It hard giving advice when I don't actually know what happened in the matches. One important thing to remember about Soul Sisters is its not about life gain, its about synergy. The reason we gain life is to protect our creatures as we don't have to block and trade very often. I win far more games with Spirit tokens and Squadron Hawks than I do with Ajani's Pridemates and Serra Ascendants.
I never side out Ranger. Ranger refills our hand and is one of the best topdecks Soul Sisters has (the other being Procession). In most matchups I side out 1 of each Sister or Martyrs.
What do you mean 2 Honor of the Pures in one game is frustrating? Its amazing. 2 Honors puts our creatures out of Pyroclasm, Infest, and Whipflare range. Honor is one of the best cards in the deck and should NEVER be sided out. It speeds up our clock and makes everything a threat. I have lost games I could have won if I had drawn an Honor and won games I would have lost if not for Honor.
Auriok Champion is great in most matchups but I actually don't run any mainboard and only 2 in the side. Why? Because we are already gaining so much life and should have a bunch of threats between all of the creature we can drop in. She blanks a lot of creatures and is a great blocker, but I really only bring her in against Red based aggro decks.
Don't remove the Windbrisks. 2 is a good amount and it can be triggered most games. It lets us filter through our draws, protects against discard, and lets us cast things at instant speed mid combat. If you want more GQs cut Plains. I have 4 GQs, 2 Windbrisks, and 15 Plains in my list, and its rare that I ever get color screwed.
Your sideboard seems a bit of a mess. You should really have 2 Rest in Peaces and should need 3 Sundering Growths. The Witchbane Orb should really be a Leyline of Sanctitiy. I'm also not a big fan of Brave the Elements. I know quite a few people on the forum feel otherwise and love them but I haven't found them to be particularly useful. They can save you from a wipe and let you alpha strike for game, but they mostly seem like a win-more type of card. You should really try and find some room for Suppression Field as its great against: Tron, Pod, Twin, and any other deck that uses activated abilities.
I agree the spirit tokens and especially Squadron Hawk are powerful. I also find myself winning mostly with those.
I agree ranger is a good top deck, but it's frustrating to have him early game sometimes, especially when I'm racing a fast deck. I definitely don't think less than 2 in the main is correct, but I think it's worth at least considering 2. I also find myself siding out 1 of each sister a lot, which seems fine, but I've never sided out Martyr before. Which match-ups do you do that against?
What I mean by 2 Honor is frustrating is that a second Honor isn't a second creature when I need it. Hands like: 2 Honor, 3 Plains, 2 Soul Warden do nothing. Growing Wardens/Attendants is irrelevant almost all the time. Same with Martyrs, Rangers, and Pridemates, which is most creatures in our decks. That being said, growing Hawks, Spirit tokens, and Serra Ascendant is amazing and I see why the card is in the deck. I wonder though, especially with the meta theoretically becoming more Zoo-heavy and their creatures being bigger than our non-flying ones even with Honor, whether the card is worth it for just our fliers. I did feel bad every time I sided it out, so not sure how to handle this. And the putting things out of sweeper range is a good point, I guess we should see how many decks are actually running pyroclasm main now.
I might test Auriok Champion main just to see, but I agree with your logic on why it's in the side.
I definitely don't want to cut Windbrisks. Ghost Quarters I'm more curious about. Has running 4 ever for example ever made you not able to cast Spectral on T3 when you wanted to?
I agree my sideboard is a mess and like I said it's just cards I had on hand. I agree with going up to 2 Rest in Peace, the Leyline switch, and adding Suppression Field. Just need to get these at some point. Thanks for all the feedback!
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Standard R Red Devotion
Modern W Soul Sisters
EDH GUW Jenara, Asura of War GU Prime Speaker Zegana RGB Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
Some games I have been unable to cast Spectral on turn 3 or Auriok Champion on turn 2, but usually this isn't too much of a problem. I don't always use WWW for Procession anyways, some games I leave up a Plains to bluff Path. The advantages to being able to shut down turn 3 or 4 Tron and kill Inkmoths makes up for it. I run 2 Aven Mindcensors main board so sometimes my GQ is a Strip Mine.
I side out 1 of each sister and martyr against Tron decks. They don't really care how much life you are at, an Emrakul swinging at my face means I've lost.
My goal is to just rush them down and slow them down with Suppression Fields and Stony Silence.
3 is generally agreed to be the proper number of Rangers. Its a card you want to see each game, possibly in multiples, but not one you'd like in your opening hand.
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Hey guys, tomorrow I'm going to be playing in a modern tournament at LGS. I have a SS deck built, but don't get to play that often. With the banning and unbanning of cards and THS and BNG I was wondering if someone can post a decent updated deck list for me. I'll list mine so that you guys can give me suggestions as well. Thanks.
Not much difference from yours I've just dropped 1 of each Sister and 1 Martyr for an additional land and Aven Mindcensors. That and I run less plains and Heights for Ghost Quarters in the main.
