Be sure to also watch "How To Control In Commander" our previous Magic guide: ua-cam.com/video/rpVfOC6gJ3M/v-deo.html How To Build Every Commander Mana Base | The Definitive Guide: ua-cam.com/video/s9C7JdSRZGc/v-deo.html
Recently built a mono red burn deck was actually quite effective,got first place last Friday out of 4 ppl and then managed to get 2nd ...Well between those games on my 2nd one got taken out first 😅GG Lily
@TolarianProfessor, Professor with all due respect; The more I try to aggro, in the end they all go after me so I'M the one that dies first. Happens every time whether I try to seek the weakest player or play cards that affect all my opponents!
Big recommend for red players: Mob Rule. It's a great game finisher. Also I recommend a lot of evasion. Virtually every vehicle in my Depala deck includes either Trample or Flying. The damage does not stop. You're never left feeling like you have a bad attack.
Similarily to Mob Rule goad also makes use of your opponents creatures forcing other players to attack with their big beaters, which will remove blockers and add to the damage on other players, instead of those players just holding back their 5/5 to block. More specifically: Vengeful Ancestor. 4 mana 4/4 flying dragon. When he ETBs or attacks, goad a creature. Also cool as a finisher: "Spectacular Showdown" - Overload for 7 mana. Goad all creatures and put a double strike counter on them. (regular single target version costs 2 mana and you can still use it just for the double strike on your own guy or put it on an oppoents scary big dragon and they'll attack another player with a 6/6 doubler strike for you. ❤) Just don't overdo it with goad because once all but one opponent is gone, goad doesn't really do much anymore.
An aggro red killer/finisher that I like actually doesn't use attack damage. Burn at the Stake requires you to tap creatures to deal 3x damage for every tap. Your wide boards basically kills without worrying about blockers
The Tolarian Tutor series is how I found your channel originally. Even if commander isn't my preferred format, seeing these thumbnails pop up again makes me happy. Thanks for doing these.
That card is so grossly overcorrected to fix the game - as is something like the LotR 5 MV Eowyn, honestly - that they become terrors even when they aren't on the field. I would much rather have Eowyn as a UWR 3/2 that only made *one* knight, even if she came out earlier. Also, she would be more on-theme to the character. For Voja, there's plenty of ways to scale it back that WotC didn't even bother trying to do; the creature type 'wolf' is literally the only limiter on that card.
I've been doing a lot of research into Aggro lately. Here's some tips I've learned: ▪︎ Running minor Stax effects can be really useful. If you're smart about it, a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or Blood Moon can really help you keep up, by delaying dangerous midrange decks. It essentially makes the early game longer, and early game is where you shine best ▪︎ Using something like Nevermore targeting Farewell can be really good for protection. ▪︎ Sometimes it's better to leave an opponent at 15-ish life instead of killing them. You won't get as much hate as you would for knocking someone out of the game early, and it still puts a lot of pressure on them, making all the "pay life for good things" cards go from free to incredibly dangerous ▪︎ Target prioritization is very important. You burn out late game, so it's a good idea to take someone out who's good then. If there's other aggro decks, team up with them. Fighting each other is only gonna help the late game & midrange decks win. Attack who will be a problem, not who currently has a board presence
I've been watching Saloubrius Snail and Trinket Mage lately and they both have videos on this topic as well. I am an aggro enjoyer myself but I want to make my decks more cohesive and consistent at doing the aggro thing. one thing that's new for me but I can certainly agree with is the leaving opponent at 15-ish life, which is just below half of the life but makes your opponents think twice before paying life or tap out
This is by far my fav archetype in Commander. I love how you can mix those microtypes to offset the problems caused by 4 players with high life totals. Great breakdown, Prof & team!
I'm notorious among my play group as someone who will always be playing to end the game, but not in a combo way. I literally have every flavor of aggro...including burn! My Velomachus Lorehold deck features 33 Dragon's Approach.
I want to being up another important asset in aggro commander: Goad and forced combat. These are not only defensive tools to reduce the amount of attacks aimed towards you, they also eliminate blockers and can be an excellent source of damage or even removal. Goad allows you to turn the disadvantage of three opponents into a resource: three additional boards of powerful cards to start shredding that 120 life with. Another tip: having at least one great blocker like a big flyer can actually be a good source of damage in commander. people who need attack or combat damage triggers will point their attacks at the easiest prey, resulting in free damage for you as those attacks are pointed elsewhere.
I love these so much. its important for people to understand that this helps people build better decks. more refined decks. doesnt mean i want the cEDH vibe but i like when a pile of cardboard has some cohesion as apposed to just "good stuff"
Great video. I used to focus pretty much on building with my favorite cards, but I realized a while back that the best way to keep games short, and to win them, is to focus on what wins games, not on what your favorite cards are. Damage wins games. So now, the majority of my favorite decks are aggro. Current Aggro decks: Rin and Seri, Inseparable (Cat Tribal) Kodama of the West Tree (+1/+1 Counters) Omnath, Locus of Creation (Landfall)
Absolutely stoked about the Shuffle Up And Play season finale! Sam and Spice and irresistible together, plus with Kenji thrown into the mix, it promises to be exhilarating. Pretty much my dream cast for the finale.
Thank you for this video, Prof. This is easily the most difficult archetype to apply to the format. Sometimes you have to be content with only ending one player with aggro. Don't forget to let your opponents "help" you aggro out the table, that's what they're there for. Lastly, worth noting, it's *very* easy to apply to 1v1 Commander and 3-player commander, even with high life totals.
nah it's Slicer or bust. Ideally you play the funny robot on turn one and then by the time you pass around you've probably done 21 of the requisite 63 commander damage to win. Then you add any kind of equipment and people are dying on turn 2 if they don't do something. The problem is that you have to play with a transformer so i understand why you would be hesitant.
