Elite Inquisitor is also incredible in the Mirror, there aren't many other creatures that can trade with a Mirran Crusader, and if you get a Sword of War & Peace on him, that's pretty much game. Vigilance is extremely underrated, and the Inquisitor is a very powerful creature, even without the protections. In an aggro field, he can't be beat.
I like the Paladin + Geist combo, but how do we pair it to the Angel if it only comes out when Geist attacks?
1: play Geist of Saint Traft
2: play Silverblade Paladin, choose not to pair it.
3: When the angel enters the battlefield, Paladin is unpaired, so you can choose to pair it with the angel token. Repeat every turn or until Paladin is removed.
The important things to remember are that pairing is optional and that as long as there is an unpaired creature with soulbond on the battlefield, any other creature that enters can be paired with it.
awful topdeck on its own, and Hero just wins games if you get to swing just once. this thing's better in a token strategy.
it also turns off Dismember if you run that.
Why would we be running Dismember? What are we even removing with it? It doesn't hit most of the threats in the mirror and for the most part, hitting ourselves for 4 in that matchup is doing them a favor. It can remove a Delver of Secrets, but we'd probably be siding the Angel of Jubilation out in that matchup anyway. Beyond that, it doesn't hit Titans or Elesh Norn or really anything that we should actually be afraid of on the other side of the board except maybe against R/G aggro, but that's another deck where we don't really want to be taking the extra four life. It's extremely situational and I think we have better sideboard options and we definitely don't want it maindecked.
As for the angel itself, it's competing with Hero of Bladehold and it's not quite powerful enough to be a game winner at that stage. I'm not even sure it's fast enough to use as Birthing Pod hate, by turn 4 if they had a good hand they have already gained a decent bit of advantage. I'd like to test with two of her, but I'm not really enthusiastic about how well she'll really work there.
I think this card is all wrong for humans, it's not often that the board is so clogged that we can't get a creature through. At the point where we need 5-6 mana for this to be truly useful, or we're facing down an Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite I'd much rather this be another threat, an Oblivion Ring or a Day of Judgment 9 times out of 10. Even Something like Venser, the Sojourner is a better mana investment than this card most of the time.
I keep mana leak in for DOJ and such as well as geist of saint traft or swords. I think the amount of non creature threats that it catches stll make it worth running
Negate is much better if we're pretty much saying that creature spells aren't worth trying to counter now due to Cavern of Souls. It's a hard counter for every other card type. The only big threat that Mana Leak might hit that Negate won't are titans, now that the bigger late-game threats in the mirror and zombies matchups are more likely to be uncounterable.
After testing a few cards the only card that needs to be played is Cavern of Soul. Insteat of adding new cards i would play Day of Judgement main. With Cavern all kind of Aggro decks will spawn and Titans will go crazy. In contrast to other Aggro decks Humans can live with mass sweeper thanks to Doomed Traveler, Loyal Cathar and Moorland Haunt and you can also force the opponent to overextend. Esper Control in contrast to the old U/B Control will be a hard opponent, but also doable. I just don't see any good matchup for Humans anymore, well except RDW and maybe Zombies. Soulbound is nice but their seems no slot for it. Angel of Jubilation just forces Pod players to pay the full mana for Birthing Pod nothing he can't handle. I don't see Angel of Jubilation or Riders of Gavony to be better then Hero of Bladehold and our 4 mana slot is already completely filled with it and Angelic Destiny. Maybe their is a way to create a W/x Midrange deck where you can play a lot of 4 mana creatures and even more expensive cards.
You're wrong about pod, it prevents sacrificing the creature as a cost: they have to pay the full mana for all of their creatures and can't tutor them.
It's great if you're having trouble getting by lingering souls
Maybe, but it's still not worth running over the other options, the only reason to put it in the deck are budget/card availability issues, it simply isn't on the same level as Sword of War and Peace or Angelic Destiny.
I know I am biased, but I feel that Humans is a great choice for any competitive tournament. I feel like it is definitely in the top 4 of decks (maybe even the top 2).
Tough matchups include Frites, Pod decks, Wolf Run, and any type of Planeswalker decks.
1. BW Tokens is also less than 50/50. Like kngme11 said, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is amazing vs. Tokens, usually crippling them enough for you to win. Personally I always keep a singleton Surgical Extraction vs. Lingering Souls. Have I gotten it yet? No, not in Standard, but I have Extracted Phantasmal Image after a Sun Titan targeted it. I feel like a Humans main deck should have at least 3 Thalia, which in my opinion, is the perfect number.
2. Frites is tough for Humans because all we have against them is Oblivion Ring and Fiend Hunter. After side board, they put in Ray of Revelation, which gets O Ring among a million other things in our deck. Once again Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is amazing vs. them. It is just amazing vs. a broken card (Lingering Souls) and every other spell in their deck other than mana dorks. Playing a Thalia is similar to Time Walk because it sets them back turns. They could come with Phantasmal Image after side, but it is unlikely because there are not many side board spots to work with.
