I've been working on this Yidris deck that focuses on the wheel theme of the precon and I'm open to suggestions for improvement. I have done a little bit of play testing and already made quite a few changes (mostly to durdle less and win more), but it is far from fully tuned. I did start a thread to discuss the deck and it lists a lot of the options available.
Wheels
I'm only running the wheels that force discard because I want to hit on Liliana's Caress/Megrim, etc. My only concern here is I'm not running enough, but my playtesting so far has not shown that to be a concern with the card draw and tutors available. I'm considering adding Incendiary Command and Collective Defiance, maybe Wheel and Deal but I'm not a huge fan of not being able to draw a new hand myself. The wheels for the most part remove the need to have a bunch of other card drawing spells as they consistently refill your hand.
Wheel Synergies
All Stars - Leovold, Emissary of Trest, Geth's Grimoire, Notion Thief, Dream Halls, Consecrated Sphinx
With any of these in play, casting a wheel spell just blows the game wide open. Dream Halls just lets me play the whole deck. Cards to Cut? Sword of War and Peace - The idea is it will protect and help Yidris get through and everyone will theoretically have full hands from wheeling. Haven't gotten this one yet in my testing so far. I think it's good just not fully sold yet. Sangromancer - I'm not normally a big fan of life gain in commander, but 3 life per card is a lot when you have multiple opponents discarding 7 at a time. Another one I haven't had a chance to test yet, but would be one of the first cards I'd consider cutting. Consuming Aberration/Guiltfeeder/Lord of Extinction - Trying to include ways to win the game that don't involve infinite combos which generally aren't used in my playgroup. Could see cutting any of these and going with more of a spellslinger route.
Yidris Synergies/Protection
I'm not fully sold on Batterskull, Godo, Bandit Warlord, and Scourge of the Throne mostly for mana cost reasons. Godo grabbing Batterskull then getting two combats per turn with Yidris is awesome but it costs 10 mana and I'll probably have to take a turn around the board before I get to take advantage of it. The curve is quite low overall so I'm not afraid of running a few higher costing things, but I'm still considering these as cut options. Strionic Resonator, Bow of Nylea, and Whispersilk Cloak are also possible cuts. The Resonator is pretty dependent on the number of other triggered abilities in the deck but right now there's quite a few and it obviously doubles Yidris' combat trigger. Bow of Nylea is useful for the deathtouch, which works great with trample, and the ability to put cards from the graveyard back into the library, but it's certainly not a necessary or game-breaking card.
Ramp
This is mostly focused on cards that can get Yidris out on turn 3, which gives me a pretty good chance at getting a free shot on someone turn 4. Not really considering any changes here at the moment but could be swayed if anyone knows how to make the deck even faster. Bloom Tender is awesome of course.
Draw/Tutors Ponder is something I could cut, don't think I'd make any changes otherwise besides adding more.
Removal
Not much to say here except maybe I don't have enough. From the limited testing so far the deck kind of just goes off with little interactions so these few seem to be enough. Blasphemous Act is pretty sweet because I will never cascade into it when I don't want it, but can usually cast it for cheap when it's needed.
Some thoughts so far:
Getting a hit in with Yidris makes the deck work at an extremely high power level and really justifies dedicating a decent portion of the deck to protecting him and getting him through.
The deck isn't much fun to play against unless you are a masochist. It can take very long turns that don't end the game right away and put opponents into top deck mode pretty regularly. I probably won't be pulling it out more than once or twice a night.
I haven't played against a graveyard shenanigans deck yet, but could see the wheels just feeding them pretty easily. I probably need to add some graveyard hate. As of right now I think the best bet would be to get Leovold or Notion Thief out and just stop them from drawing anything.
I think running mostly low CMC cards is the correct way to go with the deck. Unless you've set up your top deck you run the risk of cascading a 6 CMC spell into a 1 CMC. That won't happen if you're casting three 2 CMCs instead.
