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Legality
| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Arena | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
Legendary Creature — Human Rogue
Creatures you control with power or toughness 1 or less can't be blocked.
![Best Commanders in EDH [Tier List] Part 2 thumbnail](http://static.tappedout.net/chart/25-15-20-20-20-small.png)
9-lives on
Azorius Testudo Spearhead
3 months ago
I've played with this deck many times. I often miss the chance to draw at least one of the twelve cards of Gauntlets of Light, High Alert, and Huatli, the Sun's Heart. and I used to have Moon-Blessed Cleric in it as well. The spearhead is to deal direct damage, and be unblockable, so if I have Twisted Image, while if I were blocked, the creature would certainly die, but regardless if I have somethings like Aqueous Form, Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive, and Access Tunnel, I will have a good chance of not having to worry about it. One direct hit from Charix is good enough.
azja on
Yuriko (Optimized) Primer
3 months ago
Hey @Spirits, sorry for taking so long to get back to you! You asked such detailed questions, so I wanted to make sure I had time to write out detailed answers :D
Karn's Temporal Sundering vs Capture of Jingzhou:
Like you said, just a budget consideration. Yuriko is my pet deck so I don’t use any proxies, but I highly encourage it for others! While the bounce effect of Karn's Temporal Sundering is nice, I’m thinking of replacing it with Time Warp or just cutting it altogether for Treasure Cruise.
Enablers:
Since I don’t have any combos, I’m all in on the Yuriko damage plan. So having an enabler at all times is much more crucial for me, which is why I play 15 of them. Comparing my list to others, it seems 15 is on the higher end, so you could probably get away with cutting a couple. You’re correct about Tormented Soul, it can’t be pitched to Force of Will, as well as the mana base being more blue-heavy. As for the flying enablers, they’re included for redundancy (since there aren’t 15 unblockable 1-drops). It’s pretty rare for every opponent to have a flying/reach blocker, and we don’t really care who we attack, so flying does a pretty good impression of unblockable. Plus, many of them have relevant abilities, especially Faerie Seer’s scry 2 and Wingcrafter which can give Yuriko flying. If you’re mainly trying to win with combo, I wouldn’t play any of the 2 mana enablers except Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive. But don’t underestimate Augury Owl in the “winning with big spells” shell!
I haven’t tried him out yet, so I’m also unsure whether he makes the cut. Normally I wouldn’t consider playing a planeswalker, since we’re not very good at blocking to keep them around for longer than one turn. But with Kaito, we’re guaranteed 2 activations since he phases out eot, so I think he’s worth testing out for sure.
Win-Cons:
I think the wincons you described are all totally viable. Most of the cEDH Yuriko lists win with Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact since it’s only 2 cards and 3-4 mana (and tough to interact with outside of counterspells). Doomsday is significantly weaker than fish-consul, but its also a reasonable win-con. It’s convenient that cards that would go in the doomsday pile such as Gitaxian Probe and Street Wraith are already good cards for the deck anyway. When I first built this deck, I didn’t include doomsday for power level considerations. Now, I doubt doomsday would be too powerful for my playgroup to handle, but I decided to leave it out since I prefer to win with Yuriko’s ability.
Scheming symmetry is pretty much my budget replacement for Imperial Seal until we get a reprint. It’s true that you can do some cute plays with Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion or Fallen Shinobi. But most of the time, I save it until someone is below 16 life, choose them to tutor with me, put Draco on top of my library, and eliminate them before they can use the card they grabbed.
I’m a big fan of Mutavault since it allows me to rebuild a turn earlier after a boardwipe, or just to have an extra ninja that usually goes unnoticed by your opponents. Unfortunately, colourless lands are really, really awkward in this deck, so I wouldn’t play more than 1 or 2 at the most.
Drowned Catacomb, etc.
Since I’m currently playing 10 basics, I usually don’t have any problems with Drowned Catacomb and Sunken Hollow entering tapped. As for Mystic Sanctuary, it definitely sucks when you draw it and have to play it as a tapped island. But, imo it makes up for it in the late game when you can grab it with a fetch land and put an expensive spell on top of your library in response to a Yuriko trigger. If you’re including Tainted Pact, or just playing less basics in general, I would definitely cut those lands for City of Brass or River of Tears, like you mentioned.
