I think everyone was initially excited when Arcades was spoiled for fairly obvious reasons. He cantrips when any creature with defender ETB and makes defender creatures a relevant beater creature. This has led to the creation of a ton of decks that are Wall Aggro, trying to get in the red zone with what are essentially massively under-costed beaters. Arcades essentially gives you a massive selection of Tarmogoyf's that you can attack with.
This decklist aims to go in a different direction. Like the new Jhoira, I'm more interested in The Strategist's ability to cantrip off of wall creatures. There is a really strong potential for Arcades to be a powerful combo deck and this decklist aims to explore this direction in a useful manner. We are trying to mimic the idea of the Legacy Elf-ball deck: chain a bunch of creature spells together that create a mana positive situation and lead to an eventual win condition. But since Arcades rewards building around creatures that have the defender keyword, which are usually Wall creatures, I've tweaked the name for this deck to a variation of Elf-Ball: Wall-Ball. The key card that enables this is everyone's favorite (or least favorite, depending on your philosophy) combo enabler: Intruder Alarm. Briefly, the Alarm allows us to untap all of our mana dorks/mana walls to chain Defender creatures together in one turn, cantripping with Arcades, the Strategist's ability, and ideally draw into an infinite combo.
With that being said, the secondary Aggro plan of turning things sideways for nearly a quarter of their starting life total is very powerful on its own. In concert with the Combo lines that this deck is trying to execute consistently, you have multiple angles of attack for winning the game. The ability to viably pressure your opponent's life totals also forces Combo decks to not sit around so much and wait for the perfect opening. Arcades can therefore force your opponents into dealing with your board instead of developing their own combo lines, expending their resources. There is also a significant amount of ETB effects that allow you to accrue card advantage on a consistent basis, so that in the case Arcades' has died a bunch of times you still have something to do.
Still think that "the best defense is a good offense"? Arcades would like to show you how the best offense is actually a good defense. Summon your Defenders and watch them rumble through for massive amounts of damage!
Other Commanders
There are two comparable criteria for Alternate Commanders; those ones which fall directly into the Bant color scheme and those ones which most closely mimic what Arcades does in function. The break down will be separated by these two criteria, starting first with the Bant color scheme because, you know, that's the obvious thing to do.
- Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - while she used to be a marquee Commander for competitive Commander because she was so oppressive as a Stax commander, but the transition to the Vancouver mulligan system has caused her to decline in popularity. However, she is still a strong Commander and can generate a ton of mana advantage. Arcades is better than Derevi (although she is a great inclusion in the main decklist, if you feel so inclined) because he can draw cards off of Defender creatures. This ability to draw off of Defender creatures ETB is very important and provides gas when normally Derevi would be running out. Additionally, Arcades' draw trigger forms the backbone of our primary methods of winning. Arcades has card advantage and is himself an outlet for the infinite recycling creature ETB loops we have in the deck.
- Roon of the Hidden Realm - Roon is a really cool Commander that makes Blink strategies seriously powerful. Combined with the vast and varied suite of ETB creatures, Roon acts as a form of card advantage by allowing you to repeat certain effects. Removal, ramp, and card draw are the primary functions of the majority of the creatures in the deck, so you're sure to accrue value from this Warrior Rhino/Rhox. Arcades has real card advantage on his body and he enables a highly unique strategy. You're able to pivot quickly from an Aggro strategy to a Combo line without missing a beat. The creatures that Arcades uses are naturally overpowered, undercosted beaters with him in play, so there is a very real ability to just Aggro people out of the game. Arcades has a higher amount of impact for our particular strategy and has real card advantage as an effect in the Command zone, so we prefer to play him.
- Ragnar Vorthos Combo build that seeks to pressure the table via Thor and his equipment and buy time to assemble a combo via Tooth and Nail. A fun deck idea that's brilliantly executed, I highly recommend it.
- Phelddagrif - fear the Purple Hippo of Doom. This deck is meant to use politics via King Hippo to influence game play in an effective manner. It's more akin to a true control deck that has an active way to get people to target each other. It then uses its massive amount of Control to disrupt the winning strategy that might be occurring in order to bring the game to an equilibrium level.
This section is meant to analyze Commanders that have a similar style of play to Arcades, but may not be in the Bant color scheme. The most obvious example being the newly printed Jhoira, who has an even more powerful trigger on CASTING of Historic spells whereas Arcades needs Defender creatures to ETB.
- Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain - a newcomer to the cEDH scene, Jhoira enables a similar strategy that we employ but uses a much more powerful medium to generate her card advantage: artifacts. She is also able to play Blood Moon and Back to Basics, cards which are very powerful against our tri-colored mana base. She can also play some very powerful Stax effects that are artifacts, which naturally complements her strategy of drawing cards. Honestly, Jhoira might be a little better in the Combo-Control aspect because she can draw cards off the most powerful mana sources in the game and she naturally plays into some of the most powerful Stax effects in the game. Arcades has an additional angle of attack with his Aggro plan and plays a much more varied and powerful removal suite. It really depends on how much you like artifacts compared to creatures.
- Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury - the prototypical Elf-Ball deck (alongside Ezuri, Renegade Leader), it uses the mana generation of Elves to power out a bunch of creatures and mass draw spells like Collective Unconscious or Shamanic Revelation to keep drawing cards and more mana sources. Give those creatures haste via Lightning Greaves or Concordant Crossroads and then use something like Umbral Mantle or Staff of Domination to untap one of the mana dorks for infinite mana and then win in some fashion. Our deck strategy most closely resembles this particular strategy since our Defender creatures have a decent number of mana producing abilities to make Intruder Alarm and High Alert work overtime. Since Arcades allows us to play more colors, we can choose the very best removal options available in the game for our selection. This strong removal suite in concert with the high combo potential of Arcades makes Arcades a better choice in my opinion.
