Supreme Spirits

Supreme Spirits - UW Spirits Primer

Modern Competitive Primer Spirits Tempo Tribal WU (Azorius)

Revedeka

Creature (31)

Land (21)

Instant (4)

4x Path to Exile

Artifact (4)

4x Aether Vial

Sideboard

Instant (6)

Enchantment (6)

Creature (3)

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Card art - Silent Observer by Lake Hurwitz

Playstyle & General Gameplan

A tempo deck that disrupts your opponent, while operating almost completely at instant speed. This is the core sentence that describes the spirit tribe and gameplan in modern. One of few decks that can truly be called "aggro-control", Spirits can shift between aggro and control depending on which one of the two is needed in a certain matchup. Spirits are generally cheap mana-wise, and often don't have the best stats for their mana cost. Nevertheless, they always come with an ability, either activated and/or triggered, that contributes to/makes our gameplan.

Any person who plays spirits can tell you about the "core spirits". These 23 spirits should be in almost every spirits deck, from the UW vial version to Bant spirits. These spirits are: 4 Mausoleum Wanderer, 4 Rattlechains, 4 Supreme Phantom, 3 Selfless Spirit (can run 4, more on that in the individual card discussion), 4 Drogskol Captain, and 4 Spell Queller. What you add to these 23 cards is how you get your personal/different spirit build. For this primer, I will mostly talk about the version I personally think is the best at the moment, and my "expertise", UW vial spirits. The strength of Spirits is in the ability to play at instant speed, the evasion its creatures has, and the multiple ways it can play the game depending on the matchup.

Why do I prefer UW vial over other versions? To answer that, I will explain what the reasoning about one of the most important additions to this version is, Aether Vial. UW vial spirits contain the 23 core spirits, as well as 4 Aether Vials. Aether vial, like Rattlechains allows us to play all our creatures at instant speed, while giving us more options for how to spend our mana in a turn. Aether Vial shines most in decks where you only play creatures of 1 or 2 different converted mana costs, like Spirits. Furthermore, Aether Vial incentivizes you to play more creatures, and only few non-creatures. This synergizes well with the spirit lords (Supreme Phantom and Drogskol Captain) this deck runs, as they also incentivizes to play more creatures, spirits specifically. Because of these factors, and the tempo plan of the Spirits tribe in general, Is why I prefer this style of play. This is also why we only run 8 non-creature spells in the mainboard, Aether Vials included. The other non-creature spell this deck runs, is Path to Exile, because there is no reason not to run it. Spirit decks typically run 20-22 lands, this deck specifically runs 21 lands, more on that in the individual card discussion. This leaves 8-10 "flex spots" in this deck. These flex spots should be filled with whatever you think contributes to your gameplan the best, and of course cards that are great against your local meta.

Through Mausoleum Wanderer, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Rattlechains, and Spell Queller This deck gives control and other decks that rely on non-creature spells a real run for their money. Even strong creature decks often can't fight through lords, even more so when we have backup like Selfless Spirit, who is also great against board wipes control often utilizes. Through these factors, this deck can race, deal with control decks and fight the best creature based decks. These reasons, on top of the immense and spooky flavour, is why you should be playing spirits!

This Primer's Content

Now that you know the basic idea behind UW spirits, this is what the rest of the primer will contain

"Individual card discussion" Here, I will tell you specifically about my version of the deck. I will explain card choices, synergies and tricks. I will also explain how you should play with certain cards, as there are a lot of difficult decision to make in the course of a single game. This goes for spirits in general, it is a difficult tribe to master, and mistakes can easily have big repercussions. However, this also means no two games are the same, and is what makes the deck so much fun to play.

"Notable exclusions & Other cards to consider”, is about about popular cards that see play in this version of spirits, so that you can personalize your own build with what you think is the best, or best suited for your meta. However, I will only list the most popular options. Furthermore, I will talk about cards that often see play, but are perhaps not the best options for this deck. This will not be about my personal opinion, but the general consensus of the Spirit players that I come into contact with and who have experience with the deck.

"Sideboard" In here I will quickly talk about my choices for the sideboard. These choices are purely what I run in the current modern meta (for the record, just after pro tour 25th anniversary). In different places there may be different meta's and your sideboard should be altered accordingly.

"Other ways to play spirits in modern" In this section I will show you some other fun and/or good ways to play Spirits in modern. I personally think that UW vial is the way to go, but that doesn’t have to mean that it actually is! There are a couple of very interesting ways to run Spirits, most of these have seen some form of success in competitive leagues, FNM's, and/or PPTQ’s or beyond, proving their worth. Perhaps one of these options speaks more to you than the UW vial version, and will result in you having more fun with your own spirit deck! I will also quickly talk about UW versus Bant, as these two seem to be the iterations of Spirits with the highest competitive viability.

"Additional information on Spirits", will quickly site some source material and other great primers and articles to read about spirits, making your knowledge of the Spirit playstyle(s) that much broader!

"Modern matchups" In here I will go over some modern matchups you will run into when playing this deck. This will not be in-depth, but just to give you some idea of what are good and bad matchups for us, and perhaps some sideboarding ideas.

Individual card discussion

Card art - Spectral Shepherd by Johann Bodin

Creatures

4x Mausoleum Wanderer For , you get a combination of Suntail Hawk and Force Spike (for instants/sorceries), that also grows when playing spirits. This is one of the most important cards in the deck. This card is so important, we actively select our mana base in order to (almost) always be able to play it turn 1, which means around 14 untapped blue sources. To understand why this card is so important, we need to look at the gameplan again. This card is disruption, and a creature that can deal large amounts of damage. Is synergizes extremely well with lords, making its power higher which means its hit even harder, or becomes that much more of an answer to instants and sorceries. Playing a turn 1 wanderer and hitting for 3 on turn 2 after playing Supreme Phantom is nothing to scoff at. As such, most starting hands with a Mausoleum Wanderer are good hands. In most scenario's, you do want to counter your opponents turn 1/2 play if possible, since it basically means that they didn't do anything on their turn, except for maybe playing a land. Also remember to always put Mausoleum Wanderers trigger on the stack last (so it resolves first) when playing spirits, especially with Spell Queller. By doing this they have to let Mausoleum Wanderer get pumped, which means it gets more difficult to remove Spell Queller after quellering an important spell. Due to this cards versatility, and contribution to our gameplan in every way, you almost never board this card out in matchups. Together with Aether Vial it makes our turn 1 play very strong. Between Aether Vial and Mausoleum Wanderer, its hard to say which one you play on turn 1 if you got them both in hand. Its very matchup depending. However, if you don't know the matchup, Mausoleum Wanderer is most likely the safer play.

