What are people's thoughts on running 4 Angel's Grace in the sideboard as a catchall for combo matchups. It's an autowin against Ad Nauseum and Hive Mind and pretty good at combating storm as well. Obviously the split second makes it better against most combo decks due to it's un-counterability.
I also have some other questionable choices that I would love some opinions on.
1) Fracturing Gust: Obviously slow, but a hilarious blowout in the affinity matchup. Essentially 3 more wraths to bring in..if wrath cost an extra mana was instant and hit their drums, equipment, and activated land while gaining life too.
2) A miser's Leyline of Sanctity in the main. Could be good against unprepared opponents and it's a free G1 win against storm, ad nauseum, and those annoying RB discard decks. Also makes life difficult for Gifts players.
What are people's thoughts on running 4 Angel's Grace in the sideboard as a catchall for combo matchups. It's an autowin against Ad Nauseum and Hive Mind and pretty good at combating storm as well. Obviously the split second makes it better against most combo decks due to it's un-counterability.
I run 3 Angel's Grace in my SB. I originally ran Rule of Law; however, due to the extreme speed of the format, I wanted to make sure I had the fast card to prevent the worst situation. I also SB 3 Silence. Between those 2 cards being sided in, you shouldn't have a problem against UR Storm
2) A miser's Leyline of Sanctity in the main. Could be good against unprepared opponents and it's a free G1 win against storm, ad nauseum, and those annoying RB discard decks. Also makes life difficult for Gifts players.
When Martyr-Proc was first hitting the scene, I saw a few builds MD'ing Leyline. Sometimes up to 3-4. I haven't recently, but it's worth a shot if you know your meta well.
Leyline is very strong against Gifts and alright against Storm, but I feel its strongest application is against discard-heavy decks like Jund or Grixis. I run two in the board of my Martyr hybrid.
Leyline is very strong against Gifts and alright against Storm, but I feel its strongest application is against discard-heavy decks like Jund or Grixis. I run two in the board of my Martyr hybrid.
It's not as popular lately, but also helpful against The Rock (I think most people dropped it for Jund). RDW/Burn seems to go 3-1 and 4-0 on MTGO occasionally, and Leyline just shreds that deck. My roommmate plays it, and every time I start off with Leyline in my opening hand, I think he's ready to flip the table out of frustration.
Leyline is good against:
- Gifts
- Jund
- Storm
- Grixis
- Rock
- Burn (RDW, Mono R Burn, B/R Burn, whatever they call it these days)
Leyline is a must for your SB. It wouldn't be a bad decision to run a few in your MD, and have the remaining in your SB. It's always helpful.
So I'm looking to get into this archetype. I'll be converting from my Soul Sisters build, listed below. I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for my Proc build, listed second. It seems this community has fine-tuned the maindeck, as there are very few variations I'm seeing,so that part of my list is pretty stock. The sideboard however is where I'm uncertain. I know that as Soul Sisters, my hardest match-ups were Zoo and Jund, but that was because of Punishing Fire..
I guess it'd be silly of me to ask which of these two builds you'd find optimum for the current format, as that'd be obvious. But I'm just wondering if, with the banning of Punishing Fire, the Soul Sisters might have a better chance at competitive. What do you guys think?
Quick question: What build would you guys recommend for a metagame of predominantly aggro (Zoo, Jund, Burn, Boros), with a smattering of Storm combo, twin, and Teachings? I'mm currently looking at a tweaked version of Alan Warnock's list with MD Auriok Champions. Any advice from the experts would be greatly appreciated.
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I guess it'd be silly of me to ask which of these two builds you'd find optimum for the current format, as that'd be obvious. But I'm just wondering if, with the banning of Punishing Fire, the Soul Sisters might have a better chance at competitive. What do you guys think?
Soul Sisters probably got a shot in the arm with the PK Fire ban, but so did Martyr Proc. I personally believe Martyr Proc is the much more competitive deck, as it often has as many threats as Soul Sisters, but it has a recursion engine while Soul Sisters has none, its Serra Ascendants will be 6/6's by late game guaranteed, and it is much better built to grind games out to a point where its threats matter.
When I tried Soul Sisters, it lost to practically any aggro deck with bigger creatures and removal. Even Doran Rock was a challenge, as it eventually kept swinging with 5/5's or worse and no amount of life gain could stem the bleeding.
