Soo from what I understand legendaries that enters the graveyard later(after his seccond ability has resolved) does not get the ability to be played from the graveyard. Is that true?
If soo don’t think the hype for this card will hold up, it can be fun, a commander focused os combo that needs to be set up heavily, not gonna lie, if soo I will probably build a deck for hin
Yeah they wanted to stop infinite's like 4x Mox Amber and 4x Mox Opal for Modern, otherwise it would be a fairly broken deck. The legendary rule would send the other to the graveyard and you could just keep recasting them for infinite mana.
Paradox Engine along with 4 flyers and a sacrifice outlet for Sephara, Sky's Blade as your commander with a non-land mana source to pay W is infinite ETBs.
If you can produce more than W then you can of course get infinite mana. Gilded Lotus or Coveted Jewel can help with that
I was checking my Twitter feed earlier and saw MTGStocks reporting that Words of Waste was starting to rise in price, and it immediately clicked that it had to be because of Yawgmoth. I ordered one to try out because I think it could be a potentially great card against control decks. What do y'all think about this? It reminded me of another card - Graveborn Muse that I used to run alongside Words of Waste way back in the Onslaught Standard days. Tempted to try it as well with how it can scale with a lot of the cards in the deck.
I don't know if it's got anything to do with Yawgmoth. I don't even think it's that good combined, you really want to synergies with additional rewards for discard.
However something that's been of interest to me is Awaken the Erstwhile. What happened is that an opponent actually played it, and was like like immediately back into the game as I could just sac to draw cards again. I actually think this is the real deal, like one card can just destroy opponents sitting on cards.
I think that Words of Waste is quite a bit slower, because you'd need to be sacrificing realistically 5 creatures to get most cards out of hands, and you actually lose out on that draw which is a tough call to make.
So i am gonna do the selvala combo. Seems mean and something i can pull off in the end. (a game ender) (go for one of my win pieces) Granted the combo will require a few more peices to win off of it, but luckily they are legendary.
There are a few more tricks you can do with Selvala that I haven't mentioned in the thread. I had to make a cut off otherwise I'd just be writing it for another 2 weeks
But you can get additional cards into play and extra mana, say if you were cut off one of the combo pieces.
Activate Selvala and Sisay and get Minamo, School at Water's Edge and you can untap Selvala for additional mana and get another land in play.
Now search for Garruk Wildspeaker and untap Minamo, School at Water's Edge and a blue source to untap Selvala again.
Search for Kiora, Master of the Depths and do it again. Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner to untap Selvala.
So here you can just put more walkers into play and gain mana.
My actual original combo is that I was looking to use Angrath, Captain of ChaosBR as it would fix all my colors after Derevi, Empyrial TacticianWUG. The idea was to attack with Rhys the Redeemed and Sisay (with menace) at an opponent with at most 3 creatures, which would guarantee connecting (triggering Derevi to untap Selvala again).
And yeah I looked at all the untap options; Ral Zarek, Angrath, the Flame-Chained, Sarkhan Vol, for Selvala. There are more at 6 cmc, but it wasn't going to work with color fixing Sisay to that power when I was working out stuff.
I figured out the most streamlined way I think, and I didn't want to include anymore for just one card.
So it's important to define a strategy realistically that separates it from Karador, Ghost Chieftain which is kind of the same.
The difference is that Kethis, the Hidden Hand can get legendary lands, planeswalkers, artifacts and enchantments back.
But you have to look at this realistically and exiling specifically legends from your graveyard at two a pop, means that the deck has to almost be entirely comprised of legends otherwise you'll only get a few activation's out of Kethis, the Hidden Hand, and you'll wonder where it all went wrong in your build.
I'm thinking between a dredge theme with some stax elements.
The way to win is probably through working on tight mana margins, rather than going over the top. Armageddon, Ravages of War, Cataclysm.
If you can imagine casting Cataclysm and sacrificing a bunch of legendary lands, and then your follow up is casting Thalia, Guardian of Thraben from your graveyard by exiling some legends, and it only costing you W because of Kethis, the Hidden Hand cost reduction. Also by exiling legends you can play legendary lands from your graveyard to bounce back from the mass land destruction.
I figure having a bomb like Bolas's Citadel is going to help in situations where the stax has been denied and you can always look to recast it from your graveyard if removed from play, so could be a constant presence for games.
Some very real win-conditions is aiming for ultimating some planeswalkers; Liliana Vess [-8]: Put all creature cards from all graveyards onto the battlefield under your control. Liliana, Dreadhorde General [-9]: Each opponent chooses a permanent they control of each permanent type and sacrifices the rest. Nissa, Sage Animist [-7]: Untap up to six target lands. They become 6/6 Elemental creatures. They're still lands. Nissa, Vital Force [-6]: You get an emblem with "Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may draw a card." Nissa, Who Shakes the World [-8]: You get an emblem with "Lands you control have indestructible." Search your library for any number of Forest cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library. Vivien Reid [-8]: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control get +2/+2 and have vigilance, trample, and indestructible." Elspeth, Knight-Errant [-8]: You get an emblem with "Artifacts, creatures, enchantments, and lands you control have indestructible."
I'm pretty sure I have a full deck here. Haven't done a card count, but would need to have slots for things like Nature's Claim, Force of Vigor, Sword to Plowshares, and some other staples.
It allows you to play legendary lands from your graveyard given enough fuel, so a card like Realms Uncharted can probably give you access to your important legendary lands.
More real estate for signatures. Now I don't mean just make them bigger, but it would be nice if you could put a "spoiler" and actually have it expand to accommodate. You could still have a restriction on spoiler tag expansion sizes in signatures, maybe x2 what the normal size is to prevent people going stupid with them.
On MTGSal putting a spoiler won't expand the physical size and I've noticed this catches out a lot of people.
As far as coding it, maybe it's just better in the profile section to have two boxes for filling in.
"Signature"
"Signature Expanded"
If "Signature Expanded" has text then a button could appear on the bottom of the signature, and this could be pressed to expand to show what's in the "Signature Expanded" box.
Or probably more realistic, there will always be a button for expanding to show the "Signature Expanded", but there might not be any text in it.
Not being too demanding I hope? But seriously that would be awesome.
When Sisay, Weatherlight Captain was first spoiled, I was like "here we go this is my Modern Horizons commander build around", but then Yawgmoth, Thran Physician came along and I've been obsessed with him ever since. However I've played enough games with him to finally branch off and try my hand at Sisay.
Now where to even start with her? I mean with almost 1200 legendary permanents she can search for, the options are pretty wide and varied.
But it's important to identify what she is not. Requiring WUBRG to activate each time, trying to use her as a competitive commander to combo off with a few select legendary cards is not the most efficient when you compare her to other commanders that search your library. Prime Speaker Vannifar, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, Arcum Dagsson, Captain Sisay, Zur the Enchanter, these types of commanders are far more efficient at doing combo wins, simply based on mana required to do the searches.
