SelesnyaLegendary Creature — Hyena BeastYannik, Scavenging Sentinel
Mana value4Rank#18,981PartnerYes
The Commander
Partner with Nikara, Lair Scavenger
When Yannik enters, exile another creature you control until Yannik leaves the battlefield. When you do, distribute X +1/+1 counters among any number of target creatures, where X is the exiled creature's power.
Guide
Gameplan
Yannik is a value engine that exiles your own creatures and spits out +1/+1 counters equal to their power, then hands them back the moment Yannik leaves. You want big-power creatures or strong ETB bodies, plus a way to blink or recur Yannik to loop the exile/return, abusing enter-the-battlefield triggers while snowballing counters onto your board. Win by overwhelming with oversized, counter-pumped creatures or by chaining ETB value into a board state nobody can fight through.
Strengths
- Doubles as a counters payoff and a repeatable ETB-abuse engine in colors loaded with blink and recursion
- Vigilance lets it attack and still hold down the board
- Counter distribution scales off raw power, rewarding cheap fatties and ramp creatures
- Slots into multiple GW shells (counters, blink, tokens) without needing a fragile combo
Weaknesses
- The ETB exile only triggers when Yannik enters, so you need outside blink to loop it
- Heavily creature-dependent and folds to board wipes
- No evasion or protection built in—Yannik is a 4-mana 3/3 that's easy to remove
- Spreading counters can be slow and grindy in faster pods
Key Cards
- Conjurer's Closet — Blinks Yannik every end step to repeatedly exile a creature and dump counters.
- Restoration Angel — Flickers Yannik at instant speed to retrigger the counter distribution and dodge removal.
- Ravos, Soultender — Big partner-eligible body whose high power makes a huge counter payout when exiled.
- Eternal Witness — Looping its ETB via Yannik blinks rebuys spells from your graveyard each cycle.
- The Ozolith — Stockpiles counters when creatures die and lets you redeploy them, smoothing Yannik's payouts.
- Avenger of Zendikar — Re-blinking it floods the board with Plant tokens that Yannik can then load with counters.
Upgrade Path
Add reliable blink (Conjurer's Closet, Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, Restoration Angel) so Yannik's trigger isn't a one-shot, and counter multipliers like Doubling Season, Branching Evolution, and Hardened Scales to balloon payouts. Tighten the creature base toward high-power ETB bodies and proliferate engines (Inspiring Call, The Ozolith), and consider going Abzan with partner Nikara for graveyard recursion that fuels a more resilient value loop.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Distributing counters onto a wide board and swinging for overwhelming combat damage
- ▸Looping ETB creatures (Avenger of Zendikar, Eternal Witness) for inevitable advantage
- ▸Going tall on a single evasive threat loaded with counters for commander damage
Archetypes
- Blink — Flicker effects loop Yannik's exile trigger to abuse ETBs and re-distribute counters every turn.
- +1/+1 Counters — Yannik is a repeatable counter source that pairs with proliferate and counter doublers.
- Aristocrats — Exiling and returning creatures combos with sacrifice and death-trigger value engines.
- Tokens — Counter distribution turns wide token boards into a lethal, evasive army.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (GW), by popularity.
