A quick note before we start: I don't really like spoiler tags, so there aren't a whole lot of them here. If you want to see something specific, make use of the Table of Contents just above this. If you just don't want to have to scroll through the full text of the primer, here is a link to the second post of the thread. It's not mine, but I'm a humble man and can live with that.
On the positive side:
• They're almost impossible to kill in combat
• They're one of the best rattlesnakes in the game
• Creature theft is extremely powerful in this format
• The mechanics that they play well with are very powerful in their own right
• They're unusual and tend to not be seen as a threat (at least initially)
On the negative side:
• They cost 8 mana, and it's pretty color intensive
• They. Cost. Eight. Mana.
This deck could be for you if:
• You want to run a flexible, ramp heavy strategy
• You like having a number of paths to victory
• You want to have the coolest creature on the board
• You really like pointy ears
You should stay away if:
• You want to cast your general early
• You have a great fear of mass removal
• You prefer your ears rounded at the top
• You prefer boring, one-dimensional creatures
Let's talk a little about the Sisters of Stone Death
Drawing on the inestimable MTGS Wiki, we can learn a little more about their background.
Quote from The Wiki »
The Sisters of Stone Death were usurper guildmasters of the Golgari Swarm on Ravnica. Originally a quintet, the Sisters worked as lieutenants of the Golgari parun, the necromancer Svogthir. They turned against their master and overthrew him, at the cost of the lives of two of them. Thanks to his mystical power, they weren't able to turn him into stone. They instead imprisoned him, broke every bone in his body, and sealed his remains in the Undercity.
So in a nutshell, they're power hungry, reasonably daring, and fairly cruel. At some point later in the story, two more of them are killed and the last one gets soundly beaten, but that's not relevant. The point is, they're a team of ruthless gorgons, and who else would you rather have leading your army?
You thought you had bad hair days.
In the real world, the Sisters were one of the many two-colored legendary creatures introduced in the fan favorite block of Ravnica, which gave us countless* numbers of excellent EDH generals. While they've got solid combat stats and remarkable abilities, their extremely high CMC kept them off of the tournament tables (to the best of my knowledge – if I'm wrong here, let me know). When that drawback doesn't matter as much, you're left with a lot of upsides, which makes EDH the perfect place for them. So let's take some time and see what they're all about. *It was actually only twenty.
Cost: 4BBGG
There's a reason I've mentioned this a few times already. Eight mana is a lot to pay for anything, even in EDH. The fact that it's extremely color intensive would be a pain, but odds are pretty good you've got your colors sorted out by the time you can afford that CMC, especially in a green deck. This is one of the reasons the deck has a decidedly elven slant to it.
Don't let it scare you away, though. I consistently have Sisters mana by about turn 5 or 6, and have gone as fast as turn 2 before (that was pretty god hand-y and should not be expected as the norm).
Typing: Gorgon
Good old snakes-for-hair. While gorgons have been around since the Greeks and in magic since Legends, they're still not terribly common. As of now, there are only seven gorgons printed, of which maybe three see any kind of regular play. As you might guess from that, it's not really a relevant creature type. Still cool to have, and there's a pretty good chance you'll be the only one with a gorgon at the table (as long as no one is running Damia).
Body: Snakey and scantily-clad 7/5
Seven power is a magic number in this format, because it means you can put a three turn clock on your opponents. While the Sisters don't have any evasion abilities, their abilities make people understandably nervous about blocking with any nontoken creature, and black has a number of ways to get in for combat damage. Their toughness is largely unimportant; damage based sweepers are going to do more than most creatures can survive in this format, and they're rarely (if ever) going to be in a situation where an enemy creature can do combat damage.
Ability #1: Lure
This is one half of what makes them such an excellent rattlesnake card. When you can force your opponents' creatures to block, you're forcing them to attack with or otherwise tap creatures they may not want to. It also works with the second ability to set up devastating exiles, and can be activated multiple times so your swarm of other creatures can get in unimpeded. This also influences a number of our card choices down the line, because it means effects that can untap enemy creatures (undoing all their hard work to tap them in the first place) are very powerful.
Ability #2: Exile
This is where the magic happens. The Sisters can exile any blocking or blocked creature. What this means is that as long as you have mana open, you will win in creature combat. The only things that effectively get around this are shroud/hexproof, a swarm of deathtouching creatures, or a swarm of large creatures. A big group of smaller creatures could do it as well, but you hopefully have the common sense to get rid of that before trying to attack.
The exile does two very useful things. First, it exiles (duh). Just doing this can be wonderful for shutting down the recursion shenanigans that are so popular in this format. It's the most potent form of removal available, with only a handful of rarely-played cards that can get whatever you removed back, and you have a repeatable source on your general. Second, it fuels the extremely powerful third ability, which we'll talk about now.
Ability #3: Theft
After you've dealt with your opponents' creatures via exile, maybe you start to regret it. You really could have used that Titan/Sphinx/Colossus/anything else. This lets you do just that. Not only that, it lets you put them into play, meaning you get all the benefits of any ETB abilities they may have. Not only that, it does it at instant speed. This is the real source of the Sisters power, and it gives you access to anything your opponents are putting on their creatures. Don't be afraid to get tricky with this – one of my favorite things to do is snag a counterspell creature and hold onto it. Even with something like that sitting face up in exile, a surprising number of players only think about the blue player at the table. There are some very powerful creatures played in this format, and this ability lets you make use of them all.
Sisters are pretty good, but this color has a lot of good creatures, and they don't cost 8 mana. Why not use one of those?
The best way to do this is to briefly go through the other available generals one by one, because they do all have something to offer. However, it's all kind of boring and not related to the decklist, so it's hidden away in a spoiler. These are obviously going to be kind of surface-level and narrow, as well. If you really want a more in-depth opinion on any of them, feel free to ask.
Glissa, the Traitor
Glissa offers powerful artifact recursion to supplement black's powerful creature recursion, and she does it with the second most fearsome combat abilities in the colors (first being Sisters). She's also an elf, which works nicely with the rest of the elves in the deck. Her downside is that she loses a lot when you're not playing powerful and/or numerous artifacts, and generally is built to be a little more combo-y.
Iname as One
Just does not work well with the rules of the format. It's also more expensive than Sisters and needs to pass through the command zone to be reused, which shuts down the recursion options available.
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
The upstart. He plays best with big creatures and heavy recursion, where this is much more of a swarming deck with a couple extremely powerful creatures. There are elements of this deck that would work very well with him, but he's not anywhere near as much fun.
Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
Probably the best option for pure elf tribal in these colors, if only because he can pump out elf tokens. Nath also provides some disruption, which is generally nice. His downside is that he's actually a very small effect in multiplayer if you don't build around his token creation ability, and I didn't want a deck packed with discard.
Rhys the Exiled
Lifegain is not terribly impressive, he encourages you to overextend, and he has a fairly limited sac outlet that runs counter to his first ability. Eww.
Sapling of Colfenor
Sapling promotes a fairly specific style of deckbuilding: heavy on creatures, especially creatures with big butts. While this ended up fairly creature heavy, I wanted the freedom to play around with the relative creature counts a little more. It's very possible to build Sisters with significantly fewer creatures than I have here, and the same cannot be said of Sapling.
Savra, Queen of the Golgari
She ends up killing the Sisters in the story. Why would you want to use her?
More seriously, she pretty much only functions in a sacrifice themed deck. I build far too many of those as it is. I didn't want another.
Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
Solid as an aggressive deck, reasonable as voltron, and plays nicely with reanimation. Doesn't do much with big mana, which is a fun strategy to play around with. My big issue with him is that he's kind of one-dimensional. He doesn't lend himself well to many strategies beyond just attacking.
Varolz, the Scar-Striped
He's powerful and interesting, but he's awful for elves. They don't add a significant amount of power when scavenged, and they certainly aren't as powerful that way as being reanimated for massive mana. He's going to be a fun card somewhere, but not here.
Vhati il-Dal
In his own little world. Probably the most interesting ability of all these options, but it wasn't the deck I wanted to build. It's very easy to make a deck around him overly dependent on the general, as well.
The author's credentials
As you may know if you've ever looked at my Jaya Ballard primer (ignore the shameless plug behind the curtain), my name is Chris. I've been playing Magic off and on since Ice Age, and got back into it in a big way around Shards of Alara. After playing standard for a bit, I discovered EDH and that was pretty much the end of the story. I pretty much play that exclusively (some legacy and limited) and frequently, against a wide variety of folks at the LGS. I live in sunny San Diego, CA and spend a significant amount of time on these forums, where you may recognize me as one of the friendly neighborhood moderators.
This change is largely just the removal of cute things for a couple cards I wanted to try, some more flexible/powerful options, and manabase improvements. The untappers that I was missing came in as well.
Very similar to the last update. Scarblade turned out to not be worth it, Glissa was slower than I liked, and the others were mostly filling space. The mass recursion rarely benefitted me more than opponents, so Bidding came out. Tower and Counsel were both added to take advantage of the amount of mana the deck can generate, and there's a bit of a shift to make the threats more elfy.
Another power level update. I still felt like I had more mana than things to spend it on, so I added another couple cards to make use of it. The cuts were largely cute or unwieldy options.
Living Death came out, because it was never as good as I wanted it to be, and Plague Boiler came out because Deed seems like a better fit here. With the 8 CMC general, I can blow Deed for 7 and likely clear out everything except Sisters. Pulse is just solid spot removal.
Yes, I know Beacon supposedly came out earlier. It was still floating around the decklist, which didn't quite match up to what I'm actually running as of this update, so this is mostly tidying up. Packmaster is a better threat than Hermit for this deck. It's less efficient, but scales much better to the amount of mana that gets produced. Not working as well with recursion is sad and means the Hermit may come back someday, but Packmaster has been excellent so far. The land sac on Strands was just too painful. There are many ways to get back creatures, but not so many for lands (in this deck). Soul is similar in that it provides a stream of threats but doesn't eat my lands. Beacon should have already been out, but Counsel is just a better fit with the amount of mana produced. Cradle has been here for quite some time, but somehow never made it onto the list.
Titan is coming out for a fairly obvious reason, as I'm typing this the day after his banning. Reap and Sow is coming in because Titan was basically a land tutor, so this is preserving the function of that slot in the list. Adding some extra land hate is just gravy.
Some RTR stuff and a couple other little changes. Wretch turned into Deathrite Shaman – similar roles, but one is an elf. Survival was never very good. It was generally a single tutor, maybe two. Life//Death is an extra reanimation spell and a half-decent all-in threat if I end up with Kamahl down or something. Elves of Deep Shadow are just more reliable at producing mana than the Emissary, which is what the slot needed to be anyways. It also brings me up to a total of three 1-drop mana elves (including Deathrite).
Graveborn Muse → Underworld Connections is just a change to reflect a couple other changes in the deck. Muse being a creature is nice, but it's essentially a Phyrexian Arena here and Connections can fill the role as well or better.
Deathmantle → Rings probably should have happened a while back. I don't run sacrifice shenanigans, and I do run a lot of activated abilities. Rings is also ramp when combined with untap effects, of which there are many.
Backwoods → Temple is for similar reasons as the last change. I don't want to keep mana up, and Backwoods is not so efficient at what it does that I'm really going to miss it. Temple has the potential to make a lot of mana and works well with a couple other cards in the deck.
Maze → Mire has similar logic. I don't want to keep mana up, but color fixing is important. There were too many colorless lands in here, and Mire is one of the better fixers with the amount of mana I make.
Snuff → Recycle takes away a reactive card for a proactive card. While I love Snuff Out, I'd rather have something that fuels the almost combo nature of my gameplan than a creature only spot kill here.
Reap → Crossroads, same thing. I have powerful lands and Reap and Sow may return someday, but haste is more important with all of the elves, especially the mana elves.
Cutting Life//Death for card extraordinaire Staff of Domination. Life//Death was never something I wanted to see or was thrilled about drawing, so out it goes. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't impressive. Hopefully you don't need an explanation about why Staff is great here.
I've been meaning to find space for something with extort for a while, and Ghast has a lot of potential here. STE is not a bad card by any means, but it's single land without additional synergy is far from impressive in an elf-heavy deck. Ghast provides more mana late game as well as offering a grindy win con and a little life gain.
A brief history of the deck, Part 1
I put this together when I felt like making a BG deck again – I've built Savra a couple times before, and I like a lot of what the color combo can do. I've got a huge soft spot for weird and rarely seen generals, and the Sisters are certainly that. I also liked the power of their abilities and how well they dovetail with this format, so the deck was born. While searching for cards to slot into the deck, I noticed the interaction between the lure/exile combo and “Untap target creature” abilities, so in those went. A number of those are either on elves or related to elves, and elves also have the mana production to power the Sisters out quickly. Thus, the deck was born. I also took the opportunity to throw in a few of the cards I don't normally run, largely the things I got tired of playing against. As such, this isn't the most unique snowflake of a deck in the format, but it's still a ton of fun to play.
