And in my opinion, the best thing about the DKA spirits is their ability to control the battlefield. Three Nibli (?) are able to tap a target creature when they either ETB, attack, or pay U and tap and that's HUGE. Especially on turn 3 and 4. Strap a Curiosity on another creature, tap down their blocker and say hello to mr. card advantage.
Pile on some Burden of Guilt for even more cheap control-y fun.
Personally I think WUr Humans is going to be the better weenie deck though.
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
Basically trying to just run over people with a bunch of hexproof, pumped, vigilance spirit tokens. Drop some Traft in there for another win-con (pumped by captains he can finally survive some combat).
I'm still on the fence with the Niblis of the Urn. It'll definitely help push through damage. I think I'd rather see a dissipate or a snapcaster MORE than Urn late game, but the Urn really helps the deck curve out at the two drop spot. I'll test it both ways and I guess I'll have the Urn against aggro decks and Snap/Dissipate against Stompy and Control decks.
Counterpart can copy the captain (a poor subsitute for Phantasmal Image, but it works), dungeon geists, or a 4/4 angel token, all with immediate board changing results.
Angel of Flight Alabaster is there to grab a late game Traft, Dungeon Geists, or Captain back from the graveyard.
Thought Scour works really well with Snapcaster Mage, Lingering Souls, Moorland Haunt, Silent Departure and Runechanter's Pike.
I'm trying to piece together a deck maybe something like that, but I have a feeling all the token hate people will be running for the BW decks people want to run will just kill all my X/1s as well.
Dissipate tends to just sit around in my hand, since most of my mana is always tapped out casting 2 & 3 drops, I might follow Zero_Origin idea and put them all in the SB.
Tried and didn't really like the Snapcaster Mage route, he seemed to slow the deck down a little while many time's I've had better top-deck draws to play.
My initial iteration of this deck did not run Geist of Saint Traft and still preformed very well against most block-archetypes apart from Dredge and mBlack Zombies being a bit tough.
Haven't been back on the forums for awhile, but I'm glad to see there's still some interest in this decklist. After further testing I came up with a list that has some more tempo/control to it, and gave up on my stubborn (and stupid) reservation to leave black out of the mana base for simplicities sake. This is what it looks like now:
Geist-Honored and Cackling Counterpart came out because the deck needed to be faster (in order to keep up with WR or WGr Human decks). Faith's Shield lost out in favor of Silent Departure/Burden of Guilt for more control because - as telemetry mentioned - there were often too many problem creatures (from Dredge, Zombies, and sometimes Werewolves) than a set of Dungeon Geists could handle.
I'm really liking how the deck has been performing. It's not top tier, but definitely solid and a lot of fun nonetheless! How has it been performing for you guys?
Now with the bannings, I feel this deck is well positioned. Without all the token shennanigans, I believe the biggest threats in the format are the undying creatures and humans. Without good mass removal in the format and given the fact that undying is naturally resistant to mass removal, the best way to deal with these threats is one for one. Claustrophobia, burden of guilt, dungeon geists, all serve as ways of locking down a vorapede, geralf's messanger, champion of the parish, etc. while allowing incremental board advantage. This is my take on spirits, its very rough, but I believe we should look at possibly moving into uwr, as it gives us access to the best mana in the format in sulruf falls and clifftoop retreat. I think there is more worth splashing in red, i just haven't thought of what would be worthy of splashing, brimstone volley, geistflame, etc. Also, against humans, the maindeck rolling tremblor is a house.
4 dungeon geists
4 drogskol captain
3 geist of saint traft
3 drogskol reaver
2 tower geist
4 claustrophobia
4 think twice
4 midnight haunting
4 burden of guilt
3 rolling tremblor
2 dissipate
After I just saw the bannings about 20 minutes ago my mind Immediately went to UWr Geist aggro. I'm wondering if the best avenue might be to model it after standard Delver decks though with some number of Runechanter's Pike and/or Spectral flight.
Obviously a fair amount would have to be changed but you still have Delver, Stalker, Snapmage, GoST, and other options. The disruption is, obviously, less efficient but I'm still going to attempt to make it work; if I can figure out the manabase.
y add the red as well? I think UW aggro should be good enough and that's what I'm aiming for atm. Spectral Rider, Niblis of the Urn, the usual stuff and working on the rest
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the sharpest steel is tempered in fire!!! though the plane of mirrodin is lost, the fire of mirrans still burn!!!!!
The manabase doesn't get much worse (if at all) by adding red, and brimstone volley can provide some excellent reach. And if the deck ends up keeping a token sub-theme hellrider can be added, as well as the flash back on rally the peasants.
4 Doomed Traveler
3 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Drogskol Captain
4 Dungeon Geists
3 Geist-Honored Monk
Spells 19
4 Faith’s Shield
4 Silent Departure
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Midnight Haunting
3 Cackling Counterpart
3 Moorland Haunt
9 Plains
8 Islands
3 Evolving Wilds
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Dissipate
3 Nevermore
1 Cackling Counterpart
3 Witchbane Orb
2 Divine Reckoning
Notable changes have been made after testing the original decklist.
And in my opinion, the best thing about the DKA spirits is their ability to control the battlefield. Three Nibli (?) are able to tap a target creature when they either ETB, attack, or pay U and tap and that's HUGE. Especially on turn 3 and 4. Strap a Curiosity on another creature, tap down their blocker and say hello to mr. card advantage.
Pile on some Burden of Guilt for even more cheap control-y fun.
