Arcades, the Strategist Commander Guide: How the Deck Actually Wins

Arcades, the Strategist is a Legendary Creature — Elder Dragon (mana cost {1}{G}{W}{U}; Legendary Creature — Elder Dragon; 3/5; rarity: mythic; most recent printing listed by Scryfall: Core Set 2019). Its colour identity is green, blue, white, and its Commander legality on Scryfall is listed as legal. This guide explains what the card actually does, how a deck built around it wins, and which decisions matter most when you build your own version.

What Arcades, the Strategist does

The card's exact text is where every honest build starts:

Flying, vigilance
Whenever a creature you control with defender enters, draw a card.
Each creature you control with defender assigns combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power and can attack as though it didn't have defender.

Read that text literally. Every line of it is a building instruction: the abilities tell you which supporting cards multiply the commander, which weaknesses opponents will attack, and which turns of the game the deck is designed to own. Brewers get into trouble when they build the deck they wish the commander were; build the one this text describes.

Build and check your list with the MTGBrew AI deck builder, and browse every card mentioned here in the MTGBrew card database on MTGBrew.

How the deck wins

The wins rarely come from a single spectacular play. They come from the deck doing its ordinary thing one turn earlier than the table expects, then doing it again while opponents are still setting up. Build for that ordinary game first: enough lands to make your drops, enough ramp to reach your commander on schedule, and enough card flow that a removal spell pointed at your best permanent slows you down instead of ending you.

If this topic is on your bench, keep going with Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm Commander Guide: How the Deck Actually Wins — it covers the neighbouring decisions from a different angle, and the two pieces together give you a fuller picture than either one alone.

Keep reading

Keep reading: Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm Commander Guide: How the Deck Actually Wins and The Ur-Dragon Commander Guide: How the Deck Actually Wins.

Building and tuning tips

Tune in small steps. Change two or three cards at a time, play several games, and write down what actually happened rather than what you hoped would happen. Deck building rewards that patience — a list adjusted on evidence converges on its best version, while a list rebuilt after every loss never stays still long enough to be judged.

Keep the mana honest, too. A commander in green, blue, white colours needs a mana base built for those colours in the proportions the deck actually casts — a lesson that applies to every list you will ever build, and one the MTGBrew Learn guides return to often.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Atraxa, Praetors' Voice Commander Guide: Proliferate Value

Atraxa, Praetors' Voice is one of those cards players keep coming back to — and the Scryfall record shows exactly why. Atraxa, Praetors' Voice — Legendary Creature — Phyrexian Angel Horror — Mana cost: {G}{W}{U}{B} — Rarity: mythic — Set: Double Masters Oracle text: Flying, vigilance, deathtouch, lifelink. At the beginning of your end step, proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.) What Atraxa, Praetors' Voice does Read the oracle text literally: Flying, vigilance, deathtouch, lifelink. At the beginning of your end step, proliferate. Its type line is Legendary Creature — Phyrexian Angel Horror and its mana cost is {G}{W}{U}{B} (converted mana cost 4.0). It was printed in Double Masters at mythic rarity. Where it fits A four-color Angel with proliferate on your end step — counters, planeswalkers, and poison all grow under Atraxa. Legal formats listed by Scryfall include: historic: legal, timele...
Read more

Coming Soon: Your MTGBrew Profile Record — vs the Computer and vs Real Players

Image
Every Magic player remembers their best wins. The MTGBrew game — in development now, coming soon — is being built to remember them with you: your profile will carry your record against the Computer and your record against real players, side by side. Two records, two different stories Games against the Computer run at Easy, Medium, and Hard, matched to the same 1–10 strength scale the deck builder uses — so a win over a Hard brew means something specific. Games against real players are online 1v1 matches, where the record reflects human opponents, human lines, and human bluffs. Keeping the two records separate keeps both honest. Built around the decks you brewed You will play the decks you built on MTGBrew's AI deck builder , in the format you pick: Commander at 40 life, Regular at 20, Pauper at 20, or Random. If you have no deck yet, you can borrow an equal-power community deck so the match stays fair. The live players-online counter and player chat are part of the same build, and ...
Read more

Coming Soon: Play Magic: The Gathering Right on MTGBrew

Image
The game is coming to MTGBrew. We are building a full play experience right here — soon you will be able to take the decks you brew on MTGBrew.ai straight into a real game of Magic: The Gathering, no downloads and no separate app. Here is what is being built right now: Play vs the Computer. Three difficulty levels — Easy, Medium, and Hard — powered by the same 1-to-10 deck strength scale as our AI deck builder. A Hard opponent plays the strongest decks the builder can brew; Easy is the perfect sparring partner while you learn a new deck. Play vs real players, online. Live 1v1 matches against other MTGBrew players, with a live players-online counter on the Play screen and chat so you can find opponents and talk through the game. Your format, your life total. Every match starts with a format pick — Commander at 40 life, Regular at 20, Pauper at 20 — or choose Random and let the game roll one for you. Both players see the format and starting life before the first card is drawn. ...
Read more