Repay In Kind #5- YouGotFranked's VIVA LA YEVA

And suddenly, Green Aliens.

Well, not exactly what I was going for.

This is however, the sort of instantaneous effect that happens if you ever happen to play an iteration of YouGotFranked's "Viva La Yeva!" EDH deck.

Yeva's been a Legend that I really liked since they took away the Titan Power in the Core Sets and replaced them with nice midrange legends. In fact, it was my favorite of the five.

As a supporter Commander, Yeva is awesome. She provides a loosely based version of "green haste" or "removal protection" basically whenever you need it. Like Teferi, she also flashes in herself, and is a reasonably sized body.

Unlike Teferi, though, she doesn't come with the hatebearing and ragequitting, cause she's what I think GG might call a "fair card." If you haven't heard GG says this, then you should know it's not really a compliment from him.

But like me and Subway, YouGotFranked likes fresh takes on "fair cards" and monotonous deck archetypes.

Based off a list he saw when she came out last year, YGF was inspired to put together his own iteration, complete with all manners of utility and synergy and speed, which is what makes this deck particularly fun and somewhat different than your traditional 

There are plenty of cards that can be played main deck to support this special thing that Yeva does, which is what drew me to YGF and his design. 

Recently, I've sleeved up my own iteration of his creation to test it out, and I've found some other cool pieces of tech we can talk about too.

The most important thing Yeva does better than Omnath and Azusa is create tempo. As a color, Green can only really get mana and play threats, the latter of which being typically problematic because your opponent gets a whole turn to find an answer.

Instead, Yeva really allows Green to play Poker with the removal happy blue and black decks. Playing "Draw, Go!" with players who play "Draw, Go!" puts a bit of pressure on them to keep their mana untapped and cards in their hand so they can be ready for your end of turn shenanigans.

In this way, Flashing stuff in gives you a chance to get them tapped out at the end of their turn, so you can potentially stick a nice threat in on yours in the worst-case scenario.

Another great thing about the tempo and timing is abusing ETB effects. Cards like Regal Force and Wall of Blossoms can be much "better timed" card draw if you're using these creatures in response to an attack or you're looking for an answer. Same goes for removal- cards like Acidic Slime, Indrik Stomphowler, and even Viridian Zealot with open mana doesn't have to wait.

Mechanically, there are some things we've seen before, so let's get them out of the way.

The cool thing about Winding Canyons and Vedalken Orrery in his design are that they feel very at home. Often, I see players play these cards as kind of an added bonus with no real semblance of constructing a "package" around them, meaning they don't really have consistency. They chock it up to, "If I draw it, cool, if I don't, oh well."

In here, these cards really help to replace or even be substitutes for Yeva, should something happen. Having extra copies of your Plan A, even though it's fairly obvious, does need to be recognized here. YouGotFranked isn't using them in any way other than how they were meant to be used, but the power of these cards is definitely more consistent in a deck where you're sure to have what you're looking for, even in Worst-Case Scenario.

This is good deck design. I always say "Three's a pattern," and he's got that doctor-recommended number that should keep him protecting his guys until he's ready to play them.

This is where the deck gets interesting.

The first card I want to talk about is Timbermare. No, this isn't really a great card on its own, despite having Haste, being green, and sporting bigger P and T than its CMC.

We'll thank the Echo cost.

However, in Yeva, this isn't always an Elemental Horse. With help from Nature's Herald or any of the flash-enabling tech, Timbermare's effectiveness can be maximized.

It isn't Cryptic Command, but tapping all other creatures on your opponent's turn often leads to your huge dudes getting in for a butt-load of damage when you untap. On Mimic Vat, this card essentially becomes a build-your-own Dawnglare Invoker with a little less mana investment.

Timbermare with Flash can also be a Fog in a tight spot, which continues to add nice cohesion. YouGotFranked's list features both Spore Cloud and Tangle, which are my two favorite Fogs cause they make you think twice about attacking, and they can hide really well in a hand between all the creatures waiting to be cast.

Again, we're seeing that Poker match style of game, and so long's you're capable of a good bluff in a tight spot, Yeva's pretty helpful.

If you're not, then my favorite piece of tech in his deck will help you out.

Arboria was basically built for Yeva way back in Legends but lost to time, acting as a handy recurrable Fog.

Even GG doesn't run enough enchantment removal, so the chances of you keeping this card out for a few turns is huge, allowing you to draw extra guys and not overextend yourself because you're losing life. This is pretty key against control matchups, where seasoned players will play a threat to put you on a clock and try to hold up counterspells against you.

