Ooh, I quite like your take on Hermit Druid combo for the deck. I may have to borrow that particular setup. My only qualm is the number of deck slots it takes.

Also, I see you mention Vigor quite extensively in the description, but it doesn't appear to be in the deck list.

Great to see another member of the cEDH subreddit using the site!

The deck slots are not huge as a lot of them are reasonable on their own. But even the terrible cards are worth it because Hermit Druid is such a fast combo that it can afford some clunky options to make it work.

So Vigor was very recently cut from the list. Vigor served 2 roles in my list, the first was to be looped using the 4 Horseman combo and create infinite zombies, but why should I go to combat with infinite zombies when I can just reanimate Lab Man and win in the same way I do off of Hermit Druid? The second was to act as a screw-up button for Hermit Druid so I could wait a turn if necessary. But why wait a turn if I follow the advice of "Git Gud".

Vigor was essentially replaced by Phantasmagorian so that if I am attempting to combo off and draw any of the combo pieces that need to be in my graveyard I can discard them through Phantasmagorian's ability, this also shores up my Necrotic Ooze plan allowing Phantasmagorian to be the last piece of Buried Alive if I draw any of the others.

Very interesting mix of combos. I went and goldfished your deck a dozen or so times and I came up with a few questions:

1. How quickly will you decide which combo you'll use and at which point of the game will you switch your game plan? One thing that I found apparent within this deck is that if you mill enough cards and try going for the Necrotic Ooze combo, for instance as a backup plan if Hermit Druid gets exiled, your combined CMC of the remaining library (which is just a bit over 120 aka the combined life totals of your opponents in a 4-player game) will not be enough to kill every opponent unless most of them really like to abuse their life total. In short, your most resilient plan requires you to have most of your cards in the library while the rest of your plans want you to mill as hard as possible. Is the raw power enough to make the mix of plans worth it?

2. How often do you find yourself able to assemble the 4 Horsemen as a backup plan? It's a two-piece combo that is difficult to tutor for and in most cases essentially requires you to draw into one of them by chance (same goes for Windfall + Notion Thief) to be quick enough against other fast combo decks.

3. When Hermit Druid ability resolves and someone uses spot removal on your Lab Man, is the amount of instant cantrips/counterspells/ramp to allow casting them in the first place enough to avoid losing in the next upkeep? Or will you just not try to go for the HD combo after early game?

To put all of the above simply, I'm curious whether the variety of combos is more of a benefit than a burden to you. I'd personally find it mortifying to draw something like Mesmeric Orb when you're trying to fish for a reanimate for Ooze, for example.

Thanks for any responses in advance, I'm a fan of this deck idea and might be able to assemble something similar in the future.

This is an excellent list. I definitely learned a lot from it. I have two questions. First, why so few creatures? It would seem to me that this would significantly limit the strength of Sidisi, Undead Vizier's ability. Second, is there a reason you are running her over another BUG commander? I only ask because I am building my own competitive Sidisi list and would like to pick your brain.

@Leptys207

1. Most times a combo will need to be apparent from my opening hand to really know what you plan to do. The combo you go for depends heavily on what tutors you have. The reason that I play Necrotic Ooze combo is because it is essentially impossible to interrupt once it resolves. You only tend to go for this combo early because the cmc of the deck is so close to the threshold (my meta is full of people who aggressively use their life total). So bottom line, yes the raw power of Ooze is worth playing.

2. 4 Horseman is a back up plan that usually isn't tutored for and just drawn naturally. Both pieces are fine on their own because Mesmeric Orb creates lots of zombies to attack with Sidisi, and Basalt Monolith isn't an amazing mana rock, but its fine. Notion Thief + Windfall is generally something I only go for if I have one in hand already and I have a tutor. These are the combos that go later because they don't rely on speed to be useful.

3. Most people will kill Lab Man in response to the Flashback on Deep Analysis which will kill me. Hermit Druid is a combo you generally go for either very early when people aren't set up to respond; or very late once all their interaction and removal has been burned on other players and I've drawn into countermagic of my own.

