Why should you play R/W Norin?
Honestly? Not because it’s a super powerful deck (it isn't). It’s because:
1) it’s a fun deck. You get to do a lot of stuff every turn. Every creature that ETBs will trigger something. Attacking triggers Norin, then Norin blinks in EOT and triggers even more things.
2) Norin the Wary has a reputation as a joke card, which makes winning with it sweeter.
2) Card Choices a) Norin
Norin the Wary: The namesake of the deck. He blinks himself every turn (you can attack with him to force a blink), and the rest of the deck is full of cards that trigger on a creature ETBing.
Norin is very hard to get rid of if he isn’t countered. Pointing removal at him is useless because he’ll trigger and blink himself. Activated abilities (e.g. Grim Lavamancer) can destroy him, but if you have an instant, you can play it in response and save him.
b) ETB Triggers
Soul Warden, Soul’s Attendant: The first of your ETB trigger abusers, colloquially known as “Soul Sisters”. They’re not very powerful by themselves, but you get to play up to 8 copies of that effect, so you’re quite likely to draw one in your opening hand to play on turn 1 or 2. Life gain buys you time for your other ETB abusers to work their magic, and triggers Ajani’s Pridemate.
A single Soul sister protects you from the Deceiver Exarch + Splinter Twin combo, since the life gain cancels out the damage dealt by the attacks. Similarly, two Soul sisters will stop Pestermite + Splinter Twin.
Champion of the Parish: Norin and the Soul sisters are Humans, so what better card to include than Champion? Especially considering Norin blinks himself. Played on turn 1, he grows big pretty quickly. A big Champion can attack with impunity to trigger Norin and grow even bigger.
Genesis Chamber: While Champion of the Parish gives P/T boosts to itself, Genesis Chamber distributes P/T boosts in the form of Myr tokens instead. Your opponent gets tokens from Chamber as well, but few decks can match your own when it comes to triggering Chamber as many times as possible. Also, the tokens that your opponent generates will trigger the Soul sisters, so if you can match every token they produce with one of yours, you may be stalemated on board position, but you’re ahead on life total.
Ajani’s Pridemate: While Ajani’s Pridemate has no direct synergy with Norin or Champion, it’s great with 8 Soul sisters in the deck. Remember that Soul sisters trigger on your opponent’s creatures ETBing as well.
If you control a Soul sister and resolve Ajani's Pridemate, it gets a +1/+1 counter. Pridemate ETBs and triggers the Sister; at this point, it's already on the battlefield, so you can put a counter on it.
Mentor of the Meek: Mentor is a card advantage engine/mana sink. Most of your creatures will trigger it, even the tokens from Genesis Chamber. However, it suffers from the bad combination of costing 3 mana, doing nothing when it comes down (unless you have Genesis Chamber and one open mana), and dying to Lightning Bolt.
Purphoros, God of the Forge: Purphoros is played mostly for his “Pandemonium” effect, dealing 2 damage to your opponent whenever a creature ETBs under your control. Indestructibility is a nice bonus. He never turns into a creature in this deck.
The pump ability on Purphoros helps end the game faster once you have a board full of Myr tokens.
Purphoros is let down by his casting cost. He triggers off creatures ETBing, but you’ll spend your first few turns playing creatures BEFORE casting Purphoros, which means you don’t have a lot of other creatures left in your hand to trigger him. Getting Norin is crucial in order to make good use of Purphoros!
Auriok Champion, Suture Priest: More Soul Sister-like effects. These aren’t very good since they cost a full mana more.
Bitterblossom: Bitterblossom generates tokens all by itself, and the life loss is cancelled out by having a Soul sister on the battlefield. However, there’s no way to speed up the token production, which makes it a bit too “fair” for this deck. It also necessitates a black splash.
c) Ranger of Eos
Ranger of Eos: Ranger of Eos is straight up card advantage – even if it gets killed after it resolves, it’s already gotten you two cards from your library. It has a decently-sized body too.
Ranger of Eos works well in this deck because the 1-drops are high-impact. Outside of combos, most 1-mana creatures are terrible on the fifth turn. In this deck, however, Norin simply does so much, and Champion can easily grow large enough to rival a 4- or 5-drop.