As mentioned, this is my favorite because it's a more permanent Fog that's just going to sit there and annoy your opponents until you have what you need to attack.

Now that we've talked about some of the strengths of this deck, let's shift gears just a little bit.

As you can probably guess, one of the biggest weaknesses to be addressed with Yeva is protecting your board state. Naturally, YouGotFranked found some fairly niche ways of handling this one too.

Cameos by King Kong? Yes Please!

Though many things now say, "can't be regenerated," Reincarnation is still a sweet way to save your best dude or Yeva, the best enabler in the deck. Green Instants are hard to come by, so when you find the ones that save the best card type advantage Green really has, you should take the open door.

This isn't really a card he needs to build around either, but like a pro, there is an Eternal Witness as a "second copy" of this card. It's probably vice-versa, but you get the picture. Reincarnation isn't meant to be the optimal answer, so there's not a whole lot of investment anyway.

Oak Street Innkeeper, on the other hand, feels like really hot tech though. Remember Timbermare? You know how I've been talking about Synergy? Yeah. This article machine is well-oiled here.

Oak Street Innkeeper is a new piece of RtR tech that is actually a new addition since I've been chatting with YGF. And it seems pretty disgusting, acting like a constant Glaring Spotlight for dudes that are tapped. Though seemingly limited in scope, it forces the deck to get in the Red Zone, and rewards you for doing so. Also, wasting Doom Blades is pretty cool last time I checked, and there's plenty of tutelage in this deck to find it if he needs to.

 

Wirewood Symbiote isn't too exciting to me, but I could definitely see why it'd be great here.

In hand, Wirewood Symbiote protects Yeva for a measly green mana, which is pretty sweet when you consider that re-casting her from the Command Zone could get costly.

Your opponents aren't going to like it if you can Flash her in any number of times as a chump block if they've got you on the ropes. Symbiote does a good job of keeping her appropriately costed and keeping the deck humming along.





After talking to YGF extensively about this deck some months back, I got inspired to craft my own out of the ashes of this failed Iwamori Hipster deck I'd been working on. So I have a few neat little pieces of my own I'd like to share.

If I haven't talked up the wonders of Terrain Generator before Zoners, you've been led sorely astray, and I'm very sorry.

"Generating Trains" is something a lot of my decks do well. It's one of the perks of playing a crap-ton of basic land. When it comes to this Yeva deck or any control-style deck with a lot of untapped mana, this is a great card cause it gives you something to do.

I hate wasting mana. I always like to have something to do if I hold up mana for someone's turn. With this out in Yeva, it gives you a way to make land drops to skirt around Arboria.

It's a nice one. So even if you don't play Yeva, go out and get all the copies me and GG haven't bought yet.

I'm not actually sure how or why I came to find and own this card, but I have it, and it seemed pretty sweet. It's kind of a stretch of a combo in Yeva, cause you have to enable Flash to make this particularly relevant, but it's a lot easier than you think.

And having the Amulet so far has been a nice "rattlesnake" style card. Most people won't want to target your dudes, which is the big commodity in green. Also, you're probably already going to play a dude on their turn.

Why not make it worthwhile?

Lastly, we've got Regal Force.


This is a card I mentioned earlier, but it's worth talking about because of the synergy it has with Yeva, specifically in the text box.


One of my biggest problems with finding this guy a home in other green decks is that I love to play Solemn and Sylvok Replica and other Artifact dudes too much.

In Yeva, she can only power out green creatures. Regal Force can only draw cards for each green creature, and I can do it to dig for an answer.

By itself, he's a tough sell, despite what he does and his kewl art. I like this card here though. It's worked out nice.


So normally, this is the part where I reveal the altered art Commander I've done for Yeva.

Unfortunately, I've been meditating for months on what I want to do for YGF, and I haven't really come up with anything.

But I do owe him a nice alter and a big thanks for letting me talk about this Yeva deck. Hopefully, we'll talk about it in the next week or so, and I can update the article.

You can see YouGotFranked's Viva La Yeva List here:

VIVA LA YEVA

And for fun, here's my list: 

YEVA'S MONO GREEN FLASH MOB


That was a pretty long article Zoners. So thanks for reading.

Be sure to check out GG's m14 Review from Sunday and Monday. Tomorrow we're putting out part III.

Take 'er easy, and remember- Go Green!

I'm cheering. This is not a plug for recycling. Can't I just cheer on my favorite color?

-UL