Archidekt Deckbuilding Contest - March 2026 (Locked)

{"ops":[{"insert":"A moth deck with 0 Land !!!\nThe main Plan Is adapt and evolve, mana creature, and +1/+1 \nHaving all spell Is cool for the moth\nUndead alchemist + Altar of the brood for amassing the biggest army of zombies ever seen\n\n\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Ugh. . . . . Judge??\n\nThis is a confusing deckthat mutates onto Saga creatures. They can stull get saga counters and trigger those abilities and not he sacrificed as long as the a mutate creature is ontop of them. When a counter os removed the respective saga ability would trigger again. The way their aba8lties are worded, they cannot get counters on their own and must have a proliferation source to help them along\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Kenrith has returned to his domain, which in his mind, is ALL domains! This deck is focused on the domain and vivid mechanics to buff/destroy/ramp to victory the more land types you have in play. Of course Kenrith is king, so he also has to have ways of reminding your opponents he is the monarch. He also has enlisted a small band of trusted knights to lead his forces to victory. What's that? Your Kenrith is a kind ruler? Don't worry, you can unite together in your coalition victory or banish evil doers through the door of nothingness!\nYes, Kenrith could have invested in the original dual lands, but he shared his extra wealth with his subjects. \n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"The idea a version of yshtola that focus on making your opponents attack each other with the vows and impetus auras. Also other auras that stop or annoy your opponents. I use very few removal instants to focus on the auras and flash. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Vow of Duty"}},{"insert":" \n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Nicol Bolas spent ten thousand years scheming to command every planeswalker in the multiverse. He called himself a God-Pharaoh. He failed.\nThe Ur-Dragon did it on his first attack step.\nThis deck contains exactly one dragon — its commander. Every other slot belongs to the planeswalkers he has collected. Bolas himself appears three times, each version a different failed ambition, all now serving the true First Dragon.\nNo tribal synergies. No dragon lords. Just a 10/10 that attacks and gods kneel.\nWhat Bolas could not do, the Ur-Dragon does naturally.\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Here, the aim is to start the game as normal, ramping, non-creature spells, the usual. Then an aptly timed "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Firebreathing"}},{"insert":". Using lands you can buff Vivi's power with this set of enchantments, before activating their ability, which in turn allows for even more activations of firebreathing! Once at an uncomfortably high power, there are options to either swing for lethal, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Artful Dodge"}},{"insert":" , or the preferred method, hurl Vivi at anyone that's becoming a threat with cards like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Fling"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Chandra's Ignition"}},{"insert":" .\n\nAlternatively, to add some robustness, cards like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Giggling Skitterspike"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Caldera Pyremaw"}},{"insert":" can be used to nuke down the table with the added firebreathing power. To attempt to get to this critical power as fast as possible, a suite of rituals from more obvious ones like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Mana Geyser"}},{"insert":" , to other high upside spells like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Last Agni Kai"}},{"insert":" . \n\nAmong other cards are cheap removal spells to buff Vivi ("},{"insert":{"card-link":"Lightning Bolt"}},{"insert":"), a set of protection spells ("},{"insert":{"card-link":"Negate"}},{"insert":") and some base power modifiers ("},{"insert":{"card-link":"Double Jump // Flying Kick"}},{"insert":").\n\nI hope you enjoy!\n\n(At the cost of the firebreathing theme breaking, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Bronze Cudgels"}},{"insert":" , tutorable with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Urza's Saga"}},{"insert":", becomes the most efficient source of power after 4 activations, and breaks even with the firebreathing spells at 3 activations.)\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"A true no land deck supported by making creatures all types casting them for free, combos, mana rocks, and of course; the star of the show going infinite and making mana vivi\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"My commander for this deck is "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ms. Bumbleflower"}},{"insert":", an innocent little bunny who just wants to give things to others. So this is a rabbit deck and rabbits HATE flying creatures, they survive by eluding, escaping, and hiding, and are great at multiplying... This deck has all of that.