MTG Salvation

So Soulfire Grand Master is a card. I was thinking that it seems potential good in a Soul Sisters shell a long with Young Pyromancer and a bunch of burn to gain ton of life.

Something a long these lines:



Some other potential options: Monastery Mentor, Ranger of Eos, Norin the Wary, Grim Lavamancer and Blasphemous Act (+ Soulfire = LOL)

Not sure how the deck is supposed to be constructed. But you get the picture. I wonder if the right creature to sorcery/instant ratio can be reached when we're basically betting on two different horses.

I like the idea and I really hope it becomes a thing in one way or another as both the Soulfire and Monastery Mentor are two cards I got super hyped for. I'll be keeping an eye out on this for sure.

I feel like there isn't enough synergy to be competitive... the sisters take up a lot of slots and don't leave you with much room for spells, which leaves not enough fuel for pyromancer and grand master... also you'll end up at best with a swarm of vanilla 1/1's. Doesn't seem broken.

That said, perhaps a white-red tokens approach might work? The usual white instant/sorcery token producers all will trigger young pyromancer, netting you even more tokens (add monastery mentor for more fun), supplement with burn and intangible virtue. Possible tiny black splash for lingering souls. Chandra, pyromaster or purphoros, god of the forge probably fits too. Unfortunately, the original inspiration (soulfire grand master) might not fit in this deck...

ashley: I'm having the same concerns, but I'm hoping a genius will figure a way to reach the right ratio

Torpf: That makes a lot of sense. Looking at the list that was also first place I was thinking about cutting a dude. I have no Soul Sisters experience either so I don't know how much life gain is needed. That's why I took the "conventional" approach (8 Sisters). Stoke of the Flames is tech with the "buy back" ability, worth looking into. One other spell I've been thinking about adding is Bonfire of the Damned, since it becomes pretty real with a Soulfire on the table

Why not stick with a more traditional Soul Sisters shell to start with and then modify from there? Martyr + Ascendent is gross and wins games on its own. Just replace the token package that Sisters normally runs for Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, and Soulfire Grandmaster? Maybe replace some of the Sisters since you don't have the tokens or replace the Ranger, etc. Also, with the suggestions I've given you still have enough white cards that Martyr won't work.

The biggest issue is the same one soul sisters has. You auto lose to decent combo draws like bloom titan/ad naus, potentially twin, etc.

Seeker is a nice call. Makes more sense than running Sisters in a more spell-heavy build.

alphagprime: that's pretty much what I did. I looked at a recent top finish list and then went from there (mostly replacing stuff like Honor of the Pure and Spectral Procession with burn)

I love the idea, and this could actually be really good.

However. Soulfire Grand Master is really mana intensive, and would do much better in the late game when you can afford to pay 8 mana to use one Helix twice. or 6 mana to use one Bolt twice. The lifelink is really nice, but it doesn't quite make up for it in my book.

My recommendation for a deck like this, Martyr of Sands. That along with Path, Helix, and Boros Charm can make up your white removal suite to help utilize martyr, while also using Lightning Bolt to help round out the rest of your burn suite. Honestly, Monastery Mentor is going to be a good friend for this deck if you run with sisters and a lightened token suite to round out the rest of the deck.

I hope that one day you can win big with this deck. and when that happens, you can be damn sure that i will build this deck in your honor.

EDIT:

Cards like Pyroclasm and Blasphemous Act could devastate an opponent at instant speed. all we need is mass damage at instant speed paired with the indestructibility from Boros Charm and that could really win games for this deck.

Martyr/Proc (or just Martyr/Ranger) might actually be a better approach than Sisters and might be a way to make the whole thing fall into place (since we don't need as many creatures to support this).

A lot of possibilities here...

How much burn do you guys think we need to support Soulfire? Just a rough number. This might be a good starting point.

i'd say, either go with a young pyromancer shell and go crazy with spells, or use the soul sister (norin sisters?) shell with 8 between lightning bolt and lightning helix.

The problem with Young Pyro + a bunch of spells is that then we only have Soulfire to gain life and that doesn't seem enough to turn on the Pridemate/Ascendant. Then we could cut Pridemate/Ascendant but then why aren't we just playing UWR Delver? If we go the Norin/Sisters approach will we have enough spells for Soulfire? Young Pyro also goes really well with the sisters but then again we might not have enough room for spells if we play the Sisters. It's a tough nut to crack and I'm not saying it's possible but it sure would be sweet if it was.

okay, I've been scheming for a while, and after all that i have discovered, that this will most likely die to everything unless we splash blue for things like Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, and/or Quicken. Cruise and dig for draw power, and quicken to help get mass damage at instant speed. im developing lists and ill post them tonight.

