Archidekt Deckbuilding Contest - January 2026

{"ops":[{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"long turns… pointless… depressing gameplay… this isn’t Christmas cheer, this is the winter blues where you scoop and you lose.. "},{"insert":"\n\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"So I really like the Earthbending mechanic this seemed to be another outlet to put everything into it and then some. Build the best snowman and throw them at your opponent, utilize the commander effect with the snow lands coming back once they've been earthbent. Play around in the winter wonderland and other assorted cold cards.\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Hylda and Verity Circle are important cards, many snow permanents like Icebind Pillar help and boost the power of this snowy 'tap and control deck'.\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Hear me out, what if aang learned to snowbend. With aang and help from his ally's, they make the snow lands in to snow creatures and making them stronger to help fight for them. Aang's snow friends (aka the snow type) will help him build up snow lands and find more snow friends to help in other ways.\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"I tried to keep it cheap so you can be cool without the tithe smothering you.\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"NO GAMECHANGERS: A snow elf landfall deck that focuses on getting snowlands out and using artifacts to get the most mana out of them possible. Good landfall and removal options get you to the late game where Dark Depths and Helix Pinnacle are viable wincons. \n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Drawing on the themes of winter, this deck revolves around tap based control through snow synergies and Ty Lee herself. The core of the deck is built around snow permanents and spells which leverage the almost entirely snow covered landbase to quickly establish control of the board, stunning creatures, and relying on card draw to assemble a reasonably wide board, stun everything then freeze players out until you've finished beating them down.\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Ruling a harsh tundra isn't easy, and it must be done with a cold, steely fist. Hylda rewards those who bade their opposition to bow to their queen, making them stronger, sending reinforcements, and looking into their future to bend it to her will. Any who come for her crown will first have to find their way through the frost and rime, careful not to be lulled to cold's slumber.\n\nWhile there is the obvious focus on twiddle mechanics to trigger the commander, I had a lot of fun going through and finding cards to fit the icy theme, whether it's in their name, text, type, or art. \n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Isu plays in the snow! Searches for a frozen horror! Maybe releases it!?\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"TLDR: This deck is looking to bleed people out, whether its on upkeep or by forcible decking down by generating a lot of zombies. Offensive milling just like Dimir intended. Additionally if it wasnt obvious at a glance this deck is designed as zombie tribal.\n\nAt the heart of it this deck is about conversion. We want everything to be a swamp and zombie.\nWe are leveraging the swamp conversion for Liliana of the Dark Realms and with a number of proliferate tools(which double for a go tall solution if we need it) we get her ultimate online so we can cast her emblem. This makes all of our swamps tap for four mana and because the majority of our swamps are snow lands. They tap for four snow mana too if needed which gives us some huge safety tools in nanogene conversion which we can use to copy our to regen skeletons and pop that huge amount of snow mana to protect all of our creatures in the case of a board wipe.(note we will need to have Leyline of Anticipation on the board to pull that off though)\nWe are using a number of shapeshifting tools like Conspiracy and Leyline of Transformation to make sure every creature in the deck is a zombie at all times. That way we have recursion and all of our lovely tribal effects. Between the various banner bonuses, or so we can swing big with undead alchemist to force people to deck down and my personal fave Corpse Harvester, who can now go look for any creature in the deck this way.\nYou will also have constant access to playing through your top deck between the mass scrys and numerous options that let you play your top card.\nRimefeather Owl is a huge player in this deck as we need him to convert sources for more snow mana potential(primarily our mana rocks will now produce snow) and allowing narfi to banner if you dont have zombie conversion out.\nHama, Draugr Necromancer and number of others let us get a lot of value out of others graveyards. Casting options will always come from the most unlikely of places and our exhaustive mana ramp lets us cast all of it.\n\nOk so on to win cons:\nPrimary Win Con: We dont get the fun token doubling options that white and green get so we have to be creative. Reflection of Littjara and necroduality helps us make sure our zombies enter with four copies, Sidisi and corpse harvester make sure we always have them in our hands. Then a number of cards generating zombies on death, when any creature touches a graveyard and more, with Endless Rank of the Dead being our biggest engine here.\nZombie production is everything in this deck because this is whats gonna let our Commander bleed out our opponents and let us reorg the deck every turn at upkeep.(Its unfortunately not commander damage but thats perfectly fine) The damage will still proc things like Exquisite Blood, giving us more and more survival as we bring about the long winter. \nLooking at the creature list Runo Stormkirk feels week because we only have to ways to bring him online but he gives us some other value in the meantime and we can easily force his transformation with the decks structure. The reason we want Runo in the first place though is token doubling on attack from his back face. Where this goes really well with how the deck is built is we have all that conversion. Runo wants big sea creatures and so we save him until we have either Maskwood Nexus online or two of our conversion enchantments online(we always take zombies first but we take Krakens if we get a second). Runo on attack will now make two copies of our chosen creature instead of one and if we have Diregraf Captain on the board we can now spawn two more banners for our army.