Eyehole Deep in Muddy Waters - Sidisi BT [PRIMER]

Commander / EDH* BUG (Sultai) Combo Competitive Dredge Infinite Combo Reanimator

kilgore

Land (32)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Gemstone Mine
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Lonely Sandbar
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Tranquil Thicket
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Woodland Cemetery
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Artifact (5)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Sol Ring

Creature (26)

• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Blighted Bat
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Channeler Initiate
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Devoted Druid
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Eternal Scourge
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Faerie Macabre
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Hermit Druid
• 1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Narcomoeba
• 1x Necrotic Ooze
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Stinkweed Imp
• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Wall of Roots

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Deep Analysis
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Life / Death
• 1x Life from the Loam
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Stitch Together
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Commander (1)

Instant (17)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Memory's Journey
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Stifle
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Food Chain
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Sylvan Library

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Practically Raising The Dead.

This is a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant reanimator/necrotic ooze deck. Using dredge cards to start filling the graveyard and assemble the Mesmeric Orb+Basalt Monolith engine. Or playing the long game, relying on etbs and tool box cards to out play our opponents.

This deck plays Sidisi BT with the cards upside in mind. Although not necessary to win the game with. The zombies Sidisi generate provide the deck it's winning edge.

Once assembled we self mill, reanimate Laboratory Maniac and cast Deep Analysis. Winning the game. There are a few ways to get lab man from our yard. Typically casting Dread Return from the yard. However, Doomed Necromancer is a way around counter spells and our opponents don't always see it coming.

Necrotic Ooze generates infinite mana. Allowing us to sink that mana into Walking Ballista to machine gun the table.

Lord of Extinction / Sewer Nemesis is a recent addition along with Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. As an alternate path to victory. We can always use the Lord/nemesis for the beat down or just sac to jarad for the win.

Dread gets a mention for its synergy with the Monolith and Orb engine. Infinite zombies to attack with or sac to Ashnod's Altar for infinite generic mana.

Ashnod's Altar also deserve a mention. This allows us to do more with our zombie tokens. Turning them into a sort of currency for the deck. With the altar in play. We can save our reanimation targets from exile and Insurrection type effects. It also allows us to setup for a better Living Death cast.

What Is This Deck?

This deck is a tuned reanimator list with combo finishers. It is a deck designed to make your opponent's struggle for answers.

We are looking to play big creatures turn 2-4 by reanimating them. Cause panic at the table and while your opponent's scramble for an answer to a turn 3 sheoldred. You'll be assembling the cards you require to combo them out.

This deck isn't tier 1. But is tweaked to be a rather consistent turn 4-6 winning deck. I believe it will hold up very well against other decks in its price range/power level.

The Art of Reanimation

Playing from the graveyard is one of the most satisfying ways to play magic. You need three things to play reanimator:

1. Creatures to reanimate
2. Ways to reanimate those creatures
3. Ways to get those creatures in the graveyard

1. Creatures to reanimate.

This isn't a big mana deck. Because we are focusing on self mill and discard. It's hard to justify running big mana ramp, when it ends up in the yard more often then not.

Because of this, the deck has been tuned to have a small yet powerful number of reanimate targets. Creatures that impact the board and require immediate action.

sheoldred and Grave Titan are prime examples of the kind of creature we'd love to bring back from the dead.

2. Ways to reanimate those creatures.

To save space, not all cards will be listed here. But the ability to reanimate has been spread across 10+ card slots in 3+ card types. Creatures, sorceries and enchantments all help with this role. Cheap and efficient spells like, Reanimate/Animate Dead/Doomed Necromancer

3. Ways to get those creatures in the graveyard

Dredge effects (Stinkweed Imp) and self-discard effects (Compulsion and Survival of the Fittest.) Drawing into a jin-gitaxias turn three, hurts. So having compulsion in play helps smooth out our hand

Card Selection

Ramp

We are playing fast ramp not only to get our engine firing sooner but to avoid dredging away the ramp we need into the yard.

• Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox, Sol Ring and Mana Crypt round out the artifact acceleration. Fast ramp. Sometimes chrome Mox can be a downside but it's usually correct to imprint what you have in hand at the moment. A turn 2 Sidisi is a big play.
• Birds of Paradise, Deathrite Shaman, Elves of Deep Shadow Elvish Mystic mana dorks that can end up in the yard and be easily sent back to the battlefield.
• Bloom Tender becomes better the longer the game goes on. And even in the early game
• Wall of Roots you can activate the ability when in comes into play and don't have to tap it.
• Devoted Druid / Channeler Initiate are mainly combo pieces as we typically want them in the graveyard but are fine ramp to sac for value later.
• Basalt Monolith more of a combo piece then ramp. But can give us a turn 3-4 fatty

Discard outlets

You don't want to hard cast a jin-gitaxias. You want to reanimate it. The discard package:

• Cryptbreaker happy to see an early game cryptbreaker. Let's us bin our fatties and draw cards. What I like about the card draw is you really only need two zombies in play as cryptbreaker acts as the third zombie. This ability is not effected by summoning sickness.
• Fauna Shaman some consider this card to be a little slow. It's still on this list for its tutor/toolbox value. Pitch a creature for an eternal witness or rec sage.
• Nyx Weaver recursion and discard in one card. Can also get us Sidisi triggers
• Survival of the Fittest fast way to smooth your hand out. Discard a fatty for a mana dork or maybe hermit druid?
• Stinkweed Imp fits well into a midrange shell. Opponents think twice before attacking into an imp.
• Compulsion another good midrange card. Cycle reanimation targets and abundance of lands to draw cards.
• Life from the Loam love this card. So abusable in this deck. Strip Mine and Buried Ruin just got way better. All the cycle lands too.
• Mesmeric Orb almost a stax piece. The orb can really shut down decks not playing from the GY. If we have a reanimate in hand, cast the orb. Reanimate any creature from any graveyard.

Reanimation

I wanted this deck to be a reanimator list, primarily. The most mana efficient, impactful reanimate spells are in the deck.

• Reanimate the token spell. Aggressively costed, you can't play reanimator without it
• Animate Dead another one of magics iconic reanimate spells.
• Dance of the Dead a little bit of a hidden gem. Typically casting this on a target that doesn't need to attack. jin gitaxis for example. But the downside of 1B to untap is easily overlooked on a turn 2 sheoldred. One might even argue it a fair spell.
• Stitch Together spicy tech for this deck. Of course you're going to have threshold.
• Victimize a wincon in itself. More discussion to come on victimize targets.
• Dread Return a part of the lab man win-con. Allows us to sac 3 creatures and flashback a laboratory maniac. However, it has many other uses in the deck. Casting it from hand to reanimate any target, puts it in the yard. Precisely where we want it.
• Living Death another win-con in the deck. Board wipe into pressing advantage.
• Sheoldred, Whispering One a house in EDH. Warps any game into frantic search for a kill spell. Can simply lock down other decks.

Recursion

Creatures aren't the only thing we want to bring back.

• Nyx Weaver one time use but I like cards that do two things
• Archaeomancer sometimes better then snapcaster, sometimes worse. Being able to put Living Death back in your hand after casting it. Is better then flashing it back.
• Phyrexian Reclamation can help save creatures in the GY from exile effects. This way we can hold on to reanimate effects to get back our sage and e witness.
• Academy Ruins great for getting back the orb and monolith. Any artifact really.
• Buried Ruin with life from the loam and crucible of worlds. This card is much much better. But redundancy helps.

Reanimate targets

The sauce. Every creature in this list is a correct choice for reanimation. Depending on board state. That's how they have been selected.

• Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur pretty much my go to. Insane card advantage. And you can pitch other reanimate targets after you draw seven
• Sheoldred, Whispering One another go to. In a creature heavy game, an early sheoldred shuts down those decks. It also causes panic at the table and allows you to draw out removal.
• Razaketh, the Foulblooded do more with your zombie tokens. You can basically always hold up a counter spell. And tutor for the combo at the end of turn.
• Grave Titan I've chosen this titan, for this list because how efficient it is and how well it pairs with DEN. 2 2/2 zombies for 1U.
• Lord of Extinction/Sewer Nemesis can realistically be 20/20 beaters, easily. That's being modest. Reanimate and sac to Jarrad

Tutors

So many fun ways to tutor things in this deck.

• Entomb I sometimes forget this puts any card from your list into the GY. Not just creatures.
• Sidisi, Undead Vizier/Razaketh, the Foulblooded creature tutors that are also great attackers or blockers respectively.
• Demonic Tutor the best black tutor?
• Intuition probably my favorite card. I'll just sit around thinking about different piles to make. I'm thinking about creating a write up on this card.
• Buried Alive another card I like to day dream about. Remember, it's "up to three creatures"
• Corpse Connoisseur finds any target when we need it
• Muddle the Mixture with dual modes, this card is pretty great. It finds mesmeric orb and many reanimate spells

Card Draw

Card draw takes a unique approach in this deck. Because we are playing with the graveyard as an extension of our hand. Dredge assumes the roll of card draw here. Save for a few cards slots.

