Yidris || Frogo Party (aka 4c Gitrog) (EDH / Commander) [Révision 67]

REWORK: (08.05.2020)
So here we go again...
Once again I decided to update/rework my Yidris List.

In the passed few month my playgroup really became tired of me playing Gitrog Dredge Combo and Yidris Storm.
The reason they dislike the Gitrog deck is because it can win so quickly and since, with the exception of one player they lean more
towards casual decks, they couldn't really keep up.
Yidris Storm fell into disgrace because my turns took AGES, since it is a more traditional Storm build and I hardly went for the built
in Consulation line. Which in turn led to really really really long turns. Don't get me wrong it is hell of a lot of fun to play but upsetting
everyone in your playgroup takes quite a lot of fun away.
As a result I hardly play the decks anymore which is quity sad for me because I enjoy playing them a lot. So I decided to try something
to revive them. I decided to build 4 color Gitrog.

This deck aims to combine Yidris Storm and Gitrog Dredge.
The basic game plan is to use Yidris's cascade for card advantage and to ramp quickly, similar to like the deck worked in one of it's
first iterations. Yidris can also be useful to find wheel effects to fill up your graveyard a little. Cards you want there are obviously
dredge cards and ideally Dakmor Salvage. In case The Gitrog Monster is milled away, thera are some "reanimator" cards and I plan
to add more in the future, probably adding Muldrotha, the Gravetide.
The Gitrog part of the deck works quite similar to a classic Gitrog 4 horseman Dredge Combo. The goal is to find The Gitrog Monster,
Dakmor Salvage, a discard outlet like Putrid Imp and a shuffle effect like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. With that setup you can effectively
draw youre entire deck. Normaly Gitrog Dredge now starts looping spells like Dark Ritual to generate infinit mana and than finish off
your opponents with a big Torment of Hailfire or by looping Praetor's Grasp. 4c Gitrog could technically still do this but since it has
blue in it's color identity it can simply finish the game with a Thassa's Oracle. Having blue and red in our color identity really brings
a lot to a Gitrog deck. Through blue we have some fantastic control and card advantage elements while red gives us some great
value cards like Dockside Extortionist, Underworld Breach, Fire Covenent and if i ever have the money for it Wheel of Fortune.

For now I haven't tested the deck and I still miss some of the Cards in the Maybe and Sideboard which I like to add to the deck,
but I am really looking forward to playing it.

And as always feel free to make suggestions ;-)

UPDATE: (04.02.2020)
I switched some more cards with the goal of letting the deck run more smoothly on it's own.
Contrary to revision 46 the deck is now much more reactive! It will miss some cascade triggers but overall it is much more consistent.
Thassa's Oracle and Demonic Consultation were really good additions. The deck now no longer relies so heavily on Yidris to grind out
a win, although Yidris still is the main win con.
The deck functions quite well on a "traditional" storm deck using Yidris's cascade ability and finishing with Mind's Desire / Aetherflux Reservoir
or putting the "faster" storm combo into play. These combo beeing Aetherflux Reservoir, Bolas's Citadel and Sensei's Divining Top, which also
has the benefit of drawing as many cards as we want!
If our plan is disrupted the backup plan is Demonic Consultation, Thassa's Oracle or Doomsday.

The "Opus Thief" type cards (Notion Thief + various wheel typ effects) should provide some extra ability to outvalue our opponents or
find win cons, but I haven't really tested them.

As always feel free to make suggestions :-)

BIG UPDATE: (28.01.2020)
So I have been playing the deck for quite some time now and though it worked very well, I decided to rework/rebuild it.
If you want to see the original deck, that works like in the description below, check out revision 40!

First of all I want to start out with a little review of the old deck. Utilizing Yidris's Cascade mechanic to grind for value works
really well. You outvalue your opponents easily. The extra combat stepps and the occasional double strike helped a lot!
The deck was a lot of fun to pilot but it was also a pain to play against. Sometimes my playgroup started to get bored because
my turns took up to 10 minutes. This often lead to me becoming the main target which the deck could not quite handle.
Boardwhipes hurt you really really bad. Usually I could rebuild quite fast but the lack of responsiveness was hard to make up for.
Initially I decided against counterspells becaus I didn't want to waste any cascade triggers, but it quickly became clear that rebuilding
fast doesn't make up for a Counterspell. I will include some counterspells in future updates!
Contrary to my expectations the mana base is performing quite well. In fact it performed so well, that I use battle and check lands
in almost every "stronger" deck I build. ("stronger" meaning with a little less restrictions on budget and working more towards the current meta)

So what did I change about the deck?
Basically I excluded the extra combat steps sub theme and added a Doomsday pile and a Demonic Consultation Thassa's Oracle combo.
I also added a few wheel effects, because I tend to run out of cards in my hand.

