Welcome Magic lovers!
Here is an unspeakable secret: paradise is all around us and we do not understand.
- Thomas Merton
Yes, that's right: Standard players on Magic Arena are living in paradise right now, whether they realize it or not.
Not only has the recent Standard rotation suffused the format with new life, but with the dearth of major competitive tournament play due to its sisters Pioneer and Modern being the official Regional Championship Qualifier formats, Standard feels like a wonderful playland where anything is possible and everything works. As the format is wide open, with no established metagame to speak of, not many decks are packing dedicated hate cards against any one particular strategy, perhaps with the exception of enchantment removal, largely due to the surge in popularity of the new Talent cycle from Bloomburrow.
This has given rise to plenty of brewing, and while there are a ton of powerful shells being worked on out there, one deck in particular has stood out to me as extremely well-positioned.
Say hello to Squirming BUG, a.k.a. Sultai Reanimator.
While decks seeking to cheat an Atraxa, Grand Unifier into play well ahead of schedule are certainly nothing new, many of them, including the ones built around Squirming Emergence, faded from Standard when graveyard-hate cards began to show up in every sideboard, mostly to tackle the Temur Ramp and 4-color Slogurk Legends lists that had cemented themselves in tier 1.
The Plan
However, since rotation has cleanly killed off the Slogurk and Temur decks, we are now seeing a distinct lack of sideboard silver bullets against graveyard-based decks. That opens the door for 'reanimator' strategies to rise from the dead once again, and none are more potent and explosive than Sultai Squirming Emergence.
The deck is simply trying to mill itself as quickly as possible in order to get a critical mass of permanents in the graveyard, allowing its pilot to cast Squirming Emergence and slam an Atraxa, Grand Unifier, One with the Multiverse, or Portal to Phyrexia into play far earlier in the game than should be possible. This can be achieved as early as turn three, with turn four Atraxa happening on a very regular basis. Squirming Emergence costing only three mana makes it the most powerful reanimation spell we've seen in some time and allows the deck to be incredibly explosive, getting under many of the midrange and control decks, while also being fast enough to beat even the most all-in aggressive decks.
This is possible due to the stack of incredible two-mana enablers that the deck runs. Fallaji Archaeologist mills three cards, finds a Squirming Emergence, removal spell, or Founding the Third Path, while also being an excellent early-game blocker against aggressive decks. When it dies, it becomes another permanent in the graveyard for Squirming, meaning it gets thrown under the bus at the first opportunity. The only downside of the Archaeologist is that it can't be cast with the first chapter of Founding the Third Path.
Picklock Prankster is a truly fantastic card in this shell, digging a full four cards deep, while also finding Squirming Emergence or a removal spell, or even another Prankster to keep milling. Casting the adventure side, Free the Fae, using the first chapter on Founding the Third Path feels insane on turn two, allowing one to cast four mana worth of spells with just two lands, and is the play that sets up a turn three Atraxa most often.
Founding the Third Path is not just an enabler, it's actually the second-best card in the deck after the namesake Squirming Emergence, and is the card you want to see most in every opening hand. It sets up the nut draw on turn two by casting a Free the Fae, then milling four more cards on turn three, which can easily net seven permanents in the graveyard for a quick Squirming Emergence into Atraxa. Founding the Third Path also acts as Squirming Emergence five through eight, as the final chapter can flashback any instant or sorcery in the graveyard. Sometimes it's correct to flashback a Terror Tide or a Wail of the Forgotten, but most often chapter three simply allows one to Squirming Emergence another Atraxa or Portal into play. There are so many great lines that one can take with Founding, it's impossible to cover them all here. Another common one includes casting a Squirming Emergence on a Founding already in the graveyard in order to bring it back on chapter two to mill oneself again. This sets up a chapter three flashback on the Squirming Emergence (that initially brought back the Founding), the following turn, except now with a more fully stocked graveyard. It's also conveniently a permanent that puts itself in the graveyard to fuel further Squirmings.
Wail of the Forgotten is a perfect, natural fit in this deck, as it allows one to dig three cards deep for just two mana, while also being cast with chapter one of Founding the Third Path. Once eight permanents are in the graveyard, usually by turn three or four, Wail of the Forgotten becomes a very powerful spell for two mana, bouncing and resetting problematic permanents like creatures, or Innkeeper's Talent and Urabrask's Forge, while also forcing the opponent to discard and simultaneously allowing its pilot to keep digging deeper into the deck. It is not a permanent, however, and therefore playing too many can be costly. Three copies seem like the correct number.
The Interaction
The removal suite is crucially important in the deck, particularly Bitter Triumph. Not only will this excellent, black removal spell blunt the momentum of the aggressive archetypes, but it also serves as an outlet to discard those seven, eight, and nine mana haymakers if one happens to draw them naturally. The 'drawback' of Bitter Triumph is very much a boon in this deck, as even discarding a land can give one the crucial seventh or eighth permanent in the graveyard to turn on Squirming Emergence or Wail of the Forgotten. Never play less than the full four copies.
The one other removal spell is the very powerful sweeper, Terror Tide. With the amount of self-mill that this deck is capable of, it's trivially easy to have Terror Tide give all creatures -6/-6 or more by turn four. That makes it one of the best sweepers in the format, as it only costs four mana, not five, and ignores indestructible effects from cards such as Invasion of Gobakhan and death triggers such as those found on aggressive cards like Heartfire Hero. There is an argument for playing three copies in the main deck, however the fact that Terror Tide is not a permanent can be a liability.
