Thanks for the mini-report. Natural State, IoK, GftT, and Darkblast should help against Infect out of the side, and Shoal pulls a lot of weight in Game 1. I only got to play one match against them but I won it 2-0, though I did open Shoal both games. It’s still possible Stubborn Sultai in fact has a bad matchup against Infect, in which case it definitely needs tweaks to address that weakness.

Tron is a bad matchup. We fare better against them than most midrange decks in the format, but there’s only so much a threat-light, reach-free interactive strategy can do against those guys. Fulminator is an option but I’m not sure spending three mana on a sorcery-speed spell is exactly what we want to be doing in this deck. More Strokes might be better against Tron. Fulminator hitting manlands is a big draw though.

Dismember is one of my favorite cards but I’m worried about life loss in this deck. The idea behind Tasigur was that we could Traverse for him to have a one-card way to close out stalling games. For the record I haven’t liked him much either.

I’ve moved on to other brews for now (Sultai decks are like kinky diversions for me) but let me know how everything goes if you stay with the deck!

1) Running utility lands in a Sultai deck is a great way to lose to Blood Moon.
2) Card advantage is overrated in Modern; the tempo boosts Shoal can provide are often game-winning in this kind of deck. More: http://quietspeculation.com/tempo-modern-card-advantage-trap/
3) We spend all our mana and are frequently light on lands (not uncommon to have only 3 in play, especially in Game 1)
4) Stubborn Sultai doesn’t have any colorless-producing sources! 😛

I didn’t like the tasigur. You don’t want to delve away delirium so he often just sat in my hand untill the game was already won. But I don’t know what should be in its place.

All in all the deck is very fun, but it definately needs some tweaking. Especially manlands are a big problem IMO.

Very much so! Thanks for your input. My thoughts on the Gnarlwood were as follows: it trades with every card in the format at parity+ since it only costs 1, and if we can use it to trade with opposing creatures we can better use our targeted discard and removal to keep the pathway clear for a more aggressive stance using Flayers and Goyfs.

I see your points on Nameless Inversion over Sinister Concoction and the downsides of the Arena, so I’ll definitely be testing variants in these slots to see what, if anything, tends to work out best.

Best,
Chris

Queller is an easy include in Spirits. The ones I’ve messed around with have all played Tallowisp. Basically I’ve gone -4 Topplegeist, +4 Queller, +4 Mausoleum in the core and then filled out the rest of the shell in different ways. Check out this article for my take on Spirits, which hasn’t changed much with the new set despite running 8 new cards. http://quietspeculation.com/spirited-away-tribal-brewing-with-shadows-over-innistrad/

Nameless Inversion is my fav enabler too as it basically is the missing Lightning Bolt in this deck. T1 Fetch + Serum/Probe
T2 Goyf/Grim
T3 Nameless = attack for 7+with Denial/Snap/Dispel mana up.

Graveyard hate is something I’ve been keeping both eyes on since I started brewing with delirium. Rest in Peace is obviously the big killer against us, but it just doesn’t see that much play (somehow).

With Dredge on the rise, people are turning to Grafdigger’s Cage, which cuts off Snapcaster in the first deck and doesn’t do enough against either strategy above to make us worried.

I do run into Relic of Progenitus a lot online, and while it’s annoying, it’s still manageable. Usually opponents will need to crack it close to immediately to shrink an atatcking 6/7 Tarmogoyf, but thanks to cards like Architect and Tarfire, we can grow him right back up again. These decks are actually more resilient to graveyard hate than strategies hinging heavily on Bedlam Reveler, since Reveler asks us to have a critical mass of cards in the ‘yard. Delirium is fine with as little as two.

In the above decks, I do, which is why I’m playing Architects and not Bauble. Adding two types for delirium is really strong when you need to turn on Grim Flayer to have Denial live ASAP, or find Eldrazi Temple on turn two or three. But decks that can afford to hit delirium a little later and benefit from Bauble in other ways (i.e. Swiftspear decks) will still prefer Bauble.

