Commander Collection: Riddler's Revenge

Commander / EDH Bracket 4 Control Scry Top Deck Matters WUB (Esper)

Jurrane

Land (37)

• 1x Arid Mesa P
• 1x Bloodstained Mire P
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darkslick Shores
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 5x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest P
• 2x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Raffine's Tower
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Rivendell
• 1x Scalding Tarn P
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Verdant Catacombs P
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath P

Card Draw (4)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x NecropotenceGC
• 1x Rhystic StudyGC
• 1x Vega, the Watcher

Countermagic (4)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Fierce GuardianshipGC
• 1x Mana Drain

Bombs (18)

• 1x Angel of Despair
• 1x Angel of the Ruins
• 1x Approach of the Second Sun
• 1x Artisan of Kozilek
• 1x Blatant Thievery
• 1x Blazing Archon
• 1x Clone Legion
• 1x Emrakul, the Promised End
• 1x Hidetsugu and Kairi
• 1x In Garruk's Wake
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant
• 1x Pathrazer of Ulamog
• 1x Plague Wind
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Sphinx of the Final Word
• 1x Thryx, the Sudden Storm
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre P

Removal (9)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Cleansing Nova
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Stroke of Midnight
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Tragic Arrogance
• 1x Vindicate
• 1x Void Rend

Protection (6)

• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mask of Avacyn
• 1x Neurok Stealthsuit
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Teferi's Protection PGC
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Commander (1)

Library Manipulation (9)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Brainsurge
• 1x Doom Whisperer
• 1x Dream Cache
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mystic Speculation
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top P
• 1x Soothsaying

Ramp (7)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Smothering TitheGC
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Talisman of Progress

Tutors (5)

• 1x Demonic Tutor *f-etch* PGC
• 1x Imperial Seal PGC
• 1x Mystical TutorGC
• 1x Personal Tutor
• 1x Vampiric Tutor PGC

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{W}{U}{B} Introduction: Riddle Me This {W}{U}{B}

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Welcome to my primer for Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign, an EDH contol deck in Esper colours. It's being updated in real time as I play my first games with the list.

There's a bit of background to this build. When I realised my Esper Sen Triplets list wasn’t particularly enjoyable for anyone, I decided to repurpose it into a new deck. It's surprisingly difficult to find an interesting Commander in Esper colours, especially one that didn't duplicate themes I already have in my other decks. Then I saw Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign and thought a control build with a topdeck focus might be fun to build around. The result is the first draft of the list you see here.

Pure control decks are quite difficult to pull off in Commander as you typically have three opponents and there's stuff happening all over the board. I already have a Stax countrol deck and another deck that relies on topdeck manipulation so I tried to take the best elements of each and fuse them into something that approaches the game from a different angle, by using Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign to cast powerful game-breaking spells for free and control the board that way.

The goal of the deck is therefore quite simple: deal with any initial threats early on, ramp into enough mana to cast Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign and protect her at all costs. We then rely on her topdeck trigger when she attacks to power out high mana value cards that consolidate our dominant position on the game. Because we're in the Esper colour identity, we have no shortage of card draw, counterspells, removal and big nasty threats to make life difficult for our opponents.

Our (Odd) Commander

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Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign is a pretty unique Commander. Not only do odd CMCs matter to her ability but, as some wise people on Reddit pointed out, her name uses an odd number of letters, each word in her flavour text also has an odd number of letters; plus she has a three word name, a mana value of five, odd numbers for her power and toughness, 33 words used to describe her effects and nine words in her flavour text. Even the word "Yennett" has both an odd number of letters with an even number of occurrences and an odd number of letters with an odd number of occurrences. You can't get much stronger for flavour.

Yennett's abilities are also very strong. She has three relevant keywords in flying, menace and vigilence, which means she's a formidable attacker. Any ability that enables you to cast spells for free tends to be fairly powerful in EDH and enables us to build the deck around odd mana value spells that have game breaking effects. As a result, this deck is a great opportunity to use all those big splashy Timmy battlecruiser cards that don't have a home in more optimised decks. And we can then play them for free when she attacks. What's not to like?