Darn it someone beat me to the punch But hey why stop at just burning your opponents alive slap a grafted exoskeleton onto imodane and launch burning acid at them (grafted exoskeleton allows imodane to give opponents poison counters instead of dealing damage)
I kinda want to leave a comment also about how I got into Magic... I got my s*** kicked in... I never got to play with more than one person and they had a major financial advantage over me, I played with them for almost a year every Friday... Closses Hammer is like PTSD for me, but now I see my commander decks are all about hating out one player... my mentality is "if I can't get all of you, I will get one of you." ... am I someone who's even welcome to a Commander game...?
In my experience the best aggro strategy has insane ramp to get to big or many spelly as early as turn 5. So you can spend 20-30 Mana in 1 turn and finish it as early as possible. I have Raggadragga as my most aggressive deck and a friend plays lucea magus kane, which can double and tripple x spell hydras with haste and trample/flying, so you get 40+ dmg pointed at you fairly early. Same strategy with Raggadragga. Ramp each turn, get a tap for power creature, pump it up, untap it, do it again until you have a 40/40 trample (if it works well even 3) and just finish it on your first big turn. Kill everyone at once :D
I love Marisi, Breaker of the Coil, because it just forces everyone else to play aggro while you play a kind of aggro/control/thing. It gets games moving quickly while not making anyone feel bad because they sat doing nothing all night waiting for everyone else to finish
I put ball lightning in my Koll, the forgemaster deck. Equip ball lightning, attack, when it dies or you sacrifice it, goes back into your hand instead!
Much appreciate this! Gave me a lot to consider, especially regarding mana rocks… might need to cut or find more mana bursts ways (aka Mana Geyser) for that explosive turn
I've build and piloted many aggro archetype decks with great success in my time but in my experience a too fast start can be counter productive because all eyes will be on you, no matter how the boardstate changes. At least in my experience starting with mana rocks and other ramp and preparing for an escalation starting turn around turn 3 or 4 has been the most successful approach for me in go wide punisher and beatdown. Since this kind of contradicts the guide I am curious about the experiences of you guys. I've been playing on mid to high power level for about 2 years and maybe more experienced players disagree or it's more of a playgroup thing.
My favorite aggro deck of all time for commander was probably my mono-green Ghalta, Primal Hunger Deck. Built around a ramp/elf-ball shell, with cards like overrun/craterhoof to buff board and smack down all 3 opponents at once with either commander damage or just so many elves.
We need a compilation video of all the different intellectual properties in magic the gathering. That'll be a fun video to watch and to see how far the reach of the game actually is.
One of my favorite commander decks is Neheb the Eternal. It goes from early game punisher to late game beatdown, with the commander greasing the wheels between the two strategies
My favorite aggro style is wide + anthems. Whether it's an endless swarm of zombies and the lords who rule them, humans decks who have the indomitable human spirit (tm), or wild and raging goblins. They normally revolve around developing a strong board state, running a bunch of protection to keep it safe, and using effects like sleep, overrun, cosmotronic wave, bond of discipline, and dread charge.
before finishing the video, 3:00 the adjustment from 1v1 to 1v3 in Commander, and traditional beatdown aggro becoming harder to manage makes me think the answer is area of effect burn effects, passive burn effects for doing a thing, and a value engine that does the thing often. in short, my Caesar, Legion's Emperor Aristocrats Burn/aggro deck. you can swing or block with the tokens, but you always want to be sacrificing 1 to get 2 back and either draw a card or burn a specific opponent. Then pile a bunch of "if a creature ETBs or Dies, burn each opponent for N damage" type of effects. Blood Artist is a classic.
Play Hunted Horror and Serras Ascendant, they pack a massive punch. You can totally play aggro, as there are specific cards that really benefit from multiplayer rules. Burn them out with Price of Progress and the like.
I just started playing in January, I already have 8 commander decks, working on a 9th. My playgroup is only 3 people as of right now and both the person who taught me how to play and our third player have decided that our rule 0 is "target me always". We're a pretty casual group and I was the first person to start upgrading precons my first deck was Caverns of Ixalan Vampires and I added 'Sanguine Bond', 'Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose', and a couple tutors to the deck. You kill everybody with an instant-win combo a _couple_ of times and suddenly you're enemy number one for life, lol.
My favourite burn deck in my Piru, the volatile. Piru’s death triggers is a great way to cause a bunch of damage to every players board, including your own. Combining this and the bevy of damage based wrath’s in red you’ll be doing enough damage in the mid game to even take out some dinosaurs or eldrazi. The real pay off for you is that your creatures are into that, with all stars like barbed servitor, phyrexian vidicator, and brash taunter drinking in the firers burning them alive and turning it into a blow torch aimed at your friends face. With just enough synergy to squeeze in some combo drivers to help push for game like boros charm, Ill-tempered loaner, Judith carnage connoisseur and aetherflux reservoir, you have enough flexibility to build combos on the fly and in the face of removal. And when all else fails blackblade reforged and embercleave will turn your Piru the Volatile in to Piru the Violence.
