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The Sultai live lives of decadence on the backs of the undead. Elite status and villainous wealth are sought after with ruthlessness and vehemence. The clan is situated deep in the jungle, where Naga and Rakshasa dabble in dark magic, drawing power from the exploited to raise an army of undead servants and warriors to answer their bidding. Sidisi is the Khan of the Sultai, and will stop at nothing until all of Tarkir bows at her feet, alive or dead.

Welcome to my Sidisi, Brood Tyrant EDH deck! This deck aims to exploit the graveyard as much as possible, and has multiple routes to victory via the accumulated value of milling ourselves and activating abilities from the graveyard. Sidisi isn't a very menacing commander, and can fly under the radar of other more straightforward commanders. But don't let that fool you! This EDH deck can flip the board state in an instant.

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Imagine Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, Hedron Crab, The Gitrog Monster, and Life from the Loam all at once. Now throw in a fetchland. Yeah, that's what prompted me to test the power of self-mill in colours. The power of this deck is it's subtle route to victory. The aim is to look as innocent as possible; who fears a 3/3 general that poops out 2/2 zombies via mill? Then suddenly a mana-rock becomes a win-con or you are casting half of your opponent's library.

This deck has multiple win-cons, most of which involve the graveyard to some extent. The flexibility of the deck makes it hard for opponents to completely shut it down, and leads to more interesting gameplay as each game can have a different outcome.

I love Sultai colours and this deck is a blast to play with! Graveyard strategies are my favourite, but Sidisi plays very different from Meren of Clan Nel Toth or The Mimeoplasm.

There are multiple themes of cards in this deck that can be divided into "packages" that operate well together to a single goal, usually a win-con. Sometimes powerful synergies like Hedron Crab, The Gitrog Monster, and Life from the Loam just surface on their own. In discussing the main strategies of the deck though, it is easier to view the cards that work together in packages. You'll notice a lot of cards are mentioned in multiple packages; it just goes to show the masterful combination of these cards working together at multiple strategies. That being said, let's explore the packages this deck has to offer:

  1. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
  2. Cabal Coffers
  3. Gaea's Cradle
  4. Deserted Temple
  5. Krosan Restorer
  6. Voyaging Satyr
  7. Kiora's Follower
  8. Aphetto Alchemist
  9. Fatestitcher
  10. Garruk Wildspeaker
  11. Kiora, Master of the Depths

Anyone who has ever played against Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Cabal Coffers knows how much insane mana can be produced per turn. However with untappers like Kiora's Follower and Voyaging Satyr that mana can just explode. Threshold is laughably easy to achieve with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant out, making Krosan Restorer the most powerful untapper in the deck. With just 2-3 untappers and Sidisi plus her zombies out, Gaea's Cradle also will tap for lots of mana each time. That isn't the extent of this package though. Cards like Aphetto Alchemist and Kiora, Master of the Depths allow you to untap Krosan Restorer, so you can untap Cabal Coffers and Gaea's Cradle multiple times in the same phase creating easily over 100 mana. But what does one use all that mana for?

  1. Exsanguinate
  2. Villainous Wealth

Sometimes you just need a huge lifeswing to end the game. A more fun route though is casting your opponent's entire library against your other opponents, likely killing them on the spot and letting your last victim lose from drawing into an empty library. That is, if they haven't already scooped.

The Lands Package is especially powerful because at it's focal point are lands, the hardest permanents to interact with in Magic. Without any untappers, the lands are powerful enough letting you cast multiple huge spells in one turn, giving you a huge advantage. Notable cards that help set up this package are Tolaria West, Crop Rotation, and any tutors for getting the missing lands you need. If any key components are self-milled or destroyed, Life from the Loam and Splendid Reclamation can get them back for you. This combined resilience makes the land package so effective.

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  1. Mesmeric Orb
  2. Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
  3. Aphetto Alchemist
  4. Basalt Monolith
  5. Dread

No, this isn't a Winter Orb lock. Mesmeric Orb is an often overlooked card, but might possibly be the most powerful card in this deck. It's so powerful, I put in Tezzeret the Seeker just to tutor it up. On its own, I can put some pressure on opponents who are running decks that don't utilise the graveyard effectively, especially late game when they are untapping 10-15 lands/creatures each turn. A note on the rulings of Mesmeric Orb: each permanent that becomes untapped will cause a separate trigger for the Orb (meaning separate Sidisi triggers) and players can still respond by casting instants and activating abilities before the first mill trigger resolves.

