Teferi Time Raveler is a key card to complement PtE in dealing with -out of bolt range- creatures, it adds solidity to the deck that otherwise lacks a value permanent. Dovin might be just as good, as far as the tempo plan is concerned, if it wasn't that TTR has a static ability that shuts control down and ruins the day to midrange deck ( quelled a spell, attacked and bounced it back to my hand ready to 2x1 them during their next turn. gg). My idea is that you need 4x MB answers to creatures like kalitas, goyf, thing in the ice and such. TTR is a tempo anwer, but I can swear the tempo swing is absolutely.
Horizon Lands are simply critical to dig for fuel in a deck that aims to play the game with 4 lands at most. Having a relatively low curve with no 4cmc spells, and just 10 3cmc drops, eight of which are vialable creatures, make the horizon lands way less painful, cause you re most likely cycling them soon. I've been testing Jeskai back in March with no TTR nor Horizon Lands, and the difference is perceivable to say the least.
Burn spells are excellent at playing the tempo game both aggressively, cutting your opponent off a turn, and defensively, spending one mana to deal with their 2/3 mana creature, or spending two to deal with it and gaining those 3 points of life which will most likely give you an extra turn, meaning an extra attack phase.
Also, as opposed to black, red removals go to the face so they are excellent against all of those big mana decks where Fatal Push and PtE would be dead cards. Worst case scenario, your opponent has got ways to gain life repeatedly, but hey, every strategy has got their weak spot.
Most importantly, because of the flexibility they provide, I ve been able to slam 5x burn along with 2PtE and 2 TTR, which makes an excellent removal/containment package against aggro decks. It's counterintuitive at a first glance, because the manabase is more painful so you'd be inclined to think it's getting your aggro matchup worse. Instead, you' re going up on the removal count, and those removals are not even ramping the opponent, so once you sit at the table and play you feel how good splashing B/R is at letting you take the control role against any creature deck.
Infect on the rise and humans tier1 are good news for this version.
Light up the Stage has been an intuition I ve had some months ago and it's been a solid 2of to be used in the mid/late game to pull ahead, it works nicely with a low curve, but the boost it provides is still limited to two cards and the new spectral sailor is now coming with the benefit of being a creature which adds damages to the race, synergizing, and overlapping Stage in the same situations where extra cards are required: if you have cards in your hand , then you re not out of gas and it's just an extra piece of pressure which goes along with your beatdown plan. If you're out of gas it draws without revealing ( where Stage lets you hold up more mana but can't let you recur to Vial, Spectral Sailor allows you to abuse your Aether Vials instead, giving no informations about what you've drawn). I'm pretty confident Sailor is going to be a good addition replacing any other card advantage engine in non-company decks.
With this said, this is where I'm at with Jeskai Spirits
Alpine moon won me the game against tron t1. That 1cmc is huge really, it lets you curve out. How many times i've found myslef in the position of having an empty turn one, with a turn two I had to spend in casting stony or Damping, delaying my race. Alpine moon made me curve out in my two drop and begin to attack earlier. Not sure about the split with Damping sphere, I may want more dampings if Amulet was more present in my meta.
I've not been playing Grafdigger's cage since february '18 where it lost me the finals against storm. They remove it and get full access to the GY, however: The new mulligan rule demands an early answer, so does bridgevine, and the bonus of stopping the new eladamri's call decks, company and such makes it worth testing again. I like Relic better, but relic has no static ability, and static is the keyword you need to approach this metagame.
I think I'm quite weak to cages(Urza thopters), this is the reason why I'm on 2x red Eidolons and Chandra. I'm not willing to give up on that matchup just to have my 3rd counterspell but I may be wrong. I'll wait to attend the new PTQs events before making changes.
Happy brewing folks!
1
but
he doesn't fly, which is a huge drawback in many games.
he has a fairly steep cost, meaning you can't run a greedy manabase with mutavaults (which by the way i recently switched with horizon lands and i'm happy with that)
he doesn't contribute to our plan significantly: while spirits excel at protecting each other, the layer of protection mariner gives is either irrelevant or too weak to matter.
The major thing about him, though, is that the meta is currently not about removals. of the 4 top tier decks, three don't really care about removals, and humans - the only one that does - is thriving off of the lack of removal in the meta (so does infect, by the way).
TLDR While mariner has an ability that's relevant, it is too weak and too irrelevant meta-wise to warrant a spot in our tight decklist.
1
some points i would like to make:
my initial list is the following
4 striking sliver
4 diffusion sliver
4 cloudshredder sliver
4 sinew sliver
4 predatory sliver
4 unsettled mariner
4 blur sliver
4 dismember
4 cavern of souls
4 unclaimed territory
4 sliver hive
4 fiery islet
2 ancient ziggurat
2 mutavault
4 leyline of the void
3 harmonic sliver
3 necrotic sliver
3 damping sphere
2 darkheart sliver
1
Also, i'm going to experiment with a list that - heresy!- lacks noble hierarch, but in bant colors. Small splash for coco, it should play like UW does-.
since i just swapped noble hierarchs for rattlechains, i'll be watching closely if any hand could have developed better with the mana dork
4 mausoleum wanderer
4 rattlechains
3 selfless spirit
3 phantasmal image
4 supreme phantom
4 spell queller
4 drogskol captain
Spells (12)
4 aether vial
4 path to exile
4 collected company
1 cavern of souls
4 flooded strand
3 misty rainforest
1 temple garden
1 breeding pool
1 hallowed fountain
2 island
1 plains
1 forest
3 seachrome coast
4 horizon canopy
3 rest in peace
2 stony silence
2 unified will
2 damping sphere
2 knight of autumn
2 deputy of detention
2 eidolon of rhetoric
1
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
1
1
stop telling me to play bant spirits
EDIT: the answer to this: i'm in love with the coco
1
thanks to the mod team
2
Playing the Deck
Bant Spirits is one of moderns few competitive tempo decks. The modern tempo archetype has always been lacking most of it’s characteristic cards like Daze, Stifle and Force of Will that make it‘s Legacy counterpart, all flavours of Delver of Secrets decks, so strong. Bant Spirits replaces those missing cards with disruptive flash creatures like Spell Queller and other powerful ahead of the curve plays like a turn 2 Geist of Saint Traft or a turn 3 Collected Company.
So, how do you play Bant Spirits?
It is important to remember that many of your cards can be played at instant speed, allowing you to often play fully on your opponents’ turn. This way you can either respond to your opponents cards or simply apply pressure by flashing in some creatures at the end of his or her turn if needed. Bant Spirits do offer you a lot of different lines of play each turn but because your deck is relying on synergy rather than pure strength the margins of failure are very thin.
Being familiar with all the small interactions between your cards and having experience will drastically increase your win rate, even more so than with other decks. Your game plan, similar to UW Spirits, is built around using your creatures as tempo plays to fizzle removal spells or counter your opponents cards while also leaving behind a flying body for bringing some beats, thus creating huge tempo swings that are hard to recover from.
Splashing for G allows the deck to run Noble Hierarch, one of the most powerful One-Drop Creatures ever printed, and Collected Company as a way of instant speed card advantage. Those two cards define the Bant Version and set it apart from more traditional UW lists because it makes it easier to race or apply early pressure, which is especially relevant against the various Combo and Ramp strategies running around. Leading with a turn 1 Hierarch into a turn 2 Geist of Saint Traft often spells doom for interactive and noninteractive decks alike. It is important to make the most out of your cards, don’t cast your creatures just „beacuse you can“ if there is no need for it. You will often win games by beating down with just one or two flying spirits each turn, only countering your opponents key spell with a Spell Queller and keep your other creatures in hand to protect your more important ghosts if needed, only flashing them in if you can attack for lethal on the following turn or in a race situation.
