What ya Sasaya-ing?

Commander / EDH Casual Mono-Green Multiplayer Ramp

MajorMinni

Sorcery (18)

• 1x Boundless Realms
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Gaea's Bounty
• 1x Genesis Wave
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Harmonize
• 1x Journey of Discovery
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Life from the Loam
• 1x Mulch
• 1x Nissa's Pilgrimage
• 1x Peregrination
• 1x Praetor's Counsel
• 1x Primal Command
• 1x Rude Awakening
• 1x Seek the Horizon
• 1x Sylvan Scrying
• 1x Tooth and Nail

Artifact (9)

• 1x Armillary Sphere
• 1x Font of Mythos
• 1x Horizon Spellbomb
• 1x Howling Mine
• 1x Journeyer's Kite
• 1x Planar Bridge
• 1x Planar Portal
• 1x Ring of Three Wishes
• 1x Staff of Domination

Land (48)

• 1x Blasted Landscape
• 1x Blighted Woodland
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Desert of the Indomitable
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Glacial Chasm
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Mystifying Maze
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scrying Sheets
• 1x Slippery Karst
• 32x Snow-Covered Forest
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Tectonic Edge
• 1x Tranquil Thicket

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Abundance
• 1x Concordant Crossroads
• 1x Helix Pinnacle
• 1x Rites of Flourishing
• 1x Song of the Dryads
• 1x Sylvan Library

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Garruk Wildspeaker
• 1x Nissa, Worldwaker

Commander (1)

 ^Flip

Creature (11)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Greenwarden of Murasa
• 1x Hydra Broodmaster
• 1x Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
• 1x Krosan Tusker
• 1x Magus of the Library
• 1x Nantuko Cultivator
• 1x Yavimaya Elder

Instant (5)

• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Realms Uncharted
• 1x Sprouting Vines
• 1x Worldly Tutor

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Sideboard

Land (4)

• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Thawing Glaciers

Creature (1)

• 1x Seedborn Muse

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Do you sometimes feel like you don't get to shuffle your deck enough?

LIH - Lands in hand

Do you want to play combo but hate mulliganing and turn 3 wins? Does Cultivate make you feel warm inside? Introducing my big mana Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant / Sasaya's Essence deck. There are plenty of good/better mono-green commanders, but Sasaya has an unique twist to her - which in my opinion makes her interesting and fun build-around card. This list focuses more on using Sasaya's ability and winning in a single turn like a combo deck, rather than the usual "ramp up, play creatures" -strategy.

Earliest I have been able to win with this deck is on turn 5, which is a rare occurence - I was able to accelerate mana with the two planeswalkers and then chain a small Genesis Wave with Eternal Witness to win. Goldfishing a turn 6 win is quite common, it's not always consistent, but common nonetheless. In an actual game this may be delayed by some turns depending on your opponents.

The deck contains a bunch of land fetches, a lot of basic and utility lands, resilience in the form of recursion, tutors like Ring of Three Wishes for our win conditions and symmetric card draw effects like Howling Mine - these serve dual purpose; to draw extra cards each turn (really powerful in this deck), and make friends in the table. It plays well in 3-6 person multiplayer games, but is too slow for 1v1 action unless your opponent is playing a low power level deck.

Mulliganing

For your opening hand you want several lands and one to three cards that either get lands or draw cards. Due to there being 48 lands in the deck, and the rest of the deck being planned around this, there's a good chance you'll want to keep the first 7 cards. If your playgroup has one free mulligan, like mine does, you'll likely never go below 7. Cards to avoid in your opening hand are mainly Praetor's Counsel, Boundless Realms, Concordant Crossroads and Craterhoof Behemoth. One or two of them alone doesn't necessarily ruin your game, but you'll be relying more on the top of your deck. Because of Sasaya's mechanics, you'll be at a disadvantage the more you mulligan.

An exception to this, in my opinion, would be Life from the Loam and dredging it for each of your cards for turn. This has proven quite effective growing your LIH count to 7 fast, even with a poor hand.

Game plan

The basic idea behind this deck is to get 7 LIH, flip Sasaya and then try to get all the value you can from your abundant mana. Games usually can be separated into two phases; first before you have mana, second when you have too much mana.

1st phase

In the first phase you want as many LIH as possible, preferably without missing land drops or discarding cards. Easiest way to get to 7 lands is to already have a few LIH and then jump to 7 with something like Seek the Horizon, Yavimaya Elder, Mulch or Life from the Loam. It's important that you have Sasaya out when you're about to hit 7 lands.

Cards to look for early on (by CMC)

These are early game cards that further our game plan by drawing cards and restocking your hand with lands.

Green Sun's Zenith and Worldly Tutor are great early game tutors, either getting Dryad Arbor, Magus of the Library or Yavimaya Elder.

CMC Horizon Spellbomb.

CMC Journeyer's Kite, Armillary Sphere, Life from the Loam, Magus of the Library, Sylvan Library, Howling Mine.

CMC Yavimaya Elder, Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Nissa's Pilgrimage, Rites of Flourishing.

CMC Peregrination, Font of Mythos.

Cards to jump to 7 LIH (by how many lands)

You should use these cards to jump to 7 LIH and play/flip Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant.

- lands: Mulch (A high roll card that should be used if you feel lucky or there's no better choic).

+ lands: Sprouting Vines (instant).

- lands: Krosan Tusker (instant), Nissa's Pilgrimage (with Spell mastery).

