we'll have to see how it affects the current meta, especially for 1 vs 1. true, it will surely hinder decks which rely on the "clones" as general removal. on the other hand, it might be beneficial on those decks with a lot of legendary creatures. perhaps the best profit will be for the hexproof generals, making them harder to kill. i guess there'll be a lot more appearance for geist of saint traft and sigarda host of herons decks
i designed the deck to mainly abuse the iona-painter lock through the use of tooth and nail, defense of the heart, creature searches and a bit graveyard recurrence. (well, the combo won several of my games). i didn't invest much into mana acceleration so that the threat count would not suffer, or lest fall prey upon every blue counter deck i meet.
the mass land destruction was there to slow high-casting cost decks and the tri-colored generals. armageddon and cataclysm were great during the tournament paired with the mana dorks, and especially with an online sisay in play. i'll probably reconsider limited resources as it didn't perform well for me.
i'll take another look into the deck and perhaps add more threat count to keep the blue mages quite busy and redirect the hate from sisay.
@riley:
yup, i'll take a look into skylasher and voice of resurgence and perhaps design a more aggro-based rather than a combo-type sisay.
@masd:
i also had the same problems using utopia sprawl and joraga treespeaker. they are quite troublesome without an opening forest at hand and they slow me down from casting a turn three white spell. i'll definitely replace them. boreal druid on the other hand might stay for a while. it's still a 1cc accelerator.
Just to contribute in the advancement of this primer.
I've been playing Captain Sisay as my one vs. one (french ban list) general for years now. Here's my current take on the deck...
In a recent tournament of 43 players, I managed to top the elimination rounds, but unfortunately I got beaten by Grand Arbiter Augustin IV in the semis. I will highly appreciate any comment on my current build.
I have a sapphire medallion in play and I cast patron wizard. Then my opponent casts mana leak, countering patron wizard. In order to resolve patron wizard, do I need to pay 3 or just 2 because of sapphire medallion's effect?
this seems to be an interesting edric built, as it is far from the usual aggro style. please post your decklist as of the moment so that we can see the cards you're going to play with.
opposition is more effective in 1 vs 1 play. i play the enchantment with edric as general. An early opposition backed up by continuous supply of creatures can shut down most opponents.
i'll say ramp faster (spells or mana rocks) and bring your mana curve down. land destruction is aimed at slowing down other decks and if you accelerate faster than your opponent, most likely you'll be able to set-up before the lack of mana will hurt you.
I'll say you determine your playstyle and your favorite colors and invest on it.
Lands are always a good investment. for one, they can be used in a wide variety of commander decks and also in other formats of MTG. second, they rarely depreciate and on the contrary, appreciate quickly.
As for the spells, I remember having a top 20 or so of each colors somewhere in this forum. Those spells have been a staple for commander decks and will most likely be the ones you'll use.
i've been using this deck for 2 years now, and my most successful built revolves around an infinite mana combo then using Oona as a finisher.
there are basically a lot of infinite mana combos that can be used but i limited mine to these, since the components are good by themselves (well, except for power artifact) and that they can be assembled easily.
for cases that oona has been disabled (say pithing needle or tucked in the deck), i added alternate win conditions such as exsanguinate, stroke of genius, blue sun's zenith. again the cards themselves are good on their own and does not take up unnecessary space in the deck.
as for the rest of the deck, its divided between these classifications:
1. lots of tutors/draws (there are so much choices in these colors)
2. removals, both direct and mass (be sure to strike a balance for flexibility)
3. mana accelerators (yup, even without an infinite combo, resolving oona by herself with lots of mana is devastating for your opponents)
4. a limited counterspell package: force of will, pact of negation, foil, thwart, misdirection (i just included the free ones for emergency use but primarily for resolving the infinite combo)
note that I did not include any mill package or discard package. i've noticed that more and more players have graveyard recurssion. and it just helps them if you put cards in their graveyards. also there are lots of decks running eldrazis. so the milling route has been suboptimal. as for discarding opponent's hands, this may be more suitable for the 1 vs 1 built (i can't remember the link, but there's a mono black oona deck in this forum, you might want to look at it.)
well, that's all i can think for now. hope that helps a bit.
we actually runned a 1v1 edh tournament based on the french ban list. and in my experience it balances the 1v1 environment pretty well, comparatively with the other ban lists.
for me, i think i'll look into the entire decklist first. if most of the cards are already in my pool or if i really don't need them (just for the sake of having them) then i won't buy it. if there are a few cards that i am looking for, i might consider buying it if the price value is reasonable.
i have two: a captain sisay, dedicated for one vs one; and an oona, queen of the fae, built for multiplayer. i want to build another one mainly for casual games. sometimes people just don't want to be too competitive.
oona is most effective if you can use her mill ability via infinite mana killing all opponents at once.
in my build i mainly use four combo routes: (a) grim monolith + power artifact, (b) basalt monolith + power artifact, (c) basalt monolith + rings of brighthearth, (d) palinchron + cabal coffers + urborg, tomb of yawgmoth.
the mana stones are good by themselves, as it helps you accelerate into the deck. rings of brightheart is a useful artifact that can double your other activated abilities: the planeswalkers, oona herself, fetch lands, draws via sensei divining top, and a lot more. the palinchron combo is an alternate that somehow goes under the radar because the other pieces are both lands.
the mass land destruction was there to slow high-casting cost decks and the tri-colored generals. armageddon and cataclysm were great during the tournament paired with the mana dorks, and especially with an online sisay in play. i'll probably reconsider limited resources as it didn't perform well for me.
i'll take another look into the deck and perhaps add more threat count to keep the blue mages quite busy and redirect the hate from sisay.