3. Pod is just horrible. I abhor this matchup. I really don't even want to play it even for fun. It just isn't fun to me. My only chance of winning is sticking Angelic Destiny or a Sword and getting lethal before they keep doing incremental card advantage into Elesh, Massacre Wurm, Titan, <insert> fatty here.
4. Wolf Run is also very tough and changes slightly whether it is Slagstorm based or Day of Judgment based. The Slagstorm based version is much better against us because it is quicker and Slagstorm can be played with 3 mana up usually. Thalia can hurt the Day based WR because by the time they can cast it, it will usually get Mana Leaked. Angelic Destiny/Sword, them not getting Slagstorms in time, or Honor of the Pure/Moorland Haunt getting us there are our only chances really. Sword of War and Peace is amazing vs. them. I like turn 3 Sword, turn 4 Thalia, equip.
5. Planeswalker decks favor them slightly. They have too many Lingering Souls (which is why I side Surgical Extraction). Thalia and Grand Abolisher are amazing against them. Also if you can get an early Grand Abolisher/Sword combo, you can usually get there if you can keep threats out.
6. The "boogeyman", UW Delver. I feel that this matchup is a straight 50/50. I have tested it SO much, it is just mechanical what I do. If you get out Honor of the Pure, it will be tough for them to beat us. We race them nearly as well and can spit out more bodies than them (23 creatures to 14) and our Moorland Haunt is usually better. If you are able to Timely Reinforcements right after they do, you usually win because you have Honor in your deck. Grand Abolisher and Thalia are great once again here. You have to remember to have artifact destruction vs. them because the way that they make up for less creatures is Sword, Equip, Gain life and take life with evasion.
7. RG Aggro/Zombies, decks that are present to beat Delver. I feel like these are the decks that we "prey" on. Mirran Crusader, Doomed Traveler, and Honor are amazing in these matchups.
8. UB Control/Esper Control. Thalia and Grand Abolisher. I won't go into this easy matchup too much. If you can't figure out how to beat these decks with a NON-budget Humans list, then you probably shouldn't play Humans.
Now I know I focused mainly on decks that Humans has a tough time with, but my point is that Humans have tools vs. every deck. So, we always have a chance. If you feel comfortable in the Delver match, which will be about 25-30% of what you play against, then Humans is for you.
P.S. - I should also state that the decks I listed 1-4 are played sparingly, probably at a combined 10-15%.
All in all, this isn't too bad an assessment, but I think you've really misread the RG Aggro matchup, it's not as bad for us as pod, but it's not favorable. RG Aggro has a pretty good chance of being able to remove a Mirran Crusader with burn and a turn 2 sword of war and peace is nearly impossible to deal with adequately.
its actually quite good stick a mirran crusader and they cant do anything to get rid of it
I think most green-based aggro runs red for Hellrider, Huntmaster of the Fells, and Galvanic Blast. Galvanic Blast removes a Mirran Crusader just fine, and these builds also tend to run 4x Sword of War and Peace. If they land one of those early, it's really hard for us to recover.
Mirran Crusader is still good, of course, but it's not impossible or even particularly difficult for R/G aggro to remove it. I still haven't figured out how to tune our deck for that matchup, but Crusader alone isn't the answer.
Elite Inquisitor is incredible in the mirror if you get a Sword of War and Peace or Angelic Destiny on him, especially the Sword. Vigilance means that you can safely swing through your opponents side of the board, get the life gain from the sword, and then block with a 4/4 with First Strike which makes most of your opponents' attacks less profitable than they would be otherwise (since they can only really safely swing with their flying creatures). Angelic Destiny is a similar situation, 6 in the air, and your opponent can't safely swing into you. The protections just make it better: it can't be hit by Ravager of the Fells flip ability, it can block Huntmaster of the Fells, Geralf's Messenger and any other Zombie threat without penalty. First Strike means that it kills both iterations of Strangleroot Geist and on the play it comes down in time to save you from the initial hit. Loyal Cathar might be better in a meta with a lot of board wipe, but the fact that it's a black zombie when it flips makes it vulnerable to Elite Inquisitor and Mirran Crusader and it gets no value from Honor of the Pure. Loyal Cathar is worse against Aggro, especially R/G, because it doesn't trade profitably with Strangleroot Geist and since Unhallowed Cathar can't block, you can't even use its flip side to keep their Sword of War and Peace from smashing your face in.
I'm especially uneasy about the sideboard, since I've never been terribly good at making them and this one isn't as thoughtfully put together as I'd like (essentially it's for tweaking proportions of cards already in the deck), but thoughts on the maindeck would be helpful as well. I've been trying to figure out if there's a way to make room for Elite Inquisitor or Loyal Cathar, but I'm not sure how I'd do it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I disagree with anyone who has said that Gideon's Lawkeeper is bad, even though I don't run him myself. The lawkeeper is a meta call, nothing more, nothing less, and it can be the right decision, even if it isn't universally. It's not an aggressive card, but it adds undeniable utility in the right meta.
