A while back somebody posted a deck designed to utilize Tallowisp and Glitterfang to tutor Auras and do fun things. It was pretty casual looking, but I liked the concept and would occasionally mull it over in my head. The more I thought about it, the more I decided I didn't love Glitterfang all that much, and so jumped on gatherer to peruse available modern spirits. There are some pretty nice ones that seem like they would jive nicely with Tallowisp.
I see the following cards as the beginnings of a Spirit based deck designed to take advantage of Tallowisp's tutoring.
From here I think you can go a lot of different ways, although you'll almost certainly want some number of:
Angelic Destiny - Turn two Wisp, turn 3 Geist, turn 4 Angelic seems pretty solid. Ethereal Armor - If you end up playing a decent number of auras and/or other enchantments (fairly likely), this seems good. Oppressive Rays / Pacifism / Arrest - A couple targeted removal spells that you can tutor up seem handy.
From here you could go with modern staples or utility cards, but that's boring. Instead, let's get weird.
Arcanum Wings + Eldrazi Conscription or similarly expensive and fun Auras. This just seems like good times. Horobi, Death's Wail + something that targets very cheaply. Preferably an aura of some sort. Haven't looked yet, but the fact that our team can easily be hexproof thanks to Drogskol Captain, and the fact that Horobi is a Spirit who synergizes with our deck, makes me feel like it could be really nice in creature match-ups. Probably way too cute to pursue... Swans of Bryn Argoll - speaking of cute, if you have a Spirit of the Labyrinth out, this guy gets very immune to damage with no downside. Even with Spirit of the Lab, it's still four mana, and might not actually be worth a slot. But the interaction seemed notable, so there you go. Evershrike - I suppose in grindy match ups? Threads of Disloyalty / Domestication / Mind Control - Not typically constructed fare, but being able to tutor up a one-of might be neat. Threads can do a very neat impression of a $200 card... Kor Spiritdancer / Dimir Cutpurse - It's entirely possible that stopping people from drawing cards isn't the way to go. If we decide Spirit of the lab isn't doing enough work, we could dump him and go with these guys instead. Spiritdancer doesn't play well with the spirit theme, but the effect seems powerful enough to make up for it. Sovereigns of Lost Alara - This would push you towards needing some ramp, which in turn pushes you toward the Mythic Conscription deck, but it certainly works well with the rest of the deck.
Shoals - As 'Arcane' spells, they trigger tallowisp, and of course tallowisp can fetch something that fuels them. Neat interaction, right?
What do you all think? I'm sure there are a million combos I'm missing. The tough part in trying to play it competitively would be staying alive long enough to do anything vs. aggro/combo. We need a fast way to interact. Counterspells leave a tad to be desired in modern, so we'd probably have to add black for Inquisition and such. I imagine the midrange match-up is decent, although Spirit doesn't stop Dark Confidant, so who knows. If I sleeve it up I'll post some match reports.
One of the things we learned from the Ghost Dad days is that Tallowisp is card advantage, but it's not always great card advantage. Three or four total auras maybe enough. The one thing you can tutor for is removal, so have one to three of them be removal effects better than Pacifism and Enfeeblement.
Look at cards that discard other cards, since it's easy to discard a worthless aura spell as part of another spell. Disrupting Shoal and the white version are both playable in this kind of deck.
You won't always be able to find a Tallowisp. So make sure the rest of the deck is playable without Tallowisp.
As for Drogskol Captain, I've been wanting to pair him with Phantasmal Image, Phyrexian Metamorph, and some other number of bad clone spells. Having two Captains in play is so much stronger than one. Copying a captain also gets around Phantasmal Images biggest weakness.
Funny weird idea I've had is pairing it with Amrou Scout to look for a single copy of Mirror Entity.
I've had a hard time making this work because this deck is a little slow for Modern and the good cards against combo decks would include counter spells, but keeping up mana kinda makes it hard to keep moving forward with setting up a good board state. Good luck, I'll help if I can.
