Bonojur, let me show you my most recent experiment: 4-color Spirits which I ve piloted to a 5-0.
This is the most aggro version I can think of, the deck aims at curving, overloading the board playing multiple spirits every turn (this is why i go 4 vial, 4 hierarchs and a ***** ton of 2cmc drops) while making little diruption, and finish the opponent either going wide, ammassing lords or locking the board with Eidolon.
Manabase: hands down the most difficult mana base I'v ever had to build. I've tried to copy humans, but then I'd have to give up on a number of sideboard cards which is think are too good to pass, like damping and shapers' sanctuary (wins single handedly against ctrl/midrange). To be clear, I dont think 4 ziggurats are reliable enough to cast damping on turn two, or copter, or even relic and crack right away. I've had to mulligan hands because of ziggurat vial in the opening. I dont wanna mulligan in the first place and even less so I want to mulligan 1-land/vial hands. Differently from humans, we have double colors in red and green, and this make it so difficoult to find a compromise and so important to start land vial when you can. Another minor problem is that hierarch is a human and not a spirit, so you gotta watch out and provide enough green sources. For this reason I've decided to pick forest as my basic land givena reasonable amount of blue sources.
I'll be testing with 2 fetchlands and 2 shocks.
I'd sum it up saying: if you smoothen the mana base with ziggurats, your sideboard gets to be less strong and viceversa.
Creatures: Phantasmal Image deserves a 2x at least to maximize the lord effects or to copy eidolon or some monsters played by the opponent. Wurmcoil Engine is a huge problem specifically, but it's always good to copy a skyclave apparition form the D&T player.
After a bunch of leagues I came to the conclusion that Eidolon is stronger than green Geist cause it has pseudo-evasion thanks to his effect, and geist in almost good but a number of time is just suboptimal so I'm shaving one copy for the second Copter. I hoped it to be the opposite for reasons related to the manabase.
Copter is very strong, especially in this configuration running so many walkers. Note that Eidolon + Copter are worth 5 damages a turn if your opponent is casting any spell early game. Copter is also keeping your hand threat-dense, which is of paramount importance for this version that has to deal the most damage in the first 4 turns.
I have eventually decided to stick to the 8x 3cmc drops cause most of the time I'd rather keep vial on two in a vacuum, and play queller/drogskol from the hand. You may also notice 50% of the 3cmc have flash, while just 20% of the 2cmc drops do have it(rattlechains), not to talk about the harsh mana requirements eidolon and geist have. So vial on two is the scenario I pick by default when I build the deck, different decisions can be taken as the game progresses.
Removals: I feel comfortable playing with no removals mainboard and just go for the throat. If the mana base would let me do so I'd be on a couple bolts to tempo the opponent out. Other options are PtE if you run enough W sources, or Vapor Snag if you decide to stay on waterlogged and have more blue.
I don't like dismember cause I already have very painful lands, and eidolons are not a joke.
Sideboard: I believe creatures are not enough. Forces are definitely an option, Sanctuaries are the best to grind your grindy opponent out, a couple skyclaves and a couple spot removals seem to be enough aswell but more tests have to be done.
Damping Spheres could be replaced with other anti Tron pieces ( I'd love alpine moon but I dont have enough red sources for non creature spells. If you find a way to reliably cast alpine moon then you've dealt with valakut and tron at once which is a very very big deal since amulet is a hard MU. I'm thinking of ghost quarter and I'll test it in the future. Another think that could have aplace here is Choke.
I'm playing 4 anti-graveyard cards, of which 2 cages are the best piece. 2 relics can be spent against uro/jund aswell.
Skite is there as a random protective piece, it can be helpful against D&T equipments, bogles and other stuff. Not sure if a pithing needle is better or not.
The archetype has yet to be explored so this is all but definite quite frankly.
Results so far have been two or three 3-2, a couple 4-1 and one 5-0, so it's worth noting the deck has always chashed in the league at the very least and this is what I find surprising about this crazy pile of spirits. It indicates there's potential.
