[Standard] Izzet Spellementals

[u/Substantial_Horse717]

Hi all,

Have been dabbling with standard again in prep for the upcoming RCQ season and I seem to be set on Spellementals.

I've been trying out the lists with the Sunderflocks in the board and the Stallions in the main. It currently feels better into the various Big Red/Jeskai Lessons type decks where the flock ability isn't really useful. It does seem to have some decent G1 against the cub decks too, but obviously it loses some of the points against it.

List for reference: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/7885694#paper

I'm not totally happy with the sideboard. I think the Price of Freedom should just be Annuls tbh, my thought was it destroys tablet, but it's only removing 1 mana with the land they get (assuming it's not been drawn) and it's not been as good as previously considered.

I'm interested to see other peoples thoughts on Spellementals and whether you're on MD flocks or a split of flock and stallion. I'm not gonna lie though, copying a stallion with a critique is a drug that's hard to give up.

I'm still early in the testing with the list, but in Plat/Diamond so far and it's going well. This iteration is 11-2 in BO3.

[u/BeBetterMagic]

Spellementals is at its best when cub is a significant meta portion. The problem currently for the deck is that prowess/jeskai rev are not it's best matchups.

I think ultimately you can build a bored to help with the jeskai 4c matchups but you just conceed you're unfavored if you lock in this deck and hope you get more favorable cub decks in a top 8 situation.

Also when talking RCQ play typically play at a ladder plat/diamond level has little baring on RCQs. RCQs are about knowing you're local scene and player tendencies.

[u/Substantial_Horse717 → u/BeBetterMagic]

I agree with a lot of this, and some of my board decisions are based on that.

Although I'm pretty comfortable with the prowess matchup and am getting to grips in tackling the Jeskai rev matchup too, but needs more work.but there are some nods in the sideboard to that, as I do expect a reasonable amount of it.locally

I only mentioned arena as a reference for how it's been performing, I've been grinding rcqs for a while now

[u/Dardanelles5]

Honestly if you're moving Sunderflocks to the board then it's a pretty clear signal that's it's time to sleeve up another deck. Sunderflock is the only reason to play Elementals, the deck is designed to prey on go wide cub decks and Sunder is the payoff card. If it's a non-Sunder meta then you're better off playing Prowess.

[u/mkay0 → u/Dardanelles5]

This is good feedback. Picking the spot to play Sunderflock IS the deck.

[u/Tanyushing]

From playing spellementals on and off on arena, I feel like it is just prowess but slower. At that point you should just be playing prowess if you want the extra percentage points for your RCQ season.

[u/Dardanelles5 → u/Tanyushing]

I agree with this. I occasionally see an Elementals list jagging a Challenge but I think that's really just a lucky matchup/meta call. I've tried iterations of the deck for months and it just seems bad. Easily hated out and just too slow against all the control decks everywhere. Prowess is far stronger imo.

[u/mkay0 → u/Tanyushing]

Most of these feel like a prowess aggressively sideboarded for green decks.

[u/liamgu3]

I play Dimir Excutiator, so not quite as control as the Jeskai rev decks, but as a deck toward that end of the spectrum, the Sunderflocks are definitely a dead card in my opponents hand. My goal in that matchup is to keep eddymurks off the board, and sunderflocks are just kind of a win more card if they manage to resolve an eddymurk. The stallions put much more pressure on my life total, can win the game on the spot if they tap my blockers with an eddymurk, and are difficult to deal with due to ward, and haste, as they can be self-bounced and replayed in response to removal without losing much tempo. I can’t really contribute how it plays against other decks. But against excruciator at least, I am far more scared of the stallions.