Yeva, Nature's Herald

Legendary Creature — Elf Shaman

Flash (You may cast this spell at any time you could cast an instant.)

You may cast green creature cards as though they had flash.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (46)

Unlife on Pattern Recognition #415 - Vivien …

2 months ago

Interesting look at a new-ish planeswallker.

Question though, that are your considerations for 'giving creature spells flash'? I know magic has a massive catalog of cards, but I think there are more then 4 that give flash to creatures, Yeva, Nature's Herald and Aluren (conditionally) and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir all come to mind

NV_1980 on Big Green Guys II

4 months ago

This looks pretty good but one thing that stands out to me is that it could use a bit more removal. Most notably, removal of artifacts and enchantments that can really disrupt your plays as well as your attacks. I'd recommend considering cards like Beast Within, Krosan Grip and Naturalize. Some creatures, like Reclamation Sage and Silverback Elder can do well on this front too. Lastly, Ulvenwald Tracker can be a fun resource to have troublesome opposing creatures fight your (much stronger) bruisers and kill them that way.

One of my all-time favorite cards for a mono-green deck like this, is Yeva, Nature's Herald. I've got two reasons for this: 1) Yeva allows you to summon your creatures during opposing turns, meaning they will no longer be suffering from summoning sickness when it's your turn. 2) Yeva allows you to summon a creature in response to someone declaring attackers against you. For opponents, that can be a great deterrent when they're considering to attack you, as all of a sudden they'll be facing something they didn't take into account.

Having said all the above, I'm wondering why you didn't go for Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant. Not disputing your Ghalta version's strength (and potential cheapness when you cast him), but if your hand is filled with creatures when you summon Ghalta's Tyrant-version (and you've got haste enablers like Surrak, the Hunt Caller operational), it could pretty much be game over after your next combat.

NV_1980 on Bracket 3 Big mean Green for the Fun & the Win

6 months ago

Hi fellow Goreclaw-player!

Might I suggest the following:

• Eladamri, Korvecdal: better version of Augur of Autumn in terms of creature-casting from the top of your deck, in that he doesn't have the prerequisite Augur has. The way he can also help to make (large) creatures appear on the battlefield for free is pretty awesome too.
• Frenzied Baloth/Prowling Serpopard: helps against those pesky blue players.
• Jumbo Cactuar: give it trample or unleash it against an opponent that has no remaining blockers and watch em die.
• Ohran Frostfang: doesn't just make your army much deadlier in an attack, but also provides a lot of useful card-draw when your guys' hits land.
• Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth: more potential free casting (and ramp).
• Yeva, Nature's Herald: your creatures will become a lot more scary if they can appear at any given time.

Have fun with the deck!

hyalopterouslemur on Thinking about how we evaluate …

8 months ago

So, I've been thinking a lot about how cards are evaluated. Specifically it comes down to two cards: Regrowth and Eternal Witness.

I've also been watching a lot of Magic YouTUbe, and there's a hipster movement to hate on Eternal Witness, among other EDH mainstays. Supposedly Regrowth is better, and I want to talk about that, and the two ways to evaluate cards.

First, Regrowth. In a vacuum, Regrowth is better. It costs {1}{G}, in contrast to Eternal Witness's {1}{G}{G}. That's one mana less. The 2/1 body is unimpressive in combat. This is all true.

But then you look at Eternal Witness. She's a creature, meaning Cryptolith Rite or Earthcraft turns her into a mana dork. Meaning you get two cards back with Panharmonicon. Meaning you get to trigger Cathars' Crusade or Aura ShardsGC. Meaning her death triggers Dictate of Erebos. Meaning she can be blinked or bounced. Meaning cards that count creatures (e.g., Shamanic Revelation, Pennon Blade, Gaea's CradleGC) count her. Meaning she can attack, triggering Hellrider, even if she's likely to just be blocked and killed. Meaning her entering triggers Purphoros, God of the Forge and Warleader's Call and related cards. Meaning Yeva, Nature's Herald gives her flash, which opens up other forms of abuse. (Seedborn MuseGC, anyone?) Meaning you can bring her 2/1 self back with Smile at Death. And no one's playing either card on turn 2 anyway.

