Walking Bulwark

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Eloniel on Nobody has the intention of building a Wall

3 months ago

Azeure To be honest there is plenty of redundancy that we don't play:

• Assault Formation
• Walking Bulwark
• Bedrock Tortoise
• Rolling Stones
• Huatli, the Sun's Heart

The only one worth running for me is High Alert because it does both "every creatures with defender may attack" and "they assign combat damage equal to their toughness" for every creatures without having to pay mana to apply the effect.

The second best one for me is Assault Formation but i still cuted it. Bedrock Tortoise is almost playable, if either the hexproof was not conditionnal to your turn or if it's mana value was 3 instead of 4.

For 3 mana we usually have 0/7 defender without abilities Glacial Wall / Wall of Ice or 0/6 with abilities Hover Barrier ( i don't take into account the 2 very good 3 mana drop that are Wall of Denial / Weathered Sentinels).

So now let's review Plagon, Lord of the Beach, Plagon is only a 0/3, don't deal damage equal to it's toughness without paying 1 extra mana each time, it's doesn't draw us a card with Arcades and it's ability only fufill one of the 2 needed condition for redundancy as explained above. I agree it could draw us lot of cards, ranging from 2 to 5-6. If we didn't had draw engine in the command zone i would say it worth it, bu since we have one i don't thinks it's necessary.

It's already very hard to find room for each new creatures cards, i'm already having hard time finding room for Crystal Barricade and consider removing Brave the Sands from my deck. A 3 mana creature has to be really really good to make the cut in Arcades now, and i don't speak about 4 mana creatures. I'm still on fence regarding Corrupted Shapeshifter since the only 4 mana creatures i play are Arcades, Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa and Tree of Redemption, and i wonder if i would not rather include Towering Titan instead as another wincon.

PS: My decklist if you want to have a look

Azeure on Nobody has the intention of building a Wall

3 months ago

We also got a new redundancy card in the form of Plagon, Lord of the Beach which draws more cards the more walls we have on board.

Compared to Walking Bulwark, it makes Arcades a legal target which can swing for 5 commander damage.

What are everyone's thoughts on this? Seems like a good add.

keizerbuns on Prepare to get WALLoped

2 years ago

Walking Bulwark is pretty good, but so far the deck seems to be running pretty well with only two. I also prefer having the ‘defender can attack’ as a static ability that’s always on so I don’t have to put all of my mana into paying for it each turn so if anything I’d probably add one or two more High Alert instead. But I guess since Bulwark is actually fetchable with Incubation / Incongruity then it would actually increase the consistency of finding a card that lets my defenders attack, so maybe it would be better than High Alert.

I’ll try play testing with more Bulwarks anyways though and see if it’s necessary to go to four.

Thanks for the suggestion Metropolis39 :D

LeonSpires on Arcades: The Writing on the Wall

2 years ago

amarthaler The oracle text on gatherer for Fortified Area says "Wall creatures you control..." and not "Creatures you control with defender..." I know wall used to be the old name before the keyword defender was introduced. However some creatures have defender without being a wall. For instance Walking Bulwark. I am not sure if Fortified Area effects Walking Bulwark. Next time I get a chance I'll ask a mtg judge about this.

I apologize about Concerted Effort. I really misread that card. That is much better then I thought it was especially with Arcades having flying and vigilance!

multimedia on Defending budget commander deck

2 years ago

Hey, good changes so far. Looking nice with a really low avg. CMC.

Some budget defender upgrades to consider.

• Orator of Ojutai --> Hover Barrier
• Sunscape Familiar --> Gatecreeper Vine
• Wall of Roots --> Cathedral Membrane
• Shield-Wall Sentinel --> Geist of the Archives
• Wall of Stolen Identity --> Marble Titan
• Wall of Junk --> Fog Bank
• Walking Bulwark --> Consider
• Crashing Drawbridge --> Suspicious Bookcase

Orator of Ojutai is another two drop defender who can draw ETB if you control Arcades and it has flying. Sunscape Familiar and Wall of Roots are more defenders who ramp. Shield-Wall Sentinel is a defender tutor. Wall of Stolen Identity is good in multiplayer Commander and it ETB as the creature you choose with defender. Identity and Shield-Wall are some higher mana cost defenders, but their ETB abilities are worth it.

Wall of Junk has been errata to have defender, it can return itself to your hand if it blocks making it bonus good with vigilance. Walking Bulwark and Crashing Drawbridge are low mana cost defenders who can give other creatures you control haste.

• Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive --> Aegis of the Heavens

Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive makes your defenders unblockable. What makes Tower Defense good here is it gives all creatures you control the instant pump for two mana. Aegis of the Heavens only targets one creature for three mana.

Because Arcades triggers to draw when a defender ETB then blink can be a powerful effect. Blink can also enable an infinite turns combo where attacking Arcades and/or defenders are the wincon.

• Eerie Interlude --> Voidslime
• Soulherder --> Serra's Blessing

Eerie Interlude can protect all your creatures from a board wipe since your creatures return to the battlefield at the next end step. If Arcades is exiled along with defenders then when the creatures come back you draw. To price match for a possible cut, Eerie could replace Voidslime? Cutting Voidslime will also clear some budget to add some of the more price defenders I suggested above.

At your end step Soulherder can be repeatable blink of any creature you control. With Arcades blinking a defender is draw, if the blinked defender has an ETB ability it triggers again and gives the defender pseudo vigilance since it will ETB untapped. Blink can also reset Shield Sphere and Wall of Roots.

If your game plan is to attack with defenders thanks to Arcades then how about extra attacks from extra turns? Adding this combo and Eerie Interlude are some reasons to keep Mnemonic Wall.

• Mnemonic Wall + Walk the Aeons + Soulherder

Cast Aeons and at your end step Soulherder blinks Mnemonic returning Aeons to your hand. On your extra turn cast Aeons and repeat. If you control Arcades then you also draw at your end step, but you only get extra turns equal to the number of cards in your library.