Arena Standard - Sultai Superfriends v1.5

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15 11 12 23
Control

So, instead of constantly updating my original Superfriends list, I decided to do a complete rewrite for the updates since there have been some pretty serious changes that I've been making thus far.  If you want to look at the original list, I have it right here for you... https://aetherhub.com/Deck/sultai-superfriends .  It's not particularly good or efficient, but it is still a playable deck and had a little bit of traction with the community based on the views at the very least.  Anyway, I'll do a full write-up this time since this is a brand new deck that I'm posting (technically).

 

Creatures

This list only runs 12 creatures.  It may seem like a small amount, but with synergies they can come out pretty well and all of them have been performing admirably for me so far, so I feel like this roster is actually pretty decent (even if you can't particularly contest the board super well early game).

Lotus Cobraimage - I'm going to give my hot take for this card right now.  It's the best creature in the set.  Mana generation off of things you're going to normally do is amazing, and hitting Fabled Passageimage or Cultivateimage really maximize your mana generation.  Snek is good.  Absolutely everyone should craft a full set immediately.

Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrathimage - I actually decided to trim the Uro's down to a 3-of here, since the 1UG and UUGG costs aren't necessarily easy to hit.  It's still a phenomonally good card and more than earns it's right to be here.  Just not as a full playset.

Questing Beastimage - Went to a 2-of here since I actually like pulling him off of Vivien, Monsters' Advocateimage's -2 with Elder Gargarothimage.  He's still one of the best 4-drops in the game, and will perform as such in most circumstances.

Elder Gargarothimage - This chonky boy will win games for you.  6/6 for 5 is already aggressively costed, and the abilities on attacking and blocking are all things that you want to do here.  Reach is also highly under appreciated, especially with all of the flying currently running rampant in standard.  I ALMOST want to go with a full playset, but I can't really justify drawing him early in the majority of my games.

 

Instants / Sorceries

After lots of testing, I came to the conclusion that the list needs significantly more removal.  There are so many times you're up against aggro and are lacking here that I really needed to readjust my approach.  I came to the current removal package, but I'm not married to it and will happily take other suggestions for improving it.

Bloodchief's Thirstimage - Sorcery speed removal is always a bit iffy in my opinion, and most of the time I'd rather run Eliminateimage.  In the current meta, however, Eliminateimage isn't feeling quite as powerful as it used to, especially since so many planeswalkers dodge it.  Enter: Bloodchief's Thirst.  It acts as a very nice early game option for keeping the board down, and when you get to the point where you're able to kick it, it will kill every single creature and planeswalker you come across.  Even at sorcery speed that's more than worth it.

Heartless Actimage - The instant speed removal option, I wanted to run this as a 3-of, but I haven't been able to find the cuts yet to do so.  It still pops up often enough to help in the midgame when you really need it, and the fact that it's actually a bit on the situational side makes it very hard to commit to it any further than I already have.  I'm even considering cutting it for Hagra Maulingimage since it really only performs at peak efficiency mid to late game, and Hagra is just a better card at that point.  Especially since it can help you hit lands early.

Cultivateimage - This card ramps for you.  It's really good.  You should play it if you have green mana in your deck.  That's about all I can say about it honestly.

Extinction Eventimage - After running into some issues with token generating decks (looking at you Scute Swarmimage), I decided to slot this in to deal with any shenanigans that might arise there.  It can hit our own stuff pretty easily though, and due to the low number of creatures, this is probably best used in an emergency to avoid exiling your own stuff.

 

Planeswalkers

The main focus of this list (hence the name), I've been really trying to find the best walkers with the best synergy currently available.  I'm not 100% satisfied yet, but it has been trimmed to a point that I'm a bit more comfortable with at this point.

Jace, Mirror Mageimage - He's been a very surprising addition to the standard metagame for me.  I feel like he's superior to Teferi, Master of Timeimage since he's not just looting, and while he doesn't act on your opponent's turn as well or really interact with creatures very much, Scry 2 and unconditional draw (aside from burning his loyalty) are really good.  All you have to do to make a good card is add the phrase "Draw a Card" to it after all.

Nissa of Shadowed Boughsimage - She's really been growing on me the more I've been playing with her.  She technically ramps, and her -5 is a very powerful effect, especially if you can pull your big beefy dudes out of the bin to play.  Her landfall ability is also very good at keeping her alive, as well as getting her to multiple "ults" on a single cast of her.  Finally, since everyone hates Nissa, Who Shakes the Worldimage, she draws much more hate than she might otherwise (thanks for that WOTC!) which is actually a pretty great deal since a lot of the time it takes 2 attack phases to deal with her.  Pleasantly suprised is pretty much how I'm feeling about her right now.