What Aphetto Alchemist and Basalt Monolith have in common is that they can themselves as many times as you want. Combined with Mesmeric Orb, you can mill your entire library one card at a time. However, you'll never actually mill your entire library. That's because of Dread. Each time Dread gets put into the graveyard, it will trigger Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, then shuffle itself back into the library. You can repeat this until Dread is the only card left in your library, and continue until you have any number of zombies. (Watch out for Rakdos Charm!) Do this on your last opponent's end step so the zombies can attack on your next turn. Then flash back Craterhoof Behemoth with Dread Return.

At this point, I will define the "Optimal Grave State" as being the state where the only card in your library is Dread, Narcomoeba is on the battlefield due to its own trigger, and your graveyard contains all other cards, most importantly Dread Return, Necrotic Ooze, Quillspike, Devoted Druid, Prodigal Sorcerer, and Thornling. Cards in hand are irrelevant, unless one of the above cards isn't in your grave. (Then discard that card via unearthing Rotting Rats.)

The key point of The Orb Package is to reach the Optimal Grave State as soon as possible and at instant speed. From the Optimal Grave State, multiple combos purely from the graveyard are possible. These combos are better explained with the next packages.

Besides setting up for graveyard shenanigans, Mesmeric Orb is also just generally good with our deck, even without an infinite ability. Each mill will trigger Sidisi, Brood Tyrant if it is a creature, forming a zombie buffer army to give you breathing room to work with your other spells. Since many of our spells have usage from the graveyard, like Filth and Sever the Bloodline, you should always tap your lands at the end of your last opponent's end step to get all the Mesmeric Orb triggers possible. If you mill a dredge card (Life from the Loam or Stinkweed Imp), it is almost always correct to dredge while Sidisi is out.

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  1. Necrotic Ooze
  2. Dread Return
  3. Quillspike
  4. Devoted Druid
  5. Prodigal Sorcerer
  6. Thornling

If you read the last Package, then you must be wondering why the Optimal Grave State insists upon the above cards being in the graveyard (as opposed to being in your hand or in exile). That's because there is a combo straight from the graveyard with these cards! After attaining Optimal Grave State, proceed with the following:

1.) Flash back Dread Return by sacrificing Narcomoeba and 2 other creatures targeting Necrotic Ooze. If you only have Narcomoeba on the battlefield, then unearth Fatestitcher and Rotting Rats for only 2 mana (since Fatestitcher can untap the land used to unearth it). Note that Rotting Rats can also help put any of the above combo pieces into the grave from your hand.

2.) With Necrotic Ooze, give itself haste with Thornling's ability.

3.) Now Necrotic Ooze to add to your mana pool with Devoted Druid's ability.

4.) Next, use Devoted Druid's second ability to Necrotic Ooze and put a -1/-1 counter on itself.

5.) Activate Quillspike's ability using the in your mana pool and remove the -1/-1 counter on Necrotic Ooze.

Repeat steps 3-5 until Necrotic Ooze is at a healthy power and toughness above all your opponent's life totals combined.

6.) Activate Prodigal Sorcerer's ability to deal 1 damage to an opponent.

7.) Necrotic Ooze with Devoted Druid's second ability each time to ping each opponent and creature to death. (Commenting on Prodigal Sorcerer's immense power level and obvious reprint inclusion in Eternal Masters is optional.)

If you ever run out of power and toughness to finish off everyone, always remember you can repeat steps 4-5 to buff up again. (Or if you're afraid of a Delirium effect, keep the power down low.) This combo runs at instant speed after the initial flash back of Dread Return though, so you should be quite safe on started. However, keeping Counterspell or Pact of Negation in your hand while comboing off isn't a bad idea.

The Ooze Package is a pure combo set which is very reliable because most cards rest safe in your library until you reach Optimal Grave State at instant speed, giving your opponents the only time to interact efficiently between flashing back Dread Return and resolving Thornling's haste ability. Most interestingly, this combo doesn't rely on your commander at all. Most opponent's don't see this one coming, and even if they did you're likely past the point where their responses will matter.

