At a glance
- Format: Brawl (100-card)
- Commander: Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian
- Colors: Green / Blue / White (GUW)
- Archetype: Bant (GWU) counters + creature-Saga lore-loop midrange
- Power tier: competitive
- Original deck: Isaac Prusky — adapted to Brawl from his paper Commander list (Moxfield)
- Competitive Brawl: ✅ Legal
Strategy
Curve out ramp into a counter generator, then a Saga. Attack with any counter-bearer to fire Tidus’s Cheer (draw + proliferate, once/turn); proliferate ticks Sagas toward payoff chapters while pumping the whole team. Use Tidus’s begin-combat move plus Nesting Grounds to relocate a lore counter off a Summon: creature-Saga so it dodges its sacrifice chapter and sticks as a permanent that keeps re-triggering (The Duke, Rebel Sentry moves +1/+1 counters and hands out hexproof to protect key carriers). Innkeeper’s Talent doubles every counter placed and hands a free proliferate. Good-Fortune Unicorn, Web-Warriors, and Southern Air Temple blanket the board in +1/+1 counters so there’s always a fresh Tidus target; Drix Fatemaker, Meltstrider Eulogist, Berta, and Synchronized Charge convert the counter pile into pressure and cards. Protect key carriers with shield counters and hexproof tricks (Brokers’ Safeguard, Snakeskin Veil, Spectacular Tactics, Shore Up, Royal Treatment) so the engine never gets blown out, and grind with Tatyova / Enduring Curiosity / Teo card flow plus a lean interaction suite (Stasis Snare, Sheltered by Ghosts, Make Your Move, bounce) to clear blockers and outlast the table.
Upgrade path
NEW BUILD 2026-07-15 — owned-first Brawl conversion of a paper Tidus EDH list (tidus-bant-counters workflow). Keeper mechanics preserved as crafts per Mik: Nesting Grounds (move counters), Innkeeper’s Talent (double counters + proliferate), a shield-counter granter, Karn’s Bastion (proliferate). Commander Tidus is a mythic craft. Doubling Season is the optional mythic upgrade for ‘double counters’. Three cards are unowned and must be crafted, all Mik-requested keepers: Innkeeper’s Talent (rare — the deck’s best counter-doubler + free proliferate, powers both pillars at once), Summon: Fenrir (uncommon creature-Saga Mik named — cheap loop target), and Brokers’ Safeguard (the chosen shield-counter granter to protect attackers; best-fit cheap option from the allowed list). Everything else is owned. The Ozolith and Resourceful Defense were intentionally left out to stay owned-first, since owned The Duke, Rebel Sentry already fills the nonland counter-mover role alongside Tidus and the manabase’s Nesting Grounds. SYNERGY PASS (mined the paper list): +Garnet, Princess of Alexandria (attack = strip lore counters off Sagas → banks them as +1/+1s = the Saga-loop PAYOFF), +Evolution Sage / Grateful Apparition / Merfolk Skydiver (proliferate density → advances Sagas AND grows team), +Conclave Mentor & owned Growth Curve (counter-doubling). OPTIONAL upgrades: The Ozolith (rare, {1} colorless — the actual card from the paper list; banks counters off dying/leaving creatures and redeploys them, a counter-recursion grind engine), Doubling Season (mythic, doubles counters + tokens), Roaming Throne (rare, trigger-copy). No Arena analog for the paper Devoted Druid infinite-mana line or charge-counter mana rocks.