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Thanks for the suggestions. I don't dig the 3 black for Underworld Dreams especially in a 4 color deck. I'd considered Nekusar but I don't want them getting a free draw unless I'm wheeling and I think I have enough punishing cards we'll see.
I have played the ydris precon a lot, and one thing I hate is that even before I wheel, often as not I have nothing good to cascade into or something I want to cascade into is stuck in my hand. Therefore, I have been toying with mindmoil and arjun, the shifting flame as a means of cycling through my deck at an incredible pace, because the single most important place for those cards to be is in my hand when I need to cast them...and cascade means that should trigger a great deal giving me more selections to make and more (well, slight) rearranging to taste to make the cascade go absolutely nuts. When you start to add in the wheel synergy with something like geth's grimoire or similar out, then you end up with a large hand, which means wheel of fate or ancestral visions ends up in hand...a bad place to be, in my opinion.
I have played the ydris precon a lot, and one thing I hate is that even before I wheel, often as not I have nothing good to cascade into or something I want to cascade into is stuck in my hand. Therefore, I have been toying with mindmoil and arjun, the shifting flame as a means of cycling through my deck at an incredible pace, because the single most important place for those cards to be is in my hand when I need to cast them...and cascade means that should trigger a great deal giving me more selections to make and more (well, slight) rearranging to taste to make the cascade go absolutely nuts. When you start to add in the wheel synergy with something like geth's grimoire or similar out, then you end up with a large hand, which means wheel of fate or ancestral visions ends up in hand...a bad place to be, in my opinion.
I have run into the same issue and I think your plan is solid. Scroll Rack is obviously a good option to combat this also and I may need to seriously consider getting a copy. My hope so far is that there are enough cards I want that I should never be in a position where I absolutely have to be able to cascade into one specific card but that has yet to be determined. I have quite a few 1 CMC and four 0 CMC cards.
Have you run into any issues decking yourself? I have had a couple games where I was able to get Notion Thief online and it quickly became an issue although I was able to win before I hit that point. I've considered adding Elixir of Immortality to counter this, but am hesitant to add that for a more valuable card in the deck.
You can also use some of the higher scry cards or Ponder. Scry should be a premium here. (I'm a huge fan of Peregrination in this deck.)
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
No, I don't run Notion thief. I believe it to be overdone, and I prefer the wheel-deck strategy. Since I'm cycling through my deck so fast, I really don't want too many "they discard, I draw" effects just because I have a bad habit of decking. I am usually in a 5+ man pod, so you can imagine how quickly that can come to pass. I guess I could consider laboratory maniac in that case. I much prefer decking everyone with consuming aberration, though, so long as nothing like an old school eldrazi happens.
Also, I am not really concentrating on wheel deck strategy. It's fun, but also not really reasonable (there are a lot of those eldrazi running around my metas). I do, however, love "on cast" triggers and do run some storm as a means of messing with people. This deck is one of my "once per night/week" decks because when the bs happens, it takes a while but it's hilarious to watch. I run all of the cascade in colors, or nearly all. I really never do know what is going to happen when I play my deck!
You can also use some of the higher scry cards or Ponder. Scry should be a premium here. (I'm a huge fan of Peregrination in this deck.)
Out of the cards you listed I think Scroll Rack is the best since you can save cards in your hand from wheels. I'm already running brainstorm and Ponder. As awesome as the rest are with cascade I'm not sure how much I want to take out that's dedicated to setting up the top deck. It's also made irrelevant to an extent once you start chaining wheels together.
I have no idea why I hadn't considered that. I guess I was thinking you don't want to cast anything pre-combat without the cascade, but in reality if you get through you're untapping your lands and if you don't you weren't going to get your cascades anyway. I will probably add the sword, just need to get my hands on a fourth or pull one from another deck.
Invest in another copy. I did lol [now have 2], never a bad slot in any deck.
Bear Bumbra is also protection from spot removal/board clears in some cases if that means much to you. My meta is saturated with board clears and removal so, it gives me that extra turn to pull more tricks for my Aetherflux Reservoir to ramp me up.
