Defend, fill the graveyard while selecting cards, and grow an evasive finisher. Green Sultai payoffs are optional splashes with real source requirements.
Defend, fill the graveyard while selecting cards, and grow an evasive finisher. Green Sultai payoffs are optional splashes with real source requirements.
Commit when repeated useful cards and enough support make a complete deck in these colors.
Four checks while you draft
Can I affect the board before the payoff?
Replace the creature’s card while putting another card into the graveyard. A renew creature or harmonize spell can make that graveyard card useful later.
Do my actual cards enable this plan?
Use Appraiser or Nightwatch to stock the graveyard, then exile two spare cards to Sculptor at upkeep. Keep recursion targets you still need.
Can I stop their strongest play and finish a stalled game?
Defend, fill the graveyard while selecting cards, and grow an evasive finisher. Green Sultai payoffs are optional splashes with real source requirements.
Choose the missing job before another reward that needs it.
The key card is present but its support is thin.
Prioritize useful support such as Sibsig Appraiser or Gurmag Nightwatch.
Use Appraiser or Nightwatch to stock the graveyard, then exile two spare cards to Sculptor at upkeep. Keep recursion targets you still need.
Your deck already enables the plan but is losing the early turns.
Take a castable early creature or efficient answer before a second expensive payoff.
Nightwatch can cost four mana in blue-black because its missing green symbol accepts two generic. An ordinary Sultai spell does not share that flexibility.
The support is missing
Favor independently useful creatures and interaction if the narrow support does not arrive.
Repeated useful cards are clues, not proof that the colors are open.
Nightwatch can cost four mana in blue-black because its missing green symbol accepts two generic. An ordinary Sultai spell does not share that flexibility.
Pressure before the flyer grows. Exile key graveyard resources before the upkeep ability or renew activation, and budget five mana to kill a Dragon with Dragon’s Prey.
17Lands ↗ · Apr 8–May 14, 2025 · at least 100 card-in-hand instances in this pair’s no-splash decks. Choose the job your deck needs first.
Marang River Regent 4UUThe six-mana flyer returns up to two other nonland permanents, buying a major attack window or reusing your own entry effects. Coil and Catch is a separate four-mana draw-three/discard-one spell that shuffles the card away. Decide whether you need cards now or the Dragon in hand later.
Ugin, Eye of the Storms 7Its cast trigger can exile a colored permanent even if the planeswalker spell is countered. Once in play, protect it while drawing and gaining life, or use colorless spells for further exile triggers. Ugin does not count its own casting for the separate ability that functions only on the battlefield.17Lands Premier Draft ↗ · Apr 8–May 14, 2025 · 100-instance minimum
Sibsig AppraiserReplace the creature’s card while putting another card into the graveyard. A renew creature or harmonize spell can make that graveyard card useful later.
Gurmag NightwatchIn blue-black, pay two generic plus blue and black. The entry selection fills the graveyard, but the card remains three colors with mana value six.
Examples apply the printed rules; judge the board, costs and timing.
| One-pick | Sealed |
|---|---|
| With one pick, fill the missing early play, answer or support card before adding another narrow payoff. The plan must work without drawing its key card. | Compare complete builds from the cards you opened. Keep the castable curve and interaction even if the draft theme is only partly supported. |
Use Appraiser or Nightwatch to stock the graveyard, then exile two spare cards to Sculptor at upkeep. Keep recursion targets you still need.
Caustic Exhale
Dragon's Prey
