MPL Pearl Division ELD split is all about Sultai Food

Week three of Magic: The Gathering’s Eldraine split in the MPL round-robin matches have begun with six of the eight competitors playing Sultai Food. 

After dominating in the Magic Arena Mythic Qualifiers over the weekend, Sultai Food may be the hottest deck in Standard. The Field of the Dead ban eradicated one poisonous card from the Standard meta, but several still remain. And everyone is playing them in the Pearl Division this week except for Andrew Cuneo. 

• Andrew Cuneo: Selesnya Adventure.
• Brian Braun-Duin: Sultai Food.
• Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa: Sultai Food.
• Andrea Mengucci: Sultai Food.
• Janne Mikkonen: Sultai Food.
• Matthew Nass: Sultai Food.
• Shahar Shenhar: Sultai Food.
• Shota Yasooka: Simic Food.

The Pearl Division will be a battle of mirror matches, with Cuneo hoping Selesnya Adventure can stand up to Oko, Thief of Crowns and Nissa, Who Shakes the World.

Sultai Food is a three-color (Blue, Green, Black) deck that functions similar to Simic and Bant Food. Gilded Goose and Oko feed Wicked Wolf while the thief of crowns also disrupts tempo via turning artifacts or creatures into 3/3 elks—and by stealing an opponent’s creature with a power of three or less.

The planeswalker Nissa works as a finisher while black is splashed to include the Instant spell Noxious Grasp, and additional planeswalkers like Liliana, Vivien, and Garruk. 

Brian Braun-Duin’s (BBD) deck is an ideal example of how Sultai Food functions. Four copies of Noxious Grasp eliminate Green and White planeswalkers and creatures while Garruk, Cursed Huntsman provides support by gumming up the battlefield with wolves. 

Only the top four players in the Pearl Division round-robin matches will move onto the playoffs being aired this weekend via MPL Weekly. The winner of the division earns themselves a day-one bye to Mythic Championship VII in December.