4x RattlechainsAnother fundamental card for the archetype. Rattlechains is a 2/1 with flying. its toughness is not as important, it has evasion in flying. There are not a lot of creatures in modern with only 1 power that flies, and it dies to most removal spells anyway. Other than its stats, this card has 3 other very important abilities. First, the flash. Playing at instant speed is one of the most important strengths of this deck, it allows us to be extra disruptive, and allows us to utilize our mana well. On top of this, we get to play around a lot of what our opponent might try to do, and gives us a surprise factor. For example, it helps in a surprise alpha strike against your opponent (you will do that when playing this deck). As such, a lot of cards in this deck have been chosen with the idea of playing at instant speed in mind. Now that I discussed the importance of flash, this card also gives every other spirit flash! Together with Aether Vial, this deck has 8 ways to make all spirits have flash. Furthermore, the last ability is reliant on Rattlechains's flash. It blanks any targeted spell, targeted at our spirits. You almost always want to keep this in hand until you can maximize its potential, which means blanking removal or flashing another creature to alpha strike an opponent, or both! But this is of course very matchup dependent. For example, there are certain scenario's where playing Rattlechains during your opponents upkeep, or even main phase. However, most of the time you want to play some of your creatures only if you have "rattlechains protection", which means having mana or an Aether Vial to cast the creature, and and after that Rattlechains to blank removal spells. There are certain matchups where you might trim 1 Rattlechains, but those situations are rare.

4x Supreme Phantom Among the most recent additions of the deck, Supreme Phantom is what drew a lot of people to this archetype, and what gives the archetype the strength is has now. For you get a 1/3 flyer. These stats allow you to block certain threats, but does not scream "tempo". However, lords like Supreme Phantom are what enables this deck to play a tempo game style, while also being very disruptive. Supreme Phantom is great versus creature decks, since your creatures get big enough to either kills their creatures, or race your opponent. Furthermore, this card is indirectly great versus non-creature decks, since it sets a real clock on them to act, playing into our Spell Quellers and Mausoleum Wanderers. You will most likely never board out the lords, certainly not Supreme Phantom due to its lower mana cost in comparison to Drogskol Captain.

3x Selfless SpiritI consider this card to be among the core spirits, but it can be a little narrow. As such, some lists including this one don't run the full 4 copies, some have even cut down to 2. Nevertheless, do not underestimate this card. Even though the effect is narrow, the applications are very versatile. For , you get a 2/1 flyer. This is on par with Rattlechains, but as with every spirit, the real power is in its ability. Selfless Spirit protects your creatures against certain removal spells, board wipes like Supreme Verdict, and allows your creatures to block bigger creatures, all for just losing Selfless Spirit. This card is prime example of why the instant speed playstyle is so important for this deck, your opponent could go for a big swing with their creatures, or destroy the entire board thinking they've got the game in the bag, but flashing in a Selfless Spirit nullifies all of that. In my list, I run 3 copies, but it is completely fine to run 4 copies. However, due to the prevalence of certain cards in different archtpyes, Selfless Spirit has fallen of a little bit. For this reason some have cut back to 2, but I still consider 3 to be the perfect spot for the card. Some cards that don't care about Selfless Spirit and are being played a lot in modern right now are: Dismember, Path to Exile, Collective Brutality, Liliana, the Last Hope, Karn Liberated, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Terminus, Detention Sphere, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, and Liliana of the Veil. Can be boarded out when playing versus these cards.

3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben The only non-spirit creature in the deck (not counting Phantasmal Image due to it becoming a spirit when it ETB's). This means that it has to be a very good card for it to have a spot in the spirit deck. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is a 2/1 with first strike. Not having flying is a real deficit, however first strike makes up for that a little bit, since it can function as a form of evasion. Not being a spirit means Thalia, Guardian of Thraben doesn't benefit from the lords, doesn't grow Mausoleum Wanderer, doesn't proc Nebelgast Herald, and doesn't get flash/hexproof from Rattlechains. However, it does fit into our gameplan. This deck runs a lot of creatures since its incentivized to do so mainly through the lords and Aether Vial. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben also incentivizes running a lot of creatures/few non-creatures. Furthermore, this deck tries to disrupt our opponents with its creatures, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben also disrupts our opponent. On top that, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben can also just get in for damage. In addition to these points, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben also has some nice synergies with our other cards. Mausoleum Wanderer and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben essentially make all non-creatures cost at least more. On top of this, your opponent wants to kill Thalia, Guardian of Thraben as soon as possible, since its that big of a deal to make all non-creature cost more. Your opponent might very well spend a turn casting a removal spell on Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, only to get it Spell Quellered, essentially just giving you an extra turn. Among spirit players, there is a bit of a discussion going on about how good mainboard Thalia, Guardian of Thraben really is, with many people choosing not to run her at all. However, due to the reasons previously stated, and the synergy with this deck as a whole, I am currently convinced that Thalia, Guardian of Thraben deserves a mainboard slot. However, this card of course only shines if your opponent plays non-creature spells. If you play versus a creature deck, sideboard all Thalia, Guardian of Thrabens out.

3x Phantasmal ImageThis card can be described in one word: Versatility. Phantasmal Image, and copies any creature on the battlefield, and copying their creature type as well, and any ETB effects. If you are behind you can copy one of your opponents creatures. Often times copying a lord is the way to go. Due to the many applications, this deck runs 3 copies in the mainboard. Most deck run 2 or 3 copies, and only few run 0. Can be boarded out versus lots of spells/abilities.

4x Drogskol Captain Another lord, but not only gives it +1/+1, it also gives hexproof. for you get a 2/2 flyer. This is not that great, but this card can lock up games real easy. When getting multiple Drogskol Captains on the board either by the card itself or by Phantasmal Image, you can assemble a "drogskol lock", meaning all your creatures get hexproof and your opponent can't really do anything about it. Mass removal spells get countered by Selfless Spirit, and most creatures we can kill because getting a drogskol lock also means all spirits get +2/+2, and otherwise all our creatures still have evasion. There are times when trying to get this card onto the battlefield might be tricky, 3 mana is a lot, and you usually want vial to stay on 2 (If you have this card in hand it might incentivize you to put it on 3 though). So, it usually becomes better a bit later into the game if you can hold up Spell Queller or Rattlechains, unless you can just beatdown your opponent with it on the battlefield. In certain matchups, where speed is everything, it might be fine to board this out, as it is clunky to play on turn 3.

4x Spell Queller One of our best disruptive creatures, and perhaps the to play Spirits. Spell Queller is a 2/3 with flying for . These stats are fine, but Spell Queller really starts to shine with one lord on the battlefield, making Spell Queller get that magical 4 toughness, outside of Lightning Bolt range. Few spells in modern have a converted mana cost of or more, with the exception of most things tron plays. As such, Spell Queller can be seen as 3 mana counter spell that also leaves a 2/3 body. Most of the time you want to keep Spell Queller in hand to counter an important spell, and mostly only if you have some form of protection in a lord, Mausoleum Wanderer, or Rattlechains. When Spell Queller hits the battlefield and exiles an important card, the next step is protecting Spell Queller while retaining the advantage you got from casting Spell Queller. Some tricks are possible with this card, putting Spell Queller's effect on the stack and responding with Vapor Snag (which I don't run - see "Notable exclusions & other cards to consider") can permanently remove a card. One of this deck all-stars, as this card is another embodiment of our gameplan. The only deck this card is not good against is tron, and you can usually trim a few Spell Quellers in that matchups.

