Experiment OneExperiment One | art by Chase Stone
Welcome to spring! My name is Ben, and you may know me from Conditions Allow, my article series on EDHREC and Commander's Herald. It is my great pleasure to bring the Archidekt Deckbuilding Contest to EDHREC.
This will be 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.
At the beginning of last month, Gavin Verhey introduced the Commander Brackets Beta. Now, after a month of testing and adjusting, we want to see your wildest, most creative Exhibition (Bracket 1) decks.
What’s The Contest All About?
Working within the parameters of the prompt provided below, construct a decklist with your own creative spin. Three chosen finalists will be awarded store credit to cardsphere.com.
For March's deckbuilding contest, brew a Commander-legal list that fits the criteria for the Exhibition Bracket (Bracket 1) of the new Commander Brackets Beta. Decks in this bracket are focused on showcasing a unique or unusual idea or theme. Decks will be judged both on the creativity of their theme, and how well the deck shows it off.
As you're brewing, keep in mind that Archidekt's new Bracket Estimator usually won't estimate your deck as Bracket 1. The main difference between the Exhibition (B1) and Core (B2) brackets is your intent.
Archidekt cannot know what your goal with a deck is, so we assume that you, like most players, are trying to beat your friends, and default to the Core (2) bracket for decks without tutors, two card combos, and game changers. Be sure to manually set your deck's bracket to 1 when you submit.
The core of this deckbuilding challenge is having a strong theme to show off. The more concrete your vision, the easier it'll be to find cards that fit.
This could be related to the art, such as including only cards that show a certain animal, or chairs. It could also be mechanical, such as requiring each card to reference the number four, or contain only prime numbers.
You could also think more abstractly. What would Twelfth Night look like as a Commander deck? What cards would you choose to represent your favorite vacation spot?
For the truly mechanically minded out there, combo decks aren't off the table for this challenge either. Since you're in Bracket 1 you can't include any two-card infinite combos, or tutors to help put the pieces together, this is the perfect chance to show off a convoluted combo that requires too many cards for a "normal" deck.
Extra bonus points if your combo doesn't win the game, but creates a unique board state, or showcases a niche rules interaction.
While the idea is important, the key to success with this month's prompt will be the individual cards you include. As many cards as possible should be included to support your theme or idea.
Scryfall is an excellent tool for finding the exact card you need. Between advanced search and art tags, you should be able to find exactly what you need.
How To Participate
- Brew an EDH/Commander legal deck on Archidekt that satisfies the prompt.
- Any unreleased cards spoiled during the contest’s duration are allowed.
- Silver-bordered and acorn cards, while cool, are not allowed.
- Digital-only cards (such as those designed for the Alchemy format on Arena) are not allowed.
- Strictly one deck submitted per user.
Reply to the Archidekt newspost, or submission post on the Archidekt Discord with a link to your deck before 9:00 pm EST (UTC -5, currently) on Wednesday, March 12, 2025 (do not submit the same deck in multiple places).
Only one submission per user! From the eligible submissions, we'll select three finalists with lists that we believe best embody the spirit of the prompt. Deck descriptions are not required but certainly may provide valuable context!
On Wednesday, March 19, 2025, we’ll announce three finalists via the Archidekt Discord and a brief article on EDHREC highlighting each deck.
Each finalist will be awarded credit on cardsphere.com. The value of the credit is in US dollars and depends on the finalist's placement in deck upvotes at the end of the week-long polling period:
- 1st Place Prize - $250
- 2nd Place Prize - $150
- 3rd Place Prize - $100
Finalists will be contacted via email or Discord (depending on where they submitted) regarding their winnings within roughly 24 hours following the conclusion of voting on Wednesday, March 26, 2025.
Please note, you must have a Cardsphere account in order to receive your winnings. It's quick and free-- register here if you don't have an account already!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask here, or join the Archidekt public Discord server. We look forward to seeing what you all come up with!
Ben Doolittle
Ben was introduced to Magic during Seventh Edition and has played on and off ever since. A Simic mage at heart, he loves being given a problem to solve. When not shuffling cards, Ben can be found lost in a book or skiing in the mountains of Vermont.
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