Commander Deck Tech - Sisay, Weatherlight Captain and Jegantha, the Wellspring

Today's chosen companion is Jegantha, the Wellspring, alongside the commander Sisay, Weatherlight Captain.

In this deck tech, we'll show the potential value that can be extracted out of these two cards in a deck with the Human sub-theme, complete with a gate mana base.

Jegantha, the Wellspring doesn't allow you to use cards which repeat a mana symbol for their cost. Which means, all Phyrexian Pretors, such as Elesh Norn, Jin-Gitaxias, Vorinclex, Urabrask and Sheoldred and its many versions, for instance, are out of this build.

But, as usual, this companion limitation will not weaken our deck. We'll take advantage of Jegantha's ability to activate Sisay, Weatherlight Captain's ability, searching for the best legends to bring us to victory.

There are several different Sisay builds, such as, for instance, Planeswalker-themed, focusing on legendary equipment for the Voltron style, and the one we'll see next: legendary creatures. In particular, we mostly have a higher number of Humans, and, consequently, cards that have synergy with this creature type.

This deck usually wins through combat damage, but it can be considered a combo deck, because, if you sequence it correctly, it is possible to deal lethal damage to all your opponents at once.

But, while that doesn't happen, this deck behaves like a toolbox: constantly looking for the necessary cards that best fit a situation. For that reason, the selection of creatures was important to give us more stability throughout games.

Sisay, Weatherlight Captain is our main engine, practically transforming our deck into an extension of our hand, and Jegantha, the Wellspring helps due to its ability.

Gate Mana Base

Choosing this mana base was something a bit more particular. I've played this same commander and companion, and the gate mana base worked well on the tables I played in. So, I decided to bring that experience to you in this deck tech, showing it is very easily possible to play 5 colors with the gate base. We mostly thank Baldur's Gate for that, as it is responsible for making it possible.

No secrets about it; the base is composed of the 10 guild gates we're already used to, the 5 Baldur's Gate color choice gates. It is possible to add Maze's End as a win condition in this deck, but it's up to the pilot's tastes.

Essential Gates

Gond Gate is our mana base's main engine, as it enables us to play all our lands untapped. Baldur's Gate is our "Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx" for gates, and has a very peculiar interaction with a card that will be shown briefly.

Finally, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth gave us a great addition in the shape of The Black Gate. It is important to remember The Black Gate's ability doesn't necessarily need to be used on a creature you control, so it is an interesting ability to enable some political plays in the game.

Other Lands

Plaza of Harmony, Great Hall of the Citadel, Path of Ancestry and Plaza of Heroes are essential considering the legendary Humans sub-theme and the gate theme.

The World Tree is used both to correct the mana curve when you have 6 or more lands and to access another interaction I'll mention very soon. Heap Gate completes our gate package as a very versatile card, as it can enable Gond Gate to create mana of any color, besides being able to create Treasures.

But our highlight here goes to Basilisk Gate.

Despite only creating colorless mana, Basilisk Gate's ability grows Sisay's power and resistance, this way becoming a way you can search for a legendary permanent with a higher cost with the commander's ability.

Land Accelerators and Tutors

As we'll always be looking for Gond Gate to speed up our game plan, it is important we have it as soon as possible. Hence, we added Sylvan Scrying, Open the Gates, Expedition Map and Tolaria West; they have the primary role of searching for Gond Gate.

After that, Baldur's Gate and other gates are choices that are dependent on what the game looks like at the moment.

As ramp that consequently also works to aid you in this tireless quest to find Gond Gate, we have the ones that specifically look for gates and also any other card: Circuitous Route, Explore the Underdark, Hour of Promise, Tempt with Discovery and Titania's Command.

Even though they aren't as fast as the famous 2-mana ramp cards, they are better, even if they cost more, as they work perfectly to be what we need: conditional land tutors.

For mana rocks, we have Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Chromatic Lantern, Relic of Legends and Chromatic Orrery. I'll highlight the last two ones: Relic of Legends transforms our legendary creatures into mana dorks, and Chromatic Orrery, besides activating Sisay one more time, upgrades the use of the mana created by Baldur's Gate, as they can be spent as if they were of any color with this card in play.

Mirari's Wake works well both buffing Sisay and our other creatures and creating even more mana for even more spells in a single turn. As our ramp cards aren't agile as they cost more than three mana, Elven Chorus fulfills our needs as another source of transforming creatures into dorks, not to mention it casts creatures from the top - after all, the deck counts on more than 30 creatures.

Finally, we have Smothering Tithe, both to help you with mana and delay opponents who chose to pay 2 mana to prevent you from getting a draw.

Creatures

Mana Generators

We use the 3 most common mana dorks in 5-color decks: Birds of Paradise, Bloom Tender and Faeburrow Elder.

For a role similar to Elven Chorus, we use Inga and Esika and Katilda, Dawnhart Prime. Their abilities are also worth a note, as they can respectively enable card draw and buff your creatures. Finally, we have Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff, which creates a lot of early game value.

Protections

We have a great selection both of legendary and non-legendary cards to protect our board. As similar effects which make creatures Indestructible, we use Boromir, Warden of the Tower, Jirina, Dauntless General, Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard and Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate.

It might even look like a lot, but it is important to remember these creatures can be tutored by Sisay, so they serve as answers. It is also important to note that, when piloting the deck, decisions like these, of using Sisay's ability during your turn or during other players' turns, might be decisive, considering how the game plays out.

Another card which has an effect similar to Boromir is Lavinia, Azorius Renegade. Both cards are used to avoid unpleasant surprises coming from your opponents' side if they try to cheat out costs. By the way, it is important to note that Boromir has a very fun interaction with General's Enforcer: if General's Enforcer is the Ring-bearer, it will be a legendary creature, and consequently Indestructible due to its own ability.

Moving away from Indestructible and going for protection, we have Shalai, Voice of Plenty and Sigarda, Font of Blessings. Having both on board can basically guarantee a board that is almost fully protected.

If they are hit with mass destruction, both Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero and Ratadrabik of Urborg complete our protection section as anti-mass destruction or something close to that, considering Ratadrabik's ability.

Buffers

To raise the power of creatures and the commander, we use Arvad the Cursed, Marchesa, the Black Rose, Jodah, the Unifier and Kenrith, the Returned King. Arvad is quite direct with its +2/+2.

As for Marchesa, despite the condition of attacking the player with the most life points, it also works towards this goal. Its defensive resource of Reanimating creatures with a +1/+1 counter is famous, as it "converses" with the cards mentioned before, such as Katilda, Dawnhart Prime and Shalai, Voice of Plenty, and even Kenrith, which was mentioned before.

Kenrith might not be as much of a buffer, but it is still one, even if it buffs very little. Obviously, its role is not only to be a buffer, but also to use its great variety of abilities, mostly the one which Reanimates creatures, to recover sacrificed creatures and keep the board even safer.

Jodah, the Unifier, besides buffing units, increases the board more and more with its "almost" Cascade effect, and works as a finisher. Alongside a few cards which will be mentioned next in the Utility section, Jodah is important to grow your creatures' power enormously and guarantee an almost lethal attack.

Utility

We'll start with Samut, Voice of Dissent. It is one of the cards you'll look for to win, both because of its Haste and because of its untapping ability.

Next, we have Dynaheir, Invoker Adept, activating Sisay's abilities twice. With an already established board, sequencing correctly, you can declare lethal damage thanks to the creatures listed and also thanks to Jodah, ending up with creatures of immense power and resistance, all with Haste.

To guarantee some combat damage evasion, we use Shanid, Sleeper's Scourge, for Menace, and Surrak Dragonclaw for Trample; both their other abilities are basically a bonus.

Éowyn, Fearless Knight can also have this role, even better if shares a color with the board.

Finally, both to answer effects and create resources, be it to generate more card draw, more mana, activate Dynaheir again, Reanimate important pieces or answer something, we have Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, Ertai Resurrected, Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage and Kethis, the Hidden Hand.

Other Spells and Miscellaneous

Interactions and Answers

As removals, we only use Beast Within and Generous Gift to answer something that disrupts our game development. As a defensive resource, besides the creatures we mentioned before, we have Heroic Intervention, Teferi's Protection and Cyclonic Rift. Cyclonic Rift can obviously be used as a finisher, removing everything out of the way in the pass.

Of course, as it is a legendary-card deck, we use, by default, Urza's Ruinous Blast and Primevals' Glorious Rebirth, as removals that can be used on problematic things that can eventually appear, and as a mass Reanimate, possibly putting you back in the game.

Utility

For Haste, we use Rising of the Day (which also buffs our creatures) and Rhythm of the Wild. Also for buffing, we have Day of Destiny, which is another good target to aggro a bit more.

Two essential artifacts are Blackblade Reforged and Mithril Coat. They'll be one of the, if not the first ones to be tutored, to grow Sisay as much as possible and also protect it.

The other two artifacts, Heroes' Podium and Maskwood Nexus, can also be win conditions, considering Heroes' Podium is almost a Jodah, the Unifier, and Maskwood Nexus enables us to look for all creatures in our deck alongside The World Tree.

Planeswalkers

Dihada, Binder of Wills is essential: its first ability heavily protects not only the commander but also any creature in the deck, besides guaranteeing a bit more life to keep us in the game. Its ultimate will rarely be used considering it will be targeted (addressed ???), but if you manage to do it, it can be a finisher, if your opponents' boards help you a bit.

As for Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler, it helps us with the aforementioned mana dorks so they can fulfill their role as soon as they come in, despite its ability of untapping these dorks as well. Being able to use it with Jegantha and Sisay in play is the perfect scenario.

This list, unlike the one shown previously, is focused on the Mutate ability, which is its complete opposite, not using only non-Humans, taking advantage of Jegantha's plane of origin theme: Ikoria.

I really enjoyed writing this deck tech, as I greatly appreciate this deck. It is a very versatile toolbox, and today having access to certain cards made it even more consistent.

Changing it is also quite easy. It's up to the pilot's taste. But, at first, this is a list that I've already tested (its old version) physically, and can assure this deck is indeed an extension of your hand.

Would you use another commander? Swap the mana base? Would you use another creature theme? Share your thoughts!