Currently, I'm still trying to decide whether I want the Cages or if I'd rather have Pithing Needle, Sundering Growth, or more Leylines in their place. I currently don't have much of a sideboard plan for Faeries or Storm. I did add an additional Anthem in Spear of Heliod. If Faeries becomes big, I will probably add in another Leyline or 2 to protect against discard, Mistbind Clique, and Vendilion Clique.
I run 4 GQ and 2 Mindcensors main deck as it helps our matchup against Tron, Scapeshift, and Pod. Also Mindcensor in response to Path or GQ is really powerful as is simply flashing in an unexpected blocker.
Your should probably add one more land to your deck and if you are running GQs you should probably have most of them mainboard.
Personally I find that his list is suboptimal. 4 Champions seems too much to have mainboard as is 4 Hideaways. He really should have some Ghost Quarters in his list and the Dryad Militants in the sideboard seem pretty useless to me.
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Personally I find that his list is suboptimal. 4 Champions seems too much to have mainboard as is 4 Hideaways. He really should have some Ghost Quarters in his list and the Dryad Militants in the sideboard seem pretty useless to me.
And what about playing only 1 Leyline of Sanctity in the Sb? Wouldn't it be better to play 2-3?
And what about playing only 1 Leyline of Sanctity in the Sb? Wouldn't it be better to play 2-3?
I'm going to guess the rationale was that they never wanted to draw more than 1 because of how often it's dead in multiples. And it can be easily hardcast, so it's not like the issue you often fall into with decks playing it that have difficulty casting it that really really need to draw it in the opening hand for it to do anything.
Honestly with Leyline the only decks I want it against are Storm and 8Rack. The thing about Storm is, I'm not worried about Grapeshot, I'm worried about Empty the Warrens. I can gain a lot of life to stop Grapeshot, but facing an army of Goblin tokens without a board wipe, thats hard.
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I made changes to my deck this week to test things that gibbousm and Kevin Crimin were running, specifically Ghost Quarter in the main and Auriok Champion in the main respectively. My sideboard is closer to what I would ideally have it.
Game 2: : I mulled to 5, Suppression Field was great but he Craterhoofed me before I could win with Spectral Procession tokens.
Post-game thoughts: I think this is probably an unfavorable match-up. My sideboarding seemed right.
Round 2: 0-2 vs BW Tokens
Game 1: Mulled to 4. Lost
In: 2 Rest in Peace, 2 Dryad Militant, 1 Brave the Elements
Out: 2 Path to Exile, 3 Auriok Champion
Game 2: Blown out by Zealous Persecution.
Post-game thoughts: Don't know if this match-up is favorable or not as neither game was real. How I would have sideboarded after knowing the match-up: 3 Militant, 1 Brave in, 4 Path out.
Round 3: 2-1 vs UR Delver
Game 1: Won: Beatdown with early 6/6 Serra Ascendant off of a Marytr.
In: 2 Dryad Militant, 2 Rest in Peace, 1 Brave the Elements
Out: 4 Squadron Hawk, 1 Soul Warden
Game 2: : Had all my creatures countered or burned. Misplayed twice by trying to path a flipped delver when he had blue mana open.
Game 3: Went long, won eventually with triple Honor of the Pure with Spectral Procession tokens. Brave probably won the game at the end when he tried to bolt my 3/3 lifelink Serra Ascendant when I needed the life for him not to burn me out.
Post-game thoughts: Match-up seems about even, maybe slightly favorable. The Brave and Dryad were fine, but Rest in Peace was excessive and I should have probably left Hawks in.
Overall thoughts:
- This is a small sub-section of decks, but I didn't like Ghost Quarter main. It would have been good had I drawn it again mono-G devotion, but not that good. I also had 20 instead of 21 land and had several 1 and 0 land hands I had to mulligan. I think next time I'll run 19 Plains, 2 Windbrisk Heights, but it's worth testing more.
- Auriok Champion main were fine for me tonight. I still don't know if it's right to main them, but it's at least reasonable. They might be very good in the new meta with a lot of Zoo.
- Dryad Militant in the board seemed actually decent, coming in against Snapcaster decks as hate plus another aggressive creature
- I went 1-2 but I think the deck is solid and maybe even actively good in the new meta. We'll see I guess. I think I'll keep testing Aurioks in the main for now, and no Ghost Quarters main, going up to 21 land total.
Round 1 vs U/R Delver
Game 1: He was a bit stuck on land especially after I used Mindcensor in response to his fetch. They spent the first few turns just cantripping so I had assumed they were on either Twin or Storm. The only creature I saw that game was a Young Pyromancer. They scooped after I flipped an Honor off of Heights in response to their blocks completely screwing up their combat math.
Game 2: Turn 1 Delver into turn 2 flip. They were able to get out an early Young Pyromancer and I just wound up overwhelmed by Insectile Aberrations and Elementals.
Game 3: Was a bit slow on getting lands and I had to go through 3 Remands just to land a Pridemate. Sisters can do fine off of just 2 lands so long as you have things to play. I already had out 2 Sisters so was able to get in some damge. They managed to top deck into Ignite Disorder which bought them a few more turns but Ascendants + Hawks + Honor win games.
