pie chart

Captain Sisay EDH

Commander / EDH*

DrLiteral


Maybeboard


Captain Sisay with tweaks for the new commander set.

This deck is a prison deck. It's also a toolbox deck. It's also a ramp deck, a midrange deck, and a combo deck. At it's heart though, it wants to search up legendary permanents that reduce your opponent's ability to interact with you or their ability to play Magic in general. There are a couple of lines of play when piloting this deck. The most aggressive one is to tutor for Paradox Engine + Selvala, Heart of the Wilds and get them on the battlefield as fast as possible and just tutor out your whole deck at that point. If you are doing this, you'll want to get Dragonlord Dromoka out as quickly as possible to limit your opponents' ability to interact with you. Another line of play is to pull out Yisan, and slowly gain advantage by tutoring out Quirion Ranger, then a 2 drop, then a 3-drop creature (probably Azusa), followed by something like Elvish Piper, then Seedborn Muse. You can then slowly tutor out your deck using Captain Sisay + Elvish Piper + Seedborn Muse at this point. The Yisan chain can keep going until you hit Archetype of Endurance. Fauna Shaman serves as a nonlegendary way to search for important cards like Elvish Piper, Seedborn Muse, and Archetype of Endurance. Elvish Piper is a good way to both cheat out large creatures and circumvent counter magic. Another line is to tutor for your prison pieces, then drop Myojin of Life's Web to dump your hand all at once. This is best facilitated by Captain Sisay + Seedborn Muse to fill your hand with creatures during your opponents' turns. Rings of Brighthearth, Quirion Ranger, and Thousand-Year Elixir slot into any of these lines to allow you to double up on tutoring (or cheating creatures out with Elvish Piper).

As far as some card choices go, all mana rocks, mana dorks, and ramp spells are design to facilitate getting out Sisay by turn 3 or earlier. As such, none of these cards cost more than 2 mana. Typically if I'm searching for a Plains, I grab Mistveil Plains. Being able to grab cards in your graveyard and throwing them back into your deck to tutor them back out is powerful. Most noncreature spells are chosen by whether or not I can cast them from under Gaddock Teeg. There are exceptions to this though: Nevinyrral's Disk is very powerful with Avacyn, Return to Dust and Freyalise are very powerful removal options (with Freyalise also being tutorable now!), Green Sun's Zenith because its just powerful, and Austere Command because I consider it a staple boardwipe.

There are some noteworthy interactions in the deck:

  • Avacyn, Angel of Hope + Nevinyrral's Disk allow you to blow up the field. Kamahl allows you to blow up their lands as well. Seedborn Muse allows you to do this every turn.
  • Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite + Kamahl, Fist of Krosa allows you to blow up everyone's lands. Seedborn Muse can let you do this during each player's upkeep.
  • Hokori, Dust Drinker + Thalia, Heretic Cathar can slow down the game long enough for you to set up. Don't forget that Sisay can fetch lands, which can guarantee you a land drop every turn. Vorinclex can help facilitate this lockdown. Seedborn Muse exempt you from this lock entirely.
  • Brisela, Voice of Nightmares + Gaddock Teeg narrow your opponents' plays significantly by greatly limiting what spells they are allowed to cast.
  • Archetype of Endurance + Avacyn, Angel of Hope protects your important stuff from most removal. Sigarda, Host of Herons, Linvala, Gaddock Teeg, and Brisela protect you from everything else this doesn't cover except for maybe some triggered abilities.
  • Flashing out Yeva can reset your loop with Paradox Engine if it interrupted by interaction before you can get Dragonlord Dromoka and/or Linvala, Keeper of Silence in play.
  • Scroll Rack with Paradox Engine when combined with abilities that can put more cards in your hand like Captain Sisay or Selvala, Explorer Returned, can allow you to dig really deep into your deck for specific cards.
  • If a card you need is in your graveyard, you can put it back into your deck with Bow of Nylea or Mistveil Plains for you to tutor pack out with Sisay, Fauna Shaman, or the myriad of tutors available. Discarding Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre to Fauna Shaman can do this too. You can and will be targeted for graveyard hate, so even if you don't need any cards now it may be a good idea to put any legends back into your deck as soon as possible.
  • Sometimes there's too much stuff going on for you to set up properly. It happens. Myojin of Cleansing Fire and Nev's Disk can help clear the board and start over.
  • Though I don't have him in the deck yet, Mangara of Corondor is nice removal when you need him. You can double up on the removal with Rings, Elixir, or Quirion Ranger, then sacrifice him to Miren, the Moaning Well before he exiles himself. He's good enough for me to want him in the deck somewhere.

As far as Maybeboard decisions go: Garruk Wildspeaker is a nice ramp card and finisher, but it can't be cast when Teeg is in play. Gideon of the Trials is a tutorable Platinum Angel effect. Mangara is nice removal when paired with something that lets you sac it, like Miren, the Moaning Well. Mirror Entity, Yosei, and Reveillark are part of a lockdown combo with Saffi Eriksdotter and Karmic Guide that can result in perma-tapping your opponent's fields. Quicksilver Amulet is another Elvish Piper, but again it can't be casted with Teeg out. Scryb Ranger is really good with the Yisan line of play, so I'm currently trying to fit it in. Ramunap Excavator is good with Azusa; running it would mean including cards like Strip Mine in the land base. Mirari's Wake is great to help get creatures onto the battlefield the old-fashioned way, but it can't be played from under Teeg.

Obvious upgrades include adding Gaea's Cradle, and replacing Into the North with Three Visits

There are also some alternatives to some card choices:

  • Freyalise > Glissa Sunseeker
  • Yeva > Vedalken Orrery
  • Austere Command > Hour of Revelation
  • Eladamri's Call > Congregation at Dawn
  • Fauna Shaman/Yisan > Birthing Pod

CHANGES:

-1 Myojin of Life's Web; +1 Mother of Runes

-1 Archetype of Endurance; +1 Mangara of Corondor

-1 Sakura-Tribe Elder; +1 Avacyn's Pilgrim

-1 Arctic Flats; +1 Ancient Tomb

-1 Into the North; +1 Talisman of Unity

Suggestions

Updates Add

Comments

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Hi! Please consider becoming a supporter of TappedOut for $3/mo. Thanks!


Important! Formatting tipsComment Tutorialmarkdown syntax

Please login to comment

Casual

99% Competitive

Date added 6 years
Last updated 5 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

18 - 0 Mythic Rares

53 - 0 Rares

13 - 0 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.27
Tokens Beast 3/3 G
Folders Commander
Votes
Ignored suggestions
Shared with
Views