Now that full spoilers are out, I think the is probably the best that Arcades decks are gonna get. There's a lot of new cards that fit in his colors, but the only one that really adds punch to the deck is High Alert. Otherwise some of the new defenders have value, but High Alert solves the problem of only having 4 Arcades in the deck. There are a few different ways to build around Arcades, but I went the Planeswalker route for support.
I'm planning on taking this to an FNM in the near future, but am interested in any thoughts, ideas or suggestions that anyone has.
You may add 4 Tower Defenses, a card that is already quite interesting in the Modern version of the deck.
While not in the right colors, Cavalcade of Calamity is interesting, and red has some nice walls.
There's also a couple creatures without defender but high toughness that might be interesting to try (Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive,Surge Mare on top of my mind).
I'll put a bit of effort in the archetype and come back with what I find.
Cavalcade of Calamity is an interesting card for Arcades and it might be worth exploring a version with a red splash for that and cards like Electrostatic Field and Spear Spewer. I'll have to keep Tower Defense in mind, though I think that hexproof has more value than reach, atm.
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I don't always play Jank, but when I do, I play Saffronolive.
Tower Defense has the potential to alpha strike the opponent, that's why I bring it in the discussion. It kind of comboes with Tetsuko the same way Spreading Seas comboes with Merfolk lords. I believe Watchdogs is enough protection, but who knows.
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Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
You know, the first time I looked at Tower Defense, I didn't catch the fact it hits all creatures. I definitely need to find a place for it in the main deck.
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I don't always play Jank, but when I do, I play Saffronolive.
1- Tetsuko + Tower Defense is quite the combo.
2- Surge Mare is the strongest 0/X in the deck, very valuable to race green decks. It's nonbo with Arcades though and quite hard to cast on turn 2.
3- Resolute Watchdog is not in the right colors, very hard to cast it on turn 1.
4- I like white to be a splash as much as possible.
5- Arcades has surprisingly be worse than High Alert ! It hits all the removal in the world, not even sure 4 copies is right.
Chart could be Dive Down, Deputy of Detention, or anything else (Shimmer of Possibility). It's hard without a big picture of the metagame to come.
Walls are overall miserable, so there's no huge difference between Barrier and Mist VS Grappling Sundew that I don't play. Meta call once again.
I can see where you're going headminerve, your list is much more focused than mine. I can see actually dropping one Arcades thanks to High Alert. Alert even makes Tetsuko into a better threat. As far as meta, I don't see drakes going away completely, Wall of Vines and Grappling Sundew have reach. The best argument for Gleaming Barrier is the treasure token it produces. The real problem with the walls is that they're not awesome on their own. They're only good with Arcades, and better now with High Alert. I think this is where I am now. I'm gonna try and pick up/trade for the cards I need at the pre-release this weekend and start testing .
Hmmm still not sure about this deck, really leans into that 3 mana enchantment...
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Yup, the enchantment is key. I added 4 Shimmer of Possibility and 2 Anticipate to help find the key pieces, and I believe the first one is probably a must in the deck. It helps me cut some Tower Defenses.
There's a chance that pump spell is unnecessary if Tetsuko is in the mix. It comboes well but it also is a bit overkill.
I didn't consider Teferi and Karn, or other angles but there's a good chance it's needed.
As far as meta, I don't see drakes going away completely, Wall of Vines and Grappling Sundew have reach. The best argument for Gleaming Barrier is the treasure token it produces
You're right, although I think Wall of Vines is probably not good enough, because it has only 3 toughness in a field of x/4s (all these angels, demons, dragons and drakes won't trade then). In the 2-drop slot, I actually quite like Wall of Mists and Surge Mare because they dodge Lava Coil. Maybe I put too much emphasis on that specific removal.
I wish I had a way to gain life too, aggro decks usually finish me off with burn effects.
One of the things I’ve come to the conclusive after playing so many aggressive decks the past season is that it is creatures need power to be an effective blocker. So many decks can go wide so fast that having a zero power blocker is a liability which is why I cut back to only six zero power blockers. Still I am not that convinced a deck focusing on defenders can work since the aggro decks of next season will most likely be some combination of go wide (WW, Selesnya Tokens) or a deck that doesn’t care about your walls due to the size of their creatures (Gruul).
