Shorikai, Genesis Engine | Upping the Average 

I would love to see a Reanimator theme video for shorikai. Honestly I’d love a lot of videos where you focus on a single theme for a given commander that is off the beaten path. The theme dropdown filter is my favorite thing about edhrec right now

I suggest Adding Scaretiller. It's an Artifact creature so it has artifact synergies. Whenever it becomes tapped (to crew vehicles most of the time) can put a land from your hand or a land that you pitched to your graveyard from Shorikai's ability, because as Joey said he helps out smooth out your draw and that's one way to prevent being mana flooded

7:55 I love Mindlink Mech not as a vehicle, but as a freebie to copy creature effects. For example, you can copy etherium sculptor to reduce costs on artifacts by 1 for the turn. Or copy scaretiller for an extra land from grave if you combo off with shorikai and intruder alarm. It’s useful as a utility piece

Awesome video as always Joey. I would love to see your take on Azorius reanimator. Hopefully that video happens. Thanks for all your hard work!

Dude, great breakdown and explanation!!!

I really like Wonder in this deck. This card is part of a Judgement cycle for each color, and Valor is the white version. Valor gives your creatures First Strike when in the graveyard and you control a plains. Shorikai can put this little guy into the graveyard just the same as Wonder.

Great Job Joey, I love this series! Just wanted to suggest Martial Coup, it’s a budget friendly wrath that’ll leave you with tokens to crew your hot wheels. A must play in all my vehicle decks!

I adore this deck. Most fun I've had playing in a long time. It's a vehicles, advantage, control deck.

I wanted to go for the reanimator theme on Shorikai when I first got him on my precon, but I didn't have all the cards needed for that... so I ended up building Shorikai cycling. If the deck is gonna be playing cards such as Brilliant Restoration, might aswell fill the graveyard with the silly cycling enchantments like Lay Claim and Decree of Silence. Special mention go to Vizier of Tumbling Sands, Drake Haven and Curator of Mysteries, all of which have great synergy with Shorikai.

The more I see Shorikai pop up the more I’m really loving it. I feel a disturbance in my wallet …

I learned a lot in this video as a beginner thanks EDHRECast for that video. It is very well made and i love it. But I build this deck without the high salt cards. This deck includes some cards which are not welcome on every table. If you want to play normal Commander with the "average" people replace Esper Sentinel, Cyclonic Rift, Rhystic Study and Smothering Tithe. The cards are very expensive. I replaced them with cards from the "honorable mentions budget" at 14:30 part in the video. Again well made video!

The reanimator aspect is really interesting, as an avid Black enthusiast myself, I might actually enjoy what I thought was a pretty straight forward and narrow commander!

I'm still running with the pilot, but I see myself switching to Shorikai soon. And I agree that the switch will end up making Vehicles more of a subtheme. I will say though, Mechtitan is everything I wanted it to be. Got it to work first time, didn't win, but loved smashing in with that giant mech!

Losheel, Clockwork Scholar is another option to help your vehicles punch through. It also has card draw on it!

OMG, You actually did it! Love it! 😍

Pretty cool deck tech. Some stuff I’ll definitely add to my list. Gotta say though, I hardly disagree when it comes to Armed and Armored. In my experience with Shorikai, that card is either a win condition or a player elimination condition! Pretty dang good.

Thank you very much for this!!!!

Really want to build this, as a yugioh player I love machines and their art so much always looks cool and over the top

I know its already been said, but I would also love to see a reanimator theme deck with this commander!

I'd really like to see this as a graveyard strategy too. If you ever do one of these videos on that theme I'd really enjoy that.

Joey couldn't do it without reanimation, I love it :D

Missed a "slow and steady wins the drag race" joke.

a recent one I found useful (as of early 2023) is Out of time. same idea as many of the wipe synergies mentioned; and with the phased out, can avoid the graveyard of certain shenanigans (looking at you, Joey... :-)

Teferi's Ageless Insight turns Shorikai's ability into a net of three cards instead of a net of one card.

Im updating my Shorikai into "Shorikai wheel" stax and draws the inclusion of white and blue schemes are pretty powerful. Combos I discovered playing shorkai 1.Intruder alarm + Shorikai ability = draw outlet 2.Basalt monolith and Brighthearth for infinite colorless mana 3. Ashnods altar can combo the pilot to sac and create 2 colorless 4. Libary fengs is a must have if you wish to not forcefully discard your card into your grave. Instead you can save that card and put it on top of your libary. Its a good way to bounce the card back from discard/ force discard in combination and its a 1 mana drop! 5. Katori pilot+walking balista+Light of promise for infinte life and dmg I had also just realise you can make this a mill deck for your draws! By applying whenever you draw force each opponent to mill a card by that drawn amount

Nice to see Joey jumping on the "yell-at-Wizards-to-reprint-stuff" train 😅

I uhhhhh, I definitely saw the card draw engine and token protection and ended up going with a mill strategy. Loved the video though!

Love the vehicle version, it is so different. I have so many reanimator decks that when I seen more people ignoring 50% of the card and just using it for reanimator my first thought was that seems boring and something I have done thousands of times.

