Yisan Verse Combo

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Elves Mono-Green

xantm70

Creature (32)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Boreal Druid
• 1x Brutalizer Exarch
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Duplicant
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Karametra's Acolyte
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Manglehorn
• 1x Phyrexian Revoker
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Ramunap Excavator *f-pre*
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Regal Force
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Scout
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Scryb Ranger
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Somberwald Stag
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper
• 1x Temur Sabertooth
• 1x Thought-Knot Seer
• 1x Voyaging Satyr
• 1x Wirewood Symbiote
• 1x Woodland Bellower

Land (34)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Hashep Oasis
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mouth of Ronom
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 19x Snow-Covered Forest
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Enchantment (10)

• 1x Burgeoning
• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Exploration
• 1x Mirri's Guile
• 1x Root Maze
• 1x Song of the Dryads
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Utopia Sprawl
• 1x Wild Growth

Artifact (11)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Null Rod
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sphere of Resistance
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Thorn of Amethyst
• 1x Trinisphere
• 1x Umbral Mantle
• 1x Winter Orb

Instant (8)

• 1x Autumn's Veil
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Warping Wail
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Natural Order
• 1x Regrowth
• 1x Sylvan Scrying

Commander (1)

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Maybeboard

Creature (29)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Ant Queen
• 1x Argothian Elder
• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip
• 1x Elvish Spirit Guide
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Entourage of Trest
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Generous Patron
• 1x Great Oak Guardian
• 1x Hornet Queen
• 1x Kraul Harpooner
• 1x Loaming Shaman
• 1x Meteor Golem
• 1x Nullmage Shepherd
• 1x Ohran Viper
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x Ravenous Slime
• 1x Runic Armasaur
• 1x Seeker of Skybreak
• 1x Shaman of Forgotten Ways
• 1x Tendershoot Dryad
• 1x Thrashing Brontodon
• 1x Tireless Tracker
• 1x Ulvenwald Tracker
• 1x Wall of Roots
• 1x Whisperwood Elemental
• 1x Wood Elves

Land (2)

• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Wirewood Lodge

Enchantment (5)

• 1x City of Solitude
• 1x Concordant Crossroads
• 1x Hall of Gemstone
• 1x Lignify
• 1x Quest for Renewal

Artifact (11)

• 1x Defense Grid
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Paradox Engine
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Tangle Wire
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir
• 1x Tormod's Crypt

Instant (11)

• 1x Avoid Fate
• 1x Benefactor's Draught
• 1x Deglamer
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Hornet Sting
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Natural State
• 1x Plummet
• 1x Pounce
• 1x Rust
• 1x Wrap in Vigor

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Adventurous Impulse
• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Seeds of Innocence
• 1x Sylvan Tutor
• 1x Take Down

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Yisan cEDH list.

Smash stuff. Make all the mana. Summon and unsummon your own creatures a dizzying number of times. With the help of an over-cheerful wandering bard (who may or may not have been eaten by Knights of the Round table with much rejoicing), you, too, can share in this experience: meet Yisan, your new minstrel.

Green's natural deficiency in drawing cards is ameliorated through Yisan's activated ability, and while the deck can survive without him, he's integral to most plans, as is his pet kitten, Temur Sabertooth. Consequently, we struggle against Jester's Cap and similar effects, as well as Pithing Needle effects naming either of those two cards. Wraths are also unpleasant but avoidable.

I play in an artifact-heavy meta, so artifact/enchantment hate is tuned to be unusually high. Your mileage may vary.

Cards in the maybeboard are a mix of those I own but am unsure of and those I don't own but think might be good inclusions. Unowned cards are flagged as foil to distinguish them.

And now: On to the good stuff.

