TappedOut is saying this isn't EDH legal. I can happily report that it is, and the cards it's highlighting as illegal are incorrect.
So if you checked out my first attempt at a planeswalker deck this is gonna look pretty familiar, but every non-legendary creature and most of the instant/sorcery spells have been replaced with legendary creatures.
So get hop in the back and have
Sisay, Weatherlight Captain
fuel up the mystery machine, let's get this scooby gang on the hunt for new mysteries(victims)!
Allow me to introduce our passengers/suspects for the evening.
The Small Bois
We begin with this little subsection of 2CMC to 3CMC legends you can get out real quick and even play from the hand without being mana-drained. Beginning with everyone's favourite one-eyed blue-uh-thing(?)
Fblthp, the Lost
as a hand-filling helper and blocker so you don't risk losing your now 4/4 Sisay. After Flbthp plays out her ETB you're free to do with her as you wish, I generally use her as a blocker or shuffle her back into the deck for late game card draw.
Tomik, Distinguished Advokist
follows up with our first dose of White control. Pulling him out early game will slow down those U/G, mono green, and graveyard decks. Not by much, but it's something. It also puts a stop to land destruction/resurrection decks with commanders like
Lord Windgrace
, who we will be visiting later in this deck.
The last 2CMC legends share this slot because both of these can be just as effective if played from the hand. As
Emmara, Soul of the Accord
works better as a turn two play and turn three attacker to start her token generation I wouldn't wait until you have all five colours to get her out. Following up is
Vivien's Arkbow
which is just there as a legendary artifact and a "huh I have a bunch of mana left but it's not all five colours" play.
Now we get into the 3CMC legends and our Planeswalkers!! WAR gave us plenty of low cost planeswalkers such as
Dovin, Hand of Control
, being our second control card! Increasing cost of three separate card types by one, and giving you five uses of damage prevention from single sources. Getting him, and any other two colour legend, out also could buff up Sisay by +2/+2, giving you more option for your next activation of her ability. Other two-colour legends like
Rona, Disciple of Gix
, who is effectively also the only thing resembling graveyard recovery in this deck. (Really I'm probably going to pull her out in later editions of this deck but as it stands I've gotten some use out of her with interactions that I'll address later in the description) Her ETB trigger gets you another cast of any single important legend. On the opposite side of the Black mana spectrum sits
Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
. Supposedly the next big bad to challenge Gatewatch, his place here resembles his place in the War of the Spark story; Basically Unimportant. He supplies Sisay with a +1/+1 and punishes opponents for top-decking.
The rest of our 3CMC legends are all Green. Yep. So let's jump in. First off is the summon-assistance! Or rather, ability-activation-assistance.
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
and
Shizuko, Caller of Autumn
. Easy interaction is that you would spend the three mana from Shizuko on Yisan every turn to give you another deck searching move, but she can also be used to cast any of the following from your hand if you need.
Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
is there to keep Sisay from being tapped on your opponents turn and give you use of her as an attacker. Vivien's -2 is not great for this deck. There's not as many creatures as there is everything else and because you HAVE to exile one of the three cards you'll almost always be getting rid of something you could use to win.
Bow of Nylea
is there for the bonus to attacking creatures and generating +1/+1 counters on whoever you want to buff if Sisay is already the strongest there is. Lastly is
Pir, Imaginative Rascal
, who is notably missing his Partner card, Toothy. This is the one time you won't be searching your library when you could.
With Pir rounding out the Small Boi crowd, we move on to the Snacks.
The Snacks
Representing the 4CMC to 5CMC range are legends I've affectionately referred to as The Snacks. Which I'm led to believe by people that know more slang than me means "pretty attractive but not marriage material," which honestly applies to a lot of these cards. Unlike the previous section I won't be going in order of CMC, but rather in their use.
Buffing
So, right off the bat I'll tell you what card to NOT search for with Sisay's ability;
Kestia, the Cultivator
. This C18 highlight is included for her bestow ability. At a 6 alternative cost you can buff up Sisay by a whopping +7/+7 if she's your first non-commander legend. Because Sisay's passive doesn't care about the way the Legendary Permanent is on the field, you add the bestow bonus from Kestia and the three colour bonus from Sisay. You can't bestow from the library, only from your hand. So, not something you want to waste early on, but late game she's a 4/4 blocker with a decent passive if you've already got
On Serra's Wings
,
Kaya's Ghostform
, or
Riot Spikes
on the field. Yeah those last two aren't legends, fight me.
