Shu Yun's Monastery of Gifted Scholars

Commander / EDH Combo Control RUW (Jeskai, America) Tempo Tokens

Anthos22

Instant (27)

• 1x Accelerate
• 1x Balduvian Rage
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Crimson Wisps
• 1x Crush Contraband
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Defiant Strike
• 1x Dismantling Blow
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Expedite
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Leap
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Orim's Thunder
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Shadow Rift
• 1x Shelter
• 1x Stroke of Genius
• 1x Stubborn Denial
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Unbreakable Formation

Enchantment (6)

• 1x In the Web of War
• 1x Jeskai Ascendancy
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Smothering Tithe

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

Land (32)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 5x Island
• 4x Mountain
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 1x Mystic Monastery
• 4x Plains
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rugged Prairie
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls

Artifact (10)

• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Commander (1)

Creature (13)

• 1x Beamsplitter Mage
• 1x Feather, the Redeemed
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Mirrorwing Dragon
• 1x Monastery Mentor
• 1x Murmuring Mystic
• 1x Niv-Mizzet, Parun
• 1x Ogre Battledriver
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Sublime Archangel
• 1x Talrand, Sky Summoner
• 1x Young Pyromancer
• 1x Zada, Hedron Grinder

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Cloak of Feathers
• 1x Desperate Stand
• 1x Kirtar's Wrath
• 1x Manifold Insights
• 1x Reckless Charge
• 1x Seize the Day
• 1x Slip Through Space
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Terminus

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Contain, Create, Control, Combo: Spellslinger Shu Yun

Introduction

This is my favourite commander deck, and it's the only one I build from scratch with an idea in mind instead of a "preset". What I mean by that: Usually I build decks witht the commander in mind and build around it. Thantis, the warweaver, for instance, already tells you in what direction the deck should go. The commander dictates the direction a deck should go for. To be fair, Shu Yun is the same. Most decks involving the khan of the Jeskai Way try to inflict 21 commander damage to every opponent as soon as possible, sorta like a Voltron strategy. They achieve this with pump spells or equipment. I purposely avoided this line of thinking. It felt like a weaker version of infect, and infect is already an inefficient way to win a 4-player game. Usually you kill one opponent very fast and then get hated by the other 2. Sure, it is a valid plan sometimes, don't get me wrong. But this deck focuses on something entierly different.

Gameplan

Contain, Create, Control, Combo. It's not just a fancy title. It actually describes the overall general gameplan and sequence:

 

1. Contain:
In the first few turns, all you do is disrupt enemy plays with counters, remove potential early threats. Generally, you don't want to draw all the attention to you. This deck needs some setup and therefore time. It tries to fly under the radar, being unnoticed. That's the reason why Shu Yun is the better commander for this strategy instead of something like Narset. Oftentimes you find yourself in the position of being able to kill one opponent on your 4th turn. I advise you to restrain the urge. If you kill one opponent too fast, you'll become the archenemy in an instant, making it extremely difficult go past step 2. Be aware of that.
2. Create:
While doing the first part of the plan, you'll start putting out creatures that create tokens when you play the tempo portion of the deck. These are just small tokens, but will come in handy later in the game. You can look at them, you can sacrifice them to draw cards with Skullclamp, you can protect yourself with them or deal some damage. The tokens come back fast, if you keep the token creating creature on the field.
3. Control:
If everything works as intended, you will be in control of the situation. The opponents should be disrupted enough for you to make some stronger plays, being proactive instead of reactive. Now is the time you can play your commander and start doing some chip damage, threaten the board a little to make them play defensively. Or you could take out an opponent with Shu Yun if you have enough spells. Be aware that this would put you on the spot, making the control aspect of the game a lot harder. This is usually when you win the game by picking your opponents apart with some big swing, either with a huge Shu Yun or many buffed up tokens.
4. Combo:
If the game doesn't end by now, you can try to combo off with Zada, Hedron Grinder or Mirrorwing Dragon and take everybody out with one big swing. Have a lot of tokens, maybe even some token producer creatures, cast one of the aforementioned creatures, cast targetting spells that also draw you card, multiply it by the amount of creatures you have on the battlefield, draw some more cards, cast some more targetting spells and so on until your creatures all get haste, flying, shadow, +X/+X, first strike, vigilance and many more things. Ideally, you already had a Shu Yun on board when all this happened, so you can take one opponent out with commander damage.

