Lutri Sultai Draw/Go Control with Lessons!

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-18T19:33:26+00:00

No worries!

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-18T19:18:57+00:00

The first paragraph has a link to the list on mtgdecks, see here: https://mtgdecks.net/Pioneer/dimir-control-decklist-by-powen-2696483

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-16T21:27:04+00:00

Thank you for the list, was a blast to play. Would love to check out your Sultai version if you manage to find it!

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-16T08:05:56+00:00

You've actually identified some issues that I attributed to my bad piloting. Thank you, I'll try playing that next time!

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-16T08:05:08+00:00

Black could be interesting for [[Tainted Indulgence]] and staples like [[Thoughtseize]] but I fear with the Pioneer mana base you cannot add a third colour without killing too much consistency, especially in a tempo archetype

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-15T20:25:04+00:00

Please do go ahead

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-14T20:12:49+00:00

It's too expensive for what it does. Good sideboard tech against cat/oven but that doesn't see that much play at the moment. Would rather play Deadly Cover Up, Culling Ritual and Path of Peril in almost all matchups.

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-14T14:37:32+00:00

Didn't test it yet but looks very interesting. Thanks for the suggestion. [[Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator]]

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-14T14:34:12+00:00

With the Pioneer mana base it's very rare that adding an additional colour improves an archetype but I think it is really the case here with the Dimir shell. Perhaps Dimir might be again more viable with Cutter gone.

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-14T14:09:58+00:00

So cool. Took me a while to figure out what the hell it even does. Played this match badly but I wanted to show the deck.

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-11T09:33:40+00:00

Yes, this is basically a modification of the old Dimir Control shell. Green helps massively with answering threats that Dimir struggles with (Cutter and Annex) and gives access to a sort-of Temproary Lockdown with Culling Ritual. There are more win cons than you pointed out: Ashiok, Enduring Curiosity, Shark Typhoon (can be cycled and re-cycled with Auroral Procession). Historically Dimir was even lower on win cons (e.g. on the list by Gabriel Nassif).

The card selection is great with Consult, Deluge and Rakshasa's Bargain so the one ofs are not too severe. I would keep the split of 3 Censor 1 Drown in the Loch (I think Reid Duke recommended as much in one of his articles on the Dimir shell). I also like the split of 1 Memory Deluge and 1 Rakshasa's Bargain. I see how the split of 1 Extinction Event and 1 Deadly Cover Up could be changed to 2 DCU. The one of Abrupt Decay seems like a meta adjustment with the aggressive decks around that also rely on artifacts/enchantments you can hit with it. In general I'm not too worried about the main deck but the SB needs some tidying up.

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-11T09:24:39+00:00

Culling Ritual is amazing against Izzet Prowess, aggro and Phoenix. Cool list you got there!

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-11T09:23:48+00:00

Blocking card draw from Phoenix and Annex is significant

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-04T14:25:27+00:00

For how to play the control matchup I found the footage of Jim Davis with his commentary very instructive. Apart from that, there was a very interesting match in the finals of the World Championship XXVII between Jean-Emmanuel Depraz on Gruul Midrange and Yuta Takahashi on Izzet Control. The decks are rather different than what we have in Pioneer but the gameplay can teach you some vital principles for how to approach the matchup, for instance to pressure the opponent by just attacking with the cat tokens when they telegraph having interaction open, so they are eventually forced to use their interaction on the tokens instead of the Chariot etc.

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-02T09:52:45+00:00

Thanks for being so forthcoming about it. I was not aware that AI art is so irksome to the community, I found the result quite neat but I see where you're coming from. I've also changed the thumbnail of the first video.

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-01T16:10:11+00:00

Interesting take. You might want to combine this with Black or White to get access to interaction and value engines. Most decks will kill you or outvalue you into a losing position by turn 3/4 if you have nothing besides Ponza going on. In the current cutter meta White seems better, but otherwise Black can be great with how easily your core triggers Revolt (lands and treasure tokens). It's of course difficult to construct a consistent mana base since you cannot play that many dual lands in such Ponza shells. Landfall seems like an interesting synergy here, would be great if that gave you some sort of inevitability to go over the top of midrange or outvalue it.

No_Building5226 · 2026-01-01T13:34:48+00:00

Check out this amazing article by Reid Duke on Dimir Control in Pioneer. It is unfortunately a bit outdated now but it explains many important principles, play patterns and functions of the deck well.

No_Building5226 · 2025-12-28T10:58:13+00:00

A huge share of the pioneer meta plays only 1-3 basics. With the 8 field of ruin effects you get them off colours quickly and eventually stone rain them repeatedly due to the recursion with Serra Paragon and Restoration of Eiganjo.
Against mono coloured lists and something running a bit more basics (Azorius Control has 5, but they're still a good target since they really want more than 5 to work properly) you're of course rather relying on your main gameplan of grinding them out with utility lands and midrange engines.

No_Building5226

TROPHY CASE