I expect results to further improve as I get to understand what the sideboard needs and tune mana base properly, which is the hardest I've ever assembled in 4 years of modern spirits.
I'm currently 14-1 in the leagues whith this ( 5-0ed twice: list in the pic and this one https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3463351#online).
Skyclave is a hell of a 3 drop, to maximize its ETB I'm running Teferi TR and Essence flux, so that I can bounce/blink to remove more stuff.
I've always been a fan of Essence Flux, it makes my plan totally unpredictable, now I've got a blinkable powerhouse and the sinergy with the deck is stronger than ever before. Also blinking Queller under Teferi is quite dirty.
Flux does trade tempo-efficiently with red burn spells , which I believe are the reason why the MU vs Red decks is hard: they tempo you out, and the same goes for shadow and all of those decks coupling pressure with 1cmc removals.
I've got 11 enter the battlefield effects, plus 4 wanderers to benefit from a spirit getting back on the battlefield. This is why I'm going 2x instead of just the one of. Never felt too much, be pacient with it and it will pay back.
As for the side, I've decided to use Halo instead of the 4th champion because I like having a flexible card as the last copy of an anti-X package. So halo can name shadows/swiftspears/scourge but also bogles, archive traps, eldrazis, Valakut and such.
I'm testing Miscast in replacement of mana leak cause many permanents I needed to counter with leak are now dealt with skyclave, so again i 'vepicked the most tempo efficient/non card-disadvantage counter. I'm not sold on force costing me 2 cards.
2 Dampings are stock, replaced the 3rd with needle to name a bunch of ***** like devoted druid (doesnt untap) , belcher, equipments/giver of runes agains takes.
Sword of fire and Ice is a flex slot. You could have Kira or whatever, I believe its the most grindy piece I can afford playing, it generates huge advantage. If it connects you're golden.
Foud this list w/ crucibl which i thinkk acts as a 3 mana wrenn and six. it lets you draw every turn and make an additional landdrop, plus you get to explit the 3 mistic sanctuaries to remote-pilot spells from your graveyard to the top of ur deck
I've took my Jeskai Spirits to the 5-0 in PIONEER and i'll share the list with some of the latest adjustments.
-EDIT: just 5-0'd with the simic list posted in the picture too-
So basicly this list is ment to grind without having to play extra copies of lands for the CoCo, you'll use the tempo negative effect of light up the stage to look for lands or sink mana when you re flooding. Giants are awesome against mono red and mono black, they really give you a hedge against those decks, and they give you some occasional reach.The thing is that you want to assume the control role vs them, so you can sit back, keep the pressure in check with Stomp, and the land a 4/3 to wall their next creature. It s very powerful,
As for the side, flame sweep is huge against Winnota and aggro decks in general, the rest of the list is an attempt to catch all of the other popular strategies.
I think moving to jeskai is mostly justified by the combo deck being haxed, so now it gets more about creature and control decks, Giants and Stages shine in the matchups, repsectively.
Sideboard is adjustable, the apostles might not be necessary given the 4 giants and the 3 sweeps and the tap effects vs mono black, they could be extra counters. 3 Tefri are my gold standard against control. Gusts are very well positioned right now, Shadowspear is a test. Flux is my pet card, it fits my playstyle, I like it in general to provide combat tricks and to trade 1x1 at 1cmc with opponent's removal spells, it also triggers herald, untaps for shackle and resets spell queller if you actually need to do it... and it gives +1/+1. You steal games cause people don't see it coming.
I'm not sure about the numbers, it's not given that 4 Giants are necessary maninboard ( you could argue to move one to the side but there you'll find 3 wraths, so it depends on which matchups you wanna be ready for), i don't know whether 3 eagles are something you must have (simic spirits lists doing great with 4 lords), or if we should have more tap effects. This is also true for the 4th selfless.
