I have to ask, as I really find the surge node mana shell spicy, but how does this deck fight through stony silence postboard? Besides the high variance with the mana ramp artifact shell itself working against you, how do we fair when that's compounded by artifact hate?
Do we board enchantment hate? Is that all we can do?
Affinity still has the combat step to eke out a win, while Lantern Control has built-in discard, Abrupt Decays, and topdeck manipulation, and Tezzeret in the side. What does this deck have?
Hey all, just finished assembling a stock list for the whir build, I've been having a blast! Though as a new pilot, I really need some advice on a few things. Here's my 60 so far
So a few questions on the build I experienced after testing and play:
1. I noticed that blue midrange and control decks started running Search for Azcanta in their main, and I want to add some Ghost Quarters into my land mix, but I don't know what to cut since the UUU for Whir is intensive. How many should I add and what should I cut?
2. Is 4 each of Mishra's Bauble and Mox Opal necessary or should I shave one each for additional flex slots? If so what's the next best addition to the build?
For Sideboarding advice:
1. What matchups do I side in Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas? Is 3 enough from the sideboard or should 2 be enough? Been debating adding another Leyline of Sanctity instead of the third Tezzeret
2. Is Surgical Extraction in the sideboard a good addition or should it be Collective Brutality? I mostly added that in for Combo matchups
3. What matchups do I side in Search for Azcanta? Midrange and Control? If so which specific decks?
In terms of piloting:
1. I understand that blind-milling is better on BGx builds, as a Noxious Revival helps bring back a needed piece. Should I also blind-mill with this build? If so then what scenarios? I have this fear that blind-milling would discard my lock pieces and screw me over.
As for results, well I don't have much to show for yet. Went 2-4 in a tourney, made misplays that seasoned lantern players wouldn't do, and some matchups weren't favorable either.
Round 1: Burn 0-2
G1 - Kept a normal hand, 2 lands, an ancient stirrings, and thoughtseize I think. He powers out goblin guide into swiftspear, then i take a burn spell from his hand since i drew a bridge. He slams down an Eidolon of the Great Revel and that was downhill from there
G2 - Slow start for him, I Inquisition his Eidolon, then next turn play a codex shredder and lantern. I see his topdeck an eidolon, so i mill it on his upkeep. there was an Eidolon under that, so i had to force shuffle with Lantern. He draws and slams down an Eidolon. What are the chances haha
Round 2: Burn 0-2
G1 - Different pilot, same deck. Mulled to 5, no Leyline. Slammed a bridge too late and he burned me out.
G2 - Slower matchup, was slowly establishing the lock. I play a Codex shredder and a glimmervoid, he endsteps- Shattering Sprees it, and i am now a turn down. In the end he landed a Grim Lavamancer, and I didn't have outs for it.
At this point I was just playing to understand how to pilot better, and have fun
Round 3: Jeskai Control 0-2
G1 - Decent hand for me, he played draw-go for a few turns. Used discard on him, took his logic knot and saw he had Torrential Gearhulk and a Cryptic. He plays Torrential to counter the first bridge I play, and I manage to sneak in a Whir for another Bridge. He burns me with bolt and electorlyze, and I couldn't find a Whir or a Grafdigger's cage. He manages to draw a cryptic command and bounce my bridge for lethal with the Gearhulk and a Snapcaster
G2 - Established a soft-lock with Lantern and Codex. Milled a Wear//Tear of the top, saw an Engineered Explosives. Went derp and let him draw it, he wrecked my board. Miscounted his mana and thought he couldnt crack it when he put it down. True misplay, my bad.
