Yeva, Nature's Herald is one of the more unique green generals ever printed, as she lends an ability — flash — to all the creatures in her deck that is usually only seen this side of the color pie on beaters like Briarhorn and Gluttonous Slime. This allows a mono-green Yeva deck to function much like my favorite color-pairing, Blue-Green.
I should mention briefly that, when I talk about a Blue-Green deck, I'm not necessarily talking about a Simic deck. Blue-Green can be very subtle, but that's not what I'm about. I am an unabashed Timmy and I like Blue-Green because it takes the mana generation of green, staples on the card draw of blue, and then powers through bombs at instant speed.
In building a Yeva deck around those ideals, I have settled on the current list. It sits somewhere between a control deck and a midrange deck. My Yeva build usually looks to close out multiplayer tables starting on T6-8, which is slower than most combo decks but faster than most control or midrange decks. It runs a suite of creatures chosen to keep other players from winning before the Big Push. A more complete discussion of the strategies, strengths, and weaknesses of Yeva can be found in the Playing the Deck section.
There are other ways to build Yeva. Squirrely has an excellent list here which seeks to fly under the radar — something my list, with its Mana Crypts and Sylvan Librarys, cannot do — and plays a draw-go control style. On the other end of the spectrum, Inkmoth has a fascinating list here that play as a more aggressive competitive-style combo shell. Yeva can also helm tribal or good-stuff decks, although those ideas may be served better by other generals. I will discuss these strategies and more in the Other Yeva Builds section.
1.1 - Who Are You, Anyway?
My name is Ian. I've been playing Magic since Onslaught block, and I have been playing multiplayer green in a fairly competitive meta since Lorwyn block. Given those two benchmarks, you'll not be surprised to see that I lean a bit on Yeva's elvish heritage. I'm relatively new to EDH/Commander, having played seriously for about two years now, but I do have about a decade of experience with 60-card constructed multiplayer. Yeva was my fifth EDH deck and is currently one of twenty. However, Yeva established herself as my favorite and is the only deck where I've spent the money to acquire all the cards she needed to work at optimum efficiency.
The original build of this deck (which is what you'll see referenced in the first page of posts in this thread) was somewhere between where it is now and what I would term a "Good Stuff" build, heavy on Big Dumb Green Creatures that served little purpose but to beat face. As I got more experience playing the deck, I came to appreciate its nuance and trickier elements and ended up cutting most of the fat for ways to tutor out and recur the control elements. Since those modifications, as well as an investment in the land base, Yeva has become somewhat notorious in my playgroups. I can pretty regularly expect to be the archenemy any time that I put Yeva in the command zone, and the deck has been modified to reflect that.
2.0 - Why Yeva?
Reasons to Play Yeva
You love mono-green's power, but wish it was a little tricksier.
You enjoy a quick transition from controlling the threat to BEING the threat
You like having a toolbox of answers and the tutors to fish them out.
You always want to have a Plan B.
You would prefer that every turn was your turn. ESPECIALLY the turn of that poor sap sitting to your right.
Reasons Not to Play Yeva
You think green is for stompin' only. When do we get to the stompin' already?
Or you think that green is for making mana! Where are all the doublers?
You don't like creature-based win conditions, or play in a meta where other cards render them irrelevant.
You really like artifacts. Yeva HATES artifacts.
You don't like shuffling. This deck plays a lot of tutor effects.
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa: Appearing in the 99 of my deck, Kamahl is an amazing card and even better in the command zone. He tends to lend himself to big early board presences that he will attempt to protect using his land awakening ability to prevent wraths. Kamahl is green at its absolute greenest: make mana, make creatures, smash! He's a super fun commander and belongs in almost every green EDH deck, including this one, but he doesn't add the ability to act at instant speed like Yeva and would make a poor choice at the helm of this deck.
Nissa, Vastwood Seer: Also appearing in the 99, Baby Nissa is card advantage on a stick and probably the best option for 'mono-green control.' I have a feeling that she would be a superior stax choice to Yeva, since her draw/ramp ability would continue to function through symmetrical hate. aslidsiksoraksi has a great enchantress-centered Nissa-helmed mono-green control deck here. I'd recommend any green mage interested in keeping control of the game check it out!
Titania, Protector of Argoth: Titania is another green general that can be effective in a control role. Strip Mine and Crucible of Worlds are good in any stax deck, but they are especially good in a deck where you get a free 5/3 every time you nuke someone's land. Green lands is a very different beast than a green creatures build, of course, and there's no real way to make lands function at instant speed the same way as Yeva can.
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard: There are a lot of very competitive lists with Yisan at the helm, and many of them look pretty similar to my Yeva list for the creatures and the green staples packages. Yisan himself is a tutor, reducing the deck's reliance on things like Survival of the Fittest, and he can quickly get himself out of control in combination with Seedborn Muse or other untap mechanics. I personally prefer Yeva because she often is less obvious at broadcasting her intentions and better at responding to Wrath of God effects.
Patron of the Orochi: If Yeva is the "flash" half of Prophet of Kruphix, then Patron is the "untap" half of her. Conceivably, there could be a Patron deck that fetches out Yeva, rather than Yeva fetching out Seedborn Muse. I hedge towards Yeva partially because I feel that the flash part of the operation is more important. There are a ton of green creatures that have unintended consequences when operating at instant speed, like Loaming Shaman's ability to hose reanimation decks.
Omnath, Locus of Mana and Azusa, Lost but Seeking: I'm lumping these two in together because, while they have different methods, their strategy is basically the same: make a ton of mana early and use it to drown out all opposition. Both are extremely effective at what they do, but they lack a lot of the surprise factor of Yeva, which can make it easier for opposing decks to plan for them.
Thrun, the Last Troll and other Combat Oriented Green Generals: These can all helm very successful voltron-style or swarming decks. That philosophy is pretty well outside the draw-go and control aspects I'm looking for in this deck.
Actual Green-Blue Commanders
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary: Momir Vig is the most "creature-centric" of the green/blue commanders, making him similar to Yeva, Nature's Herald. However, his powerful built-in tutor lends him more to the combo side of things (GoldenCapitalist has a great combo-focused Momir Vig list here) and he has more difficulty operating at instant speed. This makes for a much different play experience than Yeva.
Thrasios, Triton Hero: Probably the most generically powerful blue-green commander, although that is at least in part from his ability to open up other colors through the partner mechanic. Thrasios doesn't have any real creature synergy, outside of the fact that creatures often generate mana and he loves spending mana. I personally use him in a combo build along with Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix and non-creature-based combo does seem to be his niche.
Edric, Spymaster of Trest: Another creature-based blue-green deck. Edric decks often focus on quickly swamping the board with cheap evasive creatures, beating for card advantage, and essentially wrapping things up about the same time Yeva would be looking to move into the mid-game. These are very fast and very powerful, but they lack a lot of the control and resilience that comes with Yeva.
+1/+1 Counters Matter Commanders: Such as Ezuri, Claw of Progress, Prime Speaker Zegana, Experimental Kraj, These decks are emblematic of the "+1/+1 counters matter" blue-green theme that I mentioned in the introduction. They are clearly creature-based decks and can quickly grow out of control, but they don't have the same feeling of instant-speed control that comes with Yeva.
Rashmi, Eternities Crafter: Value on a stick. Pretty much whatever the deck's strategy is, Rashmi will help with that. She gets bonus points for working on every turn, which appeals to my instant-speed sensibilities. I do prefer to have my general more directly tied into my game plan, however. Similiarily, Kruphix, God of Horizons provides a lot of value, but he isn't really integral to most plans and serves mostly as a 'goodstuff' general.
Honorary Non-Green Commander
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir: This guy is Yeva, plus one mana, who also slows down your opponents. He's pretty awesome, but I think his primary use is as a one-sided City of Solitude to prevent opponents from stopping you comboing off. In most Teferi lists I have seen, his ability to grant your creatures flash is an insignificant side-effect of his main purpose. Even if one intended to make a Teferi flash-creatures deck, I have a feeling that it would draw an amount of hate all out of proportion to its power because of the reputation that Teferi has (probably rightly) garnered.
This list for Yeva is what I call a 95% build. That is to say, it is built strategically with the best card options and will stack up a healthy win percentage against 75% builds, but Yeva will not stand up to the most competitive decks. She's simply not going to be fast enough to reliably race the fastest combo, and she leans strongly on the combat phase to get a victory.
That means that this build, by necessity, inhabits a bit of a gray area. It will not be appropriate for every meta; in more casual circles it will be overwhelming and it more competitive arenas it may be laughably under powered. The best fit for this particular build is a meta, like the one I play in, where everyone attempts to build their deck to the strongest possible version of archetypes they choose, but those archetypes do not necessarily represent the strongest in the game.
Obviously, this does not describe the meta that everyone plays in. In explaining the card choices for each part of the deck, I will make sure to elaborate on ways to tune down the deck for 75% metas. There is also a discussion on how to make a budget Yeva list in the "Other Builds" section.
This section will explore each part of the decklist card-by-card, giving a brief discussion of how each piece of cardboard helps the overall game plan. There will also be a section explaining other cards that can be subbed in for budget or metagame concerns. Finally, each section will have an area dedicated to explaining why I don't feel that some common green staples or cards that pop up on Yeva's EDHrec list are ever really appropriate for this style of deck.
4.1 - Control Cards
This is the meat and potatoes of the Yeva deck. These are the cards that disrupt opposing game plans, buying Yeva enough time to seize control of the game or win outright. Most are creatures, though not all, and lean heavily on Yeva's ability to flash them into play for key effectiveness. Few of these cards should be run blindly out on the first turn that you hit mana for them, unless there is already a recursion engine setup.
Since so many of these cards rely on Yeva to be effective, this is probably the least expensive (dollar-wise) section of the list. Only Willow Satyr is really expensive as of the time of writing, with a few others being dollar rares and the rest being a collection of commons, uncommons, and junk rares.
Bane of Progress: Useful when the deck absolutely must kill all artifacts and enchantments, accept no substitutes. It does nuke more than a few valuable permanents that the deck runs — Survival of the Fittest and Sylvan Library just immediately to mind — but since Yeva is far more creature-focused than most Commander decks, the Bane will seldom hurt more than it helps. For added benefit, the Bane can be fetched by Fierce Empath and usually leaves behind a large body for Ulvenwald Tracker or Greater Good.
Beast Within: Simply the gold standard for green removal. Naturally instant speed, no Yeva required, it hits any troublesome permanent and has an irrelevant downside.
Caustic Caterpillar: One of the scariest cards to see hit the board against Yeva is Torpor Orb, as a good chunk of the deck (and nearly all the artifact removal) relies on ETB triggers. Since the Caterpillar's destruction is an activated ability, it sneaks around Torpor Orb. The Caterpillar can also warp the early game, coming down first turn and making opponents hesitate before playing out mana rocks or other artifacts and enchantments.
Loaming Shaman: This is the best graveyard disruption in mono-green when it can be played at instant speed. It does target specific cards in graveyards, allowing the pilot to decide to shuffle in recursion targets while leaving frightening but non-recurable threats out of the library. There is also utility against milling strategies, of course, but that is by far the secondary benefit.
Manglehorn: One of the newest additions to Yeva's cardpool, Manglehorn has proved effective. Yeva can't afford to fall far behind on ramping, and most non-green ramp is artifact based. The destruction trigger is great; the ETB tapped condition is what puts Manglehorn over the top. With Yeva, he can even come in responding to a large ramp spell, nuking another artifact and forcing the ramp artifact to be useless on its first turn.
Polukranos, World Eater: Creature removal is hard to come by in green, especially against threats like Consecrated Sphinx that don't want to attack. The World Eater can destroy any non-indestructible threat or massacre an entire field of weenies. Even without big mana, he's still a 5/5 for four, terrific for Greater Good.
Reclamation Sage: The best artifact/enchantment removal in a deck stuffed full of non-creature hate. It is an Elf for all the cards that care about such things, it costs the same as a Beast Within, and its ETB effect is a may in case it needs to be played on a board clear of opposing enchantments and artifacts.
Seeds of Innocence: Yeva is most vulnerable in the early game, when other decks are ramping out to set up their mid-game. Seeds comes down T3 (or earlier) and wipes the board clear of mana rocks at the cost of some trivial lifegain. Later in the game, it can hose artifact-based decks such as Breya and Daretti. In slower, less-artifact-dominated metas, this is an easy switchout.
Spore Frog: Yeva has been dubbed "TurboFrog" for its tendency to loop this card and others like it with help from Eternal Witness and Temur Sabertooth. Spore Frog is comparable to Spike Weaver, which is a green staple, but Yeva prefers the Frog for its low converted mana cost. Usually when Yeva needs to fog, it is an emergency and being able to do it for one converted mana cost is vital.
Terastodon: This card and Woodfall Primus share a number of similarities: both are 8cc creatures with huge bodies that destroy non-creature permanents. Terastodon nukes three when he comes into play; the Primus gets one now and one later. After extensive testing, Yeva prefers the Terastodon for the more immediate impact and the larger body for card draw and removal purposes. Note that the elephant tokens created by the Terastodon are basically irrelevant, both against Yeva's blockers and because of the TurboFrog package.
Timbermare: The second half of the TurboFrog package, Timbermare is a signature card for the Yeva deck. I prefer to run the Mare over Spike Weaver at the 4cc fog slot because it stops "on attack" triggers (re: Oldrazi, Inferno Titan, et cetera) and because it is a simple ETB trigger. The echo cost can be a little annoying, but Mare is rarely run out without Temur Sabertooth support anyway. There is an argument to be made about the Mare being a proactive rather than reactive fog, but this deck assumes that it will almost always be the one being attacked. Timbermare also has some utility tapping down opposing creatures in preparation for a final push to close out the game.
Ulvenwald Tracker: With a bit of help, the Tracker is the best creature removal in the deck. Even with just Yeva hanging around, he can take care of anything that is a 3/4 or smaller. With Acidic Slime or one of green's other deathtouchers, he can kill any non-indestructible creature in the game. With Seedborn Muse, he acts like a machine gun.
Sweeper Effects: Green doesn't have any true creature sweepers, but there are a couple spells that can fill a similar role (The Great Aurora and Ezuri's Predation) and Yeva can borrow the usual colorless sweepers (Oblivion Stone, All is Dust, Perilous Vault, and Nevinyrral's Disk). These cards would likely replace much of the early-game ramp, wiping opposing boards instead of trying to outrace them.
Single Target Removal: Cards like Krosan Grip, Deglamer, and Scour from Existence. Yeva doesn't really exploit any of these, but they can be useful removing key pieces from opposing decks.
More Artifact Hate: Molder Slug, Creeping Corrosion and Wave of Vitriol can be very useful in artifact-heavy metas or in builds of Yeva that prefer to avoid cards like Sol Ring and Mana Crypt. The Wave is especially good in decks that face a lot of Theros gods and Darksteel artifacts.
Flyer Hate: My favorite two are Silklash Spider and Arbor Colossus. The deck can usually protect itself from flying creatures using TurboFrog and nuke them with Ulvenwald Tracker or Polukranos, World Eater, but in more budget versions or versions that run light on tutors, this sort of thing can be super useful.
World Breaker: This is a repeatable, exile-based removal effect on a good sized body. Unfortunately, Wizards stuck it with the useless "devoid" mechanic, so it doesn't work with Yeva, Nature's Herald or any of the othercards that key off of a card's color. Still, it is the only mono-green creature that I know of which can deal with a Humility or an Overwhelming Splendor.
Acidic Slime: The versatility of this card on an ETB trigger is almost unmatched. Its converted mana cost is higher than would be optimal for this deck, as it runs a bit lighter on acceleration than most mono-green commander decks. However, Deathtouch is never an irrelevant ability and the ETB trigger disrupts most opposing kills that aren't affected by the TurboFrog package.
But Why No...?
Arboria: This is one of the most commonly recommended cards for Yeva and it is easy to see why. There are not very many cards in a mono-green color identity that support a draw-go playstyle. The problem is that, outside of fringe Shaman of Forgotten Ways scenarios, this build of Yeva is dependent on the combat phase to win. Other decks could stall behind the Arboria, forcing Yeva to find an answer for her own card. The Spore Frog/Timbermare package is a far less risky way to blanking opposing combat phases.
Maze of Ith: I've never been a big Maze of Ith fan, as blanking a single attacking creature from one opponent in a multi-player game doesn't seem worth effectively missing a land drop. Even in games where Seedborn Muse is active, there are far more powerful plays that could be made. Leave the Maze at home.
Spike Weaver: This fits into the same category as Spore Frog and Timbermare. I prefer the other two because they are the best at their particular role - the Frog is cheap for emergencies, the Mare is easy to repeat and almost foolproof once a lockdown is needed. Spike Weaver does come with multiple uses built in, but he's effectively five mana to use and doesn't stop "on attack" triggers. He's the third best option for this sort of effect (although one could make an argument for Haze Frog) in a deck that really only needs two of the effect.
Drawing cards is one of the most vital parts of any blue-green deck. Without access to Easy Mode blue draw, Yeva has to dig pretty deep into the recesses of green's color pie. Fortunately, Wizards has been printing more and more playable green draw spells recently, a trend that I hope will continue.
Most green draw power is based on creatures, and the cards here are no exception to this. I like to keep Yeva's creature count fairly high, at least in the low forties, for this reason. Any less than that and some of the cards start to become sub-optimal - plus, Yeva likes creatures with her abilities.
Beast Whisperer: This card ticks a lot of boxes: it's a creature, it's specifically an elf, and it has a trigger on creature cast. Primordial Sage is already a card that's worth running, to cutting two off its converted mana cost in exchange for a basically meaningless P/T cut and a creature type upgrade makes the Whisperer a must-play.
Duskwatch Recruiter: This card has quickly become a staple in Yeva. With the deck about 40% creatures, a simplistic model shows only about a 20% chance of whiffing entirely. It gets better in more budget builds, which tend to run even more creatures. There just aren't a ton of ways to turn oodles of mana into card draw in green, so this is one of the best. His flip side, Krallenhorde Howler, is ok in a mana-screw pinch. By the time you'll have mana to really use him to the best of his ability, it shouldn't be hard to scrape together two spells in a turn.
Elvish Visionary: Yeva does have a bit of an elf sub-theme going. The Visionary complements that theme and is probably the best overall green cantrip creature. The Visionary is best friends with Wirewood Symbiote, especially if a Yeva+Muse engine gets set up.
Evolutionary Leap: Creatures-only draw based on a sacrifice trigger. This deck wants to be able to sac its creatures, both to avoid exile effects and in case a Willow Satyr gets set up. In a pinch, Evolutionary Leap can be a good response to a Wrath effect, assuming that better alternatives are not available. Finally, the ability to turn spent ETB creatures into draw is invaluable.
Genesis Wave: This isn't a draw spell in the strictest sense, but it is probably the strongest card advantage engine available in green. It turns mana into instant board presence, and it doesn't even exile itself. A lucky flip into an Eternal Witness can set you up for a second Genesis Wave the next turn, assuming your opponents are able to answer the first one. I don't think I would want to try and resolve the Wave for less than seven (10 mana total) in this deck, at least not outside of an emergency.
Greater Good: Yeva doesn't run quite as large of creatures as some other decks, but even relatively small critters (like Yeva herself) can profit off of the Greater Good just by filtering out poor draws and land floods. I also had Greater Good basically win me a game once by coming down (after a few creatures) the turn before an opponent was going to Living Death. Since he couldn't risk me profiting more off the spell than he did, he held back and I was able to win before he found an answer.
Krosan Tusker: This card competes with Yavimaya Elder and Shefet Monitor for its deck slot, and I wouldn't fault anyone who broke another direction or included multiple of this type of effect. I like the Tusker because his ability is always available with three mana and it is very difficult to interact with.
Magus of the Library: Just like Yeva and Muse do a Prophet of Kruphix impression, this Magus imitates a card banned in Commander. His combination of ramp and card draw have been pretty relevant in many games for me, plus his double-green mana cost can play nicely with an early Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.
Nissa, Vastwood Seer: Baby Nissa is great in this deck. Early game, she grabs out a Forest to avoid land screws. Mid game, she can be flashed out with Yeva. In the late game, her +1 ability helps to provide card advantage. Since her second and ultimate abilities (flip side: Nissa, Sage Animist) are basically useless, few opponents put too much effort or resources into trying to remove her.
Primordial Sage: Soul of the Harvest is amazing! This — is not Soul of the Harvest, but it's close enough to stay in the deck. Since Yeva doesn't have any true blink effects - just bounce and replay - the cast trigger isn't terrible. Turning every creature in the deck into a cantripper can help to power out the end game.
Regal Force: One of the best cards in the deck, and rarely a bad tutor target. Regal Force usually refills your hand, and loves things like Temur Sabertooth. Since Yeva is great at responding to Wrath of God effects and salvaging a board, the usually weak point for Regal Force is less pronounced.
Soul of the Harvest: The better version of Primordial Sage. The 6/6 trampling body can be very relevant with things like Ulvenwald Tracker and Greater Good. Turning all the creatures in the deck into cantrippers, as mentioned above, is a terrific deal.
Sylvan Library: This is generally considered an excellent card, and its easy to see why. Life loss is far less relevant in Commander than in 20-life formats, turning the Library into essentially free cards. I don't currently run the various green fetch lands to wipe away a bad look, but they could certainly be included to maximize the value of Sylvan Library.
Vizier of the Menagerie: Being three mana less than Garruk's Horde and not revealing my top card to the world really helped to sell me on this card. It can be insane card advantage and has great synergy with the rest of the list. Even the mana-wash clause, which wouldn't seem like that big of a deal in a mono-green deck, is useful for times when Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Ancient Tomb, or the utility lands show up alongside only one green source.
Meta/Budget Considerations
Rishkar, pictured here Going Tall
Going Tall: In this category are cards like Rishkar's Expertise, Soul's Majesty, and Garruk, Primal Hunter that rely on having big creatures to be most effective. I have been moving away from these sorts of effects as they are almost all sorcery speed and often difficult to weave into an optimal play pattern. The main exception is Momentous Fall, which is naturally instant speed and could easily be included in any Yeva build. I include Harmonize in this assessment, as it is also dreadfully sorcery-speed.
Going Wide: In this category are cards like Shamanic Revelation and Collective Unconscious that rely on having a lot of creatures to be most effective. In my experience, Yeva rarely creates the mass of bodies to best utilize these cards, and the large mana investment into them at sorcery speed can leave the board state vulnerable.
Garruk, Caller of Beasts: This is the planeswalker version of Duskwatch Recruiter. With five flips, Garruk has only about a 7% chance of whiffing entirely, and a good chance to draw multiple cards. Since Garruk's draw ability is a +1, he won't have to kill himself to provide decent card advantage. His other abilities are nice as well: the -3 can sometimes power out an early Craterhoof Behemoth or Terastodon, while the ultimate is basically game-ending if your opponents let it go off.
Memory Jar: Getting seven cards is pretty good, but having to use-or-lose them the same turn means that the Jar is rarely popped the same turn it is played. During a circuit, it is a very fragile investment and playing one means that five mana is tapped down. This was in the main list, and can certainly still play, but I think there are better options.
Skullclamp: One of the strongest cards ever printed for a creature-based draw strategy. The problem is partially Yeva's hatred of artifacts in my build, which sees the Clamps end up as collateral damage, and the fact that relatively few creatures in the deck are naturally clamp-sized. A deck that focuses more on 1/1 creatures would likely be a better fit for the Clamps.
Enshrined Memories: I keep this on my radar because it is one of the only other ways than Genesis Wave to convert large amounts of mana into card advantage in mono green.
Yavimaya Elder and Shefet Monitor: I discussed these two above in the section about Krosan Tusker. All three are reasonable alternatives, and all three could even be in the same deck.
Lifeblood Hydra: Like most hydras, this one scales well with mana. It can be a great response to a wrath effect, or if one of the many sac outlets in the deck is online the Hydra provides huge card advantage. A little bit of lifegain is also nice against various black and red direct damage effects that ignore TurboFrog.
Lifecrafter's Bestiary: I have tested out this card and found it to be underwhelming. The Scry effect is nice, but having to pay a tax kills this card for me. Plus, it's an artifact and tends to get blown up by my own destruction spells before it really starts churning out card advantage. Still, it could find its way into more budget builds.
Compost: This is really a meta call. If your meta includes enough black decks to make use of Compost, it can be insane card advantage. If not, it's usually a dead card in hand.
Cantrip Creatures: Examples include Wall of Blossoms and Carven Caryatid, as well as Elvish Visionary and Multani's Acolyte mentioned above. Simply creatures with an ETB draw trigger. Unless they are easily repeatable Elves, they probably don't make the strongest versions of Yeva, but can do some big work alongside Temur Sabertooth or other bounce options in budget builds.
But Why No..?
Random Cheating Cards: By this I mean things like Selvala's Stampede and Lurking Predators that randomly cheat things off the top of the deck and into play. These sorts of cards are best in a Good Stuff deck. Since Yeva wants complete control over everything, we don't want fate to determine when things like Manglehorn or Timbermare get played. Genesis Wave escapes this niche by being an extremely powerful example of the effect.
Mind's Eye: And other artifact-based repeatable draw engines, like Staff of Nin or Urza's Blueprints. Yeva just hates artifacts too much to extract enough value from these to justify their mana cost.
Garruk's Packleader: And other power-conditional draw, like Drumhunter, Elemental Bond, and Kavu Lair. This build doesn't run enough high-power creatures to really take advantage of this sort of effect. It's usually better to pay the extra mana for Soul of the Harvest or to just run naturally cantrip creatures.
With only two cards, this is the shortest and most straight-forward part of the entire list. It could be even shorter, as Kamahl, Fist of Krosa could easily be considered a Control card as well as a Finisher, but I don't want Hoof to be lonely.
The only purpose of the cards in this section is to end the game through massive combat damage. All the cute tricks are done, you have picked your moment, and you are ready to end things. Yeva doesn't have the same mass of creatures that some other mono-green decks can toss out before engaging an overrun effect, so she does have to squeeze out every ounce of work from every creature that has been played.
A Timbermare at the end of the previous player's turn (or at the end of the Declare Attackers step) can greatly simplify things by rendering blocking creatures irrelevant. A Shaman of Forgotten Ways can drop opponents' life totals low enough that even a couple mana dorks and Hoof can be lethal.
The combat phase is one of the weakest ways to effect a victory in multiplayer Magic, but mono-green doesn't leave a lot of reasonable alternatives outside of extreme stax or the occasional big-mana Hurricane kill. Yeva's big advantage is that she helps to create a choice on the part of her player as to the perfect moment to strike, and she can keep from committing major resources until the attack looks assured.
Current List
Craterhoof Behemoth: Hoof is the largest and the flashiest of the effects in this section, and he will be well known to almost everyone in the meta. At eight mana, he's near the top of Yeva's curve and will require a lot of setup and investment. He's also usually a one-shot deal, so things like Moment's Peace can screw with him; Temur Sabertooth can bring him around for another go-around (or, in extreme cases, even cast him twice in the same turn). Hoof doesn't have a lot of utility outside of what he does; the best non-combat use for him is dodging area burn effects (although it would take quite a board presence for Hoof to save you from a Blasphemous Act!). On the other hand, Hoof is also a devastating impact at what he does and one of the few mono-green cards capable of truly closing out a multiplayer table.
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa: Kamahl is a step below Hoof in terms of raw power-per-mana, but he more than makes up for that deficiency with his utility. Most importantly, Kamahl gives the ability to screw over people using Wrath of God effects. Yeva's unique ability allows Kamahl to drop down in response to a wrath and devastate opposing mana bases. This of course requires a huge investment of mana, but most Wraths against this list come because Yeva is able to generate massive amounts of mana.
Budget/Meta Considerations
Pathbreaker Ibex: This is one of my favorite green cards that has been printed in recent times. Unfortunately, it broadcasts itself more obviously than Craterhoof Behemoth and lacks the utility of Kamahl, Fist of Krosa. If the deck needed a third finisher - or if Hoof was outside the budget - the Goat would obviously be on deck. However, as things stand now, I'm closer to cutting a finisher rather than adding another.
Thunderfoot Baloth: In my experience, when you're ready to make the "big push", Yeva will almost always be in play. This guy isn't as big as the Ibex or Hoof, and he's not as versatile as Kamahl, but he can be a great budget option in a pinch.
But Why No..?
Big Dumb Green Creature: This category is a bit of a catch-all. It encompasses basically any creature that is really, really Big, but doesn't serve any purpose outside of being Big. Examples include Worldspine Wurm, Gaea's Revenge, Hydra Omnivore, et cetera. These cards have their place in a more Good Stuff build, but not in the Yeva maindeck.
Stonehoof Chieftain: I'm going to address this card specifically, even though it fits into the above category, because it used to appear in the "Signature Cards" section of Yeva's EDHrec decklist. This is a card that I don't think can be played in any Yeva decklist, and is probably useless in any but the most obscure Gx deck. An 8/8 trample/indestructible is nothing to sneeze at, but eight mana is a boatload - consider that is the same cc as Craterhoof Behemoth. His second ability has almost no value; in the event that your opponent has some sort of instant-speed destruction-keyed removal, they would just use it in response to Stonehoof's trigger. This is the classic example of a 'trap' card that looks much better than it actually is. Avoid at all costs.
Triumph of the Hordes: And other sorcery-based Overrun effects like Overwhelming Stampede. These cards tend to be too little to really close out a multiplayer game, plus they don't work into the creature synergy of the rest of the list.
High Risk, High Reward:
Now with 187% more Rebecca Guay
The ramp package that I've chosen to go with in Yeva is a little different from other green EDH decks. Keep in mind that I have been playing multiplayer green for a long time and have had a lot of experience with all different sorts of ramp spells. In that experience I have formulated a basic theory of risk and reward in ramp spells. That is, how likely ramp is to be undone (the risk) versus how much mana it will produce (reward).
For an example, consider a card like Cultivate. Many EDH ramp packages revolve around the idea of land acceleration — cards like Cultivate that fetch lands out of the library and put them directly into play. Because of general taboos against land destruction, and the fact that land destruction is probably the most uncommon type of hate in Magic, this strategy is extremely low in the risk department. However, a spell like Cultivate uses three mana to put the deck one land ahead — it is about as low on the 'return' side of things as any playable card.
On the other hand, consider a card like Priest of Titania. It is a creature, the most hatable card type in the game, and a fragile 1/1 at that. It's risk factor is through the roof. On the other hand, in the right deck, Priest of Titania has the potential to produce 3+ mana per tap for a two mana investment. It is very high on the reward side of the equation as well.
With Yeva, I have decided to run a ramp package that trends more towards the high end of the risk/reward spectrum. The reason is that, with enough mana, Yeva can potentially slog through any amount of hate. Generating that quantity of mana is the difficult part of the equation.
Yeva's ramp package functions through the principle of "Quality Land Acceleration" - that is, spells that fetch out lands like Gaea's Cradle or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and then creatures that untap those lands. This is complemented by those mana producing creatures that generate enough reward to offset their inherently high risk factors.
Current List
Crop Rotation: A key part of the Quality Land Acceleration package, Crop Rotation can search out a Gaea's Cradle if raw mana is needed or bring a Yavimaya Hollow out in response to a removal effect. Being naturally instant speed, it is a perfect fit for a Yeva build, even one that does not lean as heavily on its high quality lands for mana acceleration.
Growing Rites of Itlimoc/Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun: This card is Gaea's Cradle #2. It will cantrip the majority of the time in Yeva and the flip at end step doesn't really matter to a deck that mostly plays at instant speed anyway. Plus, worst case scenario, it's flipped side is still a Forest.
Hope Tender: Not quite as good as Voyaging Satyr but very, very close. The exert ability on T3 will help to power out the important T3 Yeva play. Later in the game, one mana is a trivial price to pay to untap a Gaea's Cradle or a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, and by exerting he can even untap both for an extreme burst of mana (into, for example, a Genesis Wave).
Karametra's Acolyte: The Acolyte is perhaps the best mana acceleration creature ever printed for a mono-green creature-based deck. It quickly spirals out of control, especially when combined with a creature untapper like Wirewood Symbiote. Lightning Bolt hasn't be a huge concern for me in EDH so far, but it's nice to know that the 1/4 Acolyte could survive one in a pinch.
Krosan Restorer: Another 3cc untap-any-land dork, with an extra point of toughness and a potentially important threshold ability.
Mana Crypt: It's hard to say no to a free Sol Ring. This card doesn't really synergize with anything else in the deck, but its ability to generate burst mana is unrivaled. At least by the time Yeva is looking to drop an artifact sweeper, the Crypt has already done its job.
Priest of Titania: This isn't really an 'elf' deck per se, but Yeva is an elf, as are many of the best green creatures. Even in the worst use, a Priest powers out a T3 Yeva and then taps for 2 mana the rest of her time on the board.
Regal Behemoth: The Behemoth has proven astoundingly powerful. I'll admit that I didn't rate it very highly on first glimpse, but Yeva seems to be a perfect fit for him. He pops out at the end of the player on my right's turn, giving me a full untap with the monarch token and mana doubler. Yeva is also very good at neutralizing opposing combat phases through the TurboFrog package, so it's fairly easy to hold onto the crown for multiple turns - especially with all the mana it generates.
Sakura-Tribe Elder: This is the definition of a low-risk, low-reward type of card. But STEve is the best at what he does, he enables a T3 Yeva play, and he's a creature when push comes to shove.
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds: Not quite as busted of a mana production engine as Karametra's Acolyte, but Selvala does come with a bit of draw stapled to her. Note that Yeva will potentially not be throwing around the biggest creatures in a game of EDH, however, so the draw is by no means guaranteed. Selvala is still worth it as she produces a net of 3 mana in conjunction with only Yeva, Nature's Herald.
Shaman of Forgotten Ways: This card could just as easily be in the "Finisher" section. Biorhythm was banned in large part because it could effect the victory at a moment's notice and was very hard to see coming; Shaman likely escaped the ban-hammer because he needed to survive until the next upkeep. With Yeva effectively granting him haste, Shaman can be a much bigger surprise. I've seen or heard about games where, following a Cyclonic Rift overload or other board clear, Yeva, Shaman, and two other power worth of creatures plopped into play EOT and then got a straight up non-combat victory against a whole table. Obviously, that isn't enough reason to play the Shaman by itself - but luckily he comes equipped with the ability to tap for two (creatures-only) mana as well.
Sol Ring: Sol Ring is Sol Ring. Two mana for an investment of one is huge game, especially as it can tap the turn it comes in and dodges creature removal.
Tempt with Discovery: This card has led to some very one-sided blowouts when all my opponents have chosen to take me up on the tempting offer. Even just searching out a Cradle for four mana isn't a bad deal. Recently, some in my play groups have taken to including Wasteland or Strip Mine and accepting the offer. I'll monitor that trend and see if it becomes problematic for the deck as a whole.
Voyaging Satyr: There are not many 2cc creatures with an unconditional land uptapping ability - cheaper untappers, like Arbor Elf, only work with Forests. Even if additional hate forces me to back down from my Quality Land Acceleration package, the Satyr might interact well enough with some of the utility lands to justify his inclusion.
Meta/Budget Considerations
Mad Rebecca Guay bonus points
3cc Land Acceleration Creatures: This includes cards like Wood Elves, Farhaven Elf, Yavimaya Dryad, and Yavimaya Granger. They define a "safe but slow" ramp package, producing long-term results at the expense of explosiveness. In a meta where non-basic lands are punished, they could easily replace the Quality Land Acceleration package.
Harrow and Natural Connection: Green's naturally instant speed land acceleration spells. Again, as a backup for the Quality Lands Acceleration should it get hated out by a meta.
Carpet of Flowers: This is really a meta call. I don't seem to run up against enough blue decks (or at least enough blue decks actually running islands) to really make this pay for itself. Against the right opposition, of course, it is absolutely bananas — even if the mana is generated at sorcery speed.
Reap and Sow: In the "Quality Land Acceleration" suite, Reap and Sow can double as removal for any problematic lands like Cabal Coffers that the opponents may have. It's always nice to have answers, especially when they come attached to other useful effects. Very sorcery speed, however, and lacks the blowout potential of Tempt with Discovery.
Joraga Treespeaker: I go back and forth on this card a lot, potentially as a replacement for Sol Ring. It's not quite as explosive or as safe as its artifact cousin but it does add quite a bit to the Elvish subtheme the deck has going for it. And, as I mentioned above, Yeva does like to have a certain quantity of creatures to work with.
Boundless Realms and Harvest Season: If the Quality Lands Matter package doesn't work for whatever reason, Yeva will want to seed out all of her lands as quickly as possible. These cards do encourage a tap-out on the turn they are cast, which can potentially be dangerous in Yeva, but they do bring a lot of Forests to the table.
Zendikar Resurgent: The only non-creature mana double spell I would consider for a Yeva non-Good Stuff build. Zendikar Resurgent mostly makes that cut because of the Primordial Sage clause stapled onto it rather than the doubling itself.
Magus of the Candelabra: Another "untap any land" creature, the Magus comes down a turn earlier than even Voyaging Satyr. Unfortunately, he doesn't provide any actual ramp without a land that produces more than one mana. I've found that he can be a bit win-more, as he's really only useful once a Cradle for 2+mana has been setup, and he does nothing to help accelerate through the early stages of the game without some help from very lucky topdecks. He could make an argument to replace a 3cc land untapper, like Krosan Restorer, as going from 3 to 5 mana is less important than going from 2 to 4.
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger: Another creature-based mana doubler that has the wonderful side effect of slowing down your opponents. Like Regal Behemoth, he's best played at the end of your opponent on the right's turn, allowing you to untap with doubled mana. Unlike Regal Behemoth, Voirclex is eight mana. In my testing, he usually came down too late to make enough of a difference to justify his deck slot. Also, he costs a boatload of money.
But Why No..?
(Potentially) Symmetrical Mana Doublers: These are cards like Extraplanar Lens, Heartbeat of Spring, and Dictate of Karametra. Yeva is a control deck at heart, and she doesn't want to give advantage to the other decks at the table. Very often, another green deck can go crazier with the free mana than Yeva can.
Non-Symmetrical Mana Doublers: Cards like Mana Reflection, Caged Sun, and Doubling Cube. They do generate tremendous amounts of mana, but are difficult to weave into the play because of their sorcery speed. They also mostly interact poorly with creature synergies and global artifact destruction.
Small Potato Mana Dorks: These are the Llanowar Elves, Arbor Elfs, and Birds of Paradise of the world. I've found them to be too fragile for their mana investment and return and basically a dead draw after T3 or so. Mana dorks in Yeva have to really pull their weight, like Karametra's Acolyte does.
Oracle of Mul Daya: Or Courser of Kruphix, though that card isn't strictly ramp. I've tried these cards out many times and been underwhelmed every single time. Most of the time they just reveal what I draw so the table knows what to expect. The ramp on Oracle is nice, but at the converted mana cost I'd rather be casting Tempt with Discovery.
Exploration and Burgeoning: Both these cards have bounced into and out of the deck. I rarely felt like I had enough early card draw to really take best advantage of them like a proper Blue-Green deck would.
Shockingly, mono-green creature-based draw-go control is not an archetype that has been so abundantly supported by Wizards over the years that Yeva has a deep card pool from which to pull. Many of her best cards are deviated from their original purpose and a more than a couple are jank from the Time Spiral throw-everything-out-there block. As a result, the deck lacks somewhat in redundancy and getting the right creature at the right time in a 100 card singleton format could prove daunting.
Fortunately, green does have an abundance of creature tutors which can help to smooth out. Many of these cards are staples in green and they don't come cheap - as of spring 2017, the eleven cards in the Tutor section clock in at ~$140, trailing behind only the lands in overall cost. In the Budget builds sections, I will discuss some ways to offset that cost - but the fact of the matter is that the only real budget alternative for many of these cards is to run more draw instead.
Consistency is very important for a Yeva deck. Tutoring into a Seedborn Muse kicks the deck into turbocharge mode; tutoring up a Temur Sabertooth can make it nearly immune to disruption; bringing up a Regal Force can restock a hand depleted by a long, grinding game. Skipping out on tutoring can be done, but be aware that it will drastically reduce the power of the deck - which makes this section the best area to cut for a 75% build.
