Wall Rush

Commander / EDH Defender GWU (Bant) Wall

Imperator_in_Chief

Creature (37)

• 1x Angelic Wall
• 1x Axebane Guardian
• 1x Carven Caryatid
• 1x Cathedral Membrane
• 1x Crashing Drawbridge
• 1x Crenellated Wall
• 1x Fortified Rampart
• 1x Hover Barrier
• 1x Jeskai Barricade
• 1x Jungle Barrier
• 1x Mnemonic Wall
• 1x Overgrown Battlement
• 1x Perimeter Captain
• 1x Shield Sphere
• 1x Shifting Wall
• 1x Soulsworn Jury
• 1x Stalwart Shield-Bearers
• 1x Steel Wall
• 1x Sunscape Familiar
• 1x Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
• 1x Vine Trellis
• 1x Wall of Blossoms
• 1x Wall of Denial
• 1x Wall of Essence
• 1x Wall of Frost
• 1x Wall of Glare
• 1x Wall of Hope
• 1x Wall of Ice
• 1x Wall of Junk
• 1x Wall of Kelp
• 1x Wall of Mulch
• 1x Wall of Nets
• 1x Wall of Reverence
• 1x Wall of Roots
• 1x Wall of Stolen Identity
• 1x Wall of Tanglecord
• 1x Wall of Tears

Land (34)

• 1x Botanical Sanctum
• 1x Branchloft Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidding Watchtower
• 8x Forest
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Graypelt Refuge
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 2x Island
• 5x Plains
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Rejuvenating Springs
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Seaside Citadel
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Unclaimed Territory
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x High Alert
• 1x Imprisoned in the Moon
• 1x Sight of the Scalelords
• 1x Song of Freyalise
• 1x Wild Pair

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Venser, the Sojourner

Commander (1)

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Dusk / Dawn
• 1x Edge of Autumn
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Fell the Mighty
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Return to the Ranks
• 1x Search for Tomorrow
• 1x Slaughter the Strong
• 1x Wave of Reckoning

Instant (7)

• 1x Bant Charm
• 1x Double Major
• 1x Eerie Interlude
• 1x Ghostway
• 1x Second Sunrise
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Tower Defense

Artifact (5)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Colfenor's Urn
• 1x Meekstone
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

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Maybeboard

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Angelic Chorus
• 1x Burgeoning
• 1x Darksteel Mutation
• 1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Meishin, the Mind Cage
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Sphere of Safety

Artifact (1)

• 1x Chromatic Lantern

Instant (6)

• 1x Akroma's Will
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Cleansing Nova

Creature (6)

• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Plumeveil
• 1x Sprouting Phytohydra
• 1x Tree of Redemption
• 1x Wall of Omens

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Introduction

This build is based on ramping fast to get a bunch of cheap walls out which turn into surprisngly effective beatsticks when Arcades, the Strategist or High Alert come out. The plan is to flood the field and pop opponents in the face with your big-butt creatures. Obviously this relies heavily on Arcades or High Alert so we use flicker effects like Teferi's Protection, Eerie Interlude, and Ghostway to both protect our creatures and abuse Arcades's card draw with ETB stack order shenanigans.

Why these Defenders?

We want to replace as many noncreature utility spells with defender creatures as possible, since that gets us a lot of card draw. There are a LOT of defenders these days, and most of them would be good in a deck with Arcades. However, some certainly stand out above the others:

Mana Dorks

Truly nothing can beat Overgrown Battlement and Axebane Guardian for mana production; they scale as you develop and produce huge amounts of mana that let you take advantage of Arcades' card draw and often pump out a dozen walls at a time.

Baby dorks like Vine Trellis, Wall of Roots are great early game ramp while also turning into respectable beatsticks or sacrifice fodder in late game.

Draw Walls

The core draw engine of this deck are ETB draw walls like Carven Caryatid, Jungle Barrier, Wall of Blossoms. They get things moving before Arcades can make it out and double their utility if they hit the field after Arcades. Panharmonicon doubles these effects again, and flicker (ex: Eerie Interlude) and recursion effects (ex: Colfenor's Urn) make them useful over and over again.

