Help with Yorion Germ Tribal

[BHC]

Hello, I just started playing MTG after a long break and I'm new to EDH but I've been interested in the format for a long time. I saw a germ tribal Brago deck some time ago and I decided to try it with Yorion focusing more on blinking as defense. The idea is to blink the equipment in and out making more and more germs that our enchantments will pump up. I've got some mana artifacts that the blink should reset so I can (hopefully) make a lot of mana. My main issue is I'm down to 105 cards (I cut down from 138 in my original draft) and not sure what to cut, they all seem very useful. I feel like I have too many creatures maybe but they all have nice effects. I could use some advice on that. Done.

Other than that some other questions:
*What do you think about coat of arms? I don't have enough experience in the format to know if I'll be hurting myself more than helping. Right now I don't have it in but it could really pump my germs, it makes mirrorweave not a kill spell but I can always blink the coat of arms then use mirroweave to board wipe everything but my germs.

*Is the recursion from Archaeomancer worth when I don't have a ton of instants/sorceries. I could also do Mnemonic Wall instead. It costs one more mana but it's not 2 blue.

*Do you think I have too many blink effects? I want to be able to cycle Yorion on everyone's turn to keep multiplying my germs and getting ETBs but I'm not sure. I can tutor Thassa, Deep-Dwelling with my enchantment finding cards. How does her ability stack with Yorion, Sky Nomad? Will they both resolve on the same turn or will Yorion stay out till the end of the next turn? I'm not sure what ratio of permanent blink effects like Thassa and Eldrazi Displacer I want compared to instants.

*I was considering return all nonland perm spells like Coastal Breach and Devastation Tide after I blinked everything with yorion but this would return any germ tokens as well. I was thinking about them as a way to catch up if someone got ahead of me but I'm worried about anti-synergies. What do you guys think?

Here's the current 105 card decklist. I think this deck can be really fun so thanks in advance for any help!

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander (1)

1 Yorion, Sky Nomad

Artifact (22)

1 Arcane Signet

1 Azorius Signet

1 Basalt Monolith

1 Batterskull

1 Bonehoard

1 Fieldmist Borderpost

1 Flayer Husk

1 Grim Monolith

1 Mana Vault

1 Masterwork of Ingenuity

1 Mortarpod

1 Mycosynth Wellspring

1 Necropouncer

1 Panharmonicon

1 Scytheclaw

1 Sickleslicer

1 Skinwing

1 Sol Ring

1 Spine of Ish Sah

1 Strandwalker

1 Swiftfoot Boots

1 Thought Vessel

Enchantment (11)

1 Call for Unity

1 Cathars' Crusade

1 Confounding Conundrum

1 Dictate of Heliod

1 Elspeth Conquers Death

1 Grasp of Fate

1 Intangible Virtue

1 Mirrormade

1 Omen of the Sea

1 Radiant Destiny

1 Reality Acid

Land (36)

1 Academy Ruins

1 Adarkar Wastes

1 Ancient Den

1 Buried Ruin

1 Castle Vantress

1 Celestial Colonnade

1 Command Tower

1 Flooded Strand

1 Ghost Quarter

1 Glacial Fortress

1 Hallowed Fountain

1 Hengegate Pathway Flip

1 Inventors' Fair

7 Island

10 Plains

1 Prairie Stream

1 Reflecting Pool

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Tolaria West

1 Tundra

1 Windbrisk Heights

Instant (7)

1 Cloudshift

1 Dovin's Veto

1 Ephemerate

1 Grip of Phyresis

1 Mirrorweave

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Turn to Mist

Planeswalker (2)

1 The Wanderer

1 Venser, the Sojourner

Creature (19)

1 Brago, King Eternal

1 Charming Prince

1 Cloudblazer

1 Eldrazi Displacer

1 Elite Guardmage

1 Felidar Guardian

1 Glint-Nest Crane

1 Kor Cartographer

1 Metallic Mimic

1 Mistmeadow Witch

1 Peregrine Drake

1 Puresteel Paladin

1 Reflector Mage

1 Stoneforge Mystic

1 Stonehorn Dignitary

1 Sun Titan

1 Thassa, Deep-Dwelling

1 Venser, Shaper Savant

1 Wall of Omens

Sorcery (2)

1 Hour of Reckoning

1 Idyllic Tutor

Approximate Total Cost:

Other card considered but I've cut so far:

• 1 Altar of the Brood
• 1 Arcanist's Owl
• 1 Archaeomancer
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Cavalier of Dawn
• 1 Coastal Breach
• 1 Coat of Arms
• 1 Conjurer's Closet
• 1 Copy Artifact
• 1 Devastation Tide
• 1 Enlightened Tutor
• 1 Ephara, God of the Polis
• 1 Flickerwisp
• 1 Geist-Honored Monk
• 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 1 Ichor Wellspring
• 1 Master Transmuter
• 1 Mazemind Tome
• 1 Meteor Golem
• 1 Mnemonic Wall
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Skyclave Apparition
• 1 Sublime Epiphany
• 1 Swan Song
• 1 Trial of Knowledge
• 1 Urza, Lord High Artificer

PS: This is my first post I'm new to the forum so apologies if the formatting stinks, will try my best.

