Sultai Energy in Standard

Decklist:

4 Aether Hub

4 Blooming Marsh

4 Botanical Sanctum

2 Fetid Pools

4 Forest

2 Island

1 Swamp

4 Fatal Push

4 Attune with Aether

3 Blossoming Defense

2 Confiscation Coup

4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner

4 Longtusk Cub

4 Winding Constrictor

3 Deathgorge Scavenger

1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade

4 Rogue Refiner

3 Bristling Hydra

3 Walking Ballista

Sideboard:

4 Negate

3 Duress

4 Hostage Taker

1 Deathgorge Scavenger

1 Walking Ballista

2 Essence Scatter

What I like about this list over the Temur Energy deck is the Glint-Sleeve Siphoners. That's pretty much the big draw. At first Hostage Taker impressed me a lot, but I've relegated it to the sideboard for now. Siphoner is the big edge that we have over Temur Energy, which I think is worth it. My experience, or how I feel at least, is that our control matchups are better than Temur's, but our aggro matchups get a little worse. The mirror or pseudo-mirror seems like it's 50-50ish. Where I think we have an advantage over Temur is against the Abzan token decks, since we have access to Walking Ballista.

Let's run through the changes I've made to the Jessup brothers' initial list. First, I fell in love with Deathgorge Scavenger. I got to the point where I just wanted it in the main, first one, then two, then three. The problem with Rishkar is that it gets seriously tempo'd out by opponents with Magma Sprays and Shocks, and it's really only at its best with a Snake in play. A few sets ago, we could expect our Snakes to live with more regularity, but everyone either has access to Fatal Push and Abrade at this point, making Rishkar nothing more than a 3/3 Llanowar Elf most of the time. And even when it's better than that, it's usually because you are flooding the board and walking into a Fumigate. Deathgorge, on the other hand, is amazing in the metagame right now. It hits for 4 and fights opposing Search for Azcanta. It gains life against Red decks. It also eats all the embalm and eternalize creatures out of the Tokens decks and God Pharaoh's Gift decks. It's pretty much at its worst against Energy decks, which are just a big midrange battle, so I board it out there, but I've been really pleased.

I've cut my Hostage Takers and replaced them with Bristling Hydras. The biggest reason is that Hostage Takers are abysmal against any sort of control decks, whereas Hydras are at their best in those matchups but never abysmal against anything. I found myself having lots of games where I was stuck with useless Hostage Takers in my hand and losing against control, thinking that if they were Hydras instead they would be amazing and I would have definitely win. I made the swap, knowing that other matchups would suffer for it, but to my surprise, the Hydras have been pretty reasonable against Red and Tokens. Hostage Takers are so backbreaking that I still wanted access to them though, so they sit in the board to bring in when Hydras aren't at their best. I usually make the swap against Red and Tokens, and board in Takers against Energy decks as well, but leave in my Hydras there.

The Jessups had a couple of top end cards, like maybe a couple Scarab Gods and Vraskas in the 75. In place of those, I've got Confiscation Coup. I found it to be the most backbreaking card against midrange mirrors while also being really solid against Red decks. Unlike the Scarab God, it is pretty bad against Control decks, but we've improved our chances there with other card choices, so I felt like it was okay. Also it's 10,000 tickets online, blargablarg. Still, Confiscation Coup has been really, really good. I have attacked with more Hazorets than I ever thought I would have with this deck.

The sideboard is pretty self explanatory. The 4th Dinosaur, the 4th Ballista, the Hostage Takers, and then Duresses and Negates and Essence Scatters. I have been toying with Gonti in the sideboard, but I don't like the double black casting cost. If I was to move away from Confiscation Coup, then that option would be a little better, since I would have no double blue cards and could go back to 2 Swamps 1 Island. Bringing in Hostage Taker against Red is a little nerve wracking, but even stealing a 1 or 2 drop and casting it the same turn before they untap is often a winning play.

If you like the looks of it, give it a try. Or, you can check out my stream! I've been getting into streaming on Twitch a little bit at twitch.tv/griffinlussier and you can also check out past streams I've done here.

Thanks for reading!