Light and Shadow does seem like a good way to keep recurring Sisters onto the battlefield and gain even more life in the process. I like War and Peace as well, especially against control decks. Fire and Ice, sadly, is way out of my price range right now.
I would cut Hanweir Militia Captain as it's not great in the deck and doesn't flip consistently.
4x Eldrazi Displacers seems a bit much and rather taxing on the mana (and requiring you to draw colorless sources).
I would suggest replacing 2-3x of them with Restoration Angel.
Another very good card for the deck is Kitchen Finks.
Good points. Maybe...
- Drop the Hanweir Militia Captains and put in Thraben Inspectors, maybe 3/1 or 2/2 with Wall of Omens
- 2/2 split of Displacer and Resto
- 3/3 split of Blade Splicer and Whirler Rogue
- 2/2 split of Kitchen Finks and Fiend Hunter
I'd really like to see an Eerie Interlude in the main. Cloudshift +Essence Flux are good but not overwhelming when only 12 of your creatures can effectively be retriggered.
You also should consider enchantment/artifact removal in the sideboard which doesn't use ETB. Torpor Orb is a thing that comes up now and then since Abzan Coco-Chord got popular.
And yeah, maybe that could help prune things down a bit, if I were to reduce the number of Cloudshift and Essence Flux (or replace them entirely for Momentary Blink) and put in Eerie Interludes instead. The reason why I wasn't mainboarding them is because Essence Flux and Cloudshift are cheaper. But if I were to get some Vials so I could throw creatures in for free, I'd have more mana open for that.
I think it makes for a good alternate wincon. Note that Emrakul actually costs less than one turn of Mindslaver lock if you have even one card in your graveyard, let alone multiple types-- but most interestingly, not only is it a good beater, but on the turn you take for your opponent, you can just make them swing their creatures at Emrakul and die. Super gross, and I'm all the more intrigued by it.
I figure I should share this deck I've been working on for a while now that takes advantage of some of my favorite creatures in Magic: Flickerwisp, Reflector Mage, and Eldrazi Displacer.
I'm a huge fan of the flicker mechanic, so this deck tries to take advantage of that as much as possible to control the board and break down defenses while building up groups of tokens to punch with. This is a creature-based aggressive control deck that aims to simultaneously provide field disruption and beatdowns.
So overall, the main idea is to take advantage of the creatures' ETB effects to disrupt the opponent's battlefield and flicker them to keep the pressure on. Flickering is such a fun mechanic, since I can use it to save my creatures from targeted removal or use them to block and flicker them to negate the attack entirely while getting a bonus ETB in the process.
The main star of this process is Reflector Mage, who I can use to bounce threats away and keep them away, leaving the opponent wide open to attack. Fiend Hunter also assists in this process in the most hilarious of ways, since you can flicker-combo him to exile multiple creatures and lock down the last one. Eldrazi Displacer and Flickerwisp are the main facilitators of this process, especially since Flickerwisp can disrupt any permanent on the board, or technically even be cast for 2 mana since you can bounce your own land and have it come back untapped.
As for attacking, there is Blade Splicer and Hanweir Militia Captain. Blade Splicer can be flickered multiple times to make a small army of 3/3 golems with first strike, which can be very difficult for a disrupted and thinned-out battlefield to handle, and Hanweir Militia Captain flips and essentially becomes the Pridemate of the deck, giving us tokens for chump blocking and a creature that continually gets larger and larger with each creature on the field.
As for the sideboard, Leyline of Sanctity protects you from hand disruption and burn spells, among other things, Timely Reinforcements helps in aggro matchups where the opponent drops creatures faster than we can remove them, Stony Silence helps against artifact decks in general, Declaration in Stone is in for decks that use lots of tokens or rely on multiple creatures, Rest in Peace disrupts graveyards, and Pithing Needle can be used in tons of situations. The ones that are special for this deck are Archangel Avacyn (who, in all honesty, was the whole reason I constructed this deck to begin with, but haven't managed to reliably use her), and Eerie Interlude. Avacyn is such a fun card for this deck because you can flash her in to make our creatures indestructible, and when she flips, she can be flickered back to her original side, allowing you to recur her flip ability multiple times to deal damage to your opponent and their creatures while giving your creatures indestructible and not taking the damage. Eerie Interlude can be used not only as an evasive tactic to negate attacks or board wipes, but can be used offensively to trigger a bunch of ETBs at once and generate more tokens, exile creatures, and disrupt the opponent in general.
I'm pretty proud of it so far, but I know it's definitely lacking. So that's why I'm posting it here! I would really appreciate some suggestions for improvement-- I know it's pretty budget-y right now, but I feel this could really shine if I could spice it up with some better cards.
