Vela the Night-CladVela the Night-Clad | Art by Allen Williams

Hello, and welcome to September'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.

September's challenge is to brew a creative and interesting Commander-legal Typal/Kindred deck where the commander supports the creature type in an interesting and creative way despite not being of that type, nor using that creature type in its text box.

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 September's deckbuilding contest: build a deck featuring a commander that supports and interacts with a Typal/Kindred deck, while not having that creature type or mentioning that creature type in its text. Decks will be judged on the creativity and originality of their brew.

For example, Vela the Night-Clad was originally released back in Planechase 2012. The intent was for her to support a Ninja deck, since she deals damage to each opponent when a creature you control leaves the battlefield, something that interacts nicely with the ninjitsu mechanic. Since this was the intent of Vela when released, a Vela Ninja deck wouldn't fulfill the creative and interesting portion of the contest requirement, but it's an excellent example of a Commander that supports a particular creature type despite not being that type or having it in the card text.

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 this contest gets larger, and that makes sorting through entries more and more of a time commitment. If you don't have a decent description, we're going to find ourselves a lot less willing to try to connect those dots, because we simply cannot due to time constraints.

Typal/Kindred has existed as a concept since Alpha, with Goblin KingGoblin King, Lord of AtlantisLord of Atlantis and Zombie MasterZombie Master buffing their respective creature types. Flash forward to today and we see support for types as diverse as Unicorns in commanders such as Thurid, Mare of DestinyThurid, Mare of Destiny.

Vela was already mentioned as a Commander that would qualify for the contest atop a Ninja deck, if not for the reason it was explicitly designed to do just that. For examples of other commanders that wouldn't qualify: you have Gisa and GeralfGisa and Geralf who aren't Zombies themselves but whose text box does mention Zombies thereby excluding them from leading a Zombie deck, and Chulane, Teller of TalesChulane, Teller of Tales who doesn't reference Humans or Druids in his text, but because he is one wouldn't qualify as a commander for contest purposes atop a Human or Druid list.

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.

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, September 9, 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 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.

On Wednesday, September 16, 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!