I chickened out and didn't play Soul Sisters. I threw together a budget burn deck and did OK with it. I expected there to be 40+ people at this tournament as it was at a small comic book convention and the first prize was a Revised Taiga. Only 14 people showed up which is kind of ridiculous all things considered so it was more like a FNM than a real tournament. I went 3-1 and came in 3rd and won a Jace Signature Spellbook. I beat Infect, beat U/W control, lost to burn and beat burn. Honestly if I had Soul Sisters I don't know if I would have won the first two rounds so I guess the audible was the right call this time.
When Archangel hits, she usually wins the game. If anything, I’d drop marshal for the Processions.
You seem to have the sideboard pretty well figured out, so how about being more specific? Only thing I noticed is you have no artifact/enchantment destruction, so you’re doomed if you face a Chalice / Worship / Bridge deck.
I dunno, I just wanted to stick a new card in the deck and I wanted to keep the land count tight so going low with the Marshal seemed like a plan. And I got to thinking about how hard it is to cast Archangel (though Legion's Landing does help) and that's why I thought about chunking them for the Processions.
I've had someone recommend Wispmare recently as a way to get around Chalice. That or maybe Leonin Relic-Warder. How spicy does Conclave Tribunal sound? Very flexible and it costs one mana if you need it to. I wish I had access to Cavern of Souls but I do not. Sideboard is so tight.
Does anyone know how Soul Sisters matches up against the Arclight Phoenix deck? Thing in the Ice seems like the scariest card in the deck to me. Otherwise I think the combo of lifegain and quick beats should do the trick.
And I still don't know what to do with Merfolk. Maybe it's not as bad as I'm making it out to be but I have bad memories of being run over by a Merfolk deck one time.
FWIW, I was in Birmingham last weekend. Pelham more specifically. Bought a car there.
I'm playing in a local tournament next weekend and need sideboarding advice. Specifically I need to know what to take out for each matchup. Knowing what to bring in is usually kind of obvious. This is what my sideboard looks like at the moment. I don't have access to Leylines.
Vs. Tron - In: Stony Silences and Damping Sphere. Out: 3x Archangel of Thune (too slow) and 2x Martyr of Sands?
Vs Dredge - In: Rest in Peace and Hallowed Burial. Out: I dunno, LOL! I see creature stalemates forming so in the long run maybe Archangel of Thune is good against Dredge. Maybe Haazda Marshall?
Vs. Storm - In: Rest in Peace and Damping Sphere. Out: 3x Archangel of Thune again? Too slow. Maybe Martyr because it's almost impossible to gain enough life to put yourself out of Grapeshot range.
Vs Titan Shift - In: Runed Halo and maybe Brave the Elements Out: I don't know.
Vs Boggles/Infect - In Blessed Alliance Out: Archangel?
The general theme from my vantage point seems to be that against a mid-range creature deck (such as they are in Modern) then you leave Archangel in and against anything faster you side them out. Do I have this right?
Vs. Merfolk - This has been a difficult match up for me in the past. They can pump out creatures fast with Aether Vial and make them big fast with all the lords and overwhelm me even if I do again a bunch of life. They have combat tricks and can counter haymakers like Archangel of Thune. So, I dunno... I need advice for the Merfolk matchup in general. There will be at least one Merfolk deck in the tournament.
Before the tournament I'm going to try to pick up one more Auriok Champion and jam it in the main deck somewhere.
Okay, I do have a question about my maindeck. Should I just abandon the Archangel of Thune plan altogether and run Spectral Procession instead? I would have to pick them up somehow before the tournament. I do not own any. I know, that's weird, right?
Thanks in advance for any advice you have for me. Let me know if you think I've missed something obvious and crucial in my sideboard. Thanks!
Sure, there are plenty of limitations in my deck design. But as long as I win more games than I lose I can climb in the rankings on Arena. It would be a very poor choice to take this deck to a tournament with 5+ rounds of swiss and a cut to top 8 but for Arena it's just fine. I almost broke into Platinum last night but then hit a losing streak.
EDIT: Oh! Oh! I just found an improvement. I'm going to drop the Ajani's Welcome and play Charge instead.
