Been playing around with R/W Norin Sisters a lot lately, and had better results. I found Martyr of Sands a little bit too inconsistent, and the lack of removal other than Path made us really vulnerable to combo decks. I came up with this after awhile:
The biggest problem I found with this deck was that a lot of the time I felt like I wanted to draw a Ranger of Eos or Serra Ascendant, and while Squadron Hawks were great gas, they wouldn't really win me a game that had already stabilized. Blood Moon had a similar problem in that (at least in my local meta) pretty much everyone splashes enough red that it isn't a problem. When Affinity makes up literally half of my local meta, the maindeck Blood Moons just weren't worth it, and it only really wins the game in a few matchups (UWr control and Scapeshift mostly, and they'll just sideboard echoing truths or some other bounce).
So I changed it up to be more like this, which has been a lot more successful in my playtesting.
So, basically I added Auriok Champions, more Serra Ascendants, another Ranger of Eos, another Cavern of Souls, and moved the Blood Moons to the side. I took Worship out of the sideboard, and Squadron Hawks/Blood Moons from the main to make room for the new cards.
Auriok Champion + Norin the Wary can get pretty annoying for most people, because most removal in this format is either black or red, and they both dodge Pyroclasm, Whipflare, and Anger of the Gods. It's almost unremovable, and so many people are running red (even Affinity runs 3-4 Galvanic Blasts) that they make value.
My deck is slightly different than the normal Norin the Wary lists for a number of reasons. One, I took out Mentor of the Meek. Not many people agree with that immediately, but in testing I found he was a dead card (literally dead) more often than he could make a huge difference. He'd get bolted or path'd or countered, and he didn't affect board state that much. Two, I only run two Purphoros because I think three is a little overkill. Three, I run four Norin the Wary instead of three, because I think that they pretty much always positively affect the board state, and if you stack the triggers well enough, you can do some silly things with multiple Norins. Four, and probably the biggest difference, is I cut Genesis Chamber completely. I found that Genesis Chamber was HORRIBLE against Affinity, because while you'd be gaining 12-15 life per turn, they would get infinite chump blockers and artifact count. Plus, without reliable trample (Legion Loyalist barely counts), the giant Ajani's Pridemates were more of a novelty than anything else.
Testing Results w/ changes (mostly on cockatrice, some paper):
2-0 vs Kiki Pod (Sisters stop Deceiver Exarch, and I have enough removal/sideboard hate to win G2 pretty easily)
2-1 vs UR Twin (Sisters and Path stop Exarch, Bolt stops Pestermite, but they sideboard pretty well against us with Anger of the Gods)
2-0 vs Tarmotwin (A good matchup in general. Lots of sideboard hate, too.)
1-2 vs Ad Nauseam (Regular Soul Sisters has a better matchup because Martyr of Sands can get out of range of Lightning Storm)
2-1 vs Melira Pod (Good sideboard against Pod)
2-0 vs Shamans (It's a fun budget deck to play against, but they have too many creatures that are beneficial to you, plus removal can stop most of their synergy)
2-1 vs Affinity (Game 1 sucks, and game 2 is just dead if you don't draw into sideboard hate. On top of that, you need to hope they don't draw Torpor Orb.)
Testing Results before changes:
1-1-1, 2-0, 2-1 vs UR Twin
1-2, 0-2, 2-1 vs Tarmotwin
2-1, 0-2, 1-2 vs Affinity
2-0 vs Scapeshift (easy to get out of range of the 6 land combo, and you can win before they go off generally)
2-0 vs Bloom Titan/Amulet of Vigor (you have 2-3 turns to build your board state for free)
2-1 vs Goblins (lots of creatures are pretty beneficial)
1-2, 0-2, 2-1, 2-0 vs Storm (really depends on the player and if the deck is fully complete with all fetches)
2-0 vs BG Rock (Lili can suck, but generally enough removal and sideboard options to win)
0-2, 0-2, 0-2, 1-2 vs BUG Infect (Just... not a good matchup)
So, thoughts? I'm thinking about maybe trying out Archetype of Aggression (my Pridemates and Champion of the Parish get huge enough that I think it's relevant). I also kind of considered going for RWb to run Bob and Thoughtseize (for more combo disruption). The mana base would be pretty difficult to build, though, and I'm worried it might not be reliable enough, so I haven't started playing around with it.
