This is now the second time an upping the Average video has left me speechless. I am owning a Feather and an Arcades Deck. When the Feather video came out I was like "I will take a look at this video, but I am sure there is nothing for me to take away, my Feather deck is already perfect." - After watching the video, I almost completely overhauled my creature base for that deck. And now again with Arcades I was like "I have an Arcades Deck for almost 2 years now, surely there is no card I have overlooked." - Now I am sitting here, swapping out my more expensive walls for an overall build that is lower to the ground. I think what i want to say is this: "KEEP UP THE EXCELLENT WORK AND VIDEOS. THERE ARE AWESOME!"
I just pulled an Arcade out of my Time Spiral Remastered box and suddenly this video popped up in my suggested list. Algorithm...you savvy bastard, you've done me another solid.
On the topic of 2 mana ramp spells for Arcades, I think there's something also to be said for the extra land to hand being somewhat redundant for his card draw ability, since you're likely to have your hand full or mostly full from playing your creatures, meaning you're less likely to miss a land drop until much later.
Arcades is my number two or three behind definitely Aminatou, maybe Locust God. So happy he got an episode! (And I feel proud of myself for having a lot of the upgrades already added!)
Two cards I like to use in my Arcades deck are Return to the Ranks and Aurification. Return to the Ranks is great for those wraths that do manage to clear your board. And Aurification is great for reeking havoc on your opponents attack strategies.
I got myself an Arcades immediately after it was released. Took me almost 3 years to build it due to lack of priority/attention and finally sleeved it up for a game DAYS ago. To see this pop up on TH-cam today, it's as if the dragon gods have something to tell me.
ARCADES PLAYER HERE! I'd like to nominate Treefolk Umbra (thank you Modern Horizons) as a way to make Arcades into a proper Elder Dragon of old - making him hit for 7 each time! The Totem Armor is relevant a LOT!! GREAT JOB ON THE EPISODE!! 🙏🔥
I agree with most of your cuts, but getting rid of Tree of Redemption is crazy. Sure, it's the top of your curve, but oh what a curve topper is is! Can it get chumped? Sure, but so can the rest of your walls, unless you have Tetsuko or another unblockable enabler, or you just wiped the board, both of which are things this deck should be shooting for. And the added versatility of potentially being able to turn it into a 40/40 or heal yourself back up to 13 (or more) in a pinch can occasionally come in clutch.
it's very telegraphed and slow so I wouldn't expect this to do much more than a 2 mana wall most of the time. that being said, the plays you can do could be epic and worth just for that one time you pull it off and have a story to tell!
@@selkokieli843 the potential 40/40 is very telegraphed and slow, but even if you're not going for that, it's still a 13/13 that draws you a card on ETB for only 4 mana! And you're most likely running several ways to untap Axebane Guardian, which will work just as well on this, so it might not be as telegraphed as you'd expect...
I agree with you. I have in my arcades deck Huatli, the Sun's Heart So I tap at T2 to get it to 40/40 just to instantly regain my 40 life points and you can combo it with Nykthos Paragon so you get them to 40/80 or even better tab before battle and use Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus or Unnatural Growth green is an easy ramp in this deck thanks to Overgrown Battlement Vine Tralis etc. and with Freed From The Realm you can untab the big mana creature again for a single mana or untap on of our big defender.
I just started building this deck because I wanted to start building more casual decks. Arcades just seems powerful but fair! EDIT: I was looking through all my commons and uncommons and found "Intervene" from Urza's Legacy. For U it counters a spell that targets any creature. I felt that this was super good for protecting Arcades, and is 60x cheaper than Swan Song.
I'm fond of Wall of Nets. While it needs to block in order to exile something there are enough ways to give things vigilance in Arcades or even block while tapped that's not much of an issue. I've leaned into the infinite mana generation with Helix Pinnacle and also included Approach of the Second Sun. I needed those alternate win conditions based on the number of taxing decks I seem to play against.
I highly recommend Song of Freyalise as a budget add. It’ll help you with your early speed, lets you recast a 6- or 8-mana Arcades, and lets you attack with impunity after its third chapter.
Just as I've been making a Defender/Arcades deck, this showed me some interesting strategies I can use to fully round out the deck. Not sure how I feel about Angelic Chorus or Tree of Redemption leaving the deck, but everyone plays differently.
Lifegain is not necessary in EDH and if you want as good 'pure beatdown' defenders I personally recommend Hover Barrier (lower toughness but Flying helps way more than huge power) and Wall of Denial (Flying AND Shroud with 8 toughness makes it an absolute unit for 3 mana)
@@KingKoral I already have those in the deck. I also chalk up my love of lifelink to 60 card decks which usually does me wonders, but with more life, it does seem somewhat unnecessary.
So I’ve been running the utility walls, even at the cost of one less toughness. Because I have support cards that show up and surprise my opponents like Archetype of Imagination and Keeper of Keys. Game ending.
Teyo is a meta call I think. If your local meta has a lot of stuff that targets players, keep Teyo in the deck. This would be things like Tinybones discard, Rosheen Meanderer X spells, or Zaffai spellslinger.
I absolutely love the changes you've made to Arcades, the Strategist deck, but I have to ask about why you did not include Hornet Nest in your upgrades? It has defender, can produce a ton of 1/1 flyers with defender and deathtouch (depending on which creature you block) and it's price is still under a dollar. As for it's mana cost, it's 2g which should fit into the mana curve nicely.
