MTG Salvation

Inspired by: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/yuriko-stax/


Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow is an interesting card, a lot of builds focus on Ninjas and high cmc cards that aren't usually cast. In this build I wanted to make sure that all the ninjas and high cmc cards are castable in the early parts of the game, trying to speed Yuriko to her absolute most powerful...stax.
Yuriko is a combination of Edric, Spymaster of Trest and Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, both often considered some of the most powerful commanders ever made. Yuriko loves stax effects because they are not symmetrical.
Yuriko sits through cards like Cursed totem, Orb of dreams, Nether void, chains of mephistopheles and it doesn't do a thing to her. Meanwhile your opponents need to make sure all of them are constantly able to block, which with Chain of vapor, Snuff out, Submerge, and Umezawa's Jitte is unlikely to happen. Enjoy!

























































CREATURES
The creatures can be split into three groups. We have the low ninjutsu cmc ninjas, evasive value creatures, and good enter the battlefield cards.

• Artificer's Assistant- Flyer with relevant abilty
• Augury Owl- Evasive creature with good enter the battlefield ability.
• Cloud of faeries- Pretty much free flyer
• Draco- Only card that isn't cast. Used solely to drain people for the most possible
• Elder- Deep-fiend- Resets Yuriko, taps down blockers or relevant cards, hits for big drains. Great cards
• Gilded Drake- Gives opponent a creature but can switch to your advantage or use bounce to abuse gilded drake
• Mistblade Shinobi- Low ninjutsu with decent ability
• Mothdust Changeling- Ninja with some evasion
• Ninja of the Deep Hours- Low cmc ninjutsu with good ability
• Ornithopter- Free and evasion
• phyrexian Revoker- Hurts key cards and can be bounced to turn into something else later
• Sage of Epityr-Low cmc with good enter ability
• Sage Owl- Same as other owls
• Sakashima the Impostor- Double's Yuriko's trigger. Makes 2 Ninja hits trigger Yuriko 4 times
• Sidisi's Faithful- Low cmc, resets Yuriko, and bounces opponents creature for free hits
• Siren Stormtamer- Low cmc flyer with good ability
• Skullsnatcher- Low cmc ninja
• Snapcaster Mage-Has great enter the battlefield that can be done on opponents turns
• Spellseeker- Has great etb that can be abused with ninja's
• Spire Owl -Hoot hoot hooot
• Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive- Makes pretty much everything unblockable
• Throat Slitter- Good Yuriko trigger hit and low ninjutsu cost
• Walker of Secret Ways- Low ninjutsu
• Wingcrafter- Flyer with relevant ability

ARTIFACTS
Mostly used for stax or making Yuriko hit better. Yuriko isn't hurt by any of the stax effects

• Chrome Mox- Early ramp for faster kills
• Cursed Totem- low cmc stax card that doesn't hurt anything in the deck
• Damping Sphere- Most of the time we cast one spell a turn and ninjutsu
most of the other spells. Then instants during opponents turn

• Mana Crypt- Duh
• Mox Amber- With a commander that's always on the battlefield this is pretty much free
• Mox Diamond- Pretty much free ramp. Late game we draw too many lands anyway as well
• Null Rod- Doesn't hurt much in the deck and hurts a lot of other decks
• Orb of Dreams- Doesn't effect ninjutsu
• Scroll Rack- Abuse draco
• Sensei's Divining Top Abuse Draco
• Sol Ring Ramp
• Umezawa's Jitte- Makes sure one player is often available for a slap
• Winter Orb- Hurts other players, doesn't really effect us

ENCHANTMENTS
Very few enchantments in here but they're some of the best in the deck

• Arcane Adaptation- Turns every creature into a Yuriko trigger. Can easily kill the turn it lands
• Arcane Laboratory- We often only cast one spell a turn since most of the relevant cards are ninjas which we don't need to cast or instants which can be done during opponents turns
• Chains of Mephistopheles-Yuriko's ability isn't a draw so you can outdraw your opponents quickly
• Mystic Remora- Easy card draw engine

SORCERY
Most of these are either staples for Yuriko or Staples for commander.

