Why Sidisi, Brood Tyrant ?

I love commander's that give me value in interesting ways, and Sidisi is one of the most interesting. She helps you on two fronts, helping fill up your graveyard and giving you zombies to put pressure on the board. To me, the zombies are just a bonus, so I decided to go all in on the dredge plan and treat the zombies as an after thought. I specifically choose Sidisi over other dredge commanders for a few reasons, she has access to which most dredge decks don't have access to (most are ), and she doesn't lend herself to being a combo deck very well, (I hate combo decks!) She's a mix between a control and a midrange deck with a dredge engine that puts it over the top from the typical control or midrange deck. What really got me to build this deck was the myriad of choices that you get every turn, and I think that is when Magic is at it's best, having a huge variety of options and you having to chose the best option for the scenario at hand.

Pros

  1. Dredge is a very powerful mechanic, basically turning your graveyard into a 2nd hand.

  2. Gives you a board state while you're just filling up your graveyard.

  3. You will always have a ton of options to choose from every turn, making this deck able to handle most situations.

  4. Will out value just about every mid range deck and most control decks.

  5. Can easily win without the commander.

Cons

  1. Can be slow at times, especially with the sub par ramp in the deck.

  2. Like most dredge decks, graveyard hate, especially common played cards like Bojuka Bog

  3. No supper broken I win immediately combos (mostly because I chose to exclude them.)

  4. Your plays can sometimes be obvious since your opponents can see what's in your graveyard.

I also have an under $100 budget version of this deck: Sidisi, Nagging Naga Budget.

I also have a super competitive version of the deck: Sidisi, Nagging Naga Competitive.

CREATURES

Birds of Paradise - Helps get Sidisi down turn 3.

Body Double - This one is an auto-include, being able to copy any creature in a graveyard usually = the best card in your deck for the board state.

Caustic Caterpillar - In here to deal w/ artifacts & enchantments, also has some synergy w/ meren.

Centaur Vinecrasher - The best cards in this deck are cards that do stuff from the graveyard, and this one comes in as a huge beater w/ trample, usually having power of 10-30.

Deathcap Cultivator - Creature ramp, which I took over sorcery and artifact ramp to have a higher chance to trigger Sidisi's zombie ability, plus this guy has an ok delirium ability (Delirium is real easy to get in this deck.)

Deathrite Shaman - A perfect card for this deck, it helps w/ a lot of the weaknesses of the deck, it ramps, and it deals w/ other dredge decks by exiling their key cards in their graveyard, which is a must with cards in this deck like Mesmeric Orb and Life's Finale .

Deranged Assistant & Millikin - Ramps, triggers Sidisi, and puts cards in the graveyard.

Eternal Witness - This usually has a ton of cards to choose from, so pick the best one for the current situation.

Genesis - An eternal witness from your graveyard that triggers every turn... YES PLEASE! A key card in any dredge deck.

Golgari Grave-Troll - One of the best dredge engines in the deck, it's also one of the dredgers that can actually do some damage when on the battlefield.

Golgari Thug - Another dredger and one w/ a half decent ability that can also guarantee a Sidisi zombie trigger.

Havengul Lich - Works well w/ the deck to cast creature's from your graveyard that can't be cast normally from the graveyard, also can steal your opponents stuff especially works w/ Mesmeric Orb and Life's Finale .

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord - I usually end up winning w/ this card and some huge creature being pumped up by the graveyard, I'll say I've won at least 1/3 of my matches w/ this card.

Kessig Cagebreakers - Kind of an underrated card for dredge, but I think it's extremely powerful, I usually end up getting 5-12 wolfs, which equates to about 10-20 power that adds up very quickly after consecutive attacks.

Krosan Restorer - Much needed ramp that almost always untaps 3 lands.

Laboratory Maniac - Another win condition, it is very easy to mil out in this deck, so I wanted to take advantage of it, wow I'm actually using this card for what it's meant for and not some dumb combo, wow.

Lord of Extinction - This guy being scarified by Jarad = GG, you'll usually do about 60-100 damage.

Magus of the Will - The graveyard becomes an entire other hand, you should win when this activates.

Meren of Clan Nel Toth - She is kind of like the 2nd commander in this deck, most of the time she is a better Eternal Witness , other times she'll lock down the game w/ a Shriekmaw every turn or some other baddy that your opponent's can't handle.