\n\nSo Ms. Bumbleflower lets an opponent draw a card every time her controller casts a spell, then puts a 1/1 counter on target creature and that creature gains flying until the end of turn. The twist in this deck is to give those 1/1 and flying counters to opponents creatures. You get to sit back and play politics with opponents letting them draw cards and beef up their creatures to influence them all to kill each other. Meanwhile you are collecting cards in your den and multiplying your army with cards like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Hare Apparent"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Jacked Rabbit"}},{"insert":", and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Warren Warleader"}},{"insert":". \n\nIf an opponent tries to get squirely and attack you, you can cast at instant speed something like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Plummet"}},{"insert":", which will allow your commander to turn an attacking creature into a flyer and murder it, sending a message to all other opponents. There are plenty of flying hate cards in this deck to keep your bunnies protected like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Windstorm"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Wing Puncture"}},{"insert":", or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Katabatic Winds"}},{"insert":". So what do we do about making our opponents creatures stronger with all those 1/1s we are handing out? Well 1. we remind them that we have flyer defense and murder schemes up our sleeve, and 2. we cast our human loyalist, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Nils, Discipline Enforcer"}},{"insert":" who makes opponents pay for each 1/1 counter on a creature to attack you with. Pair him with other cards like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sphere of Safety"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Propaganda"}},{"insert":", or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Island Sanctuary"}},{"insert":", and make attacking you absolutely tedious until they just leave you alone. \n\nWhen you give a rabbit extra time they fill it by multiplying. Cast "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Doubling Season"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"For the Common Good"}},{"insert":", then blink all your "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Hare Apparent"}},{"insert":"s with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Another Round"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Semester's End"}},{"insert":" and spread out super wide for a final attack. During that attack you can cast "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Bower Passage"}},{"insert":", or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Dense Canopy"}},{"insert":" turn more of your opponent's best creatures into flyers and prevent them from blocking. \n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Use the cost reduction from Zirda to cycle the fatties and then Kenrith brings them back and gives them trample for big stompy swings. The gates package also provides an alt win condition and benefits from the cost reduction on key pieces as well. \n"}]}

{"ops":[{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Teval, the Persistent Curator [BGU Deck Thinning]"},{"insert":"\n\nTeval, the Balanced Scale, like most Sultai self-mill commanders, enables graveyard strategies easily, which often leads to runaway games if left unchecked. These runaway games are typically due to the use of reanimation (cheating in big creatures with lower-value reanimation spells) and/or culminating in win conditions for an empty library. The goal of the deck, however, is to reduce the library to specifically curated cards to enable an unstoppable engine. Who wants such a particular library? Well, some Persistent Petitioners really insisted!\n\n(1) Creatures Self-Shuffle\nThese cards shuffle themselves back into the library if they are put into the graveyard from anywhere (and not as a replacement effect). With these cards, your deck size will always have at least four cards in it, making your library effectively infinite.\n\n(2) Sources of Color\nTo ensure that the deck only uses these creatures for their self-shuffle ability, the deck only has two sources of mana for each color: a total of six basic lands. This prevents us from casting the three-pip self-shuffling creatures and curtails how many shenanigans we can do with our graveyard, keeping the list more transparently \"fair\". Haven and Maelstrom of the Spirit Dragon provide color exclusively for Teval, to make sure she comes out on curve.