This deck is a combination of Andrew Jessup's SCG Dallas Open winning Sultai Energy deck and William Huey Jensen's recent World Championship Temur Energy deck. Needless to say, it's a championship baby.
What doesn't it have?
Hostage Taker - As much as it functions as a great removal, a 4-to-cast for a 2/3 that works like a cast out, may not be smart in certain situations. Cons: susceptible to a Lightning Strike, Revolted Fatal Push, Glorybringer, and basically any other removal other than Shock. Another thing - if it takes a creature with an enter the battlefield effect, killing the Hostage Taker, will get the enter the battlefield trigger for the opponent again.
Glorybringer - Though it's a great card, for a 5-to-cast down the line, it's susceptible to the Blue-Black decks which are always prepared for creatures post 4-mana. It's quite sad to see the interval play too.
What does it have instead?
Verdurous Gearhulk
Winding Constrictor
Rishkar, Peema Renegade
+
Whirler Virtuoso
Harnessed Lightning
The spots that Hostage Taker and Glorybringer take, are substituted by energy pieces that reinforce the early game and late game.
Another thing: Vraska, Relic Seeker
It's both a removal spell, and a token generator.
Against Energy decks/Red Decks: -3 works amazing.Against anything else: +2 is great too. It basically adds an unblockable 2/2 because the opponent is too focused on blocking the bigger threats.
It's also a good way to distract opponents from hitting you in the face.
--
It's the best of both worlds.
P.S. Using Pokemon double-colorless energy or rainbow energy as your counter is a great way to show you mean business.
