Most primers for lists assume you have some knowledge of turbo naus strategy, and I've seen a lot of discussion . Of course Force of Will is the best of the best, but Misdirection and Force of Negation are super powerful too. All of these guidelines play to Yuriko's strengths, and will guide how the deck is built. I'm happy that most of the cards that I tested worked out, but having to cut many Yuriko staples to make room for them was definitely bittersweet. However, now that we no longer care so much about giving our creatures unblockablility, Skulker is now just a pricier variant of Coastal Piracy. Whatever works best for you and your playgroup! I've been playing commander since 2012, and I spend my free time brewing decks and exploring new strategies. Support us . So my list is probably more competitive than casual. Competitive EDH Decklist Database . Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive gets the nod because it makes many of our ninjas (Yuriko in particular) unblockable. 15399 decks (0.629%) Rank #3. I'm debating taking [[fallen shinobi]] and [[scheming symmetry]] out as it's been pretty expensive and risky to pull off. If the table is ok with playing it, and I manage to flip it, we all cheer and laugh, but ignore it as a simple land and continue play as normal. That's until you consider that we can copy Yuriko, and now draw two cards and inflict twice as much burn damage for each attacking creature. The following primer will be extensive and have a good amount of detail, and some of the earlier sections will explore the evolution of the deck from release till now. While our creatures may suck, they do a very good job of agoing unblocked, and ultimately, that's all we care about. As long as we have any of our Ninja enchantments active, Coat of Arms will provide gigantic increases in power to our team. A final bonus enabler is Moonblade Shinobi. This card definitely belongs in the deck, and I even know what to cut for it. But we can bounce them to hand if necessary! Your goal is to play Yuriko on turn 2, get ninjas in play while deploying some stax pieces to slow your opponents, and manipulate the top of your library to maximize the damage she deals with her ability. I realized that it was in the best interest of the deck to have creatures with native evasion so we could ignore the cards that were solely included to grant evasion. With Neon Dynasty we have far, far better options and this one is cut for good. The other brilliant thing about Yuriko is that she takes one of the downsides of ninjas, namely, their overcosted cmcs, and turns them into direct damage to all of our opponents. That being said, some still opt for this approach, and if you are interested in playing a deck like this you can watch a sample game here- https://www.youtube.com/embed/kLvDlCm30MI. I don't have experience on higher tiers power levels, so I'm soliciting advice on deck construction and game theory/strategy. If cards like Demonic Tutor are not in your price range, I still think it's worth including tutor effects like Diabolic Tutor. But with more testing, I believe the tempo advantage they provide is enough to outweigh this downside. People figure out pretty quickly that Yuriko is really not worth killing with a removal spell, so while I didn't draw Mox Amber in my games, there was basically no situation where drawing one . Yuriko is an interactive commander whose ability allows us to circumvent the commander tax. Discord Server | But we still have two ways to do it- Spark Double and Sakashima the Impostor. Opponents: Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain & Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow Starting hand was decent but I don't remember much of it since it got wheeled away with a turn 3 Windfall.. T1 - Fetch to Plains + Soul Warden T2 - Seraph Sanctuary + Giada, Font of Hope T3 - Plains + Crucible of Worlds Lost 5 cards in hand to Windfall and drew a new 5. This will require TappedOut.js included in your blog. This is largely the approach described in the prior section, where seek to win by using Insidious Dreams to stack the likes of Temporal Mastery, Temporal Trespass, Alrund's Epiphany, Nexus of Fate, and Beacon of Tomorrows on top of our deck on our opponent's end step. Terms of Use | I'm trying to finalize my Yuriko decklist for an upcoming local tournament. One of the best is Higure, the Still Wind, who can tutor up any ninja we need for the task at hand, and hence is also allows us to make full use of our ninja "toolbox." The second was Flying and featured 1/1 flyers for 1 with another ability, like Faerie Seer or Mausoleum Wanderer. Dimir Keyrune is a ramp option of choice for this reason. Scheming Symmetry can get us any card we want and put it on top of our library for some