Built to be played exclusively in french commander 1v1 (20hp).
Arcades, the Strategist tribal wall deck.
Two game plans possible, depending on the opening hand and/or the first cards I draw :
Game plan n°1 :
I have some sort of ramp in my opening hand, I would ramp into Arcades, the Strategist as fast as possible with cards like Llanowar Elves and/or Arcane Signet for instance (note that I use the maximum amount of fetch lands to be able to use Lotus Cobra at it's full potential) so I can play Arcades, the Strategist on turn 3.
If I untap with Arcades, the Strategist on the battlefield by turn 4, the plan is to trigger it's static draw ability as much as possible, so I play all the walls from my hand and from the draw trigger. Since most of them are one and two drops, it's reasonable to expect at least 2 or 3 walls out on the battlefield by turn 4.
At this point, turn 5 should almost be a lethal attack for my opponent. He would probably be able to block some of my walls, but most of the times it will means losing it's creature to combat damage due to the fact that walls are very hard to kill with combat damage (because their primary purpose is to survive them defensively, obviously). So from there, I should attack with my all my board turn after turn puting a lot of pressure on my opponent with big threats. And since Arcades, the Strategist draw me a lote of cards, I should not run out of gas and should be able to keep the pressure.
Game plan n°2 :
I have no ramp in my opening hand and I don't draw one on my first draw. In this case, I should play a wall on turn 1 if able (the best one drop among my walls arguably be Perimeter Captain), then another wall on turn 2 (note that I would prioritise a two drop over two one drop to keep my one CMC creature for when Arcades, the Strategist is out so I can gain value of its trigger ability). Another wall on turn 3, and turn 4, if Arcades, the Strategist touch the board, should be a pretty good attack phase for me, as I can reasonably expect to deal from 10 to 13 damage with my three walls that are already on the battlefield when I play my commander.
To sum up, game plan 1 is to play Arcades, the Strategist as fast as possible and hold the walls until he's on the battlefield and then play all of them in one or two turns, get a lot of draw triggers to fuel the engine and overwhelm the opponent with value and kill it with combat damage.
Game plan 2 is to play a wall each of the three first turns, and then, when Arcades, the Strategist is out start attacking with all of them each turns until my opponent is dead.
Of course, like every creature based deck, both of these strategies are very vulnerable to remove all spells, single target ones and of course board wipe. This is why creatures like Mother of Runes, Selfless Spirit, Benevolent Bodyguard made the list, as well as spell like Dive Down (which can also be a very effective combat trick in this deck, and can even give me the win in some cases) Apostle's Blessing, Blossoming Defense, Gods Willing and of course Vines of Vastwood which is a little more flexible. I'm also considering Heroic Intervention to serve the same protection purpose but I could'nt find a room for this in the current version.
In case Arcades, the Strategist gets removed to many times and its mana cost gets prohibitive (or he gets exchanged with a Gilded Drake for instance), the deck also run High Alert and Assault Formation to replicate its ability to make my walls huge threats. Although they are not good cards to have in your opening hands nor good early draws, it's nice to know that Arcades, the Strategist is not the only way to win.
Speaking of win condition, I also want to mention Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive, which is game breaker if I managed to have Arcades, the Strategist and a few walls on the battlefield.
That's pretty much it for this deck tech.
I tried it out on a bunch of games so far, and it's doing pretty ok. It's not top tier of course but it can hold its ground in most of the match-ups.
Suggestions and comments are always welcome !
