I wanted the full playset of Selfless, but couldn't figure out what I wanted to cut for it. However, your comments on Kira vs Eidolon seem really sound and I think I'm going to make that change to see how it plays. This should also let me fit the 4th Selfless in too.
Hey guys (first time posting fyi) I am an avid(obsessed) bant spirits player, Ive played this deck every day for at least 6-9 months and I know it in-out-sideways....
I am being 100% honest when I say bant spirits can best any deck(almost). I regularly 4-1/5-0 leagues and rarely go negative.
Anyway I have a couple questions to the other spirit-o-holics.
What do you do against burn? Seriously worst matchup for me by far and I play 2 blessed alliance, 2 worship and 2 negates in my sb...
I don't know how to post decklists on here or I would, can I just type it?
There is definitely a difference between bant and u/w's matchup vs burn then, because i play vs red decks a lot and lose to them very rarely, although i must admit the games are often close. Another matchup where thalia, guardian of thraben is great, and recently eidolon of rhetoric has helped a lot too.
Based on my experience with the matchup i strongly suggest burrenton forge-tenderx2 in addition to blessed alliance x2 in the sideboard. Forge tender can come down turn one and negate one opposing creature for the rest of the matchup. She can turn the clock on our favor and can be cashed in when needed, a great card overall.
How do you feel about nebelgast herald and kira against burn?
Nebelgast i feel is not at its best here, their creatures come too early for it to matter and i'd rather trade my 2 drops with them when i can early on, the burn spells are more dangerous i think.
Hey, I'm currently looking for a deck to build to get into Modern and UW Sprits has come up as a deck of interest since I already own Vials and Caverns... I really like the looks of this list over the Taxes approach--I'd be interested in your thoughts on the card choices (especially sideboard as I haven't played Modern in years) and of course any results you have from testing... I could see myself just building your list if it's FNM-level competitive.
Hi guys, I just registered so I could post on this thread.
Spell Queller is one of my favorite card and I was trying to find somewhat of a cheap shell to play it and spirits appeared like a godsend lol
So here's my UW list
I haven't found a Kira, great glass-spinner yet so I'm stuck with eidolons MD but I'm eager to try it. SD is still a wip so I'm leaving it blank.
Also I was really cringing without some cantrips so I went for a full set of Opt which left me satisfied.
Do you guys have any advice for a better build? And how do you feel about cantrips in this deck? I've seen really few lists playing them and I can't understand why.
Just a quick tip regarding the land base, you're two colors so you definitely have space for more utility lands. The second moorland haunt is great and won't mess your mana too much. I also think you can add one or two basics. You'll find that often you have the luxury of fetching them and rarely will you need to shock.
I'd go down on the seachrome coasts, two is plenty. Sometimes you want the untapped basic more than the dual etb tapped, so 4x of those is too much imo. With 5-6 basics you'll be practically immune to blood moon, get more untapped lands when you need them and will never run out of stuff to search for with your 8 fetchlands.
What do you guys think of Teferi, Hero of Dominaria out of the sideboard for Bant Spirits? Seems like a great way to both impact the board while holding up mana for things like Rattlechains against big midrange decks like Jund.
Field of ruin and ghost quarter are fine, but the question is how much you are willing to stretch your land base? How much win% do you get off of those compared to the loss% you get from mana screw?
I think on 20 lands you can maybe go for 4 non colored mana producing land but that is kind of greedy (i prefer 3 max). In the past I've tried going with 2x GQ, 2x haunt and 2x cavern of souls, and that made my land base dysfunctional. We have 3, maybe 4 slots available for utility lands, more than that will make us lose to our lands more often than the wins we get off of them. 2 of those slots must be occupied by haunt because it is fantastic, one or two cavern of souls is reasonable because at least it can cast our spirits, but i prefer a single due to it not being useful in most matchups.
Maybe you could try one field of ruin because it transforms into a basic, but that depends on your meta. If you play vs big mana decks all the time then running the 4th utility makes sense, otherwise, not worth it imo.
NAME?
1W
Creature - Cleric Spirit
Flying
Sacrifice NAME?: Exile all cards from target player's graveyard.
2/1
Hmm... Maybe a sideboard card to replace Rest In Peace, on curve, and doesn't mess up our Moorland Haunt activation? Probably not the 2 drop we were looking for, but it's still a 2 drop spirit with flying. It can be vialed / flashed in.
Also, Hi everyone! I've been following the old thread and now this primer for a while. This is my first time posting.
NAME?
1W
Creature - Cleric Spirit
Flying
Sacrifice NAME?: Exile all cards from target player's graveyard.
2/1
Even though it's a single shot effect, swinging for 2 until you need it is pretty gravy. I play spirits here and there (bant with coco) and I'm liking this card. My SB RIPs can definitely be this going forward.