These are the creatures to search for. If able you're gonna want to get
Arvad the Cursed
out first, as he's a potential +4/+4 to Sisay, and provides you some removal and lifegain.
Trostani Discordant
is another 5CMC search, with the added bonus of a potential +3/+3 to Sisay and +1/+1 to all other creatures you control. Her ETB token generation is also useful at providing non-legend blockers. Trostani does, however, nullify
Jace, Ingenious Mind-Mage
's ultimate ability with her secondary passive of returning creatures to their owners control every one of your end steps. Don't feel obligated to keep her alive if you have Either or both Arvad and
Kongming, "Sleeping Dragon"
, who is a 4CMC +1/+1 to other creatures you control. I've been a fan of that card for a long time, I'm not gonna lie.
Defense
I'll toss this out right away with the explanation of YEAH, I KNOW.
Jodah, Archmage Eternal
isn't what most people would think of as a defensive card. With her only abilities being Flying and "pay rainbow for spells instead of cmc," Jodah doesn't have a lot of use in this deck though! Giving Sisay a +3/+3 and being a flying blocker is really all she does, so I put her in Defense and you can fight me on it. Now, in ACTUAL defense we have
The Wanderer
and
Estrid, the Masked
. The Wanderer stops those pesky burn spells and gives you some decent removal, Estrid puts totem armor on important permanents like Sisay and her workout buddies. Literally don't worry about Estrid's -7 ability unless somehow all enchantments are in your graveyard. It doesn't matter. But how will you protect these definitely-going-to-be-targeted-planeswalkers??? Our good friend
Djeru, With Eyes Open
of course! Not only does he prevent 1 damage per source that would be dealt to each planeswalker you control, but he lets you search your library for someone as well. If you haven't got out those lower cost planeswalkers from earlier his ETB becomes a lot more useful, and if you already have then don't worry, it's a "may" ability.
But really, what's more defensive than taxes? Following the vein of Dovin we have
Baird, Steward of Argive
and
Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor
! With Baird and
Propaganda
on the field opponents will have to pay an extra 3 mana per creature to attack you or planeswalkers you control, and with Dovin, Kasmina, and a statue of that meanie Bolas, opponents will have to pay up to 5 more for certain spells. The best possible protection involves making them pay.
Token Generation
What if I told you that not only have we resurrected dinosaurs, but we also discovered the secret to immortality? None of that is true, but you can pretend it is by pumping up that life total and pushing out those dino-babies with
Huatli, Warrior Poet
, who really has it all. With that beautiful +2 and heartwarming 0 ability, it's easy to forget about her removal aspect. For the measly cost of Pay What You Want, you can strike down opponents creatures, and with a little help from
Jaya, Venerated Firemage
her ability becomes all the more deadly. If you want more direct and beneficial token generation then look no further than
Tezzeret, Artifice Master
! Get a flying blocker every turn, and if you have
Oath of Teferi
on the field you can even get two! Additionally, his emblem makes Sisay's activated ability nearly pointless, barring you have an interaction noted later. Finally for token generation in this CMC range is
Lord Windgrace
, told you we'd see him later. If you've seen my Lord Windgrace Deck then you know about my favourite thing to do with him and Vraska, Golgaria Queen. You don't risk sacrificing legends, if you want to sacrifice a permanent just sacrifice a land! Vraska is also in here as a cheap and obvious win condition. Speaking of.
The Meanies
These cards interact in very fun ways with later cards, but I'm sick of putting things off so here we go.