After playing it a couple times, I was hooked on how quickly it could ramp and the resilience of a recursion heavy creature deck. I also played in a league at the LGS with a point system, and a ramp heavy tribal deck worked very well with the points (ended up getting me first for the season). Since then, it's been seeing pretty steady improvements. The overall themes (big, fast mana and elves) have stayed constant since the beginning, but the specifics have varied over time. Exactly what's changed is something that's going to be detailed quite a bit more, starting right about here.
Cards for the deck
There are a number of ways you can build a Sisters of Stone Death deck. Just about the only constant is going to be heavy ramp, because the Sisters require a massive amount of mana (generally their casting cost plus BG, minimum). I think that elf tribal is one of the better ways to support them, so that's what you're going to see here. As with my Jaya primer and a couple others on the site, bold card names indicate the cards currently in the deck.
1 – Creatures
Creatures in this deck can be divided into two camps: elves and not-elves. There is little more that needs to be said about them, so on to individual cards.
Capable of outramping all of your opponents by herself.
1A – Elves
Chameleon Colossus – Yes, the first elf in the list is only an elf on a technicality. It's still a very powerful card and one of the better mana sinks in the deck. There are limited ways to give it evasion, but once you hit any of those it will almost certainly kill a player.
Deathrite Shaman – Wonderful little toolbox card. As long as you're in a meta with fairly developed manabases (read: full of fetches), this is a one drop mana elf, GY hate, and some late game reach. Needing to tap is a bummer, but there are enough upsides to this guy and enough ways around that in here that he's very solid.
Deranged Hermit – A little army in a can. Less powerful than something like Avenger of Zendikar in a vacuum, the tribal relevance (especially with Wirewood Symbiote) and cheaper cost make it easier to get this guy in and out of play.
Elves of Deep Shadow/Fyndhorn Elves/Llanowar Elves/all the similar 1- and 2-drop mana elves – These guys are actually fairly useful. They provide a body for overruns, up your elf count for those effects, and tap for mana. That said, they are some of the less exciting and less powerful cards in the deck, so you don't need that many of them. Good to have at least one or two, though. Deep Shadow is worth a special mention as it color fixes as well as ramps.
Elvish Archdruid – The first of the mana-per-elf guys. Archdruid is one of the ones who can fuel the massive mana this deck generates, especially in conjunction with an untapper. The anthem effect is a nice bonus.
Ezuri, Renegade Leader – One of the two overruns in the deck. Being elf-only makes him less powerful, but it's still not hard to get 4-5 elves to swing with a massive buff from him. He also protects your fragile but important mana elves in a pinch.
Farhaven Elf – A Rampant Growth on an elf body. Putting more lands, even basic ones, into play is generally desirable. The extra cost is well worth it for the ability to swing and abuse the ETB trigger.
Fauna Shaman – Survival of the Fittest is a well known, very powerful effect. Putting on a tapping creature makes it less powerful, but it's still very worthwhile. The fact that it's on an elf makes it a fantastic fit.
Glissa Sunseeker – A reasonable choice for getting rid of artifacts, as well as a half decent creature in combat. She's not in the deck right now because she rarely lasts long enough to do anything, but she's a reasonable deterrent to playing artifacts if nothing else.
Imperious Perfect – This seems like a fairly slow token generator, but there are a number of effects that untap creatures in this deck. Once it gets rolling, it can pump out several tokens a turn, all of which get buffed up by overruns and up the elf count.
Joraga Treespeaker – Looks like a one drop mana elf, actually has more in common with Sol Ring. It's rare that he'll ever be leveled all the way up, but he doesn't need to be to be good. If he is, your elves can go very big very fast.
Joraga Warcaller – Kind of an honorary overrun. He can give a massive boost, but the lack of trample or any other evasion hurts. He will almost always draw fast removal.
Lys Alana Scarblade – Repeatable removal is nice, -X/-X is nice, and you almost never have enough elves in hand to make use of it.
Oracle of Mul Daya – Powerful on its own, and even just the land drop is a powerful ability. Add in that it's an elf, lets you play land off the top, and is in a deck with a number of search effects (and therefore shuffle effects), and it's an all-star.
Priest of Titania – The premier mana elf in the game. Taps for mana for every elf on the field, including your opponents'. She makes an incredible amount of mana.
Quirion Ranger – The first untapper! Bouncing a forest is not the ideal cost, but it does let you use her for ramp in a pinch if you have no land for the turn. Untapping can let you set up an opponent's creature to block, double up on a mana elf, or use a tap effect twice. One of the more powerful cards in the deck.
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary – Everyone reading this should have some idea of how powerful this guy is. You might remember how earlier I mentioned I've gotten a T2 Sisters before – he was a major part of that. Probably faster mana than you should have access to, but that's part of what makes this deck fun and powerful.
Seeker of Skybreak – The next untapper. Less powerful than the Ranger, but still an elf and still worthwhile.
Viridian Emissary – Not the greatest mana elf and better in a deck with more sac outlets, he's still a solid little option to put on some early pressure/defend against early beats. No one wants to kill him (for good reason) and there are some fun tricks to be had when your opponents forget you can untap creatures.
Viridian Zealot – One of the better pieces of artifact and enchantment hate. Inexpensive to play and activate and easy to recur to do it all over again.
Wirewood Channeler – The last and worst of the big mana elves, he's still entirely respectable. Costing four isn't terrible when he can effectively double your available mana, and the ability to make black in a pinch is nice.
Wirewood Herald – An elf-only tutor. Pretty much outclassed by the creature tutoring in green and the everything tutoring in black. Works wonderfully as a deterrent, but I like my tutors to find me the things I want when I want them, and there aren't enough sac outlets to make that happen on a regular basis.
Wood Elves – If you've played green heavy decks or had access to shocks and duals while playing green, these guys should be familiar. One of the quality ramp options due to their ease of reuse, their elfiness, and the fact that they drop the land in untapped.
Wren's Run Packmaster – An elf mana sink. This is a recent addition, so I don't have a very good idea of how it's going to work, but it seems solid. The championing is easy to fill and sets you up with an elf when your army of wolves, which you will have the resources to make, gets Wrathed.
1B – Not elves
Pretty much the Swiss army knife of the deck.
Crypt Ghast – Both a slow win con and a decent ramp card. Doubling swamps is nothing to sneeze at, even without Urborg down. The extort gives a nice life buffer and can do some very serious damage with the amount of small spells this deck plays. Keep an eye on your black mana if you have this guy down.
Eternal Witness – An old standby. There are limited ways to get things like Phyrexian Reclamation back, so it's good to run the ones you can. Stapling it to a creature makes it eminently more findable and more abusable, which is really what this deck wants.
Graveborn Muse – Will rarely draw you more than an extra card a turn, but that's still entirely worth it. This was chosen over similar options (like Bloodgift Demon and Phyrexian Arena) because it hits the balance between inexpensive and easy to find/recur. There's enough card draw available to this deck to not need to run many of this effect, and it will chew through your life faster than you think alongside the other life costs in the deck.
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa – An Ezuri, Renegade Leader for the common creature, this is probably the most common way to win in the deck. If you're feeling a little crueler, animating opponents' lands pre-Wrath is always a powerful play, but he generally comes down with enough mana available to swing for the fences. Don't be afraid to animate a land or two of your own, because you generally have mana to spare.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed – No particular combo here. He's mostly a beating because, as you might expect in a deck with heavy elf tribal elements, there aren't many humans here and undying is extremely powerful. Don't fall into the trap of trying to combo him with Triskelion. Trike is pretty bad on its own and it's much better to have useful draws than the possibility of an instant kill.
Primeval Titan – I'm normally not a fan of this guy, simply because I've gotten tired of seeing him, but the land tutoring is too good to pass up. There are a plethora of powerful nonbasics in here, and grabbing your two favorites is a beautiful thing.
A quick note, because of the color combo – grabbing Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is rarely the right call. This deck ramps heavily enough to make Coffers profitable off nothing but the swamp count, and you don't really need Urborg to go mana crazy. Save it for the finishing blow or rely on luck to find it, because it's a lot harder to disrupt Coffers + 5 Swamps than Coffers + Urborg, and tapping for 3 is still amazingly good.
Regal Force – It's an elf deck (lots of green creatures) and who doesn't like drawing cards? This guy keeps you playing out threats at high speeds.
Rune-Scarred Demon – A solid beater that tutors a card. This is one of the various high cost threats the deck can afford to play. If you're not using the tutor to find an answer or win the game, you generally want to find something to draw you more cards.
Sakura-Tribe Elder – This is one of the old standards. Very fun with an early recursion engine to really get things rolling, but doesn't have any particular synergy with all of the elf or untapping shenanigans.
Scavenging Ooze – As someone who plays a lot of graveyard shenanigans, let me assure you that yard hate is vital in this format. In a deck that uses its own yard pretty regularly, the options that nuke everything are bad here, and creatures are easier to find and recur (seeing a trend there) than artifacts. Ooze doubles as lifegain and a big beater when you need it, which is wonderful. Just don't get trapped into only hitting creatures.
Soul of the Harvest – In a deck that plays and recurs a lot of small creatures, like a GB elf-heavy deck might do, this guy is fantastic. He can provide a steady stream of cards and he makes a wrath hurt a lot less if you've been overextending (like you might in order to draw more cards). Getting this guy down can almost feel like a combo at times, just because you can keep drawing into and playing more dudes.
Wirewood Symbiote – Arguably the single most powerful card in the deck. The bug untaps your mana dorks for big mana. Untaps opposing creatures for the Sisters. Bounces elves back to hand pre-Wrath. Bounces elves back to hand to reuse abilities, and remember that bouncing and replaying something like Quirion Ranger allows a second use of its once-a-turn ability. This is the card I would run a stack of if I could, because it does so many things the deck wants to do.
Withered Wretch – Go read the bit about Scavenging Ooze again, because it's all the same stuff except for the beater/lifegain stuff. A terribly useful card. Not currently in the list because of more flexible and elf options, but there's never any shame in running Wretch.
2 – Artifacts
This isn't a terribly artifact heavy deck, because most of the focus is on the creatures, but there are still some very powerful support options.
Akroma's Memorial – One of the big downsides to GB is that there aren't a whole lot of mass haste options, and elves love that sort of thing. Memorial is a wonderful way to make use of all that mana you can generate and makes your elves fast and evasive. Since its reprint in M13, its price has plummeted, meaning just about everyone can probably get a hold of one of these.
Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots – Another couple haste options. These are less useful for setting up attacks and more useful for making big mana off fresh elves, though their protection never hurts. You want at least one of these (probably Greaves) as a tutor target, because it's an extremely useful effect.
Loxodon Warhammer – A little lifegain and some trampling. The lifegain isn't terribly important, because unless you're drawing lots of attention you can probably set up a kill before you get into real trouble. The trample and offensive boost on these would be tempting with the swarm of little elves and is wonderful for Sisters, but you'd much rather overrun most of the time and you have the resources to do just that.
Mana Crypt/Sol Ring – The undisputed kings of explosive starts. A lot of the time, Sol Ring and Mana Crypt are just a slight boost in the game. In this deck, as in many green decks, they set up additional ramp spells, putting you far more than a turn or two ahead of your opponents very quickly. Crypt is not a budget option, but it's wonderful here if you've got one.
Mimic Vat – Powerful but narrow. I never want to put my own things on this because it shuts down recursion when it gets destroyed, and I'd rather just exile my opponents' cards. The gameplan here is focused enough that it doesn't really need the random stuff your opponents are losing.
Nim Deathmantle – Yet another mana sink. This also lets the Sisters get in if you're trying to close out a game and has a nifty little side interaction with Graveborn Muse. A fairly replaceable card, but also powerful and versatile.
Plague Boiler – One of the full board Wraths available to you in the colors. This is worse than Pernicious Deed, because you can't set it off to wipe everything but the Sisters on an average board. It's better than Deed if you only have a dollar or so to spend on the slot. It's not hard to set this up to go off exactly when you want it to and it's a very solid option.
Rings of Brighthearth – An easy way to double up on the many activated abilities in here. While it can't copy mana abilities, it can copy the untap effects to basically work as ramp anyways. It can also make Sisters' abilities less color intensive in a pinch, which is nice if you're making hundreds of green mana and little black.
Staff of Domination – One of the truly great banlist changes for this deck in recent history, this does everything that the deck wants. It goes infinite in half a dozen ways, and that's not even the main reason to run it. It can draw a bunch of cards with the amount of mana this deck throws out, and it can untap creatures (either your own or others). If you're very anti-combo, you can skip this one. Otherwise, there's no reason whatsoever not to run this one.
Thousand-Year Elixir – The lone non-creature untapper that can hit opposing creatures. While that's the reason it made the cut into the deck, the pseudo-haste it grants can make your elves do some crazy things. There's a lot of mana to be made with this card, and you're the one who gets to use it.
