A Bant list made top 32 at Baltimore and takes care of the card draw problem. It runs 4 duskwatch recruiter and 3 Tamiyo, having 28 creatures means that recruiter almost never misses. It's interesting but it only has 4 spells -2 unsubstantiate and 2 Ojutai's Command- relying heavily on creatures. And i don't know about the mana base, U/W mana is very reliable and running 3 colors means that playing Mausoleum Wanderer in turn 1 is more difficult, but anyways, here's a Spirit deck that can go long and overwhelm the opponent with a steady flow of flying creatures.
We're playing Blue, I would rather use Negate over Eerie Interlude. Yes, there are times when the latter is more useful (several Reflector Mage, pseudo-fog after blocking), but the former is simply more versatile against 'walkers and boardwipes.
You can't negate an avacyn flip, though.
Running green sounds interesting, but that would involve stretching our mana-base with lumbering falls.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
So I was goldfishing around and am thinking about running reflector mage and elder deep fiend along with Herald. It just seems more aggressive. I feel like I can tap down nearly any threat that the opponent can get onto the battlefield. I haven't figured out a full 75, but my group will begin testing soon. If it doesn't work out well enough I'll switch to Jeff's list and see if it feels better.
Bigsteve05 I have done a bit of testing and from my experiences creature decks aren't that big of issue with this deck, its planeswalker/control decks that I run into the biggest issues, honestly its pretty good odds against creature decks without reflector mage or deep fiend from my testing.
So far after two FNMs going 3-1 in each, the only decks I have lost a game to have been:
UW Spirits with basically the same list as me, except Avacyn instead of EDF, and Always Watching taking out some of the instants and such.
Esper Control because they simply had a ton of removal and I didn't have an updated sideboard yet.
A LOT of counters, I know. I can't seem to remember one of the things that was a two of in my build, but I've still got everything at home and am posting this while I'm away.
If I remember correctly though, I used practically every single sideboard card at one point or another in this last FNM, with the exception of Bygone Bishop. Although he is good and provides some CA, I think that we might be able to put something better in this spot like probably Always Watching, or Reflector Mage.
Horribly Awry saved me from Kalitas in multiple games, and is an absolute beast in the mirror, until they cast a Avacyn. I really needed something of a creature counter and remembered it shortly before FNM to try it out and it worked quite well.
Immolating Glare was a 1 of because I couldn't find a 3rd Blessed Alliance at the time and needed an extra kill spell, plus this targeted which was nice.
Turn Aside saved me in match-ups pretty much where Essence Flux already did. I think I might just take this out and slot something else, although it is nice to side out Clash of Wills and throw this in it's spot if there is a lot of targeted removal. (Usually on the draw, being behind a mana can suck)
Scatter to the Winds is there as an extra hard counter, could easily be replaced by Void Shatter if need be, I just happened to already own the Scatters.
Blessed Alliance is obviously there for the sacrifice an attacking creature part, but the 4 life is sometimes nice. Never have used the untap, yet.
Negate is just good.
Feel free to critique and comment about my list, I feel quite confident about it and have done quite well with it so far considering I haven't played Standard in ages now, so it's nice to jump back in and have something that feels consistent and solid.
I like Scatter to the Winds over the other Cancel variants because it can occasionally act like a flash creature. Though if you're scared of graveyard recursion of some kind (Bruna, Leliana) Void Shatter is perfectly fine
After playing the deck a few times I'm starting to like Negate over Hallowed Moonlight. The later gives card advantage that the deck desperately needs, but negate basically does almost the same thing against Collected Company and hits more targets. I'm feeling like late game we really need something to keep the cards coming into hand, though.
Yeesh, looked into my second favorite deck and I'm surprised how budgety spirits is vs the overpriced pile of good stuff that G/B delirium is turning into.
This might very well be the budget competitive deck of standard at the moment unless mono-red gets a boost in kaladesh.