Gotta shake my head at the inclusion of Sakura-Tribe when Ulvenwald Captive is a card and does not seem to currently be in the deck. Other major cards I'd recommend is just more fliers. Large ground creatures are just SO much more likely to be stoped than flying ones and I'd happily pay an extra mana if it means I'm attacking in the air. And what better way to do that than with Wall of Air and Monastery Flock.
I can't recommand The Pride of Hull Clade enough. All you need is maybe two, at tops three, other defenders on the field and suddenly the 2/15 costs only 1 green to cast! It does have a pretty nice draw effect as well.
I'd like to see it, as it was my first commander deck, but having learned quite a bit from then, I'm not sure it'd be that great, except for my own personal nostalgia. Since the average Alesha deck is pretty focused on Aristocrats, but I honestly feel like Aristocrats is the wrong direction for an Alesha deck, since I feel Aristocrats needs one of three aspects in the command zone: cheap creature fodder, a sac outlet or benefits off of creature death. Certain force multipliers can get around that, like Teysa, but I don't feel like Alesha is at that point. So to get a good Alesha deck, I feel you'd need to replace so much of the average deck, in favor of something like an infect or token theme, that it wouldn't work well for upping the average.
@@GroundThing I just want to see it because I am trying to build every single mardu commander (except generic partners) at a power level 6 to 7, or higher, and since Alesha started it all I want her deck to be as competitive as possible
@@francescognerre2408 Fair enough, though I feel like the best way to do that would be to just go to edhrec and filter for infect. I know it's taboo, but you're not in Triumph of the Hordes colors, at least, and I feel like the best option for Alesha is to run her as Infect.
Surprised that seeming nobody’s brought up Wall of Kelp yet! It’s rather pricy for a wall, but it’s easily one of the most synergistic cards with Arcades if you can afford it. Aura Shards is another fantastic, if expensive, include, and Sidar Kondo is a great honorary wall, effectively making your walls fly.
sidar kondo seems neat, though odric might just be better. most times when you can attack you will have arcades to copy flying and will also net vigilance and many other keywords among your creatures.
A few personal comments about the deck: - I would cut Mnemonic Wall from the deck, 5 mana for small wall is not good enough; and its ETB is very limited, the deck doesn't run enough instant/sorcery worth recurring to make this card worth it. - Remove all the lands which comes into play tapped: gates, fetches... etc... The deck has green to fix its color and the cost of having a land etb-ing tapped is really high considering how low the mana curve is. Any lands which enters tapped coz a loss of momentum for the deck. - I would remove few vanilla walls, and add some low CMC counter spells to the deck (negate, flusterstorm, swan song if available); counter spells will remain this deck's best defense. - A less budget card also worth adding if you have it: Heroic Intervention - Ghostly Flicker is also an underrated cards here; it will draw you an average of 2 to 3 cards at instant speed; can draw you up to 8 cards (bouncing 2 draw-walls with your command and Teferi's Ageless Insight on board) AND has the flexibility of being able to protect your commander when targeted by a kill spell. Finally, my craziest point: Cutting out Cyclonic Rift!!! Yeah I know this is crazy but: - It cost 7 mana to overload, when you're going to spend most of your mana casting walls. - It cannot target your side to protect your commander or replay a wall. Basically, you really don't need a third expensive board wipes; you will likely be the threat on the tables, so it's better to pack protection. Keep cyclonic rift for a deck which will really benefit from it!
I made a shoved together version of this deck yesterday and I had a blast piloting it. By turn 4 I hit someone for 18gm out of no where. It was ridiculous.
I really like this, its interesting to see what Walls you kept. Im surprised War of the spark Huatli isnt here, as it is also a nice backup option for your creatures to at least block with effectiveness and synergizes. I know price restrictions are huge in these, but a recommendation for certain should be Venser, the Sojouner.
Quite similar to my Arcades deck. After trying several tactics I came to realize that it has to strike first, hard and with no mercy. So I cut most of the higher costs and I gave priority to the cheaper flying walls. I have more counters and other reacktions in mine tho, you need to keep Arcades alive.
i think you're 100% correct. arcades and edric work so much better when they are highly min-maxed but I wonder how fast I would grow bored of playing same every game. play commander, protect commander, play your dudes to draw more, repeat and attack for the win. if commander is dealt with, do mostly nothing. my question to you is: do you get fatigue for playing like this and have you found any interesting ways to spice it up? or maybe you just enjoy playing very similar games, nothing wrong with that of course. after all every situation is always a little different in edh games anyway
@@selkokieli843 I have many decks and I don't usually repeat them, specially if I had a very good game and I steamrolled some of my opponents. That said, I do favor combat based decks despite (or maybe because) them not being the most powerful strategy. I really enjoy that gameplay because it is heavily interactive and you force players to adapt to your game. Even if the deck is really consistent and plays mostly the same every time, the fact that you need to get through combat makes it more interesting. I had a few decks that played just in their corner of the table, trying not to get noticed until you combo off, declare yourself the winner and everybody scoop. It doesn't feel rewarding at all.
@@JuQmadrid Very well said. those are things that I find myself doing and enjoying as well. I usually min-max my decks quite highly so it's important to find some variance. my aggro decks are Grenzo havoc raiser that plays with opponents cards and Derevi which has a number of different pay-offs for tokens. My favorite sit in the corner deck casts a large Villainous wealth which always hits something different and players don't always scoop. combat is such an underexplored territory in multiplayer games. I've been trying to introduce very basic mutual benefit tactics like having people with creatures call one-round-at-a-time truces to attack a player who hasn't any creatures without fear of another player retaliating. tactics like this become very useful when playing combat based decks without craterhoof-effects. I've found that with lower powered decks such as precons, games have a lot more meaningful decisions because you can't ignore everyone until you have the win but have to work with your opponents. those kinds of games have become my favorites to play.
