Harsh landing

Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder

7.5/10 - Optimized


Greetings, and welcome to my realm ! This is a lands/spellslinger deck, and it is **not** a competitive one ; rather a fun, strong-but-casual deck. The strategy ? Value, value, value. Every time you take a card out of your hand, you gain more benefits than the text on the card itself ; lands, creature tokens, free cards from your deck, everything is good, so take everything !
First of all, I love chaos, even in my value engine, so Yidris was a perfect choice. Second, partners like Thrasios, Triton Hero + Vial Smasher the Fierce would work, but you need your mana in order to play a lot of cards rather than getting new ones. So even if Yidris is not critical to have out on the field, he is impactful enough to make him the general.
Pro :
  • Really fun to play.
  • Involves plenty of decision making.
  • Sneaky. Can really win out of nowhere.
Cons :
  • Not everybody likes to watch someone playing alone for 15 minutes before they know if they lost or not.
  • If you don't speak at the table, you'll be done for. Politic is important.
  • Not removal heavy, so you'll be on the clock the whole game.
  • A well placed counterspell or removal can screw you whole turn, so be careful.
The whole game will be difficult for you, but a strong early game can help you outpace your opponents. For that, you'll have to ramp, and you'll have to keep your ennemies away from your permanents ; you have a lot of ways to ramp, but if you want to keep your board intact, you'll have to be politic. Try to make your opponents go against each other with your words, and don't play anything menacing if you don't think you're ready to go off (more about that in the next part). A turn 3 Yidris is not always the best idea, but if you can, just try to go all out the fastest possible and pray for your soul ; a turn 4 Yidris is pretty classic though, and it will allow you to run the next part of your plan... Going off !
This is the fun part (and the reason that makes my deck difficult to play against people). When you slap someone's face with Yidris, you'll be able to get a loooooot of cards on the field, putting a strong value engine together, and sometimes win from just the first strike (and if you don't, the second one is usually lethal). That turn, don't hesitate to sacrifice tons of tokens for any means (drawing with Korvold, Fae-Cursed King or God-Eternal Bontu, mana with Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar), and if you can get your lands back from the graveyard, blow everything up with Squandered Resources or Rain of Filth to continue your turn. Keep in mind that you'll need two ressources : manas (in great quantities), and cards in hand (the most removal-sensitive part). If you think you'll lack one or another, don't be greedy, just take some cards out of your deck and pass turn ; if you overextend, you'll lose all hope of getting into politic again. However, if you think you'll be able to win here and now, go nuts. But sometimes, you'll whiff, and you'll feel terrible.
What if Yidris is getting controlled each time you tries to cast it ? What if you can't find an opening to get your cascade ? Well, don't worry, even without Yidris, this deck can do miracles with the right pieces together. It's been concieved for value, Yidris is just a part of the value train.

The token generation/sacrifice is an engine proven to be strong ; if you get Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar on the field, it will be terrifying, especialy if you have a strong draw engine on the side. In this deck, the engine is completed by the landfall part, using cards like Field of the Dead and Tatyova, Benthic Druid to generate value out of any land.
For the kill, Impact Tremors will deal it's share of damage each turn, and turning 50 zombies sideway is efficient too.

The spellslinger part is your combo-kill path ; you have some terrible menaces like Guttersnipe and Thousand-Year Storm that will turn your opponents to ashes. This is also one of your best ways to create tokens with Young Pyromancer, Scute Swarm and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer.

And speaking of combos...
You basicly have two infinites and a lot of cool synergies going on. That's one of the "problem" of the deck by the way, you don't know if you kill until the very end (well, a problem for the people you'll play with anyway).

**Infinite :** Thousand-Year Storm + Brass's Bounty + Narset's Reversal, big, flashy, EDHesque move. An infinity of colored manas, an infinity of Thousand-Year Storm copying, if you don't win with it, you didn't deserved to win.

**Infinitely unplayable :** Phyrexian Altar + Haunted Crossroads + Dryad Arbor + Risen Reef + Zendikar's Roil OR Titania, Protector of Argoth OR Omnath, Locus of Rage, yes, it's a 5 pieces combo. Stupid, unplayable, and goddamn fun !

**High synergy :** Risen Reef + Zendikar's Roil OR Omnath, Locus of Rage, this one is really interesting ; each time a land enters the battlefield, you get each land from the top of your library into play, some creatures, and a non-land card in your hand. Risen Reef is fragile, but oh boy it's so powerful !

**"Wait, that's illegal" :** World Shaper + Haunted Crossroads + Squandered Resources, you basicly get to sacrifice all your lands and bring them back each time you play a 5+ CMC card from your hand.
I need to get the fetchlands I don't have yet, probably an Oboro, Palace in the Clouds, and I consider an Amulet of Vigor and a Sensei's Divining Top and getting better tutors, but it's almost done !

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99% Casual

Competitive

Date added 4 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

10 - 0 Mythic Rares

44 - 0 Rares

20 - 0 Uncommons

12 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.20
Tokens Copy Clone, Elemental 1/1 R, Elemental 2/2 G, Elemental 5/3 G, Elemental 5/5 RG, Food, Insect 1/1 G, Servo 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders Commander/EDH
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