I can already tell there's quite a bit of room for improvement in some places, so here are some cards I already have in mind (but have yet to test or obtain). Æther Vial -- since most of the creatures are 3-drops. Being able to vial creatures in would drastically improve how often I could use Eldrazi Displacer's ability and allow me to keep mana open for it as well. Supreme Verdict -- an emergency boardwipe couldn't hurt, I suppose. Celestial Colonnade -- more beatdown potential is always nice Thopter Foundry+Sword of the Meek -- Thopters for flying chump blockers and lifegain! An alternate wincon. Meddling Mage -- why bounce creatures when you can prevent them from being cast at all? Also useful if your opponent has a silver bullet against us. Can be flickered to rename a card that can't be played.
But beyond that, I'm kind of at a loss on what to do with this. May I have some advice on how to improve this?
My point is I'm starting to feel that having so few wincons is overall detrimental-- our weaker units are rarely in danger of removal, so they hold onto their removal until the wincons come down-- so unless you can race those, it feels counterproductive to rely so much on 2 creatures for a win when we could be spreading out a bit with the wincons is so we can have a plan B/C/D/etc if Plan A fails. That's why I was emphasizing the idea of putting in a set of Always Watching as well the other day-- combining that and Honor of the Pure can make even our 1-drops potentially very scary. With just two of them, even our 1/1s are 3/3s right out of the gate.
So yeah, don't take out Pridemate and Ascendant entirely, but I feel it's not doing us many favors to rely on them alone for a win while the vast majority of our other cards provide little to no threat or pressure.
I maintain that Martyr has little value outside of an early game boost for the Ascendant, however-- that's why I thought it might be a good idea to put in more potentially threatening or disruptive 1-drops so we could keep triggering Sister lifegain instead-- power in sheer numbers. In late game, unless you've been hoarding cards in your hand for some reason, she's a dead drop, and so is Ascendant if you're low on life. We typically have a pretty good early game, and we can do pretty well against decks who have similar gameplans. But against slower, grindy decks that slow us down while they build their mana curve, we suffer because we run out of gas. So basically, things that can save us in the late game. Kytheon seems like a solid choice at any point of the game, as does Mikaeus for a late game push.
That's what I'd really like to address overall-- our lack of an alternate wincon if our early game plans fail, especially since Pridemate and Ascendant are very volatile and conditional cards, and an overall bolstering of the creature base in general so our threats are more widespread.
If we're not winning by an early game advantage, it's very hard to come back from that. That's where I see a lot of my losses happen-- late game when Pridemates and Ascendants have been shrugged off and I have nothing but Sisters and maybe a Hawk on the board to work with. Thus, the idea of putting more emphasis on card advantage via Eos and Thraben Inspector to make sure we're not running out of gas-- and by constantly dropping 1-drop creatures, we continue to provide a threatening force while gaining life to sustain that push forward-- lifegain for the sake of survival, not just for pumping Pridemate and enabling Ascendant. Since those are the main removal magnets, my view is that we should be putting down more danger than they can get rid of. If they want to remove the Pridemates and the Ascendants, fine-- they can go ahead and use up their removal while we're still rushing in with pumped weenies and Gideon. And then, when they think they can just boardwipe us, we respond with Eerie Interlude and flicker everything, reaping all of the ETB benefits in the process.
Does that make more sense, or am I way off base?
(EDIT: It's also worth noting that Kytheon and other useful cards like Archangel of Tithes have dropped drastically in value, and I can only imagine they'll go down more once Origins rotates out of standard. Just saying.)
(EDIT2: Also, I'm considering sideboarding in Hangarback Walker. It'll give us a pumpable non-white creature that can break into a bunch of fliers (and Sister lifegain triggers) when it dies. And since it's CMC 0, it can be pulled by Eos. Especially good for those matchups that aim to completely disable us with Iona. Though this may be a more personal thing since I always seem to get paired up with the same Thopter Gifts player who rushes to get Iona on the field to force a scoop.)
There has to be something we're missing if Soul Sisters is able to do so well elsewhere. What does Rvng know that we don't? In all those videos linked earlier, Soul Sisters was doing well-- so why are we struggling so much? There's got to be some fundamental thing we're not understanding.
From watching the videos, I've had a few thoughts:
-Tom Ross mentions that he only runs 2 Serra Ascendants and went down to one post-board against Jund, because it's so very hard to stay over 30 life in control/midrange matchups-- and I agree. He also runs some Shining Shoal, which isn't one we commonly use, but I'm interested in it-- it seems like a good way to turn the tables. It's a straight-up counter to damage-based attack/removal that lets us reflect damage straight back at the opponent or a creature they control. I'm very intrigued. (And again, cutting Serra Ascendants out gives me an excuse to dabble in MartyrProc.)
