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"Surpass Metal Gear?" Punished Sigarda [PRIMER]

Commander / EDH Aura Hexproof Enchantment GW (Selesnya) Voltron

Yossarian55

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Land (36)

Gear: Armor (8)

Support Unit (21)

Gear: Weapon (14)

Commander (1)

Commander: Sigarda, Host of Herons

Intel Unit (20)

"Why are we still here? Just to suffer? Every night, I can feel my life… and my creatures… even my commander. The commander damage I’ve lost… the permanents I’ve lost… won’t stop hurting… It’s like they’re all still there. You feel it, too, don’t you?" -Gisela "Gaz" Miller

This is an enchantment build of a classic Sigarda, Host of Herons Voltron deck. We are going to turn Sigarda into a weapon to end all wars. Finally, we will have a weapon to surpass Metal Gear...

Sigarda almost seems purpose built for Voltron decks. She comes down and is already very hard to get rid of, but if we suit her up, she becomes even more of a threat. And so that will be our goal: make her an omnipresent monster that cannot be stopped.

We’re a singularly focused deck. We aren’t trying to combo off, we aren’t trying to go wide, and we aren’t trying to stall the game out. We have components from those strategies in here, but they aren’t our main goal. Everything in here is to make Big Sig as big and as sig as possible. To do just that, Sigarda needs accessories. There are a few ways to get her as big as she needs to get, so lets talk about those.

  • Spells – In a 1v1, hitting Sigarda with a few pump spells and a Berserk would be a death sentence to the poor bastard across from you. But we’re not doing 1v1 are we, we need to kill three other people with this murder-lady, so spells won’t really work out. Besides, if it’s spells we want, there are better options than Sigarda (laughs in Feather).
  • Anthems – Anthems are nice. You just drop them down and let them do their thing. That thing, however, is pumping your entire board. We aren’t interested in that. We’re here to pump Sigarda and not really anyone else. That being said, if we can pump the board to help out our bit-players while helping out Sigarda, it’s not a bad idea. We just have to put our survival and Sigarda’s survival ahead of theirs.

That leave us with two realistic methods left. Let’s look at them now.

  • Equipment – The first version of this deck was an equipment deck. Artifacts are kind of on the busted side of the spectrum already, so giving a bunch of them to a house like Sigarda only makes sense. White is pretty nice when it comes to artifacts. Cards like Stoneforge Mystic, Puresteel Paladin, and Sigarda’s Aid make them come out swinging. But green on the other hand, green is more of an artifact breaking color. That left green as only there for ramp and recursion, which are both very nice, but they didn’t directly contribute to making Sigarda hit harder. But do you know what both white and green do love?
  • Enchantments – Yes, white and green are probably the two best enchantment colors in the game. They both LOVE enchantments and have some pretty damn good ones at their disposal. So now instead of working beside each other, both of our colors are working towards the same goal. They both want us to cast enchantments, they both care about the enchantments on the field, and they want to make Sigarda swing like a truck. And with the recent sets showing a lot of love for this particular class of permanents, we should oblige and see what they can do for us.
When one thinks of the colors that enable lots of card draw, one naturally thinks of white and green. Wait, hang on one second, I’m being told that these are the worst colors for card draw in the game. Fantastic. So what are we going to do? Well, fortunately for us, there is one condition that white and green will happily draw a bunch of cards for: playing enchantments. That’s right, enchantresses. They are the backbone of all of our extra card draw. Most of the enchantresses draw off of you casting an enchantment, and that is more than fine. It’s what we want to do anyway, so we can work with that. A couple of them though, they care about them entering the battlefield. So we get value when we cast them, as well as flickering. Keep that in mind when you’re using Flickerform on Sigarda at the end of your opponent’s turn.

Rummaging, on the other hand, we do have. There are plenty of role-players in here that let you look through the top of your deck and take the choicest cut back to your hand. Calix, Destiny's Hand, Ajani, Mentor of Heroes, and Siona, Captain of the Pyleas are some of the best at this. And remember, we aren’t looking for any specific cards, just whatever we have on hand to make Sigarda’s pain-train that much more painful, so take whatever fancies you at the time.

