Adam Haggerty's Arcades, The Strategist
 
Type: Deck Idea
Format (invalid) staStandard
Approx. Value:
$374.13

0 Likes 3 Comments
Avg. CMC 2.07
Card Color Breakdown
Card Type Breakdown

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Main Deck - 71 cards, 22 distinct
Columns
Name  Edition $ Type Cost
Rarity Color
Creature (27)
4 Arcades, the Strategist
$3.92 Legendary Creature - Elder Dragon
1 Llanowar Elves
$0.40 Creature - Elf Druid
4 Novice Knight
$0.06 Creature - Human Knight
4 Portcullis Vine
$0.03 Creature - Plant Wall
4 Resolute Watchdog
$0.23 Creature - Dog
4 Saruli Caretaker
$0.12 Creature - Dryad
2 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
$0.16 Legendary Creature - Human Rogue
4 Wall of Vines
$0.03 Creature - Plant Wall
Instant (8)
2 Dive Down
$0.08 Instant
2 Status // Statue
$0.09 Instant // Instant //
4 Tower Defense
$0.21 Instant
Sorcery (9)
4 Adventurous Impulse
$0.03 Sorcery
4 Incubation // Incongruity
$0.13 Sorcery // Instant //
1 Slaughter the Strong
$0.16 Sorcery
Enchantment (4)
4 High Alert
$0.29 Enchantment
Land (23)
4 Breeding Pool
$15.41 Land - Forest Island
3 Forest
$0.08 Basic Land - Forest
4 Glacial Fortress
$0.82 Land
4 Hinterland Harbor
$0.86 Land
2 Overgrown Tomb
$11.65 Land - Swamp Forest
2 Sunpetal Grove
$2.32 Land
4 Temple Garden
$11.58 Land - Forest Plains
Sideboard - 117 cards, 58 distinct
Name  Edition $ Type Cost
Rarity Color
Creature (39)
4 Barrier of Bones
$0.05 Creature - Skeleton Wall
2 Beast Whisperer
$2.28 Creature - Elf Druid
1 Deadeye Tracker
$0.30 Creature - Human Pirate
4 Dimir Spybug
$0.09 Creature - Insect
3 Doom Whisperer
$1.84 Creature - Nightmare Demon
4 Gleaming Barrier
$0.07 Artifact Creature - Wall
1 Golden Guardian // Gold-Forge Garrison
$0.94 Artifact Creature - Golem // Land
2 Grappling Sundew
$0.05 Creature - Plant
1 Knight of Autumn
$0.42 Creature - Dryad Knight
1 Knight of Malice
$0.12 Creature - Human Knight
2 Lazav, the Multifarious
$0.25 Legendary Creature - Shapeshifter
1 Muldrotha, the Gravetide
$5.16 Legendary Creature - Elemental Avatar
2 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
$2.12 Legendary Creature - Angel
4 Suspicious Bookcase
$0.12 Artifact Creature - Wall
1 Thief of Sanity
$0.19 Creature - Specter
4 Thoughtbound Phantasm
$0.14 Creature - Spirit
2 Wall of Mist
$0.08 Creature - Wall
Instant (25)
2 Aegis of the Heavens
$0.13 Instant
2 Assassin's Trophy
$2.51 Instant
3 Cast Down
$0.62 Instant
1 Disdainful Stroke
$0.09 Instant
1 Moment of Craving
$0.04 Instant
2 Negate
$0.12 Instant
1 Nexus of Fate
$14.07 Instant
2 Price of Fame
$0.15 Instant
4 Radical Idea
$0.05 Instant
4 Sinister Sabotage
$0.07 Instant
3 Syncopate
$0.06 Instant
Sorcery (12)
2 Board the Weatherlight
$0.04 Sorcery
2 Discovery // Dispersal
$0.12 Sorcery // Instant //
1 Duress
$0.04 Sorcery
2 Find // Finality
$0.09 Sorcery // Sorcery //
1 Golden Demise
$0.07 Sorcery
1 Severed Strands
$0.07 Sorcery
2 Thought Erasure
$0.17 Sorcery
1 Unmoored Ego
$0.23 Sorcery
Artifact (5)
2 Chromatic Lantern
$2.97 Artifact
2 Mox Amber
$39.20 Legendary Artifact
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
$0.19 Artifact
Enchantment (16)
2 Arguel's Blood Fast // Temple of Aclazotz
$0.26 Legendary Enchantment // Legendary Land
1 Dead Weight
$0.04 Enchantment - Aura
1 Demonic Vigor
$0.05 Enchantment - Aura
1 Disinformation Campaign
$0.08 Enchantment
3 Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun
$3.48 Legendary Enchantment // Legendary Land
4 Radiant Destiny
$0.41 Enchantment
4 Song of Freyalise
$0.41 Enchantment - Saga
Planeswalker (5)
1 Karn, Scion of Urza
$3.79 Legendary Planeswalker - Karn
3 Vivien Reid
$1.16 Legendary Planeswalker - Vivien
1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
$3.18 Legendary Planeswalker - Vraska
Land (15)
1 Detection Tower
$2.15 Land
1 Drowned Catacomb
$2.00 Land
1 Field of Ruin
$0.21 Land
2 Island
$0.12 Basic Land - Island
4 Isolated Chapel
$1.53 Land
1 Memorial to Folly
$0.12 Land
1 Swamp
$1.85 Basic Land - Swamp
3 Watery Grave
$12.97 Land - Island Swamp
1 Woodland Cemetery
$0.98 Land

