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Yeah, with World Shaper in the deck you could cut Splendid Reclamation. That drops you to 100 cards. But you don't seem to have much ramp so you need to make at least 3 more cuts for mana producing lands. The average converted mana cost of the deck is a bit higher than what can be dealt with by running less than 37 lands.
Yes, that combo would go infinite, thus winning the game if uninterrupted. It's also not an infinite loop; you can interrupt it in case the table will frown upon you for using it.
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Question about Open the Graves. How does it compare to Mikaeus, the Unhallowed? While Parallel Lives/Doubling Season synergy seems super sweet, Mikaeus recurring the creatures outright seems more powerful by itself. Is also a creature (upside and downside). I can see the reasons for running Open the Graves over Mikaeus, but I kind of want to hear some opinions on that.
Question about Open the Graves. How does it compare to Mikaeus, the Unhallowed? While Parallel Lives/Doubling Season synergy seems super sweet, Mikaeus recurring the creatures outright seems more powerful by itself. Is also a creature (upside and downside). I can see the reasons for running Open the Graves over Mikaeus, but I kind of want to hear some opinions on that.
Welcome to the forums!
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed is a great card for the zombie build (or any reanimator). I don't think it compares to Open the Graves because these are two different effects.
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Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + Open the Graves is a better combo because you can perpetually recur creatures with undying unless you remove their +1/+1 counter first.
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Hi, I'm a long time lurker and first time poster. I just ordered a Sidisi deck based off of yours, but I had to make a few changes due to budget/meta issues. I was just wondering if you or really anyone noticed any glaring issues with my setup? I play against casual/not-quite-competitive, fairly aggro decks. Board wipes and spot removal are pretty frequent. I am concerned about mana, creature count (wondering if there are any creatures I could put in in exchange for non-creature cards since I'll have an easier time pulling them out of the graveyard?) I have only been playing magic for a few months, whereas my group has year and years of experience, and this is my first time going with a three color commander. Thanks, and I really enjoyed learning about this deck, I can't wait to play it. https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/12-06-18-sidisi/
Hi, I'm a long time lurker and first time poster. I just ordered a Sidisi deck based off of yours, but I had to make a few changes due to budget/meta issues. I was just wondering if you or really anyone noticed any glaring issues with my setup? I play against casual/not-quite-competitive, fairly aggro decks. Board wipes and spot removal are pretty frequent. I am concerned about mana, creature count (wondering if there are any creatures I could put in in exchange for non-creature cards since I'll have an easier time pulling them out of the graveyard?) I have only been playing magic for a few months, whereas my group has year and years of experience, and this is my first time going with a three color commander. Thanks, and I really enjoyed learning about this deck, I can't wait to play it. https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/12-06-18-sidisi/
Welcome to the forums!
You're pretty brave for building a deck that isn't really on a novice level because it's not easy to pilot. I would say your deck is pretty solid. So much so that I only have 2 suggestions for you: Balthor the Defiled doesn't reanimate all of your creatures and it may also reanimate any of your opponents' black creatures. If you want a good replacement try Cauldron of Souls. Counterspell could easily be replaced with Glen Elendra Archmage.
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I'm following your Sidisi threat for quite a time already and the more I look at the decklist the more lost potential I see. I'm talking about reanimation. Your only reliable way to return creatures from graveyard is Volrath's Stronghold which you can retrieve with Life from the Loam. No other card lets you do that if you happen to mill it with Sidisi which you have to consider in your strategy. No Dread Return to cast from graveyard, no Living Death to get overwhelming board position with all that milling, no self-recurring creatures like Golgari troll or Reassembling Skeleton. I see that you mostly focus on milling to produce a Zombie army but if your Commander gets killed/countered few times you're left with useless mill spells and costly fatties you may have trouble to cast. The only thing that can save you in case of bad luck is redundancy but I don't see many reanimation in your decklist anyway. How do you plead?
KitsuLeif hit every nail on the head. One of the main reasons I try and run as few noncreature spells as possible is precisely because creatures are easier to reanimate (and they trigger Sidisi). I have plenty of ways to reanimate creatures.
