It's no mystery that Innistrad is full of flavor.
Spirits and Sleuths are probably my favorite since they aren't just powerhouse Aggro cards or part of the whole good/evil thing that most of the set is going for. They are hardly even build around cards for their "crazy" abilities. I find Spirits to be all about the flavor and fun. Case and point, Topplegeist has got to be the top of my list for juicy, flavorful shenanigans. I simply must have all of them. I'm drafting next week and really wanted to have a strategy going into it, and this is the deck that I will ultimately try to create.
Enter our hero, the
Daring Sleuth
.
The only Human in the deck that I'm interested in for pure flavor as the protagonist, but also a decent flipped card with Prowess. Using Just the Wind or
Press for Answers
to tap blockers and boost with Prowess can be enough to score a win. Slowly.
Trail of Evidence
is a great way to generate clues with Chaplain's Blessing or
Invasive Surgery
since they don't carry Investigate on their own and making it a little easier to flip the Sleuth.
The Spirits are where the fun kicks in, and screwing with your opponents cards is what the Sleuth is here to Investigate in the first place, right?
"W-W-What was that...?"
Uninvited Geist
is the knock at the door that gets things spooky. With Skulk already onboard, it is incredibly easy to flip and Unblockable creatures tend to do some work. Topplegeist helps clear the way even more, and if Delirium kicks in then you can really lock down those pesky Werewolves, Vampires, Zombies, Angels, or even Eldrazi.
Essence Flux
helps improve Topplegeist's presence until Delirium kicks in. Rattlechains does a lot of things. Being able to Flash in and save a Spirit with Hexproof is one thing, but giving all of your Spirits Flash is awesome. Flash in a Topplegeist... What attacker? What blocker? Same thing with Just the Wind, it's all full of flavor and useful to score hits on your opponent. Skeleton Key adds to the annoyance by making even Topplegeist and Rattlechains pretty much unblockable while also being a floating key that lets you draw cards. Now how about that? Clearly Open the Armory is there to find the key, but can also be used to find
Trail of Evidence
to help with flipping your Sleuth and creating more card draw.
Startled Awake
is a wonderful card that fits beautifully in our story, while also being a powerhouse Mill. Bygone Bishop could be the Sleuths old boss or something, back from the Spirit Realm to tell him to get back to work! But actually he's a decent Clue generator and another Flyer to help clinch a win.
Warped Landscape
is an interesting update to Evolving Wilds, and it's Sacrifice is nice to fuel an extra card type in the Graveyard for Delirium.
Vessel of Ephemera is a nice Sideboard option with it's Sacrifice Mechanic to fuel Delirium much like
Warped Landscape
. Two 1/1 Flying Spirits aren't bad either. Not Forgotten works well with
Startled Awake
as a faster and cheaper means of re-using the Mill, but can also be used against Zombie reanimation and the like by putting important creatures on the bottom of their library. I think it's too situational for mainboard, but can really be a nice trade in against the right deck.
Declaration in Stone
speaks for itself as great removal, and
Eerie Interlude
is awesome anti-board wipe. Spectral Shepherd is useful to bounce your own Spirits to protect them against burn and removal as well, he just seemed happier on the Sideboard for situational use.
The
Thraben Gargoyle
and
Neglected Heirloom
are in Maybeboard because they don't fit the story quite as well, but would give a decent sized threat when used together if the little Spirits aren't getting it done on their own. Besides, Gargoyles and old timey knick-knacks are creepy. The rest of the Maybeboard is pretty much everything else from SOI that hits Color and Type, but miss for me in Flavor. They don't have quite as much Synergy either, but that isn't enough to rule them out if I've overlooked something. Tamiyo's Journal is definitely a great card that could replace
Trail of Evidence
, but it costs 2 more to play and otherwise removes a card type from the list and would make Delirium slightly harder to get for Topplegeist and
Invasive Surgery
. Though I am banking on getting there with: Creature, Instant, Sorcery, and Land, so that might not be a good enough reason.
Thanks for reading, and as always let me know what you think. The whole Scooby-Doo angle that I've seen floating around with this set is quite whimsical and it makes me very happy :)
UPDATE
Well, the draft has finally happened. I did not get several cards, but I got enough of them to see how these cards intertwine with each other. I've got to say, I was quite pleased.
So as it turns out, flipping the Sleuth is way easier than I had anticipated, as is hitting Delirium. I never needed
Trail of Evidence
, and
Vessel of Paramnesia
was great for getting to Delirium faster by targeting myself (if I didn't have it yet or if sacrificing the enchantment wasn't going to get me there), but also helps run the Mill win option if I was able to pull off
Startled Awake
. I didn't pull one anyways, but the power became obvious. Spectral Shepherd turned out to make big plays, and being able to bounce and replay Topplegeist really added to the control aspect of the deck. Nagging Thoughts also turned out to be a great way to dig for cards while fueling Delirium at the same time, and I hadn't even considered it before.
Press for Answers
was also a big player against all those huge Werewolves, I wasn't sure how effective it was going to be until I saw it in action.
Ethereal Guidance
was another card that I didn't have on the list that actually won a few rounds that I absolutely was not going to win. Not Forgotten was a lot better than I had anticipated and actually allowed me to shift the pace of a few games by taking Delirium away from my opponent and making them put a land from their graveyard back into their library. I was also able to do some interesting things by putting cards back onto my library and then using Clues to draw them immediately and replay them.
Overall, the Draft today served as proof of concept. This deck will work very well against most others, especially Werewolf and Vampire heavy Aggro decks since you can pretty quickly and easily subdue all their big creatures. Where I struggled a bit was dealing damage fast enough to win first, but I only had 8 Spirits in my entire deck and couldn't do enough with the limited card pool. I'm certain that having a full playset as well as adding Rattlechains and
Uninvited Geist
I'll have no problem putting anyone down. It will add the protection, speed, and aggro that I was missing tonight to win more consistently. Can't wait to finish putting this together.
