You don't have to replace Spectral Procession. I keep three in the deck. Are you running Auriok Champion? Grixis will board out a lot of counter magic after they see Cavern of Souls and a Champ in game 1, or really just Cavern of Souls period, because almost every creature in your deck can't be countered. They are more likely to use board sweepers. If you aren't using Mark of Asylum in the board to play against Pyroclasm/Anger of the Gods, just slow-play your token creatures. There is no need whatsoever to race Grixis, unless you're afraid to play to time.
Don't empty your hand. Don't go all-in. You have to expect board wipes and you have to recover from them. Ranger, Lingering Souls, and Spectral Procession help big time.
The only decks that are beating me right now are rogue decks and combo. You have to really play this deck a lot. Get Windbrisk Heights out there, and make sure you can attack with three creatures. Don't go all-in against Grixis because when your hand is empty, you're trouble. Believe me when I say you are going to get them to empty THEIR hand against you. A lot of Grixis decks feel the need to go all-in control against me. Sometimes they'll take the Angler out of the deck and focus on spot-removal or sweepers, including Engineered Explosives.
If you're not running Auriok Champion, please try it... and trust me. Soul Sisters is extremely good against most tier one decks. Twin, Burn, Grixis, and Merfolks are matches I feel confident against. There is a struggle against Tron that relies heavily on some luck in game one and a good sideboard in game two... and all the company decks are going to struggle against all the tokens and Honor of the Pure.
Cavern of Souls is huge in this deck. This is why I have no problem dropping an Ascendant early and attacking with it... because a lot of decks won't sacrifice a creature like Delver of Secrets that early in the game.
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With 3 DROP 4 and 3 DROP 5 I find 23 lands to be the minimum, especially considering 3 come in to plat tapped. Also the 7 DROP 3 also require WWW, and this require a lot of lands.
I can see the reasoning behind playing a single Return to the Ranks, I'll probably switch to 1. Maybe an Aven Mindensor can take the place of the second one, Titan Shift feels like a nightmare!
I mostly play online, so the meta i very variable. Storm is always present but there are also a lot of different combos decks, Krark-Clan Ironworks, Elves, Ad Nauseam etc etc. Eidolon of Rhetoric also is usefull Vs any snapcaster deck and Damping Sphere is a house Vs Tron, I find them to be cards with wider range of hate.
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On the other hand Squadron Hawk is something that I've tried replacing with a lot of stuff: Secure the Wastes, Midnight Haunting, Archangel of Thune, Brave the Elements, Burrenton Forge-Tender, Aven Mindcensor, even Shining Shoal!
The only thing that really works is Lingering Souls, but at that point you are faced with the splash black route and things become difficult to assess. You now have the option of discard to fix the combo matchup, but to get a first or second turn black mana source you need to use the Fetch/Shock package... And all in all I really like my Mono-White approach!
For reference this is my current list:
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Ajani’s Pridemate
4 Serra Ascendant
3 Auriok Champion
3 Soul’s Attendant
3 Soul Warden
2 Martyr of Sands
4 Spectral Procession
4 Honor of the Pure
11 Plains
3 Flagstones of Trokair
3 Windbrisk Heights
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Mistveil Plains
2 Hallowed Moonlight
2 Sundering Growth
2 Suppression Field
2 Celestial Purge
2 Stony Silence
2 Rest in Peace
One Martyr will probably become a Return to the Ranks
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Yes I admit Desolate Lighthouse is a corner case. Against Merfolk is good to destroy Mutavault, but the real deal is removing your own lands if they got hit by Spreading Seas: being able to block is often crucial here.
Infect is not easy, 4 Path to Exile is not even close to enough. Still we have a lot of blockers and they have little to none trample, there are ways to bring it home.
Token is a deck that can really put us in trouble. Serra Ascendant and Ajani's Pridemate are the main players here, the Sisters will provide lot of life even without the Martyr of Sands and they will need to chump block a lot of thing during the game. BUT they usually have 1/2 Vault of the Archangel and if they manage to get it active it's game over, this is one particular case where Ghost Quarter makes the difference! I'm testing Hallowed Moonlight in the board and it's not bad here.
On the issue of land count I have found that with 21 lands and 4 Ranger of Eos the deck is still quite reliable, we have ways to gain time if needed and we can close up the game with just 2/3 lands in play.