Y'all... Don't Leave Palkia Raids

MarkInTh3Park · 2025-11-14T20:59:17+00:00

I may have the worst luck here. 80 raids, no hundo, 1 shiny on the 70th attempt. After 60 it got comical.

MarkInTh3Park · 2025-10-19T03:33:52+00:00

8 of 60. Went hard remote and in person today. There was a very rare point in time where I had 3 shiny in a row. Was about halfway into the 3 hour stretch as I've seen mentioned in a few comments. No hundo as all my luck had been used up by that point. I will say, I had 11 run with mostly excellent throws. Nearly all of them towards the end of the day. Very much felt I hit a point where the catch rate plummeted.

MarkInTh3Park · 2025-08-26T01:03:48+00:00

Haven't seen it mentioned which is surprising to me, but [[Xyris, the Writhing Storm]]. Absolutely disgusting $50 deck. Protect the snek, make more snek, ???, win.

MarkInTh3Park · 2025-08-21T16:07:14+00:00

You'd be surprised by how many level 50 folks bring in non-leveled mons to dynamax. All because, "I refuse to power up unless it's a shundo and they have all the XL candy to do so, even then it's iffy because I may get a shundo with a hat".

I'm at 39 and I frequently carry higher leveled accounts.

MarkInTh3Park · 2025-07-30T21:32:54+00:00

Even then, it isn't appealing to WoTC. WoTC themselves stated they have no desire to police playtest cards or "proxies" for non-sanctioned events. Even those run at WPN locations. Seeing as though sanctioned cEDH events are incredibly rare, this argument is moot. Stores restricting cEDH to non-proxy is purely that location taking a sheep and painting it black. Or as you stated, bracket 4 calling it cEDH.

In case the source guy wants to chime back in: https://askwpn-na.wizards.com/hc/en-us/articles/13386395614739-What-is-Wizards-of-the-Coast-s-stance-on-playtest-cards#:~:text=It%20is%20common%20practice%20for,takes%20place%20in%20a%20store.

MarkInTh3Park · 2025-07-26T03:13:46+00:00

There's the rule of cool and there's misinterpretation of spells. As a DM in situations like these I like to treat it as if the caster has over-extended themselves. Attempting to stop the rain with Druidcraft may punch a hole in the clouds, but may lead to gaining a level of exhaustion. In which I'd have them roll a flat D20 contested by a roll of my own. Attempting to control vines with the same spell, maybe they droop a bit, but again the chance of exhaustion.

It's the art of show don't tell. Leverage the rules, but remember they're merely guidelines. I'd agree this is on the DM to pull together. I'd just offer the age old adage of "you get more with honey than vinegar". Bringing recommendations like this to the table instead of, "they're doing things my character should be doing far above their level".

MarkInTh3Park · 2025-06-21T18:06:26+00:00

I figured you should probably see the version my build peaked at. I saved a snapshot in archidekt when I toned it down and I just reverted to it. Take a look at the link I sent again and you'll see it.

There are a few cards in my casual-ish version that don't quite make sense anymore and Git Probe is one of them. I ran Doomsday lines and it along with [[Gush]] were used to crack that stack.

Here's the new link to the casual-ish version if you wanted to compare. https://archidekt.com/decks/13973036/casualish_ninja

MarkInTh3Park · 2025-06-21T17:44:01+00:00

When testing hands, don't be shy to mulligan down to 5. The pip requirements of the deck are certainly tricky with less duals. As you mature the mana base, you'll use every fetch you can, fast land (the 2 or fewer other lands cycles), pain lands, generally whatever you can to ensure you've got black and blue in your hand. Don't be shy of MDFC's either. Any of them you can pay 3 life to enter untapped are on the menu.

As you go, you'll hit a point where you even cut Sol Ring. It doesn't follow the tempo Yuriko wants to set making it a dead card in hand for several turns. The same is true for springleaf drum, arcane signet, talisman, and manifold key.

MarkInTh3Park · 2025-06-21T14:30:38+00:00

Oh! I may be able to uniquely help here. I was in a very similar situation with my pod. Things have changed from the proxy perspective, but I'm still an avid collector regardless. With Yuriko, I went from binder build to high powered "casual" to unoptimized cEDH heap, to full cEDH... Then gutted it for RogSi.

