Lethargic Response - U
Sorcery
Counter target spell
Obviously needs some support to be printed in standard but Wizards has a long record of printing cards not even fringe playable in standard just to see if they could be interesting in older formats.
So I went 3-1 again at my LGS with the list below so I thought I might write some thoughts about it. Firstly I just got to say I really think it is a fun deck. The ability to tutor for some key lands and just not creatures leads to alot of nailbiting moments and huge swings of the game. Somehow you think that a Bant deck should have have at least one Township, but the suprise +1/+1 to the team catches people off guard.
In general you really rarely get to combo off. It mostly plays an important role as a threat they need to deal with and gives you an out to fast uninteractive decks. Also do not underestimate how good Retreat is combined with threats like Geist and fetches.
I am still very much experimenting with the sideboard, so do not take is as something well worked out. Sideboarding is very metadependent anyways as I think most of us know.
The 1-of Dispel in the mainboard is nothing I would generally recommend. It is just an adaption to the my particular meta. I mean even Tron runs Bolts.
Match 1: 2-0 against UW tempo-control. On the draw.
This deck seemed to be built to win against all the other control decks, even running Cavern for wizards. I was lucky that none of my Voices got Snared, and they together with basically just fat creatures won the game. Keeping a fetch up with Retreat on board went he could never trust in a Snapcaster to block a Geist, or blocking with a Collonade.
Sideboard: Dispel and Negate in. Path and a Retreat out.
Match 2: 2-0 against Grixis control. On the draw.
Game 1 was mostly won thanks to two CoCos on turn 4 and 5. 2 Voices on turn 2 and 3 was very key here.
Game 2 was the same story. He could not stop a Voice on turn 2 and with me drawing threats he could not keep up with I quickly won the game.
Sideboard: Dispel, 1 Wheel and Spellskite in. Retreats out, thinking he probably has too much removal to combo off.
Match 3: 2-1 against GR Tron. On the play.
Game 1 I was happy to see a turn 3 combo win in hand, seeing he played Grove into an egg. But that joy came to end when he bolted my Hierarch, setting me back to turn 4 combo if I drew a mana source. But i did not do so in time for him to Tron off.
Game 2 and 3 was underesting. Turn 2 Stony both games completely shut him off tron and any fast clock could have won then. But it was nice to have both Pridemage ond tutorable Ghost Quarter as a backup if he had gotten rid of the Stony.
Sideboard: Stony and negate in, Ooze and Dispel (I think) out.
Match 4: 0-2 aganist Jeskai Gifts. On the draw.
Game 1 I had the combo but it was reliant on my Hierarch for white mana. I took the chance but it got bolted and afterwards I never drew a white mana source. I eventually lost with 7 white cards in hand.
Came 2 I kept a pretty spell-light hand hoping a Voice could do some work. It got Snared. After that I drew 5 lands in a row, and I could not get anything to stick through all his counterspells.
Thinking about card choices I will change one Kataki to another Stony. Having two of them was a nod towards CoCo, but Stony is just more versatile. The last Kataki is still tutorable with Chord.
Speaking Chord, I really love that card as a 1-of. The deck is not combo oriented enough to warrent more of them I think. Still very useful to find i.e. a Spellskite.
There is an odd Goyf as a 1-of and that is probably the most obvious card to change to something potentially more useful. It really is a great beater and I understand why some successfull lists have run it though.
I do not run Kessig in the deck. The first reason for it is that the mana base is really strained already. Having another colorless land is really bad sometimes when you do not have a mana dork. Also I just do not play red. It is one of my silly principles. To this point I have never had a situation where I needed it, but I will experiment with Rouge's Passage sometime in the future and see where that leads.
I once won a super grindy matchup with my Mardu deck against Twin off the back of a playset of Blind Obedience. He told me he expected me to side in Rakdos Charm. Blind Obedience not only did shut down the splinter combo, but allowed me to gnaw his life total on top of my attacks while preserving mine.
Blind Obediance does not shut down the combo, only delays it a turn. Some players think it is worth it to find a removal spell, I would rather have the additonal spell instead.
Do you have the card in the SB for some other matchup?
I think Merfolk is just fine right now. Not fantastic, but pretty average more or less. Judging from this, among the most popular decks it is mainly affinity Merfolk struggles against: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/breakdown/modern
It pretty much reflects my own experiences with the deck. Especially Bogles is not easy but luckily Anafenza coco is not very popular where I play.
Went 3-1 (again) yesterday which might not be too interesting but I beat i few matchups which I think can be fairly difficult. So I decided to make a little report if anyone would find it interesting.
Round 1 vs Bogles 0-2 Loss Game 1: I had a big sigh when i saw he was on Bogles because I really don't like this matchup. But at least they are over quickly. I had a decent hand but Daybreak Coronet just outpaced me.
Sideboard In: 2 Chalice of the Void, 2 Swan Song. Out: 1 Kira, 2 Tidebinder, 1 Vapor Snag. I am not sure what the best route is here but my idea is to take out the two pretty weak Tidebinder bears to let me keep up a mana more for counterspells. Game 2: I opened up a great 7 card hand on the play with an Aether Vial in it, so I felt pretty good. He played a Bogle on his first turn and I followed it up with a Chalice on 1. To my dismay, on the the following turns he played Spirit Mantle, Coronet, Coronet in that order and I could not race that.
