This was originally posted on my TappedOut account, but I'm posting it here as well to give it some more visibility! (: Without further ado, here is my deck!
Sidisi Ad Nauseam Combo EDH
This deck has one real goal: Resolving Ad Nauseam! I tagged this deck as competitive because it doesn't try to durdle around and have fun, it goes for the win pretty quickly and efficiently. However, it's not as cutthroat as it could be; I still like to have some fun with some of the card choices. This deck can potentially win on turn 2 or 3 with a good hand, and has multiple routes for lethal depending on the situation.
1. Tutor - You're gonna want to ramp up first. Using any tutor for Ad Nauseam is fine. Sidisi is our backup in case we don't have any others. Sac Sidisi to herself for the exploit. Don't cast most of your 0-cost spells before Ad Nauseam; you will want to save these for storming off later.
2. Cast Ad Nauseam - Doing this during opponent's end step is fine. Draw your entire deck. You may have to leave a few cards in your library if your opponents have a way to force you to draw on the field, such as a Temple Bell.
3. Win - You can do this with either Sickening Dreams, Tendrils of Agony, or Exsanguinate.
3a. Sickening Dreams - Save your land drop for your turn for a Glacial Chasm to not die. If you couldn't, this method won't work very well.
3b. Tendrils of Agony - There is a pretty good storm package in here. Drop all your 0-cost things, use all of your rituals, cast Tendrils, then Yawgmoth's Will and do it all over again. You will want to playtest this a few times, to make sure you can easily get off lethal with Tendrils. With the current iteration of this deck, you can easily cast 60+ copies of Tendrils.
3c. Exsanguinate - Use your rituals to put out a Skirge Familiar. This card will let you use your entire hand as mana for a gigantic Exsanguinate. The best part about this route is that you can still use the Skirge Familiar to power out more spells and try another method, in case this one failed somehow.
Protecting your Combo:
- Boseiju, Who Shelters All An all-star, really. Try to grab this with Expedition Map before casting Ad Nauseam. No other land is as good as this one when you fear the counterspells.
- Cavern of Souls Really only used to ensure that Sidisi can be cast in the cases of extreme control hate. However, it does its job very well!
- Imp's Mischief This derpy little card was an amusing find for me. It works like a Misdirect on counterspells, allowing you to redirect them to the Imp's Mischief. Can also be used to deny other spells that could cause you some trouble, such as targeted discard.
- Strip Mine Can allow you to get a Sickening Dreams off if your opponent is running a Glacial Chasm, or can be used to delete some other annoying land that could impede your progress. The necessity of this card is very niche, but you never know until you need it!
Managing your Life Total:
This deck pays a lot of life for its effects. A LOT. If you can help it, try to keep track of the CMC of spells you've used or drawn before Ad Nauseam; the total possible life loss from every card in this deck from drawing off of Ad Nauseum is 36. Keep this in mind, as things such as Mana Crypt, Imp's Mischief and Boseiju all potentially cost life. You can use things such as Zuran Orb to eat some lands in order to use a Boseiju an additional time on Tendrils/Exsanguinate/Sickening Dreams.
Changes You Can Make!
I know that this deck is not the most optimal, and that is mostly for budget reasons. If this deck is too expensive or unwieldy for you, you can slim it down by a lot. In fact, you can replace most (if not all) of the cards you don't like with Swamps, and this deck will function essentially the same. On the other hand, you can also beef up the power level with some interesting inclusions listed below...
Potential Cuts:
- Skirge Familiar/Exsanguinate Combo: This deck has, essentially, 3 win conditions. This one is not necessary to the deck, and actually increases the risk of playing the deck due to increasing the cost of Ad Nauseam by 7 life! So, why did I include it in the deck? This is the easiest of the combos to resolve, in my opinion, and Skirge Familiar already helps generate obscene amounts of mana should something go wrong. (Can't cast/activate artifacts, for example)
- Mana Crypt/Mox Diamond/City of Traitors: These cards, while bonkers as mana accel, are definitely able to be cut for budget reasons. You can just replace these cards with swamps, and you'll still have access to every win condition in the deck, even Tendrils!
- Brainspoil: This card is used for the transmute into Ad Nauseam, but is a weaker link. It costs you 5 life if you haven't already drawn into it from Ad Nauseam, and could be replaced. However, I find the nearly uncounterable ability to tutor for Ad Nauseam fairly valuable.
