Sisay Likes Shiny Things

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive GW (Selesnya) Infinite Combo

CrystalQuarry

Land (31)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Brushland
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Eiganjo Castle
• 1x Flagstones of Trokair
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
• 1x Pendelhaven
• 1x Plains
• 1x Razorverge Thicket
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Snow-Covered Forest
• 1x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Instant (11)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Summoner's Pact
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Creature (30)

• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Boreal Druid
• 1x Dosan the Falling Leaf
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Hope of Ghirapur
• 1x Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Reki, the History of Kamigawa
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Seeker of Skybreak
• 1x Selvala, Explorer Returned
• 1x Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
• 1x Seton, Krosan Protector
• 1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
• 1x Stonecloaker
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Voyaging Satyr

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Concordant Crossroads
• 1x Exploration
• 1x Sylvan Library

Commander (1)

Artifact (21)

• 1x Akroma's Memorial
• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Candelabra of Tawnos
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Paradox Engine
• 1x Selesnya Signet
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Unity
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Land Grant

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This is a competitive Paradox Engine combo deck designed to be extremely fast.

I have been playing MTG for a long time and was first introduced to commander in early 2008. It was at that time that I began constructing my first EDH deck with Captain Sisay as the general. The way I learned to build for the format was to truly treat it as a highlander format, which means 1x of even basic lands like Forest and Plains .

The deck has gradually evolved over the years with cards coming and going, but Aether Revolt has shaken things up significantly. The printing of Paradox Engine has completely changed how this deck can function and it is now scarily consistent in pulling off turn 3, 4, or 5 wins, depending on how juicy the starting hand is. The game plan is basically rush out Sisay as fast as possible (turn 2 or 3 typically), find engine once Sisay can search (usually following turn, but sometimes same turn with a hasty effect), then play any spell to begin combo-ing.

I've found the deck is such a beast on the offense that I have dropped many defensive cards like Aura Mutation , Wrath of God , Final Judgment , Aura of Silence , etc. in favor of "engine fuel" to combo off faster. Even cards like Tooth and Nail have been cut, because if I can make 9 mana, then I should have already combo-ed off with the engine. Every time I saw the card, it felt like a dead card in my hand. The same applied to various planeswalkers I used to run ( Elspeth, Knight-Errant , Elspeth Tirel , Garruk Wildspeaker , Ajani Unyielding ). All have been cut to feed the engine.

Captain Sisay is my main EDH deck and there are other cards I am planning to add to the deck, but wanted to share what I've constructed so far to get impressions. There are numerous infinite mana combos, infinite +1/+1 counters, unlimited exile target permanent effects, and other cute things the deck can do. A couple of truly crazy cards in the deck are Stonecloaker and Cloudstone Curio . Both are capable of infinite shenanigans with engine, and quite frankly I think both cards are undervalued in this context.

The deck needs to maintain tempo at all costs, so I've cut almost all come into play tapped lands and replaced them with fetchlands. I'm running all 7 of the possible fetchlands in these colors. I've also added City of Brass and Mana Confluence for this reason as well. Losing a little life doesn't matter if you go infinite by turn 3 or 4. Ancient Tomb is another recent addition, which costs some life but helps guarantee getting the commander out no later than turn 3. I'm even tempted to put in Tarnished Citadel , but 3 life per use does seem a bit high.

I am a bit obsessed with foils and having all foil decks is kind of my thing (hence the name of the deck). The deck currently has 4 non-foil cards ( Concordant Crossroads , Worldly Tutor , Savannah , and Candelabra of Tawnos ). None of those have foil printings as of May 2017. All artifacts have been improved to Kaladesh Inventions where possible.

Paradox Engine has turned Sisay into a scary combo deck, but it ought to combo in style for maximum effect. And don't forget Sisay herself likes pretty things as long as they're useful! ( Sisay's Ring )

Updates

May 6th, 2017

Finally got the foil Horizon Canopy to finish foiling every card in the deck! Ancient Tomb arrived today as well and replaced Gilded Lotus , which amazingly felt like a dead card in many test games.

June 12th, 2017

I replaced Darksteel Ingot with Honor-Worn Shaku , which honestly seems like it was built for this deck. It turns Paradox Engine and every legendary creature into a mana rock. Also, since you're tapping the creatures to the Shaku and not as an activated ability of the creature, they don't even need haste to use it. Really amazing. Just having Shaku, Engine and Mox Opal is enough to guarantee you combo through the entire deck.