Round 4: Abzan Midrange 0-2
G1 - He Inquisitioned away my Ensnaring Bridge, and whacked me with Scavenging Ooze over a few turns. Had Lantern and a Shredder online, was milling myself into good draws, but no bridge or Whir. Managed to hit his Ooze with a Decay, but he slammed down a Rhino and he killed me with that and a Treetop Village
G2 - Managed to bring a soft lock online with 1 bridge, shredder and lantern, but without discard in hand i didn't know what was in his starting draw. He uses Spyglass on my Welding Jar, and then decays + surgical's my bridge. I had a Tezzeret in hand, and I was going to draw into a land to cast him, but again, Thoughtseize + Surgical. It was GG from there. Turns out he had a lantern pilot friend so he really knew what he was doing haha
Round 5: ??? Opponent probably dropped. I count this as a spiritual win haha. Anyway I got my friend who pilots Abzan to help me learn how to fight his matchups. Very informative.
Round 6: Mono-Grean Stompy
G1 - I was originally confused as to what I was fighting, but two experiment ones and a rancor sealed it. Got beat down due to a slow hand and lethal 10 damage with their treetop village
G2 - Quick lock in play finally, got down to 8 health before i started milling them out. They conceded after I milled a Creeping Corrosion.
G3 - They were land locked at one, and i established a soft lock with Lantern and Shredder, and kept them off of lands until i Had 2 Bridges and a Welding Jar. Milled them out until they got frustrated and conceded. I thought you guys were joking about that actually happening.
Any critique on my sideboarding and play would be appreciated. I really love this deck. It's a breath of fresh air from Affinity.
Side Board: 15
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thragtusk
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Collective Brutality
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Fatal Push
1 Abrupt Decay
3 Stony Silence
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
I know this looks more like an Abzan Midrange deck, and honestly that's what it was before I put a reanimator package in it.
Card Choices:
No Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl: I tried this, but it was too inconsistent for me. That and killing the dork was a thing. Sigh. I shifted to a lower curve and 3 Hierarchs instead
No Angel of Serenity, or Reanimation targets with CMC Higher that 5: I tried those too, but through testing saw that the reanimation targets either get eaten in the graveyard or stuck in my hand. In any case, the Unburial Rites synergy wasn't coming out as consistently as I liked, especially Game 2 onwards. I stuck with lower CMC high impact creatures, Like Rhino, Thrag and Hulk instead
No Grisly Salvage: Felt good game 1, but otherwise the usage gets narrower the more hate present in Game 2 onwards. I liked Grim Flayer more, and built around it, with the baubles and to an extent the Hulk (Creature and Artifact)
Tarmogoyf?: It does the job of a cost-efficient beater, and benefits from all the delirium I built into the deck. If there were a another option that's either a good 2CMC reanimation target or something I would go for it. Coincidentally was a value reanimate target with Sun Titan in some test games
Why does it look like an Abzan Decklist?: I learned that I win more past game 1 with the proactive removal and discard strategy, grinding the match out and winning with a good reanimate when everyone's at topdeck mode.
Other things I tested:
1 Sun Titan: It replaces 1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk, and felt good in the late game. Recurs Tarmogoyf, Grim Flayer, Liliana. Still Testing
1 Tasigur: Same as above, tho it can recur more, tho the lack of choice makes me iffy about it.
Sideboard Tech:
Basically put the discard for control or Combo matchups, removal for aggro decks
Grave hate includes Scooze and 2 Nihil Spellbombs, the former because it's just really good and the latter because it's one-sided and feeds delirium.
All in all, it looks less and less like what an Abzan Rites is expected to be (really missing those angels) but otherwise more resilient past the Grave Hate, since it can operate without the graveyard if needed.
So far I've only tested this deck against Bant Eldrazi, Affinity, Abzan Company, Burn, Merfolk, Ad Nauseam, and RG Tron at my local store.
Combo is still a bad matchup, but all other deck archetypes are pretty even postboard.
Been thinking of switching out my current modern deck for something new, and I saw this thread! My first deck in magic was Land Destruction back in Lorwyn/Shadowmoor with the Well LD cards. Glad to see this archetype is alive in this format!
