January 17

Neyali, Sun's Vanguard was officially spoiled today, after being leaked from Brazilian Amazon screenshots a couple weeks ago.

I can see her potentially swapping out with Professional Face-Breaker in my list. Hard to turn down a Double Strike anthem for tokens, and impulse draw with less of a timing downside.

In general excited for more tech from this Boros precon

Mondrak, Glory Dominus also seems nuts as a self-protecting Anointed Procession

January 30

I played some much needed games this weekend. I played in a 5 person pod, which was not ideal for the most part, but added an additional spicy wrinkle to Myriad and Melee triggers. The one game I played with Isshin was against: a baseline Otrimi, the Ever-Playful precon, a tuned up The Scarab God , a seemingly tuned Jodah, the Unifier, and my good-friend's ever-consistently good Muldrotha, the Gravetide deck.

TL;DR - I got to play-test proxy versions of Mondrak, Glory Dominus and Skyhunter Strike Force. Both were fun and felt like impressive additions. Looking forward to when the real deals arrive in a little over a week.

Basic beats of the game:

• Otrimi, the Ever-Playful had a rough time as a baseline pre-con and didn't contribute much to the game, other than being a fairly open board for me to swing at most of the game.

• The Scarab God did what it wanted to do, and shat out Zombies all game, giving Isshin a run for its money on board presence.

• My friend running Muldrotha kept decks off-kilter with a fairly early Mesmeric Orb, which I eventually removed; knowing the removal would be temporary because of Muldrotha.

• Jodah, the Unifier built up a bit of board presence, but mostly kept blockers up, due to the growing masses on Isshin and Scarab God's boards. They also lost key pieces due to Mesmeric Orb mills.

• Isshin did what Isshin wants, and churned out token creatures. Mondrak, Glory Dominus provided some additional gas when Isshin was out, and acted as token creation boosting redundancy when Isshin got removed the first time. The self-protection is no joke, and let it chump block and attack effectively.

• Skyhunter Strike Force felt like a cheaper replacement for Adriana, Captain of the Guard. I appreciated that Strike Force is a whole 2 mana cheaper, is mono-colored, & has flying. On one of the last turns, I was able to cast Skyhunter (3cmc), recast Isshin with tax (5 mana), and still had 2 mana left for some interaction in hand. That same turn I swung 8 Zombie tokens from a Grave Titan (removed a turn before), Mondrak, and Iroas, God of Victory. Because I attacked 4 opponents, my board received a +8/+8 boost from Skyhunter with Isshin out. This gave me enough damage to take out Otrimi, drop Jodah down to 10ish life, and put some hurt on Muldrotha. Scarab God had enough creatures to block the 1 zombie token I sent its way.

Muldrotha won in the end, as they got enough crucial pieces in their yard, then killed the table after my big swing, with pings from Poison-Tip Archer and death triggers around the table from Living Death.

Happy 1st brew-day/birthday to my favorite deck. I remember dropping everything I was doing at work to start brewing an Isshin list when he was first spoiled a year ago. My initial versions of the deck was a "salad" of the various attack triggers that Isshin synergized with before I eventually honed in on the aggro token and group slug strat. Kind of funny going back through my edit history to look at the initial drafts from the first few weeks to months.

I honestly never envisioned that this would end up becoming my most popular deck primer here and on my Moxfield. Time flies when you're having fun, and I've derived a lot of enjoyment in playing and fine-tuning this deck. Looking forward to more fun games and more new tech.

The only real update is that I haven't made any updates with new stuff from MOM/MOC yet lol. I feel like the deck is currently in an iteration that feels very consistent and fun to play. Of my recent updates, the only card I would consider to swap out for something new would be Seize the Spotlight. It's a fun card, but I recognize that it's not the most synergistic. Newer stuff from MOM/MOC on my radar that will likely get swapped in at some point:

• Surge of Salvation - Meta based choice since I often play against these colors, and can help my board dodge wipes like Blasphemous Act and Chandra's Ignition. Not super high priority.

• Chivalric Alliance - Draws cards & makes tokens. Attacking with at least 2 creatures is very achievable.

• Firemane Commando - This could be like a bootleg 2nd Breena, the Demagogue. Breena has become a recent favorite of mine, mostly because she's helped me win the last couple of games this deck played.

• Djeru and Hazoret - Similar space as Winota, Joiner of Forces and Fireflux Squad. Not a high priority addition, but something I considered for this deck because 16/30 creatures in mainboard are Legendary. I've played with the other 2 before, and they were boom or bust in their own respects.

• Guardian Scalelord - A kinda funky recursion piece. I don't run graveyard recursion in my deck, but other Isshin lists might like that more.

• Rankle and Torbran - The deck wants to attack, so why not include something that wants to smack face and can amplify damage?

• City on Fire - Seems like a hilarious inclusion, but also smacks of Win More. The deck doesn't really have any issues closing out games with the damage its already capable of. A gallon of gas into the flames.

I also haven't really updated this deck because I've been too busy brewing Zimone and Dina in my newest deck, [Retired] Sacrificial Symposium. Still getting a feel for it, but hoping to play it irl soonish once the rest of the pieces arrive.

It's spoiler and update season yet again folks. Although I've been enjoying the consistency the deck has shown in all of its recent games, I've seen some new tech in LotR previews that I think should make for pretty seamless swaps.

While I wait for LotR cards to go through their approval and posting process here, My Moxfield version of the deck will be most up to date. A quick summary of swaps so far:

• Rising of the Day is replacing Fervor. About 17 of my 31 creatures (including Isshin) are Legendary, so this is a nice little buff. The Legends matter subtheme popping up so far in spoiled cards might provide some other interesting tech.

• Minas Tirith is replacing a Plains. I don't have much targeted removal hit utility lands in my meta, so having a draw option stapled onto one is a nice bit of insurance. Again, the tap condition shouldn't be too hard to fulfill given what the deck aims to do naturally.

• Flowering of the White Tree is likely replacing Brave the Sands. Gonna play-test this one a bit, but Ward 1 on Legends and the +2/+1 buff is had to pass up, plus the generic +1/+1 buff to all nonlegendary creatures. The Vigilance anthem and additional blocking has helped in the past, but making the 17 Legends in my deck a bit beefier and harder to remove is always helpful.

Other stuff under consideration, but slots would need to be made:

• Gollum, Scheming Guide - Potential for draw and advantage.

• Merry, Esquire of Rohan - Legends matter attack-based drawing. My deck currently has about 15-16 instances of effects that can draw in some various consistent or cantrip quantities. Will be worth a look, but not sure what it would replace.

• Shadowfax, Lord of Horses - What I'm most interested in so far. The art is gorgeous, and this card can swing and cheat stuff out the same turn it comes down. As of now, Shadowfax would be able to cheat out 23-24 of my 30 creatures (Adeline, Resplendent Cathar's Power can fluctuate). Also, Shadowfax shows us the meaning of haste with the helpful reminder text lol.

The Ring Tempts You/Ring bearer stuff is also in my periphery. I wouldn't be surprised if we see dedicated Ring Bearer Isshin decks pop up in the next few months. I'm excited to see how the rest of the set unfolds, especially anything from the Riders of Rohan and Forces of Mordor commander precons.

It's been a while since I've done one of these. This update is also for a general primer clean up to remove all of the cards that are no longer in the deck. I've mostly been focused on building a couple of new decks over the last two months, and trying a couple of slot swaps in my other existing decks. There wasn't too much from either Wilds of Eldraine or the Dr. Who precons that really got me excited for this deck, but here are a few recent changes:

Recent Changes

• Gruesome Realization was recently swapped for Lich-Knights' Conquest for testing. I figured it would be helpful to have a pseudo-Living Death that could synergize with the various tokens that this deck can make.

• Lich-Knights' Conquest was then swapped out for Decadent Dragon. After some more play-testing and a few games, I realized it would be better to lean into creatures a bit more, and that the other more proactive protection effects were more along the lines of what the deck functions better with. I also like that Decadent Dragon can be utilized for some interaction and card advantage, and screwing over top-of-deck tutor effects.

• Call of the Ring was swapped out for Stroke of Midnight. Having essentially a second copy of Generous Gift is cool, and Ring Tempting stuff felt like a series of hoops to jump through.

• Tibalt's Trickery was swapped out for Grasp of Fate. I wanted one more removal option that can hit a variety of permanents, and multiple targets at once, without being a full on board wipe.

• Sword of the Animist was swapped out for Fellwar Stone. This was a move to get more lean and immediate in the ramp section. I've lived the Sword of the Animist dream, and have used it to grab all of the basic lands in my deck during a couple of games. As I've upgraded my mana base, and run fewer basics, it felt less useful and felt more and more clunky (for me) at 4 total cmc to cast, equip, and then attack with.

Looking down the road

• Initially, Breeches, Eager Pillager , was most immediately on my radar as a potential swap with Brimaz, King of Oreskos. I like the different modal options for Breeches, and that I can get 2/3 with just Breeches and Isshin in play. Having Capt Lannery storm in the deck can help Breeches potentially hit all modal options in one swing with Isshin out. Magical Piracy Christmas Land.

• Generally speaking, I'm keeping my eyes on the upcoming Pirate Precon from Lost Caverns of Ixalan for tech for Isshin and my Goro-Goro and Satoru decks. The deck description implies reanimator aggro, so it should be interesting to see what that entails.

• Speaking of precons, I am absolutely picking up the Caesar's Legion precon from the Fall Out Universes Beyond drop next March. As someone that loved New Vegas, I'm hoping for an NCR Ranger card, but am generally excited for all the attack trigger stuff we will likely get from this deck. I might take a crack at a Mr. House deck.

• I'm already play-testing a swap for Caesar, Legion's Emperor by swapping out Brimaz, King of Oreskos in my Moxfield version of this deck. After a few play-tests last night, I'm excited for Caesar in this deck as a general value piece that does everything I want for this deck: Triggers on attack and doesn't have to attack himself, draws cards, creates tokens that ETB tapped and attacking, and can ping opponents for damage.

• Should be interesting to see how much future Caesar decks overlap with Isshin token-focused decks. I imagine that Caesar decks might make a bit more use of Aristocrats effects since he is a sac outlet in the Command Zone. Between Caesar and Mr. House, I am further entrenched in my biased opinion that Mardu has the most interesting and diverse designs for their commander options.