Ps. Shootout to the players who have put the reps to make Simic a viable deck, always love to see people making it with something no one would have thought about. I'm playing it and i think it's super aggro and fun, love it.
Easy ride to the 5-0 in PIONEER with this list. I've been away from this format for 7 months but spirits still feels like a tier 1 deck or so when you know how to squence and handle your resources.
During this winter i have really felt the need of a counter like mana leak, now we ve got denial and i couldn't be happier, I'll go as far as to say it is stronger in pioneer than in modern, cause here we play the 8x 1cmc so it's easy to have it fully online by turn two, but also to curve it t3 when you might have 1cmc drop+ denial.
Shacklegeist is the other new inclusion, I 've definitely unterestimated it when it's been spoilered. Shacklegeist has been key to beat BW Aura and their gigantic creatures when they had the torpor orb-faerie to shut down neblegast herald's triggers, and to tap down the snake with reach scales plays. I still like having the 1x borrower for the flexibility, but shackle is some serious addition, having 6 tapping effects means a lot.
The sideboard has been initially copy-pasted by recent lists since i have no idea of that the new decks are doing, then i decided to bring in my knowledge and made some adjustments. I like my choices, but they are far from definitive. Any suggestions are welcomed.
As for the next leagues: I wanna try again one hanged executioner to synergize with shacklegeist, diversify my removal package, having a 2x1 against grindy matchups.
I wanted to fit a Lurrus as i do in modern but the mana base is atrocius without seachromecoasts or adakar wasted, and I'm greedy and i like mutavaults (synergy with shacklegeist, animate it and tap to the activated ability) and I hate flooding out . UW has no sincking for when you start flooding beside spectral sailors.
Doing great w this list in MODERN folks. I have gone 5-0 twice today. Copter is excellent at filtering and pressuring, It's a 2x. 3 Time Raveler seem like a good hedge against control, UG reclamation and other stuff. 2 Remand 2 borrower to interact. rest of the list is stock, utility lands aswell.
Future directions: given the popularity of dredge and uro decks online i'm switching 2 shadow of doubts w 2 remorseful clerics and to have the best sinergy I'm maindecking one lurrus and adding one other lurrus in the side in replacement of 1 kira and 1 sword fire and ice. They are not for the companion mechanic but to be played as creatures. moving 1 time raveler to the side to make room to the main deck lurrus.
For those few who might still lurk in this forum, I'm sharing my latest list and its technology with you. I've been on Esper for months, swhitched to Jeskai, got back to Esper eventually cause it's so solid and gives you so much to work with in terms of disruption and resilience pre and post sideboard.
I'll start with this 5-0 list, I'm really happy to see how this can grind against the field, even in a metagame of Wrenn and 6, plague engineers and titan decks. my matchups have been:
Eldrazi Tron 2 1
Storm 2 0
Jund 2 1
Blue Moon 2 0
UW Spirits 2 0
So, the reason why this list holds its ground against potentially any deck are the 4 discards/4removals. In contrast to my previous lists I ve decided to shave on the 5x spot removal and shave down to 3 + one collective brutality. This has maybe worsened my G1 against creature aggro decks, but this doesn't mean they have turned from good to bad matchups. The core is still performing well exp because of lingering souls + lords. I could make room for 2 thoughtseize which are the nuts almost every single time i cast them, even against mono red taking a reveler or a crash trough can be huge, as much as stripping a boros charm from burn turns seize into a "i gain two" spell, and sending a searing blaze to the trash can can male the differenze between winning and losing the game.
Thoughtseize allows you a higher number of T1 plays, which is the weak spot for all the non bant configurations: 8 spells are not reliable enough, and I've never considered T1 pte a winning line. So I've given myself the possibility to draw any of 15 very good t1 spells, and Seize is by far the one that will throw a wrench in the plans of every combo and big mana deck, causing them to slow down their progression or make them unable to prevent you from developing your board. I'm still an aggro deck, so unless I'm up against tron ,in which case I need to strip map or a green tutor out of their hand, I'm priviledging the vial/wanderer start and hold up the discard for later. The 1CMC makes it incredible for curving purposes, you can really use your fantasy and have fun assembling a turn made of discard + spell + vial activation.
