Happy to see our work didn't evaporate because of this crazy BS caused by european laws. That would have ended my permanence on this site.
Hoping for the mods to restore at least my very last post where I'm talking about a couple experiments I'm about to run with the Jeskai and Grixis version of the tribe.
I'm starting my playtests in a couple of weeks from now, and I'll gladly get back to my word document to write about these and expand the primer once I'll have enough to say about how these splashes work.
Esper is also very appealing, not just because of discard spells and lingering, but because of Unmoored Ego being printed giving those colors an additional weapon to fight combo decks, big mana strategies and blow out spells like terminus. My brain dreams about a world where UW control is left to fight with no terminus, or a place where KCI goes on playing with no KCI in the deck, Scapeshift with no Valakut, and my heart says it's worth trying.
As for the current meta, I believe the red and white eidolons are really good positioned and those are the cards to list. I have seen bant spirits lists from pros boarding the white Eidolon, which is something never happened so far.
I'm happy to report that thanks to some lucky UMA packs, I finally have a full set of Noble Hierarchs! Excited to practice with the full power version of the deck now.
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Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
I won 2 matches against Merfolk, both of which were 2-1, and I lost against Storm and Affinity, 0-2. I think my performance reflects the fact that this was my first time playing the Bant version of the deck more than any other reason.
Storm combo'd off too quickly both times, although second game I got too aggressive and tapped out on turn 2 to play Geist, which let them combo off. Affinity outraced me first game, and second game the dude pulled out an Ensnaring Bridge and slowly chipped me down with his Etched Champions; I didn't draw into removal for the bridge fast enough.
My first match with Merfolk was against a new pilot of the deck, I lost the first game due to mana drought. The second and third games I won, partially because of being able to play with no Islands via Hierarch and Botanical Sanctum, but also thanks to Geist hitting the dude with a three turn clock.
The second Merfolk match was much tougher, and I got mana screwed the first two games. First game I mulled to 5, second game I also had to mull to 5. Second game, I gave up and kept a hand with no lands and a Hierarch, but turn 2 I finally drew into a fetch which helped me stabilize. I won that game because my opponent got too greedy and kept tapping out for Master of Waves (got two out and Image'd one) but I hit for 22 in the air the turn before I would have died, after top decking Drogskol Captain. Third game, he forgot to counter Geist, which cost him the game.
Overall I love the deck, and will definitely keep playing it. I'm going to replace the Reflector Mages mainboard, as they did virtually nothing for me, and I'm thinking of adding another land, as I had a huge amount of trouble hitting land drops on curve. Wish I had money for some Misty Rainforests though. I'm also revamping my SB a bit, to the below. Thoughts? My new LGS is a very creature heavy meta, lots of Merfolk and Spirits players, along with Affinity, Storm, Red Prison, and Tron.
1 Disdainful Stroke
2 Knight of Autumn
2 Natural State
3 Rest in Peace
2 Settle the Wreckage or Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
2 Stony Silence
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Unified Will
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Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
If your meta is creature heavy i would advice you to not cut Reflector Mage from the main. Geist of Saint Traft is a lot weaker in that particular case.
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Modern // Legacy // Pauper WUBRG
"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire."
Well Reflector Mage doesn't seem that good considering a lot of the decks I played/saw have creatures with ETB triggers; is it worth giving my opponent more benefits?
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Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Elves and merfolk are light on interaction, spirits suffer from the clock slowing down.. Maybe you could consider deputy of detention?
Ooooo that's a good idea. I could exile multiple Masters and kill their tokens, multiple lords, etc. I like this.
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Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
I’ve been playing UW Spirits for a few months now. I understand adding a green splash would make the deck more powerful, but because of financial reasons, being pigheaded, and wanting to do something different I want to splash black for Orzhov Enforcer, Lingering Souls, and Fatal Push. Should I forget the whole idea and just splash green to be more competitive?