For a commander that falls prey to cards like Cursed Totem, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Damping Matrix, Grafdigger's Cage, Containment Priest, in competitive commander you'd be happier to have options that didn't require to have WUBRG available realistically over a couple of turns.
So in my opinion, don't be looking at her too much as a way to get cheap fast wins from a truly competitive standpoint.
However, I have figured out a two activation search combo for a win. That is if you're not disrupted you can activate Sisay "twice" to get a combo win. It's actually more than twice, but the sequence allows you to get more mana to keep activating. I will explain a little bit further down the thread.
There are probably literally endless directions you can go with such a vast array of options. As I research, I keep coming up with new ideas, but I've honed in and settled on a style of play that best suites me.
My first Sisay brew was more of a planeswalker theme with a variety of infinite combos thrown in as well. If you've read any of my other primers like Aminatou, Will & Rowan Kenrith or Yawmoth, you'll get a sense that I love me a Superfriends build. However after winning in a similar fashion to my other decks I've decided to ease off on the walker theme..a little bit.
Toolbox Control
I've gone for more of a jack-of-all-trades build, with a tool-box style of interactive legendary permanents. If you've read my Zur and Rebels (Lin Sivvi's Crew) for Toolbox Control thread then I've gone for a similar approach where I've designed to get answers in the form of legendary permanent(s) to what might be happening in the game.
Because you can use Sisay ability at instant speed, you can wait to use her ability to react to what opponents might be doing.
For example Ashiok, Dream Render could be searched up in response to an opponent going to search their library. Narset, Parter of Veils can be used if opponent goes for a big draw spell.
I have a full run down of cards that can be used for interaction in the "Playing the Deck" section under "Know your Toolbox".
How to build up Sisay's power with colored legendary permanents?
With her starting on 2 power, in theory you would only be able to search for a 1 or less cmc legend. In this instance Rhys the Redeemed is the best for getting more colors onto the board. Rhys the Redeemed will bring her power up to 4 without other colored cards on the board.
Once you have two colors on-board Sisay power is 4, so then you can go for a 3 cmc legend.
There are 9 legendary permanents to choose from at exactly 3 cmc. It's going to depend if you want to add more colors to the board, or specifically react to the game state.
But I'll explain how to sequence for a combo win if the situation becomes available to you and you want to go for it.
With Oath of Teferi in play you can activate planeswalkers twice, and Aminatou, the Fateshifter and Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God can use one of these to exile the other, giving you unlimited activation's each. You can just use Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God [+1] ability to exile all cards from opponents hand and permanents with enough activation's. You have infinite mana and infinite draw, yada yada yada.
Because Selvala, Heart of the Wilds requires G to activate, you just need to make sure to add enough G to your mana pool to have enough to keep using Selvala. You just balance it out with the rest of your mana sources to make sure you get the WUBRG during the first couple of activation's, and have a green source left over. You can 100% do the combo with only one initial green source. Once Sisay power is 6, you'll get 6 mana off Selvala and you just add WUBRGG each time to cover the costs.
Alternative setups
Not every game is going to allow you to win via the above combo, or you might just want to go for something alternative anyway. So it's important to know various setups you can do to fix your colors as best as possible.
If you're wanting to get more colors and let's say you have Gruul RG already, then Esper WUB colors would give your 5 colors. For that there is Aminatou, the Fateshifter.
Tetsuo Umezawa is the only 3 cmc Grixis UBR commander in all of Magic, and admittedly only in the deck for the ability to get the five colors after a Rhys the Redeemed search, or if you've already got Selesnya covered.
If you've lost access to Rhys the Redeemed then you can get either Oath of Nissa or Norin the Wary. Norin the Wary is an excellent 1 cmc legend that will give you red. He is quite a hard permanent to remove, so you'll be able to lean on him quite reliable through the game, but for some on-board effect that can kill him.
Getting early mana advantages is probably the best way to go, to make sure you have potential multiple uses off Sisay's ability.
Once you have your 5 colors on-board then you have access to the rest of your legendary permanents.
I go into more setups further down in the section "Playing the Deck", as there are a lot of options at your disposal.
Playing with power!
Another element in the deck is some cheap pump spells to give Sisay a quick power burst, allowing her to search for much higher converted mana cost cards, in cases where you haven't built up your on-board colors (for Sisay).
Note that with 5 colors on the board you can get Sisay up to a 7/7 naturally, meaning she can get anything for 6 converted mana cost. Currently the deck has a ceiling of 6 for this reason. But that's not to say that you can't go higher with her power with other additional power effects.
I have Scale Up, Vines of Vastwood, Groundswell as spells that can boost her power.
Without any other colors on board, these will allow you to get Sisay power to 6, allowing you to search for any 5 cmc.
However it is often that you have another colored permanent on-board, meaning that you'll also be able to get any legendary permanent featured in the deck.
Design stipulations
I've specifically avoided legendary permanents that require additional mana for activation's. There are some really powerful options, however with Sisay mana requirements, you'd be asking for too much to also invest mana into other abilities.
I've also mostly avoided creatures that require t abilities unless they are for mana. The reason is that because the way you are dealing with the game at instant speed, having summoning sickness to get the benefits means that they are just too slow to really do what you want. For example Mangara of Corondor is a catch all for removal, but unfortunately it can't deal with anything until you get to untap with it. You really have to be able to deal with the stack resolving.
card]Tetsuo Umezawa[/card] is the exception, as he fixes legendary colors.
Cards in hand are a liability and NEVER casting cards
Drawing cards is essentially not in the best interest of these types of tool-box decks, where you want the cards in your library for the searches. So we have some cards that allow you to put cards from hand back in your library with Brainstorm, Scroll Rack, Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
There are some cheap mana spells and disruptive instants, but honestly you are never really wanting to cast legendary cards from your hand once you get Sisay online, unless it's part of a combo in some way.
Also Sisay ability doesn't require casting so you can mitigate some of the "cost more" effects.
You can swap out some of the more fun elements like toolbox control and Bolas's Citadel package for stax, if you are inclined. Realistically it's going to be a more competitive version, but personally stax is not my cup-of-tea.
Venser, Shaper Savant can also be used to remove a spell from the stack to delay it, or a problematic permanent from the board back to hand.
Opponent goes to search library
Ashiok, Dream Render will prevent your opponents from being able to search their library. Because it's a planeswalker, it is potentially vulnerable to creature attacks removing it from the board, so you just have to be aware that it might only remain for a limited time. In this respect you are not always going to jam it in response to a search. However if your opponent is already in a dominate position and casts a tutor effect, you might just use it as a one time stop search effect. In this way you can think of it more like a once off counterspell.