-Thraben Inspector... I don't know how I feel about it. It's a good body for a 1-drop and it gives us a clue, but it doesn't do much else-- it's a chump blocker. I think the clue token would be great for giving us another shot when we topdeck lands. And yes, I'm starting to understand the value of Flagstones as well, as loath as I am to say it.
I think our biggest problem in Soul Sisters is that we try to put too many eggs in one basket and put all our hope in cards that are easily removed or stopped. Serra Ascendant is an amazing card, to be sure, but it's worthless if you can't reliably get up to that 30 life mark and stay up there. And in such a control heavy meta, it's a removal magnet. So too is Ajani's Pridemate, who is so explosive he makes goyfs look wimpy. The rest of our creatures are so unthreatening that they end up just being chump blockers when we inevitably run low on life or get boardwiped.
So I would really like to push for thoughts and suggestions for a new approach-- a reformed Soul Sisters deck. I've definitely noticed how there's a lot of hesitation to change things up in the deck, because "It wouldn't be Soul Sisters anymore" and it's that kind of stubborn refusal to evolve with the meta that's getting our asses kicked. So here are my analyses and thoughts so far:
- We put too much hope in Serra Ascendant and Ajani's Pridemate. Very good cards, of course, but at the same time, very easily countered. I propose reducing the number of them in general.
- Full playset of Ranger of Eos. This way, we can simply dig up the Martyrs and Ascendants in a pinch.
- As such for Serra Ascendant, so too do we need fewer Martyrs. Martyr of Sands is only any good in early game since we're an aggro deck that dumps our hand out ASAP, and it's only really ever for the sake of Serra Ascendant. She's a great card and possibly one of my favorites in Magic, but reducing her and Serra Ascendant to 1-ofs or 2-ofs-- or removing them entirely-- might be a good idea.
- I think Thalia, Guardian of Thraben might be useful too against control/midrange decks too-- slow them down, at least.
- Let's diversify our 1 drops. The sisters are definitely the core of our deck, so being able to dig up stuff with Rangers that help them out might be very good for us. So I looked through all the white 1-drop creatures in modern and made a list of all the ones that could be potentially useful:
All of these can be fetched with Ranger of Eos and I feel like including some of these may drastically help us. Normally we only use Eos as a way to dig up Sisters, Martyr, or Ascendant, but why not use him as a way to treat our deck like a toolbox against specific threats and simply gather them when needed? Champion of the Parish's usefulness is a given, Doomed Traveler gives us a chump blocker that becomes a flier, Dryad Militant is graveyard hate, Figure of Destiny is a mana sink on turns when we wouldn't be doing anything else, Herald of Anafenza is also a mana sink that we can trigger on turns where we have nothing to cast-- and it'll get stronger while giving us another token. Judge's Familiar gives us some degree of counterspell potential, Kami of False Hope works as a tutorable Fog, Kytheon is 2/1 right out of the gates and we can use Gideon as a damage diverting tool or an indestructible threat, Mikaeus works as a reusable Honor of the Pure, Soldier of the Pantheon... I'm not so sure about, but I think about all the multicolored removal spells and think it has some bit of potential, Student of Warfare is another tutorable mana sink, Thraben Inspector gives us card advantage, Topplegeist has the potential to really disrupt some threats on the board while being a flier, Town Gossipmonger can become a fast buffable 2/3, which at the very least is a threat that needs to be answered, and Weathered Wayfarer is a tutorable land generator-- it's worth noting that it allows us to get any land card.
- We have a few ETB effects that we can exploit, so Cloudshift, Momentary Blink, and Eerie Interlude all have potential for doing just that. Not only can we use it to flicker Eos and dig up more 1-drops, but we can also use it to negate attacks by blocking then flickering and counter removal (and in the case of Eerie Interlude, board wipes) by flickering in response. Imagine using Eerie Interlude to flicker Eos or Thraben Inspector while having a couple Sisters on the field-- we'd gain life, search for creatures, and get a clue. Lots of benefits. I think maybe including something like Kitchen Finks or Flickerwisp might be worthwhile for the flickering value.
- On that note, consider the potential of imprinting Cloudshift on an Isochron Scepter. Recur the Ranger every turn for 2 mana!
So that's my idea-- take advantage of Eos for generating card advantage and being able to search for tools to address specific situations.
I don't really know where to go from here with this, since I'm really not that good at deckbuilding, but I'm always happy to research for ideas.