Necrotic Ooze - Does a lot of crazy thing, I'll go into more detail in the synergies section since this card does so many different things.

Nighthowler - Another graveyard pumped creature that has the added bonus of being able to be bestowed on Sidisi for easy commander damage kills, this card's power is usually around 5-10.

Nyx Weaver - A crappy Eternal Witness w/ an excellent passive ability that fills up the graveyard and triggers Sidisi's zombie ability.

Ramunap Excavator - Crucible of Worlds on a creature, there will usually be a ton a land in the graveyard that you can play, and this card allows you to use Strip Mine or Wasteland over and over again.

Sakura-Tribe Elder - Ramp that can be recurred, really good w/ Meren.

Sakura-Tribe Scout - Great synergy w/ Life from the Loam .

Sewer Nemesis - Yet another graveyard pumped creature that helps fill up the graveyard and trigger Sidisi.

Sheoldred, the Whispering One- More graveyard recursion and puts some much needed pressure on the opponent's board, also incredibly deadly against voltron decks.

Shriekmaw - Solid targeted removal on a creature, real good w/ meren recursion.

Soul of Innistrad - Gives you excellent recursion and has the huge benefit of being able to be used from the graveyard.

Stinkweed Imp - A dredge engine and an excellent blocker.

Vengeful Pharaoh - "Are you sure you want to attack me, I got Vengeful Pharaoh in the graveyard." "Oh yeah never mind I'll attack the other guy/gal instead."

Wonder - I've won more games w/ an army of flying zombies than anything else in this deck, Wonder in the graveyard is the easiest way to win.

LANDS

Barren Moor + Lonely Sandbar + Tranquil Thicket - There for the Life from the Loam combo.

Bojuka Bog - Necessary for your opponent's graveyard based strategies, even though it is a bit of an anti-combo w/ a lot of the cards in this deck.

Breeding Pool + Overgrown Tomb + Watery Grave - The shock lands are necessary for any deck that can run them, they are cheap price wise for how powerful they are, being able to fetch them is important for any multicolored deck.

City of Brass + Mana Confluence - The life loss doesn't matter much in commander, these two cards should go in every multicolored deck.

Command Tower - Goes in every multicolored deck, the best multicolored land in commander.

Drownyard Temple - A 3 mana ramp that is used from the graveyard, it isn't too bad.

Evolving Wilds + Terramorphic Expanse - I use these in every multicolored deck, and the more lands that synergize w/ Ramunap Excavator the better.

Exotic Orchard + Reflecting Pool - Are basically redundant Command Tower s 95% of the time.

Forest + Island + Swamp - The basic land just fill in the rest of the land slots, and my general rule is a minimum of 2 basic lands of each type so Evolving Wilds + Terramorphic Expanse can almost always hit once for each land type.

High Market - A sacrifice outlet to protect creatures from exile and to get experience counters for Meren of Clan Nel Toth .

Misty Rainforest + Polluted Delta + Verdant Catacombs - Fetch lands are arguably the best lands in magic, combos well w/ Ramunap Excavator .

Morphic Pool - The Battlebond lands are great and should be played in every deck multicolored deck that can run them.

Opulent Palace - The tri-land for Sultai, you should always run the appropriate tri-land when making three colored decks.

Strip Mine + Wasteland - I'm not a big fan of playing land destruction since it puts most play groups in a bad mood, however Crucible of Worlds + Strip Mine or Life from the Loam is too good to pass up on.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - I play this in any multicolored deck that runs

Volrath's Stronghold - Solid recursion on a land, plus being able to set up a guaranteed zombie trigger off Sidisi is sometimes necessary.

Woodland Cemetery - This is the only one of the check lands I play, because otherwise my land base would have too much in it.

INSTANTS

Arcane Denial + Counterspell - I put both of these in just about every deck that runs , counters sometimes are the only answer to certain problems.

Brainstorm - Just a good hand fixing card normally, but in this deck you can put cards you want in the graveyard on top of your deck then mill yourself or guarantee a zombie trigger on Sidisi.

Cyclonic Rift - One of the best cards in , goes in almost every deck that runs .

Disallow - A solid counterspell and gives the deck a way to deal with Bojuka Bog .

Entomb - Excellent graveyard tutor, you can do cheeky plays like throw Wonder in there and unexpectedly swing in w/ flyers.

