I'm starting to sort out my thoughts on a tribal cube, and Spirits is one of the tribes I'm considering. Without talking too much about said cube, the gist is that I'm hoping to mainly have tribes that have powerful creatures in every color, rather than focusing on tribes in individual colors or pairs. To explore that space, I'm going to try to evaluate some of the "five-color tribes"--starting with Spirits.
Here are some of my findings based on a lot of digging around on magiccards.info:
There are tons of ways to create spirit tokens. These are almost always 1/1 white Spirit tokens with Flying, but Kamigawa had quite a few 1/1 colorless Spirits without flying. A lot of cards that are solidly represented, even in cubes which strive to play the most powerful cards in all of Magic, make spirit tokens.
Quite a few Spirit type cards are present in a lot of cubes, which gives the suggestion that there are a number of powerful Spirits that could be contested by players who aren't invested in Spirit tribal. Geist of Saint Traft and the Spirit dragons come to mind off the top of my head, along with Karmic Guide.
Kodama's Reach is the only strongly represented Arcane spell, which a lot of tribal cards from Kamigawa care about. If we dig deeper, using cubetutor.com, we can find there's a number of "borderline" cards ranging from the decent Otherworldly Journey to the sketchy Hideous Laughter that get played in some cubes.
"Lords" for spirits include the exceptional Drogskol Captain, which gives the team Hexproof, and depending on how strict you are with your definition there's also the likes of Kodama of the South Tree which is a respectable 4/4 for 4 on its own, Long-Forgotten Gohei, and Rattlechains, which definitely stretches the title.
From the looks of it, Spirits are not a tribe that has the same level of power as other tribes with long-term support like Goblins, Merfolk, Elves, or Zombies, but it seems like they might have enough relevant tribal effects alongside individually powerful cards to make them a consideration as a "five-color tribe."
Edit: There are 108 White Spirits, 80 Blue Spirits, 93 Black Spirits, 43 Red Spirits, abd 67 Green Spirits.
The Kirin from Kamigawa open up some weird options. Frankly, I think Bounteous Kirin is too expensive to be useful at 7 mana. The others, though, kind of give way to strategies if you're able to trigger them a few times in a row.
Celestial Kirin boggles my mind. It seems likely to be its own speed bump, but it's a very unique control effect outside of that. There's also the weird notion of Arcane Adaptation or Conspiracy turning a 0-mana creature into an Armageddon if you have board control. On top of its weirdness, a 3/3 flyer for 4 mana is a fair deal.
Cloudhoof Kirin is pretty straightforward. You get to mill stuff and you get an Air Elemental which could kill your opponent before you can mill them. But in most cases it doesn't hurt to have a second kind of clock. I like the idea of giving Spirits reach through mill, but it feels weird if it's the only enabler.
Infernal Kirin disrupts hands. If you're on the play, you could march all over your opponent's curve. That's kind of living the dream, but it seems brutal and pretty rewarding for committintg to a tribe. I like it. What's more, He Who Hungers has a lot going on and Kyoki, Sanity's Eclipse is a slugger who joins in on this tribal hand disruption.
Skyfire Kirin is weird. Unless the rules have changed since I last played, Threaten effects don't do much if they don't also give the creature haste (like Threaten does)... so you need to pair this with a sacrifice outlet for it to really be meaningful. I dunno, I don't like this one.
The main problem with being a 5 colour tribe is (as I think you have noticed) is the lack of any real direction apart from being 5 colour control. I think if you really want to push something as a 5 colour tribe you want to consider giving each guild slot a card that plays well in the deck (even if it's just a creature type) although that could be quite a tall order.
I would guess spirits would end up in U/W tempo. Geist of Saint Traft, Spectral Procession, Selfless Spirt, Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and Spirit of the Labyrinth all seem like spirits that can see play in non-tribal cubes. Rattlechains seems like an interesting card for tribal and a 2/1 flash flyer for 1u are stats that always catch my attention, I would say its definitely worth a shot. Drogskol Captain is good if your in tribal but it is pretty narrow for a guild slot unless you're all in on tribal at the expense of power level. Triplicate Spirits could work if your cube is slower.
You could make it an esper tribe. Infernal Kirin is an evasive beater with a really unique ability and He Who Hungers is in a similar vein, both seem like fun and rewarding pay offs for some kind of esper control build. Lingering Souls seems nuts in a format where being a spirt counts and you might consider Obzedat, Ghost Council, a card who is who is falls short of inclusion in normal cube lists that could shine in a lower power environment, especially one where its a supported tribe and its repeated ETB could be triggering effects.
I would lean into the fact a lot of spirits fly and makes the spirts deck into the Skies deck of the format. You could use this as a way to include non-spirts but still play into the archtype the tribe will be in, Favorable Winds could work very well as a non-tribal tribal card.
I think it will come down to what the power level for your cube is; if you want spirits to work you will need to run a few lower tier cards because of their type line so you can get the density up since traditional cubes don't tend to have that many in them.
On a related note, I think Skyfire Kirin could be deceptively powerful in a tribal cube. In a format where synergy and lords are so important being able to flash in a spirit to steal their lord during combat could be a blowout since you will be debuffing their team, getting once of their creatures as a blocker (or clearing the way) and sticking a creature of your own onto the board. It's definitely janky but the thought of turning spirts into 3-for-1s is appealing.