Legion Loyalist: Loyalist breaks Myr token board stalls open. It also helps Champion or Pridemate push damage through, since they don’t have any form of evasion on their own.
Grim Lavamancer: Lavamancer doesn’t have much synergy with the rest of the deck. You don’t have a lot of instants/sorceries, so your graveyard doesn’t fill up that fast.
Proclamation of Rebirth, Immortal Servitude, Return to the Ranks: These cards revive your dead creatures. It does mean that you need to have had good creatures before that though – reviving a bunch of Soul sisters is not all that impressive.
Triggers on revived creatures work much like Scapeshift. The creatures all see each other entering the battlefield simultaneously. Killing one creature doesn’t counter the abilities that it triggered.
Name Human or Soldier with Cavern of Souls. Most of the time you'll go with Human, so that you can use Cavern to cast Norin and a white source for everything else. Maxing Caverns is a tempting idea, but keep in mind that Caverns only provides 1 for your sideboarded spells.
ETB tapped lands and Rugged Prairie can’t be used to cast a 1-drop on turn 1.
Plains are more important than Mountains. You have 3 white 1-drops, while Norin is your only red 1-drop (and can be cast later anyway). It’s still a good idea to have at least 1 basic Mountain, so you can fetch for it instead of paying 2 life for a shockland.
f) Sideboard
Dismember: Excess Paths. Dismember deals with high-toughness creatures that Bolt wouldn’t be able to kill. Electrickery: Destroys all opposing Myr tokens while leaving yours untouched. Wear // Tear: All-purpose artifact/enchantment hate. Rest in Peace: Grave hate. For combo decks like Storm and Living End. Control decks with Snapcaster Mage and Gifts Ungiven are also hurt by it. It’s good against Abzan since it stops Tarmogoyf and Scavenging Ooze from growing, Lingering Souls’ flashback, and delving for Tasigur, the Golden Fang. Stony Silence: Artifact hate. For Affinity and Tron. Suppression Field: Activated ability hate. Slows fetchlands, planeswalkers, Twin. Mark of Asylum: Protects your creatures from damage-based removal, like Pyroclasm or Anger of the Gods. Blood Moon: Strong card against 3-color/non-red/ramp decks.
3) Technical Play REMEMBER YOUR TRIGGERS!
This deck’s gimmick is ETB triggers, so make sure you don’t miss any of them! Especially not your opponent’s – Soul sisters trigger off your opponent’s creatures (including Myr tokens), and Norin exiles himself when they play a spell or attack.
1-drop Sequencing
Generally, you should play Champions first, then Sisters, then Norin. Champion and Sisters trigger off other creatures, so the earlier they come down, the more boosts they’ll pick up. Champion affects the board directly, so he’s more important than Sisters.
Play Norin before the combat phase if you’re attacking.
Don't fetch just to thin your deck
If you have 3 lands in play (1 of which is a fetch), a 4-drop and no lands in hand, don't crack the fetch. If you do so, you thin your deck of lands ever so slightly, reducing your chances of drawing into a fourth land. The 4-drops in this deck have very lenient casting costs; if you happen to draw a fourth land, you can just fetch for basic Plains and still cast all your subsequent spells with little trouble.
Multiple Norins
If you have a Norin on the battlefield and another in your hand, just cast it. There's no point holding on to it, and it triggers everything that you have once. The battlefield Norin will trigger and exile itself, then the Norin on the stack resolves. Attack or cast more spells to get the fresh Norin to exile himself.
At the end of the turn, both Norins come back in. The legend rule will kick in and you have to choose one of them to keep.
Split second and Norin
Removal spells with split second (e.g. Sudden Shock) can’t kill Norin. Split second does not stop trigger abilities from triggering.
4) Decklists
Norin the Wary hasn’t got a lot of high tournament finishes. Below is a rather straightforward version that I got from MTGTop8:
New Thread, all right! Norin Sisters is my favorite version of Soul Sisters, and I've played... pretty much all of them.
Honestly, I have to disagree with ThaliaismyWaifu, I find Junk/Jund matchups to be at least even, if not favorable. I do agree that burn is a great matchup for us, as well as Splinter Twin. Affinity is a tough deck, though. It's fast, and we give them extra fuel with the myr tokens; Merfolk is also suprisingly tough.
Here is my current list, constantly evolving. I think not mainboarding Bloodmoon is a huge mistake.
