THE SEVEN ARE HERE
Staring:
Ezuri as The Deep
Daxos as Translucent
Kelsien as Black Noir
Meren as Stormfront
Minthara as Starlight
Kalemne as Queen Maeve
Otharri as Homelander
And featuring Sisay as Madelyn Stillwell
THE BOYS ARE HERE
ALSO STARING:
Nicol Bolas as Hughie Campbell
Uro as Mother's Milk
Ashiok as Kimiko
Shanid as Frenchie
Garth as Billy Butcher
AND INTRODUCING
Merieke as Grace Mallory
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Alright, alright, casting jokes aside, this list might look silly at a passing glance but in fact is a seriously powerful deck. While it has no auto-win combos, it has practically anything else you could want out of a cedh deck.
There are seven experience counter(henceforth known as xp) generating creatures. All seven share xp and become more powerful with each xp you gain. These seven synergize with eachother and with various support cards of the deck in a variety of ways.
At the center of it all, however, is the lovely Sisay. This deck's colored mana among legendary permanents is layed out such that it is quite intuitive to ladder Sisay up to full power, becoming a 7/7 with 27 possible deck search targets to find and put on your battlefield.
HOW TO PLAY
PART ONE:
Maximizing Experience Counters
- Ezuri + Otharri
These two on the battlefield together generate xp at a rate of +1, ×2 per turn(example, assuming you begin at 0, you would have 2 on your next turn, then 6, then 14, then 30, and so on.) This farm is also notable for it's offensive ability to give out +1+1 counters and create tapped and attacking 2/2 rebel creatures equal to your xp value every combat phase.
- Thalia and Gitrog + Ashiok and/or Daxos + Meren and/or Minthara
This uses Thalia and Gitrog's ability to sacrifice your own creatures so that Meren and/or Minthara's ability to generate xp will trigger. If at 0 xp, it can be advantageous to create one of Daxos enchanment creatures. It will die immediately and trigger Meren and/or Minthara to give you 1 or 2 xp. If using Ashiok, her nightmares may be given to Thalia and Gitrog Monster as sacrfices. This also draws you an extra card. Ezuri and/or Otharri can be added or substituted into this set-up for further xp generation.
- Kelsien (lovingly, "Kelsien the Broken")
This three mana cost creature contains an enormous amount of value. Kelsien is not only a powerful beater and blocker, thanks to his vigilance keyword, but also an xp generator and swift sniper of your opponent's X/1 creatures, courtesy of his haste keyword and tap ability. As he gains strength, opponents will be forced to block him and with his vigilance, he can then tap to target the blocker. This ensures another xp counter gained and only makes him and the seven stronger.
- Meren + Dauthi Voidwalker
With at least two xp in hand, these two combine to let you play one of the spells exiled with Dauthi Voidwalker and farm 1 xp every one of your turns.
HOW TO PLAY
PART TWO:
Offensive set-ups without experience counters
- Sisay + Jodah + Ioras ("The Trifecta")
These three together make a trio of beaters that, barring Fog or a similar effect, is quite difficult to defend against. You can add Kenrith to give them trample and any other legendary creature you play only makes it more punishing.
- Nicol Bolas
You will rarely make use of this, but the God-Pharaoh does have the ability to instantly defeat any and all opponents not currently controlling a legendary creature when his -8 resolves. You can support this strategy with Broker's Ascendancy and Staff of Compleation's proliferate and Ashiok, Teferi, and Garth's spot removal to make an opponent susceptible to it. Nicol Bolas also has the ability to use all plansewalker abilities among those in play, even your opponents.
- Mount Doom
You can use this land with Mox Amber, Chromatic Orrery, and Timeless Lotus to pick two of your creatures and destroy all the rest on the entire board. Mount Doom and the three artifacts can all be found from the deck by Sisay.
- Teferi
Managing to get his -8 to resolve will turn every card draw action into an extremely potent weapon. It can be supported with Staff of Compleation and Broker's Ascendancy. See the section on card draw for how abused this can become.