Opponent goes to draw multiple cards in a turn
Narset, Parter of Veils can be used to stop opponents from drawing more than one card for a turn. Again this is a planeswalker, meaning that it can be attacked to be removed. So as long as you're aware of it's potential one time use to stop a big draw effect. Of course you are much happier to have a setup where you're able to protect as well, and so hopefully you can build a board state to do this through most games.
Opponent plays spot removal on creature permanent
Shalai, Voice of Plenty can be used to give your creatures hexproof, so you can even wait will a creature is being targeted on the stack, to then put Shalai into play.
Journey to Eternity can be used if a creature is being destroyed. It has the added bonus of giving you a land, that you can use to bring back creatures from graveyard during more grindy games.
Opponent plays spot removal on non-creature permanent
Sidisi, Undead Vizier can search for Swan Song or Stubborn Denial. In all honesty the deck is mainly comprised of legendary permanents, so there is actually not a lot of non-land permanents outside of creatures that you care about anyway.
Remember that Shalai, Voice of Plenty also give planeswalkers hexproof, so you can use her to protect walkers.
Opponent plays a destroy all creatures
Archangel Avacyn can be used to give all your creatures indestructible. The other bonus of her is that you can also use her transform into Avacyn, the Purifier as a way to clear the board of particular creatures. It's a bit tricky getting a creature to "die" if opponents are not attacking you, but you can use Sidisi, Undead Vizier exploit ability to set this up.
Opponent plays an all nonland permanents board wipe
Depending on what you want to keep, Archangel Avacyn can save your creatures if it's a destroy effect.
Again you can use Sidisi, Undead Vizier for a counterspell.
The deck is mainly creatures with some planeswalkers. If you look at enchantments and artifacts there really isn't anything too important, just some support cards for early game play mainly in mana fixing. So really it's mainly creatures you are looking to protect.
Shutting off opponents looking to use activated abilities of creatures
Linvala, Keeper of Silence will stop this completely.
Flying is also a bonus in this deck as you are looking to protect planeswalkers potentially at various stages.
Opponents have a wide creature board and threaten to attack your life total or planeswalkers
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs can be used to essentially make it impossible to get through on both you and your planeswalkers with non-flying or non-evasive creatures. You have to put him into play before attacking is declared, so you can't spring a trap, but it's still a powerful play, especially against go-wide token strategies.
Removing cards from opponents graveyards
Ashiok, Dream Render can be used to remove opponents graveyards, but this cannot be done at instant speed, so needs to be a preventive in your own turn, rather than reacting in opponents turns.
Opponent plays a sacrifice effect on you
Sigarda, Host of Herons will allow you to mitigate this effect.
The 5/5 flying hexproof body is also nice against defending your potential planeswalkers.
Opponents have problematic artifacts
Dack Fayden can be used to steal an artifact. He also is just nice at filtering through cards, and is a 3 cmc legend that can fix your Izzet UR colors for Sisay power.
I've already mentioned Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Venser, Shaper Savant can be used for artifacts.
Removing all nonland permanents from the battlefield
Child of Alara can be used. Now it actually has to die, so you do normally have to set this up. One of my favorite plays with this deck is setting up a one-sided board wipe. What I'll do is get Child of Alara into play, then search up Sidisi, Undead Vizier and use the exploit to sacrifice Child of Alara. I'll then put Archangel Avacyn into play giving all my creatures indestructible.
Because most of these are once off effects, there is Mistveil Plains to put back cards from your graveyard back into your library. You'll need two white permanents in play, but this is pretty easy considering Sisay is white herself.
Getting cards into graveyard can be difficult if opponents are not attacking, so you can look for Sidisi, Undead Vizier to sacrifice them if actually wanting to get them into your graveyard.
Setting up your engine
I've already shown you the infinite combo and clearly this is the best way to get multiple Sisay activation's as you get infinite mana.
However this isn't the main goal of the deck as you're looking to play out longer games with an interactive control and defense style against opponents.
Why have the combo in the first place then? Well honestly the cards involved in the combo were naturally in the deck for color and mana fixing, and I figured out how to sequence it this way once I started to think about how I could use the cards in my deck more.
There are a number of different stages to setting up. But it's all going to come down to mana available, urgency or playing it safe, and even what you might have already drawn thus available to search with Sisay ability.
There are three main steps to setting up:
Getting Sisay to 7 power with 5 colors worth of legendary creatures.
Setting up mana sources so that you can get multiple Sisay activation's each turn round.
Using your legendary toolbox to react to the game state.
Obviously the best setup is always going to be the sequence for the combo win, even if you don't actually use it to outright win.
It must be noted that the infinite mana can only be accessed in your turn, because you're using planeswalker abilities to do this.
Getting Sisay to 7 power with 5 colors worth of legendary creatures.
As stated previously, if fixing your colors is the priority then the first two Sisay searches are going to be Rhys the Redeemed into Tetsuo Umezawa to for the 5 color scheme.
If able to get a legendary 2 cmc on your first search, then I'll normally go for Gaddock Teeg as he gives you security against a lot of big removal spells or just general big plays from your opponents. Then I'll get Tetsuo Umezawa to fulfill the 5 colors, and access to the rest of the deck.
But of course, it will depend on what you might have put into play already, and how you can fix colors onboard as quickly as possible.
For example if I have a single green source like Oath of Nissa, Azusa, Lost but Seeking already in play, then Lavinia, Azorius Renegade is going to bring Sisay power up to 5.
What's are other ways to get multiply activation's of Sisay?
Well outside of legendary cards there is Seedborn Muse and Wilderness Reclamation. But you can't search for these with Sisay.
Teferi, Temporal Archmage is an excellent way of making sure your mana sources are untapped at end of your turn. Nikya of the Old Ways is a way to get double mana off your lands, allowing for twice as many activation's.
As long as you have 7 mana sources then you can look to do this. Or if you have a mana source which provides at least two mana, like Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl, Fertile Ground, Bloom Tender. The reason is that Teferi, Temporal Archmage can untap 4 mana sources and not that 5 you'd want for Sisay's WUBRG.
So because you want to activate Sisay 3 times, you need that additional mana.
If you only have 6 mana sources available to you, you can still get Teferi, Temporal Archmage untap 4 mana sources and then you can search for Oath of Teferi which can exile a land. Teferi can untap 4 mana sources again. Unfortunately you're going to have to stop there, but at end of turn the land will come back into play, and now you have 5 mana sources, meaning Sisay is back online.
As long as you feel you can protect Teferi, Temporal Archmage through opponents turns, this is a freebie way of potentially getting more mana in your subsequent turns.
If I haven't used Sisay as a toolbox through an opponents turn, then often I'll get Nikya of the Old Ways so that I can double up on my Sisay activation's. This might seem like a nonbo with the various non-creature spells in the deck. However if forced into a situation where I really need to cast a non-creature spell, I'll search for Sidisi, Undead Vizier to sacrifice Nikya of the Old Ways.