• Demonic Tutor- Black staple
• Diabolic Intent- Resets Yuriko and tutor
• Imperial Seal- Top of deck tutor
• Rags // Riches- Drains for a ton, has a massacre effect, and has a good spell for late game
• Sickening Dreams- Can kill many chump blockers or end the game when opponents are all low
• Temporal Trespass- Drains for 11 and often is a 3 mana extra turn
• Toxic deluge- Controlled board wipe
• Transmute Artifact- Searches for stax piece, jitte, or scroll rack
• Treasure Cruise- One mana spell that drains for eight

INSTANTS
Often used to make sure Yuriko is free to beat face but can also be used as good Yuriko targets or messing with separate triggers

• Abjure- Resets Yuriko and low cmc counter
• Brainstorm- Puts high cmc cards back on top for more drain.
• Chain of Vapor- One cmc bounce
• Commandeer- Free spell with high cmc
• Commit // Memory- Bounce with huge drain
• Cyclonic Rift- Low cmc bounce
• Dig Through Time- High cmc with low casting cast
• Dispel- Low cmc counter
• Flusterstorm- See above
• Force of Will- Free counter with good drain
• Insidious Dreams- Sets up game ends
• Lim-Dul's Vault- Can end game or set up big drain
• Mana Drain- Pretty good I guess
• Mental Misstep- Free counter
• Misdirection- Free effect with good drain
• Mystical Tutor- Top of deck tutor for another big drain and getting a good spell like Temporal trespass
• Snapback- Free bounce
• Snuff Out- Free kill
• Submerge- Free fateseal tuck?
• Swan Song- Low cmc counter
• Vampiric Tutor- Top of deck drain and tutor

More coming soon

I like how many ways there are to get around effects that stop you from drawing cards.

Notion Thief, Uba Mask.

I found that the deck's dps can be pretty unreliable at times and it draws quite a bit of attention even if you're most often likely to hit lands.

I'm actually surprised that many of the comp builds run all the owls. I thought they'd be a bit too mana intensive for that..

Is Rags better than Connive? I'd figure that the commander theft would be better than a -2/-2 effect that wipes all your guys.

Quote from plushpenguin »

I like how many ways there are to get around effects that stop you from drawing cards.

Notion Thief, Uba Mask.

I found that the deck's dps can be pretty unreliable at times and it draws quite a bit of attention even if you're most often likely to hit lands.

I'm actually surprised that many of the comp builds run all the owls. I thought they'd be a bit too mana intensive for that..

Is Rags better than Connive? I'd figure that the commander theft would be better than a -2/-2 effect that wipes all your guys.

Rags hits for a little more so that's a small plus but the massacre effect is actually really nice. Kills a ton of chump blockers and leaves Yuriko.
Plus Riches is pretty decent in late game

Plushpenguin, has Stronic Resonator ever been in the deck?

Update!

OUT

Island
Swamp
Disciple of deceit
Library of leng
Massacre
Mausoleum wanderer
Spellstutter sprite
Damping matrix



IN
Cabal pit
Elder Deep-fiend
Toxic deluge
Cloud of faeries
strip mine
Spellseeker
Artificer's assistant
Mox diamond

I just got this commander and build it around the ninja theme and drawing life ofcourse. But the playgroup doesnt like the extra turns cards so should i just go like fk it and use them and get hated or can it work just the same way without the extra turn cards?

Quote from Berat »

I just got this commander and build it around the ninja theme and drawing life ofcourse. But the playgroup doesnt like the extra turns cards so should i just go like fk it and use them and get hated or can it work just the same way without the extra turn cards?

Temporal trespass is the only one and works very well with the deck. You can replace it with another high cmc spell (Emrakul?)

I like temporal mastery but trespass is by far the best here

This is definitely an interesting way to build Yuriko and where I was already trying to make a deck with her, I'm going to use this as a base to build my version off. As I don't have budget for the more expensive card nor do I have the fetches and fast mana. The groups I'm in aren't fully competitive so I can afford it slowing down slightly and just be lighter on the stax effects as well for now, but will likely pick them up the remaining stax pieces and have them around as a potential sideboard.

Quote from NimBalor »

This is definitely an interesting way to build Yuriko and where I was already trying to make a deck with her, I'm going to use this as a base to build my version off. As I don't have budget for the more expensive card nor do I have the fetches and fast mana. The groups I'm in aren't fully competitive so I can afford it slowing down slightly and just be lighter on the stax effects as well for now, but will likely pick them up the remaining stax pieces and have them around as a potential sideboard.

A lot of the stax cards are silver bullets for meta.

