Sin, Spira's PunishmentSin, Spira's Punishment | Art by John Tedrick

Welcome back to Plot Twist, the series where we build a Commander deck that looks like it'll tell one kind of story only to throw out a twist for our opponents mid-game. This series has officially moved over to EDHREC moving forward, and I'm glad to be here! If you're joining us for the first time, welcome! I'd encourage you to check out the previous articles in the series to get a sense of the types of stories we're looking to tell.

Last time on Plot Twist, we took a look at Tidus, Yuna's GuardianTidus, Yuna's Guardian and built a deck that used -1/-1 counters for fun and profit. It was definitely a weird brew that used cards like Gavel of the RighteousGavel of the Righteous that care about counters, any counters! While it certainly wasn't super powerful, it's just the sort of janky brew that I love.

This week, we're continuing our look at Final Fantasy with the biggest of big bads from FFX: Sin, Spira's PunishmentSin, Spira's Punishment. I definitely have memories of trying to take on Sin when I played FFX as a kid, and struggling mightily. Admittedly, tween me was way more into playing Blitzball matches than beating the main storyline, so my characters were probably under-leveled.

How Does Sin, Spira's Punishment Work?

Sin, Spira's PunishmentSin, Spira's Punishment has flying and a really interesting ability that triggers whenever it enters or attacks: "Whenever Sin enters or attacks, exile a permanent card from your graveyard at random, then create a tapped token that's a copy of that card. If the exiled card is a land card, repeat this process."

While Sin costs a whopping seven mana, being able to return a random permanent from our graveyard to the battlefield is a great way to get extra value. The fact that we get to do this again if we hit a land ensures that we can at least get a nonland permanent, even if it's a Llanowar ElvesLlanowar Elves. Sin reminds me a lot of Sauron, Lord of the RingsSauron, Lord of the Rings, but potentially more powerful since its ability isn't limited to creatures.

In taking a look at Sin's EDHREC page, we can see that the two most popular archetypes of Sin's decks are leaning into are lands matter and reanimator. Sin's High Synergy Cards section is filled with creatures that work well in both of these archetypes like Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre StraitAesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait, Tatyova, Benthic DruidTatyova, Benthic Druid, and The Gitrog MonsterThe Gitrog Monster.

But this is Plot Twist, where we try to do something unexpected with our decks, so this week we're going to spin Sin, Spira's PunishmentSin, Spira's Punishment on its head.

Doing the Twist

This week, we're building a Sin, Spira's Punishment deck that has no nonland permanents in it. That's right, the entire deck is lands, instants, and sorceries. We've dabbled around with "Oops, All Instants" with Umori, the CollectorUmori, the Collector and a "No Creatures" build of Duskana, the Rage MotherDuskana, the Rage Mother before on Plot Twist, and both decks were a blast.

While we could definitely build a "better" version of this deck with cards like Hermit DruidHermit Druid, Squandered ResourcesSquandered Resources, and RecycleRecycle, I'm concerned that deck would take long turns and result in less interesting games for our opponents.

Instead, we're leaning into the fact that Sin's ability will trigger again if the permanent it creates a token copy of is a land. By running only lands, that means we can make a token copy of every land in our graveyard any time Sin's ability triggers. This should cut down on the time it takes for us to play out our turn, while also letting us basically cast Splendid ReclamationSplendid Reclamation over and over.

We'll use all of these extra lands to great effect with cards like Field of the DeadField of the Dead, Torment of HailfireTorment of Hailfire, and Empty the PitsEmpty the Pits, while also leaning into some spicy cards like Worm HarvestWorm Harvest and Formless GenesisFormless Genesis that care about us having a lot of cards in our graveyard. All-in-all this seems like a lands matter deck that will fall firmly into the Upgraded Bracket (3).

Filling Our Graveyard

Since our deck is going to rely heavily on returning lots of lands from our graveyard to play, we're running a suite of cards like Forbidden AlchemyForbidden Alchemy, Grisly SalvageGrisly Salvage, and Malevolent RumbleMalevolent Rumble that will allow us to "cantrip" and put the rest of our cards directly into our graveyard. We've prioritized cards like these that replace themselves and give us a little extra in addition to filling our graveyard.

We also have a handful of mass draw and discard effects like Tolarian WindsTolarian Winds, Read the RunesRead the Runes, and WindfallWindfall. Since we're running 41 lands and four additional modal dual-faced cards that have a land on their back side, we won't mind discarding lands if we're able to quickly churn through our deck in the process.

We'll want to strike a careful balance of always being able to hit our land drops since our commander costs seven mana and also filling our graveyard with lands and spells we can "flash back" like Deep AnalysisDeep Analysis, Formless GenesisFormless Genesis, and Moment's PeaceMoment's Peace when we need to.

Returning Lands en Masse

Once we've gotten our graveyard nice and stocked, we'll want to return all of our lands at once with either our commander, Splendid ReclamationSplendid Reclamation, or Will of the SultaiWill of the Sultai. This will ramp us towards our big payoff spells and help us recast Sin, Spira's PunishmentSin, Spira's Punishment again later if we need to. It's giving Golos, Tireless PilgrimGolos, Tireless Pilgrim vibes.

We have a handful of ramp spells like Entish RestorationEntish Restoration, HarrowHarrow, and RestoreRestore that also help ramp us early on as we go about filling our graveyard. I'm particularly keen on HarrowHarrow since the lands enter untapped, though Entish RestorationEntish Restoration is something I've used to great effect in my Kalamax Spellslinger-Voltron deck.

We'll want to mulligan aggressively for early ramp spells and cantrips that fill our graveyard with this deck. Since we don't have any cheap creatures like Voyaging SatyrVoyaging Satyr in this build, we'll be light on blockers in the early game and will want to save our board wipes for as long as we can.

A Land for Every Situation

When building a lands matter deck like this week's brew (which we also did in Plot Twist #21), two things are key: having an excess of lands in the deck and having a land that covers common effects you'll want, like exiling a graveyard, destroying an artifact or enchantment, etc.

To that end, we have plenty of lands to help shore up the deck's weaknesses. Blast ZoneBlast Zone can act like a board wipe when we need it to, Bojuka BogBojuka Bog can exile an opponent's graveyard, Dakmor SalvageDakmor Salvage fills our graveyard, Mystic SanctuaryMystic Sanctuary can get back one of our instants or sorceries, and Sunken PalaceSunken Palace can help us copy an effect.

This deck would absolutely benefit from an Otawara, Soaring CityOtawara, Soaring City and a Boseiju, Who EnduresBoseiju, Who Endures if you happen to own them as well, but the lands in this deck were already pricey enough for my taste.

Additionally, we're running a bunch of lands like Ebon StrongholdEbon Stronghold and Havenwood BattlegroundHavenwood Battleground that allow us to get two mana if we sacrifice them. These lands help us cast Sin, Spira's PunishmentSin, Spira's Punishment a turn earlier, and then we can immediately get them back since Sin will return all the lands from our graveyard to the battlefield. They're doubly helpful in providing extra mana when we go to win the game.

Winning the Game With Sin, Spira's Punishment

This deck has two main ways to win the game: getting a lot of lands into our graveyard and making tokens or casting big X spells. The former is a more reliable way for us to build out a board of creatures, while the latter will help us close out the game if an opponent is nearly dead.

With cards like Formless GenesisFormless Genesis, Worm HarvestWorm Harvest, and Welcome the DeadWelcome the Dead, we can build an army of tokens pretty quickly once our graveyard is full. Welcome the DeadWelcome the Dead in particular seems like an all-star since it cares about the total number of cards that went into our graveyard from our hand or library, so our "cantrips" like Grisly SalvageGrisly Salvage can help get that number up really quickly.

On the other end, we have splashy X spells like Empty the PitsEmpty the Pits and Torment of HailfireTorment of Hailfire to help us close out the game once we've managed to get a bunch of lands back into play with Splendid ReclamationSplendid Reclamation or our commander. We'll probably want to hold off on casting these until we can kill at least one opponent since they tend to paint a big target on our back when we cast them.

Of course, there are some games we'll play where Field of the DeadField of the Dead will simply run away with things if we can trigger it a dozen times in a single turn.

A Few Additional Twists for Good Measure

As always, I stumbled across some really interesting cards to include in this week's deck during my Scryfall search that merit further conversation.

Realms UnchartedRealms Uncharted deserves mention for being a Gifts UngivenGifts Ungiven specifically for lands, which works perfectly in our deck. Gifts is another card that would probably be amazing in this week's brew if you wanted to power it up further as well.

Confounding RiddleConfounding Riddle can be either a cantrip or a Mana LeakMana Leak when we need it to be. It's not great at either of these effects, but having the flexibility to choose is so key in a deck like this.

Three really interesting interaction spells made the final decklist too: Drown in FilthDrown in Filth is a great removal spell that also mills us, Memory's JourneyMemory's Journey can be graveyard interaction or help us save a key card, and Moment's PeaceMoment's Peace is a FogFog with flashback. All the variations on the flashback mechanic really helped to bring this deck together since we're milling ourselves so much.

Last but not least, I wanted to call out Far WanderingsFar Wanderings which can ramp us for three for only if we have seven or more cards in our graveyard. Threshold can be a really broken mechanic in the right deck!

Sin, Spira's Punishment Commander Deck List

Here's the full decklist for you to peruse:

Roll the Credits

I hope you enjoyed reading the latest edition of Plot Twist featuring Sin, Spira's PunishmentSin, Spira's Punishment. Next time you sit down for a game of Commander, see what sort of plot twists you can add to take the game's narrative in a new direction. I'd love to hear your thoughts on today's deck and what cards could find a home in it in the comments below or on Archidekt. The Maybeboards of my decklists are always filled with cards I thought could work but didn't make the final decklist.

You can check out my other articles here or see what decks I'm currently playing here. I recently put together Kirri, Talented SproutKirri, Talented Sprout deck from Plot Twist #21 and it's been an absolute blast to play in paper. I've also started dabbling in cEDH with a relatively stock Tymna & Thrasios list, let me know if the comments below if you'd like to see a Plot Twist deck that's designed for more competitive pods.

Stay tuned to see what other twists and turns are headed your way in the next edition of Plot Twist.