So I've had this deck proxied up in my bag and play it every now and then and tend to have really decent success. I had tried some different iterations in the past on Cockatrice and was finding a lot of things were just clutter and slowing the deck down. My opinion is that the core of the deck is based around gaining too much life and winning through Purphoros/token beatdown, and that is what I have built around. This is what I have proxied.
I don't even have a SB proxied but I built most of this on MTGO last night and had Suppression Field, Aegis of the Gods, Rest in Peace, Magus of the Moon, and Grafdigger's Cage. I will need more competitive experience to really have a solid opinion on this. I would like some bullets for Eos but Serra Ascendant is probably the only one I would consider so far.
I have always had the idea that Suture Priest was kind of an auto-include and wonder why a lot of people don't run it in versions with Genesis Chamber. It's another Soul Warden effect for your side of the field, another way to sneak in some damage against fair decks, and just another body.
Some lists I've seen recently posted are trimming down pretty low on actual creatures they're running. I'm not saying it's the wrong way to build the deck or anything but I think this thread has run into the problem that the title is just too general. "Norin the Wary" is 2-3 significantly different decks.
Just my 2 cents. I think the deck is a blast to play though, kind of trigger nightmare in paper. MTGO made me REALLY appreciate the "auto-yield" feature.
So I'm thinking that I might try something new: Heliod's Pilgrim. Decks that are able to tutor up silver bullet answers have been historically pretty good. And he's a human that provides us with a nontoken ETB. I kind of see this guy as a more balanced Stoneforge Mystic except he tutors for aura's instead of equipment. While auras don't have cards that are on the power level of the swords, there is actually a lot of versatility in auras. So what aura's could be worth tutoring up? I was thinking that the following might be useful somewhere in the 75 cards that we have to choose from:
Curse of Stalked Prey (I've been looking for an anthem type of effect that can hit all of our creatures regardless of color, and this actually does the trick at 2 CMC. The problem is you have to deal damage. This card becomes better if you play Spirit Bonds, Squadron Hawk, or Bitterblossom because of the evasion.)
Screams From Within (This has the potential to clear the opponent's side of the field of Myr tokens, but it can backfire since we play so many 1/1 creatures) Spirit Mantle (Help get huge Champion or Pridemate past Myr tokens.)
Underworld Connections (Poor man's Phyrexian Arena, also very comparable to Mentor or the Meek b/c it is the same CMC gets us card draw for the same price of having to tap a land, but is less susceptible to removal)
Elemental Mastery (Put this on a Pridemate with a soul sister out and watch your opponent cry. Can also be nuts with Purphoros as well.)
Splinter Twin (Unless if you are going for a combo Elemental Mastery seems better. Repeatedly copying Heliod's Pilgrim can actually allow us to incorporate a combo that can win the game. Depending on the board state Splinter Twin has the ability to combo out with Breath of Fury for example. I don't think that is what this deck is going for, but if somebody gets it to work let me know.)
Of these Spirit Mantle, Elemental Mastery, and Screams From Within seem like great cards to have when the board is clogged up with Myr tokens and a large Champion or Pridemate is in play. Elemental Mastery also plays well with our ETBs galore theme. Spirit Mantle can also be relevant in the Pod match up to protect our creatures from things like Shriekmaw and Murderous Redcap. Does anybody else think this is a good idea?
Giving Norin a try Wednesday at the local shop. I haven't noticed too many people play Aether Vial. I think it helps curve into Archangel of Thune. It also keeps mana available for Mentor of the Meek and initially I was playing with Spirit Bonds and Honor of the Pure. I may go to a few Spirit Bonds for protection vs wrath effects.
I want to try Purphoros, too. If I do, I was thinking of testing Suture Priest and Forbidden Orchard.
Forgot Legion Loyalist.
I want to add a few Devouring Light - maybe to the sideboard. It would be for the aggro builds that don't play too much removal.
Crap. Forgot x4 Surgical Extraction. I don't care what anyone says, I love that card. You get 1 Lightning Bolt. 1 Abrupt Decay. 1 Dark Confidant. 1 Pyroclasm.
