion more i appreciate the relationship progress here.
I have a Reanimator Chainer Nightmare Adept deck I have a lot of success with. You hit the nail on the head. Between Chainer, Anger and Garna I almost always have haste for anger new creature that enters the battlefield. Best part is if they remove my key creatures I can get it back. Deck is susceptible to graveyard hate, as all graveyard heavy decks are
Aggro in commander is slowing down opponents?
You heard it here, folks: Stax is aggro. :P
What a coincidence! I just starting building my first xenagos deck and it's all about big creature beatdown. Also, yay dj! Welcome back 😁👍
Don't forget malignus and chandra's ignition!
@@bt5087 oh, I didn't!
Welcome to the XenaBRO club!
@@Nanot33 thanks! 😁
Dont forget quest for pure flame best aggro commander card imo lol
A much needed video for this combo/value infested format.
Josh and DJ are definitely on point about aggressive decks punishing ramp decks. I was playing my Angry Omnath during one of the games at Seattle, and I very nearly got killed by a super aggressive Grismold. I'd have been stone dead without flipping Thaumatic Compass. But, thanks for the video guys! I appreciate the ideas for my Aurelia, the Warleader deck :D
Play Zada. One of the best aggro commanders I’ve ever seen.
Loved this episode! I proudly play Ahrabo, Saskia and Valduk. Valduk isn't interesting to talk about, it's a fast mana enabled glass cannon psuedo combo with a single point of failure. But this is what I learned from the other decks.
Plan your curve out so that you first attack, then disrupt 95%+ games if you're willing to mulligan 3 times. ex. in Ahrabo I have 10 creatures who attack for 4+ damage on turn 2. Then I follow it up with immediately hate or enhancement on the following turn. In saskia, I'll drop a dork then following it with something that generates tokens when it attacks. Then a damage doubler or hate card. Time not attacking is wasted time, and always attacking starts in deck construction.
I also like building my curve top differently in aggro. I want to be able to kill or maim an opponent more quickly than they can, but the cards which can do that tend to not stick on board if the game drags on past the point all interaction is used. I actually recommend having extra card advantage at the top of the curve. Seasons past is my personal favorite, but damnable pact, wildest dreams, commune with lava etc are great.
Aggro has access to the best removal, player removal. But in order for this to work, you'll need to figure out who's likely to be a threat and get them into range first. Creature related stax, draw go control, and big mana decks are often my first targets as I'm least likely to be able to kill them late. Otherwise for non blue decks I measure them by infrastructure (the joke at my LGS is that I'm allegic to ramp.) For classically blue decks, cards drawn and land drops made. MLD/mana denial decks are actually something to keep around longer if possible. It's going to impact combo/midrange much more than a lean aggro deck. (Just don't tap out fully against a deck you suspect runs stasis.) If you do decide that they need to go, your other opponents will probably help you kill them.
Evaluate equipment as more expensive unless you're cheating them on. Obviously swords of x and y and boots are powerful. But when planning them out on curve include their equip cost. If that makes the curve awkward find an aura instead. I play armadillo cloak over loxodon warhammer for example. 6 mana is too big of an investment to keep ahead on tempo until late game. Finding cards like Rancor and heirloom blade which add resilency at a mana efficent rate is golden. On the other hand infrastructure which doubles in with quick power spikes is equally valuable.
When I plan out my threats in an aggro deck I like thinking about speed, snowball and resilency. I've found that resilency can be created by speed or efficency and sandbagging. For example, in Ahrabo any old cat will hit hard, often trade up on mana vs the removal used and be easily replaced. (People HATE utter ending a jungle lions.) In saskia I can easily multiply damage, so in that deck I look for cards which generate as much board presence with the least investment. Cards like goblin rabblemaster, spawnwrithe, aura/artifact mutation and martial coup are great. Even if the board is wiped, aggro can retake the lead with a sandbagged army in a can.
Lifelink or vigilence are important to have some of. It doesn't directly speed up the clock, but if you fully tap out to attack each turn the crackbacks start adding up. This is mandatory in a deck like ahrabo who is big when attacking and small on defense. But wide decks being able to swing with EVERY token every turn because of whip of erabos is a night and day difference from holding a few back for defence.
