Sultai in Modern

As many people in the local Magic scene know, I am a lover of all things Sultai. The colour combination of blue, black, and green just does the things I want to be doing. I've had a Sultai deck since I started playing Modern but it was also a subpar deck of just a bunch of good-stuff cards that I liked. With the printing of Fatal Push, I decided I wanted to take it all the way and eventually build up to having the more valuable cards.

Why Sultai?

Although I've long been a fan of Abzan decks, I still prefer Sultai, and Jund was never really my thing. Burn spells never really appealed to me and red has always been my least favourite colour in the game. The only thing that makes Jund appealing to me is the abundance of selection in 4-drops. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Huntmaster of the Fells, and Olivia Voldaren, all reasonable options. The only one of these that Sultai can play is Kalitas, and other than him the Sultai colours have very little of offer in impactful 4-drops.

The main draw of Abzan is Lingering Souls. I am a big fan of Souls, but it's not enough to lure me over. The main appeal for me to play Sultai is playing things like Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Serum Visions, and various counterspells.

I've done quite well with my recent builds of Sultai, going 3-1 at each of two separate local Modern events; losses being to a mono-black control brew that was able to out-grind me, and an Abzan Company deck splashing red for the Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker/Restoration Angel combo. I've generally not had a problem with the Abzan Company decks but an unanswered Restoration Angel is a decently fast clock. My latest build I think is the best yet, but haven't gotten to play it at an event yet. I took it to a local GPT (the last one ever), which sadly didn't fire. Played some pick-up games anyway and went 5-0.

The Deck

The first thing that's probably jumping out is the 3 Tarmogoyfs. This is simply because I haven't acquired my fourth yet but should soon. The 1 copy of Tasigur, the Golden Fang is a temporary stand-in for the fourth Tarmogoyf.

Jace, Vryn's Prodigy is a card I love in this deck and would play over Snapcaster Mage. Snapcaster is obviously a fantastic card but where it really shines is with counterspells. Since this is more of a GBx deck which focuses on discard and removal I like Jace more, since he allows you to flashback multiple spells from the graveyard, as well as negating small creatures. The front side of Jace also allows you to loot away cards at instant speed to turn on delirium. You can also activate the looting ability on your opponent's turn to flip Jace to get revolt for Fatal Push in a pinch.

As far as removal goes, I'm still not locked in on any particular numbers. I'm currently playing a 4/2 split of Fatal Push and Abrupt Decay. I think 6 cards like this is correct but a 3/3 split is also completely reasonable, and actually better in some matchups. For the "bigger" removal spells I currently have 2 Dismembers and 1 Maelstrom Pulse. I would like to go up to 4 spells like this (probably a second Pulse), but I am not sure what I would cut for it. It would also probably be fine to play a single Murderous Cut in one of these slots.

I also run a more flexible card that works as removal, a delirium enabler, and even a surprise pump spell, and that card is Nameless Inversion. I started out only playing one of these just to try it, and it ended up performing so well I added a second. Inversion can really mess up combat. In one game I played, I was attacking with two 2/2 Grim Flayers with a land and a sorcery in the graveyard. My opponent controlled two creatures and was at (I believe) 8 life. Attempting to play around a removal spell he double blocked one of the Flayers. I was then able to Nameless Inversion the unblocked Flayer, making it a 7/1 and the blocked one a 4/4, which killed both blocking creatures and trampled over, dealing lethal damage. Also notable is just casting Inversion on a 5/6 Tarmogoyf making it a 9/4 can punch through a lot of surprise damage. Of course, the more people expect it the less good it will be, but right now it feels great.

For discard I've been playing a 3/3 split of Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize. A 4/2 split would also be completely reasonable in my opinion, and I might switch to that soon. I reason I was playing 3 Thoughtseize for the longest time is because I didn't have any Liliana of the Veil, so I had a harder time dealing with "large" cards. I tried a Collective Brutality in the main deck for a little while and wouldn't recommend it. There are just too many matchups where it's not a great card, and we don't have anything like Lingering Souls in Abzan to discard for value.

