"The best servants are made from those who died without a scratch." —Sidisi, khan of the Sultai
1 - Why play this commander?
1.1 - Description:
"We appreciate the other clans maintaining their
lands until such time as we can subjugate them.
Their work will be rewarded when they are jewel-
adorned servants in our palaces."
-Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
At first this deck may seem all over the place, and for not being a deck that runs R, it's a bit on the chaotic side. This deck runs three (seemingly simultaneous) mechanics: drawing, discarding, dredging. Sidisi, Brood Tyrant's colors allow for a grand plethora of cards which use and abuse these mechanics. Allowing for great versatility, this deck can be piloted as beatdown, milling, or just all around graveyard/hand/library tomfoolery!
don’t like constantly shuffling a deck of commander size
1.2 - Other Possible Commanders:
Okay, so let’s say you’re on board with running a GUB EDH deck. Check. Now, why Sidisi, the Brood Tyrant and not one of other similarly-colored legendary creatures? These commanders are great in their own setting with one of them having a current primer and another two having retired primers; there's a lot of info out there. These threads should give you some ideas of the capabilities of a BUG-colored general.
Damia, Sage of Stone has a totally different dynamic than Sidisi. Damia is a brutal card drawing engine but it really doesn't go with Sidisi's strategy of chaos / horde. Damia is more about control and having enough responses in your hands. A Damia deck loves having ramp, counters, tutors, and draw advantage cards in hand. Sidisi doesn't risk running counters or tutors because they'll more than likely get milled away. Sidisi also doesn't like drawing so many cards because most of the time you want those cards in graveyard in the first place since it's cheaper to reanimate them for free than hardcast them. Sidisi's second hand is the graveyard, unlike Damia whose hand is only your actual hand. Basically, Damia makes no zombie tokens, and only basically draws you up to a new hand each turn. You don't want to draw with this deck; you want to loot with it. Damia isn't even considered for one of the 99 due to her ability having nothing to do with the strategy of this deck.
The Mimeoplasm is a general that loves graveyard play. It can be pretty devastating when combined with milling. However, Sidisi is more focused on moving things in and out of the graveyard more than exiling things from it. The Mimeoplasm is very versatile and I even considered including it as one of the 99, but it really didn't fit the overall strategy of the build. It has no built-in mill, stax, or recursive abilities so it doesn't complement Sidisi.
Vorosh, the Hunter is all about casting it as fast as possible and killing as fast as possible with commander damage. Vorosh is more suited for voltron type strategies while using your hand and access to BUG in order to have many responses in hand and annoyances in play. Sidisi is not about a single creature entering the red zone but a horde of zombies going for all the brains.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang is a close second to what we want to accomplish (taking advantage of self-milling). Tasigur lends himself to be a very political general and the goal is not to amass some epic beatdown. Tasigur is more along the lines of control and recursion for spells more so than creatures whereas Sidisi wants to chock in as many creatures as possible. However, a Tasigur player basically wants to limit an opponent's options as to what recover from the graveyard. So it's more graveyard manipulation and spell recovery than it is reanimation or horde, which is what Sidisi is all about. However, after the smoke clears, Tasigur doesn't make any zombie tokens when milling; Sidisi does.
GU + UB or BG + GU or G + UB or U + BG or B + GU Partners don't really have all that much to offer. Regardless of any combination between the present partner combinations to obtain the GUB wedge, they don't really interact with each other. I don't even consider them for the inclusion in the 99. Even if one were to go with the partner route, you'd have one less card in the rest of your deck.
Muldrotha, the Gravetide is an even better reanimation commander than The Mimeoplasm. However, this deck is not just about reanimation. This deck also aims to build a large army for offense and defense plus general recursion and reanimation hijinxes. Since Muldrotha does reanimate one type of permanent once per your turn, it is definitively added as one of the 99.
Otrimi, the Ever-Playful is a way to make Sidisi a 6/6 trampler but it is a bit weaker since we can't mutate it from the graveyard like Brokkos. Otrimi can recover creatures with mutate from the graveyard so it can be used in a graveyard matters deck, however with a heavy amount of creatures with mutate. Since Sidisi doesn't have any creatures with mutate, it's not included here. But if you really like the mutate mechanic, then you might prefer Otrimi as your graveyard matters commander instead.
Brokkos, Apex of Forever can be mutated from the graveyard so it can definitely be 1 of the 99 in the deck in order to make Sidisi a 6/6 trampler, but apart from that, as a commander, it's better suited for an infect / poison counters deck. Being able to mutate Brokkos onto a creature with infect is the best way to build it. Again, this is an entirely different direction than reanimator/graveyard matters.
Yarok, the Desecrated is more for a deck with lots of enter-the-battlefield triggers, thus going for an entirely different deck altogether. Yarok is not necessarily a graveyard matters deck even though you can build it around a reanimation strategy. That being said, this deck in particular doesn't play around enter-the-battlefield effects where Yarok isn't even one of the 99.
Archelos, Lagoon Mystic is more of a landfall commander that can also be used to slowdown opponents while also accelerating yourself. It can be played in many different ways, so it's a very malleable deck. However, it doesn't have any built-in graveyard shenanigans so it's not as ideal a commander for a reanimator deck.
Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer, while a Sultai legend, is clearly meant for a morph matters deck, which is an entirely different direction altogether.
Rayami, First of the Fallen is a very interesting commander which is quite the tale on voltron. However, as I just mentioned, it's more for a voltron build than a reanimator build, especially since Rayami exiles any creatures that die so you don't really have a graveyard to begin with.
Volrath, the Shapestealer is another commander that has a ton of different ways to build around since he can become a copy of any creature with a counter on it. So he's better suited for a counters matters deck. Not necessaily a graveyard matters deck, but you could potentially build one with Volrath at the helm. However, he won't be as effective as one as the previously mentioned BUG graveyard matters commanders.
Zaxara, the Exemplary is more of an X-spells matters commander but can also be used in combo decks since it's half of an infinite mana combo in the command zone. None of these effects are really graveyard-centric so it's not really a commander to build if you want a graveyard/reanimator deck.
1.3 - What to expect:
Now, playing Sidisi, Brood Tyrant obviously has its pros and cons depending on what you're facing. I've been playing this deck for quite some time and have found that there are some clearly beneficial decks to go against and some clearly detrimental decks to go up against. Since I don't feel that it's that black and white since there are some grey areas, I will explain them all in greater detail. For a quick summary as to how your match-ups should go, see below.
How well this deck fares against other EDH archetypes: Milling Stax Mid-range Aggro Control Pillow Fort Creature Hate Combo Graveyard Hate
* Milling: Milling actually does us a favor, lol. We want to be milled! Hell, we're constantly milling ourselves! Though uncommon, there are the occasional overachievers who want to win by milling 90+ card decks out there in the EDH world. Whenever you face off against these types of players, just be thankful. Do try to hide your giddiness when an opponent reveals his commander is Phenax, God of Deception. However, in order to prevent self-milling, the deck uses Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth in order to recover the graveyard into the library. So we should always be careful, regardless the opponent, to never mill ourselves.
* Stax: Pretty commonplace depending on your meta. The most competitive and ruthless decks out there are total lock and stax. The good thing about stax is that even though it's keeping your horde in check by making you sacrifice so many tokens, you're still only sacrificing tokens until you can find the opportunity to remove that player from the game. The deck doesn't run so many answers against this type of deck but it does have them in the form of Cyclonic Rift and Nullmage Shepherd.
* Mid-range: Depending on the tempo, mid-range could be a pretty epic battle - these are the decks I prefer facing against. Sidisi could get a bit mid-range herself and when that happens it's literally "may the best planeswalker win" type situation. However, no fear should come from facing a mid-range deck since they usually get their wind in their sails mid-game onwards. By then, you should have the same advantage if not more. This is the more neutral type of menace so just play normally against it and try to always be one step ahead.
* Aggro: Depending on how the match goes, these players can be our natural enemies or natural friends. These types of decks hate control and lock players so they usually target them first. If that's the case, tagteam that natural nemesis out of the game and then proceed to see whose horde is superior. If you find yourself against an aggro player early on, the deck should be able to hold its own by popping out tokens as chump blockers until you can get your bearings and hopefully have a superior midgame board set up. This deck doesn't really have ways to amassing life so if you find yourself in the beeping, red-flashing heart-zone, be careful; don't waste resources and do your best to hold on until you're able to go for the game-ending alpha strike.
* Control: Not so much a hindrance so long as the counterspell doesn't exile - even then, Riftsweeper can get things back from exile. When a creature gets countered you can simply recast or reanimate from the graveyard no problem. If the creature gets topdecked even better! A lot of control players think twice before countering any creature you may cast since you can just recover it from the graveyard and they just lost the counter. However, having said that, control players will still be able to counter cards like Buried Alive, Victimize, Intuition, and the like, and that could really slow us down. If you have a control-rich meta, I suggest finding space for Boseiju, Who Shelters All.
* Pillow Fort: Could be annoying by preventing you from going all alpha strike with your horde. However, the same tools used to deal with stax (Cyclonic Rift and Nullmage Shepherd) could also be used to deal with pillowfort. These types of decks tend to force other players to fight each other first but your horde can be used on the defensive as well until you deal with the annoyance of the pillowfort. Also, other players may have their own answers to deal with pillow forts, so sometimes you may be able to save your own resources.
* Creature Hate: These situations are only a real bummer if you have the mother of all hordes out. However, losing your non-token creatures is never a big deal for this deck. There's more than enough ways to reanimate those creatures and most of the time you're storing them in your graveyard anyways. Whenever a player wraths, given enough mana, you can recover practically all your non-token creatures afterwards. If anyone were to wrath with Meren of Clan Nel Toth you'll have more than enough experience counters to get anyone back for free from the graveyard each upkeep. Sheoldred, Whispering One also does this and Havengul Lich can cast any creature directly from the graveyard. So, no worries!
* Combo: Like 99% of other decks, since this deck isn't Tier 1 or even Tier 0, it will fold to higher-tier more cutthroat combo decks that autowin before turn 4. That being said, this deck isn't battlecruiser and it does have its share of responses and disruption in the form of creatures. Granted, it's not chocked full of disruption but then again this deck is run by not paying too much attention to what other players are doing. That being said, further on I do address this need for those who want a bit more disruption.
* Graveyard Hate: The only real weakness to this deck is graveyard hate. Rest in Peace, Leyline of the Void, Tormod's Crypt etc. can set us back in such a way that we may not even be able to recover from. At least there are some responses the deck has to deal with such situations (Entombing an Eldrazi titan in response is always good, Nullmage Shepherd to Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void, Riftsweeper can recover from exile even if it is just one card at a time). However, my rule of thumb is: that guy/chick who may exile your cards MUST DIE.
2 - Deck History:
I've been a long time tinkering with playing a commander deck centered around the BUG wedge. However, none of the three that existed really tickled my fancy. I had a lot of ideas about graveyard recursion, self milling, drawing, discarding, and doing all of these things to opponents as well. However, I really couldn't do any of that fun stuff with Damia, The Mimeoplasm, or Vorosh. That is until Sidisi was spoiled. Finally, a commander that does so much in one motion! You mill yourself and may produce tokens while you're at it. This is very efficient, and suited my needs almost immediately. Thankfully enough, Khans of Tarkir also provided a lot of new cards that help with this mechanic. The first Ravnica block helps with dregde and the Odyssey block helps with graveyard play. I was finally beginning to see it all come together...
Now, searching through the forums I saw some ideas here or there but unlike many other generals with solid strategies and player's attention, Sidisi was almost like a wallflower - flamboyant as she is. So I decided to be the first one to truly break her. To have a fun deck that could be competitive and not have anybody expect it to be. People see Narset, Enlightened Master, Sen Triplets, Child of Alara and cringe. The first reaction at the table being to take them out. However, people see Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and either expect something or don't know what to expect. The thing is, this deck, as predictable as an opponent may think it is, is really not. Many a time have I taken a victory out of nowhere. Then it's too late to react. Ruthlessness. Welcome to the Sultai.
I've been so devoted to Sidisi, Brood Tyrant that I eventually wound up designing three different decks. The main deck is what I've been most dedicated to but the fruits of my testing has produced two other decks: an extremely budget one and a zombie tribal because, let's face it, people love amassing the mother of all zombie hordes. You'll find them discussed in that order in the thread.
2.1 - Current build:
Competitive Build:
Here's the more competitive build which is light years ahead in efficiency compared to the more casual build I discussed in the earlier version of this thread. This is the current version I'm running and is the one I've been working on the most. It's intricate to pilot which makes it a lot of fun for people who like complicated decks. It's the one I've been discussing and analyzing throughout the thread so you can see it's evolution in more than just this first post. This is the version of the deck I will discuss most throughout this thread. Not withstanding, other viable versions are discussed in the Alternate Builds section.
Now, the deck becomes ridiculously expensive with the inclusion of dual lands and Gaea's Cradle. For those without a Sultai bank account (myself included) and those who play without proxies (myself included) - even though some pods and LGS's allow the use of gold-bordered cards - there are clear budget alternatives. The tainted lands from Torment don't cipt and they can at least give you 1 until Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth comes into play (or also Overgrown Tomb, Watery Grave, or the lonely Swamp). Even though the check lands cipt, you can still get them into play untapped if you have at least Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Overgrown Tomb, Watery Grave, or the lonely Swamp in play. These replacements brings the deck down to about $990.72, which is still considerable, but then again the deck does run some $20-$30 cards.
Updates:
I built a deck with the MTGSalvation Deck Builder so I can always keep an updated version of this deck online. Everytime I update the deck I will try to update it there. This is also a good tool for people to actually see the statistics of the deck (by type, CMC, color, etc.) so it's easier to visualize with the graphs and whatnot. Also, you can see the updated prices on the cards (though I can't guarantee it will always use the cheapest version of the cards (as far as expansion set goes)). You can find the deck here.
2.1.2 - Strategy:
The main strategy of the deck is to try and get as many 2/2 Zombie creature tokens in play and go for the horde approach. All the drawing and the milling and discarding is done in order to speed up the deck and get the army as pumped up as possible. This is accomplished by getting Filth in the graveyard and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play. This feat pretty much makes your horde unblockable and is very easy to accomplish (details will be discussed further). Akroma's Memorial helps out with a bunch of different boons, particularly haste. There are many quasi-infinitely recurring engines that allows you to amass a brutal horde to take out all opponents at once. This is the main strategy for all versions of the deck I discuss this post.
Synergy & Combos:
The overall synergy of the deck is to make no wasted movements. If you’re milling, it shouldn’t just be for producing 2/2 black Zombie tokens. It should be to get great targets in your graveyard for recursion or to abuse cards like Vengeful Pharaoh and Filth. With this deck the graveyard should serve as a second hand. Getting those milled creatures into play is easy with cards like Champion of Stray Souls, Sheoldred, Whispering One, Victimize, Havengul Lich, etc.
Survival of the Fittest + Phyrexian Reclamation
This combo can basically net you any creature from your deck. You can tutor all you like for
a low mana investment and a low life loss. When you discard any creature card you don't
need at that moment, you can tutor for a creature card that you do need and/or want. Then,
you can recover that creature you originally discarded in order to do it all over again. All this
needs to be done each time is simply 2 life and 1BG. It's a great combo.
The Mesmeric Orb Suite
On its own, Mesmeric Orb can be quiet the hindrance to your opponents (bonus points for
combining it with Leyline of the Void). Now, the good thing about Mesmeric Orb for Sidisi is
that it triggers once per untapped permanent. So the amount of possible Sidisi triggers is
staggering. But why mention a suite? Because along with Aphetto Alchemist (and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth inside of your deck), you can potentially go
infinite with the amount of tokens produced. Also, with Seedborn Muse, you can tap all lands
at end of turn and then be able to trigger Mesmeric Orb at each untap step that’s not
necessarily your own.
Planeswalking to Victory
I’ve been amazed with how amazing all my planeswalkers have been in this deck. I can safely say that I can use most to all of their abilities to great efficiency and relevance. Combine that with the fact that Doubling Season helps two of them go ultimate, the walkers here are worth their slot. Their untapping ability alone has won me so many games.
Disruption / Removal GUB has access to a plethora of removal spells and abilities but the aim of the deck is not spot removal or board wipes; it’s to merely get bothersome things out of the way that can prevent our victory. However, U and B grants us access to cards like Butcher of Malakir which we can use to our advantage. These cards allow us to eventually clear the table at the cost of some tokens or creatures we’d rather have in the graveyard anyways. Cyclonic Rift, Nullmage Shepherd, etc. are all useful for removal.
Recovery / Recursion
Again, these colors are excellent for these processes: Riftsweeper has been amazing time and time again, Eternal Witness is obviously useful beyond any words I can use to describe it, all the B reanimation spells and abilities... I could go on and on. Life from the Loam is one of the most important cards in the deck. Not only does the dredge self-mill you, but you can also recover the lands you're milling. Too broken!
Tutoring
Ah, the best colors for tutoring. The Sultai wedge is amazing in that we can basically tutor for whatever we want. Though I don’t run actual tutor spells, I rather wanted to run tutoring abilities that were more than just tutoring. Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Entomb, Intuition, Tolaria West, etc. are all cards that serve more than one use. Tolaria West is reusable thanks to Life from the Loam, Sidisi, Undead Vizier is a body that can trigger Sidisi, Brood Tyrant when milled from the deck, and the other tutoring/top-deck manipulation cards serve the double purpose of self-milling, which is super important in this deck.
2.1.3 - Piloting the Deck:
Mulligans:
You want anywhere between 3-4 lands in order to play Sidisi as quickly as possible. As soon as you can start milling and amassing tokens the better you will be. You will have a menacing board presence, but if you're playing in a competitive setting you won't be the only one. You also want some cheap utility creatures you can play in order to attract removal from players who like wasting removal early game against things that aren't as deadly as mid-game creatures. Another thing, there are cards you do not want in your opening hand. If you draw Kozilek, Butcher of Truth or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, mulligan those away because one of their main uses it to prevent milling yourself. They like to be inside of the library. Keep anything you can use to self-mill in order to make early tokens after Sidisi is cast the first time. Also, try to keep you hand as light as possible, those fatties are usually reanimated for free from the graveyard anyways. Personally, my EDH philosophy is not so much what to want in your starting hand more than what to not want. Honestly, as long as you're able to cast stuff without mana screw or color screw you should be fine. I don't want people to ceaselessly mulligan away searching for "critical" pieces. This deck burns through your library so you're bound to get them. An idea of what to keep in your hand are cheap spells somewhere in the vein of Chromatic Lantern, Sol Ring, Expedition Map, Aphetto Alchemist, Death Baron, Diregraf Captain, Kiora's Follower, Krosan Restorer, Satyr Wayfinder, Seeker of Skybreak, Voyaging Satyr, Phyrexian Reclamation, Survival of the Fittest, Entomb, Grisly Salvage, Intuition, Garruk Wildspeaker, Buried Alive, Jarad's Orders, Life from the Loam, or Mulch. Again, just mulligan away any fatties and make sure your hand has enough lands or ways to cast Sidisi.
Early game:
You want to try and get Sidisi out as quickly as possible in order to capitalize on her token producing ability. It's quite the bummer to cast cards that mill through top cards to get choice cards without having Sidisi in play. So after she's in play, you're able to use Buried Alive, Intuition, Fact or Fiction, etc. much more efficiently than simply casting them. Given their amount and the laws of probability, you'll more than likely have some mana acceleration cards, cheap utility creatures, and ways to enhance your horde. This stage of building your field is just dropping cheap cards until mid-game can happen. Remember also that by now, you should be able to determine the strategies of most of your opponents so whoever you see that has an anti-graveyard agenda has got to go. If anything, start building your strategy to getting those key components needed to eventually deal with those anti-graveyard spells and permanents. So start digging for Nullmage Shepherd, Riftsweeper, Cyclonic Rift, Glen Elendra Archmage, etc. Again, make sure the person running possible graveyard hate is eliminated first. Graveyard hate can come from many colors so don't fret simply because of the opponent. Keep in mind though that graveyard hate exists primarily in B and W (though there are cards in other colors and colorless as well).
Mid Game:
This deck aims to be as quick as possible so if you're lucky you may reach mid game by turn 5-7. This is the most important phase of the deck since the deck requires a lot of mana. Things you should be aiming to get in your graveyard by this time: Filth. Things you want to have in play by this time: Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. This should be easy to accomplish with all the milling and recursion going around. Filth is the #1 Buried Alive target (and any "tutor" that sends to graveyard like Intuition, Jarad's Orders, etc.). The other two being Genesis and Vengeful Pharaoh (don't forget when he's in your graveyard, though!). You can also tutor for these pieces with Expedition Map, Intuition, Rune-Scarred Demon, or Sidisi, Undead Vizier. The best thing you can have in play is Mesmeric Orb. Be aware as this can make you an instant target. It seriously hurts all opponents and really helps you. This is the most important phase of the deck since you should've been burning through a lot of your deck by now in order to obtain these cards. If you haven't gotten them by then, don't worry, as you can still chump block or have other cards that could be useful. If other cards or combo pieces have been destroyed or exiled, remember that there are still ways to recover them such as Riftsweeper, Havengul Lich, Deadbridge Chant, etc.
Late Game:
Very viable by turn 10. You should have an army of tokens and/or utility creatures in play. All of them unblockable thanks to Filth+Urborg#2 combo. You can easily take out 1-2 players with an unblockable horde and/or other methods. With recursion, you can also use Gempalm Polluter a couple of times to eliminate a player. A wave of unblockables usually takes out one player in one instance. However, with Craterhoof Behemoth and the zombie lords, you should be able to clear house in one fell swoop. You can also take out another opponent by milling him/her. Many a time have I attacked one player with all creatures and then sacrificed them to Altar of Dementia to deck another player.
End Game:
Now, I know I said this was competitive but there are decks out there that win by turn 7. I know this, but this is as competitive as it can get without being top tier. Also, the deck is very unassuming and people don't really know what you're ultimately doing until it's too late. The deck has a lot of other tricks up its sleeve that helps get the job done. This is also a deck for those that don't mind games that last between 1-2 hours. When left unchecked, I'm usually able to win before the hour mark. However, in games with decks in the same neighborhood of level, games have lasted between 1-2 hours. If your meta is very strong, you'll possibly be ignored until other more problematic players are gone. If you're the strongest deck at the table, be very prepared to defend yourself and have a very exciting uphill battle!
Just remember that the game is basically over the moment you have the Filth+Urborg combo, you amassed a major horde with self-milling or other zombie generation due to the looting, Mesmeric Orb, the Narcomoeba of Dementia combo, etc. or are able to consistently recur Gempalm Polluter. The whole point is to burn through the deck in order to get one of the wincons. The most consistent wincon is alpha strike with a bunch of zombies. Again, beware the graveyard hate player.
2.1.4 - Card by card analysis:
A commander deck has 100 cards. Out of which I already explained most of the contents of my deck in great detail. However, if you want even greater detail, click the spoiler to see a list explaining every single card in the deck that is not a mana producing, non-utility land.
Artifacts:
Altar of Dementia - Multipurpose artifact that can net you zombies or mill an opponent you can't defeat by beatdown. Also a major component of the Narcomortuary or Dementia combo, discussed in greater detail in the Budget Build section.
Embalmer's Tools - It's cheap to cast and provides some insane interactions. You could mill out an opponent or mill yourself at instant speed. The zombies made can then be tapped to continue milling yourself. This gets ridiculous when combined with Seedborn Muse and Mesmeric Orb. If you're milling out an opponent with Undead Alchemist you can keep pushing the mill thanks to the zombie tokens being created.
Mesmeric Orb - Another all-star in the deck. Used to massively mill opponents and yourself. Each instance is a separate trigger and Sidisi, Brood Tyrant loves that.
Scroll Rack - makes sure that you always have creatures on the top of your deck all the while allowing for card advantage. This card does so many simultaneous things for this deck it's a must-have!
Thousand-Year Elixir - While not inherently giving your creatures haste, they can at least tap as though they did. Meaning your mana dorks can tap for mana the turn they come into play, creatures with tap abilities can be used the same turn like the untappers (Kiora's Follower, Krosan Restorer, etc.) plus creatures with great abilities like Whisper and Vannifar.
Birds of Paradise - Arguably one of the greatest mana dorks of all time, a T1 birds really helps with mana fixing and early commander casting. Additionally, it's the only 1-drop creature in the deck, which is something that Vannifar cares about if you're gonna chain into larger creatures from a zombie token or Dryad Arbor.
Bloom Tender - At worst, this mana dork taps for G. At best, BUG. The good thing about being able to tap it for BUG is that an untapper like Kiora's Follower or Aphetto Alchemist can really net you a considerable amount of mana. Even if you cast this T2 with nothing else in play, it can still help you cast a T3 Sidisi.
Body Double - Treated like a reanimation spell on a body. If you have a key creature in your graveyard then Body Double can enter the battlefield as a copy of it. If Craterhoof Behemoth is such a creature, then Body Double can enter the battlefield as a copy of it and you still benefit from the enter the battlefield trigger.
