What We Offer is an Experience

Commander / EDH* Counters Experience Legendary Matters Sacrifice

JCTenor10

Creature (36)

• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Captain Sisay
• 1x Crystalline Crawler
• 1x Daxos the Returned
• 1x Esika, God of the Tree  ^Flip
• 1x Ezuri, Claw of Progress
• 1x Faeburrow Elder
• 1x Fathom Mage
• 1x Ghave, Guru of Spores
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard
• 1x Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas
• 1x Katilda, Dawnhart Prime
• 1x Kelsien, the Plague
• 1x Lazav, the Multifarious
• 1x Meren of Clan Nel Toth
• 1x Minthara, Merciless Soul
• 1x Mizzix of the Izmagnus
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Niambi, Esteemed Speaker
• 1x Otharri, Suns' Glory
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Rhys the Redeemed
• 1x Saffi Eriksdotter
• 1x Sage of Hours
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Selvala, Explorer Returned
• 1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Skullwinder
• 1x Spore Frog
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Thrasios, Triton Hero
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Land (38)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 2x Forest
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Guildmages' Forum
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 2x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 2x Plains
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Artifact (3)

• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Umbral Mantle

Commander (1)

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Curse of Opulence
• 1x Darksteel Mutation
• 1x Fertile Ground
• 1x Grasp of Fate
• 1x Journey to Eternity  ^Flip
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Song of the Dryads

Instant (7)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Electrodominance
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Secure the Wastes
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Toxic Deluge

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Maybeboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
• 1x Marchesa, the Black Rose

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Sisay's Experienced Crew

The Deck Concept

The purpose of this deck was to play all 8 experience counter commanders in a WUBRG deck in a way that is fun and still effective. This is a tall order to ask since cards like Mizzix of the Izmagnus, Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas, and Ezuri, Claw of Progress promote very different and unsynergetic strategies. But that is okay! If the challenge was easy then building and playing the deck wouldn't be fun! The first challenge to overcome is to pick a commander. Only a few WUBRG commanders can make this deck possible, but no other come close to the level of Sisay, Weatherlight Captain. Sisay is everything we could ask for on a card. She is a 3-drop which puts her on curve before our 4-drop experience general and she has a search function that allows us to tutor into our much needed Experience Generals. She does pose a singular challenge however, to fetch with her the creatures CMC must be LESS THAN her power, meaning she needs a power of 5 to fetch our generals. This restriction informs our early game strategy seen in "The Battle Strats" section.

How do we possibly makes vastly different experience commanders work together? Each of the experience commanders have a similar design philosophy in mind. One ability increases the amount of experience counters and the other ability utilizes them. It is important to recognize that the "obtain" and "utilize" abilities are not dependent upon each other. It doesn't matter where the experience counters came from, all of the experience generals can utilize the benefit. Because of this concept, a hierarchy of usefulness has emerged. Some Experience Generals see significantly more play than others due to the usefulness of one or both of their abilities.

As a note: this deck is a current work in process. Suggestions are welcome and credit is due to many individuals who have pursued this deck concept before me. This is my take on the concept but not the only way it can be done. The deck could be improved by removing some of the less useful experience generals but that is not in the spirit of the challenge.

The Chain of Command

At the top of our food-chain is Ezuri, Claw of Progress and Meren of Clan Nel Toth. Both of these generals have creature focused strategies. Ezuri, Claw of Progress "obtain" ability cares about when they enter and Meren of Clan Nel Toth "obtain" ability cares about when they leave. This makes Ezuri and Meren our top choice for gaining experience fast. Furthermore, they have the best ways of utilizing Experience Counters. Meren of Clan Nel Toth "utilize" ability gives the deck some much needed protection and Ezuri, Claw of Progress "utilize" ability can give us a menacing board state. These two generals will be our primary battle strategy.

Just barely behind the first two is Kelsien, the Plague. Kelsien is a bit different than the other experience generals. He is a 3 colored/3cmc card that is essentially just a pinger for enemy creatures only. No other generals care about the death of other players creatures, but Kelsien doesn't care. He is a self-contained experience generator. If he sticks on the battlefield he will generate experience without any required assistance and will remove threats on the board. This is exactly what we want out of our tier 2 generals. He accelerates whatever current experience strategy is in action while protecting that strategy himself. Still in our tier 2 of experience generals is Otharri, Suns' Glory. With Ezuri, Claw of Progress out first, this new guy will then double our experience counters, which is great because he has haste! His "obtain" ability is not dependent on anything but itself which is good, but his value really is in his synergy with Ezuri, Claw of Progress.

