Budget Magic: $94 (20 tix) Sidisi GPG (Modern)
Bunâ dzuâ, Budget Magic lovers, it's that time once again! As we wait for Guilds of Ravnica to come (along with rotation) and shake up Standard, we are heading to Modern this week for one of my favorite styles of decks—a grindy, value-filled, graveyard-based deck that's looking to harness the power of Sidisi, Brood Tyrant #276 alongside Standard staple God-Pharaoh's Gift #131: Sidisi GPG! The idea of today's deck is pretty simple: we're looking to fill our graveyard with the help of self-mill and self-sacrifice creatures, tutor up a God-Pharaoh's Gift #131 with Gate to the Afterlife #228, and start getting creatures back from our graveyard as 4/4s. If something goes wrong, our backup plan is to make a bunch of Zombies with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant #276. Can God-Pharaoh's Gift #131 port over to Modern with Sidisi in support? Let's get to the video and find out; then, we'll talk more about the deck!
First, a quick reminder: if you enjoy the Budget Magic series and the other video content on MTGGoldfish, make sure to subscribe to the MTGGoldfish YouTube channel to keep up on all the latest and greatest.
Budget Magic: Sidisi GPG (Modern)
The Deck
Sidisi GPG is basically a value reanimator deck. Rather than trying to get back one big creature, we're looking to reanimate a bunch of smaller value creatures for free with the help of God-Pharaoh's Gift #131. Apart from the reanimation package itself, the deck is mostly focused on filling the graveyard with the help of self-mill and self-sacrifice creatures to help us get God-Pharaoh's Gift #131 onto the battlefield and to make sure we have plenty of reanimation targets to choose from once we find our namesake card.
God-Pharaoh's Gift
The foundation of our deck looks like it belongs more in Standard than in Modern: Gate to the Afterlife #228 and God-Pharaoh's Gift #131. While in theory we can cast God-Pharaoh's Gift #131, a seven-mana artifact isn't especially playable in Modern, which means tutoring it up with Gate to the Afterlife #228 is much more practicable. The main goal of our deck is to use the first couple of turns to start filling our graveyard with creatures—hopefully enough creatures that we can play a Gate to the Afterlife #228 on Turn 3 and then activate it to find God-Pharaoh's Gift #131 on Turn 4—and then start reanimating our creatures as 4/4s to take over the game.
Apart from finding God-Pharaoh's Gift #131, Gate to the Afterlife #228 has some weird upside in our deck. We have some ways to sacrifice our own creatures, which allows us to both gain life and loot with Gate to the Afterlife #228. The lifegain doesn't always matter, but against decks like Burn or other aggro decks, gaining a few extra life over the course of the game can shift the matchup in our favor. Meanwhile, the loot ability helps us get the six creatures needed to activate Gate to the Afterlife #228 into the graveyard so we can tutor up God-Pharaoh's Gift #131 as quickly as possible.
Once we find God-Pharaoh's Gift #131, we should be able to put the game away in short order. While we don't have one game-ending reanimation target like Iona, Shield of Emeria #13 or Griselbrand #381 Retro (in part because those cards are expensive for the budget and in part because one of the upsides of our deck is that we can cast all of our spells and try to win fairly if our opponent finds graveyard hate), reanimating a creature each turn for free as a 4/4 is enough to win most games, especially when those creatures typically come with some powerful enters-the-battlefield triggers!
Filling the Graveyard
Our most straightforward ways to stock our graveyard with creatures are Stitcher's Supplier #157 and Satyr Wayfinder #81, both of which dump at least three cards into our graveyard when they enter the battlefield. When you consider that our deck has a massive 29 creatures, even just milling over three cards at a time will get us to the six needed to activate Gate to the Afterlife #228 pretty quickly. Stitcher's Supplier #157 has the additional upside of milling three more cards when it dies, which usually happens quickly as we chump block with the 1/1 or sacrifice it to something like Viscera Seer #213, while Satyr Wayfinder #81 helps to fix our mana and ensures that we hit our land drops as it stocks our graveyard.
Our second plan for filling the graveyard is sacrificing our own creatures, which is good in general and even better when we have a Gate to the Afterlife #228 on the battlefield for more looting. Viscera Seer #213 not only allows us to sacrifice our random Satyr Wayfinder #81s and Stitcher's Supplier #157s to get more creatures in the graveyard but also allows us to scry into our Gate to the Afterlife #228 to find our God-Pharaoh's Gift #131. Meanwhile, Evolutionary Leap #288 is a bit more expensive, costing a mana to activate, but both sacrifices a creature and replaces it with another creature (which we can then sacrifice), keeping us churning through our deck to find action and fill our graveyard.
Stinkweed Imp #54 helps us fill our graveyard from our graveyard thanks to the dredge mechanic, allowing us to skip a draw to mill five cards and return it to our hand. If we happen to mill it to something like Stitcher's Supplier #157 or Satyr Wayfinder #81, it helps us make sure that we get to six creatures in our graveyard in no time. The other upside of Stinkweed Imp #54 is that it works amazingly well with Gate to the Afterlife #228, since we can sacrifice a creature to loot, dredge Stinkweed Imp #54 to get five more cards in our graveyard, and then discard Stinkweed Imp #54 all with the same activation, which leaves us with a Stinkweed Imp #54 in the graveyard to dredge again when our next creature dies. Plus, Stinkweed Imp #54 is a surprisingly good blocker thanks to its pseudo-deathtouch, allowing us to take down big attackers like Tarmogoyf #235, Death's Shadow #82, and Eldrazi with ease. Then, if our opponent has more threats, we can always dredge it back to our hand and recast it for even more defense.
Mulldrifter #67 and Shriekmaw #110 are great in our deck since they work like spells, with Mulldrifter #67 being a Divination #52 and Shriekmaw #110 being a Terror #312 Retro, but with the upside of being creatures so they support our God-Pharaoh's Gift #131 / Gate to the Afterlife #228 plan. In the early game, we can evoke them for value and perhaps even sacrifice them to Viscera Seer #213 or Evolutionary Leap #288 with the evoke trigger on the stack. In the late game, once we have a God-Pharaoh's Gift #131, we can evoke Mulldrifter #67 (to draw cards) or Shriekmaw #110 (to kill something) and immediately get them back as evasive 4/4 attackers and get another enters-the-battlefield trigger along the way! A great example of this was against the Miracles deck, where our opponent cast an Entreat the Angels #99 but the combo of Shriekmaw #110 and God-Pharaoh's Gift #131 was able to take down two of the four 4/4 fliers and allow us to steal the win!
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant #276 is both a way to fill our graveyard for God-Pharaoh's Gift #131 and our backup plan for winning the game when we don't have a God-Pharaoh's Gift #131. Since we have 29 creatures in our deck, we are likely to get a 2/2 Zombie whenever Sidisi, Brood Tyrant #276 enters the battlefield (or attacks), which means it's technically five power and toughness across two bodies for five mana, which isn't a bad deal on its own. Sidisi, Brood Tyrant #276 is even better when you consider that we actively want creatures in our graveyard, since milling over creatures is almost like drawing cards in our deck. After we have a God-Pharaoh's Gift #131, Sidisi, Brood Tyrant #276 works a bit like Angel of Invention #166 does in Standard, coming back as a 4/4 and likely making two 2/2 Zombies as it comes into play and attacks, making it similar to a Grave Titan #74 that we can cast fairly for just four mana when we don't have our reanimation online!
Other Stuff
Eternal Witness #227 doesn't help us fill our graveyard but is still a key piece of our deck because it lets us get back Gate to the Afterlife #228 from our graveyard. Since we mill so many of our own cards, we often end up with at least one Gate to the Afterlife #228 in our graveyard, and having a way to return it to our hand and eventually use it to get God-Pharaoh's Gift #131 is super helpful. Of course, we can also get back random Shriekmaw #110s for removal, Viscera Seer #213s to trigger Gate to the Afterlife #228, or Mulldrifter #67s to draw cards, so we're rarely short on good targets for Eternal Witness #227. The other cool trick with Eternal Witness #227 in this deck is that we can sacrifice Gate to the Afterlife #228 to tutor up a God-Pharaoh's Gift #131 and then use God-Pharaoh's Gift #131 to reanimate Eternal Witness #227 to get back the Gate to the Afterlife #228 to get our second copy of God-Pharaoh's Gift #131. Once we have two copies of God-Pharaoh's Gift #131 on the battlefield, it's really hard to lose against most decks in the format.
Last but not least, we have Kitesail Freebooter #107 and Acidic Slime #48 Marauding Mutagen as additional ways to interact with our opponents. Kitesail Freebooter #107 comes down on Turn 2 to steal a removal spell or counterspell while also giving us a main-deck way to fight combo decks, which are the natural enemy of our slow, grindy graveyard deck. Meanwhile, Acidic Slime #48 Marauding Mutagen can blow up a Tron land or an annoying artifact like Ensnaring Bridge #294, which our deck would have a difficult time beating otherwise. While it might be tempting to play spell-based discard and removal, for our deck, using creature-based answers is important because it helps to support our Gate to the Afterlife #228 and eventually our God-Pharaoh's Gift #131.
Wrap-Up
All in all, we finished our video matches 3-2 but actually dropped a second match against the sweet RB Madness deck, bringing our total record to 3-3, which is a pretty reasonable record for a budget deck. The biggest challenges for the deck are fast aggro and combo. While our value engine gives us a huge advantage against midrange and control and we have endless chump blockers (and a better late game) to deal with most creature-based decks like Death's Shadow and Hollow One, we only have a minimal number of answers in the main deck against fast combo (although things get a bit better after sideboarding). Our losses came to Burn and Merfolk, both of which seem like challenging matchups. Merfolk is probably unbeatable thanks to islandwalk making our blockers irrelevant (although it can be much better for non-budget builds, since Damnation #73 is a perfect sideboard card for the deck), and against Burn, we are mostly hoping to draw Thragtusk #316 or Gate to the Afterlife #228 and a sacrifice outlet before we are dead, and our endless pain lands make things even more challenging. On the other hand, we managed to beat the RB Madness deck, UW Miracles, and the Thopter Sword deck (even through main-deck graveyard hate!).
As far as changes to make to the budget build of the deck now that we played some matches, things are tough. Most of the cards that would be perfect for the deck (like Collective Brutality #101 to shore up the combo and Burn matchups or Damnation #73 to help against decks with evasive creatures) are too expensive for the budget. Adding in the fourth copy of Kitesail Freebooter #107 could help, and it might be worth moving Thragtusk #316 into the main deck. Another possibility is to have a dedicated finisher—things like Iona, Shield of Emeria #13, Ashen Rider #173, and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger #15 are great God-Pharaoh's Gift #131 targets but come with the downside of being uncastable when we are trying to play a fair game (like through graveyard hate, for example). For now, I plan on sticking with the value plan, but based on how impressive God-Pharaoh's Gift #131 and Gate to the Afterlife #228 were in our matches, I think it's worth exploring some other possibilities as well.
All in all, Sidisi GPG seems competitive enough to win a reasonable number of games against the tier decks in Modern—especially with upgraded mana, as the pain lands were pretty brutal throughout out matches, but that's one of the sacrifices that must be made to play a three-color deck on a budget—and it's incredibly fun to play. The deck basically walks the line between Sultai Midrange, Reanimator, and The Aristocrats, so if you like grinding out value with Satyr Wayfinder #81 and Mulldrifter #67 and eventually taking things over in the late game, give Sidisi GPG a shot—you'll have a ton of fun!
The ultra-budget build of Sidisi GPG is pretty straightforward: we cut the mana base as much as possible, replacing some of the random fast lands and pain lands with Evolving Wilds #153 and more basic lands. Otherwise, we cut back to a single copy of Eternal Witness #227, replacing it with one Greenwarden of Murasa #110 and one main-deck Thragtusk #316. While losing Eternal Witness #227 hurts, since it makes it less likely we can get a Gate to the Afterlife #228 back from the graveyard, there really isn't another way to get the deck down near $50, since none of the other cards in our deck are all that expensive. All in all, this build is certainly worse than the one in the videos, although it should be fine for some kitchen table fun.
As I mentioned a moment ago, in theory, there are a bunch of different ways to build around God-Pharaoh's Gift #131 in Modern, and perhaps we'll try some other builds in the future, but for our non-budget list this week, we've got a straight upgrade of Sidisi GPG. The biggest change to the main deck is the mana base, which is greatly improved, with fetch lands and shock lands replacing the extremely painful pain lands. Otherwise, we trim additional copies of Mulldrifter #67, Sidisi, Brood Tyrant #276, and Shriekmaw #110 to make room for Collective Brutality #101. In the wrap-up, we talked about how fast combo and aggro are our two worst matchups, and Collective Brutality #101 helps against both, killing Goblin Guide #127s, gaining life against decks like Burn, and offering a main-deck Duress #98 against decks like Storm. Plus, it works well with the theme of our deck, since we can discard creatures for the escalate cost to turn on Gate to the Afterlife #228 or reanimate with God-Pharaoh's Gift #131. The other big main-deck addition is a copy of Craterhoof Behemoth #346 Borderless, which gives us a reanimation target that can end the game in just one attack, which can be relevant against combo specifically, where giving our opponent extra turns can be risky. Otherwise, the sideboard gets a complete reworking, with Fulminator Mage #196 helping against Tron and creaturelands, Liliana of the Veil #97 and Thoughtseize #20 Showcase giving us options against control and combo, Abrupt Decay #34 Showcase joining Reclamation Sage #434 Precon to answer our opponent's graveyard hate, and Damnation #73 for those pesky Merfolk (and other creature matchups). All in all, this build looks solid. While it maintains the same grindy foundation of the original, it's much less likely to kill itself with mana problems and has some help to shore up some of Sidisi GPG's worst matchups.
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
