Y'shtola, Night's Blessed Commander Deck Tech

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed | Art By: Magali Villeneuve

I have never played any Final Fantasy game. Yes, you read that right, I have never played any Final Fantasy game, unless you count the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Nevertheless, the upcoming Final Fantasy Magic set has some incredibly unique and fabulous cards. One card that I vibed with upon first seeing it was Y'shtola, Night's Blessed.

Welcome to the latest instalment of Tech The Deck, featuring a deck reminiscent of playing a video game on hard mode.

New Game +

For some reason, I like three-mana value (MV) cards way too much; my draft decks look like upside-down castles. So when I saw an Esper colored (white, blue, and black) commander that gets value off of casting a three MV spell, I was immediately interested. But when I started putting this deck together, something changed within me. Something deep inside, a primordial urge screamed out. It yelled at me, saying, "ONLY THREE TYPES!" I answered the call. This deck, outside of the lands and the commander, only runs three card types: sorceries, instants, and enchantments.

Why would I do this? Why would I not run Sol Ring or Arcane Signet? What prevented me from putting a planeswalker or a battle on my list? The deck just started me in this direction. I moved from hard control, to playing around with cloning the commander as much as possible, to playing a deck based around enchantments and cards like Donate and Illusions of Grandeur. But in the end, I decided that three card types were the way to go. So, enough pontificating, let's get to the cards.

End Credits

We'll start at the end of the game's first run with our plans to beat the final boss. The first way we play to win the game is to live long enough to cast Approach of the Second Sun. The life gain and card draw from our commander should help us both stave off death and dig to get the all-important second cast of Approach. This might not be the most exciting way to win the game, but when playing with this restriction, sometimes we use the busted items that the game gives us to balance the scales.

My preferred way to win is a bit more interesting.

Both of these enchantments serve double duty in the deck. First, they keep us alive, possibly the most significant challenge with a deck that does nothing until turn three. The second is that they have a built-in condition that can cause us to lose the game. This comes in very handy when you combine it with two other cards.

Fractured Identity allows us to give a copy of Nine Lives or Lich's Mastery to the rest of the table. The Patrician's Scorn allows us to, at instant speed, blow them up, forcing the rest of the table to lose the game with our lose-the-game trigger on the stack. This is a combo I've been looking to cram into a deck, and I was glad that Y'shtola might be the commander to allow me to do it.

Sorcerthrees

Outside of our Fractured Identity and Approach of the Second Sun, three other sorceries highlight the deck quite nicely.

Risky Shortcut is one of my favorite cards from Aetherdrift, and it allows us to trigger both of Y'shtola's abilities with one single card. The Battle of Bywater is a cheap Wrath effect that might not clear everything off the board. It will eliminate the most threatening things from our opponents, while allowing our two-power commander to stick around. Toxic Deluge is one of the best black mass removal spells ever made and fits perfectly with this deck - especially if we pay four or more life, we can draw a card from our commander's effect.

Three Scoops of Instant Speed

Counter Magic

This deck might feature some of the least played seen instants in the format. But believe me when I say they're some of my favorite cards ever. They're full of pips and full of potential.

Perplex might be the secret best card in the entire deck. While I'm not just playing cards that cost three MV, I am playing 31, so there's 30 other cards that I can tutor with the transmute ability.

Render Silent isn't the most efficient counterspell out there, but it shuts down an entire player's turn, no matter what spell they decide to start with. This will often make at least one player at the table your enemy, so don't use this spell unless you're sure it's worth it.

Finally, Undermine is the darker side of another card in the deck, Absorb. Countering a spell and giving us another card that can fulfill both aspects of our commander's triggered abilities is music to my ears.

You Are Not Hitting Me

Sometimes permanents can't be countered. Most often, it's because they are already on the board. Our opponents may swing their permanents in our direction when they find their way onto the board. When this happens, we need to make them pay. Most players are well aware of the card Teferi's Protection, and while it is in the deck, it's the least exciting of the anti-combat instants we have.

Hellish Rebuke is not only one of the most fun spells from Dungeons and Dragons, it can be a total blowout to the player that attacks you. We'll take some damage, but forcing the player who did that damage to lose all those creatures and two life for each creature will often be worth it.

Inkshield is possibly the best Fog ever made, as it solves the biggest issue with that card: winning the game after you cast Fog. The best part about Inkshield is when an opponent gets too confident and goes for overkill, allowing you to get even more inklings to win the game.

Finally, Settle the Wreckage looks like it's all downside because it ramps your opponent, but that's hardly ever the case. Players are greedy and will never run enough basics, and if it means you get to live another turn, the trade-off of giving them basics will always be worth it.

They Don't Make 'Em Like This Anymore

I don't have 31 enchantments in this deck, but the ones I do have are possibly more relevant than anything else. Outside of Nine Lives and Lich's Mastery being win conditions, we have some interesting "not lose" conditions at our disposal.

A card I just learned existed is Breathstealer's Crypt. One of the most lopsided effects we could ask for is a card at our fingertips. Sure, our opponents will know all the cards we draw, but the trade-off is that we'll learn all the cards they draw and never take damage or discard. It might not hit every time, but against some opponents, this card will be backbreaking.

Dream Tides is an old favorite of mine from when I moonlighted as a Stax player. Both punishing to creature decks of all colors, but especially to those big green baddies that love to find themselves across the table.

Mist of Stagnation can hurt us just as much or possibly worse than anyone else at the table, but this deck operates with a slight vibe of "high risk, high reward."

One, Two, Free Spells

When your deck doesn't start playing the game until turn three, you need some cards that can break serve against the rest of the table. That's where free spells come in. Our deck runs the classic free counter magic suite of cards.

Black also gives us access to a triple threat of free removal spells.

Finally, some cards allow us to refund their mana cost when they resolve, making them essentially free.

People say cheaters never win, but those people have never cast a Frantic Search with lands like Dimir Aqueduct in play.

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed Deck List

Here's the final deck list:

Wrap Up on Y'shtola

The more that I think about Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, the more I like it. While it's not as flashy as some of the cards released recently, there are a lot of ways you could build the deck. Many of them involve being much less thematic than I am, but all of them are interesting. Hopefully everyone is pumped about the collaboration with Final Fantasy, and if Y'shtola is your favorite character, I hope this card did them justice.

If you liked this deck or want to see more content related to Final Fantasy, keep a lookout here on EDHREC for all the great content from the fantastic team of writers, or bookmark our Final Fantasy deck tech collection. As always, I'm Nick, and you can find me at all the internet places where I've laid claim to nicnax96 as a username. I hope to see your version of this very cool Cat Warlock at a table one day.