At the top of our tier 3 of experience general is Minthara, Merciless Soul. Her "obtain" ability is just a fundamentally worse version of Meren's, but because we are already enabling Meren's, we will get value out of Minthara's also. The value of Minthara comes out of her "utilize" ability. Pumping the power of all of our creatures based off of our experience counters can make threats become lethal very quickly. She is most valuable after the engine is going, which means I cannot justify her being any higher than a tier 3. Daxos the Returned is also in this tier. His "obtain" ability is wonderful in an enchantment matters deck, but this deck just cannot feasibly be an enchantment matters deck. To utilize his "obtain" ability we utilize primarily enchantment based removal such as Darksteel Mutation and Grasp of Fate. This allows Daxos to produce some experience while protecting the primary strategy. It is important to note that it is very rare that fetching Daxos is a good idea. Daxos does not actually help remove creatures like Kelsien, the Plague, but rather just lets some experience value to be generated while doing so. This makes him only situationally useful. His "utilize" ability is rather potent however. Due to the rapid increase in experience counters and the amount of ramp this deck requires, his last ability can usually beused to great effect. This lets Daxos be a viable post-boardwipe late game strategy if the primary engine is not salvagable.

Pulling up the rear is our tier 4 experience generals Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas and Mizzix of the Izmagnus. These cards probably should not be in this deck. Kalmne's "obtain" ability requires 5cmc creatures, which just isn't often suitable to trigger Ezuri, Claw of Progress"obtain" trigger and makes Meren of Clan Nel Toth "utilize" trigger more challenging. Because of this very few 5cmc or higher creatures are run in the decklist as is. Additionally, her "utilize" ability just makes her a larger creature, which isn't very useful for the board. She is effectively just a scaling creature for 4 mana. This is enough to make her useful but not enough to make her important. card:Mizzix of Izmagnus is the worst of the bunch. His "obtain" ability never really functions because we do not run many big spells. All he really does midgame is make our ramp and counterspells a little more efficient. Other than that, if we go infinite on experience counters(which is very possible) then he serves as a decent alternative cleanup method with {X} spells.

The Battle Strats

This deck looks to take advantage of Sisay, Weatherlight Captain fetch ability to build experience generating engines that will propel us into a powerful and durable board state. But before we can get to that point, we first must get our commander operational. Our lands are situated so that we can confidently have WUBRG on turn 5, but it does require clever usage of our fetchlands. Be warned, think what color you need now and what you will need later every time you crack one of those boys open. We run a diverse array of ramp sorceries, enchantments, and creatures to help you build the manabase you will need. Our commander needs more than just mana however. She needs a high enough power. Sisay is a 3-drop and her ability is 5 mana. This leaves turns 1,2, and 4 to make Sisay function (excluding the breathing room ramp gives us). Sisay's power increases for every color amongst OTHER legendary permanents we control and can only fetch LESS than her power. This means we will need 3 colors to get her to 5 power so she can fetch our engine pieces. The need to get her power up is why we run our assortment of 2cmc/2-colored legendaries. The goal is to drop Rhys the Redeemed,Katilda, Dawnhart Prime, Lazav, the Multifarious, Niambi, Esteemed Speaker, Saffi Eriksdotter, Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard, or Thrasios, Triton Hero on turn 2, commander turn 3, another legendary turn 4, then trigger our commander turn 5. Obviously, this does not happen every game. It is important to understand what to do when you are not on schedule.

If you get stuck with Sisay's power at 3 I often suggest finding card:Katilda, Dawnheart Prime. This will often only bring the power up to 4, but gives you access to much more mana down the road because many of our important legendary creatures are human. Now that you are at 4 power, I suggest finding Kelsien, the Plague. Having 3 colors will fix any power issue Sisay had, and the fact that he has haste and is human means you can often immediately trigger Sisay again to find whatever you need.

If you get stuck with Sisay's power at 4 then you have a few 3drop options to choose from. Kelsien, the Plague andDaxos the Returned are powerful choices, but this deck also runs Journey to Eternity   if you feel like something is vulnerable and Esika, God of the Tree   if you need mana. It is important to note that Sisay's ability is at instant speed. I always suggest holding up your mana until you absolutely need to spend it. That removal spell the enemy casts can be the difference between grabbing Journey to Eternity   and Kelsien, the Plague in many instances.