August 19th, 2017

I've made significant changes to the deck to speed it up even further and try to improve consistency. As a result I ended up cutting some of the higher end of the curve legends from the deck, Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Iona, Shield of Emeria in particular. To replace them I went for even more mana dorks adding Fyndhorn Elves and Boreal Druid . I also decided that Time of Need was too restrictive being able to only get a legendary creature. Oftentimes I want to tutor up Reclamation Sage to remove an impediment to going off and this card just doesn't do it. So instead I'm opting for Fauna Shaman . If I can't give the Shaman haste I do need to wait a turn to activate her, but she can find anything which I think is an improvement. I admit to being a bit on the fence with this one and I am open to alternatives. Somewhat astonishingly I was almost never happy to see Regrowth in my hand in many games. As such, I've decided to cut it for Land Grant , which serves a few purposes. Land grant finds me a land in a pinch to maintain tempo, and even better it is potentially another zero CMC spell once Paradox Engine is in play. Another somewhat questionable change is the removal of Linvala, Keeper of Silence . I did this because I'm already running Grand Abolisher and Dosan the Falling Leaf both of which have lower CMC than Linvala and offer comparable levels of protection for the combo. It also felt like a dead card in an opening hand. So to replace it, I've added Quirion Ranger , which seems quite powerful. It increases the consistency with which I drop both Paradox Engine and Mox Opal in the same turn by untapping Captain Sisay . Lastly, for more tempo improvement I finally decided to cut Mistveil Plains for Eiganjo Castle . The ability to bring cards back to the library just wasn't worth losing tempo in a critical early game turn.

January 14th, 2018

After some more testing I decided to make a few more optimizations to the deck. Honor-Worn Shaku is a very cute card with Paradox Engine , but ultimately that converted mana cost of 3 is just too much. Instead I'm opting for Lotus Petal , which is free, but only a one-time use. It adds yet another 0 CMC spell to combo same turn as when the Engine hits the table. Yeva, Nature's Herald is another card that was interesting in theory, but is ultimately too slow in practice with a CMC of 4. To replace her I've settled on Hope of Ghirapur , which only has a CMC of 1 and may be found with Sisay to ensure ramping through the rest of the deck. Even if I get it in my opening hand, it can be used to shut down a player likely to stop the combo post combat, allowing me to do as I please during the 2nd main phase. Fauna Shaman is only CMC 2, but critically cannot be used the turn it comes down. Sadly it is not Survival of the Fittest . Therefore it had to go and I settled on Heritage Druid to replace it. The Druid allows me to put those legendary CMC 3 elves to use whether they've got haste or not. This ensures I get up the curve to Akroma's Memorial , which will quickly put an end to the game. Druid is also a great target for Green Sun's Zenith on 1. Lastly, I'm running an experiment of dropping Canopy Vista for Rebuff the Wicked . Any lands that ETB tapped are no good in my opinion and Rebuff is great 1 CMC spell that can protect Sisay or Engine from spot removal. I may change it back later if it doesn't perform as well as I expect. That's all the updates for now.

July 9th, 2018

So I've had time to test the recent additions, but I was underwhelmed with how some of them performed (at least in my meta). Lotus Petal is out and Mox Amber is in! The new mox isn't great relative to the other moxen, but in Sisay it's fine. There is a guaranteed chain to get to 4 free mana once you start comboing with Paradox Engine thanks to the new mox (Mox Amber -> Hope of Ghirapur -> Mox Opal -> Seton, Krosan Protector -> Rishkar, Peema Renegade). This brings us to another new addition Seton, Krosan Protector , which replaced Heritage Druid . Heritage Druid was trying to make the combo more consistent, but since Mox Amber was printed, now there's a guaranteed way to combo, so Heritage Druid isn't useful, especially if you don't have two other elves with it. Lastly, Rebuff the Wicked was either unable to stop disruption being sent my way, or I was frequently tapped out in the rush to Sisay and Engine and unable to hold it up. Therefore I decided to remove it in favor of Krosan Grip . The deck was a little too light on instant speed disruption or clearing impediments to comboing, so Krosan Grip is a nice addition to help clear the way for the combo.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	24 - 0 Mythic Rares 51 - 0 Rares 9 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.29
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G