Nice call on Moorland Haunt, forgot all about it. I do like the idea of both Shining Shoal and Disrupting Shoal. I like disrupting better, but that pushes me into using the blue 'creature removal' enchantments, and they aren't really that hot.
Counterspells along with Eidolon of Rhetoric sound pretty good.
As for your Drogskol Captain deck, if you ran Tallowisp it could fetch Infinite Reflection for an alpha strike. Probably way too expensive at 6 mana, though.
I don't like any of our one-drop creature options, either. Maybe Ghost-lit Redeemer out of the side vs. burn? Lantern Kami??? Even with our built-in spirit synergy, they just don't seem strong enough for modern. Going 3 color for black and it's discard spells seems like something to consider.
Also, I'm not sure what card you're trying to suggest. Auto-card not working for it and I've tried a couple different spellings to no success.
Couldn't find any auras I liked to combo with Horobi, Death's Wail, but I did spy Cauldron Haze in my gatherer search. Seems like a pretty nasty one-sided board wipe, and it can save most of our critters vs. opposing boardwipes as well (assuming no Horobi on the battlefield, of course). I kind of like it.
As for what kind of deck we are, there is just not enough explosiveness to compete with real aggro decks. I think we're firmly in the mid-range camp with the basic shell, and it can be tuned to be more controlling or less, depending on your preferred style of play and/or your meta.
If you're going all in on spirits, and running black, one card worth being aware of is Devouring Greed (and potentially Harsh Sustenance?) since it's a fat life drain if powered off Moorland tokens.
If you do run Cauldron Haze, that sets it up quite nicely.
There was a tempo based deck use to exist a few years back that took advantage of the tallowisp package and got some results in some dailies, I'll try find the lists and post them.
My rough draft is much closer to Gavin's list than Sacher's, but I am running closer to the full set of Disrupting Shoals than Gavin is.
Academy Researchers is pretty sweet tech, but also a little risky with no hexproof potential. I'll have to think on that a bit. Kira seems somewhat counterproductive...but Drift of Phantasms seems pretty slick. I'd already tentatively added Muddle the Mixture to my rough draft, so I'll have to mull Drift over.
When you want to abuse Tallowisp look at the old Ghost Dad List from the old Kamigawa/Ravnica Standard. It was a DTB back in the day, maybe you find something you can use (e.g. the Shoals).
Greetings,
Kathal
Private Mod Note
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What I play or have:
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
My rough draft is much closer to Gavin's list than Sacher's, but I am running closer to the full set of Disrupting Shoals than Gavin is.
Academy Researchers is pretty sweet tech, but also a little risky with no hexproof potential. I'll have to think on that a bit. Kira seems somewhat counterproductive...but Drift of Phantasms seems pretty slick. I'd already tentatively added Muddle the Mixture to my rough draft, so I'll have to mull Drift over.
I'm with you. Intuitive ly Gavin's list looks better. But I think Gavin's list is too fair for Modern, it would be an excellent Standard list, but just not enough for Modern. Curve is too slow and there aren't enough ways to interact with your opponent. When you combo with Gavin's list, you don't just win.
With AJ's list, you can just win. AJ is a pro tour calibre player. So there is a reason he likes that decklist.
My gut says these decks do similar things and work like this: Infect>Boggles>AJs list>Gavin's list
Without some new cards or new tech this is probably how it will stay.
I'll say it again, what we were trying to build which is closer to Gavin's list seems more fun to play, so I want to work on it. Just saying we probably need to be innovative to make it competitive.
If you're going all in on spirits, and running black, one card worth being aware of is Devouring Greed (and potentially Harsh Sustenance?) since it's a fat life drain if powered off Moorland tokens.
If you do run Cauldron Haze, that sets it up quite nicely.
