Mono-White Soul Sisters | $100 Budget Deck | Qala, Ajani's Pridemate
Qala, Ajani's Pridemate | Illustrated by Yoshiya
Soul's Attendant | | Illustrated by Steve Prescott
Hey, nerds! For my first deck tech of Foundations, I decided to build Qala, Ajani's Pridemate. I've loved Soul Sister-style decks for years, and I was hooked when I saw we could build a mono-white version. For those who don't know, Soul Sisters refers to an archetype built around Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant and small creatures to gain life. Potential payoffs include Ajani's Pridemate and Serra Ascendant to beat face or Chalice of Life if the game goes long.
The basic idea for this deck was to load up on cheap creatures that gain life, grow from gaining life, or both, then win with combat damage or blasting the table with Aetherflux Reservoir. Now let's jump in and see what Qala can do.
Hey, Soul Sister
Kicking things off, let's talk about the soul sisters of the deck. A soul sister is any creature that gains us life whenever a creature enters. The original duo, Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant, trigger on every creature, while the newer versions, such as Guide of Souls, Hinterland Sanctifier, and Lunarch Veteran, only trigger on our creatures. Guide of Souls has the added benefit of giving creatures, like our commander, +1/+1 and flying counters. There are some two-mana creatures that also do this, such as Daxos, Blessed by the Sun and Suture Priest. Finally, we have two noncreature soul sister effects with Ajani's Welcome and Case of the Uneaten Feast.
There are more of these effects, but I ended up cutting some from my list. The new Dazzling Angel could be worth including, but this effect felt too weak at three mana. I had a friend suggest Auriok Champion, but it didn't make the cut given our budget. Angel's Feather, Staff of the Sun Magus, and Paradise Plume are artifacts that gain us life when we cast white spells, but we are a creature deck, so I prioritized creatures with this effect instead of artifacts. Finally, we have Authority of the Consuls and Abiding Grace. Authority was almost $8 when I first built the deck, but it has since come down in price and might be worth swapping Ajani's Welcome for it.
Beating Face
As I mentioned earlier, soul sister decks tend to win with beatdown. Sadly, Ajani's Pridemate has been power crept over the last several years, but that isn't stopping me from playing it. I also wanted to add Ajani, Strength of the Pride to make Ajani's Pridemate tokens, but if you're looking for better versions of Pridemate, try Voice of the Blessed, Essence Channeler, and Exemplar of Light. They either have or can get flying easily, and they come down early. Exemplar is the most expensive at four mana, but it also provides us with card draw when it grows. We can also buff our entire board with Righteous Valkyrie if we have enough life.
Because we have all of these counter cards, let's add some counter synergies with Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion and Reluctant Role Model. Role Model is great here because Qala cares about any type of counter, not just +1/+1, so keyword counters still help buff our board. That's also why Guide of Souls is so powerful here, and Lae'zel will add an additional keyword counter. It might be worth adding Resourceful Defense or The Ozolith to move counters around, but Role Model has the same effect, just on a creature.
The Tokens
I also added some token-generation in the deck, so we have disposable creatures to swing in with. I added Cat Collector, Regal Caracal, Defiler of Faith, and Oketra's Monument. Monument and Defiler also act as ramp, which is nice two-for-one value. I would have loved to add Ocelot Pride, but it is wildly too expensive for this list, and I think Elspeth, Sun's Champion is too expensive mana-wise. Yes, I know Sun Titan is also six mana, but I wanted some recursion in the deck, and it's a creature that can attack.
Closing Out the Game
We do need a back-up win condition because beating face sometimes just doesn't do it. I wanted to add Heliod, Sun-Crowned and Walking Ballista combo, but couldn't make it fit within the budget, and Approach of the Second Sun might be tempting, but I think it's too slow in this deck. It works much better in Trelasarra, Moon Dancer, where you can scry the top of your deck away. But Aetherflux Reservoir should do the trick, especially with one of my favorite cards, Martyr of Sands. The amount of life you can gain with this card is wild. Yes, you only get one counter on your commander even if you gain 15 life, but this can provide us with the massive burst of life we need to ping someone.
Now there is another way we can gain a bunch of life at once with Zuran Orb and Cosmic Intervention. Cosmic Intervention will return all of the lands we sacrifice into play. If you wanted to be mean, you could combo this with mass land destruction, like Armageddon. Zuran Orb also works great with the catch-up ramp that we have.
The Cuts & Upgrades
Of course, certain cards didn't quite make the cut for either budget or synergy reasons. I had quite a bit of Equipment in the deck originally. Cards like Sword of Forge and Frontier, Sword of Hearth and Home, and Blade of Selves. Both Sword ofs would be great in the deck as a way to ramp and gain life by blinking creatures, and Blade of Selves is a fun card that can copy something like Seasoned Dungeoneer, Palace Jailer, or Regal Caracal. Some solid upgrades are Solitude, Celestine, the Living Saint, Serra Ascendant, and Archangel of Thune.
Other Ways to Build
Finally, let's talk about some other ways you could build Qala. Life gain is the most obvious, but you could also build Cats. There are 14 mono-white Cats that have or provide lifelink. You could add the new Arahbo, the First Fang, and Healer of the Pride for life gain along with the noncreature effects mentioned above. I don't think this is as powerful as going pure life gain, but it is something to keep in mind.