Round 2 vs Affinity 2-1 Win Game 1 Win: On the draw I felt a bit bummed after the last match seeing him playing Affinity. It did not feel better seeing him empty his entire 7 card hand on the first turn when I had to mull to 6. I did have a decent hand though and kept drawing gas, including a Spreading Seas which soon became useful. On turn 4 (I think) my opponent decided to go for the infect route so he sacrified a bunch of his stuff to Ravager putting 6 counters on his Inkmoth Nexus. He swung giving me 7 poison. On my next turn I promply Speading Seased the Nexus and I suddenly had a nice board and he basically had nothing but an Overseer and a Memnite and I easily won from there.
Sideboard In: 3 Hurkyl's Recall, 1 Echoing Truth. Out: 1 Kira, 2 Tidebinder, 1 Cursecatcher. Similar plan to the first match, I wanted Lords and some amount of interaction. Game 2 Loss: I Probed him seeing a good hand with a Galvanic Blast as only interaction which is not too scary. No Plating too to my relief since my hand was decent but a bit slow. I did keep it though since it had a Recall and and a good spell/land ratio. Except a blue source, only Caverns and Mutas. I felt I should find it with the cantrips though (Silvergill, Probe) but I did not. I kept drawing Mutas and no blue sources leaving my Spell Pierce, Recall and Spreading Seas dead i my hand. I lost after he was just faster than I was, also drawing Plating soon enough.
Sideboard In: 2 Chalice. Out: 2 Gitaxian Probe. Game 3 Win: I opened no Chalice but the hand was fast enough i thought and i kept it. He did the usual affinity thing and put a lot of things in play, but I kept a decent pace to with Vial and I kept a Pierce and Snag up for anything really dangerous. Seeing that I began to mass a dangerous amount of islandwalking lords my opponent soon went for the infect kill again. But learning from his mistake in game 1 he put counters for lethal this time, sacing most of his stuff for the kill. I responded with Vapor Snaging his Inkmoth and after that he had no chance to recover.
Round 3 vs Bogles 2-0 Win Game 1: Bogles again, really? Anyway, I was on the play and Probed him seeing only two lands, so I decided to go for the land hate strategy after a turn 1 Vial. He get an Scout out, but after that my two Spreading Seas kept him locked out of the game until turn 4-5 when he drew another land, but it was too late for him to recover by then.
Sideboard In: 2 Chalice of the Void, 2 Swan Song. Out: 1 Kira, 1 Cursecatcher, 1 Tidebinder, 1 Vapor Snag. Still not very sure about what to board out. Tempo is nice, but if he lands a Spiritdancer things usually turn awful. Game 2: He started with a Bogle and I started with Probing him seeing Scout, Path, Path, Nature's Claim and lands. I put a Vial out which he snap Claim:ed on his turn followed by the Scout. Fortunately, thanks to the Probe I drew into to a Chalice on my turn which a played on 1 and he was locked out of the game from there.
Round 4 vs Grixis Control 2-1 Win Game 1 Win: My opponent had to mull to 5 and I had a good starting 7 hand so fish did what fish does best and the game was quickly over. I only saw grixis colours and some bolts, but I felt pretty sure he was on control since that seems to have taken over my LGS the last months.
Sideboard In: 2 Swan Song, 1 Echoing Truth, 1 Tidebinder. Out: 4 Spreading Seas. Not completely sure what he was on I just wanted to protech my things from sweepers or a Splinter Twin if he was on that. Relic would have been better in hindsight I think. Tidebinder was there just a a more creature he had to deal with. Game 2 Loss: This was a very drawn out game. After Probing him I saw he had Anger of the Gods which I tried to play around not over extending and keeping counterspells up. Which he of course knew too. My hand was not too bad but the biggest problem was me not drawing enough lords to give my little dudes islandwalk and push past his Angler. He played very well Bolting and Terminating every lord I played so I could never assemble a critical mass. Eventually when he had enough mana to start chaining Snapcaster, Kolaghans and Bolts I could not keep up.
Sideboard in: 3 Relic. Out: 3 Tidebinder Mage. I really started disliking drawing useless Tidebinders which I had done the entire evening. So Relics went in instead. Game 3 Win: Game 2 was so long we had only 2 minutes left on the clock. But I really wanted to go 3-1 to get store credits, so I kept a hand full of creatures and lands hoping it would be fast enough. And it turned out to be that. Turn 1 Cursecatcher protected me from his more expensive spells and I had a mutavault there for extra tempo. Silvergill into Lord, Lord was just enough and I swung for lethal on turn 4 in the extra turns.
Reflections
Kira was mostly useless and I often really wanted a Spellskite there instead. I used to like Kira alot when Junk was popular since it was the only thing that blocked spirit tokens. Now when Jund and Grixi control is more popular it still does a great job there, but any other matchup I think I would want a Spellskite or some other creature there. Maybe they both belong in the board, I don't know.
Tidebinder was a useless bear just like the last time (facing Anafenza combo and Tron matchups) but some times you face GBx and Burn all night and then I really want them there. I guess I will keep them there until we know more about how the new Harbinger performs.