I've been trying out the Warnock deck with the following changes:
-2 Figure of Destiny
+2 Student of Warfare
(budget)
-2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
+2 Mentor of the Meek
(budget)
-2 Path to Exile
+2 Condemn
(testing)
I wasn't quite ready to splash out for the top end cards unless I liked the deck. After some playtesting, I've come to the following conclusions:
(1) I like the deck. It is the real deal. Props to Warnock for coming up with it. For me it combines that reassuring feeling of playing a control deck (the "I can deal with anything" mentality) with the joy of beating down with 1 CMC dudes.
(2) My mentality when I play is that I am basically trying to stall as efficiently as possible until I can get the recursion engine or Serra Ascendant online (or both, ideally), at which point my opponent concedes. The card advantage generated by Ranger of Eos and Squadron Hawk offsets the cards I have to spend to stay alive. Is this how everybody else plays it? If I can get the turn 2 3/3 student or 6/6 ascendant I'll go for it, but otherwise I tend to play a pretty reactive game.
(3) Condemn seems to be a little better than Path in most situations, but when Path is better it's usually a game-breaking scenario (sulfur elemental, melira). I think 4xPath is the way to go.
(4) Mentor of the Meek is pretty sweet. He demands immediate removal; otherwise he turns into a friendlier version of Bob, since we're dropping a 1/1 on the board almost every turn. I never really missed Elspeth, although I might not have hit the right situation--where does she really shine?
(5) It feels like we are pre-boarded against aggro. Between Emeria and Proclamation we also have a game plan against control. The problem for me is combo. U/R storm isn't so bad (can often martyr out of early storm range), but Melira pod is kind of brutal. We don't put early pressure on them and can't do much to disrupt the combo.
To address point (5), I'm going to try taking out a Wrath and a Prison, and adding in two Oblivion Rings. It weakens us a little bit against aggro but gives us outs to some of the nasty enchantments/artifacts out there. I'm also going to try out one Mikaeus in for a Student, it just seems like he should be sweet in this deck.
Elspeth is here for consistency. When you get a hand with a bunch of Martyr of Sands, a Weathered Wayfarer, Elspeth, and not much else, Elspeth will save your butt against aggro by making eight hundred soldier tokens and eventually making everyone Wrath-proof. If Elspeth is the last thing to resolve against control (let's say they've got the Tectonic Edges for Emeria and the board wipes for Proclamation), you also tend to win.
Mentor of the Meek needs a constant stream of creatures to be good. (That I learned when I tried to build a Deadguy Ale deck in Legacy that abused him.) Elspeth is good all the time.
The big cards are cute, but by the time you get to that much mana you should have some kind of recursion engine up that will allow you to grind out the win.
I have some modest tournament results to report with the following list:
This is a slightly tweaked version of the Warnock list. After playing with it more, I would drop the Condemn for Path to Exile, and try to fit a couple O-Rings in the board. I still have some fondness for Mentor of the Meek, it seems like we have a little dude hitting the battlefield every turn if we want it.
I finished 2-1 splitting the packs at the end, beating Affinity 2-0, losing to Jund 0-1 (time), beating Zoo 2-1.
Specific reports: Round one: Affinity
The Affinity matchup felt really easy. He vomited out his hand game one, got a couple Cranial Platings and Steel Overseer in play, and beat me down to 4. I just chumped until turn five, wrathed, and ghost quartered his inkmoth nexus. Next turn Martyrs got me back up to 30+ with him in topdeck mode, making it pretty easy from there on out.
Game two was pretty much the same, with a ghostly prison putting an early chokepoint on the attack, and I was playing in the 30s/40s all game.
Round two: Jund
This was tough. Game one I got stuck on three lands for a long time while he did his thing. I was very sad when I had to rebirth three chumpers with Mentor in play and no mana free. I finally managed to get four mana and fire a wrath off at one life. I held on for a while, but I could never get ahead on the tempo and deal with his early Liliana. Game two was complicated but I think well in hand (good sized Mikaeus, Mentor, and 3 processioned guys vs. Liliana and his team on the gp lockdown) but I ran out of time. The deck plays a little slow, and it doesn't help when mtgo goes into lag mode.
I would want a couple more O-rings for this matchup to deal with Liliana. Otherwise I think this is doable, but the discard and overall efficiency of Jund make for a difficult game. I'm not sure what other sideboard options would help for this one.
Round 3: Zoo
This was pretty easy. Game 1 I got greedy and kept a one land hand (but it was so good...). Died before getting land 2, as I deserved.
