MTG Salvation

Hola, I'm trying to make a flavorful Karador deck focusing on spirits with an aura sub-theme. It's incomplete, with 104 cards so far, and I'd like to trim it down.



Basically a Karador deck utilizing various spiritcraft and enchantment combos to gain advantage. The deck includes recursion spells and mechanics that your spirits can easily be replayed.

The enchantment theme was added thanks to many enchantment creatures also being spirits, which can be replayed via Karador as creature or as aura. Eidolon of Blossoms draws you cards, Tallowisp find you auras, and Evershrike can be revived repeatedly via Rancor and/or Angelic Destiny. With Karador, you can also play bestow ability right from graveyard.

Combos:

Karador + Celestial Kirin = Repeated permanent destruction. (requires careful calculation)
Eidolon of Blossoms + Bestow creatures/Enchantment = Card advantage.
Primordial Sage + Karador = Repeated card advantage, and can combo with Eidolon of Blossoms for more cards.
Tallowisp + spirits/arcane = Aura for pump and control, and works well with Eidolon of Blossom.
Evershrike + Aura = Recurring threat.
Greater Good + Dragons = Control, life gain, and draw cards.
Soulshift + Nameless Inversion/Crib Swap = Repeat removal.
Iname, Death’s Aspect + Mortal Combat = Alternative win con.
Jarad’s Order = Enables combo

The greatest enemy of this deck is obviously graveyard hates, which is why Spirit of the Hearth is here, but by itself there can still be loop hole for opponents to get through.

EDIT: Hm, it appears that using deck function makes the list look very strange. Is there a way to fix it?
EDIT 2: Removed the deck function so people can at least read it. This never happened when I posted a 60 cards deck.
EDIT 3: Ok, so I need to put number in front of the cards, even if they are in singles.

I don't like mana rocks very much with Karador. In my opinion, if an ability exists as a creature, it is better than the non-creature version for Karador. I would actually run Sakura-Tribe Elder and Wood Elves over mana rocks, even if they aren't spirits. You get to abuse them.

I don't see a reason to use Baleful Eidolon. You can't use it to return Evershrike from the graveyard. I am also not a fan of Ghostblade Eidolon.

Arrest vs Song of the Dryads?

I could see cutting Enslave. Will typically be a dead card against Voltron.

Quote from Dunharrow »

I don't like mana rocks very much with Karador. In my opinion, if an ability exists as a creature, it is better than the non-creature version for Karador. I would actually run Sakura-Tribe Elder and Wood Elves over mana rocks, even if they aren't spirits. You get to abuse them.

I use a lot of a lands that don't produce colored mana, so I figure Chromatic Lantern would be a good fix for it. I can see the removal of commander's Sphere for a mana creature though.

Quote from Dunharrow »

I don't see a reason to use Baleful Eidolon. You can't use it to return Evershrike from the graveyard. I am also not a fan of Ghostblade Eidolon.

No, they're not for reanimating Evershrike. In addition to being enchantment AND spirits, I could activate their Bestow ability with Karador from the graveyard. But yes, they are the weaker additions in the deck, probably a better idea to remove them.

Quote from Dunharrow »

Arrest vs Song of the Dryads?

Song of Dryad is definitely better than Arrest in terms of functionality, but one reason I use Arrest is because it can be searched with Tallowisp (same reason why I decided to use more creature aura like Enslave). I could replace Enslave with Song of Dryad though.

Quote from Dunharrow »

I could see cutting Enslave. Will typically be a dead card against Voltron.

True, Voltron has been a big pain for me, especially Bruna. I could probably replace it with more equip/aura destruction.

I have my own Karador spirit tribal deck (it's actually mostly Kamigawa spirits, because I like their aesthetic...). It doesn't have any creature in it that isn't a spirit. I decided against an enchantment subtheme for Tallowisp because 1) you aren't guaranteed to find Tallowisp, and 2) you end up playing a bunch of auras (and only five auras, at that) instead of things like Vindicate or Utter End. I moved away from Soulshift because Karador does that plenty well on his own, and most of the time in the course of the game you won't have a spirit of the cost you want in your graveyard ready to go anyways. If a creature's in there just to get another creature back, and it's a sub-par creature, then you might as well just play a Zombify or something. It proved to be clunky and less than advantageous. The biggest hurdle I had to overcome with my own deck was shying away from anything less than mass-reanimation (which you should definitely throw in, because it's nasty with Iname), because otherwise you're including recursion cards that aren't doing anything your general can't already do. I needed more oomph.