Private Mod Note
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
As far as "budget" goes I'm pretty fond of Mr. Nibbles. Spirits is pretty up there price wise, it's just that all decks with black jumped in price because Lili spiked
Anyway, Negate is a pretty cool card, yeah. I'm just trying to decide if I like Scatter to the Winds or Void Shatter more. And whether or not I want those over Unsubstantiate for hard counters, or along with it.
Edit: also, what do we think of splashing black? EMN Lili is pretty awesome, but I think ORI Lili might be really cool for us too. Force discards and have tons of recurring spirits. Oh, you killed my Spell Queller? I'll bring it back. Same goes for Selfless Spirit. Indestructible spirits every turn!
As far as "budget" goes I'm pretty fond of Mr. Nibbles. Spirits is pretty up there price wise, it's just that all decks with black jumped in price because Lili spiked
Anyway, Negate is a pretty cool card, yeah. I'm just trying to decide if I like Scatter to the Winds or Void Shatter more. And whether or not I want those over Unsubstantiate for hard counters, or along with it.
Edit: also, what do we think of splashing black? EMN Lili is pretty awesome, but I think ORI Lili might be really cool for us too. Force discards and have tons of recurring spirits. Oh, you killed my Spell Queller? I'll bring it back. Same goes for Selfless Spirit. Indestructible spirits every turn!
For us I think origins Lili works against us in that we can only use her plainswalker ability when it's our turn to bring something back. EMN lili brings things to our hand so we can actually snap them into play. That and her +1 is great in the mirror. Origins Lili is better in an aggressive deck that wants to keep recurring threats on your turn. She turns everything into a Bloodsoaked Champion basically.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
He's very extremely opinionated and his decks are often one-trick pony ideas, but for budget decks they tend to be pretty clever. I do have the deck and have playtested it a bit-- not at an FNM yet but still. It's a fun, cheap deck if you already have the lands, since they're the only thing with any price to them.
It's already based on the elemental shotgun/Izzet blitz decks, so the strategy does work, but it's vulnerable to blowouts, too.
I was referring more to ORI Lili's emblem, but yeah, I see what you mean.
On that note, are Planeswalker skills instant or sorcery speed? I've never really used them.
They are basically sorcery speed. As far as emblems go I've never really factored them into the decision for whether to use a planeswalker since typically the only abilities that get used are the first two abilities.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I have been testing against a R/G werewolf deck as well. That kinda hurts because if you don't play a card on your turn there werewolf's flip.
That's why I'm leaning towards a build with reflector mage.
Gives me something to do on my turn that affects the battlefield.
Playing a 100% tempo build against a werewolf deck won't work out very well because they can ramp and race us faster.
I've been pondering what to do once rotation hits and we lose Ojutai's command. Given how things are that might be the time we splash for a third color, which I'm thinking may be red or black at this point.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I have been testing against a R/G werewolf deck as well. That kinda hurts because if you don't play a card on your turn there werewolf's flip.
That's why I'm leaning towards a build with reflector mage.
Gives me something to do on my turn that affects the battlefield.
Playing a 100% tempo build against a werewolf deck won't work out very well because they can ramp and race us faster.
Yes I play him in my deck. Still werewolf forces you to play spirts on a not flashing deck.
Yeah, I really do want to splash black for Lili and some nice kill spells and such (Transgress the Mind might be nice too), but right now I'm struggling to figure out what to remove for it, so I think I may hold at U/W for now.
Either way, we'll be losing Ojutai's Command, and that's pretty much all we'll be losing, aside from Clash of Wills, if you're running that. I suppose O-Command can be replaced by any of the other new (but less useful) modal spells, or just put in some hard counters like Void Shatter or Scatter to the Winds and be done with it.
Since I'm starting to consider running a more aggressive build, I'm hoping I don't miss O-Command too much.
I've been pondering what to do once rotation hits and we lose Ojutai's command. Given how things are that might be the time we splash for a third color, which I'm thinking may be red or black at this point.
I think at rotation we start main boarding Blessed Alliance.
It's very good on its own.
Hopefully the next set brings us something to work with.
I think we might be looking to go jeskai featuring spirits.