The rest of the creatures can be searched in reaction to opponents spells more often than not.
Bolas's Citadel
As a 6 cmc legendary permanent, Bolas's Citadel is a fun option. I've always really wanted to play it in a deck, and so the opportunity to actually search for it straight into play was simply too good to pass up.
The reasons not to run these are two fold. With 1 cmc legends we have green, white or red with Rhys the Redeemed, Oath of Nissa, Norin the Wary.
There are literally no 1 cmc blue or black legendary permanents that exist.
If we were to search up Abzan WBG with Rhys the Redeemed in play we only gain black. Similar with Naya WRG we would only gain red.
Mardu WBR or Jund BRG is better as you'd gain black and red, but you are just better off getting Grixis to cover more colors.
With the single colored white legends Temur URG would give you 3 additional colors, so this is just as good as Grixis in this exact scenario.
However the other reason not to play them is that these legendary creatures themselves are not that useful either. If there was a really good Mardu, Jund, Temur commanders that helped our strategy then they would probably be included.
I played my first games with Yawgmoth last night and it was a blast! I am running a slightly budget deck, I luckily already had some of the more expensive black cards like Coffers, Urborg, couple Lilianas, and both Ugins. I don't have Dreadhorde General, the Pact effects, or the more expensive recurring creatures like Bloodghast or Nether Traitor. I will prob try to add them going forward when I can, but as is, Yawgmoth just has crazy power with even a 50-60% deck. The budget version has power, you mainly just need time. Once you get an engine going, there's not a lot that will stop you from going off. I did find that I was winning with Geralf's Messenger and a token maker more often than I thought. There was one game where I split the kill with one person dying to Messenger (I didn't have any life gain, I had just enough life to chain it for one opp) and then had just enough creatures left to sac to Flesh-Eater Imp and one shot the other opp with Infect. I will be making some updates and changes soon, I think I'm running one too many lands, and will prob add another cheap card draw like Read the Bones. I'll try to add my list later for viewing, I'm at the office and don't have it will me.
Yes the undying elements really is a powerful tool, and I've done exactly the same thing killing an opponent who was dominating, by using Geralf's Messenger to get in the last 12 life by just sacrificing 6 of my creatures over the course of two turns. Fair play, but effective.
Don't worry about getting Bloodghast, it's the most expensive option, as you'll want fetch-lands to make it more effective, which again are expensive, and honestly it's not the better ones of the graveyard recursion. I have found Nether Traitor to be pretty great however.
The pact effects are game winning cards, so try and save up for at least one of them.
Would love to see your list, post it when you get time.
Thank you for the detailed run down and swift reply! This definitely helps.
I actually have a few of the cards you mentioned which are expensive, Urborg, Entomb, Marsh Flats, Vesuva and I can probably get some of the others through mates.
I don't necessarily want to win by planeswalkers, I just want to have a lot of different ways to win. Running down my opponent with a horde of Zombies seems like a blast aswell, or winning through a massive Gray Merchant of Asphodel also seems fun in a game, I just don't want it to be like that every game.
When it comes down to it all I just think I want to have one deck, where I can say to myself, this game i want to overwhelm my opponents with a giant horde of Zombie and the next I want to combo a one-shot in direct damage etc.. A hard task for a commander deck, but I have a Zur cycling deck, which is just the same everytime. One plan straight a head, get the combo pieces and go of.
This deck is the closest I've seen to fulfill this mission of mine, since it can do a lot of cool stuff and having a lot of fun games, without seeming like the same sunset every night.
My mate told me that it would be easier to have a lot of different decks so I could just swap when I wanted to go aggro e.g. or into my Zacam deck when I wanted to play combo, sadly I just don't have the resource to make several decks.
Again thank you so much for putting the time into your reply
Yeah I've made plenty of linear decks in my day and really they have a very short shelf life unfortunately. Any deck is going to become somewhat repetitive after a time, but I have to say that Yawgmoth has been a blast, and it should fit what you're after with multiple different ways to win.
It has infinite's, beatdown, and planeswalker ultimate's.
I messed you up a bit with my post, I left out Mikaeus, the Unhallowed $19.01, Liliana of the Dark Realms $10.00, Sorin Markov $14.99, as part of the expensive card list (I added them now). So just be aware that these are further cards to look to purchase as I think they are well worth it in the end.
I have to admit as far as spicy plays Sorin Markov taking control of players turns has been one of the more satisfying in game plays, as you get to do all sorts of different things. In the future look to add him to keep your game play fresh.
As additional different win conditions you could look at big spell slingers cards like Torment of Hailfire and Exsanguinate, which Kalzam is running (posted list in thread above). Realistically you'll need the Cabal Coffers for this, so again just something to budget for in the future.
If you can produce more than W then you can of course get infinite mana. Gilded Lotus or Coveted Jewel can help with that
Blasting Station
Ashnod's Altar
Phyrexian Altar
Fanatical Devotion
Martyr's Cause
However something that's been of interest to me is Awaken the Erstwhile. What happened is that an opponent actually played it, and was like like immediately back into the game as I could just sac to draw cards again. I actually think this is the real deal, like one card can just destroy opponents sitting on cards.
I think that Words of Waste is quite a bit slower, because you'd need to be sacrificing realistically 5 creatures to get most cards out of hands, and you actually lose out on that draw which is a tough call to make.
There are a few more tricks you can do with Selvala that I haven't mentioned in the thread. I had to make a cut off otherwise I'd just be writing it for another 2 weeks
But you can get additional cards into play and extra mana, say if you were cut off one of the combo pieces.
Activate Selvala and Sisay and get Minamo, School at Water's Edge and you can untap Selvala for additional mana and get another land in play.
Now search for Garruk Wildspeaker and untap Minamo, School at Water's Edge and a blue source to untap Selvala again.
Search for Kiora, Master of the Depths and do it again. Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner to untap Selvala.
So here you can just put more walkers into play and gain mana.
My actual original combo is that I was looking to use Angrath, Captain of Chaos BR as it would fix all my colors after Derevi, Empyrial Tactician WUG. The idea was to attack with Rhys the Redeemed and Sisay (with menace) at an opponent with at most 3 creatures, which would guarantee connecting (triggering Derevi to untap Selvala again).
And yeah I looked at all the untap options; Ral Zarek, Angrath, the Flame-Chained, Sarkhan Vol, for Selvala. There are more at 6 cmc, but it wasn't going to work with color fixing Sisay to that power when I was working out stuff.
I figured out the most streamlined way I think, and I didn't want to include anymore for just one card.
The difference is that Kethis, the Hidden Hand can get legendary lands, planeswalkers, artifacts and enchantments back.
But you have to look at this realistically and exiling specifically legends from your graveyard at two a pop, means that the deck has to almost be entirely comprised of legends otherwise you'll only get a few activation's out of Kethis, the Hidden Hand, and you'll wonder where it all went wrong in your build.