Some flex choices (up to the pilot) I think would be to cut the Serra's Ascendant for another Ranger, or a Makaeus, the Lunarch. I also choose to run 4 chambers, but I know many others run 3. I put spellskite in to deal with removal, combo, and it still triggers the Soul Sisters/Genesis Chamber combo. Also, I have recently purchased two Auriok Champions which will take the place of two one-drop Soul Sisters, but it's probably not "required" per say. I am considering testing Fling as well, for abrupt decay/path to exile/chump blockers, although it is risky. Also for chump blockers it was suggested on the last page of the old thread to try Temur Rage and I think that is a *very* strong card for this deck... it will probably find a home in my 75 somewhere.
I just put the deck together and have started playing against more varied opponents. Abzan seems like it's the deck to beat right now, and will at least be what a large percentage of people are playing at most given tournaments. How does RW Norin match up? How does the strategy change or what sideboard stuff do we bring in?
SBing tips
- Cut Loyalist if you don't need to be aggressive.
- Cut 4-drops if you need to be aggressive.
- If you cut all your 4-drops, consider cutting a land. Depends on what you bring in.
- If you side in a lot of noncreatures, cut a Genesis Chamber.
Detailed SBing guide (note, this hasn't been tested thoroughly, I'm using intuition for some of them)
Abzan
+3 Blood Moon (2 on the draw)
+2 Rest in Peace (3 on the draw)
-4 Lightning Bolt
-1 Legion Loyalist
RIP to hinder Goyf, Souls, Tasigur, Ooze.
Burn
+1 Spellskite
-1 Legion Loyalist
Not much to SB in. You should be favored with Sisters anyway.
Twin
+2 Electrickery
+1 Spellskite
+2 Wear//Tear
-2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
-2 Mentor of the Meek
-1 Legion Loyalist
Between Electrickery and Sisters you have both combo creatures covered. Maybe more Electrickery - it's also good against Clique if they keep that in.
Affinity
+2 Stony Silence
+3 Wear//Tear
+1 Electrickery
-4 Genesis Chamber
-2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
Genesis Chamber is horrible against them because they have a lot of creatures, and giving them more artifacts = more Cranial Plating damage, more guys for Ravager/Overseer/Master.
Infect
+3 Electrickery
+1 Spellskite
+2 Wear//Tear
-2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
-2 Ranger of Eos
-1 Ajani's Pridemate
-1 Cavern of Souls
Wear//Tear hits both Inkmoth and Wild Defiance. Overloaded Electrickery isn't stopped by Wild Defiance or Vines of Vastwood.
Amulet
+3 Blood Moon
+2 Wear//Tear
-2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
-2 Ranger of Eos
-1 Mentor of the Meek
Wear//Tear stops Amulet but not the Hive Mind combo (they retain priority). Blood Moon is an auto-win unless they casted Seal of Primordium beforehand.
RG Tron
+3 Blood Moon
+2 Stony Silence
+2 Wear//Tear
-4 Lightning Bolt
-2 Mentor of the Meek
-1 Genesis Chamber
I cut Mentor because they have Pyroclasm. Grove of the Burnwillows triggers your Pridemates if they tap it for colored mana. Loyalist lets your creatures attack past Wurm tokens.
Scapeshift
+3 Blood Moon
+1 Spellskite
-4 Lightning Bolt
Bolt is ineffective against them. Path ramps them towards Scapeshift, but there's nothing else to bring in. If you're facing something like Inferno Titan or Wurmcoil, there's nothing better than Path.
Remember, if you're above 18 life, they need 8 lands to kill you.
Yeah, you're right about that. I thought that if they vomited their hand on the first turn, they wouldn't have any creatures left in hand to trigger it, but they play something like 50% creatures, so every card they draw afterward is quite likely to give them a token out of Genesis Chamber.
I've been running this deck with black, using dark confidant for the card advantage instead of ranger of eos. Everything is such low cmc except for purphoros, I usually only take one damage. He's also human which triggers champion of the parish. It also opens up lingering souls as an interesting turn 5 play to deal minimum 8 damage (more with norin) after a turn 4 purphoros.
