Overall fairly happy with this setup, but some of it is still temporary till I can get my hands on more powerful (and expensive) stuff. This is intended to be a casual Commander deck, mostly for those "waiting for the tournament to start" periods.

Captain Sisay has good synergy with all the legendary stuff I have, and I feel like I probably have enough tutoring methods to get by even if I can't keep her on the field.

I also like the shaman synergy I have going on with Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro who can work with Fauna Shaman, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Reki, the History of Kamigawa, Wickerbough Elder, Yeva, Nature's Herald, and Elvish Piper (who to be fair will probably not tap for mana) to accelerate out threats.

I am worried I'm a bit light on board clears, since I only have 3 including Myojin of Cleansing Fire (who I can use some recursion on), but most of these are not tutorable and are a one shot deal. Maybe 4 board sweeps if you include the -2/-2 from Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite? I might also not have enough targeted removal, esp in terms of artifact and enchantment hate.

I know that Mirri, Cat Warrior is kind of a sub par pick for most situations, but she's kind of my mascot and one of the few remaining cards from the original deck so I would really rather not cut her. Her forestwalk/first strike/vigilance combo does also come in handy sometimes, but of course I have other sources of those abilities so that's not really a justification.

Looking for suggestions that don't cost a fortune (yes, I know Gaea's Cradle is good, but I don't have one and it's $200 I don't have to spend, esp on a casual deck), so suggestions under about $15-20 will see a lot more consideration.

Things I'm already considering:

1. I do like that Sigarda, Heron's Grace protects my humans (esp Captain Sisay) but will probably replace her with Sigarda, Host of Herons when I can afford one or trade for one to protect against all the black "sac all your stuff" decks out there.

2. Considering replacing either Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares with Oblivion Ring so I have more tutorable removal, and because it can handle a wider variety of threats.

3. Debating between Yeva, Nature's Herald and Thrun, the Last Troll for their slot, both are shamans, Yeva's ability could be handy, but Thrun is very hard to remove and can go a long way against blue counter magic.

4. Also possible that I need to tweak my mana base or could use more fixing? My sample hands all worked out pretty well but I'm sure there's room for improvement. Trying to lean towards fixing that can get Captain Sisay out a turn earlier, so I'm avoiding 3 cost fixer/acceleration artifacts and spells (except obviously Search for Tomorrow which I can suspend on turn 1).

5. I'm not sure about Rancor, I love how resilient it is against removal and board clear, and that it's low cost in an otherwise high cost deck, but worry it might be a little too weak? Maybe Sword of Vengeance or something would be better? Or perhaps I have enough creature improvement already and should give the slot to more board clear or something? Perhaps Swiftfoot Boots as another Sisay protector?

6. Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer is decent, but will probably eventually be replaced with a costly strong lockdown/protection and/or finisher like Avacyn, Angel of Hope when I can obtain one.

7. Tolsimir Wolfblood is pretty strong I feel in this deck, (and helps delay nicely by generating a chump blocker if Sisay dies a lot) but could be replaced by Crovax, Ascendant Hero potentially for additional token hate and another way to kill lands using Kamahl, Fist of Krosa.

8. Bow of Nylea and Spear of Heliod give me some options and are tutorable in multiple ways, spear is mostly there as a multiplayer "attack the other guy instead" deterent, but bigger creatures never hurts. That said, these would still be an early potential cut I think if I needed to chop something as neither really do anything strictly vital. Bow is probably better because deathtouch + trample is pretty strong, and it has so many cantrip uses.

Other thoughts/suggestions? Feel free to share opinions on the considerations above as well!

Have you considered Yomiji, Who Bars the Way? He's great in legendary "tribal" decks.

@Pranker0 I did look at him, but I feel he serves much the same purpose as Reya Dawnbringer and is almost as expensive, but doesn't fly and doesn't return to play.

Still might be useful, and I'll keep an eye on how the the deck actually fares in the real world to better assess the need for this guy, but right now I can't think of anything I would want to cut for him, and I don't have one on hand (though he's certainly cheap enough to purchase if needed). I think also he's most useful in a board clear situation, but wouldn't actually survive the board clear to be useful?

I've definitely seen him in a lot of Sisay deck lists though so maybe there's something important I'm missing about this guy? I haven't actually played much Commander because up till now my deck has been terribad... this is my first overhaul since EDH started being a thing and I just turned my random legends deck into a Sisay EDH, previously 90% of the deck was pretty out of date and underpowered, so my experience is pretty limited and I could totally be wrong about the power level of the card in actual play!