I built the aforementioned Trading Post Tron deck SaffronOlive posted on MTGGoldfish. I hope to give it a try sometime while I assemble the more expensive pieces of this deck (Still need some Wurmcoil Engines, Oblivion Stone, Oboro; possibly Spellskite and Ugin. That said, in my minor playtesting, Meishin and Gather Specimens just don't seem good at all unless you have the blue mana to play them (and in my trial runs, I never did, and by the time I could have, I already had the Mindslaver lock in place for the win).
Question: What's the general opinion of Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek in this deck? It seems like it'd work really well if you pack some Talismans in for the mana cost.
Way too many cards, and I feel as if I'm spreading myself too thin somewhere. I'd really like to fit Ponder or Preordain in somewhere, too, but it may not be necessary with the Transmute-tutoring idea I have going on.
Drift of Phantasms, Muddle the Mixture, and Brainspoil all seemed like good additions, because this is a deck that can actually handle Brainspoil's high cost in a pinch, but it's really there for the sake of Transmute so you can tutor up a Mnemonic Wall, Peregrine Drake, Mulldrifter, or Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Drift of Phantasms can give us a decent blocking body, but more importantly can be used to Transmute-tutor up Chittering Rats, Pestermite, Capsize, and Ghostly Flicker. Muddle the Mixture is a nice counterspell, and it lets us Transmute-tutor Deprive, Counterspell, Chainer's Edict, Snap, or Grim Harvest.
So rather than needing to cross your fingers for the exact combo piece you need, you can simply search your deck for them.
But still, way too many cards. What should I do? The best idea I have is to more or less cut black out of the picture, but that completely ruins the point of the Chittering Rats lock and the Asphodel kill. I suppose I can do a similar lock by comboing off with Pestermite on every opponent upkeep, but they'd still be drawing cards which gives them a chance to counter/kill the combo.
Another thing I've been thinking about: I've been concerned about how easily our threats can be wiped out with simple removal spells, because White doesn't have much in the way of countering that kind of thing, and then it hit me.
Why not sideboard in some Silence for control/midrange decks in general? It's not like control decks tend to be unpredictable since they'll always go for countering or killing your threats when they show up, so at the very least, we can use Silence to at least buy us an extra turn that could turn the tides.
I'm planning on dabbling in a different deck (Mono-Blue Tron) for a while, so tomorrow might be my last Soul Sisters FNM for a little while. I'm considering mainboarding Worship this time-- in theory, once it's down, I don't have to worry about damage at all unless they remove the enchantment or boardwipe you.
EDIT: Looking in the Norin Sisters thread gave me an idea: How would something like Mirror Entity sound in Soul Sisters? Sure, it may mess with Ajani's Pridemate, but it could serve to use our spare mana as either damage boosting unblocked creatures or using it to save your creatures while blocking, potentially.
I've been thinking about it-- with Peregrine Drake, we can essentially make something that functions like Mono-Blue Tron by running black as well. A Pauper Peregrine Tron Prison Control deck.
I haven't completely figured out the entire deck (and I'm hoping you all might have some suggestions), but the main idea would be to get a board state with Archaeomancer/Mnemonic Wall, Peregrine Drake, and Chittering Rats. Use Ghostly Flicker to bounce Archaeomancer/Mnemonic Wall and Peregrine Drake so you can keep untapping and retapping the three Tron lands, a Swamp, and an Island in various orders, which, if I understand it right, should allow for infinite black/blue/colorless mana. Then you can Ghostly Flicker Archaeomancer/Mnemonic Wall and Chittering Rats to empty out your opponent's hand and continue to do that every turn so they topdeck the same card, essentially locking them out of the game. The rest of the cards would be Tron frequent fliers like Expedition Map and maybe some Chromatic Sphere/Stars, and the rest of the deck would be counterspells, removal spells (Snap and Capsize come to mind), kill spells, and Edict spells (and Curfew maybe) for Bogles/Hexproof. Mulldrifter would be a good addition as well, allowing you lots of card advantage, and Gray Merchant of Asphodel could be flickered over and over for infinite damage.
Maybe splash a little red for Rolling Thunder/Kaervek's Torch for a kill.
Maybe Pestermite for flickering shenanigans, so you can tap out your opponent every turn, as well. Not super necessary, I just love Faeries.
So basically:
Unlimited flicker of Chittering Rats - empty their hand and keep it empty
Unlimited flicker of Pestermite - tap all their spells and lands every time their upkeep comes around
Unlimited flicker of Mulldrifter - Draw your whole deck, basically? Not really necessary and potentially dangerous if you draw it out too much.
Unlimited flicker of Gray Merchant of Asphodel - Unlimited damage and lifegain.
I typically keep a playset in, but that's subject to change-- most of the time I find myself using them on my own creatures to fix mana-screw situations.