Another way I've built aggro to be more enjoyable is to find combos which are individually strong with the aggro package. Personally I hate comboless decks because it can feel like I have no chance. But random combos are clunky. EoT chord of calling for felidar sovereign sometimes wins otherwise unwinnable games in cats, but it's a capable beater or tutor on it's own. I've enjoyed zealous + kiki in saskia tokens for the same reason. Neither half flounders when used alone.
Something that DJ hinted at, but card quality matters in aggro. It sucks but budget options often slow the deck down. On a positive note, sometimes commander specifc options are dirt cheap. I can't imagine running an all in valduk deck without shuko or mob mentality. Aggro often needs to navigate on razor thin tempo margins and having high quality tools to do this greatly impact successfulness.
One awesome dirty trick to keep in mind is that damage is damage, it doesn't matter if you do it. If an opponent is attacking another opponent you can absolutely use tricks on it. For this reason I highly value cards like duelists heritage, kessig wolf run, rogues passage and berserk.
Y'all talked about hatebears, but cheap interaction (Swords to plowshares, natural state, dromoka's command, etc.) is so good once a clock is down. Keeping the game in the early game as long as possible benefits aggro disproportionally. It also lets you disrupt combo decks at instant speed.
Spending a bit more to shred infrastructure is also great. Aura shards, Quasali slingers, vandalblast are great. If your group is okay with it stuff like impending disaster and CATaclysm, they are amazing too. Punishment cards like this not only buy more time, but enough waves of it will crush the ability to mount defences.
One very overlooked advantage fair decks have over combo decks is that as long as damage sticks you can pick back up later. Obviously this should never be the plan, but aggro still makes progress towards it's goal even if set back. And while this doesn't make aggro nearly as good as a high end combo deck, it isn't nothing.
I got super carried away writting this long after the video. Sorry if I forgot something from the video and repeated it here. Thank you command zone for covering aggro!
Seeing DJ reminded me i needed to fill out the survey to get DJ’s playmat!! So sweet!
I previously ran a Gisela, Blade of Goldnight deck in which I ran as many anthem effects as I could, and as many of them attached to creatures as possible. I could quite frequently drop a 1/1 and have it hit the battlefield as a 6/6 or a 7/7 or a 8/8. I would regularly control the battlefield with only 3 or 4 creatures at a time and then drop in Gisela to turn them all effectively into 14/14s and close out the game.
I find that I agree with Josh. I do not usually like to remove people as quickly as possible because I enjoy the nature of politics and multiplayer. Maybe that's why one of my favorite aggro decks is Saskia. She is a great tool for rewarding you being aggressive to multiple people by hitting the marked opponent every time you hit the other opponents. But she can help you pivot to a "junkyard dog" strategy as well. When one opponent REALLY has to die you can mark and swing at the same person for double damage. Her ETB can be used politically as well.
My Xenagos deck has been my aggro answer to my play group's hefty combo decks. I do tend to have to politic a bit to get to the win, but it can nail someone for a kill shot turn 3 or 4. That doesn't happen often, but everytime I play my Xenagos it at least leaves the table in a state where everyone is near death, so even if I don't win it allows us to play more games which is what I really like.
I've found that when building an aggro deck prioritize board protection over board wipes. Your opponents should be answering you, not the other way around. Not to mention playing board wipes will typically hurt yourself more than you opponents and winning off someone else's board wipe is super satisfying. The biggest exception is if you're colors have one-sided board wipes, run as many as you think you can.
Zada Hedron Grinder, one of the best budget aggro commanders.
My Aryel knight tribal deck is done and revolves around what Josh mentioned: make my own stuff indestructible, wrath and then swing in. Really hyped to try it out
Can we all acknowledge the progress JLK has made in the bodybuilding aspect? I re-watch old episodes a lot, yesterday was no exception. perhaps it is that fact that brings me to this comment. Good job JLK.
I hope this is an ongoing series for a lot of different types of decks. It's really interesting to learn more about decks you don't really play
I have a Najeela Warrior tribal deck. That is probably my heaviest Aggro deck. When it goes off I'm able to win a game in a 4 player pod in one turn. Multiple extra combats with the ability to go infinite combat comes in handy
I have a 42 creature Judith Goblin aggro deck that has been quite successful. It runs Goblin Bombardment, Outpost Siege, Boggart Shenanigans, Impact Tremors, Purphoros and Gratuitous Violence, along with Judith, to give it reach. Living Death, Finale of Eternity and Patriarch’s Bidding give it resilience. One drop goblin, two drop goblin into Judith gets the aggro going pretty efficiently. Also, so many goblins either anthem or bring multiple creatures into play, so the damage stacks up extremely fast.
