NotSquishedYet

Well me swapping to USA Freedom Walkers, and yes I swear that's what I am gonna call the deck if I swap into those colors, is not set in stone. That is just an idea based on what we know so far:running 4 colors without fetches is going to be a pain in the ass. That means if I drop down to 3 colors, which is almost always viable, I am likely to go USA; although, admittedly I would prefer to jump into Esper once again the only reason I am considering USA as of now are Chandra and the very efficient removal red is offering right now.

I am likely NOT going to include Nahiri, simply because if I have blue in the deck card draw is no longer an issue, which is the main reason I was considering her in the Naya Super Friends prototype that I am brewing up, because with the lack of blue my card draw is a little lack luster; however, if I go Esper or USA then I shouldn't need Nahiri at all and Narset just seems flat out better, so for now I will keep Narset in and am deciding if I want 2 Narsets or a split between 1 Narset and 1 Ob Nix in the main.

I will say that it is tempting to have 1 or 2 Ulamogs in a control build and drop a 10/10 that mills 20 cards and swing with it as early as turn 6, but then again I feel like Eldrazi Ramp can do that more effectively and reliably. Also to not, I do get that regardless of casting cost and colors I can fetch out any creature, the problem is that it goes right back to your hand and now you have a dead card in hand. You do mention reanimation, which could be something to thing about, after all the original Innistrad did make Reanimator decks viable, and with the recurring self-mill theme we might see a little bit of that here too.

However, for now I think Nahiri will get put on the shelf for this deck anyways.

My bad; I was responding to the image showing, for the moment, that Narset would be a placeholder for Nahiri. Sounds like a good plan!

Yeah I figured, after reading the comments on the other deck I figured that Narset would probably get more mileage than Nahiri in this deck and removed it from the description accordingly.

No Oath cards? Like Oath of Gideon and the like

He used to run them and then took them out because they were unnecessary.

I'm still waiting for that new "Friends" picture bruh...

FullmetalWes

What TMBRLZ said: I found them somewhat unnecessary. I tested Oath of Chandra which was laughable removal when compared to other instant speed options, and the damage from a walker ETB was meh since it only triggers one per turn if you play a walker. Then there was Oath of Gideon which had obvious synergy with Gideon & Sorin, and the tokens did always get in a couple of points of damage but I never felt like if it wasn't for that 2 or 4 points of damage that I would have lost the game, and the extra counter didn't do much for me since I used my walkers aggressively and never ulted them. I have used Gideon's Emblem a couple of time instead of making a token hen I had the Oath out and it is nice to be able to -5 Chandra if I really need to, but I would rather run more removal/disruption/draw instead.

TMBRLZ

Just for you I will have one done before the end of the day. That's my one goal in life now.

<3

Right on man. Let us know your results and match-ups. Good luck!

FullmetalWes

Thanks! I normally post the results of the deck I play at FNM, currently this one, unless work gets in the way :)

Depending on how you update your deck, this might not work (you said get rid of black for green if I recall) but anguished unmaking looks like an all-star in this deck.

TheBigPoohBear

I never said I am going to, I only mentioned it might be something I am thinking about which is why I started another deck on here: [SOI] Naya Super-Friends. Just to mess around with a different color combination.

While I would like to keep this color combination, as the fetches rotate out, I don't think it will be viable in SOI. That would change if some sweet lands are released in SOI, but until then, this deck is likely to either become Esper or USA. Ideally I would prefer Esper, but Chandra is damn sweet.

TMBRLZ

Just for you I brought my laptop to work and finished my masterpiece.

lol dat Chandra tho.

That's wonderful. It brought tears to my eyes sir! Bravissimo.

-genuflects-

Let's start discussing some changes based on what has been spoiled so far, what will be in standard, and we have available. Keep in mind that everything I am listing is highly susceptible to change as more gets spoiled.

LANDS:

Let's start of by keeping in mind that we have 10 slots to play with here. Now, while the thought of running 3 colors over 4 is there, I would like to attempt at keeping it 4 colors, which means we will need some mana fixing. Starting off with 4 Evolving Wilds seems the only choice here; it is obviously slower and less effective than fetches but it works well enough. I also feel like that this deck will be getting more black spells, so for that we are going to run 1 more Sunken Hollow, add 2 Swamp, 1 more Shambling Vent, and 1 Shivan Reef, and 1 more Plains. What does this achieve? We get a little bit mor basics to make sure our tango lands get a better chance at coming in untapped, we have added more black mana, and the Reef is there to help out get Jace and/or Fiery Impulse off early on. I am hoping that SOI will release some sweet lands, but until then this will need to do.

