EDH Arcades, the Strategist

Commander / EDH* Counterspell Defender GWU (Bant) Midrange Theme/Gimmick Toughness Matters Wall

amarthaler

Creatuers (28)

• 1x Shield Sphere
• 1x Resolute Watchdog
• 1x Crashing Drawbridge
• 1x Crystal Barricade
• 1x Fog Bank
• 1x Jeskai Barricade
• 1x Orator of Ojutai
• 1x Overgrown Battlement
• 1x Stalwart Shield-Bearers
• 1x Sunscape Familiar
• 1x Wall of Blossoms
• 1x Wall of Glare
• 1x Wall of Junk
• 1x Wall of Shards
• 1x Wall of Tanglecord
• 1x Wall of Tears
• 1x Axebane Guardian
• 1x Drift of Phantasms
• 1x Hover Barrier
• 1x Wall of Denial
• 1x Wall of Frost
• 1x Wall of Nets
• 1x Weathered Sentinels
• 1x Corrupted Shapeshifter
• 1x Tree of Redemption
• 1x Wingmantle Chaplain
• 1x Towering Titan
• 1x The Pride of Hull Clade

Removal (5)

• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Slaughter the Strong
• 1x Expel the Interlopers

Lands (35)

• 1x Boulderloft Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Hengegate Pathway  ^Flip
• 6x Island
• 1x Kabira Plateau  ^Flip
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 7x Plains
• 1x Rejuvenating Springs
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Spara's Headquarters
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Tidechannel Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Tranquil Landscape
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Wooded Bastion

Card Draw (5)

• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Plagon, Lord of the Beach
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield
• 1x Kindred Discovery

Counterspells (4)

• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Disallow

Commander (1)

Protection (7)

• 1x Glaring Spotlight
• 1x Meekstone
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Robe of Stars
• 1x Spellskite
• 1x Champion's Helm
• 1x Ghostway

Mana Ramp (6)

• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Curiosity
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Talisman of Unity
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Skyshroud Claim

Wall & Defender Enhancements (6)

• 1x Assault Formation
• 1x Brave the Sands
• 1x Rolling Stones
• 1x Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
• 1x High Alert
• 1x Huatli, the Sun's Heart

Buffs (3)

• 1x Tower Defense
• 1x Bar the Door
• 1x Akroma's Will

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Maybeboard

Other (16)

• 1x Blustersquall
• 1x Mizzium Skin
• 1x Suspicious Bookcase
• 1x Wall of Kelp
• 1x Retribution of the Meek
• 1x Stoneskin
• 1x Treefolk Umbra
• 1x Distant Melody
• 1x Fruit of the First Tree
• 1x Levitation
• 1x Shield-Wall Sentinel
• 1x Wall of Stolen Identity
• 1x Angelic Chorus
• 1x Bond of Discipline
• 1x Fell the Mighty
• 1x Wave of Reckoning

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{G}{U}{W} This is a Bant, midrange Wall tribal deck featuring Arcades, the Strategist as the Commander. Yes, Arcades Sabboth is back and he's defending the realm. The deck is designed with a low average CMC list of spells that are packed with a ton of tribal synergy, unexpectedness, and control. With 55 of our non-land cards being 3 CMC or less to cast, we are able to consistently cast creatures and still have mana for abilities or interaction. I took full advantage of Bant's colors to ensure we have proper mana ramp, buffs, counters and removal in order to achieve the primary win con: overwhelm the enemy with a huge wall of walls!

Walls & Defenders... what's the difference?

For clarity, Wall creatures and the Defender mechanic have had an errata making them one and the same. Therefore, our cards like Assault Formation and High Alert now effect both Walls and creatures with Defender as if they had both attributes. For more information, please check out the rulings at: https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Defender.

The way this deck works is we play out our Walls and creatures with Defender to create an overwhelming board state. It may seem hypocritical of the theme, but this deck is meant to be played offensively and not defensively. I've designed the deck to play similar to an Elf tribal deck by placing in as much card draw and mana-generating permanents as I could. The essential cards we need to in order for the deck to function is any card which assigns combat damage equal to a card's toughness on the board (such as High Alert or Assault Formation) as well as any card which allows Defenders to attack. If we cast the Commander, we must be ready to protect him. For that, we run counter spells, walls with a flicker effect such as Jeskai Barricade, and equipment such as Robe of Stars.

The mana base for this deck is very consistent and straight forward. We run 35 lands and 5 mana rocks. Two heroes of the deck for mana ramp are Overgrown Battlement and Axebane Guardian. Either one alone does the job well. For card draw, our Commander lets us do so whenever a creature with Wall or Defender enters the battlefield. The classics Rhystic Study and Sylvan Library are the most consistent sources of card draw in our deck. Even thought our creature type: Wall is a bit low at 18 total, Kindred Discovery is a fantastic source of card draw especially if they can attack.

Board wipes and removal are an essential piece of the strategy to winning. We run spot removal such as Swords to Plowshares and Aura Shards to take care of threats (don't hesitate to Swords your own high-toughness creature for life if you need it). The flip side of Kabira Plateau  , which is Kabira Takedown   can also be used as removal in a pinch. For board wipes, we have Slaughter the Strong and Expel the Interlopers which should work asymetrically to keep our board state strong while taking out almost every other opponents' board state(s). If we're up against a board wipe on the stack that doesn't favor us, don't hesitate to cast Bar the Door to save your creatures when an {X} or numerical value board wipe is cast!

As of January 2025, I have removed all the tutors from the deck in order to take the power level down a notch as well as make the experience a little less predictable and more fun to play. However, we still have Drift of Phantasms and Muddle the Mixture to search for essential 2 & 3 CMC cards such as Rolling Stones or High Alert.

Getting to the Win Condition

Specific cards to assist in achieving a win condition include Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive which will render your opponent(s) defenseless and Towering Titan which will come in large and give everything with Defender trample. Buffs such as Tower Defense or Akroma's Will should create that overwhelming power our opponents can't survive for very long, and paired up with a well-timed Glaring Spotlight will ensure player removal.

A note on Kelp Tokens

NOTE: Tokens created by Wall of Kelp do not exist - none were ever printed and distributed. However, if you Google search "wall of kelp token", some wonderful folks in our MTG community have designed some of their own. Copy those free images into a template, print and glue it to a basic land and you'll be good to go.

As always, I really appreciate any feedback and/or suggestions you may have for the deck. Thank you and happy tapping!

Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 weeks
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 27 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.63
Tokens	Bird 1/1 W, Bird 2/2 U, Wall 0/3 W
Folders	EDH Decks, Future Decks, Saved