This might be sweet without Manamorphose. I like a card that actually does something there, instead, like IoK into turn three Hymn. Don’t worry about Bauble; it’s still a great delirium enabler and an underrated cantrip in this format IMO.

How den es ancient equinox meqasure up against thrun the last troll?

If you play delerium in modern, you are essentially auto including goyf because by the time you have delerium he is a 4/5. With grim and traverse you are playing 12 goyf by that time. Goyf has always been vil nerable to S. Ooze, relic of progenitus and rest in pice. You just have to accept it.

Stuborn denial, abrupt deckay and krosan grip can help midigate this.

Unfortunatly it would involve a rather perfect draw even with 10 fetchlands in the deck. (I am picturing more of a jund deck then a delver deck.) But Thoughtscouer, Mishras Bauble, street wraight and gitaxian probe could help. You are esentially playing 12 goyf (goyf, grim flayer and traverse) in a deck that is closer to 40 cards then 60.

Thanks! Here are my initial thoughts on your list.

Gnarlwood Dryad – Do you often want a 3/3? I don’t like having a card in this shell that dies to Lightning Bolt during every stage of the game without necessarily providing additional value.

Scavenging Ooze – Great card, big fan. Seems especially potent in a midrangey shell like this one.

Targeted discard – Decent disruption, but I’ve still found it lacking against big mana, combo, and control. That’s one of the main reasons to be in blue: Stubborn Denial plugs a lot of holes here.

Phyrexian Arena – I think Arena is too expensive for what it does, and the life loss is a serious issue, too. I can maybe see this card as a one-of, but envision it being very clunky in multiples, even with Liliana and Brutality to dump extra copies. Snapcaster Mage is practically a strict upgrade IMO, and a singleton, searchable Tasigur also plays Arena’s role better than the enchantment since his body is so relevant and he comes down cheaply.

Sinister Concoction – I would rather have a third Dismember or some Nameless Inversions. Concoction seems like way too much of a minus to include, even though it stocks the ‘yard. We don’t need 7/8 Goyfs for this deck to work, we just need to hit delirium early and consistently to make sure Flayer and Traverse are on fast. Architects probably does enough in this regard.

Liliana of the Veil – Going in this direction pulls you into more of a midrange shell, which gives you points against the already-beatable fair decks at the cost of weakening your unfair matchups. I see this list struggling to beat Tron and Valakut, for example.

On the greedy manabase: I think yours is about as greedy as mine with the 4 Quarters and Treetops. I invariably design my manabases to fetch around Blood Moon very effectively, whether I’m playing the enchantment or not—that’s why you’ll frequently see me forego admittedly great cards like Creeping Tar Pit in my brews. Traverse makes it very hard to lose to the hoser, and since I think the blue adds so much to this deck in terms of metagame coverage, I wouldn’t recommend going straight GB.

One last thing—in the scenario you described with Dryad, sorcery, Architects, how exactly are you up on cards? Cycling doesn’t net any advantage, it just replaces cards from your hand while stocking the graveyard.

Hope this helps 8)

Enemy Goyfs will still wall Smasher, TKS, Reshaper, etc., and I’m not sure we can count on it to hit the graveyard when we want it to. I’d rather have harder removal spells to deal with Goyfs and other threats. Dismember kills everything EXCEPT for Goyf without some combat damage to help out, and EE has a lot of utility against other threats, like a swarm of tokens or a Detention Sphere.

I like Architects AND Inversion to cover ground against more matchups, as with Temur Eldrazi in the article. If I didn’t need to maintain a high blue cad count for Shoal, I would probably run Inversion in my Sultai list. But I’m not a fan of Mindwrack and Grafwidow, who seem too vulnerable to catch-all removal spells to justify their expensive price tags. You could cut those, lower your curve, and splash red for Bolt and Magus, or splash blue like I did for Shoal and other permission. How do you fend off linear aggro decks? What’s your plan against decks like Ad Nauseam without relevant disruption i.e. Stubborn Denial? Finally, I would also expect you to clog on two-drops quite a bit with all those pricey setup cards. Architects will probably be quite the upgrade from Commune with the Gods in that respect.