It’s been quiet…
…A little too quiet.
…
The twin pillars of Master of Waves and Thassa God of the Sea, redefined the Standard format almost a year and a half ago. A new archetype was created, and
it remained largely unchanged for almost a year. Over time, Pack Rat and Sphinx’s Revelation reduced Mono-Blue Devotion from a format defining superstar,
to a fringe role-player.
Then the rotation.
People tried to make Mono-Blue Devotion work in block, but it was pretty clear that without Nightveil Specter, Frostburn Weird, and Tidebinder Mage,
getting five devotion wasn’t exactly trivial. Plus, Cloudfin Raptor and Judge’s Familiar had left too. Even Jace, Architect of Thought and Domestication
had been removed. And, as if that wasn’t enough, Mutavault was gone.
As a result, the Mono-Blue Devotion archetype has been MIA for the past six months. Khans of Tarkir and Fate Reforged were pretty obviously engineered to
not provide devotion to people, moving everyone away from those mechanics. Just look at Mindreaver. It’s literally a difficult to cast 2/1 for two, whose
ability is actually producing two devotion at the same time!
However, Dragons of Tarkir throws all of the old rules out the window.
There are actually lots of new cards for Mono-Blue Devotion to consider, but this is definitely the linchpin, the real reason Mono-Blue Devotion is not
just back in a cute way but is for sure going to be a major player in the new world, completely upsetting the established balance of power.
First and foremost, Shorecrasher Elemental brings three blue mana symbols to the party for the purposes of Wave-making and Thassa-waking. That alone isn’t
enough, of course, but if the card’s rate is at all solid, the synergy becomes extremely potent. For instance, look at Nightveil Specter. It’s not like
Nightveil Specter was so good that it was a staple in non-devotion decks. However, it was solid, and in fact, we did see it show occasionally on its own
merits, such as in the sideboard of some control decks. Put it in a devotion deck, however, and now we’re rocking and rolling.
Shorecrasher Elemental is a 3/3 for three, which is actually only a mana away, since we’d absolutely love a 3/3 for two, right? Now, are we getting a mana
of value out of all of the abilities?
First of all, the card has U: +1/-1 and -1/+1. Those abilities are great but hard to measure the true value of, since they cost so much to operate. The
value is still meaningful, since they give you relevant options. I would guess the ability of a 3/3 to pay to become a 5/1 or a 0/6 is going to end up
mattering a fair bit. I would guess those two abilities are close to as valuable as just being a 4/3.
Of course, they scale proportionate to how large the creature is. A 1/1 for U with those abilities is mostly a potential blocker. However, each added point
of stat gives the card two more options. A 3/3 effectively has six “states” (with 0/6 and beyond all functionally similar). However, a 4/4 effectively has
eight. If only there was a natural way to make Shorecrasher Elemental a 4/4…
What do you know? Megamorph brings with it the ability to make the Shorecrasher not only a 4/4 by surprise (brutal morph style, in combat), but it also
leaves the Shorecrasher more flexibility for after you untap. Of course, the real value of the Megamorph ability here isn’t the +1/+1 counter but how it
synergizes with the Shorecrasher’s other abilities.
How good is Megamorph? Well, as you might imagine, it is literally just morph with the added text of “Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature if you unmorph
it.” This isn’t exactly a novel ability.
So, yes, just as having Rattleclaw Mystic, Ashcloud Phoenix, and Sagu Mauler in the same deck makes each of the rest of them more powerful, so too will
Shorecrasher Elemental and any other morph or megamorph creatures you play. The misinformation makes combat and casting removal spells harder, etc.
Of course, Shorecrasher’s megamorph ability can’t truly be evaluated without also looking at its blinking ability.
U: Exile Shorecrasher Elemental, then return it to the battlefield facedown under its owner’s control.
Now we’re talking! The ability to counter the first removal spell cast on it is already very appealing, but if you’ve got seven mana total, you can
threaten to do it twice.
It’s also a bit of a path to an upgrade, since you can cast the Shorecrasher face up, then later, when you’ve got nothing better to do, pay one to flip it,
then five more to bring it back, and now you’re just ahead a +1/+1 counter. It is a little weird, but if you exile it when it has a counter already, you
lose the counter. You’ll get it back when you flip it again, but you aren’t stockpiling them.