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  1. Hermit Druid

I know, Hermit Druid is just broken in EDH. (But if it's gonna be banned, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed or Triskelion should be banned too.) The Hermit is so good, it can have its own Package to itself. Actually, Hermit Druid is just another way to attain Optimal Grave State faster since this deck runs no basic lands. You reveal your entire library, then put it all into your grave from which your can pull off the Ooze combo. Technically this can lead to a turn 2 win with an opening hand of Ancient Tomb, Sol Ring, Simic Signet, Hermit Druid, and another land that taps for . Running the Hermit is completely optional, but with a tricolour manabase and the Ooze combo already included, it seems like a waste not including the 1 card shoe-in.

The best part though is that the Ooze combo doesn't NEED to be a result of Hermit Druid or Mesmeric Orb. It can just happen off of natural attrition and self-mill. If all the pieces are there, hard-casting Dread Return or Victimize is also fine (and results in less salt).

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This section is for commentary on each and every card in this decklist. It isn't necessary to read through all of it to understand how the deck works, but is useful when making changes to the deck so I know which pieces have multiple uses and which areas the deck can improve on.

P.S. It should be noted that all creatures in the deck automatically count towards triggering Sidisi, Brood Tyrant when milled, and near 33% creatures is desirable to maximise chances of triggering her each ETB/attack. Therefore some effects that may be found on spells are substituted with their creature equivalents.

P.P.S. It should also be noted that there are no basic lands due to inclusion of Hermit Druid.

Academy Ruins: A nonbasic land that gets Mesmeric Orb back after being milled because the Orb is so good. Not critical to the operation of the deck, and is an easy candidate for swapping for another utility land.

Aether Hub: An excellent land for mana fixing early. With the bouncelands, its second ability can be used multiple times.

Aphetto Alchemist: Part of the Mesmeric Orb combo. Also works great with Krosan Restorer, letting you untap 6 lands a turn.

Basalt Monolith: Part of the Mesmeric Orb combo. Also is just a good piece of artifact ramp. With multiple untap engines in the deck like Kiora's Follower, the Monolith is a good synergy piece.

Bayou: A nonbasic land that can be fetched with fetchlands.

Bojuka Bog: An important utility land in EDH. Gets extra value with bouncelands, and bring it back from the graveyard with Life from the Loam.

Breeding Pool: A nonbasic land that can be fetched with fetchlands.

Cabal Coffers: A powerful land in conjunction with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Combined with untap engines can net insane amounts of mana each turn.

Chromatic Lantern: A powerful EDH staple that ramps while also fixing mana. Allows you to tap fetchlands for mana until ready to crack them.

Command Tower: Possibly the best "dualland" ever?!? EDH staple. 'Nough said.

Commander's Sphere: A mana rock which fixes and can be cashed in late game for a card. Very good when Mystical Tutoring for a counterspell.

Counterspell: A catch-all counterspell which is relatively easy to cast. (Could be replaced with another counterspell in the future.)

Craterhoof Behemoth: Ends games on the spot. A couple triggers off Sidisi, Brood Tyrant gives you a miniature army. Also counts all the untap dorks sitting on the battlefield. Almost never hardcasted; flash back Dread Return to catch people off guard.

Crop Rotation: A tutor for the powerful lands in the deck. Doesn't lose you any mana either.

Crucible of Worlds:Being able to play lands from the graveyard makes each Sidisi mill trigger basically into card draw. Basically. Makes opposing Wastelands targeting our Cradles and Coffers silly. Also can be tutored by Tezzeret.

Cyclonic Rift: EDH staple in any deck that can cast it.

Cryptbreaker:Card draw in the form of a creature (to help trigger Sidisi, Brood Tyrant's mill) that synergies well with the zombie sub-theme. Also a discard outlet in a pinch.

card:Darkmor Salvage: A "value" nonbasic land that helps get the self-milling started.

Dark Petition: A universal tutor which almost always has Spell Mastery turned on. Allows you to go ahead with producing ridiculous amounts of mana before you have Exsanguinate or Villainous Wealth in hand yet, as you can tutor for them afterwards.