As an aggro player in cEDH(Pako/Haldan) - It is important to keep your foot on the accelerator, even when it doesn't seem advantageous. My decks will have the ability to draw in and out of situations, but having a deck designed to attack, then not doing that means I am giving tempo to the other players and since my card advantage is tied to the attack, it gives me other advantages. Pako steals spells from the other players so it is removing threats from them, possibly giving them to me. The advantage I get from pressing life totals is greater than the possibility of losing Pako, or the clap-back I might receive from others attacking me while I am open. I start almost every turn Pako is on the board with "I'm going to move to combat." Getting to see 4 extra spells/lands from the attack can make a huge difference in the outcome of the combat, turn, and game.
After 5-color “these are my cards” deck, my next deck was control, where the wincon was to be safe and have my opponents deck themselves. Burn was a fun math game, especially with no creatures in the deck (harder than it needed to be) but aggro? Aggro was terrifying. It was reckless. It was why I took so long to build a decent green deck. That was regular magic. I came into commander building an infect deck (goldfished it today even) but slowly built my way back to more comfortable modes until I bought the precon that had Thantis, Warweaver. The card made me uncomfortable, however I knew that commander by itself could singlehandedly ruin most of my decks. So I decided to brew it to practice against and learn how to deal with forced combat. The deck turned out to actually be really fun to pilot as well as easy to build, as a lot of the perfect creatures were ones that didn’t fit into my combo/fort style decks and were just sitting unused in boxes or binders. More importantly I learned I was not the only one whose day could be ruined by forced combat as lots of combo decks relied on the commander not attacking into an obvious death trap. As prof said, even if you do not think aggro is for you, just as it was true for control decks, it is good to know your enemy.
I run a tymna/ vial smasher deck built around shadow creatures and big X spells. Lots of effects to proc off damage (such as making treasure) to bank value for late game. Love bringing it out at pretty much any table, insane seeing a bunch of dinky one- two drops take down insane decks. After aggro peters out its play vial smasher and sneak in damage to draw cards. Makes games a ton faster in general
My favorite version of aggro is, weirdly enough, a tempo/aggro spellslinger hybrid helmed by Kess, Dissident Mage. Basically, build up enough mana to drop one or two small pingers on the battlefield, then bust out either a chain of draw spells or removal to suddenly tank everyone's life totals while keeping your hand full. This way, you can be political and time exactly when to change your unimpressive board state into full-blown aggro. Running Exquisite Blood can make your life total explode, and putting in damage modulators like Solphim, Mayhem Dominus and Fiery Emancipation will nearly guarantee a victory. If you want, be cheeky and run Bolas' Citadel and wheel effects to outpace everyone else with your instant speed burn.
One of my favorite aggro commanders is Chiss-Ghoria. Nothing beats a beefy artifact dragon thats equiped with a ton of equipment that one shots turn 3.
I find combining Pillowfort and Aggro is a wonderful combo in Commander. It keeps people off of you but allows you to dish out dmg when you can. Instead of just wielding a giant two handed axe, you wield a very sharp, very long sword and a MIGHTY bulwark of a shield. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend running Strixhaven Stadium or other means of exponentially lethalizing your aggro strategy to be viable for Commander. Whether that's infect or something really fun like Starlight Spectacular (which can turn 10 1/1s that would ordinarily just deal 10 dmg altogether into 55 dmg. So...if you have any amount of other buffs, double strike, lifelink, or other combat modifiers then it can instantly take your small army into a lethal horde. On top of that, if you combine it all correctly, then you COULD take out multiple opponents at once. Consider the combination of Strixhaven Stadium and Starlight Spectacular PLUS some sort of Enchantment or Equipment that makes the targeted Creature card gain power based on the amount of creature's you control. Well then great, theoretically you could be taking out all 3 players at once: a super buffed up Commander creature that can either 1 shot someone with commander dmg or otherwise get there within a couple turns, Strixhaven stadium's effect allowing you to hit someone with only ONE perhaps measly creature but making that player lose the game due to the Counters accrued by your other attackers, and then of course, Starlight Spectacular exponentially increasing the dmg of your attacks such that it is now guaranteed lethal. Adding in deck tech like that will make an Aggro creature win con into far more reliable and versatile of a win con.
I love Unruly Catapult and Spear Spewer Tough enough to block and ping everyone for 1 every round. Unruly Catapult even untaps after every instant/sorcery. Nothing like tapping at end step, untap at upkeep, tap, Bolt. Then when someone targets it with a spell, tap it, counterspell(if you got it) It also forces a player to use a spell out of frustration.
video ideas: shuffle up and play opposite color/villian colors (golgari vs naya, like opposites of what they do i think) older precons vs newer precons duel decks vs jumpstart/whatever decks thematic cosplay with mtg was really cool and our friend group still talks about the terefi/chandra game
Imodane the Pyrohammer makes all of your Commander burn dreams come true. Yes, she's a 'one trick pony' but when your one trick is turning 40 damage into 120, that's one very, very good trick. Combo that with all of the ways to double damage and make damage uncounterable, and I feel like burn is a viable deck. Stuffy Doll is a really fun addition to the 99 of that deck, as nothing about Imodane's trigger requires it to be an enemy creature.
I’ve got a Najeela deck with SO MANY tapped lands, but the group I played with recently didn’t respect Najeela. Managed to activate her a single time naturally and took out the two other players handily. The lifelink helped as I was down to 15 life.
I really enjoyed our conversation your teaching videos and I have a request/suggestion I think it would be really great to make a video about format translation like if you really love a modern deck you have then how should you go about converting it to commander or vice versa or any of the other formats
My Zurgo Helmsmasher Mardu deck combines excessive token generation and burn spells as a secondary win con. That way I have the option of burning one opponent, while going wide against another, or if one win con gets shut down, I can rely more heavily on the other.
