Why play this deck? Yasova Dragonclaw is for anyone who wants to play a control style deck that utilizes board wipes, steal creature effects+sacrifice outlets to control the battlefield. It requires finesse and planning to play well; this is a thinking person's deck. If you like having many options while playing, playing politically, and stealing your opponents' stuff, Yasova Dragonclaw is your gal. She has a very unique flavor to her. GUARANTEED to shake up your meta!
Yasova can have a secondary playstyle as well. Given the right situation, Yasova can play like an aggro voltron themed deck. (See strategy section for more on this.)
If you're building your first, or second edh deck, don't choose this one. Yasova requires experience with edh and familiarity with the rules. Once the meta gets to know Yasova, expect to draw a lot of "hate" when playing this deck. No one likes having their stuff stolen, and people will make you a priority on their kill list!
Too many creatures can run over yasova. If your meta has a lot of aggro creature decks, yasova can suffer. Playing in 3-4 player or team games minimizes this risk. 5+ players can be overwhelming due to the attention she draws. More boardwipes and steal creature spells have been put in to minimize this problem, but more testing is required.
Finally, this deck is semi-budget friendly for an edh deck. Nearly all of the staple cards are under $10, a lot of them under $5. It's not that the deck is passing over better, more expensive options, it's just that the best options for playing the deck are cheap $.
History
I built this deck out of a desire to play a temur commander. Something new and interesting was required. Since playing her, she has undergone many strategy adjustments. The deck can go in a few different directions. I'm learning quite a bit about the deck still. (This thread is a work in progress too.) Yasova has a lot of unique requirements.
Part of the reason I chose this deck was because our meta was lacking boardwipes, and also play counter to a Sen Triplets deck that was running amok. Yasova is in a unique position to reign in troublesome low power commanders, like Zur the enchanter.
Decklist
Note the (number) after the first number in a category represents the total number of cards that fall into that category, including the cards that are represented primarily in a different category. (See Urban Evolution=Ramp/draw, Demonmail Hauberk=Sac. Outlet/Buff)
Strategy
Yasova has a few ways to play her. We're looking for ramp, a good sac. outlet, Altar of Dementia, plus a gain control of creature spell, Reins of Power, or Yasova+a buff spell. Boardwipes can also suffice.
Yasova is a control based attrition deck. The idea is to keep boardwiping, or stealing creatures and sacrificing them to keep the creature count down. We can count many of the steal creature spells as boardwipes, or close to it, when we have a sac. outlet that requires no mana or tap activation to use. The deck has almost no creatures of it's own, so we must win by attacking in with our opponents' creatures. When played correctly, we gain card advantage through yasova's ability/sac. outlet and board wipes.
Yasova does has another win-con up her sleave, a light voltron theme. Once we've cleared the board of creatures and have out a buff for yasova, we can start going to town on commander damage. You'd be surprised how relevant her steal creature ability is after a boardwipe, allowing us to get extra commander damage through.
This deck is mana hungry. We want to ramp in the early turns to be able to cast our high cost boardwipes, play and use equipment, and use Yasova's ability. I've been continuously adding more ramp and land to feed the need. Do not keep a hand with little mana/ramp! We also want to ramp because if we don't have equipment for protection, or other steal creature spells, we play yasova at 6 mana. Play her at 6 so you have a better chance of using her ability the turn she comes out. Definitely avoid yasova dying without using her ability.
Ramp early, play out equipment, then get prepared to use a board wipe or sac. outlet+mass steal at an opportune moment. We may need to use a wipe earlier than we normally would playing other decks to deal with early attacks to our life. (The hate can be real, also we have few creatures leaving us vulnerable to attacks.) We are really looking for that moment when we can get 4+ card advantage against our opponents with one of our wipes or steal spells. Once things have settled in, play out yasova and protect her with Hexproof, indestructible and the like.
Yasova has a secondary play style sometimes. If we are in a small game, and/or our opponents aren't playing out many early creatures, or we've already played out an early protection spell, it can be correct to play yasova on turns 3-5. If we suspect that our opponents a lot of removal, this move may not be viable without hexproof or at least indestructible to protect her. However, we can start to win early through commander damage and keeping down opponents' early creatures with Yasova's ability if there aren't many on the board.
The deck has been built in such a way that Yasova is usually played late in the game. In most situations, especially with more opponents, it's a good idea to wait on Yasova. This is part of the attrition strategy of the deck. We can sit back, ramp, tutor, draw cards and boardwipe, then play her out once our opponents are low on resources.
As you can see, there is quite a bit of depth to the playstyle here. It's what makes Yasova so much fun! Her play style is so varied, no two games are alike with her.
The tutors are important because they allow me to consistently get my sac. outlets, or something else if I already have a sac. outlet on the board. Here is the tutor break down:
I've updated the above thread a bit. There are some additions to the text regarding the need for cards in overlapping categories, plus the addition of Drift of Phantasms into the tutor section.
I like Drift of phantasms over wall of frost because it tutors for important spells, and can still perform a somewhat similar function without having UU in it's casting cost. Again, overlapping spells is key. We need some kind of early defense in some games. This can decide how we play the deck. If we are facing an aggro deck that's attacking us, having up some blockers can be of importance.
Goblin bombardments goes in over sidisi's faithful because we want to be able to sacrifice multiple creatures sometimes. The sac. outlets require you to only sacrifice a creature, instead of tapping or paying mana in addition, are the best.
Dense foliage over spellskite because it costs no additional mana after casting and enchantments stick around much longer than creatures do. Note that we can still eqiup, target with yasova and put most of our steal creature spells to good use when this is out. I believing adding an additional layer of protection, that is also searchable with Drift of Phantasms, and requires no more mana investment will really help this deck out.
This deck is great fun! While it doesn't have all of the possible best lands et. in it, it does provide a great template for anyone who wants to really shake up their edh group, and still win some games. I believe this formula of protection+Sac. outlets+tutors really helps keep yasova running strong.
I need to find room for Insurrection somehow. You'd be surprised how often these gain control cards can swing a daunting board state into our favor/we win the game. I don't want to remove Blasphemous act, but it seems like the most logical card to swap right now.
Part of the great fun of yasova is getting a win or two out of nowhere. Literally every gain control of target creature spell+sac. outlet in the deck can win us the game if played at the right moment. The politics of Yasova are infinite. One of the reasons I built Yasova is due to the much hated Sen Triplets deck that plagues our group. Yasova can REALLY shut down any edh deck with a low power commander that also relies on it's commander to function well. She can also just stop people from playing their commanders due to the fear of losing it, which works well for us!
I've added more boardwipes. This deck can have a bad time when one or two players are playing aggressively and they attack us early. We spend the early game trying to set up for Yasova and the deck has few creatures in it. This leaves the deck vulnerable to early/mid game attacks.
I might add Earthquake as well once I pick up the card.
These boardwipes alongside Blasphemous act and Cyclonic rift should really tilt the game in our favor. We can still spend our early turns ramping and getting out equipments, then boardwipe, then play yasova. Part of the struggle was realizing we can't count on the mass gain control of creature spells to act as boardwipes in the early and mid game. We need a good sac. outlet for those to count as wipes, which doesn't always happen by the early/midgame. Adding a few wipes not reliant upon a sac. outlet should really balance things out.
The deck always seem to outperform when I did have a wipe in hand, or someone else wiped the board for me. Yasova is a deadly beast when she's played out onto an empty, or nearly empty battlefield. At that point, we'll have the time and resources to pump up her power and steal most anything our opponents play out.