As for the rest of the mainboard, after one year and a half of back and forth, I ve decreed the 1st curious obsession is too strong to be ignored. You'll find yourself siding it out many times, yet it's going to win so many games , especially in a 4 discard built where you happen to explore your opponent's hand seeking for removals. Obsession is enormous against burn ( pahntom / queller out of bolt range) and every combo and big mana deck. It makes any of your spirits a threat that has to be dealt with the soonest. And as i said before, it demands immediate reaction , so this plays in your favor forcing a removal out of their hand when you have rattlechains at the ready to generate card advantage. Moorland haunt is bonkers, as much as I love having 15+ blue and black sources, I cant ignore the amount of weigh moorland pulls in grindy matchups. It's a little bit of a risk, but I think the reward of a second copy is worth it. beside the card advantage (generates creatures), haunt gives you the option of waiting their end step to do something. Your opponent is pressured by haunt, cause either they do something at the risk of getting interacted, or they'll do nothing and get haunted at the hend of the turn.
My sideboard features a well represented grindy package with 2 bitterblossom , 2 kaya's guile, favorable winds and one plague engineer . Blossoms are an answer to those hyper disturbing icefangs coatles, plague engineers, w/6 and such. It provides early card advantage, and diversifies your creatures. The 2CMC is absolutely key, coming down one turn earlier than Lingering Souls allows you to stick a fast game-long threat that your opponent is not prepared for. having a token per turn also means you re saving your resources in you hand without being pressured into plays like nakes spell quellers just to build a clock.
Fav winds is a natural inclusion given all of the fliers and the tokens. It puts pahntom/queller out of bolt range, and every spirit out of the w/6 ping. It keeps you in the game against plague engineers. Similarly to curoius obsession, I ve been playing this card before supreme phantom was printed, I've had it in my main, in the side or no copies. I come back to the 1x in my side everytime for different reasons.
Kaya's guile is think is missing the "sac enchantment mode" to be an all star sideboard card. It has given me a silver bullet against bogles, and a 2x1 to grind out creatures, eldrazis, burn, graveyards and so on. It's our kolaghan's command. plague engineer is so good against us that I decided to test one of, originally to wipe out thopters from thopter-sword decks, but then it turned to be a house against many other, icefang coatles included. I'd have two if mono red didn't existed and I coul play without worship.
worship is another silver bulled you want for aggro and mono red/burn. you gotta remind it's a nombo with bitterblossom, but the two are there for different matchups. I ve considered many options ,from kor, to auriok to timely reinforcements, to phyrexian unlife,azorius herald and so on. None of these says "you can't lose unless you have no creatures left". It's the most powerful thing you can do.
The 3 counterspells and the necessary number. I love squall, but i believe mana leak is too important to tempo out eldrazi and to catch disgusters like ensnaring bridge. Disdainful Stroke is reasonable aswell, but given I have only 3 slots for counters and I need to be flexible to catch early cages(moons , bridges ) or magus of the moon ( rg midrange quite frequent nowadays), I'd rather make room for this catch all counterspell over others with more restrictions.
RiP, Stony, Damping: not negotiable.
And that's all. My Average is 4 -1 in the leagues. Combo decks are an incrediby easy ride, worse matchup is shadow cause disrupts and pressures very efficiently. Jund is 50-50 cause the keep a g1 hand in the blind that often isn't enough to beat lingering souls or your progression anyways. Their winning curve is discard into W6, into removal/liliana. Post side you have to deal with 2 plagues. For the first time in my life I've been cutting 4 selfless and 2-3 rattlechains in order to give them the less 2 for 1 as possible.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
Well, thanks for the service you've provided us so far. Hoping we'll have a new forum in the future which resembles this one. If so, I'll be still bringing my contribution and my experience there.
