Commander Meta Analysis Guide

[Morganator 2.0]

I think you're right. I went back and looked at the decks I had that faced off against Superfriends.

Captain Sisay, Edric, Spymaster of Trest:

These decks were the first time I went against Atraxa Superfriends. I had heard that the deck was powerful (enough that one person said he wanted Atraxa banned), and the person I was about to face off against said that it was one of the most powerful decks in EDH.

Naturally I was excited. Everyone else also used what they considered to be their most powerful decks. So I used Sisay first... and wiped the floor with them. The game wasn't even close. I figured that Sisay was too fast for them, so I switched down to Edric. Again, too fast. I felt a little bad about this, but at the same time, if you claim to be using one of the most powerful decks, I expect you to live up to it.

Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis:

At a later date I got to go up against the same Atraxa deck. K&T was my weak combo deck, so I figured it would be a fair match. I did eventually combo off and win, but I got to see more of the deck this time. It does seem like it takes time to set up, and could get crazy powerful if left unchecked. But isn't this true of all decks?

Krenko, Mob Boss:

This was against Aminatou Superfriends, and the person piloting it also claimed it was a broken deck. I was skeptical this time so I used a weaker deck. But by the time they could play a Planeswalker, I was getting my goblin tokens out. So it wasn't too hard to just attack the Planeswalkers (mostly Aminatou) to keep the deck down.

The Scarab God:

First time I lost to Superfriends. I didn't have any enchantment removal, and neither did the other two green players (one of them even said that he doesn't use enchantment removal). Because the Doubling Season stuck around, it was really easy for the player to cast a Planeswalker and ultimate right away. But this was a slow game.

[Aetherium Slinky]

I stand corrected.

[Judaspriester]

Hour of Devastation works for each (non-bolas) Planeswalker. Many Spells that hit players got a new wording that says "player or planeswalker". And if you're playing black, The Elderspell is always an option against planeswalkers, even if you can't make use of the second part of the card because you've got no planeswalker yourself.

CRift, O-Ring etc aren't always a bad idea. They are only a bad idea if one of two criterias are met:
1. you play the card in that players turn
2. the planeswalker would enter the battlefield with higher loyalty than he has at the moment he's leaving.

Resetting a planeswalker that is able to ult in that players next turn may be worth resetting, if you got no other options to prevent this.

[Red_Wyrm]

Hour of Devastation works for each (non-bolas) Planeswalker.

Adding to this point, the popular atraxa superfriends is sans red, so there are no bolas plansewalkers in that deck except fringe blatant thievery type cases. This makes Hour of Devastation an anger of the gods against that deck, but doesn't exile.  One thing that pushes it over the top, I think, in slower/longer games is primevals glorious rebirth because a one sided Living End is overpowered. Personally this card is the reason I hate the rules change to make walkers legendary.

[Judaspriester]

Hour of Devastation works for each (non-bolas) Planeswalker.

Adding to this point, the popular atraxa superfriends is sans red, so there are no bolas plansewalkers in that deck except fringe blatant thievery type cases. This makes Hour of Devastation an anger of the gods against that deck, but doesn't exile.  One thing that pushes it over the top, I think, in slower/longer games is primevals glorious rebirth because a one sided Living End is overpowered. Personally this card is the reason I hate the rules change to make walkers legendary.

Well, HoD already shreds some PW and weakens the surviving, which should give you time to breath. Since atraxa lacks red, the non-bolas limitation can be ignored. Primevals glorious rebirth may still be a problem then, but cards like this are the reason why I run no deck without any graveyard hate. Besides that, the rebirth is expensive, doesn't have flash and the casting player needs to have a legend on the board. Especially the last limitation shoudn't be a big deal in EDH, but still, this is nothing that happends out of nowhere without any chance for interaction.