My rough draft is much closer to Gavin's list than Sacher's, but I am running closer to the full set of Disrupting Shoals than Gavin is.
Academy Researchers is pretty sweet tech, but also a little risky with no hexproof potential. I'll have to think on that a bit. Kira seems somewhat counterproductive...but Drift of Phantasms seems pretty slick. I'd already tentatively added Muddle the Mixture to my rough draft, so I'll have to mull Drift over.
I'm with you. Intuitive ly Gavin's list looks better. But I think Gavin's list is too fair for Modern, it would be an excellent Standard list, but just not enough for Modern. Curve is too slow and there aren't enough ways to interact with your opponent. When you combo with Gavin's list, you don't just win.
With AJ's list, you can just win. AJ is a pro tour calibre player. So there is a reason he likes that decklist.
My gut says these decks do similar things and work like this: Infect>Boggles>AJs list>Gavin's list
Without some new cards or new tech this is probably how it will stay.
I'll say it again, what we were trying to build which is closer to Gavin's list seems more fun to play, so I want to work on it. Just saying we probably need to be innovative to make it competitive.
Sadly, I almost never play paper magic anymore, and I have no Geist of Saint Traft online, so testing will be sporadic at best. I wanted to try a 2 color deck first, and the following list is where I ended up as a starting point. Kind of a blend between the two above lists, actually.
So the idea is to slow it down to one draw per turn and one spell per turn, and then be the dude holding a handful of counterspells and tutoring for card advantage. If it turns out that Spirit of the Lab isn't good enough in this meta (lots of card draw via Dark Confidant, which bypasses my hate), and if Eidolon of Rhetoric ends up favoring decks playing more individually powerful threats (Siege Rhino?), then some major changes would need to take place.
It seems that Threads of Disloyalty can't be tutored up via Tallowisp, which makes me sad, so that might change to a different 3 cc blue Aura.
I'm assuming we have a decent match up against fair decks, thanks to Geist of Saint Traft + Steel of the Godhead. If that turns out to be the case, the Spell Snares could maybe become Negates (although I love that they are 1 cc).
Finally acquired a few GoST for online play. Due to lands I currently own, the Esper version I contemplated (above) actually ended up being easier to construct. Very preliminary testing has me intrigued. But one thing is bugging me, and perhaps a rules guru can straighten me out. Is Encrust really not supposed to be searchable via Tallowisp? Modo bug, or does the 'or artifact' completely negate the fact that it's quite obviously an "Enchant creature" as well?
Hi, I love your Toshiro's deck (i call Toshiro, The Original Sinner Deck, for the bible's apple )
I love kamigawa and I try to play a spirit deck in modern, i try this:
Blue Dad is really a good deck, i think we need to understand the future
Tempo, mindrange or agro?
i love play Shoal, the white one is really powerfull in this list, the blue one maybe need a more specific 2 blue-mana drops.
i think deck is best in blue version, i need to try Spirit of the Labyrinth and Spectral Rider, with the first i need to remove serum vions and Curiosity, i think i need 1 more land, and there's a interessant Hyden humbra to try
Sorry for my (very) bad english.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Well, I think I'll try the deck again when I acquire a full playset of Disrupting Shoal. After my initial success with the deck, I went on a pretty serious losing streak. Seems like every deck I was facing had maindeck ways to deal with my enchantments. Jumping through hoops to get an Eldrazi Conscription on one of my guys just to get it destroyed/exiled was frustrating.
Your B/W list is pretty interesting futhead. There is something satisfying about lifedrain.
I too have been looking back at this deck and there are two cards I like that help with the controllish build of Tallowisp
Ephara's Enlightenment which just makes Geist bigger and bigger every time he attacks. and Plumes of Peace, which taps down a creature of your choice. And Unstable Mutation is always funny. All three also works great with both Disrupting and Shining Shoal.
I was interested to see what a spirits deck like this would look like with the inclusion of Topplegeist, a powerful one drop. After some online testing, I've had positive results. I started with just U/W, but added black and it feels right.
