Geist of Saint Traft
is nothing new to the realm of Tiny Leaders (from what I've read), but I've not seen a deck that goes this heavy with Spirit-on-Spirit interaction. Most of the time this type of deck focuses a lot more on tempo and control with a lot more spells and very few creatures that slowly punch for the win about 2-4 damage at a time. I'd like to do that but faster and more repeatable with interesting creature interactions.
The first two creatures that I already love to play together in Standard are Topplegeist and
Nebelgast Herald
with the Modern addition of
Niblis of the Mist
. Mist is basically a 3 cost version of Topplegeist that only adds one extra power. It's not a good card, but in the singleton format it'll have to do. Now, this becomes repeatable with the inclusion of
Spectral Shepherd
to be able to return and replay the Topplegeist pretty much every upkeep. It's literally impossible to get Delirium (unless you are playing against some land hate) so you'll have to tap down creatures manually. Rattlechains fits in here as well to allow the tapping to occur at instant speed. The longer the game goes and the bigger your mana pool grows, the more you can tap, return, and replay the Topplegeist.
Niblis of the Urn
is a fun little spirit that taps an opposing creature when attacking which makes him one of the more aggressive creatures to put
Invocation of Saint Traft
on early in the game if you have it.
This is just a minor but enjoyable aspect of the deck.
Another aspect is removal which I originally had more heavily on spells and sacrifice effects but fell in love with
Nikko-Onna
. Nikko is repeatable all by herself as enchantment removal since every time a Spirits hits the table she can go back to your hand for free and then you can play her again and again to get rid of pesky Oblivion Rings and Journey to Nowhere that will likely try to stop you. That also fits in with the Herald just fine and Rattlechains lets you do this at any time. The speed of this also means that it should be pretty difficult to actually get rid of her since the only spells involve Flicker effects and the Shepherd can also keep her out of harms way to eat as many Enchantments as she wants. Detention Sphere is good for taking out any threat on the board, it's just too bad that the format is singleton and it can't be used to it's full potential. Oh well.
The third aspect is defense. The absolute superstars of the deck end up being Drogskol Captain and Kira, Great Glass-Spinner. The Captain gives everyone else Hexproof and Kira counters every direct target spell that might try to remove important creatures. The two together aren't entirely necessary other than they do protect each other. Drift of Phantasms is basically "put target Captain or Kira into your hand then shuffle your library". A 0/5 Wall is just fine too, but it's strictly better as a Tutor to get yourself some protection. Saving mana for Flicker effects to keep these guys alive is also pretty important. Momentary Blink and Saving Grasp are nice to have around in this format since they have Flashback for repeatable uses to save your important creatures. Selfless Spirit is another one-time panic button that can save your board from the likes of Radiant Flames which would otherwise be devastating, and flashing in a Kami of False Hope after tricking your opponent to attack all out into an open board could swing the game in your favor.
Rattlechains completely ups your game, so protecting him with
Neurok Stealthsuit
will be important until you can get Kira or the Captain onto the table and then you want to move the suit over to them.
Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit is an interesting creature with this lineup since there is so much play and replay of Spirits every turn, especially the longer the game goes on. This turns your otherwise pint-sized spirits into straight up scary ghosts that can fly to victory pretty quick. It ties in very well with Eerie Interlude, Displace, and Ghostly Flicker to rack up those +1/+1 counters. Interlude is best to use after blocks on your opponents turn so that you can fight back with the extra damage and used best as a finisher. It's unfortunate that if you flicker the same creature it loses it's +1/+1 counters, but that's why I thought the Undying ability on Stormbound Geist was interesting. He can die to basically anything, come back, get flickered, die again, come back, get flickered, die again, etc... Seemed too good not to.
I was a little hesitant to remove counter spells from the mix, but I thought that the amount of repeatable control would be enough. Just in case though, the closest thing to counter spells that aren't really counter spells are Spell Queller and
Ghost-Lit Warder
. Spell Queller is just a beast anyway, but in this format there's literally nothing that it can't Quell. The Warder is an odd duck, but it functions as a reasonably cheap and repeatable counter spell that should be able to buy plenty of time until Kira or the Captain can join the party to put the breaks on your opponents control. Also, he looks like Vivi the Black Mage from FFIX which always makes me smile.
Finally there's the Commander himself,
Geist of Saint Traft
. I've always thought it would be interesting to put
Invocation of Saint Traft
on the original Geist to generate two 4/4 Angel tokens with every swing. It's also a lot safer to do on turn 4 to attack for 10 in the air since he has Hexproof built right in. Puts your opponent on a swift timer. I considered ways to make him unblockable, but Flying is good enough and the +1/+1 from both the Captain and Always Watching make him a 4/4. Anafenza can also add Bolster counters to make him and the rest of your creatures much bigger than average to deal with.
So that does it, my first actual foray into the Tiny Leaders format. I want to first Proxy this deck to try out at our weekly game since we have several people that want to give Tiny Leaders a try, but this seems too fun not to get in paper. I would probably skip the Celestial Colonnade for obvious budget reasons, but most of the deck is pretty cheap and easy to come by. Please let me know what you think in the comments below, and as always don't forget to rock that +1 button :)
Thanks for reading!
