Rugged Prairies are a little on the expensive side, but nowhere near as much as Arid Mesa and such.
And yeah, I think I might! I run mono-white Soul Sisters right now, but I've been looking to play with the setup a bit, thus looking into Norin Sisters instead.
Honestly? I feel that Martyr is only there for the sake of Serra Ascendant-- a combo that has a more efficient home in MartyrProc. I'm starting to get the feeling that this current meta doesn't really need them because Martyr doesn't get you closer to winning, and Serra Ascendant is a prime removal target that we have no way to counter. A lot of the time, for me, Ascendant is a Path to Exile magnet that may as well have the ability "Sacrifice Serra Ascendant: Search your library for a basic land and put it on the battlefield tapped. Shuffle your library.", and it's just a struggle.
Sure, we can beat them down by digging up another with Eos, but I'm really starting to consider the concept of going more for a Human Tribal Sisters deck instead-- running the Sisters as usual for lifegain and overall longevity while also boarding in Thraben Inspector for creature drop and card advantage via clues, and Thalia's Liutenant alongside Honor of the Pure to really give our White Weenies some huge bodies. Always Watching would be welcome as well, even if it's not necessarily synergistic with our spirit tokens. But my idea is to make the deck more aggressive to the point that the spirits are only really there for the sake of getting over really stubborn blockers.
This way, we get some fairly large bodied 1/2 drop creatures on the field, with vigilance so we can attack and block, and Brave the Sands lets us either multi-chump-block and swing through defenses in response to the opponent letting their guard down, or we can even 2-for-1 some of their creatures with one of our own, if they have the size. Secure the Wastes gives us a lot of bodies and pumps up Thalia's Lieutenant naturally, and will skyrocket Ajani's Pridemate if we have multiple Sisters on the board. Archangel of Thune is, as usual, a field bomb that just cranks the power up on everything.
Ghost Quarter does Ghost Quarter things, Emeria lets us bring back fallen creatures every turn, and the 12 Plains and Mistveil Plains gives us 15 Plains to activate it.
It's kind of a rough draft I just now cobbled together, but what do you think? This way, we won't have to spend so much time trying to keep our life at the threshold for Serra Glass Cannon to be worth anything.
(I may or may not be advocating taking them out merely because I wanna give MartyrProc a try.)
Out of curiosity, would there be any potential for running Atog + Fling in this deck? You could use Atog for beatings with the myrs for fuel, and when you have the opening, fling him for the kill. (You could also Fling a pumped up Ajani's Pridemate.)
If I may ask, what is the win condition for that deck? I like the idea, but I don't feel like there's enough push toward a win aside from very, very slowly pinging them with the Drake, which is vulnerable to removal that you lack counters for.
I feel like if you're going to be running land enchantments, you can get away with running fewer lands and putting in something more. Perhaps some counter spells or some green pump spells?
I gave your list a try, Zephyr. I like it! How does it do on faster aggro decks, though? It takes a while for this deck to get set up, but once it hits its curve, it's insanely good.
EDIT: Also, how does it deal with Bogles/Hexproof? I just got completely decimated by that.
Point made. I don't think she'd be anywhere near as useful in Soul Sisters as she would be in Norin Sisters, since there are more direct benefits to the token generation.
However, my counter-perspective: pretty much everything we have dies to Pyroclasm-- we're very weak to boardwipe effects in general. I don't think I'm understanding how she dies to it with a board full of tokens, because her stats wouldn't change until the tokens were already dead, right?
Norin Sisters seems to have a lot of potential. I still want to try it.
That said, instead of Champion of the Parish, what's the consensus on Hanweir Militia Captain? She costs as much as Pridemate, and when she flips she essentially becomes a Champion of the Parish/Pridemate+Bitterblossom in a sense, which may even be especially nice in Norin Sisters with Purphoros/Impact Tremors and Genesis Chamber. So many tokens! And what's better is that her power/toughness is tied directly to how many creatures you have on the field, which means instant value on flip, because she's almost guaranteed to be a 4/4 on flip since you need 4 creatures on the field for that to occur. But even later on in the game, she's instant value if you have lots of tokens on the field, because she directly becomes that powerful, in contrast to Champion of the Parish or Ajani's Pridemate, who require buildup.