• Cryptbreaker dual purpose card. Great end of turn card draw
• Dig Through Time great card advantage and draw. Easily casted for UU
• Compulsion great cycle ability
• Tranquil Thicket all three on color cycle lands are in the deck. They synergize with crucible of worlds and even more so with life of the loam, to the point that it's abusable.
• Deep Analysis cast this to put it in the GY.

Interaction

Every deck needs ways to interact.

• Pact of Negation help protect your combo when you're all tapped out.
• Muddle the Mixture protection against removal. Transmutes into multiple targets.
• Stifle it's in here to protect against graveyard hate. But great stopping any ETB effect.
• Krosan Grip interruption for Jarrad combo deck. This card is a meta choice.
• Memory's Journey protection against GY removal.
• Glen Elendra Archmage so good in a reanimator list.

Win Conditions

As a reanimator deck. We can lean heavily on early pressure from reanimating a fatty to press our advantage. Hitting a turn 2/3 sheoldred or jin-gitaxias usually ends a game.

Mesmeric Orb + Basalt Monolith + Laboratory Maniac + Deep Analysis. With the orb and monolith in play and either lab man in play or a reanimate in hand/Dread Return in the yard. We tap and untap monolith, milling ourselves until only Dread is in the library. Cast or reanimate lab man and then cast Deep Analysis for its flashback.

Mesmeric Orb + Basalt Monolith + Sidisi, Brood Tyrant + Dread(in library)= infinite zombies. Dread creates a finite loop that will generate a zombie as long as you untap the monolith.

Sidisi BT + Mesmeric Orb + Basalt Monolith + Altar of the Brood = with dread in the library, this will mill your opponents out of the game.

Lord of Extinction\Sewer Nemesis + Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord = sac the Lord or nemesis to jarad.

Necrotic Ooze win conditions Show

There are two necrotic ooze wins in the deck. Infinite mana into walking ballista and laboratory maniac draw win:

Infinite mana into walking ballista

There are many ways to start this line of play. The keys cards to the combo are:

• Blighted Bat
• Channeler Initiate
• Devoted Druid
• Walking Ballista

With these cards in your GY and necrotic ooze in play, the nooze gains all of the abilities. Spend one mana to active the bats ability to give nooze haste. Activate druids tap ability to add one green mana to your mana pool. Use druids other ability to place a -1/-1 counter on nooze and untap it. Now finally activate the channeler initiate ability to remove the counter and add any color mana. Repeat by untapping and adding a -1/-1 counter. Generating infinite colored mana to sink into walking ballista abilities through nooze.

Laboratory maniac draw and win.

This was the original path to victory for the deck and here are the key cards for it:

• Hermit Druid / Necrotic Ooze
• Dread Return
• Laboratory Maniac
• Deep Analysis

Using hermit druid (or nooze if the hermit is in the yard) to dump our library. Flashback dread return to reanimate laboratory maniac and then flashback deep analysis to win the game.

Now, this is the bare bones of the combos. Getting the cards into your graveyard is up to you. Sidisi self mill is capable of doing it. Entomb and buried alive will get there. Mesmeric orb and basalt Monolith are reliable ways. But the fastest way is to activate hermit druid. Either by casting the druid or having it in the yard to activate through the nooze.

It's a great way to bait removal as well. Cast hermit druid knowing you'll be casting nooze next turn regardless.

If you plan on using dread return please be aware the casting cost is three creatures. I don't play nacrombea or fate stitcher. So Sidisi will have to be in play with hermit druid. Activating druid will give us the third creature off sidisis ability. The deck really wants to play Sidisi first anyway.

If you like this deck, please give an up vote!

Huge inspiration to this deck has come from Daedalus19876 and his deck linked below:

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I Call Her Vera: Sidisi EDH | *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH Daedalus19876

SCORE: 207 | 414 COMMENTS | 39880 VIEWS | IN 131 FOLDERS

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Date added	8 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 57 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.32
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	EDH, Other Peoples Decks, +1 Non-Budget, Interesting Commander Decks, Sidisi (some w/ Ad Nauseum)