Decree of Pain: An EDH staple that goes in any deck that can cast it.

Deep Analysis: Much needed card draw that gains value when milled.

Deserted Temple: A powerful nonbasic land in this deck. Another untap engine that nets you one extra mana with a bounceland (etc. Golgari Rot Farm) and nets you much more mana in conjunction with Cabal Coffers or Gaea's Cradle.

Devoted Druid: A crucial part of the Ooze Combo. Also works as ramp early game which can easily put itself in the grave without any effort when it is time to combo off.

Dig Through Time: One of the few card draw spell in the deck. This deck always wants to draw very specific cards though, so looking through 7 is better than drawing 3 (Treasure Cruise). Also with a full grave it always costs 2 mana in this deck.

Dimir Aqueduct: A nonbasic land which ensures land drops and can sometimes protect/reuse lands.

Dimir Signet: A mana rock that ramps and fixes mana.

Dread: A crucial card that ensure that you (almost) never deck yourself. Also gets you infinite zombies if desired with Mesmeric Orb + Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and Aphetto Alchemist/Basalt Monolith.

Dread Return: A reanimation spell crucial to the Ooze Combo. Allows the Hermit Combo to go off with nothing in hand or grave.

Dryad Arbor: A nonbasic land that triggers Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, counts towards both Cabal Coffers and Gaea's Cradle, and can attack in when pumped with Craterhoof Behemoth. In other words, super versatile.

Eternal Witness: Gets back anything from the grave you need.

Exsanguinate: A powerful card that ends games on the spot in a normal deck, and definitely in this deck which can produce insane amounts of mana. Is also notably the only life-gain card in the deck, so tutor for it wisely.

Fact or Fiction: A fun card draw spell that gives you choice over what you draw to complete the combo package you are building, and also allows you to dump a creature in the grave to trigger Sidisi, Brood Tyrant.

Fatestitcher: An untapper which can also be unearthed in a pinch to combo off with Hermit Druid on turn 2.

Filth: Powerful card which often makes you zombie horde unblockable, and lets Sidisi, Brood Tyrant get more attack triggers in safely. Always get it in the grave; don't cast it unnecessarily.

Flooded Grove: A nonbasic land that fixes mana.

Gaea's Cradle: A powerful nonbasic lands that synergies well with the zombie produced by Sidisi, Brood Tyrant.

Garruk Wildspeaker: One of the best untappers which ramps you and can pump the zombie horde for the win.

Glacial Chasm:With all the land tutors in the deck, this "utility" land can often give you the few extra turns needed to assemble some combo.

Golgari Rot Farm: A nonbasic land which ensures land drops and can sometimes protect/reuse lands.

Golgari Signet: A mana rock that ramps and fixes mana.

Hedron Crab: This creatures synergies well with fetchlands and gets as many triggers for Sidisi, Brood Tyrant as possible. Needless to say, filling the grave is a good thing.

Hermit Druid: An optional card that lets you usually win next turn. What's not to like?

Hero's Downfall: Excellent removal.

Kiora's Follower: An all-purpose untapper.

Kiora, Master of the Depths: Surprisingly, all 3 modes are great in this deck. If none of the power lands are out, -2 to try to trigger Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. +1 to untap Krosan Restorer and Cabal Coffers and swim in mana.

Krosan Restorer: Number 1 all-star untapper. Threshold is a joke to achieve in this deck. Super powerful and your opponents will likely target it within a turn.

Life from the Loam: A very powerful card which essentially tutors out the powerful lands slowly over time. Dredging helps trigger Sidisi, Brood Tyrant.

Lightning Greaves: EDH staple that protects Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. However, sometimes it is correct to equip it to Krosan Restorer instead or Necrotic Ooze.

Llanowar Wastes: A nonbasic land that fixes mana.

Mana Confluence: A nonbasic land that fixes mana.

Meekstone: This artifact keeps many aggro decks off your back while building up the first couple of turns. Easily tutored up with Tezzeret the Seeker , and doesn't affect our 2/2 zombies. (Perhaps more of a sideboard card, but in my meta aggro is everywhere.)

