Breakfast with the Horsemen: Sidisi Combo

Duel Commander*

lithiumbrigadebait

Creature (38)

• 1x Aphetto Alchemist
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Big Game Hunter
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Braids, Cabal Minion
• 1x Brain Maggot
• 1x Cephalid Illusionist
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Dimir Infiltrator
• 1x Edric, Spymaster of Trest
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Extractor Demon
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Gloomdrifter
• 1x Gravespawn Sovereign
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Loaming Shaman
• 1x Mesmeric Fiend
• 1x Nyx Weaver
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Seeker of Skybreak
• 1x Shriekmaw
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Trygon Predator
• 1x Voyaging Satyr

Land (35)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Bayou
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 1x Island
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Woodland Cemetery
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Opposition
• 1x Recurring Nightmare
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Sylvan Library

Artifact (5)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mesmeric Orb
• 1x Skullclamp

Instant (6)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Sultai Charm
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Deep Analysis
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Maelstrom Pulse
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Treasure Cruise

Commander (1)

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Relatively cutthroat, primarily 1v1 Commander combo deck. Philosophy behind the deck is to efficiently apply pressure (usually via control or stax elements, but draws like Bitterblossom into Edric can be very aggressive), force the opponent into an unfavorable position, and push through a combo win. Heavy emphasis on spell-like creatures, due to Sidisi trigger chance being extremely relevant. Adheres to French 1v1 banlist; Recurring Nightmare and Braids, Cabal Minion are banned in multiplayer.

Nearly all cards were chosen for broad functionality; there are very few useless combo pieces or dead draws, with even the mana dorks maintaining relevancy through Survival/Fauna Shaman/Skullclamp/Opposition/Attrition/Braids. A few of the combo pieces are pretty miserable to draw, but all are castable and have some utility outside of the combo. (Gravespawn Sovereign slowly takes over the game if you can assemble four other zombies, Basalt Monolith ramps out the normally-reanimated fat, and Phyrexian Altar/Altar of Dementia are useful unrestricted sac outlets. Dementia in particular can bin a huge swath of your library with Sidisi out, especially with Selhoff Occultist, Diregraf Captain, or Gravecrawler.)

Survival of the Fittest, Edric, and Opposition are the strongest individual cards in the deck, roughly in that order. Without a solid combo plan in the opening hand, Survival is almost always the best tutor target; aside from the immense toolbox capabilities, it's also capable of assembling an immediate win for 9 mana. (Two activations, getting Dimir Infiltrator and Cephalid Illusionist. Infiltrator transmutes for Lightning Greaves.)

Primary combos:

Mesmeric Orb + Aphetto Alchemist/Seeker of Skybreak/Basalt Monolith: turn your deck upside down + zombies equal to the number of creatures left in your deck.

Cephalid Illusionist + Lightning Greaves: Flip your deck, generate a bunch of zombies. This is the cheapest, fastest combo, so one of the easiest to tutor for a win. (Mesmeric Orb generates more zombies, but the creature untappers don't have haste, and Basalt Monolith costs 3 mana and is harder to find.)

Cephalid Illusionist + Opposition: Slower than the above and usually takes two turns to go off (also taps zombies in the process, which is less desirable if comboing with Gravespawn Sovereign), but Opposition is incredible even outside the combo. More a nice bonus than a focal point.

Altar of Dementia + Extractor Demon/Selhoff Occultist (+ Diregraf Captain)

Flip your deck, make some zombies. Technically not guaranteed to work, but the creature density is high enough to where the chance of fizzling is extremely low even with only 2-3 creatures as a safety net. Diregraf Captain adds reliability here but is far from necessary. With this combo, you really want to Dread Return Gravespawn Sovereign as soon as possible, as turning tapped zombies into untapped zombies can allow for far more reanimations, and therefore a safer/infinite win. Extractor Demon usually nets +5-8 zombies after flipping the deck; Selhoff Occultist, roughly half that.

Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + Selhoff Occultist/Extractor Demon/Diregraf Captain

Selhoff Occultist/Extractor Demon: flip your deck, make as many zombies as the Mesmeric Orb combo. Diregraf Captain: infinite gravestorm, infinite life loss. Notable that this combo doesn't require Sidisi in play.

Main combo loop: with Gravespawn Sovereign in play (usually from a Dread Return) and some number of zombies from one of the above ways of turning your deck upside down, there are several routes to winning--Craterhoof swing, or the infinite loop of assembling Sadistic Hypnotist (any sac outlet will do, but shredding your opponent's hand in the process is a boon), Diregraf Captain/Selhoff Occultist/Extractor Demon, and Loaming Shaman allows you to re-mill your deck, reanimate Loaming Shaman to reshuffle it, and continue the process ad infinitem. Diregraf Captain in this loop leads to infinite life loss. (You also produce infinite zombies as a side effect. Altar of Dementia combo can be guaranteed by only reshuffling creatures into your deck, so you can automate the loop. As long as you have enough creatures to make sure you hit 5 new zombies per iteration of milling the deck, it's infinite.) Other cute interactions include continually looping Craterhoof procs to make your infinite zombies all infinitely large; with an Altar of Dementia out, you even have the completely unnecessary kill condition of milling the opponent.

Date added	10 years
Last updated	9 years
Legality	This deck is not Duel Commander legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 55 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.89
Tokens	Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Morph 2/2 C, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Copied Decks, My Decks