Tower of Fortunes – Yet another mana sink. Sometimes this turns into four cards for twelve mana, but you're much more likely to have spare mana than spare cards here. If your opponents let it stick around, which a surprising amount of mine do, this draws you huge numbers of cards, which generally set you up with more mana.
3 – Enchantments
Enchantments are my favorite card type, but I've restrained myself here. These provide a lot of the power in the deck, and you should put some serious thought into which of these you want supporting you.
For when you have the biggest threats.
Or if you just feel like blowing something up.
Asceticism – Protects all of your creatures from spot removal and regenerates them through Wraths and combat. Solid, but requires you to keep mana up to make the best of it. While you can make a lot of mana, it tends to come from just a couple sources, so that turns into something of a pain. This deck plays at mostly sorcery speed.
Concordant Crossroads – This is a deck that frequently wins in the red zone off of a mass of creatures that tap for mana and other effects. Haste is kind of a no-brainer here. Opponents are typically not anywhere near as fast as this deck, so the symmetrical nature of the card isn't much of a downside.
Pernicious Deed – One of the finer sweepers in the game, this takes advantage of all you mana production to hit the dangerous stuff. One of its best features is the fact that it can be activated for 7, which is likely to hit most permanents on the board but leave you with the Sisters.
Phyrexian Reclamation – If you've been reading the primer up to this point, you may have gathered that this is one of my favorite cards. It's one of the most efficient Disentomb effects in the game, and you can keep your creatures around for just about forever if you have it. The lifeloss will eventually add up to painful, but the advantage you accrue while that happens is very difficult to combat.
Prismatic Omen – In an early draft of the deck to support Rofellos and Coffers, this just doesn't do enough. You already grab a lot of basics, and there's often no meaningful difference between tapping for 3-4 and tapping for 7-10. Just not worth the slot.
Mana Reflection – While Omen may not be worth it, this most certainly is. This doesn't just take you from big mana to bigger mana, this takes you from big mana to obscene mana. I've fueled plays like a turn 6 Exsanguinate for 40 and an Exsanguinate for 40 followed the same turn by one for 38, and the madness doesn't stop with Exsanguinate. This can easily net you upwards of 50-60 mana on a regular basis, far, far earlier in the game than you should have it.
Recyle/Null Profusion – This deck reaches points where it is pretty much comboing off, as long as you can keep pulling in new cards. Right now, I'm only running one of these two. If it turns out to be as good as I want it to be, I may try and find space for the other. Recycle made the cut over Profusion because elves are much more likely to have than :symb:.
Strands of Night – Another nice recursion card. This would be better with a heavier yard focus, because the land sac is too painful to really abuse it as is. If you're running a more all-in plan with the yard, this is an excellent option.
Survival of the Fittest – This is an extremely strong repeatable tutor that doesn't see nearly as much abuse here as in many other decks. It's used as a way to find silver bullets, big mana, and win conditions. You generally don't want to just keep tutoring, because that means less elves on the field for your big mana effects. Still powerful, still worth considering, but not nearly as abused here as elsewhere.
Tortured Existence – The graveyard Survival. Again, this is much better in a more all-in plan with the yard. Because of the number of cards that want a mass of creatures on the board, it's better to try and get them back without giving them away as well.
Underworld Dreams – Like a Phyrexian Arena with an extra cost, this one works better here because of the activated ability. Arena draws one card a turn, full stop. This can be untapped or copied to pick up 2 or more, which makes all the difference in some games.
4 – Sorceries
Sorceries are another place where the deck picks up some muscle, largely because of the depth and strength of the ramp and recursion packages. This is nothing novel nor different from many other green and black decks in the format, but it is certainly powerful.
Sometimes they've got the bigger guys.
Sometimes you just want to draw some cards.
Beacon of Unrest – One of the most versatile reanimation spells out there. This is almost always a solid choice, but this deck is more interested in reusing its own yard than its opponents', and there are only so may artifacts it wants back. I certainly can't fault anyone for running this, but it's a little more costly for its effect than I like my recursion to be.
Cultivate/Kodama's Reach – Old standbys. They fix colors, they set up future land drops. It's hard not to love these.
Death (Life/Death) – Pretty much Reanimate #2. The Life part is occasionally useful, but Death is why the card was ever in the deck.
Decree of Pain – Wrath the board, draw a bunch of cards. Sometimes there are bigger threats than you, sometimes you just need a new grip. Either way, this helps you out. Don't plan on cycling it all that often, because this is still an elf deck.
Demonic Tutor – It's a second copy of every card in your deck. I don't like to promote overly linear deckbuilding, so there's nothing you should default to grabbing every time. I generally try and use it to set up some kind of engine, provided there's nothing that requires an immediate answer, but what you find with this is entirely dependent on the game and board.
Explosive Vegetation/Hunting Wilds/Ranger's Path/Skyshroud Claim – Four cost, two land ramp spells. Skyshroud Claim is the best, as it finds duals/shocks and puts the lands in untapped, but it's largely personal preference after that. I like having several of these, because they're a huge tempo boost and can be played early off of things like Sol Ring and Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary to put you way ahead.
Exsanguinate – Somewhat infamous in the format and for good reason. This can very easily end a game. Since that use is fairly well known, let's talk briefly about it's other use. Remember all those times I mentioned life loss from various effects adding up over time? This is a very, very easy way to offset that. Firing this off for 5 or 6 is an almost paltry amount of mana and gains you close to half of your starting life (in a four player game), and that's often the best thing to do with this.
Genesis Wave – While there's a pretty high concentration of non-permanent cards in this deck, you don't really care about most of them by the time you cast this. This is fairly boring, but it is devastatingly effective, generally dropping a sizable army onto the board under your control, along with some support for it.
Green Sun's Zenith – Elves are mostly green. This finds the ones you want at the time. Not terribly exciting, but terribly useful.
Living Death – A Wrath sometimes, mass reanimate others. This deck doesn't have the sac outlets to really abuse it. Still delightful, still powerful, but I got less and less enamored with the mass reanimation options over time.
Maelstrom Pulse – It's Vindicate, but in the right colors for this deck. There are a number of options to hit lands, so there's not a huge downside here. Three mana to eliminate the most obnoxious permanent on the board is a bargain by just about any standards.
Nature's Lore/Three Visits – Like Wood Elves without some of the fun upsides. Or half of Skyshroud Claim. Either way, it's a pretty solid ramp spell, setting you back a single mana for a turn at worst.
Patriarch's Bidding – A lot like Living Death without the Wrath. Again, has the potential to be very powerful, but it's tough to control what your opponents are doing and this deck doesn't run enough removal to play damage control.
Praetor's Counsel – Initially hailed as a broken card for the format, now largely relegated to the sidelines. This deck is an excellent place for it. Eight mana is not prohibitive, and casting this not only rebuys all of your threats, it grabs all of your ramp spells again as well. It might be a costly turn, but it pays for itself in spades on the following turns.
Reanimate – The best creature in any yard for one mana. Normally one of your mana elves or your repeatable overruns.
Reap and Sow – Replacing Primeval Titan after the banning. This is primarily a land tutor, but using it as spot removal is rarely a bad plan. Don't feel compelled to destroy something if there aren't worthwhile targets.
5 – Instants
While the deck plays at mostly sorcery speed, there are some instants worth playing at that speed. Also at instant speed, but that's mostly coincidence.
Beast Within – Vindicate 2.0. The beast really doesn't matter, because you're going to overrun so many times you'll make their head spin anyways. This is probably the best piece of spot removal in the format.
Chord of Calling – Instant speed to-play tutor. Big mana is wonderful stuff, and this puts the creature you need the most at any given time into play. It's an extra copy of every creature in the deck.
Krosan Grip – Again, spot removal. Gets rid of things without destroying your things. Doesn't let them interact with you until you're done with your business. Spot removal is important and this is one of the more useful ones.
Putrefy – Spot removal, versatile, etc, etc. Wrathing away your board as a swarming deck is frequently bad, this lets you deal with threats without doing that. This is only marginally less versatile than Pulse and it lets you hold off until the last second.
Snuff Out – Free spells are pretty good. This has been shown time and time again. Being able to remove threats with no mana up is a beautiful thing, and the downsides to this are more than worth it.
All the other spot removal – There's plenty of this in the deck already. While spot removal is useful and much better than some people give it credit for, you don't want to try and answer every threat one-for-one, because you will run out of removal before all of your opponents run out of threats. I've gone for what I think the best ones are, generally some combination of versatile, cheap, and reusable (not so much any of these), but it's more of a personal preference thing.
6 – Lands
Lands are the basis of any deck, for obvious reasons. I'm going to assume you can find or already know your favorites for fixing colors, and just talk utility or otherwise more interesting lands here.
This can make more green mana
than the rest of your lands combined.
Ancient Tomb – This should be played in a lot more decks than it is. It's a lot like getting an extra land drop with no downside, because who cares about life total? Broken record, it will add up eventually, but the advantage you get in the meantime is worth it.
Bojuka Bog – Grave hate on a land. For a tiny downside, you get a hugely important effect. If you've got plenty of mana, hold onto this until you want it for its trigger. On the other hand, if you need to hit a land drop don't be afraid to burn this. There are other pieces of grave hate.
Cabal Coffers – There's one thing to remember about Coffers: you don't need Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth out for this to be good. Lands that tap for two are powerful, so if you can get 4 swamps (including any Bayous or Overgrown Tombs you may have), this is doing work. Everything past that is gravy. This approach helps you keep using it longer, because it's not nearly as threatening.
Deserted Temple – There are several powerful tap effects on the lands in this deck, as well as a couple lands that can tap for a fairly obscene amount of mana. This can go infinite with Rings of Brighthearth and a suitably large mana land as well, though it is in here for more incremental uses than that.
Gaea's Cradle – If you can look at the creatures in this deck and not figure out why Cradle is good here, you might want to take a step back and reevaluate how you've been looking at cards. This is a very, very big mana source. It will almost always tap for more than any of your other lands (with the possible exception of Cabal Coffers), which then fuels more creatures and bigger mana.
Grim Backwoods – The rare sac outlet in the deck. Being able to turn mana, which you have in abundance, into cards, which you sometimes lack, is very useful. Being able to do it repeatedly and set up death triggers or reanimation is a perk.
Mystifying Maze – My preferred defensive land, because it taps for mana. Sometimes you need to stop a creature. Given the abundance of mana in the deck, dealing with the activation cost is pretty minor and the fact that you can tap it when you're not turtling up is wonderful.
Oran-Rief, the Vastwood – All those little elves get a touch more threatening with this down. It also helps with a couple of your token producers to keep your threats more relevant. Nothing with any combos going on here, but it can turn off Mikaeus, the Unhallowed if you're not paying attention.
Reliquary Tower – I know I've been harping on the importance of card draw, but when this deck draws it often draws big. This helps you keep things that you want around, and the graveyard themes aren't so heavy that the loss of the end of turn discard is so terrible.
Shizo, Death's Storehouse – Sneaks the Sisters in for a kill when you're ready to get there, or sneaks in other legendaries during your game ending overrun. For extra fun, use it to screw with other people's combat math.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth – Mostly mana fixing. Go back and read the bit about Coffers for my feelings about that in conjunction with this.
Wasteland/Strip Mine/Tectonic Edge/etc – Being able to hit problem lands is vital in this format. I prefer Wasteland, mostly because I've got them and not Strips, but any of these are a reasonable option. You want at least one of these, more if you think you can handle the number of colorless lands.
Wirewood Lodge – An untapper! In the manabase! It can't hit your opponents' creatures, but it does go big mana for you. Seeing as it's a major theme in the deck, it shouldn't be surprising that finding it on a land is exciting stuff.
Yavimaya Hollow – Extra survival for your creatures. Just keeping this untapped can keep removal headed elsewhere, and it gets your important creatures through a number of Wraths.
Strategy!
The strategy is very basic here. First, you want to ramp. Follow that up with ramp. Finally, ramp some more, then use that mana for good. Seriously, just about every stage of the game for this deck involves ramp. I've described the plan of this deck as “ramp into ramp,” because that's how it closes out games.
Your opening hand
Ideally, you start the game by dropping mana elves and some of the less expensive sorcery stuff, and you want your opening hand to reflect that as much as possible. Try and mull away the higher cost stuff (if you're using partial Paris) in favor of the things that let you play it faster. Don't worry if it seems like you're not going to have any threats. Sooner or later, you're going to hit card draw or an engine, and you're going to want the resources to take advantage of it when you do. In the case where you don't, you always have access to the Sisters, and they're more than happy to use up excess mana.
If you're not playing with some form of the partial Paris mulligan, don't sweat a couple expensive cards so much. Yes, it's rough to have the dead card in hand, but this is a ramp deck. You will have the resources to play it at some point later on. You still want to ship hands that are primarily high cost threats or engines, but you have to balance that against what you're likely to get going down a card.