Why these changes?
The original deck's primary wincon is, taking extra combat steps and killing your opponents with commander damage or if you get lucky
with Aggravated Assault and Savage Ventmaw or Hellkite Charger and Bear Umbra/Nature's Will. This is not what I want the deck
to do anymore! I want to win with strom or a Doomsday pile, since I discarded my Kess strom deck.
Although I have to mention, that I occasionally won with Aetherflux Reservoir or Mind's Desire, and these where by far my most favorite
games with this deck. Playing 10 minutes and more on your own and not getting anything dangerous out, is extremely unsatisfying.
Also with the new Theros cards like Thassa's Oracle and Underworld Breach the kind of deck I want to play with this commander
is quite easily build. Thassa's Oracle fits perfectly into a Doomsday pile and has a great backup plan with Demonic Consultation.
Underworld Breach is a fantastic card in general, becaus it lets you replace Yawgmoth's Will, which is still a little to expensive for me.
Another reason for the changes is just my general taste in playing magic. I love playing combo decks and I have build some quite
strong decks since i first build Yidris. I feel like this, beeing one of my first and favorite decks it deserves a spot within the stronger
decks I've built. Furthermore the initial version of my Yidris deck is becoming to slow for my playgroup. I often go up against a
Kaalia of the Vast deck, that usually takes out the first player by turn 5 to 7, a Ghave, Guru of Spores combo deck that can win by
turn 4 to 6 and Urza, Lord High Artificer control deck that takes quite some time to win, but has such strong control elements that
I just can't keep up with.

Future changes?
Currently the deck is in a tough spot. It is far from finished. I will include counterspells in future updates, because not having those
hurts the deck more, than wasting a few cascade triggers. I think the Demonic Consultation backup plan will help the deck a lot,
because it no longer depends on it's commander to actually win the game.
In general I plan to rework the deck to be much more focused on a Doomsday/Storm win or simply finding Demonic Consultation
and Thassa's Oracle. The list i want to run in the future will look something like this: https://deckstats.net/decks/115335/1533882-yidris-doomsday-storm/de
I also plan to include Bolas's Citadel in the list because it has a very nice interaction with Sensei's Divining Top and can win you the
game if paired with Aetherflux Reservoir.

Feel free to make suggestions :-)

CREATED: (18.08.2019)
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder EDH/Commander Deck. The main goal of the deck is to simply outvalue your opponents.
The best way to do this is to give Yidris an additional combat phase or double strike in order to trigger his ability additional times.
After this you can get multiple cascade triggers for a single spell.

The mana curve is constructed in a way that lets you control and predict the outcome of your cascade triggers.
For example when you play a CMC 1 spell, you will cascade into a mana rock or into card draw.

If you play a CMC 2 spell you eighter hit one of the above mentioned mana rocks or card draw / mana dorks and sometimes
it will lead to a recursive spell such as Noxious Revival. Note that it can also result in a Dark Ritual and a Mystical Tutor.

Should you cast ah CMC 3 spell and hit non of the above, you most likely end up with a ramp spell or mana fixing and somtimes
you get to cast a Lim-Dûl's Vault. Arguably this is one of the most powerfull cards in the deck, because it lets you control the top of your
library and thus your cascade triggers. Sensei's Divinig Top could also come in very handy, when it comes to top deck control.
Also in the CMC 2 section are cards like Strionic Resonator and Lightning Greaves, wich on the one hand protects Yidris by giving
him shroud and on the other hand provide a way to get more cascade triggers, by copying his triggered ability once it's on the stack.

The CMC 3 section of the deck, which could be cascaded into by playing a CMC 4 spell, is a little wider spread than the CMC 0, 1 and 2.
This section offers a variety of recursion and board control, protection, mana fixing, extra combat steps, top deck control and ways to
make Yidris unblockable or give him double strike. You also finde straight up card advantage here in form of Necropotence, which lets you
refill your entire hand.

