MTG Salvation

To be honest, there's not a whole lot that Sivitri does in-game that makes her a truly standout addition. If you're operating under the "Any Uncommon Creature as General" version of Pauper/Peasant, there's nearly thirty other potential Generals that actually have effects on them, for way lower Converted Mana Cost. If you're going with "Any General" for Pauper/Peasant, then that glaring difference gets even bigger even though the actual number in the pool shrinks. So, why?

For the novelty of it. Consider:

• She was printed as an Uncommon in Chronicles and Legends.
• She was "printed" as a Common in MTGO Masters Edition III.
• She's a Legendary Creature.
• She's got some neat flavor. Other than the text, she's also a planes-travelling character without actually being a planeswalker. Neat.

Lore aside, all of that means she's a legal General in Pauper sub-variants that demand all Commons, a legal General in Pauper sub-variants that require an Uncommon as a General, and even in regular EDH/Commander that simply need a Legend as a General. Talk about versatility in playability! Of course, there is the question of whether Sivitri is all that viable in the first place regardless of where you're playing her, and while she's not remotely a high tier General, there are some nice things about her underneath that 7CMC that make her useful, regardless.

• She's got a power of 6, making her a 4-turn kiler; the quickest one pre-abilities/buffs even among Dimir Legends.
• She's in Blue and Black, easily two of the strongest colors in any version of the EDH format to the point that they are arguably General unreliant if need be.
• She's a vanilla general, making the strategy of your deck somewhat less obvious.

Of course, there are two very severe cons.

• She's 7 CMC. Besides being very vanilla for that laughably high cost, she's also going to become very hard to cast very quickly if she gets targeted often.
• No abilities means there aren't really any strategies for building around Sivitri besides going full-on Voltron, or at least sneaking in General damage whenever possible.

With that in mind, I've decided to make a deck around her.

• Build the deck as a pauper deck for maximum possibility of inclusion.
• Have enough card draw/tutor to maintain consistency of acquiring needed victory pieces.
• Have enough mana solutions to have plenty of it or at least drop lands consistently.
• In the spirit of Pauper as a format for cheapskates, stay within the zone of $20-$25 in total cost when making this deck. Unfortunately, this meant that blatant auto-includes like Command Tower couldn't be included.
• Throw enough in the deck to make Sivitri a clear asset...
• ... while having enough in the deck besides her, to operate without her in the case that she was hated on too much with removal/destruction effects.

• Use and reuse everything with lots of recursion by way of things like Archaeomancer and Disturbed Burial.
• Maintain a life lead with cards like Drain Life and Pristine Talisman.
• (Wincon) Hit opponents enough times with Sivitri (at least 4 per opponent, usually) to win the game utilizing tools such as Protective Bubble and Whispersilk Cloak.
• (Wincon) Slam the board and/or enemy players with spells; typically, these would be either Crypt Rats, Pestilence, Drain Life, Consume Spirit, and (to an extent) Withering Wisps, Capsize and Gigadrowse.
• (Wincon) Haul out Ulamog's Crusher and/or Hand of Emrakul to just tear away at others' board presence and even beat their life totals down.

Cloud of Faeries as an essentially zero cost blocker early game, or used with High Tide, Bubbling Muck, and Ghostly Flicker for a massive mana boost.

Cavern Harpy for Enter the Battlefield abuse; it sure is nice to be able to send it into play, return a card with an ETB effect, and then send it back into your hand so you can do it again! Costs life, though.

Vedalken Aethermage to tutor for Scrivener or Archaeomancer.

Trinket Mage to tutor for Aether Spellbomb, Nihil Spellbomb, or lands.
Transmute cards to tutor for cards of a specific CMC cost depending on the Transmute card.

Faceless Butcher + Capsize for perma-removal of creatures. Ashes to Ashes too, and Encrust to a lesser extent.

Archaeomancer, Scrivener, and Mnemonic Wall for Sorcery/Instant recursion.

Cadaver Imp, Soul Manipulation, Haunted Fengraf, Disturbed Burial, and Grim Harvest for creature recursion.

