Arcades, the Strategist | Upping the Average 

As a long time arcades player, you nailed it!

Tetsuko Umezawa and Sidar Kondo can make your walls unblockable!

This is now the second time an upping the Average video has left me speechless. I am owning a Feather and an Arcades Deck. When the Feather video came out I was like "I will take a look at this video, but I am sure there is nothing for me to take away, my Feather deck is already perfect." - After watching the video, I almost completely overhauled my creature base for that deck. And now again with Arcades I was like "I have an Arcades Deck for almost 2 years now, surely there is no card I have overlooked." - Now I am sitting here, swapping out my more expensive walls for an overall build that is lower to the ground. I think what i want to say is this: "KEEP UP THE EXCELLENT WORK AND VIDEOS. THERE ARE AWESOME!"

I wish you would make an update on this 😭

I am so happy my pet commander got an episode 😭

ARCADES PLAYER HERE! I'd like to nominate Treefolk Umbra (thank you Modern Horizons) as a way to make Arcades into a proper Elder Dragon of old - making him hit for 7 each time! The Totem Armor is relevant a LOT!! GREAT JOB ON THE EPISODE!! 🙏🔥

I just pulled an Arcade out of my Time Spiral Remastered box and suddenly this video popped up in my suggested list. Algorithm...you savvy bastard, you've done me another solid.

On the topic of 2 mana ramp spells for Arcades, I think there's something also to be said for the extra land to hand being somewhat redundant for his card draw ability, since you're likely to have your hand full or mostly full from playing your creatures, meaning you're less likely to miss a land drop until much later.

I am an Arcades player and I really love your changes to the list, I will try them of course

Two cards I like to use in my Arcades deck are Return to the Ranks and Aurification. Return to the Ranks is great for those wraths that do manage to clear your board. And Aurification is great for reeking havoc on your opponents attack strategies.

I agree with most of your cuts, but getting rid of Tree of Redemption is crazy. Sure, it's the top of your curve, but oh what a curve topper is is! Can it get chumped? Sure, but so can the rest of your walls, unless you have Tetsuko or another unblockable enabler, or you just wiped the board, both of which are things this deck should be shooting for. And the added versatility of potentially being able to turn it into a 40/40 or heal yourself back up to 13 (or more) in a pinch can occasionally come in clutch.

Arcades is my number two or three behind definitely Aminatou, maybe Locust God. So happy he got an episode! (And I feel proud of myself for having a lot of the upgrades already added!)

I got myself an Arcades immediately after it was released. Took me almost 3 years to build it due to lack of priority/attention and finally sleeved it up for a game DAYS ago. To see this pop up on RU-vid today, it's as if the dragon gods have something to tell me.

If there wasn't any price restriction..... How is AURA SHARDS... not in this list?????

Just cracked an Arcades in TSR. Looking forward to this deck tech!

These videos are the best deck techs out there by far

Nissa, Steward of elements is a beast in this deck

Great ideas, thank u. My arcades commander deck needed a reboot.

I personally have Aluren in my Arcades deck to throw out all my walls for free. Kinda glad I picked it up when I did before it's price shot up.....

Wall of Glare has saved my ass many times. Great vid

This commander is sooooo strong and reliable ! It always performs except if you remove it instantly all the time. Such a powerhouse !

Thanks for the shoutout! Love this video. Gonna have to check my current list now...

I just started building this deck because I wanted to start building more casual decks. Arcades just seems powerful but fair! EDIT: I was looking through all my commons and uncommons and found "Intervene" from Urza's Legacy. For U it counters a spell that targets any creature. I felt that this was super good for protecting Arcades, and is 60x cheaper than Swan Song.

Interesting stuff, thanks! Love my walking walls decks :) I chose to play some old walls like walking air and living wall for lols

I'm fond of Wall of Nets. While it needs to block in order to exile something there are enough ways to give things vigilance in Arcades or even block while tapped that's not much of an issue. I've leaned into the infinite mana generation with Helix Pinnacle and also included Approach of the Second Sun. I needed those alternate win conditions based on the number of taxing decks I seem to play against.

