FORTY-EIGHT SUGGESTIONS, SIX LEGENDARY

Read the obsolescence index in this deck's currency before you act on it. Across the 19 cards in this list that the index flags, it names 48 distinct replacements - and only six of them are legendary. Forty-two of the 48, better than eight in ten, are cards Sisay could never find, which means the index's advantage vocabulary (lower mana value, better power, better toughness) is scoring a different game than the one this deck plays. Two axes decide an upgrade here and the index models neither: is the card legendary, and does it make unrestricted coloured mana.

The clearest traps are the ones that look most convincing. The index says Delighted Halfling obsoletes Bloom Tender on lower mana value and better toughness - but the Halfling's coloured mana is spendable only on legendary spells, and Sisay's ability is not a spell, so the 'upgrade' cannot pay for the engine while Bloom Tender can pay for most of it. It says Sol Ring obsoletes Fellwar Stone on mana value; Sol Ring produces {C}{C}, which covers zero of a five-pip cost with no generic component, while Fellwar Stone at least produces a colour. It offers Mana Crypt and Chrome Mox over Mox Amber - both colourless, both non-legendary, where Mox Amber is the deck's only mana-value-0 rung and the single cheapest thing Sisay can fetch. It offers Elvish Mystic and Noxious Newt for Bloom Tender, which is a mono-green tap in a deck that needs five different ones. And it offers Tyvar's Stand and Blossoming Defense over Heroic Intervention on mana value, missing that Heroic Intervention covers every permanent you control - which is what you need, because the wrath that kills your board also collapses the ladder from power 5 back to power 2. The same blindness explains the whole Flawless Maneuver list: Divine Resilience, Invisible Force Field, Adamant Will and Reroute Systems are all cheaper on the printed card, and Flawless Maneuver costs nothing at all while you control a commander.

Some entries are simply cross-cluster noise, and it is worth naming them so nobody actions them. Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice is listed against Sisay herself; Light-Paws tutors Auras attached to itself and this deck contains zero Auras. Master of Etherium is listed against Jodah, the Unifier - an artifact anthem for a legendary anthem. Gladewalker Ritualist is listed against Reki, and it draws a card only when another creature named Gladewalker Ritualist enters. The Kambal list (Pearl Collector, Unclaimed Cat, Alley Assailant) and the Raff list (Ace Flockbringer, Wakestone Gargoyle, Owlin Spiralmancer) are all non-legendary bodies matched on stats and keywords; swapping any of them in removes a ladder rung to gain a point of power.

Three of the six legendary names are worth actually testing. Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu is mana value 2, legendary and therefore fetchable at power 3, taps for two mana of any one colour spendable on abilities of creature sources - which does pay Sisay, though only one of those two mana is ever useful to a five-distinct-pip cost - and, more interestingly, lets you activate abilities of your creatures as though they had haste, which speaks directly to the deck's unresolved 'can a freshly fetched legend tap for mana' question. Mona Lisa, Science Geek is legendary at mana value 3 and taps for X mana of one colour equal to its power, another single-colour battery that at least sits inside the fetch pool. Gogo, Master of Mimicry is legendary at mana value 3 and copies a target activated or triggered ability you control X times for {X}{X} - Sisay's fetch is an activated ability and is not a mana ability, so the copy target is legal on its face, but the line has not been resolved here and should be checked before it goes in the deck.

The gap the index cannot see at all is the empty bottom rung. This deck runs 39 lands and zero legendary ones, which means the mana-value-0 tier of the fetch pool contains exactly one card, Mox Amber. Every legendary land in the format is a mana-value-0 permanent that Sisay can find at base power 2: Boseiju, Who Endures, Otawara, Soaring City, Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire, Takenuma, Abandoned Mire and Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance each tap for a colour and carry a channel ability, and Minamo, School at Water's Edge taps for {U} and untaps a legendary permanent for {U} - which in this deck means untapping Esika, Jegantha or Selvala for a second activation. The caveat is exact: these lands are colourless permanents, so they widen the pool at the bottom without adding a rung to Sisay's power. They fix the cold start; they do not climb the ladder.

One last note on direction of travel. If the goal of an upgrade pass is a lower bracket, cutting Game Changers alone will not do it: the report lists three independent drivers, and while the four Game Changers force a floor of 4 by themselves - bracket 3 caps at three - so do the four two-card infinite lines the engine counts. You would have to cut both the Game Changer count and the Najeela package to move the floor, and the Najeela package is the only verified kill this deck owns.