Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist

Legendary Creature — Kor Scout

At the beginning of combat on your turn, you may attach any number of Auras and Equipment you control to target permanent or player.

Partner (You can have two commanders if both have partner.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

Crow_Umbra on Ishhin Lv 5-6

6 months ago

Hi there, welcome to Tappedout and Isshin brewing. I saw your deck and thought I'd offer some suggestions. By the looks of your deck, you have an emphasis on utilizing equipment, but your creatures don't really support that too well.

I think it could be helpful to first determine if you want to have more of an emphasis on the equipment aspect, or go more creature heavy and open up more attack trigger shenangians that Isshin is capable of. A few general suggestions off the top:

• If you do decide to go more of the equipment route, I think it could be helpful to add stuff like Puresteel Paladin, Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist, or Sigarda's Aid, depending on your budget. Equipments can be mana intensive to cast, then equip. These types of effects can help you get around those Equip costs.

• I think you could drop (most) of the equipments, and instead go more creature heavy. Myriad creatures like Hammers of Moradin and Elturel Survivors are great in Isshin, since Myriad gets an additional trigger from him. Myriad creatures are all fairly budget friendly, with the exception of Battle Angels of Tyr

• The other great thing about Myriad and other effects that create creature tokens that enter tapped and attacking, is that you can combine them with enter the battlefield group slug damage like Impact Tremors and Witty Roastmaster. Additionally, Devilish Valet can be a serious beater that can outright kill opponents depending on how many creature tokens you pump out on your attack swings.

I hope these suggestions are a helpful starting point. I'd be happy to offer some additional feedback if you would like it. Isshin is one of my favorite commanders of the past year, so you're in for a fun time.

eliakimras on Wyleth, Boros Voltron

7 months ago

Hello fellow Wyleth, Soul of Card Draw player!

I'm glad you got both Wyleth's and Aesi's precons for a good price. They are reeeeally explosive in gameplay with a few upgrades.

I play a lot of this bad boy, and I want to suggest some swaps below 3 USD for you to take it to a higher ground:

First of all, the ramp. I found out that 2 CMC, untapped ramp is the best for Wyleth. Since he draws so many cards, he can chain rocks and voltron pieces in the same turn, so his next turn is even more explosive than the last one. I almost always have more mana than the Green decks in my pod.

• Oreskos Explorer -> Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip (you can get this to flip easily on turn 4)
• Kor Cartographer (too slow) -> Arcane Signet
• Emeria Shepherd (Voltron decks need a REALLY good reason to run cards above 3 mana in their builds) -> Starnheim Courser (this allows you to storm out of control. It is another body to voltron if needed)
• Keeper of the Accord (the token is irrelevant for you and, with Wyleth's card draw, you won't be behind in land drops) -> Talisman of Conviction

You should run boardwipes that hits your stuff the least:

• Tragic Arrogance (no need to destroy your own stuff) -> The Eternal Wanderer's ult
• Disenchant -> Heliod's Intervention
• Ironclad Slayer (we'll compensate him in the landbase) -> Vandalblast

Also, you can streamline your removal package. All of those are fetchable by Sunforger:

• Wear / Tear (good removal, but you already have more flexible options) -> Reprieve (that's one hell of a card to fetch out with Sunforger)
• Hyena Umbra (still vulnerable to exile and bounce effects) -> Blacksmith's Skill (all-around protection)

More/better auras and equipment

• Temur Battle Rage is a cute combat trick, but Battle Mastery is permanent and triggers Wyleth.

• Same to Reyav, Master Smith: one thing I've learned is to only rely on other card types for things Auras and Equipments can't do. All That Glitters, most of the time, performs better than him.

• Infuriate -> Thran Power Suit (same reason as above)

• Adeline, Resplendent Cathar (lost to her yesterday, but she does not give value here) -> Empyrial Armor (Wyleth gets huge with this)

• Kor Duelist -> Empyrial Plate (same as above)

• Ring of Thune -> Shielded by Faith

• Gimli's Axe -> Maul of the Skyclaves
• Argentum Armor (too expensive to cast) -> Mirror Shield (hexproof is crucial on a Voltron build)

Cheating equip costs

• Brass Squire (having to wait a turn to use his ability is rough) -> Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist
• Kemba, Kha Regent (too slow for a Voltron build) -> Bruenor Battlehammer

If you really need to protect yourself against attacks, Ghostly Prison is a way better Palace Guard.

More utility lands

• Minas Tirith (Wyleth draws enough cards already. Also, most of the time, you will only have a single creature on the field) -> Axgard Armory (tutor on a land)
• Plains -> Sejiri Shelter  ^Flip (a protection spell stapled onto a land)
• Mountain -> Buried Ruin (Ironclad Slayer's removal is avenged!)
• Plains -> Mistveil Plains (it can return instants back to the deck to be fetched again by Sunforger)
• Mountain -> Great Furnace (synergy with All That Glitters and Puresteel Paladin)
• Plains -> Ancient Den (same as above)

Delphen7 on Pattern Recognition #289 - Voltron …

9 months ago

I think speed is the most important part of Voltron. The strategy needs to rack up the damage as quickly as possible to avoid giving opponents time to respond to your threat(s). This means cheating on costs, and playing very cheap commanders that are hard to interact with.

Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh, and Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist, for example, are a very difficult pair to interact with, because they can cheat costs (Colossus Hammer :D ), have evasion, and are low CMC. The first turn is spent playing them, and subsequent turns are spent building up your threats. If they are removed, you can esaily recast them, or use Ardenn to make another random creature a massive threat

Commanders like Balan, Wandering Knight, or Uril, the Miststalker are slow(er), don't intrinsically have evasive abilities, and require you to wait on them to build up, so once they're gone you're severely set back.