Collected company is, in this framework of aggressively playing tempo strategy, an instant-speed way to look at 6 more cards in your deck and pick 2 creatures. In this build the card must not be played as a combo enabler or as a value ( #walue ) spell, but as an access to more tricks and, eventually, as a way to represent more copies of each card (the deck is very consistent because of this card often managing to find a needed card e.g. a Selfless Spirit or Spell Queller when under Damnation)
So why should you play Bant Spirits?
Simply put? Because it's awesome, fun to play and much better than many people give it credit for!
The deck is widely underrated/underplayed and your opponents will often have to double read what your cards are exactly doing which is amusing to watch and makes them somewhat suspicious to make wrong plays or don't know what cards to play around. The deck also rewards tight play and experience, all combined with a unique playstyle for a creature based tribal deck.
The Deck
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Rattlechains
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Supreme Phantom
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Drogskol Captain
4 Spell Queller
Noncreature Spells (9)
4 Path To Exile
4 Collected company
Lands (22)
4 Flooded Strand
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Windswept Heath
1 Breeding pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Botanical Sanctum
1 Razorverge Thicket
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Cavern Of Souls
1 Gavony Township
1 Moorland Haunt
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Rhox war monk
2 Rest In Peace
2 stony Silence
1 Detention Sphere
3 Unified Will
Card Choices
Mainboard
Noble Hierarch - One of the perks of going into green is Noble Hierarch. This small creature is able to produce one mana each turn, as well as granting +1/+1 to an attacker if it attacks alone. Plays like a turn 2 Geist of Saint Traft (that can attack as a 3/3 creature on turn 3) or Spell Queller are undoubtedly strong, let alone a turn 3 Collected Company. Even later, being able to drop more spirits in a turn means that the synergies between spirits can be exploited more efficiently. Later in the game, it accelerates less than Aether Vial, but is surely a more versatile card, and can even serve as a chump-blocker if the need arises.
The only downside is that this creature is still alive. Being a mortal, we can’t wait for him to turn into Spirit.
Phantasmal Image - Less versatile than in the Vial variant, this card is still phenomenal. Besides adding more consistency to the double-Drogskol Captain lock, it can represent an additional hit for Collected Company, copying any creature that’s already on the battlefield (if you resolve Company with a creature on the board, count that creature - say Spell Queller - as having additional copies in the deck).
In a pinch, Phantasmal Image can become a copy of an opponent’s creature (even if it has hexproof, or shroud!). This is great against Jeskai/Azoorius Control’s own Geist of Saint Traft or Snapcaster Mages, or Eldrazi’s Reality Smashers. You can even copy a Tarmogoyf and force the opponent to cast a removal to get rid of him: make them have it!
Even copying Mausoleum Wanderer or Selfless Spirit is actually a reasonable play in certain matchups: Phantasmal Image’s boon is, in fact, his versatility.
Path To Exile - this cheap interactive spell is necessary to keep the board in check while the game develops. at CMC=1, it’s the most efficient removal spell in the colours, and one of the most unconditional in the format. The downside of giving the opponent a land is real, but there aren’t better options.
Collected Company - This spell works a bit differently than in other decks. This deck doesn’t have any combo to achieve, so the main interest is not to accelerate into this spell (eve if that’s surely pleasant), but to use it as a temporary extension of our hand, and as a tool to place more than one piece into the board. Since Spirits rely on their synergies to gain virtual card advantage through interactions[, a spell able to increase the consistency of such interactions is certainly welcomed. Thus, this spell must not be regarded exclusively as a card advantage spell, but should be used as additional interaction. This aspect poses value to the instant-speed nature of the spell. If we ever wanted to look for sources of actual card advantage in these colours, Lead the Stampede would be a more solid card advantage tool, but that spell can’t be cast at instant speed, and this is, among others, the point that makes it too clunky for this build’s gameplans.
Gavony Township - Its activation cost is high, but being able to repeatedly pump up the team is a great ability in order to stall boardstates that can then be won with flyers.
Moorland Haunt - Being able to create a Spirit at instant speed is surprisingly relevant in this deck - this card is able to yield two creatures out of every Spirit, and makes use of an otherwise unused resource (the graveyard), thus spreading the lines that the opponent might have to answer. Incredibly strong in grindy matchups, this card is as close as it can be as a staple card of the deck.
Sideboard
Engineered Explosives - more than a sweeper, this is a card that allows to deal with multiple copies of a particular cheap card. Sometimes it becomes almost a one sided wrath KABOOM!
Qasali Pridemage - the Smashing cat has come back
Eidolon of Rhetoric - Might be considered as a mainboard surprise in certain metas. ”Being able to cast a spell is a gift: there’s never another like it”
Rhox war monk - Not a spirit, but a 3/4 lifelinker that can be cast on turn 2. Just a good value card that happens to shut down burn (a difficult matchup). Rhox Firefighter
Rest In Peace ”[...]”
stony Silence ”Fool is the one who seeks answers from the rocks”
Detention Sphere -it’s like me and pizza: eat one, want them all.
Unified will a good counterspells with an easy-to achieve condition, and a playable cost. the direct alternative would be negate always play at least 2 of this unconditional spell-”Nope.”
Alternative Card Choices
Geist Of Saint Traft - This is probably the most discussed card in the Spirits archetype. Undoubtedly, this spirit is a bit more “selfish” than the others, and his abilities tend to not improve the tribal strategy.
Despite this, Geist’s weakness (the inability to attack without dying in combat) makes him a fragile and situational card in many matchups- even though his ability to close out games quickly is relevant, especially against combo or other uninteractive decks. Furthermore, his selfishness makes him the best creature in the deck by himself, and this is relevant in grindy matchups where resources are traded one-by-one and it’s important to have creatures that can defend themselves.
Even if Jeskai/Azorius control’s gameplans fit this card better, Bant Spirits has some ways to mitigate his downsides (for example, Noble Hierarch), and in this variant the Geist is not as underwhelming as it may be in the Azorius version. Mainboard.
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner Giving your creatures pseudo hexproof. A great combo with the Captain. Mainboard.
Nebelgast Herald - Mainboard.
Kataki, War’s Wage - Sideboard.
Birds of Paradise - Mainboard.
Permeating Mass - the author of this primer has a huge bias toward this card, as it is one of his pet cards. But you can see the potential, right? also useful in almost all bad matchup we haveMainboard or Sideboard.
Tallowisp - Mainboard. Can just use it to get Steel of the Godhead to pants up your Geist of Saint Traft or try a toolbox approach with Curious Obsession, Pacifism, etc. For grindier metas.
Scavenging Ooze - Sideboard. good vs. dredge
Reclamation Sage - Sideboard. Similar to Qasali Pridemage. Better when off Company or when you are sure of a target.
Kitchen Finks - Sideboard. did someone say burn?
Burrenton Forge-tender - Sideboard. did someone say burn?
Auriok champion - Sideboard. this card is decent against burn and also black-based decks. only problem is the casting cost.
Kor Firewalker - Sideboard. as burrenton forge-tender, it’s exclusively for burn. it has a difficult cost, though.
Azorius Herald - Sideboard. the only aggro/burn hate in the tribe besides Permeating mass and Eidolon of rhetoric, 4 life is a decent amount, but its true perk is real imblockability that could break a stall, for example out of a mirror match
Keening Apparition - Sideboard.
Phyrexian revoker - Sideboard.
Spellskite - Sideboard.
Aven Mindcensor - Sideboard.
Strangleroot Geist - Mainboard. he attacks, he proteccs, he come back from the ded
Spectral Shepherd - Mainboard. if you manage to use his ability properly it’s the best spirit ever printed. too bad it costs a lot. Still worth a ride in my opinion
Bygone Bishop - Mainboard. another one who’s too slow for modern, n+but might see play in some dedicated builds
Eternal Witness - Mainboard.
Mirror Entity - Mainboard. best spirit. especially as a pseudo lord. I try to fit him in every deck i play due to the overrun ability
Kami of false Hope - Sideboard.
Metallic Mimic - Mainboard.
Adaptive Automaton - Mainboard.
Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit Thanks to Collected Company we have creatures entering the battlefield left and right. This card is good, although a bit of a nonbo if you have multiple Noble Hierarchs or Birds on the field. Mainboard.
Steel of the Godhead - This is a card that doesn’t always see play, but when it does it’s because it pairs perfectly with Geist of Saint Traft. Even equipping this weapon to a [creature]Spell Queller[/creature] sometimes allows to win lost games. Despite this, the card is clunky and really works with the UW creatures in the deck, which already have a target displayed on their ectoplasmic back: for this reason, sometimes Unflincing Courage and Spirit Mantle are preferred to this aura..
This card should be considered part of a package that also includes Geist Of Saint Traft and Noble Hierarch, and without them it’s probably not going to make the cut. Mainboard.
Blessed Alliance -Sideboard.
Supreme Verdict -Sideboard.
Negate -Sideboard.
Nissa, Steward of Elements -Sideboard.
Aether Vial -Mainboard.
Curious Obsession -Mainboard.
Unflinching Courage - Mainboard.
Echoing Truth -Sideboard.
Favorable Winds - Mainboard.
Ghostly Prison -Sideboard.
Pithing Needle - Sideboard.
Worship -Sideboard.
Genju of the Fields -Sideboard.
Unified will -Sideboard.
Ceremonious Rejection - Sideboard.
Deprive - Sideboard.
Utopia Sprawl - Mainboard.
Ghost Quarter - Useful, but most of the time activating it and missing a land drop is deprecable Mainboard.
Field of Ruin - the slowest fetchland, highly suggested if on a budget Mainboard.
Celestial Colonnade - we try to accelerate and be aggressive in the first turns, our plan is to win with as few lands as possible. this card is strong but we’ll rarely achieve the mana to attack with it. Needs a manabase change to fit in. Mainboard.
Budget
Unfortunately, there are not ways to make a competitive budget list on 3 colours, especially since the only green cards that Bant Spirits run are Noble Hierarch, Gavony Township and Collected Company.
Obviously, there’s no reason to go into Bant colours without Collected Company (even though Lead the Stampede would probably be the best budget alternative).
For budget-oriented players, though, switching Noble Hierarch with Birds of Paradise will save about 200$, and turning Gavony Township into Moorland Haunt will save about 6$.
While the second change is rather painless, removing Noble Hierarch for Birds has some implications. Even though the deck’s overall power level doesn’t change much, this change implies that Geist of Saint Traft is a more fragile card, and could not make the cut (especially considering the abundance of powerful 3-drops in the Spirits tribe). It’s possible that, in such case, Nebelgast Herald orFavorable Winds could become better options.
Cavern of Souls’s direct budget replacement is Unclaimed Territory (this change would save roughly 50$), but it might be better to try to strengthen the colour-producing lands, especially if the manabase is not optimal.
4 Birds of paradise
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Rattlechains
4 Supreme Phantom
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Spell Queller
4 Drogskol Captain
Noncreature Spells (8)
4 Collected Company
4 Vapor Snag
3 Unclaimed Territory
4 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
2 Island
2 Plains
3 Forest
2 Moorland Haunt
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Blessed Alliance
3 Qasali Pridemage
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Detention Sphere
3 Negate
this deck costs about 300$ (Jan 2018), saving about 500$ from the direct upgrade, and is close to the full version in terms of competitiveness.
The deck could be further made cheaper with 4x Field of Ruin, which is a slow fetchland in disguise. In this way access to all colors is granted even when on a very low budget. The list is not optimal but should work (most of the times)
4 Birds of paradise
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Rattlechains
4 Supreme Phantom
4 Spell Queller
4 Drogskol Captain
2 Nebelgast Herald
4 vapor snag
4 Lead the Stampede
Lands (22)
4x Field of Ruin
1x Ghost Quarter
2x Unclaimed Territory
3x Prairie Stream
4x Forest
3x Island
3x Plains
2x Moorland Haunt
Matchups and Sideboarding
So what are the Match Up's like with Bant Spirits?
This deck really shines against spell based Combo decks because your creatures are good at disrupting your opponents gameplan while also providing a fast clock to kill them before they can recover and find more combo pieces. Interactive Midrange and Control decks are positive MU’s too but require thoughtful use of your spells. Remember that you are a tempo based deck that is trying to trade on mana and tempo. If you start trading card for card you will eventually start falling behind on board and loose to Midrange and Controls stronger individual cards even with Collected Company as a way of card advantage.
However, Bant Spirits has trouble dealing with aggressive strategies like Burn or Affinity which either don‘t really want to interact with your creatures or just outright kill you in the first few turns. Proper use of your sideboard slots will help you in those games but they will always be uphill battles for this deck.
Affinity
OUT:
IN: 2 stony silence, 2 qasali pridemage
Grixis Death’s Shadow
OUT: -3 Phantasmal Image
IN: +1 rest in peace +1 Detention Sphere +2 engineered explosives
Gx Tron
OUT: -2 Phantasmal Image -1 Spell Queller
IN: +2 stony silence +3 Unified Will
Eldrazi Tron
OUT: -2 Spell Queller
+2 stony silence +1 Detention Sphere
Burn
OUT: 3x Phantasmal Image, 1x Rattlechains,
IN: +2 Rhox war Monk +1 eidolon of rhetoric +2 Unified Will
5c Humans
OUT: -1 Rattlechains -1 Phantasmal Image
+2 Engineered Explosives +2 Qasali Pridemage +1 Rhox War Monk
Jeskai Tempo
OUT: -1 Rattlechains -2 Phantasmal Image
+1 rest in peace +1 eidolon of rhetoric +2 Unified Will
Titanshift
OUT: -2 Phantasmal Image
+3 Unified Will +1 Qasali Pridemage
Storm
OUT: - 2 Phantasmal Image
IN: 2 Rest in Peace, 2 Unified Will, 1 Engineered Explosives, 1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
Jeskai Control
OUT: -3 Phantasmal Image
IN: +2 rest in peace +1 eidolon of rhetoric +2 Unified Will
Counters Company
OUT:
IN: +1 Detention Sphere
UW control
OUT: -2 Phantasmal Image -2 Noble Hierarch -1 Collected Company
IN: +2 rest in peace +1 eidolon of rhetoric +3 Unified Will +1 Detention Sphere
Merfolk
OUT: -1 Collected Company -2 Selfless Spirit
IN: +2 Engineered Explosives +2 Qasali Pridemage +1 Detention Sphere
Traverse Death’s Shadow
OUT: -2 Phantasmal Image
IN: +2 rest in peace +1 Detention Sphere +1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
Lantern Control
OUT: -3 Path to Exile -2 Selfless Spirit -1 Drogskol Captain
IN: +2 engineered explosives +2 Qasali Pridemage +2 Stony Silence +1 Detention Sphere
Death and Taxes
OUT: -2 Phantasmal Image
IN: +2 Qasali Pridemage +2 Rhox War Monk +1 Detention Sphere
GBx (Abzan, Jund)
OUT: -2 Phantasmal Image
IN: +2 rest in peace +1 Detention Sphere
Dredge
OUT: -2 Phantasmal Image
IN: +2 Rest in Peace +1 Detention Sphere +2 rhox war monk
Elves
OUT:
IN: +2 Engineered Explosives +1 Detention Sphere
GriShoalBrand (Reanimator)
OUT: - 2 Selfless Spirit
IN: +2 Rest In Peace, +1 Detention Sphere
Reanimator
OUT: - 2 Selfless Spirit
IN: +2 Rest In Peace, +1 Detention Sphere
Knightfall
OUT: -1 Rattlechains -1 Mausoleum Wanderer
IN: +2 Rest In Peace +1 Detention Sphere
UR Breach Moon
OUT: -2 Selfless Spirit -1 Phantasmal Image
IN: +2 Qasali Pridemage +2 Unified Will
Ponza
OUT:
IN: +1 Engineered Explosives +2 Unified Will
Bogles
OUT: - 2 Phantasmal Image
IN: +2 Engineered Explosives +2 Qasali Pridemage
Ad Nauseam
OUT: -2 Selfless Spirit -2 Phantasmal Image -2 Path to Exile
IN: +2 Stony Silence +2 Qasali pridemage +1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
Hollow One/VengeVine
OUT:
IN: +1 Detention Sphere, +2 Rest In Peace
Bant Eldrazi
OUT: -1 Mausoleum Wanderer
IN: +1 Detention Sphere
Bushwacker Zoo
OUT: -2 Phantasmal Image
IN: +2 Rhox War Monk +1 Detention Sphere +2 Engineered Exploosives
Living End
OUT: -1 Rattlechains
IN: +2 Rest in Peace +2 Unified Will
GW Company
OUT:
IN: +2 Rest in Peace +2 Rhox War Monk
Amulet Titan
OUT: -1 Rattlechains -2 Phantasmal Image
IN: +2 Qasali Pridemage +2 Unified Will
8 Rack
OUT: -1 Path to Exile -2 Phantasmal Image
IN: +2 Qasali Pridemage +2 Engineered Explosives +1 Detention Sphere
Infect
OUT: -4 Drogskol Captain
IN: +2 Qasali Pridemage +1 Eidolon of Rhetoric +2 Engineered Explosives
Grixis Delver
OUT: -2 Phantasmal Image
IN: +2 Rest In Peace
Grixis Control
OUT: -2 Phantasmal Image
IN: +1 Eidolon of Rhetoric +2 Rest In Peace
Spirits
OUT:
IN: +1 Blessed Alliance
2
Modern Spirits
Table of Contents
Overview of the Deck
Spirits is a tempo (aggro-control) creature-based archetype.
