Sultai Mystery Machine

Standard Budget BUG (Sultai) Midrange Tempo

Borachon

Creature (18)

• 3x Contraband Kingpin
• 4x Erdwal Illuminator
• 3x Marionette Master
• 4x Syndicate Trafficker
• 4x Tireless Tracker

Land (25)

• 4x Blooming Marsh
• 4x Botanical Sanctum
• 3x Choked Estuary
• 4x Evolving Wilds
• 3x Forest
• 2x Island
• 3x Sunken Hollow
• 2x Swamp

Artifact (2)

• 2x Tamiyo's Journal

Instant (11)

• 4x Blossoming Defense
• 4x Confront the Unknown
• 3x Jace's Scrutiny

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Sideboard

Instant (6)

• 2x Appetite for the Unnatural
• 2x Ceremonious Rejection
• 1x Negate
• 1x Summary Dismissal

Sorcery (7)

• 3x Lost Legacy
• 2x Ruinous Path
• 2x Transgress the Mind

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I had previously messed with a Sultai control clues deck (Sultai Clue Control), but in the end, Sultai is currently a mediocre control shell. I figured out, however, that Sultai can make a really resilient midrange board that can quickly get out of hand while being buffed and protected using the available instants.

What that thought, I've brewed up the Sultai Mystery Machine, a midrange deck that leverages clues and their good interactions with creatures in the current standard environment!

Key Features

• A low-mana board of resilient cards that can quickly get out of hand using clues.
• Combat tricks, counterspells, and removal to protect and buff the board.
• Big late plays from Marionette Master, Torrential Gearhulk, and Verdurous Gearhulk that can finish the game quickly. Tamiyo's Journal provides the ability to tutor for the right one given the game state, and can also help finish the game by buffing a Tireless Tracker or feeding a Marionette Master.
• The ability to crack clues to keep card advantage.
• Aggressive scrying to better select exactly which card you get from a draw or cracking a clue.
• A fast, smooth mana curve, that leverages the green enemy fastlands.

Ideal Play Sequence

1. Turn 2: Contraband Kingpin or Erdwal Illuminator
2. Turn 3: Eithr Tireless Tracker, or Syndicate Tracker and holding back a green mana for a combat trick.
3. Turn 4: Another Tireless Tracker or Syndicate Trafficker and a land, ideally Evolving Wilds to double-trigger one or more Tireless Tracker
4. Turn 5+: Play lands and spells to generate clues, hold mana back to buff/defend attackers and generate clues, crack clues on opponent's endstep or as needed to keep digging.
5. Late game: Continue beating down with sticky minions, use a Gearhulk to break a board stall or win the game, or use Marionette Master to finish off the opponent by sacrificing clues either directly or through Syndicate Trafficker .

Key Combos

• Syndicate Trafficker + Tireless Tracker: Attack or block with both, crack a clue to make Trafficker indestricible and buff both Trafficker and Tracker.
• Syndicate Trafficker + Confront the Unknown: Buff Syndicate Trafficker and make it hexproof, getting a clue that can be sacrificed to buff it further and make it invincible.
• Contraband Kingpin + any clue source: Get a clue, scry to see if you want to crack it.
• Tireless Tracker + Contraband Kingpin: Play a land, get a clue, get a counter on the Tracker, scry 1 to tune your next draw (usually cracking a clue on your opponent's end step).
• Marionette Master + Confront the Unknown + 2 mana: Get a clue and crack it to deal 5+ damage to your opponent and draw a card. With multiple clues on the board, this can deal very large amounts of damage.
• Marionette Master + Tamiyo's Journal: Sacrifice 3 clues, deal at least 12 damage to your opponent, and tutor a card.
• Torrential Gearhulk + flashing back removal or a combat trick can yield easy 2-for-1 exchanges later in the game.
• Verdurous Gearhulk + Marionette Master to be able to deal 8 damage and draw a card by sacrificing one clue.

Sideboarding

• Aggro: Bring in an extra Contraband Kingpin in place of a Negate.
• Control: Bring in fourth Negate, as well as the second Tamiyo's Journal to tutor for finishers, create clues, and potentially mass sacrifice to Marionette Master to win. If its blue/black-based control, also bring in Ceremonious Rejection to handle Void Shatter and Transgress the Mind. You can generally side out Contraband Kingpin and one Erdwal Investigator, as you have time to make clues.
• Eldrazi/Emerge: Bring in Lost Legacy and Transgress the Mind to get rid of the creatures they want to emerge. Summary Dismissal likewise comes in to banish on-cast triggers. Typically
• Graveyard Recursion: Bring in Lost Legacy and Summary Dismissal instead of Murder and two Negate. Exile Prized Amalgam using Lost Legacy.
• Madness/Spells decks: Bring in the fourth Negate instead of a fourth Erdwal Illuminator , which typically dies to damage-based removal. Depending on the deck (e.g. against UR Spells with Dynavolt Tower ), you also may want to bring in Appetite for the Unnatural in place of either Murder or Contraband Kingpin. Murder can be useful against Thing in the Ice   if you expect to see it.
• Marvel Combo: Bring in Appetite for the Unnatural and Lost Legacy in place of Negate and a Murder.
• Superfriends: Board in Ruinous Path in place of Murder
• Vehicles: Bring in Appetite for the Unnatural and Ceremonious Rejection in place of Negate. Remember that against vehicle decks, you can cast Jace's Scrutiny in response to an attempt to crew a vehicle, meaning they tap a creature and you get a clue.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	8 years
Exclude colors	WR
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	27 - 6 Rares 11 - 4 Uncommons 11 - 3 Commons
Cards	56
Avg. CMC	2.45
Tokens	Clue, Servo 1/1 C
Folders	Standard 2016, standard