Hello everyone, and welcome to the unveiling of thew new Modern Powerhouse Tribe: SPIRITS!
With the new utility based spirits being printed in the most recent set, we are able to combine them with the power based evasive spirits from our original trip to Innistrad and get some great synergies going. Feel free to ask questions or make recommendations. This is my base build after some play testing online. Once I take it to tournaments I will update it as I see necessary.
Creatures:
Noble Hierarch - Ok, I know she isn't a spirit, but she can ramp us to a turn two Spell Queller. She also fixes our mana for the rest of the game (assuming she lives), and Exalted is definitely a strong ability for our first few swings.
Mausoleum Wanderer
- This little guy gets a LOT of value for a single U. People liked
Curse Catcher
a lot. Well,
Curse Catcher
has died, but its spirit lives on and is more powerful than ever! With how many ways we can flash spirits in,
Mausoleum Wanderer
is a solid Counterspell on a very solid body.
Rattlechains
- Halloween came early this year with this spooky geist. Flash him in to counter a removal spell on one of your spirits and you already have a 2 for 1. Add in the fact that he gives all your other spirits flash and he starts to change the way your whole deck plays. I would argue he is one of the most important cards in the deck.
Selfless Spirit - A 2/1 flier for 2 with spirit synergies is already something I would consider playing. Throw in the fact that you can get some blow out combat steps and you have me sold! Rattlechains makes this guy go from a 3 star player to a 5 star bomb. Flash him and sacrifice him to really mess up your opponents math.
Drogskol Captain
- We are playing spirits, do I need to say anything else? Yes? Fine. His two abilities work hard to shut out our opponent. Protecting our team from target removal is a huge boon, especially when we have two
Drogskol Captain
out or a
Rattlechains
to defend him. The +1/+1 effect gets a lot of extra damage through as well when they aren't able to remove our flying army.
Geist of Saint Traft - Our only spirit who can't fly. Its ok though, his power level is through the roof as it is. For 3 mana, we get a hexproof threat that represents at least 6 damage. If we can manage to flash him out, then our opponent likely wont be able to answer him before he swings. This is a great finisher.
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner - I am a little less big on Kira here.. Her ability is unique, and quite powerful. But it seems we have lots of ways to handle removal already with
Drogskol Captain
,
Rattlechains
, and Selfless Spirit. Still, she is a powerful spirit, and I am willing to test with her in the deck.
Non-Creatures Non-Lands:
Path to Exile - That's a nice creature that I can't stop with my army... Bye Felicia.
Collected Company - This is making a run for my favorite card. It is already in my top 3. Being able to get 6 cmc of creatures at instant speed for 4 mana is insane. Throw in the fact that it is a 2 for 1 as well and I am sold!
Tamiyo, Field Researcher - Powerhouse. I was unsure about adding her, but in play testing, I have won every game where I dropped her, regardless of how far behind I was. Her -2 is why we play her. By the time we have her in play, we should have a few fliers. Tapping down our opponents creatures gives us two free turns to attack where they can't kill us on the swing back. Sometimes we won't be worried about the swing back, or we need to stall a bit. This is where her +1 shines. Drawing 2 cards is always relevant in magic, and getting to choose what creatures will draw us the cards makes her very versatile. If we choose our opponents creatures and we don't attack, then the ball is in their court to give us a free
Time Walk
or a free
Divination
. If we put it on our creatures, then we can get a guaranteed
Divination
. There are tons of other combinations of when/how we use her +1, but just remember, keep an open mind and think about the best play. She can do it. Our deck isn't optimized for her ultimate, nor is it optimized to get to her ultimate. I imagine it will happen sometimes and that will be nice, but not why we play her.
Lands:
Botanical Sanctum is our only Fast Land. Considering that our only one drop creatures are green and blue, this makes it the perfect draw early.
Windswept Heath, Flooded Strand, and Misty Rainforest - Our good reliable fetch base. Any one of them can get all 3 colors we need thanks to shock lands. Modern staples.
Breeding Pool - often the first land I grab from a fetch. It gives us blue for our early
Mausoleum Wanderer
s and green for early Noble Hierarchs. Keep in mind, even if you don't have a Noble Hierarch in hand on turn one, you might draw it on turn two. Since white is an easier source to get than green in this deck, I would make sure we have our green source online just in case we do draw it. This is a one of because we never really need more than one green mana a turn so we should only ever fetch for it once.
Temple Garden
- This one is also a one of because we shouldn't need to fetch for it often. But it is in here for those rare cases you need a green and a white. (Turn one Hierarch respecting the bolt and having a island in hand? its definitely fringe, but we want to be ready)
Hallowed Fountain - Our bread and butter shock land. Most of our deck is U/W. This is what we will fetch for 70% of the time.
Ghost Quarter - This is here to stop their creature land, kill a tron piece, save our land from a spreading seas (if we need its white source), or slow down a Eldrazi deck. More are in the board if we need them.
Island, Forest, Plains - Fetchable sources vs burn or for when our life is low. Also, good for if we get Path to Exiled (unlikely as we have awesome protection).