Don't have a fully tested out list right now, but I'm trying out a variation of the Mardu list in the primer. I have to ask though, how does one use Smallpox or Boom||Bust? Besides the usage of Flagstones of Trokair, how else would we leverage it such that it doesn't harm us as well? I find it difficult to lose a land since I'm running three colors. Also the tempo loss.
I see you replaced the Batterskull with a Sorin. I also thought that the Batterskull was a bit too high on the curve, and I tried other alternatives.
What do you think of Ajani Goldmane? His abilities seem relevant and his CMC is better on the curve. His +1 is straight up 2 life, providing consistent lifegain, half as fast as Batterskull. His -1 pumps up our spirits and gives them vigilance, allowing potential swings while holding up blockers. His ult also makes a threat in the form of an Avatar, which we could spawn several times over the game if we play it right.
Cons include Ajani not being able to save himself, and that his -1 needs creatures on the board to be useful at all. Still, my playtesting so far showed that I can play him more frequently than I do Batterskull, with the lower cost and all.
Your thoughts? I tried Liliana, but I really like the lifegain on OG Ajani
Really interested in this deck archetype! I was always looking for a viable esper deck, and the draw-go style didn't really appeal to me due to its tendency to durdle. Still, I have some questions on lines of play as well as sideboard cards for this deck:
1. How do we combat Combo decks pre-board? In the case of Abzan company and other infinite combo decks, do we simply aggressively discard their hand and path their pieces? Post-board I can see that sideboard helps, but I feel like I'm missing some sort of strategy in beating these kinds of decks
2. For Dredge and Tron, is there any other way of mitigating the bad match-up? I understand that there really is no solution for some of their pieces, but is it really an instant-loss? Not drawing our silver bullets against them just leads to a scoop in my playtesting. Will siding in counterspells help? I also acknowledge the fact that putting in more counters could dilute the gameplan and even cause durdle turns, but that's all I've got.
Besides trying to outrace them, is there any specific way that we can deal with Ad Nauseam? What card specifically in their deck should I have an answer to in my board? Lightning Storm/Conflagrate or their combo pieces? Which sideboard cards are best to have?
I'm running an orzhov version of this deck, only with the flicker package from D&T to help with the incremental lifegain, but I keep getting denied by the counterspells twin and delver keep playing. The tempo is really intense and my board state dies to their burn/removal. Any suggestions?
Sideboard:
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
3 Suppression Field
2 Dismember
1 Mangara of Corondar
2 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Deck Tech:
I tried several brews for the sisters build before the current iteration - Blink Sisters. My first few decks had the Martyr-Ascendant shell, and was unfortunately (for me) hard to use because of efficient beats, which kept me below 30 life. It also didn't help that my meta was removal heavy (and especially burn heavy) so that kind of ruined that specific build for me.
Right now I'm going for an incremental life-gain kind of deck, which is why I plugged in the flicker package usually seen in Wx Death and Taxes. Usual game plan for this deck is to early and midgame tempo (life-gaining with token generation and flicker, chumpblocking with tokens), using card advantage generated by various flicker effects, and then closing the game with beats from creatures with evasion (flying or first strike).
I also try to use my life as a resource, in the fact that I have Dark Confidant (from testing, 2 is just right, 3-4 makes my life gain a net-loss) to draw into other value spells, or the wincon Archangel. Dismember and Orzhov Charm (it's a flex spot, just testing it out) are in there for the same reasons. Usually the life-loss gets relatively balanced with the lifegain, but there were several close calls, and painful draws.
The sideboard is currently based on my local meta, which is either aggro or combo.
So far I've tested this deck against my Merfolk, Abzan CoCo, Burn, Twin (Normal and Grixis), Tron, MonoGreen Stompy, Grishoal and Grixis Control. Here are my observations:
Tron is a dead matchup. Turn 3 Karn into Ugin just wipes me. Only won one game out of 7 that I tested, and that was when I did enough weird flicker shenanigans to perma-exile Emrakul with Fiend Hunter + Restoration Angel. This only happened after sideboard, with Stony Silence and Suppression Field. Further testing will continue, but so far it's heavily unfavorable.