Serum Visions is a great card in this deck and every time I try trimming or cutting them I regret it. It helps you find what you need and scry away what you don't. Scrying something to the top and then immediately drawing it with Jace always feels great. This slot could maybe be filled by Ancestral Vision instead but I haven't tried that out, the card selection now might be more important then the card draw later.

As far as the Planeswalkers go, I think you want to play some combination of 4 or 5 Lilianas. Each one is better in very different situations so leaning either way could be correct based on the situation.

There isn't a lot to talk about with the mana base except for maybe my choice in creature-lands. Creeping Tar Pit and Treetop Village are by far the best ones in these colours. Lumbering Falls is also a completely reasonable choice and is underplayed in Modern in my opinion. In the past when I had Falls in my deck I've used it to beat down controlling decks with hands full of just removal. Treetop Village is great but being mono-green make it a little tougher on the mana. I think with my current setup I'm not stretched to thin though.

The Sideboard

Sweepers (and other)

In this category I'm playing 1 Damnation, 2 Flaying Tendrils, and 1 Tooth Collector. The Damnation is obviously great in any matchup with a bunch of creatures. Flaying Tendrils is a card that has been gaining popularity lately, but I've been playing it in my Sultai decks since it was released in Oath of the Gatewatch. Before that I was playing Drown in Sorrow, which still was the "small sweeper" I wanted, but exiling the creatures is way more relevant than scry 1. Tooth Collector is something I saw in a few Modern delirium decks online that I wanted to try out. If you can get delirium turned on relatively quickly this card is almost the black Izzet Staticaster. This slot used to be Night of Souls' Betrayal, and depending how things go, things could revert back. Night is just a great card; especially when you don't kill anything in your own deck.

Graveyard Hate

I used to have two cards for this category but have recently moved up to three, and have not been disappointed with that decision. Currently I'm playing 1 Surgical Extraction and 2 Nihil Spellbomb. Both are good for slightly different things, and these days it feels like at least one of the two gets sided in in almost every matchup. Surgical is better when there's a single problematic card you need to snatch out of the graveyard or clear out of your opponent's deck. Things like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Lingering Souls, and Kitchen Finks are frequent targets. Spellbomb is better when you need to wipe out your opponent's whole graveyard, which is more useful against Dredge, or while your opponent is casting a Traverse the Ulvenwald. Spellbomb also has the upside of being an artifact for Tarmogoyf and delirium/Grim Flayer.

Other Sideboard Cards

Collective Brutality is amazing against both Burn and creature combo decks like any Abzan Company variant. I tend to only side it in if I plan on using at least two of the modes, as each mode on it's own doesn't have great rate. I think Burn is the only matchup I've ever used the drain mode, since with this deck I find the extra card in hand is more valuable than the life swing.

Rain of Tears is a card that probably looks strange to most people as they would expect Fulminator Mage, but I find it valuable to be able to recast it with Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. This card is useful against Tron, and against any matchup that has troublesome creature-lands. It's also worth considering against decks with greedy manabases. It's often worth bringing in Surgical Extraction at the same time so you can Surgical an important land you've destroyed like an Urza's Tower.

Stubborn Denial is a great card that could potentially even be in the main deck, and seems to come in in almost every matchup. Any time they have a powerful noncreature to counter it's good, and with this deck ferocious is almost always on.

Painful Truths and Tireless Tracker are both mostly for any grindy matchups. Painful Truths is also great any time your life total isn't under a lot a pressure and Tireless Tracker is just a solid threat that generates card advantage, and could come in for pretty much any matchup where you have dead/bad main deck cards.

Final Thoughts

Sultai is a reasonable and underplayed choice for Modern. If you enjoy the traditional BGx deck I encourage you to give it a try. I'm always looking to try new things as well so feel free to give suggestions for changes in the comments.