Work in Progress for a Flashy Spirit Deck. In preparation for the next Standard Rotation (-Tarkir -Origins).
Being pretty new to Magic overall, any suggestions/criticisms are welcome and will hopefully help me improve the deck.
The deck revolves around the different synergies of Spirits and mostly relies on Rattlechains to allow some flashy plays.
This deck is also pretty flexible and it is easy to adapt to a wide variety of opponents. It still needs testing and a lot of polishing. As mentioned above, any kind of input is welcome and I would love to discuss my choices with more experimented players.
Creatures
Mausoleum Wanderer
is your Jack-of-all-trades granting you some tempo plays, free early poke and which can help Enable Archangel Avacyn
for instance. Try to always have one or two of these nasty flying critters on the board. Don't forget that, with your ability to flash in a lot of spirits, it is a pretty good spell counter which can force your opponent into waiting a couple more turns before playing his spells, giving you plenty of time to develop your board. Remember that this is mostly a defensive card which is able to poke your opponent for 1 damage each turn. I would not recommend playing it aggressively, but rather leaving your manas open for your opponent's turn.
Rattlechains is your Flash enabler who can also protect a member of his tribe from removals. Always play him in a responsive manner and try to protect him if you only have one. Once you have a couple more of these guys in hand, you can start to use the chains to lash out at your opponent more aggressively.
Selfless Spirit is your anti-boardwipe. Actually, you will mostly use him to protect one or two of your bigger spirits. He combos with Archangel Avacyn
perfectly as you can sacrifice him to counter the 3-damage boardwipe the Angel does when she flips. Not mentioning the disgusting synergy with Planar Outburst.
Reflector Mage While he is not a spirit, this is probably the best Tempo card of the format. I was tempted by running four of these guys, but this would break the deck's overall synergy. I just can't imagine some Azorius (UW) archetype not playing him.
Nebelgast Herald
is one seriously annoying Spirit as he brings value when entering the board, and then adds even more punch to your other spirits. He can be played both in offense to tap blockers and in defense during your opponent's phase to stop attackers. Please don't forget that his effect does not stack.
Spell Queller This card in itself is outstanding and allows so many different kind of plays that it would not be possible to list them all. Just don't outbrain yourself!
Niblis of Frost Once he is on the board, your spells in general acquire even more value. He has incredible stats for a reasonable cost, no drawbacks except that you may burn a few spells to boost him and will often be a prime target for your opponent. He also easily resists Avacyn's flip blast, though you need to save an instant to do so. The fact that creatures don't untap on the next opponent untap phase opens up for serious all-in potential. It is often okay to use him as a lightning rod, since this means less spells for your opponent to handle Avacyn's fury.
Archangel Avacyn
When the cavalry finally arrives, it's always for an epic sweep. Just imagine that the cavalry is a flying bad-ass angel despising everything that which lives, and you can picture Avacyn. Your spoiler. I am also considering playing two of her for some more reliability.
Spells
Essence Flux is so versatile in this deck that I can't imagine not running at least a pair of these. Your opponent won't often see it coming, and when he does, he'll always be wary of you only having one mana open. The +1/+1 counter is just icing on the cake.
Unsubstantiate Stands out as your man-made bounce.
Horribly Awry
is one of the best anti-creature spell for your deck. There are a lost of <4 converted cost creatures which could end up being problematic for you that you can counter easily through this. Bigger creatures, you can always tap them or bounce them for enough turns to win yourself the game. Finally, it counters graveyard shenanigans, which is always welcome.
Take Inventory While this card's potential is often debatable, I feel like it would suit the deck better than Anticipate would. It is quite slow, but you have lots of cheap cards to play in the meantime. If you manage to play 2 or 3 of these, you start getting the full value of the car as it remains cheap and you have the opportunity to play your creatures during your opponent's turn. If you get to the point where you play your 4th, it's basically a Draw-4 for 2, which is insane in the late game. This is only a card you can play offensively on your turn(s) to boost your Prowess spirits.
Scatter to the Winds This counter's cost is quite heavy to pay, but the Awaken bonus comes in handy during long stalemate games. It also allows some shenanigans. Overall, a good counterspell with added late-game value, which is what the deck could lack.
Planar Outburst The card in itself is powerful. The Awakened card is deadly. Comboing this with one of your Selfless Spirit means that you will win 95% of the time. Just try it out and look at your opponent's face, boiling with rage and despising you from the bottom of his heart.
Tips & Tricks
Your starting hand is utterly important, and I would never start the game without having at least 3 manas, or maybe 2 manas and a Take Inventory. An ideal starting hand would consist of 3 untapped mana sources, 1x
Mausoleum Wanderer
, 1x Rattlechains, 1x counterspell or Spell Queller and 1x Take Inventory. Building on this, you could control your opponent's biggest threats, draw if needed or start poking for a few flying damage each turn. Mulligans are tricky, as you could end-up with less potential creatures/answers, but I do not recommend keeping an opening hand with only 2 manas if you do not have at least 1x Take Inventory.
Never forget that the strength of your deck does not only come from the cards you play, but also from the way they are played. First of all, after seeing the combination of manas you play, your opponent will hold to his best cards being afraid of being countered. This is to your advantage. Yet, the fun only really begins when you drop Rattlechains on the battlefield and end your turns with all your manas open. Actually, even without this little bugger on, you can still use most of your cards during your opponent's turn.
Never drop more than one or two copies of your
Mausoleum Wanderer
as they are best used as ways to counter an opponent's spell (and you also force him to play out of curve for at least one turn).
I will list the matchups and try to figure out ways to play vs. some of the most typical meta decks in the future.
This deck is a work in progress. I try to keep it up to date and always welcome opinions and insights. Feel free to try it out and let me know what you think of it. Finally, any Upvote is welcome if you appreciate the deck.