Twin and Abzan CoCo were both relatively fair, as long as I could stick a soul sister, or specifically Auriok Champion onto the field. Regardless, then it turns into an attrition match, where I usually win against Twin off the back of several first strike golems and angels, but lose to CoCo, because they have Gavony Township. Sideboarding Suppression Field and Linvala for Twin helped even out the match, while CoCo remains relatively the same post-sideboard.
Grishoalbrand was just a coin toss. Sometimes I **** up the guy's math with life-gain so he needs more lands to throw, other times I haven't put down a single sister and I find myself stoned to death. Post-sideboarding helps, but not as much.
Aggro Decks were all over the place. Burn was relatively simple as long as I could dodge the Skullcracks or Atarka's Commands, but Stompy and Merfolk always manage to grow too big for me to out-lifegain. It was only a win for me if I managed to stabilize into the lategame. Extra removal helped, but only to a point.
Control was just damn sad. Cavern of Souls helped, but there are only two cards in the deck, so eh. Sideboarding sort of helped, but again, counterspells.
So far that's just my feedback I'd appreciate it if you guys can find the time to give me some feedback. This forum's been a great help in trying to figure out how to make this deck more competitive. I want to get this to work before I take back my vials for my Merfolk deck haha.
Hello! New to the discussion here, but I've brought out my Soul Sisters again. The Merfolk mirror in the shop I play in is too brutal :)) Too many fish.
Can I ask what bad matchups we have now? I know we're decent against aggro decks, but I'm a bit unfamiliar now with how Sisters interacts with the meta. How is our Tron, BGx, and Burn matchup? I hear it got a bit worse with Atarka's Command and Skullcrack. Any advice to a guy who hasn't used this deck in a year?
Hello! Newcomer here, and I am excited that Elves is coming back! I got most of the deck built (standard list provided in the primer) though I am a bit confused with some card choices.
1. Is Heritage Druid a necessary elf to put in this deck? I had assumed that since we aren't running the Cloudstone combo we don't need it. But could someone clarify me on what its uses outside of that is? I don't know if my opinion is correct, but since the deck I build is running 8 dorks and 4 Devoted Druids, running a few more Heritages seems a bit too redundant and clunky. What else are its uses? I didn't see it in the last 40-ish pages.
2. How do you survive persistent boardwipes and creature removal? I have Jeskai, UW, and Delver, and Storm decks in my meta that are packed full with removal. I get that Ezuri could help survive that with one of his abilities, but are their any other ways to solving this besides rebuilding our boardstate from a wipe?
Otherwise, still very much happy this deck is making waves.
Yo, long time lurker here, and I'm already halfway done with building this deck. I just have one question though.
A few comments back people were arguing the viability of Pyroclasm, what with some people keeping them in the side and all, and right now I'm still on the fence about it so I have to ask: Is Mono-green going to work for Tron? I few pages back I read about it (running Mishra's Baubles and all) and I just want to know if it can be viable again for this format. Also, what cards or builds would be recommended for it?
Yo, long time lurker here! I just finished assembling the main deck, and I have no idea what to sideboard.
My meta includes Storm, lots of Pod, Affinity, Jeskai Tempo and Lots of Delver and Twin, 2 Abzan decks and 1 Burn.
I don't know if this question has already been asked, but why do we run vapor snag instead of pongify? Is the bounce + 1 damage strictly more useful than flat-out turning a creature into a vanilla 3/3? Just need a more robust solution for Pod combos and wurmcoils.
Is there any other card that can function just like Cloudstone Curio? I need another of that combo piece for redundancy. Too many slaughter packs and surgicals in my meta
Do we board enchantment hate? Is that all we can do?
