Siona's Budget Combos (EDH / Commander) [Revision 16]

Summary

Casual, budget-friendly combo deck. Difficult to play if identifying combos is not your thing. They are mostly tutor-able infinite combos, so make sure you can navigate them (so the Combos explanations below) and don't annoy your whole table with slow turns on top of playing what amounts to a solitaire combo deck. Always remind the table that you should be allowed to do anything with a deck this cheap.

The budget-conscious standard stuff is all there: removal, card advantage leaning toward combo pieces, and enough mana ramp to get to the level you need quickly. After that it's protection and politics for delay, then the combos themselves for the win, with more than 30 cards involved in interrelated wincon combos.

> Gameplay

• The initial objective is to get Siona, Captain of the Pyleas on the board and hopefully have Shielded by Faith in hand or in the top 7 of the library. This is the fastest and easiest combo to pull off, requiring only 1 card besides the commander. This requires nothing but Green and White mana in the starting hand, so you can feel free to mulligan knowing that as long as you get GW mana, you're doing alright, and you can mulligan to try and get (1) Shielded by Faith in your starting hand, (2) multiple pieces of a different combo, (3) tutors (or, slightly less desirable, flickers for Siona), or (4) mana ramp, in that order of priorities.
• Using flicker cards can help Siona find Shielded by Faith. If Ephemerate is in your hand, it may be best to way until you have 4 mana available to play Siona. If Shielded by Faith isn't available, use the one remaining mana to flicker Siona with Ephemerate during an opponents turn. This will allow you to search the top 7 of your library again during their turn, and again at your next upkeep. By that time you will have seen at least 30 of the 99 cards to search for Shielded by Faith.
• Delay with cards like Riot Control or politik your way with Tenuous Truce into buying yourself time. Unless you look like you may be ready to combo off and are making players nervous, the deck does not put out a lot of threats. You'll be a low priority target if you aren't attacking and have blockers available, especially if you're holding mana and have demonstrated instant speed removal like Contraband Livestock. Hanging onto removal may be beneficial: allowing a few hits through isn't a big deal, because your combos are going to be a single turn (or two for an infinite token combo, due to summoning sickness), and some of them gain infinite life as well, so saving the removal only for game-ending opponent threats is a consideration.
• Strengths: Slower creature decks, voltron decks, and anything too dependent on single permanents will be weak to the spot removal of this deck and the potential it has for speed. Also matchups against other solitaire style decks can be favorable if they lack the ability to remove this deck's combo pieces.
• Weaknesses: Aggro stompy decks will overwhelm this deck unless you hit the Siona combo early or the board wipes can buy enough time. Heavily interactive opponent decks and discard/counterspell decks will also be tough to deal with.

> Combos

• The commander loop is to play Shielded by Faith (which Siona can retrieve) on any creature you control while Siona, Captain of the Pyleas is on the battlefield, then move it to the token she creates and repeat to create an arbitrarily large number of creature tokens.

• The Famished Paladin "Hero" loops are 3-card combos based on a creature with a built-in untap mechanic and tapping that creature on a loop for a repeated effect. It requires a "Hero" card with an untap mechanic, a "Weapon" that allows them to tap for an effect, and a "Shield" that triggers their untap ability when they activate the weapon. The "weapon" effects include ping damage (eg Sorcerer's Wand), creature tokens (eg Presence of Gond), or life gain (eg Resplendent Mentor. Infinite life isn't a wincon in this deck, but gives time to pull something that is). Famished Paladin and Lurking Roper need lifegain to untap. Barrenton Medic and Devoted Druid need Vizier of Remedies to untap by replacing the -1/-1 counter payment.

• The Scurry Oak combos have a primary version with only 2 cards: either one of Scurry Oak or Herd Baloth with either one of Cathars' Crusade or Ivy Lane Denizen. This generates infinite tokens and makes Scurry Oak/Herd Baloth infinitely large. The 3 card version breaks the Cathars' Crusade effect into two parts: the creature token triggers life gain through a Soul Warden effect, then the life gain triggers a +1/+1 counter through a Sunbond effect.

• ETB until LTB loops require 3 cards that have the effect of "exile a target until this permanent leaves the battlefield." Some of these double as removal cards, such as Oblivion Ring. With three of these available you are able to place card 1, then play card 2 exiling card 1, then play card 3 exiling card 2. Exiling card 2 will return card 1, and when card 1 returns it can exile card 3. Repeat ad nauseum, gaining whatever ETB effects are available to trigger (life gain, token creation, +1/+1 counters on a creature, etc.). They can also pseudo-flicker Siona, Captain of the Pyleas to search for Shielded by Faith.

• Miscellaneous Combos:

  • Midnight Guard goes with Presence of Gond to create infinite tokens (essentially it's the two card version of the hero loop).
  • Stuffy Doll enchanted by Pariah will prevent you from taking any damage until one of them is removed (note: if you choose yourself as the player for Stuffy Doll's first ability when it enters the battlefield, enchanting Stuffy Doll with Pariah will result in a game draw the first time you or Stuffy Doll takes damage because that damage can no longer resolve). Stuffy Doll enchanted by Guilty Conscience will let you deal lethal damage to the chosen player. Flickering Stuffy Doll through the various Oblivion Ring or recursion effects will allow you to change to another player.
  • Spike Feeder goes with the Scurry Oak Alternate Loop cards to gain infinite life by repeatedly removing a +1/+1 counter to gain life, which triggers the ability to place a +1/+1 counter on Spike Feeder, then repeating. Light of Promise and Sunbond will also make Spike Feeder gain an extra +1/+1 counter each time to make it arbitrarily large.

> Possible upgrades

• Direct Upgrades: Outside improving the mana base, Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile should replace Contraband Livestock. Heliod, Sun-Crowned would be better than any of the Scurry Oak Alternate Loop cards (probably replace Cleric Class), and it goes to its own combos non-ETB combos with Triskelion or Walking Ballista. Actual tutors would be better than may of the "Card Advantage" cards, Idyllic Tutor being the first. Eladamri's Call, Congregation at Dawn, and Yisan the Wanderer Bard would also be good. More graveyard recursion is another option, although redundancy is usually preferable. GW staples like Esper Sentinel obviously always welcome as well.

• Stax focus: A light shift toward stax is probably the direction I would take the deck after doing the direct upgrades. Longer lasting delays than single-use Fog effects would give more more time to find wincons and slow down more expensive and efficient decks. Gaddock Teeg is a good option and could even be a viable commander if moving in this direction. Hushbringer and Hushwing Gryff to prevent opposing ETB-dependent strategies would be great, as would graveyard hate. These hurt the deck's own combo options, but (A) the deck deliberately has combos with different strategies so that no single stax focus will kill it, and (B) the deck has ways to remove its own stax pieces when it's time to combo off. Stax would also be good to combine with the Heliod, Sun-Crowned and Walking Ballista/Triskelion upgrades to the deck, as those don't rely on ETBs or graveyards. To shift the deck this way I would remove the "ETB until LTB" and "Stuffy Doll Protection" cards.

• Politics: There is a balance between cards that stall for time and cards that simply get the combos faster, but if going the delay route, more politics cards are another option besides Fog and Lull as there are a lot of fun and affordable politicky cards like Tenuous Truce.

• Sac outlet combos: Finally, there is an entire combo category more or less ignored but very close to the existing loops: combos based around sac outlets such as Altar of Dementia and Blasting Station. Some pieces are already there (Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward, Leonin Relic-Warder), but this would require adding a couple of those ~$5 artifacts and their associate pieces (primarily Reveillark, Karmic Guide, Saffi Eriksdotter, Renegade Rallier). One option is to lose all interaction and go all in on combos and shove these cards into the deck. The other option is to replace some of the existing combo loops. However, the existing loops give better odds to pull, depend on fewer card types (mostly creatures and enchantments, so tutors work on more pieces), and are less vulnerable to spot removal. These strategies are also entirely graveyard and ETB-dependent, so they can be shut down completely by stax, making them a problem for some opponents and incompatible with the option of shifting this deck's own focus to stax. The combos included as-is are also cheaper and flashier, so more in line with my goals for the deck.

>Revision Notes

Version 1.2

Top options for alterations:
Heliod, Sun-Crowned (replacing Cleric Class), with or without Walking Ballista and Triskelion
Stax effects: Gaddock Teeg, Hushbringer, Hushwing Gryff, Grafdigger's Cage, Ground Seal, replacing ETB until LTB and Stuffy Doll cards
Against All Odds for flexible flicker/recursion
Planar Disruption or Krosan Grip for next cheap spot removal
Fumigate or Settle the Wreckage for mass removal

Recursion option ideas

Any permanent
Renegade Rallier
Nature's Spiral
Shepherd of the Cosmos

Creature to battlefield
Patch Up
Resurrection
Return to the Ranks
Extraction Specialist
Reveillark
Vesperlark

To hand
Mine Excavation
Eternal Witness
Regenesis
Ironclad Slayer
Retrieve
Recollect
Seeds of Renewal
Remember the Fallen
Reviving Melody
Spectral Steel
Dowsing Shaman
Tragic Poet
Regrowth

Miscellaneous options
Regenesis
Retrieve
Nature's Spiral
Skullwinder
Hallow
Changeling Hero
Rumor Gatherer
Green Slime
Festival
Peace and Quiet
Tranquil Domain
Haze of Pollen