Logic Knot - An excellent counterspell for any self-mill deck, basically becoming a redundant Counterspell .

Murderous Cut - A one mana kill spell, usually is the only color that gets to that w/ cards like Path & Swords, and everyone knows how powerful those cards are.

SORCERIES

Buried Alive - The best tutor in the deck, put what you need to win in the graveyard, then proceed to win.

Deep Analysis - A solid card draw spell that works especially well in a self mill strategy, however the main reason it's in the deck is to have a way to draw cards from the graveyard when we are milled out, so the deck can win w/ Laboratory Maniac .

Dread Return - One of the few things in this deck to actually interact w/ the zombie tokens, bring a huge creature from the graveyard onto the battlefield, this card being able to be activated from the graveyard makes it perfect for this deck.

Jarad's Orders - More graveyard tutoring.

Life from the Loam - The best dredge card in Magic, this card does a ton of crazy things.

Life's Finale - The only true board wipe in the deck, I wanted at least one so I chose this one, because of it's synergy w/ cards like Havengul Lich and Deathrite Shaman .

Living Death - You are naturally building your deck to complement this card, every time you use this card, broken things will happen.

Reanimate - One of the OG recursion spells, it is still powerful in today's world of Magic.

Spider Spawning - When an army of zombies aren't good enough, call in the spiders, yet another excellent card that can be used from the graveyard.

Traverse the Ulvenwald - This is secretly one of the most powerful cards that has been printed in recent Magic, the card's delirium is easy to trigger in this deck and there has never been a tutor that is one mana and the card goes into your hand instead of on top of your library.

Victimize - Trading one zombie for two of the most powerful cards in my graveyard sounds good to me.

Worm Harvest - When zombies aren't enough, kill them w/ ~15+ worms that multiple every turn.

ARTIFACTS

Altar of Dementia - A useful sacrifice outlet that can help make a lot of zombies and fill up the graveyard.

Bonehoard - An easy way to kill w/ commander damage when equipped to Sidisi.

Lightning Greaves + Swiftfoot Boots - Haste on a giant graveyard pumped beater is incredibly powerful and Sidisi being able to mill 6 cards her first turn being summoned is a good start to victory.

Mesmeric Orb - One of the most powerful cards in the deck, being able to trigger Sididi's zombie ability off every untapped permanent means you'll usually get about 3-6 zombies each untap, this card fills up your graveyard fast.

Sol Ring - It's commander.

Whip of Erebos - Lifelink zombie army is good, giant graveyard pumped creature swinging w/ haste is also good.

ENCHANTMENT

Phyrexian Reclamation - A solid recursion spell.

Life from the Loam and Barren Moor + Lonely Sandbar + Tranquil Thicket

Using this combo allows you to basically dredge 3 for 1 mana over and over again, filling up your graveyard and triggering Sidisi's zombie ability over and over again. If you are confused, basically you cycle one of the cycle lands, then you dredge 3 instead of drawing. You use Life from the Loam to get the cycle land back, then you just repeat, an easy and very effective combo. It's easy to use, you just need Life from the Loam in your graveyard or hand, and a cycle land in your graveyard or hand, there is a pretty high chance of that happening.

Strip Mine and Wasteland are good choices to get over and over again w/ Life from the Loam .

Necrotic Ooze synergies

  1. Deathcap Cultivator you get his tap for or ability.

  2. Deathrite Shaman you get all 3 of his abilities, the more graveyard hate in this deck the better.

  3. Deranged Assistant + Millikin you get their ability.

  4. Havengul Lich this one is one of the best ones to get.

  5. Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord having another version of him is good, even though you'll usually just get Jarad back using his graveyard ability.

  6. Krosan Restorer just untaping a land, I don't think Necrotic Ooze can get the threshold ability, but I'm not 100% certain.

  7. Soul of Innistrad another of the real good abilities to target.

  8. Sakura-Tribe Scout play more lands.

  9. Birds of Paradise tap for any manna.

  10. Caustic Caterpillar a little bit of redundant artifact/enchantment removal.

  11. Magus of the Will a another creature w/ this powerful ability is a huge plus.

  12. Nyx Weaver more graveyard recursion is always useful in this deck.

  13. Sakura-Tribe Elder I've probably used this one the most since Necrotic Ooze seems to always get removed, at least you can sacrifice it to ramp.