Yuriko damage, but can also be used right away if we draw it with Yuriko. Often it is best to take a little more time in the early turns to ramp and get some top-deck manipulation on board. Tempo This isn't to say that Yuriko is merely a worse version of Edric. . For those of you unfamiliar with the way a typical Edric deck operates, I recommend you do a quick browse of his EDHREC page here. Thus with Edric died my interest in the unblockable creature archetype Functionally, Yuriko operates more similarly to Edric than Vela, but many of the cards that made me interested in Vela for an unblockable strategy are equally applicable in Yuriko. We don't have much in the way of creature removal, barring Cyclonic Rift and Evacuation, and most Wraths pose a greater threat to us than our opponents. Contact | Privacy statement | Luckily, black offers us the best tutors in the game. This site is unaffiliated. This is often times the easiest and most effective way to win. Both Swan Song and Spell Pierce can't counter creatures, but we don't care much about creatures anyway. Like I was saying earlier, extra turn spells are effectively used as extra combat steps. The gist is that we don't particularly care about the activated ability, but we're more concerned with the triggered draw ability. Lastly, Brainstorm and Ponder are already great cantrips on their own, but are especially powerful in a deck that depends on topdeck manipulation. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Many of the evasive creatures we're including also have card filtering applications. We have to remember that evasive one drops also do terrible damage with Yuriko triggers, so we don't want more than we need. Our curve is just under 2.5, which this means two things. Of my excursions into UB, the deck that got me most excited was Vela the Night-Clad. The gravity of Ninjutsu on Yuriko cannot be overstated, as it almost guarantees that we will be able to have her on board at any time as long as one of our little creatures can make it through (they don't even need to be a Ninja). It turns out that blue and black have trouble with most noncreature forms of removal. This process lead me to Edric, Spymaster of Trest. The most obvious benefit of this lower cost is that we will have to invest less mana initially to get our Ninja strategy activated. This isn't always the card that wins you the game and sometimes is a key value piece that makes the engine run. while also having the option to win at instant speed on an opponent's turn. This means we're more likely to have more success aiming for a "Ninja-less" Ninja deck, which is made possible by cards like Arcane Adaptation. Finally, we love cards that, like ninjas, have a high cmc but can be cast for much less, like Temporal Mastery and Temporal Trespass. A collection of Magic: The Gathering (MTG) decks from the Competitive Commander (EDH) Format. Beyond these, our one-drops are mostly included to pester our opponents and enable Yuriko. We also want to focus on manipulating the top card of our library to maximize the damage we deal with Yuriko. I always lacked inspiration, and I would force myself to brew various commanders in the hopes of being surprised by the final result. While this guy has ninjutsu and can actually dish out respectable damage on his own, he doesn't have any other abilities, making him suboptimal here. This means when we use it to put Yuriko onto the battlefield from the command zone we haven't "cast" her, meaning that commander tax doesn't apply. I've upgraded this deck a lot since it was first created, and you do not need every card on my list to build a strong Yuriko deck! She also draws cards without "drawing" them (thus avoiding any draw hate), and uses the cmc of the cards she draws to damage all of our opponents. TappedOut.js Blog Widget, We'll want to begin by ramping, as in any deck, and by getting out some of our ninja enablers. Ninjutsu After looking at this deck, I know what you're all thinking: "Most of those creatures suck!" At first, I was reluctant to include these cards. He also has the added benefit of being able to give our ninjas evasion, which is great. Card Kingdom: $0.00 TCGplayer: $0.00 Export to Archidekt Export to Moxfield . I originally included cards like Ponder and Preordain as ways to stack the top of our deck, while also giving us a means of digging towards our Ninja enchantments. Most of them are unblockable, and most of them are 1 cmc, which is what we want as 2cmc feels pretty slow. Given that our deck is devoted heavily to having Ninjas on board, redundancy in these sorts of effects is paramount. The second is Larceny, which is effectively an inverse Coastal Piracy. Feel free to skip some of these if you have a good sense of how Yuriko works. This annoying message will go away once you do. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. This is great in that it can copy Yuriko and win games, and can be tutored with Whir of Invention. However, he doesn't have evasion himself, and costs four cmc to cast, which is a higher rate than we would want for this type of creature. What's not to likew? I also realized that the leaner the curve became, the more likely it would be that we could frequently have Yuriko on board and also have a party of Ninjas to brawl with. Whisper lets us dig two cards deeper on demand, while Arena will help us slowly accrue more value as the game goes on. Given that our creatures are so cheap, replaying them shouldn't be an issue. In many decks there is one card that is "the best card in the deck" that is always worth tutoring. Thanks for checking out my Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow deck and primer! The owner of Study didn't even get to do anything with the extra cards because everyone hated on them so much! These cheap ninjas maximize Yuriko's aggressiveness and punish opponents' clunky threats. While its a great win con, there are a lot of good uses to this card, and that is why its the best card in the deck. If our opponents have beat each other up enough over the course of the game, we can often win with even a couple of triggers perhaps helped by a timely, Profile of a Ninja: Understanding Yuriko and Ninjutsu, Our Secret Weapon: The Best Card in the Deck, Potential Recruits (Cards I'm considering), Retired Ninjas (Cards I'm not playing and Why). While he'd still be better than Throatseeker because of his damage alone, he still doesn't make the cut. While stacking your deck with Scroll Rack, Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive, and Higure, the Still Wind probably won't win you the game outright, it will help you get into a strong position to be able to do so later. Discord Server | A lot of Ninja decks are interested in reusing their Ninjutsu abilities, so cards like Crystal Shard, Cavern Harpy, and Thalakos Seer make a lot of sense. The problem of course, is that these cards are most likely to rot in our hands and possibly draw us early aggro. We want to spend our mana on our turn using ninjutsu and manipulating our library, so it's too much of a burden to pass with more than 2 untapped lands. Once I have the chance to test this deck extensively, I'll have a better idea of what tweaks would make this build more effective overall. As mentioned earlier, the topdeck manipulation category can be divided up into 2 sub-categories: When deciding on cards in this category, I prioritized instants over sorcerys. Side note: My play group plays a lot of black, so Snuff Out can feel pretty bad. Until next time, I wish you all the best,and happy brewing! Let's check out what this deck has to offer on the "Fatties" end. Articles and comments are user-submitted and do not represent official endorsements of this site. A good set of removal spells is essential for any commander deck. This means that of our Ninja enchantments, only Arcane Adaptation and Conspiracy are effective synergistic pieces, and Yuriko will not trigger Door if we're casting her via Ninjutsu. Commander / EDH Due to the unique strategy we're taking with this deck, I've talked about many of the cuts already. The two most obvious options here are Coastal Piracy and Bident of Thassa.Deepfathom Skulker also fits in this category, although I'm less than enthused by its high cost. I suggest running [ [Conspiracy]] over this. If the raw card draw is that beneficial, should I include the [[rhystic study]] and [[mystic remora]] I have off to the side? This will require TappedOut.js included in your blog. Yuriko can be built differently based on your preference and meta. For this reason, having ways to reload our hand will be important if we want to have a continued source of pressure. Indeed, this is the case with most ninjas- they are over-costed and have great on-damage abilities, but don't have evasion themselves to guarantee they can use them. EDH Recommendations and strategy content for Magic: the Gathering Commander. Didn't I already go on a rant about only including creatures that have evasion? Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive is a weird inclusion in this deck. The suite of 8 cards I use here have in my experience been the cream of the crop (Mothdust Changeling, Slither Blade, Wingcrafter, Triton Shorestalker, Changeling Outcast, Mist-Cloaked Herald, Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive, and Dimir Infiltrator). Even Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer has the potential to go off the rails in very fun ways, but today we won't be discussing any of these. Our playgroup decided to try out cEDH with more budget-friendly lists.I decided to go for Yuriko (other Decks are Tatyova, Breya / Anje, X) and I took Zack's basic design of the deck. Oftentimes if we have one of these out, a few creatures, and one of our evasion pieces above, we can win in a single turn. Sakashima even protects herself, and lets us reset her if something more desirable enters the battlefield. This deck has a very low land count compared to most other EDH decks, so we need our counterspells to be as efficient as possible. That being said, we will play 2+cmc enablers only when they have other advantages that make them too good to pass up. So I'm putting up what I have and seeing if I can learn from the crowd. Evacuation is great in that it is instant-speed and cheap, allowing us to be the first to rebuild after the wipe. Tapped out has the "maybe" board already loaded, but I am holding onto copies of [[cryptic command]], [[deadly rollick]], [[fierce guardianship]], [[swan song]], [[mystic remora]], [[rhystic study]], [[time stretch]], and [[phyrexian metamorph]]. The MVP of the extra turn category has to be Temporal Trespass: It has the third highest cmc in the whole deck, and I've found myself having enough cards in the graveyard to cast it easily in the late game. Morrison103 1 minute ago. To make this happen, we need to be picky with our opening hand: Only keep an opening hand with , , and an enabler for Yuriko. Thank you so much for reading through my Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow deck and primer! For a while I didnt play Memnite or Phyrexian Walker because they don't have any kind of evasion. Since then I have play-tested extensively, and have cut and added cards as new sets are released. 0 0 0. Primer Not everything we are playing is a haymaker and our lands will deal no damage, so these cards take the uncertainty out of our game. 0 1 83. Many of these cards we've already talked about in detail. Based on the title of the article alone, I've spoiled the surprise. She also has a unique ability called "Commander Ninjutsu." 5cmc cards can usually be cast (especially if they are ninjas, miracle cards, or the like), are less likely to draw aggro, and are more likely to synergize with our game plan. While the six off the top was never bad, it always sucked to have it in hand late in game when our life total was too low to use it. Glen Elendra Liege will buff almost all of our creatures, and many of them will be gifted a hefty +2/+2. Yuriko Pivot | Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow CEDH Deck Tech | Up & Running | Playing With Power MTG 24,570 views Aug 16, 2021 794 Dislike Share Playing With Power MTG 72.6K subscribers Deck:. You always think that you need mass evasion, but oftentimes if you can just get a few key ninjas through at the right time you're good, and this helps us to do that. The goal is to start the game with one of these 12 on the board so that we can curve nicely into Yuriko. While not directly a creature, I did want to acknowledge our creature lands/rocks and Bitterblossom. In many games, we can expect to have Yuriko attacking as early as turn two, and while playing a commander on turn two might be ill-advised for most decks, we don't care if Yuriko dies because we have the very real expectation of replaying her almost immediately. In order to sort out exactly what all this means and why it is brilliant game design, it might help to look at a classic ninja and understand how ninjas work generally. Otherwise Yuriko can be running penny commons and still do amazingly well. Yuriko is almost always the fastest deck at the table. In that sense, our evasive 0 and 1 drops are first and foremost in the deck to get Yuriko online as soon as possible to help us grind for advantage. The first mtg precon I ever bought was the Ninjutsu theme deck from the Kamigawa block, and I soon picked up the black ninjas to make my favorite casual deck. This card was only ever in because prior to Neon Dynasty he was a ninja that could hit the board for a ninjutsu cost of 2 and start racking Yuriko triggers. Personally, I like to play to win, and love to optimize every deck that I play. Being 14/16 cmc, they are pretty much impossible to cast in this deck, and can easily end up being dead cards in hand. However, my playgroup is particularly hostile to Rhystic Study. Moreover, despite my aversion to tutors in most decks, I feel the inclusion of them in this deck is important for reliably succeeding in our strategy. This will allow us to ninjutsu our other ninjas onto the battlefield, and more importantly, get Yuriko back ASAP if she is destroyed. Devastation Tide costs five mana (hence doing good damage) but can usually be cast by us for its miracle cost, thus once again allowing us to be the first to rebuild.