I'm thinking between a dredge theme with some stax elements.
Dredge:
Life from the Loam
Golgari Grave-Troll
Golgari Thug
Stinkweed Imp
Now the plan is to keep dredging whenever you can as your graveyard then basically becomes your hand. Golgari Grave-Troll being the best of them, and you don't really want to cast it if possible. Therefore a discard outlets would be nice:
Vivien's Arkbow
Geier Reach Sanitarium
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
Liliana of the Veil
Liliana, Defiant Necromancer
Hazoret's Monument
Greel, Mind Raker
Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
Mageta the Lion
Eiganjo Castle, Flagstones of Trokair, Gaea's Cradle, Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers, Pendelhaven, Gemstone Caverns, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Phyrexian Tower, Serra's Sanctum, Shizo, Death's Storehouse, Tomb of Urami, Urborg, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Volrath's Stronghold, Yavimaya Hollow.
There are a lot of colorless legendary lands as well, so you could support these with other cards like Prismatic Omen and Chromatic Lantern.
Geier Reach Sanitarium, Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai, Hall of Heliod's Generosity, Inventors' Fair, Kor Haven, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, Miren, the Moaning Well, Rath's Edge, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper,
With a high non-basic density Hermit Druid becomes an all-star graveyard filler.
Legends with stax-elements;
Gaddock Teeg - probably need to remove him due to planeswalkers >= 4 in deck.
Kataki, War's Wage
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Thalia, Heretic Cathar
Hokori, Dust Drinker
Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Baird, Steward of Argive
The way to win is probably through working on tight mana margins, rather than going over the top.
Armageddon, Ravages of War, Cataclysm.
If you can imagine casting Cataclysm and sacrificing a bunch of legendary lands, and then your follow up is casting Thalia, Guardian of Thraben from your graveyard by exiling some legends, and it only costing you W because of Kethis, the Hidden Hand cost reduction. Also by exiling legends you can play legendary lands from your graveyard to bounce back from the mass land destruction.
Then you also play stax cards:
Trinisphere, Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst, Null Rod, Stony Silence, Karn, the Great Creator, Winter Orb, Static Orb, God-Pharaoh's Statue.
Play legends that help with mana
Rishkar, Peema Renegade
Selvala, Explorer Returned
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
Seton, Krosan Protector
Azusa, Lost but Seeking
Titania, Protector of Argoth
The Gitrog Monster
Growing Rites of Itlimoc
Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter
Garruk Wildspeaker
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
Nissa, Vastwood Seer
Nissa, Vital Force
Nissa, Who Shakes the World
Nissa, Worldwaker
Mox Amber
The great thing about the planeswalkers is that the function under the Orb effects (Winter Orb, Static Orb).
Then card advantage, so that you can draw/dredge into mana sources, get ahead, etc.
Reki, the History of Kamigawa
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Tymna the Weaver
Captain Sisay
Arguel's Blood Fast
Erebos, God of the Dead
Bolas's Citadel
I figure having a bomb like Bolas's Citadel is going to help in situations where the stax has been denied and you can always look to recast it from your graveyard if removed from play, so could be a constant presence for games.
Tutors:
Sidisi, Undead Vizier
Liliana Vess
Protection:
Saffi Eriksdotter
Shalai, Voice of Plenty
Journey to Eternity
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Removal:
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Lieutenant Kirtar
Profane Procession
Vivien Reid
Kagemaro, First to Suffer
Massacre Girl
Liliana, Dreadhorde General
Back up graveyard recursion:
Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
Storrev, Devkarin Lich
Karador, Ghost Chieftain
The Oaths seem worth it with the planeswalkers. Remember you need almost an entirely legendary deck in order to really get value from Kethis, the Hidden Hand.
Oath of Nissa
Oath of Gideon
Oath of Ajani
Oath of Kaya
Oath of Liliana
Pir, Imaginative Rascal - helps with loyalty
Some very real win-conditions is aiming for ultimating some planeswalkers;
Liliana Vess [-8]: Put all creature cards from all graveyards onto the battlefield under your control.
Liliana, Dreadhorde General [-9]: Each opponent chooses a permanent they control of each permanent type and sacrifices the rest.
Nissa, Sage Animist [-7]: Untap up to six target lands. They become 6/6 Elemental creatures. They're still lands.
Nissa, Vital Force [-6]: You get an emblem with "Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may draw a card."
Nissa, Who Shakes the World [-8]: You get an emblem with "Lands you control have indestructible." Search your library for any number of Forest cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.
Vivien Reid [-8]: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control get +2/+2 and have vigilance, trample, and indestructible."
Elspeth, Knight-Errant [-8]: You get an emblem with "Artifacts, creatures, enchantments, and lands you control have indestructible."
What I like is that you can aim for the Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Nissa, Who Shakes the World emblems and then your Armageddon and Ravages of War won't effect you.
On that note, some amount of board removal would be good, because Kethis, the Hidden Hand allows you to claw your way back with recasting from graveyard.
Toxic Deluge, Bontu's Last Reckoning, Wrath of God, Damnation, Hour of Revelation, Catastrophe, Urza's Ruinous Blast.
With the stax element want to keep sorcery and instants fairly low and of the cheaper variety. Catastrophe is expensive but exactly waht we are looking for.
Note that the Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Vivien Reid emblem will give you protection from your own destroy removal.
These are other legeneds of note that could possible be played:
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Kambal, Consul of Allocation
Krav, the Unredeemed Regna, the Redeemer
Karametra, God of Harvests
Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Gideon Blackblade
Kaya, Ghost Assassin
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Ob Nixilis Reignited
Garruk Relentless
Hope of Ghirapur
Paradox Engine
Key to getting dredgers;
Entomb
Buried Alive
Jarad's Orders
Realms Uncharted
Elvish Reclaimer
Weathered Wayfarer
Deathrite Shaman
Ramunap Excavator
Crop Rotation
Splendid Reclamation
World Shaper
Underrealm Lich
Squandered Resources
Collector Ouphe
Scapeshift
I'm pretty sure I have a full deck here. Haven't done a card count, but would need to have slots for things like Nature's Claim, Force of Vigor, Sword to Plowshares, and some other staples.
It's going to be my slot for an Abzan legend for my Sisay, Weatherlight Captain deck, which I posted up yesterday.
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/811613
On MTGSal putting a spoiler won't expand the physical size and I've noticed this catches out a lot of people.
As far as coding it, maybe it's just better in the profile section to have two boxes for filling in.
"Signature"
"Signature Expanded"
If "Signature Expanded" has text then a button could appear on the bottom of the signature, and this could be pressed to expand to show what's in the "Signature Expanded" box.
Or probably more realistic, there will always be a button for expanding to show the "Signature Expanded", but there might not be any text in it.
