(Editor’s Note: this article was written before Players Tour and Grand Prix.)

Introduction

Hi! My name is Joseba García aka Elfkid in Magic Online (MTGO) and this is going to be my first article for Hareruya I hope you enjoy it and I hope I can continue writing for them.

I’m going to talk about Pioneer’s new hot deck: Thassa’s Inverter!

How the Deck Works

This deck is based on the combo of 《Thassa’s Oracle》 and 《Inverter of Truth》, thanks to Theros Beyond Death we have this new card that you might already seen replacing 《Laboratory Maniac》 in Modern.

The combo works exiling your library with 《Inverter of Truth》 and then playing a 《Thassa’s Oracle》 to win the game, it’s more or less a two combo pieces deck but it can also win attacking with 《Inverter of Truth》, since it’s a 6/6 body that a lot of decks can’t beat.

Different Lists

Sultai Inverter by Elfkid and Fradelrock

Now I’m going to talk about the version I built with a friend of mine and we think it might be the best version of the deck; Sultai Inverter.

• Elfkid and Fradelrock
• – Sultai Inverter Combo

• Test Deck

1 《Island》
4 《Breeding Pool》
4 《Overgrown Tomb》
3 《Watery Grave》
2 《Hinterland Harbor》
1 《Drowned Catacomb》
1 《Woodland Cemetery》
3 《Botanical Sanctum》
1 《Blooming Marsh》
2 《Yavimaya Coast》
-Land (22)- 4 《Sylvan Caryatid》
4 《Thassa’s Oracle》
3 《Paradise Druid》
4 《Inverter of Truth》
2 《Hostage Taker》
-Creature (17)-

4 《Opt》
4 《Thoughtseize》
3 《Fatal Push》
3 《Finale of Devastation》
4 《Eldritch Evolution》
1 《Murderous Cut》
2 《Jace, Wielder of Mysteries》
-Spell (21)-

4 《Pack Rat》
3 《Duress》
3 《Mystical Dispute》
2 《Tireless Tracker》
1 《Scavenging Ooze》
1 《Reclamation Sage》
1 《Fatal Push》
-Sideboard (15)-

Download Magic Online Text

As you can see, this version is kinda different from the original one, this one is based on abusing 《Eldritch Evolution》 and the Hexproof two mana dorks to search for the combo pieces more consistently, this allows you to also play some silver bullets in the sideboard to fight the hate cards without diluting your deck in the process!

To try to make the deck more consistent we added the card 《Finale of Devastation》, which allows us to find both of the combo pieces and silver bullets like 《Hostage Taker》 main deck and 《Reclamation Sage》 or 《Tireless Tracker》 post board.

Card Choices: Mainboard

Analyzing the deck and the sideboard choices.

Mana Acceleration

These are the cards that makes our deck different from the other versions, having access to a third color and a fast way to build our combo it’s pretty important and this is one of the reasons that make us think this might be one of the best versions of the deck.

Combo Pieces

These are the core of the deck, the win conditions, as I said before 《Inverter of Truth》 is the card that exiles our deck and makes 《Thassa’s Oracle》 and 《Jace, Wielder of Mysteries》 work.

Tutors

The reason to play Green, the cards that enable us to find silver bullets and to have a more fast and a more consistent win, with the help of the Hexproof two drops I mentioned before this allows us to avoid removal spells and win easily. Remember 《Finale of Devastation》 can get creatures from the graveyard so that makes the card super broken!

Disruption and Removal

Even if we’re not a control deck we still need ways to interact with the creatures and the spell based decks in the format. For this purpose we count with the best disruption spell in the format and with one of the best cheap and efficient removals. We also count with the help of 《Murderous Cut》 which works as an additional removal and a way to remove the cards we don’t want to shuffle with 《Inverter of Truth》 back in our library.

Cantrip

I don’t think I need to go deep on this card, it is the best and cheapest cantrip in Pioneer so we need to play it.

Silver Bullet

This card counts as a Silver Bullet and also as a removal, it’s a pretty interesting card since you can use it in an infinite ways, the best thing is that is a removal that doesn’t go to the graveyard. It’s also good against control decks because we can target our own creatures like 《Thassa’s Oracle》 and we can play around 《Supreme Verdict》 or another sweeper. It gives an extra devotion for 《Thassa’s Oracle》 and it can be searched with 《Eldritch Evolution》 and 《Finale of Devastation》, so it turns our tutor effects into removals too.

