MTG Salvation

The Sisay Sequence: Quick Victory Through Searches

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Why shoot for stax if you can shoot for victory?

Hey there everyone. My name is Rosy Dumpling and I am here to share a variation on Captain Sisay decks that I do not often see online. Many variations of Sisay decks in EDH revolve around Stax strategies… which may well be the most consistent line of play. With that said, I have always been the sort who prefers a more explosive playstyle. Rather than trying to grind out incremental advantage, this deck aims to win the game between turn 4 and 6 through (non-infinite) combos.



This deck is fairly straightforward when you get right down to it, running through explosive plays with great speed much like Arcum Dagsson, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, or Yisan, the Wanderer Bard. Like these more explosive decks, the goal is to win before turn 6… though you are rendered vulnerable to timely disruption.

Compared with similar decks, this one is certainly slower. While similar decks only need 3 or 4 mana to get started, this deck requires you to cast a 5-mana spell before starting any shenanigans. Quickly ramping up to 5 mana is quite a bit harder than ramping to 3 mana and this is reflected in the deck design. This deck has a higher land count (37) than most of those low-to-the-ground decks and benefits more reliably from cards that reliably generate 2 mana over time (such as cultivate or Land Tax) over effects that generate one-time mana boosts (such as Mana Vault or Elvish Spirit Guide) or that provide mana by consuming other lands (such as Mox Diamond or Crop Rotation).

The strength of this deck, meanwhile, is found in reliability. I have played countless games with Selvala where Turn 3 evolves into a frantic game of generating huge sums of mana, abusing untap effects, and transforming mana into card draw and tutors in the vague hope of assembling an infinite combo at some point down the road. Sisay, meanwhile, can fetch you exactly what you want without requiring additional costs in mana (Yisan) or sacrifice fodder (Arcum).

If you control a Paradox Engine when you tap Captain Sisay, you will win that turn unless your opponent drops instant-speed disruption… even if you start the process with no untapped lands and no other nonland permanents.

The General Gameplan (once you control the Captain and the Engine)
1. Tap Captain for Mox Amber. Cast Mox Amber (untapping Sisay) and tap amber for
2. Tap Captain for Mox Opal. Cast Mox Opal (untapping) and tap both moxen for
3. Tap Captain for Seton. Use your mana to cast Seton (untapping) and tap Seton (Like Azami, his ability isn’t halted by summoning sickness) and both Moxen for mana.
4. Tap Captain to get and get Dosan. Use all mana to cast Dosan (removing ability to cast counters), untapping and retapping to keep 3 mana in the mana pool.
5. Tap Captain to get Oketra’s Monument and cast it. Repeat the process for Rhonas’s Monument.
6. Tap Captain to get Shanna and cast her (floating 1 mana when everything untaps and creating a token with Oketra’s Monument).
7. Tap Captain to get a 1-mana legend and cast it (2 more mana floating, another token, and giving a +2/+2 bonus to Shanna). Repeat the process 2 more times (7 floating mana, 4 cats total, Shanna is at least a 17/17 Trampler)
8. Tap Captain to Grab Akroma’s Memorial and cast it.
9. Tap Captain to grab Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, cast it (one floating due to Monument cost reduction), and use the last mana to activate Selvala and add 21+ mana to your mana pool.
10. Go nuts: Clear out an unpleasant permanent with Mangara, slam down a couple of eldrazi titans, grab Shaman of Forgotten Ways with your Planar Gate, and pump everything to grotesque levels with Kamahl before swinging.

Plan B
If things don’t go according to plan, this deck can still go the distance in other, slower ways.

To start, you have a few notable combos packed into this deck:
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa + Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite: Destroy lands quickly.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite + Living Plane: Destroys all opponent lands.
Living Plane + Linvala, Keeper of Silence: Opponent land cannot tap for mana.

Further, the deck is packing a significant recursion package specifically to fight against most forms of disruption (save for Exile, of course):
Refurbish / Regrowth / Eternal Witness / Mistveil Plains / Emeria Shepherd / Emeria, the Sky Ruin / / Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle / Sun Titan / pitching an eldrazi titan to Survival of the Fittest can grab back what you need when things start going south.

Nice write up. I am in the process of making a Sisay deck right now, but mine has stax pieces. I would love to try this version too.

I did a Captain Sisay and Paradox Engine sequencing when it first came out. Check out in my signature.

Some more legendary lands would help, both for utility(Inventors' Fair) and for speed(Hall of the Bandit Lord). Nice inclusion of Okina and Eiganjo, though. My Sisay build is more of a battlecruiser cruise to the finish line, but there may be some ideas you can use as well.

@ChazA4: Interesting consideration right there. I was personally a bit light on the legendary lands as they seemed a bit... unnecessary. While seeking out a single land to move from 4 mana to 5 mana may come up on occasion, the idea is to use your first search to grab Paradox Engine and your second search to start winning the game. With that said, I did consider the two lands you specifically named... and I may want to try them out (especially the Hall, which provides another chance for those elusive turn 4 wins).