Power Level

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I categorise decks in my collection according to four tiers of power, from 1 (most powerful) to 4 (least powerful):

Tier 1: Higher powered decks with fast mana, free spells, and infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors.
Tier 2: Well tuned decks which may have infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors, but not many fast mana sources and/or free spells.
Tier 3: Reasonably well tuned casual decks that are capable of powerful plays. May occasionally have infinite combos or instant wins but don't generally use tutors to find them.
Tier 4: Lower powered or linear decks, weak enough to play against other casual decks.

I would categorise this deck as one of my Tier 3 builds. It's optimised to a certain level, features powerful cards in most categories but lacks some of the higher power cards that stronger or more refined Yennett builds would run (see the "Budget" section below). I'd be happy running it at low to medium power casual tables but higher powered or competitive pods would probably overwhelm it before it gets started.

Budget

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The average price for this deck on Card Kingdom is around $500. That's mainly because the previous incarnation of this list (Sen Triplets) had some expensive staples that I've ported over to this new list like Fierce GuardianshipGC, Smothering TitheGC, Rhystic StudyGC, Mana Drain, and all the fetches and shocks that come with a three colour mana base. There are plenty of budget alternatives available and this doesn't need to be a deck that's particularly expensive to build.

Bombs

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One of the fun things about this deck is its ability to cast powerful high CMC spells for free using Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign's attack trigger. Many of these are are "bomb" cards: big impactful creatures and sorceries that can immediately tip the scales in our favour if they resolve. Here's a list of those bombs:

• Angel of Despair: A Vindicate on a stick plus a hefty flying body.
• Angel of the Ruins: Good exile removal for artifacts and enchantments is still relatively rare in EDH. Takes care of The One RingGC, for example. Plus it's another great flying threat with good stats.
• Approach of the Second Sun: The classic control deck alternate win condition. We like it here because (a) we can play it for free with Yennett; and (b) we have enough topdeck manipulation that we can often dig for it relatively easily after we've cast it the first time. Keep in mind that the second time we cast it has to be from our hand - and not from Yennett's ability - to win the game.
• Artisan of Kozilek: We could run all sorts of nasty Eldrazi in this deck but this is the most relevant one I had lying around. There may be more to follow.
• Blatant Thievery: Steal the best card from each of our opponents. Can be game-ending if there's powerful stuff on the battlefield.
• Blazing Archon: Shuts down all enemy attackers. Very expensive to cast but ideally we'll be playing it for free. Watch out for people stealing it or reanimating it though.
• Cleansing Nova: A nice versatile boardwipe. We'll usually be choosing the artifacts and enchantments mode if we're casting it for free with Yennett.
• Clone Legion: An instant army in a can. Pick a player, copy all their creatures and profit. Someone will nearly always have some decent stuff. Sometimes that player will be us.
• Doom Whisperer: A 6/6 flyer with trample is already amazing stats for {3}{B}{B} but its surveil ability is the icing on the cake. A good way to set up draws for Yennett.
• Emrakul, the Promised End: The biggest, baddest Eldrazi of them all. Mindslavers an opponent on ETB which invariably spells disaster for them. Casting her for free with Yennett just seems unfair.
• Hidetsugu and Kairi: Useful topdeck manipulation with a sting in the tail if someone tries to destroy it.
• In Garruk's Wake: Top tier one-sided boardwipe. Its casting cost makes it prohibitive to use in my other decks but casting it for free here is OP.
• Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant: Two powerful card advantage abilities. Doubles the impact of our removal spells and counters our opponents' stuff. Other players won't want to see it on our side of the table.
• Pathrazer of Ulamog: Same principle as Artizan of Kozilek. This one's even meaner. Annihilator {3} and unblockable apart from 3+ creatures is no joke.
• Plague Wind: Pretty much a second copy of In Garruk's Wake, except it doesn't hit planeswalkers. But another top-tier one-sided boardwipe.
• Rune-Scarred Demon: Another big flying monster, this one coming with a free Demonic TutorGC.
• Sheoldred, Whispering One: Great recursion enabler that forces opponents to sacrifice a creature during each of their turns. Swampwalking is a handy evasion ability too.
• Sphinx of the Final Word: One of our favourite creatures. If we manage to cast him, he's probably resolving and then he's tough to remove. Plus we makes all our other bombs uncounterable. A staple for this list.
• Thryx, the Sudden Storm: Less of a bomb and more of an enabler but worth including here. Another way of making our bomb cards uncounterable.
• Tragic Arrogance: Another powerful boardwipe. We get to pick what sticks around and don't run many permanents ourselves so its effect is rarely symmetrical. Deals with indestructable permanents too.
• Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: One of the biggest, baddest odd-CMC Eldrazi. Being able to cast it for free with Yennett is insane. When we do, our opponents are facing down a 10/10 Vindicate on a stick with annihilator {4}. An absolute monster.