\n\nSecondary Win Con: The offensive mill angle. It still plays through our primary engine but is mostly reliant on our nonlegendary lieutenant Undead Alchemist. This is where we take our build tall engine seriously. Anytime we deal combat damage to a player that player mills that many cards instead of taking the damage, as long as the damage comes from zombies. Everything is a zombie and players are more likely to let that damage through early because it doesnt cost them life if they dont realize this is going to get out of control later and all that mill is just going to contribute to making more zombies from their graveyard and exiling their creatures putting any recursion they have in the dirt. They will deck down fast if the cant find a solution for the Alchemist. Even one good hit with this guy on the field will simply up Scarab Gods damage out put and scry potential, if you dont net the win quickly enough.\n\nThings to remember:\n1.Always convert to zombie first\n2.Dont every put Scarab God back in the Commander Zone, he goes back to hand on death. Exile is the only reason he goes back.\n3.Always stack Necroduality and Reflections if you can\n4.If the mana is there and Rimefeather is on the board just convert\n5.Dont play Liliana unless you know you can protect her or shes under zero threat. We need that emblem and we want to make sure we can utilize that +1 every turn that we can.\n\nThe Maybeboard:\nI intentionally left out a number of great combos or the other half of an infinite two card with something in the deck. These options were also left out in favor of more snow options. This board is for anyone who would like to modify the deck in the future for other play options and strategies as well as moving up to higher bracket play. There are also some snow alternatives here for other fun strategies that work alongside this deck.\n-Fraying Insanity makes milling go out of control and paired with the instant from Jidoor instantly decks someone down in one turn.\n-Epicure of Blood, Marauding Blight Priest, and Sanguine Bond all infinite combo with Exquisite Blood to heal and harm everybody in an uninterruptable stack once someone takes damage or you earn life. \n-Bontu's, Vampiric Rites, Bastion, and Lightning Greaves are more just general good value and i didnt have a good reason not to put them in here other than i just chose not too.\n-Folio is too group hug for me but plays into the mill vision massively\n-If you want more snow Ascendant and Avalanche Caller are there as solid options that dont really fit the rest of the engine, Rimebound belongs in the deck but i pulled it for better value when Zombie Musher is more accessible in the deck.\n-Demonic is obvious as it would push the decks snap to value to being too high\n\nHave Fun with this everyone cause Winter is Coming \n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"In an attempt to throwback to Ice Age, our game plan focuses on using Cumulative Upkeep Enchantments to hinder our opponents game plans and keep us safe while ramping for "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Helix Pinnacle"}},{"insert":" . "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Snowfall"}},{"insert":" forms the basis for this deck, as when paired with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Leyline of the Guildpact"}},{"insert":" this will turn all of our lands into Snow Islands to help pay for our Cumulative Upkeep costs. Additionally, we are running a World Enchantment in the form of "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Winter's Night"}},{"insert":" to make all of our Snow lands produce more mana and using "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Seedborn Muse"}},{"insert":" to offset the drawback.\n\nAs Cumulative Upkeep adds Age Counters to cards, we have added a number of ways to help mitigate their ever growing costs such as "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Xavier Sal, Infested Captain"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Eon Hub"}},{"insert":". Should our Enchantments generate enough age counters we can utilize "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Thief of Blood"}},{"insert":" to reset them and swing big with their increased power. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Terra, Magical Adept // Esper Terra"}},{"insert":" helms the deck as the deck is reliant upon enchantments and her ability to copy these and produce mana synergizes with our general game plan. \n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"My Jorn snow deck I play with my pod! It's not incredibly high powered but works well if you play it right. \nThe goal? Mana, and lot's of it! Check the categories to see the point of each card! \n\nThe main goal of the deck is to play Jorn and start accelerating your mana production! Jorn is already a great value engine, letting you play multiple spells on curve when your snow lands untap. This effect can be improved in one of two ways: floating mana or giving things Flash. \n\nThe simplest way to do silly Jorn things is with effects that prevent mana from disappearing between phases like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Upwelling"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Kruphix, God of Horizons"}},{"insert":" . For example, let's say you get a turn 3 Jorn (which you should be doing consistently, if not earlier with mana dorks). Turn 4 you play whatever combination of spells that equal 4 Mana, swing at someone who's open (or make Jorn unblockable), and then repeat, spending another 4 mana on whatever you have. With a mana floater though you can preserve mana through your combat and get 8 mana for a single spell on turn 4 which, in my humble magic opinion, is pretty good. Granted, this is a pretty narrow line and requires Upwelling in your hand by turn 4 or another of the mana floaters and a ramp spell that get's you one ahead (as both other sources are 5 mana to cast). That's not even considering interaction! Thankfully Jorn has a couple more tricks up his sleeve with the second option, Flash. \n\nFlash does essentially the same thing if not in a more creative way. Since Jorn triggers on attack you can move to combat, swing with Jorn, hold priority on his ability, tap all your lands, untap your snow permanents with Jorn, and