MTG Salvation

I look through the net and found very few articles about Sekki, Seasons' Guide.

Pros:

1) Whenever it takes damage, you make spirit tokens, and if you manage to buff it above 0/0 you can continue to make tokens even if there's no counter to remove.
2) Sekki Can revive itself by sacrificing spirits, usually the ones he created.

Cons:

1) Expensive to cast.
2) Gets smaller each time it takes damage.

Originally I attempted a spirit-tribal with him, then I realized that green lacks enough quality spirits to make a deck entirely out of them, and it'd be difficult to justify tribal cards with low number of spirits. The goals here is t maximize Sekki's token generation ability through various sources, such as:

1) Fight - Yep, even damage taken from fighting another creature can create tokens. Some options are Arena, Ulvenwald Tracker, and Savage Punch. Also works well with a DT creature like Acidic Slime or indestructible Stuffy Doll.
2) Token Buff - Not just Sekki himself but also the tokens he generated. Here is where I'm inclined to go tribal, with cards like Long-Forgotten Gohei and Adaptive Automaton. Outside of tribal, there are Beastmaster Ascension and Gaea's Anthem to start.
3) Token en mass - Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, Gaea's Cradle, Chord of Calling, etc.
4) Tribal utilities - Urza's Incubator, Ashes of the Fallen with spiritshift, etc, if I go that route.
5) Voltron and +1/+1 counters - Equipting/Enchanting Sekki with Dragon Fang, Ring of Kalonia, Lightning Greaves, Forgotten Ancient, etc. It only takes 1 extra toughness to make Sekki immune to damage.
6) Sac - Skullclamp, Ashnod's Altar, Food Chain, Blade of the Bloodchief, etc.
7) Self damage - Pariah's Shield, Staff of Nin, etc, although it'd be unwise to get a habit of sadism.

This is just an initial feel, I want them more refined in the future.

Any suggestions?

I feel that he is actually quite decent for a commander.

With stuff like Leyline of Sanctity and Rite of Passage, it should be easy to boost the synergy of Sekki and the spirits.

Druid's Call[/ and Bow of Nylea both are interesting for the deck.

To help put more counters on him/her(?), cards like Curse of Predation, Ferocity, Hardened Scales, Death's Presence, Fangren Firstborn should help a lot but in addition all add quite a bit of green devotion which should help with Nykthos, Shrine to nyx.

The Spikes (tribe not players) should also help with Sekki.

Quote from Ulka »

I feel that he is actually quite decent for a commander.

With stuff like Leyline of Sanctity and Rite of Passage, it should be easy to boost the synergy of Sekki and the spirits.

You mean Leyline of Vitality? Sanctity is white :3

Quote from Ulka »

Druid's Call and Bow of Nylea both are interesting for the deck.

To help put more counters on him/her(?), cards like Curse of Predation, Ferocity, Hardened Scales, Death's Presence, Fangren Firstborn should help a lot but in addition all add quite a bit of green devotion which should help with Nykthos, Shrine to nyx.

The Spikes (tribe not players) should also help with Sekki.

A counter theme, I like it. Curse of Predation and Hardened Scales combos well. I certainly want Opal Palace in the deck too.

I like the idea of including lots of self-damage effects like Arena. Any other good ideas along these lines?

DT is great with fight and even better with the first-strike-fight variety. Trample and provoke also work well with DT. Here are some random cards for thought.

• Wasteland Viper
  
• Nightshade Peddler
  
• Foe-razer Regent
  
• Unnatural Aggression
  
• Surestrike Trident
  
• Basilisk Collar
  
• Polukranos, World Eater
  
• Predatory Urge
  
• Master of the Wild Hunt

It's part of an infinite damage combo with Warstorm Surge, that's something.

Anything that boost's Sekki's PT would help. Pennon Blade is your go-to card here.

Is there any other cards like Talon of Pain? Green is really lacking in terms of dealing damage to non-flyers, and most fight mechanics don't allow you to fight your own.

Check this out:

http://magiccards.info/query?q=O:"damage equal to its power" ci:g&v=card&s=cname

Most seem like they are corner cases (that Eldrazi spell will only work with your tokens...to make more tokens!).

Splintering Wind and Cyclone are both potentially interesting and super obscure.

I love Splintering Wind, So bad but so much fun to mess with especially in and Elves deck.


Another fun one could be Masticore, The being able to shot things both helps with green's lack of creature removal and can generate tokens

Quote from Ulka »

I love Splintering Wind, So bad but so much fun to mess with especially in and Elves deck.

Another fun one could be Masticore, The being able to shot things both helps with green's lack of creature removal and can generate tokens

Masticore is definitely an idea, alongside other artifacts.

The problem with Splintering Wind and Cyclone is that they would also kill the tokens Sekki created via the damage.

Currently, I took an enchantress approach with Sekki, gives good card advantage and cards like Seton's Desire, which both buffs Sekki as well as making people block it.

Noble Quarry looks really good because it's a lure that keeps an empty Sekki alive and making tokens. Cards that allow Sekki to block multiple creatures would also be good, but I can't find any in mono G.

