inevitabilityuriko

Commander / EDH* Aggro Competitive Control Multiplayer Stax UB (Dimir)

drippyCat

Lands (29)

• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 7x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Mutavault
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave

Nonjas (8)

• 1x Ornithopter
• 1x Faerie Seer
• 1x Mausoleum Wanderer
• 1x Sage of Epityr
• 1x Sidisi's Faithful
• 1x Siren Stormtamer
• 1x Wingcrafter
• 1x Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive

Staples (3)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Rhystic Study

Evasion (2)

• 1x Smoke Shroud
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine

Burns (1)

• 1x Street Wraith

Counters (14)

• 1x Dispel
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Delay
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Negate
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Misdirection
• 1x Commandeer

Stax (9)

• 1x Chains of Mephistopheles
• 1x Cursed Totem
• 1x Damping Sphere
• 1x Null Rod
• 1x Arcane Laboratory
• 1x Ashiok, Dream Render
• 1x Back to Basics
• 1x Damping Matrix
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils

Removal (8)

• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Umezawa's Jitte
• 1x Force of Despair
• 1x Snuff Out
• 1x Submerge
• 1x Curtains' Call
• 1x Consign / Oblivion

Ramp (2)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Mox Amber

Recursion (1)

• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Commander (1)

Ninjas (9)

• 1x Changeling Outcast
• 1x Mothdust Changeling
• 1x Universal Automaton
• 1x Amoeboid Changeling
• 1x Metallic Mimic
• 1x Shapesharer
• 1x Skeletal Changeling
• 1x Skullsnatcher
• 1x Mistblade Shinobi

Manipulation (8)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Scroll Rack

Turns (5)

• 1x Capture of Jingzhou
• 1x Temporal Manipulation
• 1x Time Warp
• 1x Temporal Mastery
• 1x Temporal Trespass

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Maybeboard

Interesting (26)

• 1x Chalice of the Void
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Duress
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 1x Opt
• 1x Personal Tutor
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Thoughtseize
• 1x Unearth
• 1x Ancestral Knowledge
• 1x Legacy's Allure
• 1x Mission Briefing
• 1x Run Away Together
• 1x Nature's Ruin
• 1x Perish
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Massacre
• 1x Mindbreak Trap
• 1x Contagion
• 1x Discovery / Dispersal
• 1x Dig Through Time

Bois (11)

• 1x Cabal Therapist
• 1x Galerider Sliver
• 1x Hope of Ghirapur
• 1x Mistcaller
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Spellstutter Sprite
• 1x Moonglove Changeling
• 1x Phantom Ninja
• 1x Venomous Changeling
• 1x Sakashima's Student

Too-expensive (4)

• 1x Abjure
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Oppression
• 1x Karn, the Great Creator

Win-more (9)

• 1x Mist-Syndicate Naga
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Walker of Secret Ways
• 1x Ingenious Infiltrator
• 1x Insidious Dreams
• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Ninja of the Deep Hours
• 1x Sakashima the Impostor
• 1x Spark Double

Not-asymmetrical (4)

• 1x Sphere of Resistance
• 1x Winter Orb
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Trinisphere

Find-a-slot-for-this (2)

• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Spectral Sailor

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This is retired, its successor is streamlined, faster, and more reliable: yurikontrol-aggro

Winrate: 3 / 11
(2 games I lost from tiny misplays chip damage misplays,
0 lost from not playing safely early game)

Life total as inevitability

The point of cEDH is to win, by any means necessary. One avenue to victory is constructing a game plan that puts huge tactical/strategic constraints on the opponent(s) to find a profitable attack on your game plan. If your attack cannot be easily dealt with strategically, you do not need to protect it as much with deck construction or in-game decisions/resources.

I would argue that reducing opponents' life totals to 0 is an underrated, inevitable win condition in my current cEDH meta. Inevitable in the sense that, the other decks are terrible at it and stand no chance if the game goes long and that's what it comes down to. Our games already trend this way. Importantly, none of these decks regain life, and they often seek to spend life greedily.

