Hello all (again),
The OP has been completely revamped! The base decklist is now consistent with what I am currently playing, and each card is explained in-depth. There is also a section which lists cards I am interested in testing and cards that I am considering cutting, so check that out for sure. I am still planning on expanding the strategy section and sharing some more tips and tricks that I've picked up playing the deck, but I wanted to at least get the initial revision posted.
I actually cut Static and Winter Orb because I feel like being able to tutor for Hokori is more than sufficient. Also, adding Iona and Avacyn in is huge when playing SotF and Fauna Shaman. (In my opinion.) Thoughts?
Nice list, whiskeyhughes! I share a bit of concern about Static Orb, although I've liked having Winter Orb so far (a bit of redundancy isn't always a bad thing). I can definitely see how useful Iona could be and am interested in testing her, although I'm less enamored with Avacyn. Do you find that Teeg isn't enough protection from wrath effects? Ultimately you haven't cut anything that's really core to my current list, so I doubt they play too differently, and meta differences can certainly call for this sort of tweak. Overall it looks pretty good.
This might be a good time for me to talk about potential tweaks! As I said, there's a list of cards I'd like to test in the OP (right under the decklist), but that's an overly expansive list that includes pretty much anything that looked interesting at all. There are a few cards I'm specifically excited in/want to fit into the list, namely: Chord of Calling, Eldritch Evolution, Bane of Progress, Recruiter of the Guard, and Mox Diamond. Chord and EE are straight-to-the-board, any-creature tutors, which are extra powerful. BoP is an artifact/enchantment heavy hitter on a stick that I think might be necessary. Recruiter is a great tutor for this deck, and Mox Diamond is more early ramp that I think this deck can afford to play (like Chrome Mox). Suggestions on possible cuts or whether these should go in are welcome.
Finally, ShakeAndShimmy, who's a very good EDH player (way better than me) has posted his own Sisay thread, right here. It is very good news that his deck is similar to my own! He has gone in a few different directions and made a few different card choices, however. I'm interested to talk to him on his thread about some of those choices, and to hear ya'lls thoughts on his list.
I appreciate the shoutout! Your list and your primer were actually hugely influential when I first put together my Sisay list over a year ago. You had the only Primer on the market and was really helpful in getting my list started. I'd love to get more thoughts and opinions on my list (and any formatting suggestions, first time writing a guide like that here), so feel free to drop by to share what you think!
Hello all!
Since I just moved to the area I dropped down to GP Denver this last weekend with my eye on EDH. The first item on my agenda was to increase the shininess factor of the deck and that went swimmingly. Highlights were a Rav foil Temple Garden, foil Crop Rotation, foil Teeg, and a masterpiece Scroll Rack. But you probably are more interested in the gameplay Unfortunately, even with expedited shipping, my main TCGPlayer order didn't arrive in time for me to use at the GP, so I missed out on some cards I was planning on testing like Recruiter of the Guard and Boreal Druid. In the end I made the following changes from the decklist in the OP:
The Ravages was only cut because I do not own a physical copy of the card (it was in the late TCGPlayer order) and I didn't want to spend $50 on a one-day rental If I had a copy, I would have certainly played it and likely cut Sylvan Safekeeper.
On the day, I played in 4 pods, winning 2 and losing 2.
The two pods I lost went fairly similarly.
The first game, I played turn 1 land -> dork, turn 2 land -> Priest of Titania, turn 3 land -> Sisay, immediately followed by the Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed casting a Toxic Deluge that was in his opener.
The second game, I played turn 1 land -> dork, turn 2 land -> Sol Ring -> Shaman of Forgotten Ways -> second dork, turn 3 land -> Sisay, holding up a removal spell. Unfortunately the Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer player has a start just as good, going turn 1 land -> Mana Vault, turn 2 land -> Gilded Lotus -> Sculpting Steel (copying Lotus), and turn 3 land -> Ugin, the Spirit Dragon wiping my board. In retrospect, I'm fairly sure I misplayed this game by choosing not to cast Sisay on turn 2. My reasoning at the time was that I was shooting for turn 4 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth because I felt that raw card advantage and the threat of annihilator was likely to be very important against the red player (the other two players were not doing much). Playing Sisay turn 2 would still require me to use most of my mana turn 3 to play out the mana dorks and would not allow me to tutor/cast something while holding up my Swords to Plowshares, while playing the mana on turn 2 would allow me to turn 3 Sisay, potentially play something if I drew it, and hold up removal for a threat from the artifact player while still grabbing t4 Koz. In the end I believe that the additional flexibility afforded by turn 2 Sisay has to have been better. I could have gotten Kataki into play on turn 3, significantly slowing the red player and likely getting me enough time to establish a more resilient board state.
The game against Slobad was effectively over after the Ugin as it wrecked one other player and the last was stuck on one land, he quickly locked us with Karn/Mycosynth Lattice destroying our lands. The first game went significantly longer (it lasted a bit over an hour and probably 12-15 turns, the longest I played by a significant margin) and I was able to make an impact on the game, but the combo of the bad start and some (in my mind) questionable threat assessment by other players allowed the Mizzix player to eventually storm off and win.
The obvious common thread here is the vulnerability to early sweepers. The combination of destroying my mana advantage, putting the commander tax on Sisay, and the fact that I kept threat-light hands relying on Sisay + the mana to power out threats meant the early board clears were crippling. I am unsure if this is simply an inevitable weakness of the deck, pilot error in playing out my hand too aggressively/keeping threat-light openers, or just bad luck (probably some combination of the three).
The other two pods I played also featured dorks into early Sisay, but no board clears. In both games I slowed the game down with early tax effects and followed up with Titania, Protector of Argoth + MLD to create an unstoppable boardstate. The first win I was relatively undisrupted and naturally drew Gaea's Cradle allowing me to put this together on turn 5. The second win I had to slow down to keep an Animar player in check via Hokori and some removal and eventually put that turn together on I believe turn 8. Both games lasted two turns longer while my token army beat down the table, but none of the opponents could present any real threat after the MLD resolved.
The biggest positive I took away from my day was being hugely impressed with both Titania, Protector of Argoth and the MLD cards. In two of the games they were the winning combination, and in the first loss (the Toxic Deluge one) I assembled Titania/Crucible/fetch + strip mine which put serious pressure on the table (unfortunately was unable to get Azusa out as well). Pretty much the fail case for Titania is 5 mana, ramp by reanimating a fetch and put 10 power on the table, which is too slow on its own but can provide significant pressure if I've got some stax elements in play. And the ceiling is providing a way to effectively win on the spot, which this deck is short on.
I did not miss any of the cards I cut (aside Ravages), so these changes are reasonably likely to stay. My TCGPlayer order has arrived with other cards to test, and while I don't get as many games in right now, I'll hopefully be able to make some decisions on them shortly.
What would you replace Gaea's Cradle with? Its slightly out of my price range.
My response to this would be to ask you what your metagame looks like. If you're playing in a high-power environment and are building a list similar to the one in the OP in order to compete, I'd say you can't go without Gaea's Cradle and that you should skimp elsewhere. However it seems unlikely that you're shelling out for the rest of the deck and unwilling to buy Cradle. If you're in a slower environment and are looking to play a more value-based, creature-oriented strategy with stuff like Avacyn, Angel of Hope and etc, you should be able to get by fine with Nykthos and some mana doubling enchantents like Mirari's Wake to fill your mana-producing needs. I might recommend a card like Sterling Grove to go in as well if you're going this route. Do you have a current list that you can post?
What would you replace Gaea's Cradle with? Its slightly out of my price range.
My response to this would be to ask you what your metagame looks like. If you're playing in a high-power environment and are building a list similar to the one in the OP in order to compete, I'd say you can't go without Gaea's Cradle and that you should skimp elsewhere. However it seems unlikely that you're shelling out for the rest of the deck and unwilling to buy Cradle. If you're in a slower environment and are looking to play a more value-based, creature-oriented strategy with stuff like Avacyn, Angel of Hope and etc, you should be able to get by fine with Nykthos and some mana doubling enchantents like Mirari's Wake to fill your mana-producing needs. I might recommend a card like Sterling Grove to go in as well if you're going this route. Do you have a current list that you can post?
I don't have a list, haven't made a deck yet. Sisay was on the list of commander's i'd like to have at some point. I tend to try not to spend more than 15-20$ for a single card.
I don't have a list, haven't made a deck yet. Sisay was on the list of commander's i'd like to have at some point. I tend to try not to spend more than 15-20$ for a single card.
I'd check out the list Lycodrake posted above. He's got a pretty representative set of useful legends and utility cards. The most important expensive legends are going to be Elesh Norn and Avacyn, so if you're going to break $20 for any card it should be those.
So the win here I believe comes from having 2 non-land mana and including a couple of cheaper legends. If you have 2 mana dorks in play (or a Sol Ring or etc.) you get to go:
Tutor Paradox Engine, play it. Play a cheap spell from your hand with any remaining mana, untap. Tutor Mox Opal, play it, untap. Tutor Hope of Ghirapur, play it, untap (now have at least 3 mana b/c Mox Opal is turned on from it/Hope/Engine). Tutor Reki, History of Kamigawa, play it, untap. Now the idea is every 3-or-less mana legendary creature is mana-neutral or positive AND draws a card (for reference, our current build only plays 5 of those, but this build likely requires a few more), and eventually you can get Azusa, Lost but Seeking to play extra lands from your hand that you've drawn. You then tutor for Inventors' Fair, use it to tutor for Aetherflux Reservoir, and continue storming off and win the game with Reservoir.
So, benefits of this package: we get to play a very fast and consistent win. Thinking about how often I untap on turn 3 with Sisay and 2 non-land mana in play, it's a pretty reasonable amount of the time, and on turn 4 it's even more often. And presumably with this build we'll be tweaking to have those numbers go up even more.
And problems: first, this is very very easy to disrupt. It's whacked by any creature removal (presumably for Sisay, but since that's recastable, possibly better to go for Reki or something), any artifact removal, all storm hate including our own (e.g. Eidolon of Rhetoric), blocked by our own Gaddock Teeg, etc. It also is gonna require us to play some pretty dead cards like this Hope of Ghirapur, protective effects like Autumn's Veil, Dosan, etc.
My thoughts: I am skeptical that a dedicated combo build like the first linked one is likely to be good. There are many other very good dedicated storm decks. However, I am very interested to see if we can squeeze this win into our existing stax shell with as few cards as possible while still being good, as the second linked deck is trying to do. That second deck isn't a build I'll be starting from, but it's also encouraging in that it isn't playing very many dead cards and still appears to be trying on the stax plan. I think if the package can pretty much just be Engine/Opal/a one mana legend/Reki/Reservoir/maybe Dosan, that could definitely fit in to our existing stax shell and add a very powerful element to our deck. For example, our staxing elements contribute to making this much harder to disrupt (Thalia, for example, makes it harder to disrupt and only increases the mana it requires to initially go off), and having a win-out-of-nowhere is very good when people are short on mana and not really looking at the GW stax deck as a threat to do that.
Anyway, this is the first paradigm-shifting card that I think has really been printed for Sisay in a while and I'm very interested to hear your thoughts. I'll definitely be purchasing some version of this package and trying it out.
Edit: random thoughts will go here as they appear
maybe Fanatical Devotion becomes playable as a (bad) protective effect that also gets interfering hate pieces (Teeg, Eidolon, etc) off the table? Rishkar, Peema Renegade seems like a slam freakin dunk
So the win here I believe comes from having 2 non-land mana and including a couple of cheaper legends. If you have 2 mana dorks in play (or a Sol Ring or etc.) you get to go:
Tutor Paradox Engine, play it. Play a cheap spell from your hand with any remaining mana, untap. Tutor Mox Opal, play it, untap. Tutor Hope of Ghirapur, play it, untap (now have at least 3 mana b/c Mox Opal is turned on from it/Hope/Engine). Tutor Reki, History of Kamigawa, play it, untap. Now the idea is every 3-or-less mana legendary creature is mana-neutral or positive AND draws a card (for reference, our current build only plays 5 of those, but this build likely requires a few more), and eventually you can get Azusa, Lost but Seeking to play extra lands from your hand that you've drawn. You then tutor for Inventors' Fair, use it to tutor for Aetherflux Reservoir, and continue storming off and win the game with Reservoir.
So, benefits of this package: we get to play a very fast and consistent win. Thinking about how often I untap on turn 3 with Sisay and 2 non-land mana in play, it's a pretty reasonable amount of the time, and on turn 4 it's even more often. And presumably with this build we'll be tweaking to have those numbers go up even more.
And problems: first, this is very very easy to disrupt. It's whacked by any creature removal (presumably for Sisay, but since that's recastable, possibly better to go for Reki or something), any artifact removal, all storm hate including our own (e.g. Eidolon of Rhetoric), blocked by our own Gaddock Teeg, etc. It also is gonna require us to play some pretty dead cards like this Hope of Ghirapur, protective effects like Autumn's Veil, Dosan, etc.
My thoughts: I am skeptical that a dedicated combo build like the first linked one is likely to be good. There are many other very good dedicated storm decks. However, I am very interested to see if we can squeeze this win into our existing stax shell with as few cards as possible while still being good, as the second linked deck is trying to do. That second deck isn't a build I'll be starting from, but it's also encouraging in that it isn't playing very many dead cards and still appears to be trying on the stax plan. I think if the package can pretty much just be Engine/Opal/a one mana legend/Reki/Reservoir/maybe Dosan, that could definitely fit in to our existing stax shell and add a very powerful element to our deck. For example, our staxing elements contribute to making this much harder to disrupt (Thalia, for example, makes it harder to disrupt and only increases the mana it requires to initially go off), and having a win-out-of-nowhere is very good when people are short on mana and not really looking at the GW stax deck as a threat to do that.
Anyway, this is the first paradigm-shifting card that I think has really been printed for Sisay in a while and I'm very interested to hear your thoughts. I'll definitely be purchasing some version of this package and trying it out.
Edit: random thoughts will go here as they appear
maybe Fanatical Devotion becomes playable as a (bad) protective effect that also gets interfering hate pieces (Teeg, Eidolon, etc) off the table?
This is my take on Captain Sisay and Paradox Engine, with a guide on sequencing.
[EDIT] As far as your stax build jpw234, I think Paradox Engine is still busted for you. You have a healthy amount of static non-land mana producers. You can think of Paradox Engine as a way of casting 3 legends a turn, rather than comboing off, which is still enough to win you games probably.
I'd add these for your build.
+ Paradox Engine
+ Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
+ Hope of Ghirapur
+ Mox Opal
The reason for Hope of Ghirapur, is that it combined with Mox Opal, means that you only need 1 other artifact to get metalcraft on the Opal, then you can net extra mana, plus Hope of Ghirapur ability is relevant. Mox Opal alotugh hard to get threshold usually, but great with your stax build, is a much better card with Paradox Engine in the deck.
Cards to take out? You can possible take out some of your finishers, like Titania, Protector of Argoth, Sun Titan, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth.
If you read my guide you can get a lot of mana out of Selvala, Heart of the Wilds if you keep sinking mana into Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, getting to unatp with Paradox Engine. You don't have a lot of legendary creatures in your deck, very light to accommodate the stax cards, but even getting Kataki, War's Wage, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Gaddock Teeg in a row can net you a nice amount of mana, just playing one out after another. Gaddock Teeg is a non-bo with Paradox Engine, but still excellent in same deck.
Then your "finishers" are Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and Shaman of Forgotten Ways, which you already have in the deck.
Also you have a lot of graveyard hate, which I'm sure your meta is heavy, but thats not always the case. So for other people removing some of these Ground Seal, Containment Priest, Scavenging Ooze, will allow for those extra cards.
Hey darrenhabib, thanks for posting your list. I'm leaning toward the Aetherflux Reservoir kill as opposed to using Akroma's Memorial because I feel not having to rely on combat is cleaner and I don't think that I want to play Selvala. However I'll probably test both given that Reservoir is more vulnerable to Stony Silence and such. Also I think that I will use Sword of the Animist or Umezawa's Jitte in the slot you have for Hope of Ghirapur (legend that turns on Mox Opal) because I think they're significantly more relevant on their own. I will update probably in a week or so when my TCGPlayer order arrives with exactly what configuration I test out and what results I can get. In the meantime other lists/thoughts are always appreciated!
Hey darrenhabib, thanks for posting your list. I'm leaning toward the Aetherflux Reservoir kill as opposed to using Akroma's Memorial because I feel not having to rely on combat is cleaner and I don't think that I want to play Selvala. However I'll probably test both given that Reservoir is more vulnerable to Stony Silence and such. Also I think that I will use Sword of the Animist or Umezawa's Jitte in the slot you have for Hope of Ghirapur (legend that turns on Mox Opal) because I think they're significantly more relevant on their own. I will update probably in a week or so when my TCGPlayer order arrives with exactly what configuration I test out and what results I can get. In the meantime other lists/thoughts are always appreciated!
The only thing is that the content of your deck is NOT very conducive to "combing", you're stax after all. Aetherflux Reservoir requires at least 8 spells in a turn to kill one opponent. I don't think there is any sequence in your stax version that can cast enough spells to finish every opponent. I don't think you can really combine both a combo deck and a stax deck.
Keeping in mind that this is entirely theory-crafting since I don't have the cards to test yet, I don't think I agree. Even in the worst-case scenario of trying to go off with initially only a Sol Ring, my list just right now has 5 mana-neutral or mana-positive legends (at 3 CMC or less), including Azusa which is inherently mana-positive, and this number will certainly go up to closer to 10 with the addition of Opal/a legendary artifact/Dosan/Oath of Nissa/Rishkar/potentially a few others, like new Thalia. Additionally, we're drawing cards with all of these legends off of Reki, and then any <4CMC card is mana-neutral or positive of which I have over 30, and all the while by casting creatures we'll be upping the mana-injection that an eventual Cradle will get us. And this assumes the worst-case where we start off with only 2 colorless which would only need to be done in a bad spot - more likely I'd wait to try to go off with a few dorks giving colored mana which would make things significantly easier.
Anyway, I'll wait until I actually get the cards and at least goldfish some hands (and hopefully find a group to test with) before rambling much more.
After making that post I realized I should just shut up and goldfish some games. Wrote down card names on some paper and got to work. I figure I'll race for the combo pretty much as quickly as possible (not realistic). Here's some games.
I should also note the 8 cards I took out, since I don't think I've posted an updated list since the GP: Catastrophe, Aura of Silence, Yavimaya Hollow, Skullclamp, Chord of Calling, Bloom Tender, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Krosan Grip.
I mostly tried to cut redundant effects (like KGrip/Aura of Silence with Aura Shards/Nature's Claim in the deck), or replace cards doing similar things (like replacing Skullclamp with Reki as repeatable draw). But I also did this in <10 minutes to throw together something to test with, so by no means should this be taken as final.
I'm trying to start with a pretty minimalistic combo package to take up as little space in the deck as possible. This is probably as small as it would get - outside maybe Rishkar if he turns out to be really bad, I can't really imagine trying to play the combo without any of these cards. This package could be bigger particularly with protective effects like Dosan/Autumn Veil/Silence, but I'd rather start as small as possible.
Opener: Crop Rotation, Reki, Elvish Mystic, Green Sun's Zenith, Command Tower, Wooded Foothills, Strip Mine
T1: Draw Priest of Titania. Play Command Tower -> Elvish Mystic.
T2: Draw Nature's Claim. Play Strip Mine -> Priest of Titania. Nature's Claim *something*
T3: Draw Idyllic Tutor. Play Wooded Foothills, sac for Savannah. Tap Mystic (G) + Titania (GG) + Command Tower for Sisay. Tap Strip Mine + Savannah to GSZ for Avacyn's Pilgrim.
T4: Draw Chrome Mox.
Hand is: Chrome Mox, Reki, Crop Rotation, Idyllic Tutor.
Board is: Sisay, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Elvish Mystic, Priest of Titania (currently taps for GG).
Tutor Paradox Engine. Tap dorks and Strip Mine, cast Engine. (1 spell, 0 green mana, 0 white mana)
Tap Savannah, Crop Rotation for Gaea's Cradle, untap everything. (2s 0g 0w)
Tutor Mox Opal. Tap dorks, cast Reki, untap. (3s 0g 1w)
Tutor Sword of the Animist. Tap dorks, cast Mox Opal, untap. Draw Shaman of Forgotten Ways. (4s 3g 2w)
Tutor Azusa. Tap dorks, cast Sword of the Animist, untap. Draw Sanctum Prelate. (5s 4g 3w)
Tutor Inventor's Fair. Tap dorks + opal, cast Azusa, untap. Draw Okina. (6s 5g 4w)
Play Inventor's Fair (with 1 Azusa land-drop). Crack it for Aetherflux Reservoir. (6s 1g 4w)
Tutor Kataki. Tap dorks + opal, cast Aetherflux Reservoir, untap. (7s 2g 4w)
Tutor Thalia. Tap dorks + opal, cast Kataki, untap. Draw Stony Silence. (8s 4g 5w +8 life)
Tutor Yisan. Tap dorks + opal, cast Yisan, untap. Draw Razorverge Thicket. (9s 5g 6w 17l)
Tutor Rishkar. Tap dorks + opal, cast Chrome Mox pitching Stony Silence, untap. (10s 8g 8w 27l)
Tutor Oath of Nissa. Tap dorks + rocks, cast Oath of Nissa, untap. Draw Forest, get Eidolon of Rhetoric from Oath. (11s 11g 10w 38l)
Tutor Linvala. Tap dorks + rocks, cast Rishkar, untap. Draw Temple Garden. Priest of Titania now taps for 3 (dorks + rocks are making 7 now). (12s 13g 11w 50l)
Tutor Titania. Tap dorks + rocks, cast Titania, untap. Draw Plains. Get back Savannah from Titania. (13s 14g 12w 63l)
Tutor Hokori. Tap dorks + rocks, cast Hokori, untap. Draw Mana Vault. (14s 16g 13w 77l)
Tutor Kamahl. Tap dorks + rocks, cast Mana Vault, untap. Now making 10 mana per spell (15s lots of mana 92l)
Tutor Norn. Cast Kamahl, untap. Draw Beast Within. (16s 108l)
Tutor Nykthos. Cast Norn, untap. Draw EWit. (17s 125l)
Assuming a reasonable starting life total I can now kill 3 people with Reservoir, plus I have 7 castable spells in my hand and an untapped Cradle for more life/mana. I also probably was not particularly efficient here. For example looking back over this I could have gotten Inventors' Fair back off of Titania earlier to grab Mana Vault quicker and guarantee a bunch more mana per spell earlier. I suspect this was a reasonably nuttish draw with 3 dorks + Crop Rotation to kick off the Engine, but tbh 3 mana from dorks on turn 4 is not particularly unreasonable in this deck.
Opener: Savannah, Sunpetal Grove, Sanctum Prelate, Chrome Mox, Hushwing Gryff, Survival of the Fittest, Crucible of Worlds
T1: draw Glowrider. Play Savannah, Mox pitching Glowrider, Survival.
T2: draw Okina. Play Grove. Pitch Prelate to SotF for Voyaging Satyr, play Satyr.
T3: draw Azusa. Play Okina, play Sisay. Untap a land and pitch Gryff for Avacyn's Pilgrim.
T4: draw Aura Shards. Play Shards, play Pilgrim. Tutor for and play Cradle.
Tutor Engine. Tap Cradle + 2 lands, play Engine. (1s 0g 0w)
Tap Satyr for Cradle. Cradle for 3 + Pilgrim + Mox, play Azusa, untap. (2s 0g 2w)
Tutor Reki. Play Reki, untap. (3s 1g 4w)
Tutor Opal. Play Opal, untap. Draw Flooded Strand. (4s 5g 4w)
Tutor Inventors' Fair. Play Fair, crack it for Reservoir. (4s 1g 4w)
Play Reservoir, untap. (5s 4g 4w)
Tutor Oath of Nissa. Play Oath, untap. Draw Mana Vault, get Hokori from Oath. (6s 8g 6w)
At this point I'm again getting 10+ mana per spell and have at least 10 legends left in my deck + Survival in play so I'm pretty sure I'm safe in calling this a win. I'll note that given I had a pretty dead Turn 4, for example, as well as Azusa/Crucible and Survival in play, in practice I would have almost certainly slowed down and grabbed some hate pieces rather than trying to go off right away.
Opener: Misty Rainforest, Marsh Flats, Quirion Ranger, Priest of Titania, Kataki, War's Wage, Eternal Witness, Hushwing Gryff
T1: draw Sword of the Animist. Crack Marsh Flats for Savannah and cast Quirion Ranger.
T2: draw Sanctum Prelate. Crack Misty Rainforest for Temple Garden and cast Priest of Titania.
T3: draw Eladamri's Call. Cast Sisay. Use Quirion Ranger on Priest of Titania, replay Savannah, cast Eternal Witness, get back a fetch.
T4: draw Forest.
Hand: Forest, Misty Rainforest, Eladamri's Call, Sanctum Prelate, Sword of the Animist, Kataki, Hushwing Gryff.
Board: Temple Garden, Savannah. Quirion Ranger, Eternal Witness, Priest of Titania (currently tapping for GG), Sisay.
Tutor Gaea's Cradle, play Cradle.
Use Savannah to float white, pick it up with Ranger to untap Sisay.
Tutor Paradox Engine. Tap Cradle (GGGG) and use the extra white to cast Engine. Priest of Titania and a Temple Garden untapped. (1s)
Tap Priest to cast Sword of the Animist, untap. (2s)
Tutor Rishkar. Tap Priest and Temple Garden to play Rishkar, untap. Rishkar puts a counter on Eternal Witness and Quirion Ranger. These each now tap for mana, and Priest taps for GGG with Rishkar in play, for GGGGG available in dorks, no lands untapped. (3s)
Tutor Reki. Cast Reki, untap. (4s 2g 0w)
Tutor Mox Opal. Cast Opal, untap. Draw Inventors' Fair. Opal currently taps for mana b/c we've already played Sword. (5s 7g 0w)
Tutor Azusa. Cast Azusa, untap. Draw Scooze. (6s 9g 1w)
Play Inventors' Fair from hand. Crack for Reservoir. (6s 5g 1w)
Tutor Oath of Nissa. Play Reservoir, untap. (7s 6g 2w)
Tutor Yisan. Play Oath of Nissa, untap. Draw Mana Crypt, get Fyndhorn Elves off of Oath. (8s 10g 3w 8l)
And now with Crypt we're making 8 mana per spell and can churn through the deck and win.
Do we really need reservoir? I mean, you were already netting 10 plus Green mana when you stopped counting the cycles results.If we can consistently net 15 plus g mana isn't norn + kahmal enough?
I think it's reasonably likely that most of the time we could just zap everybody's lands, put Stony Silence/Kataki/Teeg/Thalia into play, and pass the turn presuming that our opponents have no way of killing us. I'm starting with Reservoir because cleanly killing our opponents without having to pass the turn just seems less scary than the alternative. It's possible that over the course of testing I determine that having that in the deck isn't worth the card slot. At the moment I'm not sure if those results (i.e. doesn't look like the "storming out" is going to stop any time soon) are typical or not. We do have a finite amount of legends in the deck so we cannot draw our deck reliably to ensure that, for example, we can play Stony Silence and guarantee our Sharuum opponent doesn't untap and kill us or something.
Tbh the card I was least impressed with in that testing was Oath of Nissa, as it didn't appear necessary to kickstart the mana-positive cycle at any point. But it's not a bad card on its own so I'll keep it around for a few test games. Also I want to try Jitte > Animist
Edit: I'm trying to think if there's any hate pieces that stop Norn/Kamahl from working but not Reservoir but I can't really think of anything. Linvala, but that stops the combo already. Norn/Kamahl is worse against...Leovold?
Leovold already stops Reki shenanigans. I also cannot think of anything that can stop kamahl/norn but not reservoir. The contrary is true, though, as Stone silence, nature's claim and krosan grip could sometimes stop the combo based on reservoir and not the norn (asuming we are comboing with suficient dorks).
One thing to (re)consider in the combo aproach as well is haste granting cards. When activating sisay means that you win, i think that cards like concordant crossroad, thousand year elixir and lightning greaves become a lot more valuable, especially when they make all the dorks you play when going off able to generate mana immediately.
Nature's Claim and KGrip just kill Paradox Engine after we play it. Stony Silence/Null Rod are relevant, but they also at least make it much harder to go off w/o Opal/etc, and we can just try to draw into removal for them as well. However, I think there's compelling arguments to not include Reservoir. I'm going to definitely try both ways.
I don't think that e.g. elixir/greaves get much better, because it would be very rare to be able to go off the turn you play Sisay. You need to cast Paradox Engine and cast another spell afterward to untap your Sisay/dorks. That means even if greaves was already in play you'd need in the best case 9 mana for Sisay + Engine, plus a free spell like Mana Crypt in your hand.
Concordant Crossroads, on the other hand, might be better just because it kind of serves as a win rather than Reservoir because you can Kamahl/attack. darrenhabib uses Akroma's Memorial as his wincon. But Akroma's is legendary so you can guarantee getting it. Crossroads only has 3 effective copies: it, ETutor, and Idyllic Tutor, and less if we use either of the tutors beforehand in the setup. I don't have enough experience yet to know whether a card like that which could be difficult to find would be reliable enough (i.e. if we are going to be reliably seeing most/all of our deck).
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How impacting do you feel the new planeswalker rule is gonna be for Captain Sisay?
Quite a buff IMO. Not only will Captain Sisay decks be able to tutor planeswalkers, but it makes Captain Sisay an auto-include in any WG containing (lawl, they all have WG) Superfriends decks. Her price just skyrocketed online.
Unfortunately I can't think of any planeswalkers that would be suitable for the stax/Paradox Engine build as it currently stands, most of them are too slow for their costs. Karn might be reasonable as catch-all removal, but even then I'm doubtful. However, for less competitive builds of the deck, the rule change is definitely a significant boon, and I would expect some of the planeswalkers mentioned above to be very powerful options.
As for the new Mirri, again, in some metagames where combat is the focus this card might well be fantastic, but in a very competitive meta its effect I don't think is quite good enough.
Been tinkering a bit lately with your stax approach and I wonder if you have tried ramunap excavator. Seems great as crucible redundancy with the MLD package.
There's some stuff coming out in Dominaria that looks really good for us. Two legendary sorceries, the white one is plain nuts:
Urza's Ruinous Blast
4W
Legendary Sorcery
(You may cast a legendary sorcery only if you control a legendary creature or planeswalker.)
Exile all nonland permanents that aren't legendary.
This is just nuts and will definitely be in. The second one is a bit more sketchy:
Kamahl's Druidic Vow
XGG
Legendary Sorcery
(You may cost a legendary sorcery only if you control a legendary creature of planeswalker.)
Look at the top X cards of your Library. You may put any number of land and/or legendary permanent cards with converted mana cost X or less from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest into your graveyard.
This opens up the possibility of changing the deck's win condition. Rather than running the Paradox Engine combo, we could rely on basic infinite mana combos, and this gives us an outlet to instantly win. We already play Kamahl, so just adding Akroma's Memorial would do the trick (there might even be something easier). I'm not sure if this is better than Paradox Engine, it probably depends on what the playable infinite mana combos are. Something like Devoted Druid/Vizier of Remedies is reasonable - Druid is fine anyway, for sure - but it would be nice to have something that uses some legendaries to make it more tutorable via Sisay. Yisan helps regardless.
There's also Mox Amber, a mox that turns on when you have a legend in play (should be good). And hopefully there will be more cool stuff as the full spoiler comes out!
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The OP has been completely revamped! The base decklist is now consistent with what I am currently playing, and each card is explained in-depth. There is also a section which lists cards I am interested in testing and cards that I am considering cutting, so check that out for sure. I am still planning on expanding the strategy section and sharing some more tips and tricks that I've picked up playing the deck, but I wanted to at least get the initial revision posted.
Nice list, whiskeyhughes! I share a bit of concern about Static Orb, although I've liked having Winter Orb so far (a bit of redundancy isn't always a bad thing). I can definitely see how useful Iona could be and am interested in testing her, although I'm less enamored with Avacyn. Do you find that Teeg isn't enough protection from wrath effects? Ultimately you haven't cut anything that's really core to my current list, so I doubt they play too differently, and meta differences can certainly call for this sort of tweak. Overall it looks pretty good.
This might be a good time for me to talk about potential tweaks! As I said, there's a list of cards I'd like to test in the OP (right under the decklist), but that's an overly expansive list that includes pretty much anything that looked interesting at all. There are a few cards I'm specifically excited in/want to fit into the list, namely: Chord of Calling, Eldritch Evolution, Bane of Progress, Recruiter of the Guard, and Mox Diamond. Chord and EE are straight-to-the-board, any-creature tutors, which are extra powerful. BoP is an artifact/enchantment heavy hitter on a stick that I think might be necessary. Recruiter is a great tutor for this deck, and Mox Diamond is more early ramp that I think this deck can afford to play (like Chrome Mox). Suggestions on possible cuts or whether these should go in are welcome.
Finally, ShakeAndShimmy, who's a very good EDH player (way better than me) has posted his own Sisay thread, right here. It is very good news that his deck is similar to my own! He has gone in a few different directions and made a few different card choices, however. I'm interested to talk to him on his thread about some of those choices, and to hear ya'lls thoughts on his list.
Since I just moved to the area I dropped down to GP Denver this last weekend with my eye on EDH. The first item on my agenda was to increase the shininess factor of the deck and that went swimmingly. Highlights were a Rav foil Temple Garden, foil Crop Rotation, foil Teeg, and a masterpiece Scroll Rack. But you probably are more interested in the gameplay Unfortunately, even with expedited shipping, my main TCGPlayer order didn't arrive in time for me to use at the GP, so I missed out on some cards I was planning on testing like Recruiter of the Guard and Boreal Druid. In the end I made the following changes from the decklist in the OP:
+: Eldritch Evolution, Chord of Calling, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Sanctum Prelate
-: Static Orb, Karmic Guide, Somberwald Sage, Ravages of War
The Ravages was only cut because I do not own a physical copy of the card (it was in the late TCGPlayer order) and I didn't want to spend $50 on a one-day rental If I had a copy, I would have certainly played it and likely cut Sylvan Safekeeper.
On the day, I played in 4 pods, winning 2 and losing 2.
The two pods I lost went fairly similarly.
The first game, I played turn 1 land -> dork, turn 2 land -> Priest of Titania, turn 3 land -> Sisay, immediately followed by the Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed casting a Toxic Deluge that was in his opener.
The second game, I played turn 1 land -> dork, turn 2 land -> Sol Ring -> Shaman of Forgotten Ways -> second dork, turn 3 land -> Sisay, holding up a removal spell. Unfortunately the Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer player has a start just as good, going turn 1 land -> Mana Vault, turn 2 land -> Gilded Lotus -> Sculpting Steel (copying Lotus), and turn 3 land -> Ugin, the Spirit Dragon wiping my board. In retrospect, I'm fairly sure I misplayed this game by choosing not to cast Sisay on turn 2. My reasoning at the time was that I was shooting for turn 4 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth because I felt that raw card advantage and the threat of annihilator was likely to be very important against the red player (the other two players were not doing much). Playing Sisay turn 2 would still require me to use most of my mana turn 3 to play out the mana dorks and would not allow me to tutor/cast something while holding up my Swords to Plowshares, while playing the mana on turn 2 would allow me to turn 3 Sisay, potentially play something if I drew it, and hold up removal for a threat from the artifact player while still grabbing t4 Koz. In the end I believe that the additional flexibility afforded by turn 2 Sisay has to have been better. I could have gotten Kataki into play on turn 3, significantly slowing the red player and likely getting me enough time to establish a more resilient board state.
The game against Slobad was effectively over after the Ugin as it wrecked one other player and the last was stuck on one land, he quickly locked us with Karn/Mycosynth Lattice destroying our lands. The first game went significantly longer (it lasted a bit over an hour and probably 12-15 turns, the longest I played by a significant margin) and I was able to make an impact on the game, but the combo of the bad start and some (in my mind) questionable threat assessment by other players allowed the Mizzix player to eventually storm off and win.
The obvious common thread here is the vulnerability to early sweepers. The combination of destroying my mana advantage, putting the commander tax on Sisay, and the fact that I kept threat-light hands relying on Sisay + the mana to power out threats meant the early board clears were crippling. I am unsure if this is simply an inevitable weakness of the deck, pilot error in playing out my hand too aggressively/keeping threat-light openers, or just bad luck (probably some combination of the three).
The other two pods I played also featured dorks into early Sisay, but no board clears. In both games I slowed the game down with early tax effects and followed up with Titania, Protector of Argoth + MLD to create an unstoppable boardstate. The first win I was relatively undisrupted and naturally drew Gaea's Cradle allowing me to put this together on turn 5. The second win I had to slow down to keep an Animar player in check via Hokori and some removal and eventually put that turn together on I believe turn 8. Both games lasted two turns longer while my token army beat down the table, but none of the opponents could present any real threat after the MLD resolved.
The biggest positive I took away from my day was being hugely impressed with both Titania, Protector of Argoth and the MLD cards. In two of the games they were the winning combination, and in the first loss (the Toxic Deluge one) I assembled Titania/Crucible/fetch + strip mine which put serious pressure on the table (unfortunately was unable to get Azusa out as well). Pretty much the fail case for Titania is 5 mana, ramp by reanimating a fetch and put 10 power on the table, which is too slow on its own but can provide significant pressure if I've got some stax elements in play. And the ceiling is providing a way to effectively win on the spot, which this deck is short on.
I did not miss any of the cards I cut (aside Ravages), so these changes are reasonably likely to stay. My TCGPlayer order has arrived with other cards to test, and while I don't get as many games in right now, I'll hopefully be able to make some decisions on them shortly.
BWREDGAR MARKOV VAMPIRESBWR
Updated my list thanks to Christmas gifts. I still need to work on streamlining the deck some more, of course.
EDH: GWCaptain Sisay
My response to this would be to ask you what your metagame looks like. If you're playing in a high-power environment and are building a list similar to the one in the OP in order to compete, I'd say you can't go without Gaea's Cradle and that you should skimp elsewhere. However it seems unlikely that you're shelling out for the rest of the deck and unwilling to buy Cradle. If you're in a slower environment and are looking to play a more value-based, creature-oriented strategy with stuff like Avacyn, Angel of Hope and etc, you should be able to get by fine with Nykthos and some mana doubling enchantents like Mirari's Wake to fill your mana-producing needs. I might recommend a card like Sterling Grove to go in as well if you're going this route. Do you have a current list that you can post?
I don't have a list, haven't made a deck yet. Sisay was on the list of commander's i'd like to have at some point. I tend to try not to spend more than 15-20$ for a single card.
BWREDGAR MARKOV VAMPIRESBWR
I'd check out the list Lycodrake posted above. He's got a pretty representative set of useful legends and utility cards. The most important expensive legends are going to be Elesh Norn and Avacyn, so if you're going to break $20 for any card it should be those.
So the win here I believe comes from having 2 non-land mana and including a couple of cheaper legends. If you have 2 mana dorks in play (or a Sol Ring or etc.) you get to go:
Tutor Paradox Engine, play it. Play a cheap spell from your hand with any remaining mana, untap. Tutor Mox Opal, play it, untap. Tutor Hope of Ghirapur, play it, untap (now have at least 3 mana b/c Mox Opal is turned on from it/Hope/Engine). Tutor Reki, History of Kamigawa, play it, untap. Now the idea is every 3-or-less mana legendary creature is mana-neutral or positive AND draws a card (for reference, our current build only plays 5 of those, but this build likely requires a few more), and eventually you can get Azusa, Lost but Seeking to play extra lands from your hand that you've drawn. You then tutor for Inventors' Fair, use it to tutor for Aetherflux Reservoir, and continue storming off and win the game with Reservoir.
So, benefits of this package: we get to play a very fast and consistent win. Thinking about how often I untap on turn 3 with Sisay and 2 non-land mana in play, it's a pretty reasonable amount of the time, and on turn 4 it's even more often. And presumably with this build we'll be tweaking to have those numbers go up even more.
And problems: first, this is very very easy to disrupt. It's whacked by any creature removal (presumably for Sisay, but since that's recastable, possibly better to go for Reki or something), any artifact removal, all storm hate including our own (e.g. Eidolon of Rhetoric), blocked by our own Gaddock Teeg, etc. It also is gonna require us to play some pretty dead cards like this Hope of Ghirapur, protective effects like Autumn's Veil, Dosan, etc.
My thoughts: I am skeptical that a dedicated combo build like the first linked one is likely to be good. There are many other very good dedicated storm decks. However, I am very interested to see if we can squeeze this win into our existing stax shell with as few cards as possible while still being good, as the second linked deck is trying to do. That second deck isn't a build I'll be starting from, but it's also encouraging in that it isn't playing very many dead cards and still appears to be trying on the stax plan. I think if the package can pretty much just be Engine/Opal/a one mana legend/Reki/Reservoir/maybe Dosan, that could definitely fit in to our existing stax shell and add a very powerful element to our deck. For example, our staxing elements contribute to making this much harder to disrupt (Thalia, for example, makes it harder to disrupt and only increases the mana it requires to initially go off), and having a win-out-of-nowhere is very good when people are short on mana and not really looking at the GW stax deck as a threat to do that.
Anyway, this is the first paradigm-shifting card that I think has really been printed for Sisay in a while and I'm very interested to hear your thoughts. I'll definitely be purchasing some version of this package and trying it out.
Edit: random thoughts will go here as they appear
maybe Fanatical Devotion becomes playable as a (bad) protective effect that also gets interfering hate pieces (Teeg, Eidolon, etc) off the table?
Rishkar, Peema Renegade seems like a slam freakin dunk
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/766834-captain-sisay-and-the-paradox-engine
[EDIT] As far as your stax build jpw234, I think Paradox Engine is still busted for you. You have a healthy amount of static non-land mana producers. You can think of Paradox Engine as a way of casting 3 legends a turn, rather than comboing off, which is still enough to win you games probably.
I'd add these for your build.
+ Paradox Engine
+ Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
+ Hope of Ghirapur
+ Mox Opal
The reason for Hope of Ghirapur, is that it combined with Mox Opal, means that you only need 1 other artifact to get metalcraft on the Opal, then you can net extra mana, plus Hope of Ghirapur ability is relevant. Mox Opal alotugh hard to get threshold usually, but great with your stax build, is a much better card with Paradox Engine in the deck.
Cards to take out? You can possible take out some of your finishers, like Titania, Protector of Argoth, Sun Titan, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth.
If you read my guide you can get a lot of mana out of Selvala, Heart of the Wilds if you keep sinking mana into Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, getting to unatp with Paradox Engine. You don't have a lot of legendary creatures in your deck, very light to accommodate the stax cards, but even getting Kataki, War's Wage, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Gaddock Teeg in a row can net you a nice amount of mana, just playing one out after another. Gaddock Teeg is a non-bo with Paradox Engine, but still excellent in same deck.
Then your "finishers" are Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and Shaman of Forgotten Ways, which you already have in the deck.
Also you have a lot of graveyard hate, which I'm sure your meta is heavy, but thats not always the case. So for other people removing some of these Ground Seal, Containment Priest, Scavenging Ooze, will allow for those extra cards.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Anyway, I'll wait until I actually get the cards and at least goldfish some hands (and hopefully find a group to test with) before rambling much more.
The list I'm using:
7 Forest
4 Plains
7 Fetches
1 Savannah
1 Temple Garden
1 Canopy Vista
1 Command Tower
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Razorverge Thicket
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Gaea's Cradle
Ramp (13)
0 Chrome Mox
0 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
2 Priest of Titania
2 Voyaging Satyr
3 Shaman of Forgotten Ways
1 Root Maze
2 Winter Orb
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Vryn Wingmare
3 Glowrider
4 Hokori, Dust Drinker
4 Armageddon
4 Ravages of War
Breaking Stax Symmetry (4)
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
5 Seedborn Muse
Additional Hate (11)
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Stony Silence
2 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Containment Priest
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Ground Seal
3 Eidolon of Rhetoric
3 Hushwing Gryff
3 Sanctum Prelate
4 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
7 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Utility (8)
1 Quirion Ranger
2 Sylvan Library
2 Scroll Rack
3 Eternal Witness
3 Loyal Retainers
4 Living Plane
5 Titania, Protector of Argoth
6 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1 Crop Rotation
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Eladamri's Call
2 Survival of the Fittest
3 Recruiter of the Guard
3 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
3 Eldritch Evolution
3 Idyllic Tutor
Removal (5)
1 Nature's Claim
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
3 Aura Shards
3 Beast Within
New Stuff (for the combo) (8)
5 Paradox Engine
4 Aetherflux Reservoir
0 Inventors' Fair
3 Reki, the History of Kamigawa
0 Mox Opal
2 Sword of the Animist
1 Oath of Nissa
3 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
I should also note the 8 cards I took out, since I don't think I've posted an updated list since the GP: Catastrophe, Aura of Silence, Yavimaya Hollow, Skullclamp, Chord of Calling, Bloom Tender, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Krosan Grip.
I mostly tried to cut redundant effects (like KGrip/Aura of Silence with Aura Shards/Nature's Claim in the deck), or replace cards doing similar things (like replacing Skullclamp with Reki as repeatable draw). But I also did this in <10 minutes to throw together something to test with, so by no means should this be taken as final.
I'm trying to start with a pretty minimalistic combo package to take up as little space in the deck as possible. This is probably as small as it would get - outside maybe Rishkar if he turns out to be really bad, I can't really imagine trying to play the combo without any of these cards. This package could be bigger particularly with protective effects like Dosan/Autumn Veil/Silence, but I'd rather start as small as possible.
Opener: Crop Rotation, Reki, Elvish Mystic, Green Sun's Zenith, Command Tower, Wooded Foothills, Strip Mine
T1: Draw Priest of Titania. Play Command Tower -> Elvish Mystic.
T2: Draw Nature's Claim. Play Strip Mine -> Priest of Titania. Nature's Claim *something*
T3: Draw Idyllic Tutor. Play Wooded Foothills, sac for Savannah. Tap Mystic (G) + Titania (GG) + Command Tower for Sisay. Tap Strip Mine + Savannah to GSZ for Avacyn's Pilgrim.
T4: Draw Chrome Mox.
Hand is: Chrome Mox, Reki, Crop Rotation, Idyllic Tutor.
Board is: Sisay, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Elvish Mystic, Priest of Titania (currently taps for GG).
Tutor Paradox Engine. Tap dorks and Strip Mine, cast Engine. (1 spell, 0 green mana, 0 white mana)
Tap Savannah, Crop Rotation for Gaea's Cradle, untap everything. (2s 0g 0w)
Tutor Mox Opal. Tap dorks, cast Reki, untap. (3s 0g 1w)
Tutor Sword of the Animist. Tap dorks, cast Mox Opal, untap. Draw Shaman of Forgotten Ways. (4s 3g 2w)
Tutor Azusa. Tap dorks, cast Sword of the Animist, untap. Draw Sanctum Prelate. (5s 4g 3w)
Tutor Inventor's Fair. Tap dorks + opal, cast Azusa, untap. Draw Okina. (6s 5g 4w)
Play Inventor's Fair (with 1 Azusa land-drop). Crack it for Aetherflux Reservoir. (6s 1g 4w)
Tutor Kataki. Tap dorks + opal, cast Aetherflux Reservoir, untap. (7s 2g 4w)
Tutor Thalia. Tap dorks + opal, cast Kataki, untap. Draw Stony Silence. (8s 4g 5w +8 life)
Tutor Yisan. Tap dorks + opal, cast Yisan, untap. Draw Razorverge Thicket. (9s 5g 6w 17l)
Tutor Rishkar. Tap dorks + opal, cast Chrome Mox pitching Stony Silence, untap. (10s 8g 8w 27l)
Tutor Oath of Nissa. Tap dorks + rocks, cast Oath of Nissa, untap. Draw Forest, get Eidolon of Rhetoric from Oath. (11s 11g 10w 38l)
Tutor Linvala. Tap dorks + rocks, cast Rishkar, untap. Draw Temple Garden. Priest of Titania now taps for 3 (dorks + rocks are making 7 now). (12s 13g 11w 50l)
Tutor Titania. Tap dorks + rocks, cast Titania, untap. Draw Plains. Get back Savannah from Titania. (13s 14g 12w 63l)
Tutor Hokori. Tap dorks + rocks, cast Hokori, untap. Draw Mana Vault. (14s 16g 13w 77l)
Tutor Kamahl. Tap dorks + rocks, cast Mana Vault, untap. Now making 10 mana per spell (15s lots of mana 92l)
Tutor Norn. Cast Kamahl, untap. Draw Beast Within. (16s 108l)
Tutor Nykthos. Cast Norn, untap. Draw EWit. (17s 125l)
Assuming a reasonable starting life total I can now kill 3 people with Reservoir, plus I have 7 castable spells in my hand and an untapped Cradle for more life/mana. I also probably was not particularly efficient here. For example looking back over this I could have gotten Inventors' Fair back off of Titania earlier to grab Mana Vault quicker and guarantee a bunch more mana per spell earlier. I suspect this was a reasonably nuttish draw with 3 dorks + Crop Rotation to kick off the Engine, but tbh 3 mana from dorks on turn 4 is not particularly unreasonable in this deck.
Opener: Savannah, Sunpetal Grove, Sanctum Prelate, Chrome Mox, Hushwing Gryff, Survival of the Fittest, Crucible of Worlds
T1: draw Glowrider. Play Savannah, Mox pitching Glowrider, Survival.
