Yuriko Shippūden: The Deadly Cycle

Commander / EDH* UB (Dimir)

Bantexalted

Land (32)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darkwater Catacombs
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x High Market
• 4x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x River of Tears
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 1x Tainted Isle
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Watery Grave

Tutors (5)

• 1x Cruel Tutor
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Scheming Symmetry
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Draw (2)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rhystic Study

Emrakul (1)

• 1x Emrakul, the Promised End

Burn (13)

• 1x Boon of the Wish-Giver
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Frostveil Ambush
• 1x Horror of the Broken Lands
• 1x Lay Claim
• 1x Razaketh's Rite
• 1x River Serpent
• 1x Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip
• 1x Street Wraith
• 1x Striped Riverwinder
• 1x Temporal Mastery
• 1x Temporal Trespass
• 1x Windcaller Aven

Dongers (9)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Dimir Infiltrator
• 1x Gingerbrute
• 1x Hypnotic Siren
• 1x Hypnotic Sprite
• 1x Ornithopter
• 1x Spellstutter Sprite
• 1x Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
• 1x Vault Skirge

Mana (7)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance

Topdecking (4)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Discovery / Dispersal
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top

Wincon (2)

• 1x Demonic Consultation
• 1x Thassa's Oracle

Commander (1)

Counterspells (10)

• 1x Commandeer
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Foil
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Misdirection
• 1x Negate
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Unwind

Ninjas (8)

• 1x Changeling Outcast
• 1x Ingenious Infiltrator
• 1x Mist-Syndicate Naga
• 1x Mothdust Changeling
• 1x Ninja of the Deep Hours
• 1x Phantom Ninja
• 1x Sakashima's Student
• 1x Walker of Secret Ways

Removal (6)

• 1x Consign / Oblivion
• 1x Curtains' Call
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Deadly Rollick
• 1x Never / Return
• 1x Price of Fame

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Maybeboard

Trolling (1)

• 1x Gleemax

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Deck Philosophy

Yuriko as a commander threatens a clock that is both extremely consistent and incredibly fast if unchecked. It’s pretty fun to watch your opponents go from not caring much about their life total in the beginning, to scrambling to preserve their last sliver of life after just a couple of triggers. Additionally, she is near impossible to completely remove because she evades commander tax with Commander Ninjutsu.

She generates insane amounts of card advantage, often having you draw three or more cards a turn. Other builds may take advantage of the fact that Yuriko is basically immune to stax, and that her ability isn’t technically “card draw”, and run heavy stax-effects themselves, but this deck is oriented toward a semi-competitive group rather than a full, focused cEDH group.

She is incredibly resilient, often returning to the board attacking the next turn after being killed, since she doesn't care much for haste. She can be sacrificed to your own benefit or for her protection, and each time it costs just two mana to get her back to generating immense card advantage and burning your opponents for a quarter of their life.

The idea of this deck is specifically to maximize the burn damage from Yuriko's ability at all stages of the game. Every card in the deck is selected to have as high of a converted mana cost as possible, while also providing us some sort of discount to casting it, such as the alternative casting condition on Force of Will or Curtains' Call's Undaunted ability.

The rest of the deck is filled with instant interaction against your opponents’ advances, Ninjas to trigger her ability multiple times in the same turn, and ‘Dongers’, small unblockable creatures that carry ninjas out of your hand through Ninjutsu.

The Cycle

There are twelve cards in the deck that serve mainly to burn our opponents when revealed by Yuriko, all of which can be cycled into the graveyard to contribute to Emrakul's cost-reduction condition or used to cast one of our two delve cards. Each of these cards have been chosen to have as high of a converted mana cost as possible, while also cycling away for only 1 mana if at all possible. Only one of them costs more than 1 mana to cycle, and it’s because it’s too good to pass up.

Individual Card Choices

Burn

• Boon of the Wish-Giver: One of our best cycling cards. Cycles out for just 1 generic mana and can even be used later on for card draw if needed.

• Frostveil Ambush: Not useful for much other than cycling out for 1 generic. Could potentially tap down blockers late game, but we’re not betting on that.

• Horror of the Broken Lands: Another one mana cycler. There is some cycling synergy with him, but we’d rather just have him in the grave for more useful effects.

• Lay Claim: Very great card. We can cycle it for 2 generic and it will count as an enchantment in the grave, or we can use it later on to steal someone’s very important piece, since targets any kind of permanent.

