With the release of Core 19, Spirit tribe is finally getting a 2-mana lord. While the Bant version definitely packs a punch (Geist of Saint Traft or Spell Queller on Turn 2 is a very strong start), I think the Esper version benefits more from the addition of new 2-mana lord - Supreme Phantom. As such, I took it upon myself to build an Esper version of the deck while I wait for the Noble Hierarchs to be reprinted.
Note: I haven't put any copies of Remorseful Cleric in, as it is more of a sideboard spirit and sideboard will be decided after the main deck is fleshed out.
6/29/18 Edit: I've cut 4
Spell Snare
for 4
Vapor Snag
and swapped 2
Path to Exile
for 2
Curious Obsession
. The deck still functions pretty well with 8 removal spells, 4 of them being soft removal.
Vapor Snag
has been helpful in keeping my lords alive, by letting me Snag them back into my hand to fizzle removal. As for
Curious Obsession
, it has helped to keep
Supreme Phantom
out of bolt range and provided enough card draw when I got it, to close out a game.
Creatures(20):
1 CMC:
4x
Mausoleum Wanderer
- an all-star in the deck, functioning as a counter to instants and sorceries our opponent wants to resolve, as well as a large evasive threat late in the game when the lords hit the battlefield. If opponent hasn't spent a removal spell on it by Turn 5 (Turn 4 if they path one of your creatures), it can quickly become a 5/5 and end the game with the cast and flashback of
Lingering Souls
.
2 CMC:
4x
Rattlechains
- another evasive threat that can be flashed in to protect your other spirits from removal spells, effectively creating a 2-for-1 in your favor, or can be flashed in at the opponent's end step while faking a counterspell as they take their turn.
4x
Supreme Phantom
- a 2-mana lord the Esper shell has been missing. Pumps your entire team, making Lingering Souls tokens quite scary, turns
Mausoleum Wanderer
into a
Spell Pierce
for instants or sorceries, and becomes unboltable with another lord on the battlefield.
3 CMC:
4x
Spell Queller
- creature that can be flashed in during opponent's turn to essentially time walk them by denying them the spell with CMC 4 or less. Even though it can't come out Turn 2 like in Bant version, the early-game disruption should place you in a good spot to take full advantage of timewalking the opponent once they will want to start applying pressure.
4x
Drogskol Captain
- the 3-mana lord of the deck, adds a second layer of protection to your boardstate, forcing the opponent to spend their removal on the Captain. Overtakes the game, especially with Lingering Souls tokens.
Instants(10):
4x
Spell Snare
- A quite narrow counterspell that allows you to tempo out opponent no matter if you're on the draw or on the play. May be too cute and is probably a meta call type of card. Nonetheless, I've had some success with it. A case can be made to cut the Snare for 2 copies of
Curious Obsession
for more card draw and beatdown, as well as 2 more copies of discard effects.
4x
Fatal Push
- The Esper version needs to play more more of a tempo game than the Bant version, which can have explosive board development with
Collected Company
and the fast mana thanks to mana dorks. Since
Path to Exile
ramps the opponent while Push doesn't, I chose Push as the removal of choice for this deck.
2x
Path to Exile
- While Push is more tempo than Path is, the deck needs to run at least 6 removal spells to semi-consistently hit them in each game. It is also nice to able to remove threats out of reach of Push in the MB. Previously I considered
Vapor Snag
in the place of Path or Snare to tempo out the opponent even more but only testing will show if Snag can be fully taken advantage of with the 8-lord evasive clock.
Sorceries(8):
4x
Inquisition of Kozilek
- proactive Turn 1 disruption that hopefully slows down the opponent's deck for you to be able to slow down the opponent. Also gives you hand information which is valuable for determining if you need to prioritize disruption and tempo advantage or fill the board quickly for beatdown. There can be made a case for having 2 more disruption effects like
Thoughtseize
or a more flexible
Collective Brutality
, although the primary reason
Inquisition of Kozilek
was chosen, was to avoid life loss.
4x
Lingering Souls
- one of the advantages of running Black which is absent in the Bant version, is the ability to flashback Lingering Souls and either swarm the board with enough flyers to close out the game, or chump block just enough while you chip in the last few points of damage. Lingering Souls paired with Mausoleum Wanderer can quickly get out of hand, giving you the burst damage to close out the game.
