Sigarda, Heron's Grace

Sigarda has been a bit maligned. The fact that she's a 5 mana commander that doesn't protect herself is a bit awkward. Her abilities also seem a bit odd. Ostensibly she's protecting her tokens, but 1/1s generally aren't the target of spells or abilities beyond Goblin Sharpshooter. There's an underlying strength to her though that I think people are looking past. She combines an effective hate ability, hexproofing yourself, with a solid token generation ability. She doesn't ask much for either, and if you go big on mana doesn't have to be in play long to get you an army.

One of the reasons I held off on Sigarda is that I think she only functions if she's backed up by legacy level cards, specifically Gaea's Cradle. However, with the recent release of Eternal Masters, I thought I'd celebrate with a couple of lists that are a bit more expensive. Sigarda was a prime candidate since she scales really well into the amount of money you spend on her. The two lists presented are a more normal ramp and tokens list that leans more heavily on tokens and lands. The second is a hate list that takes advantage of Sigarda's ability to protect human lock pieces and giving you protection. There was a third list that I had originally planned on, which took advantage of the fact that most Enchantresses are humans. However, that list felt weaker than the version built around Sigarda, Host of Herons.

Sigarda Tokens: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/19-05-16-sigarda/

This list has many different axis. With 40 lands, Crucible/LftL/Restore/KotR/etc, the deck can play a solid Land's game of incremental advantage. With Sigarda and the token support, the deck plays a solid Token's game. It combines several different parts to form a deck resistant to disruption that gets ahead on mana and ends the game with huge plays.

Token Support:

Anthems and ways to eat tokens for value.

Lands:

Some of the lands that the deck is built around and other lands based ramp. Knight is a great engine.

Ramp:

The deck is built around lands and eschews artifact ramp. I didn't put Null Rod/Stony Silence in this shell, but its set up in such a way that you could slot it in without a hitch.

Value:

Card advantage engines and value creatures to smooth out some of the deck's rough patches.

Tutors:

A suite of tutors to find what you need. 

Sigarda Hate: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/sigarda-hate/
Hate decks tend to include white since cards like stony silence and rest in peace and quite strong. Pairing with green means that you can still ramp efficiently with creatures. Sigarda has a relevant hate ability, giving you Leyline of Sanctity. It so happens that several hate bears are humans, like Containment Priest and Ethersworn Cannonist. Extending the hexproof to a few high impact creatures. The tokens don't get a lot of support in this list, but they're mostly to suppliment Sigarda's aggression and help close out games. There's some anti-synergy, as there is in most hate decks. For the most part you just play efficient creatures and try to beat people to death.

Humans:


Hate:


Mana:


Tutor:


Misc:

Archangel Avacyn

            

    This week, the headline crazy of Shadows Over Innistrad is on display. There's a lot to unpack with this card. A card's color identity is predicated on both of its faces, so this is a W/R legend. At 5 mana, she's on the more expensive side for a non-green Commander. However, Flash mitigates that by a large amount. The ability to play her at any time means that you don't have to pass with her in play, so she's usually going to be safe. Flying and Vigilance are great keywords for voltron. Not having to tap to attack and having built in evasion makes her excellent to put Swords or Loxodon Warhammer on. Her enter the battlefield trigger is quite impactful. She can stop opposing Wraths, win combat, and lets you land Wraths of your own without losing anything. The transform trigger doesn't go off until the next upkeep, which gives players time to see it coming, but the big interaction is that her enter the battlefield trigger makes it hard to flip her immediately. Unless you build in sacrifice effects, she can take 2-3 turns to transform. The trigger is only for non-angel creatures. You could theoretically have a deck that can't flip her and still have a decent number of creatures. There's some logic to not flipping her as well if you are doing voltron. Losing vigilance hurts if you are committed to the voltron plan. Flipping her once isn't a huge game, but if you can get multiple flips she can do some serious work, especially if you include blink effects to get indestructible triggers with the transform trigger on the stack.

    Given this, what are the ways we can build around her? There's the fairly obvious voltron plan. There's plenty of W/R voltron decks though. For this week, I'm focusing on the two triggers, the etb and flip aspects of Avacyn.

