While MTG Arena is now the main platform in playing Magic: the Gathering Standard in the new normal in this pandemic period, I am still hopeful of the possibility that Paper Magic will be back by the end of the year. That is at the least on the local setting which may help the local game stores to continue their operations.

Anyhow, I am still preparing some of the possible deck builds with our current card pool despite a few months of no games or playtest sessions. That said, MTG Top 8 website is again my main source and reference for updated decklists and to check the metagame with what is happenings in the recent Magic: the Gathering major tournaments.

For today’s feature, we have Sultai Control which got 1^st place in the SCG Tour Online Championship Qualifiers hosted by Star City Games.

See the decklist below.

28 LANDS
4 Breeding Pool
4 Fabled Passage
3 Forest
2 Island
1 Ketria Triome
4 Overgrown Tomb
2 Swamp
4 Watery Grave
4 Zagoth Triome

8 CREATURES
4 Hydroid Krasis
4 Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath
18 INSTANTS and SORC.
2 Aether Gust
2 Agonizing Remorse
2 Casualties of War
1 Cultivate
2 Eliminate
3 Extinction Event
3 Heartless Act
3 Thought Erasure

6 OTHER SPELLS
4 Nissa, Who Shakes the World
2 Teferi, Master of Time

SIDEBOARD
2 Aether Gust
1 Agonizing Remorse
1 Casualties of War
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Enter the God-Eternals
1 Heartless Act
1 Legion’s End
2 Narset, Parter of Veils
2 Negate
1 Noxious Grasp
2 Wilt

The deck is mainly consist of spot, mass removal and hand disruption while curving into Nissa, Who Shakes the World to gain board advantage. It got an upgrade with the triland Zagoth Triome from Ikora and the four-mana sweep removal in Extinction Event. While it looks subpar as compared to the likes of Shatter the Sky, it still goes with the mana curve of removals before landing Nissa on your fifth turn.

Teferi, Master of Time is the new addition from Coreset 2021 and the continuous hand filter let get the good cards to deal with opponents’ threat while getting closer to bring back your Uro to the battlefield.

It outlasted the other 110 players in the tournament along with the Winona aggro deck in the Finals match. You can find the tournament recap at the SCG website and on their Twitch account. I think they have it under the Videos tab.

That is a wrap for now, until the next blog post.

I remember back in a Magic: the Gathering WMCQ event in Manila where I piloted a Naya Planeswalkers deck with some mana-fixing, spot and mass removal spells. It was a quite grinding build but the objective for the late game is to dominate opponents with your super friends.

During the last days of Standard before the pandemic, I’ve looked on our Grixis Planeswalker deck which we had in our team roster and while it was note quite popular because of the majority of Flash decks that counters it, it was shelved only for playtest use and minor local tournaments.

For today’s M21 Standard deck feature, we have a similar deck with the Grixis colors but having White as the fourth one. This opens access to Elspeth Conquers Death, Teferi, and Baneslayer Angel in the sideboard as the powerful part of the late-game plan and that will really gain value and at most will win you games.

I found this on the Best Decks column of the Player Tour Finals held last July 25th, 2020. This was played by Bolun Zhang which he got 27 pts & here below is the decklist:

26 LANDS
1 Blood Crypt
4 Godless Shrine
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Interplanar Beacon
1 Raugrin Triome
2 Savai Triome
4 Temple of Deceit
2 Temple of Silence
4 Watery Grave

4 CREATURES
4 Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths

13 INSTANTS and SORC.
2 Cry of the Carnarium
2 Duress
1 Eliminate
1 Extinction Event
1 Heartless Act
2 Ritual of Soot
1 The Elderspell
3 Thought Erasure

17 OTHER SPELLS
4 Elspeth Conquers Death
1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
4 Narset, Parter of Veils
4 Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
4 Teferi, Time Raveler

SIDEBOARD
1 Aether Gust
1 Agonizing Remorse
2 Baneslayer Angel
2 Cry of the Carnarium
2 Duress
2 Eliminate
2 Extinction Event
1 Heartless Act
2 Noxious Grasp

Reference:
https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=26617&d=405568&f=ST&show_pts=Y

The Other Aggro decks row in the Standard page of the MTGTop8 website is my go-to place to search for possible deck brews that gained a relevant finish in the online & local tournaments. For today, I have found another unusual deck though the concept is already existing in the metagame. The unique thing is the color of choice. That is, instead of the Simic colors, we have Blue Black or Dimir guild and utilized cards from the Ikoria set.

Check out the Dimir Flash aggro deck piloted by Lewis Cucchiara in an SCG Tour Online – Challenge @ Star City Games qualifier tournament.

Mainboard

23 Lands
1 Fabled Passage
7 Island
7 Swamp
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Watery Grave

28 Creatures
4 Brazen Borrower
4 Brineborn Cutthroat
4 Cunning Nightbonder
3 Dirge Bat
1 Pouncing Shoreshark
4 Sea-Dasher Octopus
4 Slitherwisp
4 Spectral Sailor

9 Other Spells
4 Heartless Act
3 Mystical Dispute
2 Ashiok’s Erasure

Sideboard
3 Aether Gust
1 Mystical Dispute
4 Negate
3 Noxious Grasp
4 Unmoored Ego

Reference:
https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=26416&d=402066&f=ST