Alright, I'm impatient and have too much time. I've made four drafts for lists, the first two are total crap so I won't say any more about them.

Anyway, i have come up with a RW list and a RWU list.




I hope you guys like these lists, I personally lean towards the RWu list over the RW list because of better utility spells such as Treasure Cruise and Snapcaster Mage. You will also notice that there are no Sisters in these lists, as these lists on their own do not produce enough creatures to really make running sisters valuable.

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated, and if you guys want, I can write a primer for this deck eventually once the actual cards are released and Cruise is (most likely) banned.

Quote from Badabingbadabum »

Martyr/Proc (or just Martyr/Ranger) might actually be a better approach than Sisters and might be a way to make the whole thing fall into place (since we don't need as many creatures to support this).

A lot of possibilities here...

How much burn do you guys think we need to support Soulfire? Just a rough number. This might be a good starting point.

I don't really think the martyr route is the right direction for the deck as is. Having non-white cards in the deck hurts the effectiveness of martyrs. If you have a lightning bolt you gain 3 less life if you have a martyr, unless you also have the soulfire grandmaster in play, then it is net neutral.

The activated ability on the grand master has a similar feel to forecast, and I could see a red splash in proc becoming viable as a result of it. I would not base it on the lifelink aspect though. Its mostly just the idea of being at 7 mana with it in play, and pathing 3 creatures that sounds awesome to me. Gaining 6 life off the lightning helixs that would be in the deck would be an upside though.

I'm happy this deck is currently being discussed, as I've been brewing around with the seam ideas. In my experiences, the deck gets blown out by board wipes and combo kills, and holds up very well against aggro and midrange, so I've thrown in black as a third color, with some targeted discard and probably more in the side. Here's the Mardu version I've been workking on:



I really like Dark Confidant in this deck, as it really requires some card-draw. With Martyr, the life-loss is basically negated, since you're just filling your hand with mostly white cards. I'm trying Knight of the White Orchid as a way to "ramp" (you're usually a land behind with after Pathing) into the powerful activated abilities of Soulfire and the Vizkopa Guildmage, who provides ridiculous later game reach.

If I were to make a list it would look like this:


Left sideboard open for whatever the meta changes to. I think deflecting palm would be an interesting card to try out. It causes angel pod's combo to kill them as well (and same with ascendancy). A lot of decks hurt themselves quite a bit, the slow controllish nature of the current proc builds doesn't really punish that, palm I could see really tilting people.
I think that a WRB list could be good too.

DemannicTheOrc, I like the list. What are your thoughts on swapping the Ghostly Prisons for Bolts? The list runs a lot more removal than regular Martyr decks, so the Prisons might be better off with some early interaction. It gives us 3 less life with Martyr but on the flip side 3 more with Soulfire. And something like -2 Path, -1 Linvala, -1 Wayfarer, +4 Squadron Hawk? I have 0 experience playing Martyr/Proc but Hawk seems like an important card in the deck.

My concern with cutting ghostly prisons is that the deck will fold to twin. Also prisons are early interaction. They slow down everyone who wants to attack dramatically, as well as making young pyromancers vanilla. Also the deck does have 8 cheap spot removal spells already. Lastly if you cut all the prisons and have no wraths main many decks like delver and pod will get out of hand very quickly

The deck would run 13 removal spells though. That's in UWR Control territory. Bonfire of the Damned is always an option too. At worst it's a 3 mana Electrickery which is still decent against Delver. With Soulfire out we get a lot of life from all the elemental tokens.

What are your thoughts on something like this?:



I took out 8 white cards which weakens Martyr. But we have Hawk to make up for it. It has 28 white cards. Don't know if it's too few, but I like the fact that we have a realistic chance of burning our opponent out.

I like the lavamancer toolbox option. Bonfire has some disynergy with proc because you would pay for the forecast before your draw step leaving you more or less tapped out for the miracle. I'd replace them with wraths or prisons (with the other one in the sideboard too). Also with this list you have way more red cards, I'd add in one more red source, either a mountain or a white fetch land.

Good catch with Proc. Is it possible that Proc should be cut at this point? The deck looks to be a lot faster with all the burn.

EDIT: and Wrath/Prison is probably better than Bonfire. But we gotta live the dream

Yeah, I'd play one or the other (proc/bonfire), it all depends on how control or aggro you want to be.

Jeskai Charm also seems decent. Since all 3 modes are relevant in this kind of deck. Splashing blue also dips us into Treasure Cruise (which is a faster way of getting CA than Proc)

Demmanic, Deflecting Palm won't kill Angel Pod post-combo unless they have life less than or equal to the power of their biggest attacker. Better burn them out pretty hard first.