While the show itself, unfortunately, didn’t manage to stick the landing, at least we still have Stranger Things’ MTG collaboration to look back on fondly. Though the new cards it brought to the table haven’t set the game alight, it turns out they’re still capable of surprising us on occasion. In a Duel Commander event, Will and Eleven, two of the Partner legends from the Stranger Things collaboration, delivered a top-tier result.
A Stranger Things Duo In Duel Commander
The deck in question, which Paul Duval piloted to a second-place finish in Rouen’s Weekly le Vizz Duel Commander tournament, is essentially a full-on Polymorph Storm list. It runs only one creature in the 99 in Hoarding Broodlord, meaning cards like Polymorph and Reality Scramble will always tutor it right into play when cast.
Once Broodlord hits play, the deck can abuse its tutoring ability to perform a Storm kill on the spot. It can grab Saw in Half with the first trigger, then cast that on Broodlord to get two token copies. Those, in turn, can fetch up Burnt Offering and Demonic Tutor. Tap one token to Convoke out Burnt Offering, sacrificing the token for eight mana, then cast Demonic Tutor to grab Shallow Grave, reanimating the original Broodlord.
From here, the new Broodlord can grab Yawgmoth’s Will, which you can use to replay all of the previous pieces from your graveyard to get more Broodlord triggers and mana. To finish off, you can grab Beseech the Mirror and sacrifice a token to it to tutor up Tendrils of Agony, doming your opponent for the win.
This is a powerful combo line, but to set it up, you do need a creature in play to offer up to Polymorph. For the most part, you can use either of your Commanders here, but if they get removed, you can use tokens generated by Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast, Inkshield, or Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance instead.
Turning The Gears
An interesting wrinkle of Duval’s Stranger Things Duel Commander list is that it doesn’t just Polymorph creatures. The decks runs just a single artifact, too, in Portal to Phyrexia, which can serve as a very reasonable backup plan in a pinch. You can get artifact tokens into play quite cheaply with either Will, Lithobraking, or Daretti, then cast Shape Anew or Reality Scramble to tutor it out for a devastating swing turn. It also provides a steady stream of reanimated creatures, which can help fuel your combo or just win you a grindy victory in the long run.
Pulling off either of these lines takes a good few turns of build up, and the rest of this list is here to help. To buy time, the deck runs a ton of disruption, including counterspells like Pact of Negation, and removal like Swords to Plowshares. It also incorporates hand attack like Thoughtseize, and lockdown effects like Teferi, Time Raveler, to protect the combo turn.
To power out your combo early, or for additional Storm count, this deck also runs a lot of fast mana. Cards like Cabal Ritual and Seething Song are fantastic here, and can even allow for wins outside of the Hoarding Broodlord line with Yawgmoth’s Will.
Strengths And Weaknesses
As with most combo decks in MTG, this Stranger Things brew is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, it’s capable of winning the game incredibly early, with turn-three combos possible depending on your opening seven. It’s also reasonably consistent, with the Polymorph suite and the deck’s various tutors all but ensuring you’ll hit one of your key pieces before long.
On the other hand, this deck is very easy to disrupt, which can make it tricky to push through wins against interaction-heavy opponents. Simply countering your first Polymorph effect is likely enough to take you out in a lot of games, since that leaves you fully exposed on board and way behind in tempo. While the deck is certainly capable of making a comeback, faster decks can abuse windows like this for a quick kill.
Overall, while it’s definitely a fun and unusual list, Duval’s Stranger Things deck is unlikely to take over Duel Commander any time soon. That said, this week’s result clearly indicates that it has something to offer, and there’s a real advantage to running events with lesser-known lists. If you’re bored with the usual Duel Commander offerings, this is a very solid alternative that provides a wholly different playstyle from most lists.
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