- Arcades is in the best colors for pretty much every type of removal effect you could want. This diversity in removal options allows you to play whatever removal slots are most effective against the decks that you're playing. From Swords to Plowshares to Supreme Verdict, Arcades can play it all.
- Arcades is still somewhat of an unknown factor whenever you sit down in a game. Your opponents don't know if you'll be going the Aggro route, the hard Combo route, or something in between. This allows you to have a modicum of political capital that you can use to shield your plays or redirect attention from yourself. Once you use the deck though, and execute one of the combos listed here, you'll probably dispel that political capital pretty quickly.
- Arcades has a great CMC for a 3-color general. He will often come down with great consistency on T3 and enable you to start drawing cards pretty quickly. His stats are also pretty innocuous as well, but he does have the relevant keywords to make him an effective tool on both attack and defense.
- The raw card advantage that Arcades provides while developing your board presence is no joke. It is VERY easy to recycle your Defender creatures and maintain a full grip of cards throughout the course of a game with his draw trigger.
- His ability to make Defenders, traditionally useless creatures, overpowered and undercosted threats. If you look at Arcades' ability and then look at the toughness of Wall of Shards or Wall of Denial, and you suddenly find that you have a REALLY strong secondary gameplan: turning things sideways for damage. Because your defender creatures are dealing twice, sometimes even 3 times as much damage, as a comparable non-Defender creature at the same CMC, you can easily attack your opponents and kill them before they've had a chance to really develop their board states.
- We are a creature based deck that is trying to combo out. This means that we are vulnerable to Wrath effects as well as creature-neutering Stax effects i.e. Torpor Orb and Cursed Totem. Both of those artifacts are a real problem for this deck, so keeping them off the board via Counterspells and removal effects is important. And if you see Humility, you'll either want to kill it ASAP or cry. Those are pretty much your options with that particular card... You'll also want to be wary of a high number of Wrath effects and play out your Defender creatures and Arcades intelligently. It's not always the best thing to just dump your hand full of Defenders, draw some cards with Arcades, and then your board get Wrathed.
- We're simply not as fast as other combo decks in competitive Commander games. Flash Hulk decks can win on T2-T3 with some pretty significant consistency, whereas we are pretty tied in at being unable to win until T4 at the earliest with any type of consistency. Because we aren't the fastest deck, it's important that you learn to time your spells correctly and maximize your windows of opportunity.
- Arcades, the Strategist is a really important component of this deck's primary combo lines and deck strategy. We therefore have a "Protect the King" kind of mentality where we need to play Arcades intelligently so that he isn't taxed out of the game. This exposes a weakness that savvy opponents can take advantage of by intelligently Wiping the board or spot removing Arcades consistently. While this deck can generate mana in pretty absurd quantities, you still don't want to be spending that mana on recasting your Commander over and over. Lightning Greaves is a way to address this issue, since it also allows our mana dorks/mana walls to generate mana upon ETB, so tutor for it liberally if your meta is inundated with spot removal. And while the deck has a strong ETB element to it that helps to mitigate this particular weakness, it's still a fairly significant weakness that's worth mentioning.
Originally the deck list was full of Defenders, however it has evolved into a Defender Bant combo value deck over time.
Utility Creatures (8)
4x Wall of Stolen Identity2x Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
6x Sun Titan
5x Reveillark
3x Eternal Witness
4x Temur Sabretooth
2x Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
0x Walking Ballista
4x Profaner of the Dead
Tutors (5)
3x Chord of Calling3x Drift of Phantasms
2x Eladamri's Call
1x Enlightened Tutor
3x Wargate
Counter Spells (7)
2x Arcane Denial2x Counterspell
2x Mana Drain
0x Pact of Negation
3x Render Silent
1x Spell Pierce
1x Swan Song
Defenders (15)
8x Colossus of Akros2x Jeskai Barricade
5x Mnemonic Wall
2x Orator of Ojutai
3x Quicksilver Wall
0x Shield Sphere
2x Stalwart Shield-Bearers
4x Tree of Redemption
4x Wall Of Reverence
3x Wall of Denial
2x Wall of Kelp
2x Wall of Lost Thoughts
2x Wall of Omens
2x Wall of Shards
2x Crashing Drawbridge
Enchantments (6)
4x Aluren3x Aura Shards
4x Guardian Project
2x High Alert
3x Intruder Alarm
3x Sylvan Library
Mana Sources / Reduction (14)
3x Axebane Guardian1x Birds of Paradise
2x Bloom Tender
3x Growing Rites of Itlimoc
2x Incubation Druid
1x Llanowar Elves
1x Noble Hierarch
2x Overgrown Battlement
3x Shaman of Forgotten Ways
1x Sol Ring
1x Sunscape Familiar
2x Sylvan Caryatid
2x Vine Trellis
2x Wall of Roots
Land (32)
1x Bountiful Promenade1x Breeding Pool
1x Canopy Vista
1x Command Tower
1x Exotic Orchard
1x Flooded Grove
1x Flooded Strand
2x Forest
1x Glacial Fortress
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Irrigated Farmland
2x Island
1x Krosan Verge
1x Mystic Gate
1x Path of Ancestry
3x Plains
1x Polluted Deta
1x Prairie Stream
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Sea of Clouds
1x Seaside Citadel
1x Sunpetal Grove
1x Temple Garden
1x Treva's Ruins
1x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Bastion
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Yavimaya Coast
Creatures
- Shield Sphere - the best non-mana producing Defender in the deck because of its CMC, it also has one of the higher stats in the deck (as far as Arcades is concerned). But seriously, that 0 CMC is fantastic for this deck. It significantly reduces the cost of mana that you need in order to execute one of the infinite loops in the deck and it can attack for quite a bit of damage. Pretty much an auto-include if you have it.