Even if you can play a card on T2 persay, sometimes holding up mana for leak is better. Time Walking many decks and allowing yourself to do something better next turn when you have one more mana.
That's very very dependent on the matchup and whether you're on the play or on the draw. On the draw, I'd love to hold up leak mana to counter a Mirran Crusader or a Geist of Saint Traft against the Mirror, or a Phyrexian Crusader against infect, but on the play, there are not as many threatening 2-drops worth countering so it's better to save that leak mana on T3 if you can wait a turn to drop your own Geist/Crusader.
1: play Geist of Saint Traft
2: play Silverblade Paladin, choose not to pair it.
3: When the angel enters the battlefield, Paladin is unpaired, so you can choose to pair it with the angel token. Repeat every turn or until Paladin is removed.
The important things to remember are that pairing is optional and that as long as there is an unpaired creature with soulbond on the battlefield, any other creature that enters can be paired with it.
Why would we be running Dismember? What are we even removing with it? It doesn't hit most of the threats in the mirror and for the most part, hitting ourselves for 4 in that matchup is doing them a favor. It can remove a Delver of Secrets, but we'd probably be siding the Angel of Jubilation out in that matchup anyway. Beyond that, it doesn't hit Titans or Elesh Norn or really anything that we should actually be afraid of on the other side of the board except maybe against R/G aggro, but that's another deck where we don't really want to be taking the extra four life. It's extremely situational and I think we have better sideboard options and we definitely don't want it maindecked.
As for the angel itself, it's competing with Hero of Bladehold and it's not quite powerful enough to be a game winner at that stage. I'm not even sure it's fast enough to use as Birthing Pod hate, by turn 4 if they had a good hand they have already gained a decent bit of advantage. I'd like to test with two of her, but I'm not really enthusiastic about how well she'll really work there.
Negate is much better if we're pretty much saying that creature spells aren't worth trying to counter now due to Cavern of Souls. It's a hard counter for every other card type. The only big threat that Mana Leak might hit that Negate won't are titans, now that the bigger late-game threats in the mirror and zombies matchups are more likely to be uncounterable.
You're wrong about pod, it prevents sacrificing the creature as a cost: they have to pay the full mana for all of their creatures and can't tutor them.
Maybe, but it's still not worth running over the other options, the only reason to put it in the deck are budget/card availability issues, it simply isn't on the same level as Sword of War and Peace or Angelic Destiny.
All in all, this isn't too bad an assessment, but I think you've really misread the RG Aggro matchup, it's not as bad for us as pod, but it's not favorable. RG Aggro has a pretty good chance of being able to remove a Mirran Crusader with burn and a turn 2 sword of war and peace is nearly impossible to deal with adequately.
I think most green-based aggro runs red for Hellrider, Huntmaster of the Fells, and Galvanic Blast. Galvanic Blast removes a Mirran Crusader just fine, and these builds also tend to run 4x Sword of War and Peace. If they land one of those early, it's really hard for us to recover.
Mirran Crusader is still good, of course, but it's not impossible or even particularly difficult for R/G aggro to remove it. I still haven't figured out how to tune our deck for that matchup, but Crusader alone isn't the answer.
I just want to third this. Running three, I don't feel I see it quite often enough, but four would hurt our mana.
3x Mirran Crusader
3x Hero of Bladehold
2x Leonin Relic-Warder
2x Gideon's Lawkeeper
2x Grand Abolisher
2x Fiend Hunter
4x Champion of the Parish
2x Geist of Saint Traft
4x Doomed Traveler
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2x Oblivion Ring
4x Honor of the Pure
2x Sword of War and Peace
2x Angelic Destiny
Lands (23)
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Seachrome Coast
3x Moorland Haunt
11x Plains
1x Island
1x Oblivion Ring
2x Flashfreeze
2x Mana Leak
1x Divine Offering
2x Celestial Purge
1x Revoke Existence
1x Leonin Relic-Warder
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
2x Corrosive Gale
1x Angelic Destiny
1x Geist of Saint Traft
I'm especially uneasy about the sideboard, since I've never been terribly good at making them and this one isn't as thoughtfully put together as I'd like (essentially it's for tweaking proportions of cards already in the deck), but thoughts on the maindeck would be helpful as well. I've been trying to figure out if there's a way to make room for Elite Inquisitor or Loyal Cathar, but I'm not sure how I'd do it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
That's very very dependent on the matchup and whether you're on the play or on the draw. On the draw, I'd love to hold up leak mana to counter a Mirran Crusader or a Geist of Saint Traft against the Mirror, or a Phyrexian Crusader against infect, but on the play, there are not as many threatening 2-drops worth countering so it's better to save that leak mana on T3 if you can wait a turn to drop your own Geist/Crusader.