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Main » Articles » Magic the Classroom – Evolution

Magic the Classroom – Evolution

Dan Eckstein
Posted on September 3, 2010
 Reddit

"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." – Bertolt Brecht

I love that quote. Brecht is basically trying to say that change is inevitable. We all know that. At least I hope we all do. For me, however, it is even more accurate.

I have two tragic flaws in my Magic game. First, I like almost every hand I draw and often don't mulligan when I should. Second, I never play a given deck for a long period of time. Today I would like to focus on a deck that has, so far, survived my second shortcoming. The deck has gone through changes but it's core is still intact which is remarkable for me. If I had limitless time to build new decks and play them as much as I wanted without being limited by the cards I own I would probably never play one deck more that 10 to 12 times before moving on to the next new idea. Rarely will I stay focused and refine a deck to it's maximum potential.

I feel that this is an asset for me as a writer since I often have new deck ideas that may have been overlooked by the general internet community. But the lists I present to you are not perfected by practice so therefore give you the chance to make adjustments that suit your game. NEVER do I claim that my deck is the end-all-be-all that everyone should be playing. I can't stake those claims when I myself will probably be playing a different deck next week.

The Original

A few weeks ago I posted a deck I simply called Life Deck. For those who missed that piece or don't recall it here is that list again.

"Livin’ the Life"

That list was made to win in one of three ways.

  1. Build a large Ajani's Pridemate and beat face before they can get anything comparable on-line. This strategy has the "dies to Doom Blade" issue but it is pretty fun to get going. The record books show that I once had 174/174 covered by a Pacifism. I top deck an O-ring to remove the Paci and swung for the win. In the runner up game for biggest Pridemate I show a 148/148 that wouldn't attack into multiple deathtouchers until I had an active Emeria.

  2. Play quick life gain into a Serra Ascendant. With the required amount of life it's the best one drop in the deck. I actually won a match where the Ascendant stared down a Baneslayer. I've seen other lists use Rest for the Weary or Elixir of Immortality to get to thirty faster. If that's you thing feel free but remember that the Pridemate only gets one counter.

  3. While your opponent is handling your early pressure you quietly gain up to forty life. Then you reach into the deep game and play Felidar Sovereign. Now it's play removal or lose for your opponent. In many games I've had an active Emeria as well which translates into "must kill Sovereign each turn".

There are other assets to the deck as well. Survival Cache almost always generates 2 cards as well as the four life gain. Bouncing a Wall with Skyfisher is good card advantage as well. I once had a game where I had lost all of my muscle cards but had 3 Souls in play and drew a Skyfisher. At the late stage in the game I was able to gain significant life by bouncing the Kor over and over again. The Skyfisher also allows us to play an early O-ring that you might normally save for a more significant permanent later on since we can bounce the Ring and replay it on the bigger threat later.

The Early Adjustments

As I said earlier the deck was destined to change. The first piece of adjusting I did was to the mana. At first I got to cute and threw in 4 Kabira Crossroads. The extra means to life gain was nice but the larger Enter the Battlefield Tapped count was not worth it. Also, I had way too many games where I needed just one more Plains for an active Emeria instead of the Kabira I drew. When I took a good look at the tapped issue I also realized how little the Steppe impacted the game. So I switched it out as well. Instead I opted to but Brave the Elements in the Sideboard for any Mono-colored match ups. Finally, even though the math says the 21 land should work in this deck my heart said go to 22 so I switched a Missionary out for an extra Plains.

The final major change to the deck was the addition of Sun Titan when I got one in the M11 Prerelease. A simple switch with a Felidar Sovereign kept the same mana curve and played really well. At first I did the switch just for fun but the misers copy has shown some Superior skills. In fact if I had more Titans I would switch all the Felidars out for them. Admitted I lose a win condition but the reach and strength that the combination of Emeria and Sun Titans give the deck is amazing when it happens.

At this point the deck also changed names. I know that's no big deal but one of my online opponents dubbed it ‘Soul Sisters' deck and it stuck. I wish I would have written down his game name so I could give credit.

"Soul Sisters Army"

Lost my Brain for a Moment

Don't think that all changes are always good. When you read the Internet a lot of authors will brag on their Super Tech change in a deck list but never mention the shortcomings they had on the way. I'm not that type of guy. I'm totally willing to expose my idiocy.

I cracked a Leyline of Vitality in a draft where I was also able to land a Protean Hydra. That was a wicked cool combo that won the game every time it hit. I then thought to myself "Leyline of Vitality is like a free Soul Warden. What if I put some green dudes in the Sister Shell." The remnants of my ‘I'm Hungry' deck that I played back in May would pump out the critters to significant life gain so I went with that. Here is the list.

"Spawn Sisters"

The deck did gain significant life but how did it win? It just didn't. Maybe an Eldrazi finisher or something but I just scraped the deck and moved on. The phrase may go if it ain't broke then don't try to fix it but what if it never worked at all?

Going to the Dark Side

I had scraped the green and gone back to the Soul Sister deck when I had my Dark Tutelage epiphany that I wrote about last week. Dark Tutelage when offset by life gain is significant card advantage. If you make your curve cheap enough it gets even better. So I decided to play around with it. By going black I also gain access to more life gain via Child of Night and the graveyard recursion from Reassembling Skeleton. The reach that Dark Tutelage gives you also allow us to carry our own Day of Judgments. Now we can come out hard, allow the tide to swing, then play Day and refill faster than our counterparts. I could never decide between Child of Night and Lone Missionary though so I have 2 of each in the deck right now.

"Dark Soul Sisters"

I can honestly say that I've never lost a game where I had an active Dark Tutelage. The card is crazy good for this type of deck. In fact it has saved me more than it ever has hurt me. In one game I accidentally played an Oblivion Ring trying to hit my opponents Gaea's Revenge. My only choices for targets were my Reassembling Skeleton which was keeping me alive as a chump blocker infinitum and my Dark Tutelage. I chose my Tutelage. With me being at 4 life my opponent thought I did it on purpose and Naturalizes the O-ring. On his turn he cast a big Trampler to break through the Skeleton road block. On my turn I reveal a Soul Warden and draw a Day of Judgment, Play Day, then Warden, then reanimate the Skeleton from there things just get bigger and better.

The Future

As I write this article my thoughts are about how White Weenie decks can benefit from the Soul Sisters/ Dark Tutelage in their decks. Purely hypothetical, but what if we built a Knight deck with the combo built in?

I'm thinking this basic nine.

Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant, Dark Tutelage, O-ring, Day, Knight Exemplar, White Knight, Student of Warfare, and Knight of the White Orchid.

It's not very black but I didn't want to add [draft]Black Knight[/draft] because of the double black mana cost. It may be hard to build the proper land base. Still, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts. In fact let's make that the homework for tonight. Post what you would do with that basic nine concept.

Until next week, Class dismissed.

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