I love playing tezzerets gate breaker in here. Good search with potentially game ending unlockable effect.

I love this deck so much ! Gundams are my jam baby 😎

As a new mtg player, I'm so proud of myself because the vast majority of cards you guys suggested to swap out, I had already felt the same way and done so. (Even teleportation circle! I was so hype you guys agreed!) The only ones i kept were the 2 mechs because I absolutely love them and planned to use them all no matter if they were good or bad. I'm a greedy deckbuilder, in the sense that if i have a card that fits my theme and I like it, I'm going to force it to work. I wanted to use vehichles/mechs specifically, and along the way I decided to make a deck partially inspired by the anime Neon Genesis, Evangelion. I switched my commander to Breya, Etherium Shaper and added her in alongside Sydri, Galvanic Genius. Then i added in Born To Drive alongside a few things that guve artifacts +1/+1. I also have 3 or 4 cards that reduce the cost of artifacts. 2 came in the precon, and I added Cloud Key, as well as Enthusiast Mechanaut thanks to Breya being my commander. Alongside the +1/+1 counters for artifacts, the mechanaut as well as other small creatures (namely thopters) can crew my vehichles very easily. I also took out the plow and the boat, and the same creatures you guys suggested. Here is where things got fun for me. I added in mobile garrison, and Clockwork Hydra. The reason I wanted hydra specifically for this next set of choices. I added 3 cards from the Warhammer 30k set that im glad to have gotten my hands on for cheap. Thunderhawk Gunship, Goliath Truck, and Ghyrson Starn, Kellermorph. Ghyrson automatically does 2 more damage whenever you do exactly 1 damage to anything, thus the hydra come alive. The vehicles are BOTH only crew 2, the gunship creates 2 tokens that are 2/2 when attacking as well as gives all attacking creatures flying, and goliath truck gives 2 +1/+1 counters to another attacking creature. All of this makes for some disgusting combos. So many insane pieces, but there are 2 extra "cherry on top" cards. Creeping Mycosynth makes my non-artifacts get the +1/+1 buffs from my "all artifacts" buffs, and Nautiloid Ship is just mean while allowing me to have the opponent's graveyard at my disposal, and it usually comes in for 2-0 mana with reductions up. Super super fun deck so far, and I cant wait to learn more about the game. My next goal is to get a Brilliant Restoration. Its insane how smoothly this deck runs, and it really does make me proud of myself. My next goal is to make a mech dungeon deck thats extremely fun for everyone at the table

My Shorikai deck is one or my favorites!

(1:35) What I did was added instances that create token creatures. So I can play those on the end step of my opponent. That way on my turn they can be tapped to crew my vehicles.🙂

Isochron Scepter makes Armed and Armoured really good

Hey Joey, I love these videos. As I am getting back into magic after a decade, these videos are awesome. Any chance you can make a list of cards that are different from the precon for easy buying? I always end up having to load the decks into something, filter out what I already own, and then use your tcgp/edhrec link to manually add them to my cart with the bulk tool. Or am I missing an easier way?

15:50, hahaha I’m so glad I waited til the LOTR commander decks reprinted that card, it’s around $2 as of this date. So glad I waited, reprints are always on the horizon.

Run Meekstone (artifact) instead of Intruder Alarm (enchantment) if you aren't looking for combo, more for controlling the board.

Can someone tell me if I'm correctly understanding how Dance of the Manse works with vehicles? From my understanding with x>6 it revives the vehicles as 4/4 with all of their abilities and they become creatures in addition to their other types. So now they are artifact - vehicle creature. Are they able to attack now without being crewed?

Shorikai is pretty awesome. In my version, I went with token payoff and draw payoff with untap effect. Ended up a little bit on the combo side without my intention, but my casual friends haven't complained yet. Still need testing.

About to start trading for some of these cards but a few I saw peeking around the edhrec page: Mirran spy is a fun budget untap option Mishras factory for a budget animating land Mystic forge for top deck plays Monastery mentor for just shenanigans One with the machine for draw power Sculpting steel for another clone Blackstaff of water deep is hilarious The antiquities war isn’t a bad digging option with an animating end Mechanized production is a good alt win card I’m so excited to tinker with this deck more

I had the same idea about a reanimator deck. I have a Plarg Dean of Chaos reanimator deck which functions along the same lines.

Ohh I'd like to see that reanimate themed deck you mentioned lol

First time I played Shorikai and used Isochron Scepter, I thought I was super clever when I imprinted Counterspell on it. People at the table did NOT like that, and after being immediately focused by 3 people I learned to never do that again.

I gather people in cEDH are into the Polymorph/Scepter builds, usually with Hullbreaker or Tidespout as the payoff to win. Very solid deck by all appearances.

I made a mid-range Voltron build of this. With plan b for winning being attacking with my Ariel mechs, if commander damage does not work. I'm not leaning into auras or equipments either

Could you maybe do Kethis? With the number of legendary creatures coming out, he gets so much support every set. It's hard to keep track and filter out what's actually good for him

Are you guys ever going to update the pre-con section on your website with the neon Dynasty Commander decks?