In the CMC 4 section you find ways to continue cascading by untaping your lands or by simply cascading into something like Bloodbraid Elf.
Recursion, value cards, a tutor and even ramp can all be found here.
I also added an Aetherflux Reservoir here. It is a little bit of a weird card in a non-storm focused build but since you will be casting a ton
of spells anyway it can provide you with an alternative win condition. At the very least it will gain you some life which could come in handy
if you are playing against beatdown decks, like i have to in my playgroup.
Also I'm a little in love with the card, because I play a Kess Storm deck as well ;-)

CMC sections 5 to 8 try to win you the game. Here it's all about value and putting threats on the board.
Balrefire Dragon is basically a board wipe on a stick if it connects with an opponent, Etali, Primal Storm can cheat you cards
into play Consuming Aberration can turn into a horrifying beater since you will be casting lots of spells, while also picking apart
your opponents answers. Hellkite Charger in combination with Bear Umbra or Nature's Will is a straight up win con, if left unchecked
and at this point generating infinit combat phases is the most straight forward and probably the most consitent win condition in the deck.

At the moment there aren't any crazy win conditions in the deck, like Doomsday and Laboratory Maniac. To fit them properly
you will have to add cards like Gush, Night's Whisper, Preordain, Gitaxian Probe etcetera to make them work consistently.
Also a Yawgmoth's Will and a Lion's Eye Diamond would not hurt and to protect everything a Force of Will or Pact of Negation.
These are all fantastic cards but seem a little to much of a change to what the deck ist trying to do, for me to comfortably fit them.
And since I try to keep everything kind of budget, most of them are off the table. Maybe I'll add them in a future version or simply build
a new one where those cards play a key role.

I also think about adding some counterspells to provide some additional protection to my board and disrupt my opponents.
I have to playtest this more before adding them. While cascading into a Counterspell could be an answer to a threat, most of the time
it will just result in a wasted cascade trigger, since the deck tries to generate value through those triggers.
Maybe Counterbalance is a good alternative here, since there is some top deck control in the deck.

Wheel effects would also be a nice additon to the deck, considering they can easily refill your hand, mess with your opponents plans
and keep you cascading. Windfall, Wheel of Fate and Magus of the Wheel would be my go to wheel effects, because of budgeth reasons.
Especially Wheel of Fate coulde be very a very nice additon if you cascade into it, but at the same time in some situations you rather
hang on to your current hand and as a result have to let the cascade trigger go to waste, which I actively tried to prevent.

Cards like Burgeoning or Mystic Remora could also be very good additions to the deck. The only reason i did not include them in this
version is, they don't provide immediate value should you cascade into them. They can however set you up for really
explosive turns, so maybe the are just to good to miss.

Rishkar's Expertise could easily switch places with Bring to Light. They sort of do the same thing if you tutor for a Bloodbraid Elf with
Bring to Light, exept Rishkar's Expertise draws you cards. The only reason I didn't include it yet, is becaus of the lower CMC cost of
Bring to Light, which lets me thin out CMC sections 0-4 before i drop high CMC spells. But i will definitely try out both cards.

In terms of recursion Regrowth an Past in Flames could really help the deck. If i ever feel the need to add more recursion options
I will put these two in the deck. Yawgmoth's Will would of course be the better option but it's a little too expensive for me.

The mana base is probably the most obvious issue with the deck. I tried to make it as consistent with the cards I already had
and really tried to keep it as budget as possible. I know there is a lot of room for improvements within the mana base.
But at this point I simply don't have the money for a full set of fetch- and shock-lands not to mention the original duals. (I got lucky and got the Overgrown Tomb in a draft)
As for the other more expensive lands, I already had them in my collection because i used to play a Legacy Dredge deck. (ofcourse LED-less)
I tried to compensate the lack of untapped dual lands by adding ramp spells that allow me to search for Forest, Island, Mountain
or Swamp in particular. By doing so I can play cycling duals and battle lands and sometimes bring the latter into play untaped
due to ramp like Nature's Lore and Skyshroud Claim. Maybe Harrow and Crop Rotation could be good additions too.
If you have any improvements to the mana base, i would be thrilled to here them!

Please feel free to comment and make suggestions to the deck! :-)