He returns non-creature legendary cards as well. That's what makes him special.

Sorry to double post, but I just noticed you have 2 separate 1x grasslands on your list.

@Pranker0 No worries about the posts, thanks for the catch on the grasslands!

That also does seem important about the non-creatures, I'll have to take that into consideration, thanks!

Avacyn, Angel of Hope is a must. Save up for one, it changes games for sure. With all that mana acceleration, there is a nice combo with Mindslaver and Yomiji, Who Bars the Way. You sac Mindslaver, then it returns to your hand. With enough mana (10+) you can cast mindslaver and pop it each turn. THis is great when it gets down to 1 on 1. I use Thousand-Year Elixir in my Cap Sisay EDH and it wrecks shop. Search when Cap sisay comes out and 2 times each turn. Grab a legendary land and a nice creature. It also is broken with your creatures that tap for more than 1 mana. Especially with a Somberwald Sage. If she stays on the field and you have 1000 year elixir, thats 6 mana for creatures for the cost of 1 land. That will get out any big scary creature you need!

@Grahamatica Yeah Avacyn is definitely on my acquire list, but I'll have to wait a bit to pick her up since I already had to blow some cash on some other key items in the deck. Hoping I can maybe get her via trade!

Interesting about the Mindslaver combo, I had thought of running one but decided at the time that it was too slow/weak and too single-opponent oriented since the deck needs to pull double duty and run in both duels and multiplayer, but that could certainly add some value. I'll keep the idea in mind for experimentation.

Thanks for the elixir feedback, I'm strongly considering running one. I would probably have to buy it but they are pretty affordable. I'm thinking the double tutor is probably stronger than swiftfoot boots for Sisay, she might die a bit easier but at least I can guarantee 1-2 tutors from her whereas she could otherwise be killed in response to the equip activation. Even if I don't run somberwald, it would still also have synergy with Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro and my shaman sub-theme. The question is what to cut I suppose... I'm thinking probably Rancor or Spear of Heliod?

Yeah I think Thousand-Year Elixir is worth it in this deck. Plus it helps you if you need Mangara of Corondor to exile something right away, plus it helps all your shamans to produce mana right away and your Elvish Piper to do the same. Rancor is cool but not needed in this deck. If you NEED a trample source get Nylea, God of the Hunt, she give trample and if you have spare mana, pumping, plus she is indestructible and tutorable and not to expensive right now. Also that legendary land you have that comes into play tapped and adds 2 for legends and pay 2 life, I have tried to use that but its a bit slow and honestly your shamans and other green ramp should be better than that.

Once you do get Avacyn, Angel of Hope get Nevinyrral's Disk. Every turn you destroy all your opponents things.

I recommend getting Karametra, God of Harvests. 5 drop that I like to get after sisay comes out. Every creature you play adds another land to the battlefield. She is not expensive, worth a try at least. This deck has plenty of things to do with all the mana!

Oh, and I would keep Swiftfoot Boots over Heliod's Spear and still run the elixir.

@Grahamatica I dropped the spear from the list for the elixir, after some sample hands I came to the conclusion it was probably more desirable to have in hand over the spear in most situations. The Swiftfoot Boots were never in my decklist to begin with (though I do run Lightning Greaves), but I was considering them for the same slot as the elixir... I could still always drop Rancor maybe to make room for the Swiftfoot Boots, but I'm left feeling like I have a lot of big beatsticks and very few ways to give them any trample or evasion... "what to cut" is always a tough decision lol.

Thanks for the feedback on that though, I'll keep the opinion in mind!

@Grahamatica Good call on the disk combo, I'll keep that in mind for when I pick her up, I usually avoid disk where possible since it's a bit slower than other clears and can be removed before it goes off, but that's definitely a legit reason to run it. Disk also creates some interesting political situations depending on how it's fielded, and can act as a deterrent "attack me and I blow disk!"

I did have Karametra, God of Harvests in the deck at one point, but given that I'm only running 10 basic land I felt like replacing it with Mirari's Wake was the right call... it's not tutorable like karametra is, but I think by the time I have 5 mana I'm not really looking to tutor for that with how slow it comes online... but indestructability and turning into a creature are pretty big benefits so I think I'll just need to see how the deck plays with each to really make the call.

Nylea, God of the Hunt is definitely a good suggestion, I was also toying with Helm of Kaldra since it's another trample source that's hard to remove and tutorable, but also gives haste for sisay if needed, and combos with the rest of the kaldra set I'm already running. Nylea comes online a bit faster though and does apply to everyone so definitely considering it as an option.

