Teenage Multani Ninja Frog *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Bracket 1 Voltron

NV_1980

Artifact (27)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Basilisk Collar
• 1x Blackblade Reforged
• 1x Champion's Helm
• 1x Chrome MoxGC
• 1x Commander's Plate
• 1x Crawlspace
• 1x Fireshrieker
• 1x Hammer of Nazahn
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Loxodon Warhammer
• 1x Mana VaultGC
• 1x Manifold Key
• 1x Mithril Coat
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Pariah's Shield
• 1x Prowler's Helm
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Surestrike Trident
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Sword of Sinew and Steel
• 1x Sword of Truth and Justice
• 1x Trailblazer's Boots
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Essence Harvest
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Mandate of Abaddon
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Soul's Majesty
• 1x Three Visits

Land (35)

• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bonders' Enclave
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Command Tower
• 6x Forest
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Undergrowth Stadium
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Woodland Cemetery
• 1x Yavimaya Hollow

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Burgeoning
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Kaya's Ghostform
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Unnatural Growth

Commander (1)

Creature (13)

• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Brass Squire
• 1x Delighted Halfling
• 1x Geode Golem
• 1x Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
• 1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
• 1x Pathbreaker Ibex
• 1x Prowling Serpopard
• 1x Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
• 1x Silent Arbiter
• 1x Ulvenwald Tracker
• 1x Yeva, Nature's Herald
• 1x Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus

Instant (9)

• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Autumn's Veil
• 1x Berserk
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Jaheira's Respite
• 1x Momentous Fall
• 1x Undying Malice
• 1x Veil of Summer

---

Welcome to Teenage Multani Ninja Frog {B}{G}

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of this Golgari, voltron deck; commanded by Yargle and Multani. On the isle of Urborg, a marshy place on the plane of Dominaria that’s saturated with vast quantities of black mana, a 50ft frog-spirit with an insatiable appetite has recently bonded itself with a Maro sorcerer named Multani. Together, they form an entity whose pure combat power is thus far unmatched across all the planes of the multiverse. Their purpose: protecting Phyrexia’s main military base from all hostile incursions. Their method: consuming whatever entity is stupid enough to venture into their territory and absorb their equipment and fighting-techniques. Ever since taking up this station, their power has grown evermore, and their hunger has still not been satiated. Now, here you stand, still unaware of the massive danger that lies between you the entrance to the dormant volcano that houses the Stronghold. As you look back at your troops to give them the order to advance, your voice fails you as you suddenly notice how much fear occupies the eyes of every single one of them. A feeling of dread permeates this place and your followers have just become aware of it. And now, you’re about to ask them to go against this feeling and follow you into … what? Certain oblivion? Well, … good luck with that! This deck is meant to be played casually. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course anyone is welcome to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; hope you will enjoy it!

Why Yargle and Multani?

Sure, they’re a ‘vanilla’ creature, but look at that POWER! In their basic state, they’re almost strong enough to take out an opponent with a single attack. Now imagine making them stronger (and hopefully nigh on invulnerable) with dozens of cheap spells and plenty of equipment, which allows us to end up with one hell of a planeswalker assassin. Its only drawback is the protection it requires, in order to keep it from having to be recast often (which is expensive).

Strengths and Weaknesses

The following parameters have been used to determine the strength of the deck. For each, a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad) has been allocated; when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck.

• Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
• Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
• Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
• Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
• Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
• Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
• Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
• Resilience: indicates the measure in which the deck can prevent and take punches.
• Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.

---

Mana: 3

Fortunately, any deck featuring green has plenty of choices to pick from, when it comes to additional mana sources. This one features three green dorks, a one-use black mana spell and no fewer than five solid rocks.

Ramp: 3

Of course, since it’s green were using here, there will be some ramp in here as well. All five of the cards chosen for this purpose are spells, though one of them is an enchantment and its use can therefore be repeated.

Card Advantage: 3

Some excellent draw options featured in here, four of which use Yargle and Multani’s ridiculous power score as a basis, which pretty much lets us draw a fifth of the deck on one helping. The remaining CA-cards featured are more conventional and only yield one card per use. A very strong tutor completes the picture.

Overall speed: 3

Due to a good, even divide in casting costs, most of it focused on the low-end spectrum, it can actually start putting stuff on the table fast. The availability of resources is only slightly above average though, so the deck usually won’t be able to summon Yargle and Multani before turn four or five. Not necessarily an issue in a non-competitive setting.

Combo: 1

Not a combo deck in the slightest.

Army: 3

In term of pure physical strength, no creature in its vanilla state beats this deck’s commander. However, the few remaining creatures in here are mostly there for support/utility purposes and not necessarily very strong (bar a few exceptions). Still, when adequately supporting even a few creatures have the potential to cause some major pain.