This is the most aggro version I can think of, the deck aims at curving, overloading the board playing multiple spirits every turn (this is why i go 4 vial, 4 hierarchs and a ***** ton of 2cmc drops) while making little diruption, and finish the opponent either going wide, ammassing lords or locking the board with Eidolon.
Manabase: hands down the most difficult mana base I'v ever had to build. I've tried to copy humans, but then I'd have to give up on a number of sideboard cards which is think are too good to pass, like damping and shapers' sanctuary (wins single handedly against ctrl/midrange). To be clear, I dont think 4 ziggurats are reliable enough to cast damping on turn two, or copter, or even relic and crack right away. I've had to mulligan hands because of ziggurat vial in the opening. I dont wanna mulligan in the first place and even less so I want to mulligan 1-land/vial hands. Differently from humans, we have double colors in red and green, and this make it so difficoult to find a compromise and so important to start land vial when you can. Another minor problem is that hierarch is a human and not a spirit, so you gotta watch out and provide enough green sources. For this reason I've decided to pick forest as my basic land givena reasonable amount of blue sources.
I'll be testing with 2 fetchlands and 2 shocks.
I'd sum it up saying: if you smoothen the mana base with ziggurats, your sideboard gets to be less strong and viceversa.
Creatures: Phantasmal Image deserves a 2x at least to maximize the lord effects or to copy eidolon or some monsters played by the opponent. Wurmcoil Engine is a huge problem specifically, but it's always good to copy a skyclave apparition form the D&T player.
After a bunch of leagues I came to the conclusion that Eidolon is stronger than green Geist cause it has pseudo-evasion thanks to his effect, and geist in almost good but a number of time is just suboptimal so I'm shaving one copy for the second Copter. I hoped it to be the opposite for reasons related to the manabase.
Copter is very strong, especially in this configuration running so many walkers. Note that Eidolon + Copter are worth 5 damages a turn if your opponent is casting any spell early game. Copter is also keeping your hand threat-dense, which is of paramount importance for this version that has to deal the most damage in the first 4 turns.
I have eventually decided to stick to the 8x 3cmc drops cause most of the time I'd rather keep vial on two in a vacuum, and play queller/drogskol from the hand. You may also notice 50% of the 3cmc have flash, while just 20% of the 2cmc drops do have it(rattlechains), not to talk about the harsh mana requirements eidolon and geist have. So vial on two is the scenario I pick by default when I build the deck, different decisions can be taken as the game progresses.
Removals: I feel comfortable playing with no removals mainboard and just go for the throat. If the mana base would let me do so I'd be on a couple bolts to tempo the opponent out. Other options are PtE if you run enough W sources, or Vapor Snag if you decide to stay on waterlogged and have more blue.
I don't like dismember cause I already have very painful lands, and eidolons are not a joke.
Sideboard: I believe creatures are not enough. Forces are definitely an option, Sanctuaries are the best to grind your grindy opponent out, a couple skyclaves and a couple spot removals seem to be enough aswell but more tests have to be done.
Damping Spheres could be replaced with other anti Tron pieces ( I'd love alpine moon but I dont have enough red sources for non creature spells. If you find a way to reliably cast alpine moon then you've dealt with valakut and tron at once which is a very very big deal since amulet is a hard MU. I'm thinking of ghost quarter and I'll test it in the future. Another think that could have aplace here is Choke.
I'm playing 4 anti-graveyard cards, of which 2 cages are the best piece. 2 relics can be spent against uro/jund aswell.
Skite is there as a random protective piece, it can be helpful against D&T equipments, bogles and other stuff. Not sure if a pithing needle is better or not.
The archetype has yet to be explored so this is all but definite quite frankly.