@deathstroke: Don't think of it as Soul Sisters in a Human shell, think of it as Humans in a Soul Sister shell. It'll more or less play the same way-- just without the need to waste mana and time you could be spending attacking on Martyr and Serra upkeep. So we get all the niceness of recurring lifegain and pumpable creatures, just with slightly different methods.
One thing I worry about with Soul Sisters is that there's so little room to change cards in the deck before it's declared "not a Soul Sisters deck", and it's just kind of confusing to me. Most of the core cards are still there and it plays very similarly to its original build-- the only real difference is that I took a powerful but hard to maintain win condition with a more widespread approach.
Good points. Maybe...
- Drop the Hanweir Militia Captains and put in Thraben Inspectors, maybe 3/1 or 2/2 with Wall of Omens
- 2/2 split of Displacer and Resto
- 3/3 split of Blade Splicer and Whirler Rogue
- 2/2 split of Kitchen Finks and Fiend Hunter
Would that balance things out better?
Planning on getting Vials.
And no, it's 60, I miscounted when putting totals in. I'll fix it after I finish posting this.
Mm, good point. Sundering Growth, perhaps?
And yeah, maybe that could help prune things down a bit, if I were to reduce the number of Cloudshift and Essence Flux (or replace them entirely for Momentary Blink) and put in Eerie Interludes instead. The reason why I wasn't mainboarding them is because Essence Flux and Cloudshift are cheaper. But if I were to get some Vials so I could throw creatures in for free, I'd have more mana open for that.
Ahahahah! That's absolutely, disgustingly cruel. I like it!
I might have to consider taking inspiration from that, if you don't mind. Definitely considering the Sundial part. I'm really digging that.
While I'm thinking about it, would the Thopter/Sword combo even be worth it in a deck like this? Or am I being misled at how useful the combo can be?
I'm a huge fan of the flicker mechanic, so this deck tries to take advantage of that as much as possible to control the board and break down defenses while building up groups of tokens to punch with. This is a creature-based aggressive control deck that aims to simultaneously provide field disruption and beatdowns.
The deck in its current state is as follows:
4 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Flickerwisp
4 Reflector Mage
4 Blade Splicer
3 Fiend Hunter
3 Hanweir Militia Captain
Instants (12)
3 Cloudshift
3 Essence Flux
4 Path to Exile
2 Mana Leak
4 Lingering Souls
Land (22)
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Caves of Koilos
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Westvale Abbey
5 Plains
2 Island
1 Swamp
2 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Stony Silence
2 Archangel Avacyn
1 Declaration in Stone
2 Rest in Peace
2 Pithing Needle
2 Eerie Interlude
So overall, the main idea is to take advantage of the creatures' ETB effects to disrupt the opponent's battlefield and flicker them to keep the pressure on. Flickering is such a fun mechanic, since I can use it to save my creatures from targeted removal or use them to block and flicker them to negate the attack entirely while getting a bonus ETB in the process.
The main star of this process is Reflector Mage, who I can use to bounce threats away and keep them away, leaving the opponent wide open to attack. Fiend Hunter also assists in this process in the most hilarious of ways, since you can flicker-combo him to exile multiple creatures and lock down the last one. Eldrazi Displacer and Flickerwisp are the main facilitators of this process, especially since Flickerwisp can disrupt any permanent on the board, or technically even be cast for 2 mana since you can bounce your own land and have it come back untapped.
As for attacking, there is Blade Splicer and Hanweir Militia Captain. Blade Splicer can be flickered multiple times to make a small army of 3/3 golems with first strike, which can be very difficult for a disrupted and thinned-out battlefield to handle, and Hanweir Militia Captain flips and essentially becomes the Pridemate of the deck, giving us tokens for chump blocking and a creature that continually gets larger and larger with each creature on the field.
As for the sideboard, Leyline of Sanctity protects you from hand disruption and burn spells, among other things, Timely Reinforcements helps in aggro matchups where the opponent drops creatures faster than we can remove them, Stony Silence helps against artifact decks in general, Declaration in Stone is in for decks that use lots of tokens or rely on multiple creatures, Rest in Peace disrupts graveyards, and Pithing Needle can be used in tons of situations. The ones that are special for this deck are Archangel Avacyn (who, in all honesty, was the whole reason I constructed this deck to begin with, but haven't managed to reliably use her), and Eerie Interlude. Avacyn is such a fun card for this deck because you can flash her in to make our creatures indestructible, and when she flips, she can be flickered back to her original side, allowing you to recur her flip ability multiple times to deal damage to your opponent and their creatures while giving your creatures indestructible and not taking the damage. Eerie Interlude can be used not only as an evasive tactic to negate attacks or board wipes, but can be used offensively to trigger a bunch of ETBs at once and generate more tokens, exile creatures, and disrupt the opponent in general.
