MTG Salvation

Okay, so with almost half of the cards from Dominaria spoiled, I got this janky idea of equipping Brothers Yamazaki with Helm of the Host and going to town. Recently, other cards being released have also added to the possibility of running this jank like Blade of Selves, Mirror of the Forebears, and Mirage Mirror. Without the obvious mention of Mirror Gallery, Helm of the Host can make some pretty interesting plays. Equipping Brothers Yamazaki with it makes indefinite tokens even if you don't have Mirror Gallery out. Then you can simply copy the nonlegendary Brothers Yamazaki and have each one give his brothers +2/+2 which is practically exponential. And quite honestly, who's going to see you as a threat at a table when you whip out one of the two versions of Brothers Yamazaki as your commander?

Here's my list so far:


So what the deck wants to do is attack with as many Brothers Yamazaki as possible. It's pretty much along the lines of attacking with an army of Elvish Archdruid. Except that everybody gets cumulative +2/+2. Beyond that shell the deck just does its best to be fast and to dig quickly for the cards that will effectively clone Brothers Yamazaki in order to potentially snipe an opponent. Again, being janky and casual. The best way to go about being equipping Brothers Yamazaki with Blade of Selves and attacking while having Mirror Gallery in play.

Quote from JDviant »

Sundial of the Infinite + Flameshadow Conjuring / Minion Reflector / Heat Shimmer / Twinflame can also get you your second brother and is clunky jank.

Mimic Vat can give you a Brother every turn without Sundial.

I really like the notion of sacrificing Brothers Yamazaki (it has a terrible p/t) as a response to removal since it's easy to cast. That way I can take advantage of cards like Mimic Vat and your other suggestions. Sundial of the Infinite would be great to add!

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Any other suggestions please let me know!

How is mimic vat helpful? You'd still only have 1 brother and you risk it being permanently exiled. Am I missing something?

How about spy kit to get an extra brother?

Quote from DirkGently »

How is mimic vat helpful? You'd still only have 1 brother and you risk it being permanently exiled. Am I missing something?

How about spy kit to get an extra brother?

But Spy Kit wouldn't let me have a creature called Brothers Yamazaki because it has to be nonlegendary. Even if I make a nonlegendary token named Brothers Yamazaki with Helm of the Host, the nonlegendary creature names mentioned by Spy Kit have to be in Oracle.

Quote from DementedKirby »

But Spy Kit wouldn't let me have a creature called Brothers Yamazaki because it has to be nonlegendary. Even if I make a nonlegendary token named Brothers Yamazaki with Helm of the Host, the nonlegendary creature names mentioned by Spy Kit have to be in Oracle.

Yeah sorry, I misremembered the card. Bummage.

Yeah, every now and again I misread cards too, lol. But at least now I have a good idea of taking advantage of sacrifice hijinxes with trying to abuse Brothers Yamazaki.

Quote from DementedKirby »

Yeah, every now and again I misread cards too, lol. But at least now I have a good idea of taking advantage of sacrifice hijinxes with trying to abuse Brothers Yamazaki.

I'm confused what you mean by that. What benefit do you get from sacking them? Are you really planning to put your commander under a mimic vat? Seems really risky.

Considering how integral certain artifacts are to your plans, I'd say hoarding dragon is probably a must.

You need to be careful about the exact wording for cloning.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Tilonalli's Skinshifter can't copy Legends so they're not that good without Helm of the Host. Also, with Sundial of the Infinite you need to see if the cards say to sacrifice/exile the clone at end of turn next end step like Flameshadow Conjuring and Twinflame or if it gives the clone "Sacrifice/Exile this at end of turn" like Minion Reflector and Heat Shimmer. The latter's clones try to sacrifice/exile at the end of each turn, so Sundial of the Infinite just makes them last until the next player's turn.

As for card suggestions, if Heat Shimmer is worth tree mana then casting Kindred Charge for six when you have more than one brother should make it worth the cost. I'm also going to second Hoarding Dragon if your playgroup isn't too likely to exile it before you can get it killed. Since you're using Snow Covered Mountains, I'm going to suggest Scrying Sheets for there to be a reason for Snow Lands other than style points. (Nothing against style Points, I just think you earned enough from running Brothers Yamazaki. :P) If you're insane enough to risk losing Brothers Yamazaki to Mimic Vat, then you're probably be fine risking losing him to use Feldon of the Third Path too. I don't expect you to consider the last one, I'm just throwing it out there.

Quote from DirkGently »

Quote from DementedKirby »

Yeah, every now and again I misread cards too, lol. But at least now I have a good idea of taking advantage of sacrifice hijinxes with trying to abuse Brothers Yamazaki.

I'm confused what you mean by that. What benefit do you get from sacking them? Are you really planning to put your commander under a mimic vat? Seems really risky.

Considering how integral certain artifacts are to your plans, I'd say hoarding dragon is probably a must.

Yeah, I'm probably not going to be running Mimic Vat being able to sacrifice tokens that are already going to disappear at the end of the turn seems like something a bit more useful then just attacking and then having them do nothing.

Hoarding Dragon seems like a good card to include to tutor for artifacts.

Any suggestions on some cuts I could make to get some room in the list?

Quote from CTNC »

You need to be careful about the exact wording for cloning.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Tilonalli's Skinshifter can't copy Legends so they're not that good without Helm of the Host. Also, with Sundial of the Infinite you need to see if the cards say to sacrifice/exile the clone at end of turn next end step like Flameshadow Conjuring and Twinflame or if it gives the clone "Sacrifice/Exile this at end of turn" like Minion Reflector and Heat Shimmer. The latter's clones try to sacrifice/exile at the end of each turn, so Sundial of the Infinite just makes them last until the next player's turn.

As for card suggestions, if Heat Shimmer is worth tree mana then casting Kindred Charge for six when you have more than one brother should make it worth the cost. I'm also going to second Hoarding Dragon if your playgroup isn't too likely to exile it before you can get it killed. Since you're using Snow Covered Mountains, I'm going to suggest Scrying Sheets for there to be a reason for Snow Lands other than style points. (Nothing against style Points, I just think you earned enough from running Brothers Yamazaki. :P) If you're insane enough to risk losing Brothers Yamazaki to Mimic Vat, then you're probably be fine risking losing him to use Feldon of the Third Path too. I don't expect you to consider the last one, I'm just throwing it out there.

Yeah, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror-Breaker and Tilonalli's Skinshifter are for copying nonlegendary copies (either way they're good for copying cards like Dragon Mage, Scourge of the Throne, and Magus of the Wheel). Scrying Sheets is something I can definitely consider. The reason I run snow-covered basics is because people who run cards like Extraplanar Lens tend to do so due to them running snow-covered lands.

What cuts do you think I could do to make some space in the deck?