[darrenhabib]

Hi welcome to the forums.

The "problem" with a deck like this is that the non-equipment elements are so strong that you'll find 9 out of 10 games will not involve a single germ being made as you'll have so many other great options and synergies going on that this theme will just get drowned out.
I guarantee you'll always have better options for casting cards when at points you could cast a living weapon.
An example say is that you have Scytheclaw and Elspeth Conquers Death in hand. It is almost always certainly correct to cast ECD because opponents need to be dealt with.
You'll just always have these cross road decisions where the stronger card to play is not the equipment. You might fool yourself into thinking that you'll just cast equipment at those stages because that is why you built the deck, but the reality is that you are trying to stop your opponents from winning and you'll find technically better plays will be to play your other cards.

The other thing is obviously you need a creature buff card onboard as well before you can even start blinking the living weapons for any profit. It looks like you have 5 of these which isn't a lot, but at the same time they don't synergies at all with a blinking theme so understandable that you are light on them.

[BHC]

The other thing is obviously you need a creature buff card onboard as well before you can even start blinking the living weapons for any profit.

Oh yeah I meant to put in an Akroma's Will to help as a finisher but forgot to pop that in there. I agree about the living weapons being suboptimal but I'm playing in a suboptimal meta. I could definitely power this up but I do want to push the germ theme. Would you recommend anything else for buff cards?

[darrenhabib]

The other thing is obviously you need a creature buff card onboard as well before you can even start blinking the living weapons for any profit.

Oh yeah I meant to put in an Akroma's Will to help as a finisher but forgot to pop that in there. I agree about the living weapons being suboptimal but I'm playing in a suboptimal meta. I could definitely power this up but I do want to push the germ theme. Would you recommend anything else for buff cards?

I'm not trying to say don't play the equipment, what I'm saying is that the other elements are so powerful that they will completely over shadow what you are trying to do with the germs.
So once you get a feel for how strong the interaction of Yorion is with Charming Prince, Felidar Guardian, etc and other cards like Peregrine Drake, Elite Guardmage, etc you'll find that these will take over a game. It's just a very strong archetype.

It's more of a case that if you want to win with the living weapon game plan that you actually probably should cut the good ETB cards because they will just become the things that you win games with. The deck won't be as good, but at least you've committed to the theme completely.

Adaptive Automaton, Leyline of the Meek, Rally the Ranks, Spear of Heliod, Force of Virtue, Glorious Anthem are all decent buff cards.

[BHC]

Roger, I've cut out some of those plus the really strong stuff like Urza. Down to 100, thanks for the suggestions.

[MeowZeDung]

Eldrazi Monument is another good one.

Conjurer's Closet is probably worthwhile.

Scholar of the Ages can set up some insane Ephemerate and yorion loops.

Mirror Entity is a germ that can pump all the rest. If I'm not mistaken you can buff yours up with the ability, then pull your Mirrorweave shenanigans for an instant speed one sided board wipe - but I could be wrong and the base p/t might transfer to opposing germs. Entity also lets you abuse tribal payoffs like Kindred Discovery alongside other tribal cards that play nice with yorion/mirrorweave/Panharmonicon etc., like Captain of the Watch or Master of Waves for instance.

[DirkGently]

Just wanted to heartily endorse what darrenhabib said. Nothing ruins a sweet deck idea like accidentally putting more effective stuff in it.

This deck idea is great btw, I love it. As a token contribution, I'll suggest Stone Haven Outfitter - seems like he could be good here.

[BHC]

Thanks for the help. I forgot about Mirror Entity. Two questions still if you guys wouldn't mind weighing in, what do you think about Coat of Arms? Am I risking pumping an enemy elf deck too much? I'm picturing a scenario where I blink yorion and remove the Coat of Arms until end of turn and ruin their swing but maybe that's too cute.

Also does anyone know enough about the timing of the "end of turn" blinks, can I blink Yorion with another "end of turn" blink and then still be in the "end of turn" phase to have him return to the field immediately or do I need to wait till the end of my opponent's next turn?

[DirkGently]

Coat of arms - if you're playing against elfball or something and you don't have a way to control it (i.e. a way to blink it out during their turn) then...just don't play it. Easy. I think it makes a lot of sense here, just use your best judgment and don't necessarily throw it out ASAP.

"end of turns blinks" say "at the beginning of the next end step". If you're already in an end step, then the next end step would be at the end of the next turn. So if you're chaining Yorion with, say, Flickerwisp, they'll basically alternate turns existing on the battlefield - one turn of flickerwisp, then one turn of Yorion, and back and forth. Chaining with instant blink stuff like Felidar Guardian will result in Yorion always being on the battlefield (except for that brief instant when he's blinked out) and the felidar guardian being blinked out all the time, except for that brief window when they blink in before felidar guardian's + yorion's triggers resolve.

[BHC]

Thanks for the help mates, I've cut two lands and put coat of arms and spear of heliod in. Will report after some playtesting.