Copter seems like it would be cool along with Hanged Executioner, but I'm not very fond of a 3/3 crewed by creatures that have 2-3 power already. All in all, I'm not fond of Executioner and Copter in the archetype... Curious Obsession looks like the perfect way to draw cards already !
I'm very curious to know why Rally of Wings is in both of your lists, I have no experience with the card and I wonder if interaction would be more appropriate in that slot, like Declaration in Stone, Spell Pierce..., stuff like that.
Rally of wings I found it quiet useful when attacking with all your creatures. One Empyrean Eagle, along with 3 or 4 more spirits in play, means an actual win (most cases). I tested it the other day, hitting for a total of 20 lifes, all flying and unstoppable for my opponent.
I'm very curious to know why Rally of Wings is in both of your lists, I have no experience with the card and I wonder if interaction would be more appropriate in that slot, like Declaration in Stone, Spell Pierce..., stuff like that.
Rally is probably the strongest payoff (even more than Winds) for playing an all-flyers deck and has several uses:
1. A pseudo Overrun to close out games quicker.
2. A combat trick to untap all your creatures during an opponent's attack and create unfavorable blocks, basically a removal option of sorts.
3. Protection from damage/toughness sweepers.
Port Town seems like a worse Glacial Fortress for the most part and doesn't seem consistent enough as an untapped mana source. Prairie Stream is another land I considered but dismissed as being too slow so with 32x creatures I decided to go with Unclaimed Territory.
I have found today that 20 lands can causes mana screw. Thinking that 3 cmc is the highest one, still are quiet few lands. My next testing will be with 22 lands, and with Spectral Sailor. Rally of Wings and Essence Flux worked pretty well for me today, even I did a 3/3 (lost against BG with Grim Flayer, Saheeli, because of mana screw, and Izzet Phoenix and won against BG Constrictor, Aristocrats and a Bant).
Against saheeli I could easily win if I had hit the 4th land, but with the preassure of so many creatures he lands, and the "saheeli is coming", couldn't do much with only 1 spirit per turn.
Hi everybody, I'm currently on UW Spirits, no third color splashed and I've collected 5x 5-0 since the new format has been introduced. My most recent lists are here:
My approach to the deck is the same as in Modern: synergies, all fliers and tempo, for this reason I'm always picking Nebelgast Herald over any other option (reflector , deputy, which end up being bricks on the floor with no benefits taken from lords, rattlechains and stuff). Herald is one of the best thempo cards we have with the single limitation of requiring to tap mana before their second main phase, so it demands some planning and sequencing decisions when you have both that and queller in your hand. One thing I've end up falling in love with, is how relevant the extra copies of spectral sailor get to be when Herald is part of your list. The 1cmc flasher really helps you curving and tempoing your opponent out even in absence of Rattlechains. Having 4x Sailors makes every spirit mirror and control matchup way more favorable, on the other hand.
The slower the format, the better herald performs.
Hanged Executioner is a one of I like to widen the board and act as a removal later. It comes in handy against mirrors and phoenix ( the game goes long and grindy. the token to block a flipped thing and the ability to exile a 7/8 can be game swinging).
As for card draw, I think Obsession is the best engine: it's very good in modern, it's even better in pioneer where there's scarsity of efficient removals and many times it takes a selfless or a rattlechains to ensure a 3 turn extra card draw cycle before they can deal with the threat. The absence of bolts and revolted push make it so easy to keep connecting with the enchanted spirit. Because of the absence of Aether Vial we ideally want to hit a creature and a land in the early turns, and 2 creatures per turn later in the game, or a creature and a mana sinker (mutavault, spectral sailor) to give a sense to all of the extra lands.
I think one important thing to keep in mind is that this tribe in pioneer takes the aggro role most of the times, so this is why I ended up not liking Teferi TR , maindeck deputy and such, because the play the control role: many times I can race my opponent by one turn, and this is just because of the extra damages that Nebelgast Herald and obsessions have provided.