The early game
If you can set up a way to reuse one of your mana dorks, go crazy. You want lands, mana dorks, anything you can get to develop your mana in play. Don't be afraid to burn a tutor on something like Priest of Titania, because she is more than worth it. The best possible thing you can do here is try and hit your mid- to late- game before your opponents have set up their defenses or found their combo pieces. Your strength is the ability to quickly outramp them, then power out threats and engines. Frequently, those aren't going to be efficient, but you should have enough of a mana advantage for that to not matter.
The midgame
After you've got some mana going, find something to do with it. Recursion engines, card draw, anything to let you press your mana advantage. There are a number of different cards that will let you funnel mana into board state. If you can get away with only throwing one or two of those out, you'll be able to recover more quickly when whatever you're using is inevitably dealt with. The odds of your first plan working out through the disruption of several other players are very bad. That's why you've got several plans available to you.
A note on how to use the Sisters
Starting off with the Sisters is frequently a good plan. They're disruptive, powerful, and when they get answered you still have access to them later. They can run the board when they're out, and they're an unusual threat. Many players haven't run into them before, and don't have a good idea of how to play with them on the board. In general, I'll lead with them the majority of the time. The situations where I wouldn't are if:
I know an opponent will be able to deal with them before I can use them, whether that's due to on board removal or knowing what's in their hand for whatever reason
The opponent I want to hit has something on board that will effectively neutralize them without giving me any kind of advantage, such as a Hornet Queen with its tokens or an Asceticism
I think I'll be able to get there faster by playing something else, like if I have a ton of early mana and can produce an army (Genesis Wave, a repeatable token source) or just kill people (Exsanguinate) – this deck does occasionally ramp fast enough to just skip the midgame entirely. I've had 50+ mana by turn six more than once.
There are also several cards in the deck that can provide pressure with little to no support. Wren's Run Packmaster can be an army all by itself and doesn't leave you empty handed if wiped, and Imperious Perfect paired with an untapper or two can get out of hand very quickly. Even something like Tower of Fortunes represents a huge threat here, because you can frequently play everything you draw with it every turn.Your goal here isn't to win, though you certainly should if you get the chance, it's to force your opponents to answer your cards. You have enough threats to play more, but most EDH decks don't have enough answers to keep up.
The late game
Now, you have mana. You've probably tried more incremental threats, and they've been answered. Now is the time for blowout plays. This is when you try and Exsanguinate the table away, then immediately recur it and play it a second time. Replay the Sisters and try and steal someon's board. Run a troop of elves supported by Ezuri, Renegade Leader onto the table. Most players, even the heavy control players, don't have enough mana and/or answers to stop multiple major threats in a single turn. If they do, you have to accept that you might have lost that game. This is when where you go for Coffers/Urborg if they're still in the deck. This is the point where you want to pull out all the stops and rely on your earlier threats having burned through your opponents' answers. Go big and close the game out.
Bookkeeping
And with that, dear readers, we have come to the end of the primer. All that's left is the little administrative stuff. It may or may not get more exciting over time. Also, I have a quick appeal to anyone reading this. If you're reading the unexciting things written in this section, the odds are pretty good that you read some of the other stuff as well, and there are a lot of words up there. If you noticed any mistakes, please let me know so I can fix them.
8/23/12 – Primer written.
8/28/12 – Changelog formatting changed, taken from Leroy's Zur primer. Pictures added. Strategy expanded.
9/1/2012 – Update to Strategy and Card Choices, fixed a typo, decklist updated.
9/19/2012 – Decklist update, change to card options.
Cool deck. I'm curios why you didn't pick nath of the gilt-leaf as your general? Seems like the ability to spawn elves would be great with some of the cards you're using.
Cool deck. I'm curios why you didn't pick nath of the gilt-leaf as your general? Seems like the ability to spawn elves would be great with some of the cards you're using.
I wanted to play around with an unusual general in GB and Sisters have some really interesting abilities. The elves kind of fell into place when I was looking for ways to untap creatures to better make use of the forced blocking as well as ways to ramp. I'm still considering Nath as one of the 99, but I'm not sure if he's worth it without any additional discard support. Thanks for checking out the list!
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Funny story. I had Elixir in here when I built the deck, then left it for a week and a half and pulled it when I came back because I only had ~8 creatures with t activated abilities, and that's generally the reason I think about Elixir in decks. Completely overlooked the fact that it untaps opposing creatures, which was the reason I added it to begin with. So that will make it back in when I update the deck. Touch will not, because I don't really care about untapping my own dudes. It's a nice perk sometimes, but not really essential to the deck.
For card draw, I know I'm adding Decree of Pain. I'm still not sure if I would rather have burst draw or something more gradual though. I might end up with Harmonize, etc, but I think the draw two ones are a little too light for what this deck wants. I'm not really going for gradual advantage. Sisters and an elf swarm tend to draw too much attention to really fly under the radar, so I'm embracing that wholeheartedly and going for big, excessively flashy plays. Tower cuts into my creature abuse mana a little too much when I don't have elves pumping out more than I know what to do with. Thanks for checking out the list!
This onwards is mostly me collecting my thoughts under the guise of explaining future changes to the deck. I've got a number of little improvements on the way, but I'm not adjusting the decklist until I actually know what the changes are going to be. New toys include Gilt-Leaf Palace, Llanowar Wastes, Tainted Wood, Decree of Pain, Victimize, Yavimaya Hollow, Wirewood Lodge, Wirewood Symbiote, and possibly Lys Alana Scarblade. Still don't have an Ezuri, but I also used Kamahl's land ability offensively the other night, so I'm not sure if I want to make that a straight swap or have them coexist. I also think I want some kind of removal on a creature, which is either going to be Scarblade to keep the tribal thing going or Duplicant because it's Duplicant. Also debating the merits of including Cabal Coffers here. I'm not a big fan of using it in 2+ color decks as a general rule, but the mana requirements in this one are heavy enough that I might be willing to break that. I think I also want a couple more ways of spitting out elves en masse to take advantage of the elf count cards, possibly Elvish Promenade or Imperious Perfect.
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In addition to the draw you have Necropotence and Reliquary Tower would probably be really good here. Elve decks can dump their hands really quickly sometimes.Decree of pain and Regal force can lead to some massive draws and it would be a shame to let those cards go to waste
And yes, witn P-Titan coffers is definitely worth it. It leads to some stupid amounts of mana.
I've never been a fan of Necropotence. I understand how powerful it is and why it's powerful, I just don't like playing with the card, so I don't include it in decks. Tower is a possibility though. I'm trying Coffers out, because I do appreciate horrendously large amounts of mana and I don't think there's a single deck with black at my LGS not running Urborg - I don't think I've played a game without one hitting the field yet.
Updated the list with some new stuff. Trying Lys Alana Scarblade as a removal piece that's also an elf. Though I don't have terribly high hopes for it, I'd love to be surprised. Thousand-Year Elixir and Wirewood Symbiote have both found homes for their synergy with Sisters and secondary synergy with ridiculous mana elves. Decree of Pain gives me another wrath and some draw, and Putrefy replaces the much less flexible Go for the Throat. Also gone are some unexciting things and Loxodon Warhammer, which didn't have any particular synergy with the deck outside of being generally badass. If I miss it, it'll find its way back in. Manabase has also been spiced up, and I'm expecting additional [CARD=yavimaya hollow]toys for this deck in the next few days.
Maybe Infiltration Lens would be usefull...once equip on your commander, that would made you draw a lot of cards...
Much delayed, thank you! Lens was generally win-more when I tried it, because it was good when I had Sisters swinging and mana up - basically the point where I could just use them to run the game. It is a fantastic idea and generally a hit at the table, though.
I updated the list with some pretty heavy stuff. There was a major update a couple months ago that I didn't post, so I included that as well as a smaller one from much more recently.
@runningbear, Tower of Fortunes was actually a really good call and I should have added that sooner. There's enough mana floating around that 8 is actually not that significant.
I'm considering turning this into a primer, but I want to see what the other BG lists look like first. I don't think there's anything that covers quite the same ground as this list right now, but if I'm going to put way too much time into writing and maintaining another one of those I want to be sure.
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Picked up Pernicious Deed and Maelstrom Pulse for legacy, so they'll be making their home in here when I'm not playing in a tournament. Living Death came out because it was never as good as I wanted it to be and Plague Boiler came out because Deed seems like a better fit here. With the 8 CMC general, I can blow Deed for 7 and likely clear out everything except Sisters. Pulse is just solid spot removal.
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This is nice. I've always wanted to build a solid GBx deck with the staple reanimation/big mana shenanigans, but I've never gotten around to it because of price issues. This looks like it could be a good way in for me.
As far as being a primer goes, it's very informative and well written.
I have to say that this is the best looking opening post I have seen on a forum, ever. Kudos. As for the deck, maybe you'd enjoy Perilous Forays. Running a good sacrifice outlet never hurts, and it trades your weak bodies for lands when the inevitable board sweeper arrives. Or you could just go all in and play Bloodghast and Rampaging Baloths as well.
This is nice. I've always wanted to build a solid GBx deck with the staple reanimation/big mana shenanigans, but I've never gotten around to it because of price issues. This looks like it could be a good way in for me.
As far as being a primer goes, it's very informative and well written.
Thanks! Elves are definitely a relatively cheap way to go for big mana, and some of the best reanimation cards can be picked up for under a dollar. Phyrexian Reclamation and Victimize are extraordinarily strong without a corresponding price tag. Most of the expensive stuff in my list is removal and color fixing, and you can definitely lose those kinds of things in favor of cheaper options while keeping the themes and feel of a deck like this.
I have to say that this is the best looking opening post I have seen on a forum, ever. Kudos. As for the deck, maybe you'd enjoy Perilous Forays. Running a good sacrifice outlet never hurts, and it trades your weak bodies for lands when the inevitable board sweeper arrives. Or you could just go all in and play Bloodghast and Rampaging Baloths as well.
Thanks to you as well! Forays is a long time favorite of mine, and I've considered it for this deck in the past. The issue that I've had with it here is that it requires me to keep mana open if I'm worried about a board wipe, and that's not always something I want to do. I'm greedy like that with this deck. I could definitely see it being worth another look.
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I'm liking the deck, particularly your general. I'm using Cromat a lot at the moment and find his WB ability his most useful. I didn't know the sisters existed until now; I really like their abilities and it's always good to see unusual generals.
Btw thanks for all your hard work around here!
Thanks, both for the compliment about the deck and for the more general thanks. Cromat is probably my preferred 5C general, but I like having my "perfect" manabases and he eats up a lot of resources to pull that off (also I don't have any of the blue duals, so there's that).
I posted this in the crazy plays thread as well, but I had a game earlier tonight where the mana elf nut draw gave me a turn 6 win in a 1v1 game against an Edric deck. Super sketchy opening 7 with only a single land, but way too much explosive potential to pass up, and I knew my opponent runs almost no disruption.
T1: Forest
T2: Topdeck and play Llanowar Elves
T3: Play Priest of Titania (opponent has two elves)
T4: Play Thousand-Year Elixir, Wirewood Symbiote, Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, bounce and replay the Llanowar to untap Priest, play Wirewood Channeler, play Oracle of Mul Daya
T5: (opponent has played Edric - 3 elves) Use Priest and Channeler in conjunction with Symbiote to play a topdecked Chameleon Colossus and my general
T6: Lure all of the opposing creatures with the Sisters, then pump the Colossus 5 times and swing for 128 damage, all without playing a second land. I had the potential to make something like 50-60 mana off of my single forest.
Probably the most impressive fast start the deck has had, and it all went off without ever seeing a second land.
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I acquired all of my brother's cards a few months back and it included a copy of Sisters. My playgroup only recently got into Commander, and I really wanted to include her, but went with cheaper generals. I think this is a great looking decklist - I just may steal it!!
I have a legacy aggro elf deck with a lot of token creation, so if you're still up for some ideas I can throw some out there.
With all the elf spells you have, consider Lys Alana Huntmaster. It's a 3/3 for 4, but will be dumping tokens all over the place. With your ramp, the cost probably doesn't matter much.
In my 60-card legacy deck I use that with Imperious Perfect (which you've listed) and Parallel Lives. Dropping 2 mana dorks all of a sudden becomes 6 total elves added.
I also love Hunting Triad. I use it to either get 3 more elves (6 with P. Lives) or add 3 counters to Joraga Warcaller (which you've also listed) which of course pumps my whole field.
Wren's Run Vanquisher is a great card that will almost always be cast for 2 (especially if you're adding to the draw package) and I think the deathtouch fits B/G nicely.
Thanks again for the great list!
edit: I've always wanted to use Wren's Run Packmaster but it doesn't fit my 60. It may be nice in an EDH deck
2nd edit: Maybe consider Bramblewood Paragon too. It's a staple card for my legacy deck but since your list didn't have a lot of warriors I didn't include it in my original suggestions. However, it's a nice trample piece if you're adding counters with Oran-Rief, the Vastwood or other methods.
