Creature (28)
Land (22)
Sideboard
Instant (5)
Enchantment (2)
Artifact (3)
Sorcery (3)
Creature (2)
I love bats, both real-world and magical! So when I played a Bloomburrow prerelease my only goal was to take all the bats I opened, ignore everything that wasn't or , and add some lands.
I didn't do amazingly in the prerelease, but I had a great time playing all my bats. So, naturally, I started to think what they would look like in modern. The result is this, a Soul Sisters-esque deck looking to gain life and make your opponent lose life. I built this as a budget deck because I don't want to spend tier 1 money on a deck that's just for fun.
Suggestions are welcome!
We start with a slightly different take on Soul Sisters by having Soul Warden, Ajani's Welcome, and Lifecreed Duo as our ways to gain life from the creatures we play. Ulike regular Soul Sisters, we aren't looking to close out the game with big creatures that care about how much life we have. Instead, our win condition is one small creature that often doesn't even need to attack! The key to winning is Starscape Cleric and its offspring, which turns each life gain trigger into one point of life loss for our opponent.
The life gain from our Bat Sisters and some disruption from things like Deep-Cavern Bat and Vindicate help keep us alive until all of the pieces are in place. The deck can be very explosive and winning by turns 4-6, but it can also hold out to the mid game and grind a victory as well. My initial goal was for a more mid range deck, but the quick win happens more than I expected. Note: 'quick' and 'mid game' are relative terms since this deck isn't meant to be truly competitive in modern :).
Soul Warden: Our resident bat lady! I originally overlooked her because I wanted all creatures to be bats, but adding so much life gain and being a one drop became too tempting. She gains life early to help us stay alive, and adds to the life loss for our opponents once we have a Starscape Cleric or two in play.
Ajani's Welcome: Basically the same as our Soul Warden, but an enchantment. It's tempting to run Soul's Attendant as Soul Wardens 5-8, but that's too many non-bats. Admittedly, Ajani's Welcome can be disappointing to draw late game since it won't trigger Soul Warden or Lifecreed Duo but I kind of like the resiliency of it not being a creature and therefore a little harder to remove.
Lifecreed Duo: A two mana Soul Warden and it's a bat. Easy inclusion!
Zoraline, Cosmos Caller: This is where things can get wild. If we make it to the mid-late game Zoraline can end it very quickly with a couple of Starscape Clerics out. Since each bat attacking is a separate trigger for Zoraline each Starscape Cleric will trigger once for each bat attacking. This adds up very quickly and can often end the game before you even get to combat damage. Having 4 of a legendary isn't always great, but I find in the games I have an extra Zoraline stuck in my hand I'm usually much happier than in the games I don't have one in play or in my hand.
Starscape Cleric: This is what it's all about. Just one of these can end the game over a couple of turns. Multiples can end it the same turn they come down. The fact that it has offspring is mind blowing and game ending. Sure, we can end the game with flying attackers, but this guy makes sure it usually doesn't come to that.
Aether Vial: Another great turn 1 play. This one helps us power out creatures even faster, get them into play on our opponent's turn, and sneak around counter spells. By virtue of the existing bats (and some natural selection) most of our bats have a CMC of 2. The first Vial should always be on 2 and if you have a second put that one on 3.
Occasionally we don't have everything we need in our opening hand. I know, it's a design flaw... But, in those instances we have Lupinflower Village and Star Charter to help is dig to find what we want. We've also got Darkstar Augur to help us draw deeper. If we're really desperate we can even cast it with offspring and then thank the gods we designed the deck with such a low mana curve.
Star Charter is one I'm considering replacing. It has been helpful in some situations but more often when I'm ahead I'd rather see something else and when I'm behind it's just a bit too slow. I'm keeping it in until I find something better, but I'd love to swap it for a more impactful (hopefully 2 cmc) bat.
Caves of Koilos is the obvious budget option to help with fixing. Interestingly, the life loss required to make coloured mana isn't all downside. A couple of times it has come in handy to force life loss to trigger Star Charter when I didn't have the ability to gain life. This is basically when you have no creatures in hand and no Zoraline, Cosmos Caller in play so it's not common, but it does happen.
