The deck is a Sultai evasive-aggro "theft" deck that swarms the board with cheap unblockable and hard-to-block creatures. Each connection with an opponent turns into stolen cards. Gonti, Canny Acquisitor exiles the top card of a damaged player's library once per combat damage step, no matter how many creatures connect, and lets the deck play it with any mana. It also discounts every spell the deck casts but doesn't own. A wide layer of extra steal-on-hit effects, ETB theft and direct card snatching keeps the deck casting opponents' cards with cost reducers and any-color mana, while combat-damage triggers draw cards and grow the attackers. How it wins: It chips opponents down with a wide team of evasive attackers, pumped by quest counters and +1/+1 counters, while casting their best threats and answers against them until the table runs out of life and resources. Key roles: - Evasive attackers: Cheap unblockable, shadow, fear and flying creatures that reliably connect to fire Gonti, Canny Acquisitor and every other combat-damage trigger. Granted evasion and menace help the bigger bodies get through. (Slither Blade, Invisible Stalker, Dauthi Horror) - Steal-on-hit engines: Extra permanents and creatures that exile or cast cards from a damaged player's library. Several of them trigger per creature, unlike the commander, so a wide hit nets multiple stolen cards. (Gonti, Night Minister, Thief of Sanity, Dream-Thief's Bandana) - Direct theft and big steals: Spells and ETB creatures that take cards from hands, libraries, graveyards or the battlefield without needing combat, ranging up to X-spell blowouts and a board-wide exile-and-replay sweeper. (Hostage Taker, Villainous Wealth, Covetous Urge) - Casting-stolen-cards support: Cost reducers for spells cast from exile or that the deck doesn't own, plus mana restricted to stolen spells and Treasure from casting them, so multiple stolen cards can be deployed in one turn. Felix Five-Boots doubles every combat-damage trigger the deck controls. (Felix Five-Boots, Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius, Thieving Varmint) - Combat-damage card draw and pump: Draw-on-hit effects refuel the low-curve swarm, while quest counters and +1/+1 counters turn tiny unblockables into lethal threats. (Edric, Spymaster of Trest, Bident of Thassa, Beastmaster Ascension) - Library-top manipulation: Bounce-to-top, Memory Lapse-style counters and graveyard stacking put known or chosen cards on opponents' libraries, which doubles as tempo and as setting up what the hit triggers will steal next. (Time Ebb, Memory Lapse, Misinformation)

Gonti, Canny Acquisitor decklist

• Access Tunnel
• Anchor to the Aether
• Arcane Heist
• Arcane Signet
• Beastmaster Ascension
• Bident of Thassa
• Black Cat, Cunning Thief
• Cazur, Ruthless Stalker
• Changeling Outcast
• Command Tower
• Covetous Urge
• Creeping Tar Pit
• Cruelclaw's Heist
• Cultivate
• Darkwater Catacombs
• Dauthi Horror
• Dimir Infiltrator
• Dimir Signet
• Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius
• Dream-Thief's Bandana
• Dreamroot Cascade
• Drown in the Loch
• Drowned Catacomb
• Edric, Spymaster of Trest
• Enter the Enigma
• Exotic Orchard
• Extraordinary Journey
• Farseek
• Feed the Swarm
• Felix Five-Boots
• 4× Forest
• Gonti, Lord of Luxury
• Gonti, Night Minister
• Gríma, Saruman's Footman
• Growth Spiral
• Heartless Conscription
• Hinder
• Hinterland Harbor
• Hostage Taker
• Invisible Stalker
• 5× Island
• Kotis, the Fangkeeper
• Llanowar Wastes
• Memory Lapse
• Misinformation
• Mist-Cloaked Herald
• Nightveil Specter
• One with Nature
• Opal Palace
• Opulent Palace
• Outrageous Robbery
• Overflowing Basin
• Phantasmal Image
• Predators' Hour
• Rampant Growth
• Reconnaissance Mission
• Rogue Class
• Sakura-Tribe Elder
• Savvy Trader
• Shadowmage Infiltrator
• Shoreline Looter
• Silent Hallcreeper
• Silhana Ledgewalker
• Simic Signet
• Siphon Insight
• Siren Stormtamer
• Slither Blade
• Sol Ring
• Sunken Hollow
• 5× Swamp
• Swiftfoot Boots
• Tear Asunder
• Temporal Spring
• Thalakos Sentry
• Thief of Sanity
• Thieving Skydiver
• Thieving Varmint
• Time Ebb
• Tormented Soul
• Triton Shorestalker
• Underground River
• Villainous Wealth
• Viridescent Bog
• Whisk Away
• Woodland Cemetery
• Wretched Confluence
• Yavimaya Coast