With Midnight Hunt on the way this autumn, Magic players everywhere will soon have to gear up for a whole new Standard season thanks to rotation. Magic Arena know this all too well, and have been supporting budding brewers with the best of one Standard 2022 mode for both casual and ranked play. I’ve been having a lot of fun testing out decks in this mode, and there is a surprising number of powerful brews going around. One of those decks is a fun little build that makes use of great synergies, big beat-sticks, and is pretty budget to boot. That deck is Sultai Snow, and today we are going to show you just how fun it is to play.
Sultai Snow is one of those decks that rely on a great degree of synergies, using cards from only a single set. In this case, the deck focuses on Snow creatures and lands to claim victory over its opponents with an avalanche of value (and no I will not apologies for the bad puns). This means that, if like me, you played a ton of Kaldheim Limited, then it is quite possible you already have most of the pieces you will need to put this deck together. Throw in thirteen rare wild cards, and you have a deck that can be played day one when Midnight Hunt drops later this year.
So, what does the deck run? Snow cards of course. Starting off strong we have four copies of Ascendant Spirit. This little one drop follows in the proud tradition of cards like Figure of Destany, been a creature that can be played early and then pumped up by dumping mana into it. Left unopposed, this 1/1 Spirit can quick tear chunks out your opponent’s life total as it grows in power and takes to the skies.
Not quite as powerful, but arguably more useful in the one drop slot we have Frost Augur. A 1/2 blocker is a decent body on the field with all these 1/1 Goblins running around, but it’s the ability to draw cards that makes this creature so valuable. Since literally every card in the deck is a Snow card, Augur basically becomes a straight pay one and draw at the end of each of your turns if you have the mana available. Sure, your opponent gets to see what you draw, but the card advantage is hard to ignore.
As we move into our two drops, we have another good blocker that has the added benefit of been able to throw our lands at our opponent. Again, all our lands are Snow lands, which means Avalanche Caller can reliably turn one of our spare basics into a 4/4 hexproof beater from turn three onwards. But what if we want to use our lands to cast creatures? (A shocking prospect I know). Well then, we can always just use our Sculptor of Winter to untap those lands for some good old-fashioned ramping/fixing.
As we move up to our three drops, we start to really see some great synergistic payoffs for running a completely Snow decks, with playsets of both Boreal Outrider and Jorn, God of Winter. The Outrider helps all our Snow creatures punch well above their weight thanks to its distribution of +1/+1 counters, making even our weakest attackers more threatening. Meanwhile, Jorn gives us a ton of value with that untap trigger, allowing us access to an insane amount of mana from turn four onwards. Throw in the flip side with Kaldring, the Rimestaff for some good old recursion and you are really starting to cook with gas.
Moving into the four drops we have a playset of Spirit of the Aldergard. Having power equal to the amount of Snow lands we control means that in most cases this furry critter will have at least four or five power when it come down. Not only that, but it is great for some mid game mana fixing since it fetches up any Snow land on etb, not just Basics. That is very useful when it comes to our last creature, Narfi, Betrayer King. One of the only cards that require black mana to cast, Narfi is worth the dip into Sultai not only for the anthem effect he brings, but also because he is one tough creature to kill. Unless your opponent can find a way to exile him, the Betrayer King will just keep coming back time and time again, soaking up more and more removal as he does.
Moving on to our non-creature cards, we start off with some removal in the form of Blizzard Brawl. It is a cold day in hell when we don’t have at least three Snow permanents in play, so we are always going to get the full benefit of this fight spell. Additionally, our creatures are on average a lot beefer (thanks to Boreal Outrider and Narfi) than our opponents threats, so we will more often than not straight up kill anything we target with it. And speaking of bigger creatures, finishing up the non-land cards we run a couple of copies of Blessing of Frost to refill our hands in the mid/late game.
Moving on to lands, we obviously run a decent number of Snow Covered Basics, with five Forests, seven Islands and a single Swamp. For mana fixing we also run a playset of both Rimewood Falls and Woodland Chasm, which helps keep the cost of the deck down. Last, but certainly not least, we have everyone’s favourite Snow themed creature land Faceless Haven. And that’s it. Sultai Snow, ready to battle it out in 2022 Standard and beyond.
Now since 2022 Standard is currently best of one, we haven’t featured a sideboard with the deck. But if you were looking to take this deck in to traditional Standard come Midnight Hunts release, I have some suggestions for you. Blood on the Snow is a fun include if you feel you need to sweep the board of either Creatures or Planeswalkers while staying on the Snow theme. Draugr Necromancer is an interesting way of getting value out your opponent’s graveyard, while Priest of the Haunted Edge offers you some additional Snow themed removal. Also, while not on the Snow theme, Quandrix Command is a great value card that could easily be maindeckable if you don’t mind the lack of synergy.
And that is Sultai Snow. What do you think of the deck? Do you plan on trying it out in 2022 Standard? Or do you have something else in mind? Let us know in the comments below, and tell us any other fun 2022 brews you would like to see covered. Maybe it will be the next deck we feature.
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