GoldFishing with Arcades ($100 Budget)

Commander / EDH Budget GWU (Bant) Infinite Combo Theme/Gimmick

XetZero

Creature (45)

• 1x Axebane Guardian
• 1x Carven Caryatid
• 1x Cephalid Illusionist
• 1x Chulane, Teller of Tales
• 1x Crashing Drawbridge
• 1x Drift of Phantasms
• 1x Edric, Spymaster of Trest
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Geist of the Archives
• 1x Heliod's Pilgrim
• 1x Hover Barrier
• 1x Jeskai Barricade
• 1x Mentor of the Meek
• 1x Mirror Entity
• 1x Nomads en-Kor
• 1x Novice Knight
• 1x Order of the Stars
• 1x Overgrown Battlement
• 1x Perimeter Captain
• 1x Portcullis Vine
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Psychic Membrane
• 1x Resolute Watchdog
• 1x Saruli Caretaker
• 1x Shield Sphere
• 1x Soulsworn Jury
• 1x Stalwart Shield-Bearers
• 1x Steel Wall
• 1x Sunscape Familiar
• 1x Suspicious Bookcase
• 1x Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
• 1x Thallid Shell-Dweller
• 1x Thassa's Oracle
• 1x Unsettled Mariner
• 1x Vine Trellis
• 1x Wall of Blossoms
• 1x Wall of Brambles
• 1x Wall of Denial
• 1x Wall of Kelp
• 1x Wall of Mulch
• 1x Wall of Omens
• 1x Wall of Roots
• 1x Wall of Runes
• 1x Wall of Tears
• 1x Wall of Vines

Land (33)

• 1x Azorius Guildgate
• 1x Bant Panorama
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 8x Forest
• 1x Graypelt Refuge
• 6x Island
• 8x Plains
• 1x Seaside Citadel
• 1x Selesnya Guildgate
• 1x Simic Guildgate
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Thornwood Falls
• 1x Tranquil Cove

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Freed from the Real
• 1x Guardian Project
• 1x High Alert

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Open the Armory
• 1x Rampant Growth

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Teyo, the Shieldmage

Artifact (1)

• 1x Talisman of Curiosity

Commander (1)

Instant (14)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Familiar's Ruse
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Long-Term Plans
• 1x Mana Leak
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Negate
• 1x Return to Nature
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Winds of Rebuke

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Maybeboard

Creature (8)

• 1x Doorkeeper
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Mnemonic Wall
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Roc Egg
• 1x Ulvenwald Captive  ^Flip
• 1x Wall of Lost Thoughts

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Huatli, the Sun's Heart

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Slaughter the Strong

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Aluren
• 1x Brave the Sands
• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Intruder Alarm
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Smothering Tithe

Artifact (5)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Blasting Station
• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Talisman of Unity

Instant (3)

• 1x Dizzy Spell
• 1x Ghostly Flicker
• 1x Return to Dust

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Note that the prices do not include shipping.

This is an Arcades the Strategist Deck with a budget of $100 if you go by tcgplayer you can replace Smothering Tithe with Cloudstone Curio.

Basic Strategy

This deck is heavily dependent on its commander, and uses it's wall/defender synergy to draw into our infinite combos.

We can even adapt an aggressive playstyle by smacking people's faces with the walls due to Arcades, the Strategist ability. We use Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive to get past any blockers the opponents may have. We reward ourselves for doing so using Edric, Spymaster of Trest.

Even if we do not have Arcades, the Strategist we can still have Chulane, Teller of Tales as our back up engine who can bounce back our cheap walls to recast them and dig deeper into our deck.

How To Win The Game?

Now that we know the general strategy to dig through our deck. What are we looking for?

Infinite Mana

The main strategy of this deck is to assemble infinite mana using

Axebane Guardian + Freed from the Real + 1 other defender

Axebane Guardian + High Alert + 4 other defenders.

Then to draw out our deck by:

Sacrificing Wall of Brambles to Wall of Mulch.

Using Wall of Kelp to produce tokens to draw then using High Alert to untap the Wall of Kelp

Another way to do this in the maybeboard is:

Cloudstone Curio + Aluren + Arcades, the Strategist + one defender (no infinite mana needed)

Cloudstone Curio + Arcades, the Strategist + two defenders (infinite mana needed)

Once we have drawn out our deck there are two lines of play to end the game.

Strategy 1: Mirror Entity and Swing Face

The first line of play is to sink infinite mana into our Mirror Entity and swing for hopefully lethal. If you wanted to run this line as the primary wincon I would suggest upgrading the budget of the deck and putting in some stampede style effects such as Triumph of the Hordes, Overwhelming Stampede, Craterhoof Behemoth as well as Finale of Devastation.

