Maybeboard


Yarok, the Triggered

Welcome to my Yarok, the Desecrated EDH deck! My name is greebles and this is my competitive build of the newest general to come out of M20, Yarok, the Desecrated . What attracted me to Yarok at first was his improved Panharmonicon static ability: "If a permanent entering the battlefield causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time." When I first saw Yarok previewed, I read the card over and over again contemplating all the enter-the-battlefield creatures in my collection. You can basically build a generic, casual EDH deck with any ETB creatures and have it be fun with Yarok as your commander. Then I reread his ability and realized "permanent" meant cards like Treachery , Field of the Dead , and Tireless Tracker were also on the menu to have their triggers be repeated! Finally, it hit me: the word "trigger" is written into this ability THREE TIMES! I thought to myself, "Man, this Yarok guy is more triggered than an NRA member at a gun show." Thus, with that realization, enthusiastic deck building began. Guns blazing.

The deck has a few themes that I would like to summarize in order to pique your interest in maybe building this kind of deck.

  1. This deck is an enter-the-battlefield style of deck that ramps with creatures such as Wood Elves , Springbloom Druid , and Solemn Simulacrum . It also features 11 "signet" effects (i.e., ramp cards cmc or less) and a low land count (33) to optimize draws and accelerate into action.

  2. This is a Landfall themed deck that features the ability Landfall and other Landfall-lite abilities on creatures, such as Avenger of Zendikar , Tatyova, Benthic Druid , Ob Nixilis, the Fallen .

  3. M20 offers a new and interesting elemental sub-theme that features Yarok, the Desecrated and Risen Reef . This means this deck can include value-based elementals with great ETBs such as Greenwarden of Murasa , Mulldrifter , and Shriekmaw . An additional combo I would like to mention here are fetchlands and Titania, Protector of Argoth . When combined with fetchlands, Yarok, the Desecrated , and Risen Reef , Titania can really get the party going in a hurry, drawing cards, sprouting lands, and raising up elementals to let your opponents know that Zendikar is mad as hell and it ain't gonna take it anymore!

  4. I wanted to include a variety of protection and disruption in the form of counter spells and targeted removal in order to protect our combos and synergies but also interact with our opponents, not just tapping out every turn with creatures. Arcane Denial , Counterspell , and Mana Drain offer the deck cheap counter magic that disrupts opponents efficiently. Mystic Confluence and Sultai Charm give this deck the ability to be flexible with how it wants to responds to threats by either removing specific targets or drawing cards into action. Assassin's Trophy is an amazing catch-all card that covers our need to play defensively and take advantage of the amazing targeted removal that has to offer. Finally, Force of Will and Pact of Negation give us some tap out security when we want to go for a game-ending combo that uses all our available mana.

  5. Tutors! We got tons. If you want to tutor for creatures, Fierce Empath and Woodland Bellower got you covered from and up or and below, respectively. If you're looking for...anything really, Sidisi, Undead Vizier combos with Yarok and Panharmonicon , offering you the ability to sacrifice two creatures to its Exploit trigger in order to Demonic Tutor twice. I've also included the OG tutors, Demonic Tutor , and its cousin Vampiric Tutor to find anything from early game ramp, to mid-game disruption, or late game combo finishers.

  6. Speaking of combo finishers, we've got a few! Yarok combos with Palinchron and seven lands (one of which cannot be Ancient Tomb ) to make infinite mana. With that infinite mana, we can do a few things. If you have a Fierce Empath , you can grab a Deadeye Navigator and begin flickering your creatures for value or draw in order to find other game ending pieces. I have since cut Deadeye, but it's an option that is out there. If you have Urza, Lord High Artificer , you can use infinite mana to play your whole deck and figure it out from there. If you have infinite mana and the ability to tutor for any card, consider grabbing Finale of Devastation for a value of X= or more in order to find Craterhoof Behemoth , giving all your creatures haste thanks to the Finale and trampling over for obscene amounts of damage thanks to the Hoof. Or, if you can't attack for some reason, consider finding a way to find Torment of Hailfire and burn all of your opponents to smithereens! And, if you're about to go off and need both a tutor and a counter spell, Spellseeker has you covered.