- Noble Hierarch - a T1 mana dork that gives us every single color that we need. The Exalted trigger can sometimes come in handy as well, but she's in the deck mostly because she can tap for any color of mana and costs 1 CMC.
- Llanowar Elves - besides having awesome new art in the Dominaria set, these Elves are a T1 mana dork so that we can definitely hit a T3 Arcades. It's also important to note that these mana dorks also have additional utility in any Aluren + Cloudstone Curio loops by providing a second body to recycle a Defender creature with.
- Avacyn's Pilgrim - another T1 mana dork that ensures a T3 Arcades. The Pilgrim being able to generate a different color than can be very important at times depending on how you set up your land base with your opening hand.
- Birds of Paradise - a mana dork that actually generates any type of mana we need, the Birds ensure a T3 Arcades.
- Elvish Mystic - similar in function to the above mana dorks, this can be considered a replacement card for the Hierarch in the case that you don't have one or its price tag is a concern.
- Steel Wall - its 1 CMC is actually very important for the deck, as it allows you to maximize your mana on each of your turns and trigger Arcades consistently. It has a decent toughness as well so that it can swing for relevant amounts of damage. It's great for Temur Sabertooth loops and draws cards with Arcades, so it makes the cut.
- Wall of Wood - another 1 CMC Defender creature, this card is definitely a great inclusion to the deck. I personally prefer my Defender creatures to have more toughness than this Wall has, so that's why it's not in the Current decklist.
- Wall of Vines - strictly better than Wall of Wood because it has the Reach keyword, this card just doesn't quite do enough in comparison to the rest of the creatures in the deck. Still, it's a great Budget option and is a great consideration for an Aggro based deck since its CMC is so low.
- Resolute Watchdog - a lovely 1 CMC Defender creature that can help protect Arcades from removal or Wrath effects. It also has the relevant Power to have strong Mentor and 'Lark synergies.
- Saruli Caretaker - a mana dork that sadly requires another creature in order to generate mana. During the Wall-Ball turn, this card would be great, but she doesn't help in the actual casting of a T3 Arcades by herself. She still might squeeze into the deck because her CMC is so attractive.
- Portcullis Vine - a very nice Defender because it can sac itself to draw a card or it can sac other Defenders to draw cards in the case of unavoidable removal. It also acts as a nice card advantage engine alongside Wall of Kelp. Its CMC is what makes this particular Defender attractive and worth the deckspace.
- Bloom Tender - while I know this is one of the more expensive mana dorks for EDH, this mana girl does so much for the deck. She easily taps for on a consistent basis and is an important mana piece during the Intruder Alarm combo lines.
- Incubation Druid - this mana dork is a replacement for Gilded Lotus. While it does take a larger mana investment to make it a Lotus, the fact that it can is very important to this deck strategy. Add in the fact that the Druid is a creature and synergizes with the rest of the deck and you've got a strong candidate for inclusion.
- Overgrown Battlement - I remember when this card actually saw Standard play and was used to cast Eldrazi on a stupidly consistent basis. The mana generation that this Defender does, particularly in this deck, is pretty ridiculous. We have a high density of high mana generating permanents in this deck, and the Battlement is one of the better ones. This card is pretty much an auto-include, particularly since it's been reprinted recently.
- Vine Trellis, Ulvenwald Captive - simple tap for Defenders. The nice thing about these mana producing Defenders is that they're not terrible topdecks in the mid or late-game because of Arcades. Regardless, we're running as many mana-producing Defenders as possible so that we can get more creatures into play faster and so that we can take advantage ofIntruder Alarm more efficiently. Gotta Wall-Ball combo whenever you can and mana-producing creatures are key to doing so.
- Sylvan Caryatid - a perfect mana-producing Defender for this deck because it can generate one mana of any color. A very important inclusion in enabling a T3 Arcades and also during the Wall-Ball turn.
- Wall of Roots - a really fun Defender that can net infinite during the Aluren + Cloudstone Curio combo. It also has a pretty strong Toughness stat and can hit hard should the game-state warrant the attack.
- Sunscape Familiar - I remember when Arcades was first spoiled this card disappeared from the market. I thought it was hilarious. Regardless, it shrinks the mana cost of a SIGNIFICANT number of spells in our deck, allowing us to cast more of them in a turn and thus accrue more card advantage or a larger board presence. A great card for the deck since it also enables a T3 Arcades with 3 lands in play.
- Gatecreeper Vine - a Defender creature that helps us hit consistent land drops, don't be afraid to blink this Plant so that you can develop your mana advantage.
- Jeskai Barricade - being able to flash in this Wall and save Arcades from removal is really awesome. It also helps Aluren get some extra value for the deck while also being a fun way to draw a card at instant speed with Arcades in play. Using it as a surprise blocker to eat a creature has also come up once or twice as well.
- Wall of Kelp - who knew that this Wall would be in such high demand after Arcades was spoiled? I certainly didn't, haha. This card is really quite strong in this deck since it can spawn more Defender creatures and draw cards via Arcades' trigger. It also is part of a hilarious infinite mana combo with Axebane Guardian and Intruder Alarm to draw your deck.
- Wall of Shards - in order for the deck to really hum in the card advantage department, there needs to be a certain threshold of Defender creatures. We want the best ones at the lowest CMC, and Shard-Wall has the best stats for its CMC. It also has Flying, which means that it will usually hit pretty consistently for 8 damage. Tarmogoyf has some professional jealousy over it, actually.