Mesmeric Orb: Hands down one of the best cards in the deck with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant out. Notice that it triggers separately on each untapping permanent, triggering Sidisi for EACH creature milled. If you got nothing going on in your hand or grave, tutor for this first and foremost. Added bonus if you mill your opponents out.

Mind Stone: A mana rock that cashes in for a card late game. Especially good when tutoring with Mystical Tutor when you need that card right away.

Misty Rainforest: Nonbasic land that fetches either shocklands or duallands.

Murderous Cut: Often to destroy any creature. Removal is king.

Mystical Tutor: A tutor used "surgically" for the right card at the right time (usually on opponent's end step). Early game get Life from the Loam, mid game get Splendid Reclamation, late game get Yawgmoth's Will or Villainous Wealth. When in trouble, get Toxic Deluge or any removal.

Narcomoeba: Basically a free creature for blocking flyers or saccing to Dread Return.

Necrotic Ooze: Essential part of the Ooze Combo. See explanation above.

Opulent Palace: A nonbasic land with all your colours. Possibly too slow coming in tapped, but so far hasn't been a problem.

Overgrown Tomb: A nonbasic land that can be fetched with fetchlands.

Pact of Negation: One of the best counterspells as this deck tends to tap out often.

Petrified Field:Nonbasic land that helps get those powerful lands back when we don't have Life from the Loam yet.

Polluted Delta: Nonbasic land that fetches either shocklands or duallands.

Prodigal Sorcerer: Essential part of the Ooze Combo.

Quillspike: Essential part of the Ooze Combo.

Reliquary Tower: A nonbasic land that gives you no maximum hand size. Sometimes annoying with too many combo pieces stuck in hand, but Rotting Rats comes in handy.

Rotting Rats: A useful card in letting us discard combo pieces, put dredge cards in the grave turn 2 while forcing opponents to discard, or unearthing to sac to Dread Return.

Scroll Rack: A powerful artifact that allows you to set up Sidisi, Brood Tyrant's next mill trigger as well as digging through the deck for answers/combo pieces super efficiently.

Sever the Bloodline: Exile removal that can be cast even if milled. (Also there is a powerful Omnath, Locus of Rage deck in my meta, where Sever works good against tokens.)

Sidisi, Brood Tyrant:"A benevolent dictator is better than a democracy." - Me

Silence the Believers: Exile removal that can have a lot of targets with all the mana you produce.

Simic Growth Chamber: A nonbasic land which ensures land drops and can sometimes protect/reuse lands.

Simic Signet: A mana rock that ramps and fixes mana.

Sol Ring: The best mana rock in all of Magic???

Snapcaster Mage:With the Mage in hand your entire graveyard is basically in your hand. Very versatile, letting your cast a milled Villainous Wealth late game, or reusing a Pact of Negation on an unsuspecting foe. Recursion is the name of the game when you're self-milling to victory.

Splendid Reclamation: This is ramp. Pure, unadulterated ramp. And the lands you're getting back aren't just basic lands either. What other card in Magic lets you get 10+ lands onto the battlefield for 4 mana?

Stinkweed Imp: Dredge is a powerful ability in this deck. Chose the Imp over Golgari Grave-Troll because the Imp is more impactful when hard-casted in a tight situation.

Strip Mine:Just because we're playing with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers doesn't mean we want others to do so too. EDH staple for spiky metas.

Sunken Ruins: A nonbasic land that fixes mana.

Sylvan Library: EDH card draw staple. Run in all decks that can cast it.

Temple of the False God: A nonbasic land that ramps.

Tezzeret the Seeker : A tutor for Mesmeric Orb, Meekstone, and Sol Ring.

The Gitrog Monster: A powerful creature with no combos but pure synergy. Drawing an extra card each turn and essentially each mill trigger. Always combine with a dredge card on the first upkeep trigger since you'll likely mill another land and still get the new card + the dredge card. Lets you run out Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in the same turn. Plus it just sits there as a fat deathtouch toad discouraging attacks while gaining you card advantage.

Thornling: Essential part of the Ooze Combo. I consider it better than Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon since it can grant the Ooze indestructible in response to removal. Also not bad on its own hard-casted.

Tolaria West: Tutors for a powerful land or Pact of Negation.

