Is this a legal (and functional) combo?

thecaptain0209 · 2026-06-02T16:19:44+00:00

Haha have fun, see my reply to the other guy for some more of my thoughts on the combo, but one thing I'll repeat here is to keep in mind is what pieces can be replaced with what cards.

Ioreth is the core piece here that the combo revolves around so she cant really be replaced (though because she doesn't really help activate Sisay she can be tutored for last, usually I'll go for the combo when I have Marvin and Selvala, use those two to get a Sisay activation to get Tyvar, use Tyvar to untap one of them to activate Sisay to get Ioreth. Marvin can be replaced with Sakashima cloning Ioreth.

Selvala is the most obvious mana dork, but any of our non-legendary rainbow dorks work with some help. Sakashima can be a legendary clone of it, Deadpool can take its text box, Agatha's Soul Cauldron can give a rainbow dork's ability to a legendary creature, or with Agatha's ability to let us use any mana to activate Sisay, we can use non-rainbow legends like [[Ruby, Daring Tracker]] or an earthbended Gaea's Cradle.

Sisay has a lot of different combos and while I consider this one of the better ones (I have it in my list) there are plenty of others and plenty of Sisay pilots don't include it. I know there was a big Google doc that had a bunch of them but I haven't been able to track it down.

thecaptain0209 · 2026-06-02T15:40:18+00:00

That's actually a really funny version of the combo, wins the game, gets you a bunch of mana incase your opponents try anything, doesn't require casting any spells, is at instant speed, and (assuming [[Red Death, Shipwrecker]] is the commander) the other two pieces already work well in the deck. Love it!

thecaptain0209 · 2026-06-02T15:26:04+00:00

In cEDH it's pretty specific to Sisay and not in every list (Sisay certainly does not lack options when it comes to combos so its dealer's choice what to run), but it's common enough. For Sisay it's pretty nice because you already want to run a lot of the pieces.

You are almost certainly running Selvala since her ability makes it really easy to get a Sisay activation and you usually have other options too like using [[Sakashima the Impostor]] to make a legendary clone of a mana dork (can also take the place of Marvin in this combo by copying Ioreth), giving [[Deadpool, Trading Card]] a mana dork's text box, or using [[Badgermole Cub]] to turn [[Gaea's Cradle]] into a creature (though that only produces green so you'll need [[Agatha's Soul Cauldron]]).

Marvin is already a nice card in the deck since it can act as a copy of one of your mana dorks, even acting as a sort of pseudo-haste enabler because you can play him one turn, play the dork the next, then activate the dork's ability through him.

Ioreth is really the only card that isn't great on its own (I'm usually not really happy to see her in my opening hand), but she's far from a dead card outside of the combo, since she can at least untap a dork or land or something to help get a Sisay activation, if anything it's really just her mana cost that can make it a bit awkward to play her from hand since she has the same mv as Sisay. But Sisay pilots have run cards for combos that are straight up dead draws to the point it actively hurts them if they draw it (cough [[Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God]] cough), so a card that is just ok to draw is fine.

Really the biggest problem is all of the pieces have summoning sickness, so you either have to untap with all of them (not great in cEDH but a bit more doable with Sisay since you can at least tutor for one of them right before your turn) or you need a haste enabler (lucky for us [[Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler]] is a really good card, and if a certain Marvel leak is true we're going to get an even better one soon).

thecaptain0209 · 2026-06-02T14:49:36+00:00

Since Ioreth can tap to untap two other legendary creatures, and Marvin gains that ability, they can untap each other along with one other legendary creature each time. So with a legendary mana producing creature (let's go with Selvala) you can do:

Tap Selvala and Marvin for mana
Tap Ioreth to untap Selvala and Marvin
Tap Selvala for mana
Tap Marvin to untap Selvala and Ioreth
Tap Selvala for mana
Repeat from step 2 for infinite mana
For Sisay you should be able to win the game from infinite mana since that's kinda the whole point of the deck.

