Commander Deck Tech: Yenna, Redtooth Regent

Today, we'll analyze the newest Wilds of Eldraine enchantment commander, Yenna, Redtooth Regent.

A legendary Selesnya creature, our Elf is trying to get into the classic enchantment deck build, focused on value, and double its efficiency. In this deck tech, we'll explore how we can extract the most out of her and build a very synergistic list.

Yenna, Redtooth Regent has great stats, 4/4, and is capable of blocking early game attacks or applying pressure whenever possible.

However, it is her activated ability which shines the most: at the cost of two generic mana, Yenna, Redtooth Regent can be tapped and create a copy of an enchantment controlled by you, as long as there aren't any other permanents under your control with the same name. And if it is an aura, our commander even offers top deck control through a Scry 2 - but note that this is in sorcery speed!

The focus of our list becomes clear when we see what our commander can do. Selesnya Enchantress is already a solid strategy in the format, and Yenna, Redtooth Regent can bring it to the next level.

Decklist

Drawing Cards

As the heart of the deck, the cards responsible for getting us ahead when playing enchantments are known figures in this archetype. Sythis, Harvest’s Hand, in particular, is a bit off the curve, which, at the same time it gets us ahead by giving us card advantage, it provides life gain, adding even more value to each card played.

This is a decisive move to advance our strategy, as our focus on creating a snowball effect onto our opponents depends directly on the number of cards we have and the speed at which they refill, so getting value and knowing when to use the pieces responsible for our draws might be the key to victory in many situations.

Getting Ahead

Getting ahead on number of cards in hand is indeed important, but it should go along with the ability to play them.

It is imperative to have a lot of land acceleration and mana generators, besides card discounts, which will give us the ability to make multiple plays in a turn and exponentially grow our snowball explosively. What we don't want is to get behind in mana, and these accelerators grant us consistency.

A big highlight is Sanctum Weaver, which is capable of creating lands according to our number of enchantments, and directly increasing our power and advantage.

Generating Power

We have countless options to finish the game. We can bury our enemies with Archon of Sun’s Grace, which if doubled can create twice the number of tokens, and, if added to something like Mondrak, Glory Dominus, can go out of control even more quickly and frenzied.

And you can still combine these token multipliers and create a powerful army of Nyxborn Behemoths, a card which is already a great finisher for this archetype and gains even more strength in this list.

If all of this still isn't enough, we have a third way we can explore: abusing auras such as Ethereal Armor, we can transform our commander into a true nuclear weapon, capable of bringing defeat to our opponent with just one attack.

It is at this time we see the true beauty of Yenna, Redtooth Regent. Even though she takes on so many roles, our Elf can still create a consistent and powerful board which becomes present in many different traits, combining them into one.

After we analyzed our strategy and our deck's composition, it is clear there's one word that can define it well: "consistency".

Creating value through card draw, exploring the copy ability to increase traits that go from resource hoarding, mana generation and devastating finishers; Yenna, Redtooth Regent welcomes all of that quite homogeneously, providing a lot of redundancy to her main effects. It is a deck that guarantees a devastating and continuous strength from beginning to end.

It is very important to know the order and the way we'll create our resources, but, by elaborating a strategy and a way, Yenna is capable of transforming the game into an uncontrollable snowball rolling you to victory as you mow down your opponents.

Main Cards and Differences

As a list more focused on auras and a little less focused on resources, the budget version tries to control the game through some punctual removals in enchantment-shape which lock down your opponent's creatures meanwhile you, at the same time, build a gigantic attacker in our commander or some creature which can finish the game for us.

All that as it abuses the second part of our commander's ability, being able to easily activate its effect more than once per turn.

Cards such as Mantle of the Ancients can end the game explosively, transforming your commander into an unstoppable force, even more so if combined with something like Rancor, which guarantees an efficient evasion while it adds up damage.

As Siona, Captain of the Pyleas and Shielded by Faith bring a "plan B" to this deck, such as a combo capable of creating infinite soldiers on your battlefield, they might serve as an alternative strategy and still individually contribute to our game plan.

Yenna, Redtooth Regent is the pinnacle of Selesnya enchantment decks, taking advantage of the already consistent package which creates value and resilience, such as Verduran Enchantress, Sterling Grove and similar cards alongside cards such as Archon of Sun’s Grace and Kor Spiritdancer, which can finish games extremely easily.

Yenna, Redtooth Regent simply makes the use of these cards twice as efficient, as it brings an almost unique window to explore aura cards such as Pacifism, Darksteel Mutation or All that Glitters in a very effective and unpaired way, allowing an interesting mix between a permanent control strategy and value generation with just a few holes in its build.

It is a deck that I strongly recommend if the strategy calls out to you, both in its more complete version, or in its aura-focused budget version.

See you next time!