Results so far have been two or three 3-2, a couple 4-1 and one 5-0, so it's worth noting the deck has always chashed in the league at the very least and this is what I find surprising about this crazy pile of spirits. It indicates there's potential.
I expect results to further improve as I get to understand what the sideboard needs and tune mana base properly, which is the hardest I've ever assembled in 4 years of modern spirits.
Hope you enjoy.
LSV briefly reviewing the list
Skyclave is a hell of a 3 drop, to maximize its ETB I'm running Teferi TR and Essence flux, so that I can bounce/blink to remove more stuff.
I've always been a fan of Essence Flux, it makes my plan totally unpredictable, now I've got a blinkable powerhouse and the sinergy with the deck is stronger than ever before. Also blinking Queller under Teferi is quite dirty.
Flux does trade tempo-efficiently with red burn spells , which I believe are the reason why the MU vs Red decks is hard: they tempo you out, and the same goes for shadow and all of those decks coupling pressure with 1cmc removals.
I've got 11 enter the battlefield effects, plus 4 wanderers to benefit from a spirit getting back on the battlefield. This is why I'm going 2x instead of just the one of. Never felt too much, be pacient with it and it will pay back.
As for the side, I've decided to use Halo instead of the 4th champion because I like having a flexible card as the last copy of an anti-X package. So halo can name shadows/swiftspears/scourge but also bogles, archive traps, eldrazis, Valakut and such.
I'm testing Miscast in replacement of mana leak cause many permanents I needed to counter with leak are now dealt with skyclave, so again i 'vepicked the most tempo efficient/non card-disadvantage counter. I'm not sold on force costing me 2 cards.
2 Dampings are stock, replaced the 3rd with needle to name a bunch of ***** like devoted druid (doesnt untap) , belcher, equipments/giver of runes agains takes.
Sword of fire and Ice is a flex slot. You could have Kira or whatever, I believe its the most grindy piece I can afford playing, it generates huge advantage. If it connects you're golden.
Foud this list w/ crucibl which i thinkk acts as a 3 mana wrenn and six. it lets you draw every turn and make an additional landdrop, plus you get to explit the 3 mistic sanctuaries to remote-pilot spells from your graveyard to the top of ur deck
-EDIT: just 5-0'd with the simic list posted in the picture too-
So basicly this list is ment to grind without having to play extra copies of lands for the CoCo, you'll use the tempo negative effect of light up the stage to look for lands or sink mana when you re flooding. Giants are awesome against mono red and mono black, they really give you a hedge against those decks, and they give you some occasional reach.The thing is that you want to assume the control role vs them, so you can sit back, keep the pressure in check with Stomp, and the land a 4/3 to wall their next creature. It s very powerful,
As for the side, flame sweep is huge against Winnota and aggro decks in general, the rest of the list is an attempt to catch all of the other popular strategies.
I think moving to jeskai is mostly justified by the combo deck being haxed, so now it gets more about creature and control decks, Giants and Stages shine in the matchups, repsectively.
Sideboard is adjustable, the apostles might not be necessary given the 4 giants and the 3 sweeps and the tap effects vs mono black, they could be extra counters. 3 Tefri are my gold standard against control. Gusts are very well positioned right now, Shadowspear is a test. Flux is my pet card, it fits my playstyle, I like it in general to provide combat tricks and to trade 1x1 at 1cmc with opponent's removal spells, it also triggers herald, untaps for shackle and resets spell queller if you actually need to do it... and it gives +1/+1. You steal games cause people don't see it coming.
I'm not sure about the numbers, it's not given that 4 Giants are necessary maninboard ( you could argue to move one to the side but there you'll find 3 wraths, so it depends on which matchups you wanna be ready for), i don't know whether 3 eagles are something you must have (simic spirits lists doing great with 4 lords), or if we should have more tap effects. This is also true for the 4th selfless.