Spirit creatures excel at setting the opponents’ pace and protecting each other from threats, while still being able to race pretty fast with flying creatures.
In a format like modern, flying is a very relevant keyword, often meaning unblockability even in the face of huge threats. Another strength of the deck resides in the natural tendency of spirits at interacting with the opponents’ gameplans, which is relevant in a format full of linear threats and un-interactive strategies. The tribe also easily supports instant-speed playing.
Spirits has a core of versatile creatures that can be declined into more controlling or aggressive strategies, ranging from aggro to control. Even within different matchups, spirits can take the role of either the aggressor or the controller. This extreme flexibility makes the deck extremely fun and satisfying to play, with many different lines to take each game and a lot of subtle synergies to be discovered.
History of the Deck
Back in 2012, pro player Jon Finkel top8’ed Pro Tour Dark Ascension in Standard with a UWB Spirits tribal deck featuring Drogskol captain, Phantasmal image, Lingering Souls and Dungeon Geists. The deck ended up third, but the whole world knew that Drogskol Captain was just waiting for some new friends in order to break Modern!
Spirits as an archetype in Modern was born after Shadows over Innistrad (spring 2016 set) and Eldritch Moon (summer 2016 set) were released. The second Innistrad block brought a lot of interesting creatures to complement the already vast pool of spirits creatures that was already available in Modern, and turned what was the possibility of a Spirits tribal deck into a reality.
A great shout out has to be made for magic pro player Caleb Durward, who brought Spirits to fame. The intrepid bearded hero won at SCG Open in Milwaukee on October 23, 2016, just a few months after Eldritch Moon was released, inspiring many other wizards to take the phantasmal way.
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Rattlechains
4 Selfless Spirit
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Drogskol Captain
4 Spell Queller
3 Geist of Saint Traft
Noncreature Spells (9)
3 Path to Exile
2 Steel of the Godhead
4 Collected Company
Lands (22)
4 Flooded Strand
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Windswept Heath
2 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Plains
2 Botanical Sanctum
1 Razorverge Thicket
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Gavony Township
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Path to Exile
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Spellskite
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Rhox War Monk
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
In time, Spirits have become a solid reality in modern, affirming itself as a legitimate deck, and represents a competitive and fun option for those intending to go tribal in an unconventional way.
The Core
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Rattlechains
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Supreme Phantom
4 Drogskol Captain
4 Spell Queller
This is the core of the deck. There are other powerful Spirit cards, but these ones are the backbone of any Spirit deck in Modern. In fact, any deck running this core might be classified as tribal Spirits.
Having a core consisting of 24 creatures makes the shell extremely flexible and customizable. These few cards already highlight two of the things spirits do best than other tribes: they protect each other, and they are extremely flexible, making the deck able to take both the aggro or control role.
As the reader will see, there are a few other cards that can be considered and that can exploit Spirits' synergies at best.
Card Choices
It is a key piece against combo decks and overall the best creature to start building presence. It can both cover a defensive role by countering spells or playing an aggro one when being pumped by another spirit. This flexibility is the reason why this creature is one of those you should never side out, but rather find the best way to abuse of its triggered and activated abilities.
Mausoleum Wanderer makes it so our opponent has to play off curve in order to not lose any important spells, and these precious few turns are vital to allow the deck get in one or more combat steps. Mausoleum Wanderer can also be a very aggressive card given the right draw, which fits in with the gameplan of using aggressive flyers to control the pace of the match.
One notion you must absolutely be familiar with, is the order you should put Spell Queller's and Mausoleum Wanderer's Enter the Battlefield abilities on the stack, whenSpell Queller hits the floor triggering Mausoleum Wanderer.
The order should always be the following:
The knowledge of this interaction is of paramount importance against multi-removal builts, like GBx decks and UWR control, and allows you to generate a form of card advantage instead of just a simple trade ( you lose your Spell Queller, they lose both their quelled spell and the removal spell).
On his own, still an efficient and evasive beater, will put the opponent under a relevant clock.
The truly "Selfless" among our Spirits, 2 CMC drop, non mana-intensive, he allows us to generate card disadvantage for the opponents by saving whatever spirit from spot removals, and then allowing us to cast any other one with flash. In this light, Rattlechains serves both as engine for Spirits’ synergies and represents an additional synergy itself. Having those two different abilities also prevents multiple copies of him in hand from being dead cards.
Rattlechains is more than a useful tool that does all of the work listed above, it's also the very single creature, one of a kind Spirit, that is able to generate card disadvantage for our opponents on its own (this spirit is one of the closest things as a two-for-one 1 trade).
Take this example of a fairly typical situation; your opponents are casting a removal spell to kill one of your creatures, and you respond to it flashing Rattlechains in (by hardcasting it or using the Aether Vial) If it resolves, this is causing a permanent tempo swing in our favour, because the opponents are losing a card and we are adding pressure to the board, and this is something no other spirit printed so far (March 2018) is capable of doing with no Vial on the field (truth be told, Spell Queller - and drogskol captain when able to be flashed in - are also generating this kind of tempo swing).
The other spirit you can use to generate some permanent card advantage is Drogskol Captain, but this is possible only under two conditions: having a Rattlechains providing Flash or having an Aether Vial ticked up to three counters. Once again, since tempo is our archetype and Vial is doubling your possibilities to stick to this strategy, this constitutes another very good reason to add it to your shell.
This said, it is easy to see what Wizards had in their mind when they designed our deck. Rattlechains and Spell Queller are tempo creatures, and this is what we are meant to do for now, to tempo out our opponents.
Hands down, we can say Rattlechains is the most powerful card in our deck other than being the card that allows our deck to exist.
Always be aware that Dismember is still a card in modern, as much as Flaying Tendrils after sideboard against black based decks.
On his own, still an efficient beater, 2 evasive damage is a good rate for 2 mana.
Its stats (1/3) aren't particularly exciting, even though it dodges some removal, but the more defensive body relevantly helps the deck with defending while in racing situations.
It speeds up the clock, doubles your chances of playing a lord during the game and thus making Phantasmal Image come down as a copy of a lord is now much easier.
