Captain Sisay was my first attempt at an EDH deck and it's still my most solid, I think. Unless I'm up against a completely broken deck like some Sliver monstrosity (or a finely-tuned Zur machine) this deck has the capacity to hold its own against almost all comers. The theme is obvious ... Sisay tutors for a legend (or legendary permanent) every turn! This allows for some righteous toolbox action (she can even mana-fix!) and also guarantees me serious power in the way of brick houses like Akroma, Silvos, and Multani.
There are a few cards that are obvious inclusions but that I don't own (Savannah, Gaea's Cradle, Jitte) but aside from that I can't think off the top of my head of very many changes I want to make.
The toolbox capacity of this deck can get pretty absurd. I can get removal (Mangara), mass removal (Mageta), control hate (Dosan, Teeg), stall (Hokori), creature defense (Kor Haven), artifact hate (Glissa), flyer hate (Arashi), and of course any of my large scary legends (Multani, Akroma, Silvos, Kodama, Jugan, Tolsimir, Molimo, Radiant). I can mana-fix or just get extra mana (Cloud Keeper). I can even tutor up a random Mindslaver! And with the 2 mana-doubling enchantments, the 5 mana rocks, and the 5 land ramp spells, I can pretty reliably get my fat out a turn or two before mana costs would suggest. Sisay hitting the board, active and shrouded, on turn 2 isn't even out of the question (all I need is Lightning Greaves and Sol Ring in the opening hand).
I'm open to thoughts!
UPDATE:
-2 Plains
-Call of the Herd
-Tigereye Cameo
-Mirari
-Candles of Leng
-Time of Need
+Mistveil Plains
+Garruk Wildspeaker
+Selesnya Sanctuary
+Selesnya Signet
+Rings of Brighthearth
+Thousand-Year Elixer
+Enlightened Tutor
Have you tried out the Hondens? Chump blockers and extra life can't be bad. Plus the spirits are Pendlehaven targets. Day of Destiny seems like a good fit with your legend creatures. Konda, Lord of Eiganjo might be good... I'm basing that entirely on his indestructible-ness. Actually if indestructibility is fun for you, think about That Which Was Taken instead.
Candles of Leng has always been underwhelming to me...
The Patron is definitely a good choice. Id swap it in, taking out balstoderm or forgotten ancient-they don't seem to help the theme as much.
Look up legendary lands on Gatherer- there are a few that I think could be pretty useful in one way or another.
I've thought about Patron but I only run 8 forests in the whole 100 cards, and with the exception of Glissa, none of my green creatures really have relevant tapping abilities (OK, I guess if Rhys starts going off, Patron gets insane ...), so the 8 mana has never seemed really worth it to me ... but I haven't tried it yet, so it's worth a shot. What would you recommend I cut for it? The curve's already pretty high, so my first thought is probably Reya Dawnbringer. (Forgotten Ancient is completely nutty, but I think I can afford to lose Blastoderm.)
Winding Canyons goes in as soon as I find one. Good looks.
The only legendary lands left are either colorless with an ability that doesn't really warrant losing mana consistency (Rath's Edge, God's Eye, Mikokoro, Boseiju, Miren) or completely insane (Gaea's Cradle, Karakas ... isn't that banned anyway?). Serra Sanctum doesn't have enough support, so aside from Cradle (and Miren, which I'm still on the fence about) I think the land base is pretty set as far as legendary lands go.
reya is a good choice, also consider blastoderm or molimo. they arent gamebreaking really. youre forgetting that parton untaps YOUR GENERAL. two tutors a turn man, c'mon.
I would replace a lot of your colorless, fixing, and weaker utility nonbasics (those that come into play tapped should be first on the chopping block) with search lands (the ones from Mirage, and the three Shards panoramas, for instance) to begin with, while shifting your basic count more towards the foresty end. Doing this also makes Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary a viable accelerant, who can then speed up getting out Patron of the Orochi.
edit-- I don't know how common milling is with your group, but if there is a deck or two that likes to mill you to death, mistveil plains deserves a spot too.
I'm not too happy about the idea of enchanting lands because just about every EDH deck I've ever encountered has run a Strip Mine and/or a Ghost Quarter.
