hellkid001

Discard is great when you can put a clock out and finish the game quickly. I decided to go a counterspell route instead. Discard is a horrible top deck late game (which this deck wants to go late), while counterspells can stop your opponent's top decks and also keep you ahead. Discard is proactive and this is a reactive deck/gameplan. Discard is a great strategy, just not for this deck.

Thanks for the question!

I am really looking for a new deck to play. What are this decks tough matchups?

hellkid001

I should put a disclaimer that this deck isn't tier 1 by any means. I wouldn't want to have someone drop some money for it and not do well with it. It is pretty good though but it kinda folds to good graveyard hate. That's why I have some backup wincons that I side in that don't rely on graveyard.

I haven't got to play the deck enough to find it's true bad matchups. But I do know that I've had trouble with Tron. I now side 3 spreading seas but I haven't got matched up with Tron since I put those in the board (one of the lovely things about Modern lol).

Good matchups are creature decks and slower Midrange decks. This deck is at its best when graveyard hate isn't a priority for people to side.

I found that this deck is really tough to pilot because of all the tutoring and different lines that the decks has. Also side boarding takes a lot of practice because the deck builds "engines" (loops) to win the game. And I am still learning how to side out the different pieces and not to ruin its consistency. I know I've lost some games because of not siding correctly or keeping hands that appear to be good and also just misplays.

I have a 16-8 record so far with the deck, but this includes me tuning and finding all the kinks and fixing it on the way. I think it's pretty good record considering the uniqueness of the home brew. But I do post my results on the updates every time I play it. I hope that helps your matchups question.

But it's a extremely fun deck to run (in my opinion). Sorry for the ramblings haha hope it helped.

Sounds perfect to me

First off, I really, really like this deck and the idea behind it.

A couple of ideas:

It may be a budget consideration, or just a desire to differentiate, but a playset of Goyf seems kind of mandatory in your Traverse deck with 7 different card types. With the main deck Search and artifact package, this might be the best goyf deck in the format.

Shriekmaw should probably just be a Murderous Cut if you're in a market for that kind of effect.

nickfaw

Thanks for the comment and suggestions! Yes I don't own goyfs which is one reason why I am not playing them in this deck. But actually I like that I blank removal of my opponents with not having them. All my creatures get me a card and then if they kill my witness or snaps than I don't care, they are down a card and makes them into two for ones.

Traverse isn't really to find threats. It just makes it so I can run less lands and it finds witness, snaps and then the very important academy ruins. It is also just to make gift piles and also makes more hits off of the Azcanta triggers. Goyf is better in a proactive discard game, where you discard their removal and drop a goyf and have other things that need removed like dark confidant and what not, so it exhausts their removal and you eventually get a beater to stick and win the game fast. But this deck is pure control and is very reactive. But yeah after all that... it's probably correct to play some amount of goyfs...haha it's just super powerful...my play style is just to have more answers than threats ha

Shriekmaw is in the deck because it turns all the traverses into removal spells and also gives a really nice target for Pulse of Murasa when there is no witness in the grave. Also late game it's a decent finisher. Casting it for its full cost blowing up a creature and beating them down with a near unblockable 3/2 is nice.

Let me know if you have anymore questions or thoughts!

Wow, this looks really fun to play.

I'm going to try it and i will probably fail miserably :D

Eisenwolf

Thanks for the comment!

Yeah it's really tough deck to pilot. It takes a while to get use to. I'm still learning and I built it haha anyways let me know if you do use it and I would love to hear feedback and thoughts. Someone already played it and gave me some feedback and it really helped. Let me know if you have any questions about the deck! Thanks much

Awesome deck! Super innovative and spicy. 29-12 is pretty great! +1

DeviousPenguin666

Thanks so much for the upvote and comment! Hope to be playing the deck here soon to add to that record! :)

This looks awesome. I've been messing around with sultai traverse control for a bit. I've been on a really grindy version of death's shadow but I've been wanting to switch it up. My first thought was cryptic commands, sweepers, traverse + snap (so good), and emrakul as a finisher. This looks like it might be a more elegant version of that, but I wonder if emrakul might still fit as a way to win on the spot. Also, have you looked at cast down? i think it's just better than go for the throat (especially in a hollow one world).

StankP.I.