Edit: also how is boros charm not at least in the sideboard? This deck gets crushed by sweepers, charm is the best possible protection and can push through damage if necessary.
essence warden is a bad idea. she isn't human, we already have 8 soul sisters and many people cut it down to 7 or six, so 4 more is not necessary. Also splashing green doesn't do much for the deck. Most people will splash black for dark confidant and a few other black cards. generally the R/W version is perceived as the strongest build, and it also allows you to mainboard bloodmoon.
I'd be more inclined for a mentor or two than y. pyro in general. I was more or less thinking about the soul sister aspect ofthe deck. but with so little spells in these versions I'm seeing, I understand why both wouldn't be considered. just love the design, and play, and idea of th deck. just looking to give it more edges.
I love the norin aspect but with up to 8 soul sisters, I figured to focus on them more. should I be focusing more of my percentage on norin? just wanna make sure I play this deck correctly and to it's fullest
this deck wins off Champion of the Parish, Ajani Pridemate, genesis chamber myrs or Purphoros activations. Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor have little interaction with CoP (other than being humans themselves) their tokens are not human and do not trigger him. they also do not interact with genesis chamber, thats why most people don't even splash lingering souls in the black version.
Also, Norin is almost guaranteed to leave and enter play every turn (twice the turn you play him) and is constantly triggering your three win cons, the only requirement for him to leave is for you to attack (so even if you are starring down a massive wall of myr's Norin can attack and trigger himself). YP and MM only trigger to non-creature spells, and this deck really only runs 12 non creature spells, and sometimes less. Each of them will maybe get you 3-4 triggers in a game, optimistically. Unless you change the deck completely, and move away from a lot of the core cards of the deck i wouldn't recommend running them.
This would be my next Modern deck. I'll be emphasizing on the token aspect though without Champion of the Parish, Ajani Pridemates, Mentor of the Meek and Ranger of Eos. I'll use Spirit Bonds and Militia's Pride aside from Genesis Chamber and probably throw in a single Altar of the Brood but I think that's just cute. Add a Curse of Stalked Prey, Raid Bombardment and Path of Bravery. If it doesn't work, then I'd go the traditional way.
Don't run curse of stalked prey and raid bombardment together, tehy work terribly together. Also, if you take out CoP and AP what nontoken creatures do you plan on attacking with to trigger militia's pride? Norin? i hope not your soul sisters.
You can't always guarantee metalcraft, and the deck doesn't need a lot of removal. A lot of the time we can just chump block or just swing around large creatures, and our CoP and AP get massive over time if they don't die to removal and can just force their way through other peoples creatures, especially if you use Ranger of Eos to find the Legion Loyalist.
also, if you take our mentor of the meek and ranger of eos you do not have a way to gain card advantage, and you will either have to replace them with something else or you will most likely run out of gas and just die.
Please don't put altar of the brood in this deck. there are way better decks for that card.
Why is running both Curse of Stalked Prey and Raid Bombardment terrible? I'm curious.
Of course, Norin would be the trigger for Militia's Pride.
I understand your reason that you can't always guarantee metalcraft and I'm speaking as a person who has not played the deck but I'm just surprised. I think it is better than Path to Exile since I see lists above with it and my gut tells me that you'll hit metalcraft most of the time. I wouldn't mind tapping the creature since it would still delay one attacker or better yet I will wait until metalcraft is available since the deck has life gain anyway and some early attacks from a creature would be negated. I would run Dispatch on this deck over Path to Exile.
I get the point with Cop and AP getting massive but I want to take a different spin on the deck and focus more on the tokens hence Curse of Stalked Prey. If the deck won't work then I'll build the traditional list.
I might consider Mentor of the Meek and Ranger of Eos but for now my card choice is Military Intelligence.
I know it might be a mediocre card, but I think it is at home in the concept that I'm thinking of. MoM trumps it but is more vulnerable to removal.
I'm actually having second thoughts on Altar of the Brood but it is really tempting not to include it. I might remove it when the cards arrive.
Thanks for your post, I'll keep them in mind when I've decided to build a traditional Norin Sisters deck.
Zealous Persecution only affects creatures that are controlled by either player when that spell resolves. Since Norin is not under your control at that time, no.
I'd be more inclined for a mentor or two than y. pyro in general. I was more or less thinking about the soul sister aspect ofthe deck. but with so little spells in these versions I'm seeing, I understand why both wouldn't be considered. just love the design, and play, and idea of th deck. just looking to give it more edges.