My take is that the exile ability alongside the megamorph ability would already be pretty good on a 3/3 for UUU if you wanted the devotion. Once you
include the two pump abilities we are starting to get legitimately above rate. It’s not just wasted power either. Mono-Blue Devotion would love to have a
way to use extra mana, particularly now that they don’t have Mutavault. They also have access to Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, which can sometimes generate huge
amounts of mana. Now, they have something useful to do with absurd amounts.
However, there is one more bonus to Shorecrasher Elemental.
It’s an elemental.
That means Master of Waves powers it up, which is convenient, since it powers Master of Waves up. That’s not the end-all, be-all, but the bonuses from
Master of Waves (and Hall of Triumph) are sweet on the Shorecrasher for the same reasons the +1/+1 counter is. Combine the Shorecrasher’s pump abilities
with Nykthos’s mana generation (which Shorecrasher buffs majorly) with the Anthems, and it is very possible to have Shorecrasher turn into a 9/1 or even
bigger at times…
…Which sure is nice with Thassa, God of the Sea’s unblockable ability.
Verdict: Flagship – Mono-Blue Devotion is back!
Of course, to really understand the value of Shorecrasher Elemental, we have to look at the other blue megamorphs in the set.
Now that Cloudfin Raptor and Judge’s Familiar are gone, the bar for one-drops is basically Triton Shorestalker and Hypnotic Siren. Gudul Lurker is just a
better Triton Shorestalker, since we have no Merfolk tribal synergies. First, while we’re typically just going to run it out there as a 1/1 for one as soon
as we can, if we draw one later, our opponent won’t know if it’s a Shorecrasher Elemental when they have to decide whether to use their Dissolve or Hero’s
Downfall on it.
That it gets a +1/+1 counter is just a great upgrade, letting it function as a four-mana 2/2 unblockable. That might not sound like the most insane deal,
but remember, it’s just another option the Triton didn’t have. There are times where you’ve got more mana than you need, and in those times, the ability to
make your one-drop a legitimate threat is a big deal. Drawing a 2/2 unblockable off the top is often twice as good as if it was just a 1/1, once you’re not
spending all of your mana anyway.
Stratus Dancer is even more sweet. After all, Vaporkin was already a consideration, and seriously, even Welkin Tern has been used a non-zero amount.
Stratus Dancer is strictly better than Welkin Tern and misses only the elemental synergy of Vaporkin. However, the advantages of Stratus Dancer are
numerous.
To begin with, Megamorph at all is quite solid. It helps obfuscate your other morphs, and later in the game makes it effectively have kicker 3: +1/+1. A
year ago, Mono-Blue Devotion decks would sometimes fizzle out if confronted with too much removal once they got to a spot of just drawing one and two power
creatures off the top. A three-power flier for five is obviously much worse than Mantis Rider in general, but there are times where the functionality will
actually be the same, which most two-drops can never say.
That’s not even the end of the story with Stratus Dancer. When you flip it up, it counters a sorcery or instant! That’s seriously incredible! It’s not just
the card advantage (since that effectively draws you a card), it’s the wasting of your opponent’s mana. That kind of a tempo hit is a big deal.
I think Stratus Dancer is so incredible, it will get played lots in non-blue devotion decks just because the card is sick. In Mono-Blue Devotion? A
non-negotiable easy first four two-drops, every time, not close.
What’s particularly sweet about Stratus Dancer is how well it fits with Gudul Lurker and Shorecrasher Elemental. Cast any morph on turn 5 and you are
effectively threatening to counter their End Hostilities without spending a card! Maybe they can’t afford to just lose their turn 5 this way, and instead,
they play another Siege Rhino or something.
However, if you get to untap and have six mana open, you might just blink your Shorecrasher for free (megamorphing and then exiling it). That, of course,
means your opponent doesn’t want to let you untap. They are going to want to kill any morph on site. That’s where Gudul Lurker comes in. Now, a third of
the time your opponent is wasting their removal spell on your 1/1 that they never would have cared about if they only knew!