Man I wish they'd errata Karakas so it could only hit your own legends, maybe then it'd be unbanned and I could play it. Karakas would be freakin' awesome in this deck even if it couldn't hit opponents' generals.
This. It's pretty invigorating when you assemble Voltron...
A few more notes from my own Sisay experience:
- I like lots of 2-drop accelerators (Signet, Steward of Valeron, etc). It's so clutch to have Sisay searching your library on turn 4.
- Scroll Rack and Sylvan Library work really well here too, seeing as how you're shuffling every turn
- Thousand-Year Elixir. Busted!
I definitely want an artifact in here to double up with Sisay's ability, but with a choice between Thousand-Year Elixer and Rings of Brighthearth, I think I'm inclined to put in the Rings. Thousand-Year Elixer costs one less mana to activate and enables haste for Sisay (and Mangara and Glissa), but Rings allows for some absolutely broke-to-bits interactions with non-creature cards in this deck (like Mindslaver (wow), Krosan Verge, Strip Mine, and Kor Haven), and makes a difference with smaller abilities like Mind Stone and Horizon Canopy's card draws and the token-producing lands.
Making 3 cuts just for the Kaldra set doesn't seem worth it for me. Just about everything else in here has enough merit on its own that making 3 cuts for what is essentially only one addition just doesn't seem smart.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Thanks to Gabgabdevo for the awesome sig image!
I'm always looking for foil Madcap Skills and Ghitu Fire-Eater, [trade thread link forthcoming]
I definitely want an artifact in here to double up with Sisay's ability, but with a choice between Thousand-Year Elixer and Rings of Brighthearth, I think I'm inclined to put in the Rings.
I found room for both, but I'm always happier to see Elixir in my hand. Rings is great and all (even without Mindslaver), but I think Eilixir has better synergy with Sisay, who is the whole point of the deck. The way I see it, both cards get me two activations, but Elixir gives Sisay pseudo-haste, which I find much more important, since she attracts a lot of hate and can get quite expensive to play. If I'm going to pay 6+ mana for her, I want to make sure I squeeze at least one activation out of her. Rings may work with more cards overall in the deck, but Elixir works better with the card we *always* have access to; Sisay.
Making 3 cuts just for the Kaldra set doesn't seem worth it for me. Just about everything else in here has enough merit on its own that making 3 cuts for what is essentially only one addition just doesn't seem smart.
It seems to me that
-1 Basalt Monolith
-1 Call of Herd
-1 Time of Need
+3 Kaldra pieces
looks a lot better (at least on paper). Your opinion is that each Kaldra piece by itself doesn't do enough. You're telling me that a 3/3 vanilla from Call of the Herd is more relevant than making any of your guys indestructible? Or using a card to tutor up a legendary creature (something your general already does) is better than first strike, haste, and trample for any of your fatties? I don't know dude, I'd give that hardware a shot before you dismiss it...
OK guys I'm'a resurrect my thread to ask a question.
So I just realized that my deck has a couple random infinite-mana combos, and these combos only require two cards each. The cards in specific are Basalt Monolith, Mana Reflection, and Rings of Brighthearth. (Since Basalt Monolith combos with Rings and Grim Monolith doesn't, I figure that's a good enough reason to keep that slot the way it is.)
But the problem is that I have no way of actually using infinite mana in any appropriately game-breaking way! The only way I have of actually using infinite mana is using Sensei's Divining Top with Rings of Brighthearth to draw my deck (that works, right?), and even then, my win condition is still attacking (so it's not a guaranteed win, the only attacker that would win the game in one turn, Multani, can't get Lightning Greaves attached to it).
So I'm looking for a card, optimally tutorable with Sisay, that can turn infinite mana into a game win, optimally an immediate one. So far I've come up with Helix Pinnacle and Staff of Domination (which aren't legendary) and Verdeloth the Ancient (which doesn't win immediately). Tutoring up Mindslaver and using Rings on its ability is basically a game win in all but the biggest multiplayer games, I guess, but I'm leaving my options open and waiting for a sure thing ...
(A way to filter colorless mana into colored mana indefinitely is also something I'd welcome into the deck now!)
Oh, one other thing, if anyone can think of a reliable sacrifice outlet or bounce engine that can allow me to recur Mangara of Corondor, I'd appreciate it. I'd use Erratic Portal but it seems kinda underpowered in this deck aside from that one usage.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Thanks to Gabgabdevo for the awesome sig image!
