My name is Christopher Sheppard, recent winner of the RIW March RCQ. Today, I am breaking down Spellementals, the deck I used to lock up my invite to Cincinnati.
I’ve been playing Magic on and off since Onslaught, originally grinding MTGO from 2005–2011 under the user name TheUsualSuspect. I came back to competitive magic about two years ago.
Since coming back, my best finishes are a 27th place at SCGCon Columbus 10K, and a 9–6 finish at the Regional Championship in Minnesota (after a day 1 7–2).
For those old enough to remember playing during Time Spiral. My biggest lifetime Magic highlight is casting a Restore Balance after eating all my lands with a Greater Gargadon against Hall of Famer Willy Edel for an MTGO Top 8.
I started this RCQ season on Dimir Midrange, then shifted to Dimir Demons after the Pro Tour. After a run of mediocre results, including a 2-2-1 finish at the February RIW RCQ, I decided to pivot to something that looked more fun and better positioned for the local meta.
That’s when I picked up Spellementals, and four weeks later, with three RCQ Top 4 finishes and an RC invite under my belt, I’m glad I did!
Spellementals is a creature-based Izzet spellslinger deck, originally designed by Team Boulder for the Pro Tour. It focuses on low-cost cantrips, interaction, and “thirst for knowledge” style draw effects, to fill up your graveyard with instants and sorceries. This makes your large elemental threats almost free for a 4/5 or 5/5. Once you cast one of those 6 or 7 mana cost elemental for nearly free, you can resolve a Sunderflock for 2 or 3 mana itself, bouncing all non-elementals and leaving your opponent’s board clear with just your large monsters on the board.
Below is my version of the deck, which is pretty close to stock since there is only really room for 3-4 cards to change between lists.
Only 3 Winternight Stories.
While most players currently run four copies. The issue with Winternight Stories is that it’s a three-mana sorcery. In games where quickly finding and ramping into a Sunderflock can just win on the spot (like against Rhyth or Mono-Red), the card is excellent. However, in matchups where you need to consistently hold up interaction (Dimir Excruciator), or when tapping out could mean dying on the spot (Mono-Green/Harmonizer), casting Winternight Stories efficiently can be difficult.
Representing open mana on an opponent’s turn has often felt stronger than simply tapping out for Winternight Stories, which is why I ultimately settled on three copies instead of four. I prefer having multiple copies of Abandon Attachments, allowing me to discard Winternight Stories as an instant at my opponent’s end step, and later Harmonizing it for one mana. I have stuck with the 1x stock up, maybe correctly it should be the 4th winternights, but I’ve liked my list.
Why the Variety of 1x Cards?
The deck’s exceptional filtering and card draw create a wide range of possible hands, forcing opponents to constantly second-guess what you might have, especially in closed-deck events. When they see you cast a Get Out, a Three Steps, or a Spell Pierce, they start to wonder: do you have two? Three? Is it just one? That uncertainty often makes them play more cautiously, sometimes around cards that aren’t even in your deck.
In a Top 4 I lost a week ago, my opponent actually had me dead to a much simpler line than the one he took. He played around a card I only had a single copy of, which was sitting in my graveyard the entire time, giving me an extra turn to possibly find an answer.
MATCHUPS AND SIDEBOARD PLANS
Team Boulder built this deck to counter the expected 30+% Cub decks at the Pro Tour. The matchup is highly favorable, with game 1 almost 80/20 in your favor. After sideboarding, opponents bring in more spider-sense and sometimes Torpor Orbs, but you still have the advantage since they usually lack answers for your creatures. If they can’t grow their threats with Ouroboroid, or one turn kill with a hoof, you normally just get ahead.
Your strategy is to bolt their mana ramp, snare their cubs and spiders, and stall any attempts to Rhythm for 4+ until you can drop a Hearth Elemental or Crab on turn 4 to 6 with a Sunderflock follow-up. At that point, you return all their creatures and lands that were earthbended to their hand and leave them with little chance to recover. 1 Sunderflock very often just seals the game for you.
