The aim of the deck is to create tempo plays on each turn to allow us to gain a slow and steady incremental advantage over our opponent. To do this we have to play intelligently on every turn and play a wide variety of spells so that we can answer or negate our opponents gameplan enough to allow us to win. A key play of the deck is to get a Rattlechains on the field, as this allows all our spirit cards to have flash, meaning we can leave up all instants and all creatures to play in response to our opponents spells. All of our creatures have abilities that effect the game when played so allowing us to flash in creatures at instant speed allows us to protect our creatures, counter target spells, increase creatures power/toughness and cause difficult combat math for our opponent. Our best tempo plays happen when we can resolve 1 or 2 early creatures and then leave all other spells to be played reactively based on our opponents decisions, this allows us to respond to any spell hitting the stack, judge if this new spell will hinder us winning the game by responding with our own spells or by flashing in any spirit at end of the turn to retain our advantage.
We want to see a turn 1 play in our starting hand, either Mausoleum Wanderer, Spectral Sailor or Aether Vial so we can start to put pressure on our opponent straight away. Mausoleum Wanderer is the best turn 1 play we can make and it allows us to start getting in a lot of damage in the air on our subsequent turns by hitting our creature curve and triggering his ability to get +1+1 for each spirit entering.
We will hopefully have a 2 CMC card in hand of Supreme Phantom, Selfless Spirit or Rattlechains so we can make the best play based on our opponents hand. Rattlechains is the best turn 2 play, as it allows us to play an end of turn spirit, protect our 1 drop if necessary and also make all of our subsequent spirits have flash. Rattlechains also enables an extra 2 damage in the air for our opponent to deal with, which doesn't sound much but is the type of value that this deck thrives on.
Turn 3 is where we will need to have a good understanding of magic and your opponents deck, as we will now want to make informed plays based on our opponents current board state and potential cards they could play. Usually it is best to hold up Spell Queller and Drogskol Captain (if we have rattlechains on board). However any card in your deck is now useful and you will need to work out if its best to tap out for an aggressive Drogskol Captain and go aggro or hold up flash spirits for protection. Usually if you are ahead at this point making sure to leave up your mana and spells is the best play.
Although we dont want to be hitting more than 4 lands it does enable us (without vial) to play 2 creates per turn and utilise the ability of Spectral Sailor if nessecary. Our aim will be to now close out the game as soon as we can by developing tempo plays and finding incremental damage by completing combat math and holding up tricks. This is where most of the intelligent plays are made and we will benefit greatly from learning the deck and how other decks interact with our cards.
Budget Considerations
Aether Vial ----- Serum Visions -> Opt - There isnt any replacement to aether vial, although the good news is theres doesnt need to be! If you dont own or dont want to buy this card, then replace it with effecient tempo cards such as Serum Visions, Opt or more tempo spirits.
Polluted Delta / Flooded Strand ----- Glacial Fortress -> Drowned Catacomb - You will need to be making a play on each of your first four turns, which will enable you to control the board and be able to respond to anything your opponent is doing to enable you to gain small advantages. If you aren't using fetch lands, take out the cards: Kaya's Guile and Zealous Persecution as these cards will be very difficult to cast. Without the black the deck loses slight advantages in certain matchups, however mana consistency is more important than the extra black splash.
Path to Exile ----- Vapor Snag -> Unsummon - I havent listed Condemn in this list as the lifegain can sometime negate a whole combat step, which is very detrimental with the little pieces of damage we can usually output. However vapor snag is a great way to get in 1 extra damage from the spell, has a lot of utility from making sure we can attack, to bouncing our own creatures for protection.
Skyclave Apparition ----- Kira, Great Glass-Spinner -> Unsettled Mariner - While there are no direct replacements to Skyclave, you would again want to find protection spirits to enable a high tempo, ultra protective plays. If you choose to not play with skyclave make sure to change the sideboard to adequately deal with artifacts and enchantments that the opponent may play.
Aether Vial is one of the best cards to have in your hand at the start of the game and the reason for just 2 of these is I don't want to lose tempo by drawing 3 or more of these in a game. If you do find both of these cards in your hand, make sure to put one on 2 counters and the other on 3.
This may seem like an odd splash for one mainboard card, however this card and the additional black cards in the sideboard really help on the harder matchups. All modes of this card are useful to us and the ability to create 2 1/1 spirits at instant speed can be agressive, defensive, or even a buff in combat, its super flexible and can even allow you to beat turn 1 graveyard decks.
This card allows us to grind through heavy removal matchups like jund or mono red burn. Although this can be replaced with Mutavault, I prefer the ability to create more spirits as this has the added advantage of flying and never has to risk itself in combat.
Probably the weakest card in our deck and I would love to replace this card with some better 1 drop spirit creature, but unfortunately there isn't currently one that I want to play. This card does have the upside that we can draw some cards but this will rarely be the best choice for the deck in most situations as you'll want to be winning or won by the time you have 4 extra mana and no plays to make.
Great card against combo and cascade which both want to cast multiple spells in a turn. Although don't overlook its 4 toughness as this can be useful in many situations. This card is an all-star against Burn/Living End/Restore Balance/Storm.
Worship is a card that can beat certain decks that havent come prepared to beat it. Spirits is a deck which has so a lot of creature protection which makes it very hard to get rid of all of our creatures at any point. So if we manage to play Worship it should buy us enough time to find a way to win.
One of the most difficult matchups for the deck are go wide decks such as elves, affinity, tokens, soul sisters and this card should help clear up all those small threats. Dont discount the positive effects to our creatures though as it can be used in the mirror and similar tricky combat situations for huge effect.
Magic the Gathering, FNM is TM and copyright Wizards of the Coast, Inc, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This site is unaffiliated. Articles and comments are user-submitted and do not represent official endorsements of this site.