Other Utility Cards

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We support our bombs with a series of other utility card to help the deck run smoothly. I've separated them into several categories below. These are just my current preferences for each and there are plenty of other options in these categories if you prefer.

Library Manipulation
Our success with this deck will often depend on revealing bombs and other odd-CMC impact cards from the top of our library with Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign. Fortunately there's no shortage of ways we can do so. We have one-shot scry/deck stacking cards like Brainstorm, Brainsurge, Lim-Dul's Vault and Dream Cache, and can call on repeatable effects from Mystic Speculation, Soothsaying, Scroll Rack and Sensei's Divining Top, alongside some of our creatures mentioned above.

Tutors
We can roll the dice with our scry effects but choosing which card to reveal with Yennett is even better. Vampiric TutorGC, Mystical TutorGC, Imperial SealGC and Personal Tutor all put a card on top of our library. Demonic TutorGC serves a slightly different purpose as the card goes to our hand. I could also add Cruel Tutor as another topdeck option.

Protecting Yennett
Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign is a removal magnet and will be targetted frequently by opponents who recognise the broken things she can do. Our job is to keep her alive for as long as possible. We run Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mask of Avacyn, Neurok Stealthsuit and Whispersilk Cloak to protect her, with our counterspells as a second line of defence.

Card Draw
Yennett doubles as a card draw effect herself but we also have a range of cards to ensure we have a steady stream of resources. Mystic Remora, NecropotenceGC and Rhystic StudyGC are all-stars and need no introduction, plus we have handy single use cards such as Brainsurge and the other scry/draw cards mentioned above. Vega, the Watcher is a great value piece in a deck like this.

Ramp
Because of all the high mana value bombs we're running, the average CMC across this deck is just under 4, which is much higher than most of my other builds. Although we're planning to cast as many of those bombs as possible for free, Yennett is an expensive Commander and we sometimes have to fall back on hardcasting some of our big mana spells. We have half a dozen mana rocks to help with ramp, plus Smothering TitheGC as a premium accelerator. But we're still a slow deck (see "Weaknesses" below).

Interaction & Removal
Esper is probably the best 3-colour combination in EDH for removal. We have a suite of versatile removal options that can take care of pretty much anything, including Vindicate, Anguished Unmaking, Stroke of Midnight and Void Rend, alongside staples like Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares. As they all odd-numbered mana values, they can be cast for free with Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign if needed. We back these up with some of the stronger counterspells such as Fierce GuardianshipGC, Mana Drain, Arcane Denial and good old Counterspell. Between our counters and removal cards, we should be able to handle most threats.

Play Style

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Here are some initial thoughts about our style of play and some tips for sequencing our cards. I'm still learning with this deck and have only played a handful of games. All comments and feedback are welcome.

We're a control deck so we're generally going to start quite slowly. Other decks will outpace us and we have to be OK with that. Our game comes online when Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign hits the battlefield, survives her turn of summoning sickness (or is protected by Lightning Greaves etc) and is able to attack. At that point we have the potential to do some pretty degenerate things.

Those first few turns are critical for us so we want to be seeing removal, boardwipes or counterspells for threats that will multiply later in the game. Do what you can to avoid taking excessive damage in those early turns as we don't have many lifegain opportunities and we don't want to fall too far behind. From experience, aggro decks can be a real problem (we've already been overrun by Squirrels a couple of times in our first few games) so having boardwipes ready in advance of Yennett coming down can really pay dividends.