On the wrap-up, I agree with everything.
I really don't have a secret, for my aggro... I would say adjust to your meta. There are so many cards that can easily shut down any part of other Decks that you will have issues with. For instance I have one blue player that can win turn 3 chain Veil tefuri. Not very fun but he loves making everyone miserable. He counters everything, so what I would put in my decks are stuff like red Elemental blast, prowling serpapord, vexing shusher etc.
, I play mono colors except for yuriko and ruric. White get such a bad rap and EDH and it's probably won more games then any of my decks.
Few key pieces of hate, a great Commander like oketra or thalia, with a few bombs like mirror entity or cards people don't expect like odric giving everyone vigilance flying double strike... of course things can always get countered, but when they don't you win. My meta has tier 1 graveyard shenanigans? Rest in peace... 5 color sisay or slivers? Bloodmoon... or just have fun with gore claw, having 16 power on-board Turn 4 Swinging with a haste ghalta tapping selvala for 12 drop kozilek etc...
Speaking of punishing people that use their life as a resource, I just made Kirrik doomsday and it's fun playing suicide black. Even when people have taken my aetherflux reservoir, I still win by sacrificing gray Merchant in winning where's reoccurring chainer. Surprisingly resilient
I have had success with Queen Marchesa as an aggro commander, as I am able to use two combos within it, and has a good token strategy that can be used to burn people out. it combines politics, blood artist type abilities, as well as an angle of glory's rise and Revilark combos if they are set up in the mid to late game.
In my playgroup we once played it that every burn spell said (using bolt as an example) deal three damage to each opponent or deal three damage to any target. It was interesting, it was pretty powerful but not overwhelmingly so. You get the balance of stabilising against the deck. It wasn’t good enough but with things like torbran you imagine that maybe with a few more pieces it could get there
Haven’t watched yet but sooo stoked!
Tribal aggro is like all I play 😍
My Sisay Weatherlight Captain has actually turned into a very solid aggro deck, she is an absolute power house with instant speed responses, I think Josh would actually enjoy her.
5 key pieces.
Early game stax (Thalias, Gaddock Teeg, Lavinia, Anafenza) also these add power to Sisay when she drops
Tutor-able Responses (Gerrard/Avacyn/Journey to Eternity to boardwipes, Sigarda to sacrifice, Shalai to target removal, Anafenza for graveyard hate, Venser for counter spell)
Great Card draw engines (Reki, Jhoira, Niv Mizzet Reborn, Sygg, bident of thassa, Edric)
Combat (Saskia, Bruse Tarl, black blade reforge, ember cleave, Mirri, Samut)
Finishers, PS also Tutor-able (Aurelia, Najeela, Odric with a boardstate which is very common)
I play MTGO if anyone ever wants to play. (from AUS)
"Preying on the fact that there are no aggro decks in their meta." Perfect example of the mindset of those who hate infect. They are butthurt that they don't get to sit back and play solitary until they win.
I actually have a deck that builds on this strategy of slowing down your opponents you mentioned. It's a hatebears deck that uses Anafenza the Foremost as commander (she's aggressive and also grave-hate) and is full of little creatures with nasty stax abilities that will slow my opponents down while I beat on them. It's a solid 8, too, can even hold its ground in some cEDH games (although it usually doesn't win, since it has no way to combo off).
#Boros is the best aggro in the format. Love how they mention primarily white/red cards. 75% of the White/Red cards they mention are in my Aurelia deck that typically can 1v3 a table pretty well.
Okay. Sure
Can confirm. Aurelia does this. Biggest key is to stop your opponents from winning the orb. Winter orb usually does the trick.
@@CommanderReplay There you are!
@@CommanderReplay so youre saying Aurelia, a boros Boros commamder, is so good, she will almost always be an archenemy?
