Fun with walls

Commander / EDH Defender GWUB Partner Wall

1CaptainObvious

Creature (37)

• 1x Angelic Wall
• 1x Arcades, the Strategist
• 1x Axebane Guardian
• 1x Barrier of Bones
• 1x Doorkeeper
• 1x Doran, the Siege Tower
• 1x Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 1x End-Raze Forerunners
• 1x Faeburrow Elder
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Karador, Ghost Chieftain
• 1x Mentor of the Meek
• 1x Perimeter Captain
• 1x Phenax, God of Deception
• 1x Profaner of the Dead
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
• 1x Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa
• 1x Stalwart Shield-Bearers
• 1x Sunscape Familiar
• 1x Suspicious Bookcase
• 1x Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
• 1x Tree of Perdition
• 1x Tree of Redemption
• 1x Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
• 1x Wall of Air
• 1x Wall of Blossoms
• 1x Wall of Denial
• 1x Wall of Frost
• 1x Wall of Glare
• 1x Wall of Ice
• 1x Wall of Lost Thoughts
• 1x Wall of Mulch
• 1x Wall of Nets
• 1x Wall of Tanglecord
• 1x Wall of Vines
• 1x Yavimaya Elder

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Huatli, the Sun's Heart
• 1x Teyo, the Shieldmage

Land (33)

• 1x Botanical Sanctum
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 2x Forest
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Grasslands
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 2x Island
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Krosan Verge
• 2x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Temple of Plenty
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Angelic Chorus
• 1x Assault Formation
• 1x Brave the Sands
• 1x Defense of the Heart
• 1x Familiar Ground
• 1x Guardian Project
• 1x High Alert
• 1x Journey to Eternity  ^Flip

Commanders (2)

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Demonic Collusion
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Fell the Mighty
• 1x Gaea's Blessing
• 1x Overrun
• 1x Quasiduplicate
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Slaughter the Strong

Instant (6)

• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Lazotep Plating
• 1x Render Silent
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Utter End

Artifact (2)

• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Vivien's Arkbow

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Maybeboard

Creature (1)

• 1x Jaddi Offshoot

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Breaking Wave

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The deck started out as purely a Phenax, God of Deception mill deck with some inspiration from other versions of the deck type online. Within my play group the pure mill strategy was leaning towards unfun, so I played around with an Arcades, the Strategist deck. I enjoyed the play-style, but even with functional reprints the deck would fall apart without Arcades to hold it together without any other win conditions.

Thus this monster was born.

The deck can often times be slow to build up compared to their aggro counterparts, but that is a strength when playing in within a new group that does not understand the threat behind it. Unlike my Feather, the Redeemed deck where the threat is obvious, within this deck it employees the "hidden commander" strategy. This allows the user to play with two main styles within the deck that can even synergize together if the game goes on long enough.

Play Style 1 - The classic spank

Using Arcades and its functional reprints or similar cards within the deck allows you to have back up for if one of the options is unavailable (graveyard, exile, etc). Working with your tutors such as Demonic Tutor, Defense of the Heart, Diabolic Tutor, etc can help you find the single piece needed to get the deck moving. Then there are cards that make the walls an even larger menace such as Seedborn Muse, Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa, and Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive. Who allow for more effective combat based play with the walls.

There is also the in theory game ending card within End-Raze Forerunners. A similar card add is Overrun within the deck. As much as I would like to add Overwhelming Stampede it would not synergize with the deck as much as I would like. It would work well if Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker is out of control, but not in may other cases.

Play Style 2 - Where did my cards go?

This is the mill strategy that is within the deck that utilizes Phenax, God of Deception as its primary win condition most effectively paired with Seedborn Muse. This combo allows you to mill during each endstep and during your turn. This is greatly enhanced with Tree of Perdition AND Tree of Redemption. This can allow for milling depending on the stage of the game, paired with your own life gain and others within the game, that is devastating. Since typically your life total is well protected with this deck Tree of Redemption even though it drops you to 13 with combat or mil it is very effective. This also goes for Tree of Perdition. More often than not these cards will be in the toughness of 20-40 quite easily. Even if you have just your turn, or final endstep before the start of your turn, you can destroy someones' deck. Even more so if you have both out on the batter field.

Those two cards while amazing for both combat and mill strategy with the addition of the other walls you will most likely have on the battle field as well can allow for massive damage, or milling where needed.

Weakness - Graveyard/Recovery

The main weakness to this deck is graveyard retrieval. I am currently attempting to patch that so it is not as much of an issue with cards such as Karador, Ghost Chieftain and another card which the name is escaping me that servers a similar function as Karador. This weakness is one of the reason why there as many functional reprints as there are.

If Push Comes to Shove - The Commanders

The partner commanders Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper and Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker while mainly chosen for their colors still work very well within the deck. Ikra allows for some amazing life gain and Ishai is a threat that is often ignored. Within multiplayer can become a monster in just one round (had on game where he became a 9/9 after just one round). They can work well if you are in a pinch and can help you stay in the game.

Additional Content- Being Sneaky with Card choice

Board wipes are a common staple within commander. Most of the board wipes within this deck either do not directly effect you Cyclonic Rift or do not effect you because of the creature choice. These are the board wipe such as Fell the Mighty and Slaughter the Strong. There are other additional types of control within Wall of Nets and Teyo, the Shieldmage. There is also imo very good color fixing and land distrobution within the deck. That has not been too much an issue with all my playtime with in the deck.

I am happy for another feedback that is given for this deck. I do have some tuning in the works right now, but I am excited to see other crazy ideas.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	9 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 48 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.09
Tokens	Copy Clone, Wall 0/3 W, Zombie Army 0/0 B
Folders	Cool ideas