(The below is outdated and needs to be updated)

Main Kills Show

- Generate unbounded mana, make unbounded insects tokens, kill with a swarm of insects
- Generate unbounded mana, use Duskwatch Recruiter   to draw all creatures from my deck, use Regal Force to draw the rest of my deck. - Generate sufficient board presence to kill the table with Craterhoof Behemoth
- Generate unbounded mana to create a Brutalizer Exarch loop, tucking all non-creature permanents my opponents control and handling any lingering creatures with my bigger, beefier creatures
- Generate unbounded mana to create an Eternal Witness loop with Temur Sabertooth, using Beast Within to vindicate all opponents' permanents, Somerwald Stag to kill all the beasts, and Thought-Knot Seer to rip hands until opponents draw out their decks

Lines of Note Show

- Verse 1 Sylvan Safekeeper generally enables me to protect Yisan in more removal-heavy environments; it's usually followed up with a Verse 2 Scryb Ranger to fuel both Yisan and high-volume mana dorks (e.g. Priest of Titania.
- Verse 1 Sakura-Tribe Scout into Verse 2 Scryb Ranger is an aggressive way to quickly overwhelm the table with Yisan activations; at a four-player pod, you can untap forests sufficient to squeeze in an extra Verse before the start of your turn. The line can be aped with Verse 1 Quirion Ranger into Verse 2 Walking Atlas but requires an extra turn due to summoning sickness and is thus less preferable.
- Verse 4 should generally be for Temur Sabertooth, as it's the not-so-secret backbone of the deck. Resetting Quirion Ranger or Scryb Ranger for repeated use in a single turn, resetting Yisan to get back to lower verse numbers, creating Eternal Witness loops to repeatedly buy back cards from the graveyard, creating Regal Force loops to draw my deck...this little kitty does a hell of a lot of work.
- Against faster combo decks (eggs, Doomsday, storm, etc.), it's almost always correct to jam early stax pieces to buy time. Gaea's Cradle easily breaks parity on cards like Sphere of Resistance, and mana dorks aren't affected by Null Rod, Winter Orb, or Root Maze.
- Umbral Mantle and Priest of Titania or Karametra's Acolyte is almost always unbounded mana, though there are certainly other uses for each card.
- Maze of Ith, Gaea's Cradle, and Argothian Elder creates a curious scenario where unbounded mana can be generated during the combat step. This is usually only useful with Ant Queen, but it is nonetheless noteworthy because the Elder can be Verse 4 before the Queen emerges on Verse 5.

Noteworthy Tech Show

- Green is very soft to wraths, and this deck is no exception. Warping Wail counters most wrath effects, Thought-Knot Seer strips wraths from hands, Brutalizer Exarch can tuck key mana sources (e.g. preventing a white player from having double Plains, or keeping a Golgari/Grixis player off black mana), and Autumn's Veil shuts off Fire Covenant after life has been paid. If all else fails, Whisperwood Elemental provides resiliency against wraths and also grants a steady stream of bodies for other shenanigans.
- Hashep Oasis is a very diverse utility land in this build. It produces colorless mana for Warping Wail and Thought-Knot Seer, it provides green mana if needed, it can be sacrificed to Scavenger Grounds to preserve the option of a second grave-wipe, and in corner-case scenarios it provides a Giant-Growth effect.
- Scryb Ranger has flying and protection from blue, a combination that's useful more times than I initially expected. While it can't stop Narset, Jeleva, or Zur from getting their attack trigger, it serves as a handy backstop, and it prevents Brago's trigger entirely.
- Woodland Bellower allows Verse 6 to be a "soft reset" for Yisan, grabbing a pertinent utility piece at a lower cost as the situation may demand.
- All four playable fetchlands are included to thin the deck and improve draws; while Yisan can generally accrue powerful advantage just by playing another Verse, the top of the deck is still an important source of cards--green simply doesn't draw cards well, and having one land-drop take out two land cards improves the quality of top-deck card draw as the game progresses. They also play very nicely with Mirri's Guile and Sensei's Divining Top to improve card selection.
- Green Sun's Zenith can be used as a T1 ramp spell with X=0 to fetch Dryad Arbor, helping to set up a T2 Yisan.
- Snow Forests are used to pay the cost on Mouth of Ronom, which otherwise would be reliant on Boreal Druid for activation. Like Somberwald Stag, the Mouth kills an extensive list of utility creatures and commanders in the format, including (but not limited to) Brago, Jeleva, Zur, Narset, Nin, Edric, both Selvala's, opposing Yisan's, Meren, Varolz, Thrasios, Tymna, Vial-Smasher, Tana...

Date added	7 years
Last updated	6 years
Exclude colors	WUBR
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.33
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C