Let’s take a look at a possible build of Mono-Blue Devotion utilizing this new trio:
Creatures (27)
- 3 Thassa, God of the Sea
- 4 Master of Waves
- 4 Hypnotic Siren
- 4 Frost Walker
- 4 Stratus Dancer
- 4 Gudul Lurker
- 4 Shorecrasher Elemental
Lands (25)
Spells (8)
Sideboard
First of all, it’s very possible that playing three Thassa instead of four is outright insanity. My thinking was just that without double blue two-drops,
we’re going to be waking her up less than before. On top of that, we’ve got less targets to meaningfully make unblockable than before.
Cloudform might not be efficient enough, but it fits the theme, and hexproof is a powerful new dimension to the Mono-Blue Devotion toolbox. While you’re
usually just getting a 2/2 out of it, there are going to be times where you occasionally flip something relevant (such as a surprise third point of
devotion out of nowhere).
It is a little awkward that Cloudform falls off of Thassa if your devotion dips and that Master of Waves doesn’t make any tokens if you flip it, but that’s
not the end of the world. One more bit of awkwardness is that megamorphs need to be unmorphed for their mega-cost, not their casting cost, if you want the
+1/+1 counter. All the awkwardness combined with how good Thassa and Shorecrasher are means it’s unlikely Cloudform is good enough, but we can easily just
swap it for the fourth Thassa after learning some things.
Which two-drop to put alongside Stratus Dancer is actually a really interesting puzzle. On first glance, Frost Walker is the best on rate. It also has some
good trades and can hit pretty hard. It’s even an elemental for random synergy!
I am concerned about some of the awkwardness with Mono-Blue Devotion’s gameplan, such as lack of synergy with Thassa, inability to clear a path for it, and
so on. However, Bident helps clear a path in some respects, and Frost Walker isn’t actually the worst blocker in the world. Besides, not everyone is going
to have creatures all the time. And at the end of the day, the bar is pretty low.
A number of months back, I tried a Mono-Blue Devotion deck with playsets of Vaporkin and Welkin Tern. The flier theme had some merit, but two problems I
encountered were that I was really missing the blocking ability Frostburn Weird used to give us, and I also started having an over-reliance on
one-toughness creatures. Frost Walker doesn’t solve this, but at least it’s good at something.
Qarsi Deceiver has that fourth point of toughness we wanted, but zero power is a totally different experience for an attacking deck like this. Maybe
there’s enough value from the mana generation to make it worth it. I am very unsure, but it’s worth trying.
Mindreaver gives us the sweet, sweet devotion, but my God is it unspeakably bad on rate. It’s still worth trying, because maybe it’s just so good to be
able to power up our devotion, but it seems so likely that there’s better to be had. The format is full of 2/1s for one that are weaker than they otherwise
would be because of how they match up, so paying two for the same thing is so loose, and without removal, this guy is rarely actually dealing damage or
involved in anything close to resembling a fair trade.
Omenspeaker’s power level is modest and 1/3 is a lot smaller than 1/4, but at least it does something useful. I would hope we can do better, but maybe the
smoothing lets us play less land or something. After all, without Mutavaults, we are at a real risk of flooding more often. One other advantage to
Omenspeaker, I suppose, is the synergy with Mirror Mockery.
I am really excited about this card. The dream is to enchant a Master of Waves and go nuts. What makes it possibly playable, however, is the ability to
back-up plan as a removal spell. That’s right! You can hit their creatures! If you cast this on a Siege Rhino, it’s not attacking anymore. Meanwhile, your
evasion creatures can continue their assault.
Of course, if you have a Bident of Thassa, suddenly things go crazy!
The combo is insane against Siege Rhino, but even just casting it on a random creature lets you make copies every attack that can be used to trade with
other attackers.
This is such an unusual effect to be this good, I am not at all sure how it will shake out. It might become a four-of staple, or it might be stone
unplayable. It doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing thing either. It might just be that two is the right number, since it’s not hard to use one, but the
second is much worse.
