Visions from Beyond- Sultai Dredge (KTK/THS Standard)
Greetings readers! This is Samuel Wells bringing you yet another Visions From Beyond. For the upcoming weeks, I will be going through a small series of articles discussing deck archetypes that I am excited to see in the new standard.
The first deck that I want to see get testing is a deck that I alluded to in my first article coming back. I want to discuss the Sidisi Dredge deck that I outlined when I was discussing the viability of Sidisi. When I first wrote the article I was at my lowest point with excitement for Sidisi. The more I thought about how Sidisi worked in the deck the more synergies I saw in the deck. This made me excited to see how Sidisi could work in this shell and what he brings to the table as a threat.
So here is the list that I came up with:
Threats:
4 Nemesis of Mortals
4 Nighthowler
3 Sidisi, Blood Tyrant
1 Empty the Pits
Yard Fillers:
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Commune With The Gods
1 Jace, The Living Guildpact
Ramp:
4 Sylvan Caryatid
Recursion:
1 Whip Of Erebos
Interaction:
4 Thoughtseize
4 Sultai Charm
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Murderous Cut
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Lands:
4 Polluted Delta
2 Temple of Malady
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Temple of Deceit
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Yavimaya Coast
3 Llanowar Wastes
2 Island
3 Forest
2 Swamp
Sideboard:
2 Polukranos, World Eater
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Jace, The Living Guildpact
1 Whip of the Erebos
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Drown In Sorrow
2 Gainsay
1 Clever Impersonator
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I drew heavily from the dredge decks of this last standard because when I started looking over the lists, most of the key enablers seemed to still be there. I also think that the threats are more synergistic in this iteration rather than previous ones. I say this because unlike having a card like Jarad as a threat, Sidisi also acts as an enabler that fills your yard. This makes him good both in the early to mid game so you are not just relying on your wayfinders to fill the yard. He also clogs up the board and allows you to have more setup time, so if the first Sidisi you drop is handled later threats will hit harder. Nemesis of Mortals could get dropped and become monstrous in the same turn fairly early with only Sidisi and one other enabler. Finally, Sidisi works well with other enablers to make them more relevant late game. What I mean by this is that drawing a Satyr Wayfinder on turn eight or later often was just a dead draw, but with Sidisi out he allows you to mill a creature and get a zombie from the etb effect. I think this is subtly a huge boon for Sidisi in this deck. Overall Sidisi not only works as a role player, but seems to be the reason to play the deck on further inspection.
I will briefly cover the other threats in the deck because they may not be the premier threats in standard currently but have still received decent amount of speculation for standard viability. Nemesis of Mortals I have already talked about, but I will explain it a bit more. The idea of getting to drop a Nemesis of Mortals before turn 5 and monstrous him the next turn is just bigger than anything other decks can muster right now. It is also very intimidating to be staring down a 10/10 attacking you on turn 6. I think he is woefully underplayed up to this point and should get more play because he works really well against the other midrange decks. Nemesis is just so big that the other deck is forced to use a removal spell or just be run over. Then there is nighthowler. Yet another card that got love when it was spoiled but just has not seen play. Nighthowler is another card that come down quickly and interacts well with midrange decks. Getting to bestow him on a Wayfinder or a zombie token makes the opponent waste a spell on that and they still have to handle the actual Nighthowler. What I love about all of these threats is that they do so much to mess with cards like Polukranos that it gives you an amazing match up against monsters type decks. I think this will be a big reason to play the deck for the foreseeable future. There is a final threat that makes it in as a one of. This is Empty the Pits. I am less sold on this card, but I have seen it played by Brian Braun Duin in SCG vs series and I do see it as stronger than I first guessed. I see it shining is control matchups and grindier games. Getting to delve away all the dregs from my yard late game could just let me untap and win the next turn unless the opponent had an instant speed response. The fact that it is an instant is why I am giving it a chance to see play. I thinking having the ability to pick and choose when the best time to play around my opponents responses could let it get there.
Besides the threats, the deck made itself fairly quickly. The deck need the other 8 yard fillers, it needs the 4 caryatids to make sure I have all of the colors. It is a VERY mana hungry deck. After that I wanted a decent amount of interaction, because I do not win quickly so those 12 slots were filled immediately. I will talk briefly about the number for these. The thoughtseize as a playset was a no brainer for me. I was worried about not having a spell to play on turn one and thoughtseize is just the best thing to be doing on turn one in standard now. Everyone knows why thoughtseize is good. The other playset is the one I feel like I need to explain. I choose to have a playset of Sultai Charm over something like Hero’s Downfall was not easy. I think Downfall is more flexible as a removal spell and I am worried about playing against planeswalkers, which is why I am running two more downfall in the board. But Charm does give me something that I really like, a discard outlet and card selection. Yes, the ‘throwaway’ or the ‘back up plan’ effect on the card really makes the difference for me. I love the prospect of having a discard outlet to get that one extra creature in the yard to make Nemesis cheaper or throw the extra power on Nighthowler. It might be a minor boost, but I think it is enough to warrant the playset of it in the deck.
Finally, I will go over some of the bullets in the deck. Jace, the living guildpact and Whip of Erebos both fit into the 4 drop slot that help threaten playing a long game against a control opponent. I don’t think either of the cards will dominate in the deck but they interact profitably with the overall goal and have the chance to go over the top the other grindy and control decks that I may run into. I think that they attack on different levels and opponent may struggle to respond to them if they are prepared to handle my main plan of playing bigger and better dudes. I like them so much that I think they deserved a second one of each in the board.
Besides the cards that I have discussed in the board already, I really didn’t know what to fill the board with. I could have gone with more specific hate for control or aggressive strategies, but I just threw some good generic responses that fit into my weaker matchups of all in aggro and the slowest of control decks. This sideboard will likely evolve after the decks that are the best in this format revela themselves.
There were also some cards that I considered adding in last second. These were the two big delve draw spells. Both Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise seemed to fit with the plan and seem to pack a lot of punch. I chose not to add them because I was worried that the delve spells would compete too much as it is, but I am considering putting Dig Through Time in for Whip of Erebos. I would prefer Dig Through Time because card selection is far more important than raw number of card in a deck like this. I think these cards also fill a similar role to what Whip of Erebos is doing. They allow me to play a longer game and keep playing threats for my opponent to respond to. What kept Whip in this slot was the aggro match up. Although Whip will likely never be activated against an aggro deck, it does provide lifelink. That is some utility that both of the big draw spells can just not provide against the red aggro decks.
Before I sign off I would like to open it up to the community. If there is a card that you think is better than people are giving credit in Khans right now or there is a deck that is being overlooked, please challenge me to build the deck. I will do my best to do the challenge justice and bring something interesting.
As always, this was Samuel Wells bringing you Visions From Beyond.
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