Ardenn & Ishai v2

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RogHimself
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Post by RogHimself » 3 years ago

Ardenn Equipments
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I'm hereby sharing my updated list of Ardenn & Ishai, my home-grown political pillow-fort deck, which aims to let opponents fight each other and finish the remaining opponent(s) off swiftly.

My previous version was more aimed towards enchant aura's. Even though this worked fine with my playgroup, I think this updated list which leans more towards an emphasis on equipment's should work even better.

The fun thing about Ardenn's ability is that I'm able to send my and equipment's to opponents creatures. You'll have to keep this in mind with looking at every card in this deck. The equipment's have been selected carefully, so that they can benefit my win-con (which is voltron either my commander or one of my other units) as well as force opponents to fight each other with abilities like goad (think of cards like Assault Suit or Bloodthirsty Blade).

I want to go over some few important commander subjects.

1. Card draw
We all know this is one of the most important things in commander. This list needs it as well, because of the relatively low-mana curve. I've opted to go with the following cards.
Infiltration Lens - We like to send this to an enemy creature, so it stop's them from attacking, since it will only provide me card advantage. If they do attack we do love some blocking.
Skullclamp - Get's a new dimension in this deck since it function's as a form of removal as well by sending it on enemy X/1-creatures
Monastery Siege - Not real card advantage, but still great for filtering through. Dropping a Sevinne's Reclamation in the graveyard feels good. Knowing I might cast a Open the Vaults in the near future makes me less sad about throwing certain cards in the 'yard as well.
Court of Grace - Combines perfectly with our pillow-fort strategy. We like to become the monarch and stay so. We also don't mind the free 4/4 angels to speed up the game!
And finally some of them speak for themselves: Sram, Senior Edificer, Mystic Remora, Curse of Verbosity

2 Wincon's
A couple of win-cons are included in this deck. Sweet thing of this partner-combination is that one of them is always available when we want to go in for the kill: Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker. Similar win-con's are True-Name Nemesis and Heavenly Blademaster if our commander get's removed too often. Dumping our Equipment's and Aura's for free with Ardenn on Inkmoth Nexus can work out great too, and really surprise opponents.
An alternate win-con strategy is Luminarch Ascension, which we usually like to play when some of our pillow-fort pieces are online.
Helm of the Host - This card is a win-con on itself. Putting this on enemy creatures with Ardenn creating a free token of their best creature everyround, also being able to switch this every round and.... goes live on turn 4 already! What's not to like.

3 Protection
Since our commander will pump up rather quickly, it'll of course draw a lot of attention. We therefor need to protect him/her as good as we can. We do this with a lot of cards that make the commander indestructible like Timely Ward, Darksteel Plate, Hammer of Nazahn, or protection cards like Mother of Runes and Benevolent Blessing. Other mentionable pieces I included are:
Whispersilk Cloak - this card can feel like a little bit of a non-bo, since it prevents ourself from targetting our the creature that has the cloak attached. The card itself is just too strong to pass though. No target removal AND giving unblockable? Two-in-one if you'd ask me.
Assault Suit - Great card to tutor for vs. some of the black sacrificing strategies out there. Also bear in mind that when I decide to give my commander to an opponent, and they decide to attack someone with it, it'll deal commander damage as well!

4. Pillow Fort
Finally this aspect is one of the most important aspects of the deck as well. We run relatively few creatures, and try to compensate it by stopping opponents to attack us, so they'll decide to attack someone else first. Most of these are pretty common, but I would like to highlight a few
Orzhov Advokist - Boosts our own creatures without drawback, boosts opponents creatures (so they can finish eachother off faster) and also stops them from attacking us if they choose so. Greatest part even is that if they decide to not place any counters on their creatures, they might get ready for an attack on me! Great information, because I can react by putting some annoying aura's or equipments on their creatures with Ardenn's ability.
Pariah and Pariah's Shield - Both can be places on opponents creatures with Ardenn - let that sink in. Their own damage will be redirected to their own creatures? "No thanks!" Also combines perfectly with our own indestructible creatures, or a card like Fog Bank.
Mystic Barrier - Great way to manipulate attacks.
Maze of Ith - "If I attack him with my creature... he will untap it and deny the damage .. which means I don't have a reason to attack him.... so I can rather attack this other guy" - Perfect.

Let me know what you think!

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