Other than them, we don’t really have much in the way of card draw. However, that is not too much of a problem for us since, again, our goal isn’t a card in our deck. Our goal is in our command zone waiting to break free and break skulls. The chaff in our deck is just there to accelerate the hurting, so as long at there is a steady stream of buffs for her, we don’t need to look for a specific card.

But if you do want a specific card to make the hurting easier, there are ways. We have a couple of ways to get some gear out of our deck, such as Lost Auramancers and Three Dreams to name a few. These will mostly go find the things to keep us and Sigarda safe, while allowing the card draw to give her the power boost she deserves. A couple of cheeky things you can do with the tutors in here are:

  • Academy Rector + Gift of Immortality – This lets Academy Rector die, go find an enchantment and put it straight onto the battlefield, then come back at the next end step. This works since hitting the graveyard is what triggers the Gift of Immortality so the tutor goes off. Nice, huh?
  • Heliod's Pilgrim + Flickerform – While Pilgrim works with Gift of Immortality as well, it also works with Flickerform while Rector does not. This lets you flicker it to search for any aura you want and put it in your grip. While this isn’t as good as Rector putting any enchantment directly into play, it’s not bad.
This is mostly about our protection. We’ll get into Sigarda’s protection in a minute. Our survival comes mostly from tax effects, making attacking us cost too much, and not being able to target us. Aegis of the Gods gives us hexproof so we can’t be targeted by burn or life loss. Tax effects like Angel of Jubilation, Blind Obedience, Thalia, Heretic Cathar, and the like are to slow our opponents down while we get Sigarda ready for her big fight. Making attacking us too costly comes in two forms. First, there is the straight up “it cost money to enter” effects like Ghostly Prison and Sphere of Safety. Second, are the fun ones. The “Thunderdome” effects as they are known. Cards like Dueling Grounds and Silent Arbiter make it so only one creature may attack and only one creature may block. That means whatever they send at us is more than likely going to run into a juiced-up angel with blood on the brain. Sucks to be them…
Since we’re treating Sigarda like an instrument of war, we need to suit her up with both weapons and armor. For armor, she doesn’t need much since she’s got so much built-in already. Giving her indestructible and vigilance are all she really needs on that front. Protection from creatures can be useful defensively if she has to block something with deathtouch or if something just mass pings. On offence, she can never get enough. There are the standard buffs like Rancor, Armadillo Cloak, and Eldrazi Conscription as well as “every enchantment matters” ones like All That Glitters and Ethereal Armor. The latter ones can get rather large since they count enchantments and some other things (artifacts, creatures, the opponents’ boards, etc…) so don’t underestimate them.
As stated earlier, we aren’t here to combo off. We are here to smash faces. That said, there is one combo that works out nicely for us incidentally: Siona makes a dude whenever an aura is attached to a creature we control and the Shield can attach to any of our creatures when they enter the battlefield. This means that when a dude is made, the Shield can move to that creature, triggering Siona again and starting the whole thing over. This will lead to infinite dudes on our board, so you can go wide with that if Sigarda isn’t working for some reason.

There is another combo that I am considering adding to the deck, but more on that below.

Sigarda, Host of Herons – For Voltron commanders, she’s hard to beat. Comes in with evasion and two kinds of protection, can’t ask for much more than that. Once she gets indestructible, she’s only vulnerable to mass bounce and mass weakening. With Cyclonic Rift and Toxic Deluge being near ubiquitous in EDH, that does kind of suck, but with that being the ONLY things that she can’t get protection from, it still sounds good to me.