In the case of Norin Sisters, if you're running Hanweir Militia Captain, consider--
- Genesis Chamber will allow her to flip faster
- Every token she generates will trigger Genesis Chamber
- For every token she generates, you gain a token, so you immediately get +2/+2 every turn on her
- With Impact Tremors/Purphoros, that's 2-4 indirect damage per turn
- With Soul Sisters on the field, that's a lot of life gained (and when paired with Pridemate, even more power for him)
I don't know, I just think she has great synergy that may serve us very well.
Match 1: Same Thopter Gifts dude from last time, lose 0-2
Sideboard: -4 Path of Exile, -2 Ajani's Pridemate, -1 Return to the Ranks
+2 Rest in Peace, +2 Pithing Needle, +2 Stony Silence, +1 Aven Mindcensor
Got Rest in Peace out game 2, he Disenchanted it.
Match 2: Mono-white Hatebears (again.), lose 1-2
Didn't sideboard anything, got really bad hands or fell apart to Leonin Arbiter + Path of Exile/Ghost Quarter. I'm adding Hatebears to my list of "un-fun decks I hate to play against".
After that, I was so discouraged I left. I don't really know what to do.
Hmm. That has potential, especially since a lot of us already run Sundering Growth for the same cost as Leonin Relic Warder. It would just require one to run it mainboard instead of sideboard.
Yeah, I see what you're saying-- and dropping Ranger, Serra, and Martyr from the deck more or less eliminates the general Soul Sisters cast aside from the Sisters and Ajani's Pridemate. Granted, they're valid replacements, but indeed, it wouldn't be Soul Sisters anymore.
Ah well. I might still try that sometime, but it was just an idea to bolster the wincons and try to keep ideas flowing into the deck.
That said, what do you think of Kitchen Finks in Soul Sisters in general, combo aside? I think it may help us get up to the 30 life threshold faster while being a decent beater that can also take a hit for more life and Sister triggers for life. I've been considering picking up a playset (thus my interest in tweaking the deck in general to incorporate it).
I've been doing a little thinking regarding how the deck works and how it can be tweaked, and I've been wondering: how well does the Persist Combo work in a Soul Sisters concept? Something like this W/B build I just threw together:
Obviously, the combo set here is Kitchen Finks/Anafenza/Viscera Seer, thus resulting in unlimited life, unlimited scry (always pull the cards you need!), unlimited Ajani's Pridemate counters, unlimited Archangel of Thune counters, guaranteed 6/6 flying from Serra Ascendant, and of course, infinite damage from Murderous Redcap. Also obviously, this is what Abzan Company decks typically do, but I have been wondering if I could make it work in this deck, as well.
This way, the number of 1/1s in the deck are reduced but not eliminated, and if Anafenza is on the field, a little boost is given for everything that enters, giving us a little more fighting power while being a combo piece. Ranger of Eos works as a pseudo-CoCo for us, pulling Viscera Seer, Sisters, Martyr of Sands (if emergency life is needed), and Serra Ascendants. Kitchen Finks gives us a big life boost when cast and Sisters are on the field, getting us over that 30 life threshold better while being a great chump blocker and damage dealer while we build the combo. I also included a few Duress (can be Thoughtseize or Inquisition, but I don't have those) for the sake of weeding out counterspells from the opponent's hand, and Mark of Asylum removes bolt removal vulnerability from Viscera Seer and Anafenza.
And also, you can always use the infinite scry to dig up your wincons via Archangel of Thune to give all our creatures unlimited power and toughness and swing for the win, or Murderous Redcap to deal the damage indirectly, whichever is needed.
