Yarok, Desecration of Zendikar *Retired*

Commander / EDH BUG (Sultai) Combo Elementals Goodstuff Landfall Toolbox Value Engine

UltimateRoxas40

Creature (38)

• 1x Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait
• 1x Aether Channeler
• 1x Agent of Treachery
• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bramble Sovereign
• 1x Cloud of Faeries
• 1x Coiling Oracle
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Displacer Kitten
• 1x Druid of Purification
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Ice-Fang Coatl
• 1x Kodama of the East Tree
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Massacre Wurm
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
• 1x Palinchron
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Rampaging Baloths
• 1x Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1x Risen Reef
• 1x Scute Swarm
• 1x Shrieking Drake
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Springbloom Druid
• 1x Tatyova, Benthic Druid
• 1x Temur Sabertooth
• 1x Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
• 1x Tireless Provisioner
• 1x Tireless Tracker
• 1x Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant
• 1x Wood Elves

Land (34)

• 1x Ancient TombGC
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Field of the Dead
• 1x Forest
• 1x Forest
• 1x Forest
• 1x Forest
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 2x Snow-Covered Forest
• 2x Snow-Covered Island
• 2x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Temple of Mystery
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Woodland Cemetery
• 1x Yavimaya Coast
• 1x Zagoth Triome

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip
• 1x Guardian Project
• 1x Necromancy

Commander (1)

Artifact (8)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of Hearth and Home
• 1x Talisman of Curiosity
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Resilience

Instant (8)

• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Double Major
• 1x Fierce GuardianshipGC
• 1x Ghostly Flicker
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Vampiric TutorGC

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Damnation
• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Neoform
• 1x Three Visits
• 1x Torment of Hailfire

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Maybeboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Cavalier of Night
• 1x Foundation Breaker

Artifact (2)

• 1x Lithoform Engine
• 1x Sword of Hearth and Home

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Shielding Plax

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I feel like this deck wants to go too many different ways. It's versatile, which is fun to build around but to specialize/optimize, there are too many options, and then it starts overlapping with other deck strategies. I might come back to this, but I think I'll be resurrecting my Muldrotha deck soon.

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“Yarok grieves within the waste

Of Bala Ged’s corrupted land.”

—Lament for Bala Ged, stanza 1

Yarok, the Desecrated is an elemental horror residing within the continent of Bala Ged on Zendikar. Bala Ged was nearly destroyed by the release of Eldrazi Titans Ulamog and Kozilek. Yarok, the Desecrated appears to be the result of the corrupted land, but the 'Lament for Bala Ged' suggests that Yarok, the Desecrated is still fighting and protecting its land. Yarok, the Desecrated is an explosive commander, causing all of our permanents with Enter the Battlefield (ETB) triggers to trigger a second time. It's essentially a Panharmonicon on a body, but better since Panharmonicon only affects creatures and artifacts, while Yarok, the Desecrated affects all permanent types, including Lands.

“Yarok’s waters rush and rage Where armies bled into the sand.” —Lament for Bala Ged, stanza 2

“Yarok’s nightmares lurk and wait Where dark despair is near at hand.” —Lament for Bala Ged, stanza 3

“Grief and rage and nightmares fade Where hope and comfort make their stand.” —Lament for Bala Ged, stanza 4

"Its blighted heart, its spinous hands To break the hosts that foul its lands." -Triumph of Bala Ged, stanza 6

Major Inclusions

• Avenger of Zendikar - A major powerhouse card. With Yarok, the Desecrated, we can easily go wide with an army of tokens to overwhelm our opponents, especially when paired with Craterhoof Behemoth.

• Bramble Sovereign - A good way to double up ETB triggers, create more creatures, and can be used as a political tool since we can potentially create a token creature for our opponents if the situation occurs.

• Craterhoof Behemoth - One of our major win-cons. Yarok, the Desecrated doubles up its ETB of pumping our creatures and giving them trample. And, we have a few ways to blink creatures in this deck, so with enough mana, we can make our creatures large enough to take all our opponents out at once.

• Deadeye Navigator - One of the better Blink enablers in this deck, allowing us to maximize our ETBs and gain continued use out of our creatures.

• Palinchron - With Yarok, the Desecrated, we can generate infinite mana. This in conjunction with any of our bounce creatures can allow us to cast our creatures over and over again or dump 1000 mana into Villainous Wealth

• Scute Swarm - Prepare to Math! This little bug can get out of hand really quickly, and especially when followed up by Craterhoof Behemoth.

• Tatyova, Benthic Druid - While this isn't a Landfall-centric deck, she's too good not to use. Draws us cards and gains life.

• Thassa, Deep-Dwelling - Another good Blink enabler, and a mana outlet if we want to tap out our opponent's creatures to swing in.

• Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath - For 3 mana, we can gain 6 life, draw two cards, and put two lands into play. While it doesn't stick around the first time, we can bring it back out later after the game has gone on for a while to use as a beater and to repeat the benefits.

Win Cons and Powerful Synergies

Infinite Mana

• Infinite Mana with Cloud of Faeries and Shrieking Drake - Have Yarok, the Desecrated and 4 untapped lands. Spend two to cast Cloud of Faeries and tap the other two lands for mana. Cloud of Faeries ETBs, untap four lands. Spend 1 to cast Shrieking Drake, bouncing Cloud of Faeries and itself back to your hand, then spend 3 to replay them, giving you a net gain of 1 mana. Repeat for infinite mana. Once you've got infinite mana, you now have infinite bounce triggers, as you can change your bounce targets to Shrieking Drake and your creature of choice.