Card Selection

In this section we will look at the reasons why certain cards are in this deck.

 

Lands

Frankly, there is not much to talk about. I don't think I can afford any utility land besides Reliquary Tower since we are not in green and can't therefore ramp and search for lands individually. Plus, with 3 colors, it's already difficult as it is. I don't have the ABUR-Lands Tundra, Volcanic Island or Plateau. If you have them, you might want to include them and the correspondent fetchlands Flooded Strands, Scalding Tarn and Arid Mesa. What's important is that more than 90% of lands I play enter the battlefield untapped.

 

• Reliquary Tower:
Sometimes you combo off and can't close the game. Sometimes you just want to generate a lot of card draw. With this land I can keep the cards drawn.
• Myriad Landscape
One of two lands that come into play tapped. But it gives you the ability to ramp in a greenless deck. It might feel unintuitive in three colors, but it's not that bad.

Artifacts

The Deck's average converted mana cost is 2.51, so it's imperative to start with at least 3 mana producing permanents in hand in order to get things going. If you start with 2 lands, you have to be able to get to 3 mana sources. That's why the only mana rocks played here have a converted mana cost of 2 or less (with the obvious exception of Chromatic Lantern). After the third mana producer, you should be able to gear up into more ramp or more card draw so that you won't miss your land drops.

 

• Mana Crypt:
It's just a huge accellerator. It helps set up our plays with our costy enchantments and creatures.
• Mana Vault:
Similar to Mana Crypt, this gives a huge boost to our early plays. Its upkeep cost is huge, but it's not reason enough to not play this card.
• Sol Ring:
Staple in almost every commander deck.
• Wayfarer's Bauble:
One of the reasons why he have a healthy amount of basics in our deck. In total it costs 3 mana to play, but being able to play it on turn 1 and then sacrifice it on turn 2 makes two-lander hands much more keepable.
• Fellwar Stone:
With 3 colors, there is almost always an opponent that plays at least one of this deck's colors. Depending on the meta, this could also be a Talisman of Progress. It's not easy to find a 2 mana rock that produces colored mana indefinetly without entering tapped.
• Azorius Signet:
It's a 2 cmc mana rock that makes colored mana.
• Boros Signet:
Colored mana this 2 cmc mana rock makes.
• Izzet Signet:
2 cmc mana rock. Colored mana.
• Chromatic Lantern:
The fact that this is a mana rock that also fixes your mana colors is reason enough to play it. Particularly in this deck, where in the late game you are going to cast many 1 cmc spells. So having the right colors become more important.
• Skullclamp:
This is the "fail safe" if you are having trouble gearing up. With this you can sacrifice your tokes to draw the answers or combo pieces you need for the win.

Enchantments

The enchantments in this deck are utility cards that are going to help you set up your plays. Most of them are for drawing cards, others for ramping. And some others help you with the general plan of the deck.

 

