Hello and welcome to the debut of Weekly Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Arcades Sabboth!

Arcades is an eight mana 7/7 that has flying, sacrifices itself at the beginning of our upkeep unless you pay green, white, and blue, each untapped creature you control gets +0/+2 as long as that creature isn’t attacking and for a white mana you can give Arcades +0/+1 until end of turn.

We begin our weekly look at various Commanders by looking at the first Commander that I had to scrap for a Daily Commander. Arcades lends himself to one particular strategy very well, and I was struggling to make the blog interesting, and keep in mind this was early days Daily Commander.

Having done a year of Daily Commander and have widened out the scope of what I want to do with Weekly Commander and looking at Arcades with fresh eyes, I see that there are some more interesting avenues to explore than the traditional play style that Arcades would be used for.

Eight Mana or Bust (plus Tip)

The first thing that we need to look at are ways to make sure that we can pay for Arcades and his upkeep tax so we can keep in play.

The strategy that is often associated with Arcades is a defenders matter strategy, and there is a lot of merit to it, especially with all the support that the archetype has gained over the years. Overgrown Battlement is one of the most effective ways for us to make the most use out of having a bunch of defenders since it makes a green mana for each creature with defender we control.

Along with that we also have a very effective way to get a discount off of our green and blue spells with Sunscape Familiar, which also happens to be a creature with defender since it was given the ability retroactively.

We can also make use of Axebane Guardian as a way to get a variety of mana colors the more defenders we play since we can tap it to add X mana in any combination of colors where X is the number of defenders we control, which the more we get into play can make it easier for us to get to cast Arcades and subsequently pay the upkeep cost.

There are also generic mana dorks that also happen to have defender like Sylvan Caryatid which taps to add a mana of any color and also has hexproof to protect itself, Ulvenwald Captive which can tap to add a green mana that we can later transform into Ulvenwald Abomination which can tap to add two colorless mana, and Wall of Roots which can put a -0/-1 counter on itself to add a green mana once each turn.

Since we are in blue, green, and white we are also in the lucky camp that we have access to one of the more effective mana creatures in Noble Hierarch, which can tap for any of those three colors while also having Exalted, which means that whenever a creature we control attacks alone, it gets +1/+1.

Looking at the list we have made so far, it seems like we are going down the usual defenders matter pathway, and it is going to be a primary strategy that we look at, but there is an aspect of it that we are going to take massive advantage of, and Noble Hierarch actually gave me the idea to pursue it.

For the Honor of Bant!

We don’t need to do have our defenders attack in order for us to gain value from a go wide defenders strategy, instead what we can do is make use of them in other ways.

Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield is a very interesting card in that whenever we cast our second spell each turn we draw a card and make an 0/3 Wall with defender, which is pretty good. However the more important part of the card is that at the beginning of combat on our turn creatures we control with defender gain Exalted until end of turn.

This means that we can turn a go wide defenders strategy into a proper Elder Dragon Voltron strategy by giving our defenders the ability to boost Arcades when it attacks, since ideally we have plenty of defenders that will gain exalted to do so.

We can even further support this strategy by using Sublime Archangel, which gives other creatures we control Exalted, not just our defender, while itself also happens to have Exalted. If we have both the Sublime Archangel and Rammas Echor in play, then we can double dip in Exalted to make Arcades even bigger.

Since Arcades’ ability also hinges on nonattacking creatures we control to be untapped, for the creatures we control that can in fact attack in the meantime and eventually for Arcades, we should be able to have our creatures remain untapped to also deal with damage sweepers.

Ajani, the Greathearted can help us by giving all creatures we control vigilance, while also maintaining the utility of gaining us 3 life, and putting +1/+1 counters on each creature we control and a loyalty counter on other Planeswalkers we control.

Speaking of Planeswalkers, Teyo, the Shieldmage can prove decently effective since he gives us hexproof to protect from spells that target us and we can also make 0/3 Wall tokens with defender to further help us with our other defender synergies.

We can also start looking for ways to help Arcades deal a bit of extra damage, with Rafiq of the Many being one of those options since they have Exalted and the ability to give a creature we control double strike if they attack alone.

There is also Ainok Strike Leader, which whenever it and/or our Commander attacks, we get to make a tapped and attacking 1/1 Goblin creature for each opponent and is attacking that opponent, which since we are only really going to be attacking with Arcades will not be an issue because any Exalted triggers we have will still resolve as normal. Technical Magic is always fun.

Support Structure

What we need next are ways to make sure that we can help reinforce our creatures, while providing a bit of versatility to the deck.

Since we do have a lot of defenders, naturally cards like High Alert are going to be considered since it has each creature we control assign combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power and can let our defenders attack as though they didn’t have defender, which is a solid way to pivot into a go wide aggro strategy if we are having trouble getting Arcades to stick onto the battlefield. Untapping a creature is a nice bonus, but a bit pricey at four mana.

In a similar vein there is also Assault Formation, which also let’s our creatures assign combat damage by using their toughness instead of their power, but the ability to have our defenders attack is one green mana, which is the price we pay for getting the toughness combat damage ability come into play for one mana cheaper. There is a much more relevant ability that gives our creatures a +0/+1 boost, which can be significant in some cases.

Speaking of giving our creatures a boost, we can use Tower Defense which gives creatures we control +0/+5 and reach until end of turn, which can be very useful as a way to deal with any problematic fliers while providing a significant boost if we have High Alert or Assault Formation in play.

