pie chart

Yarok ETB Control

Commander / EDH BUG (Sultai) Casual Control Primer

LandG0

Edit Live Edit
Edit
Upvote 0
0
Deckcycle Feature Queue
Feature Queue
Playtest v1
Similar Deck Space Card Recommendations

Creature (31)

Sorcery (7)

Land (37)

Artifact (4)

Commander (1)

Commander: Yarok, the Desecrated

Instant (12)

Enchantment (8)

Sideboard

Creature (6)

Artifact (3)

Yarok, the Desecrated King of ETBs

Currently on the chopping block:

Possible new options:

Yarok?

Sultai Is likely the strongest 3 colour pairing available for goodstuff decks, although this deck is centred around ETBs it still opens it up to some incredibly powerful options

: Counters, Draw, Theft, Clones, Extra Turns, Artifact Tutors

: Best tutors, Sacrifice, Recursion, Draw, Boardwipes, Creature Removal

: Ramp, Noncreature removal, Draw, Creature tutors

: Artifct Ramp, Removal, Draw, The Swords!

Yarok, the Desecrated: Extra value getting to double all your ETBs

  • Value: Plain and simple, with Yarok on the field you get twice as much value from all your ETBs, so you can ramp/draw/tutor/control more effectively
  • Board Presence: Having a few small creatures on the battlefield will often deter your opponents from swinging your way when they can more easily connect with someone else
  • Torpor Orb Oh god please NOOO! This card ruins everything...

But that's why it's important to run non ETB removal like Abrupt Decay etc. I didn't want to go over the top on non ETB removal so by adding tutors I've effectively added extra copies that can be used to find other things

  • Too many wipes: The deck wins by establishing a board presence, if someone keeps wiping away your value cards then you'll find it hard to reap enough value

My Meta

The Meta I play in contains a wide range of decks, but they're all at least 75% or higher. This means that counter spells, mass land destruction and infinite combos are commonly seen in a game. Our games can range from 4 player pods playing cEDH decks to 7 player pods where there's a complete mix of deck power level.

Power Level

Generally I play pretty competitive decks, as in tier 0 or tier 1 cEDH level (I've listed some of my current ones in a section at the bottom). For this deck I can't see Yarok ever being strong enough for cEDH so I want it to be built in a way that will fit the larger games i play in of 5-7 players. I've found in these games there ends up being a lot more boardwipes and a lot more early game answers, solely just because of the number of players at the table. For that reason my aim for this deck is to be constantly making making value plays that will advance my position, only answering threats that will truely devastate me, and trying to avoid drawing attention to myself by obviously powering ahead of the rest of the table or dropping too many well known threats early in the game.

Game Plan

Ramp into Yarok, the Desecrated, hopefully you will see some ramp in your opening hand so you can get Yarok out faster than t5.

Next start playing small value creatures that will ramp, draw, tutor you into more options.

You've established a board presence, now protect it. There's not a lot of counterspells so don't waste them on removing opponents threats, they're for protecting your board. This is a permanent heavy deck so you should always have some cards on the field.

Set up an engine like Vannifar/[Birthing Pod]/Cloudstone Curio/Conjurer's Closet/[Thassa, Deep-Dwelling] and start reaping the benefits.

This isn't a fast combo deck so enjoy the value and aim to win the attrition war by out valuing everyone else.

Ok it's time to close out the game, your wincon doesn't have to be the same as mine either, but here are some options:

Infinite ETB's:

Naru Meha, Master Wizard + Ghostly Flicker/Displace

Displace can only win with a couple of creatures:

Ghostly Flicker has more options as it can generate infinite mana by flickering your lands:

  • Any etb draw permanent to draw & play out your whole deck

Non Infinite ETB's

With a lot of mana you can start to reuse your etb creatures like Gary to grind people down

Combat Damage

The classic Craterhoof Behemoth swing, with Yarok triggering it twice you don't need too many creatures

Rite of Replication

This card is no joke in casual games, by late game it's pretty easy to assemble and you don't need a big board state. Making 5 copies of Craterhoof or Gary has won me the game and i didn't even have Yarok out.

Getting More ETBs

These sac old ETB creatures to go find new ones

ETB 1,2,3,4 times?

Yisan/Pod/Vannifar Lines

ETB Value Cards

Note that a number of these cards aren't in the deck but were considerations when building it

Note on the ramp: I prefer ramp at 3cmc or less so I can go from 3 mana to 5 the next turn in the early game to cast Yarok, Solemn Sim doesn't speed up casting the commander by a turn assuming you're still hitting land drops.

Infinite Palinchron

Infinite mana if you have lands that can produce 6 mana (including 2 sources) what you do with the mana is upto you. - Venser, Shaper Savant Bounce everyones boards - The Great Henge Draw your deck

Infinite Naru Meha, Master Wizard

Combos with Ghostly Flicker/Displace for infinite mana (ghostly flicker only) and infinite etbs of other creatures, this doesn't need Yarok

More Tiggers with Dance of Many

With Yarok this enters copying 2 creatures (or one twice) and then those creatures etbs will trigger twice, creating upto 4 triggers of 1 creature

Graveyard lines

With Yarok and Survival of the Fittest on the field put two creatures you want to resurrect into the GY and get Phyrexian Delver into your hand. Cast Delver to bring them both back and then get double triggers on those.