I'm not sold on the 4th Eagle because we have just rattlechains to flash that in , in the UW version. I can see the 4x in bant with 4 RC and 4 CoCo. I'm liking the 1st Fav Winds in replacement of the 4th copy of eagle because it sticks against control and midrange and it curves much better: there are matchups where you want the passive ability to be as permanent as possible rather than having a fragile +1 +1 provider that dies to verdicts and stuff. It's close, so far the 2cmc makes me want a copy of Winds. It's also very powerful against red decks cause they cant remove it.
Speaking of lands: I've been fine with 20, I ve got my best results with this configuration, never missed the 21st. It s possible that the more copters you have the higher you can go on land counts, but I really see that as unnecessary. 8x 1cmc spirits and 14 2cmc drops allow you to operate well with 20 lands and do your stuff while waiting for the 3rd if it hasn't come yet. Spell Queller is the best counter in the format, but evidence says that wanderer into selfless into Phantom is back breaking for almost every opponent, casting the 3rd drop isn't a condition to win the game per sé.
I ve been brewing with Port Towns and Glacial Fortresses aswell, I found them both to be disastrous for my curve and for the aggro plan in general. My take is: lands must enter the battlefield untapped. Period. I've been thinking of replacing the last fortress with 1x mana confluence, but testing so far revealed the one of is acceptable, the 2x has been noxious instead. I'm really not underestimating the impact of losing one turn because of a tapped land, I'm trying to max out the damage output by curving out and being mana efficient every single turn, so this is absolutely critical to me.
The absence of both adakar wasted and seachrome coast is really punishing.
Sideboard: this format is removal heavy, I want a well represented anti creature package in my side to deal with those who can go under me with their strategy. I like the 2 alliances for bogles and soulflayer primarily. It's very good vs red decks too, although it really shines when you get to escalate it. I'm also on the 1x essence scatter to have an extra bullet against creatures like ballistas which are a nightmare for me, to the point they force me to blind call them with pithing needle.
Needle effects are the best you can ask for in absence of stony silence right now. they also disrupt planeswalkers, I sistematically bring them in against every Oko and Control deck. Spyglass is superior to needle, but there are games like those against G ramp where your task is to race and prevent them from using ballista, so I like the 1cmc efficiency in those spots, curving and pressuring is vital.
Disallow is there as a catch all, the styfle effect is relevant at times, I wouldn't switch it with negate/veto because of big creatures, but I might be wrong here. I'm not sure, it has been ok so far, I know there are a variety of situations where D sphere or other removals in general might have served the purpose better.
Things that could be useful are Eidolon of Rhetoric (althought here we have no vial to break the simmetry), spirit of the labyrinth to shut down card draw( most of the times you end up siding out obsessions against decks that draw a lot, cause they happen to be those with the higher number of removals too), teferi time ravelr for control (which is my best matchup anyways) and grindy games, and fancy stuff as return to the ranks
Flex slots:
-I ve been trying sky tether, Ended up trimming it cause when it's bad it's too bad. I'm the aggro and I wanna be able to curve and draw gas. I cant afford any dead card maindeck beyond extra lands, so in my latest list I came back to Azorius Charm which cycles at the very least. I found that decent but hard to cast because of my 7 colorless sources. Instead, I'm really interested in Rally of Wings, can't wait to test it for the reasons you have pointed out. 3 attacking cretures mean 6 extra damage, which is cutting your opponent off 2 or more turns, but I can see combat tricks happening and huge swings couming out of nothing. My pre testing impression is that that might be the right card for us.
- I like Essence Flux as a card, but I don't find it superior to any other of the cards i have maindeck. Tested it and trimmed because of lack of utility.
- Gave a chance to Thalia, heretic cathar, but I believe it can be all star when you ramp her t2, or just medium /low impact t3, as much as Geist of saint traft can be a house with hierarch in modern or a suspended boros charm when you don't get to ramp it
-EDIT: had my first game with rally of wings and it's a house
Why don't you have Dovin's Veto in the SB ?
It is the best counterspell in the format and comes in really handy ramp/combo decks (and also Control if it shows up).
I generally prefer it to the Needle (Spyglass/Revoker) cards.
I haven't considered Sky Tether but it doesn't seem half-bad to be honest, almost a 1-mana Pacifism for this deck.