So I went 4-0 at FNM last night with the list below. I played against Burn, Sultai Midrange, Abzan Aristocrats och Grixis Control and actually managed to go 2-0 in all of the matches. The deck is pretty much standard Merfolk with nothing out of the ordinary really:
The list looks a bit scrappy with a bunch of 1- and 2-ofs, but it has to do with me wanting to try out some new cards and not going all the way. Like exchanging one Vapor Snag for a Dismember. I wanted to see if I liked it.
I won't bore you all with a full report but I can give some reflections. Kira and Reejerey really shone in all the matchups. Kira greatly helped in keeping my guys alive against the Bolts and Paths, even several turns against an Olivia Voldaren. I will definately keep two in the list for the next time too. Reejery did it's usual things like letting my guys through with no islandwalk and but also for example dumping 4 Silvergills and Lords on turn 5 with Vial and Spell Pierce protection up. I really loved that card.
Thassa was a bit meh. Wile the scry was nice and the unblockability let me win a game where not everything had islandwalk, i think another Reejery would probably been just as good. I still want to try it more though and test a Monastery Siege instead too. Not sure about the Dismember either. Killing a turn 2 Goyf is nice and all but the flexibility of Vapor snag is so good to have. More testing will follow.
Would Kor Firewalkers in your Sideboard help you against R/G Makeshift?
I am now thinking about adding Valorous Stance into my SB for extra fatty hate / protection although its a toss up between Stance and Brave the Elements.
Adding Ghost Quarter as mainboard or sideboard might also be an option now?
Glad you liked it
Firewalkers won't help against the Valakuts which are the biggest problem I am afraid.
Ghost quarters have to be a metagame thing. It is a risk with 4 WW drops and 4 WWW drops but very useful if you need to destroy eg. Tron lands.
Tuesday Night Magic report! Sorry for the wall of text.
I went 3-1 beating Death & Taxes, RG Tron and Junk and losing the final game to R/G Makeshift.
The deck I used was very similar to the one a posted a few pages back, with Archangels and 24 lands but omitting the Martyr/Serra combo. I would not say it is the best build but I would say it is the most fun to play, at least for me. Pictures below, one each for lands, spells and sideboard: http://imgur.com/a/HqTyj#0 (Press the little gear to show full resolution)
Match 1 Win: Mono-W Death & Taxes, 1-0-1
Game 1 did not have much to talk about and was over pretty quickly. His build felt pretty weak against Soul Sisters with Path as the only removal and the threats are only so-so when our life skyrockets after all the sisters we can deploy with Ranger. He Pathed the bigger threats but eventually an Archangel finished the deal.
Game 2 was a 30+ min game of complete sillyness. I only boarded in a Sundering Growth because while I saw a Batterskull I primarely wanted my team to grow fast and hit hard before some Akroma flickering shenanigans could kill me. I also guessed that he would board in his Growths against my presumed Stony Silences and Honors I assumed he assumed I had. Which I did not, and true enough his Growths found no targets. Anyway neither of us drew a single removal in the entire game and both of our life totals kept growing. My from my swarm of sisters and his from a 7 power Batterskull equipped to Flickerwisp and Resto Angel. I did attack with my huge Pridemates but with the tokens and flickering he could just block forever.
An Archangel would quickly have finished the game but I never drew one and all his Tec Edges and Ghost Quarters kept me from using the Windbrisk Heights. Eventually we timed out with both of us at 50+ life and I received the win.
Match 2 Win: RG Tron, 2-1
Game 1 I went T1 Sister, T2 Sister + Windbrisk, T3 Spectral Procession. Turn 4 I Pathed his Wurmcoil, swung with my team, flipped the Archangel beneath the Windbrisk and hit him for 15 damage after which he conceided.
Game 2 I boarded in Stony and Sundering growth (not ideal cards, I know). I actually had a good draw with sister into Pridemate into Spectral. But after that he got a turn 4 Ugin which just wiped my board clear and i could not recover. That game really showed how good Ugin is compared to Karn in some matchups.
Game 3 was interesting. Turn 1 sister into turn 2 Pridemate meant he would not wipe the board with a Pyroclasm. I figured he had one from his mana and his reaction, so I kept up a Brave the Elements from this point on. Turn 3 I Ghost Quartered his Power Plant which kept him off Tron for the rest of the game. I had more Plains in hand anyway. Turn 4 (now on 3 lands) I did want to lay down my Spectral for the fear of Pyroclasm but my untapped mana came handy when he deployd an Oblivion Stone which I quickly destroyd with a Growth. Turn 5 I cast Spectral with Brave up, which was the correct move becase it saved my team from the Pyroclasm on his next turn. Turn 6 I put down an Archangel and he scooped.
This match also showed the neat interaction between Pridemate and Grove of the Burnwillows. He actually could not Combust my Pridemate because of it.
Match 3 Win: Junk, 2-1
Game 1 went well, but nothing interesting happened. We both used some removal but my life total was never in danger. Drawing lots of Spectrals and finishing with Ranger into Archangel next turn meant win for me.
Game 2 my opponent snap keeped his hand and I mulled a six lander into a zero lander into a pretty decent five card hand. But that was quickly picked apart with discard and my board never really got going.