It's got 20 one drops so the idea is still to barf out weenies as quick as you can (keep in mind this is really meant to be an Arena deck) but Growth-Chamber Guardian is there to give you some card advantage and a way to recover if things go wrong. Shanna, Sisay's Legacy is probably not the optimal choice here but I couldn't decide where else to go. She seemed like a reasonable replacement beatstick for Ajani's Pridemate. I already have the Growth-Chamber Guardians so I'd just need to pick up the uncommons (which I should probably do even if I stick with mono-white) and then the dual lands so this wouldn't be impossible for me to build.
This is the deck I've been playing in Arena. I'm currently at Gold 2, I think. It's a suboptimal version of white weenie (I don't have the rares to build the good version) but it has game against mono-red and mono-blue and can get quick enough draws to beat control decks occasionally. Struggles vs. midrange and in the pseudo mirror match.
Haazda Marshal has been surprisingly good vs. control decks. If you get a double Haazda Martial in your hand then you are well on your way to over running them. You'll hit City's Blessing quickly and if you draw Pride of Conquerors it's just a beating.
I know Ajani's Welcome is considered a kind of scrubby card but I'm leaning heavily on Ajani's Pridemate in this build so I think it's necessary until I can upgrade. A lack of Tithe Taker, Benalish Marshal, Venerated Loxodon is what's holding me back. I've been able to slowly grind my way up in Bo1. Curious to see if I hit a wall at some point and stop progressing altogether. Other random decks got me to Gold but this semi-poverty version of white weenie is what got me moving up in Gold. Unbreakable Formation is the rare that you absolutely have to have. I kind of splurged to get the four Legion's Landing and while that's a great card you can sub another one-drop for it if you need to.
Random thought. I don't know if anyone would be willing to seriously consider Suncleanser right now but I think it's an underrated card as well. Wildgrowth Walker, Runaway Steam-Kin, Pteramander, Skarrgan Hellkite and Hydroid Krasis are cards that come to mind immediately that it would be effective against. Plus it's got a fat butt so it's great for holding the ground as well. I think maybe running a couple in the sideboard could be justified.
Update 2/21/2019: Made Platinum finally.
Update 2/25/2019: Got one win away from Platinum Tier 1 and then went on a horrendous losing streak. Have cut two land for two History of Benalia.
Here's a shell that I am currently working with. The emphasis here is generating a lot of mana. Notice that it's only 56 cards. I need help deciding what the other four cards should be.
The deck doesn't have to stay mono-green so the four cards can be a splash. The candidates are:
Rhythm of the Wild - This deck probably makes better use of Rhythm of the Wild than any other deck. It's relevant early game when on curve. It synergizes well with the adapt creatures. It's relevant later in the game vs. control or if you go off and want all your creatures to have haste when you dump them onto the battlefield. This is what I'm leaning towards at the moment.
Banefire - They call it Elfball for a reason. Not sure I'd go all-in with four Banefire but maybe as a singleton.
Unbreakable Formation - The white weenie decks are running this in the main to good effect in Arena. A white splash is a doable thing if we want to go that way.
Biogenic Ooze - Kind of insane with a ton of mana floating around. Feel like a 1-2x type card though.
I also note that most people are playing 20 or 21 lands so I conceed that I could cut two lands but if I did then I'd feel obligated to replace them with Adventurous Impulse or something like that.
I am leaning towards the red splash because it does provide a lot of good sideboard opportunities. Cindervines is a card I like in the sideboard very much. I could even see going full-blown Naya with it so I could have Unbreakable Formation in the sideboard as well.
Anybody else want to brainstorm with me? I wish I could build this on Arena but there are sooooooooo many rares (27!) and many of them can only be used in this type of deck. I have it built on MTGO. It's really cheap there but for Standard most things are these days.
Cool! Let me know how play testing goes for you. I mean really NyxWave in some ways is sort of a poor man's Tooth and Nail. They effectively share the same mana base it's just a question of what you want to do with the mana. I guess Tooth and Nail is more of an immediate "I win" kind of card although for me a Genesis Wave with X=6 is very strong. And Tooth and Nail can't win without casting Tooth and Nail but it is entirely possible for our decks to win without casting Genesis Wave.
