Standard: Naya Yuna Overlords - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

Yuna Overlords is a new proposal for Standard's Ramp decks featuring Yuna, Hope of Spira, a new creature from Final Fantasy that can reanimate enchantments from the graveyard every turn.

While most players took advantage of the Final Fantasy hype by using Yuna with Summon: Knights of Round and Virtue of Persistence, the most consistent deck version for her today seems to be with the Duskmourn Overlords cycle, whose alternative Impending cost allows us to cast them if we don't have sources of discards, avoiding having more dead draws during the game.

Let's not mince words: this deck is objectively worse than the Domain Overlords that has become the main Big Mana reference in the current Standard season. Compared to Zur, Eternal Schemer, the new Yuna, Hope of Spira requires significant effort to get it working and achieve the same results, with Zur still having the bonus of turning Leyline Binding into a creature.

There's also the dilemma surrounding Up the Beanstalk: if the card is banned on June 30, the structure of Ramp decks will probably change completely. In this list, for example, we'll have to consider Fear of Missing Out and other equivalents in this slot, while it may no longer be worth focusing on the Overlords plan instead of going the Reanimator route, whether in Naya or Abzan colors.

Despite these setbacks, Yuna Overlords is fun, and offers a small taste of what we can expect from Standard after rotation: Zur, Eternal Schemer and Leyline Binding will be leaving the format with the release of Edge of Eternities, and Yuna, Hope of Spira is the closest we have today to a payoff that takes the Overlords cycle beyond “too powerful” to “absurdly broken.”

Maindeck

Yuna, Hope of Spira is the reason this list exists. In addition to reanimating creatures, she also gives them protection, Lifelink, and Trample to end games faster. Additionally, Yuna protects herself during your turn, ensuring that the opponent needs instant-speed removal to deal with her while dodging cheaper options like Cut Down and Torch the Tower.

As fun as returning Summon: Knights of Round can be with Yuna, this strategy seems more consistently viable in Best of One. In this version, we're betting on the Overlords cycle as the main payoff for Yuna — the only copy we have of Knights is because it can be played from the graveyard with Summon: Titan or Terra, Magical Adept, or we can get to the late game, where paying eight mana for it seems like a viable strategy.

Overlord of the Mistmoors is our main win condition. In addition to its 6/6 body, it puts more tokens every combat when it attacks, and with Yuna in play, Lifelink and Trample are essential when it comes to holding aggro and getting past blockers.

Overlord of the Hauntwoods allows playing Yuna on the third turn and also speeds up mana with each attack. It has synergies with Summon: Titan, where the third chapter of the saga increases the power of a creature according to the number of lands its controller has.

Overlord of the Boilerbilges works as removal and threat in the same slot. With Yuna, its ETB and attack trigger is the equivalent of having a free Warleader’s Helix every turn, and even without her, a Flame Javelin every combat easily stacks up to win the game.

Up the Beanstalk triggers with most of our spells, including those with alternative or reduced costs, such as Overlords or Ride’s End, providing a constant source of card advantage.

Terra, Magical Adept feeds the graveyard, has a decent body, and its late-game ability copies enchantments for three turns, creating snowball piles with Overlords or Summon: Titan.

Summon: Titan also feeds the graveyard, has an excellent body for its cost, and its third chapter practically wins games, since it is common to have many lands in play as the game goes on, especially if we attack with Overlord of the Hauntwoods a few times.

Temporary Lockdown interacts poorly with Up the Beanstalk, but it has become a necessity in a Prowess and Red Aggro Metagame, where we need to deal with Cori-Steel Cutter, Stormchaser’s Talent tokens and now Astrologian’s Planisphere with a single card.

Ultima complements the maindeck board wipes. In addition to destroying all creatures and triggering Up the Beanstalk, it also removes triggers from the stack when creatures like Heartfire Hero die, and deals with Cori-Steel Cutter and Astrologian’s Planisphere, or the occasional Urabrask’s Forge that red decks can, sometimes, still run to counter sweepers.

Get Lost and Ride’s End are our go-to removals to hold up the early game, while not losing utility as the game goes on. Get Lost is essential for dealing with Kaito, Bane of Nightmares and unwanted enchantments.

Since we want to avoid losing too much life, and we don't want to go for the most explosive plays in the early turns, we focus the mana base on a mix of Surveil Lands and Verges to ensure access to the necessary colors.

The copies of Starting Town and Fabled Passage help complement this plan, while Cavern of Souls ensures that Yuna or the Overlords can "pass through" the opponent's Counterspells in some matchups.

Sideboard

The Anti-Aggro package.

Authority of the Consuls provides some extra breathing room in the early game, prevents Cori-Steel Cutter tokens from attacking on the same turn they enter, stops Slickshot Show-Off and Screaming Nemesis, and the life gain it provides stacks to give you an extra turn or two against red Aggro.

Beza, the Bounding Spring provides life gain, a decent body, and more blockers if your opponent has more creatures than you. It also works in Midrange games, where it can often hold the game for a few turns and help maintain resource parity.

Pyroclasm offers a clean answer to Prowess, especially in play. It also works against Convoke decks, but they're very low in the format these days.

Since we use our graveyard for interactions, we opted for Ghost Vacuum instead of Rest in Peace for games against Omniscience or Abhorrent Oculus.

We complemented the card with Heritage Reclamation, which, in addition to working as a targeted hate, deals with artifacts and enchantments, such as the opponent's Ghost Vacuum and Rest in Peace. Although intuitive, I don't like adding Reclamation against Prowess because it becomes another card on the list that does "little" to interact with the board, especially on the draw.

High Noon is the main way to "lock" Prowess from its ability to create snowballs in the game, gaining us a few turns to establish our board position. It also works against Omniscience, since our opponent will need to deal with the enchantment before starting the loops.

The extra copy of Ultima provides another comprehensive answer to multiple matchups and a sweeper that we can use against Midrange, Aggro, or even Ramp Mirrors.

Exorcise deals with Enduring Curiosity, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Overlords, and other higher-power creatures. Exiling artifacts and enchantments has a lot of utility in the current Metagame, but it's not the kind of card we want against Cori-Steel Cutter.

Lithomantic Barrage works against Abhorrent Oculus, Zur, Eternal Schemer and Shiko, Paragon of the Way and Beza, the Bounding Spring for the lowest possible cost, and without the need to worry about Counterspells.

Izzet Prowess

IN

OUT

Dimir Midrange

IN

OUT

Mono Red Aggro

IN

OUT

Jeskai Oculus

IN

OUT

Azorius Omniscience

IN

OUT

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!