Here's the updated list. I'll edit the first post when I have time to reflect this change. Bear with me. I don't have all the cards I need for this deck yet, but the pieces are coming together.
All is dust, while powerfull, will also kill Yasova. Maybe there are enough other options?
Hero's Blade seems like an auto-include. It buffs Yasova to 7, equips for free and plays nicely on curve. The card is not played as often as it should be in gernal, but this deck really wants it!
I do need dominus of fealty in the deck. I put in makeshift munitions because I don't have goblin bombardment yet. I actually had a key play in a game the other day that failed because I had munitions instead of bombardment. I had Reins of power in hand, but not enough mana to cast it and pay the 1 mana per creature to sacrifice. Those sac. outlets with no cost is really where it's at.
All is dust is actually perfect for the deck. We have a lot of colorless artifacts, plus most of the ramp is land based. Even if we have to sac. yasova when it's played, that can be okay because we'll then have a bunch of equipment out while our opponents aren't as likely to have much left on the board. Add in that yasova only costs 3 to play the first time, she'll still be pretty cheap to cast while most other commanders will cost much more to recast.
I will order a chandra's ignition too. That is a boardwipe this deck is missing.
The goal of this deck seems to continually morph. I think going much heavier on boardwipes will help pick this deck up. I really needed some last night in my game again, I just didn't draw them.
Shardless agent and bloodbraid elf were in there because I needed more creatures, plus they sometimes cascade us into a sac. outlet. Either that or ramp. I am considering removing them however. If the deck's boardwipe number is increased, we don't need creatures for blocking as much. I think I now have enough tutors in the deck that it doesn't need to rely on these guys to help find sac. outlets any more.
Taurean Mauler and Managorger hydra are there because they are cheap creatures that scale up. This deck is pretty light on creatures, I felt like I needed to have some more in there. I'm now embracing that this deck may not need many creatures if it focuses on control/having answers to what's on the board.
It seems like every game I want more mana than I have. I'm considering going up to 39 lands and/or adding more ramp. I'll put out an updated list in the next few days.
Ramp has gone up from 11 to 13 with commander's sphere and Explosive vegetation. The deck is starting to become quite color hungry with the addition of RR cost boardwipes. Despite my efforts to lower the mana curve in previous incarnations, this deck just comes with a high mana tax. These extra ramp spells plus an extra land should help.
I've added in all of the cards mentioned in ertai planeswalkers post, also the ramp, and dig through time in place of Mulldrifter. Considering all the different pieces this deck wants to function well, better card selection than drifter seemed warranted.
Now that the deck has honed in it the sac. outlets, tutors and card draw, the steal creature spells become much more effective. It also helps the deck to have more of these spells that can target any non-hexproof creature. Yasova is great, but her ability is somewhat limited in it's reach. There's only so much space you can devote to buffing yasova in a deck, not to mention the mana involved. Having these gain control spells, plus extra boardwipes is the back up yasova needs.
The deck is shifting more heavily into control at this point. Yasova has been fun to play the whole way through. After getting to know her better, the deck improves after every game or two. It has a lot of potential for it's fun value, political intrigue, power, ability to counter certain decks, and being a relatively budget build.
If yasova continues to be this much fun, I'll invest in a sensei's divining top, Maze of ith and greater good. These are all cards that would vastly improve whatever card slot they replace. Maze of ith particularly so, due to the deck's lack of defense.
Hopefully some of y'all are felling inspired. Please ask questions about card choices and how to play it. I'll try to keep updating the original post to be more primer-like when I have time.
Some more thoughts, as I like were this deck is going and I have some more time now:
Greater Good would make for a good addtional sac outlet and it helps you with drawing cards as well. You could replace Life's Legacy with it. (Edit: just now see that you already have it on your wantslist. Well, great minds and stuff )
Helm of Posession Staying with sac outlets, this will let you steal a creature more permanently by sacrificing another. Seems exactly the hidden gem this deck needs. I think you can cut Evolutionary Leap for that because unless i'm missing smomething obvious, it appears to be a sac outlet more than anything else. Also increases your repeated stealing stuff which is a nice bridge to:
Chamber of Manipulation and perhaps also Might makes Right. The latter you should test wether it triggers often enough to make it worth it. The Chamber does seem worth it though, as it can turn any card in your hand into a steal and can do it at instant speed. Do note that it does not grant haste, so this will be more used defensively / as removal then for actual attacking. Does combo nice with Conjurer's Closet though.
The Immortal Sun This does fashion to me as a deck that doesn't need a lot of cards at once, just increased card flow. It helps you pay for more expensive stuff, it gives you an extra card each turn, it buffs Yasova and will cause the occasional collateral damage to your opponents if they play planeswalkers, which you do not. I would cut Dig Through Time for it.
Word of Seizing and Zealous Conscripts. Both of these can steal any permanent, with the word doing so at instant-split second speed. They can just grab you creatures, but an opposing PW with enough counters to ultimate is nice to steal too. As might be some enchantment holding you back or something else, like someone else's sac outlet. Also, grabbing a combo piece when someone is in the middle of comboing off is hilarious. I think you could cut Woodland Bellower (Only possible targets are Sakura-Tribe Elder and Rhonas, the Indomitable and Star of Extincion (Not a fan of the star and in this deck, you want cheaper sweepers that leave the stealworthy targets alive). Even if you want to keep the sweeper effect I would consider running Mizzium Mortars instead of the star.
Winged Temple of Orazca and Cascading Cataracts. The temple fixes your colors and can help buff Yasova. It will also easily turn Yasova in a 2 turn clock on it's own. The Cataracts really help with mana fixing as it allows you to choose any combination of colors you want. Depending on how much this helps the deck, you could consider adding Sylvan Scrying and/or Expedition Map to find it more reliably.
Fertile Ground If color fixing is an issue then this might be better than Overgrowth. It produces one less mana in total (costs one less too) but the mana can be of any color which in a 3 color deck feels slightly more important.
Thunderfoot Baloth the primary function of this creature here is to help buff Yasovia which it does by 2 for 7 mana. While it is a good creature, I don't see it really shining here. Charmbreaker Devils seems more usefull to me here, regrowing you your ramp, draw or steal effects.
Scourge of Khola Vale is a sac outlet, but only usable once. Since you're light on removal, adding Beast Within might be a good idea. If you wish to keep the scourge though consider replacing Chaos Warp with Beast within, as a 3/3 token is a lot less scary then something random from you opponent's deck. If you don't mind losing the Scourge but want to keep up the sac outlet count, consider Bloodshot Cyclops.
Lastly, Maze of Ith feels off to me for this deck, as it costs you your land slot to play. Also, since you steal the big creatures, the major threat seems to be getting swarmed. If this is an issue, Propaganda, Collective Restraint, Smoke (Most steal effects untap the creature!) or Crawlspace all seem to be more usefull (and cheaper!) then a Maze would be imo.
So much good info. here! Thanks for all the help Ertai Planeswalker. Still wondering, do you have a Yasova deck or are you coming up with all of these improvements on the fly?
I'll just put greater good in the list with a semi-proxy. I have the card in another deck, this card is worth the trouble to switch between them when the need arises I think. It is an auto-include in this list.
You have hit on something with the trickle card draw and not needing to draw a whole lot of cards at once. There used to be even more in there because I was trying to use it to draw into my sac. outlets. Now that the outlets are tuned to include only the best, plus a good amount of tutors to find them, the deck gets away with less card draw. The immortal sun does look great. Still pricey, I'll wait until I can trade for it or rotation happens.
