(Sasaya, Orochi AscendantSasaya, Orochi Ascendant | Art by Christopher Moeller)

50 Lands and a Plan

Welcome back to Rally the Ancestors, where underplayed commanders from the past get a fresh look with new cards. This time we're looking at an obscure green commander from Saviors of Kamigawa and using it to make a ton of mana. There are no shortage of new green cards that help turn this obscure commander into a powerhouse. Let's dive in.

Look familiar? Didn't think so.

Despite playing for many, many years, I had never heard of Sasaya, Orochi AscendantSasaya, Orochi Ascendant before writing this column (realistically I should have since it's a cycle of five cards). It's a very interesting card, but one you're not likely to see unless she's the commander. In fact, as a card at the time of writing this, Sasaya is only seen in 693 of 1,776,609 decks currently indexed on EDHREC. The card screams "build around me", but even more interesting is that it was printed well before Commander was a supported format. I mean, it's a card that wants seven lands in hand before you can do much with it. This is a LOT easier to accomplish when they're chillin' in the command zone instead of your hand itself. So as you'd expect, Sasaya fares a little better as a commander, but is still ranked #31 at the time of writing this. Not the most obscure commander, but also not terribly popular. Again, this makes sense. She has a powerful, unique effect, but actually playing with her is a unique experience and not for everyone.

What do I mean? Well, look what it takes to flip her. You need seven lands in hand. And once you play her, you have access to a ton of mana and can possibly win on the spot. So in a sense, Sasaya is a combo deck, but I almost feel like playing her feels like playing a game-within-a-game. A Magic minigame if you will. You're playing Magic, but you're kinda playing on your own until you can drop and flip your legendary snake monk. From there, you generally have several paths to victory. It's not a pure combo deck win a single win condition you're trying to hit, which I find get too repetitive to invest in building. Sasaya can win on the spot, but it takes work and isn't unstoppable. I found that victory is still quite satisfying because of this!

Deck Goals

1. Get seven lands in hand, drop Sasaya and hopefully do something crazy. That's the basic idea. Getting there takes some work, as you can imagine.
2. When it comes to doing something crazy, remember that we're in green. So crazy usually involves generating an overwhelming board state and crushing our opponents under a pile of creatures, whether we're going wide or going big. Or both.
3. Protect your commander! This is easier than I thought, as Sasaya is actually pretty resilient. The deck, of course, has some protection spells. But Sasaya has some built-in defense. If someone targets it as a creature, you can flip it to an enchantment in response if you have the requisite lands in hand, which will blank their removal spell. Furthermore, if someone then tries to blow up Sasaya's Essence, you can tap your lands in response and still float a ton of mana, which will either let you do something big or simply cast Sasaya again! Not a lot of other must-kill commanders have that kind of built-in insurance.

Tips For Building And Playing Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant

1. This deck needs more lands than your typical deck to function optimally. Shocking, I know. I'm running 50 in mine but I've seen other ones go even higher. In this case, having a bunch in your opening hand isn't so bad!
2. You don't ever really want to play Sasaya before you have seven lands in hand and a decent amount on the board. There's really no need. So hold tight. Realistically I like to have five or more lands in play when I drop him so I can at least tap for ten immediately, or realistically 18 as I'll likely play a land from hand right after. At seven you can immediately tap for 28. And if you get to untap with Sasaya's Essence out... your opponents are in major trouble.
3. Building Sasaya is a tricky mix of finding ways to put lands in hand while still having the threat density to capitalize once you're set up. And the deck has some glaring weaknesses. I identified quite quickly that discard effects wreck the deck entirely, so I built in some insurance in ways to get lands back from the graveyard. Expanding on this, I also included some ways to discard lands for value. If winning with Sasaya's ability is shut down for some reason, the deck still has backup plans to generate a bunch of mana and benefit from landfall triggers, so all is not lost.
4. While it may be tempting to play cards that put as many lands into your hand as quickly as possible, remember that more often than not you'll have to discard down to seven at the end of your turn! With this in mind, I opted to mostly include cards that get lands to hand at instant speed, so I can do so at the end of an opponent's turn. This gives us a better chance to have the lands AND a threat in hand at the start of our turn. I want to shout out Moxfield user radio414 for this advice, as their primer on Sasaya was quite helpful! Our decks ended up being quite different but I referenced their advice several times during my initial build.

The Deck

Let's get into the deck a little deeper.

Land-to-hand cards

Still strong: Hermit DruidHermit Druid, Wild-Field ScarecrowWild-Field Scarecrow, Armillary SphereArmillary Sphere, Winding WayWinding Way, Nissa's TriumphNissa's Triumph, Sprouting VinesSprouting Vines, AbundanceAbundance, Yavimaya ElderYavimaya Elder, Realms UnchartedRealms Uncharted, Scroll RackScroll Rack
New hotness: You Happen On a GladeYou Happen On a Glade, Glacial RevelationGlacial Revelation

There are no shortage of effects like this, and a lot of classic, but as mentioned I like the instant-speed ones when possible. I've made an exception for Winding WayWinding Way and Glacial RevelationGlacial Revelation, as they're quite efficient and in Winding Way's case, can help us out late-game too. AbundanceAbundance seems expensive, but again, it can help us out later on as well as synergizing really nicely with Sylvan LibrarySylvan Library. Since Abundance's effect is a replacement effect, you can draw three cards of Sylvan Library without paying the life penalty. Neat! With all these options, getting our seven lands in hand shouldn't be too hard.

"I have seven lands in hand, now what?!" cards

Still strong: Nantuko CultivatorNantuko Cultivator, ManabondManabond, Azusa, Lost but SeekingAzusa, Lost but Seeking
New hotness: Loamcrafter FaunLoamcrafter Faun, Case of the Locked HothouseCase of the Locked Hothouse, Wrenn and SevenWrenn and Seven

I didn't want to run too many of these effects as they don't contribute to getting to seven lands in hand and we don't always need a ton on the board to win, but hey sometimes it's fun to go big quickly. Loamcrafter FaunLoamcrafter Faun is a very similar to an old classic in Nantuko CultivatorNantuko Cultivator, and ManabondManabond is still very good at what it does. Case of the Locked HothouseCase of the Locked Hothouse is a new twist on an old effect from Murders at Karlov Manor. I like that it lets us hit creatures and enchantments once we crack the case; that could be very helpful if our deck needs some extra gas to get there. Special shout-out to Wrenn and SevenWrenn and Seven. While she costs five mana she does pretty much everything our deck wants.

Graveyard synergy

Still strong: Life from the LoamLife from the Loam, Creeping RenaissanceCreeping Renaissance, Praetor's CounselPraetor's Counsel
New hotness: Aftermath AnalystAftermath Analyst, Wrenn and SevenWrenn and Seven

I noticed that several ways to get lands into one's hand also involved dumping a bunch of stuff into the graveyard, so I felt it wise to have a few ways to take advantage of that. Life from the Loam works in this fashion with lands and is quite efficient at it. Creeping Renaissance and Praetor's Counsel do similar things, and in fact I think flashback makes Creeping Renaissance better in the case, but can be critical for getting back win condition pieces. Same with Wrenn's ultimate if you ever get there. Aftermath Analyst is a cool new piece that can fit really well here, and also pairs well with our few landfall cards in Avenger of ZendikarAvenger of Zendikar and Scute SwarmScute Swarm; more on them in a second!

Winning by going big or wide

Still strong: Avenger of ZendikarAvenger of Zendikar, Polukranos, World EaterPolukranos, World Eater, Hydra BroodmasterHydra Broodmaster, Snake BasketSnake Basket, Kamahl, Fist of KrosaKamahl, Fist of Krosa, Craterhoof BehemothCraterhoof Behemoth, Pathbreaker IbexPathbreaker Ibex
New hotness: Scute SwarmScute Swarm, Goldvein HydraGoldvein Hydra, Cultivator ColossusCultivator Colossus, Kamahl, Heart of KrosaKamahl, Heart of Krosa, Full Steam AheadFull Steam Ahead, Tendril of the MycotyrantTendril of the Mycotyrant

Here's where the fun happens. Most of these cards are big mana sinks that'll take advantage of the insane amount of mana we can produce once we flip Sasaya. I'm including both versions of Kamahl here as the older one, while worse in a nutshell, also gives us some protection against board wipes if our opponents are paying attention (hope you like your 1/1 lands dying too, kid). Let's talk about some new cards. Goldvein HydraGoldvein Hydra is fresh out of Outlaws of Thunder Junction and it's exactly what we're looking for. Full Steam AheadFull Steam Ahead is an excellent OverrunOverrun effect as it makes blocking terrible. Last, Tendril of the MycotyrantTendril of the Mycotyrant is situational but turning lands into 7/7s seems pretty solid when we're working with as much mana as we are. Going back in time a bit, I was pretty happy to have a chance to play a cool old card likeSnake BasketSnake Basket here too.

This is a good place to note that I've also included Wild PairWild Pair here! If I ever get a chance to play with this card I'll take it, it's just so fun. In this case, we have a lot of 5/5 creatures. Let's get another whenever we play one. Playing Avenger of ZendikarAvenger of Zendikar and searching up Craterhoof BehemothCraterhoof Behemoth might just be game over.

Cute combo kills

Still strong: Finale of DevastationFinale of Devastation, Helix PinnacleHelix Pinnacle, Genesis WaveGenesis Wave, Ring of Three WishesRing of Three Wishes
New hotness (sorta): Wakeroot ElementalWakeroot Elemental

Ok so this isn't a combo deck in the sense that we're not just working toward a single combo, but we do have some combo kills included. If we're going to put in all the work to flip Sasaya, it's nice to win right away if not next turn. I hesitated on whether or not to Genesis WaveGenesis Wave fits in here or the previous category, but casting it for 20+ mana should usually do the job. Finale of DevastationFinale of Devastation is a bit easier. Generally if you find Pathbreaker IbexPathbreaker Ibex with it and you have somewhat of a board state, you'll do some serious damage. Wakeroot Elemental doesn't win on its own but it does give infinite mana, provided we have six lands and Sasaya's Essence on board. And then we have Helix Pinnacle. Whether its via infinite mana or just making enough to win in a few turns, this card has a home here (at least until you pull it off a few times and get bored). Ring of Three WishesRing of Three Wishes isn't efficient but that's not a concern for this deck. We need a way to find Finale of Devastation or Genesis Wave and that might be the best option in green. So, here we are.

I'd like to give a special shout-out to SunstoneSunstone as well. What a card! When we're running 50 lands and have as much graveyard synergy as we do, it seems like a reasonable option to keep us alive. That and Glacial RevelationGlacial Revelation seemed like a good enough reason to spring for snow lands. If you don't have any, this deck can function fine with some replacements.

Riding off into the sunset

Well, readers, we've reached the end of the line for Rally the Ancestors. Outlaws of Thunder Junction's western theme being the end of the line seems quite fitting. I had a lot of fun putting these decks together, testing them and putting these pieces together for you. Hopefully they've given you some enjoyment at the very least, and some inspiration on top of that. I'm feeling the need to direct my creative energy elsewhere going forward but I appreciate the thoughtful comments you've given over the past year.

Big thanks to the entire EDHREC team, especially my fantastic editors. And a special thanks to my friends willing to let me playtest these crazy ideas over the past year: Aaron Kernaghan, Charlotte Phillips, Jory Vermette, Richard Belchamber and Stephen Brown (and anyone I've missed).

Keep rooting for the underdogs and building off the beaten path. Commander is a better format for it!

Read More:

Dallas Meidinger

Dallas is a communications professional, writer and nearly life-long Magic player from Canada. Commander is his format of choice. When not playing or writing about Magic, you can find him skiing or biking in the mountains he calls home.