@@gordonross3270 Negative. In todays landscape she's very unlikely to be the Archenemy with things like Golos, K'rrick Vilis, and Urza running around. In years past she was more likely to be the archenemy, when things were slower and less combo centric. However should find yourself as the archenemy she does handle certain things really well. Sun forger can blank a lot of removal, and incoming attacks. And board wipes are pretty ineffective against Aurelia because you recast with haste and throw some equipments on and keep getting damage in while everyone else is trying to rebuild. So while being the archenemy is not recommended she can still thrive in certain situations. The mixture of double combats, double strike and double damage really makes Boros much stronger than people give it credit for.
Control, Voltron, and now aggro. Loving DJ and his "archetype-techs"
Dont forget combo
The key for my agro decks is to not run out of gas. I have a Tajic, Legion's Edge soldier deck and what it lacks in ramp and card draw, it makes up for with sheer power. I use anthem effects to buff my smaller creatures and also cards that reduce costs like Daru Warchief and also strong agro cards, like both Odrics that benefit from having a lot of creatures with different abilities and can control blockers (Look up Odric Master Tactician). If possible, find cards that can cheat out bigger creatures, my example is preemenint captain(3cmc) which when it attacks can drop a solider from your hand tapped an attacking which you can get Captain of Watch(6cmc) which will give your soldiers more power. At the top end, I have cards like Savage Beating to kill decks with high life totals and to close out games, and Auriela Warleader and Gisella, Blade of Goldnight. Managed to almost one shot a sliver and Atraxa deck on the same turn. Also Austere Command.
One of the biggest problems with running Aggro or a fast out-of-the-gates type deck is the impression it gives the other players. If you have a fast start, you are likely to have a quick big target on you. My "best" starts in EDH have almost always ended with me being ganged up on and killed 1st.
Also a heartless hidetsugu just once makes it so much more reasonable. Weird that it's not mentioned.
Slap lifelink on it and it's a major win
Give Hidetsugu life gain and let the magic begins xD
I've wanted to build a deck where I pay life and give him infect with that equipment. And if I get my life under 20 then it's insta win
Yes. Ive had success playing aggro. Winter orb is the best card for aggro decks.
I've got a Torbran aggro deck and one of my favorite cards in the deck is bolt bend. Its basically that card that no one ever sees coming.
There was one time a guy tried to destroy my commander then I played bolt bend using Pyromancer's Goggles and he tried to counter it. My response was "ok but what about the copy?"
Bolt Bend is just fantastic! Best used when targeted by Aetherflux Reservoir or Door to Nothingness :p
My zo-zu deck is focused on land pain. Last time i played it, Although the locust god deck still won, it couldn't combo off until i was dealt with. I kept it in check with all my incidental damage so everyone else could try and have a chance. We got to play a commander game instead of it ending on like turn 5
I have a Saskia build that can reliably kill a player on turn 4-5. Headhunting is the easiest way to succeed as an aggro deck, just kill the first player who can stop you the easiest. Damage doublers are your best friend because suddenly everyone's life totals are cut in half, which encourages more people to attack and do your job for you.
Another thing that really helps aggro decks is well, another aggro deck. The problem with the prevalent battle cruiser EDH metas is that aggro has trouble against them because it's all on it's own. A second aggressive or punisher deck in a pod really speeds up the clock, and at the end if the aggro decks are the last one standing it leaves a really fun duel between honest decks
I feel like one very good Aggro Commander was a bit overlooked here: Yuriko (as an Aggro Tribal deck) is very good in my experience, by combining massive carddraw with multiplied lifeloss. I guess she kinda breaks the mold a bit though by having some high-CMC cards (mostly via Split cards) but the idea is to swing on every turn, and go kinda wide with weenies with evasion.
That's why my Voltron of choice is Skullbriar since he is resilient and damage scales so it's easier to kill beyond the first one.
Once had a game that I killed one normally, tainted strike the second player and Solidarity of Heroes the third one when he chose not to block my 11/11 zombie.
They killed Skully 4 times but it didn't matter.
Multiple Attack Steps combined with double strike and effects that feed off attacking and dealing damage.
This makes aggro sing.
Hey this video gives me an Idea for upcoming Game Knights episode:
Everyone play Infect dedicated deck. Yup, everyone!
Except Craig...
I have a pretty good Rafiq enchantress deck that uses some hate bears and mana dorks and a mix of creature boosting/evading and opponent slowing/permanent removing enchantments. Rafiq pumps one attacker usually not himself and it hits pretty hard. Sometimes more than once with Finest Hour out. Hidden Guerillas is one of my favorite cards in the deck.