@wagnerr2 There used to be more creatures and they have slowly gotten cut for cantrips and countermagic. Sidisi, Undead Vizier is either a late game play where I sacrifice a random mana dork or a zombie token, or it's early enough that sacrificing herself isn't relevant. As for other BUG commanders, I've been planning to test out Damia and Tasigur in place of Sidisi, but I haven't yet figured out the best way to do this.

Thank you both for your feedback, I'm glad you are enjoying the deck! Feel free to keep asking questions.

Have you considered:

1. Seeker of Skybreak? It's a slower Basalt Monolith, but easier to fetch by your tutors and reanimation.

2. Phenax, God of Deception + Eater of the Dead? Necrotic Ooze gives the combo extra redundancy.

3. Doomsday. Looking at the different piles in Landdestruction.com's article you might have room for it.

Great list, cool to see a competitive Sidisi-list instead of just another Damia or Mimeo-list.

@Indigoindigo

1. I've thought about it, but Monolith + Orb is the backup plan and without the orb its just a piker which is just way to slow in my meta.

2. Phenax and Eater of Dead are a combo that doesn't work on any of the other axis's I'm going for. I also play against storm decks that don't play a lot of creatures for it to consistently go off.

3. I had Doomsday in the list for a while and it was just too clunky. I never wanted to draw it or use it as a combo. It finally bit the dust with the mulligan changes because it was awful to see in your opening hand.

How often do you actually Sidisi? It seems like you don't ever need her to win. I've been attempting to push my Sidisi deck to a more dedicated combo deck and I'm not sure how often I should just play her out

@invigorate_berserk10

You really do not need Sidisi very often. There are really only 3 scenarios where you are casting her:

1. You have nothing else to do. It happens, Sidisi's milling helps find fuel for either flashback spells or reanimation.
2. You have Mesmeric Orb. Orb, while not doing much to affect your opponents, it creates a reasonable force with Sidisi triggering off of each card.
3. Combat is relevant. this ties into #1 but if your options are limited you should cast Sidisi and start to pressure either the Ad Nauseum player or the person with important creatures. Even just with one or 2 zombies she can bring players into the low 30's / mid 20's where trading cards for life becomes a real decision.

That is what I've found in testing and my playgroup often comes to the conclusion that when I play her out they can ignore the cards in my hand because it usually means I'm out of gas.

A few more questions:
1. What purpose does Memory's Journey serve in the list?
2. Have you considered Whispering Madness as a backup to Windfall?
3. Have you considered Mirror-Mad Phantasm as an additional mill-combo? With Phantasm in your GY and Necrotic Ooze in play, activate the ability and mill your library.

Indigoindigo I actually really like that Mirror-Mad idea. Discard it to Survival of the Fittest to get Ooze and then proceed to mill you're entire deck.

Thoughts on Leovold, Emissary of Trest?

I love what you have done with the deck since I have last seen it. How has Food Chain worked out for you? I see you are going with the labman finisher. I really like how many cards it cuts out of the combo. I have been thinking of going with the labman finisher as well, but keeping Tidespout Tyrant and Eternal Witness, so I can draw most my graveyard and then use my fast rocks and rituals to finish the combo without needing any extra floating mana before I start to combo off. This would cut Mikeaus and victimize from the list. With those slots I am thinking of trying out a few cards from your list. If I were to add just one of Bring to Light, Chord of Calling, or Bazaar of Baghdad, what would be your choice?

I love what you have done with the deck since I have last seen it. How has Food Chain worked out for you? I see you are going with the labman finisher. I really like how many cards it cuts out of the combo. I have been thinking of going with the labman finisher as well, but keeping Tidespout Tyrant and Eternal Witness, so I can draw most my graveyard and then use my fast rocks and rituals to finish the combo without needing any extra floating mana before I start to combo off. This would cut Mikeaus and victimize from the list. With those slots I am thinking of trying out a few cards from your list. If I were to add just one of Bring to Light, Chord of Calling, or Bazaar of Baghdad, what would be your choice?

I love what you have done with the deck since I have last seen it. How has Food Chain worked out for you? I see you are going with the labman finisher. I really like how many cards it cuts out of the combo. I have been thinking of going with the labman finisher as well, but keeping Tidespout Tyrant and Eternal Witness, so I can draw most my graveyard and then use my fast rocks and rituals to finish the combo without needing any extra floating mana before I start to combo off. This would cut Mikeaus and victimize from the list. With those slots I am thinking of trying out a few cards from your list. If I were to add just one of Bring to Light, Chord of Calling, or Bazaar of Baghdad, what would be your choice?