Affinity still has the combat step to eke out a win, while Lantern Control has built-in discard, Abrupt Decays, and topdeck manipulation, and Tezzeret in the side. What does this deck have?
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Mox Opal
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Codex Shredder
1 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lantern of Insight
2 Pithing Needle
3 Thoughtseize
1 Abrupt Decay
3 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Whir of Invention
1 Witchbane Orb
3 Botanical Sanctum
3 Darkslick Shores
4 Glimmervoid
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Island
4 Spire of Industry
1 Swamp
2 Welding Jar
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Seal of Primordium
1 Search for Azcanta
2 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
So a few questions on the build I experienced after testing and play:
1. I noticed that blue midrange and control decks started running Search for Azcanta in their main, and I want to add some Ghost Quarters into my land mix, but I don't know what to cut since the UUU for Whir is intensive. How many should I add and what should I cut?
2. Is 4 each of Mishra's Bauble and Mox Opal necessary or should I shave one each for additional flex slots? If so what's the next best addition to the build?
For Sideboarding advice:
1. What matchups do I side in Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas? Is 3 enough from the sideboard or should 2 be enough? Been debating adding another Leyline of Sanctity instead of the third Tezzeret
2. Is Surgical Extraction in the sideboard a good addition or should it be Collective Brutality? I mostly added that in for Combo matchups
3. What matchups do I side in Search for Azcanta? Midrange and Control? If so which specific decks?
In terms of piloting:
1. I understand that blind-milling is better on BGx builds, as a Noxious Revival helps bring back a needed piece. Should I also blind-mill with this build? If so then what scenarios? I have this fear that blind-milling would discard my lock pieces and screw me over.
As for results, well I don't have much to show for yet. Went 2-4 in a tourney, made misplays that seasoned lantern players wouldn't do, and some matchups weren't favorable either.
Round 1: Burn 0-2
G1 - Kept a normal hand, 2 lands, an ancient stirrings, and thoughtseize I think. He powers out goblin guide into swiftspear, then i take a burn spell from his hand since i drew a bridge. He slams down an Eidolon of the Great Revel and that was downhill from there
-3 Thoughtseize, -1 Grafdigger's Cage, -1 Mishra's Bauble
+2 Leyline of Sanctity, +2 Welding Jar, +1 Abrupt Decay
G2 - Slow start for him, I Inquisition his Eidolon, then next turn play a codex shredder and lantern. I see his topdeck an eidolon, so i mill it on his upkeep. there was an Eidolon under that, so i had to force shuffle with Lantern. He draws and slams down an Eidolon. What are the chances haha
Round 2: Burn 0-2
G1 - Different pilot, same deck. Mulled to 5, no Leyline. Slammed a bridge too late and he burned me out.
-3 Thoughtseize, -1 Grafdigger's Cage, -1 Mishra's Bauble
+2 Leyline of Sanctity, +2 Welding Jar, +1 Abrupt Decay
G2 - Slower matchup, was slowly establishing the lock. I play a Codex shredder and a glimmervoid, he endsteps- Shattering Sprees it, and i am now a turn down. In the end he landed a Grim Lavamancer, and I didn't have outs for it.
At this point I was just playing to understand how to pilot better, and have fun
Round 3: Jeskai Control 0-2
G1 - Decent hand for me, he played draw-go for a few turns. Used discard on him, took his logic knot and saw he had Torrential Gearhulk and a Cryptic. He plays Torrential to counter the first bridge I play, and I manage to sneak in a Whir for another Bridge. He burns me with bolt and electorlyze, and I couldn't find a Whir or a Grafdigger's cage. He manages to draw a cryptic command and bounce my bridge for lethal with the Gearhulk and a Snapcaster
-1 Pithing Needle, 1 Ghoulcaller's Bell, -1 Mishra's Bauble,
+2 Leyline of Sanctity, + 1 Grafdigger's Cage
G2 - Established a soft-lock with Lantern and Codex. Milled a Wear//Tear of the top, saw an Engineered Explosives. Went derp and let him draw it, he wrecked my board. Miscounted his mana and thought he couldnt crack it when he put it down. True misplay, my bad.