With rattlechains you can flash it in or you can hit it off coco/vial it in
It hurts dredge, storm, snapcaster, delve stuff, KCI, goryos veng, shrinks goyf, can potentially turn off delirium, and probably more that I'm forgetting.
It brings beats in the air and is easy enough to protect between having flash from rattlechains to not forecast the play, hexproof from captain, counters from wanderer/queller, or indestructible from selfless spirit.
Would love to see spirits get a decent one drop. I'd probably never put the deck down if they gave it another on tribe 1 drop that could hasten the clock a bit or something with some CA thrown in.
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On a side note has anyone messed with Ojutai's command much? Returning this or selfless spirit seems kind of gravy.
I'm with streexgeist on this one, i'm very excited for this. Seems like a no brainer in the sideboard, and i'll definitely give this a shot x2 in the main. Just being a 2cc 2 power flying beater makes this great. I might be wrong and maybe its just for side, but i can't wait to try this out!
Are there any up to date UW and Bant lists that I might be able to check out? I've been contemplating playing this archetype for a while now and I feel like now might be a good time to jump into it as there's a continuing lack of support for the deck I particularly enjoy playing the most.
Hey guys! We do have another toy
Kind of a mix with the phantasmal image and seems worse than our new reverend...maybe in bant to give evasion to geist?
Almost as good as a straight 2/2 flyer, with an activated ability that will be rarely relevant (4 mana is a lot) and a HUGE drawback. I'll pass...
Are there any up to date UW and Bant lists that I might be able to check out? I've been contemplating playing this archetype for a while now and I feel like now might be a good time to jump into it as there's a continuing lack of support for the deck I particularly enjoy playing the most.
LOL I will never get why Wizards keeps printing nothing for faeries, if i was a faerie player i would be tremendously pissed. I'm also hoping them to be something in modern as i love tribal decks.
I guess you'll have fun with spirits however as we share with faeries a similar playstyle.
Today I have gone 4-1 again on MTGO friendly league with my usual UW list, winning against burn, mardu tokens, ponza,storm, and losing to jund. Discard spells + attrition still the best strategy against us. New entry is phyrexian unlife, as I said, which works as silver bullet against burn.
Jund is like a 50/50 for my current deck so I'll take a kinda meh matchup against it. I played Spirits back when it was in standard and I loved it, so I'm hoping this will be nice. Casual leagues are probably not a great way of judging the meta, but that's a great record to have.
Can't wait for Core Set to turn Relics and Rip into that aggressive graveyard hate card, so I can hopefully improve a bit my win %.
This list is having above average results however, the 2 x curious obsessions are shining every single time I get to play them, I'll have to give the 3rd one a shot because of the amount of advantage these tools bring is something I can't ignore.
I have been attending 3 mtgo friendly leagues since last friday (when i updated the list with the obsessions) and the record is 13-2 (every league allows you to play 5 matches, just to make it clear). I will move to competitive leagues in the near future to measure myself against more skilled players.
- Btw, after that crappy spirit being spoilered today i started thinking that we'll either get periodic additions with core sets, or that wizards is about to bring some spirits in standard. They did declare in an inteview that core sets are a tool they'll use for this kind of injections in tribal decks, but if more spirits will be spoilered, then I'll start beliving they are setting the field for some more robust spirit presence in the following sets.
The graveyard hate card made me want to play this deck a little bit more. I was going to ask about Favorable Winds vs Curious Obsession, would you rather just have 4 obsession?
I don't think the other spirit that got spoiled is crappy, necessarily. It's a budgeted option for competitive lists, sure, but it gets hexproof from Drogskol Captain and can be a 3/3 which is nothing to scoff at.
Alright, how does this change the deck now? This seems like a pretty big deal. I would assume there's no need for Favorable Winds anymore, but there's definitely a need for some Phantasmal Image now with this on top of Drogskol Captain. Guess I need to start snagging foils quick before this deck takes too much notice with support
I am being 100% honest when I say bant spirits can best any deck(almost). I regularly 4-1/5-0 leagues and rarely go negative.
Anyway I have a couple questions to the other spirit-o-holics.
What do you do against burn? Seriously worst matchup for me by far and I play 2 blessed alliance, 2 worship and 2 negates in my sb...
I don't know how to post decklists on here or I would, can I just type it?
I've played both and neither fits in this deck very good, as the previous post says this meta is removal heavy and these allow 2 for 1s against us.
Btw the fact that this is a removal heavy meta makes spirits even better, rattlechains is the reason this deck is playable, and Kira helps too.