I will second Bear Umbra and Sword of Feast and Famine. I tested 1v1 last night against sen triplets (control/combo) and Rafiq Voltron. The umbra and sword also turn you into a 3 turn clock which proved to be important. Totem on umbra is HUGE btw. It saved my ass more than once.
Updated the list to what I'm currently running. Most of the changes I've made have been to implement some new cards that have been released and to remove some of the slower stuff (or banned cards... ahem, Leovold). The deck mostly wins through discard effects like Megrim against the opponent, but I've had some where I can knock out an opponent or two that way and have to finish off the last guy with combat damage (usually because I'm about to deck myself if I keep running wheels).
Stuff I've removed and why: Leovold, Emissary of Trest - Got the banhammer and rightly so. Was great in the deck obviously, but I felt dirty whenever I used him. Godo, Bandit Warlord and Batterskull combo - It's just to slow. Every time I had Godo in hand there were just multiple other things I wanted to do instead. I never cast him, not once. The deck wants to cast lots of small spells and get as many cascades as possible, not tap out for two cards that it can't use until the next turn. Sword of War and Peace - It's fine and has some synergy as people often have full hands. Still, the deck wants to take everyone out at once, not hit one guy and get a measly extra 7 damage. Ponder - Got to the point I needed to cut something and didn't have anything left I wanted to cut. Ponder was mostly expendable. Scourge of the Throne - Just too slow.
Stuff I've added: Baral's Expertise - It's just so good when you can cast it and cascade off of it to get 4 spells for the price of one. Paradox Engine - Usually just game over when this is in play with a few rocks. The CMC of the deck is quite low so even a few mana from rocks can start netting positive mana. If the deck is also cascading, that gets two triggers from paradox engine for each spell cast so even better. Archfiend of Ifnir - As mentioned above (thanks Khayvan) this wipes the opponents boards of creatures with a wheel or two. As Foretold - A free spell each turn is great and with the low CMC in the deck it's rare that there's nothing to cast. The deck also runs 4 of the 0cmc suspend cards that it's trying to cascade into. This allows me to cast those if they end up in my hand. Burgeoning - Giving everyone a full grip of cards, including myself, this allows me to unload all the lands in my hand afterwards. Conqueror's Flail - The +4/+4 is nothing to scoff at, but the main purpose of this is to prevent opponents from being able to use the new grips of cards they are getting when I go on a wheel chain. The last thing I want to do is wheel them into an answer to stop me from going off.
First thanks for your updates, I like the deck a lot but I can't play it much lately, so it's always nice to have other inputs. I too play Baral's Expertise and Burgeoning, the cards are indeed strong in this deck. I'll give a try to the other ones you mentioned if I find them.
As we thought, Archfiend is just brutal... I've tried his friend too, Curator of Mysteries, it is OK but nothing crazy.
One other card I like a lot and don't see in your list is Fate Unraveler. Of course less good than Liliana's Caress or Megrim, but it adds to the deck's consistency.
I'm not a big fan of Lord of Extinction without a way to abuse it, because it always get blocked by a stupid token. And counting on Whispersilk Cloak seems too clunky.
My main problem in reality is Yidris himself. He is not bad, but the deck going seriously in the combo-wheel direction, I often prefer to do something else that throw Yidris into removals or counters. Kydele + Vial would probably be stronger, but Vial is not accepted as a commander where I play, so I'll stay with Yidris for now.
Hmm, I guess I was running Lord of Extinction just to try to have an alternate win con available but you're right, I only have two ways to make him unblockable so the chances of him getting through are low (it hasn't happened yet, though I have gotten combat damage kills). He definitely needs to come out. Fate Unraveler is an option for sure. Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix is a pretty obvious one too and does serious work in my Damia, Sage of Stone deck. She would be just as good if not better here.