\n\n(3) Fetch Lands\nThe rest of the lands can fetch one or more of these basics and can otherwise tap for only colorless (or no) mana.\n\n(4) Token Causes Mill\nThese cards mill you whenever Teval creates Zombie Druids. With a library of just self-shuffling creatures, whatever is milled will get shuffled back into the library (as individual triggers, no less), allowing you to loop infinitely. Note that milling any non-self-shuffling cards would stop the loop, so the curated library is essential for optimal performance.\n\n(5) Mill Causes Token\nIf Teval is unavailable, these cards can substitute for her place in the engine or help speed up the growth of the token army.\n\n(6) Cut to the Chase\nOur priority is having the curated library, not necessarily what is in our graveyard, so we can use a few techniques to help us accelerate to this game state. Primarily, a parliament of Persistent Petitioners can power a lot of self-mill. Thrumming Stone can help get them onto the field, but really getting out of the way (to thin the deck) is their primary purpose. So, Extirpate and Surgical Extraction can evict them from the library once our engine is set up. Outside of Petitioners, Hermit Druid takes advantage of our small number of basics, and Mana Severance can remove the rest of the lands from the library once there are no more fetchable targets.\n\n(7) Recover Lands\nBecause we play so many fetch lands, playing lands from the graveyard is equivalent to drawing and playing a land each turn. Our highest non-self-shuffler spells have mana value 5, so we don't need to ramp as hard as Teval normally enables.\n\n(8) Recover Nonlands\nAs we self-mill relentlessly, we just need to sift through and find our engine pieces. There is only one card that \"reanimates\", Bloodbond March, but it can only reanimate Persistent Petitioners. The rest return to hand or otherwise require the full casting cost.\n\n(9,10) Draw, and Select and Mill\nThese cards help keep our hand just full enough for our graveyard sifting to be functional. Discard outlets help us to use dead cards (e.g., targetless fetches) and to return the self-shufflers to the library if we've drawn them.\n\n(11) Protection\nAngel of Suffering is great at protecting our life total with an infinitely millable library, and Underrealm Lich prevents us from losing to drawing from an empty library, if the self-shufflers are stuck on the stack.\n\nI'd love to hear what you all think, thanks for reading this far!\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"attributes":{"underline":true,"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":"ARE YOU TIRED OF YOUR CREATURES BEING STUCK AT LEVEL ONE?"},{"insert":"\nDo you look at your board and think: “If only these creatures could reach their full potential… preferably immediately?”\n\nThen stay tuned, because today we’re introducing the revolutionary, the incredible, the one and only:\n\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"✨ Atraxa, the Level Gaining Guru™ ✨"},{"insert":"\n\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"“Why grind levels the hard way?”"},{"insert":"\n\nTraditional Level Up creatures expect you to do something outrageous like pay mana repeatedly.\nWho has time for that?\n\nWith Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice, you get the amazing ability to PROLIFERATE every end step!\n\nThat’s right—every turn cycle your creatures gain more counters automatically. No grinding. No tedious mana payments. Just pure, effortless growth.\n\nThink of it as automatic leveling for your entire team.\n\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"“But wait—there’s more!”"},{"insert":"\n\nThis deck features the finest selection of Level Up superstars, including:\n\n⚔️ Student of Warfare – From humble recruit to battlefield legend faster than your opponents can read the card.\n\n🐍 Hexdrinker – Start as a snake. End as a protection-from-everything nightmare.\n\n🕵️ Hada Spy Patrol – Goes from sneaky operative to unstoppable unblockable assassin.\n\n💪 Beastbreaker of Bala Ged – Because sometimes you just want a giant Eldrazi-smashing monster.\n\nAnd the crown jewel…\n\n⏳ Lighthouse Chronologist\n\nOnce this scholar reaches Level 7, something magical happens:\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#ffffff"},"insert":" each opponent’s turn."},{"insert":"\n\nThat’s right. With Atraxa’s help, you can turn one wizard with a book into the entire table’s worst nightmare.\n\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"“But how do we level this fast?!”"},{"insert":"\n\nGlad you asked!\n\nThe Atraxa Level Gaining Guru™ System includes a full suite of counter acceleration technology:\n\n📈 Evolution Sage – Landfall? More like level-fall.\n🌊 Inexorable Tide – Cast spells, gain levels.\n🔬 Flux Channeler – Science-based proliferation.\n🗡 Sword of Truth and Justice – Hit enemies, gain counters.\n💥 Deepglow Skate – Double ALL your counters instantly.