2x Nebelgast Herald Nebelgast Herald, a 2/1 creature for , rounds up our creatures. These stats are sub-par, but Nebelgast Herald comes with flash, and an effect which fits our gameplan well. We talked about card that incentivize playing creatures or spirits before, and this card just adds on to that list. This card disrupts your opponent, and benefits a lot from the instant speed play style of the deck, preventing big attacks and clearing the way for a fatal attack of your own. This card shines versus creature decks, and mainly the ones with not that much, but big creatures. Examples of such decks are Death's shadow and Hollow one. These creature decks are not spirits best matchup, so Nebelgast Herald fulfills an important role by making those matchups better for us. Even with all those reasons, I do believe that this card would be the first to cut in the deck if you want to try something else, alongside Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. So if ever a new strong spirit is printed, or if you want to try something yourself, or if the meta moves away from creatures, you would cut this card first. That being said, sideboard with this card is easy. Playing versus a creature deck? run Nebelgast Herald. Playing versus a non-creature deck? Board Kira, Great Glass-Spinner in. I believe this slot in the current meta is a 50/50 toss up between Nebelgast Herald and Kira, Great Glass-Spinner. Both are great, both are fine to run, and a 1-1 split between the two is perfectly reasonable as well. I chose Nebelgast Herald over Kira, Great Glass-Spinner since it fits our gameplan a little better, and makes our "bad" matchups a little better.

Non-Creature Spells

4x Aether Vial Aether Vial is a card I've named numerous times before, and with good reason. This card allows our tempo game style to shine, and helps our instant speed playstyle. Furthermore, spirits in general run almost all creatures in the 2 and 3 slot, making Aether Vial better. incentivizing to play more creature spells, Aether Vial adds onto our gameplan and as a result fits well into the deck. Of course there are versions that play without it and have succes, but in my opinion, the card does so much (all previously stated) that I would not cut it. Even though Aether Vial fits so well in this deck, you don't necessarily need to run 4. This might sound weird as Aether Vial is one of the best turn 1 plays, and because of that you would want to have 4 in your deck, having multiple in play is also not that bad. However, since this deck runs Rattlechains and so many cheap creatures, Aether Vial can in certain scenario's feel redundant. As such there are some lists that run 3, and I have heard people speaking about running 2. But, due to the synergy this deck has with Aether Vial, this list specifically will still stick to 4 copies. Being able to Spell Queller on turn 3 and have a Rattlechains for backup that turn is very important for this deck. Making all our creatures have flash alongside Rattlechains (even Thalia, Guardian of Thraben) speeds up this deck a lot. Aether Vial also improves the matchup versus control by not letting our creatures be countered. Aether Vial is one relevant reason for not running Bant Spirits (although there have been some Bant lists also running Aether Vial). Aether Vial is technically card disadvantage, but it definitely worth it to run.

4x Path to Exile Good luck trying to find decks in Modern with as a main colour that are not running Path to Exile. Premium removal and Modern staple, this deck runs the full playset. For , we exile any one creature. This on itself can counter complete strategies, and is valuable form turn 1 till 10 and onwards. The downside of course being the ramp for your opponent (which in probably 1% of games makes it worth it to cast on your own creature) is a very real downside, but killing an important creature is almost always worth it. You might not want to play this card if your opponent in stuck on one or two lands, but other than that, Path to Exile away! Can easily be sideboarded out versus most control decks, but be wary of any Celestial Colonnades, that card alone is worth keeping 1 or 2 Path to Exiles for.

Lands

Alongside the card discussion, I will also quickly discuss the number of lands here. I run 21 lands, and most decks do so. If you want to stay in the 90+% of all decks range, you should play between 20 and 22 lands. 21 is the ideal number for me, since it allows the deck to reliably hit our third land drop, while leaving the chance to get flooded very low. On top of this, lands in the later stages of the game are not that bad for this deck, but not something you're hoping to find either. This deck tends to hold up cards to answer your opponent, which means being able to cast two spells in a single turn is great, and getting a Moorland Haunt activation every turn is also great. However, running out of gas and subsequently drawing lands is not what you want to have happen. With the 21 lands this deck runs is a mixture of fetches, basics, duals, and colorless lands. One of the main reasons to play UW Spirits instead of Bant Spirits is the mana base. Bant Spirits mana base is bad . It plays 3 colours which all need to be available from turn 2, forcing you to play lands that heavily tax your life total, while running few basics, exposing yourself to Blood Moon. UW spirits has a very solid mana base, which can easily isn't so easily beaten by Blood Moon, and even has a few spots for colorless lands. This decks mana base in designed to have a very high chance for a untapped blue source turn 1. This is mainly because Mausoleum Wanderer is one of the best cards in this deck, after some calculating and discussing with other Spirit players, I've found 14 untapped blue sources to be the sweet spot. According to This hypergeometric calculator, this gives us an 86% chance to have an untapped blue source turn 1 on the play, and 90% on the draw. To find out why we run which lands, keeping reading below!

4x Flooded Strand & 3x Polluted Delta Almost any deck that can even remotely run fetch lands will, and this deck is no exception. These cards give you the option to get the mana source you need out of Hallowed Fountain, Plains, and Island. In addition to this, they also thin your deck nicely, meaning that because you basically played two lands, you chances of hitting non-land cards that impact the game is higher. The amount of fetches is an subject that is still being discussed, but the majority see 5-8 as the range to be in. This is because you want to get both colours as soon as possible, want to thin you deck nicely, and don't want to take too much damage from lands. 4 Flooded Strand because it hits all our fetchable lands, with the addition of 3 Polluted Delta, since Island are generally more important that Plains in this deck.

2x Glacial Fortress, 2x Hallowed Fountain, & 2x Seachrome Coast The dual lands take up 6 slots for this deck. Hallowed Fountain is the most obvious dual land to run since it can be fetched with both Flooded Strand as well as Polluted Delta. However, since you don't want to hurt yourself too much, this deck runs only 2 Hallowed Fountain. Getting the right mana usually isn't a problem for this deck anyway. That being said, running 3 Hallowed Fountain is completely fine as well. This deck runs a 2-2 split between Seachrome Coast and Glacial Fortress, which might differ a little bit form other UW spirit builds. This is because most UW spirit decks run 4 Seachrome Coast and 0 Glacial Fortress because having an untapped source on turn 1 is very important for Mausoleum Wanderer and Aether Vial. That being said, I believe that getting an untapped land later on in the game (Glacial Fortress) is also very important. You often keep spells in your hand instead of immediately playing it, which means you want the mana to play two spells when needed. To add to that, you want to activate Moorland Haunt every turn when possible. By playing a 2-2 split, you are playing 16 untapped sources on turn 1 for Aether Vial, which according to this hypergeometric calculator gives you a 90% chance of having one of those 16 sources in your opening hand, and 14 untapped blue sources in particular, which gives an 86% chance for at least 1 untapped blue source in your opening hand, which in my opinion is more than enough.