I've also had my eye on The Locust God since he was spoiled. It's a bit awkward with Yidris though as the locust god wants you to wheel pre-combat and Yidris obviously wants to do it after so you can take advantage of the cascades. Still, it's pretty common for Yidris to be stuck in the command zone when the deck is going off so the god could provide some redundancy and a different way to finish off the opponents if the wheel punishers get shut down. He does seem like a straight up upgrade to Nath of the Gilt-Leaf since the tokens have flying and haste and still works if the opponent has been locked out with something like Notion Thief.
I think Faith of the Devoted and Drake Haven are also some interesting new cards to consider but may be a bit too mana intensive and clunky.
Kydele and Vial as partners would be more consistent, I don't think there's any doubt about that. I guess the deck would look quite a bit different, but Vial would be somewhat meh I'd think with the low curve as the deck sits now. Kydele is giving you 7 mana per wheel not to mention untapping shenanigans or chaining wheels together. You could achieve a position where you might as well have infinite colorless mana pretty easily to wheel even more. She also doesn't have the drawback of having to do combat damage. Still, she does cost 4 mana just like Yidris and if you are playing against smart opponents can eat removal just as easily. I will also say, if Yidris survives one turn around the table there is almost always at least one opponent open for attack.
There is also something to be said for the cascade explosion that happens when Yidris does manage to connect and his ability to win the game or get kills with combat damage. Maybe he isn't quite as effective, but those things are pretty fun.
I have been trying to fit Jarad in my Kresh deck for a while, but that deck has a heavy focus on creature power and runs both lord of extinction and malignus plus power doublers like xenagos. It's an interesting thought here, but I don't think either lord of extinction or Jarad are particularly good in this deck on their own so I'd basically need to be trying to pair them up during the game. It seems just a bit too clunky and I'm not running that many tutors. I've already replaced lord of extinction in the deck based on the above recommendations.
Out - The Locust God - Removing this should increase the speed of the deck and I feel like there are enough wincons already
Out - Nath of the Gilt-Leaf - see above
(Realized I had Burgeoning in the list twice and was actually only running 99 cards - so 2 out and 3 in)
In - Mana Crypt - Acquired one of these recently and worth putting in for pretty obvious reasons. It's another 0 CMC spell that can be cascaded into with a 1 CMC spell.
In - Shadow of the Grave - Should be super good after a wheel. Need to keep track of what was cast vs. discarded though, so could be a pain.
In - Kess, Dissident Mage - Sweet new card, will be able to recast wheels from the yard or whatever spells are needed at the time.
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http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/765550-yidris-wheel-thread
Here's the decklist:
4 Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder
Wheels
0 Wheel of Fate
3 Dark Deal
3 Jace's Archivist
3 Wheel of Fortune
3 Windfall
4 Whispering Madness
5 Reforge the Soul
Wheel Synergies
1 Bloodchief Ascension
2 Liliana's Caress
2 Shadow of the Grave
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Waste Not
3 Eternal Witness
3 Megrim
3 Yawgmoth's Will
4 Geth's Grimoire
4 Kess, Dissident Mage
4 Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix
4 Notion Thief
4 Sangromancer
5 Archfiend of Ifnir
5 Consuming Aberration
5 Dream Halls
5 Guiltfeeder
5 Psychosis Crawler
6 Consecrated Sphinx
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Spellskite
2 Swiftfoot Boots
3 As Foretold
3 Bow of Nylea
3 Conqueror's Flail
3 Thassa, God of the Sea
3 Whispersilk Cloak
5 Baral's Expertise
5 Paradox Engine
5 Xenagos, God of Revels
Ramp
0 Lotus Bloom
0 Mana Crypt
0 Mox Opal
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Burgeoning
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
2 Bloom Tender
2 Coiling Oracle
2 Dimir Signet
2 Farseek
2 Golgari Signet
2 Gruul Signet
2 Izzet Signet
2 Rakdos Signet
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Simic Signet
2 Urborg Elf
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
0 Ancestral Vision
1 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Visions of Beyond
1 Worldly Tutor
Removal
3 Beast Within
3 Chaos Warp
3 Maelstrom Pulse
9 Blasphemous Act
Lands
1 Reliquary Tower
33 Shocks, Duals, Fetches, etc.
Wheels
I'm only running the wheels that force discard because I want to hit on Liliana's Caress/Megrim, etc. My only concern here is I'm not running enough, but my playtesting so far has not shown that to be a concern with the card draw and tutors available. I'm considering adding Incendiary Command and Collective Defiance, maybe Wheel and Deal but I'm not a huge fan of not being able to draw a new hand myself. The wheels for the most part remove the need to have a bunch of other card drawing spells as they consistently refill your hand.