• Mystic Remora:
A simple card draw enchantment. Having this out means you don't have to worry about drawing spells in the course of the game.
• Land Tax:
The main reason why we play as many basic lands as we do. Land Tax is there to get me lands, simple as that.
• Rhystic Study:
Similar to Mystic Remora, this card draws you cards with greatest of ease. It can't come as early as turn one like Mystic Remora, but it usually can stay longer on the battlefield.
• Jeskai Ascendancy:
This nice enchantment is the best of both worlds: It is card draw AND it makes your creatures stronger. Very good combo card with Zada or Mirrorwing once you go off.
• Smothering tithe:
Ramp. This card does it so well. Some people pay the 2 mana one or two rotations, but after that they simply can't afford it. Creating treasure tokens that can be used for any color is very useful for a color intensive deck.
• In the Web of War:
Creating a bunch of token does not win you the game instantly since they’ll have summoning sickness and therefore can't attack. Even in 1 vs. 1 scenarios, waiting for a whole turn could be the difference between a win or a loss. They could just kill all your tokens, making your efforts meaningless. In Commander you have 3 opponents, making it 3 times more difficult to keep the tokens. With this enchantment on the field not only do all the tokens gain haste, the even gain a temporary +2/+0 boost until end of turn. It also makes your Shu Yun a hasty 5/2 creature when it enters the battlefield. Cast a spell and give Shu Yun double strike and you can deal 12 commander damage the same turn. And now imagine having this enchantment and Ogre Battledriver on the battlefield together: 5/1 hasty tokens ready to swing.

Creatures and one Planeswalker

We want creatures that create tokens when we cast instants or sorceries. But they need to be cheap and recruitable. We also want some creatures that synergize with the strategy as a whole. And last but not least, we need to include the spell radiating creatures for the game ending combos.

 

