Fish Five-0: Sultai Control (Standard, Magic Arena)
This week, we do a video for non-Teferi control mages!
Gameplan
The decklist is based off of an MTG great's deck list. Andrew Cuneo made a Dimir Control list for one of his MPL matches and I fell in love. So naturally, I would try to take the deck and make it greedier — or worse, whichever you prefer! Often times, Scapeshift decks would get their Field of the Dead on board before an Unmoored Ego and then we'd get hosed. Some lists even went as far as putting Leyline of Sanctity into their sideboards which absolutely shut us down. Because of this, I figured we could still do the control gameplan but with more countermagic and a catch-all card in Assassin's Trophy.
The card had an absurd amount of hype going into spoiler season and then was written off as a mediocre card but I feel that the ability to be able to blow anything including land is just too good to pass up. The fact that most decks outside of Vampires and Mono-Colored decks are running maybe one to two basics on average, the card is good to play right now. I'm also okay with Scapeshift decks grabbing a basic as long as their Field of the Deads are gone.
Another fine card is Tamiyo, Collector of Tales. I know the card isn't exactly Teferi, Hero of Dominaria for this deck but the passive is so big against all the decks running around trying to cast Duress and Thought Erasure. This card is huge in the grindy matchups as we can buy back anything we need from our graveyard which is absolutely bonkers. The only tip I'd have about using this for grindy matchups is to keep in mind your library card count when you use the +1 as it's not always correct to activate Tamiyo's +1. Sometimes, I'll just get her up to 3 and let her sit almost as if she's one of the uncommon walkers. I bring this up because the match can often come down to your last five cards in the library and your opponents eventually milling out.
The green also gives us access to another hate card!
This card has been major in matchups where an opponent is trying to either counter a spell of ours, discard us, or target our permanents with black-based removal i.e. The Elderspell and so forth. The card can even blank a Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord activation as it will still force the vampire player to sacrifice a creature as a cost to Lightning Helix us. I won't lie, that would turn your Veil into a removal spell that drew a card, which is something I often drool over. As sweet as this card is though, I'm still debating if we're at a spot where this is better than a Duress as I dropped Duress to play these. I was tired of getting my spells Dovin's Veto'd so sometimes you just need to force spells through!
Conclusion
By the time this article comes up, I'll have already played the MCQW(Mythic Championship Qualifier Weekend). I chose this deck because we have a good matchup against Vampires and Esper. The deck has some shortcomings against all these super value elemental decks but anything with aggression or grindy, like Esper, I feel like we can play that game quite well. For those wondering, this was my record for the MCQW
I ended at 6-2 with my first loss being to a Casualties of War loaded Scapeshift deck and Nexus Elementals. After playing the deck, I feel like I'd love to add Casualties of War to the deck myself, and I'd also need to go into the tank to see how we can beat these elementals decks as they just generate way too much card advantage for us to keep up with. Anywho, thanks for watching another episode of Fish Five-0!
-Your friendly neighborhood AsianAvenger
Twitter: @TheAsianAvenger || Twitch: twitch.tv/TheAsianAvneger || Email: theasianavenger@mtggoldfish.com
