(Custom) Reduc, the Castellan (READ DESCRIPTION)

Commander / EDH Archer Defender RGW (Naya)

Fligyn

Defender (22)

• 1x Resolute Watchdog
• 1x Bamboo Grove Archer
• 1x Crashing Drawbridge
• 1x Flamewright
• 1x Flumph
• 1x Overgrown Battlement
• 1x Stalwart Shield-Bearers
• 1x Sylvan Caryatid
• 1x Ulvenwald Captive  ^Flip
• 1x Vine Trellis
• 1x Wall of Mourning
• 1x Wall of Roots
• 1x Axebane Guardian
• 1x Tuktuk Rubblefort
• 1x Weathered Sentinels
• 1x Archers of Qarsi
• 1x Atla Palani, Nest Tender *f-etch*
• 1x Jungle Patrol
• 1x Shield-Wall Sentinel
• 1x Vent Sentinel
• 1x Wingmantle Chaplain
• 1x Nesting Dragon

Draw (10)

• 1x Keen Sense
• 1x Flumph
• 1x Wall of Mourning
• 1x Cut a Deal
• 1x Light Up the Stage
• 1x Ohabi Caleria *f-etch*
• 1x Snake Umbra
• 1x Valakut Exploration
• 1x Your Temple is Under Attack
• 1x Shamanic Revelation

Protection (6)

• 1x Resolute Watchdog
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Rootborn Defenses
• 1x Your Temple is Under Attack
• 1x Sudden Salvation
• 1x Privileged Position

Land (36)

• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Command Tower
• 10x Forest
• 1x Fortified Village
• 1x Grove of the Burnwillows
• 1x Jetmir's Garden
• 1x Jungle Shrine
• 1x Karplusan Forest
• 7x Mountain
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 8x Plains
• 1x Sundown Pass
• 1x Wooded Bastion

Ramp (11)

• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Gruul Signet
• 1x Overgrown Battlement
• 1x Skyshroud Elf
• 1x Sylvan Caryatid
• 1x Ulvenwald Captive  ^Flip
• 1x Vine Trellis
• 1x Wall of Roots
• 1x Axebane Guardian

Misc (7)

• 1x Quest for Renewal
• 1x Drumbellower
• 1x Repercussion
• 1x Growing Ranks
• 1x Saryth, the Viper's Fang
• 1x Rith, Liberated Primeval
• 1x Seedborn Muse

Boardwipe (4)

• 1x Cleansing Nova
• 1x Fracturing Gust
• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Vanquish the Horde

Commander (1)

Archer (13)

• 1x Ezuri's Archers
• 1x Scattershot Archer
• 1x Bamboo Grove Archer
• 1x Matsu-Tribe Sniper
• 1x Stun Sniper
• 1x Thornweald Archer
• 1x Atzocan Archer
• 1x Ohabi Caleria *f-etch*
• 1x Stalking Leonin
• 1x Archers of Qarsi
• 1x Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile
• 1x Sawblade Slinger
• 1x Greatbow Doyen

Removal/Interaction (8)

• 1x Bamboo Grove Archer
• 1x Ghired's Belligerence
• 1x Matsu-Tribe Sniper
• 1x Stun Sniper
• 1x Sundering Growth
• 1x Naya Charm
• 1x Stalking Leonin
• 1x Sawblade Slinger

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A custom commander deck i made with one of several commanders that I designed to highlight some ways to go about designing an archer commander that plays off of the mechanical identity of archers along with the flavor tropes associated with archery. The commander is linked here below along with a transcript of it below the link

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Reduc, the Castellan {1}{R}{G}{W} Legendary Creature — Human Archer Reach When Reduc, the Castellan enters the battlefield, create a 0/4 white Wall creature token with defender. Archers you control have "{1}, {T}: This creature deals damage equal to its power to any target that isn't a commander."

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Archers as a tribe have many weaknesses, or rather, shortcomings that need to be addressed in order to make a competent commander buildaround that's fun enough to play with and against. Its impossible to tackle them all with one card, so here are the ones i focused on for this design: 1.) Archers have weak abilities on worse statlines. The most memorable ability that archers share is the ability to deal damage to creatures, most often creatures that are attacking, blocking, or creatures that have flying. Unfortunately, most of these cards are borderline unplayable on their own, and worse yet, can cause boards to clog up if people become too scared to attack with their creatures for fear of their units being picked off from archer fire. The latter issue can be largely solved with politics, so the bigger issue in this case is their general weakness. In order to make archers powerful, I need to give them something to work with, either a way to boost them, or something entirely new. I went with a commander that grants archers a more dangerous and flexible version of their signature ability, in the form of targeted damage that can be used regardless of a creatures status and even on players and planeswalkers. Just not commanders (repeatable removal that's able to target the card that serves as a lynchpin to someone's deck is oppressive and decidedly unfun). This turns your normally weak archers into a collective game-ending threat when in great enough numbers along with a suite of defenders. Though the prerequisite board state required to start churning out damage is an important limiter for this potentially very powerful board control tool, which serves as not only a solid safety valve to ensure the card isnt too powerful or oppressive, but also as a puzzle that will be satisfying for players to solve. 2.) Archers aren't very numerous. There aren't a ton of archers, especially when you factor out all the truly terrible ones like Aven Archer. Once you do get the creatures narrowed down, it can still feel like youre scraping the bottom of the barrel. One solution I've speculated for the problem of lack of usable cards is to supplement the deck with a new requirement. In this case, the deck also wants you to play defenders, which not only fit with the trope of an archery unit defending a castle, but also mechanically match the inherently defensive nature of archers as a tribe. Hopefully the two "tribes" can be woven together well enough to facilitate smooth gameplay.

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In any case, the way I've built the deck is rather simple. Try to get out as many archers and walls as possible at the same time and start burning the board and your opponents. There are more defenders than archers, because its theoretically better to have only 2 or 3 archers with 4 or 5 defenders to boost their damage than 4 or 5 archers each with 2 or 3 defenders to boost their damage, since the archer ability costs mana to activate every time.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 31 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 24 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.08
Tokens	0/1 G Creature Wall, Bird 1/1 W, Construct 1/1 C Token w/ Defender, Dragon 2/2 R, Dragon 4/4 R, Dragon Egg 0/2 R, Egg 0/1 G