Vivien, Monsters' Advocateimage - It came down to her or Garruk, Unleashedimage, and I just felt like she brought more to the table.  Her +1 is better than his token generation, especially since she gives evergreen abilities with it.  Her -2 also synergizes incredibly well with Elder Gargarothimage, pulling any other creature in the deck out with him.  5 mana for him and Questing Beastimage is an amazing deal.

Ashiok, Nightmare Museimage - Token generation is a bit of a theme here, and the tokens generated by the Dimir walker are extremely solid.  2/3 is a very good statline, and the fact that they exile from your opponents library on attacking OR blocking makes them very strong creatures in general.  His -3 is also good for bouncing big threats, and possibly making the opponent toss them afterwards, and his ult will definitely win games for you.

Garruk, Cursed Huntsmanimage - Chonky Garruk returns and really pulls his weight here.  Popping out 2 bodies that in turn power him up is solid for sure, but he also acts as late game removal.  As with Jace, adding "draw a card" to his ability makes him just that much better.  His ult isn't a huge boost to this list due to the lack of creatures, but if you can generate a bunch of tokens, it will definitely come in handy.

Ugin, the Spirit Dragonimage - Still the best card in the deck, Ugin is something you definitely would like to ramp into.  Every ability is good, but his -x is obviously the best part about him, pressing ctrl-alt-del on impossible to deal with board states.  He almost, ALMOST garners a full playset inclusion.

 

Mana Base

I'm still trying to stay with a mostly traditional mana base here, although I'm not totally ruling out Hagra Maulingimage or Agadeem's Awakeningimage to add a bit more flexibility.  I'll let you know if I make those changes and how they go. 

 

Conclusion

And with that, the 1.5 update is posted.  Hopefully if you enjoyed the original list and tried it out, this one will perform just as well for you.  I'd love to hear any suggestions or critiques as well, so test away and let me know how it goes!

 

Edit 1 - -2 Extinction Eventimage, -2 Heartless Actimage, -2 Swampimage, +1 Questing Beastimage, +1 Bloodchief's Thirstimage, +2 Hagra Maulingimage, +2 Agadeem's Awakeningimage.  Decided to trim the removal thanks to EE not hitting a whole lot.  I'd much rather do almost anything on turn 4, and Thirst really helps early as well as late.  Upped the Beast to even out draws a bit more, and with all the mono red currently in Arena, he's turned into a very solid attacker that sticks around to block. Hagra Maulingimage and Agadeem's Awakeningimage give the deck a few more options mid to late game (although TBH they've mostly entered as lands), with Agadeem's being particularly tough to answer if you can cast it for 5BBB, essentially bringing back every single creature in the deck. 

 

Edit 2 - -2 Jace, Mirror Mageimage, +2 Murderous Riderimage.  The double blue cost is a hard sell turn 3, and there are a lot of options for turn 5.  Murderous Riderimage shores up our removal suite and gives a nice little lifelink blocker after the fact.

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2 comments

SoliloquyNow
Glad to hear you're trying it out! It still needs a good bit of refinement, and if you can find some better options I would love to hear them. Stay posted here as I try to play upwards of 15-20 games daily for testing and I'm committing to updating every change I make. And if it changes too much I may post a 2.0 too.
Shen
Thank you for sharing your deck, SoliloquyNow. I played 5 ranked games with the previous version of the deck (with 2 Nissa of Shadowed Boughsimage instead of 3). I won 2 games and lost 3. I like that you are working at updating the deck. I look forward to trying v1.5.
SoliloquyNow
Last Updated: 22 Sep 2020
Created: 21 Sep 2020
842 285 2

Mainboard - 61 cards (21 distinct)

Creature (15)
$3.96€2.980.03
$12.69€13.820.97
$4.52€4.220.55
$3.99€5.680.87
$0.730.02
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (11)
$0.24€0.170.03
$0.74€0.380.03
$0.970.02
$18.243.11
Land (23)
$3.42€3.472.03
$5.77€4.260.15
$1.020.03
$0.980.03
$0.500.03
$4.390.59
$17.49€16.950.57
Planeswalker (12)
$18.00€19.760.03
$3.01€3.400.06
$2.00€1.470.02
$2.24€1.520.03
$3.93€2.470.02

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