True, I think tamyo may be a good fit with the deck given her +1 gives card advantage and we have plenty of evasive fliers. Her -2 also helps win games by potentially tapping down valuable defenders. She's pretty color intensive to use, though, and she really is more of a support walker than an "I'm going to win this game" kind of walker.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I'm thinking about Kytheon for my aggressive list. Think about it:
* turn 2 attacks already for 2
* we can tap and bounce blockers so keep attacking
* it's easy to attack 2 creatures plus Kytheon, and when he flips:
* force a creature to attack it
* attack with it as a 4/4
* make one of your spirits indestructible
* late game chump blocks forever.
For W, it's a good deal!
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
The trouble with Spectral Shepherd is that as long as Eldrazi Displacer is in standard it has some serious competition. The Displacer can hit both our own and our opponents creatures, making it more versatile. The Shepherd is a tribal spirit, but it can only hit our own creatures and we have to pay mana to bring them back into play.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
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You can't negate an avacyn flip, though.
Running green sounds interesting, but that would involve stretching our mana-base with lumbering falls.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
4 Prairie Stream
2 Evolving Wilds
5 Plains
7 Island
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Rattlechains
4 Nebelgast Herald
4 Spell Queller
3 Elder Deep-Fiend
2 Declaration in Stone
3 Essence Flux
2 Ojutai's Command
2 Clash of Wills
3 Unsubstantiate
So far after two FNMs going 3-1 in each, the only decks I have lost a game to have been:
UW Spirits with basically the same list as me, except Avacyn instead of EDF, and Always Watching taking out some of the instants and such.
Esper Control because they simply had a ton of removal and I didn't have an updated sideboard yet.
Current sideboard:
2 Negate
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Scatter to the Winds
2 Turn Aside
2 Horribly Awry
2 Dispel
1 Immolating Glare
A LOT of counters, I know. I can't seem to remember one of the things that was a two of in my build, but I've still got everything at home and am posting this while I'm away.
If I remember correctly though, I used practically every single sideboard card at one point or another in this last FNM, with the exception of Bygone Bishop. Although he is good and provides some CA, I think that we might be able to put something better in this spot like probably Always Watching, or Reflector Mage.
Horribly Awry saved me from Kalitas in multiple games, and is an absolute beast in the mirror, until they cast a Avacyn. I really needed something of a creature counter and remembered it shortly before FNM to try it out and it worked quite well.
Immolating Glare was a 1 of because I couldn't find a 3rd Blessed Alliance at the time and needed an extra kill spell, plus this targeted which was nice.
Turn Aside saved me in match-ups pretty much where Essence Flux already did. I think I might just take this out and slot something else, although it is nice to side out Clash of Wills and throw this in it's spot if there is a lot of targeted removal. (Usually on the draw, being behind a mana can suck)
Scatter to the Winds is there as an extra hard counter, could easily be replaced by Void Shatter if need be, I just happened to already own the Scatters.
Blessed Alliance is obviously there for the sacrifice an attacking creature part, but the 4 life is sometimes nice. Never have used the untap, yet.
Negate is just good.
Feel free to critique and comment about my list, I feel quite confident about it and have done quite well with it so far considering I haven't played Standard in ages now, so it's nice to jump back in and have something that feels consistent and solid.
Edit: missing two cards were dispel
FULL TIME FAERIES
Selvala
Yeesh, looked into my second favorite deck and I'm surprised how budgety spirits is vs the overpriced pile of good stuff that G/B delirium is turning into.
This might very well be the budget competitive deck of standard at the moment unless mono-red gets a boost in kaladesh.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Anyway, Negate is a pretty cool card, yeah. I'm just trying to decide if I like Scatter to the Winds or Void Shatter more. And whether or not I want those over Unsubstantiate for hard counters, or along with it.
Edit: also, what do we think of splashing black? EMN Lili is pretty awesome, but I think ORI Lili might be really cool for us too. Force discards and have tons of recurring spirits. Oh, you killed my Spell Queller? I'll bring it back. Same goes for Selfless Spirit. Indestructible spirits every turn!