Unlike Terror Tide, Harvester of Misery is a 'sweeper' which plays quite nicely in the deck as it is a permanent. Discard one early to kill a small creature only to Squirming Emergence it back a couple of turns later to sweep the board feels very good. If aggressive decks take a back seat to midrange and late-game decks as the Standard metagame evolves, I think Harvester of Misery can be safely moved to the sideboard. Currently, however, it earns its place in the main deck.
The Cruelty of Gix is here not only to reanimate an Atraxa later or disrupt an opponent with its first chapter, but it also speeds up the combo significantly. If one only happens to mill five permanents, but The Cruelty of Gix and an Atraxa are among them, it allows the pilot to cast Squirming Emergence and bring back the Atraxa regardless, as the Cruelty can jump right to chapter three when it enters the battlefield. It's also a permanent itself, fueling Squirming Emergence, as well as a Demonic Tutor in a pinch, getting whichever tool is required in the moment.
The Payoffs
Now to the fun part: the heavy hitters.
Atraxa, Grand Unifier continues to be the most powerful card to reanimate at almost any point in the game, but particularly in the early turns. Many decks, such as red-based aggressive strategies, simply can't beat a turn three or four Atraxa, and it means this combo deck can race even the speediest opponents out there. The turn three Atraxa draw even beats the turn three Boros Convoke nut-draw if the Squirming Emergence player is on the play. Let that sink in for a moment.
Atraxa does die to almost every unconditional removal spell under the sun, but that hardly matters, as its enter-the-battlefield trigger means its controller's hand is overflowing with riches, often allowing the Squirming Emergence player to discard excess reanimator targets on the cleanup step in order to bring them, or Atraxa, back again the next turn.
One with the Multiverse is incredibly powerful, hence the hefty eight-mana price tag. However, this deck can cheat one in quickly in order to slam an otherwise uncastable Atraxa or Portal to Phyrexia that's stuck in hand. It lets its pilot play lands and spells off the top, including one for free, meaning once it's in play, it snowballs out of control very quickly. One with the Multiverse allows for some truly insane stuff, and it's not uncommon to cast seventeen or twenty mana worth of spells in one turn after cheating this enchantment into play on turn four.
Portal to Phyrexia is obviously a monster card, costing an eye-watering nine mana, however it's an invaluable piece of the deck. Its impact on the board is immediate and devastating for the opponent, consuming even hexproof and indestructible creatures like they're nothing. Once it's in play, the haymaker train leaves the station, as it begins putting uncounterable Atraxas on the battlefield, as well as any other powerful threats the opponent may have sacrificed to it. Being an artifact is quite relevant, as most of the enchantment destruction that is seeing play right now misses it completely. Get Lost, Destroy Evil, and Pawpatch Formation can't touch it, and decks like Azorius Control have no way to deal with it once it's resolved.
Lumra, Bellow of the Woods is a new addition that I've been testing and am pleasantly surprised by. It often gets cheated into play on turn four or five, mills four more cards, then immediately ramps the Sultai player up to twelve or more mana. While it may seem counterintuitive to pull a pile of permanents out of the graveyard instead of putting them in, that hardly matters, as Lumra ramping means one can simply hard-cast every giant spell in the deck after that. That's also one of the key strengths of the deck: unlike other reanimator lists, all of Sultai's giant threats are actually castable, meaning that even if the reanimation plan fails or the opponent exiles the graveyard, one can just play it like a late-game ramp deck.
Last but definitely not least, the single copy of Jace, the Perfected Mind is actually one of the most common ways to win in the deck. Early in the game, it mills and draws a card, or soaks up some damage from the opponent's creatures. Later in the game, it mills for fifteen, then gets reanimated to mill for another fifteen, then gets reanimated… you get the idea. Chaining a couple of Squirming Emergence or a Founding the Third Path chapter three can take an opponent from forty-five cards left in their deck to zero in one turn, and is often the fastest way to slam the door shut on a game.
The Mana
The mana base is quite solid here, with plenty of 'fast lands' like Darkslick Shores, as well as the full playset of Fabled Passage. Having a land that puts itself in the graveyard while also fixing one's mana is perfect in this deck, however this does mean it's necessary to run plenty of basics, including the one Plains to cast Atraxa. While it may seem intuitive to jam a bunch of surveil lands like Underground Mortuary and Hedge Maze in this deck, playing too many come-into-play-tapped lands is a trap. The deck really needs its first three mana to come into play untapped, as that's when it's crucially trying to set up its explosive Squirming Emergence turn. Having too many tapped lands slows the deck down considerably, draining much of its power. Atraxa on turn three is very hard for opponents to beat, but on turn five or later it's much easier, especially when one is facing down an aggressive deck.
The Sideboard
The sideboard has plenty of cards to shore up the deck's weakest matchups: very low-to-the-ground aggressive decks, like Boros Convoke and Rakdos Lizards, and hard control decks, like Azorius Control. Against aggro, Malicious Eclipse and extra copies of Terror Tide are substituted for Jace, Wail, and The Cruelty of Gix.
Against control, Duress, Negate, Tyrranax Rex, and another Jace, the Perfected Mind come in for Terror Tide, Fallaji Archaeologist, and Harvester of Misery.
Tranquil Frillback is here to combat opposing hate cards like Rest in Peace, while also doing great work against the enchantments running around Standard right now, like the cycle of Talents from Bloomburrow.
Conclusion
Sultai Reanimator is hands down one of the most powerful decks in the format, and many games while piloting it feel like playing a Modern deck against everyone else's Standard lists. The power, consistency, and resilience of the deck are enormous and as long as its one vulnerability, graveyard-hate cards, are at an all-time low, I expect this deck to be a very scary thing to run into in a tournament or on the Magic Arena ranked ladder.
Take it for a spin and let me know what you think of Sultai Reanimator in the comments below!