Thanks for the reply D90Dennis14. As far as Oath of Teferi goes I was trying to keep the deck mono-green or as nearly mono-green as possible. Plus once the deck goes off, The Chain Veil will get you far more than two activations per turn.
Yes, Ajani, Mentor of Heroes is an odd choice. Those four slots are pretty much the 'flex' spots in the deck right now. I think a wide variety of planeswalkers could fit in this slot.
I neglected to mention Nissa, Worldwaker in my original post, I did try it out. I didn't feel like I needed the extra ramp and while the ultimate is powerful it's a win next turn effect since the tokens don't have haste.
I really like the suggestion of Doubling Season and had completely overlooked it. Ridiculously expensive in real life but definitely budget on MTGO.
I do agree with you about Oath of Nissa and said much the same in my original post.
One thing I didn't mention in my original post was Kamahl's Druidic Vow which could function as extra Genesis Wave. The drawback of putting non-legendary permanents in the graveyard is small if X is sufficiently large.
Again, thanks for the reply. I will tinker with it some more and maybe try it in the friendly league soon. I'm not a very good player though so don't be surprised if I 0-5 with it.
1) Dumping a butt load of +1/+1 counters via Ajani, Mentor of Heroes on an animated Forest (from Nissa) or a beast creature token (from Garruk) and giving it trample with Garruk.
2) Pinging someone to death with Ugin. (Which I find hilarious for some reason.)
3) Animating every land in play with Nissa and giving them Overrun with Garruk.
If you don't get the combo early then I guess you just try to squeak value out of the planeswalkers to survive until you can do something impressive.
Anyway, yes, it's fragile and vulnerable to disruption and probably too slow to be competitive in Modern but I came up with it on my own and just wanted to share it with the world. It's not an expensive deck to build online but not exactly cheap in real life. (Then again, nothing really is, right?)
Deck:(Almost) Mono-Green Planeswalkers Combo by Bowen
Decklist can probably be optimized. Oath of Nissa seems like a natural fit and could possibly adjust the number of planeswalkers in the deck to fit Oath of Nissa in.
I could also see the deck going true mono-green and playing Vivien Reid instead of Ajani, Mentor of Heroes. But splashing white gives you some sideboarding options you wouldn't have otherwise so maybe stick with the white splash.
https://twitter.com/ChannelFireball/status/1160312014134292482
2 Arid Mesa
1 Field of Ruin
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
7 Plains
3 Prismatic Vista
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
Creatures
4 Essence Warden
4 Soul Warden
2 Soul's Attendant
4 Spore Frog
4 Serra Ascendant
4 Kami of False Hope
2 Giver of Runes
4 Ajani's Pridemate
1 Eternal Witness
2 Knight of Autumn
4 Ranger-Captain of Eos
4 Mimic Vat
2 Path to Exile
4 Rest in Peace
2 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Knight of Autumn
1 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Force of Vigor
1 Damping Sphere
2 Celestial Purge
Scroll down to "Turbo Frog" for a quick deck tech by the guy who played the deck, Robert Graves.
https://www.channelfireball.com/gp-minneapolis-day-1-deck-techs/
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1835103#paper
I've had someone recommend Wispmare recently as a way to get around Chalice. That or maybe Leonin Relic-Warder. How spicy does Conclave Tribunal sound? Very flexible and it costs one mana if you need it to. I wish I had access to Cavern of Souls but I do not. Sideboard is so tight.
Does anyone know how Soul Sisters matches up against the Arclight Phoenix deck? Thing in the Ice seems like the scariest card in the deck to me. Otherwise I think the combo of lifegain and quick beats should do the trick.
And I still don't know what to do with Merfolk. Maybe it's not as bad as I'm making it out to be but I have bad memories of being run over by a Merfolk deck one time.
FWIW, I was in Birmingham last weekend. Pelham more specifically. Bought a car there.
