Márton StromgaldMárton Stromgald by Mark Poole

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

This is a monthly contest (if you ignore May) 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.

June's challenge is to brew a creative and interesting commander-legal deck featuring a commander originally printed in 2010 or earlier. This means any set up to and including Scars of Mirrodin. This should be an innovative, novel, and attention-getting take on a deck using an older commander as part of its strategy or theme.

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 June's deck building contest - Build a unique, different take on a Commander-legal deck using a commander first printed in 2010 or earlier.

Decks will be judged on the creativity and originality of their brew. For example, Zur the EnchanterZur the Enchanter was indeed printed in 2006, but a Zur deck built around tutoring NecropotenceNecropotence to draw down to a Demonic ConsultationDemonic Consultation and Thassa's OracleThassa's Oracle combo probably isn't going to cut it.

A complete list of all the commanders that would be legal for this contest can found here.

Legendary creatures have existed since Magic's third expansion set, the appropriately named Legends. Prior to that there were cards that seemed to depict legendary characters, such as Ali from CairoAli from Cairo or King SuleimanKing Suleiman but these did not contain the legendary supertype, nor have they been errata'd. They don't count for the purposes of this contest. The legendary supertype is linked to the "legend rule" which states that multiple copies of a card with the same name cannot be in play on a player's battlefield.

Originally, legendary cards were restricted to only one on any player's battlefield, and if one was in play of the same name, the second one played would immediately be put into the graveyard. This changed during the Champions of Kamigawa block so that when a second legend of the same name was played, both were sent to the graveyard. The current rule variant went into effect in 2014, where the legend check only occurs per player.

Fast forward to today, and there are 2,941 legal legendary creatures available to be used as your commander, and the upcoming Marvel set that will be fully previewed by the time this contest ends might well add another 100 or more to those numbers.

For the purposes of this contest, however, there are 420 (nice) different legal Commanders from which to choose.

How To Participate

• Brew a Commander-legal deck on Archidekt that satisfies the prompt.
• 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 even if they manage to violate the laws of time and space and somehow manage to first be printed prior to 2010.
• 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, June 10, 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, June 17, 2026, we’ll announce three finalists via the Archidekt Discord and an 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!