• River Serpent: It cycles, counts as a creature in the grave, and burns for 6 life. Not much else to say other than that we often meet its attack condition, but even still it’s almost worthless to ever cast.

• Striped Riverwinder: Cycles away for a 1 blue mana, and in a bind can be used as a hexproof attacker or blocker. You’d have to be in a bad spot to need it, but it’s there.

• Razaketh's Rite: Our third-best cycling card. Not only does it cycle away for 1 mana, count as a sorcery in the grave, and of course burn for 5 life, but this technically counts as an additional tutor for us if we need it.

• Windcaller Aven: A fantastic cycler, and our second-best. It burns for 6 life one turn and gives Yuriko flying when it’s cycled the next turn. It cycles for only 1 blue mana, counts as a creature in the grave, and can even be cast late game as an unblockable flier.

• Street Wraith: Our best cycler. It doesn’t cost anything but 2 life to cycle away, burns for 5 life, counts as a creature in the grave, and can be cast as a last-ditch relatively low cost unblockable creature to anyone with a swamp, or completely unblockable when combined with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.

• Dig Through Time: Since we’re filling up our grave with cyclers, instants, sorceries, and anything else our opponents destroyed, we can make use of Delve quite well. This is a fantastic draw spell, and it burns for 8 life on Yuriko’s trigger. Best case scenario it costs us 2 blue mana.

• Temporal Trespass: The better Delve card. Not only does this beastly sorcery burn for 11 life, it gives us an extra turn. Extra turn = extra burn.

• Temporal Mastery: Has anyone ever not paid the Miracle cost on this thing? We’ve got ways to put it back on top of the library if Yuriko reveals it (and burns everyone for 7 life), but in general this is just Time Walk that burns opponents.

• Sea Gate Restoration  : It's a land that can enter untapped if we need the early tempo and can burn everyone for 7. Geez.

• Gleemax: Kindly ask your playgroup if they’d like to include Un-cards as a fun way to shake things up a bit and add some variety to the game. If they agree, burn them for 1,000,000 life on turn 3 and tell them it was their fault.

Removal

• Consign / Oblivion: Burns for 7 life on Yuriko’s trigger, returns a nonland permanent, and makes an opponent discard 2 cards. Supremely useful spell.

• Curtains' Call: Burns for 6 life, yet it only costs 3 mana (or as low as 1 mana) due to the Undaunted ability. It destroys two creatures, and it’s instant. Exceedingly good.

• Cyclonic Rift: If only it were the other way around and actually cost 7 mana but could be “underloaded” for 2. Ah well, still an auto-include in blue decks. Sucks that it burns for 2 life, but it’s too good to pass up.

• Deadly Rollick: Burns for 4 life and can be cast with near-total reliability at 0 mana. That’s value. This is black Swords to Plowshares with no life setback for us. Fantastic card.

• Never / Return: Burns for 7 life, destroys a creature or a planeswalker at sorcery speed, and can be used as a slow, targeted grave-hate. Decent card, but mainly included for the massive burn it grants.

• Price of Fame: Burns for 4 life, but kills a commander for only 2 mana--at instant speed, and then allows us to check the top two cards, reorder them however we like for Yuriko triggers, and choose to fill our grave for our Delvers and Emrakul. Absolutely insane value for us.

Dongers

• Bitterblossom: Low cost continuous supplier of fliers that we don’t mind “sacrificing” to Ninjutsu. Counts as an enchantment and a "Tribal" in the grave if someone removes it.

• Dimir Infiltrator: 2 drop unblockable that can also be used to tutor for 16 different cards, including notably Scroll Rack, Thassa's Oracle, Mana Drain, and Arcane Signet, and Demonic Tutor.

• Hypnotic Sprite: A counterspell that becomes a donger. A decent 3 drop counterspell, mainly for use in countering opponent counterspells, and an on-par 2 drop flier.

• Spellstutter Sprite: She has flash, she has flying, she counters spells, and she costs 2. Like Hypnotic Sprite, she is a flying donger that acts as a secondary counterspell.

• Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive: Once Tetsuko is out, we no longer need to worry about Yuriko being blocked. Additionally, she makes every single one of our dongers unblockable if they weren’t already. Unfortunately she isn’t a ninja, but she makes up to five of our ninjas unblockable as well.

• Hypnotic Siren: Our third-best donger, tied with Vault Skirge. It costs only 1 mana, flies, and counts as a creature and enchantment in the graveyard. Additionally, it can Bestow later on in the game if need be and give a Ninja flying.