When I build aggro decks like boros or vampires, I make sure to have this: Evasion(trample, flying, menace, unblockable, horsemanship etc, etc) damage multiplier (double, triple damage, extra combats, double the power, double strike etc etc) Protection (mass phasing out, indestructible, exile and come back, protection from colors, prevent damage and so on) The it's the usual package of a little ramp, card draw or value, and the creatures or spells needed to end the game. If I go aggro I usually take out sweepers and don't have too much removal as I want to be the problem, and keep being the problem. There's no need to take a part of the aggro out and devalue the aggro factor. Either it's BONK or it's not bonk. This is facts. As long as you can keep pressing damage through sweepers and spot removal you'll be good. As for removal look for those that can take out any permanent or choose multiple types of permanents. Being aggro you don't want to see Propaganda or other enchantments that hinder your attacks in any way. Opposing creatures are seldom the problem for us aggro people with a few exceptions. Also always try to have some extra way if damage source. For example boros tokens, add anything that pings your opponents for damage when a creature enters your table. Stuff that adds extra damage when you cast a spell. Keep swinging and pinging!
Okay, posting a comment before I watch the video so I can come back after watching to see if he talks about anything like what I do: I *love* me some aggro in Commander, and probably my best deck for it is Winota. Routinely wins on turn 4-5 via pure combat (no infinite combos or anything). I also just built a Jodah deck that is similar but a little slower - looks to be turn 5-7 wins. And I have an Animar deck that is similar as well. All of these depend on some way to 'cheat' out creatures fast and have ways to give trample and / or haste so that opponents are less likely to have a chance to board wipe to save themselves.
I built my partner a Wilson/Guild Artisan deck that has consistently won a lot of games just by swinging with a 2/2 trampler that makes treasures, ramping and getting bigger with moldervine cloak and ferocification etc.
I'm sure I'll learn something from this but before I watch I am already my groups aggro player or as they call me "the problem" so I'm looking forward to seeing more ways to make gishath terrifying.
Be sure to also watch "How To Control In Commander" our previous Magic guide: ua-cam.com/video/rpVfOC6gJ3M/v-deo.html
How To Build Every Commander Mana Base | The Definitive Guide: ua-cam.com/video/s9C7JdSRZGc/v-deo.html
Recently built a mono red burn deck
was actually quite effective,got first place last Friday out of 4 ppl and then managed to get 2nd
...Well between those games on my 2nd one got taken out first 😅GG Lily
@TolarianProfessor, Professor with all due respect; The more I try to aggro, in the end they all go after me so I'M the one that dies first. Happens every time whether I try to seek the weakest player or play cards that affect all my opponents!
Step 1: Reveal Tergrid as your commander
Step 2: Watch as all your opponents become AGGRO towards you.
Ah yes, the "Reverse Aggro" strategy.
Step 1: Reveal Hakbal as your commander
Step 2: Watch as all your opponents kill him on sight.
Sums up my Tergrid experience....yet I still play her when I get the chance.
Step 1: Reveal First Sliver.
Step 2: Duck as something is thrown at your head.
Big recommend for red players: Mob Rule. It's a great game finisher. Also I recommend a lot of evasion. Virtually every vehicle in my Depala deck includes either Trample or Flying. The damage does not stop. You're never left feeling like you have a bad attack.
I love that card
Similarily to Mob Rule goad also makes use of your opponents creatures forcing other players to attack with their big beaters, which will remove blockers and add to the damage on other players, instead of those players just holding back their 5/5 to block.
More specifically: Vengeful Ancestor. 4 mana 4/4 flying dragon. When he ETBs or attacks, goad a creature.
Also cool as a finisher: "Spectacular Showdown" - Overload for 7 mana. Goad all creatures and put a double strike counter on them. (regular single target version costs 2 mana and you can still use it just for the double strike on your own guy or put it on an oppoents scary big dragon and they'll attack another player with a 6/6 doubler strike for you. ❤)
Just don't overdo it with goad because once all but one opponent is gone, goad doesn't really do much anymore.
Solid advise about keeping that damage train rolling. Evasion of some kind and Trample for the win.
An aggro red killer/finisher that I like actually doesn't use attack damage. Burn at the Stake requires you to tap creatures to deal 3x damage for every tap. Your wide boards basically kills without worrying about blockers
The secret to EDH aggro is one keyword: Vigilance. Your creatures are quadrupled in value, attacking on your turn and blocking the other three.
Been really enjoying this series, noticed a lot of my decks end up being combo or midrange, so this should help me make more another archetype
Thanks for teaching me how to destroy my friends prof!!
And also beat them at Magic!
Out of context, just saying, that sounded dirty
The Tolarian Tutor series is how I found your channel originally. Even if commander isn't my preferred format, seeing these thumbnails pop up again makes me happy. Thanks for doing these.
"Build a Voja deck." Gotcha, lesson understood. Thanks, Prof!
That card is so grossly overcorrected to fix the game - as is something like the LotR 5 MV Eowyn, honestly - that they become terrors even when they aren't on the field.
I would much rather have Eowyn as a UWR 3/2 that only made *one* knight, even if she came out earlier. Also, she would be more on-theme to the character. For Voja, there's plenty of ways to scale it back that WotC didn't even bother trying to do; the creature type 'wolf' is literally the only limiter on that card.
I did the pre-release for Markov Manor and that was the extra card. It is pretty strong.