Game 2 was a classic Martyr-Proc game, I had mana flood + 2 martyrs to start out. Chump, gain, hawks, chump, gain, ranger, etc. I never got below 20 life despite not stabilizing the board until turn 8 or 9. He had a sulfur elemental at the end, but that just gave me 3x 7/5 Serra Ascendant's.
Game 3 the hate came out to play. Three ghostly prisons kept him on lockdown after an early martyr put me up to 35. He chipped away, but couldn't get me before a couple rangers showed up with the rest of the posse.
Round 4 I split because I wanted to make sure I got some packs.
One thing I really like after playing some more with this deck is its consistency. 23 lands, one color, and a low curve add up to very few mulligans. I think almost any 2-5 land hand is keepable. The one landers should be pitched.
The Mentor really commands removal. It's kind of sad that he dies all the time, but I think the priority that opponents put on killing him indicates his power (caveat: I put him in over Elspeth purely for budget reasons, so I can't give an informed comparison between the two). When you get into a late game standoff type situation he's great at powering through your deck to get some gas. He's also nice to have down when you're playing chump blockers to buy time to get to your answers.
Mikaeus also shines when you have a bunch of guys on both sides. +1/+1 counters on Student and Ascendant are pretty sweet. I kind of like the toolbox approach with the Ranger--who is the straw that stirs the drink in this deck, IMO.
Everybody and their grandmother is trying to run Ghost Quarter and Tectonic edge. For this reason, we should probably always be running Emeria, the sky ruin as a four of. We also need to realize that we cannot rely on it too heavily as our late game plan.
Figure of Destiny:
Figure of destiny can become a 4/4 more quickly than student of warfare. This means it dodges lightning bolt and other 3 damage burn spells, has a better chance against Tarmogoyf, deals more damage and can trade with 4/4 if needed. Student of warfare is a 3/3 first striker, which makes it more vulnerable to more creatures and more removal spells.
At the ultimate form figure of destiny puts you in a definite position to win, if it sticks, it give your opponent a 3 or less turn clock. It isn't vulnerable to any burn spells at this point. Student of Warfare's ultimate form cannot profitably fight through a Doran, the siege tower or a well grown Tarmogoyf. It is also going to be chump blocked forever, since it has no evasion. It is also vulnerable to a few more burn and removal spells than a full grown figure of destiny.
Figure of destiny is alot better at putting pressure and alot better at being a win condition than student of warfare. & extra mana is too much to pay for something that can die more easily and dosen't ensure any wins.
The only advantage is that student of warfare can have spare mana dropped onto it, but it is a worse investment than figure of destiny.
Onto other thoughts, can someone sell me into Squadron Hawk in this deck. I am comparing them to 3 Baneslayer Angel and 1 Felidar Sovereign. The angel and sovereign can win you the game on their own and are impossible to attack into profitably. They serve as another way to survive if martyr is stopped somehow. The hawks just seem to make martyr better, which seems vastly unnecessary as we usually have more than enough white cards to martyr good. Not sure how good Mistveil Plains shenanigans are with the hawks. Not too mention recurring Baneslayer angel or felidar sovereign with emeria will pretty much ensure you win in the late game, unless they run a bunch of Paths and O-rings. But maybe i'm undervaluing the hawks. Any comments?
For reference here is the decklist i plan to take to the upcoming PTQ:
I believe you are underestimating the difficulty of surviving until turn 5 or 6 in a decent board and hand position. The hawks provide you with four (or infinite, with the mistveil plains) chump blockers at the cost of one card, and also have excellent synergy with the Martyr--there's a big difference between Martyring for 9 and Martyring for 15, especially since we really want to be above 30. If you see a Squadron Hawk in your opening hand, even with no other support, you can be pretty sure you will reach turn five with a full grip and reasonable life total.
Baneslayer Angel and Felidar Sovereign strike me as win-more cards (to be fair, my beloved Mentor of the Meek might fall in this category as well). I recommend playtesting the deck with the hawks, I suspect you will find that inevitability is not a problem. If you're worried about inevitability I would also play with the full set of Rebirths--nothing says inevitable like forecasting a Martyr back every turn for 10+, then bringing back Ascendants as needed until they concede.
Student vs. Figure is I think a matter of taste--to be honest both of them are just going to eat a bolt as they hit the battleground in the early game, but I like that the student quickly turns into a 3/3 first striker. It can be early pressure vs. combo or a good blocker (or, like I said, bolt fodder) vs. zoo.
