#yasova

[maskedheromaskedchampion]

Shattergang Expectations

Ryan adds some War of the Spark cards to some of his favorite Commander decks.

[kohlarts]

Some lineart I did for an art trade a while back of Yasova Dragonclaw

[hirfael]

My fav commander Yasova Dragonclaw <3

[reginalborova]

[the-burnished-hart]

It’s a little hard to see, but my MTG Secret Santa gift came in today, and it was a huge stack of foils for my Yasova Block Constructed Commander deck! I am much closer to foiling the whole deck out now! :) Thank you so much, mysterious sender, and thank you @blogging-phelddagrif for putting the whole Secret Santa exchange together!

[mikenesci]

Yasova Dragonclaw, hunting for Atarka.

[elderdragonwrestling]

The Care and Feeding of Yasova Dragonclaw, part VII

"Or: How do you build a mana-base?"

We have our deck almost completely assembled. Now that we know which cards we're going to include, we can work on our mana-base and select the lands we need for the deck.

What's the Game Plan?

We need to remember, before we assemble our mana-base, that our game plan is going to be:

Turn 1: play a land which produces G, tap for G, cast part of our early game ramp package

Turn 2: play a land, use our ramp card to either get mana or drop another land, tap for 2G, cast Yasova Dragonclaw

Yasova's early game-plan is heavily aggressive; delays can criple the deck, as Yasova does't want to give her opponents a chance to get their footing. So our deck will place a premium on cards which can produce green mana, above and beyond what analysis of our deck's colored mana symbols may otherwise suggest. But we also want to be able to rapidly switch gears; after the first two turns, we need to be able to pay hybrid U/R U/R to activate Yasova's Threaten ability, so our mana base will need to be very flexible in its ability to fix our mana.

Mana Analysis

Analyzing our deck's mana needs suggests the following starting breakdown:

21 Forests

12 Islands

5 Mountains

As we noted, we want to skew our mana-base in favor of producing green mana early-game, to allow us to drop our mana dorks to ramp to a turn 2 Yasova as often as possible. We also cannot afford to have lands which come into play tapped, so the Theros-block Temples are out. After we achieve these two needs, we want to make sure we can have two mana sources on the table which can tap for some combination of U and R.

I've included the following cards which tap for 3 colors:

Commander Tower: No drawbacks, all three colors of mana Yasova needs.

Exotic Orchard: This can miss the mark at times, but I find it relatively reliable in our four player games.

Forbidden Orchard: The drawback is easy to play around, particularly since Yasova can trample over the tokens fairly easily so long as your opponents don't build up too many of them.

Opal Palace: Boosting Yasova's power is really that important. It's a land I'll be willing to play mid-game to make sure that if Yasova dies, she can come back onto the battlefield with a still-relevant power, even on the first re-casting.

Reflecting Pool: This does the job quickly. By the time you need to be able to produce a second red or green mana, Reflecting Pool should be online.

I've also placed an emphasis on lands which can tap for G and one other color:

Breeding Pool / Stomping Ground: Shocklands are amazing, full-stop. The damage from bringing them into play untapped is usually irrelevant in a deck this aggressive. And you can fetch them with the deck's ramp and fetch passage.

Wooded Foothills: If I had more copies, I'd probably be running any fetchland I own which can fetch a Forest. Pairs amazingly well with Shocklands and ABUR Duals to easily fix your mana.

Hinterland Harbor / Rootbound Crag: Checklands are really easy to play around in Commander.

Karplusan Forest / Yavimaya Coast: Painlands are really easy to play around. The 1 damage is mostly irrelevant, particularly when you're you're using them to get other forms of ramp out.

Fire-Lit Thicket: I'm experimenting with using filter lands in this deck. They only tap for colorless by themselves, so we need to keep a critical mass of green sources ot get that first turn mana dork as much as possible. I hope to expand my filter lands in the near future, and anticipate that Flooded Grove and Cascade Bluffs will likely replace an Island and a Mountain, respectively, to make sure I'm not sabotaging the deck's odds of having green mana on turn 1.

Grove of the Burnwillows: Particularly for a deck with a strong Voltron package, handing out life to opponents is almost completely irrelevant.

Taiga: One of the few ABUR Dual Lands I own. I hear those are good.

I've also included a pair of lands which can tap for both U and R without G:

Sulfur Falls: Another checkland, like Rootbound Crag and Hinterland Harbor.

Steam Vents: Another shockland, like Breeding Pool and Stomping Ground.

Normally all of my decks get a Temple of the False God, but this one has such a hunger for colored mana that the ramp isn't worth it.

That leaves me with 21 of 38 land slots to fill with basics.  Here's the breakdown:

6 Island

4 Mountain

11 Forest

I hope this series of posts have been helpful in describing one approach to deckbuilding in this format.