Another potentially playable 1-mana removal card can be Searing Light to deal with smaller creatures from aggro decks.
Azorius Charm always seemed like an interesting option as besides the tuck attackers option it can just help race even better with the lifelink mode.
I wonder if it can be better in the Blessed Alliance slot as I don't see too much indestructible/hexproof creatures anyway and racing them would work just as well most of the time.
I wonder if Unsubstantiate can work in this deck as a bad Remand of sorts for tempo purposes.
I'm not high on Hanged Executioner as it seems too low impact and the removal mode comes too late.
What's your take on Bygone Bishop as a way to grind out some card advantage post-board ?
You should give Rally of Wings a try as it is really good in the deck.
Yeah rally is game swinging both offensively and defensively, thanks for recommending it.
Needle and Spyglass are superior to counters as much as a removals are superior to a counters for creatures, because needles can be played pro actively or later in the game, while the counter itself requires perfect timing.
As for which is the right counter to play, I like veto, but I'm currently trying a counter package that allows me to deal with big creatures. The very first couple weeks I have seen plenty of big green creatures being played, so I ended up preferring Disallow over veto since PWs can be dealt via needles and combat damage, while krasis, ballistas and such are too much of a threat from my perspective.
Sky tether is super efficient but it doesn't do much against overseers, stonecoil serpent, copters, lords. I ended up preferring other cards.
Borrower is the card we want in place of Remand/ unsub. I won't lie, the creature itself is something I cast very few times, the bounce ability is so impactful that it provides me the tempo swing to finish the race with my creatures with no need for borrower to do anything. It's always sweet to have that option though and plays well with our draw- attack- go strategy.
If I were to play anything like Bishop, I'd probably test Ephara God of the polis in the first place cause it requires no mana to draw extra cards and it sticks to the battlefield way better than bishop. Once you rebuild the board it turns sideways for a lot of damage. So far I ve never felt the need for this type of card though cause I tend to lose to big mana and hyper aggro strats more frequently than to midrange and controls
I'm collecting 5-0 , currently 8th times. Rally of wings has been critical to steal those games I wouldn't have won that one turn otherwise, rest of the list is gucci.
15th sideboard card was an Encase in Ice but I'm not sold and I'm looking for somehting that I don't know yet. Could be another counterspell.
Minor maindeck changes could be the 4th obsession. I still don't want the 4th eagle with 20 lands, I swapped executioner for the 4th herald which is insane in this format and the singleton glacial fortress still harms my curving out one game per league. I'm really thinking about mana confluence but 20$ online are too much tbh.
Glad you liked Rally of Wings. It's a very good card in the offensive side and in the defensive one. Gonna take a look at my deck and see what I can change to improve with your sharings.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2495721#paper
I want to share this sort of prank, I ve started building jeskai spirits with 4 charms with no further changes, jumped later in a league thinking I was playing my stock UW, and I realized what was happening once the first game started so I had to continue playing trying to cash in. I 5-0ed in the end because the core of the deck is so solid it can sustain 4 dead cards mainboard every g1.
Edit: speaking of serious things, I think Aethersphere Harvester can be a big 2 of in the sideboard to wall aggro and stick a veicle against contol and phoenix. gets bonuses from both eagle and fav winds, looks spicy enbough to test in replacement of Surge and Encase
Where's everyone at with their decks? Would you mind posting your updated lists? I play a U/W Spirits list in a budget modern meta my friends and I created. The approach you guys are taking seem like a really easy upgrade path to get me out to Pioneer nights at my LGS. Anyway, looking forward to seeing where you're at!
I've been playing a bit, things i've noticed is that now people know what to do with their decks, some have emerged as tier1s so I'm no longer facing the amount of easy winds I was used to in the beginning of the month. As things stand, an average league is made of 3 easy/reasonably favorable matchups and 2 close ones where a mulligan can cost you the game. Close matchups are gainst monoG, monoR and monoB, worse matchup ever is UR Emerge because of the amount of removals and inevitability they ve got going on their side with rekindled phoenix and the elder deep fiend. All of the rest looks fine and takes a good tempo plan to be beated, you have to know what hands you want to keep , my games are often decided in my favor by a turn. Spirits is a great deck in this format but takes a lot of sequencing.