  14. Life's Finale remember Necrotic Ooze works for all graveyards, if you know someone has an activated ability that is real broken, put that creature in their graveyard.

Meren of Clan Nel Toth synergies

Sakura-Tribe Elder ramps and sacrifices himself to give Meren an experience counter.

Shriekmaw before you get 5 experience counters, you can just evoke him a few times.

Caustic Caterpillar can sacrifice himself and deals w/ enchantments and artifacts.

Altar of Dementia an easy way to get a crap ton of experience counters, just keep sacrificing zombies and milling yourself w/ the possibility of reloading another zombie.

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord great creatures to sacrifice.

One of the best win conditions in the deck, the best targets to sac are Body Double (coping a huge graveyard creature), Centaur Vinecrasher , Golgari Grave-Troll , Lord of Extinction (Probably the biggest one), Nighthowler (You can sacrifice twice if bestowed,) Sewer Nemesis , Bonehoard (Another one that you have the potential to sacrifice multiple times, usually equipping to zombies), Whip of Erebos (you're able to sacrifice the creature you get back.)

Good target's for Entomb and Buried Alive

Vengeful Pharaoh really funny when you get it w/ entomb and kill their creature out of nowhere, can really discourage your opponents from attacking you when he is in the graveyard.

Wonder when you need flying, Wonder is here to help.

Centaur Vinecrasher a big beater that can be easily retrieved from the graveyard.

Any dredge card is always a solid choice.

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord when you need him to close out the game, he's pretty easy to get out of the graveyard.

Soul of Innistrad helps get creatures out of the graveyard that don't come out on their own.

Dread Return if you need a particular creature on the field right away that's in the graveyard.

Spider Spawning + Worm Harvest if you need to start going wide w/ tokens.

Ramunap Excavator synergies

Barren Moor + Lonely Sandbar + Tranquil Thicket cycle then just put it one the field, although you usually want to save these cards for Life from the Loam .

Strip Mine and Wasteland destroy someone's land every turn to oppress someone's mana.

MILL WIN CONDITIONS

Laboratory Maniac just keep on dredging, you'll usually get down to 30 cards left in deck by accident, if you want this to become your win condition in a match go for it, you'll probably get it activated in a turn or two.

Altar of Dementia sac a big creature like Lord of Extinction or a crap ton of tokens, either way it is very easy to mill out your opponents w/ this card.

SWINGING WITH FATTIES

Centaur Vinecrasher - The one you'll use the most since you can get him from the graveyard pretty easily, the trample really makes him dangerous.

Golgari Grave-Troll - Another one you can get from the graveyard, he's a little difficult to get rid of, because of his regenerate ability (even though regenerate seems not to work about 80% of the time, because of board wipes w/ "can't be regenerated" and exile cards like Path to Exile ), he doesn't have trample, but the real reason why he's in the deck is his dredge ability, him being a potential fatty is just a bonus.

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord - He can be big, usually around 8-12 power, not as big as the other fatties, but he's in here for his abilities, him being big is just a bonus.

Lord of Extinction - He will be gigantic. If you can hit someone w/ him, they will die, the best thing is to sacrifice him to Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and kill everyone at the table.

Nighthowler - Bestowed on Sidisi makes easy commander damage kills, usually killing in 1 or 2 hits.

Sewer Nemesis - A fatty that helps fill up the graveyard.

Bonehoard - A fatty that will keep on pumping other creatures to make them fatties until this artifact is dealt with.

TOKEN SWARM

Sidisi, Brood Tyrant - If you can get consistent graveyard filling cards and you're zombies can stick around for a while, you'll get a good chunk of zombies in a few turns, they usually accidently get answered w/ a board wipe trying to hit some other scary creature, so don't depend on the zombies to carry you to victory on their own.

Kessig Cagebreakers - You'll get a crap ton of wolfies, he's basically Sidisi on steroids. You'll usually get 5+ wolfies on each attack, which pileup quickly.

Spider Spawning - A token creator that can be used from the graveyard, you usually get a good chunk of spiders.

Worm Harvest - You'll get a good chunk of worms and you can use it over and over again especially w/ Life from the Loam .

