I think I would agree with your assessment. Unless you're running a dedicated enchantment deck, Privileged Position just doesn't quite fit into the deck's strategy as a whole.
On a different note, I've edited the OP to reflect the new list I've been running. I'll eventually edit the Primer post with Card Choice descriptions and spruce up the Primer with some card images and then I'll probably submit it for Primer status. I finally have time to actually update the post.
EDIT: 2/22/2019
I added Card Images and fixed a few grammar and spelling errors. Also edited a few sections to be more clear and/or concise.
Looks pretty good, now that your running Aluren again are you going to shed some higher CMC cards? What are your thoughts on Rystic Study? The card is great when it comes out in the first few turns after that it's pretty much a 3CMC mana sink. I was thinking I might try to bring in Deadeye Navigator, or Chord instead of this card.
I'm going to try to cut some of the higher CMC stuff, yes. As is, there are 34 creatures with a CMC under 3, which I think is more than plenty to get some mileage out of Aluren. I was able to arrange for some babysitting tomorrow so that I can go to my LGS and play some EDH finally, so I should actually have some real gameplay observations to bring back to my decks.
Rhystic Study has been very hit or miss. There are games when it draws an obscene number of cards and others where it's mostly meh. I think I'll personally keep it in because it warps the way my opponents play at the very least and draws more than 2+ cards in every game I've played it in. It actually gets better in the late-game when removal and counterspells are flying because mana margins tend to be thinner during those critical turns.
That being said, Chord of Calling might just be better for what the deck is wanting to do. It's a very creature centric deck and I'm much more interested in getting creatures into play than accruing card advantage. Board presence is much more important to this deck than I thought and the Chord directly impacts this. I'll actually probably be cutting Prime Speaker Zegana for Chord. There have been a lot of times where she only draws 3 or 4 cards max, which is not very ideal for 6 CMC. We'll see though.
I did more testing last night, and the deck is starting to become relatively consistant at doing what we want it to do. However sometimes, I hit these patches where I draw cards that you just don't need like a nice big land patch. I was thinking Sylvan Library should help us get through these patches at a faster rate especially if you know you will only be able to potentially cast 1 defender at that time. I was thinking Sylvan Library + Abundance would be a good option, but I am sure there are other alternatives that I haven't considered yet. How did your play testing go?
Sadly, I didn't get a chance to play Arcades. The games I played took a long time (due to some table talk that was, quite frankly, unnecessary and annoying) so I was only actually able to get 3 games in during the 2 hour window I had.
I added in Sylvan Library, Abundance, and Chord of Calling last night and I managed to only draw chord. That being said chord was exactly what I needed at the time. I am hoping next week I will draw Sylvan Library and Abundance so I can actually evaulate them.
I did some more play testing last night and the deck ran decently (3W 1L). However I feel like I am going to need to change Sower of Temptation for Gilded Drake. Abundance isn't very good, but I was thinking that maybe it would be better to run Skyshroud Claim in an attempt to ramp/thin the deck. There might be other good enchantments, to run but I haven't found them yet. I think we need a decent engine we could use to thin out the mana base or add more ramp. Do you think Smothering Tithe would fit?
I like Smothering Tithe a lot, particularly in conjunction with Wheel effects a la Windfall or Timetwister. Do you see a lot of those kind of cards in your playgroup?
The swap of Sower for Gilded Drake is a strict upgrade, methinks. That should be a slam dunk in terms of power. If you can include Eldrazi Displacer, you should so you can reuse the Drake multiple times.
I gather you're running into issues of drawing too many lands? If so, then I would first encourage you to look at how many fetchlands you're running. If you can get more of those, that would be the first place to start since it doesn't actually eat up spell slots. After you've included as many of the fetchlands as you can afford or are allowed to proxy, then I might recommend adding in Nature's Lore or Farseek over the Claim, simply because they enable a T3 Arcades (which is the goal of the deck).
In other news, I've finally found some time to finish updating the Primer. It is now complete with all sections edited and images posted. Time to get it submitted for official Primer status!