Mid-range 'Merica UWR
LOL Zombies GB
Wurmz Ramp GW
Based on Jelger Wiegersma's PTDKA T8 Standard Deck.
4 Isolated Chapel
2 Swamp
8 Island
4 Plains
2 Evolving Wilds
2 Moorland Haunt
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Drogskol Captain
2 Dungeon Geist
3 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Snapcaster Mage
Spells (21)
4 Silent Departure
3 Dissipate
2 Tragic Slip
2 Faith's Shield
4 Lingering Souls
1 Urgent Exorcism
2 Break of Day
3 Thought Scour
Personally I think WUr Humans is going to be the better weenie deck though.
4 Doomed Traveler
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Drogskol Captain
3 Niblis of the Breath
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Dungeon Geists
1 Angel of Flight Alabaster
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Lingering Souls
2 Cackling Counterpart
2 Dissipate
Enchantments
4 Intangible Virtue
Land
3 Isolated Chapel
2 Shimmering Grotto
2 Vault of the Archangel
2 Moorland Haunt
8 Plains
7 Island
The sideboard is in flux right now, with cards like Claustrophobia, Rebuke, Smite the Monsterous, Dissipate, and a Drogskul Reaver. Haven't gotten to test it yet, so not sure exactly what I would include against certain enemy decks.
Basically trying to just run over people with a bunch of hexproof, pumped, vigilance spirit tokens. Drop some Traft in there for another win-con (pumped by captains he can finally survive some combat).
I'm still on the fence with the Niblis of the Urn. It'll definitely help push through damage. I think I'd rather see a dissipate or a snapcaster MORE than Urn late game, but the Urn really helps the deck curve out at the two drop spot. I'll test it both ways and I guess I'll have the Urn against aggro decks and Snap/Dissipate against Stompy and Control decks.
Counterpart can copy the captain (a poor subsitute for Phantasmal Image, but it works), dungeon geists, or a 4/4 angel token, all with immediate board changing results.
Angel of Flight Alabaster is there to grab a late game Traft, Dungeon Geists, or Captain back from the graveyard.
Update:
4 Doomed Traveler
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Drogskul Captain
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Dungeon Geists
3 Mindshrieker
3 Niblis of the Urn
4 Lingering Souls
Instant
4 Midnight Haunting
2 Dissipate
Enchantment
4 Intangible Virtue
Land
3 Isolated Chapel
3 Evolving Wilds
2 Moorland Haunt
9 Plains
6 Island
1 Swamp
Mid-range 'Merica UWR
LOL Zombies GB
Wurmz Ramp GW
I'm trying to piece together a deck maybe something like that, but I have a feeling all the token hate people will be running for the BW decks people want to run will just kill all my X/1s as well.
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Niblis of the Urn
4 Drogskol Captain
2 Dungeon Geists
2 Geist-Honored Monk
2 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Lingering Souls
4 Midnight Haunting
2 Cackling Counterpart
4 Intangible Virtue
Spells (4)
2 Divination
2 Dissipate
2 Moorland Haunt
4 Isolated Chapel
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Swamp
9 Island
7 Plains
Sideboard (w.i.p.)
Grafdigger's Cage
Dissipate
Divine Reckoning
Witchbane Orb
Purify The Grave
My current take on this deck. Prior to the listed revision, I was running:
-2 Geist of Saint Traft
-2 Divination
+2 Dissipate
+2 Thought Scour
Dissipate tends to just sit around in my hand, since most of my mana is always tapped out casting 2 & 3 drops, I might follow Zero_Origin idea and put them all in the SB.
Tried and didn't really like the Snapcaster Mage route, he seemed to slow the deck down a little while many time's I've had better top-deck draws to play.
My initial iteration of this deck did not run Geist of Saint Traft and still preformed very well against most block-archetypes apart from Dredge and mBlack Zombies being a bit tough.
Grafdigger's Cage
Dissipate
Divine Reckoning
Witchbane Orb
BMBIB
WTempered SteelW
WInfected SteelW
RGoblinsR
-EDH-
BROlivia's MasqueradeBR
4 Niblis of the Urn
3 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Drogkskol Captain
3 Dungeon Geists
3 Burden of Guilt
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Lingering Souls
4 Midnight Haunting
2 Moorland Haunt
2 Evolving Wilds
7 Plains
7 Island
1 Swamp
Geist-Honored and Cackling Counterpart came out because the deck needed to be faster (in order to keep up with WR or WGr Human decks). Faith's Shield lost out in favor of Silent Departure/Burden of Guilt for more control because - as telemetry mentioned - there were often too many problem creatures (from Dredge, Zombies, and sometimes Werewolves) than a set of Dungeon Geists could handle.
I'm really liking how the deck has been performing. It's not top tier, but definitely solid and a lot of fun nonetheless! How has it been performing for you guys?
4 dungeon geists
4 drogskol captain
3 geist of saint traft
3 drogskol reaver
2 tower geist
4 claustrophobia
4 think twice
4 midnight haunting
4 burden of guilt
3 rolling tremblor
2 dissipate
2 evolving wild
3 moorland haunt
4 clifftop retreat
4 sulfur falls
4 plains
6 island
Sideboard:
3 witchbane orb
2 rolling tremblor
3 blasphemous act
2 dissipate
2 divine reckoning
3 graffdigger's cage
Input would be great.
Obviously a fair amount would have to be changed but you still have Delver, Stalker, Snapmage, GoST, and other options. The disruption is, obviously, less efficient but I'm still going to attempt to make it work; if I can figure out the manabase.