Another consistent draw engine is Wall of Mulch, allowing you to sacrifice walls you don't need or tokens made by Wall of Kelp as many times as you want per turn (given you have the mana, which you will). It won't benefit from the ETB triggers, but it comes in handy when your Vine Trellis is made obsolete by Axebane Guardian or to get one final instant-speed boon from a wall before it's removed. You can even use it as a part of a pseudo-flicker combo if you're mana flooded and want to fill your card:colfener's urn.

Utility Walls

Soulsworn Jury is a Essence Scatter on a stick plus card draw from Arcades.

Jeskai Barricade is an incredibly good counter to hate on Arcades or important walls while also letting you double up on the ETB card draw.

Mnemonic Wall recurs your protection spells, board wipes, and utility spells.

Wall of Kelp produces more walls for ETB draw and then sacrifice for more draw later. These tokens also increase the mana your big dorks make.

Wall of Stolen Identity locks down any important creatures that may evade removal or tap for dangerous effects.

Crashing Drawbridge: You'll be pumping out a LOT of creatures at a time, especially as you develop your mana base, and it can get ridiculous very quickly. Giving them all haste can end the game before your opponents have time to use their (often sorcery-speed) board wipes like Damnation or Wrath of God.

Beatsticks

What amounts to 3 mana for an 8/8 with flying and shroud, Wall of Denial is an absolutely critical beater for the deck.

Shield Sphere is a free 6/6 wall, a necessary inclusion.

Shifting Wall at its worst, is 0 mana card draw (with Arcades) or a 1 mana warm body (without Arcades). But it can also scale as the game progresses, getting huge in lategame if you funnel your mana dorks into it.

Notable Exclusions

Faith's Reward is just a more expensive Second Sunrise.

Assault Formation is a far less effective Arcades effect like High Alert.

Ulvenwald Captive   has too small a butt compared to cards with similar mana abilities like Wall of Roots or even Vine Trellis.

Jaddi Offshoot just doesn't end up with much lifegain in my experience since it usually only gains 1 life a turn, and its slot is better filled by Wall of Reverence that almost can gain at least 3 as long as Arcades is out and has flying. Even though it's more expensive, that's usually not a problem with the large amount of ramp in this build. Wall of Hope also works for some minimal lifegain, though not many people will swing at you.

Flumph is appealing for its body and evasion, but ultimately too weak of a draw effect, relying on combat which is unreliable and benefitting your opponent when it pays off at all. Its slot is better filled by an ETB draw wall that can benefit from flicker and Panharmonicon.

Suspicious Bookcase: paying 2 for getting a single creature through to your opponent's face is a low payoff relative to other similar options. A 2 mana 4/4 without evasion or a good effect just isn't worth it. I find that Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive is simply far better in the slot. Venser, the Sojourner is also a better replacement with extra utility, and its high cost doesn't matter much since making all your creatures unblockable isn't that important until you have the mana to pump out a LOT of creatures.

Geist of the Archives doesn't usually pay off much in my experience. You'll be drawing a lot, which makes scrying 1 relatively useless, and definitely not good enough to justify 3 for a 4/4 without evasion.

Doorkeeper would be incredible in an Arcades deck with a self-mill win condition (see Laboratory Maniac). I may include this later as an alternative win condition, but it's bad as an aggro strategy; if you have enough defenders to make it useful, you're almost certain to have lethal damage on the board.

Gleaming Barrier: death triggers are just not good long-term considering that panharmonicon and flicker effects won't abuse it. Other cards just fit mana dork slots better.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 30 - 0 Rares 32 - 0 Uncommons 20 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.76
Tokens	0/1 U Creature Plant Wall, Copy Clone, Emblem Venser, the Sojourner
Based on	Arcades, the Strategist | The Commander's Quarters commandersquarters EDH