Round 4: Abzan Midrange 0-2
G1 - He Inquisitioned away my Ensnaring Bridge, and whacked me with Scavenging Ooze over a few turns. Had Lantern and a Shredder online, was milling myself into good draws, but no bridge or Whir. Managed to hit his Ooze with a Decay, but he slammed down a Rhino and he killed me with that and a Treetop Village
-4 Inquisition of Kozilek, -3 Thoughtseize, -1 Mishra's Bauble
+2 Welding Jar, +1 Pithing Needle, + 2 Abrupt Decay, +3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
G2 - Managed to bring a soft lock online with 1 bridge, shredder and lantern, but without discard in hand i didn't know what was in his starting draw. He uses Spyglass on my Welding Jar, and then decays + surgical's my bridge. I had a Tezzeret in hand, and I was going to draw into a land to cast him, but again, Thoughtseize + Surgical. It was GG from there. Turns out he had a lantern pilot friend so he really knew what he was doing haha
Round 5: ??? Opponent probably dropped. I count this as a spiritual win haha. Anyway I got my friend who pilots Abzan to help me learn how to fight his matchups. Very informative.
Round 6: Mono-Grean Stompy
G1 - I was originally confused as to what I was fighting, but two experiment ones and a rancor sealed it. Got beat down due to a slow hand and lethal 10 damage with their treetop village
- 3 Thoughtseize, -1 Mishra's bauble, -1 Pithing Needle, -1 Grafdigger's Cage
+3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, +2 Welding Jar, +1 Abrupt Decay
G2 - Quick lock in play finally, got down to 8 health before i started milling them out. They conceded after I milled a Creeping Corrosion.
G3 - They were land locked at one, and i established a soft lock with Lantern and Shredder, and kept them off of lands until i Had 2 Bridges and a Welding Jar. Milled them out until they got frustrated and conceded. I thought you guys were joking about that actually happening.
Any critique on my sideboarding and play would be appreciated. I really love this deck. It's a breath of fresh air from Affinity.
Main Deck : 60
Creatures:
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Grim Flayer
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Siege Rhino
2 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1 Thragtusk
Artifacts:
4 Mishra's Bauble
Sorceries:
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
3 Lingering Souls
3 Unburial Rites
Instants:
4 Path to Exile
Others:
3 Liliana of the Veil
Lands: 21
2 Forests
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
3 Shambling Vent
1 Swamp
3 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacomb
2 Windswept Heath
Side Board: 15
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thragtusk
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Collective Brutality
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Fatal Push
1 Abrupt Decay
3 Stony Silence
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
I know this looks more like an Abzan Midrange deck, and honestly that's what it was before I put a reanimator package in it.
Card Choices:
No Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl: I tried this, but it was too inconsistent for me. That and killing the dork was a thing. Sigh. I shifted to a lower curve and 3 Hierarchs instead
No Angel of Serenity, or Reanimation targets with CMC Higher that 5: I tried those too, but through testing saw that the reanimation targets either get eaten in the graveyard or stuck in my hand. In any case, the Unburial Rites synergy wasn't coming out as consistently as I liked, especially Game 2 onwards. I stuck with lower CMC high impact creatures, Like Rhino, Thrag and Hulk instead
No Grisly Salvage: Felt good game 1, but otherwise the usage gets narrower the more hate present in Game 2 onwards. I liked Grim Flayer more, and built around it, with the baubles and to an extent the Hulk (Creature and Artifact)
Tarmogoyf?: It does the job of a cost-efficient beater, and benefits from all the delirium I built into the deck. If there were a another option that's either a good 2CMC reanimation target or something I would go for it. Coincidentally was a value reanimate target with Sun Titan in some test games
Why does it look like an Abzan Decklist?: I learned that I win more past game 1 with the proactive removal and discard strategy, grinding the match out and winning with a good reanimate when everyone's at topdeck mode.
