I’ve been thinking about how to update the deck since the first Rivals spoilers came out. The two areas of weakness that frustrated me about the ‘normal’ Sultai list were, firstly, having no air game whatsoever and precious few answers to Glorybringer; and secondly, the constraint of having to run all energy cards. Frankly, the banning of Attune and Rogue Refiner is liberating. We no longer have to be tied to energy, but we can still use sprinklings of it where it’s needed. In my view, Sultai suffers less from the banning than Temur. We only run three colours and we both gain and use energy more efficiently, thanks to our friend Winding Constrictor. We are also better placed to take advantage of some of the powerful new cards from Rivals.
The old list
Here’s the list I’ve been playing for the past few months:
MAIN
4 Snek
4 Cub
4 Siphoner
4 Refiner
2 Rishkar
3 Ballista
3 Hostage Taker
2 Scarab God
4 Attune
4 Push
4 Blossoming Defence
1 Contempt
4 Marsh
4 Sanctum
4 Hub
2 Fetid Pools
4 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Island
SIDE
2 Nissa, Steward of Elements
3 Deathgorge Scavenger
2 Die Young
1 Vraska’s Contempt
1 Negate
1 Spell Pierce
3 Duress
1 Vraska, Relic Seeker
1 Appetite for the Unnatural
The bannings
The most obvious problem is that, with the banning of Attune, we are going to have mana issues. The deck runs 21 lands and that is definitely not enough without the search/fixing Attune gives.
Without Refiner, we are down 4 three-drops and some card draw. That doesn’t hit us as hard as it does Temur, as we have trusty lil’ Siphoner drawing us extra cards repeatedly. In fact, I was looking at cutting Refiner even before the banning, as the 3/2 body was less relevant when I was regularly making 4/4 Cubs or 4/5 Constrictors off Rishkar.
And so we come to the main drawback of losing Attune and Refiner: losing 16–24 energy from the deck. We don’t rely on the T1 Attune into Cub as much as Temur does, but given our conversion rate is either 1E -> 1 +1/+1 counter or 2E -> 1 card, that could be a big hit.
2 drops
Obviously Constrictor is the heart and soul of the deck and can’t be messed with.
I have often found that Siphoner looks after itself — it only needs a little encouragement to get going, and fuels itself if you have snake out. With the loss of Attune we can expect to start drawing cards a turn later some of the time (depending on the match up, and the number of snakes and Hubs in opening hand, etc). However, this already happens in quite a lot of games in reality and I don’t think that will change. Menace means that we get the attack trigger for quite a few turns (especially when paired with Push).
The real problem is Cub. Without the ability to jump to 4/4, it’s possible that there’s almost no point running Cub as it’ll just get killed or trade off too quickly. On the other hand, people might view it as less of a threat and therefore it will get through more. Anyway I’m not 100% happy with Cub anymore despite the good conversion rate, though it is vastly improved by…
Lovely new toys from Rivals
My favourite of these is, without a doubt, Hadana’s Climb. As soon as I saw this card spoiled I proxied it into my deck and started testing. I started on 2 copies but it’s so impressive that I think 3 is correct, despite it being legendary. Having one down on T3 is so valuable, especially if you can drop Constrictor on 2, giving you a 4/5 snek and then subsequently 2 free +1/+1 counters a turn. It also combos incredibly with Walking Ballista — so much so that I am considering going to the full four if there’s space. Another reason to play 3 copies is that you really want to have one flipped and one unflipped through the mid-late game; the activation is instant speed and is either a) a straight out game winner or b) renders Glorybringer useless (you activate in response to the exert trigger and block). This card is great for developing the board, great on the attack, and great when you’re behind as it starts giving counters as soon as it comes down. It could even solve the problem of Cubs being chump blocked (though it’s a bit slow for that), and is a rainbow mana source which alleviates the pain of losing Attune.
Luckily we have also been given a straight up replacement for Refiner in Jadelight Ranger. This card is already fine as its various incarnations are, for three mana:
- a 4/3 with quasi-scry 2
- a 3/2 with quasi-scry 1 and draw 1
- a 2/1 with draw 2
But once we add Constrictor to the mix you get:
- a 6/5 with quasi-scry 2
- a 4/3 with quasi-scry 1 and draw 1
- a 2/1 with draw 2
…seems pretty dece to me.
Other possibilities
The two cards above are definitely going in. Now, what else should we consider? I worry about the deck being light on removal, running only 5 main. I am certainly going to test Moment of Craving, though it seems a little underpowered (plus if Ramunap Red is gone then it may be less necessary anyway). I don’t want to add to the curve with another copy of Contempt.
There are also a lot of fragile things that need protection, such as your early 2 drops and Hostage Takers. Blossoming Defence is such a blowout that I am considering adding Dive Down as well (though this seems a bit crazy).
In terms of replacements for Cub, the only real contender I think is Merfolk Branchwalker, but it obviously can’t get as big so I think Cub is ok for now. If we were to cut energy entirely, I would look into blue 2 drops like Warkite Marauder.
Sideboard
I have been pretty unhappy with this sideboard for a while. I hate Spell Pierce and would rather have another Negate or a Supreme Will. Die Young is clunky and was in essentially to kill Hazoret. With Ramunap Red being banned we will probably see Hazoret less (or at least, less quickly). Vraska is super powerful but almost never gets played. So I am reworking it quite a lot.
What I have ended up with
Here is the result of everything:
Sultai Climb, by Haiyue Yu
MAIN
4 Constrictor
4 Cub
4 Siphoner
3 Jadelight Ranger
2 Rishkar
3 Ballista
2 Hostage Taker
2 Scarab God
3 Hadana’s Climb
4 Push
4 Blossoming Defence
1 Contempt
4 Marsh
4 Sanctum
4 Hub
3 Fetid Pools
6 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Island
SIDE
2 Nissa, Steward of Elements
3 Deathgorge Scavenger
1 Vizier of Many Faces
2 Contempt
3 Duress
2 Negate
1 Supreme Will
1 Naturalise
I can’t wait to take this to the next PPTQ and hopefully throw some flying giant Rangers in people’s faces. The bannings have freed up this deck and I can’t wait to play against some of the other updated decks and new brews.
