MTG Salvation

So world, say hello to Yarok, the Desecrated. Yarok says hello, world.

I actually made Homer Simpson noises this morning when I saw this card. Panharmonicon on a stick in the best three colors in EDH is so...so...gross. I wanted to detail all the magical things Yarok can do because he can do so many of them, so I figured I'd start a thread.

1. #value

I list this just so it's out of the way - yes you can just jam a goodstuff Sultai deck loaded to bear with Ravenous Chupacabra and Shriekmaw and Wood Elves and Baleful Strix and Coiling Oracle and Solemn Simulacrum and Mulldrifter and Eternal Witness and Acidic Slime and have a good old time with double rainbow value. You can add blink effects like Conjurer's Closet for even greater value. This is for sure powerful. But we can do more.

2. Enter the Infinite (as in combos, not that card)

Due to his color limitations Yarok doesn't go quite as infinite as Panharmonicon, but then again you do get the redundancy of Yarok being in your Command Zone instead of your 99. As far as I can tell (so far!) there are no 100% easy-mode infinites with Yarok but there are some extremely powerful comboes that should effectively BE infinite with good enough deckbuilding.

- We can chain together gross amounts of mana with Peregrine Drake, Cloud of Faeries, Palinchron, and Great Whale. This can allow us to draw deep with Mulldrifter, Sphinx of Uthuun, Demonlord Belzenlok, and Sphinx of Lost Truths as well as tutor creatures like Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Rune-scarred Demon, drawing into more untappers or clones until we can cast an extra turn effect or a Clone Legion or kicked Rite of Replication. That's certainly a deck.

- It should also be pretty infinite with a few mana dorks alongside Intruder Alarm and some sorta token maker or Cloudstone Curio. Indeed I think that Yarok + Imperious Perfect + Birds of Paradise or anything else that can tap for G or untap a single land is infinite, and it is also much easier to go infinite with say Shrieking Drake if you just need a single card to tap for U. I have no doubt there is an infinite with Earthcraft and token makers too but Earthcraft comboes with all cards so that hardly counts.

But that's all just what you can do with Yarok that you could also do with ol' Harmonicon. Crucially Yarok triggers off of PERMANENTS, and not just "creatures and artifacts". That opens us up for...

3. Land-harmoni-fall
Yarok is now the best Sultai lands commander because it also doubles your triggers of Courser of Kruphix, Retreat to Coralhelm, Rampaging Baloths, Field of the Dead, Avenger of Zendikar, and any other landfall card. This is unprecedented, spicy territory and I'm excited to play with it. I don't know if there's an infinite there (maybe some sorta jank with Patron of the Moon, Lotus Cobra, and Meloku the Clouded Mirror?) but it seems like a blast.

The Lists
I'll try to keep a running tally of fun stuff to do with Yarok.



(to be finished later)

What are you excited to experiment with using Yarok?

I'm excited to have to put torpor orbs in everything again because of this nonsense

And landfall, ugh. I don't even know what to do about that. where's our upgraded torpor orb preferably on a flash body

Quote from Pokken »

I'm excited to have to put torpor orbs in everything again because of this nonsense

And landfall, ugh. I don't even know what to do about that. where's our upgraded torpor orb preferably on a flash body

You mean Hushwing Gyrff? Where have you been?

the issue with torpor orb and hushwing gryff is that they don't stop non-creature ETB effects from triggering. If the deck focuses on landfall yarok, then the aforementioned cards do nothing to stop it.

New thing I'm excited for - Elemental Tribal!

- There are lots of excellent Elementals with EtB abilities thanks to Lorwyn so it's naturally great to include Mulldrifter, Cloudthresher, and Shriekmaw. The only "Elemental Lord" in existence, Master of Waves, is also preeettty good with Yarok.

- Yarok makes for a nice little synergy with Fertilid + Evolution Sage.

- Yarok is clearly insane in an Elemental shell alongside Risen Reef.

- But we can go deeper! If we have Yarok, Risen Reef, and Zendikar's Roil we have a chance to go full infinite durdle. Let's say we have Roil + Reef out and cast Yarok (they curve well, after all). Yarok triggers Risen Reef twice, so we get to look at the top two cards of our library, put any lands onto the battlefield, and draw the rest. If we hit any lands, we make two 2/2 elementals...and now we get to look at 4 more cards. Any lands there, and we make two 2/2s and look at four more cards a piece. This combo can't kill us because Risen Reef doesn't "draw", but in theory we can "draw" our entire library, put every land in our library onto the battlefield, and create twice as many elementals. Spicy stuff. We can make it even more consistent with Cream of the Crop or newcomer Season of Growth (which also curve perfectly), which allow us to view several more cards on each run through the triggers and near-guarantee it all works. We're in the colors to rig the deck with Insidious Dreams too, if we really want.

Best of all, because you are so inclined to be running landfall synergies anyways between Risen Reef, Fertilid, Silverglade Elemental, and Explore synergies alongside Wildgrowth Walker all of these pieces are pretty reasonable to include on their own, and it just gets super sick if we assemble the infinity gauntlet.

Quote from TheAmericanSpirit »

Quote from Pokken »

I'm excited to have to put torpor orbs in everything again because of this nonsense

And landfall, ugh. I don't even know what to do about that. where's our upgraded torpor orb preferably on a flash body

You mean Hushwing Gyrff? Where have you been?

Yeah I mean I play gryff in Ephara so I am familiar but it doesn't stop landfall or even artifactfall.

inverter of truth
laboratory maniac

I’m more interested in finding nifty enchantments that become way more efficient as their etb trigger doubles: Hedonist’s Trove (get two opponent’s stuff), Illusions of Grandeur (gain 40 life on etb), Marit Lage’s Slumber (double scry 1 each time), Polluted Bonds (drain 4 per land) etc.

