Ygra, Eater of AllYgra, Eater of All | art by Chris Rahn

Breakfast

Hello! Welcome once again to EDHighlights, the series where I build decks for last year's most popular commander in each color combination.

Now that 2024's set releases have wrapped up, I'll be taking a look at the most popular legendary creatures that were released in the past year and building unique decks around them.

This week, I'm building a deck for 2024's most popular Golgari commander, which means we'll be working with… Ygra, Eater of AllYgra, Eater of All!

YgraYgra is a pretty cool card, and it's at the helm of 8,021 decks on EDHREC as of the time of writing (making YgraYgra the fifth most popular Golgari commander ever)!

This card is really cool: “Ygra” means “game” in Russian. It's all just a game to this hungry cat! Anyways, let's see what we can do with YgraYgra.

Second Breakfast

YgraYgra is a 6/6 Elemental Cat for 5 mana, already a pretty big creature. But, there's a lot more to this cat: when it's on the board all other creatures are FoodFood, we get to put two +1/+1 counters on it whenever a FoodFood gets eaten, and our opponents will need to sacrifice a FoodFood if they want to interact with YgraYgra at all. 

That's a really powerful set of abilities, and it lays out some powerful play patterns to take advantage of while our commander is on the battlefield.

There's a whole bunch of ways to make YgraYgra work well, from classic aristocrats to life gain, but I'll be focusing on one key part of YgraYgra's abilities.

This cat makes everything into a FoodFood, which means that it also makes them into artifacts. This opens up even more cool play patterns, so let's get brewing!

Elevenses

Because YgraYgra turns all of our creatures into artifacts, we can take advantage of cards like Inspiring StatuaryInspiring Statuary.

There are 54 cards in this deck that can have at least part of their mana cost paid for with improvise, so this 3-mana rock will put in a ton of work. Speaking of improvise, Herald of AnguishHerald of Anguish will work very well too.

It can often be cast for just two mana, and acts as a sacrifice outlet/repeatable source of card disadvantage for our opponents once it's on the board.

Displaced DinosaursDisplaced Dinosaurs is great too, turning every single creature in this deck into a 7/7. Because FoodFoods are artifacts, and artifacts are historic, this stegosaurus is an all-star here.

For even more artifact-based goodness, there's Tarrian's SoulcleaverTarrian's Soulcleaver. This card is quite similar to YgraYgra our commander, adding counters to a creature whenever an artifact or creature dies.

It's made even better by its low mana cost and low equip cost, easily pumping up any creature of our choosing. On the other end of the mana curve, there's Fangren MarauderFangren Marauder.

This Beast may cost 6 mana, but because everything will be an artifact it'll generate a huge amount of life gain for us.

And, from the Bloomburrow Commander product, there's Moonstone EulogistMoonstone Eulogist. Just like Tarrian's SoulcleaverTarrian's Soulcleaver, this creature produces +1/+1 counters very easily, and can even make more artifacts as the our opponents' creatures die.

Rounding out the artifact synergies here are Tarrian's JournalTarrian's Journal, Sarinth SteelseekerSarinth Steelseeker, and a whole group of cards with bargain (like Beseech the MirrorBeseech the Mirror). Tarrian's JournalTarrian's Journal is a great sacrifice outlet for our FoodFoods, and can later turn into an easy way to reanimate our best threats.

Sarinth SteelseekerSarinth Steelseeker can provide us with some extra lands in hand or fill our graveyard for later use. And, all of the bargain cards become much better when we can throw away any one of our FoodFoods to improve their effects.

Lunch

Thanks to some recent (and some less-recent) set releases, Magic has a ton of cards that synergize well with FoodFoods. One of my favorites is Thornvault ForagerThornvault Forager, which can easily tap for two mana once YgraYgra is on the board. Plus, it can search up one of the other Squirrels in the deck for added value.

I'm also a fan of Motivated PonyMotivated Pony, which can act as a repeatable +3/+3 buff to our board if we keep putting creatures onto the battlefield.

Night of the Sweets' RevengeNight of the Sweets' Revenge can also buff up our board, while providing a ton of mana along the way.

There's also a few cards from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, including Elanor GardnerElanor Gardner.

Four mana is a big investment initially, but she'll reward that investment with a steady stream of extra lands on the battlefield over time.

Peregrin TookPeregrin Took is here too, increasing the amount of FoodFood available to us and turning those tokens into card advantage if we'd like.

Lastly, there's Feasting HobbitFeasting Hobbit, a sacrifice outlet for our FoodFood that can become a game-endingly large creature with ease.

To finish the FoodFood-based section of this deck, there's a handful of other cards I'd like to touch on. Osteomancer AdeptOsteomancer Adept does a very good impression of a repeatable Underworld BreachUnderworld Breach in this deck, given how many creatures we're running and how many FoodFoods we'll have available.

Bristlebud FarmerBristlebud Farmer was great in Outlaws of Thunder Junction limited, and it's great here too. It makes a few FoodFood tokens, acts as a sacrifice outlet for our FoodFood, and it's a card advantage engine.

Lastly, to protect our board, there's Gyome, Master ChefGyome, Master Chef. This card holds a special place in my heart, as it was first printed in the first Magic product I ever owned. It's a great card here, protecting our key creatures while making/sacrificing FoodFood efficiently.

Afternoon Tea

This deck also has a few infinite combos in it, although that's mostly unintentional. All of the cards mentioned below also work very well on their own, outside of the combos, so I'll allow it this time around.

Commander Spellbook, a great resource that lets you see what combos are in your Commander deck, tells me that the following combos are in this deck:

Dinner

Here's the full decklist:

Supper

Thanks for reading this week! As always, I've got a few unique cards I want to talk about at the tail end of this article. Green SlimeGreen Slime is one of my favorite cards ever, just because of how silly and narrow its applications usually are.

But, because everything will be an artifact while our commander is on the battlefield, this card becomes much more valuable.

I also think that Silverback ElderSilverback Elder is great here, especially given the high number of creatures in the 99 of this deck. It'll be able to provide life gain, ramp, or removal very frequently.

And, although it does cost a lot of mana, I really like Cybermen SquadronCybermen Squadron in this deck. It'll give (almost) every creature in our deck myriad, which I think is just great.

I'll see you all next week for the second-to-last edition of this series, where I'll explore last year's most popular Boros commander!

Cooper Gottfried

Cooper is a student at Brandeis University, where he’s Editor in Chief of its community newspaper, The Brandeis Hoot. Outside of Magic: The Gathering, his hobbies include weightlifting, writing, and Dungeons and Dragons.