I love the norin aspect but with up to 8 soul sisters, I figured to focus on them more. should I be focusing more of my percentage on norin? just wanna make sure I play this deck correctly and to it's fullest
It sounds like you would be more interested in a mono white soul sisters build.
I'm having a ton of fun playing this deck and it's definitely competitive, my only gripe is that it does not feel like there is a lot of room for innovation in the mainboard, the 2 city of brass are in purely because they are cheaper than battlefield forge on modo and after testing cavern of souls i was not really sold on it. My sideboard is a little loose but it hits most decks in the format hard, one way or another. getting back to my concern, with the mainboard so set in stone to a certain extent don't we become a little easy to hate out?
Creatures getting pumped by curse no longer trigger raid.
the main problem on relying on Norin to rigger militia's pride is that you can't cast spells in your first main phase.
this deck really only runs one artifact:genesis chamber. So if you fail to draw that then there's 0 chance of your dispatch getting metalcraft. or if someone destroys your chamber. PtE never fails.
The few downsides to military intelligence is that its not a creature, so does not trigger your chambers or soul sisters and it can only draw you maximum one card a turn, whereas the mentors can draw multiple. if you're still going to run it I also recommend taking a look at the older primer page 17 had some good ideas for a blue splash.'
Banner by Froxbite
Also known as: R/W Soul Sisters
Contents
1) What is R/W Norin?
2) Card Choices
3) Technical Play
4) Decklists
1) What is R/W Norin?
Why should you play R/W Norin?
Honestly? Not because it’s a super powerful deck (it isn't). It’s because:
1) it’s a fun deck. You get to do a lot of stuff every turn. Every creature that ETBs will trigger something. Attacking triggers Norin, then Norin blinks in EOT and triggers even more things.
2) Norin the Wary has a reputation as a joke card, which makes winning with it sweeter.
a) Norin
Norin is very hard to get rid of if he isn’t countered. Pointing removal at him is useless because he’ll trigger and blink himself. Activated abilities (e.g. Grim Lavamancer) can destroy him, but if you have an instant, you can play it in response and save him.
A single Soul sister protects you from the Deceiver Exarch + Splinter Twin combo, since the life gain cancels out the damage dealt by the attacks. Similarly, two Soul sisters will stop Pestermite + Splinter Twin.
Champion of the Parish: Norin and the Soul sisters are Humans, so what better card to include than Champion? Especially considering Norin blinks himself. Played on turn 1, he grows big pretty quickly. A big Champion can attack with impunity to trigger Norin and grow even bigger.
Genesis Chamber: While Champion of the Parish gives P/T boosts to itself, Genesis Chamber distributes P/T boosts in the form of Myr tokens instead. Your opponent gets tokens from Chamber as well, but few decks can match your own when it comes to triggering Chamber as many times as possible. Also, the tokens that your opponent generates will trigger the Soul sisters, so if you can match every token they produce with one of yours, you may be stalemated on board position, but you’re ahead on life total.
Ajani’s Pridemate: While Ajani’s Pridemate has no direct synergy with Norin or Champion, it’s great with 8 Soul sisters in the deck. Remember that Soul sisters trigger on your opponent’s creatures ETBing as well.
If you control a Soul sister and resolve Ajani's Pridemate, it gets a +1/+1 counter. Pridemate ETBs and triggers the Sister; at this point, it's already on the battlefield, so you can put a counter on it.
Mentor of the Meek: Mentor is a card advantage engine/mana sink. Most of your creatures will trigger it, even the tokens from Genesis Chamber. However, it suffers from the bad combination of costing 3 mana, doing nothing when it comes down (unless you have Genesis Chamber and one open mana), and dying to Lightning Bolt.
Purphoros, God of the Forge: Purphoros is played mostly for his “Pandemonium” effect, dealing 2 damage to your opponent whenever a creature ETBs under your control. Indestructibility is a nice bonus. He never turns into a creature in this deck.
The pump ability on Purphoros helps end the game faster once you have a board full of Myr tokens.
Purphoros is let down by his casting cost. He triggers off creatures ETBing, but you’ll spend your first few turns playing creatures BEFORE casting Purphoros, which means you don’t have a lot of other creatures left in your hand to trigger him. Getting Norin is crucial in order to make good use of Purphoros!
