Atraxa, Praetors' VoiceAtraxa, Praetors' Voice by Victor Adame Minguez

Hello, and welcome to April's Archidekt Deckbuilding Contest.

A couple of notes here at the start:

First, this contest is going live on April Fool's Day, and as tempting as it was to do something thematically tied to that we didn't want there to be any confusion about this month's parameters. To eliminate any potential mix-ups, this is just going to be a straight-forward prompt like any other month.

Second, there won't be a contest in the month of May due to various logistical issues involving both MagicCon Vegas and another event that will have everyone involved in the contest both busy and out of town away from their computers. We will however be back as scheduled in June.

This is a monthly contest with a different theme each month. The goal is to build a Commander-legal deck that fulfills the prompt in a creative or unique fashion, and at the end of each month, three finalists will be selected for you to vote on.

Whoever gets the most votes will be crowned the winner, although all three finalists will receive a prize.

April's challenge is to brew a creative and interesting commander-legal deck around a keyword. This should be an innovative, novel, and non-typical take on a deck where a keyword is featured prominently as part of the deck's strategy and makeup.

What’s the Contest All About?

Working within the parameters of the provided prompt, construct a deck list with your own creative and compelling spin. Three chosen finalists will be awarded store credit to use on Cardsphere.

For April's deck building contest - Build a unique, different take on a Commander-legal deck using a keyword as a linchpin.

Decks will be judged on the creativity and originality of their brew. For example, an Ur-Dragon deck running the best Dragons probably isn't going to cut it even though it can be argued the deck is built around the flying keyword.

MTG Wiki defines a keyword ability as follows: "A keyword ability is a word, or a combination of words, that represents a piece of rules text describing an ability present on a card. It is the replacement of an exact line of text. [1] Many keywords are summarized in reminder text, especially in core sets. They can be referenced mechanically: an effect could be based on the presence of keyword abilities, or grant those abilities to a card."

A complete list of Magic's keywords can be found here.

Keyword abilities have existed in Magic since the days of Alpha. Banding, flying, first strike, protection, trample, regeneration and landwalk all existed since Magic's first set, and things like lifelink, landhome and vigilance were keyworded later. No new keywords were added in Arabian Nights or Antiquities, but the Legends set saw rampage added to the keyword suite.

Fast forward to today, and there are nearly 200 different keywords available to use, some of which were only used once, and some that are evergreen and are utilized in every set.

The new Secrets of Strixhaven set hasn't even been released yet and it's already begun teasing new keywords like prepare.

How To Participate

• Brew a Commander-legal deck on Archidekt that satisfies the prompt.
• Any unreleased cards spoiled during the contest’s duration are allowed.
• Silver-bordered and acorn cards, while fun, are not allowed.
• Digital-only cards (such as those designed for the Alchemy format on Arena) are also not allowed.
• Strictly one deck submitted per user.

As of a couple months ago, we've also revamped the submission process. Decks must now be submitted on Archidekt via a button on the newspost. This will make it easier to view all submissions in a single place. Additionally, it will simplify the process of writing a description by sharing the same text on the submission page and the deck page itself.

There's also a new easy-to-remember landing page for anything contest related that can be found at archidekt.com/contest

You can also comment on individual decks directly from the submission, making those discussions easier to find and track later.

To submit a deck, select the orange button labeled "Submit a deck to this contest" and follow the form prompt. Submissions are accepted until 9:00 pm EST (UTC -4, currently) on Wednesday, April 8, 2026.

Only one submission per user! If you change your mind and want to submit a different deck before submissions close, you may do so by first deleting your submission. To edit your description, you can do so from the deck page itself.

From the eligible submissions, we'll select three finalists with lists that we believe best embody the spirit of the prompt. Deck descriptions are not required but certainly may provide valuable context!

On Wednesday, April 15, 2026, we’ll announce three finalists via the Archidekt Discord and a brief article on EDHREC highlighting each deck.

Please note, you must have a Cardsphere account in order to receive your winnings. It's quick and free - register here if you don't have an account already!

Here are the official contest rules. If you have any questions, feel free to ask here, or join the Archidekt public Discord server. We look forward to seeing what you all come up with!