1x Mutavault & 2x Moorland Haunt 3 slots for the colorless lands in this deck. I don't think this deck has space for any more than 3 or 4, since it otherwise doesn't run the required coloured lands anymore. Some lists run 4 Mutavaults, but I believe those lists overvalue Mutavault. Moorland Haunt is a very important part of this deck which I value higher than Mutavault. Its basically one of the best creature lands for a tribe out there, while not being an actual creature land! In the final colorless land slot I currently run Mutavault. Both Moorland Haunt and Mutavault have pros and cons, but the reason I like Moorland Haunt, and give it two slots in this deck is that it operates at instant speed, like most of this deck. It also creatures a spirit permanently, meaning you can use it to block/attack multiple turns. It also forms a very powerful combo with Nebelgast Herald. Moorland Haunt essentially costs 3 mana to activate, but you don't have to pay mana on your turn, which means you can hold up Spell Queller and if your opponent does not cast a spell worth quellering, you just create a token at the end of their turn. Mutavault essentially costs 2 mana, and I would take the instant speed for 1 more mana since it synergizes so well with this deck. However, Moorland Haunt does require a creature card from your graveyard. But this isn't that big of a problem. My version of the deck runs 31 creatures, if none of those get into the graveyard, then either you're winning the game handily, or your opponent has something like a Rest in Peace which just means our Moorland Haunt is a normal colorless land, which isn't game-losing, but Mutavault would of course be better. Furthermore, we have some creatures that sacrifice themselves, Mausoleum Wanderer, Selfless Spirit, and the sideboard Remorseful Cleric. Gaining value on top of the sacrifice effect is nice synergy. And finally, one of the most important reasons why I prefer Moorland Haunt over Mutavault is that Mutavault does not have evasion. Moorland Haunts tokens have flying, Mutavault does not, which means it can be easily blocked or removed and then you're just missing a land. Mutavault has a kind of "good when ahead, bad otherwise" feel to it. If your opponent can't block your creatures, its great! But, that means you're in a pretty good spot already. While if Mutavault can't attack, its just a colorless land.

2xPlains & 3xIsland The standard basic lands. This deck runs 5, so it doesn't have to deal with some drawbacks some dual lands have. This deck also doesn't really need to play more dual lands. To add on to that, running 5 basics plays well around Blood Moon. 3 Islands and 2 Plains since generally Island is more important for this deck, especially turn 1.

Notable exclusions & Other cards to consider

Card art - Will-o'-the-Wisp by Jesper Myrfors

Geist of Saint Traft Perhaps the most notable of exlusions, Geist of Saint Traft usually shows up with 2 copies in most mainboards. The reason why a large amount of decks run Geist of Saint Traft is because it secures free wins versus non-creature decks, and gives great advantage versus some "slower" decks like Tron. These are of course very valid reasons to run a card, however, in both situations I see the card as a "win more" card. With a "win more" card I mean a card that is great as long as you are already winning the game, but will be mostly useless when behind, or on even ground. Control is one of your best matchups, we have so much disruptions/protection from whatever they try to do, while also being able to set up a fast clock with our creatures. Tron is not that great of a matchup for Spirits, however we can answer most threats. Tron is also a deck that's relatively easy to sideboard against. So, Geist of Saint Traft is not a card that is essential for us to win games. On top of that, it doesn't really follow our gameplan. Sure, the card can set up a very fast clock, potentially swinging for 6 every turn. Nevertheless, this is where another very important keyword of this deck comes into play: Evasion. Geist of Saint Traft gets blocked and subsequently killed by almost every creature in modern because it base stats are 2/2 for . These stats are similar to some other spirits, like Drogskol Captain, Spell Queller and even better than Nebelgast Herald. However, what those 3 creatures have that is so important for this deck, and what Geist of Saint Traft does not have is flying. versus jund, humans, hollow one, burn, mardu pyromancer, spirits mirror, RB vengevine, death's shadow, and affinity Geist of Saint Traft just can't attack most of the time, and these are the decks that get played a lot at the moment. You can try to buff Geist of Saint Traft up with lords, but the chance he would get killed when attacking is still very high, and assembling enough lords and get into a position to attack with Geist of Saint Traft might take too much time. Because of the lack of evasion, and it increasing our odds to win in mathcups were we are already favoured, this deck runs no copies of Geist of Saint Traft in the board.

Curious Obsession Another heavily discussed card. There are plenty of lists running Curious Obsession, but even more completely skipping it. I will try to explain my reasoning on why I like Curious Obsession, and what the pros and cons of the card are, and why in the end I didn't consider it powerful enough. Curious Obsession is an aura for , it costing is great since our mana base is designed to have U on turn 1 for Mausoleum Wanderer, and you will be playing Curious Obsession on turn 2 onwards. It being an aura means it opens yourself up to getting 2-for-1’d. However, if left unchecked Curious Obsession can pull you very far ahead in games. In 90% of cases, there are 4 things that can happen when playing Curious Obsession.

One other reason I like Curious Obsession is that it fits the playstyle of spirits well (in my opinion). Spirits play a tempo game, aggro-control. You want to attack with creatures, we play lords, Aether Vials, protection for our creatures. Curious Obsession incentivizes playing a lot of creatures and attacking, which is what this version of spirits does anyway. However, this card can distract you from your gameplan, by over-committing on protecting it, and as a result ruining your tempo. Furthermore, its mainly good against midrange decks, where games tend to go a bit longer and grindier, and where the card draw is usually best utilized. There are some arguments for cantrips over Curious Obsession, which I would perhaps agree with, but I tend to like a loot/draw effect on a creatures instead of a non-creature card. This means that both cantrips and Curious Obsession are not that great, and I think Curious Obsession might be a bit of a trap, with the latest 5-0 lists dropping the card as well. Perhaps as a 2-off if you are in a midrange heavy meta, I currently am not playing this card.

Militia Bugler Together with Remorseful Cleric and Supreme Phantom, Militia Bugler is among the most recent potential cards for spirits from M19. Militia Bugler has great potential, and has seen plays in numerous spirit brews. However, it has yet to see real play in competitive leagues (at least I couldn't find any). Militia Bugler costs , and is a 2/3 creature with vigilance. The main thing you get from this is that Militia Bugler does not have evasion, which is a real deficit. Nevertheless, Militia Bugler comes with an ability that can fetch any creature with power 2 or less from the top 4 cards of your library. This means it can hit every creature in this deck. Together with the instant speed provided by Aether Vial, this can make for some clutch plays. Flashing in Militia Bugler and subsequently casting a Spell Queller are plays that are bound to happen. Furthermore, Militia Bugler gives us an advantage in grindy matchups, allowing us to filter the top of our deck for the right creature. The chances of hitting a creature in the top 4 cards is very high. I currently am not running Militia Bugler, but might very well give it a shot soon. I think 4 copies is too much of this card, 2 or 3 is where you want to be. For it I would cut Nebelgast Herald to make room in the 3 slot, and if I want to run 3, I would cut 1 Path to Exile or Phantasmal Image, or perhaps Thalia, Guardian of Thraben.

Serum Visions & Opt When playing a deck with blue as a main colour, you should always try to see if you can run cantrips. Cantrips are very powerful, they often let you filter cards in your deck, and thin your deck by replacing themselves. The power of cantrips is something every magic player has to learn, after all there are so many decks that run them. That being said, I could not find slots to play them in this deck. Nevertheless, there are some lists that run 3 to 4 Serum Visions, cutting Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and 1 Aether Vial. Opt is being used by a completely different kind of deck. Check out that version in "Other ways to play spirits in modern". There have been some lists where Curious Obsession was prioritized over cantrips, but those decks have all started to drop the curious obsessions, but not replacing them with cantrips. vial spirits perhaps doesn't need a form of card filtering. However, when not running vial, you should definitely think about some kind of card advantage or filtering.

