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Mythic Decks
Mythic Decks

Arid Archway

OTJ · uncommon · Released 2024-04-19

Power

brawl
tier-2Strong staple6/19
commander
tier-2Strong staple6/19

Tier shown as baseline → best-case (in its ideal shell). The score (-8 to 19) is a rank signal derived from tier + kind + atoms; browse by it on the cards page.

Rated by land rule (bounce cycle).

Commander Bracket

1Precon2Core3Upgraded4Optimized5cEDH

Archetypes

positive:
lands-matterself-millgraveyard-matters
negative:
aggrotempo

Roles

mana-sinkscrylandfall-payoff

Risks

slow-setupbounce-vulnerablerequires-land-in-hand

Mechanics

—

Typal

synergy:

—

anti:

—

Structural

triggered-abilityreplacement-effect

Rationale

Arid Archway is a tapped Desert land producing {C}{C} that bounces one of your lands on entry — enabling landfall re-triggers — and surveys 1 if the bounced land was also a Desert. It's a niche lands-matter / graveyard-filler inclusion, most at home in Desert-tribal, landfall, or surveil-based self-mill shells. The enter-tapped + bounce cost makes it actively harmful in fast or tempo strategies.

Learnings (3)

  • Arid Archway only produces colorless mana ({C}{C}), making it effectively off-color in any deck that needs colored pips — the surveil 1 bonus rarely justifies the slot in non-Desert, non-landfall builds.

    tagging · claude-sonnet-4-6

  • The bounce-a-land ETB is a cost, not a benefit in most decks, but in landfall shells it can be exploited to replay a landfall-trigger land repeatedly.

    tagging · claude-sonnet-4-6

  • The surveil 1 bonus requires the returned land to be a Desert specifically, so in mixed land-bases the conditional payoff will often not trigger.

    tagging · claude-sonnet-4-6

Popularity

  • EDHREC rank: #1,441