MTG Salvation

I play the BW Version so 4 GQ are hard...



Btw: What do you think about this? http://www.magicspoiler.com/mtg-spoiler/oketras-monument/

Quote from Froop91 »

Btw: What do you think about this? http://www.magicspoiler.com/mtg-spoiler/oketras-monument/

Not what Soul Sisters needs. Our spells are relatively cheap and 1/1 Warrior tokens is not quite impressive. If I want a token generator, I'd rather splash black and play Bitterblossom instead.

[quote from="Froop91 »"
Btw: What do you think about this? http://www.magicspoiler.com/mtg-spoiler/oketras-monument/[/quote]

This monument seems to be a great card to play on RW Norin Sisters... Monument into Purphoros into 4x squadron hawks = 16 damage, although those are 3 turns doing "nothing".

Here it could work this way as well - Monument at 3 into 4 hawks + 4 warriors while you have honor of the pure... only a wrath can stop you! Also, the tokens are white, while genesis chamber are artifacts, so maybe this could be an upgrade on curve.

I would agree. If I wanted more tokens, it's either Bitterblossom or Secure the Wastes. Making our spells cheaper isn't that strong for us, especially if you're using your entire turn 3 for it. The stuff you want to make cheaper (Archangel, Ranger, Spectral) are still going to come down on their same turn for the most part.

New Gideon is absurdly good, but probably not f0r us.
1WW
+1: Prevent all damage from target permanent until your next turn
+0: Gideon becomes a 4/4 indestructible blah blah Gideon going to Gideon.
+0: You get an emblem that reads "As long as you control a Gideon planeswalker, you cannot lose the game and your opponent's can't win.

That zero bricks combo pretty well and that +1 can do the same thing against something like a Valakut they played early or a Wurmcoil or something. Might merit some sideboard testing? We can't keep Gideon alive nearly as well as a hard control deck can, which is going to be the big difference maker.

Being able to do something against Valakut and Wurmcoil makes him interesting, but I still believe Gideon from BFZ is the best one for Soul Sisters!

Quote from tidalforge »

[Decklist to come]

It's a fairly stock list aside from the inclusion of a Gideon, Bro of Zendikar. As for my matchups that day at the LGS, I was up against Bant Eldrazi and 2 Esper Control decks.

I'm open to any suggestions on tweaking my current deck. The meta here is really open though and people here normally own several decks (I have 5 decks myself). I find that my deck in particular usually doesn't have enough answers for planeswalkers aside from Suppression Field, so hoping for suggestions on what to remove and what to include (or do I ignore them altogether?).

I think 1 Martyr is a bit pointless. The only use is for tutoring with Ranger, and by the time you cast Ranger, your hand is usually quite depleted, negating the usefulness of Martyr. I've brought it up before, but I think the right numbers are either 3-4 or 0.

I am a strong advocate for the 1-of martyr. The times the 1-of is useful (and game changing) is against control and sometimes midrange, both matches where you are not dumping your hand, whereas 3-4 martyrs are often dead against control but are very useful against combo and tron.

I just realized I don't have Death Shadow aggro in the primer. I've played it a few times and I and my opponents agreed that it seems bad for them. I'm going to rate it 4 stars and talk about how their non-Fatal Push removal doesn't kill or best threats and we can go wide against them, as well. Anyone else have input? Any other matches I'm missing?

What do you think about an Abzan build? We can take the damage from shocks/fetches pretty easily, and it allows us to run Abrupt Decay, Dromoka's Command, Orzhov Charm, and lots of other good cards. Is Spectral Procession still good enough in an Abzan version? Also, what do you think about Bitterblossom, and if I'm running 4 of each white sister is it worth it to run 1-2 additional Essence Wardens?

I personally don't like fetch/shock. You want to be able to reach 30 life with a single martyr.. If you fetch/shock to 17 and have the chance to have a non white card in hand, that's going to be hard to get... If you play abzan, you need to take out martyr/serra ascendant i guess...

I think going into 3 colors could be fine, but I'd be wary if your reasons to do so are "just to do it" rather than to adapt to a very specific meta. I think any 2 color splash versions are sufficient enough to combat most niche environments. Besides Abrupt Decay, I can't think of many cards that warrant the hassle of going 3 colors.

Essence Warden: Unless you were going really heavy into green, I wouldn't play it. Also, I don't see myself ever needing more than 8 1-drop sisters.

Orzhov Charm and Dromoka's Command: Both very good cards and worth at least a 1-of in 2 color lists, but going three color and including them both seems a little much.

I think in an Abzan version, I would replace the Procession with Lingering Souls since they are pretty equal in power level (especially in a slower list) and is easier on the mana.

I've never seen an Abzan list, but would love access to abrupt decay. Card solves a lot of our problems. I'm with Potato in that you don't run Spectral. I think you're going to need slots so much that you just run 6-8 1-drop sisters. Would the black just be for decay and Lingering Souls? If so, you might consider trying to use Kitchen Finks to grind value and Pridemate triggers - he gets you two triggers for Pridemate on turn 3, which is so important in so many games and one of the key reasons Lingering Souls is useful in my builds.

Edit: Thought about it more after submitting: as much as I usually advocate against mashing sisters with other strategies, Melira solves one of our worst matches and Viscera Seer is fetchable with Ranger... Archangel makes the combo infinite, too.

Damn. I wrote a long, thought out response to this Melira Sisters idea this morning, and apparently it didn't post. The short version is that the mana is a lot harder than I think most people are realizing, and, as is true with nearly every Half-Sisters deck, either Sisters or Melira Combo would be much stronger on their own, because both are synergy decks, and that already carries the risk of drawing your wrong half. Jamming them together doubles the likelihood that your deck plays a bunch of 1/1s and 2/2s that don't do anything and you lose.

What are people's preferred way to fight Grixis and Jund right now? I find either the Rest in Peace or Return to the Ranks can be huge, but I am tempted to pack multiples of both, and don't want to brick my own draws. What are your thoughts on sideboarding vs midrange decks that grind advantage from the graveyard?

I play Grixis and here's what I think:
- Play Rest in Peace. It slows us down by a lot. 6 mana and 7 mana Tasigur and Angler is terrible. We have know way to deal with a resolved RIP except for Engineered Explosives.
- Tokens are VERY good against Grixis, make sure to resolve it.
- Ghost Quarter on a dual land can be great too, Grixis plays 4 basics only.
- If you play black, Lingering Souls is an all star here.

I do feel that Rest In Peace and Return is enough against grindy decks. I used to pack in a copy of Dismember too which helps against Jund.

Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is one of the best cards against both of those decks, as is just a simple Auriok Champion.

Yeah, I struggle a lot more against Jund than Grixis, due to Grixis' default of only leaning on one or two threats that I can race. Rest in Peace is a stud, Blessed Alliance is actually really good as Path 5-6 or "I just swung with Pridemate, untap it to block and kill." Celestial Purge is similarly good. I don't think you bring in both RiP and Return, but Return in favor of RiP seems impactful (though RIP turns Ooze into a permanent 2/2 and Goyf into a permanent 0/1, which is why I favor it.) Locking in tokens while not over extending seems very strong, as well.

Where is everyone on Leyline? I've been without it and haven't missed it too much, but I have had some hands get really worse off for a Thoughtseize/Inquisition. I don't think I'd bring it in against Grixis, but it seems like an all star against Jund due to Lili. I've been down on Mark of Asylum and Brave the Elements (both 1-ofs in my board) and might experiment with the switch because it has game against Tron's walkers and Eldrazi.

I'm with you, Xarn, but people have been very encouraging about my experiments with sub-optimal builds, so I didn't want to neg too hard. But I definitely believe Abzan is worse than just a more traditional build, even though Abrupt Decay is usually as good as advertised.

I've been considering Leyline again too. There's a ton of discard running around, and many of the games I've lost recently were double-Thoughtseize games. The obvious problem with Leyline is that it's only effective as a turn zero play, and it takes up an ungodly number of sideboard slots. 2much4me. I think the move is to play more things that looks great coming off the top instead. But I'm by no means married to that decision. I don't know man-- I just cut all my Blessed Alliances because I hadn't seen anyone play Infect since the G-Probe ban, then lost to it at FNM. So, basically I feel like I should be playing multiple Stonys and RiPs, at least 1 O-Ring and 1 Disenchant effect, and beyond that I have no idea.

I've never run more than 2 Leylines, which is actively mediocre, but gets there enough to justify it. I'm all over the place with my non-locked in slots, as well.