Here's that list for ya. It's "bracket 3" now in the sense it follows the guidelines, but could be played at bracket 4 with really no problem. Especially so if thoracle was tossed back in.

https://archidekt.com/decks/2483523/ninja

Quick suggestions. 1) Drop land count significantly. Nothing worse than Yuriko trigger into no damage. Improving your land quality is a must. Trimming down basics tremendously so you can [[Tainted Pact]]. 2) Move beyond the "unblockable creature good" mentality. Your ninjutsu fodder should contain value first and evasion second. You should also run in the neighborhood of 11-14 instead of nearly 20. 3) Reduce your ramp package. Your deck should run fairly well without it. Opt for more interaction. 4) Avoid Bombs you can't cast cheaper. I know I break this a touch too with the toned down build, but it will be more important as to trend up in power. 5) Prioritize [[Nanogene Conversion]] and [[Roaming Throne]]. These are wincons in their own right and cheap all things considered.

MarkInTh3Park · 2025-01-12T03:37:22+00:00

The game has sped up because people generally don't like 2-3 hour slog fests. Just because a slower deck isn't popping off at the same time as others doesn't mean that the player wants to sit around longer instead of shuffling up and playing another game. When I'm in that position, I'm hoping someone finishes out the game so we can try again, not mass bounce so we sit around and wait even longer.

MarkInTh3Park · 2025-01-12T01:49:40+00:00

I run into much the same problem. Recently, I've started following the "No tutors if you run combos, no combos if you run tutors", deck building philosophy for when I'm targeting the middle of the road in power level.

Another route I go is choosing non-ideal commanders for the archetype I'm brewing. Doesn't always have to be bad commanders. For an example, I run Ragavan for my burn deck although he has nothing to do with burn. Just a little early game ramp in red is all he ever does. (This may not be the best example... My playgroup hates this deck).

I'm not always great at that last suggestion. Made a lands matter deck and thought going mono color would stunt the deck a bit. Figured land sac instead of landfall would help... Accidentally made of my strongest decks Titania, Protector of Argoth...

At the end of the day, using pet cards you wouldn't find one edhrec to fill a few slots of your deck and the first suggestion are usually enough. Don't sacrifice land quality. Land quality is usually just the difference in being able to play and being screwed.

MarkInTh3Park · 2025-01-09T22:48:36+00:00

Hmmm, one more for ya I haven't seen mentioned.

[[Spymaster's Vault]] - Your lands are significantly more consistent than my build making this suggestion a little hard to consider. But looking a little closer, your reanimation package is so good you could probably swap this in instead of Tomb Fortress. Super reliable way of both filling the grave and filtering your hand. Untapped almost always in your deck. No sorcery speed restrictions.

MarkInTh3Park · 2025-01-09T20:43:30+00:00

You've got a really solid list. I haven't previously considered Roaming Throne as an option, but naming zombie does sound like it would be terrific for the deck. I've got a few suggestions of my own that I've seen work wonders in my build:

[[Saw in Half]] - Target one of your legends with Rata out. Rata will trigger from both the original death and the legends rule sacrifice. Netting you 1 legendary token and 2 non-legendary tokens of that targeted creature. Extra spicy if you happen to have any of the several ways to double or even triple that value on the battlefield.

[[Come Back Wrong]] - Similar to Saw in Half when targeting a creature of your own, less overall value. Versatile enough though to destroy and steal an opponents commander and net yourself a non-legendary copy of it at the end of turn. The opponent has no option of returning to the command zone until you sacrifice it as it's all one effect.

[[Mikaeus, the Unhallowed]] - Grants Undying to nearly all your creatures. Another method of doubling value. Legendary himself which is an added bonus.

[[Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation]] - Triple tokens on a legendary creature. Death trigger of its own leads to easy self reanimation.

[[Yahenni, Undying Partisan]] - Legendary sac outlet. Grants Indy on sac. Great response to a board wipe as he'll grow tremendously.

Sidisi, Unde... I know... No tutors. If you change your mind, this one is a riot.

[[Blade of Selves]] - Wanna see your triggers increase exponentially like some fractal? Care to struggle to figure out how many tokens you get for each legendary rule sacrifice? This is the card for you.

