Introduction
This is my take on Bant Spirits for Modern. The deck has fallen a bit of the radar, but will become a bit stronger now with
Skyclave Apparition
and may become a Tier 1 deck again.
The deck is White-Blue with a green-splash for
Collected Company
and
Noble Hierarch
. It's a synergistic tribal deck that dominates the airspace and is very disruptive and quite resilient. It's not the most aggressive deck, but it can have some aggressive starts (Mausoleum Wanderer can attack for three on turn two!) and often kills with a massive attack in the mid- to lategame.
Creatures
Noble Hierarch
(4): A great manadork that can also make our fliers attack for more damage and produces every color of mana we need. Helps us play a threedrop on turn two or CoCo on turn three and allows us to play fewer lands while keeping a high creature count for CoCo.
Mausoleum Wanderer
(4): A 1/1 Flyer for one that can get bigger when we play a Spirit and can counter instants/sorceries. This beast attacks for three in the air on turn two if we play a
Supreme Phantom
. Everything we could wish for and costs just one mana.
Glasspool Mimic
(2): This card replaces two
Phantasmal Image
. It does cost one more mana and can't copy your opponent's creatures, but having the ability to play it as a land is very valuable. Playing one less land (20 instead of 21) is possible due to this card. The land side does come in tapped and only produces blue, but it's still pretty good.
Rattlechains
(3): A good card that didn't always see play in the Bant version of this deck. But I think it deserves a spot in the deck, as it can blank spot removal, amplifies the "flashy" nature of the deck and has good aggressive stats for its cost.
Skyclave Apparition
benefits a lot from being played with flash if you have a Rattlechains on the battlefield.
Selfless Spirit
(2): Protects the board, while also being a serviceable flier that can attack the opponent in the air. Great against mass removal, even
Supreme Verdict
can't beat it (technically it beats it, but not your other creatures).
Supreme Phantom
(4): Having a two mana lord is great and the 1/3 body isn't perfect, but pretty solid. It can become bolt-proof very easily with just a single other lord or
Phantasmal Image
. I would like it better if it had more power though.
Drogskol Captain
(4): A really good lord for the deck. If you have two (or copy one with a
Phantasmal Image
), all your spirits have Hexproof and can only be interacted with in combat (but most of them fly) or with mass removal (we sometimes have
Selfless Spirit
for that).
Skyclave Apparition
(4): A new card from Zendikar Rising that pushes the deck to another level. It's the first Spirit in MtG that has a good removal-ETB-effect, which means you don't need to play
Reflector Mage
or
Deputy of Detention
anymore. The deck usually has a problem with already resolved permanents and the Apparition solves this problem for us, dealing with approximately 90% of the permanents that see play in Modern (doesn't take care of the Tron Finishers,
Gurmag Angler
,
Elder Gargaroth
and
Primeval Titan
).
The Apparition is missing only one thing to be perfect: Flying. But to be honest: I don't care, it's awesome even without it.
Spell Queller
(4): A great two-for-one card, as it handles a spell and gives you a good flying body. Most of the time, you can protect the Queller so you don't have to give the spell back. Be careful though when you can't protect it and exile a removal spell with it, as another removal from your opponent can then be a blowout for you.
Noncreature Spells
Aether Vial
(3): Great accelerator when you play it turn one, but it gets much worse quickly. If you draw it in the late game, it's a dead card most of the time.
Path to Exile
(2): Some additional removal that's our only way to handle threats with CMC higher than 4 (like
Primeval Titan
or
Wurmcoil Engine
) for us. Giving your opponent a land is bad, but the card has proven itself in modern.
Collected Company
(4): The reason for the greensplash and just an awesome card. In this deck it can produce absurd amounts of advantage, as some of our spirits have good ETB-triggers or give Hexproof when you play CoCo in response to a removal.
Lands
I play 20 Lands because I have
Noble Hierarch
s as additional mana sources and
Glasspool Shore
as additional lands. 8 Fetches and 4 Shocks are the base of my lands, some Fastlands, Checklands, Horizon-Lands and one of each basic round it up.
Moorland Haunt
produces spirit tokens for us in the late game or when we're up against removal heavy decks.
I hope Wizards prints the other 5 Horizon-Lands in Modern Horizons 2, so I can play a playset of the blue-white one.
Sideboard Cards
Damping Sphere
(2): Great against Tron/Titan or Blitz. It does a lot when the opponent is playing lands that produce more than one mana or wants to play lots of spells per turn.
Kor Firewalker
(3): Great creature against red decks. Can always block and survive while gaining you some life if they do stuff. Many red decks don't run a lot of nonred stuff, so this has protection from everything they do.
Path to Exile
(2): Copies 3 and 4 in addition to the two in the mainboard. Can be brought in when you need more instant-speed removal, for example against Titan decks.
Disdainful Stroke
(2): Good against decks like Tron or Titan. It's nothing special, but a good card against problematic high-CMC spells (like Ugin, Karn or Primeval Titan), because our maindeck can't answer them very well.
Rest in Peace
(3): There are lots of graveyard centered decks in Modern and this is the perfect tool against them. Our deck doesn't care about the graveyard (besides our one copy of
Moorland Haunt
that isn't important to our deck functioning).
