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From Walls to Thwomps: cEDH Arcades

Commander / EDH* Aggro Competitive Enchantment GWU (Bant) Tribal

Labrodor64

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Mana Base (33)

Going Off (5)

Wiping (5)

Power Walls (12)

Removal (7)

Bigger Better Walls (6)

Protection (6)

Ramping (3)

Commander (1)

Commander: Arcades, the Strategist

Mana Walls (7)

Utility Walls (7)

Draw Walls (6)

Arcades Jr (2)

CEDH Arcades; Fight of Foundations

The best offense is a good defense, right? This IS my competetive super fast Arcades, the Strategist , a deck where I want to play wall after wall after wall, drawing into some more to overwhelm my opponents with massive damage.I've gotten moderate success with this deck, but it is tons of fun nevertheless! Fun is the most important factor in a competitive deck, right? Let's dive in how this deck deck works.

This deck wants Arcades out on turn 3 so turn 2 ramp is a must have in the opening hand. I search for cards such as: I manage to get Arcades out by turn 3 about 8/10 times and once that is set up, we can start playing Walls!*
I am running 32 walls in this deck (33 if we count the walls that Teyo, the Shieldmage can create) , more than traditional tribal decks, all of them cheap. You want to play them after Arcades is out to get your card draw engines going and then hit for lethal damage. You need to know your walls though: You’ve got your Ramp Walls: These are the walls you want to get out early. Axebane Guardian is more of late/mid game card that can get you tons of mana to close out the game or to expand your board state.
You’ve got your card walls: Arcades already makes us draw cards but sometimes, we need more.These walls will help you find more walls and synergises greatly with Panharmonicon . Wall of Mulch will help you if you’re stuck by sacrificing a useless wall or it can help you gain value if someone wipes te board. Wall of Runes is basically an opt with Arcades and Geist of the Archives will help us select cards every upkeep, both being able to select cards.
You’ve got your Beating Walls: These are just the big boys that will become very dangerous with arcades out. The best being Tree of Redemption , Wall of Denial , Wall of Shards and Shield Sphere . These walls have absurd stats for their price and will close out the game.
Finally we have out utility walls: These walls can mill, give out haste, gain you life, give unblockable; they do it all. You can use Jeskai Barricade to bounce a wall back to your hand to recast it and draw cards. Drift of Phantasms ca be used as a threat or can be transmuted to find the best cards: High Alert , Aura Shards , Beast Within , Wall of Denial , Carven Caryatid , Teyo, the Shieldmage ect... I love Wall of Stolen Identity . It is basically a Spark Double but it is a WALL and denies the opposing Threat from attacking.
There many ways to gain insane value. First of which is Panharmonicon . We're going to draw double the amount of cards off Arcades triggers and many of the walls have ETBs. This will ensure that we draw another wall off Arcades to play more walls and draw more cards. Aluren is a really really good card in this deck that I don't see in too many other Arcades decks. Play any amount of our 30 walls with a cmc under 3 for free at instant speed is uh... GOOD. Keep in mind this is a symmetrical effect so it includes everyone so against certain decks with plenty of cheap creatures, this is a risky play. I was sceptical about the effiency of Wild Pair at first but boy was I wrong. You play a wall, draw off Arcades, the get another free wall and draw another card. Most walls have very similar toughness and power so going through your deck is easy.In this deck, it is like a better Panharmonicon . Speaking of which... Panharmonicon + Wild Pair is a sight to be seen. You play a wall, draw 2, fetch another wall, draw 2 then fetch ANOTHER WALL thaks to Panharmonicon , and then draw 2 more cards!! 3 walls annd and six extra cards for the price of one. You will surely draw another wall to do the whole process again. Add Aluren to this and well, your opponents should just concede.
What are my main win cons? First of all, Tower Defense is always a must have. +5/+5 for 2 mana is huge and will easily kill. Triumph of the Hordes is the same idea; it'll give trample to help our walls go through and 10 damage is so easy to come by with this deck so this will most certainly be able to finish everybody off in the noblest way, Infect! Aegis of the Heavens is simply a card I don't see often. This deck is good at giving evasion to singular creatures with Rogue's Passage or Suspicious Bookcase so giving +7+7 to that creature is very good to finish others off. Concordant Crossroads will be massive aid once we're on a roll with our walls. Just rememmber this is a symmetrical effect so evryone has haste so only play this if you know you can win or deal massive damage. Concordant Crossroads + Panharmonicon + Wild Pair is also disgusting.
This deck shines against slower decks that wants to setup or non-creature decks. My meta is not creature focused so this deck is quite powerful on that front being easily able to swarm and kill. I think this deck struggles with it's commander; without him, the deck is beyond useless. Walls can no longer do anything and my draw engines are dead. Even with High Alert or Assault Formation as a replacement for Arcades, I still cannot gain cards reliably. Knowing this, Removal is often kept for Arcades in games. Also, I don't really have mass evasion apart from Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive so chum blocking can be annoying. Finally, Many of my board wipes don't affect smaller creatures and some of my cards can even help them, so token decks are the bane of my existance. But hey! This deck can still perform great and is a ton of fun.
I am not a perfect player and this is not a perfect deck so please give feedback! What should I add? What should I remove? Any flaws in my tactics? Intercations that I haven’t considered? Combos that don’t function the way I though? Please take the time to write a comment to make the best Arcades cycle wall deck!

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98% Casual

Competitive