Things WotC cares about:
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
Possibly good as one-of. Drawing too many non-creature cards is a sure-way to lose with Norin, and a lot of our creatures we don't want to attack with, like Soul Sisters, or if we're playing black, Dark Confidant or Blood Artist, so it might be hard to trigger.
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Things WotC cares about:
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
I've had a soft spot for Norin for a long time. I've been playing Norin in Modern since early 2012. I haven't posted to MTGS for a long time however. I figured I may as well post my variant on this deck and get some feedback.
I've tried running 2 Porphoros MD g1 but it runs smoother w/ 1. The deck runs fine on 2 land. The deck runs plenty of artifacts making Ethersworn Canonist asymetrical. g2/3 swap your hatebears to be more effective. I run Stony Silence to go against Robots and voltron. I don't run hate against a lot of decks because of the copious lifegain. Between Bolts, aggro, O-Ring, and Revoker, superfriends aren't a big deal. The onyl deck that really seems to give me trouble is Bogle. For that matchup it basically comes down to whether or not I throw down Thalia and/or Canonist before they get carried away. I'm open to suggestions on how to better hate against it though.
So did anyone try out Spirit Bonds in their Norin?
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Things WotC cares about:
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
I have been testing Spirit Bonds in the RUW version that I have yet to post (still working on some aspects). It has plenty of promise, but I don't see it being more than a 2-of due to mana dump (we like to play cheap cards, 1-2 mana each, which slims our land fill in the deck to ~20). The indestructible built in is nice, too.
I've been testing the RUW version with Military Intelligence as a 2 of (replacing Mentor) with lackluster results. Ephara, God of the Polis at 2 has been much better, though (running these in tandem atm).
I finally looked over the KoT spoiler and saw 2 cards that stood out for this deck: Ride Down and Altar of the Brood. Altar takes Norin into a whole new realm, one I will be testing once I get the patch for cockatrice. Definitely RUW, maybe even splashing B for bitterblossom and Confidant (since I do have a pair of each in my collection). I will be posting lists within the next week with some feedback.
Anyone like the new Ride Down card? I used a 2 of Fling for the same purpose, but this seems significantly better. Getting full damage from a huge Pridemate could be totally worth it.
So did anyone try out Spirit Bonds in their Norin?
Yeah, I added 2 main deck. Didn't work out quite as well as I had hoped. Because I use Purphoros I figured the extra token creatures coming down would help speed the clock. It actually did the opposite. With T2 and T4 both taken up by non creature spells it got too far away from the synergy the deck has. Mostly Spirit Bonds didn't hurt the deck very much, but it didn't help with anything either. I think I'm going to put 2x Boros Charm back in the deck instead, it's more versatile.
I've got to hand it to this deck, I was at a SCG tournament with a Modern side event. Watched this deck go at least 3-0-1. I know it beat Affinity, Storm, RDW and drew with Storm. Didn't get to see how it finished as I went 2-2 as did my friend, and the other two people I went with went 1-3, so we all decided to drop. Funny deck to watch and got good results.
I have been testing this deck most of this past week on cockatrice with moderate success. I opted for Azorius Charms over Boros for the lifelink/top deck attacker/blocker modes in the MB, usually swapped out for Boros vs. hate. Izzet Charm has been moderately helpful, but not sure if a 1 of is really worth it. Mistblade Shinobi is passable, but I think I'd rather test Sage of Epityr instead (pairs nicely with TA). Military Intelligence has been helpful in games that I see them, and have pulled out a few wins when they went unanswered, but Ephara fulfills the 2x slot nicely. I will be testing Ninja of Deep Hours in their place next. I finally gave Pridemates a shot in this as I knew I was gonna be running a bit more aggro and at worst they're a hate magnet. Ride Down will likely find a slot in this deck, and Jeskai Ascendancy will be tested as well.