The deck plays an alright tempo game, but has great resiliency going into the late game with the card advantage, life-gain, and hexproofness. Mistveil Plains is something I'm testing to recur auras for the really grindy games. Topplegeist is great early and late, and can be easily boarded out against very creature-light decks. Delirium isn't that hard to get to, especially with a Nameless Inversion in the grave. Nameless also triggers Tallowisp, which is the deck's all-star of course, and sometimes 2-for-1ing is really dirty. Will-O-Wisp and Pariah is a possibility, and Pariah can really stymie mid range. Prison term is just OK, but really shines against Eldrazi. Play it on a Mimic, and then swap it over to Reality Smasher to dodge Smasher's discard ability.
I'm excited about this deck's possibility, and can't wait to see what other spirits or spirit support might come out in SoI.
I very much like the look of Topplegeist. It's definitely better than any current one-drop spirits.
Also, the newly spoiled Bygone Bishop is intriguing as well. I've been playing Spirit of the Labyrinth in my list, and it really hasn't been doing all that much. I could see a couple Bygone Bishop making their way into the list for grindy matchups.
There were a couple other spirit based threads that were more active, so I've basicslly been lurking in those for ideas. But at the time of my last post, Rattlechains hadn't been spoiled yet. He is, however, super duper awesome and will be a four-of in my next version of the deck. A version that will, indeed, be a bit heavier on the counterspells.
Once SoI is released online, I'll spring for my last couple Disrupting Shoals and get some testing in.
I see the following cards as the beginnings of a Spirit based deck designed to take advantage of Tallowisp's tutoring.
Tallowisp
Geist of Saint Traft
Drogskol Captain
Spirit of the Labyrinth
Cavern of Souls
If we want more creatures, I think worthy considerations for main/side could be:
Eidolon of Rhetoric
Eidolon of Countless Battles
From here I think you can go a lot of different ways, although you'll almost certainly want some number of:
Angelic Destiny - Turn two Wisp, turn 3 Geist, turn 4 Angelic seems pretty solid.
Ethereal Armor - If you end up playing a decent number of auras and/or other enchantments (fairly likely), this seems good.
Oppressive Rays / Pacifism / Arrest - A couple targeted removal spells that you can tutor up seem handy.
From here you could go with modern staples or utility cards, but that's boring. Instead, let's get weird.
Arcanum Wings + Eldrazi Conscription or similarly expensive and fun Auras. This just seems like good times.
Horobi, Death's Wail + something that targets very cheaply. Preferably an aura of some sort. Haven't looked yet, but the fact that our team can easily be hexproof thanks to Drogskol Captain, and the fact that Horobi is a Spirit who synergizes with our deck, makes me feel like it could be really nice in creature match-ups. Probably way too cute to pursue...
Swans of Bryn Argoll - speaking of cute, if you have a Spirit of the Labyrinth out, this guy gets very immune to damage with no downside. Even with Spirit of the Lab, it's still four mana, and might not actually be worth a slot. But the interaction seemed notable, so there you go.
Evershrike - I suppose in grindy match ups?
Threads of Disloyalty / Domestication / Mind Control - Not typically constructed fare, but being able to tutor up a one-of might be neat. Threads can do a very neat impression of a $200 card...
Kor Spiritdancer / Dimir Cutpurse - It's entirely possible that stopping people from drawing cards isn't the way to go. If we decide Spirit of the lab isn't doing enough work, we could dump him and go with these guys instead. Spiritdancer doesn't play well with the spirit theme, but the effect seems powerful enough to make up for it.
Sovereigns of Lost Alara - This would push you towards needing some ramp, which in turn pushes you toward the Mythic Conscription deck, but it certainly works well with the rest of the deck.
Shoals - As 'Arcane' spells, they trigger tallowisp, and of course tallowisp can fetch something that fuels them. Neat interaction, right?