I’ve been playing UW Spirits for a few months now. I understand adding a green splash would make the deck more powerful, but because of financial reasons, being pigheaded, and wanting to do something different I want to splash black for Orzhov Enforcer, Lingering Souls, and Fatal Push. Should I forget the whole idea and just splash green to be more competitive?
My UW spirits deck was initially Esper for Lingering Souls and discard spells, but it didn't work out too well. Spirits is not a deck that likes to spend mana on its own turn if it can help it, and lacking a good discard outlet also makes souls worse. Fatal Push is an excellent card, but I don't think it's better than Path to Exile in many cases. Orzhov Enforcer just seems terrible in modern unless your local meta has lots of ground-based creature decks running around.
I’ve been playing UW Spirits for a few months now. I understand adding a green splash would make the deck more powerful, but because of financial reasons, being pigheaded, and wanting to do something different I want to splash black for Orzhov Enforcer, Lingering Souls, and Fatal Push. Should I forget the whole idea and just splash green to be more competitive?
If you wanna go rogue you might want to consider Jeskai Spirits. I've heard of some people running builds with Eidolon of the Great Revel and other stuff, although life is an issue with Great Revel out.
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Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
I’ve been playing UW Spirits for a few months now. I understand adding a green splash would make the deck more powerful, but because of financial reasons, being pigheaded, and wanting to do something different I want to splash black for Orzhov Enforcer, Lingering Souls, and Fatal Push. Should I forget the whole idea and just splash green to be more competitive?
Just yesterday I have given Esper Spirits a second chance, the first attempt has been last summer before Supreme Phantom was printed and I was trying to fill the 2cmc slot with collective brutality.
It ended up 2-3 due to some mistakes in the building of the mana base and a couple of silly games where I just flooded to death, so I've got only partial informations out of my test. Some of these are crystal clear though: fatal push is a heck of a removal against a vast majority of the field, having the creature removed without giving them a land as PtE does sets you up for some precious tempo advantage (e.g.: remove a 2cmc or 3cmc creature by spending one mana. this can pseudo timewalk your opponent when they have spent a turn casting that thing and you have a vial ticking up).
A second thing to say is that in absence of multiple copies of drawing engines( card advantage providers), the need for a tool to manipulate the top of your deck like serum visions does, or to convert dead cards in your hand into value is utterly relevant to give your deck the chance to play at the power level of tier two deck at the very least. Just think of what looting is doing for red decks, this tribe isn't much different in terms of needing to find the right cards to pull off its plan. I have been suggested wrongly and gave a shot to 2x Countersquall mainboard: it's definitely a sideboard card. Brutality should be your maindeck choice instead.
Lingering souls are really good when they are good, but they aren't either flashable nor vialable. Through the whole tournament I felt 3x is the appropriate number, two are too few, 4 are too clunky. Against UW control you can heavily rely on this 2 damage a turn clock still keeping the flashback option in your graveyard, haven't felt this much value in a long time. It might occasionally be in your hand along with brutality for some appealing synergy.
Sideboard options are also convincing, overall, but one thing me and some friends who have been watching me playing my UW versions for so long now noticed, is that it's not as easy as it might seem to justify the black splash in front of the consistency of the bi-coloured version. painless manabase, 4x utility lands, colour consistency are factors you inevitably lose moving to the three colour version, so there must be something real there to make the change reasonable, and if you want to hear my opinion, the reason to splash black isn't much clear to my eyes. Sure I have to test way longer, but if I had to say why Esper and why not, I'd tell you yes for Push, and no because you are losing one of the best mana bases in modern.
Speaking of sideboard, I like to take the core of my side in UW and splash it for more powerful options. I think one thing when have to keep in mind when we write it down is: which matchups/cards are we suffering the most, and pretty much focus on those.
Esper needs a way to deal with big creatures more than UW does, I felt like 3x PtE or 2pte+2 Nebelgast heralds are necessary in the 75, or you're taking the risk of losing straight away in front of those damn 5/5 angels UW control plays post side.
Countersquall is an overpowered type of Negate, those two life are way more impactful than it seems. This along with Brutality grants this version an unexpected form of reach that you would expect from a red deck instead.