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I think you may have a different Sidisi build in mind then. This list is for amassing a zombie horde, reanimation is more of a backup plan. But I can think of Sidisi decks that want to go the reanimator-route even more. Maybe those lists suit you more, but this here is a different approach. Or am I wrong, DementedKirby?
I think you may have a different Sidisi build in mind then. This list is for amassing a zombie horde, reanimation is more of a backup plan. But I can think of Sidisi decks that want to go the reanimator-route even more. Maybe those lists suit you more, but this here is a different approach. Or am I wrong, DementedKirby?
No, you're right, KistuLeif. Reanimation is not the main focus of the deck. It is very useful however in order to abuse abilities or recur important pieces. The main purpose of the deck is to amass a large horde of zombies while also doing other things. So reanimation is a happy occurrence but not the main focus.
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So I won 3 out of 6 games this weekend with the deck. Played against 7 different commanders. After three games I pulled ulimog out of the deck and replaced it with golgari thug. Just because more recursion is nice. Two games were lost because I milled ulimog with Sidisi’s ability and lost wonder, filth, vengeful, etc. It set me back too much, so I’m risking self mill instead. It was so fun to pilot though, I love getting to see all the cards, and having a graveyard to work with is challenging but feels so good when you pull it off. And I won with different strategies each time which is always a plus, I think. Nobody wants to see the same game over and over. A+ primer.
So I won 3 out of 6 games this weekend with the deck. Played against 7 different commanders. After three games I pulled ulimog out of the deck and replaced it with golgari thug. Just because more recursion is nice. Two games were lost because I milled ulimog with Sidisi’s ability and lost wonder, filth, vengeful, etc. It set me back too much, so I’m risking self mill instead. It was so fun to pilot though, I love getting to see all the cards, and having a graveyard to work with is challenging but feels so good when you pull it off. And I won with different strategies each time which is always a plus, I think. Nobody wants to see the same game over and over. A+ primer.
Thanks! And welcome to the forums!
Yeah, sometimes getting your graveyard shuffled back into your library can be a hassle sometimes, but I tend to get a large horde by then. I prefer the recovery because I'm not too dependent on the graveyard. But the deck does so many different things that it's rarely ever boring. So I'm glad you were able to enjoy it!
Against which decks did you play against? How big were the pods?
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Yea, I'm torn about Ulimog still. I love going in on milling with mesmeric orb, but I'll probably leave it out until I self mill and lose a game, haha. Played a few more last night. Overall I went up against Brago, Rakdos, Kamhal, Cool Dads, Alesha, Angry Omnath, Meren, Kess, Grimgrin, Kruphix, and Karthus. I think that was everyone. 3 of the games had 3 players, the rest had 4. I lost once to Cool Dads, Kruphix, GrimGrin, and Brago. Brago and GrimGrin win 95% of the time they're played. My friends Brago deck is my white whale haha. Cycling gempalm, smashing with flying zombies, dropping craterhoof, or playing Balthor seem to be my best win cons. I also love the mesmeric orb/undead alchemist mix...so many zombies.
KitsuLeif hit every nail on the head. One of the main reasons I try and run as few noncreature spells as possible is precisely because creatures are easier to reanimate (and they trigger Sidisi). I have plenty of ways to reanimate creatures.
It's not effective reanimation if it needs a whole turn to work (Sheoldred, Whisper) or mana to actually cast a creature (Muldrotha, Lich, Reclamation) and both Liliana and Journey are noncreature spells if I may quote your own words. Not to mention that Living Death will probably do much more than Lili (and they cost the same). Speaking of creatures - you don't even run Phyrexian Delver or Body Double which are the best these colors has to offer in terms of creature-based reanimation.