[elderdragonwrestling]

The Care and Feeding of Yasova Dragonclaw, part VI

"Or: And how do you win, exactly?"

The final objective which we'll have in building our deck is to fill our deck with threats, particularly ones which synergize well with Yasova. And most of these will be serving to enhance the threat that Yasova poses (particularly to get her to 7 power).

Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys?

Equipment tends to be the most useful for a general seeking to eke use of a Voltron package, as they will survive even if the Commander they are attached to should die. The downside is that you have to pay mana to equip them. Yasova's equipment is primarily focused on trying to get her power up to 7:

Butcher's Cleaver: Innistrad had an interesting and occasionally relevant "humans matter" subtheme. +3/+0 is what we care about, but the lifelink is a nice perk, since Yasova is a human.

Empyrial Plate: You don't need to have a large hand to get Yasova's power up to 7. It also turns all of the powerful card advantage abilities in this deck, particularly draw effects, into pseudo Giant Growth effects for Yasova to boot.

Hero's Blade: +3/+2 and it equips to Yasova for free. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what we like to call a "jackpot". I think this card is a must-include for many, many Voltron commanders now, especially if it has as massive of an impact on the Commander's clock as it does for Yasova.

Loxodon Warhammer: +3/+0 is the relevant part. Lifelink is a nice little perk, but Yasova already has trample. It's essentially a Butcher's Cleaver which can also be carried by other creatures in your deck to turn them into legitimate threats.

O-Naginata: Cheap to cast, relatively cheap to equip. Overall, it provides the +3/+0 for half the price to play and equip a Butcher's Cleaver or a Loxodon Warhammer.

Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho: +3/+1 at a slight discount to equip. The downside and the upside are basically irrelevant.

In addition to our equipment, we've included two Auras which can get Yasova's power up to 7:

Boar Umbra: A lot of survivability for relatively cheap. +3/+3 makes Yasova strong enough to survive many blockers, and Totem Armor can protect her from targeted removal and from sweepers.

Drake Umbra: More expensive, but it grants flying on top of Totem Armor. Flying is particularly effective on Yasova, who can Threaten your opponents' fliers to further enhance this form of evasion.

There's also a pseudo-anthem effect who plays along very well with the flicker subtheme which this deck includes:

Master Biomancer: Without any other setup, he can boost Yasova's power by 2, which would normally make him a pass. But since he triggers every time you flicker a creature, you can use him to turn other modest threats you play into major threats. If you have the mana to equip a spare piece of equipment to him, he can provide 5 +1/+1 counters for free, turning even your lowliest mana dorks into heavyweight 6/6s.

Haste Makes Waste

One way to enhance the effectiveness of your threats is to get them attacking before your opponents get a turn to answer them. Haste is an exceptionally powerful keyword, and red is one of the best colors in the game to provide it:

Fires of Yavimaya: One of my favorite haste-granters in the Gruul color-identity. It's a very fairly-costed one-sided way to grant haste. And that extra +1/+1 can have a lot of utility. I've frequently used it as a combat trick in plain sight to save a creature who would otherwise die. If Yasova's power gets up to 10, Fires of Yavimaya can be used to get that 21st point of damage through.

Lightning Greaves: Haste for one creature, equips for free, and Shroud on top of it all? There's a reason it was in all of the original wedge Commander decks from Wizards of the Coast.

Urbrask the Hidden: It gives all of your creatures haste, turning down the clock, and it forces your opponents' creatures to enter the battlefield tapped. Urbrask does't get nearly the love he deserves, probably because of his relatively high cost and vulnerability as a creature. With a clock as fast as Yasova's can be when she has 7 power, a Kismet effect on your opponents' blockers can be crippling.

I Get By With a Little Help from My Friends

One major advantage to Temur colors is that Yasova can bring a lot of very big threats to the table. Many of the creatures we've included to generate card advantage or serve as answers can also swing for for a fair chunk of damage. These are our backup plan if Yasova gets sent to the command zone a few too many times, and often lean heavily on this decks's ability to grind out card advantage and answer our opponents' threats effectively:

Consecrated Sphinx: 4 power in the air is respectable. If you can spare a piece of equipent, 7 power in the air is a major threat.

Indrik Stomphowler: It’s a 4/4. After you’ve smashed an artifact or enchantment, if you have nothing better to do, he can still wear equipment and still swing. A very low-level threat, but he can become respectable if you can spare some gear.

Phyrexian Ingester: After it eats another creature, the Ingester is very likely to be a major beater afterwards.

Prime Speaker Zegana: She'll get you a lot of cards. If you can get her a little evasion, she'll continue to pay dividends every turn she's on the board by swinging.

Thanks to some overlapping roles, we managed to squeeze quite a few threats into this deck which overlap well with