Yomiji, Who Bars the Way

by Hideaki Takamura

"Haha what is that commander wait no it's only turn 5 and you're playing mono-white c'mon I have kids."

Alright folks, we've had some fun with goofy commanders in the past, but now I have a bone to pick.

How

In the hell

Does Yomiji, Who Bars the Way

They combo with everything. I get it, high mana value mono-white combo isn't the sexiest package in the room, but damn why am I the only person sizing them up?

Here's a list of Commanders that are more popular than this unique, totally viable one!

Sensei Golden-Tail

Reveka, Wizard Savant

Soraya the Falconer

Niambi, Faithful Healer

Stangg

While these beautiful creatures are all bright candidates for late-season episodes of Going Brokkos, come on, Yomiji is actually useful in the right deck! Let's throw money at them to try and prove it.

Yomiji returns any other legendary permanent that hits the bin to your hand instead. Originally after seeing this, my brain went into overdrive and I made a beautiful post for r/BadMTGCombos.

When I revisited the legend a few weeks ago, I read some comments and realized holy crap I can actually win with this.

Here let me introduce your new gods.

Pretty much the entire deck revolves around finding Mox Amber

Lands

Ya spirit works really well with anything that sacs legendaries, including Lands!

While not infinite like our pretty gemstones, being able to Dust Bowl

Historic 

Dominaria gave this build a wonderful buffer by introducing Historic, aka. the closest we're going to get to decent card draw in white. Then they abandoned it completely, thanks guys.

Search for Glory

Sorry, back to dorks.

Dorks

White has actually gotten some nice ramp and card advantage lately, and by nice I mean like three cards and not Hullbreacher

Wincons

I've already gone over the Mox Loops, now I'm just going to list off a handful of the Oops, All Combos! wincons that get dumber and clunkier as they go. God that cereal would be gross.

• Yomiji + Mindslaver
• Mox + Yomiji + Grinding Station
• Mox + Yomiji + Arcbound Ravager
• Mox + Yomiji + Aetherflux Reservoir
• Mox + Yomiji + Krark-Clan Ironworks
  + Walking Ballista
• Mox + Yomiji + Amulet of Vigor
  + Nyx Lotus
  + Artifact Sac Outlet + White Devotion + Walking Ballista
• Mox + Yomiji + Grinding Station
  (if opponent has an Eldrazi that prevents a mill kill) + Sevinne's Reclamation
  + Arcbound Ravager

There's probably more I forgot about, and trust me it's not an incredibly strong deck, but in a playtesting vacuum I've gone off pretty consistently on turn 6 or 7.

Weaknesses

Well... we're mono-white.

Playing a 7-CMC commander with no built-in protection or immediate board presence...

Trying to combo off with 3+ pieces in the color with the worst card draw...

Hmm why did I make this again...

There are a handful of combo protectors with Grand Abolisher

Conclusion

Yomiji, Who Drops the Bar may not be very strong, or easy to cast, or able to adapt to difficult circumstances.

There's no but coming. Objectively, the deck leaves a lot to be desired.

HOWEVER

It's incredibly fun to sit down at the table and try to jam out a stupid combo win with a goofy commander nobody's ever heard of. That whirlwind of chaos and confusion is what EDH is all about for me, and Yomiji deserves to be a part of that happy maelstrom. Also, please Wizards, bring back historic. I don't care how many creepy massages you need to give Richard Garfield, just make it happen.