It's true that hitting double white or double black, or double green on turn 3, can be hard, even when running a full set of dual lands, which your not here.

@ ty

T1 Elvish Mystic doesn't help you get to a T2 Brimaz or even T2 Anafenza. In fact, T1 Mystic means neither of those are possible and, in reality, you'll be casting Anafenza behind the curve and would need to hit your white/caryatids perfectly to even cast Brimaz on curve. The issue here isn't a matter of mana quantity so much as getting it in the right colors.

I stand by my suggestion of ramp cards. caryatids are better, but mystics will do if you don't have the caryatids. The abzan midrange deck benefits greatly from ramping into larger threats, and everything OP says is that he like's the removal, likes the sorin, likes the colors, but like I suggested a couple times, the soldiers don't work, and the tribal strategy forced in these colors. It really just needs to be a standard abzan midrange deck if he wants a removal/board control centric core. This is him needing to decide what direction to take the deck not of the strategy being flawed in and of iteslf.

And btw, Turn 1 mystic can produce turn 2 anafenza if you drop the mystic with a llanowar waste, but this strategy is better if you're running courser of kruphix over brimaz. I've seen a handful of abzan decks run courser/brimaz/anafenza without too much trouble given the proper manabase though. Just like in temur, sometimes, i'll hit a turn 2 savage knucks/courser/goblin rabblemaster... it doesn't happen all the time, but when it does it's beautiful. :)

@ OP again, Like I said, the strongest soldier decks around are the heroic ones, anything else is just forcing a theme to work in places where those aren't the best options. To put it another way, whites a fairly week color atm out side of a handful of cards, and the insistence of staying in these colors with this strategy, just isn't going to work like it could in other colors.

IMO, either stick with soldiers get into heroic and do that right, or get rid of the soldiers and head into a midrange abzan deck (honestly the way you talk, and the cards you have, talking about removal) you seem like you want the midrange abzan more, but you're stuck on making soldiers work.

It's possible to hit the T2 Anafenza off Mystic, but that's requiring a perfect sequence of cards (which is not the most common thing, sure it's great when it works, but the 9/10 games when it stutters won't be any fun). Nevermind that Mystic doesn't help get to Brimaz ahead of schedule. If you want/need any ramping, Caryatid is pretty much the only option that makes any sense.

I think it falls down to what Piffguru wants to do. If he's looking for a home brew rogue deck that he can be proud of when he wins games (but that will likely fold to more polished decks), then he should stick with the soldiers and go for it. If he's trying to win FNM, then he might as well just go the Abzan midrange deck (for which there are tons of builds to net-deck).

tywoo gets it..

I could easily just net-deck and get a winning deck but then whats the point of even coming here to discuss brewing.. Im probably not going to any grand prix's anytime soon and I only attend FNM once in a while. So yea sticking with soldiers theme for now.

Also came to the same conclusion about the caryatid's but currently have only 1 and I feel like it would be lackluster in actuality since it can be destroyed by anger of the gods and a few other things so I weary to go out and get more caryatids.. So ramping I think is off the table for this deck for right now I believe. My main creatures are 3 mana so it isnt a huge necessity to ramp.. and if I can keep the captain alive to drop other soldiers then that is just as effective as ramping anyway.. if anything more effective in some ways.

It all comes down to the instant/enchantments/sorceries at this point I think. its either get haste to drop and immediately attack with captain, or have control to remove his threats.. or have counters to stop the direct removal.. or instants like gods willing to stop direct removal. since Im not doing blue or red currently, I ended up with more of the control type cards. Also Im favoring the commands and charms since they give me more options.. Love the idea of using dromoka's command on a fabled hero to buff by 2 making it a 4/4 doublestrike and forcing a fight although the doublestrike wouldnt take effect in the fight, I still like the idea.

But thank you for the feedback.. its better than just talking it out to myself lol.