On a side note, I controversially contend that combo-less decks are underrated in cEDH at large but it is always relative to the meta

My meta for context

My meta used to consists of:

some r/cedh & discord decks.

- First Sliver food chain
- Thrasios Tymna sacred hulk
- Kykar divergent transformations
- Tymna Kraum opus thief
- Kess consultation
- Kess storm / doomsday
- Thras Tymna consultation scepter
- Urza powered scepter
- JVP high tide
- Najeela "tempo"
- Meta Pod
- Sacred Hulk
- Gitrog
- Korvold Food Chain
- etc.

and some of the above players also running spice

- Nexus Derevi
- Nin / Keranos Control
- Mizzix combo

At this point my meta has kind of changed... it's become even more slow, staxy, and controlling. Many of the top tier decks aren't seeing much play in recent weeks in favor of tier 2 or 3 decks. Probably because variety is the spice of life

Most of those decks is a variation of "interactive combo". More importantly, they cannot win without comboing. Yes, games have gone long and grindy and gotten to beats, but none of them rely or plan on that. Part of this is that my particular meta sandbags winning often since the players run higher than average counter spell density, rarely tap out if anyone could potentially win, and often play chicken trying 'combo last' after most answers have been played out. Part of the tension is that counter spells are being used both to stop and protect combos, and backup plans are always combos.

Importantly, I don't have to deal with "high power" beat down decks, or hatebear decks like Blood Pod, Captain Sissay (rip), Derevi (usually), etc. In effect, none of these decks (other than Najeela) can turn to beats as a plan.

What beats interactive combo?

A control deck with an inevitable win con is historically the strongest answer (looking mainly at mtg theory from Legacy, Modern, and some Standard). To apply this to 4 player cEDH a few things should be tweaked.

Countering an opponent's combo loses you a card while the two other non-involved players gain relative card advantage. It also likely means two players have less mana available. So decks seeking to control in some fashion often dip into stax effects, especially those they can break parity on. They provide longer lasting control, can be deployed proactively, and can shut down multiple opponents at once.

Typically, the 'control' decks in cEDH still use combos to finish (e.g.- 4C curious control, 4C divergent control, Tasigur decks, Baral decks, Rashmi decks, MAN decks, etc.). For a truly inevitable win con, it should not be a combo. All of the other decks are already built to deal with combos.

Yuriko as a solution

Yuriko supports an inevitable control strategy in a multi-faceted way.
- enables control by providing card advantage if she can draw 1 extra card each turn
- if attackers can get through unblocked, she will not cost more than , avoiding commander tax
- her commander ninjutsu ability allows her to hit the field without the opportunity to be countered
- her triggered ability for ninjas hitting is not going to get countered
- the triggered ability affects all opponents providing a steady clock
- cEDH interative combo decks cannot protect their life total, regain life, and if they use necropotence, ad naus, mana crypt, Razaketh, etc. they seek to spend their life
- Blue and black is arguably the strongest two-color pairing offering card advantage, tutors, and counter magic
- due to her exact wording, she breaks parity on some of the strongest stax cards. Additionally, the deck can be built to play around even more hate cards:
Chains of Mephistopheles
Cursed Totem
Null Rod
Grafdigger's Cage
Back to Basics
Arcane Laboratory

This deck looks weird...

Control and disruption. Prioritizing prolonging the game over advancing my own game plan

I realize this may differ from many (most?) Yuriko builds. I built this deck from a bottom-up perspective, trying to develop a "combo-less" control list for a new meta after moving to a new city.

The emphasis on "combo-less" control is important. So while there are changling creatures in the deck, this is not ninja tribal. The changlings acts as 1 and 2 mana draw engines (think of the plethora of draw engines in Curious Control). Yes, they also speed up the clock, but I don't want to tap out and not hold up interaction just to "win faster". They are primarily a means to providing me with resources (counters, stax, land drops).

Similarly, there are stax pieces in this list. But this is not a stax-focused list. These serve as asymmetrical road blocks to opponents and should be deployed properly. I'm not seeking to "hard lock" the table. Most decks run removal to deal with these cards, so don't think you've locked anyone out and start playing greedily. The name of the game is inevitability.