  • Aegis of the Gods – We want a “fair” slug fest with our opponents, not them ignoring Big Sig and going after us.
  • Argothian Enchantress – Card draw engine we get from dropping enchantments. Her shroud helps her stay on the field. The rest of the enchantresses are steps down from this one, but they are all lovely in their own right.
  • Bronzehide Lion – An above rate creature that comes back as an aura that gives indestructible sounds nice to me. The cost of activating indestructibility isn’t ideal, but once Sigarda is suited up, we’re mostly playing reactionary anyway while she does all the heavy lifting.
  • Destiny Spinner – Uncounterable enchantments AND creatures? Yes please. Make our lands into big blockers if Sigarda can’t pick them up? Double yes please. Three toughness? What were they thinking when they made this card…
  • Gaddock Teeg – Everyone’s favorite “not this thing again” card works pretty well for us. He only stops a few things for us while allowing Sigarda to get suited up under him. If he starts getting in our way, someone else will probably be more than happy to kill him for us.
  • Herald of the Pantheon – Cost reduction on our enchantments and incidental lifegain. Gotta love it.
  • Eidolon of Countless Battles – A body that gets bigger if we need him that way, another piece of gear for Sigarda if that’s what we need.
  • Heliod's Pilgrim – Tutor for any Aura on ETB? Love it. Use Flickerform to make it repeatable? Now it’s perfect.
  • Mesa Enchantress – (See Argothian Enchantress)
  • Nomad Mythmaker – The creature counterpart to Hall of Heliod's Generosity. God forbid something happen to our auras, but if so, Mythmaker has our back.
  • Satyr Enchanter – (See Argothian Enchantress)
  • Setessan Champion – (See Argothian Enchantress, but swole)
  • Siona, Captain of the Pyleas – The new hotness. Looks through a ton of our deck for Auras and makes dudes when we gear up. And yes, Shielded by Faith and her is bonkers. So many dudes…
  • Thalia, Heretic Cathar – Good ol’ Thalia. Slows down our opponents while we load up the big gun.
  • Academy Rector – Possibly the most violent card in the game. This crazy old coot will run head long into any fight and (annoyingly) usually come out unscathed. There aren’t many sac outlets in Selesnya (we’ve only got High Market in right now) so combat is the fastest way to crack this thing for the gooey, delicious innards of finding any enchantment in the deck and dropping it straight into play. Free Eldrazi Conscription or Sphere of Safety sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
  • Angel of Jubilation – Cuts our opponents off of some common activation requirements and incidentally makes Sigarda bigger. Win-win in my book.
  • Eidolon of Blossoms – Like Argothian Enchantress, but counts herself when she comes in and is an enchantment to boot. Not too bad at all.
  • Lost Auramancers – I love these guys. They just come down, stand there for a few turns, then explode into an Eldrazi (Conscription). Or something else if you need it, but usually into an Eldrazi.
  • Silent Arbiter – One of our referees. When only one creature can attack each turn, it just makes Sigarda that much more of a threat.
  • Boonweaver Giant – Helpful in finding Auras, but since they come in on him, we need to kill him and use the Hall, Mythmaker, or Calix to get them back. He is nice, but might be heading back to a Pattern deck soon.
  • Calix, Destiny's Hand – Dude loves enchantments. Helps us cycle through the deck, turns any enchantment into an Oblivion Ring, and Replenishes. All in all, pretty good. Only thing that sucks with him is sending enchantresses or other enchantments to the bottom of the deck since he can only grab one and no creatures. If only there were a way to get creatures too…
  • Ajani, Mentor of Heroes – There we go. Now we can get creatures with our rummaging, but we can’t get any enchantment, only auras. He does also boost up Sigarda’s firepower if needed and can just gain 100 life if left alone. You know, trivial things.
  • Serra the Benevolent – Not gonna lie, this card is mostly here because it’s a pet card of mine. The incidental boost to Sigarda is nice, the blockers she makes is nice too, and the “can’t go below one life” emblem can be handy too. She doesn’t have the biggest impact in this deck, but she works her butt of as a good role-player. And that is the true mark of team success.
  • Sol Ring – Yes, I hate it too. If you don’t want it, don’t put it in here. Nobody will think less of you. In fact, people will statistically like you more. They’ve done the math. Until you dirt them into the ground with a 26/26 commander with just about every keyword and protection possible that is. Then they will hate you again. So just go ahead and play the ring.
  • Arcane Signet – Made for this format, and made well.
  • Talisman of Unity – Ramp rock.
  • Thaumatic Compass   – Gets you lands into play, then turns into a Maze of Ith. Kind of works amazingly with Dueling Grounds and Silent Arbiter.
  • Spear of Heliod – An anthem for our girl, and retaliation for anyone getting to uppity and coming at us before the bell rings.
  • Authority of the Consuls – Slows our opponents down while Sigarda puts her gear on.