Toxic Deluge: An EDH staple run in every deck that can cast it.

Treasure Cruise: Often a sorcery speed Ancestral Recall.

Tropical Island: A nonbasic land that can be fetched with fetchlands.

Underground River: A nonbasic land that fixes mana.

Underground Sea: A nonbasic land that can be fetched with fetchlands.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: A powerful land in conjunction with Cabal Coffers.

Vengeful Pharaoh: A super sneaky card that catches opponents off guard. It's so sneaky, I regularly forget its trigger myself. It isn't a may ability, but usually I realise at the end of the game that the Pharaoh was in the grave since turn 3 and I never remembered it :P Going back on top also helps trigger Sidisi, Brood Tyrant with a dredge card.

Verdant Catacombs: Nonbasic land that fetches either shocklands or duallands.

Victimize: A great reanimation spell with all the disposable 2/2 zombies hanging around. Lets you attack with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant because you actually prefer she gets blocked/dies so you can get an additional trigger reanimating her.

Villainous Wealth: A powerful (and fun) card to cast, usually with X>20 for maximum scooping effect.

Voyaging Satyr: A creature with the sole purpose of untapping the bouncelands, or better yet Gaea's Cradle/Cabal Coffers.

Watery Grave: A nonbasic land that can be fetched with fetchlands.

Yavimaya Coast: A nonbasic land that fixes mana.

Yawgmoth's Will:Very powerful spell that lets you cast your powerful spells even if they got milled without the hassle of returning Eternal Witness to grab the cards back, and much better than Snapcaster Mage since it gets all the cards you want (Protect that Exsanguinate with Pact of Negation hiding in the grave!) until end of turn. Just be careful not to cast it before trying the / engine with Basalt Monolith.

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Hand: Ancient Tomb, Sol Ring, Simic Signet, Hermit Druid, any land that can produce .

T1: Play Ancient Tomb, tap for . Cast Sol Ring and tap for another . Now with in your mana pool, cast Simic Signet and filter to get in your mana pool. Cast Hermit Druid.

T2: Play the other land that taps for . Tap Ancient Tomb for . Filter one through Simic Signet for . Activate Hermit Druid's ability with the , milling your entire library due to the lack of basic lands. Narcomoeba triggers and goes onto the battlefield. Dread triggers and goes back into your library (which is now 1 card). Use the in your mana pool to unearth Fatestitcher. Sacrifice all three creatures on the battlefield to flash back Dread Return, targeting Necrotic Ooze. Use the other land that taps for to activate Thornling's haste ability via Necrotic Ooze. Tap Necrotic Ooze for via Devoted Druid's ability. Untap Necrotic Ooze via Devoted Druid's second ability. Pay and remove the -1/-1 counter from Necrotic Ooze via Quillspike's ability. Repeat tapping for and removing the -1/-1 counter until Necrotic Ooze is 1,000,000/1,000,000 power and toughness. Tap Necrotic Ooze to deal 1 damage to your oppenent via Prodigal Sorcerer's ability. Untap Necrotic Ooze via Devoted Druid's second ability. Repeat pinging your opponents until they're dead.

???

Profit

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First, I'd like to say how the Turn 2 Win will pretty much never happen, so that doesn't make this deck "competitive". One could greatly improve the competitiveness of this deck by adding more tutors (I'm looking at you Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor) and more fast mana. With access to for tutors, for counterspells, and for mega mana and creature tutors, I'm sure a very powerful build exists out there. However, it goes against my idea of how EDH is meant to be played. It'll suck to build a sweet deck that Turn 2 or Turn 3's consistently, but sad when none of your friends want to play against it anymore.

That being said, this deck can still be quite ruthless and oppressive. It is hard to interact with except exile. If my meta shifts to more exile removal, then Riftsweeper will become a mainboard card and Traverse the Ulvenwald can come in to tutor it up. Then the deck can shift into more of a control build with more card draw (which is lacking in the current build) and Counterspells.

I don't have an actual competitive decklist, but anyone can search up the top French Commander decklists to see the missing power cards. Remember EDH is about gathering with your friends, having a couple beers, and letting everyone play their decks out! If you do build a competitive Sidisi, Brood Tyrant deck though, be sure to tag me! I'll +1 for sure; Sidisi is my Queen.

