Greetings guys.  I was recently asked by a friend if I wanted to play some historic in Arena since he recently came back to Magic the Gathering Arena after almost a six month break.  I quickly realized I didn't have a deck for historic and I didn't want to play the myriad of standard decks I had against him.  So I decided to make a new deck.  I took a look at one of my favorite modern decks Soul Sisters and decided I wanted to try to recreate it for Arena Historic.  This is the deck I came up with.  Yes! I know Serra Ascendant is in Historic and would be amazing in the deck.  However I didn't have four rare cards to put toward this deck.  If you have them then by all means use them.  I'll give some insight as to what to remove for them in the article.  

That out of the way let's get started with an overview of the Soul Sisters deck I used for inspiration.  I snagged one of Channel Fireball's versions for Modern that you will find below.  You can find their full article about the Modern Deck by clicking here.  For the sake of my article I will include the deck list.

Soul Sisters Modern Deck:

Lands

4 x Flagstones of Trokair
4 x Ghost Quarter
14 x Plains

Creatures

4 x Ajani’s Pridemate
3 x Martyr of Sands
3 x Ranger of Eos
4 x Serra Ascendant
4 x Soul Warden
3 x Soul’s Attendant
4 x Squadron Hawk

Spells
1 x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 x Spectral Procession
4 x Path to Exile
3 x Honor of the Pure
1 x Oblivion Ring

Sideboard
1 x Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 x Celestial Flare
1 x Celestial Purge
1 x Dismember
3 x Rest in Peace
3 x Stony Silence
1 x Sundering Growth
1 x Worship
1 x Wrath of God
1 x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

For an indepth overview of the reasons they picked the cards please check out the article listed above.  Now let's get into the Historic Version of the deck. 

As I stated in the opening I wanted to make a deck as similar to the one above as I possibly could.  A lot of the missing cards are just too power in historic and aren't available to use but I got as close as I could.  In some cases our mana cost is a little more than the modern deck but I tried to be as accurate as I could.  

The deck I came up with is:

Land

14 Plains
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Castle Ardenvale

Creatures 

4 Soul Warden
4 Ajani's Pridemate 
3 Faerie Guidemother
3 Militia Bugler
4 Angel of Vitality
4 Healer's Hawk
2 Heliod, Sun-Crowned

Spells

3 Ajani's Welcome 
1 Gideon Blackblade 
3 Rally for the Throne 
2 Heraldic Banner 
4 Swallow Whole 
1 Banishing Light 

Sideboard

1 Alseid of Life's Bounty 
2 Devout Decree 
2 Response // Resurgence 
3 Soul-Guide Lantern (THB)
2 Heliod's Intervention (THB) 
2 Revoke Existence (THB) 
1 Gideon Blackblade (WAR) 
1 Angel of Grace (RNA) 
1 Shatter the Sky (THB) 

Let's break down the card decisions and why! 

Starting with the lands.  As you can see we are running fourteen plains just like the original deck list, as well as four ghost quarters.  However in Historic we do not have Flagstones of Trokair so I opted to include four Castle Ardenvale.  The reason behind the Castle Ardenvale is it makes tokens.  Tokens in turn trigger our Ajani's Welcome and our Soul Warden.  Those in turn activate our Ajani's Pridemate and get us close to activating Angel of Vitality.

Now for our creatures!  We're running four Soul Wardens and Ajani's Pridemates just like the original deck but that is where our similarity stops.  I had to opt for creatures or enchants that gave similar effects as the originals.  So in the place of Martyr of Sands since we have nothing that compares to it I added Faerie Guidemother.  The reason behind this is she is a one drop or she grants flying to a big pridemate late game for lethal.

Next the original deck ran Ranger of Eos so I opted to run Militia Bugler.  Ranger of Eos is a 4 CMC spell that come into play and you can search your library for up to two creature cards with cmc 1 or less.  Millitia Bugler is 3 CMC and when it comes into the battlefield we look at the top four cards of our library.  We can reveal a creature with power 2 or less and put it into our hand.  The rest go on the bottom of the library.  This gives us a chance to take specific cards as well as filter excess lands to the bottom of the library.

Then we have Serra Ascendant. While those are in Historic I did not have the extra rare cards to make them.  So I went with Angel of Vitality.  Serra Ascendant is a one mana creature that has lifelink and gets +5/+5 and flying if our life is above 30.  Angel of Vitality has flying and if we would gain life we gain that life +1 instead.  It also gets +2/+2 if our life is 25 or more.  Making it a 4/4 at 25+ life.