Unrelated, but this is a super fun aura to find with Heliod’s Pilgrim…
I like Bident of Thassa quite a bit more than Military Intelligence anyway, but this is another reason to stay the course. I think in order to Military
Intelligence, we kind of need Ornithopter, maybe Triton Shorestalker. The Triton might be better than Hypnotic Siren, by the way. I just wanted to see how
often we’re able to Nykthos for the kicker, plus we are way behind on fliers than we used to be, and even just being able to block Stormbreath Dragons is
something it’d be nice to have access to.
Jace, Living Guildpact is the other four-drop option that gets brought up, but I’d be surprised if it was strong enough. The rate is just so mediocre.
Besides, Shorecrasher Elemental is often going to be played as a four-drop anyway, so we have less interest in so many four-drops.
Prognostic Sphinx is also an option and got played in Block, but that starts taking us down a slower, somewhat different direction. I don’t know that it’s
the way to go, but it’s worth keeping in mind.
What support spells we use to round out the list is a challenge. Disdainful Stroke is the best counterspell in the old format, but it’s not clear if that
will stay true. Negate could also be another nice one to consider. I’d prefer to stay away from Dissolve, and Thassa’s Rebuff really needs the Frostburn
Weird and Tidebinder.
Voyage’s End has been used occasionally in the past, but my hope is that Mirror Mockery removes a need for such things.
Anticipate is one of the most important new cards in Dragons of Tarkir, and since it’s blue, people are going to want to try it in Mono-Blue Devotion, but
it’s not a natural fit. Mono-Blue Devotion is a very tempo-based strategy, so taking your turn 2 off without affecting the board isn’t super appealing.
It’s not out of the question, however, to imagine that testing reveals the non-Stratus Dancer two-drops are all too bad, and Anticipate is too good. It
does cost the same as Disdainful Stroke, Negate, and Stratus Dancer’s ability, which is nice.
One other advantage to Anticipate is that it helps fill your graveyard, so that if you played eight fetchlands, you might be able to support delve cards.
Treasure Cruise or Dig Through Time are obvious, but Temporal Trespass could also be a consideration. It’s not a great card, but taking an extra turn is
way, way better in a Mono-Blue Devotion deck than most other strategies that might consider playing a Time Walk.
The new color hosers are modest but probably playable. Encase in Ice is something Mono-Blue Devotion is really in the market for. It’s not the best answer
in the world to Courser of Kruphix or Polukranos, but I think it hits enough creatures efficiently while contributing some devotion to run.
Encrust has a lot of overlap and is slower (in two ways!), but it does a few things better. It answers other creatures, like Tasigur, so that you don’t get
stuck with too many color hosers. It also provides extra devotion. Finally, it gives us some answers to cards like Whip of Erebos, albeit only partial,
crude answers.
The set is barely a third spoiled and already it seems pretty clear that Mono-Blue Devotion is back in a big way. It’s possible that there’s a playable UU
creature in the set, which could have a dramatic effect. Even if Mono-Blue Devotion gets nothing else, however, I would be surprised if the archetype is
not back in full swing, albeit with a different texture than before.
Sultai Control at Grand Prix Miami!
Last weekend, I flew to Miami for another chance to play some of this awesome Standard format. After playing Abzan Midrange in Memphis, I had come to the
conclusion that I was probably going to move on from it, at least for the time being. It was totally fine, but the printing of Valorous Stance, Soulfire
Grand Master, and Outpost Siege have really changed the R/W and Jeskai matchups. What once was a 55%-60% favorite now felt 55% the other way.
In my article last week
, I asked you guys what I should play, and the most popular answer was Sultai Control, edging out Abzan and Jeskai. Gerard Fabiano style Sultai Control was
very attractive to me, so I decided to try it, see if I could make it work for me.
Satyr Wayfinder blocks meaningfully more often than it used to and makes delve cards like Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise, and Tasigur very strong.
Sultai Charm is very well-positioned right now, as a lot of creatures are mono-color and devastating enchantments like Outpost Siege are very common.
Finally, I saw some people running Courser of Kruphix in the sideboard and loved the idea.