Veil of Summer
(2): Great tool against Control decks or
Thoughtseize
-decks. "Counters" their spell and cantrips for just one mana.
Settle the Wreckage
(0-1): A good one-sided mass removal that gets rid of all their attackers, when they think that just a CoCo might be played. Settle isn't played very much in Modern, so it can surprise them easily. Additionally, most decks in Modern don't play too many basics, so they don't get that many lands. Will be exchanged with
Worship
from time to time.
Worship
(0-1): Our creatures are very hard to handle, so when it resolves and isn't removed, Worship will win you the game. Will be exchanged with
Settle the Wreckage
from time to time.
Sideboarding Guide
You should be aware of the fact that you can't sideboard out too many creatures because of CoCo. So if you need to bring in many noncreature spells, consider boarding out the CoCos. 25 creatures is the minimum I would go to with CoCo in the deck. If you need to get lower, cut CoCos.
You'll notice that I have a
Settle the Wreckage
in the maybeboard. The reason for this is, that I intend to switch out the
Worship
and the Settle from time to time to leave my opponents (I'll often play against the same people) in the dark about my tools. Both cards are good in creature-centered matchups, but force different plays from your opponent.
You might also notice that there is no artifact hate in the sideboard. I don't expect to encounter Affinity decks in my LGS and if I do, I have good mainboard answers like
Skyclave Apparition
. Consider running
Collector Ouphe
or
Stony Silence
if you expect Hardened Scales or Affinity decks.
Also, i'm not very good at sideboarding, so feel free to tell me better sideboard cards or sideboard plans.
-Needs work!-
Burn/Prowess:
-
In: 2 Dromoka's Command, 3 Kor Firewalker, 2 Dovin's Veto;
-
Out: 2 Phantasmal Image, 3 Noble Hierarch, 2 Collected Company;
Monogreen Tron:
-
In: 2 Dovin's Veto, 1 Disdainful Stroke;
-
Out: 2 Selfless Spirit, 1 Rattlechains;
Death's Shadow:
-
In: 3 Veil of Summer, 2 Rest in Peace, 1 Worship / Settle the Wreckage;
-
Out: 2 Aether Vial, 2 Phantasmal Image, 2 Selfless Spirit;
Spirits (Mirror):
Amulet Titan:
Dredge:
-
In: 3 Rest in Peace, 2 Dromoka's Command, 2 Dovin's Veto, 1 Worship / Settle the Wreckage;
-
Out: 1 Collected Company, 4 Spell Queller, 3 Aether Vial;
GBx (Golgari/Jund/Abzan):
-
In: 3 Veil of Summer, 2 Dromoka's Command, 1 Worship / Settle the Wreckage, 1 Rest in Peace;
-
Out: 3 Aether Vial, 2 Selfless Spirit, 2 Collected Company;
Ux Control:
-
In: 3 Veil of Summer, 2 Dovin's Veto, 1 Disdainful Stroke;
-
Out: 2 Path to Exile, 4 Skyclave Apparition;
Bogles:
-
In: 1 Worship / Settle the Wreckage, 2 Dovin's Veto, 2 Dromoka's Command;
-
Out: 2 Path to Exile, 1 Phantasmal Image, 2 Selfless Spirit;
Eldrazi Tron:
-
In: 2 Dovin's Veto, 1 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Worship / Settle the Wreckage;
-
Out: 2 Selfless Spirit, 2 Phantasmal Image;
Merfolk:
-
In: 2 Dromoka's Command, 1 Worship / Settle the Wreckage;
-
Out: 2 Selfless Spirit, 1 Rattlechains;
RG Eldrazi:
-
In: 2 Dromoka's Command, 1 Worship / Settle the Wreckage;
-
Out: 2 Selfless Spirit, 1 Phantasmal Image;
Infect:
-
In: 2 Dromokas's Command, 1 Worship / Settle the Wreckage;
-
Out: 2 Selfless Spirit, 1 Phantasmal Image;
Affinity/Hardened Scales:
-
In: 2 Dromoka's Command, 2 Rest in Peace, 1 Worship / Settle the Wreckage;
-
Out: 2 Selfless Spirit, 3. Aether Vial;
Humans:
Elves:
-
In: 2 Dovin's Veto, 2 Dromoka's Command, 1 Worship / Settle the Wreckage;
-
Out: 2 Selfless Spirit, 3 Aether Vial;
UR Phoenix:
-
In: 2 Dromoka's Command, 1 Worship / Settle the Wreckage, 2 Rest in Peace;
-
Out: 2 Selfless Spirit, 2 Phantasmal Image, 1 Collected Company;
Lantern Control:
-
In: 2 Dovin's Veto, 3 Veil of Summer;
-
Out: 2 Path to Exile, 4 Noble Hierarch;
Conclusion
Spirits is a fair, but disruptive Tempo deck that is also very resilient. You actually have lots of interaction and don't play a linear aggro plan, although some games might feel like that, as the deck is perfectly able to adapt to your opponent. Your answers are a bit narrow though (only CMC < 4 or just instants/sorceries), so Tron can be a tough opponent for example.