Mana Leak, Spell Snare, Logic Knot, Negate, & Remand Counter spells combo well with the disruption this deck already offers. By running these you move more towards the disruption part of the deck, while still retaining the tempo the deck naturally offers. Running these often means you won't be running Aether Vial, since you're running more non-creatures spells, and as a result less creatures. However, they can perfectly mash together. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is a card you most likely always want to cut, perhaps putting her in the sideboard or just removing them from the board completely. Most decks that run counter spells run 3 to 4 of them. Some versions run 3 Remands, abusing the tempo this deck offers. Remand can effectively set your opponent a turn back, while replacing itself in the progress. other versions run any 4-card-combination out of 1 to 2 Mana Leaks, 1 Spell Snare, 1 to 2 Logic Knots, and 1 Negate.

Lingering Souls Lingering Souls can close up games within 2 turns, but takes a toll on your mana base. Esper spirits is a real thing, I know of only one version at the moment, and that one runs Lingering Souls together with some counter spells and no Aether Vials and Thalia, Guardian of Thrabens. However, going for a black splash gives you access to other cards besides just Lingering Souls. For more on that, check out Esper vial-less spirit in "Other ways to play spirits in modern". But Lingering Souls on its own is a very powerful card in this deck. You can theoretically curve a Supreme Phantom into a Lingering Souls into the flashback and another Supreme Phantom, which gives 16 damage when you attack on the following turn. Some people put 4 black sources in their deck just for a couple of copies of Lingering Souls. Going for 3-4 black sources does hurt your mana base. Though it might be a good card, the question is if Lingering Souls is a card this deck needs.

Vapor Snag Vapor Snag sees some play in UW vial spirits. It works well in a tempo deck, basically opening up the way for a big attack, and setting your opponent back a turn. There is also a trick you can pull of with Spell Queller, returning Spell Queller to your own hand with the initial Spell Queller trigger is on the stack. This way you permanently exile a spell, and can recast Spell Queller on a different spell. It does take the slot of Path to Exile, but this doesn't have to be bad. Path to Exile ramps your opponent, which is bad for a deck which partly tries to out tempo its opponent. Killing a creature is often worth this set-back, but Vapor Snag is often time a answer that's also good enough. Some decks run a the full 4 Vapor Snags and 0 Path to Exiles, but most decks that run Vapor Snag do a 2-2 split between the two. I don't run it in my list, since it doesn't work well with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. I am very willing to pay 2 to exile a creature, but paying 2 to bounce a creature is just so much worse than the same effect for 1. If you are not running Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. you can definitely test a 2-2 split and see how it works for you.

Cavern of Souls Like just discussed previously, I think Moorland Haunt and Mutavault are very important for this deck. Cavern of Souls would look like it go into the colorless land slot. However, since this deck runs so many creatures, almost all of them spirits, this card would almost always tap for colored mana, as well as making spirits uncounterable. However, the combination of Path to Exile, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and Phantasmal Image makes for 10 cards that won't be cast through Cavern of Souls. One of UW vial spirits most important pros is the excellent mana base, you almost never will be without the mana you need. For this reason, I would still count Cavern of Souls as a colorless land, just so it won't worsen our mana base. This would mean that next to Moorland Haunt we have 1 to 2 slots for Cavern of Souls. You can definitely play 1 or 2 copies of Cavern of Souls, I don't think making your creatures uncounterable is that important, since we have a pretty decent matchup versus control. However, if your local meta has a lot of control, you can run Cavern of Souls.

Spirit of the Labyrinth & Geier Reach Sanitarium Spirit of the Labyrinth is a card which you might see one copy of in a sideboard here and there, but it is not really seeing play. However, there have been a couple of brews where people tested Spirit of the Labyrinth together with Geier Reach Sanitarium. The idea behind this combo is that you get to control your opponents hand, by making them not gain any cards. This means that if they play a card, they do not get a card in return, while you get to draw an extra card every turn. In theory this combo can be very strong, but can be difficult to pull of in practice. First, you do not want to play more than 2 Geier Reach Sanitariums, and you would most likely be playing 4 copies of Spirit of the Labyrinth. Spirit of the Labyrinth on its own is not that great. A lot of decks in modern run cantrips or other card draw effects, in which case Spirit of the Labyrinth is great. However, Spirit of the Labyrinth is a 3/1 without flying. These stats mean that Spirit of the Labyrinth can't attack against almost all creatures. On top of that, it dies very easily against cards like Gut Shot and Izzet Staticaster. Geier Reach Sanitarium would take up two slots in the colorless land spot, which most likely means that we lose our Mutavault, which is a big loss. Due to this combo requires 6 slots in you deck, all of them important. I wouldn't really see this as more than a cute combo, but not more than that at this moment.

Sideboard

1x Blessed Alliance Blessed Alliance might look like it isn't a very good card when seeing its abilities, but what makes this card great is its versatility. For 2 mana, you can get an effect that might just be perfect in a certain situation. The escalate ability is pretty easily paid as well. This card is great versus Burn, as 4 life is a very big swing. The sacrifice ability is also relevant against burn, as sacrificing a 5 power Monastery Swiftspear and gaining 4 life for , can win you the game easily. This sacrifice effect is also great vesus decks like Bogles. The untap effect can be good in certain niche scenarios, but you wont often get to utilize it very well. Certain decks run 2 Blessed Alliance in the sideboard, I currently run 1 as I prefer certain other cards over the second copy of Blessed Alliance.

2x Echoing Truth Echoing Truth is a card with such high versatility, that I consider it worth running. Echoing Truth is great against tokens, easily beating Bitterblossom and Young Pyromancer for example. It also helps us have an answer for niche permanents that can win your opponent the game when they resolve, for example Ensnaring Bridge. This card is also very good versus decks that run lots of +1/+1 counters, and grow their creatures over time, like Champion of the Parish. One downside of this card is that it is one use only. This means that you need to get a big advantage within one turn of playing this card.

1x Eidolon of Rhetoric Eidolon of Rhetoric can be compared to Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. In most scenarios, Thalia is better. However, in scenario's where Eidolon of Rhetoric is better, it is the better card by a long shot. Eidolon of Rhetoric shuts down Storm, and makes playing cheap cantrips a very mana-inefficient play. Eidolon of Rhetoric is also great against Burn. So, Eidolon of Rhetoric is good versus some decks in modern, but the reason this card is in the sideboard is because it plays so well with our deck. One of this decks main strengths is its ability to play at instant speed, which basically gives us twice as many spells to cast as our opponent with Eidolon of Rhetoric in play. Furthermore, Aether Vial is great in combination with Eidolon of Rhetoric, letting us play multiple creatures in one turn. Finally, Eidolon of Rhetoric has great synergy with Spell Queller, making Spell Queller a hard counter and essentially a Time Walk while leaving behind a body.