- Wall of Lost Thoughts - this Wall messes with Top-of-Deck tutors like Mystical Tutor and also acts as a win condition for the deck. Otherwise, it's not a terribly impressive Defender creature, although the mill shouldn't be underestimated.
- Stalwart Shield-Bearers - the only dedicated Anthem effect that we play in the deck, it has the right CMC while also providing a strong effect by itself. A solid inclusion for the deck that also happens to cantrip with Arcades in play.
- Lavinia, Azorius Renegade - Lavinia ensures that only WE are able to use Aluren to its maximum effect. She also keeps opposing combo decks fair and limits the effectiveness of cards like Omniscience, Force of Will, and Pact of Negation. A solid hate-bear for the deck.
- Wall of Mulch - like Portcullis Vine, this Defender can cantrips when necessary and helps to mitigate the damage a Wrath or removal effect causes to the deck's strategy.
- Axebane Guardian - the MVP of the deck, bar none. This Defender can generate an obscene amount of mana as we simply maximize the effectiveness of our Commander within our deck. This is, quite simply, an auto-inclusion for any Arcades list you try to build.
- Shaman of Forgotten Ways - because the deck is so creature heavy, this card is a legitimate mana source for the mid and late game while also being a win condition in a pinch. And even if you can't Biorhythm people to death in one go, you can still put them at low enough life totals that your pseudo-Tarmogoyfs can finish them off with combat damage. A solid card that has been very powerful
- Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Omens, Jungle Barrier, Carven Caryatid, Orator of Ojutai - these Defenders all cantrip by themselves but get even better with Arcades in play. Again, we want to have a certain density of Defenders in the deck and these cantrip Defenders are extremely useful for ensuring that the deck doesn't stall out on cards.
- Doorkeeper - a win condition during the Wall-Ball turn. Currently replaced by Wall of Lost Thoughts since the Lost Thoughts doesn't require Haste in order to win.
- Wall of Forgotten Pharaohs, Stinging Barrier - another win condition during the Wall-Ball turn, these require you to run Lightning Greaves in your deck so that you can tap them during the Wall-Ball turn and actually win. They aren't currently included because the current win conditions don't require haste to be present in order to win.
- Drift of Phantasms - I most often use this card for its Transmuting ability. Some of our most powerful cards sit at 3 CMC (Intruder Alarm, Cloudstone Curio, Axebane Guardian, etc.) and we want to be able to consistently see these cards every game. The Phantasms help increase the likelihood of this happening while also being a Defender for Arcades synergy.
- Quicksilver Wall - a Defender creature that can self-bounce itself. This is a VERY important feature during the Wall-Ball turn since it removes the necessity of having an active Bounce effect in play. The fact that it's also a Defender guarantees that we draw our deck during the Wall-Ball turn with Arcades in play. I wouldn't cut this card for this particular strategy anytime soon. As a side-benefit, it also has a pretty significant Toughness number for when you want to turn things sideways into combat.
- Wall of Frost, Wall of Denial, Hover Barrier, Wall of Junk, Fortified Rampart, Glacial Wall, Wall of Nets, Wall of Mist, Wall of Air, Plumeveil, etc. - all of these are simply Vanilla High Toughness Defenders that don't have card advantage without Arcades in play. Running some of these cards is fine, but I'm very hesitant to run cards that are bad by themselves.
- Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - the ETB ability to untap permanents is very important for the deck, since we're most often using this ability to untap mana dorks. She can also generate infinite mana via Deadeye Navigator and Axebane Guardian/Bloom Tender/Incubation Druid, which definitely makes her valuable to the deck. She also rewards you for going into combat as well. What's not to like about Derevi?
- Eternal Witness - having a Regrowth stapled to a creature is really quite good. I don't think I need to explain why this card is generally good for EDH. I will mention that the Witness is an important piece of the Reality Within combo line to actually win the game during the Wall-Ball turn.
- Reflector Mage - since the deck features a pretty substantial ETB package, it only makes sense to include this Mage in the deck. I can't express how relevant it is that your opponents can't recast the creature that you bounced with the Mage. It provides a guaranteed tempo loss for whichever creature you decide to target, which makes the Mage really quite valuable. It's also pretty cheap too, so you can easily pick it up on a budget.
- Knight of Autumn - a pretty strong upgrade in comparison to Reclamation Sage honestly. There is a side benefit of being able to gain infinite life during the Wall-Ball turn, which could also lead to a win as well. More often than not, though, it will be acting as removal for a problem Artifact/Enchantment.
- Mentor of the Meek - nearly every creature in the deck has power 2 or less. This card enables every creature to become a cantrip with the inclusion of just . That's so worthwhile to the deck and helps ensure that the cards keep flowing for you.
- Edric, Spymaster of Trest - this card actively rewards you for going into the Red Zone with your creatures. And with Arcades' damage modifying ability, it's VERY likely that your creatures will outclass any of your opponents creatures in the damage dealing department. I've really enjoyed Edric as a card in Commander and this deck can take advantage of him very well.
- Temur Sabertooth - the Combo-Tooth is really what this card should be called. It's a key enabler of the Wall-Ball turn while also being a nice way to save Arcades from spot removal or a Wrath effect. A great card for the ETB theme that the deck currently has, I think this is another one of the more valuable cards in the deck because of how well it works with Intruder Alarm.
- Junktroller - a nice way to recur cards back to the library. Can be useful during the Wall-Ball turn to initiate the Reality Within combo.
- Profaner of the Dead - since Defender creatures generally have high Toughness stats, this card will most often act as a one-sided board wipe, similar to what Cyclonic Rift does. Being able to clear the field for an Alpha strike on a weakened opponent is quite useful.
