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Main » Articles » Ready, Set, GRIND

Ready, Set, GRIND

Michael Flores
Posted on August 21, 2018
 Reddit

The most interesting Standard deck that I've seen over the last couple of weeks is Sultai Explore. Played by Alexander Gordon-Brown to a Top 4 finish at Grand Prix Brussels, this deck really checked off a lot of boxes for me.

Sultai Explore | Magic 2019 Standard | Alexander Gordon-Brown, 4th GP Brussels

While the Mono-Green (or alternately "Green-splashing-Black" and "Green-splashing-Blue") StOmPy archetype(s) were absent from Top 8s on either continent, Gordon-Brown's deck gave us not only Black, but Blue. Rather than focusing purely on aggression, this deck generates, and builds upon, a ton of advantages. To be fair, it can actually get a pretty quick start sometimes. But what makes it special is its combination of speed and those aforementioned advantages.

High Five!:

  1. "The Combo" aka "Splinter Twin" - Landing Hostage Taker with g open is often the death knell for the opponent. You can exile their best guy (or artifact) and then protect Hostage Taker with Blossoming Defense. Remember: Procedurally, it is usually best to cast Hostage Taker when you can immediately play what you just exiled. This minimizes the opponent's opportunity to interact with sorcery speed removal. Playing the Pirate like a Ravenous Chupacabra is fine, too; especially when you can get in there for the win.

  2. Explore - The interplay between Gordon-Brown's eight Explore dudes and Wildgrowth Walker is the real "difference that makes the difference" in this archetype. Explore dudes are boss to begin with, right? Well, Wildgrowth Walker can be a cross between Tarmogoyf and Loxodon Hierarch in this deck. A 1/3 creature for 2 mana is a great blocker to begin with... Take that Bomat Courier and / or Earthshaker Khenra! Add on some additional size and life gain (essentially for free) and you have a powerful one-two (or is it one-two-three?) punch.

  3. Explore Again - The great thing about Merfolk Branchwalker and Jadelight Ranger is that they are kinda sorta a better Elvish Visionary and Borderland Ranger, respectively. The terrible thing is that you never know what you're going to get. Or at least "rarely" depending on how your The Scarab God is working, or if you've chosen to play with Lifecrafter's Bestiary. The land count being low makes Explore more erratic than in some other decks.

  4. The land count is low - You'll hear conflicting things about how much land you should play. Beginner players tend to play not enough land. They usually want to just cram more "stuff" into their decks. Even when that stuff isn't overly good. Players will tend to overcorrect, then. For a long stretch after they learn what card advantage is, mayhap a stretch of many years, they'll either play too much land or become enamored of decks with lavishly tall land counts. "My rw Beatdown deck played twenty-six lands" is a sentence I've said out loud. Here's the truth: Decks with lower land counts tend to have a natural "card advantage" as games go longer. As long as both players survive the hectic early turns of mana development, what you actually want to do in the middle or later turns is draw gas, provided you can cast it. Fading on a land sucks, right? Gordon-Brown's mana base is quietly one of its strongest features. Though he plays only 23 lands, the Adventurous Impulses help him fix early. (I can proudly say I've blown a one-land Aether Hub energy on both Llanowar Elves and Adventurous Impulse with this deck.) Late game, he's not only 1-3 lands lower than many opponents, increasing his chances of drawing gas... Those same Adventurous Impulses can dig him to either one of his innumerable two-for-one creatures or the incomparable The Scarab God.

  5. The Scarab God is one of the most powerful end game plans in the current Standard. If you can survive long enough to get The Scarab God online and working, there are relatively few plans that are stronger. This deck can't stop the opponent from taking infinite turns in Game 1, and is probably not fast enough to pre-empt Approach of the Second Sun; but almost everything else will fall away. The Sultai Explore deck has enough mana - especially via Llanowar Elves and Servant of the Conduit - to get The Scarab God going (and operate) faster than other decks with the same plan. It is effective against even creature-poor decks because THIS deck is full of creatures! If, for instance, some 1-drops you with a Fumigate, you can re-play The Scarab God and access your own guys from the graveyard to great effect. There are subtle plays you can make from the graveyard, as well. Jadelight Ranger is a [potential] three-for-one on the front-side. It's a three-for-none out of the bin; and a 4/4 to boot! One of my favorite strategies with this deck is to use Hostage Taker, cast their card, and then start sending the Pirate on suicide runs. The very clever opponent will angle for card advantage, eating my pathetic 2/3 Pirate... And then frown when it comes back from the graveyard, often at an inopportune time. Instant speed reanimation, baby! You've still got Hostage Taker's backend ability, never you mind. An alternate line of play is to become invincible to all but massively tall go-wide opponents. If you can "block anything" with Hostage Taker, and then reanimate it... Wow is that bad for whoever is across the table. Their recourse, then, is to just not attack.