Gaddock Teeg with elves and a good number of cards to protect the deck's creatures plus Elesh Norn is pretty decent aggro plan as long as the table doesn't gang up because Teeg's ban hurts them too much. Planar Guide is card you can get with green creature tutors that basically counters a wipe for creatures.
I like to run very cheap, and free ramp only. Sol ring, Mox amber, knight of the white orchid, and Ancient tomb seem to work really well for getting off the ground early.
I just built a Najeela deck. Haven't had a lot of chances to test it out, but it's gonna be fun to pilot. In light of this episode, I might need to add some more reach. It pivots into combo in late game, but that still requires me to have at least Najeela and some expendable creatures.
I have a pretty explosive 2.6 avg cmc Adeliz, the Cinder Wind aggro deck that relies on a bunch of 1-2-3 drop wizards to get Prowessed from casting one mana cantrips. It then proceeds to punchout people with Insult\Injury and burn spells.
And yes, you guys are wrong and Lightning Bolt is *GREAT!* in it >:D
Post war of the spark's wave of planeswalkers lightning bolt got so much better.
Some thoughts here:
1. If you want to punish excessive green ramping, take a look at Oath of Lieges and Natural Balance. They are very political ways to deal with the issue.
2. The Endless One and Chimeric Mass can go into any aggro deck and are always "on curve", whether it's turn three or turn thirteen.
3. Powerful token generating spells like Finale of Glory, Wolfbriar Elemental (in heavy green) or Army of the Damned are excellent one-of "curve toppers" in any aggro deck and may win you the game on their own.
My Aggro decks are Rakdos, Lord of Riots and Marisi, Breaker of the Coil. I mostly play Rakdos. My strategy for that is cheat out massive creatures and then swing in. I usually latch Rakdos onto one player but then spread the damage with my other creatures. By doing this I can politic and convince people I am going after the biggest threat until they can't stop me.
What a timely upload. I’m in the middle of building a torbran deck!
Torbran is so much fun! I have a neheb eternal, and was thinking on changing it. Although they play completely different, seeing is my neheb is all ramp into fatties to generate mana for extra turns. Torbran is just play all the things that ping and all the mass burn. It is extremely fast if built correctly
@@bt5087 Yea its been an exciting one to think about! I have neheb coming for the 99. I'm only about $65 in for the whole deck and it seems like it's going to be pretty strong, I've focused most of my resources so far on getting the ramp right and there are plenty of solid cheap cards for it. Hopefully it won't be too salt inducing lol
@@gibbysg8143 he is 100% salt inducing! And that's why he's great! Throw-in cards like Magus of the Moon, Blood Moon, and me personally I do land destruction. That's the great thing about him is he makes really cheap cards very good. Like flame Rift and sizzle. I've also found that running cards like furnace of rath add a ridiculous amount of power to the deck. Instead of guttersnipe pinging everyone for two, he pings everyone for 8? That is horrendous!
I play Boros Aggro with Aurelia the Warleader. It plays with that fast mid range strategy.
A couple strategies incorporated are:
Multicolor Matters: all the creatures are R/W, so that when a creature lands, it'll inherently have a lot of value. The logic I use is that when I play a single creature, it should be able to flex and mean mug an entire army (Victories with a single creature happen frequently since repeatable spot removal is prevalent in our meta)
Legendary Creatures Matter: this piggy backs off the previous point cause I want high value creatures and legendary creatures are pure value and they are also all R/W meaning that all can be a commander to match my opponents, which I run 17 Legendary Boros creatures giving me lots of commander options. Like if a pillow fort deck shuts out Aurelia, next game I'll switch to Gisela, or if I'm facing another aggro deck and I need to crash in immediately, I'll use one of the Tajic cards. Even for heavy board wipe enviroment I have Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero.
Artifacts Matter: Glass of the Guildpact, Time of the Guildpact, Time of legends, The immortal sun, these are things that pick up a lot of the slack with Boros, like card draw and anthem. Sword of the animist helps with deck thinning and with Aurelia, that's two lands.
Contingencies for top decking: something I keep in mind for my lowered CMC guys, but it's just a simple "If I top deck this, how strong is this?" Swiftblade Vindicator is something I measure with this scale cause a 1/1 for RW with Double Strike, Trample and Vigilance is straight pushed and just having 1 or 2 buffs on the field makes this a nightmare to deal with.