Crypt Rats and Pestilence as the main dumping grounds for mana, wiping boards and possibly killing players.

Gigadrowse, Capsize, Drain Life, and Consume Spirit as alternate mana dumps.

Drain Life and Consume Spirit, in addition to being 'X Damage' alternatives, can also assist in maintaining a life lead along with Pristine Talisman.

Capsize, Shade Form, and Ghostly Flicker to protect Sivitri and other key permanents against wrath/wipe effects.

Artful Dodge, Whispersilk Cloak, Protective Bubble, and Tricks of the Trade to sneak Sivitri and her 4-turn clocking hits through.

Being that we're in Dimir colors, we only have access to so many different types of ramp, so we'll have to make do with not-amazing-at-face-value stuff. Of course, there's Sisay's Ring and Ur-Golem's Eye... and the old classic, Apprentice Wizard. Then you have tricks like Trinket Mage searching for Artifact Lands and Walking Atlas putting in two at a time in combination with our Landcyclers and you have a reasonably passable way of building up mana, and this isn't even getting into our Bubbling Muck/High Tide/Cloud Faeries/ETB shenanigans, and we're possibly better off than we look.

Aether Spellbomb, Aethersnipe, Into the Roil, and Capsize to bounce permanents. It's not the same as full-on destruction like Qasali Pridemage or the gamut of other artifact/enchantment destruction cards that other colors have, but it'll do for that purpose. Besides, bouncing your own permanents can aso be useful as well.

Bojuka Bog, Shred Memory, and Nihil Spellbomb to act as graveyard hate, which is as nice to dish out as it is frustrating to expect.

Ulamog's Crusher and Hand of Emrakul not only make great beaters in Pauper, but as Eldrazi with Annihilator effects, they're a presence that's hard to ignore even in regular games. Even with our Pauper levels of non-Green ramp, it's not wholly unreasonable to hardcast them, either; they make great alternative wincons.

Average CMC of 3.28.

Changelog:

6/6/2013
-1 Polluted Mire, -1 Remote Isle
+1 Ulamog's Crusher, +1 Hand of Emrakul

6/4/2013
-1 Augury Owl, -1 Soldevi Adnate, -1 Rupture Spire, -1 Shimmering Grotto, -1 Transguild Promenade, -1 Drelnoch, -1 Crystal Seer, -1 Absorb Vis -14 Swamp
+1 Walking Atlas, +1 Apprentice Mage, +1 Sisay's Ring, +1 Ur-Golem's Eye, +1 Dimir Signet, +1 Deep Analysis, +1 Merchant Scroll, +1 Withering Wisps, +13 Snow-Covered Swamp, +1 Island

5/26/2013
Added Bog Initiate and Walking Atlas as alternatives to Initiates of the Ebon Hand and Soldevi Adnate.

5/21/2013
-1 Mark of the Vampire, -1 Apprentice Wizard
+1 Absorb Vis, +1 Initiates of the Ebon Hand

5/20/2013 (2)
-1 Energy Tap, -1 Elgaud Shieldmate, -1 Dispersal Shield, -1 Necromantic Thirst, -1 Hoodwink, -1 Island
+1 High Tide, +1 Cloud of Faeries, +1 Soul Manipulation, +1 Ghostly Flicker, +1 Into the Roil, +1 Haunted Fengraf

5/20/2013
-1 Gangrenous Zombies, -1 Ulamog's Crusher
+1 Drain Life, +1 Mnemonic Wall

Distinctly remember that deck as being the one that drew my attention to Protective Bubble.

I am displeased with myself for not thinking of Into the Roil first, and even moreso for Ghostly Flicker, as I was trying to think of anti-wrath and the only thing that came to mind was Eel Umbra.

Good eye on Soul Manipulation, that's almost certainly a straight upgrade for Dispersal Shield.

High Tide makes perfect sense when you throw Cloud of Faeries into the mix. Will probably throw out Energy Tap, though I'll miss the novelty of a sorcery that makes use of Sivitri's laughably overcosted CMC. Just need to figure out what to exchange for Cloud of Faeries...