• Vault Skirge: Our third-best donger, tied with Hypnotic Siren. It costs 1 generic mana and some life, and counts as a creature and artifact in the graveyard. Additionally, it has lifelink and technically has a CMC of 2, so it will burn opponents for 2 life if Yuriko reveals it.

• Ornithopter: Our second-best donger. With Ninjutsu, we will be re-casting the same dongers a lot of the time, and since this costs 0 mana, we won’t need to worry about having to pay for it over and over. It can be dropped for free on the second main phase and be ready for Ninjutsu the next turn.

• Gingerbrute: Our #1 Donger. Comes out turn 1, costs only generic mana, has haste, and has an activated ability that renders it unable to be blocked. If this donger is returned for Ninjutsu, you can drop it right back next turn and its haste will enable a ninja every single turn.

Ninjas

• Changeling Outcast: It can’t block and it can’t be blocked. That means you get an additional Yuriko trigger every turn.

• Ingenious Infiltrator: Burns for 4 life, Ninjutsu for 2 mana. The card advantage this can generate is immense. With only Yuriko and this out, you’re drawing five cards a turn.

• Mist-Syndicate Naga: If this goes unchecked, it will win the game fast. If someone has no blockers, or if you have Umezawa out, you’ll be burning everyone for more life than they have in just 2-3 turns.

• Mothdust Changeling: A copy of Changeling Outcast without the convenience. If you have an untapped donger, you can give it flying.

• Ninja of the Deep Hours: Burns for 4 life, Ninjutsu for 2 mana. The card advantage this can generate is pretty decent. It’s no Ingenious Infiltrator, but it triggers Yuriko and draws an additional card.

• Phantom Ninja: It can’t be blocked. A free Yuriko trigger each turn gets out of hand quickly.

• Walker of Secret Ways: Burns for 3 life, Ninjutsu for 2 mana. It provides insight on counterspells by checking opponents’ hands, and enables neat combat tricks with its activated ability. It can also save Yuriko or another Ninja on your turn for 2 mana.

• Sakashima's Student: Burns for 4 life, Ninjutsu for 2 mana. Absurdly powerful Ninja. Can enter as any creature on the battlefield, but it’s still a Ninja. Can enable some fantastic combos with its Ninjutsu, for instance if it enters as an opponent’s Dockside Extortionist, you can generate six or so treasure tokens, then Ninjutsu another Ninja in--then Ninjutsu him back out as Dockside Extortionist again, generating more treasures… infinitely. Then, if an opponent has a creature with a good activated ability, such as Thrasios, Urza, Najeela, etc, he can enter as that and dump all your infinite treasures into it and win the game.

Tutors

• Demonic Tutor: Best tutor in the format, so it’s an auto-include. Goes and gets stuff and puts it into our hand for 2 mana.

• Diabolic Intent: This is nearly identical to Demonic Tutor because we just don’t mind sacrificing Yuriko to it. She comes back out the same turn or next for just 2 mana anyway.

• Cruel Tutor: Our third-best tutor. It puts things directly on top of our deck for Yuriko to burn people with. This deck has a good selection of counterspells, removal, extra turn spells, and creatures that burn for a huge amount if we want them to.

• Scheming Symmetry: Super underrated tutor. Our second best one, because it costs 1 mana and no life, and usually this spell has the drawback of giving your opponent the advantage of getting what they tutored for first. But not only will you get it first, you’ll burn them for 13 life when you do.

• Vampiric Tutor: Your all-time best tutor. Very potentially better than Demonic Tutor in this particular deck: it puts something on top instantly for Yuriko.

Topdecking

• Discovery / Dispersal: Burns for 7 life, reorders the top 2 cards, and draws a card for 2 mana. Also has another half, which is cool to have.

• Brainstorm: Draws three cards for 1 mana, but allows us to put something from our hand back on top--instantly, just like Vampiric Tutor. With multiple Yuriko triggers, you can use this between them to cause immense burn to all of your opponents.

• Sensei's Divining Top: Allows you to consistently and constantly keep check on the top three cards of your library. Every single time you trigger Yuriko you can ensure you’re dealing the most damage possible, or getting the exact card you need. It also can draw a card in a bind--all in a 1 mana artifact.

• Scroll Rack: Allows you to juggle two different hands of cards. More importantly, like Brainstorm, we can use this to throw huge cards on top of our library. Every single turn. Because our hand will often be seven or more cards, we are digging incredibly deep if we need something specific, such as a counterspell.

