MTG Salvation

So I started making an Iname, Life Aspect deck to go along side my Iname, Death Aspect deck just for fun. I did think for half the time that Iname, Life Aspect put spirirts into play and not into the graveyard, but after a fair bit of playtesting, I realized that in some ways, returning spririts to hands could be better. This allows Iname to bring back multiple creatures which provide multiple "Spiritcraft" reactions. Kodama of the South Tree leads to a super Overrun effect, Elder Pine of Jukai and Loam Dweller give mana acceleration, Bounteous Kiringives lots of life, and Primordial Sage provides awesome card advantage with a rush of small spirits from the graveyard. My MVP is Lifespinner, it fills the graveyard for a large Iname trigger while tutoring up some of the most powerful creatures in the deck. Anyway, I noticed that my good friend, the EDH database, was missing Iname, Life Aspect, so I decided to post my upcoming list. Feel free to comment with questions and suggestions. Thanks.

Have you considered sac outlets such as Miren, the Moaning Well, and High Market to have more control of sending Iname to the graveyard and recurring Spirits when you need to?

Even though I still have quite a bad taste of spirits from Kamigawa block, I have to admit, this is a pretty nifty deck for what it can do in terms of generating card advantage.

Survival of the Fittest is also very powerful. Tutor up a lot of good spirits to get them into the graveyard, and then fire off Iname to get them all back.

I would also seriously consider Chameleon Colossus, as he is a fantastic standalone threat that is a great mana sink.

Firstly, I would switch all of your NQ Forests to HQ Snow-Covered Forests. This will allow you to utilize a few things while minimizing the risk of helping your opponents.

If you go the snow-covered route, Scrying Sheets is a pretty good land to include to use your spare mana to suck lands out of your deck so you draw more spirits to use.

Another card I recommend regardless of whether you do normal forests or not is Extraplanar Lens. If you use the snow-covered lands, it will be less likely to help your opponent if they are running basic forests. This is a handy way to double your mana to be able to play more threats.

In the same vein as above, I would suggest Mana Reflection. It's an enchantment that doubles your mana output. Another amazing accelerator card. And it affects any permanent that makes mana and it straight up doubles it.

Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, while not a spirit, is a good stand-alone card that will produce a large amount of mana, and double that if you have the Reflection out. I would definitely recommend running it.

Another good card to use is Gaea's Cradle. It makes a green mana for each creature you control and your deck is packed with them, you will be able to create a lot of mana with just this land. And as with Rofellos, mana reflection will make the mana output of this land even more impressive.

For some ways to make use of all of this mana, you should include some ways to draw a lot of cards to cast more, or mana sinks to make use of all of it. Some card draw to consider is simple sorceries liek Harmonize or good artifacts like Mind's Eye, a repeatable source of card advantage.

Some good mana sinks would be Chameleon Colossus, like Surging Chaos suggested, or my personal favorite, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa. Kamahl can be an extremely deadly and effective finisher, even if he is not a spirit. And he can be tutored for with Time of Need, which you already have included.

I hope some of these suggestions helped. I will look into it more and see if I can't think of anything else. Good luck with such an interesting deck!

I think the only problem is that if you put Iname in your command zone instead of exiling him, his ability will not trigger. So you will have to put him actually in the exile zone, so you won't be able to use him again for the rest of the game, except if you get him back with Riftsweeper.

This is because putting your General in the command zone instead of the graveyard/exile zone is a REPLACEMENT effect. He will actually not go to the graveyard or the exile zone, and will not trigger abilities looking for that.

Curious if his ability works or not with command zone...

i.e. do you choose to use his ability - which means 2 things - he gets RFG'd AND you resurrect your spirits, and then replace exile zone with command zone (i.e. second part of ability still resolves).

OR is the exile zone the "cost" to do the second part - in which case if he isn't RFG'd the second part would never happen.

Can't tell from card wording which way it works...

Yes, having Iname go to the graveyard, then exiling Iname, and then sending it to the command zone will trigger its ability to recur your spirits. Basically it comes down to that even though you exile Iname and then immediately place it back in the command zone, it still counts as meeting the criterion to have its ability resolve.

http://forum.dragonhighlander.net/EDH_Forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3134&p=36546&hilit=Iname%2C+Life+Aspect#p36546

Hey guys. Thanks for all the comments.

I honestly didn't know there was a difference between the command zone and the exile zone, I thought the generals were just exiled and played from the exile zone, but I'm gld it doesn't screw with my deck.

Chameleon Collosus, Survival of the Fittest, Mana Reflection, and High Market were all on my list of cards to put in once I get them, along with Chord of Calling. I want to try Kamahl and Greater Good as well.

I might try Miren, but I want to sacrifice a lot smaller spirits for the best effect, and tapping four lands to do that seems like a waste.

For now, the mana is actually pretty smooth. 17 cards cost 2 mana or less, so getting tons of mana quickly isn't needed, and I can usually recur my smallest guys with Iname and still have a pretty strong effect. However, I love drawing Gauntlet of Power so much that i might have to try Extraplanar Lens and other acceleration.

I actually put both Harmonize and Mind's Eye in the deck before you posted, but thanks for the suggestion.

And I have a Llurgoyf sitting with the decks to slip in if anyone challenge me to a two headed giant Iname and Iname match.

Edit: Going to try Cloudstone Curio. Seems good with all the come into play effects and it is a great mana sink. Also, should I try Recycle?

Quote from Surging Chaos

Yes, having Iname go to the graveyard, then exiling Iname, and then sending it to the command zone will trigger its ability to recur your spirits. Basically it comes down to that even though you exile Iname and then immediately place it back in the command zone, it still counts as meeting the criterion to have its ability resolve.

http://forum.dragonhighlander.net/EDH_Forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3134&p=36546&hilit=Iname%2C+Life+Aspect#p36546

Oh wow, that's great! Makes him a lot more playable