Is this deck already in the feature queue?

Daarkest The last time this deck was featured was back in Jan 2019.

Cloudius, i'm looking to get into EDH and I saw this deck. I was immediately drawn in because of the card I play in Legacy and one of my favorite cards . But, many of the pieces I don't have are the expensive ones. Do you think you could make an alternate decklist, but a budget version of this deck? I would be very appreciative.

Daarkest This deck is fun to pilot and is one of my favourite decks.

Sure I can try to recommend some budget alternatives if you can let me have the list of cards that're out of your budget.

That said, this is a combo deck and is tuned to combo off consistently around turns 5-6 most of the time. So going budget will affect the speed and performance of the deck. Nonetheless, it should still be an extremely fun deck to pilot. Cheers!

Vampiric Tutor , Expropriate , Grim Monolith , Mana Crypt , Mana Drain , and Scroll Rack are the main ones that are out of budget. The other extra turn spells are pretty expensive in addition to the shock lands (I already have most of those anyway.)

Daarkest Here're some of my recommendations:

Vampiric Tutor - Replace with Insidious Dreams . Cost more to cast but still lines up the top of your library at Instant speed.

Expropriate - You can consider Savor the Moment . Skipping the untap step doesn't hurt Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign as she has Vigilance but it'll affect your lands and mana rocks.

Grim Monolith / Mana Crypt - Leaving these out will hurt the tempo a little as they're key pieces for me to power out Yennett very early (Turns 1 - 3). Feel free to throw in any mana rocks in their place. Dark Ritual does provide the 1 time mana boost as well.

Mana Drain - Feel free to replace with any other counterspell of your choice. I'd still try to keep the CMC to 2 or less so we can imprint it on Isochron Scepter when needed.

Scroll Rack - Scroll Rack has 2 functions in this deck.

A) Puts "Bombs" I drawn back on top of the library - Agonizing Memories or Hidden Retreat are possible replacements for this effect.

B) Help filter and rearrange the top of my library - Any cards with Scry effect would work here, e.g. Seer's Lantern .

Which card you select as replacement is up to you and your preferred play style.

Hope this helps. Cheers!

Normally, I am not a fan of combo decks, but the wincons you described in your beautifully formatted description are awesome! I didn't even know about the Proteus Staff combo till now, and that is hilarious

Command Beacon seems like a must here, for a deck that relies on its commander!

I know you have Transmute Artifact marked as "too expensive", but you can pick one up for $120 or so online, so it's less expensive than a lot of other cards here, and it's strictly better than Reshape . I put it in my The Locust God list, and it immediately kicked the deck up a turn faster - can't recommend it highly enough.

Have you considered Spellseeker ? Can grab Reshape , Cyclonic Rift , Mystical Tutor , etc.

EDIT: Just realized that Spellseeker messes with Proteus Staff combo - ignore me XD

Daedalus19876 Thanks for your suggestions.

Command Beacon is certainly useful in most EDH decks, I just don't have sufficient copies to go around.

I recall Transmute Artifact cost more than $120 (I assume we're talking about USD here). Do share the website where you saw it going for $120, please.

And yup, your Locust God deck is awesome. Can tell you spent considerable effort refining it, like what I'm doing to this deck now. Keep up the good work!

KeelHaul10 Thank you for your kind words. It means a lot to me when the deck I brewed and the descriptions I designed are appreciated.

If you're going to build the deck, let me know how it fare for you in your meta. Cheers!

Cloudius: Facebook Sick Deals page has them pretty cheap :) it's where I got mine!

Daedalus19876 Thanks to your recommendations above, a copy of Transmute Artifact will be joining my arsenal of tutors soon! Looking forward to it.

I'm looking into purchasing the deck, but my issue is it seems really slow and commander only dependant which can gather hate, do you prefer non-creature less for a casual group style or should i go some creatures route?

Geridious Thanks for considering this deck!

You're right about it being commander dependent. Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign is a "build-around-me" type commander and her name precedes her, so she'll definitely draw hate. Then again, such is the case for other decks that are more reliant on their commanders (e.g. Animar, Soul of Elements , perhaps Zur the Enchanter , etc).

My meta is a casual one. That said, there're sufficient creature removals, board wipes and counter spells running around so she's very susceptible to removals. This is the reason I run a small protection package in the deck. While insufficient, they still offer some form of protection when the need arises.

As for it being slow, it may be because you're not familiar with the lines to victory (e.g. what to tutor for, how to line up the top of your library, etc). If you do eventually decide to purchase this deck, I'd be happy to guide you through, like how I did for the few folks before you.

As for the decision to go creatureless, I like to take the path less traveled. Also, I'm a Spellslinger at heart, so this resonates better with me.