Current List
Bonus points for being an Elf!
Brutalizer Exarch: One of the cheapest (currently) cards in the tutor section, Brutalizer Exarch is an amazing piece of the puzzle. His tutor effect is mediocre compared to other pieces in this section, but he does come with two big advantages: he can be tutored out by a Fierce Empath to get the card you really wanted, and he acts as a powerful removal piece. Don't underestimate Brutalizer Exarch's tuck mechanic: it has saved Yeva many, many times when faced with things like Purphoros, God of the Forge.
Chord of Calling: One of the most powerful tutor effects available in green. The convoke is a powerful part of it; I have on more than one occasion been able to convoke tutor for a Kamahl, Fist of Krosa in response to a wrath on my extended board state, leaving my mana free to destroy the opposing land bases. Being naturally instant speed makes it a perfect complement to Yeva.
Eldritch Evolution: Like its sorcery speed counterpart Natural Order, the Evolution's main job is to turn 3cc ETB creatures into a Seedborn Muse. It can on occasion serve other purposes, but the Muse is a huge play once a proper draw engine has been setup. The sacced creature is a tiny cost to pay given the amount of graveyard recursion that Yeva can throw around.
Fauna Shaman: Survival of the Fittest's little sister. She's not quite as powerful as her older sibling and much more vulnerable to removal, but it's still an outstandingly powerful effect. Like the Survival, Fauna Shaman works best in conjunction with the big draw spells like Regal Force to fuel further tutoring. The advantage that Fauna Shaman has over Survival is that it is a creature and, even better, an elf.
Fierce Empath: I've always thought this is a highly underrated card. A lot of green's best creatures are north of 6 mana; in this deck, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, Regal Force, Terastodon, and more all fit the bill. Since it is an ETB effect, Fierce Empath also plays nicely with self-bounce like Wirewood Symbiote to turn into massive card advantage.
Finale of Devastation: Green Sun's Zenith 2.0, so you can see below for a lot of the discussion about this card. Nice that it can also function as a reanimation spell or a big buff finisher if needed.
Green Sun's Zenith: I don't put much stock by the "shuffle it back in" clause, not nearly as much as I've seen others ascribe to this card. I'd almost rather it just hit the graveyard so I could use Eternal Witness to recur it. It's the other part of card that is so useful. The main use of this card is as a first tutor to set up a draw or mana engine. Note that the current build does not include Dryad Arbor; that is an intention exclusion that I will explain in the Lands section.
Protean Hulk: Protean Hulk will scare a lot of tables because of his reputation as a game-ending combo enabler. There is not, so far as I am aware, any combination of creatures in mono green adding up to six converted mana cost that will end the game on the spot. Instead, Protean Hulk in Yeva functions more as a value engine - and an especially good one at that. With a sac outlet on board, he can fetch up Eternal Witness to recur himself and add more to the board. With Yeva in play, he can flash out in response to a wrath effect, giving us a head start in rebuilding the board. These aren't the interactions that got Hulk the ban-hammer, but they are still powerful.
Summoner's Pact: This trails only Chord of Calling as my favorite instant-speed tutor in the deck. The 2GG upkeep-or-die trigger is fairly trivial for Yeva, especially if the Pact sets up a Seedborn Muse.
Survival of the Fittest: Probably the most busted tutor ever printed in green. Genesis is in this deck, letting Survial tutor up graveyard recursion before it starts pitching creatures into the 'yard, making it virtual card advantage as well. No summoning sickness, immune to creature removal, and an insignificant activation cost. There is really no substitute for this, which is what has driven the cost up so far.
Budget/Meta Considerations
Worldly Tutor: This is a cheap instant speed tutor, which would seem to make it perfect for Yeva. It only misses out on the cut because it is to top of library instead of hand. It occupies a strange middle group of being too good to reject entirely but too expensive to make a budget deck. Sylvan Tutor has a similar effect, but is sorcery speed and twice the price.
Time of Need: One of the biggest budget cuts is swapping Seedborn Muse for Patron of the Orochi. That's obviously a big difference in power (and assumes a different landbase). Time of Need can fetch out the Patron, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, and a few other pieces for only two mana.
Elvish Harbinger: Best for a budget version of the deck. There is quite a bit of Elvish synergy in the deck already, and the Harbinger helps to emphasize that. It can also be part of an emergency tutor chain (with a lot mana obviously) where it tutors out Fierce Empath, which then tutors Brutalizer Exarch, which fetches whatever 0-5cc non-Elf creature was needed in the first place. A bit janky, granted, but better than losing.
Tooth and Nail: This card will not win any friends, and certainly not if sprung on a meta that doesn't realize it isn't an automatic victory in this deck. The scariest thing it can tutor out is probably Craterhoof Behemoth, but even that isn't an automatic win in the same way that Mike and Trike would be in a Golgari deck. If your meta will have trouble with Tooth and Nail — and many will — it can be easily excluded. I find most often the pair of creatures this tutors up is Seedborn Muse and Temur Sabertooth. This card was in the deck before Finale of Devastation was printed.
But Why No..?
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard: Even in a budget version of the deck, this guy is underwhelming. He's huge game in his own deck, where he can keeping coming back from the command zone, but my usual experience with him is that he maybe (if I'm lucky) fetches out a 1cc creature and then eats removal. I suppose there is some value to saving other creatures from that removal, but every other tutor in the deck is far more powerful and I don't think there are any other slots where he'd be more useful than even the budget version of the card already there.
Birthing Pod: My thoughts on this are of a similar vein to Yisan, though at least the Pod skips creature removal and isn't affected by summoning sickness. Still, there's not a clear Pod chain in the deck and the fact that it can only be activated as a sorcery just kills it for me.
This is a bit of a catch all section for all the various cards that don't slot neatly into the other categories. Some of the most iconic pieces in the deck end up in this section as well as a few of the most powerful engines. Graveyard recursion is also found in this section.
Found here are the cards that make Yeva such a pain to deal with for most decks. Bouncing creatures, especially deployed at instant speed in response to removal, turn mono-green into a cockroach that can be difficult to even slow down, let alone stop.
Many of the strategies I will discuss in this section assume that the deck is generating a ton of mana - by 'a ton' I mean well in excess of ten, probably closer to twenty or higher. That is part of the reason why, in the ramp section above, I placed such heavy emphasis on the "high risk, high reward" nature of the mana base. The two are interdependent; the Utility section can mitigate the risk of the ramp creatures, but only if it is fed with enormous resources from the payoff of that ramp.
Bramble Sovereign: This card has to be played to be believed. Like, the power level is off the charts in a deck that relies on ETB effects. Saying things like "I play two Elvish Visionarys" is good enough; then imagine you're saying things like "I play Craterhoof Behemoth and, for two more mana, it's best friend, a second Hoof."
Eternal Witness: Along with Genesis, below, part of the recursion package. Alongside Temur Sabertooth and enough mana, the Witness can make Yeva feel like a black graveyard deck. Spore Frog is one of her favorite targets when faced with creature aggression. Exile is the bane of her existence; when at all possible, sacrifice creatures rather than allow them to be exiled. Also watch out for Bojuka Bog. It may well be better to shuffle the graveyard back in with Loaming Shaman than to let it get exiled.
Genesis: The other leg of the recursion package, everything I mentioned about Eternal Witness goes for Genesis as well. It is usually pretty easy to get Genesis into the graveyard, whether that's by discarding him to Greater Good, sacrificing him to Evolutionary Leap, pitching him as part of Survival of the Fittest's tutoring, or simply flashing him out in response to a Wrath of God effect. His effect is slower than Eternal Witness, but he lends a huge air of inevitability to the deck. I've seen players scoop to a Genesis flashing out into a board wipe.
Invasive Species: This is probably the only deck that can run this card, and like its jank cousin Timbermare, Yeva turns it into an all-star. The Bugs protect any vulnerable permanent — not only creatures, but also things like Greater Good and Gaea's Cradle — and is easily reset by things like Temur Sabertooth. Note that, in case of a non-destroy Wrath (something like All is Dust or Final Judgment), Invasive Species can save both Sabertooth and itself. Flash in the Bugs, use their ETB ability to target the Kitties, and then use the Sabertooth's ability to bounce Invasive Species.
Seedborn Muse: Probably the most important card in the deck and the most frequent tutor target. With all her mana available every turn, Yeva can do some really nutty things. Still, the Muse is not utterly indispensable and it is sometimes better if she eats an opposing exile effect than it would be for, say, Temur Sabertooth. Yeva still functions without Muse, but the Muse is an insane power multiplier and should never be underestimated. In budget versions, her price tag can be a bit steep. Patron of the Orochi is a decent alternative (assuming the land base is modified to emphasize Forests). Still, the first cash that is available for upgrades to this deck should probably be spent on Muse.
Temur Sabertooth: If Seedborn Muse is the flashy, look-at-me center of the deck, then the Temur Sabertooth ("kitty") is the unsung hero, the secret linchpin for everything Yeva is trying to do. I do think this may be the most powerful green creature that has been printed in ages (discounting the obviously-broken-and-banned stuff like Sylvan Primordial). The first advantage to the Kitty is that it can recycle any creature with an ETB effect (from Elvish Visionary to Regal Force). More importantly, the Kitty is at the center of a lot of wrath-mitigation efforts. The bounce effect turns the kitty indestructible, meaning that only sacrifice (All is Dust) or exile (Merciless Eviction) effects can touch it. Of course, like the Muse, Yeva can work without a kitty - it's just a lot harder. Protect the cat and Yeva will fight through an unreal amount of hate.
Wellwisher: This is a meta-call. Cards that only gain life usually aren't worth the cardboard they're printed on. However, I can usually count on seeing either Purphoros, God of the Forge or Gray Merchant of Asphodel (or both!) in every one of my games. I prefer Wellwisher above alternatives like Essence Warden because it has a pretty high floor and an insane ceiling. Worst case scenario, it's counting itself and Yeva for two life a circuit - that's not terrible. Best case scenario, with a Wirewood Symbiote, something to bounce to it, and a Seedborn Muse, the Wellwisher is gaining life equal to elves times players times two, which is insane life gain. However, if you play in a meta unlike mine where direct damage isn't a threat (or else it kills you all at once), Wellwisher can be an easy cut.
Wirewood Symbiote: This is kitty's (racist) little brother. He only works with elves (like Yeva) but his bounce effect, instead of consuming resources, actually produces them. The Symbiote is also a juicy 1cc, making him a convenient tutor target for Chord of Calling in response to spot removal on a key elf. He's also great in the early game when combined with Elvish Visionary as a draw engine. Later in the game, he can bounce an elf to untap Karametra's Acolyte for bonkers mana. This may not be an elf deck in the strictest sense, but there's still enough synergy for the Symbiote to justify his deck slot.
Budget/Meta Considerations
Gaea's Herald and Prowling Serpopard: I will never be able to type "Serpopard" without laughing at least a little bit. These, along with Savage Summoning and Cavern of Souls, are the best ways to fight a counterspell heavy meta. The area I play in is fairly light on counterspells so I don't include these effects in the main list.
Essence Warden: And other green or colorless life-gain. With the amount of tutoring this deck runs, I don't see a reason to include more than one lifegain option. Wellwisher and Essence Warden are really the strongest candidates, being cheap in mana cost and outsized in terms of effect. I prefer Wellwisher myself because Yeva helps to mitigate the summoning sickness aspect and the deck doesn't really play enough creatures on its own to make Essence Warden go insane.
Deadwood Treefolk: Another potential recursion piece. It only hits creatures, which is less of a big deal in Yeva than it would be in other decks since she runs so creature-heavy, but it is still annoying not being able to recur a Quality Land or a tutor piece. It also triggers its second ability on a "leaves the battlefield" clause, not a "dies" clause, giving it some additional utility alongside Temur Sabertooth.
Riftsweeper: Semi-recursion, useful for putting exiled pieces back in the deck to be tutored out again. So far I haven't found any single piece to be so indispensable that it absolutely had to be recurred, but your results will vary by meta.
But Why No..?
Panharmonicon: Let me lead off by saying this is one of my favorite cards that has been printed in recent memory. I'm having a blast with it in half a dozen other decks. And Yeva seemed a natural fit at first, given its reliance on ETB abilities. The more I played with it, however, the clunkier it started to feel. Panharmonicon almost never won a game that I would otherwise have lost, and it sat dead in my hand during a number of losses. It's just too big of a hassle to drop at sorcery speed until there is either a Seedborn Muse or a Karametra's Acolyte online, and usually by those times the game is well in hand.
Cloudstone Curio: This suffers from "Panharmonicon Syndrome." It's just too hard to weave into a series of drops and doesn't do enough to contribute to the final victory. If the creatures aren't good enough to win on their first drops, Temur Sabertooth will usually push them over the top.
There are a lot of cards in this section that rightly could be considered "ramp" or "utility" cards, but I prefer to keep a land base together for consideration. Since players are (usually) limited to one land drop a turn, I consider the land base to be more holistic than any other part of the deck. Any time I spend a land drop, I want to make sure that I am getting the best effect I can for spending my limited resource.
Also note that, as discussed above in the ramp section, Yeva is a mana hungry deck that prefers its resources to come in large bursts. The land base in large part reflects this. Land destruction can be a major problem; subbing in Wood Elves and its ilk for the land-untap creatures can help to mitigate this if land destruction is rampant in your meta. Frequent mass land destruction is a different problem and would likely require a retool of large parts of the ramp package as well as the inclusion of something like Crucible of Worlds.
Non-basic land hate is a less dire problem. With 25 basic lands, Yeva can usually get enough mana up to drop something like Caustic Caterpillar or Reclamation Sage to deal with a Blood Moon or a Back to Basics. Ruination can be a bigger problem. Wave of Vitriol is a minor enough effect that I have included it in some versions of this deck.
When building Yeva on a budget, as seen in the Alternate Builds section, the easiest solution is to just replace the vast majority of the non-basic lands in this section with Forests.
Current List
The beauty of a Tony Roberts Mirage forest
Ancient Tomb: As noted above with Mana Crypt, the "downside" of Ancient Tomb in a 40 life format is negligible at best. Although the mana it produces is colorless, Ancient Tomb still enables plays like the vital T3 Yeva (or, combined with a Myriad Landscape, a T3 Seedborn Muse).
Blighted Woodland: I have found this card to be consistently better than a basic land. I don't always end up with the five free mana (four to activate, one in virtual cost from not tapping the Woodland) to pop the Woodland, but since it comes into play untapped the card is basically free in opportunity cost. It does produce colorless mana, which can be a problem with some draws, but I have found about 25 basics to be the right ratio for having access to the green mana symbols I need. Blighted Woodland could be cut for another utility non-basic if I found the right card, but it's not currently in any danger of that.
Command Beacon: Yeva can tend to draw a lot of hate, given that she enables a lot of the deck's degeneracy, so it's nice to have a backup for the commander tax. On the other hand, the deck also produces absurd amounts of mana, so she can be hard-cast out of the command zone even if her tax gets into the double digits. This card is on the top of the list for cuts if there is another colorless land that wants to be included.
Deserted Temple: This is a vital part of the Quality Land Acceleration ramp package. It untaps Gaea's Cradle and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, powering out tons of mana. It also interacts with some of the other utility lands, like High Market in case of emergency. I've even had a game where I had drawn way too many colorless sources and it needed to untap a forest to get up to Yeva's double green cost.
Forest: Basic lands are a great thing. They produce green mana and never accidentally turn into mountains. See the comment below for a discussion of basic forests vrs. Snow-covered Forests.
Gaea's Cradle: Representing roughly a third of the entire deck's dollar value, Cradle is an important part of the Quality Lands package. Note that it is NOT vital in this deck; Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx does about the same work, and is even more valuable in certain situations. The Cradle adds a level of redundancy to Nykthos and the two of them are fun to pull out together when someone accepts Tempt with Discovery's offer.
High Market: This is one of the most valuable utility lands in the deck. It was originally included as a way to save Yeva's creatures from being stolen or exiled, but once Willow Satyr was included it jumped in value. Sacrifice outlets are surprisingly valuable in this deck, and with only one virtual mana cost (the opportunity mana from not being able to tap High Market for colorless) this is the second cheapest option after Greater Good.
Homeward Path: This card is a meta call. The decks I play against have a not-insignificant amount of creature stealing spells (things like Cultural Exchange and Gilded Drake) so it's nice to have an out if important pieces get nabbed. If your meta doesn't have a lot of theft effects, or those theft effects usually kill your creature, then this can be safely switched out.
Miren, the Moaning Well: Miren is High Market #2 for redundancy purposes. It does produce some potentially bonkers life gain, but the four effective mana cost is pretty steep. It's still better than a Forest for the backup in case something unfortunate happens to High Market or that card doesn't show up.
Myriad Landscape: This is the only land in the deck that doesn't produce a mana the turn it comes into play (excepting Gaea's Cradle if there are no creatures). Staying on curve is vitally important, so a tap land really has to pull its weight to justify its inclusion in the deck. Myriad Landscape, as a Blighted Woodland with half the cost, does that. It's best as a drop on T1, followed by any of Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, or Ancient Tomb on T2 for 5+ mana on turn 3.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: This is the land version of Karametra's Acolyte, which is itself one of the most broken cards in the deck. It can generate insane amounts of mana in combination with the land untap creatures, which in turn allows the deck to do insane things to protect itself and win. When looking to upgrade a budget version of the deck, the Shrine is the second card I would recommend (trailing Seedborn Muse). This is 95% - and sometimes more - of a Gaea's Cradle for 4% of the money.
Strip Mine: Not a card that's going to win any friends. Still, there's so many problematic lands in this format that having a land-based solution never hurts. Plus, it can always tap for colorless in a pinch.
Yavimaya Hollow: There are a lot of wrath effects, like Day of Judgment and Nevinyrral's Disk, that allow regeneration. The Hollow can also help to block spot removal of key pieces. It's far and away not the most effective response to removal in the deck, but it has the advantage of being virtually opportunity-cost free.
Budget/Meta Considerations
Emergency backup Yeva
Winding Canyons: This is an emergency backup Yeva if something unfortunate happens to her, like her commander tax getting excessive. I ran this for a while in the main deck and did not find it to be necessary. It would still be included except that I don't like dropping below twenty five basic lands in the deck.
Terrain Generator: This is a cool little trick and is more valuable in budget versions of the deck that run far more Forests. In the current build, it rarely generates enough value to justify using up a colorless land slot.
Snow-covered Forests: There is no practical reason why Yeva would prefer the non-snow lands. Snow-covered forests are more likely to get a benefit off of people trying to sneak out an Extraplanar Lens and have synergy with other snow effects (see below). I use basic Forests just because I have some really beautiful basics - the Mirage lands I linked above, Urza's Saga lands, and a few promo lands. I do have 25 snow-covered forests sitting around if it ever becomes important that I switch.
Scrying Sheets and Mouth of Ronom: The best argument for switching to snow lands. The Mouth is especially intriguing, as Yeva often struggles to kill off creatures, and 4 damage takes care of most annoying non-combat creatures. The Sheets is card advantage, but only for basic lands in this deck. Still, the more lands it draws, the fewer lands get drawn with free draws.
Tranquil Thicket and Slippery Karst: In a budget build, the cycling lands can convert land-heavy hands - and I do recommend running 40+ lands in a budget build - into gas. They do come into play tapped, which is what gets them cut from Yeva's main build.
Reliquary Tower: Discarding is no fun. This solves that problem, although it does eat up a valuable colorless land slot.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All: There's nothing more annoying that tapping out into a Genesis Wave just to see it countered. Boseiju helps to negate that. Unfortuantely, it does very little else, all for the price of two life per tap. I don't see the instants and sorceries in the deck as so vital that they need protection from counterspells, but your meta may vary.
Wirewood Lodge: Priest of Titania, Fauna Shaman, and Wellwisher are all elves with tap abilities. Being able to untap them for effectively two mana can make a huge difference. In builds of Yeva that lean more heavily on the elf subtype, like the one below, the Lodge can be even more valuable.
Mosswort Bridge: Free is free. Coming into play tapped is what keeps it out of my build of Yeva, but this could find a home in budget decks.
Fetch Lands: In theory, four Forests could be replaced by the four fetch lands. I don't see this as an especially valuable addition to the deck. Land thinning has next to no value in a 100-card deck and there are only a few cards that actively want a shuffle mechanic, so these are basically just Forests that you have to pay a life in order to use and can randomly be hosed by Aven Mindcensor. However, if you go down a route with Crucible of Worlds/Magus of the Crucible, then they'll be far more valuable.
But Why No..?
Maze of Ith or Mystifying Maze: Compared to the TurboFrog package, I don't consider negating one attacking creature from one opponent per circuit to be especially valuable. They both add horrendous opportunity costs to this marginal benefit, one by not producing mana and the other by requiring five mana (four to activate plus one for the land) to be used. Leave them at home.
Temple of the False God: In my testing, this was consistently worse than a basic land. It might have some value in an extreme budget versions of the deck, where having a land that doesn't do anything before T5 at the earliest isn't too big of a drag, but I just don't see this card as worth the cardboard it's printed on.
Dryad Arbor: This deck runs Green Sun's Zenith, which makes some automatically assume it should run the Dryad Arbor too. I'm not personally a huge fan. The Arbor effectively comes into play tapped (as it is affected by summoning sickness), it dies to any random mass removal that gets thrown around, and even with the Zenith you've effectively shot off one of the best tutors in the deck to play a Llanowar Elves, a card that's not good enough to run in most builds. I will stick with a Forest myself.
Yeva usually finishes a game in the same way as other mono-green decks, with a combat phase boosted by Craterhoof Behemoth or Kamahl, Fist of Krosa to trample over the table. However, she gets there in a much different way - through control of the board and, most importantly, an oppressive cockroach persistence.
By the nature of a 100 card singleton deck, there is no way that a strategy article would ever be able to articulate all the possible variations of an actual game situation against several other 100 card singleton decks. I will do my best to illustrate some situations, including anecdotes from games I have played, which will hopefully illuminate the strategies (and pitfalls!) of playing Yeva.
The first and most important piece of general advice is to stop thinking at sorcery speed. I cannot stress this enough. It seems basic, but the largest advantage that Yeva gives is the ability to work at instant speed. I have fallen victim to the sorcery speed trap more often than I would like to remember. Usually I untap, get excited by the mana I have, and shoot off something at sorcery speed that I could have done as an instant, just to have my tapped mana and threatening board presence haunt me for the entire circuit. I have watched people play the deck in exchange games without ever casting something on someone else's turn.
Don't do that. Yeva's main power is in her ability to hide her plays and only make them when her hand is forced. Playing a creature on your turn is just begging for someone else to wrath the board on their turn, when your defenses are down and you cannot adequately respond. The best time for Yeva to make a play is during the end phase of the player sitting directly to her right.
5.1 - Metagame: Yeva's Strengths and Weaknesses
Danger! Danger, Yeva Robinson!
This section will also explore the strengths of Yeva (and how to leverage them) and her weaknesses (and how to mitigate them).
The core of Yeva's strength is a relatively quick clock combined with a fair amount of disruption and an oppressive cockroach resilience. Most faster decks will not be able to deal with her control elements while slower control decks will have difficulty dealing with the cockroach elements. Yeva's best matchups come against grindy midrange decks, which usually rely on the combat phase and can be TurboFrog-ed (see: The TurboFrog Package). Midrange decks are also usually light enough on removal that Yeva will have an easy time fighting through them (see Responding to Removal).
Truly competitive decks, like Hermit Druid combo or the most oppressive stax builds, will give Yeva more trouble. They are usually executing their game plans while Yeva is still setting up. Seeds of Innocence is usually the best card in these sorts of matchups, as they generally rely heavily on artifacts pushed out by T3 at the latest, but its sorcery speed and the difficulty of protecting it from counterspells make even hands with a Seeds risky against those decks.
Against a more reasonable tier of competition, Yeva's toughest matchups are usually against decks that don't rely on the combat phase or much of a board presence to win. Combo blue decks that High Tide into a Blue Sun's Zenith, for example, or big-mana black decks that want to dump a Cabal Coffers and a Crypt Ghast into an Exsanguinate. Since TurboFrog won't be of much use in these matchups, the best protection is a preemptive attack on their mana bases. Again, mass artifact destruction will take care of many of these problems. Don't be afraid as well to target lands with things like Terastodon. Lands are usually considered sacrosanct in EDH, but mono-green doesn't have a lot of other options for fighting a lolHUGE Exsanguinate.
Another problem is cards that shut off creature abilities, like Humility, Torpor Orb, and Overwhelming Splendor. The first two you can at least hope will affect the entire board and one of your opponents might get rid of them. Torpor Orb can also be answered by Caustic Caterpillar or Seeds of Innocence. Against the Splendor, there's really nothing to do but concede or hope to rip a magical topdeck Beast Within. If it becomes a major problem in your meta, World Breaker and/or any of green's non-creature-based enchantment hate (Back to Nature, Krosan Grip, etc.) can be added, possibly in place of some of your own enchantments.
The absolute worst matchup for Yeva in a normal metagame is a Group Hug deck and a Combo deck. The Group Hug deck will often give so many resources to the combo deck that they are able to go off before Yeva can meaningfully interact with their board. Try to remove Group Hug pieces before they have a chance to accelerate the game beyond Yeva's ability to control it.
After mulligans (see: Finding a Good Hand), Yeva wants to quickly establish a board presence. Setting up mana is the first priority, then setting up a draw/tutor engine, then moving into the mid-game.
Mana acceleration is the first priority. Mana powers the card draw, which draws into spells to protect the mana. If it is at all possible, a T3 Yeva can be a huge asset. She drops down right as your opponents are starting to get off the ground. It might even be possible to sucker one of them into an attack on you with a creature having three or less power, which Yeva can flash in and kill.
Try not to run out the most vital pieces (Seedborn Muse and Temur Sabertooth) unless you are very sure that you can protect them and the rest of your board, or if Muse would create such a huge advantage that you can move directly into the mid or end game.
The early game usually lasts four to five turns and is focused primarily on setting up the mid game.
5.2.2 - Mid Game
Once a stable mana base and card advantage engine have been set up, Yeva wants to move into control mode. Other decks might be making their moves to win at this point; in that case, Yeva wants to disrupt their plans (see: Using the Removal).
On the other hand, other control decks might use the mid game to attempt to disrupt Yeva. This is the time where her cockroach aspect comes on full display (see: Responding to Removal).
Assuming that the early game set up a stable enough draw and tutor engine, Yeva should quickly power through the mid game and move into the end game. The presence of a Seedborn Muse can mean that the mid game might not even last one full circuit.
The mid game usually lasts one to two turns and is focused primarily on surviving to get to the end game.
5.2.3 - End Game
The end game takes advantage of the resource imbalance established during the mid game in order to quickly and efficiently close games out, usually with a powerful creature power-boost. The "Closing Stuff Out" section will have many more details on Yeva's end game strategies.
If the cockroach aspect was properly established during the mid game, Yeva can be very resilient to disruption during her end game. Avoid being greedy and dumping all available mana into Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, for example. Even if it means that one player will survive, that one player can be isolated and given the full extent of the removal spells to ensure eventual victory.
What constitutes a good opening hand for Yeva? The obvious answer is one that sets her up well for the mid game. In other words, Yeva wants to quickly establish a good mana presence and a stable draw/tutor engine.
It is possible to keep a hand that rushes into the mid-game: one, for example, that can drop a T3 Seedborn Muse off of broken acceleration like Mana Crypt or Sol Ring, but that would take a very particular combination of cards in hand and still a bit of hoping for lucky draws.
You also rarely want to see actual answers in the opening hand, as bizarre as that might sound. Especially the creature-based answers are better left in the deck to be tutored out when they are needed, rather than clogging up the setup phase. Terastodon, in particular , has an enormous mana cost and in no way can contribute to the early phases of the game. It's much better to see tutors like Survival of the Fittest that can turn early creatures into the exact answers needed.
I generated a few sample hands along with advice on how to play them:
This hand is a bit heavy on lands, especially non-green producing utility lands, but the Tusker and one Forest at least guarantee we would be able to hit Yeva on schedule. On T5, with Yeva down, the Green Sun's Zenith could fetch out a repeatable tutor or draw option like Fauna Shaman or Duskwatch Recruiter. The Kamahl is dead weight. This is likely to be a slower hand, pending good top decks, but one that should be serviceable. Mulligan it against top-tier opponents and keep it against 75% builds.
It's hard to turn down a Genesis Wave and a bunch of mana. There's not a lot of defense in this hand, just hoping that the ~T5-6 Genesis Wave will bring some goodies. I think it would be a risk worth taking. The biggest debate is whether to go with the Selvala, Heart of the Wilds or the Shaman of Forgotten Ways on T3. I would say the Selvala, as she makes for a more explosive T5 and is less vital for the end game.
The first three draws were Forest, Bane of Progress, Brutalizer Exarch, setting up some disruption for the mid game. We would still be depending on the Wave to set up a draw engine, although the Exarch's tutor ability could help with that.
There is a lot to like about this hand. It features an insanely powerful tutor, the Zenith, and two strong card advantage engines in the Leap and the Duskwatch Recruiter. Karametra's Acolyte is also looming in the wings, ready to power out insane mana. There are only two lands, and only one of them green, which with no real acceleration could be a problem. I think the advantages of this hand outweigh the risks.
The first three draws were Forest, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, and Mana Crypt. This is a bonkers hand and should lead to a quick victory pending opponent interaction. I ended up goldfishing this one entirely and, assuming three opponents for Seedborn Muse purposes, resolved a Tooth and Nail entwined on my T5 for a Craterhoof Behemoth and a Temur Sabertooth, with the Hoof able to attack along with five other creatures and them all getting +7/+7 (call it 57 points of damage, enough to kill the most threatening opponent)
At its current count, this Yeva deck includes ten creature tutors, meaning that at least one will usually be seen in a game. For the powerful, repeatable tutors like Survival of the Fittest, the target is usually obvious: grab Seedborn Muse and then go nuts. For one-shot tutors like Green Sun's Zenith, things can get a little but murkier.
As discussed above in Finding a Good Hand, much of what to target with the tutors will depend on the state of the rest of the hand. Generally, establishing a solid card draw / tutor engine will help to find more tutors, which will help to find the answers that are needed at any particular time.
I only use a one-shot tutor on Seedborn Muse - despite the obvious power of that card - if I have a card advantage engine already set up. Otherwise, the Muse will quickly outrun the hand and, because the right answers cannot be found at the right time, leave Yeva defenseless.
Depending on the mana available, Regal Force is usually my favorite draw engine tutor target. He provides overwhelming card advantage and draws both creatures and non-creatures, meaning that he'll have a better chance of landing another tutor to keep the chain going. If less burst mana is available, but a Muse is already active, Duskwatch Recruiter is a fantastic option. With Wirewood Symbiote, Elvish Visionary can turn into a machine gun of card draw.
If, through a lucky draw, you end up with both sorcery speed tutors like Natural Order or Eldritch Evolution and instant speed tutors like Chord of Calling or Summoner's Pact, it's better to use the sorcery speed tutor in setting up a Muse and then the instant speed tutors to protect her or set up a draw engine.
Most importantly, do whatever you need to do to remember the upkeep trigger on Summoner's Pact!
As a deck with control elements (though I would struggle to classify Yeva as a pure control deck) it is important to understand the power and limitation of the removal elements in the deck.
Once things are in play, they are relatively easy for Yeva to control. Artifacts and enchantments will find plentiful destruction. Creatures attempting to attack with have to deal with TurboFrog (see: Using the TurboFrog Package).
On the other hand, Yeva can do relatively little to affect spells on the stack that do not interact with the board in some way. As mentioned in the general strategy section, she can be weak to direct damage or other spell-based combo strategies.
However, she can go a long way towards making sure that those types of spell never get played. In order to beat Yeva's relatively fast clock, most combo decks will lean on mana rocks, land acceleration, and mana dorks.
Mana rocks are the easiest to deal with. Sweepers like Seeds of Innocence or (if fast combo is common in your meta) and Creeping Corrosion will remove large chunks of their mana base and often create virtual card advantage. Bane of Progress and Terastodon are mid game sweepers that can be tutored out and then recurred. Don't be afraid to drop 3cc artifact destruction like Manglehorn or Reclamation Sage on curve, even if it has to be at sorcery speed, if your opponents are running out Sol Rings or Mana Crypts.
Lands are a bit tricker, and usually cannot be meaningfully interacted with until the mid-game. Terastodon isthe best ways to eliminate troublesome lands. There are faster, three and four mana land destruction spells in green, but these tend to be sorceries that don't interact well with other parts of the Yeva build. For a metagame with especially troublesome lands, Strip Mine and Wasteland are an option. However, a land-based build often lends itself more to a Titania, Protector of Argoth deck than Yeva.
Creatures are the hardest type of permanent for Yeva (and mono-green generally) to interact with. Ulvenwald Tracker is generally the best creature removal in the deck, but he is affected by summoning sickness. Polukranos, World Eater can work at instant speed entirely, although he requires a boat-load of mana and must be bounced or otherwise recurred after his initial work. Silklash Spider and Arbor Colossus can do good work against flyers. Willow Satyr can steal and sacrifice creatures, but only legendary ones and he has the same summoning sickness problem as Ulvenwald Tracker.
An important thing to remember about Yeva is that the vast majority of the removal in the deck, so long as she is in play, operates at instant speed. Other mono-green decks will usually have to make a judgment on their turn about what to remove; Yeva can feel free to wait until there is an absolute need to interact.
Take Loaming Shaman for an example: another green deck would have to make a call about whether or not a suspected Reanimator deck was about to try and leverage its graveyard, hope they tuck the cards at the right time, and further hope that the Reanimator does not then grind more creatures in on its turn. Yeva can instead wait until something like Dread Return or Living Death is actually on the stack and then tuck away its target(s).
The TurboFrog Package is the centerpiece of Yeva's answer to faster creature-based decks, which might attack her for lethal before she has a chance to set up her end game. It involves five cards, two primary and three support. The primary cards are Spore Frog and Timbermare; the support cards are Temur Sabertooth, Eternal Witness, and Genesis.
Spore Frog is the cheaper option, usually used in emergencies following an unexpected attack. For one mana at instant speed (with Yeva), he functions essentially as a Fog. Importantly, however, he is a creature - and therefore synergizes with all the creature-based cards in the deck, including tutors like Chord of Calling that can pick him out in a pinch. The Frog can be recurred with Eternal Witness, though only once without Temur Sabertooth, or with Genesis, though only for one attack phase per cycle.
Timbermare is the harder lock and better for games with a more established board state. Unlike Spore Frog, Timbermare prevents on attack triggers like the Oldrazi annihilator or Inferno Titan's three damage. Timbermare does have to be used proactively, rather than reactively, by casting it before the active player can declare attackers.
Like most other creatures in the deck, Timbermare is much more effective when paired with Temur Sabertooth. The kitty with Timbermare and Yeva essentially negates every attack phase for six mana, something that is relatively easy to achieve with Seedborn Muse in play. The combo is extremely hard to disrupt unless there is exile-based removal that can be pointed at the Temur Sabertooth.
Bear in mind that Timbermare also has offensive applications (see: Closing Stuff Out).
Throughout this strategy article, I have referenced Yeva's special ability to fight through hate, a trait that is not shared by all mono-green decks. I want to be absolutely clear from the outset: this requires a ton of mana. I know that I have spent quite a few words explaining the (relatively risky) ramp package that this deck runs. That risk is partially mitigated by Yeva's ability to fight through hate. The ramp enables the recursion, which in turn protects the ramp.
Obviously, if Yeva is caught without mana for whatever reason, she is extremely vulnerable. That's why the deck has been moving away from sorcery-based ramp, removal, and draw spells. Yeva wants to be doing everything possible on the turn of the player immediately to her right so as to avoid a wrath spell until her next turn.
Pictured: Wrath effect
Note that the majority of this section will refer to dealing with "wrath effects" - which is to say cards like Wrath of God, Damnation, Blasphemous Act, Cyclonic Rift, Ezuri's Predation, or All is Dust that kill the vast majority of creatures on the field at once, usually at sorcery speed. I will have a blurb about spot removal later at the end.
The easiest solution to removal is to just recast Yeva. She presumably leaves the battlefield, ends up in the command zone, and can come back to play for two more mana than the last time she was cast. This will eventually get prohibitively expensive and does nothing to save the rest of the board, but it does have the advantage of needing absolutely no setup. Bear that in mind when utilizing some of the strategies later in this section; when you have to make a choice about which creatures to save, Yeva has her own built-in recursion and so can make way for other creatures that don't.
Another tactic, assuming that you have it in hand, is to flash in a Genesis to be killed along with the rest of your army. It won't provide any immediate benefit, but once he's in the graveyard he can start slowly recurring your lost creatures. Recursion in general can make up a lot of ground. With Genesis and Eternal Witness, and ways to recur the Witness, Yeva can give a Reanimator deck a run for its money.
With enough mana, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa can be a devastating response to a wrath effect. He pops into play for six mana and then destroys your opponents lands at a cost of one green mana each. Even just fifteen or sixteen mana - easily achievable with Yeva's ramp package - can leave all your opponents several turns behind. Again, this does little or nothing to save your own board but the advantage it sets up can be impossible for many decks to recover from. Kamahl can also pop into play off of a Chord of Calling, remember, convoking him in and saving actual mana for use in animating lands. With Kamahl or Chord in hand, I have often found myself wishing that someone would wipe the board so that I could enact this plan.
Finally, the most effective response: self-bounce. If your creatures aren't in play, then they can't be destroyed. Temur Sabertooth and to a lesser extent Wirewood Symbiote are the real all-stars here. To be most effective, they will need A LOT of mana. For example, flashing in a Temur Sabertooth, bouncing Yeva and Seedborn Muse and then replaying Yeva and the Muse will cost seventeen mana plus the price of any tutors. On the other hand, the board is now clear and you have three creatures, ready to untap all your lands on the next opponent's untap step.
Spot removal can be even more dangerous than wraths, as much of it - Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Anguished Unmaking, etc - has an exile clause rather than a destroy clause. Spot removal also can't be scared off by a Kamahl, Fist of Krosa. The best response to it is usually to bounce the targeted creature (Wirewood Symbiote excels here in the early game). If that's not possible, it's often better to sacrifice the affected creature to High Market or Evolutionary Leap rather than let it be exiled.
As much fun as the mid game is, eventually Yeva will want to end things. Once she hits a critical mass of creatures and mana - the two often coincide - and any protective enchantments the opponents have are destroyed, it is time to move to the end game.
Four creatures make up the bulk of Yeva's end game power. In the primary role are Craterhoof Behemoth and Kamahl, Fist of Krosa; in the supporting role are Shaman of Forgotten Ways and Timbermare. The first two are fairly standard in mono-green decks. Many of them attempt to win the same way, by boosting the power of a large number of creatures and granting them trample. The second two are more effective in a Yeva deck for the reasons I will outline below.
Momentary Peace, Eternal Annoyance
A basic Hoof or Kamahl victory is pretty easy. Turn creatures sideways at opponents, make them huge, win. Complications arise when 1) your opponents are able to disrupt your attack phase in some way; 2) Yeva doesn't have enough creatures to kill all the opponents over their defenses; or 3) someone has amassed so much life, sometimes as the result of an infinite combo, that they cannot realistically be brought down.
For the first point, most cards that disrupt the attack phase are either an artifact/enchantment/creature that can be destroyed by Yeva's removal or an instant, usually a Fog of some sort. We've already discussed how to best destroy meddlesome permanents (see: Using the Removal). Spells are more difficult. Most green and white (and the occasional black spell) fogs are one-shot, unlike TurboFrog, which means waiting an extra turn and then trying again.
Some, however, like Moment's Peace and Constant Mists, require more work. Flashback spells are just begging for a Loaming Shaman to tuck them back into the deck, preferably on someone else's turn so they don't have a chance to use it in response. Buyback spells like Constant Mists are more difficult, and the best solution is to aggressively attack the resource base that supports them. This means land destruction, even if it is distasteful.
