Build of the Week: Shu Yun

So its Friday, time for another build of the week.

I have wanted to make a deck based around Sunforger for quite some time. I even shoehorned it into Kaalia for a while till I realized that really wasn't what I wanted that deck to be about. I also realized that I really wanted it to include blue mana. I almost put together a Narset deck with that general theme. It would work out fine but Narset has disincentives for playing other creatures and voltroning a 6 mana non-green creature is not the easiest thing in the world. Imagine my delight when they printed a Jeskai colored general that only costs three mana, made excellent use of instants and sorceries and further rewarded a voltron strategy.

Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest is a tight package of awesome. He gives us a reliable source of Prowess, making the deck kind of have a storm flavor to it. He also combines well with other creatures, something that Narset doesn't do. He also lets us do quite a bit with extra mana that lying around and is totally fine with playing reactive cards as opposed to Narset wanting to play primarily with proactive cards for her trigger.

So where do we start? Well like I said in the first paragraph, Sunforger!
Orim's Thunder
Oblation
Return to Dust
Turn//Burn
Odds//Ends
Wear//Tear
Boros Charm
Jeskai Charm
Izzet Charm
Azorius Charm
Absorb
Swords to Plowshares
Path to Exile
Chaos Warp
Enlightened Tutor
Dismantling Blow
Momentary Blink
Reiterate
Wild Ricochet

That's 19 cards, and not even all the spells we want! Sunforger has a very deep pool and finding the right set of cards is going to be difficult. We'll leave this where it is for now and cull from it later. I suppose the question is what other spells do we have to make room for?

Can trips:
Brainstorm
Ponder
Preordain
Opt
Gitaxian Probe
Slight of Hand
Impulse

Sorceries:
Time Spiral
Treasure Cruise
Seize the Day

Honestly these sections are a bit more anemic than they will be in the finished product. We could pack this list full of spells, but then we would miss out on the the side of Shu Yun that we want to capitalize on...being buffed up.

Enchantments:
Skullclamp
Steel of the Godhead
Jeskai Ascendancy
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of War and Peace
Umezawa's Jitte
Whispersilk Cloak
Lightning Greaves
Swiftfoot Boots
Batterskull

Those are some of the premium buffs. There are tons more available but these are a solid starting place for us. Quite a few of them are protection for us but there are some spells we can through in the mix for protection as well.

God's Willing
Emerge Unscathed
Pact of Negation
Force of Will
Arcane Denial
Remand
Memory Lapse

These are a good starting place, and even add to our Sunforger options.

That puts us up to 46 cards. Assuming 34 land, a bit light but we have lots of low cost options and cantrips, that leaves us with 20 cards. We definitely want to have other dudes to play, so what are some good creature options?
Narset, Enlightened Master
Godo, Bandit Warlord
Stoneforge Mystic
Stonehewer Giant
Geist of Saint Traft
Snapcaster Mage
Young Pyromancer
Monastery Mentor
Puresteel Paladin
Invisible Stalker

That's 10 slots left so lets put together some artifact acceleration:
Mana Crypt
Sol Ring
Grim Monolith
Mana Vault
Thran Dynamo
Gilded Lotus
Sensei's Divining Top
Boros Signet

That leaves us with a couple of unused slots. Since Prowess also functions on artifacts, I want to try Hurkyl's Recall. Also in goes another two Rebound cards, Distortion Strike and Recurring Insight. Rebound seems like a strong way to get free Prowess and Jeskai Ascendancy triggers.
We are already full and there are so many cards yet to add!


Orim's Thunder
Oblation
Return to Dust
Turn//Burn
Odds//Ends
Wear//Tear
Boros Charm
Jeskai Charm
Izzet Charm
Azorius Charm
Absorb
Swords to Plowshares
Path to Exile
Chaos Warp
Enlightened Tutor
Dismantling Blow
Momentary Blink
Reiterate
Wild Ricochet

Brainstorm
Ponder
Preordain
Opt
Gitaxian Probe
Slight of Hand
Impulse

Time Spiral
Treasure Cruise
Seize the Day

Skullclamp
Steel of the Godhead
Jeskai Ascendancy
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of War and Peace
Umezawa's Jitte
Whispersilk Cloak
Lightning Greaves
Swiftfoot Boots
Batterskull


God's Willing
Emerge Unscathed
Pact of Negation
Force of Will
Arcane Denial
Remand
Memory Lapse

Narset, Enlightened Master
Godo, Bandit Warlord
Stoneforge Mystic
Stonehewer Giant
Geist of Saint Traft
Snapcaster Mage
Young Pyromancer
Monastery Mentor
Puresteel Paladin
Invisible Stalker


Mana Crypt
Sol Ring
Grim Monolith
Mana Vault
Thran Dynamo
Gilded Lotus
Sensei's Divining Top
Boros Signet

Hurkyl's Recall.
Distortion Strike
Recurring Insight.