My average results are 4-1s online, took my first pioneer fnm yesterday and it's been easy cause a lot of people there are players coming from standard or commander, they have no clue about of Spirits work in terms of synergies and game plan so you can really max out your results at your LGS.
My current decklist is in the picture.
Recent changes have been the 2x stroke in the side, i think this is a very good catch all counterspell. We struggle with big creatures like big ballistas, hydras, glorybringers and stuff. You want to deal with them tempo-efficiently, so a two mana counterspell has always been my choice. I started with Essence Scatter, but it's shown weaknesses against UW control(I'm not bringing that in for Lyra, but 'd gladly have a counter for jace architect of dig through time and such) and UG Reclamation where you want to have a negate effect. So stroke is the compromise. Maybe I won't be able to catch small ballistas, but when those are small they are 1/1 so they are not threatning.
I have tested a Ram, it's there for mono black which has recursive small threats, we'll see how it works. It should be a house against red and walkers in general. If it fails, then Surge of Rightfulness should be my pick. Sky tether is also excellent, I value the 1cmc so so much, because you almost always find a way to curve out and keep pressuring/disrupting your opponent while playing the defensive spell.
I played an Open two weeks ago, and I lost against UW Control and mono green devotion, and won against BG, another spirits and I don't remember the other one, overall, 3-2.
I'm starting to like Sky Tether for those heavy creatures, so I'm going to think to add it to my sideboard.
I'm relatively happy about the last banning cycle. My list featured 2 copters, but I can see from miles away my deck was one of the worse copter decks. Mono black was abusing that enormously and rg aggro and some other could use that efficiently to wall me, so eventually my plan after sideboard was to remove my copters to bring in a couple needles for their playset. Mono black was rough, copter was a big reason for it, I'll take benefits out of this ban. And so is true for the other two with special regard for Once Upon a Time. the less consistend Mono G is, the higher my win rate against them.
Now, copter served the purpose of insulating me a little bit from wraths and stuff like liliana last hope. I have never relied on copter to fix my hand, sure it's happened but it wasn't there to patch a bug coming out of my deck building, this is to say I have never seen copter as a key piece or a necessary engine to keep building compromises together.
I was on two of them, one gets replaced by one Favorable Winds which is good against the same deck copter was good against (control strategies), although it's not the same power level, and one flex card which at the moment is Essence Flux, just cause I love the card and wanna play with it a bit more until I find something convincing. I'm sure I dont want 3drops. It could be an Opt, it could be a bit of whatever, hope to find some ideas around. Siren stormtamer is an old idea, haven't find the courage to runa league with it yet, although it seems very good along with 4 Obsessions.
Current list in the picture. It has just 5-0ed. I think there was an Apostle of purifying light in replacement of cerulean drake.
Now mono black has been knocked, and mono green too, I'm dedicating an extra side slot to Mono red which I beat in the 5th round, very close game it has proved to be a very hard matchup... I'm respecting it as I believe it might be one of the emerging aggro strategies now.
Today, at local store, my bant list went 4-0. The deck went so smooth in all the games, like it never has done before. Nebelgast Herald is really an important creature in this deck when facing other aggro decks. In the fourth match, the game I lost was because my opponent had 2 of them on the battlefield.
First match: 2-1 vs mono black
Second match: 2-0 vs Esper control
Third match: 2-0 vs UW control
Fourth match: 2-1 vs UW Spirits
Skycat Sovereign imo, at first looks an autoinclude even without being a spirit, thanks to all spirits have flying he can be a really big creature.
Cunning Nightbonder is another great card, for sideboard imo. Even with a 3feri in game, if a rattlechains is in play, all our spirits will be non-counterable thanks to flash, even itself could not be countered.
Cunning Nightbonder is another great card, for sideboard imo. Even with a 3feri in game, if a rattlechains is in play, all our spirits will be non-counterable thanks to flash, even itself could not be countered.