Remember, mono red is the best color for control. Nobody can controls you if the table is on fire
No wonder there's all this [[Smoke]]
yep, nothing like setting up multiple chandra emblems to see players taking 4 damage per turn while you continue doing your own thing
@@sparkleseverywhereAnd then giving yourself the other Chandra emblem that lets you send 5 damage wherever you want when you cast a spell
"The number of players on the table doesn't matter if you have infinite goblins"
~Krenko, roughly paraphrased
@@sparkleseverywhere Aaand that's why I use Sheoldred Apocalypse
I've been doing a lot of research into Aggro lately. Here's some tips I've learned:
▪︎ Running minor Stax effects can be really useful. If you're smart about it, a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or Blood Moon can really help you keep up, by delaying dangerous midrange decks. It essentially makes the early game longer, and early game is where you shine best
▪︎ Using something like Nevermore targeting Farewell can be really good for protection.
▪︎ Sometimes it's better to leave an opponent at 15-ish life instead of killing them. You won't get as much hate as you would for knocking someone out of the game early, and it still puts a lot of pressure on them, making all the "pay life for good things" cards go from free to incredibly dangerous
▪︎ Target prioritization is very important. You burn out late game, so it's a good idea to take someone out who's good then. If there's other aggro decks, team up with them. Fighting each other is only gonna help the late game & midrange decks win. Attack who will be a problem, not who currently has a board presence
that only works if you're playing white thought....
I've been watching Saloubrius Snail and Trinket Mage lately and they both have videos on this topic as well. I am an aggro enjoyer myself but I want to make my decks more cohesive and consistent at doing the aggro thing.
one thing that's new for me but I can certainly agree with is the leaving opponent at 15-ish life, which is just below half of the life but makes your opponents think twice before paying life or tap out
Best part of this video: No ads! Thanks professor!
Aggro is a what spawned the phrase "Math is for blockers".
Hopefully your Behind the Campus video will also spawn a phrase!
This is by far my fav archetype in Commander. I love how you can mix those microtypes to offset the problems caused by 4 players with high life totals. Great breakdown, Prof & team!
I'm notorious among my play group as someone who will always be playing to end the game, but not in a combo way. I literally have every flavor of aggro...including burn! My Velomachus Lorehold deck features 33 Dragon's Approach.
Can I just say, how good is the audio of your videos, prof!? It's great! Perfect levels, nicely mixed, excellent fades in and out, beautiful cuts.
I want to being up another important asset in aggro commander: Goad and forced combat. These are not only defensive tools to reduce the amount of attacks aimed towards you, they also eliminate blockers and can be an excellent source of damage or even removal. Goad allows you to turn the disadvantage of three opponents into a resource: three additional boards of powerful cards to start shredding that 120 life with.
Another tip: having at least one great blocker like a big flyer can actually be a good source of damage in commander. people who need attack or combat damage triggers will point their attacks at the easiest prey, resulting in free damage for you as those attacks are pointed elsewhere.
I love these so much. its important for people to understand that this helps people build better decks. more refined decks. doesnt mean i want the cEDH vibe but i like when a pile of cardboard has some cohesion as apposed to just "good stuff"
Great video. I used to focus pretty much on building with my favorite cards, but I realized a while back that the best way to keep games short, and to win them, is to focus on what wins games, not on what your favorite cards are. Damage wins games. So now, the majority of my favorite decks are aggro.
Current Aggro decks:
Rin and Seri, Inseparable (Cat Tribal)
Kodama of the West Tree (+1/+1 Counters)
Omnath, Locus of Creation (Landfall)
Gruul throw rock
Rock good
GRUUL SMASH!
Or Roxanne, Starfall Savant. Gruul make rock appear from space
Gruul throw Roxanne
“It was a big rock!”
I Love the Aggro Go Wide/Beatdown with Goreclaw, such a powerful deck
My Academic arrived today. I'm really happy with it 🥰
I had control and combo well figured out but all I knew about aggro was protect Slicer. Thanks Prof.
Absolutely stoked about the Shuffle Up And Play season finale! Sam and Spice and irresistible together, plus with Kenji thrown into the mix, it promises to be exhilarating. Pretty much my dream cast for the finale.
Thank you for this video, Prof. This is easily the most difficult archetype to apply to the format. Sometimes you have to be content with only ending one player with aggro. Don't forget to let your opponents "help" you aggro out the table, that's what they're there for. Lastly, worth noting, it's *very* easy to apply to 1v1 Commander and 3-player commander, even with high life totals.
If you want to play mono red aggro in commander, just run Imodane. She’ll make things a lot easier.
play godo helm, claim its still aggro cause big man go face often 😎
Or Purphoros, and go as wide as possible while taking advantage of punisher effects.
@@ich3730 Godo is not aggro. That is combo.
nah it's Slicer or bust. Ideally you play the funny robot on turn one and then by the time you pass around you've probably done 21 of the requisite 63 commander damage to win. Then you add any kind of equipment and people are dying on turn 2 if they don't do something.
The problem is that you have to play with a transformer so i understand why you would be hesitant.
Darn it someone beat me to the punch
But hey why stop at just burning your opponents alive slap a grafted exoskeleton onto imodane and launch burning acid at them (grafted exoskeleton allows imodane to give opponents poison counters instead of dealing damage)
I know the answer already but I honestly just like hearing your voice.
Watching through every bit of TCC was what best taught me Magic. Thank you Prof for helping so many of us into the community ❤
I got into Magic with Esper... then I Discovered I am Jund at heart, I really think I'll learn something new with this video! I am exited!