Buried Alive didn't do much for me, because all I really wanted to get to was Iname. Have you tried out Time of Need? It, Eladamri's Call, and Altar of Bone are winners in my deck, and they get to what I want pretty effectively. Sekki, Seasons' Guide is pretty good in my deck, as I generally use it to just block and reanimate with Karmic Guide. Ghost-Lit Stalker didn't do much for me, as I rarely had the mana to spend on its ability. If you really really want discard look into Sadistic Hypnotist and something like Geist-Honored Monk that brings tokens with it. I'd nix Goryo's Vengeance, too, because exiling one of your creatures to reanimate it is about the last thing you want to be doing. If it's exiled you don't get to take full advantage of what your commander can do with it.

Urza's Incubator never did much for me either, because even though I only have one tribe once Karmic Guide hit the graveyard my entire deck essentially cost 5. It seems super awesome in theory, but rarely did I want to see it instead of Door of Destinies or even just a ramp spell that'd fix my mana or help me cast other things in my hand. If you're more ok with deviating from a tribe than me, I'd definitely think about Disciple of Bolas. With Karador that thing is an engine, and I've been seriously considering breaking my own rule and throwing one in. Combined with a dragon every other turn is a nice bump in life and some card advantage, or every turn is 2 cards and 2 life with Karmic Guide.

Have you considered Hallowed Spiritkeeper? It's made my board silly (especially with Door of Destinies) after Iname has come through. I'd also swap your Graveborn Muse for either a Phyrexian Arena or a Deathreap Ritual. Personally, I like Deathreap, as it can draw you sometimes three cards before your turn comes around, and not paying any life is nice. Especially if you have a sac outlet or are abusing Kami of False Hope, you're usually able to make that trigger happen. Horobi, Death's Wail is also a great on-theme card that I use and combine with Cauldron of Souls (also fun thematically) to create a one-sided board wipe. The Cauldron also makes a big Karador board attrition city. Seizan, Perverter of Truth and Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens are also fun, though Oyobi is expensive. Getting a flying 3/3 every turn once you lock down the board with something like Smokestack isn't bad though.

I think to sum up: play the deck knowing that Karador + Iname is basically your go-to situation. The deck really loves Iname and Karmic Guide, so anything that can facilitate those two makes it happen. Also realize that you aren't going to be terribly explosive. I know my deck has garnered the reputation that the longer the game goes the more likely it is to win, just through attrition and how awesome Kami of False Hope can be with Karador.

Quote from SoddenPine »

I have my own Karador spirit tribal deck (it's actually mostly Kamigawa spirits, because I like their aesthetic...). It doesn't have any creature in it that isn't a spirit. I decided against an enchantment subtheme for Tallowisp because 1) you aren't guaranteed to find Tallowisp, and 2) you end up playing a bunch of auras (and only five auras, at that) instead of things like Vindicate or Utter End. I moved away from Soulshift because Karador does that plenty well on his own, and most of the time in the course of the game you won't have a spirit of the cost you want in your graveyard ready to go anyways. If a creature's in there just to get another creature back, and it's a sub-par creature, then you might as well just play a Zombify or something. It proved to be clunky and less than advantageous. The biggest hurdle I had to overcome with my own deck was shying away from anything less than mass-reanimation (which you should definitely throw in, because it's nasty with Iname), because otherwise you're including recursion cards that aren't doing anything your general can't already do. I needed more oomph.

Buried Alive didn't do much for me, because all I really wanted to get to was Iname. Have you tried out Time of Need? It, Eladamri's Call, and Altar of Bone are winners in my deck, and they get to what I want pretty effectively. Sekki, Seasons' Guide is pretty good in my deck, as I generally use it to just block and reanimate with Karmic Guide. Ghost-Lit Stalker didn't do much for me, as I rarely had the mana to spend on its ability. If you really really want discard look into Sadistic Hypnotist and something like Geist-Honored Monk that brings tokens with it. I'd nix Goryo's Vengeance, too, because exiling one of your creatures to reanimate it is about the last thing you want to be doing. If it's exiled you don't get to take full advantage of what your commander can do with it.