Not being too demanding I hope? But seriously that would be awesome.
Now where to even start with her? I mean with almost 1200 legendary permanents she can search for, the options are pretty wide and varied.
But it's important to identify what she is not. Requiring WUBRG to activate each time, trying to use her as a competitive commander to combo off with a few select legendary cards is not the most efficient when you compare her to other commanders that search your library.
Prime Speaker Vannifar, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, Arcum Dagsson, Captain Sisay, Zur the Enchanter, these types of commanders are far more efficient at doing combo wins, simply based on mana required to do the searches.
For a commander that falls prey to cards like Cursed Totem, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Damping Matrix, Grafdigger's Cage, Containment Priest, in competitive commander you'd be happier to have options that didn't require to have WUBRG available realistically over a couple of turns.
So in my opinion, don't be looking at her too much as a way to get cheap fast wins from a truly competitive standpoint.
However, I have figured out a two activation search combo for a win. That is if you're not disrupted you can activate Sisay "twice" to get a combo win. It's actually more than twice, but the sequence allows you to get more mana to keep activating. I will explain a little bit further down the thread.
There are probably literally endless directions you can go with such a vast array of options. As I research, I keep coming up with new ideas, but I've honed in and settled on a style of play that best suites me.
My first Sisay brew was more of a planeswalker theme with a variety of infinite combos thrown in as well. If you've read any of my other primers like Aminatou, Will & Rowan Kenrith or Yawmoth, you'll get a sense that I love me a Superfriends build. However after winning in a similar fashion to my other decks I've decided to ease off on the walker theme..a little bit.
Toolbox Control
I've gone for more of a jack-of-all-trades build, with a tool-box style of interactive legendary permanents. If you've read my Zur and Rebels (Lin Sivvi's Crew) for Toolbox Control thread then I've gone for a similar approach where I've designed to get answers in the form of legendary permanent(s) to what might be happening in the game.
Because you can use Sisay ability at instant speed, you can wait to use her ability to react to what opponents might be doing.
For example Ashiok, Dream Render could be searched up in response to an opponent going to search their library. Narset, Parter of Veils can be used if opponent goes for a big draw spell.
I have a full run down of cards that can be used for interaction in the "Playing the Deck" section under "Know your Toolbox".
How to build up Sisay's power with colored legendary permanents?
With her starting on 2 power, in theory you would only be able to search for a 1 or less cmc legend. In this instance Rhys the Redeemed is the best for getting more colors onto the board.
Rhys the Redeemed will bring her power up to 4 without other colored cards on the board.
Once you have two colors on-board Sisay power is 4, so then you can go for a 3 cmc legend.
There are 9 legendary permanents to choose from at exactly 3 cmc. It's going to depend if you want to add more colors to the board, or specifically react to the game state.
But I'll explain how to sequence for a combo win if the situation becomes available to you and you want to go for it.
Combo Win
In theory all you need is WUBRG worth of mana sources, and no other permanents in play, except Sisay.
1.) Activate Sisay for WUBRG putting Rhys the Redeemed into play, making her power 4.
2.) Wait a turn round to activate Sisay WUBRG putting Selvala, Heart of the Wilds into play.
*I'll normally wait until end of opponents turn, just before my turn so you get to untap with Selvala, Heart of the Wilds without exposing her through opponents turns.
3.) Activate Selvala, Heart of the Wilds for G netting you a combination of 4 mana.
4.) Activate Sisay for WUBRG putting Derevi, Empyrial Tactician into play, and use his ETB trigger to untap Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, making her power 5.
5.) Activate Selvala, Heart of the Wilds for G netting WUBRG. You will have two mana sources also left over.
6.) Activate Sisay for WUBRG putting Aminatou, the Fateshifter into play, making her power 6.
7.) Use Aminatou, the Fateshifter [-1] ability to exile Derevi, Empyrial Tactician.
8.) Use Derevi, Empyrial Tactician ETB trigger to untap Selvala, Heart of the Wilds.
9.) Activate Selvala, Heart of the Wilds for G netting you WUBRGG.
10.) Activate Sisay for WUBRG putting Oath of Teferi into play. You can just exile a land at this stage.
11.) Use Aminatou, the Fateshifter [-1] ability to exile Derevi, Empyrial Tactician.
12.) Use Derevi, Empyrial Tactician ETB trigger to untap Selvala, Heart of the Wilds.
13.) Activate Selvala, Heart of the Wilds for G netting you WUBRGG.
14.) Activate Sisay for WUBRG putting Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God into play.
With Oath of Teferi in play you can activate planeswalkers twice, and Aminatou, the Fateshifter and Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God can use one of these to exile the other, giving you unlimited activation's each. You can just use Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God [+1] ability to exile all cards from opponents hand and permanents with enough activation's. You have infinite mana and infinite draw, yada yada yada.
Because Selvala, Heart of the Wilds requires G to activate, you just need to make sure to add enough G to your mana pool to have enough to keep using Selvala. You just balance it out with the rest of your mana sources to make sure you get the WUBRG during the first couple of activation's, and have a green source left over. You can 100% do the combo with only one initial green source. Once Sisay power is 6, you'll get 6 mana off Selvala and you just add WUBRGG each time to cover the costs.
Alternative setups
Not every game is going to allow you to win via the above combo, or you might just want to go for something alternative anyway. So it's important to know various setups you can do to fix your colors as best as possible.
If you're wanting to get more colors and let's say you have Gruul RG already, then Esper WUB colors would give your 5 colors. For that there is Aminatou, the Fateshifter.
Tetsuo Umezawa is the only 3 cmc Grixis UBR commander in all of Magic, and admittedly only in the deck for the ability to get the five colors after a Rhys the Redeemed search, or if you've already got Selesnya covered.
If you've lost access to Rhys the Redeemed then you can get either Oath of Nissa or Norin the Wary.
Norin the Wary is an excellent 1 cmc legend that will give you red. He is quite a hard permanent to remove, so you'll be able to lean on him quite reliable through the game, but for some on-board effect that can kill him.
The single one colored cards only gives Sisay 3 power allowing for a 2 cmc search. With this in mind there is Radha, Heir to Keld in Gruul RG or Gaddock Teeg in Selesnya WG, Lavinia, Azorius Renegade in Azorius WU.
Other single colored legends you can get at 2 cmc are hate-bear creatures to slow that game down early, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Kataki, War's Wage.
Getting early mana advantages is probably the best way to go, to make sure you have potential multiple uses off Sisay's ability.
Once you have your 5 colors on-board then you have access to the rest of your legendary permanents.
I go into more setups further down in the section "Playing the Deck", as there are a lot of options at your disposal.
Another element in the deck is some cheap pump spells to give Sisay a quick power burst, allowing her to search for much higher converted mana cost cards, in cases where you haven't built up your on-board colors (for Sisay).