The playgroup is pretty diverse at the LGS, so it depends on who you play. I wouldn't say that they are common, but you would see them every seconds week. The Eldrazi Displacer looks cool, but would it be legal? I don't remember the legality of the colorless lands VS your commander. As well I think I would have a hard time making colorless mana unless I am misisng something. I feel like Smothering Tithe would be good overall, especially if my commander is targeted, there is nothing like free mana sources to keep the engine going.
Are you going to update the decklist or keep it how it is?
The playgroup is pretty diverse at the LGS, so it depends on who you play. I wouldn't say that they are common, but you would see them every seconds week. The Eldrazi Displacer looks cool, but would it be legal? I don't remember the legality of the colorless lands VS your commander. As well I think I would have a hard time making colorless mana unless I am misisng something. I feel like Smothering Tithe would be good overall, especially if my commander is targeted, there is nothing like free mana sources to keep the engine going.
Are you going to update the decklist or keep it how it is?
The decklist on the OP is the correct decklist. Displacer is legal for Arcades because it has the W symbol in its casting cost. You're good to run it.
I was able to play a few games of commnader with Arcades, and Shaman of Forgotten Ways put in a lot of work for me. It was really great getting the walls out and allowed me to save mana for counterspells which proved useful. That game I ran over everyone, and it was helpful when I flickerd my walls using ghostway I drew 5 lands in row and discarded them all.
However I had two games however where I couldn't draw anything but land, and well no gas no joy. Is there a creature or a enchantment/artifact that would allow us to continue to fetch or remove lands?
I am thinking maybe I will drop Fell the mighty for Guardian Project, to help with the draw. My land draw feels a bit bizarre since, I am running 2 less lands and 1 more fetch land than your current list. I might try adding in 2 more fetch lands, but that will be in the future.
I thought I would add that I played the deck once last night and it ran like a champ. T3 Arcades with infinite mill 4 turns later so it wasn't bad at all. I swapped out Fell the Mighty for Guardian Project so I will let you know how it runs tomorrow night. I am wondering if I had a real bad spell of drawing mad lands.
Hey man, glad to see you've gotten over the mana flooding issue. I've not come across it in a while, so I think your experience should just be chalked up to variance.
Also pleased to see that Shaman of Forgotten Ways has been putting in some work for you. It was impressive for me as well in a game that I played with my wife a few weeks ago.
I've got to take a brief hiatus to work on some marital issues, but keep chiming in here, comrade!
Sadly she doesn't allow Defenders to attack. That's one of the real draws of playing Arcades as the Commander since he makes typically useless creatures into the best type of Tarmogoyf creatures for Commander.
I'm hoping to do a set review for War of the Spark soon, once my wife and I firm up some boundaries and communication avenues. It's been a tough couple of weeks, but I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things.
Narset, Parter of Veils - I think this is one of the best cards to come out of the set, honestly. Being able to keep decks fair in their card drawing is absolutely essential, and she is super strong in conjunction with Wheel and Windfall type of effects. However, this is a creature deck. Her ability is actually non-beneficial to the deck entirely, so this is a hard pass.
God-Eternal Oketra - this card could actually see play in the deck because of the high creature density in it. Spamming out 4/4 tokens every time we cast a creature is no joke, and she also has respectable stats on offense and defense. I think there are cards that better synergize with the deck, but I wouldn't fault anyone for giving Oketra a try in their 99.
God-Eternal Rhonas - sadly, this card is totally ineffective for the most part since Defender creatures regularly have a Power stat of 0. Still, I applaud Wizards for creating an awesome card cycle with the Gods.
Finale of Devastation - probably the next Green Commander staple card, this card is a better Green Sun's Zenith in my opinion. Being able to find ANY creature makes it better the GSZ AND it can also Reanimate a dead card from the 'yard. And if you can ever Finale it (x = 10), then it's extremely likely that you can kill the table in conjunction with some Defenders and Arcades. Probably the only card in the set I actually want for this deck.
Spark Double - a card that I'm nicknaming The Sparkler, this card is actually really good since it can make a copy of Arcades without triggering the Legend rule. I'm strongly considering this card for the deck, but haven't settled on a cut for it as of yet.
Time Wipe - this is actually a really solid Wrath effect for this deck since you can save Arcades from dying. Still, it's on the expensive side CMC wise and is anti-synergistic with the deck's core strategy.