I don't deny your vision of Sidisi as a mill-machine, I just think it can be improved. Milling cards has the obvious benefit of getting targets for reanimation and by that I mean FAST one. Simple Reanimate or one of the unhollyenchantmentstrinity can "make" you a game many turns earlier and make cards like Grisly Salvage or Mulch much more useful without Sidisi on field. You even play Final Parting which is perfect for setting it up. With proper composition of "corpses" you can even win outright by chaining reanimated creatures into lethal combination. Dread Return allows that for 0 mana, can be cast from graveyard (cost is easy to pay with Zombie tokens) and may return Muldrotha or Witness/Xiahou (getting back Living Death) for enormous board advantage or powerful combo of some sort.
I'm not discrediting your take on Sidisi as a very viable reanimation-centered commander. However, with the release of Muldrotha, the Gravetide, the latter is a way better BUG reanimator than Sidisi, Brood Tyrant could ever be. Sure, Sidisi takes advantage of providing bodies for chump blocking or sacrifice fodder with self-milling, but Muldrotha would still be one of the 99 and that's not so consistent to get to if your main focus is reanimation. I feel like Muldrotha as the commander would be better served for the purposes of a dedicated reanimation deck.
The main focus of my deck is amassing a horde and swinging at the whole table. The reason I have "inefficient" reanimation strategies is simply because they are creatures. That being said, I do like your suggestions of Phyrexian Delver and Body Double since they are reanimator spells on a body. I would like to test them to determine their impact on the deck. However, as is with most creature card suggestions to the deck: what to cut?
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I've been doing some testing and I've made a few noteworthy changes to your core decklist. My main focus is still on winning through combat with a huge horde of zombies, with secondary strategies of reanimating scary threats from my graveyard, and using the graveyard as an extension of my hand.
Protean Hulk, The Gitrog Monster, and Hedron Crab. Hedron Crab provides cheap, recurring mill and Gitrog Monster draws us cards just for following our game plan. Additionally, Protean Hulk lets us tutor for the aforementioned two creatures as well as Dryad Arbor, which usually draws us a card and nets us a zombie immediately. This snowballs out of control very quickly.
Reclamation Sage allows us to interact with those pesky graveyard hate enchantments Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void. Nullmage Shepherd is great when we already have a strong board presence, but an early RiP or Leyline of the Void can prevent us from ever establishing one in the first place.
Sorry all, I'm on vacation and haven't been able to get online much. I have a little break now and I found some time apart from checking out the Commander 2018 spoilers to answer some of you.
I've been doing some testing and I've made a few noteworthy changes to your core decklist. My main focus is still on winning through combat with a huge horde of zombies, with secondary strategies of reanimating scary threats from my graveyard, and using the graveyard as an extension of my hand.
Protean Hulk, The Gitrog Monster, and Hedron Crab. Hedron Crab provides cheap, recurring mill and Gitrog Monster draws us cards just for following our game plan. Additionally, Protean Hulk lets us tutor for the aforementioned two creatures as well as Dryad Arbor, which usually draws us a card and nets us a zombie immediately. This snowballs out of control very quickly.
Reclamation Sage allows us to interact with those pesky graveyard hate enchantments Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void. Nullmage Shepherd is great when we already have a strong board presence, but an early RiP or Leyline of the Void can prevent us from ever establishing one in the first place.
I'm really trying to keep as many creatures in the deck as possible and not add any noncreature cards. The reason I don't run many tutors is because they may get milled and either way, all the self-milling is meant to fill your graveyard with useful things to reanimate/recur anyways. Instants and sorceries aren't that difficult to recur, but I don't want to have to be worrying about recurring other card types (which is why the deck hardly runs any planeswalkers, for example).
I did a test run of Sidisi yesterday by playing three games and I have some results to share:
This deck needs combo or a very strong play at least! We need to be able to win or kill at least one player by turn 6 if not disturbed. Since casting Sidisi on turn 4 is too slow, we need more creature-based acceleration or alternative ways to generate card advantage. The options are:
Hermit DruidOREarthcraft - these two work exclusively as you need only non-basic lands for a former while the latter requires significant amount of basics. Druid wins on a spot with Dread Return and Laboratory Maniac + Deep Analysis (or Necrotic Ooze with chosen toolbox) and Earthcraft provides more mana to do "things" and works in tandem with Orb. The choice is yet to be made.