Kira, Great Glass-Spinner A few lists run Kira, Great Glass-Spinner in the mainboard, some other lists run 1 or 2 in the sideboard. This 3-drop slot is very open for this deck, and if a good option for the spirits deck would arise, this would most likely be the first card to cut if you run it in the mainboard. Furthermore, this 3-drop slot is in my opinion currently a 50/50 toss up between Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and Nebelgast Herald. Nebelgast Herald because it might fit our gameplan a little better, but kira offers our creatures a lot of protection for only a 3-drop. However, it is perfectly fine to run either one of those creatures in that slot, a 1-1 split is fine as well. Kira, Great Glass-Spinner is legendary, and costs so I wouldn't run more than 2 copies in the board. If your local meta features a relatively large amount of creature interactive decks, or control, you should probably play Kira, Great Glass-Spinner. If your meta consists mainly of big creature decks, I would advise running Nebelgast Herald. A final small note on Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, Kira does not protect Phantasmal Image, you still need to sacrifice it if targeted, even if the ability or spell gets countered.

3x Rest in Peace Rest in Peace is a Modern sideboard staple, and is run by nearly every deck playing white which does not rely completely on its graveyard. This deck has some interaction with the graveyard in Moorland Haunt, but you will gladly give that up in a matchup like Bridgevine. The reason this sideboard still contains Rest in Peaces instead of Remorseful Clerics is because Remorseful Cleric is not that great at being a graveyard-answer card. The reason for this is that most decks can comeback from a one time graveyard purge. The strength of Rest in Peace is that it is a continuous effect. Furthermore, there are not a lot of answers to enchantments in Modern, while you might have to sacrifice Remorseful Cleric at an inopportune time because it would otherwise be killed. If further testing will continue to show Remorseful Cleric underperforming, I might add a third Rest in Peace is necessary, 2 Rest in Peaces are good enough most of the time.

1x Settle the Wreckage Spirits can beat down your opponent with lots of smaller creatures, which eventually end up being big monsters through the lords. The disruption this deck plays is mainly great versus non-creature spells, so one of our bad matchups are creatures decks. Not all creature decks are bad though, just the extremely explosive ones, mainly humans. Settle the Wreckage is not an ideal card for us, 4 mana is a lot and on top of that 2 of those 4 is white. However, the pay off versus decks like humans is well worth it. Settle the Wreckage is another card that can win you the game when it resolves. I run only 1 copy, since there are other answers for humans and other creature decks, and because of the mana cost.

2x Stony Silence Much like Rest in Peace, Stony Silence can win you the game if it resolves. In almost all cases, its very easy to decide whether or not to board this in. Versus affinity, KCI, and tron this card is an all star. There is a spirit that is also good against artifact decks, Kataki, War's Wage. The reason nearly all spirit players prefer Stony Silence over Kataki, War's Wage is that Stony Silence is way harder to deal with. Both are bad for your Aether Vial, which you should most likely board out when boarding in Stony Silence. There is not that many enchantment hate in most decks, both main and sideboard. I would always run 2 Stony Silence is the sideboard, and depending on if you feel you have slots left in the sideboard and your local meta, perhaps even 3 copies.

2x Unified Will Another card seen in almost all spirit sideboards. Spirits is an archtype that will always run the "core spirits" as discussed in the general gameplan. These are 23 spirits which means you run a lot of creatures. Thus, Unified Will will in nearly all scenario's be an easier to cast Counterspell. Some versions of spirits like to run other counter spells like Mana Leak, Spell Snare, or Negate in the mainboard, while still having one or two copies of Unified Will in the sideboard. Instead of those counter spells, this deck runs Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, which is a card you need to keep in mind when boarding in non-creature spells. Unified Will is great versus decks that rely on a couple of important cards, for example Storm.

1x Vendilion Clique Vendilion Clique would most likely be a mainboard card for this deck if it were a spirit. The reason for this is that Vendilion Clique interacts with your opponent. You can get an important card out of their hand. Furthermore, Vendilion Clique has high power, can be played at instant speed like some other cards in the deck, and has evasion. On top of this, you will often target yourself with the ability to exchange a dead late game Aether Vial for another card. Vendilion Clique is a very strong card, and might still be worth considering in the mainboard. I run 1 copy in the sideboard against decks that rely on a few cards to win the game, like combo.

1x Worship Much like with Unified Will, Worship cares about having creatures on your side of the battlefield, which perfectly aligns with what this deck wants to do. Worship is an expensive card mana-wise, but like Rest in Peace and Stony Silence has the potential to win you the game when it resolves. Against any unfair decks, combo decks, and decks with no interaction Worship shines. Most versions run 2 copies in the sideboard, I only run the 1 copy, since I would otherwise cut Blessed Alliance or Kira, Great Glass-Spinner which I consider too important. There has been some talk about Worships place in the Modern meta right now, and how it might be less good that it used to be. If your meta contains a lot of unfair decks, or decks with no interaction, you should most likely run 2 copies of Worship.

Other ways to play Spirits in Modern

Bant spirits

Bant spirits run the same core spirits that UW does, but instead of Aether Vial Bant spirits runs mana dorks like Noble Hierarch and Birds of Paradise. Furthermore, they don't run any spirits other than the core 23. However, they sometimes do run Phantasmal Image and to fill the remaining slots 4 copies of Collected Company. This deck is build around the strong colour combination that is bant, and the cards that can be abused in that colour combination, in Noble Hierarch. On top of that, Bant spirits is more explosive than UW because of the mana acceleration but mainly because of Collected Company. Collected Company, like Aether Vial incentivizes playing a lot of creatures, and a Collected Company into a Drogskol Captain and Supreme Phantom can just straight up win you the game.

For Bant decklists, check out mtggoldfish

UW vs Bant

On august 18th 2018, an article was posted on Channelfireball which quite boldy claimed that Bant was the superior version. I do not agree with this assessment, I think the decks almost equal, and I think the article just described a very shallow look into the tribe as if by a player with no experience playing the decks. Furthermore, I think it is wrong to straight up say one version is better than the other. Both see play, and both have success.

However, this article shined a spotlight over a question which split the spirit players: Which iteration is better? I will not attempt to actually answer that question, instead, in order to approach an aswer to this question, I will very quickly and without going in-depth review the strenghts and weaknesses of both decks.

UW

The main strengths are:

A strong and painless mana base,
Very reliable,
More disruptive/interactive than the bant version.

The main weaknesses are:

Weak against most other creature decks,
Can not play well from behind,
Less explosive than Bant spirits.

Bant

The main strengths are:

Very explosive/fast,
Better sideboard options,
Can make comebacks through the power of Collected Company.

The main weaknesses are:

Very random, can look insanely good, and horrible,
Painful and bad mana base,
Does not interact quite as well as UW.

One big mistake people make when looking at UW vs Bant is comparing Collected Company to Aether Vial, while you should be comparing Aether Vial to the mana dorks of Bant. Collected Company is a card Bant can utilize to often great results, but due to the card being very random, can also achieve nothing. UW's reliability comes from the extra creatures it runs that actively contribute to the gameplan. There are no mana dorks which end up being pretty bad in the lategame, even if Noble Hierarch exalted can come in handy, the deck is in a bad position if you're attacking with only one creatures in the later parts of the game. This also comes back to the strengths and weaknesses. Where Bant is explosive and can have insane curves, UW will be a bit slower while always being disruptive and reliable.