I was thinking of replacing Apprentice Wizard with Walking Atlas since I'm rather reliant on landcycling over normal mana solutions. Either that, or maybe Prophetic Prism for the card draw. Even more alternatively, I'd also considered Initiates of the Ebon Hand to exchange blue mana since so much of my stuff is reliant on black mana. Thoughts?

Made a ton of changes as I get ready to use this deck online. Thinking about using Dreamscape Artist as a way to get even more lands.

I noticed Cloud of Faeries is $7 on MTGO and Crypt Rats is $4, which ended up being a useful incentive for looking up alternatives, even if it ends in me making a Peasant version of this deck by slapping in Uncommons. Am I wrong in thinking Peregrine Drake looks like a nice alternative for the former?

Just had a hilarious first match with this deck on MTGO. Opponents were Damia, Sage of Stone, Zur the Enchanter, and Ruric Thar, the Unbowed.

Though I wasn't able to use any of the real tech in here, I had a lot of fun Encrusting the Zur, and watching the Curse of Echoes he hit me with quadruple my Capsize into bouncing his mana base into nothing. But then the Ruric Thar ended up in a position to roll over us, and probably was about to do that if the Damia hadn't ended up afking to the point where we just threw our hands up and left. Props to him for Relic Crushing a bunch of the Zur's early game stuff, though.

Oh, and I swear, I'm seeing Sylvan Primordial everywhere. Damned thing is basically an autoinclude for Green.

Went another match on MTGO, this time against a Prime Speaker Zegana, a Rhys the Redeemed, a Radiant, Archangel, a Kaalia of the Vast, and a Doran, the Siege Tower.

Mostly I survived by having such a blatantly bad board presence. The Kaalia, the Radiant, and the Doran became an incredibly oppressive board presence due to a Coat of Arms from the Radiant, the Luminarch Ascension from the Doran, and the Kaalia being angel heavy starting out. All three proceeded to target the one person who was running an entirely different tribe, the Rhys; and so he was offed early. I ended up quietly ramping lands and taking the occasional hit, including one that involved Lifelink and the Radiant getting his total up to like 60.

The Doran then left after a boardwipe from the Radiant who ironically benefited the least from his own Coat of Arms (and thus decided to reset everything), leaving it as a battle between himself, the Kaalia, and the Zegana (sort of-- he's just kinda ramping and taking hits, like I am). I cast maybe one removal spell while I'm still just building a manabase.

Zegana casts Overbeing of Myth which subsequently gets removed, thrown into the graveyard, and then put back onto the battlefield under the Kaalia's control. It looks like a winner's been determined... until the Zegana casts a kicked Rite of Replication on said Overbeing. And then I remember, that Zegana had a Reliquary Tower. And a bunch of card draw. Suddenly, we're all looking at a horde of double-digit tokens which he happily sends out to wreck face.

What happens next is some combination of mental exhaustion, a subconscious desire to end this two hour game, an unusual desire for revenge from having been the target of a Lifelink hit, or poor threat assessment. (Mostly poor threat assessment) With Ulamog's Crusher, I take out the Radiant who was taken down to 7 health while the Zegana takes out the Kaalia, leaving the two of us. I then conceded after he brings his health total up (and out of my reach) with an ETB effect on a Wurm whose name I've forgotten.

Now that I think about it, if I'd hit the Zegana instead, I maybe would've had enough mana to use a Bubbling Muck for a Drain Life; combined with my Crusher, I think I could've eked out a victory. Either that, or maybe the Radiant would've pulled out another boardwipe. Ah, well. Sadly, I didn't cast Sivitri once (don't think the Doran bothered either, despite being 3 CMC?) since I was afraid of boardwipes and my mana kept going towards card draw and the occasional targeted removal. I probably should've marched her out at certain points; lesson learned.

I'd be all over making vids of this deck in action if it weren't for the fact that my comp seems to crash every time I try to run some kind of video recording software, whether it's FRAPS or even non-intensive like Hypercam. Sigh.