Which one you pick says a lot about your personality, though neither choice takes away your Spike card, and there is no wrong answer. I tend to favor instants over creatures where applicable, for instance. And this doesn't make, e.g., Silverglade Elemental, good in most decks; mana cost still matters.

In reality, both are good cards, and you should probably play both if you can. but it depends on what you're trying to do. But which card you choose if you must choose one is far more complicated than simple rox/sux arguments.

theNeroTurtle on miku 3

1 year ago

Seedborn MuseGC + Yeva, Nature's Herald will allow you do dump the creatures in hand on other players’ turns.

Beast Within and Vorinclex, Voice of HungerGC are also some pretty good green cards.

Song of the Dryads is a great card.

hyalopterouslemur on Beta Brackets Update Today

1 year ago

DemonDragonJ: Yeah, my loathing of five-color goodstuff mostly comes from how this is supposed to be the color-restricted format: I have a Ghave, Guru of Spores deck, but if I want to make a Rith, the Awakener or Marath, Will of the Wild *f-etch* deck, I have to lose the black cards (and probably the entire Aristocrats theme). So, no more Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos. No more Pitiless Plunderer. No more Diabolic Intent. No more Blood Artist or Bastion of Remembrance. I do gain red, though, so say hello to Purphoros, God of the Forge. Rhys the Redeemed or Nemata, Primeval Warden would be even more restricted, as token decks go.

My removal also suffers, since red removal is surprisingly bad in this format. (Seriously, I'd argue white has the best removal, followed closely by black. Green's a distant third, and red and blue are tied for fourth: Red has more removal, blue has better removal.)

And it happens between Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, Betor, Ancestor's Voice, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Beledros Witherbloom, and Licia, Sanguine Tribune too. All are lifegain, but only Oloro can use Absorb and Drogskol Reaver. Only Licia can use Lightning Helix and Searing Meditation. Only Betor can use Beledros Witherbloom. Ayli and Witherbloom are even more restricted, especially since Witherbloom can't use the color that's best at lifegain.

But that's the whole point. When I choose a Commander, I make a lot of choices regarding deck construction. I can't say "Cathars' Crusade would be good in my Animar, Soul of Elements deck." because, well, it wouldn't; it would be illegal. That forces me to pick, I don't know, Ivy Lane Denizen or Forgotten Ancient instead. Corpsejack Menace? You mean Branching Evolution? (Aside from the name, why is Corpsejack Menace {B} anyway? I actually wouldn't mind if it were {G}{U} just because that's Simic's thing.) And so on down the line.

Five-color goodstuff opts to ignore all of this. And right now, there are more five-color decks in EDH than in Legacy.

Eh, I can always just hate them out with Primal Order.

That's my rant about how too much five-color goodstuff is bad for the game.

Anyway, I play Aura Shards and Seedborn Muse in a lot of decks too. Aura Shards is really oppressive in a token build, or even a reanimator build. Seedborn Muse is interesting because she's either overpowered (anything {G}{U}, token builds, Yeva, Nature's Herald) or just a fancy Village Bell-Ringer without the Splinter Twin combo. I have to go through my decks now and see which ones have four or more game changers.

DemonDragonJ on Why Does High Fae Trickster …

1 year ago

I believe that High Fae Trickster's mana cost is too lenient, especially when one considers that she completely outclasses Yeva, Nature's Herald, other than having a lower toughness. I believe that the trickster should have a mana cost of cost {2}{U}{U}, rather than {3}{U}, given how heavily blue her abilities are, especially considering that Yeva costs {2}{G}{G} to cast.

What does everyone else say, about this? Why do you believe that High Fae Trickster has such a lenient mana cost, and, as an additional question, considering that Vivien, Champion of the Wilds exists, will WotC ever print a creature card who is identical to Yeva, except that it shall grant flash to all creature spells, rather than merely green creature spells? I certainly am interested to hear everyone's thoughts, on this matter.

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with me …

2 years ago

Welcome back to another episode of Build a Deck with Me. In the first two episodes I focused on a couple decks that want to go infinite and combo out. I realize that playing infinite combos is not everyone’s idea of a good time, but one of the things I enjoy is finding cool interactions/ways to break cards. So today instead of finding ways to break cards, I’m simply going to start with a card that is already broken and build a deck around it. That card is Voja, Jaws of the Conclave. Ok, so maybe it isn’t broken, but you have to admit, you see this good boy on the field and you need to find a response quickly.