You're also probably right about woodland bellower and scourge of skola-vale. I can remove scourge if I put in greater good, a superior sac. outlet. If scourge isn't in the deck, bellower doesn't need to be either.
Thunderfoot baloth does more than you give it credit for. I don't have to pay anything extra to get the buff for yasova from it, unlike an equipment. It also buffs the creatures I steal when they come under my control and give them trample. The deck also does like a few creatures as it has all that equipment. I'm not sold on charmbreaker devils as I already seem to have enough to do with my mana, even when I have copious amounts of it.
Helm of possession also looks like an auto-include in the deck. When I first looked at this card (when first building the deck), I didn't quite get it's full value. With a good sac. outlet, I can just keep sacrificing the creature under helm of possession before untapping it. With that ability, I can just keep picking off the biggest creatures on the board, if I have a the ability to steal them, turn after turn.
Zealous conscripts goes in when I get it. Word of seizing isn't as great to me as our group doesn't really use counterspells/the stack much. I'll keep it on my radar.
The deck could use a beast within and Chaos warp. I stand by chaos warp being superior as it can handle indestructible creatures. Also, over 1/3 of the time they will reveal a land or a non-permanent. Those spells are a panic button against an ulamog or something. The chances of them revealing something better are very low.
Thanks for the advice. I'll continue to update the thread. I hope to attract some new yasova players, or find the people who already play her for this thread.
So much good info. here! Thanks for all the help Ertai Planeswalker. Still wondering, do you have a Yasova deck or are you coming up with all of these improvements on the fly?
Honestly, some of it is on the fly like the Mask of Posession. Some of it is coming up with a certain effect that would be good and then entering some keywords on gatherer. Sometimes I also look on Edhrec, though I didn't do that now. I you haven't yet, go check it out for more ideas. I do not have a Yasova deck though I have pondered about it. Might even make one myself as it plays differently from other decks I have, which is kind of a hard prerequisite for me to build any new deck.
I'll just put greater good in the list with a semi-proxy. I have the card in another deck, this card is worth the trouble to switch between them when the need arises I think. It is an auto-include in this list.
I do this a lot actually, proxying cards I already have. It allows me to keep more decks available on hand to play when I get to play (which as a father of you kids is not as much as I would like). It also saves a lot of money, no need to buy 5 Mana Crypts, 1 is enough.
You have hit on something with the trickle card draw and not needing to draw a whole lot of cards at once. There used to be even more in there because I was trying to use it to draw into my sac. outlets. Now that the outlets are tuned to include only the best, plus a good amount of tutors to find them, the deck gets away with less card draw. The immortal sun does look great. Still pricey, I'll wait until I can trade for it or rotation happens.
It's something I find myself walking into more and more. Of course, more cards is better but you're also constrained by your mana in how much of it you can leverage in actual plays. Of course there is a case to make for having increased card selection, but with cards like the Immortal Sun or Staff of Nin which offer additional benefits, the tradeoff is real. I also bought 2 Kumena's Awakenings because I think it's good though I have not been able to play with them yet.
Thunderfoot baloth does more than you give it credit for. I don't have to pay anything extra to get the buff for yasova from it, unlike an equipment. It also buffs the creatures I steal when they come under my control and give them trample. The deck also does like a few creatures as it has all that equipment. I'm not sold on charmbreaker devils as I already seem to have enough to do with my mana, even when I have copious amounts of it.
If you're referencing Xenagos, God of Revels, he doesn't buff yasova like we want to. Xenagos's ability goes on the stack at the same time yasova's does. So we must target and pay for her trigger at the beginning of combat, with xenagos's ability already on the stack. Xenagos doesn't have time to pump no matter how we stack it. At least I think that's right, I believe I asked about it in the rules forum.
If you're saying I shouldn't focus on buffing yasova because xenagos does the job better, I already have a Xenagos deck. I do feel that buffing yasova's power does play a role in this deck. Most creatures are 7 power and under. If yasova can steal 5 to 7 powered creatures due to buffs, we are in a good spot. In fact I'm putting Grafted wargear back into the deck. (I'll update the list soon.) We can play this out and not equip it to anything. Then play yasova, then molten primordial, and sac. all the creatures we stole, end with equipping yasova after we've stolen all our opponents best creatures. I was looking for at least one more semi-unconditional sac. outlet. The fact that it can pivot and buff yasova is great.
I updated the first post. It's in the primer format wizards suggested minus the intro. I completely overhauled the strategy section. (Excuse the bad formatting job and typos, I'll keep working on it.) There is some really interesting stuff in there about yasova's aggressive side that's hard to understand without playing her, or someone laying it out for you. If you do get in the mood for a new commander deck, yasova is an awesome choice. I almost gave up on her a while back, but realized I could just try harder to understand what she needs to function. I'm stoked I stuck with it because this is one of my favorite decks. She makes you work for those wins, but they are spectacular when they work. I have played her every commander night the chance arouse since her creation, and had a blast doing it.
The reason I love yasova so much is because she's a challenge to play well. Yet, she can still be VERY fierce when played well. Definitely a thinking man's deck.
I was under the impression that since Yasova’s and Xenagos’s trigger trigger at the same time, you can let Xenagos’s trigger resolve first, buffing Yasova, then use Yasova to steal any creature with power <8. Why would that not work?
I know you have a Xenagos deck, I have a subscription to penguin’s primer.
I think grafted wargear can be really good indeed, just beware that it can be a two-edged sword as people can naturalize the equipped creature right of the board, regardless of any plate it may be wearing or hammer it’s carrying
Another few cards i thought off that might make the deck better able to control the board a bit: Mana Breach, Ward of Bones and perhaps Damping Engine. It prevents people from (easily) building up a board state that is unmanagable for you.
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The secret to enjoyable Commander games is not winning first, but losing last.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
I will jump in to say that Xenagos indeed does not work with this triggered ability, as you declare a target for it in the beginning of combat, and it checks the legality of the target twice. Once as you declare it, and once as you resolve it. Thus, your only legal targets are those with less power than Yasova's current power as you leave the first main phase.
a base 4 power Yasova versus a 6 power creature would pass as if you checked the legality of the target as the ability resolved (assuming Xenagos resolves first), but would fail when you check the legality of the target as it is put onto the stack.
I think grafted wargear can be really good indeed, just beware that it can be a two-edged sword as people can naturalize the equipped creature right of the board, regardless of any plate it may be wearing or hammer it’s carrying
Another few cards i thought off that might make the deck better able to control the board a bit: Mana Breach, Ward of Bones and perhaps Damping Engine. It prevents people from (easily) building up a board state that is unmanagable for you.
Good point about wargear. On the other hand, people are probably more likely to blow up a more effective sac. outlet like altar of dementia than this one. Still, it is risky.
I like that you're looking for good ideas to help keep the deck alive. I think I'm going to put in dissipation field as my first and only card choice (so far) that protects my life total. I think this punishes people much more than propaganda or Mana breach. Dissipation field specifically keeps people from wanting to attack us. We want people to be able to play out creatures as that's our gas for the deck. Dissipation field allows people to play creatures, and for us to steal them, and encourages my opponents to attack other opponents instead of me. It also deters tokens from attacking me in a big way.
More testing is needed with all of the boardwipes I've added to the deck recently. I think between those, and having more steal effects, we should be in better control of the board with this list.
