Now that it has been a month since Ikoria hit the virtual streets, we can see how the set is influencing metagames across Constructed formats. Companions have been the most-hyped powerhouses so far, seeming to take over formats like Legacy. (That’s always a good sign!) But I want to focus on one companion in particular, Yorion, Sky Nomad.
Yorion has been proving itself as the best companion in Standard. That’s not too hard to believe given the many powerful blue and white cards in the format defined by Teferi, Time Raveler. You do have to play 80 cards in your main deck, however. Thanks to the online-only release of Ikoria so far, nobody’s had to shuffle 80 paper cards together round after round of a major Standard tournament. And yet, shuffling a big deck might be the only real limitation on playing Yorion as your companion, because it sure isn’t hard to fill up a Standard deck right now.
Two main variants of Yorion have been showing success in Standard. Bant decks of both ramp and midrange persuasions have adopted Yorion, and so has the Polymoph-style combo deck featuring Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast and Agent of Treachery. Let’s start with Bant.
Yorion in Bant
This should come as no surprise, but I have been playing a lot of Bant Ramp lately on Arena. Here’s my list:
Bant Yorion Ramp
| Creatures (14) 3 Arboreal Grazer 3 Knight of Autumn 2 Cavalier of Thorns 3 Hydroid Krasis 3 Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath Planeswalkers (9) 4 Teferi, Time Raveler 3 Nissa, Who Shakes the World 2 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales Spells (20) 4 Growth Spiral 4 Omen of the Hunt 4 Omen of the Sea 4 Shatter the Sky 4 Elspeth Conquers Death | Lands (37) 4 Breeding Pool 4 Fabled Passage 7 Forest 4 Hallowed Fountain 3 Island 2 Plains 4 Temple Garden 3 Temple of Enlightenment 3 Temple of Mystery 1 Temple of Plenty 2 Zagoth Triome Sideboard (15) 1 Yorion, Sky Nomad 4 Aether Gust 2 Dovin’s Veto 4 Mystical Dispute 2 Time Wipe 2 Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves |
I’ve found a nice groove in Standard with this deck. There’s a lot going on, as you’d expect with twenty extra cards in the deck. I love that the extra slots make room for plenty of utility creatures without having to cut down on board wipes, and you can fit in some extra lifegain to stand up to aggressive decks.
The Omens are a good way to get a bunch of value and churn through your deck. That is pretty important for these 80-card decks, so that you can find the spells and colors of mana you need to cast them. My favorite part of playing so many Omens is all the value you can get from them later. Paying three leftover mana to scry 2 is always nice, but leaving them on board means you can flicker and reset all your Omens with Yorion.
Knight of Autumn, Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath, and Cavalier of Thorns provide all sorts of value that will help pull you ahead at any point in the game. Flickering cards like Knight of Autumn is particularly nice with all the options available on the enter the battlefield ability itself.
Of course if you want real value off flickering permanents, I recommend planeswalkers. This deck has plenty, allowing you to fire off their minus abilities before resetting loyalty with Yorion. Being able to bounce Yorion with Teferi to draw a card and flicker your battlefield every turn is strong. You can often lock out the game from that position.
Yorion with Lukka
If you’d rather steal all the permanents with the latest Polymorph-style combo deck, check out this list. While I haven’t played with it myself, I’ve faced off against it many times.
Yorion X Lukka
| Creatures (4) 4 Agent of Treachery Planeswalkers (13) 4 Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast 4 Narset, Parter of Veils 4 Teferi, Time Raveler 1 Elspeth, Sun’s Nemesis Spells (27) 4 Fires of Invention 4 Omen of the Sea 3 Omen of the Sun 4 The Birth of Meletis 4 Shark Typhoon 4 Shatter the Sky 4 Elspeth Conquers Death | Lands (36) 4 Castle Ardenvale 2 Castle Vantress 4 Fabled Passage 4 Hallowed Fountain 2 Island 2 Mountain 3 Plains 4 Raugrin Triome 4 Sacred Foundry 4 Steam Vents 3 Temple of Epiphany Sideboard (15) 1 Yorion, Sky Nomad 2 Aether Gust 2 Deafening Clarion 2 Dream Trawler 4 Mystical Dispute 4 Omen of the Forge |
The gameplan here is simple. Generate token creatures from enchantments like Birth of Meletis, Omen of the Sun, and Shark Typhoon. Activate the -2 ability of Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast, exile a token, and flip through your library to find the only creature card in your deck: Agent of Treachery. Now you control an opposing permanent too! Then you drop Yorion to reset your value permanents to rinse and repeat, taking more from your opponent’s board.
The cool part about this version is that it plays Fires of Invention. Yorion does a neat trick with Fires: once you play your two free spells, flicker the Fires of Invention until end of turn with Yorion and proceed to cast more spells. And with four different planeswalkers running around the deck, you can outgrind opponents basically forever. This archetype is very powerful. If you don’t want to play Bant ramp, I recommend Yorion X Lukka.
How does it feel playing so many 80-card Standard decks? Which variant attracts you the most?
Zack a veteran grinder at this point plays most of his magic online nowadays. That doesn’t mean you won’t find him occasionally slinging spells at an Open or Grand Prix. Catch him streaming on Twitch to find where he’s at with all the formats.