Draw

• Rhystic Study: It’s hard not to include something that draws this many cards. Worst case, if it gets destroyed it will count as an enchantment in our graveyard for Emrakul.

• Mystic Remora: Absolutely auto-include. Not only does it draw buckets of cards for 1 mana, but when it eventually commits seppuku to its own cumulative upkeep, it counts as an enchantment in our grave.

Counterspells

• Commandeer: Burns for 7 life through Yuriko’s trigger, and allows us to gain control of any noncreature spell. This could be a tutor, a high drawing spell, a win condition from one of our opponents, etc. And because we keep a full hand most of the time, this alternate casting cost is pretty easy to fulfill.

• Fierce Guardianship: Burns for 3 life, and since we will be controlling our commander quite a lot throughout the game, this spell will often be cast for zero mana whatsoever. Pretty insane value.

• Foil: Burns for 4 life, and since we run five basic islands, Underground Sea, and Watery Grave, we’re quite likely to have an island on hand to cast this without paying its mana cost.

• Negate: Good noncreature counter. This counterspell counters counterspells well.

• Unwind: A “free” counterspell if you have three lands up and something to do with them.

• Pact of Negation: Wish it didn’t cost 0. Only Yuriko would wish that. Outside of the fact that this doesn’t burn your opponents, it’s a fantastic no-brainer auto-include counterspell. It protects you well.

• Mana Drain: This one is interesting. You could counter a large spell with the sole purpose of generating enough colorless mana to cast Emrakul, the Promised End on your next turn. It’s just a good card in general though.

• Force of Negation: Burns for 3 life. If it’s not our turn (it’s usually not our turn), then we can exile a blue card instead of paying the mana cost. Pretty easy to do. It counters a noncreature spell and exiles it, which completely gets rid of threats.

• Force of Will: Burns for 5 life. Easy to pay its alternative cost, and counters any spell. On top of being auto-included in a blue deck anyway, this counterspell is insane value for this deck due to the 5 life in burn from Yuriko’s trigger.

• Misdirection: Burns for 5 life. Funny spell--not really a counterspell, but it can be used to change the target of a Darksteel Mutation from Yuriko to their own commander, which is hilarious. Additionally, we can use this when we’re not the target. If you lack removal and need a certain card gone from the table, you can take advantage of someone else’s Swords to Plowshares and re-route it to whatever you need gone.

Land

• Cavern of Souls: Naming Ninja, this protects pretty much every relevant creature in our deck. Naming Wizard/Merfolk, it makes our Thassa's Oracle uncounterable.

• Island: To be honest we’re running five of these because I bought a bunch of Theros foil basics, and I want to enable Foil because I have a foil Foil and it burns for 4 life.

• Phyrexian Tower: Yuriko is always eager to be sacrificed, especially if it means generating extra mana. You can do so to protect her a lot of the time, or to get an instant Ninjutsu if she’s already out and would otherwise be blocked.

• High Market: Could be substituted with an island if your group doesn’t Elk Yuriko constantly. Sacrificing her is a good way to get her back to the command zone and ready for Ninjutsu.

• Shizo, Death's Storehouse: Adds black mana, and can make Yuriko (or Emrakul) unblockable. Pretty nice.

• Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Gives you all the black mana you need. As a drawback, it gives your opponents black mana. But we don’t care much. Interestingly, it combines well with Street Wraith to make him an unblockable donger.

• Cephalid Coliseum: Insane filtering land. We meet Threshold really easily, and even if we don’t it’ll still tap for a blue mana at the cost of 1 life. Coming in untapped, it’s a fantastic land.

• Volrath's Stronghold: This is the coolest land we have. You can burn your opponents for 7 life with Striped Riverwinder using Yuriko’s trigger, then cycle it to draw a card, then use this land to put it right back on top of your library and repeat that process every turn.

Secondary Win Condition

• Thassa's Oracle: It’s actually a potentially reusable filter if you keep Ninjutsu-ing it back to your hand. But as for the actual win condition, first, you cast this...

• Demonic Consultation: Then in response to the Oracle’s trigger, you cast Demonic Consultation, naming any card that isn’t actually in your deck. This will cause you to exile your whole library. Oracle sees that X is greater than the number of cards in your library, and you win. It’s also a potentially useful tutor if everything has gone awry.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	WRG
Splash colors	UB
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 42 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 20 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.50
Tokens	Copy Clone, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, On an Adventure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Cycling!