In EDH, especially in combo decks like this one, Cavern of Souls is usually used to prevent an important piece like your commander from being countered, in our case, Naga or Zombie.

Shaman is the most universally useful type, but honestly whatever creature I need to slam through at the moment is what I choose whether that is mage, druid, elf, or even bird. Its honestly way better in my Leovold deck, but cavern has such a powerful effect I pretty much autoinclude it in all my decks.

I have to say, this deck is inspiring me to build a similar Derevi deck. Thank you for all the ideas.

Anytime :-) when you finish it please send me a link. I've always been interested in Derevi.

Just saw your message a few hours ago so here I am.

Wow, i'm not sure what else I can suggest to add to the degree of optimization this deck already has.

I am particularly fond of Intuition and I think it is still worth a slot in the deck despite the drawback it presents. Since the deck seems to go all out for a really early win, Intuition or some other card that would facilitate in getting your combos out might be better suited in this deck than Nature's Claim. The same goes with Abrupt Decay but although I know it is pretty much an autoinclude in most decks.

I'll try to playtest the deck a bit and hopefully come up with better suggestions later.

Yeah I keep going back and forth on Intuition. I have probably included and cut it about 30 times over the lifespan of the deck lol. It is a really great card, but I have never found a way to consistently utilize it in Sidisi. I feel like it is one of those cards that is better the more you know about magic so perhaps one more attempt is due. I would love to cut Nature's Claim and Abrupt Decay, but since this deck gets shut down hard by Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void I am hesitant get rid of either, but more tutors is rarely a bad thing and I also have Cyclonic Rift to clear the board in a pinch.

Do my descriptions seem relatively concise and clear to you?

Megalomania: The more I think about it the more Intuition feels like the right add. With Noxious Revival I can make Intuition piles of Necropotence and Ad Nauseam and be ensured of getting one of them the following turn for no additional mana. The same with Reanimate and Death and a handful of other combo pieces. I can also put opponents in the unenviable position of giving me Buried Alive or Food Chain without them knowing which is the combo I am actually going for. Intuition also fits nicely within my turn 3 win curve most games especially if I bait them into giving me the right card. Based on my current configuration it fits better than it ever has before. I knew asking you to look over the nearly finished product would yield good results. Thank you for the insight.

Be wary on intuition as you have to get 3 cards, so you will always want to pull revival with the other 2. Or regrowth depending on your ability to produce mana.

Always glad to help, buddy. Intuition works best with redundancies and recursion, both of which you have in abundance.

My oona deck was built around it before I started using Insidious Dreams.

The bigger question now is what to cut. You have a very good reason for keeping Nature's Claim and Abrupt Decay so I myself am now unsure if you can afford to lose those. Lol

Speaking of Oona, have you tried out the new Dramatic reversal + Isochron Scepter ? From what I can tell its pretty powerful with her.

It does look interesting but those are pieces (+1 mana rock) that don't exactly synergize well with the rest of the deck. They are also hard to recur and I can't think of ways to assemble it aside from tutoring every single piece. I can probably find a way to put it in the deck but that will require a lot of restructuring. Not sure I have the time and budget for that especially now that i'm building a leovold deck of my own.

Why tidespout tyrant? Seems an odd fit when the curve is already on the tubby end of typical ad-naus territory... is it a backup dread return target or something?

Good work though. I like this better than the mesmeric orb backup ive seen in HD sidisi.

Tidespout Tyrant is the only creature in my color identity that can win the game against an entire table with Food Chain combo. The full sequence is described in the bottom tab. Being an 8 drop hurts, but not enough to not include it. My tubbiness actually comes in handy with Necrotic Ooze combo too :-) with three primary combos I rarely have to dig as deep as most Ad Nauseam decks to get my game ending combo too.

would Gitaxian Probe and/or Peek be worthwhile in the deck to possibly see what they have in their hand before you combo off?

Definitely Gitaxian Probe since it also allows me to make a mini Doomsday pile of sorts with Memory's Journey if my plan A hermit druid gets shut down, but finding room is always the issue. I'll add it to the sideboard.

Ever run into mana issues with only 30 land?

Not often, but 1-2 more lands wouldnt hurt the deck. I mulligan pretty aggresively and also have the ability to drop a turn 1 Sylvan Library or Necropotence somewhat frequently and include cards like Ponder to dig deep on turn 1. If your not comfortable going so low you could always cut Intuition, Dark Confidant, and Lotus Petal.

ever think of replacing Fatestitcher with Prized Amalgam?

_person_: If this was a graveyard centric zombie build that was looking to grind value out of free creatures and/or turn sideways for the win I would, but in this deck Fatestitcher will always get me a creature in play for Dread Return and then untap the land I used to unearth it, whereas amagalam is only good for me IF I mill it before Narcomoeba.

I think that the hermit druid will resolve completely before any triggers can go on the stack.

Actually, he is right. The whole ability resolves before anything triggers. Additionally, everything technically enters the graveyard at the same time. They are not milled, but rather set aside until the resolution is complete. It is more of a back up incase someone shoots hermit druid before your creatures enter the battlefield from the grave.

Wow thats good to know. My bad and thank you for pointing that out. The only reason I can see for continued use of fatestitcher over amalgam is that IF narcomoeba gets stuck in my hand I get nothing. I am running a ton of 1-2 drop creatures in the deck so rather than include both I am depending on mana dorks to fill that backup creature role. Either way its a very good suggestion. Thank you :-) I'll do some testing and perhaps make a change.

In other news, after playing around with Chord of Calling in other builds I am tempted to replace Intuition with it. Intuition is kind of an awkward fit and being able to sneak HD in on my opponents end step is pretty sexy. Thoughts?

Chord of Calling seems extremely mana intensive. Not to mention what would you search for it to win? Another Hermit Druid search? Intuition is another possible Necrotic Ooze combination grabber at instant speed.

I feel like chord is great because you can also search up your necrotic ooze if combos are in the grave already. also, instant speed hermit druid is awesome.

They are both great cards. I think Intuition is a better card, but instant speed HD is really nice and it synergizes better with cheap creatures.