MTG: Artifacts and How to Break Them – Top 5 Yore-Tiller Commanders
Making little machines is great and all, but breaking them to harvest the power inside is even better! That’s how Yore-Tiller rolls.
Welcome Planeswalkers and Praetors to our ongoing series about the best casual experience in Magic: Commander. For the uninitiated, Commander is a semi-casual format for Magic: the Gathering. You use a deck of 100 cards led by a legendary creature, aka, your Commander.
Aside from basic lands, you are only allowed one copy of each card in the deck. Moreover, you can only include cards in your Commander’s “color identity” or artifacts. Each color and color combo has a unique playstyle and a wealth of mighty generals to lead your deck to victory. EDHRec.com is an excellent source for Commander info and can give you ideas to build your next Commander deck or tune an existing one.
We’ve made it to the home stretch: the Nephilim colors. Named for a series of cards that came out in the Guildpact expansion, the Nephilim color Commanders are either a single four-color monster or a pair of two-color creatures that combine into one happy beastie. You’ll find the latter for the most part, but occasionally, one Commander just can’t be confined to two or three colors. Yore-Tiller Commanders are all about spamming as many artifacts as possible and then cracking them open for value or damage. The more you have, the happier these Commanders get, and the more unhappy they’ll make your opponent.
Breya, Etherium Shaper
Starting things off strong, we have one of the nastiest artifact Commanders in the business. Breya brings her own artifact creatures to the party, and then lets you blow things up for fun and profit. Adding in effects that fire when your artifacts go away makes her a double whammy, and in every color except Green, you’ll find plenty of fun toys to play with. Adding in some of the Daleks and Cybermen from the Doctor Who villains deck is a good start, but there’s a world of other nasty options you can use.
Kraum, Ludevic’s Opus and Tymna the Weaver
This Commander combo is all about getting as many cards as possible and using them to drown your opponent. Kraum is a 4/4 flying beater that also gives you extra cards when your opponents cast more than one spell, and Tymna lets you sacrifice Commander’s favorite resource (life) for a few extra cards. With all the lifelink available in White and Black, and all the nastiness in Red and Blue in general, you can dig out exactly what you need to keep your opponent wrapped in your web.
Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist and Wernog, Rider’s Chaplain
Back to artifact cannons, we have a duo of best friends who want to search for Clues and then use them to bully your opponent’s creatures. With just a few sacrificed artifacts, you can force your opponents to fight each other while you sit back and watch the fireworks. Goad abilities or untap cards are key to this strategy.
Akiri, Line-Slinger and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Akiri gets stronger the more artifacts you have, and Silas can bring your artifacts back (while also being an artifact himself). Sometimes the stompy decks just make themselves. Voltron these two up and go to town.
Cecily, Haunted Mage and Sophina, Spearsage Deserter
This is a slightly odd combo, but it works out in the end. You’ll want to be spamming your opponent with attacks to generate Clues, then drawing up to the coveted eleven cards so you can get a nasty spell for free. Just watch your life total.
What do you think of these commanders?