I'm pretty proud of it so far, but I know it's definitely lacking. So that's why I'm posting it here! I would really appreciate some suggestions for improvement-- I know it's pretty budget-y right now, but I feel this could really shine if I could spice it up with some better cards.
I can already tell there's quite a bit of room for improvement in some places, so here are some cards I already have in mind (but have yet to test or obtain).
Æther Vial -- since most of the creatures are 3-drops. Being able to vial creatures in would drastically improve how often I could use Eldrazi Displacer's ability and allow me to keep mana open for it as well.
Supreme Verdict -- an emergency boardwipe couldn't hurt, I suppose.
Celestial Colonnade -- more beatdown potential is always nice
Thopter Foundry+Sword of the Meek -- Thopters for flying chump blockers and lifegain! An alternate wincon.
Meddling Mage -- why bounce creatures when you can prevent them from being cast at all? Also useful if your opponent has a silver bullet against us. Can be flickered to rename a card that can't be played.
But beyond that, I'm kind of at a loss on what to do with this. May I have some advice on how to improve this?
For real though, give it a shot and let us know how it works out!
So yeah, don't take out Pridemate and Ascendant entirely, but I feel it's not doing us many favors to rely on them alone for a win while the vast majority of our other cards provide little to no threat or pressure.
I maintain that Martyr has little value outside of an early game boost for the Ascendant, however-- that's why I thought it might be a good idea to put in more potentially threatening or disruptive 1-drops so we could keep triggering Sister lifegain instead-- power in sheer numbers. In late game, unless you've been hoarding cards in your hand for some reason, she's a dead drop, and so is Ascendant if you're low on life. We typically have a pretty good early game, and we can do pretty well against decks who have similar gameplans. But against slower, grindy decks that slow us down while they build their mana curve, we suffer because we run out of gas. So basically, things that can save us in the late game. Kytheon seems like a solid choice at any point of the game, as does Mikaeus for a late game push.
That's what I'd really like to address overall-- our lack of an alternate wincon if our early game plans fail, especially since Pridemate and Ascendant are very volatile and conditional cards, and an overall bolstering of the creature base in general so our threats are more widespread.
If we're not winning by an early game advantage, it's very hard to come back from that. That's where I see a lot of my losses happen-- late game when Pridemates and Ascendants have been shrugged off and I have nothing but Sisters and maybe a Hawk on the board to work with. Thus, the idea of putting more emphasis on card advantage via Eos and Thraben Inspector to make sure we're not running out of gas-- and by constantly dropping 1-drop creatures, we continue to provide a threatening force while gaining life to sustain that push forward-- lifegain for the sake of survival, not just for pumping Pridemate and enabling Ascendant. Since those are the main removal magnets, my view is that we should be putting down more danger than they can get rid of. If they want to remove the Pridemates and the Ascendants, fine-- they can go ahead and use up their removal while we're still rushing in with pumped weenies and Gideon. And then, when they think they can just boardwipe us, we respond with Eerie Interlude and flicker everything, reaping all of the ETB benefits in the process.
Does that make more sense, or am I way off base?
(EDIT: It's also worth noting that Kytheon and other useful cards like Archangel of Tithes have dropped drastically in value, and I can only imagine they'll go down more once Origins rotates out of standard. Just saying.)
(EDIT2: Also, I'm considering sideboarding in Hangarback Walker. It'll give us a pumpable non-white creature that can break into a bunch of fliers (and Sister lifegain triggers) when it dies. And since it's CMC 0, it can be pulled by Eos. Especially good for those matchups that aim to completely disable us with Iona. Though this may be a more personal thing since I always seem to get paired up with the same Thopter Gifts player who rushes to get Iona on the field to force a scoop.)
From watching the videos, I've had a few thoughts:
-Tom Ross mentions that he only runs 2 Serra Ascendants and went down to one post-board against Jund, because it's so very hard to stay over 30 life in control/midrange matchups-- and I agree. He also runs some Shining Shoal, which isn't one we commonly use, but I'm interested in it-- it seems like a good way to turn the tables. It's a straight-up counter to damage-based attack/removal that lets us reflect damage straight back at the opponent or a creature they control. I'm very intrigued. (And again, cutting Serra Ascendants out gives me an excuse to dabble in MartyrProc.)
-Thraben Inspector... I don't know how I feel about it. It's a good body for a 1-drop and it gives us a clue, but it doesn't do much else-- it's a chump blocker. I think the clue token would be great for giving us another shot when we topdeck lands. And yes, I'm starting to understand the value of Flagstones as well, as loath as I am to say it.