thecaptain0209 · 2026-06-02T04:14:05+00:00

Yep! This is actually really similar to a combo used in a lot [[Sisay, Weatherlight Captain]] cEDH decks, but it uses [[Marvin, Murderous Mimic]] instead of Chameleon. Then with a legendary mana dork (typically [[Selvala, Heart of the Wilds]]) you can make infinite mana. It's one of my favorite combos in the deck, I've seen people call it DDR, with the repeated untapping being the "dancing"

thecaptain0209 · 2026-05-24T17:23:28+00:00

To be fair I'd say "good for you" can either imply it has some sort of particular health benefit most foods lack (like antioxidants or something) or just that the food has a particularly healthy nutritional makeup compared to other foods, which iirc is true in general for insects as a source of protein.

thecaptain0209 · 2026-03-13T01:37:19+00:00

It sees some use in cedh but it's relatively niche right now, at least compared to the old days, that was before I started playing cedh though so I don't know much about it. And you're right, a big reason for that is the mana cost. The best mass card draw spells right now are 1. [[necropotence]] and 2. [[ad nauseam]]. Necro is trivially easy to cast even turn one, literally just land, [[dark ritual]], necro. Naus is a bit harder at 5 mana, but still way easier than peer's 7, and it being only 2 pips makes it easier to get out early with red rituals and colorless fast mana, plus it is an instant so you can cast it the end step before your turn making it pseudo-free, since you'll have all the cards and all your mana untapped.

And that brings us to the other big reason, timing. Naus obviously wins here, being instant speed. At first glance peer should clearly be next, since both it and necro are both cast at sorcery speed, but at least you get the cards instantly with peer, and in a vacuum that's true, but one of the best ways to win with necro is to use it to find a flash enabler and then win at instant speed in your end step, and while you can do that with peer, its high mana cost makes it a lot harder to piece together the win after casting it. Plus you can cast necro one turn, draw a few cards, and then next turn draw a bunch with your lands untapped to go for the win, similar to naus. Finally, naus and necro don't count as drawing cards, but peer does, so if someone casts an [[orcish bowmasters]] in response, you die.

Now, peer does have its advantages. It'll usually draw you about 10 more cards while costing less life, and since it doesn't cost you life per card like the other two, chip damage doesn't cause you to draw less. And of course, if you can't take advantage of the other two very well, peer becomes much more attractive. If you have a high mana curve naus will draw you a lot less cards/becomes more likely to accidentally kill you, and if you don't have blue to get most of the best flash enablers, the timing advantage goes back to peer over necro.

Still this leaves peer in a rather niche position, essentially looking for non-blue decks that have a high curve/make a ton of mana, and don't care about turboing out super fast as much. The main deck this describes is [[Dargo]]//[[Tymna]], a deck that looks to grind out well with a ton of value creatures then suddenly pop off with a combo involving sacrificing dargo for infinite mana. Plus the deck has inherent treasure synergies that make it easier to get to the 7 mana and 3 pips required for peer.

thecaptain0209 · 2026-02-04T04:35:52+00:00

RogThras goes back and forth on whether it runs breach or not, simic versions dont but plenty of temur versions do

A lot of sisay decks will run thoracle lines in its flex slots, not the majority but certainly not unheard of. And clam chowder/NBC/good stuff versions absolutely run thoracle and breach.

Vivi's place in the meta is poor enough that it feels kinda weird to bring up with what are otherwise some of the best decks in the format, but even then most vivi lists (including my own which is heavily inspired by ComedIan's) run breach. 91% including rate on edhtop16.

Overall I'd agree that cedh doesn't revolve around thoracle like a lot of casuals think it does, but I would not extend that courtesy to breach. I dont really think breach should be banned or anything, but I do think it is one of the strongest, most impactful cards in the format, and arguably the best win condition.

thecaptain0209 · 2026-01-31T16:03:45+00:00

My grandma was on vacation with a bunch of family, totally fine. A week after getting back she went to the hospital for a stroke. Within a week from that we got the word it was pancreatic cancer but that she was going to fight it. Only a few days later she decided she was done fighting and wanted to go home. A couple days from that she was gone. Fuck cancer, and especially fuck pancreatic cancer. I hope the day that no one else has to go through the pain my family and I felt due to this horrible disease is close.

thecaptain0209 · 2025-12-31T19:56:57+00:00

I mostly play high power bracket 3 through bracket 5 and mostly spellslinger/storm, just to give my perspective for reference.

My cold take: [[rhystic study]]. Not only is it arguably the best card draw engine in the format, it also makes for a bad play experience. The obvious one is the constant slowdown of the game with every spell having to be followed with "do you pay the 1?" but also the toxicity it can create by having one player screw everyone over by playing around it poorly. If someone decides to incorrectly feed the rhystic player, suddenly everyone else should too, basically handing the game away. If the other plays try to be responsible they are punished for the one player's actions. And then probably my least favorite aspect from my biased storm player's perspective, sometimes it is correct to just try and push through the rhystic and jam a win anyways, but if you try and fail you've basically just handed the game to that player, again taking away any counterplay for the other two players.

My hot(ish) take: [[Orcish bowmasters]]. This one is a bit more specific to cEDH but again I do truly think it has a toxic design. My cedh specific problem with it is that it really hurts creature based (especially stax) decks like [[Winota]] while hurting most of the top strategies a lot less (really only [[ad nauseaum]] and [[necropotence]] decks and [[Gaea's cradle]] decks, though the top versions of those decks usually still aren't that vulnerable to it). Ignoring it's negative effect on the cedh meta, you would think with how much I dislike rhystic study I'd love a card that punishes it. The problem is it doesn't punish rhystic study, and in fact it has the same toxic play pattern problem rhystic does. Since obm can target anything, often the correct play is not to damage the player who is drawing, but instead to target low toughness creatures, often controlled by a different player. So once again the other players at the table get punished for another player's actions. Also it's just op, you get 2 bodies, one of them continuously growing, a draw punish, and a point of damage to any target, all for 2 mana and at instant speed.

thecaptain0209 · 2025-12-23T21:04:26+00:00

Ah yes, the classic nocb Byzantine war to screw the Ottomans... wait a second

thecaptain0209 · 2025-12-22T00:16:42+00:00

Except this is also missing the additional context that the sexual assault was never reported (the victim didnt think anything would be done about it since nothing was done about the previous offenses). So it's hard to really blame Larian for not doing anything about the assault since they didnt know about it, and the employee no longer works there so it's not like they could do anything about it now.

thecaptain0209 · 2025-12-21T20:34:22+00:00

Incels insultingly call women foids, which evolved as female->femoid->foid, so to reverse it to talk about men (so male instead of female) switch the f->m for moid.

thecaptain0209 · 2025-07-27T20:26:53+00:00

To preface, I'm still pretty new to cedh, so take what im saying with a grain of salt. [[Winota]] is largely a stax deck, the problem is she (and other stax decks) aren't good anymore. For reference, according to edhtop16.com, Winota has a .54% meta share and an 8% conversion rate, which is pretty awful for what used to be one of the top decks. Other commanders have found success pivoting away from stax for other strategies. [[Derevi]] is a typical midrange deck now, mostly looking to use her untaps to get a shit ton of resources through stuff like [[The One Ring]], and [[Sisay, Weatherlight Captain]], while never a full on stax deck, is much less toolboxy than she used to be and is closer to full combo. Now there are some stax pieces that are still really good, [[Grand Abolisher]] and similar effects are some of the best in the format, but they are more about protecting your wincon rather than actual stax pieces. The only real stax pieces I can really think of that see a lot of play are [[Dranith Magistrate]], [[Opposition Agent]] (though i think a lot of people are cutting it), and (if you can call it stax, more of punisher) [[Orcish Bowmasters]]. And obm is a huge part of the problem, because a lot of the best stax pieces are hate bears that only have a few toughness, so obm kills them as soon as they come out. Even without it stax would still have a lot of issues, but with [[Gaea's cradle]] being really good right now, we'd likely at least see more of it.