Commander: 1

Not going to lie; Yargle and Multani are key to this deck’s success. Without him, it will almost certainly fail. For this reason, the deck contains a high number of counter-countermeasures, several means to make them indestructible and/or impervious to hostile spells and if all else fails, a few very nifty recursion options.

Interaction: 5

For a deck of this particular type, there’s a surprising amount of interaction present within its bowels. In all about seventeen options, ranging from counterspell prevention (four cards), destruction (four cards), direct damage (four cards), attack-prevention (two cards) and a mixture of other interaction types that include drain and ability loss.

Resilience: 5

Oddly enough, the deck can actually be quite powerful on this front. Four cards prevent spells from being countered (two of which also protect creatures from several types of harm), five cards provide protection from colors, five cards provide hexproof, four cards provide indestructibility, four cards provide life-gain options and four cards aid with recursion.

Spellpower: 2

Not one of the deck’s major strong suits, but there are some true classics in here that make some big waves upon entry. The most potent stuff includes three very powerful draw spells, an exceedingly strong wipe spell, a card that destroys anything that dares to attack us, a spell that boosts all of the deck’s stuff and one card that makes all its creatures invulnerable for a round.

---

Total power score: 29

Most Voltron decks incorporate white, because of what it can feature in terms of enchantment- and equipment support. That doesn’t mean other colors can’t take a good crack at it though, and this Golgari amalgamation puts up a show. Once a bit of energy becomes available and Yargle and Multani come out to play, they’re going to be very hard to get rid of. That’s a real problem for the other side considering their ridiculous strength; especially when even if one does finally manage to destroy them, they’ve got various ways available to return to the battlefield cheaply.

General strategy

Commanding this deck is a combination of ravenous, repulsive-looking spirits that are very good at assassinating other commanders by themselves in a single blow (or maybe two, if they really have to). The idea is to enable them to do just that. To accomplish this feat, we need a few things in the following order:

1. Resources: in the form of mana or card-advantage, both can provide the edge we require.
2. Summoning protection: the deck contains lands, creatures and even a few spells that ensure no-one will be able to counter the summoning of Yargle and Multani once we feel they’re ready to appear.
3. Anti-spell/damage forcefields: equipment and spells can be utilized to make our commander impervious to targeted spells or even impervious to physical harm. These need to be deployed asap, either before or shortly after our spirit-twins arrive.
4. Anti-spell/damage forcefields: finally, we deploy the means to make Yargle and Multani impossible to be blocked by opponents’ creatures.

While all this goes on, we put measures in place to ensure no overeager attacker gets ambitious and tries to steam-roll us while we’re building up.

Starting hand

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a cheap-to-cast rock (like Arcane Signet or Sol Ring), a cheap mana dork (like Birds of Paradise) or a cheap ramp card like Nature's Lore or Rampant Growth. It is recommended not to start a game without this hand; even if one has to mulligan down to three cards. The ideal hand would also contain some additional ramp and/or low-cost draw options or maybe a cheap life-gain opportunity.

Early game

Alright, let’s start with the basics; resources. In terms of land-drops, try to prioritize lands providing green mana first, as most of the deck’s creatures and enchantments share that color. Aside from the resource cards mentioned above, consider Chrome MoxGC, Mana VaultGC and Mox Opal for early mana. For card advantage, sneak in Phyrexian Arena or Sylvan Library whenever you can. Don’t neglect Selvala, Heart of the Wilds either considering both her crazy mana AND card advantage potential in this deck.

Once resources are down, next on the priority list are cards that protect Yargle and Multani in as many different ways as possible. Summon-protection, spell-protection and indestructibility (once they’ve hit the field), protection from colors and maybe even some recursion options. To make sure they actually hit the field we can use Cavern of Souls, Delighted Halfling or Prowling Serpopard. We can also cast an instant up front that messes with blue spells, like Autumn's Veil or Veil of Summer. Once they’re on the battlefield, we can equip our friends with stuff that provides hexproof (like Champion's Helm, Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots), indestructibility (like Mithril Coat or Hammer of Nazahn), protection (like Commander's Plate, Sword of Fire and Ice or Sword of Truth and Justice) or even recursion options (like Kaya's Ghostform or Nim Deathmantle).

While we’re busy with all this, we need to protect ourselves from ambitious opponents who seek to damage us early. This can be done by (partly) protecting ourselves from attacks through cards like Crawlspace, No Mercy and Silent Arbiter. Once our commander is granted protection against the table’s colors (through indestructibility or just protection itself), they can also be equipped with Pariah's Shield, which then makes the deck’s wielder impervious to any damage.

