Tidus, Yuna's Guardian
A Bant combat engine that redistributes counters to keep attackers relevant and converts countered-creature damage into cards plus proliferate.
Public decks: 2Bracket: Varies
Overview
- Build a board of creatures that naturally accumulate counters, then use combat to turn those counters into ongoing advantage.
- At each of your combats, Tidus can “fix” your counter distribution by moving a counter from one creature to another, helping concentrate pressure or protect key pieces.
- Connect with at least one creature that has counters to trigger Cheer, letting you draw a card and proliferate once per turn.
- Plays like a proactive midrange deck: develop early, swing often, and snowball value while your team grows.
- Typically wins by scaling combat damage over multiple turns, using proliferate to widen the gap.
Common lines
- Set up multiple creatures with counters, then use the start-of-combat trigger to move a counter onto the creature that’s most likely to connect.
- Attack with one or more countered creatures, trigger Cheer on a hit, then proliferate to increase your board’s pressure for the next turn cycle.
- Shift counters off a creature that’s about to trade or get removed, preserving value by consolidating onto a safer or evasive attacker.
Strengths
- Consistent incremental advantage: card draw plus proliferate gated behind combat damage.
- Counter management flexibility lets you keep your best attacker online and smooth out awkward distributions.
- Scales well in longer games as repeated proliferate turns small edges into large threats.
- Encourages interactive combat and board-centric play that can keep pace with other creature decks.
Weaknesses
- Heavily combat-dependent; fog effects, pillow-fort patterns, or clogged boards can shut off Cheer.
- Vulnerable to sweepers and repeated removal that prevents you from sticking countered attackers.
- Once-per-turn limit on Cheer caps the raw draw rate compared to dedicated engine commanders.
- Can struggle to close quickly without sustained board presence or clean attacks.
Rule zero notes
- This commander is primarily a combat-value engine (damage trigger) rather than a deterministic combo piece.
- Cheer draws and proliferates only once per turn, so the deck’s advantage is incremental, not explosive by default.
- Expect lots of counter manipulation and proliferate bookkeeping on board.
- If your build includes any alternate win conditions tied to counters, disclose them up front (the commander naturally supports counter scaling).
Matchups
Best into
- Creature-heavy midrange pods where attacks and blocks are the main axis of interaction.
- Slower value tables that give you time to grow counters and leverage repeated proliferate.
- Decks light on sweepers, where building a board is rewarded.
Struggles against
- Fast combo pods where combat-based snowballing is too slow to matter.
- Heavy control or board-wipe dense tables that reset your counter investment repeatedly.
- Pillow-fort and fog-heavy strategies that deny combat damage triggers.
FAQ
Do I need multiple creatures with counters for Tidus to work?
You’ll want at least one countered attacker to trigger Cheer, but having multiple counter sources makes the start-of-combat counter move much more impactful.
Can I trigger Cheer multiple times in one combat?
Cheer can trigger from multiple creatures dealing damage, but it only resolves once each turn due to the restriction.
What’s the main way this deck wins?
Most builds will win through growing combat damage over several turns, using proliferate and counter consolidation to keep threats ahead of the table.
How important is evasion?
Very important—your engine depends on connecting with a countered creature, so consistent ways to push damage through tend to matter a lot.
Is this commander more of a value engine or a counters payoff?
It’s both, but it plays like a value engine: the counters help you reliably trigger Cheer, and Cheer helps your counters snowball over time.