then retap your lands, floating all the mana during the attackers phase. Cards like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Vedalken Orrery"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir"}},{"insert":" then let you play cards during the attackers phase as to bypass the downside of mana disappearing between phases. If you don't have a flash enabler though no worries, there are lot's of cards that you can sink mana into like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Conifer Wurm"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ascendant Spirit"}},{"insert":". \n\nSome other highlights of the deck are cards like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Seedborn Muse"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Virtue of Strength // Garenbrig Growth"}},{"insert":" , cards that, combined with the two themes above, allow for an absurd amount of mana. Eventually you can end the game with classics like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Torment of Hailfire"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Blatant Thievery"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Doppelgang"}},{"insert":". Marit Lage is an option too, with a couple of cards that tutor for snow lands.\n\nOverall the deck is flexible and functions pretty consistently, it's main weakness being early game removal. Once you get enough mana acceleration though Jorn is barely required and I've oftentimes found myself casting his flip side to recur strong snow effects. If there are any recommendations or deck building flaws you find please let me know in the comments! \n\n\n\n\n\n\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"This deck seeks to utilize Svella's full repertoire of activated abilities.\n\nThis deck's goal is to establish a large amount of ramp in the form of snow permanents. Resolve a creature like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Icehide Troll"}},{"insert":" , "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Conifer Wurm"}},{"insert":" , or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Spirit of the Aldergard"}},{"insert":" . These creatures can be made incredible large by using your snow permanent count in combination with enablers that double your power. Cards like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus"}},{"insert":" ,"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ouroboroid"}},{"insert":", and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Xenagos, God of Revels"}},{"insert":" .\n\nThis enables you to have an extremely large creature on board that can certainly take advantage of free attacks into opponents, but are more likely to be utilized as "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Fling"}},{"insert":" targets to shoot the opponent. My goal with designing this deck was to go against the grain of snow decks being thematically designed to lock opponents out of the game and slow the game to a crawl and create a deck that uses the snow text to it's advantage as a robust burn/stompy deck.\n\nNow, the "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Fling"}},{"insert":" plan is best executed under ideal circumstances where you have all of your necessary pieces in play. A sizeable number of "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Icy Manalith"}},{"insert":" tokens, a power doubler "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Xenagos, God of Revels"}},{"insert":" /"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ouroboroid"}},{"insert":" and a fling card in hand "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Chandra's Ignition"}},{"insert":" .\n\nIn order to get you to this point where you can burn your opponents out, the deck plays a few ways to continue to create card advantage when you're stalled out. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Greater Good"}},{"insert":" is a great card as it can be cast from "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Svella, Ice Shaper"}},{"insert":" 's 2nd activated ability. Once your mana dorks have served their role in getting your permanents out, they will often also be passively large as a result of "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ouroboroid"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Unnatural Growth"}},{"insert":" . You can then use "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Greater Good"}},{"insert":" or in other cases "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Grothama, All-Devouring"}},{"insert":" to draw a large amount of cards to get your necessary combo pieces. Grothama is a nice option in the deck as it is tutorable with your cards like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Chord of Calling"}},{"insert":" . This deck notably tries to minimize its Instant and Sorcery package as they can't be cast from Svella's activated ability, your main way of accessing cards in your deck and keeping up with other decks in terms of card advantage.\n\nTo help you achieve a large pool of mana to spend the deck also plays a strong collection of ability copiers. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Illusionist's Bracers"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Battlemage's Bracers"}},{"insert":" to create more tokens for yourself. You additionally play a robust set of untapping artifacts so you can utilize Svella multiple times on your turn, or create a manalith token and then activate her 2nd ability. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Rings of Brighthearth"}},{"insert":"/"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Thousand-Year Elixir"}},{"insert":" .\n\nThe deck plays a large suite of tutor spells, the best being "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Finale of Devastation"}},{"insert":" as you can create a surprise combo win by tutoring your "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Spirit of the Aldergard"}},{"insert":" into play with a pump, this way spending your excess mana, or tutoring your power doubler into play "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Xenagos, God of Revels"}},{"insert":" , turning a board that was otherwise innocuous into a lethal board state.\n\nYou play a small amount of traditional removal spells like, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Skred"}},{"insert":" , and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Tundra Fumarole"}},{"insert":" but your primary goal is to establish a large creature to dissuade attacks or utilize fight spells to remove utility from your opponents. