All Hallow's EveAll Hallow's Eve | Art by Christopher Rush

Hello, and welcome to October's Archidekt Deckbuilding Contest!

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. Additionally this month courtesy of our friends at Dragon Shield we'll be giving out two special bonus prizes as well to a pair of randomly selected contest entrants!

One will receive Dragon Shield's new Día de Muertos 2026 Matte Dual Art Sleeves and one will get the Halloween 2026 Brushed Art Sleeves! These sleeves are already sold out on the Dragon Shield website but we're going to give them to a pair of random contest entrants for free!

For October’s super spooky deckbuilding contest, your challenge will be to construct a Commander-legal deck showcasing “tricks” and/or “treats”.

What does that mean? No clue! Make it interesting and explain your interpretation either in the deck’s description or with your submission.

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 October's deckbuilding contest: build a deck showcasing "tricks" and/or "treats". That's intentionally open-ended!

Tips for the October contest prompt

For example, Zedruu the GreatheartedZedruu the Greathearted is a commander with a built-in activated ability that lets you force an opponent to take control of a permanent you control.

Traditionally this has been used to give players something they wouldn't otherwise want, like Illusions of GrandeurIllusions of Grandeur.

While this would qualify as both a trick and/or a treat, this is also mostly the intent for Zedruu as well as the most common build path, and as such it wouldn't fulfill the creative and interesting portion of the contest requirement.

Still, it's an excellent example of a Commander that would otherwise support the prompt.

Important news on deck description details and the submission process

As we noted in previous contests, we have so far been very forgiving regarding picking finalists with meager deck descriptions in the past, but moving forward we're going to be a lot more discerning.

Every month, as contest submissions grow, it makes sorting through entries more and more of a time commitment.

If you don't have an effective description, we're going to find ourselves a lot less willing to try to connect those dots. We simply cannot due to time constraints.

Even better would be if you would open your description with an executive statement of the deck's plan and how it fulfills the prompt criteria.

To use the above Zedruu example, opening the description with the following would be helpful:

"This is a deck built around Zedruu the Greathearted gifting my opponents treats that wind up being tricks due to their staggering downside, cards like Illusions of Grandeur and Aggressive Mining."

Zedruu sees some movement over on Cardsphere, which is thematically fitting.

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.

A couple months ago, we 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.

Submitting your deck to the contest pool

There's also a new, easy-to-remember landing page for anything contest-related, 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 p.m. EDT (UTC -4) on Wednesday, October 14, 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 spooky spirit of the prompt.

Deck descriptions are now required, and the more detailed the description the better; we just have too many submissions to try to put together what your deck is doing without some commentary and context.

When to expect finalists and winner announcements

On Wednesday, October 21, 2026, we’ll announce three finalists via the Archidekt Discord and an article on EDHREC highlighting each deck.

Each finalist will be awarded credit to use on Cardsphere. Please note, you must have a Cardsphere account in order to receive your winnings. Cardsphere is a player-to-player marketplace and trading platform built on the spirit of community trading.

It's quick and free — register here if you don't have an account already! It's easy to add to your wants, haves, and find deals on its comprehensive marketplace.

In the meantime, check out Cardsphere's fantastic redesign.

Prize pool

The value of the credit is in US dollars and depends on the finalist's placement in deck upvotes at the end of the week-long polling period:

• 1st Place Prize - $250
• 2nd Place Prize - $150
• 3rd Place Prize - $100

Additionally this month we'll be giving out a box of Dragon Shield Halloween sleeves and a box of Día de Muertos sleeves to a pair of randomly selected contest entrants!

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!