Potential Adds:
- Walking Atlas/Lightning Greaves: Adding these cards in (and removing some other cards to keep the life cost of Ad Nauseam low) will allow you to drop an additional land on your combo turn, such as a Lake of the Dead, Glacial Chasm or Boseiju. Remember! Use Amulet of Vigor before the tapped lands so you can use them immediately!
- Immortal Coil: The combo of this with Sickening Dreams is awesome! Works similarly to Glacial Chasm, but make sure you only drop this on the turn you're ready to win, or you could eat a Bojuka Bog and die. Very vulnerable to a Relic of Progenitus / Tormod's Crypt, however. Also has anti-synergy with Yawgmoth's Will, if you want to keep that option available to win.
- Any number of other tutors I'm missing: A lot of the more powerful tutors are very expensive, money-wise. You could up the power level of this deck by including them as well, but be careful as they will add to the life cost of Ad Nauseam.
Notable Exclusions:
- Dark Petition: While a great tutor, this adds a life cost of 5 to Ad Nauseam, and I'd rather not run that. Low mana costs are key!
- Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed: Powerful recursion, but 4 mana can be a pretty steep life cost from Ad Nauseam. I've never needed this card before, either; the deck does a pretty good job of protecting its key spells.
Cool deck, great work. I am going to throw it together just to see how it works since I have most of the cards, at least the pricy ones. Not something my group would enjoy long term, but seems like a good introduction to all-in combo. Not too complicated, somewhat disruptable.
A few questions:
- How important was the muligan rule change to the viability of this deck. We never used partial Paris anyway, but can see that it would have helped the consistency of a deck like this.
- How carefully did you optimize the number of lands vs 0 cost artifacts? I can see you absolutely always need to hit your land drops, but you should be able to do that pretty consistently with less than 60 lands, right? And the more 0 cost stuff the higher you can get your storm.
- Have you considered X cost creatures like shifting wall or endless one? Just as good as 0 for storm count, but should let you get a T1 or T2 creature if you don't have your cheap tutor. Guess you want to be ramping than anyway.
- What is the rationale behind leaving out elixir of immortality? Does the deck not generate enough mana to let you cycle your deck a few times with elixir for a higher storm count, or do you just not need it? What if you added a few more free mana sources like sol ring, Mana vault, grim monolith, chrome mox and mox opal? Claws of Gix would let you re-use vault and crypt for a modest profit. Edit: Voltaic Key is also another free colourless with mana vault.
I can see that sickening dreams is probably your plan A, and these questions relate more to the tendrils of agony wincon, which is more like your plan C. Also understand that you would need to remove skirge familiar and exsanguinate to add any mana cost to the list, and that you don't want to do this. Fair enough, but I am still curious to hear what you think of these as ways of getting the storm count up to 200 ish without losing sickening dreams option.
Hey ProfessorCactus. As you see in my signature I play the same deck, but I worry less about drawing my full deck with Ad Naus, content to win with what I topdeck. This is the closest I have to an up-to-date decklist. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/sidisi-ad-naus-2-rocks/ You can read the description on the link in my signature. Do you have any feedback?
Some lists run Ivory Tower to keep their life total at a comfortable level (maybe it'll be yourGlacial Chasm dying to Strip Mine or Wasteland) but this seems bad because you have to wait until your next turn to gain back all the life you lost from Ad Nauseam. Maybe this role could be performed better by Golem's Heart, Demon's Horn and/or Prism Ring. None of these are as good as Zuran Orb of course, but I'd run at least one back-up source of lifegain.
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Sidisi Ad Nauseam Combo EDH
This deck has one real goal: Resolving Ad Nauseam! I tagged this deck as competitive because it doesn't try to durdle around and have fun, it goes for the win pretty quickly and efficiently. However, it's not as cutthroat as it could be; I still like to have some fun with some of the card choices. This deck can potentially win on turn 2 or 3 with a good hand, and has multiple routes for lethal depending on the situation.