Wheel Synergies
All Stars - Leovold, Emissary of Trest, Geth's Grimoire, Notion Thief, Dream Halls, Consecrated Sphinx
With any of these in play, casting a wheel spell just blows the game wide open. Dream Halls just lets me play the whole deck.
Cards to Cut?
Sword of War and Peace - The idea is it will protect and help Yidris get through and everyone will theoretically have full hands from wheeling. Haven't gotten this one yet in my testing so far. I think it's good just not fully sold yet.
Sangromancer - I'm not normally a big fan of life gain in commander, but 3 life per card is a lot when you have multiple opponents discarding 7 at a time. Another one I haven't had a chance to test yet, but would be one of the first cards I'd consider cutting.
Consuming Aberration/Guiltfeeder/Lord of Extinction - Trying to include ways to win the game that don't involve infinite combos which generally aren't used in my playgroup. Could see cutting any of these and going with more of a spellslinger route.
Yidris Synergies/Protection
I'm not fully sold on Batterskull, Godo, Bandit Warlord, and Scourge of the Throne mostly for mana cost reasons. Godo grabbing Batterskull then getting two combats per turn with Yidris is awesome but it costs 10 mana and I'll probably have to take a turn around the board before I get to take advantage of it. The curve is quite low overall so I'm not afraid of running a few higher costing things, but I'm still considering these as cut options. Strionic Resonator, Bow of Nylea, and Whispersilk Cloak are also possible cuts. The Resonator is pretty dependent on the number of other triggered abilities in the deck but right now there's quite a few and it obviously doubles Yidris' combat trigger. Bow of Nylea is useful for the deathtouch, which works great with trample, and the ability to put cards from the graveyard back into the library, but it's certainly not a necessary or game-breaking card.
Ramp
This is mostly focused on cards that can get Yidris out on turn 3, which gives me a pretty good chance at getting a free shot on someone turn 4. Not really considering any changes here at the moment but could be swayed if anyone knows how to make the deck even faster. Bloom Tender is awesome of course.
Draw/Tutors
Ponder is something I could cut, don't think I'd make any changes otherwise besides adding more.
Removal
Not much to say here except maybe I don't have enough. From the limited testing so far the deck kind of just goes off with little interactions so these few seem to be enough. Blasphemous Act is pretty sweet because I will never cascade into it when I don't want it, but can usually cast it for cheap when it's needed.
Some thoughts so far:
Getting a hit in with Yidris makes the deck work at an extremely high power level and really justifies dedicating a decent portion of the deck to protecting him and getting him through.
The deck isn't much fun to play against unless you are a masochist. It can take very long turns that don't end the game right away and put opponents into top deck mode pretty regularly. I probably won't be pulling it out more than once or twice a night.
I haven't played against a graveyard shenanigans deck yet, but could see the wheels just feeding them pretty easily. I probably need to add some graveyard hate. As of right now I think the best bet would be to get Leovold or Notion Thief out and just stop them from drawing anything.
I think running mostly low CMC cards is the correct way to go with the deck. Unless you've set up your top deck you run the risk of cascading a 6 CMC spell into a 1 CMC. That won't happen if you're casting three 2 CMCs instead.
On a less evil note Alhammarret's Archive and Thought Reflection break the symmetry the other way.
EDIT: Symmetry. Ducking autocorrect!