Colourless Mana
I touched on this a bit in the Mutavault discussion, but you definitely want to stay away from colourless lands as much as possible. Although Ancient Tomb and Gemstone Caverns are really powerful lands in a vacuum, the early mana they provide isn’t worth it imo. I definitely agree with you that Reliquary Tower is a trap. I wouldn’t play it in very many decks in general, especially not in Yuriko. As for Glacial Chasm and Maze of Ith, they aren’t played enough in my playgroup for me to need an answer for them. But if they did become more popular, my plan would likely be to cut Mutavault and include Strip Mine/Wasteland instead.
I hope everything I explained made sense and was helpful to ya! Don’t hesitate to ask me more questions!
Guerric on
Too Many Merfolk!
3 months ago
I have pondered building Kumena many times, and I have some thoughts which I think will help! To begin with, when playing any weenie deck whether merfolk or otherwise, the best thing you can do is just draw boatloads of cards by attacking with small evasive creatures with Coastal Piracy, Bident of Thassa, or Reconnaissance Mission out. These cards will keep your hand flooded with cards and therefore options and you will love them. For this reason, don't sleep on small evasive merfolk like Mist-Cloaked Herald, Slither Blade, and others. Playing Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive will help all your weenies get through. Deeproot Waters is a must play enchantment that will give you tokens for every merfolk you cast, giving you more stuff to do with Kumena. You also want to play more ramp here, and you don't need too many artifacts other than Sol Ring because you are in green. You can add Kodama's Reach, Nature's Lore, Three Visits, Skyshroud Claim, Explosive Vegetation, etc. Dorks like Elvish Mystic are also good here since they ramp Kumena out a turn early. Altogether these can ramp you into game-winning cards like Genesis Wave and Kindred Summons, which will absolutely wreck your opponents.
Guerric on
[Primer] Crouching One-Drop, Hidden Ninja *Update*
4 months ago
Drayven9309 I run Nether Traitor in my Teysa, Orzhov Scion deck where the graveyard recursion is useful. With Yuriko I've become pretty strict on only using one drops unless they provide some other major advantage as with Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive and Dimir Infiltrator. Gingerbrute is good in that it is colorless and hence super easy to cast, is a one drop, and has haste, which potentially allows us to use it more. It's weakness is that it we have to pay one each time we want it to be evasive, although it does have really good evasion when we do. I have thought about it and may add it some day. As for Burnished Hart, research has shown that it is in a very high percentage of winning decks, especially those not in green. Pilgrim's Eye is a bad enabler in that we'll never want to spend three mana to recast it, and it doesn't come down quick enough to begin with. Also, we'll usually draw into our lands with Yuriko's ability, so fetching a land isn't all the great, we'd rather just actually ramp. Hart is great because we can spread the mana out over multiple turns, and oftentimes later in the game we'll have the spare mana to sac it. Gingerbrute is a great enabler though, and I will consider trying it out! Thanks so much for the comments and suggestions!
Elipson on
Yuriko (Optimized) Primer
4 months ago
Virlym I completely forgot that Silver-Fur Master would cancel Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive ability. I got tunnel vision on all the new ninjas. Thanks for looking out!
azja and Virlym what are your thoughts on Otawara, Soaring City and Takenuma, Abandoned Mire?
I'm thinking about since I have 3 Legendary creatures maybe it could provide a little utility. But then again how often would I have all three on the field.
azja on
Yuriko (Optimized) Primer
4 months ago
@Virlym Although it's true that Silver-Fur Master and Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive are a nonbo, I think you can still get away with playing both in the same deck without much trouble. I'm glad you pointed that out though! It's an important thing to note if you draw both in the same opening hand, for example
Virlym on
Yuriko (Optimized) Primer
4 months ago
@Elipson Silver-Fur Master is usually a trap in most Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow decks due to turning off Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive.
Guerric on
[Primer] Crouching One-Drop, Hidden Ninja *Update*
4 months ago
February 7, 2022- Continuing Thoughts on Neon Dynasty Spoilers
Once again, I'll post my thoughts on some additional ninjas as well as a few non-ninjas that may be relevant to the deck.
