#yidris

Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder

There are so many ways to build Yidris; Voltron, Spell-Slinging etc. I naturally wanted to go the mill route. I know that the best mill colors are indisputably blue and black, but the addition of red gives us access to wheel effects and green gives us access to ramp and enchantment removal so I thought why not go for a four color mill deck instead. I have tested and it actually works better than I expected it to. Yidris hit's pretty hard too and allows you to potentially chain cast multiple mill and wheel effects with his cascade ability. 

First, Ramp 

The presence of green makes ramping easy. We could use elves such as Priest of Titania, Gyre Sage and Elvish Archdruid. Enchantments such as Kruphix, God of Horizons, Burgeoning and Exploration also make ramping really easy. Cryptolith Rite and Paradox Engine also go really well together to really make spells pay for themselves. Also, if I’ve learned anything there’s always one (usually me) who falls for the Tempt with Discovery trick too allowing you to get way more ahead. 

Utter Chaos 

Hopefully no one is keeping their hands beyond a certain point, due to the wheeling. Effects such as Jace’s Archivist, Windfall, Wheel of Fate, Teferi’s Puzzle Box and Reforge the Soul will all make certain that your opponents can’t make long term strategies. especially if you can chain cast multiple using Yidris’s ability. This constant drawing and discarding of cards will hopefully be useful to us later. 

Drawing and Discarding 

Of course we’re going to be taking advantage of these wheel effects with creatures like Nekusar the Mindrazer, Psychosis Crawler and Fate Unraveler. Megrim, Liliana’s Caress, Nath of the Gilt Leaf and Waste Not can be used to take advantage of them discarding too. These effects combined with the milling can potentially whittle down their libraries at a significant rate. The Locust God could also be really useful in this deck to take even more advantage of drawing.

That’s a nice hand you’ve got there... 

If the incremental damage taken from drawing isn’t enough to kill them. I’m hoping that the number of cards in their hand will. Effects like that of Sudden Impact, Fevered Visions and Ebony Owl Netsuke as well as Dreamborn Muse making them mill equal to the number of cards in their hand will hopefully help to finish them off. 

And Finally...  

It might be a year too late but cascade can still trigger from a ogre with a love of music! With just a touch, he’ll bring something alive.

The Many Forms of Yidris, Maelstrom Wanderer 

Out of the commander 2016 four color commanders, Yidris is probably the most interesting allowing for several different strategies. I find that the other four encourage a certain strategy and makes it very hard to deviate from that strategy. With Yidris however, It’s quite easy to come up with a pretty good list for a voltron deck, a deck made up largely of creatures and a spell-slinging deck. Yidris is a 5/4 for 4 mana with Trample, that bestows cascade to spells cast from your hand if he deals combat damage that turn. 

Creature Heavy decks 

This deck is mostly green and super easy to build, just take an old Kruphix, God of Horizons deck (minus the prophet mind you, which really hurts my Kruphix deck), that probably contains creatures like Craterhoof Behemoth, Trygon Predator, Progenitor Mimic and Avenger of Zendikar and add some of the add some mana dorks like Somberwald Sage, Bloom Tender, Gyre Sage and Birds of Paradise. Then just add some cool red and/or black spells like Stalking Vengeance, Inferno Titan, Warstorm Surge and Master of Cruelties. 

Spell-slinging Decks 

This deck will be mostly Red and Blue. Though this deck will have far fewer creatures, it will contain several of the same mana dorks. Though this deck will contain creatures such as Mirrorwing Dragon, Zada, Hedron Grinder, Mercurial Geists and Nivix Cyclops along with any creature that gains a bonus when instant and sorcery spells are cast. Most of the spells in this deck will be really cheap and will hopefully allow you to draw cards. These will include spells like Uncaged Fury, Distortion Strike, Giant Growth and Butcher’s Glee. Paradox Engine and Cryptolith Rite make a really good combination too allowing you to tap your creatures to produce the mana needed to cast these spells. Aetherflux Reservoir is also a good choice for this deck for life gain and a potential win condition.

Voltron Decks 

This is much like my idea for the spell-slinging deck only with more permanent methods of “powering-up” the commander and other creatures perhaps. I thought maybe auras such as Rancor, Claws of Valakut, Aqueous Form and Auramancer’s Guise. Or Equipment such as the Sword of Feast and Famine, Lashwrithe, Nim Deathmantle and Whispersilk Cloak, or a combination of both. Decimator of the Provinces and Craterhoof Behemoth are both good finishers in such a deck.

Extra Turn Decks (Please, No)

This is pretty self explanatory and not something I advocate. Spells such as Temporal Extortion, Time Stretch, Time Warp and Temporal Mastery are all common choices for such a deck and Yidris’s Cascade ability just makes it easier to run into them. I wouldn’t recommend doing too much of this or the table will quickly turn against you.  

And Finally...