Read Rattlechains and Cunning Nightbonder again. Rattlechains doesn't actually grant flash, just lets you cast Spirits "as if" they had it, and Nightbonder only cares about cards that actually have the keyword. Compare to the wording on Mutual Destruction, which actually gives itself the keyword. The only creatures in this deck that will receive the cost reduction are Rattlechains, Spell Queller, and Nebelgast Herald; and Spectral Sailor wouldn't be able to be countered in addition to those three.
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I hope that when I get a bit of time, I can update this first post for a better looking and with more info.
My first deck that I'm going to try is:
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Supreme Phantom
4 Rattlechains
3 Selfless Spirit
4 Spell Queller
4 Nebelgast Herald
4 Empyrean Eagle
Enchantment
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
2 Mutavault
4 Plains
4 Island
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Unclaimed Territory
4 Hallowed Fountain
Instant
3 Essence Flux
4 Rally of Wings
4 Winged Words
2 Remorseful Cleric
2 Detention Sphere
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Blessed Alliance
4 Dovin's Veto
4x Mausoleum Wanderer
4x Spectral Sailor
4x Rattlechains
4x Selfless Spirit
4x Supreme Phantom
4x Empyrean Eagle
4x Spell Queller
4x Nebelgast Herald
4x Rally of Wings
Enchantment (4)
4x Curious Obsession
Land (20)
4x Unclaimed Territory
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Glacial Fortress
2x Mutavault
3x Island
3x Plains
2x Remorseful Cleric
2x Bygone Bishop
3x Deputy of Detention
2x Declaration in Stone
4x Dovin's Veto
2x Blessed Alliance
Some additional card choices:
# Favorable Winds - as an additional anthem.
# Smuggler's Copter - can slot in as a looter.
# Winged Words and Opt/Anticipate - a 2-mana Divination or some instant speed cantrips.
# Unsummon/Unsubstantiate and Essence Flux - tempo plays and combat tricks.
# Spell Pierce and Quench - tempo countermagic.
I'm very curious to know why Rally of Wings is in both of your lists, I have no experience with the card and I wonder if interaction would be more appropriate in that slot, like Declaration in Stone, Spell Pierce..., stuff like that.
Port Town is a good land, what do you think ?
Port Town seems a good card in this format.
Rally is probably the strongest payoff (even more than Winds) for playing an all-flyers deck and has several uses:
1. A pseudo Overrun to close out games quicker.
2. A combat trick to untap all your creatures during an opponent's attack and create unfavorable blocks, basically a removal option of sorts.
3. Protection from damage/toughness sweepers.
Port Town seems like a worse Glacial Fortress for the most part and doesn't seem consistent enough as an untapped mana source.
Prairie Stream is another land I considered but dismissed as being too slow so with 32x creatures I decided to go with Unclaimed Territory.
Against saheeli I could easily win if I had hit the 4th land, but with the preassure of so many creatures he lands, and the "saheeli is coming", couldn't do much with only 1 spirit per turn.
I really enjoyed playing this format.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2463180#paper
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2487048#paper
My approach to the deck is the same as in Modern: synergies, all fliers and tempo, for this reason I'm always picking Nebelgast Herald over any other option (reflector , deputy, which end up being bricks on the floor with no benefits taken from lords, rattlechains and stuff). Herald is one of the best thempo cards we have with the single limitation of requiring to tap mana before their second main phase, so it demands some planning and sequencing decisions when you have both that and queller in your hand. One thing I've end up falling in love with, is how relevant the extra copies of spectral sailor get to be when Herald is part of your list. The 1cmc flasher really helps you curving and tempoing your opponent out even in absence of Rattlechains. Having 4x Sailors makes every spirit mirror and control matchup way more favorable, on the other hand.
The slower the format, the better herald performs.
Hanged Executioner is a one of I like to widen the board and act as a removal later. It comes in handy against mirrors and phoenix ( the game goes long and grindy. the token to block a flipped thing and the ability to exile a 7/8 can be game swinging).
As for card draw, I think Obsession is the best engine: it's very good in modern, it's even better in pioneer where there's scarsity of efficient removals and many times it takes a selfless or a rattlechains to ensure a 3 turn extra card draw cycle before they can deal with the threat. The absence of bolts and revolted push make it so easy to keep connecting with the enchanted spirit. Because of the absence of Aether Vial we ideally want to hit a creature and a land in the early turns, and 2 creatures per turn later in the game, or a creature and a mana sinker (mutavault, spectral sailor) to give a sense to all of the extra lands.