1-0
Round 2 vs Mono Red Blood Moon
Game 1: I did get hit with a fairly early Volcanic Fallout, but, well 2 Honors + Spear of Heliod wins games fast. Against a deck with lots of nonbasics they have a great match up and can get turn 1 Blood Moon out with Spirit Guide + Desperate Ritual.
Game 2: They managed to get a turn 2 Koth out using the play described above and ulted him pretty quickly. It took me a few turns before I was able to get a decent amount of life from Martyr after which I was able to comfortably beat down with twin 6/6 Fliers. I had plenty of threats and was able to tie down their mana quite nicely. They made a serious punt when they -2'ed Koth of the Hammer forgetting that the Emblem was "Mountains you control have ‘{T}: This land deals 1 damage to target creature or player.'" and not "R: deal 1 damage to target creature or player" They also misplayed a Faithless looting, discarding their third Koth instead of the Mountain they originally planned to.
2-0
Round 3 vs R/G Tron
Game 1: Was able to present a decent threat with active Ascendants and an Honor. That combined with a Ghost Quarter + Mindcensor on their Eye of Ugin turn 4 and on Tower turn 5 greatly contributed to my victory. I did not just dump my hand and was rewarded as I always had a creature to threaten lethal after the Oblivion Stones. All. Three. Of. Them. I just made sure I had enough to kill them in 1-2 turns. This seems to be a major issue for newer Soul Sisters players, they often overextend and get blown out by a Wrath effect or similar. You need to know when to go all in and when to hold back your extra threats.
Game 2: I mulled to 4 and wound up land flooded. A turn 2 Ajani with turn 3 Honor gave me a decent clock especially because they gave me a growth trigger from Grove of the Burnwillows. Unfortunately they did manage to topdeck into Combust and kill my cat the turn it would have been lethal. If I had another Honor or had more counters on it would have lived. They followed that up with 2 Wurmcoils and I just drew more plains.
Game 3: Landed an early Stony Silence and some beats. Did get delayed with a Firespout but managed to kill them anyways. Don't remember much from this match and I don't have any special notes.
3-0
Round 4 vs Storm
Game 1: Presented some nice beats but was not fast enough. The turn before I could deal lethal they stormed out for 20. With 2 Grapeshots.
Game 2: Fast clock of Ascendants and Ajani's. They mistimed their lightning bolt activating it after I already resolved Martyr which cost them the game. Had they bolted my Pridemate before Martyr resolved I would have lost my precious kitty.
Game 3: Turn 0 Leyline. They were unable to kill me at all because their only answer was a single Echoing Truth at the bottom of their deck. They were however able to keep killing all of my creatures with Grapeshot and Bolts. I managed to get him to use both Past in Flames just so he'd have enough storm to kill my guys. We went to time with myself at 18 and him at 3 with neither of us having any threats, well not after I Pathed all 3 Electromancers. If the game had gone longer either of us could have won, it would have depended on how fast I could get a creature vs how fast he can get Truth.
Yes, I kept Path in against Storm. Pathing an Electromancer slows them down a fair amount plus it gets rid of chump blocker. I took out my 2 Mindcensors and a Ranger. Mindcensor isn't good against Storm and Ranger I felt was slow.
3-0-1
Round 5 vs Scapeshift
Game 1: I bring them to 6 with some nice beats in the form of Pridemate and Ascendant + Honor. He then comboes off the turn I present lethal for 81 damage. BOOM.
Game 2: I wind up having to mull to 4 keeping Martyr, Honor, and 2x Plains. This is not a particularly fast clock even though I do draw a Pridemate. I die with Aven Mindcensor and Procession in hand and no third land to play them.
3-1-1
Round 5 vs Scapeshift
We decide to intentionally draw because we felt we had high enough standings to make top 8 (I was 6th going into the final round of Swiss), turns out we were wrong. Did not do the math correctly.
3-1-2
I manage to get 12th place out of roughly 40+ people. Had I played against the second Scapeshift deck I do not feel I could have reliably won. Combo in general is a bad matchup for Soul Sisters as its best against other creature decks. In Game 2 of Round 5 against Scapeshift I might have been able to win if I had a better hand as Soul Sisters can present a very fast clock and they need minimum 8 lands to kill us not the usual 7 against most deck because we have no fetches. 8 lands = 36 damage 9 Lands = 54 10 Lands = 72 etc. You can do some extra math if you'd like.
When Leyline happened it meant I could not lose until it was dealt with so I'm actually considering getting a second or third copy. However the chances of Leyline in your opening hand are pretty slim and its not good in multiples especially because many decks answer it with Echoing Truth. If I expect more combo at GP Richmond I probably will go up to 2 or 3 though. I need to figure out a better sideboard plan against Scapeshift. I do like my Mindcensors and my opponent agreed that it was the card that scared him the most, but I'd prefer a proactive plan. One that has to be dealt with before going off which would buy me more time to kill them.