Joey- "Our first Vehicle commander." Cosima- "Am I a joke to you?" Jokes aside, an Aura Shards can shut the deck off pretty quick so putting some sort of targeted removal for enchantments, or more protective cards like Padeem might be useful.

I swapped out to shorikai and it’s been great fun

Joey you read my mind. Looting ability made me think reanimator. Would love to see that take.

I have a niambi reanimator deck. But I’ve been thinking of swapping her for for this lovely mech. It seems like it’s just a better option. Im torn, I like the legends matter theme, but Shirokai does the job better: cheaper activation cost, removal evasive, doesn’t require a legend in hand to activate. Niambi just feels obsolete now….

I just started building Shorikai based off Kyle Hills list from the Shuffle Up & Play video that Joey from EDHrec piloted and won with.

I went more of a strong token board state with mine. Using shorikai, a card called stonybrook schoolmaster, and other creatures to be tapped, then copying throne of the god Pharoah to burn out the table has been a pretty good strategy

Wanna start by drawing 5 cards a turn and ultimately tutor for 4 plus your draw?? Teferis ageless insight + archmage ascension + intruder alarm + (elixir of immortality, psychic spiral, emergency powers) and 2 mana dorks.... Now that you have infinite pilot tokens how about a Dusk/dawn into a Mirrorweave?? Shorikai is wild!!

Mindlink Mech has been amazing in my list. It often gives me a lot of mana ramp by letting me have two foundry inspector, two etherium sculptor, and for example two Bronze guardians. There was some interesting suggestions tho! Oh also you can activate the vehicles crew ability and them bounce all creatures in response to the mass bounce like Perplexing Test or evacuation.

Now all I need is for someone to make altersleeves or custom alters for all the vehicles to turn them into Gundams.

Can't believe you omitted Conqueror's Galleon 😮

Here is another $$$ honorable mention that works great with the commander: Humility! But then my list started with 15 boardwipes and ignores the vehicle theme completely so that might just be me.

Everyone seems to be sleeping on mind link mech.

This thing is an Evangelion and you cannot convince me otherwise

for anyone that has bought the precon recently, not sure if it was just mine or not but instead of Mindlink Mech we get Cataclysmic Gearhulk now

'First vehicle commander' *Grumbles in Depala*

why have we never gotten a breya video?

I’m not sure I understand the tele circle/shorikai interaction…doesn’t it have summoning sickness when it ETBs?

Ephara seems like a solid azorious card draw engine with a token generating commander

What if you were to play Isochron Scepter + Armed and Armored 👀

Have a spare land tax. Thoughts on fitting it in?

Please, do the reanimation version for us!

If your commander is crews intruder alarm combos with some mana dorks because he makes a token creature.

can you do hidetsugu devouring chaos please

I build this deck exclusively focus on Mechtitan. Extravagant duplication, some way to duplicate this enchantement and all turn, i copy the core. A little bit hard, but "put a mechtitan factory" online is so hilarious !

I made this deck and it’s really fun and consistent! Can’t recommend Imposter Mech enough, it’s like having 2 commanders in a lot of situations. The 2 cmc also makes it easy to get. A less known tutor that works well with Shorikai is Long-Term Plans, best part is you don’t have to reveal!

I think removing non legendary from Mindlink Mech's text takes it from eh to mindblowing

Another week, another request Upping the Average: Elsha of the Infinite.

Please do a shorikai reanimator video

I built shorikai as a mass polymorph deck with only about 6 creatures in the deck

The reanimator version sounds a lot more fun, I look forward to that video if it ever comes out

My Shorikai ended up being a Polymorph control deck lol

"i knew you guys would clock me if i made car references" also: "lightning mcqueen would be proud" 😐

If anyone is still trying to build this try building a bomberman style deck. It slaps!

Please up Mayael the Anima's average

Tuvasa Redux!!!!

Colossal plow is in there for Kotori, not for shorikai

Joey, how are you doing?

Azorious reanimator? Hmmm

Lol, I chose to take this general a different path. Good luck guys

i thought colossal plow was shit until a few games i realized... i dont get if it dies but people normally care about the creature they have to trade 1 for 1 for it so i ended up getting 7 swings with it normally.

It was a shameless theft from a tweet I saw but I have been running library of Leng and counterbalance in my shorikai for a brutal countertop.

I don't get it why is rebbec good? 12:05

.65 x 🤔 oddly specific

Haha I built him as a combo deck

Need "Giant Ox" in all vehicle decks.

Surprised to see no Arcum Dagsson in here, it’s absolutely busted sacrificing things like junk diver to search basically the entire deck, while junk diver also returns any vehicle in the GY to that hang

Whole bit about armed and armored being bad IMMEDIATELY after discussing the deck's potential to one sidedly wipe all creatures off the board was insane to listen to. You clearly didn't put 5 seconds of thought into that segment lmao

I'm surprised and a little disappointed that you missed Scourglass when you added wrath's.

I think it's important to recognize kotori is not that great. Her crew ability is useless with shorikai creating pilots. Granting two key words is nice but insignificant with the other support cards

The moment you talked about taking out Sram I turned it off...