I think one important thing to keep in mind is that this tribe in pioneer takes the aggro role most of the times, so this is why I ended up not liking Teferi TR , maindeck deputy and such, because the play the control role: many times I can race my opponent by one turn, and this is just because of the extra damages that Nebelgast Herald and obsessions have provided.
I'm not sold on the 4th Eagle because we have just rattlechains to flash that in , in the UW version. I can see the 4x in bant with 4 RC and 4 CoCo. I'm liking the 1st Fav Winds in replacement of the 4th copy of eagle because it sticks against control and midrange and it curves much better: there are matchups where you want the passive ability to be as permanent as possible rather than having a fragile +1 +1 provider that dies to verdicts and stuff. It's close, so far the 2cmc makes me want a copy of Winds. It's also very powerful against red decks cause they cant remove it.
Speaking of lands: I've been fine with 20, I ve got my best results with this configuration, never missed the 21st. It s possible that the more copters you have the higher you can go on land counts, but I really see that as unnecessary. 8x 1cmc spirits and 14 2cmc drops allow you to operate well with 20 lands and do your stuff while waiting for the 3rd if it hasn't come yet. Spell Queller is the best counter in the format, but evidence says that wanderer into selfless into Phantom is back breaking for almost every opponent, casting the 3rd drop isn't a condition to win the game per sé.
I ve been brewing with Port Towns and Glacial Fortresses aswell, I found them both to be disastrous for my curve and for the aggro plan in general. My take is: lands must enter the battlefield untapped. Period. I've been thinking of replacing the last fortress with 1x mana confluence, but testing so far revealed the one of is acceptable, the 2x has been noxious instead. I'm really not underestimating the impact of losing one turn because of a tapped land, I'm trying to max out the damage output by curving out and being mana efficient every single turn, so this is absolutely critical to me.
The absence of both adakar wasted and seachrome coast is really punishing.
Sideboard: this format is removal heavy, I want a well represented anti creature package in my side to deal with those who can go under me with their strategy. I like the 2 alliances for bogles and soulflayer primarily. It's very good vs red decks too, although it really shines when you get to escalate it. I'm also on the 1x essence scatter to have an extra bullet against creatures like ballistas which are a nightmare for me, to the point they force me to blind call them with pithing needle.
Needle effects are the best you can ask for in absence of stony silence right now. they also disrupt planeswalkers, I sistematically bring them in against every Oko and Control deck. Spyglass is superior to needle, but there are games like those against G ramp where your task is to race and prevent them from using ballista, so I like the 1cmc efficiency in those spots, curving and pressuring is vital.
Disallow is there as a catch all, the styfle effect is relevant at times, I wouldn't switch it with negate/veto because of big creatures, but I might be wrong here. I'm not sure, it has been ok so far, I know there are a variety of situations where D sphere or other removals in general might have served the purpose better.
Things that could be useful are Eidolon of Rhetoric (althought here we have no vial to break the simmetry), spirit of the labyrinth to shut down card draw( most of the times you end up siding out obsessions against decks that draw a lot, cause they happen to be those with the higher number of removals too), teferi time ravelr for control (which is my best matchup anyways) and grindy games, and fancy stuff as return to the ranks
Flex slots:
-I ve been trying sky tether, Ended up trimming it cause when it's bad it's too bad. I'm the aggro and I wanna be able to curve and draw gas. I cant afford any dead card maindeck beyond extra lands, so in my latest list I came back to Azorius Charm which cycles at the very least. I found that decent but hard to cast because of my 7 colorless sources. Instead, I'm really interested in Rally of Wings, can't wait to test it for the reasons you have pointed out. 3 attacking cretures mean 6 extra damage, which is cutting your opponent off 2 or more turns, but I can see combat tricks happening and huge swings couming out of nothing. My pre testing impression is that that might be the right card for us.
- I like Essence Flux as a card, but I don't find it superior to any other of the cards i have maindeck. Tested it and trimmed because of lack of utility.