I've played soul sisters for years. I had different versions. I started out with a legacy legal version for casual play, which was pretty good ;). Anyways, I now have my modern soul sisters deck ready (need a couple more cards). I've been testing the following list online:
I just took out 1 Ranger for a fourth path, as I noticed (as been said before) that Ranger ended up in opening hands too often. Other than that I've been doing pretty well. Most losses came from mana screw or mana flood (which I have a lot on cockatrice, something with suffle system seems off...). The deck runs well against a lot of decks, though I had a very hard time winning from Tron and Pod. I'm still figuring out how to SB correctly against these decks. What to take out; what to put in? I noticed people siding out one martyr, and one of each souls. I'm definitely going to try that.
Also going to try Ghost Quarter. I remember that I found them too be useless most of the time, which annoyed me. But the meta was pretty different then. I see a lot of decks being really greedy with their manabases, so I figured tectonic edge would be more useful to screw someone's mana options. Ghost Quarters is just a land loss against so many decks. With 2 mainboard Mindcensors Quarters make more sense I guess. Also against Tron Quarters are way more useful of course, but that is just one match up, and even with Quarters it's a pretty bad one in my experience.
I see a lot of lists mainboard Aven Mindcensor. Is it really that useful mainboard? I'd probably get rid of one martyr and a path. I feel the 8 sisters mainboard are really necessary against a lot of matchups.
Mindcensor is either really good or only ok depending on the matchup.
It helps game one against Pod, Scapeshift and Tron and can randomly stifle a fetch land.
I've used it to turn Ghost Quarters into Strip Mines and improve Paths but yes, in a lot of matchups its just a 2/1 flier with flash which isn't a bad thing.
Its a decent surprise blocker and can randomly give you an extra +1/+1 counter on Pridemate.
If used correctly it seriously hurts an opponent's mana base. I've locked a UR Delver player to 2 mana because of it.
Mindcensors are mostly a meta choice if you expect a lot of fetches and searches its good, otherwise Auriok Champion fits better.
Its probably the card I side out the most as against many decks its just a 2/1 flier with flash which doesn't mean much game 2 and 3.
I run 6 Sisters and 3 Martyrs in my Mainboard and 2 Auriok Champions in the sideboard. While I don't get an opening with Pridemate + Sister as often as I'd like I still have a pretty good win percentage.
My overall competitive record between FNMS and GP Trials is 13-5-3 so a 62% win rate and I intend to bring my list to GP Richmond in a few weeks, I just need to decide on my sideboard.
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The only thing I still hate aboutthe mindcensor is that it stifles our own Ranger of Eos. I really hate interactions like this that hurt a deck itself. Have you ever had trouble with mindcensor in this way?
The only thing I still hate aboutthe mindcensor is that it stifles our own Ranger of Eos. I really hate interactions like this that hurt a deck itself. Have you ever had trouble with mindcensor in this way?
Aven Mindcensor specifically says "If an opponent would search a library" it does nothing to harm your Rangers or your Hawks.
In fact, Mindcensor is good in the mirror because it will hit your opponent's Rangers and Hawks.
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GP Richmond coming up and I'm actually able to make it.
I'm expecting the big 3 decks to be Twin, Pod, and Zoo with UWR Control and Affinity coming in a close 4th and 5th.
GP Richmond coming up and I'm actually able to make it.
I'm expecting the big 3 decks to be Twin, Pod, and Zoo with UWR Control and Affinity coming in a close 4th and 5th.
Played the usual SS with 3 Ghost Quarters, 8 Sisters at FNM. I'm really glad I moved from 3 Honor of the Pure to 4. It might be the best card in the deck.
First of all, I can only repeat myself about Ghost Quarters + Flagstones of Trokair. These cards go hands in hands to thin your deck, mana screw the opponent, and fight Tron. Especially good with Aven Mindcensor. 3 GQ and 4 Flagstones will almost never mana screw you for T3 Procession either since you can GQ yourself for all the W you need. Only downside is Blood Moon.
I ran into Mono Red Goblins, thinking this would be a cakewalk after an easy game 1. 4 Leyline of Punishment in the sideboard proved me otherwise. This completely destroys our game. I got lucky when my opponent kept a Leyline hand without lands on game 3.
I faced Pyro Storm in the final (we splitted the prizes) and the guy went 2-0 for the whole evening including against me. I got him to 1 life on turn 4 with Honor of the Pure x2 on our first game, but you can't do much against Pyromancer's Ascension. Sided into 1x Ethersworn Canonist, 1x Rule of Law and 1x Rest in Peace but mulled to 4 without finding any of these.
Added an Oblivion Ring for getting rid of the enchantment to the SB and I'm also thinking about siding Silence since it seems like a good /cheap way to fizzle the combo.
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I never side out Ranger. Ranger refills our hand and is one of the best topdecks Soul Sisters has (the other being Procession). In most matchups I side out 1 of each Sister or Martyrs.
What do you mean 2 Honor of the Pures in one game is frustrating? Its amazing. 2 Honors puts our creatures out of Pyroclasm, Infest, and Whipflare range. Honor is one of the best cards in the deck and should NEVER be sided out. It speeds up our clock and makes everything a threat. I have lost games I could have won if I had drawn an Honor and won games I would have lost if not for Honor.