Cards
Decklist
Paste straight into MTG Arena (or Moxfield/Archidekt):
Commander
1 Tidus, Yuna's Guardian
Deck
1 Summon: Fenrir
1 Origin of Spider-Man
1 Leaves from the Vine
1 Summon: Choco/Mog
1 The Legend of Kuruk
1 Summon: Fat Chocobo
1 Summon: Shiva
1 Summon: Knights of Round
1 Welcome to Sweettooth
1 Gadwick's First Duel
1 The Legend of Kyoshi
1 Innkeeper's Talent
1 Adaptive Sporesinger
1 Venomous Brutalizer
1 Meltstrider Eulogist
1 Drix Fatemaker
1 Berta, Wise Extrapolator
1 Synchronized Charge
1 The Duke, Rebel Sentry
1 Good-Fortune Unicorn
1 Web-Warriors
1 Southern Air Temple
1 Jeong Jeong's Deserters
1 Zack Fair
1 Katara, Bending Prodigy
1 Optimistic Scavenger
1 Slithering Cryptid
1 Garnet, Princess of Alexandria
1 Conclave Mentor
1 Hangarback Walker
1 A-Gnarlid Colony
1 Evolution Sage
1 Earth Kingdom General
1 Knowledge Seeker
1 Beetle, Legacy Criminal
1 Felling Blow
1 Brokers' Safeguard
1 Grateful Apparition
1 Spectacular Tactics
1 Royal Treatment
1 Merfolk Skydiver
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Ilysian Caryatid
1 Great Forest Druid
1 Arcane Signet
1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
1 Enduring Curiosity
1 Teo, Spirited Glider
1 Helpful Hunter
1 Cloudkin Seer
1 Gallant Citizen
1 Spectral Sailor
1 Stasis Snare
1 Sheltered by Ghosts
1 Growth Curve
1 Seam Rip
1 Glorious Decay
1 Command Tower
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Dreamroot Cascade
1 Hushwood Verge
1 Nesting Grounds
1 Karn's Bastion
13 Forest
8 Island
9 Plains
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Flux Channeler
1 Esper Origins
1 Katara, Waterbending Master
Ideal build (upgrade target)
Ideal doubles down on Tidus’s two pillars: premium counter-doublers (Doubling Season, Vorinclex, Branching Evolution, Hardened Scales, both Ozoliths) turn every Cheer/proliferate into a blowout, while a proliferate package (Evolution Sage, Grateful Apparition, Flux Channeler, Inexorable Tide, Karn’s Bastion) races the creature-Sagas toward payoff chapters and grows the team. Best-in-class white removal (Swords, Get Lost, Skyclave Apparition, Leyline Binding) replaces filler, and Nesting Grounds + The Duke + Garnet keep the Saga lore-loop online. Manabase becomes untapped Bant with Spara’s Headquarters. Top craft priorities: Doubling Season (mythic), Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider (mythic), Swords to Plowshares (uncommon), Branching Evolution + Hardened Scales (rares), Spara’s Headquarters (rare).
Crafts to reach the ideal: 35 (5 mythic, 25 rare, 4 uncommon, 1 common)
- Mythic: Bristly Bill, Spine Sower, Doubling Season, Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate, Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider
- Rare: Boseiju, Who Endures, Botanical Sanctum, Branching Evolution, Branchloft Pathway // Boulderloft Pathway, Champion of Lambholt, Fateful Absence, Get Lost, Glacial Fortress, Hardened Scales, Hengegate Pathway // Mistgate Pathway, Heroic Intervention, Hinterland Harbor, Inexorable Tide, Leyline Binding, March of Otherworldly Light, Otawara, Soaring City, Ozolith, the Shattered Spire, Prairie Stream, Rishkar, Peema Renegade, Roaming Throne, Skyclave Apparition, Spara’s Headquarters, Sunpetal Grove, Tezzeret’s Gambit, The Ozolith
- Uncommon: Kami of Whispered Hopes, Paradise Druid, Portable Hole, Renata, Called to the Hunt
- Common: Duskshell Crawler
Full ideal list (paste into Arena):
Commander
1 Tidus, Yuna's Guardian
Deck
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Druid of the Cowl
1 Ilysian Caryatid
1 Great Forest Druid
1 Paradise Druid
1 Arcane Signet
1 Shared Roots
1 Doubling Season
1 Innkeeper's Talent
1 Branching Evolution
1 Hardened Scales
1 Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider
1 Kami of Whispered Hopes
1 Ozolith, the Shattered Spire
1 The Ozolith
1 Conclave Mentor
1 Good-Fortune Unicorn
1 Evolution Sage
1 Grateful Apparition
1 Merfolk Skydiver
1 Flux Channeler
1 Inexorable Tide
1 Roaming Throne
1 Tezzeret's Gambit
1 Hangarback Walker
1 Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
1 Renata, Called to the Hunt
1 Champion of Lambholt
1 Duskshell Crawler
1 Web-Warriors
1 Adaptive Sporesinger
1 Garnet, Princess of Alexandria
1 The Duke, Rebel Sentry
1 Summon: Fenrir
1 Summon: Choco/Mog
1 Summon: Fat Chocobo
1 Summon: Shiva
1 Summon: Knights of Round
1 The Legend of Kuruk
1 The Legend of Kyoshi
1 Gadwick's First Duel
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Get Lost
1 Fateful Absence
1 Portable Hole
1 March of Otherworldly Light
1 Leyline Binding
1 Skyclave Apparition
1 Stasis Snare
1 Sheltered by Ghosts
1 Make Your Move
1 Heroic Intervention
1 Brokers' Safeguard
1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
1 Enduring Curiosity
1 Berta, Wise Extrapolator
1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1 Vivien, Monsters' Advocate
1 Knowledge Seeker
1 Teo, Spirited Glider
1 Growth Curve
1 Command Tower
1 Spara's Headquarters
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Botanical Sanctum
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Prairie Stream
1 Branchloft Pathway
1 Hengegate Pathway
1 Hushwood Verge
1 Boseiju, Who Endures
1 Otawara, Soaring City
1 Fabled Passage
1 Nesting Grounds
1 Karn's Bastion
1 Dreamroot Cascade
8 Forest
5 Plains
5 Island
Card images & data via Scryfall.