- Gave a chance to Thalia, heretic cathar, but I believe it can be all star when you ramp her t2, or just medium /low impact t3, as much as Geist of saint traft can be a house with hierarch in modern or a suspended boros charm when you don't get to ramp it
-EDIT: had my first game with rally of wings and it's a house
It is the best counterspell in the format and comes in really handy ramp/combo decks (and also Control if it shows up).
I generally prefer it to the Needle (Spyglass/Revoker) cards.
I haven't considered Sky Tether but it doesn't seem half-bad to be honest, almost a 1-mana Pacifism for this deck.
Another potentially playable 1-mana removal card can be Searing Light to deal with smaller creatures from aggro decks.
Azorius Charm always seemed like an interesting option as besides the tuck attackers option it can just help race even better with the lifelink mode.
I wonder if it can be better in the Blessed Alliance slot as I don't see too much indestructible/hexproof creatures anyway and racing them would work just as well most of the time.
I wonder if Unsubstantiate can work in this deck as a bad Remand of sorts for tempo purposes.
I'm not high on Hanged Executioner as it seems too low impact and the removal mode comes too late.
What's your take on Bygone Bishop as a way to grind out some card advantage post-board ?
You should give Rally of Wings a try as it is really good in the deck.
Needle and Spyglass are superior to counters as much as a removals are superior to a counters for creatures, because needles can be played pro actively or later in the game, while the counter itself requires perfect timing.
As for which is the right counter to play, I like veto, but I'm currently trying a counter package that allows me to deal with big creatures. The very first couple weeks I have seen plenty of big green creatures being played, so I ended up preferring Disallow over veto since PWs can be dealt via needles and combat damage, while krasis, ballistas and such are too much of a threat from my perspective.
Sky tether is super efficient but it doesn't do much against overseers, stonecoil serpent, copters, lords. I ended up preferring other cards.
Borrower is the card we want in place of Remand/ unsub. I won't lie, the creature itself is something I cast very few times, the bounce ability is so impactful that it provides me the tempo swing to finish the race with my creatures with no need for borrower to do anything. It's always sweet to have that option though and plays well with our draw- attack- go strategy.
If I were to play anything like Bishop, I'd probably test Ephara God of the polis in the first place cause it requires no mana to draw extra cards and it sticks to the battlefield way better than bishop. Once you rebuild the board it turns sideways for a lot of damage. So far I ve never felt the need for this type of card though cause I tend to lose to big mana and hyper aggro strats more frequently than to midrange and controls
15th sideboard card was an Encase in Ice but I'm not sold and I'm looking for somehting that I don't know yet. Could be another counterspell.
Minor maindeck changes could be the 4th obsession. I still don't want the 4th eagle with 20 lands, I swapped executioner for the 4th herald which is insane in this format and the singleton glacial fortress still harms my curving out one game per league. I'm really thinking about mana confluence but 20$ online are too much tbh.
I want to share this sort of prank, I ve started building jeskai spirits with 4 charms with no further changes, jumped later in a league thinking I was playing my stock UW, and I realized what was happening once the first game started so I had to continue playing trying to cash in. I 5-0ed in the end because the core of the deck is so solid it can sustain 4 dead cards mainboard every g1.
Edit: speaking of serious things, I think Aethersphere Harvester can be a big 2 of in the sideboard to wall aggro and stick a veicle against contol and phoenix. gets bonuses from both eagle and fav winds, looks spicy enbough to test in replacement of Surge and Encase
My average results are 4-1s online, took my first pioneer fnm yesterday and it's been easy cause a lot of people there are players coming from standard or commander, they have no clue about of Spirits work in terms of synergies and game plan so you can really max out your results at your LGS.
My current decklist is in the picture.
Recent changes have been the 2x stroke in the side, i think this is a very good catch all counterspell. We struggle with big creatures like big ballistas, hydras, glorybringers and stuff. You want to deal with them tempo-efficiently, so a two mana counterspell has always been my choice. I started with Essence Scatter, but it's shown weaknesses against UW control(I'm not bringing that in for Lyra, but 'd gladly have a counter for jace architect of dig through time and such) and UG Reclamation where you want to have a negate effect. So stroke is the compromise. Maybe I won't be able to catch small ballistas, but when those are small they are 1/1 so they are not threatning.