I made some changes to the Grand Prix version of the deck. Like so:

Sultai Explore | Magic 2019 Standard | Mike Flores

Vraska's Contempt
Mostly, I just took out the two expensive, energetic, Control Magics from the Grand Prix version for four copies of the fifth-best card in Standard; Vraska's Contempt. I also thought Aethersphere Harvester was a little clunky. It's a sore thumb against decks with main-deck artifact destruction. Anyway, Vraska's Contempt gains life, too!

The modified main deck seems better against the various Blue decks that make up almost half of Standard. A Control Magic is nice, but a Vraska's Contempt can actually take out Teferi. For that matter, the efficacy against The Scarab God and Torrential Gearhulk is increased. Obviously stealing The Scarab God is highly attractive, but exiling it when the opponent's mana is tapped probably works out more often.

A small side note: You're often desperate for colored mana, using your energy via Aether Hub or Servant of the Conduit to get blue... As such, Confiscation Coup can be far less exciting than you might have initially imagined.

I had to re-work the mana, of course. The mana base I ran had neither a basic Island nor a basic Swamp main. The sideboard Island is specifically there for uw Control decks. You can run into a situation where you're either energy-reliant to keep up your The Scarab God activations, or you can get sniped by a Field of Ruin for your only recurring source of Blue mana. An Island counters Field of Ruin, plus gives you something else to search for come Settle the Wreckage.

It's possible that the Island should just be in the main deck (like Gordon-Brown played); in which case I'd run a solo Vraska, Relic Seeker in the sideboard.

I generally like Cast Down better than Ravenous Chupacabra, by the by. It's faster and it's an instant against big vehicles or Glorybringer. I went with Chupacabra just because this is an Adventurous Impulse deck. The ability to "tutor" into your removal spell is a nice feature. Better than half the cost and instant speed? Of course there are other up shots.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Scarab God
After a few dozen matches I came to some interesting conclusions about Sultai Explore (my version at least).

First of all, this deck has an absolutely overwhelming win percentage over any normal or midrange creature deck. White-based tokens, other Green decks, whatever ad infinitum. I actually had a few games where I was behind on tempo early, nearly clicked the concede dropdown, and ended up winning by two dozen permanents.

Basically, if you survive the early game against such decks, you usually do so by trading creatures several times. That means creatures going to both graveyards. You draw extra lands with your Explore guys along the way. You get them with Hostage Taker, then trade, chump, or suicide your 2/3 Pirates... All for the greater glory of The Scarab God.

That said, I was a bit disappointed with my performance against Red Decks.

In his Top 8 interview, Gordon-Brown cited a good Red matchup as one of his reasons for playing Sultai. I can only assume that assessment was more around Pro Tour Mono-Red and / or Soulless rb decks. Blocking with creatures that already bought value, Wildgrowth Walker, and event my addition of Vraska's Contempt seem like problems for Hazoret and company.

The problem is, Hazoret and company are not the ascendant Red Deck right now. I was quite surprised at how bad I felt trying to answer a Viashino Pyromancer with Vraska's Contempt. I had a hard time ever gaining any life with Wildgrowth Walker, because there always seemed to be a Wizard's Lightning for it.

I also managed to lose to a sideboarded Vance's Blasting Cannons and burn cards to the jaw. It is difficult to justify siding in Negate against a deck with 20+ 1-2 casting cost fast beaters.

Game 1 against Control decks is just as difficult for Sultai as Sultai is for creature decks. The problem is that you can come out fast with Llanowar Elves... But lack the pure punch of a Stompy deck. The solution is just dumping your hand on the table to try to get damage in before you out and out lose to a five or seven... But that also puts you in a difficult spot against their sweepers.

Your sideboard goes a long way there. In particular, I like having a deck that can plausibly cast Lost Legacy. Lost Legacy has a ton of juicy targets in Standard. Teferi is probably the best card to name, even when the opponent also plays Nexus of Fate or Approach of the Second Sun... But hitting Approach with Lost Legacy is sometimes the only way to win.

The book is obviously not closed on Sultai Explore, at least not yet. But for it to be viable in Standard, I think we need to see movement away from the current Red Decks; that, or more action from our Wildgrowth Walkers.

Good luck grinding!

LOVE

MIKE

TAGS articles, constructed, analysis, standard, decklist, michael flores, magic 2019 standard, 08212018

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