- Sower of Temptation - theft effects are generally underrated in EDH. Being able to steal a Commander and thus make it unavailable for its pilot is VERY powerful, and the Sower is a budget replacement for the superior Gilded Drake. If you have a copy of it or the budget to acquire the Drake, I recommend doing that. But since the Sower is so much cheaper, it's generally more accessible while being similarly powerful.
- Venser, Shaper Savant - all-purpose removal and stack control, this card can easily form a soft-lock with one of the Blink engines in the deck (Deadeye Navigator or Temur Sabertooth). His general versatility combined with his ETB trigger is very powerful for the deck and worth the deckspace.
- Reveillark - this card recurs pretty much every creature in the deck. Combined with a Blink engine or Cloudstone Curio and you will have a virtually indestructible board presence. The 'Lark is a very awesome piece of recursion for the deck and you should be running a copy in your deck for sure.
- Karmic Guide - while the current decklist doesn't run this card, it's a fantastic recursion option for the deck. It's one of the cards I most want to find room for since the effect is so generally powerful.
- Mnemonic Wall - being able to recur Instants and Sorceries is great. I most often recur Wargate or Ghostly Flicker with this trigger. The Wall also acts a piece of the Reality Within win condition so that you can actually win the game.
- Mulldrifter - a pretty standard EDH inclusion at this point.
- Deadeye Navigator - one of the best blink engines for Commander EVER. And since Arcades rewards Defender creatures for ETB, there is literally no creature in this deck that wouldn't be a great Soulbond target. It also enables the Wall-Ball turn with active mana dorks and Intruder Alarm. While expensive on the CMC side, the value that you can generate with the Navigator massively offsets the high CMC cost of the card.
- Bane of Progress - a blanket sweep of any and all Artifacts and Enchantments will hurt our opponents more heavily than us, since you aren't going to want to cast this when you have one of the critical combo pieces in play.
- Duplicant - an ETB exile effect on a creature. It's power is less than 2 for 'Lark and Mentor of the Meek synergies while also being a powerful effect in EDH.
- Sun Titan - since a large number of our creatures and permanents fall under the coveted 3 CMC mark, the Titan is a fantastic recursion creature that consistently gets valuable creatures back to play. Combine with Blink effects for ultimate recursion and value.
- Consecrated Sphinx - why am I not playing the most broken creature for Commander? Because this decklist is meant for a more casual game. That's it. If you want to play hard and showcase why Bant is one of the scarier Color combos in Commander, I definitely recommend giving this card some deckspace.
- Prime Speaker Zegana - I'm actually a little iffy on the inclusion of Zegana, since the relative Power of the creatures in this deck very rarely exceeds 2 or 3. I think that I'm currently on the hunt for a better ETB draw effect of another Defender since we can't take advantage of Zegana's trigger most effectively.
- Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - the only other Anthem effect that I would consider because she can kill so many of our opponent's creatures in addition to providing the Anthem effect. Elesh Norn is a very powerful card and I wouldn't fault you at all for choosing to run her as your top-end bomb.
- Swords to Plowshares - because 1 mana removal is great. It's really quite cheap as well so you should run a copy of it in your deck too. You could easily include Swords' cousin Path to Exile if you wanted, though I'm loathe to give away a Rampant Growth to an opponent.
- Nature's Claim - since this deck is meant for a more casual game experience, I don't find it necessary to have the most efficient removal spells. This removal is adequately served by Knight of Autumn and Bane of Progress, although it could easily come back in depending on how important Artifacts and Enchantments are to your specific meta.
- Worldly Tutor - this card isn't the deck because this decklist is meant for a more casual game, quite honestly. If you want to up the competitiveness of the deck for your own playstyle, then including this card is a definite must.
- Enlightened Tutor - the primary combo pieces for the deck are High Alert and Intruder Alarm, which Enlightened Tutor can find. This isn't in the deck simply because I've designed it to be a more casual decklist. I suppose that I should build a more streamlined, competitive version at one point, but it just doesn't interest me at the current moment.
- Cyclonic Rift - at this point I think the power of Rift is very clearly demonstrated. The fact that it can Overload and become a one-sided board wipe is just too good for Commander as a format. We run it as a way to keep control over the battlefield and occasionally clear the battlefield so we can get in for an alpha strike on an opponent.
- Reality Shift - this is a really good removal spell by itself because it exiles the problem creature AND can also result in card advantage. More often than not, I've learned that the Manifested token wasn't a creature and therefore died as a vanilla 2/2 creature without the ability to be morphed up. It also forms a part of our definitive win condition, the Reality Within loop.
- Eladamri's Call - probably one of the best non-Black tutor effects available to us, it can find one of our 35+ creatures. It most often finds Axebane Guardian, Reveillark, or Sun Titan based on my experience.
- Tower Defense, Bar the Door - ok, it's nice to potentially alpha strike an opponent with 2 or 3 Defender creatures and one of these cards, but otherwise they don't directly contribute to card advantage in the deck. While they're very strong cards, particularly with Arcades as the Commander, I'd rather have more effective win conditions than this kind of card.
- Beast Within - all purpose removal that is also part of the Reality Within combo. This card has been great for Commander, and I hope Wizards keeps printing cards like it in future sets.
- Eerie Interlude - being able to save my board full of creatures is what this card is most often used for. It occasionally is used so that I can recycle some ETB abilities of creatures that are in play, but this is mostly in the deck as Wrath insurance. We're a creature heavy deck and our board presence is very important to the deck's core strategy and combo lines.