Strategy 2: Milling out your Opponents

There are two ways to infinitely mill out your opponent.

The first way is to loop Eternal Witness + Winds of Rebuke to mill out all of your opponents deck.

The second way (no longer in the mainboard however if you do not like the flash hulk line then you can replace it with this infinite combo) is to Ghostly Flicker + Mnemonic Wall + Wall of Lost Thoughts.

However, be warned if one of your opponents is running one of the Eldrazi Titans e.g. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre they will reshuffle their deck. Thus it would be more optimal to go for the first infinite mana strategy in that case.

Resources I used

The wincons for this deck are from the Chulane CIA cEDH guide which I would highly recommend you check out if you are interested in using Chulane in cEDH:

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Chulane CIA (cEDH Chulane Primer)

Commander / EDH* Spleenface

SCORE: 99 | 39 COMMENTS | 37242 VIEWS | IN 46 FOLDERS

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In addition to this the cedh reddit which showed me the power of Sushi hulk which is the Flash + Protean Hulk wincon that you see in the primer.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveEDH/

If you are interested in other cEDH decks and interesting brews I would recommend you look at:

https://cedh-decklist-database.xyz/primary.html

Upgrades to the deck

Some of the upgrades that I would recommend if you have a slightly larger budget:

Doorkeeper for Kataki, War's Wage

Crashing Drawbridge for Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Hover Barrier for Mystic Remora

Roc Egg for Rhystic Study

Saruli Caretaker for Carpet of Flowers

Teyo, the Shieldmage for Merchant Scroll

Some other cards that I might add depending on if you want a faster combo with flash or to grind out the game with stacks:

For more grind:

Root Maze

For an easier wincon:

Aluren

Cloudstone Curio

To fetch up the wincon more easily:

Sylvan Library

Sylvan Tutor

Worldly Tutor

Mystical Tutor

Protection:

Force of Will

Force of Negation

Pact of Negation

I have finally finished the budgetless stax list for this deck:

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The Great Walls of Arcades

Commander / EDH XetZero

SCORE: 1 | 70 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

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I hope you guys check it out and feel free to leave any constructive criticism or comments on both versions of the deck.

Thank you

Regards,

Xetzero

Mystery Boosters

Mystery Boosters will be releasing today. With the introduction of mystery boosters there will be an increase in supply of cards. It will be slow however, there may be some cards that are seen more often than others and as a result this might decrease certain card prices to the point where I might be able to add them to the list. That being said this set has an unlimited print run that we know of that means that we should not be snatching up the cards immediately but rather wait a few months for the prices to stabilize.

Cards that have peaked my interest so far in order of priority:

Rhystic Study:

Probability of adding: Low

Reasoning: Price will probably stay around that price point and maybe fall $3 or so due to popularity of Commander format and Command Zone.

Rhystic study is an all star in the EDH format. It generates such larges amounts of card advantage. Even if your opponents pay it limits the amount of follow up or interaction your opponents can do afterwards. If you have $15 or so to spare I would definitely recommend picking one up.

Carpet of Flowers :

Probability of adding: Low

Reasoning: Price is too high: Will probably fall between $15 to $20 after few months

Carpet of Flowers is definitely a meta call. If you see a lot of people playing Islands I would definitely recommend picking one up if it is within your budget constraints.

Bloom Tender:

Probability of adding: Low

Reasoning: Price is too high: Will probably fall between $48 to $55 after few months

Bloom tender is an insane amount of ramp. Although it is a strong card I would not prioritize it over cards like

card: Elesh Norn:

Probability of adding: Low

Reasoning: Price is too high: Will probably fall between $15 to $20 after few months

Phyrexian Metamorph:

Probability of adding: moderate

Reasoning: Price is too high: Will probably fall between $5 to $8 after few months

I think that the card is good so that we can copy other creatures that might be better than ours or simply to trigger an extra etb off of Wall of Omens or Wall of Blossoms. In addition it could trigger Arcades, the Strategist as well. The only reason to not use this card is for its price point.

Mystic Confluence:

Probability of adding: moderate

Reasoning: it's better than Familiar's Ruse but, it is expensive cmc for a counterspell even if it does have flex options.

Mana Crypt :

I do not believe that this card will ever be in our price range due to the nature of how powerful and how difficult it is to pull in the Mystery Boosters set.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 8 - 0 Rares 34 - 0 Uncommons 32 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.27
Tokens	0/1 U Creature Plant Wall, Beast 3/3 G, Elephant 3/3 G, Saproling 1/1 G, Wall 0/3 W
Folders	Commander, Low to Mid tier decks, Cool Decks, Budget Under $100, Commander