WB Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim | WBR Queen Marchesa | WUBR Breya, Etherium Shaper
Modern:
/ Death and Taxes | W/ Soul Sisters | Spirits | U Faeries | Tempered Steel Affinity
For us I think origins Lili works against us in that we can only use her plainswalker ability when it's our turn to bring something back. EMN lili brings things to our hand so we can actually snap them into play. That and her +1 is great in the mirror. Origins Lili is better in an aggressive deck that wants to keep recurring threats on your turn. She turns everything into a Bloodsoaked Champion basically.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
On that note, are Planeswalker skills instant or sorcery speed? I've never really used them.
WB Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim | WBR Queen Marchesa | WUBR Breya, Etherium Shaper
Modern:
/ Death and Taxes | W/ Soul Sisters | Spirits | U Faeries | Tempered Steel Affinity
Have you tried that build?
I feel like that guy builds decks that don't end up living up to the hype.
veryextremely opinionated and his decks are often one-trick pony ideas, but for budget decks they tend to be pretty clever. I do have the deck and have playtested it a bit-- not at an FNM yet but still. It's a fun, cheap deck if you already have the lands, since they're the only thing with any price to them.It's already based on the elemental shotgun/Izzet blitz decks, so the strategy does work, but it's vulnerable to blowouts, too.
WB Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim | WBR Queen Marchesa | WUBR Breya, Etherium Shaper
Modern:
/ Death and Taxes | W/ Soul Sisters | Spirits | U Faeries | Tempered Steel Affinity
They are basically sorcery speed. As far as emblems go I've never really factored them into the decision for whether to use a planeswalker since typically the only abilities that get used are the first two abilities.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
2x Negate
3x Silkwrap
2x Blessed Alliance
1x Bygone Bishop
2x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
1x Summary Dismissal
2x Elder Deep-Fiend
Modern: UWR Control
EDH: Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Titania, Protector of Argoth
Phelddagrif
Glissa, the Traitor
Rosheen Meanderer
RIP Jimmy foREVer
I was thinking of side boarding in 1 or 2 Elder Deep-Fiend? Wonder what the results have been if any?
Also playing against Grixis I have found that spirits kinda don't have great answers to Goblin Dark-Dweller or Liliana, the Last Hope if she hits.
I have been testing against a R/G werewolf deck as well. That kinda hurts because if you don't play a card on your turn there werewolf's flip.
WB Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim | WBR Queen Marchesa | WUBR Breya, Etherium Shaper
Modern:
/ Death and Taxes | W/ Soul Sisters | Spirits | U Faeries | Tempered Steel Affinity
That's why I'm leaning towards a build with reflector mage.
Gives me something to do on my turn that affects the battlefield.
Playing a 100% tempo build against a werewolf deck won't work out very well because they can ramp and race us faster.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Yes I play him in my deck. Still werewolf forces you to play spirts on a not flashing deck.
Oh well
Either way, we'll be losing Ojutai's Command, and that's pretty much all we'll be losing, aside from Clash of Wills, if you're running that. I suppose O-Command can be replaced by any of the other new (but less useful) modal spells, or just put in some hard counters like Void Shatter or Scatter to the Winds and be done with it.
Since I'm starting to consider running a more aggressive build, I'm hoping I don't miss O-Command too much.
WB Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim | WBR Queen Marchesa | WUBR Breya, Etherium Shaper
Modern:
/ Death and Taxes | W/ Soul Sisters | Spirits | U Faeries | Tempered Steel Affinity
I think at rotation we start main boarding Blessed Alliance.
It's very good on its own.
Hopefully the next set brings us something to work with.
I think we might be looking to go jeskai featuring spirits.
WB Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim | WBR Queen Marchesa | WUBR Breya, Etherium Shaper
Modern:
/ Death and Taxes | W/ Soul Sisters | Spirits | U Faeries | Tempered Steel Affinity
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
* turn 2 attacks already for 2
* we can tap and bounce blockers so keep attacking
* it's easy to attack 2 creatures plus Kytheon, and when he flips:
* force a creature to attack it
* attack with it as a 4/4
* make one of your spirits indestructible
* late game chump blocks forever.
For W, it's a good deal!
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!