Welcome to my fourth Partners Without a Partner article. This week, we break down Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa!
This article series aims to brew up 10 unique half-deck lists. One for each colour pair among the partnered commanders. This week we take on the Selesnya guild with Sidar Kondo and a list of 26 cards that you'll be able to mash together with any other list in the series, add in the six colourless staples, and have a fully playable deck! Guaranteed no repeats! Totally legal!
Since Sidar Kondo wants us to be attacking with creatures of power two or less, we've built our 26 to take full advantage! Let's dig in!
Every deck needs ramp, and we'll take it in the form of Centaur Rootcaster. Sidar's making him unblockable ensures an extra land each combat step. Spawnwrithe will take advantage of Sidar's evasion to multiply itself, which will widen our army exponentially! And any creature that we expect to get through, enchanted by Pollenbright Wings will give us even more creatures to sneak through any blockers! It's no coincidence two of the three cards mentioned here add creatures to our battlefield. We're looking to swarm!
We can't pump up our creatures before they attack or else we risk Kondo's ability not benefiting us. That's why we're interested in pumping our team after they've gone unblocked, but before we deal damage. Mirror Entity will multiply our damage dealt to staggering amounts! Since we can expect to have a number of token creatures sneaking through, Jazal Goldmane will have a similar effect for us. And with the Dragon Throne of Tarkir equipped on our biggest creature, perhaps even from the other partner's half, we can pump everyone that way, or pile it onto one of our other methods of pumping up the team!
Since we can't guarantee the other half we pair up with will have lots of two-powered creatures, we'll have to create them ourselves. Precinct Captain is a slow-but-sure way to get more tokens with Sidar's help. Whisperwood Elemental, although not able to sneak through with this strategy, manifests more unblockable pals to get through, with the added bonus of synergizing well with whatever other half we get paired with. It's just as great if we manifest a creature from the other partner's team! And while she also increases our token army, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice also gains us plenty of life.
Some supporting cards that work well here include perhaps the best artifact and enchantment hate in the game, Aura Shards. We can also take advantage of wrath effects like Solar Tide. I expect most of our team to dodge it. The nature of this series means we can't be sure that the other half of the deck brought in by the other partner will survive, but hopefully we'll still come out way ahead! One all-round all-star is the Selesnya Guildmage. Both of his abilities support what Sidar's strategy is trying to accomplish.
Have a look at the full 26 listed below, but there are the highlights of this deck that I wanted to mention. Now that we're four decks in, we have two full decks to play against each other! And as always, please let me know what you might have done differently!