Auriok Champion is great in most matchups but I actually don't run any mainboard and only 2 in the side. Why? Because we are already gaining so much life and should have a bunch of threats between all of the creature we can drop in. She blanks a lot of creatures and is a great blocker, but I really only bring her in against Red based aggro decks.
Don't remove the Windbrisks. 2 is a good amount and it can be triggered most games. It lets us filter through our draws, protects against discard, and lets us cast things at instant speed mid combat. If you want more GQs cut Plains. I have 4 GQs, 2 Windbrisks, and 15 Plains in my list, and its rare that I ever get color screwed.
Your sideboard seems a bit of a mess. You should really have 2 Rest in Peaces and should need 3 Sundering Growths. The Witchbane Orb should really be a Leyline of Sanctitiy. I'm also not a big fan of Brave the Elements. I know quite a few people on the forum feel otherwise and love them but I haven't found them to be particularly useful. They can save you from a wipe and let you alpha strike for game, but they mostly seem like a win-more type of card. You should really try and find some room for Suppression Field as its great against: Tron, Pod, Twin, and any other deck that uses activated abilities.
-Anonymous
I agree ranger is a good top deck, but it's frustrating to have him early game sometimes, especially when I'm racing a fast deck. I definitely don't think less than 2 in the main is correct, but I think it's worth at least considering 2. I also find myself siding out 1 of each sister a lot, which seems fine, but I've never sided out Martyr before. Which match-ups do you do that against?
What I mean by 2 Honor is frustrating is that a second Honor isn't a second creature when I need it. Hands like: 2 Honor, 3 Plains, 2 Soul Warden do nothing. Growing Wardens/Attendants is irrelevant almost all the time. Same with Martyrs, Rangers, and Pridemates, which is most creatures in our decks. That being said, growing Hawks, Spirit tokens, and Serra Ascendant is amazing and I see why the card is in the deck. I wonder though, especially with the meta theoretically becoming more Zoo-heavy and their creatures being bigger than our non-flying ones even with Honor, whether the card is worth it for just our fliers. I did feel bad every time I sided it out, so not sure how to handle this. And the putting things out of sweeper range is a good point, I guess we should see how many decks are actually running pyroclasm main now.
I might test Auriok Champion main just to see, but I agree with your logic on why it's in the side.
I definitely don't want to cut Windbrisks. Ghost Quarters I'm more curious about. Has running 4 ever for example ever made you not able to cast Spectral on T3 when you wanted to?
I agree my sideboard is a mess and like I said it's just cards I had on hand. I agree with going up to 2 Rest in Peace, the Leyline switch, and adding Suppression Field. Just need to get these at some point. Thanks for all the feedback!
R Red Devotion
Modern
W Soul Sisters
EDH
GUW Jenara, Asura of War
GU Prime Speaker Zegana
RGB Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
I side out 1 of each sister and martyr against Tron decks. They don't really care how much life you are at, an Emrakul swinging at my face means I've lost.
My goal is to just rush them down and slow them down with Suppression Fields and Stony Silence.
3 is generally agreed to be the proper number of Rangers. Its a card you want to see each game, possibly in multiples, but not one you'd like in your opening hand.
-Anonymous
4 Soul Warden
4 Serra Ascendant
4 Martyr of Sands
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Ajani's Pridemate
3 Ranger of Eos
4 Path to Exile
4 Spectral Procession
1 Spear of Heliod
3 Windbrisk Heights
With iffy SB:
2 Immortal Servitude
2 Rest in Peace
2 Chalice of Life
3 Revoke Existence
2 Celestial Flare
3 Ghost Quarter
4x Ajani's Pridemate
2x Aven Mindcensor
3x Martyr of Sands
3x Ranger of Eos
4x Serra Ascendant
3x Soul Warden
3x Soul's Attendant
4x Squadron Hawk
4x Honor of the Pure
1x Spear of Heliod
4x Path to Exile
4x Spectral Procession
Lands 21
4x Ghost Quarter
15x Plains
2x Windbrisk Heights
Not much difference from yours I've just dropped 1 of each Sister and 1 Martyr for an additional land and Aven Mindcensors. That and I run less plains and Heights for Ghost Quarters in the main.
Sideboard:
2x Chalice of Life
2x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
2x Suppression Field
Currently, I'm still trying to decide whether I want the Cages or if I'd rather have Pithing Needle, Sundering Growth, or more Leylines in their place. I currently don't have much of a sideboard plan for Faeries or Storm. I did add an additional Anthem in Spear of Heliod. If Faeries becomes big, I will probably add in another Leyline or 2 to protect against discard, Mistbind Clique, and Vendilion Clique.
I run 4 GQ and 2 Mindcensors main deck as it helps our matchup against Tron, Scapeshift, and Pod. Also Mindcensor in response to Path or GQ is really powerful as is simply flashing in an unexpected blocker.
Your should probably add one more land to your deck and if you are running GQs you should probably have most of them mainboard.