In the short testing so far, I've added a single Mindcrank to see if it's worthwhile. It does need a lot of work, but Altar took down a Scapeshift deck 2-0 (milled their Valakut g1, milled enough mountains g2 to survive and refill life). It faired moderately well vs 8 rack, going 1-2 with a poor opening hand g1 and losing my only drawn blue land and Ephara to t3 wrench mind and discarded the Trusted advisor I drew the following turn with an active Altar on board. G2 came back from the brink (down to 1 life from t2 bob that lived the whole game hitting a land on the final turn) with Purphoros and Rakdos Charm eliminating liliana, rack and bridge, Lingering souls brought them down to 5 life and norin finished lilliana during eot. g3 was lost after they dropped double affliction, but I put up a fight with altar, warden, chamber, and advisor. If the 2nd affliction had not been dropped the 2nd advisor was going to come down and refresh. I will likely be dropping spirit bonds from this list, likely for a boros charm and izzet charm in the main. Wear//Tear is also an option I'm considering.
The concept for what I grabbed for the mill was trying to pull all the quasi-Norin's and Chambers into the shell and using the 2 gods to stabilize and provide an alternate win.
I have been testing this deck most of this past week on cockatrice with moderate success. I opted for Azorius Charms over Boros for the lifelink/top deck attacker/blocker modes in the MB, usually swapped out for Boros vs. hate. Izzet Charm has been moderately helpful, but not sure if a 1 of is really worth it. Mistblade Shinobi is passable, but I think I'd rather test Sage of Epityr instead (pairs nicely with TA). Military Intelligence has been helpful in games that I see them, and have pulled out a few wins when they went unanswered, but Ephara fulfills the 2x slot nicely. I will be testing Ninja of Deep Hours in their place next. I finally gave Pridemates a shot in this as I knew I was gonna be running a bit more aggro and at worst they're a hate magnet. Ride Down will likely find a slot in this deck, and Jeskai Ascendancy will be tested as well.
In the short testing so far, I've added a single Mindcrank to see if it's worthwhile. It does need a lot of work, but Altar took down a Scapeshift deck 2-0 (milled their Valakut g1, milled enough mountains g2 to survive and refill life). It faired moderately well vs 8 rack, going 1-2 with a poor opening hand g1 and losing my only drawn blue land and Ephara to t3 wrench mind and discarded the Trusted advisor I drew the following turn with an active Altar on board. G2 came back from the brink (down to 1 life from t2 bob that lived the whole game hitting a land on the final turn) with Purphoros and Rakdos Charm eliminating liliana, rack and bridge, Lingering souls brought them down to 5 life and norin finished lilliana during eot. g3 was lost after they dropped double affliction, but I put up a fight with altar, warden, chamber, and advisor. If the 2nd affliction had not been dropped the 2nd advisor was going to come down and refresh. I will likely be dropping spirit bonds from this list, likely for a boros charm and izzet charm in the main. Wear//Tear is also an option I'm considering.
The concept for what I grabbed for the mill was trying to pull all the quasi-Norin's and Chambers into the shell and using the 2 gods to stabilize and provide an alternate win.
Anyone like the new Ride Down card? I used a 2 of Fling for the same purpose, but this seems significantly better. Getting full damage from a huge Pridemate could be totally worth it.
this. so much this.
i will need to playtest it, but once an opponent will see this will have all the reason in the world to play as defensively as possible. remember that this deck has 8 heavy hitters that more often than not just need to hit once to seal a game, and the last 10 life can be squeezed out of them afterwards.
this is the build i will test:
Does anyone who splashes black like the idea of bloodsoaked champion to keep pressure on? They basically have to let it through if you have the open mana, plus being a human helps cavern of souls & champion of the parish
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2x Arid Mesa
1x Cavern of Souls
4x Clifftop Retreat
2x Ghost Quarter
2x Mountain
5x Plains
4x Sacred Foundry
CREATURES
4x Ajani's Pridemate
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Norin the Wary
2x Purphoros, God of the Forge
3x Ranger of Eos
1x Serra Ascendant
4x Soul Warden
4x Soul's Attendant
4x Squadron Hawk
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Path to Exile
2x Blood Moon
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Kataki, War's Wage
2x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
2x Suppression Field
2x Wear / Tear
2x Worship
The biggest problem I found with this deck was that a lot of the time I felt like I wanted to draw a Ranger of Eos or Serra Ascendant, and while Squadron Hawks were great gas, they wouldn't really win me a game that had already stabilized. Blood Moon had a similar problem in that (at least in my local meta) pretty much everyone splashes enough red that it isn't a problem. When Affinity makes up literally half of my local meta, the maindeck Blood Moons just weren't worth it, and it only really wins the game in a few matchups (UWr control and Scapeshift mostly, and they'll just sideboard echoing truths or some other bounce).
