where is this writing from? it looks pretty coolalso cool deck, thought of adding some geist of saint traft ?

It's a poem by Walt Whitman about the Death of Abraham Lincoln.

Geist of Saint Traft is, unfortunately, way outside my budget.

+1, for sure. Spirits are a fun tribe, especially when you have that suave ghost pirate leading the charge. I admit, I question having black in there at all, when the only card it currently supports is Mortify and the flashback for Lingering Souls . Don't get me wrong, it's great removal, but I think you're better off nixing the swamps and staying solely White/Blue.

Your first goal should be getting the Captains on the field. I'd suggest Drift of Phantasms which you can turn into Captains, maybe Call to the Kindred to pull out more of your spooks. Midnight Haunting is a decent substitute for Lingering Souls. There's also spirits like Phantom Nomad and Phantom Flock that when buffed essentially become immune to damage.

Thank you for the +1 and the feedback, TheGreatBooster. I think you're probably right about dropping black; there used to more black in the deck and the main reason I've been keeping it is for Lingering Souls, but it's probably not worth it. I definitely like the suggestion of Drift of Phantasms , I'll put that on the acquireboard for sure. Phantom Nomad and Flock aren't a bad idea, but I just can't stand the old card frame. I'll have to think about Call and Midnight Haunting a bit more.

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but might I suggest Kira, Great Glass-Spinner ? It doesn't pump your spirits like Drogskol Captain does, but it'll take at least 2 kill spells in a row to kill any of your creatures (barring a board wipe, of course). From experience, getting one of them out is a little easier than getting two captains out at the same time, as those guys tend to be removal bait as soon as they ETB. Obviously, that'd make casting Call to the Kindred that much harder to cast, but I think it could work.

Kira's definitely a good idea, but it's just too expensive for me.

Oblivion Ring / Banishing Light / Detention Sphere , I think are better than Arrest because it not only hits creatures, it hits planeswalkers, artifacts, and enchantments, and all of them are pretty budget. I would just take out the 4 Pacifism and 4 Arrest for 4 Banishing Light and 4 Detention Sphere /Oblivion Ring . Also Pacifism can't be fetched by Drift of Phantasms . Maybe put Spirit of the Labyrinth in the sideboard or main board in favor of combo/draw decks. I would take out 4 Ghostblade Eidolon because hard casting it would be a waste, and that six mana for bestow is insane, being that this deck is a aggro/midrange deck. I suggest replaces them with 4 Guardian of the Guildpact , this card is insane, it may not look like it in text, but I've played it in my after school club, and it could not get removed by anything, there are very little multi colored removal, and creature cards. Trust me this is a good card. Some side board cards that I would suggest: Kataki, War's Wage and Oversoul of Dusk , even though the 5 white is a killer, it is game wining card against 3 of 5 decks.

BTW I love spirit decks. Most of the ones I see run stuff like Lingering Souls , Spectral Procession , and Midnight Haunting , ya know, that repetitive stuff. I am really hyped to see a spirit deck that runs stuff so unique. Be sure to tell me how it does. +1

Thanks for the feedback and +1, DotaVeteran. The reason I'm running Arrest and Pacifism over things like Oblivion Ring is they're auras, so they can be tutored by Tallowisp . Oversoul of Dusk 's 5 W casting cost is way too restrictive for this deck; with 9 lands out of 24 that don't produce white mana, on average I'd need 8 lands before I'd be able to cast it. I could tweak the lands to improve that, but I think I'd be better off adding Pentarch Ward , which I'm considering.

I included Ghostblade Eidolon because the double strike means he gets extra benefit from the power boosting of Drogskol Captain and Celestial Crusader . I haven't been super overwhelmed with the result so far, but I'm going to test it out a bit more before I drop him.

I've put Spirit of the Labyrinth , Guardian of the Guildpact and Kataki, War's Wage into the maybeboard for now. They're all very good ideas.