Other things I tested:
1 Sun Titan: It replaces 1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk, and felt good in the late game. Recurs Tarmogoyf, Grim Flayer, Liliana. Still Testing
1 Tasigur: Same as above, tho it can recur more, tho the lack of choice makes me iffy about it.
Sideboard Tech:
Basically put the discard for control or Combo matchups, removal for aggro decks
Grave hate includes Scooze and 2 Nihil Spellbombs, the former because it's just really good and the latter because it's one-sided and feeds delirium.
All in all, it looks less and less like what an Abzan Rites is expected to be (really missing those angels) but otherwise more resilient past the Grave Hate, since it can operate without the graveyard if needed.
So far I've only tested this deck against Bant Eldrazi, Affinity, Abzan Company, Burn, Merfolk, Ad Nauseam, and RG Tron at my local store.
Combo is still a bad matchup, but all other deck archetypes are pretty even postboard.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Don't have a fully tested out list right now, but I'm trying out a variation of the Mardu list in the primer. I have to ask though, how does one use Smallpox or Boom||Bust? Besides the usage of Flagstones of Trokair, how else would we leverage it such that it doesn't harm us as well? I find it difficult to lose a land since I'm running three colors. Also the tempo loss.
Any tips or suggestions?
What do you think of Ajani Goldmane? His abilities seem relevant and his CMC is better on the curve. His +1 is straight up 2 life, providing consistent lifegain, half as fast as Batterskull. His -1 pumps up our spirits and gives them vigilance, allowing potential swings while holding up blockers. His ult also makes a threat in the form of an Avatar, which we could spawn several times over the game if we play it right.
Cons include Ajani not being able to save himself, and that his -1 needs creatures on the board to be useful at all. Still, my playtesting so far showed that I can play him more frequently than I do Batterskull, with the lower cost and all.
Your thoughts? I tried Liliana, but I really like the lifegain on OG Ajani
1. How do we combat Combo decks pre-board? In the case of Abzan company and other infinite combo decks, do we simply aggressively discard their hand and path their pieces? Post-board I can see that sideboard helps, but I feel like I'm missing some sort of strategy in beating these kinds of decks
2. For Dredge and Tron, is there any other way of mitigating the bad match-up? I understand that there really is no solution for some of their pieces, but is it really an instant-loss? Not drawing our silver bullets against them just leads to a scoop in my playtesting. Will siding in counterspells help? I also acknowledge the fact that putting in more counters could dilute the gameplan and even cause durdle turns, but that's all I've got.
Mainboard:
3 Soul Warden
3 Soul's Attendant
4 Auriok Champion
2 Dark Confidant
2 Fiend Hunter
3 Blade Splicer
4 Flickerwisp
3 Restoration Angel
2 Archangel of Thune
4 Path to Exile
1 Orzhov Charm
3 Lingering Souls
4 Aether Vial
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Shambling Vent
4 Godless Shrine
3 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
2 Windbrisk Heights
4 Plains
1 Swamp
Sideboard:
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
3 Suppression Field
2 Dismember
1 Mangara of Corondar
2 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Deck Tech:
I tried several brews for the sisters build before the current iteration - Blink Sisters. My first few decks had the Martyr-Ascendant shell, and was unfortunately (for me) hard to use because of efficient beats, which kept me below 30 life. It also didn't help that my meta was removal heavy (and especially burn heavy) so that kind of ruined that specific build for me.
Right now I'm going for an incremental life-gain kind of deck, which is why I plugged in the flicker package usually seen in Wx Death and Taxes. Usual game plan for this deck is to early and midgame tempo (life-gaining with token generation and flicker, chumpblocking with tokens), using card advantage generated by various flicker effects, and then closing the game with beats from creatures with evasion (flying or first strike).