I kinda want to leave a comment also about how I got into Magic... I got my s*** kicked in... I never got to play with more than one person and they had a major financial advantage over me, I played with them for almost a year every Friday... Closses Hammer is like PTSD for me, but now I see my commander decks are all about hating out one player... my mentality is "if I can't get all of you, I will get one of you." ... am I someone who's even welcome to a Commander game...?
That's my favorite suit I've seen of yours yet. Very sharp
Thanks for the vid i finally know what the architype i like is "Beatdown" that said i do often get alot of flack for targeting one player .
Ah ! My favorite archetype. Thank you !
So glad to hear someone finally pronounce Voja correctly. Thanks Prof!
In my experience the best aggro strategy has insane ramp to get to big or many spelly as early as turn 5. So you can spend 20-30 Mana in 1 turn and finish it as early as possible. I have Raggadragga as my most aggressive deck and a friend plays lucea magus kane, which can double and tripple x spell hydras with haste and trample/flying, so you get 40+ dmg pointed at you fairly early. Same strategy with Raggadragga. Ramp each turn, get a tap for power creature, pump it up, untap it, do it again until you have a 40/40 trample (if it works well even 3) and just finish it on your first big turn. Kill everyone at once :D
Fellow Raggachad spotted. Don't forget Buyback combos with Wurmcalling and Fanning the Flames. Or that any 7+ drop makes Inkmoth Nexus lethal.
I love Marisi, Breaker of the Coil, because it just forces everyone else to play aggro while you play a kind of aggro/control/thing. It gets games moving quickly while not making anyone feel bad because they sat doing nothing all night waiting for everyone else to finish
You know what they say, those who can’t do, teach! Thanks prof!!
As a Zo-Zu player I love the amount of spotlight given to this card in this video.
Really trying to build an aggro deck as my first solo construction, so this is a big help
Thank you for helping me rethink my mana base in my aggro decks
I’ve been trying to build a ball lightning commander deck, so thanks prof for the tips!
I put ball lightning in my Koll, the forgemaster deck. Equip ball lightning, attack, when it dies or you sacrifice it, goes back into your hand instead!
Much appreciate this! Gave me a lot to consider, especially regarding mana rocks… might need to cut or find more mana bursts ways (aka Mana Geyser) for that explosive turn
I've build and piloted many aggro archetype decks with great success in my time but in my experience a too fast start can be counter productive because all eyes will be on you, no matter how the boardstate changes. At least in my experience starting with mana rocks and other ramp and preparing for an escalation starting turn around turn 3 or 4 has been the most successful approach for me in go wide punisher and beatdown.
Since this kind of contradicts the guide I am curious about the experiences of you guys. I've been playing on mid to high power level for about 2 years and maybe more experienced players disagree or it's more of a playgroup thing.
Professor: “Here is how you play aggro in commander.”
*Lists a bunch of critical mass combo decks*
They don’t call it combo-mander for no reason
Just picked up my prof’s deckbox. Have to say I’m really impressed
My favorite aggro deck of all time for commander was probably my mono-green Ghalta, Primal Hunger Deck. Built around a ramp/elf-ball shell, with cards like overrun/craterhoof to buff board and smack down all 3 opponents at once with either commander damage or just so many elves.
I said I liked this series so here I am, watching the next addition. Thanks prof!
We need a compilation video of all the different intellectual properties in magic the gathering. That'll be a fun video to watch and to see how far the reach of the game actually is.
One of my favorite commander decks is Neheb the Eternal. It goes from early game punisher to late game beatdown, with the commander greasing the wheels between the two strategies
My favorite aggro style is wide + anthems. Whether it's an endless swarm of zombies and the lords who rule them, humans decks who have the indomitable human spirit (tm), or wild and raging goblins. They normally revolve around developing a strong board state, running a bunch of protection to keep it safe, and using effects like sleep, overrun, cosmotronic wave, bond of discipline, and dread charge.
Currently in the process of building a Raphael Aggro deck, this is really helpful. Thank you
Love the intro animation and theme song! The end theme is retro cool too. Very Saved by the Bell era fun.
I appreciate prof saying Nervous System like it's some kind of enchantment that's popular in the meta
before finishing the video, 3:00 the adjustment from 1v1 to 1v3 in Commander, and traditional beatdown aggro becoming harder to manage makes me think the answer is area of effect burn effects, passive burn effects for doing a thing, and a value engine that does the thing often.
in short, my Caesar, Legion's Emperor Aristocrats Burn/aggro deck. you can swing or block with the tokens, but you always want to be sacrificing 1 to get 2 back and either draw a card or burn a specific opponent.
Then pile a bunch of "if a creature ETBs or Dies, burn each opponent for N damage" type of effects. Blood Artist is a classic.
Play Hunted Horror and Serras Ascendant, they pack a massive punch.
You can totally play aggro, as there are specific cards that really benefit from multiplayer rules.
Burn them out with Price of Progress and the like.
This video is fun and I love how flat prof says the transitions
I just started playing in January, I already have 8 commander decks, working on a 9th. My playgroup is only 3 people as of right now and both the person who taught me how to play and our third player have decided that our rule 0 is "target me always". We're a pretty casual group and I was the first person to start upgrading precons my first deck was Caverns of Ixalan Vampires and I added 'Sanguine Bond', 'Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose', and a couple tutors to the deck.
You kill everybody with an instant-win combo a _couple_ of times and suddenly you're enemy number one for life, lol.