I agree about the legendary land, when I was first getting it somehow I didn't notice it comes in tapped... it does still allow for turn 3 sisay scenarios so I was keeping it around for now as a placeholder for the more expensive land that is straight up 2 life for 2 colorless and doesn't come in tapped.

Maybe I need to replace Rancor and Sword of the Animist (since it comes online so slow anyway and I run so few basics) with either nylea or helm and Swiftfoot Boots?

Other trample options I was looking at included:

1. Vorrac Battlehorns gives bonus evasion
2. Sword of Vengeance offers haste as well and still gives an attack bonus
3. Ring of Kalonia pumps creatures over time... probably too slow to be worth it though
4. Loxodon Warhammer I currently have surprisingly little lifegain for white/green...
5. Haunted Cloak again also offers haste for sisay
6. Chariot of Victory similar to cloak, but first strike is maybe a bit better for this deck than vigilance, since less creatures have it already, and it combos with Sword of Kaldra

Thanks again for all the input!

No problem, Captain Sisay is my favorite EDH deck and my first one I ever built (not to mention the most expensive lol) If you need lifegain try Trostani, Selesnya's Voice. Im trying out Heroes' Podium but I feel that it might get traded for something else.

I just bought a Pattern of Rebirth...Dirty card for this deck. Its a 4 drop enchant creature. Enchant a Sakura-Tribe Elder or Saffi Eriksdotter on turn 3 or 4 depending on what you get. Sac the creature and pull a big nasty out of your deck (for me it will be Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or Avacyn, Angel of Hope on turn 3 or 4!

Right now really trying to decide on:

Helm of Kaldra vs Akroma's Memorial vs Nylea, God of the Hunt, the primary purpose of the slot is to give a source of trample for synergy with the deathtouch from Bow of Nylea and just as a general way of penetrating tough defenses. That said the helm has synergy with my other kaldra equipment, and can also act as another way to bring sisay online as soon as she comes in, but it's pretty slow. The memorial is expensive but gives lots of benefits, and also brings sisay online via haste immediately without worry that she can get picked off during an equip trigger. The protections are also very powerful, but I fear the card is so powerful and expensive that it makes potentially too good of a removal target and likely eats an entire turn playing it? Nylea on the other hand is very difficult to remove and has the potential to come online as another beatstick when I'm in a position to attack. Memorial would also probably need to be ditched if I were to ever roll with Gaddock Teeg since it has anti-synergy.

On that note, would Gaddock Teeg really be worth running? I can't say I'm familiar enough with the commander meta to really understand what he's useful for. Something tells me it's more than just a way to prevent people's X spells. I'm guessing he busts some combos? Otherwise the most relevant thing I could think of him stopping is board clear, since most of it costs more than 4. That said, he's not hard to kill and works against many existing cards in my deck, so I'm really not sure how important he is (despite his high price tag).

Any thoughts?

My recent playtest convinced me the deck could really use another board sweep to improve odds of actually drawing one by the time people combo out and make infinite tokens or something.

Suggestions on what to cut for another board sweep? I'm thinking the sweep I add will probably be an Austere Command to give options for dealing with things like key enchantments for combos, as well as wiping whatever I need to off the board, while maybe even leaving my own key stuff untouched!

Austere Command is a solid card. Dont forget things like Wrath of God and Day of Judgment. Cheap and effective.

@Grahamatica yeah, I'll probably leand more towards those if I ever swap to running Gaddock Teeg.

At the moment I'm more concerned with what to take out of the existing deck setup for the additional sweep, but thanks for the suggestions!

Hi Strife,

as a vivid Sisay player I couldn't resist taking a look at your deck :)

My build I use for a competitive enviroment, but I still have some good suggestions for your casual build.

1.) You play green, so I would add more ramp cards that bring out Sisay at least a turn sooner. This is relatively cheap and fun to use her ability sooner. You can use cards like Skyshroud Claim, Nature's Lore, Birds of Paradise and the one drop mana guys like Avacyn's Pilgrim

2.) Beast Within is a great removal card which can remove any threat you encounter. Find a place for this versatile removal spell would be my advise.

3.) Nissa, Vastwood Seer  ^Flip is a nice carddraw engine which can be tutored by Sisay

4.) A few interesting lands that you could include like Command Beacon for getting Sisay back for it's original cmc. Also Dryad Arbor is a cool manland which can be tutored with Green Sun's Zenith on turn 1. (x=0)

If you want some other views or inspiration, check my profile page for my Sisay build.