• Infinite Mana with Palinchron - Palinchron and Yarok, the Desecrated together generate infinite mana, as you can untap 14 lands when Palinchron ETBs and spend 11 to bounce itself to your hand and recast it, netting you 3 mana each iteration.

With the Infinite Mana - Spend 5000 mana into Finale of Devastation or Torment of Hailfire to wipe the board

• Ghostly Flicker + Archaeomancer/Eternal Witness - Repeatable abuse of ETBs. With either Archaeomancer or Eternal Witness in play, we Ghostly Flicker them and one other target. When Archaeomancer/Eternal Witness re-enters the battlefield, we grab Ghostly Flicker back from the graveyard to our hand, then we can re-cast it whenever we want. With Infinite Mana, we can repeat this loop an infinite number of times for an infinite number of ETB triggers.

Spellseeker Packages

Spellseeker is such a powerful card in this deck. With Yarok, the Desecrated out when Spellseeker ETBs, we can search out 2 Instants/Sorceries with a CMC of 2 or less depending on the situation.

• Ramp: Farseek, Nature's Lore, and Three Visits

• Removal: Assassin's Trophy, Cyclonic Rift

• Counterspell: Mana Drain

• Tutors: Demonic Tutor, Neoform, Vampiric Tutor

• Win-cons/Tutors: Finale of Devastation

Recursion Capabilities

• Yarok, the Desecrated + Archaeomancer = Get any Instant or Sorcery card back to hand. Useful to get back some of our Tutors and {X} spells like Finale of Devastation or Cyclonic Rift

• Yarok, the Desecrated + Eternal Witness = Get any two cards back from the graveyard to hand

• Yarok, the Desecrated + Necromancy = Due to the wording of this older card, we can bring back two creatures from any graveyard. The first creature will be brought back, Yarok, the Desecrated will trigger again, and the second creature will be brought back, and Necromancy will attach to the last creature. If Necromancy leaves the battlefield, both creatures will die again.

• Yarok, the Desecrated + Phyrexian Delver = Get two creatures back to the battlefield. You will lose a lot of life if you go for larger targets, but being able to get two big bombs back could be beneficial.

• Finale of Devastation = You can search you your library and graveyard for a creature, so it can be used to bring back a creature from the graveyard.

Removal

Single Target Removal:

• Assassin's Trophy, Beast Within = Blow up any permanent that we need to get rid of.

• Yarok, the Desecrated + Druid of Purification = Multiple Artifact and/or Enchantment Removal, and a fun political card, since your opponents can also blow stuff up.

Board Wipes:

• Damnation, Cyclonic Rift - Rid the board of creatures/non-land permanents.

Creature-based Removal

• Yarok, the Desecrated + Ravenous Chupacabra = Multiple creature removal

• Yarok, the Desecrated + Massacre Wurm = Wipe the board of Toughness 4 or less and drain opponents of life

• Venser, Shaper Savant - We can bounce a permanent or spell back to its owner's hand, either preventing an opponent spells like Cyclonic Rift or returning one of our permanents back to our hand to recast it for more ETB triggers. If Yarok, the Desecrated is in play, we can target Venser, Shaper Savant himself as one of his targets to get him back to our hand.

Flicker/Bounce Effects

• Shrieking Drake - For 1 {U}, we can bounce a creature back to our hand. If Yarok, the Desecrated is in play, we can bounce the Drake back on the second trigger to keep returning creatures to our hand and replaying them.

• Deadeye Navigator - For {1}{U}, we can flicker a creature to trigger their ETB again.

• Temur Sabertooth - For 2 mana, bounce a creature back to our hand to recast it for more ETB triggers.

• Venser, Shaper Savant - We can bounce a permanent or spell back to its owner's hand, either preventing an opponent spells like Cyclonic Rift or returning one of our permanents back to our hand to recast it for more ETB triggers. If Yarok, the Desecrated is in play, we can target Venser, Shaper Savant himself as one of his targets to get him back to our hand.

• Ghostly Flicker - Instant speed flicker two creatures, artifacts, or lands to re-trigger ETB effects

Notable Exclusions/Additions

• Muldrotha, the Gravetide - I'm working on a separate Muldrotha, the Gravetide deck, and I like my EDH decks to feel unique, so I don't want a ton of overlap between them.

• Treachery - Fairly pricey, if I can get one I'd add it instantly. I saw how powerful it was on The Command Zone's Game Nights and immediately wanted it. Unfortunately, I think everyone else did too lol.

• Faerie Artisans - I had this in the deck a while ago, but it's too unreliable and is easy to whiff.

• Acidic Slime and Reclamation Sage - I also had these in but took them both out in favor of Druid of Purification. It's between both their CMCs and can hit multiple targets.

• Roil Elemental - As much as Yarok, the Desecrated makes us a target, especially in my playgroup, Roil Elemental just focuses the aggro onto me, so I stopped using it.

• Ob Nixilis, the Fallen - Like I said, I like my EDH decks to feel unique, and I have a Lord Windgrace Landfall/Land-focused deck that he belongs to and does a lot of work.

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Thanks for taking a look. If you have any suggestions or insight on how to improve the deck, I'd love to hear it.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	18 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.33
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Beast 4/4 G, Bird 1/1 W, Clue, Copy Clone, Food, Insect 1/1 G, Plant 0/1 G, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	My Deck Creations, untap decks to try