If my meta didn't have 2 breyas and arcum plus more i wouldn't run null rod.
Chains, orb of dreams, and cursed totem I feel like are the best.
Transmute artifact and winter orb just sometimes time walk the table.

I have been thinking of Volrath's Stronghold just because the look on players faces when I put Draco back on the top of my deck after discarding it. Not particularly strong, but really funny to watch.

..or Academy Ruins

..

Quote from trancer99 »

I have been thinking of Volrath's Stronghold just because the look on players faces when I put Draco back on the top of my deck after discarding it. Not particularly strong, but really funny to watch.

..or Academy Ruins

..

I used to run stronghold a little while ago when I had a reanimator package but ended up cutting it with the package since I couldn't reliably cast the cards. Plus adding more colorless seems wrong at this point. I do like ruins since it works well with returning stax peices or scroll rack so that one would probably make the cut later, I'll add it to test list

Quote from trancer99 »

I have been thinking of Volrath's Stronghold just because the look on players faces when I put Draco back on the top of my deck after discarding it. Not particularly strong, but really funny to watch.

..or Academy Ruins

..

Adding Ruins to a base Dimir deck is a fine inclusion. Being able to recover dead mana rocks or Stax pieces sounds like a great thing to do. And being able to reuse Draco sounds like too much fun. At that point, I would probably just make the switch to Mindslaver because it still drains for 6 when flipped off of Yuriko while being another Combo outlet. I admit it's not entirely effective, but a well-timed Mindslaver can sometimes hand you the game better than draining for 16 will.

Quote from benjameenbear »

Quote from trancer99 »

I have been thinking of Volrath's Stronghold just because the look on players faces when I put Draco back on the top of my deck after discarding it. Not particularly strong, but really funny to watch.

..or Academy Ruins

..

Adding Ruins to a base Dimir deck is a fine inclusion. Being able to recover dead mana rocks or Stax pieces sounds like a great thing to do. And being able to reuse Draco sounds like too much fun. At that point, I would probably just make the switch to Mindslaver because it still drains for 6 when flipped off of Yuriko while being another Combo outlet. I admit it's not entirely effective, but a well-timed Mindslaver can sometimes hand you the game better than draining for 16 will.

Why not just Emrakul?
I don't like adding too many colorless since its importent to have yuriko online early and often.

So far the deck has been performing very strong even without the extra turns and the only one im even considering is the planeswalker: Mu Yanling which isn't fast but it seems fun haha. And how many unblockable 1 and 2 drops are necessary for good consistency?

Quote from Berat »

So far the deck has been performing very strong even without the extra turns and the only one im even considering is the planeswalker: Mu Yanling which isn't fast but it seems fun haha. And how many unblockable 1 and 2 drops are necessary for good consistency?

I actually cut the unblockable one drops for flyers with perks.

Siren stormtamer probably won't be blocked and has decent ability

Artificer's assistant also sets up yuriko

Mausoleum wanderer is decent

Cloud of faeries is pretty much free

How would you adjust if you had more creature based decks in your meta, I seem to be losing all my creatures and getting beat down in my meta. By turn 4 or 5 everyone has flying blockers. Ideas?

..

Quote from trancer99 »

How would you adjust if you had more creature based decks in your meta, I seem to be losing all my creatures and getting beat down in my meta. By turn 4 or 5 everyone has flying blockers. Ideas?

..

I cut massacre because I don't have as many creatures so I would look there first.

Sword of fire and ice for protection and ping seems solid
Muderous cut to kill a critter is decent.
It's important to note that you only need one person to attack with the ninjas so honestly bullying the low creature deck is a viable option. But if none exist cutting some irrlevent stax cards for kill cards with upside would be a good start



Edit

This also may be a better place to add the 1 mana unlockable creatures instead.

It may have been a bad night, but 2 players were basically making sure I had no creatures out after they saw what I did with them, so I got nowhere fast, I might need to add something dumb like DD/Labman. I love the commander though, I'm just having trouble with my meta letting me use her. lol

...

Quote from trancer99 »

It may have been a bad night, but 2 players were basically making sure I had no creatures out after they saw what I did with them, so I got nowhere fast, I might need to add something dumb like DD/Labman. I love the commander though, I'm just having trouble with my meta letting me use her. lol

...

Yeah thats the thing. When they see you beat all 3 at the same time they know what youre going to do so they just "waste" their removal on our little guys to make sure we dont ninjustu their ass.