Ral Zarek
,
Gideon, Champion of Justice
, and
Chandra, the Firebrand
. Personally I believe Firebrand is an overlooked gem, seeing how cheap she is when compared to other Chandra cards, and Champion of Justice is just straight up broken tbh. Just, hey how many creatures do you have? Okay I get that many loyalty+1. I ult next turn/this turn if you've got Oath of Teferi. And sure, they're all pretty bad to go against on their own, but with some help from a recently -8'd
Rowan Kenrith
things get pretty weird. More on this next with our last Legendary segment,
The Meat
So, none of this means anything except to build up to getting out
Rowan Kenrith
and
Oath of Teferi
. It's all build up to getting out multiple Rowan Emblems through exponential growth. And honestly whether you cast, search, or play from exile, just get the cards out there. I mentioned the use of
God-Pharaoh's Statue
previously, and that's really all there is to it. Taxes, tax everything if you can. Honestly if I had another copy
Helm of the Host
would be in this deck to really pile in the taxing from Baird. I'll probably take apart another deck of mine to put the helm in though.
Will Kenrith
is here to search for his sister if all else fails, and he offers decent control aspects with turning creatures into 0/3's with no abilities, and can reduce the cost of any planeswalkers in your hand by two to help with casting if you need to.
Vivien of the Arkbow
, if I need to explain why the +2 "put two +1/+1 counters on a creature" planeswalker is in this deck then you haven't been paying attention.
Your end goal is to ult Rowan as many times as you can. Every activated ability that doesn't generate mana gets copied, including her own. So one emblem becomes three, becomes seven, becomes 15, becomes 31, ect. There is a potential near-infinite turn condition with Ral Zarek's ultimate. Flip five becomes ten becomes 15 ect. No matter what you do, you should be protecting and trying to ult one of the big-budget planeswalkers with a Rowan Emblem under your control.
Incidentals
Now we come to the non-legend support, and dip back into the CMC sorting for everything except manafixing.
2CMC:
Contentious Plan
and
Swiftfoot Boots
. Will Kenrith's emblem with give you two uses of Contentious Plan with a single cast, but it's really there as a one-off proliferate so you can ult planeswalkers faster and get more +1/+1 counters. The boots, I feel, are a staple in any deck where your commander is necessary. If you're lucky enough to get it in your opening hand I'd keep.
3CMC: Here's two of our non-aura enchantments.
Etchings of the Chosen
is a nice little buff to all your Human creatures, as they outnumber all other types that's what you choose with it, and lets you sacrifice legends that have outlived their usefulness to provide indestructible to another creature.
Abzan Ascendancy
has a counter distributing ETB and provides flying blockers if your opponents start wiping out legends. Not an enchantment but just as useful, the
Sword of Truth and Justice
gives its bearer a nice buff, distributes +1/+1 counters, and proliferates. Please note the protection from Blue and White also applies to things you control, but not passives. Sisay's passive ability will still affect her.
4CMC: Just the one,
Parallel Lives
. All tokens, all the time. You think you have enough tokens? You're wrong. Crack this baby onto the field with Tezzeret!
5CMC: WHO WANTS TO BE AN OCTOPUS???
Octopus Umbra
!!!! I don't need to explain this!! You just, turn Sisay into an octopus!!!
Grasping Current
and
Ignite the Beacon
are there to search up Planeswalkers.
6CMC: Just the good ol C18 card
Genesis Storm
. Another way to get legends out in late game.
Mana Fixing
Okay so this being commander, obviously our ideal turn 1 is a
Sol Ring
, and since this is one of the few decks that it is totally okay to keep a 5-6 land hand you're only gonna want to mulligan once or twice. So if you get that funky little star circle out on turn one you have four potential manabuilding turn 2 plays.
Manalith
,
Spectral Searchlight
,
Mana Geode
, and
Commander's Sphere
. Any of those is good but the sphere and Mana Geode are your ideal choices as both have secondary abilities. Additional manafixing artififacts are the
Firemind Vessel
which taps for two different colours, and
Gilded Lotus
for a 3-in-1 boost.
If you'd rather boost your lands directly, there are two aura enchantments and one general enchantment.
Market Festival
and
New Horizons
boost your mana production. With Market Festival adding two additional mana to the tapped land and New Horizons giving Sisay a boost as well.
Dictate of Karametra
is a nice group buff but be careful because it can nullify your taxing.
That's all there is to it! Hope you enjoy the deck and if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them!
UPDATE:
Emmara, Soul of the Accord has been swapped out for
Thran Temporal Gateway
, and Kestia has been swapped for
Helm of the Host