I'm always looking for foil Madcap Skills and Ghitu Fire-Eater, [trade thread link forthcoming]
I like all of these and have lost to the green Myojin on several occasions. 8-and a half tails is the Reed Richards to my Dr. Doom. And the others are just good and tutorable.
I guess if you're really hard up for something that will win that turn, you could play Magma Mine, but that card is terrible outside of your combo. I mean, how often do you plan on having all four pieces out at once anyway? Nemata is good with lots of colorless, and as long as you have a Cradle out, he gets out of hand VERY quickly. In fact, I just added Knight of the Reliquary for even more ways to find it!
As for Mangara...there's Stonecloaker? I run that guy to give me some way to deal with opponent's recursion, but I love that it bounces a guy. Our playgroup still allows Karakas, so... Erratic Portal is more than good, give it a shot. Being able to save your guys from board sweep is always good, and it messes with your opponent's math sometimes.
Here's the list as it currently stands:
Legendary (tutorable):
1 Pendelhaven
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
1 Yavimaya Hollow
1 Kor Haven
1 Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper
1 Brushland
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Sungrass Prarie
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Elfhame Palace
1 Temple Garden
1 Arctic Flats
1 Strip Mine
1 Nantuko Monastery
1 Krosan Verge
1 Mutavault
1 Temple of the False God
1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Kjeldoran Outpost
1 Centaur Garden
1 Treetop Village
1 Vesuva
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
3 Plains
7 Forest
Creatures:
Legendary (tutorable):
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Kodama of the North Tree
1 Mangara of Corondor
1 Reya Dawnbringer
1 Reki, the History of Kamigawa
1 Silvos, Rogue Elemental
1 Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
1 Mirri, Cat Warrior
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Hokori, Dust Drinker
1 Jugan, the Rising Star
1 Rhys the Redeemed
1 Glissa Sunseeker
1 Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer
1 Mageta the Lion
1 Radiant, Archangel
1 Arashi, the Sky Asunder
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Dosan the Falling Leaf
1 Wall of Roots
1 Forgotten Ancient
1 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Eternal Witness
1 Oversoul of Dusk
1 Blastoderm
Planeswalkers:
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
Artifacts:
Legendary (tutorable):
1 Mindslaver
1 Mind Stone
1 Sol Ring
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Coalition Relic
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mind's Eye
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Thousand-Year Elixer
1 Sensei's Divining Top
Enchantments:
1 Rancor
1 Armadillo Cloak
1 Sylvan Library
1 Land Tax
1 Privileged Position
1 Story Circle
1 Glare of Subdual
1 Mirari's Wake
1 Mana Reflection
Instants/Sorceries:
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Wrath of God
1 Catastrophe
1 Austere Command
1 Explosive Vegetation
1 Nature's Lore
1 Rampant Growth
1 Harrow
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Harmonize
The toolbox capacity of this deck can get pretty absurd. I can get removal (Mangara), mass removal (Mageta), control hate (Dosan, Teeg), stall (Hokori), creature defense (Kor Haven), artifact hate (Glissa), flyer hate (Arashi), and of course any of my large scary legends (Multani, Akroma, Silvos, Kodama, Jugan, Tolsimir, Molimo, Radiant). I can mana-fix or just get extra mana (Cloud Keeper). I can even tutor up a random Mindslaver! And with the 2 mana-doubling enchantments, the 5 mana rocks, and the 5 land ramp spells, I can pretty reliably get my fat out a turn or two before mana costs would suggest. Sisay hitting the board, active and shrouded, on turn 2 isn't even out of the question (all I need is Lightning Greaves and Sol Ring in the opening hand).
I'm open to thoughts!
UPDATE:
-2 Plains
-Call of the Herd
-Tigereye Cameo
-Mirari
-Candles of Leng
-Time of Need
+Mistveil Plains
+Garruk Wildspeaker
+Selesnya Sanctuary
+Selesnya Signet
+Rings of Brighthearth
+Thousand-Year Elixer
+Enlightened Tutor
Thanks to Gabgabdevo for the awesome sig image!