It's worth noting this spirit has both an offensive and defensive nature. As for the former, it's intuitive to see how a +1/+1 bonus is pulling out a clear aggro plan in the air. The latter is a bit more hidden in its stats and interactions. let's go over them:
Supreme Phantom is a valuable early game blocker, it can stop your opponent chipping away life points by staying back. The most appealing blocks happen against Goblin Guide, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Kird Ape, Young Pyromancer, Flamewake Phoenix, Bloodghast, Voice of Resurgence, Dark Confidant, Vault Skirge, Snapcaster Mage and a number of flyers from Lingering Souls to Narcoamoeba which have always been efficient at holding us back not being able to attack nor defend because the trade was in our opponent's favour.
The list is huge and for every creature you can understand how relevant is such a creature to slow your opponent down and speeding your clock up at the same time.
Speaking of defensive features Supreme Phantom, it is naturally resilient to a number of minor removals this tribe has suffered over the course of the last two years. The most played are Electrolyze, Collective Brutality, Kolaghan's Command, Liliana, the Last Hope, Grim Lavamancer, Kozilek's Return and Pyroclams, along with a number of sideboard cards, namely Searing Blood, Forked bolt, Zealous Persecution, Orzhov Pontiff and the latest Goblin Chainwhirler.
It also makes Walking Ballista and Girapur Aethergrid much less impactful against our creatures during the first turns of the game.
What is worth noting is that most of these cards are no longer good at killing our other spirits in the presence of Supreme Phantom, so it's easy to see that the power of this lord doesn't just rely on the offensive bonus it provides and its ability to block small creatures, but also on it being that kind of creature that helps preserving the integrity of your board for it to grow lethal, disruptive and resilient in a matter of few turns.
Digging a bit more on its interactions with our other spirits, let's point out the followings:
The difference with the past is that we are now given a non mana-intensive lord which is copyable by Phantasmal Image, and this gives the deck better chances to win especially when your opponent has kept their opening hand because of Blood Moon, hoping to be enough to prevent you from casting spells.
If your opponent's plan was to tap out and swing for lethal, they are not going to like the synergy.
Speaking of curving to maximize the damage dealt, keep in mind you deal the highest amount of damage by playing non-lord spirits followed by the lord itself in your turn before the Damage Phase. The reason is that the lord doesn't provide extra power to itself, so you should privilege playing other spirits first, backing them up with the +1/+1 provider afterwards.
The more developed your board is at the moment when the lord comes down, the higher its impact is on the game.
The Captain opens up to different kind of synergies - which can be considered a range of increasingly tighter kind of locks - with either Mausoleum Wanderer, Selfless Spirit, Kirakira, another The Captain or… Phantasmal image.
Since we are running a tempo scheme of play, casting the Captain on our main phase is suboptimal, unless you are going all in for the win. You'll be able to get all of the value you can take out of its presence only when you have the option to flash it in, and to do so, you'll either need a Rattlechains on the board or an Aether Vial: you do need one of these two conditions in order to improve the Captain and make it be 4 extra copies of Rattlechains. Once this happens, you'll be in the position to make it hit the floor at instant speed, allowing you to blank your opponent's removal, making them lose a card and putting yourself ahead.
Drogskol Captain's impact is much about having a developed or semi-developed board, so be sure you prepare and protect your side of the field to make the Lord come down and speed you up to victory.
Spell Queller: This is our most popular and feared character, the one that embodies the concept of Tempo, merging both the aspects of control and pressure. Since it can have such an impressive impact on the game, it will always be the primary target for your opponent's removals, thus holding a Spell Queller in your hand implies to spend time to think what are your current options to protect it once it's hit the battlefield with profit.
Let's get deeper and let me say Spell Queller is not simply causing your opponents to change their game plan upon seeing you have 3 lands untapped or an Aether Vial on 3, it's also changing our own gameplay, by leading us to prefer playing at the end of our opponent’s turn.
Deciding when to spend your Spell Queller might seem intuitive when your opponent drops the land for that turn and taps out, but it can get much more of a difficult decision when they haven't still dropped down his land, or when they still have untapped lands after his first spell, so you can't say if they will be able to cast a removal, or even worse, play a second and more threatening spell.
In fact, Spell Queller warps the Spirit players' play style, giving them a number of options:
So many possible actions and outcomes out of a choice: representing it in our hand or going tapped out at sorcery speed, to cast it or not in response to their first spell.
Winning with this Tribe is all about being able to see through these lines, and mastering the use of Spell Queller.
Playing the Deck
To start things off, let's clarify UW Spirits is not an aggro deck nor a control deck, but, more precisely,it is a deeply tempo-oriented built, and to help those who are unfamiliar with the concept, let me give you a definition of what tempo actually means in Magic:
Playing a tempo strategy has implications: it will require to resist the temptation of going tapped in your turn to cast a spirit and hold up your mana to be able to react to your opponent's move at the right moment with the best card you have in your hand. This has of course exceptions, as when you want to land down a second Drogskol Captain to seal the hexproof lock, for example.
Playing UW requires you to convince yourself you'll be waiting for your opponent rather than racing them at any cost the way you are allowed to do when playing UWG.
Another issue you'll be dealing with, is the absence of a card advantage engine, which implies your resources are to be spent with the best care. You will soon figure out that running out of gas is the biggest downside of this bi-color version of the tribe: you have a major advantage by being able to flash in two spirits per turn when you have Aether Vial, but that will deploy your hand very quickly! This is why it's not just relevant , but crucial, to be able to sequence your cards appropriately and use them to tempo-out your opponent.
So how does the deck actually wins? Yeah, evading is great! Being able to beat your opponent unchecked in the air is what appears to be the best feature of the deck. Being also able to steal a spell with Spell Queller is a widely recognised powerful thing this deck can do. The real haymaker the UW build is able to deliver, though, consists in blanking your opponent's threats in the moment when one of your spirits hit the board, thus adding a clock to our side and causing card disadvantage to them or a tempo swing. When your opponent is casting a removal spell on your creatures, and you make it fizzle by giving it hexproof via Rattlechains or Drogskol Captain, you are creating a situation by which the opponent is losing a card from his or her hand, and you are adding a creature to the battlefield.
Another scenario: your opponent spends a turn to land down a creature, the next turn you tap it with Nebelgast Herald, thus preventing it from entering the combat phase. This results in a loss of your opponent's previous turn, and you should then exploit it by foreseeing your move, and taking action (possibly going down an aggro route, adding another spirit to the board) the turn were the creature comes down, knowing you will respond to that threat the turn later.
If this is our way to win the games as UW, be aware is not also true for situations where you are trading cards, as could be your Selfless Spirit for a Supreme Verdict, or a Mausoleum Wanderer for a Collected Company, since this configures as a one-for-one trade, and beside being a very powerful defensive move, it's not giving you any sort of net card advantage. To make it even clearer, think of the difference between saving your Spell Queller from a Terminate by sacrificing a Mausoleum Wanderer, and saving it by casting a Rattlechains and giving it hexproof. The former scenario is one where you just go on playing with one less removal in his or her hand and a smaller clock on your board, while the latter is the one where you have pushed your opponent back, making him lose a card and increasing the pressure on him.
Being able to discriminate between these lines of interactions is what will make you both grow as a player and win games in the face of opponents believing this is “just another random tribe”.
The Deck
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Rattlechains
4 Selfless Spirit
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Drogskol Captain
4 Spell Queller
3 Nebelgast Herald
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
Noncreature Spells (13)
4 Aether Vial
4 Path To Exile
2 Vapor Snag
3 Lingering Souls
4 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
3 Island
2 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
1 Darkslick Shores
2 Cavern Of Souls
2 Moorland Haunt
2 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Azorius Herald
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
3 Deprive
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Pithing Needle
3 Rest In Peace
2 Detention Sphere
Card Choices
The following is a list of cards that constitutes the core of the UW Spirit deck, the very staples you should begin with.
Its upsides are Flash, being a decent evading attacker, ad a simple Mana Cost.