Unmoored Ego is a slow card that can end the game pretty much on the spot. It removed all of the Terminus from the UW opponent on turn 6 or 7, and that was enough. To be honest I was already winning, the fact if that the turn after he got Egoed he played a Jace TMS that was nowhere close to being the threat we use to know.UW can't beat Spirits with no terminus, Ego is match winner against them. And so is against Scapeshift when you name Valakut, it's also true that they may play one copy in the first turns and so you have to chose what's the best target left at that moment of the game. Ego is a card that requires you to know what you are doing.
And let me speculate a bit more on utility lands: as much as I love them and I see them as one of the best way to sink mana when you flood, they are really unaffordable in 3 colour versions, you can maybe run one as your 21th land and that's it. Curving out is of paramount importance, but having few to none utility lands exposes you to flooding. This is why cards to filter/convert are a must-have in the mainboard.
One final note on discard spells: this is not the right deck. you must build board presence, or, you have to keep up with your opponent developing his plan at the very least. Discard spells are tempo negative, you tap to take a card, they haven't tapped any mana instead. This is a tempo deck so IoK are a trap, Seize is powerful but same issue as IoK and the 2 life loss make it a mediocre sideboard card at best(tested it) and brutality itself should be primarily used to remove a piece AND convert one dead card into drain or discard. I was lacking this notion last year when I tested Esper, and that costed me games.
I'll post my UW and ESPER(work in progress) lists for reference.
Dimir Cutpurse might be Athreos, God of Passage. The former works against combo and control, the latter against midrange and non terminus control decks. I guess I might pick the god now that KCi is no longer a problem.
Bant is the most aggro and no brainer version of the deck you can have, not that it's easy to pilot, but I have seen many players new to the deck having success because Collected Company is so powerful when coupled with hexproof and Spell Queller. You might want to start from here.
UW plays more of a tempo game and Esper plays an even slower and more skilled game.
I just want to run a couple of options I've been thinking about for my own UW spirits list. The first is the idea of using Incubation // Incongruity as my main cantrip. Mostly it would be a Commune with Nature that I would be able to cast for U, but I can also throw a Temple Garden into my deck to drop a flying blocker or downgrade a threat if needed. Not finding lands hurts compared to other cantrips, but the flexibility is a huge draw.
My other idea comes from the amount that I've been flooding recently, but I was thinking about Geier Reach Sanitarium. The combo with Spirit of the Labyrinth is the first thing that comes to mind, but I frequently find myself wishing that I could throw away a fifth or sixth land or a late Aether Vial. Helping the opponent loot could be a problem, of course, which makes me hesitant here.
As you guys can see he used 2 Tithe Taker and 2 Deputy of Detention.
I think going hard on Thalia 3x is a bit too much. Two is more than enough. One of them can be replaced by remorseful cleric.
Also I am not sure about 1x Echoing truth main and 20 lands. Id rather keep 4x PTE
Havent tested detention Steve yet, but my impression is that it can really hit the state of the board when it's not answered. I believe cutting one path down to 3x would be my first change.
Deputy of Detention has been great in testing so far. Perfect colors, answers lots of things we previously could not deal with and it opens sideboard space because we have 2 copies of a creature D-Sphere. I am on Bant, so I am running 2 Path/2 Reflector/2 Deputy.
note: Tocatli Honor Guard is increasingly popular and that card does hose us and Humans pretty hard.
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Standard
Tempo Modern
Eldrazi and Staxes
Whir Prison Legacy
5c Humans
DnT
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
Deputy of Detention has been great in testing so far. Perfect colors, answers lots of things we previously could not deal with and it opens sideboard space because we have 2 copies of a creature D-Sphere. I am on Bant, so I am running 2 Path/2 Reflector/2 Deputy.
note: Tocatli Honor Guard is increasingly popular and that card does hose us and Humans pretty hard.
