Edit 2-11-19: I decided to completely overhaul the deck description, since it's changed so much since I first put the list together and gave an overview of it more than a year-and-a-half ago.
An Overview
While Bant Spirits is by far the more popular choice for spirits in modern, I've put together this Esper list, not only out of certain financial considerations (seriously, screw
Noble Hierarch
and its $60 price tag), but also because I believe that Esper offers some substantial advantages over Bant. In fact, after watching a fair bit of coverage for the last few modern GPs, I've noticed that Bant has some real problems that aren't present in this list.
Esper Spirits is a deck that wants to leverage the powerful synergies of spirit creatures in order to disrupt the opponent's game plan while applying quick and consistent pressure through difficult to block flying creatures. It thrives at playing at instant speed, waiting until your opponent is tapped out or can only respond with instant speed answers of their own. The addition of Black to the core of U/W spirits comes with two major advantages: first, it allows you to play
Fatal Push
, one of the most powerful removal spells in the modern format. This allows for a more flexible game plan and a stronger ability to control the early game without ramping your opponent via
Path to Exile
. The second major advantage is the ability to play
Lingering Souls
for both its preliminary and flashback costs. The pressure this card provides is incredible to combat control decks, while also giving multiple blockers to fend off other aggressive lists. It generates card advantage in most cases and also makes discard abilities substantially worse for your opponent. Additionally, being in Esper offers additional options like
Unmoored Ego
, in order to better combat the diverse meta game of the modern landscape.
Card Choices
4x
Rattlechains
: For the life of me, I don't understand how anybody could play spirits and not run a playset of this card. Rattlechains does it all: it has flash, it has flying, it can give any spirit you control hexproof when it enters the battlefield (including itself), and if that weren't enough already, it lets you cast any other spirit creature at instant speed. You get all of this for the low, low cost of 1 and a U. This is the enabling card for the deck, and you'll pretty much never be unhappy to draw it.
4x
Mausoleum Wanderer
: This falls into the same camp as Rattlechains. If you can ever curve Wanderer into a 2 drop into a 3 drop, you will very likely win the game. This card can provide beatdown and can also disrupt your opponent's attempts to interact with your board. Just don't forget about its sacrifice ability. So often you'll be using it to push damage that you'll forget to use it to counter your opponent's board wipes, removal or pump spells.
3x
Selfless Spirit
: This guy is pretty awesome as well. It protects your board against most removal effects (particularly
Supreme Verdict
and
Anger of the Gods
), and alongside your other cards it can make your board almost untouchable. Be cautious of
Terminus
though! The current meta isn't as friendly for him, so I cut one copy for the time being.
4x
Spell Queller
: Queller is so outrageous that it's almost unbelievable that it was ever printed. Flashing this out to stop an opponent's T3 or T4 play, then dropping Selfless Spirit or Drogskol Captain can be backbreaking. Sure, letting your opponent cast something for free when it leaves the battlefield can be rough, but you have many ways to protect the Queller, and if you're letting your opponent kill it and cast something important, you were probably losing already.
4x
Drogskol Captain
: This lord is ludicrous, as granting hexproof to your board makes it nearly impossible for many decks to interact with you. Putting 2 of these down can often win the game, and dropping this in response to a removal spell via Rattlechains can cripple your opponent's plans.
4x
Supreme Phantom
: I'll admit it: I was a bit skeptical when this was first revealed, since I only. saw a 1/3 flier that could pump the team. That shows just how much I was undervaluing additional lord effects. This not only makes Mausoleum Wanderer and Lingering Souls incredibly powerful, but it can also halve the time the your opponent has to respond to your threats. It doesn't dodge
Lightning Bolt
on its own, but that doesn't make it any less potent.
1x
Bygone Bishop
: When I first built this deck for modern, I had a copy of Bishop, and despite having a good deal of success with it, I cut it for Geist of Saint Traft. Now, having played with this deck for far longer, I felt that it lacked any great way to refuel late in the game. Bishop is incredible in that regard, turning every creature in the deck into a means of drawing more cards via clue production. It's very slow card draw, but you'll generally only be wanting to crack clues when you're flooding or have excess mana. Plus, the clue is generated on cast, meaning that even if a creature is countered or immediately killed, you'll still gain a clue token. I've been debating whether a second copy is warranted, but it does cost 3 mana and is slow on its own. Nevertheless, at the very least a single copy is greatly valued by this list.