Note that with 5 colors on the board you can get Sisay up to a 7/7 naturally, meaning she can get anything for 6 converted mana cost. Currently the deck has a ceiling of 6 for this reason. But that's not to say that you can't go higher with her power with other additional power effects.
I have Scale Up, Vines of Vastwood, Groundswell as spells that can boost her power.
Without any other colors on board, these will allow you to get Sisay power to 6, allowing you to search for any 5 cmc.
However it is often that you have another colored permanent on-board, meaning that you'll also be able to get any legendary permanent featured in the deck.
Design stipulations
I've specifically avoided legendary permanents that require additional mana for activation's. There are some really powerful options, however with Sisay mana requirements, you'd be asking for too much to also invest mana into other abilities.
I've also mostly avoided creatures that require t abilities unless they are for mana. The reason is that because the way you are dealing with the game at instant speed, having summoning sickness to get the benefits means that they are just too slow to really do what you want. For example Mangara of Corondor is a catch all for removal, but unfortunately it can't deal with anything until you get to untap with it. You really have to be able to deal with the stack resolving.
card]Tetsuo Umezawa[/card] is the exception, as he fixes legendary colors.
Cards in hand are a liability and NEVER casting cards
Drawing cards is essentially not in the best interest of these types of tool-box decks, where you want the cards in your library for the searches. So we have some cards that allow you to put cards from hand back in your library with Brainstorm, Scroll Rack, Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
There are some cheap mana spells and disruptive instants, but honestly you are never really wanting to cast legendary cards from your hand once you get Sisay online, unless it's part of a combo in some way.
1 Trinisphere
1 Sphere of Resistance
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Null Rod
1 Stony Silence
1 Rest in Peace
1 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Voyaging Satyr
1 Karn, the Great Creator
1 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
1 Kiora, Master of the Depths
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Pact of Negation
1 Journey to Eternity
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Nikya of the Old Ways
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Child of Alara
1 Archangel Avacyn
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
1 Bolas's Citadel
1 In Bolas's Clutches
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Scroll Rack
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Sisay, Weatherlight Captain
Legendary One cmc
1 Rhys the Redeemed
1 Oath of Nissa
1 Norin the Wary
Legendary Two cmc
1 Radha, Heir to Keld
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
Legendary Three cmc
1 Narset, Parter of Veils
1 Ashiok, Dream Render
1 Dack Fayden
1 Aminatou, the Fateshifter
1 Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
1 Tetsuo Umezawa
1 Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Journey to Eternity
Legendary Four cmc
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
Legendary Five cmc
1 Oath of Teferi
1 Nikya of the Old Ways
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
1 Child of Alara
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Archangel Avacyn
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Legendary Six cmc
1 In Bolas's Clutches
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
1 Teferi, Temporal Archmage
1 Bolas's Citadel
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Arbor Elf
1 Bloom Tender
1 Seedborn Muse
Pump spells
1 Scale Up
1 Groundswell
1 Vines of Vastwood
Instants
1 Brainstorm
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Nature's Claim
1 Swan Song
1 Stubborn Denial
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Force of Vigor
Sorcery
1 Nature's Lore
1 Three Visits
1 Farseek
Enchantments
1 Wild Growth
1 Utopia Sprawl
1 Fertile Ground
1 Trace of Abundance
1 Sylvan Library
1 Wilderness Reclamation
Artifacts
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Amber
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Scroll Rack
Lands (36)
1 Command Tower
1 City of Brass
1 Mana Confluence
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Forest
1 Tundra
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Underground Sea
1 Watery Grave
1 Taiga
1 Stomping Ground
1 Savannah
1 Temple Garden
1 Scrubland
1 Godless Shrine
1 Plateau
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Volcanic Island
1 Steam Vents
1 Bayou
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Tropical Island
1 Breeding Pool
1 Badlands
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
A lot of the legends are in the deck to directly respond to what is going on within the game at a given time.
At any stage you can search for Sidisi, Undead Vizier which can get a number of interactive cards to deal with most things in play or on the stack with, Swords to Plowshares, Nature's Claim, Swan Song, Stubborn Denial, Cyclonic Rift, Force of Vigor.
I've chosen one mana interactive cards because using Sisay ability requires 5 mana, it's unlikely that you'll have much left over mana. Stubborn Denial ferocious should be met with Sisay's power.
Venser, Shaper Savant can also be used to remove a spell from the stack to delay it, or a problematic permanent from the board back to hand.
Journey to Eternity can be used if a creature is being destroyed. It has the added bonus of giving you a land, that you can use to bring back creatures from graveyard during more grindy games.
Remember that Shalai, Voice of Plenty also give planeswalkers hexproof, so you can use her to protect walkers.
Venser, Shaper Savant can delay the spell for a turn. You can then back this up with Gaddock Teeg as it's likely to be a spell of converted mana cost 4 or greater, shutting it off.
Again you can use Sidisi, Undead Vizier for a counterspell.
The deck is mainly creatures with some planeswalkers. If you look at enchantments and artifacts there really isn't anything too important, just some support cards for early game play mainly in mana fixing. So really it's mainly creatures you are looking to protect.
Flying is also a bonus in this deck as you are looking to protect planeswalkers potentially at various stages.
Venser, Shaper Savant can bounce it back to hand, and Sidisi, Undead Vizier can get Sword to Plowshares for creatures, or Nature's Claim or Force of Vigor for artifacts or enchantments.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier can also get Cyclonic Rift as a catch-all.
The 5/5 flying hexproof body is also nice against defending your potential planeswalkers.
I've already mentioned Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Venser, Shaper Savant can be used for artifacts.
You can also use Sidisi, Undead Vizier to get Cyclonic Rift, if wanting to just do opponents nonland permanents.
There is also the transform land of Journey to Eternity in Atzal, Cave of Eternity, which you can use to put creatures directly back into play.
Getting cards into graveyard can be difficult if opponents are not attacking, so you can look for Sidisi, Undead Vizier to sacrifice them if actually wanting to get them into your graveyard.
I've already shown you the infinite combo and clearly this is the best way to get multiple Sisay activation's as you get infinite mana.
However this isn't the main goal of the deck as you're looking to play out longer games with an interactive control and defense style against opponents.
Why have the combo in the first place then? Well honestly the cards involved in the combo were naturally in the deck for color and mana fixing, and I figured out how to sequence it this way once I started to think about how I could use the cards in my deck more.
There are a number of different stages to setting up. But it's all going to come down to mana available, urgency or playing it safe, and even what you might have already drawn thus available to search with Sisay ability.
There are three main steps to setting up:
It must be noted that the infinite mana can only be accessed in your turn, because you're using planeswalker abilities to do this.
However maybe it's not available to you. Let's say Selvala, Heart of the Wilds got Swords to Plowshares.
Getting Sisay to 7 power with 5 colors worth of legendary creatures.
