For me, Martyr/Serra T2 combo has more downsides than positives. At best it's a 3 turn clock on T2. That's great, but for that to happen, we'd need:
- 4 of each for it to have a modicum of a chance to making it out on T2 consistently enough to be useful. Because if it doesn't trigger early, Martyr is becomes increasingly useless as we wear of hand down with no card draw tech built into the deck.
- A perfect but vulnerable draw in T1 and T2:
--- T1 => serra + land (5 cards left)
--- T2 => draw 1 => land + martyr (4 cards left: none of which can be lands)
This means that anybody running Thoughtseize or the like (which it feels like 90% of anybody splashing black does) will break the early trigger without even meaning to on their T1 or T2. Any W of B removal spell will blast Serra out, 6/6 flying and all, and a bolt or any early aggression will take that earned 32 life back under 30. Having seen our hand due to the Martyr trigger, the opponent will know exactly what is a viable response as well.
Against Elves or Merfolk though, a very early Martyr/Serra + will indeed help race these removal-thin tribal decks. When the combo don't come out early though, Martyr becomes fairly useless in the mid and late game especially since there are next to no cantrips in this deck without running another 4 Squadron Hawks.
Serra by itself (though maybe not a 4 of), isn't useless without the Martyr. Lifelink helps trigger life gain effects a bit, and dropping it early paints a target on itself that diverts attention away from the Soul sisters. They don't know we're not running Martyrs :). I've have experienced multiple occasions where Serra draws out the removal spells, sparing Soul sisters to rigger the Pridmate or Archangle a turn or two later.
So, for me, it's either the original budget SS with 4 Martyr, Hawks, Serras, and Rangers (that's 24 cards already with the souls sisters counted) if i want to run the Martyr/Serra trigger, or it's a more versatile build without the Martyr.
On Lingering Souls
Never thought of it since not splashing black... I feel spectral procession works terrific enough as it is. It only fails to do what it needs to do when 2 things happen, board wipes and sweeping removal, and if the opponent swarms faster than we do and we need throw the tokens away as chump blockers. In either of the cases, i don't feel having another sorcery speed, neutered version of Spectral would be worth the space. If we can use its flash back, then maybe. But that'd require some form of dual lands, which would either slow us down or eat away at space better suited to run Ghost quarters / tectonic edge, Cavern of Souls, or other lands that mono colored decks like us can really use and really should abuse. But, in the end this is more a meta choice i think. It's more weenies or more heavy hitters. It's just that with more limited space and no cantrips, each card choice really has to have worthwhile synergy or really emphasize a strength. Whether Lingering Souls does that is up to those that have really tested it out.
On Brave the Elements
I run this main board, 4 of to boot. More a preference i suppose. I rather the combined ability of letting the heavy hitters land their punches, protecting the core creatures from targeted removal, and surprising the opponent. Nothing is more frustrating than pumping a Pridemate up to a 7/7 only to have it removed or chump blocked forever. And nothing more satisfying when hitting through a sea of elves or oozes and tarmogyfs for the finishing blow with our army big or small. When up against infinity or other colorless-heavy decks, it's 4 spaces already prepped for Stony silence and Sundering Growth (i run 3 of each on the side) without having to dig into the core creatures much. Honor of the Pure is great, especially if we can secure 2 or three in play. But, it's blatant and obvious, does one thing only, and leaves our guys only slightly less vulnerable to dying. I would rather 1 more creature on T2 through T4, with mana left over for a surprise safe or hit, than pump the few guys we have out with a +1/+1. My opinion on this is theory crafting at its utmost through. I've ran Brave the Elements in 80% of my SS iterations and Honor of the Pure only the first few tests.
Other Ideas
Been trying to see if we can work in card draw tech. Mentor of Meek? Endless Horizons so we don't ever draw plains in the mid and late game?
Suture Priest? trade opportunity to life gain off opponents's creature/token drops for speed. Other swarming decks (elves, i want elves and merfolk dead!) have arguable faster ways to pump their creatures than us, and access to trample and islandwalk or what not. Thought Suture Priest can give us a bit of a head start on taking their life count down, without destroying the whole life-gain synergy much.