Do we have any good options against Tron? This deck doesn't appear to race or interact with them nearly well enough and Tron is putting up decent results on MTGO.
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On the other hand, that guy eats removal all the time, while you can pop Kami in response and fog for a turn.
Sentry doesn't prevent swings. Kami does. Sentry possibly kills guys. Kami never does. Take your pick.
I also have some other questionable choices that I would love some opinions on.
1) Fracturing Gust: Obviously slow, but a hilarious blowout in the affinity matchup. Essentially 3 more wraths to bring in..if wrath cost an extra mana was instant and hit their drums, equipment, and activated land while gaining life too.
2) A miser's Leyline of Sanctity in the main. Could be good against unprepared opponents and it's a free G1 win against storm, ad nauseum, and those annoying RB discard decks. Also makes life difficult for Gifts players.
I run 3 Angel's Grace in my SB. I originally ran Rule of Law; however, due to the extreme speed of the format, I wanted to make sure I had the fast card to prevent the worst situation. I also SB 3 Silence. Between those 2 cards being sided in, you shouldn't have a problem against UR Storm
When Martyr-Proc was first hitting the scene, I saw a few builds MD'ing Leyline. Sometimes up to 3-4. I haven't recently, but it's worth a shot if you know your meta well.
ex-Moderator
Legacy love.
It's not as popular lately, but also helpful against The Rock (I think most people dropped it for Jund). RDW/Burn seems to go 3-1 and 4-0 on MTGO occasionally, and Leyline just shreds that deck. My roommmate plays it, and every time I start off with Leyline in my opening hand, I think he's ready to flip the table out of frustration.
Leyline is good against:
- Gifts
- Jund
- Storm
- Grixis
- Rock
- Burn (RDW, Mono R Burn, B/R Burn, whatever they call it these days)
Leyline is a must for your SB. It wouldn't be a bad decision to run a few in your MD, and have the remaining in your SB. It's always helpful.
ex-Moderator
Legacy love.
So I'm looking to get into this archetype. I'll be converting from my Soul Sisters build, listed below. I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for my Proc build, listed second. It seems this community has fine-tuned the maindeck, as there are very few variations I'm seeing,so that part of my list is pretty stock. The sideboard however is where I'm uncertain. I know that as Soul Sisters, my hardest match-ups were Zoo and Jund, but that was because of Punishing Fire..
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Soul Warden
4 Serra Ascendant
4 Martyr of Sands
4 Ajani's Pridemate
3 Ranger of Eos
Enchantments (4):
4 Honor of the Pure
3 Path to Exile
2 Intervention Pact
2 Brave the Elements
Sorceries (4):
4 Spectral Procession
Lands (22):
4 Kabira Crossroads
2 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
16 Plains
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Divinity of Pride
3 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Relic of Progenitus
4 Silence
3 Mark of Asylum
4 Martyr of Sands
4 Serra Ascendant
2 Student of Warfare
2 Kami of False Hope
1 Weathered Wayfarer
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Ranger of Eos
Planeswalkers (2):
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Ghostly Prison
1 Oblivion Ring
Instants (4):
4 Path to Exile
Sorceries (6):
4 Proclamation of Rebirth
2 Wrath of God
Lands (23):
4 Flagstones of Trokair
3 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
2 Ghost Quarter
14 Plains
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Nevermore
3 Stony Silence
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Wrath of God
I guess it'd be silly of me to ask which of these two builds you'd find optimum for the current format, as that'd be obvious. But I'm just wondering if, with the banning of Punishing Fire, the Soul Sisters might have a better chance at competitive. What do you guys think?
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Soul Sisters probably got a shot in the arm with the PK Fire ban, but so did Martyr Proc. I personally believe Martyr Proc is the much more competitive deck, as it often has as many threats as Soul Sisters, but it has a recursion engine while Soul Sisters has none, its Serra Ascendants will be 6/6's by late game guaranteed, and it is much better built to grind games out to a point where its threats matter.
When I tried Soul Sisters, it lost to practically any aggro deck with bigger creatures and removal. Even Doran Rock was a challenge, as it eventually kept swinging with 5/5's or worse and no amount of life gain could stem the bleeding.
haves/wants. looking for modern splinter twin
-2 Figure of Destiny
+2 Student of Warfare
(budget)
-2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
+2 Mentor of the Meek
(budget)
-2 Path to Exile
+2 Condemn
(testing)
I wasn't quite ready to splash out for the top end cards unless I liked the deck. After some playtesting, I've come to the following conclusions:
(1) I like the deck. It is the real deal. Props to Warnock for coming up with it. For me it combines that reassuring feeling of playing a control deck (the "I can deal with anything" mentality) with the joy of beating down with 1 CMC dudes.
