Maybeboard


Yuriko's Dirty Secret

The goal with this deck is to kill the table in a single turn with multiple Yuriko triggers. The ideal start is to have a 1 drop to play turn one, with a 2 drop a much less efficient backup plan. The 2 drop creatures in this deck are here for ETB value later in the game. Cards like Baleful Strix to bounce with ninjutsu and play again for further card draw, and Spire Owl to flicker and always hit big spells on the top of your deck for Yurikos trigger. These cards are powerful but should be avoided turn 2 if possible. Playing a 1 drop on turn one almost guarantee's a turn 2 commander ninjutsu and early damage trigger. A turn 3 Yuriko after untapping will usually have multiple targets at the table to attack unblocked where as a turn 4 untapped Yuriko may already see blockers on the ground. In subsequent turns if you have other ninja's in hand you can replay the 1 drop and Ninjutsu in for further unblockable Yuriko triggers early in the game. This starts your card draw engine and hopefully will draw you into the 'combo' cards you are really looking for (If they weren't in your opening hand).

1.) Arcane Adaptation

This is the cheapest and most efficient way to make all your creatures ninja's. This is probably the most tutored for card in the deck. It allows your unblockable 1 and 2 drops to hit for Yuriko triggers without any Ninjutsu or work on your part. With this enchantment out it can become trivially easy to hit with three or four ninjas early in the game to deal huge amounts of damage to the whole table. There are 3 other cards in the deck that act as backup copies of this card and I'll put them in order of best to worst.

Unnatural selection is the second best 'turn your stuff into Ninjas' card because its cheap and easy to tutor for, even the transmute cards get it. It's also less threatening on the table than the static enchantments because you have to spend mana to use it, but our stuff is so cheap its deceptive how little that matters. Consipracy is next because it effects Ninjas in your hand or library just like Arcane Adaption, so Higure, the Still Wind can tutor for any creature in your deck. The worst version of this effect is Xenograft and is only in the deck because the effect is so needed. Doesn't hurt that it does 5 damage off a Yuriko Trigger.

2.) Scroll Rack

This card is an all-star in the deck. I have a pretty strict $20 dollar limit when buying cards but I had to break my rule to add Scroll Rack to this list because of how important it is for this deck to run smoothly. If you are looking to build this style of Yuriko deck having this card is not optional. You can tutor for it with all the tutors in the deck including the transmute cards. Scroll Rack paired with Arcane Adaption can very easily end the game in a single turn. One of the biggest problems with Yuriko decks that try to kill with large spells is not flipping them with Yuriko's trigger but instead drawing them naturally, where they sit uncastable and unused for damage. Scroll Rack allows you to setup the top of your library to perfectly match the amount of Yuriko triggers you have on a given turn and helps dig for more big spells to hit with. You can activate it in response to the damage trigger on the stack as well. So you can use the same card to damage the table twice in one turn, and use the same card for damage multiple turns. There are 3 other cards in the deck that act as backup copies of this card as well and I'll put them in order of best to worst.

While Lim-Dul's Vault may not allow you to put cards from your hand back into the deck, it makes up for this weakness by allowing you to dig through your whole deck to find the best grouping of 5 cards, and then order them however you like for damage triggers. You can look at sets of 5 cards for 1 life each and the first one is free. Theoretically you could look through 90 cards in your deck (18 sets of 5 cards) for 17 life, finding the best combo of high CMC cards to kill your opponents. Brainstorm is the next backup card for Scroll Rack. Unlike Lim-Dul's Vault it doesn't let you dig anywhere near as deep, but it does let you put cards from your hand back onto the top of your library. It is the only other effect in the deck that can do that. That alone puts it a spot above Sensei's Divining top. The top is still great for the deck. You can stack the top 3 cards which has dimminishing returns the more triggers you have, but the real strength involves changing these cards on the fly. Maybe you setup the top of your deck for 3 Yuriko triggers but one or two of your Ninja's die before combat and now you will only get one trigger. Now you can rearange the cards on top on the fly to match whats happening in the game. Good cheap effective topdeck manipulation. But the weakest of Scroll Racks backups because it doesn't put cards from hand into library, and it doesn't dig deep enough to beat Lim-Dul's Vault's value.

3.) Insidious Dreams

This is definitely an all-in card. You really only want to cast this when you have a Counterspell in hand to protect it. The tempo loss from having to discard cards even if the spell is countered can be hard to come back from. But if it can be protected, it's the easiest way to win in one turn. Ideally you wait for a turn when you have atleast 3-4 Yuriko triggers and cast it as a response to the first trigger. Once you successfully cast this card you simply gather the 3-4 biggest spells in the deck, put them on top and win that turn. You can put Temporal Trespass, Deep-Sea Kraken, Commit // Memory, and Expropriate on the top of your library and hit the table for 40 in one turn. This is under the assumption that no one has taken any damage all game. You may be able to get away with fewer Yuriko triggers, less card discard, or tutoring for lower CMC spells if life totals are low across the table. There are also a few replacement/backup cards for Insidious Dreams as well. In order of best to worst:

We already went over Lim-Dul's Vault as a backup for Scroll Rack, but its also a backup for Insidious Dreams. It allows us to really stack the triggers deep to try and get the most damage out of a single turn. You can't mix and match like Insidious Dreams but you can find the highest hitting pocket of 5 cards for hopefully lethal. Spire Owl is a surprisingly good card for this strategy. Being able to have this effect on a stick is great. It doubles as an 'unblockable' creature to ninjutsu with. Your ninjas can bounce spire owl to your hand and you can reuse it right before a Yuriko trigger. It does get worse the more ninjas you hit with as you may be flipping 4 cards over no matter what so rearranging them wont matter, but its good in the early game for single or double triggers. And the late game if you havn't beenable to develop your board due to spot removal, board wipes or sac effects. Vampiric tutor is next because it allows you to grab any card in your deck and put it on top of your library. Very good if you just need that last little bit of damage to kill someone, you can instantly find the damage and put it on top of your libary. You will cast this tutor during your main phase pretty often. Same for Mystic Tutor. It hits less targets than Vampiric tutor, but has the same effect. These tutors can also be copies of Insidious Dreams itself, but I am ranking them in order as individual cards to stack damage.

The deck is built with an extra turn package that should help close out games with extra attack steps, and act as big hits off Yurikos trigger. You can tutor for these cards and put them on top before Yurikos trigger, draw them and deal 6+ damage to everyone, then cast them during your second main phase for another turn of triggers. These cards include:

At some point in the future I may look to add good ole Time Warp to this list but for now spots in the deck are pretty tight. It may be smarter to replace Karn's Temporal Sundering, or Expropriate with Time Warp because its so much more mana efficient. But I like the fun and power for Expropriate, and I like the potential bounce synergy with Karn's Temporal Sundering. Bounce your own ninja to your hand if you are having trouble giving it evasion to Ninjutsu it during your second turn, bounce a players defender, or bounce a troublesome Enchantment like No Mercy or Propaganda .

The other high damage payoff cards serve more than one purpose in the deck. Some Yuriko decks are running cards like Draco that are only in the deck for damage, but cards like that wont help if you draw them and can never use them for a trigger. They are just a dead card in your hand. I tried to make this deck in such a way that even the high damage CMC spells have a synergistic purpose in the deck. They are also cheaper for us to cast than the CMC counted for the trigger. These Include:

Silent-Blade Oni will almost always be casted for the Ninjutsu cost. Being a ninja and having a strong effect for commander is a big help. People play strong cards in EDH and playing your opponents cards for free from their hand is awesome. This type of effect is helpful in a deck thats sort of all in on one strategy. You could take out the majority of the ninjas in this deck with Ninjutsu cost more than 3 CMC to run lower to the ground, but I like having real Ninjas in the deck that have strong effects. Commit is an easy one. It hits the table for 10 damage and has two relevant sides. Its bounce removal against your opponents or bounce tech for your own ninjas/creatures. Then the second half is gas sitting in your graveyard to help recover from a board-wipe, or graveyard hate to clear all graveyards of troublesome recursion/creatures. Beseech the Queen is a tutor you will always cast for 3 CMC but hits the table for 6. You will usually use this tutor to grab one of the Arcane Adapation effects in the deck. Tutors dont hurt, and tutors that hit for more than you need to spend to cast them are perfect for this deck.

Further Deck Details

Currently there is not much of a secondary win con for the deck, so games against life-gain decks or heavy creature sacrifice effects may be difficult to win against, especially if those sac effects are on enchantments. The best we can do in U/B is bounce the enchantment, or use the ineffiecient colorless spells like All Is Dust Scour from Existence Spine of Ish Sah ect. Even token swarm decks can cause a problem because you will often have little or no blockers, and even if you do have blockers they are tiny creatures with no recursion. These types of decks will need to be the ones you attack first in any game you play. It's important to understand the weaknesses of this strategy. Depending on your meta there are a bunch of cards you can change or sideboard in. You can definitely take out some of the extra turn spells and put in cards for a secondary wincon, or to deal with your tables common threats. You could add Doomsday and Laboratory Maniac for a more competative oriented secondary win-con. You could add Scour From Existance for a big hit of Yuriko and a way for U/B to deal with enchantments, ect ect. You could add Propaganda and No Mercy if you are getting constantly attacked for have no defenders or big creatures on board.

I think the deck as built can work and work well. It can be fun to pilot and manipulate the top of your library for maximum damage. But it is a disruptable strategy. So enjoy and happy playing!

Please feel free to comment, I would love to discuss and hear peoples opinions of what should or shouldn't be in the deck. As you can see from the Maybe board there are so many different cards that work its hard to cut it down to 100.

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92% Casual

Competitive

Revision 14 See all

(4 years ago)

Top Ranked
  • Achieved #35 position overall 6 years ago
Date added 6 years
Last updated 4 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

10 - 0 Mythic Rares

40 - 0 Rares

19 - 0 Uncommons

17 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.46
Tokens Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Morph 2/2 C
Folders stuff, EDH, very interesting , Commander, Yuriko, Z - Ideias, Ninjas
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