---

Sometimes you're not fast enough though, and Voltron tends to turn into a very political deck at that point as you try to get opponents to let your threat stick in order to deal with other opponents. "If you don't remove my creature I can stop player C from winning next turn".

You usually still lose at this point though if everyone knows what they're doing. Speed is of the essence.

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This is why I love utilizing other players combats. You could limit yourself to one combat, but cards like Assault Suit can quadruple how fast you're killing your opponents (and has the perk of preventing the pesty sacrifice that was mentioned).

This is also why Slicer, Hired Muscle  ^Flip has been so competitive, because it's Assault Suit built into a commander with incredibly aggressive stats -- 28 damage a turn cycle is more than most decks can do with lots of setup, and that's just the minimum. It can come down turn 1, and no one wants to remove it because everyone wants to use it. It's free damage!

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Voltron, while more direct than a Giant Growth, does tend to play a lot of the same head games with people to make your creature stick as long as possible.

Enral on Ardenn's attach ability on creature …

11 months ago

Can Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist's attach ability target a creature (Sword of Fire and Ice equipped giving pro red) with a red equipment like The Reaver Cleaver?

I am thinking that since the ability is from a white source (Ardenn), this is a legal target and the equipment would be successfully attached am I correct?

Crow_Umbra on ¿Attacks? ¡Double them!

11 months ago

The ratios on your Isshin build are kinda tripping me out hahaha. I don't think I've seen any others with this kind of ratio of lands to spells.

I think you could cut down to like 36ish lands, especially with some of the fast mana rocks you're already running. You could probably swap out a few of those for Talisman of Indulgence and the others in the Mardu color cycle.

Some other more general recommendations:

• Hall of Heliod's Generosity could be a banger here with the higher ratio of Enchantments you're running.

• Vault of the Archangel could also be decent for the keyword anthems.

• Reconnaissance is a general banger that is at home in basically in any Isshin build variant. This article details some of the timing rules that make it so good for protecting your creatures and as a pseudo-Vigilance anthem

• I think Leonin Shikari, Puresteel Paladin, Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist, & Sram, Senior Edificer could all be excellent support for your Voltron Equipment theme.

• Lastly, I think you could benefit from running some more instant speed removal & interaction. At least Teferi's Protection or Clever Concealment can do some work in protecting all of your permanents. Those Vandalblasts and creature wipes will hurt bad.

Hope these suggestions are helpful

Crow_Umbra on samurai edh

11 months ago

A newer card that might of interest for your Samurai & Equipment themes could be Conjurer's Mantle. It works with Isshin triggers & helps you find more Samurai.

Do you have a budget limit in mind for upgrades? I'm guessing maybe not because of the different "Sword of &" you have in list.

Equipment themed upgrades/swaps

• Sigarda's Aid - Cheat those equip costs when possible

• Puresteel Paladin - Helps cheat mana intensive elements of equipment

• Leonin Shikari

• Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist - Continuing the theme of cheating Equip costs

• Sram, Senior Edificer - Draw engine for what you want to do.

Generally good Isshin upgrades

• Reconnaissance - Helps protect your attackers & can provide pseudo-Vigilance. This article some of the timing rules that make it super good.

• Dolmen Gate - Gotta protect those attackers

• Hammers of Moradin & other Myriad creatures - The tokens created by Myriad are never declared as attackers, so they work with effects that check for single attackING creatures. One of my favorite creatures in my Isshin deck.

Aside from these swaps, I think your land count is pretty low at 30. I'd recommend running at least 35, and more ramp like Talisman of Indulgence, Talisman of Hierarchy, & Talisman of Conviction.

Equip costs can be mana intensive, so having access to enough mana is important to make that possible.

I hope these suggestions are helpful. I'd be happy to chat through any potential cuts if you're interested.

Crow_Umbra on Exalted Voltron

1 year ago

You're definitely off to a good start! I have a few suggestions for potential includes or slightly different directions that can help you get around some of the challenges that Voltron can face in EDH. Some of them are kinda pricey, but are great in any Isshin lists:

• Reconnaissance - A pricier upgrade, but is super helpful for saving attackers from unfavorable blocks, and grants pseudo-vigilance. This article helps explain some of the timing rules that make it so good.

• Sigarda's Aid - Super helpful for turning equipment into combat tricks, and also helps you dodge some of the mana intensive elements inherent to Equip costs.

• Conjurer's Mantle - If you stick with the Samurai tribal subtheme, this would work both with Isshin as well as that subtheme.

• Dolmen Gate - Another pricey upgrade, but super helpful for Isshin lists in general.

• Leonin Shikari - Along similar lines, helpful to be able to move equipment around at instant speed. I've played against an equipment deck that was able to use this to move Lightning Greaves around its board at instant speed.

• Puresteel Paladin - Equip costs can be mana intensive, so getting around that is always helpful.

• Sram, Senior Edificer - Helpful to get more draw that works with your strategy.

• Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist - Cheat those equip costs!

Subtheme idea: Myriad. Myriad creature token copies are created after attackers are declared, so Exalted will still work with them.

• Hammers of Moradin - A favorite in my Isshin deck. Super helpful for tapping down blockers around the table.

• Elturel Survivors - The power buff is static, so that doesn't get doubled by Isshin, but is still helpful to utilize for big punches.

Potential Cut

• City on Fire - Unless you already have a copy, you can likely cut this. It's mana intensive, and you aren't really running token creature production to pull off the Convoke for a consistently cheap rate.

Delphen7 on Salty Commanders!

1 year ago

Neat project! Can't wait to see who gets salt score 100 XD

FormOverFunction Maybe Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh?

I pair him with Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist, and lots of tutors for Colossus Hammer and Masterwork of Ingenuity. People are always salty after being to first to die to him t2 :D