{"ops":[{"insert":"I decided to take this very popular commander in a somewhat unique direction; I wanted to be able to get triggers from "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Y'shtola, Night's Blessed"}},{"insert":" not only on my turn, but also the turns of my opponents. In esper colors it makes this task a little tricky as we don’t have access to a ton of ramp to interact with the board by casting multiple spells on off-turns. The solution I landed on was goad/ forced combat. The win condition for this deck is fairly commander-centric as we are ultimately trying to burn down our opponents’ life totals with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Y'shtola, Night's Blessed"}},{"insert":" damage triggers.\n\nGoading our opponents’ creatures does several important things for our position at once: it keeps us safe from taking direct damage from opposing creatures in our low-creature deck, it increases the likelihood that our opponents will take 4 or more damage each turn from attack damage, and by casting the goading aura spells such as "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Martial Impetus"}},{"insert":" , "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ghoulish Impetus"}},{"insert":" ,etc we get "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Y'shtola, Night's Blessed"}},{"insert":" triggers for spending 3 or more mana on non-creature spells.\n\nSeveral non-enchantment cards leaning into forced combat are also included: "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Laser Screwdriver"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Bounty Board"}},{"insert":" help accelerate mana while providing options to execute our strategy at opportune moments. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Alela, Cunning Conqueror"}},{"insert":" is a chance to repeatedly goad and absolutely a card to look out for when drawing from the 99 of our deck. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Estrid's Invocation"}},{"insert":" is worth explaining here, too. It has been included since if you have any other goading aura deployed you can bounce and re-attach "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Estrid's Invocation"}},{"insert":" to a different opposing creature as the nature of the battlefield changes each turn. It's a very dynamic card and never feels disappointing to have in hand.\n\nMost of the creatures included in the deck focus on either providing mana advantage in the early game("},{"insert":{"card-link":"Starfield Mystic"}},{"insert":" , "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Transcendent Envoy"}},{"insert":" , "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Copy Land"}},{"insert":" ), stacking drain triggers on our opponents ("},{"insert":{"card-link":"Enduring Tenacity"}},{"insert":" , "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Kambal, Consul of Allocation"}},{"insert":" ) or keeping cards coming into our hand during times that our commander is offline ("},{"insert":{"card-link":"Dark Confidant"}},{"insert":" is an MVP in this category, as well as "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sygg, River Cutthroat"}},{"insert":" ). Another card to watch out for is "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Black Market Connections"}},{"insert":" . This card does essentially everything we want, dealing 4 damage to us, creating treasure, and effectively drawing us two cards if our commander is on the battlefield.\n\nBombs to look out for include "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Bolas's Citadel"}},{"insert":" , "},{"insert":{"card-link":"K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth"}},{"insert":" , "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Marshland Bloodcaster"}},{"insert":" , and"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Demon of Fate's Design"}},{"insert":" . The ability to use life to cast spells while our commander is active is just insane value. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Demon of Fate's Design"}},{"insert":" has the added benefit of being able to sacrafice goad auras we've cast on our opponents' creatures at instant speed if we're swinging in for lethal late-game.\n\n A bomb of a different kind is "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ophidian Eye"}},{"insert":" . This allows us to draw 3 cards every time we get a damage trigger from "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Y'shtola, Night's Blessed"}},{"insert":"!\n\nA stand-alone card worth mentioning in this deck is "},{"insert":{"card-link":"High Fae Trickster"}},{"insert":" . The ability to cast goading enchantments at instant speed greatly reduces our opponents’ ability to work around our strategy. What we are looking to do is to flash in a goad aura after combat starts but before attackers are declared. This reduces the chances for counter play and allows us to get triggers from our commander on opponents’ turns.\n\nLastly, you’ll notice cards such as "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sanguine Bond"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Alhammarret's Archive"}},{"insert":" . These leverage the significant life gain instances in this deck and drive value in this direction that would otherwise be wasted. I could lean more into this, and if I continue to tweak the deck this would be an area to explore.\n"}]}