Ertai, I added a section under "Why play this deck" about the budget. This deck is dirt cheap compared to something like Xenagos. As I said in that section, it's not as though I'm passing up a ton of better card options for monetary reasons. Most of the staples in this deck are $5 or less , excluding the land base. Even the land base is relatively cheap with no enemy fetchlands or old school dual lands. A good reason to start pulling pieces together.
Glad to have you pop in penguin! Glad to know you have at least glanced at the thread.
After scouring over 700 cards online by searching for "sacrifice creature" and "sacrifice permanent" in U, R, G, colorless, and all combinations there of, I present to you spawning pit and claws of gix. Besides Phyrexian altar (which costs about $40,) these are the best sacrifice outlets that had yet to be consider for this deck.
Spawning pit is exactly what we need. Claws of gix isn't bad either, as we can possibly eek out another turn by sacrificing permanents and surprising our opponents with our extra life. The fact that we can cast it for 0 the turn we want it, then start sacrificing multiple creatures for only 1 mana a pop is great. Spawning pit is REALLY where we want to be at. An unconditional sacrifice outlet that gives us potential for more creatures after we clear the board.
Expect another significant update to the deck in the next few days. There are quite a few cards going in, as usual. The list is becoming ever more refined. Terribly sorry for all the typos et. in the first post. That will be continually updated and refined. It seemed best to get out more raw information sooner to keep people up to date with the deck then wait for a totally refined decklist/"primer" to be finished before posting. My excitement for the deck only grows with each game and brew session!
I'm not a big fan of any sac outlet these days that costs mana unless you are getting absurd payoff from doing it (Such as Evolutionary Leap)
Not a big fan of claws at all due to not needing the flexibility of saccing permanents, but Spawning Pit is pretty great. I have even more success with it in Marchesa as the tokens it churns out are artifact tokens and benefit from all of my additional synergies.
Dissipation Field is one of those cards where it sounds nice in theory but all it really ends up doing is encouraging people to swing their ETB value dorks at you to take advantage of the bounce feature, not to mention that these are the kind of creatures people are okay with playing into a "jack and sac" board state in the first place.
I know someone who built this at one time. It's a reasonable B-tier deck that is pretty cheap to make, but as a commander you don't quite have the engines that push it up any further. Still, you do give commander-centric strategies headaches (as long as they aren't Theros Gods, then welp).
After scouring over 700 cards online by searching for "sacrifice creature" and "sacrifice permanent" in U, R, G, colorless, and all combinations there of, I present to you spawning pit and claws of gix. Besides Phyrexian altar (which costs about $40,) these are the best sacrifice outlets that had yet to be consider for this deck.
I'm not a big fan of any sac outlet these days that costs mana unless you are getting absurd payoff from doing it (Such as Evolutionary Leap)
Quoted for truthery.
Spawning Pit is indeed a good card, can create chump blockers at instant speed when you need it. Sac outlet + defense
The fact that we can cast it for 0 the turn we want it, then start sacrificing multiple creatures for only 1 mana a pop is great. Spawning pit is REALLY where we want to be at. An unconditional sacrifice outlet that gives us potential for more creatures after we clear the board.
Funny, I would play it asap. You want to be able to respond to creature kill as well, help prevent nasty stuff (like Control Magic effects from happening to your creatures, especially Yasova. Since you can't cast the claws at instant speed, why would you hold onto it? If people Naturalize it then fine, better that than something else...
Dissipation Field is one of those cards where it sounds nice in theory but all it really ends up doing is encouraging people to swing their ETB value dorks at you to take advantage of the bounce feature, not to mention that these are the kind of creatures people are okay with playing into a "jack and sac" board state in the first place.
I would hold claws of gix in hand until I was ready to use it to sac. a creature. I wouldn't want to have this out before I could use yasova's ability or a mass gain control effect like Mutiny because people know I really need those outlets. I wouldn't want to run the risk that someone would use their artifact removal on it before it got used. My meta knows that these sac. outlets will kill them. Also the deck is down to 10 creatures, plus yasova often has hexproof. They just won't have much to steal on my side with control magic.
I don't like Hadana's climb because it's too slow. It's hard to keep yasova out for 3 turns. Also, I won't receive the +1/+1 counter buff until after I have to target with Yasova's ability. Her power needs to be buffed before combat starts. You choose the target with yasova's ability when it goes on the stack, it checks the power of both creatures then, it checks the power again when it resolves. Also, all of my buff cards are repeatable if yasova dies, this card will be useless if yasova dies before it flips.
I'm going to try out dissipation field still. It's worked well in another edh deck I have. Also, yasova can steal and sac. small etb creatures before they get the chance to attack us. That, or many of those creatures will be dead because we've boardwiped or psuedo gain control boardwiped. I think this card will help stop the really big creatures from running me over before I find an answer to them. It seems to work as a pretty good deterrent in my play group. People just stop attacking you if there's an easier target. Propaganda isn't that much of a deterrent mid late game. An opponent will happily pay the 2 to just keep swinging in with their fatty creature. if they try that with dissipation field, they'll be forced to expend much more mana, plus the creature will only be able to attack in every other turn for 5+ mana, as opposed to 2 mana every turn.
I'm considering heroic intervention and spellskite. I like that these cards can both protect creatures, and artifacts from destruction. We need to watch out for our golden goose sac. outlets. Although, there are enough of them that I seem to find 2 by the late game usually.
**Edit** Right on Dunharrow. I did put him in. I did take out Conjurer's closet due to its high cmc. I figured this guy was a better replacement. Although closet may not be out of the running either...
It's a reasonable B-tier deck that is pretty cheap to make, but as a commander you don't quite have the engines that push it up any further. Still, you do give commander-centric strategies headaches (as long as they aren't Theros Gods, then welp).
I like the deck a lot for these reasons. I'm one of the stronger players in my group, if I do say so myself, It's really more of a big fish in a small pond kind of scenario. So, I've been looking for a deck that isn't quite so linear, and isn't quite so powerful. (You know I run those fools over with Xenagos when I need to.)
What I admire most about playing this is that you must really think about your every move. The deck has different routes of playing depending on the cards you draw, and what decks you face. Also, I really hate Sen Triplets and wanted a deck that could stop it from winning so often in my group. When I win with this deck, I know I worked for it through gameplay decisions and critical deck design choices. Some of my other decks are a bit overpowered and definitely more simple and more linear.
Here's the latest list. Had some technical difficulties revising it, but this is it currently before I go into test.
I'll highlight some changes when I have more time.
While I agree with the idea that sac. outlets must have some really great value if they have a mana cost, this deck has special needs in that department. It's better to have Claws of Gix compared to something like scourge of skola vale. We want the ability to sacrifice multiple creatures at once, even if it means paying for it, compared to a tap ability that guarantees only one creature sacced per turn. Since I'm not going to buy Phyrexian altar, the deck needs more sac. outlets then we can find that require no other activation cost. I worry about going fewer than the number of sac. outlets I already have, so there just aren't enough of the primo kind to fill the slot.
Hope that made sense. Not all sac. outlets are what we'd want them to be, but there just aren't enough of the ideal kind to fill the number of slots the deck wants. Yasova gets grumpy if some kind of sac. outlet doesn't appear by turn 5.
I got in a game with Yasova. Thing is, I had just run over 4 opponents right before this game with my The Scarab God deck. When I started to win early on, I felt the need to lay off on the pressure and let someone else win. My decks have been getting too powerful lately for my meta. Yasova has now reached that point, even though I was still missing a few cards.