Oh okay, I didn't catch that part. If you're going up against Burn/Aggro decks take Steel of the Godhead in the sideboard for the Lifelink to counter balance the damage. There probably are better life gain cards, but this is one that I know of that can get fetched by Tallowisp . Lifelink and Felidar Umbra are also good substitutes.

Is there a reason you completely eschew spirit tokens when they have so much support and are so efficient to produce?

Because they don't trigger Tallowisp , can't be put onto the battlefield by Call to the Kindred and can't be used to pay the cost of Moorland Haunt . This used to be Esper and have more of a token focus, but I ended up splitting that off into its own Orzhov token deck and I wanted to do something a little different with this.

OMG. +1 for the Walt Whitman reference alone.... One of my favorite poets. The deck is great. Just some thoughts on what to add.... Call to the Kindred , Drogskol Reaver , and Favorable Winds . I've had good things come from these.

Didn't see you already have cttk in the deck. Maybe add a second one for more consistency?

What are your thoughts on swapping out the Arrest for 4x Soul Tithe ? I know that it still lets them attack/block, but it can really slow down an opponent's tempo. Sure, they might just sac it (which is in most cases better than detaining them), but if they really want to keep the permanent out there (and note that it's a target permanent, not creature, so you can goof up enchantments as well), then you've basically slowed their tempo down by however many turns the permanent costs.

Also, if you're playing enchantments in a spirit deck, how about Sovereigns of Lost Alara ? Beautifully combos with Eldrazi Conscription or what have you.

I've got my own enchantment/spirit deck that I've uploaded here that's somewhat similar (it relies a little more on Traft, though). If you're looking for suggestions, it's done well before:

Also, I'm sure you know this, but just for reference, cuz I tried this at a modern tourney and found out it won't work, but you can't pull out any bestow creatures with Tallowisp . Apparently bestow creatures aren't auras unless the bestow cost is paid. Kinda obvious in retrospect, but I thought I had something great there for a while. Ah well.

Thank you for the +1, NicBudgetBuilderExtraordinaire, I'm glad you like the deck and the poem.

I actually just reduced the number of Call to the Kindred s from 3 to 1. With Tallowisp to tutor it up, I'm not super worried about consistency and it's not something I really want to draw until I've got a pair of Drogskols or a Saint Traft on the field to protect it. I might increase the number again, but I'm going to test it with just one for now.

I had completely disregarded Drogskol Reaver because I considered his CMC to be way too high for this deck, and it only just occurred to me that I can cheat him out with CttK. I might include him as a one-of.

Even though there's quite a lot of flying creatures in the deck, I actually don't think there are enough to include Favorable Winds . More of my creatures would benefit from Honor of the Pure , for example.

Fair enough. Still a good deck. Hey, BTW I have my own spirit deck, it's especially but if you want to check know it out, let me know what you think.

The deck is "The Next Ghost Shift is in Two Minutes"

*Esper not especially.... Autocorrect.

Thanks for the feedback, Sloanan. The problem with Soul Tithe is actually exactly what you mentioned; it's "Enchant nonland permanent", which means it can't be tutored by Tallowisp . Tallowisp requires it to be "Enchant creature".

Sovereigns of Lost Alara is not a bad idea, although Eldrazi Conscription is too expensive for me to include, so I won't have that combo. I'd have to change the deck around to have some more positive auras for him to grab, but I might go in that direction anyway. I've put him into the maybeboard for now.

Yeah, it would have been nice if bestow worked that way, but alas not.

Oh, crap. I know on gatherer Tallowisp had been errata'd into saying aura instead of enchant creature, but I just realized it still says enchant creature. I guess it's back to Curse of Chains . FUUUUU-

Ha ha ha, yeah it would be absurdly good if it allowed you to tutor any aura.

I'm actually very surprised no one caught that when I was playing modern at my local shop last week! And here I was thinking I'd stumbled onto something great when I came up with that combo. Dang!

Journey to Nowhere as opposed to Pacifism .

Journey to Nowhere isn't an aura, so it can't be tutored for with Tallowisp .

Lame_Duck: True...