There's at least three Merfolk players, BW Eldrazi Taxes, and some other Bant Spirits players at my LGS. Is it alright to cut Reflector Mage in this situation? I'd rather not give extra ETB triggers to creature-based decks.
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Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
the only way to prevent them from having extra etb triggers is by using path to exile. Both reflector mage and deputy of detention are not permanent solutions (even though they are permanents, and solutions ;))
Another card that struck my interest from the new set is Sky Tether, which in our build is a 1 mana pacifism and could be very interesting as removal choice in the more tempo-oriented builds like UW.
thanks to the mod team
Elves || GSpirits G || Spirits || Fish
Pauper
GElvesG || CAffinityC
Commander
G Roon (and the Hidden Realms) G
Hoping for the mods to restore at least my very last post where I'm talking about a couple experiments I'm about to run with the Jeskai and Grixis version of the tribe.
I'm starting my playtests in a couple of weeks from now, and I'll gladly get back to my word document to write about these and expand the primer once I'll have enough to say about how these splashes work.
Esper is also very appealing, not just because of discard spells and lingering, but because of Unmoored Ego being printed giving those colors an additional weapon to fight combo decks, big mana strategies and blow out spells like terminus. My brain dreams about a world where UW control is left to fight with no terminus, or a place where KCI goes on playing with no KCI in the deck, Scapeshift with no Valakut, and my heart says it's worth trying.
As for the current meta, I believe the red and white eidolons are really good positioned and those are the cards to list. I have seen bant spirits lists from pros boarding the white Eidolon, which is something never happened so far.
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
4 Drogskol Captain
1 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Phantasmal Image
1 Rattlechains
2 Reflector Mage
2 Selfless Spirit
4 Spell Queller
4 Supreme Phantom
Lands
3 Botanical Sanctum
1 Breeding Pool
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Island
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Plains
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
3 Aether Vial
4 Collected Company
3 Path to Exile
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Dromoka's Command
1 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Knight of Autumn
3 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Unified Will
1 Worship
I won 2 matches against Merfolk, both of which were 2-1, and I lost against Storm and Affinity, 0-2. I think my performance reflects the fact that this was my first time playing the Bant version of the deck more than any other reason.
Storm combo'd off too quickly both times, although second game I got too aggressive and tapped out on turn 2 to play Geist, which let them combo off. Affinity outraced me first game, and second game the dude pulled out an Ensnaring Bridge and slowly chipped me down with his Etched Champions; I didn't draw into removal for the bridge fast enough.
My first match with Merfolk was against a new pilot of the deck, I lost the first game due to mana drought. The second and third games I won, partially because of being able to play with no Islands via Hierarch and Botanical Sanctum, but also thanks to Geist hitting the dude with a three turn clock.
The second Merfolk match was much tougher, and I got mana screwed the first two games. First game I mulled to 5, second game I also had to mull to 5. Second game, I gave up and kept a hand with no lands and a Hierarch, but turn 2 I finally drew into a fetch which helped me stabilize. I won that game because my opponent got too greedy and kept tapping out for Master of Waves (got two out and Image'd one) but I hit for 22 in the air the turn before I would have died, after top decking Drogskol Captain. Third game, he forgot to counter Geist, which cost him the game.
Overall I love the deck, and will definitely keep playing it. I'm going to replace the Reflector Mages mainboard, as they did virtually nothing for me, and I'm thinking of adding another land, as I had a huge amount of trouble hitting land drops on curve. Wish I had money for some Misty Rainforests though. I'm also revamping my SB a bit, to the below. Thoughts? My new LGS is a very creature heavy meta, lots of Merfolk and Spirits players, along with Affinity, Storm, Red Prison, and Tron.
1 Disdainful Stroke
2 Knight of Autumn
2 Natural State
3 Rest in Peace
2 Settle the Wreckage or Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
2 Stony Silence
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Unified Will
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Modern // Legacy // Pauper
WUBRG
"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire."
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Elves || GSpirits G || Spirits || Fish
Pauper
GElvesG || CAffinityC
Commander
G Roon (and the Hidden Realms) G
Ooooo that's a good idea. I could exile multiple Masters and kill their tokens, multiple lords, etc. I like this.