Clever Impersonator - This card alone is a toolbox. You can basically copy any non-land permanent an opponent controls or anyone you own. It can become a planeswalker or copy your Doubling Season. I love doing that.
Death Baron - Tribal pump; +1/+1 and deathtouch is no joke.
Diregraf Captain - Tribal pump and you could potentially kill an opponent when your zombies die.
Doom Whisperer - On it's own a 6/6 flying trampler for 3BB is no joke. Add to that fact by being able to surveil 2 for just 2 life is beyond amazing. As long as you have the life you can self-mill for days. Topdeck filtering plus zombie creation and graveyard filling is an amazing ability on a body.
Dryad Arbor - A land that's fetchable while providing a body for self-milling. It can be recovered and recurred in many different ways.
Eternal Witness - This card is a must in any EDH deck running G. What makes it epic in this build is getting Gempalm Polluter back into your hand.
Filth - A major component of the deck. This in the graveyard along with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play this makes all your creatures unblockable.
Frilled Mystic - A counterspell on a body is crucial in a deck like this. You want to keep the creature count as high as possible but you need answers. Although a bit more unconfortable to cast than Mystic Snake, it does the same thing at the same CMC.
The Gitrog Monster Can net you some cards if you sel-mill a land just as when you sacrifice a land. You have to sacrifice a land during your upkeep but its stats and deathtouch is nothing to scoff at, either. You're also able to play an additional land which goes great with Life from the Loam.
Glen Elendra Archmage - Replaced Jace, Memory Adept since he just wasn't cutting it. Only self-milling for 10 a turn isn't really doing much. The faerie, however, can help deal with an unwanted board wipe, overloaded Cyclonic Rift, or any of the various non-creature spells that can exile my graveyard. Best swap I've made yet.
Gurmag Drowner - A creature replacement for Forbidden Alchemy. Slowly but surely I'm trying to keep this deck as creature-heavy as possible and this guy really helps achieve that.
Havengul Lich - This card is too broken for words. You can cast creatures from your graveyard, also known as your second hand, and it will obtain the activated ability of whatever you cast. Casting Krosan Restorer, Kiora's Follower, etc. has helped me get that extra boost needed many times.
Lazav, the Multifarious - What an amazing card! For a casting cost of just UB not only does it surveil when it enters the battlefield, but it can also copy any creature card in the graveyard for X. It's ridiculous! It's practically reanimation at instant speed!
Muldrotha, the Gravetide - I could cast play any card type from my graveyard during my turn. So if I need to cast a planeswalker, instant, sorcery, etc. directly from my graveyard I'll be able to. Having Muldrotha means not worrying too much about recurring noncreature spells - especially since Muldrotha is a creature, the card type this deck excels at recurring.
Mystic Snake - Similar in function to Frilled Mystic, this deck needs answers but it also needs bodies. This creature checks both boxes.
Nullmage Shepherd - This card is too useful for protecting against the only weakness of the deck: graveyard hate. This card helps destroy Leyline of the Void, Rest in Peace, etc. Even then, it can also get rid of those pesky pillow forts that can somehow be a problem.
Prime Speaker Vannifar - Where to even begin... This is Birthing Pod on a body. B-Pod chains aren't that difficult to accomplish in this deck and without much effort you could essentially chain from a zombie token into Craterhoof Behemoth in the same turn. Not only that, but you could also chain into key creatures like Eternal Witness or Riftsweeper. She suffers from the same timing restrictions as Birthing Pod, but the versatility is still there. So much so that without much alterations, she could easily be the secret commander of the deck or at the very least a partner not in the command zone.
Protean Hulk - A card I've taken out and put back in a dozen times. However, with the inclusion of Prime Speaker Vannifar, it's gonna stay in the deck. Additionally, running Whisper, Blood Liturgist and other sacrifice outlets makes it easier to work with. Also, more low-costed creatures have been added that can make it worthwhile to include.
Razaketh, the Foulblooded - Another tutor on a body. Although dissimilar to Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Rune-Scarred Demon since its ability isn't triggered when it enters the battlefield, it is easier to control since it's an activated ability. Sacrifice a creature you want to recur later on or a zombie token and get access to any card in your deck. Amazing!
Riftsweeper - In case important pieces do get exiled, this is very important to recover them.
The Scarab God - It not only functions as a possible wincon, but it's pretty much unkillable. Also, the Zombie Build mills opponents as well with Undead Alchemist. The means that you can also exile creatures from opponents' graveyards to "copy" them as zombies, no less! This is definitely an amazing card.
Seedborn Muse - This card is extremely useful. With Mesmeric Orb in play, you can tap all your lands during each turn and then at the beginning of each next turn, each one triggers Mesmeric Orb. Not only that, but you can attack to your heart's delight because you can then have untapped blockers for your opponents' turns.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier - A tutor on a body that also provides a sac outlet. Pretty self-explanatory.
Turntimber Sower - Similar to The Gitrog Monster's trigger, you get a chump blocker for your effort. However, the real deal-sealer for this creature is its ability to trade creatures for lands. Using that ability before an epic Living Death is one of the reasons why this creature made it so quickly into the deck.
Underrealm Lich - Similar to Taigam, Sidisi's Hand but better. It has the same converted mana cost, you don't lose your draw, you can still trigger self-milling effects, and it can become an indestructible chump blocker in case of emergencies. Oh, and it's also a zombie.
Voyaging Satyr - For just 1G it's a great way to get mana acceleration early game and a great way to untap Gaea's Cradle and its ilk as well as utility lands.
Whisper, Blood Liturgist - Recursion and sac outlet all in one. It puts a creature directly into play from the graveyard. The ability can be repeated with creature untappers in play.
World Shaper - This creature has Sidisi, Brood Tyrant's ability and Splendid Reclamation all on the same body. Attack to self-mill and if it dies you recover all your lands. This also works as a deterrent for your opponents wanting to block it. Additionally, you can simply sacrifice it and recover your lands.
Enchantments:
Intruder Alarm - Added more so to complement Prime Speaker Vannifar, it still synergizes pretty well with the deck. Combined with cards like Embalmer's Tools allows you to tap zombies until you self-mill a creature. With Sidisi in play you get a zombie token which will untap all of your other creatures. This includes mana dorks and utility creatures that tap. If you're untapping lands with Kiora's Follower or Krosan Restorer then things can get out of hand pretty easily.
Mortuary - Love this card. Where some see a hindrance because it may "deny" you turns and drawing, I see a way to get creatures on the top of your library, where Sidisi loves having them. It's also the third component of the Narcomortuary of Dementia combo.
Opposition - When all else fails, you can use this along with your zombies (or other creatures) to tap out the board and swing unopposed (thus the name of the card, I think? lol).
Path of Discover - The amount of interactions with this card is bonkers. The creature pump with the +1/+1 counter isn't even that relevant. It just synergizes so well with the deck. A zombie token that explores a creature from the top of the deck can create another zombie token with Sidisi in play and you could potentially continue chaining this process.
Spells:
Assassin's Trophy - Although not on a body, the usefulness of this card can't go unnoticed. It gets rid of any problematic permanent at instant speed. It suffers from being an instant, which isn't easily recurrable with the deck, but with Eternal Witness you can recover it (or shuffling it into the library with an Eldrazi titan and then tutoring for it with Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Rune-Scarred Demon, or Razaketh, the Fouldblooded.
Bond of Insight - Self-mills for 4 and is able to recover up to two instant and/or sorcery cards from the graveyard which are the hardest cards to recur in the deck.
Cyclonic Rift - This card was broken in standard and is even more so in multiplayer EDH. This card helps clear the field for your horde for a mere 6U.
Entomb - Tutors directly to your graveyard - at instant speed. This card is amazing at protecting your graveyard as well. In response to having it exiled, just cast this and search for either Kozilek, Butcher of Truth or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre.
Fact or Fiction - considered one of the most broken cards when it came out, here it's even more broken. Regardless of what happens, it's going to be in your favor since your graveyard is an extension of your hand. And if creatures are in the pile that goes to the graveyard, it still triggers Sidisi. Love this card.
Life from the Loam - One of the best cards in the deck. Self-mills and you recover any lands in your graveyard. I love this card. every time I draw it or it's milled I can't contain my glee.
Living Death - This card is amazing but be careful when casting. It basically trades creatures in play for those in the graveyard. However, when used at appropriate situations it's glorious. I don't use it all the time because an opponent can discard an epic creature in response, but it's still a good card to run.
Voidslime - As with Assassin's Trophy, the deck needs answers. The deck runs a couple of counterspells on a stick but they aren't enough if an opponent drops a Bojuka Bog. Granted, this is probably the only card in the deck that can deal with a Bojuka Bog trigger, but it can also help against planeswalkers going ultimate, actually countering a spell like Rest in Peace, dealing with the activation of Scavenger Grounds, etc.
Planeswalkers:
Kiora, Master of the Depths - Loved this card since the moment it was spoiled. It proved to be even more broken in practice than in theory. <+1> and I untap a creature and a land. <-2> and it's a self-mill where I can choose to keep a land and/or creature for my hand instead. <-8> and I get a broken emblem; all my zombies become bombs.
Liliana, Death's Majesty - All three abilities are pertinent. The first one self-mills and gives you a zombie token, the second one reanimates, and her ultimate more likely than not hurts opponents way more than us.
Tamiyo, Collector of Tales - The static ability is nice but not that necessary in this deck. The other abilities are great and very synergistic with Sidisi, though. You can try and mise through the first 4 cards and if all else you're gonna self-mill them. The \-3/ ability is Regrowth, which is great in this deck because you could recover an instant or sorcery to your hand (since all other permanents are easier to recover from the graveyard).
Gaea's Cradle - One of the best lands in the deck; the amount of G produced is ridiculous. Useless without a creature in play, which hardly ever happens though.
Minamo, School at Water's Edge - Enters the battlefield untapped and provides U when tapped. It can also serve to untap Gaea's Cradle, which makes it strictly better than an Island.
Sequestered Stash - Serves to self-mill but can also top-deck an artifact that's stuck in the graveyard. I would rather have it in my hand, but it's a great ability on a land, so one can't really complain.
Thespian's Stage - Another EDH staple. Copy someone's utility land or even copy your own double-mana lands or Cabal Coffers.
Tolaria West - Land tutor that's also a land means that it's recurrable with Life from the Loam. And, when you're done with it, you still have a land that taps for U.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Obviously one of the most important lands in the deck. With this and Filth in the graveyard, your horde is ultimately unblockable. Also helps non mana producing utility lands at least produce B when tapped.
Volrath's Stronghold - Recursion to the top of the deck. Useful to Sidisi and also to recover a creature from the graveyard.
------------------------------------------------------- Basic Lands (2 of each - just in case):
Basic lands are helpful when being hit by Ghost Quarter, Path to Exile, Assassin's Trophy, and the like. They're also good targets for the fetchlands once you already got all of the dual-typed lands in play.
2.2 - Card Options:
There were a lot of cards tested, cut, added, suggested from a lot of people; they're all strewn across the thread. However, I have included 2 alternate builds with many of the cards in question. They weren't used in the main build due to them underperforming or requiring a different environment altogether in order to make the deck work. All cuts were made for efficiency's sake. That being said, the Change Log at the end of the post reflects many of the changes in both the casual and competitive build which have merged to merely reflect the changes in the competitive build.
How to deal with combo:
Here are some swaps I suggest if your meta is too focused on RKO combos:
These counterspells are just the best ones for the format given the colors. Again, not easy to recur given their card type. But this is just a suggestion if you feel uneasy running a BUG deck with so few instantaneous answers.
Leyline of the Void: So many times have I had a massive horde and could've milled an opponent outright. This also helps against other graveyard dependent players. However, on its own, it doesn't really do anything; so I'm on the fence about it...
As for cards that have become available with new sets, I will discuss in greater detail some of the cards from the most recent sets. This section will be constantly updated as new sets arise and other sets have been understood to have been discussed. I will not simply discuss all cards that comply with color. I will only discuss cards that could be useful to any extent in the deck - even if they don't make the cut.
Kels, Fight Fixer - For just 1 we can sacrifice a creature (preferably a zombie token) to not only make Kels indestructible but to draw a card as well. Even then, I think might be too niche to warrant a slot in the deck.
Glasspool Mimic - Although it enters the battlefield as a copy of a creature only we control, it still costs 3 to cast so it's pretty good. It's also a land in a pinch. This is definitley worth considering since it can double our best nonlegendary creature on the battlefield while also potentially taking the spot of a land in the deck.
Agadeem's Awakening - Even though it's not a creature, being a modular double-faced card means that it can technically take up a land slot in the deck - especially since it has the potential of entering the battlefield untapped. It's an amazing reanimation spell if we have the mana to cast it, which shouldn't be a problem since the deck is running Gaea's Cradle and Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.
Drana, the Last Bloodchief - She has the potential of reanimating a nonlegendary creature during each of our combat steps but I feel like it's a bit slow and we also don't have any control of what our opponents are going to choose. So there's that to consider as well.
Nullpriest of Oblivion - A bit expensive as far as reanimation spells go, but 6 mana with no other drawback isn't that bad. It's also on a body which is a plus.
Ancient Greenwarden - It's quite the hulk at 5/7 with reach for just 6 mana. However, this not being a landfall deck means that it's finally ability is pretty moot here. If I wanted to play lands from my graveyard with this deck I'd go with Ramunap Excavator instead.
Nissa of Shadowed Boughs - It's a great way to untap lands for additional value like Cabal Coffers, Gaea's Cradle, etc. On top of that, she can also be used to reanimate creatures or cheat them onto the battlefield from our hand. Definitely worth considering.
Lucille - While the deck doesn't really use equipment, it does provide a slight buff as well as menace, which could be useful. More important than that, it has a trigger on attack which makes the defending player sacrifice a creature - making Sidisi even harder to block. If they sacrifice a creature, you get a zombie, which is also synergistic for the deck. This has the potential of finding a slot in the Zombie Build.
Michonne, Ruthless Survivor - She creates two 2/2 zombies when she enters the battlefield. However, the deck isn't really running equipment to make the most of Michonne's ability. Curiously enough, Lucille is an excellent equipment for a Michonne deck.
Hullbreacher - One of the new "boogeymen" to the format, while it can be included to steal opponents' draws, the deck isn't really forcing players to draw and it's hard enough to make cuts for it. Same goes for the next card.
Opposition Agent - The other new "boogeyman" to the format, while it can be included to steal opponents' ramp effects or tutors, the deck is more proactive than reactive. With how difficult it is to make cuts, it's honestly not worth a slot here.
Laboratory Drudge - While the deck obviously plays with the graveyard, the effects is too lackluster to warrant a slot.
Sakashima of a Thousand Faces - Another amazing clone that can copy legends, having another Sidisi could do a lot. While I wouldn't necessarily make a cut for it, it's still definitely a great card to add if you like these effects.
Tormod, the Desecrator - Another way to make zombies especially since the deck is getting things out of the graveyard. However, it's much more efficient making zombies with Sidisi than it would be with Tormod.
Kamahl, Heart of Krosa - Giving our zombie horde +3/+3 is quite the buff. However, with how expensive it costs, it's better to just run Craterhoof Behemoth instead, which the deck already runs.
Kodama of the East Tree - Each time we create a zombie we're able to drop a land from our hand. Also, whenever we reanimate anything we can play a card with the same or lower casting cost for free. While I have yet to test it, this card has the potential to make some busted plays and should definitely be considered.
Araumi of the Dead Tide - With the graveyard full of cards, giving encore to a creature is a great way to reanimate them. However, the creature has to be exiled for its effect, which is something I've been very adamant on the deck not doing.
Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait - While not a landfall deck, being able to play an additional land and being able to draw a card off of it is definitely something to consider.
Undergrowth Stadium and Rejuvenating Springs - With this land megacycle finally getting completed, we can add even more 2-colored lands that don't enter the battlefield tapped.
3 - Alternate Builds:
3.1 - Budget Build:
Here's my less competitive, more casual, and über budget build. It's very fun to play in a casual pod. However, it's not a weakling either and can easily win in a casual setting without being too mean. This deck is designed under the impression that it will be in a setting with similar decks. Otherwise, don't use it, lol. If you're starting in commander or don't have that much of a budget and want a kooky, uncommon deck, then this is for you!
3.1.2 - Deck Stats:
I built a deck with the MTGSalvation Deck Builder so I can always keep an updated version of this deck online. Everytime I update the deck I will try to update it there. This is also a good tool for people to actually see the statistics of the deck (by type, CMC, color, etc.) so it's easier to visualize with the graphs and whatnot. Also, you can see the updated prices on the cards (though I can't guarantee it will always use the cheapest version of the cards (as far as expansion set goes)). You can find the deck here.
3.1.3 - Strategy:
37 Creatures
As you can notice, this deck runs 37 creatures. This is to maximize Sidisi's ability since most of the self ramp spells, though broken, aren't budget, which means that the main zombie making engine is Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and Undead Alchemist. However, with all these creatures you're bound to get utility and chump blockers if anything else. The creatures do more or less the same job as the previously mentioned spells providing ramp, recursion, recovery, removal, disruption, and other miscellaneous hijinxes.
Narcomortuary of Dementia Engine
How this incredibly broken engine works:
I sacrifice Narcomoeba to Altar of Dementia. That triggers Mortuary, which goes on the stack after the Altar of Dementia's ability and Narcomoeba's already in graveyard because it's sacrificed to pay for Altar of Dementia's activated ability. Mortuary resolves, sending Narcomoeba to the top of the deck. Altar of Dementia resolves, milling Narcomoeba, thus putting it back into play from the graveyard. This isn't an infinite loop, but you can make it go infinite if you want to. With Sidisi, Brood Tyrant in play you can essentially make infinitely many zombie tokens.
Noticeable Budget Substitutes:
Since the deck is a budget deck, the cards that helped it against its one, true weakness, Graveyard Hate, aren't included for monetary reasons. Luckily, Gaea's Blessing is cheap. However, in order to help against graveyard hate, other cards have been included for backup like Elixir of Immortality and Loaming Shaman. Fortunately, if you do face against graveyard hate and have your graveyard exiled, this budget version doesn't rely too heavily on the graveyard. The worse cards that could be exiled is Filth and/or Wonder but at least either could be recovered with Riftsweeper. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth isn't budget but there is a workaround in the form of Reef Shaman and Tideshaper Mystic. Simply make one of the opponent's lands into a Swamp and with Filth in your graveyard, you're set!
Now, I can't stress this enough, but Life from the Loam does not have a viable substitute in this deck; it is irreplaceable. However, for budget and casual reasons, Tilling Treefolk will have to do. The deck does provide ways to substantially and repeatedly reuse this card, so eventhough it's not as efficient as Life from the Loam, it does get the job done.
Early game:
You want to try and get Sidisi out as quickly as possible in order to capitalize on her token producing ability. It's quite the bummer to cast cards that mill through top cards to get choice cards without having Sidisi in play. As soon as you can start milling and amassing tokens the better you will be. Beware drawing the hate of having an early, menacing board presence. Any and all cheap permanents you can cast should be. Save any self-milling spells (Jarad's Orders, Mulch, Buried Alive, etc.) for when you have Sidisi out. In the mean time, start ramping to your heart's desire. If you find that you have to start milling regardless then do so. That way you can start burning through the deck in order to obtain your wincons. Also, if you notice that you're against a player who starts accumulating cards for a graveyard hate suite, eliminate that player first at all costs. Avoid having anything you desperately need go to your graveyard. Things will become increasingly difficult if cards like Filth, Wonder, Reef Shaman, Tideshaper Mystic, Nullmage Shepherd, Breaker of Armies, or Riftsweeper (especially) get exiled.
Mid Game:
This deck aims to be as quick as possible so if you're lucky you may reach mid game by turn 5-7. Things you should be aiming to get in your graveyard by this time: Filth (maybe Wonder). Things you want to have in play by this time: Reef Shaman, Tideshaper Mystic, or Zombie Trailblazer. This should be easy to accomplish with all the milling and recursion going around. The best thing you can have in play is the Narcomortuary of Dementia engine. At first, this wins out of nowhere, but once your pod gets wind of this, it can make you an instant target. However, this will definitely win you the game all on its own (as previously discussed).
Late Game:
You should have amassed a massive horde by now that's either flying or unblockable (swampwalk). This can help you eliminate one player and then the other with Gempalm Polluter in the same turn. You could also eliminate a player with milling your massive army afterwards (Altar of Dementia) or Undead Alchemist. You should have also tried to build the Narcomortuary of Dementia engine by now for the automatic win. Thought he deck doesn't have as much tutoring due to budget constrictions, it's still fun to play with whatever you're able to get. So don't be afraid to wing it in the mean time as your pieces are falling into place for the win.
End Game:
This deck is casual but still has the components to win most of the time (in a casual meta, of course). It was also quite a challenge to build this for almost $60. Again - and I can't stress this enough, depending on your meta, the overall strategy is still the same: ELIMINATE THE GRAVEYARD HATE PLAYER. Anything else can be dealt with accordingly. Remember that the moment you have unblockable zombies (whether due to swampwalk or flying) with Filth, Zombie Trailblazer, Reef Shaman, Tideshaper Mystic, and Wonder, you basically won.
3.1.5 - With a Bit More Budget:
Though the purpose of the deck is to have a ridiculously budget EDH deck that's still fun to pilot and still be in the spirit of the competitive build, for a little extra, the deck can go even farther and still be relatively budget. This change is obviously more efficient and closer in spirit to the original build. Undead Warchief is a considerable zombie lord and Life from the Loam, again, has no real substitute. You want it in this deck. Badly. Mesmeric Orb is also to big a power house to miss out on. Unholy Grotto is too clutch when combined with Gempalm Polluter. Cycling it more than once a turn is too epic.
For a little more lettuce, you could add choice cards like Akroma's Memorial, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, and Cabal Coffers. These changes make the budget deck all that closer to the competitive build. As discussed above, these cards are the heart of what makes the deck win so ruthlessly. So, for those who can still consider $135 for a solid EDH deck to still be considered within budget, that's what you could do to the $60 version discussed in this middle section (basically doubling in price). In summation:
Another casual build (casual but for someone with a sweet budget); this one relies on some good ol' fashioned zombie beatdown. Though the deck is not overly saturated with zombies, the non-zombie creatures here are too crucial to the build to take out simply for not being the same creature type. All the land untappers are important. This build is a mana hog and if you're able to use Gaea's Cradle, Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun, Cabal Coffers, and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx multiple times at the end of an opponent's turn to cast an epic Empty the Pits then it's pretty much game over.
The deck is very easy to pilot (at least compared to the main build) and the targets for tutors are pretty much the same throughout all manifestations of the deck. Also, never ever ever ever ever use Entomb if you have it in hand. Entomb is to look for Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth in response to your graveyard getting exiled. Also, Ulamog and/or Kozilek are more useful in hand than in play for the same reason: discarding either at instant speed saves your graveyard from getting exiled and also prevents you from getting decked.
Now, the deck becomes ridiculously expensive with the inclusion of dual lands and Gaea's Cradle. For those without a Sultai bank account (myself included) and those who play without proxies (myself included) - even though some pods and LGS's allow the use of gold-bordered cards - there are clear budget alternatives. The tainted lands from Torment don't cipt and they can at least give you 1 until Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth comes into play (or also Overgrown Tomb, Watery Grave, or the lonely Swamp). Even though the check lands cipt, you can still get them into play untapped if you have at least Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Overgrown Tomb, Watery Grave, or the lonely Swamp in play. These replacements brings the deck down to about $1,133, which is still considerable, but then again the deck does run some $20-$30 cards.
Pimpage:
Unfortunately, not all of the cards in my current decklist are presently acquirable as foils.
Average CMC:
3.68 Average Cost (as of 6/21/18): $3,186.44
Updates:
I built a deck with the MTGSalvation Deck Builder so I can always keep an updated version of this deck online. Everytime I update the deck I will try to update it there. This is also a good tool for people to actually see the statistics of the deck (by type, CMC, color, etc.) so it's easier to visualize with the graphs and whatnot. Also, you can see the updated prices on the cards (though I can't guarantee it will always use the cheapest version of the cards (as far as expansion set goes)). You can find the deck here.
3.2.3 - Strategy:
Amassing the Zombies:
The game plan is pretty straight-forward: make an epic amount of zombie tokens and pump them with the lords and other boons. This version is much more aggro than the other two which are more midrange. This build likes to put lots of zombies in the red zone. This is very viable thanks to all the token-making enchantments. Clever Impersonator, though having uses only limited to your imagination, has almost always been used to copy Doubling Season. This interaction makes ridiculous amounts of tokens and guarantees that your planeswalkers ultimate the moment they hit the field - including Liliana, Defiant Necromancer. Parallel Lives serves as a copy of Doubling Season (as far as tokens are concerned). Endless Ranks of the Dead also makes ridiculous amounts of zombies. This is obviously very useful not only for attacking and blocking, but for tapping and abusing Gravespawn Sovereign and Opposition. The deck also produces so much mana that casting a card like Empty the Pits becomes game-ending.