Blue combat disruption usually involves bouncing, either to hand (Evacuation) or to the library (Aetherspouts). This is annoying, but fairly easy to deal with. If you are attacking into open blue mana, just expect that you'll have everything bounced. Leave back enough mana to vomit your hand back onto the battlefield to try again next turn and keep your card draw engine safely behind in case your army does go to the top of your library.
For the second point, Yeva will usually have fewer and less powerful creatures than other green decks. This is where Timbermare comes into play. He can drop down either at the end of the previous player's turn (be sure to pay his upkeep or bounce him!) or immediately after attackers have been declared (but before blockers can be declared). He then taps out all opposing boards, leaving your army free to trample directly to life totals.
For the third point, this is where Shaman of Forgotten Ways comes into play. Especially if some wraths have been tossed around, Yeva will probably have more creatures than anyone else and - most importantly - the ability to play this creature EOT. He comes down, reduces everyone's life total to manageable bites, and then a quick attack phase finishes off anyone who survived. Just watch out for instant speed burn or life drain!
Shaman can also sneak out some solo victories. Consider a wrath effect on the turn immediately before yours. Yeva is in play along with Temur Sabertooth and there is eleven mana available. Sabertooth bounces Yeva, who then pops back into play EOT and brings Shaman with her. On your turn, you now have ten power in play for formidable, eleven mana, and a Shaman ready to be tapped on a clear board.
Yeva, Nature's Herald is an amazingly versatile general. About the only prerequisite for a Yeva list is that it include creatures to make the best use of her ability. Even outside of that, she's still a 4/4 with flash for four mana; I could conceive of a voltron-ish control decklist where she popped out EOT to pick up some swords and beat face.
My build of Yeva, as I mentioned above, concentrates on using Seedborn Muse to assemble a knockout punch while green creatures at instant speed control the board. It intentionally sacrifices power and speed for resilience and inevitability. The price of achieving its objectives is high, both in terms of deck construction and in terms of monetary cost. My build is also not subtle, and it will end up being the archenemy in many games.
In this section, I will explore several alternative builds for Yeva, ranging from the relatively minor (like tweaking the ramp package and incorporating a wish package) to the fairly extreme (extreme budget tips and rebuilds to focus on elves, politics, or goodstuff).
6.1 - Minor Tweaks
First, the easy stuff.
6.1.1 - Ramp Package
I mentioned above (see: Ramp Cards) that my build of Yeva is very high on the risk/reward spectrum. I don't mind playing with that inherent amount of risk because I have seen how reselient Yeva can be with enough mana support. However, I fully understand if some would prefer to cut the riskier mana creatures for a more stable land base.
The best way to do this is to add the various elves who search out a basic land and put it into play. Note that Yavimaya Dryad could easily replace Yavimaya Granger; my preference for the Granger is that the elf subtype interacts so absurdly with Wirewood Symbiote in this case.
This is also a good change to make if budget means cutting deeply into the land base - especially if Gaea's Cradle and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx don't make it into the deck.
There's a fair amount of artifact hate in the deck already, but Yeva is always in favor of more. In this case, we look to replace the three artifacts currently being run with more hate for that type.
There are a couple very powerful green cards that rely on certain cards being played. My meta does not have enough players on average to guarantee that I'll see at least one of those colors; if yours does, these cards can be subbed in.
Note that Roots of Life has been errated to apply to any opponent.
If you REALLY hate your opponents who tend to play black, you can even sub in Lifeforce.
As I mentioned, my group doesn't really play with the optional wish list rules. If we did, I would find a spot for Living Wish, probably in place of one of the weaker sorcery speed tutors (maybe Eldritch Evolution?)
As I currently understand the rules, the wish board for commander can consist of ten cards which must follow the highlander rules and color identity rules as the rest of the deck. Living Wish can fetch a creature or a land. I would therefore build the wish board as an extension of the utility for the list. Some ideas:
Foe-Razer Regent: I'd never want to draw this in an actual game, but the fight aspect is pretty cool, as is the fact that it can be repeated with Temur Sabertooth.
Riftsweeper: In case my stuff gets exiled. Again, I'd never want to see it as one of my draws, but it's pretty cool. He can even fetch the Wish back!
Artifact/Enchantment Hate: Viridian Zealot, for example. This sort of thing is just too useful not to have available. World Breaker also gets an honorary mention for being the only card (that I know of) which the Wish can fetch and which can destroy a Humility. Just note that it is not green (stupid devoid...) and so does not interact well with most of the rest of the deck.
Spike Weaver: Just in case TurboFrog isn't showing up.
6.1.5 - Easy Cuts
Even without Mike+Trike, not
everyone will be happy to see this...
If you're looking to personalize the deck or to make some of the meta-dependent changes I suggested in the card list, you'll need to take something out. I have been testing this list for a while and I'm pretty happy with its current construction, but there are some pieces that are "weaker" than others. If you need to take something out, I would suggest stating with these:
Sol Ring and Mana Crypt: Yeva HATES artifacts. Taking these out will slow the deck down some. Subbing in Joraga Treespeaker for Sol Ring can help to mitigate that some while providing better synergy with the rest of the deck. T2 Yeva is nothing to sneeze at, though...
Protean Hulk: This card is perpetually hovering around the banned list and some groups will be uncomfortable playing against it. Woodland Bellower can make a good substitution.
Craterhoof Behemoth: The deck can most likely work with only Kamahl, Fist of Krosa to provide end-game "oomph." Finishers are the easiest place to cut as they don't provide much value except right at the end of the game. I would recommend against cutting Kamahl, however, because of the value he provides in protecting against wrath effects.
Wellwisher: My meta is pretty rampant with non-combat life drain - Purphoros, God of the Forge, Exsanguinate, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, etc. - so having some life gain is important for me. If your meta usually causes life loss by attacking with creatures, TurboFrog should be able to handle things without any help and this deckslot opens up.
Command Beacon, Miren, the Moaning Well, and Strip Mine: These are the most expendable non-basic lands. If you're looking to include other non-basics, or feel the need to up the Forest count, these are good places to start. Homeward Path can also be a cut if (unlike me) you don't have much creature theft in your meta.
I would like to preface this entire section with a disclaimer noting that the market for Magic is in constant flux. Some cards may spike and others may fall. I use TCG-mid as the price guide for all cards. I will do my best to keep this section updated, but it is a secondary priority behind maintaining the main decklist. Be sure to check the current price of all cards before making any purchase decision.
This section last updated: 4/17/18
This section is going to be considerably more complicated. Right now, the build of Yeva presented above clocks in at about $700. That is less than many decks of a similar power level - being mono-colored and leaning on some "jank" helps - but it is still a price point well above where many players can be comfortable.
The good news is that the vast majority of that cost comes from various green staples, mostly tutor and ramp spells, that play a supporting role in a Yeva deck. Of her core cards, only the Seedborn Muse is expensive. It is quite possible to build a budget Yeva deck that will compete favorably with other decks that have similar restrictions. I have played budget Yeva builds in store leagues before with great success. One key is to retool the land base entirely - focus on basic lands, and I would advise upping the total land count to 40-42. Cantrip creatures, such as Wall of Blossoms, are also worth their weight in gold in a budget Yeva deck.
Expensive Cards (and their replacements)
Worth roughly ALL the money
Cards >$100
Gaea's Cradle: This currently makes up close to 50% of the deck's total cost after another huge spike (closing in on $400!). Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx does almost as much work for a fraction of the cost. Suggested replacement(s): Nykthos, Forest.
Willow Satyr: There really is no replacement for this effect directly; it is very old and very out of green's traditional color pie. Replace it with more creature control of your choice. Suggested replacement(s): Foe-Razer Regent, Arbor Colossus, Silklash Spider.
Ancient Tomb: DO NOT replace this with Temple of the False God. That card is a terrible trap and should never be used in this style of deck. Suggested replacement(s): Forest.
Cards >$25
Seedborn Muse: This is the heart of the deck. Replacing it is very difficult. Patron of the Orochi is the only card that can conceivably do it, providing the mana base switches to be more basic-heavy than the main list. Awakening also exists, but likely gives too much advantage to opponents to be seriously used. Remember, however, that Patron is not free - it's a ~$5 card. It might be better to just bite the bullet and go for the Muse rather than spending money on a significantly worse card. Suggested replacement(s): Patron of the Orochi.
Many people assume, once they see Yeva, Nature's Herald in the command zone, that an elf tribal deck makes up the rest of the 99. I don't personally think that elves are the most powerful way to play Yeva, as sticking to a strict tribal theme eliminates much of the power and versatility of the rest of green. I would recommend Ezuri, Renegade Leader as the optimal elf tribal commander. That having been said, there are some unique things that Yeva can bring to a tribal deck.
I do have quite a bit of experience playing elves in a multiplayer setting, although not in the Commander format. Playing 60-card constructed lets me splash white and black as well as run 4-ofs for certain vital creatures. Obviously, a Yeva-helmed Elf deck would not have this advantage. What it would have is the constant ability to accelerate its game to instant speed, letting it avoid some of the mass removal that is the constant plague of the forest folk.
A Yeva-helmed elf deck would likely want to be a couple turns faster than a non-tribal deck, as it relies on getting a critical mass of creatures and is therefore more vulnerable to disruption. The one-mana dorks, such as Llanowar Elves, are more valuable here than they would be in the main build above.
For card advantage, Gilt-Leaf Archdruid would do much better in an elven tribal deck than my build of Yeva, as many elves tend to be druids as well - be sure to check the errata on older cards.
Wirewood Symbiote may be the strongest card in a Yeva Elf deck. The once-per-turn restriction on its bounce ability is less meaningful if you are able to play on every player's turn. It's very possible to start a loop where every turn an ETB-value elf (Elvish Visionary, Wood Elves, etc) is bounced to untap a big mana producer (Priest of Titania, Elvish Archdruid, etc) resulting in an almost insurmountable resource advantage.
Although the gut instinct when building tribal is to avoid all non-tribal creatures, I would advise rejecting that impulse. Seedborn Muse, Temur Sabertooth, and Karametra's Acolyte may not be elves, but the advantages they bring to a Yeva build are too large to pass up.
I do have an inherent bias against “politics” in EDH. My preference is for good, solid cards that have dependable effects that care little about what my opponents are doing. I'm lucky in that regard to have a consistent playgroup who I can depend on to make optimal choices that will result in their winning the game, rather than trying to cause chaos or holding grudges from a few matches back.
Not everyone is so lucky with their primary playgroup. For those who have to deal with chaos, group-hug, and salty opponents, it can be better to take a slightly less aggressive stance with Yeva. There are certain cards that, because of actual effectiveness in the deck or a bad reputation from other builds, will trigger an unreasonable hatred from other players and leave Yeva unable to fly under the radar.
Here is a list of the most hated cards in Yeva's archetype. The ones that are in the deck can be replaced by many of the options from the meta/budget sections of the card lists (see: Card Choices). Fortunately, none of the cards in this section are absolutely vital to executing Yeva's game plan, they just make that game plan easier to enact or faster to achieve.
According to the card choices I see show up for Yeva on EDHrec, Goodstuff is probably the most common way to build her deck. Note that pages and pages of argument over the definition of "goodstuff" have been penned, to little accord. The definition I'll be using here is "a deck heavy on fatty creatures and ways to cheat them out."
Earlier in the post, I was slightly dismissive of what I call "Big Dumb Green Creatures" and their usefulnes in a Yeva, Nature's Herald deck. That only applies to a build like my main deck, which seeks to win through the careful management of board position. A Yeva-helmed mono-green goodstuff deck is more for those who want to let their inner Timmies fly.
I would say that Yeva is one of the best choices for a goodstuff green general, probably along with Surrak, the Hunt Caller and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds. By playing at instant speed, Yeva's goodstuff can dodge a lot of sorcery-speed removal and act with quasi-haste like Surrak. Since she lacks the mana production of Selvala, Yeva will have to pack plenty of acceleration of her own - this, much more so than my main deck, is probably the place for the Mana Reflections and Caged Suns of the world.
For the actual follow through of "big dumb green creatures", I have assembled a list of some of my favorites below, as well as a few of my favorite cheat and acceleration spells in green. Mix and match to your preference. Do note that the Eldrazi listed, as they are not green, will not work with Yeva's flash ability and those of some cards like Green Sun's Zenith and Natural Order.
I'm not going to review every set in Magic: the Gathering, of course, only those that have come out since my original date of posting and that contain at least a few cards that I think will be useful to Yeva, Nature's Herald or will be traps for players who are new to the green-at-instant-speed archetype.
Mono-green creature-based control,
still getting cards!
Manglehorn: This is the only Amonkhet card that went straight into the main deck. It's the same mana cost as a Reclamation Sage, trading out the ability to hit enchantments for the ability to force all mana rocks to enter the battlefield tapped. As far as mono-green creature-based control cards go, and especially in a deck that wants to hate out artifacts, this is a home run.
Vizier of the Menagerie: Virtual card advantage is still card advantage, especially in a deck that approaches 50% creatures. The color washing is surprisingly relevant in a mono-green deck, as intensive green mana symbols can be difficult when playing cards like Ancient Tomb and Mana Crypt. As of August 2017, this card has replaced Memory Jar in the main list.
Prowling Serpopard: I find the cat, besides its insanely stupid name, to be about on par with Gaea's Herald. It's a turn slower, but cannot itself be countered. The Herald, meanwhile, has the always relevant Elf subtype. If counters are abundant enough in your meta that you need protection against them, it would probably be best to run both creatures.
Harvest Season: Yeva will not take as much advantage of this card as Wort, the Raidmother or other tapped-creatures-for-value decks. Still, after Boundless Realms, it is the best way that currently exists to pull out a whole bunch of basic lands at once.
Throne of the God-Pharaoh: More tapped-creatures-matter synergy. Unfortunately, it's a "do-nothing" artifact that will most likely be nuked by Yeva's own hate before it contributes meaningfully to a win. I don't currently see a build of Yeva that has room for this card.
Rhonas's Monument: All of the monuments are potentially useful in a budget Yeva version; in fact, I'd say the green one is probably the least useful. Bontu's Monument adds a secondary win condition, while Hazoret's Monument gives some spell filtering. Since they have no mana symbols in their oracle text, all five technically fit in Yeva's color identity, they just won't be any help as a cost reduction.
Sandwurm Convergence: I like the direction that Wizards was taking with this card, and I hope we get more like it. It doesn't really fit in Yeva, being a non-creature for a billion mana. But the fact that they're still experimenting with mono-green control elements gives me hope for the future.
Rhonas the Indomitable: This is pretty much the definition of "Big Dumb Green Creature." The mana cost is alright, and it should be easy enough to trigger his condition and get him attacking/blocking — but then what? He's not as good at killing people as Craterhoof Behemoth and Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, and he literally does nothing else (other than the amusing-but-not-relevant ability to boost someone else's creature when they're attacking a third foe). Leave him at home.
7.2 - Hour of Devastation
It's always the random uncommons that get me excited...
Ramunap Excavator: I think sometimes Wizards mines my dreams for card ideas. While they're at it, I'd also like a creature version of Greater Good, ok??? A Crucible of Worlds that happens to be a mono-green creature? Yeva love it. This could tip the balance of power back in favor of the fetch lands and make something like Strip Mine a worth addition. Plus, it helps to counter the uptick in land destruction in my meta that has accompanied the "Quality Lands" acceleration package. I'm testing this one out and am optimistic that it will make the cut.
Hour of Promise: Certainly a powerful effect and worth testing, which I am currently doing. I'm not sold on this card yet, however. Reap and Sow was already in grave danger of losing its slot, and this is a full turn slower (albeit more powerful). It might just be a little too slow to make the cut.
Majestic Myriarch: Big dumb green creature. I got so excited when this was spoiled and I saw all the lines of text, only to realize that they might as well have been a soup recipe for how many games of Magic: the Gathering they'd help me win.
Sunset Pyramid: This isn't a terrible option for a budget deck. It won't make my main deck, because Yeva hates artifacts, but it could be some great draw and selection power in slower metas or more artifact-friendly builds.
Ambuscade: Instant-speed one-sided fight mechanic. Worth remembering, although it would have to be a very specialized meta or an extremely budget deck to want this.
Quarry Beetle: I actually like this card a lot. It's the first way to pull lands out of graveyards at instant (Yeva-assisted) speed and it's got legs so it synergizes with the deck. Worth keeping an eye on, depending how land-focused Ramunap Excavator ends up shifting things.
All in all, the Amonkhet block has been good to Yeva.
7.3 - Commander 2017
I suppose, after all the playable cards from Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation, we were due for a dud. For the TL;DR people, here's the summary: there are no cards worth playing from this set in the main Yeva list, and only one card that I would consider for any Yeva list.
Traverse the Outlands: This would probably be ok in a budget or goodstuff variant of Yeva. Outside of any other spells, the curve of T4 Yeva, T5 this spell is pretty slick. There's just no way it competes with the ramp package in the main decklist. It's a good spell with a place in a lot of decks, just not mine.
Curse of Bounty: About halfway through this card, I was excited. Then I saw it untaps any opponent who attacks that player. Might be decent in a duel-oriented version of the decklist; the fact that it's an enchantment, not a creature, probably kills even that option.
Hungry Lynx: Slick tech against all the Relentless Rats decks that have been overrunning EDH. I wouldn't play this in any version of Yeva.
Kindred Summons: Probably too slow for all but the most budget versions of Elves; pretty much useless outside of a tribal deck.
Qasali Slingers: Hey, Temur Sabertooth is a cat! Still not worth it compared to the vast number of other green artifact/enchantment destruction creatures.
Mirror of the Forebears: I want this card to be good, I just can't imagine what I would want to copy with it. Also, it's an artifact and Yeva HATES artifacts.
7.4 - Ixalan
After a disappointing C17 that really only featured four colors, it was nice to see some truly powerful cards in the green section of Ixalan. There aren't as many cards total that I would consider for a Yeva build as there were in the Amonkhet block, but those cards that do make the cut seem to be extremely powerful. My thoughts:
Carnage Tyrant: Big dumb green creature. Might be playable in a Good Stuff build, as it is very clearly Good, but doesn't really have any synergy with what the rest of the deck is trying to do.
Growing Rites of Itlimoc/Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun: lolwut? They reprinted Gaea's Cradle? With a "drawback" that's almost an advantage in a Yeva deck? I approve of this card 1000%. Think about it: Yeva runs pretty dense on creatures, so the enchantment will probably cantrip. It flips on end step, which sucks for most green decks, but Yeva is a deck that is entirely about playing cards at instant speed. And, unlike OG Cradle, after a wrath it is still at least a Forest. This card is baller. Shame it's not a creature in the un-flipped version, but nothing's perfect.
Ripjaw Raptor, Ranging Raptors, and other "enrage" dinosaurs: Unless the deck is retuned to have more of a "fight" subtheme, there's no really reliable way to trigger the enrage mechanic, and opponents seem unlikely to be so generous as to attack into them. Ripjaw is card advantage, which makes it the tastiest of the lot, but I don't think the cost justifies the result. I'd leave all these at home.
Deathgorge Scavenger: Seems decent. I prefer Loaming Shaman for my surprise graveyard hate, but the Scavenger makes an interesting alternative.
Deeproot Champion and the other G Merfolk: These seem to be primarily beatsticks with little value in either a Yeva deck or EDH more generally.
Verdant Sun's Avatar: Big life gain. If this weren't seven mana, I might consider it in the Wellwisher "protect me from random non-combat damage/lifedrain" slot. I'm not sure how much cheaper it would need to be for my to consider it (maybe a 1/5 for five mana?), but I know seven is way more than I would pay.
Merfolk Branchwalker: An almost strictly-worse Elvish Visionary for our purposes. Of course, Elvish Visionary is a great card - but its creature type is a big part of the reason why.
Verdant Rebirth: An interesting combination of recursion and card advantage. I'd say this is worth a look in some budget builds.
Pounce: I do appreciate that they're pushing the fight mechanic in green. I don't think I'd run this card over Setessan Tactics (and I don't think I'd run that card) but it leaves me hopeful that we'll see more creatures like Ulvenwald Tracker in the future. (wishlist: a mana cheap elf with an ETB trigger for a creature I control to fight a creature an opponent controls. Maybe 2 mana for a 1/1?)
Crushing Canopy: I like the options on this card. Shame it's not a creature or it would be test-worthy in the main list.
Vanquisher's Banner: Tribal support. The cantrip probably makes it worthwhile in a slower Elf-centric version of Yeva. For the main build, there's not enough of any one creature type to really justify it.
Dowsing Dagger: I do plan to pick up some of these if the price drops enough. I'm not sure it would be great in Yeva - she rarely wants to attack before it's time to end things and usually the ramp already in the build is enough - but it does seem like it would be solid in a lot of non-green aggressive decks. And it could certainly find a place in some builds of Yeva as well.
7.5 - Rivals of Ixalan
More cool toys for green in this set, but none that I really see as playable in the current build of Yeva. Some might be useful for more good-stuffy or budget variants.
Cacophodon: I look very closely at anything that says "untap target permanent". Unfortunately, Enrage is just too difficult to self-trigger in mono-green, and I hate relying on my opponents to help out. This was the only interesting Enrage card from the new set, so assume my review for all the other masochist dinosaurs is the same.
Ghalta, Primal Hunger: Big Dumb Green Creature. It's super big and super dumb and can be really cheap. Don't get me wrong; I don't think that a 12/12 for two green is BAD, I just don't think he'll shine in this particular style of deck.
Hunt the Weak: This feels like a real step back for Fight keyword cards. Also, I wonder how long they're going to keyword that? Fight seems really easy to remember for me. On the other hand, I still have to stare at cards and will myself to remember what the hell Menace does.
Jadelight Ranger: I still prefer actual cantrips to Explore (that god that's reminder texted). This is the best of the Explore creatures, and it's still unplayable.
Naturalize: Wouldn't run it before the reprint (I prefer things that deal with indestructible, like Deglamer), won't run it, but this is sweet artwork.
Path of Discovery: Maaaaybe if this was a creature I'd consider it. Four mana do-nothing-on-resolution enchantment doesn't really work for the deck. Should be OK for budget decks, assuming the inflated preorder price drops down. Note that there seems to be a problem with this card in the system right now; the name above is right, but for some reason Salvation prefers Path to Discovery.
Tendershoot Dryad: I like that it's an army in a can AND an anthem for that army. Ascend shouldn't be hard to achieve. Still, Avenger of Zendikar likely does the same job better, and it's not in the deck.
Thrashing Brontodon: Now THIS is interesting. A slightly different take on Caustic Caterpillar. I appreciate that it has a relevant body and a cheaper activation cost. I don't think I want to be cutting one-drops for three-drops, though. The Caterpillar's most useful attribute is coming down on T1 and making people rethink their early artifact and enchantment plays. Might be more relevant in metas with a lot of Humility effects.
Wayward Swordtooth: This is super cute. I really like the card design, and I have no doubt that this will find a home in a lot of green decks. I'm just not looking for 3-mana ramp in this deck. I mean, if Azusa, Lost but Seeking didn't make the cut, I doubt this will.
World Shaper: Shame it's a death trigger, not an ETB trigger. There's enough sac mechanics in the deck to reliably trigger it, but not enough self-mill (and yes, I know World Shaper has a bit built in) to really take advantage. It'd be huge in very particular situations, and I don't see those coming often enough to warrant one of the very limited deck-slots (and 4-drops!) that I have. Titania, Protector of Argoth should love this guy, though...
Artifacts: Nothing worth looking twice at.
7.6 - Dominaria
So, Dominaria's a great set. It looks like a blast to play. With the legendary subtheme, it's certainly geared towards EDH. Unfortunately, there's nothing that's really great in Yeva's archetype.
Adventurous Impulse: This could be ok in a more budget version, as it'll almost always hit something and replace itself, and the deck doesn't have a lot of other T1 plays. It's almost green's version of Ponder in a creature-heavy deck, but it's not really good enough to hold up with the Yeva maindeck.
Broken Bond: A sorcery-speed Naturalize that drops a land in. Could be cool if you're in the sort of meta that throws Humility around willy-nilly. Probably not the right fit for this deck.
Fungal Plots: Card draw is amazing. This deck doesn't really produce Saprolings naturally, and it certainly doesn't want to be exiling its own creatures from the graveyard. Seems terrific in the right deck, which is not this one.
Kamahl's Druidic Vow: A bad version of Genesis Wave can still be interesting. Sadly, a Legendary sorcery can only be cast if you control a legendary creature or planeswalker, so no casting it with only a Gaea's Cradle in play. I'm not sure the deck runs enough Legendary creatures to really make this play. Maybe in a budget build?
Marwyn, the Nurturer: My biggest hope from Dominaria was a bit more elf tribal, but this was the best Wizards had for me. It's not a BAD card, per se, but it compares poorly to Priest of Titania. Elvish Archdruid didn't make the cut, so I'm not sure that a mildly worse version of him would. On the other hand, abusing her trigger with Wirewood Symbiote seems cool, and she'll make tons of mana in a +1/+1 counter deck (behind Gyre Sage, of course).
The Mending of Dominaria: I'm going to be running this in my The Gitrog Monster deck, like, immediately. I love this card in Golgari. It could also be decent in a more budget Yeva build that passed on Genesis. Ultimately, not being a creature kills any synergy it might have and leaves it on the cutting room floor.
Territorial Allosaurus: This isn't a horrible fight trigger. It could do some serious work with Temur Sabertooth and a butt-load of mana. Unfortunately, there's things that will do several butt-loads of work for the same card slot and mana investment. I'm telling you, Wizards, you could make me very happy with a 1/1 elf for two mana that has a "when ~ etbs, target creature you control fights target creature you don't control." Yes, very happy indeed.
Verdant Force: I wouldn't recommend big ol' Treeman for any version of this deck. I do want to point out how rude Wizards is being to poor Verdant Force - reprinting him right after making a [c=Tendershoot Dryad]a version of his same effect that buffs your team and also costs three less mana and is basically better in every way[/card]. Verdant Force, you don't deserve that nonsense. Have your next beer on me.
Damping Sphere: Danger! Danger! Point your Manglehorns this way! Thank goodness Yeva hates artifacts!
Mox Amber: I don't run any of the mox-a-likes currently (except for Mana Crypt), and I don't see this one as being good enough to break that rule. It doesn't help power out an early Yeva (the cheapest other legendary is Baby Nissa) so its utility for me is pretty limited.
Memorial to Unity: I won't be running it, as it ETBs tapped, but a decent budget alternative to provide a little late-game gas.
7.7 - Battlebond
Yeah, Battlebond is pretty sweet. There are two cards worth testing and some baller reprints. There's also a lot of unplayable trash at the common/uncommon level, so if you're thinking about investing in the set, I would do so as singles, not a box. I was able to preorder everything I wanted from the set for about $35. That doesn't include reprints, of course, since I already own them, so YMMV.
Yeva-oriented reprints are Greater Good, Beast Within, and Seedborn Muse. I would bet these see an initial drop in price, so look to pick them up soon. The demand for these cards is high enough that I don't think they'll stay down for too long - I mean, Muse is on, what, her fourth printing now? And she was still a ~$25 card going into Battlebond? Although, if you're super classy like me, just remember that Legions will always be the objectively correct Seedborn Muse printing.
Also, Skyshroud Claim is an amazing card. Not for Yeva, but in general. Do yourself a favor and pick up a couple playsets while they're at bargain bin prices.
As for the new cards:
Bramble Sovereign: Judging by the Unreleased/New Cards thread, this card is making some waves in the green community. I've seen some people saying it's the best green card printed since Ravnica, which we all know can't be true; the best green card printed since Ravnica is Temur Sabertooth. Actually, the comparison is apt: both are 4-drops with 4 power that let you reuse your ETB effects. (of note: Bramble Sovereign also doubles up on beats, which kitties can't do, but we've established that's not really relevant in this deck.) The key difference for me is that Bramble Sovereign. Let's dig into those two cards:
Pro-Bramble
1) It actually doubles the creatures, helping out creatures that have a tap ability. (Mana dorks, Ulvenwald Tracker, etc.)
2) It can be used on opponent's creatures. There will be that one game, somewhere in the multiverse, where someone casts Phage the Untouchable and you create a token copy of it for them. Pro-Kitties
1) It can be used to save your own stuff and in doing so makes itself indestructible.
2) You have control of when the extra ETB effects happen. Maybe you don't need two Reclamation Sages in a turn, but you sure could use two of them over two turns.
All things considered, I think Temur Sabertooth is the better card for Yeva.
HOWEVER, we don't live in a zero-sum game here, and saying it's not as good as the best card in the deck doesn't mean much. It's possible to run both. I'm going to test that out, possibly in the Acidic Slime slot. (update 10/25/18: testing successful. Switch has been made officially)
My final thought on this card is that it totally could have been an elf. Come on, Wizards, you're killing me.
Pir's Whim: This isn't an exciting card like the last one, sorry. It's a Good Land search mechanic stapled onto some artifact/enchantment hate at 4cc. I think I'll be testing it out in the Tempt with Discovery slot. I love Tempt, but my meta has been shifting to adjust to it lately. They've either been refusing the offer or accepting it just to get Wastelands and Strip Mines. It may be I end up running both, but I don't like to have too many sorceries and I can't think of another slot to put the Whim into.
Nothing exciting out of the Artifact or Lands sections, sadly.
7.8 - Core Set 2019
Core Set 2019 looks pretty cool. There's some fun reprints (I can't believe Reclamation Sage had crept over a dollar a card; hopefully this restores some normalcy) and lots of new toys that I'm excited to test out. Here's my thoughts:
Elvish Clancaller: Not much to say about this card other than disappointment. Hooray for elf lords, love seeing some tribal support after a long while, but boy this is a terrible card for Yeva. Still, could see some play in a budget elf version.
GIGANTOSAURUS: GIGANTOSAURUS GIGANTOSAURUS GIGANTOSAURUS! STOMP STOMP STOMP! This biggest and dumbest green creature. I'm still buying one because of the A+ name.
Runic Armasaur: I'm intrigued by this card. I don't usually like cards that rely on the opponent doing something, but it comes down early and is a decent blocker. I'm planning to pick up a couple copies and I'll probably end up testing one. Garruk, Caller of Beasts has been letting me down lately, clogging my hand and not being a creature.
Vivien Reid: Here's another card I'm interested in testing, although it will compete with Runic Armasaur for the Garruk slot. It's a mana less than Garruk and can grab lands off its card advantage slot. I also like the ability to shoot down artifacts and flyers. The ultimate isn't very useful, but planeswalkers rarely seem to survive long enough to activate that anyway.
Scapeshift: This is a reprint, of course, but I'm embarrassed to say I've never really given it a good look for this deck before, especially as I have had a playset for ages. It's not really ramp, exactly, but trading out four forests for a Gaea's Cradle, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Deserted Temple, and Myriad Landscape seems like fun. Shame they come into play tapped. I'll keep in in mind for that Quality Land Acceleration slot that keeps changing test cards.
Elvish Rejuvenator: Speaking of which, I'm intrigued by this guy's matchup with cards like Pir's Whim. It only searches the top five and puts the land in tapped, but it's also a full turn earlier (and T4 is so crowded anyway). More importantly, it's a creature! Sure, playing this once is underwhelming, but playing it over and over again with Wirewood Symbiote? Temur Sabertooth? Genesis? The brand-new Bramble Sovereign? I think it's worth a test.
Aggressive Mammoth: Yeesh, that's a lot of stuff for the mana cost. Giving trample to everyone is pretty baller, but not exactly what this deck needs – he's obviously not better than Kamahl, Fist of Krosa or Craterhoof Behemoth, for example. Might have a use in Good Stuff decks.
Vivien's Invocation: I'd stay away from this card. The effect is super cool, but it's so sorcery speed.
7.9 - Commander 2018
Good news, everyone! They remembered to print green cards in the commander set this year! I'm legit excited about a couple of them. The bad news is, none of them I'm excited about for Yeva - only other decks.
Myth Unbound: This will be a very good card for some deck. I don't think Yeva's well set up to use it, however, and it's not a creature, so there's not a ton of synergy.
Ravenous Slime: I was ready to dismiss this creature entirely when I read the first clause. Not being able to be chump blocked is pretty irrelevant. However, exiling dead creatures is huge, especially against something like a Karador, Ghost Chieftain or a Meren of Clan Nel Toth deck. Won't be able to surprise someone with a sac trigger, as I believe the cost has to be paid before you can respond, but it could still be an interesting piece of graveyard hate. I'm more of a fan of Loaming Shaman still, but the Slime is worth considering in GY-heavy metas.
Turntimber Sower: From ANYwhere? Fun! For Yeva, the main advantage would be the ability to trash creatures and return a Gaea's Cradle that had been nuked by an opponent. Eternal Witness probably does that job better, though. Might be very fun in Borborygmos Enraged (or maybe a G-B dredge-heavy deck with Avenger of Zendikar), which is where I intend to try it out.
Whiptongue Hydra: Ah, Bane of Progress for flying creatures. Not something I saw coming, and the creature typing is bizarre. Still, could be a good party trick. A lot of the creatures that give me nightmares (Consecrated Sphinx, Blazing Archon, etc.) have flying. You take what you can get with board wipes in green. I don't think I'll run it, but I can imagine a world where it would be very good.
Geode Golem: This seems like bizarre design for an uncommon to me. I guess rarity is basically irrelevant in a commander set. It's not great for Yeva, obviously, but Eldrazi titans, Maelstrom Wanderer, and any other big-CMC cast trigger generals should love it. At least it's an artifact, so dealing with it shouldn't be too hard.
7.10 - Guilds of Ravnica
Right, so Return to Return to Ravnica. First off, apologies. This review is super late. There's a couple reasons. We've moved recently, had a vacation, and gone to several weddings. I'm also a little grumpy about the set in general, because three more Ravnica sets after the refreshing breath that was Dominaria feels oppressive and insulting. There are so many other planes I'd like to visit that it's frankly exhausting to come back here.
But anyway. My personal feelings on the lore aside, there is one snap include and several good cards in the set. Let's get cracking!
Beast Whisperer: Put this in your deck. It's worth it. A creature, an elf, two mana less than Primordial Sage. I've updated the main list to include this card, and you can find more waxing poetic about its virtues there.
Affectionate Indrik: First off, the artwork gets a Cute/10. Second, there's not actually a ton of ETB fight effects in green (or at least there weren't before this set...) so this isn't a horrible effect to keep in the back of your mind for meta calls.
Generous Stray: Snap include for budget versions of this deck. Cantripping creatures for >4cc are akwats worth it in green. In the main deck, it'd be up against cards like Elvish Visionary so obviously not, but good to keep in mind.
Hatchery Spider: Also known as Diet Genesis Hydra. Not really reliable enough for me, and I am an arachnophobe, so the artwork means this is right out. Still, could be played in budget or more arachnid-friendly versions of Yeva.
Kraul Harpooner: What was I saying about ETB fight effects in green? Not a bad choice if you're having major flyer problems. I might even consider testing it for the main list. Plus, if I have Greater Good down and a ton of creatures in my graveyard...
Nullhide Ferox: Initial thoughts: "Sweet! There's a ton of text on this well-costed mono-green card!"
Secondary thoughts: "Alright! And its drawback means nothing to this deck!"
After finishing reading: "...and it does absolutely nothing. They spent about a thousand words to make a Big Dumb Green Creature. I'll just cry myself to sleep tonight."
Wary Okapi: Is this the first okapi in Magic? Why was it in Ravnica, not Mirage? So many questions.
Oh, good, more Return to Return to Ravnica. I did get a little more excited about this set than I did about the last one, and I think I know why. Mono-green in my favorite jam, of course, but if I were to rank the guild color combos, it would look something like this:
Green-Blue (Green-Blue is amazing...Simic is terrible)
Golgari
Gruul
Rakdos
Orzhov
Selesnya
Dimir
Boros
Izzet
Azorious (yuck)
What I can't help but notice from that list is that the bottom half (minus Azorious) was in the first set, and the top half of the list (minus Golgari) was in the second half.
While I'm generally much more happy with the cards in Allegiance than I was with...whatever the first set was called (I've already forgotten and don't care enough to look it up. Let's call it "Ravnica: Beast Whisperer and Some Other Junk, Probably"), the new set doesn't have any snap includes for Yeva the way Beast Whisper was. There were a lot of decent cards, some interesting concepts, and some stuff that I might even play test or slot into a budget version.
Biogenic Ooze: Great mana sink for token-heavy decks. It obviously competes with Ant Queen, putting out bigger bodies and self-buffing them for twice the mana cost. I *think* I prefer the Queen for this effect, but Oozedaddy is a good contender, and hey, it's a singleton format, right? Since Yeva operates almost exclusively at instant speed anyway, I don't really need a mana sink like this for Seedborn Muse. Still, nice card.
Biogenic Upgrade: Useless for this deck, but man does it delight my inner Timmy.
End-Raze Forerunners: A "fixed" Craterhoof Behemoth for those of you with playgroups that dramatically overrate the effectiveness of combat-dependent win conditions. Could be a good switch in for budget purposes or to placate whiny players in your meta.
Growth-Chamber Guardian: I soooo wanted an Elf Crab Warrior to be good. It so is not. =/ Well, maybe in Standard, I guess.
Guardian Project: Now this is interesting. It's basically another 4cc creature cantripper, which makes me think about Beast Whisperer. Of course, Beast Whisperer is a creature (an elf!) and this is an enchantment. Might be worth a test. I'll pick up a copy in case another draw piece under performs, or I think I need more of this effect.
Incubation Druid: Works for the all-important T2 Dork -> T3 Yeva curve, has the potential to grow quite a bit. Without a way to put +1/+1 counters on independently, I'll probably give him a pass, but man is he ever Rishkar, Peema Renegade's new best friend.
Rampage of the Clans: Probably my favorite new card of the set, and the only one I'll be immediately testing (in Seeds of Innocence's slot). I love that it's instant speed and the drawback is basically irrelevant. Only potential problem is that Seeds' main job is to hose fast mana rock starts, and 4 mana is a whole lot more than 3. I'll see how it works out.
Silhana Wayfinder: I keep reading this card, getting excited, and then getting to the "top of your library" part. D'oh. So close, Wizards, so close.
Titanic Brawl: Now this is nice. Instant-speed fight. I can get behind this. If creatures are a real problem in your meta, this could be an awesome solution. I am happy Wizards continues to push Fight...next, a 1/1 Elf with a "ETB: Target creature you control fights target creature an opponent controls". Please? It's not going in the main deck, but might be great in a budget version.
Wilderness Reclamation: I see this being the next "Arboria" - that is, a card that looks perfect for Yeva but is actually a bit of a trap. Sure, it looks at first blush like a Seedborn Muse - until you realize it's just lands, not all permanents, it's only once (on your end step), and it's an enchantment, not a creature. It's not tutorable, harder to recur, harder to protect, etc. Still, there's not a ton of these types of effects kicking around and I could see this doing ok in a budget version.
Honorary Non-Green Card:
Smothering Tithe: Holy smokes! What a bananas card! Here's another mechanic that I hope Wizards keeps pushing. I'd love if they expanded it out of white (hey, we're green! We're the ones who are supposed to hate on blue!) but even without, I think it's great for the metagame. Outsized draw tends to dominate games. I won't proclaim innocence; I've landed my share of "Play Regal Force onto a board of eight creatures, pay two mana for Bramble Sovereign, cackle." That doesn't mean I think it's great for the state of the game. I actually like Nekusar, the Mindrazer and hope there are more "punish drawing" effects printed that maybe are a little less feel-bad than Phyrexian Tyranny.
Alright, one more Ravnica to slog through and then (maybe) on to an interesting plane!
7.12 - War of the Spark
Turns out Ravnica was not completely destroyed. Damn.
But, man, what a consolation. This is a baller set. You always know things are working out well when there's a card that goes straight into the deck, no testing needed.
