Why is it wrong to seek power through perfection?
There is a lot of controversy about the best build of the Sultai clan. This is the end result of over one month of constant testing and tuning.
This style of deck comes with a slew of problems. Many people embrace these imperfections as part of the style, necessary flaws.
This is the slower, more powerful version of the Sidisi Whip style decks that people didn't think was competitive.
They ignore the tools you are given to give you the consistency you need because they are 'negative card advantage'. They ignore the different angles you can attack from because it 'costs too much'. They ignore the bombs that are outside your color because having a fourth color is 'too risky'. No. No. No.
You're just not building and playing it right. This level of power requires expert levels of planning. We have the tools to solve the problems, you just have to have the skill to pull it off.
But that's alright. I've gotten somewhere with the build. Now I will tell you it's secrets.
PLAY TIPS, DECK DECISIONS, AND UNIQUE INTERACTIONS
We want to interact with our opponents as little as possible until we have taken over the board. This makes our deck a lot faster, a lot more consistent, and a lot more powerful. We want to win by raw power. If a game gets grindy, we will win in the long run anyways. We need to help our early game be as successful as possible. Wasting lots of mana on slightly controlling them gets us too far behind on our gameplan. 2 Murderous Cuts and the possibility of using our Sultai charms in cases of emergencies. (As all the things I'm most scared of are mono colored. I'm looking at you Stormbreath and Rabblemaster.)
80% of the time, you want to start by dumping and digging on T2.
We have no T1 cards in the entire 75. We don't need them. The four ramp cards in the Caryatids are all you need, and the color fixing is way better then getting a 3 drop on T2, as your color fixing is usually shot in the process. (L Wastes or Y coast into Mystic, into Turn 2 Courser never lets you put down a T3 Sidisi unless both of your first lands were pain lands or you got the perfect basics. The turn earlier is not worth ruining the consistency of our deck. We want to be quick, but we don't want to be stupid.
The other 1CMC card that would be worth it, would be thoughtseize, but we beat and interact with our adversaries by overrunning them with zombies, or bringing back hard to deal with threats. Wasting a card on Thoughtseize is not needed, and just slows down our game plan. Even against control, our best bet is to be set up before they even have a chance to stop us.
Use T1 for a tap land, and move on. Most of the time we use T3 for another tap land and a second 2 drop.
So the question is, why is Sultai better at reanimator than Abzan? Because Abzan can't go all-in. Sure they can do some cute things with Rhinos and whips, and they can hardcast Ashen Rider without confluence and caryatids to help. However they are missing 3 key cards that give the consistency needed.
Dig Through Time: This is obvious. Digging hard for combo pieces is amazing.
Taigam's Scheming: YES. THIS CARD IS GOOD. It's literally mini dig through time, except you MILL the cards you don't want, and leave the rest ON TOP. The synergies with this are endless, it's so good. Have a Sidisi on the field? T Scheme, throw a monster in the grave, your most wanted card fourth from the top, and mill the other 3 you didn't want, which will hopefully include a monster to make a 2nd zombie. Getting 2 zombies, and the best card on top for the next turn is AMAZING.
I'm never sad to see this card, it makes my draws so much better, while fueling my yard with the cards I actually want in there. The biggest problem I had with this deck was milling spells I wanted. this solves that problem.
Also can do something similar with Courser planning. Know you have a Courser coming up next turn? Give yourself the best draw next turn, a land right after to grab with Courser, another good card, another land after, etc. Or just throw 4 in the grave, a land on top. The possibilities are endless with these three cards. It's seriously almost as good as the Domri\Courser\Chandra interactions.
Also, at 2CMC, you can easily combo it with other cards. Dig through time? No problem. Find something you need, or nothing with T scheming, and throw the rest in the grave to give you a Dig for 12 possible cards deep.
Sultai Charm: This is another card that lets us go all in. It does anything we might need it to do, and if we need more, we have another copy in the sideboard. Keeps Stormbreaths/Rabblemasters/Polukranos in check if we have no hornets. Keeps Jeskai Ascendency/Enemy Whip combos in check if we need it. But most importantly, if we don't need either of those checks, we can DIG with it, and throw our ASHEN RIDERS/QUEENS IN THE GRAVE FROM OUR HAND. Seriously that's SO good.
Sideboard: Since this is technically a combo-like deck, sideboarding is a little harder.
We have your basic Drown in Sorrow, which is amazing against most aggro strategies. Hero's downfall providing us ways to answer troublesome PWs easier.
The rest are 1-ofs that serve different purposes for different match-ups. Lots of these cards are to help our worse match-ups, or to give us slight advantages against what they list in. I'll start withe the most controversial one, Dragon Throne of Tarkir.
This lets us steal games easily against our worst match-up, G/x Devotion. Even with very modest boards, it explodes and lets us go through. Equipped on just a Sidisi, turns all our Zombies into 5/5 tramplers every turn, or our hornets into 4/4 flyers.
Pharika is really good against the mirror, and also very helpful against G/X devotion builds.
I have another Hornet Queen in matches it's amazing against.
Garruk is very well positioned against walker decks, and big green decks alike. Reoccuring Hero's Downfalls, or answering things that can be hard for us to answer easily, while having 5 Loyality to start is just the beef we need. Also with no other walkers in the list, they very likely don't have the H downfalls still around.
Abzan is one of our better matchups, as we have way more value and dig than they do. In a grindy match, it's hard for them to win without some Tormod's Crypt to threaten us with.
Resolute Archangel is a tech against some aggro decks, but mostly there for Jeskai.
Lastly, Stormtide Leviathan shuts down decks light on creature destruction.
I hope you enjoy playing my deck. It's very hard to master, but it's power is amazing. Since I perfected this build I feel like 80% of the games I lose are misplays.