So, Yasova was kicking ass, and almost assuredly could have won, if I had the intention to do so. My opponents had laid out most of their hands in creatures, and I had multiple gain control spells, a board wipe in hand plus a sac. outlet on the board. I durdled around and let my friend build up his allies for the win.
Funnily enough, I didn't recognize that I could one shot commander damage an opponent because my friend had out while I also had out Rafiq of the many while I had hammer of nazhem on Yasova. Gaining control of Rafiq could have set me up for commander damage against that opponent, but I wasn't trying to win...
Despite not having some key cards like Insurrection and mass mutiny and a couple of others, the deck did amazingly well. It looks pretty hard to beat in a 3 player game unless someone can counter our stuff or we fail to get out a sac. outlet.
Yasova Dragonclaw is for anyone who wants to play a control style deck that utilizes board wipes, steal creature effects+sacrifice outlets to control the battlefield. It requires finesse and planning to play well; this is a thinking person's deck. If you like having many options while playing, playing politically, and stealing your opponents' stuff, Yasova Dragonclaw is your gal. She has a very unique flavor to her. GUARANTEED to shake up your meta!
Yasova can have a secondary playstyle as well. Given the right situation, Yasova can play like an aggro voltron themed deck. (See strategy section for more on this.)
If you're building your first, or second edh deck, don't choose this one. Yasova requires experience with edh and familiarity with the rules. Once the meta gets to know Yasova, expect to draw a lot of "hate" when playing this deck. No one likes having their stuff stolen, and people will make you a priority on their kill list!
Too many creatures can run over yasova. If your meta has a lot of aggro creature decks, yasova can suffer. Playing in 3-4 player or team games minimizes this risk. 5+ players can be overwhelming due to the attention she draws. More boardwipes and steal creature spells have been put in to minimize this problem, but more testing is required.
Finally, this deck is semi-budget friendly for an edh deck. Nearly all of the staple cards are under $10, a lot of them under $5. It's not that the deck is passing over better, more expensive options, it's just that the best options for playing the deck are cheap $.
History
I built this deck out of a desire to play a temur commander. Something new and interesting was required. Since playing her, she has undergone many strategy adjustments. The deck can go in a few different directions. I'm learning quite a bit about the deck still. (This thread is a work in progress too.) Yasova has a lot of unique requirements.
Part of the reason I chose this deck was because our meta was lacking boardwipes, and also play counter to a Sen Triplets deck that was running amok. Yasova is in a unique position to reign in troublesome low power commanders, like Zur the enchanter.
Decklist
Note the (number) after the first number in a category represents the total number of cards that fall into that category, including the cards that are represented primarily in a different category. (See Urban Evolution=Ramp/draw, Demonmail Hauberk=Sac. Outlet/Buff)
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Bazaar Trader
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 spawning pit
1 Evolutionary Leap
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Greater Good
1 Demonmail Hauberk
steal creature 7
1 Reins of Power
1 Domineering Will
1 Mass Mutiny
1 Zealous conscripts
1 Mob Rule
1 Molten Primordial
1 Insurrection
Tutor 4
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Fabricate
1 Trophy Mage
1 Drift of Phantasms
Answers/boardwipes 9
1 Curse of the swine
1 Chaos Warp
1 Beast within
1 Dissipation field
1 Chain Reaction
1 All is dust
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 star of extinction
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Rancor
1 Hero's Blade
1 Swiftfoot boots
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Champion's Helm
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Hammer of Nazahn
1 Thunderfoot Baloth
Ramp 12 (15)
1 Sol Ring
1 Sakura Tribe Elder
1 Izzet Signet
1 Farseek
1 Nature's lore
1 Rampant growth
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Overgrowth
1 Hedron Archive
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Skyshroud Claim
Card Advantage 10 (12)
1 Skullclamp
1 Sensei's divining top
1 Life's Legacy
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Curse of Verbosity
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Harmonize
1 Concentrate
1 Mulldrifter
1 Urban evolution
1 High Market
1 Temple of the false god
1 Breeding pool
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Cinder glade
1 Ash barrens
1 Polluted Delta
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Flooded Strand
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Copperline Gorge
1 botanical sanctum
1 Spirebluff Canal
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Shivan Reef
1 Fire-lit thicket
1 Command Tower
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Game Trail
1 Frontier Bivouac
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 swiftwater cliffs
1 Temple of Abandon
1 Temple of Epiphany
4 Island
3 Mountain
6 Forest
Strategy
Yasova has a few ways to play her. We're looking for ramp, a good sac. outlet, Altar of Dementia, plus a gain control of creature spell, Reins of Power, or Yasova+a buff spell. Boardwipes can also suffice.
Yasova is a control based attrition deck. The idea is to keep boardwiping, or stealing creatures and sacrificing them to keep the creature count down. We can count many of the steal creature spells as boardwipes, or close to it, when we have a sac. outlet that requires no mana or tap activation to use. The deck has almost no creatures of it's own, so we must win by attacking in with our opponents' creatures. When played correctly, we gain card advantage through yasova's ability/sac. outlet and board wipes.
Yasova does has another win-con up her sleave, a light voltron theme. Once we've cleared the board of creatures and have out a buff for yasova, we can start going to town on commander damage. You'd be surprised how relevant her steal creature ability is after a boardwipe, allowing us to get extra commander damage through.
This deck is mana hungry. We want to ramp in the early turns to be able to cast our high cost boardwipes, play and use equipment, and use Yasova's ability. I've been continuously adding more ramp and land to feed the need. Do not keep a hand with little mana/ramp! We also want to ramp because if we don't have equipment for protection, or other steal creature spells, we play yasova at 6 mana. Play her at 6 so you have a better chance of using her ability the turn she comes out. Definitely avoid yasova dying without using her ability.
Ramp early, play out equipment, then get prepared to use a board wipe or sac. outlet+mass steal at an opportune moment. We may need to use a wipe earlier than we normally would playing other decks to deal with early attacks to our life. (The hate can be real, also we have few creatures leaving us vulnerable to attacks.) We are really looking for that moment when we can get 4+ card advantage against our opponents with one of our wipes or steal spells. Once things have settled in, play out yasova and protect her with Hexproof, indestructible and the like.
Yasova has a secondary play style sometimes. If we are in a small game, and/or our opponents aren't playing out many early creatures, or we've already played out an early protection spell, it can be correct to play yasova on turns 3-5. If we suspect that our opponents a lot of removal, this move may not be viable without hexproof or at least indestructible to protect her. However, we can start to win early through commander damage and keeping down opponents' early creatures with Yasova's ability if there aren't many on the board.
The deck has been built in such a way that Yasova is usually played late in the game. In most situations, especially with more opponents, it's a good idea to wait on Yasova. This is part of the attrition strategy of the deck. We can sit back, ramp, tutor, draw cards and boardwipe, then play her out once our opponents are low on resources.
As you can see, there is quite a bit of depth to the playstyle here. It's what makes Yasova so much fun! Her play style is so varied, no two games are alike with her.
The tutors are important because they allow me to consistently get my sac. outlets, or something else if I already have a sac. outlet on the board. Here is the tutor break down:
Muddle the Mixture into Cyclonic Rift, Altar of Dementia, Evolutionary Leap, Swiftfoot Boots or Ramp.
Fabricate into Darksteel Plate,Ashnod's Altar, Demonmail Hauberk, Sol Ring.
Trophy Mage into Ashnod's Altar, Darksteel plate, Champion's helm et.
Drift of Phantasms into Champion's helm, Ashnod's Altar, Chaos Warp, Beast within or ramp.