An important note is that Sisay's power can get set back if other legendaries are getting removed. It is because of this I suggest grabbing Meren of Clan Nel Toth and playing cards like Saffi Eriksdotter, Spore Frog, Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard, andSelfless Spirit over and over.

Now that we are out of the early game and get to actually use Sisay, what do we do with her? That largely depends on what your enemies have been doing while we have been setting this up. If they are still building and we don't filled threatened, then I fetch Meren of Clan Nel Toth and/or Ezuri, Claw of Progress and just start making experience counters like crazy. The fastest way to do this is with our big buddy Ghave, Guru of Spores. Ghave can generate tokens to trigger Ezuri's "obtain" ability, can be fueled by Ezuri's "utilize" ability, can sacrifice creatures to trigger Meren's "obtain ability", and can sacrifice itself to go to the graveyard to be returned by Meren's "utilize" ability with a fresh set of 5 +1/+1 counters. Likewise the new experience general Otharri, Suns' Glory can straight double your experience counters if Ezuri is out. When people see the glory of Sisay's Experienced Crew they tend to get all panicky and nuke our board. But they never can take away our experience counters, meaning that while our engine is disabled it will turn on full force again the moment an experience general is back on the battlefield.

If we do feel threatened however and don't like the getting nuked idea we do have options. Shalai, Voice of Plenty hexproofs everything except for Shalai herself. She normally doesn't get to stick around for long but the time she gives you often lets you set up recursion engines with Meren and protection with cards like Saffi Eriksdotter. You can always Fetch Sidisi, Undead Vizier for one of the self-sacrificing cards if you have none in hand. Likewise, the time they buy you often lets you get Meren on the board so that they can be reused. If the enemies board states are growing to fast for our liking we can always use Yawgmoth, Thran Physician to sacrifice our cheap legendaries to shrink their creatures. This along with Kelsien, the Plague is often very potent instant speed removal.

When this decks engine is going it is seriously difficult to stop. Furthermore, the engine does not have to be running for very long before we have enough experience counters to transition to one of our win conditions.

Infinites and Win conditions

Now I am personally not a large fan of infinites. Many of them are plain and uninspired and don't make for very fun games. This deck runs infinites because it would struggle to close out the game through just shear value. Otharri, Suns' Glory and Minthara, Merciless Soul can allow us to convert our experience counters into a lethal boardstate, but it is just too likely for things like Ezuri, Claw of Progress to get exiled and shut us down. That being said, this deck doesn't do much to protect it's infinite combos. This decks closing strategy is more like throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. Most of the times it is just swinging in with huge creatures. Other times it is castingElectrodominance where{X} is equal to a million, and other times its spamming overloaded Cyclonic Rift. This section will portray our infinites/ loops and win conditions but a disclaimer should be made that these are not required for victory, just give you many more paths to get there.

Our most common insta-winning infinite is Ezuri, Claw of Progress and Sage of Hours for infinite turns If Ezuri is exiled multiple alternatives exist such as Ghave, Guru of Spores with a recursion engine, or infinite mana + Shalai, Voice of Plenty orKatilda, Dawnhart Prime with Umbral Mantle.

Infinite mana combos are Bloom Tender/Faeburrow Elder with Umbral Mantle if 4 or more colors are on your board. It is important to note that infinite mana with Sisay on the board means you can tutor every legendary you please and win on the spot.

A whole lot of loops exist with Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, card:Revillark, Saffi Eriksdotter. Sacrificing Saffi targeting Revilark and then sacrificing Revillark to Yawgmoth leads to a ton of card draw and -1/-1 counters and the return of both Saffi, Revilark, and another 2 power creature of your choice. You get a +1/+1 version of this if you spend mana and use Ghave, Guru of Spores. This is a very versatile loop that at the minimum is giving you a lot of enter the battlefield and death triggers.

Card Breakdown

The goal of this section is to justify the 91 other cards in this deck (1 Commander and 8 Experience Generals). Because this is a WUBRG deck. Cards in the maybeboard include cards that are being tested or cards that were replaced with other cards currently in the deck. The maybeboard will not be discussed but is constantly being considered. This list will update as the deck changes accordingly.

Ghave, Guru of Spores Show

Ghave is one of the most effecient activators of Meren and Ezuri. He serves as one of our 2 major sacrifice outlets and is everything the engine could ever want to keep its wheels spinning.