 This actually manages to be 4 cards over already.
OUT
Azorius Charm
Orim's Thunder
Return to Dust
Reiterate

I will miss Reiterate the most since buyback is pretty solid with Prowess, but its also crazy mana intensive. Azorius Charm is basically just a worse version of Jeskai Charm excepting the cantrip portion, but if you have a Sunforger going using it to just draw a card seems weak. That brings us to par for our cards. We could do more optimizing now, but lets get out mana together first.

Scalding Tarn
Flooded Strand
Arid Mesa
Hallowed Fountain
Steam Vents
Sacred Foundry
Tundra
Volcanic Island
Plateau
Mystic Monastery
Adarkar Wastes
Shivan Reef
Battlefield Forge
Glacial Fortress
Sulfur Falls
Clifftop Retreat
Command Tower
Reflecting Pool
Celestial Colonnade

That gives us a solid base of colored sources. We definitely want to cant toward blue mana since a lot of our cantrips need blue mana early and can be used to find our other colors.

3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains

And now for some cool utility lands!
Hall of the Bandit Lord

Slayer's Stronghold
Springjack Pasture
Kher Keep
Reliquary Tower
Ancient Tomb
Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
Desolate Lighthouse
Flamekin Village
Halimar Depths
Tolaria West

So the full initial list is:


Oblation

Turn//Burn
Odds//Ends
Wear//Tear
Boros Charm
Jeskai Charm
Izzet Charm

Absorb
Swords to Plowshares
Path to Exile
Chaos Warp
Enlightened Tutor
Dismantling Blow
Momentary Blink

Wild Ricochet

Brainstorm
Ponder
Preordain
Opt
Gitaxian Probe
Slight of Hand
Impulse

Time Spiral
Treasure Cruise
Seize the Day

Skullclamp
Steel of the Godhead
Jeskai Ascendancy
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of War and Peace
Umezawa's Jitte
Whispersilk Cloak
Lightning Greaves
Swiftfoot Boots
Batterskull
God's Willing
Emerge Unscathed
Pact of Negation
Force of Will
Arcane Denial
Remand
Mystical Tutor
Narset, Enlightened Master
Godo, Bandit Warlord
Stoneforge Mystic
Stonehewer Giant
Geist of Saint Traft
Snapcaster Mage
Young Pyromancer
Monastery Mentor
Puresteel Paladin
Invisible Stalker

Mana Crypt
Sol Ring
Grim Monolith
Mana Vault
Thran Dynamo
Gilded Lotus
Sensei's Divining Top
Boros Signet

Hurkyl's Recall.
Distortion Strike
Recurring Insight.

Scalding Tarn
Flooded Strand
Arid Mesa
Hallowed Fountain
Steam Vents
Sacred Foundry
Tundra
Volcanic Island
Plateau
Mystic Monastery
Adarkar Wastes
Shivan Reef
Battlefield Forge
Glacial Fortress
Sulfur Falls
Clifftop Retreat
Command Tower
Reflecting Pool
Celestial Colonnade 3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
Hall of the Bandit Lord
Slayer's Stronghold
Springjack Pasture
Kher Keep
Reliquary Tower
Ancient Tomb
Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
Desolate Lighthouse
Flamekin Village
Halimar Depths
Tolaria West
 There are a couple directions we could take based on performance. We could put in more Free spells and build more for a Prowess Storm deck which feels unique and cool. That would likely involve less equipment and more spells, including putting in more low cost artifacts. The other way that I can see the deck evolving is to cut some of the spells and play up the enlightened tutor package for some sweet hate cards. Note about the final decklist, I realized I hadn't put Mystical Tutor in the deck when its obviously awesome so I cut Memory Lapse for it. Overall the deck could use more tutors, but again I like to sus out what I'm tutoring for before putting them in the deck, and tutors kinda spoil the feel of EDH by making your unwieldy 100 card deck more repetitive.

I feel like this would be a fun deck to put together and hopefully I'll be back in a couple days to suggest changes.