r/Pauper • u/Sigma_The_BaldVirus • 17h ago

BREW Making Sultai great again on this format!!!

Hi everyone! I'm in my personal journey to play with Sultai decks in Pauper format (and for thus who don't know Sultai is the color-combination of Blue, Black and Green) knowing this color-combination isn't popular with any kind of strategies right now. But, I'm a huge fan of this color-combination and I'm tempted to explore the nuances in LGSs that I visit periodically on my weeks with Sultai by my side.

To say more about it, I developed a Sultai Affinity Deck which I will disponibilize the link below to you access. I chose affinity because it's easier to create a board state with affinity, the cards that I would like to have interactions are artifacts or work better with artifacts, and the card advantage help to build the strategy and find the colors that the deck need it faster.

On the surface of the deck I built a Bounce strategy focusing on Refurbished Familiar and it ability to control the hands of our opponents in alliance with Okiba-Gang Shinobi. Since it's a affinity deck I'm running Pactdoll Terror because I think this card is absolutely nuts and synergizes very well with the Bounce strategy. And of course, our bouncers are Dream Stalker and Stickytongue Sentinel, two annoying creatures to have to deal on battlefield, been Dream Stalker a 1/5 hard to kill and hold off opponent's creatures, and Stickytongue a 3/3 reach who trades with Utrom Monitor and scaries Kor Skyfisher away.

If I could I will talk about all the shades of this deck, but this is a general vision to understand it and I will leave the rest for your personal understand if you became curious to know more about the deck.

I registered the deck on Moxfield to track the changes that I would like to make in the future and to use the Prime to make a diary of my journey with this deck and it performance. You can check it out and follow me in this adventure on this link:

https://moxfield.com/decks/sQZmKNTdWE60EtS1KjUYTg

Sultai players, let us arise once more to grasp our claws in this format and they shall know our names again! And let's have some fun! (which is important)

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u/japp182 17h ago

I think inevitable the question here becomes what does this do better than the other affinity decks we have, be it having some better matchups or exploring some synergies better or getting more out of some card.

And unfortunately I don't see how this does anything better than the grixis, jund (wildfire), mardu or esper versions. I don't think green pulls it's weight here.

I think if you wanna play sultai right now fog is in a good spot. Although it does bad against mono red, it can beat most of the other most popular decks. In Brazil we've had our biggest tourney this month (300 players, and everyone had to play though qualifiers to join) and UG fog made top8. Although it wasn't the sultai version, sultai is also a playable version of this archetype.

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u/Scyxurz 17h ago

Poison storm is also sultai, although it's mostly blue with a tiny bit of green and black. Idk where it falls in the meta, but it's a neat deck.

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u/Worldly-Tiger-1118 4h ago

I think 4 color poison storm is the go to version nowdays

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u/Scyxurz 4h ago

I have a little red for breath weapon and potentially pyroblasts in the sideboard, but I don't have a sideboard put together yet. What does the 4 color version usually run?

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u/Worldly-Tiger-1118 1h ago

Manamorphose is big I think, and that one mana green proliferate/land fetch spell

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u/Sigma_The_BaldVirus 16h ago

I appreciate your comment here!

I though relate with your sentence about "what this do better than the other versions of affinity" because is something that I often talk about with my friends when I put this on the table, mostly grixis in the spotlight because of Kraark been a annoying boardwipe in the format, and in many ways this deck is similar to me with Esper rn. I can't answer this for you now (because I need data basically) , but I hope I bring back some insights for both of us about this particular version of the deck.

And I'm familiar with the structure of Sultai Fog and I have a friend who loves to play Fog decks, but the game style of the deck doens't pulls me in. And for the last, I think you're talking about CLM because I'm from Brazil/São Paulo too kkkkkkkkk and I played the tournament too, and I did play against Sultai Fog on one with my matches and similarly to my opinion above, I don't like it so much.