I really like this, its interesting to see what Walls you kept. Im surprised War of the spark Huatli isnt here, as it is also a nice backup option for your creatures to at least block with effectiveness and synergizes. I know price restrictions are huge in these, but a recommendation for certain should be Venser, the Sojouner.

This is strangely good timing as I had an interest in a build involving this guy. 🤔

I absolutely love the changes you've made to Arcades, the Strategist deck, but I have to ask about why you did not include Hornet Nest in your upgrades? It has defender, can produce a ton of 1/1 flyers with defender and deathtouch (depending on which creature you block) and it's price is still under a dollar. As for it's mana cost, it's 2g which should fit into the mana curve nicely.

Teyo is a meta call I think. If your local meta has a lot of stuff that targets players, keep Teyo in the deck. This would be things like Tinybones discard, Rosheen Meanderer X spells, or Zaffai spellslinger.

Can you do Alesha, who smiles at death, for upping the average?

Consider adding in Reconnaissance; it's a 1 mana pseudo-vigilance (arguably, BETTER than plain vigilance) on a stick. What's not to love?

I made a shoved together version of this deck yesterday and I had a blast piloting it. By turn 4 I hit someone for 18gm out of no where. It was ridiculous.

I'm surprised you didn't shout out Tetsuko Umezawa As one of the best cards in the deck!

Just as I've been making a Defender/Arcades deck, this showed me some interesting strategies I can use to fully round out the deck. Not sure how I feel about Angelic Chorus or Tree of Redemption leaving the deck, but everyone plays differently.

Teyo has been a great help for me. I even packed my deck with more planeswalkers cuz i got enough walls to defend em :P

I guess you can say that this commander can pack quite the "Wall-up" 😁😂😂 I finally have this commander rebuilt.

So I’ve been running the utility walls, even at the cost of one less toughness. Because I have support cards that show up and surprise my opponents like Archetype of Imagination and Keeper of Keys. Game ending.

Gotta shake my head at the inclusion of Sakura-Tribe when Ulvenwald Captive is a card and does not seem to currently be in the deck. Other major cards I'd recommend is just more fliers. Large ground creatures are just SO much more likely to be stoped than flying ones and I'd happily pay an extra mana if it means I'm attacking in the air. And what better way to do that than with Wall of Air and Monastery Flock.

You know you can put Chulane in this deck, I do!

Would love to see a Ghoulcaller Gisa video for upping the average.

I have a pramikon sky rampart walls deck. It is awesome. My attacks are made with various Phoenix creatures. I have high alert, but that is the backup strat.

Surprised that seeming nobody’s brought up Wall of Kelp yet! It’s rather pricy for a wall, but it’s easily one of the most synergistic cards with Arcades if you can afford it. Aura Shards is another fantastic, if expensive, include, and Sidar Kondo is a great honorary wall, effectively making your walls fly.

Can you do Brago, King Eternal? I would love to see him featured in this series.

I'm not an Arcades player so I'll leave the more knowledgeable to comment on the card selections. I just really enjoyed this episode. I also liked the minor changes to the intro. I'd welcome you mixing up all your content a bit more.

Not relevant to the deck tech, but thst beard is clean AF Joey.

Omg, all the wall puns 🤣

Would love to see Syr Gwyn next!!

As a player of this master of butts, wild pair. You gotta do extra work as you have to make sure you have pairs for it, but man, it does wonders.

I would love to see Arixmethes or Kesita

I really like mizzium skin, but is too narrow and is that why it does not show up in more arcades decks?

Quite similar to my Arcades deck. After trying several tactics I came to realize that it has to strike first, hard and with no mercy. So I cut most of the higher costs and I gave priority to the cheaper flying walls. I have more counters and other reacktions in mine tho, you need to keep Arcades alive.

Can you do a Upping the Average to the Partner Commander Pako and haldan?