I was considering trying to find a home for Finale of Devastation. Oeketra is good, however the CMC cost is quite high and I feel that once the game is under control it would be more of a win more card.
Agreed. Oketra is very powerful with cards that return to hand like Whitemane Lion but not necessarily with Blink effects. Too bad.
I think I'll be cutting Eerie Interlude and Deadeye Navigator for Finale of Devastation and Eldrazi Displacer along with a mana base tweak to support the Displacer. I often found Deadeye just sitting in hand and I've not needed Interlude as much as I thought I would in order to recover/dodge Wrath effects. Displacer comes down earlier in the game and activates at instant speed, just like Deadeye, so it's a functional replacement that costs 3 CMC less. This deck has a decent amount of recursion in it and it's been pretty effective at recovering from board wipes.
I also realize that my Arcades list is somewhat outdated. I'll try and review the decklist I have in paper and update the Primer here to reflect the changes I've made.
I would be interested in seeing how you will fix the mana base to support the exile effect on Eldrazi Displacer. Doesn't technically speaking couldn't we use any of our mana dorks to create the colorless mana or do we need to actually support run a waste land? I was looking the only downside to Eldrazi Displacer is that the flicker costs 1 CMC more, and they enter the battlefield they are tapped. That being said it does have additional utility of locking out opponents blockers or tapping down their creates before combat which might prove useful. I was hesitant to run it as I was concerned about being able to generate the colorless mana required. I was still on a break from magic when the Eldrazi where in full force so its possible I missed something obvious.
@Pufflex
The Displacer is also Sun Titan-able, which has been relevant in a few board states, in addition to being an easier CMC to reliably cast in a game. I would rather pay 5W to play the Displacer AND blink something instead of simply cast Deadeye Navigator, so the Displacer has the chance to impact the board more readily than the Navigator.
I think it's pretty simple to fix the mana for the Displacer; simply add in the YAvimaya Coast variants and the filter lands (Flooded Grove etc.) and maybe one or two additional utility lands and you're good to go. I only really want to blink a creature a few times and the Displacer isn't meant to be a dedicated combo piece.
I was able to play this deck recently and while we lost to a Brago deck that was able to achieve an infinite blink engine with Rasputin Dreamweaver and Eldrazi Displacer, this deck still performed exceedingly well. I was able to deal nearly 70 combat damage and I never felt like I was out of cards in hand, never once dipping below 4 cards in hand. It grinds well and is well-suited for High-Power playgroups without being oppressive. I don't remember the details of the game too well, as I didn't take any notes, but Arcades did very well!
On a different note, I've edited the OP to reflect the new list I've been running. I'll eventually edit the Primer post with Card Choice descriptions and spruce up the Primer with some card images and then I'll probably submit it for Primer status. I finally have time to actually update the post.
EDIT: 2/22/2019
I added Card Images and fixed a few grammar and spelling errors. Also edited a few sections to be more clear and/or concise.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Rhystic Study has been very hit or miss. There are games when it draws an obscene number of cards and others where it's mostly meh. I think I'll personally keep it in because it warps the way my opponents play at the very least and draws more than 2+ cards in every game I've played it in. It actually gets better in the late-game when removal and counterspells are flying because mana margins tend to be thinner during those critical turns.
That being said, Chord of Calling might just be better for what the deck is wanting to do. It's a very creature centric deck and I'm much more interested in getting creatures into play than accruing card advantage. Board presence is much more important to this deck than I thought and the Chord directly impacts this. I'll actually probably be cutting Prime Speaker Zegana for Chord. There have been a lot of times where she only draws 3 or 4 cards max, which is not very ideal for 6 CMC. We'll see though.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Sylvan Library is probably better for the deck than Prime Speaker Zegana. And Rhystic Study can probably just go as well in favor of the Library.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
The swap of Sower for Gilded Drake is a strict upgrade, methinks. That should be a slam dunk in terms of power. If you can include Eldrazi Displacer, you should so you can reuse the Drake multiple times.
