The wonderful thing about triggers
Is triggers are wonderful things!
Their tops are made out of creatures!
Their bottoms are made out of Swings!
They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy
Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!
But the most wonderful thing about triggers is we get more than one!
Please Upvote and Comment if you like the list and Primer. I've only been playing for 2 years so please leave me feedback, insight, advice, helpful critiques and suggestions. Thanks for looking!
There are a few options for flicker decks in Commander with the most notable being
Roon of the Hidden Realm
. So why would we run Yarok over Roon? With Yarok we lose access to which contains some excellent tutors like
Enlightened Tutor
,
Recruiter of the Guard
,
Idyllic Tutor
,
Congregation at Dawn
and some amazing flicker, protection, card draw and removal like
Path to Exile
,
Swords to Plowshares
,
Teferi's Protection
,
Ghostway
,
Eerie Interlude
etc. These are some powerful cards in a deck that wants to abuse ETB effects so what are we gaining by moving into a Yarok build with access to ? We are gaining sooooooo much. As a long time Roon player I am very excited about building around this new Sultai Commander.
First, Yaruk has a value engine built directly into the commander with little effort needed on our part. While Roon required additional mana input to generate doubling ETB value, Yarok has it stapled right on its card. Anyone who has played a Roon deck knows it transforms into something else entirely when a
Panharmonicon
hits the table. Well Yarok generates this effect with no extra effort on our part. The value and power of this engine cannot be underestimated. Being in Black gives us access to the best tutors in the game and even more importantly we get to tutor using some powerful creatures (twice if our commander is out) with cards like
Rune-Scarred Demon
and
Sidisi, Undead Vizier
. Though we lose the speed of low CMC removal that offers we gain extreme value with powerful creatures which potentially destroy multiple targets as they enter. Think of the value
Ravenous Chupacabra
,
Hostage Taker
and
Massacre Wurm
offer.
But if we are going to take advantage of these higher CMC creatures we need to make sure we can ramp out of our minds to get there in time. Yarok helps with this too. Roon can ramp quite hard and has access to cards like
Mirari's Wake
but we can potentially abuse our ramp package more effectively with Yarok on board. Imagine abusing
Wood Elves
,
Springbloom Druid
,
Farhaven Elf
and
Sylvan Ranger
as we ramp to get our
Mana Reflection
running. The ceiling is quite high.
So what is this deck designed to do? It is first and foremost a ramp into value deck. It has a pretty fantastic mid to late game with a few combos and ways to close out games quickly when the time comes.
What it is not? It is not a cEDH or even top tier deck. Though you can certainly build this deck to loop many infinite combos or quick wins using things like
Hermit Druid
,
Protean Hulk
and
Altar of the Brood
this versions power level sits around a 7 out of 10.
So how does this deck run? What are the lines of play and what should I be tutoring for at different points of the game? Let's discuss...
These are combinations of cards which can jump you ahead on board or offer maximum value when running together in a typical EDH game.
-
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
offers incredible value when dropped alongside an established board in EDH as we all know but imagine the value we generate when we get to return ETB creatures to the battlefield off of his undying trigger.
-
Lotus Cobra
in conjunction with any of our ETB ramp creatures such as
Wood Elves
,
Springbloom Druid
and
Farhaven Elf
generate extra value, allowing us to move our game forward at a quick pace.
-
Crop Rotation
is gives us the ability to not ony fix our mana but acts as a tutor when needed to grab one of the common
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
+
Cabal Coffers
combo pieces to generate big manna.
-
Tooth and Nail
has many targets as noted in the infinite combo section. Additionally it allows us to close games out by grabbing the
Craterhoof Behemoth
+
Avenger of Zendikar
duo which can usually knock one or two opponents out of the game quickly.
Please be careful when dropping your
Gilded Drake
if your commander is running. It will place two drake triggers on the stack and when you exchange it with one opponent the second trigger will resolve. If you have picked two creatures from the same opponent then you should be fine but if you pick two different opponent's creatures you will end up exchanging the drake with one opponent and the second trigger will resolve and the second opponent will end up with your drake. It is a political tool and should be used with caution if you don't understand the stack and triggers well.