Arcades needs a lot of defense for himself for as cheap as possible. Look these up to give him hexproof or shroud for 1 or 2 mana: - Robe of Mirrors - Diplomatic Immunity - Alexi’s Cloak And there are some good ones in green too.

Replace Teferi's Ageless Insight with Panharmonicon, so you get all your ETBs doubled and not just card draws. Easier to cast it with 4 generic mana instead of 2 and 2 blue.

Hey so I’m relatively new to commander and I mostly play with my family. Does your commander count as in your hand? A card had an additional cost of revealing a dragon, he said arcades is a dragon. But I thought the commander zone is separate from your hand?

How can you improve on such perfect strategy? It was made with draconic brilliance

What are your thoughts on Dragon Throne of Tarkir? It turns Arcades into a 5/5 and after he's declared as an attacker, can overrun for 2 mana.

For a long time I thought his nostrils were actually his eyes, and that made him look really silly. Now the algorithm is sated.

What's our payoff for the infinite mana? Should we be planning around it?

I play scion of draco and Hutaali from WAR and they work pretty nice with this commander

I know it's not worth a slot, but wall of glare with ghostly posession on it defends really well lol

Finally! My walls getting some airtime

Joey = the best

Sakura tribe as remplacement of three visit because three is expensive is fine but what about nature lore. Thats a three visit but more accessible (print in so many version) and only 1-2$

Majority of my walls have evasion like flying and I cut majority of the walls on the ground.

i dont like maindecking meekstone unless im going all in on a stasis style deck. it just doesnt seem to do enough on its own as an incidental one-sided effect

I'm a bit confused by the video, what do defenders do for us? They make us discard a card? That sounds terrible!

no wall of denial?

Thoughts on including a Panharmonicon?

Wall of Hope.

I may be two Years late... But the puns. I approve!

Why stop at just adding boots, I might throw Neurok Stealthsuit in there too!

I personally believe there needs to be more defenders in the deck. Around 38-40. These play a creature draw a card. I really believe its better not to get stuck. I also have panharmonicon and dragon throne of tarkir

I feel a bit silly now since I just got towering titan as an upgrade for my arcades deck

A few personal comments about the deck: - I would cut Mnemonic Wall from the deck, 5 mana for small wall is not good enough; and its ETB is very limited, the deck doesn't run enough instant/sorcery worth recurring to make this card worth it. - Remove all the lands which comes into play tapped: gates, fetches... etc... The deck has green to fix its color and the cost of having a land etb-ing tapped is really high considering how low the mana curve is. Any lands which enters tapped coz a loss of momentum for the deck. - I would remove few vanilla walls, and add some low CMC counter spells to the deck (negate, flusterstorm, swan song if available); counter spells will remain this deck's best defense. - A less budget card also worth adding if you have it: Heroic Intervention - Ghostly Flicker is also an underrated cards here; it will draw you an average of 2 to 3 cards at instant speed; can draw you up to 8 cards (bouncing 2 draw-walls with your command and Teferi's Ageless Insight on board) AND has the flexibility of being able to protect your commander when targeted by a kill spell. Finally, my craziest point: Cutting out Cyclonic Rift!!! Yeah I know this is crazy but: - It cost 7 mana to overload, when you're going to spend most of your mana casting walls. - It cannot target your side to protect your commander or replay a wall. Basically, you really don't need a third expensive board wipes; you will likely be the threat on the tables, so it's better to pack protection. Keep cyclonic rift for a deck which will really benefit from it!

my only disagreement is with mentor of the meek, backup card draw engines are important

Baunt? :)

Looking like your bout to host blues clues

I play this Commander since its release. Neat! I included Aesi, Azusa, Chulane and collector ouphe. Unified will, Beast whisperer and Seijiri shelter are must have . You absolutely don’t want to play the boots and kodama reach/cultivate.

A group of friends and I are doing a 25 dollar or less edh. The budget includes the commander, but not basic lands (kinda like a command quarters thing). I picked this guy to be my commander. Still tinkering with it, but I am excited with what you get for 25 bucks with this deck. To be honest it looks like a scary deck so far.