My favourite burn deck in my Piru, the volatile. Piru’s death triggers is a great way to cause a bunch of damage to every players board, including your own. Combining this and the bevy of damage based wrath’s in red you’ll be doing enough damage in the mid game to even take out some dinosaurs or eldrazi. The real pay off for you is that your creatures are into that, with all stars like barbed servitor, phyrexian vidicator, and brash taunter drinking in the firers burning them alive and turning it into a blow torch aimed at your friends face.
With just enough synergy to squeeze in some combo drivers to help push for game like boros charm, Ill-tempered loaner, Judith carnage connoisseur and aetherflux reservoir, you have enough flexibility to build combos on the fly and in the face of removal. And when all else fails blackblade reforged and embercleave will turn your Piru the Volatile in to Piru the Violence.
As an aggro player in cEDH(Pako/Haldan) - It is important to keep your foot on the accelerator, even when it doesn't seem advantageous. My decks will have the ability to draw in and out of situations, but having a deck designed to attack, then not doing that means I am giving tempo to the other players and since my card advantage is tied to the attack, it gives me other advantages. Pako steals spells from the other players so it is removing threats from them, possibly giving them to me. The advantage I get from pressing life totals is greater than the possibility of losing Pako, or the clap-back I might receive from others attacking me while I am open. I start almost every turn Pako is on the board with "I'm going to move to combat." Getting to see 4 extra spells/lands from the attack can make a huge difference in the outcome of the combat, turn, and game.
Lumbering Satyr has won me many a game in my Gallia Satyr deck. Thanks Yavimaya!
Iroas, God of Victory, and Dolmen Gate are 2 of my favorite cards for aggro decks in commander
After 5-color “these are my cards” deck, my next deck was control, where the wincon was to be safe and have my opponents deck themselves. Burn was a fun math game, especially with no creatures in the deck (harder than it needed to be) but aggro? Aggro was terrifying. It was reckless. It was why I took so long to build a decent green deck.
That was regular magic. I came into commander building an infect deck (goldfished it today even) but slowly built my way back to more comfortable modes until I bought the precon that had Thantis, Warweaver. The card made me uncomfortable, however I knew that commander by itself could singlehandedly ruin most of my decks.
So I decided to brew it to practice against and learn how to deal with forced combat. The deck turned out to actually be really fun to pilot as well as easy to build, as a lot of the perfect creatures were ones that didn’t fit into my combo/fort style decks and were just sitting unused in boxes or binders.
More importantly I learned I was not the only one whose day could be ruined by forced combat as lots of combo decks relied on the commander not attacking into an obvious death trap.
As prof said, even if you do not think aggro is for you, just as it was true for control decks, it is good to know your enemy.
this video pointed out some things i was doing wrong with my budget Isshin go wide deck, i hope i can pilot it better now
I love my Tobran, Thane of Redfell deck. It helps prevent games that go longer than an hour.
I run a tymna/ vial smasher deck built around shadow creatures and big X spells. Lots of effects to proc off damage (such as making treasure) to bank value for late game. Love bringing it out at pretty much any table, insane seeing a bunch of dinky one- two drops take down insane decks. After aggro peters out its play vial smasher and sneak in damage to draw cards. Makes games a ton faster in general
Please keep this series going! Tolarian Tutor needs to stay!
I haven’t played Magic in ages, but I love playing aggro.
I actually took an aggressive deck between two decks me and my stepdad got from our LGS. I took dragons, and it is fun. For me.
My favorite version of aggro is, weirdly enough, a tempo/aggro spellslinger hybrid helmed by Kess, Dissident Mage. Basically, build up enough mana to drop one or two small pingers on the battlefield, then bust out either a chain of draw spells or removal to suddenly tank everyone's life totals while keeping your hand full. This way, you can be political and time exactly when to change your unimpressive board state into full-blown aggro. Running Exquisite Blood can make your life total explode, and putting in damage modulators like Solphim, Mayhem Dominus and Fiery Emancipation will nearly guarantee a victory. If you want, be cheeky and run Bolas' Citadel and wheel effects to outpace everyone else with your instant speed burn.
I’ve actually really been wanting a video like this. Aggro always seems fun yet impractical so I needed this
Still loving these so I’m gonna comment. Keep em coming please
I found that new mono red commanders and cards make traditional burn viable again. A solphim into a crackle with power is super lethal to opponents.
Loving the Tolarian Tutor episodes, Prof!
great to see these videos back! love the tutors
Love to see more lessons on how to actually play with my mono red deck, I mean aggro deck
Thanks Prof! This video makes me want to build a Lathril deck 😊
One of my favorite aggro commanders is Chiss-Ghoria. Nothing beats a beefy artifact dragon thats equiped with a ton of equipment that one shots turn 3.
I also feel like this is the best archetype for the "I don't care if I win as long as I got to do the thing" personality.
love these guides, thanks team & Prof. looking very sharp!
dang, just saw that the prof will be hitting a million subs soon. What a journey.