So I changed it up to be more like this, which has been a lot more successful in my playtesting.
2x Arid Mesa
2x Cavern of Souls
4x Clifftop Retreat
2x Mountain
6x Plains
4x Sacred Foundry
CREATURES
4x Ajani's Pridemate
2x Auriok Champion
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Norin the Wary
2x Purphoros, God of the Forge
4x Ranger of Eos
4x Soul Warden
4x Soul's Attendant
OTHER SPELLS
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Path to Exile
2x Blood Moon
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Kataki, War's Wage
2x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
2x Suppression Field
2x Wear / Tear
So, basically I added Auriok Champions, more Serra Ascendants, another Ranger of Eos, another Cavern of Souls, and moved the Blood Moons to the side. I took Worship out of the sideboard, and Squadron Hawks/Blood Moons from the main to make room for the new cards.
Auriok Champion + Norin the Wary can get pretty annoying for most people, because most removal in this format is either black or red, and they both dodge Pyroclasm, Whipflare, and Anger of the Gods. It's almost unremovable, and so many people are running red (even Affinity runs 3-4 Galvanic Blasts) that they make value.
My deck is slightly different than the normal Norin the Wary lists for a number of reasons. One, I took out Mentor of the Meek. Not many people agree with that immediately, but in testing I found he was a dead card (literally dead) more often than he could make a huge difference. He'd get bolted or path'd or countered, and he didn't affect board state that much. Two, I only run two Purphoros because I think three is a little overkill. Three, I run four Norin the Wary instead of three, because I think that they pretty much always positively affect the board state, and if you stack the triggers well enough, you can do some silly things with multiple Norins. Four, and probably the biggest difference, is I cut Genesis Chamber completely. I found that Genesis Chamber was HORRIBLE against Affinity, because while you'd be gaining 12-15 life per turn, they would get infinite chump blockers and artifact count. Plus, without reliable trample (Legion Loyalist barely counts), the giant Ajani's Pridemates were more of a novelty than anything else.
Testing Results w/ changes (mostly on cockatrice, some paper):
2-0 vs Kiki Pod (Sisters stop Deceiver Exarch, and I have enough removal/sideboard hate to win G2 pretty easily)
2-1 vs UR Twin (Sisters and Path stop Exarch, Bolt stops Pestermite, but they sideboard pretty well against us with Anger of the Gods)
2-0 vs Tarmotwin (A good matchup in general. Lots of sideboard hate, too.)
1-2 vs Ad Nauseam (Regular Soul Sisters has a better matchup because Martyr of Sands can get out of range of Lightning Storm)
2-1 vs Melira Pod (Good sideboard against Pod)
2-0 vs Shamans (It's a fun budget deck to play against, but they have too many creatures that are beneficial to you, plus removal can stop most of their synergy)
2-1 vs Affinity (Game 1 sucks, and game 2 is just dead if you don't draw into sideboard hate. On top of that, you need to hope they don't draw Torpor Orb.)
Testing Results before changes:
1-1-1, 2-0, 2-1 vs UR Twin
1-2, 0-2, 2-1 vs Tarmotwin
2-1, 0-2, 1-2 vs Affinity
2-0 vs Scapeshift (easy to get out of range of the 6 land combo, and you can win before they go off generally)
2-0 vs Bloom Titan/Amulet of Vigor (you have 2-3 turns to build your board state for free)
2-1 vs Goblins (lots of creatures are pretty beneficial)
1-2, 0-2, 2-1, 2-0 vs Storm (really depends on the player and if the deck is fully complete with all fetches)
2-0 vs BG Rock (Lili can suck, but generally enough removal and sideboard options to win)
0-2, 0-2, 0-2, 1-2 vs BUG Infect (Just... not a good matchup)
So, thoughts? I'm thinking about maybe trying out Archetype of Aggression (my Pridemates and Champion of the Parish get huge enough that I think it's relevant). I also kind of considered going for RWb to run Bob and Thoughtseize (for more combo disruption). The mana base would be pretty difficult to build, though, and I'm worried it might not be reliable enough, so I haven't started playing around with it.