Rhys the Redeemed Show

Being the only legendary 1 drop, Rhys gives Sisay a much needed boost in power in the early games. She frees up our turn 2 for some ramp or extra legendary creatures. Additionally, token generation is good for both Meren and Ezuri so this helps our primary strategy. It is also nice to make sure that there is always something Sisay can fetch even when her power is just 2.

Sage of Hours Show

A crucial combo piece with Ezuri. I would say this card is our most powerful combo card. I often find myself fetching it withSidisi, Undead Vizier and then playing it immediatly. If you want to tune down the competitiveness of the deck replace this card.

Selfless Spirit Show

Great ability, can protect our valuable cards while triggering Meren on exist and Ezuri on entry/reenty.

Spore Frog Show

Slightly less flexible than Selfless Spirit but 1 less mana.

Saffi Eriksdotter Show

Silent mvp of this deck. This card is on curve to activate Sisays power requirement, protects whatever important thing you will grab with Sisay, is low enough power to trigger Ezuri, is instantly retrievable with Meren the moment it is put into the graveyard(1 experience from whatever Saffi saved and 1 for Saffi herself).

Shalai, Voice of Plenty Show

An amazing defensive card. The one issue is it doesn't protect itself. That is okay however. Being only 4cmc means we can bring it back from the dead rather easily. Also, its last ability is a useful game ender.

Umbral Mantle Show

Required to go infinite on mana, but has strong value as a way to untap our attackers or get another activation of a tap ability.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician Show

This is our primary sac outlet. He makes enemy boards less scary, draws us cards (which this deck desperately needs), and can proliferate up our experience in a pinch. All around powerful card.

Fathom Mage Show

This card is best utilized with Ezuri to draw stupid amounts of cards. It can be useful with Ghave too. It is 4 cmc however, which means it has a lot of competition. Despite its problems it is still one of the better card draw cards in the deck.

Mulldrifter Show

Great card draw. If it is evoked it can trigger both Ezuri and Meren. Also good for Meren's graveyard toolbox.

Niambi, Esteemed Speaker Show

This card is nice, but not amazing. The life gain from this card is never a lot and the card draw ability is a little too expensive, but legendary 2 colored/2cmc creatures that stay useful at any stage in the game are hard to come by. The card is good enough for now, but might see replacing in the future.

Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard Show

2cmc legendaries with red in its mana cost is huge. Many good 2cmc legendaries have overlapping colors, so seeing red on a card we want anyways is great.

Rhystic Study Show

Finally, just pure good card draw. If its good enough for everyone else, then it is good enough for me.

Thrasios, Triton Hero Show

A 2 colored/2cmc card that has mana dump card draw potential. Nice.

Animate Dead Show

A good backup to salvage our primary gameplan. Also can trigger Daxos.

Journey to Eternity Show

The best 3 cmc legendary defensive card in this deck. 3 cmc is crucial for when we only have 2 other colors on our board (Sisays power at 4). This protects Sisay, gets her power up, and becomes a much needed WUBRG land when it has outlived its usefulness.

Lazav, the Multifarious Show

I like Lazav. As always, 2 cmc legendaries that stay useful are this decks bread and butter. The graveyard synergies make him useful no matter when he shows up

Reveillark Show

An important death loop combo piece. Better than Karmic Guide because almost every important card to grab is under 2 power.

Skullwinder Show

Much needed non-creature recursion card. Can trigger Ezuri, can be death looped. Just a good enter the battlefield effect for a deck like this.

Sun Titan Show

Notoriously powerful card. Doesn't need much support to be powerful, which is good because many cards in this deck need eachother. Having a few that can stand on their own is something this deck could use a little more of.

Bloom Tender Show

A WUBRG ramp staple. A game with Bloom Tender is a good game.

Faeburrow Elder Show

Its like Bloom tender but it gets big. We will gladly run both without a second thought.

Crystalline Crawler Show

One of my favorite cards in all of magic. It is a good color corrector and has great synergy with Ezuri for large boosts of mana.

Cultivate Show

A classic ramp spell. Not much needs to be said.

Curse of Opulence Show

Amazing enchantment in this deck. Red is our least utilized color so addition of red cards needs to considered carefully. Curse of opulence helps with ramp and serves as a useful deterant.

Katilda, Dawnhart Prime Show

Another mvp of the deck. A 2 cmc legendary creature that keeps on ramping and has a late game value ability. Yes please.