What do you all think? I'm sure there are a million combos I'm missing. The tough part in trying to play it competitively would be staying alive long enough to do anything vs. aggro/combo. We need a fast way to interact. Counterspells leave a tad to be desired in modern, so we'd probably have to add black for Inquisition and such. I imagine the midrange match-up is decent, although Spirit doesn't stop Dark Confidant, so who knows. If I sleeve it up I'll post some match reports.
You'll want Moorland Haunt as a land.
One of the things we learned from the Ghost Dad days is that Tallowisp is card advantage, but it's not always great card advantage. Three or four total auras maybe enough. The one thing you can tutor for is removal, so have one to three of them be removal effects better than Pacifism and Enfeeblement.
Look at cards that discard other cards, since it's easy to discard a worthless aura spell as part of another spell. Disrupting Shoal and the white version are both playable in this kind of deck.
You won't always be able to find a Tallowisp. So make sure the rest of the deck is playable without Tallowisp.
As for Drogskol Captain, I've been wanting to pair him with Phantasmal Image, Phyrexian Metamorph, and some other number of bad clone spells. Having two Captains in play is so much stronger than one. Copying a captain also gets around Phantasmal Images biggest weakness.
Funny weird idea I've had is pairing it with Amrou Scout to look for a single copy of Mirror Entity.
I've had a hard time making this work because this deck is a little slow for Modern and the good cards against combo decks would include counter spells, but keeping up mana kinda makes it hard to keep moving forward with setting up a good board state. Good luck, I'll help if I can.
Counterspells along with Eidolon of Rhetoric sound pretty good.
As for your Drogskol Captain deck, if you ran Tallowisp it could fetch Infinite Reflection for an alpha strike. Probably way too expensive at 6 mana, though.
Big problem is finding a direction to go. Is this a combo deck, Aggro deck? Midrange deck?
I'm really not seeing any playable one drops.
Also, I'm not sure what card you're trying to suggest. Auto-card not working for it and I've tried a couple different spellings to no success.
*Edit* Nevermind, found it. Crystallization does seem good if you're going with Disrupting Shoal/Shining Shoal.
As for what kind of deck we are, there is just not enough explosiveness to compete with real aggro decks. I think we're firmly in the mid-range camp with the basic shell, and it can be tuned to be more controlling or less, depending on your preferred style of play and/or your meta.
If you do run Cauldron Haze, that sets it up quite nicely.
http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/rc/198
1 Eiganjo Castle
2 Glacial Fortress
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
2 Marsh Flats
2 Moorland Haunt
2 Plains
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Seachrome Coast
24 lands
4 Drogskol Captain
2 Dungeon Geists
4 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Spellskite
4 Tallowisp
16 creatures
1 Disrupting Shoal
2 Mana Leak
1 Mind Control
4 Path to Exile
4 Remand
2 Spell Snare
3 Steel of the Godhead
2 Temporal Isolation
20 other spells
1 Disenchant
1 Hyena Umbra
3 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Recumbent Bliss
3 Shining Shoal
3 Spell Pierce
1 Steel of the Godhead
2 Vendilion Clique
15 sideboard cards
FYI, there is a Boros version of this that did win. I'll see if I can find it.
2 Reach through Mists
4 Serum Visions
2 Arcanum Wings
1 Curse of Chains
4 Tallowisp
1 Unflinching Courage
4 Academy Researchers
1 Drift of Phantasms
4 Geist of Saint Draft
1 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
1 Gigantiform
4 Eldrozi Conscription
4 Disrupting Shoal
2 Island
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Celestial Colonnade
1 Moorland Haunt
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarns
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Hallowed Fountain
2 Temple Garden
2 Breeding Pool
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Leyline of Santity
3 Kataki, Wars Wa
3 Unflinching Courage
2 Dispel
3 Path to Exile
Academy Researchers is pretty sweet tech, but also a little risky with no hexproof potential. I'll have to think on that a bit. Kira seems somewhat counterproductive...but Drift of Phantasms seems pretty slick. I'd already tentatively added Muddle the Mixture to my rough draft, so I'll have to mull Drift over.