I personally think you can't go wrong when choosing between Bant and UW, there are a lot of people having succes with both versions, essentially saying that there is not a strictly better version. However, I prefer UW for a couple of reasons. The mana base is a big deal. From playing against Blood Moon as well as getting the colours you need without inflicting too much damage on yourself. The UW mana base is fine tuned to almost always have a blue source on turn 1, and to reliably get to 3 lands on turn 3, all without inflicting too much damage to yourself. Furthermore, I consider Collected Company to be an extremely strong card, but I'm not sure if it fits the spirit theme of reaction plays followed up by a quick beatdown well. Also the randomness is a downside. On top of this, I prefer Aether Vial to mana dorks since Aether Vial perfectly adds onto the gameplan by allowing us to deploy threats on out opponents turn, keeping our options open for as long as possible. These reasons when combined with the reliability UW provides makes me prefer it over Bant.

Esper vial-less spirits

Epser spirits is a UW deck that runs a splash. The deck still runs the core 23 spirits, and often cuts Aether Vial. The main payoff for splashing black is Lingering Souls. Lingering Souls creates spirits which get buffed by the spirit lords. Lingering Souls is a bit slow, with 3 mana it is at the top end of our curve, however, getting 4 spirits out of it eventually is something your opponent might not be able to answer. Lingering Souls Is also great against spirits historically bad matchup, creature aggro. There has been some discussion about how deep the black splash needs to be, some people think just 2 Lingering Souls is enough, while others try 4 Lingering Souls alongside 2 Inquisition of Kozilek and 2-4 Fatal Pushes. There has not been one iteration which has done significantly better than the other. Not a lot of people play esper spirits, but it is definitely a version of spirits which needs further testing, as the power of Lingering Souls might give it a spot in the metagame.

Here is one decklist, which goes pretty deep into the black splash. This deck list was provided through this blogpost.

UW vial-less spirits a.k.a "control spirits"

Control spirits is a spirits deck that tries to interact and disrupt their opponents more than just beating them down, while still being able to pull off quick wins through spirits innate ability to do so. Control spirits runs the core 23 spirits, and on top of those, a couple of Snapcaster Mages to round up the creature base. As for non-creatures, this deck does not run Aether Vial as it runs less creatures compared to other spirit decks. Instead, it utilizes cantrips like Opt, and counter spells like Logic Knot, Mana Leak, and Spell Snare. These non-creature spells on top of Path to Exile allows you to be very disruptive, while also filtering your deck nicely. One other important card this deck runs is in its mana base, Celestial Colonnade.

Here is one possible decklist Shoutout to "DillEPape", who is the one of the driving forces behind this iteration of Spirits. If you want to see the deck being played by him, check out his youtube channel!

Jeskai spirits

Jeskai spirit is a deck which you might sometimes hear people talk about, but very few people actually play it. I consider it to be the worst version of spirits, with also the lowest competitive viability. However, it is a deck with which you can have succes, and it might be fun to play. One version of the deck runs Eidolon of the Great Revel, which might be a bad fit for a deck where all spells cost 3 or less, but spirits run Aether Vial which counteracts this ability a little bit. Furthermore, access to red mana gives you cards like Boros Charm and Lightning Bolt. This deck goes more on the tempo/aggro route, while control spirits tries to take the tribe towards the more controlling style. I have seen a decklist which ran the two earlier named red card together with Snapcaster Mages, the decklists I can find are this one, utilizing Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix. And this primer using Eidolon of the Great Revel.

Additional information on Spirits

Card art - Bloodied Ghost by Mike Dringenberg

Join the Spirits Reddit, and through the sidebar there, also the discord! The subreddit and discord have nice discussions about card choices and strategy, for bant, and UW mainly. Additionally, Matchup Monday where matchups are being discussed. Other than that streamers putting in the time for you to watch some gameplay. A nice community for all Spirits players!

Article by modernnexus - Some more information about Spirits in general, with also a very good comparison of UW vs Bant spirits. A very good read, I would advise you to read it.

Great spirits primer on MTGsalvation

Onlyontuesdays - Esper Spirits - Blogpost with lots of information on Esper Spirits

Onlyontuesdays - UW vial Spirits - Blogpost with lots of information about UW vial Spirits.

Two great primers on Tappedout:

Spirited Away: A Paranormal Primer [U/W Spirits]

Modern Happymaster19

SCORE: 219 | 224 COMMENTS | 54979 VIEWS | IN 137 FOLDERS

Jeskai Spirits, A Modern Primer

Modern* Exoline

SCORE: 3 | 2 COMMENTS | 489 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

Youtube video - A different version of UW vial Spirits playing some games on MTGO.

UW Spirits versus Jeskai control - Youtube video - Starcitygames VS series featuring Ross Merriam on UW Spirits against Todd Stevens on Jeskai control.

Lastly, Starcitygames VS series featuring Todd Anderson on Bant Spirits in all 3 videos. He goes up against Todd Stevens on Jeskai control, Humans, and UR gifts storm.

Bant Spirits versus Jeskai control - Youtube video

Bant Spirits versus Humans - Youtube video

Bant Spirits versus UR gifts storm - Youtube video

There are countless of other articles to find on the internet, as well as a lot of videos of MTGO leagues or paper magic featuring all kinds of spirits.

Modern Matchups

Card art - Geier Reach Sanitarium by Cliff Childs

I will not be very elaborate when discussing matchups. If you want to know more about certain matchups, or would like to discuss them, check out the Matchup Modern series on the Spirits subreddit! I get most of my information from this page, but alter some things I don't agree with or see slightly differently from personal experience. I want to give a shoutout to TheRift who is active on both the subreddit and discord, and who's comments on the Matchup Monday threads were of great help to me.

Humans

Humans has been known as a bad matchup for spirits for a long time. This is because Humans is a creatures aggro deck, against which cards like Mausoleum Wanderer are just less effective. Spirits tend to not have the greatest stats anyway, so creature aggro has been a real problem. However, with the "new" addition of Supreme Phantom, this matchup has not been as bad for spirits anymore. Both Bant and UW have been able to put winrates up to 60% with reasonable sample sizes. The reason why this matchup has gotten so much better, is because what goes for spirits, also goes for humans. With this I mean that card like Mausoleum Wanderer, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and Spell Queller could be a less effective, but Humans' Kitesail Freebooter, Meddling Mage, Reflector Mage, and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben are all bad against spirits. Furthermore, as I touched upon earlier, Supreme Phantom buffs all our creatures, while also being a very good blocker itself. Spirits can swarm just as well as Humans, and Humans' strong top end in Mantis Rider is easily stopped by all our flying creatures.

So, what was once a terrible matchup has sprung into our favour. Spirits used to be called a worse version of Humans. Spirits' big 3-drops might be a little slow against Humans, I would advise cutting a number or Spell Quellers and Drogskol Captains, while also cutting Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Some great cards in the sideboard against Humans are Echoing Truth, Settle the Wreckage, and Worship.