Having one creature hold of an Army: if you have a 5 CMC deter an entire board for 1 or 2 turns is still value in its own right, just having something scary out and it keeps people from attacking can get your mana's worth if it goes on long enough
One For All: individual value matters more in this strategy, cause you can't really fall on reliable combos, so just looking at a card and confidently saying "This is amazing on its own and doesn't need help" is a great way to select your cards. Then if you have 3-5 of these creatures out, not only are they good on their own, they're most likely buffing everyone around them when going in for combat
I think high card draw is essential for any aggro deck. Just that can solve almost all of their problems. That's why Edric is so good.
IMO, the best aggro commanders are:
-Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow as it can deal damage to multiple opponents with little to no board investment (probably 2-3 Ninjas/Changelings).
-Derevi, Empyrial Tactician as you can play staxx/hate bears to lock down opponents while beating face.
-Najeela, the Blade Blossom. Attack! Attack! Attack!
Here are couple of points I think y'all missed:
1) The classic burn formula (3 dmg-per-card x 7 cards = 21 damage) STILL APPLIES -- the numbers are just different! To knock out 3 x 40 life with 7 cards, we need each card to account for just over 17 damage. Use that rule of thumb when deckbuilding! Cards like Price of Progress, Heartless Hidetsugu, and Manabarbs get there -- Lightning Bolt does not.
2) If you wanna go fast, you've gotta ramp hard. A low curve is nice, but I'd rather ramp into 17 dmg-per-card than play a bunch of 2-4 drops on curve.
3) Play WHEELS! Wheels are so key, because running out of gas is our biggest fear and our speed breaks their natural parity.
Well, LSV and Marshall are getting into aggro in the current format: Mono-green, mono-red, and red-white. So R&D did a good job with making that play-style shine this time around.
Tymna Vial Smasher has become my favorite deck to play. The incremental card advantage of Tymna and the chip burn of Vial Smasher truly helps close games out. I play 0 combos and utilize a hate-bear strategy in which providing ways to impact how your opponents play the game. My deck offers resilience speed and can adapt to any and all tables. It is not an unbeatable deck just a deck that adapts to the table very well and provides incremental value throughout the progression of the game! My end is Elesh Norn and Valki/Tibalt (never played for Valki) and have a single 4 cmc creature outside of that I run 3 and under cmc spells and creatures that have high impact. I believe my mana value is a 1.49 with lands and without lands it is a 2.15 so very low curve very aggressive. I run 42 Creatures in the deck alongside the 2 partners making a total of 44 however due to Valki being cast as a planeswalker Id say 43 creatures overall
It’s not about fun nor joy, it’s about sending a message...and that message is suffer and agony.
Mwuahahaha 👍👍👍👍
Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and a partner (I play with Tana the Bloodsower). Hits hard and fast though harder to put together a 2nd push after a boardwipe (so one should have a backup win condition - I run Purphoros, Vicious Shadows, and Craterhoof for that purpose).
DJ! Always a pleasure to see you on the show!
You mentioned during the Goad how your opponents hitting each other also helps your plan. I think that's another reason infect isn't nearly as broken as it seems. Unless there's somehow multiple infect players, any incidental damage other players do to one another doesn't help you win through infect. Sure, it's "only" 30 damage, but I have to do all 30 damage myself rather than hoping my opponents will hit each other (or even themselves with fetches and shocks).
Gruul is great for aggro. The curve is relative also, if you ramp super fast. I run Thormak as the commander with things like defense of the heart to get Xenegos and Mycloth. That allows me to do 20 damage on turn 5. However turn 6. If I can squeeze out with enough ramp I can get war storm surge and play thromak and wipe out two people at once.
I also think another interesting thing to consider with agro is the size of your metas pods, like an example is infect in a 3 player pod which I find is way more effective than in a 4 player pod
Disappointed my favorite aggro commander: Odric, Lunarch Marshall (Sharing is caring) why cant all my creatures have flying trample double strike indestructable vigilence life link etc, runs concerted effort so i share protections as well...
Oh I had a thought about this the other day, when you guys were talking about what can make white cards better. White could have a Craterhoof of its own. Effects that I think when I see white commander cards I think of life gain, Vigilance, and tokens.