As stated previously, if fixing your colors is the priority then the first two Sisay searches are going to be Rhys the Redeemed into Tetsuo Umezawa to for the 5 color scheme.
If able to get a legendary 2 cmc on your first search, then I'll normally go for Gaddock Teeg as he gives you security against a lot of big removal spells or just general big plays from your opponents. Then I'll get Tetsuo Umezawa to fulfill the 5 colors, and access to the rest of the deck.
But of course, it will depend on what you might have put into play already, and how you can fix colors onboard as quickly as possible.
For example if I have a single green source like Oath of Nissa, Azusa, Lost but Seeking already in play, then Lavinia, Azorius Renegade is going to bring Sisay power up to 5.
If you feel like you can protect planeswalkers for a turn round, then you can go for Radha, Heir to Keld and then Aminatou, the Fateshifter to get all 5 colors.
What's are other ways to get multiply activation's of Sisay?
Well outside of legendary cards there is Seedborn Muse and Wilderness Reclamation. But you can't search for these with Sisay.
Teferi, Temporal Archmage is an excellent way of making sure your mana sources are untapped at end of your turn.
Nikya of the Old Ways is a way to get double mana off your lands, allowing for twice as many activation's.
If Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is not available, then an alternative sequence to look for a combo win is:
As long as you have 7 mana sources then you can look to do this. Or if you have a mana source which provides at least two mana, like Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl, Fertile Ground, Bloom Tender. The reason is that Teferi, Temporal Archmage can untap 4 mana sources and not that 5 you'd want for Sisay's WUBRG.
So because you want to activate Sisay 3 times, you need that additional mana.
If you only have 6 mana sources available to you, you can still get Teferi, Temporal Archmage untap 4 mana sources and then you can search for Oath of Teferi which can exile a land.
Teferi can untap 4 mana sources again. Unfortunately you're going to have to stop there, but at end of turn the land will come back into play, and now you have 5 mana sources, meaning Sisay is back online.
As long as you feel you can protect Teferi, Temporal Archmage through opponents turns, this is a freebie way of potentially getting more mana in your subsequent turns.
If I haven't used Sisay as a toolbox through an opponents turn, then often I'll get Nikya of the Old Ways so that I can double up on my Sisay activation's. This might seem like a nonbo with the various non-creature spells in the deck. However if forced into a situation where I really need to cast a non-creature spell, I'll search for Sidisi, Undead Vizier to sacrifice Nikya of the Old Ways.
Using your legendary toolbox to react to the game state.
Proactive creatures you're looking to get into play early are Gaddock Teeg, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, probably even in that order.
Azusa, Lost but Seeking can also be tempting if you're land flooded.
The rest of the creatures can be searched in reaction to opponents spells more often than not.
As a 6 cmc legendary permanent, Bolas's Citadel is a fun option. I've always really wanted to play it in a deck, and so the opportunity to actually search for it straight into play was simply too good to pass up.
Azusa, Lost but Seeking can help with getting bottlenecked on lands.
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice is used to basically make your creatures free to play.
Sensei's Divining Top can also be used to filter cards off the top of your library at the expensive of a life each time.
Sisay search ability also allows you to shuffle your library. My version also has the full quote of duel land search lands, so this helps as well.
Why not have a more useful Grixis legendary permanent if Tetsuo Umezawa is hardly ever going to be used for his ability?
It's tempting to look at Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge or even Kess, Dissident Mage, but as I've pointed out your second Sisay search is going to be at 4 power (without additional help), so it's imperative that you have 3 cmc cards that give you three colors like Tetsuo Umezawa, Aminatou, the Fateshifter, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician.
Note that we do not have some three colors combinations in the deck. I've listed them with potential legendary permanents in those colors so you can analysis options for yourself.
Abzan WBG: Kethis, the Hidden Hand, Anafenza, the Foremost, Doran, the Siege Tower.
Naya WRG: Mayael the Anima.
Mardu WBR: Mathas, Fiend Seeker, Kaalia, Zenith Seeker.
Jeskai WUR: No 3 cmc legends.
Jund BRG: Adun Oakenshield, Xira Arien.
Temur URG: Animar, Soul of Elements.
Sultai UBG: No 3 cmc legends.
The reasons not to run these are two fold. With 1 cmc legends we have green, white or red with Rhys the Redeemed, Oath of Nissa, Norin the Wary.
There are literally no 1 cmc blue or black legendary permanents that exist.
If we were to search up Abzan WBG with Rhys the Redeemed in play we only gain black. Similar with Naya WRG we would only gain red.
Mardu WBR or Jund BRG is better as you'd gain black and red, but you are just better off getting Grixis to cover more colors.
With the single colored white legends Temur URG would give you 3 additional colors, so this is just as good as Grixis in this exact scenario.
However the other reason not to play them is that these legendary creatures themselves are not that useful either. If there was a really good Mardu, Jund, Temur commanders that helped our strategy then they would probably be included.
I believe there is a custom Zombie token in the making, simply titled "You're breathtaking".
"Lo and behold inside the chest is a...Ancestral Vision" - Morgan Freeman.
"Are you sure it's not a Ancestral Recall?" - Brad Pitt.
"Nope it's the other one. Sorry this chest sucks." - Morgan Freeman.
Ebonblade Reaper draw a bunch.
Fraying Omnipotence draw and discard a sizeable amount of your deck, discarding a bunch creatures to reanimate, using Living Death.
Necropotence actually becomes a Yawgmoth's Bargain.
Cruel Bargain, Infernal Contract draw a quadzillion.
Garza's Assassin, I'll just keep drawing my deck thanks.
Lurking Evil - Aha 4/4 horror is going to win me the game, not the 35 cards I just drew.
Murderous Betrayal destroying a creature to draw a quarter of my deck seems worth it I guess.
Don't worry about getting Bloodghast, it's the most expensive option, as you'll want fetch-lands to make it more effective, which again are expensive, and honestly it's not the better ones of the graveyard recursion. I have found Nether Traitor to be pretty great however.
The pact effects are game winning cards, so try and save up for at least one of them.
Would love to see your list, post it when you get time.
It has infinite's, beatdown, and planeswalker ultimate's.
I messed you up a bit with my post, I left out Mikaeus, the Unhallowed $19.01, Liliana of the Dark Realms $10.00, Sorin Markov $14.99, as part of the expensive card list (I added them now). So just be aware that these are further cards to look to purchase as I think they are well worth it in the end.
I have to admit as far as spicy plays Sorin Markov taking control of players turns has been one of the more satisfying in game plays, as you get to do all sorts of different things. In the future look to add him to keep your game play fresh.
As additional different win conditions you could look at big spell slingers cards like Torment of Hailfire and Exsanguinate, which Kalzam is running (posted list in thread above). Realistically you'll need the Cabal Coffers for this, so again just something to budget for in the future.