One of the beautiful things about Magic is that there’s no such thing as the perfect deck. There are plenty of great decks, but because the metagame is always shifting, no deck is unbeatable. Of course, that doesn’t stop players from trying to create one anyway by constantly improving on their decklists.
In this week’s Deck Tech, we take a look at the evolution of a great deck commonly referred to as Sidisi Whip or Sultai Reanimator. This deck first raised eyebrows when Christian Siebold brought it to the Pro Tour stage (see his decklist here). His build was pretty straightforward and featured the Sidisi Whip engine we’ve come to know and love: drop Sidisi, mill Hornet Queen into your graveyard, and bring it back with the Whip. Now, however, we’re seeing that cookie-cutter template branch out in a few different ways.
Bigger Baddies
One interesting evolution we’ve seen in the deck is the progression of bigger threats included. Hornet Queen has always been the go-to baddie, but other creatures are splashed in smaller quantities for backup. At first, we saw a lot of Soul of Innistrad and Sagu Mauler – as Christian Seibold demonstrated with his deck’s debut.
Now however we are seeing more Doomwake Giants and Necropolis Fiends.
Necropolis Fiend makes sense because there’s a lot of hate against Hornet Queen in the form of Anger of the Gods, and against Whip in the form of artifact destruction. Fiend gets around both of these since he’s too big to be burned and can be hardcast with Delve. Plus, he’s got a nice removal ability against threats from decks like Abzan midrange. Doomwake is also a solid choice due to the prominence of Constellation builds, and we’ll touch more on that later.
The World Champion Decklist
The most notable version of Sidisi Whip is Shahar Shenhar’s decklist, which won 1st in the 2014 Magic Championship. It’s got a lot of the standard G/B ingredients you are probably pretty familiar with, including the Sidisi/Hornet Queen/Whip engine. However, Shahar brought two new ingredients to the mix.
The first is the inclusion of Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver. Thanks to the deck already splashing blue to cast Sidisi and sideboard counters, she’s an easy addition that slots in nicely.
As Shahar’s tournament play showed, Ashiok plays particularly well in a metagame full of other Reanimator decks and Treasure Cruises. Ashiok hits the board very early in the game and slowly eats away the oxygen supply (the creatures) for all the midrange decks – Abzan and Reanimator. Without high quality creatures, those decks are dead in the water. As an added bonus, its ultimate is also a way to empty your opponent’s graveyard (along with their hand). This is particularly effective against other G/B Reanimator or Constellation decks in the metagame. So effective, in fact, that some decks are running up to x4 of her!
The other element Shahar brought to the table was a splash of the Constellation deckbuild, in the form of Doomwake Giant. He didn’t run any Eidolons, though, making it clear Doomwake was there for its power and creature hate, but not a Constellation combo.
An Enchanting Affliction
While Shahar may not have emphasized the Constellation engine, other players have. Let’s take a look at a couple pieces of tech that John Farrow’s decklist brought to his 1st place finish at the StarCityGames.com Standard Open in November. Here’s a clever addition to the Reanimation/Constellation combo:
Pharika plays nicely with Doomwake Giant since the tokens she creates are enchantment creatures. With an Eidolon also in play, she can help you draw a whole bunch of cards while eliminating your opponent’s board position through -1/-1 effects – handing you a likely win in a late game standoff. It’s worth noting that John only ran one Pharika in his deck, but I’ve seen other lists out there that run up up to three.
Another enchantment-loving tool in this decklist is Commune with the Gods.
Not all G/B Reanimator decks run this, but I think it’s a good idea when you have the right balance of creatures and enchantments. A Reanimator deck can run into trouble without the right pieces in hand, and Commune provides some much-needed tutor power.
Just the Beginning?
These are just a few evolutions of the Sidisi Whip build, and more are sure to follow. It will be interesting to see whether or not this deck establishes dominance in the Standard format, or whether the metagame adjusts to hate it out of tournament play.
What do you think – will Sultai Reanimator be as hard to kill as its creatures? Comment below.
-Jason Maxwell (J.M.)
Decklists
Shahar Shenhar’s Sultai Reanimator
Creatures [22]
4 Courser of Kruphix
2 Doomwake Giant
3 Hornet Queen
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
1 Soul of Innistrad
4 Sylvan Caryatid
Planeswalkers [2]
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Spells [13]
3 Hero’s Downfall
4 Murderous Cut
3 Thoughtseize
3 Whip of Erebos
Lands (23)
1 Evolving Wilds
3 Forest
1 Island
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Mana Confluence
4 Opulent Palace
2 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
2 Temple of Malady
1 Temple of Mystery
2 Yavimaya Coast
John Farrow’s Sultai Reanimator
Creatures (27)
2 Elvish Mystic
4 Hornet Queen
4 Satyr Wayfinder
1 Soul of Innistrad
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Courser of Kruphix
3 Doomwake Giant
4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
Lands (23)
4 Forest
1 Island
2 Swamp
3 Llanowar Wastes
2 Opulent Palace
3 Polluted Delta
4 Temple of Malady
1 Temple of Mystery
3 Yavimaya Coast
Spells (10)
3 Murderous Cut
4 Whip of Erebos
3 Commune with the Gods
Featured Art Source: Peter Mohrbacher
Deck Tech: 50 Shades of G/B Sidisi Whip
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