Sisay, Weatherlight Captain Commander Deck Tech | "Ladies, Assemble"

Commander Deck Tech: Sisay, Weatherlight Captain | "Ladies, Assemble"

Background

Sisay, Weatherlight Captain is a fun, 5-Color tool-box strategy, commander. Card-wise, she is can be a powerful general with her direct-to-battlefield tutor ability as well as being extremely flexible being in all 5 colors. Better yet in Magic's story, she is a competent warrior, pilot, and fearless leader. Because of all of this, she is my chosen commander for a 5-color legendary creatures toolbox deck with only female legendary creatures; I call my magnum opus: "Ladies, Assemble". 

Rules for Engagement

1. All legendary creatures in the deck will be women. 
2. All planeswalkers in the deck will be women. 
3. All cards in the deck will be under $5 each with the max budget of the deck being $200.00 through Card Kingdom discounting basic lands. 
4. Flavor and lore will be prioritized during card selection whenever possible so long as it does not significantly lower the power of the deck. 

Deck Tech

Toolbox Strategy

The main strategy for this deck is "toolbox" through tutoring with Sisay's activated ability. Toolbox decks look to find whichever card they need to for whatever situation they find themselves in. Sisay allows us to find whichever legendary permanent card we need to advance our board state, draw cards, ramp, answer our opponents' threats, or to secure the win. 

Our most important legendary permanents are ones that do more than one task (i.e. drawing cards and protecting our board). Our key players to feature here are: Vivien, Champion of the Wilds whose down-tick gives us card advantage and whose static ability lets us cast creatures at instant speed, Garna, the Bloodflame who brings back our creatures to our hand after a board wipe as well as giving our creatures haste, and Selvala, Explorer Returned who can ramp us and draw us cards. 

Other key legends are ones that can draw us a lot of cards like Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain or generate a lot of mana like Grandwarlord, Radha. 

Aggro and Equipment

This deck was designed with a more aggressive sub-strategy in mind. Many of our legends want to attack or want our opponents to lose life like Belbe, Corrupted Observer so there are a few extra combat step spells and aggressive top-end legends to end the game. Response // Resurgence provides us with a removal spell in a pinch, but we will mostly use it to hit our opponents hard and possibly end the game if it is paired with a choice infect causing equipment--Grafted Exoskeleton. Sisay fought the Phyrexians on Dominaria, so we can use their knowledge to our advantage! 

Board Sweepers and Removal

This deck runs the typical amount of 5 board sweepers with one of them being a legend herself, Massacre Girl. When she enters, she may inadvertently kill some of our smaller creatures, so we have to cognizant of that while playing her, but she is strikingly efficient at wiping our opponents' evasive or hard to kill creatures. 

We also have 8 sources of targeted removal with four of them being legends! Most notably is the legacy playable, Mangara of Corondor who can exile target PERMANENTS at the cost of exiling herself. 

Mana Base

Truthfully, our mana base is where our deck may struggle. Despite the recent reprints, shock lands are still above the $5 limit and obviously fetches are completely out of our reach. However, I have been playing commander on a budget since I first played Magic which means I have learned how to make 5-color decks work without shocks, fetches, or duals. The pain lands and a few panoramas will be our best friends; the pain lands' enter untapped and have a downside of pinging us for 1 damage is insignificant in commander where our life total starts at 40. The panoramas also come into play untapped to tap for colorless which is helpful in the late game when we may not need color fixing as much as well as in the early game where we can sacrifice them to get whichever basic we need. Because of our budget restrictions (and because basic lands are better than people think in 5-color decks), we are running 5 plains, 4 forests, 3 mountains, 3 islands, and 3 swamps. 

Discussion

The final cost of our deck as of writing is only $125 on Card Kingdom! Of course this deck can be upgraded and has room for improvement if your funds allow, but it also can be built for much cheaper if you choose to do so. If you are comfortable with using proxies, do it! Proxy in an Aurelia, the Warleader for even more attack steps or some duals and fetches to round out the mana base. Remember, Commander is about creativity and fun with friends. 

Full Deck List

1 Exotic Orchard

1 Basilisk Collar

1 Cinder Glade

1 Grixis Panorama

1 Mirri, Cat Warrior

1 Vivien, Champion of the Wilds

1 Fumigate

1 Hanna, Ship's Navigator

1 Breath of Fury

1 Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign

1 Sentinel Totem

1 Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain

1 Arcane Signet

1 Wayfarer's Bauble

1 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice

1 Belbe, Corrupted Observer

1 Danitha Capashen, Paragon

1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir

1 Sharuum the Hegemon

1 Open the Armory

1 Faeburrow Elder

1 Grand Warlord Radha

1 Kaya's Wrath

1 Day of Judgment

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight

1 Glissa Sunseeker

1 Niambi, Esteemed Speaker

1 Boros Signet

1 Command Tower

1 Blackblade Reforged

1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage

1 Jori En, Ruin Diver

1 Sol Ring

1 Orzhov Signet

1 Karametra, God of Harvests

1 Karona, False God

1 Massacre Girl

1 Darksteel Ingot

1 Lavinia of the Tenth

1 Mangara of Corondor

1 Guardian Project

1 Ash Barrens

5 Plains

3 Mountain

3 Island

1 Loxodon Warhammer

4 Forest

3 Swamp

1 Thriving Bluff

1 Thriving Grove

1 Thriving Heath

1 Thriving Isle

1 Thriving Moor

1 Avacyn's Pilgrim

1 Gilded Goose

1 Farseek

1 Rampant Growth

1 Simic Signet

1 Swiftfoot Boots

1 Zealous Conscripts

1 Finest Hour

1 Response

1 Relentless Assault

1 Boros Charm

1 Prairie Stream

1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid

1 Path to Exile

1 Nature's Claim

1 Urza's Ruinous Blast

1 Underground River

1 Hero's Blade

1 Grafted Exoskeleton

1 Glacial Fortress

1 Path of Ancestry

1 Naya Panorama

1 Bant Panorama

1 Llanowar Wastes

1 Karplusan Forest

1 Caves of Koilos

1 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade

1 Yavimaya Coast

1 Bident of Thassa

1 Nin, the Pain Artist

1 Selvala, Explorer Returned

1 Garna, the Bloodflame

 

Commander

 

1 Sisay, Weatherlight Captain