  • Ethereal Armor – Here we get to the big boys now. This is one of the main ways Sigarda is going to get swole. The tried and true MTG strategy of lords lording other lords is alive and well with these bad boys. With this, All That Glitters, Ancestral Mask, and Eidolon of Countless Battles, you can get Sig big as hell. With Ethereal Armor also giving first strike, All That Glitters counting your artifacts too, Ancestral Mask counting all enchantments on the board, and Eidolon of Countless Battles counting your creatures too, Sigarda will become massive in a short amount of time with these things.
  • Instill Energy – A cheap aura that gives haste and pseudo-vigilance.
  • Land Tax – Helps us ramp as well as boosting our enchantment count for only one mana.
  • Rancor – We’re in green and plan on attacking our opponents. Of course were playing this thing.
  • Sentinel's Eyes – A little power and, more importantly, vigilance. Vigilance is very good for us since it lets us use the one creature we are pouring most if not all of our resources into for both attack and defense. Also, the escape is pretty nice since bringing it back with Siona, Captain of the Pyleas will make more dudes and draw a bunch of cards with an enchantress on the board.
  • Spider Umbra – Totem armor. Let’s talk about totem armor. Totem armor is nice, but it is not indestructible. Totem armor protects the creature from dying, but you lose the aura in the process. Making the creature indestructible just blanks the spell. Totem armor does usually come with a buff, but losing the aura will make our other auras weaker. It’s a give and take with these things, but all in all, I’d rather just go with indestructible.
  • All That Glitters – (See Ethereal Armor)
  • Blind Obedience – (See Authority of the Consuls)
  • Daybreak Coronet – The holy grail of aura Voltron builds. This thing is a house. A big buff, vigilance, and lifelink is all nice and good and wonderful. More please.
  • Flickerform – This thing is an absolute unit. Not only does it give us the ability to protect Sigarda from mass bounce and weakening by blinking her, she comes back with all of here auras intact. This thing also works nicely with Heliod's Pilgrim for repeated tutoring and with an enchantress for extra card draw. 10/10 would attach again.
  • Luminarch Ascension – Cheap enchantment that can start popping out Angels once our fort is set up.
  • Spirit Mantle – Protection from creatures lets Sigarda attack and block with impunity. Also, won’t make her auras fall off if we need to attack through a green or white creature.
  • Sterling Grove – An EDH all-star. Protects our enchantments from targeted removal and can also tutor if needed. All we could really ask for.
  • Ancestral Mask – (See Ethereal Armor)
  • Armadillo Cloak – This thing may not be ideal, but it ran roughshod over everything when I started playing Magic, so I can’t really imagine a deck about 'Enchant Creatures' in these colors without this thing. Bonus fact, the life gain from this thing is not lifelink so if you have something else giving Sigarda lifelink, you get both. Nice, huh?
  • Battle Mastery – Double strike. Enough said.
  • Dueling Grounds – Our other referee alongside Silent Arbiter. Makes everyone have to 1 v 1 the monster we have created. And it’s an enchantment to boot.
  • Duelist's Heritage – Again, double strike. Enough said. This also can make some good political plays since you can give an opponent’s creatures double strike if they are attacking someone else.
  • Ghostly Prison – Makes attacking us that much more of a hassle while we’re getting ready to smash faces. Two isn’t a whole lot to pay, but slows down attacking us en masse. And again, enchantment.
  • Gift of Immortality – Super indestructible. It doesn’t save the auras attached when it blinks away, but it’s not an effect to say no to. And with our, albeit limited, enchantment recursion, it’s not the end of the world. Also, since mass removal is the only thing that can even dent Sigarda, once everything else is dead, a free 5/5 flyer is nothing to sneeze at.
  • Oath of the Ancient Wood – At first, I wasn’t sure about this guy, but he is proving to be an absolute unit in this deck. As long as it is out, every enchantment is juice for Big Sig, and if it’s an aura going on her anyway, then all the better. You can even use it early on enchantresses or Siona to give them some more staying power if you desire.
  • Shielded by Faith - Pure indestructibility. You can throw it out early on an enchantress without worrying about it not getting to Sigarda when she drops (and it makes her indestructible immediately this way). Also, the engine to make Siona unload her clown boat if you want to do it that way. All in all, a good addition to the deck.
  • Sigil of the Nayan Gods – Not going to lie, mostly in here for the cheap cycling cost. Can get large with Siona or some other token maker on the board, but Eidolon of Countless Battles does that too. On the fence about this one’s usefulness, so it might get dropped.
  • Unquestioned Authority – (See Spirit Mantle)
  • Vow of Duty – Initially included because it gave vigilance, but more and more I’ve ended up using it to make something nasty point at someone besides me. Might explore including the green version of this guy for more of that, but I’m not holding my breath.
  • Smothering Tithe – Another EDH all star that everyone universally loves. Helps us with mana for all the enchantments we want to drop in order to draw more with enchantresses. Also boosts All That Glitters as a nice bonus.