Wall of tears is also good. 2 mana for a 0/4 wall that returns a creature he blocked means bye bye to a big token or you have to start all over again equipping your voltron creature and if by any chance enchantments are used on that creature well hello graveyard for them when the creature is returned to hand. A good wall for saying are you sure you want to attack me with that? Hehe
Arcades needs a lot of defense for himself for as cheap as possible. Look these up to give him hexproof or shroud for 1 or 2 mana: - Robe of Mirrors - Diplomatic Immunity - Alexi’s Cloak And there are some good ones in green too.
Replace Teferi's Ageless Insight with Panharmonicon, so you get all your ETBs doubled and not just card draws. Easier to cast it with 4 generic mana instead of 2 and 2 blue.
I have a pramikon sky rampart walls deck. It is awesome. My attacks are made with various Phoenix creatures. I have high alert, but that is the backup strat.
I'm not an Arcades player so I'll leave the more knowledgeable to comment on the card selections. I just really enjoyed this episode. I also liked the minor changes to the intro. I'd welcome you mixing up all your content a bit more.
Sakura tribe as remplacement of three visit because three is expensive is fine but what about nature lore. Thats a three visit but more accessible (print in so many version) and only 1-2$
I play this Commander since its release. Neat! I included Aesi, Azusa, Chulane and collector ouphe. Unified will, Beast whisperer and Seijiri shelter are must have . You absolutely don’t want to play the boots and kodama reach/cultivate.
i dont like maindecking meekstone unless im going all in on a stasis style deck. it just doesnt seem to do enough on its own as an incidental one-sided effect
Cut all mana rocks, they are terrible to draw late. Add more walls and keep them low cmc, ie 1-2CC. Run ghostway and eerie interlude, particularly with Mnemonic wall. When the walls re-enter, you will draw cards with Arcades. Aura shards is boss in this deck, especially with the mass blink effects listed previously.
Three payoffs I use are Assault Formation, Finale of Devastation, and Walking Archive. I originally had Walking Ballista instead of Archive but I wanted the defender payoff instead.
Hey so I’m relatively new to commander and I mostly play with my family. Does your commander count as in your hand? A card had an additional cost of revealing a dragon, he said arcades is a dragon. But I thought the commander zone is separate from your hand?
I personally believe there needs to be more defenders in the deck. Around 38-40. These play a creature draw a card. I really believe its better not to get stuck. I also have panharmonicon and dragon throne of tarkir
How many lands are you running and what is your interaction package? Sure you are a good deal more likely to chain walls together per turn but after 40 defenders and like maybe 34 lands, that leaves 26 cards for wipes, spot removal, other utility etc and that sounds so risky lol.
@@DarkX64 I'm running 36 lands, 42 creatures including arcades and isperia, supreme judge, 2 protection for arcades, 5 board wipes, 2 board wipe protection, panharmonicon and Conjurer's closet, 1 combat trick, assault formation and high alert, 3 spot removal and six ramp not including creatures. I actually decided to take out dragon throne of tarkir and I'm thinking of taking out isperia.
A group of friends and I are doing a 25 dollar or less edh. The budget includes the commander, but not basic lands (kinda like a command quarters thing). I picked this guy to be my commander. Still tinkering with it, but I am excited with what you get for 25 bucks with this deck. To be honest it looks like a scary deck so far.
@@shamtactics4712 actually orator of ojutai doesn't only check the hand, but also checks if you controlled a dragon as you cast it. so even if they kill arcades in response you still draw 1 card
I tried a similar deck with Doran, however his and Arcades' main ability isn't strong enough to bring them into top tier decks, and wins will be rare with either of them.
Wondering if anyone knows, but it would seem that eerie interlude wouldn't let you card draw right? If you're using it to protect arcades from a board wipe, then they'd all return at the same time before arcades effect is on the battlefield, no?
Guess I'm just pure evil y'all. I have triumph of the hoard in my deck🤷. I won a tournament with the deck so yah my group doesn't like seeing what I call jericho come out to play haha.
I still don't understand why it's any better to have a bunch of lower cmc walls (okay obviously they get replaced and more means harder to kill) than to have a bigger wall with a higher cmc. Hear me out, if you haven't cast arcades, then those small walls eat up resources without getting replaced so it's a given we have arcades however that means a 3 mana or even four mana wall is not too high to cast. So if smaller walls seem like the better deal then it's the overall toughness you are getting not the drawing more cards. To put this into a more clear example effectively you are saying that a deck of cantriping walls is better than a deck of harder hitting walls that cantrip as well.
Don't understand why u like Ghostway over Eerie Interlude. As I understand it Ghostway won't draw you any cards because it also targets your commander, or am I misunderstanding something? Whereas with Eerie Interlude u can chose to target all creatures but your commander. Also, with Cosmic Intervention, you're saying 'it will draw you a bunch of cards'. What do you mean? Will it not just draw you 1 card, or max 2 if you target something like Wall of Omens?
Eerie Interlude is already in the deck, so Ghostway is suggested as an additional option, not a replacement. When Arcades enters at the same time as other Walls, he sees all those entrances and draws a card per Wall.