Pumping Your Horde:
Besides running Akroma's Memorial, the Filth + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth combo, and the other notable zombie lords, the deck also runs Coat of Arms which becomes incredibly brutal incredibly fast. Though it might help other tribal decks, it's just too good to pass up. Simply take out that elf, goblin, angel, dragon, or sliver player first. Having almost all zombie lords also helps pump up your horde significantly. Not withstanding, Craterhoof Behemoth could literally be all you'd need with the amount of creatures the deck could have in play. This card alone is game-ending, regardless of the other pumps you could have in play. Bonus points for recurring it multiple times the same turn!
Dem Emblems...:
As stated before, the planeswalkers are all so useful in this deck; all abilities being relevant. But having two copies of Doubling Season in play (thanks to Clever Impersonator) means getting those emblems out without losing the planeswalker in the process. Tezzeret the Seeker gets so many counters you can easily tutor for Coat of Arms or Akroma's Memorial directly into play. It's not that the emblems are of the utmost importance, but they basically make your field all the more broken - especially Liliana, the Last Hope's emblem and Liliana, Defiant Necromancer's emblem. Beware, though, as getting any of these emblems can make you an instant target.
With so many zombies and so much mana, you could sink it all into Lich Lord of Unx and
outright kill each player one at a time. For those players who love running Platinum Emperion, you can just mill them to death. This is a good way to deal with maybe not being
able to attack certain players due to pillowfort, fog effects, etc. I just know that this card has
been amazing.
Arcane Adaptation
Arcane Adaptation is incredibly broken in this deck considering all the support the zombie creature
type has. It makes cards already broken even more broken. It gives more zombies to Gravespawn Sovereign, helps Cavern of Souls make all your creatures uncounterable when
choosing "zombie", and makes cards like Gempalm Polluter and Lich Lord of Unx all the
more dangerous. Coat of Arms becomes ridiculous, as well. It also helps protect your own
creatures from Noxious Ghoul if you don't want to lose them when its ability activates.
Additionally, it has lots of synergy with Undead Alchemist and Endless Ranks of the Dead.
Along with Rooftop Storm, all of your creatures cost 0. Arcane Adaptation is a definite all-star.
Gempalm Polluter
Speaking of amazing and amazingly broken cards, look no further than Gempalm Polluter.
The number of times this has single-handedly won me the game is too many to count. Also,
if you know how the stack works, you can cycle Gempalm Polluter and then respond with Lord of the Undead or Unholy Grotto. Doing so means that when you cycle Gempalm Polluter, the card you draw is Gempalm Polluter. Doesn't that blow your mind?! Basically, Step 1: Cycle Gempalm Polluter. (Gempalm Polluter is discarded per the cycling cost. Thus, Gempalm Polluter is in the graveyard as the ability is on the stack.) Step 2: In response to the cycling, activate either Unholy Grotto or Lord of the Undead
targeting Gempalm Polluter. (That ability now goes to the stack. It resolves first, placing Gempalm Polluter on top of the library. Then, the cycling resolves, where you draw - you
guessed it - Gempalm Polluter.)
Opposition
Opposition is just such a broken card. With so many tokens, you can tap most of them to tap
opponent's creatures in order to clear the path for an epic attack without having to waste
resources getting rid of them otherwise. Not only does it work amazingly well on its own, but
if you have Seedborn Muse in play, you can tap your creatures during each opponent's
upkeep in order to deny them of attacking with his or her creatures all while not losing your
blockers since you're going to untap them during the next untap step. Not only creatures, but
you can deny them of utility mono artifacts, mana rocks, and lands, as well. Also, with Mesmeric Orb in play, you can tap all of your creatures at the end step before your turn and
get a lot of triggers off of it. Oh, and tapping your opponent's things mills them when their
artifacts, lands, and creatures untap. Such an amazing card with so many possibilities. Once
this gets online you've basically won the game with little to no opposition . (Bad pun, I
know, lol .)
3.2.4 - Piloting the Deck:
Mulligans:
This version doesn't need Sidisi to be out as quickly as possible. What you do want is anywhere between 3-4 lands and cheap creatures - preferably a lord. Also, if you get any token doublers then you're set. Once again, you do not want any Eldrazi titans in your opening hand. So, a perfect hand has 3-4 lands, and zombie lords. You don't need to mulligan away in order to get token doublers since there's enough of them in the deck and you're bound to get some. What you do want are things to facilitate making or pumping the zombie horde. Just as with the competitive build, mulligan away Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth as their purpose is to prevent getting decked so their main function is to stay in the library. As I've been mentioning throughout, personally, my EDH philosophy is not so much what to want in your starting hand more than what to not want. Honestly, as long as you're able to cast stuff without mana screw or color screw you should be fine. I don't want people to ceaselessly mulligan away searching for "critical" pieces. This deck burns through your library so you're bound to get them. An idea of what to keep in your hand are cheap spells somewhere in the vein of Expedition Map, Mesmeric Orb, Sol Ring, Death Baron, Diregraf Captain, Gravecrawler, Kiora's Follower, Krosan Restorer, Lich Lord of Unx, Liliana, Heretical Healer, Lord of the Undead, Risen Executioner, Undead Warchief, Voyaging Satyr, Phyrexian Reclamation, Survival of the Fittest, Entomb, Garruk Wildspeaker, Buried Alive, or Life from the Loam.
Early game:
This version is much less complex compared to the previously mentioned builds. The deck strives for zombie generation which can be achieved with self-milling (Buried Alive, Intuition, Jarad's Orders, etc.) with Sidisi in play all the while casting a lot of cheap creatures while you start putting together any of the game-winning components. This version makes deadlier tokens faster than the main version because it has more zombie lords (Death Baron, Diregraf Captain, Lord of the Undead, Risen Executioner, Undead Warchief, plus the other non-zombie lords that pump your creatures). Again, this deck is very easy to pilot so as long as you're getting lands, dropping creatures, and burning through the deck, you're good to go. So, if you're against mid-range decks you're golden. Don't worry too much about what's going on around you unless you start seeing a player build a graveyard hate suite. That's your target the moment it happens. If you're facing other horde players then keep your zombies to chump block mode. If you're against a control player, keep your zombies in attack mode. Basically, cast anything you can cast and attack as necessary.
Mid Game:
By now, you should start having the mindset of setting up the mother of all hordes (and pumped, too). You have methods of recursion as well to make use of the graveyard and alternate wincons (like Gempalm Polluter, Lich Lord of Unx, Vengeful Dead, etc.) should be assessed whether they're readily available to quickly steal the win or required in cases where you can't win with attacking. If you have various ways of recurring, you should take advantage of Gempalm Polluter once you get it. Eternal Witness it back into your hand, use Lord of the Undead to get it back into your hand. If you have Volrath's Stronghold, activate its ability in response to Gempalm Polluter's ability so that the card you draw from cycling it will be itself - pretty awesome, if I may say so. This alone may get you the win before late game - or at least take out a dangerous player first. The zombie lords and other creature pumpers should've been making your horde pretty menacing as well as token doublers and any combos you could've completed by now. At this stage in the game if you've already assembled the Corpse Harvester + Rooftop Storm engine or the Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar then victory is literally just around the corner.
Late Game:
You should already have some wincon in sight, whether alpha strike, mega mill, or epic life loss. When playing against decks without a lot of board wipes or massive bounce, you should be able to win with alpha strike well before the late game. However, with decks that are stalling, you should try to amass the mother of all hordes and go for a mega mill or epic life loss win since pillow fort, stasis type locks, or other attack inhibition can really hinder your main wincon. These alternate wincons are very viable to complete with all the self-milling and recursion. By late game you should already have most - if not all - of the pieces in play already for any of your decided wins (which have been discussed in great detail in previous sections). Remember that a lot of EDH decks exist which inhibit players from attacking or keeping too many creatures. By now, those players should've been dealt with. If not, remember that the zombie horde doesn't exist for simply attacking - alpha strike is not the only win con. Those players can be eliminated with Altar of Dementia, Lich Lord of Unx, Gempalm Polluter, Diregraf Captain, Vengeful Dead, etc.
End Game:
This deck is not so casual but still has the components to win most of the time (in a less than competitive meta, of course). It hits hard and fast yet still has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. Again, regardless of your meta, the overall strategy is still the same: ELIMINATE THE GRAVEYARD HATE PLAYER. Anything else can be dealt with accordingly. Alpha strike with a massive horde is usually the way to win, but there are other wincons as well such as massive life drain and massive mill. So you can choose if you have more than one route or if one wincon is in the cards, try and go for that one. Finding what to do amongst the chaos is half the fun!
4 - Change log:
Original, horrible version
Almost total change from what I was previously doing with the deck to what it is now. It went from being what is described in the alternate build to what is being described in this thread. The way that deck worked was with looters and dredge. What would happen is, when you'd draw, you'd dredge. Then, when you had to discard, you'd simple discard what you just dredged. For example:
Activate Merfolk Looter. Instead of drawing, use Golgari Grave-Troll's dredge ability, getting you some self-mill. Then, when you had to discard, you just discarded Golgari Grave-Troll. It seemed amazing in theory but ended up being slow in practice. Trust me, I tried to make that concept work and ended up eliminating all the looters and all the dredgers except for Life from the Loam.
The cards removed were due to them performing inefficiently. The looters were all used in order to take advantage of dredge. Draw but instead of getting a card, you would dredge. And then, when you had to discard something, you'd discard the card with dredge. It sounded good on paper but wasn't performing as well as it should've. It was no where near as polished and I wanted. It was klanky and not in a good way.
Also, the cards that milled too many cards were removed because the graveyard would constantly get shuffled back into the deck, providing no usefulness whatsoever. Mirror-Mad Phantasm was more trouble than it was worth.
The cards for drawing massive amounts of lands were also a hindrance. I would've rather had most of those cards in the graveyard than in my hand. Also, drawing cards doesn't trigger Sidisi.
Specifically,
Immobilizing Ink was a discard outlet and untapper all in one. However, it was too slow and klanky.
Stitcher Geralf self milled, exiled creatures from graveyards, and put a very large zombie in play. However, also proved to be too slow.
Sultai Ascendancy was too slow and inneficient at self-milling and now other purpose besides self-milling.
Mirror-Mad Phantasm milled too many cards and would constantly get the Eldrazi titans in my graveyard and would recover the graveyard when I didn't want it to. It was more trouble than what it's worth.
Notion Theif, Mind Unbound, and Psychic Vortex made me draw too many cards. The deck's not about drawing cards. I want to trigger Sidisi and get cards in my graveyard. They weren't cutting it.
Liliana Vess was a good planeswalker because it provided a discard outlet, tutoring, and could reanimate all graveyards. However, I don't want to reanimate everything - especially not Filth or Genesis.
Temple Bell and Kami of the Crescent Moon were the last cards of the card-draw group-hug that needed to go, naturally. The deck no longer digs into the deck by drawing; it's done by "looting".
Memnarch was a good mana sink but just ended up being winmore.
Villainous Wealth - though and amazing card - was more like an alternate wincon since whoever got hit by it just scooped. Having over 40 cards exiled to then be obtained by me just made the victim scoop. Having them scoop also takes away your spoils so it was more trouble than what it's worth.
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir served to delay opponents but it really didn't do much else and this deck isn't that control for meriting adding Teferi.
Arcane Lighthouse is not needed since the deck doesn't really spot remove or target creatures beyond tapping with Opposition.
Swapped out Garruk Relentless for Kiora, Master of the Depths. This version of Garruk was underperforming and the new Kiora was too broken to not include; she was made for this deck.
Complete overhaul of the original post.
Gave more importance to the competitive (main) build.
Removed the "Casual" Build for costing almost as much as the Competitive Build. Honestly, if one had the budget, why build the Casual version? Therefore, the Casual Build was scratched for a truly Casual Build which is also built on budget. So far, the 3 versions of the deck are Competitive, Budget, and Tribal (which isn't that budget but still cheaper than the Competitive Build).
Swapped out Gaea's Blessing for Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. I made some recent changes in order to get the creature count back to 32 which, if probability follows, should net you a zombie with each self mill. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth also has the added benefit of being discarded and having the effect whereas Gaea's Blessing can only do its intended effect only if it's in the library. So I was basically keeping a non-creature spell that only did one thing.
It's not so much that the removed cards were underperforming more than me wanting to up the creature count. I'm pretty comfortable with these changes and the self-milling has been more consistent thanks to it. Gurmag Drowner effectively replaces Forbidden Alchemy, the same holds true for Kozilek, Butcher of Truth with Gaea's Blessing and Butcher of Malakir with Dictate of Erebos. Golgari Grave-Troll was what remained of the original, inefficient dredge+looter concept so swapping it out for Hell's Caretaker was a natural thing. Narcomoeba turned out to be so broken in the casual build that I just had to find a slot for it in the competitive build.
Added more details to the Zombie Tribal.
Some changes to the Zombie Tribal:
These changes were made because the deck uses other methods of self-mill so I could go without Fact or Fiction and Mulch. Obelisk of Urd was too costly for what it does and Vengeful Dead is redundancy for Diregraf Captain's ability. Rogue's Passage allows me to attack worry-free with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. Gravecrawler was added along with Phyrexian Altar because together they provide an infinite sacrifice engine which can be used to trigger so many other cards; they warranted inclusion. That, and they're also both pretty useful on their own, with Gravecrawler being constantly cast from the graveyard for a mere B and Phyrexian Altar providing lots of colored mana when needed.
Looking at the deck, I could've sworn Craterhoof Behemoth was in the Zombie Tribal build - it wasn't. So I swapped out Thunderfoot Baloth for it.
Also, added a bit more detail to the Zombie Build.
As for the other builds: Glen Elendra Archmage has replaced Jace, Memory Adept in the main build. Jace just wasn't cutting it when compared to the other planeswalkers and Glen Elendra Archmage provides some much needed control to the deck all the while being recurred. Also in the main build, I gave some budget replacements that could potentially bring the price down to ~$500.
Updated the Budget Build with variants reaching up to $100.
As for the Zombie Tribal build, Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest has been so amazing that I decided to build a commander with it. I replaced Grave Titan with it and have regretted nothing. With the Phyrexian Altar / Gravecrawler combo I can get infinitely many +1/+1 counters on my creatures. That's just epic. Even without indefinitely occurring sacrifices, I usually just sacrifice all the zombies that can't attack and go for the epic alpha strike. Mazirek has really been awesome, trust me. Super broken!
Some general aesthetic changes to the OP:
indexing the sections
entering in greater detail in the piloting sections
providing a summarized analysis of Sidisi's pros & cons against other decks
provided links to deckstats.net so players can see updated cardlists, stats, and prices
Finally obtained [Primer] status!
I would like to thank the community and all those who've supported this thread since it's inception a little over a year ago. It would not be what it is without you guys. I feel like I'm holding an Oscar but it's only because it feels great to have your hard work be recognized.
Thanks once again to all of you and I hope my thread can continue to serve as a guide to those looking into this commander, these strategies, or looking for what to do with this color combination. I love this deck so I will definitely continue to work on it as more magic sets and new cards continue to come out.
The reason for most of these changes was due to the very recent (1/18/16) banning of Prophet of Kruphix. As I'm writing this, Seedborn Muse's price almost tripled from the $12 it used to be. I guessed as much. R.I.P. Prophet of Kruphix.
Some general changes I've made that have been discussed so far in the thread which have become permanent (for the moment):
Some general changes that I made; they're explained here. Protean Hulk got unbanned on 4/24/2017. It obviously found its way in each of the non-budget builds.
all the Cockatrice players who've been making suggestions and observations ever since I've been playing this deck online way back since the beginning of its conception (particularly users 359763432 and Gidix).
The EDH Primer Committee for both helping me shape this into the guide it is and recognizing my effort with the much sought after [Primer] tag! Thanks!
And all of you reading for your interest, curiosity, suggestions, and attention!
Please let me know of any errors, typos, etc.! I want to keep this very presentable!
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
You can play Shuko and Cephalid Illusionist. That goes inf dudes with all the eldrazi dudes and Gaea's Blessing : ). Oh and you can play Riftsweeper to get your exiled combo card back, not only that, it counts as a creature and it'll give you a zombie if it hits the bin.
@Gareth_Trent:
Lol, no prob. Maybe when you sober up you'll put the card tags and all, lol.
Thanks for the suggestions! I think that Sidisi, Brood Tyrant can be pretty broken in a well-rounded aspect. With Dralnu, Lich Lord it may be possible to run quite the control vibe in order to lock down and secure the game. You can tap Dralnu to give a counterspell in your graveyard flashback.
@Runnin:
I love the Shuko + Cephalid Illusionist combo. If that combo hits the board and you're able to control the field long enough to amass an army, you can win the game!
All in all I think Sidisi, Brood Tyrant has a lot of potential. I've been playing her in Cockatrice to much delight. Thanks to Filth and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, all the 2/2 Zombie tokens are basically unblockable; with Akroma's Vengeance they got haste. Now, there are a lot of self-milling enablers, but most of the time they go to the graveyard. Thanks to the Eldrazi I keep recurring the graveyard. The only real weakness to the deck is graveyard hate - you know them all. And they hurt. However, some counters could help against that. I'm still tinkering, but for the moment, it's a powerhouse. Cyclonic Rift is also a pain. So here's how I think Sidisi can be broken:
Stall/control the board long enough to amass an army that can attack in the same turn.
I'm still gonna test it some more because I want to try to avoid situations where I depend too much on the graveyard. However, I still wanna keep a healthy amount of self-milling. I also want to take advantage of Sidisi's color pie and use some removal/control just in case.
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You can run the famous Phenax + Eater of the Dead combo if you want to, since you will still amass a bunch of creatures that can tap to mill someone out.
Be careful with running Dralnu, he seems really risky.
@Gareth_Trent Yeah it works just as welll, it's just that i mentioned Shuko because that's primarirly the combo piece of the cephalid breakfast deck in legacy.
Oh and keep the list updated, a friend of mine is thinking about building a sidisi deck.
@Runnin:
No problem! I will try to keep this as updated as possible. I'm going for an eventual [Primer] here, lol! Especially with the fact that KTK hasn't been completely spoiled yet. Plus, I think we're gonna get even more useful cards in the other two sets from the block. Also, Commander 2014 has already some pretty sweet zombie makers (Stitcher Geralf and Ghoulcaller Gisa).
@Gareth_Trent:
Like I said, since I'm going for an eventual [Primer] status, I wanna keep all possible strategies in the loop. Yet, we do have quite the conundrum thanks to Sidisi, Brood Tyrant's complicated ability. On the one hand, we want a lot of creatures going into the graveyard. On the other, a lot of useful things are going to the graveyard that we are going to eventually either want to have in play or be able to cast.
What this deck needs is cards that can catch what we want as it mills into the graveyard. I'd rather have the Counterspell for Rest in Peace in my hand rather than in the graveyard. Though, I think we can work around that if we have a lot of recursion from the graveyard to play as well. We could abuse cards like Mystic Snake, Glen Elendra Archmage, and the like. I think that if we stick to creatures whose abilities can be useful against the weaknesses of the deck, it can become pretty solid indeed.
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Okay, so I did some more tinkering with the deck following the "more creatures" route and came up with a build that houses 36 creatures. I updated the first post to reflect these changes. Okay, so what was my logic for these changes?:
For starters, more creatures in the deck means more zombies generated with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. 36/99 means that probabilistically, each time you attack with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant you will get a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
Removed some of the cipt lands for speed purposes.
This current build is basically to amass an insane army. Akroma's Memorial is the mother of all beefers. Having Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play and Filth in the graveyard means that your army is unblockable, as well. Now, if you want to go the milling route, some changes would have to be made. Now, this deck doesn't necessarily go infinite, but with enough tools, can provide an insane amount of mana. Here's my thoughts on the milling route:
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im also trying to put a 99 together adn it turns out there are so many options on how to turn this general into an efficient zombie machine. im still trying to cut down from 150 cards but some of the cards i found that might be good for Sidsi
Nullmage Shepherd is beast - especially when artifacts and enchantments can really hurt this deck.
I've been tinkering with the deck and found that the most efficient graveyard recursion into the library are the two Eldrazi and Gaea's Blessing. Most of the times important cards are going into the graveyard so you won't be able to cast much or get useful cards into your hands. If I have tutors in my hand, that's when I tutor for useful things - even so, I use Long-Term Plans, Imperial Seal, Cruel Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Entomb, Buried Alive, Liliana Vess, etc. to get either of those 3 cards close to entering the graveyard. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is a pain when you top-deck something to self-mill. That's why I think that Riftsweeper should be an auto-include in this deck.
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Updated the OP. I found that the deck did well in producing tokens. However, if opponents build their field up before you, you're either stalemated or screwed. So I fixed that with a bit more life gain (Gnaw to the Bone) in order to at least hold on a bit from assaults. I also added Living Death which should more than clear the way with a graveyard full of creatures. Still considering adding Altar of Dementia to the list. With enough recursion it should be possible to mill an opponent as a secondary win condition. However, that would hinder me open to attack. Altar of Dementia would be a dead draw until I can get the engine going when I'm able to mill a considerable amount of cards in one shot. So I'm still on the fence as far as it goes.
I'm really anxious for the next set in the Khans block because there should be more Sultai cards that would be beneficial to the delve mechanic (i.e.: milling yourself) that could have other (and possibly better) interactions with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant.
There are also many recently spoiled cards from Commander 2014 which are really tickling my fancy. Damn you, WotC! Now I gotta buy like 4 preconstructed decks in order to get all the goodness I want! The UBRG are beginning to look beast!
[EDIT]:
I decided to try my luck with Altar of Dementia. However, due to the Eldrazi titans that can shuffle the library and prevent milling, I may have to add Leyline of the Void to my build (or also add Scavenging Ooze and Deathrite Shaman to exile the titans in response to the trigger). I can also add Undead Alchemist which exiles the creature before it even hits the graveyard (thus cancelling the ability) and I get a token, to boot. Still need to test that strategy out. If this deck becomes too hodgepodge it won't run smoothly.
Also, something to note is that Undead Alchemist is a more broken Sidisi against an opponent because it gives me a zombie per creature card milled whereas Sidisi gives me a zombie per creature card per instance of milling. This is great when combined with Altar of Dementia or more brutal cards like Traumatize.
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Dredge is a very powerful engine and ridiculously broken with this. I've yet to test it out. But yes, you can play it like dredge. Just make sure to have discarding effects instead of the milling effects (Compulsion combined with dredge is nuts!). Dredge seems very powerful on paper. Again, I haven't tested that variant of Sidisi. But with cards like Mental Discipline, Mesmeric Trance, Mindless Automaton, etc., the engine can be very ridiculous. Dredge, discard, and produce a ton of zombies. You can even sac the zombies to Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod's Altar in order to get mana and keep going.
Other ways of getting this engine going is free discard (Wild Mongrel, Putrid Imp, etc.) but when combined with something like Mind Over Matter and Temple Bell it can get even more ridiculous. Tap Temple Bell. Replace the draw with dredge. Discard the dredge card to untap Temple Bell. Rinse and repeat. Ridiculous! You can even beat opponents by making them draw their entire deck, while yours keeps being recycled thanks to the Eldrazi titans and Gaea's Blessing.
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With what I was discussing previous post about dredge, lemme tell ya! The deck has a few kinks but it worked amazingly! It was also so much fun to pilot! The synergy is crazy! This deck is doing all kinds of things between hand, library, and graveyard! All of these shenanigans rolled into one: self-milling, discarding, drawing, dredging! It's super fun! I will post my findings later on in the day when I get the chance. For now... sleep!
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Okay, so here's my alternate build cardlist (now I'm regretting a bit not reserving the second post, lol) which has a totally different (and maybe more efficient?) synergy than the previous build. For the moment it can appear a bit clunky. By that I mean that sometimes you're waiting for a certain kind of card to reach your hand that will make certain machinations work. What I mean by all this is that this deck seems all over the place, but it's really not. I'm trying to get to everything I want as quickly as possible, yet do a lot of other things in the process: producing lands and creature tokens. So I'm trying for every action to have a duality or triality about it. I want my self mill to not only get things into the graveyard but to have other effects. I want my discard to not only get things into the graveyard but to have other effects. I want to draw a bunch of things to have responses in my hand, lands to play, and things to discard. I want my creatures to be useful as they're being milled, discarded, or being in play. That is what I wish to achieve with this deck. How so? Dredge, discard, draw - the triple D.
Okay, so ever since the change in lineup this deck has been nothing but interesting. It keeps my opponents on their toes and most of the time they don't care that I'm milling myself and even if everyone's drawing cards due to the hugs, it doesn't hurt because it's not a Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck. Also, this deck is not too dependent on Sidisi, Brood Tyrant being in play. With the color pie I have access to a bunch of alternate win cons. However, with Sidisi in play the amount of 2/2 Zombies I make is pretty intimidating. Besides, the Zombie production not only helps for blocking and/or attacking, but for sacrifices as well.