I gather you're running into issues of drawing too many lands? If so, then I would first encourage you to look at how many fetchlands you're running. If you can get more of those, that would be the first place to start since it doesn't actually eat up spell slots. After you've included as many of the fetchlands as you can afford or are allowed to proxy, then I might recommend adding in Nature's Lore or Farseek over the Claim, simply because they enable a T3 Arcades (which is the goal of the deck).
In other news, I've finally found some time to finish updating the Primer. It is now complete with all sections edited and images posted. Time to get it submitted for official Primer status!
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Are you going to update the decklist or keep it how it is?
The decklist on the OP is the correct decklist. Displacer is legal for Arcades because it has the W symbol in its casting cost. You're good to run it.
The list as I had it had 35 lands. I simply cut a 4th Forest to squeeze in the Shaman, as I found I was drawing into too many lands consistently.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
However I had two games however where I couldn't draw anything but land, and well no gas no joy. Is there a creature or a enchantment/artifact that would allow us to continue to fetch or remove lands?
I am going to drop Kira, Great Glass-Spinner for Deadeye Navigator which should help on the draw side of things.
I did update my land base to make it more fetchable so now it looks like this:
(32 Lands Total) - Fetchable 14 - Fetch Lands - 4
Bountiful Promenade
Breeding Pool
Canopy Vista
Command Tower
Exotic Orchard
Flooded Grove
Flooded Strand
2x Forest
Glacial Fortress
Hallowed Fountain
Hinterland Harbor
Irrigated Farmland
2x Island
Mystic Gate
Path of Ancestry
3x Plains
Polluted Deta
Prairie Stream
Reflecting Pool
Scattered Groves
Sea of Clouds
Seaside Citadel
Sunpetal Grove
Temple Garden
Treva's Ruins
Windswept Heath
Wooded Bastion
Wooded Foothills
I am thinking maybe I will drop Fell the mighty for Guardian Project, to help with the draw. My land draw feels a bit bizarre since, I am running 2 less lands and 1 more fetch land than your current list. I might try adding in 2 more fetch lands, but that will be in the future.
Also pleased to see that Shaman of Forgotten Ways has been putting in some work for you. It was impressive for me as well in a game that I played with my wife a few weeks ago.
I've got to take a brief hiatus to work on some marital issues, but keep chiming in here, comrade!
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
I don't like her, because she is no real Arcades backup since she doesn't let your defenders attack...
I'm hoping to do a set review for War of the Spark soon, once my wife and I firm up some boundaries and communication avenues. It's been a tough couple of weeks, but I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
War of the Spark Set Review
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
I think I'll be cutting Eerie Interlude and Deadeye Navigator for Finale of Devastation and Eldrazi Displacer along with a mana base tweak to support the Displacer. I often found Deadeye just sitting in hand and I've not needed Interlude as much as I thought I would in order to recover/dodge Wrath effects. Displacer comes down earlier in the game and activates at instant speed, just like Deadeye, so it's a functional replacement that costs 3 CMC less. This deck has a decent amount of recursion in it and it's been pretty effective at recovering from board wipes.
I also realize that my Arcades list is somewhat outdated. I'll try and review the decklist I have in paper and update the Primer here to reflect the changes I've made.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
The Displacer is also Sun Titan-able, which has been relevant in a few board states, in addition to being an easier CMC to reliably cast in a game. I would rather pay 5W to play the Displacer AND blink something instead of simply cast Deadeye Navigator, so the Displacer has the chance to impact the board more readily than the Navigator.
I think it's pretty simple to fix the mana for the Displacer; simply add in the YAvimaya Coast variants and the filter lands (Flooded Grove etc.) and maybe one or two additional utility lands and you're good to go. I only really want to blink a creature a few times and the Displacer isn't meant to be a dedicated combo piece.
I was able to play this deck recently and while we lost to a Brago deck that was able to achieve an infinite blink engine with Rasputin Dreamweaver and Eldrazi Displacer, this deck still performed exceedingly well. I was able to deal nearly 70 combat damage and I never felt like I was out of cards in hand, never once dipping below 4 cards in hand. It grinds well and is well-suited for High-Power playgroups without being oppressive. I don't remember the details of the game too well, as I didn't take any notes, but Arcades did very well!
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager