Let me just say I think Yorion, Sky Nomad is completely busted in EDH, especially for its budget. The VALUE that she gives you is overwhelming, and allows you to completely take over EDH games and 1v3 your opponents.
How to win the game
Before we start lets talk about how we win the game. We have incidental win-conditions other than just beating down (which can very much be done) because the cards are great with Yorion.
-
Panharmonicon + Felidar Guardian + Any other blink or copy creature. This lets us blink Felidar Guardian an infinite number of times, and Felidar can untap a land each time giving us infinite mana. If we have a draw source then we can draw our entire deck and win with Thassa's OracleGC
-
Panharmonicon + 2 Blink creatures / 1 Blink and 1 Copy creature + Cloud of Faeries / Peregrine Drake. Since Felidar guardian is the only creature that can blink any permanent for infinite mana, these two creatures give us infinite mana as well, which then we can again draw our entire deck and win with Thassa's OracleGC.
Other than these infinite win-cons if we have an Agent of Treachery eventually we can steal all their permanents which allows us to beat down slowly but surely. This win-con is aligned with Yorion's main value plan. Also Venser, Shaper Savant can bounce lands. Disrupting lands is a great way to win the game, even if your playgroup might hate you for it :).
And other than that, the deck can literally just create too much value that you can just straight up lock everyone out from doing anything (they just get removed immediately by some permanent we are blinking).
The Value Engine
Yorion, Sky Nomad + Any blink creature/ copy creature allows us to blink at every single players endstep. This is a bit insane, meaning in a four player game thats like having a Panharmonicon that triggers 4 times. The way this happens is Yorion blinks the board, then a creature like Spark Double or Restoration Angel blinks Yorion which allows us to get ETB triggers on each person's endstep. This is also a bit crazy because it means our creatures can always be exiled during each other player's turn which protects them against board wipes and sorcery speed removal! If Yorion does get removed through our protection then recasting him isn't so hard since we are very value oriented and good at making our land drops and/ or ramping.
Every turn blinking (5): Felidar Guardian | Restoration Angel | Sakashima the Impostor | Sakashima of a Thousand Faces | Spark Double
Now there is two other ways to get the value engine rolling. That is with Yorion, Sky Nomad + Archaeomancer OR Mnemonic Wall + Cloudshift OR Essence Flux. (Note: Ephemerate only works once as it exiles itself until our next upkeep, this is not a may). Every turn you can cast this spell on Yorion (remember you can do this at the end of their second main-phase when its too late for them to cast sorceries- and it will blink on their endstep that they already passed to) and then have Archaeomancer return it to your hand. Works even better if you have a creature that untaps your lands or a mana rock.
"Sources of mana"
This category is essential to every deck. I always try to stay as close to 50 sources of lands + mana ramp + mana support. Mana ramp means to usually create an additional mana for this turn/ next turn. Mana support is things that help us find lands or help cast our cards in general, like Arcum's Astrolabe. While drawing cards does help with "mana support", it is not included in the category as I always want to separate that (but it definitely is taken into consideration). Below find the categories and the cards that fit inside:
Mana Ramp (11): Kor Cartographer | Solemn Simulacrum | Sol Ring | Arcane Signet | Azorius Signet | Fellwar Stone | Mind Stone | Prismatic Lens | Talisman of Progress | Thought Vessel | Smothering TitheGC
Mana Support (5): Cloud of Faeries | Tribute Mage | Peregrine Drake | Arcum's Astrolabe | Prophetic Prism
Draw
This is what I mean by drawing. We can sometimes draw our entire deck without the use of infinite combos just because of how good the engine is. Below are our seriously good sources of card draw:
Draw (16): Wall of Omens | Watcher for Tomorrow | Runeforge Champion | Sea Gate Oracle | Tribute Mage | Cloudblazer | Mulldrifter | Arcum's Astrolabe | Prophetic Prism | Mystic Remora | Confounding Conundrum | Omen of the Sea | Rune of Flight | Rune of Sustenance | Oath of Jace | Trial of Knowledge
Note that Spreading Seas is a great card to screw up your opponents mana in the early game. Barrin, Tolarian Archmage isn't the best definition of draw but I figured there are times where you might just bounce a creature to replay it and figured it can take a spot. Also I have considered Cavalier of Gales in the past but it was removed for Trial of Knowledge. Mostly because Cavlier only nets 1 card where Trial of Knowledge nets 2 and is an enchantment which is generally harder to remove. Also most importantly, Trial of Knowledge is only 4 mana so it comes down the turn before Yorion.
Interaction
This is where the deck shines. I see a lot of casual players that never interacted with me before in their life, and some of you reading this probably have never even had close to 23 sources of interaction in a deck before. Anyway the value engine causes our interaction to quadruple up our triggers which makes it very strong indeed. Below is the interaction list:
Interaction (20): Deputy of Detention | Reflector Mage | Skyclave Apparition | Vendilion Clique | Amphin Mutineer | Glen Elendra Archmage | Venser, Shaper Savant | Agent of Treachery | Icebreaker Kraken | Dispel | Stubborn Denial | Swan Song | Swords to Plowshares | Fierce GuardianshipGC | On Thin Ice | Confounding Conundrum | Back to Basics | Grasp of Fate | Reality Acid | Elspeth Conquers Death
Lots of cheap counterspells to protect Yorion. Also almost our entire deck is basics and I don't know if you have ever seen Back to Basics but every time someone played it against me it just basically made almost all my lands (if not all) unusable. On Thin Ice and the like are really good for targeting commanders. People have to choose to leave it under and us never blinking it again or if they move their commander into the command zone then we can just blink it on their commander again. Really good against commanders, people always say "but I'm not the threat" well its literally free to put your commander back in the command zone... so I'm going to do it. Last thing I want to mention is Elspeth Conquers Death is so great. If you are blinking every turn, don't exile it when it comes to the end step of the person before you. Let its second lore counter resolve then blink it at your end-step again. You can almost make your opponents non-creature spells 2 more for the rest of the game.
Also one of my favorite interaction pieces is Sorcerous Spyglass turning off a specific activated ability is already really strong, but it allows you to constantly see your opponents hands and react with better information.
Protection
One thing about a value engine is you need to protect it because your opponents will try to stop it. Thats where Cloudshift , Ephemerate and Essence Flux come into play. If the engine isn't going on don't just use these spells for value, wait until your opponents turn where they try to destroy something of yours or try to wipe the board, you can cast one of these spells on Yorion and bounce all your non-land permanents until the next end-step, protecting them all. Or if they are targeting Yorion, you get to save her! These spells along with all our cheap counterspells gives us a lot of interaction with just a little mana open (since theyre all cheap/free).
So because of this, a lot of the time I will try to play Yorion when I have 6 mana so I have at least one spell to protect Yorion with (or getting a mana rock untapped from Yorion blinking it)
Closing Remarks
Thats the deck, read and learn the cards and get ready to play archenemy every game on a budget. But IMO, this is a deck that is good at being the archenemy, this is a deck that thrives in multiplayer in-fact, just have to learn it and make sure you know how the interactions work. If there is anything you're unsure of leave a comment and I'll explain why it wasn't included or how it works.
Incoming Cards
Already from Modern Horizons 2, I will definitely be adding Solitude