-Anonymous
Rogue Deckbuilder has taken on the mantle of Soul Sisters again and made a few videos that can be found here: http://www.gatheringmagic.com/kevin-crimin-02132014-rogue-deckbuilder-soul-sisters/
Personally I find that his list is suboptimal. 4 Champions seems too much to have mainboard as is 4 Hideaways. He really should have some Ghost Quarters in his list and the Dryad Militants in the sideboard seem pretty useless to me.
-Anonymous
And what about playing only 1 Leyline of Sanctity in the Sb? Wouldn't it be better to play 2-3?
I'm going to guess the rationale was that they never wanted to draw more than 1 because of how often it's dead in multiples. And it can be easily hardcast, so it's not like the issue you often fall into with decks playing it that have difficulty casting it that really really need to draw it in the opening hand for it to do anything.
-Anonymous
I made changes to my deck this week to test things that gibbousm and Kevin Crimin were running, specifically Ghost Quarter in the main and Auriok Champion in the main respectively. My sideboard is closer to what I would ideally have it.
3 Soul's Attendant
4 Martyr of Sands
3 Auriok Champion
4 Ajani's Pridemate
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Serra Ascendant
3 Ranger of Eos
4 Spectral Procession
4 Path to Exile
4 Honor of the Pure
2 Windbrisk Heights
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Sundering Growth
2 Dryad Militant
2 Rest in Peace
2 Suppression Field
1 Witchbane Orb
4 Stony Silence
1 Brave the Elements
Round 1: 0-2 vs Mono-G Devotion.
Game 1: : I mulled to 6. He combed off before I could kill him with 2 6/6 Ascendants when at >40 life.
In: 2x Suppression Field, 1 Dyrad Militant
Out: 3x Auriok Champion
Game 2: : I mulled to 5, Suppression Field was great but he Craterhoofed me before I could win with Spectral Procession tokens.
Post-game thoughts: I think this is probably an unfavorable match-up. My sideboarding seemed right.
Round 2: 0-2 vs BW Tokens
Game 1: Mulled to 4. Lost
In: 2 Rest in Peace, 2 Dryad Militant, 1 Brave the Elements
Out: 2 Path to Exile, 3 Auriok Champion
Game 2: Blown out by Zealous Persecution.
Post-game thoughts: Don't know if this match-up is favorable or not as neither game was real. How I would have sideboarded after knowing the match-up: 3 Militant, 1 Brave in, 4 Path out.
Round 3: 2-1 vs UR Delver
Game 1: Won: Beatdown with early 6/6 Serra Ascendant off of a Marytr.
In: 2 Dryad Militant, 2 Rest in Peace, 1 Brave the Elements
Out: 4 Squadron Hawk, 1 Soul Warden
Game 2: : Had all my creatures countered or burned. Misplayed twice by trying to path a flipped delver when he had blue mana open.
Game 3: Went long, won eventually with triple Honor of the Pure with Spectral Procession tokens. Brave probably won the game at the end when he tried to bolt my 3/3 lifelink Serra Ascendant when I needed the life for him not to burn me out.
Post-game thoughts: Match-up seems about even, maybe slightly favorable. The Brave and Dryad were fine, but Rest in Peace was excessive and I should have probably left Hawks in.
Overall thoughts:
- This is a small sub-section of decks, but I didn't like Ghost Quarter main. It would have been good had I drawn it again mono-G devotion, but not that good. I also had 20 instead of 21 land and had several 1 and 0 land hands I had to mulligan. I think next time I'll run 19 Plains, 2 Windbrisk Heights, but it's worth testing more.
- Auriok Champion main were fine for me tonight. I still don't know if it's right to main them, but it's at least reasonable. They might be very good in the new meta with a lot of Zoo.
- Dryad Militant in the board seemed actually decent, coming in against Snapcaster decks as hate plus another aggressive creature
- I went 1-2 but I think the deck is solid and maybe even actively good in the new meta. We'll see I guess. I think I'll keep testing Aurioks in the main for now, and no Ghost Quarters main, going up to 21 land total.
R Red Devotion
Modern
W Soul Sisters
EDH
GUW Jenara, Asura of War
GU Prime Speaker Zegana
RGB Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
List
4x Ajani's Pridemate
2x Aven Mindcensor
3x Martyr of Sands
3x Ranger of Eos
3x Serra Ascendant
4x Squadron Hawk
3x Soul Warden
3x Soul's Attendant
4x Path to Exile
4x Spectral Procession
Artifacts and Enchantments
4x Honor of the Pure
1x Spear of Heliod
Lands
4x Ghost Quarter
2x Windbrisk Heights
15x Plains
2x Auriok Champion
1x Celestial Flare
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Chalice of Life
2x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
2x Suppression Field
Round 1 vs U/R Delver
Game 1: He was a bit stuck on land especially after I used Mindcensor in response to his fetch. They spent the first few turns just cantripping so I had assumed they were on either Twin or Storm. The only creature I saw that game was a Young Pyromancer. They scooped after I flipped an Honor off of Heights in response to their blocks completely screwing up their combat math.