Arboreal Grazer: I totally forgot Elvish Pioneer was a card. This is a cool effect, although not one that I think is perfect for the main Yeva deck. The pioneer would be the first choice for a budget version, due to typing, but the grazer is actually perfect for a 60-card Beast tribal deck I run (they ramp perfectly into Krosan Warchief). Bought a playset and am looking forward to them in that context.
Arlinn, Voice of the Pack: Dang, that's a lot of mana to create one or maybe two 3/3 wolves. There's probably a werewolf tribal deck somewhere she slots into.
Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi: I actually like this card a lot as a curve-topper for a green aggro deck. Five mana and an "upkeep" of one is a bargain for a 9/9 beater with flash, and that's before you consider there are things it can target other than a basic Forest. *cough* Inkmoth Nexus *cough* It's not a great card for Yeva or midrange strategies, but I bought one just in case I build a deck that would appreciate it.
Band Together: Green keeps getting more and more creature removal. It's not Beast Within, but then what is? Could be worth keeping in mind, though I'm not sure it would be my first choice in instant creature removal. (I would think Setessan Tactics, Ancient Animus, and maybe Unnatural Aggression beat it out).
Bloom Hulk and Pollenbright Druid: Hello, what's this now? ETB proliferate on green creatures? One of them is two mana AND an elf? Insane. I am building a 60-card, 12-land elf tribal deck that seeks to rush out a couple poison counters with Glistener Elf and Invigorate and such then finish off the count with Pollenbright Druid and Wirewood Symbiote once they have defenses. Will it be good? Maybe! Is it something I've never done before in green? You betcha! And isn't that what really matters?
Bond of Flourishing: Bit of an extension of Green's usual Ponder-a-likes that can now grab artifacts and enchantments. Cool, but not something I'm immediately looking to jam. I'm sure there will be a deck sooner or later that this is perfect for. I'd love it for my Rishkar, Peema Renegade combo deck, but I want to be able to hit instants too for that.
Courage in Crisis: Apparently proliferate is a green thing now? Cool.
Evolution Sage: lol. Yeah, they really pushed proliferate in this set. Bonus elf points.
Finale of Devastation: Holy cow. Or holy dino. It's a Green Sun's Zenith for one more mana that can also reanimate and acts a finisher in case Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and Craterhoof Behemoth have eaten exile removal? My god yes. This is going straight into the deck. I mean, you had me at "Green Sun's Zenith for one more mana." You didn't need more. (of note that this can also grab non-green creatures. Not really a big deal for Yeva, as she runs all green all day, but interesting for other decks). I picked one straight up at eleven dollars. If the price falls to two or three dollars I'm into a playset or two. I'm not sure the price will fall, though...we'll see if it gets any traction in other formats.
Forced Landing: More of the flying hate that I love almost enough to put in a deck, but not quite. I love that this one works against indestructible creatures. It will almost make so many decks.
God-Eternal Rhonas: Be still, my Timmy heart! Doubles? For five mana? Bonus vigilance? Not for Yeva, but I'll be picking up a copy when the price drops.
Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter: They had a strange affinity for reprinting legendary green creatures as planeswalkers in this set, says not-Rishkar, Peema Renegade. It's an interesting effect, and might be a good backup in my Rishkar deck.
Nissa, Who Shakes the World: My favorite card in the set, and her price keeps on dropping. Down to like two bucks as of when I publish this article! I've picked up a playset-plus. I wonder if it'll be like when I bought dozens of Zendikar Resurgents for a quarter each before people remembered that mana doublers are good in green? Plus her +1 ability untaps a land. Yeah, it turns it into a creature that can be removed, but that risk might be worth it for a double tap of a Gaea's Cradle, or getting rid of the ETB tapped restriction on things like Myriad Landscape. She can also auto-ult off of a Doubling Season and it's the sort of ult that should more or less win the game in a well-built deck. She's obviously better in mono-green decks that run basic-heavy, but aren't mono-green decks always the best anyway? I don't think she fits into my Yeva deck, but there's going to be a whole lot of other places where she's amazing.
Nissa's Triumph: Interesting card, especially in Baby Nissa decks with a good land package. Not something for Yeva, but again I love the set design here.
Planewide Celebration: Ugh. It's a much worse Primal Command. Yeah, you get to pick four things, but proliferate is the only one that's really interesting. The graveyard recursion is ok, but for one more mana you could have had Praetor's Counsel. I'd leave this one at home.
Return to Nature: My second favorite card in the set. Yeah, Naturalize is a good, iconic card, but doesn't it feel like it needs some unconditional graveyard hate stapled onto it? This card is just a straight up beating for strategies that usually give green trouble. I love it.
Vivien, Champion of the Wilds: Remember earlier how they just reprinted random green creatures as planeswalkers? Yeah, that includes ol' Yeva, Nature's Herald herself. Vivien has the advantage of flashing all creatures, not just green ones, and for one less mana. But she's also a bit more vulnerable, her planeswalker abilities aren't fantastic, and of course she's not a legendary creature. You could run her as a backup to Yeva, but I don't think it's really needed. Winding Canyons, Command Beacon, or the new Emergence Zone are probably better backup plans if you think one's needed.
Vivien's Arkbow: Spellshaper for an almost Genesis Hydra, eh? This is a fun effect, I won't lie, but I don't see why I'd ever run one if Yeva.
Vivien's Grizzly: Backup Duskwatch Recruiter for green infinite combo decks. Not too shabby for a common, but far too mana-hungry for Yeva. I am totally running one in my Bear tribal deck.
Lands
Blast Zone: This is so much fun. I'm picking up a copy and keeping it in mind for Yeva. With all the land untapping shenanigans, it could do real work. Probably worth testing.
Emergence Zone: Not a bad land, but it'll be better in decks that don't have flash out of the command zone.
Mobilized District: I actually like this land. Not for Yeva, but it could be a cute little trick for some deck. And it turns the Vitu-Ghaze into a 12/12, which is nice.
In other news, this is the first ever set review I've posted without borking the formatting for the entire post. #achievementunlocked
I want to be sure to toss out a heartfelt "thank you" to everyone who has helped shaped Yeva into the deck that she is. This includes all the players in my meta, who always provide a nail-biting challenge and help to keep my ideas fresh. I want to also thank everyone who has contributed to this thread, especially (in no particular order) Squirrely, darrenhabib, and JDviant for helping me to refine and retool the deck.
Another special thank you goes out to my patient and amazing wife, whose support was invaluable in play-testing this list and writing/editing this ~25,000 word document.
3/12/17 IN:Natural Order, Deserted Temple, Wellwisher, Duskwatch Recruiter, Seeds of Innocence OUT:Cloudstone Curio, Wave of Vitriol, Masked Admirers, Winding Canyons, Creeping Corrosion DISCUSSION: The Curio, like its buddy Panharmonicon, failed to pull its weight, especially as the deck veers away from entirely ETB effects. I have not yet found that I needed the Canyons as a backup to Yeva, Nature's Herald. The Wave simply was too big of an effect and often had a negative impact on my own board state. Masked Admirers was a much weaker draw spell than the Recruiter. Natural Order should help me to find my answers, or the Muse, with greater consistency. The Deserted Temple will help to accelerate my big lands. And Wellwisher, I hope, will provide some insurance against non-combat phase life drain and damage, which can be a big problem. One mana can make a big difference, especially in the opening phases, which is why I replaced Corrosion with Seeds. Corrosion may soon find its way back into the deck.
5/19/17 IN:Krosan Tusker, Manglehorn, Magus of the Library, Evolutionary Leap, Protean Hulk, Terastodon OUT:Yavimaya Elder, Molder Slug, Gaea's Herald, Momentous Fall, Rishkar's Expertise, Woodfall Primus DISCUSSION: Quite a bit of testing here. Magus of the Library and Evolutionary Leap performed well in a budget version of the deck and made the main cut. Leap was reusable, Momentous Fall wasn't. Gaea's Herald never really proved necessary. Manglehorn was the best card to come out of Amonkhet and Molder Slug had been under performing. Terastodon and Woodfall Primus swap places about every week it seems like, but the elephant is winning for now. Protean Hulk got unbanned and is an insane value engine; Rishkar's Expertise is too sorcery speed. Finally, Krosan Tusker went in for Yavimaya Elder — both draw a card, but Elder gets one extra land for two extra mana (one green). Tusker will be auto-cycled 99% of the time, but it does have a big body for Greater Good if I need to stick it late in a game.
8/10/17 IN:Hope Tender OUT:Juniper Order Druid DISCUSSION: Pretty straight forward direct substitution with the release of a better alternative in Hour of Devastation.
10/2/17 IN:Vizier of the Menagerie, Growing Rites of Itlimoc OUT:Memory Jar, Reap and Sow Discussion: Memory Jar had been on the ropes for a while now. The Vizier is just a better draw engine for this deck because of his synergies with all the creatures in the deck. On a similar note, this may be THE deck that Growing Rites of Itlimoc was printed for and I have no hesitation about including it. Reap and Sow had been stumbling for a while, and the first card I tested for it (Hour of Promise) wasn't really working any better.
7/13/18 IN:Strip Mine OUT:Reliquary Tower Discussion: This was a long time in testing. I don't miss the Tower at all. Having to discard to hand size is rare enough in this deck, and not crippling at all. Strip Mine, on the other hand, answers all sorts of problematic lands and can be fetched out by the Quality Land acceleration cards. Anecdotally, it had an awesome moment where someone else fetched out their Strip Mine with Hour of Promise to blow up Gaea's Cradle and I was able to Crop Rotation a forest for my own Strip Mine to blow theirs up before they could untap. Good times.
10/25/18 IN:Beast Whisperer, Bramble Sovereign OUT:Garruk, Caller of Beasts, Acidic Slime Discussion: Both of these cards were just too high in converted mana cost, falling into a middle range where their effects weren't game-breaking but they didn't come out fast enough to do what they needed. Also Garruk can only be cast at sorcery speed, limiting his utility. Beast Whisperer, meanwhile, is a house - Primordial Sage for two less mana, and an elf to boot. Bramble Sovereign is insane. Absolutely insane. Like, close to Temur Sabertooth good. And that's about the nicest thing I can say about a card.
4/20/19 IN:Finale of Devastation OUT:Tooth and Nail Discussion: Hard to believe it's been half a year since the last time a change demanded to be made! Finale of Devastation is just an insane card and it had to be jammed it, no doubt about that. Tooth and Nail isn't terrible by any means, but it was the weakest part of the tutor package. I never really wanted to fire it off before I hit nine mana, and even at nine it often seemed underwhelming. Finale is much more useful with less mana (seven will fetch out a Seedborn Muse; six will get a Temur Sabertooth; four a Duskwatch Recruiter). Plus it has more functionality as a reanimation target and a backup win condition if Kamahl and Hoof eat exile. Again, nothing against T&N; it's an insane card. Finale just happens to be better in this circumstance.
Since you have a few cards you're unsure of, I'd consider swapping them out with a Beast Within or Song of the Dryads. You don't have a way to abuse them, but your list is light on cheap removal and these are catch-alls.
Beast Within is a great call, and I'm switching it out with Titania, Protector of Argoth immediately. You are right that the list is lacking in removal and one of my nightmare scenarios (which luckily hasn't come to pass yet) involves cards like Torpor Orb or Blazing Archon. I had been hesitating on Beast Within because, for some reason, I read it as green's traditional "noncreature permanent" removal.
Song of the Dryads is also an interesting card that I'm not sure I knew existed. My only hesitation would be that I love casting and recurring Bane of Progress and I feel like I might hesitate more if there was one of my enchantments holding back, say, a Consecrated Sphinx or something. What do you think of Scour from Existance? It's not cheap, of course, but it would hit any of the permanents that give me pause and keep them from being recurred.
My Surrak list uses Multani's Acolyte as Elvish Visionary #2, and you have a better set-up for bouncing it since I'm lacking the Symbiote. There's also Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, which is roughly a $10 atm, but can be pretty darn amazing and should get you more card-draw.
My main hesitation with the Multani's Acolyte is the echo cost. If I'm bouncing it immediately with Wirewood Symbiote, then it's great -- but it would seem tricky to toss down blindly on turn two like I can do with Elvish Visionary, especially considering how much of my ramp is 3cc. I do remember running Yavimaya Granger at one point, and I think I cut her because of the echo. Selvala, Heart of the Wilds also looks amazing -- I will look for a trade opportunity for her and test her in the deck, thanks.
At the 4 spot I feel like both Trailblazer and Wanderer are unnecessary and not great draws without the Muse and Symbiote and would consider cutting at least one. At 3cc you're already running 3 of that ramp effect.
So far, I have not been disappointed with either the Trailblazer or the Wanderer at any stage of the game. They both work terrific with Birthing Pod (turning directly into a Muse), Panharmonicon (although the jam at 4cc can be difficult), and Blade of Selves in addition to the Sabertooth and the Symbiote bounce/replay, and both count as elves for Priest of Titania and warm bodies for the "overrun" turn. I've been more happy with Wild Wanderer, as its P/T is more relevant for Rishkar's Expertise and Momentous Fall, but I'm not sold on cutting them. Maybe if I do manage to acquire a Selvala I will try her in the place of the Quirion Trailblazer.
I do have another deck that I'm thinking about taking apart. I can pirate a Sylvan Library, an Exploration, and a Crucible of Worlds from there. I'm assuming with the first two, the answer is "they're green staples, make room for them," but I'm not sure about the Crucible. I am thinking about upgrading the deck with the relevant Fetch Lands (as I get the cash/trades to acquire them). Maybe that would be a good solution?
I'm also cutting Hall of Gemstone. I realized when I was typing this up last night that I'm literally never happy to be casting that. My immediate replacement is Conqueror's Flail, which I think accomplishes what I wanted with the Gemstones without screwing myself over.
Elvish piper kind fits your strategy. For a green and tapping her you can play any creature from your hand. Also you should look into collected company. Granted it doesn't look like you have a whole lot of creatures at 3 or less but it can potentially help with ramping. Because you don't have cradle money the acolyte is your next best option and you already have one so you're good there. I wouldn't recommend cavern unless it's a tribal deck which this isn't. I'd also look into a birds of paradise, llanowar elves, and an elvish mystic just for early ramp. Other than that the deck looks solid
Right, I'm sold. I'll get a Selvala, Heart of the Wilds. It does tick a lot of boxes -- big mana, card draw, elf, Eldritch Evolutions into a Muse. I have a bit of a bias in this deck against creature-based tap-ramp (hence the lack of Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Elves et al) both because they are vulnerable to the mass removal that gets tossed around my meta and because, if I draw them on the turn I am Musing into a big Kamahl-or-Goat-powered overrun, they don't really do anything. Still, Selvala seems explosive and, given that she has a secondary benefit, worth the risk. Thanks for the heads up on that one! I think, ironically enough, Selvala's Stampede might be the cut I make for it. I like the card in principle, but it never seems to do enough to really justify its mana cost or deck slot.
Elvish piper kind fits your strategy. For a green and tapping her you can play any creature from your hand. Also you should look into collected company. Granted it doesn't look like you have a whole lot of creatures at 3 or less but it can potentially help with ramping. Because you don't have cradle money the acolyte is your next best option and you already have one so you're good there. I wouldn't recommend cavern unless it's a tribal deck which this isn't. I'd also look into a birds of paradise, llanowar elves, and an elvish mystic just for early ramp. Other than that the deck looks solid
Thanks for the reply! It plays fairly solidly so far, although I know there's a lot of progress to be made. I am planning to acquire a Gaea's Cradle eventually, for example, but that's likely a while out.
On Elvish Piper, I could have sworn that I owned one. I remember the 7e artwork (with the eyes peeping out of the cave) very clearly. A search through my binder came up empty, however -- I must have traded it away. I might proxy-test it (perhaps in the Quirion Trailblazer slot) but my gut instinct is that it is a bit redundant with how Yeva's flash ability works. Still, I could see big game from tapping to put down three fatties a circuit with Muse for one mana each, so long as I can keep the draw to support it. It's certainly worth a try.
I'm a bit cooler on Collected Company, I'm afraid. I can't do the math, but I feel like the chances of two 3cc or less creatures (~14% of the deck) in my top six cards is pretty unlikely (unless I do add that Sylvan Library and stack them, heh). I'll keep it in mind, but I think that Enshrined Memories is the next draw spell I would like to try.
Elvish piper is used as a backup to yeva in case something happens to her or you can't keep her in the field. You have redundancy a little bit with piper. One thing I've found in my limited experience with edh is redundancy is key. You want multiple things that have a similar effect and I view piper as redundancy to yeva. Even though you really don't need it with your commander it's always nice to have. Especially if you've cast say a 5 drop and you have another fatty in hand you want or need on the field now you can still do it for just one mana.
Wow, Squirrley, that's a great reply! I'm also very happy for this discussion and have a lot of thoughts on the questions you posed at the end of the post.
But first, I did have a chance to play with Yeva last night. It was a smaller game, as a couple players couldn't make it, but I was up against Erebos, God of the Dead MBC and Oloro, Ageless Aescetic lifegain synergy (I know, tough matchup for him). I had a difficult time fighting through Erebos's hate, and two Seedborn Muses met unfortunate ends (plus the poor Eternal Witness who brought her back for the second go-round. Luckily, the Oloro deck was never really able to get going (he was eating all the same Barter in Bloods and Mutilates that I was) and I eventually stuck a Zendikar Resurgent that gave me enough mana and card advantage to vomit a board at the end of Erebos's turn and he didn't have enough instant speed hate to stop it. Sadly, I did not see any of the new cards I just added (Conqueror's Flail, Beast Within, and a Windswept Heath I forgot I had in another, less-important deck). We did play another game, though, with my Xira Arien Jund control deck, and Beast Within shone taking down an otherwise-problematic Akroma, Angel of Wrath.
Sweet, Yeva's awesome. Like you, I don't really understand why people have cooled down on Yeva, except maybe the fact that she's still a bit good-stuff-y and people tend to stay away from mono green in general? The deck runs the same ramp, utility creatures, graveyard recursion, tutors, etc. as all the other mono green decks do, which makes it less unique on the surface. For example, one of the issues I have with the deck is that the main win-condition is still a variant of Avenger into Craterhoof. That said, her play style throughout the game is quite different with all the instant speed tricks.
Edit: maybe we can brainstorm a funky way for the deck to win without going Avenger into Craterhoof/goat, Genesis Wave for a million or infinite combo. Preferably consisting only of green creatures :P.
For example, I really dig Shaman of the Forgotten Ways in your list, will test as well.
(I hope you don't mind that I pulled your edit from the end up to here)
This, I think, encapsulates a lot of what I have been thinking. I've been going over a lot of the other lists for green generals, and it doesn't seem like this very unique general has yet developed a very unique playstyle. I like the idea of moving away from "green deck wins through combat step" a lot. I don't have time just at the moment, as my brother is coming over, but later today I intend to dig through green creatures and see if there are other things to be done.
Of the top of my head, there's always the Gaea's Blessing and Loaming Shaman synergy with cards like Mesmeric Orb and Altar of Dementia, but I don't see any of those (non-green-creature) permenants lasting long enough to actually grind out a commander deck, let alone if they have one of the old Eldrazi or something in there.
I suppose that green is also a key part of the archer tribe? Greatbow Doyen requires the opponents to have creatures to be most effective. I suppose we could give a Viridian Longbow to an infect creature and use some of green's untapping shenanigans to try and machine gun down the table with poison.
Both of those ideas, in their current genesis, are janky as hell of course! I'll brainstorm some more (as well as reply to the rest of your great post) later this afternoon.
Good timing -- I was just starting to compose a reply. I don't think, despite my early optimism, that there's going to be a solution outside of the combat step in mono-green, with the exception of Shaman of Forgotten Ways (and maybe he'll find some friends in sets to come). Grind and pinging are just too inefficient against a table and all the ways I can think of to bring them online are 3+ card combos, usually with at least one artifact involved.
But while I was rummaging, I did some thinking on something else you had proposed: to stop thinking of Yeva like a green good-stuff deck and start thinking of it as a green control deck. I like that a lot, and I would only amend that perhaps to start thinking of it as a green control deck with a semi-combo finisher.
That is to say, the early game is spent ramping, the mid game is spent keeping the board in check, and the late game is a well-timed board vomit, preferably at the end step of the player to the right after a cycle where most players have tapped out. By dropping (in one turn) Yeva and Pathbreaker Ibex, holding back mana for a protective Gaea's Herald, suddenly a board of two or three Wood Elves and Reclamation Sage type creatures is swinging for 25+ damage. With a bit more setup -- say, waiting for mana to drop a Timbermare -- we could be talking lethal for an entire board.
I will note that I prefer Pathbreaker Ibex and Kamahl, Fist of Krosa to Craterhoof Behemoth. I'm willing to be sold otherwise, but I like the ease of repeat on both and Kamahl's secondary wrath protection -- he's easier to drop before the final swing, saving mana for other creatures. That could be a way to differentiate the decks from more standard green swarm.
In that context, I think there should be a standard applied to cards considered for inclusions:
1) Does it control the board in some way, preferably with legs attached? (Bane of Progress, Reclamation Sage)
2) Does it ramp while leaving a body behind? (Wood Elves)
3) Is it part of the "combo" finish? (Pathbreaker Ibex, Timbermare)
4) Or does it draw/tutor into the silver bullets or "combo," preferably with legs attached? (Fierce Empath, Regal Force
In my dive into greed deep-cuts, the most interesting fellow I found was Frontier Guide. It's certainly not a "good card" by any stretch of the imagination, but it is repeatable land-based ramp on legs and I think that alone is worth a second look. I could see it really doing some work with the Seedborn Muse (if she doesn't end up cut, heh), and could really set the deck up well for its mid-game control and late-game push.
On that note, I suppose Seedborn Muse could be useful as a rattlesnake? What if her purpose in the deck was more to scare people and draw removal, rather than be the lynchpin? I could grin as the Muse tempts out a Merciless Eviction while I have Timbermare and Pathbreaker Ibex safe in my hand. And, if they leave her alone, it just lets me ramp and draw like crazy until I am ready to hand-vomit and win.
On the note of this being a green control deck, I don't know if you've had a chance to play with The Great Aurora, but I do highly recommend it in this shell. It's almost always led to me having a better board position and better hand than my rivals, as it is very rare this deck falls behind on permanents+hand size.
Getting back to the cards you suggested in your original post, I do like the Spore Frog and Spike Weaver combination. Especially if I take the build in a more control fashion, I would have to look into preventing myself from being blown out by early/mid aggression.
I like deathtouch shenanigans, especially with the Ulvenwald Tracker suggestion. Since I'm like 90% of the way to adding in Hornet Queen anyway, I think you sold me.
Sylvan Safekeeper I'm a little cooler on. It may just be my meta, but I don't seem to run into a huge amount of targeted disruption. Board wipes are a dime a dozen, mind you, but I haven't often found myself wishing for shroud (or thinking that a permanent with shroud would survive). Still, I do run the fellow in a non-EDH multiplayer druid tribal deck I have, so I can see the use and will keep him in mind. I like the Veilstone Amulet much better of the two shroud cards, and I could see that finding its way into the deck, but right now I think that Heroic Intervention would make more sense.
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard is nutty, you're certainly right about that. I had been shying away from him as he has his own deck and I wasn't sure how much design space the two archetypes would share, but the effect is almost too powerful to overlook.
On mana doublers: Caged Sun really doesn't do much for the list, I find. I usually forget all about the +1/+1 clause and it eats removal anyway. I did just have a good experience with Zendikar Resurgent, however, so I'm less cool on that card. I think it's the draw clause that gets me -- this deck so needs to be able to maintain a full grip of cards, and it is so dependent on casting creatures, that I think the Resurgence is worth frightening the board. It may be best, facing aggressive decks, to not cast it directly on curve but rather wait until a mana or two can be held open for Spore Frog or _insert defense of choice here_. I find the same is true of Boundless Realms. Outside of MLD, it's a very hard effect to counter and the buildup for the explosive "combo" turn seems essential. As a secondary effect, it can make a The Great Aurora into a laugher.
Finally, I would like to brainstorm with Arboria. I see the card a lot in Yeva-related discussions, but I've never been too keen on it myself. Since the deck relies on the combat phase to win, I worry about control shells sitting back (er, more than usual) and taking advantage of the cannot attack clause while I cannot end the game despite having the proper pieces assembled. I guess I would have to see it in play, but my gut instinct is to stay away from that card.
This discussion is really great. I appreciate everyone's input and insight, and I like the direction the deck is moving!
If you're moving in this direction I'd look into Polukranos, World Eater. You can pop him for quite a bit, and if you're trying to control the board you're going to need flexible ways to deal with creatures.
I like the idea of Polukranos, especially as he can pop monstrous at instant speed. I also approve of him just being huge, as I will need a last push to finish things off. Running him out early and then sitting on the mana seems like a great incentive for random attacks to go other directions, as well as another way to deal with pesky things like Consecrated Sphinx and its ilk.
I've also been musing about one paradox: I want Yeva in play early, to get the most benefit from flashing in random creatures, but as I've mentioned my meta has a problem with things like Wrath of God. Temur Sabertooth is the best option, of course, but I feel like other protections would really benefit the deck. My deep dive into green came up with two options (other than the Heroic Intervention already under discussion): bounce and champion.
Mono-green doesn't have a huge amount of options for bounce. The best one I found was Invasive Species, which is cheap and has the added benefit of bouncing any permanent (protecting Panharmonicons and what have you), with the 6cc Ambush Krotiq being the only other option. With all the ETB triggers around, this could be good even in games where mass removal isn't a major issue, and with Cloudstone Curio out it could even bounce itself, setting up a value loop. <- EDIT, wait no it can't. Misread the invasive species ("another" clause). Still, there would seem to be value here, as the replay of whatever you bounced could bounce the invasive species in that case.
Champion also has two main advantages: 4cc Wren's Run Packmaster (token generation, can champion a large number of creatures in the deck, including Yeva, deathtouch) and the 5cc Changeling Titan (can champion any creature, is huge). I'm a little more wary of champion just because there are so few sac mechanics in the deck (Greater Good, Momentous Fall) that they would have more limited utility outside of board-wipe scenarios. The bounce, for instance, can protect against targeted removal without worrying about trapping an important piece in limbo for ages. On the other hand, Champion is super fun when combined with The Great Aurora -- but that's just one card.
I'm also starting to put together a list of what is needed for the land base. If I were to get all the parts - which is a lot of money, and I probably won't do them all at once - I could see a move from 40 to 38 lands, freeing up a couple areas for more juice. The lands I'm considering are: Gaea's Cradle (of course) Ancient Tomb (with the protections we're talking about, I don't think the 2 damage will be relevant) Reliquary Tower (I would like to see a version of this deck with even more draw than it currently has) Mana Crypt (not technically a land, but might as well be; Eternal Masters has done wonders for the price) Misty Rainforest (fetch land) Verdant Catacombs (fetch land) Wooded Foothills (fetch land) Pendelhaven (I already own one and the opportunity cost seems low, outisde of a Blood Moon scenario)
Obviously, this is a ton of money to be considering and I'm not going to pull the trigger until I have a more clear idea on the final look of the deck. I'm tinkering around with the list now and hope to have something soon to test out and see if the concept being fleshed out is worth the investment. If anyone has any other "money is not an issue" suggestions for the lands (or anything else), I'd be happy to hear them!
Here's one that I'm not sure if everyone just forgot about it or what but a managorger hydra would work wonders while you're waiting to make something like polukranos monstrous. Just play nice and watch everyone go crazy against each other while managorger just gets bigger and bigger. He'll easily be a 4/4 or bigger by the time the turn comes back around to you and he's able to attack. Another one that would be a solid beater is gaea's revenge.
I agree with looking at the deck as a control deck. For me, it's the way to set it apart from other green decks.
Having said that, I've never been a huge fan of the 'control deck with a combo finish' type plan. It's more or less what my deck looks like now. Most of my games I'm having a blast playing this deck, sitting back on my cards, flashing in a couple of creatures, protecting my creatures from removal by flashing in other stuff, etc, up until the time when I draw my Craterhoof or Kamahl. I almost feel bad about casting them at that point. My deck was doing so many cool things, but the win condition is still the same. Play dudes, cast overrun, game.
Maybe this is just how it should be though, and I should suck it up. It's certainly the most efficient way to win, and it's not out of theme for the deck. Maybe having a Shaman of Forgotten Ways and 1 or 2 cool fatties is enough to at least steal some wins from my overruns.
Yeah, I'm not in love with the option either, but killing a whole table of 40-life players is tough on monogreen without overrun shenanigans. I'll keep looking for another way too. At least flashing it in ahead of time creates a little design space seperation from other green decks, along with placing less importance on haste.
All of the cards listed are fine cuts (especially Vorinclex, that guy's an ********), although I do like Yavimaya Elder (ramp/draw with legs) and Avenger (board control with legs + combo finish).
But, I would never ever ever ever ever cut Seedborn Muse from this deck. When your general allows you to play all your control spells at instant speed, you don't want to cut the only card that enables doing it every single turn. Especially if you run the deck like a control deck, you want as much mana available in each player's turn as you can.
This also ties into the above of running Yeva as a combo piece. Personally, I think that's a waste of a good general and unique play-style. For me, Yeva is the center piece of the deck, the card that makes the whole deck play the way it plays. And Seedborn Muse just helps so much at controlling the board with Yeva. Don't cut Seedborn Muse. Seriously.
But there are no bad ideas in brainstorming!
...Yeah, that was a Bad Idea (with capital letters and everything). Don't worry, the Muse isn't going anywhere. I came to my senses!
I agree that Yavimaya Elder is a terrific card and amazing card advantage. My worry was about him having to die to be most effective, but he made the list in the most recent ideas I've been goldfishing (more on that at the end of this post). With the Avenger, I feel like this deck makes better use of Hornet Queen in essentially the same role (she's smaller and has less token potential, but deathtouch is so relevant for so many things, and I feel she will scale better into the future if Wizards continues to push Fight as part of green's color pie). It could be argued that there is space for both, of course, but I went with just the Queen in my newest brew.
@Pathbreaker Ibex/Kamahl, Fist of Krosa over Craterhoof Behemoth - First of all, I think 2 is a good number of this effect to run. I chose Kamahl and Craterhoof for my deck. Kamahl for repeatability and wrath punishment, Craterhoof for being game-winningly explosive. The Ibex is cool, but the fact that also need a somewhat large creature in play to make it really insane makes it less appealing for me. It's also easier to deal with than the others by just pointing removal at it before the combat step. Craterhoof EtB furthermore is more along the theme of the deck and quite easily reusable with all the self-bounce and graveyard recursion.
You're right, of course. I didn't want to admit it because I love my goat so much, but the Craterhoof Behemoth really is the better choice for that slot. Kamahl, of course, is bonkers in three different ways and I'm sure everyone can agree on him. I have a Behemoth in another deck; I'll switch him out with the goat.
The Great Aurora - I'll think about it. Actually, I'll probably put it into another deck first (Rhys tokens). It's a bit expensive for my taste, because I don't run any mana doublers, and I don't think I need it.
I think you'll be impressed, especially if you try it in a token deck. I've had it function both as a win condition when I'm way ahead on perms+hand and as a panic reset button when I'm behind on board presence. The mana cost is steep, but all the lands it finds come into play untapped, so you can go right back to work after it. I hope I'm not being an unreasonable acolyte for this card; if I am, it's because I loved Lorwyn/Shadowmoor lore, so it tickles some Vorthos instinct that I have.
It's funny to see that we're all looking into the same directions.
Anyway, Wraths are a problem in a way that they prevent the deck from playing its preferred play style. However, I haven't really found Wraths to be more than an annoyance. With all the graveyard recursion (again, Genesis is quite good), you should generally be able to reuse most of your threats and out-value most Wrath-happy decks. Heck, I don't even always let my general go to the command zone when it dies. I would even go as far as to say that -sometimes- I'm even happy to see someone Wrath the board because most of the times another player is more threatening than I am, and at least I also don't have to worry about huge threats coming my way.
But, a little self-bounce is still good to have. I like Wirewood Symbiote best if you just want to protect Yeva. Invasive Species might be interesting, as it's only 3 mana, but I don't know. Wren's Run Packmaster was a card I looked at as well and might just be in that sweet spot. Churning out deathtouchers is pretty good on both defense and offense. I like that it's a threat first and a safety for Yeva second.
Btw, if your meta is Wrath heavy, having something that only counters the first Wrath is not really an answer to your problems. Veilstone Amulet and Temur Sabertooth still seem like the best options in play, and Genesis for grindy recursion.
Oh, and depending on the type of Wrath your opponents run: Yavimaya Hollow.
Oh, I agree that Temur Sabertooth is the best tool for the job, there's no doubt! Whisperwood Elemental is an interesting idea too, and I'll have to keep it in the back of my mind. I'm testing out the Invasive Species in my current brew, and I'll let you know how it performs. Wren's Run Packmaster, meanwhile, juuuust barely missed the cut -- It'll be among the first things in if there's an underperfomer. Yavimaya Hollow is a great idea, and it's going in. (Meaning, at some point in this deck, I've had a Dryad, a Granger, an Elder, and now a Hollow from Yavimaya...)
Ancient Tomb and Mana Crypt are obviously good, but with all the ramp green has available to it I'm not sure you want something that damages you. This deck is for the long game, in which having a damaging mana source could actually be dangerous.
Pendelhaven is fine, but probably unlikely to really matter much.
With the Mana Crypt and the Ancient Tomb, I agree that a grindy game would make these cards into huge liabilities. A major problem I've had, though, is doing nothing for the first 2-3 turns and getting blow out of the water just as I start going. With the deck heavy on 3-6 drops, I'm willing right now to risk a bit of life loss to prevent early stalls. I'll play test, of course, and see if it is too big of a problem in practice. At least both are cards that, if they don't find a place here, will be at home somewhere else in my collection.
Pendelhaven is small potatoes, you're right. I've cut it for a basic land to play better with things like Terrain Generator and avoid Blood Moon problems.
I love Homeward Path as an add, especially as I have a friend obsessed with blue steal mechanics. Miren, the Moaning Well I like the effect but worry about the cost. Maybe High Market as a cheaper (but less explosive) substitute?
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is a card I'm ashamed to say I forgot existed. I'll test it out too and let you know (I have been coming around on Karametra's Acolyte, so devotion is on the rebound in my mind).
With Rogue's Passage, I don't think I'll use it in my deck. But if you are looking for an alternative to the overrun win, it could be an option (say, clamp a Grafted Exoskeleton onto a Hydra Omnivore and sneak it through the Passage).
Ok, this post is getting long AF, but here's a couple cards I was looking at:
Archetype of Endurance - Expensive, but pretty good way to protect your board against targeted removal. Doesn't help against sweepers though, so probably not good enough. Caustic Caterpillar - Krosan Grip is better, but this is a creature. Wirewood Symbiote - I don't run this atm, how do you like it? Foe-Razer Regent - instant speed Fight + big threat Polukranos, World Eater - JDviant and I were apparently on the same page. I think this might be good. Plus, it eats fricking WORLD. Bloodspore Thrinax - just a fun and less all-in variant on the overrun type card. This one made me think about running more +1/+1 counter cards, but at the very least it makes all your small fries into threats and works very well with Spike Weaver. Worldbreaker - maybe a little expensive for its effect, and would need a little retooling of the mana base (at which point Mirrorpool might be good as well), but it's a good card for sure. Maze of Ith - classic rattlesnake/protection land for control decks. Setessan Tactics - Found this in another Yeva thread and it intrigues me. You can even target other people's creatures to help you kill big threats. Imagine pairing this with Hornet Queen. Managorger Hydra (thanks @Navyat87) and Forgotten Ancient - Babycakes is one of my favorite cards ever. Both pack a huge punch, with Ancient having the added synergy with Spike Weaver (again) for near-infinite fogs. Ok, maybe that +1/+1 counter thing is not such a bad idea after all.
Well, I’m the last person who will yell at you about long posts! I feel like I’ve composed an essay or two myself, this post included.
I’ll skip to the (strangely) most exciting card in the lot for me – Caustic Caterpillar. I’m looking at it mostly as a replacement for Acidic Slime. I love that it doesn’t need to tap to do its thing and that it’s not blanked by (and takes care of) Torpor Orb. The sac is not ideal, of course, but the little Caterpillar is making it in my next test build.
I do just want to mention that, at least on paper and in my goldfishing, Polukranos, World Eater is nutty. 5/5 for 4cc is busted enough to begin with in a deck that has Greater Good, nuking creatures at instant speed in monogreen seems superb.
I could see a build that focuses on Forgotten Ancient and his buddies. Green has plenty of +1/+1 tricks up its sleeve. I’m not sure that’s a direction I want to take myself – Spike Weaver is still on my maybe-board – but it’s worth further discussion. Cytoplast Root-kin and Sporeback Troll are my favorite of the Graft creatures. I know you can also get deathtouch and trample with graft creatures but I seem to remember that they’re not worth the investment. Doubling Season, of course, is rarely a bad idea, and would work nicely with Wren’s Run Packmaster. And for draw, you have Inspiring Call (which doubles as wipe protection).
Also, I would like to assure Navyat87 that I have never forgotten about Managorger Hydra! That’s one of my favorite green creatures and I feel like I probably own six or seven of them, with none sitting around in a binder. I’m still not sure why it hasn’t caught on as a one-card win condition in multiplayer and EDH circles.
However, as much as I love it, I don’t think that the Hydra has a place in the current brew I’m working on. I’m trying to move away from creatures, however insanely mana efficient they are, that are “just” big. I think Yeva needs every card slot to be working double duty, as a control or ramp function that can help beat face when Kamahl calls. In a more good-stuff-y deck, or one that relies more heavily on counters, though – yeah, Managorger Hydra is insane.
World Breaker I like on general principle, being huge and reachy and having an exile clause and a recursion clause. I would mention that, with Devoid, it doesn’t play nicely with Yeva, Nature's Herald or Regal Force. I’ll keep it in mind, but I’m not sure.
I wish Maze of Ith generated mana. I like the effect, but I’m not sure the deck can handle a land drop that doesn’t make mana.
Of Foe-Razer Regent and Setessan Tactics, I think I prefer the dragon. Being a creature just has so much value in this deck. Tactics+Hornet Queen is big game, no question about that, I’m not sure what I would cut for it.
One other card I’m thinking about is Wave of Vitriol. It’s huge mana and it doesn’t hit troublesome creatures, but it does take care of Blightsteel Colossus, Cabal Coffers, Theros Gods, and a whole host of other troublesome permanents. There would be some feel-bads involved in nuking my own non-basic lands, but it might be worth keeping in mind. I’ll keep mulling it over.
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Right, since this post isn’t long enough yet, I do have a new list that I’ve been goldfishing in magical Christmas tapped out land where I own ~$300 more in cards than I actually do.
I’m afraid that I didn’t keep an exact change log, so I’m working off memory and my old decklist for what was taken out and put back in.
Out Acidic Slime. I mentioned this earlier. I feel like it’s too slow at 5cc. Avenger of Zendikar. As above, switched with Hornet Queen Blade of Selves. Never really pulled its weight, despite the absurd ceiling for this card. I’ll keep it on the maybe board for future versions. Burgeoning. I was rarely happy to draw this spell. I love it in blue-green shells, but it’s powered there by the raw fury of blue card advantage (and Windfalls). I’m testing Exploration in its place. Caged Sun. Easily the worst of the mana doublers I ran. I don’t think it’ll be missed. Conqueror’s Flail. May set the record for the shortest inclusion in a deck ever. If I’m picking my moment with Yeva, hopefully worries like spot removal and Fogs will be less relevant. Hydra Omnivore Big dumb beatstick. Really big and scary, but I’m moving away from that in this shell. Nylea, God of the Hunt. Big dumb beatstick. Oracle of Mul Daya. Has been on the teetering list for a while. I have other decks she may be better suited in. Pathbreaker Ibex. Replaced with Craterhoof Behemoth Quirion Trailblazer. This one was hard. I needed the room, and Wild Wanderer is the better 4cc acceleration. Selvala's Stampede. Selvala, in. Stampede, out. Woodland Bellower. I still like the tutor. He’s hanging out on the maybeboard for now.