Greetings,
Kathal
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
I'm with you. Intuitive ly Gavin's list looks better. But I think Gavin's list is too fair for Modern, it would be an excellent Standard list, but just not enough for Modern. Curve is too slow and there aren't enough ways to interact with your opponent. When you combo with Gavin's list, you don't just win.
With AJ's list, you can just win. AJ is a pro tour calibre player. So there is a reason he likes that decklist.
My gut says these decks do similar things and work like this: Infect>Boggles>AJs list>Gavin's list
Without some new cards or new tech this is probably how it will stay.
I'll say it again, what we were trying to build which is closer to Gavin's list seems more fun to play, so I want to work on it. Just saying we probably need to be innovative to make it competitive.
Thank you. Devouring Greed does seem pretty awesome. Particularly with Lingering Souls. And it triggers Tallowisp. Interesting.
Sadly, I almost never play paper magic anymore, and I have no Geist of Saint Traft online, so testing will be sporadic at best. I wanted to try a 2 color deck first, and the following list is where I ended up as a starting point. Kind of a blend between the two above lists, actually.
4 Spirit of the Labyrinth
4 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Drogskol Captain
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Arcanum Wings
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Angelic Destiny
1 Eldrazi Conscription
1 Crystallization
1 Curse of Chains
1 Encrust
1 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Domestication
3 Spell Snare
2 Muddle the Mixture
4 Cavern of Souls
2 Moorland Haunt
18 other lands
1 Ethreal Armor
1 Cauldron Haze
1 Eel Umbra
1 Familiar's Ruse
1 Kor Spiritdancer
1 Narcolepsy
1 Pacifism
1 Shining Shoal
1 Arrest
1 Claustrophobia
1 Dimir Cutpurse
1 Eidolon of Countless Battles
1 Nikko-Onna
1 Plumes of Peace
1 Call to the Kindred
1 Horobi, Death's Wail
1 Swans of Bryn Argoll
1 Evershrike
1 Followed Footsteps
1 Infinite Reflection
1 Sovereigns of Lost Alara
1 Devouring Greed
1 Lingering Souls
1 Academy Researchers
1 Drift of Phantasms
So the idea is to slow it down to one draw per turn and one spell per turn, and then be the dude holding a handful of counterspells and tutoring for card advantage. If it turns out that Spirit of the Lab isn't good enough in this meta (lots of card draw via Dark Confidant, which bypasses my hate), and if Eidolon of Rhetoric ends up favoring decks playing more individually powerful threats (Siege Rhino?), then some major changes would need to take place.
It seems that Threads of Disloyalty can't be tutored up via Tallowisp, which makes me sad, so that might change to a different 3 cc blue Aura.
I'm assuming we have a decent match up against fair decks, thanks to Geist of Saint Traft + Steel of the Godhead. If that turns out to be the case, the Spell Snares could maybe become Negates (although I love that they are 1 cc).
Finally acquired a few GoST for online play. Due to lands I currently own, the Esper version I contemplated (above) actually ended up being easier to construct. Very preliminary testing has me intrigued. But one thing is bugging me, and perhaps a rules guru can straighten me out. Is Encrust really not supposed to be searchable via Tallowisp? Modo bug, or does the 'or artifact' completely negate the fact that it's quite obviously an "Enchant creature" as well?
