I am definitely hoping they reprint Birds of Paradise . That would help so much in this deck. And thanks everyone, I am liking it lately, save tonights FNM where the mana just wouldn't work! I am thinking of taking out Call of the Conclave for Farseek to help me with mana fixing. And honestly who doesn't like a turn 3 Thragtusk . I'd like to know people's thoughts though so let me know

I hope they reprint Birds of Paradise !

nice

Yeah deff farseek bro. im all about early Thrag. If we get birds, oh boy!!

If Birds of Paradise gets reprinted this deck will never have mana problems again. But alas, I will settle for Farseek until then. I have been testing with it and it is much better with Farseek than with Call of the Conclave so that change will become permanent

69

I was so excited when I saw that this deck made it to 69 upvotes

Fixed.

How about some terminus? Even sided. With flashback tokens, its an awesome board wipe

I decided to test this deck against BR zombies and WUR flash. Here are my thoughts.

Even with shocks, the mana is bad. Farseek is a tempo loss if you miss your fourth land drop, and only one forest means that even if your pilgrim succeeds in accelerating you, your game starts at 18 life. Lingering souls is a powerful delaying tactic, but it does nothing if you miss a land drop and just die a turn later. At very least add two forests, going up to 25 land.

Sorin felt very weak in testing. Aggro decks just see the card as a 4 mana 1/1 lifelink. Flash decks can ignore the token and overpower it with restoration angel. Control decks just completely overpower sorin's maximum value by playing cards like detention sphere and sphinx's revelation. Sorin is an expensive card your opponent can choose to allow to resolve, and that's not acceptable in this sort of a deck.

Silklash spider is a neat piece of tech that is one of the few cards to completely trump a thundermaw helkite. It also mitigates the threat of a pike and survives a lot of removal. It might be worth a single sideboard slot.

Angel if serenity is a powerful endgame card that can give the board sweeping and recursion needed to finish the game. While it might be really slow against humans, other midrange decks will have a harder time simply dealing with your threats one by one and then exhausting the value of your topdecks. It might have a place somewhere in the 75.

This deck has problems with permission and with landing a first turn pilgrim. A couple of caverns would reduce the damage of both problems.

Vault of the archangel and gavony township is a questionable combination. Your mana is strained, and while I suppose having multiple options in the event that you draw both is decent, wouldn't you just rather run two copies of the better card? The ten mana combination of the two isn't exactly a powerful combo. I would recommend cutting vault.

Three copies of rest in peace is excessive unless your FNM is loaded with reanimator.

Thanks for the test, now to address everything.

I have had problems with the mana in the past, I am the first to admit that. However, ever since I added Farseek I haven't been mana screwed once. I don't really mind starting at 18 life for a turn of mana acceleration with card:Avacyn's Pilgrim, as it allows me a turn 2 Lingering Souls or turn 3 Thragtusk . However, to address the pilgrim issue I took out the one Plains and added 1 Forest . I am definitely hoping that Birds of Paradise is reprinted, as that would help so much. Going up to 25 land in a deck where the highest drop is a 5 drop seems excessive, and I really can't see anything to take out.

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad has won me more games than any other card in this deck, save maybe Thragtusk . With an Intangible Virtue up, he makes good 2/2 chump blockers that gain back the life from shock lands. Even with that, his true power comes in his emblem. Unless I have a completely empty field, the first thing I do when Sorin hits the table is make his emblem, and if I can +1 twice more I stack them. With the amount of creatures I get on the field with this deck Sorin's emblem can make the difference between swinging for 5 and swinging for 10, which is a huge difference.

I agree with you on the Silklash Spider comment. I've had problems with Thundermaw Hellkite before. It will be added to the sideboard.

I don't think Angel of Serenity belongs to be honest. I have enough removal to clear their board enough for a lethal swing and getting 3 white is hard even with Farseek . Plus, I find the deck is getting a little creature heavy already anyway and if I add one more it would probably be another Restoration Angel because it at least can produce tokens through flickering a Thragtusk or Geist-Honored Monk .

With this little creatures, Cavern of Souls would be most just noncoloured mana, which would pose a problem. A couple might be worth a sideboard against decks that run counter spells, as that would prevent my Thragtusk s from being countered.

Both Gavony Township and Vault of the Archangel have their own little place here, which is why I run both. I have actually found Vault of the Archangel more useful, so if I was to cut one it would be Gavony Township .

I agree with the Rest in Peace . Combined with Nevermore (name Unburial Rites ) I only really need two in the sideboard.

Thanks again for the extensive testing and ideas, I always appreciate when people give their opinions on my decks.

Rancor ?

CraterHoof!!! Craterhoof Behemoth BeHeMoth!!!

I used to run Rancor in here but it was taken out and the deck has been working better since. As for Craterhoof Behemoth I'm not quite convinced. It might be nice as a 1-of but really what can be taken out here? I can't think of anything to remove

Nah I just wanted to spam... other than that your deck is pretty much air tight not much I could think of to make it better. :D

That's all good, I do my fair share of spamming

Parallel Lives ? seems like it could be useful here

I have used Parallel Lives in the past but it is just too slow. I would rather be dropping a planeswalker or a Restoration Angel and advancing the game than dropping and enchantment that doesn't help me the turn it comes out

Doesn't Rest in Peace hurt your Lingering Souls ?

It does hurt Lingering Souls but not as much as it would hurt my opponent if they are relying on graveyard interaction. I just weigh my options and if I feel like it will hurt them more than me I put it in

Collective Blessing , sounds stupid, but works.

I've tried Collective Blessing . It was in here for a while and came out just due to lack of room. The only thing I could think of removing for it would be one Intangible Virtue but I just love my vigilance tokens too much

Maybe take out 1 Intangible Virtue or both Sorin, Lord of Innistrad . I feel that card:Trostani, Selesnya's Voice would be fairly effective. Once you have one Intangible Virtue , it just becomes overkill on a 3/3 beast token. The life gain would help in grueling late game play and protect yourself against pesky control deck that bounce creature. One could argue that the Vault of the Archangel works as life gain (which I love in this deck still), but it's taking away five possible mana for about 8 life isn't worth it when you can let Trostani's automatic trigger help and then use your mana more effectively. Also, why not Loxodon Smiter ? It helps you race, and without the mainboard Cavern of Souls , it helps against control.

Why do people keep suggesting removing Sorin, Lord of Innistrad ? He really is one of the best cards in this deck. He's a repeatable anthem that also produces lifelink tokens to stall out to a Thragtusk or Geist-Honored Monk . card:Trostani, Selesnya's Voice will get removed so fast it's not even funny. One of the big things with this deck is that if cards get removed they get replaced just as fast, and that is very frustrating for opponents. Maybe I'll throw a Trostani or two in the sideboard for match ups against control. As for Loxodon Smiter I have tried him before but I took him out for Restoration Angel . Loxodon Smiter is much more of an aggro card when this deck is trying to play more midrange

I would call Smiter kind of a hybrid aggro-midrange card. It's beefy and cheap! That doesn't mean you should run it if it doesn't fit in though.