One of the complaints with Standard formats late in their cycle is that things can get stale. While frankly this Standard format has been one of the most dynamic in a long time and we are far from solving it, the metagame begins to coalesce into a handful of top decks and strategies and it feels like there isn't room to innovate.

Screw that!

Arcades' brother Nicol Bolas has been getting the entire spotlight, while mostly failing at making a mark as Grixis decks continue to flounder, but there are in fact other Elder Dragon Legends!

Arcades has the look of a super casual card, but his excellent stats combined with a super high payoff for playing a lot of defenders makes him worth a second look. He also has some help from the Azorius Senate, as High Alert helps to fill out the strategy with some much needed redundancy. Throw in some of the best cards in Standard in Llanowar Elves and Teferi, Time Raveler, and we start to see the beginnings of a very fun but competitive deck:

Time Stamps:

Match 1 - 00:09:41

Match 2 - 00:20:51

Match 3 - 00:54:03

Match 4 - 01:09:43

Match 5 - 01:21:35

Match 6 - 01:53:19

Arcades' Alert | War Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (21)
• 2 Portcullis Vine
• 3 Saruli Caretaker
• 4 Arboreal Grazer
• 4 Arcades, the Strategist
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Wall of Runes

• Planeswalkers (8)
• 1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
• 3 Teyo, the Shieldmage
• 4 Teferi, Time Raveler

• Enchantments (6)
• 2 Conclave Tribunal
• 4 High Alert

• Lands (25)
• 4 Forest
• 2 Glacial Fortress
• 3 Hallowed Fountain
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Hinterland Harbor
• 4 Sunpetal Grove
• 4 Temple Garden

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 The Wanderer
• 3 Baffling End
• 3 Slaughter the Strong
• 2 Dovin's Veto
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Trostani Discordant
• 2 Knight of Autumn

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One of the most important things when brewing a fun deck for Standard is making sure you still play powerful cards, and we've done a good job of that while sticking to the theme.

Unfortunately our opponents had other plans for us.

This was certainly a rough set of matches, playing against two decks that we don't matchup well against over and over again. We want our walls to be doing double duty both blocking and activating our synergies, and neither Esper Control nor Bant Ramp does a lot of attacking in the early game. Still, I don't like to cherry pick my videos or content as there's as much or more to be learned from bad matchups than from good ones.

Regardless of the outcome of this set of matches, I've played the deck to success on stream and it really is a surprisingly powerful and fun deck. If you're looking for an off the radar brew with a lot of fun and power built in, Arcades is waiting for you!