Fire Lord AzulaFire Lord Azula | Art by Fahmi Fauzi

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 March's deck building contest the prompt was as follows: Build a unique, different take on a Commander-legal deck using one of EDHREC's top 25 commanders over the last two years.

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, March 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.

As a side note, for the first time ever we broke 1,000 submissions to the contest, and not by a small margin; we had 1,076 decks. That was almost a 10% increase over February which was our previous best. The level of participation and enthusiasm for this contest from Archidekt brewers has been genuinely exciting to see, so thanks to you all for your contributions.

However, we had to choose three finalists from among the more than a thousand decks entered, so here they are presented in no particular order. Follow the link in each deck list to vote on your favorite!

Fire Nation Cipher (Contest Submission Version) by DeuceTheWild

Let's start at DeuceTheWild's Fire Lord AzulaFire Lord Azula deck based around the cipher mechanic. I personally have a soft spot for cipher, having also brewed a deck around the keyword. If anything, however, that somewhat biased me against this list, until I realized something I had missed: Azula's "while Fire Lord Azula is attacking" clause extends past the point where damage is dealt. That means spells cast with cipher (and cipher is indeed a cast trigger) also get copied.

I was so surprised I had missed that in my own deck that I hopped over into chat.magicjudges.org/mtgrules just to verify:

Functionally you can cast a cipher spell like Call of the NightwingCall of the Nightwing and encode it onto Azula, attack, deal damage, and cast it two added times. Conceivably with double strike you could fire it off five total times in a turn, the last four of which cost no added mana. The deck isn't running extra combats, but if it were you could be looking at nine castings of a single spell, none of which would need mana beyond the first.

The deck is running fifteen different cipher spells, ranging from bad to mediocre, but even a mediocre spell can be a problem when it's cast enough times, and this deck is doing everything it can to cast it enough times.

The deck is also hewing close to the Fire Lord Azula theme, with the list populated with characters from her team from the Avatar show, as well as cards like Overwhelming VictoryOverwhelming Victory that feature Azula in the art. There's also multiple cards in the list that reference "tyranny" in various ways to stay true to the source.

Cursed the Cat by Pater

Next up we have Pater's Cursed the Cat deck, a Y'shtola, Night's BlessedY'shtola, Night's Blessed list built heavily around one of Magic's most . . . cursed . . . mechanics. Curses first appeared way back in Innistrad in 2011, though Auras that enchant players extend back to Psychic PossessionPsychic Possession in Dissension as an Aura that can enchant an opponent, and Paradox HazeParadox Haze from Time Spiral as the first Aura that can enchant any player.

Curses are specifically a type of Aura enchantment that enchant players and provide a negative effect to that cursed player.

It's worth noting that while there are no special, specific rules for Curses, some cards do reference Curses as a type such as Bitterheart WitchBitterheart Witch.

Rather than try to build a better mousetrap, I'll just quote the deck's creator: "The idea is simple: stack Curses on opponents and generate value from enchantments while slowly grinding the table down." That seems like a solid plan in a Y'shtola deck where your commander deals damage when you cast a noncreature spell while drawing you a card when an opponent has lost four or more life in a turn.

It turns out Curses are in fact noncreature spells.

One interesting note on the deck is it contains no instants or sorceries, making the brew even more reliant on enchantments generally and Curses specifically to generate the noncreature spell cast trigger.

Since the deck exists to cast enchantments, Pater has filled the deck with pieces to supplement that card type. Hanna, Ship's NavigatorHanna, Ship's Navigator and similar recursion pieces like Norika Yamazaki, the PoetNorika Yamazaki, the Poet can recur curses that find their way to the bin. Bitterheart WitchBitterheart Witch and Zur the EnchanterZur the Enchanter can go find needed Curses in your library, and Archon of Sun's GraceArchon of Sun's Grace and Zur's WeirdingZur's Weirding passively generate value.

There's even Auras that aren't Curses but feel like Curses, like Visions of BrutalityVisions of Brutality and Bloodchief AscensionBloodchief Ascension to add some damage alongside Y'shtola's triggered abilities.

Atraxa and the Spike Carousel by meiklwhite

We had a handful of Atraxa submissions based around proliferating various weird kinds of counters, but user meiklwhite's brew around the Spike creature type stood out. Spikes were first introduced back in the Tempest block, as part of the Rath storyline. They're sluggy, caterpillar-like creatures that interact with +1/+1 counters in ways that move them between creatures.

Most of the Spikes in the game came from Tempest block, with one in Tempest, four in Stronghold, and four in Exodus. Time Spiral later added Spike FeederSpike Feeder and Spike TillerSpike Tiller to bring the total number up to eleven, all of which, save the black Spike CannibalSpike Cannibal, are mono-green.

"This unusual Atraxa, Praetors' VoiceAtraxa, Praetors' Voice deck wants to abuse the Spike creature type’s ability as much as possible for huge value plays and ultimately game-winning combos."

Spikes innately have the ability to move their counters onto other creatures, and most of the creatures in this deck do useful things when they get counters put on them. Danny PinkDanny Pink, Dusk Legion DuelistDusk Legion Duelist, and Fathom MageFathom Mage for example draw you cards when they get a counter, while Plaxcaster FroglingPlaxcaster Frogling and Spike WeaverSpike Weaver can protect your creatures or fog, respectively.

Because of Atraxa's proliferate ability, the counters moved off a Spike will be replaced at the end of turn, assuming at least one is left, and the counter put onto the second creature will generate an additional trigger when it's proliferated.

Now, all this counter moving isn't free, and spending two colorless per move adds up. Well, there's a solution for that here, too. Ygra, Eater of AllYgra, Eater of All makes all creatures Food, and Sam, Loyal AttendantSam, Loyal Attendant reduces the cost of Food abilities by one. When you combine that with other reducers like HeartstoneHeartstone you can actually hit the point where moving these counters costs nothing.

It's also worth noting that moving a counter isn't really moving a counter. It's removing a counter and creating one elsewhere, which means counter increasing tech like Hardened ScalesHardened Scales and Branching EvolutionBranching Evolution work to make a single counter moved into more, and those removed counters also wind up putting a counter into The OzolithThe Ozolith.

None of this is necessarily new in an Atraxa list, but using it with Spikes adds an interesting self-sustaining and rarely-seen twist.

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

Which is your March 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, March 25th, 2026.