URStorm
URBDelver
RWNorin Sisters
BWTokens
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Clifftop Retreat
1 Mountain
11 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Ajani's Pridemate
4 Norin the Wary
3 Purphoros, God of the Forge
3 Ranger of Eos
4 Soul Warden
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Suture Priest
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Genesis Chamber
2 Mentor of the Meek
1 Legion Loyalist
I don't even have a SB proxied but I built most of this on MTGO last night and had Suppression Field, Aegis of the Gods, Rest in Peace, Magus of the Moon, and Grafdigger's Cage. I will need more competitive experience to really have a solid opinion on this. I would like some bullets for Eos but Serra Ascendant is probably the only one I would consider so far.
I have always had the idea that Suture Priest was kind of an auto-include and wonder why a lot of people don't run it in versions with Genesis Chamber. It's another Soul Warden effect for your side of the field, another way to sneak in some damage against fair decks, and just another body.
Some lists I've seen recently posted are trimming down pretty low on actual creatures they're running. I'm not saying it's the wrong way to build the deck or anything but I think this thread has run into the problem that the title is just too general. "Norin the Wary" is 2-3 significantly different decks.
Just my 2 cents. I think the deck is a blast to play though, kind of trigger nightmare in paper. MTGO made me REALLY appreciate the "auto-yield" feature.
Curse of Stalked Prey (I've been looking for an anthem type of effect that can hit all of our creatures regardless of color, and this actually does the trick at 2 CMC. The problem is you have to deal damage. This card becomes better if you play Spirit Bonds, Squadron Hawk, or Bitterblossom because of the evasion.)
Chained to the Rocks (cheap removal)
Wheel of Sun and Moon (takes care of the opponent's graveyards without shutting down stuff like Proclamation of Rebirth and Immortal Servitude).
Screams From Within (This has the potential to clear the opponent's side of the field of Myr tokens, but it can backfire since we play so many 1/1 creatures)
Spirit Mantle (Help get huge Champion or Pridemate past Myr tokens.)
Underworld Connections (Poor man's Phyrexian Arena, also very comparable to Mentor or the Meek b/c it is the same CMC gets us card draw for the same price of having to tap a land, but is less susceptible to removal)
Elemental Mastery (Put this on a Pridemate with a soul sister out and watch your opponent cry. Can also be nuts with Purphoros as well.)
Dead Weight
Gift of Immortality
Evil Presence (For Tron lands, Mutavault, Celestial Colonnade, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Inkmoth Nexus, Blinkmoth Nexus, etc)
Splinter Twin (Unless if you are going for a combo Elemental Mastery seems better. Repeatedly copying Heliod's Pilgrim can actually allow us to incorporate a combo that can win the game. Depending on the board state Splinter Twin has the ability to combo out with Breath of Fury for example. I don't think that is what this deck is going for, but if somebody gets it to work let me know.)
Of these Spirit Mantle, Elemental Mastery, and Screams From Within seem like great cards to have when the board is clogged up with Myr tokens and a large Champion or Pridemate is in play. Elemental Mastery also plays well with our ETBs galore theme. Spirit Mantle can also be relevant in the Pod match up to protect our creatures from things like Shriekmaw and Murderous Redcap. Does anybody else think this is a good idea?
3 Soul's Attendant
3 Norin the Wary
4 Champion of the Parish
3 Ajani's Pridemate
3 Mentor of the Meek
2 Ranger of Eos
1 Angel of Thune
4 Genesis Chamber
3 Aether Vial
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Blood Moon
4 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Arid Mesa
4 Sacred Foundry
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Cavern of Souls
5 Plains
2 Stony Silence
2 Rest in Peace
2 Proclamation of Rebirth
2 Boros Charm
1 Path to Exile
3 Wear // Tear
2 Kataki, War's Wage
I want to try Purphoros, too. If I do, I was thinking of testing Suture Priest and Forbidden Orchard.
Forgot Legion Loyalist.
I want to add a few Devouring Light - maybe to the sideboard. It would be for the aggro builds that don't play too much removal.