Another favorable matchup. The key to this matchup is to avoid tapping out under any circumstances, as that can lead to you just randomly taking 15 damage from a slickshot or otters. Hold back your mana to respond to their threats while getting your graveyard count high enough to cast an Elemental or Flock. Once you get a Sunderflock on board, it becomes difficult for them to find lethal damage, as none of their threats have trample. In addition, Sunderflock itself normally wipes out some number of otter tokens, setting them way behind.
This matchup is the classic 48-52 scenario. It’s nearly a 50/50 matchup, and the player who executes their game plan better will pull ahead. They have slightly more ways to get going than you do, but when you find your groove, their answers often fall short.
Snare and Pierce are excellent in this matchup, and after sideboarding, you gain access to Annuls. Your goal should be to keep them off their Talents and Monuments while establishing a threat or two.
Arguably the biggest threat in the metagame right now. It’s the most played deck, and you’re roughly a 45–55% underdog against it.
The matchup really comes down to whether your answers line up with their threats. If they draw Mossborn Hydra, you need instant-speed removal or a bounce spell since Sunderflock can’t answer it. If your opponent goes wide, you need Sunderflock; if they choose the Nursery route, you need a counterspell or multiple Sunderflocks; and if they opt for the Harmonizer route with Icetill/Harmonizer, you must ensure you don’t die from 20 damage.
Everything they do requires a different answer, and your interaction has to line up correctly and on time. Mulligan decisions often feel like guessing what their draw will look like and what you’ll need to beat it. When you guess right, and they don’t kill you on turn four, you can absolutely win. When you guess wrong, the games usually don’t last very long.
-1 Winternights (on the draw), or 2nd spell snare/spell pierce on the play (knowing if your opponent has Torpor orbs also decides this).
I was playing Dimir Excruciator before I swapped to Spellementals, and unfortunately, Spellementals is behind in this matchup. It’s about a 40/60 in game one, and while it gets a tad better after sideboarding, it’s still rough. They remove all your creatures, strip your hand of threats with Deceit, and at a certain point, you just have to land one or two Elementals with counterspell backup and hope it’s enough.
(Note) If you’re expecting a lot of UB Demons or midrange in your local event, adding Ral and Legend of Kuruk in the sideboard can be a difference-maker.
(Insert Ral, Crackling wit, and Legend of Kurok pictures)
Like against most blue/black decks with good removal and card draw, you are slightly behind in this matchup, but the games you don’t get blown out, it’s a very interactive matchup.
If they keep an opening hand with Cecil, along with Kaito. It gives them the ability to just go Cecil on 1, into a Ninjitsu Kaito on turn 3, and you pretty much just watch them draw 2 cards a turn for the rest of the game and choke you out. Some games vs Dimir feel like there isn’t much you can do counterplay-wise. If the Dimir player has it, he has it. If he has a slower hand or his one or two drops can be killed with burst lightning, it allows you time to leverage your card filtering to get to your relevant cards. In this matchup, you can just slam a Heart/Flock and reset the board once, and sometimes it just puts you far enough ahead against their 1/1’s and 2/1’s.
+0-1 Pyroclasm (if you see bitterblossom)
Spellementals is a great deck with play across the board. It is a strong choice against almost all strategies in Standard right now, has very few bad matchups where you feel like you’re playing non-games against, and is super fun to play. As a bonus, it’s currently one of the most affordable decks in Standard. The costly cards mainly come from the landbase, which is shared with Lessons and Prowess. This makes it an ideal deck to build and play at your local Standard showdown, with the flexibility to upgrade and switch to Prowess or Lessons later if you decide the Spellementals playstyle isn’t for you.
Lastly, I’d like to thank Pam for allowing me to write this article. Hopefully, I can put this RC invite to good use and put up a good result in Cincinnati.