Most of the cards in this current build do so much that I am going to try to explain literally every non-utility land in the deck; what it's done for me, the interactions, and why I chose it. This current list was originally 270 cards that I wanted that I was able to bring down to 100 - quite the feat in and of itself! Anyway, on to the explanations:
Artifacts:
Akroma's Memorial: may seem like win more but the protection from black and red helps my creatures against the most common removals. Also, giving my creatures haste is key; most of them have abilities that require tapping. Thanks to this in play, I was able to pull a victory out of nowhere in a 3-player free-for-all against a Zedruu Bad Xmas and Child of Superfriends. Don't regret it one bit!
Altar of Dementia: everytime I exclude this card I miss it. This card is too crucial and so multidimensional. If I steal a creature with Chamber of Manipulation (more on that beauty later), then I can sac it in response to returning it and mill while I'm at it. Also, I can sac my creatures to put them in the graveyard in order to mill or I can just do it to mill myself if Sidisi is in play. Very versatile card here.
Charmed Pendant: awesome card! Not only do I self mill for 1 but if I do so with an expensive card, I get to add all that colored mana to my mana pool. Very useful card.
Expedition Map: helps with tutoring lands but also gets those lands out of the deck so that the creature % remaining in the deck rises. Goes great in conjuction with Academy Ruins. Use the map to get the ruins and then use the ruins to get the map!
Howling Mine: again, no Nekusar, the Mindrazer means that this is more hug so that you and your seemingly unmenacing commander are not public enemy #1. Drawing that extra card also means that you can dredge without having to completely lose your draw step. In my eyes, worth the risk of opponents drawing responses. Luckily, those responses will be used against other player anyways.
Mesmeric Orb: part of a combo that is pseudo-infinite, Mesmeric Orb is amazing in that it doesn't trigger on the untap step per se, it triggers whenever a permanent is untapped. This may become a target very fast so make good use of it. You self mill ridiculously with this. And each permanent is a different trigger, meaning that if you self mill 3 creatures with this and have Sidisi, Brood Tyrant in play, you get 3 Zombie tokens. Sweet.
Temple Bell: draw a card by simply tapping. Also lets opponents draw, but it follows the same philosophy as Howling Mine. At least Temple Bell lets you draw a card whenever you want (great for dredge!) which is a plus.
Creatures:
Azusa, Lost but Seeking: helps drop lands when drawing so many cards. Also a creature when you self mill for Sidisi's ability.
Clever Impersonator: a staple of every single EDH deck that runs U. This card is so ridiculously versatile I can go on and on and on boom clap and all about it. It's just that good.
Dryad Arbor: counts as both creature and land for when milling to activate Sidisi or when Mulching or Grisly Salvageing. Oh! And as a mana dork when in play.
Enclave Cryptologist: another creature with a looter type effect. Discard and draw all in one motion.
Filth: this card almost screams to be in here. Self mill for Sidisi and gain a token while having Filth in the graveyard - where it wants to be. Great card to discard as well.
Ghoulcaller Gisa: another sac engine that provides a lot of Zombie tokens which can then be used for something else. Great for getting creatures that you'd prefer in the graveyard than in play and giving you the bonus of more creatures for your effort. Amazing.
Golgari Brownscale: this card is epic. Discard for the life gain and then dredge for the automill to then again discard for the life gain. With a free discar outlet in play (Psychatog, Skirge Familiar, etc.), you should be able to get near infinite life - and Zombie tokens if you have Sidisi in play.
Golgari Grave-Troll: Dredge 6 in this deck is ridiculous. Can also enter play as a huge creature. Sac for milling, beefing other creatures, etc. Again, in this deck, this card is extremely versatile.
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth: prevents decking yourself, recovers graveyard into library, and if you manage to get it into play, you got yourself quite the beater.
Krosan Restorer: untapping 3 lands is pretty epic - especially if those lands are Cabal Coffers and Gaea's Cradle. Having other ways to constantly untap this creature means lots of mana pretty fast.
Llanowar Mentor: discard outlet and produces a mana dork token? All for G!? Check!
Magus of the Bazaar: really great card for discarding. Besides being way cheaper than Bazaar of Baghdad, it's also a creature that helps fuel Sidisi when milled. Oh, and it also draws 2.
Mirror-Mad Phantasm: a creature (to help with Sidisi when getting milled) that allows you to possibly mill quite a bit of your deck at instant speeds. Very useful. Plus, a 5/1 flyer's pretty sweet, too.
Notion Thief: all the group hug drawing is then stolen away with this guy. Just hope you can steal as many draws as possible before he gets dealt with.
Nullmage Shepherd: amazing card. This has saved me so many times from so many annoying enchantments and artifacts. All for just tapping four creatures. Extremely useful.
Oracle of Mul Daya: not only do you get to see the top card of your deck (if you wanna mill for Sidisi), but you can play it if it's a land and you can play an extraland per turn. Oracle is broken and it's even more broken here.
Phyrexian Ghoul: for the moment it's iffy, but it gives me a great sac outlet (free) and it gets +2/+2 each time. It can also get pumped and be sacrificed in turn towards Altar of Dementia or Ghoulcaller Gisa. I haven't really had a chance to make it really shine like the rest of the cards so if it doesn't do soon, I'll change it for something else.
Psychatog: ah, the good old days... This card is hands down completely broken. You can basically make it infinity/infinity if you discard a card with dredge.
Riftsweeper: very important. We depend on our graveyard too much. Riftsweeper at least gets us back an exiled card. If we're able to play around enough, we can others too.
Satyr Wayfinder: Grisley Salvage with legs. Meaning another creature that if milled will help trigger Sidisi. Not only that, but even casting it may help trigger Sidisi as well.
Skirge Familiar: Totally brutal card. Combined with discarding a card with dredge you can produce near infinite mana. Excellent way of casting a rage-quit inducing Villainous Wealth.
Stinkweed Imp: a very good chump blocker if it has to be since it destroys whatever combats it. Also helps that it's got dredge.
Stitcher Geralf: global miller that can exile up to 2 creature cards and make a possibly huge token - that's also a Zombie. Brutal here.
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: prevents decking yourself, recovers graveyard into library, and if you manage to get it into play, you got yourself quite the beater.
Vengeful Pharoah: not only is this a 5/4 deathtouch, but it has an ability when in the graveyard that kills an attacker and topdecks itself in order to be milled again for Sidisi. Need I say more?
Wild Mongrel: a cheaper Psychatog that can become infinitely large when discarding a card with dredge.
Enchantments:
Burgeoning: with a hand with some lands this'll get you some mana ridiculously fast.
Chamber of Manipulation: this card is so ridiculous in this deck it's freakin' insane! Not only do I get a discard outlet but I get to steal a creature, too! Bonus points to then sac the creature before handing it back!
Deadbridge Chant: not only does this self mill 10 cards, but you can recover one at random either to play if it's a creature or to your hand if it's not.
Doubling Season: double the tokens and planeswalkers enter the battlefield with double the loyalty. 'Nough said.
Exploration: when drawing so many cards it's a relief to at least drop another land while you're at it.
Immobilizing Ink: attach to a mana dork and you could do this indefinitely. Combine with Mesmeric Orb and you get a self mill engine for as long as you want. Attach to Krosan Restorer for things to get really intense.
Mind Over Matter: I'm still undecided whether to leave this here because I already run it in my Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck. But this can go infinite with Temple Bell making all opponents draw their entire deck while you can probably prevent it with yourself. Plus, it goes really great with Mesmeric Orb, too.
Mind Unbound: you draw an insane amount of cards. Even more so if you have Doubling Season in play. Each upkeep you'd be basically putting on 2 counters instead of 1.
Mortuary: this card becomes so epic so intensly that it'll spin your head. Sac creature, it gets topdecked. Mill yourself, get a Zombie token. This basically guarantees you'll always topdeck a creature to help out Sidisi.
Sultai Ascendancy: choose before you self mill. Pretty straight forward.
Unfulfilled Desires: sure, it costs 1 life, but you get to loot 1 for 1. Discard and draw for 1 and 1 life.
Spells:
Cyclonic Rift: clears a way for all the zombies and clears the board of all obstacles. Cyclonic Rift should not be excluded from any EDH deck that runs U.
Entomb: the mother of all tutors for decks that play with the graveyard. Ridiculous. Cast in response to Rest in Peace, Tormod's Crypt, etc. and search for an Eldrazi titan or Gaea's Blessing.
Forbidden Alchemy: very useful for at least saving 1/4 cards from getting self milled.
Grisly Salvage: self mill but save a land card while you're at it. You could probably get a Zombie token and a land in your hand.
Long-Term Plans: even though it goes 3rd form the top, you can access that card fairly quickly in this deck. You draw a lot of cards per turn or mill through a lot too. Very, very useful tutor here.
Buried Alive: search your library for three creature cards that are gonna go to your graveyard. Not only does it trigger Sidisi, but you can look for an Eldrazi titan in a pinch. If not, searching for 3 creatures with dredge is brutal in and of itself. What do I love most about Buried Alive? Searching my library for Vengeful Pharaoh, Filth, and Golgari Grave-Troll and putting them all in my graveyard.
Gaea's Blessing: rarely ever have I needed to cast it, but I have and it helps. It also cantrips. Oh, and when not casting, I mill it. Graveyard shuffled back into library. Immediate sigh of relief.
Life from the Loam: one of the all stars of this deck. Cast, dredge, cast, dredge, etc. With so many cards that allow me to drop more than one land per turn, this helps me set up a mana base incredibly fast.
Villainous Wealth: damn, do I love this card! Only cast it when able to produce a ridiculous amount of mana (and use Boseiju, Who Shelters All to make it uncounterable) to have target either rage quit or have a huge chunk of library exiled and you get tons of goodies to play with for free. Damn, do I love this card!
Planeswalkers:
Jace, Memory Adept: use the first ability to draw a card (which I use to dredge instead) and then I can either mill one or have an opponent mill one. Pretty decent. Can also use to mill 10 for 0 counters. Exceedingly brutal. His ultimate ain't nothing to scoff at either. With Doubling Season in play you can go ultimate the turn you cast him. Epic!
Liliana Vess: discard either an opponent or yourself (very useful to discard yourself). Tutor for something to topdeck - and we already know how Sidisi loves to have something useful topdecked. The ultimate is brutal with a graveyard full of creatures - even more brutal if you've been milling your opponents some.
Tezzeret the Seeker: artifact tutor. Great way to get much needed artifacts in play. Also, can untap up to two target artifacts. Useful for politics if you untap an opponents artifacts to hurt somebody else or if you want to untap two of your own artifacts like Temple Bell. Untapping artifacts is great, too if you have Mesmeric Orb in play.
Lands:
Academy Ruins: besides running some important artifacts, if any should get milled, you can topdeck one from the graveyard and then draw it. You can also recur Expedition Map and get important lands as quickly as possible.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All: for being a deck which is 20% U, I run no control or counterspells. However, to save important spells from being countered, this land is your best bet.
Cabal Coffers: combined with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, this can produce an insane amount of B. This deck also has many ways of untapping it in the same turn.
Gaea's Cradle: just like Cabal Coffers, this land is capable of producing an insane amount of G. Too bad Tolarian Academy is banned. Otherwise, along with Cabal Coffers we'd have the trifecta for Sultai colors. Just like Cabal Coffers, can also be untapped many times in a single turn.
Nephalia Drownyard: brutal in this deck because whether you mill another or mill yourself it's win/win.
Thespian's Stage: copy any epic land in play. Pretty much a staple in EDH.
Tolaria West: used to transmute into a much better land. Great land tutor for 1UU.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: such a star in this deck. It's literally the only reason why I even run Cabal Coffers and Filth. With Filth in the graveyard and this in play, all your creatures are unblockable.
Well! I thought that was about as thorough as I can be! 31 creatures inside the library is about a good a number as possible when running Sidisi. I mean, almost 1 out of 3 cards milled is going to be a creature and most spells and effects mill an average of 3-4 cards. So you're bound to get a Zombie token with Sidisi out. Whew! I hope this was of great help to all of your planning to build a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant commander deck. I hope this goes [Primer] someday and I'll try to organize the first post like my thread on Edric, Spymaster of Trest. Thanks for reading!
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Finally made the OP more user friendly! Everything is organized in [Primer] fashion. I still have a lot more work to do but for the moment 90% of it is there. Soon I will post my findings upon testing (which will be updated to the OP as well) and some other cool things that I'd like to add to it. Again, your attention is appreciated and your ideas, comments, and suggestions as well. I hope this is of great help to anyone interested in a BUG colored commander but not wanting to use Damia, Sage of Stone, Vorosh, the Hunter, or The Mimeoplasm. Enjoy!
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I'm trying to put together a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant deck and I have a question about Hermit Druid. What is the point of this card in this deck. With no basic lands, all it seems to do is put your entire graveyard back into your library for the cost of a G. If you happen to have Sidisi out you get a 2/2 zombie in exchange for that, but you lose your graveyard.
I'm just wondering if its worth its slot for if another creature would be better in its place.
Good question. Hermit Druid guarantees 1 Zombie token. So even at its worst, it'll give you a token. So, what is he in here for? You can use his ability in response to:
If any of those things happen, you can save your graveyard by milling your whole library with Hermit Druid. EDH has a lot of graveyard hate. Hermit Druid gives an instant-speed response to it.
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Ok, so after some intensive testing on Cockatrice, some people have helped me realized that this deck is only brutal while working. Otherwise, it's clunky. So while great on paper, I'd like for it to be smooth as often as possible. So, I will soon change the OP to reflect the changes I presented in the last entry of the change log. I will also soon post an alternate build for casual play that goes more towards a zombie-oriented build than all out combo.
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Thanks again with your suggestions with Nekusar. My suggestions for your deck is the same that some have already suggested. seeker of skybreak, alphetto alchemistbasalt monolith
Either one of those three, combined with your commander and orb, creates an arbitrarily large number of zombies. Alpha strike everyone at once. If you have opposition, you can use you new zombies to tap down lands to ensure your opponents have no response. But that may be getting too cute.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Be a lemming hunter. Don't be a lemming. Really, all you had to do was explain to him the popularity metric, not give him the lemming hunter manifesto...
Yeah, I'm still finding things to cut but those three need to find a home here, lol.
Opposition is great to deal with threats that would otherwise be difficult to deal with. So I wanna try and include that as well. Today has been a long day/night of working on the deck. I will try to edit my OP accordingly. In the mean time, I post something tomorrow concerning my new changes - and if I was able to find space for those 4 cards.
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Hey guys, I am fairly new to Sidisi, but have been having a great time playing the deck. I focus on pumping out tokens and swarming. In the games I have played with my friends, the deck is pretty consistent on applying pressure and I thought to share after seeing Kirby with some problems of consistency.
My list isn't tight or refined, but its a good list at the moment.
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I have yet to get Vorinclex in play, but I've had some fun with Sheoldred. I have thought about Doubling Season, but I am using it in another deck at the moment and I haven't felt like I needed it.
Edits:
Here is the more in depth play of my deck.
So, I like to play the deck as a in your face type. Ramp with my mana dorks to get into the goods quick, or Sidisi and start pumping out zombie tokens. The hope is that I can maintain pressure by putting out tokens that I can build further board position with things like Sheoldred, Vorinclex or Consecrated Sphinx. Ultimately, this will lead to someone killing Sidisi at some point, but that never bothers me. So I have included reanimation and Empty the Pits has been a gem as well.
In effort to continuously be putting out zombie tokens I have included other ways to produce them such as Grave Titan, Liliana's Reaver and Undead Alchemist. I am particularly excited at the prospect of adding Ghoulcaller Gisa, Stitcher Geralf, and Curse of Shallow Graves. I have a couple of others that I am considering also, but I dont want to dilute the power of the deck by focusing on tokens.
When it comes to milling and using the Sidisi ability, I don't want to mill in large quantities so I have tried to get multiple triggers per turn. Deranged Assistant, Mesmeric Orb, Phenax, God of Deception and the Dredge mechanic have all helped with that.
If there is one aspect where I would say my deck is weak or I have yet had the chance to use the cards to solve the problem, is closing out games. I have yet to use Craterhoof Behemouth (always seems to find his way to the grave), but I also want to work in Akroma's Memorial and Eldrazi Monument to try and pump up my guys to hasten the clock on people.
"The best servants are made from those who died without a scratch." —Sidisi, khan of the Sultai
1 - Why play this commander?
lands until such time as we can subjugate them.
Their work will be rewarded when they are jewel-
adorned servants in our palaces."
-Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
At first this deck may seem all over the place, and for not being a deck that runs R, it's a bit on the chaotic side. This deck runs three (seemingly simultaneous) mechanics: drawing, discarding, dredging. Sidisi, Brood Tyrant's colors allow for a grand plethora of cards which use and abuse these mechanics. Allowing for great versatility, this deck can be piloted as beatdown, milling, or just all around graveyard/hand/library tomfoolery!
Thus, you’ll enjoy playing with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant if you:
- want a deck that is not too dependent on your general
- like playing with your hand, library, and graveyard all at once
- like being able to amass a huge army
- like to play with non-linear strategies
- like combo decks
However, you won’t enjoy playing with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant if you:Okay, so let’s say you’re on board with running a GUB EDH deck. Check. Now, why Sidisi, the Brood Tyrant and not one of other similarly-colored legendary creatures? These commanders are great in their own setting with one of them having a current primer and another two having retired primers; there's a lot of info out there. These threads should give you some ideas of the capabilities of a BUG-colored general.
Now, playing Sidisi, Brood Tyrant obviously has its pros and cons depending on what you're facing. I've been playing this deck for quite some time and have found that there are some clearly beneficial decks to go against and some clearly detrimental decks to go up against. Since I don't feel that it's that black and white since there are some grey areas, I will explain them all in greater detail. For a quick summary as to how your match-ups should go, see below.
* Stax: Pretty commonplace depending on your meta. The most competitive and ruthless decks out there are total lock and stax. The good thing about stax is that even though it's keeping your horde in check by making you sacrifice so many tokens, you're still only sacrificing tokens until you can find the opportunity to remove that player from the game. The deck doesn't run so many answers against this type of deck but it does have them in the form of Cyclonic Rift and Nullmage Shepherd.
* Mid-range: Depending on the tempo, mid-range could be a pretty epic battle - these are the decks I prefer facing against. Sidisi could get a bit mid-range herself and when that happens it's literally "may the best planeswalker win" type situation. However, no fear should come from facing a mid-range deck since they usually get their wind in their sails mid-game onwards. By then, you should have the same advantage if not more. This is the more neutral type of menace so just play normally against it and try to always be one step ahead.
* Aggro: Depending on how the match goes, these players can be our natural enemies or natural friends. These types of decks hate control and lock players so they usually target them first. If that's the case, tagteam that natural nemesis out of the game and then proceed to see whose horde is superior. If you find yourself against an aggro player early on, the deck should be able to hold its own by popping out tokens as chump blockers until you can get your bearings and hopefully have a superior midgame board set up. This deck doesn't really have ways to amassing life so if you find yourself in the beeping, red-flashing heart-zone, be careful; don't waste resources and do your best to hold on until you're able to go for the game-ending alpha strike.
* Control: Not so much a hindrance so long as the counterspell doesn't exile - even then, Riftsweeper can get things back from exile. When a creature gets countered you can simply recast or reanimate from the graveyard no problem. If the creature gets topdecked even better! A lot of control players think twice before countering any creature you may cast since you can just recover it from the graveyard and they just lost the counter. However, having said that, control players will still be able to counter cards like Buried Alive, Victimize, Intuition, and the like, and that could really slow us down. If you have a control-rich meta, I suggest finding space for Boseiju, Who Shelters All.
* Pillow Fort: Could be annoying by preventing you from going all alpha strike with your horde. However, the same tools used to deal with stax (Cyclonic Rift and Nullmage Shepherd) could also be used to deal with pillowfort. These types of decks tend to force other players to fight each other first but your horde can be used on the defensive as well until you deal with the annoyance of the pillowfort. Also, other players may have their own answers to deal with pillow forts, so sometimes you may be able to save your own resources.
* Creature Hate: These situations are only a real bummer if you have the mother of all hordes out. However, losing your non-token creatures is never a big deal for this deck. There's more than enough ways to reanimate those creatures and most of the time you're storing them in your graveyard anyways. Whenever a player wraths, given enough mana, you can recover practically all your non-token creatures afterwards. If anyone were to wrath with Meren of Clan Nel Toth you'll have more than enough experience counters to get anyone back for free from the graveyard each upkeep. Sheoldred, Whispering One also does this and Havengul Lich can cast any creature directly from the graveyard. So, no worries!
* Combo: Like 99% of other decks, since this deck isn't Tier 1 or even Tier 0, it will fold to higher-tier more cutthroat combo decks that autowin before turn 4. That being said, this deck isn't battlecruiser and it does have its share of responses and disruption in the form of creatures. Granted, it's not chocked full of disruption but then again this deck is run by not paying too much attention to what other players are doing. That being said, further on I do address this need for those who want a bit more disruption.
* Graveyard Hate: The only real weakness to this deck is graveyard hate. Rest in Peace, Leyline of the Void, Tormod's Crypt etc. can set us back in such a way that we may not even be able to recover from. At least there are some responses the deck has to deal with such situations (Entombing an Eldrazi titan in response is always good, Nullmage Shepherd to Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void, Riftsweeper can recover from exile even if it is just one card at a time). However, my rule of thumb is: that guy/chick who may exile your cards MUST DIE.
2 - Deck History:
Now, searching through the forums I saw some ideas here or there but unlike many other generals with solid strategies and player's attention, Sidisi was almost like a wallflower - flamboyant as she is. So I decided to be the first one to truly break her. To have a fun deck that could be competitive and not have anybody expect it to be. People see Narset, Enlightened Master, Sen Triplets, Child of Alara and cringe. The first reaction at the table being to take them out. However, people see Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and either expect something or don't know what to expect. The thing is, this deck, as predictable as an opponent may think it is, is really not. Many a time have I taken a victory out of nowhere. Then it's too late to react. Ruthlessness. Welcome to the Sultai.
I've been so devoted to Sidisi, Brood Tyrant that I eventually wound up designing three different decks. The main deck is what I've been most dedicated to but the fruits of my testing has produced two other decks: an extremely budget one and a zombie tribal because, let's face it, people love amassing the mother of all zombie hordes. You'll find them discussed in that order in the thread.
Competitive Build:
Here's the more competitive build which is light years ahead in efficiency compared to the more casual build I discussed in the earlier version of this thread. This is the current version I'm running and is the one I've been working on the most. It's intricate to pilot which makes it a lot of fun for people who like complicated decks. It's the one I've been discussing and analyzing throughout the thread so you can see it's evolution in more than just this first post. This is the version of the deck I will discuss most throughout this thread. Not withstanding, other viable versions are discussed in the Alternate Builds section.