Research

In the last episode, I had some comments that suggested I talk about some of the general research that goes into deck-building. One thing to keep in mind is that when you’re building a deck there are general archetypes that exist and are fairly well known. These can often serve as models when thinking about what cards to use, although relying too heavily on them long term can diminish creativity. If you’re just starting out though, by all means run over to EDHRec and find what cards usually go into a counters deck or a tribal deck (spoiler alert that is what we’re building here). One of the things that I do that helps my deckbuilding is watching youtube channels that play commander. This includes: The Command Zone, Tolarian Community College, Commander at Home, and Elder Dragon Hijinks. There are many others out there, but these are the ones that I’ve watched more than a couple episodes of. As I’m watching an episode, I find myself thinking, “Wow I want to build something like that” or “I really liked the interactions with that”. For instance, there was a Commander at Home game where I got to see the interaction between Dihada, Binder of Wills and Odric, Lunarch Marshal and now they’re sitting on my desk, waiting to be built. Today’s episode is the result of one such instance. I watched The Command Zone episode that covered Murders at Karlov Manor. In that game, the Voja deck was a beast. It was fast, it made huge creatures, it drew tons of cards, and it just couldn’t be stopped, oh and the commander was a big puppy dog (wolf, puppy same thing).

To start building, I went into Gatherer and just began looking for a few things like Wolves, Elves, and Changelings. I started to realize that there are very few changelings and the wolves out there really aren’t that great outside of a few like Hollowhenge Overlord. So I turned back to the Command Zone for some help. They post their decklists on the videos and I began scrolling through it and much to my surprise, the list was similar to the ones that I had found, but wasn’t sure about like Ferocious Pup and Universal Automaton. These aren’t good cards unless you have something that really wants creatures on the field. And that’s when things started to click. The support for Voja didn’t necessarily need to be super strong in their own right, it just needed to enable him to do more.

Changelings

First of all, Voja is an interesting card because it wants both Elves and Wolves on the field. Most tribal decks want just one tribe so it almost feels like you have to make a choice between one or the other here. Well I don’t like choosing between two good options. It’s like deciding between chicken nuggets or a chicken sandwich at Chick-Fil-A. I say both! (I also might need to reconsider some life choices, but oh well)

Changelings are great because they have all creature types which means any tribal deck can use them. Some are extremely powerful, while others just have an interesting creature type. In this deck, however, we want to focus on low cost creatures. If they do something cool, bonus!

Realmwalker is awesome because it is every creature type but it can also cast creatures from the top of your library which instantly gives you card advantage, we will likely choose elf as our creature type when it comes in because they generally are going to be our lower cost creatures, our mana dorks, and likely the more prominent tribal type in our deck.

Remember any changeling on the field will trigger both aspects of Voja’s triggered ability so a Universal Automaton becomes a 1 drop enabler for both adding counters and drawing cards. Irregular Cohort provides two 2/2 bodies both of whom are changelings and give us more counters and cards.

Of course there are two cards here that are just amazing. Maskwood Nexus which makes all your creatures all creature types, and Shields of Velis Vel which does the same thing in instant form. Both are game changers with voja.

Elves

When it comes to elves, we generally want to have mana dorks. This is going to ramp us out quickly, but also allow us to have bodies out there to add counters to. A couple standouts besides the normal ones like Llanowar Elves are:

Gyre Sage who is going to get huge thanks to Voja.

Beast Whisperer will draw you lots of cards because we are going to be a creature heavy deck.

Yeva, Nature's Herald is also helpful in being able to get your cards out on your opponent’s turns.

All the versions of Tolsimir are great because they often come with a wolf token in tow.

Finally there is Shalai and Hallar… When you’re adding counters to every creature on your board equal to the number of elves you control, this card can take out an opponent.

