Archidekt's April Contest Challenges Builders to Explore Forgotten Keywords

Archidekt kicked off its April deckbuilding contest on April 1 with a prompt that takes direct aim at one of Commander's most neglected design spaces: keywords. The challenge is simple in framing but wide open in execution: build a Commander-legal 100-card deck around a keyword. Soulbond, melee, and awaken are listed as examples, but the field is deliberately broad, leaving room for builders to dig into whatever corner of the keyword catalogue they find most compelling.

The contest is a monthly fixture organized jointly by Archidekt and EDHREC, with Dana, co-host of the EDHRECast and CMDR Central podcast, shepherding the April edition. Anyone with an Archidekt account can enter, and judging leans on creativity and originality rather than raw power level. A tight list built to exploit an obscure interaction will beat a generic good-stuff pile every time here.

Submissions close at 9:00 pm EST on Wednesday, April 8. One deck per user: if you change your mind before that deadline you can delete your entry and resubmit, but you only get one slot at a time. Deck descriptions are optional but the contest page notes they can provide useful context for judges parsing what a build is actually trying to do. Three finalists will be selected and announced on April 15 via the Archidekt Discord and a companion article on EDHREC, where community voting then runs for a week. Voting closes April 22, and finalists should expect prize contact within roughly 24 hours after that.

The prize structure makes this worth the time investment for serious builders. First place takes $250 in Cardsphere credit, second place receives $150, and third receives $100. All three finalists are guaranteed a prize regardless of where the community vote lands, so reaching the finalist round already pays off. Cardsphere account registration is free, but you will need one to collect winnings.

One logistical note worth flagging now: there will be no contest in May. The organizers cited MagicCon Vegas scheduling and a separate event as the reason, making April's edition the last monthly contest until June. That context gives this month a bit more weight for builders who want the spotlight.

As for where to actually start: the keyword prompt rewards thinking about what a mechanic wants to do in multiplayer rather than in a vacuum. Soulbond is fascinating here because it depends on having two creatures in play simultaneously, which immediately points toward commanders with flicker or token-generation synergies. Awaken, meanwhile, animates lands as a secondary resource engine, which opens up a line of play around protecting and re-using those animated lands rather than treating them as incidental bodies. Melee rewards attacking multiple opponents, a natural fit for aggro strategies that already want to swing wide at the table.

The contest landing page at archidekt.com/contest also features a new quality-of-life addition: readers can comment directly on individual submitted decks, keeping deck-specific discussion attached to the list itself rather than scattered across Discord threads. For builders browsing finalists, that context tends to be exactly where the most useful notes about a deck's lines and weaknesses end up.

With the submission window closing in four days, now is the time to stress-test your list and get it in.