Full 25+ Page Primer Here!:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UT7cMmAJvff01-Jb1BZuGBwuR_3N7Q1MEzgSPw2b6Hc/edit#heading=h.5av80hpymiaw
Introduction
Yisan in cEDH is a Creature-Reliant Midrange Deck - It's resilient to hate and removal, consistent, and has great answers for artifact reliant decks. As a midrange deck, you’re not looking to be the fastest deck at the table - that’s reserved for decks like Storm, Flash Hulk, and Food Chain, among other things. Rather, you try to slow down and answer the other decks as needed, build a board, and push for a win when the coast seems clear and you have the resources.
Yisan’s Gameplan - the mindset of a Yisan player
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Look at your table and identify the different threats you’ll need to answer. If you find yourself against Food Chain and Storm, you might think about mulliganing for a stax piece, such as a thorn of amethyst, trinisphere, or root maze, then planning on tutoring a Caustic Caterpillar or Phyrexian Revoker for food chain. Sometimes you’ll be able to rely on other decks to answer fast combos by using their countermagic, stax, or other forms of interaction, in which case you’re safer to jam a Yisan and focus more on developing your own board.
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Okay, you have Yisan in play, you’ve untapped and it’s turn 3. Faster decks at the table are pushing towards a win or assembling a line towards a win. Now you need to decide between pushing your own board or disrupting theirs.
Generally you want to work on pushing your own board if you can afford it - in which case you want to tutor untappers (quirion ranger or scryb ranger), land engines (sakura tribe-scout or azusa), mana engines (priest of titania or karametra’s acolyte), and perhaps protection (sylvan safekeeper).
Remember you have access to the cards in your hand as well as Yisan - you may need to play out a stax piece to answer an opposing combo. In the case where you need to tutor disruption - (caustic caterpillar, scavenging ooze, or phyrexian revoker for example) from Yisan then hopefully you have cards in hand that can make up for the lost speed, such as naturally playing or tutoring a priest / untapper / etc. Remember that the burden of interacting with combo decks isn’t solely on you, so try to be as greedy as you can afford to be.
- So you’ve made it through the early game by now, combo decks have been disrupted probably but are looking to rebuild towards a win. At this point you are cautiously looking to push for your own win - likely through Craterhoof, but also possibly through temur sabertooth combo (see the “Winning the Game” section). Depending on what you’re up against, people may have tried to disrupt you, either through removal, board wipes, or hate pieces (cursed totem, linvala, etc - see “Deck Weaknesses”), in which case you need to adapt. Find removal for the hate pieces, or work on rebuilding against the removal. Remember that you don’t need Yisan to win - you can find Sabertooth combo / Craterhoof without Yisan
Winning the Game
Craterhoof Behemoth:
This is your primary win that you work towards, and it sits right at the end of the Yisan chain. Of course it’s certainly possible to hardcast Craterhoof. Just make sure to calculate the math, and be wary of running into countermagic. Sometimes it’s sufficient to not kill the entire table, but just the players who are the biggest threats to you. With absurd amounts of mana from your mana engines you can bounce Craterhoof with Temur Sabertooth and replay him for even more damage.
Temur Sabertooth Combos
Temur Sabertooth + creature tapping for 5 or more mana + Wirewood Symbiote + Elf (1 cmc hopefully)
Typically the creature is Karametra’s Acolyte or Priest of Titania. Tap the Priest for 5 mana, return the elf to your hand with Wirewood to untap her, return Wirewood to your hand with Sabertooth (-2 mana), replay wirewood and the elf (-2 mana, -4 mana total). This generates infinite mana and allows you to abuse Sabertooth and an ETB, often Eternal Witness
A direct line to get you to Temur Sabertooth combo is something like:
T1 Dork > T2 Yisan > T3 Verse1 for Quirion Ranger > T4 Verse 2 for Priest of Titania > T5 double 4 for Karametra’s Acolyte and Temur Sabertooth >T6 untap and go through verse 5 getting anything, get Woodland Bellower on Verse 6 to find wirewood symbiote, and combo off there. At this point you generate infinite mana, infinite untaps, and can use infinite ETBs. You can bounce and replay Woodland Bellower to get any green creatures with cmc 3 or less out of your deck, including Eternal Witness. You can Yisan on 7 to to get Regal Force and draw your deck by bouncing and replaying that. You can Yisan on 8 for Craterhoof and create infinite power/toughness by bouncing and replaying that.
As you play the deck and goldfish it you’ll learn to adapt these sort of lines to fit the board state and your hand. With enough elves in play, from yourself and other players, you might not need Karametra’s acolyte at all. With creature tutors in hand, or from drawing naturally, you may be able to go faster by having more untappers or use verses on utility cards instead.
Umbral Mantle
With a creature tapping for 4+ mana, this nets infinite mana. You can use this mana to make creatures that can tap themselves infinitely big (Power/Toughness) using umbral mantle, provided they aren’t summoning sick. Eg. Generate infinite mana with Mantle+Priest of Titania, then make your Elvish Mystic, Birds of Paradise, Sakura Tribe Scout, etc. infinitely big and win through combat. Additionally, with infinite mana, Umbral Mantle can be used cleanly with Yisan. You can even use the Umbral Mantle untap in response to Yisan activations to get multiple creatures of a single verse.
One fringe win, if you have Umbral Mantle + Staff of Domination in play: If you can’t win simply by drawing your deck (eg there is a notion thief-style effect in play) then once you’ve made infinite mana, you can use Staff of Domination to tap down your own creature then untap them with Umbral Mantle to make any one of your creatures infinite power/toughness. Staff of Domination can tap down blockers as well.
Umbral Mantle is also specifically good at going off with Selvala.
Staff of Domination + Creature tapping for 5+ mana
Makes infinite mana, draws infinite cards, gains infinite life. Makes for compact wins, but like umbral mantle, is disabled by your own Null Rod and can’t be tutored for. Once you’ve drawn your deck you can loop Temur Sabertooth and Eternal Witness (+ Beast Within), Thought-Knot Seer + Temur Sabertooth draw your opponents’ decks out.