Auriok Champion, Suture Priest: More Soul Sister-like effects. These aren’t very good since they cost a full mana more.
Bitterblossom: Bitterblossom generates tokens all by itself, and the life loss is cancelled out by having a Soul sister on the battlefield. However, there’s no way to speed up the token production, which makes it a bit too “fair” for this deck. It also necessitates a black splash.
Ranger of Eos works well in this deck because the 1-drops are high-impact. Outside of combos, most 1-mana creatures are terrible on the fifth turn. In this deck, however, Norin simply does so much, and Champion can easily grow large enough to rival a 4- or 5-drop.
Legion Loyalist: Loyalist breaks Myr token board stalls open. It also helps Champion or Pridemate push damage through, since they don’t have any form of evasion on their own.
Grim Lavamancer: Lavamancer doesn’t have much synergy with the rest of the deck. You don’t have a lot of instants/sorceries, so your graveyard doesn’t fill up that fast.
Proclamation of Rebirth, Immortal Servitude, Return to the Ranks: These cards revive your dead creatures. It does mean that you need to have had good creatures before that though – reviving a bunch of Soul sisters is not all that impressive.
Triggers on revived creatures work much like Scapeshift. The creatures all see each other entering the battlefield simultaneously. Killing one creature doesn’t counter the abilities that it triggered.
Name Human or Soldier with Cavern of Souls. Most of the time you'll go with Human, so that you can use Cavern to cast Norin and a white source for everything else. Maxing Caverns is a tempting idea, but keep in mind that Caverns only provides 1 for your sideboarded spells.
ETB tapped lands and Rugged Prairie can’t be used to cast a 1-drop on turn 1.
Plains are more important than Mountains. You have 3 white 1-drops, while Norin is your only red 1-drop (and can be cast later anyway). It’s still a good idea to have at least 1 basic Mountain, so you can fetch for it instead of paying 2 life for a shockland.
Electrickery: Destroys all opposing Myr tokens while leaving yours untouched.
Wear // Tear: All-purpose artifact/enchantment hate.
Rest in Peace: Grave hate. For combo decks like Storm and Living End. Control decks with Snapcaster Mage and Gifts Ungiven are also hurt by it. It’s good against Abzan since it stops Tarmogoyf and Scavenging Ooze from growing, Lingering Souls’ flashback, and delving for Tasigur, the Golden Fang.
Stony Silence: Artifact hate. For Affinity and Tron.
Suppression Field: Activated ability hate. Slows fetchlands, planeswalkers, Twin.
Mark of Asylum: Protects your creatures from damage-based removal, like Pyroclasm or Anger of the Gods.
Blood Moon: Strong card against 3-color/non-red/ramp decks.
REMEMBER YOUR TRIGGERS!
Play Norin before the combat phase if you’re attacking.
At the end of the turn, both Norins come back in. The legend rule will kick in and you have to choose one of them to keep.
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Cavern of Souls
2 Plains
2 Mountain
4 Norin the Wary
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Soul Warden
4 Champion of the Parish
3 Ajani's Pridemate
4 Genesis Chamber
2 Mentor of the Meek
2 Ranger of Eos
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
2 Legion Loyalist
4 Path to Exile
1 Sword of War and Peace
3 Electrickery
3 Stony Silence
3 Rest in Peace
2 Spellskite
4 Wear / Tear
You can search for more Norin decks here. They fit onto one page.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Thanks to IM for updating the primer and giving it such a great makeover.
Honestly, I have to disagree with ThaliaismyWaifu, I find Junk/Jund matchups to be at least even, if not favorable. I do agree that burn is a great matchup for us, as well as Splinter Twin. Affinity is a tough deck, though. It's fast, and we give them extra fuel with the myr tokens; Merfolk is also suprisingly tough.
Here is my current list, constantly evolving. I think not mainboarding Bloodmoon is a huge mistake.
