Sisay: The Ultimate Human Tribal **PRIMER**

Commander / EDH Combo Hatebears Humans Infinite Combo Primer Tribal

Enral

Creature (38)

• 1x Anafenza, the Foremost
• 1x Angel of Glory's Rise
• 1x Baird, Steward of Argive
• 1x Barrin, Master Wizard
• 1x Captain Sisay
• 1x Cartel Aristocrat
• 1x Dire Fleet Daredevil
• 1x Ertai, the Corrupted
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Fiend Hunter
• 1x Hostage Taker
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain
• 1x Judith, the Scourge Diva
• 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1x Knight of the White Orchid
• 1x Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
• 1x Lena, Selfless Champion
• 1x Loyal Retainers
• 1x Mangara of Corondor
• 1x Massacre Girl
• 1x Meren of Clan Nel Toth
• 1x Merieke Ri Berit
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 1x Noble Hierarch
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Ravos, Soultender *f-etch*
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Saffi Eriksdotter
• 1x Sakashima the Impostor
• 1x Samut, Voice of Dissent
• 1x Sigarda, Heron's Grace
• 1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
• 1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 1x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Land (36)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forest
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Island
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plateau
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath

Commander (1)

Artifact (11)

• 1x Bow of Nylea
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Hammer of Nazahn
• 1x Hammer of Purphoros
• 1x Honor-Worn Shaku
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel

Instant (7)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Capture of Jingzhou
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Urza's Ruinous Blast
• 1x Winds of Abandon

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Smothering Tithe

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Becoming Human

The Deck

As the magic multiverse expanded over the years, more and more powerful humans are introduced. Humans are now even part of the competitive scene in the modern format. Never before has there been a possibility to make a powerful humans tribal deck in commander till Sisay, Weatherlight Captain is introduced in Modern Horizons. Sisay gives me the option of including many powerful human legendaries as well as non-legendary humans as the supporting cast to glue the deck together nicely. This deck's theme and direction is also inspired by one of my favorite PS4 games of all times Detroit: Become Human.

The Captain

Sisay, Weatherlight Captain is an interesting build-around commander. Let's break down her abilities:

Sisay, Weatherlight Captain gets +1/+1 for each color among other legendary permanents you control.

This means that she only gets a maximum of +5/+5 from all 5 colors no matter how many legendaries of different colors are in play. In order to grab bigger legendary permanents, we need things that pump her power which means equipments or anthem effects work well with her. Since most of my legendaries are at a pretty low cmc and I don't really play Sisay till mid to late game, having equipment or anthem effects are not necessary in my deck.

: Search your library for a legendary permanent card with converted mana cost less than Sisay's power, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.

The most notable thing about this is that her ability fetches legendary permanents with cmc less than her power. This means that without any boost to her power, she can only naturally fetch things with 2 or less cmc. This makes inclusion of utility legendary lands like Phyrexian Tower great.

The Strategy

There are several strategies that I can choose from when it comes to building a humans tribal deck. The most straightforward one is aggro/combat-centric focused theme which includes many of them from the boros color pie. The other one is hatebears which include the infamous Thalia, Guardian of Thraben . I went with the latter but also include a way to end the game swiftly with infinite combos involving humans! This deck plays out like a typical aristocrat/combo deck.

Strategy is simply deploying disruptive humans like Thalia, Heretic Cathar while creating a value recursion engine in play mostly with key humans like Meren of Clan Nel Toth and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician . As mentioned briefly above, I don't prioritize casting Sisay till mid to late game when I can start using her abilities effectively. This style of playing makes the deck more resilient and less reliant on commander for it to function well. The value accrued over just a few turns can eventually dig into Loyal Retainers or Angel of Glory's Rise which can just win the game as Sisay can tutor for the rest of the combo pieces. This deck is very resilient to boardwipes due to the number of recursions in the deck and my opponents will be easily overwhelmed by an angry human mob if they can't interact with me sufficiently.

The Recruitment Drive

Notable Human Recruits

The following are notable humans that are current or potential recruit to my ultimate human tribal ship:

• Anafenza, the Foremost : Graveyard hate on a stick! Tutor this out with Sisay in the middle of a boardwipe or combo loop and watch the world burn.
• Barrin, Master Wizard : One of the best utility human in the deck. Bounces, sacs, and disrupts.
• Yawgmoth, Thran Physician : MVP of the deck and usually one of my first few tutors.
• Massacre Girl : Tutor this out with Sisay when the token deck is getting out of control.
• Captain Sisay : Another legendary tutor!

