After the set’s digital release this past Tuesday, MTG players on Arena and MTGO are already enjoying what Lorwyn Eclipsed has to offer. There’s been a ton of hype around many of the new cards here so far, so the anticipation as we finally get to see whether they have the goods in constructed is huge. Happily, based on early results, it seems that Lorwyn Eclipsed is legit in Standard. In today’s MTG Online Standard League, a spicy new Sultai Scam deck claimed second place with an impressive 7-2 finish.
Sultai Scam In MTG Standard
If you’ve played Magic for a few years, chances are you’ve heard of the Scam archetype. Variants of this deck were, for a time, the most powerful strategies in Modern, thanks to repeatedly cheating out Grief early to effectively end things before they really began. Due to their oppressive power, these decks eventually caught key bans back in 2024.
While not quite as obnoxious, L1X0’s Sultai Scam brings the same concept to MTG Standard. The idea here is to open with a Springleaf Drum on turn one, then follow it up by Evoking Wistfulness, Deceit, and Emptiness on turn two. With the Evoke trigger on the stack, you can use Springleaf Drum to tap your Elemental for black mana, then use that to cast Not Dead After All or Undying Malice.
With these, your Evoked Elemental will spring right back into play after you sacrifice it. Thanks to the fixed wording on the new ones, you won’t get an extra use of their enters effect when this happens, as you would with their Modern Horizons 2 forebears. Still, getting the first Evoke effect and a chunky body for just two mana is a fantastic deal overall.
By itself, this is an incredibly powerful line. What really pushes things over the edge, however, is the inclusion of Sunderflock. While this beast starts at nine mana, its cost is reduced by that of your biggest Elemental in play. With Emptiness or Deceit out, then, you can curve right into it on turn three. This will bounce all of your opponent’s creatures while letting you keep your own, all while adding a 5/5 Flier to the board.
On The Grind
Potent as this dream scenario is, you’re not going to hit it every game. To shore things up, L1X0 builds out the rest of their list as a grindy graveyard shell, capable of eking out advantage in the long run.
Honest Rutstein is probably the most important card here. In scenarios where you have an Elemental to Evoke on turn two but not the rest of the combo, this lets you recur it on turn three to cast later. Thanks to the cost reduction, you can also hard cast your big hitters with ease. Getting a Wistfulness for just four, or a Sunderflock for two to three with an Evoke Elemental out, feels fantastic.
Overlord of the Balemurk is also a key piece here, as, along with Wistfulness, it provides a potent self-mill package. This lets you stack creatures to recur with Rutstein, as well as prime targets for Superior Spider-Man. While Sultai Scam isn’t as all-in on this card as its Reanimator cousin, it can still do some very nasty things. You can get both abilities on Deceit if you pull that, or you can hit Sunderflock to clear the board from the graveyard if things go south.
Add in a few copies of Tragic Trajectory as cheap removal, and that’s all she wrote on Sultai Scam. It’s a pretty all-in deck, with pretty much all of its slots dedicated to maximizing the Evoke Elementals, but its graveyard elements give it more scope for survival in games without optimal draws.
A Breakout Hit?
Right now, Sultai Scam is definitely the most exciting MTG Standard newcomer from Lorwyn Eclipsed. The real question is whether or not it has the potential to stick around. Considering a new set has just been released, and the metagame is in flux, this is a very hard question to answer. For now, however, the big three decks of Dimir Midrange, Izzet Lessons, and Simic Ouroboroid are still putting up a fight.
Against both Dimir Midrange and Izzet Lessons, Sultai Scam feels quite strong. These are decks geared towards dealing with smaller creatures removal-wise, meaning your huge Elementals will likely catch them off guard. While fast starts from this pair can get underneath you, Sunderflock is a nice get-out-of-jail-free card for those scenarios.
Unfortunately, Simic Ouroboroid is a trickier kettle of fish. Thanks to its explosive Badgermole Cub starts, this deck can field creatures big enough to contest your Elementals quite easily, like Quantum Riddler. It can also go wide with the titular Ouroboroid, too, which is an equally rough scenario.
Overall, Sultai Scam is a mixed bag in current Standard. Its result today was undeniably great, but we’ll need to see how the metagame develops to know whether this will become the next incarnation of Rakdos Scam, or just another set gimmick deck that fades after release week.
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