4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
Artifacts: 6
1 Sol Ring
2 Altar of Dementia
2 Embalmer's Tools
2 Mesmeric Orb
2 Scroll Rack
3 Thousand-Year Elixir
Creatures: 38
0 Dryad Arbor
1 Birds of Paradise
2 Aphetto Alchemist
2 Bloom Tender
2 Kiora's Follower
2 Lazav, the Multifarious
2 Riftsweeper
2 Voyaging Satyr
3 Death Baron
3 Diregraf Captain
3 Eternal Witness
3 Krosan Restorer
3 Turntimber Sower
4 Clever Impersonator
4 Filth
4 Frilled Mystic
4 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Gurmag Drowner
4 Mystic Snake
4 Nullmage Shepherd
4 Prime Speaker Vannifar
4 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
4 World Shaper
5 Body Double
5 Doom Whisperer
5 Havengul Lich
5 Seedborn Muse
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
5 The Gitrog Monster
5 The Scarab God
5 Underrealm Lich
6 Muldrotha, the Gravetide
7 Protean Hulk
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
8 Craterhoof Behemoth
8 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
10 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
11 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
3 Intruder Alarm
4 Mortuary
4 Opposition
4 Path of Discovery
Planeswalkers: 3
4 Kiora, Master of the Depths
4 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales
5 Liliana, Death's Majesty
Spells: 12
1 Entomb
2 Assassin's Trophy
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Life from the Loam
3 Buried Alive
3 Intuition
3 Voidslime
4 Bond of Insight
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Jarad's Orders
5 Final Parting
5 Living Death
Lands: 36
0 Bayou
0 Bloodstained Mire
0 Breeding Pool
0 Cabal Coffers
0 City of Brass
0 Command Tower
0 Deserted Temple
0 Flooded Strand
0 Forest (×2)
0 Gaea's Cradle
0 Island (×2)
0 Llanowar Wastes
0 Mana Confluence
0 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Morphic Pool
0 Opulent Palace
0 Overgrown Tomb
0 Polluted Delta
0 Reflecting Pool
0 Sequestered Stash
0 Swamp (×2)
0 Thespian's Stage
0 Tolaria West
0 Tropical Island
0 Underground River
0 Underground Sea
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Volrath's Stronghold
0 Watery Grave
0 Windswept Heath
0 Yavimaya Coast
0 Sequestered Stash
1 Entomb
2 Altar of Dementia
2 Embalmer's Tools
2 Life from the Loam
2 Mesmeric Orb
3 Buried Alive
3 Intuition
4 Bond of Insight
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Gurmag Drowner
4 Jarad's Orders
4 Kiora, Master of the Depths
4 Path of Discovery
4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
4 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales
5 Doom Whisperer
5 Underrealm Lich
Enchancing the Horde:
3 Death Baron
3 Diregraf Captain
4 Filth
8 Craterhoof Behemoth
Recursion:
0 Volrath's Stronghold
2 Life from the Loam
2 Riftsweeper
3 Eternal Witness
3 Turntimber Sower
4 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
4 Mortuary
4 World Shaper
5 Havengul Lich
5 Living Death
6 Muldrotha, the Gravetide
10 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
11 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
0 Cabal Coffers
0 Deserted Temple
0 Dryad Arbor
0 Gaea's Cradle
1 Sol Ring
1 Birds of Paradise
2 Bloom Tender
2 Voyaging Satyr
3 Krosan Restorer
4 Kiora, Master of the Depths
Tutoring / Manipulation:
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Polluted Delta
0 Bloodstained Mire
0 Flooded Strand
0 Windswept Heath
0 Tolaria West
1 Entomb
2 Scroll Rack
3 Buried Alive
3 Intuition
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Jarad's Orders
4 Prime Speaker Vannifar
5 Final Parting
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
7 Protean Hulk
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
8 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
Toolbox:
0 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
0 Thespian's Stage
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Aphetto Alchemist
2 Kiora's Follower
2 Lazav, the Multifarious
3 Intruder Alarm
3 Thousand-Year Elixir
4 Clever Impersonator
5 Body Double
5 Liliana, Death's Majesty
5 Seedborn Muse
5 The Gitrog Monster
5 The Scarab God
2 Assassin's Trophy
3 Voidslime
4 Frilled Mystic
4 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Mystic Snake
4 Nullmage Shepherd
4 Opposition
5 Living Death
7 Cyclonic Rift
Just Lands:
0 Bayou
0 Breeding Pool
0 City of Brass
0 Command Tower
0 Forest (×2)
0 Island (×2)
0 Llanowar Wastes
0 Mana Confluence
0 Morphic Pool
0 Opulent Palace
0 Overgrown Tomb
0 Reflecting Pool
0 Swamp (×2)
0 Tropical Island
0 Underground River
0 Underground Sea
0 Watery Grave
0 Yavimaya Coast
Pimpage:
Unfortunately, not all of the cards in my current decklist are presently acquirable as foils.
Average CMC:
3.92
Average Cost (as of 1/29/19):
$2,511.97
Budget Choices:
1 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Tainted Isle
1 Tainted Wood
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Woodland Cemetery
Updates:
I built a deck with the MTGSalvation Deck Builder so I can always keep an updated version of this deck online. Everytime I update the deck I will try to update it there. This is also a good tool for people to actually see the statistics of the deck (by type, CMC, color, etc.) so it's easier to visualize with the graphs and whatnot. Also, you can see the updated prices on the cards (though I can't guarantee it will always use the cheapest version of the cards (as far as expansion set goes)). You can find the deck here.
The main strategy of the deck is to try and get as many 2/2 Zombie creature tokens in play and go for the horde approach. All the drawing and the milling and discarding is done in order to speed up the deck and get the army as pumped up as possible. This is accomplished by getting Filth in the graveyard and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play. This feat pretty much makes your horde unblockable and is very easy to accomplish (details will be discussed further). Akroma's Memorial helps out with a bunch of different boons, particularly haste. There are many quasi-infinitely recurring engines that allows you to amass a brutal horde to take out all opponents at once. This is the main strategy for all versions of the deck I discuss this post.
The overall synergy of the deck is to make no wasted movements. If you’re milling, it shouldn’t just be for producing 2/2 black Zombie tokens. It should be to get great targets in your graveyard for recursion or to abuse cards like Vengeful Pharaoh and Filth. With this deck the graveyard should serve as a second hand. Getting those milled creatures into play is easy with cards like Champion of Stray Souls, Sheoldred, Whispering One, Victimize, Havengul Lich, etc.
a low mana investment and a low life loss. When you discard any creature card you don't
need at that moment, you can tutor for a creature card that you do need and/or want. Then,
you can recover that creature you originally discarded in order to do it all over again. All this
needs to be done each time is simply 2 life and 1BG. It's a great combo.
combining it with Leyline of the Void). Now, the good thing about Mesmeric Orb for Sidisi is
that it triggers once per untapped permanent. So the amount of possible Sidisi triggers is
staggering. But why mention a suite? Because along with Aphetto Alchemist (and Ulamog,
the Infinite Gyre or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth inside of your deck), you can potentially go
infinite with the amount of tokens produced. Also, with Seedborn Muse, you can tap all lands
at end of turn and then be able to trigger Mesmeric Orb at each untap step that’s not
necessarily your own.
I’ve been amazed with how amazing all my planeswalkers have been in this deck. I can safely say that I can use most to all of their abilities to great efficiency and relevance. Combine that with the fact that Doubling Season helps two of them go ultimate, the walkers here are worth their slot. Their untapping ability alone has won me so many games.
With all the creature tokens in play and all the swamps (thanks to Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth), the amount of G and B this deck produces is unreal. Add to that the fact that I have so many untapping abilities (Kiora’s Follower, Krosan Restorer, Voyaging Satyr, Deserted Temple, Garruk Wildspeaker, Kiora, Master of the Depths, and Teferi, Temporal Archmage) that most of the time I produce so much mana I don’t even know what to do with it! Well, I used to sink all that mana into a scoop-inducing Villainous Wealth but I guess I can manage by casting my entire graveyard thanks to Havengul Lich or hardcasting Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and/or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. Will all this mana I've considered adding Empty the Pits to cast at the end of the turn before mine but have found it to just be more win-more (although Villainous Wealth, Stroke of Genius, Blue Sun's Zenith, Braingeyser, Damnable Pact, Profane Command, Consume Spirit, Increasing Confusion, Psychic Drain, and Mind Grind are pretty good alternate win cons). It's just that this deck would rather have more creatures than other card types.
Disruption / Removal
GUB has access to a plethora of removal spells and abilities but the aim of the deck is not spot removal or board wipes; it’s to merely get bothersome things out of the way that can prevent our victory. However, U and B grants us access to cards like Butcher of Malakir which we can use to our advantage. These cards allow us to eventually clear the table at the cost of some tokens or creatures we’d rather have in the graveyard anyways. Cyclonic Rift, Nullmage Shepherd, etc. are all useful for removal.
Again, these colors are excellent for these processes: Riftsweeper has been amazing time and time again, Eternal Witness is obviously useful beyond any words I can use to describe it, all the B reanimation spells and abilities... I could go on and on. Life from the Loam is one of the most important cards in the deck. Not only does the dredge self-mill you, but you can also recover the lands you're milling. Too broken!
Tutoring
Ah, the best colors for tutoring. The Sultai wedge is amazing in that we can basically tutor for whatever we want. Though I don’t run actual tutor spells, I rather wanted to run tutoring abilities that were more than just tutoring. Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Entomb, Intuition, Tolaria West, etc. are all cards that serve more than one use. Tolaria West is reusable thanks to Life from the Loam, Sidisi, Undead Vizier is a body that can trigger Sidisi, Brood Tyrant when milled from the deck, and the other tutoring/top-deck manipulation cards serve the double purpose of self-milling, which is super important in this deck.
Mulligans:
You want anywhere between 3-4 lands in order to play Sidisi as quickly as possible. As soon as you can start milling and amassing tokens the better you will be. You will have a menacing board presence, but if you're playing in a competitive setting you won't be the only one. You also want some cheap utility creatures you can play in order to attract removal from players who like wasting removal early game against things that aren't as deadly as mid-game creatures. Another thing, there are cards you do not want in your opening hand. If you draw Kozilek, Butcher of Truth or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, mulligan those away because one of their main uses it to prevent milling yourself. They like to be inside of the library. Keep anything you can use to self-mill in order to make early tokens after Sidisi is cast the first time. Also, try to keep you hand as light as possible, those fatties are usually reanimated for free from the graveyard anyways. Personally, my EDH philosophy is not so much what to want in your starting hand more than what to not want. Honestly, as long as you're able to cast stuff without mana screw or color screw you should be fine. I don't want people to ceaselessly mulligan away searching for "critical" pieces. This deck burns through your library so you're bound to get them. An idea of what to keep in your hand are cheap spells somewhere in the vein of Chromatic Lantern, Sol Ring, Expedition Map, Aphetto Alchemist, Death Baron, Diregraf Captain, Kiora's Follower, Krosan Restorer, Satyr Wayfinder, Seeker of Skybreak, Voyaging Satyr, Phyrexian Reclamation, Survival of the Fittest, Entomb, Grisly Salvage, Intuition, Garruk Wildspeaker, Buried Alive, Jarad's Orders, Life from the Loam, or Mulch. Again, just mulligan away any fatties and make sure your hand has enough lands or ways to cast Sidisi.
Early game:
You want to try and get Sidisi out as quickly as possible in order to capitalize on her token producing ability. It's quite the bummer to cast cards that mill through top cards to get choice cards without having Sidisi in play. So after she's in play, you're able to use Buried Alive, Intuition, Fact or Fiction, etc. much more efficiently than simply casting them. Given their amount and the laws of probability, you'll more than likely have some mana acceleration cards, cheap utility creatures, and ways to enhance your horde. This stage of building your field is just dropping cheap cards until mid-game can happen. Remember also that by now, you should be able to determine the strategies of most of your opponents so whoever you see that has an anti-graveyard agenda has got to go. If anything, start building your strategy to getting those key components needed to eventually deal with those anti-graveyard spells and permanents. So start digging for Nullmage Shepherd, Riftsweeper, Cyclonic Rift, Glen Elendra Archmage, etc. Again, make sure the person running possible graveyard hate is eliminated first. Graveyard hate can come from many colors so don't fret simply because of the opponent. Keep in mind though that graveyard hate exists primarily in B and W (though there are cards in other colors and colorless as well).
Mid Game:
This deck aims to be as quick as possible so if you're lucky you may reach mid game by turn 5-7. This is the most important phase of the deck since the deck requires a lot of mana. Things you should be aiming to get in your graveyard by this time: Filth. Things you want to have in play by this time: Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. This should be easy to accomplish with all the milling and recursion going around. Filth is the #1 Buried Alive target (and any "tutor" that sends to graveyard like Intuition, Jarad's Orders, etc.). The other two being Genesis and Vengeful Pharaoh (don't forget when he's in your graveyard, though!). You can also tutor for these pieces with Expedition Map, Intuition, Rune-Scarred Demon, or Sidisi, Undead Vizier. The best thing you can have in play is Mesmeric Orb. Be aware as this can make you an instant target. It seriously hurts all opponents and really helps you. This is the most important phase of the deck since you should've been burning through a lot of your deck by now in order to obtain these cards. If you haven't gotten them by then, don't worry, as you can still chump block or have other cards that could be useful. If other cards or combo pieces have been destroyed or exiled, remember that there are still ways to recover them such as Riftsweeper, Havengul Lich, Deadbridge Chant, etc.
Late Game:
Very viable by turn 10. You should have an army of tokens and/or utility creatures in play. All of them unblockable thanks to Filth+Urborg#2 combo. You can easily take out 1-2 players with an unblockable horde and/or other methods. With recursion, you can also use Gempalm Polluter a couple of times to eliminate a player. A wave of unblockables usually takes out one player in one instance. However, with Craterhoof Behemoth and the zombie lords, you should be able to clear house in one fell swoop. You can also take out another opponent by milling him/her. Many a time have I attacked one player with all creatures and then sacrificed them to Altar of Dementia to deck another player.
End Game:
Now, I know I said this was competitive but there are decks out there that win by turn 7. I know this, but this is as competitive as it can get without being top tier. Also, the deck is very unassuming and people don't really know what you're ultimately doing until it's too late. The deck has a lot of other tricks up its sleeve that helps get the job done. This is also a deck for those that don't mind games that last between 1-2 hours. When left unchecked, I'm usually able to win before the hour mark. However, in games with decks in the same neighborhood of level, games have lasted between 1-2 hours. If your meta is very strong, you'll possibly be ignored until other more problematic players are gone. If you're the strongest deck at the table, be very prepared to defend yourself and have a very exciting uphill battle!
Just remember that the game is basically over the moment you have the Filth+Urborg combo, you amassed a major horde with self-milling or other zombie generation due to the looting, Mesmeric Orb, the Narcomoeba of Dementia combo, etc. or are able to consistently recur Gempalm Polluter. The whole point is to burn through the deck in order to get one of the wincons. The most consistent wincon is alpha strike with a bunch of zombies. Again, beware the graveyard hate player.
A commander deck has 100 cards. Out of which I already explained most of the contents of my deck in great detail. However, if you want even greater detail, click the spoiler to see a list explaining every single card in the deck that is not a mana producing, non-utility land.
Artifacts:
- Altar of Dementia - Multipurpose artifact that can net you zombies or mill an opponent you can't defeat by beatdown. Also a major component of the Narcomortuary or Dementia combo, discussed in greater detail in the Budget Build section.
- Embalmer's Tools - It's cheap to cast and provides some insane interactions. You could mill out an opponent or mill yourself at instant speed. The zombies made can then be tapped to continue milling yourself. This gets ridiculous when combined with Seedborn Muse and Mesmeric Orb. If you're milling out an opponent with Undead Alchemist you can keep pushing the mill thanks to the zombie tokens being created.
- Mesmeric Orb - Another all-star in the deck. Used to massively mill opponents and yourself. Each instance is a separate trigger and Sidisi, Brood Tyrant loves that.
- Sol Ring - Standard EDH mana rock.
- Scroll Rack - makes sure that you always have creatures on the top of your deck all the while allowing for card advantage. This card does so many simultaneous things for this deck it's a must-have!
- Thousand-Year Elixir - While not inherently giving your creatures haste, they can at least tap as though they did. Meaning your mana dorks can tap for mana the turn they come into play, creatures with tap abilities can be used the same turn like the untappers (Kiora's Follower, Krosan Restorer, etc.) plus creatures with great abilities like Whisper and Vannifar.
- Aphetto Alchemist - Along with Mesmeric Orb in play can go infinite. Still useful even in the absence of Mesmeric Orb as it can untap a mana rock or a utility creature (Hell's Caretaker, Krosan Restorer, Kiora's Follower, etc.).
- Birds of Paradise - Arguably one of the greatest mana dorks of all time, a T1 birds really helps with mana fixing and early commander casting. Additionally, it's the only 1-drop creature in the deck, which is something that Vannifar cares about if you're gonna chain into larger creatures from a zombie token or Dryad Arbor.
- Bloom Tender - At worst, this mana dork taps for G. At best, BUG. The good thing about being able to tap it for BUG is that an untapper like Kiora's Follower or Aphetto Alchemist can really net you a considerable amount of mana. Even if you cast this T2 with nothing else in play, it can still help you cast a T3 Sidisi.
- Body Double - Treated like a reanimation spell on a body. If you have a key creature in your graveyard then Body Double can enter the battlefield as a copy of it. If Craterhoof Behemoth is such a creature, then Body Double can enter the battlefield as a copy of it and you still benefit from the enter the battlefield trigger.
- Clever Impersonator - This card alone is a toolbox. You can basically copy any non-land permanent an opponent controls or anyone you own. It can become a planeswalker or copy your Doubling Season. I love doing that.
- Craterhoof Behemoth - What is there left to say about Craterhoof Behemoth? If this enters play with even a semi-large horde and you just won the match.
- Death Baron - Tribal pump; +1/+1 and deathtouch is no joke.
- Diregraf Captain - Tribal pump and you could potentially kill an opponent when your zombies die.
- Doom Whisperer - On it's own a 6/6 flying trampler for 3BB is no joke. Add to that fact by being able to surveil 2 for just 2 life is beyond amazing. As long as you have the life you can self-mill for days. Topdeck filtering plus zombie creation and graveyard filling is an amazing ability on a body.
- Dryad Arbor - A land that's fetchable while providing a body for self-milling. It can be recovered and recurred in many different ways.
- Eternal Witness - This card is a must in any EDH deck running G. What makes it epic in this build is getting Gempalm Polluter back into your hand.
- Filth - A major component of the deck. This in the graveyard along with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play this makes all your creatures unblockable.
- Frilled Mystic - A counterspell on a body is crucial in a deck like this. You want to keep the creature count as high as possible but you need answers. Although a bit more unconfortable to cast than Mystic Snake, it does the same thing at the same CMC.
- The Gitrog Monster Can net you some cards if you sel-mill a land just as when you sacrifice a land. You have to sacrifice a land during your upkeep but its stats and deathtouch is nothing to scoff at, either. You're also able to play an additional land which goes great with Life from the Loam.
- Glen Elendra Archmage - Replaced Jace, Memory Adept since he just wasn't cutting it. Only self-milling for 10 a turn isn't really doing much. The faerie, however, can help deal with an unwanted board wipe, overloaded Cyclonic Rift, or any of the various non-creature spells that can exile my graveyard. Best swap I've made yet.
- Gurmag Drowner - A creature replacement for Forbidden Alchemy. Slowly but surely I'm trying to keep this deck as creature-heavy as possible and this guy really helps achieve that.
- Havengul Lich - This card is too broken for words. You can cast creatures from your graveyard, also known as your second hand, and it will obtain the activated ability of whatever you cast. Casting Krosan Restorer, Kiora's Follower, etc. has helped me get that extra boost needed many times.
- Kiora's Follower - Very useful tool in the toolbox. It can untap creatures like Krosan Restorer or Hell's Caretaker and it can untap lands like Gaea's Cradle and Cabal Coffers.
- Kozilek, Butcher of Truth - Was in the original version along with Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Gaea's Blessing. However, having all three in the deck was more of a hindrance than helpful. So I took this one out. I should've taken out Gaea's Blessing for not being a creature and only being useful when milled. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth just like Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, can be Entombed, sacrificed, or discarded to protect your graveyard.
- Krosan Restorer - I love this card. During games I have constantly untapped Gaea's Cradle, Cabal Coffers, and Deserted Temple.
- Lazav, the Multifarious - What an amazing card! For a casting cost of just UB not only does it surveil when it enters the battlefield, but it can also copy any creature card in the graveyard for X. It's ridiculous! It's practically reanimation at instant speed!
- Muldrotha, the Gravetide - I could cast play any card type from my graveyard during my turn. So if I need to cast a planeswalker, instant, sorcery, etc. directly from my graveyard I'll be able to. Having Muldrotha means not worrying too much about recurring noncreature spells - especially since Muldrotha is a creature, the card type this deck excels at recurring.
- Mystic Snake - Similar in function to Frilled Mystic, this deck needs answers but it also needs bodies. This creature checks both boxes.
- Nullmage Shepherd - This card is too useful for protecting against the only weakness of the deck: graveyard hate. This card helps destroy Leyline of the Void, Rest in Peace, etc. Even then, it can also get rid of those pesky pillow forts that can somehow be a problem.
- Prime Speaker Vannifar - Where to even begin... This is Birthing Pod on a body. B-Pod chains aren't that difficult to accomplish in this deck and without much effort you could essentially chain from a zombie token into Craterhoof Behemoth in the same turn. Not only that, but you could also chain into key creatures like Eternal Witness or Riftsweeper. She suffers from the same timing restrictions as Birthing Pod, but the versatility is still there. So much so that without much alterations, she could easily be the secret commander of the deck or at the very least a partner not in the command zone.
- Protean Hulk - A card I've taken out and put back in a dozen times. However, with the inclusion of Prime Speaker Vannifar, it's gonna stay in the deck. Additionally, running Whisper, Blood Liturgist and other sacrifice outlets makes it easier to work with. Also, more low-costed creatures have been added that can make it worthwhile to include.
- Razaketh, the Foulblooded - Another tutor on a body. Although dissimilar to Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Rune-Scarred Demon since its ability isn't triggered when it enters the battlefield, it is easier to control since it's an activated ability. Sacrifice a creature you want to recur later on or a zombie token and get access to any card in your deck. Amazing!
- Riftsweeper - In case important pieces do get exiled, this is very important to recover them.
- Rune-Scarred Demon - A Demonic Tutor on a fat flyer, this will trigger Sidisi when self-milled but when entering play will help me tutor for anything. Just as clutch as Sidisi, Undead Vizier.
- The Scarab God - It not only functions as a possible wincon, but it's pretty much unkillable. Also, the Zombie Build mills opponents as well with Undead Alchemist. The means that you can also exile creatures from opponents' graveyards to "copy" them as zombies, no less! This is definitely an amazing card.
- Seedborn Muse - This card is extremely useful. With Mesmeric Orb in play, you can tap all your lands during each turn and then at the beginning of each next turn, each one triggers Mesmeric Orb. Not only that, but you can attack to your heart's delight because you can then have untapped blockers for your opponents' turns.
- Sidisi, Undead Vizier - A tutor on a body that also provides a sac outlet. Pretty self-explanatory.
- Turntimber Sower - Similar to The Gitrog Monster's trigger, you get a chump blocker for your effort. However, the real deal-sealer for this creature is its ability to trade creatures for lands. Using that ability before an epic Living Death is one of the reasons why this creature made it so quickly into the deck.
- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre - Just as with Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Ulamog prevents self-milling and also potentially protects your graveyard at instant speed. Too important to the deck.
- Underrealm Lich - Similar to Taigam, Sidisi's Hand but better. It has the same converted mana cost, you don't lose your draw, you can still trigger self-milling effects, and it can become an indestructible chump blocker in case of emergencies. Oh, and it's also a zombie.
- Voyaging Satyr - For just 1G it's a great way to get mana acceleration early game and a great way to untap Gaea's Cradle and its ilk as well as utility lands.
- Whisper, Blood Liturgist - Recursion and sac outlet all in one. It puts a creature directly into play from the graveyard. The ability can be repeated with creature untappers in play.
- World Shaper - This creature has Sidisi, Brood Tyrant's ability and Splendid Reclamation all on the same body. Attack to self-mill and if it dies you recover all your lands. This also works as a deterrent for your opponents wanting to block it. Additionally, you can simply sacrifice it and recover your lands.
- Intruder Alarm - Added more so to complement Prime Speaker Vannifar, it still synergizes pretty well with the deck. Combined with cards like Embalmer's Tools allows you to tap zombies until you self-mill a creature. With Sidisi in play you get a zombie token which will untap all of your other creatures. This includes mana dorks and utility creatures that tap. If you're untapping lands with Kiora's Follower or Krosan Restorer then things can get out of hand pretty easily.
- Mortuary - Love this card. Where some see a hindrance because it may "deny" you turns and drawing, I see a way to get creatures on the top of your library, where Sidisi loves having them. It's also the third component of the Narcomortuary of Dementia combo.
- Opposition - When all else fails, you can use this along with your zombies (or other creatures) to tap out the board and swing unopposed (thus the name of the card, I think? lol).
- Path of Discover - The amount of interactions with this card is bonkers. The creature pump with the +1/+1 counter isn't even that relevant. It just synergizes so well with the deck. A zombie token that explores a creature from the top of the deck can create another zombie token with Sidisi in play and you could potentially continue chaining this process.
- Assassin's Trophy - Although not on a body, the usefulness of this card can't go unnoticed. It gets rid of any problematic permanent at instant speed. It suffers from being an instant, which isn't easily recurrable with the deck, but with Eternal Witness you can recover it (or shuffling it into the library with an Eldrazi titan and then tutoring for it with Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Rune-Scarred Demon, or Razaketh, the Fouldblooded.
- Bond of Insight - Self-mills for 4 and is able to recover up to two instant and/or sorcery cards from the graveyard which are the hardest cards to recur in the deck.
- Buried Alive - A triple Entomb at sorcery speed. Favorite targets? Filth, Genesis, and Vengeful Pharaoh.
- Cyclonic Rift - This card was broken in standard and is even more so in multiplayer EDH. This card helps clear the field for your horde for a mere 6U.
- Entomb - Tutors directly to your graveyard - at instant speed. This card is amazing at protecting your graveyard as well. In response to having it exiled, just cast this and search for either Kozilek, Butcher of Truth or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre.
- Fact or Fiction - considered one of the most broken cards when it came out, here it's even more broken. Regardless of what happens, it's going to be in your favor since your graveyard is an extension of your hand. And if creatures are in the pile that goes to the graveyard, it still triggers Sidisi. Love this card.
- Final Parting - Similar to Jarad's Orders except that you can choose any two cards. This means that this card alone enables the Filth + Urborg combo. Just send Filth to the graveyard and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to your hand.
- Intuition - You can never go wrong with what you choose with Intuition. Your opponents will learn to hate this card. It basically becomes a Gifts Ungiven. What I love choosing with this: Filth, Genesis, and Life from the Loam. Win/win/win.