Crap. Forgot x4 Surgical Extraction. I don't care what anyone says, I love that card. You get 1 Lightning Bolt. 1 Abrupt Decay. 1 Dark Confidant. 1 Pyroclasm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxSAXTJiGn8
Fish U
Jund BRG
KnightFall WURGC
Also, I was thinking of trying Cloudstone Curio
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
Possibly good as one-of. Drawing too many non-creature cards is a sure-way to lose with Norin, and a lot of our creatures we don't want to attack with, like Soul Sisters, or if we're playing black, Dark Confidant or Blood Artist, so it might be hard to trigger.
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
1 Athreos, God of Passage
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Dark Confidant
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Imposing Sovereign
1 Legion Loyalist
3 Norin the Wary
2 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Ranger of Eos
2 Soul Warden
3 Soul's Attendant
1 Suture Priest
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
non-creatures:
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Æther Vial
3 Genesis Chamber
3 Arid Mesa
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Blood Crypt
3 Cavern of Souls
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Eiganjo Castle
2 Godless Shrine
2 Marsh Flats
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Swamp
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Imposing Sovereign
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Path to Exile
2 Rakdos Charm
3 Thoughtseize
1 Oblivion Ring
3 Stony Silence
I've tried running 2 Porphoros MD g1 but it runs smoother w/ 1. The deck runs fine on 2 land. The deck runs plenty of artifacts making Ethersworn Canonist asymetrical. g2/3 swap your hatebears to be more effective. I run Stony Silence to go against Robots and voltron. I don't run hate against a lot of decks because of the copious lifegain. Between Bolts, aggro, O-Ring, and Revoker, superfriends aren't a big deal. The onyl deck that really seems to give me trouble is Bogle. For that matchup it basically comes down to whether or not I throw down Thalia and/or Canonist before they get carried away. I'm open to suggestions on how to better hate against it though.
Let me know what you think.
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
I've been testing the RUW version with Military Intelligence as a 2 of (replacing Mentor) with lackluster results. Ephara, God of the Polis at 2 has been much better, though (running these in tandem atm).
I finally looked over the KoT spoiler and saw 2 cards that stood out for this deck: Ride Down and Altar of the Brood. Altar takes Norin into a whole new realm, one I will be testing once I get the patch for cockatrice. Definitely RUW, maybe even splashing B for bitterblossom and Confidant (since I do have a pair of each in my collection). I will be posting lists within the next week with some feedback.
GW/R Enchantress (Legacy) R/WG
RW/G/ Norin The Champion/Norin the Artist (Modern) B//WR
GU Eternal Bouncing Command (Modern) UG
WUBRG Wish On A Stick (Modern) GRBUW
URStorm
URBDelver
RWNorin Sisters
BWTokens
Yeah, I added 2 main deck. Didn't work out quite as well as I had hoped. Because I use Purphoros I figured the extra token creatures coming down would help speed the clock. It actually did the opposite. With T2 and T4 both taken up by non creature spells it got too far away from the synergy the deck has. Mostly Spirit Bonds didn't hurt the deck very much, but it didn't help with anything either. I think I'm going to put 2x Boros Charm back in the deck instead, it's more versatile.
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
3x Norin the Wary
4x Trusted Advisor
3x Soul Warden
3x Soul's Attendant
3x Mistblade Shinobi
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Ajani's Pridemate
2x Ephara, God of the Polis
2x Purphoros, God of the Forge
Artifacts:
4x Genesis Chamber
Enchantments:
2x Military Intelligence
2x Spirit Bonds
2x Azorius Charm
1x Izzet Charm
1x Wear // Tear
Lands:
3x Cavern of Souls
1x Kher Keep
2x Steam Vents
3x Hallowed Fountain
2x Sacred Foundry
3x Arid Mesa
1x Misty Rainforest
2x Plains
2x Island
1x Mountain
3x Izzet Charm
2x Boros Charm
2x Patrician's Scorn
2x Shattering Spree
2x Disenchant
2x Auriok Champion
2x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
I have been testing this deck most of this past week on cockatrice with moderate success. I opted for Azorius Charms over Boros for the lifelink/top deck attacker/blocker modes in the MB, usually swapped out for Boros vs. hate. Izzet Charm has been moderately helpful, but not sure if a 1 of is really worth it. Mistblade Shinobi is passable, but I think I'd rather test Sage of Epityr instead (pairs nicely with TA). Military Intelligence has been helpful in games that I see them, and have pulled out a few wins when they went unanswered, but Ephara fulfills the 2x slot nicely. I will be testing Ninja of Deep Hours in their place next. I finally gave Pridemates a shot in this as I knew I was gonna be running a bit more aggro and at worst they're a hate magnet. Ride Down will likely find a slot in this deck, and Jeskai Ascendancy will be tested as well.