Notes
 
This shit is lit!

This is actually super sweet. Still got a lot to do to get a working list. Arcades is a card. Turns all my walls into cantrips, and most are green or colorless, all are between 1-2. Then if were already in those colors, Shalai is sweet, giving our team hexproof is valuable. Tetsuko makes them all unblockable. Song of Freyalise let's me chain walls into each other, and the last clause is gas. Dive down is a better Blossuming Defense. Status/Statue is just tailor made for this deck. Early they swing into a wall and Status cleanly trades for almost all the creatures in the format at the low cost of 1 mana. Then they get wary and don't swing into my walls while I advance my board, and then it turns into a super putrefy. We get to run A trophy to great effect. Find is recur 2 draw 2, and the flip is decent too. Vivien Reid seems real good behind a bunch of walls, adds card advantage selection to find more walls/legends, removal, and the ultimate is bae. Adventorous Impulse and Board the weatherlight are important as the deck resolves around Arcades. Impulse is easier to chain, counts as fixing, just more efficient. Board the weatherlight is more expensive and white, so more prohibitive, but goes deeper, gets all the key cards like Arcades, other legends, artifact walls, song of freyalise, and Vivien Reid (about 22 options currently). Growing rights of Itlimoc might work similarly.

The goal then is to follow-up an arcades with a tetsuko, and just swing for lethal in a single turn. Say on Average I land 4 one drops, 2 two drops, arcades, and a tetsuko, that converts to 23 damage with no other effects the turn tetsuko comes down. There are 16 one drop walls, and 12 2 drops I'm considering. I don't think the surveil defender is good on rate for this deck, but all the others seem great. We we lean green then. Barrier and bookcase make 8 artifact walls, which seem ideal for fixing and cantrips. We also can run wall of mist, which is the biggest wall on rate currently. I think I want to run a list without them that's more explosive and consistent, but it may be necessary. I want to be a wall heavy deck, so find the right mixture of non-wall arcades spells will be vital and difficult. Just need to nail down a good working version. Some amount of Negate is also needed in the 75, to protect against sweepers and settle.

Slaughter the Strong. OMG. Arcades, a Tetsuko, and any number of walls make this a one-sided board wipe. Doesn't work well one a freyalise resolves, or if I have Arcades and Shalai in play, but otherwise this is going to be awesome. Trading one card for my opponents board more is less will be sweet while I have a battlefield full of walls. I can even do this before combat with Arcades in play and then swing in!

