Before we begin, I'd like to talk a little bit about myself and my history in magic, and the deck's history. I started playing Magic when I was about seven, and EDH when I was about ten. My first EDH deck was a terrible, terrible Eron the Relentless deck, focusing on land-destruction. At the time I didn’t even really realize it was considered a dickish thing to do - I just had four or five LD spells and started working from there. It eventually evolved into a casual Heartless Hidetsugu deck which I began to really tune. Including ways to give Hidetsugu lifelink or other shenanigans was the beginning of my career as a brewer. After a couple years of stagnation, my meta started to really evolve as I made friends in early high school. It was the best deck in my meta when we first really started wanting to compete, though we were still unevolved compared to where we are today.
Eventually I built a killer Jarad combo deck, which became semi-well known on this forum and reddit. This deck was and continues to be very successful even in my competitive metagame. However, several other members of my meta had second decks, and I was jealous. I wanted to build something too, something not-seen-before in my meta. I knew dedicated Ad Nausem was possible in this format; I had seen Zur lists doing that, and even bad Maralen decks posted on SCG.com. However, what I really wanted was a deck that could *tutor* its combo, kind of like Arcum Dagsson or Yisan. Taking inspiration from fast, spell-based decks like Moxnix's Jeleva Storm, I designed Sidisi Ad Naus, with the idea being to quickly cast Sidisi and tutor for my one-card combo.
There's not much else to put in history - the deck is still in alpha phases.
Metagame
Today, my metagame is a constantly-evolving animal. Consistent foes include Tasigur, the Golden Fang combo featuring Doomsday combo, Nin, the Pain Artist Artifacts with several ways to generate infinite mana and draw her deck, Momir Vig, Simic Visionary tempo with eighty ways to stabilize quick and softlock the table, Omnath, Locus of Mana stompy which preys upon the fact that many decks in our meta are weak to combat damage, Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge control with Enter the Infinite and opponents' Tooth and Nails as their prime win-condition, Purphoros, God of the Forge aggro which punishes every deck that takes advantage of its life total, my own Jarad Graveyard Combo, and Yisan, Wanderer Bard toolbox which tutors entire combos by itself. All-in-all, our games end around turn three to eight. We're an especially midrange-based meta compared to other cutthroat metas, using some light control to stop early-game combos. My deck preys on the weakness of my meta's control decks by using targeted discard spells to protect our "combo" from counterspells, and on the midrange decks, which are just a bit too slow to race me.
Why play this deck?
Likes and Dislikes
We'll start with the traditional "You might enjoy this deck if:"
You like playing lots of spells in one turn. We're a storm deck, obviously.
You frequently play against opponents you don't know, or plan on taking this deck to tournaments against strangers. Surprising our opponents by winning on turn two with a one-card combo works a lot better when they don't know that they have to hold up counterspells.
You enjoy winning. Yeah, I’ll say it - this is a powerful deck. If you’re building a new deck, and you like to win, I recommend you consider this deck.
You like linear gameplans. Almost every single game we win is off the back of a single card. This means playing it isn't terribly thought-provoking, and tends to be boring the fifth game in a row - I like to have this as an alternative to another deck I have on hand.
You enjoy proactive decks. We try to win before other players have stabilized.
You won’t like playing this deck if:
You like winning in the combat phase. We never do.
You prefer to play a game where your general is meaningless.
You're bad at math. Prepared to be juggling numbers in your head - colorless mana, black mana, storm, life total....
You prefer working with the options provided by White, Blue, Red, or Green.
Why this Commander?
OK, so let's say you want to build a storm deck. What edge does Sidisi have over other storm decks, or other dedicated Ad Nauseam decks anyway? For example, why is Sidisi better suited to casting this one spell than Zur, or Oloro? Well, being mono color means we don't have to pay much attention to colorfixing and can always cast our spells. We pass over mana-intensive counterspells to protect our combo in favor of one-mana discard spells like Thoughtseize or Duress.
Sidisi, being a tutor on a stick, means we can rely on having the Ad Nauseam 100% of the time. While it's a little bit harder to win off Ad Naus in one turn without red or blue, we can focus the deck on winning with Ad Naus and not other gameplans because we will always have our best gameplan open. Sidisi can also be reanimated post Ad Naus for additional tutors, or pre-Ad Naus for extra protection.
How to Win in Three Easy Steps
0) Before the game begins, assess your opponents decks. The less disruption at the table, the more likely it is we win. We are the fastest deck in the format, meaning decks like Food ChainProssh, Hermit Druid combo, all that jazz - it's nothing to us, since they play little to no disruption. On the other hand, decks that attack our resources and play disruption are gonna kill us. If our table is full of counterspells, you'll have to wait a few turns extra to tutor for protection. If our opponents are Stax players, you'll want to mulligan hard for either discard effects or a way to go under the stax - to win before your opponents have a chance to play them.
1) Ramp until you can cast Ad Nauseam and tutor for it. You'll almost always want to put Sidisi in your graveyard to reanimate her later. Once you have Ad Naus in hand, you'll want to keep your eyes open for an opening. Sometimes a blue player will tap out for a Time Warp or Turnabout, thinking they'll be able to untap and counter our game-winning spell - that's all you need. Generally though, you'll want to cast Ad Naus on your own turn, hopefully after using hand-hate to get rid of any prospective counterspells.
2) Go HAM on Ad Naus. Our curve-toppers are five drops, and you'll want to get yourself down to beneath five pretty much every time. Keep an eye out for instant-speed damage - Jarads or Goblin Bombardments in play. Once you've got a full grip, start chaining mana-positive rocks (henceforth MPRs) and rituals to develop your mana pool. Yawgmoth's Will lets you do it all over again. Generally the easiest way to win is with Exsanguinate, but sometimes you'll have to use Tendrils of Agony. Occasionally you won't have enough gas to kill your opponents, in which case you'll have to use Tendrils to gain a bunch of life, then Yawgmoth's Will to cast Ad Naus again, build up storm some more, and use Tendrils again.
The Nitty-Gritty
Now that you understand the macro, let's talk micro. Generally going off with this deck is pretty easy, but sometimes we'll need to use some tricks. The first line you'll need to know is Krark-Clan Ironworks. This turns every artifact into a little ritual, and casting them all gives you a high storm count. KCI produces incredible amounts of colorless mana for a measly four. You'll want to make sure you have enough black mana though - don't cast KCI if you can't make any black after that. If you can cast Yawgmoth's Will after saccing all your artifacts, then you'll be fine, since you can recast your Moxen.
Another important card to know how to use is Lion's Eye Diamond. You can't use LED to cast a spell in your hand, thanks to errata - "Use this ability only when you can cast an instant." That's a weird sentence, but it means you can't activate it whenever you could activate any other mana ability - in other words, you can't play a spell, then sac LED to pay the costs. You can use LED in response to a tutor for mana to cast the spell, or to power out an early Sidisi. Finally, and my favorite, you can use it in response to Yawgmoth's Will, then use it again immediately, and still have your whole hand at your disposal.
Sometimes you won't have enough gas to kill off Ad Naus. What you'll want to do in this situation is build up storm using Yawgmoth's Will and cast Tendrils of Agony for as much as you can. Use Tendrils to lower the opponents' largest life total to as low as possible - so if my opponents are at 37, 34, and 24, and I'm casting 20 copies of Tendrils, point nine at the first player (new life total is 19), eight at the second (new life total is 18), and 3 at the third (new life total 18). In other words, make sure you have to make as little mana as possible with Exsanguinate. Since Tendrils gains you life, this frees you up to recast Ad Naus thanks to Yawgmoth's Will. Don't forget that you don't have to kill with Tendrils or Exsanguinate - if you need to, use both! You can also cast Tendrils, cast Yawg Will, recast your graveyard, and then recast Tendrils.
If you casted Ad Naus uncounterable off Boseiju, and think your opponents might have countermagic, you'll want to make sure you put Defense Grid in play before casting more important spells. This is especially true if you're playing around Flusterstorm or something similar.
Never forget that you have Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth. This combo is much easier to disrupt than a storm combo, but it's mana-efficient. Even if you don't have an outlet for it in hand, you can usually get one somehow. Got an Expedition Map? Crack it, copy it, find two cycling lands, cycle them, copy those, draw four cards. You'll only need to be able to produce BB to play Sidisi, and use her to tutor up Sensei's Divining Top. You can tap Top, copy that, draw the top card of your library and put Top on top, then resolve the second one and re-draw and re-cast top. Repeat that until your winning card is in hand.
If your opponents somehow manage to get rid of Ad Naus, either via counterspell or Jester's Cap effect, you have a plan B - assemble the Rings-Monolith combo discussed above. You can use Sidisi to find Basalt, which you can then tap to cast her again next turn, find Rings, then untap Basalt the next turn, and make infinite mana the turn after that. Once you have infinite mana, make BB and find Top. Since this is so slow, it's often easier to just tutor for Yawgmoth's Will or even one of the graveyard shufflers we play (Elixir of Immortality) and try to Ad Naus again.
Against stax effects, you'll have to make an under/over choice - either win before the stax comes down, or find a way to win through it. Do make sure to use handhate against a stax player to try and avoid this, but we can potentially win with a stax effect in play if you can't. If it's a tax effect like Thalia, it's pretty hard to win "over" it - you'll need a lot of mana so you can put Krark-Clan Ironworks into play, or Helm of Awakening. If it's something that stops you from fully untapping, like Winter Orb, you can either go off with lots of rituals or just wait until you untap fully. If it's something like Tangle Wire, prioritize tutoring for Ad Naus, then cast it in your upkeep and you'll be fine.
Figured it was about time that I make this post. I recently took this to SCG KC and went 5-2 with the deck, so I figured it tuned enough to share it. Still working. Within the next month I plan on writing a card-by-card for the OP, then hopefully getting primer status soon after that.
I've got a similar Sidisi combo deck thats doesn't get brought out often enough. Sidisi into Ad Naus into sickening dreams as the primary win con. Put all these cards into your hand and then pitch them for lethal using dark sphere to save yourself. Then theres also tendrils for the storm win or altar of the brood + zombie infestation to pitch lands to and you drop all your 0/X cmc spells for the mill win. Yawgmoths Will is always good to have. And then if all that fails I have Empty the pits as the last resort.
average cmc and stuff like that would be nice
imp's mischief in a proactive deck?
i like Paradise Mantle even if slower with walkers (edit :than springleafdrum)it gives metalcraft earlier.
I've got a similar Sidisi combo deck thats doesn't get brought out often enough. Sidisi into Ad Naus into sickening dreams as the primary win con. Put all these cards into your hand and then pitch them for lethal using dark sphere to save yourself. Then theres also tendrils for the storm win or altar of the brood + zombie infestation to pitch lands to and you drop all your 0/X cmc spells for the mill win. Yawgmoths Will is always good to have. And then if all that fails I have Empty the pits as the last resort.
But you lose so much life to Ad Naus, how do you not die? I find the Skirge Familiar + Exsanguinate win so much easier.
Not really a fan of memnite and friends here they are just garbage draws you want your general in the gy to turn your reanimates into demonic tutor and while thru can potentially enable something like culling the weak or mix opal or simply up your storm count post AN they just suck to much before you cast it for the little they do afterwords.
You can disagree that's fine I'll admit I don't play mono black storm since I think it's better with blue so I could be wrong but I can't see a card that is a nearly useless draw by itself Warrent inclusion despite synergy over just playing a better card. For instance he's not running jet medallion while ornithopter could be better than jet medallion if I have culling the weak I know which card I would rather be playing with.
I see what your saying but this decks got 6 creatures and his general needs a sac to trigger. Medallion will reduce the cost of AN his general every game and post AN even if you cast it off drawing it off AN it can easily ritual more mana than a mana vault. The key difference is that it always does something where memenite can easily do nothing culling in an opening hand can easily do nothing. Once you resolve AN those cards are good but I just think they are such a wasted slot before resolving it they are not worth it espivally considering you should be able to win after resolving the card anyway making them win more on the back end while still being inconsitent on the front end when he could just use a card that's more useful in general.
36 lands seems like a lot for storm. I know the build focuses around ad nas but what do you think about things like nights whisper?
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Hey guys so I've actually moved on from commander on to 60 card decks so I don't have any commander decks.
Anyway I've started my own gameplay channel in which I play games (Magic also)
I see what your saying but this decks got 6 creatures and his general needs a sac to trigger.
Do you need a sac? Can't you just sac Sidisi? Seems to me all the 0 cast creatures are a waste, you need hand destruction to take out the blue player, as that is the only real threat you will run in to.
That's the point you want sidsi to sac itself so you can reanimate it you don't want her to stay in play. I'm not arguing they are bad as your casting ad nauseam I just think at that point you pretty much already win and adding them won't up your back end win% very much while drawing a dead card early could easily cause you to lose by never getting to resolve it in the first place.
Not really a fan of memnite and friends here they are just garbage draws you want your general in the gy to turn your reanimates into demonic tutor and while thru can potentially enable something like culling the weak or mix opal or simply up your storm count post AN they just suck to much before you cast it for the little they do afterwords.
They're actually pretty important. There are lots of cards that need critters to fuel, from Diabolic Intent to Cabal Therapy to Phyrexian Tower. They even feed KCI. They're not there to sac to Sidisi. They speed up the deck, and the whole reason that you play this deck is for speed.
36 lands seems like a lot for storm. I know the build focuses around ad nas but what do you think about things like nights whisper?
The high land count is for one reason: mulliganning. Since I play a much shorter game than most decks, I rely on mulling very hard, so I play lots of lands so that I can pitch more of them and dig deeper for a tutor. I will definitely change this to a lower number when Partial goes away. Night's Whisper is testable.
modo doesn't and my paper groups have not used it in years even when we did we never used free partial mulligans we used standard rules im glad we switched to the new mulligan system our old system was the 1v1 system if you didn't like your hand you shuffled and mulled to 6 XD. I don't really have an interest in playing mono black storm but i still think jet medallion is worth playing even if you don't cut the 0 drop dudes its a good card here for sure.
I'm running 52 lands, pretty much every 0 or x cmc artifact and the rest is discard spells, combo pieces/win-cons or mana accel. I can usually draw 80% of the deck without lethal. and theres always dark sphere or even zuran orb. I actually just counted. The total CMC for the entire deck minus ad naus comes in at 37.
Went to a tournament last night. They had 12 people, so they decided to split it up into 4 pods of 3, and then a winner's pod of four.
My first round I was up against Azami combo/control and Daretti stax, two bad matchups. Azami had a hand full of mana-positive rocks but was constrained on blue mana. Daretti had a similar hand, started pumping out mana-rocks. I built my boardstate and used Codex Shredder to start filling my graveyard for the Songs of the Damned. A turn-three Oblivion Stone was met by an overloaded Cyclonic Rift from Azami. It was recasted and cracked on turn four, but thankfully I held most of my manarocks in my hand and was able to recast them and tutor for Ad Naus. I went off the turn after that.
My next match was against Purphoros, Teferi, and some janky deck. Teferi dropped a turn one Mystic Remora and drew a bunch of cards as everyone played a bunch of mana rocks. Purphoros craps his hand and starts to burn me. I'm able to go off turn four, using Praetor's Grasp on Teferi for his Force of Will, so he can't Mystic Remora into it.
I really dig the deck, being the huge black player that I am (in magic and IRL).
I was wondering if you've made any changes recently and had a few questions:
1) How has Dark Petition worked for you so far? Is it worth it for 5 life (even though most times it will end up being a second demonic tutor)?
2) Have you thought about Oblivion Stone, as a backup, or is it unnecessary (my meta is a lot of aggro/stax decks and I feel like it could help).
3) Lotus Bloom - is this overkill since it probably won't hit by the time ?
4) I was also thinking of replacing Cabal Ritual with Mind Twist - or would that be a mistake?
Thanks and again, really like the deck! I also liked your Jarad list.
I really dig the deck, being the huge black player that I am (in magic and IRL).
I was wondering if you've made any changes recently and had a few questions:
1) How has Dark Petition worked for you so far? Is it worth it for 5 life (even though most times it will end up being a second demonic tutor)?
2) Have you thought about Oblivion Stone, as a backup, or is it unnecessary (my meta is a lot of aggro/stax decks and I feel like it could help).
3) Lotus Bloom - is this overkill since it probably won't hit by the time ?
4) I was also thinking of replacing Cabal Ritual with Mind Twist - or would that be a mistake?
Thanks and again, really like the deck! I also liked your Jarad list.
Thanks daruiner. The list I'm playing right now looks like this. That list isn't 100% up to date. I plan on updating this thread and keeping it a bit more active once I get a better feel for what the deck looks like.
1) Dark Petition is... fine. Flipping it kind of sucks. I wish I had Grim Tutor.
2) If I wanted that effect, I'd play Unstable Obelisk. Generally there's only one permanent stopping me from going off, and I can't wipe my board and kill all my mana rocks. Plus, Obelisk isn't completely terrible outside of as a removal spell. I definitely will test it at some point.
3) As you can see, Lotus Bloom did get cut. I want to be winning on turn 3, and this card is just too slow.
4) Mind Twist is playable, but Cabal Ritual is not a card you want to cut. It's better than, say, Lotus Petal pre-Ad Naus since it filters into black mana, and it's really, really good post-Ad Naus when it's basically a Black Lotus. I don't really love Mind Twist though, since you're not guaranteed to hit the source of interaction, and since it doesn't reveal, you don't even know if they do have that disruption in hand and you can go off or if you need to hold up another turn and tutor Defense Grid or whatever.
hey razzliox your setup of version 2 looks nice. we aim at different angles . your deck is an AdNaus- and my current one is a necro-deck.
i think that is showing the difference on Mind Twist. in my list its pretty good but i don't wan't to win turn 3.
i play much more control myself against other heavy u control and then win later.
your reliance on adNaus is also reflected with Animate Dead and Dance of the Dead. these do not cost you life, so you can play them after adNaus when your life is drained comletely. i use reanimate and Undying Evil for their mana efficieny to set up earlier, most times pre necro.
i guess it is a total meta depending. your list looks too goldfishy for mine and my deck will not be fast enough to dogde your meta's weak timegap early.
BUT overall we both ramp hard. last time i played i layed down 10 mana turn 1 fetch'n play necro and didn't tap solRing.
darkPetition isn't weaker in general compared to grimTutor as it costs 6 life total if cast after adNaus and doesn't add 1 mana to be even with DP as it always has spellmastery active at that point.
i also do not have Grim but budget is a reason why playing sidisi for shure. no aburDuals fetches and other pimp required to be powerfull.
replacing fast mana (ex cabal ritual): this is never good BECAUSE mana equals Demonic Tutor in this deck. this deck just needs to cross a very low mana barrier and that means business to win.
question: how much enemy players do you regular have?
i know you play OozeTrsikVourer in jarad but the only reason why i do not here is 130point of damage max but much more reliable than adNaus + turn 3 combo every game.
basically dualcommander deck (mtg top 8) plus SolPower minus Griselbrand (can be replaced with Putrid Imp for the discard trick - obviously no draw power but thats not necessary)
cheers
Can you post your list? I'm interested to see the different builds of this deck.
There are a couple more ramp lands you can run in Myriad Landscape and Mage-Ring Network. The Landscape may be too slow for this deck, but the Network enters the battlefield untapped and so has a low opportunity cost.
Night's Whisper was also mentioned previously, and Sign in Blood is nearly its clone. These cards are very subtly busted. They undo mulligans quickly, dig you into land drops, and otherwise go a long ways toward fixing defective hands. Two mana for two cards is a fantastic deal.
And if two mana for two cards is fantastic then three mana for twenty cards is unreal. Of course I'm talking about Necropotence and of course I know you know about that card. The question is, why wouldn't you want the most broken black card draw spell (that's format legal) in a competitive mono black combo deck? You don't need to build or play around it at all. Just put it in your deck and it's another way your opening hand can be broken and lead to a turn 2-3-4 kill.
Just had a look at your list on tappedout. Isn't Lotus Blossom just a worse version of Basal Thrull in this deck? They both effectively have summoning sickness in that they don't do anything the turn they come out, but the Thrull puts you up two mana the next turn where the Blossom would only put you up one. It'll take two more turns to make Lotus Blossom surpass Basal Thrull in mana production.
Necrologia is just a more expensive single use Necropotence. Why pay two more mana than you have to? Necropotence plays just fine with Songs of the Damned and Yawgmoth's Will, too, unless you want to discard your creatures and spells rather than cast them. Admittedly this means it can sometimes be awkward with Lion's Eye Diamond but those situations are pretty rare.
One other thing I was thinking of was Fetchlands. Paying a life is a small cost - though it's more relevant in this deck - and in exchange you get a card in the yard for Cabal Ritual and the possibility of ramping with Rings of Brighthearth.
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You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
Good catch on the reanimation spells. I'll pick those up next time I do a TCGPlayer order.
I haven't made any changes to this deck since the mull changes. I think I'm going to remove some lands - the main reason I was playing so many was so I could partial away lots of cards including the lands in my opener and I would guarantee that I would draw enough back. I want to pick up the new 2-rock creature. I don't think there's anything from the new set.
I haven't given this deck too much attention in the past couple weeks. Since the mulligan change I've been focused on tuning my other deck. I still think this is a good one though and likely took much less of a hit than other spellslinger decks.
History
Before we begin, I'd like to talk a little bit about myself and my history in magic, and the deck's history. I started playing Magic when I was about seven, and EDH when I was about ten. My first EDH deck was a terrible, terrible Eron the Relentless deck, focusing on land-destruction. At the time I didn’t even really realize it was considered a dickish thing to do - I just had four or five LD spells and started working from there. It eventually evolved into a casual Heartless Hidetsugu deck which I began to really tune. Including ways to give Hidetsugu lifelink or other shenanigans was the beginning of my career as a brewer. After a couple years of stagnation, my meta started to really evolve as I made friends in early high school. It was the best deck in my meta when we first really started wanting to compete, though we were still unevolved compared to where we are today.
Eventually I built a killer Jarad combo deck, which became semi-well known on this forum and reddit. This deck was and continues to be very successful even in my competitive metagame. However, several other members of my meta had second decks, and I was jealous. I wanted to build something too, something not-seen-before in my meta. I knew dedicated Ad Nausem was possible in this format; I had seen Zur lists doing that, and even bad Maralen decks posted on SCG.com. However, what I really wanted was a deck that could *tutor* its combo, kind of like Arcum Dagsson or Yisan. Taking inspiration from fast, spell-based decks like Moxnix's Jeleva Storm, I designed Sidisi Ad Naus, with the idea being to quickly cast Sidisi and tutor for my one-card combo.
There's not much else to put in history - the deck is still in alpha phases.
Metagame
Today, my metagame is a constantly-evolving animal. Consistent foes include Tasigur, the Golden Fang combo featuring Doomsday combo, Nin, the Pain Artist Artifacts with several ways to generate infinite mana and draw her deck, Momir Vig, Simic Visionary tempo with eighty ways to stabilize quick and softlock the table, Omnath, Locus of Mana stompy which preys upon the fact that many decks in our meta are weak to combat damage, Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge control with Enter the Infinite and opponents' Tooth and Nails as their prime win-condition, Purphoros, God of the Forge aggro which punishes every deck that takes advantage of its life total, my own Jarad Graveyard Combo, and Yisan, Wanderer Bard toolbox which tutors entire combos by itself. All-in-all, our games end around turn three to eight. We're an especially midrange-based meta compared to other cutthroat metas, using some light control to stop early-game combos. My deck preys on the weakness of my meta's control decks by using targeted discard spells to protect our "combo" from counterspells, and on the midrange decks, which are just a bit too slow to race me.
Likes and Dislikes
We'll start with the traditional "You might enjoy this deck if:"
Why this Commander?
OK, so let's say you want to build a storm deck. What edge does Sidisi have over other storm decks, or other dedicated Ad Nauseam decks anyway? For example, why is Sidisi better suited to casting this one spell than Zur, or Oloro? Well, being mono color means we don't have to pay much attention to colorfixing and can always cast our spells. We pass over mana-intensive counterspells to protect our combo in favor of one-mana discard spells like Thoughtseize or Duress.
Sidisi, being a tutor on a stick, means we can rely on having the Ad Nauseam 100% of the time. While it's a little bit harder to win off Ad Naus in one turn without red or blue, we can focus the deck on winning with Ad Naus and not other gameplans because we will always have our best gameplan open. Sidisi can also be reanimated post Ad Naus for additional tutors, or pre-Ad Naus for extra protection.
0) Before the game begins, assess your opponents decks. The less disruption at the table, the more likely it is we win. We are the fastest deck in the format, meaning decks like Food Chain Prossh, Hermit Druid combo, all that jazz - it's nothing to us, since they play little to no disruption. On the other hand, decks that attack our resources and play disruption are gonna kill us. If our table is full of counterspells, you'll have to wait a few turns extra to tutor for protection. If our opponents are Stax players, you'll want to mulligan hard for either discard effects or a way to go under the stax - to win before your opponents have a chance to play them.
1) Ramp until you can cast Ad Nauseam and tutor for it. You'll almost always want to put Sidisi in your graveyard to reanimate her later. Once you have Ad Naus in hand, you'll want to keep your eyes open for an opening. Sometimes a blue player will tap out for a Time Warp or Turnabout, thinking they'll be able to untap and counter our game-winning spell - that's all you need. Generally though, you'll want to cast Ad Naus on your own turn, hopefully after using hand-hate to get rid of any prospective counterspells.
2) Go HAM on Ad Naus. Our curve-toppers are five drops, and you'll want to get yourself down to beneath five pretty much every time. Keep an eye out for instant-speed damage - Jarads or Goblin Bombardments in play. Once you've got a full grip, start chaining mana-positive rocks (henceforth MPRs) and rituals to develop your mana pool. Yawgmoth's Will lets you do it all over again. Generally the easiest way to win is with Exsanguinate, but sometimes you'll have to use Tendrils of Agony. Occasionally you won't have enough gas to kill your opponents, in which case you'll have to use Tendrils to gain a bunch of life, then Yawgmoth's Will to cast Ad Naus again, build up storm some more, and use Tendrils again.
The Nitty-Gritty
Now that you understand the macro, let's talk micro. Generally going off with this deck is pretty easy, but sometimes we'll need to use some tricks. The first line you'll need to know is Krark-Clan Ironworks. This turns every artifact into a little ritual, and casting them all gives you a high storm count. KCI produces incredible amounts of colorless mana for a measly four. You'll want to make sure you have enough black mana though - don't cast KCI if you can't make any black after that. If you can cast Yawgmoth's Will after saccing all your artifacts, then you'll be fine, since you can recast your Moxen.
Another important card to know how to use is Lion's Eye Diamond. You can't use LED to cast a spell in your hand, thanks to errata - "Use this ability only when you can cast an instant." That's a weird sentence, but it means you can't activate it whenever you could activate any other mana ability - in other words, you can't play a spell, then sac LED to pay the costs. You can use LED in response to a tutor for mana to cast the spell, or to power out an early Sidisi. Finally, and my favorite, you can use it in response to Yawgmoth's Will, then use it again immediately, and still have your whole hand at your disposal.
Sometimes you won't have enough gas to kill off Ad Naus. What you'll want to do in this situation is build up storm using Yawgmoth's Will and cast Tendrils of Agony for as much as you can. Use Tendrils to lower the opponents' largest life total to as low as possible - so if my opponents are at 37, 34, and 24, and I'm casting 20 copies of Tendrils, point nine at the first player (new life total is 19), eight at the second (new life total is 18), and 3 at the third (new life total 18). In other words, make sure you have to make as little mana as possible with Exsanguinate. Since Tendrils gains you life, this frees you up to recast Ad Naus thanks to Yawgmoth's Will. Don't forget that you don't have to kill with Tendrils or Exsanguinate - if you need to, use both! You can also cast Tendrils, cast Yawg Will, recast your graveyard, and then recast Tendrils.
If you casted Ad Naus uncounterable off Boseiju, and think your opponents might have countermagic, you'll want to make sure you put Defense Grid in play before casting more important spells. This is especially true if you're playing around Flusterstorm or something similar.
Never forget that you have Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth. This combo is much easier to disrupt than a storm combo, but it's mana-efficient. Even if you don't have an outlet for it in hand, you can usually get one somehow. Got an Expedition Map? Crack it, copy it, find two cycling lands, cycle them, copy those, draw four cards. You'll only need to be able to produce BB to play Sidisi, and use her to tutor up Sensei's Divining Top. You can tap Top, copy that, draw the top card of your library and put Top on top, then resolve the second one and re-draw and re-cast top. Repeat that until your winning card is in hand.
If your opponents somehow manage to get rid of Ad Naus, either via counterspell or Jester's Cap effect, you have a plan B - assemble the Rings-Monolith combo discussed above. You can use Sidisi to find Basalt, which you can then tap to cast her again next turn, find Rings, then untap Basalt the next turn, and make infinite mana the turn after that. Once you have infinite mana, make BB and find Top. Since this is so slow, it's often easier to just tutor for Yawgmoth's Will or even one of the graveyard shufflers we play (Elixir of Immortality) and try to Ad Naus again.
Against stax effects, you'll have to make an under/over choice - either win before the stax comes down, or find a way to win through it. Do make sure to use handhate against a stax player to try and avoid this, but we can potentially win with a stax effect in play if you can't. If it's a tax effect like Thalia, it's pretty hard to win "over" it - you'll need a lot of mana so you can put Krark-Clan Ironworks into play, or Helm of Awakening. If it's something that stops you from fully untapping, like Winter Orb, you can either go off with lots of rituals or just wait until you untap fully. If it's something like Tangle Wire, prioritize tutoring for Ad Naus, then cast it in your upkeep and you'll be fine.
1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
//Land (36)
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Barren Moor
1x Blasted Landscape
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1x City of Traitors
1x Crystal Vein
1x Darksteel Citadel
1x Ebon Stronghold
1x Lake of the Dead
1x Peat Bog
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Polluted Mire
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Strip Mine
20x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Vault of Whispers
//Artifact (30)
1x Basalt Monolith
1x Chromatic Sphere
1x Chromatic Star
1x Chrome Mox
1x Codex Shredder
1x Defense Grid
1x Elixir of Immortality
1x Everflowing Chalice
1x Expedition Map
1x Feldon's Cane
1x Grim Monolith
1x Helm of Awakening
1x Jeweled Amulet
1x Krark-Clan Ironworks
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Mox Diamond
1x Mox Opal
1x Prismatic Lens
1x Rings of Brighthearth
1x Scroll Rack
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
1x Spellbook
1x Springleaf Drum
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Voltaic Key
1x Wayfarer's Bauble
1x Ad Nauseam
1x Cabal Ritual
1x Culling the Weak
1x Dark Ritual
1x Imp's Mischief
1x Rain of Filth
1x Slaughter Pact
1x Songs of the Damned
1x Vampiric Tutor
//Enchantment (3)
1x Animate Dead
1x Dance of the Dead
1x Necromancy
//Sorcery (15)
1x Cabal Therapy
1x Dark Petition
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Diabolic Intent
1x Dread Return
1x Duress
1x Exhume
1x Exsanguinate
1x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Praetor's Grasp
1x Reanimate
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Thoughtseize
1x Unmask
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Memnite
1x Ornithopter
1x Overeager Apprentice
1x Phyrexian Walker
1x Shield Sphere
1x Skirge Familiar
Jarad Graveyard Combo[Primer]!
Sidisi ANT!
Playing Commander to Win - A guide on Competitive, 4-player EDH
LandDestruction.com - An EDH blog
Jarad Graveyard Combo[Primer]!
Sidisi ANT!
Playing Commander to Win - A guide on Competitive, 4-player EDH
LandDestruction.com - An EDH blog
I've got a similar Sidisi combo deck thats doesn't get brought out often enough. Sidisi into Ad Naus into sickening dreams as the primary win con. Put all these cards into your hand and then pitch them for lethal using dark sphere to save yourself. Then theres also tendrils for the storm win or altar of the brood + zombie infestation to pitch lands to and you drop all your 0/X cmc spells for the mill win. Yawgmoths Will is always good to have. And then if all that fails I have Empty the pits as the last resort.
There are stats on http://www.tappedout.net/mtg-decks/sidisi-ad-naus
Imp's Mischief counters counterspells.
Paradise Mantle is testable, will try it.
But you lose so much life to Ad Naus, how do you not die? I find the Skirge Familiar + Exsanguinate win so much easier.
Jarad Graveyard Combo[Primer]!
Sidisi ANT!
Playing Commander to Win - A guide on Competitive, 4-player EDH
LandDestruction.com - An EDH blog
Damia http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=410191
DDFT Legacyhttp://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=505247
Domain Zoo http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=10212429#post10212429
Damia http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=410191
DDFT Legacyhttp://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=505247
Domain Zoo http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=10212429#post10212429
Damia http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=410191
DDFT Legacyhttp://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=505247
Domain Zoo http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=10212429#post10212429
Anyway I've started my own gameplay channel in which I play games (Magic also)
Twitch:
https://www.twitch.tv/dies_to_doom_blade
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/UpsidedownHandshake
Do you need a sac? Can't you just sac Sidisi? Seems to me all the 0 cast creatures are a waste, you need hand destruction to take out the blue player, as that is the only real threat you will run in to.
..
Azusa - Derevi - Glissa - Mizzix - Sharuum - Wanderer - Wort
Damia http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=410191
DDFT Legacyhttp://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=505247
Domain Zoo http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=10212429#post10212429
They're actually pretty important. There are lots of cards that need critters to fuel, from Diabolic Intent to Cabal Therapy to Phyrexian Tower. They even feed KCI. They're not there to sac to Sidisi. They speed up the deck, and the whole reason that you play this deck is for speed.
The high land count is for one reason: mulliganning. Since I play a much shorter game than most decks, I rely on mulling very hard, so I play lots of lands so that I can pitch more of them and dig deeper for a tutor. I will definitely change this to a lower number when Partial goes away. Night's Whisper is testable.
Jarad Graveyard Combo[Primer]!
Sidisi ANT!
Playing Commander to Win - A guide on Competitive, 4-player EDH
LandDestruction.com - An EDH blog
I've sent him a link to your list, and I'll let you know if he has any feedback for you.
UU Azami, Lady of Experiments and Control UU
BG Jarad - Toolbox Reanimator GB
Trying to figure out what to build next!
Damia http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=410191
DDFT Legacyhttp://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=505247
Domain Zoo http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=10212429#post10212429
Jarad Graveyard Combo[Primer]!
Sidisi ANT!
Playing Commander to Win - A guide on Competitive, 4-player EDH
LandDestruction.com - An EDH blog
Damia http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=410191
DDFT Legacyhttp://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=505247
Domain Zoo http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=10212429#post10212429
Jarad Graveyard Combo[Primer]!
Sidisi ANT!
Playing Commander to Win - A guide on Competitive, 4-player EDH
LandDestruction.com - An EDH blog
My first round I was up against Azami combo/control and Daretti stax, two bad matchups. Azami had a hand full of mana-positive rocks but was constrained on blue mana. Daretti had a similar hand, started pumping out mana-rocks. I built my boardstate and used Codex Shredder to start filling my graveyard for the Songs of the Damned. A turn-three Oblivion Stone was met by an overloaded Cyclonic Rift from Azami. It was recasted and cracked on turn four, but thankfully I held most of my manarocks in my hand and was able to recast them and tutor for Ad Naus. I went off the turn after that.
My next match was against Purphoros, Teferi, and some janky deck. Teferi dropped a turn one Mystic Remora and drew a bunch of cards as everyone played a bunch of mana rocks. Purphoros craps his hand and starts to burn me. I'm able to go off turn four, using Praetor's Grasp on Teferi for his Force of Will, so he can't Mystic Remora into it.
Jarad Graveyard Combo[Primer]!
Sidisi ANT!
Playing Commander to Win - A guide on Competitive, 4-player EDH
LandDestruction.com - An EDH blog
I was wondering if you've made any changes recently and had a few questions:
1) How has Dark Petition worked for you so far? Is it worth it for 5 life (even though most times it will end up being a second demonic tutor)?
2) Have you thought about Oblivion Stone, as a backup, or is it unnecessary (my meta is a lot of aggro/stax decks and I feel like it could help).
3) Lotus Bloom - is this overkill since it probably won't hit by the time ?
4) I was also thinking of replacing Cabal Ritual with Mind Twist - or would that be a mistake?
Thanks and again, really like the deck! I also liked your Jarad list.
Thanks daruiner. The list I'm playing right now looks like this. That list isn't 100% up to date. I plan on updating this thread and keeping it a bit more active once I get a better feel for what the deck looks like.
1) Dark Petition is... fine. Flipping it kind of sucks. I wish I had Grim Tutor.
2) If I wanted that effect, I'd play Unstable Obelisk. Generally there's only one permanent stopping me from going off, and I can't wipe my board and kill all my mana rocks. Plus, Obelisk isn't completely terrible outside of as a removal spell. I definitely will test it at some point.
3) As you can see, Lotus Bloom did get cut. I want to be winning on turn 3, and this card is just too slow.
4) Mind Twist is playable, but Cabal Ritual is not a card you want to cut. It's better than, say, Lotus Petal pre-Ad Naus since it filters into black mana, and it's really, really good post-Ad Naus when it's basically a Black Lotus. I don't really love Mind Twist though, since you're not guaranteed to hit the source of interaction, and since it doesn't reveal, you don't even know if they do have that disruption in hand and you can go off or if you need to hold up another turn and tutor Defense Grid or whatever.
Thanks about my Jarad list. I like it too
Jarad Graveyard Combo[Primer]!
Sidisi ANT!
Playing Commander to Win - A guide on Competitive, 4-player EDH
LandDestruction.com - An EDH blog
Can you post your list? I'm interested to see the different builds of this deck.
Jarad Graveyard Combo[Primer]!
Sidisi ANT!
Playing Commander to Win - A guide on Competitive, 4-player EDH
LandDestruction.com - An EDH blog
Necrologia is just a more expensive single use Necropotence. Why pay two more mana than you have to? Necropotence plays just fine with Songs of the Damned and Yawgmoth's Will, too, unless you want to discard your creatures and spells rather than cast them. Admittedly this means it can sometimes be awkward with Lion's Eye Diamond but those situations are pretty rare.
One other thing I was thinking of was Fetchlands. Paying a life is a small cost - though it's more relevant in this deck - and in exchange you get a card in the yard for Cabal Ritual and the possibility of ramping with Rings of Brighthearth.
I haven't made any changes to this deck since the mull changes. I think I'm going to remove some lands - the main reason I was playing so many was so I could partial away lots of cards including the lands in my opener and I would guarantee that I would draw enough back. I want to pick up the new 2-rock creature. I don't think there's anything from the new set.
I haven't given this deck too much attention in the past couple weeks. Since the mulligan change I've been focused on tuning my other deck. I still think this is a good one though and likely took much less of a hit than other spellslinger decks.
Jarad Graveyard Combo[Primer]!
Sidisi ANT!
Playing Commander to Win - A guide on Competitive, 4-player EDH
LandDestruction.com - An EDH blog