- Ghostly Flicker - quite possibly the best Instant card in the whole deck. It recycles ETB abilities for our creature suite while also being a way to initiate the Wall-Ball turn. This occurs by having Eternal Witness/Mnemonic Wall in play alongside either Intruder Alarm and some mana dorks. The mana dorks should net you mana every time you cast the Flicker or have a creature ETB, yielding infinite mana and the drawing of your deck (via Arcades), most likely. A fantastic card for this deck, I cannot recommend it enough to you, especially since it's $0.25.
- Chord of Calling - this deck is very creature heavy, so there are pretty much always going to be relevant targets for this card. I like to use this card in the early game to find mana dorks primarily and then use it to find Eternal Witness so I can start recycling the Chord a lot. A very good card that I've been quite happy with in the maindeck.
- Krosan Grip - like Nature's Claim, this kind of removal has been adequately served by the creature based ETB effects present in the deck. If you have an annoying combo deck that depends on a specific Artifact/Enchantment in order to win, then I recommend including this card and watching the salty tears flow.
- Farseek, Rampant Growth, Nature's Lore, Kodama's Reach, Cultivate - these are great ramp cards, just not the most effective in this deck. I'd rather my mana accelerants draw me cards with Arcades' trigger, so the mana dork Defenders is the way to go for this deck.
- Finale of Devastation - wow, what a fantastic tutor card. It also acts as a win condition since we can play out every creature in our hand and pump them all to lethal while giving them haste once infinite mana has been achieved. This card ALSO acts as a pseudo-Reanimation effect. I'm very pleased with this card and think it will be a staple moving forward.
- Wargate - one of the best tutors in Bant colors, this card can get pretty much anything you need. My favorite thing to do is to find Eternal Witness so that I can reuse Wargate a stupid number of times. It's important to note that this card can find any of our combo pieces, making it the best tutor in the deck (sorry, Chord of Calling...).
- Slaughter the Strong - you know, there are some really cool Wrath effects that have been printed that seem kinda bad on a general analysis. But when you have a bunch of Defender creatures with 0 power, this Wrath effect can be totally one-sided. It's surprising to see the number of one-sided Wrath effects this deck can field BECAUSE of its Defender synergies, and this card is one of them.
- Dusk // Dawn - this is a really effective Wrath solution for the deck (usually) while also being an incredible recursion card in the late game. A very solid card, even though it does kill Arcades if he's in play and you need an emergency reset.
- Fell the Mighty - another Wrath effect that leaves our board almost completely untouched. Conveniently, most of the creatures in the deck have 0 power, making this card a potentially one-sided Wrath effect.
- Time Warp - with Mnemonic Wall and Eternal Witness being central cards in the deck, you could easily run a Time Warp combo/package. I don't because it's redundant to the effectiveness of the deck overall.
- Exploration - a great pseudo mana accelerant, this card would be an excellent add if I decided to take the deck in a more competitive direction. Arcades can enable some pretty draw-heavy turns and being able to get more lands into play is always ideal.
- Mystic Remora - again, if I was to take this deck in a more competitive direction this would be another card that I would instantly add. It can draw a ton of cards from your opponents and has a great CMC.
- Sylvan Library - probably one of the few cards I would consider a staple for any green Commander deck, we're nonetheless excluding this card because I like the deck at its current competitiveness.
- Assault Formation - a backup Arcades in case Arcades has died a bunch of times. In the games that I've been able to play with this card, I've often found it redundant to Arcades and always felt like an extraneous card that I didn't have use for.
- Intruder Alarm - this is basically the replacement for Paradox Engine. With the density of mana dorks that are in the deck, you can easily catapult into the Wall-Ball turn by tutoring or drawing into this card with 1 or 2 mana dorks in play. It also has great flavor for the deck, considering Arcades is all about Defense and his Defenders should be sounding an alarm of some sort when Arcades encounters an opponent. Just be wary of the timing when you cast this card, since it untaps ALL creatures whenever ANY creature ETB - meaning that your opponents could take advantage of this effect better than you if you don't plan it carefully.
- Rhystic Study - egads, you're not playing Study? Yeah. I'm not. This deck has enough draw power as is and Rhystic Study is now a played around card in my group. It's no longer as effective as it once was for me, but it is still a strong card and absolutely worth the deckspace.
- Aura Shards - this card isn't in the deck because it ran out of deckspace. That's it. Otherwise, it's a great card and you should be playing it if you can.
- Guardian Project - what started out as a test card has quickly turned into a card advantage machine. This card is PARTICULARLY broken with the Flicker package that is in the deck and it can help replace Arcades should he die too many times. I've been highly pleased with this card and strongly recommend that you give it a go in your own Commander deck.
- Aluren - another combo piece that allows us to execute the Wall-Ball combo turn in conjunction with Cloudstone Curio. We can turn off its symmetry with the recently printed Lavinia, Azorius Renegade so that only WE can take advantage of it. Throwing in Engine or Intruder Alarm with the Cloudstone Aluren loop and you can generate infinite mana and card draw.
- High Alert - a newly printed Assault Formation that has some combo potential with Axebane Guardian and enough Defender creatures. Decent, but redundant to Arcades.
- Mirari's Wake - this is a general goodstuff card. Being able to buff our creatures is nice, but the doubling of mana is what makes this card so valuable. I don't run it because the focus of the deck, from a mana perspective, is its mana dorks and this card doesn't help them tap for greater levels of mana. We'll pass.
- Sol Ring - the poster child of Commander. Play it because you should?
- Simic Signet, Selesnya Signet, Azorius Signet, Talisman of Progress, Talisman of Unity - great mana rocks, but we prefer the Defender mana dorks because of their synergy with Arcades and Intruder Alarm.