On phasing:
Thanks for the suggestions. I don't dig the 3 black for Underworld Dreams especially in a 4 color deck. I'd considered Nekusar but I don't want them getting a free draw unless I'm wheeling and I think I have enough punishing cards we'll see.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
I have run into the same issue and I think your plan is solid. Scroll Rack is obviously a good option to combat this also and I may need to seriously consider getting a copy. My hope so far is that there are enough cards I want that I should never be in a position where I absolutely have to be able to cascade into one specific card but that has yet to be determined. I have quite a few 1 CMC and four 0 CMC cards.
Have you run into any issues decking yourself? I have had a couple games where I was able to get Notion Thief online and it quickly became an issue although I was able to win before I hit that point. I've considered adding Elixir of Immortality to counter this, but am hesitant to add that for a more valuable card in the deck.
You can also use some of the higher scry cards or Ponder. Scry should be a premium here. (I'm a huge fan of Peregrination in this deck.)
On phasing:
Also, I am not really concentrating on wheel deck strategy. It's fun, but also not really reasonable (there are a lot of those eldrazi running around my metas). I do, however, love "on cast" triggers and do run some storm as a means of messing with people. This deck is one of my "once per night/week" decks because when the bs happens, it takes a while but it's hilarious to watch. I run all of the cascade in colors, or nearly all. I really never do know what is going to happen when I play my deck!
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
Out of the cards you listed I think Scroll Rack is the best since you can save cards in your hand from wheels. I'm already running brainstorm and Ponder. As awesome as the rest are with cascade I'm not sure how much I want to take out that's dedicated to setting up the top deck. It's also made irrelevant to an extent once you start chaining wheels together.
(W/U)(B/R)GForm of Progenitus, Shape of a Scrubland
BRGJund Tokens with Prossh, the Magic Dragon Foil
URGAnimar, the RUG CleanerFoil
RRRFeldon of the Third Path 2.0 Foil
BG(B/G)Not Another Meren DeckFoil
UR(U/R)Mizzix, Y Control and X Burn Spells
(W/U)(B/R)GHarold Ramos - The 35 Foot Long Twinkie (In +1/+1 counters)
UB(U/B)Dragonlord Silumgar
I have no idea why I hadn't considered that. I guess I was thinking you don't want to cast anything pre-combat without the cascade, but in reality if you get through you're untapping your lands and if you don't you weren't going to get your cascades anyway. I will probably add the sword, just need to get my hands on a fourth or pull one from another deck.
Bear Bumbra is also protection from spot removal/board clears in some cases if that means much to you. My meta is saturated with board clears and removal so, it gives me that extra turn to pull more tricks for my Aetherflux Reservoir to ramp me up.
(W/U)(B/R)GForm of Progenitus, Shape of a Scrubland
BRGJund Tokens with Prossh, the Magic Dragon Foil
URGAnimar, the RUG CleanerFoil
RRRFeldon of the Third Path 2.0 Foil
BG(B/G)Not Another Meren DeckFoil
UR(U/R)Mizzix, Y Control and X Burn Spells
(W/U)(B/R)GHarold Ramos - The 35 Foot Long Twinkie (In +1/+1 counters)
UB(U/B)Dragonlord Silumgar
Couldn't agree more. Every wheel becomes a one-sided board wipe. that seems good.
Stuff I've removed and why:
Leovold, Emissary of Trest - Got the banhammer and rightly so. Was great in the deck obviously, but I felt dirty whenever I used him.
Godo, Bandit Warlord and Batterskull combo - It's just to slow. Every time I had Godo in hand there were just multiple other things I wanted to do instead. I never cast him, not once. The deck wants to cast lots of small spells and get as many cascades as possible, not tap out for two cards that it can't use until the next turn.
Sword of War and Peace - It's fine and has some synergy as people often have full hands. Still, the deck wants to take everyone out at once, not hit one guy and get a measly extra 7 damage.
Ponder - Got to the point I needed to cut something and didn't have anything left I wanted to cut. Ponder was mostly expendable.
Scourge of the Throne - Just too slow.
Stuff I've added:
Baral's Expertise - It's just so good when you can cast it and cascade off of it to get 4 spells for the price of one.