I have tested a Ram, it's there for mono black which has recursive small threats, we'll see how it works. It should be a house against red and walkers in general. If it fails, then Surge of Rightfulness should be my pick. Sky tether is also excellent, I value the 1cmc so so much, because you almost always find a way to curve out and keep pressuring/disrupting your opponent while playing the defensive spell.
I played an Open two weeks ago, and I lost against UW Control and mono green devotion, and won against BG, another spirits and I don't remember the other one, overall, 3-2.
I'm starting to like Sky Tether for those heavy creatures, so I'm going to think to add it to my sideboard.
Now, copter served the purpose of insulating me a little bit from wraths and stuff like liliana last hope. I have never relied on copter to fix my hand, sure it's happened but it wasn't there to patch a bug coming out of my deck building, this is to say I have never seen copter as a key piece or a necessary engine to keep building compromises together.
I was on two of them, one gets replaced by one Favorable Winds which is good against the same deck copter was good against (control strategies), although it's not the same power level, and one flex card which at the moment is Essence Flux, just cause I love the card and wanna play with it a bit more until I find something convincing. I'm sure I dont want 3drops. It could be an Opt, it could be a bit of whatever, hope to find some ideas around. Siren stormtamer is an old idea, haven't find the courage to runa league with it yet, although it seems very good along with 4 Obsessions.
Current list in the picture. It has just 5-0ed. I think there was an Apostle of purifying light in replacement of cerulean drake.
Now mono black has been knocked, and mono green too, I'm dedicating an extra side slot to Mono red which I beat in the 5th round, very close game it has proved to be a very hard matchup... I'm respecting it as I believe it might be one of the emerging aggro strategies now.
First match: 2-1 vs mono black
Second match: 2-0 vs Esper control
Third match: 2-0 vs UW control
Fourth match: 2-1 vs UW Spirits
Deck list:
4 Spectral Sailor
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Supreme Phantom
4 Rattlechains
3 Selfless Spirit
4 Spell Queller
3 Nebelgast Herald
4 Empyrean Eagle
Land
3 Frest
3 Plains
3 Island
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Unclaimed Territory
3 Hallowed Fountain
2 Breeding Pool
3 Temple Garden
4 Collected Company
3 Rally of Wings
Planeswalkers
1x Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants
2 Rest in Peace
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Mystical Dispute
2 Settle the Wreckeage
2 Detention Sphere
3 Declaration in Stone
4x Empyrean Eagle
4x Mausoleum Wanderer
4x Nebelgast Herald
4x Rattlechains
3x Selfless Spirit
4x Skycat Sovereign
3x Spectral Sailor
4x Spell Queller
4x Supreme Phantom
3x Breeding Pool
2x Fabled Passage
3x Forest
2x Glacial Fortress
3x Hallowed Fountain
2x Hinterland Harbor
4x Island
3x Plains
Instants (4)
4x Collected Company
2x Settle the Wreckage
2x Detention Sphere
2x Rest in Peace
3x Heroic Intervention
2x Jubilant Skybonder
2x Disdainful Stroke
2x Mystical Dispute
Skycat Sovereign imo, at first looks an autoinclude even without being a spirit, thanks to all spirits have flying he can be a really big creature.
Cunning Nightbonder is another great card, for sideboard imo. Even with a 3feri in game, if a rattlechains is in play, all our spirits will be non-counterable thanks to flash, even itself could not be countered.Jubilant Skybonder is a great card against spot removal.
What do you thinkg about this new inclusions?
Read Rattlechains and Cunning Nightbonder again. Rattlechains doesn't actually grant flash, just lets you cast Spirits "as if" they had it, and Nightbonder only cares about cards that actually have the keyword. Compare to the wording on Mutual Destruction, which actually gives itself the keyword. The only creatures in this deck that will receive the cost reduction are Rattlechains, Spell Queller, and Nebelgast Herald; and Spectral Sailor wouldn't be able to be countered in addition to those three.