Flash is also absolutely relevant in every scenario where Aether Vial is not on the board, and you get to your opponent's end step without having the chance to cast Spell Queller with profit. Here Nebelgast Herald allows you to add a body to the board to press your opponent, being still able to reignite its triggered ability any time another spirit will come down on your side.
It has an extremely powerful interaction with Moorland Haunt and is able to freeze your opponent's board when copied with Phantasmal Image.
The main downsides are the 3 CMC that makes it compete for a place in the mainboard with other creatures in the 3 CMC slot; It hits the floor on turn 3 at the earliest, reducing its impact against all-out-aggro, but it still forces your opponent to trigger revolt when they want to kill it with Fatal Push.
Its weak body makes it vulnerable to a variety of cards like Electrolyze, Izzet Staticaster, Orzhov Pontiff, Darkblast, Zealous Persecution.
The card is relevant, for example, in the following matchups:
You will still want to be careful about the timing to cast it, especially when you are against Scapeshift or other ramping decks, but still it's a one mana spell, instant speed, doesn't allow recursion to graveyard, makes no exceptions... this is what you want.
An argument can be made if we really need a full set of PtE, especially if you are already running multiple copies of Nebelgast Herald to deal with creatures.
I want to approach the discussion about Vial by making a list of its pros and cons to make it easier for new UW Spirit players to decide whether to invest their money on it or not.
PROS
So the only way you have to keep up with other aggro decks, is by playing as twice as faster than what we could otherwise do.
CONS
Some are scared about that being a very bad top deck, but how bad a Vial will actually be depends on what kind of matchup you are facing.
This is actually a true drawback against removal heavy deck since Vial is a tool but it is not providing any extra damage to your opponent in any way.
It is also a very dead card to draw against aggro decks when the pressure is already high.
As for removals it can be hit by, Kolaghan's command is the most represented in the current metagame. But should you really drop Aether Vial out because of this threat? Is that really a scary way to suffer card disadvantage?
First of all, K command generates card advantage on its own, so they are just choosing a different mode for it, nothing really different. So the actual question is whether having one option chosen as "destroy target artifact" is actually worse than choosing two of the others. It will be in those cases you have decided to keep a single-land hand and you weren't able to draw more in the following turns.
Now, to understand how great the risk of being hit by K command actually is, remember the percentage of decks running it among the whole lot is barely 10% of the metagame.
After sideboarding, you'll be paying attention to Stony Silence, which makes card disadvantage just in the case you draw 2 vials and they draw one single copy of Stony, or Destructive Revelry which is not making card disadvantage, but it's still providing extra value.
This said, it is also true that you might not draw Aether Vial in that game (or you can even decide to side it out) , generating a functional card disadvantage in their owners hand by letting them have a card they can't get value out of, or not being able to cast it at all.
To wrap it up, running Aether Vial gives you the extremely relevant benefit of playing tempo, to take action by yourself, and build a more synergic and creature dense list, while it's exposing you to an undesiderable topdeck.
Just remember every card comes with its downsides. It's up to you deciding what your playstyle is.
PS: always announce you mean to tap Aether Vial without showing what you are planning to sneak on the battlefield. Give your opponent the opportunity to respond to it having no informations about what is about to come down and make mistakes or choose a worse line of playing.
Alternative card Choices
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner : Kira is a powerful defensive creature, being jammed in mono-blue Merfolks lists because of the wideness of the protection it is offering.
You firstly have to know that flashing in Kira is not countering spells or abilities in any way, and this because they are already on the stack in the moment Kira's static ability takes place. So the downside about it is that it won't work as 9th copy of Rattlechains (assuming four more are represented by Drogskol captain). It will act as a pseudo-Rattlechains instead, and it will be truly generating a tempo swing in our favour once it hits the ground. With the exception of Abrupt Decay, your opponent is forced to spend two of their cards to kill Kira and this is equal to skipping one of their draw steps, if you want.
So, Kira is a very valuable Tempo creature, you just have to land it at the proper time to give your creatures a crazy amount of protection.
Geist of Saint Traft : It's one of the most used spirits , especially when it comes to non-spirit decks and it's the one that makes the Bant version so explosive and being able to hit with such big swings. However, Geist appears to be so powerful in UWG because you are able to play it on turn 2 on the play, catching your opponent unprepared, plus it benefits of the exalted trigger... but this is the UW section and we are talking about a quite different deck: here we are much less about aggroing and much more about tempoing our opponents out.
In such a built GoST appears to be a poor card, it's coming down during your third turn at the earliest, and, it begins to produce value from your 4th one. It benefits of no exalted triggers (huge difference), it has NO evasion and is nowhere close to take part to the TEMPO plan.
You will also notice that it can't ever protect any of your other spirits, and, since it is untargettable by itself, it passively diverts removal spells towards other spirits around it. On the basis of this 'egoistic' nature, you have to provide it the enhancements to be a win condition on its own in the form of extra power or resilience to break through your opponent's defences; this has originally been achieved in UWG through Noble Hierarch, Selfless Spirit and Steel of the Godhead, with some backup disruption provided by Spell Queller (it's also interesting to notice how the most powerful creature UW has - Rattlechains - is completely unhelpful to a GoST aggro plan).
For these reasons GoST needs to be played in deck where you have the tools to make it be a profitable attacker every turn; having no acceleration to play it on T2 and no exalted from Noble Hierarch, UW doesn't look like the right shell for this kind of creature.
It might still be a decent sideboard option against control and combo when you're on the play.
Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit : It's a 2 Casting Mana Cost card, which the UW built is lacking, but as for GoST, it doesn't cooperate to your tempo plan, it has no evading and requires to be landed soon to actually produce value.
Metallic Mimic : Another pseudo lord creature that must be casted the earliest to maximize its impact on the game. Simple mana cost but it has no evasion and a very weak body. Not flashable in via Rattlechains.
Snapcaster Mage : You might be tempted to save a spot for Snapcaster Mage as we all know how good it is at generating advantage. The thing is, Snapcaster Mage requires a minimum density of instants or sorceries, and this will force you to dilute the number of creatures and the number of synergies consequently. Did I mention it has no evading nor it's synergic?
I strongly suggest not to run either Snapcaster or Cryptic Command , stay light on land count and refrain from directing this tribe down the road modern Faeries have been forced to. They do not have this quantity and quality of synergies, we do.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben : Non-Spirit creature you can borrow from Death & Taxes shells: it can fill the 2 CMC slot in your curve, particularly good if you decide to stay very light on non creature spells. It taxes your opponent, slowing them down, which is where we want to be during our early turns (it also taxes non creature spells which you opponent chooses to cast once your Spell Queller has left the battlefield).
First strike can be really relevant against aggro decks.
Unfortunately you have no way to protect it and it triggers no synergies.
Vendilion Clique : As a non-Spirit creature, Vendilion Clique does retain interesting features that make it a viable tech-card for the UW version.
Upsides:
First of all it has flash, which is very important to let us keep playing in our opponent's turn without going tapped in our main phases. "Flash" is also a byword for "unexpected", making our lines of play even more unpredictable.
Secondly, 3CMC permanent with 3 power and evading is incredibly appealing for us. One notion will get familiar with by playing is that we need a 3 minimum power in the air to keep our opponent under pressure. Vendilion Clique guarantees that clock by itself.
Thirdly and most importantly, it's bringing you informations about what your opponent is working with. If there's something we are missing right now, that is the possibility to have access to our opponent's hand without complicating our mana base (splashing black) or spending some of the mana to cast spells like Peek, delaying the cast of our spirits in the very first turns of the game. In absence of Gitaxian Probe, Vendilion Clique is possibly the best option we have to put an evading clock on our opponent, disrupt their plans and gaining very precious informations about what's going on on their side of the board.
Downsides are not being a spirit, thus losing the possibility to make access to precious triggers, and having a very weak body, which exposes us to the harm removal cards like Electrolyze can bring.
Having no way to protect it with Rattlechains and Drogskol Captain is its third problem, shared with all of those non-spirit creatures you will be brewing with.