(2) My mentality when I play is that I am basically trying to stall as efficiently as possible until I can get the recursion engine or Serra Ascendant online (or both, ideally), at which point my opponent concedes. The card advantage generated by Ranger of Eos and Squadron Hawk offsets the cards I have to spend to stay alive. Is this how everybody else plays it? If I can get the turn 2 3/3 student or 6/6 ascendant I'll go for it, but otherwise I tend to play a pretty reactive game.
(3) Condemn seems to be a little better than Path in most situations, but when Path is better it's usually a game-breaking scenario (sulfur elemental, melira). I think 4xPath is the way to go.
(4) Mentor of the Meek is pretty sweet. He demands immediate removal; otherwise he turns into a friendlier version of Bob, since we're dropping a 1/1 on the board almost every turn. I never really missed Elspeth, although I might not have hit the right situation--where does she really shine?
(5) It feels like we are pre-boarded against aggro. Between Emeria and Proclamation we also have a game plan against control. The problem for me is combo. U/R storm isn't so bad (can often martyr out of early storm range), but Melira pod is kind of brutal. We don't put early pressure on them and can't do much to disrupt the combo.
To address point (5), I'm going to try taking out a Wrath and a Prison, and adding in two Oblivion Rings. It weakens us a little bit against aggro but gives us outs to some of the nasty enchantments/artifacts out there. I'm also going to try out one Mikaeus in for a Student, it just seems like he should be sweet in this deck.
Am I missing something with Elspeth?
Mentor of the Meek needs a constant stream of creatures to be good. (That I learned when I tried to build a Deadguy Ale deck in Legacy that abused him.) Elspeth is good all the time.
EDIT: Or Baneslayer Angel ?
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I have some modest tournament results to report with the following list:
4 Martyr of Sands
2 Mentor of the Meek
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Serra Ascendant
4 Squadron Hawk
3 Student of Warfare
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
Spells:
4 Proclamation of Rebirth
2 Path to Exile
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Wrath of God
2 Ghostly Prison
Land:
11 Plains
4 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
2 Mistveil Plains
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Wrath of God
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Rule of Law
4 Suppression Field
This is a slightly tweaked version of the Warnock list. After playing with it more, I would drop the Condemn for Path to Exile, and try to fit a couple O-Rings in the board. I still have some fondness for Mentor of the Meek, it seems like we have a little dude hitting the battlefield every turn if we want it.
I finished 2-1 splitting the packs at the end, beating Affinity 2-0, losing to Jund 0-1 (time), beating Zoo 2-1.
Specific reports:
Round one: Affinity
The Affinity matchup felt really easy. He vomited out his hand game one, got a couple Cranial Platings and Steel Overseer in play, and beat me down to 4. I just chumped until turn five, wrathed, and ghost quartered his inkmoth nexus. Next turn Martyrs got me back up to 30+ with him in topdeck mode, making it pretty easy from there on out.
Game two was pretty much the same, with a ghostly prison putting an early chokepoint on the attack, and I was playing in the 30s/40s all game.
Round two: Jund
This was tough. Game one I got stuck on three lands for a long time while he did his thing. I was very sad when I had to rebirth three chumpers with Mentor in play and no mana free. I finally managed to get four mana and fire a wrath off at one life. I held on for a while, but I could never get ahead on the tempo and deal with his early Liliana. Game two was complicated but I think well in hand (good sized Mikaeus, Mentor, and 3 processioned guys vs. Liliana and his team on the gp lockdown) but I ran out of time. The deck plays a little slow, and it doesn't help when mtgo goes into lag mode.
I would want a couple more O-rings for this matchup to deal with Liliana. Otherwise I think this is doable, but the discard and overall efficiency of Jund make for a difficult game. I'm not sure what other sideboard options would help for this one.
Round 3: Zoo
This was pretty easy. Game 1 I got greedy and kept a one land hand (but it was so good...). Died before getting land 2, as I deserved.
Game 2 was a classic Martyr-Proc game, I had mana flood + 2 martyrs to start out. Chump, gain, hawks, chump, gain, ranger, etc. I never got below 20 life despite not stabilizing the board until turn 8 or 9. He had a sulfur elemental at the end, but that just gave me 3x 7/5 Serra Ascendant's.