Where's the rest of that protection? once your friends see how much arcades does and how little the deck does without him you're gonna have a very hard time keeping him alive. I run a Bruna light of Alabaster deck that has a dozen protective auras with some of them having flash. Bruna is simply unplayable if you can't sneak hexproof on her the same turn she comes down. When everything hangs on your commander, it needs to stick. especially Arcades who needs to be at play before you play your walls
Chulane is a good include. I throw in Teferi's Ageless Insight too. You are drawing loads of cards, Cultivate is better. Who cares if you play Arcades turn 4? You want to protect him anyway - this isn't CEDH
I’m sorry friend but I disagree with your deck tech this time. I played hundreds of games with this bad boy and you almost never want to cast it asap unless you run 0 mana interactions. You want to first starts an engine as he will get targeted a lot. 1 - You want 40+ creatures to maximize Beast whisperer, Guardian project and aura shards => run wood elves and STE ramp instead of spells or rocks. 2 - Since you draw a lot, you want to be able to play Exploration’s style cards, so Aesi, Azusa, Chulane... Those are fantastic in the deck. 3 - Don’t play the boots. Just don’t, please. Protect your board with counterspells and more importantly Eerie interlude and Ghostway. Even Selfless spirit. 4 - Don’t play the 5 mana board wipe, keep it low. And return to the ranks is your best backup. 5 - Play 41-43 lands. 6 - You absolutely don’t play any 4 mana walls, even jungle barrier or wall of stolen identity. 7 - Btw ondu inversion is good in the deck.
What the heck are you doing by putting azusa and aesir in the deck. The man's already explained he's going aggro. Those are the least aggro cards available in simic. The boots are useful because they are on board constant protection. Sure a counter will defend you but once. Same with spirit, that is honestly not very good here since he has not many sinergies.
@@plain6677 Well that's how you play it but that doesn't mean he can't be aggro. I also have an arcades deck and the thing is very fast, being basically an edric on steroids. The difference between not swinging right away and amassing a board to ko someone two turns from playing arcades is very short. My curve is very tight and not as good as the one showed here but it stills kills people fairly fast compared to my other decks. And I have quite a variety of decks.
@@oom-3262 Yes it could be an aggro deck (mine was actually like that before) but imo in this case it needs chrome mox, wild growth, cheaper ramp in general and no big walls - which is not the case in the list shown in this video. The aggro strategy could work just fine but I couldn’t win with the deck built this way.
Palladia-Mors is female. The other four originally printed in Legends are all male. In the old lore, Piru was a sixth elder dragon and was colorless, but she and Chromium were summoned by a demonic planeswalker and Piru was killed in battle against Dakkon Blackblade. Much later, they added Ugin and another sister of the elder dragons, Merrevia Sal, who was killed by a hunting party after trying to steal meat from them.
As a long time arcades player, you nailed it!
Tetsuko Umezawa and Sidar Kondo can make your walls unblockable!
That card is already in the deck.
DEAR GOD
This is now the second time an upping the Average video has left me speechless.
I am owning a Feather and an Arcades Deck. When the Feather video came out I was like "I will take a look at this video, but I am sure there is nothing for me to take away, my Feather deck is already perfect." - After watching the video, I almost completely overhauled my creature base for that deck. And now again with Arcades I was like "I have an Arcades Deck for almost 2 years now, surely there is no card I have overlooked." - Now I am sitting here, swapping out my more expensive walls for an overall build that is lower to the ground.
I think what i want to say is this: "KEEP UP THE EXCELLENT WORK AND VIDEOS. THERE ARE AWESOME!"
Nothing is ever perfect and there is always something to learn :)
I am so happy my pet commander got an episode 😭
I am an Arcades player and I really love your changes to the list, I will try them of course
I just pulled an Arcade out of my Time Spiral Remastered box and suddenly this video popped up in my suggested list. Algorithm...you savvy bastard, you've done me another solid.
On the topic of 2 mana ramp spells for Arcades, I think there's something also to be said for the extra land to hand being somewhat redundant for his card draw ability, since you're likely to have your hand full or mostly full from playing your creatures, meaning you're less likely to miss a land drop until much later.
Arcades is my number two or three behind definitely Aminatou, maybe Locust God. So happy he got an episode! (And I feel proud of myself for having a lot of the upgrades already added!)
Two cards I like to use in my Arcades deck are Return to the Ranks and Aurification. Return to the Ranks is great for those wraths that do manage to clear your board. And Aurification is great for reeking havoc on your opponents attack strategies.
I got myself an Arcades immediately after it was released. Took me almost 3 years to build it due to lack of priority/attention and finally sleeved it up for a game DAYS ago. To see this pop up on TH-cam today, it's as if the dragon gods have something to tell me.
ARCADES PLAYER HERE!
I'd like to nominate Treefolk Umbra (thank you Modern Horizons) as a way to make Arcades into a proper Elder Dragon of old - making him hit for 7 each time! The Totem Armor is relevant a LOT!!
GREAT JOB ON THE EPISODE!! 🙏🔥
well, that doesnt work, unless you have card enabling him deal dmg equal to his toughness..
@@BizzareBizonTreefolk Umbra does just that!! :)
I agree with most of your cuts, but getting rid of Tree of Redemption is crazy. Sure, it's the top of your curve, but oh what a curve topper is is! Can it get chumped? Sure, but so can the rest of your walls, unless you have Tetsuko or another unblockable enabler, or you just wiped the board, both of which are things this deck should be shooting for. And the added versatility of potentially being able to turn it into a 40/40 or heal yourself back up to 13 (or more) in a pinch can occasionally come in clutch.
it's very telegraphed and slow so I wouldn't expect this to do much more than a 2 mana wall most of the time. that being said, the plays you can do could be epic and worth just for that one time you pull it off and have a story to tell!