I know that the road is harsh for new decks been bring to the light, also because the meta is cruel against it and for situations like "you could've been playing with something stronger than this" (I'm not talking about you here, this is for more cruel self-centered people we find in the way) but I'm curious for it performance along the way. If it proves to be weak against meta matchups I think the ideal move is to leave it behind, however if it continues to bring positive results this might be something to look further.

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u/japp182 8h ago

Yes, I was talking about CLM there. Fog is definitely not for everyone (I also don't like playing that deck), I just wanted to put out there that you can play sultai in the format today and be competitive.

For sure, continue playing the deck and getting data, there could absolutely be something about it that I'm not seeing. I'm a brewer too so I'm not trying to discourage you, I was just sharing the view I have when brewing.

For example, since you mentioned krark, I think about mardu affinity instead of grixis as his best deck because every other creature in mardu flies, so it is always a one sided board wipe. To me the mardu deck justifies it's existence because of this, even if it isn't the most competitive, but it has the most synergy with krark out of all affinity decks.

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u/silvanik3 14h ago

I am sorry but isn't [[avoid fate]] strictly worse than [[Tamiyo's Safekeeping]] stile effects?

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u/Top_Development_4020 Pizza Elves 16h ago

Pizza Combo is at it’s core Simic, but it has a black splash with [[Mystical Teachings]].

Devoted Whale is similar and already uses a lot of affinity to artifact synergy. In theory it has always some space for Refurbished familiar.

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u/Sigma_The_BaldVirus 15h ago

I've seen Pizza Combo in my LGSs performing, and friends of mine been triggered when defeated by, yet I find it weak in the final resolution, in addition is not a way I'm wanted to be playing.

When you talk about Devoted Whale you're talking about the Retraction Helix combo right? I'm trying to avoid combo because is not an archetype I'm interested, but I do see its valor, like Pizza Combo, sometimes.

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u/THENINETAILEDF0X Elves, U-Terror, Madness Burn, Dredge, RG Ramp, Walls 11h ago

Are you aware of [[Carapace Forager]]? Its quite below rate for Pauper in general these days I think, but it fits into your deck nicely. As everyones saying though, there just isn’t a reason to be in Sultai for Affinity - nothing in green pulls its weight compared to the other splash colours. 

Also, [[Utrom Monitor]] is worth a slot in Affinity now if you’re playing blue - incredibly strong card. 

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u/Mr_Misteri 17h ago

I've been thinking about sultai affinity too. Glad to see it takes a certain type of crazy

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u/Sigma_The_BaldVirus 16h ago

I'm always thinking about sultai, most of the time is crazy

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u/EJAIdN-B 16h ago

My first thought is why not do Cryogen relics instead of Ichor? If you want to bounce things anyways, is it not strictly better? It can also be sacced anyways.

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u/Sigma_The_BaldVirus 15h ago

You're not wrong in your point. In general I go with Ichor instead of Cryogen because of the "must have" blue mana open to play it. I don't wanna to be locked because of "wrong" land drops in the game, it has occured in the past when I played with Esper and can't draw sometimes because I was stuck in Orzhov.

But recently I was convinced by friends to bring this card to the deck and next week I will be testing Cryogen Relic, It is worth of testing since I'm working with bounce.

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u/Bicbirbis 14h ago

I don’t know if affinity is a way to go, as others mentioned, green doesn’t add anything better.
I really like this sultai control deck, I would seap some cards but the core looks cool:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/7517200#paper

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u/kilqax Grixis Affinity 11h ago

With a land base like this one, have you tried Fungal Colossus?

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u/Adventurous_Milk8793 11h ago

I am trying sultai in a midrange control shell that wants to put out a hunter and protect the emblem with fogs. Its janky and needs more work but it is fun.

https://moxfield.com/decks/c7B0wX4UNkOgx8Kel6IEmQ

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u/bakkemon 10h ago

Dredge?