I tried a similar deck with Doran, however his and Arcades' main ability isn't strong enough to bring them into top tier decks, and wins will be rare with either of them.

Arcades player: Mwahahah look at all my walls I'm going to win next turn Me on my turn: Slams down Siege Dragon

shit I do have the pricey speels this time !!!

Wondering if anyone knows, but it would seem that eerie interlude wouldn't let you card draw right? If you're using it to protect arcades from a board wipe, then they'd all return at the same time before arcades effect is on the battlefield, no?

Cut all mana rocks, they are terrible to draw late. Add more walls and keep them low cmc, ie 1-2CC. Run ghostway and eerie interlude, particularly with Mnemonic wall. When the walls re-enter, you will draw cards with Arcades. Aura shards is boss in this deck, especially with the mass blink effects listed previously.

Guess I'm just pure evil y'all. I have triumph of the hoard in my deck🤷. I won a tournament with the deck so yah my group doesn't like seeing what I call jericho come out to play haha.

Me: My deck is perfect. EDHRECast: Your deck could be better. Me: My deck could be better.

Don’t put in Three Visits, put in Natures Lore.. it does the same thing word for word at the same CMC.

Where's the rest of that protection? once your friends see how much arcades does and how little the deck does without him you're gonna have a very hard time keeping him alive. I run a Bruna light of Alabaster deck that has a dozen protective auras with some of them having flash. Bruna is simply unplayable if you can't sneak hexproof on her the same turn she comes down. When everything hangs on your commander, it needs to stick. especially Arcades who needs to be at play before you play your walls

I still don't understand why it's any better to have a bunch of lower cmc walls (okay obviously they get replaced and more means harder to kill) than to have a bigger wall with a higher cmc. Hear me out, if you haven't cast arcades, then those small walls eat up resources without getting replaced so it's a given we have arcades however that means a 3 mana or even four mana wall is not too high to cast. So if smaller walls seem like the better deal then it's the overall toughness you are getting not the drawing more cards. To put this into a more clear example effectively you are saying that a deck of cantriping walls is better than a deck of harder hitting walls that cantrip as well.

what you just nit rick and morty? waaaaaaait???

Chulane is a good include. I throw in Teferi's Ageless Insight too. You are drawing loads of cards, Cultivate is better. Who cares if you play Arcades turn 4? You want to protect him anyway - this isn't CEDH

Wait Arcades is a he? I always thought arcades was a girl

I feel like I should just stop asking for Lucia Sanquine Tribune as I have done it tons of episodes in a row

I’m sorry friend but I disagree with your deck tech this time. I played hundreds of games with this bad boy and you almost never want to cast it asap unless you run 0 mana interactions. You want to first starts an engine as he will get targeted a lot. 1 - You want 40+ creatures to maximize Beast whisperer, Guardian project and aura shards => run wood elves and STE ramp instead of spells or rocks. 2 - Since you draw a lot, you want to be able to play Exploration’s style cards, so Aesi, Azusa, Chulane... Those are fantastic in the deck. 3 - Don’t play the boots. Just don’t, please. Protect your board with counterspells and more importantly Eerie interlude and Ghostway. Even Selfless spirit. 4 - Don’t play the 5 mana board wipe, keep it low. And return to the ranks is your best backup. 5 - Play 41-43 lands. 6 - You absolutely don’t play any 4 mana walls, even jungle barrier or wall of stolen identity. 7 - Btw ondu inversion is good in the deck.

Arcades is a female

Lmao, thinks about exchanging a cultivate for a Kodama’s reach… they’re the same card.

Wall of tears is also good. 2 mana for a 0/4 wall that returns a creature he blocked means bye bye to a big token or you have to start all over again equipping your voltron creature and if by any chance enchantments are used on that creature well hello graveyard for them when the creature is returned to hand. A good wall for saying are you sure you want to attack me with that? Hehe