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Supreme Phantom
3 Selfless Spirit
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Spell Queller
4 Drogskol Captain
2 Deputy of Detention
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Path to Exile
3 Aether Vial
4 Collected Company
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Windswept Heath
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Botanical Sanctum
1 Cavern of Souls
3 Horizon Canopy
3 Unified Will
3 Rest in Peace
2 Damping Sphere
2 Stony Silence
2 Knight of Autumn
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Settle the Wreckage
Elves || GSpirits G || Spirits || Fish
Pauper
GElvesG || CAffinityC
Commander
G Roon (and the Hidden Realms) G
If you wanna go rogue you might want to consider Jeskai Spirits. I've heard of some people running builds with Eidolon of the Great Revel and other stuff, although life is an issue with Great Revel out.
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Just yesterday I have given Esper Spirits a second chance, the first attempt has been last summer before Supreme Phantom was printed and I was trying to fill the 2cmc slot with collective brutality.
It ended up 2-3 due to some mistakes in the building of the mana base and a couple of silly games where I just flooded to death, so I've got only partial informations out of my test. Some of these are crystal clear though: fatal push is a heck of a removal against a vast majority of the field, having the creature removed without giving them a land as PtE does sets you up for some precious tempo advantage (e.g.: remove a 2cmc or 3cmc creature by spending one mana. this can pseudo timewalk your opponent when they have spent a turn casting that thing and you have a vial ticking up).
A second thing to say is that in absence of multiple copies of drawing engines( card advantage providers), the need for a tool to manipulate the top of your deck like serum visions does, or to convert dead cards in your hand into value is utterly relevant to give your deck the chance to play at the power level of tier two deck at the very least. Just think of what looting is doing for red decks, this tribe isn't much different in terms of needing to find the right cards to pull off its plan. I have been suggested wrongly and gave a shot to 2x Countersquall mainboard: it's definitely a sideboard card. Brutality should be your maindeck choice instead.
Lingering souls are really good when they are good, but they aren't either flashable nor vialable. Through the whole tournament I felt 3x is the appropriate number, two are too few, 4 are too clunky. Against UW control you can heavily rely on this 2 damage a turn clock still keeping the flashback option in your graveyard, haven't felt this much value in a long time. It might occasionally be in your hand along with brutality for some appealing synergy.
Sideboard options are also convincing, overall, but one thing me and some friends who have been watching me playing my UW versions for so long now noticed, is that it's not as easy as it might seem to justify the black splash in front of the consistency of the bi-coloured version. painless manabase, 4x utility lands, colour consistency are factors you inevitably lose moving to the three colour version, so there must be something real there to make the change reasonable, and if you want to hear my opinion, the reason to splash black isn't much clear to my eyes. Sure I have to test way longer, but if I had to say why Esper and why not, I'd tell you yes for Push, and no because you are losing one of the best mana bases in modern.
Speaking of sideboard, I like to take the core of my side in UW and splash it for more powerful options. I think one thing when have to keep in mind when we write it down is: which matchups/cards are we suffering the most, and pretty much focus on those.
Esper needs a way to deal with big creatures more than UW does, I felt like 3x PtE or 2pte+2 Nebelgast heralds are necessary in the 75, or you're taking the risk of losing straight away in front of those damn 5/5 angels UW control plays post side.
Countersquall is an overpowered type of Negate, those two life are way more impactful than it seems. This along with Brutality grants this version an unexpected form of reach that you would expect from a red deck instead.
Unmoored Ego is a slow card that can end the game pretty much on the spot. It removed all of the Terminus from the UW opponent on turn 6 or 7, and that was enough. To be honest I was already winning, the fact if that the turn after he got Egoed he played a Jace TMS that was nowhere close to being the threat we use to know.UW can't beat Spirits with no terminus, Ego is match winner against them. And so is against Scapeshift when you name Valakut, it's also true that they may play one copy in the first turns and so you have to chose what's the best target left at that moment of the game. Ego is a card that requires you to know what you are doing.
