Starting TownStarting Town | Art by Hristo D. Chukov

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.

As a reminder, this month's prompt was to brew a Commander-legal deck around one of the new cards from Final Fantasy. That card could be your commander, or a card in the 99. 

We collected submissions from the Archidekt Discord and Archidekt newspost and evaluated them based on their creativity. It was important to have a tactical reason to abandon a color or take a particular commander in a new direction.

Now, it's your turn to decide who will 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, June 25, 2025 will be the winner, and receive $250 credit to cardsphere.com.

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

Finally, here are the three finalists chosen for this month's contest, presented in no particular order. Follow the link in each decklist to vote on your favorite!

The Wandering Charbelcher by bzeug7

The Wandering MinstrelThe Wandering Minstrel is a powerful new Landfall commander which supports the new Town lands, and also boosts ScapeshiftScapeshift and Splendid ReclamationSplendid Reclamation, by making all your lands enter untapped. But bzeug7 had another set of tapped lands in mind when they saw this card: modal double face lands, and their synergy with Goblin CharbelcherGoblin Charbelcher.

Nearly every MDFC land enters play tapped, so while you could have built a functional five color land base from just these lands ever since Modern Horizons 3, it would have been slow. The Wandering MinstrelThe Wandering Minstrel solves that problem for you, as a SpelunkingSpelunking in the command zone. This ensures you can cast your spells on time.

And casting your spells on time is vital for a Goblin CharbelcherGoblin Charbelcher deck. It costs seven mana to cast and activate Charbelcher in a single turn, which still leaves you vulnerable to your other two opponents. Untapping and re-activating BelcherBelcher once or twice in a single turn significantly increases the amount of mana you need.

The Wandering MinstrelThe Wandering Minstrel ensures this deck can go off as early as possible.

Sometimes, though, you really just need two turns to take out the whole table. For those occasions, this deck is packing as much protection for Goblin CharbelcherGoblin Charbelcher as possible.

There are also a few rituals to help push your mana as far as possible. And, in the event that Goblin CharbelcherGoblin Charbelcher does get exiled, this deck can pivot to a Thassa's OracleThassa's Oracle win with Balustrade SpyBalustrade Spy and Sevinne's ReclamationSevinne's Reclamation.

Dan Lewis & The First Doctor Ft. Cloud - Double Frypan by Pandalk

Equipment decks have a fun new commander in Cloud, Midgar MercenaryCloud, Midgar Mercenary, but Pandalk wanted to think a little bigger. If you turn all your artifacts into Equipment with Dan LewisDan Lewis, then Cloud could double the effects of just about anything.

With Dan LewisDan Lewis in the command zone, this deck has easy access to his effect, but needs a consistent way to find Cloud, Midgar MercenaryCloud, Midgar Mercenary to really take advantage of it. That's where The First DoctorThe First Doctor comes in, searching up the TARDISTARDIS to give your spells cascade. Cloud, Midgar MercenaryCloud, Midgar Mercenary is the only two-drop in the deck, so you're guaranteed to find him when you cast a three-mana spell.

Cloud also searches for an Equipment when he enters, which Pandalk intends to use to find Mithril CoatMithril Coat or Hammer of NazahnHammer of Nazahn. These keep your secret commander safe, so your game plan isn't interrupted too easily.

Once you have CloudCloud and Dan LewisDan Lewis in play, you can start doubling up on powerful effects like Chimil, the Inner SunChimil, the Inner Sun and Simulacrum SynthesizerSimulacrum Synthesizer. You can even equip the back side of Thousand Moons SmithyThousand Moons Smithy to Cloud, since it's an artifact land.

A major concern for any secret commander deck is what happens when the secret commander gets removed. This deck answers that by largely functioning without Cloud, Midgar MercenaryCloud, Midgar Mercenary, if a bit more slowly. It also includes Kemba, Kha RegentKemba, Kha Regent to support the token plan, and Eivor, Battle-ReadyEivor, Battle-Ready for a more direct burn strategy.

For a little added spice, this deck also includes Captain Rex NebulaCaptain Rex Nebula. Rex NebulaRex Nebula can turn any nonland permanent into a Vehicle on your turn, which both changes it into an artifact, and stops it from being a creature. This is vital, since creatures can't equip other creatures.

With Rex in play you can equip Firion, Wild Rose WarriorFirion, Wild Rose Warrior to Cloud, Midgar MercenaryCloud, Midgar Mercenary to create a copy of every artifact you play. Equip Jhoira, Weatherlight CaptainJhoira, Weatherlight Captain to draw your library. The possibilities are nearly endless.

Rocket Pods by dav

Birthing PodBirthing Pod decks often focus on creatures with a mana value of four to six, with Kitchen FinksKitchen Finks and mana creatures slowly assembling a combo. Not this deck, though. This deck jumps into the Pod chain at nine mana.

Diamond WeaponDiamond Weapon may cost nine mana, but it's relatively easy to cast for only two. The deck is full of cards like Malevolent RumbleMalevolent Rumble which not only fill your graveyard, but also help you find a Pod effect by the time you're ready to cast your commander.

SixSix and Shigeki, Jukai VisionaryShigeki, Jukai Visionary also help recur Birthing PodBirthing Pod so you don't have to hold back on bigger mill engines, like Altar of DementiaAltar of Dementia and Lasyd ProwlerLasyd Prowler either.

Once you have enough permanents in your graveyard, the basic plan is to cast Diamond WeaponDiamond Weapon for two mana, then use Birthing PodBirthing Pod or Vivien on the HuntVivien on the Hunt to search out The Capitoline TriadThe Capitoline Triad. Get the Triad's emblem, and suddenly all of your little mill creatures are serious threats.

But the fun doesn't stop there.

You can sacrifice The Capitoline TriadThe Capitoline Triad to Birthing PodBirthing Pod and find Worldspine WurmWorldspine Wurm, or recast Diamond WeaponDiamond Weapon to go find Ulamog, the DefilerUlamog, the Defiler. You won't get Ulamog's cast trigger, but if you've exiled any sizeable historic permanents to get The Capitoline TriadThe Capitoline Triad's emblem, it'll still enter with a solid number of +1/+1 counters.

This deck also includes a couple ways to take advantage of it's large commander if you lose access to Birthing PodBirthing Pod. The Skullspore NexusThe Skullspore Nexus not only makes Worldspine WurmWorldspine Wurm a 30/30, but also makes an 8/8 token every time you sacrifice your commander to Greater GoodGreater Good or Feed the PackFeed the Pack.

Tangleweave ArmorTangleweave Armor and Dodgy JalopyDodgy Jalopy take a simpler approach, and make any of your small utility creatures massive threats.

Lastly, there's a small lands combo tucked away in the deck. With Zuran OrbZuran Orb to sacrifice lands, and SpelunkingSpelunking to untap them, Aftermath AnalystAftermath Analyst and Eden, Seat of the SanctumEden, Seat of the Sanctum can repeatedly recur each other, eventually winning the game with Sunscorched DesertSunscorched Desert pings.

And there you have it, the three finalists for the June 2025 Archidekt Deckbuilding Contest.

Which is your favorite? Be sure to follow the links in the headers of each section to visit the deck pages and upvote the one you think should win!

The final rankings based on your votes will be announced on Wednesday, May 28th, 2025.