No standard tonight: finished work too late to make it.

You can replace Gideon with Always Watching . As for the copter, it does something unique (that I listed above). There are Spirits or equipment you could run instead (I'm partial to Stitcher's Graft), but there's no direct replacement.

As for Revolutionary Rebuff, it's great against our main enemy, Ishkanah, Grafwidow and useful against most spells. Negate is a good choice as well, but not good against all decks, unlike Rebuff.

And two problems of Always watching is that you play it when you are already only ahead, bringing nothing special, except for wanderer. And you break your initial gameplay to play at opponent's turn, again for greed play. Also you are not happy to draw it later. I think for that this card is not good enough in competitive environment.

Negates hits removals, copters and co, Liliana and co, it's a strong card. I also like Essence Flux when I played it. If you find really worth to play Mausoleum Wanderer and do kinda play like above, I take out Thraben inspector and yes, we can run some counters. But for rebuff I am not sure at all. It punishes only a opponent playing on curve and in competition with so much azorius decks played, it rarely happens (and it's also for that I am underestimate wanderer). Most powerful counter for me is Void Shatter as it exiles the spell. Spell shrivel is alternative but in this deck and with our mana base balanced between 2 colors we are not worry about double occurency of blue, as many others in white. Then I can understand that you are reticent to up your 3 manas curve, I am also but this card is a real deal.

But you really don't want to play some draw ? xD Jace, glimmer, Ongoing Investigation something (troll, but this last card does magic :D)

Are you satisfied by your sideboard ? I feel like some cards are redondant. Blessed alliance and Declaration in stone and Void shatter. When I use my side, I feel like I need more Void shatter to counter a Ishkanah than a declaration, same feeling about Avacyn. Against aggro our main deck is already excellent. Against Vehicle (like boros) Fragmentize is quite bad idea because opponent will side Skysovereign to snipe our spirits. Blessed alliance is usefull against mono-red burn and Gruul stompy. Declaration I still wonder me, maybe reanimator. Ceremonious rejection is well at 2 copies to anticipate Eldrazi match-up or Marvel. Summary dismissal is also good at 2 copies, against madness, reanimator (Prized amalgram and co) and Emrakul decks. I know it's a bit redundant with Mausoleum wanderer but I like a 2 copies of Dispel and Negates against control.

Honestly I say all that and insist too much about stability of the deck, it's because I am convinced by your list that is so strong and I would be glad to play it on next grand prix. My goal is to do day 2 and this deck can do it, even with huge amount of other azorius deck around. I want to thank you Spinifex, this is a wonderfull list

What do you think about all that ?

Given how many spirits you have, Drogskol Captain might be nice for the hexproof.

The main reason for Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is for the Anthem effect: it protects your spirits against Liliana, the Last Hope and Archangel Avacyn  ^Flip from Grasp of Darkness. Thus, it can be replaced, on budget, by Always Watching . Is it as good? No, of course not: Always Watching is very poor against control decks, while Gideon shines there.

Don't forget this is a tempo deck: countering a play on curve is exactly what we want to do. Yes, Negate is a great choice, no questions about it, but it was better in a time when Languish was the card we were afraid of. I want to counter both Liliana, the Last Hope AND Ishkanah, Grafwidow. If you manage the latter on turn 5, you probably have won the game. 3 mana counterspells and Negates are available in the side. Void Shatter is better than Spell Shrivel, except for the mana requirement.

According to this very handy reference, I would need 19 and 18 sources to hit Void Shatter on turn 3 and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar on turn 4. I have 15 and 17 respectively. You can't play both reliably without resorting to taplands, Evolving Wilds or Aether Hub, which I do not want to do.

I could see a single Jace on the side, but then I would want more mana sources to hit my 5-drops more reliably. Ongoing Investigation could be nice, but I think Key to the City is a better choice: it lets us attack through all the Ishkanahs in the world and allows us to draw more cards when we are in top deck mode. In any case, I simply don't want to devote space for card draws: counters are better than draws in a tempo deck, IMHO.

The sideboard works fairly well:

-Delirium: Spell Shrivel, Negate and Declaration in Stone instead of Stasis Snare and Selfless Spirit (he doesn't save us from their removal).