\n\nAnd when things really get going…\n\n🧠 Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus\n\nBecause one proliferate trigger is nice… but two is twice as profitable.\n\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"“But wait! There’s DIVINE POWER too!”"},{"insert":"\n\nWhy stop at leveling when you can harness divinity itself?\n\nThis deck features the legendary Myojin, divine beings who arrive with powerful Divinity Counters:\n\n🌊 Myojin of Seeing Winds – Draw an absurd number of cards.\n🌙 Myojin of Night’s Reach – Politely ask opponents to discard their entire hand.\n🌳 Myojin of Life’s Web – Deploy an entire creature army instantly.\n\nNormally these powers are one-time-only.\n\nBut with Atraxa’s proliferate magic, those divinity counters can come right back.\n\nYes, you heard that right.\n\nUnlimited divine customer satisfaction.\n\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"“And that’s not all!”"},{"insert":"\n\nOur patented Counter Enhancement Package™ also includes:\n\n📅 The Millennium Calendar – Because time itself deserves more counters.\n🧬 The Ozolith – Never lose your hard-earned counters again.\n🔧 Vorel of the Hull Clade – Double your counters like a true professional.\n⚗️ Staff of Compleation – Because sometimes science and Phyrexia are basically the same thing.\n\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"“But what about removal?”"},{"insert":"\n\nDon’t worry—we’ve got that covered too.\n\nWhen opponents get out of line, simply apply:\n\n☠️ Yawgmoth, Thran Physician – Distributes −1/−1 counters like party favors.\n🦠 Spread the Sickness – Removal and proliferation in one convenient package.\n\nBecause nothing says “good gameplay” like destroying a creature and leveling up at the same time.\n\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"“What does the finished product look like?”"},{"insert":"\n\nBy the mid-game, your battlefield might include:\n\nA Level 7 Lighthouse Chronologist granting extra turns"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Multiple fully leveled warriors"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"A Myojin casually recharging its divine powers"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Counters multiplying across the battlefield like an out-of-control math problem"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n\nMeanwhile your opponents are still reading Student of Warfare for the third time.\n\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"“So what are you waiting for?”"},{"insert":"\n\nStop grinding levels like a common adventurer.\n\nUpgrade today to the Atraxa Level Gaining Guru™ System, and experience:\n\n✔ Faster leveling\n✔ Bigger counters\n✔ Divine reusability\n✔ Occasional infinite-feeling turns\n\nAll powered by the miracle of proliferation technology.\n\n\n📣 "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Atraxa, the Level Gaining Guru™"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Because why level up one creature… when you can level up everything?"},{"insert":"\n\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Y'shtola's crazy good text box + the catgirl buff has made her into one of the most popular control & spellslinger commanders of recent memory. There's only one incredibly minor roadblock to overcome: Her drain ability requires us to cast spells that cost 3 or more mana (yuck). That's a lot of mana. We could play cost reducers or ramp more, but what if instead we established a place of worship and hired lots of clerics for \"tax benefits\"?\n\n--------\nOVERVIEW & CORE GAMEPLAN\n\nSoul Sisters, named after the sisters "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Soul's Attendant"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Soul Warden"}},{"insert":" (and more recently, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Guide of Souls"}},{"insert":" ) is a sub-archetype of aggro. The 'soul sisters' category in the deck provide a great rate on many sources of small lifegain, which trigger the lifegain payoffs like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Amalia Benavides Aguirre"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Aerith Gainsborough"}},{"insert":" to create a ton of pressure on our opponents.\n\nI believe that Y'shtola is a surprisingly good counterweight commander for an aggro archetype, particularly the soul sisters flavor. Zooming out, \nAggro decks with low curves can multi-spell sooner than slower decks, but this means they can run out of cards faster. So card advantage is very important to avoid stalling out. To nobody's surprise, Y'shtola is a potent card advantage engine. She provides card draw for executing our beatdown gameplan from repeatable sources (creatures) without the need to invest one-time noncreature spell effects into draining. She will even draw us several cards per turn cycle just from the game naturally progressing. "},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":" As the game goes on, the aggro deck's window to win tends to close. Eventually, more late-game focused decks will dominate and win. Her drain on casting noncreature spells helps turn our interaction and protection suite into direct damage to help get over the finish line. The life-gain part of our drain will scale our lifegain payoffs, meaning that her drain double-dips pressure in the Soul Sisters archetype."