Urza's Incubator never did much for me either, because even though I only have one tribe once Karmic Guide hit the graveyard my entire deck essentially cost 5. It seems super awesome in theory, but rarely did I want to see it instead of Door of Destinies or even just a ramp spell that'd fix my mana or help me cast other things in my hand. If you're more ok with deviating from a tribe than me, I'd definitely think about Disciple of Bolas. With Karador that thing is an engine, and I've been seriously considering breaking my own rule and throwing one in. Combined with a dragon every other turn is a nice bump in life and some card advantage, or every turn is 2 cards and 2 life with Karmic Guide.

Have you considered Hallowed Spiritkeeper? It's made my board silly (especially with Door of Destinies) after Iname has come through. I'd also swap your Graveborn Muse for either a Phyrexian Arena or a Deathreap Ritual. Personally, I like Deathreap, as it can draw you sometimes three cards before your turn comes around, and not paying any life is nice. Especially if you have a sac outlet or are abusing Kami of False Hope, you're usually able to make that trigger happen. Horobi, Death's Wail is also a great on-theme card that I use and combine with Cauldron of Souls (also fun thematically) to create a one-sided board wipe. The Cauldron also makes a big Karador board attrition city. Seizan, Perverter of Truth and Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens are also fun, though Oyobi is expensive. Getting a flying 3/3 every turn once you lock down the board with something like Smokestack isn't bad though.

I think to sum up: play the deck knowing that Karador + Iname is basically your go-to situation. The deck really loves Iname and Karmic Guide, so anything that can facilitate those two makes it happen. Also realize that you aren't going to be terribly explosive. I know my deck has garnered the reputation that the longer the game goes the more likely it is to win, just through attrition and how awesome Kami of False Hope can be with Karador.

Thank you for your suggestions, much appreciated. You're right, this deck is meant for long group play where having a cutting edge deck not only draws fire, it could also be abusive (hence I made it a tribal).

I agree with you on the subject of Tallowisp. I will modify thus.

The purpose of using soulshift in this deck is more than just getting creatures back. Soulshift also retrieves tribal removal spells. I also only use three of the better soulshift creatures so they're not completely useless to include. I like your idea of mass reanimation.

I haven't used any of creature search you mentioned, I will try them out. As for Buried Alive, I like how it instantly reduce the cost of Karador by 3. Iname is awesome at putting spirits into the graveyard but it is also more expensive. I don't mind having both options, alongside Entomb.

I'm definitely gonna give Sekki a try. I had it in my deck at one point when it was more focused on creating spirit tokens and using pumping spells like Shared Triumph and Door of Destinies.

Ghost-Lit Stalker works out surprisingly well for me, because it's rather harmless when it first came out, and even if I don't play it I have many opportunities to channel it's discard effect, and retrieve it with soulshift or Angel of Flight Alabaster. As for Goryo's Vengeance, it saved me quite a few times when I could instantly reanimate Yosei and immediately sacrifice it (note numerous sac outlet in the deck). I should probaly use Necromancy instead, consider the lack of arcane spells would make splicing non existence.

I find Urza's Incubator decent. Perhaps after I mix in more mana/ramping it would become less impacting. Adding Disciple of Bolas is a fine idea.

I have considered Hallowed Spiritkeeper, but ultimately decided to remove it because I wasn't taking the Door of Destinies route (previously i also tried Twilight Shepard. I will playtest them as I modify my deck.

I will try out Deathtrap Ritual, it looks mighty fun. I tried out Seizan previously, but removed it because it tends to die right after one of the opponents drew. (Same with Graveborn Muse but at least only I get to draw, if she survives)

Oyobi was in my more token-oriented version of the deck, cut in favor of the enchantment theme. I will test it again.

So far my most successful play has been Yosei abuse. He's been my signature creature for a while in 60 card.

Have you considered Lifespinner, Loam Dweller, and Elder Pine of Jukai?

Quote from Incanur »

Have you considered Lifespinner, Loam Dweller, and Elder Pine of Jukai?

The first one is part of the consideration when I was working on a more token based spirit tribal. I may go back to it again.

As for the latter two, I tend to find myself either already played all my lands or simply prefer draw cards than lands. Elder Pine's ability is a requirement, not an option, so if I have it in play I'm forced to recycle the top cards of my library even if I have no need for extra lands.