The other thing I noticed as I was building was while there are more than enough defenders, not many are what I would call “quality” creatures even with Arcades out on the field. Instead I also looked into a purely High Alert deck (since Arcades only works with defenders) which while rougher than the deck above, also looks like it has a better chance of being able to become something pretty decent with a combination of better creatures, better mana, and less dead draws.
The thing I like about this deck is that with Omenspeaker, Surgemare, Shimmer of Possibility and Sinister Sabotage it is a lot better at finding High Alert. It is also a lot less reliant on finding High Alert to win since it is playing creatures that are already good without High Alert, but become great with High Alert. Because of these two things I am thinking the number of High Alerts can be cut down to three since we don’t want to be drawing more than one, which allows for more interactive cards like Settle and Warrant // Warden.
Right now I am thinking Deputy of Detention maindeck while Tocatli Honor Guard in the sideboard since I figure the Deputy is better in general outside of a heavy Mono-Red and Golgari metagame. I could see playing some combination of both maindeck, but that just seems counterintuitive unless the meta shifts in such a way that it makes sense.
With Murmuring Mystic I think he is fine with only 15 instants and sorceries since I am more interested in his big butt and any birds I get are cake. But I could be wrong. And I wonder if this is where I am supposed to put a maindeck Honor Guard or two.
The other question is whether or not Settle is worth it. Since with Tetsuko the deck doesn't have to worry about blockers that much Settle is better. Plus it is an instant which is nice with Murmuring Mystic and takes care of Carnage Tyrant. I guess the other thing is I am not really sure what I would replace it with. But if it was cut it would allow the Azorius Guildgates to be replaced with basic lands,Field of Ruin, and/or Arch of Orazca
Decks seem fun, but yeah, this seems to be horribly slow. You are basically not able to hurt your opponent much unless you drop high alert or Arcades.
The big combo pieces require so much on the board (tetsuko + high alert / arcades + some creatures + having tower defence is hand might be a game winning move, but ***** it's gonna be hard to get this board setup.
Although this is probably not a T1 deck, be nice to get it somehow up to T2.
Maybe 2 Search for Azcanta main would help filter your top deck draws better than a one shot sorcery. The flip is a may but also hits High Alert, so...anyway...
T1; land, Saruli Caretaker
T2; land, Resolute Watchdog, tap Caretaker and dog for mana, tap remaining mana for 2 drop wall.
T3; land, High Alert, swing for 10
T4; land, Tetsuko Unezawa,Fugitive, swing, Tower Defense before damage, win target game.
That's probably the best case scenario for this deck.
@headminerve, I'm starting to think the same way about Incubation Druid. She only combos with High Alert for attacks, but she has some good upside for casting a big finisher.
I think that the real payoff of Arcades is the card advantage. Turning our walls into cantrips is, I think, important for this deck since we're slower. It's not that High Alert offers redundancy to Arcades, but Arcades is redundancy for High Alert.
I have a hard time seeing the deck except as a super durdle deck with a lot of synergies - here is an example, use the walls as fodder to protect getting to your superfriends. You have a recursive loop with regenesis + mirari conjecture, and some nice synergies with some of the 1-ofs. Sai sacrifices your golden guardian who makes Karn happier, Chamber Sentry can be played for 1 to help your saruli caretaker ramp, your golden guardian can kill your own gleaming barrier to get a treasure to make sure you get to teferi mana, and you have settle and warrant along with all the walls to get to the point where you can do all these shenanigans. Incubation/incongruity also does some good work here as a way to dig for your silver bullet creatures early (or late) or just make a threatening creature a 3/3 which doesn't do much vs your deck.
I can also see just a brutal opening of t1 saruli, t2 wall of mist, t3 arcades, and then t4 swing for 11 out of pretty much nowhere and drop a karn. And again, with the chromatic lantern and treasures from the gleaming barrier and treasure map + the mana from the saruli + the mana from any color from the gold forge garrison, it shouldn't be too difficult to cast and recur a giant Chamber Sentry late game.