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This deck is super weak to exile effects and graveyard hate. Cards like Bojuka Bog, Leyline of the Void, and even Linvala, Keeper of Silence shut down a large portion of the deck. Also had to learn the hard way that Wave of Vitriol utterly destroys me. Main deck Meekstone and Glacial Chasm try to slow the game down enough and give breathing room. Please tell me about other cards I need to watch out for too! Suggestions would be greatly appreciated on how to combat such threats.

P.S. I already know about the Entomb + Eldrazi trick to save your grave, but it's not that dependable to have Entomb in hand all game to merit 2 more slots in the 99.

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TL;DR

Basically this is an awesome deck that has access to lots of mana, can win through big zombie hordes or tricky instant speed combo, and is resilient to most forms of disruption. It plays from the graveyard as much as from the hand, and is very good at laying low the first couple of turns before becoming an imminent threat.

You should play this deck if you like:

  • graveyard strategies
  • not attacking people
  • not being the centre of attention all game
  • combo decks
  • dredge and self-mill
  • heavy synergy
  • casting Villainous Wealth

You should NOT play this deck if you like:

  • pure control strategies
  • smashing face with your general
  • playing a political game
  • casting an impactful creature every turn
  • group hug strategies

I combined a lot of ideas for this deck, from the big mana untap theme and also the devoted Hermit decklists. I'm sure there are more combos, so let me know in the comments! With all the combined ideas though, I'm finding it hard to make cuts that don't neuter combos and synergies. Tell me what to cut and what to add!

My weird favourite card is the namesake of this deck, Taigam's Scheming. It's cool that this deck kinda follows the flavour of the card, but it just isn't strong enough for this deck. But I do run Taigam's Scheming in a casual version of this deck. Tell me in the comments about what underpowered, quirky card you always try to shove in your EDH decks as a kind of signature!

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Suggestions

Updates Add

Phyrexian Arena -> Nostalgic Dreams because the 1 card a turn wasn't that beneficial compared to casting all the powerful spells that got milled. Also acts as a discard outlet late when my hand is full of lands (from Life from the Loam) and combo pieces. Recursion is lacking in the deck too.

Darksteel Ingot -> Crucible of Worlds because mana fixing hasn't presented itself as a problem yet. Both at 3-CMC means curve shouldn't be affected and the power of the Crucible outweighs the ramp of the Ingot.

Twilight Mire -> Glacial Chasm because with so many land tutors, more "utility" lands should be included. The Chasm can give us a few extra turns to combo off, and double green is never really required.

Darkwater Catacombs -> Petrified Field because running so many powerful lands merits running more recursion. The Catacombs were also a hassle to manage early game.

Temple of the False God -> Strip Mine because playing with Cabal Coffers and Gaea's Cradle has taught me to fear lands. Also removing Temple will result in less mulligans (I hate seeing it in an opening hand that could have used ANY OTHER land).

Considering adding Magus of the Will, but honestly it is really slow at what it does. However it is a creature so that could help up the creature count (which Sidisi cares about). I would never replace Yawgmoth's Will with Magus though.

Also looking for a place to slot in Riftsweeper. Sideboarded for now, but exile effects are so common in EDH that I think it deserves a mainboard position. Just need a card to remove. Possibly Lightning Greaves or Meekstone (another card that should honestly by sideboard), but the Greaves can keep Sidisi or Gitrog out longer. Meekstone may attract too much hate from the table (opposite of my intention) as an anti-aggro card, so that might go to sideboard for the Sweeper. More play testing first.

Aside: Thinking of making version 3 of this deck (version 1 being creature heavy/zombie army, version 2 (this one) being combo), focused exclusively on winning with lands and stax.

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Top Ranked
  • Achieved #30 position overall 7 years ago
Date added 8 years
Last updated 4 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

5 - 0 Mythic Rares

49 - 0 Rares

29 - 0 Uncommons

17 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.17
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Emblem Kiora, Master of the Depths, Morph 2/2 C, Octopus 8/8 U, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders New commander???, Interesting Deck Ideas, mill, Elder Dragon Highlander
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