Some Forests and the cycling lands.
I think they'll be pretty good (especially Mana Crypt), and you can't really go wrong with them. I still won't be adding them because I'm pretty adamant about not freaking people out to much with this deck. ^^
I can't fault you for that! I've noticed, at least with the group I usually play with, the Yeva deck already seems to draw a lot of attention, so I might as well justify their expectations! I think that 2xForest would probably be just fine in those two slots.
Yes and no. I'm aware of the card, but Blighted Woodland costs 5 mana to ramp +1. That's a whole turn. Myriad Landscape can be woven in between other plays, or just sacrificed on turn 3 when you don't have anything else to do and other people are also setting up. I understand the comparison, but I'm to impressed with the Woodland.
That makes sense. It does seem like half the time the Woodland ends up reading little more than "T: add colorless to your mana pool" in my games. I do like, though, that I can use that colorless mana the turn it comes down rather than coming into play tapped. I would say that I'm usually more happy drawing Myriad Landscape early and Blighted Woodlands late. If only the magic luck gods would make it work out so well! Both will probably continue to have a home in my deck, but I can understand a decision to take only one or the other.
Nooooooooo. Don't do it! It's on the slow side, but it destroys a whole lot of problem permanents AND has deathtouch to trade with bigger scarier stuff. I definitely wouldn't cut this.
It's certainly not dropping off my radar as a possible later readdition, but my reasoning revolved around the comparison to Caustic Caterpillar. The Caterpillar can potentially come down turn one and blow something up turn two. It hits everything the Slime hits except for lands (which certainly can be troublesome), and it can discourage nasty enchantments/artifacts or encourage board wipes, both of which play in the deck's favor. The lack of deathtouch is a big blow, but right now I'm more worried about the deck's early game. If I find an underpreforming card somewhere in the middle stages, though, the Slime will be right back in!
I don't think the larger amount of life gain from Miren is worth the additional mana required to activate it. High Market is pretty amazing. If you find yourself adding more sac outlets, might I suggest Hua Tuo, Honored Physician? The recursion he brings can really swing games.
Wild Wanderer looks good, but time you're bouncing and recasting it I suspect you've likely got access to a decent amount of mana anyway. Have you considered Sakura-Tribe Elder instead? Or even a Llanowar Elves variant for Wirewood Symbiote fodder?
Hmm, I'll have to keep Hua Tuo in mind! I had no idea that green had that sort of recursion engine (oh, Three Kingdoms, you wild card!). The only part I don't like is the "only during your turn" clause, as it means he won't play nicely with Seedborn Muse. I will have to get some more games under my belt and see how it responds to the pressure.
Based on your and Squirrely's advise, I just put High Market in the slot that had been held by Buried Ruin. The deck is moving away from artifacts, it seems (Skullclamp might be the next one on the chopping block -- lack of instant speed equip is tanking its stock) and none of them strike me as absolutely needing recursion should they get nuked.
The ramp package in this deck is probably the fiddliest part of the whole thing. Sakura-Tribe Elder is a great spell (and starts an Elder tribal theme with Yavimaya Elder), but the sac-mechanism is what kills it for me. I prefer to have my ramp creatures stick around to count as bodies for things like Regal Force and the big overrun turn.
As for Llanowar Elves, I'm not a huge fan. I find them too fragile in the early game and too inconsequential in the mid or late game. If this were a more traditional rampy green deck looking to hew a tight 1-3-6 mana curve, sure, but I think with Yeva's focus on later stages it's probably best to avoid them. The mana dork I'm most intrigued by, and Squirrely mentioned he ran this earlier, is Joraga Treespeaker. Level-up is only at sorcery speed, unfortunately, but she does have the potential to curve out early game and be relevant late game. I'm keeping an eye on her as a possible replacement for Wild Wanderer, but right now I like the stability of physical land acceleration.
My ultimate hope is for Wizards to find something between Wood Elves and Wild Wanderer in power level in the next few sets. Maybe fetching only forests and putting them into play tapped at 3cc? I can dream.
I didn't take it all the way because I didn't want to elf-ball the game right then and there, but Aurora was nuts.
On a related note: Seton is one of the more snow-ball-y decks I've ever played.
/off-topic post
Not at all off-topic! I'm a huge fan of The Great Aurora, so I'm glad to see that it worked so well for you. I find it works as a win condition, like you saw, almost as well as it works as an emergency reset button. Also, just on the same aside, I love the concept of Seton, Krosan Protector powered druids.
I haven't had a chance to play a game with the new list yet, sadly, but hopefully on Friday or Saturday. I have goldfished it upteenbillion times on tapped out, and I can't say that once I've been happy to draw Frontier Guide. I didn't ever mind playing it, but by the time I was able to activate its ability I was almost always on to bigger and better things. I'm dubious it would have much value in a longer, grindier game because of its vulnerability to sweepers. I think that, despite my musings the other day, BlackVise is probably correct and that slot would be better occupied by Sakura-Tribe Elder. Early game, he saccs himself to grab a T3 Yeva; late game, he is another body (who can at least do something useful in response to a sweeper).
Other cards I have been pondering include All is Dust, Creeping Corrosion, Krosan Grip, Back to Nature, Deglamer and Bind. To be honest, I am really considering an, if not ground-up, at least substantial rebuild focusing more on control spells recurred by Eternal Witness over and over again. I want to get some games with the current build down first, but I'm keeping it in mind as an option.
EDIT: So the type of decklist I would be looking for with those cards would look something like what I posted below. I haven't optimized the list at all; it's really just a pile of cards (with Freyalise's Winds bouncing somewhere around the edge of my consciousness). The idea would be to either be ramping or tutoring at end of turn or blowing everything up at sorcery speed until I'm able to get some sort of engine like Eternal Witness + Temur Sabertooth or Cloudstone Curio (preferably with Aluren backup) gets going and I pull out a grindy win. I worry that it wouldn't really be fast enough to compete with combo decks nor degenerate enough to compete with real control decks. Anyway, I'm tossing the idea out there to see what everyone thinks about it.
Now that we're Back From the Brink, I did have a chance to play Yeva twice last night, using the new list in the OP. (I maaay have been exaggerating when I said I didn't have the money for the Gaea's Cradle -- I still don't have the money, but this thread did help me get the motivation. Everything will work out fine, I'm sure!)
Both games were wins, but I'm going to sound very arrogant when I say that I wasn't particularly happy with either one of them. They were both in four-player games and against decks that seemed to be having bad draws. There was very little removal in either game (Seedborn Muse once made five circuits, I think, without anyone even trying to remove it). Game number one ended in a scoop after I had used a Fauna Shaman to set up Panharmonicon, Eternal Witness, Seedborn Muse, Beast Within, Temur Sabertooth, and Spore Frog (over the course of what felt like ten turns). All the other decks were dependent on the combat step and I think the only "mass removal" anyone drew was a Living Death (which went uncast as I had dropped a Greater Good T5).
Game two quickly got Yeva out, with a Yavimaya Hollow to see her through removal. I stalled out on cards after that, having to use a Brutalizer Exarch for the removal rather than the tutor. At nine mana, I topped and desperation-played a Genesis Wave for six, which had good luck and dumped out a Karametra's Acolyte, a Shaman of Forgotten Ways, a Seedborn Muse, and a Gaea's Cradle. On my next turn, I was able to generate enough mana to activate the Shaman and drop a Craterhoof Behemoth that had been sitting in my hand since the initial grip.
Things the deck did well:
Finished. Shaman of Forgotten Ways + overrun effect is backbreaking. Also, on the control side, it's pretty dominating once it gets going. Fauna Shaman. This card had been on my watchlist, but its performance in game one has me thinking I might need Survival of the Fittest too.
Intimidated people. Caustic Caterpillar I think way over performed simply by being artifact/enchanment hate sitting around where everyone could see it. Also, players often skipped lines of play for fear of what I might have in hand (or, with Fauna Shaman out, what I might tutor for.
Things I would like to improve:
Card draw. There were several times the deck seemed to stall out on cards. I had been looking at Nissa, Vital Force anyway, and these games seem to confirm my thinking.
Sometimes slow to start. I think I got lucky that no one else was able to seize the games from me as we headed into double digit turns. I've certainly seen the decks I was playing against go crazy. I think that some more early artifact hate might be helpful, to nuke mana rocks?
My goal over the weekend is to edit the OP to reflect more the new decklist, update the card-by-card discussion, and pose more questions that reflect the current status of the deck. Hopefully without tripping any spam filters!
And, on a non-Yeva related note, my other commander games were a disaster last night lol. Sram, Senior Edificer had to make a judgment call about which other player to eliminate (and chose incorrectly; he died to a trampling 27/27 Patron of the Orochi that was snake offering-ed in at the end of my turn). Borborygmos Enraged did even worse, dropping a 31/31 Realm Seekers just to see it stolen and used to alpha strike me by Scion of the Ur-Dragon before my next turn.
Well, I just completely overhauled the OP to be more reflective of the deckstate as it is now. I've forgone a changelog for now since the deck had been so fluid but I will try to keep one up going forward. And it didn't even get marked as spam! More good news lol.
Anyway, I don't know about other people, but I absolutely love game reports, even short ones. Also, the shortlists of things that went well and need improvement are very useful.
Thanks for saying so! We should be playing again this Friday; I'll be sure to update the post with more reflections then. Also, the first game was against Godo, Bandit Warlord, Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, and some sort of group hug commander I hadn't seen before. The second game was late at night, and all I remember is one guy was borrowing my Xira Arien Jund control deck and someone else had Bruna, Light of Alabaster. My playgroup is the same six or seven guys, depending on availability, but we each have 5-15 EDH decks in various stages of competitiveness so there is quite a bit of diversity to the meta still. I'm making sure to cycle Yeva in for at least one game a night, though.
General thoughts:
- The point about countering Living Death with Greater Good was something I totally forgot. Overall I think I should reconsider Greater Good for my own list simply because it's that good.
- Glad the deck finished well, and managed to keep control of the board for such a long time. Especially the last part is interesting, because this is the way I think the deck is meant to be played and what sets it apart from other green decks. You're not ramping out big threats, but laying low and trying to control the game.
- Survival is nuts. I'm usually not a big fan of running a lot of tutor effects (or repetitive ones), but both Survival and Fauna Shaman are just too much fun in a deck like this. Being able to tutor up an answer for basically anything at instant speed for only G, and than playing that answer is sweet. And it can find Genesis as well. I dislike that Survival also makes it way easier to find your go-to finishers, but I guess that's something I just have to deal with because I'm not really planning to cut either Survival or Fauna Shaman.
- Great to hear Caustic Caterpillar working out! I totally underestimated the rattlesnake effect the card has. Maybe we could find more rattlesnakes (more deathtouch?, Maze of Ith?), or at least consider Viridian Zealot.
- Planeswalkers in general: I can see some of the Nissas working out very well for this deck. With all the fog effects soft locking people, it's not hard to imagine a planeswalker generating a lot of value. I do think that the deck needs a little more defense to be able to consistently keep attackers at bay in the earlier game (this ties in nicely with wanting more rattlesnakes). Also, planeswalkers attract slightly more attention from other players than I generally like to with this deck, and they're not creatures. On the other hand, planeswalkers as a way to finish the game and gain incremental value would definitely let the deck play out even more differently than other mono green decks and more like a blue control deck. EDIT: obviously, there's the flipwalker Nissa! Man, I should get that in here..
- I recognize that the deck can run out of gas somewhere in the mid game if you don't draw an engine and/or enough answers. Maybe I'll start running a little more cantrip creatures and/or other draw effects to keep up a little tempo, or just cave and go with the Collective Unconscious-type cards (as a green analogue to blue hand-refilling draw spells). I prefer getting by with just cantrips and incremental value though, because those are more innocuous. I considered going deep with the whole Stampeding Wildebeests(and friends)/Elvish Visionary(and friends) thing. At any rate, I think Carven Caryatid might not be a bad card for the deck to hold off early aggression for a bit.
In order:
-I give Greater Good five out of five stars. I hadn't actually thought about the Living Death interaction either, but the fellow playing Oloro and holding the LD had and he was kind enough to tell me after the game.
-You're right about this archetype and, although I've said this several times now, I should have listening to you. I was surprised at how virulent my hate was in the first game too. Even the ability to survive hate almost counts as control, as I had some times in the second game where my board tempted out a wrath effect, but through shenanigans I was always the one who ended up on the better end of other people's removal. I'm looking to move the deck further toward the control end of the spectrum, especially by trimming the win conditions down to just two cards.
-Good call on the Caustic Caterpillar. I think Viridian Zealot should merit some consideration and I added it to the maybe-board in the OP. Not having to tap to activate its ability is huge.
-On planeswalkers, I realize I said Nissa, Worldwaker but meant Nissa, Vital Force. Oops. I edited that above. Also, you're right that my group hates unreasonably on planeswalkers. After the last few games, though, I think there's going to be plenty of hate coming my way regardless. But yeah, man, Nissa, Vastwood Seer is a great call. I didn't realize the +1 of her flip side was card advantage. I'm sold. I'll try to find a place for her too. Good call. I agree with most of your assessment of the planeswalkers, though, and I don't think I'd consider one that wasn't card advantage.
-I think it's a good idea to start looking into cantrip creatures. I'll do a deep dive later and edit this with any gems I find. I do recommend Masked Admirers, if you're not already running it. Seems like a great engine for the deck late game. I do have another deck that runs Stampeding Wildebeest, and I have to say they're great. Like, so good that I often forget they're a 5/4 trampler and don't swing with them on an open board. I'm not sure I like them for where my deck is right now, but more focus on cantrippers to replace draw spells could change that.
About being slow to start:
My personal philosophy about this deck is that I don't want to come out of the gates too fast. Maybe I'm wrong, but it could be possible that the fact that other decks went crazy and you didn't is the reason you did come out on top. The Yeva deck is surprisingly good at playing a control game, and deceptively resilient going into the lategame, it's not a surprise that it can tangle with 'better' decks when going late. The fact that other decks are more threatening than you are *should* make them more likely targets to each other while they leave you alone for a bit.
I wonder if having more explosive starts and/or having more control over the early game by nuking manarocks is actually beneficial for the Yeva deck. In its core, it's not meant to be the one that threatens the board and not really set up to compete in an arms race. Destroying manarocks to keep other players in check might only stir their annoyance. I've always had a bit a love-hate relationship with destroying cards that are not direct threats. It's very effective, but people get vindictive when you do. I really the approach of using politics, rattlesnakes and/or other deterrents, and simply 'not being the biggest threat until it's too late' to deal with the board. But, again, it's how I personally look at this deck (and control decks in EDH in general - I have a Kami of Crescent Moon deck, for example). For me, it's what makes casual multiplayer so different from competitive 1v1 games: the way you can play the table/players themselves. This is obviously not for everyone. I don't mind playing land-go for turns while needing to play anything, for example, but other people find this extremely boring.
Disclaimer: the above doesn't hold up if you play with a regular playgroup and your win rate with the deck is very high. If players start to target you early because they recognize that their decks are otherwise not equipped to deal with your Spore Frog lock lategame, you might need to adjust your strategy.
I think it's a bit late for me to fly under the radar, sadly. That's good that we're having the discussion about both philosophies, though -- one version of the deck for known metas, one for more unknown. You're certainly right, though, that the deck is deceptively controlling and resilient. It's ability to tempt out removal and then survive that removal -- Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, Temur Sabertooth, Genesis, etc -- better than other decks is huge. I feel like the deck has a good matchup with other control decks and midrange-value decks; it's fast combo I worry more about. For instance I've seen that Godo, Bandit Warlord deck I mentioned artifact accelerate itself to the point where T5 or T6 it was swinging with a Godo holding Shield of Kaldra and Worldslayer. Nuking the early mana rocks slows it down enough that I can deal with that line of play (Spore Frog lock, Brutalizer Exarch, etc.) as well as some of the other degenerate stuff that ends up happening.
That having been said, I can see playing online mostly it would be better to stay subtle and not draw hate. And I did love the rattlesnake effect of Caustic Caterpillar. I also don't mind turns that are mostly draw-go, although I have just enough blue mage in me that I prefer draw-go-draw-again-at-the-end-of-your-turn.
Do you mind if I ask where/how you play online? I seem to have more free time now to think about Magic, but only a semi-regular Friday night game and would love to get some more playing in.
OP looks very good, and the new list as well. If you like, I can post my personal list in this thread is well. I'm not really interested in starting a new thread, because I don't think having another thread will generate more discussion (and I think this general strategy discussion is way more useful than nit-picking on specific cards).
Thanks! And I would absolutely love to see your decklist -- if you prefer, I can add a link to it in the OP with some disclaimer like "This list assumes a known meta where this deck will be a prime target; for a meta where Yeva is less known, check out Squirrely's list here." I think seeing your creature/draw/control balances will help me get some of my bearings too.
You're right about this archetype and, although I've said this several times now, I should have listening to you.
Lol, I'm keeping this quote to show to my friends for when they disagree with me ;). Anyway, I'm glad this discussion is getting along nicely and we're getting this deck somewhere awesome!
Hah! Be sure to keep it with the typo and all. *listened
Some more cards I found that might be interesting:
Molder Slug - Such a powerful card! Gets a little worse with Sol Ring/Mana Crypt of course, but this deck is pretty low on artifacts. I've always wanted to run it in a deck, maybe this deck is the one. It's also quite beefy. Dawnstrider - The planeswalker discussion made me think about fogs some more. Even without running PWs, extra fogs might be interesting to look into. I know you don't run Spike Weaver, which is definitely better, so run that one first. Anyway, on-board fogs are neat way to dissuade attacks (and is also an answer to your Godo problem). This does have the downside of not being able to active immediately, but eot flash-untap is pseudo haste. Spore Flower - I don't think this is very good, but I thought it was funny. Janky fog-on-a-stick = win. Mycoloth - Very good card with the drawback of being a huge removal magnet that's also card disadvantage when it gets removed. The reason I think it might be worthwhile is that you playing this eot and uncapping negates a bit of that drawback and creates a big board out of nowhere. Hornet Nest - Nice rattlesnake! Attack me with a 7/7? Flash this is, block, create a board of death touching annoyances. Also fun with Ulvenwald Tracker and a huge opposing flyer. I wish this wasn't grounded, but you can't have it all. I'm going to make room for this, if only because the 'gotcha' feeling will be glorious. Skullwinder - More deathtouch/rattlesnaking. This is also a political tool to help other people control the biggest threat, while getting something valuable back. The deathtouch is gravy, but gets fat attackers off your back. Elvish Skysweeper - But Squirrely, what if those attackers are airborne? Kill them! It's not cheap, but it's on a 1-drop (yay) elf (yay!), and it's janky (woohoo) Radjan Spirit - This is reaching, but I was looking for a way for the potential deathtouch increase (and Hornet Nest) to deal with flyers. Found this, got overly excited because it reminded me of playing Shandalar. Man, it would be so much fun to include this, but I'm not going to because it's probably too sucky. However, the ability does look quite good in this deck, even excluding the deathtouch. Green has no shortage of sturdy ground creatures that can take on an attacker.
-- I like Molder Slug a lot. I never really mind nuking my own artifacts, and at a certain point it seems to become positively an asset to be able to sac Mana Crypt. It's been so long since 8e/Mirroden that I had absolutely forgotten it.
-- With Dawnstrider, I think I'm starting to move a bit away from redundant spell slots. My list is moving towards more of a toolbox, with tutors available to pull out the right answer. I like Dawnstrider and run her in a different deck, but I think she's the third best tool for the job (after Spore Frog and Spike Weaver). Redundancy is never a bad thing, of course, but there are only so many deck slots that I feel comfortable playing around with. Spore Flower fits into that same category.
-- Mycoloth certainly becomes more attractive with flash, and it's a great way to turn those redundant Wood Elves and what have you. Enough Saproling focus and maybe Psychotrope Thallid would even be an option...
-- I think Hornet Nest is my favorite suggestion of all of these. I remember the card, and run it in a deck paired with Blasphemous Act, but I would have never thought of how much better it is in mono-green with flash. The fight option is just gravy. That's terrific thinking. I may have to find a deck slot for this.
-- Skullwinder, I think, suffers a bit from the "second-best tool" problem that I had with Dawnstrider. In a deck with less tutoring and recursion, I might consider it -- but I think Deadwood Treefolk would be my next recursion include. If only Skullwinder worked more like a Nullmage Advocate where I got to pick their card...
-- Elvish Skysweeper and Radjan Spirit -- I'm really high on the Spore Frog / Spike Weaver thing right now as a way to "deal" with flyers, with Timbermare as backup to deal with things that trigger on attack. They're worth keeping in mind, but if I were to add a dedicated anti-flyer, it would probably be Arashi, the Sky Asunder
Right now, I'm pretty sure that Survival of the Fittest will replace Birthing Pod and Tooth and Nail will replace Yisan, the Wanderer Bard. Especially since the 4cc mana acceleretors went away, I don't think either chain is worth pursuing in comparison to other green creature tutors. Skullclamp is probably the next cut in my mind, possibly for a Nissa variant or Molder Slug. I haven't decided where Hornet Nest will fit in; I'll have to give it some more thought.
Let me lead off by saying that I have fallen in love with the Willow Satyr in your list. It's such a delightfully out of color pie effect for green -- really putting the "blue" in green-blue -- and I feel like it could really do wonderful things for my deck. Sure, it won't stay tapped with Seedborn Muse, but I feel that seizing control is really all I need, not holding control. With Momentous Fall, Eldritch Evolution, High Market, and Greater Good, the Satyr almost reads "destroy target legendary creature" (and get the benefit of whatever sac mechanic I was using). It makes me far more serious about including Elvish Skysweeper, if mainly now as a sac outlet -- there don't seem to be many good creature-based sac outlets in green (I think Starved Rusalka is the next best). Even without a sac outlet, the ability can be activated at instant speed (I've reread it like seven times now looking for a "play this ability only whenever you could play a sorcery" clause), meaning that I could wait to be attacked by Player A, grab Player B's general to block, and gravy if they happen to trade. It would warp the way some decks play their generals to my advantage. Like, I've spent all day at work today thinking about that card -- the only way I would be more obsessed is if Wizards had oracled it to "target legendary permanent" instead of "creature" so that I could steal, like, undevoted Theros gods and stuff*. I even love the look of the card -- I have a bit of an obsession with pre-8e borders and watercolor. Shame it didn't get a reprint in Chronicles so it would be like 50 cents, but if the card is half as effective as I seem to think it might be, fifteen bucks or whatever would be a steal.
* -- huh. I wonder what happens when I take a Theros god that is a creature, but it becomes not a creature because I don't have the devotion. This is the sort of rules question I usually bring to my friend who plays Volrath Shapeshifter decks.
WHICH leads me to my primary concern: you have the card marked as "watchlist." Does that mean it's still in testing, or that it hasn't earned its keep? I'm dreadfully curious -- I'm probably going to fall asleep tonight thinking of all the shenanigans I could get up to with Willow Satyr.
Other than that, I can see a few of our deckbuilding differences played out in the card choices. That's not meant as a criticism at all! Since my meta is so ossified, I don't really value a "mystery of the unknown" or things like playing politics, and I think it's great to hear an outside opinion on things. If Skullwinder will help you to play your enemies, then I think it would be a great option. I know in my group there's a decided suspicion of players who help each other out; everyone usually gangs up to beat up the grouphug guy first because he's helping all of our opponents.
Speaking of which, tutors. I think this might be another place where our decks start to diverge slightly based on personal taste. I'll start by saying that, most of the time, I agree with you. I usually build decks that power through with huge draw spells -- I think I own at least seven or eight Recurring Insights -- but I believe that what I'm trying to do with my version of the deck, and with the amount of hate it's going to have to fight through, and the fact that I'm not ACTUALLY in blue means that I'll have to rely more on tutors. It's a green, creature-based deck; green is the best at tutoring creatures. I can totally see your side of things too. If I were using the T&N to fetch Craterhoof Behemoth and Avenger of Zendikar time after time, I think it would get pretty stale. Luckily, I don't have the Avenger in my deck at the moment. The combo I see myself searching out most often is probably Seedborn Muse and Temur Sabertooth to set up a value engine. I might be wrong, and it might end up warping things to the point where I cut it in disgust -- look for my next post telling you that you were right and I should have listened to you in a week or two.
As for Yisan, he's hanging on by a rope right now. If I were making the changes immediately, he'd be out. But I haven't actually played with him in a live game so he might be better than I think. I just hate having to work him through the chain up to the creatures I actually want. In goldfishing, every time I drew him I seemed to have something better and more interesting to do with his mana than to pay three to play a Wirewood Symbiote or a Elvish Visionary. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and see if he does anything in an actual game situation.
My plan is to play my next series of games with the decklist that's currently in the OP. If I were to change things today, however, and assuming I already owned all these cards, I would:
Temple of the False God -> Forest. It hasn't happened yet in a real game, thank god, but there have been several tests where I ended up with an unplayable board state that would have been off to the races if this was a basic land. Birthing Pod and Yisan, the Wanderer Bard -> Tooth and Nail and Survival of the Fittest. I talked about this above. Ulvenwald Hydra -> Willow Satyr. Fetching a land is neat and all, but I could do that for one mana with Crop Rotation. If I decide I need more land tutors, I'll do that -- or Realm Seekers Skullclamp -> Hornet Nest. I think that's too cute to not at least try. And the clamps have not been pulling their weight. Carpet of Flowers -> Molder Slug? Maybe. I like the Slug, but I'm not sure what else I would want to cut. People never seem to play islands when I have the Carpet (but then they have tons when I don't. Grumble).
EDIT: I'm doing the TotFG to Forest thing now. I'm sick of that hanging over my head.
The reason I have it marked is that it just doesn't seem to show up and/or matter enough that I'm sure if I need the card. I seem to have a decently high win rate with the deck as is, without needing Willow Satyr. I played a game yesterday (more about the game in a sec) where I had it in my hand, but didn't need it to close out the game. I guess, in hindsight, if I'd drawn it earlier I might have been able to steal an Avacyn, which is super good.
Other reasons I'm critical is that it's expensive (money), it has to tap, it's awkward with Seedborn, stuff like that. It's just that this discussion has made me (us) look for new cards and it has made me look hard at which cards seem to do enough. It's like with you and Yisan, I guess. Maybe I should keep it in a little longer. (hint hint)
@things becoming non creatures when you steal them: as far as I know, you get to keep them if the ability has already resolved. It only checks for legal targets when you target and on resolution. So if the god somehow becomes a non-creature before Willow resolved, your ability is countered on resolution (fizzled). I think :P.
For the rules question, that's more or less what I had thought. I'll run it by the guys in my playgroup on Friday to make double sure. Two of the decks that keep me up longest at night (not really - thinking about Willow Satyr keeps me up at night) are that Erebos, God of the Dead MBC I mentioned and a Purphoros, God of the Forge token swarm. They usually don't accumulate enough devotion to let their commanders become creatures, but it would be nice to have an answer if they did. Right now, Brutalizer Exarch and The Great Aurora are the only real outs I have to a card like that, and the exarch wouldn't work if they were a creature. I feel like, over the course of typing this paragraph, I'm talking myself into Deglamer.
For the Satyr (yes, still obsessed with that), I'm glad to hear that you're giving it another shot. I think if you combine it with Greater Good, High Market, and Momentous Fall, it'll really shine. I mean, for that Sigarda game, Willow Satyr and Greater Good together would have read "tap this creature: destroy target Avacyn (even though she's indestructible), draw eight cards and discard three." Even if it was only gain a life (High Market), I think the ability is totally worth it. I might just be living in magical christmas land, of course. Even without a sac mechanic on board, you can wait until someone attacks you and then jack their legendary creature.
As for the money, I see that Willow Satyr at least made it onto the Reserved List, so it probably won't be losing too much value unless EDH ceases to be a popular format. I think I will invest in one and test it out. Worst case scenario, it's a very pretty card to sit in my binder!
@politics/grouphug: Yeah, grouphug attracts hate, and for good reason as well. It doesn't really do anything to even a game out if everyone gets the same benefits. Skullwinder, on paper at least, has the ability to give another struggling player a chance without giving the biggest threat a similar advantage.
@Mystery of the unknown: well, with Yeva, it's like you said in an earlier game report; People are always wary of what you *might* do if you have Yeva out and untapped mana. In her essence, Yeva plays into this mystery, like when you play against a mono blue deck with mana up. That's super fun :).
@ossified: didn't know this was a word, always neat to learn something (not a native speaker).
Could have fooled me, your English is impeccable! Better than mine, probably as I tend to type fast and disdain proofreading.
For the mystery of the unknown, I totally agree that the draw-go style of Yeva is most of the fun for me. I do think, too, that most people sitting down to a table with her will go something along the lines of "not Azusa or Omnath, probably not powerful" which can certainly work to her advantage -- as your game report showed! Unfortunately, I've now trained my group to say "Crap, Yeva, let's get him first!"
I don't want to discourage people to not run tutors or powerful cards. My personality is that if I'm playing a game, I'll try my best to come out on top. I don't need to win to have fun, but I do like to figure out the best play in each scenario. But I like my EDH best if it's casual and not too cutthroat. If I have tutors in my deck, it doesn't feel right - to me - to not get the thing that's best in a lot of situations. For some reason it feels disrespectful to my opponents if (for example) I could've gotten that infinite combo off, but didn't. But, at the same time, I know that nobody at the table (myself included) really has fun if the game ends super fast consistently. To help myself enjoy the game to the fullest while also making the game more enjoyable to others, I try to build EDH decks in a way that they're slightly less consistent so I can still try to play optimally without having to sacrifice powerful cards, long games and/or the game being casual.
My absolute biggest pet peeve in EDH is NOT people putting infinite combos or mass mana denial in their decks, but players apologizing for beating you with it or not pulling the trigger because 'it's only in the deck for when I need it'. If you have the win, take it. If you put it into your deck, take responsibility for it. I don't get upset easily, but I'm ready to flip the table when people have the win ON BOARD but don't attack because they 'don't want to win like this'. THEN WHY IS IT IN YOUR DECK IN THE FIRST PLACE!?!!
I'm totally aboard with people running tutors and/or building their decks to maximal power and consistency. Especially if that's the metagame in a regular playgroup. I just find that running fewer tutors in my own deck makes the game more enjoyable for me. Totally selfish decision ^^.
Well, I can guarantee that I have never once intentionally abandoned a winning position -- though I have missed that I could have won before, that's just down to my poor judgment! I mostly wanted to chime in and say that I agree with your position on this 100%. I don't think you meant to imply that I toyed with people or anything, I just agree with you very strongly on this one. It might play into my own disdain of group-hug strategies -- I assume that everyone at a table has sat down with the intention of winning as quickly and efficiently as possible within their chosen archetype and theme. My group tends to churn through the games pretty quickly; we usually get 3-4 games each of EDH and non-EDH multiplayer into a five-six hour play session, so we don't have time for plays that extend the game for no reason. Wiping the board to prevent yourself from losing is fine; wiping the board to prevent yourself from winning will get you dirty looks.
@Ulvenwald Hydra: Interestingly, I'm moving in the opposite direction on Ulvenwald Hydra, but for different reasons. In my game last night I could've used a little more defense against big flyers. Apparently (never noticed this), the Hydra has reach. At the point where flyers are getting big enough to be a problem, this guy will eat them alive WHILE tutoring for ANY land. And he also scales well into the lategame to either block even larger flyers (he holds of an Avacyn very nicely, for example), or just smash for tons of damage. I'm considering running him.
He does make for a huge body, and the land tutoring is very relevant -- especially if I'm planning to use High Market as a combo with Willow Satyr. Cuts are getting to be very difficult at this point!
Alright, that game. Report might be a little long, but it's a perfect recap of how the deck/design worked beautifully.
*snip a very detailed and wonderful description*
Wow! Really put my own game reports to shame, there! I might have to start taking notes to keep up.
The game sounds like it was fun, and it's pretty awesome the way you were able to play them off of each other. I'm still a mite cool on the Regal Behemoth, but I'm glad to hear that it was so effective for you. I will keep him on my radar for sure. And that win off the Shaman of Forgotten Ways -- terrific! I have sometimes thought about that sort of win, but it sounded like a fairy tale in my head, so I'm glad to see there's a situation where it actually came to pass. Like you, I'm also coming to be of the opinion that Yeva seems to recover better from mass destruction than other decks will, including the decks that cast the destruction in the first place. Bounce is of course the best for someone else to cast -- "oh, Evacuation you say? DELICIOUS!" -- but I've found that I can grind with even black decks to an adequate degree off destroy effects. That may come to be another hallmark separating Yeva-control decks from Yeva-goodstuff and other green decks.
Random thoughts after the game:
- Regal Behemoth is such a cool card! It took potential attackers off me (the only time I got attacked was by a 2/2 flyer from Sakashima to get the crown), and my fog softlock meant I suddenly had a green Phyrexian Arena! Drawing the card at eot wasn't even a drawback in this deck. It's also great to flash this in eot and untap with a mana doubler out of nowhere.
- Shaman of Forgotten Ways is not leaving my deck. It's exactly what I was looking for as an alternative way to kill people.
- Sorcery speed cards felt like a liability. I basically never wanted to cast anything on my turn. Even though I could've gotten a little value out of them, I had both Panharmonicon and Cloudstone Curio in my hand for a while but didn't want to cast them because that meant exposing myself and giving up flexibility (and the threat of flexibility). It's not likely I'm not going to cut them very soon, but I think I will be cutting my spell-based ramp for slightly worse creature-based ramp.
- Having said the above, I AM reconsidering Greater Good. I have fewer fatties than most green decks, but the card-draw is sooooo good and it's also one of my favorite cards of all time. I should at least consider Momentous Fall to stay on theme.
- Huge flyers can still be a problem. I had the good luck (or was it planned all along, muaaHAHAHAHAHA) this game that my opponents where too focused on each other. If Sigarda had attacked me earlier instead of the other players, or if a couple of those Avacyns had been pointed at my face, I don't know if I had been able to make it out alive. Looking at Ulvenwald Hydra, Cloudthresher, Thornweald Archer and friends, Dawnstrider, even Stingerfling Spider (even though those would not have been able to deal with Avacyn or Sigarda).
- The deck can use a little more velocity. Not sure what I would cut for it, but a Stampeding Serow/Roaring Primadox/Masked Admirers/Wall of Blossoms/Carven Caryatid package might be coming in soon.
Re: Regal Behemoth. You're starting to trigger a renaissance on my thinking about that card. Especially with the point about flashing it in at EOT for surprise double mana. I very well might test it this friday in place of Zendikar Resurgent. Losing the Primordial Sage effect on the ZR will suck, but maybe the card draw from the monarchy will make up for it. The more I think about it, the more I like the way you've been describing it. I'm going to sleep on it to make sure, but that could very well be a switch I'll make.
Re: Greater Good. I don't think you'll regret that (or Momentous Fall if you try them both). ESPECIALLY if you leave Willow Satyr in! hehe. I always remember that Yeva is a 4/4 and I can usually make enough mana to cast her out of the command zone again. The Momentous Fall I think you'll really like -- there are much cheaper options for the same thing in green, but none at instant speed (unless you count Evolutionary Leap or something -- that's a great card too but I can't make room for it).
Re: Flyers. I'm hoping to address that problem with the Spore Frog / Timbermare soft lock and increased tutoring. Let me know if any of your proposed solutions bear fruit! I will say that I run Cloudthresher in a Horde of Notions-led 5 color sort-of-elemental-tribal-but-mostly-goodstuff deck, and I have not yet been impressed by the 'thresher once.
Re: Velocity. If you can find room for Masked Admirers, I fully recommend it. And I'll toss out another endorsement for Wirewood Symbiote and Invasive Species as far as the "bouncing your own stuff" category goes.
- Ohran Viper: Deathtouch is something I love in this deck, and the incremental card advantage is cool. The fact that it's a riff on an old BLUE ability makes it super on-theme for the deck. Also, it's a snowy snake.
- Reincarnation: I'm almost sad they reprinted this in a commander deck because that means the chance is higher that people have seen the card. But, I've never seen anyone actually play this, and I think it's quite interesting. Doom Blade my guy? I'll bring it back (triggering all the nasty stuff again). Better yet, I'll bring back this even better creature! BETTER YET, I'll cast this on my Yavimaya Elder, sac it and get back my monster. Ridiculously unexpected card.
Re: Ohran Viper: I guess my biggest problem is that it has to connect to do its thing, and if all your opponents have a 3/x creature, it doesn't really do much (maybe trade whatever creature blocks it). I'd recommend Masked Admirers over the snake if it comes down to a fight for deckspace between the two. Having played the Viper several times in other decks, it has not failed to be one of my first cuts.
Re: Reincarnation: This, on the other hand, I love. I must have missed it back in the original commander, and I very much doubt that any decks will be expecting this effect from green. I'd say that if you're considering this, you HAVE to try the Greater Good! The two cards seem almost made for one another. I'll keep an eye on my recursion package; Greenwarden of Murasa has been holding my eye for a while as "not reliable / effective enough."
I don't really have many new ideas at the moment, I'm afraid. I had forgotten about how excited I was over Nissa, Vastwood Seer. She'll probably get a deckslot ahead of Molder Slug, though I would like to find room for both. I'm going to have to go over the list with a fine-tooth comb and see where the fat can be trimmed. My initial reaction is "Acidic Slime", but I already know what your reaction will be =P
So, unfortunately my Friday night game fell through. I have modified quite a few cards in testing, and at least outside of a game situation the deck seems to be running like a top. The changes:
IN: Willow Satyr: I've gone on about this card at some length. It does just about everything I've wanted from this deck. Tooth and Nail: In testing, I don't think this card has been either too abusive or too sorcery speed. I'll see how it works in an actual game. Survival of the Fittest: I'm moving towards a toolbox-and-tutor setup, so this lets me cut down on redundancy. Nissa, Vastwood Seer: I really like this card in testing. I've been assuming I'll only ever get one use out of her as a planeswalker, unless I can protect her with a Timbermare or something. Molder Slug: Part of my new "I HATE MANA ROCKS" package. Wave of Vitriol: See above. This miiight turn into Seeds of Innocence; right now, I like its game against Theros gods. Creeping Corrosion: I HATE MANA ROCKS. Forest: Replacing Temple of the False God Miren, the Moaning Well: I like the Willow Satyr / High Market interaction so much I'm adding backup. Crop Rotation: And backup to the backup. Regal Behemoth: You sold me on this, Squirrley. I'll give it a whirl.
OUT: Yisan, the Wanderer Bard: He's just too slow and too conditional for me. Birthing Pod: See above. Plus, it's an artifact, and I don't like those now. Compost: Too conditional. If green gets some way to shift its color hate around, it might come back. Skullclamp: Too sorcery speed. Carpet of Flowers: See re: compost Terrain Generator: Never seemed to be worth it. If I was land-flooded in my hand, I usually had drawn so many cards that I had better things to do with my mana. Zendikar Resurgent: Testing a replacement with Regal Behemoth. Ulvenwald Hydra: I really only liked it for the land tutor. Replaced by Crop Rotation for 1/6th the cost. Temple of the False God: Lost its job to a basic land. Ezuri's Predation: As I start to worry less and less about the combat phase, the sorts of threats this protects against become less relevant. It doesn't really kill anything truly threatening, and the beasts are largely irrelevant. The Great Aurora: This one was hard. It's just too much mana for what it does. Replaced with Wave of Vitriol for now, with All is Dust on deck.
WATCHLIST: Boundless Realms: The deck seems to make most of its mana over land quality rather than quantity. This might become a Sylvan Scrying, or a better land tutor if I can find one. Maybe even a Ulvenwald Hydra again. Exploration: I don't know what I would use to replace it, but I'm not sure this is making adequate use of its deckspace. Acidic Slime: May turn into more tutor (Worldly Tutor perhaps). Greenwarden of Murasa: A worse backup Eternal Witness that costs ten million mana and exiles itself. What a bum. May turn into Riftsweeper.