Changelog
Here are the changes to the deck list:
-coiling oracle +Sylvan Scrying
-sidisi's faithful + goblin bombardment
-Wall of frost +Drift of Phantasms
-Spellskite +Dense Foliage
I like Drift of phantasms over wall of frost because it tutors for important spells, and can still perform a somewhat similar function without having UU in it's casting cost. Again, overlapping spells is key. We need some kind of early defense in some games. This can decide how we play the deck. If we are facing an aggro deck that's attacking us, having up some blockers can be of importance.
Goblin bombardments goes in over sidisi's faithful because we want to be able to sacrifice multiple creatures sometimes. The sac. outlets require you to only sacrifice a creature, instead of tapping or paying mana in addition, are the best.
Dense foliage over spellskite because it costs no additional mana after casting and enchantments stick around much longer than creatures do. Note that we can still eqiup, target with yasova and put most of our steal creature spells to good use when this is out. I believing adding an additional layer of protection, that is also searchable with Drift of Phantasms, and requires no more mana investment will really help this deck out.
This deck is great fun! While it doesn't have all of the possible best lands et. in it, it does provide a great template for anyone who wants to really shake up their edh group, and still win some games. I believe this formula of protection+Sac. outlets+tutors really helps keep yasova running strong.
I need to find room for Insurrection somehow. You'd be surprised how often these gain control cards can swing a daunting board state into our favor/we win the game. I don't want to remove Blasphemous act, but it seems like the most logical card to swap right now.
Part of the great fun of yasova is getting a win or two out of nowhere. Literally every gain control of target creature spell+sac. outlet in the deck can win us the game if played at the right moment. The politics of Yasova are infinite. One of the reasons I built Yasova is due to the much hated Sen Triplets deck that plagues our group. Yasova can REALLY shut down any edh deck with a low power commander that also relies on it's commander to function well. She can also just stop people from playing their commanders due to the fear of losing it, which works well for us!
Enter:
I might add Earthquake as well once I pick up the card.
These boardwipes alongside Blasphemous act and Cyclonic rift should really tilt the game in our favor. We can still spend our early turns ramping and getting out equipments, then boardwipe, then play yasova. Part of the struggle was realizing we can't count on the mass gain control of creature spells to act as boardwipes in the early and mid game. We need a good sac. outlet for those to count as wipes, which doesn't always happen by the early/midgame. Adding a few wipes not reliant upon a sac. outlet should really balance things out.
The deck always seem to outperform when I did have a wipe in hand, or someone else wiped the board for me. Yasova is a deadly beast when she's played out onto an empty, or nearly empty battlefield. At that point, we'll have the time and resources to pump up her power and steal most anything our opponents play out.
Here's the updated list. I'll edit the first post when I have time to reflect this change. Bear with me. I don't have all the cards I need for this deck yet, but the pieces are coming together.
1 Shardless Agent
1 Managorger Hydra
1 Taurean Mauler
1 Bloodbraid Elf
Ramp 11 (13)
1 Sol Ring
1 Sakura Tribe Elder
1 Izzet Signet
1 Farseek
1 Nature's lore
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Overgrowth
1 Hedron Archive
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Skyshroud Claim
Card Advantage 9 (14)
1 Skullclamp
1 Life's Legacy
1 Yavimaya elder
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Harmonize
1 Concentrate
1 Urban evolution
1 Mulldrifter
Tutor 4
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Trophy Mage
1 Fabricate
1 Woodland Bellower
Answers 7
1 Chaos Warp
1 Chain Reaction
1 Acidic Slime
1 All is dust
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 star of exctintion
1 Reins of Power
1 Captivating Crew
1 Domineering Will
1 Mob Rule
1 Molten Primordial
Protection/buff 14 (15)
1 Bonesplitter
1 Rancor
1 Swiftfoot boots
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Champion's Helm
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Rhonas the indomitable
1 Hammer of Nazahn
1 Bloodsworn Steward
1 Temur Sabertooth
1 Wolfir Silverheart
1 Verdurous Gearhulk
1 Thunderfoot Baloth
Sac. Outlets 8 (11)
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Makeshift Munitions
1 Evolutionary Leap
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Scourge of skola vale
1 Demonmail Hauberk
1 Conjurer's Closet
Land 38
1 High Market
1 Temple of the false god
1 Breeding pool
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Cinder glade
1 Ash barrens
1 Polluted Delta
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Flooded Strand
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Copperline Gorge
1 botanical sanctum
1 Spirebluff Canal
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Shivan Reef
1 Command Tower
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Game Trail
1 Frontier Bivouac
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Temple of Abandon
1 Temple of Epiphany
6 Island
1 Mountain
7 Forest
Also wondering: what are Shardless Agent and Bloodbraid Elf doing for you in this deck? And Taurean Mauler and Managorger Hydra? They are good cards, but I don't see their added value for this strategy in particular.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
All is dust is actually perfect for the deck. We have a lot of colorless artifacts, plus most of the ramp is land based. Even if we have to sac. yasova when it's played, that can be okay because we'll then have a bunch of equipment out while our opponents aren't as likely to have much left on the board. Add in that yasova only costs 3 to play the first time, she'll still be pretty cheap to cast while most other commanders will cost much more to recast.
I will order a chandra's ignition too. That is a boardwipe this deck is missing.
I'll put in hero's blade in place of bonesplitter.
The goal of this deck seems to continually morph. I think going much heavier on boardwipes will help pick this deck up. I really needed some last night in my game again, I just didn't draw them.
Shardless agent and bloodbraid elf were in there because I needed more creatures, plus they sometimes cascade us into a sac. outlet. Either that or ramp. I am considering removing them however. If the deck's boardwipe number is increased, we don't need creatures for blocking as much. I think I now have enough tutors in the deck that it doesn't need to rely on these guys to help find sac. outlets any more.
Taurean Mauler and Managorger hydra are there because they are cheap creatures that scale up. This deck is pretty light on creatures, I felt like I needed to have some more in there. I'm now embracing that this deck may not need many creatures if it focuses on control/having answers to what's on the board.
It seems like every game I want more mana than I have. I'm considering going up to 39 lands and/or adding more ramp. I'll put out an updated list in the next few days.
Thanks for the feedback!
Cut:
I've added in all of the cards mentioned in ertai planeswalkers post, also the ramp, and dig through time in place of Mulldrifter. Considering all the different pieces this deck wants to function well, better card selection than drifter seemed warranted.
