Locations
This past Monday Rob and I did our Ikoria Set Review, and we had a blast doing it. A lot of the cards I hadn't even seen yet, as I often feel like I can't keep up with the ridiculous amount of previews that are posted each day, so it was an awesome way to go through the entire set and familiarize myself with everything. You should definitely check out the link above and give both parts a watch if you have some free quarantime!
One of the main things that was noticeable during the review was how many Blue and Black cards seemed to have flash. Considering there was already a Simic flash deck in Standard, would it be possible to change it into a Sultai deck? After all, Ikoria is a set focused on the Khans wedges, so Sultai cards are well-represented, and we now have access to a triland that could produce all three colors!
Truth be told, however, after messing around with the numbers a bit, I realized that the only real Green flash cards that we'd care about were Frilled Mystic and Nightpack Ambusher, both of which are double Green. Considering that the mana requirements for this deck were already very high, I thought it would be best if we tried out a simple 
version first.
Cunning Nightbonder was definitely the card that set this idea in motion; it's the kind of card that screams that an archetype was a conscious thought, and not just the result of having a few creatures with flash in the design file. Meanwhile, a card like Lochmere Serpent has been one of my favorites from Throne of Eldraine since it was printed.
After doing a search for Instants, and all the cards with flash in our respective colors, this was the list I finally arrived at.
U/B Flash | IKO Standard | Frank Lepore
- Creatures (20)
- 1 Thryx, the Sudden Storm
- 2 Lochmere Serpent
- 2 Voracious Greatshark
- 3 Murderous Rider
- 4 Brazen Borrower
- 4 Cunning Nightbonder
- 4 Slitherwisp
- Instants (8)
- 2 Mystical Dispute
- 3 Heartless Act
- 3 Neutralize
- Enchantments (7)
- 3 Ashiok's Erasure
- 4 Shark Typhoon
- Lands (25)
- 5 Island
- 6 Swamp
- 1 Zagoth Triome
- 2 Castle Vantress
- 3 Fabled passage
- 4 Temple of Deceit
- 4 Watery Grave
Another thing I really wanted to add were some of the sweet planeswalkers that Sultai has access to, like Garruk, Cursed Huntsman and Ashiok, Nightmare Muse. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I really liked the idea of the deck only having cards that could be cast at instant speed. There's nothing more awkward than having a deck full of Instants and cards with flash, and then having to tap out for something, giving your opponent the window you've spent all game to prevent them from having.
The deck has a pretty high number of creatures at 21, and that doesn't include the four copies of Shark Typhoon, all of which are simply meant to be cycled.
(As an aside, I don't expect us to ever cast this, but I guess you could. We do have 18 spells in the deck that will trigger this, seven of which are adventure creatures, and that number doesn't include the other three copies of Shark Typhoon. So...maybe? Though it does open us up to that Sorcery-speed problem we just mentioned...)
A couple things to keep in mind about Slitherwisp are that 1) its ability triggers whenever you cast a spell with flash. It doesn't matter if it happens on your turn or the opponent's, so long as the spell itself does have flash. And 2) despite Instants basically having flash, they don't count for Sliterwisp's ability. (At least, I don't think they do, unless every Instant has been secretly errata'd to include "flash" in their text box.)
I made sure to include 25 lands, because like traditional control decks, this deck definitely wants to be sure to hit its land drops, but we also have quite a few forms of card advantage and filtering. In terms of lands, Bonder's Enclave was also a card I was really fond of and considering, but the big problem is that it only produces colorless, and we have numerous cards that have no colorless mana in their costs whatsoever. If this was one of the two or three lands in our opening hand, and we had either a Cunning Nightbonder or a Slitherwisp in our hand, we'd be in pretty bad shape.
When it comes to the Zagoth Triome, it's basically just the deck's ninth dual land. The only other option was a Dismal Backwater, so we had a choice. Both lands were going to come into play tapped, so do we value the one life more, or do we value the ability to cycle this in the late game if need be? I think we value the cycling more. One weird caveat: a lot of people look at things like trilands - or any card really, which is the point - and think that if they can't use every single mode - in this case utilizing all three colors of mana - that the card isn't a good fit in their deck. This actually happens fairly regularly when I'm Cube drafting with Mike, and we're trying to evaluate a card.
Take Daretti, Scrap Savant for example. If we're not an artifact-based deck, that can effectively utilize his second and third abilities, Mike might say something like, "Well, we're not really an artifact deck." But the thing is, I think Daretti is a perfectly fine card to still include if you just want a Red planeswalker with a high loyalty that lets you loot away up to two cards per turn. This can be a really strong ability to have access to, especially in a format like Cube where the ability to dig for your more powerful cards can make or break a game. More to the point, if you're running a two-color deck, every triland that contains two of your colors is just as good as a dual land. If you're trying to play a Dimir Signet in your 
deck, just pretend the Signet taps for 
, and it will look a lot more appealing.
The two copies of Mystical Dispute in the main deck were initially Disdainful Stroke (which I think is great in current Standard), but I think we want to have a couple ways to deal with a Teferi before he comes down, for obvious reasons. Thankfully, we can still play all of our cards at sorcery speed if need be, and we do have four copies of Brazen Borrower (Petty Theft) and three copies of Murderous Rider (Swift End), so we're not completely helpless, but you can imagine how much Teferi might put a wrench in our plans.
The sideboard should look something like this, I would imagine:
Additionally, something like Cry of the Carnarium, Suffocating Fumes, or Ritual of Soot. I imagine at least one of those will be needed, but I'm unsure which depending on the metagame.
I'm looking forward to playing this on Wednesday, when I'll be participating in the Ikoria Early Access Streamer Event. (Thanks, Wizards!) Let me know what you think, and I'll definitely follow up next week with an update as to how the deck performed.
Anyway, that's all I got this week. Be sure to check out that Set Review, catch me live during the Ikoria Early Access Streamer Event on MTG Arena this Wednesday (4/15), and leave a comment down below with all of your beautiful thoughts. I hope you're still staying safe and healthy, be careful out there, use promo code FRANK5 for 5% off all your purchases, and I'll catch you guys next week. Much love!
Frank Lepore
