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Spirits are on tap and they are delicious.
Tribal Spirits is all about tempo and control. Eldritch Moon did not disappoint in this department. Everything that was missing to make Spirits a force to be reckoned with have arrived and I, for one, am excited for some shenanigans.
Spell Queller is probably the most interesting new Spirit because it can be used in a lot of interesting ways. The fact that it can stop the likes of Languish to save your board and give you a 2/3 Flyer is just wonderful. There are several ways to protect the Queller to make sure Languish doesn't see the light of day but one of the best I can think of is to stop not one, but three Languish with the same Queller. Eerie Interlude can be cast in response to the second Languish to exile your entire board. When it does, the first Languish can be cast again because of Queller's fourth ability, but there won't be anything on your side of the board to kill. Technically this is stopping 3 Languish and should secure the game. This is best bad-ass case scenario, but there's certainly other big plays to be had here. Queller works to stop almost every other board wipe in its tracks as well which makes it very powerful. It works on creatures too, and there's a ton of excellent targets. Even Collected Company can't dodge this one. I love it.
There's another way to use Queller that is quite a bit more unconventional, but could be interesting. Since it does not state that it has to be an opponent's spell, that opens up some possibilities to exile one of your own creatures or spells. You can save a Rattlechains and bounce Queller with Essence Flux,
Spectral Shepherd
, or
Long Road Home
to cast Rattlechains and give another Spirit Hexproof to protect from spot removal. From the sideboard you can do the same thing with Selfless Spirit and sacrifice it to protect your board with Indestructable.
Chilling Grasp
used before combat on your opponents turn to tap down their attackers/blockers. Several things to try.
But why? Why not just cast any of those things the regular way? You are still casting the creature/spell so it can be countered, what's the point? Well, having another creature in reserve makes the Queller less desirable to destroy. If the board gets wiped you have a replacement creature waiting to come out for free. Also, since the Queller doesn't have to die but just leave the battlefield, you can use unnecessary mana to save the spell and as long as you have an Essence Flux and a single blue mana you can deploy whenever you need to. This will typically result in several things happening when the Queller comes back and the exiled spell is cast. I'll go over the different interactions to explain in no particular order.
Mausoleum Wanderer
is a fantastic 1 drop. Even without any counters (sort of, it's like weird tribal prowess until end of turn) on it you can stop your opponent from playing almost anything you want for the first several turns by sacrificing him if they don't have at least one extra mana. Every time you bounce a Spirit with Essence Flux,
Long Road Home
, or
Spectral Shepherd
you're really making him stronger, and typically you'll be tapping down their board as you do it so your adding damage and controlling their board. Rattlechains allows you to do this on their turn to prevent your opponent from attacking and keeping your board free to attack.
Nebelgast Herald
works so wonderfully with duplicates of itself and with
Topplegeist
. Delirium is a little harder to hit with this deck, but since it's the only card that features it I wasn't concerned about adding ways to get there. There are several ways to bounce Topplegeist and/or Herald which can be even more effective. Duplicates of Herald tap multiple creatures with every Spirit drop. Since so many of them have Flash be sure to do this before Combat on your opponents turn. You get to tempo their aggro and get in a free shot. If you have Always Watching then you also have defense, and bouncing a Topplegeist or Herald with Flux, Road, or Shepherd can just repeat the tapping to shut them down over and over again.
Rattlechains is mostly important for granting all of your Spirits Flash so that you can even return and replay Spirits on your opponents turn with Shephard causing more tapping action. The protection from burn and removal with Hexproof stops big cards like Declaration in Stone from ruining your board. That's never a bad thing.
Niblis of Frost and
Chilling Grasp
crank up the tempo to 11. Attacking with Niblis after playing Grasp will tap 3 creatures for an extra turn while pumping Niblis to 4 damage. Bouncing any of your other creatures with Flux or Road adds even more value by tapping even more creatures, adding damage to Niblis, and +1/+1 counters to Wanderers as well as whatever you bounced. Sweet.
Invocation of Saint Traft
isn't the most loved card, but here it works very well. If it's bearer gets destroyed it adds 2 types to the graveyard to help along Topplegeist, but more importantly it adds more aggro to win faster. Even if it only works once, 4 damage for 3 mana is worth it.
Always Watching is just a solid card. Relentless attacking and tapping is what this deck is all about, and the bonus +1/+1 to everything is just icing on the cake. Vigilance has always been one of the more powerful combat abilities and works even better with Flying.
The sideboard enhances the tempo/control aspects of the deck. Reflector Mage is obviously not a Spirit, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices to win the game. It's the kind of Tempo you hate to play against, but if you are in color and have access to him you might as well use him. He fits on theme and for this deck is an honorary Spirit.
Eldrazi Displacer also fits this mold. He's the Eldrazi version of Spectral Shepard but slightly better since the creature can be an opponents to remove them from combat or can immediately get the benefit on your side of the table to trigger all the wonderful things discussed above. Because he has slightly more situational mana costs and is not a Spirit he just chills in the sideboard, but can easily be brought in to help pull off more shenanigans.
Invasive Surgery
is another anti-Languish and anti-Declaration in Stone card. Both see a lot of play and this is a fantastic answer.
Stasis Snare is one of my favorite exile cards and it's one of the best options to deal with any one of the many many giant threats out there. It doesn't make a spot in main board because a lot of those same threats can be tapped down, but it's more to stop creatures with activated abilities that can still be used even when tapped and they just need to be removed.
Descend upon the Sinful is just a board wipe option that can work out in your favor. It reminds me of Crush of Tentacles for White, and that's pretty cool. If Queller is holding onto a creature and you have Delirium then the board will be wiped out and you'll end up with that creature and a 4/4 Angel. This might be enough to secure the win. Maybe. If you can actually afford to Eerie Interlude before you Descend, that would be amazing. Not likely, but amazing.
And that's pretty much it. Azorious Tempo/Control that gets the job done with Spirits to allow a somewhat swift aggro win. The deck is meant to make your opponent feel helpless as they are repeatedly tormented by ghosts. Turns out Port Town really is haunted.
Thanks for reading, let me know what you think and have fun giving your opponents creatures a little tappy. Tap, tap, tap-a-roo.
Check out the original candle tapping shenanigans that tells a story here:
Standard Hobbez9186
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