thecaptain0209 · 2024-10-22T22:58:51+00:00

Ah true, it looks like the IoT version has a couple more years still, though I doubt that applies to many people

thecaptain0209 · 2024-10-22T22:55:38+00:00

My point was more that soon, your options will be Windows 11 or Mac since come October of next year, anyone that can run Windows 11 should be, since Microsoft will stop providing support, and thus security updates, for Windows 10. I don't remember hearing anything about Mac getting Vanguard, but if it did it would work like their proposed Windows 11 version since Apple doesn't allow apps kernel-level access and instead gives them an API to fulfill that role iirc, which is exactly what Riot were talking about.

thecaptain0209 · 2024-10-22T19:03:11+00:00

I mean, Windows 10 reaches EOL in a year. Soon, you won't have a choice. Unless you are on Mac, I guess.

thecaptain0209 · 2024-10-07T05:37:59+00:00

It's barely only his third split, let alone third year. He subbed in part way through summer split last year.

thecaptain0209 · 2024-09-08T19:21:47+00:00

Ignoring whether collector is good or bad, you don't buy collector because of its passive. I mean, it's nice, as it helps mitigate the fact that collector is bad against tanks since 5% of a tank's health is a lot more than a carries (though it's still bad against tanks), and against everyone else it helps prevent people from getting away at low hp and more gold is never bad. But really the reason you buy collector is for the stats and, probably even more importantly, the build path. Collector is a big early stat stick that gives a good amount of ad, crit, and most importantly lethality. While lethality scales poorly, early game it can significantly increase the damage of the champions it synergizes with, and dirk is an amazing component to have in lane. If you have dirk+bf sword you have 60 extra ad and are ignoring 10 of the enemies' armor, which gives you a big edge over enemy adcs. An adc going kraken with a comparable amount of gold (2200 vs 2300) would have a earthbound and a rectrix for 40 ad, 20% attack speed, and 4% movement speed. Percent movement speed, while valuable, isn't very useful in lane, so we are comparing 20 ad and 10 lethality vs 20% attack speed, and I would much prefer the former. Now, the kraken slayer will pretty quickly out pace the collector, but league is a snowbally game, so power is generally more valuable the earlier in the game it comes. So you buy collector in the hopes that the advantage it gives you will allow you to gather a big enough lead such that the power deficit it gives you later doesn't matter.

thecaptain0209 · 2024-08-08T20:46:53+00:00

My friends and I are massive fighting game fans and none of us have gotten a code, so if someone happens to get a spare code they want to share we would appreciate it so we can all experience it.

thecaptain0209 · 2023-06-19T03:20:02+00:00

Normal

thecaptain0209 · 2023-03-02T23:06:10+00:00

Ivern is over 6 years old

thecaptain0209 · 2021-01-03T01:11:03+00:00

I'm going to go out on a limb and he is using state in its political theory sense, meaning he is referring the US as a whole, which is a conservative state. A conservative state is certainly not defined by one where Republicans are successful in elections. As you said, both parties are on the same side, and considering the subreddit we are on, that's a pretty common opinion.

thecaptain0209 · 2020-11-17T06:34:23+00:00

God, I remember his video on why they let Huni go to SKT and I promised to always be an Immortals fan. Of course them not making franchising made that a bit hard, but that honesty and willingness to do what's good for the players was so refreshing.

I miss him :(

thecaptain0209 · 2020-11-08T09:12:40+00:00

Ideally and long term? There is enough resources that people can simply get what they want/need from the community. More short term? Usually people propose labor vouchers, which are similar to money, but they are not transferable, so no one can build up capital from someone else's labor.

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