The first day of spoilers for the next Magic: The Gathering set Tarkir Dragonstorm showed us two really intriguing black cards that each play with graveyards and sacrifice in interesting ways.
The first of these is The Sibsig Ceremony, a card that relates to a zombification ritual in the Sultai clan. In previous visits to this MTG plane this was a punishment, but in Tarkir Dragonstorm it’s become an honor, bestowed on leaders and artisans.
Anyway, that’s the lore, let’s get to the card’s effect. It’s a legendary enchantment costing three black mana that does a number of interesting things. Firstly, it gives a significant cost reduction of two to all creatures. Secondly, it destroys any creature you cast, leaving a 2/2 zombie druid in their place.
Now that’s a puzzle. This is a really unique effect, and it’s going to be fun theorycrafting situations where it’s good rather than… y’know… terrible.
One option that jumps out right away is that your creatures get destroyed, not sacrificed, so you could play indestructible stuff like various gods or Blightsteel Colossus. You can also get a combo off with Gravecrawler. You can cast it as many times as you have black mana and create an army of tokens. It shouldn’t be hard to find a way to go infinite here, either.
Or maybe it’s good in a death triggers deck like Teysa Karlov or Ratadrabik? The only problem is if your MTG commander gets shot you can’t recast it again. Perhaps it’s good for filling your grave, ready for a mass reanimate?
You can also play it with Acererak, constantly bouncing him and replaying him for one mana to absolutely blast through a dungeon. Finally, it’s worth noting that this effect is superb in sacrifice decks, as you can sac your own creature before it’s destroyed, and still get the zombie token.
The other neat black card is more straightforward, and can be covered more quickly. Sidisi, Regent of the Mire is basically Birthing Pod but for your graveyard (deathing pod?). She’s a super cheap creature that you can tap to sacrifice something and pull something better out of the grave.
Obviously, compared to Birthing Pod, this new Sidisi requires a little more set up. You need both something to sacrifice and something in your graveyard you can pull out. But the upsides are also there; this creature is super cheap, and her ability costs nothing to activate, ensuring you can use it every turn.
I think this creature may be a bit too janky for Constructed formats like Modern or Standard (hope I’m wrong, though) but it’ll be great in EDH. As you’re limited by colors here, Sidisi seems more likely to find a spot in the 99 than as a commander in her own right, but she’s going to fit into a ton of decks. At two mana, the opportunity cost is real low here. She’s unlikely to be an early target for removal, and as the game goes on you can start to generate some real value.
Keep checking back to see more sweet spoilers like this, or the Ugin and Elspeth MTG planeswalker cards. And check out our MTG release schedule guide to stay up to date on all upcoming sets.
Source: Wargamer