Thanks for checking out the list! A lot of the suggestions you made make sense in a more aggressive build, like a 60 card legacy deck needs to be, or in a more token focused deck, which isn't really a direction I want to take this. While I do love me some tokens, they're better with heavier support, and I don't want to make the cuts necessary to fit that in.
Lys Alana Huntmaster is very solid in some decks, but I've found I get better token production out of a couple dedicated token makers without need to support them as much. Imperious Perfect plays very nicely with the existing suite of untap effects, and Wren's Run Packmaster (which has been an all star since I added it) can pump out a lot of tokens in not a lot of time. They also have the benefit of being able to apply a lot of pressure without running out a lot of cards, which makes recovery from wraths much less painful.
Hunting Triad is just smaller than I need effects to be here. The interaction with Joraga Warcaller is fun, but it doesn't happen all that often on its own in a 100 card singleton deck, and it's not really useful enough to burn tutors on. It's a card/synergy that's much better in a 60 card deck with 4-ofs.
Elvish Promenade is another one where overextending is a big danger. In faster duel formats, there's somewhat less danger - dropping a bunch of 1/1 elves to get lorded up can overwhelm an opponent quickly. In this format, the odds of being able to take down everyone before anyone wipes the board are much lower, and you had to commit a number of cards to get into that position.
Immaculate Magistrate is one I've considered in the past. Even without committing heavily to the board, she has a noticeable impact. The problem I have with her is that she's most effective when trying to kill with general damage, and it takes 4 counters (or 3 one turn and another the next) to increase the Sisters clock. Buffing other creatures is nice, but her particular method of doing so isn't as useful to this deck as it might be elsewhere.
Wren's Run Vanquisher is just outclassed. If I wanted a 3/3 deathtoucher, I'd use Glissa, the Traitor, who is significantly better in combat with a useful ability. It comes down to the same kind of reasoning as Hunting Triad. With more people and higher life totals, early aggro strategies are significantly hampered. Playing an aggressive deck in this format generally involves going bigger than your opponents, not faster.
A lot of your suggestions could pack some serious punch in a more token themed elf deck where you were going for quick kills, but they're on a little bit of a different road than this one (let me know if you build this, because I'm totally up for helping on something like that. Tokens are a blast to play). This is following a plan more akin to Nic Fit than legacy elves. It doesn't matter if your threats are less efficient than your opponent's threats, because they can just roll over them once they get going. Thanks again for checking out the list!
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Thanks for breaking down those reasons card by card. As someone who is new to EDH, it really helps identify some of the key differences between formats.
With Sisters you probably don't need a token swarm since you can steal your opponents' armies. You can even keep them exiled, and once you can recast Sisters after a wipe can regain position by bringing them in.
Thanks for breaking down those reasons card by card. As someone who is new to EDH, it really helps identify some of the key differences between formats.
With Sisters you probably don't need a token swarm since you can steal your opponents' armies. You can even keep them exiled, and once you can recast Sisters after a wipe can regain position by bringing them in.
Your rebuilding through a wipe trick actually doesn't work. Each time a card hits the field, it's considered a new object with no memory of its former self. This is really nice in this deck for things like Quirion Ranger, where it dodges the once a turn restriction. The downside is that you can only bring creatures back with Sisters if they've been on the field since you exiled those creatures.
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Updated the primer to reflect Primeval Titan's banning. As exciting as that is, it's actually pretty small news. On to bigger and better things, like possible additions from RTR! This is the set with the Golgari Swarm, so there are a couple good options to consider here.
Grave Betrayal - Steal all of your opponents' creatures as they die. This is better in something with a little more creature control and doesn't really play well with the elf themes here, but it does mesh well with the Sisters. Odds are pretty good you'll get your hands on their creatures one way or another.
Necropolis Regent - A solid option in an aggro deck like this one can be. Most of the creatures here are too small to get a big bonus and it doesn't play nicely with Mikaeus, the Unahallowed, but this will frequently be a must-answer threat. Even nicer with a lord or two to get the process started.
Ultimate Price - Worse than many other options. I'd rather have Go for the Throat every time, and there are plenty of other kill spells to use. Not bad, just outclassed by some of the other stuff.
Underworld Connections - A worse Phyrexian Arena. Not bad, but this deck doesn't have land untapping effects, just creature ones. If some land untappers get added in, which is a definite possibility, this looks a lot more attractive.
Death's Presence - Another solid aggro option, but this play much more nicely with bigger creatures than elves. Too expensive for what you're getting out of it here.
Mana Bloom - A way to go even bigger mana a turn after you draw it. By the point I would want this, I think I can already make more mana than I know what to do with, so this isn't terribly helpful. Worth looking into further, but not super exciting.
Oak Street Innkeeper - Protects mana dorks from sorcery speed spot removal. Sorcery speed spot removal is extremely rare in this format, so this isn't a great option. Being on a fairly low cost elf is the redeeming factor, so this gets tested at some point.
Wild Beastmaster - If this was an elf, it would probably be in in a heartbeat. It's not, so it's probably going to be sidelined. There just aren't than many ways to buff non-elf creatures here.
Worldspine Wurm - While this deck has the mana to cast it, it doesn't have the desire. This is a standalone powerful creature, and this deck is much more interested in synergy.
Abrupt Decay - Lots of potential and very much a meta call. It's obviously ridiculous if there are targets for it, but this format is known for its high cost bombs. I don't think I'll be running it yet, but I'm keeping an eye on CMCs around the table more closely than normal for the next couple weeks.
Golgari Charm - None of the modes are terribly useful. One has the potential to damage my board quite a bit, I'd rather reanimate than regenerate, and there's better enchantment hate. Not on my list at all right now.
Grisly Salvage - Quite good, but there's not enough GY abuse in this deck to make me really want this. It's going to make some decks very happy though.
Jarad's Orders - A lot like Grisly Salvage. There are other creature tutors I would run before this in this deck.
Korozda Guildmage - An elf with a couple useful abilities. It makes general damage somewhat easier to accomplish if I need that, and the sacrifice ability is interesting. I think most of the creatures here are too small to really take advantage, but it would be hilarious with Kamahl, Fist of Krosa over a couple turns. While it seems interesting, I don't think it's quite what I want here.
Lotleth Troll - Wonderful for reanimator decks, but as I've mentioned a couple times that's not this one. It's not threatening enough for the resources it uses up.
Vraska, the Unseen - Draws more attention than I like, and it's pretty much just a more expensive and slightly worse Maelstrom Pulse + partial fog most of the time. I think the removal in here is pretty reasonable right now, so she's not high on my list. I do like the idea of adding a gorgon walker though.
Deathrite Shaman - Elf GY hate with bonus effects. I'm sold. Needing haste for surprise hate is rough, but I think there are enough other hate cards here that the upsides are worth that.
Everything with Scavenge - Not really interested. Better if this was more voltron-y.
All the mana rocks and fixing - Not really interested. Green doesn't need the help and the manabase here is solid as is.
So after all that, I'm mostly excited for Deathrite Shaman and might test a couple others. While there's a little overlap, this deck doesn't dovetail with the Golgari themes all that much (despite being led by the former guild leader) so that's not all that surprising.
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Updated the list and primer. Deathrite Shaman is the only RTR inclusion so far, but he's been doing work. I also cut Survival *gasp* because it was never all the impressive for me. Swarm decks don't want guys in the yard. Pretty minor update all around, but still an update.
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Why don't you play cards in the deck such as... Sensei's Divining Top, Scroll Rack, Mind's Eye, Crucible of Worlds...
For the first three, because I'd rather just have raw card draw. This is not a deck built around incremental advantage. This deck overextends and throws haymakers, then either wins or loses on the merits of those. Looking at the top three cards is generally worse than just drawing more cards, and trying to keep mana up on my opponents' turns is a hassle. I make enough mana that I can afford to be less efficient to draw when I want to.
As for Crucible, there's not really any use for it here. I could add in additional fetchands, but I typically don't have a problem with mana. Again, this deck has no interest in incremental advantages. The only time I'd consider it is if I were to add Strands of Night back into the deck, and that seems far more cute than effective.
Adding staple cards for the sake of having staple cards is generally not a good plan. You are going to get a lot more functionality out of cards that actively support what the deck is trying to do. Thanks for checking out the list!
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I was looking at the newly spoiled Illusionist's Bracers, and realized that I could probably make use of Rings in here. Deathmantle has been ok from time to time, but I rarely have the mana open to use it as protection and I don't sac my own guys enough to abuse it that way. Backwoods → Temple comes from Backwoods not being great here and Temple having the potential to make insane mana in a few ways. Muse → Connections is something that reflects the previous change, and I also have Argothian Elder on the way (along with the last manabase improvements I've wanted: Reflecting Pool and Twilight Mire, which will replace Mystifying Maze and one of the more mediocre duals or basics) to work with this even more. Snuff → Recycle works because I generally have more of an interest in being proactive than reactive, and I've wanted to try Recycle in here for a while.
These changes also add a couple infinite combos to the deck: Rings + Seeker of Skybreak + any big mana elf, and Rings + Temple + any big mana land. When I get the Elder in here, it also adds a couple infinite interactions. I like all of the cards being thrown in here and don't have anything in particular against infinite combo, but I thought I'd mention it for anyone who happens to follow the list. They also require something like half a dozen cards each, though there's some variance in which cards, so it's not something that's likely to end a game much more quickly than the deck already can.
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A couple more recent changes. I'll change the opening post to reflect them at some point, but there's no great hurry. Wilds → Elder is one 4 CMC ramp spell for another, but the Elder works better with the other cards in the deck. Wood → Pool is one color fixing land for another, but Pool is better. Nothing big, but worth keeping track of.
Gatecrash is spoiled! That means it's time to look over all of the available options. Golgari was in the last set so I'm not expecting tons, but there are a few goodies available here.
Crypt Ghast - This deck can play a lot of spells in a turn and does run a pretty good number of basics, so Ghast could be a solid card. It doesn't really do what the deck wants, which is ramp like mad and play huge threats, but it might be good enough to slip in as a small ramp spell. Worth keeping an eye on.
All the other extort guys - Not good enough. Not what the deck wants to do and they don't have the ramp per that Ghast does.
Illness in the Ranks - Blunt token hate. There's better, more general creature control available in black. If tokens are a huge problem (which they shouldn't be), it's a possibility.
Lord of the Void - Here's the kind of haymaker this deck is looking to throw. The question when including this one is which other bomb to cut. I'm not sure it makes the deck because of that, especially given a couple other cards in this set.
Ogre Slumlord - Wrath insurance. There are better choices for that here, like Caller of the Claw, and Slumlord is useless for incremental advantage in the deck as is.
Sepulchral Primordial - One of the other haymakers. Like Lord of the Void, it becomes a question of what to cut. Reanimation from opposing yards isn't my favorite thing here, because my plan is pretty focused already. I think this is behind it's green and demon buddies.
Smog Elemental - Not a bad anti-flying card. A little narrow for this deck and too small an effect for me to really care about it, though.
Undercity Plague - Probably the best black cipher effect. Six mana is a lot to pay and there aren't a lot of creatures attacking that won't end the game in some fashion in here, so it's unlikely to make it in.
Giant Adephage - Another big scary creature! Doesn't do much to advance the deck's plan and doesn't seem like a must have creature, so it will probably not end up here.
Gyre Sage - Another mana elf. It has the potential to make a lot of mana, but it can't do it alone and that's kind of a turn off. I think I would be looking to Bloom Tender and Joiner Adept first, but this may still make the cut.
All the other evolve dudes - Nope. Elves don't promote evolution, and the counters don't do anything for me.
Ivy Lane Denizen - The only one in the denizen cycle I like much. It has some nice synergy with Joraga Warcaller and it's an easy trigger to hit. It's a pretty small effect for 4 mana, though.
Sylvan Primordial - If you haven't formed an opinion of this one yet, I'm unlikely to change your mind. This is unquestionably the best of the fat options here and will almost certainly find a home in this deck. I have no idea what I'm cutting yet, but I've got a couple weeks to figure it out.
Glaring Spotlight - A nice way to use Sisters on otherwise annoying threats, but I typically want to just run those over and I don't see too many of them. The unblockable effect isn't going to matter much most of the time.
Illusionist's Bracers - A definite possibility. Sadly, they don't double up mana abilities. They do double up untaps, which is almost the same thing and would go infinite off of a couple dudes. I'd like to see how Rings of Brighthearth perform first, but these could be very strong.
Thespian's Stage - Almost an autoinclude. Makes me realize I should track down a couple more Vesuva as well, with the power of the manabase here.
So GTC brings two easy includes and a number of possibilities. I'm unlikely to change too much around until I can see how the recent changes play, but there's a lot of potential here.
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And the story: A friend of mine (aDubiousNotion) has a vast collection of cards. He and I go to the same school and I found out that there's a group of commuter students that play magic.