Have fun!

@[PartyJ] Thanks for the suggestions! I actually have been using your deck as one of my references since I started redesigning (though obviously with some differences based largely off price tag and not being an actual competitive deck).

1. I think you might have meant to put a different card besides [Skyshroud Claim] since by the time you can play that one you could just cast Sisay? I did integrate a few ways already to get her out before turn 4, but I'm still keeping an eye on how the deck plays to feel out if I want more ramp still and what to cut, I'll definitely keep these options in mind though!

2. Beast within is definitely a great card (and I actually have one in my binder), so I'm definitely considering running it, but it very much becomes a "what to cut" issue.

3. I do like Nissa, debating maybe losing the shaman theme to make room for some stuff including her. I would probably replace [Reki, the History of Kamigawa] since I haven't found him too useful thus far, and Nissa gets immediate benefit when played?

4. [Command Beacon] falls into the "I've already had some trouble with how many colorless sources I'm running" category, so I decided not to run it for now, but if I find Sisay is dying too often as I playtest more I'll probably revisit it. [Dryad Arbor] is definitely a cool combo (and gets zenith out of your hand early game when you don't really want it), so I might pick one up when I can. I've been worried it might be a bit too vulnerable, but by the time it's likely that someone will actually kill it I suppose it will probably have already served its purpose or be expendable?

Based on my most recent game I really feel I may have made a mistake cutting virtually all sources of life gain from the deck... wondering if I might need to find a way to include [Miren, the Moaning Well] or something for some emergency life gain. Also thinking I need more board sweep, especially against tokens, maybe [Declaration in stone]?

Not sure why all my formatting suddenly decided not to work in that last post...

@PartyJ Thanks for the suggestions! I actually have been using your deck as one of my references since I started redesigning (though obviously with some differences based largely off price tag and not being an actual competitive deck).

I think you might have meant to put a different card besides Skyshroud Claim since by the time you can play that one you could just cast Sisay? I did integrate a few ways already to get her out before turn 4, but I'm still keeping an eye on how the deck plays to feel out if I want more ramp still and what to cut, I'll definitely keep these options in mind though!

Beast Within is definitely a great card (and I actually have one in my binder), so I'm definitely considering running it, but it very much becomes a "what to cut" issue.

I do like Nissa, debating maybe losing the shaman theme to make room for some stuff including her. I would probably replace Reki, the History of Kamigawa since I haven't found him too useful thus far, and Nissa gets immediate benefit when played?

Command Beacon falls into the "I've already had some trouble with how many colorless sources I'm running" category, so I decided not to run it for now, but if I find Sisay is dying too often as I playtest more I'll probably revisit it. Dryad Arbor is definitely a cool combo (and gets zenith out of your hand early game when you don't really want it), so I might pick one up when I can. I've been worried it might be a bit too vulnerable, but by the time it's likely that someone will actually kill it I suppose it will probably have already served its purpose or be expendable?

Based on my most recent game I really feel I may have made a mistake cutting virtually all sources of life gain from the deck... wondering if I might need to find a way to include Miren, the Moaning Well or something for some emergency life gain. Also thinking I need more board sweep, especially against tokens, maybe Declaration in Stone?

Fixed comment version, now if I just knew how to delete the old ones haha

Hi Strife,

you are true about the Skyshroud Claim, but it's good ramp and since you are not into the competitive part I presume it would be a great card for the deck. But there is plenty of useful options to choose from.

In my first build I also had Reki, but it felt so slow and cluncky; find Reki, then cast her ( no draw from Reki itself), then you get a free card for the next you tutor and hardcast. If one thing fails you screwed mana and a turn. I think even in a casual build deck you have better draw options: Sisay herself and Nissa. Other usefull tutor options you already run :)

Dryad is great ramp early game and even late game it can function as a chump blocker or its food for some thing like Survival of the Fittest. This card is not as cheap as you might like, but it's such a powerful card. Even the non legendaries can be found now. It's candy for the deck :)

Lifegain in a casual buids seems like it could be fun yes. It depends on the cource you want to take. Miren does the trick and if you combine a Miren with an Eldrazi, well then you got a nice combo with Sisay. Cast Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre for a permanent destroy, then Sac him for 10 life and rince and repeat since Ulamog tells you to shuffle your graveyard into your library. Giving you all legendaries back :) And Miren and an Eldrazi are both tutorable with Sisay.

Knowing Sisay, you should include Terminus. Who cares if one or more legendaries are on the bottom. Sisay doesnt care where they stay in that pile xD