First attempt at shaving down is lack luster. Arcades is literally the crux of the deck. If you don't have it, aside from the walls being inherently anemic, you are weak to everything it shores up, being Flying, planeswalkers, end game, and card flow. The answer is just having to fully dedicate a number of slots to card flow. Vivien Reid is sweet but doesn't help the game get established. It's a combonation of Board the Weatherlight, Adventurous Impulse, and some other card flow like chemister's insight or radical idea. We need to effectively make the deck smaler through cantrips, so we just don't get stallled on a walls and a few cantrips with no ability to churn through the dck without Arcades. This will likely be a mulligan heavy deck for that reason, so we need more smoothing approach to deckbuilding. we also are glut on 2 drops, actively want more one drops. Wondering if I can get away with a free black splash to play barrier of bones, which seems real helpful. for these issues. I need enough consistent card flow where I'm roping Arcades with 5 mana everygame with either protection or an immediate cantrip available. Arcades needs to kind of "go off" reliably for me to play the game, Wall, Wall, Arcades into topdeck mode is not going to cut it.

So clearly wotc has planted this deck, and nobody has bothered to find it. Ravnica allegiance gave us everything. High alert alone makes the deck consistently insane, but we also got incubation, saruli caretaker, a white one drop wall that protects, and tower defense. oMG tower defense. 16 auto one drops, 12 are green. There are more options too. This deck is busted. I'm going to keep it under radar to spell me a tournament.
Comments
  • Christopher | 09-Oct-2018 20:03
    Initial Thoughts: I love the deck idea! Totes wanna help make this guy a thing.


    I think you are going to struggle with trying to run 4 colors in this deck.  The more energy you put into color fixing, the less energy you have on protection/defense.  Agree with Freyalise and Vivien, but I don't think you need both.  I think Vivien is good but ends up being a little too slow with what you are trying to do.  You could consider Severed strands as your removal in this deck though because gaining 3-5 life is no joke if you are facing burn/weenie rush, and it is cheap unconditional removal for threats.  


    I think the suspicious bookcase is your weakest wall because unless you are facing a mirror, they shouldn't have a ton of blockers up to stop your onslaught once arcades hits.  I don't see anything wrong with 4 negates because it should ensure your victory/safety in the event that they have something to stop this deck outright.  


    Dive down is fantastic but Ummmm Aegis of the Heavens? It is the ultimate combat trick for this deck.  One or two of those gives you game the turn arcades comes down, potentialy without Tetsuko... And if you are struggling agains a stompy deck, suddenly your wall is bigger than their dinos which just bought you the turn you needed... 


    Lastly, I think Portcullis + Gleaming barrier are better than adventurous impulse.  Not mana wise obviously, but I think it affords you the same luxeries, but saves you room in your deck.  I would just go with 4 weatherlights and dig hard for arcades, freyalise, tetsuko, shalai or gleaming barrier.  


    My suggestion does promote more white than you were probably hoping, but I think it's helpful.  You could probably scratch black completely and shift to settle/seal away as your control spells of choice, but I know you wanna run A Trophy. 







    • Adam Haggerty | 09-Oct-2018 20:59
      Thanks man! Severed strands is probably in the side for the matchups. I think 4 colors is easier in this deck because of freyalise, everything just has to tap for green. That being said, I could drop black at not to high a cost, the biggest loss is barrier of bones. 1 drop walls is what let's me just go off, barrier of bones is probably the best, and thoughtbound just kinda of sucks for a walls matters deck, although we could try it out. Suspicious bookcase is mostly good because it doesn't matter what I have to cast it, and it can be found of of weatherlight when I whiff on good targets. Honestly I've been thinking that negate might be better than A trophy main. Song of freyalise and vivien serve different purposes, but have the similar "I crush your face" modes. I want to keep casting freyalise, and with all the wals, a planeswalker slots in really well, and vivien is the best for what this deck wants to do. I could buy what your cooking on adventorpus impulse, it just has more hits than weatherlight and goes more with the chain walls approach. I think I'm running 6 tops of weatherlight/impulse/vivien combined. 

      I thought there was a card like of Aegis of the Heavens, i just couldn't think of it! Amaze balls. Oh man, when that happens somebody's going flip a table. Thanks for the tip! Portcullis vine swing, 10 unblockable damage...
      • Adam Haggerty | 09-Oct-2018 21:05
        Or even swing with Protcullis vine unblockable, Dive Down, Aegis x2 is 20 damage!
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