- lands: Life from the Loam (Use dredge freely).

lands: Gaea's Bounty, Journey of Discovery, Realms Uncharted.

- lands: Yavimaya Elder.

lands: Seek the Horizon (Most consistent to get to 7 LIH).

2nd phase

In the second phase you have flipped Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant to Sasaya's Essence, you now have enough mana to win with a huge Genesis Wave - except first you must find it. Ideally you already have it in your hand and you win the game, but usually you wont. The deck has all the green and artifact card draw and tutoring that I could cram in it, which isn't as much would be preferable - but mono-green has to make due with what it's got. The first thing that I tutor after flipping is Nantuko Cultivator. Remember the 7 lands you have in hand for Sasaya, this is allows you to replace your entire hand - a really overlooked card that fits well in our deck.

There's a chance that you just can't draw for shit and you can't win straight up, but generally you have something you can do. This is something that I'm continuously trying to improve, by digging through gatherer and spoilers. To balance land count, land fetch, tutors, card draw and threats is a challenge.

The scenario that I have found myself the most often in is that I can tutor for a creature card, I get Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and overrun my biggest threats with +30/+30 trampling lands.

What to tutor

1. Genesis Wave (Game win)
2. Ring of Three Wishes (To get #1)
3. Planar Portal (To get #1)
4. Avenger of Zendikar / Hydra Broodmaster + Craterhoof Behemoth (With Tooth and Nail)
5. Nantuko Cultivator (Best value for single creature)
6. Avenger of Zendikar / Hydra Broodmaster / Kamahl, Fist of Krosa (If you don't need #5)

You also might come across a situation where you have enough power to kill your opponents, but need to tutor Concordant Crossroads for the win.

Game winning tutors

Tutors that can get Genesis Wave.

CMC - , Ring of Three Wishes (Tutors anything, 3 charges).

CMC - , Planar Portal (Tutors anything).

CMC - , Planar Bridge (Can get the two other tutors -> Genesis Wave if you have the mana).

Creature tutors

CMC - Green Sun's Zenith.

CMC - Worldly Tutor (Tutors on the top of the library).

CMC - Primal Command.

CMC (+ entwine) Tooth and Nail.

Some neat cards and interactions

• Genesis Wave -> Eternal Witness / Greenwarden of Murasa -> 2nd Genesis Wave.

• Abundance to prevent from decking and to filter cards when you don't need lands anymore (Usually after a big Genesis Wave).

• Nantuko Cultivator to cycle your land-filled hand (Once flipped).

• Untap your lands and generate/ramp up more mana with cards such as Nissa, Worldwaker, Garruk Wildspeaker, Rude Awakening, Myriad Landscape, Blighted Woodland, Boundless Realms (Once flipped).

• Magus of the Library - Incredible card draw engine in the early game, we'll have 7 cards in hand most of the time before we flip Sasaya.

Win conditions

• Kamahl, Fist of Krosa.

• Genesis Wave -> Concordant Crossroads.

• Tooth and Nail -> Avenger of Zendikar + Craterhoof Behemoth.

• Helix Pinnacle.

• Hydra Broodmaster.

• Rude Awakening.

Deck building

Here I'll compose some of my thoughts on building Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant. After 2 years of building, goldfishing and testing in a semi-casual playgroup, I feel like I have some insight in how the deck needs to operate.

Lands

Lands play a key role in the deck. The deck needs ~50 lands to consistently get Sasaya to flip, around 1/3 of the deck should be basic forests. Some people think 1/3 is too few basics, but in my experience this is enough to make use of Sasaya's Essence ability. Rest of the lands slots should be filled with utility lands.

Utility lands have a huge impact on how the deck plays. Especially lands that cycle or draw cards make the deck more consistent after you've flipped Sasaya. We also have ways to fetch up utility lands at instant speed with Crop Rotation and Realms Uncharted, and at sorcery speed with Sylvan Scrying.

The main reason to run snow lands is Scrying Sheets. This seems like and is a decent choice, but in my playtesting I rarely used the ability. Usually in the situation Scrying Sheets is good, you have better options.

Staple Utility Lands

These lands should definitely be in the deck.

• Blasted Landscape, Slippery Karst, Tranquil Thicket, Desert of the Indomitable*.

• Mikokoro, Center of the Sea.

• Blighted Woodland, Myriad Landscape.

• Reliquary Tower.

Good Utility Lands

These lands are powerful, but are less important for the deck to operate. You should consider if these lands fit your playgroup's metagame.

• Boseiju, Who Shelters All.

• Mystifying Maze, Maze of Ith*.

• Strip Mine, Tectonic Edge.

• Dryad Arbor*.

Optional Lands

Lands that seem good, but in my experience have underperformed, or lands that aren't particularly great.

• Scrying Sheets.

• Oran-Rief, the Vastwood**.

• Thawing Glaciers**.

• Evolving Wilds**

• Terramorphic Expanse**.

*To be added

**To be cut

Planned cuts

• Seedborn Muse.

• Planar Bridge.

• Oran-Rief, the Vastwood.

• Thawing Glaciers.

• Acidic Slime.

• Terramorphic Expanse.

• Evolving Wilds.

Planned additions

• Maze of Ith.

• Glacial Chasm.

• Dryad Arbor.

• Staff of Domination.

• Goblin Cannon.

• Desert of the Indomitable.

Any comments/suggestions are welcome!

Date added	8 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 29 - 2 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 3 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.73
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Hydra */* G, Plant 0/1 G