1 Sol Ring
1 Sakura Tribe Elder
1 Izzet Signet
1 Farseek
1 Nature's lore
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Overgrowth
1 Hedron Archive
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Explosive vegetation
1 Skyshroud Claim
Card Advantage 8 (9)
1 Skullclamp
1 Life's Legacy
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Harmonize
1 Concentrate
1 Urban evolution
1 dig through time
Tutor 5
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Trophy Mage
1 Fabricate
1 Drift of phantasms
1 Woodland Bellower
Answers/boardwipes 8
1 Chaos Warp
1 Chain Reaction
1 Chandra's Ignition
1 Acidic Slime
1 All is dust
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 star of extinction
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Reins of Power
1 Captivating Crew
1 Domineering Will
1 Mob Rule
1 Molten Primordial
1 Dominus of fealty
1 Insurrection
Protection/buff 11
1 Rancor
1 Hero's Blade
1 Swiftfoot boots
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Champion's Helm
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Rhonas the indomitable
1 Hammer of Nazahn
1 Temur Sabertooth
1 Wolfir Silverheart
1 Thunderfoot Baloth
Sac. Outlets 8 (10+tutors)
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Evolutionary Leap
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Scourge of skola vale
1 Demonmail Hauberk
1 Conjurer's Closet
Land 39
1 High Market
1 Temple of the false god
1 Breeding pool
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Cinder glade
1 Ash barrens
1 Polluted Delta
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Flooded Strand
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Copperline Gorge
1 botanical sanctum
1 Spirebluff Canal
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Shivan Reef
1 Command Tower
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Game Trail
1 Frontier Bivouac
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 swiftwater cliffs
1 Temple of Abandon
1 Temple of Epiphany
6 Island
1 Mountain
7 Forest
Now that the deck has honed in it the sac. outlets, tutors and card draw, the steal creature spells become much more effective. It also helps the deck to have more of these spells that can target any non-hexproof creature. Yasova is great, but her ability is somewhat limited in it's reach. There's only so much space you can devote to buffing yasova in a deck, not to mention the mana involved. Having these gain control spells, plus extra boardwipes is the back up yasova needs.
The deck is shifting more heavily into control at this point. Yasova has been fun to play the whole way through. After getting to know her better, the deck improves after every game or two. It has a lot of potential for it's fun value, political intrigue, power, ability to counter certain decks, and being a relatively budget build.
If yasova continues to be this much fun, I'll invest in a sensei's divining top, Maze of ith and greater good. These are all cards that would vastly improve whatever card slot they replace. Maze of ith particularly so, due to the deck's lack of defense.
Hopefully some of y'all are felling inspired. Please ask questions about card choices and how to play it. I'll try to keep updating the original post to be more primer-like when I have time.
Lastly, Maze of Ith feels off to me for this deck, as it costs you your land slot to play. Also, since you steal the big creatures, the major threat seems to be getting swarmed. If this is an issue, Propaganda, Collective Restraint, Smoke (Most steal effects untap the creature!) or Crawlspace all seem to be more usefull (and cheaper!) then a Maze would be imo.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
I'll just put greater good in the list with a semi-proxy. I have the card in another deck, this card is worth the trouble to switch between them when the need arises I think. It is an auto-include in this list.
You have hit on something with the trickle card draw and not needing to draw a whole lot of cards at once. There used to be even more in there because I was trying to use it to draw into my sac. outlets. Now that the outlets are tuned to include only the best, plus a good amount of tutors to find them, the deck gets away with less card draw. The immortal sun does look great. Still pricey, I'll wait until I can trade for it or rotation happens.
You're also probably right about woodland bellower and scourge of skola-vale. I can remove scourge if I put in greater good, a superior sac. outlet. If scourge isn't in the deck, bellower doesn't need to be either.
Thunderfoot baloth does more than you give it credit for. I don't have to pay anything extra to get the buff for yasova from it, unlike an equipment. It also buffs the creatures I steal when they come under my control and give them trample. The deck also does like a few creatures as it has all that equipment. I'm not sold on charmbreaker devils as I already seem to have enough to do with my mana, even when I have copious amounts of it.
Helm of possession also looks like an auto-include in the deck. When I first looked at this card (when first building the deck), I didn't quite get it's full value. With a good sac. outlet, I can just keep sacrificing the creature under helm of possession before untapping it. With that ability, I can just keep picking off the biggest creatures on the board, if I have a the ability to steal them, turn after turn.
Zealous conscripts goes in when I get it. Word of seizing isn't as great to me as our group doesn't really use counterspells/the stack much. I'll keep it on my radar.
Smoke looks good.
The deck could use a beast within and Chaos warp. I stand by chaos warp being superior as it can handle indestructible creatures. Also, over 1/3 of the time they will reveal a land or a non-permanent. Those spells are a panic button against an ulamog or something. The chances of them revealing something better are very low.
Thanks for the advice. I'll continue to update the thread. I hope to attract some new yasova players, or find the people who already play her for this thread.
I do this a lot actually, proxying cards I already have. It allows me to keep more decks available on hand to play when I get to play (which as a father of you kids is not as much as I would like). It also saves a lot of money, no need to buy 5 Mana Crypts, 1 is enough.
It's something I find myself walking into more and more. Of course, more cards is better but you're also constrained by your mana in how much of it you can leverage in actual plays. Of course there is a case to make for having increased card selection, but with cards like the Immortal Sun or Staff of Nin which offer additional benefits, the tradeoff is real. I also bought 2 Kumena's Awakenings because I think it's good though I have not been able to play with them yet.
That equipment is for Yasova. And if it's a buff you're looking for...
Good point on Chaos Warp vs Beast Within, guess both are good if you can fit them in.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
If you're saying I shouldn't focus on buffing yasova because xenagos does the job better, I already have a Xenagos deck. I do feel that buffing yasova's power does play a role in this deck. Most creatures are 7 power and under. If yasova can steal 5 to 7 powered creatures due to buffs, we are in a good spot. In fact I'm putting Grafted wargear back into the deck. (I'll update the list soon.) We can play this out and not equip it to anything. Then play yasova, then molten primordial, and sac. all the creatures we stole, end with equipping yasova after we've stolen all our opponents best creatures. I was looking for at least one more semi-unconditional sac. outlet. The fact that it can pivot and buff yasova is great.
I updated the first post. It's in the primer format wizards suggested minus the intro. I completely overhauled the strategy section. (Excuse the bad formatting job and typos, I'll keep working on it.) There is some really interesting stuff in there about yasova's aggressive side that's hard to understand without playing her, or someone laying it out for you. If you do get in the mood for a new commander deck, yasova is an awesome choice. I almost gave up on her a while back, but realized I could just try harder to understand what she needs to function. I'm stoked I stuck with it because this is one of my favorite decks. She makes you work for those wins, but they are spectacular when they work. I have played her every commander night the chance arouse since her creation, and had a blast doing it.
The reason I love yasova so much is because she's a challenge to play well. Yet, she can still be VERY fierce when played well. Definitely a thinking man's deck.
I know you have a Xenagos deck, I have a subscription to penguin’s primer.
I think grafted wargear can be really good indeed, just beware that it can be a two-edged sword as people can naturalize the equipped creature right of the board, regardless of any plate it may be wearing or hammer it’s carrying
Another few cards i thought off that might make the deck better able to control the board a bit: Mana Breach, Ward of Bones and perhaps Damping Engine. It prevents people from (easily) building up a board state that is unmanagable for you.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
a base 4 power Yasova versus a 6 power creature would pass as if you checked the legality of the target as the ability resolved (assuming Xenagos resolves first), but would fail when you check the legality of the target as it is put onto the stack.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
Good point about wargear. On the other hand, people are probably more likely to blow up a more effective sac. outlet like altar of dementia than this one. Still, it is risky.
I like that you're looking for good ideas to help keep the deck alive. I think I'm going to put in dissipation field as my first and only card choice (so far) that protects my life total. I think this punishes people much more than propaganda or Mana breach. Dissipation field specifically keeps people from wanting to attack us. We want people to be able to play out creatures as that's our gas for the deck. Dissipation field allows people to play creatures, and for us to steal them, and encourages my opponents to attack other opponents instead of me. It also deters tokens from attacking me in a big way.
More testing is needed with all of the boardwipes I've added to the deck recently. I think between those, and having more steal effects, we should be in better control of the board with this list.