- Ashiok
Raising her to 7 loyalty is a simple feat, especially with Staff of Compleation's proliferate and Broker's Ascendancy, and the advantage you will gain from the three free casts among opponent's exiled cards is often game-winning. Worth note is that Ashiok doesn't care how a card was exiled, she can choose them no matter how they got there as long as they weren't specifically exiled face-down. This gives her synergy with Dauthi Voidwalker.
HOW TO PLAY
PART THREE: Defensive and other options
- Protection and Recursion
Dovin's Veto, Counterspell, Mana Drain, and Fierce Guardianship are your pure counterspells with Deflecting Swat able to also act as such but also much more. Heroic Intervention and Surge of Salvation are both protection instants and Asceticism gives hexproof to all your creatures. There is also a fair bit of recursion using Yavimaya's Hollow and Asceticism for regenerate as well as Volrath's Stronghold, Meren, Garth, and Kenrith for direct graveyard recursion.
- Cascade and The Prismatic Bridge
Yidris and Jodah both offer cascade, though Jodah's is only for legendary spells. These abilities and The Prismatic Bridge all let you play spells for free, though, you cannot control what spell you will get.(lottery!)
- Garth and Kenrith
Garth brings removal, card draw, recursion, ramp, and creating a creature(with flying!) while Kenrith offers similar benefits though with +1+1 counters in place of ramp and with giving haste and trample in place of creating a creature and gaining life in place of removal. Both do a little bit of everything and are best utilized late-game when your(and your opponent's) resources are low.
- Card draw
Uro, Call of the Ring, Esper Sentinel, Dark Confidant, Ring Helper, Staff of Compleation, Kenrith, Garth, Mystic Remora, Thalia and Gitrog Monster, Nicol Bolas, and Teferi gift you a lot of ways to draw into an answer that Sisay isn't able to search for.
- Ring Helper
This banner-like ability is granted by Call of the Ring. The normally unremarkable first tempt actually has huge value in this deck. Chiefly, making one of the colored non-legends (even tokens) legendary will count toward Sisay's power level. This also has secondary interactions with Esika's ability to give vigilance and "tap, add one of any color" to legendary creatures as well as counting toward Jodah's +x+x per legendary creature.
HOW TO PLAY
PART FOUR: Putting it all together
- Phase One: Early Game
An opening for this deck should have 1-2 mana ramp cards, either card draw or one low cost legendary creature, 1-2 interaction cards(especially Deflecting Swat and Fierce Guardianship) and 2-3 lands with corresponding colors to the rest of the hand.
- Phase Two: Middle Game
With five or more mana at your disposal, it is time for Sisay to do her good work. The colored legendary permanents of this deck have been repeatedly tested and meticulously chosen to make laddering Sisay to max power a simple task with not only multiple paths, but multiple chances to do so(in case of board wipe). Let's take a look at the color breakdown:
THREE MANA LEGENDS:
Kelsien: red white black
Merieke: white black blue
Uro: green blue
Jan-Jansen: red white black
Daxos: black white
Esika: green
Goro-Goro and Satoru: red blue black
FOUR MANA LEGENDS:
Ezuri: green blue
Thalia and Gitrog: white green black
Meren: green black
Kalemne: red white
Minthara: black white
Geyadrone Dihada: red blue black
Yidris: red black blue green
Shanid: red white black
Iroas: red white
FIVE MANA LEGENDS:
Garth: red black white blue green
Ashiok: blue black
Jodah: red black white blue green
Kenrith: white
Otharri: red white
Nicol Bolas: red black blue
Prismatic Bridge: red black white blue green
Teferi: blue white
It is plain to see how all of these legendary options fit together like a puzzle with many different solutions. Depending on your early game, your opponent's board state, and most importantly your style, search who you want and get Sisay to maximum strength.
Phase three: Late Game
Here is where you begin executing any of the many strategies I outlined before the PART FOUR section :)
This concludes my guide to piloting The Seven! If you read all this or found my unqiue deck interesting, I <3 you.