Avacyn Blinks: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/avacyn-blinks/

    Blink based decks have included Blue in their color identity for as long as I can remember. Blue gives access to Deadeye Navigator, Ghostly Flicker, and Momentary Blink. However, there is now a critical mass of mono-white cards for blink. Eldrazi Displacer fills in for Deadeye, and Avacyn's trigger is a powerful way to protect a full board of creatures. (Note: Running Displacer means running a solid amount of colorless producing lands.) Restoration Angel hilariously can't blink Avacyn, but she's strong enough in the strategy that she warrants an inclusion. To get mileage out the etb creatures, Avacyn adds the following:

 
    White and Red also have access to a number of Pseudo-blink mechanics. White with reanimation mechanics and red with clones. A number of these cards are protected by Avacyn or each other. Many of these ineract with the graveyard. Some sacrifice outlets are provided later on, but the deck might want to have more in practice. To get more milage out of the etb creatures, Avacyn adds the following:


    Of course all this blinking doesn't matter if we don't have some good targets. Several of the psuedo-blinks are themselves targets, like Reveillark and Karmic Guide. These targets all have strong card advantage abilities to overcome R/W's inherent lack of card flow. This section is the most customizable. I tried to cover a spread of effects. Removal, card draw, mana, life gain, graveyard hate, etc, while still staying on non-angels with power 2 or less. To get on the board, Avacyn adds the following:


    White and Red are traditionally the worst edh pairing since they have so much trouble staying even on cards and mana with the rest of the table. This deck has already addressed this to an extent with powerful and reusable enters the battlefield triggers. To further compensate, Avacyn has included a number of engines. Of course, the most important engines are the creatures. Avacyn makes investing in those creatures safe since she provides protection for them. That said, cards like Skullclamp are still too strong to ignore. Especially important are the Altars. They give an outlet for infinite shenanigans with Reveillark and Karmic Guide, but also give you an out to get cards in your graveyard for reanimation or flipping Avacyn. To get incremental advantage, Avacyn adds the following:


    Mana:


    Rounding out the list involves some removal, board wipes, and equipment. Board wipes are particularly strong with Avacyn. Boros Charm is included as a back up to Avacyn and also protects your other permanents. There's only a little removal overall since several of the creatures are removal, but sometimes you just need a Swords to Plowshares. There isn't a focus on voltron-able creatures in the list, but Avacyn herself is a solid equip target. To cover her ass, Avacyn adds the following:


Avacyn Burns: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/avacyn-burns/

    The second list is going to share a significant amount of the same card pool, however the focus is on the flip trigger. In a Gisela like shell with multiple damage amplifications. In Gisela there are two challenges: getting enough mana to play her and have her stick around, and getting the earthquake effect. For Avacyn Burns, its much simpler. Avacyn has a less intense cost, has flash, and she provides the earthquake effect. So the construction can focus more on the Furnace of Rath type effects and less on mana acceleration and AoE damage.

    Damage amps and aoe pain:


   While the damage effect is tied to the general, it still requires there to be quite a few creatures in the deck in order to flip Avacyn. While not as heavy as the last deck, they still take up a significant amount of space. I also tried to maintain the spread of effects and used the creatures mostly as spells. I figure Avacyn herself will kill most people. To have triggers, Avacyn adds the following:


   Since the general is going to be a larger compomnent of this deck's combat plan, going for a stronger voltron theme was warranted. Focusing on her trigger makes cards like Basilisk Collar very attractive. It was also important to keep some ways to sacrifice/bounce/reset Avacyn for future triggers. Utility and buffs:



    Mana:


    Some tricks carry over, and board wipe + indestructible is definitely one of them. Removal:

Olivia, Mobilized for War

                                                                             
    Shadows Over Innistrad has arrived and its brought with it a bevy of interesting generals. While the Frog is a huge hit, I think that Olivia is as big a hit. She provides you several build paths. Her ability has multiple parts to it which can all be built around.  The ability triggers when creatures enter the battlefield. Importantly, the trigger doesn't care about where they enter from or if the creatures are played. Black and red are excellent at cheating big things into play via Sneak Attack effects or Reanimation effects. That the cheated creatures get haste and set-up the next reanimation effect via discard is a huge bonus. However, the creatures don't have to be cheated. Simply casting large dudes that get +1/+1 and haste that don't die at end of turn is a huge effect. While not as good at it as Drana, Olivia does enable +1/+1 counter synergies. Specifically, she is great with Persist. Cauldron of Souls is a solid card on its own that can repeatedly save your creatures with Olivia out. Finally, she turns the creatures you boost into vampires and enables madness. Unfortunately, in EDH madness falls flat. Most of the cards aren't strong enough, but some, like Big Game Hunter, are worthwhile. The tribal component essentially builds itself, so, I will be focusing on the first two aspects of her ability, reanimation and hasty beats.

