Red Sultai Delerium

Standard BUG (Sultai) Competitive Four Color Midrange UBRG

ryancsaxe

Creature (16)

• 1x Den Protector
• 3x Elder Deep-Fiend
• 1x Emrakul, the Promised End
• 2x Ishkanah, Grafwidow
• 4x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip
• 2x Nissa, Vastwood Seer  ^Flip
• 3x Pilgrim's Eye

Planeswalker (3)

• 3x Liliana, the Last Hope

Land (23)

• 3x Evolving Wilds
• 4x Forest
• 2x Hissing Quagmire
• 2x Island
• 4x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Mountain
• 2x Sunken Hollow
• 2x Swamp
• 3x Yavimaya Coast

Enchantment (3)

• 3x Vessel of Nascency

Instant (7)

• 4x Grapple with the Past
• 3x Kozilek's Return

Sorcery (8)

• 3x Languish
• 1x Ruinous Path
• 4x Traverse the Ulvenwald

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Sideboard

Creature (4)

• 1x Dragonlord Silumgar
• 1x Gilt-Leaf Winnower
• 2x Noose Constrictor

Artifact (1)

• 1x Orbs of Warding

Instant (2)

• 2x Negate

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Coax from the Blind Eternities
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Infinite Obliteration
• 1x Languish
• 1x Ruinous Path
• 3x Transgress the Mind

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There are a variety of decks utilizing delirium, emerge, Kozilek's Return, and so on. This is my take on one of those decks.

REASONING

These decks are all incredibly grindy, so we want to play the long game. Because of this, I feel that Jace, Vryn's Prodigy   is important to have access to (especially with cards like Traverse the Ulvenwald).

We are playing cards like Grapple with the Past and Vessel of Nascency. This means that Jace, Vryn's Prodigy   can flip by the turn after you play it fairly consistently.

The importance of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  , as stated above, lead me to believe that this deck should be temur. But then, after thinking for a while, the options in black were simply more potent than the options in red.

Liliana, the Last Hope and Languish are very well positioned and play to the strategy of this deck. Additionally gaining access to discard effects post board seemed pretty good. But I didn't want to lose the power of Kozilek's Return. After working out the math, I realized that one Mountain with so many effects that can get it (Pilgrim's Eye,Traverse the Ulvenwald,Evolving Wilds) did not hurt the mana base as much as I expected. Plus I could always just discard it!

Furthermore, when we are playing so many raise dead effects, Elder Deep-Fiend becomes an absolute house. There are plenty of situations where we can loop them for 3+ turns, and that just ends the game.

Given the thought process above, I have come to this concept of a deck: A delirium/emerge shell that splashes Kozilek's Return!

CREATURES

Jace, Vryn's Prodigy   makes this deck tic. You can flip very early and churn through your library. Flipping jace on turn 4 and casting a languish is very hard to beat. The ability to return him late game with Liliana, the Last Hope or grapple to the past when both players are topdecking is nothing to scoff at.

Pilgrim's Eye does so much work. we can afford to play less in this mana hungry deck. It makes delirium by turn 5 quite easy as T3 Pilgrim's Eye into T4 launguish,Kozilek's Return,Distended Mindbender, or Elder Deep-Fiend gets you almost all the way there! Additionally, the mana in this deck is wonky, and the eye is the glue that holds it all together.

Ishkanah, Grafwidow is just a broken magic card. It is one of the more popular Traverse the Ulvenwald target in this deck.Delirium on turn 5 is almost trivial, and the 4 bodies provides quite the stability so we can get to our Emrakul, the Promised End. Additionally, at 5 mana, it's perfect to sac for any of the emerge guys.

Elder Deep-Fiend is also quite broken. Instant speed Kozilek's Return is going to just win some games by itself. The 6 toughness is also very important. Originally I only had 1 copy as a cool tutor target, but the more I played with it the more I wanted. Getting a Mistbind Clique in standard and following it up with Ishkanah, Grafwidow is absolutely absurd. On top of all that, with Traverse the Ulvenwald,Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  , Liliana, the Last Hope, and Grapple with the Past, you can get to a position where you chain them for a couple turns, which should just end the game.

Emrakul, the Promised End is what we are building towards. After testing two copies, I found that I can always get access to one copy through the velocity of the deck and Traverse the Ulvenwald. It is a great way to end the game, but not a card I want to draw in every match up. Hence the second one in the board.

Den Protector fills a really awesome role in this deck. It is a great traverse target, and helps late game to get access to whatever piece you need. But really, almost any of the time it's in your opening hand and the opponent plays a creature, you end up playing it face up to block. With grapple from the past and Liliana, the Last Hope, you can always get it back!

Nissa, Vastwood Seer   is a great card to emerge that becomes a threat later on. The ability to get back a planeswalker with Liliana, the Last Hope or Grapple with the Past is no joke. I keep going back and forth between 1 or 2, but with 4 emerge creatures in the main deck, I like having 6 good-to-sacrifice 3 drops.

ENGINE

Traverse the Ulvenwald is mana fixing early, and a win condition late game. With 4 copies of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  , we almost always have access to any creature in our deck by turn 5/6, which allows us to stablize and pull ahead. It enables Kozilek's Return to always be a threat, which is awesome!

Grapple with the Past just does so much. It lets us grind, flip Jace, Vryn's Prodigy   early, and gives us access to much of our deck late game. This deck could not exist without this card and I would play more copies if I could.

Vessel of Nascency and I have a weird relationship. I actually hate this card. It's quite inefficient given the amount of taplands in this deck. But I wanted more copies of Grapple with the Past and getting lands were important. This is the only other card in standard I can play where that is the case. It does have the benefit of being an enchantment, which can be quite relevant. But you gotta play it to make the deck tick.