@@selkokieli843 the potential 40/40 is very telegraphed and slow, but even if you're not going for that, it's still a 13/13 that draws you a card on ETB for only 4 mana! And you're most likely running several ways to untap Axebane Guardian, which will work just as well on this, so it might not be as telegraphed as you'd expect...
I agree with you. I have in my arcades deck
Huatli, the Sun's Heart
So I tap at T2 to get it to 40/40 just to instantly regain my 40 life points and you can combo it with
Nykthos Paragon
so you get them to 40/80 or even better tab before battle and use
Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus
or
Unnatural Growth
green is an easy ramp in this deck thanks to Overgrown Battlement Vine Tralis etc. and with Freed From The Realm you can untab the big mana creature again for a single mana or untap on of our big defender.
I wish you would make an update on this 😭
I just started building this deck because I wanted to start building more casual decks. Arcades just seems powerful but fair!
EDIT: I was looking through all my commons and uncommons and found "Intervene" from Urza's Legacy. For U it counters a spell that targets any creature. I felt that this was super good for protecting Arcades, and is 60x cheaper than Swan Song.
Nissa, Steward of elements is a beast in this deck
I'm fond of Wall of Nets. While it needs to block in order to exile something there are enough ways to give things vigilance in Arcades or even block while tapped that's not much of an issue. I've leaned into the infinite mana generation with Helix Pinnacle and also included Approach of the Second Sun. I needed those alternate win conditions based on the number of taxing decks I seem to play against.
flashing in Masako the Humorless or just untap all your guys for the block seems like a lot of fun!
If there wasn't any price restriction..... How is AURA SHARDS... not in this list?????
This commander is sooooo strong and reliable ! It always performs except if you remove it instantly all the time. Such a powerhouse !
Thanks for the shoutout! Love this video. Gonna have to check my current list now...
I highly recommend Song of Freyalise as a budget add. It’ll help you with your early speed, lets you recast a 6- or 8-mana Arcades, and lets you attack with impunity after its third chapter.
And: I cut Sol Ring. I know, blasphemy.
@@reubenbresler8941 Sol ring is boring and way too much played. I tend to avoid it whenever I have green colors.
@@reubenbresler8941 I would recommend cutting sol ring for wayfarers bauble. It’s helps you get the right land to cast arcades IMO
I personally have Aluren in my Arcades deck to throw out all my walls for free. Kinda glad I picked it up when I did before it's price shot up.....
These videos are the best deck techs out there by far
Just as I've been making a Defender/Arcades deck, this showed me some interesting strategies I can use to fully round out the deck.
Not sure how I feel about Angelic Chorus or Tree of Redemption leaving the deck, but everyone plays differently.
Lifegain is not necessary in EDH and if you want as good 'pure beatdown' defenders I personally recommend Hover Barrier (lower toughness but Flying helps way more than huge power) and Wall of Denial (Flying AND Shroud with 8 toughness makes it an absolute unit for 3 mana)
@@KingKoral I already have those in the deck.
I also chalk up my love of lifelink to 60 card decks which usually does me wonders, but with more life, it does seem somewhat unnecessary.
So I’ve been running the utility walls, even at the cost of one less toughness. Because I have support cards that show up and surprise my opponents like Archetype of Imagination and Keeper of Keys. Game ending.
Great ideas, thank u. My arcades commander deck needed a reboot.
Consider adding in Reconnaissance; it's a 1 mana pseudo-vigilance (arguably, BETTER than plain vigilance) on a stick. What's not to love?
Teyo is a meta call I think. If your local meta has a lot of stuff that targets players, keep Teyo in the deck. This would be things like Tinybones discard, Rosheen Meanderer X spells, or Zaffai spellslinger.
I absolutely love the changes you've made to Arcades, the Strategist deck, but I have to ask about why you did not include Hornet Nest in your upgrades? It has defender, can produce a ton of 1/1 flyers with defender and deathtouch (depending on which creature you block) and it's price is still under a dollar. As for it's mana cost, it's 2g which should fit into the mana curve nicely.
I was wondering the same thing.
Wall of Glare has saved my ass many times. Great vid
Gotta shake my head at the inclusion of Sakura-Tribe when Ulvenwald Captive is a card and does not seem to currently be in the deck. Other major cards I'd recommend is just more fliers. Large ground creatures are just SO much more likely to be stoped than flying ones and I'd happily pay an extra mana if it means I'm attacking in the air. And what better way to do that than with Wall of Air and Monastery Flock.
I'm surprised you didn't shout out Tetsuko Umezawa As one of the best cards in the deck!
Literally a wincon
Just cracked an Arcades in TSR. Looking forward to this deck tech!
You know you can put Chulane in this deck, I do!
I can't recommand The Pride of Hull Clade enough. All you need is maybe two, at tops three, other defenders on the field and suddenly the 2/15 costs only 1 green to cast! It does have a pretty nice draw effect as well.
Can you do Alesha, who smiles at death, for upping the average?
I'd like to see it, as it was my first commander deck, but having learned quite a bit from then, I'm not sure it'd be that great, except for my own personal nostalgia. Since the average Alesha deck is pretty focused on Aristocrats, but I honestly feel like Aristocrats is the wrong direction for an Alesha deck, since I feel Aristocrats needs one of three aspects in the command zone: cheap creature fodder, a sac outlet or benefits off of creature death. Certain force multipliers can get around that, like Teysa, but I don't feel like Alesha is at that point. So to get a good Alesha deck, I feel you'd need to replace so much of the average deck, in favor of something like an infect or token theme, that it wouldn't work well for upping the average.