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
Artifacts:
1 Amulet of Vigor
0 Astral Cornucopia
0 Dark Sphere
0 Everflowing Chalice
1 Expedition Map
1 Feldon's Cane
0 Fountain of Youth
0 Jeweled Amulet
0 Lotus Bloom
0 Lotus Petal
0 Mana Crypt
0 Mishra's Bauble
0 Mox Diamond
0 Paradise Mantle
1 Sol Ring
0 Spellbook
0 Spidersilk Net
0 Tormod's Crypt
0 Zuran Orb
0 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
0 Cavern of Souls
0 City of Traitors
0 Crystal Vein
0 Ebon Stronghold
0 Glacial Chasm
0 Lake of the Dead
0 Peat Bog
0 Strip Mine
50 Swamp
0 Terrain Generator
Sorceries:
5 Brainspoil
1 Bubbling Muck
2 Demonic Tutor
2 Exsanguinate
2 Sickening Dreams
4 Tendrils of Agony
3 Yawgmoth's Will
5 Ad Nauseam
2 Cabal Ritual
1 Culling the Weak
1 Dark Ritual
2 Imp's Mischief
1 Rain of Filth
0 Slaughter Pact
1 Vampiric Tutor
Creatures:
0 Memnite
0 Ornithopter
0 Phyrexian Walker
0 Shield Sphere
5 Skirge Familiar
Piloting the Deck:
1. Tutor - You're gonna want to ramp up first. Using any tutor for Ad Nauseam is fine. Sidisi is our backup in case we don't have any others. Sac Sidisi to herself for the exploit. Don't cast most of your 0-cost spells before Ad Nauseam; you will want to save these for storming off later.
2. Cast Ad Nauseam - Doing this during opponent's end step is fine. Draw your entire deck. You may have to leave a few cards in your library if your opponents have a way to force you to draw on the field, such as a Temple Bell.
3. Win - You can do this with either Sickening Dreams, Tendrils of Agony, or Exsanguinate.
3a. Sickening Dreams - Save your land drop for your turn for a Glacial Chasm to not die. If you couldn't, this method won't work very well.
3b. Tendrils of Agony - There is a pretty good storm package in here. Drop all your 0-cost things, use all of your rituals, cast Tendrils, then Yawgmoth's Will and do it all over again. You will want to playtest this a few times, to make sure you can easily get off lethal with Tendrils. With the current iteration of this deck, you can easily cast 60+ copies of Tendrils.
3c. Exsanguinate - Use your rituals to put out a Skirge Familiar. This card will let you use your entire hand as mana for a gigantic Exsanguinate. The best part about this route is that you can still use the Skirge Familiar to power out more spells and try another method, in case this one failed somehow.
Protecting your Combo:
- Boseiju, Who Shelters All An all-star, really. Try to grab this with Expedition Map before casting Ad Nauseam. No other land is as good as this one when you fear the counterspells.
- Cavern of Souls Really only used to ensure that Sidisi can be cast in the cases of extreme control hate. However, it does its job very well!
- Imp's Mischief This derpy little card was an amusing find for me. It works like a Misdirect on counterspells, allowing you to redirect them to the Imp's Mischief. Can also be used to deny other spells that could cause you some trouble, such as targeted discard.
- Strip Mine Can allow you to get a Sickening Dreams off if your opponent is running a Glacial Chasm, or can be used to delete some other annoying land that could impede your progress. The necessity of this card is very niche, but you never know until you need it!
Managing your Life Total:
This deck pays a lot of life for its effects. A LOT. If you can help it, try to keep track of the CMC of spells you've used or drawn before Ad Nauseam; the total possible life loss from every card in this deck from drawing off of Ad Nauseum is 36. Keep this in mind, as things such as Mana Crypt, Imp's Mischief and Boseiju all potentially cost life. You can use things such as Zuran Orb to eat some lands in order to use a Boseiju an additional time on Tendrils/Exsanguinate/Sickening Dreams.
Changes You Can Make!
I know that this deck is not the most optimal, and that is mostly for budget reasons. If this deck is too expensive or unwieldy for you, you can slim it down by a lot. In fact, you can replace most (if not all) of the cards you don't like with Swamps, and this deck will function essentially the same. On the other hand, you can also beef up the power level with some interesting inclusions listed below...