Paradox Engine - Usually just game over when this is in play with a few rocks. The CMC of the deck is quite low so even a few mana from rocks can start netting positive mana. If the deck is also cascading, that gets two triggers from paradox engine for each spell cast so even better.
Archfiend of Ifnir - As mentioned above (thanks Khayvan) this wipes the opponents boards of creatures with a wheel or two.
As Foretold - A free spell each turn is great and with the low CMC in the deck it's rare that there's nothing to cast. The deck also runs 4 of the 0cmc suspend cards that it's trying to cascade into. This allows me to cast those if they end up in my hand.
Burgeoning - Giving everyone a full grip of cards, including myself, this allows me to unload all the lands in my hand afterwards.
Conqueror's Flail - The +4/+4 is nothing to scoff at, but the main purpose of this is to prevent opponents from being able to use the new grips of cards they are getting when I go on a wheel chain. The last thing I want to do is wheel them into an answer to stop me from going off.
Hmm, I guess I was running Lord of Extinction just to try to have an alternate win con available but you're right, I only have two ways to make him unblockable so the chances of him getting through are low (it hasn't happened yet, though I have gotten combat damage kills). He definitely needs to come out. Fate Unraveler is an option for sure. Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix is a pretty obvious one too and does serious work in my Damia, Sage of Stone deck. She would be just as good if not better here.
I've also had my eye on The Locust God since he was spoiled. It's a bit awkward with Yidris though as the locust god wants you to wheel pre-combat and Yidris obviously wants to do it after so you can take advantage of the cascades. Still, it's pretty common for Yidris to be stuck in the command zone when the deck is going off so the god could provide some redundancy and a different way to finish off the opponents if the wheel punishers get shut down. He does seem like a straight up upgrade to Nath of the Gilt-Leaf since the tokens have flying and haste and still works if the opponent has been locked out with something like Notion Thief.
I think Faith of the Devoted and Drake Haven are also some interesting new cards to consider but may be a bit too mana intensive and clunky.
Kydele and Vial as partners would be more consistent, I don't think there's any doubt about that. I guess the deck would look quite a bit different, but Vial would be somewhat meh I'd think with the low curve as the deck sits now. Kydele is giving you 7 mana per wheel not to mention untapping shenanigans or chaining wheels together. You could achieve a position where you might as well have infinite colorless mana pretty easily to wheel even more. She also doesn't have the drawback of having to do combat damage. Still, she does cost 4 mana just like Yidris and if you are playing against smart opponents can eat removal just as easily. I will also say, if Yidris survives one turn around the table there is almost always at least one opponent open for attack.
There is also something to be said for the cascade explosion that happens when Yidris does manage to connect and his ability to win the game or get kills with combat damage. Maybe he isn't quite as effective, but those things are pretty fun.
Thanks for the suggestions.
I have been trying to fit Jarad in my Kresh deck for a while, but that deck has a heavy focus on creature power and runs both lord of extinction and malignus plus power doublers like xenagos. It's an interesting thought here, but I don't think either lord of extinction or Jarad are particularly good in this deck on their own so I'd basically need to be trying to pair them up during the game. It seems just a bit too clunky and I'm not running that many tutors. I've already replaced lord of extinction in the deck based on the above recommendations.
In - Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix
In - The Locust God
Out - Strionic Resonator
Out - Lord of Extinction
Out - The Locust God - Removing this should increase the speed of the deck and I feel like there are enough wincons already
Out - Nath of the Gilt-Leaf - see above
(Realized I had Burgeoning in the list twice and was actually only running 99 cards - so 2 out and 3 in)
In - Mana Crypt - Acquired one of these recently and worth putting in for pretty obvious reasons. It's another 0 CMC spell that can be cascaded into with a 1 CMC spell.
In - Shadow of the Grave - Should be super good after a wheel. Need to keep track of what was cast vs. discarded though, so could be a pain.
In - Kess, Dissident Mage - Sweet new card, will be able to recast wheels from the yard or whatever spells are needed at the time.