  • Privileged Position – Again, hexproof on all of our things is nice. Don’t know how necessary it is, but it’s nice to have around. Might not make the cut long term.
  • Sigil of the Empty Throne – A free angel for doing what we want to anyway? I’m not seeing a downside with that arrangement. In all seriousness, this thing is nice, but doesn’t directly help Sigarda romper stomp people. Might be getting the boot for something else since by the time it comes out, Sigarda is already out and ideally getting suited up. Defensively it is nice, but might not be necessary.
  • Sphere of Safety – Like Ghostly Prison, but it cost them the number of enchantments we control. Which is a bunch. For each creature.
  • Eldrazi Conscription – First things first, it feels weird putting this on the only angel on Innistrad that didn’t fall victim to the Eldrazi (suck it Avacyn stans). This thing functions like Argentum Armor did in the equipment version of this deck, but slightly different. The armor destroyed one thing of your choosing, but this gets rid of two things of their choosing. Armor gave +6/+6, this one is +8/+8. Either way, it is usually game over when Sigarda starts swinging an Eldrazi around like a flail (that is how it looks in my head. Siggy would never fall victim to the beings from the Blind Eternity. Stay strong girl.)
  • Enlightened Tutor – Hmmm… We’re an enchantment deck in white… Why would this be here…?
  • Teferi's Protection – Another way of protecting from mass bounce/weaken. Because this is phasing and not exiling, everything comes back the way it was when it left. That means, importantly, that Sigarda comes back with any auras she had attached still on her. And something about life not changing too. That’s okay I guess.
  • Open the Armory – Initially I forgot about this guy until I read that he grabs auras too. Get on in.
  • Three Dreams – It’s like this card was made for this deck. Three auras? Easy. Different names? I think I can find three different ones in my singleton deck. Into my hand? So I get to cast them and draw from the enchantresses? Say no more. I’m in.
  • Ancient Tomb – Two colorless for two life is a good deal. Helps us power out things early.
  • Arid Mesa – Not usually a Selesnya staple, but fetches are so good, it doesn’t really matter if both sides are on color. We’re more white than green, so getting a Plains is usually enough if you can’t grab a dual land.
  • Bountiful Promenade – Hopefully we can get this out before we brown two of our opponents. If not, I don’t think we’ll really need it then.
  • Brushland – One life for fixing or colorless for free isn’t the worst deal. It doesn’t enter tapped, so it makes it in.
  • Canopy Vista – We’re running a good amount of basics, so this thing will usually come in untapped. If not, you can fetch at the end of the turn for this since it is a Plains.
  • Castle Ardenvale – Making dudes whenever you have the free mana is nice. It will almost always come down untapped, and the ability makes some of our gear better.
  • Cavern of Souls – A holdover from when this deck had more angels, but still carries its weight a bit making sure Sigarda hits the board reliably. If there is a better option out there, might get swapped out.
  • Command Tower – A card purpose built for this format getting played in this format. Who would have thought…
  • Forest – For casting our green spells.
  • Hall of Heliod's Generosity – Made for enchantment decks. Auto-include.
  • High Market – Helps us kill our irritatingly resilient Academy Rector and sometimes Boonweaver Giant when that helps.
  • Horizon Canopy – Fixing and card draw later on. Sounds good to me.
  • Kor Haven – A deterrent when our referees are out. Also stops commander damage from hitting us.
  • Krosan Verge – Finds forests or plains. Any forest or plains, not just basic ones. Worth the cost.
  • Marsh Flats – (See Arid Mesa)
  • Myriad Landscape – Like Krosan Verge, but only finds basics. Still not bad.
  • Plains – Like forests, but for white spells.
  • Prismatic Vista – Any basic for one life? Yep. You know it, you love it. Play it.
  • Razorverge Thicket – Fast lands have their place. Ideal if you can get it early, not the end of the world if you don’t.
  • Savannah – Use it if you have one. They are prohibitively expensive because, well, there is no good reason why, but they are. Not the time to get into the reserved list rant. If you don’t feel like dropping hundreds of dollars on these things, a Plains will get you by most of the time. I’m using the non-tournament legal international collector’s edition since the people I play with are cool with that. (Well look at that, I just solved your problem Wizards. And you don’t even have to pay me.)
  • Scattered Groves – This thing is a forest plains so it can be fetched for. If you draw it late, it does have cycling.
  • Sunpetal Grove – Hardly ever coming in tapped. Great land.
  • Temple Garden – Another Forest Plains for fetching, but you can also just take the two damage if you need it right now.
  • Windswept Heath – Our on-color fetch. Does everything that Arid Mesa and Marsh Flats does, but can also find a basic forest if that’s what you need.
  • card:Yaviamaya Hollow – I hardly ever use the regenerate on this thing, but I can’t think of anything to replace it with. I just know that as soon as it’s swapped, I’ll be missing it like crazy.

