Standard Commander: Sidisi, Brood Tyrant

Welcome to Commander Month everyone! Every Monday this month, you'll get to see an EDH deck featuring cards legal in Standard. Each deck will utilize one of the three-color "Khans" from Khans of Tarkir as its Commander and all the cards will come from Standard sets, from Khans of Tarkir to Oath of the Gatewatch.

This week, I present to you a deck featuring Sidisi, Brood Tyrant.

General x1 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant Legendary Creatures (8) x1 Dragonlord Silumgar x1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy x1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet x1 Liliana, Heretical Healer x1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer x1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier x1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death x1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang Creatures (21) x1 Baloth Null x1 Bloodsoaked Champion x1 Deathmist Raptor x1 Den Protector x1 Greenwarden of Murasa x1 Grim Haruspex x1 Hangarback Walker x1 Inverter of Truth x1 Kheru Dreadmaw x1 Kheru Lich Lord x1 Living Lore x1 Marang River Prowler x1 Monastery Loremaster x1 Nantuko Husk x1 Necromaster Dragon x1 Possessed Skaab x1 Rakshasa Gravecaller x1 Risen Executioner x1 Shambling Attendants x1 Voracious Null x1 Zulaport Cutthroat

Instants (10) x1 Complete Disregard x1 Empty the Pits x1 Foul Renewal x1 Gravepurge x1 Murderous Cut x1 Reclaim x1 Rite of Undoing x1 Scatter to the Winds x1 Sultai Charm x1 Silumgar's Command Sorceries (9) x1 Dead Drop x1 Dutiful Return x1 Necromantic Summons x1 Ruinous Path x1 See the Unwritten x1 Talent of the Telepath x1 Tasigur's Cruelty x1 Temporal Trespass x1 Transgress the Mind Enchantments (4) x1 Monastery Siege x1 Palace Siege x1 Retreat to Hagra x1 Retreat to Kazandu

Artifacts (8) x1 Alchemist's Vial x1 Chitinous Cloak x1 Hero's Blade x1 Meteorite x1 Prism Ring x1 Silumgar Monument x1 Sultai Banner x1 Vial of Dragonfire Planeswalkers (4) x1 Kiora, Master of Depths x1 Nissa, Worldwaker x1 Ob Nixilis, Reignited x1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon Lands (35) x1 Blighted Cataract x1 Blighted Fen x1 Blighted Woodland x1 Dismal Backwater x1 Evolving Wilds x1 Hissing Quagmire x1 Jungle Hollow x1 Llanowar Wastes x1 Lumbering Falls x1 Mortuary Mire x1 Opulent Palace x1 Polluted Delta x1 Rogue's Passage x1 Submerged Boneyard x1 Sunken Hollow x1 Thornwood Walls x1 Unknown Shores x1 Yavimaya Coast 5x Island 6x Swamp 6x Forest

    

I was looking at options for how to build a deck around Sidisi, and I basically began my focus on one thing: returning cards from the graveyard to the battlefield. We want Sidisi involved in the game and she's a heavy hitter. She makes zombie tokens, she's relatively cheap, and she's a 3/3. Sure it may take 7 turns for commander damage to take effect, but the zombies add up after a while. With so much self-milling going on here, it's almost impossible not to need ways to bring cards back. That was my primary goal.

    

My secondary goal was to make zombies and help zombies. If Sidisi can feasibly make a token each turn, let's make more. If nothing else, a ton of zombies makes for a fantastic defense or an even better offense. Either way, zombies are needed.

    

That leaves my third objective: include some aspects of a decent Standard deck already out there. Sure we can't do multiple copies of a card, but we can at least include the cards. Basically this means Sultai Megamorph which at this point, I already had Tasigur, Deathmist Raptor, and even Den Protector. I had also included the planeswalkers matching the deck's color identity as well as Sultai Charm already, so that left me with the removal necessary to help us along.


That's really all there is to it. Honestly this took me less time than all the other decks because this time I spent more time on the commander than utilizing the popular cards already used in Standard for a deck with the same color identity. Sure all the other decks worked and had a basic goal, but breaking Sidisi into her two basic parts (self mill and zombie tokens) helped build the deck.

Well, we'll build another deck for next week. You can probably guess the next commander, but SPOILERS: It's Zurgo. He'll be fun for sure.