Yuna, Grand SummonerYuna, Grand Summoner | Art by: Kevin Glint

Friendly greetings and welcome to Spira, the world of Final Fantasy X. I'm John Sherwood, and I'm taking a break from my regular Bracketeering series to feature a new commander. This deck tech is brought to you in part by mixed feelings about a video game I never beat. It wasn't for lack of trying. I spent an unhealthy number of hours grinding every corner of Spira's map. Some of that time was spent side questing for the focal character of this dech tech: Yuna, Grand SummonerYuna, Grand Summoner.

Although Yuna is the secondary commander in the Counter Blitz preconstructed deck, this is not a precon upgrade guide. This is also not a budget deck; it's way too rich for me, but it's fun to theorycraft. So here I go, brewing Yuna for the Optimized (4) Bracket.

Who Is Yuna, Grand Summoner and What Does She Do?

Yuna is a central story character and vital party member in Final Fantasy X. In the role-playing game, Yuna is on a religious pilgrimage and she summons powerful creatures in battle. In Magic, Yuna is a Cleric with a mana ability that rewards you for casting creatures. That's a flavor win as far as I'm concerned. While you can use Yuna's mana for anything, she promises upside to the next creature spell you cast this turn by giving it two additional +1/+1 counters. Notably, this second part of Yuna's mana ability is a delayed trigger, and creates a decision point during deck construction and gameplay. The straightforward line is to spend the mana on a creature spell now and immediately get the counters. Some of the more interesting lines involve saving the trigger for later (more on this later).

Yuna's second ability is a triggered ability that allows us to manipulate counters and play with our graveyard. If this ability reflects any aspect of Yuna's character, I don't remember it. Granted, a lot of my mental bandwidth for Final Fantasy X is devoted to despising Blitzball. Despite not remembering any reason for Yuna to care about permanents hitting the graveyard, I'm excited about this card ability. If a permanent you control with counters on it is put into any graveyard, then Yuna places an equal number of+1/+1 counters on any target creature. The permanent that goes in the bin doesn't have to be a creature, and the original counters don't have to be +1/+1 counters. In other words, there's a wide range of possible triggers.

Just a quick nonbo note: avoid finality counters. These counters create a replacement effect that exiles instead. Any counters that would have been available for Yuna's second ability will be lost.

Veggies and Value

I created this deck on Archidekt with card packages for ramp, mana base, and board wipes. Card packages are a great feature to expedite adding essential cards to a deck, saving time for the fun parts of the deck building process.

One of the more enjoyable aspects of brewing a new commander is finding those synergistic value pieces. While both of Yuna's abilities can be played for value, her second ability leans into the graveyard for extra utility and resilience.

Evolution WitnessEvolution Witness is a fantastic pairing with Yuna's second ability. If a permanent goes to the yard with counters on it, then targeting Evolution Witness to receive +1/+1 counters from Yuna will allow us to return a permanent from the graveyard to hand. This interaction can mitigate opponents' removal, or we can take advantage of it with sacrifice outlets.

I included a few other cards that benefit from receiving counters. Picks like Scurry OakScurry Oak to go wide, or Wildwood ScourgeWildwood Scourge to go tall, and Rikku, Resourceful GuardianRikku, Resourceful Guardian for evasion.

Ratchet BombRatchet Bomb and Engineered ExplosivesEngineered Explosives are handy sweepers, and can be played for extra layers of value in this deck since their charge counters will become +1/+1 counters after sacrificing them. We can take this a step further. By aiming for a number of charge counters equal to the mana value of our own permanents, we effectively turn these removal artifacts into sacrifice outlets to pump up more valuable creatures. Set this up preemptively for an impactful attack, or maybe as an edge case to to save an important creature from damage.

Yuna, Combo Queen

If Yuna, Grand Summoner is going to make a splash in higher Brackets, then some of the key cards for this deck should be combo pieces. Both of Yuna's abilities have combo potential, but the first ability requires fewer combo pieces to achieve a winning game state.

Remember that delayed trigger we saved until later? Saving it gives us opportunities to duplicate it, such as untapping Yuna to do it again. Using either Pemmin's AuraPemmin's Aura or Freed from the RealFreed from the Real, you can make blue mana with Yuna and spend it to untap her. This allows Yuna to tap and produce mana again. You can repeat this cycle as many times as you like to create any number of delayed triggers, which will all resolve on the next creature spell you cast. That creature will enter with a number of counters equal to twice the number of times Yuna tapped for mana.

Even better than Freed from the Real, Pemmin's AuraPemmin's Aura can protect Yuna from targeted removal and make her more dangerous in combat.

Just in case we don't find those Auras for Yuna, untappers like Ioreth of the Healing HouseIoreth of the Healing House and Saryth, the Viper's FangSaryth, the Viper's Fang provide redundancy. If you have both of those creatures with Yuna, then the three of them combine into a three-card untapping extravaganza.

However you untap Yuna, there are plenty of support pieces to improve the potency. Leyline of AbundanceLeyline of Abundance and Kinnan, Bonder ProdigyKinnan, Bonder Prodigy net extra mana, which we can pump into winning payoffs.

How to Win With Yuna, Grand Summoner Combos

Let's start our push to victory by circling back to those tapping and untapping combos. The combos I picked don't inherently win the game. It doesn't matter how many times we TwiddleTwiddle Yuna, it's nondeterministic until we add a creature payoff. One of my favorite win conditions in this deck is Walking BallistaWalking Ballista. First, repeat the cycle of tapping and untapping Yuna a number of times greater than half of your opponents' combined life. Then cast Walking Ballista. It will enter with an amount of counters exceeding your opponents' life totals and you win the game by pinging them to death. TriskelionTriskelion can serve as a backup for this plan, but it requires more mana.

Another great win condition in this deck is Bloomburrow's Twenty-Toed ToadTwenty-Toed Toad. This croaker can puff up with or without Yuna's help into a must-answer threat.

If combos and "you win" cards are unable to carry this deck to victory, there's always combat. Many of the creatures in the deck are ready to turn sideways. Also, Yuna can target herself with her second ability to becoming a serious commander damage threat.

Yuna, Grand Summoner Commander Deck List

Sequel Setup

Final Fantasy X has a sequel and a remaster. I've never played either of them, just like I'll never play this deck in paper. It was a lot of fun to tinker with, and hopefully you found a little inspiration here. I love this card; Yuna is a very open ended commander with more potential than there are slots in the 99. If you're building Yuna, Grand SummonerYuna, Grand Summoner, tell me about your brew in the comments below.