I definitely think the deck needs 1-2 more lands, and the answer is probably cutting the the regenesis/mirari conjecture package for it...but I do think you have a lot of mana and card selection from the creatures.
Dive Down is a very efficient card for defeating spot removal, combat tricks and adding reach.
I think of it as a mid-range deck - with all the walls you have excellent defenses to outlast Aggro, while against Control, if you curve into High Alert you can be doing 7-8 to the face on Turn 3.
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I'm planning on taking this to an FNM in the near future, but am interested in any thoughts, ideas or suggestions that anyone has.
4 Resolute Watchdog
4 Wall of Vines
2 Saruli Caretaker
2 Portcullis Vine
4 Grappling Sundew
1 Suspicious Bookcase
2 Wall of Mist
1 Amaranthine Wall
2 Karn, Scion of Urza
2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
1 Vivien Reid
4 High Alert
2 Conclave Tribunal
4 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Glacial Fortress
3 Hinterland Harbor
1 Island
1 Plains
3 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden
2 Conclave Tribunal
1 Slaughter the Strong
3 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
2 Sinister Sabotage
2 Crushing Canopy
1 Settle The Wreckage
2 Ixalan's Binding
CCL Winner- July '08, Aug '08 Sept '08, Oct '08
Survivor- CCS: Lost in Takenuma, CCS: Stranded In Tolaria
While not in the right colors, Cavalcade of Calamity is interesting, and red has some nice walls.
There's also a couple creatures without defender but high toughness that might be interesting to try (Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive,Surge Mare on top of my mind).
I'll put a bit of effort in the archetype and come back with what I find.
Sideboard's not settled yet, part of me wants to sneak some Traxos, Scourge of Kroog, given number of historic cards, for maximum jankness.
4x Breeding Pool
4x Hinterland Harbor
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Sunpetal Grove
1x Forest
1x Island
Creatures (18)
4x Portcullis Vine
4x Gleaming Barrier
3x Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
3x Sai, Master Thopterist
4x Arcades, the Strategist
3x Mox Amber
2x Dive Down
4x High Alert
4x Incubation // Incongruity
3x Jace, Cunning Castaway
4x Karn, Scion of Urza
3x Knight of Autumn
3x Negate
3x Sinister Sabotage
3x Sorcerous Spyglass
3x Treasure Map
CCL Winner- July '08, Aug '08 Sept '08, Oct '08
Survivor- CCS: Lost in Takenuma, CCS: Stranded In Tolaria
CCL Winner- July '08, Aug '08 Sept '08, Oct '08
Survivor- CCS: Lost in Takenuma, CCS: Stranded In Tolaria
1- Tetsuko + Tower Defense is quite the combo.
2- Surge Mare is the strongest 0/X in the deck, very valuable to race green decks. It's nonbo with Arcades though and quite hard to cast on turn 2.
3- Resolute Watchdog is not in the right colors, very hard to cast it on turn 1.
4- I like white to be a splash as much as possible.
5- Arcades has surprisingly be worse than High Alert ! It hits all the removal in the world, not even sure 4 copies is right.
So here's where I am right now :
4 Tower Defense
4 Arcades, the Strategist
4 Surge Mare
4 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
4 Gleaing Barrier
4 Saruli Taker
4 Portcullis Vine
2 Chart a Course
4 Temple Garden
4 Forest
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Island
2 Hinterland Harbor
2 Sunpetal Grove
Chart could be Dive Down, Deputy of Detention, or anything else (Shimmer of Possibility). It's hard without a big picture of the metagame to come.
Walls are overall miserable, so there's no huge difference between Barrier and Mist VS Grappling Sundew that I don't play. Meta call once again.