  • you love creature combos and enter-the-battlefield synergies

  • you love game ending plays backed up by counter magic

  • you love using tutors and shuffling your deck

  • you love to ramp and ramp fast through creatures and artifacts

  • you are named Spike or Johnny

  • you dislike playing toolbox creatures

  • you dislike evaluating when to play a creature or when to hold up counter magic

  • you dislike relying on your commander to pull you through a game

  • you dislike "good stuff" decks that rely on tutors

  • you hate the card Panharmonicon

As the selection of this commander suggests, nearly every creature has some sort of synergy with Yarok or Panharmonicon . As such, I am only going to highlight a few combos or synergies that may not initially appear obvious since any ETB synergizes well with Yarok.

1x Avenger of Zendikar - It's an army in a can and it can combo with Risen Reef or Craterhoof Behemoth .

1x Baleful Strix - Just a value creature that can cycle through our deck a little faster if Yarok or Panharmonicon is on the field. A useful defender.

1x Coiling Oracle - Ramp or draw. We're happy with both, or either.

1x Craterhoof Behemoth - See the KEY COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.

1x Eternal Witness - Regrowth on a stick. It's good, it's effective, it can be Birthing Pod ded, you can use Phyrexian Delver on it to get it back. Do whatever you want with it...as long as you have a graveyard.

1x Fierce Empath - This card is a part of a collection of drops that can be found with Woodland Bellower and it is good for a few reasons. Firstly, it can find Palinchron (see: KEY COMBOS and SYNERGIES for details). Secondly, it can find...well, whatever else. Avenger of Zendikar or Grave Titan if you need creatures. Craterhoof Behemoth if you need to win. Deadeye Navigator if you need value. Greenwarden of Murasa if you need to Eternal Witness back a card. Muldrotha, the Gravetide if you need long term value. Prime Speaker Zegana if you need to draw hella cards. I really hate including this card because, well, it is basically a worse Worldly Tutor . But...because you can Birthing Pod from to get it, or use Woodland Bellower to find it. So while it takes a slot and does nothing on its own its inclusion means it can find some pretty damn good creatures and creates situations that are, at times, more flexible than using Worldly Tutor .

1x Grave Titan - Another army-in-a-can type of card, GT can present an opponent with a sufficient amount of threats to tempt a board wipe, or just overwhelm an opponent altogether.

1x Greenwarden of Murasa - An elemental that triggers Risen Reef , a second Regrowth effect, a creature that can be Birthing Pod ed into, a CMC creature that can be found with Fierce Empath ... There is a lot to like about Greenwarden. It is a very flexible card in our deck.

1x Hostage Taker - This represents some very effective Commander removal. No player is going to allow us to keep their Commander under the Taker. Multiple instances of the trigger can present a very special threat in that we can exile multiple creatures, sometimes in one turn, and seek to replay them almost immediately next turn.

1x Ice-Fang Coatl - Baleful Strix number 2. Just keeps the cards flowing. Playing 10 Snow-Covered basic lands means this this snake often has deathtouch.

1x Lotus Cobra - This card is absolutely insane with Yarok and fetchlands. With both creatures out, a fetchland for turn means 4 mana for free!

1x Massacre Wurm - This represents a more flexible Damnation effect while not completely sacrificing our board position. This build of the deck is quite weak to Wrath of God effects, but I also concede the need to try and have some kind of game-plan against token strategies. The Wurm's ETB is also a Yarok-friendly trigger that can shrink big boards instantly.

1x Muldrotha, the Gravetide - Muldrotha is a late game card when we need to recoup some value, or recover board position. While the elemental may need a turn to become an active threat, the ability to replay value creatures or fetchlands (primarily) from our graveyard every turn can quickly get this deck back into the game after we have lost board position.