Mesmeric Orb - this card looks great but I did not tested it yet so I'm still not sure if it's that necessary. It's hard to retrieve from graveyard if milled and requires Aphetto Alchemist who may suffer from summoning sickness. Sure - we mill from untaps but so does opponents which makes Living Death plan invalid. We need more ways to abuse it. I wonder if Fatestitcher may help with that in any way.
Protean Hulk - using it without any sort of infinite combo has little sense especially when you can run it. The one I have in mind is Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista + Body Double + Viscera Seer/Carrion Feeder and all parts look good separately as well. Mikaeus is another Zombie lord, Body pseudo-reanimates and Viscera/Feeder can sac for repeated reanimation.
Deadeye Navigator - classic tool for making infinite mana with Palinchron and its ilk but also bounces Sidisi for repeated mill. Works great with Living Death and Victimize if both parts are milled.
When we mill we don't care about what is milled as long as it's at least one creature. With little over 30 creatures in a deck I hit "empty" mills to often so I think about upping creature count to 40 at least. With so many creatures hitting graveyard Crypt of Agadeem and Songs of the Damned work wonders by providing mana for explosive plays. On the other hand Cabal Coffers work rarely - they are more suited for mono-black or ramp-dedicated decks which Sidisi isn't.
Self-reccuring creatures (Haakon, Stromgald Scourge, Scourge of Nel Toth) and spells with flashback/dredge/retrace are things to consider in case aggro/combo plan fails. Forbidden Alchemy shines in that category and Darkblast may provide little removal this decks seriously lacks.
Combo is not something I completely disregarded from the deck. However, when people play BUG combo they're usually playing with Tasigur, the Golden Fang at the helm.
It's curious how Living Death has been great with you. When I first tried it I couldn't ever cast it because people had bombs in their graveyards or the spell itself was in my graveyard. So I cut it (that and it's a noncreature card). Building the deck around it isn't necessarily a bad thing, but that wasn't the point of the deck. I also tried Hermit Druid at one point along with the Eldrazi titans and no basic lands in order to continuously create zombies and go through the deck. But since I use Hermit Druid as a facilitator in another one of my decks to get the epic win, I didn't go the same route here. That being said, Hermit Druid combo is common enough that I should include it in the primer if I want to be thorough.
I have included Leyline of the Void in discussion as a key card in the milling strategy. And I actually prefer it over other cards that exile from the graveyard because it's a continuous effect which makes it prevent cards triggering from entering the graveyard, too. It can be free the first turn and it's not that difficult to recur (especially with Muldrotha, the Gravetide).
I'm a bit confused as to your targets for Protean Hulk. Are all those cards targets or alternatives? Because their combined CMC is over 7.
I tried Crypt of Agadeem and didn't like it because the creatures have to be black for it to give me mana.
I agree that the deck needs more creatures spells and less noncreature spells. I am considering decreasing the amount of selfmill spells for more creature-based value. However, the spells aren't explosive and they do help with some form of recursion. What I like most about Sidisi, Brood Tyrant is that she's innocuous enough that people don't perceive her as a threat when she's revealed as the commander. People do expect reanimation which is why I don't go the hardcore reanimation route. Granted, the deck is a bit slow but I do run it as a midrange deck not so much so a quick combo deck. Sidisi does provide enough strategies to pilot her as such, and that can certainly be looked into. Therefore, I'm very interested in your findings because what we're doing with Sidisi, while seeming similar, are fundamentally different.
I was just looking at some of the Commander 2018 spoilers but haven't really had time to analyze all the cards yet. But once I do I'll post my analysis.