Game 2: Turn 1 Delver into turn 2 flip. They were able to get out an early Young Pyromancer and I just wound up overwhelmed by Insectile Aberrations and Elementals.
Game 3: Was a bit slow on getting lands and I had to go through 3 Remands just to land a Pridemate. Sisters can do fine off of just 2 lands so long as you have things to play. I already had out 2 Sisters so was able to get in some damge. They managed to top deck into Ignite Disorder which bought them a few more turns but Ascendants + Hawks + Honor win games.
1-0
Round 2 vs Mono Red Blood Moon
Game 1: I did get hit with a fairly early Volcanic Fallout, but, well 2 Honors + Spear of Heliod wins games fast. Against a deck with lots of nonbasics they have a great match up and can get turn 1 Blood Moon out with Spirit Guide + Desperate Ritual.
Game 2: They managed to get a turn 2 Koth out using the play described above and ulted him pretty quickly. It took me a few turns before I was able to get a decent amount of life from Martyr after which I was able to comfortably beat down with twin 6/6 Fliers. I had plenty of threats and was able to tie down their mana quite nicely. They made a serious punt when they -2'ed Koth of the Hammer forgetting that the Emblem was "Mountains you control have ‘{T}: This land deals 1 damage to target creature or player.'" and not "R: deal 1 damage to target creature or player" They also misplayed a Faithless looting, discarding their third Koth instead of the Mountain they originally planned to.
2-0
Round 3 vs R/G Tron
Game 1: Was able to present a decent threat with active Ascendants and an Honor. That combined with a Ghost Quarter + Mindcensor on their Eye of Ugin turn 4 and on Tower turn 5 greatly contributed to my victory. I did not just dump my hand and was rewarded as I always had a creature to threaten lethal after the Oblivion Stones. All. Three. Of. Them. I just made sure I had enough to kill them in 1-2 turns. This seems to be a major issue for newer Soul Sisters players, they often overextend and get blown out by a Wrath effect or similar. You need to know when to go all in and when to hold back your extra threats.
Game 2: I mulled to 4 and wound up land flooded. A turn 2 Ajani with turn 3 Honor gave me a decent clock especially because they gave me a growth trigger from Grove of the Burnwillows. Unfortunately they did manage to topdeck into Combust and kill my cat the turn it would have been lethal. If I had another Honor or had more counters on it would have lived. They followed that up with 2 Wurmcoils and I just drew more plains.
Game 3: Landed an early Stony Silence and some beats. Did get delayed with a Firespout but managed to kill them anyways. Don't remember much from this match and I don't have any special notes.
3-0
Round 4 vs Storm
Game 1: Presented some nice beats but was not fast enough. The turn before I could deal lethal they stormed out for 20. With 2 Grapeshots.
Game 2: Fast clock of Ascendants and Ajani's. They mistimed their lightning bolt activating it after I already resolved Martyr which cost them the game. Had they bolted my Pridemate before Martyr resolved I would have lost my precious kitty.
Game 3: Turn 0 Leyline. They were unable to kill me at all because their only answer was a single Echoing Truth at the bottom of their deck. They were however able to keep killing all of my creatures with Grapeshot and Bolts. I managed to get him to use both Past in Flames just so he'd have enough storm to kill my guys. We went to time with myself at 18 and him at 3 with neither of us having any threats, well not after I Pathed all 3 Electromancers. If the game had gone longer either of us could have won, it would have depended on how fast I could get a creature vs how fast he can get Truth.
Yes, I kept Path in against Storm. Pathing an Electromancer slows them down a fair amount plus it gets rid of chump blocker. I took out my 2 Mindcensors and a Ranger. Mindcensor isn't good against Storm and Ranger I felt was slow.
3-0-1
Round 5 vs Scapeshift
Game 1: I bring them to 6 with some nice beats in the form of Pridemate and Ascendant + Honor. He then comboes off the turn I present lethal for 81 damage. BOOM.
Game 2: I wind up having to mull to 4 keeping Martyr, Honor, and 2x Plains. This is not a particularly fast clock even though I do draw a Pridemate. I die with Aven Mindcensor and Procession in hand and no third land to play them.
3-1-1
Round 5 vs Scapeshift
We decide to intentionally draw because we felt we had high enough standings to make top 8 (I was 6th going into the final round of Swiss), turns out we were wrong. Did not do the math correctly.
3-1-2
I manage to get 12th place out of roughly 40+ people. Had I played against the second Scapeshift deck I do not feel I could have reliably won. Combo in general is a bad matchup for Soul Sisters as its best against other creature decks. In Game 2 of Round 5 against Scapeshift I might have been able to win if I had a better hand as Soul Sisters can present a very fast clock and they need minimum 8 lands to kill us not the usual 7 against most deck because we have no fetches. 8 lands = 36 damage 9 Lands = 54 10 Lands = 72 etc. You can do some extra math if you'd like.