Recruitment Wishboard

There are some specific abilities that I hope Wizards would print on a legendary human so I can replace the current non-legendary version with them:

• A legendary human with similar ETB card draw effect as Cloudblazer .
• A legendary human with an Eternal Witness effect.
• A legendary human with a free sac outlet effect like Cartel Aristocrat .
• A legendary human with similar recursive effect as Loyal Retainers .
• A legendary human with similar tutor effect as Imperial Recruiter / Recruiter of the Guard .

Discharged Recruits

The following are humans that I've chose not to include with reasons:

• Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder / Saskia the Unyielding wasn't included because this deck focuses more on value/disruption than the combat step.
• Tymna the Weaver wasn't included with the same reasons as above and I have other non-combat methods of obtaining card draw.
• Marchesa, the Black Rose wasn't included with the same reasons as above and I have other non-combat methods of creature recursion.
• Dosan the Falling Leaf wasn't included because it also affects me and is outclassed by Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir .
• Reki, the History of Kamigawa wasn't included simply because he is outclassed by Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain and I don't really need multiple copies of cast-draw effects due to the playstyle of the deck.
• Kaervek the Merciless is too mana and Sisay tutor requirement intensive for what it does and draws too much hate.
• Grand Arbiter Augustin IV draws too much hate and doesn't really help my deck too much.

Divide and Conquer

Synergies: The Human Connection

There are several notable synergies in the deck that enhances gameplay and increases my winning percentages. The most notable card is Yawgmoth, Thran Physician from the new modern horizon set which is a sac outlet, removal, and draw engine by himself. Most importantly, Yawgmoth is a legendary human which fits my theme and strategy perfectly. Barrin, Master Wizard is also a human (per oracle text) that has done great work in being both a sac and bounce outlet on a body.

• Ertai, the Corrupted + Ophiomancer = Permission engine
• Barrin, Master Wizard + Ophiomancer = Bounce engine
• Yawgmoth, Thran Physician + Ophiomancer = Draw engine
• Yawgmoth, Thran Physician + Zulaport Cutthroat = No life loss for card draw ability
• Captain Sisay / Mangara of Corondor / Ertai, the Corrupted / Merieke Ri Berit / Mother of Runes + Samut, Voice of Dissent = Gives immediate activation and ability to do it twice with Samut's untap ability

Infinite Combo: How Humans Win

All of the combo pieces but Loyal Retainers can be tutored by Sisay. The main combo of the deck involves Judith, the Scourge Diva + Loyal Retainers + Saffi Eriksdotter which creates an infinite loop to deal infinite damage to everyone. How the loop works is by sacrificing Saffi which will put the delayed trigger on the stack. Sacrifice the Retainers targetting Saffi and let Saffi's delayed trigger resolve first to return retainer and then Saffi will come back. Each sacrifice will put Judith, the Scourge Diva 's damage trigger on the stack. Repeat ad infinitum.

Another combo involves Angel of Glory's Rise + Cartel Aristocrat + Saffi Eriksdotter or Angel of Glory's Rise + Cartel Aristocrat + Fiend Hunter to form an infinite loop which can win the game with Judith, the Scourge Diva or Zulaport Cutthroat . How the combo works with Fiend Hunter is to have Angel of Glory's Rise + Cartel Aristocrat already in play. Cast Fiend Hunter to have it exile Angel of Glory's Rise . Sac Fiend Hunter to Cartel Aristocrat which will bring Angel of Glory's Rise back to reanimate Fiend Hunter back in play again. Repeat ad infinitum.

The secondary combo of the deck involves taking infinite turns with Capture of Jingzhou + Eternal Witness + Meren of Clan Nel Toth . As long as there is a way to sacrifice Eternal Witness (usually with Phyrexian Tower ), I'll be able perform the turns loop. You must be puzzled as to why I chose Capture of Jingzhou as my extra turn spell. The reason is purely thematic and flavor-driven because it depicts humans conquering cities. How the combo works is by first casting Capture of Jingzhou to take an extra turn, cast Eternal Witness to get CoJ back, on your extra turn cast CoJ again to take an extra turn, sacrifice e.wit with Phyrexian Tower , and end of turn Meren will get e.wit back which will return CoJ back to hand. Repeat ad infinitum.

Please +1 if you enjoy the deck!

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position overall 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Key combos	Angel of Glory's Rise + Cartel Aristocrat + Fiend Hunter Capture of Jingzhou + Eternal Witness + Meren of Clan Nel Toth Judith, the Scourge Diva + Loyal Retainers + Saffi Eriksdotter Angel of Glory's Rise + Cartel Aristocrat + Saffi Eriksdotter
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 60 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 3 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.00
Tokens	Elephant 3-3 G, Enchantment Golem 3/3 C, Experience Token, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Snake 1/1 B, Soldier 1/1 W, Treasure
Folders	My EDH Brews, Cool ideas, possible builds, Great Ideas, Thematic, EDH Primers, Primers, Interesting Ideas, Cool Ideas, Tribal