@@GroundThing I just want to see it because I am trying to build every single mardu commander (except generic partners) at a power level 6 to 7, or higher, and since Alesha started it all I want her deck to be as competitive as possible
@@francescognerre2408 Fair enough, though I feel like the best way to do that would be to just go to edhrec and filter for infect. I know it's taboo, but you're not in Triumph of the Hordes colors, at least, and I feel like the best option for Alesha is to run her as Infect.
wish granted lol
Surprised that seeming nobody’s brought up Wall of Kelp yet! It’s rather pricy for a wall, but it’s easily one of the most synergistic cards with Arcades if you can afford it. Aura Shards is another fantastic, if expensive, include, and Sidar Kondo is a great honorary wall, effectively making your walls fly.
I agree, I love Wall of Kelp. However, I think it’s more at home in the combo arcades build.
sidar kondo seems neat, though odric might just be better. most times when you can attack you will have arcades to copy flying and will also net vigilance and many other keywords among your creatures.
A few personal comments about the deck:
- I would cut Mnemonic Wall from the deck, 5 mana for small wall is not good enough; and its ETB is very limited, the deck doesn't run enough instant/sorcery worth recurring to make this card worth it.
- Remove all the lands which comes into play tapped: gates, fetches... etc... The deck has green to fix its color and the cost of having a land etb-ing tapped is really high considering how low the mana curve is. Any lands which enters tapped coz a loss of momentum for the deck.
- I would remove few vanilla walls, and add some low CMC counter spells to the deck (negate, flusterstorm, swan song if available); counter spells will remain this deck's best defense.
- A less budget card also worth adding if you have it: Heroic Intervention
- Ghostly Flicker is also an underrated cards here; it will draw you an average of 2 to 3 cards at instant speed; can draw you up to 8 cards (bouncing 2 draw-walls with your command and Teferi's Ageless Insight on board) AND has the flexibility of being able to protect your commander when targeted by a kill spell.
Finally, my craziest point: Cutting out Cyclonic Rift!!!
Yeah I know this is crazy but:
- It cost 7 mana to overload, when you're going to spend most of your mana casting walls.
- It cannot target your side to protect your commander or replay a wall.
Basically, you really don't need a third expensive board wipes; you will likely be the threat on the tables, so it's better to pack protection.
Keep cyclonic rift for a deck which will really benefit from it!
Agreed on Cyclonic Rift. I mean, you're already running 4-6 other, cheaper one-sided board wipes. Do you really want to waste 7 mana on one?
This is strangely good timing as I had an interest in a build involving this guy. 🤔
I made a shoved together version of this deck yesterday and I had a blast piloting it. By turn 4 I hit someone for 18gm out of no where. It was ridiculous.
I guess you can say that this commander can pack quite the "Wall-up" 😁😂😂
I finally have this commander rebuilt.
I really like this, its interesting to see what Walls you kept. Im surprised War of the spark Huatli isnt here, as it is also a nice backup option for your creatures to at least block with effectiveness and synergizes. I know price restrictions are huge in these, but a recommendation for certain should be Venser, the Sojouner.
As a player of this master of butts, wild pair. You gotta do extra work as you have to make sure you have pairs for it, but man, it does wonders.
That and Lurking Predators
Quite similar to my Arcades deck. After trying several tactics I came to realize that it has to strike first, hard and with no mercy. So I cut most of the higher costs and I gave priority to the cheaper flying walls. I have more counters and other reacktions in mine tho, you need to keep Arcades alive.
i think you're 100% correct. arcades and edric work so much better when they are highly min-maxed but I wonder how fast I would grow bored of playing same every game. play commander, protect commander, play your dudes to draw more, repeat and attack for the win. if commander is dealt with, do mostly nothing.
my question to you is: do you get fatigue for playing like this and have you found any interesting ways to spice it up? or maybe you just enjoy playing very similar games, nothing wrong with that of course. after all every situation is always a little different in edh games anyway
@@selkokieli843 I have many decks and I don't usually repeat them, specially if I had a very good game and I steamrolled some of my opponents.
That said, I do favor combat based decks despite (or maybe because) them not being the most powerful strategy. I really enjoy that gameplay because it is heavily interactive and you force players to adapt to your game.
Even if the deck is really consistent and plays mostly the same every time, the fact that you need to get through combat makes it more interesting.
I had a few decks that played just in their corner of the table, trying not to get noticed until you combo off, declare yourself the winner and everybody scoop. It doesn't feel rewarding at all.
@@JuQmadrid Very well said. those are things that I find myself doing and enjoying as well.
I usually min-max my decks quite highly so it's important to find some variance. my aggro decks are Grenzo havoc raiser that plays with opponents cards and Derevi which has a number of different pay-offs for tokens. My favorite sit in the corner deck casts a large Villainous wealth which always hits something different and players don't always scoop.
combat is such an underexplored territory in multiplayer games. I've been trying to introduce very basic mutual benefit tactics like having people with creatures call one-round-at-a-time truces to attack a player who hasn't any creatures without fear of another player retaliating. tactics like this become very useful when playing combat based decks without craterhoof-effects.
I've found that with lower powered decks such as precons, games have a lot more meaningful decisions because you can't ignore everyone until you have the win but have to work with your opponents. those kinds of games have become my favorites to play.
Teyo has been a great help for me. I even packed my deck with more planeswalkers cuz i got enough walls to defend em :P
Wall of tears is also good. 2 mana for a 0/4 wall that returns a creature he blocked means bye bye to a big token or you have to start all over again equipping your voltron creature and if by any chance enchantments are used on that creature well hello graveyard for them when the creature is returned to hand. A good wall for saying are you sure you want to attack me with that? Hehe
For a long time I thought his nostrils were actually his eyes, and that made him look really silly.
