Anthem of ChampionsAnthem of Champions | Art by Ryan Pancoast

Hello, and welcome to Archetypes of Imagination, the series in which Cooper Gottfried builds decks based on popular Commander archetypes. I'm back again to help Cooper out as we build around an archetype whose name might lead you to think that it can't win games, but trust me, it can. That's right, today we're talking Pillow Fort decks.

We'll be using Scryfall's tagging system and EDHREC's Tag pages to build a deck around the theme of Pillow Fort. If you're not familiar with the term, Pillow Fort decks essentially tool themselves up to make it nigh impossible for their opponents to deal combat damage to them. Whether it's through tax effects, a giant barricade of Walls and defenders, or through goading and pacifying, Pillow Fort decks simply won't let you resolve combat damage to them.

With that kind of deck set up, we can stall out a game and win through alternative win conditions and noncombat damage, but to lead our strategy we need a commander at the helm that'll make it easier to keep our opponents from swinging on us, and what creature type could be better to lead a fort deck than...

The Ultimate Wall

Introducing Pramikon, Sky RampartPramikon, Sky Rampart! A Jeskai() 1/5 flying defender that is, perhaps understandably, the only legendary wall in Magic: The Gathering. Pramikon is actually one of the first decks I built for Commander, and we'll be making a tooled up version of my original, stupid, Wall kindred list that can actually win games.

The most important thing on this card, as is usually the case for your commander, is Pramikon's static effect. When it enters the battlefield, we choose left or right, and for as long as Pramikon stays on the battlefield, players will only be able to attack in that direction.

This is quite a fun and silly effect to play with as is, but it also provides an incredible bit of tech for those looking to avoid getting hit: whilst this card remains in play, there's only a single opponent in the game who even has the ability to attack us.

We can't always rely on Pramikon not drawing heat and getting removed, but when it's in play you've just completely written out two players as threats to your game plan, and that's pretty priceless!

So What is Our Gameplan?

It's simple really. We try and make it impossible for our opponents to hit us, then with our giant Walls and taxes established, we take advantage of effects like The MonarchThe Monarch and The InitiativeThe Initiative.

These mechanics usually pass from player to player as they do combat damage to the current holder. With our impenetrable wall we'll be able to keep hold of them and continue to reap the rewards, but first we need to make sure that no one at the table can even contemplate dealing damage to us.

Erect the Walls

So step one is to put up our barricades. PramikonPramikon itself will largely deal with two of the players on the board, but it won't always be around, and we've still got to deal with our neighbor who can continue to get through. Let's start with some decent blockers.

Some good Walls will make sure that any attackers our opponent does manage to swing at us will at least have something to stop them. In general, Wall creatures have a much bigger toughness than their cost suggests. Wall of DenialWall of Denial is a great early drop, as its combo of flying and shroud, complete with its 0/8 stat line, will make it hard to get rid of and easy to block with.

Fog BankFog Bank and Wall of VaporWall of Vapor are effectively indestructible when it comes to blocking so they can be put in front of any single, giant creatures. We can actually make any of our creatures into a Fog Bank in fact with a nifty little Aura.

Ghostly PossessionGhostly Possession is such a fun card, and the ultimate target for it is a monstrous Hundred-Handed OneHundred-Handed One. Good luck getting less than 101 creatures through that! For added points, combine Ghostly Possession with PariahPariah on the same creature to make you effectively immune to combat damage. Put Pariah on an indestructible creature to make you immune to ALL damage.

Tax Them to Death

Blockers are all well and good but you can't always put enough of a wall to block every single thing that comes at you. What if your opponent makes a creature unblockable? Or they swing in with more tokens than you can deal with? That's when we resort to taxing effects.

There's a huge supply of creatures and enchantments in Magic that punish your opponents for swinging at you. In fact, that's largely what decks like this are built on. The biggest pain in the arse we'll be handing any would be swingers is a big old heap of tax.

Cards like PropagandaPropaganda charge your opponent for each creature swinging at you. In this case, per attacker. For token decks, that's an absolutely unreasonable cost. It's a surefire way to lock down the attacks of wide boards from being able to get through.

Alternatively, we look to cards that hurt anything that attacks. Lightmine FieldLightmine Field is one of my favorite Pillow Fort cards as it not only board wipes any token decks that try and swing at us, but it'll disincentivize combat in general. This could really take the legs out from underneath any combat reliant decks on the table. If the lightmines are out, you can use Bident of ThassaBident of Thassa to perform targeted board wipes on players going wide.

Build Your Court

Now it's time to talk winning the game, and as we spoke about before, this isn't a deck that wants to deal combat damage to our opponents. In fact, a fair amount of our creatures can't even attack. And if they did? We might end up hurting them with our enchantments.

Instead we're going to assemble the greatest court the land has ever seen and establish ourselves as the one true king. The two cycles of court cards provide us with a new benefit for holding onto the monarch, as well as triggering the monarch as well. The Court of IreCourt of Ire being a great example as it can ping our opponents to death. We can even use Court of VantressCourt of Vantress to keep making copies of it on our upkeep.

Champions of Minas TirithChampions of Minas Tirith provides a perfect combo with the rest of our deck as it not only grants us the monarch on entry but also provides another tax effect for would be attackers. If just being the king isn't enough then we can also start delving into the dungeon by grabbing The InitiativeThe Initiative. Caves of Chaos AdventurerCaves of Chaos Adventurer will grant us the token as well as giving us some card advantage should we choose to attack.

Sneak Your Way to Victory

With our ability to make games drag we can try and sneak out a cheeky win with some subtle alternate victory conditions. These cards will seem very mundane on their own until they end up sweeping the game for you.

Both Azor's ElocutorsAzor's Elocutors and The Millennium CalendarThe Millennium Calendar are very slow cards that can ultimately win you the game when left unanswered. The Millennium Calendar will slowly accumulate counters over time and eventually cause our opponents to lose an insane 1,000 life.

The Elocutors, however, simply need five upkeeps to win the game. At the start of each of your turns they'll gain a filibuster counter, and when they receive their fifth this way, you'll win the game. The downside is that you'll be losing one of these counters if your opponent ever manages to deal damage to you.

This will be tricky to pull off if we're playing against any burn effects, but at least we can very easily stop combat damage, and the Crystal BarricadeCrystal Barricade provides us, the player, with hexproof to stop any shenanigans. Its ability to stop all noncombat damage to our other creatures will also prevent any red removal from taking out the Elocutors before we can get away with our sneaky win.

Build it Yourself

If you've been inspired by this article to sit behind your own wall and laugh at the peasants squabbling outside, don't worry! I've got you covered with a rough deck list to either build straight away or use a starting point below. Enjoy your very own Pillow Fort on me: