When Sisay, Weatherlight Captain was first spoiled, I was like "here we go this is my Modern Horizons commander build around", but then Yawgmoth, Thran Physician came along and I've been obsessed with him ever since. However I've played enough games with him to finally branch off and try my hand at Sisay.
Now where to even start with her? I mean with almost 1200 legendary permanents she can search for, the options are pretty wide and varied.
But it's important to identify what she is not. Requiring WUBRG to activate each time, trying to use her as a competitive commander to combo off with a few select legendary cards is not the most efficient when you compare her to other commanders that search your library. Prime Speaker Vannifar, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, Arcum Dagsson, Captain Sisay, Zur the Enchanter, these types of commanders are far more efficient at doing combo wins, simply based on mana required to do the searches.
For a commander that falls prey to cards like Cursed Totem, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Damping Matrix, Grafdigger's Cage, Containment Priest, in competitive commander you'd be happier to have options that didn't require to have WUBRG available realistically over a couple of turns.
So in my opinion, don't be looking at her too much as a way to get cheap fast wins from a truly competitive standpoint.
However, I have figured out a two activation search combo for a win. That is if you're not disrupted you can activate Sisay "twice" to get a combo win. It's actually more than twice, but the sequence allows you to get more mana to keep activating. I will explain a little bit further down the thread.
There are probably literally endless directions you can go with such a vast array of options. As I research, I keep coming up with new ideas, but I've honed in and settled on a style of play that best suites me.
My first Sisay brew was more of a planeswalker theme with a variety of infinite combos thrown in as well. If you've read any of my other primers like Aminatou, Will & Rowan Kenrith or Yawmoth, you'll get a sense that I love me a Superfriends build. However after winning in a similar fashion to my other decks I've decided to ease off on the walker theme..a little bit.
Toolbox Control
I've gone for more of a jack-of-all-trades build, with a tool-box style of interactive legendary permanents. If you've read my Zur and Rebels (Lin Sivvi's Crew) for Toolbox Control thread then I've gone for a similar approach where I've designed to get answers in the form of legendary permanent(s) to what might be happening in the game.
Because you can use Sisay ability at instant speed, you can wait to use her ability to react to what opponents might be doing.
For example Ashiok, Dream Render could be searched up in response to an opponent going to search their library. Narset, Parter of Veils can be used if opponent goes for a big draw spell.
I have a full run down of cards that can be used for interaction in the "Playing the Deck" section under "Know your Toolbox".
How to build up Sisay's power with colored legendary permanents?
With her starting on 2 power, in theory you would only be able to search for a 1 or less cmc legend. In this instance Rhys the Redeemed is the best for getting more colors onto the board. Rhys the Redeemed will bring her power up to 4 without other colored cards on the board.
Once you have two colors on-board Sisay power is 4, so then you can go for a 3 cmc legend.
There are 9 legendary permanents to choose from at exactly 3 cmc. It's going to depend if you want to add more colors to the board, or specifically react to the game state.
But I'll explain how to sequence for a combo win if the situation becomes available to you and you want to go for it.
With Oath of Teferi in play you can activate planeswalkers twice, and Aminatou, the Fateshifter and Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God can use one of these to exile the other, giving you unlimited activation's each. You can just use Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God [+1] ability to exile all cards from opponents hand and permanents with enough activation's. You have infinite mana and infinite draw, yada yada yada.
Because Selvala, Heart of the Wilds requires G to activate, you just need to make sure to add enough G to your mana pool to have enough to keep using Selvala. You just balance it out with the rest of your mana sources to make sure you get the WUBRG during the first couple of activation's, and have a green source left over. You can 100% do the combo with only one initial green source. Once Sisay power is 6, you'll get 6 mana off Selvala and you just add WUBRGG each time to cover the costs.
Alternative setups
Not every game is going to allow you to win via the above combo, or you might just want to go for something alternative anyway. So it's important to know various setups you can do to fix your colors as best as possible.
If you're wanting to get more colors and let's say you have Gruul RG already, then Esper WUB colors would give your 5 colors. For that there is Aminatou, the Fateshifter.
Tetsuo Umezawa is the only 3 cmc Grixis UBR commander in all of Magic, and admittedly only in the deck for the ability to get the five colors after a Rhys the Redeemed search, or if you've already got Selesnya covered.
If you've lost access to Rhys the Redeemed then you can get either Oath of Nissa or Norin the Wary. Norin the Wary is an excellent 1 cmc legend that will give you red. He is quite a hard permanent to remove, so you'll be able to lean on him quite reliable through the game, but for some on-board effect that can kill him.
Getting early mana advantages is probably the best way to go, to make sure you have potential multiple uses off Sisay's ability.
Once you have your 5 colors on-board then you have access to the rest of your legendary permanents.
I go into more setups further down in the section "Playing the Deck", as there are a lot of options at your disposal.
Playing with power!
Another element in the deck is some cheap pump spells to give Sisay a quick power burst, allowing her to search for much higher converted mana cost cards, in cases where you haven't built up your on-board colors (for Sisay).
Note that with 5 colors on the board you can get Sisay up to a 7/7 naturally, meaning she can get anything for 6 converted mana cost. Currently the deck has a ceiling of 6 for this reason. But that's not to say that you can't go higher with her power with other additional power effects.
I have Scale Up, Vines of Vastwood, Groundswell as spells that can boost her power.
Without any other colors on board, these will allow you to get Sisay power to 6, allowing you to search for any 5 cmc.
However it is often that you have another colored permanent on-board, meaning that you'll also be able to get any legendary permanent featured in the deck.
Design stipulations
I've specifically avoided legendary permanents that require additional mana for activation's. There are some really powerful options, however with Sisay mana requirements, you'd be asking for too much to also invest mana into other abilities.
I've also mostly avoided creatures that require t abilities unless they are for mana. The reason is that because the way you are dealing with the game at instant speed, having summoning sickness to get the benefits means that they are just too slow to really do what you want. For example Mangara of Corondor is a catch all for removal, but unfortunately it can't deal with anything until you get to untap with it. You really have to be able to deal with the stack resolving.
card]Tetsuo Umezawa[/card] is the exception, as he fixes legendary colors.
Cards in hand are a liability and NEVER casting cards
Drawing cards is essentially not in the best interest of these types of tool-box decks, where you want the cards in your library for the searches. So we have some cards that allow you to put cards from hand back in your library with Brainstorm, Scroll Rack, Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
There are some cheap mana spells and disruptive instants, but honestly you are never really wanting to cast legendary cards from your hand once you get Sisay online, unless it's part of a combo in some way.
Also Sisay ability doesn't require casting so you can mitigate some of the "cost more" effects.
You can swap out some of the more fun elements like toolbox control and Bolas's Citadel package for stax, if you are inclined. Realistically it's going to be a more competitive version, but personally stax is not my cup-of-tea.
Venser, Shaper Savant can also be used to remove a spell from the stack to delay it, or a problematic permanent from the board back to hand.
Opponent goes to search library
Ashiok, Dream Render will prevent your opponents from being able to search their library. Because it's a planeswalker, it is potentially vulnerable to creature attacks removing it from the board, so you just have to be aware that it might only remain for a limited time. In this respect you are not always going to jam it in response to a search. However if your opponent is already in a dominate position and casts a tutor effect, you might just use it as a one time stop search effect. In this way you can think of it more like a once off counterspell.
Opponent goes to draw multiple cards in a turn
Narset, Parter of Veils can be used to stop opponents from drawing more than one card for a turn. Again this is a planeswalker, meaning that it can be attacked to be removed. So as long as you're aware of it's potential one time use to stop a big draw effect. Of course you are much happier to have a setup where you're able to protect as well, and so hopefully you can build a board state to do this through most games.
Opponent plays spot removal on creature permanent
Shalai, Voice of Plenty can be used to give your creatures hexproof, so you can even wait will a creature is being targeted on the stack, to then put Shalai into play.
Journey to Eternity can be used if a creature is being destroyed. It has the added bonus of giving you a land, that you can use to bring back creatures from graveyard during more grindy games.
Opponent plays spot removal on non-creature permanent
Sidisi, Undead Vizier can search for Swan Song or Stubborn Denial. In all honesty the deck is mainly comprised of legendary permanents, so there is actually not a lot of non-land permanents outside of creatures that you care about anyway.
Remember that Shalai, Voice of Plenty also give planeswalkers hexproof, so you can use her to protect walkers.
Opponent plays a destroy all creatures
Archangel Avacyn can be used to give all your creatures indestructible. The other bonus of her is that you can also use her transform into Avacyn, the Purifier as a way to clear the board of particular creatures. It's a bit tricky getting a creature to "die" if opponents are not attacking you, but you can use Sidisi, Undead Vizier exploit ability to set this up.
Opponent plays an all nonland permanents board wipe
Depending on what you want to keep, Archangel Avacyn can save your creatures if it's a destroy effect.
Again you can use Sidisi, Undead Vizier for a counterspell.
The deck is mainly creatures with some planeswalkers. If you look at enchantments and artifacts there really isn't anything too important, just some support cards for early game play mainly in mana fixing. So really it's mainly creatures you are looking to protect.
Shutting off opponents looking to use activated abilities of creatures
Linvala, Keeper of Silence will stop this completely.
Flying is also a bonus in this deck as you are looking to protect planeswalkers potentially at various stages.
Opponents have a wide creature board and threaten to attack your life total or planeswalkers
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs can be used to essentially make it impossible to get through on both you and your planeswalkers with non-flying or non-evasive creatures. You have to put him into play before attacking is declared, so you can't spring a trap, but it's still a powerful play, especially against go-wide token strategies.
Removing cards from opponents graveyards
Ashiok, Dream Render can be used to remove opponents graveyards, but this cannot be done at instant speed, so needs to be a preventive in your own turn, rather than reacting in opponents turns.
Opponent plays a sacrifice effect on you
Sigarda, Host of Herons will allow you to mitigate this effect.
The 5/5 flying hexproof body is also nice against defending your potential planeswalkers.
Opponents have problematic artifacts
Dack Fayden can be used to steal an artifact. He also is just nice at filtering through cards, and is a 3 cmc legend that can fix your Izzet UR colors for Sisay power.
I've already mentioned Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Venser, Shaper Savant can be used for artifacts.
Removing all nonland permanents from the battlefield
Child of Alara can be used. Now it actually has to die, so you do normally have to set this up. One of my favorite plays with this deck is setting up a one-sided board wipe. What I'll do is get Child of Alara into play, then search up Sidisi, Undead Vizier and use the exploit to sacrifice Child of Alara. I'll then put Archangel Avacyn into play giving all my creatures indestructible.
Because most of these are once off effects, there is Mistveil Plains to put back cards from your graveyard back into your library. You'll need two white permanents in play, but this is pretty easy considering Sisay is white herself.
Getting cards into graveyard can be difficult if opponents are not attacking, so you can look for Sidisi, Undead Vizier to sacrifice them if actually wanting to get them into your graveyard.
Setting up your engine
I've already shown you the infinite combo and clearly this is the best way to get multiple Sisay activation's as you get infinite mana.
However this isn't the main goal of the deck as you're looking to play out longer games with an interactive control and defense style against opponents.
Why have the combo in the first place then? Well honestly the cards involved in the combo were naturally in the deck for color and mana fixing, and I figured out how to sequence it this way once I started to think about how I could use the cards in my deck more.
There are a number of different stages to setting up. But it's all going to come down to mana available, urgency or playing it safe, and even what you might have already drawn thus available to search with Sisay ability.
There are three main steps to setting up:
Getting Sisay to 7 power with 5 colors worth of legendary creatures.
Setting up mana sources so that you can get multiple Sisay activation's each turn round.
Using your legendary toolbox to react to the game state.
Obviously the best setup is always going to be the sequence for the combo win, even if you don't actually use it to outright win.
It must be noted that the infinite mana can only be accessed in your turn, because you're using planeswalker abilities to do this.
Getting Sisay to 7 power with 5 colors worth of legendary creatures.
As stated previously, if fixing your colors is the priority then the first two Sisay searches are going to be Rhys the Redeemed into Tetsuo Umezawa to for the 5 color scheme.
If able to get a legendary 2 cmc on your first search, then I'll normally go for Gaddock Teeg as he gives you security against a lot of big removal spells or just general big plays from your opponents. Then I'll get Tetsuo Umezawa to fulfill the 5 colors, and access to the rest of the deck.
But of course, it will depend on what you might have put into play already, and how you can fix colors onboard as quickly as possible.
For example if I have a single green source like Oath of Nissa, Azusa, Lost but Seeking already in play, then Lavinia, Azorius Renegade is going to bring Sisay power up to 5.
What's are other ways to get multiply activation's of Sisay?
Well outside of legendary cards there is Seedborn Muse and Wilderness Reclamation. But you can't search for these with Sisay.
Teferi, Temporal Archmage is an excellent way of making sure your mana sources are untapped at end of your turn. Nikya of the Old Ways is a way to get double mana off your lands, allowing for twice as many activation's.
As long as you have 7 mana sources then you can look to do this. Or if you have a mana source which provides at least two mana, like Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl, Fertile Ground, Bloom Tender. The reason is that Teferi, Temporal Archmage can untap 4 mana sources and not that 5 you'd want for Sisay's WUBRG.
So because you want to activate Sisay 3 times, you need that additional mana.
If you only have 6 mana sources available to you, you can still get Teferi, Temporal Archmage untap 4 mana sources and then you can search for Oath of Teferi which can exile a land. Teferi can untap 4 mana sources again. Unfortunately you're going to have to stop there, but at end of turn the land will come back into play, and now you have 5 mana sources, meaning Sisay is back online.
As long as you feel you can protect Teferi, Temporal Archmage through opponents turns, this is a freebie way of potentially getting more mana in your subsequent turns.
If I haven't used Sisay as a toolbox through an opponents turn, then often I'll get Nikya of the Old Ways so that I can double up on my Sisay activation's. This might seem like a nonbo with the various non-creature spells in the deck. However if forced into a situation where I really need to cast a non-creature spell, I'll search for Sidisi, Undead Vizier to sacrifice Nikya of the Old Ways.
The rest of the creatures can be searched in reaction to opponents spells more often than not.
Bolas's Citadel
As a 6 cmc legendary permanent, Bolas's Citadel is a fun option. I've always really wanted to play it in a deck, and so the opportunity to actually search for it straight into play was simply too good to pass up.
The reasons not to run these are two fold. With 1 cmc legends we have green, white or red with Rhys the Redeemed, Oath of Nissa, Norin the Wary.
There are literally no 1 cmc blue or black legendary permanents that exist.
If we were to search up Abzan WBG with Rhys the Redeemed in play we only gain black. Similar with Naya WRG we would only gain red.
Mardu WBR or Jund BRG is better as you'd gain black and red, but you are just better off getting Grixis to cover more colors.
With the single colored white legends Temur URG would give you 3 additional colors, so this is just as good as Grixis in this exact scenario.
However the other reason not to play them is that these legendary creatures themselves are not that useful either. If there was a really good Mardu, Jund, Temur commanders that helped our strategy then they would probably be included.
You ever think about adding in Altar of the brood? That way the line can be animatou into nicol bolas in tezzeret -1 for altar infinite blink animatou and bolas back and forth. I was also thinking about adding in the new six since its a 2 drop walker with 2 colors.
You ever think about adding in Altar of the brood? That way the line can be animatou into nicol bolas in tezzeret -1 for altar infinite blink animatou and bolas back and forth. I was also thinking about adding in the new six since its a 2 drop walker with 2 colors.
I have an Animatou primer (link in my signature) and I've never been a fan of Altar of the Brood as a win condition, even though it allows you to go infinite with Felidar Guardian and Animatou. Honestly I'm always looking for more value from a card rather than straight up combo card with infinite. Like if the deck had a major reanimation plan on opponents creatures, then I'd consider Altar of the Brood as it would give you advantages on that axis when you play the card by itself.
I had Wrenn and Six hallmarked for the deck, but it's just a bit to pricey to purchase at $58. But yes it's great at 2 cmc, a shoe in if you get your hands on one.
So I've been looking at some budget replacements and wanted to hear what your thoughts are and whether it would make the deck a total disaster.
Three Visits ---> Wood Elves
Tetsuo Umezawa ---> Kess, Dissident Mage
Scroll Rack ---> Hidden Retreat
Noble Hierarch ---> Druid of the Anima
Bloom Tender ---> Rattleclaw Mystic
Azusa, Lost but Seeking ---> Exploration / Mina and Denn, Wildborn
I have no good budget replacement for these:
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
But I am sadly going to have to cut them, I might buy them later on, but for now they're too expensive.
Do you think these changes and takesouts will ruin the deck completely?
Furthermore for the mana base, I have all the Shock and Fetch lands (except Misty Rainforest) and I thought about swapping out the original dual lands probably for the Cyclings lands as they can b searched for with fetch lands. Luckily I don't play in a super competitve playgroup so I can take a tempo downgrade.
Furthermore, what has your experience been with playing this deck, is it fun? are you doomed if someone continuously removes Sisay and what has mainly been your wincon in the games?
So I've been looking at some budget replacements and wanted to hear what your thoughts are and whether it would make the deck a total disaster.
Three Visits ---> Wood Elves
Tetsuo Umezawa ---> Kess, Dissident Mage
Scroll Rack ---> Hidden Retreat
Noble Hierarch ---> Druid of the Anima
Bloom Tender ---> Rattleclaw Mystic
Azusa, Lost but Seeking ---> Exploration / Mina and Denn, Wildborn
I have no good budget replacement for these:
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
But I am sadly going to have to cut them, I might buy them later on, but for now they're too expensive.
Do you think these changes and takesouts will ruin the deck completely?
Furthermore for the mana base, I have all the Shock and Fetch lands (except Misty Rainforest) and I thought about swapping out the original dual lands probably for the Cyclings lands as they can b searched for with fetch lands. Luckily I don't play in a super competitve playgroup so I can take a tempo downgrade.
Furthermore, what has your experience been with playing this deck, is it fun? are you doomed if someone continuously removes Sisay and what has mainly been your wincon in the games?
And of course happy friday
If Sisay is constantly dealt with, and it does happen, then you are unlikely to win games. It's just not that robust, the cards are very specific to situations, so drawing and playing them one by one if you don't have access to Sisay isn't really going to line up in a meaningful way.
So I don't want to sugar coat it, the games that go well, you look like a genius and feel like a king, and the games where opponents are able to remove her in a timely manner, well you just end up being a spectator.
Now the good news is that not having Selvala, Heart of the Wilds in the deck forces you to play a longer game. It's just waaaaaaaaaay to tempting to go for auto-wins with her, which kind of ruins the idea of trying to control opponents with tricky plays in response to their plays.
No Tetsuo Umezawa isn't the end of the world either.
The thing is that getting all 5 colors gives you access to only 4 cards. And you've pointed out that Teferi, Temporal Archmage is a no go.
Honestly this fine.
Now I don't know what you've got in your collected. Rhys the Redeemed is a $33 card. As you've mentioned your not in a super competitive playgroup, so it might be that you have to literally do another set of sequences to get color fixing at the expensive of probably needing another turn.
So let's say you have an empty board except Sisay.
You could go for Norin the Wary, then next search go for Gaddock Teeg. And honestly this is such a safer way to go for the long run.
Now you have Sisay on 5 power, which gives you decent access to your deck. Now admittedly I play f-all 4 cmc legends. But this shouldn't really matter. The colors you would be missing are are blue and black, and if you pass the turn then you might strike it nicely with responding to either an opponent playing a tutor to get Ashiok, Dream Render or trying to draw lots of cards and get Narset, Parter of Veils.
So getting Sisay to 6 power is enough to have access to enough of your toolbox. Sure being able to get the 6 cmc is nice, but you can function fine with the 5 cmc stuff.
The main reason I like to get 6 cmc early is to try and go off with Bolas's Citadel. Azusa, Lost but Seeking is only in the deck for this card, so you are perfectly fine not running her as she is just a win more card. Like you don;t need to play your deck out with Bolas's Citadel, you can literally just get an additional two cards into play a turn off it and you're doing fine.
Playing Mina and Denn, Wildborn sounds good, but don't bother with Exploration (too expensive).
Is the deck fun to play? Well it is hard to play. I've built the deck and made bad decisions in game, so give yourself some room to have some poor games and in this respect you can get more mileage out of it knowing that you can improve with game experience. You can never have enough activation's of Sisay at your disposal, so trying to stop all your opponents is very hard to do. It's more like a defensive deck, where you are just trying to protect yourself from the most broken plays.
But yes of course the deck is fun to play if you get a decent setup, as you don't feel helpless given a situation. But as I pointed out if opponents deal with her, the deck isn't very proactive.
As far as winning, obviously there is the infinite combos, which when games start to run away I've had to lean on to win. But actually a lot of the games are won when I've used Archangel Avacyn to give my creatures indestructible in response to a board wipe. The tempo swing on that is just normally a little too much for opponents to handle, as you have access to the rest of the deck still with Sisay and are well setup.
I've used this in conjunction with Child of Alara a fair amount as well. If you've got two activation's of Sisay you can get Archangel Avacyn and let the indestructible resolve, then get Child of Alara while the mass removal is on the stack, and that way you hit all the artifacts and enchantments as well. I've won quite a few games this way as well.
I've also won a number of games with an overwelming Bolas's Citadel series of turns. You really want to make sure you can get Trostani, Selesnya's Voice with Sisay if possible, so it is nice to set that up first if possible.
Pretty much your best setup is to get Gaddock Teeg and Shalai, Voice of Plenty into play. This stops a lot of what opponents can do. Aim for this to get you through a lot of games. Shalai, Voice of Plenty pump ability is super relevant, and I've used it to finish games much more quickly by pumping up my creatures. Don't look to use it too aggressively, but I do use it to get my smaller creatures out of Decree of Pain cycling range, as once Gaddock Teeg is on the board with Hexproof, there are very few ways of dealing with your board. Toxic Deluge being one of the few ways. But even then if you're far enough into the game you can response to a Toxic Deluge with Sidisi, Undead Vizier into Swan Song.
Another card that been an all-star is Journey to Eternity. The number of times I've had Sisay on 4 power, and an opponent plays a board wipe or targets her for removal, the Journey to Eternity has just been amazing. Right back in the game and you have access to your graveyard and an additional mana. Yep literally won me a few games.
Sylvan Library is just nice to have in any deck, but you don't have to purchase this.
Let me know what you are thinking of purchasing, and before you buy we can work through a final list together. This might help you to get more clarity if you actually want to go ahead and buy and build in the end.
Sorry about the late response, have been roaming the local game stores and tried to trade my way to some of the cards so it wouldn't be too heavy on the wallet.
I've actually managed to get quite many of the needed cards (se attached, all the highlighted cards are now in my possession and the once with "()" around them have been substituted as you helped me with in your previous messages.)
My playgroup tends to play slightly more drawn out games, so I'm including Pramikon, Sky Rampart and Mystic Barrier so I can keep enemy attacks away from my planeswalkers and myself.
So sisay, weatherlight captain (P/T 2/2) is Buffed +5/+5 through colors among permanent's.
Sisay Activision is paid and opponent response to remove permanent colors to debuff her power. *no further responses*
Do I go get a legendary permanent CMC (6 or less)
Or
Does that mean I get something smaller.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Now where to even start with her? I mean with almost 1200 legendary permanents she can search for, the options are pretty wide and varied.
But it's important to identify what she is not. Requiring WUBRG to activate each time, trying to use her as a competitive commander to combo off with a few select legendary cards is not the most efficient when you compare her to other commanders that search your library.
Prime Speaker Vannifar, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, Arcum Dagsson, Captain Sisay, Zur the Enchanter, these types of commanders are far more efficient at doing combo wins, simply based on mana required to do the searches.
For a commander that falls prey to cards like Cursed Totem, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Damping Matrix, Grafdigger's Cage, Containment Priest, in competitive commander you'd be happier to have options that didn't require to have WUBRG available realistically over a couple of turns.
So in my opinion, don't be looking at her too much as a way to get cheap fast wins from a truly competitive standpoint.
However, I have figured out a two activation search combo for a win. That is if you're not disrupted you can activate Sisay "twice" to get a combo win. It's actually more than twice, but the sequence allows you to get more mana to keep activating. I will explain a little bit further down the thread.
There are probably literally endless directions you can go with such a vast array of options. As I research, I keep coming up with new ideas, but I've honed in and settled on a style of play that best suites me.
My first Sisay brew was more of a planeswalker theme with a variety of infinite combos thrown in as well. If you've read any of my other primers like Aminatou, Will & Rowan Kenrith or Yawmoth, you'll get a sense that I love me a Superfriends build. However after winning in a similar fashion to my other decks I've decided to ease off on the walker theme..a little bit.
Toolbox Control
I've gone for more of a jack-of-all-trades build, with a tool-box style of interactive legendary permanents. If you've read my Zur and Rebels (Lin Sivvi's Crew) for Toolbox Control thread then I've gone for a similar approach where I've designed to get answers in the form of legendary permanent(s) to what might be happening in the game.
Because you can use Sisay ability at instant speed, you can wait to use her ability to react to what opponents might be doing.
For example Ashiok, Dream Render could be searched up in response to an opponent going to search their library. Narset, Parter of Veils can be used if opponent goes for a big draw spell.
I have a full run down of cards that can be used for interaction in the "Playing the Deck" section under "Know your Toolbox".
How to build up Sisay's power with colored legendary permanents?
With her starting on 2 power, in theory you would only be able to search for a 1 or less cmc legend. In this instance Rhys the Redeemed is the best for getting more colors onto the board.
Rhys the Redeemed will bring her power up to 4 without other colored cards on the board.
Once you have two colors on-board Sisay power is 4, so then you can go for a 3 cmc legend.
There are 9 legendary permanents to choose from at exactly 3 cmc. It's going to depend if you want to add more colors to the board, or specifically react to the game state.
But I'll explain how to sequence for a combo win if the situation becomes available to you and you want to go for it.
Combo Win
In theory all you need is WUBRG worth of mana sources, and no other permanents in play, except Sisay.
1.) Activate Sisay for WUBRG putting Rhys the Redeemed into play, making her power 4.
2.) Wait a turn round to activate Sisay WUBRG putting Selvala, Heart of the Wilds into play.
*I'll normally wait until end of opponents turn, just before my turn so you get to untap with Selvala, Heart of the Wilds without exposing her through opponents turns.
3.) Activate Selvala, Heart of the Wilds for G netting you a combination of 4 mana.
4.) Activate Sisay for WUBRG putting Derevi, Empyrial Tactician into play, and use his ETB trigger to untap Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, making her power 5.
5.) Activate Selvala, Heart of the Wilds for G netting WUBRG. You will have two mana sources also left over.
6.) Activate Sisay for WUBRG putting Aminatou, the Fateshifter into play, making her power 6.
7.) Use Aminatou, the Fateshifter [-1] ability to exile Derevi, Empyrial Tactician.
8.) Use Derevi, Empyrial Tactician ETB trigger to untap Selvala, Heart of the Wilds.
9.) Activate Selvala, Heart of the Wilds for G netting you WUBRGG.
10.) Activate Sisay for WUBRG putting Oath of Teferi into play. You can just exile a land at this stage.
11.) Use Aminatou, the Fateshifter [-1] ability to exile Derevi, Empyrial Tactician.
12.) Use Derevi, Empyrial Tactician ETB trigger to untap Selvala, Heart of the Wilds.
13.) Activate Selvala, Heart of the Wilds for G netting you WUBRGG.
14.) Activate Sisay for WUBRG putting Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God into play.
With Oath of Teferi in play you can activate planeswalkers twice, and Aminatou, the Fateshifter and Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God can use one of these to exile the other, giving you unlimited activation's each. You can just use Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God [+1] ability to exile all cards from opponents hand and permanents with enough activation's. You have infinite mana and infinite draw, yada yada yada.
Because Selvala, Heart of the Wilds requires G to activate, you just need to make sure to add enough G to your mana pool to have enough to keep using Selvala. You just balance it out with the rest of your mana sources to make sure you get the WUBRG during the first couple of activation's, and have a green source left over. You can 100% do the combo with only one initial green source. Once Sisay power is 6, you'll get 6 mana off Selvala and you just add WUBRGG each time to cover the costs.
Alternative setups
Not every game is going to allow you to win via the above combo, or you might just want to go for something alternative anyway. So it's important to know various setups you can do to fix your colors as best as possible.
If you're wanting to get more colors and let's say you have Gruul RG already, then Esper WUB colors would give your 5 colors. For that there is Aminatou, the Fateshifter.
Tetsuo Umezawa is the only 3 cmc Grixis UBR commander in all of Magic, and admittedly only in the deck for the ability to get the five colors after a Rhys the Redeemed search, or if you've already got Selesnya covered.
If you've lost access to Rhys the Redeemed then you can get either Oath of Nissa or Norin the Wary.
Norin the Wary is an excellent 1 cmc legend that will give you red. He is quite a hard permanent to remove, so you'll be able to lean on him quite reliable through the game, but for some on-board effect that can kill him.
The single one colored cards only gives Sisay 3 power allowing for a 2 cmc search. With this in mind there is Radha, Heir to Keld in Gruul RG or Gaddock Teeg in Selesnya WG, Lavinia, Azorius Renegade in Azorius WU.
Other single colored legends you can get at 2 cmc are hate-bear creatures to slow that game down early, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Kataki, War's Wage.
Getting early mana advantages is probably the best way to go, to make sure you have potential multiple uses off Sisay's ability.
Once you have your 5 colors on-board then you have access to the rest of your legendary permanents.
I go into more setups further down in the section "Playing the Deck", as there are a lot of options at your disposal.
Another element in the deck is some cheap pump spells to give Sisay a quick power burst, allowing her to search for much higher converted mana cost cards, in cases where you haven't built up your on-board colors (for Sisay).
Note that with 5 colors on the board you can get Sisay up to a 7/7 naturally, meaning she can get anything for 6 converted mana cost. Currently the deck has a ceiling of 6 for this reason. But that's not to say that you can't go higher with her power with other additional power effects.
I have Scale Up, Vines of Vastwood, Groundswell as spells that can boost her power.
Without any other colors on board, these will allow you to get Sisay power to 6, allowing you to search for any 5 cmc.
However it is often that you have another colored permanent on-board, meaning that you'll also be able to get any legendary permanent featured in the deck.
Design stipulations
I've specifically avoided legendary permanents that require additional mana for activation's. There are some really powerful options, however with Sisay mana requirements, you'd be asking for too much to also invest mana into other abilities.
I've also mostly avoided creatures that require t abilities unless they are for mana. The reason is that because the way you are dealing with the game at instant speed, having summoning sickness to get the benefits means that they are just too slow to really do what you want. For example Mangara of Corondor is a catch all for removal, but unfortunately it can't deal with anything until you get to untap with it. You really have to be able to deal with the stack resolving.
card]Tetsuo Umezawa[/card] is the exception, as he fixes legendary colors.
Cards in hand are a liability and NEVER casting cards
Drawing cards is essentially not in the best interest of these types of tool-box decks, where you want the cards in your library for the searches. So we have some cards that allow you to put cards from hand back in your library with Brainstorm, Scroll Rack, Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
There are some cheap mana spells and disruptive instants, but honestly you are never really wanting to cast legendary cards from your hand once you get Sisay online, unless it's part of a combo in some way.
1 Trinisphere
1 Sphere of Resistance
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Null Rod
1 Stony Silence
1 Rest in Peace
1 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Voyaging Satyr
1 Karn, the Great Creator
1 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
1 Kiora, Master of the Depths
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Pact of Negation
1 Journey to Eternity
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Nikya of the Old Ways
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Child of Alara
1 Archangel Avacyn
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
1 Bolas's Citadel
1 In Bolas's Clutches
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Scroll Rack
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Sisay, Weatherlight Captain
Legendary One cmc
1 Rhys the Redeemed
1 Oath of Nissa
1 Norin the Wary
Legendary Two cmc
1 Radha, Heir to Keld
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
Legendary Three cmc
1 Narset, Parter of Veils
1 Ashiok, Dream Render
1 Dack Fayden
1 Aminatou, the Fateshifter
1 Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
1 Tetsuo Umezawa
1 Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Journey to Eternity
Legendary Four cmc
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
Legendary Five cmc
1 Oath of Teferi
1 Nikya of the Old Ways
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
1 Child of Alara
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Archangel Avacyn
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Legendary Six cmc
1 In Bolas's Clutches
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
1 Teferi, Temporal Archmage
1 Bolas's Citadel
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Arbor Elf
1 Bloom Tender
1 Seedborn Muse
Pump spells
1 Scale Up
1 Groundswell
1 Vines of Vastwood
Instants
1 Brainstorm
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Nature's Claim
1 Swan Song
1 Stubborn Denial
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Force of Vigor
Sorcery
1 Nature's Lore
1 Three Visits
1 Farseek
Enchantments
1 Wild Growth
1 Utopia Sprawl
1 Fertile Ground
1 Trace of Abundance
1 Sylvan Library
1 Wilderness Reclamation
Artifacts
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Amber
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Scroll Rack
Lands (36)
1 Command Tower
1 City of Brass
1 Mana Confluence
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Forest
1 Tundra
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Underground Sea
1 Watery Grave
1 Taiga
1 Stomping Ground
1 Savannah
1 Temple Garden
1 Scrubland
1 Godless Shrine
1 Plateau
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Volcanic Island
1 Steam Vents
1 Bayou
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Tropical Island
1 Breeding Pool
1 Badlands
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
At any stage you can search for Sidisi, Undead Vizier which can get a number of interactive cards to deal with most things in play or on the stack with, Swords to Plowshares, Nature's Claim, Swan Song, Stubborn Denial, Cyclonic Rift, Force of Vigor.
I've chosen one mana interactive cards because using Sisay ability requires 5 mana, it's unlikely that you'll have much left over mana. Stubborn Denial ferocious should be met with Sisay's power.
Venser, Shaper Savant can also be used to remove a spell from the stack to delay it, or a problematic permanent from the board back to hand.
Journey to Eternity can be used if a creature is being destroyed. It has the added bonus of giving you a land, that you can use to bring back creatures from graveyard during more grindy games.
Remember that Shalai, Voice of Plenty also give planeswalkers hexproof, so you can use her to protect walkers.
Venser, Shaper Savant can delay the spell for a turn. You can then back this up with Gaddock Teeg as it's likely to be a spell of converted mana cost 4 or greater, shutting it off.
Again you can use Sidisi, Undead Vizier for a counterspell.
The deck is mainly creatures with some planeswalkers. If you look at enchantments and artifacts there really isn't anything too important, just some support cards for early game play mainly in mana fixing. So really it's mainly creatures you are looking to protect.
Flying is also a bonus in this deck as you are looking to protect planeswalkers potentially at various stages.
Venser, Shaper Savant can bounce it back to hand, and Sidisi, Undead Vizier can get Sword to Plowshares for creatures, or Nature's Claim or Force of Vigor for artifacts or enchantments.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier can also get Cyclonic Rift as a catch-all.
The 5/5 flying hexproof body is also nice against defending your potential planeswalkers.
I've already mentioned Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Venser, Shaper Savant can be used for artifacts.
You can also use Sidisi, Undead Vizier to get Cyclonic Rift, if wanting to just do opponents nonland permanents.
There is also the transform land of Journey to Eternity in Atzal, Cave of Eternity, which you can use to put creatures directly back into play.
Getting cards into graveyard can be difficult if opponents are not attacking, so you can look for Sidisi, Undead Vizier to sacrifice them if actually wanting to get them into your graveyard.
However this isn't the main goal of the deck as you're looking to play out longer games with an interactive control and defense style against opponents.
Why have the combo in the first place then? Well honestly the cards involved in the combo were naturally in the deck for color and mana fixing, and I figured out how to sequence it this way once I started to think about how I could use the cards in my deck more.
There are a number of different stages to setting up. But it's all going to come down to mana available, urgency or playing it safe, and even what you might have already drawn thus available to search with Sisay ability.
There are three main steps to setting up:
- Getting Sisay to 7 power with 5 colors worth of legendary creatures.
- Setting up mana sources so that you can get multiple Sisay activation's each turn round.
- Using your legendary toolbox to react to the game state.
Obviously the best setup is always going to be the sequence for the combo win, even if you don't actually use it to outright win.It must be noted that the infinite mana can only be accessed in your turn, because you're using planeswalker abilities to do this.
However maybe it's not available to you. Let's say Selvala, Heart of the Wilds got Swords to Plowshares.
Getting Sisay to 7 power with 5 colors worth of legendary creatures.
As stated previously, if fixing your colors is the priority then the first two Sisay searches are going to be Rhys the Redeemed into Tetsuo Umezawa to for the 5 color scheme.
If able to get a legendary 2 cmc on your first search, then I'll normally go for Gaddock Teeg as he gives you security against a lot of big removal spells or just general big plays from your opponents. Then I'll get Tetsuo Umezawa to fulfill the 5 colors, and access to the rest of the deck.
But of course, it will depend on what you might have put into play already, and how you can fix colors onboard as quickly as possible.
For example if I have a single green source like Oath of Nissa, Azusa, Lost but Seeking already in play, then Lavinia, Azorius Renegade is going to bring Sisay power up to 5.
If you feel like you can protect planeswalkers for a turn round, then you can go for Radha, Heir to Keld and then Aminatou, the Fateshifter to get all 5 colors.
What's are other ways to get multiply activation's of Sisay?
Well outside of legendary cards there is Seedborn Muse and Wilderness Reclamation. But you can't search for these with Sisay.
Teferi, Temporal Archmage is an excellent way of making sure your mana sources are untapped at end of your turn.
Nikya of the Old Ways is a way to get double mana off your lands, allowing for twice as many activation's.
If Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is not available, then an alternative sequence to look for a combo win is:
As long as you have 7 mana sources then you can look to do this. Or if you have a mana source which provides at least two mana, like Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl, Fertile Ground, Bloom Tender. The reason is that Teferi, Temporal Archmage can untap 4 mana sources and not that 5 you'd want for Sisay's WUBRG.
So because you want to activate Sisay 3 times, you need that additional mana.
If you only have 6 mana sources available to you, you can still get Teferi, Temporal Archmage untap 4 mana sources and then you can search for Oath of Teferi which can exile a land.
Teferi can untap 4 mana sources again. Unfortunately you're going to have to stop there, but at end of turn the land will come back into play, and now you have 5 mana sources, meaning Sisay is back online.
As long as you feel you can protect Teferi, Temporal Archmage through opponents turns, this is a freebie way of potentially getting more mana in your subsequent turns.
If I haven't used Sisay as a toolbox through an opponents turn, then often I'll get Nikya of the Old Ways so that I can double up on my Sisay activation's. This might seem like a nonbo with the various non-creature spells in the deck. However if forced into a situation where I really need to cast a non-creature spell, I'll search for Sidisi, Undead Vizier to sacrifice Nikya of the Old Ways.
Using your legendary toolbox to react to the game state.
Proactive creatures you're looking to get into play early are Gaddock Teeg, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, probably even in that order.
Azusa, Lost but Seeking can also be tempting if you're land flooded.
The rest of the creatures can be searched in reaction to opponents spells more often than not.
Azusa, Lost but Seeking can help with getting bottlenecked on lands.
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice is used to basically make your creatures free to play.
Sensei's Divining Top can also be used to filter cards off the top of your library at the expensive of a life each time.
Sisay search ability also allows you to shuffle your library. My version also has the full quote of duel land search lands, so this helps as well.
It's tempting to look at Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge or even Kess, Dissident Mage, but as I've pointed out your second Sisay search is going to be at 4 power (without additional help), so it's imperative that you have 3 cmc cards that give you three colors like Tetsuo Umezawa, Aminatou, the Fateshifter, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician.
Note that we do not have some three colors combinations in the deck. I've listed them with potential legendary permanents in those colors so you can analysis options for yourself.
Abzan WBG: Kethis, the Hidden Hand, Anafenza, the Foremost, Doran, the Siege Tower.
Naya WRG: Mayael the Anima.
Mardu WBR: Mathas, Fiend Seeker, Kaalia, Zenith Seeker.
Jeskai WUR: No 3 cmc legends.
Jund BRG: Adun Oakenshield, Xira Arien.
Temur URG: Animar, Soul of Elements.
Sultai UBG: No 3 cmc legends.
The reasons not to run these are two fold. With 1 cmc legends we have green, white or red with Rhys the Redeemed, Oath of Nissa, Norin the Wary.
There are literally no 1 cmc blue or black legendary permanents that exist.
If we were to search up Abzan WBG with Rhys the Redeemed in play we only gain black. Similar with Naya WRG we would only gain red.
Mardu WBR or Jund BRG is better as you'd gain black and red, but you are just better off getting Grixis to cover more colors.
With the single colored white legends Temur URG would give you 3 additional colors, so this is just as good as Grixis in this exact scenario.
However the other reason not to play them is that these legendary creatures themselves are not that useful either. If there was a really good Mardu, Jund, Temur commanders that helped our strategy then they would probably be included.
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
Great post!
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
I had Wrenn and Six hallmarked for the deck, but it's just a bit to pricey to purchase at $58. But yes it's great at 2 cmc, a shoe in if you get your hands on one.
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
So still kind of set on this deck.
So I've been looking at some budget replacements and wanted to hear what your thoughts are and whether it would make the deck a total disaster.
Three Visits ---> Wood Elves
Tetsuo Umezawa ---> Kess, Dissident Mage
Scroll Rack ---> Hidden Retreat
Noble Hierarch ---> Druid of the Anima
Bloom Tender ---> Rattleclaw Mystic
Azusa, Lost but Seeking ---> Exploration / Mina and Denn, Wildborn
I have no good budget replacement for these:
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
But I am sadly going to have to cut them, I might buy them later on, but for now they're too expensive.
Do you think these changes and takesouts will ruin the deck completely?
Furthermore for the mana base, I have all the Shock and Fetch lands (except Misty Rainforest) and I thought about swapping out the original dual lands probably for the Cyclings lands as they can b searched for with fetch lands. Luckily I don't play in a super competitve playgroup so I can take a tempo downgrade.
Furthermore, what has your experience been with playing this deck, is it fun? are you doomed if someone continuously removes Sisay and what has mainly been your wincon in the games?
And of course happy friday
So I don't want to sugar coat it, the games that go well, you look like a genius and feel like a king, and the games where opponents are able to remove her in a timely manner, well you just end up being a spectator.
As far as budgeting, the mana isn't that important. Three Visits, Noble Hierarch, Bloom Tender are just nice, but are easily replaced.
Wood Elves, Yavimaya Dryad, Voyaging Satyr great options.
Now the good news is that not having Selvala, Heart of the Wilds in the deck forces you to play a longer game. It's just waaaaaaaaaay to tempting to go for auto-wins with her, which kind of ruins the idea of trying to control opponents with tricky plays in response to their plays.
No Tetsuo Umezawa isn't the end of the world either.
The thing is that getting all 5 colors gives you access to only 4 cards. And you've pointed out that Teferi, Temporal Archmage is a no go.
Honestly this fine.
Now I don't know what you've got in your collected. Rhys the Redeemed is a $33 card. As you've mentioned your not in a super competitive playgroup, so it might be that you have to literally do another set of sequences to get color fixing at the expensive of probably needing another turn.
So let's say you have an empty board except Sisay.
You could go for Norin the Wary, then next search go for Gaddock Teeg. And honestly this is such a safer way to go for the long run.
Now you have Sisay on 5 power, which gives you decent access to your deck. Now admittedly I play f-all 4 cmc legends. But this shouldn't really matter. The colors you would be missing are are blue and black, and if you pass the turn then you might strike it nicely with responding to either an opponent playing a tutor to get Ashiok, Dream Render or trying to draw lots of cards and get Narset, Parter of Veils.
So getting Sisay to 6 power is enough to have access to enough of your toolbox. Sure being able to get the 6 cmc is nice, but you can function fine with the 5 cmc stuff.
The main reason I like to get 6 cmc early is to try and go off with Bolas's Citadel. Azusa, Lost but Seeking is only in the deck for this card, so you are perfectly fine not running her as she is just a win more card. Like you don;t need to play your deck out with Bolas's Citadel, you can literally just get an additional two cards into play a turn off it and you're doing fine.
Playing Mina and Denn, Wildborn sounds good, but don't bother with Exploration (too expensive).
Is the deck fun to play? Well it is hard to play. I've built the deck and made bad decisions in game, so give yourself some room to have some poor games and in this respect you can get more mileage out of it knowing that you can improve with game experience. You can never have enough activation's of Sisay at your disposal, so trying to stop all your opponents is very hard to do. It's more like a defensive deck, where you are just trying to protect yourself from the most broken plays.
But yes of course the deck is fun to play if you get a decent setup, as you don't feel helpless given a situation. But as I pointed out if opponents deal with her, the deck isn't very proactive.
As far as winning, obviously there is the infinite combos, which when games start to run away I've had to lean on to win. But actually a lot of the games are won when I've used Archangel Avacyn to give my creatures indestructible in response to a board wipe. The tempo swing on that is just normally a little too much for opponents to handle, as you have access to the rest of the deck still with Sisay and are well setup.
I've used this in conjunction with Child of Alara a fair amount as well. If you've got two activation's of Sisay you can get Archangel Avacyn and let the indestructible resolve, then get Child of Alara while the mass removal is on the stack, and that way you hit all the artifacts and enchantments as well. I've won quite a few games this way as well.
I've also won a number of games with an overwelming Bolas's Citadel series of turns. You really want to make sure you can get Trostani, Selesnya's Voice with Sisay if possible, so it is nice to set that up first if possible.
Pretty much your best setup is to get Gaddock Teeg and Shalai, Voice of Plenty into play. This stops a lot of what opponents can do. Aim for this to get you through a lot of games.
Shalai, Voice of Plenty pump ability is super relevant, and I've used it to finish games much more quickly by pumping up my creatures. Don't look to use it too aggressively, but I do use it to get my smaller creatures out of Decree of Pain cycling range, as once Gaddock Teeg is on the board with Hexproof, there are very few ways of dealing with your board. Toxic Deluge being one of the few ways. But even then if you're far enough into the game you can response to a Toxic Deluge with Sidisi, Undead Vizier into Swan Song.
Another card that been an all-star is Journey to Eternity. The number of times I've had Sisay on 4 power, and an opponent plays a board wipe or targets her for removal, the Journey to Eternity has just been amazing. Right back in the game and you have access to your graveyard and an additional mana. Yep literally won me a few games.
Getting you to a more budget version you can cut Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, I've actually found this to be a bit of a nonbo with Bolas's Citadel.
You can cut Chrome Mox, Mox Amber, Sensei's Divining Top, Scroll Rack.
I like the Hidden Retreat instead of Scroll Rack, I pretty interested in it myself.
If you did want a Grixis legend, then keep an eye on Nicol Bolas, the Ravager as Core 2019 rolls out in standard, you might see a price drop?
Dack Fayden and Jace, the Mind Sculptor are not key cards at all, you do not need to worry about these.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence is a nice card in the deck. Just keep it in mind as a future purchase.
Sylvan Library is just nice to have in any deck, but you don't have to purchase this.
Let me know what you are thinking of purchasing, and before you buy we can work through a final list together. This might help you to get more clarity if you actually want to go ahead and buy and build in the end.
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
Sorry about the late response, have been roaming the local game stores and tried to trade my way to some of the cards so it wouldn't be too heavy on the wallet.
I've actually managed to get quite many of the needed cards (se attached, all the highlighted cards are now in my possession and the once with "()" around them have been substituted as you helped me with in your previous messages.)
The cards I now need are:
Rhys the Redeemed - as we spoke about, this card is not necessary as I am not in a hyber competitive playgroup
Norin the Wary - not the most expensive card, can easily buy
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - left out because as you mentioned it's a non-bo
Dack Fayden
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds - Left out as previously discussed
Azusa, Lost but seeking - We spoke about Mina and Denn, Wildborn, but I actually own a Exploration and Burgeoning, so it wouldn't be a cost to use either of these.
Jace, the mind sculptor
Nicol Bolas, Dragon-god
Sidisi, Undead Vizier - going to buy
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Seedborn Muse
Nicol Bolas, the Ravager // Nicol Bolas, the Arisen
I thought I had all the fetches I did not sadly... but trying to get them!
Hope you're enjoying the summer
- For buffing up Sisay, I have Hammer of Nazahn for indestructible and a slight buff while Blackblade Reforged can make her HUGE.
- If I draw a card I want to tutor out with Sisay's ability, I've included Penance to act like a budget Scroll Rack
- For land WUBRG fixing, instead of using Mana Confluence I'm using Cascading Cataracts, Gateway Plaza and Rupture Spire
- For Mana Dorks/Rocks, instead of Bloom Tender and Coalition Relic, I like Faeburrow Elder, Darksteel Ingot, Commander Sphere and Prismatic Geoscope. (I also happen to have a Dryad of the Ilysian Grove I got from a THB draft night.)
- My playgroup tends to play slightly more drawn out games, so I'm including Pramikon, Sky Rampart and Mystic Barrier so I can keep enemy attacks away from my planeswalkers and myself.
- Then I have a small suite of multicolored legendary creatures to buff Sisay and provide a toolkit: Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage, Golos, Tireless Pilgrim, Kenrith, the Returned King, Reki, the History of Kamigawa, Baird, Steward of Argive, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Pir, Imaginative Rascal and Niv-Mizzet Reborn
- There are a very few number of non-legendary permanents in the deck, simply because theyre so good: Doubling Season, Seedborn Muse, Wilderness Reclamation, Spark Double and Deepglow Skate.
Hope I gave people some ideas, and please respond if you think any of these cards are misplaced in my build.Sisay Activision is paid and opponent response to remove permanent colors to debuff her power. *no further responses*
Do I go get a legendary permanent CMC (6 or less)
Or
Does that mean I get something smaller.