Thanks for the comment! I love the word "elegant" haha I do love cast out. I did just pick up one the other day and was planning on that switch. I just changed it now thanks! Emerakul just is too expensive even with the cost reduction. I've thought about it. Just would be more cute than effective. I do agree I'd like a win on the spot card sometimes. I have considered just doing combo gifts but I just like doing my own thing to make it a real brew. Lol

Let me know if you have any more questions!

No More questions, just thought I'd show you where my thought process was. This is the brew I've been fiddling with lately. I'm thinking about trying to hybridize these a bit.

Hey, great Job on that List i think it looks awesome!Definetly agree that sultai has to find its own niche, and this looks very fun.Why arent you playing cycling lands tho?

Pastato

Thanks! Yeah it is blast to play if you are a fan of control. I originally wanted cycling lands in the deck. I had the UB cycler but I found that I always wanted to either play it or fetch for it. The land count is so low that all the lands you start with in hand or draw are important to get on the battlefield. Also once I played it I wouldn't be able to get it back unless I GQ my own land. Also a 3rd tap land (2 man lands) came up a lot and it just seemed really slow. So I just cut it for a shock. This deck is already really slow and the format is really fast, so it really can't handle having extra tap lands besides the two it already has.

Let me if you have anymore questions or ideas! Love answering them!

Hey, how aggressively can this deck mulligan, it runs a low land count, so 6 might be max, but I could see 4/5 if you have traverse? How do you play it out?

SynergyBuild

Yeah mulligan to 6 is probably best. 5 and lower gets kinda scary, which goes for pretty much any deck. But I have a low enough curve that you can keep a low land count in hand on a mulligan. Then kill/counter all your opponent’s stuff and then they will draw more lands and that will give you a window to get a Gifts off to stabilize. Search for Azcanta and gifts help you catch back up off mulligans.

Hope that answers your question! Let me know if you have anymore.

It seems like if you know the opponent's deck, resolving a Gifts Ungiven with the right pile wins the game. Am I wrong in that assumption? It appears to me it is the sultai player's Cryptic Command (Which is normally the win in jeskai/azorius control decks, as the tempo it gives is insurmountable by most decks).

Would you consider running more of Cryptic Commands?

Also, a card I run as a one-of for delirium, and because of it's interaction with Mishra's Bauble, would Crop Sigil do work here? I have found it is easy to use it as a bad Search for Azcanta  ^Flip, that can later be both halves (minus the lifegain) of a Pulse of Murasa, below is my list:

Sultai Toolbox

Modern SynergyBuild

4 VIEWS

Hello! I've been testing this deck online, and I was wondering, do you have a sideboarding strategy written out? No problem if you don't, thanks.

SynergyBuild

Gifts doesn’t always win the game on the spot. It for sure puts you in the right direction. It’s the turns before gifts that win the game. The goal is to get to a safe spot where you can get the gifts off without dying to combo or big swings. So if you are able to get the correct answers leading up to gifts then I usually win the game...unless I punt the game somehow haha

Cryptic is good at one I found. Really helps the mana and also your life because you won’t need to search for shocks as much early. I talk about cryptic at one in my video.

Thanks for the questions!

Leafbladefighter

I don’t have a guide! that may be something I’ll have to work on. It’s just because I usually change my side 2-4 cards every event I play just to do testing and such. But since you are playing online please tell me your results and what you think. I’ve had one person get ahold of me and play at one Fnm with the deck and gave me some great feedback and it helped me do some key changes. So I’d love to hear what you think. I don’t have magic online so I don’t get much testing besides the few paper tourneys I can make.

Are there any specific match ups I can help you with for sidebaording?

I’m not playing on Magic Online, I’m testing it on a website similar to Cockatrice called Untap, because I wanted to test the deck before I invested in it. That being said, I’ve defeated Burn, Humans, Abzan, and KCI with this deck, and I only lost to Ponza due to my own personal errors.

Leafbladefighter

Good job! Yeah I haven’t beat ponzu yet. It’s really hard to answer everything of theirs, especially if they are on the play.

For siding in general I just look how fast my opponents deck is. If it’s super fast I tend to take out Azcanta And even sometimes some amount of gifts. I side out spellbombs vs non graveyard decks. Side out certain academy combos that don’t really work for the given matchup. Vs merfolk or cavern decks I side out all my counters and just side in all my removal.

I’d love to hear if there is anything you would add or change to the deck? Or what you thought worked about the deck. It really helps out.