Fire and Ice: Yuma, Proud Protector

Yuma, Proud Protector | Art by Matt Stewart

Welcome once again to Fire and Ice, the data-driven series where I go over cards that are becoming more or less popular for different Commander decks and talk about why they may be gaining or losing popularity. I'm Julia, EDHREC's Duchess of Data, and I'm super excited to jump into today's article!

In this series, we draw conclusions from EDHREC's data about how certain commanders' decks have changed over time, give insight into how the format's players are thinking about new cards, and hopefully provide some tech for your favorite commander's list. To learn more about the math behind this series, check out this page! We've made a few changes to our methodology recently, and you can read all about them here.

We'll be focusing today's article on a Riveteer from New Capenna that traveled through the Omenpaths to Thunder Junction to escape his debt. Those of you steeped in Magic lore will recognize that I'm talking about Yuma, Proud Protector!

Yuma, Proud Protector

Yuma decks want to fill their graveyard with lands to slam their commander onto the board early. Then, they can use their commander's abilities to draw tons of cards and fill the board with 4/2 Plant Warrior creature tokens. It's a pretty straightforward land-focused game plan, but it's focused more on a specific type of land than a deck led by Titania, Protector of Argoth might be.

Among Yuma's most popular cards are Dune Chanter (in 96% of lists), Hazezon, Shaper of Sand (in 93% of lists), and Ramunap Excavator (in 88% of lists). Yuma led the Desert Bloom precon, which explains why some cards have extremely high inclusion rates in EDHREC's data.

What's Fiery for Yuma Decks?

Midnight Tilling - Fire Score of 6.23

This spell is another Mulch effect, which -based graveyard decks love. It's not quite as powerful as Malevolent Rumble, which provides us with an Eldrazi Spawn token, but Midnight Tilling can be cast at instant speed. That lets us hold up mana for interaction and see a few extra cards if we decide we don't need to remove any threats. This spell will likely see play in many self-mill decks, as the lack of timing restriction is quite valuable.

Cycle of Renewal - Fire Score of 3.57

This is another copy of Roiling Regrowth, a great three-mana ramp spell that puts us ahead by one mana and dumps a land into the bin. It's better than Harrow, because we sacrifice the land as part of the spell's effect (rather than as part of its cost). That makes us less likely to get blown out and lose a land if our ramp spell gets countered. More versions of this effect will always be welcome in land strategies!

Elemental Teachings - Fire Score of 2.81

This Lesson is a modern take on Realms Uncharted. For more than Realms, Elemental Teachings lets us put the lands we find onto the battlefield tapped (instead of putting them into our hand). While many of the Deserts that we've got in our 99 are of middling power level, cards like Sandstorm Verge, Dunes of the Dead, and even Scavenger Grounds can be nice targets for this spell. We can also grab any lands that our opponents put into our graveyard quite easily by making use of Crucible of Worlds-style effects.

Teferi's Protection - Fire Score of 2.26

We'll usually aim to end the game through combat damage with our 4/2 creature tokens. Because tokens cease to exist upon leaving the battlefield, it's imperative that we keep them on the battlefield as long as possible. Teferi's Protection is the best spell in all of Commander for board protection, making it a natural fit for a deck that cares so deeply about its fragile Plant Warriors

Lotus Field - Fire Score of 2.12

This land lets us dump other lands into our graveyard, making our commander cheaper and enabling our Turntimber Sowers, Sand Scouts, and Rumbleweeds to operate at maximum power. There's also some interesting combos for Lotus Field, but we're not focused on those play patterns in this article.

Six - Fire Score of 2.15

With all the cards we'll be dumping into the 'yard, we're sure to have a few valuable nonland permanents to recast from there. Six also pulls lands out of the bin, which is useful alongside cards that care about lands entering and leaving our graveyard. This three-drop is a fantastic value piece for most any deck, we just happen to have exactly the right circumstances to take full advantage of both of its powerful abilities.

Tectonic Split - Fire Score of 2.11

This enchantment is exactly as busted as it seems. Assuming that we've got six lands on the battlefield when we cast it, Tectonic Split lets us untap with nine mana on our next turn. We only get more value with more lands on the board. It's certainly a gamble to sacrifice half of our lands just for a boost in mana production, but this card has hexproof to increase the likelihood that it sticks around. Tectonic Split also dumps a few lands into the graveyard on ETB, which fits perfectly into our game plan.

What's Icy for Yuma Decks?

Wayward Swordtooth - Ice Score of -2.94

Sure, the ability to play an extra land on each of our turns is powerful, but we're much more focused on looping lands between our hand, battlefield, library, and graveyard than we are on dumping lands from our hand onto the field. This Dinosaur is extremely good, it's just meant for a slightly different sort of lands deck.

Wrenn and Six - Ice Score of -2.82

While Wrenn and Six is a notoriously strong planeswalker, but planeswalkers are quite vulnerable in Commander due to the fact that all three of our opponents are able to attack and kill them. Yuma's Naya () color identity provides us with plenty of ways to bring back lands from the graveyard, making this 'walker a relatively easy cut.

Omnath, Locus of Rage - Ice Score of -2.57

is a lot to pay for any effect, even one as powerful as Omnath's. While we can get up to seven mana quite easily, we'll often want to use that mana to put extra lands into our graveyard. That makes Tectonic Split a better top-end threat than Omnath, given the way that Yuma decks are typically constructed.

Ancient Greenwarden - Ice Score of -2.48

Much like Omnath, this Elemental is seeing a drop in play rate because of its mana cost. There's multiple cheaper ways to return lands from the graveyard to the battlefield (Ramunap Excavator, for one), and even a few ways to return lands en masse (like Aftermath Analyst). While doubling our Landfall triggers is nice, we'd rather play a cheaper version of this effect.

Undergrowth Recon - Ice Score of -2.40

We are certainly in the business of returning Deserts from our graveyard to the battlefield (for later sacrifice), but this enchantment is a very slow value engine. It only returns one land per turn, and it forces it to enter the battlefield tapped. We also need to wait a full turn to get any benefit from our investment. With cards like Icetill Explorer and Sandman, Shifting Scoundrel rising to Commander stardom, it becomes harder to justify running Undergrowth Recon.

Generous Gift - Ice Score of -2.20

While the universality of this removal spell is nice, it does cost a whopping three mana. It may be better to play spells that remove multiple threats (Unexplained Absence), remove opposing creatures for less mana (Path to Exile), or have other utility (Boros Charm).

What's in a Yuma, Proud Protector Deck?

Here's a Yuma deck with all of his Fiery cards and none of his Icy cards:

Conclusion

While Outlaws of Thunder Junction was far from the most polished Magic set we've ever seen, it did iterate on some interesting themes. Plot was a cool mechanic, Mercenary tokens are one of the more interesting game pieces that exist, and the grouping of multiple creature types into the "outlaw" pool was neat.

We even saw a few individually powerful cards, like Slickshot Show-Off and Pest Control!

Did you enjoy our trip to the Old West? Let me know in the comments below, and I'll be back next week for another edition of Fire and Ice!