Not in either Blue or White but everyone's favourite meme card Yargle, Glutton of Urborg is a spirit. Whether that qualifies as enough to include is debatable but 9 power is not to be ignored and could be the splashable finisher a tribal spirit archetype might want. Kodama giving him trample would be interesting but janky to achieve.
I'm starting to sort out my thoughts on a tribal cube, and Spirits is one of the tribes I'm considering. Without talking too much about said cube, the gist is that I'm hoping to mainly have tribes that have powerful creatures in every color, rather than focusing on tribes in individual colors or pairs. To explore that space, I'm going to try to evaluate some of the "five-color tribes"--starting with Spirits.
Here are some of my findings based on a lot of digging around on magiccards.info:
"Lords" for spirits include the exceptional Drogskol Captain, which gives the team Hexproof, and depending on how strict you are with your definition there's also the likes of Kodama of the South Tree which is a respectable 4/4 for 4 on its own, Long-Forgotten Gohei, and Rattlechains, which definitely stretches the title.
As far as cards that trigger off of spirits, there's Drogskol Cavalry, who seems too high-costed to have much impact, Mausoleum Wanderer, who probably isn't explosive enough in limited, and Nebelgast Herald. There's also the cycle of "-Onna" cards from Kamigawa, Haru-Onna, Kemuri-Onna, Kiri-Onna, Nikko-Onna, and Yuki-Onna.
From the looks of it, Spirits are not a tribe that has the same level of power as other tribes with long-term support like Goblins, Merfolk, Elves, or Zombies, but it seems like they might have enough relevant tribal effects alongside individually powerful cards to make them a consideration as a "five-color tribe."
Edit: There are 108 White Spirits, 80 Blue Spirits, 93 Black Spirits, 43 Red Spirits, abd 67 Green Spirits.
What do you think?
Celestial Kirin boggles my mind. It seems likely to be its own speed bump, but it's a very unique control effect outside of that. There's also the weird notion of Arcane Adaptation or Conspiracy turning a 0-mana creature into an Armageddon if you have board control. On top of its weirdness, a 3/3 flyer for 4 mana is a fair deal.
(Mill Spirits: Cloudhoof Kirin, Dreamborn Muse, Enigma Eidolon, Mindshrieker, Shriekgeist. Not exactly an all-star lineup.)
Cloudhoof Kirin is pretty straightforward. You get to mill stuff and you get an Air Elemental which could kill your opponent before you can mill them. But in most cases it doesn't hurt to have a second kind of clock. I like the idea of giving Spirits reach through mill, but it feels weird if it's the only enabler.
Infernal Kirin disrupts hands. If you're on the play, you could march all over your opponent's curve. That's kind of living the dream, but it seems brutal and pretty rewarding for committintg to a tribe. I like it. What's more, He Who Hungers has a lot going on and Kyoki, Sanity's Eclipse is a slugger who joins in on this tribal hand disruption.
Skyfire Kirin is weird. Unless the rules have changed since I last played, Threaten effects don't do much if they don't also give the creature haste (like Threaten does)... so you need to pair this with a sacrifice outlet for it to really be meaningful. I dunno, I don't like this one.
I would guess spirits would end up in U/W tempo. Geist of Saint Traft, Spectral Procession, Selfless Spirt, Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and Spirit of the Labyrinth all seem like spirits that can see play in non-tribal cubes. Rattlechains seems like an interesting card for tribal and a 2/1 flash flyer for 1u are stats that always catch my attention, I would say its definitely worth a shot. Drogskol Captain is good if your in tribal but it is pretty narrow for a guild slot unless you're all in on tribal at the expense of power level. Triplicate Spirits could work if your cube is slower.
You could make it an esper tribe. Infernal Kirin is an evasive beater with a really unique ability and He Who Hungers is in a similar vein, both seem like fun and rewarding pay offs for some kind of esper control build. Lingering Souls seems nuts in a format where being a spirt counts and you might consider Obzedat, Ghost Council, a card who is who is falls short of inclusion in normal cube lists that could shine in a lower power environment, especially one where its a supported tribe and its repeated ETB could be triggering effects.
I would lean into the fact a lot of spirits fly and makes the spirts deck into the Skies deck of the format. You could use this as a way to include non-spirts but still play into the archtype the tribe will be in, Favorable Winds could work very well as a non-tribal tribal card.
I think it will come down to what the power level for your cube is; if you want spirits to work you will need to run a few lower tier cards because of their type line so you can get the density up since traditional cubes don't tend to have that many in them.
On a related note, I think Skyfire Kirin could be deceptively powerful in a tribal cube. In a format where synergy and lords are so important being able to flash in a spirit to steal their lord during combat could be a blowout since you will be debuffing their team, getting once of their creatures as a blocker (or clearing the way) and sticking a creature of your own onto the board. It's definitely janky but the thought of turning spirts into 3-for-1s is appealing.
Mr Barrin this Cube is on Fire!! - http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/80149
WG Kei Takahashi: Is in Charge Now !? (EDH) WG