FLYING ZOMBIES

Putting Wonder in the graveyard is the easiest way to win. Giving flying to your fatties and Sidisi and her zombie army makes you be able to kill the whole table in a turn or two. Wonder is hard to get rid of, which is something your opponents will feel they'll need to answer right away and often can't. The best ways to get Wonder in the graveyard are, Entomb , Buried Alive , Jarad's Orders , and just discarding it when you're at 8+ cards in hand at the discard phase.

LIVING DEATH

Living Death - You can sculpt the whole game around winning w/ this card, your deck already slaps a bunch of cards in the graveyard for you, just try and get rid of your opponents good cards using Deathrite Shaman or Bojuka Bog .

There are so many cards that work well in this deck that I just didn't have room for in the 99. What I'm really looking for are reasons to get rid of some of the cards in the 99. There are a good chunk of cards that I won't play that are good, because I think they should be banned, cards like Hermit Druid , Mana Crypt , Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion and generally anything over $20 since I'm on a tight budget (I probably won't buy the expensive fetch lands). Volath's Stronghold might not be worth the $, but I'll keep it on for now, Sheoldred, the Whispering One might also be too expensive, but I'll keep it in for now. If the card is a must and is over $20, I might consider it. I want to try out a huge variety of cards since there are so many potentially excellent cards for this deck, so put your card(s) you want me to try out in the comments, and more importantly what I should take out for the card(s).

-Got rid of Splinterfright since I already had enough graveyard pumped beaters and replaced it w/ Stifle to deal w/ Bojuka Bog

-Got rid of Grim Backwoods (since card draw isn't very important) for High Market (since High Market is much less mana intensive).

-Got rid of Reliquary Tower , because I've realized having no maximum hand size is really bad in this deck, because you can't discard cards that you want in the graveyard and I've replaced it w/ Wasteland for more land destruction targets for Life from the Loam and Crucible of Worlds .

-Got rid of Satyr Wayfinder for Caustic Caterpillar , I had no way of dealing w/ enchantments and artifacts (a huge oversight) and Caustic Caterpillar works well w/ meren and is a reasonable mana cost.

-Got rid of Dakmor Salvage & Nephalia Drownyard for Reflecting Pool & Exotic Orchard , I didn't have a good way to get Darkmor Salvage into the graveyard for repeatable dredge, plus dredge 2 is pretty weak, Nephalia Drownyard costs too much mana for what it does and I already had too many colorless lands, Reflecting Pool & Exotic Orchard should be in most 3 and 5 color decks and it helps w/ mana color problems, which seemed to happen more often than I liked while playing.

-Replaced Jace, the Mind Sculptor (since he was in here just for fun) w/ Sakura-Tribe Scout since I needed more mana ramp and synergy w/ Life from the Loam , Crucible of Worlds and Strip Mine / Wasteland .

-Replaced a Forest for Birds of Paradise , Birds triggers Sidisi while a Forest doesn't.

-Replaced Yawgmoth's Will for Magus of the Will , Magus of the Will triggers Sidisi & is cheaper $ wise.

-I created a budget version of the deck under $100: Sidisi, Nagging Naga Budget and a Competitive version of the deck: Sidisi, Nagging Naga Competitive.

-Replaced Crypt of Agadeem and Mortuary Mire for City of Brass and Mana Confluence , I needed to make room for these pain lands, so Crypt of Agadeem and Mortuary Mire had to go since they were the weakest lands.

-Replaced Stifle with Disallow , in my opinion, Disallow is a strictly better card.

-Replaced Crucible of Worlds w/ Ramunap Excavator since he is cheaper price wise and triggers Sidisi when milled.

-Replaced Extractor Demon for Deep Analysis , Extractor Demon has severely underperformed (mostly because of it's high cmc), and I wanted a way to draw cards from the graveyard for the Lab Man win condition.

-Added a video that I made about this deck.

-Replaced Thought Scour for Logic Knot , Thought Scour is a cantrip for one mana, so it's almost a free card, but it taking up a slot in the deck is not worth it, I wanted to add another counterspell to the deck, and Logic Knot is a perfect fit.

-Replaced Treasure Cruise w/ Murderous Cut , the deck needed more instant speed answers and I didn't want to overdue it w/ cards that have delve, so Treasure Cruise ended up being cut.

-Replaced Sunken Hollow w/ Morphic Pool , Morphic Pool seems strictly better than Sunken Hallow even though you can't fetch Morphic Pool .

Put the deck in retirement, and replaced it for Muldrotha, the Gravetide Muldrotha Decklist

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