@BoBoCTiberius:
Did you run Ghostly Prison against Elves? If yes how'd you it works out? I sideboard the prison for the next time i run into elves, that and merfolk are the 2 decks that i've never won against with soul sisters (those and BU discard).
Played against tron and land destruction the other day. Soul sister worked out great in both. Ghost quarters shut tron down while having Horizon Canopy and Pathing my own guys in response to their removal kept enough cards in hand and lands in play to cinch the games. Sundering growth was an MVP too, having that added proliferate ability was surprisingly helpful.
There's no real reason we can't push Soul Sisters to Tier 1!
I think the black splash is okay and have been debating switching my two Secure for Lingering. Secure is for the late game, and any more than 6 is overkill. If you're on Lingering Souls, it's the exact same mana cost as secure to produce 4 flyers. Do we ever need more is the question. I've definitely looked at Secure in my hand and said "I wish I could get some value out of you right now" which is where Lingering would be nice
I think Martyr/Serra still plays well with the incremental plan and I'm sad to say that the life total matters plan is dead at this point.
That's your problem with Secure, right there. You don't need to try and get maximum value out of it. I'm fine casting it for x=3, or x=4, just because I know that it's going to give me the win. Instant speed means I can hold up, and even play Path, and still cast Secure on my opponents turn.
Suture Priest is okay against Elves, but don't forget that they have access to a sister in Essence Warden. Elves players are playing this (My opponent having two of these when I'm trying to kill them quick before they pop up was so frustrating), so watch out. Paying two mana for a card that is neutralized by one of theirs seems bad. I see too many matches where it deals two-three damage and then has to chump something.
@Encalibur: Ghostly Prison does work against Elves when I land it and not just because it slows down the Ezuri alpha. It also stops them from getting those early chump attacks in the first four turns where they play lord, Elvish Visionary, Elvish Archdruid and then swing for 8 with Visionary and a mana dork. Shockingly common and less likely with Ghostly Prison out. Though it just buys turns, that's all you need if you've established a kill condition in the first few turns.
To counter your point, I run 2 Martyr and 3 Serra and get the combo off enough to still reap the rewards. While a lot of decks can just burn out the Serra, many of them won't get you down below that thirty mark for a while, so you can top deck another or go get one with Ranger. There are also decks like Affinity or Infect who might not be running something to kill it because they're all in on their combo (or they kept a greedy hand,) and the combo just stole a game from them on turn two. Like you said, it also makes Serra draw removal as soon as it lands. While you may get a bad player who removes it before seeing the Martyr, good players are going to call your bluff if you drop Serra turn one and not kill it until the Martyr hits and activates.
Never tried Endless Horizons, but it seems worth an experiment. Don't know where I'd cut for it, though. When I ran Mentor, it slowed me down way too much because you're always trying to play for that extra card. Our deck's a little too thirsty for mana early. With the format speeding up, I don't know if we can afford to slow down.
@BobCtiberius: points taken. I'll work in 2 Martyrs and see where it goes. The mentor too. The first few games i played with it in hand, i ended up not playing it as the play called for more urgent responses, makes sense that it slows the deck down. Will try out Endless horizons and report back.
I run this main board, 4 of to boot. More a preference i suppose. I rather the combined ability of letting the heavy hitters land their punches, protecting the core creatures from targeted removal, and surprising the opponent. Nothing is more frustrating than pumping a Pridemate up to a 7/7 only to have it removed or chump blocked forever. And nothing more satisfying when hitting through a sea of elves or oozes and tarmogyfs for the finishing blow with our army big or small. When up against infinity or other colorless-heavy decks, it's 4 spaces already prepped for Stony silence and Sundering Growth (i run 3 of each on the side) without having to dig into the core creatures much. Honor of the Pure is great, especially if we can secure 2 or three in play. But, it's blatant and obvious, does one thing only, and leaves our guys only slightly less vulnerable to dying. I would rather 1 more creature on T2 through T4, with mana left over for a surprise safe or hit, than pump the few guys we have out with a +1/+1. My opinion on this is theory crafting at its utmost through. I've ran Brave the Elements in 80% of my SS iterations and Honor of the Pure only the first few tests.
This right here interests me.
In all my goldfishing, Honor of the Pure has seemed fairly underwhelming to me. I only ever feel like it did much when it could be followed up with a Spectral Procession, but Spectral Procession seems like it'd swing games all on its own. Outside of that, it seems all it ever really does is make two or three sisters into 2/2s which gets me what? The ability to chump 1/1s, assuming the opponent has any and is attacking with them? They'll still eat Lightning Bolt or Path to Exile and I assume whatever red sweepers people run deal more than 1 damage, so the +1/+1 comes across as mostly irrelevant to me.
On the other hand, I've felt weird about the deck overall since I cut two Brave the Elements and moved the other two to the sideboard. The ridiculous flexibility and power of the card seems irreplaceable to me, and in every situation I can think of, a well-timed Brave the Elements seems leagues beyond what an Honor of the Pure would do for me.
I'm seriously considering cutting the playset of Honor of the Pure to put the playset of Brave the Elements back in after reading EncaliburMTG »'s post. What are other people's thoughts on this? Is there something that Honor of the Pure does for us that I'm missing? If not, out it goes...
I've heard similar complaints from someone I know who runs the deck locally, and they're totally legit, but I think Honor throws off combat math and turns all of other creatures (Sisters, Serra, Martyr if you run her, Secure the Wastes if you run them) into legitimate clocks. Yeah, it's best with Spectral, but it can also make our sisters actually worth turning sideways and help Serra turn itself on.
For some examples: in the past few weeks, I've pulled out a few games (a Game 2 against infect, last night against GriselShoal) just because a 1/1 and a 2/X (In my case, Ethersworn Canonist out of the side, but Ajani's Pridemate and Thalia work in this example) become five damage with an Honor of the Pure. That extra two damage a turn is super relevant when a deck is ripping through its library to find its kill condition or something to kill your Suppression Field/Ghostly Prison so they can finish you off. I also dropped two last night to fish out a Maelstrom Pulse so I could cast a Spectral against Junk, who can be pretty weak to Spectral.
Granted, some of these situations would be fine with Brave but not all of them. If you're really down on the card, I think moving to a split between Honor of the Pure and Brave The Elements is worth testing, but I don't know if I'd feel good cutting the card completely. Maybe start with a 2/2 split and juke the numbers to your liking from there?
Proclamation works best with Martyr, which your deck doesn't have. Kami of False Hope seems largely irrelevant, so I wouldn't bother much with that one. Brimaz can be good, so I think he's reasonable, but Cavern naming Human won't be as effective in this deck because of your high non-human count. Your best bet is to go the 4 Honor, removing Kami and Proc.
Also include some number of mainboard Ghost Quarter, because otherwise you won't be winning against the land decks.
I suppose it's a choice based on the meta scene then? In my less experienced and numerous games, i haven't run into situations where Honor instead of Brave would speed the clock up and win the game for me. Up against a horde of creatures, Brave does more to help block or get our swings in. Against removal-heavy decks, there's usually enough variety where neither will really do the trick more than the other.I assume for every targeting removal spell, there's an equal amount of none-targeting sweepers that are just as popular; i'm under the impression anybody splashing white packs a few Paths. So, unless there's specific weenie hate in the meta, Brave's and Honor's shielding abilities are on par? Up against combo decks thinner on both creatures and removal, again, neither will really work out more than the other. It'll either be much too fast for us to handle or they won't be able to handle our Spectral, Archangel, or activated Serra. I usually sideboard Brave out completely on G2 in this case.
I'd say that Honor is better than Brave in the protection bit because it's always active. Once you land an Honor, you don't need to worry about holding up mana, and you get immediate impact. The curving out is a lot smoother with Honor.
Your sideboard is pretty specific, but that's probably not a bad thing. It's well targetted towards problem decks, though I think you could ease down on the RIPs and Sundering Growths for cards which will improve your game against Jund.
The card-draw ability of Relic of Progenitus is great, and would be both useful and sorely needed. For those running Flagstones of Trokair, Relic would not affect its search and deck-thinning effect either. But, i feel it's a half-attempt at graveyard hate. With Jund in mind, the Relic hinders Goyfs and Oozes while RIP effectively neuters both. Point taken on Return to the Ranks. For me, it comes down to whether 3 spots for RIP will do the trick, or if 4-6 spots for Relic and RoR will do it significantly better.
Still on Jund, I would think it's more reason to choose Brave over Honor of the Pure. Abrupt Decay, Maelstrom Pulse, terminate, Kolaghan's Command, and Lightning Bolts are stopped by Brave and not Honor. I realize it's one for one in these cases, but i feel having the ability to shield against none-damage dealing removal is a big plus. There's obviously non-targeting and sweeping damage dealers, but short of having multiple Honors out, it'd wouldn't be more useful than holding back a CMC 1 Brave.
The only unanswerable tech in the Jund matchup is discard. Short for sideboarding in Leylines, i have no clue how to deal with it. And, i don't feel i have room for Leylines. Sundering Growth I keep for versatility. That and i've ran into Chalice of the Void more than i ever want to deal with again. For me, with soul sisters, where there are little to no control and hate in the maindeck, running anything less than 3 ofs in the sideboard is not an answer to anything other than giving us a less than 50/50 chance at dragging the game out longer.
As for Leonin Arbiter. I wanted to abuse the mono white feature of this deck as much as possible. Hinder other's ability to use fetchlands, slow tutors for combos, and make ghost quarters (another 3-4of afforded by being mono-colored) and paths that much more effective.
For Ghostly Prison vs. suppression field... I am even less experienced to intelligently defend one over the other. I chose Ghostly Prison simply because it hurts elves and merfolk more i feel. Haven't run into much in terms of activated abilities in creatures (Stony silence takes care of the artifacts) where the end game isn't to attack with pumped guys, attack with more guys, tutor, or delve. So, the Prison would deal with the former two and i have answers for latter pair and amore.
Anyways ^^ that's my novice two cents. Got face-to-face experience of how deep the games goes tonight. I played in my first local event, a two headed giant sealed origins preview event. 1-2, with one of the losses to a regional top 8 player. Wish the draw was better, but overall a good crowd and very good experience
You may find success by changing the 3rd Arbiter into a Mindcensor. The flash is relevant and hits slower decks which try to abuse the search mechanic. If we ever see Scapeshift come back, Mindcensor is a far better choice. You can also snipe fetches with Mindcensor, but this seems less useful.
Jund is surprisingly not as a hard a matchup as I thought it would be. Preboard, my 4x mainboarded Auriok Champions and 4x Lingering Souls help out a ton. Postboard, I bring in 3x Spellskite and 2x Celestial Purge to help combat their removal and big threats such as Olivia and Tasigur.
I find Jund to be worse than Abzan. Abzan plays slowly, and plays fatties, which just get outclassed by what we're doing. Jund plays quickly, and gains a heap of early advantage. Bob is very frustrating, because he can draw them into more removal.
Tokens is usually the best way to deal with Jund, but usually Jund players are very skilled, because they have to be willing to make a $2K investment. I want the highest chance of beating Jund as possible, as it's the most played deck at the moment.
I don't have much of a problem against Jund. Once the champs hit the field... I usually just chill and wait to win.
I have been playing with the crusaders... mostly because my meta was recently saturated with company decks, and it was a good card against Tasigur, Angler, Goyf, etc. But I played my deck the other day in a tourney and ran up against decks playing this:
A grixis deck with Ashiok... and with one sister in play, they splinter-twinned Pestermite......
A blue/white control deck with... GEIST OF SAINT TRAFT, which seems to be the one card that always, always, always beats me no matter what I play with.
I had a very close matchup against Gifts tron... I was always ONE TURN AWAY from swinging and using the Heights, but... board sweepers....
There's so much dang spot removal. I play a creature and it gets removed. A part of me wants to try playing with that white legend dude who gives creatures protection from white, but isn't that what Brave the Elements is for? IDK.
I love sisters. All the spot removal is killing me, though.
I've tried a variety of things. Ghostly Prison against Geist, Mirran Crusader... other stuff... Secure the Wastes is usually a dead card because it will either get ripped from my hand or played too late.
Does anybody have any tips against Tron or Amulet Bloom? These two matchups are the worst for me at the moment.
Against Tron, I mainboard 4 Ghost Quarter. From the sideboard, I bring in 2 Stony Silence and 3 Suppression Field. It's a really bad matchup but, if you can keep them off Karn for a few turns AND they don't cast Ugin, you can win. If they resolve an Ugin, just scoop. It's literally unbeatable for us.
Does anybody have any tips against Tron or Amulet Bloom? These two matchups are the worst for me at the moment.
Against Tron, I mainboard 4 Ghost Quarter. From the sideboard, I bring in 2 Stony Silence and 3 Suppression Field. It's a really bad matchup but, if you can keep them off Karn for a few turns AND they don't cast Ugin, you can win. If they resolve an Ugin, just scoop. It's literally unbeatable for us.
Against Amulet Bloom, I'm pretty unlucky as I die to Hive Mind 8/10 times. On the bright side, I usually see a Path to Exile or two for their Primeval Titan.
But other than those two decks, I usually do fairly well against most other matchups with my list:
For me, Martyr/Serra T2 combo has more downsides than positives. At best it's a 3 turn clock on T2. That's great, but for that to happen, we'd need:
- 4 of each for it to have a modicum of a chance to making it out on T2 consistently enough to be useful. Because if it doesn't trigger early, Martyr is becomes increasingly useless as we wear of hand down with no card draw tech built into the deck.
- A perfect but vulnerable draw in T1 and T2:
--- T1 => serra + land (5 cards left)
--- T2 => draw 1 => land + martyr (4 cards left: none of which can be lands)
This means that anybody running Thoughtseize or the like (which it feels like 90% of anybody splashing black does) will break the early trigger without even meaning to on their T1 or T2. Any W of B removal spell will blast Serra out, 6/6 flying and all, and a bolt or any early aggression will take that earned 32 life back under 30. Having seen our hand due to the Martyr trigger, the opponent will know exactly what is a viable response as well.
Against Elves or Merfolk though, a very early Martyr/Serra + will indeed help race these removal-thin tribal decks. When the combo don't come out early though, Martyr becomes fairly useless in the mid and late game especially since there are next to no cantrips in this deck without running another 4 Squadron Hawks.
Serra by itself (though maybe not a 4 of), isn't useless without the Martyr. Lifelink helps trigger life gain effects a bit, and dropping it early paints a target on itself that diverts attention away from the Soul sisters. They don't know we're not running Martyrs :). I've have experienced multiple occasions where Serra draws out the removal spells, sparing Soul sisters to rigger the Pridmate or Archangle a turn or two later.
So, for me, it's either the original budget SS with 4 Martyr, Hawks, Serras, and Rangers (that's 24 cards already with the souls sisters counted) if i want to run the Martyr/Serra trigger, or it's a more versatile build without the Martyr.
On Lingering Souls
Never thought of it since not splashing black... I feel spectral procession works terrific enough as it is. It only fails to do what it needs to do when 2 things happen, board wipes and sweeping removal, and if the opponent swarms faster than we do and we need throw the tokens away as chump blockers. In either of the cases, i don't feel having another sorcery speed, neutered version of Spectral would be worth the space. If we can use its flash back, then maybe. But that'd require some form of dual lands, which would either slow us down or eat away at space better suited to run Ghost quarters / tectonic edge, Cavern of Souls, or other lands that mono colored decks like us can really use and really should abuse. But, in the end this is more a meta choice i think. It's more weenies or more heavy hitters. It's just that with more limited space and no cantrips, each card choice really has to have worthwhile synergy or really emphasize a strength. Whether Lingering Souls does that is up to those that have really tested it out.
On Brave the Elements
I run this main board, 4 of to boot. More a preference i suppose. I rather the combined ability of letting the heavy hitters land their punches, protecting the core creatures from targeted removal, and surprising the opponent. Nothing is more frustrating than pumping a Pridemate up to a 7/7 only to have it removed or chump blocked forever. And nothing more satisfying when hitting through a sea of elves or oozes and tarmogyfs for the finishing blow with our army big or small. When up against infinity or other colorless-heavy decks, it's 4 spaces already prepped for Stony silence and Sundering Growth (i run 3 of each on the side) without having to dig into the core creatures much. Honor of the Pure is great, especially if we can secure 2 or three in play. But, it's blatant and obvious, does one thing only, and leaves our guys only slightly less vulnerable to dying. I would rather 1 more creature on T2 through T4, with mana left over for a surprise safe or hit, than pump the few guys we have out with a +1/+1. My opinion on this is theory crafting at its utmost through. I've ran Brave the Elements in 80% of my SS iterations and Honor of the Pure only the first few tests.
Other Ideas
Been trying to see if we can work in card draw tech. Mentor of Meek? Endless Horizons so we don't ever draw plains in the mid and late game?
Suture Priest? trade opportunity to life gain off opponents's creature/token drops for speed. Other swarming decks (elves, i want elves and merfolk dead!) have arguable faster ways to pump their creatures than us, and access to trample and islandwalk or what not. Thought Suture Priest can give us a bit of a head start on taking their life count down, without destroying the whole life-gain synergy much.
@BoBoCTiberius:
Did you run Ghostly Prison against Elves? If yes how'd you it works out? I sideboard the prison for the next time i run into elves, that and merfolk are the 2 decks that i've never won against with soul sisters (those and BU discard).
Played against tron and land destruction the other day. Soul sister worked out great in both. Ghost quarters shut tron down while having Horizon Canopy and Pathing my own guys in response to their removal kept enough cards in hand and lands in play to cinch the games. Sundering growth was an MVP too, having that added proliferate ability was surprisingly helpful.
There's no real reason we can't push Soul Sisters to Tier 1!
(Edited for grammmmar)
That's your problem with Secure, right there. You don't need to try and get maximum value out of it. I'm fine casting it for x=3, or x=4, just because I know that it's going to give me the win. Instant speed means I can hold up, and even play Path, and still cast Secure on my opponents turn.
UWR Control
Legacy:
W D&T
@Encalibur: Ghostly Prison does work against Elves when I land it and not just because it slows down the Ezuri alpha. It also stops them from getting those early chump attacks in the first four turns where they play lord, Elvish Visionary, Elvish Archdruid and then swing for 8 with Visionary and a mana dork. Shockingly common and less likely with Ghostly Prison out. Though it just buys turns, that's all you need if you've established a kill condition in the first few turns.
To counter your point, I run 2 Martyr and 3 Serra and get the combo off enough to still reap the rewards. While a lot of decks can just burn out the Serra, many of them won't get you down below that thirty mark for a while, so you can top deck another or go get one with Ranger. There are also decks like Affinity or Infect who might not be running something to kill it because they're all in on their combo (or they kept a greedy hand,) and the combo just stole a game from them on turn two. Like you said, it also makes Serra draw removal as soon as it lands. While you may get a bad player who removes it before seeing the Martyr, good players are going to call your bluff if you drop Serra turn one and not kill it until the Martyr hits and activates.
Never tried Endless Horizons, but it seems worth an experiment. Don't know where I'd cut for it, though. When I ran Mentor, it slowed me down way too much because you're always trying to play for that extra card. Our deck's a little too thirsty for mana early. With the format speeding up, I don't know if we can afford to slow down.
This right here interests me.
In all my goldfishing, Honor of the Pure has seemed fairly underwhelming to me. I only ever feel like it did much when it could be followed up with a Spectral Procession, but Spectral Procession seems like it'd swing games all on its own. Outside of that, it seems all it ever really does is make two or three sisters into 2/2s which gets me what? The ability to chump 1/1s, assuming the opponent has any and is attacking with them? They'll still eat Lightning Bolt or Path to Exile and I assume whatever red sweepers people run deal more than 1 damage, so the +1/+1 comes across as mostly irrelevant to me.
On the other hand, I've felt weird about the deck overall since I cut two Brave the Elements and moved the other two to the sideboard. The ridiculous flexibility and power of the card seems irreplaceable to me, and in every situation I can think of, a well-timed Brave the Elements seems leagues beyond what an Honor of the Pure would do for me.
I'm seriously considering cutting the playset of Honor of the Pure to put the playset of Brave the Elements back in after reading EncaliburMTG »'s post. What are other people's thoughts on this? Is there something that Honor of the Pure does for us that I'm missing? If not, out it goes...
Commander Decks
WDarien, King of KjeldorW - WYomiji, Who Bars the WayW - UIxidor, Reality SculptorU
BPhage the UntouchableB - BShirei,
Shadowborn Ap-Shizo's CaretakerB - RZirilan of the ClawR(W/U)Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper(W/U) - (2/G)Phelddagrif Politics(W/U) - (U/B)Mishra, Artificer Prodigy(U/R) - Karona, God of Voltron
For some examples: in the past few weeks, I've pulled out a few games (a Game 2 against infect, last night against GriselShoal) just because a 1/1 and a 2/X (In my case, Ethersworn Canonist out of the side, but Ajani's Pridemate and Thalia work in this example) become five damage with an Honor of the Pure. That extra two damage a turn is super relevant when a deck is ripping through its library to find its kill condition or something to kill your Suppression Field/Ghostly Prison so they can finish you off. I also dropped two last night to fish out a Maelstrom Pulse so I could cast a Spectral against Junk, who can be pretty weak to Spectral.
Finally, it craps on people's sideboard cards that don't target (Zealous Persecution, Night of Souls' Betrayal aren't backbreaking any more, Electrolyze, Grim Lavamancer and Pyroclasm don't work as well against us with an Honor or two out).
Granted, some of these situations would be fine with Brave but not all of them. If you're really down on the card, I think moving to a split between Honor of the Pure and Brave The Elements is worth testing, but I don't know if I'd feel good cutting the card completely. Maybe start with a 2/2 split and juke the numbers to your liking from there?
Also include some number of mainboard Ghost Quarter, because otherwise you won't be winning against the land decks.
UWR Control
Legacy:
W D&T
My sideboard
3 Stony Silence
3 Sundering Growth
3 Leonin Arbiter
3 Ghostly Prison
3 Rest In Peace
Edited for grammar
Your sideboard is pretty specific, but that's probably not a bad thing. It's well targetted towards problem decks, though I think you could ease down on the RIPs and Sundering Growths for cards which will improve your game against Jund.
UWR Control
Legacy:
W D&T
Still on Jund, I would think it's more reason to choose Brave over Honor of the Pure. Abrupt Decay, Maelstrom Pulse, terminate, Kolaghan's Command, and Lightning Bolts are stopped by Brave and not Honor. I realize it's one for one in these cases, but i feel having the ability to shield against none-damage dealing removal is a big plus. There's obviously non-targeting and sweeping damage dealers, but short of having multiple Honors out, it'd wouldn't be more useful than holding back a CMC 1 Brave.
The only unanswerable tech in the Jund matchup is discard. Short for sideboarding in Leylines, i have no clue how to deal with it. And, i don't feel i have room for Leylines. Sundering Growth I keep for versatility. That and i've ran into Chalice of the Void more than i ever want to deal with again. For me, with soul sisters, where there are little to no control and hate in the maindeck, running anything less than 3 ofs in the sideboard is not an answer to anything other than giving us a less than 50/50 chance at dragging the game out longer.
As for Leonin Arbiter. I wanted to abuse the mono white feature of this deck as much as possible. Hinder other's ability to use fetchlands, slow tutors for combos, and make ghost quarters (another 3-4of afforded by being mono-colored) and paths that much more effective.
For Ghostly Prison vs. suppression field... I am even less experienced to intelligently defend one over the other. I chose Ghostly Prison simply because it hurts elves and merfolk more i feel. Haven't run into much in terms of activated abilities in creatures (Stony silence takes care of the artifacts) where the end game isn't to attack with pumped guys, attack with more guys, tutor, or delve. So, the Prison would deal with the former two and i have answers for latter pair and amore.
Anyways ^^ that's my novice two cents. Got face-to-face experience of how deep the games goes tonight. I played in my first local event, a two headed giant sealed origins preview event. 1-2, with one of the losses to a regional top 8 player. Wish the draw was better, but overall a good crowd and very good experience
Edited for grammar
UWR Control
Legacy:
W D&T
UWR Control
Legacy:
W D&T
UWR Control
Legacy:
W D&T
I have been playing with the crusaders... mostly because my meta was recently saturated with company decks, and it was a good card against Tasigur, Angler, Goyf, etc. But I played my deck the other day in a tourney and ran up against decks playing this:
A grixis deck with Ashiok... and with one sister in play, they splinter-twinned Pestermite......
A blue/white control deck with... GEIST OF SAINT TRAFT, which seems to be the one card that always, always, always beats me no matter what I play with.
I had a very close matchup against Gifts tron... I was always ONE TURN AWAY from swinging and using the Heights, but... board sweepers....
There's so much dang spot removal. I play a creature and it gets removed. A part of me wants to try playing with that white legend dude who gives creatures protection from white, but isn't that what Brave the Elements is for? IDK.
I love sisters. All the spot removal is killing me, though.
I've tried a variety of things. Ghostly Prison against Geist, Mirran Crusader... other stuff... Secure the Wastes is usually a dead card because it will either get ripped from my hand or played too late.
Against Tron, I mainboard 4 Ghost Quarter. From the sideboard, I bring in 2 Stony Silence and 3 Suppression Field. It's a really bad matchup but, if you can keep them off Karn for a few turns AND they don't cast Ugin, you can win. If they resolve an Ugin, just scoop. It's literally unbeatable for us.
Against Bloom, really all you can do is path to exile the primeval titan and pray they don't draw their hive mind.
For reference, this is the list that I've been running.
3 Archangel of Thune
2 Auriok Champion
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Path to Exile
16 Plains
3 Ranger of Eos
2 Return to the Ranks
4 Serra Ascendant
4 Soul Warden
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Spectral Procession
4 Windbrisk Heights
3 Celestial Flare
2 Fracturing Gust
3 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
2 Sundering Growth
3 Suppression Field
Thanks for the response! I already run 4 Ghost Quarter in the main as well.
Against Tron, I've brought in the 3 Stony Silence and the 2 Suppression Field I run in the side to try and slow my opponent down. While Stony Silence slowed down his eggs, he managed to assemble Tron anyways and cast All Is Dust :'( Regarding Suppression Field, I'm not sure how I feel about it as it hurts Ghost Quarter.
Against Amulet Bloom, I'm pretty unlucky as I die to Hive Mind 8/10 times. On the bright side, I usually see a Path to Exile or two for their Primeval Titan.
But other than those two decks, I usually do fairly well against most other matchups with my list:
4 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Windbrisk Heights
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Marsh Flats
2 Godless Shrine
5 Plains
Creatures: 22
3 Soul Warden
3 Soul's Attendant
3 Serra Ascendant
4 Auriok Champion
3 Ajani's Pridemate
4 Ranger of Eos
2 Archangel of Thune
4 Path to Exile
3 Honor of the Pure
4 Lingering Souls
4 Spectral Procession
3 Spellskite
2 Suppression Field
3 Stony Silence
2 Celestial Purge
2 Sundering Growth
1 Wrath of God
1 Batterskull
1 Karn Liberated
With my list, I'm usually 2-0 or 2-1 against Jund. Auriok Champion and Spirit tokens I generate off of Spectral Procession and Lingering Souls usually overwhelm them. Postboard, I side out Honor of the Pure, 1 Pridemate, and 1 Ascendant for Spellskite and Celestial Purge.