REMOVAL:

Oh boy do we get some sweet new choices with SOI. First let's start off by cutting Ruinous Path and Planar Outburst from the main board; thus, with Crackling Doom rotating this will gives us 6 slots open. There are some sweet choices already in all 4 colors we are running but I am gonna try out the following: 2 [card:To the Slaughter], 3 Anguished Unmaking, and a single Declaration in Stone. This gives us a couple more instant speed removal than we had before, that also exile, and of course DS can be a pseudo boardwipe depending on the situation. Depending on how hard the lifeloss from Unmaking will affect me I might drop down or add accordingly.

CARD ADVANTAGE:

We are losing Treasure Cruise so that's 3 slots open at the moment. We have a lot of choices here, and if it wasn't for Unmaking I would pick Painful Truths or Read the Bones but I will avoid those for now due to not wanting excessive life loss as I can't get back that life too easily. I am also going to cut Tormenting Voice for now, as good of a madness enabler as it is, so far there are no madness cards I care for. What are our options the then? [Pieces of the Puzzle] is nice, lets us dig 5 and grab 2 answers; however we want to be able to grab walkers too, so this one is better suited for a more standard control build. [card:Epiphany at the Drownyard] is one I have my eyes on as a 1 of; Fact or Fiction for however much mana you can dump into it seems pretty alright. Artificer's Epiphany is actually a better Tormenting Voice, even if 1 more mana, since I draw before discarding and I can do so at Instant speed. Anticipate is still in rotation, and a high candidate for now, as well as Ugin's Insight as a possible one of. Then finally we have Oath of Jace and Comparative Analysis. What to pick then? In all honesty I am thinking either a playset of Anticipate or Oath of Jace.

WALKERS: Here we are opening 2 slots with the rotation of Sorin. I would like to play around with the new Jace here, but I feel that having 2 Jaces in here might be awkward, so I am honestly thinking that these 2 slots could be very flexible, but for now I will stick 2 Ob Nixilis Reignited.

SIDEBOARD:

Where does this put our sideboard? While the meta will obviously change, and many like to say "hurr durr wait until rotation and see how the meta shapes before making a SB"" I feel like something is better than nothing. Once again, let's start off by seeing how much wiggle room we are working with. Due to rotation of Mentor and Utter End, coupled with moving Ob Nixilis in the Main, this gives us 5 slots, which for now I will fill as follows: 1 Declaration in Stone, 2 Grasp of Darkness, and 2 Dragonlord Ojutai. This gives use more cheap removal that I can side in against more aggressive decks, where Unmaking's life loss would be too harsh of, as well as giving us an evasive clock against mid-range decks, that also offers card advantage for when Narset or Ob Nix simply become too clunky.

What do you guys think? Heading in the right direction so far? I would love to get some feed back with post rotation choices.

Hell yeah!

I could see the 6 cmc being a huge drawback for something so slow, and the card really only shining in EDH... Could be fun, though, if you can get it to work.

Why are people not seeing the utter control value in Sorin...

He's literally the closest thing we've gotten to Elspeth, Sun's Champion since her departure...

NotSquishedYet

I am going to have to disagree on that he is only useful in EDH. He would probably work better in a straight control shell like Esper, but I feel like this is well worth a shot. The new Sorin is only 1 more mana than Ob Nix and the new Jace, and he does way more work than either one of them. I also saw people turning down Chandra, Flamecaller because of her cmc when she was first spoiled, yet people run her everywhere now as she can take over games.

Similarly I think the new Sorin can do the same. His +1 is raw card advantage, and being able to hurt your opponent in the process is a huge bonus. Even if you hit a land and you do no damage it is still better than Ob Nix as you don't lose a life, and better than Narset as you will still get to throw that card in your hand. It isn't too far fetched to go turn 6 Sorin, +1 reveal a Gideon, my opponent loses 4. While it is random, you can literally kill your opponent as you dig for answers.

