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Yoshimaru, Scrappy Stray
Legendary Creature — Dog
When Yoshimaru enters, another target creature you control fights up to one target creature an opponent controls. (Each deals damage equal to its power to the other.) {6}: Put a +1/+1 counter on target nonlegendary creature.
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“Scrappy dog leads a fight-focused combat deck with +1/+1 counter synergies.”
Midrange
Intermediate
Combat damage, Tokens swarm
Tokens, Sacrifice
Strategy
Yoshimaru is a scrappy little fighter looking to punch above its weight class. The deck's core gameplan revolves around using Yoshimaru's fight ability repeatedly—either by blinking it, reanimating it, or copying it—to control the board while building a secondary engine of +1/+1 counters on your creatures. You're essentially playing midrange combat tricks: fight spells, instant-speed creature generators, and sacrifice outlets to turn your board into an army of buffed threats. The deck wins through combat damage by developing a board of resilient, oversized creatures that punch through defenses, often supported by green's ramp and creature tutors.
Strategy generated by Tapped Decks AI. Not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.
Key Synergies
- +Flicker effects like Flickering Hound or Ephemerate to reset Yoshimaru's ETB
- +Parallel Lives or Doubling Season to multiply token generation
- +Viscera Seer or Ashnod's Altar for sac outlets that benefit from token fights
- +Wrenn and Seven or other landfall triggers to pair with green ramp
- +Vigorbloom Charm as a modal fight spell that also gains life or counters
- +Scute Swarm to create exponential token copies when you play lands
- +Garruk, Curse Breaker to draw cards off your big creatures and make beasts
Budget Build
Skip pricey tutors like Green Sun's Zenith; use basic fight spells (Collision, Ranger's Guile) and mana dorks (Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic) as budget alternatives to expensive ramp.
Signature Cards
Inclusion = % of Yoshimaru, Scrappy Stray decks running this card. +lift = percentage-point boost over the format average.
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