Game 3 the hate came out to play. Three ghostly prisons kept him on lockdown after an early martyr put me up to 35. He chipped away, but couldn't get me before a couple rangers showed up with the rest of the posse.
Round 4 I split because I wanted to make sure I got some packs.
One thing I really like after playing some more with this deck is its consistency. 23 lands, one color, and a low curve add up to very few mulligans. I think almost any 2-5 land hand is keepable. The one landers should be pitched.
The Mentor really commands removal. It's kind of sad that he dies all the time, but I think the priority that opponents put on killing him indicates his power (caveat: I put him in over Elspeth purely for budget reasons, so I can't give an informed comparison between the two). When you get into a late game standoff type situation he's great at powering through your deck to get some gas. He's also nice to have down when you're playing chump blockers to buy time to get to your answers.
Mikaeus also shines when you have a bunch of guys on both sides. +1/+1 counters on Student and Ascendant are pretty sweet. I kind of like the toolbox approach with the Ranger--who is the straw that stirs the drink in this deck, IMO.
Everybody and their grandmother is trying to run Ghost Quarter and Tectonic edge. For this reason, we should probably always be running Emeria, the sky ruin as a four of. We also need to realize that we cannot rely on it too heavily as our late game plan.
Figure of destiny in my experience has always been better in a more controlling deck like this than Student of Warfare and here's why.
Figure of Destiny:
Figure of destiny can become a 4/4 more quickly than student of warfare. This means it dodges lightning bolt and other 3 damage burn spells, has a better chance against Tarmogoyf, deals more damage and can trade with 4/4 if needed. Student of warfare is a 3/3 first striker, which makes it more vulnerable to more creatures and more removal spells.
At the ultimate form figure of destiny puts you in a definite position to win, if it sticks, it give your opponent a 3 or less turn clock. It isn't vulnerable to any burn spells at this point. Student of Warfare's ultimate form cannot profitably fight through a Doran, the siege tower or a well grown Tarmogoyf. It is also going to be chump blocked forever, since it has no evasion. It is also vulnerable to a few more burn and removal spells than a full grown figure of destiny.
Figure of destiny is alot better at putting pressure and alot better at being a win condition than student of warfare. & extra mana is too much to pay for something that can die more easily and dosen't ensure any wins.
The only advantage is that student of warfare can have spare mana dropped onto it, but it is a worse investment than figure of destiny.
Onto other thoughts, can someone sell me into Squadron Hawk in this deck. I am comparing them to 3 Baneslayer Angel and 1 Felidar Sovereign. The angel and sovereign can win you the game on their own and are impossible to attack into profitably. They serve as another way to survive if martyr is stopped somehow. The hawks just seem to make martyr better, which seems vastly unnecessary as we usually have more than enough white cards to martyr good. Not sure how good Mistveil Plains shenanigans are with the hawks. Not too mention recurring Baneslayer angel or felidar sovereign with emeria will pretty much ensure you win in the late game, unless they run a bunch of Paths and O-rings. But maybe i'm undervaluing the hawks. Any comments?
For reference here is the decklist i plan to take to the upcoming PTQ:
4x Ranger of Eos
3x Serra Ascendant
2x Figure of Destiny
1x Weathered Wayfarer
3x Baneslayer Angel
1x Felidar Sovereign
4x Path to Exile
4x Oblivion Ring
4x Ghostly Prison
3x Wrath of God
1x Day of Judgement
4x Emeria, The Sky Ruin
Haven't completely settled on the sideboard yet, but some combination of anti combo and anti control will be here
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My Current Set Cube Lists:
Kamigawa Re-Experience
Ravnica, City of Guilds Re-Experience
Alara Re-Experience
Baneslayer Angel and Felidar Sovereign strike me as win-more cards (to be fair, my beloved Mentor of the Meek might fall in this category as well). I recommend playtesting the deck with the hawks, I suspect you will find that inevitability is not a problem. If you're worried about inevitability I would also play with the full set of Rebirths--nothing says inevitable like forecasting a Martyr back every turn for 10+, then bringing back Ascendants as needed until they concede.
Student vs. Figure is I think a matter of taste--to be honest both of them are just going to eat a bolt as they hit the battleground in the early game, but I like that the student quickly turns into a 3/3 first striker. It can be early pressure vs. combo or a good blocker (or, like I said, bolt fodder) vs. zoo.