Basilica Screecher means you can trigger life gain from every spell you play so you can double up on creatures and it keeps late game Aether Vials and Ajani's Welcomes from being dead cards in your hand.
Rounding out the 60 is Deep-Cavern Bat and Vindicate for a little disruption and Mudflat Village to get a creature back if we really need it.
I initially built the deck around a wider variety of effects that triggered with life gain/loss.
- Starseer Mentor: seemed really cool, but the CMC turned out to be way too high for such a small impact. I'm also not a huge fan of my opponent having a say in how it hits them.
- Lunar Convocation: This felt like a really strong card since it could do so much with the life gain and loss, but I have much better things to do on turn 2. It really shone in games where I was already winning and if I was behind it basically read ': Draw a card'.
- Courier Bat: Early on I was more concerned about getting creatures back if they were killed, but then I settled into more of a 'flood the board so losing a creature or two doesn't matter' strategy. More often than not, Courier Bat just became a 1/1 flier for 3.
These cards were all fun but proved to be a little too casual for what I wanted this deck to do.
- Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal : I was so excited to try this one out! A giant bat god that can't really die, has lifelink, forces your opponent to discard, and can sometimes make bat babies? Yes, please! In reality, it's just too slow and is clearly much better suited to Commander. This turned out to be a good thing. If we needed multiples that would pretty much automatically mean the deck wasn't budget.
- Blind Hunter: Another bat that proved to be too slow.
- Gurmag Swiftwing: The most recent bat to be taken out. 2 mana fits with our Aether Vial plan and haste means it can trigger Soul Warden and Zoraline, Cosmos Caller in the same turn. In the end, the other 2 drop bats proved to be just a little more impactful.
- Fountain of Youth: Ok. I know! This should have never made it into the 60 in the first place! BUT! I have a soft spot for this card. Let's just say we go way back and I couldn't resist adding it as a way to trigger life gain, just for a bit.
- Dakmor Bat: I love the art, it reminds me a bit of the Antillean Ghost-Faced Bat from our own world. I also love the old border, and the sword and shield on the power/toughness. But it had to go when I decided to make the deck modern legal and let's face it, it wasn't very helpful before then either.
While I don't think Bats will be the next tier 1 modern deck, there are a couple of ways this deck could be powered up to be more competitive, assuming budget isn't an issue. I haven't tested these and I certainly don't claim to be a modern expert (especially with all the new cards), but these are the cards I'd start testing if I really wanted to push this deck.
Lands
Spells
- Thoughtseize
- Liliana of the Veil
- Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
- Soul's Attendant (swap for Ajani's Welcome or possibly Aether Vial)
- Selfless Spirit
- Athreos, God of Passage
I also have a copy of Exquisite Blood
that I didn't include in this deck because it isn't really a budget option. 5 mana is steep, but the fact that it can almost instantly end the game is very tempting so I'll try it out in my physical version of this deck.
- The Brazilian Free-Tailed Bat is the fastest animal under its own power. Some birds are faster when diving, but the Brazilian Free-Tailed Bat can fly at speeds of 160kph in level flight.
- Bats pollinate a wide variety of plants including bananas, avocado, and cacao. Be sure to thank a bat next time you're in the grocery store!
- Bats are the only mammals capable of true, self-powered flight (others, like flying squirrels, sugar gliders, etc., are only able glide over short distances).
- Bats navigate by echolocation and their wings allow them to be very nimble in the air, making them exceptional fliers.
- The largest bats can have wingspans of over 1.5 metres.
- The smallest bats weigh only a couple of grams.
- Bat in Spanish is murciélago, which is the only single word in the language to use every vowel.
- Bats made their first appearance in Magic with Vampire Bats in Legends.
- 43 bats have been printed in Magic (not counting Un sets or Changelings), with 12 appearing in Bloomburrow (the most of any single set).
- I narrowly resisted titling this section Bad Ass Bat Facts...
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Casual
98% Competitive
| Top Ranked |
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| Date added | 2 weeks |
| Last updated | 6 hours |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 13 - 12 Rares 26 - 3 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 1.97 |
| Tokens | Copy Clone, Darkstar Augur 1/1 B, Starscape Cleric 1/1 B |
| Folders | Modern Decks I Did Not Make, Modern Brews, Appropriations Committee, Need to Build |
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