Potential Cuts:
- Skirge Familiar/Exsanguinate Combo: This deck has, essentially, 3 win conditions. This one is not necessary to the deck, and actually increases the risk of playing the deck due to increasing the cost of Ad Nauseam by 7 life! So, why did I include it in the deck? This is the easiest of the combos to resolve, in my opinion, and Skirge Familiar already helps generate obscene amounts of mana should something go wrong. (Can't cast/activate artifacts, for example)
- Mana Crypt/Mox Diamond/City of Traitors: These cards, while bonkers as mana accel, are definitely able to be cut for budget reasons. You can just replace these cards with swamps, and you'll still have access to every win condition in the deck, even Tendrils!
- Brainspoil: This card is used for the transmute into Ad Nauseam, but is a weaker link. It costs you 5 life if you haven't already drawn into it from Ad Nauseam, and could be replaced. However, I find the nearly uncounterable ability to tutor for Ad Nauseam fairly valuable.
Potential Adds:
- Walking Atlas/Lightning Greaves: Adding these cards in (and removing some other cards to keep the life cost of Ad Nauseam low) will allow you to drop an additional land on your combo turn, such as a Lake of the Dead, Glacial Chasm or Boseiju. Remember! Use Amulet of Vigor before the tapped lands so you can use them immediately!
- Immortal Coil: The combo of this with Sickening Dreams is awesome! Works similarly to Glacial Chasm, but make sure you only drop this on the turn you're ready to win, or you could eat a Bojuka Bog and die. Very vulnerable to a Relic of Progenitus / Tormod's Crypt, however. Also has anti-synergy with Yawgmoth's Will, if you want to keep that option available to win.
- Any number of other tutors I'm missing: A lot of the more powerful tutors are very expensive, money-wise. You could up the power level of this deck by including them as well, but be careful as they will add to the life cost of Ad Nauseam.
Notable Exclusions:
- Dark Petition: While a great tutor, this adds a life cost of 5 to Ad Nauseam, and I'd rather not run that. Low mana costs are key!
- Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed: Powerful recursion, but 4 mana can be a pretty steep life cost from Ad Nauseam. I've never needed this card before, either; the deck does a pretty good job of protecting its key spells.
Let me know what you think!
R Feldon of the Third Path EDH R
X Kozilek, the Great Distortion EDH X
B Sidisi Ad Nauseam Combo EDH B
A few questions:
- How important was the muligan rule change to the viability of this deck. We never used partial Paris anyway, but can see that it would have helped the consistency of a deck like this.
- How carefully did you optimize the number of lands vs 0 cost artifacts? I can see you absolutely always need to hit your land drops, but you should be able to do that pretty consistently with less than 60 lands, right? And the more 0 cost stuff the higher you can get your storm.
- Have you considered X cost creatures like shifting wall or endless one? Just as good as 0 for storm count, but should let you get a T1 or T2 creature if you don't have your cheap tutor. Guess you want to be ramping than anyway.
- What is the rationale behind leaving out elixir of immortality? Does the deck not generate enough mana to let you cycle your deck a few times with elixir for a higher storm count, or do you just not need it? What if you added a few more free mana sources like sol ring, Mana vault, grim monolith, chrome mox and mox opal? Claws of Gix would let you re-use vault and crypt for a modest profit. Edit: Voltaic Key is also another free colourless with mana vault.
I can see that sickening dreams is probably your plan A, and these questions relate more to the tendrils of agony wincon, which is more like your plan C. Also understand that you would need to remove skirge familiar and exsanguinate to add any mana cost to the list, and that you don't want to do this. Fair enough, but I am still curious to hear what you think of these as ways of getting the storm count up to 200 ish without losing sickening dreams option.
UGUPrime Speaker Seamonster RampUGU
WUGDerevi Does NothingWUG
RRRFeldon's Lovely LadiesRRR
Jarad Graveyard Combo[Primer]!
Sidisi ANT!
Playing Commander to Win - A guide on Competitive, 4-player EDH
LandDestruction.com - An EDH blog
Some lists run Ivory Tower to keep their life total at a comfortable level (maybe it'll be your Glacial Chasm dying to Strip Mine or Wasteland) but this seems bad because you have to wait until your next turn to gain back all the life you lost from Ad Nauseam. Maybe this role could be performed better by Golem's Heart, Demon's Horn and/or Prism Ring. None of these are as good as Zuran Orb of course, but I'd run at least one back-up source of lifegain.