- Cloudstone Curio - a key artifact in the deck for enabling the Wall-Ball combo turn. Its "Return to Hand" clause it what makes it so powerful since we can then recast a new creature card and trigger Intruder Alarm. It also combos excellently with Aluren to create an infinite ETB recycling loop. Insert one of the ETB creatures in this loop and you should have a SIGNIFICANT advantage in winning, if not proceed to win outright.
- Panharmonicon - sigh, I have a love/hate relationship with this card in the deck. When it works, it WORKS. But when it gets removed promptly after casting, then it feels really bad. This card could easily come back in simply because of the fact that it DOES have Commander synergy.
- Paradox Engine - RIP we long for the day that you become unbanned.
- Gaea's Cradle - probably the biggest omission in this list, I just don't want to run it in the current decklist. The deck is sitting at a medium to high power level, and I'm very content with it. If I wanted to tweak the deck to be more competitive, this card would DEFINITELY make the cut.
- Ancient Tomb - this card is really good and is also a flavor win, from my perspective. I like to believe that Arcades is still alive somewhere, hiding in an Ancient Tomb and biding his time to rise up and bring peace and law to his subjects.
- Treva's Ruins - because every Dragon should have its Lair.
Turn 0 & Opening Hands
The first thing you need to do when sitting down with this deck is determining what role you will most likely need to play against your opponents. This requires that you analyze each opposing deck and do a quick summary of what the deck is trying to do. Are they a fast combo deck that is reliant on casting Ad Nauseam? Are they doing Stax-y things that will slow the game down and buy you some time? What's your turn order in relation to the faster combo decks? Once you have a general idea of how you want to play the game from the dice roll, you'll want to choose your starting hand accordingly.
- If you've decided that you want to go the Fast Combo route and try to race your opponents, then you'll want to prioritize fast mana and other mana dorks so that you can get Arcades into play as quickly as possible. Since Arcades is a primary source of card advantage in the deck, getting him into play quickly and protecting him with a Counterspell or two is a great way to make sure that you get ahead of your opponents and stay ahead. This allows you flexibility in how you approach the game, since you can turn your Defender creatures sideways and pressure your Combo opponent's life totals while holding up interaction. Or, depending on how fast their opening hand is, you can aggressively tutor for your combo pieces and get them into play ASAP.
- If a slower more Mid-Range style is better suited to the table, you'll want to make sure that you have some removal, some creatures with Defender, and a mana dork/mana Wall or two. Getting Arcades into play is still a good idea, but you want to be able to interact with your opponents over racing them since it's likely that your other opponents will be doing similarly. This is probably the safer route most times since it will afford you the greatest amount of flexibility to the game. Get Arcades into play, quickly if possible, but always with some sort of protection. Once you can start chaining Defender creatures to replenish your hand, you should be in a good place to either Aggro your opponents or execute your Combo lines in a well-timed fashion.
- If a slower, much more conservative Control style of gameplay is better, than you'll want to prioritize interaction and Defenders. This line of play is usually for political reasons, so that you appear to be the least offensive threat at the table and slowly develop your board and mana advantage. Once you get Arcades into play, you'll want to try and get value off of him quickly so that your hand stays replenished.
This is a pretty greedy hand. While the payoff is definitely there, an early removal spell on your Hierarch will leave you stranded with basically no mana available to you. My sequencing of these cards would be T1 Hierarch into T2 Caryatid into a T3 Arcades followed by either a T4 Axebane Guardian or Wall of Denial. This will allow you to start chaining Defender creatures together and present a strong board for Aggro purposes while also giving you a pretty strong mana advantage. Wargate can then go find a missing combo piece so that you can win. So, depending on the decks I'm playing against, this would be a situational keep. If I'm going against more Mid-Range decks that need some setup, I would keep. Otherwise, ship it off for a fresh 7.
This is a pretty standard hand and what I would like to draw each time I sit down. We've got a T2 mana Wall to get into a T3 Arcades while also having a piece of interaction. You'll want to be somewhat conservative with your play since you don't have a ton of Defender creatures in order to replenish your hand with Arcades, so that is one word of caution I'd give about this kind of hand. What makes this hand desirable is the fact that you have Aluren in your starting hand. All you'll need to combo off with this hand is Cloudstone Curio, so sitting on that particular combo line is pretty good.
The primary engine to this deck is the Master Strategist himself, Arcades. Every opening hand should be evaluated from the perspective of how quickly can we get him out. There are some combinations of cards that allow for a T2 Arcades, but the deck is consistently designed around getting him out on T3, without fail. This means that the early turns are usually very similar in their execution: T1 Land, T2 Land and mana dork/mana Wall, T3 Arcades. Unless a combo opponent has a fast start and you need to leave mana up for interaction, this is the most basic line of play for the deck. Because we aren't the fastest deck at the table, be very sure about how easily and safely you can get Arcades into play. Because he's so innocuous (as of yet, though that may change over time), you should have a little bit of a cushion on how your opponents treat you and hopefully you'll be able to resolve him without too much of a fuss. Why counter your Arcades when the Zur player just assembled enough mana to cast Zur on their turn?
Once you've got a mana-dork/mana Wall in play and Arcades, you can then shift gears into whatever role you need to play at the table. Are there a bunch of combo decks that are sculpting their hands or Wheeling their hands for fresh 7's? Time to be the Aggro deck and pressure life totals while holding up countermagic and interaction. Tarmogoyf is the gold standard of Legacy aggro creatures and Arcades grants us massively overpowered 'Goyfs that can eat opponents' life totals quickly.
Turns 4-6
Ideally you've got Arcades in play and have some interaction in hand. It's now time to conservatively build your board presence so that you aren't blown out by a Wrath effect. Your Defender creatures in concert with Arcades' draw trigger is the primary source of card advantage for your deck, so try and slow roll those Defenders when you can so that you can keep pressure on your opponents while keeping some interaction up. There's also a significant amount of removal and other ETB value creatures so that you can consistently be a presence in the game.
