Overview:

This Arcades, the Strategist deck focuses on leveraging high-toughness defender creatures for card draw and combat pressure. The core strategy revolves around deploying walls with powerful ETB effects, generating value through Arcades' attack/damage conversion, and winning via combat or infinite mana combos. The deck uses efficient tutors and flicker effects to maintain consistency but remains vulnerable to commander removal and board wipes.

Primer:

Core Strategy:
Deploy low-cost defenders to draw cards with Arcades' trigger, then attack with walls using their toughness for damage. The deck operates in three phases:

1. Setup (Turns 1-4): Cast mana dorks (Sylvan Caryatid, Axebane Guardian) and early walls (Wall of Omens) to build board presence while ramping.
2. Arcades Activation (Turns 4-6): Cast Arcades with protection (Lightning Greaves, Flawless Maneuver), enabling walls to attack and draw additional cards.
3. Win Conditions:
   • Combat Overrun: Use Tetsuko Umezawa to make walls unblockable or Akroma's Will for lethal combat phases.
   • Infinite Mana: Generate unbounded mana via Axebane Guardian/Overgrown Battlement + Staff of Domination, then win with Finale of Devastation or draw the deck.

Key Combos:

• Staff of Domination + Axebane Guardian + 4 Other Defenders: Infinite mana and life gain/draw.
• Tetsuko Umezawa + 1-toughness walls: Unblockable damage.
• Eerie Interlude + ETB walls: Mass card draw and protection from board wipes.

Mulligan Priorities:

• Keep hands with 3 lands and 1-2 ramp pieces (Sol Ring, Farseek).
• Prioritize early defenders over reactive spells.
• Avoid hands without green mana sources.

Critical Lines:

• Tutor sequencing: Green Sun's Zenith for Axebane Guardian before searching for Staff of Domination via Urza's Saga.
• Cast Arcades only when able to protect him or immediately capitalize with flicker effects.

Weaknesses:

Critical

• Arcades Dependency: 3+ removals on commander cripples the strategy
• Board Wipe Vulnerability: Limited recovery tools after mass removal

Moderate

• Graveyard Reliance: Key recursion (Sevinne's Reclamation) disrupted by exile effects
• Artifact Combos: Staff of Domination/Meekstone easily targeted

Minor

• Limited Evasion: Relies on Tetsuko for unblockable damage
• Slow Start: Early turns focused on setup

Most Important Cards:

• Staff of Domination
• Axebane Guardian
• Finale of Devastation
• Green Sun's Zenith
• Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
• Akroma's Will
• Cyclonic Rift
• Overgrown Battlement
• Urza's Saga
• Force of Negation

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 6/10
Can threaten wins via combat T6-8 or infinite mana T5-7 with optimal draws.

Resilience: 5/10
Moderate protection (Flawless Maneuver, Spellskite) but folds to repeated commander removal.

Consistency: 7/10
11 tutors/fetch effects and strong card draw engines from wall ETBs.

Interaction: 6/10
Mix of free counterspells (Force of Negation), targeted removal (Swords), and board wipes (Slaughter the Strong).

Rating Justification:

This deck sits between optimized casual and focused tiers due to its combo potential and tutor density, but lacks the speed/protection of true high-power builds.

Power level: 5.0 - 6.0