Iname as OneIname as One by Stephen Tappin

It's time to announce the finalists for July's Archidekt Deckbuilding Contest!

In case you missed the announcement post, this is a monthly contest with a different theme each month. Your goal is to build a Commander-legal deck that fulfills the prompt in a creative or unique fashion. 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 receive a prize.

For July's deckbuilding contest the prompt was as follows: Brew a creative and interesting commander-legal deck featuring a weird mana curve that's relevant to the deck's game plan. This should be an innovative, novel, and attention-getting take on a deck using an older commander as part of its strategy or theme.

We collected submissions from the Archidekt newspost and evaluated them based on their creativity and originality.

Now, it's your turn to decide who'll be crowned this month's winner.

Read about each deck list below, then visit your favorite and upvote them on Archidekt. Whoever has the most upvotes by Wednesday, July 22, 2026 will be the winner, and receive $250 credit to cardsphere.com.

Second and third place will receive $150 and $100 cardsphere.com credits, respectively.

After much deliberation we chose three finalists from among the nearly thousand decks entered, so here they are presented in no particular order. Follow the link in each deck list to vote on your favorite!

One final note before we begin; with this month's contest we had announced we were going to be more discerning regarding decks having more detailed descriptions, and the vast majority of you stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park. It made looking though these lists so much easier, and we appreciate you all for that.

A Dwarf and Her Very Persistent Rabbits by Dunglebungus

First up by random selection is Dunglebungus's Krile BaldesionKrile Baldesion list using two different creature types that allow you to run any number of those creatures, namely the cards Hare ApparentHare Apparent and Persistent PetitionersPersistent Petitioners.

Back in the original rules of Magic, there was no restriction on the number of cards of a certain type you could have in a deck. The Alpha card Plague RatsPlague Rats got stronger the more copies you had in play, which meant that you could feasibly build a deck entirely of Plague Rats, and each one you'd cast would make the others stronger. This rule quickly changed, nerfing the power of black's original rat.

Years later, in the set Fifth Dawn, the card Relentless RatsRelentless Rats was unveiled. This 2/2 rat had a special line of text on the card that circumvented the rule limiting decks to just four of a single copy of a card that shut down the power of Plague Rats: "A deck can have any number of cards named Relentless Rats." And like that, power scaling rats were back on the menu. Today there are ten different cards that allow you to run any number, with at least one in each single color, and a multi-color variant in Final Fantasy's Cid, Timeless ArtificerCid, Timeless Artificer.

From Dunglebungus's opening description: "Krile BaldesionKrile Baldesion is angry the government is trying to pass legislation limiting the number of rabbits you can have on your property. In an effort to prevent this from happening, Krile decided to train thousands of rabbits as government petitioners."

This deck is aiming to mill people out using copies of Hare ApparentHare Apparent that also count as copies of Persistent PetitionersPersistent Petitioners. This is achieved over several steps.

1. Fill your graveyard with Hare Apparent cards via self mill or looting.
2. Change the type of your permanents using cards like Maskwood NexusMaskwood Nexus, Leyline of TransformationLeyline of Transformation or Arcane AdaptationArcane Adaptation.
3. Cast mass reanimation to bring back the Hares, each of which will see one another and make more Hares.
4. Tap these Hares which are also Petitioners to bring mill everyone out.

Commander Krile BaldesionKrile Baldesion isn't really an essential piece to the deck and functions less as an integral combo piece and more as a bonus enabler, but that bonus is very useful. Almost everything else in the list costs two to synergize with Krile's ability that lets you return a creature card from you graveyard to your hand whenever you cast a non-creature spell with equal mana value. This means the list forgoes more efficient one-drop filter and draw spells like PonderPonder or BrainstormBrainstorm for ones that cost two mana, like Think TwiceThink Twice, because when cast, those will bring a Hare or Petitioner back to hand. Additionally, Muddle the MixtureMuddle the Mixture functions as a wildcard tutor to fetch up whichever creature is most needed.

The deck's land base is even filled with two-drop MDFC cards that can trigger Krile if need be. The end result here is a deck with only eight total spells that aren't at two mana, which is indeed an unusual curve and integral part of the deck's plan.

Nine to Five by ryankgress

Next up we have ryankgress's Nine to Five brew, a Jegantha, the WellspringJegantha, the Wellspring build focused around the card GrozothGrozoth. There was a second Grozoth-centric nine-drop list in the contest led by Jodah, Archmage EternalJodah, Archmage Eternal that was also very fun, but we liked the Jegantha version slightly more.

Grozoth is a nine-drop from back in the Ravnica: City of Guilds set, when the transmute mechanic was introduced. Transmute is basically a tutoring mechanic, where for you can discard a card with transmute to tutor up a spell with the same mana value as the card discarded. The most-played Transmute cards are Muddle the MixtureMuddle the Mixture, a counterspell that can be used to fetch up things like Cyclonic RiftCyclonic Rift, and Tolaria WestTolaria West, a land used to retrieve another powerhouse land, like, say, Nykthos, Shrine to NyxNykthos, Shrine to Nyx.