When he found out that I knew of the game, he got me more into it and we started building decks and playing at school. Some other players in our group discovered Commander, but they had all built some very durdle-happy decks and the games were usually categorized by nothing happening forever. More and more of the players started to play that format, though, so Dubious decided to build a Commander deck to combat it. A few iterations later, he had built a very powerful Savra deck.
When Jarad came out, he reformatted her to work with Jarad's abilities and put him at the head. Then he rebuilt Savra in a different way. So, he had decided to build every Golgari general eventually.
Watching his Golgari decks play, they looked fun, but weren't quite in my play style, so I started researching. I can't remember if I decided on Sisters before or after I saw this list, but your deck looked very fun and I wanted to have lots of mana to work with, so it seemed like a good start.
A lot of the differences at the beginning came from his lack of some cards on your list, but I also decided to include some things that I knew wouldn't exactly work amazingly. You'll notice my list includes Phage the Untouchable. This should not be a legitimate win condition, but I have managed to kill a surprising number of players by connecting with Phage. The same goes for Vraska's Assassin tokens. The deck can support them getting through if you play it right.
The deck shifted to a kind of black/green goodstuff deck as I altered it, but it is very fun to play right now and a bit different than your list, so I thought I'd share it here.
The deck can win a good number of games, and it is fun. I am considering Illusionist's Bracers but I'm not quite sure yet if it's worth it. I'll probably give it a go some time next week; my time has been most recently taken up by working on my Kaalia of the Vast deck, so Sisters hasn't had a lot of attention recently.
TL;DR - Thanks for putting up this list. It inspired me to make a deck like it, which is very fun.
• They're almost impossible to kill in combat
• They're one of the best rattlesnakes in the game
• Creature theft is extremely powerful in this format
• The mechanics that they play well with are very powerful in their own right
• They're unusual and tend to not be seen as a threat (at least initially)
On the negative side:
• They cost 8 mana, and it's pretty color intensive
• They. Cost. Eight. Mana.
• You want to run a flexible, ramp heavy strategy
• You like having a number of paths to victory
• You want to have the coolest creature on the board
• You really like pointy ears
You should stay away if:
• You want to cast your general early
• You have a great fear of mass removal
• You prefer your ears rounded at the top
• You prefer boring, one-dimensional creatures
Drawing on the inestimable MTGS Wiki, we can learn a little more about their background. So in a nutshell, they're power hungry, reasonably daring, and fairly cruel. At some point later in the story, two more of them are killed and the last one gets soundly beaten, but that's not relevant. The point is, they're a team of ruthless gorgons, and who else would you rather have leading your army?
In the real world, the Sisters were one of the many two-colored legendary creatures introduced in the fan favorite block of Ravnica, which gave us countless* numbers of excellent EDH generals. While they've got solid combat stats and remarkable abilities, their extremely high CMC kept them off of the tournament tables (to the best of my knowledge – if I'm wrong here, let me know). When that drawback doesn't matter as much, you're left with a lot of upsides, which makes EDH the perfect place for them. So let's take some time and see what they're all about.
*It was actually only twenty.
The best way to do this is to briefly go through the other available generals one by one, because they do all have something to offer. However, it's all kind of boring and not related to the decklist, so it's hidden away in a spoiler. These are obviously going to be kind of surface-level and narrow, as well. If you really want a more in-depth opinion on any of them, feel free to ask.
Glissa offers powerful artifact recursion to supplement black's powerful creature recursion, and she does it with the second most fearsome combat abilities in the colors (first being Sisters). She's also an elf, which works nicely with the rest of the elves in the deck. Her downside is that she loses a lot when you're not playing powerful and/or numerous artifacts, and generally is built to be a little more combo-y.
Iname as One
Just does not work well with the rules of the format. It's also more expensive than Sisters and needs to pass through the command zone to be reused, which shuts down the recursion options available.
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
The upstart. He plays best with big creatures and heavy recursion, where this is much more of a swarming deck with a couple extremely powerful creatures. There are elements of this deck that would work very well with him, but he's not anywhere near as much fun.
Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
Probably the best option for pure elf tribal in these colors, if only because he can pump out elf tokens. Nath also provides some disruption, which is generally nice. His downside is that he's actually a very small effect in multiplayer if you don't build around his token creation ability, and I didn't want a deck packed with discard.
Rhys the Exiled
Lifegain is not terribly impressive, he encourages you to overextend, and he has a fairly limited sac outlet that runs counter to his first ability. Eww.
Sapling of Colfenor
Sapling promotes a fairly specific style of deckbuilding: heavy on creatures, especially creatures with big butts. While this ended up fairly creature heavy, I wanted the freedom to play around with the relative creature counts a little more. It's very possible to build Sisters with significantly fewer creatures than I have here, and the same cannot be said of Sapling.
Savra, Queen of the Golgari
She ends up killing the Sisters in the story. Why would you want to use her?
More seriously, she pretty much only functions in a sacrifice themed deck. I build far too many of those as it is. I didn't want another.
Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
Solid as an aggressive deck, reasonable as voltron, and plays nicely with reanimation. Doesn't do much with big mana, which is a fun strategy to play around with. My big issue with him is that he's kind of one-dimensional. He doesn't lend himself well to many strategies beyond just attacking.
Varolz, the Scar-Striped
He's powerful and interesting, but he's awful for elves. They don't add a significant amount of power when scavenged, and they certainly aren't as powerful that way as being reanimated for massive mana. He's going to be a fun card somewhere, but not here.
Vhati il-Dal
In his own little world. Probably the most interesting ability of all these options, but it wasn't the deck I wanted to build. It's very easy to make a deck around him overly dependent on the general, as well.
As you may know if you've ever looked at my Jaya Ballard primer (ignore the shameless plug behind the curtain), my name is Chris. I've been playing Magic off and on since Ice Age, and got back into it in a big way around Shards of Alara. After playing standard for a bit, I discovered EDH and that was pretty much the end of the story. I pretty much play that exclusively (some legacy and limited) and frequently, against a wide variety of folks at the LGS. I live in sunny San Diego, CA and spend a significant amount of time on these forums, where you may recognize me as one of the friendly neighborhood moderators.
1 Sisters of Stone Death
//Elves
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Elvish Archdruid
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Imperious Perfect
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Priest of Titania
1 Quirion Ranger
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Seeker of Skybreak
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Wirewood Channeler
1 Wood Elves
1 Wren's Run Packmaster
//Other Creatures
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Eternal Witness
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Regal Force
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Soul of the Harvest
1 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mana Crypt
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Sol Ring
1 Staff of Domination
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Tower of Fortunes
//Enchantments
1 Concordant Crossroads
1 Mana Reflection
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Recycle
1 Underworld Connections
//Instants
1 Beast Within
1 Chord of Calling
1 Krosan Grip
1 Putrefy
//Sorceries
1 Cultivate
1 Decree of Pain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Explosive Vegetation
1 Exsanguinate
1 Genesis Wave
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Hunting Wilds
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Nature's Lore
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Reanimate
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Victimize
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Bayou
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Command Tower
1 Deserted Temple
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Gilt-Leaf Palace
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Tainted Wood
1 Temple of the False God
1 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
1 Wirewood Lodge
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Yavimaya Hollow
7 Forest
7 Swamp
1 Sisters of Stone Death
//Mana
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Bayou
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Command Tower
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Cultivate
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Elvish Archdruid
1 Explosive Vegetation
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Gilt-Leaf Palace
1 Hunting Wilds
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Reflection
1 Nature's Lore
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Priest of Titania
1 Reap and Sow
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Sol Ring
1 Tainted Wood
1 Temple of the False God
1 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wirewood Channeler
1 Wood Elves
1 Woodland Cemetery
7 Forest
7 Swamp
1 Beast Within
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Decree of Pain
1 Krosan Grip
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Putrefy
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Wasteland
//Untapping
1 Deserted Temple
1 Quirion Ranger
1 Seeker of Skybreak
1 Staff of Domination
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Wirewood Lodge
1 Wirewood Symbiote
//Recursion
1 Eternal Witness
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Reanimate
1 Victimize
//Protection
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Yavimaya Hollow
//Card Draw/Tutors
1 Chord of Calling
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Recycle
1 Regal Force
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Soul of the Harvest
1 Tower of Fortunes
1 Underworld Connections
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Concordant Crossroads
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Exsanguinate
1 Genesis Wave
1 Imperious Perfect
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Wren's Run Packmaster
- Prismatic Omen
- Loxodon Warhammer
- Asceticism
- Go for the Throat
- Forest
- Forest
- Forest
- Swamp
- Swamp
+ Wirewood Symbiote
+ Thousand-Year Elixir
+ Decree of Pain
+ Putrefy
+ Gilt-Leaf Palace
+ Tainted Wood
+ Reliquary Tower
+ Llanowar Wastes
+ Cabal Coffers
4/12/12:
- Glissa Sunseeker
- Lys Alana Scarblade
- Mimic Vat
- Tortured Existence
- Patriarch's Bidding
- Three Visits
- Forest
- Forest
- Forest
- Forest
- Swamp
- Swamp
- Swamp
+ Farhaven Elf
+ Imperious Perfect
+ Wirewood Channeler
+ Mana Crypt
+ Tower of Fortunes
+ Praetor's Counsel
+ Ancient Tomb
+ Bayou
+ Grim Backwoods
+ Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
+ Overgrown Tomb
+ Wirewood Lodge
+ Yavimaya Hollow
5/12/12:
- Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
- Beacon of Unrest
- Worldly Tutor
+ Rune-Scarred Demon
+ Akroma's Memorial
+ Strands of Night
8/20/12:
- Plague Boiler
+ Pernicious Deed
9/1/12:
- Strands of Night
- Beacon of Unrest
- Forest
+ Soul of the Harvest
+ Praetor's Counsel
+ Gaea's Cradle
9/19/12:
11/4/12:
- Withered Wretch
- Survival of the Fittest
+ Elves of Deep Shadow
+ Life//Death
12/31/12:
- Nim Deathmantle
- Grim Backwoods
- Mystifying Maze
- Snuff Out
- Reap and Sow
+ Rings of Brighthearth
+ Deserted Temple
+ Twilight Mire
+ Recycle
+ Concordant Crossroads
Deathmantle → Rings probably should have happened a while back. I don't run sacrifice shenanigans, and I do run a lot of activated abilities. Rings is also ramp when combined with untap effects, of which there are many.
Backwoods → Temple is for similar reasons as the last change. I don't want to keep mana up, and Backwoods is not so efficient at what it does that I'm really going to miss it. Temple has the potential to make a lot of mana and works well with a couple other cards in the deck.
Maze → Mire has similar logic. I don't want to keep mana up, but color fixing is important. There were too many colorless lands in here, and Mire is one of the better fixers with the amount of mana I make.
Snuff → Recycle takes away a reactive card for a proactive card. While I love Snuff Out, I'd rather have something that fuels the almost combo nature of my gameplan than a creature only spot kill here.
Reap → Crossroads, same thing. I have powerful lands and Reap and Sow may return someday, but haste is more important with all of the elves, especially the mana elves.
5/1/13:
5/8/13:
I put this together when I felt like making a BG deck again – I've built Savra a couple times before, and I like a lot of what the color combo can do. I've got a huge soft spot for weird and rarely seen generals, and the Sisters are certainly that. I also liked the power of their abilities and how well they dovetail with this format, so the deck was born. While searching for cards to slot into the deck, I noticed the interaction between the lure/exile combo and “Untap target creature” abilities, so in those went. A number of those are either on elves or related to elves, and elves also have the mana production to power the Sisters out quickly. Thus, the deck was born. I also took the opportunity to throw in a few of the cards I don't normally run, largely the things I got tired of playing against. As such, this isn't the most unique snowflake of a deck in the format, but it's still a ton of fun to play.
After playing it a couple times, I was hooked on how quickly it could ramp and the resilience of a recursion heavy creature deck. I also played in a league at the LGS with a point system, and a ramp heavy tribal deck worked very well with the points (ended up getting me first for the season). Since then, it's been seeing pretty steady improvements. The overall themes (big, fast mana and elves) have stayed constant since the beginning, but the specifics have varied over time. Exactly what's changed is something that's going to be detailed quite a bit more, starting right about here.
There are a number of ways you can build a Sisters of Stone Death deck. Just about the only constant is going to be heavy ramp, because the Sisters require a massive amount of mana (generally their casting cost plus BG, minimum). I think that elf tribal is one of the better ways to support them, so that's what you're going to see here. As with my Jaya primer and a couple others on the site, bold card names indicate the cards currently in the deck.
Creatures in this deck can be divided into two camps: elves and not-elves. There is little more that needs to be said about them, so on to individual cards.
This isn't a terribly artifact heavy deck, because most of the focus is on the creatures, but there are still some very powerful support options.
Enchantments are my favorite card type, but I've restrained myself here. These provide a lot of the power in the deck, and you should put some serious thought into which of these you want supporting you.
Or if you just feel like blowing something up.
Sorceries are another place where the deck picks up some muscle, largely because of the depth and strength of the ramp and recursion packages. This is nothing novel nor different from many other green and black decks in the format, but it is certainly powerful.