First of all, the underwhelming
1) Inkrise Infiltrator He's an evasive ninja I guess. Even without ninjutsu he'd be playable if he was a one-drop, but paying two just isn't worth a slot. We also have to remember that 2cmc is still bad off the top. We always prefer a higher cmc with a heavily discounted ninjutsu ability. If its going to be an enabler it needs to be one.
2) Mukotai Ambusher What's good here is that it does four off the top but can come down turn two with ninjutsu. Its otherwise a vanilla lifelinker though, which makes it an otherwise underwhelming choice. The fact that it isn't enabled by Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive just aggravates this.
Second, the Promising
1) Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion This is essentially a second copy of Fallen Shinobi that gets more cards, but you can only use one of them and have to pay for it in life if it has a cmc. This is definitely very powerful and something that will scare your opponents. I have to say though, I'm not always a fan of random effects like this, and we aren't in a deck where paying life is usually a great idea. This one is interesting, but time will tell if we want to include it.
2) Dokuchi Silencer This card is much better, and is likely to at least be tested. Single-target interaction is something we need to be running in much higher quantities in commander today, and getting a two-for-one by stapling removal to a ninja is one reason why Mistblade Shinobi and Throat Slitter are two of our best cards. Yuriko usually makes it so we have way more cards than we can use, so the cost of discarding a card isn't much of a drawback here. The only thing that would make this better is if it had a higher cmc. 2cmc is great for its ninjutsu entry, but I wish it would do four or five off the top. Still, beggars can't be choosers in this category, so it will probably make it in.
3) Moon-Circuit Hacker Ninja of the Deep Hours is perhaps the most famous ninja of all time, and this is a discount version that comes down for one, except it loots if it didn't enter the battlefield this turn. That alone might make it good enough, as 1cmc ninjutsu abilities are rare indeed, and helpful for early game tempo. We generally don't mind looting as we're discarding cards do to overdrawing from Yuriko anyway, so a little extra hand sculpting is great. The biggest drawback is that Ninja of the Deep Hours does four off the top whereas this does only two. That is a limitation. We always have to remember that as far as ninjutsu creatures goes, the higher cmc the better as we'll rarely if ever cast it for cmc, and we might as well be doing damage. Still, the benefits are substantial, and it certainly could serve as an early enabler if we don't get a one drop.
4) Prosperous Thief This is where we hot the boundary between promising and truly great, and I suspect this will make it into the latter category, though I'll reserve my optimism for now. Earlier we mentioned how there is an early game tension between getting out ninjas early and ramping. Covert Technician is one possible answer to this dilemma, and this card is another. This can come down on turn two and make us temporary mana in the form of treasure tokens whenever a ninja hits. Nice On top of this, it comes down for two but does three off the top, so it narrowly fulfills that criterion. While Covert Technician gives us permanent ramp when it works, it can potentiall whiff if we are lacking an artifact, whereas this ninja will always be doing something for us. I suspect both will make the deck, and in any case I am really glad to see the design people at wizards seem to have a real knowledge of how one of their most popular commanders works.
The Truly Great
1) Moonsnare Specialist This is effectively a second copy of Mistblade Shinobi, one of my favorite cards in the deck, except that it can bounce our own stuff back as well, which is awesome utility. It comes down for three, which is well worth if if we are removing a problematic creature, and does four off the top. What's more, just like Mistblade Shinobi it will deter our opponent from casting big, scary creatures which we can bounce for three. This deck needs more ninja-based interaction, and this is a perfect example of how to do that.
Non-Ninja Items
1) Kaito's Pursuit While giving all your ninjas menace for a turn might seem like a good way to get through, I'd rather have a more expensive (and hence higher damage off Yuriko) but permanent mass evasion card like Archetype of Imagination any day. We don't need this.
2) Secluded Courtyard An Unclaimed Territory that works with Ninjutsu? Neat! The fact that its in a Kamigawa set with appropriate art is an added bonus. There is no reason not to play this.
3) Otawara, Soaring City This is a legendary land that comes in untapped, but which we can discard if we need some recurion. Its not lifechaning, but there is absolutely no downside here, so it goes in.
4) Takenuma, Abandoned Mire Ditto what we said about Otawara. There's no reason not to include this.
| Have (2) | orzhov_is_relatively_okay819 , Azdranax |
| Want (2) | riverspree16 , theyounghansolo |