@riley:
yup, i'll take a look into skylasher and voice of resurgence and perhaps design a more aggro-based rather than a combo-type sisay.
@masd:
i also had the same problems using utopia sprawl and joraga treespeaker. they are quite troublesome without an opening forest at hand and they slow me down from casting a turn three white spell. i'll definitely replace them. boreal druid on the other hand might stay for a while. it's still a 1cc accelerator.
@virtus:
painter's servant is mainly for the iona lock.
I've been playing Captain Sisay as my one vs. one (french ban list) general for years now. Here's my current take on the deck...
In a recent tournament of 43 players, I managed to top the elimination rounds, but unfortunately I got beaten by Grand Arbiter Augustin IV in the semis. I will highly appreciate any comment on my current build.
1 Captain Sisay
Creatures
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Boreal Druid
1 Duplicant
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Hokori, Dust Drinker
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1 Karmic Guide
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Loyal Retainers
1 Mother of Runes
1 Painter's Servant
1 Peacekeeper
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Reveillark
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Sun Titan
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Umezawa's Jitte
Enchantments
1 Aura Shards
1 Defense of the Heart
1 Faith's Fetters
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Lignify
1 Limited Resources
1 Nevermore
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Sylvan Library
1 Utopia Sprawl
1 Wild Growth
Instants
1 Afterlife
1 Beast Within
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Wordly Tutor
Sorceries
1 Armageddon
1 Austere Command
1 Cataclysm
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Life from the Loam
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Tooth and Nail
Lands
1 Arid Mesa
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Brushland
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Command Tower
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Flooded Strand
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 Homeward Path
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kor Haven
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Savannah
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple Garden
1 Wasteland
1 Windswepth Heath
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Yavimaya Hollow
7 Forest
4 Plains
Lands are always a good investment. for one, they can be used in a wide variety of commander decks and also in other formats of MTG. second, they rarely depreciate and on the contrary, appreciate quickly.
As for the spells, I remember having a top 20 or so of each colors somewhere in this forum. Those spells have been a staple for commander decks and will most likely be the ones you'll use.
there are basically a lot of infinite mana combos that can be used but i limited mine to these, since the components are good by themselves (well, except for power artifact) and that they can be assembled easily.
1. grim monolith/basalt monolith + [CARD]power artifact
[/CARD]
2. basalt monolith + rings of brighthearth
for cases that oona has been disabled (say pithing needle or tucked in the deck), i added alternate win conditions such as exsanguinate, stroke of genius, blue sun's zenith. again the cards themselves are good on their own and does not take up unnecessary space in the deck.
as for the rest of the deck, its divided between these classifications:
1. lots of tutors/draws (there are so much choices in these colors)
2. removals, both direct and mass (be sure to strike a balance for flexibility)
3. mana accelerators (yup, even without an infinite combo, resolving oona by herself with lots of mana is devastating for your opponents)
4. a limited counterspell package: force of will, pact of negation, foil, thwart, misdirection (i just included the free ones for emergency use but primarily for resolving the infinite combo)
note that I did not include any mill package or discard package. i've noticed that more and more players have graveyard recurssion. and it just helps them if you put cards in their graveyards. also there are lots of decks running eldrazis. so the milling route has been suboptimal. as for discarding opponent's hands, this may be more suitable for the 1 vs 1 built (i can't remember the link, but there's a mono black oona deck in this forum, you might want to look at it.)
well, that's all i can think for now. hope that helps a bit.
in my build i mainly use four combo routes: (a) grim monolith + power artifact, (b) basalt monolith + power artifact, (c) basalt monolith + rings of brighthearth, (d) palinchron + cabal coffers + urborg, tomb of yawgmoth.
the mana stones are good by themselves, as it helps you accelerate into the deck. rings of brightheart is a useful artifact that can double your other activated abilities: the planeswalkers, oona herself, fetch lands, draws via sensei divining top, and a lot more. the palinchron combo is an alternate that somehow goes under the radar because the other pieces are both lands.
all the other cards in my deck focuses on resolving the above combo. they are either tutors (mystical, vampiric, demonic, diabolic, beseech the queen, liliana vess, tezzeret the seeker, lim-dul's vault, transmute with muddle the mixture and shred memory) and card draws (phyrexian arena, shadowmage infiltrator, the two jaces, fact or fiction, decree of pain, sensei's divining top).
well, hope that helps.