And let me speculate a bit more on utility lands: as much as I love them and I see them as one of the best way to sink mana when you flood, they are really unaffordable in 3 colour versions, you can maybe run one as your 21th land and that's it. Curving out is of paramount importance, but having few to none utility lands exposes you to flooding. This is why cards to filter/convert are a must-have in the mainboard.
One final note on discard spells: this is not the right deck. you must build board presence, or, you have to keep up with your opponent developing his plan at the very least. Discard spells are tempo negative, you tap to take a card, they haven't tapped any mana instead. This is a tempo deck so IoK are a trap, Seize is powerful but same issue as IoK and the 2 life loss make it a mediocre sideboard card at best(tested it) and brutality itself should be primarily used to remove a piece AND convert one dead card into drain or discard. I was lacking this notion last year when I tested Esper, and that costed me games.
I'll post my UW and ESPER(work in progress) lists for reference.
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Rattlechains
4 Supreme Phantom
4 Spell Queller
4 Drogskol Captain
Spells: 15
4 Aether Vial
1 Curious Obsession
3 Fatal Push
2 Path to Exile
2 Collective Brutality
3 Lingering Souls
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted delta
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
1 godless shrine
2 Seachrome coast
2 Darkslick shore
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Creeping Tarpit
2 Stony Silence
2 Rest In Peace
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Echoing Truth
2 Countersquall
1 Favourable winds
2 Unmoored Ego
1 Dimir Cutpurse
1 Nebelgast Herald
1 Worship
Dimir Cutpurse might be Athreos, God of Passage. The former works against combo and control, the latter against midrange and non terminus control decks. I guess I might pick the god now that KCi is no longer a problem.
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Rattlechains
4 Supreme Phantom
4 Spell Queller
4 Drogskol Captain
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
Spells: 13
4 Aether Vial
3 Serum Visions
2 Curious Obsession
4 Path to Exile
4 Flooded Strand
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Seachrome Coast
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Moorland Haunt
3 Mutavault
1 Cavern of Souls
2 Stony Silence
2 Rest In Peace
2 Nebelgast Herald
1 Declaration in Stone
1 Worship
1 Favourable Winds
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Echoing Truth
3 Deprive
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Bant is the most aggro and no brainer version of the deck you can have, not that it's easy to pilot, but I have seen many players new to the deck having success because Collected Company is so powerful when coupled with hexproof and Spell Queller. You might want to start from here.
UW plays more of a tempo game and Esper plays an even slower and more skilled game.
My other idea comes from the amount that I've been flooding recently, but I was thinking about Geier Reach Sanitarium. The combo with Spirit of the Labyrinth is the first thing that comes to mind, but I frequently find myself wishing that I could throw away a fifth or sixth land or a late Aether Vial. Helping the opponent loot could be a problem, of course, which makes me hesitant here.
http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/126601
As you guys can see he used 2 Tithe Taker and 2 Deputy of Detention.
I think going hard on Thalia 3x is a bit too much. Two is more than enough. One of them can be replaced by remorseful cleric.
Also I am not sure about 1x Echoing truth main and 20 lands. Id rather keep 4x PTE
Hope to hear your thoughts about it
note: Tocatli Honor Guard is increasingly popular and that card does hose us and Humans pretty hard.
Tempo
Modern
Eldrazi and Staxes
Whir Prison
Legacy
5c Humans
DnT
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
There's at least three Merfolk players, BW Eldrazi Taxes, and some other Bant Spirits players at my LGS. Is it alright to cut Reflector Mage in this situation? I'd rather not give extra ETB triggers to creature-based decks.
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Another card that struck my interest from the new set is Sky Tether, which in our build is a 1 mana pacifism and could be very interesting as removal choice in the more tempo-oriented builds like UW.
Elves || GSpirits G || Spirits || Fish
Pauper
GElvesG || CAffinityC
Commander
G Roon (and the Hidden Realms) G