2 Runed Halo (For Titan Shift and maybe to slow down Dredge/Hollow One/Death Shadow)
2 Brave the Elements (Pyroclasm/Anger of the Gods/Creature stalemates?)
2 Rest in Peace (For Dredge/Storm/Phoenix)
3 Stony Silence (For Tron and Hardened Affinity)
2 Blessed Alliance (For Boggles/Infect)
2 Damping Sphere (For Tron and Storm)
2 Hollowed Moonlight (For Dredge/CoCo/Chord/Pheonix)
This is my main deck. You probably disagree with how I've built it. (Haazda Marshal, LOL!) That's fine. PLEASE just help me with my sideboarding.
4 Haazda Marshal
4 Legion's Landing
4 Serra Ascendant
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Soul Warden
2 Auriok Champion
4 Ajani's Pridemate
3 Archangel of Thune
4 Honor of the Pure
20 Plains
Vs Dredge - In: Rest in Peace and Hallowed Burial. Out: I dunno, LOL! I see creature stalemates forming so in the long run maybe Archangel of Thune is good against Dredge. Maybe Haazda Marshall?
Vs. Storm - In: Rest in Peace and Damping Sphere. Out: 3x Archangel of Thune again? Too slow. Maybe Martyr because it's almost impossible to gain enough life to put yourself out of Grapeshot range.
Vs Titan Shift - In: Runed Halo and maybe Brave the Elements Out: I don't know.
Vs Boggles/Infect - In Blessed Alliance Out: Archangel?
The general theme from my vantage point seems to be that against a mid-range creature deck (such as they are in Modern) then you leave Archangel in and against anything faster you side them out. Do I have this right?
Vs. Merfolk - This has been a difficult match up for me in the past. They can pump out creatures fast with Aether Vial and make them big fast with all the lords and overwhelm me even if I do again a bunch of life. They have combat tricks and can counter haymakers like Archangel of Thune. So, I dunno... I need advice for the Merfolk matchup in general. There will be at least one Merfolk deck in the tournament.
Before the tournament I'm going to try to pick up one more Auriok Champion and jam it in the main deck somewhere.
Okay, I do have a question about my maindeck. Should I just abandon the Archangel of Thune plan altogether and run Spectral Procession instead? I would have to pick them up somehow before the tournament. I do not own any. I know, that's weird, right?
Thanks in advance for any advice you have for me. Let me know if you think I've missed something obvious and crucial in my sideboard. Thanks!
EDIT: Oh! Oh! I just found an improvement. I'm going to drop the Ajani's Welcome and play Charge instead.
4 Snubhorn Sentry
4 Haazda Marshal
4 Legion's Landing
4 Skymarcher Aspirant
4 Growth-Chamber Guardian
3 Shanna, Sisay's Legacy
4 Pride of Conquerors
4 Unbreakable Formation
1 Forest
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden
12 Plains
4 Healer's Hawk
4 Hunted Witness
4 Legion's Landing
4 Leonin Vanguard
4 Impassioned Orator
4 Ajani's Pridemate
4 Pride of Conquerors
4 Unbreakable Formation
I know Ajani's Welcome is considered a kind of scrubby card but I'm leaning heavily on Ajani's Pridemate in this build so I think it's necessary until I can upgrade. A lack of Tithe Taker, Benalish Marshal, Venerated Loxodon is what's holding me back. I've been able to slowly grind my way up in Bo1. Curious to see if I hit a wall at some point and stop progressing altogether. Other random decks got me to Gold but this semi-poverty version of white weenie is what got me moving up in Gold. Unbreakable Formation is the rare that you absolutely have to have. I kind of splurged to get the four Legion's Landing and while that's a great card you can sub another one-drop for it if you need to.
Random thought. I don't know if anyone would be willing to seriously consider Suncleanser right now but I think it's an underrated card as well. Wildgrowth Walker, Runaway Steam-Kin, Pteramander, Skarrgan Hellkite and Hydroid Krasis are cards that come to mind immediately that it would be effective against. Plus it's got a fat butt so it's great for holding the ground as well. I think maybe running a couple in the sideboard could be justified.
Update 2/21/2019: Made Platinum finally.
Update 2/25/2019: Got one win away from Platinum Tier 1 and then went on a horrendous losing streak. Have cut two land for two History of Benalia.