3 Norin the Wary
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Soul Warden
4 Ajani's Pridemate
2 Ranger of Eos
2 Spellskite
1 Serra's Ascendant
Other
4 Genesis Chamber
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
2 Brave the Elements
1 Boros Charm
Sorcery
2 Bloodmoon
Lands
4 Arid Mesa
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Cavern of Souls
3 Tectonic Edge
6 Plains
2 Rest in Peace
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Dismember
2 Patrician's Scorn
2 Electrickery
3 Wear // Tear
Some flex choices (up to the pilot) I think would be to cut the Serra's Ascendant for another Ranger, or a Makaeus, the Lunarch. I also choose to run 4 chambers, but I know many others run 3. I put spellskite in to deal with removal, combo, and it still triggers the Soul Sisters/Genesis Chamber combo. Also, I have recently purchased two Auriok Champions which will take the place of two one-drop Soul Sisters, but it's probably not "required" per say. I am considering testing Fling as well, for abrupt decay/path to exile/chump blockers, although it is risky. Also for chump blockers it was suggested on the last page of the old thread to try Temur Rage and I think that is a *very* strong card for this deck... it will probably find a home in my 75 somewhere.
[center][color=Blue]
Edric Spy and die
Azami the lady of the draw
Naya Zoo
Past decks
Orloro
sharuum the hegemond
Mono black control
splinter twin
Edit: Link to deck: http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=8779&d=250123&f=MO
I just put the deck together and have started playing against more varied opponents. Abzan seems like it's the deck to beat right now, and will at least be what a large percentage of people are playing at most given tournaments. How does RW Norin match up? How does the strategy change or what sideboard stuff do we bring in?
Go Norin!
3 Marsh Flats
4 Sacred Foundry
2 Clifftop Retreat
2 Cavern of Souls
5 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Norin the Wary
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Soul Warden
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Ajani's Pridemate
4 Genesis Chamber
2 Mentor of the Meek
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
2 Ranger of Eos
1 Legion Loyalist
4 Path to Exile
3 Electrickery
2 Stony Silence
3 Rest in Peace
3 Wear // Tear
3 Blood Moon
1 Spellskite
SBing tips
- Cut Loyalist if you don't need to be aggressive.
- Cut 4-drops if you need to be aggressive.
- If you cut all your 4-drops, consider cutting a land. Depends on what you bring in.
- If you side in a lot of noncreatures, cut a Genesis Chamber.
Detailed SBing guide (note, this hasn't been tested thoroughly, I'm using intuition for some of them)
+3 Blood Moon (2 on the draw)
+2 Rest in Peace (3 on the draw)
-4 Lightning Bolt
-1 Legion Loyalist
RIP to hinder Goyf, Souls, Tasigur, Ooze.
Burn
+1 Spellskite
-1 Legion Loyalist
Not much to SB in. You should be favored with Sisters anyway.
Twin
+2 Electrickery
+1 Spellskite
+2 Wear//Tear
-2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
-2 Mentor of the Meek
-1 Legion Loyalist
Between Electrickery and Sisters you have both combo creatures covered. Maybe more Electrickery - it's also good against Clique if they keep that in.
Affinity
+2 Stony Silence
+3 Wear//Tear
+1 Electrickery
-4 Genesis Chamber
-2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
Genesis Chamber is horrible against them because they have a lot of creatures, and giving them more artifacts = more Cranial Plating damage, more guys for Ravager/Overseer/Master.
Infect
+3 Electrickery
+1 Spellskite
+2 Wear//Tear
-2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
-2 Ranger of Eos
-1 Ajani's Pridemate
-1 Cavern of Souls
Wear//Tear hits both Inkmoth and Wild Defiance. Overloaded Electrickery isn't stopped by Wild Defiance or Vines of Vastwood.
Amulet
+3 Blood Moon
+2 Wear//Tear
-2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
-2 Ranger of Eos
-1 Mentor of the Meek
Wear//Tear stops Amulet but not the Hive Mind combo (they retain priority). Blood Moon is an auto-win unless they casted Seal of Primordium beforehand.
RG Tron
+3 Blood Moon
+2 Stony Silence
+2 Wear//Tear
-4 Lightning Bolt
-2 Mentor of the Meek
-1 Genesis Chamber
I cut Mentor because they have Pyroclasm. Grove of the Burnwillows triggers your Pridemates if they tap it for colored mana. Loyalist lets your creatures attack past Wurm tokens.
Scapeshift
+3 Blood Moon
+1 Spellskite
-4 Lightning Bolt
Bolt is ineffective against them. Path ramps them towards Scapeshift, but there's nothing else to bring in. If you're facing something like Inferno Titan or Wurmcoil, there's nothing better than Path.
Remember, if you're above 18 life, they need 8 lands to kill you.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Edit: also how is boros charm not at least in the sideboard? This deck gets crushed by sweepers, charm is the best possible protection and can push through damage if necessary.
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2 Mountain
4 Sacred Foundry
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Arid Mesa
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Soul Warden
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Norin the Wary
2 Auriok Champion
3 Ajani's Pridemate
4 Genesis Chamber
2 Mentor of the Meek
2 Ranger of Eos
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Legion Loyalist
1 Path to Exile
2 Spirit Bonds
1 Blood Moon
1 Path to Exile
1 Blood Moon
3 Sudden Shock
2 Celestial Purge
2 Wear // Tear
2 Boros Charm
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Spellskite
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Mana Tithe
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
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| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
I love the norin aspect but with up to 8 soul sisters, I figured to focus on them more. should I be focusing more of my percentage on norin? just wanna make sure I play this deck correctly and to it's fullest
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Also, Norin is almost guaranteed to leave and enter play every turn (twice the turn you play him) and is constantly triggering your three win cons, the only requirement for him to leave is for you to attack (so even if you are starring down a massive wall of myr's Norin can attack and trigger himself). YP and MM only trigger to non-creature spells, and this deck really only runs 12 non creature spells, and sometimes less. Each of them will maybe get you 3-4 triggers in a game, optimistically. Unless you change the deck completely, and move away from a lot of the core cards of the deck i wouldn't recommend running them.
Is Dispatch not a good removal in this deck?
You can't always guarantee metalcraft, and the deck doesn't need a lot of removal. A lot of the time we can just chump block or just swing around large creatures, and our CoP and AP get massive over time if they don't die to removal and can just force their way through other peoples creatures, especially if you use Ranger of Eos to find the Legion Loyalist.
also, if you take our mentor of the meek and ranger of eos you do not have a way to gain card advantage, and you will either have to replace them with something else or you will most likely run out of gas and just die.
Please don't put altar of the brood in this deck. there are way better decks for that card.
Of course, Norin would be the trigger for Militia's Pride.
I understand your reason that you can't always guarantee metalcraft and I'm speaking as a person who has not played the deck but I'm just surprised. I think it is better than Path to Exile since I see lists above with it and my gut tells me that you'll hit metalcraft most of the time. I wouldn't mind tapping the creature since it would still delay one attacker or better yet I will wait until metalcraft is available since the deck has life gain anyway and some early attacks from a creature would be negated. I would run Dispatch on this deck over Path to Exile.
I get the point with Cop and AP getting massive but I want to take a different spin on the deck and focus more on the tokens hence Curse of Stalked Prey. If the deck won't work then I'll build the traditional list.
I might consider Mentor of the Meek and Ranger of Eos but for now my card choice is Military Intelligence.
I know it might be a mediocre card, but I think it is at home in the concept that I'm thinking of. MoM trumps it but is more vulnerable to removal.
I'm actually having second thoughts on Altar of the Brood but it is really tempting not to include it. I might remove it when the cards arrive.
Thanks for your post, I'll keep them in mind when I've decided to build a traditional Norin Sisters deck.
It sounds like you would be more interested in a mono white soul sisters build.
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Norin the Wary
2 Ranger of Eos
2 Mentor of the Meek
4 Genesis Chamber
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Soul Warden
4 Ajani's Pridemate
3 Ghost Quarter
6 Plains
2 Mountain
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
2 City of Brass
1 Legion Loyalist
1 Boros Charm
3 Stony Silence
3 Rest in Peace
3 Wear/Tear
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Boros Charm
the main problem on relying on Norin to rigger militia's pride is that you can't cast spells in your first main phase.
this deck really only runs one artifact:genesis chamber. So if you fail to draw that then there's 0 chance of your dispatch getting metalcraft. or if someone destroys your chamber. PtE never fails.
The few downsides to military intelligence is that its not a creature, so does not trigger your chambers or soul sisters and it can only draw you maximum one card a turn, whereas the mentors can draw multiple. if you're still going to run it I also recommend taking a look at the older primer page 17 had some good ideas for a blue splash.'
let us know how testing goes.