I'm always looking for foil Madcap Skills and Ghitu Fire-Eater, [trade thread link forthcoming]
Day of Destiny seems like a good fit with your legend creatures.
Konda, Lord of Eiganjo might be good... I'm basing that entirely on his indestructible-ness. Actually if indestructibility is fun for you, think about That Which Was Taken instead.
Candles of Leng has always been underwhelming to me...
The Patron is definitely a good choice. Id swap it in, taking out balstoderm or forgotten ancient-they don't seem to help the theme as much.
Look up legendary lands on Gatherer- there are a few that I think could be pretty useful in one way or another.
Winding Canyons goes in as soon as I find one. Good looks.
The only legendary lands left are either colorless with an ability that doesn't really warrant losing mana consistency (Rath's Edge, God's Eye, Mikokoro, Boseiju, Miren) or completely insane (Gaea's Cradle, Karakas ... isn't that banned anyway?). Serra Sanctum doesn't have enough support, so aside from Cradle (and Miren, which I'm still on the fence about) I think the land base is pretty set as far as legendary lands go.
Thanks to Gabgabdevo for the awesome sig image!
I'm always looking for foil Madcap Skills and Ghitu Fire-Eater, [trade thread link forthcoming]
lands: riftstone portal?
Thanks to Gabgabdevo for the awesome sig image!
I'm always looking for foil Madcap Skills and Ghitu Fire-Eater, [trade thread link forthcoming]
Also, Kodama's Reach would be better than rampant growth; early plays are not as valuable as cards that give you more bang for your buck.
Other accelrants that work well (especially with the patron untapping things):
overgrowth
utopia sprawl
wild growth
mana reflection-type effects
and along those lines,
garruk wildspeaker
edit-- I don't know how common milling is with your group, but if there is a deck or two that likes to mill you to death, mistveil plains deserves a spot too.
T2
URG Destructive Force
UW Caw-Blade
Legacy
W Stax
U Merfolk
EDH
RB Bladewing the Risen
GW Tolsimir Wolfblood
UB Sygg, River Cutthroat
WUBRG Progenitus
B Maga, Traitor to Mortals
WUR Numot, the Devastator
R Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
G Azusa, Lost but Seeking
GWR Hazezon Tamar
Peasant
U Pros-Tide
Casual
BR Flaming Zombies Attack!
G Primalcrux
UR Pyromancer Ascension
UB Mill
-Reya Dawnbringer +Patron of the Orochi
-Rampant Growth +Kodama's Reach
-Plains +Mistveil Plains (can return dead legends w/Sisay!)
-Centaur Garden +Winding Canyons
-Tigereye Cameo +Selesnya Signet or Talisman of Unity
-Call of the Herd +Day of Destiny
-Blastoderm +Garruk Wildspeaker
-Candles of Leng +Kataki, War's Wage
-Loxodon Hierarch +Yosei, the Morning Star (that was a duh moment)
-Basalt Monolith +Grim Monolith
-Mirri, Cat Warrior +Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
-Ghost Quarter +Grasslands
And of course Savannah, Gaea's Cradle, Windswept Heath, and Umezawa's Jitte are all on the list. My only CIPT lands are Krosan Verge, Treetop Village, and duals, so I'm not sure if I want to cut them for Panoramas.
I'm not too happy about the idea of enchanting lands because just about every EDH deck I've ever encountered has run a Strip Mine and/or a Ghost Quarter.
Man I wish they'd errata Karakas so it could only hit your own legends, maybe then it'd be unbanned and I could play it. Karakas would be freakin' awesome in this deck even if it couldn't hit opponents' generals.
Thanks to Gabgabdevo for the awesome sig image!
I'm always looking for foil Madcap Skills and Ghitu Fire-Eater, [trade thread link forthcoming]
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
As a general. He's all good when it comes to playing inside a deck. Maybe too good.
Signature by spiderboy4 of High~Light Studios
Interesting. Didn't know that; thanks!
This. It's pretty invigorating when you assemble Voltron...
A few more notes from my own Sisay experience:
- I like lots of 2-drop accelerators (Signet, Steward of Valeron, etc). It's so clutch to have Sisay searching your library on turn 4.
- Scroll Rack and Sylvan Library work really well here too, seeing as how you're shuffling every turn
- Thousand-Year Elixir. Busted!