His -X can kill every walker in standard at the moment except Ugin, and it can kill a huge range of creatures, all the while giving you some life padding.

Then there is his -9, which the ease in which I could achievein this deck all depends on how clear I can keep the board and if I have a few tokens from Gideon. The potential is there, imagine you being down between 8-4 life by the time you get Sorin to 9 loyalty, and your opponent is down to say 10 life; you can know drop 10 1/1s with lifelink which can sit back as blockers or swing in and race. Imagine even having a single Gideon emblem out and dropping a bunch of 2/2s with lifelink.

This guy has massive potential, maybe not particularly in this deck, but the tools to run a solid esper finisher with Gideon, Sorin, and Ojutai, backed up by countermagic and removal is very likely. I think he can easily replace Ob Nixilis hands down in this build. That would bring my walker package to Jace, Gideon, Chandra, Sorin, and Narset; and in all honesty I am even considering cutting Narset, or throwing her in the SB, and main decking either Ojutai or more disruption in the form of removal or Dispel.

Not to sound lewd here, but I have an MTG boner for Sorin right now.

I will agree that there is one bad thing about the new Sorin: the artwork. I like the background but he just looks goofy as hell.

I get what you mean about it working in the current shells of standard, assuming everything rotated out and nothing in. At 6 mana, you are practically required to run Abzan colors to consistently get him out. The sheer amount of removal in the new format that can hit planeswalkers at instant speed could knock him out on its own, and that's not even mentioning the absurd R/B or Jund midrange decks that will arrive. How do you think you can deal with 5 damage by turn 2, 4 more turn 3, and a routine 15 on turn 4 from an Olivia Madness deck? Many of the card combos I see decide the game by turn 4, and there is only one creature that can get you a turn 4 Sorin with nothing else.

He is, admittedly, extremely powerful, but he seems far too slow for the format rotating in.

Here I am, just finished cooking some fettuccine with chicken alla cacciatora, and what do I come back to? A friend killing my dreams! I will go cry in the corner now.....

Jokes aside, I get it. There is going to be a lot of fast decks (vampires, humans, warewolf,....damn tribal decks!) and more removal that hit's walkers, but that was already an issue I was facing. Atarka red was a thing, goblins was a thing, Jeskai prowess was a thing, and bant company was a thing. All those decks were very aggressive. There already are ways to kill walkers at this time too, and even if there are more instant speed ways of doing so I still hold priority and can fire off an ability from my walker before it bites the dust.

How can I deal against hyper aggressive decks? Over half of my non land cards are removal, and my sideboard is literally almost all removal. I get your point, and it's a good one, but if there is one thing this deck has done well so far is keep the board clear early game. Aside for one terrible game where I had the most awful luck, this deck so far has never lost against aggro decks because it is literally my esiest match up. I clear their board, they run out of gas, I win. Only decks that I had issue with were Abzan style mid range decks. Even Aristocrats was a fair matchup for me.

I just think that if Ob Nixilis and Chandra are still considered viable post rotation, so can the new Sorin. I am gonna give him a shot as a 2 of in the deck, replacing Ob Nixilis' spot; and if removal is really a massive issue I will just have to mainboard Dispel and sideboard Duress & Transgress the Mind.

YOU CANT STOP ME! :D

Can you? I am sincerely asking out of curiosity to the rules. Is priority not passed after your spell resolves, allowing them to hit it with instant speed removal before you are capable of activating its sorcery-speed ability, which can only go off while the stack is empty?

Sincerely, good luck! I hope it works, as it will have been something I could not have foreseen with my extensive capabilities of using cards that should not be possible to use well. One main issue with the Olivia decks I see is that they play a 2/1, swing for maybe 4-8, then hit you in the face for a minimum of 17, Affinity-style but with haste. If I might ask, what other hyper-aggro decks have you faced? I have one you might like to test this against, but it might be too difficult for you to pilot (No offense meant, you just seem like a control player and I've seen veteran hyper-aggro regional championship players who took two games to figure out how the hell my friend was piloting his deck, let alone do it themselves.) I can do a decent job of it, but other than the deck's creator and me, who did 2/3 of the refining work on it, I don't know anyone who has successfully done it.

It's rotating out soon, but if you'd like to see it I'll gladly put up a link.