Ps. Shootout to the players who have put the reps to make Simic a viable deck, always love to see people making it with something no one would have thought about. I'm playing it and i think it's super aggro and fun, love it.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3261780#paper
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3247453#paper
During this winter i have really felt the need of a counter like mana leak, now we ve got denial and i couldn't be happier, I'll go as far as to say it is stronger in pioneer than in modern, cause here we play the 8x 1cmc so it's easy to have it fully online by turn two, but also to curve it t3 when you might have 1cmc drop+ denial.
Shacklegeist is the other new inclusion, I 've definitely unterestimated it when it's been spoilered. Shacklegeist has been key to beat BW Aura and their gigantic creatures when they had the torpor orb-faerie to shut down neblegast herald's triggers, and to tap down the snake with reach scales plays. I still like having the 1x borrower for the flexibility, but shackle is some serious addition, having 6 tapping effects means a lot.
The sideboard has been initially copy-pasted by recent lists since i have no idea of that the new decks are doing, then i decided to bring in my knowledge and made some adjustments. I like my choices, but they are far from definitive. Any suggestions are welcomed.
As for the next leagues: I wanna try again one hanged executioner to synergize with shacklegeist, diversify my removal package, having a 2x1 against grindy matchups.
I wanted to fit a Lurrus as i do in modern but the mana base is atrocius without seachromecoasts or adakar wasted, and I'm greedy and i like mutavaults (synergy with shacklegeist, animate it and tap to the activated ability) and I hate flooding out . UW has no sincking for when you start flooding beside spectral sailors.
Future directions: given the popularity of dredge and uro decks online i'm switching 2 shadow of doubts w 2 remorseful clerics and to have the best sinergy I'm maindecking one lurrus and adding one other lurrus in the side in replacement of 1 kira and 1 sword fire and ice. They are not for the companion mechanic but to be played as creatures. moving 1 time raveler to the side to make room to the main deck lurrus.
I'll start with this 5-0 list, I'm really happy to see how this can grind against the field, even in a metagame of Wrenn and 6, plague engineers and titan decks. my matchups have been:
Eldrazi Tron 2 1
Storm 2 0
Jund 2 1
Blue Moon 2 0
UW Spirits 2 0
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Rattlechains
4 Supreme Phantom
4 Spell Queller
4 Drogskol Captain
Spells: 15
4 Aether Vial
3 Thoughtseize
2 Fatal Push
1 Path to Exile
1 Collective Brutality
3 Lingering Souls
1 Curious Obsession
4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
1 Godless Shrine
2 Seachrome Coast
2 Darkslick Shore
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Silent Clearing
2 Moorland Haunt
1 Stony Silence
2 Damping Sphere
2 Rest In Peace
2 Kaya's Guile
2 Mana Leak
1 Countersquall
1 Favorable Winds
2 Bitterblossom
1 Plague Engineer
1 Worship
So, the reason why this list holds its ground against potentially any deck are the 4 discards/4removals. In contrast to my previous lists I ve decided to shave on the 5x spot removal and shave down to 3 + one collective brutality. This has maybe worsened my G1 against creature aggro decks, but this doesn't mean they have turned from good to bad matchups. The core is still performing well exp because of lingering souls + lords. I could make room for 2 thoughtseize which are the nuts almost every single time i cast them, even against mono red taking a reveler or a crash trough can be huge, as much as stripping a boros charm from burn turns seize into a "i gain two" spell, and sending a searing blaze to the trash can can male the differenze between winning and losing the game.
Thoughtseize allows you a higher number of T1 plays, which is the weak spot for all the non bant configurations: 8 spells are not reliable enough, and I've never considered T1 pte a winning line. So I've given myself the possibility to draw any of 15 very good t1 spells, and Seize is by far the one that will throw a wrench in the plans of every combo and big mana deck, causing them to slow down their progression or make them unable to prevent you from developing your board. I'm still an aggro deck, so unless I'm up against tron ,in which case I need to strip map or a green tutor out of their hand, I'm priviledging the vial/wanderer start and hold up the discard for later. The 1CMC makes it incredible for curving purposes, you can really use your fantasy and have fun assembling a turn made of discard + spell + vial activation.