3x
Path to Exile
: I've been going back and forth over whether this list has too many removal spells, but I think that running Path as a 2 is still appropriate. Path is still great as a permanent answer to
Arclight Phoenix
and can get rid of things like
Wurmcoil Engine
and
Gurmag Angler
. However, after watching a fair number of games, I think that Path is poorly positioned in the present meta, and this is one of the chief weaknesses of something like Bant. Without other removal spells, spirits builds have difficult playing a truly responsive game.
1x
Declaration in Stone
: This is absolutely a meta card. It's traditionally not amazing, as it's sorcery speed and 2 mana, but this can completely ruin peoples' days. Using this on
Arclight Phoenix
,
Bloodghast
,
Prized Amalgam
, or any other creature that your opponent has multiple copies of on the board is a major blowout. Sure, your opponent will get clues, unless you're hitting tokens, but they'll have to invest so much mana into cracking them that they'll fall too far behind your tempo. I was on the fence about this, but with Teferi's ability to cast sorceries at instant speed if you tick him up, I definitely think running this as a 1 of is worthwhile, at least at the moment.
3x
Lingering Souls
: This is the other draw for adding Black to the list. Souls can provide outrageous value and pressure against a variety of decks. With only a single lord, these tokens can turn from an annoying yet slow clock, to a deadly bit of pressure. However, I found that running a playset was a bit clunky, because drawing it in multiples can often slow your tempo oriented game plan to a crawl.
2x
Teferi, Time Raveler
: This card is just sweet. It shuts down counterspells and combat tricks, plus his synergy with Spell Queller is disgusting. At 3 mana, this is one of the tools that this deck was looking for, and he looks to be extremely powerful.
4x
Aether Vial
: This is a card I kept hearing suggested, and I finally managed to get ahold of a playset. I haven't played with them yet, but in testing I've found that they definitely live up to the hype. Doubling the number of creatures you can play each turn, as well as offering an extra way to put creatures out at instant speed even without
Rattlechains
is incredible. It typically sucks to draw multiple copies, but it's still worthwhile.
The Mana Base
This is always the trickiest part of putting together a deck like this, but I'm feeling reasonably confident about how this has turned out.
4x
Polluted Delta
and 3x
Flooded Strand
: Running 7 fetch lands makes it relatively easy to both find all of my colors and to thin my deck. Ideally, this list wants 3 lands to be able to play anything in the deck, with 4-5 lands providing flexibility and anything beyond that being fairly poor, so the fetches definitely help ensure consistency without requiring additional normal lands.
1x
Watery Grave
, 1x
Hallowed Fountain
, 1x
Godless Shrine
: These will usually be your first pick(s) off of a fetch land to give you all of your colors. Too many shocks can be overly painful, but having 1 of each keeps the mana base pretty consistent.
1x
Darkslick Shores
, 2x
Seachrome Coast
: Given that this deck wants to hit lands early, the fastlands are optimal for the mana base. The fact that they come into play tapped later is pretty irrelevant, since even untapped lands after your first three won't help much more than a tapped land. I originally ran 1 copy of
Concealed Courtyard
, but given that Blue is the color you most want early in the game,
Darkslick Shores
is more appropriate.
1x
Creeping Tar Pit
: Creature lands are a sweet way to continue applying pressure even if your disruption fails and your board is removed. The fact that they can't be countered is relevant against control, and the Pit being unblockable allows you to apply pressure in a clogged board state.
1x
Cavern of Souls
: Maybe this deck should consider running more copies of this, given its large creature base, but Cavern is also obscenely expensive, making this rather untenable. Even as a 1 of however, having a way to avoid seeing your creatures countered is invaluable.
2x
Island
, 2x
Plains
, 1x
Swamp
: This is enough basics to safeguard against cards like
Field of Ruin
,
Ghost Quarter
,
Path to Exile
, and
Blood Moon
. I've seen some lists that only run 1 of each basic land type they need, but this seems too risky. Having a pair of basics for your core colors, with 1 swamp gives sufficient insurance against these threats.