Bar the Door gives creatures we control +0/+4 until end of turn, Aegis of Heaven gives target creature +1/+7 until end of turn, and Castle is an enchantment that gives untapped creatures we control +0/+2, which is great because an additional bonus to stack on with Arcades is very helpful.

We can also take advantage of having creatures with low or no power with board wipes like Slaughter the Strong which has it so that each player chooses any number of creatures we control with power 4 or less and then sacrifice the rest, which is very strong because we can get rid of some more difficult to deal with creatures since it sacrifices them, like creatures with ward or indestructible.

Dusk//Dawn is a solid piece of removal and recursion for us because we can destroy all creatures with power 3 or greater using Dusk, and if there is another board wipe that happens or happened, then we can use Dawn to return all creatures with power 2 or less from our graveyard back to the battlefield.

Now as far as Game Changers are concerned, this is a deck that really doesn’t need that many with tutors being some of the better ones. Mystical Tutor can be very handy for us because it let’s us tutor for an instant or sorcery that we need an put it on top of our library, Enlightened Tutor can get us an artifact or enchantment and put it on top of our library, and Worldly Tutor can get a creature from our library and put it on top.

My personal philosophy on whether or not a Game Changer should go in the deck is more so based on will that Game Changer advance our strategy in an effective way without being a hinderance, and while Rhystic Study and Smothering Tithe are very effective at advancing our strategy, I don’t personally like using them because of the “do you pay the X” aspect of them, but I can’t lie and say they aren’t good at what they do, especially Smothering Tithe with making Treasure tokens.

One I will vouch for, more so for keeping us safe and clears the way for us to win is Cyclonic Rift, which can either bounce one nonland permanent we don’t control to it’s owner’s hand or we can Overload it to bounce all nonland permanents we don’t control to their owner’s hand. The reason I vouch for Cyclonic Rift is because it sets us up to win with Arcades.

Elder Dragon Victory

As far as how we win the game, I think going a bit old school with winning through Commander Damage is a pretty solid send up for this deck.

While extra combats are a bit limited for us, we do have some options, and ones that work pretty well for us. Finest Hour is one of the three Commander legal options that allow for an extra combat that don’t have red in the color identity and it whenever a creature we control attack alone on our first combat phase of the turn, we untap it and get an additional combat phase and there is also the Exalted bonus, which will trigger again when we attack again.

The only other effective way for us to get an additional combat phase is with Genji Glove, which is an Equipment that gives double strike and whenever the equipped creature attacks, if it’s the first combat phase of the turn, we untap the creature and gain an additional combat phase.

Now the cool thing is, after checking to see the rules of this, if we have both Finest Hour and Genji Glove in play to trigger during our first combat phase, then we do in fact get two additional combat phases, and while we will lose on one additional untap, it won’t matter if we make sure Arcades has vigilance.

One of the ways we can help do that while also making sure that we get some more damage in is with Sight of the Scalelords, which gives creatures we control with toughness 4 or greater +2/+2 and vigilance until end of turn at the beginning of combats on our turn.

This is also very helpful if we need to pivot to having our defenders attack since it will, ideally, give them an additional boost that can be used with High Alert or Assault Formation in play, along with a Mirari’s Wake to give a +1/+1 boost to make sure they hit the 4 toughness threshold while also having our lands tap for an additional bit of mana.

We can also make sure we get through any of the defenses our opponents have in play with something like Brawn, which gives creatures we control trample if it is in the graveyard and we control a Forest, which shouldn’t be hard to manage, especially if we do a bit of cheating by using Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth to make all lands into Forest in addition to their other types.

In Conclusion

Arcades was the first Commander that I thought I couldn’t be able to do because of how I thought that Arcades was a linear defenders matter Commander.

Having looked at a bunch of Commanders, looking at niche support cards, and expanding my knowledge of the game has allowed me to look at some Commanders that I thought we more linear and allowed me to broaden what to look for.

While defenders are an important aspect of the deck, they aren’t the sole purpose of the deck and provide a solid foundation to enabling our strategy while also making sure we have ways to protect ourselves from decently sized creatures coming in to attack us.

The primary strategy of being a Voltron deck seemed like it was going to turn one linear deck idea into another, but we can pivot between the two strategies pretty well and still be effective at both while not sacrificing efficiency.

The issues that the deck faces are going to be targeted removal, which while we have plenty of ways to get the mana to play Arcades at least once, repeated removal is going to be pretty tricky to deal with to say the least.

Board wipes aren’t as bad for us as one might expect, at least when it comes to our creatures. We are playing a good amount of other noncreature support cards that with them being removed can prove to be a bit tricky to deal with.

As with any deck, we only have so many ways to protect our things and while we do have access to cards like Heroic Intervention to give our permanents hexproof and indestructible or even Teferi’s Protection to save us for at least a turn and at most a round, we need to make sure we can recover and win because there is only so much space we have to have those cards in the deck.

Arcades is a lot more versatile than I initially gave him credit for, and expanding my parameters beyond just defenders really helped making Arcades much more interesting to me, and to you all I hope.

Hopefully you all enjoyed the new, longer and more detailed format. I did a couple of changes that make the article a bit more interesting and helpful since it is longer and people may not read it all at once so having the titles can serve as a sort of bookmark for later.

Please leave feedback on how I can improve on this as well as other Commanders you want to see. If you want to help support the website and want me to talk about a specific Commander, I do have a Ko-Fi where you can make a commissions or give a tip if you are feeling generous.

Thank you all for reading, see you next week for the next Weekly Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual

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