Here's an example:

  1. 5x: Using Survival put Phantasmal Image, Spellseeker, Woodland Bellower, Gray Merchant of Asphodel into the GY with Phyrexian Delver in hand
  2. +5 life: Cast delver returning spellseeker & Image
  3. 11 life: Spellseeker finds Fierce Guardianship + Ghostly Flicker, Image copies Delver to bring back Bellower & Gary
  4. Gary drains opponents for minimum 10 (yarok, gary, delver) so you should gain 30
  5. Bellower finds Lotus Cobra & Wood Elves which will get 2 forests + 2 mana from Cobra
  6. Cast ghostly flicker on Gary and whatever else you want, at this point seeker could get Displace, Bellower could get Eternal Witness. You could bin more creatures will survival to bring back with delver.

The point is that this deck goes OFF when left unchecked for a few turns and can find what it needs through a number of cards

Non ETB cards too good to pass on

I don't have all of these in the deck but they're definitely worth consideration

Notable Exclusions

There's a number of great cards I haven't included in my list, here's a brief description on them

Holding up mana to counter spells and remove key threats in other players turns is the way any decent control player should be playing, for this reason i don't like sorcery speed spot removal like all the below options. Yarok makes them 2 for 1's, but chances are there's only one thing you NEED to remove and the other one is just going to piss someone off so it's still not worth it in my mind.

Other ways to build Yarok

This seems to be a popular concept for this commander and I'd been wanting to make a lands matter commander for a few years now. There are heaps of other good options for commanders too. below are the ones I've played around with:

  • Golos, Tireless Pilgrim The new and improved Solemn Simulacrum, this finds any land and also has an infinite mana outlet built in. My plan with this is to have a very low average cmc and either find and cast Ad Nauseam and cast mana bond, then drop all guildgates and Maze's End onto the field. Or find Food Chain and one of three cast from exile creatures and then cast and sac Golos until I have all the guildgates and Maze's End.

  • Thrasios, Triton Hero/Vial Smasher the Fierce Thrasios for more lands and Vial smasher for more colours and some extra damage while casting ramp cards.

  • Lord Windgrace This works well with MLD and graveyard abuse, cards like Realms Uncharted become VERY powerful.

  • Omnath, Locus of Rage Big stompy elementals, lots of ramp and creature sacrifice. There's an awesome primer on tappedout for this commander that I played for a while. It's simple and fun but quickly becomes a target.

  • Muldrotha, the Gravetide This commander really just for the recasting from the GY, I think Yarok is better in these colours now.

  • Tatyova, Benthic Druid This can go in the 99 of lots of the other options but having her in the command zone is great. Fetchlands become insane and you don't even get hurt from the loss of life anymore.

  • The Gitrog Monster Indisputably the most powerful option, this guy is fast and combos so easily when built properly.

  • Azusa, Lost but Seeking a t1 Mana Crypt into this gets you well ahead of the opponents, but I've seen the deck stall too many times to want to make it myself, being mono definitely makes it harder.

Budget Replacements

I've been playing for a long time and have acquired a lot of high value cards when they weren't so expensive, below are some of the highest priced cards and my suggestions for budget friendly substitutes

OG Duals

Swap these for other dual lands

Fetch Lands

I use all 9

These are only here for consistency, if you take them out then any land with basic land types on them aren't as important anymore. However there are some other cards in the deck that lose a lot of value if you cut these too: Lotus Cobra, Ramunap Excavator, Tatyova, Benthic Druid, Titania, Protector of Argoth so you may want to swap these out too.

Others

These are all here for ramp ( other than Strip Mine), they can just be replaced with basics.

Cheaper Replacements

Ideally pick options that will enter untapped like the pain lands, or lands that should enter untapped depending on what other lands you have in play. Scry lands are one of the best tapped options and they trigger twice with Yarok too.

Tri Colour

Golgari

Simic

Dimir

Counterspells aren't needed in the deck, but i like to run the free cost/cheap ones to protect my key pieces. You could swap these for cheaper options or just cut entirely.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Changes — Feb. 11, 2020
Edit
Spoiler Timeline
Card Odds v1 Draw hand
Add to folder Copy
Download / Export / Embed Code

Comments

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Hi! Please consider becoming a supporter of TappedOut for $3/mo. Thanks!

Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax

Please login to comment

Date added 4 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

16 - 3 Mythic Rares

52 - 6 Rares

12 - 0 Uncommons

7 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.17
Tokens Bird 2/2 U, Clue, Copy Clone, Elemental 5/3 G, Spirit 1/1 C, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders POD, Nice, yarok, Awesome Decks, EDH Inspiration
Votes
Ignored suggestions
Shared with
Views