Y'shtola RhulY'shtola Rhul | Art by Immanuela Crovius

Mono-blue is a tricky color in Commander, as it usually screams control. I'm not much of a control player, but I do love value, which is something Y'shtola Rhul provides in spades.

Not being well-versed in Final Fantasy didn’t prevent my previous brewing of the mono-red legend, Firion, Wild Rose WarriorFirion, Wild Rose Warrior, and it certainly didn’t prevent me brewing this commander either. Y’shtola has a crazy Esper counterpart from one of the Final Fantasy precons in the form of Y'shtola, Night's BlessedY'shtola, Night's Blessed, but I think this iteration feels more fun. If you like “enters” triggers and taking a lot of game actions, this is the deck for you.

The first thing I noticed about this card is the ability to effectively double our end step. I immediately looked for anything and everything in blue that deals with the end step, and the list was, unfortunately, very small. Sure, double triggering a Chimil, the Inner SunChimil, the Inner Sun or a Wondrous CrucibleWondrous Crucible seems like a ton of fun, but the list pretty much ends there, so I leaned hard into the first ability.

The first ability reminded me of an old Thassa, Deep-DwellingThassa, Deep-Dwelling build I had, and that was a deck I loved dearly. Two Conjurer's ClosetConjurer's Closet effects on every one of our turns? Sign me up! With this kind of deck, especially when most blue "enters" triggers can be pretty mean, I will warn my readers that my build of this commander fits solidly into Bracket 4.

Category #1: End Step Triggers

As I previously mentioned, our options are pretty limited in mono-blue when it comes to end step triggers, but that doesn't mean the limited options are bad. Wondrous CrucibleWondrous Crucible and Chimil, the Inner SunChimil, the Inner Sun let us cast spells for free; Palantír of OrthancPalantír of Orthanc is a terrific source of card draw or incidental burn, depending on what our opponents choose; and Primordial MistPrimordial Mist gives us manifest creatures that we can flip up later with our commanders first ability (flickering a face down creature makes it return face up; this concept will come up later).

Category #2: "Enters" Triggers

As mentioned before, this deck is full of creatures with enters triggers, but I’m just going to highlight some of the heavy hitters here. We have creatures that cover anything you may need over the course of a game:

Need to "borrow" a creature or spell? Try Sower of TemptationSower of Temptation, Agent of TreacheryAgent of Treachery, or Diluvian PrimordialDiluvian Primordial!

Need to ramp? Try Solemn SimulacrumSolemn Simulacrum or Peregrine DrakePeregrine Drake!

Need to remove troublesome creatures? Try Amphin MutineerAmphin Mutineer, Meteor GolemMeteor Golem, or Exclusion MageExclusion Mage!

How about drawing some cards? Try Serum VisionarySerum Visionary, MulldrifterMulldrifter, or Overlord of the FloodpitsOverlord of the Floodpits!

Category #3: Our Secret Gameplan = Face Down Creatures

I told you I would come back to Primordial MistPrimordial Mist! Manifest creatures, or face down creatures in general, is our secret gameplan. Why? Because, like I said before, if we flicker a face down creature, that card returns to play face up. For this reason, we have some really heavy hitters in the deck in the hopes that we can execute this "cheating of mana cost".

The other ways we have to put things into face down are cards like They Came from the PipesThey Came from the Pipes, Cryptic CoatCryptic Coat, and Cursed WindbreakerCursed Windbreaker.

When we have face down creatures, we can turn up crazy game-ending threats, like Blightsteel ColossusBlightsteel Colossus or Void WinnowerVoid Winnower.

We also have standard all-star Abhorrent OculusAbhorrent Oculus in this deck, as it's another great way to give us face down creatures.

Category #4: Infinite Combos

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the infinite combos that I included in my decklist. The main combo involves an old format boogeyman, Deadeye NavigatorDeadeye Navigator. Pairing it with any of our enters creatures is very good, but pairing it with Peregrine DrakePeregrine Drake grants us infinite mana. Infinite mana isn't an immediate guaranteed win, but it's certainly a good start.

The other combo in the deck is one that people may find frustrating, so be warned. This combo involves three cards: our commander, ArchaeomancerArchaeomancer, and Time WarpTime Warp.

It works like this: we cast Time Warp, giving us an extra turn. During the extra turn, we play Archaeomancer to return Time Warp to our hand and cast it again. If our commander is on the board at this point, we can choose to blink the Archaeomancer, returning Time Warp to our hand again. This generates a loop of infinite turns, which, again, doesn't necessarily win the game, but it's a huge step towards doing so.

Closing Thoughts

That will do it for our deck tech on Y'shtola Rhul! I hope this article has persuaded you to brew around this very strong and fun commander!

Check out my decklist below!