ON DECK: Seeds of Innocence: I HATE MANA ROCKS! All is Dust: JK, I hate all colored permanents. I wish there was some way to combo this with Kamahl. Noo, he just can't make lands into 1/1 GREEN creatures, can he? Laziest Fist of Krosa ever. I'll bet Baru can make lands have a color. Maybe we'll get my dream and have another Planar Chaos type set that adds chromamancy to green's color pie. Nissa, Vital Force and Garruk, Primal Hunter: I am so desperate for card draw in green.
I wish I had some game reports to post. Hopefully next week. I'll be updating the OP to reflect these changes.
This deck looks pretty tuned. I have a lot of experience with this type of deck, using Seedborn Muse and essentially taking another turn every players turn. You'll know what mean.
You can never have enough card draw. Once you get the card draw going you might have extra in hand, but making sure you get it in the first place is key to any green deck looking to ramp and play out multiple things every turn.
I can't stress this enough, but Summoner's Pact is just simply amazing in this type of deck. 99.9% of the time is to get Seedborn Muse. The fact that you are playing out creatures each players turn, negates the fact that you have to spend 4 mana in your own turn. Same with Natural Order, will often be used for Seedborn Muse, rather than a finisher.
I do think 37 lands is a lot for a deck that only has Exploration to put in extra lands into play. Either you need Oracle of Mul Daya, Courser of Kruphix and Azusa, Lost but Seeking, or to take the land count down to justify. I'd either make it 35 lands, or get those extra land into play cards into the deck.
Cards that I think are weakest in your deck are Panharmonicon and Cloudstone Curio. With so much mass artifact removal these become much worse.
Least helpful creatures are: Timbermare, Masked Admirers, Spore Frog.
This deck looks pretty tuned. I have a lot of experience with this type of deck, using Seedborn Muse and essentially taking another turn every players turn. You'll know what mean.
You can never have enough card draw. Once you get the card draw going you might have extra in hand, but making sure you get it in the first place is key to any green deck looking to ramp and play out multiple things every turn.
Thanks! I've had a lot of help getting it into the current state on this thread.
And, yeah, I agree about the card draw. Memory Jar is a card that I love, despite my current turn away from artifacts in general. I was able to get some non-EDH games in last night and I was on the receiving end of the Jar; it was shocking how effective it can be in the right build. I don't think I'll be able to acquire one for a while (I've blown my Magic budget for March on Gaea's Cradle alone, heh) but I really like that suggestion.
For Garruk, Primal Hunter, I think my only hesitation is a mental block on my end: I keep seeing him as a planeswalker and thinking that I need to activate his +1 ability before his -3. Of course, I should think of him more as a Soul's Majesty that doesn't care about spot removal instead. But, yeah, I can get over that mental hurdle and he is pretty solid draw in the shell.
I can't stress this enough, but Summoner's Pact is just simply amazing in this type of deck. 99.9% of the time is to get Seedborn Muse. The fact that you are playing out creatures each players turn, negates the fact that you have to spend 4 mana in your own turn. Same with Natural Order, will often be used for Seedborn Muse, rather than a finisher.
You had me at "hello." Summoner's Pact is a brilliant idea. Like Memory Jar, I'll have to wait a bit before purchasing it (unless I find one for trade), but it'll find a deckslot as soon as I have my hands on one.
I do think 37 lands is a lot for a deck that only has Exploration to put in extra lands into play. Either you need Oracle of Mul Daya, Courser of Kruphix and Azusa, Lost but Seeking, or to take the land count down to justify. I'd either make it 35 lands, or get those extra land into play cards into the deck.
I'm not so sure about this, as I have found in testing that the deck tends to get mana-screwed much more often than it gets mana-flooded. And, with mulligans, I don't think I've ever had a live game where I felt like I was drawing too much land. There's a pretty high curve in the deck -- an average ~3.7cc after my most recent changes -- and most of the ramp is at the 3-4cc slot, which is about where I'd want to be casting Yeva. I vaguely remember that to be casting a 4cc card on T4 reliably (assuming no ramp) requires ~25 lands in a 60 card deck, which is ~41 lands in an EDH deck. I bumped down to 37 due to some of the busted cards like Mana Crypt in the deck, but based on my testing I'm not sure I would be comfortable going much lower.
Cards that I think are weakest in your deck are Panharmonicon and Cloudstone Curio. With so much mass artifact removal these become much worse.
They say that sometimes you need to chop off a limb to save a tree.
Cloudstone Curio and Panharmonicon are two of my favorite cards in Magic, but I regretfully think that you're absolutely right in your estimation of them in this particular deck, especially as the artifact hate I run accelerates. The Curio will probably vanish immediately, maybe for Garruk, Primal Hunter (to be replaced by the more busted cards once I acquire them). The Panharmonicon I'm a bit more attached to -- I remember buying out a store at $1.50 back when Kaladesh first came out and then watching in smug satisfaction as their price climbed. I'm not 100% convinced that it's not busted with all the ETB effects that this deck runs, but you're right in that I will have to take a long, hard look at whether or not it's actually helping me win.
I'm not sold on Sylvan Safekeeper. I haven't found spot removal to be a huge threat to this deck, and it does have some powerful recursion engines. Also, it seems to be very capable of operating even without Seedborn Muse, so I'm not ready to sell the farm to protect her. Spore Frog I think is a bit of a weaker card, but I have been glad of its 1cc cost several times when I'm tutoring to prevent a lethal swing but at the end of my rope in mana.
Timbermare, on the other hand, I think is one of the most effective cards in this deck. I don't look at it even primarily as defense (though I do think it does that job better than Spike Weaver, as it stops Oldrazi annihilator and other obnoxious "on attack" triggers). The best use, in my opinion, is dropping in at EOT to tap out the field, followed by me untapping for turn and swinging in with the Behemoth or Kamahl and their friends. This deck doesn't really put bodies onto the field at a huge pace, so I need to make the most out of every single attacker and tapping out opposing defenses helps me push over the top.
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I really appreciate your ideas. Getting me to take a hard look at sacred cows like Panharmonicon and Cloudstone Curio is huge, and I think you're right in that changing them out will really improve the quality of the deck. I'm also in love with Summoner's Pact and Memory Jar -- convenient that there seems to be two and two there?
It'll give you an idea of some of the pitfalls of running cards like these. I put the Cloudstone Curio in the same category.
The other reason I don't like them is that this deck should only have a limited number of non creature cards. These have to be premium.
Sylvan Safekeeper is one of those cards that does a surprising amount of work, sometimes without you knowing it. Its like Mother of Runes, people just can't play into it, so you don't end up sacrificing lands that much. Its more that it can nullify removal where its strength lies. If you don't run into much spot removal, then maybe you are playing weaker decks. Be ready for removal once you get to more controlling matchups. Also in a toolbox setup (Survival of the Fittest, Fauna Shaman, Cord of Calling , etc), its nice to have one of any creature for a situation. Many the time has Sylvan Safekeeper been the card to tutor for in response to removal. With Yeeva, the 1 cmc is especially good as holding up say 1 mana for Survival or Fauna, then having another 1 mana to cast it, is pretty great.
Oh, I don't need more convincing of the win-moreness or awkward fit of Panharmonicon, don't worry. It's a pet card, much like The Great Aurora was, so cutting it will be difficult and I just wanted to express that. But you're right that the cut is needed.
Sylvan Safekeeper actually has had a bit of a renewal in my mind. I didn't realize that it had been reprinted in Commander 14 with different art. That might sound silly, but as a devout arachnophobe a card with a prominent and realistically rendered spider made me subconsciously exaggerate its flaws and minimize its strengths. I'm still not 100% sold, but it's worth testing. Bummer that the errata made him a human instead of an elf.
Haha, you'll never see me play a card with a preying mantis on it, so this I know about actual phobias with insects (I know spiders not an insect).
Just remember when you're play with Sylvan Safekeeper, that you keep it in mind as your toolbox for possible tutor in response to something on the stack, and this card will be much better for you.
Oh another thing, and you might think I'm crazy, but this is just through experience, is that Avenger of Zendikar is better in this deck than Craterhoof Behemoth. Where as Craterhoof Behemoth is a finisher when you are setup, Avenger can not only be a finisher, but also helps you setup. Maybe its your only spell for a turn, but it makes Regal Force, Gaeas Cradle, blocking even, so much better and helps you to go wide in the first place. Nothing is better than bouncing a Regal Force with Temur Sabertooth and playing it again after a Avenger of Zendikar makes a bunch of creatures.
I have used Craterhoof Behemoth with Yeeva as a defense maneuver in response to Blasphemous Act, which was pretty nice saving all my creatures. I think you could keep both of these cards in..hint, hint Masked Admirers cya.
Oh another thing, and you might think I'm crazy, but this is just through experience, is that Avenger of Zendikar is better in this deck than Craterhoof Behemoth. Where as Craterhoof Behemoth is a finisher when you are setup, Avenger can not only be a finisher, but also helps you setup. Maybe its your only spell for a turn, but it makes Regal Force, Gaeas Cradle, blocking even, so much better and helps you to go wide in the first place. Nothing is better than bouncing a Regal Force with Temur Sabertooth and playing it again after a Avenger of Zendikar makes a bunch of creatures.
I have used Craterhoof Behemoth with Yeeva as a defense maneuver in response to Blasphemous Act, which was pretty nice saving all my creatures. I think you could keep both of these cards in..hint, hint Masked Admirers cya.
I'm not convinced that the Avenger will contribute positively to the game plan, I'm afraid. At least in my testing, I seemed to generate enough bodies to keep my hand stocked and my final swing lethal in most games. In fact, in most games I seemed to prefer going tall to going wide. I might switch out Shamanic Revelation for Soul's Majesty and take my chances with instant-speed spot removal.
Speaking of spot removal, I've had some more thoughts regarding Sylvan Safekeeper. I'll toss them below in reply to Squirrely's thoughts on creatures.
I do agree with Masked Admirers being a bit of a weak link. I liked it for its self-recursion and ability to help recover from a wrath effect. I would like to test it a bit more before dumping it. However, if I am going to replace it, I feel like it would be better to go smaller in cc, not bigger. I was actually thinking about Joraga Treespeaker, as it seems that most of my problems come during the early set-up turns. She's an elf, helps me hit Seedborn Muse mana on T3 if I should be lucky enough to draw one, and T1 Treespeaker into T2 levelup+Priest of Titania is a huge boost, giving ~7 mana T3.
I'm still hesitant to abandon the Admirers, as I feel that one of the best thing this deck does (that other green decks don't) is extend into, tempt out, and then recover quickly from creature wraths.
@Least helpful creatures: I agree on Timbermare and Masked Admirers (although Timbermare can be cool, and it keeps its place because this is the only deck ever that can run it), but I disagree on Spore Frog. The same argument you posted for Sylvan Safekeeper about being 1 mana holds here. Having multiple fogs in this deck has been great utility for me, especially if you can surprise someone when you only have a couple of mana open. Survival for Spike Weaver into fog costs 6 mana. I do agree that Spike Weaver belongs in the deck.
I'm sort of surprised that I'm the only advocate for Timbermare here. I'll agree that it's not a "good card" in a conventional sense, but I really think it is the best defensive option. It's the only one of the creatures that has its ability tied to ETB, it stops things like Annihilator, Myriad, and the various red effects that deal non-combat damage based on attacking creatures. Especially with the Oldrazi, I don't think that's a fringe scenario. Sure, you have to be a little more proactive about knowing when to tap down someone's board, but by the time the game state has advanced to the point where this is a realistic option, I feel like Yeva will have become the obvious target. And if you have a Temur Sabertooth and six mana open (not an unusual situation for a developed board state), it's effectively six mana per turn to keep each opponent under a Sleep. Added to its offensive potential, I don't think Timbermare will ever lose its place in my deck.
I do prefer Spore Frog of the other "fog" effects, as Squirrely said, because of how cheap it is. The recursion is trickier than with Spike Weaver or Timbermare, but it's a great emergency option.
Agreed about Sylvan Safekeeper. The utility is very nice. Most games I do not need it, but it feels very safe to have it in the deck. And then, out of nowhere, it saves me from dying.
I had a chance to sleep on Sylvan Safekeeper last night, and I have to say that it didn't help the poor fellow's case too much. I was thinking about why I hadn't worried too much about spot removal before, and it occurred to me that was because I had three different (well, two and a half really) other options for protecting against spot removal.
First, and most expensive, is Temur Sabertooth. It takes six mana plus tutoring costs to save a creature, but its certainly has the best game against Wrath effects. And its a great tutor target just in general.
Second, there's Invasive Species. It's only three mana plus tutoring and is about as effective against spot removal, adding protecting Gaea's Cradle or other non-creatures to its resume, but not as effective against wraths.
And there's also Wirewood Symbiote, which can only protect elves but only costs one mana plus tutoring and adds some utility to its bounce effect.
Now, I know that there are plenty of scenarios where bouncing is not as good as shrouding (unless you have the mana production to slam whatever you bounced right back into play). But all these options protect against wrath effects far more effectively -- and in my experience there are more of those -- and they don't burn a land in doing so. At least for now, I'm going to keep Spore Frog in the slot over Sylvan Safekeeper
Draw
Finisher
Ramp
Tutor
Utility
Land
Phases
Mulligans
Tutoring
Removal
TurboFrog
Responding
Finishing
Budget
Elves
Politics
Goodstuff
I should mention briefly that, when I talk about a Blue-Green deck, I'm not necessarily talking about a Simic deck. Blue-Green can be very subtle, but that's not what I'm about. I am an unabashed Timmy and I like Blue-Green because it takes the mana generation of green, staples on the card draw of blue, and then powers through bombs at instant speed.
In building a Yeva deck around those ideals, I have settled on the current list. It sits somewhere between a control deck and a midrange deck. My Yeva build usually looks to close out multiplayer tables starting on T6-8, which is slower than most combo decks but faster than most control or midrange decks. It runs a suite of creatures chosen to keep other players from winning before the Big Push. A more complete discussion of the strategies, strengths, and weaknesses of Yeva can be found in the Playing the Deck section.
There are other ways to build Yeva. Squirrely has an excellent list here which seeks to fly under the radar — something my list, with its Mana Crypts and Sylvan Librarys, cannot do — and plays a draw-go control style. On the other end of the spectrum, Inkmoth has a fascinating list here that play as a more aggressive competitive-style combo shell. Yeva can also helm tribal or good-stuff decks, although those ideas may be served better by other generals. I will discuss these strategies and more in the Other Yeva Builds section.
My name is Ian. I've been playing Magic since Onslaught block, and I have been playing multiplayer green in a fairly competitive meta since Lorwyn block. Given those two benchmarks, you'll not be surprised to see that I lean a bit on Yeva's elvish heritage. I'm relatively new to EDH/Commander, having played seriously for about two years now, but I do have about a decade of experience with 60-card constructed multiplayer. Yeva was my fifth EDH deck and is currently one of twenty. However, Yeva established herself as my favorite and is the only deck where I've spent the money to acquire all the cards she needed to work at optimum efficiency.
The original build of this deck (which is what you'll see referenced in the first page of posts in this thread) was somewhere between where it is now and what I would term a "Good Stuff" build, heavy on Big Dumb Green Creatures that served little purpose but to beat face. As I got more experience playing the deck, I came to appreciate its nuance and trickier elements and ended up cutting most of the fat for ways to tutor out and recur the control elements. Since those modifications, as well as an investment in the land base, Yeva has become somewhat notorious in my playgroups. I can pretty regularly expect to be the archenemy any time that I put Yeva in the command zone, and the deck has been modified to reflect that.
Reasons to Play Yeva
Reasons Not to Play Yeva
Zoidberg: He's not a Magic card, sadly.
You'll regret messing with THIS board!
4 Yeva, Nature's Herald
Control - 13
1 Caustic Caterpillar
1 Spore Frog
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
3 Beast Within
3 Loaming Shaman
3 Manglehorn
3 Reclamation Sage
3 Seeds of Innocence
4 Polukranos, World Eater
4 Timbermare
4 Willow Satyr
6 Bane of Progress
8 Terastodon
Draw - 14
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
2 Elvish Visionary
2 Evolutionary Leap
2 Magus of the Library
2 Sylvan Library
3 Genesis Wave
3 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
4 Beast Whisperer
4 Greater Good
4 Vizier of the Menagerie
6 Primordial Sage
6 Soul of the Harvest
7 Krosan Tusker
7 Regal Force
6 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
8 Craterhoof Behemoth
Ramp - 14
0 Mana Crypt
1 Crop Rotation
1 Sol Ring
2 Hope Tender
2 Priest of Titania
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Voyaging Satyr
3 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
3 Krosan Restorer
3 Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
3 Shaman of Forgotten Ways
4 Karametra's Acolyte
4 Tempt with Discovery
6 Regal Behemoth
Tutor - 11
0 Summoner's Pact
1 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Fauna Shaman
2 Finale of Devastation
2 Survival of the Fittest
3 Chord of Calling
3 Eldritch Evolution
3 Fierce Empath
4 Natural Order
6 Brutalizer Exarch
7 Protean Hulk
1 Wirewood Symbiote
2 Wellwisher
3 Eternal Witness
3 Invasive Species
4 Bramble Sovereign
4 Temur Sabertooth
5 Genesis
5 Seedborn Muse
Lands - 37
0 Ancient Tomb
0 Blighted Woodland
0 Command Beacon
0 Deserted Temple
25 Forest
0 Gaea's Cradle
0 High Market
0 Homeward Path
0 Miren, the Moaning Well
0 Myriad Landscape
0 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
0 Strip Mine
0 Yavimaya Hollow
1x Yeva, Nature's Herald
Creature-44
1x Bane of Progress
1x Beast Whisperer
1x Bramble Sovereign
1x Brutalizer Exarch
1x Caustic Caterpillar
1x Craterhoof Behemoth
1x Duskwatch Recruiter
1x Elvish Visionary
1x Eternal Witness
1x Fauna Shaman
1x Fierce Empath
1x Genesis
1x Hope Tender
1x Invasive Species
1x Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1x Karametra's Acolyte
1x Krosan Restorer
1x Krosan Tusker
1x Loaming Shaman
1x Magus of the Library
1x Manglehorn
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1x Polukranos, World Eater
1x Priest of Titania
1x Primordial Sage
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Regal Behemoth
1x Regal Force
1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
1x Seedborn Muse
1x Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
1x Shaman of Forgotten Ways
1x Soul of the Harvest
1x Spore Frog
1x Temur Sabertooth
1x Timbermare
1x Ulvenwald Tracker
1x Vizier of the Menagerie
1x Voyaging Satyr
1x Wellwisher
1x Willow Satyr
1x Wirewood Symbiote
1x Terastodon
Land-37
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Blighted Woodland
1x Command Beacon
1x Deserted Temple
25x Forest
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x High Market
1x Homeward Path
1x Miren, the Moaning Well
1x Myriad Landscape
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Strip Mine
1x Yavimaya Hollow
1x Beast Within
1x Chord of Calling
1x Crop Rotation
1x Summoner's Pact
Enchantment-5
1x Evolutionary Leap
1x Greater Good
1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc
1x Survival of the Fittest
1x Sylvan Library
Sorcery-7
1x Eldritch Evolution
1x Finale of Devastation
1x Genesis Wave
1x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Natural Order
1x Seeds of Innocence
1x Tempt with Discovery
Artifact-2
1x Mana Crypt
1x Sol Ring
This list for Yeva is what I call a 95% build. That is to say, it is built strategically with the best card options and will stack up a healthy win percentage against 75% builds, but Yeva will not stand up to the most competitive decks. She's simply not going to be fast enough to reliably race the fastest combo, and she leans strongly on the combat phase to get a victory.
That means that this build, by necessity, inhabits a bit of a gray area. It will not be appropriate for every meta; in more casual circles it will be overwhelming and it more competitive arenas it may be laughably under powered. The best fit for this particular build is a meta, like the one I play in, where everyone attempts to build their deck to the strongest possible version of archetypes they choose, but those archetypes do not necessarily represent the strongest in the game.
Obviously, this does not describe the meta that everyone plays in. In explaining the card choices for each part of the deck, I will make sure to elaborate on ways to tune down the deck for 75% metas. There is also a discussion on how to make a budget Yeva list in the "Other Builds" section.
This section will explore each part of the decklist card-by-card, giving a brief discussion of how each piece of cardboard helps the overall game plan. There will also be a section explaining other cards that can be subbed in for budget or metagame concerns. Finally, each section will have an area dedicated to explaining why I don't feel that some common green staples or cards that pop up on Yeva's EDHrec list are ever really appropriate for this style of deck.
This is the meat and potatoes of the Yeva deck. These are the cards that disrupt opposing game plans, buying Yeva enough time to seize control of the game or win outright. Most are creatures, though not all, and lean heavily on Yeva's ability to flash them into play for key effectiveness. Few of these cards should be run blindly out on the first turn that you hit mana for them, unless there is already a recursion engine setup.
Since so many of these cards rely on Yeva to be effective, this is probably the least expensive (dollar-wise) section of the list. Only Willow Satyr is really expensive as of the time of writing, with a few others being dollar rares and the rest being a collection of commons, uncommons, and junk rares.
Torpor Orb don't scare ME!
Drawing cards is one of the most vital parts of any blue-green deck. Without access to Easy Mode blue draw, Yeva has to dig pretty deep into the recesses of green's color pie. Fortunately, Wizards has been printing more and more playable green draw spells recently, a trend that I hope will continue.
Most green draw power is based on creatures, and the cards here are no exception to this. I like to keep Yeva's creature count fairly high, at least in the low forties, for this reason. Any less than that and some of the cards start to become sub-optimal - plus, Yeva likes creatures with her abilities.
Yeva is a 4/4, you say?
The only purpose of the cards in this section is to end the game through massive combat damage. All the cute tricks are done, you have picked your moment, and you are ready to end things. Yeva doesn't have the same mass of creatures that some other mono-green decks can toss out before engaging an overrun effect, so she does have to squeeze out every ounce of work from every creature that has been played.
A Timbermare at the end of the previous player's turn (or at the end of the Declare Attackers step) can greatly simplify things by rendering blocking creatures irrelevant. A Shaman of Forgotten Ways can drop opponents' life totals low enough that even a couple mana dorks and Hoof can be lethal.
The combat phase is one of the weakest ways to effect a victory in multiplayer Magic, but mono-green doesn't leave a lot of reasonable alternatives outside of extreme stax or the occasional big-mana Hurricane kill. Yeva's big advantage is that she helps to create a choice on the part of her player as to the perfect moment to strike, and she can keep from committing major resources until the attack looks assured.
Now with 187% more Rebecca Guay
For an example, consider a card like Cultivate. Many EDH ramp packages revolve around the idea of land acceleration — cards like Cultivate that fetch lands out of the library and put them directly into play. Because of general taboos against land destruction, and the fact that land destruction is probably the most uncommon type of hate in Magic, this strategy is extremely low in the risk department. However, a spell like Cultivate uses three mana to put the deck one land ahead — it is about as low on the 'return' side of things as any playable card.
On the other hand, consider a card like Priest of Titania. It is a creature, the most hatable card type in the game, and a fragile 1/1 at that. It's risk factor is through the roof. On the other hand, in the right deck, Priest of Titania has the potential to produce 3+ mana per tap for a two mana investment. It is very high on the reward side of the equation as well.
With Yeva, I have decided to run a ramp package that trends more towards the high end of the risk/reward spectrum. The reason is that, with enough mana, Yeva can potentially slog through any amount of hate. Generating that quantity of mana is the difficult part of the equation.
Yeva's ramp package functions through the principle of "Quality Land Acceleration" - that is, spells that fetch out lands like Gaea's Cradle or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and then creatures that untap those lands. This is complemented by those mana producing creatures that generate enough reward to offset their inherently high risk factors.
Shockingly, mono-green creature-based draw-go control is not an archetype that has been so abundantly supported by Wizards over the years that Yeva has a deep card pool from which to pull. Many of her best cards are deviated from their original purpose and a more than a couple are jank from the Time Spiral throw-everything-out-there block. As a result, the deck lacks somewhat in redundancy and getting the right creature at the right time in a 100 card singleton format could prove daunting.
Fortunately, green does have an abundance of creature tutors which can help to smooth out. Many of these cards are staples in green and they don't come cheap - as of spring 2017, the eleven cards in the Tutor section clock in at ~$140, trailing behind only the lands in overall cost. In the Budget builds sections, I will discuss some ways to offset that cost - but the fact of the matter is that the only real budget alternative for many of these cards is to run more draw instead.
Consistency is very important for a Yeva deck. Tutoring into a Seedborn Muse kicks the deck into turbocharge mode; tutoring up a Temur Sabertooth can make it nearly immune to disruption; bringing up a Regal Force can restock a hand depleted by a long, grinding game. Skipping out on tutoring can be done, but be aware that it will drastically reduce the power of the deck - which makes this section the best area to cut for a 75% build.
This is a bit of a catch all section for all the various cards that don't slot neatly into the other categories. Some of the most iconic pieces in the deck end up in this section as well as a few of the most powerful engines. Graveyard recursion is also found in this section.
Found here are the cards that make Yeva such a pain to deal with for most decks. Bouncing creatures, especially deployed at instant speed in response to removal, turn mono-green into a cockroach that can be difficult to even slow down, let alone stop.
Many of the strategies I will discuss in this section assume that the deck is generating a ton of mana - by 'a ton' I mean well in excess of ten, probably closer to twenty or higher. That is part of the reason why, in the ramp section above, I placed such heavy emphasis on the "high risk, high reward" nature of the mana base. The two are interdependent; the Utility section can mitigate the risk of the ramp creatures, but only if it is fed with enormous resources from the payoff of that ramp.
There are a lot of cards in this section that rightly could be considered "ramp" or "utility" cards, but I prefer to keep a land base together for consideration. Since players are (usually) limited to one land drop a turn, I consider the land base to be more holistic than any other part of the deck. Any time I spend a land drop, I want to make sure that I am getting the best effect I can for spending my limited resource.
Also note that, as discussed above in the ramp section, Yeva is a mana hungry deck that prefers its resources to come in large bursts. The land base in large part reflects this. Land destruction can be a major problem; subbing in Wood Elves and its ilk for the land-untap creatures can help to mitigate this if land destruction is rampant in your meta. Frequent mass land destruction is a different problem and would likely require a retool of large parts of the ramp package as well as the inclusion of something like Crucible of Worlds.
Non-basic land hate is a less dire problem. With 25 basic lands, Yeva can usually get enough mana up to drop something like Caustic Caterpillar or Reclamation Sage to deal with a Blood Moon or a Back to Basics. Ruination can be a bigger problem. Wave of Vitriol is a minor enough effect that I have included it in some versions of this deck.
When building Yeva on a budget, as seen in the Alternate Builds section, the easiest solution is to just replace the vast majority of the non-basic lands in this section with Forests.
Yeva usually finishes a game in the same way as other mono-green decks, with a combat phase boosted by Craterhoof Behemoth or Kamahl, Fist of Krosa to trample over the table. However, she gets there in a much different way - through control of the board and, most importantly, an oppressive cockroach persistence.
By the nature of a 100 card singleton deck, there is no way that a strategy article would ever be able to articulate all the possible variations of an actual game situation against several other 100 card singleton decks. I will do my best to illustrate some situations, including anecdotes from games I have played, which will hopefully illuminate the strategies (and pitfalls!) of playing Yeva.
The first and most important piece of general advice is to stop thinking at sorcery speed. I cannot stress this enough. It seems basic, but the largest advantage that Yeva gives is the ability to work at instant speed. I have fallen victim to the sorcery speed trap more often than I would like to remember. Usually I untap, get excited by the mana I have, and shoot off something at sorcery speed that I could have done as an instant, just to have my tapped mana and threatening board presence haunt me for the entire circuit. I have watched people play the deck in exchange games without ever casting something on someone else's turn.
Don't do that. Yeva's main power is in her ability to hide her plays and only make them when her hand is forced. Playing a creature on your turn is just begging for someone else to wrath the board on their turn, when your defenses are down and you cannot adequately respond. The best time for Yeva to make a play is during the end phase of the player sitting directly to her right.
The core of Yeva's strength is a relatively quick clock combined with a fair amount of disruption and an oppressive cockroach resilience. Most faster decks will not be able to deal with her control elements while slower control decks will have difficulty dealing with the cockroach elements. Yeva's best matchups come against grindy midrange decks, which usually rely on the combat phase and can be TurboFrog-ed (see: The TurboFrog Package). Midrange decks are also usually light enough on removal that Yeva will have an easy time fighting through them (see Responding to Removal).
Truly competitive decks, like Hermit Druid combo or the most oppressive stax builds, will give Yeva more trouble. They are usually executing their game plans while Yeva is still setting up. Seeds of Innocence is usually the best card in these sorts of matchups, as they generally rely heavily on artifacts pushed out by T3 at the latest, but its sorcery speed and the difficulty of protecting it from counterspells make even hands with a Seeds risky against those decks.
Against a more reasonable tier of competition, Yeva's toughest matchups are usually against decks that don't rely on the combat phase or much of a board presence to win. Combo blue decks that High Tide into a Blue Sun's Zenith, for example, or big-mana black decks that want to dump a Cabal Coffers and a Crypt Ghast into an Exsanguinate. Since TurboFrog won't be of much use in these matchups, the best protection is a preemptive attack on their mana bases. Again, mass artifact destruction will take care of many of these problems. Don't be afraid as well to target lands with things like Terastodon. Lands are usually considered sacrosanct in EDH, but mono-green doesn't have a lot of other options for fighting a lolHUGE Exsanguinate.
Another problem is cards that shut off creature abilities, like Humility, Torpor Orb, and Overwhelming Splendor. The first two you can at least hope will affect the entire board and one of your opponents might get rid of them. Torpor Orb can also be answered by Caustic Caterpillar or Seeds of Innocence. Against the Splendor, there's really nothing to do but concede or hope to rip a magical topdeck Beast Within. If it becomes a major problem in your meta, World Breaker and/or any of green's non-creature-based enchantment hate (Back to Nature, Krosan Grip, etc.) can be added, possibly in place of some of your own enchantments.
The absolute worst matchup for Yeva in a normal metagame is a Group Hug deck and a Combo deck. The Group Hug deck will often give so many resources to the combo deck that they are able to go off before Yeva can meaningfully interact with their board. Try to remove Group Hug pieces before they have a chance to accelerate the game beyond Yeva's ability to control it.
After mulligans (see: Finding a Good Hand), Yeva wants to quickly establish a board presence. Setting up mana is the first priority, then setting up a draw/tutor engine, then moving into the mid-game.
Mana acceleration is the first priority. Mana powers the card draw, which draws into spells to protect the mana. If it is at all possible, a T3 Yeva can be a huge asset. She drops down right as your opponents are starting to get off the ground. It might even be possible to sucker one of them into an attack on you with a creature having three or less power, which Yeva can flash in and kill.
Try not to run out the most vital pieces (Seedborn Muse and Temur Sabertooth) unless you are very sure that you can protect them and the rest of your board, or if Muse would create such a huge advantage that you can move directly into the mid or end game.
The early game usually lasts four to five turns and is focused primarily on setting up the mid game.
Once a stable mana base and card advantage engine have been set up, Yeva wants to move into control mode. Other decks might be making their moves to win at this point; in that case, Yeva wants to disrupt their plans (see: Using the Removal).
On the other hand, other control decks might use the mid game to attempt to disrupt Yeva. This is the time where her cockroach aspect comes on full display (see: Responding to Removal).
Assuming that the early game set up a stable enough draw and tutor engine, Yeva should quickly power through the mid game and move into the end game. The presence of a Seedborn Muse can mean that the mid game might not even last one full circuit.
The mid game usually lasts one to two turns and is focused primarily on surviving to get to the end game.
The end game takes advantage of the resource imbalance established during the mid game in order to quickly and efficiently close games out, usually with a powerful creature power-boost. The "Closing Stuff Out" section will have many more details on Yeva's end game strategies.
Most games will end as a result of some combination of Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, Craterhoof Behemoth, Timbermare, and Shaman of Forgotten Ways.
If the cockroach aspect was properly established during the mid game, Yeva can be very resilient to disruption during her end game. Avoid being greedy and dumping all available mana into Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, for example. Even if it means that one player will survive, that one player can be isolated and given the full extent of the removal spells to ensure eventual victory.
The end game usually lasts one combat phase.
It is possible to keep a hand that rushes into the mid-game: one, for example, that can drop a T3 Seedborn Muse off of broken acceleration like Mana Crypt or Sol Ring, but that would take a very particular combination of cards in hand and still a bit of hoping for lucky draws.
I generated a few sample hands along with advice on how to play them:
The first three draws were Tempt with Discovery, Forest, and Seedborn Muse, likely turning this slower hand into gas for an early mid game.
The first three draws were Forest, Bane of Progress, Brutalizer Exarch, setting up some disruption for the mid game. We would still be depending on the Wave to set up a draw engine, although the Exarch's tutor ability could help with that.
The first three draws were Forest, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, and Mana Crypt. This is a bonkers hand and should lead to a quick victory pending opponent interaction. I ended up goldfishing this one entirely and, assuming three opponents for Seedborn Muse purposes, resolved a Tooth and Nail entwined on my T5 for a Craterhoof Behemoth and a Temur Sabertooth, with the Hoof able to attack along with five other creatures and them all getting +7/+7 (call it 57 points of damage, enough to kill the most threatening opponent)
As discussed above in Finding a Good Hand, much of what to target with the tutors will depend on the state of the rest of the hand. Generally, establishing a solid card draw / tutor engine will help to find more tutors, which will help to find the answers that are needed at any particular time.
I only use a one-shot tutor on Seedborn Muse - despite the obvious power of that card - if I have a card advantage engine already set up. Otherwise, the Muse will quickly outrun the hand and, because the right answers cannot be found at the right time, leave Yeva defenseless.
Depending on the mana available, Regal Force is usually my favorite draw engine tutor target. He provides overwhelming card advantage and draws both creatures and non-creatures, meaning that he'll have a better chance of landing another tutor to keep the chain going. If less burst mana is available, but a Muse is already active, Duskwatch Recruiter is a fantastic option. With Wirewood Symbiote, Elvish Visionary can turn into a machine gun of card draw.
If, through a lucky draw, you end up with both sorcery speed tutors like Natural Order or Eldritch Evolution and instant speed tutors like Chord of Calling or Summoner's Pact, it's better to use the sorcery speed tutor in setting up a Muse and then the instant speed tutors to protect her or set up a draw engine.
Most importantly, do whatever you need to do to remember the upkeep trigger on Summoner's Pact!
Once things are in play, they are relatively easy for Yeva to control. Artifacts and enchantments will find plentiful destruction. Creatures attempting to attack with have to deal with TurboFrog (see: Using the TurboFrog Package).
On the other hand, Yeva can do relatively little to affect spells on the stack that do not interact with the board in some way. As mentioned in the general strategy section, she can be weak to direct damage or other spell-based combo strategies.
However, she can go a long way towards making sure that those types of spell never get played. In order to beat Yeva's relatively fast clock, most combo decks will lean on mana rocks, land acceleration, and mana dorks.
Mana rocks are the easiest to deal with. Sweepers like Seeds of Innocence or (if fast combo is common in your meta) and Creeping Corrosion will remove large chunks of their mana base and often create virtual card advantage. Bane of Progress and Terastodon are mid game sweepers that can be tutored out and then recurred. Don't be afraid to drop 3cc artifact destruction like Manglehorn or Reclamation Sage on curve, even if it has to be at sorcery speed, if your opponents are running out Sol Rings or Mana Crypts.
Lands are a bit tricker, and usually cannot be meaningfully interacted with until the mid-game. Terastodon isthe best ways to eliminate troublesome lands. There are faster, three and four mana land destruction spells in green, but these tend to be sorceries that don't interact well with other parts of the Yeva build. For a metagame with especially troublesome lands, Strip Mine and Wasteland are an option. However, a land-based build often lends itself more to a Titania, Protector of Argoth deck than Yeva.
Creatures are the hardest type of permanent for Yeva (and mono-green generally) to interact with. Ulvenwald Tracker is generally the best creature removal in the deck, but he is affected by summoning sickness. Polukranos, World Eater can work at instant speed entirely, although he requires a boat-load of mana and must be bounced or otherwise recurred after his initial work. Silklash Spider and Arbor Colossus can do good work against flyers. Willow Satyr can steal and sacrifice creatures, but only legendary ones and he has the same summoning sickness problem as Ulvenwald Tracker.
An important thing to remember about Yeva is that the vast majority of the removal in the deck, so long as she is in play, operates at instant speed. Other mono-green decks will usually have to make a judgment on their turn about what to remove; Yeva can feel free to wait until there is an absolute need to interact.
Take Loaming Shaman for an example: another green deck would have to make a call about whether or not a suspected Reanimator deck was about to try and leverage its graveyard, hope they tuck the cards at the right time, and further hope that the Reanimator does not then grind more creatures in on its turn. Yeva can instead wait until something like Dread Return or Living Death is actually on the stack and then tuck away its target(s).
The TurboFrog Package is the centerpiece of Yeva's answer to faster creature-based decks, which might attack her for lethal before she has a chance to set up her end game. It involves five cards, two primary and three support. The primary cards are Spore Frog and Timbermare; the support cards are Temur Sabertooth, Eternal Witness, and Genesis.
Spore Frog is the cheaper option, usually used in emergencies following an unexpected attack. For one mana at instant speed (with Yeva), he functions essentially as a Fog. Importantly, however, he is a creature - and therefore synergizes with all the creature-based cards in the deck, including tutors like Chord of Calling that can pick him out in a pinch. The Frog can be recurred with Eternal Witness, though only once without Temur Sabertooth, or with Genesis, though only for one attack phase per cycle.
Timbermare is the harder lock and better for games with a more established board state. Unlike Spore Frog, Timbermare prevents on attack triggers like the Oldrazi annihilator or Inferno Titan's three damage. Timbermare does have to be used proactively, rather than reactively, by casting it before the active player can declare attackers.
Like most other creatures in the deck, Timbermare is much more effective when paired with Temur Sabertooth. The kitty with Timbermare and Yeva essentially negates every attack phase for six mana, something that is relatively easy to achieve with Seedborn Muse in play. The combo is extremely hard to disrupt unless there is exile-based removal that can be pointed at the Temur Sabertooth.
Bear in mind that Timbermare also has offensive applications (see: Closing Stuff Out).
Throughout this strategy article, I have referenced Yeva's special ability to fight through hate, a trait that is not shared by all mono-green decks. I want to be absolutely clear from the outset: this requires a ton of mana. I know that I have spent quite a few words explaining the (relatively risky) ramp package that this deck runs. That risk is partially mitigated by Yeva's ability to fight through hate. The ramp enables the recursion, which in turn protects the ramp.
Obviously, if Yeva is caught without mana for whatever reason, she is extremely vulnerable. That's why the deck has been moving away from sorcery-based ramp, removal, and draw spells. Yeva wants to be doing everything possible on the turn of the player immediately to her right so as to avoid a wrath spell until her next turn.
The easiest solution to removal is to just recast Yeva. She presumably leaves the battlefield, ends up in the command zone, and can come back to play for two more mana than the last time she was cast. This will eventually get prohibitively expensive and does nothing to save the rest of the board, but it does have the advantage of needing absolutely no setup. Bear that in mind when utilizing some of the strategies later in this section; when you have to make a choice about which creatures to save, Yeva has her own built-in recursion and so can make way for other creatures that don't.
Another tactic, assuming that you have it in hand, is to flash in a Genesis to be killed along with the rest of your army. It won't provide any immediate benefit, but once he's in the graveyard he can start slowly recurring your lost creatures. Recursion in general can make up a lot of ground. With Genesis and Eternal Witness, and ways to recur the Witness, Yeva can give a Reanimator deck a run for its money.
With enough mana, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa can be a devastating response to a wrath effect. He pops into play for six mana and then destroys your opponents lands at a cost of one green mana each. Even just fifteen or sixteen mana - easily achievable with Yeva's ramp package - can leave all your opponents several turns behind. Again, this does little or nothing to save your own board but the advantage it sets up can be impossible for many decks to recover from. Kamahl can also pop into play off of a Chord of Calling, remember, convoking him in and saving actual mana for use in animating lands. With Kamahl or Chord in hand, I have often found myself wishing that someone would wipe the board so that I could enact this plan.