4 Elvish Clancaller
4 Growth-Chamber Guardian
4 Incubation Druid
3 Marwyn, the Nurturer
4 Steel Leaf Champion
4 Beast Whisperer
3 Vanquisher's Banner
22 Forest
Rhythm of the Wild - This deck probably makes better use of Rhythm of the Wild than any other deck. It's relevant early game when on curve. It synergizes well with the adapt creatures. It's relevant later in the game vs. control or if you go off and want all your creatures to have haste when you dump them onto the battlefield. This is what I'm leaning towards at the moment.
Banefire - They call it Elfball for a reason. Not sure I'd go all-in with four Banefire but maybe as a singleton.
End Raze Forerunners - A good finisher. Solid as a 1-2x.
Unbreakable Formation - The white weenie decks are running this in the main to good effect in Arena. A white splash is a doable thing if we want to go that way.
Biogenic Ooze - Kind of insane with a ton of mana floating around. Feel like a 1-2x type card though.
I also note that most people are playing 20 or 21 lands so I conceed that I could cut two lands but if I did then I'd feel obligated to replace them with Adventurous Impulse or something like that.
I am leaning towards the red splash because it does provide a lot of good sideboard opportunities. Cindervines is a card I like in the sideboard very much. I could even see going full-blown Naya with it so I could have Unbreakable Formation in the sideboard as well.
Anybody else want to brainstorm with me? I wish I could build this on Arena but there are sooooooooo many rares (27!) and many of them can only be used in this type of deck. I have it built on MTGO. It's really cheap there but for Standard most things are these days.
Yes, Ajani, Mentor of Heroes is an odd choice. Those four slots are pretty much the 'flex' spots in the deck right now. I think a wide variety of planeswalkers could fit in this slot.
I neglected to mention Nissa, Worldwaker in my original post, I did try it out. I didn't feel like I needed the extra ramp and while the ultimate is powerful it's a win next turn effect since the tokens don't have haste.
I really like the suggestion of Doubling Season and had completely overlooked it. Ridiculously expensive in real life but definitely budget on MTGO.
I do agree with you about Oath of Nissa and said much the same in my original post.
I still like Ugin, the Spirit Dragon primarily for the card draw. Very easy to ultimate with The Chain Veil.
One thing I didn't mention in my original post was Kamahl's Druidic Vow which could function as extra Genesis Wave. The drawback of putting non-legendary permanents in the graveyard is small if X is sufficiently large.
Again, thanks for the reply. I will tinker with it some more and maybe try it in the friendly league soon. I'm not a very good player though so don't be surprised if I 0-5 with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BXuPEzEnHU
Idea is to generate a lot of mana and feed it into a big Genesis Wave or get Ugin, the Spirit Dragon + The Chain Veil going and ultimate Ugin early. Either way you get a bunch of planeswalkers into play and try to set up a big turn where you can repeatedly activate and recycle The Chain Veil with Nissa, Vital Force.
Kill method is either:
1) Dumping a butt load of +1/+1 counters via Ajani, Mentor of Heroes on an animated Forest (from Nissa) or a beast creature token (from Garruk) and giving it trample with Garruk.
2) Pinging someone to death with Ugin. (Which I find hilarious for some reason.)
3) Animating every land in play with Nissa and giving them Overrun with Garruk.
If you don't get the combo early then I guess you just try to squeak value out of the planeswalkers to survive until you can do something impressive.
Anyway, yes, it's fragile and vulnerable to disruption and probably too slow to be competitive in Modern but I came up with it on my own and just wanted to share it with the world. It's not an expensive deck to build online but not exactly cheap in real life. (Then again, nothing really is, right?)
Deck: (Almost) Mono-Green Planeswalkers Combo by Bowen
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
4 Nissa, Vital Force
4 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
4 Genesis Wave
Artifacts (4)
4 The Chain Veil
Enchantments (8)
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Overgrowth
10 Forest
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
I could also see the deck going true mono-green and playing Vivien Reid instead of Ajani, Mentor of Heroes. But splashing white gives you some sideboarding options you wouldn't have otherwise so maybe stick with the white splash.
http://www.starcitygames.com/articles/37717_This-Deck-Won-A-Modern-PTQ-Yes-Really.html