I love kamigawa and I try to play a spirit deck in modern, i try this:
3 Kami of False Hope
4 Tallowisp
3 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
1 Kataki, War's Wage
4 Thief of Hope
2 Ghost Council of Orzhova
3 Obzedat, Ghost Council
4 Sickening Shoal
3 Shining Shoal
2 Nameless Inversion
1 Hideous Laughter
Enchantment 7
2 Angelic Destiny
3 Pillory of the Sleepless
1 Gift of Orzhova
1 One Thousand Lashes
4 Isolated Chapel
2 Godless Shrine
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
8 Plains
6 Swamp
I play budget lands, but the deck is really fun to play, i think is not finish to test.
I testing a more solid list with blue
4 Tallowisp
3 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
4 Drogskol Captain
4 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Dungeon Geists
1 Kami of False Hope
Enchantment 10
4 Steel of the Godhead
3 Crystallization
1 Angelic Destiny
1 Curiosity
1 Ethereal Armor
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Other Spell 10
2 Path to Exile
1 Disrupting Shoal
3 Shining Shoal
1 Dispel
2 Serum Visions
Lands 22
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Seachrome Coast
4 Island
5 Plains
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Moorland Haunt
Blue Dad is really a good deck, i think we need to understand the future
Tempo, mindrange or agro?
i love play Shoal, the white one is really powerfull in this list, the blue one maybe need a more specific 2 blue-mana drops.
i think deck is best in blue version, i need to try
Spirit of the Labyrinth and Spectral Rider, with the first i need to remove serum vions and Curiosity, i think i need 1 more land, and there's a interessant Hyden humbra to try
Sorry for my (very) bad english.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Your B/W list is pretty interesting futhead. There is something satisfying about lifedrain.
I too have been looking back at this deck and there are two cards I like that help with the controllish build of Tallowisp
Ephara's Enlightenment which just makes Geist bigger and bigger every time he attacks. and Plumes of Peace, which taps down a creature of your choice. And Unstable Mutation is always funny. All three also works great with both Disrupting and Shining Shoal.
Modern Tallowisp Spirits - A Modern Tallowisp Deck UW
Eldrazi Ninjas - Summoning Octopus Jutsu YYYYAAAHHHH!
STANDARD
Naban Wizards
4 Topplegeist
1 Will-O'-The-Wisp
4 Tallowisp
2 Dark Confidant
1 Phantasmal Image
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
4 Drogskol Captain
4 Geist of Saint Traft
Other Permanents: 5
1 Spirit Link
2 Steel of the Godhead
1 Prison Term
1 Pariah
Instants/Sorceries: 9
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Path to Exile
2 Nameless Inversion
1 Aether Vial
4 Marsh Flats
4 Flooded Strand
2 Godless Shrine
1 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Swamp
2 Plains
1 Island
2 Mutavault
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Mistveil Plains
3 Cavern of Souls
3 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Azorius Herald
3 Mana Leak
1 Nikko-Onna
3 Windborn Muse
1 Twisted Image
1 Bojuka Bog
The deck plays an alright tempo game, but has great resiliency going into the late game with the card advantage, life-gain, and hexproofness. Mistveil Plains is something I'm testing to recur auras for the really grindy games. Topplegeist is great early and late, and can be easily boarded out against very creature-light decks. Delirium isn't that hard to get to, especially with a Nameless Inversion in the grave. Nameless also triggers Tallowisp, which is the deck's all-star of course, and sometimes 2-for-1ing is really dirty. Will-O-Wisp and Pariah is a possibility, and Pariah can really stymie mid range. Prison term is just OK, but really shines against Eldrazi. Play it on a Mimic, and then swap it over to Reality Smasher to dodge Smasher's discard ability.
I'm excited about this deck's possibility, and can't wait to see what other spirits or spirit support might come out in SoI.
Also, the newly spoiled Bygone Bishop is intriguing as well. I've been playing Spirit of the Labyrinth in my list, and it really hasn't been doing all that much. I could see a couple Bygone Bishop making their way into the list for grindy matchups.
Once SoI is released online, I'll spring for my last couple Disrupting Shoals and get some testing in.
My Peasant-Cube-in-Progress http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/15395