Wolves

There are a few wolves out there, but its surprisingly fewer than you would think. Hollowhenge Overlord is really good, and so is Ferocious Pup. You play it and suddenly you have two wolves which means two more cards when Voja attacks. Another great wolf is Roaming Throne. I know what you’re thinking, “it’s a golem.” In this deck, it’s a wolf… trust me. Roaming throne will double all of Voja’s triggered abilities and now you’re thinking “Voja only has one triggered ability.“ Actually, Ward is a triggered ability. Which means now in order to target him, your opponents need to spend 6 mana!! So you swing with Voja, let’s be conservative and say that you have just llanowar elves, Voja, and roaming throne, you add 2 +1/+1 counters to everything and you draw 4 cards. Speaking of doubling that trigger: Annie Joins Up. A super underrated card so far and triggers on Voja, Shalai, and Tolsimir.

Other fun stuff

There are a couple other things that help support Voja as well. Counter multipliers and additional combat steps are all good things for this deck. You don’t want to put too many of those in though because when push comes to shove you’re likely going to just want a creature to play instead of another counter multiplier. I have Kami of Whispered Hopes in the deck, because it adds counters, but it also produces a crazy amount of mana which I can use to empty my hand of creature cards. Hardened Scales is fine and even Branching Evolution feels worthwhile, but I chose not to add any others.

For additional combats I added only two cards, one was Relentless Assault and the other is Great Train Heist. The latter is great because it has more versatility, is an instant, and costs the same as relentless assault for its first ability. Both of these cards can win the game pretty easily.

There are also wolf producers like Howling Moon which I’ve played in Arena with great results. (also pairs well with Tocasia's Welcome). Sword of Body and Mind produces wolves, gives protection, and mills your opponent. Arlinn, the Pack's Hope  ^Flip is another powerful card since it produces wolves, but can also give you flash on your creatures.

Finally, there is a card that I’m proud to say I noticed before it became super popular. Silver Shroud Costume. I remember playing it in the dogmeat deck and thought, this is good, I’m going to put a copy into voja. At that time it was $5. It has since surged to $20 and there is a reason. It can flash out and attach to Voja, who is now hexproof, (in case ward 3 wasn’t enough) and unblockable gg.

Card Draw, ramp, interaction

Don’t forget your interaction. Just because Voja has ward 3 and is hard to spot remove, doesn’t mean he doesn’t need to be protected. Flawless Maneuver, Heroic Intervention, Teferi's Protection etc. will help keep him and the rest of your creatures safe.

As far as ramp goes, Voja wants creatures which means a lot of ramp is going to be in the form of mana dorks not mana rocks or traditional green ramp spells. I still added a few green ramp spells, but its definitely fewer than some of my other green decks.

Card draw is also a little different here. We’ve got Beast Whisperer and Tocasia's Welcome already and they work really well with the deck since the Beast whisperer is also an elf and tocasia’s welcome triggers with all of our mana dorks which we can flash out on other turns as well. Voja of course is the main card draw engine (seriously a commander who draws cards is just waiting to be abused). Other good cards here are Inspiring Call and Rishkar's Expertise.

About Card Draw

One quick note on card draw that has recently changed the way I think about it. I used to separate card draw into two different categories. Card draw engines which are ongoing effects that will give me cards as long as they remain on the field. The other is simply cards that draw more cards. Previously, I assumed that the former were excellent cards and the latter were well… not great. But as I was listening to The Command Zone they started talking about cards and the amount of triggers you can expect to get in a single game. This changed the way I thought about it. A card like Rhystic Study is great because you are likely going to get some cards from it, but your opponents can pay the 1 or they can remove it. The idea is to think about your card draw engines in terms of the average cards you get from it. This helped me starting think about the usefulness in a card like Inspiring Call which is likely to give me 4-5 cards when I play it, at least. Rishkar's Expertise similarly will net me upwards of 7-10 cards and play a spell from my hand. Meanwhile, rhystic study, which is a great card, will likely get me 5-6 cards before being dealt with, sometimes only a couple. It helped me shift my thinking and made me consider other cards that I had previously dismissed.

Lands

Not a lot of utility lands are needed in this deck, I did like Rogue's Passage, because a lot of times Voja is swinging for lethal commander damage. Making him unblockable is great.

Here is the final form: Voja, the good boy

And by final form, I mean the form I’m currently playing, but likely will change because decks are always being updated and changed. As always, hope you enjoyed the article and if you have any commanders or interactions that you want to see built, let me know in the comments.