Game 3 was a true grindfest which went to time but I just managed to win in turn 5 of the extra turns. The Aurioks really showed their strenght this game and I drew 3 of them with only one getting Pathed. That meant that my life total just kept growing turn after turn but he had a good board presence. The Aurioks kept Tasigur and Batterskull from hurting me and when he equipped it to a spirit my Ascendants held the air. Slowly I began getting a better board the following turns thanks to Windbrisk and Ranger. In extra turn 3 I finally flipped an Archangel giving my ~9 little dudes +2/+2. After that I played the two sisters i had kept in hand (if he had swept away the ones in play with a Persecution) giving my team +7/+7. I still just had a slightly better board so I could not kill him yet. Extra turn 4 he just tried to play for the draw but on turn 5 i drew Ranger, fetched two sisters and played them resulting in my team getting +14/+14. I swung with everything which was more than enough for the win.
Match 4 Loss: R/G Makeshift, 0-2
I had played him before so I knew what was coming. Landramp into Primetime and Valakuts wiping away everything I had. This is a really hard matchup and even a turn five Archangel with sisters on board could save me when he cast Beast Within on my angel in respons to the lifegain triggers. Quick loss in both games.
It was a fun night with lots of great games, showing both the strength and weakness of Soul Sisters.
How do you find the four Serra Ascendants in the Archangel build?
Not nearly as strong as with the martyr, but there is no really good replacement. It mostly serves as a removal magnet actually. Opponents that are not too familiar with the deck will bolt it asap afraid that it will turn into a 6/6 the next turn, kinsd of like the Pridemate. But as a win con it is not too shabby.
It is basically Reid Duke's version with a different sideboard. Now I don't want to claim it is the best version of Soul Sisters, but after trying it out some time ago it is just so much fun to play. Tthe board just blows up with counters some times when the common build would fissle out, to the cost of really explosive early turns. For me Soul Sisters is neither the best budget deck or a contender for a really good deck, I play it because it is fun (and I don't like Delver). So I think I am going to stick with the Archangel for a while.
But the sideboard needs a change. It has basically been in constant development to my metagame and especially now that Pod i gone I see no reason to keep for example the Mindcensor. My meta seem to love the graveyard with lots of Reanimator, Storm, Dredgevine etc. so another Rest in Peace would be nice, but then again if Scapeshift is going to get bigger now maybe I want more against that. Intervention Pact is something I have wanted to toy around with against certain decks, I might test that one out too soon.
Should we dedicate any sideboard to BGx now that we expect them to rise? I do not find that matchup too hard.
So LGS does this tuesday night modern every week. What normally ends up being 20-30 players and 4+ rounds of magic ended up being 7 players and a ghost (bye) so we can even get a 3 round swiss going today... if this is a sign to come, its time to jump ship to legacy.
And my LGS had around 40 people which is about the avaerage. The ban list was the big topic people talked about between games but most people took it all in stride sincne it was pretty expected anyway.
I like my LGS
I also run a version with Archangels instead of Martyrs and Hawks and I feel that the Ascendant more rarely does its job here. Or more importantly it does not do it consistantly. Sure, when you have 30+ life and in a good position then yes it will work fine as a finisher, but it seems to me often to be a bit too much win-more. I just do not know what other 1-drop you could replace it with.
I am pretty happy about the idea as the list stills feel rough and incomplete. My main thoghts about the list is that is it extremely draw dependent. A turn two Ensoul into Thassa and having it protected with Negate is extremely hard to beat. I need a fourth Ensoul for sure. But drawing for example some Shorestalkers and Paragons will just never win, and the deck topdecks terribly (slightly less after sideboard)
Other reflections is that the Paragons are almost worthless. They always just die from the huge amount of removal in Standard and you risk getting blown out in combat. I want creatures but I'm not sure if any really fits. Maybe just a Bident and a Hall of Triumph to get more use of the 8 evasive 1-drops I have, they actually do make a difference in most games.
So what do you guys think of running any number of Ghost quarters and/or Tectonic edges in a standard SS deck? It does make it harder to cast Spectral Procession for example.
Harder to cast Auriok Champions as well, which is a vital card. Even still, I run 4 Ghost Quarter in the main and wouldn't go otherwise. It's just that important against Tron, Affinity, and manlands that are be bigger than our creatures more often than not. Pairing Ghost Quarter with Flagstones of Tarkir can color fix in a pinch, which is another reason I run GQ over Tec Edge. I could give more details about the differences between the two, but I do think one is necessary.
Thank you for the input, it is always interesting to hear different views.
Anyways, I half-assed things and included 1 Ghost Quarter and 1 Tectonic Edge in the deck I brought to my LGS yesterday:
Went 3-1 with the deck, beating UR Delver, Junk and Angel Pod. Lost against Tarmotwin when the second game timed out. The match did not feel unwuinnable but I got slow starts and never drew into my hate I boarded in, but the match was great fun anyways.
The Sister composition might look strange but I wanted to try running 5 sisters and 3 Aurioks as a trade off. But seeing how well she did I am going to up the count to 4 without a question. Funny enough in every single match I was at least once unable to cast either Spectral procession or Auriok. So I am still unsure about what lands I should run. Needs more testing I guess.
Sorcery
Counter target spell
Obviously needs some support to be printed in standard but Wizards has a long record of printing cards not even fringe playable in standard just to see if they could be interesting in older formats.
