Very inspiring combos. +1 For recognizing boss commons. (Like Deathgreeter . All the lifegain!)GLHF

chill4r: I really appreciate the time you've put into helping me improve the deck, so don't think I'm not taking your suggestions seriously. There are a few that I have to disagree with, though.

4x Blood Scrivener is awesome in this deck, since your hand tends to empty out very quickly (often by turn 4), and his ability does stack (2 blood scriveners = lose two life, draw 3 cards, 3 = lose 3 life, draw 4 cards, etc..., according to the rulings on the WOTC site.) Also, since so many of my cards trigger upon a creature entering the battlefield, I prefer using a creature for my draws over, say, Read the Bones or Dark Prophecy . Part of the fun of this deck is emptying your hand as quickly as possible and gaining a quick and consistent card advantage that your opponent will probably never be able to keep up with. Opponents have to make tough decisions about how they use removal spells, because if they don't remove Blood Scrivener , odds are you'll be pulling duplicates to replace whatever they do remove.

4x Banishing Light makes perfect sense for this deck, since things like Torpor Orb can so easily shut it down. Its versatility, letting you exile any permanent, make it great for other cards that would hamper your plans, such as Rain of Gore or planeswalkers. Sure, it costs two more mana than Path to Exile , but it also does a hell of a lot more, and with an average CMC of 1.95 and fast draws, that 3 mana cost doesn't hurt much.

I definitely agree that Elspeth, Knight-Errant is stronger than Sorin, Lord of Innistrad for this deck, but his +1 and -6 abilities are still very handy. That his -6 ability involves creatures both dying and entering the battlefield gives him pretty great synergy in this build. If you've got two Blood Artists and a Soul Warden down, which is entirely plausible with this deck, you've just dealt 6 damage to your opponent and gained 9 life (and maybe pumped up an Ajani's Pridemate by +9/+9,) in one turn. That can swing the game for you. Plus he can steal other players' planeswalkers if necessary.

As for sideboard help, I'd appreciate any budget-appropriate suggestions you might have. Norn's Annex needs to stay until I can afford some Ghostly Prison s though. Killing Wave can probably go, and I'm sure you have better suggestions than Duress or Despise .

Maringam: Thanks! I am glad you like it.

I think that Illness in the ranks is the weakest card in the deck. Sure you get triggers for your tokens going to the yard, and it has nice synergy with mercy killing, but you aren't guaranteed to get this combo. I guess what I'm wondering is why hate the tokens at all? I feel like Lingering Souls is the best possible card for this deck, not to mention a serious threat in modern.

It's important to have an exact plan of what your deck is trying to do, so keep it the way you feel is right.
Your ideas seem completly reasonable and I like your way of thinking.

BTW. I screw up with the Blood Scrivener , sorry. I should have looked up the rulings properly, instead of trying to figure it out by myself. (I could have thought of, that there is no "trigger-check" in-between the draw-replacing effects, as they resolve simultanously).

drenardy

Illness in the Ranks is a great answer to Splinter Twin or Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Deceiver Exarch / Pestermite , as they have almost no way to answer it, and this deck is a Twin-hate one.

drenardy: Yeah, what chill4r said. The combo with Mercy Killing and Blood Artist is just icing on the cake. Illness in the Ranks = your Splinter Twin / Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker tokens can't touch me.

chill4r: What do you think I should add to the sideboard? I know you've already spent an awful lot of time on this deck with me, but if you have any suggestions there, I'd love to hear them. I threw this one together pretty hastily.

Cool deck! +1 from me.

Have you considered Blood Seeker ? He's got the pain half of suture priest. I tried putting together a deck around them, seeing yours has inspired me to revisit it. If you want to take a look I'm open to suggestions! I didn't know about Mercy Killing so thanks for that!

Here!

Another suggestion I can give would be Genesis Chamber , which people immediately underestimate in a deck like this. Finally, if you want a fun finisher and if you have illness in the ranks out already, there's always the table flipping Dovescape .

Anyway, good luck!

birdman412: Thanks for the great feedback! I am going to do some casual playtesting with Genesis Chamber and see how I like it. It might work pretty well in here. It's a bit slower than I would like, but if it means (almost) doubling the benefit I get from my Soul Sisters, it would be pretty awesome. At the very least, it might make a good sideboard option against creature-heavy decks.

I had thought about Blood Seeker , but I don't like that that he only triggers when a creature enters under my opponent's control. If it were when any creature entered the battlefield, then I'd be really sold on him. Still, I stuck him on the maybeboard.

Dovescape would be hilarious in this build, but it just costs too much mana to justify its use in competitive play for this deck. Since Blood Scrivener needs me to have an empty hand, I would be really hating life if I drew a 6-drop on turn 2. I would totally toss one in for casual games, though.

what do you really do with all the lifegain? I mean outside of ajani's pridemate you don't benefit anyway from it. I'd say get rid of the deathgreeters and add Lingering Souls

and if you have those Inquisition of Kozilek 's I feel like they could be in the main deck. They're rarely a bad draw.

meke: Okay, I've finally warmed up to Lingering Souls . Replaced the Deathgreeter with them. As for Inquisition of Kozilek , I do have them (Modern Event Deck), and will be thinking about mainboarding.

I really like this unconventional deck, +1 for you!

The only suggestion I have is that Blood Scrivener should be Dark Confidant considering it's so much better but if you are building on a budget then I can understand using Blood Scrivener instead.

If you are interested, I have a few modern decks on my profile that you can check out as well.

parasitian: Thanks! Yeah, I would love to run Dark Confidant in here, but seeing as just two of them would double the cost of the deck, it's just out of my budget. Since there are no cards over a CMC of 3, Blood Scrivener ends up working pretty well.

Restoration Angel ?

I'd love to, nayaftw. Just too expensive, and I'm trying not to run any cards with a CMC above 3 here.

It's like $10, not bob exactly... And it's CMC isn't too bad in moderation.

$10 and 4 mana for a card that is just going to trigger my Soul Sisters one extra time is not that great. I could do a lot better, for less money.

maybe Pain Seer

ofcruelties: We talked about him on here earlier, but I like not having to rely on the untap with Blood Scrivener . My hand tends to empty out really quickly, and I just get more consistent results with the scriv man. The only real downside is that Blood Scrivener isn't much help as a blocker.