Pocket Sand v2

Commander / EDH Aggro Control UB (Dimir)

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor

Creature (27)

• 1x Augury Owl
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Cavern Harpy
• 1x Cloud of Faeries
• 1x Deadeye Tracker
• 1x Dimir Infiltrator
• 1x Distended Mindbender
• 1x Doom Whisperer
• 1x Elder Deep-Fiend
• 1x Emrakul, the Promised End
• 1x Hypnotic Siren
• 1x Invisible Stalker
• 1x Mothdust Changeling
• 1x Nightveil Sprite
• 1x Okiba-Gang Shinobi
• 1x Ornithopter
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Sakashima's Student
• 1x Silent-Blade Oni
• 1x Siren Stormtamer
• 1x Slither Blade
• 1x Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive *f-pre*
• 1x Thalakos Seer
• 1x Throat Slitter
• 1x Twilight Prophet
• 1x Vexing Scuttler
• 1x Viscera Seer

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Temporal Manipulation
• 1x Temporal Trespass
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Treasure Cruise

Land (34)

• 1x Blinkmoth Nexus
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Creeping Tar Pit
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Faerie Conclave
• 13x Island
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Isle
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Watery Grave

Artifact (10)

• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Crystal Ball
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Arcane Adaptation
• 1x Conspiracy
• 1x Haunted Crossroads
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Unnatural Selection

Commander (1)

Instant (16)

• 1x Bone Harvest
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Curtains' Call
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Disallow
• 1x Evacuation
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

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Maybeboard

Artifact (10)

• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip
• 1x Erratic Portal
• 1x Quietus Spike
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sky Diamond
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Land (1)

• 1x Scavenger Grounds

Creature (8)

• 1x Archfiend of Despair
• 1x Glen Elendra Liege
• 1x Ornithopter
• 1x Prognostic Sphinx
• 1x Slither Blade
• 1x Spire Owl
• 1x Thassa, God of the Sea
• 1x Vela the Night-Clad

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Beacon of Unrest
• 1x Repay in Kind

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Conspiracy
• 1x Larceny
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Wound Reflection

Instant (3)

• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Silence the Believers

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I have decided to try out Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow in place of Sygg, River Cutthroat. Sygg is great and the original list is still one of my favorite EDH decks. However, Yuriko does everything I wanted my Sygg deck to achieve, and it does it better.

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Deck Focus

Why chose Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow over Sygg, River Cutthroat? In my opinion, Yuriko is a much more proactive commander whereas Sygg tends to be more reactive. Also, in order to trigger Sygg's card draw ability, 3 damage/life loss is required. While not overly difficult to achieve, it does considerably constrain deck building options. In contrast, Yuriko requires combat damage, which in its own right is limiting, however, her ability allows us much more flexibility in deck building. Lastly, she always costs which is amazing.

The goal of this deck is two fold: 1) Use evasive creatures to eek through combat damage to constantly trigger Yuriko's ability. 2) Maximize Yuriko's ablity with top deck manipulation and damage doublers

Evasive Threats

I have seen many lists that go all in on 1-drop evasive threats that allow for Yuriko to trigger as early as turn two. While this is ideal, many of the evasive threats I see being included are mediocre at best, and they are absolutely terrible late game draws. The few one drops that I have included are generally useful in all stages of the game: Hypnotic Siren, Viscera Seer, Siren Stormtamer, and Deadeye Tracker.

Turn three Yuriko is as nearly as good as turn two. Plus there are a lot of good two drops to choose from. All of my choices have built in evasion. There are many in this list, but I'll just mention the important ones here:

Augury Owl - ETB top deck manipulation

Cavern Harpy - Can be used in concert with Yuriko to consistently ninjutsu

Dimir Infiltrator - Unblockable creature that tutors for Unnatural Selection, Cyclonic Rift, and Counterspell

Inkfathom Witch - A late game finisher that allows all of our 1/1's to hit for a four instead.

Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive - While just about all of the creatures in this deck have evasion, sometimes flying just doesn't cut it. Tetsuko makes sure everyone gets through (including Yuriko who doesn't have evasion herself).

Thalakos Seer - Ninjutsu + LTB card draw is a lovely combo

Honorable mention to Thopter Spy Network. This card serves as a substitute for Bitterblossom. While much slower than the latter, I actually prefer it due to the added card advantage (and it doesn't cost $45).

Other forms of evasion come from Rogue's Passage and Thassa, God of the Sea.

Yuriko Payoffs

Another issue I have seen with other Yuriko lists is the tendancy to run too many overly expensive spells that make it difficult to cast anything. I have tried to strike a nice balance here with 17, 5+ cmc spells that all have built in cost reductions (no I am not running Draco and neither should you):

Elder Deep-Fiend, Vexing Scuttler, Distended Mindbender all shoot opponents for eight, but also can reduce their cost by sacrificing Yuriko.

Emrakul, the Promised End is the big-momma of the deck. Nail everyone for 13, and then control someone for their next turn.

Decree of Pain is a board wipe that can be cast at a cheaper cost.

Commit//Memory and Curtains' Call are solid spot removal spells that pack a punch (10 and 6 damage respectively).

Silent-Blade Oni, Okiba-Gang Shinobi, Throat Slitter are the only other natural ninja that I thought were good enough to include. All have 5+ cmc and powerful abilities.

Some of the best card draw spells ever made in Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time are also included. These spells are great because they are never cast for their natural CMC, provide excellent card advantage, and deal a ton of damage off of Yuriko.

Kicking Things Up A Notch

The deck also attacks opponents hands. Scythe Specter not only forces discarding, but it costs 6 man itself and punishes folks with extra damage when they discard cards. Larceny and Okiba-Gang Shinobi makes sure every hit strips a card while Distended Mindbender provides more targeted discard.

Twilight Prophet is this deck's #2. She provides another way to profit off of the top of the deck. Sakashima's Student and Phyrexian Metamorph just gives this list more flexible bombs.

Believe In The Heart Of The Cards

Oh wait, we already know what is on top of the deck? Well never mind then....

This list pacts a ton of ways to ensure that we are never flipping the top of our deck blind. I'll only address a few of the more impactful ones.

Sensei's Divining Top - I mean...it's pretty much THE top card in this deck (ha get it?)

Crystal Ball - Top's steller stand-in and my substitute for Scroll Rack

Haunted Crossroads and Bone Harvest - I am very surprised that these don't show up in more Yuriko lists. They are great sources of recursion that synergize well with Yuriko.

Lim-Dul's Vault - Let's just go find the best 5 cards to put on the top of our library shall we?

Prognostic Sphinx - Top deck manipulation, evasive threat, protects itself, fills the graveyard for delve, what's not to like?

Go Ninja! Go Ninja! Go!

You honestly didn't think I'd finish this description without addressing the most exciting reason to build Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow did you? It's tribal ninjas!! This list runs three ways to turn all the non-ninja creatures into ninja's:

Xenograft and Arcane Adaptation passively turn all our creatures into ninjas

Unnatural Selection changes one creature for only a turn. However, at two cmc it can be tutored for by Muddle the Mixture and Dimir Infiltrator.

I purposely left out Conspiracy because it cost the most $$ and while redundancy is good, I didn't feel the need to devote an additional card slot dedicated to ninjas.

Thanks for taking a gander at this deck. I would really appreciate any suggestions for improvements to the list. And please +1 if you like the deck.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 32 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 20 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.39
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, City's Blessing, Manifest 2/2 C
Based on	Pocket Sand Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor EDH