Ultimately, the decision, to follow my deck list or go the creature route, is yours to make. It hinges a lot on your preferred play style and the meta you're in.

Hope this helps.

thanks so much for the reply i appreciate it, yeah i'm definitely a creature type of guy for decks, not a fan of blue too much haha thanks for laying the foundation out, definitley see which route to take creature wise.

Geridious You're welcomed.

Eldrazis are popular in creature based Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign decks. There're some ways to cheat them into play should Yennett get hated out too, e.g. Quicksilver Amulet , Show and Tell .

Yennett also helms many Sphinx Tribal deck so Cryptic Gateway and Belbe's Portal are cards worth considering.

That said, I'd personally opt for a commander with Green among it's color identity (over Esper ) if my objective is to summon big fat meanies and stomp in for the win. Once again, it boils down to preference and play style.

Let me know once you're done building your deck list on T/O, I'd love to see how it turns out. Am hoping that this deck did gave you some inspirations along the way. Cheers!

such a great reply, once again greatly appreciated, i built Prossh (non foodchain) to my perfection list, able to win on commander dmg, token stomp dmg,stealing opp's monsters, and of course life drain them to wipe the table, just having difficulties finding a commander that i can create such a versatile deck with different play styles, was considering yennett or sisay, anyways don't wanna blow up your comment thread with all these questions, have asked on forum boards but no such luck.

Cool deck. I haven't played any magic since HoD and started a few weeks ago, and I'm really liking a lot of these commander 2018 cards.

I'm not sure how much it would actually help, but I feel like Void Winnower fits. a) It can be cheated in with Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign . b) The flavor just seems to match really well with the odd vs even kind of thing.

zapyourtumor Welcome back!

I returned to Magic in 2017 and fell in love with the EDH format too.

You're spot on that Void Winnower is a good card for Yennett decks. In fact, it is commonly played in most creature based Yennett decks I've come across.

However, I've opted for the path less travelled and made my deck creatureless! Having another creature in the deck (besides Yennett) actually hampers one of my key combo and wincon.

Thanks for your suggestion nonetheless and do keep them coming! Cheers.

Ah, whoops I missed that part. scratches head

I feel like for Approach of the Second Sun , they made a mistake and should have put the "cast from your hand" condition in both the "you win the game" and "shuffle it into your library" parts, though.

The Nexus of Fate combo is absolutely disgusting, but I love it.

I might look into Yennett for a budget edh deck -- I didn't realise at first how powerful she is with tutors that put cards on top of your deck, since that is usually considered worse than putting them into your hand.

zapyourtumor hey no worries. It's a quirky deck so folks can easier miss the details and key mechanics.

Thank god Approach of the Second Sun was worded as such, and it became a wincon for my deck. phew

I've players ask me for advice on a more budget build. If you do decide to give Yennett a go, I'm always happy to help too!

Wow, this is neat. I've been looking for a deck to abuse Proteus Staff , and this deck does that and more. This is an oddball deck for sure, and I love the various lines to victory.

The deck seems really, really well tuned. I'm having a bit of a hard time suggesting improvements. Have you considered Gitaxian Probe ? It basically just slims your deck down by one card, while also letting you know if one of your opponents do or do not have answers before you try going off. (Especially when casting the second Approach--checking the blue deck for counterspells ahead of time can be very helpful!)

I'm not sure which is better, actually, but what are your thoughts on Austere Command versus Cleansing Nova ? I'm not sure if one less mana (and becoming odd!) makes it better than the flexibility of Command.

Great deck!

MagmaArmor0 Thanks for the compliments and suggestions.

Your suggestion of Gitaxian Probe suddenly reminded me of another card... Telepathy ! I'd love to add the card(s) in the deck but space is really tight at the moment so I'd have to KIV them for now.

You're absolutely right about one of the weakness of the deck - Counterspells (then again, most decks are affected by Counterspells as well, to different extent). I've only included a small package of Counterspells for this purpose but they're certainly insufficient to defend against everything our opponents throw at us, especially in a multiplayer game.

Austere Command vs Cleansing Nova is a tough call to be honest. Functionality wise, they both serve almost similar purpose with the former giving me an option to avoid hitting Yennett if she's online. IMHO, I'm not overly concerned about their CMC cause if I've an opportunity to manipulate the top of my library to cast something odd for free, Extra Turn spells, Wincons or even Tutors will get priority over Board Wipes (unless I'm facing certain death and am in a dire need for one). Ceteris paribus, I'd go with Austere Command for the flexibility so I can cherry pick which 2 modes to select that'd benefit me the most.

Thank you once again for the suggestions and asking some hard questions which makes me reassess my card choices in the deck. It is only through such discussions can we further refine the decks! Look forward to hearing more from you soon.

Feel free to check out some of my other quirky decks too! Cheers.