Manabase:
3 Basics, one of each color - function through a Blood Moon or an equivalent effect.
4 Darkslick Shores - provides a more painless manabase since Turn 1 is U/B
8 Allied-colored fetches - don't have the budget for enemy-colored ones, and 8 copies seems like enough
1 Watery Grave - fetch for a Turn 1 U/B play
2 Hallowed Fountain - most of the spells are in U/W
2 Godless Shrine - gives an ability to cast 3-drop lords and removal, as well as casting Lingering Souls, with setup for later flashback
2 Moorland Haunt - Lingering Souls stapled to a land, gives you an ability to develop board position even if your creatures bite the dust
Sideboard:
Hasn't been polished and probably won't be until I figure out what the mainboard really needs and how the sideboard will help fill the holes in particular matchups.
Other Creature Choices:
Geist of Saint Traft
- I think that Geist fits better into Bant version than Esper, as in Bant you can get him out Turn 2 or find him with a Collected Company. Since this deck has all flying creatures, Geist doesn't work as well, since the opponent can interact with him by blocking.
Nebelgast Herald
- a strong creature against other creature decks that can tap down an attacker while providing a body on the backswing. Combined with
Lingering Souls
, it can quickly tap down opponent's flying blockers or provide a fog-like effect on opponent's turn when flashing in
Rattlechains
or activating the ability of
Moorland Haunt
. Not included in the mainboard but is a consideration for the sideboard.
Maybeboard:
Curious Obsession
- I find that while the deck has a decent amount of interaction in the early game, it is easy to run out of gas and topdeck interactive cards instead of board-developing ones. While a playset may be too much, I feel that the deck will be more resilient if there is a way to refill a hand, while accelerating a clock with a +1/+1 from Obsession (not even mentioning that Obsession on a
Supreme Phantom
will take it out of reach of Lightning Bolt)
Vapor Snag
- a soft removal spell I would run in place of Path to Exile, to completely avoid ramping opponent while slowing down their clock by a turn or two. A sweet line would be flashing in Rattlechains on Turn 3 if there's nothing to Quell, while casting Snag on an attacking creature. Probably 2-3 copies.
Mana Leak
- makes Turn 2 plays stronger, giving you an option to either flash in Rattlechains to develop board presence or counter an opponent's spell that would put them ahead or otherwise negatively affect you. Has much more flexibility than
Vapor Snag
or
Spell Snare
mainboard as it can be used against decks like Tron.
Remand
- an alternative to
Mana Leak
that timewalks opponent letting them keep the card, while replacing itself with another card. I think this deck wants to "hard-counter" an opponent's spell instead of letting it resolve, but maybe the cantrip effect is too good to pass up, especially considering that
Spell Queller
can "hard-counter" the spell if it is replayed the following turn.
Collective Brutality
- a very flexible card that will help in burn matchups and turn bad topdecks into fodder for the Escalate modes. Also removes potential sweepers and interaction from opponent's hand, as well as disrupting combo decks. I would run it as a 2-of MB, in addition to 4x
Inquisition of Kozilek
but not sure if this is correct.
Thoughtseize
is not an option due to life loss from tri-color manabase.
Favorable Winds
- since all of our creatures are flying, this is an extra anthem effect that can add pseudo-lords 9 and 10 to the deck. I will probably try it as a 2-of in the future versions, cutting down on 2 interactive spells.
Steel of the Godhead
- an enchantment that will put Spell Queller and Drogskol Captain out of reach of Lightning Bolt, while giving us late-game inevitability in form of unblockable lifelinker. Will probably try it as a 2-of but I feel that it doesn't have enough targets since we have only 8 mainboard u/w spirits.
Sorin, Solemn Visitor
- I've been recently playing a bit of BW tokens online and noticed how strong Sorin's effect is in swinging the game. It allows us to have late-game lifegain and stabilization while providing an anthem effect on every +1, with a backbreaking -6 to sweeten the deal. He might be a bit slow in this deck and his effect could be achieved with
Vault of the Archangel
but is probably worth trying out as a 2-of.
Zealous Persecution
- A removal spell and a pump effect all in one. Clears our X/1 creatures on opponent's side of the board, be it Memnites/Pests or Lingering Souls tokens, while adding more punch when swinging in with the spirits. If
Favorable Winds
turns out to not be effective as a 2-of,
Zealous Persecution
will take its spot next.
Conclusion
I would like some feedback on the deck - whether there is too much interaction or the wrong kind of interaction, not enough creatures or punchthrough to close out a game. Anything goes, thanks for reading.