Grozoth, on the other hand, is rarely used to transmute up another nine-drop. Instead, Grozoth has another ability that this deck will be using: when this creature enters, you may search your library for any number of cards that have mana value nine, reveal them, put them into your hand, then shuffle. Essentially if your deck has, for example, twenty-one different nine-drops in it when you cast Grozoth, you can go get every single one of them and put them into your hand.

Since all our finalists this month have written excellent explanations of their deck plans I'll let ryankgress explain:

"Jegantha, the WellspringJegantha, the Wellspring has always been my favorite companion, but I think where she shines best is in the command zone. Ramping out to a WUBRG-adding mana dork is exciting, especially for what we have planned for that 5 mana. Our plan for this deck is to take advantage of one of my favorite magic cards, GrozothGrozoth, to combo into a devastating pile of 21 nine-drops that will quickly fill our hand, then use Jegantha in a unique way to drop that hand onto the battlefield.

Now, you're probably wondering how we're possibly supposed to take advantage of having a stack of nine-drops in our hand, and what is Jegantha going to do to help, when she can only pay for colored mana costs? Well, the inspiration for this deck comes from the Bringer cycle, one in each color, that let us cast them for the alternate cost of WUBRG mana, each of which have some fun upkeep triggers that will trigger each turn they stick around. We can use Bringer of the Red DawnBringer of the Red Dawn to swing around our opponent's creatures, Bringer of the Black DawnBringer of the Black Dawn to constantly make sure we have the best cards in our deck, with the others having very similar purposes."

Aside from the nine-drops the deck has three main hinges. First are a collection of cards to make things easier to cast. This ranges from cards that allow alternate casting costs like Leyline of MutationLeyline of Mutation and Fist of SunsFist of Suns to mana rocks like Timeless LotusTimeless Lotus. Second there are ways to both load up the graveyard in the form of wheels like Wheel of FortuneWheel of Fortune and WindfallWindfall, and finally ways to cheaply reanimate things once there, or reanimate everything all at once, as in the case of Rise of the Dark RealmsRise of the Dark Realms.

The deck also has a half dozen different ways to find Grozoth to get the whole party started, creature tutors ranging from Fierce EmpathFierce Empath and Formidable SpeakerFormidable Speaker to more traditional wildcard tutors like Profane TutorProfane Tutor and Insatiable AvariceInsatiable Avarice. It's really all here; a bizarre collection of cards, a strange mana curve that makes sense as part of the deck strategy, and a path to victory.

Sanar's (Not so) Improvised Time Trick by mieklwhite

User meiklwhite has put together an unconventional build run by Secrets of Strixhaven uncommon commander Sanar, Unfinished GeniusSanar, Unfinished Genius. From the creator's description:

"The whole deck is built to execute a five-turn script. Mulligan aggressively until you have at least one of the nine one-mana untap spells in your opening hand. The rest doesn't matter at all.

• Turn 1: Land.
• Turn 2: Land. Cast Sanar.
• Turn 3: Land. Cast the untap spell targeting Sanar. With the untap spell on the stack, tap Sanar for a Treasure. Let the untap resolve. Tap Sanar again for another Treasure.
• Turn 4: Land. Sacrifice one Treasure to cast Sanar's prepared spell Wild Idea. Tutor for Improvisation CapstoneImprovisation Capstone. Tap Sanar for another Treasure.
• Turn 5: Land. Cast Improvisation CapstoneImprovisation Capstone."

When Improvisation Capstone fires off, you'll exile cards from your library until their total mana value is more than four. Because of how the deck is designed (the weird mana curve from the contest theme), there is a 95% chance to reveal an extra-turn spell before hitting enough one-drops to fulfill the Capstone requirement. And once that happens, the extra-turn loop begins, because at that point there won't be enough one drops left in the deck to pass the threshold without hitting an extra-turn spell. As a bonus, several of the spells recycle themselves into the library to guarantee there will always be one to hit, no matter how many turns happen.

From there, the deck closes things out with the zero-drop creatures it draws and is able to play thanks to Capstone; things like various Kobols, MemniteMemnite, OrnithopterOrnithopter, and Rograkh, Son of RohgahhRograkh, Son of Rohgahh, often buffed with zero-drop equipment like Bone SawBone Saw and Spidersilk NetSpidersilk Net. Sure, they may only hit for one damage a swing, but it doesn't matter if you have infinite turns to get there.

So there you have it - our finalists for the July 2026 Archidekt Deckbuilding Contest.

Which is your favorite? Follow the links in the headers of each section to visit the deck pages and vote for the one you think should win!

The final rankings based on your votes will be announced on Wednesday, July 22th, 2026.