MTG Salvation

I'm working on a casual soulshift deck that I'm willing to spend a bit of money on (nothing too over the top like old Alpha/Beta dual lands). I feel like I hit a pretty decent spot with it, but I feel like it can be improved or somethings missing. It's got the tools to ramp up fast, and some ways to cheat creatures in or utilize other creatures like Iname, Death Aspect or Lifespinner, or combo Iname with Living Death. Here's the decklist I'm currently thinking of.



Any suggestions welcome. I want to try competitive as something new, but that will be a long ways away until I get everything I need.

Yesssss. You win a prize. The prize is my admiration. I've been trying to get a Kamigawa spirit deck off the ground, and while mine is a bit more ambitious (5 colors...) yours went in a direction I was uncertain of, and I think you've got a nice blend of silly and powerful. Karador is a great choice, you have plenty of GWB staples and you have Spirt of the Night. You win. lol

Whoo, more Karador spirits!

They've been sort of my iconic deck since I started playing EDH for real, and it's definately a fun deck! I started off heavier on the soulshift cards myself originally, but started moving away from it into a more focused reanimator eventually. I dunno that the link in my sig will be accurate to my current decklist, but it should give you an idea of the differences and hopefully give you some ideas to work with! Off the top of my head though, I'd suggest the following:

Urza's Incubator
Buried Alive Iname, Death Aspect, Iname, Life Aspect, and Myojin of Life's Web will enable a full deck to grave, hand, field string of plays.
Descendant's Path Since these decks are pretty creature heavy and all of the same time, it can be a free card every turn.
Kami of False Hope I'm shocked this isn't in yours! Between Karador and Soulshift, repeatable fogs can keep you safe from other aggro decks.
Angel of Flight Alabaster One of two non-spirit cards in my current deck iirc, she's an amazing way to get cards back.
Karmic Guide has been errata'd into a Spirit card. Play her to get a soulshifter, lose the soulshifter to get her!
Crib Swap A Spirit card itself, comboes nicely with Flight Alabaster and the many, many cards that trigger off Spirit/Arcane casts.

Taking a quick look at my listed deck, it is rather out of date. My current iteration uses several more arcane spells and a few other changes. If you're interested I can get it updated to my current. It's been a labor of love and target of significant foiling for years.

Crib Swap is nice with one small detail, it removes from the game rather then hitting your grave. Dunno if you overlooked that. Buried Alive flew under my radar, so that will get put in as well as Descendants' Path. I originally had Angel of Flight Alabaster, but the way the deck works and the speed it works at, she might be a little slow, but considering I have a few put from hand into play options, I might put her back in. And actually, Karmic Guide is interesting. I can set up a combo by not paying her echo, use Living Death to get her back while whatever I had previously got dumped and just bring that card back. And Kami of False Hope is another that went under my radar. Incubator is in the decklist already.

EDIT: Can't find a spot for Flight Alabaster, but the rest are in (I was off by two cards in my decklist apparently). I wanted Liliana of the Veil, but decided against it, especially with that $70-80 price tag.

This deck has soooo much potential. Also subbed out Cruel Tutor for Diabolic Tutor only cause I think having it in my hand would make it faster then on top, even for an extra 1

And another update, dropped Howling Mine for Greater Good. Why give my opponent extra cards when I can give myself even more cards by dumping my own?

Don't have a greater good myself, wish I did though.

Crib Swap is removal for opponents' creatures, not yours. Considering it exiles, it can hit the various gods and other indestructible generals, as well as negating on-death effects and giving them more stuff with Living Death/Twilight's Call/Patriarch's Bidding. (The third of which I forgot to mention- it's pretty much strictly better than living death for you).

Hmm, maybe I'll make a sideboard with some of these suggestions. I know some people run tribal commander, but I haven't really got a sample to work with to see how much actually run tribal.I guess in this case Crib would be better then swords.

EDIT: Yeah, one I didn't realize with cribs is that any of my triggers from spirits works with it. I overlook too many things, lol. Swapped Swords with it.

Also swapped Yawgmoth's Will for Patriarch's Bidding. After pondering a bit, Yawgmoth's is really risky where as having another option for grave revival is better as a whole. It may help my opponent in a few ways, but I get a safer route.

I think you might be taking the whole Spirit thing a bit too far. Should at least get a Sun Titan in here even if he does break theme.
Mirror Entity would be a nice way to alpha strike after you get a big revival off. And he's even a spirit for you.
And how could you forget the Kirin? Celestial Kirin, Bounteous Kirin and Infernal Kirin. The Celestial and Infernal can be quite devastating when you play them correctly.

Edit: And Kyoki, Sanity's Eclipse is quite powerful in this type of build as well.

I want to try and playtest it in it's current state before I make any more adjustments. I'll take your suggestions, but I can't fully grasp the deck without playing with it first. The idea is here, and it's time to make that idea real.

Kyoki will find a spot, I just need to know where, which I won't know without playtesting. Right now it's fairly solid, I think. It's also play style. Perhaps I'll take out small soulshift creatures and throw in other things.

Seriph, aint' no such thing as taking Spirits too far! Especially since all the spirits synergize with each other.

I wouldn't suggest Celestial, as you're a creature-based deck. However, I do run both Bounteous and Infernal in my build. As for Kyoki.. it -can- be a bomb, but in all honesty it's one of the less valuable cards in my deck. it gives them a choice on what to remove, costs 6 mana, has no evasion/protection, and require more spellcasts that turn.

Quote from Gren08 »

I want to try and playtest it in it's current state before I make any more adjustments. I'll take your suggestions, but I can't fully grasp the deck without playing with it first. The idea is here, and it's time to make that idea real.

Kyoki will find a spot, I just need to know where, which I won't know without playtesting. Right now it's fairly solid, I think. It's also play style. Perhaps I'll take out small soulshift creatures and throw in other things.

I would suggest taking out the high cost shifters that are nothing more than beaters. Really, they're just not that great.

Edit: @shadowhntr7
Celestial is quite a powerful dude in the fact that he's constantly blowing up your opponent's board. This is not to be underestimated. Sure, you might lose a couple of guys, but guess what? The majority of your dudes have soulshift, you have a lot of recursion, and even your general is a recursion engine. How in the world can you say no to this? Trust me, give it a try and you won't be disappointed at all.

I understand where he's coming from. Since my deck is utilizing the graveyard to an almost silly amount, Celestial Kirin is like a mini Pernicious Deed that you can keep abusing, which also is able to hit Planeswalkers. Unfortunately, my local card shop that was open on Easter did not have one. So, there is two other places I'll be looking before heading to SSG. Deck is 50% finished barring all the expensive stuff.

Still trying to find a spot for Bounteous Kirin.

A late update. I managed to get most of my deck and play tested it. Doing pretty well so far. There was a few other cards I was looking at that I may swap in, but other then that, it's pretty solid.