Scion of HalasterScion of Halaster | Art by Milivoj Ćeran

It's time to announce the finalists for this month's Archidekt Deckbuilding Contest!

In case you missed the announcement post, this is a monthly contest with a different theme each month. Your goal is to build a Commander-legal deck that fulfills the prompt in a creative or unique fashion. At the end of each month, three finalists will be selected for you to vote on. Whoever gets the most votes will be crowned the winner although all three finalists receive a prize.

For February's deck building contest the prompt was as follows: Brew a creative and interesting Commander-legal deck led by a couple. The couple can be partner variants, backgrounds, or companions, as long as they're part of the deck's theme in a way that feels innovative and novel and there at least two separate physical cards involved.

We collected submissions from the Archidekt newspost and evaluated them based on their creativity and originality.

Now, it's your turn to decide who'll be crowned the winner.

Read about each deck list below, then visit your favorite and upvote them on Archidekt. Whoever has the most upvotes by Wednesday, February 25, 2026 will be the winner, and receive $250 credit to cardsphere.com.

Second and third place will receive $150 and $100 cardsphere.com credits, respectively.

One note I'd like to make here is that of all the contests I've looked at this has been the most difficult in terms of excellent entries. The list we had of decks that stood out was nearly in the triple digits, and that was after I forced myself to get way stricter because I was adding one out of two decks to my maybe list.

You all did crazy good work this month, and it made our jobs really difficult. We're looking forward to you all making them difficult in the months to come.

However, we had to choose three finalists from among the absolute embarrassment of quality submissions, so here they are presented in no particular order. Follow the link in each deck list to vote on your favorite!

THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP by pineconeuwu

To start us off we have this Amy PondAmy Pond and The First DoctorThe First Doctor list by pineconeuwu. This is a deck where both cards in the command zone go fetch their own "partner" when cast, namely Rory WilliamsRory Williams for Amy and TARDISTARDIS for the First Doctor.

If that wasn't enough partnering, the deck has 19 different creatures that go fetch their own partner when cast. Basically if a creature has the words "partner with" in their text box in Jeskai colors, it's in this brew.

Because every creature goes and gets a friend, it's fairly simple for the deck to go wide and use cards like Akroma's WillAkroma's Will or Moonshaker CavalryMoonshaker Cavalry as a traditional finisher. That's not the only way in the deck to lock up a game however:

Since Collision of RealmsCollision of Realms and Warp WorldWarp World put creatures from your library directly into play, this triggers the partner with ability and refills your hand in a way it doesn't for anyone else. Glimpse of TomorrowGlimpse of Tomorrow and Reality ScrambleReality Scramble do similar things on a smaller scale, and spells like Echo of EonsEcho of Eons, Spirit Water RevivalSpirit Water Revival and TimetwisterTimetwister then let you turn those partners you fetched into more cards while also recurring Collision and Warp World for future uses.

Companion Max by Minisparks

Next up we have Minisparks' Companion Max list, a deck that indeed has the max companions.

This is a Jegantha, the WellspringJegantha, the Wellspring deck that can use either Kaheera, the OrphanguardKaheera, the Orphanguard, Umori, the CollectorUmori, the Collector, Keruga, the MacrosageKeruga, the Macrosage or Obosh, the PreypiercerObosh, the Preypiercer as the deck's companion, depending on your moods and whims. This means that the deck meets all companion restrictions:

• All non-land cards are Dinosaurs, Nightmares, Elementals, Cats, or Beasts
• All non-land cards creatures
• All have mana value three or greater
• All have odd mana value

You can't use all four companions simultaneously, so you'll need to choose which you'd like to run. Once you choose, you may pick one added companion to put in the deck, which can lead to nine different companion combinations:

• Kaheera & Keruga
• Umori & Kaheera, Keruga or Obosh
• Kergua & Kaheera, Umori or Obosh
• Obosh & Kaheera or Keruga

Kaheera is the default companion with Keruga in the base list, and you can exchange those for one of the combos above.

Cards like Trygon PredatorTrygon Predator and Apex AltisaurApex Altisaur are obviously good in their own right, but they're necessary here in this list with so many restrictions since every ramp, removal, and draw option has to be attached to one of the five allowed creature types with an odd mana value over three.

There's old classics like ShriekmawShriekmaw and MulldrifterMulldrifter as well as brand new additions such as WistfulnessWistfulness and VibranceVibrance.

The Skullclamp Factory by xMinty

This brings us to The Skullclamp Factory submitted by xMinty, a deck assembled around the idea of making as many copies of SkullclampSkullclamp as possible.

To quote xMinty: "The key feature about Ardenn for this deck is that the start of combat trigger can target any creature in play. Including opponents'. However, you still retain control of the Equipment. There's a small suite of Equipment in this deck that's geared towards this use-case."

Yes, you can use Ardenn's ability to put your Equipment onto your opponents' creatures. This includes your Skullclamp. This also includes all the copies of Skullclamp you may have made using cards like Arna Kennerüd, SkycaptainArna Kennerüd, Skycaptain, Masterwork of IngenuityMasterwork of Ingenuity, and The Mycosynth GardensThe Mycosynth Gardens.

Basically you're going to use Skullclamp to keep opposing small creatures in check while also drawing cards, and sometimes a lot of cards depending on how many 'clamps you've managed to make since Ardenn attaches all the Equipment simultaneously.

There are plenty of ways in the deck to find Skullclamp to get the whole process rolling.

Additionally the deck runs Helm of the HostHelm of the Host, a card that Ardenn can also use to copy your opponents' creatures. Since the start of combat trigger has no intervening if clause, it triggers even if not currently equipped. This means you can trigger the Helm, then use Ardenn's ability to move the Helm onto any creature, including ones you don't control. The Helm then resolves and makes you a hasted token copy of the equipped creature.

There you have it, our finalists for the February 2026 Archidekt Deckbuilding Contest.

Which is your February favorite? Follow the links in the headers of each section to visit the deck pages and vote for the one you think should win!

The final rankings based on your votes will be announced on Wednesday, February 25th, 2026.