4 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
3 Resolute Watchdog
4 Wall of Vines
4 Saruli Caretaker
4 Grappling Sundew
2 Wall of Mist
2 Karn, Scion of Urza
2 Dive Down
2 Tower Defense
4 High Alert
4 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Glacial Fortress
3 Hinterland Harbor
1 Island
1 Plains
3 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden
CCL Winner- July '08, Aug '08 Sept '08, Oct '08
Survivor- CCS: Lost in Takenuma, CCS: Stranded In Tolaria
-Stay Frosty
There's a chance that pump spell is unnecessary if Tetsuko is in the mix. It comboes well but it also is a bit overkill.
I didn't consider Teferi and Karn, or other angles but there's a good chance it's needed.
You're right, although I think Wall of Vines is probably not good enough, because it has only 3 toughness in a field of x/4s (all these angels, demons, dragons and drakes won't trade then). In the 2-drop slot, I actually quite like Wall of Mists and Surge Mare because they dodge Lava Coil. Maybe I put too much emphasis on that specific removal.
I wish I had a way to gain life too, aggro decks usually finish me off with burn effects.
Here's where I am :
2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
3 Arcades, the Strategist
2 Surge Mare
3 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
4 Wall of Mist
4 Grappling Sundew
4 Saruli Caretaker
4 Portcullis Vine
2 Anticipate
2 Tower Defense
4 Breeding Pool
4 Temple Garden
4 Forest
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Island
2 Hinterland Harbor
2 Sunpetal Grove
I don't think the deck can be very good (even though we may be far from optimal lists), but there's hope for the next set.
6 Plains
4 Temple Garden
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Hinterland Harbor
2 Breeding Pool
1 Sunpetal Grove
4 Novice Knight
4 Resolute Watchdog
4 Wall of Mist
3 Arcades, the Strategist
2 Portcullis Vine
2 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
3 Warrant // Warden
2 Tower Defense
Sorceries 4
4 Shimmer of Possibility
Enchantments 8
4 High Alert
4 Conclave Tribunal
One of the things I’ve come to the conclusive after playing so many aggressive decks the past season is that it is creatures need power to be an effective blocker. So many decks can go wide so fast that having a zero power blocker is a liability which is why I cut back to only six zero power blockers. Still I am not that convinced a deck focusing on defenders can work since the aggro decks of next season will most likely be some combination of go wide (WW, Selesnya Tokens) or a deck that doesn’t care about your walls due to the size of their creatures (Gruul).
The other thing I noticed as I was building was while there are more than enough defenders, not many are what I would call “quality” creatures even with Arcades out on the field. Instead I also looked into a purely High Alert deck (since Arcades only works with defenders) which while rougher than the deck above, also looks like it has a better chance of being able to become something pretty decent with a combination of better creatures, better mana, and less dead draws.
8 Island
4 Plains
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Azorius Guildgate
4 Surge Mare
4 Omenspeaker
4 Deputy of Detention
3 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
3 Murmuring Mystic
4 Sinister Sabotage
4 Warrant // Warden
3 Settle the Wreckage
Sorceries 4
4 Shimmer of Possibility
Enchantments 3
3 High Alert
The thing I like about this deck is that with Omenspeaker, Surgemare, Shimmer of Possibility and Sinister Sabotage it is a lot better at finding High Alert. It is also a lot less reliant on finding High Alert to win since it is playing creatures that are already good without High Alert, but become great with High Alert. Because of these two things I am thinking the number of High Alerts can be cut down to three since we don’t want to be drawing more than one, which allows for more interactive cards like Settle and Warrant // Warden.
One of the things I’ve been going back and forth with this list (and something if anyone has thoughts on it I would love to hear) is the combination of Deputy of Detention, Tocatli Honor Guard, and Murmuring Mystic.
Right now I am thinking Deputy of Detention maindeck while Tocatli Honor Guard in the sideboard since I figure the Deputy is better in general outside of a heavy Mono-Red and Golgari metagame. I could see playing some combination of both maindeck, but that just seems counterintuitive unless the meta shifts in such a way that it makes sense.
With Murmuring Mystic I think he is fine with only 15 instants and sorceries since I am more interested in his big butt and any birds I get are cake. But I could be wrong. And I wonder if this is where I am supposed to put a maindeck Honor Guard or two.