Of course, you can also run green in the deck for Collected Company and Melira, but at that point, you may as well just run Abzan Company. The whole idea for this is to run two colors in a survivable build that doesn't require the manabase of a three-color deck.
Thoughts? Would this work, or would it break the archetype too much?
EDIT: Of course, you don't even need Kitchen Finks to make this work, you could use Safehold Elite as a budget replacement with lower mana cost, but you'd need a Sister on the field for unlimited life triggers.
And yeah, I think I might! I run mono-white Soul Sisters right now, but I've been looking to play with the setup a bit, thus looking into Norin Sisters instead.
Sure, we can beat them down by digging up another with Eos, but I'm really starting to consider the concept of going more for a Human Tribal Sisters deck instead-- running the Sisters as usual for lifegain and overall longevity while also boarding in Thraben Inspector for creature drop and card advantage via clues, and Thalia's Liutenant alongside Honor of the Pure to really give our White Weenies some huge bodies. Always Watching would be welcome as well, even if it's not necessarily synergistic with our spirit tokens. But my idea is to make the deck more aggressive to the point that the spirits are only really there for the sake of getting over really stubborn blockers.
So maybe something like...
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Ajani's Pridemate
3 Ranger of Eos
1 Archangel of Thune
3 Always Watching
3 Brave the Sands
4 Path to Exile
2 Spectral Procession
1 Secure the Wastes
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
12 Plains
This way, we get some fairly large bodied 1/2 drop creatures on the field, with vigilance so we can attack and block, and Brave the Sands lets us either multi-chump-block and swing through defenses in response to the opponent letting their guard down, or we can even 2-for-1 some of their creatures with one of our own, if they have the size. Secure the Wastes gives us a lot of bodies and pumps up Thalia's Lieutenant naturally, and will skyrocket Ajani's Pridemate if we have multiple Sisters on the board. Archangel of Thune is, as usual, a field bomb that just cranks the power up on everything.
Ghost Quarter does Ghost Quarter things, Emeria lets us bring back fallen creatures every turn, and the 12 Plains and Mistveil Plains gives us 15 Plains to activate it.
It's kind of a rough draft I just now cobbled together, but what do you think? This way, we won't have to spend so much time trying to keep our life at the threshold for Serra Glass Cannon to be worth anything.
(I may or may not be advocating taking them out merely because I wanna give MartyrProc a try.)
Out of curiosity, would there be any potential for running Atog + Fling in this deck? You could use Atog for beatings with the myrs for fuel, and when you have the opening, fling him for the kill. (You could also Fling a pumped up Ajani's Pridemate.)
Also, would I still be safe running Clifftop Retreat and Battlefield Forge over the more expensive fetch/shocks?
...I think? You'd have to get both that and the flicker back somehow.
I feel like if you're going to be running land enchantments, you can get away with running fewer lands and putting in something more. Perhaps some counter spells or some green pump spells?
I just feel like I've had a lot of bad luck with mono-white as of late and it might be a good idea to shake it up with a new color.
(On that note, has there ever been any success running white/blue? They're my favorite colors overall.)
EDIT: Also, how does it deal with Bogles/Hexproof? I just got completely decimated by that.
However, my counter-perspective: pretty much everything we have dies to Pyroclasm-- we're very weak to boardwipe effects in general. I don't think I'm understanding how she dies to it with a board full of tokens, because her stats wouldn't change until the tokens were already dead, right?
That said, instead of Champion of the Parish, what's the consensus on Hanweir Militia Captain? She costs as much as Pridemate, and when she flips she essentially becomes a Champion of the Parish/Pridemate+Bitterblossom in a sense, which may even be especially nice in Norin Sisters with Purphoros/Impact Tremors and Genesis Chamber. So many tokens! And what's better is that her power/toughness is tied directly to how many creatures you have on the field, which means instant value on flip, because she's almost guaranteed to be a 4/4 on flip since you need 4 creatures on the field for that to occur. But even later on in the game, she's instant value if you have lots of tokens on the field, because she directly becomes that powerful, in contrast to Champion of the Parish or Ajani's Pridemate, who require buildup.