• Talrand, Sky Summoner:
The original: To my surprise, there aren’t many creatures that create tokens whenever you cast instants or sorceries. The first of his kind creates the strongest tokens. 2/2 fliers not only deal some good chip damage, they are an effective tool to protect your life points when needed. While 2/2 tokens are great, they are the only tokens in the deck that cannot be sacrificed by Skullclamp, so keep that in mind.
• Young Pyromancer:
The second coming. One year after the release of Talrand, we get a weaker version of the same effect. What this card lacks in overall strength (in terms of commander format, in eternal formats he was/is a powerhouse), it makes it up by being dirt cheap to cast, enabling some combos the same turn he enters the battlefield.
• Monastery Mentor:
After Young Pyromancer, R&D thought about making a new token generator, focusing on the Jeskai theme, hence why the Mentor triggers on every noncreature spells. Useful when you know you’ll be casting artifacts and enchantments when looking for a token machine. On top of that, he also has prowess like the commander. And on top of that, he also gives the tokens prowess. Here is a warning: Make sure you keep track of all the +1/+1 triggers happening when he and/or Jeskai Ascendancy are on the field. I can imagine it’s already annoying to watch when you chain spells after spells, so when you lose focus and don’t know which token has how much power and toughness, it quickly kills the mood and potentially the game.
• Murmuring Mystic:
Redundancy is the keyword when evaluating the effectiveness of cards like Murmuring Mystic. Normally, you’d simply have better options, especially at 4 cmc or lower. But we want them all in the deck. And have you seen the bird token? Such a beautiful artwork.
• Niv-Mizzet, Parun:
“Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, draw a card”. Such a powerful ability is too good to pass. We like to sling spells, so this seems like a perfect fit. With the ancient dragon, we keep on drawing cards after cards after cards when we chain spells. The incremental damage can be useful to wipe off the board potential blockers for your pumped up creatures, too.
• Beamsplitter Mage:
This deck plays a lot of one mana cantrips that target creatures. Zada and Mirrorwing multiply each spell targeted at them for every creature you have in play. Beamsplitter Mage is a smaller version of this effect, in that he only duplicates the spells. What I like about him is the redundancy, recruitability by the recruiter of the guard and Imperial Recruiter, and the low threat level. Nobody will care about “small Thanos” the first time they see it. And since it has a very low converted mana cost, you usually can cast it and some targeting cantrips, gaining value the same turn as you cast it (something that can’t always be said of Zada or Mirrorwing, since their converted mana cost are 4 and 5 respectively).
• Imperial Recruiter:
As a sort of late game combo deck, you need to be able to search for your combo cards. In black, that would not be an issue at all. In nonblack and nongreen, it is more of a challenge. The reprint gods gave us a present in form of a smiling asian headhunter, making this card much more affordable. With him you can search for any token producing creatures or a Beamsplitter Mage.
• Recruiter of the guard:
Same as for Imperial Recruiter, she helps getting the combo pieces in hand. The only token producing creature card she can’t get is Murmuring Mystic, which you only have to if there are no creatures available.
• Zada, Hedron Grinder:
She has such an amazing effect. She is the reason you want to create a bunch of tokens when slinging spells. Cast a spell, target Zada, create tokens first, copy for each creature, get some value, rinse and repeat. But unlike other decks with Zada as a commander, this is not our only win condition. By now you should see the bigger picture and understand that Zada and Mirrorwing are the combos you pull out when needed. It doesn’t have to be your main strategy.
• Mirrorwing Dragon:
See Zada, Hedron Grinder, which is basically the same. There are some neat interactions when your opponent targets this card with a removal spell, but that’s about it. It’s the second Zada, so to speak.
• Ogre Battledriver:
It’s essentially another In the Web of War (see enchantments). Redundancy is good, and the fact that these effects can stack makes it even more desirable.
• Sublime Archangel:
Sublime Archangel acts as a second approach to win a game with Shu Yun. Get your commander on the field ready to attack, create a bunch of tokens, cast Sublime Archangel and go to town. With 8 creatures on your side of the field (including Shu Yun and the Archangel), Shu Yun goes to 10 power. Cast a noncreature spell like Slip through Space and activate the commander’s triggered ability to give it double strike. That’s 22 commander damage on an unblockable creature (most of the times). It sounds like magical christmas land, but it’s actually quite possible.
• Feather, the Redeemed:
Honestly, this card is so awesome you could take the basic idea of this deck and put Feather at the helm and you would have a much more streamlined deck. But a friend of mine called dibs on this card as a commander. Nevertheless, it would be pretty stupid to NOT include this card in the 99. It’s cheap, has evasion and very good stats. It’s a very good early turn value engine. Sometimes you draw into all cantrips and no creatures or token generators, which is very frustrating. With Feather on board, you can cast the targeting cantrips, draw cards, swing for some chip damage and put the cantrips back to your hand, generating massive card advantage. My favourite interaction: Have a token generator, a disposable creature (like a token) and Feather on the battlefield, cast Path to Exile on a token, create a token, get a land, and at the end of your turn put path to exile back to your hand. Repeat after every turn (even on your opponent’s). That’s ramping in Jeskai!
• Saheeli, Sublime Artificer:
War of the Spark was very generous to this deckstyle. First Feather, the Redeemed, now this. It’s another token generator that reacts to noncreatures spells like Monastery Mentor, triggering on enchantments and artifacts. Being a Planeswalker makes it potentially harder to remove when you already have an army of tokens. On the other hand, when you don’t have any defense up you’ll attract every attacker on board. Plus, it cannot be tutored for with the Recruiters like the other token generators. The minus ability could also come in handy given the right situation, making a copy of another artifact if you need the temporary ramp, another token generator, Ogre Battledriver or Sublime Archangel (and in the reminded text it even says that multiple instances of exalted each trigger separately, which could make up for a big play).

Instants and Sorceries

The meat of the deck. It's a spellslinger deck after all, that's why we dedicate the greatest portion to instants and sorceries. 13 spells are for the main strategy of the deck. That amounts to a 7.6% of cantrips and other main strategy enhancing spells such as Seize the Day or Desperate Stand. Which makes sense if you take into consideration that, one, these are mostly cantrips that draw you cards, and two, you want to combo later in the game, when you are in control of the game. The rest of the spells are for protection, spot removal, board wipes and other utility effects like tutors and recursion. Most of these spells are self explanatory, so I won't go too much into detail on those cards.

 

• Accelerate:
Cantrip. Gives your Shu Yun haste if needed, and when comboing off with Zada and a token generator you can give all the tokens haste.
• Balduvian Rage:
Very powerful card with Shu Yun, catches people by surprise. Has to be cast on an attacking creatures, which makes it a little unflexible. But it draws a card at the beginning of the next upkeep. Sure, you can't cast it during your turn, but if you radiate it with Zada or Mirrorwing, you get the cards next turn, so you don't have to discard them due to hand size.
• Boros Charm:
The 4 damage are rarely relevant, and so is the double strike. But giving your permanents indestructible for 2 mana is very potent. Good protection spells with some utility. Sure, giving Shu Yun double strike is redundant, but there might be other creatures that would like to gain this ability.
• Commit // Memory:
This card has a decent front effect and an aftelife effect that reshuffles your graveyard into your deck and refills your hand. There are times where you draw a lot of cards, where a mill deck could actually deck you out. And if they manage to mill this card from your deck, you can still activate it and save yourself. I might be biased because in my playgroup there are some mill decks. Feel free to take this card out for something else.
• Counterspell:
A classic. Cheap and efficient counterspell.
• Crimson Wisps:
It gives haste and costs only one mana. One of the better cantrips.
• Crush Contraband:
In 3 color decks, Crush Contraband is better than Return to Dust. I don't always have 2 white mana sources available, and I don't always want to cast this type of spell during my turn. Sure, you cannot exile 2 artifacts or 2 enchantments, but it's a risk I can take considering the upsides.
• Cyclonic Rift:
The best board wipe in Commander. In the early stages of the deck I didn't have this in my deck since I rarely got to 7 mana to spend for an overloaded rift. But since I added Mana Vault and Mana Crypt and thanks to the printing of Smothering Tithe, you can overload Cyclonic Rift pretty consistently.
• Defiant Strike:
Cantrip that gives +1/+0. For Shu Yun that means +2/+0 and a chance to give a creature Double Strike.
• Dismantling Blow:
Flexible card early game that can also net you value the longer the game goes on by drawing two cards. Mana intensive, but worth it.
• Enlightened Tutor:
Searches for mana rocks, Skullclamp, Smothering Tithe, Land Tax or a combo enabler like Jeskai Ascendancy or In the Web of War.
• Expedite:
See Crimson Wisps, which is almost exactly the same.
• Force of WIll:
With cards like this and Pact of Negation, you can spellsling and use your mana up as you please. They give you extra protection for when you decide to go all in.
• Leap:
Cantrip that grants your creatures flying, making them easier to connect.
• Mana Drain:
Counterspell cranked up to eleven. It can give you important mana to cast mamna intensive enchantments or creatures.
• Mystical Tutor:
Searches fo any instant or sorcery in your deck. You can't get better card selection in Jeskai colors.
• Orim's Thunder:
Very powerful card. For 4 mana you can destroy any pesky enchantment or artifact and at the same time kill a creature in the process. Such flexibility is very welcome in Commander. It doesn't even have to be the same opponent: Destroy the best enchantment or artifact of opponent A and kill opponent B's commander, for instance.
• Pact of Negation:
See Force of Will.
• Path to Exile:
The best and most efficient white removal spell after Swords to Plowshares.
• Shadow Rift:
Very similar to Leap. It trades Leaps's "instantibility" for a much better evasion (I've never seen people playing shadow creatures except Yuriko Ninja deck).
• Shelter:
The fact that this card can not only function as a protection spell, it is also a very good evasion spell to get past a bunch of opponent's creatures that share the same color.
• Stroke of Genius:
There are some good X-card draw spells, but not many of them are instant AND cost only one blue, which is very important in 3 colored nongreen decks.
• Stubborn Denial:
If you have Shu Yun on the field, this card's ferocious ability is always active (opponent casts a spell, you try to counter it, Shu Yun's prowess trigger makes it a 4/3 before the Stubborn Denial resolves).
• Swan Song:
Similar to Force of WIll and Pact of Negation, this counterspell excels in effectiveness and efficiency. It's too cheap for it to be so powerful. Be aware that they get a blocker, then. Be sure your Shu Yun has some form of evasion.
• Swords to Plowshares:
Second to none in removing threats from the battlefield. The life gain can be ignored if you go for commander damage.
• Teferi's Protection:
Ghostform or Eerie Interlude remove your tokens, Teferi's protection doesn't. This card is the best protectin spell in white at the moment.
• Unbreakable Formation
Also a very good protection spell, but that's not the only reason we play this card. It has a game winning interaction with Seize the Day. More on that later.
• Austere Command:
Very flexible board wipe. Since this deck plays potent artifacts, strong enchantments, little creatures and big creatures, it's good to be able to choose what you want to get rid off. Costs one more than Cleansing Nova, but I happily trade the one mana for more versatility.
• Cloak of Feathers:
It's Leap as a sorcery. Don't be fooled by it's wording. It targets like any other cantrip so far. Copied straight from the Gatherer: "Target creature gains flying until end of turn. Draw a card."
• Desperate Stand:
Giving first strike is cool. Giving +2/+0 is great. But giving your stuff Vigilance is what's more important. That's also the reason why Unbreakable Formation is in this deck. Read the description for "Seize the Day" for a more in-depth explanation.
• Kirtar's Wrath:
A board wipe that could potentially give you 2 tokens to work with afterwards. I'm on the fence. It seems good enough to be at least tested. Sadly I couldn't gather enough data to make a proper judgment.
• Manifold Insights:
This deck has a lot of utility card. There is almost no way that you'll get bad cards with it. We saw that many cards can have more than one interaction. You can improvise, adapt and overcome any situation. This card can be translated as such: "Reveal the top ten cards if your library. Put the worst 3 cards in them into your hand and the rest on the bottom if your library in random order". It's 3 cards for 3 mana. And with politics you can actually team up with an opponent to get what you need.
• Reckless Charge:
Shu yun + Reckless Charge + 6 mana = lethal commander damage. It gives haste, +3/+0 and has flashback to use it again next turn or immediately if you need the boost.
• Slip through Space:
What's better than flying or Shadow? Being completely unblockable. Which this card makes it so. And it cantrips. Very powerful card in this deck.
• Supreme Verdict:
One of the most reliable board wipes in this colors. Being uncounterable it almost always resolves.
• Terminus:
Sometimes you don't want to destroy all your creatures on the field. Sometimes you want to put them to the bottom of the library so that they can be tutored and be used again. The Miracle Cost is improbable, but possible nevertheless. And with your cantrips (and a lot of luck) you could cast this spell for its Miracle Cost during an opponent's turn.
• Seize the Day:
Whenever Shu Yun's attack is not enough, you can cast this spell targeting Shu Yun to untap it and get another combat step if you need the double tap for the kill. Or, if Shu Yun already dealt 21 commander damage, you can untap it and attack another opponent, sometimes winning the game outright. But the spiciest combo you can do is targetting a Zada or Mirrorwing with it after your first combat step to untap all creatures and attack again. Theoretically, when you do this, you gain as many additional combat steps as creatures you control. But since they don't untap during every combat step, the multiple combat steps don't really matter. But if you were to give your creatures vigilance, they can keep attacking. That's why I included Desperate Stand and Unbreakable Formation, which are very good utility cards for the main strategy, but can be used for a game winning combo. And for those who wonder if you can actually target Seize the Day on an untapped creature, here's the ruling copied straight from the gathere: "07.12.2018: Seize the Day can target a creature that’s already untapped."

Notable exclusions

I started to play EDH because I liked the idea of having 100 different cards in my deck. I was afraid that it would be difficult to put together 100 cards since it's such a high number compared to the 60 card formats, where you can play 4 ofs. But to my surpirse I was very wrong. Now I always struggle to find the room for many cards I want to play. Unfortunately, some cards need to be cut. The following list shows which cards have already been tested plus some cards that I think don't fit the whole strategy that well. Now, it's impossible to list all cards, but I will update this list from time to time.

 

• Metallurgic Summonings:
It costs too much and is too susceptible to removal in EDH. Whenever I drew into it I wished it was something else. Usually it takes up your whole turn and then gets destroyed. Not worth the investment.
• Docent of Perfection:
Similar to the enchantment above, 5 mana is a lot for a token producer, especially if you plan to leave some mana up for protection. We already run some high end stuff, so this one just didn't make the cut.
• Spellseeker:
I thought about including this card. I just couldn't find any room for it. And for what? I mean, yes, this is a combo deck, but not in its primary function. If you get the combo, good for you. But I think I got enough tutors for now. But casting a recruiter to find Spellseeker to find almost any instant or sorcery does sound intriguing.
• Charmbreaker Devils:
Costs too much and does too little. If I can chain enough spells to make its power lethal or at least threatening, I should win the game outright. The random recursion is cute, but that's about it.
• Sunforger:
This equipment is the reason Boros deck can even exist and have a value engine, tutors and tricks. But it needs a whole package for it to be as effective as possible. And for that there's just not enough room in this deck. Besides, it doesn't work with the overall strategy.
• Artful Dodge:
Evasion spell that sadly doesn't draw you cards. This is more suited for a pump voltron Shu Yun deck. What we need is targeting evasion AND draw a card.
• Distortion Strike:
See above.
• Brute Force:
Just like Artful DOdge and Distortion Strike, this would be a perfect inclusion for a Shu Yun Pump deck. 2 cards like this and Shu YUn's ability to give it double strike and he attacks for lethal commander damage. I just think that the deck would devolve into a one trick pony. Once your opponents know what you are up to, Shu Yun becomes target number one. And that is bad deck design if you ask me.
• Narset, Enlightened Master:
Why not use Narset as your commander instead of Shu Yun? Because I would like to play for at least 5 turns before I die. Narset makes it impossible to set up. Everyone is afraid of Narset. Even if you explain what you are really trying to do. And in the 99 there are just too many do nothing cards when flipped from the top of your deck with her triggered ability.
• Emerge Unscathed:
There are evasion giving cards cards and pump spell cards that are better suited for a voltron pump Shu Yun deck (see "Artful Dodge" and "Brute Force" above). The same can be said about protection spells like this one. It doesn't draw you a card, and the rebound is rarely relevant.
• Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper:
This creatures has a nice interaction with Jeskai Ascendancy: Cast a spell, animate a lands, untap all creatures including the animated land, cast another spell, animate another spell, untap all creatures including your 2 new creature lands, use these creature lands as mana sources to cast more spells, animating more lands, untapping more creature lands and so on. Sadly, the timing was never right. There was never an open window to drop Noyar Dar and do nothing for a turn (5 mana is a lot). Noyar Dar AND Jeskai Ascendancy AND a spell the same turn is at least 9 mana, which is too much for this deck to pull off consistently. Not to mention that you cannot tutor for Noyar Dar with the recruiters, so you have to be very lucky with it.
• Taigam, Ojutai Master:
This card was never tested, and I see some potential. Similar to Feather, Taigam would work as an early value engine that draws me cards with multiple cantrips. And making your instants and sorceries uncounterable is just gravy. My meta doesn't rely too much on counterspell, so I never had the necessity to try it out. Feel free to test it if your playgroup has more counter interaction.
• Primal Amulet:
4 mana do nothing is a lot. Cantrips usually cost one colored mana, so the spell reduction is futile. When it flips you usually should be in a winning position. This seems to me like a very "win moar" card, as it is only good when I already am winning the game. The amulet is better suited for mroe midrangy decks or heavy control decks.
• Anointed Procession:
Just too expensive for a cute ability. You don't need token doublers. That's why we play cheap token generators (notice how Metallurgic Summonings and Docent of Perfection were omitted because of the high mana cost of 5).

 

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.60
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Bird Illusion 1/1 U, Drake 2/2 U, Elemental 1/1 R, Monk 1/1 W, Servo 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 W, Treasure
Folders	Good EDH, A Very Cool EDH Folder, must builds