T2: draw Okina. Play Grove. Pitch Prelate to SotF for Voyaging Satyr, play Satyr.
T3: draw Azusa. Play Okina, play Sisay. Untap a land and pitch Gryff for Avacyn's Pilgrim.
T4: draw Aura Shards. Play Shards, play Pilgrim. Tutor for and play Cradle.
T5: draw Forest. Play Forest.
Hand: Azusa, Crucible.
Board: Cradle, Forest, Okina, Grove, Savannah Aura Shards. Chrome Mox, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Voyaging Satyr(!!), Sisay.
Tutor Engine. Tap Cradle + 2 lands, play Engine. (1s 0g 0w)
Tap Satyr for Cradle. Cradle for 3 + Pilgrim + Mox, play Azusa, untap. (2s 0g 2w)
Tutor Reki. Play Reki, untap. (3s 1g 4w)
Tutor Opal. Play Opal, untap. Draw Flooded Strand. (4s 5g 4w)
Tutor Inventors' Fair. Play Fair, crack it for Reservoir. (4s 1g 4w)
Play Reservoir, untap. (5s 4g 4w)
Tutor Oath of Nissa. Play Oath, untap. Draw Mana Vault, get Hokori from Oath. (6s 8g 6w)
At this point I'm again getting 10+ mana per spell and have at least 10 legends left in my deck + Survival in play so I'm pretty sure I'm safe in calling this a win. I'll note that given I had a pretty dead Turn 4, for example, as well as Azusa/Crucible and Survival in play, in practice I would have almost certainly slowed down and grabbed some hate pieces rather than trying to go off right away.
Opener: Misty Rainforest, Marsh Flats, Quirion Ranger, Priest of Titania, Kataki, War's Wage, Eternal Witness, Hushwing Gryff
T1: draw Sword of the Animist. Crack Marsh Flats for Savannah and cast Quirion Ranger.
T2: draw Sanctum Prelate. Crack Misty Rainforest for Temple Garden and cast Priest of Titania.
T3: draw Eladamri's Call. Cast Sisay. Use Quirion Ranger on Priest of Titania, replay Savannah, cast Eternal Witness, get back a fetch.
T4: draw Forest.
Hand: Forest, Misty Rainforest, Eladamri's Call, Sanctum Prelate, Sword of the Animist, Kataki, Hushwing Gryff.
Board: Temple Garden, Savannah. Quirion Ranger, Eternal Witness, Priest of Titania (currently tapping for GG), Sisay.
Tutor Gaea's Cradle, play Cradle.
Use Savannah to float white, pick it up with Ranger to untap Sisay.
Tutor Paradox Engine. Tap Cradle (GGGG) and use the extra white to cast Engine. Priest of Titania and a Temple Garden untapped. (1s)
Tap Priest to cast Sword of the Animist, untap. (2s)
Tutor Rishkar. Tap Priest and Temple Garden to play Rishkar, untap. Rishkar puts a counter on Eternal Witness and Quirion Ranger. These each now tap for mana, and Priest taps for GGG with Rishkar in play, for GGGGG available in dorks, no lands untapped. (3s)
Tutor Reki. Cast Reki, untap. (4s 2g 0w)
Tutor Mox Opal. Cast Opal, untap. Draw Inventors' Fair. Opal currently taps for mana b/c we've already played Sword. (5s 7g 0w)
Tutor Azusa. Cast Azusa, untap. Draw Scooze. (6s 9g 1w)
Play Inventors' Fair from hand. Crack for Reservoir. (6s 5g 1w)
Tutor Oath of Nissa. Play Reservoir, untap. (7s 6g 2w)
Tutor Yisan. Play Oath of Nissa, untap. Draw Mana Crypt, get Fyndhorn Elves off of Oath. (8s 10g 3w 8l)
And now with Crypt we're making 8 mana per spell and can churn through the deck and win.
Tbh the card I was least impressed with in that testing was Oath of Nissa, as it didn't appear necessary to kickstart the mana-positive cycle at any point. But it's not a bad card on its own so I'll keep it around for a few test games. Also I want to try Jitte > Animist
Edit: I'm trying to think if there's any hate pieces that stop Norn/Kamahl from working but not Reservoir but I can't really think of anything. Linvala, but that stops the combo already. Norn/Kamahl is worse against...Leovold?
One thing to (re)consider in the combo aproach as well is haste granting cards. When activating sisay means that you win, i think that cards like concordant crossroad, thousand year elixir and lightning greaves become a lot more valuable, especially when they make all the dorks you play when going off able to generate mana immediately.
I don't think that e.g. elixir/greaves get much better, because it would be very rare to be able to go off the turn you play Sisay. You need to cast Paradox Engine and cast another spell afterward to untap your Sisay/dorks. That means even if greaves was already in play you'd need in the best case 9 mana for Sisay + Engine, plus a free spell like Mana Crypt in your hand.
Concordant Crossroads, on the other hand, might be better just because it kind of serves as a win rather than Reservoir because you can Kamahl/attack. darrenhabib uses Akroma's Memorial as his wincon. But Akroma's is legendary so you can guarantee getting it. Crossroads only has 3 effective copies: it, ETutor, and Idyllic Tutor, and less if we use either of the tutors beforehand in the setup. I don't have enough experience yet to know whether a card like that which could be difficult to find would be reliable enough (i.e. if we are going to be reliably seeing most/all of our deck).
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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Quite a buff IMO. Not only will Captain Sisay decks be able to tutor planeswalkers, but it makes Captain Sisay an auto-include in any WG containing (lawl, they all have WG) Superfriends decks. Her price just skyrocketed online.
Best planeswalkers for Captain Sisay IMO:
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
Ajani Unyielding
Garruk, Caller of Beasts
Gideon, Martial Paragon (that untap)
BWREDGAR MARKOV VAMPIRESBWR
As for the new Mirri, again, in some metagames where combat is the focus this card might well be fantastic, but in a very competitive meta its effect I don't think is quite good enough.
Been tinkering a bit lately with your stax approach and I wonder if you have tried ramunap excavator. Seems great as crucible redundancy with the MLD package.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Urza's Ruinous Blast
4W
Legendary Sorcery
(You may cast a legendary sorcery only if you control a legendary creature or planeswalker.)
Exile all nonland permanents that aren't legendary.
This is just nuts and will definitely be in. The second one is a bit more sketchy:
Kamahl's Druidic Vow
XGG
Legendary Sorcery
(You may cost a legendary sorcery only if you control a legendary creature of planeswalker.)
Look at the top X cards of your Library. You may put any number of land and/or legendary permanent cards with converted mana cost X or less from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest into your graveyard.
This opens up the possibility of changing the deck's win condition. Rather than running the Paradox Engine combo, we could rely on basic infinite mana combos, and this gives us an outlet to instantly win. We already play Kamahl, so just adding Akroma's Memorial would do the trick (there might even be something easier). I'm not sure if this is better than Paradox Engine, it probably depends on what the playable infinite mana combos are. Something like Devoted Druid/Vizier of Remedies is reasonable - Druid is fine anyway, for sure - but it would be nice to have something that uses some legendaries to make it more tutorable via Sisay. Yisan helps regardless.
There's also Mox Amber, a mox that turns on when you have a legend in play (should be good). And hopefully there will be more cool stuff as the full spoiler comes out!