These paths we decipher, set adrift and set out so far
Art:Archetype of Imagination
by Robbie Trevino
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commander Is:
Archetype is a super sweet commander in mono-blue, Being able to give our creatures flying and take it away from our opponents can make the combat step very easy! We have a bunch of benefits from dealing combat and grounding our opponents creatures help an absolute ton of that! We are a mono blue deck so of course we have a ton of ways to counter and draw some cards! This deck is a ton of fun to pilot and Archetype really acts like a legendary creature, just a ton of fun! Without Further Adieu Lets Get It!
The Deck:
Archetype's Mono-Blue Flyers!
Why Archetype of Imagination?
The main reason that we chose Archetype is that it allows us to build our deck to include a bunch of cards and creatures that are not great in decks where we cant consistently do damage. Since Archetype makes all of our creatures flying and takes it away from our opponents we can consistently damage our opponents, this can lead to games where we can build up a board and drop Archetype and swing for the fences! Archetype is just a great card that we have the means to protect and with just 1 or 2 turns of Archetype on the field and a decent amount of creatures can end games pretty quickly. Even though a bunch of our creatures are not that big we can still constantly whittle down our opponents starting in the early game.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck!
Creatures:
Our creature package has a lot of cards that fly already and are just efficient creatures like Cloud of Faeries
which is basically a free creature or a cycling option depending on if we really need a card. Another really cool early game creature is Spire Owl
which is a great way to “stack” the top of our deck and help us prepare for the next turns!
Since Archetype makes our creatures evasive we can really benefit from cards that give us bonuses for combat damage, some of the best creatures for this are Moonblade Shinobi
and Mistblade Shinobi
. Moonblade is a great card that can give us more creatures that will also be evasive and Mistblade is a great way for us to bounce problematic permanents from our opponents! Ninja of the Deep Hours
is a great way to draw an extra card!
Another really cool card that in testing I primarily used to protect Archetype is Elgaud Shieldmate
which is a creature that can come down pretty early and protect whatever our highest value creature is, typically this is Archetype!
While we can easily swarm the board with a ton of creatures a lot of them are super small, so we of a late-game package that can not only act as good blockers but when we have Archetype out can be a great way to close out games! Our big creatures include Benthic Giant
and Cold-Water Snapper
and Spined Megalodon
. Through our artifact ramp we can usually cast these pretty early and once we make them evasive can really start putting a clock on our opponents!
Instants:
We are a mono-blue deck, so of course we have some counterspells! We of course have the absolutely legendary Counterspell
which is just an old classic that everyone knows! We also have some different Arcane Denial
, Negate
, andRewind
all of these are pretty great spells that can hit a lot of targets!
In addition to our counterspells we also do the otherside of Mono-Blue well in drawing cards! One of the coolest draw engines we have is Keep Watch
whether we do it on our combat step or our opponents we can very easily draw a bunch of cards, who’s going to say no to that! Think Twice
is just another consistent way to draw some cards!
We also have a bunch of ways to bounce problematic permanents like Unsummon
and Snap
and Run Away Together
all of these are just quick and easy ways to get our opponents creatures out of there.
Sorceries:
One of the coolest cards in our sorcery package is Energy Tap
this card in testing I used to consistently get Archetype out early which is core to our gameplan and can help an absolute ton! We also have two ways to draw cards in our sorcery package in Deep Analysis
and Treasure Cruise
which are both just some more good draw spells!
Ponder
and Preordain
are staples in other formats and are really good in our deck as well! Just great efficient ways to draw some cards and manipulate the top of our deck! The last card in our deck that is a great removal spell is Ravenform
which is great whether we foretell or hard cast it.
Artifacts:
Mana is the big focus of our artifact package with format staples like Bonder's Ornament
which is a Pauper EDH staple and just a great card. We also have Arcane Signet
,Fellwar Stone
and Thought Vessel
. Thought Vessel is one of the most important cards in our deck since we draw a ton of cards! We of course have a bunch more rocks in the deck but they all pretty much serve the same purpose. The last artifact in our deck I want to highlight is Armory of Iroas
which is a great artifact we can really easily and if we can have it throughout the game just continue to make a creature bigger and kill an opponent faster!
Enchantments:
Our enchantment package has some cards that can really change the game for us, one of those being the legendary Flood
which when we have Archetype on the field can be a great way to lock down our opponents creatures from combat.
Our other enchantments are basically pseudo-removal spells in Fall from Favor
, Witness Protection
and Zephyr Net
. All of these cards functionally do pretty much the same thing and just lock down an opponents creature!
Land Base:
Our land base mostly consists of basics but all of our nonbasics have effects that are supportive to the gameplan and help a ton! Halimar Depths
lets us rearrange the top of our deck which we can never complain about. Mystic Sanctuary
is a great way to recur one of our important draw or counterspells! We do have pretty simple land base but our nonbasics do help with the gameplan!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Even though we are Mono-Blue we can easily ramp with our artifacts
- Archetype makes all of our creatures better
- Lots of Draw / Interaction
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Weak to aggressive decks if we have a slow start
- Weak to creature hate
- Deck is noticeably weaker without Archetype on the board
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
Our main win condition is through combat, through archetypes ability we can ground all of our opponents creatures and give all of ours flying and we have a ton of creatures that benefit from us dealing combat damage and the added evasiveness makes it very easy! We don’t have any infinite combos or loops in the deck!
Conclusion:
In Conclusion, I think that this deck is a really midrange – control style shell with a bunch of ways to deal damage pretty easily! This deck is mono-blue to its a core and does a lot of things that you would expect a mono-blue deck to do! This deck is great for any blue mage looking into Pauper or for really anyone who aligns with the playstyle of blue!
Thanks for reading to the end!