Ertai, I added a section under "Why play this deck" about the budget. This deck is dirt cheap compared to something like Xenagos. As I said in that section, it's not as though I'm passing up a ton of better card options for monetary reasons. Most of the staples in this deck are $5 or less , excluding the land base. Even the land base is relatively cheap with no enemy fetchlands or old school dual lands. A good reason to start pulling pieces together.
Glad to have you pop in penguin! Glad to know you have at least glanced at the thread.
Spawning pit is exactly what we need. Claws of gix isn't bad either, as we can possibly eek out another turn by sacrificing permanents and surprising our opponents with our extra life. The fact that we can cast it for 0 the turn we want it, then start sacrificing multiple creatures for only 1 mana a pop is great. Spawning pit is REALLY where we want to be at. An unconditional sacrifice outlet that gives us potential for more creatures after we clear the board.
Expect another significant update to the deck in the next few days. There are quite a few cards going in, as usual. The list is becoming ever more refined. Terribly sorry for all the typos et. in the first post. That will be continually updated and refined. It seemed best to get out more raw information sooner to keep people up to date with the deck then wait for a totally refined decklist/"primer" to be finished before posting. My excitement for the deck only grows with each game and brew session!
Not a big fan of claws at all due to not needing the flexibility of saccing permanents, but Spawning Pit is pretty great. I have even more success with it in Marchesa as the tokens it churns out are artifact tokens and benefit from all of my additional synergies.
Dissipation Field is one of those cards where it sounds nice in theory but all it really ends up doing is encouraging people to swing their ETB value dorks at you to take advantage of the bounce feature, not to mention that these are the kind of creatures people are okay with playing into a "jack and sac" board state in the first place.
I know someone who built this at one time. It's a reasonable B-tier deck that is pretty cheap to make, but as a commander you don't quite have the engines that push it up any further. Still, you do give commander-centric strategies headaches (as long as they aren't Theros Gods, then welp).
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
Spawning Pit is indeed a good card, can create chump blockers at instant speed when you need it. Sac outlet + defense
Funny, I would play it asap. You want to be able to respond to creature kill as well, help prevent nasty stuff (like Control Magic effects from happening to your creatures, especially Yasova. Since you can't cast the claws at instant speed, why would you hold onto it? If people Naturalize it then fine, better that than something else...
Can confirm. It's not a blue No Mercy.
I see you haven't added Hadana's Climb, are you going to? Because I think it's really, really good.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
I don't like Hadana's climb because it's too slow. It's hard to keep yasova out for 3 turns. Also, I won't receive the +1/+1 counter buff until after I have to target with Yasova's ability. Her power needs to be buffed before combat starts. You choose the target with yasova's ability when it goes on the stack, it checks the power of both creatures then, it checks the power again when it resolves. Also, all of my buff cards are repeatable if yasova dies, this card will be useless if yasova dies before it flips.
I'm going to try out dissipation field still. It's worked well in another edh deck I have. Also, yasova can steal and sac. small etb creatures before they get the chance to attack us. That, or many of those creatures will be dead because we've boardwiped or psuedo gain control boardwiped. I think this card will help stop the really big creatures from running me over before I find an answer to them. It seems to work as a pretty good deterrent in my play group. People just stop attacking you if there's an easier target. Propaganda isn't that much of a deterrent mid late game. An opponent will happily pay the 2 to just keep swinging in with their fatty creature. if they try that with dissipation field, they'll be forced to expend much more mana, plus the creature will only be able to attack in every other turn for 5+ mana, as opposed to 2 mana every turn.
I'm considering heroic intervention and spellskite. I like that these cards can both protect creatures, and artifacts from destruction. We need to watch out for our golden goose sac. outlets. Although, there are enough of them that I seem to find 2 by the late game usually.
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
I like the deck a lot for these reasons. I'm one of the stronger players in my group, if I do say so myself, It's really more of a big fish in a small pond kind of scenario. So, I've been looking for a deck that isn't quite so linear, and isn't quite so powerful. (You know I run those fools over with Xenagos when I need to.)
What I admire most about playing this is that you must really think about your every move. The deck has different routes of playing depending on the cards you draw, and what decks you face. Also, I really hate Sen Triplets and wanted a deck that could stop it from winning so often in my group. When I win with this deck, I know I worked for it through gameplay decisions and critical deck design choices. Some of my other decks are a bit overpowered and definitely more simple and more linear.
Here's the latest list. Had some technical difficulties revising it, but this is it currently before I go into test.
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Bazaar Trader
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 spawning pit
1 Evolutionary Leap
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Greater Good
1 Demonmail Hauberk
steal creature 7
1 Reins of Power
1 Domineering Will
1 Mass Mutiny
1 Zealous conscripts
1 Mob Rule
1 Molten Primordial
1 Insurrection
Tutor 4
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Fabricate
1 Trophy Mage
1 Drift of Phantasms
Answers/boardwipes 9
1 Curse of the swine
1 Chaos Warp
1 Beast within
1 Dissipation field
1 Chain Reaction
1 All is dust
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 star of extinction
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Rancor
1 Hero's Blade
1 Swiftfoot boots
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Champion's Helm
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Hammer of Nazahn
1 Thunderfoot Baloth
Ramp 12 (15)
1 Sol Ring
1 Sakura Tribe Elder
1 Izzet Signet
1 Farseek
1 Nature's lore
1 Rampant growth
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Overgrowth
1 Hedron Archive
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Skyshroud Claim
Card Advantage 9 (11)
1 Skullclamp
1 Sensei's divining top
1 Life's Legacy
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Curse of Verbosity
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Harmonize
1 Concentrate
1 Mulldrifter
1 Urban evolution
1 High Market
1 Temple of the false god
1 Breeding pool
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Cinder glade
1 Ash barrens
1 Polluted Delta
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Flooded Strand
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Copperline Gorge
1 botanical sanctum
1 Spirebluff Canal
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Shivan Reef
1 Fire-lit thicket
1 Command Tower
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Game Trail
1 Frontier Bivouac
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 swiftwater cliffs
1 Temple of Abandon
1 Temple of Epiphany
4 Island
3 Mountain
6 Forest
I'll highlight some changes when I have more time.
While I agree with the idea that sac. outlets must have some really great value if they have a mana cost, this deck has special needs in that department. It's better to have Claws of Gix compared to something like scourge of skola vale. We want the ability to sacrifice multiple creatures at once, even if it means paying for it, compared to a tap ability that guarantees only one creature sacced per turn. Since I'm not going to buy Phyrexian altar, the deck needs more sac. outlets then we can find that require no other activation cost. I worry about going fewer than the number of sac. outlets I already have, so there just aren't enough of the primo kind to fill the slot.
Hope that made sense. Not all sac. outlets are what we'd want them to be, but there just aren't enough of the ideal kind to fill the number of slots the deck wants. Yasova gets grumpy if some kind of sac. outlet doesn't appear by turn 5.
So, Yasova was kicking ass, and almost assuredly could have won, if I had the intention to do so. My opponents had laid out most of their hands in creatures, and I had multiple gain control spells, a board wipe in hand plus a sac. outlet on the board. I durdled around and let my friend build up his allies for the win.
Funnily enough, I didn't recognize that I could one shot commander damage an opponent because my friend had out while I also had out Rafiq of the many while I had hammer of nazhem on Yasova. Gaining control of Rafiq could have set me up for commander damage against that opponent, but I wasn't trying to win...
Despite not having some key cards like Insurrection and mass mutiny and a couple of others, the deck did amazingly well. It looks pretty hard to beat in a 3 player game unless someone can counter our stuff or we fail to get out a sac. outlet.