As for the rest of the mainboard, after one year and a half of back and forth, I ve decreed the 1st curious obsession is too strong to be ignored. You'll find yourself siding it out many times, yet it's going to win so many games , especially in a 4 discard built where you happen to explore your opponent's hand seeking for removals. Obsession is enormous against burn ( pahntom / queller out of bolt range) and every combo and big mana deck. It makes any of your spirits a threat that has to be dealt with the soonest. And as i said before, it demands immediate reaction , so this plays in your favor forcing a removal out of their hand when you have rattlechains at the ready to generate card advantage.
Moorland haunt is bonkers, as much as I love having 15+ blue and black sources, I cant ignore the amount of weigh moorland pulls in grindy matchups. It's a little bit of a risk, but I think the reward of a second copy is worth it. beside the card advantage (generates creatures), haunt gives you the option of waiting their end step to do something. Your opponent is pressured by haunt, cause either they do something at the risk of getting interacted, or they'll do nothing and get haunted at the hend of the turn.
My sideboard features a well represented grindy package with 2 bitterblossom , 2 kaya's guile, favorable winds and one plague engineer . Blossoms are an answer to those hyper disturbing icefangs coatles, plague engineers, w/6 and such. It provides early card advantage, and diversifies your creatures. The 2CMC is absolutely key, coming down one turn earlier than Lingering Souls allows you to stick a fast game-long threat that your opponent is not prepared for. having a token per turn also means you re saving your resources in you hand without being pressured into plays like nakes spell quellers just to build a clock.
Fav winds is a natural inclusion given all of the fliers and the tokens. It puts pahntom/queller out of bolt range, and every spirit out of the w/6 ping. It keeps you in the game against plague engineers. Similarly to curoius obsession, I ve been playing this card before supreme phantom was printed, I've had it in my main, in the side or no copies. I come back to the 1x in my side everytime for different reasons.
Kaya's guile is think is missing the "sac enchantment mode" to be an all star sideboard card. It has given me a silver bullet against bogles, and a 2x1 to grind out creatures, eldrazis, burn, graveyards and so on. It's our kolaghan's command.
plague engineer is so good against us that I decided to test one of, originally to wipe out thopters from thopter-sword decks, but then it turned to be a house against many other, icefang coatles included. I'd have two if mono red didn't existed and I coul play without worship.
worship is another silver bulled you want for aggro and mono red/burn. you gotta remind it's a nombo with bitterblossom, but the two are there for different matchups. I ve considered many options ,from kor, to auriok to timely reinforcements, to phyrexian unlife,azorius herald and so on. None of these says "you can't lose unless you have no creatures left". It's the most powerful thing you can do.
The 3 counterspells and the necessary number. I love squall, but i believe mana leak is too important to tempo out eldrazi and to catch disgusters like ensnaring bridge. Disdainful Stroke is reasonable aswell, but given I have only 3 slots for counters and I need to be flexible to catch early cages(moons , bridges ) or magus of the moon ( rg midrange quite frequent nowadays), I'd rather make room for this catch all counterspell over others with more restrictions.
RiP, Stony, Damping: not negotiable.
And that's all. My Average is 4 -1 in the leagues. Combo decks are an incrediby easy ride, worse matchup is shadow cause disrupts and pressures very efficiently. Jund is 50-50 cause the keep a g1 hand in the blind that often isn't enough to beat lingering souls or your progression anyways. Their winning curve is discard into W6, into removal/liliana. Post side you have to deal with 2 plagues. For the first time in my life I've been cutting 4 selfless and 2-3 rattlechains in order to give them the less 2 for 1 as possible.
Hope this post helps your building choiches.
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.
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 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
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.
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
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