After looking into how Modern Bant Spirits is played, I decided to make a semi-budget Spirits deck inspired by the fact that my very first magic deck was an Azorius Spirits deck that featured Drogskol Captain. I decided to splash in green to run Collective Company since it’s a staple in Bant Spirits, and so I can run a new favorite of mine, Knight of Autumn to balance out the necessary fetch and shock lands to run three color and super efficient two color decks and give me another reason to abuse Cloudshift, a card that grew near and dear to my heart with an Azorius Allies Mill deck. Interestingly enough, one of the people who helped make my first magic deck also helped me design that deck.
I say it’s semi-budget because the main board list and a lot of the sideboard is. Surgical Extraction and the extra Meddling Mage really up the price.
This deck aims to stay true to Azorius control principles and an aggro spirit tribal theme. I’ve also chosen to splash in a few non-spirit creatures in order to help with the control side of things. I’ve learned to love spells with bodies, and some of the best aren’t on spirits. Who could say no to Meddling Mage, or our new Detention Sphere with a body, Deputy of Detention? Knight of Autumn nicely wraps up the three non-spirit splash choices with abusable ETB effects, notably enchantment and artifact hate, and life gain. Spirit body spells do have the lovely tendency to have flash however, and coupled with the staple Aether Vial, and sacrifice costs, that means this deck plays many spells at instant speed. Keep in mind how the stack works.
Cloudshift lets us abuse Rattlechains, and Spell Queller with good synergies with Nebelgast Herald and Mausoleum Wanderer, and also Knight of Autumn, Meddling Mage, and Deputy of Detention.
Mausoleum Wanderer, Spell Queller, and Meddling Mage run the control aspect of the game, and Wanderer, Drogskol Captain, and Supreme Phantom synergize to buff fast. You go wide and fairly tall very fast with spirits, and they all have flying. The only non-flyers are the non-spirit creatures.
The landbase is pretty standard. Aether Vial lets you play things even faster as well. Use Flooded Strand to find whatever you need, notably Breeding Pool and Temple Garden. Don’t be afraid to bolt yourself with Strand and a Shock land, the access is incredible and lets you play a creature every turn if you want, and makes you ready to flash in creatures as needed.
The Sideboard
Damping Sphere is here to hose strategies like Tron, Jund, Storm, and Izzet efficiency and doesn’t choke us too hard. Grafdigger's Cage, Rest in Peace, and the extra Remorseful Cleric pushes out Dredge, and prevents graveyard play for decks like Izzet Efficiency. Surgical Extraction and the extra Meddling Mage are our all around answers. If you know what they’re playing and what they need, they will shut down strategies completely, including Tron, wide decks, combo decks, mill, and control. Big issue I foresee is Aven Mindcensor which could be difficult to deal with, but for creatures that bother us, there is still Path to Exile and while not in the sideboard, Deputy of Detention.
I’d love to hear what you guys think about this deck. To keep it sorta budget I obviously skipped on a few copies of the big pieces and chose a different strategy from traditional Bant Spirits to cut some of the other heavy staples like Nobel Hierarch or Bird of Paradise, especially since Azorius doesn’t need color access like that to splash green for four cards. I think it’s gonna work amazingly. A hundred or so playtests leads me to believe it is consistent, efficient, and can win with aggro damage by turn five or six frequently and controls decently well most of the time. I can’t wait to put this together, but it’ll take some time to get the Aether Vials I need.