In general you really rarely get to combo off. It mostly plays an important role as a threat they need to deal with and gives you an out to fast uninteractive decks. Also do not underestimate how good Retreat is combined with threats like Geist and fetches.
I am still very much experimenting with the sideboard, so do not take is as something well worked out. Sideboarding is very metadependent anyways as I think most of us know.
3 Birds of Paradise
1 Eternal Witness
2 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
1 Tarmogoyf
4 Voice of Resurgence
Other spells
1 Chord of Calling
3 Collected Company
1 Dispel
3 Path to Exile
3 Retreat to Coralhelm
2 Breeding Pool
4 Flooded Strand
4 Forest
1 Gavony Township
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Plains
1 Sejiri Steppe
2 Temple Garden
1 Westvale Abbey
4 Windswept Heath
1 Dispel
2 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Krosan Grip
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Negate
1 Path to Exile
1 Pithing Needle
1 Spellskite
2 Stony Silence
3 Wheel of Sun and Moon
The 1-of Dispel in the mainboard is nothing I would generally recommend. It is just an adaption to the my particular meta. I mean even Tron runs Bolts.
Match 1: 2-0 against UW tempo-control. On the draw.
This deck seemed to be built to win against all the other control decks, even running Cavern for wizards. I was lucky that none of my Voices got Snared, and they together with basically just fat creatures won the game. Keeping a fetch up with Retreat on board went he could never trust in a Snapcaster to block a Geist, or blocking with a Collonade.
Sideboard: Dispel and Negate in. Path and a Retreat out.
Match 2: 2-0 against Grixis control. On the draw.
Game 1 was mostly won thanks to two CoCos on turn 4 and 5. 2 Voices on turn 2 and 3 was very key here.
Game 2 was the same story. He could not stop a Voice on turn 2 and with me drawing threats he could not keep up with I quickly won the game.
Sideboard: Dispel, 1 Wheel and Spellskite in. Retreats out, thinking he probably has too much removal to combo off.
Match 3: 2-1 against GR Tron. On the play.
Game 1 I was happy to see a turn 3 combo win in hand, seeing he played Grove into an egg. But that joy came to end when he bolted my Hierarch, setting me back to turn 4 combo if I drew a mana source. But i did not do so in time for him to Tron off.
Game 2 and 3 was underesting. Turn 2 Stony both games completely shut him off tron and any fast clock could have won then. But it was nice to have both Pridemage ond tutorable Ghost Quarter as a backup if he had gotten rid of the Stony.
Sideboard: Stony and negate in, Ooze and Dispel (I think) out.
Match 4: 0-2 aganist Jeskai Gifts. On the draw.
Game 1 I had the combo but it was reliant on my Hierarch for white mana. I took the chance but it got bolted and afterwards I never drew a white mana source. I eventually lost with 7 white cards in hand.
Came 2 I kept a pretty spell-light hand hoping a Voice could do some work. It got Snared. After that I drew 5 lands in a row, and I could not get anything to stick through all his counterspells.
Thinking about card choices I will change one Kataki to another Stony. Having two of them was a nod towards CoCo, but Stony is just more versatile. The last Kataki is still tutorable with Chord.
Speaking Chord, I really love that card as a 1-of. The deck is not combo oriented enough to warrent more of them I think. Still very useful to find i.e. a Spellskite.
There is an odd Goyf as a 1-of and that is probably the most obvious card to change to something potentially more useful. It really is a great beater and I understand why some successfull lists have run it though.
I do not run Kessig in the deck. The first reason for it is that the mana base is really strained already. Having another colorless land is really bad sometimes when you do not have a mana dork. Also I just do not play red. It is one of my silly principles. To this point I have never had a situation where I needed it, but I will experiment with Rouge's Passage sometime in the future and see where that leads.
Blind Obediance does not shut down the combo, only delays it a turn. Some players think it is worth it to find a removal spell, I would rather have the additonal spell instead.
Do you have the card in the SB for some other matchup?
http://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/breakdown/modern
It pretty much reflects my own experiences with the deck. Especially Bogles is not easy but luckily Anafenza coco is not very popular where I play.
4 Cursecatcher
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
3 Master of Waves
2 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
2 Tidebinder Mage
Other spells
4 Aether Vial
1 Dismember
2 Gitaxian Probe
3 Spell Pierce
4 Spreading Seas
2 Vapor Snag
10 Island
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
4 Mutavault
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
2 Wanderwine Hub
2 Chalice of the Void
3 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Echoing Truth
1 Polymorphist's Jest
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Swan Song
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Tidebinder Mage
Round 1 vs Bogles 0-2 Loss
Game 1: I had a big sigh when i saw he was on Bogles because I really don't like this matchup. But at least they are over quickly. I had a decent hand but Daybreak Coronet just outpaced me.
Sideboard In: 2 Chalice of the Void, 2 Swan Song. Out: 1 Kira, 2 Tidebinder, 1 Vapor Snag. I am not sure what the best route is here but my idea is to take out the two pretty weak Tidebinder bears to let me keep up a mana more for counterspells.
Game 2: I opened up a great 7 card hand on the play with an Aether Vial in it, so I felt pretty good. He played a Bogle on his first turn and I followed it up with a Chalice on 1. To my dismay, on the the following turns he played Spirit Mantle, Coronet, Coronet in that order and I could not race that.