I think our biggest problem in Soul Sisters is that we try to put too many eggs in one basket and put all our hope in cards that are easily removed or stopped. Serra Ascendant is an amazing card, to be sure, but it's worthless if you can't reliably get up to that 30 life mark and stay up there. And in such a control heavy meta, it's a removal magnet. So too is Ajani's Pridemate, who is so explosive he makes goyfs look wimpy. The rest of our creatures are so unthreatening that they end up just being chump blockers when we inevitably run low on life or get boardwiped.
So I would really like to push for thoughts and suggestions for a new approach-- a reformed Soul Sisters deck. I've definitely noticed how there's a lot of hesitation to change things up in the deck, because "It wouldn't be Soul Sisters anymore" and it's that kind of stubborn refusal to evolve with the meta that's getting our asses kicked. So here are my analyses and thoughts so far:
- We put too much hope in Serra Ascendant and Ajani's Pridemate. Very good cards, of course, but at the same time, very easily countered. I propose reducing the number of them in general.
- Full playset of Ranger of Eos. This way, we can simply dig up the Martyrs and Ascendants in a pinch.
- As such for Serra Ascendant, so too do we need fewer Martyrs. Martyr of Sands is only any good in early game since we're an aggro deck that dumps our hand out ASAP, and it's only really ever for the sake of Serra Ascendant. She's a great card and possibly one of my favorites in Magic, but reducing her and Serra Ascendant to 1-ofs or 2-ofs-- or removing them entirely-- might be a good idea.
- I think Thalia, Guardian of Thraben might be useful too against control/midrange decks too-- slow them down, at least.
- Let's diversify our 1 drops. The sisters are definitely the core of our deck, so being able to dig up stuff with Rangers that help them out might be very good for us. So I looked through all the white 1-drop creatures in modern and made a list of all the ones that could be potentially useful:
* Champion of the Parish
* Doomed Traveler
* Dryad Militant
* Figure of Destiny
* Herald of Anafenza
* Judge's Familiar
* Kami of False Hope
* Kytheon, Hero of Akros
* Mikaeus, the Lunarch
* Soldier of the Pantheon
* Student of Warfare
* Thraben Inspector
* Topplegeist
* Town Gossipmonger
* Weathered Wayfarer
All of these can be fetched with Ranger of Eos and I feel like including some of these may drastically help us. Normally we only use Eos as a way to dig up Sisters, Martyr, or Ascendant, but why not use him as a way to treat our deck like a toolbox against specific threats and simply gather them when needed? Champion of the Parish's usefulness is a given, Doomed Traveler gives us a chump blocker that becomes a flier, Dryad Militant is graveyard hate, Figure of Destiny is a mana sink on turns when we wouldn't be doing anything else, Herald of Anafenza is also a mana sink that we can trigger on turns where we have nothing to cast-- and it'll get stronger while giving us another token. Judge's Familiar gives us some degree of counterspell potential, Kami of False Hope works as a tutorable Fog, Kytheon is 2/1 right out of the gates and we can use Gideon as a damage diverting tool or an indestructible threat, Mikaeus works as a reusable Honor of the Pure, Soldier of the Pantheon... I'm not so sure about, but I think about all the multicolored removal spells and think it has some bit of potential, Student of Warfare is another tutorable mana sink, Thraben Inspector gives us card advantage, Topplegeist has the potential to really disrupt some threats on the board while being a flier, Town Gossipmonger can become a fast buffable 2/3, which at the very least is a threat that needs to be answered, and Weathered Wayfarer is a tutorable land generator-- it's worth noting that it allows us to get any land card.
- We have a few ETB effects that we can exploit, so Cloudshift, Momentary Blink, and Eerie Interlude all have potential for doing just that. Not only can we use it to flicker Eos and dig up more 1-drops, but we can also use it to negate attacks by blocking then flickering and counter removal (and in the case of Eerie Interlude, board wipes) by flickering in response. Imagine using Eerie Interlude to flicker Eos or Thraben Inspector while having a couple Sisters on the field-- we'd gain life, search for creatures, and get a clue. Lots of benefits. I think maybe including something like Kitchen Finks or Flickerwisp might be worthwhile for the flickering value.
- On that note, consider the potential of imprinting Cloudshift on an Isochron Scepter. Recur the Ranger every turn for 2 mana!
So that's my idea-- take advantage of Eos for generating card advantage and being able to search for tools to address specific situations.
I don't really know where to go from here with this, since I'm really not that good at deckbuilding, but I'm always happy to research for ideas.
What have you guys got?
Question: What's the general opinion of Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek in this deck? It seems like it'd work really well if you pack some Talismans in for the mana cost.