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The Protean Hulk combo is executed as follows: with the Hulk dying, find Viscera Seer/Carrion Feeder and Body Double/Phyrexian Delver. The Delver/Double puts the Hulk back into play (functionally, with the Body Double) so you can then sac it again to either the Seer/Feeder. With this new death trigger from the Hulk, you find Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista (the Ballista has a CMC of 0). Then, you sac the Ballista to either the Seer/Feeder, and it will trigger Mikaeus' undying trigger, putting it back into play. Activate the Ballista's ping ability to remove the undying +1/+1 counter to deal 1 damage to any target. Sac the Ballista again to the Seer/Feeder and, since it didn't have a +1/+1 counter, it will come back thanks to Mikaeus' undying ability. Rinse and repeat to deal infinite damage.
It's a very compact way to win and can be done as early as T2 with the namesake Flash. The two card combo is referenced as FlashHulk in MTG slang.
I'm really trying to keep as many creatures in the deck as possible and not add any noncreature cards. The reason I don't run many tutors is because they may get milled and either way, all the self-milling is meant to fill your graveyard with useful things to reanimate/recur anyways. Instants and sorceries aren't that difficult to recur, but I don't want to have to be worrying about recurring other card types (which is why the deck hardly runs any planeswalkers, for example).
Expedition Map is a worse tutor than the ones I'm putting in.
Altar is good, but I wanted to focus less on milling my opponents out and more on winning through an overwhelming horde of creatures.
Don't have that much card draw in the deck, so scroll rack is fine, but not exceptional.
Growing Rites is probably a fine budget alternative to Gaea's Cradle, but I found it was quite worse and underwhelming with Gaea's Cradle in the deck.
I took out the Narcomoeba combo as I found it underwhelming, so Mortuary is out.
Replaced Mulch with Sudden Reclamation. It's more expensive, but it's an instant and lets me search through my entire graveyard for the cards I want, which I have found is more valuable.
Took out Vengeful Pharaoh and Filth, so tutoring for specific things to put in the graveyard isn't as helpful.
The Protean Hulk combo is executed as follows: with the Hulk dying, find Viscera Seer/Carrion Feeder and Body Double/Phyrexian Delver. The Delver/Double puts the Hulk back into play (functionally, with the Body Double) so you can then sac it again to either the Seer/Feeder. With this new death trigger from the Hulk, you find Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista (the Ballista has a CMC of 0). Then, you sac the Ballista to either the Seer/Feeder, and it will trigger Mikaeus' undying trigger, putting it back into play. Activate the Ballista's ping ability to remove the undying +1/+1 counter to deal 1 damage to any target. Sac the Ballista again to the Seer/Feeder and, since it didn't have a +1/+1 counter, it will come back thanks to Mikaeus' undying ability. Rinse and repeat to deal infinite damage.
It's a very compact way to win and can be done as early as T2 with the namesake Flash. The two card combo is referenced as FlashHulk in MTG slang.
I'm really trying to keep as many creatures in the deck as possible and not add any noncreature cards. The reason I don't run many tutors is because they may get milled and either way, all the self-milling is meant to fill your graveyard with useful things to reanimate/recur anyways. Instants and sorceries aren't that difficult to recur, but I don't want to have to be worrying about recurring other card types (which is why the deck hardly runs any planeswalkers, for example).
Expedition Map is a worse tutor than the ones I'm putting in.
Altar is good, but I wanted to focus less on milling my opponents out and more on winning through an overwhelming horde of creatures.
Don't have that much card draw in the deck, so scroll rack is fine, but not exceptional.
Growing Rites is probably a fine budget alternative to Gaea's Cradle, but I found it was quite worse and underwhelming with Gaea's Cradle in the deck.
I took out the Narcomoeba combo as I found it underwhelming, so Mortuary is out.
Replaced Mulch with Sudden Reclamation. It's more expensive, but it's an instant and lets me search through my entire graveyard for the cards I want, which I have found is more valuable.
Took out Vengeful Pharaoh and Filth, so tutoring for specific things to put in the graveyard isn't as helpful.
I have to reassess my deck a bit more now that more people are having findings of their own on how to make the deck more efficient. When I have more time to do some more testing I will definitely post my own findings. I have to try and see if I can replace as many noncreatures for creatures as possible.
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BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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Nantuko is there for a sac outlet with Vengeful Dead, Diregraf Captain, Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and Plague Belcher. And Josu instead of Grave Titan although I can see that he's a bit niche. I was thinking Splendid Reclamation is a bit superfluous with Muldrotha, The Gravetide and World Shaper.
Yeah, with World Shaper in the deck you could cut Splendid Reclamation. That drops you to 100 cards. But you don't seem to have much ramp so you need to make at least 3 more cuts for mana producing lands. The average converted mana cost of the deck is a bit higher than what can be dealt with by running less than 37 lands.
Nantuko Husk isn't a bad sacrifice outlet but it has no inherent evasion. You'd need to already have the Filth + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth combo in play (or Zombie Master instead of Filth) in order to guarantee that it would snipe someone. If you're restricted by budget, Ashnod's Altar is an okay substitute for Phyrexian Altar.
Yes, that combo would go infinite, thus winning the game if uninterrupted. It's also not an infinite loop; you can interrupt it in case the table will frown upon you for using it.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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Welcome to the forums!
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed is a great card for the zombie build (or any reanimator). I don't think it compares to Open the Graves because these are two different effects.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + Open the Graves is a better combo because you can perpetually recur creatures with undying unless you remove their +1/+1 counter first.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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Welcome to the forums!
You're pretty brave for building a deck that isn't really on a novice level because it's not easy to pilot. I would say your deck is pretty solid. So much so that I only have 2 suggestions for you:
Balthor the Defiled doesn't reanimate all of your creatures and it may also reanimate any of your opponents' black creatures. If you want a good replacement try Cauldron of Souls.
Counterspell could easily be replaced with Glen Elendra Archmage.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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KitsuLeif hit every nail on the head. One of the main reasons I try and run as few noncreature spells as possible is precisely because creatures are easier to reanimate (and they trigger Sidisi). I have plenty of ways to reanimate creatures.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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No, you're right, KistuLeif. Reanimation is not the main focus of the deck. It is very useful however in order to abuse abilities or recur important pieces. The main purpose of the deck is to amass a large horde of zombies while also doing other things. So reanimation is a happy occurrence but not the main focus.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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Thanks! And welcome to the forums!
Yeah, sometimes getting your graveyard shuffled back into your library can be a hassle sometimes, but I tend to get a large horde by then. I prefer the recovery because I'm not too dependent on the graveyard. But the deck does so many different things that it's rarely ever boring. So I'm glad you were able to enjoy it!
Against which decks did you play against? How big were the pods?
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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Apologies for the late response.
I'm not discrediting your take on Sidisi as a very viable reanimation-centered commander. However, with the release of Muldrotha, the Gravetide, the latter is a way better BUG reanimator than Sidisi, Brood Tyrant could ever be. Sure, Sidisi takes advantage of providing bodies for chump blocking or sacrifice fodder with self-milling, but Muldrotha would still be one of the 99 and that's not so consistent to get to if your main focus is reanimation. I feel like Muldrotha as the commander would be better served for the purposes of a dedicated reanimation deck.
The main focus of my deck is amassing a horde and swinging at the whole table. The reason I have "inefficient" reanimation strategies is simply because they are creatures. That being said, I do like your suggestions of Phyrexian Delver and Body Double since they are reanimator spells on a body. I would like to test them to determine their impact on the deck. However, as is with most creature card suggestions to the deck: what to cut?
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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In my opinion, the two best cards in the deck are Gaea's Cradle and Mesmeric Orb. As such, I've added Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Diabolic Intent, Brainstorm, and Academy Ruins mainly just to better find these cards. I have taken out Expedition map as it is mainly just worse than other cheap tutors as it can only go find lands and costs more mana.
Dread Return is too good not to play as the cost of having it in our deck is so low.
Mox Diamond, Deathrite Shaman, and Birds of Paradise as additional cheap ramp. The cost of playing Mox diamond is very low as we recur lands to our hand via Life from the Loam, Grapple with the Past, and Sudden Reclamation. Deathrite Shaman and Birds of Paradise provide ramp, color fixing, and allow us to keep our deck's creature count up.