Round 2 vs Affinity 2-1 Win
Game 1 Win: On the draw I felt a bit bummed after the last match seeing him playing Affinity. It did not feel better seeing him empty his entire 7 card hand on the first turn when I had to mull to 6. I did have a decent hand though and kept drawing gas, including a Spreading Seas which soon became useful. On turn 4 (I think) my opponent decided to go for the infect route so he sacrified a bunch of his stuff to Ravager putting 6 counters on his Inkmoth Nexus. He swung giving me 7 poison. On my next turn I promply Speading Seased the Nexus and I suddenly had a nice board and he basically had nothing but an Overseer and a Memnite and I easily won from there.
Sideboard In: 3 Hurkyl's Recall, 1 Echoing Truth. Out: 1 Kira, 2 Tidebinder, 1 Cursecatcher. Similar plan to the first match, I wanted Lords and some amount of interaction.
Game 2 Loss: I Probed him seeing a good hand with a Galvanic Blast as only interaction which is not too scary. No Plating too to my relief since my hand was decent but a bit slow. I did keep it though since it had a Recall and and a good spell/land ratio. Except a blue source, only Caverns and Mutas. I felt I should find it with the cantrips though (Silvergill, Probe) but I did not. I kept drawing Mutas and no blue sources leaving my Spell Pierce, Recall and Spreading Seas dead i my hand. I lost after he was just faster than I was, also drawing Plating soon enough.
Sideboard In: 2 Chalice. Out: 2 Gitaxian Probe.
Game 3 Win: I opened no Chalice but the hand was fast enough i thought and i kept it. He did the usual affinity thing and put a lot of things in play, but I kept a decent pace to with Vial and I kept a Pierce and Snag up for anything really dangerous. Seeing that I began to mass a dangerous amount of islandwalking lords my opponent soon went for the infect kill again. But learning from his mistake in game 1 he put counters for lethal this time, sacing most of his stuff for the kill. I responded with Vapor Snaging his Inkmoth and after that he had no chance to recover.
Round 3 vs Bogles 2-0 Win
Game 1: Bogles again, really? Anyway, I was on the play and Probed him seeing only two lands, so I decided to go for the land hate strategy after a turn 1 Vial. He get an Scout out, but after that my two Spreading Seas kept him locked out of the game until turn 4-5 when he drew another land, but it was too late for him to recover by then.
Sideboard In: 2 Chalice of the Void, 2 Swan Song. Out: 1 Kira, 1 Cursecatcher, 1 Tidebinder, 1 Vapor Snag. Still not very sure about what to board out. Tempo is nice, but if he lands a Spiritdancer things usually turn awful.
Game 2: He started with a Bogle and I started with Probing him seeing Scout, Path, Path, Nature's Claim and lands. I put a Vial out which he snap Claim:ed on his turn followed by the Scout. Fortunately, thanks to the Probe I drew into to a Chalice on my turn which a played on 1 and he was locked out of the game from there.
Round 4 vs Grixis Control 2-1 Win
Game 1 Win: My opponent had to mull to 5 and I had a good starting 7 hand so fish did what fish does best and the game was quickly over. I only saw grixis colours and some bolts, but I felt pretty sure he was on control since that seems to have taken over my LGS the last months.
Sideboard In: 2 Swan Song, 1 Echoing Truth, 1 Tidebinder. Out: 4 Spreading Seas. Not completely sure what he was on I just wanted to protech my things from sweepers or a Splinter Twin if he was on that. Relic would have been better in hindsight I think. Tidebinder was there just a a more creature he had to deal with.
Game 2 Loss: This was a very drawn out game. After Probing him I saw he had Anger of the Gods which I tried to play around not over extending and keeping counterspells up. Which he of course knew too. My hand was not too bad but the biggest problem was me not drawing enough lords to give my little dudes islandwalk and push past his Angler. He played very well Bolting and Terminating every lord I played so I could never assemble a critical mass. Eventually when he had enough mana to start chaining Snapcaster, Kolaghans and Bolts I could not keep up.
Sideboard in: 3 Relic. Out: 3 Tidebinder Mage. I really started disliking drawing useless Tidebinders which I had done the entire evening. So Relics went in instead.
Game 3 Win: Game 2 was so long we had only 2 minutes left on the clock. But I really wanted to go 3-1 to get store credits, so I kept a hand full of creatures and lands hoping it would be fast enough. And it turned out to be that. Turn 1 Cursecatcher protected me from his more expensive spells and I had a mutavault there for extra tempo. Silvergill into Lord, Lord was just enough and I swung for lethal on turn 4 in the extra turns.
Reflections
Kira was mostly useless and I often really wanted a Spellskite there instead. I used to like Kira alot when Junk was popular since it was the only thing that blocked spirit tokens. Now when Jund and Grixi control is more popular it still does a great job there, but any other matchup I think I would want a Spellskite or some other creature there. Maybe they both belong in the board, I don't know.