Glad to hear you are keeping up with the list! Food Chain has been working quite well because I realized it, much like 4 Horseman, was a 2 card combo. You trade the utility of the 4H pieces outside of the combo for it being significantly easier to tutor for.
The Food Chain package is actually going to get an incidental upgrade with the inclusion of Walking Ballista. Now I just Dread Return on Eternal Witness, getting back Ballista, cast it for infinite and win.
As for what to add from those 3? All are very good, and i would recommend trying to find room, but Bring to Light is the most versatile since it enables both Hermit Druid and Buried Alive.

I'm building a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant competitive deck for my local meta but I only have a budget of 500 dollars, what combos do you think are important to keep in it so that it can be strong?

What are your thoughts on windfall?

So I was having an extraordinarily difficult time with Doomsday Leovold, always getting killed with no cards in my library and lab man on the stack, or lab man on the field no cards in the library, draw spell on the stack, and needed to change things up. I've built this, and I've only played one game with it and it's been alot of fun (I won).

Anyway, I've got three questions. What do you think of Jarad's Orders? And, what are some common intuition piles? Lastly, what are we trying to get into the graveyard to reanimate, or are the reanimate spells just utility for if our ooze is dead?

@iancoffey97 So building this deck on a budget is a very interesting conundrum that I promise will get its own section of the primer eventually, so check back soon. For now I will say that most of the actual combo cards are very cheap (Thornling is like $2). Once you get the ooze pieces I would highly recommend Survival of the Fittest as the first big investment. Nothing compares to what that card can do for a creature based graveyard deck. Start with the more niche tutors and draw spells and work your way towards the staples. The mana is also tricky since Hermit Druid locks you out of basics, again start with what you can and always be on the lookout to snag a new untapped source. Filling out the deck with more utility creatures to make casting Sidisi more profitable is also a good plan, this deck at one point was trying to loop Living Death and Eternal Witness. I'll try to come up with a ~$500 list soon but feel free to ask more questions in the meantime.

@lilbrudder Windfall is a very good card and used to be in the deck along with Notion Thief to take advantage of a very combo heavy meta that needed specific cards. Now that I have shifted to becoming the threat to deal with among control decks, Windfall is just too slow. It always felt like too much mana to occasionally whiff and get nothing. It was replaced by Preordain which helps smooth out the early game and is substantially cheaper.

@kyuuri117 Glad to hear it! This deck is an absurd pile that always baffles opponents at how readily it can find lines through hate and wiggle out of binds. And in regards to Leovold Doomsday, the card used to be in the deck, but I cut it because it was too linear. To actually answer your questions, Jarads Orders is a good card but 4 mana is a little too slow for this version. It's more at home in a midrange or budget build but is by no means an embarrassment. The reanimates are used to rebuy Hermit Druid or Ooze if they get countered or killed and having more of them means that the Buried Alive win is online more often. As for Intuition, beyond what I detailed earlier, common piles might usually be:
Hermit Druid + Shallow Grave + Reanimate.
Buried Alive + Snapcaster + Eternal Witness.
Vampiric Tutor + Chord of Calling + Buried Alive.
Natures Claim + Wipe Away + Null Rod.
Swan Song + Flusterstorm + Jace.

Just counted and the total cmc of the deck is 154 per your list, not 139. Not sure if you made changes to the list since you put the number down, but it's definitely helpful for the necro ooze combo. Plus, with the new changes to split cards, Life/Death counts as cmc3 when you flip it to devourer, you don't have to choose 1 or 2, which is a minor upgrade. Or, it will be when Amonkhet comes out.

Yes thank you that number is from an older version as I haven't had the time to go back over everything.

why dont you run Misthollow Griffin

A valid inclusion for sure, but I don't run Griffin because the Food Chain combo is never really my primary plan and I don't want to devote more slots to it than I have to. I chose Scourge over the Griffin because of the synergy with Drift of Phantasms.

also the budget link is broken :/