Card Choices: Sideboard

4

3

3

2

1

1

1

About the fifteen cards we’re going to use we prioritized having cards that allowed us to change the deck from a combo deck to a midrange decks, especially mention to the cards 《Pack Rat》 and 《Tireless Tracker》. Both of these cards are pretty good in matchups where we want to side out cards like 《Eldritch Evolution》 to have a more consistent amount of threats.

In sideboard games it’s pretty important to understand we’re not going to work as a focused combo deck like we did in game one, we can grind our opponents out with the help of discard spells plus 《Pack Rat》 like in the old Theros Standard, and the function of cards like 《Thassa’s Oracle》 and 《Inverter of Truth》 in postboard games are to dig in our deck to find the sideboard cards and to help us close the game in the air!

Pros and Cons of Playing Sultai over Dimir

Sideboard Guide

Keep in mind that this deck is relatively new and that I’m trying to not be focused on the combo part in post board games unless I think is really necessary.

Mono Black Aggro

Against Mono Black Aggro

Out

In

They’re going to side out 《Fatal Push》 most likely so 《Pack Rat》 might be pretty good here. If there’s a game three and they already saw 《Pack Rat》 you can side them out and make them have bad cards in their deck.

Niv to Light

Against Niv to Light

Out

In

They’re going to try to remove our win conditions in the form of 《Unmoored Ego》 or to try to stop us winning in separated turns with cards like 《Rest in Peace》 so having a midrange plan with counterspells works pretty well.

Mono Green Aggro

Against Mono Green Aggro

Out

In

This matchup is a race, just try to combo them as soon as possible and use the removal to keep yourself alive until then. 《Reclamation Sage》 blocks and destroys 《Scrapheap Scrounger》, 《Heart of Kiran》 and also helps against 《The Great Henge》, this last one is hard to beat so don’t count it as a real target.

Mono Red

Against Mono Red

Out

In

This matchup is close to the Mono Green one but in this one they have burn spells and they’re not focused on the one drops so this might be harder, but the game plan is still the same, just try to combo them fast since they don’t have a good way to interact with us.

Azorius Control

Against Azorius Control

Out

In

This matchup is where our sideboard shines, we’re not focused on the combo part and we use 《Thassa’s Oracle》 and 《Inverter of Truth》 as value cards and as a fast clock one, 《Thassa’s Oracle》 is incredibly good here, since it pushes Planeswalkers and helps us finding the other pieces or disruption. It also works pretty well with 《Tireless Tracker》‘s Clue allowing us to draw the card we want the same turn we play it.

Mono Green Ramp

Against Mono Green Ramp (On the Play)

Out

In

Against Mono Green Ramp (On the Draw)

Out

In

This matchup is, in theory a good one, but I also like to have ways to interact with cards like 《Thought-Knot Seer》 or the big drops they play in the form of 《Mystical Dispute》. 《Tireless Tracker》 is better than the removal spells and it also gives us card advantage.

If they play Simic Ramp please think about siding in 《Duress》 against their 《Mystical Dispute》.

Tips and Tricks

I’m going to write a few tips that came in along my games that I think they can be useful for you:

How to Improve the Deck

In my testing I found that the mana base is not perfect, we need to take another look in to it and see how can we add more blue sources, maybe more 《Yavimaya Coast》.

《Tireless Tracker》 has been great but I think 《Questing Beast》 and 《Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet》 can be better as silver bullets and targets for 《Eldritch Evolution》 or 《Finale of Devastation》.

As I’m finishing this article I saw people playing 《Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver》 against the mirror which I think it’s pretty good.

I also think we can add 《Ashiok, Nightmare Muse》 as a sideboard option against the mirror and against hate cards since it can bounce everything.

Conclusion

I hope you all enjoyed this article as I enjoyed writing it. I think this deck is pretty good and I know some friends of mine that are going to play this in Brussels, and thanks a lot to Diego Fradejas who helped me building this deck and the sideboard!

I hope you all can give this a try and let me know how it goes!

If you have any questions feel free to ask me in the comments, Twitter or Facebook.

See you on MTGO.

Joseba García (Twitter / Twitch)