I have a strange idea, depending on your meta.
You like casting small, evasive creatures to bring Yuriko with. You don't care too much about her dying since you can activate her ability again and bring her back. So what about Magus of the Abyss?
Its ability is negligible when it comes to you - you just sac Yuriko all day every day and bring her back with her ability, while your opponents have to get rid of their creatures, which means blockers so you have an easier time attacking into stuff. It's also a creature, which means you can attack with it and bring Yuriko with it as well. Worst case scenario you don't want the ability to happen anymore, so you sac it to its own ability. What do you think?
To me it feels very good. If Braids were legal she would be an all star here. You could also go for Smokestack, but it's a turn slower and there are less synergies. Likewise, if you have U producing mana rocks, you could go for Contamination, but that feels much more risky and much less friendly.
Bontu the Glorified also seems interesting. He's indestructible and evasive so you don't mind attacking with him, he's a sac outlet for Yuriko so it can be good synergy, he makes you scry so you can decide on your top card before you resolve Yuriko's ability, and it's some lifegain.

Quote from shermanido37 »

I have a strange idea, depending on your meta.
You like casting small, evasive creatures to bring Yuriko with. You don't care too much about her dying since you can activate her ability again and bring her back. So what about Magus of the Abyss?
Its ability is negligible when it comes to you - you just sac Yuriko all day every day and bring her back with her ability, while your opponents have to get rid of their creatures, which means blockers so you have an easier time attacking into stuff. It's also a creature, which means you can attack with it and bring Yuriko with it as well. Worst case scenario you don't want the ability to happen anymore, so you sac it to its own ability. What do you think?
To me it feels very good. If Braids were legal she would be an all star here. You could also go for Smokestack, but it's a turn slower and there are less synergies. Likewise, if you have U producing mana rocks, you could go for Contamination, but that feels much more risky and much less friendly.
Bontu the Glorified also seems interesting. He's indestructible and evasive so you don't mind attacking with him, he's a sac outlet for Yuriko so it can be good synergy, he makes you scry so you can decide on your top card before you resolve Yuriko's ability, and it's some lifegain.

Those all seem decent but the mana cost is a bit high for what I want to do. Plus having an outlet to sac yuriko isn't too important. It's a benefit when a card has upside with a sac like Elder Deep fiend or Diabolic intent but the resesting Yuriko isn't the most important thing, it's more important to make sure opponents can't block and Magus and Smokestack are a little too slow for that. I think

Tbh i can see some sack outlets work for us but rather have bounce outlets just for the ninjustsu and we can allways send commander to the zone.
So what can we do about this? Was thinking about crystal shard we we can at least bounce a ninjustu guy at end of the turn or force someone to pay the mana or bouncing their creature.

Quote from Berat »

Tbh i can see some sack outlets work for us but rather have bounce outlets just for the ninjustsu and we can allways send commander to the zone.
So what can we do about this? Was thinking about crystal shard we we can at least bounce a ninjustu guy at end of the turn or force someone to pay the mana or bouncing their creature.

It's very meta dependent. In my group it's far less creature based so Yuriko having someone to connect with very consistently isn't often a problem, with groups that have more creatures I think a route with more bounce or removal would work better

Quote from Dies_to_Doom_Blade »

Quote from Berat »

Tbh i can see some sack outlets work for us but rather have bounce outlets just for the ninjustsu and we can allways send commander to the zone.
So what can we do about this? Was thinking about crystal shard we we can at least bounce a ninjustu guy at end of the turn or force someone to pay the mana or bouncing their creature.

It's very meta dependent. In my group it's far less creature based so Yuriko having someone to connect with very consistently isn't often a problem, with groups that have more creatures I think a route with more bounce or removal would work better

I do have a group where boardwipes are inevitable and at the same time creature based.
Need to build up more experience in playing the deck, cause im hesitated to ninjutsu into an already attacking ninja and id rather ninjutsu a non ninja creature. But there arent a lot of ninjas so i guess i should do that, but the greedyness inside of me wants more connecting ninjas haha

Love this deck! I like your approach with low cost flyers instead of low cost unblockable creatures. That's a cool take on it.

I bought Yuriko and just have it in my binder for now. Saving it until I muster the energy and money to build the deck hehe. I'm just sad my group of friends I play with aren't really into Commander and the people at my LGS are a little too hardcore for my Commander level hehe.