Alright this is an absolute overhaul of my former
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
build, and a neat little resurgence of my original commander deck. This time turning the self mill aspect into a win condition with the new
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
. There is that fun little interaction of Sidisi turning your self mill into new permanents on the field and triggering
Altar of the Brood
, turning your mill into your opponents mill, but that's not something to rely on. Keep the altar in your opening hand if you can though.
Three Steps To Become A Master Necromancer
Step One: Reduce!
The first thing you wanna do is keep that hand and deck small. There's not many cards that can be played on turn one or two on this deck that'll help with that, and even less that support the overall Zombie Tribal theme. But try and get them out anyway! With this being EDH obviously your ideal turn one includes a
Sol Ring
, but you'll want to keep any (decent) opening hands containing
Ghoulcaller's Bell
,
Taigam's Scheming
,
Search for Azcanta
, and/or
Deranged Assistant
. Taigam's Scheming is something I generally play after getting Sidisi out, but the Ghoulcaller's Bell and assistant are both solid T1/T2, with Deranged Assistant offering additional mana, meaning you can get Sidisi out T3 if you've got the other three colours. With the new mana balance it shouldn't be too hard to get any one colour though, and cards like
Chromatic Lantern
and
Pyramid of the Pantheon
makes it easier to keep the colours in check. We'll get to mana management later though.
Mindshrieker
and
Corpse Churn
are two more early self-mill plays, and relatively cheap so you can keep your hand a bit emptier each turn. Mindshrieker, the good little owl that it is, can mill you or your opponents, and provides you with a flying creature, while Corpse Churn mills you for three and let's you recover a creature. we'll revisit that in a later step as well!
That's all for the cheap stuff, on to the bigger and badder plays! Starting with a bit of recovery as well,
The Mending of Dominaria
gives us two in the graveyard for two turns before giving us everything in our graveyard back in two ways; first by putting all lands onto the battlefield from your graveyard, and second by putting the rest of your graveyard back into your library.
Taigam, Sidisi's Hand
is pretty powerful for a 5CMC creature, and will be revisited in the Reuse step for his activated ability. It's the passive we're interested in for this step. Skip your draw, and then choose two of the top three cards to go into your graveyard and put the remaining in your hand. For our purposes this means you can generate a 2/2 Zombie with Sidisi if you don't need any creatures from the selection. Lastly is
Liliana, Death's Majesty
. Those who've followed me for a while will know that I'd searched for a copy for a while, and thankfully I found one! This card is wonderfully for any Brood Tyrant deck, as her +1 ability has the potential to give you two zombies on every activation, and her -7 is a good board wipe, and will likely lead to a lethal turn. Especially if you have Arcane adaption on the field.
Of course, Reduce doesn't just apply to you, but your enemies as well. Target opponents with Mindshrieker whenever you like, then double up on their losses for the turn with
Fraying Sanity
.
Trepanation Blade
is a good equipment, as it's ability triggers on attack declaration instead of damage and can turn any attack against a mono-red or blue deck into a devastating blow regardless of blocking.
Enter the God-Eternals
is one of my favourite new cards, having four separate effects for only five cost. Deal four damage, gain four life, mill someone for four, and then Amass 4! Amazing! Of course you could target yourself for the mill and fill up that graveyard. But if you're playing it after
Undead Alchemist
, you're gonna want to target someone else. This card is a win condition on its own, and that's remained true for every iteration of the deck since I acquired it. Fun potential interaction with Altar of the Brood. I've had that trigger once and got like five zombies off of it.
Step 2: Reuse
ran out of time, will finish later tonight