When Leyline happened it meant I could not lose until it was dealt with so I'm actually considering getting a second or third copy. However the chances of Leyline in your opening hand are pretty slim and its not good in multiples especially because many decks answer it with Echoing Truth. If I expect more combo at GP Richmond I probably will go up to 2 or 3 though. I need to figure out a better sideboard plan against Scapeshift. I do like my Mindcensors and my opponent agreed that it was the card that scared him the most, but I'd prefer a proactive plan. One that has to be dealt with before going off which would buy me more time to kill them.
-Anonymous
4x Ajani's Pridemate
4x Martyr of Sands
4x Ranger of Eos
4x Serra Ascendant
4x Squadron Hawk
4x Soul Warden
4x Soul's Attendant
3x Path to Exile
4x Spectral Procession
Enchantments
4x Honor of the Pure
Lands
3x Tectonic edge
3x Windbrisk Heights
15x Plains
2 Aven Mindcensor
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
2 Suppression Field
3 Sundering Grove
I just took out 1 Ranger for a fourth path, as I noticed (as been said before) that Ranger ended up in opening hands too often. Other than that I've been doing pretty well. Most losses came from mana screw or mana flood (which I have a lot on cockatrice, something with suffle system seems off...). The deck runs well against a lot of decks, though I had a very hard time winning from Tron and Pod. I'm still figuring out how to SB correctly against these decks. What to take out; what to put in? I noticed people siding out one martyr, and one of each souls. I'm definitely going to try that.
Also going to try Ghost Quarter. I remember that I found them too be useless most of the time, which annoyed me. But the meta was pretty different then. I see a lot of decks being really greedy with their manabases, so I figured tectonic edge would be more useful to screw someone's mana options. Ghost Quarters is just a land loss against so many decks. With 2 mainboard Mindcensors Quarters make more sense I guess. Also against Tron Quarters are way more useful of course, but that is just one match up, and even with Quarters it's a pretty bad one in my experience.
I see a lot of lists mainboard Aven Mindcensor. Is it really that useful mainboard? I'd probably get rid of one martyr and a path. I feel the 8 sisters mainboard are really necessary against a lot of matchups.
It helps game one against Pod, Scapeshift and Tron and can randomly stifle a fetch land.
I've used it to turn Ghost Quarters into Strip Mines and improve Paths but yes, in a lot of matchups its just a 2/1 flier with flash which isn't a bad thing.
Its a decent surprise blocker and can randomly give you an extra +1/+1 counter on Pridemate.
If used correctly it seriously hurts an opponent's mana base. I've locked a UR Delver player to 2 mana because of it.
Mindcensors are mostly a meta choice if you expect a lot of fetches and searches its good, otherwise Auriok Champion fits better.
Its probably the card I side out the most as against many decks its just a 2/1 flier with flash which doesn't mean much game 2 and 3.
I run 6 Sisters and 3 Martyrs in my Mainboard and 2 Auriok Champions in the sideboard. While I don't get an opening with Pridemate + Sister as often as I'd like I still have a pretty good win percentage.
My overall competitive record between FNMS and GP Trials is 13-5-3 so a 62% win rate and I intend to bring my list to GP Richmond in a few weeks, I just need to decide on my sideboard.
-Anonymous
The only thing I still hate aboutthe mindcensor is that it stifles our own Ranger of Eos. I really hate interactions like this that hurt a deck itself. Have you ever had trouble with mindcensor in this way?
Aven Mindcensor specifically says "If an opponent would search a library" it does nothing to harm your Rangers or your Hawks.
In fact, Mindcensor is good in the mirror because it will hit your opponent's Rangers and Hawks.
-Anonymous
I'm expecting the big 3 decks to be Twin, Pod, and Zoo with UWR Control and Affinity coming in a close 4th and 5th.
Based off of this my sideboard is:
2x Chalice of Life
2x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
2x Sundering Growth
2x Suppression Field
Any opinions or advice is welcome.
-Anonymous
I don't think that Leyline of Sanctity is very useful as a singleton.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
There isn't really anything I think would be best to go up to a three-of. My other choices for the one-of slot are Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Grafdigger's Cage, and Ethersworn Canonist.
-Anonymous
First of all, I can only repeat myself about Ghost Quarters + Flagstones of Trokair. These cards go hands in hands to thin your deck, mana screw the opponent, and fight Tron. Especially good with Aven Mindcensor. 3 GQ and 4 Flagstones will almost never mana screw you for T3 Procession either since you can GQ yourself for all the W you need. Only downside is Blood Moon.
I ran into Mono Red Goblins, thinking this would be a cakewalk after an easy game 1. 4 Leyline of Punishment in the sideboard proved me otherwise. This completely destroys our game. I got lucky when my opponent kept a Leyline hand without lands on game 3.
I faced Pyro Storm in the final (we splitted the prizes) and the guy went 2-0 for the whole evening including against me. I got him to 1 life on turn 4 with Honor of the Pure x2 on our first game, but you can't do much against Pyromancer's Ascension. Sided into 1x Ethersworn Canonist, 1x Rule of Law and 1x Rest in Peace but mulled to 4 without finding any of these.
Added an Oblivion Ring for getting rid of the enchantment to the SB and I'm also thinking about siding Silence since it seems like a good /cheap way to fizzle the combo.