Esika, God of the Tree Show

Esika was a strong contender for the commander of this deck, but Sisay won out due to consistency. Being monogreen and 3 cmc means I don't often fetch for Esika, but Esika has slightly better ramp than Katilda. The best part is that the redundant effects between Esika and Katilda is never an issue due to Esika's powerful flipside. It is important to note you can only fetch her front side.

Farseek Show

Classic ramp. Despite our lands having an equal spread of the colors, our actual mana costs greatly favor green and white. The multicolored lands mean this is never an issue as far as farseek is conserned.

Fertile Ground Show

I removed a mana rock in favor of this. It is just a little more Daxos Synergy and a little safer. This card might change in the future however.

Mox Amber Show

Classic edh ramp

Nature's Lore Show

Classic edh ramp

Sakura-Tribe Elder Show

Classic ramp with the added bonus of good Ezuri and Meren synergy.

Selvala, Explorer Returned Show

Ramp and cardraw on a 3cmc card. Once again, we will galdly accept.

Smothering Tithe Show

Great ramp card. Good Daxos synergy. This usually equates to an extra Sisay trigger every round.

Sol Ring Show

Great ramp. edh classic.

Arcane Denial Show

We needed counterspells and we needed card draw. This is a nice balace for only two mana.

Heroic Intervention Show

For those instances you dont havent found Shalai, Selfless Spirit, Saffi, or Sporefrog just yet and need a cheap spell to hold keep you safe until you are set up.

Cyclonic Rift Show

Onesided board wipes win games. There is a reason this card is everywhere.

Toxic Deluge Show

Another boardwipe. If our engine has been functioning though many of our creatures will be big enough to survive and those that dont will be small enough that they should be able to be returned to the battlefield rather easily.

Darksteel Mutation Show

Great enchantment removal card. This deck isn't too worried about giving the enemy a blocker. It is also real cheap and another point of Daxos Synergy. Most often gets used on commanders or pieces too dangerous to be let go to the graveyard.

Grasp of Fate Show

Exile up to 3 problems for 3 mana? Absolutely. Again, this just buys you enough time to get the ball rolling on our engine. The Daxos synergy is there but not as important for this card. This is just a good defensive enchantment.

Song of the Dryads Show

Darksteel Mutation but into a land! They don't even get a blocker! Often saved for commanders and also another enchantment for Daxos.

Reclamation Sage Show

powerful cheap removal card that has death loop potential. Also another friend for Ezuri.

Glen Elendra Archmage Show

Reusable counterspell on a creature. Another tool in Merens toolbox.

Swords to Plowshares Show

Exile based removal. Very much needed in edh.

Secure the Wastes Show

One of the only 2 cards that Mizzix really cares about. With Mizzix and Ezuri this makes our experience counters go crazy. With just Ezuri it is still basically a 1 mana=1 experience counter card.

Electrodominance Show

Our other{X} card. Just like the with Secure the Wastes, Electrodominance can be made lethal very quickly by Mizzix. Even without Mizzix however it is a good burn spell that lets us play something else with it. This card may get replaced in the future, but alternatives for Mizzix will need to be explored first.

Vampiric Tutor Show

I normally dislike tutors. I think they are overused in the edh community, but this WUBRG deck has many cards that are significantly better when paired with other specific cards. Vampiric tutor also is a good cantrip to use to fix land color issues by grabbing a land for the top.

Demonic Tutor Show

Another tutor card. I find myself using it for lands in the early game often. I dislike tutors but this deck needs the consistency.

Eldritch Evolution Show

As far as Neoform effects go, I like Eldritch Evolution. It lets us exchange our bread and butter 2 cmc legendary creatures for our 4cmc engine pieces. Tutor effects serve as a backup for when our commander is out of commission.

Captain Sisay Show

Who better to fill in for Sisay being out of commission than Sisay herself? A powerful effect in this deck. Often doesn't stay on the battlefield too long.

Sidisi, Undead Vizier Show

Once the engine is going and you are looking for a win, Sidisi will help you find what you need. Very expensive for a tutor, but it is worth being able to fetch him with Sisay so he can fetch one of our nonlegendary win cards like Umbral Mantle or Sage of Hours.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	18 - 0 Mythic Rares 54 - 0 Rares 11 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.81
Tokens	Copy Clone, Elf Warrior 1/1 GW, Enchantment Spirit */* WB, Experience Token, Gold, Rebel 2/2 R, Saproling 1/1 G, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure, Warrior 1/1 W