Really, I’d love to just play them maindeck, but I’m not sure how much stock to put into the whole “no creatures for their removal” thing. After all, their
Hero’s Downfalls, Sultai Charms, Valorous Stances, and Stoke the Flames are all getting used regardless. In the end, Chained to the Rocks and Murderous Cut
were enough to sway me to stay on the sideboarding them plan.
Conversations with Reid Duke, William Jensen, Jelger Wiegersma, and Josh Ravitz made it clear that no one really loved anything, which only reinforced my
plan of trying Sultai, then either playing it or just falling back to Abzan Midrange.
During the week leading up to the event, Paul Rietzl played my Sultai list in a MTGO tournament, providing invaluable feedback and suggested improvements.
I also was fortunate enough to get a chance to battle a set against Matt Sperling, getting my first taste of the G/W Devotion deck that would go on to win
the GP. After a bunch of great insights from Gerard Fabiano, I did some last minute tuning and settled in. Here’s the list I registered:
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (7)
- 3 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
- 1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
- 2 Garruk, Apex Predator
- 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Lands (25)
Spells (23)
I like Silumgar maindeck, as it was another dimension of attack that doesn’t turn on their removal. Dig Through Time makes it very reasonable to find
against Elspeth. Besides, it’s just a great card.
I didn’t sideboard a second, as is common, as I anticipated a lot of people that were soft to it game 1 decreasing their reliance on the cards it hoses, as
well as potentially keeping in End Hostilities. Instead, I decided to sideboard a Pearl Lake Ancient, wanting more ways of trying to fight U/B Control, a
matchup I anticipated to be challenging.
I started with two Ashiok and two Kiora, but Paul reported Ashiok overperforming and suggested a third, a move that proved great. Besides, Kiora is a
fairly mediocre planeswalker. I sideboard her out against Abzan and against R/W, so why is she even in there? That’s so much of the field, and there are
plenty of other matches I take her out against too. It’s not like she’s “bad,” it’s just that I think we can do better. In particular, I want to play
Negate maindeck. I boarded in two every round, they were unbelievable, and I want to play even more after sideboarding.
I was originally on two Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and one Garruk, Apex Predator, but Paul sang Garruk’s praises as well. After conversations with Gerard, who
had gone on to make the same move in his build, I made the swap. As the tournament played out, I was happy to have gone that way, though I don’t think it
makes that big of a difference. Sultai Charm makes us need Ugin less, so I like erring on the side of the cheaper card.
The biggest change to my removal package was the complete abandonment of Murderous Cut and going down to one Crux of Fate. I already play so many delve
cards that Murderous Cut is harder than usual. Besides, we’re not short on removal spells and Murderous Cut just doesn’t have the versatility that Hero’s
Downfall and Sultai Charm have. Bile Blight is pretty narrow too, but costing two is a very big deal, and at least it helps make up for my partial lack of
sweepers.
End Hostilities was so bad for me in Abzan Midrange in Memphis, I wondered if I could get away with cutting Crux of Fate from Sultai. Most of the creatures
are must-kill, so it’s not like the board just fills up all the time. That said, G/W Devotion’s fine showing in Miami is likely to increase the need for
them going forward. It’s possible we need a second one maindeck, but for now, I’m going to continue to try to make do without it.
The Aetherspouts in the sideboard were an Adrian Sullivan last minute suggestion, replacing what was a second Crux of Fate. I wanted another big sweeper
against devotion, and Aetherspouts gave me extra strength against Whisperwood Elemental, Nissa, and Fleecemane Lion. I only boarded it in once and never
drew it, but it still seems better than boarding another Crux.
Dig Through Time was absolutely amazing for me, and I definitely prefer slanting towards them rather than Treasure Cruise. That said, the biggest mana
problem I had was not being able to cast Dig Through Time early consistently. I think it can be easy to forget how much Polluted Delta doesn’t fix your
mana the way Temple of Deceit would when you are playing Bile Blight and Hero’s Downfall, pressuring you to search up a Swamp early. Polluted Delta is
still great obviously. I just think I underestimated how much blue mana I really needed.