Mid- and end-game

On to the fun bit. Let’s summon Yargle and Multani and get this party started. Because they’re so strong, they make the ideal commander assassins as they can just about kill them outright with commander damage. To make this more of a certainty, we need to do two more things: make them a little bit stronger (so they can deal 21 damage in one go) AND we need to make them able to damage opponents without being stopped.

Boosts to power (and toughness) are all over this deck. Some fun ones have already been mentioned in the previous section, but there’s more where that came from. For this, equipment options like Blackblade Reforged, Loxodon Warhammer and Shadowspear ought to be considered. Other ways to increase their power, can be found amongst the deck’s creatures, like via Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma, Pathbreaker Ibex and especially Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus. Even some spells can provide assistance. The ones to keep in mind are Berserk and Unnatural Growth. Yargle and Multani can also be provided with some more utility powers that make them even more formidable in direct combat (should this be required), like through Basilisk Collar, Haunted Cloak and Surestrike Trident.

To be a couple of proper hit-ghosts, they also need to be uncatchable; completely unstoppable by any/most forms of blocking out there. Some of the aforementioned cards give them protection, so those fulfill part of our need. The other part can be handled by Manifold Key, Prowler's Helm, Rogue's Passage, Trailblazer's Boots and Whispersilk Cloak. Should our assassin be seriously threatened in any way, more or less on the brink of being wiped out (despite all the precautions we’ve taken), we can still benefit from their death by casting Momentous Fall, or sacrificing them to Greater Good and Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord.

Card Choices

Lands

Reliable sources of mana, and some utility:

• Bloodstained Mire/Marsh Flats/Misty Rainforest/Verdant Catacombs/Windswept Heath/Wooded Foothills: the lands used to filter through the deck, which makes it easier to find cards that impact strategy quicker.
• Bonders' Enclave: a great additional draw resource in a deck with a strong commander.
• Cavern of Souls: the perfect land for summoning a creature that definitely needs to stick its landing.
• Command Tower/Mana Confluence/Reflecting Pool: great all-color mana lands that have very few disadvantages in their use.
• Grim Backwoods: great mana sink if one’s stuck and needs some additional draw.
• Homeward Path: just in case someone has the bright idea to steal our commander.
• Llanowar Wastes/Tainted Wood/Temple of Malady/Twilight Mire/Undergrowth Stadium/Woodland Cemetery: lands that provide Golgari mana, that depending in circumstances enter the battlefield tapped or untapped. The best MTG has to offer on this front has been incorporated, except for the original dual lands which are outside most players’ price-range.
• Rogue's Passage: when all other means to make Yargle and Multani unblockable fail, we might still have this (expensive) solution.
• Shizo, Death's Storehouse: another way to make it much harder for opponents to block Yargle and Multani.
• Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: just some mana-fixing, in case it’s needed.
• Yavimaya Hollow: a great tool to keep valuable creatures alive and kicking.

Mana and ramp

The cards used to accelerate mana-availability:

• Arcane Signet: cheap-to-cast, comes into play untapped and grants Golgari mana.
• Birds of Paradise: one of the most quintessential dorks in MTG; excellent in multi-color decks that feature green.
• Brass Squire: one free equipping per turn.
• Burgeoning: massively strong at the start of games, as it potentially grants an incredible advantage in as little as a single round of turns.
• Chrome MoxGC: right, it requires a sacrifice in order for it to work, but it’s worth it.
• Dark Ritual: an instantaneous boost of black energy that’s especially useful during the early- and midgame phases.
• Delighted Halfling: one of the newer staples in terms of green mana dorks, but this one might be the most powerful one yet when it comes to casting legendary creatures without giving anyone the opportunity to intervene.
• Jaheira's Respite: an upgraded Fog that potentially fetches lots of basics.
• Mana VaultGC: excellent to get Yargle and Multani out early.
• Mox Opal: with the artifacts in this deck, requirements for this one are easy to fulfil.
• Nature's Lore/Rampant Growth/Three Visits: cheap-to-cast, green ramp spells; some of which bring untapped lands onto the battlefield.
• Sol Ring: are there EDH decks without this card?

Card Advantage

The mechanisms that provide card advantage:

• Demonic TutorGC: the most recognizable tutor in all of MTG and much loved for its low casting cost, its simplicity and its multi-functionality.
• Greater Good/Soul's Majesty: should our commander come to fall, we can draw at least get rid of them first and draw eighteen cards on their demise (and then discard three).
• Momentous Fall: not just massive card-gain opportunity, but life-gain at the same time.
• Phyrexian Arena: dependable and just a small requirement for some additional draw.
• Sword of Fire and Ice: protection from blue and red for our commander, a power/toughness bonus and some much needed draw whenever its creature deals damage.
• Sylvan Library: with this on the field, it’s nice to know there’s possibly two additional cards we can count on every turn.