Unless you need to set up your draws for land, removal etc in the early turns, it's usually best to hold on to our deck manipulation cards until Yennett is live and we can use them to find our bombs. I would avoid playing Approach of the Second Sun until you have an easy way to scry it to the top of the library ready to cast if for the second time, as we quickly become public enemy number one in that instance.

Strengths

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Our raw power can be seen in the bomb cards we play. Whether it's monstrous Eldrazi, one-sided boardwipes, theft pieces, impactful creatures or win conditions, they not only have a home in this deck but can be played for free with Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign. You haven't lived until you've churned out a Pathrazer of Ulamog for zero mana and used it to close out the game.

That's the secret of this deck: although it uses lots of Timmy power cards that aren't viable in most builds, not only do we have access to them here but we cast them for free. Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign is the enabler for this ability and, as I've found out during my first few games, having access to a repeatable effect in the command zone that allows us to cheat out these huge spells for free is no small thing. It's a really fun thing to do.

The other thing making this happen is the second secret sauce in the deck: our library manipulation spells. Although they're primarily used to set up Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign's topdeck ability, their secondary benefit is they smooth out our draws when she's not around, helping us draw into the right cards we need at the right time. Utilities like Sensei's Divining Top, Scroll Rack and Soothsaying - along with other one-shot or multiple deck manipulation effects - don't need Yennett to be effective: when we're in control deck mode, our success relies on the impact of our draws and enable us to impact the game without falling too far behind.

Bring in Esper colours, our third main strength is the quality of our answers. Between white and black, we have access to the best suite of removal in EDH, which means there are very few threats we can't remove if they're causing us problems. Combine those with blue's counterspells and we have a wide range of cards to deal with pretty much anything we're likely to be encounter in a typical EDH game. Our boardwipes help us catch up quickly and restore parity if we're behind, helping us shift from defence to offense when we're ready to play Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign and have her start taking over the game.

Overall, if you're looking for a flexible, powerful deck that does game-breaking things, you've come to the right place. But we're not without our weaknesses, which I've outlined in the following section.

Weaknesses

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Make no mistake, this deck can be painfully slow. That's often par for the course with control decks but it's particularly acute here. Without any ramp sources, the earliest that Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign can usually come online is turn 6 (unless we have Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots) and sometimes the game can already be lost by then if we haven't managed to interact in a meaningful way. The early pods I've played in have reinforced this: aggro decks will rightly target us as they recognise we're a control build and respect our late-game power.

Similarly, without Yennett in play, we run the risk of being a somewhat inefficient control deck, sometimes stuck with a hand of high mana value cards that can't be cast. While we can win without our commander, it's a hard slog and Yennett's high mana value means she only needs to be removed two or three times before it becomes unviable to cast her from the command zone. She doesn't yet have the reputation as a kill-on-sight commander - and still seems to be relatively unknown in my local metas - but wise opponents will target her, rightly realisiing that she's absolutely central to the deck's strategy, and therefore it's success.

Our other weakness is our threat density is very low. That's often normal for a control deck but this particular build has relatively few creatures, even compared to other Yennett lists. Those creatures we have are usually reliant on being cast for free with Yennett, which has a couple of limitations (either we have to wait until we have enough mana in play if Yennett isn't an option; and/or they can be 1-for-1'd with removal pretty easily, making them highly inefficient). That makes it quite hard for us to win the game if Yennett's around: sometimes we can get there but it's a slow grind.

All that said, I don't consider these weaknesses to be enough to offset this deck's considerable strengths although it's definitely one for low to medium power level pods only.

Upcoming Changes

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Thanks for reading my primer :) The first draft of this deck is pretty much complete, apart from one or two potential changes. It's won a couple of games and is performing very well. The only other bomb I'd to add is Rise of the Dark Realms but otherwise I'm very happy with the list.

