Standard

A Standard Con-Sultai-tion

Boy oh boy, Standard is a fun format isn’t it? It seems like we just keep going around in circles about which deck is the “best”, which only serves to tell us that R&D at Wizards must have gotten something right. The initial impressions out of the gate were that the Jeskai and Abzan decks were clearly the two most powerful new strategies to be born of the Khans/Theros standard format. For a short time, Mardu and Temur put up some interesting numbers, but then, slowly coming up behind was a flash of the Sultai bringing us full circle. If the recent major tournaments are to be believed, then it sounds like we are right around again.

It was the World Championship which saw the new metagame establish itself. Yuuya unleashed the Jeskai tokens deck upon us all, and since then it has been ubiquitously identified as the best jeskai deck at the moment by a large margin. For reference,

Jeskai Tokens -Yuuya Watanabe – World Championship

[deck]
[Lands]
3 Battlefield Forge
3 Flooded Strand
1 Island
2 Mountain
4 Mystic Monastery
2 Plains
3 Shivan Reef
2 Temple of Epiphany
4 Temple of Triumph
[/Lands]
[Spells]
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Hordeling Outburst
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
2 Jeskai Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Treasure Cruise
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Seeker of the Way
[/Creatures]
[Sideboard]
2 Erase
2 Magma Spray
4 Disdainful Stroke
2 Glare of Heresy
1 Anger of the Gods
3 End Hostilities
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

This deck of course was the talk of the tournament, and it fell only to the eventual winner of the event, piloting a slow, grindy deck in the hands of the eventual repeating World Champion.

Sultai Sidisi Whip – Shahar Shenhar – World Championship

[deck]
[Lands]
1 Evolving Wilds
3 Forest
1 Island
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Mana Confluence
4 Opulent Palace
2 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
2 Temple of Malady
1 Temple of Mystery
2 Yavimaya Coast
[/Lands]
[Spells]
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
3 Hero’s Downfall
4 Murderous Cut
3 Thoughtseize
3 Whip of Erebos
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
4 Courser of Kruphix
2 Doomwake Giant
3 Hornet Queen
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
1 Soul of Innistrad
4 Sylvan Caryatid
[/Creatures]
[Sideboard]
1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Soul of Innistrad
2 Sultai Charm
2 Reclamation Sage
3 Disdainful Stroke
3 Bile Blight
1 Drown in Sorrow
1 Dig Through Time
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

If you have been watching event coverage of the SCG Events, or watching MTGO streams in the last month, then you will be no stranger to these decklists. These two lists in concert with the Abzan lists which I outlined in the article last week, have become the functional pillars of the metagame. As previously indicated, it is pretty ubiquitously agreed that the Jeskai list is the best possible version of the archetype, but Sultai seems to be quite another matter. As a frame of reference, please compare the top 2 lists from the SCG Player’s Championship.

Sultai Reanimator – Gerard Fabiano – 2nd Place

[deck]
[Lands]
4 Forest
3 Llanowar Wastes
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Opulent Palace
1 Swamp
2 Temple of Deceit
3 Temple of Malady
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Windswept Heath
2 Yavimaya Coast
[/Lands]
[Spells]
1 Commune with the Gods
1 Hero’s Downfall
4 Murderous Cut
1 Sultai Charm
3 Thoughtseize
3 Whip of Erebos
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
4 Courser of Kruphix
3 Doomwake Giant
4 Eidolon of Blossoms
2 Hornet Queen
2 Pharika, God of Affliction
1 Reclamation Sage
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Sylvan Caryatid
[/Creatures]
[Sideboard]
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Sultai Charm
1 Silence the Believers
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Bile Blight
3 Hero’s Downfall
2 Read the Bones
2 Negate
1 Thoughtseize
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

When I first looked at these two lists, I immediately thought that these were perfect examples of the two ways to build the Sultai Reanimator deck. In order to decide which one is your preferred build, you need to answer a question; what would you like your engine to do? Gerard’s deck is designed to abuse the Constellation mechanic from Journey Into Nyx by using [card]Eidolon of Blossoms[/card] as the primary engine card. Each new enchantment pulls you further and further ahead, and alongside 3 copies of [card]Doomwake Giant[/card], also allows you to keep the board clear of pesky blockers while you whittle the life total of your opponent away. The sideboard allows you to transform into a Sultai Control deck, dodging most of the opposing hate which is present for enchantment heavy decks. There are quite a few counterspells in the board, which naturally lend to this type of strategy. In the land of slow and grindy decks, this one is pretty much top dog under UB Control. I feel like this is heavily adjusted to combat the expected metagame of that tournament, making it a potential trap for your FNM.

Brad Nelson’s deck on the other hand, looks like it might just be the best version of the archetype.

Sidisi Whip – Brad Nelson – 1st Place

[deck]
[Lands]
1 Evolving Wilds
3 Forest
1 Island
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Mana Confluence
2 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
2 Temple of Malady
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Yavimaya Coast
[/Lands]
[Spells]
3 Thoughtseize
3 Whip of Erebos
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
4 Courser of Kruphix
2 Doomwake Giant
2 Hornet Queen
2 Pharika, God of Affliction
1 Reclamation Sage
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Sylvan Caryatid
[/Creatures]
[Sideboard]
3 Disdainful Stroke
3 Bile Blight
2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Drown in Sorrow
2 Hero’s Downfall
3 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Reclamation Sage
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

This deck really impressed me. Brad swept the Standard portion through the tournament. This deck is well setup to take on about every deck that is not mono red or UW Heroic in game 1. It has removal, ramp, card advantage engines, [card]Doomwake Giant[/card] to address the Jeskai Token Hordes, and [card]Hornet Queen[/card] to go over the top of the Midrange Abzan versions. For all the decks in between, it has the namesake [card]Sidisi, Brood Tyrant[/card] to pressure the opponent’s board with an unending stream of 2/2 Zombie tokens while providing a wealth of resources for [card]Whip of Erebos[/card] and a full set of [card]Murderous Cut[/card]. My comments about the sideboard are pretty simple; play cards which your opponents can’t handle facing, and then cut down on things you don’t need. [card]Disdainful Stroke[/card], [card]Bile Blight[/card], and [card]Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver[/card] are all very specific answer cards for specific matchups, and are of no real surprise. The addition of Kiora, The Crashing Wave however, is really sweet. Aside from being a decent card vs Abzan, it really shines in the Heroic Matchups, where you can often safely bubble the biggest threat, forcing a wider attack pattern from the deck. This often dilutes the deck’s power down to a very manageable level, as your deck often goes even wider thanks to Sidisi and her Brood.

I went to FNM this week, taking the Abzan list that I had been playing online with, and ended up going 0-3 having faced down Jeskai or RW tokens in all of my matches. If the metagame you expect is similar to this, then I think I can endorse sleeving up some [card]Doomwake Giant[/card]s, as a nearly unkillable engine which sweeps away x/1 tokens each turn feels like the exact place to be right now. Having watched the Fabiano list try to hold its own in the meta that night also, I can confidently say that the Nelson version of the list is where I would be personally. Fate Reforged spoilers start this week, and I for one can’t wait to see what goodies this set will bring to us. Standard has been in such flux, and seeing that it’s starting to settle a bit, I’m very interested to see what happens!

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