You'll also want to start looking for one of the combo lines that this deck has so that you can execute your combo and win. The combos are outlined in the section below, so I won't go into too much detail about them. Probably the most important card in this deck is Axebane Guardian at this stage of the game. Its ability to output such a massive quantity of mana is invaluable for quickly building your board presence and being able snowball your board presence. As such, the Guardian is pretty much your #1 tutor target (unless you already have a combo piece in hand). Things can get pretty crazy when you're chaining Defender creatures with Arcades, the Guardian, and Intruder Alarm, and the goal of the deck is to be able to create this kind of board state consistently.
Once you've achieved the board state where you can start swamping your board presence while consistently drawing cards, you're in a great position to win.
Turns 6+ This is the time when you've disrupted your opponents' key plays, possibly eliminated one of them through Defender Aggro (courtesy of Arcades), and you've set yourself up for mana advantage. This is when you want to deploy your combo pieces and start looking to aggressively close out the game. It's possible that you might experience a Wrath effect at this time, setting you back a couple of turns in board development. Never fear though! Arcades understands the fear that his mighty Walls command and has counseled you to keep some Defenders in reserve. If this Wrath occurs, get Arcades back out and cast some new Defenders to regain card advantage again.
Eventually, you'll find the opportunity you need in order to get your combo pieces into play to then infinitely recycle your creatures, create infinite mana, and draw your deck. Once you've drawn your deck and have achieved infinite mana, you'll win the game with the Win Conditions described below.
The primary combo lines in this deck, when I initially designed it, to depend on Paradox Engine, now that this card is dead we rely primarily on Intruder Alarm and High Alert to untap our mana dorks. The basic idea is that you play out a bunch of mana dorks and mana walls in order to create a situation where you net mana for each creature that enters the battlefield with Intruder Alarm while drawing a card with Arcades' draw trigger to keep casting spells. Cloudstone Curio and Temur Sabertooth ensure that you can keep recycling the Defender creatures to draw through your deck. There are also combos with Aluren and Cloudstone Curio and there is, of course, the unique and slightly hilarious Wall of Kelp + Axebane Guardian + Intruder Alarm combo. There are plenty of lines to go infinite in some form or fashion and the decklist is designed so as to maximize the chances and opportunities of executing an infinite combo and winning the game. Eventually, you will hopefully draw into a tutor that allows you to recycle creatures and begin looping the creatures indefinitely to draw your deck and create infinite mana.
Combo Setup #1
Intruder Alarm + Cloudstone Curio + mana dorks/mana walls/mana rocks + another creature= infinite mana
Temur Sabertooth + Intruder Alarm + mana dorks/mana walls = infinite mana
Intruder Alarm + Quicksilver Wall + mana dorks/mana walls/mana rocks = infinite mana
Combo Setup #4
Aluren + Cloudstone Curio + two Defender creature cards with CMC <=3 + Arcades, the Strategist = infinite draw
Combo Setup #5
Wall of Kelp + Axebane Guardian + Intruder Alarm = infinite mana and infinite Kelp walls
Combo Setup #6
AxeBane Guardian + High Alert + 4 other defenders = infinite mana
Infinite Mana Outlets
There are several ways to win with infinite mana with your deck in hand via Arcades' triggers. These two are the most compact conditions that also win on different angles. There's also the ability to activate Shaman of Forgotten Ways after doing a one-sided board wipe, but that's a rare occurrence more often than not.
Wall of Lost Thoughts - with one of the looping engines in the deck, you will be able to mill every single one of your opponents' decks away. Barring some sort of Eldrazi-like trigger, they'll all die during their draw steps.
Beast Within + Reality Shift + Eternal Witness/Mnemonic Wall - nicknamed the Reality Within Combo, this sequence of cards requires both infinite mana and infinite recycling of a creatures, but allows you to mill out your opponents and remove their permanents from the game. To explain this a little more clearly (assuming you have infinite mana AND infinite recycling of creatures), you Beast Within an opponent's permanent. With the infinite recycling of creatures and infinite mana, you then pick up Beast Within via Eternal Witness or Mnemonic Wall. Repeat this process until every permanent your opponents control is now a Beast token. Then, target a Beast token with Reality Shift. It will exile the Beast token and manifest the top card of your opponent's library. Recur the Reality Shift via Witness/Mnemonic Wall and target the newly created Manifest token. Repeat this until all of your opponents' tokens have been exiled and every card in their libraries have been exiled. Pass your turn and each of your opponents will die on their draw step.
Special thanks to @benjameenbear as this was originally his primer. With the move to MTGNexus, he was going to shelf Arcades hower I have taken over this primer as he is one of my favourite commanders. Next, I'd like to thank the many posters on this thread. All of your ideas and suggestions have been examined and given serious thought. I'd like to especially thank @darrenhabib for your suggestions. They've been most useful in the development of this deck to its current iteration.
I'd also like to thank you, dear reader! This Primer is meant to be a resource for you and I hope that it's been useful for you in helping you develop your own Arcades deck. He can be a cunning and overlooked Commander, but I believe that Arcades packs a lot of power behind his exciting abilities.
2019-09-06 - Removed Deadeye Navigator and Added Wall of Stolen Identity
2019-10-02 - Removed Wall of Tanglecord and Added Crashing Drawbridge
2019-10-09 - Updated benjameenbear's Alt deck list with last known revision. - Removed paradox engine and added Crashing Drawbridge to make the deck legal.
2019-11-07 - Removed Eldrazi Displace and Genesis. Slotted back in Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive and Profaner of the Dead