Quote from Pokken »

I'm excited to have to put torpor orbs in everything again because of this nonsense

And landfall, ugh. I don't even know what to do about that. where's our upgraded torpor orb preferably on a flash body

well fwiw flash is not super helpful for stopping land etbs since the trigger goes on the stack before you get priority (although if they crack a fetch you could respond to that, I suppose).

My deck is going to be less combo-win and more attrition/grindy. Probably a lot of sacrifice and reanimation, since I expect my things will die anyway.

Demon of Dark Schemes looks good in here; considering it kills a lot of things and can provide recursion for more ETBs.

Also enjoy Ichor Wellspring and Mycosynth Wellspring as cheap colorless little value engines.

Things could get weird with Helm of the Host... real fast.

Yarok's Fenlurker? Exile 2 cards from everyone's hands seems busted for two mana.

Muldrotha, the Gravetide for recurring everything Yarok cares about.

Prime Speaker Vannifar... no need to mention why.

Guardian Project for card draw.

Bramble Paragon for more ETBs

Woodland Bellower feels nuts. Grab two creatures cmc 3 or less, then have their etb's trigger? Grab a Springbloom Druid and a Farhaven Elf, jump from 6 to 10 lands.

Quote from DirkGently »

Quote from Pokken »

I'm excited to have to put torpor orbs in everything again because of this nonsense

And landfall, ugh. I don't even know what to do about that. where's our upgraded torpor orb preferably on a flash body

well fwiw flash is not super helpful for stopping land etbs since the trigger goes on the stack before you get priority (although if they crack a fetch you could respond to that, I suppose).

You can respond to fetches and spells and creatures that ramp, which I presume that most of what they play will be creature ETBs that ramp and/or crucible fetchland effects. Hard to get lots of land drops just playing your land each turn. You can also respond to say, when they cast loam on 3 lands - which is a small "gotcha" of course but it makes them spend the loam mana at least.

But for me the specific appeal of flash is that it's the type of thing I'd play in Ephara

I've come up with an initial list that I'm going to start trying out once the set releases. I posted this in the Multiplayer forum in case people want to take discussions there.

Mind you, it's a very rough draft.

Constellation exists, and a few of them (Doomwake Giant, Eidolon of Blossoms, Grim Guardian, Nylea's Colossus, Oakheart Dryads, Strength from the Fallen, Thoughtreader Lamia, Whitewater Naiads) could work. Landfall is another option, with far more options just because it was used in more sets.

Quote from hyalopterouslemur »

Constellation exists, and a few of them (Doomwake Giant, Eidolon of Blossoms, Grim Guardian, Nylea's Colossus, Oakheart Dryads, Strength from the Fallen, Thoughtreader Lamia, Whitewater Naiads) could work. Landfall is another option, with far more options just because it was used in more sets.

I'm interested in Constellation as well for sure - just a shame that Yarok won't trigger Enchantress's Presence, Argothian Enchantress, or Verduran Enchantress. Only 14 constellation cards may not be enough, especially when a few of them are draft chaff (Goldenhide Ox, Dreadbringer Lampads) and a few more don't functionally benefit from a double-trigger (Agent of Erebos, Daxos's Torment).

Even so I think that Eidolon of Blossoms and Doomwake Giant are strong enough to make it tempting. There's also a fair amount of enchantments (mostly auras but still) with ETB triggers. I also wonder how does Yarok interact with, say, Frontier Siege? Can I choose Khans AND Dragons? For Engineered Plague do I get to choose two creature types? Interesting if so.

There are a bunch of enchantments with ETB effects other than constellation, or that would benefit from blinking, or both.

• Oath of nissa
  
• Treachery
  
• Ancestral Knowledge
  
• Necromancy
  
• Dance of Many
  
• Icy prison
  
• Cartouche of Strength
  
• Cloudform
  
• Growing Rites of Itlimoc
  
• Oath of Liliana
  
• Oath of Jace
  
• Oubliette
  
• Diabolic Servitude
  
• Trial of Knowledge
  
• Deadbridge Chant
  

And there are tons of great enchantments w Yarok.


Not 100% sure how cloudform works but I think it probably does hehe

Quote from Hawk7915 »

I also wonder how does Yarok interact with, say, Frontier Siege? Can I choose Khans AND Dragons? For Engineered Plague do I get to choose two creature types? Interesting if so.

No. I had to ask these sorts of questions as well in the ruling forum.

Basically look out for the keywords "whenever", "when", or "at" at the beginning of a sentence for it to get a trigger.

Spellseeker into Entomb + Reanimate seems juicy with Yarok.
As for landfall effects Amulet of Vigor works very well with any taplands. Add Exploration / Burgeoning / Azusa and reap even more benefits from Karoo lands.

EDIT: Somebody needs to break Embodiment of Insight with Yarok.

Spellseeker into vampiric tutor + demonic tutor always a game ender in Inalla.

I played with Yarok, the Desecrated for the first time tonight.
As a preliminary assessment, I will say that it is indeed a good Commander, and that Lotus Cobra, Woodland Bellower, & Ghostly Flicker are very likely the best cards in the deck.
Keep in mind that all of them are support cards, largely unable to win the game. But the sheer value they gain with Yarok allows them to easily chain into a winning position or combo with most of whatever else you are playing.
Also worth noting that Woodland Bellower can only find G creatures, so you need to pay attention during deck construction to utilize it effectively.