Now the algorithm is sated.
Arcades needs a lot of defense for himself for as cheap as possible. Look these up to give him hexproof or shroud for 1 or 2 mana:
- Robe of Mirrors
- Diplomatic Immunity
- Alexi’s Cloak
And there are some good ones in green too.
Replace Teferi's Ageless Insight with Panharmonicon, so you get all your ETBs doubled and not just card draws. Easier to cast it with 4 generic mana instead of 2 and 2 blue.
Omg, all the wall puns 🤣
I have a pramikon sky rampart walls deck. It is awesome. My attacks are made with various Phoenix creatures. I have high alert, but that is the backup strat.
Can you do Brago, King Eternal? I would love to see him featured in this series.
Interesting stuff, thanks! Love my walking walls decks :) I chose to play some old walls like walking air and living wall for lols
I would love to see Arixmethes or Kesita
I'm not an Arcades player so I'll leave the more knowledgeable to comment on the card selections. I just really enjoyed this episode. I also liked the minor changes to the intro. I'd welcome you mixing up all your content a bit more.
Not relevant to the deck tech, but thst beard is clean AF Joey.
Sakura tribe as remplacement of three visit because three is expensive is fine but what about nature lore. Thats a three visit but more accessible (print in so many version) and only 1-2$
How can you improve on such perfect strategy?
It was made with draconic brilliance
Would love to see a Ghoulcaller Gisa video for upping the average.
Can you do a Upping the Average to the Partner Commander Pako and haldan?
i realy like to use enchantments in this deck, so i use cards like "true conviction" or "primal rage"
I play this Commander since its release. Neat! I included Aesi, Azusa, Chulane and collector ouphe. Unified will, Beast whisperer and Seijiri shelter are must have . You absolutely don’t want to play the boots and kodama reach/cultivate.
Would love to see Syr Gwyn next!!
i dont like maindecking meekstone unless im going all in on a stasis style deck. it just doesnt seem to do enough on its own as an incidental one-sided effect
I play scion of draco and Hutaali from WAR and they work pretty nice with this commander
Cut all mana rocks, they are terrible to draw late. Add more walls and keep them low cmc, ie 1-2CC. Run ghostway and eerie interlude, particularly with Mnemonic wall. When the walls re-enter, you will draw cards with Arcades. Aura shards is boss in this deck, especially with the mass blink effects listed previously.
I know it's not worth a slot, but wall of glare with ghostly posession on it defends really well lol
I may be two Years late... But the puns. I approve!
Joey = the best
Majority of my walls have evasion like flying and I cut majority of the walls on the ground.
Finally! My walls getting some airtime
Why stop at just adding boots, I might throw Neurok Stealthsuit in there too!
What's our payoff for the infinite mana? Should we be planning around it?
Three payoffs I use are Assault Formation, Finale of Devastation, and Walking Archive. I originally had Walking Ballista instead of Archive but I wanted the defender payoff instead.
Hey so I’m relatively new to commander and I mostly play with my family. Does your commander count as in your hand? A card had an additional cost of revealing a dragon, he said arcades is a dragon. But I thought the commander zone is separate from your hand?
Wall of Hope.
no wall of denial?
I really like mizzium skin, but is too narrow and is that why it does not show up in more arcades decks?
What are your thoughts on Dragon Throne of Tarkir? It turns Arcades into a 5/5 and after he's declared as an attacker, can overrun for 2 mana.
seems sweet but very win more = a fun and sometimes very effective casual edh card!
I personally believe there needs to be more defenders in the deck. Around 38-40. These play a creature draw a card. I really believe its better not to get stuck. I also have panharmonicon and dragon throne of tarkir
How many lands are you running and what is your interaction package? Sure you are a good deal more likely to chain walls together per turn but after 40 defenders and like maybe 34 lands, that leaves 26 cards for wipes, spot removal, other utility etc and that sounds so risky lol.
@@DarkX64 I'm running 36 lands, 42 creatures including arcades and isperia, supreme judge, 2 protection for arcades, 5 board wipes, 2 board wipe protection, panharmonicon and Conjurer's closet, 1 combat trick, assault formation and high alert, 3 spot removal and six ramp not including creatures.
I actually decided to take out dragon throne of tarkir and I'm thinking of taking out isperia.
A group of friends and I are doing a 25 dollar or less edh. The budget includes the commander, but not basic lands (kinda like a command quarters thing). I picked this guy to be my commander. Still tinkering with it, but I am excited with what you get for 25 bucks with this deck. To be honest it looks like a scary deck so far.
my only disagreement is with mentor of the meek, backup card draw engines are important
Orator of Ojutai doesn’t synergize to its max potential unless Arcades is in hand so that was my disagreement however it is a flyer for 2mana
@@shamtactics4712 actually orator of ojutai doesn't only check the hand, but also checks if you controlled a dragon as you cast it. so even if they kill arcades in response you still draw 1 card
@@JonathanHecht my bad I missed the last line of the card.
I feel a bit silly now since I just got towering titan as an upgrade for my arcades deck
Don't, it's a nice backup wincon when both arcades and high alert are not in play.
Don’t put in Three Visits, put in Natures Lore.. it does the same thing word for word at the same CMC.
Arcades player: Mwahahah look at all my walls I'm going to win next turn
Me on my turn: Slams down Siege Dragon
Not all creatures with defender are Walls, though. If Arcades is built right, some of those defenders will survive a Siege Dragon play.
