Although I started playing Magic way back before the Weatherlight Saga, it was a very formative part of my Magic experience, it was the time that my old crew used to get together, sink a bunch of booze and <REDACTED>. Massive multiplayer chaos each weekend where everyone would toss up a shitty deck filled with a hundred cards and try to become the King of Pottsville! Weatherlight boosters were absolutely everywhere and about $4 a pop, so for a crew who just got their first jobs and just finished up school, Magic was the second best weekend activity, outside of all the beach and pool parties.
So of course, when I heard that Wizards were bringing back Sisay in Modern Horizons, I just HAD to jump on board the Skyship Weatherlight and sail away to a distant plane! First up be aware this is not 100% OMG 10/10 power, this is essentially a very powerful Weatherlight theme deck! But you know, it's actually really good.
Sisay gets +1+1 for each colour among OTHER legendary permanents you control. She also costs a CMC of three mana, making her really quick to touch down onto the field!
Her leadership forged the Weatherlight's finest crew.
Firstly, this isn't tokens, so get that out of ya skull. Second, yes she will grow and shrink as the game rolls on, but that's okay as she can search up ANY legendary permanent with a converted mana cost of LESS than her power. That means if she is a 2/2, we even still have options in the deck to be able to go grab and make her stronger. Yeah this is sort of a Kethis style deck.
So, how are we going to get five colours of the field so we can start abusing I mean USING Sisay's superpower? Well we have Farseek to nab any non forest basic land, Cultivate also allows us to nab two basic lands and put one into our hand and the other tapped into play. Because we are playing a heap of Legendary permanents, Mox Amber is a no brainer in the deck, along with a slew of mana rocks in Sol Ring because it will never get banned so stop screaming into the void. We have rocks we can pump mana through to make mana we might not have in Orzhov Signet, Rakdos Signet and Dimir Signet. We also have “part time” mana producer Deathrite Shaman because when he isn't making mana, he's either killing everyone else slowly or gaining you back life.
Speaking of Elves, we have Arbor Elf that can untap forests and this includes any dual typed Forrest X lands as well, Elvish Mystic, Llanowar Elves, Priest of Titania because I feel we are running enough elves to get good use out of her, Devoted Druid makes an appearance though with no combo shenanigans, and finally leaning into the Legendary side of the deck we have Rishkar, Peema Renegade. Birds of Paradise are great here because they give us mana of any colour we need. Deathcap Cultivator also doubles as a deathtouch blocker in the late game.
Hanna was astounded. Mirri read every leaf and wisp of breeze like a book of ancient lore.
Onto the Legendary permanents that Sisay can search up, Oath of Nissa allows us to dig three deep and take a land, creature or Planeswalker and put it in our hand, then it sticks around to help us play our planeswalkers. Oath of Ajani can give all our creatures a +1+1 counter when it enters, making Sisay stronger, and reduces the cost of our Planeswalkers. Oath of Kaya might seem a little boring in this deck, but it essentially buffs Sisay by two and has an enters the battlefield effect we just can’t pass up as we have a few ways to blink it out. Finally we are playing Oath of Teferi that blinks one of your permanents when it enters, but more importantly, it allows us to use planeswalker abilities twice a turn! We have Path of Mettle just in case we come up against Zombies or Goblins, Search for Azcanta not for any real reason other than assisting to dig deeper into the deck, Growing Rites of Itlimoc is the last of the enchantments we care about, but oh boy is it a doozy. When it enters you get to scour the top four cards of your library for a creature card and put it in your hand. During your end step if you control at least four creatures, transform into Gae's Cradle.
Onto the Legendary creature toolbox! We have Thrasios, Triton Hero so that we can manipulate the top card of our deck, if it's a land we ramp, otherwise draw a card! Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist is just too good to pass up on to help us in combat. Ertai, Wizard Adept is our expensive counterspell on a stick. Alesha, Who Smiles At Death helps bring Sisay back from the yard, should an opponent execute our captain. Kambal, Consul of Allocation is one of the finest toolbox targets I have ever seen and, not unlike a vegan, I will not shut up about how good he is. Artifact heavy deck? Yeah you might be in trouble from our boi. Playing some sort of spell storm deck? Sorry buddy.
We do have Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain in here as well, she isn't that great in this deck, but I thought she might help us draw some cards. Brago, King Eternal helps us to get more mileage out of out ETB permanents such as Oath of Nissa. Shalai, Voice of Plenty will protect us against a wide range of effects such as “target player” and “target creature”, with this we can circumnavigate issues like Grave Pact while also being able to permanently pump up our team.
"Don't mourn for me, this is my destiny." -Gerrard.
Who would have guessed I'm playing Bolas's Citadel in here, right? I mean playing cards for life isn't amazingly good, but we are playing Aetherflux Reservoir for the late combo kill if we need to. Making it easier for Sisay to fetch Citadel, we have Animatou, the Fateshifter. Animatou is just more stax for the deck, being able to search up either Oath of Teferi or Animatou as needed is a pretty boss move that can lead to some hilarious looping.
When you then mix in Ashiok, Dream Render, you can stop opponents from searching libraries and popping fetch lands to keep them destabilised. This is extremely effective in a hundred card format where everyone is relying on both search and card draw to straighten out mana bases. Speaking of locking out draw engines, Narset, Parter of Viels does just that, she makes it so that our opponent's can't draw more than a single card a turn. Domri, Anarch of Bolas is another dual colour planeswalker that allows Sisay to be slightly bigger on power and also can make your creatures uncounterable.
"I will flay the skin from your flesh and the flesh from your bones and scrape your bones dry. And still you will not have suffered enough."
—Greven il-Vec, to Gerrard
But now I hear you want a way to actually close out the game? Finale of Devastation is your first port of call, because we can x=10 and kill everyone with big stupid creatures. And hey, remember that time, like every time where I'm playing white and I say “whenever I play white, I GOTTA play Approach of the Second Sun. Because you know, white, we playin it fool.