Finally, the most effective response: self-bounce. If your creatures aren't in play, then they can't be destroyed. Temur Sabertooth and to a lesser extent Wirewood Symbiote are the real all-stars here. To be most effective, they will need A LOT of mana. For example, flashing in a Temur Sabertooth, bouncing Yeva and Seedborn Muse and then replaying Yeva and the Muse will cost seventeen mana plus the price of any tutors. On the other hand, the board is now clear and you have three creatures, ready to untap all your lands on the next opponent's untap step.
Spot removal can be even more dangerous than wraths, as much of it - Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Anguished Unmaking, etc - has an exile clause rather than a destroy clause. Spot removal also can't be scared off by a Kamahl, Fist of Krosa. The best response to it is usually to bounce the targeted creature (Wirewood Symbiote excels here in the early game). If that's not possible, it's often better to sacrifice the affected creature to High Market or Evolutionary Leap rather than let it be exiled.
As much fun as the mid game is, eventually Yeva will want to end things. Once she hits a critical mass of creatures and mana - the two often coincide - and any protective enchantments the opponents have are destroyed, it is time to move to the end game.
Four creatures make up the bulk of Yeva's end game power. In the primary role are Craterhoof Behemoth and Kamahl, Fist of Krosa; in the supporting role are Shaman of Forgotten Ways and Timbermare. The first two are fairly standard in mono-green decks. Many of them attempt to win the same way, by boosting the power of a large number of creatures and granting them trample. The second two are more effective in a Yeva deck for the reasons I will outline below.
For the first point, most cards that disrupt the attack phase are either an artifact/enchantment/creature that can be destroyed by Yeva's removal or an instant, usually a Fog of some sort. We've already discussed how to best destroy meddlesome permanents (see: Using the Removal). Spells are more difficult. Most green and white (and the occasional black spell) fogs are one-shot, unlike TurboFrog, which means waiting an extra turn and then trying again.
Some, however, like Moment's Peace and Constant Mists, require more work. Flashback spells are just begging for a Loaming Shaman to tuck them back into the deck, preferably on someone else's turn so they don't have a chance to use it in response. Buyback spells like Constant Mists are more difficult, and the best solution is to aggressively attack the resource base that supports them. This means land destruction, even if it is distasteful.
Blue combat disruption usually involves bouncing, either to hand (Evacuation) or to the library (Aetherspouts). This is annoying, but fairly easy to deal with. If you are attacking into open blue mana, just expect that you'll have everything bounced. Leave back enough mana to vomit your hand back onto the battlefield to try again next turn and keep your card draw engine safely behind in case your army does go to the top of your library.
For the second point, Yeva will usually have fewer and less powerful creatures than other green decks. This is where Timbermare comes into play. He can drop down either at the end of the previous player's turn (be sure to pay his upkeep or bounce him!) or immediately after attackers have been declared (but before blockers can be declared). He then taps out all opposing boards, leaving your army free to trample directly to life totals.
For the third point, this is where Shaman of Forgotten Ways comes into play. Especially if some wraths have been tossed around, Yeva will probably have more creatures than anyone else and - most importantly - the ability to play this creature EOT. He comes down, reduces everyone's life total to manageable bites, and then a quick attack phase finishes off anyone who survived. Just watch out for instant speed burn or life drain!
Shaman can also sneak out some solo victories. Consider a wrath effect on the turn immediately before yours. Yeva is in play along with Temur Sabertooth and there is eleven mana available. Sabertooth bounces Yeva, who then pops back into play EOT and brings Shaman with her. On your turn, you now have ten power in play for formidable, eleven mana, and a Shaman ready to be tapped on a clear board.
Yeva, Nature's Herald is an amazingly versatile general. About the only prerequisite for a Yeva list is that it include creatures to make the best use of her ability. Even outside of that, she's still a 4/4 with flash for four mana; I could conceive of a voltron-ish control decklist where she popped out EOT to pick up some swords and beat face.
My build of Yeva, as I mentioned above, concentrates on using Seedborn Muse to assemble a knockout punch while green creatures at instant speed control the board. It intentionally sacrifices power and speed for resilience and inevitability. The price of achieving its objectives is high, both in terms of deck construction and in terms of monetary cost. My build is also not subtle, and it will end up being the archenemy in many games.
In this section, I will explore several alternative builds for Yeva, ranging from the relatively minor (like tweaking the ramp package and incorporating a wish package) to the fairly extreme (extreme budget tips and rebuilds to focus on elves, politics, or goodstuff).
First, the easy stuff.
The best way to do this is to add the various elves who search out a basic land and put it into play. Note that Yavimaya Dryad could easily replace Yavimaya Granger; my preference for the Granger is that the elf subtype interacts so absurdly with Wirewood Symbiote in this case.
This is also a good change to make if budget means cutting deeply into the land base - especially if Gaea's Cradle and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx don't make it into the deck.
1 Voyaging Satyr
1 Hope Tender
1 Krosan Restorer
1 Wood Elves
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Yavimaya Granger
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Molder Slug
Note that Roots of Life has been errated to apply to any opponent.
If you REALLY hate your opponents who tend to play black, you can even sub in Lifeforce.
1 Sol Ring
1 Evolutionary Leap
1 Wellwisher
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Compost
1 Roots of Life
As I currently understand the rules, the wish board for commander can consist of ten cards which must follow the highlander rules and color identity rules as the rest of the deck. Living Wish can fetch a creature or a land. I would therefore build the wish board as an extension of the utility for the list. Some ideas:
everyone will be happy to see this...
The good news is that the vast majority of that cost comes from various green staples, mostly tutor and ramp spells, that play a supporting role in a Yeva deck. Of her core cards, only the Seedborn Muse is expensive. It is quite possible to build a budget Yeva deck that will compete favorably with other decks that have similar restrictions. I have played budget Yeva builds in store leagues before with great success. One key is to retool the land base entirely - focus on basic lands, and I would advise upping the total land count to 40-42. Cantrip creatures, such as Wall of Blossoms, are also worth their weight in gold in a budget Yeva deck.
Expensive Cards (and their replacements)
Cards >$100
Cards >$50
Cards >$25
Cards >$15
Cards >$10
Cards >$5
Cards >$1
I do have quite a bit of experience playing elves in a multiplayer setting, although not in the Commander format. Playing 60-card constructed lets me splash white and black as well as run 4-ofs for certain vital creatures. Obviously, a Yeva-helmed Elf deck would not have this advantage. What it would have is the constant ability to accelerate its game to instant speed, letting it avoid some of the mass removal that is the constant plague of the forest folk.
A Yeva-helmed elf deck would likely want to be a couple turns faster than a non-tribal deck, as it relies on getting a critical mass of creatures and is therefore more vulnerable to disruption. The one-mana dorks, such as Llanowar Elves, are more valuable here than they would be in the main build above.
For card advantage, Gilt-Leaf Archdruid would do much better in an elven tribal deck than my build of Yeva, as many elves tend to be druids as well - be sure to check the errata on older cards.
Wirewood Symbiote may be the strongest card in a Yeva Elf deck. The once-per-turn restriction on its bounce ability is less meaningful if you are able to play on every player's turn. It's very possible to start a loop where every turn an ETB-value elf (Elvish Visionary, Wood Elves, etc) is bounced to untap a big mana producer (Priest of Titania, Elvish Archdruid, etc) resulting in an almost insurmountable resource advantage.
Although the gut instinct when building tribal is to avoid all non-tribal creatures, I would advise rejecting that impulse. Seedborn Muse, Temur Sabertooth, and Karametra's Acolyte may not be elves, but the advantages they bring to a Yeva build are too large to pass up.
Not everyone is so lucky with their primary playgroup. For those who have to deal with chaos, group-hug, and salty opponents, it can be better to take a slightly less aggressive stance with Yeva. There are certain cards that, because of actual effectiveness in the deck or a bad reputation from other builds, will trigger an unreasonable hatred from other players and leave Yeva unable to fly under the radar.
Here is a list of the most hated cards in Yeva's archetype. The ones that are in the deck can be replaced by many of the options from the meta/budget sections of the card lists (see: Card Choices). Fortunately, none of the cards in this section are absolutely vital to executing Yeva's game plan, they just make that game plan easier to enact or faster to achieve.
1x Craterhoof Behemoth
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Mana Crypt
1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc
1x Natural Order
1x Protean Hulk
1x Skullclamp
1x Strip Mine
1x Survival of the Fittest
1x Sylvan Library
1x Tooth and Nail
1x Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Avenger of Zendikar
1x Crop Rotation
1x Exploration
1x Genesis
1x Genesis Wave
1x Priest of Titania
1x Regal Force
1x Seedborn Muse
1x Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
1x Shaman of Forgotten Ways
1x Sol Ring
Earlier in the post, I was slightly dismissive of what I call "Big Dumb Green Creatures" and their usefulnes in a Yeva, Nature's Herald deck. That only applies to a build like my main deck, which seeks to win through the careful management of board position. A Yeva-helmed mono-green goodstuff deck is more for those who want to let their inner Timmies fly.
I would say that Yeva is one of the best choices for a goodstuff green general, probably along with Surrak, the Hunt Caller and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds. By playing at instant speed, Yeva's goodstuff can dodge a lot of sorcery-speed removal and act with quasi-haste like Surrak. Since she lacks the mana production of Selvala, Yeva will have to pack plenty of acceleration of her own - this, much more so than my main deck, is probably the place for the Mana Reflections and Caged Suns of the world.
For the actual follow through of "big dumb green creatures", I have assembled a list of some of my favorites below, as well as a few of my favorite cheat and acceleration spells in green. Mix and match to your preference. Do note that the Eldrazi listed, as they are not green, will not work with Yeva's flash ability and those of some cards like Green Sun's Zenith and Natural Order.
1x Archetype of Endurance
1x Avenger of Zendikar
1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1x Kozilek, the Great Distortion
1x Garruk's Horde
1x Hornet Queen
1x Nylea, God of the Hunt
1x Pathbreaker Ibex
1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1x Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1x Woodfall Primus
1x Worldspine Wurm
1x Boundless Realms
1x Caged Sun
1x Elvish Piper
1x Exploration
1x Lurking Predators
1x Mana Reflection
1x Mosswort Bridge
1x Natural Order
1x Selvala's Stampede
1x See the Unwritten
1x Tooth and Nail
1x Zendikar Resurgent
I'm not going to review every set in Magic: the Gathering, of course, only those that have come out since my original date of posting and that contain at least a few cards that I think will be useful to Yeva, Nature's Herald or will be traps for players who are new to the green-at-instant-speed archetype.
still getting cards!
All in all, the Amonkhet block has been good to Yeva.
Yeva-oriented reprints are Greater Good, Beast Within, and Seedborn Muse. I would bet these see an initial drop in price, so look to pick them up soon. The demand for these cards is high enough that I don't think they'll stay down for too long - I mean, Muse is on, what, her fourth printing now? And she was still a ~$25 card going into Battlebond? Although, if you're super classy like me, just remember that Legions will always be the objectively correct Seedborn Muse printing.
Also, Skyshroud Claim is an amazing card. Not for Yeva, but in general. Do yourself a favor and pick up a couple playsets while they're at bargain bin prices.
As for the new cards:
1) It actually doubles the creatures, helping out creatures that have a tap ability. (Mana dorks, Ulvenwald Tracker, etc.)
2) It can be used on opponent's creatures. There will be that one game, somewhere in the multiverse, where someone casts Phage the Untouchable and you create a token copy of it for them.
Pro-Kitties
1) It can be used to save your own stuff and in doing so makes itself indestructible.
2) You have control of when the extra ETB effects happen. Maybe you don't need two Reclamation Sages in a turn, but you sure could use two of them over two turns.
All things considered, I think Temur Sabertooth is the better card for Yeva.
HOWEVER, we don't live in a zero-sum game here, and saying it's not as good as the best card in the deck doesn't mean much. It's possible to run both. I'm going to test that out, possibly in the Acidic Slime slot. (update 10/25/18: testing successful. Switch has been made officially)
My final thought on this card is that it totally could have been an elf. Come on, Wizards, you're killing me.
Nothing exciting out of the Artifact or Lands sections, sadly.
Here's the list:
But anyway. My personal feelings on the lore aside, there is one snap include and several good cards in the set. Let's get cracking!
After finishing reading: "...and it does absolutely nothing. They spent about a thousand words to make a Big Dumb Green Creature. I'll just cry myself to sleep tonight."
What I can't help but notice from that list is that the bottom half (minus Azorious) was in the first set, and the top half of the list (minus Golgari) was in the second half.
While I'm generally much more happy with the cards in Allegiance than I was with...whatever the first set was called (I've already forgotten and don't care enough to look it up. Let's call it "Ravnica: Beast Whisperer and Some Other Junk, Probably"), the new set doesn't have any snap includes for Yeva the way Beast Whisper was. There were a lot of decent cards, some interesting concepts, and some stuff that I might even play test or slot into a budget version.
Honorary Non-Green Card:
Alright, one more Ravnica to slog through and then (maybe) on to an interesting plane!
But, man, what a consolation. This is a baller set. You always know things are working out well when there's a card that goes straight into the deck, no testing needed.
Lands
In other news, this is the first ever set review I've posted without borking the formatting for the entire post. #achievementunlocked
I want to be sure to toss out a heartfelt "thank you" to everyone who has helped shaped Yeva into the deck that she is. This includes all the players in my meta, who always provide a nail-biting challenge and help to keep my ideas fresh. I want to also thank everyone who has contributed to this thread, especially (in no particular order) Squirrely, darrenhabib, and JDviant for helping me to refine and retool the deck.
There needs to be another thank you to all the players whose mono-green threads on this forum have provided inspiration and ideas for both the main build and the alternates - especially aslidsiksoraksi's Nissa, Vastwood Seer (here), frodooftheshire's Ezuri, Renegade Leader deck (here), JDviant's Surrak, the Hunt Caller (here), and toctheyounger's Nissa, Vastwood Seer (here).
Another special thank you goes out to my patient and amazing wife, whose support was invaluable in play-testing this list and writing/editing this ~25,000 word document.
I hope you all enjoyed reading,
Ian
IN: Willow Satyr, Tooth and Nail, Survival of the Fittest, Nissa, Vastwood Seer, Molder Slug, Miren, the Moaning Well, Regal Behemoth, Crop Rotation, 1xForest, Wave of Vitriol, Creeping Corrosion
OUT: Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, Birthing Pod, Compost, Skullclamp, Carpet of Flowers, Terrain Generator, Zendikar Resurgent, Ulvenwald Hydra, Temple of the False God, Ezuri's Predation, The Great Aurora.
DISCUSSION: Click Here
3/9/17
IN: Summoner's Pact, Memory Jar, Garruk, Caller of Beasts
OUT: Shamanic Revelation, Panharmonicon, Boundless Realms
DISCUSSION: Panharmonicon was a difficult cut; it's been one of my favorites since it was spoiled, but it just doesn't go in this deck. Its best buddy, Cloudstone Curio, is also on the cut list but is currently holding on by a thread. Shamanic Revelation turned into Garruk, Caller of Beasts because of the greater creature-based synergy and multiple modes. Boundless Realms is really only good when I have a Seedborn Muse going, and in those cases I probably want the cards from Memory Jar more than I'd want the lands. Draw is more universally useful in this deck than mana acceleration.
3/12/17
IN: Natural Order, Deserted Temple, Wellwisher, Duskwatch Recruiter, Seeds of Innocence
OUT: Cloudstone Curio, Wave of Vitriol, Masked Admirers, Winding Canyons, Creeping Corrosion
DISCUSSION: The Curio, like its buddy Panharmonicon, failed to pull its weight, especially as the deck veers away from entirely ETB effects. I have not yet found that I needed the Canyons as a backup to Yeva, Nature's Herald. The Wave simply was too big of an effect and often had a negative impact on my own board state. Masked Admirers was a much weaker draw spell than the Recruiter. Natural Order should help me to find my answers, or the Muse, with greater consistency. The Deserted Temple will help to accelerate my big lands. And Wellwisher, I hope, will provide some insurance against non-combat phase life drain and damage, which can be a big problem. One mana can make a big difference, especially in the opening phases, which is why I replaced Corrosion with Seeds. Corrosion may soon find its way back into the deck.
3/28/17
IN: Krosan Restorer, Voyaging Satyr, Juniper Order Druid, Reap and Sow, Tempt with Discovery
OUT: Farhaven Elf, Wood Elves, Yavimaya Dryad, Exploration, Greenwarden of Murasa
DISCUSSION: Exploration is probably the biggest cut. I rarely felt that I was drawing enough lands to justify it, the occasional explosive start notwithstanding. Other than that, a simple reconfigure of the ramp package away from basic-land acceleration towards a quality non-basics support package.
5/19/17
IN: Krosan Tusker, Manglehorn, Magus of the Library, Evolutionary Leap, Protean Hulk, Terastodon
OUT: Yavimaya Elder, Molder Slug, Gaea's Herald, Momentous Fall, Rishkar's Expertise, Woodfall Primus
DISCUSSION: Quite a bit of testing here. Magus of the Library and Evolutionary Leap performed well in a budget version of the deck and made the main cut. Leap was reusable, Momentous Fall wasn't. Gaea's Herald never really proved necessary. Manglehorn was the best card to come out of Amonkhet and Molder Slug had been under performing. Terastodon and Woodfall Primus swap places about every week it seems like, but the elephant is winning for now. Protean Hulk got unbanned and is an insane value engine; Rishkar's Expertise is too sorcery speed. Finally, Krosan Tusker went in for Yavimaya Elder — both draw a card, but Elder gets one extra land for two extra mana (one green). Tusker will be auto-cycled 99% of the time, but it does have a big body for Greater Good if I need to stick it late in a game.
8/10/17
IN: Hope Tender
OUT: Juniper Order Druid
DISCUSSION: Pretty straight forward direct substitution with the release of a better alternative in Hour of Devastation.
10/2/17
IN: Vizier of the Menagerie, Growing Rites of Itlimoc
OUT: Memory Jar, Reap and Sow
Discussion: Memory Jar had been on the ropes for a while now. The Vizier is just a better draw engine for this deck because of his synergies with all the creatures in the deck. On a similar note, this may be THE deck that Growing Rites of Itlimoc was printed for and I have no hesitation about including it. Reap and Sow had been stumbling for a while, and the first card I tested for it (Hour of Promise) wasn't really working any better.
7/13/18
IN: Strip Mine
OUT: Reliquary Tower
Discussion: This was a long time in testing. I don't miss the Tower at all. Having to discard to hand size is rare enough in this deck, and not crippling at all. Strip Mine, on the other hand, answers all sorts of problematic lands and can be fetched out by the Quality Land acceleration cards. Anecdotally, it had an awesome moment where someone else fetched out their Strip Mine with Hour of Promise to blow up Gaea's Cradle and I was able to Crop Rotation a forest for my own Strip Mine to blow theirs up before they could untap. Good times.
10/25/18
IN: Beast Whisperer, Bramble Sovereign
OUT: Garruk, Caller of Beasts, Acidic Slime
Discussion: Both of these cards were just too high in converted mana cost, falling into a middle range where their effects weren't game-breaking but they didn't come out fast enough to do what they needed. Also Garruk can only be cast at sorcery speed, limiting his utility. Beast Whisperer, meanwhile, is a house - Primordial Sage for two less mana, and an elf to boot. Bramble Sovereign is insane. Absolutely insane. Like, close to Temur Sabertooth good. And that's about the nicest thing I can say about a card.
4/20/19
IN: Finale of Devastation
OUT: Tooth and Nail
Discussion: Hard to believe it's been half a year since the last time a change demanded to be made! Finale of Devastation is just an insane card and it had to be jammed it, no doubt about that. Tooth and Nail isn't terrible by any means, but it was the weakest part of the tutor package. I never really wanted to fire it off before I hit nine mana, and even at nine it often seemed underwhelming. Finale is much more useful with less mana (seven will fetch out a Seedborn Muse; six will get a Temur Sabertooth; four a Duskwatch Recruiter). Plus it has more functionality as a reanimation target and a backup win condition if Kamahl and Hoof eat exile. Again, nothing against T&N; it's an insane card. Finale just happens to be better in this circumstance.
Beast Within is a great call, and I'm switching it out with Titania, Protector of Argoth immediately. You are right that the list is lacking in removal and one of my nightmare scenarios (which luckily hasn't come to pass yet) involves cards like Torpor Orb or Blazing Archon. I had been hesitating on Beast Within because, for some reason, I read it as green's traditional "noncreature permanent" removal.
Song of the Dryads is also an interesting card that I'm not sure I knew existed. My only hesitation would be that I love casting and recurring Bane of Progress and I feel like I might hesitate more if there was one of my enchantments holding back, say, a Consecrated Sphinx or something. What do you think of Scour from Existance? It's not cheap, of course, but it would hit any of the permanents that give me pause and keep them from being recurred.
My main hesitation with the Multani's Acolyte is the echo cost. If I'm bouncing it immediately with Wirewood Symbiote, then it's great -- but it would seem tricky to toss down blindly on turn two like I can do with Elvish Visionary, especially considering how much of my ramp is 3cc. I do remember running Yavimaya Granger at one point, and I think I cut her because of the echo. Selvala, Heart of the Wilds also looks amazing -- I will look for a trade opportunity for her and test her in the deck, thanks.
So far, I have not been disappointed with either the Trailblazer or the Wanderer at any stage of the game. They both work terrific with Birthing Pod (turning directly into a Muse), Panharmonicon (although the jam at 4cc can be difficult), and Blade of Selves in addition to the Sabertooth and the Symbiote bounce/replay, and both count as elves for Priest of Titania and warm bodies for the "overrun" turn. I've been more happy with Wild Wanderer, as its P/T is more relevant for Rishkar's Expertise and Momentous Fall, but I'm not sold on cutting them. Maybe if I do manage to acquire a Selvala I will try her in the place of the Quirion Trailblazer.
I do have another deck that I'm thinking about taking apart. I can pirate a Sylvan Library, an Exploration, and a Crucible of Worlds from there. I'm assuming with the first two, the answer is "they're green staples, make room for them," but I'm not sure about the Crucible. I am thinking about upgrading the deck with the relevant Fetch Lands (as I get the cash/trades to acquire them). Maybe that would be a good solution?
I'm also cutting Hall of Gemstone. I realized when I was typing this up last night that I'm literally never happy to be casting that. My immediate replacement is Conqueror's Flail, which I think accomplishes what I wanted with the Gemstones without screwing myself over.
Thanks for the reply! It plays fairly solidly so far, although I know there's a lot of progress to be made. I am planning to acquire a Gaea's Cradle eventually, for example, but that's likely a while out.
On Elvish Piper, I could have sworn that I owned one. I remember the 7e artwork (with the eyes peeping out of the cave) very clearly. A search through my binder came up empty, however -- I must have traded it away. I might proxy-test it (perhaps in the Quirion Trailblazer slot) but my gut instinct is that it is a bit redundant with how Yeva's flash ability works. Still, I could see big game from tapping to put down three fatties a circuit with Muse for one mana each, so long as I can keep the draw to support it. It's certainly worth a try.
I'm a bit cooler on Collected Company, I'm afraid. I can't do the math, but I feel like the chances of two 3cc or less creatures (~14% of the deck) in my top six cards is pretty unlikely (unless I do add that Sylvan Library and stack them, heh). I'll keep it in mind, but I think that Enshrined Memories is the next draw spell I would like to try.
But first, I did have a chance to play with Yeva last night. It was a smaller game, as a couple players couldn't make it, but I was up against Erebos, God of the Dead MBC and Oloro, Ageless Aescetic lifegain synergy (I know, tough matchup for him). I had a difficult time fighting through Erebos's hate, and two Seedborn Muses met unfortunate ends (plus the poor Eternal Witness who brought her back for the second go-round. Luckily, the Oloro deck was never really able to get going (he was eating all the same Barter in Bloods and Mutilates that I was) and I eventually stuck a Zendikar Resurgent that gave me enough mana and card advantage to vomit a board at the end of Erebos's turn and he didn't have enough instant speed hate to stop it. Sadly, I did not see any of the new cards I just added (Conqueror's Flail, Beast Within, and a Windswept Heath I forgot I had in another, less-important deck). We did play another game, though, with my Xira Arien Jund control deck, and Beast Within shone taking down an otherwise-problematic Akroma, Angel of Wrath.
(I hope you don't mind that I pulled your edit from the end up to here)
This, I think, encapsulates a lot of what I have been thinking. I've been going over a lot of the other lists for green generals, and it doesn't seem like this very unique general has yet developed a very unique playstyle. I like the idea of moving away from "green deck wins through combat step" a lot. I don't have time just at the moment, as my brother is coming over, but later today I intend to dig through green creatures and see if there are other things to be done.
Of the top of my head, there's always the Gaea's Blessing and Loaming Shaman synergy with cards like Mesmeric Orb and Altar of Dementia, but I don't see any of those (non-green-creature) permenants lasting long enough to actually grind out a commander deck, let alone if they have one of the old Eldrazi or something in there.
I suppose that green is also a key part of the archer tribe? Greatbow Doyen requires the opponents to have creatures to be most effective. I suppose we could give a Viridian Longbow to an infect creature and use some of green's untapping shenanigans to try and machine gun down the table with poison.
Both of those ideas, in their current genesis, are janky as hell of course! I'll brainstorm some more (as well as reply to the rest of your great post) later this afternoon.
But while I was rummaging, I did some thinking on something else you had proposed: to stop thinking of Yeva like a green good-stuff deck and start thinking of it as a green control deck. I like that a lot, and I would only amend that perhaps to start thinking of it as a green control deck with a semi-combo finisher.
That is to say, the early game is spent ramping, the mid game is spent keeping the board in check, and the late game is a well-timed board vomit, preferably at the end step of the player to the right after a cycle where most players have tapped out. By dropping (in one turn) Yeva and Pathbreaker Ibex, holding back mana for a protective Gaea's Herald, suddenly a board of two or three Wood Elves and Reclamation Sage type creatures is swinging for 25+ damage. With a bit more setup -- say, waiting for mana to drop a Timbermare -- we could be talking lethal for an entire board.
I will note that I prefer Pathbreaker Ibex and Kamahl, Fist of Krosa to Craterhoof Behemoth. I'm willing to be sold otherwise, but I like the ease of repeat on both and Kamahl's secondary wrath protection -- he's easier to drop before the final swing, saving mana for other creatures. That could be a way to differentiate the decks from more standard green swarm.
In that context, I think there should be a standard applied to cards considered for inclusions:
1) Does it control the board in some way, preferably with legs attached? (Bane of Progress, Reclamation Sage)
2) Does it ramp while leaving a body behind? (Wood Elves)
3) Is it part of the "combo" finish? (Pathbreaker Ibex, Timbermare)
4) Or does it draw/tutor into the silver bullets or "combo," preferably with legs attached? (Fierce Empath, Regal Force
And if the card does not meet one of those four criteria, I should take a long and hard look at its inclusion. I'm already formulating a cut list from the list I posted above: Blade of Selves, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Birthing Pod, Genesis Wave, Yavimaya Elder, Avenger of Zendikar, Hydra Omnivore, Nylea, God of the Hunt, Ulvenwald Hydra, Caged Sun -- and Seedborn Muse. There's some sacred cows on there, especially the last one, and it would depend on what was found to replace them. But there are no bad ideas in brainstorming, right?
In my dive into greed deep-cuts, the most interesting fellow I found was Frontier Guide. It's certainly not a "good card" by any stretch of the imagination, but it is repeatable land-based ramp on legs and I think that alone is worth a second look. I could see it really doing some work with the Seedborn Muse (if she doesn't end up cut, heh), and could really set the deck up well for its mid-game control and late-game push.
On that note, I suppose Seedborn Muse could be useful as a rattlesnake? What if her purpose in the deck was more to scare people and draw removal, rather than be the lynchpin? I could grin as the Muse tempts out a Merciless Eviction while I have Timbermare and Pathbreaker Ibex safe in my hand. And, if they leave her alone, it just lets me ramp and draw like crazy until I am ready to hand-vomit and win.
On the note of this being a green control deck, I don't know if you've had a chance to play with The Great Aurora, but I do highly recommend it in this shell. It's almost always led to me having a better board position and better hand than my rivals, as it is very rare this deck falls behind on permanents+hand size.
Getting back to the cards you suggested in your original post, I do like the Spore Frog and Spike Weaver combination. Especially if I take the build in a more control fashion, I would have to look into preventing myself from being blown out by early/mid aggression.
I like deathtouch shenanigans, especially with the Ulvenwald Tracker suggestion. Since I'm like 90% of the way to adding in Hornet Queen anyway, I think you sold me.
Sylvan Safekeeper I'm a little cooler on. It may just be my meta, but I don't seem to run into a huge amount of targeted disruption. Board wipes are a dime a dozen, mind you, but I haven't often found myself wishing for shroud (or thinking that a permanent with shroud would survive). Still, I do run the fellow in a non-EDH multiplayer druid tribal deck I have, so I can see the use and will keep him in mind. I like the Veilstone Amulet much better of the two shroud cards, and I could see that finding its way into the deck, but right now I think that Heroic Intervention would make more sense.
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard is nutty, you're certainly right about that. I had been shying away from him as he has his own deck and I wasn't sure how much design space the two archetypes would share, but the effect is almost too powerful to overlook.
On mana doublers: Caged Sun really doesn't do much for the list, I find. I usually forget all about the +1/+1 clause and it eats removal anyway. I did just have a good experience with Zendikar Resurgent, however, so I'm less cool on that card. I think it's the draw clause that gets me -- this deck so needs to be able to maintain a full grip of cards, and it is so dependent on casting creatures, that I think the Resurgence is worth frightening the board. It may be best, facing aggressive decks, to not cast it directly on curve but rather wait until a mana or two can be held open for Spore Frog or _insert defense of choice here_. I find the same is true of Boundless Realms. Outside of MLD, it's a very hard effect to counter and the buildup for the explosive "combo" turn seems essential. As a secondary effect, it can make a The Great Aurora into a laugher.
Finally, I would like to brainstorm with Arboria. I see the card a lot in Yeva-related discussions, but I've never been too keen on it myself. Since the deck relies on the combat phase to win, I worry about control shells sitting back (er, more than usual) and taking advantage of the cannot attack clause while I cannot end the game despite having the proper pieces assembled. I guess I would have to see it in play, but my gut instinct is to stay away from that card.
This discussion is really great. I appreciate everyone's input and insight, and I like the direction the deck is moving!
I like the idea of Polukranos, especially as he can pop monstrous at instant speed. I also approve of him just being huge, as I will need a last push to finish things off. Running him out early and then sitting on the mana seems like a great incentive for random attacks to go other directions, as well as another way to deal with pesky things like Consecrated Sphinx and its ilk.
I've also been musing about one paradox: I want Yeva in play early, to get the most benefit from flashing in random creatures, but as I've mentioned my meta has a problem with things like Wrath of God. Temur Sabertooth is the best option, of course, but I feel like other protections would really benefit the deck. My deep dive into green came up with two options (other than the Heroic Intervention already under discussion): bounce and champion.
Mono-green doesn't have a huge amount of options for bounce. The best one I found was Invasive Species, which is cheap and has the added benefit of bouncing any permanent (protecting Panharmonicons and what have you), with the 6cc Ambush Krotiq being the only other option. With all the ETB triggers around, this could be good even in games where mass removal isn't a major issue, and with Cloudstone Curio out it could even bounce itself, setting up a value loop. <- EDIT, wait no it can't. Misread the invasive species ("another" clause). Still, there would seem to be value here, as the replay of whatever you bounced could bounce the invasive species in that case.
Champion also has two main advantages: 4cc Wren's Run Packmaster (token generation, can champion a large number of creatures in the deck, including Yeva, deathtouch) and the 5cc Changeling Titan (can champion any creature, is huge). I'm a little more wary of champion just because there are so few sac mechanics in the deck (Greater Good, Momentous Fall) that they would have more limited utility outside of board-wipe scenarios. The bounce, for instance, can protect against targeted removal without worrying about trapping an important piece in limbo for ages. On the other hand, Champion is super fun when combined with The Great Aurora -- but that's just one card.
I'm also starting to put together a list of what is needed for the land base. If I were to get all the parts - which is a lot of money, and I probably won't do them all at once - I could see a move from 40 to 38 lands, freeing up a couple areas for more juice. The lands I'm considering are:
Gaea's Cradle (of course)
Ancient Tomb (with the protections we're talking about, I don't think the 2 damage will be relevant)
Reliquary Tower (I would like to see a version of this deck with even more draw than it currently has)
Mana Crypt (not technically a land, but might as well be; Eternal Masters has done wonders for the price)
Misty Rainforest (fetch land)
Verdant Catacombs (fetch land)
Wooded Foothills (fetch land)
Pendelhaven (I already own one and the opportunity cost seems low, outisde of a Blood Moon scenario)
Obviously, this is a ton of money to be considering and I'm not going to pull the trigger until I have a more clear idea on the final look of the deck. I'm tinkering around with the list now and hope to have something soon to test out and see if the concept being fleshed out is worth the investment. If anyone has any other "money is not an issue" suggestions for the lands (or anything else), I'd be happy to hear them!
Agreed!
Yeah, I'm not in love with the option either, but killing a whole table of 40-life players is tough on monogreen without overrun shenanigans. I'll keep looking for another way too. At least flashing it in ahead of time creates a little design space seperation from other green decks, along with placing less importance on haste.
But there are no bad ideas in brainstorming!
...Yeah, that was a Bad Idea (with capital letters and everything). Don't worry, the Muse isn't going anywhere. I came to my senses!
I agree that Yavimaya Elder is a terrific card and amazing card advantage. My worry was about him having to die to be most effective, but he made the list in the most recent ideas I've been goldfishing (more on that at the end of this post). With the Avenger, I feel like this deck makes better use of Hornet Queen in essentially the same role (she's smaller and has less token potential, but deathtouch is so relevant for so many things, and I feel she will scale better into the future if Wizards continues to push Fight as part of green's color pie). It could be argued that there is space for both, of course, but I went with just the Queen in my newest brew.
You're right, of course. I didn't want to admit it because I love my goat so much, but the Craterhoof Behemoth really is the better choice for that slot. Kamahl, of course, is bonkers in three different ways and I'm sure everyone can agree on him. I have a Behemoth in another deck; I'll switch him out with the goat.
I think you'll be impressed, especially if you try it in a token deck. I've had it function both as a win condition when I'm way ahead on perms+hand and as a panic reset button when I'm behind on board presence. The mana cost is steep, but all the lands it finds come into play untapped, so you can go right back to work after it. I hope I'm not being an unreasonable acolyte for this card; if I am, it's because I loved Lorwyn/Shadowmoor lore, so it tickles some Vorthos instinct that I have.
Oh, I agree that Temur Sabertooth is the best tool for the job, there's no doubt! Whisperwood Elemental is an interesting idea too, and I'll have to keep it in the back of my mind. I'm testing out the Invasive Species in my current brew, and I'll let you know how it performs. Wren's Run Packmaster, meanwhile, juuuust barely missed the cut -- It'll be among the first things in if there's an underperfomer. Yavimaya Hollow is a great idea, and it's going in. (Meaning, at some point in this deck, I've had a Dryad, a Granger, an Elder, and now a Hollow from Yavimaya...)
After goldfishing, I agree 100%. They're off the list.
With the Mana Crypt and the Ancient Tomb, I agree that a grindy game would make these cards into huge liabilities. A major problem I've had, though, is doing nothing for the first 2-3 turns and getting blow out of the water just as I start going. With the deck heavy on 3-6 drops, I'm willing right now to risk a bit of life loss to prevent early stalls. I'll play test, of course, and see if it is too big of a problem in practice. At least both are cards that, if they don't find a place here, will be at home somewhere else in my collection.
Pendelhaven is small potatoes, you're right. I've cut it for a basic land to play better with things like Terrain Generator and avoid Blood Moon problems.
I love Homeward Path as an add, especially as I have a friend obsessed with blue steal mechanics. Miren, the Moaning Well I like the effect but worry about the cost. Maybe High Market as a cheaper (but less explosive) substitute?
If you like Myriad Landscape, I would recommend Blighted Woodland. The activation cost is steeper, but it comes into play untapped.
I agree 100% with Terrain Generator, Winding Canyons, and Yavimaya Hollow. Great ideas on all of those.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is a card I'm ashamed to say I forgot existed. I'll test it out too and let you know (I have been coming around on Karametra's Acolyte, so devotion is on the rebound in my mind).
With Rogue's Passage, I don't think I'll use it in my deck. But if you are looking for an alternative to the overrun win, it could be an option (say, clamp a Grafted Exoskeleton onto a Hydra Omnivore and sneak it through the Passage).
Well, I’m the last person who will yell at you about long posts! I feel like I’ve composed an essay or two myself, this post included.
I’ll skip to the (strangely) most exciting card in the lot for me – Caustic Caterpillar. I’m looking at it mostly as a replacement for Acidic Slime. I love that it doesn’t need to tap to do its thing and that it’s not blanked by (and takes care of) Torpor Orb. The sac is not ideal, of course, but the little Caterpillar is making it in my next test build.
Wirewood Symbiote has been ...adequate for me. I’m not ditching it yet – being able to protect Yeva and retrigger the various Elf abilities is huge, as well as untapping a Priest of Titania or Selvala, Heart of the Wilds.
I do just want to mention that, at least on paper and in my goldfishing, Polukranos, World Eater is nutty. 5/5 for 4cc is busted enough to begin with in a deck that has Greater Good, nuking creatures at instant speed in monogreen seems superb.
I could see a build that focuses on Forgotten Ancient and his buddies. Green has plenty of +1/+1 tricks up its sleeve. I’m not sure that’s a direction I want to take myself – Spike Weaver is still on my maybe-board – but it’s worth further discussion. Cytoplast Root-kin and Sporeback Troll are my favorite of the Graft creatures. I know you can also get deathtouch and trample with graft creatures but I seem to remember that they’re not worth the investment. Doubling Season, of course, is rarely a bad idea, and would work nicely with Wren’s Run Packmaster. And for draw, you have Inspiring Call (which doubles as wipe protection).
Also, I would like to assure Navyat87 that I have never forgotten about Managorger Hydra! That’s one of my favorite green creatures and I feel like I probably own six or seven of them, with none sitting around in a binder. I’m still not sure why it hasn’t caught on as a one-card win condition in multiplayer and EDH circles.
However, as much as I love it, I don’t think that the Hydra has a place in the current brew I’m working on. I’m trying to move away from creatures, however insanely mana efficient they are, that are “just” big. I think Yeva needs every card slot to be working double duty, as a control or ramp function that can help beat face when Kamahl calls. In a more good-stuff-y deck, or one that relies more heavily on counters, though – yeah, Managorger Hydra is insane.
World Breaker I like on general principle, being huge and reachy and having an exile clause and a recursion clause. I would mention that, with Devoid, it doesn’t play nicely with Yeva, Nature's Herald or Regal Force. I’ll keep it in mind, but I’m not sure.
I wish Maze of Ith generated mana. I like the effect, but I’m not sure the deck can handle a land drop that doesn’t make mana.
Of Foe-Razer Regent and Setessan Tactics, I think I prefer the dragon. Being a creature just has so much value in this deck. Tactics+Hornet Queen is big game, no question about that, I’m not sure what I would cut for it.
One other card I’m thinking about is Wave of Vitriol. It’s huge mana and it doesn’t hit troublesome creatures, but it does take care of Blightsteel Colossus, Cabal Coffers, Theros Gods, and a whole host of other troublesome permanents. There would be some feel-bads involved in nuking my own non-basic lands, but it might be worth keeping in mind. I’ll keep mulling it over.
----
Right, since this post isn’t long enough yet, I do have a new list that I’ve been goldfishing in magical Christmas tapped out land where I own ~$300 more in cards than I actually do.
