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Arcades, the Strategist

Arcades, the Strategist

Legendary Creature — Elder Dragon · {1}{G}{W}{U} · Green/Blue/White commander

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.
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What Arcades, the Strategist actually does

Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.

What an Arcades, the Strategist deck wants

The plan the Forge derives for this commander: the roles it fills and how many of each.

Best cards for Arcades, the Strategist

Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.

A creature that HAS the keyword the commander's trigger counts — a card that merely says the word is not one

  1. Crashing Drawbridge2 mana
  2. Shield Sphere0 mana
  3. Shifting Wall0 mana
  4. Crystal Barricade2 mana
  5. Flumph2 mana
  6. Fog Bank2 mana
  7. Overgrown Battlement2 mana
  8. Sylvan Caryatid2 mana

A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses

  1. Chrome Mox0 mana
  2. Mystic Sanctuary0 mana
  3. Simic Growth Chamber0 mana
  4. Temple of Mystery0 mana
  5. Azorius Chancery0 mana
  6. Cabaretti Courtyard0 mana
  7. Hedge Maze0 mana
  8. Lotus Field0 mana

Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses

  1. Airbender Ascension2 mana
  2. Displacer Kitten4 mana
  3. Eldrazi Displacer3 mana
  4. Soulherder3 mana
  5. Eternal Acrobat Toast0 mana
  6. Conjurer's Closet5 mana
  7. Distinguished Conjurer2 mana
  8. Brago, King Eternal4 mana

Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it

  1. Path to Exile1 mana
  2. Swords to Plowshares1 mana
  3. Reality Shift2 mana
  4. Pongify1 mana
  5. Rapid Hybridization1 mana
  6. Resculpt2 mana
  7. March of Otherworldly Light1 mana
  8. Suspend1 mana

Answer a whole board at once

  1. Final Showdown1 mana
  2. Vanquish the Horde8 mana
  3. Martyr's Cry2 mana
  4. Split Up3 mana
  5. Cathedral Membrane2 mana
  6. Citywide Bust3 mana
  7. Displacement Wave2 mana
  8. Harsh Mercy3 mana

Answer a spell or ability before it resolves

  1. Pact of Negation0 mana
  2. Counterspell2 mana
  3. Three Steps Ahead1 mana
  4. Long River's Pull2 mana
  5. Force of Will5 mana
  6. Abjure1 mana
  7. Archmage's Charm3 mana
  8. Cancel3 mana

Find the exact card the plan needs

  1. Green Sun's Zenith1 mana
  2. Nature's Rhythm2 mana
  3. Neoform2 mana
  4. Celestial Reunion1 mana
  5. Worldly Tutor1 mana
  6. Reshape2 mana
  7. March of Burgeoning Life1 mana
  8. Mask of the Mimic1 mana

Refill your hand

  1. Esper Sentinel1 mana
  2. Mystic Remora1 mana
  3. Skullclamp1 mana
  4. Curiosity1 mana
  5. Wizard Class1 mana
  6. Garruk's Uprising3 mana
  7. Rhystic Study3 mana
  8. Archivist of Oghma2 mana

Keep a permanent you control alive through removal

  1. Flowering of the White Tree2 mana
  2. Innkeeper's Talent2 mana
  3. Bastion Protector3 mana
  4. Gold-Forged Thopteryx2 mana
  5. Greater Auramancy2 mana
  6. Sterling Grove2 mana
  7. Codsworth, Handy Helper3 mana
  8. Guardian Augmenter3 mana

Build this deck in the Arcane Forge →

Arcane Foundry is free to join and every tool is included: the Arcane Forge deck builder, the ARCANE Analyzer that scores a deck by simulating games rather than counting staples, a card scanner, a collection vault, and live webcam Commander tables. Read the guide · Browse all commanders · Pricing