Financial Divergence - Sisay Stax vs Sisay Shrines
Sisay, Weatherlight Captain | Art by Anna Steinbauer
Legendary Budget, Legendary Deck
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Financial Divergence, where we look at strategic decisions in deckbuilding through the lens of budgetary restrictions. In this series we're looking at popular commanders and seeing how budget can impact strategic divergences when choosing a primary strategy.
For a series overview and some additional context, you can check out the first article in the series here.
Today we're talking about one of those kill-on-sight commanders that you see at the table often enough to develop a complex, and one of the most popular commanders of the past two years: Sisay, Weatherlight Captain.
A Tale of Two: Sisay, Weatherlight Captain
I see a lot of Sisay, Weatherlight Captain. It's a mainstay in our playgroup in SW Missouri, and the number of times I've been shut down by a Gaddock Teeg or had my spells answered by a Venser, Shaper Savant out of nowhere is more than I care to count or remember. But, there are two stories to tell with two very different decks. Looking at budgetless builds of this five-color powerhouse, we see an early theme emerge:
Then, if we look at budget builds, we see a very different picture begin to take shape:
These selections of cards couldn't be more different. Let's explore: what do these selections of cards tell us about the strategic decisions that have been influenced by budgetary constraints?
What do these two decks have in common?
Sisay, Weatherlight Captain cares about legendary spells, and her ability to tutor up legendary permanents onto the battlefield is extremely powerful. She wants this to be a strong theme and to have access to a wide range of effects in order to leverage responses to problematic strategies. The primary thing that both the budget and budgetless versions of Sisay, Weatherlight Captain have in common is legendary-matters cards.
It's not always true, but legendary permanents tend to be very powerful because they are designed and balanced with the disadvantage of being legendary: you can't have more than one of any given legend on your side of the battlefield. That doesn't impact our singleton format a lot, but it does say something about the fact that the more legends you have in play, the more likely your opponents are to interact with you. Kethis, the Hidden Hand or Primevals' Glorious Rebirth allow you to replay your legends from the graveyard, and Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage can help you sequence your plays in such a way that you are able to dodge some sorcery-speed removal.
Legendary tribal (which is truly a core theme for both builds of Sisay, Weatherlight Captain, just done very differently) also gives you access to cards like Urza's Ruinous Blast that acts like, effectively, a one-sided Planar Cleansing a lot of the time. You love to see it.
Another thing that both datasets have in common shouldn't surprise anyone: mana ramp and fixing!
If you want to play five colors and you want to reliably activate Sisay, Weatherlight Captain's ability (which you do), then you will need to be able to make mana - enough to do so. Five-color staples, like Faeburrow Elder and its more expensive counterpart Bloom Tender, give you a plethora of mana to play with, and the more varied permanents you have on board the more likely they are to stand in the gap for you to generate the extra pips you need. Tried and true, Farseek, Cultivate, and Kodama's Reach help accelerate you to the mid game where you thrive while also fetching out the colors you need to activate your commander or cast some spells with more intensive mana costs.
Where do the decks diverge?
The biggest difference, from my research, has to do with which legends are in the mix for Sisay, Weatherlight Captain to tutor up.
When we look at our commander with a modest budget in mind, we see some key cards pop up to the surface that all point in a very distinct strategic direction: enchantress Shrines. As someone who fondly remembers Kamigawa block, when I saw the previews for Sanctum of All last year, my jaw just about hit the floor, and it seems like I wasn't alone. The way our commander is worded, you can search up any legendary permanent, including enchantments, meaning that we have a reliable way in the command zone to find Shrines to our heart's content!
Want to burn someone out to close the game? We have a Honden of Infinite Rage for that. Need to accelerate your card draw? Go grab a Honden of Seeing Winds or a Sanctum of Calm Waters. With the Shrines, you actually have a huge swath of effects that can fill in the gaps of your board state and make sure you have time and space to find a way to win the game.
If we change the budget of our build, the data shows us a deck with a very different core gameplan: Najeela stax. Sisay, Weatherlight Captain gives you a tutor in the commander zone, and the efficiency of being able to fetch up a really powerful win condition like Najeela, the Blade-Blossom is hard to beat.
Timing is everything, though, and having control of the board helps make sure that when you land Najeela you can immediately close the game. Cards like Ashiok, Dream Render, Narset, Partner of Veils, and Oko, Thief of Crowns are all tutorable lock pieces that also generate value as they sit in play. As I mentioned before, I have been on the receiving end of having my deck crippled at the hands of a well-timed Gaddock Teeg (affectionately deemed Mr. Teeglesworth in our playgroup). Other legendary stax pieces, like Anafenza, the Foremost and Linvala, Keeper of Silence, and nonlegendary ones, like Esper Sentinel and Drannith Magistrate, seem to round out a very controlling package of permanent-based control.
Strategic Takeaways
- Sisay, Weatherlight Captain plays very differently depending on your goals. The early game is going to feel pretty similar, but the mid game varies drastically. The difference between landing a turn-five Honden of Life's Web and a turn-five Teferi, Time Raveler into counterspell backup is tremendous.
- Stax has a place. One of the things that stood out from this research is that stax has a place in the EDH ecosystem, and it seems like the best place will be that place that demands interaction from all sides. Stax feels more balanced at tables ready with Force of Wills and Silences than it does against something like the Wilhelt precon from Midnight Hunt.
- Tutor effects do a lot to make repetitive play experiences, but also enable niche strategies. Shrines is a deck that seems like it has a lot of love, but it's hard to build without reliable tutors available. Outside of something like Sisay, Weatherlight Captain being able to find them, you are left with simply drawing these 11 cards naturally, which means there isn't really much of a strategy to build around.
Budget Gems
While I was doing this research, I came across several inexpensive and overlooked cards that seem worth taking a look at.
This card has a niche effect, but in five-color, base-green decks this card seems like a great way to transform a budget manabase into something really effective and versatile. At around a quarter, this card seems like something worth picking up given the specificity of the name and the niche effect.
Sterling Grove was a very expensive enchantress card until the recent reprint, and at the minimal investment of sub-three dollars I'm giving this a look. It has powerful protective effects, tutors up enchantments, and can be re-bought with Hanna, Ship's Navigator. Enchantress's Presence is hovering around a dollar after getting hit with multiple reprints too, and that price won't stay there forever.
The last card I saw that seems underutilized is Edge of Autumn. It's a Rampant Growth early, when it counts, and later it cycles to dig for what you need. While not being able to get a land 100% of the time can feel bad, I actually like the versatility of this card far more than some other two-mana ramp spells. At a quarter, I'm going to pick up some copies to see how they play for sure.
Wrapping Up
That's all for this time. What do you think about the differences between the two strategies? Which would you like to build and play? What other commanders would you like to see us discuss?
