With MTG Avatar Prerelease weekend having come and gone, players are free to make use of all the new goodies in Constructed. In conjunction with the recent ban announcement, the Standard metagame is bound to experience some major shakeups moving forward.
Thanks to a Japanese win-a-box event this past weekend, we’re already starting to see the new cards in action. One of the more unique archetypes from the event, a cool Sultai Midrange shell put up a strong finish with some flashy new mythics in the mix. There’s obviously a long road ahead for the metagame to evolve, but it’s never too early to analyze a sweet brew!
Exciting New Win Conditions
At a baseline, the goal behind this archetype is to control the game long enough to take advantage of some top-end bombs that you can ride to victory. Tons of efficient removal spells including Stab, Shoot the Sheriff and Long Goodbye do a great job keeping you alive in the early turns as you continue to hit your land drops. As long as you’re able to keep the board stable, your new finishers will pull you ahead.
Interestingly, The Rise of Sozin actually delivers on both accounts. The turn you cast it, you get to blow up all creatures, even those that outsize your cheaper removal. Obviously, six mana is a hefty price to pay for a board wipe, but the fact that the Saga then transforms into a brutal win condition makes it the ultimate finisher versus creature-heavy decks. A 5/5 with Menace is big enough, and once you factor in being able to resurrect a multitude of your opponent’s creatures after you connect in combat, Fire Lord Sozin becomes an absolute monster.
All of these ways to keep the board clear only make it more likely you’ll get to sink a ton of mana into Wan Shi Tong, Librarian in the late game. Wan Shi Tong isn’t just known for its brutal applications in older formats where Fetchlands run rampant; it also scales insanely well over the course of grindy games. The versatility of being a surprise blocker, a card advantage machine, and a strong way to turn the corner makes it a great inclusion.
Wan Shi Tong is hardly the only source of card advantage in the deck, too. When playing against other midrange and control decks, you need extra ways to fuel your hand and dig for your high-impact threats, and this deck makes this a priority.
Churning Through Your Library
For a strategy that employs a multitude of instant speed removal spells, counterspells, and threats, it’s only natural to incorporate card draw mechanisms that you can play on your opponent’s turn. None are better than Rakshasa’s Bargain since you can reliably cast it for three mana, which provides a similar effect as Stock Up without requiring you to tap low on mana during your turn.
Additionally, Bargain has some neat synergies here that separate it from other potential options. As a three-color card, it pairs nicely with Ancient Cornucopia when it comes to buffering your life total. Plus, because this card’s mana value is still six despite being able to cast it for three mana, it’s trivial to cast it from the top of your library with Glarb, Calamity’s Augur in play.
Similarly, if you find one of your copies of Quantum Riddler on the top of your library, you can always Warp it to clear the top of your deck without needing to invest a ton of mana. In attrition wars, copying Riddler with Three Steps Ahead post-Warp is a great line of play to cement your advantage.
Intriguing Early Position
As things currently stand, this list actually has a lot going in its favor against some of the top pre-Avatar decks. Simic Aggro saw an enormous uptick in play following last Monday’s bans, and perhaps no Standard shell lines up worse into this Sultai deck than Simic. Playing a ton of removal spells definitely helps, but what really sets things apart is the addition of The Rise of Sozin. Even if your Simic opponent manages to go wide with Jackal, Genius Geneticist and Pawpatch Recruit, The Rise of Sozin completely demolishes any big board. Simic Aggro isn’t exactly flowing with answers to the Saga, either, which threatens to reanimate a bunch of creatures at once.
On the flip side, Wan Shi Tong does a great job providing inevitability versus Dimir Midrange. Fangkeeper’s Familiar helps keep Enduring Curiosity in check, so as long as you can manage Kaito, Bane of Nightmares in the early turns, you’re golden.
Unfortunately, as good as this deck is against the various aggro and midrange decks of the format, navigating control can be much trickier. Cards like Stab and Long Goodbye do almost nothing, and you don’t do a great job applying pressure. These issues come back to bite you even more against Jeskai Artifacts considering your lack of ways to get prominent artifacts off the board.
Overall, Sultai Midrange has its array of strengths and weaknesses, and whether a similar deck catches steam moving forward will largely depend on how the metagame evolves. With so many strong new cards entering the Standard ecosystem, it’s very hard to predict exactly how things will play out. Nonetheless, this brew puts the power level of some Avatar mythics on full display, and we’re excited to see what other sweet tools get some love in the coming weeks.
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