Generally speaking, Vendilion Clique should always hit the floor after holding priority at the end of your opponent's draw step, in order to maximize the informations you will have access, but here are some remarkable situations where the three Faeries can be as much as disruptive:
Smuggler's Copter : Pretty powerful vehicle which puts up a substantial pressure when crewed. It is resilient to wraths, but it still needs a creature to be animated, so you always want to have one to make it fly.
Looting is its most attractive feature, allowing you to discard extra lands and filtering your deck is a great feature.
Unfortunately you can't vial it in, nor you can flash it in in any other ways. It also triggers no synergy and it doesn't take benefit from hexproof providers.
Beware artifact hate post sideboard, especially if you are running both Copter and Aether Vial.
Lingering Souls : Sorcery speed card advantage spell, it will fill your board if you decide to run a source of fetchable black in your mainboard.
Playing at sorcery speed means this is a good card to stabilize the board and to set a go wide strategy, but you are losing all the benefits that waiting your opponent's turn to play can bring. To name the two most remarkable triggers you are losing, Mausoleum Wanderer and Nebelgast Herald won't ignite to either heavily tax your opponents sorceries or tap down creatures before they get in the red zone.
For this reasons, Lingering Souls appears to be mediocre and a kind of card that could fit a pre-Eldritch Moon Spirit deck.
Phantasmal Image : In the moment I'm writing there are no viable 2CMC spirits other than Rattlechains and Selfless Spirit , so Phantasmal Image represents a 2CMC Jolly card, very situational, but very flexible we have access to. Always remember it is not a spirit when it's in your hand, so you won't be able to flash it in via Rattlechains. For this reason you may have a hard time deciding whether to tick up Aether Vial from 2 counters to 3 , since this influences the use you will be able to do of Image later in the game.
This said, the consensus so far is that 2 copies are optimal to fill the 2 CMC slot in our deck.
You may realize that Blue-White Spirits tends to generate the double-captain lock via Phantasmal Image less frequently than Bant Spirits, since here we are not digging the deck to find the two pieces; P.I. will often ending up being a copy of some other spirit indeed, be it Rattlechains, Spell Queller or whatever you need the most in that particular moment of the matchup. This brings me once again to stress the difference between Blue-White (as a more Tempo-oriented version) and Bant (which allows you to take the Aggro route more frequently).
Essence Flux : This card may catch your attention since it's designed for the spirit tribe, and it can actually act as a one-for-one trade against removal, by blinking the creature or a Rattlechains to regenerate its ETB effect. It suffers however some limitations: it's not flexible as Vapor Snag is, which allows to target any creature on the board, and doesn't help against mass removal spells which are those we lose to. It's also useless when your field is empty.
So despite being able to generate impressive and unpredictable tricks by blinking Spell Queller or Nebelgast Herald, it has an intrinsic limitation which is being a one sided card and requiring a developed board to shine. It will help when you are already healthy but won't give any contribution on an empty board.
Vapor Snag : Tempo-like removal spell, you can add it up to the Path to Exiles to increase the number of interactions with your opponent's creatures.
The first thing I want to underline is that you will be trading a card of yours in change of Tempo (or one of their main phases, if you want), so this is a dangerous choice and should be taken into consideration only when it does generate the Tempo swing you need to close the game, or to save yourself from extreme danger. It is also poor against creatures having an enter the battlefield effect, because they may come to reuse them.
It has upsides however, especially against delve creatures, it deals a sometimes useful extra point of damage (it's actually life loss so you won't redirect it to any planeswalkers, but still will give you victory against Worship.
Vapor Snag is a reasonable card because it can also be used defensively, to save a creature of yours, trading it with the removal, de facto.
Since it comes at instant speed and you may be running Aether Vial, it allows you to make instant speed tricks, like targeting Spell Queller and vialing it in to exile the same spell it had catched if it gets to be recast (you can flash it in as well by spending your mana if you have enough).
So this spell blends in because of the instant speed nature of our deck, and comes under the radar most of the times since your opponent won't expect anything like that by seeing one blue mana open left.
Remand : Possibly the best counterspell we have access to. It fits so well because of its tempo nature and because it finds its natural position between a turn 1 Aether Vial and a turn 3 Spell Queller.
It buys you the time you need to tick you Vial up and get to your third land drop having your opponent doing nothing for a turn, and makes you draw a card thus cycling itself and preserving your card pool. This is maybe our best T2 play.
Opt : speaking of cantrips, Opt is the one that fits the most our deck because it can be cast at instant speed, lets you dig 2 cards to find the answer you need, and synergizes with Aether Vial by allowing you to draw and flash a creature on the board.
If you are adding cantrips to your list, you should consider opt because it gives you the option of scrying before drawing, making a bit of selection.
Serum Visions : Serum Visions is a bad copy of Opt. It requires to tap in your turn, so if your mana is tight, you are forced to choose between two lines of play before your opponent takes any action, and this is all of what our deck is NOT meant to do.
Scrying 2 somehow mitigates its downsides, but still that is not enough if you consider this sorcery is forcing you to draw the first unknown card of your deck.
Chart a Course : Recently printed sorcery which actually provides card advantage and best fits late game scenarios. This is probably the best card in terms of advantage you are getting.
It's not fitting our deck as good as Opt does, but still helps us to deal with an empty hand.
Its major downside is the sorcery speed nature; being forced to attack with one creature is also a condition to have it generating card advantage, in any other cases, it will just cycle itself.
Of all the possible scenarios, casting this off curve (after turn 3) with an Aether Vial loaded to 3 on the ground is the one where you are getting the most value out of it.
Curious Obsession : Cheapest card-draw engine to generate effective card advantage among all of those we have access to, coming with the benefit of powering up the enchanted creature. its downside is being an Aura, exposing you to the risk of losing two pieces ( the creature and the enchantment) at the moment when you are casting it.
The first trigger will functionally make you cycle the card and chip away one extra damage from your opponent's life total, from the second trigger on it's providing you precious extra cards that are likely to make you win the game from there.
Being non mana intensive it feels like a flexible card that can fit your curve very well, especially after you have ticked your Aether Vial up to three counters and you are free to spend your mana to cast extra creatures and cheap spells.
Because of these features, this is a card you want to play off curve and just when you know you can protect the enchanted spirit or when your opponent is tapped out and you accept the risk of having your creature being removed from the field as he or she untaps.
If you're able to keep the creature sticking to the board, you are likely to win because of the extra amount of disruptive and synergic creature cards flowing into your hands turn after turn.
Curious Obsession shines against decks that tend not to interact too much with your board, it should be sided out against removal heavy decks like Mardu and Jeskai.
Further interactions and implications the card is coming with:
Lands
Building your mana base for this deck requires you to keep a general rule in mind, I'll borrow Ace1's words from the former UW Spirits thread, since he expressed it in the clearest possible way: "We lose when we flood, and win when we draw lots of spirits. The deck operates well on 3 lands ".
This said, it's obvious we really want to hit out 3rd land drop on turn 3 to be able to cast our most powerful creatures on curve, but once we have reached this status, we ideally would like not to draw any other land and stick to the first three plus Aether Vial. Some exceptions to the desirable number of lands do occur, an example is when you hit Moorland Haunt which turns an excess of lands into value.
Apparently, there's no agreement on the right number of lands you should run, so for now keep in mind this deck is better off when it runs no 4 CMC cards (read the paragraphs about Seachrome Coast below, and those about Worship and Supreme Verdict in the Sideboard section ), and check the numbers that follow.
In this article https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/how-many-lands-do-you-need-to-consistently-hit-your-land-drops/ Frank Karsten analyzes the probability of hitting your land drops. He is taking a large number of scenarios into account, for example he is contemplating the possibility of keeping a 7 card hand with 5 land cards in it, which of course correspond to a straight forward mulligan for our deck, so his percentages may appear a bit overestimated when it comes to our in game decisions... but still he is giving a basis to start from.