1 Bane of Progress
1 Brutalizer Exarch
1 Caustic Caterpillar
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Elivsh Visionary
1 Eternal Witness
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Fierce Empath
1 Frontier Guide
1 Gaea's Herald
1 Genesis
1 Greenwarden of Murasa
1 Hornet Queen
1 Invasive Species
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1 Karametra's Acolyte
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Polukranos, World Eater
1 Priest of Titania
1 Primordial Sage
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Regal Force
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
1 Shaman of Forgotten Ways
1 Soul of the Harvest
1 Spore Frog
1 Temur Sabertooth
1 Timbermare
1 Ulvenwald Hydra
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
1 Wild Wanderer
1 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Wood Elves
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Yavimaya Dryad
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Compost
1 Exploration
1 Greater Good
1 Sylvan Library
1 Zendikar Resurgent
Instant – 3
1 Beast Within
1 Chord of Calling
1 Momentous Fall
Sorcery - 8
1 Boundless Realms
1 Eldritch Evolution
1 Ezuri’s Predation
1 Genesis Wave
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Rishkar's Expertise
1 Shamanic Revelation
1 The Great Aurora
Artifact – 6
1 Birthing Pod
1 Cloudstone Curio
1 Mana Crypt
1 Panharmonicon
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
Land – 37
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Blighted Woodland
1 Buried Ruin
1 Command Beacon
24 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Homeward Path
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terrain Generator
1 Winding Canyons
1 Yavimaya Hollow
I’m afraid that I didn’t keep an exact change log, so I’m working off memory and my old decklist for what was taken out and put back in.
Out
Acidic Slime. I mentioned this earlier. I feel like it’s too slow at 5cc.
Avenger of Zendikar. As above, switched with Hornet Queen
Blade of Selves. Never really pulled its weight, despite the absurd ceiling for this card. I’ll keep it on the maybe board for future versions.
Burgeoning. I was rarely happy to draw this spell. I love it in blue-green shells, but it’s powered there by the raw fury of blue card advantage (and Windfalls). I’m testing Exploration in its place.
Caged Sun. Easily the worst of the mana doublers I ran. I don’t think it’ll be missed.
Conqueror’s Flail. May set the record for the shortest inclusion in a deck ever. If I’m picking my moment with Yeva, hopefully worries like spot removal and Fogs will be less relevant.
Hydra Omnivore Big dumb beatstick. Really big and scary, but I’m moving away from that in this shell.
Nylea, God of the Hunt. Big dumb beatstick.
Oracle of Mul Daya. Has been on the teetering list for a while. I have other decks she may be better suited in.
Pathbreaker Ibex. Replaced with Craterhoof Behemoth
Quirion Trailblazer. This one was hard. I needed the room, and Wild Wanderer is the better 4cc acceleration.
Selvala's Stampede. Selvala, in. Stampede, out.
Woodland Bellower. I still like the tutor. He’s hanging out on the maybeboard for now.
Some Forests and the cycling lands.
In
Ancient Tomb, Gaea's Cradle, Mana Crypt, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Terrain Generator, Winding Canyons, Yavimaya Hollow. I can feel my wallet screaming.
Caustic Caterpillar, Craterhoof Behemoth, Frontier Guide, Hornet Queen, Invasive Species, Polukranos, World Eater, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Spore Frog, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, Exploration.
Chord of Calling. I can’t believe I forgot about this card. Instant speed, convoke, just all around amazing.
Primordial Sage. I seemed to be having trouble with card draw, so I added Soul of the Harvest’s red-headed stepchild.
Shamanic Revelation. Card draw again.
I can't fault you for that! I've noticed, at least with the group I usually play with, the Yeva deck already seems to draw a lot of attention, so I might as well justify their expectations! I think that 2xForest would probably be just fine in those two slots.
That makes sense. It does seem like half the time the Woodland ends up reading little more than "T: add colorless to your mana pool" in my games. I do like, though, that I can use that colorless mana the turn it comes down rather than coming into play tapped. I would say that I'm usually more happy drawing Myriad Landscape early and Blighted Woodlands late. If only the magic luck gods would make it work out so well! Both will probably continue to have a home in my deck, but I can understand a decision to take only one or the other.
It's certainly not dropping off my radar as a possible later readdition, but my reasoning revolved around the comparison to Caustic Caterpillar. The Caterpillar can potentially come down turn one and blow something up turn two. It hits everything the Slime hits except for lands (which certainly can be troublesome), and it can discourage nasty enchantments/artifacts or encourage board wipes, both of which play in the deck's favor. The lack of deathtouch is a big blow, but right now I'm more worried about the deck's early game. If I find an underpreforming card somewhere in the middle stages, though, the Slime will be right back in!
Hmm, I'll have to keep Hua Tuo in mind! I had no idea that green had that sort of recursion engine (oh, Three Kingdoms, you wild card!). The only part I don't like is the "only during your turn" clause, as it means he won't play nicely with Seedborn Muse. I will have to get some more games under my belt and see how it responds to the pressure.
Based on your and Squirrely's advise, I just put High Market in the slot that had been held by Buried Ruin. The deck is moving away from artifacts, it seems (Skullclamp might be the next one on the chopping block -- lack of instant speed equip is tanking its stock) and none of them strike me as absolutely needing recursion should they get nuked.
The ramp package in this deck is probably the fiddliest part of the whole thing. Sakura-Tribe Elder is a great spell (and starts an Elder tribal theme with Yavimaya Elder), but the sac-mechanism is what kills it for me. I prefer to have my ramp creatures stick around to count as bodies for things like Regal Force and the big overrun turn.
As for Llanowar Elves, I'm not a huge fan. I find them too fragile in the early game and too inconsequential in the mid or late game. If this were a more traditional rampy green deck looking to hew a tight 1-3-6 mana curve, sure, but I think with Yeva's focus on later stages it's probably best to avoid them. The mana dork I'm most intrigued by, and Squirrely mentioned he ran this earlier, is Joraga Treespeaker. Level-up is only at sorcery speed, unfortunately, but she does have the potential to curve out early game and be relevant late game. I'm keeping an eye on her as a possible replacement for Wild Wanderer, but right now I like the stability of physical land acceleration.
My ultimate hope is for Wizards to find something between Wood Elves and Wild Wanderer in power level in the next few sets. Maybe fetching only forests and putting them into play tapped at 3cc? I can dream.
Not at all off-topic! I'm a huge fan of The Great Aurora, so I'm glad to see that it worked so well for you. I find it works as a win condition, like you saw, almost as well as it works as an emergency reset button. Also, just on the same aside, I love the concept of Seton, Krosan Protector powered druids.
I haven't had a chance to play a game with the new list yet, sadly, but hopefully on Friday or Saturday. I have goldfished it upteenbillion times on tapped out, and I can't say that once I've been happy to draw Frontier Guide. I didn't ever mind playing it, but by the time I was able to activate its ability I was almost always on to bigger and better things. I'm dubious it would have much value in a longer, grindier game because of its vulnerability to sweepers. I think that, despite my musings the other day, BlackVise is probably correct and that slot would be better occupied by Sakura-Tribe Elder. Early game, he saccs himself to grab a T3 Yeva; late game, he is another body (who can at least do something useful in response to a sweeper).
Other cards I have been pondering include All is Dust, Creeping Corrosion, Krosan Grip, Back to Nature, Deglamer and Bind. To be honest, I am really considering an, if not ground-up, at least substantial rebuild focusing more on control spells recurred by Eternal Witness over and over again. I want to get some games with the current build down first, but I'm keeping it in mind as an option.
EDIT: So the type of decklist I would be looking for with those cards would look something like what I posted below. I haven't optimized the list at all; it's really just a pile of cards (with Freyalise's Winds bouncing somewhere around the edge of my consciousness). The idea would be to either be ramping or tutoring at end of turn or blowing everything up at sorcery speed until I'm able to get some sort of engine like Eternal Witness + Temur Sabertooth or Cloudstone Curio (preferably with Aluren backup) gets going and I pull out a grindy win. I worry that it wouldn't really be fast enough to compete with combo decks nor degenerate enough to compete with real control decks. Anyway, I'm tossing the idea out there to see what everyone thinks about it.
1x Yeva, Nature's Herald
Creatures
1x Acidic Slime
1x Bane of Progress
1x Craterhoof Behemoth
1x Deadwood Treefolk
1x Elvish Visionary
1x Essence Warden
1x Eternal Witness
1x Farhaven Elf
1x Fierce Empath
1x Genesis
1x Greenwarden of Murasa
1x Invasive Species
1x Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1x Polukranos, World Eater
1x Priest of Titania
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Regal Force
1x Riftsweeper
1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
1x Seedborn Muse
1x Shaman of Forgotten Ways
1x Spore Frog
1x Temur Sabertooth
1x Terastodon
1x Wirewood Symbiote
1x Wood Elves
1x Woodfall Primus
1x Yavimaya Granger
1x All Is Dust
1x Boundless Realms
1x Creeping Corrosion
1x Ezuri's Predation
1x Genesis Wave
1x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Natural Balance
1x Rishkar's Expertise
1x The Great Aurora
1x Wave of Vitriol
Instant
1x Back to Nature
1x Beast Within
1x Bind
1x Chord of Calling
1x Crop Rotation
1x Deglamer
1x Harrow
1x Krosan Grip
1x Momentous Fall
1x Natural Connection
Enchantments
1x Aluren
1x Burgeoning
1x Exploration
1x Greater Good
1x Night Soil
1x Sylvan Library
1x Birthing Pod
1x Cloudstone Curio
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Nevinyrral's Disk
1x Panharmonicon
1x Sol Ring
Lands
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Blighted Woodland
27x Forest
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Glacial Chasm
1x High Market
1x Myriad Landscape
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Temple of the False God
1x Terrain Generator
1x Winding Canyons
1x Yavimaya Hollow
EDIT EDIT: Forgot Ezuri's Predation. Switched it out with Roots of Life
Both games were wins, but I'm going to sound very arrogant when I say that I wasn't particularly happy with either one of them. They were both in four-player games and against decks that seemed to be having bad draws. There was very little removal in either game (Seedborn Muse once made five circuits, I think, without anyone even trying to remove it). Game number one ended in a scoop after I had used a Fauna Shaman to set up Panharmonicon, Eternal Witness, Seedborn Muse, Beast Within, Temur Sabertooth, and Spore Frog (over the course of what felt like ten turns). All the other decks were dependent on the combat step and I think the only "mass removal" anyone drew was a Living Death (which went uncast as I had dropped a Greater Good T5).
Game two quickly got Yeva out, with a Yavimaya Hollow to see her through removal. I stalled out on cards after that, having to use a Brutalizer Exarch for the removal rather than the tutor. At nine mana, I topped and desperation-played a Genesis Wave for six, which had good luck and dumped out a Karametra's Acolyte, a Shaman of Forgotten Ways, a Seedborn Muse, and a Gaea's Cradle. On my next turn, I was able to generate enough mana to activate the Shaman and drop a Craterhoof Behemoth that had been sitting in my hand since the initial grip.
Things the deck did well:
Finished. Shaman of Forgotten Ways + overrun effect is backbreaking. Also, on the control side, it's pretty dominating once it gets going.
Fauna Shaman. This card had been on my watchlist, but its performance in game one has me thinking I might need Survival of the Fittest too.
Intimidated people. Caustic Caterpillar I think way over performed simply by being artifact/enchanment hate sitting around where everyone could see it. Also, players often skipped lines of play for fear of what I might have in hand (or, with Fauna Shaman out, what I might tutor for.
Things I would like to improve:
Card draw. There were several times the deck seemed to stall out on cards. I had been looking at Nissa, Vital Force anyway, and these games seem to confirm my thinking.
Sometimes slow to start. I think I got lucky that no one else was able to seize the games from me as we headed into double digit turns. I've certainly seen the decks I was playing against go crazy. I think that some more early artifact hate might be helpful, to nuke mana rocks?
My goal over the weekend is to edit the OP to reflect more the new decklist, update the card-by-card discussion, and pose more questions that reflect the current status of the deck. Hopefully without tripping any spam filters!
And, on a non-Yeva related note, my other commander games were a disaster last night lol. Sram, Senior Edificer had to make a judgment call about which other player to eliminate (and chose incorrectly; he died to a trampling 27/27 Patron of the Orochi that was snake offering-ed in at the end of my turn). Borborygmos Enraged did even worse, dropping a 31/31 Realm Seekers just to see it stolen and used to alpha strike me by Scion of the Ur-Dragon before my next turn.
Thanks for saying so! We should be playing again this Friday; I'll be sure to update the post with more reflections then. Also, the first game was against Godo, Bandit Warlord, Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, and some sort of group hug commander I hadn't seen before. The second game was late at night, and all I remember is one guy was borrowing my Xira Arien Jund control deck and someone else had Bruna, Light of Alabaster. My playgroup is the same six or seven guys, depending on availability, but we each have 5-15 EDH decks in various stages of competitiveness so there is quite a bit of diversity to the meta still. I'm making sure to cycle Yeva in for at least one game a night, though.
In order:
-I give Greater Good five out of five stars. I hadn't actually thought about the Living Death interaction either, but the fellow playing Oloro and holding the LD had and he was kind enough to tell me after the game.
-You're right about this archetype and, although I've said this several times now, I should have listening to you. I was surprised at how virulent my hate was in the first game too. Even the ability to survive hate almost counts as control, as I had some times in the second game where my board tempted out a wrath effect, but through shenanigans I was always the one who ended up on the better end of other people's removal. I'm looking to move the deck further toward the control end of the spectrum, especially by trimming the win conditions down to just two cards.
-Good call on the Caustic Caterpillar. I think Viridian Zealot should merit some consideration and I added it to the maybe-board in the OP. Not having to tap to activate its ability is huge.
-On planeswalkers, I realize I said Nissa, Worldwaker but meant Nissa, Vital Force. Oops. I edited that above. Also, you're right that my group hates unreasonably on planeswalkers. After the last few games, though, I think there's going to be plenty of hate coming my way regardless. But yeah, man, Nissa, Vastwood Seer is a great call. I didn't realize the +1 of her flip side was card advantage. I'm sold. I'll try to find a place for her too. Good call. I agree with most of your assessment of the planeswalkers, though, and I don't think I'd consider one that wasn't card advantage.
-I think it's a good idea to start looking into cantrip creatures. I'll do a deep dive later and edit this with any gems I find. I do recommend Masked Admirers, if you're not already running it. Seems like a great engine for the deck late game. I do have another deck that runs Stampeding Wildebeest, and I have to say they're great. Like, so good that I often forget they're a 5/4 trampler and don't swing with them on an open board. I'm not sure I like them for where my deck is right now, but more focus on cantrippers to replace draw spells could change that.
I think it's a bit late for me to fly under the radar, sadly. That's good that we're having the discussion about both philosophies, though -- one version of the deck for known metas, one for more unknown. You're certainly right, though, that the deck is deceptively controlling and resilient. It's ability to tempt out removal and then survive that removal -- Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, Temur Sabertooth, Genesis, etc -- better than other decks is huge. I feel like the deck has a good matchup with other control decks and midrange-value decks; it's fast combo I worry more about. For instance I've seen that Godo, Bandit Warlord deck I mentioned artifact accelerate itself to the point where T5 or T6 it was swinging with a Godo holding Shield of Kaldra and Worldslayer. Nuking the early mana rocks slows it down enough that I can deal with that line of play (Spore Frog lock, Brutalizer Exarch, etc.) as well as some of the other degenerate stuff that ends up happening.
That having been said, I can see playing online mostly it would be better to stay subtle and not draw hate. And I did love the rattlesnake effect of Caustic Caterpillar. I also don't mind turns that are mostly draw-go, although I have just enough blue mage in me that I prefer draw-go-draw-again-at-the-end-of-your-turn.
Do you mind if I ask where/how you play online? I seem to have more free time now to think about Magic, but only a semi-regular Friday night game and would love to get some more playing in.
Thanks! And I would absolutely love to see your decklist -- if you prefer, I can add a link to it in the OP with some disclaimer like "This list assumes a known meta where this deck will be a prime target; for a meta where Yeva is less known, check out Squirrely's list here." I think seeing your creature/draw/control balances will help me get some of my bearings too.
Hah! Be sure to keep it with the typo and all. *listened
-- I like Molder Slug a lot. I never really mind nuking my own artifacts, and at a certain point it seems to become positively an asset to be able to sac Mana Crypt. It's been so long since 8e/Mirroden that I had absolutely forgotten it.
-- With Dawnstrider, I think I'm starting to move a bit away from redundant spell slots. My list is moving towards more of a toolbox, with tutors available to pull out the right answer. I like Dawnstrider and run her in a different deck, but I think she's the third best tool for the job (after Spore Frog and Spike Weaver). Redundancy is never a bad thing, of course, but there are only so many deck slots that I feel comfortable playing around with. Spore Flower fits into that same category.
-- Mycoloth certainly becomes more attractive with flash, and it's a great way to turn those redundant Wood Elves and what have you. Enough Saproling focus and maybe Psychotrope Thallid would even be an option...
-- I think Hornet Nest is my favorite suggestion of all of these. I remember the card, and run it in a deck paired with Blasphemous Act, but I would have never thought of how much better it is in mono-green with flash. The fight option is just gravy. That's terrific thinking. I may have to find a deck slot for this.
-- Skullwinder, I think, suffers a bit from the "second-best tool" problem that I had with Dawnstrider. In a deck with less tutoring and recursion, I might consider it -- but I think Deadwood Treefolk would be my next recursion include. If only Skullwinder worked more like a Nullmage Advocate where I got to pick their card...
-- Elvish Skysweeper and Radjan Spirit -- I'm really high on the Spore Frog / Spike Weaver thing right now as a way to "deal" with flyers, with Timbermare as backup to deal with things that trigger on attack. They're worth keeping in mind, but if I were to add a dedicated anti-flyer, it would probably be Arashi, the Sky Asunder
Right now, I'm pretty sure that Survival of the Fittest will replace Birthing Pod and Tooth and Nail will replace Yisan, the Wanderer Bard. Especially since the 4cc mana acceleretors went away, I don't think either chain is worth pursuing in comparison to other green creature tutors. Skullclamp is probably the next cut in my mind, possibly for a Nissa variant or Molder Slug. I haven't decided where Hornet Nest will fit in; I'll have to give it some more thought.
Cheers!
* -- huh. I wonder what happens when I take a Theros god that is a creature, but it becomes not a creature because I don't have the devotion. This is the sort of rules question I usually bring to my friend who plays Volrath Shapeshifter decks.
WHICH leads me to my primary concern: you have the card marked as "watchlist." Does that mean it's still in testing, or that it hasn't earned its keep? I'm dreadfully curious -- I'm probably going to fall asleep tonight thinking of all the shenanigans I could get up to with Willow Satyr.
Other than that, I can see a few of our deckbuilding differences played out in the card choices. That's not meant as a criticism at all! Since my meta is so ossified, I don't really value a "mystery of the unknown" or things like playing politics, and I think it's great to hear an outside opinion on things. If Skullwinder will help you to play your enemies, then I think it would be a great option. I know in my group there's a decided suspicion of players who help each other out; everyone usually gangs up to beat up the grouphug guy first because he's helping all of our opponents.
Speaking of which, tutors. I think this might be another place where our decks start to diverge slightly based on personal taste. I'll start by saying that, most of the time, I agree with you. I usually build decks that power through with huge draw spells -- I think I own at least seven or eight Recurring Insights -- but I believe that what I'm trying to do with my version of the deck, and with the amount of hate it's going to have to fight through, and the fact that I'm not ACTUALLY in blue means that I'll have to rely more on tutors. It's a green, creature-based deck; green is the best at tutoring creatures. I can totally see your side of things too. If I were using the T&N to fetch Craterhoof Behemoth and Avenger of Zendikar time after time, I think it would get pretty stale. Luckily, I don't have the Avenger in my deck at the moment. The combo I see myself searching out most often is probably Seedborn Muse and Temur Sabertooth to set up a value engine. I might be wrong, and it might end up warping things to the point where I cut it in disgust -- look for my next post telling you that you were right and I should have listened to you in a week or two.
As for Yisan, he's hanging on by a rope right now. If I were making the changes immediately, he'd be out. But I haven't actually played with him in a live game so he might be better than I think. I just hate having to work him through the chain up to the creatures I actually want. In goldfishing, every time I drew him I seemed to have something better and more interesting to do with his mana than to pay three to play a Wirewood Symbiote or a Elvish Visionary. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and see if he does anything in an actual game situation.
My plan is to play my next series of games with the decklist that's currently in the OP. If I were to change things today, however, and assuming I already owned all these cards, I would:
Temple of the False God -> Forest. It hasn't happened yet in a real game, thank god, but there have been several tests where I ended up with an unplayable board state that would have been off to the races if this was a basic land.
Birthing Pod and Yisan, the Wanderer Bard -> Tooth and Nail and Survival of the Fittest. I talked about this above.
Ulvenwald Hydra -> Willow Satyr. Fetching a land is neat and all, but I could do that for one mana with Crop Rotation. If I decide I need more land tutors, I'll do that -- or Realm Seekers
Skullclamp -> Hornet Nest. I think that's too cute to not at least try. And the clamps have not been pulling their weight.
Carpet of Flowers -> Molder Slug? Maybe. I like the Slug, but I'm not sure what else I would want to cut. People never seem to play islands when I have the Carpet (but then they have tons when I don't. Grumble).
EDIT: I'm doing the TotFG to Forest thing now. I'm sick of that hanging over my head.
For the rules question, that's more or less what I had thought. I'll run it by the guys in my playgroup on Friday to make double sure. Two of the decks that keep me up longest at night (not really - thinking about Willow Satyr keeps me up at night) are that Erebos, God of the Dead MBC I mentioned and a Purphoros, God of the Forge token swarm. They usually don't accumulate enough devotion to let their commanders become creatures, but it would be nice to have an answer if they did. Right now, Brutalizer Exarch and The Great Aurora are the only real outs I have to a card like that, and the exarch wouldn't work if they were a creature. I feel like, over the course of typing this paragraph, I'm talking myself into Deglamer.
For the Satyr (yes, still obsessed with that), I'm glad to hear that you're giving it another shot. I think if you combine it with Greater Good, High Market, and Momentous Fall, it'll really shine. I mean, for that Sigarda game, Willow Satyr and Greater Good together would have read "tap this creature: destroy target Avacyn (even though she's indestructible), draw eight cards and discard three." Even if it was only gain a life (High Market), I think the ability is totally worth it. I might just be living in magical christmas land, of course. Even without a sac mechanic on board, you can wait until someone attacks you and then jack their legendary creature.
As for the money, I see that Willow Satyr at least made it onto the Reserved List, so it probably won't be losing too much value unless EDH ceases to be a popular format. I think I will invest in one and test it out. Worst case scenario, it's a very pretty card to sit in my binder!
Could have fooled me, your English is impeccable! Better than mine, probably as I tend to type fast and disdain proofreading.
For the mystery of the unknown, I totally agree that the draw-go style of Yeva is most of the fun for me. I do think, too, that most people sitting down to a table with her will go something along the lines of "not Azusa or Omnath, probably not powerful" which can certainly work to her advantage -- as your game report showed! Unfortunately, I've now trained my group to say "Crap, Yeva, let's get him first!"
Well, I can guarantee that I have never once intentionally abandoned a winning position -- though I have missed that I could have won before, that's just down to my poor judgment! I mostly wanted to chime in and say that I agree with your position on this 100%. I don't think you meant to imply that I toyed with people or anything, I just agree with you very strongly on this one. It might play into my own disdain of group-hug strategies -- I assume that everyone at a table has sat down with the intention of winning as quickly and efficiently as possible within their chosen archetype and theme. My group tends to churn through the games pretty quickly; we usually get 3-4 games each of EDH and non-EDH multiplayer into a five-six hour play session, so we don't have time for plays that extend the game for no reason. Wiping the board to prevent yourself from losing is fine; wiping the board to prevent yourself from winning will get you dirty looks.
He does make for a huge body, and the land tutoring is very relevant -- especially if I'm planning to use High Market as a combo with Willow Satyr. Cuts are getting to be very difficult at this point!
Wow! Really put my own game reports to shame, there! I might have to start taking notes to keep up.
The game sounds like it was fun, and it's pretty awesome the way you were able to play them off of each other. I'm still a mite cool on the Regal Behemoth, but I'm glad to hear that it was so effective for you. I will keep him on my radar for sure. And that win off the Shaman of Forgotten Ways -- terrific! I have sometimes thought about that sort of win, but it sounded like a fairy tale in my head, so I'm glad to see there's a situation where it actually came to pass. Like you, I'm also coming to be of the opinion that Yeva seems to recover better from mass destruction than other decks will, including the decks that cast the destruction in the first place. Bounce is of course the best for someone else to cast -- "oh, Evacuation you say? DELICIOUS!" -- but I've found that I can grind with even black decks to an adequate degree off destroy effects. That may come to be another hallmark separating Yeva-control decks from Yeva-goodstuff and other green decks.
Re: Regal Behemoth. You're starting to trigger a renaissance on my thinking about that card. Especially with the point about flashing it in at EOT for surprise double mana. I very well might test it this friday in place of Zendikar Resurgent. Losing the Primordial Sage effect on the ZR will suck, but maybe the card draw from the monarchy will make up for it. The more I think about it, the more I like the way you've been describing it. I'm going to sleep on it to make sure, but that could very well be a switch I'll make.
Re: Greater Good. I don't think you'll regret that (or Momentous Fall if you try them both). ESPECIALLY if you leave Willow Satyr in! hehe. I always remember that Yeva is a 4/4 and I can usually make enough mana to cast her out of the command zone again. The Momentous Fall I think you'll really like -- there are much cheaper options for the same thing in green, but none at instant speed (unless you count Evolutionary Leap or something -- that's a great card too but I can't make room for it).
Re: Flyers. I'm hoping to address that problem with the Spore Frog / Timbermare soft lock and increased tutoring. Let me know if any of your proposed solutions bear fruit! I will say that I run Cloudthresher in a Horde of Notions-led 5 color sort-of-elemental-tribal-but-mostly-goodstuff deck, and I have not yet been impressed by the 'thresher once.
Re: Velocity. If you can find room for Masked Admirers, I fully recommend it. And I'll toss out another endorsement for Wirewood Symbiote and Invasive Species as far as the "bouncing your own stuff" category goes.
Re: Ohran Viper: I guess my biggest problem is that it has to connect to do its thing, and if all your opponents have a 3/x creature, it doesn't really do much (maybe trade whatever creature blocks it). I'd recommend Masked Admirers over the snake if it comes down to a fight for deckspace between the two. Having played the Viper several times in other decks, it has not failed to be one of my first cuts.
Re: Reincarnation: This, on the other hand, I love. I must have missed it back in the original commander, and I very much doubt that any decks will be expecting this effect from green. I'd say that if you're considering this, you HAVE to try the Greater Good! The two cards seem almost made for one another. I'll keep an eye on my recursion package; Greenwarden of Murasa has been holding my eye for a while as "not reliable / effective enough."
I don't really have many new ideas at the moment, I'm afraid. I had forgotten about how excited I was over Nissa, Vastwood Seer. She'll probably get a deckslot ahead of Molder Slug, though I would like to find room for both. I'm going to have to go over the list with a fine-tooth comb and see where the fat can be trimmed. My initial reaction is "Acidic Slime", but I already know what your reaction will be =P
Also, yeah, I'm almost certain that Regal Behemoth will replace Zendikar Resurgent. That seems brilliant.
Willow Satyr: I've gone on about this card at some length. It does just about everything I've wanted from this deck.
Tooth and Nail: In testing, I don't think this card has been either too abusive or too sorcery speed. I'll see how it works in an actual game.
Survival of the Fittest: I'm moving towards a toolbox-and-tutor setup, so this lets me cut down on redundancy.
Nissa, Vastwood Seer: I really like this card in testing. I've been assuming I'll only ever get one use out of her as a planeswalker, unless I can protect her with a Timbermare or something.
Molder Slug: Part of my new "I HATE MANA ROCKS" package.
Wave of Vitriol: See above. This miiight turn into Seeds of Innocence; right now, I like its game against Theros gods.
Creeping Corrosion: I HATE MANA ROCKS.
Forest: Replacing Temple of the False God
Miren, the Moaning Well: I like the Willow Satyr / High Market interaction so much I'm adding backup.
Crop Rotation: And backup to the backup.
Regal Behemoth: You sold me on this, Squirrley. I'll give it a whirl.
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard: He's just too slow and too conditional for me.
Birthing Pod: See above. Plus, it's an artifact, and I don't like those now.
Compost: Too conditional. If green gets some way to shift its color hate around, it might come back.
Skullclamp: Too sorcery speed.
Carpet of Flowers: See re: compost
Terrain Generator: Never seemed to be worth it. If I was land-flooded in my hand, I usually had drawn so many cards that I had better things to do with my mana.
Zendikar Resurgent: Testing a replacement with Regal Behemoth.
Ulvenwald Hydra: I really only liked it for the land tutor. Replaced by Crop Rotation for 1/6th the cost.
Temple of the False God: Lost its job to a basic land.
Ezuri's Predation: As I start to worry less and less about the combat phase, the sorts of threats this protects against become less relevant. It doesn't really kill anything truly threatening, and the beasts are largely irrelevant.
The Great Aurora: This one was hard. It's just too much mana for what it does. Replaced with Wave of Vitriol for now, with All is Dust on deck.
Boundless Realms: The deck seems to make most of its mana over land quality rather than quantity. This might become a Sylvan Scrying, or a better land tutor if I can find one. Maybe even a Ulvenwald Hydra again.
Exploration: I don't know what I would use to replace it, but I'm not sure this is making adequate use of its deckspace.
Acidic Slime: May turn into more tutor (Worldly Tutor perhaps).
Greenwarden of Murasa: A worse backup Eternal Witness that costs ten million mana and exiles itself. What a bum. May turn into Riftsweeper.
Seeds of Innocence: I HATE MANA ROCKS!
All is Dust: JK, I hate all colored permanents. I wish there was some way to combo this with Kamahl. Noo, he just can't make lands into 1/1 GREEN creatures, can he? Laziest Fist of Krosa ever. I'll bet Baru can make lands have a color. Maybe we'll get my dream and have another Planar Chaos type set that adds chromamancy to green's color pie.
Nissa, Vital Force and Garruk, Primal Hunter: I am so desperate for card draw in green.
I wish I had some game reports to post. Hopefully next week. I'll be updating the OP to reflect these changes.
You can never have enough card draw. Once you get the card draw going you might have extra in hand, but making sure you get it in the first place is key to any green deck looking to ramp and play out multiple things every turn.
I'd put in Garruk, Primal Hunter and Memory Jar. Memory Jar is restricted and banned in other formats for a reason.
I can't stress this enough, but Summoner's Pact is just simply amazing in this type of deck. 99.9% of the time is to get Seedborn Muse. The fact that you are playing out creatures each players turn, negates the fact that you have to spend 4 mana in your own turn. Same with Natural Order, will often be used for Seedborn Muse, rather than a finisher.
I do think 37 lands is a lot for a deck that only has Exploration to put in extra lands into play. Either you need Oracle of Mul Daya, Courser of Kruphix and Azusa, Lost but Seeking, or to take the land count down to justify. I'd either make it 35 lands, or get those extra land into play cards into the deck.
Cards that I think are weakest in your deck are Panharmonicon and Cloudstone Curio. With so much mass artifact removal these become much worse.
Least helpful creatures are: Timbermare, Masked Admirers, Spore Frog.
Replace Spore Frog with Sylvan Safekeeper. I'd straight up play Spike Weaver over Timbermare for defense.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Thanks! I've had a lot of help getting it into the current state on this thread.
And, yeah, I agree about the card draw. Memory Jar is a card that I love, despite my current turn away from artifacts in general. I was able to get some non-EDH games in last night and I was on the receiving end of the Jar; it was shocking how effective it can be in the right build. I don't think I'll be able to acquire one for a while (I've blown my Magic budget for March on Gaea's Cradle alone, heh) but I really like that suggestion.
For Garruk, Primal Hunter, I think my only hesitation is a mental block on my end: I keep seeing him as a planeswalker and thinking that I need to activate his +1 ability before his -3. Of course, I should think of him more as a Soul's Majesty that doesn't care about spot removal instead. But, yeah, I can get over that mental hurdle and he is pretty solid draw in the shell.
You had me at "hello." Summoner's Pact is a brilliant idea. Like Memory Jar, I'll have to wait a bit before purchasing it (unless I find one for trade), but it'll find a deckslot as soon as I have my hands on one.
I'm not so sure about this, as I have found in testing that the deck tends to get mana-screwed much more often than it gets mana-flooded. And, with mulligans, I don't think I've ever had a live game where I felt like I was drawing too much land. There's a pretty high curve in the deck -- an average ~3.7cc after my most recent changes -- and most of the ramp is at the 3-4cc slot, which is about where I'd want to be casting Yeva. I vaguely remember that to be casting a 4cc card on T4 reliably (assuming no ramp) requires ~25 lands in a 60 card deck, which is ~41 lands in an EDH deck. I bumped down to 37 due to some of the busted cards like Mana Crypt in the deck, but based on my testing I'm not sure I would be comfortable going much lower.
They say that sometimes you need to chop off a limb to save a tree.
Cloudstone Curio and Panharmonicon are two of my favorite cards in Magic, but I regretfully think that you're absolutely right in your estimation of them in this particular deck, especially as the artifact hate I run accelerates. The Curio will probably vanish immediately, maybe for Garruk, Primal Hunter (to be replaced by the more busted cards once I acquire them). The Panharmonicon I'm a bit more attached to -- I remember buying out a store at $1.50 back when Kaladesh first came out and then watching in smug satisfaction as their price climbed. I'm not 100% convinced that it's not busted with all the ETB effects that this deck runs, but you're right in that I will have to take a long, hard look at whether or not it's actually helping me win.
I'm not sold on Sylvan Safekeeper. I haven't found spot removal to be a huge threat to this deck, and it does have some powerful recursion engines. Also, it seems to be very capable of operating even without Seedborn Muse, so I'm not ready to sell the farm to protect her. Spore Frog I think is a bit of a weaker card, but I have been glad of its 1cc cost several times when I'm tutoring to prevent a lethal swing but at the end of my rope in mana.
Timbermare, on the other hand, I think is one of the most effective cards in this deck. I don't look at it even primarily as defense (though I do think it does that job better than Spike Weaver, as it stops Oldrazi annihilator and other obnoxious "on attack" triggers). The best use, in my opinion, is dropping in at EOT to tap out the field, followed by me untapping for turn and swinging in with the Behemoth or Kamahl and their friends. This deck doesn't really put bodies onto the field at a huge pace, so I need to make the most out of every single attacker and tapping out opposing defenses helps me push over the top.
----
I really appreciate your ideas. Getting me to take a hard look at sacred cows like Panharmonicon and Cloudstone Curio is huge, and I think you're right in that changing them out will really improve the quality of the deck. I'm also in love with Summoner's Pact and Memory Jar -- convenient that there seems to be two and two there?
Thank you so much!
It'll give you an idea of some of the pitfalls of running cards like these. I put the Cloudstone Curio in the same category.
The other reason I don't like them is that this deck should only have a limited number of non creature cards. These have to be premium.
Sylvan Safekeeper is one of those cards that does a surprising amount of work, sometimes without you knowing it. Its like Mother of Runes, people just can't play into it, so you don't end up sacrificing lands that much. Its more that it can nullify removal where its strength lies. If you don't run into much spot removal, then maybe you are playing weaker decks. Be ready for removal once you get to more controlling matchups. Also in a toolbox setup (Survival of the Fittest, Fauna Shaman, Cord of Calling , etc), its nice to have one of any creature for a situation. Many the time has Sylvan Safekeeper been the card to tutor for in response to removal. With Yeeva, the 1 cmc is especially good as holding up say 1 mana for Survival or Fauna, then having another 1 mana to cast it, is pretty great.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
The version I've been goldfishing for the past couple hours adds Memory Jar, Summoner's Pact, Garruk, Primal Hunter, and Sylvan Safekeeper and removes Cloudstone Curio, Panharmonicon, Spore Frog, and Boundless Realms. I won't actually be able to make any of those changes for a week or so, but it's nice to get a feel for the deck.
Sylvan Safekeeper actually has had a bit of a renewal in my mind. I didn't realize that it had been reprinted in Commander 14 with different art. That might sound silly, but as a devout arachnophobe a card with a prominent and realistically rendered spider made me subconsciously exaggerate its flaws and minimize its strengths. I'm still not 100% sold, but it's worth testing. Bummer that the errata made him a human instead of an elf.
Just remember when you're play with Sylvan Safekeeper, that you keep it in mind as your toolbox for possible tutor in response to something on the stack, and this card will be much better for you.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I have used Craterhoof Behemoth with Yeeva as a defense maneuver in response to Blasphemous Act, which was pretty nice saving all my creatures. I think you could keep both of these cards in..hint, hint Masked Admirers cya.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I'm not convinced that the Avenger will contribute positively to the game plan, I'm afraid. At least in my testing, I seemed to generate enough bodies to keep my hand stocked and my final swing lethal in most games. In fact, in most games I seemed to prefer going tall to going wide. I might switch out Shamanic Revelation for Soul's Majesty and take my chances with instant-speed spot removal.
Speaking of spot removal, I've had some more thoughts regarding Sylvan Safekeeper. I'll toss them below in reply to Squirrely's thoughts on creatures.
I do agree with Masked Admirers being a bit of a weak link. I liked it for its self-recursion and ability to help recover from a wrath effect. I would like to test it a bit more before dumping it. However, if I am going to replace it, I feel like it would be better to go smaller in cc, not bigger. I was actually thinking about Joraga Treespeaker, as it seems that most of my problems come during the early set-up turns. She's an elf, helps me hit Seedborn Muse mana on T3 if I should be lucky enough to draw one, and T1 Treespeaker into T2 levelup+Priest of Titania is a huge boost, giving ~7 mana T3.
I'm still hesitant to abandon the Admirers, as I feel that one of the best thing this deck does (that other green decks don't) is extend into, tempt out, and then recover quickly from creature wraths.
I'm sort of surprised that I'm the only advocate for Timbermare here. I'll agree that it's not a "good card" in a conventional sense, but I really think it is the best defensive option. It's the only one of the creatures that has its ability tied to ETB, it stops things like Annihilator, Myriad, and the various red effects that deal non-combat damage based on attacking creatures. Especially with the Oldrazi, I don't think that's a fringe scenario. Sure, you have to be a little more proactive about knowing when to tap down someone's board, but by the time the game state has advanced to the point where this is a realistic option, I feel like Yeva will have become the obvious target. And if you have a Temur Sabertooth and six mana open (not an unusual situation for a developed board state), it's effectively six mana per turn to keep each opponent under a Sleep. Added to its offensive potential, I don't think Timbermare will ever lose its place in my deck.
I do prefer Spore Frog of the other "fog" effects, as Squirrely said, because of how cheap it is. The recursion is trickier than with Spike Weaver or Timbermare, but it's a great emergency option.
I had a chance to sleep on Sylvan Safekeeper last night, and I have to say that it didn't help the poor fellow's case too much. I was thinking about why I hadn't worried too much about spot removal before, and it occurred to me that was because I had three different (well, two and a half really) other options for protecting against spot removal.
First, and most expensive, is Temur Sabertooth. It takes six mana plus tutoring costs to save a creature, but its certainly has the best game against Wrath effects. And its a great tutor target just in general.
Second, there's Invasive Species. It's only three mana plus tutoring and is about as effective against spot removal, adding protecting Gaea's Cradle or other non-creatures to its resume, but not as effective against wraths.
And there's also Wirewood Symbiote, which can only protect elves but only costs one mana plus tutoring and adds some utility to its bounce effect.
Now, I know that there are plenty of scenarios where bouncing is not as good as shrouding (unless you have the mana production to slam whatever you bounced right back into play). But all these options protect against wrath effects far more effectively -- and in my experience there are more of those -- and they don't burn a land in doing so. At least for now, I'm going to keep Spore Frog in the slot over Sylvan Safekeeper