3x Norin the Wary
3x Glitterfang
3x Soul Warden
3x Soul's Attendant
2x Dark Confidant
3x Trusted Advisor
1x Ephara, God of the Polis
2x Purphoros, God of the Forge
Artifacts:
4x Altar of the Brood
4x Genesis Chamber
1x Mindcrank
Enchantments:
2x Bitterblossom
2x Leyline of the Void
2x Spirit Bonds
2x Lingering Souls
1x Boros Charm
1x Rakdos Charm
Lands:
1x Kher Keep
1x Steam Vents
3x Sacred Foundry
2x Blood Crypt
2x Godless Shrine
1x Hallowed Fountain
2x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Mountain
1x Plains
1x Island
2x Arid Mesa
2x Polluted Delta
1x Watery Grave
2x Duskmantle Guildmage
2x Boros Charm
1x Dictate of Erebos
4x Blood Artist
2x Rakdos Charm
2x Shattering Spree
In the short testing so far, I've added a single Mindcrank to see if it's worthwhile. It does need a lot of work, but Altar took down a Scapeshift deck 2-0 (milled their Valakut g1, milled enough mountains g2 to survive and refill life). It faired moderately well vs 8 rack, going 1-2 with a poor opening hand g1 and losing my only drawn blue land and Ephara to t3 wrench mind and discarded the Trusted advisor I drew the following turn with an active Altar on board. G2 came back from the brink (down to 1 life from t2 bob that lived the whole game hitting a land on the final turn) with Purphoros and Rakdos Charm eliminating liliana, rack and bridge, Lingering souls brought them down to 5 life and norin finished lilliana during eot. g3 was lost after they dropped double affliction, but I put up a fight with altar, warden, chamber, and advisor. If the 2nd affliction had not been dropped the 2nd advisor was going to come down and refresh. I will likely be dropping spirit bonds from this list, likely for a boros charm and izzet charm in the main. Wear//Tear is also an option I'm considering.
The concept for what I grabbed for the mill was trying to pull all the quasi-Norin's and Chambers into the shell and using the 2 gods to stabilize and provide an alternate win.
GW/R Enchantress (Legacy) R/WG
RW/G/ Norin The Champion/Norin the Artist (Modern) B//WR
GU Eternal Bouncing Command (Modern) UG
WUBRG Wish On A Stick (Modern) GRBUW
2 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Blood Crypt
2 Godless Shrine
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Urbog, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
3 Norin the Wary
4 blood artist
4 dark confidant
4 soul warden
4 soul's attendant
4 suture priest
2 Dark Prophecy
2 Immortal Servitude
4 Altar's Reap
4 Genesis Chamber
I know it is a little high in mana cost, but you could try Descent Into Madness as an alternate win-con out of the sideboard in match-ups where Altar of the Brood is just bad. With Ephara, God of the Polis, Genesis Chamber, Dark Confidant, Bitterblossom, and Lingering Souls I don't think there is a single deck out there that will produce more card draw + permanents than your deck will, meaning it should always hurt your opponent more than it hurts you.
this. so much this.
i will need to playtest it, but once an opponent will see this will have all the reason in the world to play as defensively as possible. remember that this deck has 8 heavy hitters that more often than not just need to hit once to seal a game, and the last 10 life can be squeezed out of them afterwards.
this is the build i will test:
4 soul's attendant
4 champion of the parish
4 norin the wary
1 legion loyalist
3 lightning bolt
1 grim lavamancer
2 spirit bonds
3 genesis chamber
3 ride down
3 magus of the moon
1 Purphoros, god of the forge
2 ranger of eos
4 Clifftop Retreat
1 Mountain
8 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
1 kher keep