A land of death, decay and disease. Ruled with an iron hand, but sometimes death brings new life.
Sultai Heartless Summoning
Welcome to my Sultai midrange deck, utilizing
Heartless Summoning
to power out threats, and utilizing land synergies to drown your opponent in card advantage.
Overview
Sultai is usually an overlooked colour combination in Modern.
Fatal Push
is a huge gain for the deck, but usually people go to
Lightning Bolt
or
Path to Exile
for their choice removal. The main problem Sultai faces is other 3 card combinations just do it better for the most part. You want midrange? Jund is the go to. Control? Grixis or Jeskai tend to offer more. Aggro? Don't kid yourself. One area where I've found strength though is land based synergies. There is no better 3 colour combination for the etb of lands to be relevant in a midrange shell.
The main core of the deck is in 4 cards.
Heartless Summoning
,
The Gitrog Monster
,
Tatyova, Benthic Druid
, and
Ramunap Excavator
. This combination of cards has the ability to gain you a good amount of life, and put you way ahead on cards, which will usually be enough to maintain your advantage.
Below will cover card choices, and typical play patterns, and will be extended to cover match-ups and sideboarding once I get some reps with the deck. Keep in mind this deck is a brand new brew for me, and is utilizing unreleased cards.
Card Choices
Early Game (Turns 1-3) Show
Sylvan Caryatid
- This card works as a weaker copy of
Heartless Summoning
when we don't have one. In other lists I've seen, they seem like they struggle to do anything unless they draw
Heartless Summoning
and I wanted to avoid that.
Ramunap Excavator
- One of the cornerstones of the deck, this card allows us to hit land drops more consistently, and build toward our late game synergies. Combines with our late game cards, this blows up late, but is usually great early as well.
Tireless Tracker
- This card is an insanely powerful value engine, as well as an enabler for our one copy of
Wayward Swordtooth
. Traker does it all, draws us cards and acts as a respectable threat.
Wayward Swordtooth
- Being able to play extra lands is very powerful in this deck, and this card becomes
Exploration
when we have
Heartless Summoning
out, while transitioning into a good threat in the late game.
Oracle of Mul Daya
- This card run double duty in the deck, filling a similar role to
Wayward Swordtooth
, while also granting card advantage in the way of playing lands off the top of our deck. Great early game card that transitions well into our late game.
Late Game (Turn 4+) Show
Tatyova, Benthic Druid
- This is the first new card in our deck, and the main reason we're in blue. This plus even a
Ramunap Excavator
can dig you out of almost any hole. Add in an
Oracle of Mul Daya
, and you're drawing 2-4 cards a turn, and gaining an insane amount of life overall. If this sticks for even one fecthland, it's very likely you can run away with the game.
The Gitrog Monster
- This card fulfills a similar role to
Tatyova, Benthic Druid
. The difference is he completely self enables, allowing you to play extra lands, and draw extra cards.
Ghost Quarter
plus him draws you a lot of cards, and fetches are also great. Plus a 6/6 body is great in modern even with
Heartless Summoning
in play. Add in the fact he has deathtouch, and
The Gitrog Monster
becomes a difficult thing to deal with.
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
- This card is highly explosive, and with the amount of land drops we can have in a turn, if he goes unchecked, he will usually kill the opponent in 1 turn.
Muldrotha, the Gravetide
- This card is another card from the new set, and it seems highly synergistic in the deck. It allows us to get back any finishers they may have killed, and works as a one shot
Ramunap Excavator
to enable our engine. Also a 6/6 is pretty great for 6.
Instants and Sorceries Show
Fatal Push
- One of the Keystone removal spells in modern, and a great card for our deck. It allows us to interact with the board if we have a slow draw, and is very easy to enable revolt.
Abrupt Decay
- A catch-all that we can play mainboard at instant speed. It deals with a lot of troublesome cards, and removal is always good to have in modern.
Maelstrom Pulse
- A literal catch-all, and sometimes a two-for-one. If you're in G/B, you should probably be playing at least one copy of this card.
Enchantments Show
Utopia Sprawl
- Another card filling a similar role to
Sylvan Caryatid
filling in the draw where we don't have
Heartless Summoning
. It also allows us to play 2 cards on turn 2 with a
Heartless Summoning
putting our game plan ahead of schedule.
Heartless Summoning
- This card adds an explosiveness to the deck that most other midrange decks can't handle, and that gives is a better shot against aggro. Being able to play our 5 drops on turn 3 can be game winning on its own and our deck is built to minimize the effect of the -1/-1.
This won't be structured the same way as the above two panels, but will explain choices as a whole.
Basics - We run 7 basics because they synergyze well with when we need to
Ghost Quarter
ourself, as well as let us play the game in a
Path to Exile
,
Blood Moon
,
Field of Ruin
meta.
Ghost Quarter
- This card hoses tron decks, as well as being great for fixing our own mana and drawing us a lot of cards when combined with our finishers. With our ability to play from the yard and how greedy a lot of modern manabases are, we can turn these into
Strip Mine
in certain match-ups.
Fetches - We run 9 fetches. They fix our mana well, as well as synergizing very well with almost all of our creatures.
Shocks - He only play 4. Overall the mana is pretty good, especially with
Sylvan Caryatid
and
Utopia Sprawl
in the deck. Still they come in handy so we play them.
Horizon Canopy
- Essentially tapping for only green in the deck, we use this because of our abilioty to reuse it in the deck, allowing it to draw us even more cards than normal.
Play Patterns
Ideally, you want to start off the game with some kind of ramp spell.
Heartless Summoning
is usually the best one, but
Sylvan Caryatid
and
Utopia Sprawl
both put in work. Your most explosive starts come off of
Utopia Sprawl
=
Heartless Summoning
+ a 3 drop. This combination allows you to
Heartless Summoning
on turn 2 while also casting a 3 drop with it. If the 3 drop is Wayward Sawtooth, you have the potential to play a second 3 drop as well. Having this start also allows you to play one of your value 5 drops on turn 3 and still make a land drop that turn. If you have a start like this, your opponent will have a hard time coming back.
Midgame you're looking to make as many land drops as you can. The deck runs 25 lands, so you're usually good to go, but missing lands can really hurt the deck. Cards like
Oracle of Mul Daya
or
Ramunap Excavator
are usually great, and will likely push you to your late game threats. This is also usually the stage in the game you're looking to cash in removal spells, and clear the way for your finishers and value engines.
Late game is where you start to go off, and will a good draw, you can get here by turn 3 or 4. In modern, unless you're a control deck, you need to execute your gameplan by this point, or you will usually lose the game. Our board at this point ideally looks something like this.
Heartless Summoning
,
Ramunap Excavator
,
Oracle of Mul Daya
, Tatyova, Bentic Druid, and a fetchland in your graveyard. This lets you draw 4 cards, while gaining life, and usually allows you to play another big finisher as well, putting the game farther out of reach.
Wrap Up
And that's the deck. The sideboard is a work in progress, and is trying to cover any weaknesses that the deck seems to have at first glance.
If you have any suggestions, make sure you read the primer first. Don't be afraid to suggest anything though, maybe I forgot something, or maybe I don't even know the card exists. Either way, I'm happy to hear it. Also if you like the list please give it a +1, as it helps me get more eyes, more comments, and an overall better deck.
Happy Brewing and good day!