I find combining Pillowfort and Aggro is a wonderful combo in Commander. It keeps people off of you but allows you to dish out dmg when you can. Instead of just wielding a giant two handed axe, you wield a very sharp, very long sword and a MIGHTY bulwark of a shield. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend running Strixhaven Stadium or other means of exponentially lethalizing your aggro strategy to be viable for Commander. Whether that's infect or something really fun like Starlight Spectacular (which can turn 10 1/1s that would ordinarily just deal 10 dmg altogether into 55 dmg. So...if you have any amount of other buffs, double strike, lifelink, or other combat modifiers then it can instantly take your small army into a lethal horde. On top of that, if you combine it all correctly, then you COULD take out multiple opponents at once. Consider the combination of Strixhaven Stadium and Starlight Spectacular PLUS some sort of Enchantment or Equipment that makes the targeted Creature card gain power based on the amount of creature's you control. Well then great, theoretically you could be taking out all 3 players at once: a super buffed up Commander creature that can either 1 shot someone with commander dmg or otherwise get there within a couple turns, Strixhaven stadium's effect allowing you to hit someone with only ONE perhaps measly creature but making that player lose the game due to the Counters accrued by your other attackers, and then of course, Starlight Spectacular exponentially increasing the dmg of your attacks such that it is now guaranteed lethal. Adding in deck tech like that will make an Aggro creature win con into far more reliable and versatile of a win con.
I love Unruly Catapult and Spear Spewer
Tough enough to block and ping everyone for 1 every round.
Unruly Catapult even untaps after every instant/sorcery.
Nothing like tapping at end step, untap at upkeep, tap, Bolt. Then when someone targets it with a spell, tap it, counterspell(if you got it)
It also forces a player to use a spell out of frustration.
video ideas:
shuffle up and play opposite color/villian colors (golgari vs naya, like opposites of what they do i think)
older precons vs newer precons
duel decks vs jumpstart/whatever decks
thematic cosplay with mtg was really cool and our friend group still talks about the terefi/chandra game
I can’t wait to over aggro‼️😎
Taking notes for my Rakdos deck
Imodane the Pyrohammer makes all of your Commander burn dreams come true. Yes, she's a 'one trick pony' but when your one trick is turning 40 damage into 120, that's one very, very good trick. Combo that with all of the ways to double damage and make damage uncounterable, and I feel like burn is a viable deck. Stuffy Doll is a really fun addition to the 99 of that deck, as nothing about Imodane's trigger requires it to be an enemy creature.
Najeela , the Blade Blossom is my favorite Aggro commander.
I’ve got a Najeela deck with SO MANY tapped lands, but the group I played with recently didn’t respect Najeela. Managed to activate her a single time naturally and took out the two other players handily. The lifelink helped as I was down to 15 life.
@@andrewlaverghetta715 I don't really play Cedh but when I do I pull this chick out.
@@andrewlaverghetta715 For me Najeela is kill on sight.
I really enjoyed our conversation your teaching videos and I have a request/suggestion
I think it would be really great to make a video about format translation
like if you really love a modern deck you have then how should you go about converting it to commander or vice versa or any of the other formats
Let's cut to the chase and go for the face!
Are we going to see how to play combo in edh? I've been enjoying this series so want to see the final main archetype
My Zurgo Helmsmasher Mardu deck combines excessive token generation and burn spells as a secondary win con. That way I have the option of burning one opponent, while going wide against another, or if one win con gets shut down, I can rely more heavily on the other.
love my aggro Adeline Resplendent Cathar deck. My playgroup fears it, but with respect ^^ and that feels good. Mono white aggro ftw :)
When I build aggro decks like boros or vampires, I make sure to have this:
Evasion(trample, flying, menace, unblockable, horsemanship etc, etc)
damage multiplier (double, triple damage, extra combats, double the power, double strike etc etc)
Protection (mass phasing out, indestructible, exile and come back, protection from colors, prevent damage and so on)
The it's the usual package of a little ramp, card draw or value, and the creatures or spells needed to end the game. If I go aggro I usually take out sweepers and don't have too much removal as I want to be the problem, and keep being the problem. There's no need to take a part of the aggro out and devalue the aggro factor. Either it's BONK or it's not bonk. This is facts. As long as you can keep pressing damage through sweepers and spot removal you'll be good.
As for removal look for those that can take out any permanent or choose multiple types of permanents. Being aggro you don't want to see Propaganda or other enchantments that hinder your attacks in any way. Opposing creatures are seldom the problem for us aggro people with a few exceptions.
Also always try to have some extra way if damage source. For example boros tokens, add anything that pings your opponents for damage when a creature enters your table. Stuff that adds extra damage when you cast a spell.
Keep swinging and pinging!
I like the fine print "in commander" on the thumbnail lol.
Okay, posting a comment before I watch the video so I can come back after watching to see if he talks about anything like what I do: I *love* me some aggro in Commander, and probably my best deck for it is Winota. Routinely wins on turn 4-5 via pure combat (no infinite combos or anything). I also just built a Jodah deck that is similar but a little slower - looks to be turn 5-7 wins. And I have an Animar deck that is similar as well. All of these depend on some way to 'cheat' out creatures fast and have ways to give trample and / or haste so that opponents are less likely to have a chance to board wipe to save themselves.
Oh crap, I was thinking too narrow... holy cow, his 5 subtypes of aggro just described like half of my 30 commander decks! 😂
I built my partner a Wilson/Guild Artisan deck that has consistently won a lot of games just by swinging with a 2/2 trampler that makes treasures, ramping and getting bigger with moldervine cloak and ferocification etc.
I really like this series.
Thanks Prof, I needed a reminder why I have a few aggro-esque decks. Also, SASKIA.
Is putting Ad Nauseum on the stack turn 1 aggro?
I'm sure I'll learn something from this but before I watch I am already my groups aggro player or as they call me "the problem" so I'm looking forward to seeing more ways to make gishath terrifying.
My rog and slurrk deck committed to board every turn, had draw that complimented burn and grew my attackers. Remove what you can't run over
I'm enjoying these videos! Very fun and helpful. I hope there's an episode on How To Play Jank 😜