- Jarad's Orders - Another broken card in this deck. Tutor a creature for your hand and then tutor one for the graveyard. You guessed it, I love tutoring for Filth, Genesis, and Vengeful Pharaoh. The ideal choices for Jarad's Orders are Filth to go the graveyard and Sidisi, Undead Vizier to go to your hand. Then you can just use Sidisi, Undead Vizier to fetch for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and you're set!
- Life from the Loam - One of the best cards in the deck. Self-mills and you recover any lands in your graveyard. I love this card. every time I draw it or it's milled I can't contain my glee.
- Living Death - This card is amazing but be careful when casting. It basically trades creatures in play for those in the graveyard. However, when used at appropriate situations it's glorious. I don't use it all the time because an opponent can discard an epic creature in response, but it's still a good card to run.
- Voidslime - As with Assassin's Trophy, the deck needs answers. The deck runs a couple of counterspells on a stick but they aren't enough if an opponent drops a Bojuka Bog. Granted, this is probably the only card in the deck that can deal with a Bojuka Bog trigger, but it can also help against planeswalkers going ultimate, actually countering a spell like Rest in Peace, dealing with the activation of Scavenger Grounds, etc.
- Kiora, Master of the Depths - Loved this card since the moment it was spoiled. It proved to be even more broken in practice than in theory. <+1> and I untap a creature and a land. <-2> and it's a self-mill where I can choose to keep a land and/or creature for my hand instead. <-8> and I get a broken emblem; all my zombies become bombs.
- Liliana, Death's Majesty - All three abilities are pertinent. The first one self-mills and gives you a zombie token, the second one reanimates, and her ultimate more likely than not hurts opponents way more than us.
- Tamiyo, Collector of Tales - The static ability is nice but not that necessary in this deck. The other abilities are great and very synergistic with Sidisi, though. You can try and mise through the first 4 cards and if all else you're gonna self-mill them. The \-3/ ability is Regrowth, which is great in this deck because you could recover an instant or sorcery to your hand (since all other permanents are easier to recover from the graveyard).
- Cabal Coffers - Admittingly, it's useless without Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or at least with Chromatic Lantern. However, when the combo is out, the amount of B produced is ridiculous.
- Deserted Temple - Worst case scenario it taps for 1. However, this helps give more value to Gaea's Cradle, Cabal Coffers, Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun, and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.
- Gaea's Cradle - One of the best lands in the deck; the amount of G produced is ridiculous. Useless without a creature in play, which hardly ever happens though.
- Minamo, School at Water's Edge - Enters the battlefield untapped and provides U when tapped. It can also serve to untap Gaea's Cradle, which makes it strictly better than an Island.
- Sequestered Stash - Serves to self-mill but can also top-deck an artifact that's stuck in the graveyard. I would rather have it in my hand, but it's a great ability on a land, so one can't really complain.
- Thespian's Stage - Another EDH staple. Copy someone's utility land or even copy your own double-mana lands or Cabal Coffers.
- Tolaria West - Land tutor that's also a land means that it's recurrable with Life from the Loam. And, when you're done with it, you still have a land that taps for U.
- Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Obviously one of the most important lands in the deck. With this and Filth in the graveyard, your horde is ultimately unblockable. Also helps non mana producing utility lands at least produce B when tapped.
- Volrath's Stronghold - Recursion to the top of the deck. Useful to Sidisi and also to recover a creature from the graveyard.
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- Bloodstained Mire
- Flooded Strand
- Misty Rainforest
- Polluted Delta
- Verdant Catacombs
- Windswept Heath
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- Bayou
- Breeding Pool
- City of Brass
- Command Tower
- Llanowar Wastes
- Mana Confluence
- Morphic Pool
- Opulent Palace
- Overgrown Tomb
- Reflecting Pool
- Tropical Island
- Underground River
- Underground Sea
- Watery Grave
- Yavimaya Coast
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Creatures:
Enchantments:
Spells:
Planeswalkers:
Lands:
Fetchlands:
Lands Just for the Mana:
Basic Lands (2 of each - just in case):
Basic lands are helpful when being hit by Ghost Quarter, Path to Exile, Assassin's Trophy, and the like. They're also good targets for the fetchlands once you already got all of the dual-typed lands in play.
There were a lot of cards tested, cut, added, suggested from a lot of people; they're all strewn across the thread. However, I have included 2 alternate builds with many of the cards in question. They weren't used in the main build due to them underperforming or requiring a different environment altogether in order to make the deck work. All cuts were made for efficiency's sake. That being said, the Change Log at the end of the post reflects many of the changes in both the casual and competitive build which have merged to merely reflect the changes in the competitive build.
Here are some swaps I suggest if your meta is too focused on RKO combos:
- Filth
Pact of Negation - Fact or Fiction
Force of Will - Gurmag Drowner
Force of Negation
These counterspells are just the best ones for the format given the colors. Again, not easy to recur given their card type. But this is just a suggestion if you feel uneasy running a BUG deck with so few instantaneous answers.As for cards that have become available with new sets, I will discuss in greater detail some of the cards from the most recent sets. This section will be constantly updated as new sets arise and other sets have been understood to have been discussed. I will not simply discuss all cards that comply with color. I will only discuss cards that could be useful to any extent in the deck - even if they don't make the cut.
3 - Alternate Builds:
Here's my less competitive, more casual, and über budget build. It's very fun to play in a casual pod. However, it's not a weakling either and can easily win in a casual setting without being too mean. This deck is designed under the impression that it will be in a setting with similar decks. Otherwise, don't use it, lol. If you're starting in commander or don't have that much of a budget and want a kooky, uncommon deck, then this is for you!
3.1.1 - Deck contents:
4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
Artifacts: 3
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Altar of Dementia
3 Embalmer's Tools
Creatures: 38
1 Groundskeeper
1 Reef Shaman
1 Tideshaper Mystic
2 Dreamscape Artist
2 Gatecreeper Vine
2 Kiora's Follower
2 Narcomoeba
2 Riftsweeper
2 Satyr Wayfinder
2 Wood Sage
3 Burnished Hart
3 Dimir Informant
3 Diregraf Captain
3 Krosan Restorer
3 Loaming Shaman
3 Lord of the Accursed
3 Nyx Weaver
3 Skullwinder
3 Zombie Trailblazer
4 Filth
4 Gurmag Drowner
4 Naga Oracle
4 Nullmage Shepherd
4 Profaner of the Dead
4 Undead Alchemist
4 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
4 Wonder
4 World Shaper
5 Corpse Connoisseur
5 Dowsing Shaman
5 Pharika's Mender
5 Possessed Skaab
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
5 Sultai Soothsayer
6 Gempalm Polluter
6 Gravespawn Sovereign
7 Krosan Tusker
8 Breaker of Armies
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Vessel of Nascency
4 Mortuary
4 Opposition
Spells: 16
2 Contingency Plan
2 Corpse Churn
2 Gaea's Blessing
2 Grapple with the Past
2 Grisly Salvage
2 Mulch
3 Buried Alive
3 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Pieces of the Puzzle
3 Scout the Borders
3 Victimize
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Jarad's Orders
4 Sudden Reclamation
5 Final Parting
6 Seasons Past
Lands: 38
0 Blighted Woodland
0 Coral Atoll
0 Dimir Aqueduct
0 Dimir Guildgate
0 Everglades
0 Evolving Wilds
0 Forest (x9)
0 Golgari Guildgate
0 Golgari Rot Farm
0 Island (x5)
0 Jungle Basin
0 Mortuary Mire
0 Nephalia Drownyard
0 Opulent Palace
0 Rogue's Passage
0 Simic Growth Chamber
0 Simic Guildgate
0 Swamp (x7)
0 Temple of the False God
0 Terramorphic Expanse
0 Nephalia Drownyard
1 Vessel of Nascency
2 Altar of Dementia
2 Contingency Plan
2 Corpse Churn
2 Grapple with the Past
2 Grisly Salvage
2 Embalmer's Tools
2 Mulch
2 Satyr Wayfinder
2 Wood Sage
3 Dimir Informant
3 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Nyx Weaver
3 Pieces of the Puzzle
3 Scout the Borders
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Gurmag Drowner
4 Naga Oracle
4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
4 Sudden Reclamation
5 Sultai Soothsayer
Recursion:
0 Mortuary Mire
1 Groundskeeper
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
2 Riftsweeper
3 Nyx Weaver
3 Skullwinder
3 Victimize
4 World Shaper
4 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
4 Mortuary
5 Dowsing Shaman
5 Pharika's Mender
5 Possessed Skaab
6 Gravespawn Sovereign
6 Seasons Past
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Gaea's Blessing
3 Loaming Shaman
Pumping the Horde:
3 Diregraf Captain
3 Lord of the Accursed
Unblockable Suite:
0 Rogue's Passage
1 Reef Shaman
1 Tideshaper Mystic
3 Zombie Trailblazer
4 Filth
4 Wonder
8 Breaker of Armies
Tutoring / Drawing:
3 Buried Alive
4 Jarad's Orders
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
5 Corpse Connoisseur
Ramp / Acceleration:
0 Blighted Woodland
0 Evolving Wilds
0 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Dreamscape Artist
2 Gatecreeper Vine
3 Burnished Hart
3 Krosan Restorer
3 Krosan Tusker
Toolbox:
2 Kiora's Follower
Disruption:
4 Nullmage Shepherd
4 Opposition
4 Prophaner of the Dead
2 Gempalm Polluter
2 Narcomoeba
4 Undead Alchemist
Double Lands:
0 Coral Atoll
0 Dimir Aqueduct
0 Everglades
0 Golgari Rot Farm
0 Jungle Basin
0 Simic Growth Chamber
0 Temple of the False God
Color Lands:
0 Dimir Guildgate
0 Golgari Guildgate
0 Simic Guildgate
0 Opulent Palace
Basic Lands:
9 Forest
5 Island
7 Swamp
I built a deck with the MTGSalvation Deck Builder so I can always keep an updated version of this deck online. Everytime I update the deck I will try to update it there. This is also a good tool for people to actually see the statistics of the deck (by type, CMC, color, etc.) so it's easier to visualize with the graphs and whatnot. Also, you can see the updated prices on the cards (though I can't guarantee it will always use the cheapest version of the cards (as far as expansion set goes)). You can find the deck here.
37 Creatures
As you can notice, this deck runs 37 creatures. This is to maximize Sidisi's ability since most of the self ramp spells, though broken, aren't budget, which means that the main zombie making engine is Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and Undead Alchemist. However, with all these creatures you're bound to get utility and chump blockers if anything else. The creatures do more or less the same job as the previously mentioned spells providing ramp, recursion, recovery, removal, disruption, and other miscellaneous hijinxes.
How this incredibly broken engine works:
I sacrifice Narcomoeba to Altar of Dementia. That triggers Mortuary, which goes on the stack after the Altar of Dementia's ability and Narcomoeba's already in graveyard because it's sacrificed to pay for Altar of Dementia's activated ability. Mortuary resolves, sending Narcomoeba to the top of the deck. Altar of Dementia resolves, milling Narcomoeba, thus putting it back into play from the graveyard. This isn't an infinite loop, but you can make it go infinite if you want to. With Sidisi, Brood Tyrant in play you can essentially make infinitely many zombie tokens.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth isn't budget but there is a workaround in the form of Reef Shaman and Tideshaper Mystic. Simply make one of the opponent's lands into a Swamp and with Filth in your graveyard, you're set!
Now, I can't stress this enough, but Life from the Loam does not have a viable substitute in this deck; it is irreplaceable. However, for budget and casual reasons, Tilling Treefolk will have to do. The deck does provide ways to substantially and repeatedly reuse this card, so eventhough it's not as efficient as Life from the Loam, it does get the job done.
Mulligans:
You want anywhere between 3-4 lands in order to play Sidisi as quickly as possible. Again, there are cards you do not want in your opening hand. If you draw Gaea's Blessing mulligan it away because it's prevent milling yourself; it likes to be inside of the library. You also want some ramping options in order to fix mana. So your best hand is ramp and land. Any expensive cards should be shuffled away. As I mentioned before, personally, my EDH philosophy is not so much what to want in your starting hand more than what to not want. Honestly, as long as you're able to cast stuff without mana screw or color screw you should be fine. I don't want people to ceaselessly mulligan away searching for "critical" pieces. This deck burns through your library so you're bound to get them. An idea of what to keep in your hand are cheap spells somewhere in the vein of Aphetto Alchemist, Burnished Hart, Cemetery Reaper, Diregraf Captain, Dreamscape Artist, Farhaven Elf, Gatecreeper Vine, Kiora's Follower, Krosan Restorer, Krosan Tusker, Nyx Weaver, Reef Shaman, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Satyr Wayfinder, Tideshaper Mystic, Yavimaya Dryad, Yavimaya Elder, Zulaport Cutthroat, Phyrexian Reclamation, Grisly Salvage, Buried Alive, or Mulch.
Early game:
You want to try and get Sidisi out as quickly as possible in order to capitalize on her token producing ability. It's quite the bummer to cast cards that mill through top cards to get choice cards without having Sidisi in play. As soon as you can start milling and amassing tokens the better you will be. Beware drawing the hate of having an early, menacing board presence. Any and all cheap permanents you can cast should be. Save any self-milling spells (Jarad's Orders, Mulch, Buried Alive, etc.) for when you have Sidisi out. In the mean time, start ramping to your heart's desire. If you find that you have to start milling regardless then do so. That way you can start burning through the deck in order to obtain your wincons. Also, if you notice that you're against a player who starts accumulating cards for a graveyard hate suite, eliminate that player first at all costs. Avoid having anything you desperately need go to your graveyard. Things will become increasingly difficult if cards like Filth, Wonder, Reef Shaman, Tideshaper Mystic, Nullmage Shepherd, Breaker of Armies, or Riftsweeper (especially) get exiled.
Mid Game:
This deck aims to be as quick as possible so if you're lucky you may reach mid game by turn 5-7. Things you should be aiming to get in your graveyard by this time: Filth (maybe Wonder). Things you want to have in play by this time: Reef Shaman, Tideshaper Mystic, or Zombie Trailblazer. This should be easy to accomplish with all the milling and recursion going around. The best thing you can have in play is the Narcomortuary of Dementia engine. At first, this wins out of nowhere, but once your pod gets wind of this, it can make you an instant target. However, this will definitely win you the game all on its own (as previously discussed).
Late Game:
You should have amassed a massive horde by now that's either flying or unblockable (swampwalk). This can help you eliminate one player and then the other with Gempalm Polluter in the same turn. You could also eliminate a player with milling your massive army afterwards (Altar of Dementia) or Undead Alchemist. You should have also tried to build the Narcomortuary of Dementia engine by now for the automatic win. Thought he deck doesn't have as much tutoring due to budget constrictions, it's still fun to play with whatever you're able to get. So don't be afraid to wing it in the mean time as your pieces are falling into place for the win.
End Game:
This deck is casual but still has the components to win most of the time (in a casual meta, of course). It was also quite a challenge to build this for almost $60. Again - and I can't stress this enough, depending on your meta, the overall strategy is still the same: ELIMINATE THE GRAVEYARD HATE PLAYER. Anything else can be dealt with accordingly. Remember that the moment you have unblockable zombies (whether due to swampwalk or flying) with Filth, Zombie Trailblazer, Reef Shaman, Tideshaper Mystic, and Wonder, you basically won.
Though the purpose of the deck is to have a ridiculously budget EDH deck that's still fun to pilot and still be in the spirit of the competitive build, for a little extra, the deck can go even farther and still be relatively budget. This change is obviously more efficient and closer in spirit to the original build. Undead Warchief is a considerable zombie lord and Life from the Loam, again, has no real substitute. You want it in this deck. Badly. Mesmeric Orb is also to big a power house to miss out on. Unholy Grotto is too clutch when combined with Gempalm Polluter. Cycling it more than once a turn is too epic.
1 Sol Ring
1 Undead Warchief
1 Unholy Grotto
1 Mesmeric Orb
1 Life from the Loam
1 Dowsing Shaman
1 Sultai Soothsayer
1 Forest
1 Nyx Weaver
1 Wood Sage
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Zombie Trailblazer
1 Reef Shaman
1 Tideshaper Mystic
For a little more lettuce, you could add choice cards like Akroma's Memorial, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, and Cabal Coffers. These changes make the budget deck all that closer to the competitive build. As discussed above, these cards are the heart of what makes the deck win so ruthlessly. So, for those who can still consider $135 for a solid EDH deck to still be considered within budget, that's what you could do to the $60 version discussed in this middle section (basically doubling in price). In summation:
1 Sol Ring
1 Undead Warchief
1 Unholy Grotto
1 Mesmeric Orb
1 Life from the Loam
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Dowsing Shaman
1 Sultai Soothsayer
1 Forest
1 Nyx Weaver
1 Wood Sage
1 Zombie Trailblazer
1 Reef Shaman
1 Tideshaper Mystic
Another casual build (casual but for someone with a sweet budget); this one relies on some good ol' fashioned zombie beatdown. Though the deck is not overly saturated with zombies, the non-zombie creatures here are too crucial to the build to take out simply for not being the same creature type. All the land untappers are important. This build is a mana hog and if you're able to use Gaea's Cradle, Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun, Cabal Coffers, and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx multiple times at the end of an opponent's turn to cast an epic Empty the Pits then it's pretty much game over.
The deck is very easy to pilot (at least compared to the main build) and the targets for tutors are pretty much the same throughout all manifestations of the deck. Also, never ever ever ever ever use Entomb if you have it in hand. Entomb is to look for Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth in response to your graveyard getting exiled. Also, Ulamog and/or Kozilek are more useful in hand than in play for the same reason: discarding either at instant speed saves your graveyard from getting exiled and also prevents you from getting decked.
Doubling Season not only nets you a lot of zombies (along with Parallel Lives) but it also helps Kiora, Master of the Depths get her emblem the moment she hits the field, and Tezzeret the Seeker enters with enough loyalty counters to fetch Akroma's Memorial or Coat of Arms.
3.2.1 - Deck Contents:
4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
Artifacts: 7
1 Sol Ring
2 Altar of Dementia
2 Embalmer's Tools
2 Mesmeric Orb
3 Phyrexian Altar
5 Coat of Arms
7 Akroma's Memorial
Creatures: 37
0 Dryad Arbor
1 Cryptbreaker
1 Gravecrawler
2 Kiora's Follower
2 Riftsweeper
3 Death Baron
3 Diregraf Captain
3 Eternal Witness
3 Krosan Restorer
3 Lich Lord of Unx
3 Lord of the Accursed
3 Lord of the Undead
3 Plague Belcher
4 Clever Impersonator
4 Filth
4 Undead Alchemist
4 Undead Warchief
4 Vengeful Dead
4 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
4 World Shaper
5 Corpse Harvester
5 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
5 Havengul Lich
5 Noxious Ghoul
5 Phyrexian Delver
5 Seedborn Muse
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
5 The Scarab God
5 Underrealm Lich
5 Vengeful Pharaoh
6 Gempalm Polluter
6 Gravespawn Sovereign
6 Muldrotha, the Gravetide
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
8 Craterhoof Behemoth
10 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
11 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
2 Survival of the Fittest
3 Arcane Adaptation
3 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
4 Opposition
4 Parallel Lives
5 Doubling Season
6 Rooftop Storm
Planeswalkers: 3
3 Liliana, the Last Hope
4 Kiora, Master of the Depths
4 Liliana, Untouched by Death
Spells: 8
1 Entomb
2 Dread Summons
2 Life from the Loam
2 Cyclonic Rift
3 Intuition
3 Buried Alive
4 Jarad's Orders
5 Final Parting
Lands: 36
0 Bayou
0 Breeding Pool
0 Cabal Coffers
0 Cavern of Souls
0 City of Brass
0 Command Tower
0 Deserted Temple
0 Fetid Pools
0 Forest
0 Gaea's Cradle
0 Island
0 Llanowar Wastes
0 Mana Confluence
0 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
0 Morphic Pool
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
0 Overgrown Tomb
0 Polluted Delta
0 Reflecting Pool
0 Seat of the Synod
0 Sunken Hollow
0 Swamp
0 Thespian's Stage
0 Tolaria West
0 Tree of Tales
0 Tropical Island
0 Underground River
0 Underground Sea
0 Unholy Grotto
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
0 Vault of Whispers
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Volrath's Stronghold
0 Watery Grave
0 Yavimaya Coast
2 Dread Summons
4 Parallel Lives
4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
4 Undead Alchemist
5 Doubling Season
Pumping / Boons:
3 Death Baron
3 Diregraf Captain
3 Lord of the Accursed
4 Filth
4 Undead Warchief
7 Akroma's Memorial
Self-Mill:
2 Altar of Dementia
2 Embalmer's Tools
2 Mesmeric Orb
Tutoring:
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Polluted Delta
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Tolaria West
1 Entomb
2 Survival of the Fittest
3 Buried Alive
3 Intuition
4 Jarad's Orders
5 Final Parting
5 Corpse Harvester
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
Mana Acceleration:
0 Dryad Arbor
0 Deserted Temple
0 Cabal Coffers
0 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
0 Gaea's Cradle
1 Sol Ring
3 Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun
3 Krosan Restorer
3 Phyrexian Altar
6 Rooftop Storm
0 Unholy Grotto
0 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
2 Life from the Loam
2 Riftsweeper
3 Eternal Witness
3 Lord of the Undead
4 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
4 World Shaper
5 Havengul Lich
5 Phyrexian Delver
5 Underrealm Lich
6 Gravespawn Sovereign
6 Muldrotha, the Gravetide
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
10 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
11 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Disruption:
4 Opposition
5 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
5 Noxious Ghoul
5 Vengeful Pharaoh
7 Cyclonic Rift
Toolbox:
0 Cavern of Souls
0 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
0 Thespian's Stage
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Cryptbreaker
2 Kiora's Follower
3 Arcane Adaptation
3 Liliana, the Last Hope
4 Clever Impersonator
4 Kiora, Master of the Depths
4 Liliana, Untouched by Death
5 Seedborn Muse
2 Gempalm Polluter
3 Lich Lord of Unx
3 Plague Belcher
4 Vengeful Dead
5 The Scarab God
8 Craterhoof Behemoth
Lands:
0 Bayou
0 Breeding Pool
0 City of Brass
0 Command Tower
0 Fetid Pools
0 Forest
0 Gaea's Cradle
0 Island
0 Llanowar Wastes
0 Mana Confluence
0 Morphic Pool
0 Overgrown Tomb
0 Reflecting Pool
0 Seat of the Synod
0 Sunken Hollow
0 Swamp
0 Tree of Tales
0 Tropical Island
0 Underground River
0 Underground Sea
0 Vault of Whispers
0 Watery Grave
0 Yavimaya Coast
Budget Choices:
1 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Tainted Isle
1 Tainted Wood
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Woodland Cemetery
Pimpage:
Unfortunately, not all of the cards in my current decklist are presently acquirable as foils.
Average CMC:
3.68
Average Cost (as of 6/21/18):
$3,186.44
Updates:
I built a deck with the MTGSalvation Deck Builder so I can always keep an updated version of this deck online. Everytime I update the deck I will try to update it there. This is also a good tool for people to actually see the statistics of the deck (by type, CMC, color, etc.) so it's easier to visualize with the graphs and whatnot. Also, you can see the updated prices on the cards (though I can't guarantee it will always use the cheapest version of the cards (as far as expansion set goes)). You can find the deck here.
The game plan is pretty straight-forward: make an epic amount of zombie tokens and pump them with the lords and other boons. This version is much more aggro than the other two which are more midrange. This build likes to put lots of zombies in the red zone. This is very viable thanks to all the token-making enchantments. Clever Impersonator, though having uses only limited to your imagination, has almost always been used to copy Doubling Season. This interaction makes ridiculous amounts of tokens and guarantees that your planeswalkers ultimate the moment they hit the field - including Liliana, Defiant Necromancer. Parallel Lives serves as a copy of Doubling Season (as far as tokens are concerned). Endless Ranks of the Dead also makes ridiculous amounts of zombies. This is obviously very useful not only for attacking and blocking, but for tapping and abusing Gravespawn Sovereign and Opposition. The deck also produces so much mana that casting a card like Empty the Pits becomes game-ending.
