My Girlfriend Won't Stop Turning Into the Moon: A Princess Yue Deck Tech

Princess Yue | Art by Masateru Ikeda

Hey everybody, welcome back to another deck tech. I'm newly minted #MTGAmbassador Command Zoe, and today I want to show you my favorite new commander from the Avatar: The Last Airbender set: Princess Yue!

I'm talking about the pre-mooned version, not the post-moon version depicted in Yue, the Moon Spirit. This set has several variants of the same character, so it's important to be specific when referencing legendary creatures in particular. 

What Does Princess Yue Do?

On its face, Princess Yue seems like a rather bland commander. It taps to scry 2, it’s got a mediocre 3/2 stat line, and when it dies it comes back as a land that can tap for colorless. It's important to note that it retains the rest of the card’s inherent qualities like types, oracle text, and mana value. Set-mechanic wise, it’s meant to be used with earthbending to keep it around as a creature indefinitely. However, there are lots of ways to abuse this returning to the field as a land, but for the purposes of this deck the key interaction is with Clone effects.

Yue is an interesting commander because there aren't really any comparable effects out there. She's the first commander that returns to the battlefield on death that they've printed. The only card that is remotely close is also a brand new card, Fang, Roku's Companion.

Wake up, honey! A new type of commander just dropped.

This is a combo deck that works by taking advantage of the interaction between Princess Yue and these Clone effects. Being mono-blue, it’s going to have a lot of card draw, several ways of protecting itself with counterspells and bounce effects, and then ways of getting to the combo more quickly, like tutors.

There are also, of course, the tools every deck needs to succeed, like lands and ramp.

Key Cards for Princess Yue

There are a few different combos in the deck that instant win the game unless interacted with. The key interaction is between Princess Yue, a Clone effect, and Wormfang Newt or Wormfang Turtle. Here's how it works:

1. Have Princess Yue and Wormfang Newt or Wormfang Turtle on the battlefield.
2. Play Clone, or a similar creature, have it enter as a copy of Princess Yue.
3. Either Princess Yue or her clone have to die to the legend rule. Choose the clone. When it dies, it will trigger the Yue dies ability, returning to the battlefield as Moon, a noncreature land, but with Clone's copy ability.
4. This time have the Clone enter as copy of Wormfang. This card will now be a noncreature land copy of Wormfang.
5. Wormfang has an enters trigger to exile a land you control. Since it's a land, the clone/wormfang can target itself.
6. It exiles itself, which triggers its second ability, returning itself.
7. When it comes back from exile, it's once again just a Clone. You can now repeat this all as a loop.

I like turtles.

There are several ways to take advantage of this. Any cards that have a triggered ability for either a creature or a land entering the battlefield will work. Altar of the Brood, Ruin Crab, and Sage's Row Denizen will all mill your opponents out entirely. Genesis Chamber can make infinite 1/1 Myr tokens which can be used to any number of sacrifice outlets, or just attack with them.

A Starfield Vocalist will make infinite mana because the Wormfang will trigger twice, and the land you choose comes back untapped. You can abuse this effect with a Blue Sun's Zenith to draw your whole deck with the first cast then kill each opponent with the subsequent recasts.

Ruin Crab in a fake mustache.

Cards that grant flash, like Vedalken Orrery, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, and Leyline of Anticipation, are very good because they let you attempt to combo off at your opponents' end steps if necessary, or in response to them tapping out. It adds some much needed flexibility to the deck's timing. Needing three separate creature pieces and then something else on top is already asking a lot.

How Does This Princess Yue Commander Deck Win?

The main way this Princess Yue deck wins is by assembling its combo. It will usually mill all of its opponents out, then break the combo by having the Clone stop reentering, ending the turn, and watching as each opponent decks out in succession. However there are some ways of generating infinite mana in the combo that can win the game on the spot without needing to pass the turn.

Goblin Cannon: Boom.
Goblin Canon: Squee is hot.

It can also use infinitely made tokens to attack for the win, or sac them all into one of several Altars to do an alternate mill strategy.

The usual suspects.

Princess Yue Commander Deck List

Final Thoughts on the Moon Bounce

I playtested this deck in Brackets 2 through 4, and in my humble opinion, I believe it lands squarely in the Bracket 3 space. It can be strong; in fact I did not lose any games I played with it. But it's susceptible to interaction.

The strength it currently has is that no one really knows how the combo works or what pieces to interact with. If you like combo decks and being the center of attention, you will love this deck. It's a weird combo, and it let's you say, "My girlfriend turned into the moon. That's rough buddy," to yourself over and over again to what I assume will be uproarious laughter. I give you permission to use the joke.

Have a happy holiday season, and please Moon Bounce responsibly!