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All My EDH Decks

{W} Giada, Font of Hope {W}
S(i)erra Sidewinder: Mono-White Angel Tribal

{U} Orvar, the All-Form {U}
Clone Zone: Mono-Blue Shapeshifters Combo

{B} Sidisi, Undead Vizier {B}
Swamp Thing: Mono-Black Midrange Combo

{B} Ayara, First of Locthwain {B}
Black Diamond: Mono-Black Aristocrats Combo

{R} Torbran, Thane of Red Fell {R}
Red Force: Mono-Red Group Slug

{R} Rionya, Fire Dancer {R}
Firebird: Mono-Red Storm/Tokens

{G} Titania, Protector of Argoth {G}
Timber Terror: Mono-Green Land Sacrifice

{W}{U} Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC {W}{U}
Control Freak: Azorius Control

{W}{U} Elminster {W}{U}
Crystal Wing: Azorius Skies & Scry

{U}{B} Oona, Queen of the Fae {U}{B}
Dreamcatcher: Dimir Faeries Tribal

{U}{B} Narfi, Betrayer King {U}{B}
Ice Breaker: Dimir Snow/Zombies

{U}{B} Lord of the Nazgul {U}{B}
The Black Gate Opens: Dimir Spellslinger

{B}{R} Rakdos, Lord of Riots {B}{R}
Steamin’ Demon: Rakdos Life Loss

{B}{R} Juri, Master of the Revue {B}{R}
Pandemonium: Rakdos Sacrifice

{R}{G} Wort, the Raidmother {R}{G}
Barnstormer: Gruul Conspire

{W}{G} Sigarda, Font of Blessings {W}{G}
Stampida: Selesnya Humans Tribal

{W}{G} Captain Sisay {W}{G}
Legendia: Selesnya Legendary

{W}{G} Sythis, Harvest's Hand {W}{G}
Diamondback: Selesnya Enchantress

{W}{B} Daxos the Returned {W}{B}
Curse of Novgorod: Orzhov Constellation

{W}{B} Kambal, Consul of Allocation {W}{B}
Oblivion: Orzhov Lifegain & Lifedrain

{W}{B} Eriette of the Charmed Apple {W}{B}
Flight of the Wicked Witch: Orzhov Auras

{U}{R} Firkraag, Cunning Instigator {U}{R}
Dragon’s Fury: Izzet Dragons/Goad

{B}{G} Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons {B}{G}
Scorpion Express: Golgari Deathtouch

{B}{G} Nath of the Gilt-Leaf {B}{G}
Outlaw Run: Golgari Elves/Discard

{W}{R} Bruenor Battlehammer {W}{R}
Steel Force: Boros Equipment

{W}{R} General Ferrous Rokiric {W}{R}
Gatekeeper: Boros Multicoloured

{U}{G} Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres {U}{G}
Toxic Garden: Simic Infect

{W}{U}{B} Tivit, Seller of Secrets {W}{U}{B}
Steel Vengeance: Esper Artifacts

{W}{U}{B} Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign {W}{U}{B}
Riddler’s Revenge: Esper Topdeck

{U}{B}{R} Marchesa, the Black Rose {U}{B}{R}
Revenge of the Mummy: Grixis Dethrone/Combo

{B}{R}{G} Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire {B}{R}{G}
Dragon Wagon: Jund Dragons Tribal

{W}{R}{G} Pantlaza, Sun-Favored {W}{R}{G}
Raptor Attack: Naya Dinosaurs Tribal

{W}{U}{G} Galadriel, Light of Valinor {W}{U}{G}
Vapour Trail: Bant Flicker

{W}{B}{G} Karador, Ghost Chieftain {W}{B}{G}
Hair Raiser: Abzan Reanimator

{W}{B}{G} Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant {W}{B}{G}
A Long-Expected Party: Abzan Lifegain/Combo

{W}{U}{R} Kykar, Wind's Fury {W}{U}{R}
Storm Runner: Jeskai Tokens

{W}{U}{R} Hinata, Dawn-Crowned {W}{U}{R}
Phantom’s Revenge: Jeskai Control

{U}{B}{G} Yarok, the Desecrated {U}{B}{G}
Boomerang: Sultai ETB Triggers

{W}{B}{R} Kaalia of the Vast {W}{B}{R}
Abyssus: Mardu Angels & Demons

{U}{R}{G} Omnath, Locus of the Roil {U}{R}{G}
Boulder Dash: Temur Landfall

{U}{R}{G} Eshki, Temur's Roar {U}{R}{G}
Thunder Striker: Temur Power Matters

Date added	1 year
Last updated	1 month
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 51 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.00
Tokens	Copy Clone, Human 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure