I have never lost to Splinter Twin, and I played against several of them at GP Oakland's side events. The thing about Blood Moon is that is vastly improves our worst match ups, not that it is good against every deck.
This was just addressing some guy who says you should always MB bloodmoon. Period.
I was simply pointing to some match-ups that are less than perfect with bloodmoon MB'ed.
Out of curiosity, have soulsister decks been tested that are built around phyrexian mana use? It seems to me that with all the incidental life gain in the deck, rather than using that to activate a card like serra ascendant, instead using it to be able to afford to use cards like surgical extraction and dismember with impunity, and tezzeret's gambit as a cheap way of refilling the hand in a white deck. Obviously this would require some rethinking of some of the generally considered core elements of the deck, but since the supposed weakness of SS is its inability to interact, this might help a little
I should preface this by saying I'm basically a Constructed noob, I play a lot of drafts and EDH, but very little Constructed, and no Modern yet. I have no idea what my meta is like (hence the sideboard). But here's my thinking.
I like Soul Sisters as both a budget option and as a deck that's relatively easy to play for a guy that doesn't play as much as I'd like. I started picking up money pieces due to poor impulse control and schoolwork avoidance.
Moving into red gives me access to more removal, Bolt and Helix, which can also go to the dome late in the game. The latter also triggers Pridemates and Ascendants. Red gives me access to what I consider to be a strong finisher, Assemble the Legions. Granted, it's 5 CMC, but ideally we're living that long thanks to lifegain, and it's a finisher that also combos nicely with our sisters.
The lands reflect the RW base, but I should probably put in 1-2 more, even with the low CMCs.
The creature base is a fairly standard Soul Sisters base. A note on the Suture Priest. In addition to just being one of my favorite cards ever (for some reason), it's also a sister that happens to bone Kiki/Twin decks, if it lives. Granted, it's not likely to live since it's the most fragile thing ever. It should probably be Auriok Champions, especially in a deck that casts red, but I haven't acquired them yet.
As I mentioned, I like having the extra removal in an uncertain world.
The sideboard is, as I mentioned, a bit of utility kit since I have no idea what my meta is like. Aven Mindcensor is just a card I like (I'm also building a Modern D&T deck), and a flash flier that can hose Pod decks and fetches isn't the worst thing in the world. Blood Moon hurts the wide landbase of most decks especially Tron, but hurts mine less. Boros Charm is additional burn to the face, or it can save from Wraths. Of all the cards in my sideboard this is probably the worst and should be replaced with just about anything, including Ethersworn Canonist. Chalice is an additional win condition that should probably also be cut, my impression is that artifact hate is dime a dozen in Modern. Immortal Servitude is additional value against sweepers, bringing back half my field and having all the lifegain triggers at once is kind of nuts. I could be talked into running a second even. I should probably run more Pithing Needles and RiP. And Stony Silence seems like a good idea as well, probably better than Kataki.
As I said, I've had no experience in testing this other than goldfishing with myself. As soon as I can figure out Cockatrice I suppose I'll put it together. But I wanted to know what people thought of this build, and RW Soul Sisters in general.
Can a Runed Halo be considered for a good card for our deck? I had major problems last tournament with Etched Champion the last tournament I played in (GPT).
To me Halo seems good against Boggles or Scapeshift, both of which tend to go all in on one card.
With regards to the splashes, I feel if you have fun splashing another color and can put up decent tournament results then go for it.
I personally do not intend to splash any color and I feel that SavageBel is correct in that Soul Sister's greatest strength lies in its consistency and that splashing dilutes the consistency of the deck.
I know there is one person at my local game store who splashes green and is much more focused on just gaining massive amounts of life. I have never played against the person and I haven't had the opportunity to watch their matches too much, but I have consistently finished with a better record than them.
Whether this is a testament to my skill as a player or if my list is simply better is up for debate.
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At first glance Kataki, war's wage looks stellar against affinity. However after thinking about it, I feel it might be lacking. If they have etched champion and cranial plating (my most difficult problem) they can simply pay two for those, witch isnt so bad and still wreck me. Also if I cast this and they have ravager they can just sac everything to one dude and thn beat face. Also he doesnt stop theyre manlands since theyre not artifacts at upkeep.
This is speculation as I haven't actually played with him.
A turn 2 Kataki is actually pretty devastating against Affinity, they try and play a huge mass amount of artifacts fast but because of the upkeep cost they cannot keep many of them around, it seriously helps to keep them off of metalcraft and getting enough artifacts out to make Cranial Plating good.
If all they have out are Champion and Plating then its a 4/2 with nothing else, which isn't all that threatening.
In addition to Kataki I also run Stony Silence which shuts them down hard. Breaks the mana base, prevents equipping, and stunts Ravager.
If I have both out on the field its almost impossible for Affinity to win.
Against Affinity you'd want to mull until you had at least 1 of those two cards playable turn 2.
As with all hate cards, you want to play them as early as possible. The only reason I was able to beat R/G Tron during my last tournament is that Game 2 I had turn 2 Stony Silence and Game 3 I had turns 2 and 3 Suppression Field with a turn 5 Stony Silence.
If you don't play them early (turns 2-3) there isn't that much point in playing them at all.
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I am trying to remember a card that prevents people from being able to use fetch lands that is used in some soul sister decks. Do any of you guys/gals know what it is???
I'd probably drop 1 of each sister to have 3 Martys and find space for 1 more lands.
20 seems just a bit low
I find that 21-22 lands is optimal for this deck unless you start running more 4 drops then 23-24 would be best.
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I'd say
-1 Soul Warden
-1 Soul Attendant
+2 Martyr
With how much life Martyr gains you, having only a singleton is pretty bad and it makes your Serra Ascendants much less likely to be active.
-2 Chalice moved to side for control matchups
+2 lands
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That's where I'm at now. My build more relies on Ajani's Pridemate than Serra Ascendant, I guess. Chalice of Life allows you more and more chances to make gigantic Pridemates, and Elspeth gives him evasion.
I'm not really sure what I'd take out. I have at least 4 sideboard cards for every matchup except Tokens and Red based aggro decks.
The Aggro decks aren't too hard to deal with so long as I can land Champion with some Honors but tokens can be pretty dangerous. I haven't played against any yet but I know there are at least 2-3 in my meta.
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Not a fan of Wrath Effects, I ran two Day of Judgements because I didn't feel there were a lot of match-ups I'd want them. The problem is, imo, that in the games where you'd need a Wrath to recover you already lost anyway.
+1
Unless you have honors, proc, or lingering souls or the sort, blowing up your board isn't exactly winning you the game.
I thought about adding a match up section, but really it just comes down to decks with more removal and decks with less.
I'd like it. I would also enjoy a splash section, and the options extra colors brings. We talk about it regularly in the thread. Are you allowed? Or will it piss of the mods? I'd love to see what all Green, and red bring to the table.
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This was just addressing some guy who says you should always MB bloodmoon. Period.
I was simply pointing to some match-ups that are less than perfect with bloodmoon MB'ed.
That would be me. What I was saying was that Blood Moon deserves a main deck slot in RW Soul Sister lists, not every deck. I should have clarified.
That extra W in the mana cost makes it so that it doesn't fit well on the curve. I would suggest against playing it
2 Mountains
5 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Windbrisk Heights
Creatures 26
4 Ajani's Pridemate
4 Martyr of Sands
2 Ranger of Eos
4 Serra Ascendant
4 Soul Warden
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Suture Priest
2 Assemble the Legion
Instants 12
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Helix
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Blood Moon
2 Boros Charm
2 Chalice of Life
1 Immortal Servitude
2 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Pithing Needle
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
I should preface this by saying I'm basically a Constructed noob, I play a lot of drafts and EDH, but very little Constructed, and no Modern yet. I have no idea what my meta is like (hence the sideboard). But here's my thinking.
I like Soul Sisters as both a budget option and as a deck that's relatively easy to play for a guy that doesn't play as much as I'd like. I started picking up money pieces due to poor impulse control and schoolwork avoidance.
Moving into red gives me access to more removal, Bolt and Helix, which can also go to the dome late in the game. The latter also triggers Pridemates and Ascendants. Red gives me access to what I consider to be a strong finisher, Assemble the Legions. Granted, it's 5 CMC, but ideally we're living that long thanks to lifegain, and it's a finisher that also combos nicely with our sisters.
The lands reflect the RW base, but I should probably put in 1-2 more, even with the low CMCs.
The creature base is a fairly standard Soul Sisters base. A note on the Suture Priest. In addition to just being one of my favorite cards ever (for some reason), it's also a sister that happens to bone Kiki/Twin decks, if it lives. Granted, it's not likely to live since it's the most fragile thing ever. It should probably be Auriok Champions, especially in a deck that casts red, but I haven't acquired them yet.
As I mentioned, I like having the extra removal in an uncertain world.
The sideboard is, as I mentioned, a bit of utility kit since I have no idea what my meta is like. Aven Mindcensor is just a card I like (I'm also building a Modern D&T deck), and a flash flier that can hose Pod decks and fetches isn't the worst thing in the world. Blood Moon hurts the wide landbase of most decks especially Tron, but hurts mine less. Boros Charm is additional burn to the face, or it can save from Wraths. Of all the cards in my sideboard this is probably the worst and should be replaced with just about anything, including Ethersworn Canonist. Chalice is an additional win condition that should probably also be cut, my impression is that artifact hate is dime a dozen in Modern. Immortal Servitude is additional value against sweepers, bringing back half my field and having all the lifegain triggers at once is kind of nuts. I could be talked into running a second even. I should probably run more Pithing Needles and RiP. And Stony Silence seems like a good idea as well, probably better than Kataki.
As I said, I've had no experience in testing this other than goldfishing with myself. As soon as I can figure out Cockatrice I suppose I'll put it together. But I wanted to know what people thought of this build, and RW Soul Sisters in general.
To me Halo seems good against Boggles or Scapeshift, both of which tend to go all in on one card.
With regards to the splashes, I feel if you have fun splashing another color and can put up decent tournament results then go for it.
I personally do not intend to splash any color and I feel that SavageBel is correct in that Soul Sister's greatest strength lies in its consistency and that splashing dilutes the consistency of the deck.
I know there is one person at my local game store who splashes green and is much more focused on just gaining massive amounts of life. I have never played against the person and I haven't had the opportunity to watch their matches too much, but I have consistently finished with a better record than them.
Whether this is a testament to my skill as a player or if my list is simply better is up for debate.
-Anonymous
This is speculation as I haven't actually played with him.
Am I right? Or far off?
If all they have out are Champion and Plating then its a 4/2 with nothing else, which isn't all that threatening.
In addition to Kataki I also run Stony Silence which shuts them down hard. Breaks the mana base, prevents equipping, and stunts Ravager.
If I have both out on the field its almost impossible for Affinity to win.
Against Affinity you'd want to mull until you had at least 1 of those two cards playable turn 2.
As with all hate cards, you want to play them as early as possible. The only reason I was able to beat R/G Tron during my last tournament is that Game 2 I had turn 2 Stony Silence and Game 3 I had turns 2 and 3 Suppression Field with a turn 5 Stony Silence.
If you don't play them early (turns 2-3) there isn't that much point in playing them at all.
-Anonymous
1x Martyr of Sands
3x Ranger of Eos
4x Serra Ascendant
4x Soul Warden
4x Soul's Attendant
4x Squadron Hawk
4x Path to Exile
4x Flagstones of Trokair
3x Ghost Quarter
13x Plains
1x Path of Bravery
4x Spectral Procession
2x Chalice of Life Flip
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3x Rest in Peace
1x Runed Halo
3x Stony Silence
2x Sundering Growth
2x Suppression Field
2x Suture Priest
That's where I'm at with the deck now. I almost never play this deck anymore, so I'm not really up to date with it.
20 seems just a bit low
I find that 21-22 lands is optimal for this deck unless you start running more 4 drops then 23-24 would be best.
-Anonymous
-1 Soul Warden
-1 Soul Attendant
+2 Martyr
With how much life Martyr gains you, having only a singleton is pretty bad and it makes your Serra Ascendants much less likely to be active.
-2 Chalice moved to side for control matchups
+2 lands
-Anonymous
1x Martyr of Sands
2x Ranger of Eos
4x Serra Ascendant
4x Soul Warden
4x Soul's Attendant
4x Squadron Hawk
4x Path to Exile
4x Spectral Procession
1x Emeria, The Sky Ruin
4x Flagstones of Trokair
3x Ghost Quarter
13x Plains
1x Path of Bravery
2x Chalice of Life
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3x Rest in Peace
1x Runed Halo
3x Stony Silence
2x Sundering Growth
2x Suppression Field
2x Suture Priest
That's where I'm at now. My build more relies on Ajani's Pridemate than Serra Ascendant, I guess. Chalice of Life allows you more and more chances to make gigantic Pridemates, and Elspeth gives him evasion.
I really like Chalice of Life in the mainboard.
You think I would have remembered that one, lol. Man I am getting old
2x Chalice of Life
2x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Pithing Needle
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
2x Suppression Field
I'm not really sure what I'd take out. I have at least 4 sideboard cards for every matchup except Tokens and Red based aggro decks.
The Aggro decks aren't too hard to deal with so long as I can land Champion with some Honors but tokens can be pretty dangerous. I haven't played against any yet but I know there are at least 2-3 in my meta.
-Anonymous
+1
Unless you have honors, proc, or lingering souls or the sort, blowing up your board isn't exactly winning you the game.
I'd like it. I would also enjoy a splash section, and the options extra colors brings. We talk about it regularly in the thread. Are you allowed? Or will it piss of the mods? I'd love to see what all Green, and red bring to the table.