Soul's Attendant became Ajani's Welcome in this deck.  Souls Attendant is a 1/1 that gives you 1 life when ever a creature comes into the battlefield for 1 mana.  It counts your opponents creatures just like Soul Warden.  However Ajani's Welcome gives us 1 life for each creature that enters on our side of the field.  While not as powerful it was the closest I could get.

We are running two Heliod, Sun-Crowned for the added +1/+1 he gives when we gain life as well as his ability to give a target lifelink.  I cut two cards from the spells section for him.  Details below.

Lastly the original deck ran squadron hawks that essentially let you put the other three in your hand when you cast it.  We have nothing like that in white in historic.  I went with the healing hawk because it is also a 1/1 that flies but has lifelink this helps pump up or Ajani's Pridemates faster.

Spells breakdown.  We didn't have any of the spells in the original deck in historic so I had to break all them down to something new.  I exchanged Gideon, Ally of Zendikar for Gideon Blackblade.  The +1 for Zendikar is essentially the static ability of Blackblade but that's where the similarity kinda stop.  However I feel blackblade is stronger in the fact it gives use lifelink, indestructible or vigilance to another creature each turn.

Spectral Procession became Rally the Throne.  Spectral procession is 3 cmc and gives you three 1/1 white spirits token with flying.  We have no spell that gives fliers but Rally the Throne does give us 3 1/1 humans and gives us life equal to the number of creatures we control.  Which in turn gets us closer to having Angel of Vitality online and makes the pridemates bigger.  I did cut one Rally the Throne for A Heliod, Sun Crowned.  Heliod gives our creatures lifelink and it gives them a +1/+1 if you gain life that turn.

Path to Exile.  I absolutely love this card but sadly we don't have it in Historic.  Swallow whole is the closest we have and it involves tapping a creature we control to cast but it has an upside of giving that creature +1/+1.  I typically use this to target my Soul Warden or one of the 1/1 tokens we make.

Honor of the pure, white creatures you control get +1/+1 for 2 CMC.  The closest I could come to this was Heraldic Banner at 3 cmc it gives +1/+0 to the chosen color but also can be tapped for one mana of the chosen color.  So upside for that extra 1 mana casting.

Lastly Oblivion Ring 3 CMC to exile another target nonland permanant from the game.  I slotted in Banishing Light it has the same effect, same cmc and same drawback.

Sideboard deck tech.  Let's start with the Burrenton Forge-Tender.  It has protection from Red and can be sacrificed to prevent all damage from a red source for this turn.  While this can be used to protect us we don't have a similar card in Historic.  I went with Alseid as he was the closest we have but he only protects our creatures.  He however protects from all colors not just red so a little upside for our creatures.

Celestial Flare causes target player to sacrifice an attacking or blocking creature for 2 CMC.  I went with Response it is 2 CMC and does 5 damage to target attack or blocking creature.  While it's strictly not as good it is the best of the options we had available.  We could always add in some red/white duals and cast the other side of the card if we chose to but I see no point in it.

Celestial Purge remove target black or red permanant from the game was replaced by devout decree.  Devout decree is the same cmc and exile target creature or planeswalker that is black or red plus it let's us scry 1. I couldn't find a replacement for dismember so I went with an extra devout decree.

The three Rest in Peace which removes your opponent graveyards became Soul-Guide Lanterns.  While rest in peace is an enchantment and stays we didn't have that option so I decided on the Lantern.  I could've used Leyline of the Void but it didn't feel right to slot in for this particular deck but you can use that as well if you'd like.

Worship is an enchantment that if you have 1 life and something makes you go below zero you go to 1 so long as you have a creature.  We have no enchantments that do that currently available but we have a 1 shot with Angel of Grace that has the worship affect.  Not the best replacement but a similar affect none the less.

Wrath of god is a 4 cmc board wipe.  I went with Shatter the Sky.  Same cmc but if we have 4 or greater power creatures we draw a card.  As does our opponent.  If you're not wanting that you can use the 5 cmc board wipe that hits artifacts or creatures.  

Lastly we added another Gideon Blackblade, in the place of Gideon, Ally of Zendikar for the reasons stated above.

In closing this deck is as close as I can get to the original modern deck with the pool of cards currently in Historic.  With the exception of Serra Ascendant.  You can add them and get four cards closer if you have the four rares.  It is a fun deck that has potential to gain a lot of life and make some big dudes to swing to face.  Remember to use the guidemother to make flying pridemates for lethal.  

If you'd like to see more articles and decks like this comment below and follow me on here and Youtube!  Maybe I'll make a video later not sure.

Thanks for checking it out!

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*Today I learned Ranger of Eos is in Arena as well.  If you'd like to replace the Militia Buglers with them.