As stated before, the planeswalkers are all so useful in this deck; all abilities being relevant. But having two copies of Doubling Season in play (thanks to Clever Impersonator) means getting those emblems out without losing the planeswalker in the process. Tezzeret the Seeker gets so many counters you can easily tutor for Coat of Arms or Akroma's Memorial directly into play. It's not that the emblems are of the utmost importance, but they basically make your field all the more broken - especially Liliana, the Last Hope's emblem and Liliana, Defiant Necromancer's emblem. Beware, though, as getting any of these emblems can make you an instant target.
play and ramp for either Bayou, Overgrown Tomb, Underground Sea, or Watery Grave. This
interaction makes me consider adding Sunken Hollow and Fetid Pools as more targets for
nabbing a Swamp, even though I want to avoid having lands that cipt.
cast Gravecrawler again from the graveyard. Repeat as necessary. Doing this with
Vengeful Dead in play is an automatic win. This also works with Diregraf Captain
and/or Plague Belcher in play. Both of them being zombies means that you can
recast Gravecrawler no problem.
outright kill each player one at a time. For those players who love running Platinum
Emperion, you can just mill them to death. This is a good way to deal with maybe not being
able to attack certain players due to pillowfort, fog effects, etc. I just know that this card has
been amazing.
type has. It makes cards already broken even more broken. It gives more zombies to
Gravespawn Sovereign, helps Cavern of Souls make all your creatures uncounterable when
choosing "zombie", and makes cards like Gempalm Polluter and Lich Lord of Unx all the
more dangerous. Coat of Arms becomes ridiculous, as well. It also helps protect your own
creatures from Noxious Ghoul if you don't want to lose them when its ability activates.
Additionally, it has lots of synergy with Undead Alchemist and Endless Ranks of the Dead.
Along with Rooftop Storm, all of your creatures cost 0. Arcane Adaptation is a definite all-star.
The number of times this has single-handedly won me the game is too many to count. Also,
if you know how the stack works, you can cycle Gempalm Polluter and then respond with
Lord of the Undead or Unholy Grotto. Doing so means that when you cycle Gempalm
Polluter, the card you draw is Gempalm Polluter. Doesn't that blow your mind?! Basically,
Step 1: Cycle Gempalm Polluter. (Gempalm Polluter is discarded per the cycling cost. Thus,
Gempalm Polluter is in the graveyard as the ability is on the stack.)
Step 2: In response to the cycling, activate either Unholy Grotto or Lord of the Undead
targeting Gempalm Polluter. (That ability now goes to the stack. It resolves first, placing
Gempalm Polluter on top of the library. Then, the cycling resolves, where you draw - you
guessed it - Gempalm Polluter.)
opponent's creatures in order to clear the path for an epic attack without having to waste
resources getting rid of them otherwise. Not only does it work amazingly well on its own, but
if you have Seedborn Muse in play, you can tap your creatures during each opponent's
upkeep in order to deny them of attacking with his or her creatures all while not losing your
blockers since you're going to untap them during the next untap step. Not only creatures, but
you can deny them of utility mono artifacts, mana rocks, and lands, as well. Also, with
Mesmeric Orb in play, you can tap all of your creatures at the end step before your turn and
get a lot of triggers off of it. Oh, and tapping your opponent's things mills them when their
artifacts, lands, and creatures untap. Such an amazing card with so many possibilities. Once
this gets online you've basically won the game with little to no opposition
know, lol
Mulligans:
This version doesn't need Sidisi to be out as quickly as possible. What you do want is anywhere between 3-4 lands and cheap creatures - preferably a lord. Also, if you get any token doublers then you're set. Once again, you do not want any Eldrazi titans in your opening hand. So, a perfect hand has 3-4 lands, and zombie lords. You don't need to mulligan away in order to get token doublers since there's enough of them in the deck and you're bound to get some. What you do want are things to facilitate making or pumping the zombie horde. Just as with the competitive build, mulligan away Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth as their purpose is to prevent getting decked so their main function is to stay in the library. As I've been mentioning throughout, personally, my EDH philosophy is not so much what to want in your starting hand more than what to not want. Honestly, as long as you're able to cast stuff without mana screw or color screw you should be fine. I don't want people to ceaselessly mulligan away searching for "critical" pieces. This deck burns through your library so you're bound to get them. An idea of what to keep in your hand are cheap spells somewhere in the vein of Expedition Map, Mesmeric Orb, Sol Ring, Death Baron, Diregraf Captain, Gravecrawler, Kiora's Follower, Krosan Restorer, Lich Lord of Unx, Liliana, Heretical Healer, Lord of the Undead, Risen Executioner, Undead Warchief, Voyaging Satyr, Phyrexian Reclamation, Survival of the Fittest, Entomb, Garruk Wildspeaker, Buried Alive, or Life from the Loam.
Early game:
This version is much less complex compared to the previously mentioned builds. The deck strives for zombie generation which can be achieved with self-milling (Buried Alive, Intuition, Jarad's Orders, etc.) with Sidisi in play all the while casting a lot of cheap creatures while you start putting together any of the game-winning components. This version makes deadlier tokens faster than the main version because it has more zombie lords (Death Baron, Diregraf Captain, Lord of the Undead, Risen Executioner, Undead Warchief, plus the other non-zombie lords that pump your creatures). Again, this deck is very easy to pilot so as long as you're getting lands, dropping creatures, and burning through the deck, you're good to go. So, if you're against mid-range decks you're golden. Don't worry too much about what's going on around you unless you start seeing a player build a graveyard hate suite. That's your target the moment it happens. If you're facing other horde players then keep your zombies to chump block mode. If you're against a control player, keep your zombies in attack mode. Basically, cast anything you can cast and attack as necessary.
Mid Game:
By now, you should start having the mindset of setting up the mother of all hordes (and pumped, too). You have methods of recursion as well to make use of the graveyard and alternate wincons (like Gempalm Polluter, Lich Lord of Unx, Vengeful Dead, etc.) should be assessed whether they're readily available to quickly steal the win or required in cases where you can't win with attacking. If you have various ways of recurring, you should take advantage of Gempalm Polluter once you get it. Eternal Witness it back into your hand, use Lord of the Undead to get it back into your hand. If you have Volrath's Stronghold, activate its ability in response to Gempalm Polluter's ability so that the card you draw from cycling it will be itself - pretty awesome, if I may say so. This alone may get you the win before late game - or at least take out a dangerous player first. The zombie lords and other creature pumpers should've been making your horde pretty menacing as well as token doublers and any combos you could've completed by now. At this stage in the game if you've already assembled the Corpse Harvester + Rooftop Storm engine or the Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar then victory is literally just around the corner.
Late Game:
You should already have some wincon in sight, whether alpha strike, mega mill, or epic life loss. When playing against decks without a lot of board wipes or massive bounce, you should be able to win with alpha strike well before the late game. However, with decks that are stalling, you should try to amass the mother of all hordes and go for a mega mill or epic life loss win since pillow fort, stasis type locks, or other attack inhibition can really hinder your main wincon. These alternate wincons are very viable to complete with all the self-milling and recursion. By late game you should already have most - if not all - of the pieces in play already for any of your decided wins (which have been discussed in great detail in previous sections). Remember that a lot of EDH decks exist which inhibit players from attacking or keeping too many creatures. By now, those players should've been dealt with. If not, remember that the zombie horde doesn't exist for simply attacking - alpha strike is not the only win con. Those players can be eliminated with Altar of Dementia, Lich Lord of Unx, Gempalm Polluter, Diregraf Captain, Vengeful Dead, etc.
End Game:
This deck is not so casual but still has the components to win most of the time (in a less than competitive meta, of course). It hits hard and fast yet still has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. Again, regardless of your meta, the overall strategy is still the same: ELIMINATE THE GRAVEYARD HATE PLAYER. Anything else can be dealt with accordingly. Alpha strike with a massive horde is usually the way to win, but there are other wincons as well such as massive life drain and massive mill. So you can choose if you have more than one route or if one wincon is in the cards, try and go for that one. Finding what to do amongst the chaos is half the fun!
4 - Change log:
Original, horrible version
Almost total change from what I was previously doing with the deck to what it is now. It went from being what is described in the alternate build to what is being described in this thread. The way that deck worked was with looters and dredge. What would happen is, when you'd draw, you'd dredge. Then, when you had to discard, you'd simple discard what you just dredged. For example:
Activate Merfolk Looter. Instead of drawing, use Golgari Grave-Troll's dredge ability, getting you some self-mill. Then, when you had to discard, you just discarded Golgari Grave-Troll. It seemed amazing in theory but ended up being slow in practice. Trust me, I tried to make that concept work and ended up eliminating all the looters and all the dredgers except for Life from the Loam.
1 Immobilizing Ink
1 Stitcher Geralf
1 Deadbridge Chant
1 Sultai Ascendancy
1 Millikin
1 Deranged Assistant
1 Charmed Pendant
1 Mirror-Mad Phantasm
1 Merfolk Looter
1 Magus of the Bazaar
1 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Mind Unbound
1 Psychic Vortex
1 Liliana Vess
1 Unfulfilled Desires
1 Notion Thief
1 Havengul Lich
1 Intuition
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Stone-Seeder Hierophant
1 Kiora's Follower
1 Voyaging Satyr
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Worldspine Wurm
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Eternal Witness
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Sol Ring
1 Prophet of Kruphix
The cards removed were due to them performing inefficiently. The looters were all used in order to take advantage of dredge. Draw but instead of getting a card, you would dredge. And then, when you had to discard something, you'd discard the card with dredge. It sounded good on paper but wasn't performing as well as it should've. It was no where near as polished and I wanted. It was klanky and not in a good way.
Also, the cards that milled too many cards were removed because the graveyard would constantly get shuffled back into the deck, providing no usefulness whatsoever. Mirror-Mad Phantasm was more trouble than it was worth.
The cards for drawing massive amounts of lands were also a hindrance. I would've rather had most of those cards in the graveyard than in my hand. Also, drawing cards doesn't trigger Sidisi.
Specifically,
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Temple Bell
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Kami of the Crescent Moon
1 Memnarch
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Stone-Seeder Hierophant
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Villainous Wealth
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Terromorphic Expanse
1 Deadbridge Chant
1 Dictate of Erebos
1 Grave Pact
1 Intuition
1 Jarad's Orders
1 Victimize
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Homeward Path
1 Gemstone Mine
1 Tree of Tales
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Deserted Temple
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Yavimaya Hollow
Changes to the Zombie Tribal deck:
-Ruthless Deathfang
-Carrion Feeder
-Butcher of Malakir
-Khabál Ghoul
-Forbidden Alchemy
+Gurmag Drowner
+Kiora, Master of the Depths
+Garruk Wildspeaker
+Endless Ranks of the Dead
+Empty the Pits
-Soul of Innistrad
-Gray Merchant of Asphodel
-Nantuko Husk
-Phyrexian Ghoul
+Coat of Arms
+Voyaging Satyr
+Krosan Restorer
+Kiora's Follower
-Homeward Path
-Tainted Isle
-Tainted Wood
+Sol Ring
+Bojuka Bog
+Mortuary Mire
-Deadbridge Chant
-Evolutionary Leap
-Zombie Apocalypse
+Primal Vigor
+Doubling Season
+Parallel Lives
Removed the "Casual" Build for costing almost as much as the Competitive Build. Honestly, if one had the budget, why build the Casual version? Therefore, the Casual Build was scratched for a truly Casual Build which is also built on budget. So far, the 3 versions of the deck are Competitive, Budget, and Tribal (which isn't that budget but still cheaper than the Competitive Build).
Swapped out Gaea's Blessing for Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. I made some recent changes in order to get the creature count back to 32 which, if probability follows, should net you a zombie with each self mill. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth also has the added benefit of being discarded and having the effect whereas Gaea's Blessing can only do its intended effect only if it's in the library. So I was basically keeping a non-creature spell that only did one thing.
1 Ruthless Deathfang
1 Gaea's Blessing
1 Dictate of Erebos
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Golgari Grave-Troll
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Gurmag Drowner
1 Hell's Caretaker
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Narcomoeba
It's not so much that the removed cards were underperforming more than me wanting to up the creature count. I'm pretty comfortable with these changes and the self-milling has been more consistent thanks to it. Gurmag Drowner effectively replaces Forbidden Alchemy, the same holds true for Kozilek, Butcher of Truth with Gaea's Blessing and Butcher of Malakir with Dictate of Erebos. Golgari Grave-Troll was what remained of the original, inefficient dredge+looter concept so swapping it out for Hell's Caretaker was a natural thing. Narcomoeba turned out to be so broken in the casual build that I just had to find a slot for it in the competitive build.
Added more details to the Zombie Tribal.
Some changes to the Zombie Tribal:
1 Mortuary Mire
1 Obelisk of Urd
1 Mulch
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Thunderfoot Baloth
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Vengeful Dead
1 Gravecrawler
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
Gravecrawler was added along with Phyrexian Altar because together they provide an infinite sacrifice engine which can be used to trigger so many other cards; they warranted inclusion. That, and they're also both pretty useful on their own, with Gravecrawler being constantly cast from the graveyard for a mere B and Phyrexian Altar providing lots of colored mana when needed.
Looking at the deck, I could've sworn Craterhoof Behemoth was in the Zombie Tribal build - it wasn't. So I swapped out Thunderfoot Baloth for it.
Also, added a bit more detail to the Zombie Build.
As for the other builds:
Glen Elendra Archmage has replaced Jace, Memory Adept in the main build. Jace just wasn't cutting it when compared to the other planeswalkers and Glen Elendra Archmage provides some much needed control to the deck all the while being recurred. Also in the main build, I gave some budget replacements that could potentially bring the price down to ~$500.
Updated the Budget Build with variants reaching up to $100.
Finally made the swap official and final: Scroll Rack replaces Bazaar of Baghdad. The deck isn't as full reanimator as Bazaar of Baghdad would warrant inclusion for. That land's much better suited for commanders like Teneb, the Harvester, The Mimeoplasm, Sheoldred, Whispering One, etc. I've always wanted to add Scroll Rack and was finally able to. This also cuts the budget down considerably.
As for the Zombie Tribal build, Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest has been so amazing that I decided to build a commander with it. I replaced Grave Titan with it and have regretted nothing. With the Phyrexian Altar / Gravecrawler combo I can get infinitely many +1/+1 counters on my creatures. That's just epic. Even without indefinitely occurring sacrifices, I usually just sacrifice all the zombies that can't attack and go for the epic alpha strike. Mazirek has really been awesome, trust me. Super broken!
Some general aesthetic changes to the OP:
I would like to thank the community and all those who've supported this thread since it's inception a little over a year ago. It would not be what it is without you guys. I feel like I'm holding an Oscar but it's only because it feels great to have your hard work be recognized.
Thanks once again to all of you and I hope my thread can continue to serve as a guide to those looking into this commander, these strategies, or looking for what to do with this color combination. I love this deck so I will definitely continue to work on it as more magic sets and new cards continue to come out.
Some general changes in all three builds:
- Prophet of Kruphix
+ Seedborn Muse
- Prophet of Kruphix
- Realm Seekers
- Yavimaya Dryad
+ Vedalken Orrery
+ Forbidden Alchemy
+ Corpse Churn
- Prophet of Kruphix
- Bojuka Bog
+ Seedborn Muse
+ Baloth Null
The reason for most of these changes was due to the very recent (1/18/16) banning of Prophet of Kruphix. As I'm writing this, Seedborn Muse's price almost tripled from the $12 it used to be. I guessed as much. R.I.P. Prophet of Kruphix.
Some general changes I've made that have been discussed so far in the thread which have become permanent (for the moment):
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Zulaport Cutthroat
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Thunderfoot Baloth
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Grave Scrabbler
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Breaker of Armies
1 Baloth Null
1 Skullwinder
1 Gravedigger
1 Wood Sage
1 Cemetery Reaper
1 Vessel of Nascency
1 Pieces of the Puzzle
1 Scout the Borders
1 Mortuary Mire
1 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
1 Thunderfoot Baloth
1 Primal Vigor
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Dread Summons
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
Some general changes that I made; they're explained here. Protean Hulk got unbanned on 4/24/2017. It obviously found its way in each of the non-budget builds.
7 Butcher of Malakir
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
7 Protean Hulk
2 Embalmer's Tools
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Empty the Pits
1 Dark Salvation
0 Dimir Aqueduct
0 Golgari Rot Farm
0 Simic Growth Chamber
0 Reliquary Tower
2 Embalmer's Tools
3 Plague Belcher
7 Protean Hulk
0 Island
0 Swamp
0 Forest
0 Fetid Pools
5 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
5 Havengul Lich
1 Traverse the Ulvenwald
2 Aphetto Alchemist
6 Baloth Null
2 Embalmer's Tools
5 Sultai Soothsayer
3 Lord of the Accursed
2 Kiora's Follower
4 Naga Oracle
5 - Acknowledgments:
Please let me know of any errors, typos, etc.! I want to keep this very presentable!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Who needs Colours?
My most played EDH deck:
X Kozilek, the Great Distortion
UBR Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Lol, no prob. Maybe when you sober up you'll put the card tags and all, lol.
Thanks for the suggestions! I think that Sidisi, Brood Tyrant can be pretty broken in a well-rounded aspect. With Dralnu, Lich Lord it may be possible to run quite the control vibe in order to lock down and secure the game. You can tap Dralnu to give a counterspell in your graveyard flashback.
@Runnin:
I love the Shuko + Cephalid Illusionist combo. If that combo hits the board and you're able to control the field long enough to amass an army, you can win the game!
All in all I think Sidisi, Brood Tyrant has a lot of potential. I've been playing her in Cockatrice to much delight. Thanks to Filth and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, all the 2/2 Zombie tokens are basically unblockable; with Akroma's Vengeance they got haste. Now, there are a lot of self-milling enablers, but most of the time they go to the graveyard. Thanks to the Eldrazi I keep recurring the graveyard. The only real weakness to the deck is graveyard hate - you know them all. And they hurt. However, some counters could help against that. I'm still tinkering, but for the moment, it's a powerhouse. Cyclonic Rift is also a pain. So here's how I think Sidisi can be broken:
Milling is a possibility with Altar of Dementia, Phenax, God of Deception, etc., but it's kind hard milling in multiplayer. Though, if you go the control route, you can go infinite with Shuko + Cephalid Illusionist and mill with Altar of Dementia. You can also make an insane amount of mana with Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod's Altar and cast a brutal Exsanguinate or Mind Grind.
I'm still gonna test it some more because I want to try to avoid situations where I depend too much on the graveyard. However, I still wanna keep a healthy amount of self-milling. I also want to take advantage of Sidisi's color pie and use some removal/control just in case.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Be careful with running Dralnu, he seems really risky.
@Gareth_Trent Yeah it works just as welll, it's just that i mentioned Shuko because that's primarirly the combo piece of the cephalid breakfast deck in legacy.
Oh and keep the list updated, a friend of mine is thinking about building a sidisi deck.
Who needs Colours?
My most played EDH deck:
X Kozilek, the Great Distortion
UBR Nekusar, the Mindrazer
No problem! I will try to keep this as updated as possible. I'm going for an eventual [Primer] here, lol! Especially with the fact that KTK hasn't been completely spoiled yet. Plus, I think we're gonna get even more useful cards in the other two sets from the block. Also, Commander 2014 has already some pretty sweet zombie makers (Stitcher Geralf and Ghoulcaller Gisa).
@Gareth_Trent:
Like I said, since I'm going for an eventual [Primer] status, I wanna keep all possible strategies in the loop. Yet, we do have quite the conundrum thanks to Sidisi, Brood Tyrant's complicated ability. On the one hand, we want a lot of creatures going into the graveyard. On the other, a lot of useful things are going to the graveyard that we are going to eventually either want to have in play or be able to cast.
As for having as many creatures as possible, there are quite a lot of creatures that self-mill the deck. They are an automatic include. Also, creatures that recur themselves are automatic includes as well (Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Blightsteel Colossus, Worldspine Wurm, Vigor, Guile, Dread, etc.). However, if they never enter the graveyard the deck is pretty useless.
What this deck needs is cards that can catch what we want as it mills into the graveyard. I'd rather have the Counterspell for Rest in Peace in my hand rather than in the graveyard. Though, I think we can work around that if we have a lot of recursion from the graveyard to play as well. We could abuse cards like Mystic Snake, Glen Elendra Archmage, and the like. I think that if we stick to creatures whose abilities can be useful against the weaknesses of the deck, it can become pretty solid indeed.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
- For starters, more creatures in the deck means more zombies generated with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. 36/99 means that probabilistically, each time you attack with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant you will get a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
- Added creatures that do more or less the same thing as some spells in the deck. For instance, Acidic Slime can get rid of Leyline of the Void, Rest in Peace, etc. Also, adding some creatures to better with control means I can cut down on counterspells if I control with Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and counter with Mystic Snake or Glen Elendra Archmage.
- Added some other cards that can help with the recursive aspect of the deck (Gaea's Blessing) or help tinker with the stop of the deck (Scroll Rack, Sensei's Divining Top).
- Added some excellent enchantments like Endless Ranks of the Dead (in favor over Primal Vigor, which helps other players also) (could've also added Parallel Lives), Leyline of Anticipation, which can help you cast sorceries at instant speed to help recover your graveyard in response to a Bojuka Bog entering play, Tormod's Crypt being activated, or the casting of Rakdos Charm, etc. Dire Undercurrents is excellent against control. Just target that pesky control player whenever you get a zombie token.
- Removed some of the cipt lands for speed purposes.
This current build is basically to amass an insane army. Akroma's Memorial is the mother of all beefers. Having Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play and Filth in the graveyard means that your army is unblockable, as well. Now, if you want to go the milling route, some changes would have to be made. Now, this deck doesn't necessarily go infinite, but with enough tools, can provide an insane amount of mana. Here's my thoughts on the milling route:- You'd need cards like Denying Wind, Jester's Cap, Nightmare Incursion (which becomes utterly broken with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth), etc. in order to exile the Eldrazi titans from opponents' decks. You could also run Relic of Progenitus, Coffin Purge, Creakwood Ghoul, Cremate, Crypt Creeper, Fade from Memory, etc. in order to exile the titans in response to them entering the graveyard. The ability still goes to the stack and they shuffle their graveyard into their library, but at least you exiled the titan.
- Also, you'd need to take advantage of the insane amount of tokens produced. You could run cards like Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar to generate an insane amount of mana for a brutal Mind Grind (or Exsanguinate to win it altogether) and mill all opponents. You could also run Altar of Dementia. Running cards like Vulturous Zombie, Chasm Skulker and Hooded Hydra become ridiculous with Altar of Dementia. Even more so if you have Primal Vigor or Doubling Season in play. Oh, and while talking about insane mana to mill, generate enough mana (with the altars or even Doubling Cube or Kruphix, God of Horizons) and casting an epic Villainous Wealth will be the most intense thing ever.
- Going for an epic Altar of Dementia milling route may be feasible with running ways of playing with +1/+1 counters as well and doubling them. Access to GU gives you cards like Master Biomancer, Kalonian Hydra, Gilder Bairn, Vorel of the Hull Clade, etc. Your Zombie horde will be intensely large and milling will be brutal. You can also beef up the zombies with the lords (Lord of the Undead, Cemetery Reaper, Death Baron, Diregraf Captain, etc.) thanks to having access to UB. Thanks to BG access, you can use Strength of Night. Then it just becomes ridiculous, lol.
- You can also run Phenax, God of Deception to mill with creatures that aren't attacking or used as chump blockers. Also combos excellently with Eater of the Dead.
Anyways, those are the two routes I've found with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. Any other suggestions or ideas are more than welcome!BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
extractor demon combine with a sac outlet for an insane engine
nature's resurgence, fecundity, life's legacy are all decent ways of generating card draw if needed
you have two variable source of GY resets i have found Memory's Journey, Anurid Scavenger, Gurzigost
and the huge bomb plays Gaea's Blessing, Morality Shift, Barishi
and some neat utility like Riftsweeper to get back those exiled cards and bone harvest to set up a sweet topdeck (mesmeric orb etc)
Nullmage Shepherd. hidden gem for creature based permission
there is so much synergy im still trying to iron out the play-style into something more streamlined
I've been tinkering with the deck and found that the most efficient graveyard recursion into the library are the two Eldrazi and Gaea's Blessing. Most of the times important cards are going into the graveyard so you won't be able to cast much or get useful cards into your hands. If I have tutors in my hand, that's when I tutor for useful things - even so, I use Long-Term Plans, Imperial Seal, Cruel Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Entomb, Buried Alive, Liliana Vess, etc. to get either of those 3 cards close to entering the graveyard. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is a pain when you top-deck something to self-mill. That's why I think that Riftsweeper should be an auto-include in this deck.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I'm really anxious for the next set in the Khans block because there should be more Sultai cards that would be beneficial to the delve mechanic (i.e.: milling yourself) that could have other (and possibly better) interactions with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant.
There are also many recently spoiled cards from Commander 2014 which are really tickling my fancy. Damn you, WotC! Now I gotta buy like 4 preconstructed decks in order to get all the goodness I want! The UBRG are beginning to look beast!
[EDIT]:
I decided to try my luck with Altar of Dementia. However, due to the Eldrazi titans that can shuffle the library and prevent milling, I may have to add Leyline of the Void to my build (or also add Scavenging Ooze and Deathrite Shaman to exile the titans in response to the trigger). I can also add Undead Alchemist which exiles the creature before it even hits the graveyard (thus cancelling the ability) and I get a token, to boot. Still need to test that strategy out. If this deck becomes too hodgepodge it won't run smoothly.