Sometimes you just want to draw some cards.
While the deck plays at mostly sorcery speed, there are some instants worth playing at that speed. Also at instant speed, but that's mostly coincidence.
Lands are the basis of any deck, for obvious reasons. I'm going to assume you can find or already know your favorites for fixing colors, and just talk utility or otherwise more interesting lands here.
than the rest of your lands combined.
The strategy is very basic here. First, you want to ramp. Follow that up with ramp. Finally, ramp some more, then use that mana for good. Seriously, just about every stage of the game for this deck involves ramp. I've described the plan of this deck as “ramp into ramp,” because that's how it closes out games.
And with that, dear readers, we have come to the end of the primer. All that's left is the little administrative stuff. It may or may not get more exciting over time. Also, I have a quick appeal to anyone reading this. If you're reading the unexciting things written in this section, the odds are pretty good that you read some of the other stuff as well, and there are a lot of words up there. If you noticed any mistakes, please let me know so I can fix them.
8/28/12 – Changelog formatting changed, taken from Leroy's Zur primer. Pictures added. Strategy expanded.
9/1/2012 – Update to Strategy and Card Choices, fixed a typo, decklist updated.
9/19/2012 – Decklist update, change to card options.
11/4/2012 – Decklist/Card Option update
1/5/2013 – Decklist/Card Option update
5/1/2013 – Decklist/Card Option update
5/8/2013 – Decklist/Card Option update
Thank You Rivenor/Miraculous Recovery Studios!
GGGSKamahl's Band of Monstosities SGGG
RRRSFreaki-Kiki, The Goblin DoucheSRRR
BBGGNath, Raper of Hands and Spewer of Tokens!GGBB
BUGDamia, Sage of AnswersBUG
WIPs
BBBXiahou Dun, the Bitter Stax Enabling BastardBBB
On Break
BBBSKagemaro, First to RetireSBBB
BBBThe Walking DeadBBB
UUUSTeferi Combo PrimerSUUU
I wanted to play around with an unusual general in GB and Sisters have some really interesting abilities. The elves kind of fell into place when I was looking for ways to untap creatures to better make use of the forced blocking as well as ways to ramp. I'm still considering Nath as one of the 99, but I'm not sure if he's worth it without any additional discard support. Thanks for checking out the list!
Collective Unconscious
Harmonize
Night's Whisper
Sign in Blood
Ancient Craving
Ambition's Cost
It looks like you can hit enough mana for Tower of Fortunes.
Thousand Year Elixer is good, and Touch of Vitae could be decent.
GRRWHazezon Tamar (Valakut)GRRW
UKami of the Crescent Moon (
Group Hug)UUHeidar, Rimewind Master [Mini-Primer]U
WKemba, Kha Regent (Stax)W
GEzuri, Renegade Leader [Primer]G
Funny story. I had Elixir in here when I built the deck, then left it for a week and a half and pulled it when I came back because I only had ~8 creatures with t activated abilities, and that's generally the reason I think about Elixir in decks. Completely overlooked the fact that it untaps opposing creatures, which was the reason I added it to begin with. So that will make it back in when I update the deck. Touch will not, because I don't really care about untapping my own dudes. It's a nice perk sometimes, but not really essential to the deck.
For card draw, I know I'm adding Decree of Pain. I'm still not sure if I would rather have burst draw or something more gradual though. I might end up with Harmonize, etc, but I think the draw two ones are a little too light for what this deck wants. I'm not really going for gradual advantage. Sisters and an elf swarm tend to draw too much attention to really fly under the radar, so I'm embracing that wholeheartedly and going for big, excessively flashy plays. Tower cuts into my creature abuse mana a little too much when I don't have elves pumping out more than I know what to do with. Thanks for checking out the list!
This onwards is mostly me collecting my thoughts under the guise of explaining future changes to the deck. I've got a number of little improvements on the way, but I'm not adjusting the decklist until I actually know what the changes are going to be. New toys include Gilt-Leaf Palace, Llanowar Wastes, Tainted Wood, Decree of Pain, Victimize, Yavimaya Hollow, Wirewood Lodge, Wirewood Symbiote, and possibly Lys Alana Scarblade. Still don't have an Ezuri, but I also used Kamahl's land ability offensively the other night, so I'm not sure if I want to make that a straight swap or have them coexist. I also think I want some kind of removal on a creature, which is either going to be Scarblade to keep the tribal thing going or Duplicant because it's Duplicant. Also debating the merits of including Cabal Coffers here. I'm not a big fan of using it in 2+ color decks as a general rule, but the mana requirements in this one are heavy enough that I might be willing to break that. I think I also want a couple more ways of spitting out elves en masse to take advantage of the elf count cards, possibly Elvish Promenade or Imperious Perfect.
And yes, witn P-Titan coffers is definitely worth it. It leads to some stupid amounts of mana.
Thank You Rivenor/Miraculous Recovery Studios!
GGGSKamahl's Band of Monstosities SGGG
RRRSFreaki-Kiki, The Goblin DoucheSRRR
BBGGNath, Raper of Hands and Spewer of Tokens!GGBB
BUGDamia, Sage of AnswersBUG
WIPs
BBBXiahou Dun, the Bitter Stax Enabling BastardBBB
On Break
BBBSKagemaro, First to RetireSBBB
BBBThe Walking DeadBBB
UUUSTeferi Combo PrimerSUUU
Updated the list with some new stuff. Trying Lys Alana Scarblade as a removal piece that's also an elf. Though I don't have terribly high hopes for it, I'd love to be surprised. Thousand-Year Elixir and Wirewood Symbiote have both found homes for their synergy with Sisters and secondary synergy with ridiculous mana elves. Decree of Pain gives me another wrath and some draw, and Putrefy replaces the much less flexible Go for the Throat. Also gone are some unexciting things and Loxodon Warhammer, which didn't have any particular synergy with the deck outside of being generally badass. If I miss it, it'll find its way back in. Manabase has also been spiced up, and I'm expecting additional [CARD=yavimaya hollow]toys for this deck in the next few days.
Aside: Seton, Krosan Protector is a pita. He completely shuts down Sisters' exile/stealing.
Maybe Infiltration Lens would be usefull...once equip on your commander, that would made you draw a lot of cards...
Hakim, Loreweaver
Autumn Willow
Yomiji, Who Bars the Way
Hanna, Ship's Navigator
Chromium
Skyfire Kirin
Much delayed, thank you! Lens was generally win-more when I tried it, because it was good when I had Sisters swinging and mana up - basically the point where I could just use them to run the game. It is a fantastic idea and generally a hit at the table, though.
I updated the list with some pretty heavy stuff. There was a major update a couple months ago that I didn't post, so I included that as well as a smaller one from much more recently.
@runningbear, Tower of Fortunes was actually a really good call and I should have added that sooner. There's enough mana floating around that 8 is actually not that significant.
I'm considering turning this into a primer, but I want to see what the other BG lists look like first. I don't think there's anything that covers quite the same ground as this list right now, but if I'm going to put way too much time into writing and maintaining another one of those I want to be sure.
As far as being a primer goes, it's very informative and well written.
Thanks! Elves are definitely a relatively cheap way to go for big mana, and some of the best reanimation cards can be picked up for under a dollar. Phyrexian Reclamation and Victimize are extraordinarily strong without a corresponding price tag. Most of the expensive stuff in my list is removal and color fixing, and you can definitely lose those kinds of things in favor of cheaper options while keeping the themes and feel of a deck like this.
Thanks to you as well! Forays is a long time favorite of mine, and I've considered it for this deck in the past. The issue that I've had with it here is that it requires me to keep mana open if I'm worried about a board wipe, and that's not always something I want to do. I'm greedy like that with this deck. I could definitely see it being worth another look.
Thanks, both for the compliment about the deck and for the more general thanks. Cromat is probably my preferred 5C general, but I like having my "perfect" manabases and he eats up a lot of resources to pull that off (also I don't have any of the blue duals, so there's that).
I posted this in the crazy plays thread as well, but I had a game earlier tonight where the mana elf nut draw gave me a turn 6 win in a 1v1 game against an Edric deck. Super sketchy opening 7 with only a single land, but way too much explosive potential to pass up, and I knew my opponent runs almost no disruption.
T1: Forest
T2: Topdeck and play Llanowar Elves
T3: Play Priest of Titania (opponent has two elves)
T4: Play Thousand-Year Elixir, Wirewood Symbiote, Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, bounce and replay the Llanowar to untap Priest, play Wirewood Channeler, play Oracle of Mul Daya
T5: (opponent has played Edric - 3 elves) Use Priest and Channeler in conjunction with Symbiote to play a topdecked Chameleon Colossus and my general
T6: Lure all of the opposing creatures with the Sisters, then pump the Colossus 5 times and swing for 128 damage, all without playing a second land. I had the potential to make something like 50-60 mana off of my single forest.
Probably the most impressive fast start the deck has had, and it all went off without ever seeing a second land.
I have a legacy aggro elf deck with a lot of token creation, so if you're still up for some ideas I can throw some out there.
With all the elf spells you have, consider Lys Alana Huntmaster. It's a 3/3 for 4, but will be dumping tokens all over the place. With your ramp, the cost probably doesn't matter much.
In my 60-card legacy deck I use that with Imperious Perfect (which you've listed) and Parallel Lives. Dropping 2 mana dorks all of a sudden becomes 6 total elves added.
I also love Hunting Triad. I use it to either get 3 more elves (6 with P. Lives) or add 3 counters to Joraga Warcaller (which you've also listed) which of course pumps my whole field.
Immaculate Magistrate and Elvish Promenade are more pump and token cards that I don't personally use but may be helpful.
Wren's Run Vanquisher is a great card that will almost always be cast for 2 (especially if you're adding to the draw package) and I think the deathtouch fits B/G nicely.
Thanks again for the great list!
edit: I've always wanted to use Wren's Run Packmaster but it doesn't fit my 60. It may be nice in an EDH deck
2nd edit: Maybe consider Bramblewood Paragon too. It's a staple card for my legacy deck but since your list didn't have a lot of warriors I didn't include it in my original suggestions. However, it's a nice trample piece if you're adding counters with Oran-Rief, the Vastwood or other methods.
Standard: lol no
Modern: BG/x, UR/x, Burn, Merfolk, Zoo, Storm
Legacy: Shardless BUG, Delver (BUG, RUG, Grixis), Landstill, Depths Combo, Merfolk
Vintage: Dark Times, BUG Fish, Merfolk
EDH: Teysa, Orzhov Scion / Krenko, Mob Boss / Stonebrow, Krosan Hero
Lys Alana Huntmaster is very solid in some decks, but I've found I get better token production out of a couple dedicated token makers without need to support them as much. Imperious Perfect plays very nicely with the existing suite of untap effects, and Wren's Run Packmaster (which has been an all star since I added it) can pump out a lot of tokens in not a lot of time. They also have the benefit of being able to apply a lot of pressure without running out a lot of cards, which makes recovery from wraths much less painful.
Hunting Triad is just smaller than I need effects to be here. The interaction with Joraga Warcaller is fun, but it doesn't happen all that often on its own in a 100 card singleton deck, and it's not really useful enough to burn tutors on. It's a card/synergy that's much better in a 60 card deck with 4-ofs.
Elvish Promenade is another one where overextending is a big danger. In faster duel formats, there's somewhat less danger - dropping a bunch of 1/1 elves to get lorded up can overwhelm an opponent quickly. In this format, the odds of being able to take down everyone before anyone wipes the board are much lower, and you had to commit a number of cards to get into that position.
Immaculate Magistrate is one I've considered in the past. Even without committing heavily to the board, she has a noticeable impact. The problem I have with her is that she's most effective when trying to kill with general damage, and it takes 4 counters (or 3 one turn and another the next) to increase the Sisters clock. Buffing other creatures is nice, but her particular method of doing so isn't as useful to this deck as it might be elsewhere.
Wren's Run Vanquisher is just outclassed. If I wanted a 3/3 deathtoucher, I'd use Glissa, the Traitor, who is significantly better in combat with a useful ability. It comes down to the same kind of reasoning as Hunting Triad. With more people and higher life totals, early aggro strategies are significantly hampered. Playing an aggressive deck in this format generally involves going bigger than your opponents, not faster.
A lot of your suggestions could pack some serious punch in a more token themed elf deck where you were going for quick kills, but they're on a little bit of a different road than this one (let me know if you build this, because I'm totally up for helping on something like that. Tokens are a blast to play). This is following a plan more akin to Nic Fit than legacy elves. It doesn't matter if your threats are less efficient than your opponent's threats, because they can just roll over them once they get going. Thanks again for checking out the list!
With Sisters you probably don't need a token swarm since you can steal your opponents' armies. You can even keep them exiled, and once you can recast Sisters after a wipe can regain position by bringing them in.
Standard: lol no
Modern: BG/x, UR/x, Burn, Merfolk, Zoo, Storm
Legacy: Shardless BUG, Delver (BUG, RUG, Grixis), Landstill, Depths Combo, Merfolk
Vintage: Dark Times, BUG Fish, Merfolk
EDH: Teysa, Orzhov Scion / Krenko, Mob Boss / Stonebrow, Krosan Hero
Your rebuilding through a wipe trick actually doesn't work. Each time a card hits the field, it's considered a new object with no memory of its former self. This is really nice in this deck for things like Quirion Ranger, where it dodges the once a turn restriction. The downside is that you can only bring creatures back with Sisters if they've been on the field since you exiled those creatures.
Grave Betrayal - Steal all of your opponents' creatures as they die. This is better in something with a little more creature control and doesn't really play well with the elf themes here, but it does mesh well with the Sisters. Odds are pretty good you'll get your hands on their creatures one way or another.
Necropolis Regent - A solid option in an aggro deck like this one can be. Most of the creatures here are too small to get a big bonus and it doesn't play nicely with Mikaeus, the Unahallowed, but this will frequently be a must-answer threat. Even nicer with a lord or two to get the process started.
Ultimate Price - Worse than many other options. I'd rather have Go for the Throat every time, and there are plenty of other kill spells to use. Not bad, just outclassed by some of the other stuff.
Underworld Connections - A worse Phyrexian Arena. Not bad, but this deck doesn't have land untapping effects, just creature ones. If some land untappers get added in, which is a definite possibility, this looks a lot more attractive.
Death's Presence - Another solid aggro option, but this play much more nicely with bigger creatures than elves. Too expensive for what you're getting out of it here.
Mana Bloom - A way to go even bigger mana a turn after you draw it. By the point I would want this, I think I can already make more mana than I know what to do with, so this isn't terribly helpful. Worth looking into further, but not super exciting.
Oak Street Innkeeper - Protects mana dorks from sorcery speed spot removal. Sorcery speed spot removal is extremely rare in this format, so this isn't a great option. Being on a fairly low cost elf is the redeeming factor, so this gets tested at some point.
Wild Beastmaster - If this was an elf, it would probably be in in a heartbeat. It's not, so it's probably going to be sidelined. There just aren't than many ways to buff non-elf creatures here.
Worldspine Wurm - While this deck has the mana to cast it, it doesn't have the desire. This is a standalone powerful creature, and this deck is much more interested in synergy.
Abrupt Decay - Lots of potential and very much a meta call. It's obviously ridiculous if there are targets for it, but this format is known for its high cost bombs. I don't think I'll be running it yet, but I'm keeping an eye on CMCs around the table more closely than normal for the next couple weeks.
Golgari Charm - None of the modes are terribly useful. One has the potential to damage my board quite a bit, I'd rather reanimate than regenerate, and there's better enchantment hate. Not on my list at all right now.
Grisly Salvage - Quite good, but there's not enough GY abuse in this deck to make me really want this. It's going to make some decks very happy though.
Jarad's Orders - A lot like Grisly Salvage. There are other creature tutors I would run before this in this deck.
Korozda Guildmage - An elf with a couple useful abilities. It makes general damage somewhat easier to accomplish if I need that, and the sacrifice ability is interesting. I think most of the creatures here are too small to really take advantage, but it would be hilarious with Kamahl, Fist of Krosa over a couple turns. While it seems interesting, I don't think it's quite what I want here.
Lotleth Troll - Wonderful for reanimator decks, but as I've mentioned a couple times that's not this one. It's not threatening enough for the resources it uses up.
Treasured Find - A worse Regrowth, which isn't in the deck now.
Vraska, the Unseen - Draws more attention than I like, and it's pretty much just a more expensive and slightly worse Maelstrom Pulse + partial fog most of the time. I think the removal in here is pretty reasonable right now, so she's not high on my list. I do like the idea of adding a gorgon walker though.
Deathrite Shaman - Elf GY hate with bonus effects. I'm sold. Needing haste for surprise hate is rough, but I think there are enough other hate cards here that the upsides are worth that.
Everything with Scavenge - Not really interested. Better if this was more voltron-y.
All the mana rocks and fixing - Not really interested. Green doesn't need the help and the manabase here is solid as is.
So after all that, I'm mostly excited for Deathrite Shaman and might test a couple others. While there's a little overlap, this deck doesn't dovetail with the Golgari themes all that much (despite being led by the former guild leader) so that's not all that surprising.
For the first three, because I'd rather just have raw card draw. This is not a deck built around incremental advantage. This deck overextends and throws haymakers, then either wins or loses on the merits of those. Looking at the top three cards is generally worse than just drawing more cards, and trying to keep mana up on my opponents' turns is a hassle. I make enough mana that I can afford to be less efficient to draw when I want to.
As for Crucible, there's not really any use for it here. I could add in additional fetchands, but I typically don't have a problem with mana. Again, this deck has no interest in incremental advantages. The only time I'd consider it is if I were to add Strands of Night back into the deck, and that seems far more cute than effective.
Adding staple cards for the sake of having staple cards is generally not a good plan. You are going to get a lot more functionality out of cards that actively support what the deck is trying to do. Thanks for checking out the list!
I was looking at the newly spoiled Illusionist's Bracers, and realized that I could probably make use of Rings in here. Deathmantle has been ok from time to time, but I rarely have the mana open to use it as protection and I don't sac my own guys enough to abuse it that way. Backwoods → Temple comes from Backwoods not being great here and Temple having the potential to make insane mana in a few ways. Muse → Connections is something that reflects the previous change, and I also have Argothian Elder on the way (along with the last manabase improvements I've wanted: Reflecting Pool and Twilight Mire, which will replace Mystifying Maze and one of the more mediocre duals or basics) to work with this even more. Snuff → Recycle works because I generally have more of an interest in being proactive than reactive, and I've wanted to try Recycle in here for a while.
These changes also add a couple infinite combos to the deck: Rings + Seeker of Skybreak + any big mana elf, and Rings + Temple + any big mana land. When I get the Elder in here, it also adds a couple infinite interactions. I like all of the cards being thrown in here and don't have anything in particular against infinite combo, but I thought I'd mention it for anyone who happens to follow the list. They also require something like half a dozen cards each, though there's some variance in which cards, so it's not something that's likely to end a game much more quickly than the deck already can.
A couple more recent changes. I'll change the opening post to reflect them at some point, but there's no great hurry. Wilds → Elder is one 4 CMC ramp spell for another, but the Elder works better with the other cards in the deck. Wood → Pool is one color fixing land for another, but Pool is better. Nothing big, but worth keeping track of.
Gatecrash is spoiled! That means it's time to look over all of the available options. Golgari was in the last set so I'm not expecting tons, but there are a few goodies available here.
Crypt Ghast - This deck can play a lot of spells in a turn and does run a pretty good number of basics, so Ghast could be a solid card. It doesn't really do what the deck wants, which is ramp like mad and play huge threats, but it might be good enough to slip in as a small ramp spell. Worth keeping an eye on.
All the other extort guys - Not good enough. Not what the deck wants to do and they don't have the ramp per that Ghast does.
Illness in the Ranks - Blunt token hate. There's better, more general creature control available in black. If tokens are a huge problem (which they shouldn't be), it's a possibility.
Lord of the Void - Here's the kind of haymaker this deck is looking to throw. The question when including this one is which other bomb to cut. I'm not sure it makes the deck because of that, especially given a couple other cards in this set.
Ogre Slumlord - Wrath insurance. There are better choices for that here, like Caller of the Claw, and Slumlord is useless for incremental advantage in the deck as is.
Sepulchral Primordial - One of the other haymakers. Like Lord of the Void, it becomes a question of what to cut. Reanimation from opposing yards isn't my favorite thing here, because my plan is pretty focused already. I think this is behind it's green and demon buddies.
Smog Elemental - Not a bad anti-flying card. A little narrow for this deck and too small an effect for me to really care about it, though.
Undercity Plague - Probably the best black cipher effect. Six mana is a lot to pay and there aren't a lot of creatures attacking that won't end the game in some fashion in here, so it's unlikely to make it in.
Giant Adephage - Another big scary creature! Doesn't do much to advance the deck's plan and doesn't seem like a must have creature, so it will probably not end up here.
Gyre Sage - Another mana elf. It has the potential to make a lot of mana, but it can't do it alone and that's kind of a turn off. I think I would be looking to Bloom Tender and Joiner Adept first, but this may still make the cut.
All the other evolve dudes - Nope. Elves don't promote evolution, and the counters don't do anything for me.
Ivy Lane Denizen - The only one in the denizen cycle I like much. It has some nice synergy with Joraga Warcaller and it's an easy trigger to hit. It's a pretty small effect for 4 mana, though.
Sylvan Primordial - If you haven't formed an opinion of this one yet, I'm unlikely to change your mind. This is unquestionably the best of the fat options here and will almost certainly find a home in this deck. I have no idea what I'm cutting yet, but I've got a couple weeks to figure it out.
Glaring Spotlight - A nice way to use Sisters on otherwise annoying threats, but I typically want to just run those over and I don't see too many of them. The unblockable effect isn't going to matter much most of the time.
Illusionist's Bracers - A definite possibility. Sadly, they don't double up mana abilities. They do double up untaps, which is almost the same thing and would go infinite off of a couple dudes. I'd like to see how Rings of Brighthearth perform first, but these could be very strong.
Thespian's Stage - Almost an autoinclude. Makes me realize I should track down a couple more Vesuva as well, with the power of the manabase here.
So GTC brings two easy includes and a number of possibilities. I'm unlikely to change too much around until I can see how the recent changes play, but there's a lot of potential here.
1 Sisters of Stone Death
Creatures:
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Dark Impostor
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Lord of the Void
1 Phage the Untouchable
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Acidic Slime
1 Elvish Archdruid
1 Elvish Champion
1 Eternal Witness
1 Gyre Sage
1 Imperious Perfect
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Priest of Titania
1 Quirion Ranger
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 Timberwatch Elf
1 Tribal Forcemage
1 Wirewood Channeler
1 Wood Elves
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Decree of Pain
1 Diabolic Revelation
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Exsanguinate
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Life's Finale
1 Promise of Power
1 Sever the Bloodline
1 Syphon Mind
1 Boundless Realms
1 Bramblecrush
1 Rain of Thorns
1 Reap and Sow
1 Treasured Find
Instants:
1 Doom Blade
1 Go for the Throat
1 Moonlight Bargain
1 Sickening Shoal
1 Emerald Charm
1 Harrow
1 Naturalize
1 Putrefy
1 Necropotence
1 Underworld Connections
1 Rancor
Artifacts:
1Helm of Kaldra
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Ring of Kalonia
1 Ring of Valkas
1 Ring of Xathrid
1 Shield of Kaldra
1 Sword of Kaldra
1 Sword of Vengeance
1 Tower of Fortunes
Planeswalker:
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Vraska the Unseen
Land:
17 Swamp
15 Forest
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Wirewood Lodge
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Terramorphic Expanse
And the story: A friend of mine (aDubiousNotion) has a vast collection of cards. He and I go to the same school and I found out that there's a group of commuter students that play magic.
When he found out that I knew of the game, he got me more into it and we started building decks and playing at school. Some other players in our group discovered Commander, but they had all built some very durdle-happy decks and the games were usually categorized by nothing happening forever. More and more of the players started to play that format, though, so Dubious decided to build a Commander deck to combat it. A few iterations later, he had built a very powerful Savra deck.
When Jarad came out, he reformatted her to work with Jarad's abilities and put him at the head. Then he rebuilt Savra in a different way. So, he had decided to build every Golgari general eventually.
Watching his Golgari decks play, they looked fun, but weren't quite in my play style, so I started researching. I can't remember if I decided on Sisters before or after I saw this list, but your deck looked very fun and I wanted to have lots of mana to work with, so it seemed like a good start.
A lot of the differences at the beginning came from his lack of some cards on your list, but I also decided to include some things that I knew wouldn't exactly work amazingly. You'll notice my list includes Phage the Untouchable. This should not be a legitimate win condition, but I have managed to kill a surprising number of players by connecting with Phage. The same goes for Vraska's Assassin tokens. The deck can support them getting through if you play it right.
The deck shifted to a kind of black/green goodstuff deck as I altered it, but it is very fun to play right now and a bit different than your list, so I thought I'd share it here.
The deck can win a good number of games, and it is fun. I am considering Illusionist's Bracers but I'm not quite sure yet if it's worth it. I'll probably give it a go some time next week; my time has been most recently taken up by working on my Kaalia of the Vast deck, so Sisters hasn't had a lot of attention recently.
TL;DR - Thanks for putting up this list. It inspired me to make a deck like it, which is very fun.
WBRKaalia of the Vast - Borzhov Legion (Batallion-inspired Kaalia)WBR
GAzusa, Lost but SeekingG
BGSisters of Stone Death - My list - Inspired ByBG
UBRThraximundarUBR
RAshling the PilgrimR