Y'shtola, Night's BlessedY'shtola, Night's Blessed by Magali Villeneuve

Hello, and welcome to the Archidekt Deckbuilding Contest.

This is a monthly contest with a different theme each month. The goal is to build a Commander-legal deck that fulfills the prompt in a creative or unique fashion, and 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 will receive a prize.

Spring is in bloom around us, and in the spirit of renewal and new growth March's challenge is to brew a creative and interesting commander-legal deck featuring an innovative, novel, and non-typical take on a deck using an EDHREC top 25 most popular commander from the last two years.

What’s the Contest All About?

Working within the parameters of the provided prompt, construct a deck list with your own creative and compelling spin. Three chosen finalists will be awarded store credit to use on Cardsphere.

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

Decks will be judged on the creativity and originality of their brew. For example, an Ur-Dragon deck running the best Dragons isn't going to cut it.

Here's a link to the EDHREC page for the top commanders to get you started, as well as the actual cards in case it changes:

Atraxa, Praetors' VoiceAtraxa, Praetors' Voice dominated the EDHREC top list for half a dozen years with a stranglehold on #1. The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon, however, would not be denied, and at the end of May 2025 finally passed the Phyrexian Angel giving us the first new top commander recent memory.

Atraxa's slide didn't stop there, with Edgar Markov edging past her some four months later in September of 2025.

Recently, Y'shtola, Night's BlessedY'shtola, Night's Blessed has been the story in the top list becoming the first Universes Beyond card to break the top five of the last two years, despite being in print only about ten months. She's currently only about 2,000 decks short of Krenko, Mob BossKrenko, Mob Boss at number four, and might pass him by summer if trends continue.

How To Participate

• Brew a 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 fun, are not allowed.
• Digital-only cards (such as those designed for the Alchemy format on Arena) are also not allowed.
• Strictly one deck submitted per user.

As of a couple months ago, we've also revamped the submission process. Decks must now be submitted on Archidekt via a button on the newspost. This will make it easier to view all submissions in a single place. Additionally, it will simplify the process of writing a description by sharing the same text on the submission page and the deck page itself.

There's also a new easy-to-remember landing page for anything contest related that can be found at archidekt.com/contest

You can also comment on individual decks directly from the submission, making those discussions easier to find and track later.

To submit a deck, select the orange button labeled "Submit a deck to this contest" and follow the form prompt. Submissions are accepted until 9:00 pm EST (UTC -4, currently) on Wednesday, March 11, 2026.

Only one submission per user! If you change your mind and want to submit a different deck before submissions close, you may do so by first deleting your submission. To edit your description, you can do so from the deck page itself.

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 18, 2026, we’ll announce three finalists via the Archidekt Discord and a brief article on EDHREC highlighting each deck.

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!

Here are the official contest rules. 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!