I also try to use my life as a resource, in the fact that I have Dark Confidant (from testing, 2 is just right, 3-4 makes my life gain a net-loss) to draw into other value spells, or the wincon Archangel. Dismember and Orzhov Charm (it's a flex spot, just testing it out) are in there for the same reasons. Usually the life-loss gets relatively balanced with the lifegain, but there were several close calls, and painful draws.
The sideboard is currently based on my local meta, which is either aggro or combo.
So far I've tested this deck against my Merfolk, Abzan CoCo, Burn, Twin (Normal and Grixis), Tron, MonoGreen Stompy, Grishoal and Grixis Control. Here are my observations:
Tron is a dead matchup. Turn 3 Karn into Ugin just wipes me. Only won one game out of 7 that I tested, and that was when I did enough weird flicker shenanigans to perma-exile Emrakul with Fiend Hunter + Restoration Angel. This only happened after sideboard, with Stony Silence and Suppression Field. Further testing will continue, but so far it's heavily unfavorable.
Twin and Abzan CoCo were both relatively fair, as long as I could stick a soul sister, or specifically Auriok Champion onto the field. Regardless, then it turns into an attrition match, where I usually win against Twin off the back of several first strike golems and angels, but lose to CoCo, because they have Gavony Township. Sideboarding Suppression Field and Linvala for Twin helped even out the match, while CoCo remains relatively the same post-sideboard.
Grishoalbrand was just a coin toss. Sometimes I **** up the guy's math with life-gain so he needs more lands to throw, other times I haven't put down a single sister and I find myself stoned to death. Post-sideboarding helps, but not as much.
Aggro Decks were all over the place. Burn was relatively simple as long as I could dodge the Skullcracks or Atarka's Commands, but Stompy and Merfolk always manage to grow too big for me to out-lifegain. It was only a win for me if I managed to stabilize into the lategame. Extra removal helped, but only to a point.
Control was just damn sad. Cavern of Souls helped, but there are only two cards in the deck, so eh. Sideboarding sort of helped, but again, counterspells.
So far that's just my feedback
Can I ask what bad matchups we have now? I know we're decent against aggro decks, but I'm a bit unfamiliar now with how Sisters interacts with the meta. How is our Tron, BGx, and Burn matchup? I hear it got a bit worse with Atarka's Command and Skullcrack. Any advice to a guy who hasn't used this deck in a year?
1. Is Heritage Druid a necessary elf to put in this deck? I had assumed that since we aren't running the Cloudstone combo we don't need it. But could someone clarify me on what its uses outside of that is? I don't know if my opinion is correct, but since the deck I build is running 8 dorks and 4 Devoted Druids, running a few more Heritages seems a bit too redundant and clunky. What else are its uses? I didn't see it in the last 40-ish pages.
2. How do you survive persistent boardwipes and creature removal? I have Jeskai, UW, and Delver, and Storm decks in my meta that are packed full with removal. I get that Ezuri could help survive that with one of his abilities, but are their any other ways to solving this besides rebuilding our boardstate from a wipe?
Otherwise, still very much happy this deck is making waves.
A few comments back people were arguing the viability of Pyroclasm, what with some people keeping them in the side and all, and right now I'm still on the fence about it so I have to ask: Is Mono-green going to work for Tron? I few pages back I read about it (running Mishra's Baubles and all) and I just want to know if it can be viable again for this format. Also, what cards or builds would be recommended for it?
Otherwise I can put the red in, simple enough.
My meta includes Storm, lots of Pod, Affinity, Jeskai Tempo and Lots of Delver and Twin, 2 Abzan decks and 1 Burn.
I have some of the recommended sideboard pieces though. Echoing Truth, Phyrexian Revoker, Spellskite, Tidebinder Mage, Chalice of the Voidetc. I just don't know how to cram them all into 15 cards
Any thoughts and recommendations to put in my 15?
Also, How do you fight Pod? Besides the whole, overwhelm him before he combos out method.