Quote from World_Peace »

Noble Quarry looks really good because it's a lure that keeps an empty Sekki alive and making tokens. Cards that allow Sekki to block multiple creatures would also be good, but I can't find any in mono G.

I confess that I've been thinking about giving Sekki vigilance, where I could've just kept him around as a blocked. The allure of 8 power...

Noble Quarry is a wonderful card, thank you, it goes well with the enchantress approach also.

Sounds fun. I suggest nemesis mask,gaea's anthem, and tempting licid as shoe ins for this deck. I suppose you could also run shinen of life's roar as a one shot. Green isn't great at multiple blocks, but it is good at forcing combat. If you go that route, engulfing slagwurm and various basilisks might make an interesting subtheme. I personally believe sekki is best at offense simply because the blockers will come from sekki!

Quote from cyberium_neo »

Is there any other cards like Talon of Pain? Green is really lacking in terms of dealing damage to non-flyers, and most fight mechanics don't allow you to fight your own.

You don't need to fight your own, though. As long as your opponent has a creature with power, you can use it here. Granted, it's not infinite, but it can be done.

Also, allow me to suggest cards that give your opponents creatures. Forbidden Orchard, Akroan Horse (for multiplayer), Hunted Troll, Sylvan Offering...Sort of the thing you might do with Oath of Druids or Defense of the Heart.

Lure-type effects are also nice. I'm also a fan of Echo Circlet, so Sekki can block two creatures, though you'll need vigilance.

Oh, and Pariah's Shield!

Quote from hyalapterouslemur »

Oh, and Pariah's Shield!

Pariah's Shield is definitely up there as a potential choice, although it far less useful without Sekki out, adds to the mana investment.

That said, I'm most troubled by destroy/sacrifice/exile effect that completely negates Sekki's ability. I have Avoid Fate in testing, but overall it's a challenge. That is also one reason why I want to go with spirit-less approach, so I can use creatures of other tribe to put on the pressure, such as elves. I should try beast too...

Quote from cyberium_neo »

Quote from hyalapterouslemur »

Oh, and Pariah's Shield!

Pariah's Shield is definitely up there as a potential choice, although it far less useful without Sekki out, adds to the mana investment.

That said, I'm most troubled by destroy/sacrifice/exile effect that completely negates Sekki's ability. I have Avoid Fate in testing, but overall it's a challenge. That is also one reason why I want to go with spirit-less approach, so I can use creatures of other tribe to put on the pressure, such as elves. I should try beast too...

I think hexproof effects are a more sensible way to protect him from spot removal. Vines of Vastwood and Ranger's Guile both stuff a removal spell and can help with combat.

Yep. Ranger's Guile is actually better than Avoid Fate when you're dealing with creatures. Avoid Fate still has value, to protect your artifacts, enchantments, lands, and planeswalkers, but if I had to choose just one, I'd go with Guile every time.

If you have trouble with wraths, can I recommend Eldrazi Monument? You just need another source of tokens.

I know this is a necro, but there's a new thread about mono-green decks and the DIY combo thread came up with many marvelous ideas about how to combo Sekki, ideas this thread hasn't mentioned.

My thanks to various individuals on DIY thread!

The key of most combos below is to have token doublers and a way to pump Sekki above 0 toughness.

1) Sekki, Seasons' Guide + Gaea's Anthem (or any toughness pump) + Parallel Lives + Blasting Station + a creature or at least 1 damage to Sekki. Sac the extra token to Blasting Station, repeatedly pin the unkillable Sekki (by damage) to create infinite tokens, eventually do infinite damage to opponents.

2) Sekki + Long-Forgotten Gohei + Thornbite Staff + Altar of Dementia + Viridian Longbow. Equip Sekki with all of the equipments, ping itself for tokens, sac to Altar and uptap itself with Staff, then repeat. This combo mills everyone.

3) Sekki + Heavy Arbalest and Umbral Mantle + Ashnod's Altar, damage itself for two tokens, sac tokens for mana, then untap with Mantle.

4) Sekki + Pariah's Shield + Dingus Staff + Long-Forgotten Gohei + Altar of Dementia, redirect damage to Sekki for tokens and doesn't require tap/untap on Sekki.

5) Predatory Urge allow Sekki to fight itself for damage/token.

6) Leonin Scimitar is easy toughness pump.

7) Sword of the Paruns taps and untaps Sekki, and provide good offense/defense for tokens, with Concordant Crossroads granting haste for a final offense.

8) Altar of the Brood is another milling uption, base on creature entering play instead of dying, might be hindered by cards such as Torpor Orb.

Other cards who could combo prior/without Sekki

1) Sprouting Phytohydra can replace Sekki, net you 0/2 tokens instead of 1/1, if you don't need power, so can Saber Ants.

2) Aerie Ouphes+Ivy Lane Denizen also allows infinite sacrifice.

3) Rot Shambler grows huge for dying tokens, which Champion of Lambholt grows for them coming into play.

4) Kazandu Tuskcaller makes two tokens at highest level.

5) Earthcraft works with tokens well, so why not Squirrel Nest with it?