1x
Blast Zone
: Another sweet new tool from War of the Spark, Blast Zone comes in untapped, and can really be nice against go wide strategies, or against decks that just run plenty of cheap creatures. With just one extra counter on this, it can kill
Thing in the Ice
,
Bloodghast
, Tarmagoyf, and many other annoying cards. Sure, it can potentially kill some of your permanents as well, but
Selfless Spirit
helps mitigate that risk a bit.
The Sideboard
This sideboard has been in constant flux since the moment I first assembled this deck. However, it's looking like it should stabilize for the moment, though I'm sure a few cards will continue to rotate in and out to adjust to the meta. Here are my present choices:
1x
Blessed Alliance
: This card provides play against Burn, Bogles, Infect, and Amulet Titan, making it quite useful. At worst, it's a function removal spell with a late game mana sink to gain life or ambush an extra attacker.
1x Liliana's Triumph: This card is exactly what this deck wanted to deal with Bogles.
Leyline of Sanctity
can be a huge problem, and this gets around that, unlike Blessed Alliance. I think dropping Blessed Alliance completely is a bit too much, since that card also helps with burn, but having a 1:1 split of it and Liliana's Triumph seems to balance the sideboard a fair bit.
2x
Disdainful Stroke
: I think this is my preferred counter spell of choice for this deck. It hits so many of the important threats you're likely to face for only two mana, and the nice complement to spell queller works quite well too. This will often be brought in against control decks or Tron.
1x
Geist of Saint Traft
: Against control, it can be difficult to keep something that can push damage without being immediately removed. Geist does a great job at applying pressure while also benefiting from the various spirit synergies in the deck.
2x
Rest in Peace
: This card can straight up win games against certain graveyard based strategies. This comes in when Remorseful Cleric just isn't enough, or when redundant graveyard hate is needed.
2x
Stony Silence
: While the ban of KCI makes artifact hate less needed, this is still a great way to shut down any decks reliant on artifacts to win. Affinity, Tron, or any deck relying on
Walking Ballista
can be largely shut down by this card.
Kataki, War's Wage
used to supply this hate, but it's largely too easy to remove and is less effective overall than Stony Silence.
2x
Eidolon of Rhetoric
: I don't see why more spirits lists don't run this card in the sideboard. I originally ran this as a 1 of, but found that it works so well in many different matchups, so much so that I felt a second copy was warranted. The fact that it doesn't die to
Lightning Bolt
is hugely important, and this can immediately shut down red based decks that rely on playing many spells each turn.
1x
Settle the Wreckage
: I'd been running
Zealous Persecution
in the sideboard, because it's quite strong, but I don't think it's as helpful in the current meta. Against humans and other aggressive decks, it loses value quickly, making it less than helpful to draw. Settle, on the other hand, will always be useful if you have mana to cast it, and can completely blow out aggressive strategies.
2x
Deputy of Detention
: This card is great, and being able to drop it in at instant speed with
Aether Vial
is what gives it a significant edge over something like
Detention Sphere
. This deals with tokens permanently, removes
Ensnaring Bridge
, exiles planeswalkers, and pretty much any other threat that your other interaction struggles to deal with. 2 copies of this in the board work rather well with
Aether Vial
and can definitely swing games in your favor.
1x
Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord
: This card just seems worth experimenting with. 4 mana is a lot, but it can swing games against burn or aggro decks with his lifelink ability, his +2 can start wearing down control decks that can't deal with him or snipe down their planes walkers, and his -x is just great value if you bring back any of the powerful spirits in the deck. I'll have to see how he performs, but I think he's at least worth trying out.
Mulligan Guide and Matchup Strategy
In Progress
Sideboarding Guide
In Progress
Meta adjustments:
2x
Ojutai's Command
: While the 4 cmc is a little bit clunky, this card seems worth testing out. While not as generically useful as
Cryptic Command
, this is easier to cast in the U/W spirits shell, and its modes are extremely powerful for this deck. Bringing back a creature from the yard is great, especially if it's blanking a removal spell or a sweeper, 4 life is valuable against Burn and other aggressive decks, countering a creature spell will often be useful, and drawing a card is always good. You don't want too many of this, but I think testing out a pair of these commands is well worthwhile.
