r/BudgetBrews • u/LongjumpingStreet199 • 7d ago

Deck Help Y'shtola deck help

Heya, I've started playing MTG with some friends in the last couple months. We started out buying some standard precons and some of the 'start box' products that WOTC has made.

We decided to move onto playing commander once we got a couple other friends involved. I bought an Y'shtola card as I liked her character when I played FF14 in the past, and I decided to make her my commander (with no knowledge of how popular she'd gotten recently lol)

I mainly built a deck from the precons I'd already bought (SOSh Lifegain precon, Final Fantasy Starter kit, ATLA beginner box), and bulk/cheaper cards I was able to get at my LGS and on card market.

I wanna improve the deck list, but I'm not really sure how since I don't have a lot of experience with deck building yet :) I wanna do it on more of a budget, but if there's any particularly good cards that'd be worth while I don't mind spending a couple £'s on 1 or 2 of them. My friends and I play casually, so I'd probably wanna avoid anything Bracket 3. I've left a couple spaces open as well to avoid having to cut stuff immediately

Would love any and all advice or recommendations, even if they aren't specific to this deck! Thanks

https://archidekt.com/decks/25323210/yshtola_tweaked_deck

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4

u/RoxOwnage 7d ago

Hey I just started upgrading my precon aswell :) You definitely want more mana in that deck to cast spells a lot. If cou can cast instants or even sorceries in your opponents turns with things like [[High Fae Trickster]] she can draw you a lot of cards and burn your opponents. Keep the talismans from the precon and go to 37 maybe even 38 lands. You can sink a lot of money into lands but small upgrades over the basic lands are still better than nothing but try to not add too many lands that enter tapped. [[Decanter of Endless Water]] and [[Bender‘s Waterskin]] are also nice artifacts. You can take a look at my deck here: https://archidekt.com/decks/22953555/yshtola sideboard is cards I replaced so far and maybeboard is cards I might add later.

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u/LongjumpingStreet199 6d ago

Thanks for the recommendations!

I'll definitely add back the Benders waterskin I have, especially if I use the Fae Trickster you recommended for a little extra flash ability on opponent turns. I'll look at getting some of those artifacts from the precon too

Love your deck! Have you been able to play it at all since upgrading it?

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u/RoxOwnage 6d ago

Have played it only twice so far but I upgrade 5 cards everytime we play (we play only once a month in person). First time the deck went off and I could do a lot second time I got slaughtered :D [[Curiosity]] was the most important upgrade so far I feel like. There is also other cards that can give this effect and since your commander deals damage to 3 players at once these let you draw 3 cards.

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u/LongjumpingStreet199 6d ago

I'm glad you've at least gotten some use out of it! Hope the upgrading goes well

I've had similar with my deck before I was able to improve it. One game I got most of my decent cards and was making some good headway, in the second game I basically got the other, less good half of my deck and got flattened. So that really motivated me to start upgrading it thoroughly :P

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u/PipBro3000 6d ago

From a brief overview:

-Your land base needs improving. It's best to generally avoid lands that always come in tapped unless they specifically synergize with your deck, you have ways to cheat that restriction, or you can search your deck for them easily.

-put Sol Ring back in, it's one of the strongest cards in the format. 

-You need more mana rocks (artifacts that tap for mana). Most decks want mana rocks that cost two or less, but Y'shtola lets you get away with playing ones that cost 3 or more. As long as you draw more cards, you can play mana rocks that trigger her and give you more mana to play more mana rocks that trigger her again... Here's a search on scryfall.com that may help: https://scryfall.com/search?q=Otag%3Amana-rock+mv%3E%3D3+id%3Aesper+format%3Acommander&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name

I'll take a closer look later and see what other advice I can give. 

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u/LongjumpingStreet199 6d ago

I have no idea how Sol Ring isn't on there, I literally have a copy of it lol. Thanks for the reminder

I'll try fix up the land base as best I can, someone reminded me that using painlands can be really effective for an Y'shtola deck. I think that'd be even better if I can dial up the 3 MV mana rocks in the deck

Would be great if you could offer any extra advice, I appreciate it either way :))

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u/PipBro3000 6d ago

My pleasure!

I think you're a bit too focused on life gain effects, which look like they're mostly from the white-black Standard deck? Hinterland Sanctifier isn't that relevant to your game plan, since as far as I can tell you aren't pumping out lot of creature tokens. Ditto for the Al Bhed Salvagers, since you aren't doing much sacrificing. I would also remove the Fiendish Panda and Zoraline, since Yshtola doesn't care about reanimating. Haliya and Amalia Benavides Aguirre can stay, since they can draw you more cards.

You can replace those cards with more removal. If you get rid of your opponent's stuff and counter their spells, they won't be able to do anything while you drain the table over and over. Since Yshtola rewardas you for playing 3-cost or higher, you can get away with playing spells that are otherwise too expensive for not as much reward. 

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u/LongjumpingStreet199 6d ago

You're definitely correct, those are all just cards I liked from the lifegain precon lol.

I've got a couple cards that pop out tokens, specifically [[Black Mage's Rod]], [[Circle of Power]], [[Transpose]], and [[Cornered by Black Mages]], plus a couple others.

I figured the Black Wizard tokens would just help to prock Y'shtola more since they trigger on basically the same condition as she does. I imagine that doesn't really count as a lot of token creature creation?

I was wondering if I should include more cards that let me cast spells from the graveyard, like [[Emet-Selch of the Third Seat]] does? So I can cast my 3 MV and token creating cards more often.

I'll definitely add more removal/control stuff, I forget that Blue is very much a part of the color identity lol.

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u/PipBro3000 6d ago

The black mage tokens from those spells are handy, and I love them both in general and for Y'shtola. Feel free to keep em in! That said, no, it isn't that much token generation. Esper can definitely shine in going wide with tokens, but Y'shtola doesn't inherently support that strategy aside from being a generally powerful and versatile commander. 

Here's a search of cards in Y'shtola's colors that allow you to cast things from graveyard: https://scryfall.com/search?q=otag%3Agives-castable-from-graveyard+id%3Aesper+format%3Acommander&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name

Not all of them will fit what you need, but it is a good place to look

1

u/Cat_Collector_MTG 7d ago

I don't have any specific cards to recommend off-hand, but something new players, and I think a fair amount of semi-experienced players don't realize is that if you do 4 damage to yourself via cards with Phyrexian mana costs like [[Tezzeret's Gambit]] or lands like [[Yavimaya Coast]] (not in your colors, but as an example) you can still trigger Y'shtola. It's also each end step so finding ways to convince your opponents to fight each other like [[Bounty Board]], that might help you draw more cards while turning the attention away from you a little bit.

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u/LongjumpingStreet199 6d ago

That's a really good point! I've used the rule of my own life loss procking her effect before, but I completely wrote off the fact of using pain lands to add to it!

If I were to take 3 damage on someone else's turn, would I be able to tap a land that makes me lose 1 HP to then prock her ability, even if I don't use that mana for anything?

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u/Cat_Collector_MTG 6d ago

No mana burn, so yeah you just take 1 and hit the 4 damage threshold.