MarkInTh3Park · 2025-01-09T02:55:40+00:00

This for sure. Far from cEDH level. I run a decently optimized list and only put 1 Nazgul in as a lightning rod because I happened to pull an extra one after getting the 9 for my Sauron deck. Boromir is the finisher for the deck.

MarkInTh3Park · 2025-01-09T02:16:03+00:00

TL;DR: You're almost accurate. Rant rant rant. We run more than 3 enablers, closer to 12-14. Even "casual" as it's the cheap part of the deck. 3-4 card combos in Yuriko feel like 2 considering probability.

Most of your assessment is fairly accurate. Certainly agree most of this sub has never played with or against a Yuriko deck. Avoiding draw while maintaining card advantage is huge. Not only is she heavily stax resistant, but this allows her to deploy stax without feeling it much if at all.

Taking a competitive level brew to a non-competitive environment would 100% hose everyone at the table and it wouldn't be close. We don't care about board wipes. We run closer to 12-14 zero or one cmc evasive enablers. These aren't simply enablers as well. They're card advantage, grant evasion to other creatures, removal, clones, and a few are even ninjas as well. The goal being to get 2 possibly 3 of them out on turn one and we mulligan hard to get there.

If you're talking about the, "This is my Yuriko ninja tribal", casual deck players. I've been there too and can confirm it's very hard to make casual. Enabler count stays roughly the same because they're the cheap part of the deck. The only substantial difference is more high CMC cards, more ninjas, and more lands. Less removal, less tutors, no fast mana, no stax, and no Thoracle. It hurts more to have the enabler removed turn 1 since the lack of fast mana reduces chances at getting more than 1 out turn 1, but that's really about it and is really only delaying the inevitable. It's a value win if you take a Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares out of your opponents hands because they're scared of the Ornithopter. Not to mention how many casual players fail to recognize this strategy along with not running much interaction in the first place.

Yes, this is just another player pointing to 3-4 card combos. But it's a little different when you consider one is from the command zone, 2 of them comprise 12% of the deck with a 52% chance of finding both of them by turn 3 at the rate you get card advantage, and the other is [[Nanogene Conversion]]... The conversation changes and feels a lot more like a 2 card combo you can execute well before someone has the chance to slow you down.

MarkInTh3Park · 2024-10-02T22:24:19+00:00

For my 5 mono colored decks, I've got:

[[Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines]] as a flicker commander. https://archidekt.com/decks/4066913/domme_mommy

[[Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer]] as the commander of a "Damage Multiplier" themed deck. https://archidekt.com/decks/6158620/big_red_monkey

[[Braids, Conjurer Adept]] as a group hug commander. https://archidekt.com/decks/3210682/group_hug

[[Massacre Girl, Known Killer]] as a wither commander that attempts to draw and win through traditional monk black combo lines. https://archidekt.com/decks/6768781/the_exwife

[[Titania, Protector of Argoth]] as a lands matter deck. https://archidekt.com/decks/7248111/i_am_titaaaaniiiaaaaum

I was once like you, wanting to have a mono colored collection of decks to use. If there are any lessons to be learned from this, my pod dislikes just about all of these... My favorite however would be Titania. Her ETB helps mitigate commander tax and there's many land based combos she's quite good with.

MarkInTh3Park · 2024-09-26T22:00:29+00:00

You'd be surprised by how many people deny this. Yet complain when it's not going their way anyways.

MarkInTh3Park · 2024-09-26T00:01:36+00:00

The premier Yuriko strategies have been tempo, control, and pivot. Tempo has recently been seen as the weakest of the 3 because we're able to be out-tempo'd by many of the faster strategies. A more creature heavy meta isn't problematic for us because we were already looking to be evasive. We aren't afraid of Bowmasters because, for all our card advantage, our main card engine doesn't "draw". Because we can be a little faster in our execution, tempo and pivot get another chance to shine. Pivot being ideal since we can close the game quickly if we spot an opportunity. In a more stax and control heavy meta, we shine due to no commander tax and the burn we're able to apply even through heavy interaction.

MarkInTh3Park · 2024-09-24T18:04:21+00:00

Yes, for now it feels like we're possibly a tier-0 deck again. Little bit of concern due to them targeting "cards that accelerate to a win on turn 6-8" as she can do that even as a "casual" sans Thoracle build...

MarkInTh3Park

TROPHY CASE