Also, something to note is that Undead Alchemist is a more broken Sidisi against an opponent because it gives me a zombie per creature card milled whereas Sidisi gives me a zombie per creature card per instance of milling. This is great when combined with Altar of Dementia or more brutal cards like Traumatize.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Other ways of getting this engine going is free discard (Wild Mongrel, Putrid Imp, etc.) but when combined with something like Mind Over Matter and Temple Bell it can get even more ridiculous. Tap Temple Bell. Replace the draw with dredge. Discard the dredge card to untap Temple Bell. Rinse and repeat. Ridiculous! You can even beat opponents by making them draw their entire deck, while yours keeps being recycled thanks to the Eldrazi titans and Gaea's Blessing.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
With what I was discussing previous post about dredge, lemme tell ya! The deck has a few kinks but it worked amazingly! It was also so much fun to pilot! The synergy is crazy! This deck is doing all kinds of things between hand, library, and graveyard! All of these shenanigans rolled into one: self-milling, discarding, drawing, dredging! It's super fun! I will post my findings later on in the day when I get the chance. For now... sleep!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
Artifacts: 7
7 Akroma's Memorial
2 Altar of Dementia
4 Charmed Pendant
1 Expedition Map
2 Howling Mine
2 Mesmeric Orb
3 Temple Bell
Creatures: 31
3 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
4 Clever Impersonator
2 Deranged Assistant
0 Dryad Arbor
1 Enclave Cryptologist
4 Filth
5 Ghoulcaller Gisa
3 Golgari Brownscale
5 Golgari Grave-Troll
2 Hermit Druid
2 Kami of the Crescent Moon
10 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
3 Krosan Restorer
1 Llanowar Mentor
2 Magus of the Bazaar
2 Merfolk Looter
2 Millikin
5 Mirror-Mad Phantasm
4 Notion Thief
4 Nullmage Shepherd
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
3 Phyrexian Ghoul
3 Psychatog
2 Riftsweeper
2 Satyr Wayfinder
5 Skirge Familiar
3 Stinkweed Imp
5 Stitcher Geralf
11 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
5 Vengeful Pharaoh
2 Wild Mongrel
1 Burgeoning
4 Chamber of Manipulation
6 Deadbridge Chant
5 Doubling Season
1 Exploration
2 Immobilizing Ink
4 Leyline of the Void
6 Mind Over Matter
6 Mind Unbound
4 Mortuary
3 Sultai Ascendancy
3 Unfulfilled Desires
Planeswalkers: 3
5 Jace, Memory Adept
5 Liliana Vess
5 Tezzeret the Seeker
Spells: 11
2 Cyclonic Rift
1 Entomb
3 Forbidden Alchemy
2 Grisly Salvage
3 Long-Term Plans
3 Buried Alive
2 Gaea's Blessing
2 Life from the Loam
2 Mulch
3 Scout the Borders
3 Villainous Wealth
Lands: 35
0 Academy Ruins
0 Arcane Lighthouse
0 Ancient Tomb
0 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
0 Breeding Pool
0 Cabal Coffers
0 City of Brass
0 Command Tower
0 Darkwater Catacombs
0 Dimir Aqueduct
0 Flooded Grove
0 Gaea's Cradle
0 Golgari Rot Farm
0 Llanowar Wastes
0 Mana Confluence
0 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
0 Nephalia Drownyard
0 Opulent Palace
0 Overgrown Tomb
0 Reflecting Pool
0 Simic Growth Chamber
0 Sunken Ruins
0 Temple of Deceit
0 Temple of Malady
0 Temple of Mystery
0 Temple of the False God
0 Thespian's Stage
0 Tolaria West
0 Tropical Island
0 Twilight Mire
0 Underground River
0 Underground Sea
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
0 Watery Grave
0 Yavimaya Coast
1 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Charmed Pendant
1 Mesmeric Orb
1 Deranged Assistant
1 Golgari Brownscale
1 Golgari Grave-Troll
1 Hermit Druid
1 Millikin
1 Mirror-Mad Phantasm
1 Deranged Assistant
1 Golgari Brownscale
1 Golgari Grave-Troll
1 Hermit Druid
1 Millikin
1 Satyr Wayfinder
1 Stinkweed Imp
1 Stitcher Geralf
1 Deadbridge Chant
1 Sultai Ascendancy
1 Entomb
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Grisly Salvage
1 Nephalia Drownyard
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Buried Alive
Drawing (self, all, others):
1 Howling Mine
1 Temple Bell
1 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Kami of the Crescent Moon
1 Magus of the Bazaar
1 Merfolk Looter
1 Notion Thief
1 Mind Unbound
1 Unfulfilled Desires
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Life from the Loam
1 Mulch
1 Scout the Borders
Discard:
1 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Merfolk Looter
1 Psychatog
1 Skirge Familiar
1 Wild Mongrel
1 Chamber of Manipulation
1 Immobilizing Ink
1 Mind Over Matter
1 Unfulfilled Desires
1 Liliana Vess
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Ghoulcaller Gisa
1 Phyrexian Ghoul
Creature Makers:
1 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
1 Ghoulcaller Gisa
1 Llanowar Mentor
1 Stitcher Geralf
Graveyard Recovery:
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Gaea's Blessing
1 Liliana Vess
1 Life from the Loam
Mana (ramp, acceleration):
1 Charmed Pendant
1 Expedition Map
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Deranged Assistant
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Krosan Restorer
1 Millikin
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Satyr Wayfinder
1 Skirge Familiar
1 Burgeoning
1 Exploration
1 Grisly Salvage
1 Life from the Loam
1 Scout the Borders
1 Mulch
Toolbox:
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Filth
1 Nullmage Shepherd
1 Riftsweeper
1 Vengeful Pharaoh
1 Chamber of Manipulation
1 Deadbridge Chant
1 Doubling Season
1 Immobilizing Ink
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Mind Over Matter
1 Mortuary
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Entomb
1 Long-Term Plans
1 Academy Ruins
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Temple of Deceit
1 Temple of Malady
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Tolaria West
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Liliana Vess
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Buried Alive
1 Villainous Wealth
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Breeding Pool
1 Cabal Coffers
1 City of Brass
1 Command Tower
1 Darkwater Catacombs
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Flooded Grove
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Mana Confluence
1 Opulent Palace
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Temple of the False God
1 Tropical Island
1 Twilight Mire
1 Underground River
1 Underground Sea
1 Watery Grave
1 Yavimaya Coast
Okay, so ever since the change in lineup this deck has been nothing but interesting. It keeps my opponents on their toes and most of the time they don't care that I'm milling myself and even if everyone's drawing cards due to the hugs, it doesn't hurt because it's not a Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck. Also, this deck is not too dependent on Sidisi, Brood Tyrant being in play. With the color pie I have access to a bunch of alternate win cons. However, with Sidisi in play the amount of 2/2 Zombies I make is pretty intimidating. Besides, the Zombie production not only helps for blocking and/or attacking, but for sacrifices as well.
Most of the cards in this current build do so much that I am going to try to explain literally every non-utility land in the deck; what it's done for me, the interactions, and why I chose it. This current list was originally 270 cards that I wanted that I was able to bring down to 100 - quite the feat in and of itself! Anyway, on to the explanations:
Artifacts:
- Akroma's Memorial: may seem like win more but the protection from black and red helps my creatures against the most common removals. Also, giving my creatures haste is key; most of them have abilities that require tapping. Thanks to this in play, I was able to pull a victory out of nowhere in a 3-player free-for-all against a Zedruu Bad Xmas and Child of Superfriends. Don't regret it one bit!
- Altar of Dementia: everytime I exclude this card I miss it. This card is too crucial and so multidimensional. If I steal a creature with Chamber of Manipulation (more on that beauty later), then I can sac it in response to returning it and mill while I'm at it. Also, I can sac my creatures to put them in the graveyard in order to mill or I can just do it to mill myself if Sidisi is in play. Very versatile card here.
- Charmed Pendant: awesome card! Not only do I self mill for 1 but if I do so with an expensive card, I get to add all that colored mana to my mana pool. Very useful card.
- Expedition Map: helps with tutoring lands but also gets those lands out of the deck so that the creature % remaining in the deck rises. Goes great in conjuction with Academy Ruins. Use the map to get the ruins and then use the ruins to get the map!
- Howling Mine: again, no Nekusar, the Mindrazer means that this is more hug so that you and your seemingly unmenacing commander are not public enemy #1. Drawing that extra card also means that you can dredge without having to completely lose your draw step. In my eyes, worth the risk of opponents drawing responses. Luckily, those responses will be used against other player anyways.
- Mesmeric Orb: part of a combo that is pseudo-infinite, Mesmeric Orb is amazing in that it doesn't trigger on the untap step per se, it triggers whenever a permanent is untapped. This may become a target very fast so make good use of it. You self mill ridiculously with this. And each permanent is a different trigger, meaning that if you self mill 3 creatures with this and have Sidisi, Brood Tyrant in play, you get 3 Zombie tokens. Sweet.
- Temple Bell: draw a card by simply tapping. Also lets opponents draw, but it follows the same philosophy as Howling Mine. At least Temple Bell lets you draw a card whenever you want (great for dredge!) which is a plus.
Creatures:
- Azusa, Lost but Seeking: helps drop lands when drawing so many cards. Also a creature when you self mill for Sidisi's ability.
- Clever Impersonator: a staple of every single EDH deck that runs U. This card is so ridiculously versatile I can go on and on and on boom clap and all about it. It's just that good.
- Deranged Assistant: self mill and gives 1 to boot.
- Dryad Arbor: counts as both creature and land for when milling to activate Sidisi or when Mulching or Grisly Salvageing. Oh! And as a mana dork when in play.
- Enclave Cryptologist: another creature with a looter type effect. Discard and draw all in one motion.
- Filth: this card almost screams to be in here. Self mill for Sidisi and gain a token while having Filth in the graveyard - where it wants to be. Great card to discard as well.
- Ghoulcaller Gisa: another sac engine that provides a lot of Zombie tokens which can then be used for something else. Great for getting creatures that you'd prefer in the graveyard than in play and giving you the bonus of more creatures for your effort. Amazing.
- Golgari Brownscale: this card is epic. Discard for the life gain and then dredge for the automill to then again discard for the life gain. With a free discar outlet in play (Psychatog, Skirge Familiar, etc.), you should be able to get near infinite life - and Zombie tokens if you have Sidisi in play.
- Golgari Grave-Troll: Dredge 6 in this deck is ridiculous. Can also enter play as a huge creature. Sac for milling, beefing other creatures, etc. Again, in this deck, this card is extremely versatile.
- Hermit Druid: no basic lands in the deck means that you can basically mill your whole deck and then recover it by having milled Gaea's Blessing, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth.
- Kami of the Crescent Moon: Howling Mine in a creature. So it can be fuel for Sidisi if milled.
- Kozilek, Butcher of Truth: prevents decking yourself, recovers graveyard into library, and if you manage to get it into play, you got yourself quite the beater.
- Krosan Restorer: untapping 3 lands is pretty epic - especially if those lands are Cabal Coffers and Gaea's Cradle. Having other ways to constantly untap this creature means lots of mana pretty fast.
- Llanowar Mentor: discard outlet and produces a mana dork token? All for G!? Check!
- Magus of the Bazaar: really great card for discarding. Besides being way cheaper than Bazaar of Baghdad, it's also a creature that helps fuel Sidisi when milled. Oh, and it also draws 2.
- Merfolk Looter: redundant with Thought Courier. Discard outlet and draw.
- Millikin: redundancy with Deranged Assistant, only this one is easier to cast.
- Mirror-Mad Phantasm: a creature (to help with Sidisi when getting milled) that allows you to possibly mill quite a bit of your deck at instant speeds. Very useful. Plus, a 5/1 flyer's pretty sweet, too.
- Notion Thief: all the group hug drawing is then stolen away with this guy. Just hope you can steal as many draws as possible before he gets dealt with.
- Nullmage Shepherd: amazing card. This has saved me so many times from so many annoying enchantments and artifacts. All for just tapping four creatures. Extremely useful.
- Oracle of Mul Daya: not only do you get to see the top card of your deck (if you wanna mill for Sidisi), but you can play it if it's a land and you can play an extraland per turn. Oracle is broken and it's even more broken here.
- Phyrexian Ghoul: for the moment it's iffy, but it gives me a great sac outlet (free) and it gets +2/+2 each time. It can also get pumped and be sacrificed in turn towards Altar of Dementia or Ghoulcaller Gisa. I haven't really had a chance to make it really shine like the rest of the cards so if it doesn't do soon, I'll change it for something else.
- Psychatog: ah, the good old days... This card is hands down completely broken. You can basically make it infinity/infinity if you discard a card with dredge.
- Riftsweeper: very important. We depend on our graveyard too much. Riftsweeper at least gets us back an exiled card. If we're able to play around enough, we can others too.
- Satyr Wayfinder: Grisley Salvage with legs. Meaning another creature that if milled will help trigger Sidisi. Not only that, but even casting it may help trigger Sidisi as well.
- Skirge Familiar: Totally brutal card. Combined with discarding a card with dredge you can produce near infinite mana. Excellent way of casting a rage-quit inducing Villainous Wealth.
- Stinkweed Imp: a very good chump blocker if it has to be since it destroys whatever combats it. Also helps that it's got dredge.
- Stitcher Geralf: global miller that can exile up to 2 creature cards and make a possibly huge token - that's also a Zombie. Brutal here.
- Thought Courier: redundant with Merfolk Looter.
- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: prevents decking yourself, recovers graveyard into library, and if you manage to get it into play, you got yourself quite the beater.
- Vengeful Pharoah: not only is this a 5/4 deathtouch, but it has an ability when in the graveyard that kills an attacker and topdecks itself in order to be milled again for Sidisi. Need I say more?
- Wild Mongrel: a cheaper Psychatog that can become infinitely large when discarding a card with dredge.
Enchantments:
- Burgeoning: with a hand with some lands this'll get you some mana ridiculously fast.
- Chamber of Manipulation: this card is so ridiculous in this deck it's freakin' insane! Not only do I get a discard outlet but I get to steal a creature, too! Bonus points to then sac the creature before handing it back!
- Deadbridge Chant: not only does this self mill 10 cards, but you can recover one at random either to play if it's a creature or to your hand if it's not.
- Doubling Season: double the tokens and planeswalkers enter the battlefield with double the loyalty. 'Nough said.
- Exploration: when drawing so many cards it's a relief to at least drop another land while you're at it.
- Immobilizing Ink: attach to a mana dork and you could do this indefinitely. Combine with Mesmeric Orb and you get a self mill engine for as long as you want. Attach to Krosan Restorer for things to get really intense.
- Leyline of the Void: pretty standard hate.
- Mind Over Matter: I'm still undecided whether to leave this here because I already run it in my Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck. But this can go infinite with Temple Bell making all opponents draw their entire deck while you can probably prevent it with yourself. Plus, it goes really great with Mesmeric Orb, too.
- Mind Unbound: you draw an insane amount of cards. Even more so if you have Doubling Season in play. Each upkeep you'd be basically putting on 2 counters instead of 1.
- Mortuary: this card becomes so epic so intensly that it'll spin your head. Sac creature, it gets topdecked. Mill yourself, get a Zombie token. This basically guarantees you'll always topdeck a creature to help out Sidisi.
- Sultai Ascendancy: choose before you self mill. Pretty straight forward.
- Unfulfilled Desires: sure, it costs 1 life, but you get to loot 1 for 1. Discard and draw for 1 and 1 life.
Spells:
- Cyclonic Rift: clears a way for all the zombies and clears the board of all obstacles. Cyclonic Rift should not be excluded from any EDH deck that runs U.
- Entomb: the mother of all tutors for decks that play with the graveyard. Ridiculous. Cast in response to Rest in Peace, Tormod's Crypt, etc. and search for an Eldrazi titan or Gaea's Blessing.
- Forbidden Alchemy: very useful for at least saving 1/4 cards from getting self milled.
- Grisly Salvage: self mill but save a land card while you're at it. You could probably get a Zombie token and a land in your hand.
- Long-Term Plans: even though it goes 3rd form the top, you can access that card fairly quickly in this deck. You draw a lot of cards per turn or mill through a lot too. Very, very useful tutor here.
- Buried Alive: search your library for three creature cards that are gonna go to your graveyard. Not only does it trigger Sidisi, but you can look for an Eldrazi titan in a pinch. If not, searching for 3 creatures with dredge is brutal in and of itself. What do I love most about Buried Alive? Searching my library for Vengeful Pharaoh, Filth, and Golgari Grave-Troll and putting them all in my graveyard.
- Gaea's Blessing: rarely ever have I needed to cast it, but I have and it helps. It also cantrips. Oh, and when not casting, I mill it. Graveyard shuffled back into library. Immediate sigh of relief.
- Life from the Loam: one of the all stars of this deck. Cast, dredge, cast, dredge, etc. With so many cards that allow me to drop more than one land per turn, this helps me set up a mana base incredibly fast.
- Mulch: helps filter out lands from a self mill.
- Scout the Borders: a slightly more expensive (and slower) Grisly Salvage. But, in EDH sometimes redundancy is vital.
- Villainous Wealth: damn, do I love this card! Only cast it when able to produce a ridiculous amount of mana (and use Boseiju, Who Shelters All to make it uncounterable) to have target either rage quit or have a huge chunk of library exiled and you get tons of goodies to play with for free. Damn, do I love this card!
Planeswalkers:
- Jace, Memory Adept: use the first ability to draw a card (which I use to dredge instead) and then I can either mill one or have an opponent mill one. Pretty decent. Can also use to mill 10 for 0 counters. Exceedingly brutal. His ultimate ain't nothing to scoff at either. With Doubling Season in play you can go ultimate the turn you cast him. Epic!
- Liliana Vess: discard either an opponent or yourself (very useful to discard yourself). Tutor for something to topdeck - and we already know how Sidisi loves to have something useful topdecked. The ultimate is brutal with a graveyard full of creatures - even more brutal if you've been milling your opponents some.
- Tezzeret the Seeker: artifact tutor. Great way to get much needed artifacts in play. Also, can untap up to two target artifacts. Useful for politics if you untap an opponents artifacts to hurt somebody else or if you want to untap two of your own artifacts like Temple Bell. Untapping artifacts is great, too if you have Mesmeric Orb in play.
Lands:
- Academy Ruins: besides running some important artifacts, if any should get milled, you can topdeck one from the graveyard and then draw it. You can also recur Expedition Map and get important lands as quickly as possible.
- Arcane Lighthouse: takes away shroud and hexproof in order to snipe some difficult creatures to deal with like Geist of Saint Traft, Narset, Enlightened Master, etc.
- Boseiju, Who Shelters All: for being a deck which is 20% U, I run no control or counterspells. However, to save important spells from being countered, this land is your best bet.
- Cabal Coffers: combined with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, this can produce an insane amount of B. This deck also has many ways of untapping it in the same turn.
- Gaea's Cradle: just like Cabal Coffers, this land is capable of producing an insane amount of G. Too bad Tolarian Academy is banned. Otherwise, along with Cabal Coffers we'd have the trifecta for Sultai colors. Just like Cabal Coffers, can also be untapped many times in a single turn.
- Mikokoro, Center of the Sea: group hug drawing in land form.
- Nephalia Drownyard: brutal in this deck because whether you mill another or mill yourself it's win/win.
- Thespian's Stage: copy any epic land in play. Pretty much a staple in EDH.
- Tolaria West: used to transmute into a much better land. Great land tutor for 1UU.
- Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: such a star in this deck. It's literally the only reason why I even run Cabal Coffers and Filth. With Filth in the graveyard and this in play, all your creatures are unblockable.
Well! I thought that was about as thorough as I can be! 31 creatures inside the library is about a good a number as possible when running Sidisi. I mean, almost 1 out of 3 cards milled is going to be a creature and most spells and effects mill an average of 3-4 cards. So you're bound to get a Zombie token with Sidisi out. Whew! I hope this was of great help to all of your planning to build a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant commander deck. I hope this goes [Primer] someday and I'll try to organize the first post like my thread on Edric, Spymaster of Trest. Thanks for reading!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I'm just wondering if its worth its slot for if another creature would be better in its place.
Hermit Druid guarantees 1 Zombie token. So even at its worst, it'll give you a token. So, what is he in here for? You can use his ability in response to:
- Bojuka Bog, Tormod's Crypt, Agent of Erebos, Angel of Finality, Haunting Echoes, Identity Crisis, Jund Charm, Nihil Spellbomb, Rakdos Charm, or Ravenous Trap targeting you,
- Rest in Peace or Bazaar of Wonders entering the battlefield,
- Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver going ultimate,
- Burn Away's effect after killing one of your creatures,
- Morningtide getting cast, or
- Relic of Progenitus's second ability getting activated.
If any of those things happen, you can save your graveyard by milling your whole library with Hermit Druid. EDH has a lot of graveyard hate. Hermit Druid gives an instant-speed response to it.BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Either one of those three, combined with your commander and orb, creates an arbitrarily large number of zombies. Alpha strike everyone at once. If you have opposition, you can use you new zombies to tap down lands to ensure your opponents have no response. But that may be getting too cute.
Be a lemming hunter. Don't be a lemming.
Really, all you had to do was explain to him the popularity metric, not give him the lemming hunter manifesto...
Originally posted by MemoryLapse and DotMatrix
Opposition is great to deal with threats that would otherwise be difficult to deal with. So I wanna try and include that as well. Today has been a long day/night of working on the deck. I will try to edit my OP accordingly. In the mean time, I post something tomorrow concerning my new changes - and if I was able to find space for those 4 cards.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
My list isn't tight or refined, but its a good list at the moment.
7 Swamp
5 Island
8 Forest
1 Underground River
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple of Deceit
1 Breeding Pool
1 Watery Grave
1 Strip Mine
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Crypt of Agadeem
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 High Market
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
Creatures
4 Sidisi, Blood Tyrant (C)
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Gravecrawler
1 Llanowar Elves
2 Bloodghast
2 Deranged Assistant
4 Jalira, Master Polymorphist
2 Reassembling Skeleton
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Satyr Wayfinder
3 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
3 Eternal Witness
3 Fierce Empath
3 Nyx Weaver
3 Stinkweed Imp
3 Wood Elves
4 Liliana's Reaver
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Undead Alchemist
5 Acidic Slime
5 Kessig Cagebreakers
5 Phenax, God of Deception
5 Shadowborn Demon
6 Bane of Progress
6 Consecrated Sphinx
6 Grave Titan
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
8 Craterhoof Behemoth
8 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
8 Woodfall Primus
1 Sol Ring
2 Simic Signet
3 Chromatic Lantern
Disruption
3 Beast Within
3 Hero's Downfall
3 Krosan Grip
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Toxic Deluge
8 Decree of Pain
Draw
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
2 Survival of the Fittest
3 Phyrexian Arena
3x Chord of Calling
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Greater Good
4 Birthing Pod
Utility
2 Animate Dead
2 Life from the Loam
2 Mesmeric Orb
2 Regrowth
3 Corpse Dance
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Sultai Ascendancy
4 Dread Return
4x Empty the Pits
5 Living Death
8 Army of the Damned
Some Cards I want to try and work into my list.
1 Bloom Tender
1 Cemetery Reaper
1 Cephalid Vandal
1 Curse of Shallow Graves
1 Curse of the Bloody Tome
1 Demon of Wailing Agonies
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Endless Ranks of the Dead
1 Ghoulcaller Gisa
1 Necromancer's Stockpile
1 Overseer of the Damned
1 Reef Worm
1 Stitcher Geralf
1 Zombie Infestation
Btw: love Vorinclex and Sheoldred. Thinking about added them in as well. Have you considered Doubling Season for extra zombie goodness?
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Edits:
Here is the more in depth play of my deck.
So, I like to play the deck as a in your face type. Ramp with my mana dorks to get into the goods quick, or Sidisi and start pumping out zombie tokens. The hope is that I can maintain pressure by putting out tokens that I can build further board position with things like Sheoldred, Vorinclex or Consecrated Sphinx. Ultimately, this will lead to someone killing Sidisi at some point, but that never bothers me. So I have included reanimation and Empty the Pits has been a gem as well.
In effort to continuously be putting out zombie tokens I have included other ways to produce them such as Grave Titan, Liliana's Reaver and Undead Alchemist. I am particularly excited at the prospect of adding Ghoulcaller Gisa, Stitcher Geralf, and Curse of Shallow Graves. I have a couple of others that I am considering also, but I dont want to dilute the power of the deck by focusing on tokens.
When it comes to milling and using the Sidisi ability, I don't want to mill in large quantities so I have tried to get multiple triggers per turn. Deranged Assistant, Mesmeric Orb, Phenax, God of Deception and the Dredge mechanic have all helped with that.
If there is one aspect where I would say my deck is weak or I have yet had the chance to use the cards to solve the problem, is closing out games. I have yet to use Craterhoof Behemouth (always seems to find his way to the grave), but I also want to work in Akroma's Memorial and Eldrazi Monument to try and pump up my guys to hasten the clock on people.