1 Breeding Pool
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Plains
3 Razorverge Thicket
3 Seachrome Coast
1 Temple Garden
1 Windswept Heath
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Rattlechains
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Kira, great glass-spinner
4 Drogskol Captain
3 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Spell Queller
4 Collected Company
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Worship
2 Negate
1 Kira, great glass-spinner
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Engineered Explosives
Based on my experience with the matchup i strongly suggest burrenton forge-tenderx2 in addition to blessed alliance x2 in the sideboard. Forge tender can come down turn one and negate one opposing creature for the rest of the matchup. She can turn the clock on our favor and can be cashed in when needed, a great card overall.
Nebelgast i feel is not at its best here, their creatures come too early for it to matter and i'd rather trade my 2 drops with them when i can early on, the burn spells are more dangerous i think.
Kira is ok vs searing blaze and for protecting spell quellers and vs random grim lavamancers i guess.
Hey, I'm currently looking for a deck to build to get into Modern and UW Sprits has come up as a deck of interest since I already own Vials and Caverns... I really like the looks of this list over the Taxes approach--I'd be interested in your thoughts on the card choices (especially sideboard as I haven't played Modern in years) and of course any results you have from testing... I could see myself just building your list if it's FNM-level competitive.
Just a quick tip regarding the land base, you're two colors so you definitely have space for more utility lands. The second moorland haunt is great and won't mess your mana too much. I also think you can add one or two basics. You'll find that often you have the luxury of fetching them and rarely will you need to shock.
I'd go down on the seachrome coasts, two is plenty. Sometimes you want the untapped basic more than the dual etb tapped, so 4x of those is too much imo. With 5-6 basics you'll be practically immune to blood moon, get more untapped lands when you need them and will never run out of stuff to search for with your 8 fetchlands.
Something like:
-2 seachrome coast
+1 plains
+1 moorland haunt
I think on 20 lands you can maybe go for 4 non colored mana producing land but that is kind of greedy (i prefer 3 max). In the past I've tried going with 2x GQ, 2x haunt and 2x cavern of souls, and that made my land base dysfunctional. We have 3, maybe 4 slots available for utility lands, more than that will make us lose to our lands more often than the wins we get off of them. 2 of those slots must be occupied by haunt because it is fantastic, one or two cavern of souls is reasonable because at least it can cast our spirits, but i prefer a single due to it not being useful in most matchups.
Maybe you could try one field of ruin because it transforms into a basic, but that depends on your meta. If you play vs big mana decks all the time then running the 4th utility makes sense, otherwise, not worth it imo.
Hmm... Maybe a sideboard card to replace Rest In Peace, on curve, and doesn't mess up our Moorland Haunt activation? Probably not the 2 drop we were looking for, but it's still a 2 drop spirit with flying. It can be vialed / flashed in.
Also, Hi everyone! I've been following the old thread and now this primer for a while. This is my first time posting.
Even though it's a single shot effect, swinging for 2 until you need it is pretty gravy. I play spirits here and there (bant with coco) and I'm liking this card. My SB RIPs can definitely be this going forward.
With rattlechains you can flash it in or you can hit it off coco/vial it in
It hurts dredge, storm, snapcaster, delve stuff, KCI, goryos veng, shrinks goyf, can potentially turn off delirium, and probably more that I'm forgetting.
It brings beats in the air and is easy enough to protect between having flash from rattlechains to not forecast the play, hexproof from captain, counters from wanderer/queller, or indestructible from selfless spirit.
Would love to see spirits get a decent one drop. I'd probably never put the deck down if they gave it another on tribe 1 drop that could hasten the clock a bit or something with some CA thrown in.
----------
On a side note has anyone messed with Ojutai's command much? Returning this or selfless spirit seems kind of gravy.
Is Bant or BW considered more competitive at this point? And I assume BW = Vial / Bant = Coco still?
FULL TIME FAERIES
Selvala
Almost as good as a straight 2/2 flyer, with an activated ability that will be rarely relevant (4 mana is a lot) and a HUGE drawback. I'll pass...
Jund is like a 50/50 for my current deck so I'll take a kinda meh matchup against it. I played Spirits back when it was in standard and I loved it, so I'm hoping this will be nice. Casual leagues are probably not a great way of judging the meta, but that's a great record to have.
The graveyard hate card made me want to play this deck a little bit more. I was going to ask about Favorable Winds vs Curious Obsession, would you rather just have 4 obsession?
I don't think the other spirit that got spoiled is crappy, necessarily. It's a budgeted option for competitive lists, sure, but it gets hexproof from Drogskol Captain and can be a 3/3 which is nothing to scoff at.
FULL TIME FAERIES
Selvala
We have a new lord now yay!
Alright, how does this change the deck now? This seems like a pretty big deal. I would assume there's no need for Favorable Winds anymore, but there's definitely a need for some Phantasmal Image now with this on top of Drogskol Captain. Guess I need to start snagging foils quick before this deck takes too much notice with support
FULL TIME FAERIES
Selvala