The other question is whether or not Settle is worth it. Since with Tetsuko the deck doesn't have to worry about blockers that much Settle is better. Plus it is an instant which is nice with Murmuring Mystic and takes care of Carnage Tyrant. I guess the other thing is I am not really sure what I would replace it with. But if it was cut it would allow the Azorius Guildgates to be replaced with basic lands,Field of Ruin, and/or Arch of Orazca
The big combo pieces require so much on the board (tetsuko + high alert / arcades + some creatures + having tower defence is hand might be a game winning move, but ***** it's gonna be hard to get this board setup.
Although this is probably not a T1 deck, be nice to get it somehow up to T2.
T1; land, Saruli Caretaker
T2; land, Resolute Watchdog, tap Caretaker and dog for mana, tap remaining mana for 2 drop wall.
T3; land, High Alert, swing for 10
T4; land, Tetsuko Unezawa,Fugitive, swing, Tower Defense before damage, win target game.
That's probably the best case scenario for this deck.
There's some sleeping hype about Incubation Druid, she might be great in the deck. She helps casting big stupid things like Zetalpa, Primal Dawn, or smaller stuff like Looming Altisaur, Windreader Sphinx, or Hydroid Krasis.
I think that the real payoff of Arcades is the card advantage. Turning our walls into cantrips is, I think, important for this deck since we're slower. It's not that High Alert offers redundancy to Arcades, but Arcades is redundancy for High Alert.
CCL Winner- July '08, Aug '08 Sept '08, Oct '08
Survivor- CCS: Lost in Takenuma, CCS: Stranded In Tolaria
I can also see just a brutal opening of t1 saruli, t2 wall of mist, t3 arcades, and then t4 swing for 11 out of pretty much nowhere and drop a karn. And again, with the chromatic lantern and treasures from the gleaming barrier and treasure map + the mana from the saruli + the mana from any color from the gold forge garrison, it shouldn't be too difficult to cast and recur a giant Chamber Sentry late game.
I definitely think the deck needs 1-2 more lands, and the answer is probably cutting the the regenesis/mirari conjecture package for it...but I do think you have a lot of mana and card selection from the creatures.
4x Saruli Caretaker
2x Wall of Mist
4x Gleaming Barrier
2x Arcades, the Strategist
2x Golden Guardian
1x Chamber Sentry
1x Sai, Master Thopterist
Planeswalkers:
3x Karn, Scion of Urza
3x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
4x Treasure Map
1x Chromatic Lantern
Enchantments
1x High Alert
1x The Mirari Conjecture
Instants
1x Regenesis
2x Settle the Wreckage
Split
3x Incubation/Incongruity
2x Warrant/Warden
23 lands.
4x Grappling Sundew
3x Knight of Autumn
2x Icy Manipulator
2x Thaumatic Compass
2x Amulet of Safekeeping
2x Sorcerous Spyglass
Sylvan Awakening is an interesting card for comboing with High Alert and Tower Defense...with High Alert on the board, each land above the GG3 you pay for Sylvan Awakening + Tower Defense hits for 7...
3x Novice Knight
3x Portcullis Vine
1x Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
1x Surge Mare
3x Wall of Mist
2x Grappling Sundew
2x Deputy of Detention
1x Arcades, the Strategist
Enchantments (7)
1x Search for Azcanta
3x High Alert
3x Lawmage's Binding
Instants (8)
2x Dive Down
2x Negate
2x Tower Defense
2x Settle the Wreckage
2x Shimmer of Possibility
2x Sylvan Awakening
1x Sleep
Lands (24)
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Breeding Pool
4x Hinterland Harbor
4x Temple Garden
4x Sunpetal Grove
2x Sentinel Totem
3x Tocatli Honor Guard
2x Negate
2x Amulet of Safekeeping
2x Sorcerous Spyglass
2x Expose to Daylight
2x Cleansing Nova
Dive Down is a very efficient card for defeating spot removal, combat tricks and adding reach.
I think of it as a mid-range deck - with all the walls you have excellent defenses to outlast Aggro, while against Control, if you curve into High Alert you can be doing 7-8 to the face on Turn 3.