Tidebinder was a useless bear just like the last time (facing Anafenza combo and Tron matchups) but some times you face GBx and Burn all night and then I really want them there. I guess I will keep them there until we know more about how the new Harbinger performs.
http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/3375_quarterfinals_chris_obryant_vs.html
4 Cursecatcher
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
3 Master of Waves
2 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
2 Tidebinder Mage
4 Aether Vial
1 Dismember
3 Spell Pierce
4 Spreading Seas
2 Vapor Snag
2 Cavern of Souls
12 Island
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
4 Mutavault
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
2 Chalice of the Void
3 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Negate
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Swan Song
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Tidebinder Mage
The list looks a bit scrappy with a bunch of 1- and 2-ofs, but it has to do with me wanting to try out some new cards and not going all the way. Like exchanging one Vapor Snag for a Dismember. I wanted to see if I liked it.
I won't bore you all with a full report but I can give some reflections. Kira and Reejerey really shone in all the matchups. Kira greatly helped in keeping my guys alive against the Bolts and Paths, even several turns against an Olivia Voldaren. I will definately keep two in the list for the next time too. Reejery did it's usual things like letting my guys through with no islandwalk and but also for example dumping 4 Silvergills and Lords on turn 5 with Vial and Spell Pierce protection up. I really loved that card.
Thassa was a bit meh. Wile the scry was nice and the unblockability let me win a game where not everything had islandwalk, i think another Reejery would probably been just as good. I still want to try it more though and test a Monastery Siege instead too. Not sure about the Dismember either. Killing a turn 2 Goyf is nice and all but the flexibility of Vapor snag is so good to have. More testing will follow.
Glad you liked it
Firewalkers won't help against the Valakuts which are the biggest problem I am afraid.
Ghost quarters have to be a metagame thing. It is a risk with 4 WW drops and 4 WWW drops but very useful if you need to destroy eg. Tron lands.
I went 3-1 beating Death & Taxes, RG Tron and Junk and losing the final game to R/G Makeshift.
The deck I used was very similar to the one a posted a few pages back, with Archangels and 24 lands but omitting the Martyr/Serra combo. I would not say it is the best build but I would say it is the most fun to play, at least for me. Pictures below, one each for lands, spells and sideboard:
http://imgur.com/a/HqTyj#0 (Press the little gear to show full resolution)
Match 1 Win: Mono-W Death & Taxes, 1-0-1
Game 1 did not have much to talk about and was over pretty quickly. His build felt pretty weak against Soul Sisters with Path as the only removal and the threats are only so-so when our life skyrockets after all the sisters we can deploy with Ranger. He Pathed the bigger threats but eventually an Archangel finished the deal.
Game 2 was a 30+ min game of complete sillyness. I only boarded in a Sundering Growth because while I saw a Batterskull I primarely wanted my team to grow fast and hit hard before some Akroma flickering shenanigans could kill me. I also guessed that he would board in his Growths against my presumed Stony Silences and Honors I assumed he assumed I had. Which I did not, and true enough his Growths found no targets. Anyway neither of us drew a single removal in the entire game and both of our life totals kept growing. My from my swarm of sisters and his from a 7 power Batterskull equipped to Flickerwisp and Resto Angel. I did attack with my huge Pridemates but with the tokens and flickering he could just block forever.
An Archangel would quickly have finished the game but I never drew one and all his Tec Edges and Ghost Quarters kept me from using the Windbrisk Heights. Eventually we timed out with both of us at 50+ life and I received the win.
Match 2 Win: RG Tron, 2-1
Game 1 I went T1 Sister, T2 Sister + Windbrisk, T3 Spectral Procession. Turn 4 I Pathed his Wurmcoil, swung with my team, flipped the Archangel beneath the Windbrisk and hit him for 15 damage after which he conceided.
Game 2 I boarded in Stony and Sundering growth (not ideal cards, I know). I actually had a good draw with sister into Pridemate into Spectral. But after that he got a turn 4 Ugin which just wiped my board clear and i could not recover. That game really showed how good Ugin is compared to Karn in some matchups.
Game 3 was interesting. Turn 1 sister into turn 2 Pridemate meant he would not wipe the board with a Pyroclasm. I figured he had one from his mana and his reaction, so I kept up a Brave the Elements from this point on. Turn 3 I Ghost Quartered his Power Plant which kept him off Tron for the rest of the game. I had more Plains in hand anyway. Turn 4 (now on 3 lands) I did want to lay down my Spectral for the fear of Pyroclasm but my untapped mana came handy when he deployd an Oblivion Stone which I quickly destroyd with a Growth. Turn 5 I cast Spectral with Brave up, which was the correct move becase it saved my team from the Pyroclasm on his next turn. Turn 6 I put down an Archangel and he scooped.
This match also showed the neat interaction between Pridemate and Grove of the Burnwillows. He actually could not Combust my Pridemate because of it.
Match 3 Win: Junk, 2-1
Game 1 went well, but nothing interesting happened. We both used some removal but my life total was never in danger. Drawing lots of Spectrals and finishing with Ranger into Archangel next turn meant win for me.
Game 2 my opponent snap keeped his hand and I mulled a six lander into a zero lander into a pretty decent five card hand. But that was quickly picked apart with discard and my board never really got going.
