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Hi and welcome to my take on the Soulherder strategie. I don't know exactly who came up with this game-plan but my first encounter with the deck was Gabriel Nassif piloting it on stream -> Bant - Soulherder. I saw it's potential and decided to build it in paper for competetive events.
Play a Noble Hierarch turn 1 and generate huge value on turn 2 through Coiling Oracle/Ice-Fang Coatl, with an Ephemerate in hand to push it to gross amounts. This deck wants to draw at least two cards per turn in the early game and has great capability to play reactively later on because of that. Thoughtseize can be the preferable turn 1 play if you have a good turn 2 but most of the time you want to go Hierach turn 1.
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After drawing some cards or if we are lucky make some extra land drops through Coiling Oracle, the goal is to either disrupt the opponent or stabilize on board and transition into the late-game afterwards. Eternall Witness plays a huge role in the here. The ability to get back an Ephemerate, Force of Negation or Path to Exile etc. is huge since you almost always have to stabilize to start dealing punches. Only generating value tends to be lacking in modern since a lot of decks just opt to kill as fast as possible, so a backup is needid to keep the "value-train" steaming and roling.
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The list also runs an infinite combo which is surprisingly easy to get off. Eternal Witness+TimeWarp is good enough for infinite turns if you have a Soulherder on the field or an Ephemerate (takes 6 mana in total, the last version).
So first of all, let's discuss the reason why I included black. Nassif had a couple of versions including black too but it felt clunky and to much centered around Siege Rhino ->4 - Colour. So, I started with the Bant version and I liked it at first but the deck had one major flaw. It didn't have a proper clock. The "snakes" wern't fast enough and I ended drawing a lot of times even though I played as fast as possible. In my oppinion, drawing is worst than loosing. One weakness of Bant is also that it didn't have strong disruption for combo or big-mana decks, besides from Force of Negation which is a quite situational card on it's own. I felt like a "bad control deck" and at the same time like a "sub-optimal midrange deck" most of the time. Some changes had to be made to make this work.
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After discussing and brewing I tried out Thoughtseize as a 4off and it gave the deck so much more edge early on. The Rhino is a great clock in combination with Soulherder and Ephemerate. It also softenes the life loss from the mana-base and thoughtseize. Finally I also found the courage to add Dark Confidant as a one-off. It's a great value-threat and it makes fetching for a basic Swamp better. These two additions have solved the main issues with the deck in my oppinion and Bob is some nice "spice". The only weakness of the deck now is it's mana-base, which is greedy as f*ck.
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The mana-base has been stretched to the max to fix my colours and have a steady curve. You could make a case for playing 22 lands and cutting maybe one Force of Negation but that would take some testing. If I were to make it 22, I would add another Windswepth Heath. I can't play Mox Opal so my opening hands can be unforgiving, another fetch could mitigate the risk of playing 4 colours.
Your biggest bullies on the block are fast combo decks and heavy aggro decks. So the SB is designed accordingly. There are a lot of flex slots though and right now I'm testing 1 Surgical Extraction since Thoughtseize is staying for the time being. I also really like Deafening Silence since it can shut down non-creature decks on it's own, also really strong against decks with Ensnaring Bridge. Winds of Abandon is also being tested at the moment, I ran Settle the Wreckage but found it being to situational.
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The matchup against "WhirZa" is not the best with BANT but I havn't come across the deck with my 4-colour version. We run Ashiok, Dream Render, an extra Path, Plague Engineer and Stony Silence to combat the deck on as much fronts as possible.
- Green Tron
- Emry/Urza Prison
- UW Control
- EldraziTron
I drawed against Tron in my first round and went on to face Urza.
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I won this with 2-1, going infinte twice with my Eternal Witness/Timewarp combo. The machtup is though but the addition of black pulled me through with Thoughtseize being the MVP.
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UW control is an interesting matchup. Counter wars where a big thing and here also black was the main reason for winning the third round with 2-1. Thoughtseize disrupted my opponent at crucial moments, dark confidant was a great value engine and Siege rhino gave me the much needed pressure.
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Eldrazi Tron has to be one of my worst matchups. I've played against it several times with the BANT version and always lost. This was no exception, still I went 1-2 so there is a possibility but still an awfull matchup.
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So in the end I had a record of 2-1-1, granting me the third place witch I'm happy with for a first attempt. I think if I wouldn't have gone into "time" in the first round it even could have been a 3-1 record since I had a strong hand in game three. Black is a main stay for the moment, I really like the addition of thoughtseize.
So in conclusion, this is my version of Soulherder. For the first time I want to keep track of the deck's results and take notes of the games I've played. If you're interested feel free to comment, add suggestions and lend a critical eye on the list. I'll update it when there are any changes and/or good suggestions that I'd like to try.
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| Date added | 4 years |
| Last updated | 4 years |
| Exclude colors | R |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 1 - 0 Mythic Rares 37 - 6 Rares 8 - 7 Uncommons 8 - 2 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.28 |
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