Olivia, Reanimation Machine: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/olivia-reanimation-machine/

    Getting the mixture of low cost dudes and discard outlets to large targets is going to be fiddly. The other hurdle for this Olivia is the amount of card draw that you need to function. You need a ton of draw power with all the discard. Since the deck wants you to be discarding consistently, taking turns 'off' to cast draw spells like Promise of Power isn't as good as landing a Phyrexian Arena. Olivia wants to spend her mana on making large dudes, not drawing cards. That isn't to say Olivia won't play draw spells, just that they should be cheap on mana. Some, like Wheel of Fortune or Tormenting Voice, line up perfectly for Olivia's game plan. However, consistently getting extra cards for free is what you really want to be setting up. Unfortunately, the deck can't support Necropotence due to the discard-to-exile clause. While I'm not normally a fan of planeswalkers in EDH, Ob Nixilis functions as another Phyrexian Arena and makes the cut this time. To counteract the card disadvantage and give the deck sufficient velocity Olivia adds the following:

    Life total isn't a huge concern for most Commander decks. Starting at 40 ensures that things like fetchlands and the odd Sylvan Library hit are incidental. This deck is spending a significant amount of life to buoy its card advantage and the starting 40 is still going to run out quickly unless some serious life gain is included. Whip of Erebos is a no-brainer. Its back up reanimation and can gain an absurd amount of life. A single Gray Merchant can gain a significant amount of life, but repeatedly reanimating him can easily clock a whole table. Polluted Bonds and Exquisite Blood will make you a target for the whole table, so just be careful that you aren't in a horrendous board position before you play them. To ensure she doesn't kill herself, Olivia adds the following:


    I want to include Skullclamp. I don't think this deck is supporting it as best as it can, but there are some cards that it works exceedingly well with that Olivia also wants to play. Cards like Bloodghast, Kher Keep, and Squee. Squee fulfills many functions in this deck. It prompts discard when played, it can be discarded for value, and it can be eaten by clamp and other effects repeatedly. There are plenty of other low cost discard enablers to clamp as well. Clamp will do work, just not be the super star it is in something like Ghave. Low cost creatures are the go to discard outlets since they can have excellent additional purpose, like Magus of the Wheel and Grave Scrabbler. The best utility dude is Disciple of Bolas. The life gain and the card draw are useful and the body is clamp-able. To ensure a flow of discard and utility effects, Olivia adds the following:


    For the remaining reanimation targets, Olivia wants to be getting immediate effects. The goal is to have the reanimation chain to the next reanimation spell. Barring drawing cards or tutoring, the next best thing is to have some other enter the battlefield effect to get immediate value out of the reanimation. Haste gives Olivia some leeway over traditional reanimator strategies since the creature will be able to attack immediately. To punch her opponents to death, Olivia adds the following:


    The question is, then, what reanimation spells should go into the deck? Its easy to say ALL OF THEM! and knock off for lunch, but there's probably some that are better for us than others. For instance, Zombify and it's 5 mana ilk are out. We either want to be cheaper or build in additional function. The additional function in this case is being a creature. Since Olivia's creatures gain haste and prompt a discard, being a creature that reanimates is awesome. Consider Doomed Necromancer. On turn 4 you can play the doomed dude, discard a fatty to give him haste, then pay B to sacrifice him for the reanimation immediately. Coffin Queen isn't quite as low mana but gains the value of repetition. Phyrexian Delver unfortunately needs a target in the graveyard already since you have to announce the target for the enters the battlefield ability as it triggers, but its also a 3/2 that can do real things in combat. Another 3/2 worth discussing is Puppeteer Clique. The fairy can't get creatures from your graveyard, but persist is a great ability with Olivia. You can just discard a card to clear the -1/-1 counter for as many cards as you have in hand. To bring out the dead, Olivia adds the following:



    The remainder of the list are just good all-rounders. Mana acceleration, some extra damage, removal, and tutoring.


    That concludes the Reanimation Machine. I've done some test hands and I'd put this at medium casual. It could certainly be tuned to get into low competitive territory, but as is could be played in most any play group.

Olivia, Hasty Beats - http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/olivia-hasty-beats/

    While the last deck was attempting to set up an engine for continuous reanimation, this Olivia list looks to just bring some hasty dudes. It is more focused on actually casting the creatures so it doesn't have as many moving parts. This is a simpler construction overall.

High Impact dudes:


Setup Dudes:


Card Draw/advantage:


Tricks:


Mana:


    This version builds on the principles of the first version. However, instead of cheating the dudes, Olivia just wants to attack. The Haste aspect of her ability is on display here, ensuring you can pummel unsuspecting opponents into the ground.

    I didn't figure the list out myself, but I believe there's an Olivia list that works similar to this Drana list: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/12-10-15-EGK-drana/. The primary challenge is the mana. That deck could generate tons of mana from Cabal Coffers, and I don't think there's anything comparable in B/R. However, if counters are your thing, then that's probably a good place to start.

    This is week one of Shadow Over Innistrad. Next week I'll choose another legend from the new set and do the same process. Till next time, Cheers!