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Since we are a proactive deck, we want to spend our mana on our own turn for developing our board state. Every mana we hold up for protection or interaction slows us down, which works against our own gameplan. For this reason, interaction with alternate casting costs (such as "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Force of Will"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Flare of Fortitude"}},{"insert":" ) are very appealing for aggro decks. With them, we don't have to choose between development and hedging against blowouts. Since these spells tend to have MV 3 or more, Y'shtola rewards us for playing these already great aggro tools."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nSoul Sisters + free interaction & protection form the core of the deck's gameplan. Our interaction suite's mana cheat that these clerics & angels profit from is the essence of the Megachurch Mana Laundering scheme.\n\n--------\nOFF-TURN DRAINING\n\nThere are a few supplemental categories of cards in the deck besides the soul sister archetype + veggies. The first of which is off-turn draining. These cards (like Y'shtola) also double-dip a bit since the life loss and life gain of the drain both add pressure on our opponents as long as we have a life gain payoff. There's only 3 versions of this effect that I was able to fit since the core aggro gameplan is so slot hungry, but these are all very, very good. \n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Kambal, Consul of Allocation"}},{"insert":" : Many decks will have more than half their spells be noncreature. "},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"MacCready, Lamplight Mayor"}},{"insert":" : Many decks will want to attack with creatures. This card makes it very hard to attack us profitably with mid-size creatures. It also helps get in for damage with smaller creatures like our soul sisters."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sheoldred, the Apocalypse"}},{"insert":" : One of the most oppressive drain effects in casual EDH. "},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n--------\nCLONES & DOUBLERS\n\nLike spellslinger Y'shtola decks, we can sometimes \"storm off\" to drain out the table for the last bit of their life total. This is best done by using the clones/doublers. It's not too difficult to clean a game up once you have two Y'shtola's in play doubling your draws from beats and each of your free interaction pieces is dealing a total of 12 damage, especially if you've been doing a good job of being proactive in combat thus far.\n\nSome of our clone/doubler effects include:\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Irenicus's Vile Duplication"}},{"insert":" : makes an evasive clone of something & can trigger Y'shtola on its own."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Irma, Part-Time Mutant"}},{"insert":" : a new addition from TMNT that is cheaper than the other legendary clones and can also be played earlier, converting to Y'shtola on the turn we would want to storm off."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Delney, Streetwise Lookout"}},{"insert":" : Gives evasion when we haven't yet found scaling, stacks multiplicatively with other clones, and doubles most of our soul sister triggers on top of doubling Y'shtola triggers. Gives evasion to our soul sisters. This card is nuts here."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nEven though we are not as dedicated to this strategy as more typical Y'shtola decks, I found in testing that it's still surprisingly easy to pull off as a game-closer. It really helps with reach in games where the window is rapidly closing on our beatdown plan. Do remember that you can hold priority and counterspell your own spells to get the last bit of drain you need.\n\nOf course, cloning powerful cards like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Archangel of Thune"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sheoldred, the Apocalypse"}},{"insert":" is also a great use-case for any of these cards as well. The clones are unsurprisingly very flexible. \n\n--------\nSELF-DAMAGE\n\nIn some live games so far, I found that the soul sisters archetype has a nice hidden benefit with Y'shtola. When you're at a high life total, it almost goads opponents into hitting us on their turn to keep up with your life gain. This will cause us to draw on Y'shtola's end step trigger.