Your milage may vary.
-Mirari +Rings of Brighthearth, I think.
Making 3 cuts just for the Kaldra set doesn't seem worth it for me. Just about everything else in here has enough merit on its own that making 3 cuts for what is essentially only one addition just doesn't seem smart.
Thanks to Gabgabdevo for the awesome sig image!
I'm always looking for foil Madcap Skills and Ghitu Fire-Eater, [trade thread link forthcoming]
I found room for both, but I'm always happier to see Elixir in my hand. Rings is great and all (even without Mindslaver), but I think Eilixir has better synergy with Sisay, who is the whole point of the deck. The way I see it, both cards get me two activations, but Elixir gives Sisay pseudo-haste, which I find much more important, since she attracts a lot of hate and can get quite expensive to play. If I'm going to pay 6+ mana for her, I want to make sure I squeeze at least one activation out of her. Rings may work with more cards overall in the deck, but Elixir works better with the card we *always* have access to; Sisay.
It seems to me that
-1 Basalt Monolith
-1 Call of Herd
-1 Time of Need
+3 Kaldra pieces
looks a lot better (at least on paper). Your opinion is that each Kaldra piece by itself doesn't do enough. You're telling me that a 3/3 vanilla from Call of the Herd is more relevant than making any of your guys indestructible? Or using a card to tutor up a legendary creature (something your general already does) is better than first strike, haste, and trample for any of your fatties? I don't know dude, I'd give that hardware a shot before you dismiss it...
Mikokoro, Center of the Sea?
My Type 4 stack (Cube Tutor link)
So I just realized that my deck has a couple random infinite-mana combos, and these combos only require two cards each. The cards in specific are Basalt Monolith, Mana Reflection, and Rings of Brighthearth. (Since Basalt Monolith combos with Rings and Grim Monolith doesn't, I figure that's a good enough reason to keep that slot the way it is.)
But the problem is that I have no way of actually using infinite mana in any appropriately game-breaking way! The only way I have of actually using infinite mana is using Sensei's Divining Top with Rings of Brighthearth to draw my deck (that works, right?), and even then, my win condition is still attacking (so it's not a guaranteed win, the only attacker that would win the game in one turn, Multani, can't get Lightning Greaves attached to it).
So I'm looking for a card, optimally tutorable with Sisay, that can turn infinite mana into a game win, optimally an immediate one. So far I've come up with Helix Pinnacle and Staff of Domination (which aren't legendary) and Verdeloth the Ancient (which doesn't win immediately). Tutoring up Mindslaver and using Rings on its ability is basically a game win in all but the biggest multiplayer games, I guess, but I'm leaving my options open and waiting for a sure thing ...
(A way to filter colorless mana into colored mana indefinitely is also something I'd welcome into the deck now!)
Oh, one other thing, if anyone can think of a reliable sacrifice outlet or bounce engine that can allow me to recur Mangara of Corondor, I'd appreciate it. I'd use Erratic Portal but it seems kinda underpowered in this deck aside from that one usage.
Thanks to Gabgabdevo for the awesome sig image!
I'm always looking for foil Madcap Skills and Ghitu Fire-Eater, [trade thread link forthcoming]
Day of Destiny
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
Honden of Life's Web and Honden of Cleansing Fire
Sword of the Chosen.
I like all of these and have lost to the green Myojin on several occasions. 8-and a half tails is the Reed Richards to my Dr. Doom. And the others are just good and tutorable.
I guess if you're really hard up for something that will win that turn, you could play Magma Mine, but that card is terrible outside of your combo. I mean, how often do you plan on having all four pieces out at once anyway? Nemata is good with lots of colorless, and as long as you have a Cradle out, he gets out of hand VERY quickly. In fact, I just added Knight of the Reliquary for even more ways to find it!
As for Mangara...there's Stonecloaker? I run that guy to give me some way to deal with opponent's recursion, but I love that it bounces a guy. Our playgroup still allows Karakas, so... Erratic Portal is more than good, give it a shot. Being able to save your guys from board sweep is always good, and it messes with your opponent's math sometimes.
The best part about it is that you can dig them up with Sisay, Worldly Tutor, or Eladimri's Call. And they can both come in at once with Tooth and Nail or Defense of the Heart.