Dokuchi Silencer

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Guerric on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

2 years ago

legendofa on Two Heavens as One

2 years ago

You managed to hit the land balance pretty much dead on--nice work! Unfortunately, I think you have a few too many lands. A good rule of thumb is to have 36-40 lands in a Commander deck, depending on speed and mana requirements. Since I don't see many non-land mana sources, and since you want to get a land drop every turn to reach the higher-cost cards, I recommend dropping to 39-40 lands.

Isshin, Two Heavens as One wants a lot of attack triggers, anything that says "Whenever such-and-such attacks...". You have some good choices with Kitsune Ace, Selfless Samurai, and Imperial Recovery Unit, among others, but there are more out there. If you can find cards like Campaign of Vengeance, Goblin Traprunner, and Gleam of Battle, or even Brutal Hordechief or Fervent Charge if you're willing to spend the money, you'll push this to the next level.

I also suggest finding some cards that let you draw more, like Greed or Read the Bones. is a good color for this, but and have been getting more options recently. Top deck effects like your Abbot of Keral Keep are also useful in the same way. This will help keep your attacks moving and apply pressure to your opponents.

Finally, look for some direct removal, like Terminate, Rip Apart, or Vindicate to get rid of problems and threats your opponents put out. Dokuchi Silencer and Explosive Entry are the right idea.

This isn't the right deck for Sky-Blessed Samurai, with only three enchantments. You'll be paying full cost for it most of the time, occasionally getting a one-mana discount, and its stats aren't good enough to justify the cost. Save it for a more enchantment focused deck where it can reach its full potential.

Finally, you could use some more one-mana cards so that you have more options on turn 1 besides play a land and pass.

Overall, this looks good. You have solid card interactions, a good combat theme and Vehicle subtheme, and a strong foundation. Play it, test it, tweak it, feel out what you like and what might be improved, and above all, have fun!

azja on Yuriko (Optimized) Primer

2 years ago

@Agieryna Apologies for taking so long to reply! I play edh less frequently these days, so I didn't have enough reps with my new Yuriko list to get back to you until now.

Starting with the ninjas, I've been very impressed by Moon-Circuit Hacker and Prosperous Thief; They have powerful combat damage triggers and cheap ninjutsu costs. I've also been liking Inkrise Infiltrator and Thousand-Faced Shadow which are easy to hard cast and evasive. I ended up cutting Dokuchi Silencer because I often didn't have a creature I wanted to discard, and if there is a problematic creature on board I'd rather just use a removal spell. I also found Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion pretty underwhelming, but I think it's reasonable to include if you play it with the Enter the Infinite/Thassa's Oracle combo.

I've also been pleased with Memnite and Phyrexian Walker. I didn't play them before because they don't have any evasion, but the tempo advantage they provide is so much higher than a 1-mana enabler that they're worth including. Network Disruptor has been amazing: A 1/1 flyer that also taps down a blocker is really powerful.

As for the evasion package, Cover of Darkness is much stronger than it used to be due to the higher number of playable ninjas, same goes for Wonder. And like you mentioned, Entomb is strictly for grabbing Wonder. I haven't run into the situation where I don't have a target for Entomb yet, but that's something you sign up for when you play a tutor that has only one good target.

I think that covers most of the new changes, let me know if you have any other questions/comments!

Virlym on Yuriko, Shadow of Fate EDH

3 years ago

Honestly, I wouldn't bother with the Thassa's Oracle line. There's much better generals out there for it over Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow (like any Thrasios, Triton Hero deck partnered with something that has black in it). Doomsday could still work with Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow as a game ender tho if you really wanted to keep that in. It's really your call, but I never liked setting myself up to lose if something gets countered (Trickbind makes you lose to the Thassa's Oracle line, and something like Angel's Grace will make you lose to the Doomsday line). Having said that, the following will assume you are focusing on Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, and not a planted "good-stuff" strategy.

glaring issues in a general sense from your list :
1)You have poor ramp choices for Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
2)Your land base is too awkward and has unnecessary things in it.
3)You have some turtle cards that don't really have much use in Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow

1)Mana Vault is more for a deck that wants big explosive turns, not ramp for small things over multiple turns. You are hardly ever going to want to dump 4 mana into untapping it. Same concept applies to Dark Ritual as well, especially considering it only gives you black mana. Lotus Petal falls into this category as well to an extent. You don't want explosive turns, you want consistent pressure. Mox Opal makes you life more complicated for a potential free mana, which leads into the next issue.

2)Your land choice is too awkward. You have artifact lands to turn on Mox Opal, but they serve no other purpose and can be wiped out with artifact removal. If you are running so many different lands, you generally want to be taking advantage of something where that matters (like Field of the Dead, and you usually want to avoid using the non-indestructible artifact lands unless you have a lot of artifact synergies. They are too vulnerable to just have for 1 or 2 cards. You have more fetch lands than you have targets for those fetches. You have 3 black fetchs, 3 blue fetches, 1 black/blue fetch, and 1 basic land fetch. You only have 4 basic lands, and 2 fetchable dual lands (giving you 8 fetches for 6 targets). Spire of Industry is honestly too reliant on other things that it can basically be counted as a colorless land with no utility.

3)Satoru Umezawa is cute, but doesn't help in a Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow. It's main purpose is to cheat in big things for 4 mana. Anything you have over 4 mana should already have a ninjutsu reduction to that. Spellseeker is only good for the Thassa's Oracle line and has no real impact with Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow aside from tutoring for a tutor, which is awkward (Solve the Equation follows the same line of thought). Viscera Seer's scry ability may seem decent to try and find something for Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, but you would need to sac ninjas or enablers, which would lower the amount of triggers you would get. The only real payoff for it is if you're trying to win that turn and you sac your ninjas after they trigger Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow. Praetor's Grasp is too reliant on your opponent having something useful to you, and isn't reliable enough for what Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow wants to be doing. And if you're using it to remove you opponent's wincons from their deck, you might as well just use something like Extract for that as it's cheaper, or Sadistic Sacrament as it will hit more targets. Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar is a little too fragile for the bounce it gives and you would be better off running Cunning Evasion. The card draw on it really isn't necessary. Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow tends to give you more cards than you need, you don't need additional card draw reliant on damage. Opposition Agent kinda just falls under the "good-stuff" category and will most likely have a prompt death by any1 after you get a land off it, otherwise if kinda just sits in your hand and people will assume it's just a counter.

Ninjas of note that aren't included: Thousand-Faced Shadow, get it, it's too good. 1 drop flier is an enabler spot, but it is also a ninja. Later on, it can be used to double up some ninja triggers as a toolbox card. Mist-Syndicate Naga, expanding your ninja army is really nice and forces value from your opponents to deal with the growing threats. Moon-Circuit Hacker / Ninja of the Deep Hours, extra card draw on cards ninjas with low ninjutsu costs.

Some more meta call ninjas: Throat Slitter / Dokuchi Silencer, removal is nice, especially when it's already lending towards what you already want to be doing and not taking up additional space. Mistblade Shinobi temp creature removal, can set people back a turn if you hit something big, has a tap effect, etc. Skullsnatcher, graveyard hate.

Guerric on [Primer] Crouching One-Drop, Hidden Ninja

3 years ago

Guerric on [Primer] Crouching One-Drop, Hidden Ninja

3 years 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.