-Aggro: Declaration in Stone and Blessed Alliance (also some Fragmentize if vehicles based) instead of Mausoleum Wanderer and probably a couple of Gideon, Ally of Zendikar or Archangel Avacyn  ^Flip.

-Control: Negate against Reflector Mage. Maybe Spell Shrivel and/or Ceremonious Rejection, depending on the deck.

-Mirror: Spell Shrivel against Mausoleum Wanderer.

The sideboard is always a work in progress, since the metagame always shifts around.

@ cornpie987387: Drogskol Captain is not in Standard.

Thank your very much for these explanations, and this article linked. I understand better now. You are really good. I will train myself thanks these advices :)

Well, I think I've done everything I wanted with this deck. I feel this deck has good games against most of the field, but that it's actually pretty bad in the mirror match: Mausoleum Wanderer does nothing against Stasis Snare, while Thraben Inspector cantrips. Also, I can't always hit blue mana on turn 1.

I'll be switching to Jim Davis's Esper Aggro deck: I feel it is a better tempo/aggro build then what I have at the moment. The actual build I hope to play on Friday will be forthcoming.

I feel it is the good way. I was in GP Madrid with a Flash azorius. Innovation I was done is to include main deck 2 Bruna and 2 Gisela and the deck was better. But it lacks of early game if you don't have outside.

I didn't choose your deck as I was so charmed because of the mirror mainly and that creatures on flash doesn't need other to works, as Nebelgast does, while in play I like better your deck as ALL things have flash. Thraben inspector is better anyway. For aether revolt, the Stifle for 3 should be the main include

I thank you anyway for all you did. You are awesome

Hey Spinifex ! After 3 bans I am sure that spirit is the way to continue to play aggro-tempo and naturally I come to you. In replacment of Reflector mage and Smuggler's copter, I suggest Ongoing Investigation. We can go 3 copies of that, 3x Archangel Avacyn  ^Flip, 3x Stasis Snare, 2x Revolutionary Rebuff and last slot for Declaration in Stone. Depending meta, more Declaration can be added.

What do you think ? Also you test a ban version, green for Permeating Mass and Tamiyo, Field Researcher. Any opinion about this list, especially lands inside, compared to UW spirit ?

Oh and hapy new year ! :)

Happy new Year to you too.

Well, I was already off the Spirits deck before the bans, so I won't be playing this deck anymore. I don't think this deck will be very well placed with Aether Revolt, since we haven't received any new toys, and the Spider that preyed on Spirits is going to be stronger than before.

If it were me, I'd go back to something similar to pre-Kaladesh spirits, like this deck. Unfortunately, there are a few strikes against that deck: the loss of Reflector Mage, and the two good flying vehicles in Aether Revolt (Heart of Kiran and Aethersphere Harvester) that will block our flyers past turn 3.

As for Bant, it might work, but I always hated the manabase for Shards in Kaladesh. Forget Permeating Mass, it's really poor. The way for that deck is going with mainly green creatures (Sylvan Advocate, Tireless Tracker, Servant of the Conduit, Verdurous Gearhulk, Rogue Refiner, splashing White for Spell Queller, Selfless Spirit and Tamiyo, Field Researcher.

Or simply playing the Saheeli Twin Combo.

I wish you good luck in your endeavors. My Spirit cards (including my 4 foil Spell Quellers) are heading for Modern. At the moment, I am testing two decks for week one of Aether Revolt Standard, a W/G Humans deck and a G/B Aggro deck (that will probably evolve to a +1/+1 counter decks when I receive my AER cards), links below:

Meanwhile, in Innistrad (GW Humans)

Standard Spinifex

SCORE: 1 | 147 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS

Death(touch) and Gears

Standard* Spinifex

65 VIEWS

TL;DR: This deck is out, and my Spirit Cards are heading to Modern.

There is a WU Flash successor posted here. It seems like a good place to start rebuilding, though I would run Spell Shrivel over Metallic Rebuke.

I really like what she does, as all her argues. After, her list contains 10 artos so is her Metallic Rebuke really a Mana Leak ? If yes, that's huge upgrade of Revolutionary Rebuff and I would understand her 4 copies and 2 copies of Stasis Snare and no Declaration in Stone.

For g/w token this list sounds just perfect. But I dislike to have so few removals, only 2 here.

Thank you for this link.