Protean Hulk, The Gitrog Monster, and Hedron Crab. Hedron Crab provides cheap, recurring mill and Gitrog Monster draws us cards just for following our game plan. Additionally, Protean Hulk lets us tutor for the aforementioned two creatures as well as Dryad Arbor, which usually draws us a card and nets us a zombie immediately. This snowballs out of control very quickly.
Reclamation Sage allows us to interact with those pesky graveyard hate enchantments Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void. Nullmage Shepherd is great when we already have a strong board presence, but an early RiP or Leyline of the Void can prevent us from ever establishing one in the first place.
I laid out what I would call my most notable changes above. To see what I've cut, I'll link my decklist here http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/05-04-17-sidisi-brood-tyrant/
Entreat the Dead, Myth Unbound and Forge of Heroes sound interesting.
I'm really trying to keep as many creatures in the deck as possible and not add any noncreature cards. The reason I don't run many tutors is because they may get milled and either way, all the self-milling is meant to fill your graveyard with useful things to reanimate/recur anyways. Instants and sorceries aren't that difficult to recur, but I don't want to have to be worrying about recurring other card types (which is why the deck hardly runs any planeswalkers, for example).
Combo is not something I completely disregarded from the deck. However, when people play BUG combo they're usually playing with Tasigur, the Golden Fang at the helm.
It's curious how Living Death has been great with you. When I first tried it I couldn't ever cast it because people had bombs in their graveyards or the spell itself was in my graveyard. So I cut it (that and it's a noncreature card). Building the deck around it isn't necessarily a bad thing, but that wasn't the point of the deck. I also tried Hermit Druid at one point along with the Eldrazi titans and no basic lands in order to continuously create zombies and go through the deck. But since I use Hermit Druid as a facilitator in another one of my decks to get the epic win, I didn't go the same route here. That being said, Hermit Druid combo is common enough that I should include it in the primer if I want to be thorough.
I have included Leyline of the Void in discussion as a key card in the milling strategy. And I actually prefer it over other cards that exile from the graveyard because it's a continuous effect which makes it prevent cards triggering from entering the graveyard, too. It can be free the first turn and it's not that difficult to recur (especially with Muldrotha, the Gravetide).
I'm a bit confused as to your targets for Protean Hulk. Are all those cards targets or alternatives? Because their combined CMC is over 7.
I tried Crypt of Agadeem and didn't like it because the creatures have to be black for it to give me mana.
I agree that the deck needs more creatures spells and less noncreature spells. I am considering decreasing the amount of selfmill spells for more creature-based value. However, the spells aren't explosive and they do help with some form of recursion. What I like most about Sidisi, Brood Tyrant is that she's innocuous enough that people don't perceive her as a threat when she's revealed as the commander. People do expect reanimation which is why I don't go the hardcore reanimation route. Granted, the deck is a bit slow but I do run it as a midrange deck not so much so a quick combo deck. Sidisi does provide enough strategies to pilot her as such, and that can certainly be looked into. Therefore, I'm very interested in your findings because what we're doing with Sidisi, while seeming similar, are fundamentally different.
I was just looking at some of the Commander 2018 spoilers but haven't really had time to analyze all the cards yet. But once I do I'll post my analysis.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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It's a very compact way to win and can be done as early as T2 with the namesake Flash. The two card combo is referenced as Flash Hulk in MTG slang.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Agreed. I too have tried to keep the creature count high. Currently is at 33. A lot of the cards I cut to make room for the cards I mentioned where what I have thought to be under-performing non-creatures. Specifically, Expedition Map, Altar of Dementia, Scroll Rack, Growing Rites of Itlimoc, Mortuary, Mulch, Buried Alive, Jarad's Orders, Final Parting.
Generally reasoning as follows:
I have to reassess my deck a bit more now that more people are having findings of their own on how to make the deck more efficient. When I have more time to do some more testing I will definitely post my own findings. I have to try and see if I can replace as many noncreatures for creatures as possible.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!