Liliana, the Last Hope is one of the best cards in the deck. On turn 3 is difficult (easier by turn 4 because of Pilgrim's Eye), but this card is great at any time. Raise Dead is a very good effect in a deck like this, and keeping the incoming damage lower as well as allowing Kozilek's Return to hit x/3s makes this a spectacular inclusion. I wish I could find room to play a 3rd, but I really don't think I can. Suggestions are welcome for that.

Languish is just so necessary against much of this meta. It also works perfectly on curve in this deck.

Kozilek's Return is one of the important key pieces. Being able to upkeep tap all their lands with Elder Deep-Fiend and kill all their creatures is HUGE. Definitely worth the downside of one land in my "sultai" deck effectively tapping for colorless. The number is either 3 or 4, but on 3 now because I don't want to draw multiples EVER.

Ruinous Path is there as a mainboard answer to planeswalkers and things my board wipes don't kill. It's possible there should be two here, but the deck really can't afford to lose that many pieces of the engine. Given the velocity at which I go through my library, and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy   and Den Protector, I should be able to get access to this card most games if I play 1 and all games if I play two. This is why there is a To the Slaughter in the board.

SIDEBOARD BREAKDOWN

Dragonlord Silumgar can do things you usually cannot do in standard. Having access to such a swingy effect is important in such a grindy deck. It synergizes quite well with emerge as well.

Infinite Obliteration can destroy some existing decks. Being able to name cards like Elder Deep-Fiend or Emrakul, the Promised End can be pretty gamebreaking. It is possible this should be Pick the Brain due to how easy delerium is.

Negate is a catch all for many decks, but specifically two bad matchups in "cat pact" and Fevered Visions decks.

Ruinous Path is very good against black-white control and some other decks. I like having access to answers for planeswalkers somewhere in the 75.

Transgress the Mind is probably the most important card here. It lets us destroy any go over the top decks, and it isn't particularly dead anywhere. Although it would be good in the main, I find myself boarding out specifically what is bad in the main for these almost every matchup, so I find it unnecessary there since the overall engine is quite tight.

Gilt-Leaf Winnower is great against creature decks like company. This slot is flexible though.

Noose Constrictor helps against creature decks and makes us not lose to Fevered Visions

Orbs of Warding is a card that is oddly very good right now. Against any black control deck, this disables discard effects and Emrakul, the Promised End. Additionally, it helps against the burn decks if you can stabelize.

Languish is here for more creature decks. I ALWAYS want languish on turn 4 against them, so the fourth here is important. Note, if I go up to 4 Kozilek's Return, this is probably unnecessary.

Dark Petition comes in as a second copy of cards like Orbs of Warding and Infinite Obliteration. It is also good for finding what you need in the grindy matchups.

coax of the blind eternities would come in if I am expecting the came to go long and I DO expect to play against Transgress the Mind and/or Infinite Obliteration. This would let me leave anElder Deep-Fiend in my board if you want, but honestly these matchups are all about Emrakul, the Promised End, so if it's a dead card, you are not in bad shape.

NOTEABLE EXCLUSIONS

Sylvan Advocate is a card rarely excluded from green decks, especially when you have access to 8 manlands AND will hit your 6th land drop nearly every game. After testing and seeing how games played out, I am casting Languish on T4/T5 most games. That combined with the fact that it always dies to the return side of Kozilek's Return lead me away from playing the card.

Tireless Tracker suffers nearly the same fate as Sylvan Advocate. I am hitting all of my lands and playing evolving wilds, but the fact that it just dies to so much of what I am doing is just depressing. It's possible one copy is interesting in case I flood late and can tutor for it, but if I'm flooding and can use Traverse the Ulvenwald then I can just get Emrakul, the Promised End

Grasp of Darkness (and other good removal) is extremely well positioned against a large portion of the field. There would be a way to reconfigure the mana to play it, but overall I felt it was unnecessary to be playing removal with 3 Languish and 3 Kozilek's Return

Gather the Pack would be an additional engine in this deck that actually works with Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  . The inability to grab lands is a problem, and, with 19 creatures, hitting two isn't even that likely. I also don't feel like I need additional effects like this, and Vessel of Nascency is an enchantment for delirium, which I think is better.

Learn from the Past for opposing Emrakul, the Promised End decks and the zombie decks, this seems like it's a good idea. Overall, I really just can't seem to find room. It's not amazing against temurge even, which is why I ended up cutting it. If you expect to see zombie decks, include two in the board for sure!

Caustic Caterpillar is an answer to Demonic Pact, Pyromancer's Goggles, and other problem artifacts and enchantments. Since we can tutor for it and reuse it many times, it's a card that would be good in the board. I would include this for FNM, but not a highly competitive tournament where I expect the meta to be less diverse.

Distended Mindbender I THOUGHT was going to be better than the 3rd Elder Deep-Fiend in this deck. The ability to tutor for a double discard effect, or simply do it on turn 4 is very good. Especially with all these other Grapple with the Past decks, sometimes you know there's a card you need to take. Overall, I wanted the deck to be more streamlined with 3 elder deep-fiends because flash, the 5/6 body, and the ability to loop them is very good. I like having access to this effect, but I just couldn't fit it anywhere. Additionally, in the matchups where it's good, they are either not tier1 decks, or they play Kozilek's Return. I have better cards against those decks in the board anyways.

Top Ranked	Achieved #31 position overall 8 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	8 years
Splash colors	R
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 1 Mythic Rares 23 - 6 Rares 0 - 6 Uncommons 13 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.24
Tokens	Ashaya, the Awoken World, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Emblem Liliana, the Last Hope, Morph 2/2 C, Spider 1/2 G, Zombie 2/2 B