I am not 100% sold on the one Treasure Cruise, but it was pretty good, and I think five of those cards is probably the right number. That said, I could see
an argument for two Treasure Cruise and three Dig Through Time, drawing one of each is often better than drawing two Digs. First of all, Treasure Cruise is
pretty good at finding your second blue. Besides, you often would like to draw land number seven or eight anyway.
I also considered Interpret the Signs, and it is sweet, but it usually costs your whole turn and can be difficult to do, tempo-wise. It’s powerful, of
course, but a fair bit of that power is in win-more situations. Let’s put it this way, I never really had trouble winning when I cast Dig Through Time turn
6 or later and found another Dig Through Time or Garruk or whatever. However, there are certainly a lot of times where I can cast the blue delve cards and
react to my opponent’s play in the same turn. It’s a minor point, but I also have found Treasure Cruise much harder for people to Disdainful Stroke, since
I can then drop a game-winning bomb in the same turn, unlike Interpret the Signs.
I ended up boarding in Coursers against everyone, which I had assumed would be the case. Mana issues aside, they were great, and I wonder if they should
just be maindeck. They wouldn’t always die, and often draw a card immediately. Now that I am moving away from Crux of Fate, it’s nice to have more
blockers, and Sultai very much appreciates the lifegain. Besides, the sideboard space is very valuable if we can clear some up.
Of course, that is assuming I want to use them at all. See, here’s the thing. Courser was awesome for me all weekend, but most of my losses were heavily
influenced by mana-related issues. I was running below expectation with my mana-draws; however, over time, it was clear the deck needed more blue mana and
it was a little rough, drawing too many Temple of Mysteries.
I think moving forward, I want to try:
Out:
In:
This list does feature one less green, but it has two more blue sources. I considered options that kept the green count all the way up, but the bottleneck
was Temple of Mystery. Temple of Mystery is fine, but there are a lot of times you have to play it turn 3, instead of turn 1, because of Bile Blight.
Temple of Deceit is hard to fit in because of how few non-green lands we actually can play while still supporting Polluted Delta and Courser. That said, I
really value being able to hold up Bile Blight and Disdainful Stroke at the same time. Opulent Palace does this, of course, as does Urborg, Tomb of
Yawgmoth. Polluted Delta can as well, but I found myself often having to decide which of the two to leave up.
As for the painland switch, I would much rather draw one of each painland than two Llanowar Wastes. An overreliance on Llanowar Wastes caused me to take
more damage than I really would have liked.
My tournament started reasonably, but I ended a disappointing 10-5 after losing the last three rounds. My records against decks:
Abzan Midrange 3-0
Abzan Aggro 0-1
Abzan Reanimator 0-1
R/W Aggro 2-1
Mardu Aggro 1-0
Temur Control 1-0
Mono-Red 0-1
U/B Control 0-1
Going forward, here’s what I’m thinking:
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (25)
Spells (24)
I’m not yet sure what a list with maindeck Coursers would look like, but that’s very much on the table and something I’d like to try.
Changes:
● Swapped the Kiora for a Negate (though still have two in the sideboard).
● Cut the fourth Hero’s Downfall to make room for a fourth Sultai Charm. There are so many enchantments we want to kill, and the increase in
popularity of Mastery of the Unseen and Banishing Light are only going to increase this. This move always helps the control matchups, first letting you
filter Bile Blights, but after board, giving you more answers to Grindclock (another card that has been increasing in popularity). This does hurt us a
little against Abzan, however, we’ve got percentage to give in that area.
● Replaced two Temple of Mystery and two Llanowar Wastes with two Yavimaya Coast, a Temple of Deceit, and an Opulent Palace, as detailed above.
● Replaced the Silence the Believers in the sideboard with a second Aetherspouts. Silence the Believers was totally reasonable, but I kind of like the idea
of erring on the side of more protection against the G/W Devotion deck that is sure to be quite popular this week.
I am very unsure of going down to three Downfalls, but maybe we are supposed to sideboard the fourth, perhaps instead of the second Aetherspouts, or
possibly even the second Tasigur.
Sideboarding guides are always a dangerous thing, as people are prone to slavishly adhering to them and not thinking for themselves what makes sense given
their opponent’s specific build and the texture of the previous game. That said, here’s a rough idea of how I would approach a few major matchups
(using my updated list).