Protection

Our commander will appear and will stay!

• Autumn's Veil/Veil of Summer: blue and black beware; we’re coming for you!
• Champion's Helm: a strong combat bonus, along with some hexproof.
• Commander's Plate: on Yargle and Multani, this beauty provides protection from white, blue and red (not to mention a ridiculously strong combat bonus).
• Hammer of Nazahn: makes it much cheaper to use equipment, not to mention allowing its wielder to become indestructible.
• Heroic Intervention: an incredibly potent spell that temporarily makes it very hard to harm any of the deck’s stuff.
• Kaya's Ghostform: good luck killing whatever it is that’s enchanted by this.
• Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots: great pieces of protective equipment any commander is lucky to have, especially because they include the haste bonus.
• Mithril Coat: gets equipped onto our commander for free and makes them indestructible.
• Nim Deathmantle: a most amazing artifact that can keep something alive, as long as one’s mana lasts.
• Prowling Serpopard: you brought counterspells to a Serpopard fight. Good luck with that.
• Undying Malice: so it didn’t just die, … it just stood up out of its grave stronger than it already was? That’s … a problem.
• Whispersilk Cloak: one can never have too much hexproof (nor enough disdain for anything that tries its hands at blocking you).

Boosts

All the stuff Yargle and Multani have absorbed (or can still absorb)

• Basilisk Collar: death comes for whoever touches the one equipped with this, the life-gain is just gravy.
• Berserk: it’ll die, but it will do so in a blaze of glory!
• Blackblade Reforged: the lands are its power.
• Fireshrieker: with double strike, YandM will really only need one successful attack to kill opposing commanders.
• Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma: easier to cast Yargle and Multani, and he will be granted trample of course.
• Loxodon Warhammer: power, trample and life-link; enough to turn our commander into a one-shot opponent killer.
• Pathbreaker Ibex: imagine having this beauty appear while Yargle and Multani are around and attacking with both; very large bonuses for everyone!
• Shadowspear: not just great abilities to grant to our commander, but an even better ability to take away strengths from our most formidable opponents.
• Sword of Truth and Justice: let’s make him stronger; much stronger.
• Unnatural Growth/Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus: all our stuff gets twice as strong.

Drain and Destruction

There are some amongst you who just won’t bow, … oh well …

• Assassin's Trophy: Golgari’s answer to white’s Path to Exile, but this spell can be applied on any hostile permanent.
• Essence Harvest: very strong drain spell with a commander around as strong as ours.
• Feed the Swarm: one of the few enchantment-destroying spells black has to offer.
• Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord: sacrifice something that’s really strong to this wonderful undead being, and watch an insta-opponent killer in action.
• Mandate of Abaddon: everyone weaker than our commander; get ready to die!
• No Mercy: this side of the battlefield is off-limits; in the most complete sense of the word!
• Surestrike Trident: this is just insanely strong when equipped to an excessively powerful creature, hurl it at whatever suffers the most from massive damage.
• Sword of Sinew and Steel: it’ll slash through flesh, stone, metal and pretty much anything that fancies a walk amongst dimensions.
• Ulvenwald Tracker: opposing creatures beware, the next opponent you’ll fight: Yargle and Multani! The only rule is: THERE ARE NO RULES!

Unblockable and Utility

All the wonderful cards we couldn’t fit in any of the above categories

• Crawlspace: you can get to us, … promise! See that tiny corridor there?
• Geode Golem: sometimes our commander just won’t stick around, so in those cases we can use the attacks of this constructed object to get him back.
• Manifold Key: this will get you through any door you want.
• Pariah's Shield: what if we had an indestructible creature … wouldn’t this be a nice way to make us completely impervious to any damage?
• Prowler's Helm: they won’t see you, but unmovable objects will still block you.
• Silent Arbiter: honestly, one attacker for us is more than enough. Is it for you?
• Yeva, Nature's Herald: now we can summon Yargle and Multani during your turn, and then use them during ours.

Notable exclusions

• Archdruid's Charm: pretty strong but has been left out in favor of cards that can repeat this card’s most important ability in this deck.
• Gaea's Gift: has been seriously considered, but left out in to make room for more powerful boosts.
• Grafted Exoskeleton/Tainted Strike: infect on this commander? It’s understandable to choose for such an upgrade, but for this deck and all other Voltron decks on this page, it’s been decided not to integrate it. Period.
• Putrefy: it’s good, but it’s not been needed all that much, considering all this deck can protect itself against.

Thank you for reading!

Appreciate the time you took to read this primer. Hopefully it was entertaining and useful to you. If so, feel free to leave a +1 and/or feedback of any kind in the comments below. Thanks again!

Date added	5 days
Last updated	9 hours
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 47 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.62