Okay but tree of redemption is funny. I have managed to get off a life total swap, played tetsuko, and 1 shot someone lol
I'm a bit confused by the video, what do defenders do for us? They make us discard a card? That sounds terrible!
I tried a similar deck with Doran, however his and Arcades' main ability isn't strong enough to bring them into top tier decks, and wins will be rare with either of them.
Baunt? :)
Thoughts on including a Panharmonicon?
Wondering if anyone knows, but it would seem that eerie interlude wouldn't let you card draw right? If you're using it to protect arcades from a board wipe, then they'd all return at the same time before arcades effect is on the battlefield, no?
Looking like your bout to host blues clues
Guess I'm just pure evil y'all. I have triumph of the hoard in my deck🤷. I won a tournament with the deck so yah my group doesn't like seeing what I call jericho come out to play haha.
I have triumph in mine as well, but my build leans much closer to competitive than casual
@@AngelGraves21 lol good to know I'm not alone. I would say my build is very strong but not like kill the table turn 5 or anything most of the time 😅
I still don't understand why it's any better to have a bunch of lower cmc walls (okay obviously they get replaced and more means harder to kill) than to have a bigger wall with a higher cmc. Hear me out, if you haven't cast arcades, then those small walls eat up resources without getting replaced so it's a given we have arcades however that means a 3 mana or even four mana wall is not too high to cast. So if smaller walls seem like the better deal then it's the overall toughness you are getting not the drawing more cards. To put this into a more clear example effectively you are saying that a deck of cantriping walls is better than a deck of harder hitting walls that cantrip as well.
Me: My deck is perfect.
EDHRECast: Your deck could be better.
Me: My deck could be better.
shit I do have the pricey speels this time !!!
Don't understand why u like Ghostway over Eerie Interlude. As I understand it Ghostway won't draw you any cards because it also targets your commander, or am I misunderstanding something? Whereas with Eerie Interlude u can chose to target all creatures but your commander. Also, with Cosmic Intervention, you're saying 'it will draw you a bunch of cards'. What do you mean? Will it not just draw you 1 card, or max 2 if you target something like Wall of Omens?
Eerie Interlude is already in the deck, so Ghostway is suggested as an additional option, not a replacement.
When Arcades enters at the same time as other Walls, he sees all those entrances and draws a card per Wall.
@@EDHRECast Did not know that's how it worked, I'm quite new to the game. Thanks for the elaboration.
what you just nit rick and morty? waaaaaaait???
I feel like I should just stop asking for Lucia Sanquine Tribune as I have done it tons of episodes in a row
Where's the rest of that protection? once your friends see how much arcades does and how little the deck does without him you're gonna have a very hard time keeping him alive.
I run a Bruna light of Alabaster deck that has a dozen protective auras with some of them having flash. Bruna is simply unplayable if you can't sneak hexproof on her the same turn she comes down. When everything hangs on your commander, it needs to stick. especially Arcades who needs to be at play before you play your walls
Chulane is a good include. I throw in Teferi's Ageless Insight too.
You are drawing loads of cards, Cultivate is better. Who cares if you play Arcades turn 4? You want to protect him anyway - this isn't CEDH
I’m sorry friend but I disagree with your deck tech this time. I played hundreds of games with this bad boy and you almost never want to cast it asap unless you run 0 mana interactions. You want to first starts an engine as he will get targeted a lot.
1 - You want 40+ creatures to maximize Beast whisperer, Guardian project and aura shards => run wood elves and STE ramp instead of spells or rocks.
2 - Since you draw a lot, you want to be able to play Exploration’s style cards, so Aesi, Azusa, Chulane... Those are fantastic in the deck.
3 - Don’t play the boots. Just don’t, please. Protect your board with counterspells and more importantly Eerie interlude and Ghostway. Even Selfless spirit.
4 - Don’t play the 5 mana board wipe, keep it low. And return to the ranks is your best backup.
5 - Play 41-43 lands.
6 - You absolutely don’t play any 4 mana walls, even jungle barrier or wall of stolen identity.
7 - Btw ondu inversion is good in the deck.
What the heck are you doing by putting azusa and aesir in the deck. The man's already explained he's going aggro. Those are the least aggro cards available in simic.
The boots are useful because they are on board constant protection. Sure a counter will defend you but once. Same with spirit, that is honestly not very good here since he has not many sinergies.
I was thinking the same about boots.
@@oom-3262 up to you, just saying from someone who knows this deck, arcades is not aggro. you can’t attack with power before turn 5 or 6. Not aggro.
@@plain6677 Well that's how you play it but that doesn't mean he can't be aggro. I also have an arcades deck and the thing is very fast, being basically an edric on steroids. The difference between not swinging right away and amassing a board to ko someone two turns from playing arcades is very short. My curve is very tight and not as good as the one showed here but it stills kills people fairly fast compared to my other decks. And I have quite a variety of decks.
@@oom-3262 Yes it could be an aggro deck (mine was actually like that before) but imo in this case it needs chrome mox, wild growth, cheaper ramp in general and no big walls - which is not the case in the list shown in this video. The aggro strategy could work just fine but I couldn’t win with the deck built this way.
Wait Arcades is a he? I always thought arcades was a girl
Palladia-Mors is female. The other four originally printed in Legends are all male. In the old lore, Piru was a sixth elder dragon and was colorless, but she and Chromium were summoned by a demonic planeswalker and Piru was killed in battle against Dakkon Blackblade. Much later, they added Ugin and another sister of the elder dragons, Merrevia Sal, who was killed by a hunting party after trying to steal meat from them.