MTG Salvation

This is my take on Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest. As with many builds, this deck is a voltron-style deck that tries to use tempo and cantrips to trigger his Prowess ability for profit. One of my favorite 60-card casual decks of the pre-EDH days of yore was a deck that revolved around Wee Dragonauts, utilizing cantrips and cheap draw to pump him to a one-shot kill, usually by granting double-strike via Psychotic Fury. I had tried building a Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius deck that felt similar, but it didn't have the glue that kept it all together. I believe Shu Yun to be that glue.



This deck utilizes a mix of counters, removal, cantrips, rebound effects, and suspendable cards to set up massive attacks that will turn an opponent into a spectator in 1-3 turns. However, going all-in like this against an opponent will often leave you without much of a hand to defend or re-establish a board prescence. Without a Wheel of Fortune or Time Spiral effect (or something equally explosive), it's best to let people fight it out, using your plethora of instants to create favorable blocking trades with Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest. If an opponent swings at you with two creatures while you have Shu Yun in play, you can Swords to Plowshares one creature, giving Shu Yun double strike thanks to his second ability, and favorably trade with the second creature, all for 3 mana. I just built this deck a week ago, so I don't have an exhaustive list of interactions. But here are some of my favorites:

Select Card Explanations

Lotus Bloom: In your opening hand, a suspended Lotus Bloom will come into play on turn 4, conveniently the turn after Shu Yun comes down. This still triggers Prowess, and provides a free ritual effect to have an explosive combat.

Force Away: The only good Ferocious card in my opinion (although I do plan on testing Stubborn Denial if I can find one). Shu Yun's Prowess trigger happens before the spell resolves, so any card with Ferocious will auto-trigger if Shu Yun is in play. A two mana Into the Roil is quite the card.

Pyroclasm: Again, casting this spell triggers Shu Yun, so when the spell resolves he will live on to swing through a (hopefully) clear board. 2 damage might not seem like a lot, but I have found that it wipes the majority of creatures on the board due to the large amount of utility creatures that get played. This could be a meta-call, but I would highly recommend it.

Brute Force/Reckless Charge: These cards result in a 14 damage swing with Shu Yun, all for 3 mana! Connecting with Shu Yun any additional time should take someone out of the game.

Wooded Foothills/Windswept Heath: These are the fetches I have. I will eventually trade these out for the on-color Scalding Tarn and Arid Mesa once I have more funds.

Cards I Want to Run, but Don't Have (Yet)

Cascade Bluffs, Scalding Tarn, and Arid Mesa for better mana fixing.

Stubborn Denial as another cheap counter.

Pact of Negation: free counters are free Prowess Triggers.

Leering Emblem: seems tailor-made for this deck.

O-Naginata: Super cheap, super effective equipment that also grants much needed trample to Shu Yun. Seems like an auto-include.

Monastery Mentor: Auto-include as soon as one becomes available to me.

Thanks for reading!

Reserved

I like the list, glad you're bringing back Wee Dragonauts EDH without actually forcing that card. No Force of Will?

Deck looks pretty solid, A few cards that you might want to consider

Flame Jab - turn all your lands in hand into prowess / double strike enablers
Land Tax - Fixes your mana, triggers prowess and combo's nicely with Flame Jab
Umezawa's Jitte - whats not to love about this, double strike gives 4 counters per swing. makes each attack very lethal.
Mistfire Adept - Gives Shu Yun some evasion, or itself.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant - +3/+3 and flying makes this a perfect card to curve into on turn 4. if it sticks you can likely start sniping people out of the game at will.
Lotus Petal - mana ramp and free prowess trigger
Mask of Memory - draw 4 discard 2 with double strike is good.

I'm working on a shu-yun of my own, and run a small number of equipment, as well as steelshaper's gift. After testing a few different sets of equipment, shu yun is best friends with mask of memory, swords of x and y, and, cipher has some nice functionality with a creature enabling double strike, although stolen identity is the best/only cipher with it, and is expensive.

Where's your Reality Shift?