1x Mulldrifter - Evoke is a special ability. While Divination isn't anything special, an unconditional Meditate is. That's the kind of value Mulldrifter represents with Yarok or Panharmonicon out.

1x Ob Nixilis, the Fallen - Ob Nix has tremendous synergies with fetchlands, of course, and Splendid Reclamation . Burning out an opponent and occur very quickly as each Landfall trigger is worth 6 points of burn damage when Yarok is out, plus an additional 6 +1/+1 counters on Ob. While it is a bit clunky to play him straight up on mana, he can close out a game in a fairly non-interactive way through the use of ramp cards. For this reason, a card like Scapeshift is also something I am considering adding to this deck as it represents many Landfall triggers out of no where. In summary, on his own, Ob Nixilis threatens to take out a player very quickly.

1x Palinchron - See the KEY COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.

1x Phyrexian Delver - A multiple Reanimate effect after our board gets destroyed.

1x Prime Speaker Zegana - Great card draw on a stick with an ETB that is abuse-able.

1x Ramunap Excavator - Excels with our fetchlands.

1x Reclamation Sage - Naturalize with energy!

1x Risen Reef - See the KEY COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.

1x Shriekmaw - Removal and a combo with Risen Reef

1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier - See the KEY COMBOS and SYNERGIES section. A repeatable Demonic Tutor . Much more mana efficient than Rune-Scarred Demon .

1x Solemn Simulacrum - This is just a very tremendous glue card that works well at mana. I thhink the Sad Robot definitely has a place here because it is just a very effective ramp card with an upside.

x Spellseeker - Can search for Demonic Tutor and Pact of Negation in a single turn when Yarok is out! If you're not sure of the power of that, let me assure you...that is very powerful.

1x Springbloom Druid - See the KEY COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.

1x Tatyova, Benthic Druid - You can draw cards by playing lands. You can draw cards by playing lands.

1x The Gitrog Monster - Oracle of Mul Daya is a card. It is a very expensive and good card. And by most accounts, this slot should belong to Oracle. However. I think there is more synergy in having Gitrog in our deck. First of all, we can play multiple lands in a turn with it. Pretty good. Does a good Oracle imitation. Yes, it costs mana more, but it has additional abilities. For example, sacrificing a land every upkeep can be an advantage as it fuels our Splendid Reclamation and our Titania, Protector of Argoth . It can also give use a land to play with Ramunap Excavator or Muldrotha, the Gravetide . Also, it is a 6/6! So...in conclusion, why not? Thanks for watching my PowerPoint...

1x Tireless Tracker - Have you ever wanted to make Clues? 'Nuff said. Interestingly enough, this card has a positive synergy with the tokens Urza, High Lord Artificer produces.

1x Titania, Protector of Argoth - See our entries on Risen Reef and The Gitrog Monster .

1x Urza, Lord High Artificer - See the KEY COMBOS and SYNERGIES section. Great mana sink when going infinite with Palinchron . Also makes some sweet tokens that synergize with our artifacts. Also, it ramps!

1x Wood Elves - Excellent mana fixing. Nature's Lore on a stick!

1x Woodland Bellower - See the KEY COMBOS and SYNERGIES section. Actually, it's not there. Honestly, just...take a look at the CMC green creatures in our deck. There is a combo with nearly all of them and Yarok. It is an exceptional card.

Each EDH mana base is unique and can be built pretty much however the player wants. The main goal is optimal color fixing. ABU duals are...increasingly becoming impossible to obtain, but if it were within my means to obtain all those cards, I would.

1x Ancient Tomb - This over Temple of the False God mainly because I want to accelerate a turn 4 Yarok with just land, land, land, Ancient Tomb in an opener.

1x Bayou - I've prioritized nabbing the ABU dual forests because this deck really thirsts for dual coloured mana.

1x Bojuka Bog - Some graveyard interaction. The trigger here can be doubled with Yarok. A great tutor option with Crop Rotation .