VS R/W Aggro
Out:
In:
However, depending on their build and what you think they’ll look like after sideboarding, you might only want one or even zero Tasigurs (in which case you
want the Ugin still in). It’s also fine to cut Treasure Cruise on the draw, and you may consider putting in the third Negate, particularly for game 3.
VS Abzan Midrange
Out:
In:
It’s totally reasonable to keep one or two Bile Blights in, depending on your confidence that they have Fleecemane Lion. Courser reduces this pressure
somewhat, but you can usually put a Bile Blight to use somehow. Likewise, you can also cut more Sultai Charms, if you want, making room for a Tasigur or
two. Pearl Lake Ancient is also very much up to you, because if they are fast, you may just want another removal spell.
VS U/B Control
Out:
In:
If you know they have Grindclock, keep the Sultai Charm in. If you know they don’t have Grindclock, you can take one or two more out, putting a Downfall
back in (assuming they have Ashiok), and maybe the Satyr Wayfinder if you’re on the play.
VS Mono-Red Aggro
Out:
In:
Depending on their build, Aetherspouts might also be good against them. In general, you want to make sure you are prepared for a diverse mix of potential
avenues of attack. They could go wide with Goblin Rabblemaster and Hordeling Outburst. They could have more one-drop 2/1s. They might have a lot of burn.
They could have Dragons. They could have Flamewake Phoenix and Ashcloud Phoenix (where Aetherspouts helps a bit, but really we miss the Silence the
Believers). They could have planeswalkers. They could have Outpost Siege. Having a few answers to all of the potential styles without risking dead cards is
a good default strategy. The main thing is to remember to keep the curve down!
VS G/W Devotion
Out:
In:
I am not sure about how to sideboard against G/W Devotion, as it is new to the scene and we’ve got way more good cards than we need. It might be crazy to
cut Disdainful Strokes; my thinking was just that a lot of the cards you counter with it can also be dealt with in other ways without needing to always
have mana up. That said, it is nice to counter Nissa, rather than just kill her.
It might also be reckless to cut so many Bile Blights (perhaps any?), when they are going up in Lions. Besides, hitting an accelerator can be great. It’s
also possible that Drown in Sorrow is too narrow, considering we have Crux and Aetherspouts to clean up manifest 2/2s, or maybe we just board in one and
keep an extra Lion (or Courser). When I tested against Sperling, I tried sideboarding out Thoughtseizes, but they should surely be in.
I know it seems fairly odd to sideboard out a Treasure Cruise in such a long-game matchup, and it’s probably wrong, but maybe it’s less wrong than guessing
might be? Maybe this slot is supposed to be us going down to one planeswalker, but I am not sure if it’s supposed to be Ashiok or Garruk. Both have been
good, particularly when combined with Coursers to block. Speaking of which, maybe you want the third Courser. It’s tough with so many cards. This does
suggest we aren’t supposed to have the second Aetherspouts, however. Of course, we’d board Hero’s Downfall in here anyway, so it’s not like we’re even
making room that way.
Tasigur is a tricky one, and I am not sure what to think. It has seemed good, particularly since it can block a Fleecemane Lion, and this is a matchup that
can go long enough to give Tasigur a chance to do his thing, especially when combined with Courser of Kruphix. He’s also nice insurance against Nissa and a
hard body is a great way to buy a ton of time against Mastery of the Unseen.
…
What’s the future of Sultai Control?
Obviously, Dragons of Tarkir is rapidly approaching, but if I were playing in SCG Dallas, I would run Sultai Control again with the changes discussed
above. I like its G/W Devotion matchup, whereas U/B Control is slightly behind there. That said, if U/B Control can go back to three or more Perilous
Vaults, maybe the matchup flips dramatically.
Either way, I am very interested to see what Dragons of Tarkir has to offer Sultai. Dragonlord Silumgar, Anticipate, Ultimate Price, Silumgar’s Command,
Deathbringer Regent, and Haven of the Spirit Dragon? There’s already plenty to consider, and I’ve got a feeling the big one is still to come…