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ram Through"}},{"insert":" (This card can also serve as a way to kill your opponents like a fling. Bonus synergy is you get to keep your creature after.)\n\nLastly in a pinch the deck plays a classic snow card, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Glacial Crevasses"}},{"insert":" which lets you use your snow lands to buy yourself time until you can combo or swing your opponents.\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"This deck is all extra. Takes some effort and energy to get going. But once a sphinx always a sphinx. \n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Well, here we are, the theme for the week is snow decks, and the phrasing of the prompt does make it seem like there are multiple possible decks you can make, but I searched for snow in scryfall, and only one card came up, so I guess we're using him!.\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Snow Villiers"}},{"insert":", our vigilant king, is a big brawler who deals a massive amount of damage if your have enough cheerleaders filling your board. Immediately, voltron sticks out as our main win-con, and we have five neat evasion tools in the deck to make sure he connects. However, Snow is probably not going to be big enough to hit 21 damage off of just creature types. If only there was a way to fix that\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Snowball #1"},{"insert":": "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Glacial Plating"}},{"insert":" is a very cool (heh) snow card, for a few reasons. All snow cards are fetchable off of "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Search for Glory"}},{"insert":" , and chances are you're going to want to fetch this one, because it gives a massive +3/+3 for each turn after the first that it is on the field. +3 power doesn't seem like a lot, but each age counter on the artifact means another 3 creatures we don't have to summon and keep alive, so that's pretty neat. The deck also has a modest proliferate suite, which we can counterintuitively use to get more age counters, so that the Plating buffs for more, which is pretty funny.\n\nSpeaking of creatures, this deck is filled with all your favorite mono-white ways to make creatures, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Adeline, Resplendent Cathar"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Elspeth, Sun's Champion"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Elspeth, Storm Slayer"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Lossarnach Captain"}},{"insert":", and more! And of course, the deck has plenty of repeatable draw via cards like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Skullclamp"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Enduring Innocence"}},{"insert":", and a few ways to turn our token army into threats in case our commander is absent, like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Caretaker's Talent"}},{"insert":".\n\nBut how are we going to afford all these cards? Or stay alive long enough to play them?\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Snowballs #2, 3, 4, and 5: "},{"insert":"\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Cover of Winter"}},{"insert":" joins Glacial Plating as yet another case of positive age counters. Simply play 5 easy installments of 4 snow mana, and you and your creatures are essentially untouchable. But what if you only have 2 mana? No problem! Simply set up a "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Wall of Shards"}},{"insert":" and give all the life to the player who most wants to be your friend! What if you want to survive combat damage, but hate the idea of paying turn after turn? Simply buy a handy "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sunstone"}},{"insert":" and turn off combat damage only when you need to!\n\nDon't have the mana? No problem! Just get yourself a "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Replicating Ring"}},{"insert":". And if you call in the next 30 minutes, we'll even send you 8 additional token copies for free. That's 27 mana worth of value for just 3 mana! (Buyer must pay separate proliferation and handling fees)\n\nAnyway, that's enough of that bit. The last cool thing to show off about snow lands is that there are a lot of them, which matters in two pretty unique ways. (And they can be drawn off "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Scrying Sheets"}},{"insert":", which is a nice side bonus). Consider these the final "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Snowballs"},{"insert":"\n\nThere are 2 different snow lands that become creatures (manlands): "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Faceless Haven"}},{"insert":"and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Frostwalk Bastion"}},{"insert":" (and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Dark Depths"}},{"insert":", but we don't talk about Dark Depths unless you ordered within 30 minutes and got 9 Replicating Rings.) This deck runs almost every good manland just due to the fact that they represent extra attackers and especially extra instant-speed accessible damage for Snow to hit commander damage thresholds with"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Every snow land (aside from Snow Covered Plains) are unique lands for "},{"insert":{"card-link":"All-Fates Scroll"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Awakened Amalgam"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Field of the Dead"}},{"insert":" , and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Survey Mechan"}},{"insert":". Field of the Dead is obviously the most important of these, but All-Fates and Survey Mechan are both excellent rates for card draw once turned on, which will be fairly easy, as the snow lands bring our unique land count up to a respectable 22, which should account for a fair few 2/2 zombies. "},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nSo what have we learned?\nNo matter how many age counters you have, or no matter how fast it feels like life is proliferating them, sometimes it's the simple things, like a snowball fight with your 22 closest creature token friends that will bring you the most joy\n\n\n"}]}