Sultai Midrange Control @ Pioneer - A splash of blue empowers you (Pioneer)

I really love midrange decks, so since Pioneer started, I have been trying to find one that I feel comfortable playing.

In my experience, a deck needs to be either very fast or play hate cards with an impact on a broad range of decks (and preferrably counterspells) in order to compete in the Pioneer meta
(or in other words: have the tools to have as few non-games due to the individual matchup as possible).
Also, I feel that any midrange deck in the current meta needs to have access to mainboard graveyard hate,
as well as a strong suite of earlygame creatures and removal to not die to the very fast aggro decks that are rampant due to the high density of combo decks in the meta.

So, which colors do I play?

Black has the early game removal and the discard along with Gifted Aetherborn, which is probably the best 2drop you could want against fast aggro (I have won matches against Bant Spirits with a precursor to this deck because I resolved one Gifted Aetherborn), as well as Cheville, Bane of Monsters as a grindier version better suited if the meta has less creatures, but still some.
Green has the ability to interact with any permanent and the graveyard. Apart from Rest in Peace, it accomplishes these tasks better than White.
Green + Black opens up a lot of options for lategame Planeswalkers, as well as two nice 3-mana planeswalkers with Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and Liliana, the Last Hope.

The question for me was: splash for White or for Blue?

Since I "grew up" during the Khans block, I decided to play Siege Rhino, and did so for quite some matches, but

• I did not find other splashable white cards (the one I really wanted, Gideon of the Trials, costs WW and is thus not playable in a Pioneer manabase that already needs to support BB and GG) that really helped me dodging losses against combo
• I also kept losing against non-combo decks because I was not able to close out games fast enough

OK, let's try Blue!

What does Blue do for You?

• 2 Spell Pierce mainboard to make sure my threats stick or to keep a counter up against combo and all the big mana decks in the current meta (1 gets cut for a permanent removal when the meta is faster with more creature decks)
• 1 Ashiok for an additional bounce-any-permanent-spell as well as an alternate finisher that just loves to work together with Scavenging Ooze and Agonizing Remorse
• 1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy to recur that removal or discard spell (a card I am not so sure about yet)
• Unmoored Ego and counterspells for every occasion in the sideboard (switching removal for counterspells in matchups where the opponent has few or no creatures)

What do you miss out on?

• Rest in Peace, which is just the best graveyard hate there is. With Scavenging Ooze and uncommon Ashiok, though, there is good one-sided graveyard hate, which is preferable with Scarab God as a Finisher
• Gideon and other anti-combo hat cards. No good replacements for these, apart from counterspells

So, gameplan for this deck:

Step 1: Remove (from battlefield or from hand) the first 1-2 threats played
Step 2: Play a good blocker/attacker that keeps you alive for at least one additional turn, in which you hopefully play a card drawing spell, and have removal ready
Step 3: In that turn, get Kalitas or Vraska down, and start grinding
Step 4: Get to the point where 1 or more planeswalkers stick, and finish the game. Alternatively, win with zombie or Scavenging Ooze beatdown

The deck plays reactively most of the time, and more slowly than the traditional "Abzan Midrange of Khans Standard" midrange deck. It's more on the grindy than on the fast side (which midrange can also be, e.g. Gruul, which plays mana acceleration, which this deck does not). I have made the experience that, without Tarmogoyf or Liliana of the Veil, a midrange deck in Pioneer needs to be a lot more focused on the lategame than its Modern counterpart. If Wizards prints a really good 2-mana threat creature, running a playset of that together with a bit more discard could speed the deck up.

If the meta is very combo-heavy, this deck struggles (unless graveyard hate can disrupt the combo), as it is not fast enough to outrace combo.

If, though, the meta features many "fair" decks or ones relying on the graveyard, or combo decks disruptible by removal (Ensoul Artifact comes to mind), then this deck has the tools in the maindeck to beat them. Plus, it is highly interactive and versatile, which for me is the gold standard for decks I truly enjoy playing it, specially since it has so many of my favorite planeswalkers, and is very easily adaptable to changes in the metagame. You can always play some version of it without embarassing yourself.

The manabase is tested and works well. No utility lands possible, though: you need 15/16 green for double-green on turn 3 (play Scavenging Ooze and directly eat something, so you get value out of it), more black (turn 1 Thoughtseize, Liliana, Murderous Rider) than that, and enough blue so that you can deploy Spell Pierce before turn 3 and Unmoored Ego with certainty on turn 3. Maybe, just maybe a Castle Locthwain is possible,

Sideboard is still evolving. One thing to note, here: the sideboard is very blue-heavy, which means that post-sideboard, you will need to favor hands that have blue mana and/or use Fabled Passage for blue.

1-2 Uro would be nice mainboard, but I have avoided that particular investment yet. It is such a good value engine, and a respectable finisher if the board is clear.