1x Breeding Pool

1x Command Tower

1x Drowned Catacomb

1x Field of the Dead - Any fetchland or land drop with this card and Yarok out can lead to an impressive amount of zombies suddenly rising up from the depths.

1x Hinterland Harbor

1x Marsh Flats

1x Misty Rainforest

1x Morphic Pool

1x Overgrown Tomb

1x Polluted Delta

1x Prismatic Vista

1x Reliquary Tower - We do have the potential to draw a lot of cards here, so I like the option of not having to discard.

1x Scalding Tarn

4x Snow-Covered Forest

3x Snow-Covered Island

3x Snow-Covered Swamp - Snow lands over regular lands just because of Ice-Fang Coatl .

1x Sunken Hollow - Doing its best imitation of Underground Sea here for the time being...

1x Tropical Island

1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Though I am not thrilled with maybe positively helping others fix their mana. However, one the off chance we run out of ways to fetch lands with our fetchlands, we can still combine them with Urborg to make them tap for black.

1x Verdant Catacombs

1x Watery Grave

1x Wooded Foothills

1x Woodland Cemetery

1x Guardian Project - A fantastic way to draw cards in this deck. We play a lot of creatures and it combines well with Yarok allowing us to draw two cards every time we play a creature with our commander out.

1x Rhystic Study - Just a classic.

1x Treachery - A free spell that can be abused with our commander.

1x Arcane Signet - A mana rock to rival the ubiquity of Sol Ring . I really do think, outside of the power of Sol Ring , Mana Crypt , and Mana Vault , Arcane Signet is easily the most powerful of the CMC mana rocks.

1x Birthing Pod - Because we are a creature toolbox deck.

1x Dimir Signet - All the colorless ramp spells combine well with Sol Ring , Mana Crypt , and Ancient Tomb , so that is the main reason there are 7 CMC mana rocks in here.

1x Fellwar Stone

1x Golgari Signet

1x Mana Crypt

1x Panharmonicon - The artifact precursor to Yarok. We have this card to thank for inspiring all of our shenanigans.

1x Simic Signet

1x Sol Ring

1x Talisman of Curiosity

1x Talisman of Dominance

1x Demonic Tutor - It's anything you want it to be!

1x Farseek

1x Finale of Devastation - See the KEY COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.

1x Nature's Lore

1x Preordain

1x Splendid Reclamation - See the KEY COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.

1x Torment of Hailfire - See the KEY COMBOS and SYNERGIES section.

1x Arcane Denial - Counter target spell. This over Mana Leak or Delay because it's a hard counter and, quite frankly, we can sometimes use the extra card draw.

1x Assassin's Trophy - Remove anything. Makes sense.

1x Brainstorm - A classic.

1x Counterspell - Counter target spell.

1x Crop Rotation - Targets here are Bojuka Bog , Reliquary Tower , Field of the Dead , or Ancient Tomb ...mainly.

1x Cyclonic Rift - Catch all mass removal.

1x Force of Will - Free counter spell.

1x Mana Drain - Perhaps one of the most unfair cards in the whole format.

1x Mystic Confluence - Very flexible counter/removal/card draw option.

1x Pact of Negation - Tap out protection when comboing.

1x Sultai Charm - All the options are good here and I really enjoy putting modal spells in a deck like this because, really, they can be great in any kind of situation.

1x Vampiric Tutor - Same as it's Demonic cousin, but a little worse. It's whatever you want it to be.

Thanks for reading this primer. I've worked really hard on putting together this deck list so that there are very minimal holes in its gameplan. As you can see by the competitive percentages off to the side, this is a very competitive deck. I love playing it because it offers many interesting and unexpected of avenues of attack. In the Maybeboard, you will see a whole list of cards that I have considered for this deck. If you'd like to contribute to the building and maintenance of this deck, you can leave a comment below inquiring as to why I haven't included a certain card in my deck. Or maybe leave a message trying to convince me to make a switch, add or take away a creature or spell. Thank you for your attention. Bye.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Comments