Game 3 was a true grindfest which went to time but I just managed to win in turn 5 of the extra turns. The Aurioks really showed their strenght this game and I drew 3 of them with only one getting Pathed. That meant that my life total just kept growing turn after turn but he had a good board presence. The Aurioks kept Tasigur and Batterskull from hurting me and when he equipped it to a spirit my Ascendants held the air. Slowly I began getting a better board the following turns thanks to Windbrisk and Ranger. In extra turn 3 I finally flipped an Archangel giving my ~9 little dudes +2/+2. After that I played the two sisters i had kept in hand (if he had swept away the ones in play with a Persecution) giving my team +7/+7. I still just had a slightly better board so I could not kill him yet. Extra turn 4 he just tried to play for the draw but on turn 5 i drew Ranger, fetched two sisters and played them resulting in my team getting +14/+14. I swung with everything which was more than enough for the win.
Match 4 Loss: R/G Makeshift, 0-2
I had played him before so I knew what was coming. Landramp into Primetime and Valakuts wiping away everything I had. This is a really hard matchup and even a turn five Archangel with sisters on board could save me when he cast Beast Within on my angel in respons to the lifegain triggers. Quick loss in both games.
It was a fun night with lots of great games, showing both the strength and weakness of Soul Sisters.
Not nearly as strong as with the martyr, but there is no really good replacement. It mostly serves as a removal magnet actually. Opponents that are not too familiar with the deck will bolt it asap afraid that it will turn into a 6/6 the next turn, kinsd of like the Pridemate. But as a win con it is not too shabby.
4 Archangel of Thune
4 Ajani's Pridemate
4 Auriok Champion
3 Ranger of Eos
3 Soul Warden
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Serra Ascendant
4 Spectral Procession
4 Path to Exile
2 Brave the Elements
Lands
14 Plains
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Windbrisk Heights
4 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Pay No Heed
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
1 Sundering Growth
2 Suppression Field
1 Aven Mindcensor
3 Celestial Flare
It is basically Reid Duke's version with a different sideboard. Now I don't want to claim it is the best version of Soul Sisters, but after trying it out some time ago it is just so much fun to play. Tthe board just blows up with counters some times when the common build would fissle out, to the cost of really explosive early turns. For me Soul Sisters is neither the best budget deck or a contender for a really good deck, I play it because it is fun (and I don't like Delver). So I think I am going to stick with the Archangel for a while.
But the sideboard needs a change. It has basically been in constant development to my metagame and especially now that Pod i gone I see no reason to keep for example the Mindcensor. My meta seem to love the graveyard with lots of Reanimator, Storm, Dredgevine etc. so another Rest in Peace would be nice, but then again if Scapeshift is going to get bigger now maybe I want more against that. Intervention Pact is something I have wanted to toy around with against certain decks, I might test that one out too soon.
Should we dedicate any sideboard to BGx now that we expect them to rise? I do not find that matchup too hard.
And my LGS had around 40 people which is about the avaerage. The ban list was the big topic people talked about between games but most people took it all in stride sincne it was pretty expected anyway.
I like my LGS
4 Hypnotic Siren
3 Master of Waves
3 Omenspeaker
3 Ornithopter
2 Paragon of Gathering Mists
3 Thassa, God of the Sea
4 Triton Shorestalker
4 Vaporkin
4 Darksteel Citadel
17 Island
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
SPELLS
3 Ensoul Artifact
1 Hour of Need
2 Negate
4 Singing Bell Strike
1 Thassa's Rebuff
1 Aetherspouts
3 Bident of Thassa
2 Dissolve
2 Negate
1 Nullify
2 Paragon of Gathering Mists
1 Polymorphist's Jest
2 Prognostic Sphinx
1 Thassa's Rebuff
I am pretty happy about the idea as the list stills feel rough and incomplete. My main thoghts about the list is that is it extremely draw dependent. A turn two Ensoul into Thassa and having it protected with Negate is extremely hard to beat. I need a fourth Ensoul for sure. But drawing for example some Shorestalkers and Paragons will just never win, and the deck topdecks terribly (slightly less after sideboard)
Other reflections is that the Paragons are almost worthless. They always just die from the huge amount of removal in Standard and you risk getting blown out in combat. I want creatures but I'm not sure if any really fits. Maybe just a Bident and a Hall of Triumph to get more use of the 8 evasive 1-drops I have, they actually do make a difference in most games.
Thank you for the input, it is always interesting to hear different views.
Anyways, I half-assed things and included 1 Ghost Quarter and 1 Tectonic Edge in the deck I brought to my LGS yesterday:
17 Plains
2 Windbrisk Heights
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Ghost Quarter
Creatures:
3 Martyr of Sands
4 Serra Ascendant
3 Soul Warden
2 Soul's Attendant
4 Ajani's Pridemate
3 Auriok Champion
4 Squadron Hawk
3 Ranger of Eos
4 Path to Exile
4 Spectral Procession
4 Honor of the Pure
1 Spirit Bonds
2 Brave the Elements
1 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
1 Sundering Growth
3 Suppression Field
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Leyline of Sanctity
Went 3-1 with the deck, beating UR Delver, Junk and Angel Pod. Lost against Tarmotwin when the second game timed out. The match did not feel unwuinnable but I got slow starts and never drew into my hate I boarded in, but the match was great fun anyways.
The Sister composition might look strange but I wanted to try running 5 sisters and 3 Aurioks as a trade off. But seeing how well she did I am going to up the count to 4 without a question. Funny enough in every single match I was at least once unable to cast either Spectral procession or Auriok. So I am still unsure about what lands I should run. Needs more testing I guess.