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Sidisi, Regent of the Mire

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Sidisi, Regent of the Mire

At a glance

  • Commander: Sidisi, Regent of the Mire
  • Colors: Mono-Black
  • Archetype: Self-mill reanimator value chain
  • Power tier: mid-high

Cards

The Commander’s REAL ability (verified via CLI)

, Sacrifice a creature you control with mana value X other than Sidisi: Return target creature card with mana value X plus 1 from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate only as a sorcery.

This is a mana-free reanimation ladder. Tap Sidisi, sacrifice a creature of mana value X, and put a creature of exactly MV X+1 from your graveyard directly onto the battlefield. The scout paraphrase is accurate: you climb the ladder one rung per turn (sac a 1-drop to return a 2-drop, sac that to return a 3-drop, and so on), so you want (a) a stocked graveyard full of creatures across the whole MV curve, (b) cheap recurring fodder to feed the sacrifice, and (c) payoffs that don’t care about being sacrificed because they give value on death and can be reanimated again next turn.

Key rules notes that shape the build:

  • It is once per turn (sorcery-speed, taps Sidisi). So it is not an infinite engine on its own — it’s a grindy, removal-resistant recurring threat.
  • The returned creature must be exactly one MV higher than the sacrificed one, so I need creatures at every MV from 1 up to ~6 to keep the chain unbroken. The reanimation targets list below is intentionally spread across the curve.
  • Fodder that returns itself (unearth, ”: return this”) is gold: sacrifice it to Sidisi, then bring it back from the yard for mana later, then sacrifice it again.

Gameplan

  1. Stock the yard fast. A dense package of self-mill ETB/death creatures (Mire Triton, Crow of Dark Tidings, Gorging Vulture, Forsaken Drifters, Returned Reveler) plus instant/sorcery mill-and-recur (Corpse Churn, Diresight, Funeral Rites) fills the graveyard with creatures at every mana value.
  2. Deploy Sidisi (2 mana) and a free sac outlet. Viscera Seer and Carrion Feeder let you sacrifice on a dime; Soulreaper of Mogis, Witch’s Cauldron, and Agency Coroner turn each sacrifice into a card.
  3. Climb the ladder. Each turn, tap Sidisi, sac a cheap body, return a bigger one. Self-returning fodder (Persistent Specimen, Dregscape Zombie, Viscera Dragger, Scrapwork Rager, First-Sphere Gargantua, Grixis Slavedriver) feeds the chain repeatedly.
  4. Convert to inevitability. The deck does NOT rely on combat alone. Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Glidedive Duo, Sneering Shadewriter, and Bleak Coven Vampires drain the table on ETB — and Sidisi lets you re-loop them. Pestilence and Crypt Rats are repeatable, mana-sink pseudo-wipes that double as a hard win condition in mono-black: with a board you can choke and a graveyard you can rebuild, you ping the table out while wiping their creatures.

Win condition (EXPLICIT)

Inevitability via recurring drain + Pestilence. The primary kill is looping ETB-drain bodies (Gray Merchant of Asphodel especially — devotion in a mono-black deck regularly drains 5+ per cast) through Sidisi and Dread Return, then closing with Pestilence / Crypt Rats as a repeatable damage engine that simultaneously sweeps opposing boards and burns out the table. Caustic Hound and Maalfeld Twins reward the sacrifice loop with death triggers. This is a grind-you-out plan, not a draw-go-into-one-wrath plan: every turn the board rebuilds from the yard, so the pod must answer the same threats again and again until they run out of removal.

Role breakdown (counts)

  • Lands: 36 (32 Swamp + Ash Barrens, Barren Moor, Bojuka Bog, Witch’s Cottage)
  • Ramp: 9 (Sol Ring, Charcoal Diamond, Wayfarer’s Bauble, Renegade Map, Myr Moonvessel, Everflowing Chalice, Wanderer’s Twig, Traveler’s Amulet, Ominous Parcel)
  • Card advantage / draw: 16 (Night’s Whisper, Read the Bones, Diresight, Funeral Rites, Corpse Churn, Cemetery Recruitment, Filigree Familiar, Soulreaper of Mogis, Witch’s Cauldron, Agency Coroner, Phyrexian Gargantua, Pit Keeper, Gravedigger, Cadaver Imp, Vampire Soulcaller, Cheerful Osteomancer)
  • Spot removal / interaction: 10 (Disfigure, Tragic Slip, Death Wind, Defile, Ichor Slick, Feed the Swarm, Bone Splinters, Spark Harvest, Cruel Edict, Extract a Confession)
  • Mass / pseudo-wipe: 3 (Pestilence, Crypt Rats, Drown in Sorrow)
  • Remainder: self-mill engines, recursion bodies, ladder fodder, and ETB-drain finishers.

Mana curve sits mostly at 4 MV or below; the few 5-6 drops (Gray Merchant, Phyrexian Gargantua, Grixis Slavedriver, Caustic Hound, Maalfeld Twins) are reanimation targets you’d rather cheat in with Sidisi or Dread Return than hard-cast.

Pilot notes

  • Sequence the sac, not just the body. Before tapping Sidisi, make sure the graveyard contains a creature at exactly MV(sacrificed)+1. Diresight/Corpse Churn/self-mill let you load the right rung.
  • Self-returning fodder is your renewable ammo. Persistent Specimen, Dregscape Zombie, Viscera Dragger, Scrapwork Rager, First-Sphere Gargantua, and Grixis Slavedriver can be sacrificed to Sidisi and then returned from the yard for mana, giving you near-endless chain fuel.
  • Gray Merchant is the haymaker. Recast or reanimate it repeatedly; with a board of black permanents it drains for a lot. Dread Return (flashback = sac three creatures, which the deck happily provides) can cheat it back.
  • Pestilence is both removal and clock. Hold up black mana; against a stalled board you sweep their creatures and burn faces. Keep at least one creature out so Pestilence doesn’t self-sacrifice at end step (or let it go if you’ve drawn the value).
  • Edicts beat hexproof/protection. Cruel Edict, Spark Harvest, and Extract a Confession answer threats removal-by-targeting can’t.

Weaknesses

  • Graveyard hate (exile-on-death, graveyard wipes) is the deck’s Achilles heel — it shuts off both Sidisi’s targets and the recursion fodder. Bojuka Bog is the only graveyard interaction available, and it’s pointed at opponents.
  • Sidisi is sorcery-speed and once per turn, so removal on her slows you meaningfully; the chain pauses until she’s redeployed (she’s only 2 mana, which helps).
  • Limited true board wipes in mono-black commons — only 3 sweepers, leaning on Pestilence/Crypt Rats as repeatable pseudo-wipes. Wide go-wide aggro decks can race before Pestilence comes online.
  • No counterspells / stack interaction at common in black; the deck answers resolved permanents, not spells.

Full decklist

Commander (1)

  • Sidisi, Regent of the Mire

Ramp (9): Sol Ring, Charcoal Diamond, Wayfarer’s Bauble, Renegade Map, Myr Moonvessel, Everflowing Chalice, Wanderer’s Twig, Traveler’s Amulet, Ominous Parcel

Self-mill / yard-stock creatures: Mire Triton, Returned Reveler, Wailing Ghoul, Scarblade Scout, Crow of Dark Tidings, Gorging Vulture, Forsaken Drifters

Sac outlets & value: Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder, Soulreaper of Mogis, Witch’s Cauldron, Agency Coroner, Phyrexian Vivisector

Recursion to hand / ETB recur: Pit Keeper, Gravedigger, Cadaver Imp, Cheerful Osteomancer, Vampire Soulcaller, Filigree Familiar

Self-returning ladder fodder: Persistent Specimen, Dregscape Zombie, Viscera Dragger, Scrapwork Rager, First-Sphere Gargantua, Grixis Slavedriver

Death-value / finisher bodies: Maalfeld Twins, Caustic Hound, Diregraf Horde

ETB-drain finishers: Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Phyrexian Gargantua, Glidedive Duo, Sneering Shadewriter, Bleak Coven Vampires

Reanimation / recursion spells: Corpse Churn, Cemetery Recruitment, Unearth, Dread Return

Card draw: Night’s Whisper, Diresight, Funeral Rites, Read the Bones

Spot removal (10): Disfigure, Tragic Slip, Death Wind, Defile, Ichor Slick, Feed the Swarm, Bone Splinters, Spark Harvest, Cruel Edict, Extract a Confession

Mass / pseudo-wipe (3): Pestilence, Crypt Rats, Drown in Sorrow

Lands (36): Ash Barrens, Barren Moor, Bojuka Bog, Witch’s Cottage, 32x Swamp

Decklist

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