In the case of Norin Sisters, if you're running Hanweir Militia Captain, consider--
- Genesis Chamber will allow her to flip faster
- Every token she generates will trigger Genesis Chamber
- For every token she generates, you gain a token, so you immediately get +2/+2 every turn on her
- With Impact Tremors/Purphoros, that's 2-4 indirect damage per turn
- With Soul Sisters on the field, that's a lot of life gained (and when paired with Pridemate, even more power for him)
I don't know, I just think she has great synergy that may serve us very well.
Match 1: Same Thopter Gifts dude from last time, lose 0-2
Sideboard: -4 Path of Exile, -2 Ajani's Pridemate, -1 Return to the Ranks
+2 Rest in Peace, +2 Pithing Needle, +2 Stony Silence, +1 Aven Mindcensor
Got Rest in Peace out game 2, he Disenchanted it.
Match 2: Mono-white Hatebears (again.), lose 1-2
Didn't sideboard anything, got really bad hands or fell apart to Leonin Arbiter + Path of Exile/Ghost Quarter. I'm adding Hatebears to my list of "un-fun decks I hate to play against".
After that, I was so discouraged I left. I don't really know what to do.
Ah well. I might still try that sometime, but it was just an idea to bolster the wincons and try to keep ideas flowing into the deck.
That said, what do you think of Kitchen Finks in Soul Sisters in general, combo aside? I think it may help us get up to the 30 life threshold faster while being a decent beater that can also take a hit for more life and Sister triggers for life. I've been considering picking up a playset (thus my interest in tweaking the deck in general to incorporate it).
3x Serra Ascendant
3x Soul Warden
2x Soul's Attendant
4x Kitchen Finks
4x Viscera Seer
3x Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
2x Martyr of Sands
1x Archangel of Thune
2x Ranger of Eos
1x Murderous Redcap
2x Honor of the Pure
2x Mark of Asylum
2x Duress
4x Isolated Chapel
2x Ghost Quarter
2x Shambling Vent
2x Caves of Koilos
10x Plains
1x Swamp
Obviously, the combo set here is Kitchen Finks/Anafenza/Viscera Seer, thus resulting in unlimited life, unlimited scry (always pull the cards you need!), unlimited Ajani's Pridemate counters, unlimited Archangel of Thune counters, guaranteed 6/6 flying from Serra Ascendant, and of course, infinite damage from Murderous Redcap. Also obviously, this is what Abzan Company decks typically do, but I have been wondering if I could make it work in this deck, as well.
This way, the number of 1/1s in the deck are reduced but not eliminated, and if Anafenza is on the field, a little boost is given for everything that enters, giving us a little more fighting power while being a combo piece. Ranger of Eos works as a pseudo-CoCo for us, pulling Viscera Seer, Sisters, Martyr of Sands (if emergency life is needed), and Serra Ascendants. Kitchen Finks gives us a big life boost when cast and Sisters are on the field, getting us over that 30 life threshold better while being a great chump blocker and damage dealer while we build the combo. I also included a few Duress (can be Thoughtseize or Inquisition, but I don't have those) for the sake of weeding out counterspells from the opponent's hand, and Mark of Asylum removes bolt removal vulnerability from Viscera Seer and Anafenza.
And also, you can always use the infinite scry to dig up your wincons via Archangel of Thune to give all our creatures unlimited power and toughness and swing for the win, or Murderous Redcap to deal the damage indirectly, whichever is needed.
Of course, you can also run green in the deck for Collected Company and Melira, but at that point, you may as well just run Abzan Company. The whole idea for this is to run two colors in a survivable build that doesn't require the manabase of a three-color deck.
Thoughts? Would this work, or would it break the archetype too much?
EDIT: Of course, you don't even need Kitchen Finks to make this work, you could use Safehold Elite as a budget replacement with lower mana cost, but you'd need a Sister on the field for unlimited life triggers.