2 Archaeomancer
4 Mnemonic Wall
4 Peregrine Drake
2 Chittering Rats
3 Mulldrifter
2 Pestermite
2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 Drift of Phantasms
2 Deprive
3 Counterspell
2 Muddle the Mixture
Removal (9)
2 Chainer's Edict
4 Snap
1 Capsize
2 Brainspoil
Combo (9)
4 Ghostly Flicker
4 Expedition Map
1 Grim Harvest
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
4 Dismal Backwater
3 Swamp
5 Island
1 Radiant Fountain
Way too many cards, and I feel as if I'm spreading myself too thin somewhere. I'd really like to fit Ponder or Preordain in somewhere, too, but it may not be necessary with the Transmute-tutoring idea I have going on.
Drift of Phantasms, Muddle the Mixture, and Brainspoil all seemed like good additions, because this is a deck that can actually handle Brainspoil's high cost in a pinch, but it's really there for the sake of Transmute so you can tutor up a Mnemonic Wall, Peregrine Drake, Mulldrifter, or Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Drift of Phantasms can give us a decent blocking body, but more importantly can be used to Transmute-tutor up Chittering Rats, Pestermite, Capsize, and Ghostly Flicker. Muddle the Mixture is a nice counterspell, and it lets us Transmute-tutor Deprive, Counterspell, Chainer's Edict, Snap, or Grim Harvest.
So rather than needing to cross your fingers for the exact combo piece you need, you can simply search your deck for them.
But still, way too many cards. What should I do? The best idea I have is to more or less cut black out of the picture, but that completely ruins the point of the Chittering Rats lock and the Asphodel kill. I suppose I can do a similar lock by comboing off with Pestermite on every opponent upkeep, but they'd still be drawing cards which gives them a chance to counter/kill the combo.
Why not sideboard in some Silence for control/midrange decks in general? It's not like control decks tend to be unpredictable since they'll always go for countering or killing your threats when they show up, so at the very least, we can use Silence to at least buy us an extra turn that could turn the tides.
EDIT: Looking in the Norin Sisters thread gave me an idea: How would something like Mirror Entity sound in Soul Sisters? Sure, it may mess with Ajani's Pridemate, but it could serve to use our spare mana as either damage boosting unblocked creatures or using it to save your creatures while blocking, potentially.
I haven't completely figured out the entire deck (and I'm hoping you all might have some suggestions), but the main idea would be to get a board state with Archaeomancer/Mnemonic Wall, Peregrine Drake, and Chittering Rats. Use Ghostly Flicker to bounce Archaeomancer/Mnemonic Wall and Peregrine Drake so you can keep untapping and retapping the three Tron lands, a Swamp, and an Island in various orders, which, if I understand it right, should allow for infinite black/blue/colorless mana. Then you can Ghostly Flicker Archaeomancer/Mnemonic Wall and Chittering Rats to empty out your opponent's hand and continue to do that every turn so they topdeck the same card, essentially locking them out of the game. The rest of the cards would be Tron frequent fliers like Expedition Map and maybe some Chromatic Sphere/Stars, and the rest of the deck would be counterspells, removal spells (Snap and Capsize come to mind), kill spells, and Edict spells (and Curfew maybe) for Bogles/Hexproof. Mulldrifter would be a good addition as well, allowing you lots of card advantage, and Gray Merchant of Asphodel could be flickered over and over for infinite damage.
Maybe splash a little red for Rolling Thunder/Kaervek's Torch for a kill.
Maybe Pestermite for flickering shenanigans, so you can tap out your opponent every turn, as well. Not super necessary, I just love Faeries.
So basically:
Unlimited flicker of Chittering Rats - empty their hand and keep it empty
Unlimited flicker of Pestermite - tap all their spells and lands every time their upkeep comes around
Unlimited flicker of Mulldrifter - Draw your whole deck, basically? Not really necessary and potentially dangerous if you draw it out too much.
Unlimited flicker of Gray Merchant of Asphodel - Unlimited damage and lifegain.
@deathstroke: Don't think of it as Soul Sisters in a Human shell, think of it as Humans in a Soul Sister shell. It'll more or less play the same way-- just without the need to waste mana and time you could be spending attacking on Martyr and Serra upkeep. So we get all the niceness of recurring lifegain and pumpable creatures, just with slightly different methods.
One thing I worry about with Soul Sisters is that there's so little room to change cards in the deck before it's declared "not a Soul Sisters deck", and it's just kind of confusing to me. Most of the core cards are still there and it plays very similarly to its original build-- the only real difference is that I took a powerful but hard to maintain win condition with a more widespread approach.