  • Selvala, Explorer Returned – This thing makes mana and draws us a card. Sure, it draws everyone a card, but since our goal is to make our resident angel as unanswerable as possible, I’m thinking I’m okay with everyone else drawing in hope of an “answer.”
  • Faith Healer – Auratog or Thaumatog would work here too since they all do what we want: a free sac outlet for enchantments. Ideally, the only thing we would sacrifice here would be Rancor since it would just pop back to our hand. This would let us drop it down again for enchantress drawing or for stacking counters made by Oath of the Ancient Wood on Sigarda. Faith Healer might also save us in a pinch if things take a turn for the worse.
  • Boon Satyr – This thing is just good value. Three CMC for four power is nice, four CMC as an aura isn’t the worst, and it has flash. Not too shabby. It just doesn’t have the utility of other creatures or the abilities of other auras we have. If more firepower is what Sigarda ends up needing, this is a pretty good candidate.
  • Aura of Silence – I know this deck needs removal; I just don’t know what to remove just yet. I do know that one of the first removal card I’m adding is this one. Taxes our opponents, buffs our Ethereal Armor and the like, removes problems. Sounds like a winner to me.
  • There are cards to be added later in the vein of ramp and removal. I’m on the fence about how much ramp I need and whether it will be artifact (Coalition Relic, Selesnya Cluestone, etc…), creatures (Birds of Paradise, Ilysian Caryatid, etc…), or enchantments (Utopia Sprawl, Fertile Ground, etc…). I know enchantments should be the obvious answer, but creatures are so much more versatile. I also don’t know if that many more enchantments will speed up the Ethereal Armor et al enough to make up for the creature’s sheer pace. More research is needed.
    I also need removal, but gauging the single vs. mass removal is tough right now. Do I go with more single target just to get rid of strong Sigarda checks or combo pieces, or go with mass removal and rebuild? I’m leaning towards the single target removal with Winds of Abandon and Single Combat as pseudo-mass removal.

Any feedback is appreciated. I'll be working on this deck as well transcribing some other decks I have while I update them.

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98% Casual

Competitive

Date added 3 years
Last updated 3 years
Exclude colors UBR
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

51 - 0 Rares

20 - 0 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.91
Tokens Angel 4/4 W, Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Emblem Serra the Benevolent, Human 1/1 W, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Treasure
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