For the sake of having complete informations, I'll report here Frank's results. Keep in mind these numbers have been obtained under the following assumptions:
The first percentage refers to the probability when you are on the draw, and the second refers to the probability when you are on the play.
Scrolling through the article, you'll get to read his conclusions, by which the average number of lands in a deck should be 16 + (3,14 x average mana cost of your non creature spells). Have fun doing the math for your deck!
My personal experience is that 20 UNTAPPED lands are a fine number to play with when you are also running Vials, Remands and zero 4 CMC cards, and I recently dropped the 21st one after opening something like 200 sample hands as a test, and noticing that one extra land was actually a problem... but these are just empirical results of individual testing.
As for the colours provided by our lands, we are a bi-colour deck working efficiently with 14-15 sources of blue, which are easily achievable. Restrictions occur for the colourless producing lands, which we agreed should never be more than three or four.
I'm leaving here another milestone article written by Frank Karsten where he is giving us tabs and numbers to be consistently able to cast our coloured spells on curve, and the results he came to for a 60-cards deck:
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/frank-analysis-how-many-colored-mana-sources-do-you-need-to-consistently-cast-your-spells/
This said, let's forget about math and let's see some of the options we have to assemble our land package:
Most of our lists are currently playing 6-8 fetch lands.
Also, forget about the old story by which you are reducing the probabilities of drawing more lands once the fetch is cracked, the percentage is changing by roughly 2% in the first turns of the game, so this shouldn't be a reason to fill your deck with fetches
Seachrome Coast, however, is bringing a noticeable implication: our fourth land drop may come into play tapped causing you to cast one or more turns later whatever 4 Casting Mana Cost spell you are running. By experience, I can tell you this is far from being a detail and Merfolks players too have sticked to the mono-Blue version for years (before Ixalan came out making UG Merfolks a thing) because they wanted to cast Master of Waves on curve every time they drew it. This required them to have uniquely untapped sources, so fast lands couldn't be jammed in.
Now, we are a bi-colour deck andSeachrome Coastis incredibly good in our built. If you want to escalate your mana base performance, you have to make a choice between two possibilities: either run 4 CMC spells and no fast lands, or leave 4cmc spells out and play a set of Coasts.
Never play any check land.
Now we may also go further with speculations and understand what this land implies to the building of the deck: first off it requires creature density, secondly it demands for creatures to be triggered by the spirit token entering the battlefield. To make it possible, you have to stay light on non creature spells, and add those which can synergize with the haunt to your mainboard; Moorland Haunt is much about making your deck coherent with itself.
There is no other land giving you this insane quantity of valuable interactions from turn 3 on, so the consensus so far is that two copies of Moorland Haunts are the best for this version of the Tribe.
Be careful when you look at your opening 7 and remind Cavern will provide just colourless to cast your non creature and non spirit spells.
Sideboard
Artifacts/colourless hate
To wrap it up, Stony Silence is good on preventing artifacts to activate any ability, but is still has value if it comes some time later by making them silent for the rest of the game.
Being us a deck running Aether Vial, we are exposed to the risk of playing Stony Silence as a symmetrical card, unfortunately.
A filled graveyard of decks like those mentioned is very dangerous and you want to clean it up the soonest.
Creatures
Vapor Snag also improves with Eidolon because it makes you recycle your spirits by getting them back to your hand and vial them in again through aether vial.
Kira Generates a very powerful lock in presence of Eidolon as well, since whatever removal spell is casted on your creatures will get countered, unless it's an Abrupt Decay.
This said, UW Spirits is the best shell where anybody can run Eidolon of Rhetoric by far.
What's interesting noting is that the 3/1 body makes this spirit especially good against those non creature decks, letting you steal reasonable chunks of their life while applying a disruptive static effect.
On the other hand, since these cases fit an early game scenario, Spirit of the Labyrinth has to be either played in multiple copies in order to be able to draw it soon enough, or being that extra silver bullet you list in your fifteen in addition to other solid hate cards.
Be aware that spells like Chord of Calling, Collected Company, Ancient Stirrings and Dark Confidant work by putting creatures from the deck on the field, or cards in your opponent's hand, won't be affected. The same goes for the card being drawn by Opt, Electrolyze, Cryptic Command when happening during your turn.
Board Control
Its downsides rely on the fact we have every slot of our curve, from one to three, filled with relevant permanents, so it will become an asymmetrical card only when casted on zero, or on some specific board states.
If you decide to play with it, be sure about the use you are doing of it.
Detention Sphere is trading one of your draw steps (or one of your cards, if you prefer) with one or more of your opponent's draw steps/cards. This will be true until they will find a way to remove the Sphere, which will configurate as a one for one trade, plus a tempo loss for your opponent depending on the moment it is actually removed.
It comes down at sorcery speed and will cause you to tap out most of the case, so it fits better post sideboard games when you are on the draw and thus you are assuming the control role most probably.
Choosing between Detention Sphere and Echoing Truth is about your playstyle and the knowledge of your opponent's list and playstyle.
Settle the Wreckage is a one sided wrath but it is counterable and most importantly is not removing a key piece of their board they might hold back.
Counterspells
This spell can be very relevant against all the big mana decks and in general against those running spells which you can't exile with Spell Queller.
Enchantments
Statistics says you have a 40% to have one or more copies in your opening 7 it you are running a full set. You'll have a 31% chances of having it from the beginning if you run 3x in your sideboard.
Not the best sideboard option.
Against control, it allows you to keep a decent race by attacking with whatever 2/1 spirit you have on the board alone, holding the other in your hand to respond to my opponent's moves.
Budget
Building Spirits for Modern while having some constraints on the budget is feasible, as the core of the deck (50$ - january 2018) and many key cards can be obtained for a reasonable price, while the others enjoy some budget options that can be gradually improved. With spirits becoming a more popular tribe, this costs gradually grew (105$ - july 2018), but is still affordable if compared with the rest of the modern metagame decks
The most impactful way to achieve the deck is to get the core and gradually replace the budget options with mainboard non-budget spells and manabase, followed by the sideboard.
Aether Vial is the single most expensive piece in the deck, and they aren’t really a way to substitute it on a budget. The most reasonable way is then be to up the land count and simply assume a slightly slower gameplan.
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner can't be easily replaced, meaning that it will be more difficult to achieve the double Drogskol Captain softlock.
Not being able to run Black, Midnight Haunting becomes better than Lingering Souls. With Mausoleum Wanderer out, being able to deploy two spirits at instant speed will be a nightmare for the opponent.
Favorable winds is a cheap card that synergizes very well with the go-wide plan and can substitute Supreme Phantom.
Path to Exile can be replaced by Vapor Snag or Condemn, which has the boon of not giving a land to the opponent (thus giving the mana tax plan more consistency). Still, Vapor Snag is probably the best removal on a budget.
Mana Leak is a strong counterspell for its cost.
Cavern of Souls’s direct budget replacement is Unclaimed Territory, but it might be better to try to strengthen the colour-producing lands, especially if the manabase is not optimal.
The cheapest Rest in Peace substitute is Tormod's Crypt.
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Rattlechains
4 Supreme Phantom
4 Spell Queller
4 Drogskol Captain
4 Nebelgast Herald
4 Vapor Snag
3 Mana Leak
3 Midnight Haunting
Lands (22)
4 unclaimed territory
4 Port Town
6 Island
6 Plains
2 Moorland Haunt
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Negate
3 Fragmentize
2 Azorius Charm
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Detention Sphere
This deck costs about 130$ (Jul 2018), and contains all the core cards of the Spirits archetype in a valid and cost-effective shell.
This list is the best way to approach the deck for the first time, especially if you are dipping your toes into Modern for the first time and you don’t have ways to acquire the most expensive cards in a short amount of time.
It’s also highly recommended for those who are unsure whether Spirits is a deck that fits their playstyle.
The power level is fine for most of FNMs’ competitiveness, and with incremental improvements it can easily be upgraded into the full-budget list.
Matchups and Sideboarding
work in progress...