\n\nHowever, opponents might also carefully play around the 4 damage threshold by attacking us for 2 or 3 damage at a time. When this happens, a large volume of pain lands in the manabase can help ping ourselves over the 4 damage edge for that sweet, sweet card. Examples include\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"City of Brass"}},{"insert":" &"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Caves of Koilos"}},{"insert":" that damage on tap"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Flooded Strand"}},{"insert":" pings us for 1, which can fetch into an untapped shockland like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Watery Grave"}},{"insert":" for 3 total damage at no mana loss (aside from the opportunity cost of not using that flooded strand on our own turn)"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"On our own turn, one of the several MDFCs in the deck like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Fell the Profane // Fell Mire"}},{"insert":" can bolt ourselves in the face, which can be useful for getting our end step card on turns where we lack profitable attacks or get blocked."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n--------\nNOTABLE EXCLUSIONS\n\nThere's tons of great cards I couldn't find room for. I'll give a brief explanation for some of the exclusions in the maybeboard:\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Flare of Malice"}},{"insert":" is amazing, but the deck lacks black creatures I'd feel comfortable with sacrificing proactively. Even though we are in a similar boat with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Flare of Denial"}},{"insert":" , sacrificing only Y'shtola or another utility creature to stop a board wipe when we are otherwise ahead feels acceptable to me. And 3 mana, denial is a bit easier to \"fair\" cast than malice at 4. I do really want to try and find room for this card though since it almost always is a great exchange when you're able to play it."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Liesa, Shroud of Dusk"}},{"insert":" is a great beater that gains us life. When it connects with an opponent puts us over the 4 damage threshold for a card from Y'shtola on our turn. She also really pressures the table when everything costs 2 life to play. When opponents double spell, they will have lost 4 life which means more cards off Y'shtola. I decided that off-turn drain effects that didn't gain me life were not on-theme enough to run when deck space was already so tight. Though I would not fault anyone for finding a cut for this. It's great for our gameplan."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Barrowgoyf"}},{"insert":" is also card advantage (at least for creatures, which we run a lot of) on a lifelink body (to trigger lifegain payoffs) that's extremely hard to block profitably thanks to deathtouch and a larger toughness than power. There's a bit of tension in the deck where the pitch-cast counterspells like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Force of Negation"}},{"insert":" need a critical mass of blue cards to be consistently online in the midgame when we'd want to be casting them. I'm on the low end for my own comfort zone/risk tolerance. This also isn't directly in one of the core soul sister categories. So I opted for a blue card advantage source instead. But the card is very good."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n--------\nFINAL THOUGHTS\n\nI think that Y'shtola as an aggro counterweight commander has been a very fun deck to build and overall has exceeded my initial expectations in terms of performance. Pivoting last-minute for the contest from generic aggro to soul sisters I think has really given the deck more of a coherent identity than \"esper aggro goodstuff + Y'shtola\", and so I'm overall very happy with my entry. Thank you for reading!\n\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Group hug to group slug in Ms. Bumbleflowers' new mafia. Opponents lose life and resources in multiple crime triggers. They mill, get pinged, and can't fight back when they're tapped. \n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Thrown together in a hurry, this deck is a real flurry.\nCast your stuff to realise, that casting a second free spell is the real price.\nTrigger your commander at will and win the game while you chill.\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"Inspired by the recent reskin of Ishiin, Two Heavens as One, this deck was crafted to feel as much like a Fallout pre-con as possible. This means you won't find Kor or Dwarves here, despite there being some iconic Voltron cards among those creature types. Cards, besides the Commander, that I couldn't see reskinned as Fallout cards without a rename weren't included either, and the mana base is less optimized in favor of keeping the available Fallout lands.\n\nIs it clunky? Certainly! Does it fit the brief of the March 2026 contest? I certainly hope so.\n"}]}