This is also not necessarily a list optimized to take advantage of Yuriko herself. While she is critical to the game plan by providing reliable card advantage and a clock, I'm not trying to play voltron, or focus on flipping Draco / Emrakul damage with her. I'm flipping about 1.9 damage per trigger, so pilot like a marathon, not a sprint.

Also, I'm not jammming every time walk card. At first I only played Temporal Trespass and Temporal Mastery because they cheat on mana cost, but I've recently added the 5 cmc ones as well. So when looking at these cards, I'm never focusing on chaining turns to win. That may happen, but the goal is control. In opening hands these cards are dead. In the early game these cards are mostly dead, though they can be pitched to free cast spells. However, since so much of the list is dedicated to prolonging the game, these somewhat fill out a package of securing late game resource advantage. A typical use case might be: I have 7 mana available, Yuriko and a ninja or two on board, at least 1-2 opponents aren't set to attempt wins in this turn cycle. The extra mana lets me hold up interaction in case my turn spell gets countered, but I probably won't try to protect it. However, if it does resolve, I can draw extra cards, deploy a permanent, untap, draw again with combat triggers, and hold up even more interaction. Basically they fill a role of late game asymmetric resource development.

I do have some admittedly greedy cards in this list, like Sword of Feast and Famine. These cards are kind of like test slots. So far my meta hasn't found great ways to fight this deck, but when they do, those slots could be replaced with answers to their adaptations.

Finally, this is just a brew. There's probably mistakes and sub-par choices in here, so if you have feedback / questions just reach out to me!

How I pilot this deck

Maybe this build will get better, but right now it is rough. The card quality and evenness of opening hands is nowhere near a top tier deck. You can't keep nearly as many 7 card hands like you could with CST or Curious Control. Realistically, I'm looking for hands with:
- lands to make both of my colors, so probably 2-3 lands (this is the top priority)
- early game interaction (perhaps just 1-2 pieces, but I'd rather not play "naked" with no answers)
- preferrably a low cmc creature to get the engine going (this one isn't the most important, it's certainly nice but the above are crucial)
- basically a hand that enables preventing my current opponents from winning in the early game

If opponent opening plays are strong, I'm fine making land drops and passing. I don't even run ramp so this build entirely concedes early game dominance in exchange for other strengths. Think of it this way, the burden of comboing is on the other decks. We're not the aggressor, so the "who's the beatdown?" question is pretty easy.

That being said, often my opponents are not actually threatening early wins. Assess the plays, there often are opportunities to just tap out for creatures and Yuriko in the first 2 turns. Our disruption is for combos. We don't have enough counters to stop most things our opponents are doing.

The bulk of the game is the Yuriko variation on draw-go. Mostly it's just draw, go to combat, declare attacks, stock up our in-hand answers, pass.

On opponent turns we're assessing threats and looking to prolong the game by stopping the win attempts.
When attacking, I prioritize whoever can use their life total as a resource the best. After that, I focus on the opponent with the highest life total. But of course, sometimes you just need an open face to swing at. The main goal is drawing cards, not racing with life.

Also, sometimes there's a choice where you can deploy permanents in the second main phase. I just try to weigh the benefits versus the risks of having less interaction up.

Finally, some common play patterns I've seen so far:
- this build is "combo-less", so often I wait and hold on to my tutors, eventually I'll see an opening for a strong silver bullet like a well-timed Back to Basics, it's fun using tutors opportunistically instead of just as redundant copies of combo pieces
- if my board gets wiped and there's an opportunity to rebuild, Yawgmoth's Will is a great way to do so
- if the board gets gummed up with blockers, Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugutive is the best option, though there are some other options as well (Umezawa's Jitte, Smoke Shroud, Sword of Feast and Famine, creature removal on a player with few creatures, etc.
- to protect Yuriko from Gilded Drake, use creature removal, either on the Drake in response to the trigger, or on her if it's later on
- if players use all of their incidental chip damage on you, maybe try out Umezawa's Jitte. The idea is that it also helps keep the board clear of blockers, but I haven't had the opportunity to use it yet

work in progress

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	WRG
Splash colors	B
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 42 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 20 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.51
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U