Tron

Another matchup most people think is very bad for us. However, I believe the matchup is pretty close, but most likely still in Tron's favour. Spirits is a tempo deck, which means we really put a clock on what Tron wants to do. Furthermore, cards like Oblivion Stone, Wurmcoil Engine are bad against spirits, even Karn Liberated is not great. We have Selfless Spirit to blank Oblivion Stone. Path to Exile, Nebelgast Herald, and Phantasmal Image are great against Wurmcoil Engine, pretty good against Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as well. Karn Liberated's -3 gets stopped by Rattlechains, and killed of easily afterwards. That all being said, it is very easy to misplay against Tron. Spell Quellering the wrong spell, not attacking when you should, sacrificing Selfless Spirit when its not optimal, all these decisions can win or lose you the game easily against Tron. And beware of Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. If that resolves, we just straight up lose the game due to its -X ability.

As for sideboarding, Aether Vial is not great, since we will be bringing in Stony Silence. Other than that, Unified Will is great, and Echoing Truth is ok.

UWx Control

Control is a good matchups for Spirits. Nearly all our creatures answer theirs in some form or another. UWx control plays few creatures, and a lot of non-creatures. This means that Mausoleum Wanderer, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Drogskol Captain, Rattlechains, and Spell Queller are all very good. We are not pressured into a tempo gameplan, but can very well win the game before UWx control can do anything. Furthermore, counterspells are not great against Aether Vial. Removal gets blanked by Rattlechains and Spell Queller, and board wipes like Wrath of God get stopped by Selfless Spirit. A lot of UWx control list are running multiple copies of Terminus, which we can't stop with Spell Queller and Selfless Spirit, so they are not completely hopeless against us. Nevertheless, Spirits definitely has the upper hand.

When going into sideboarding, I think Spirits is very well equiped to beat UWx control post sideboard. Eidolon of Rhetoric, Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, Remorseful Cleric, Rest in Peace, Vendilion Clique, and Unified Will can be good options dependent on what kind of control deck it is. Path to Exile is pretty bad, but you might want to keep 1 or 2 in for any Celestial Colonnade, or a sideboard Baneslayer Angel. Be careful not to over-sideboard in this matchup.

Hollow One

Now this is a really bad matchup. Before sideboarding, Spirits will often lose the first game. The reason for this is that Hollow one is extremely fast, and extremely disruptive. Discarding 3 cards at random because of Burning Inquiry makes playing the game very difficult. However, there is a chance you can win. A turn 1 Mausoleum Wanderer might buy you some time, as it can counter their first discard spell, or at least delay it. Nebelgast Herald is also an important card, as it can tap a Hollow One to buy some time. You should not make unfavourable trades if at all possible, I think that the best strategy to use here is going broader and bigger than what Hollow one tries to do. Getting multiple lords is necessary. If you can get a good draw and achieve this, you can definitely win the game.

The sideboard is very important here. you should probably bring in Remorseful Cleric, Rest in Peace, Echoing Truth, and Eidolon of Rhetoric as they all stop or delay Hollow one's gameplan. Since its all about speed in this matchup. Spell Queller can probably be trimmed, and perhaps also the Phantasmal Images.

Burn

Burn can be a difficult matchup, but both sides can win if they draw well. Aether Vial is an important card in this matchup, as it allows us to play around Eidolon of the Great Revel. If you can't find an Aether Vial or Path to Exile, and they drop the eidolon, it might turn out to be a difficult game. However, Spirits has some ways to play around eidolon. You can try to Spell Queller it, if you can find the mana, and Phantasmal Image is great when copying Eidolon of the Great Revel, since eidolon is a spirit. If you effectively force 2 Eidolon of the Great Revels onto the field, one of them getting buffed by our lords, and can play around them using Aether Vial, we are in a pretty good spot. Finally, you can try to fake your opponent out by leaving the board empty. If they attack with Eidolon of the Great Revel, any flash creature we might have trades with it. Goblin Guide is not a big problem for Spirits, as we trade easily with it. Monastery Swiftspear is a bit of a problem, the high toughness in combination with the prowess triggers makes it so we cant trade with it easily. As such, this is a great target for Path to Exile. Grim Lavamancer is also scary, you just have to get a couple of lords out on the field, or Path to Exile it. Supreme Phantom is a nice card against Grim Lavamancer, as it buffs our creatures, and is outside the range of lavamancer. If the Burn player has to target your creatures with burn spells like Lightning Bolt, you're in a pretty decent spot. Try to get them into such a scenario.

I would board Blessed Alliance, Eidolon of Rhetoric and perhaps Echoing Truth in, while boarding out Nebelgast Herald, and maybe another couple of 3 drops. Burn has a lot of artifact hate in the sideboard, so bringing out the Aether Vials in certain scenario's can aslos be a good idea.

Bridgevine

Bridgevine is a very tricky matchup for a lot of decks, this one included. We can definitely fight them head on, and win a lot of games. However, if they get an insane start on turn 1, you will most likely lose the game. Otherwise, this deck runs a few creatures that can just block zombies all day, and this deck runs some creatures that can sacrifice themselves, exiling any Bridge from Belows in your opponents graveyard. Path to Exiles are important cards, and the main target you want to use them on are Viscera Seer and Vengevine. When playing against this deck, luck (or lack thereof for your opponent) and speed are very important. For that reason, the slowest pieces in this deck should get cut when sideboarding.

Spell Queller hits almost nothing, and is relatively slow. It can block zombies, but I don't consider it worth playing it. Aether Vial is too slow/unimpactful in such a matchup. Further options for cutting are Drogskol Captain and Nebelgast Herald. As for what cards we board in after game 1, Rest in Peace and Remorseful Cleric are obvious inclusions. Echoing Truth and maybe Worship can also be great.

Storm

Storm is one of the best matchups for Spirits. Storm generally doesn't like aggro, and it also does not like disruption. Spirits are these two combined. Mausoleum Wanderer can counter a lot of set-up spells, sometimes even the first ritual if that means they can't do anything else that turn. You should often play around Mausoleum Wanderer when playing against storm. Meaning that you should leave flash creatures in hand a little longer, just to get that P/T boost for Mausoleum Wanderer. Wanderer is also a great creature to copy with Phantasmal Image. Spell Queller hits everything Storm runs. The spells you want to counter most of the time with Spell Queller or any other counters you might have are Baral, Chief of Compliance, Goblin Electromancer, Gifts Ungiven, and Past in Flames.

Eidolon of Rhetoric, Unified Will, and Rest in Peace are all solid answers to what storm tries to do. I usually cut Selfless Spirit and Nebelgast Herald, although if you feel your creature density is going down too much, cutting 2 Aether Vials is also fine.

Mirror & Bant Spirits

When facing UW or Bant spirits, you've got to keep in mind that they are an aggro-control deck, and sideboard accordingly. UW's Nebelgast Herald is great in both mirrors, while collective company is great for Bant. Spell Queller is an all-star for both versions, important spells to counter are Collected Company, Nebelgast Herald, Drogskol Captain, and sideboard cards like Worship and Settle the Wreckage. Rattlechains are also important, as flashing in an extra creature might put you in a very good position, on top of killing your opponents Phantasmal Image if it copied a spirit. The sideboard is very important in this matchup.

Worship, Echoing Truth, and Settle the Wreckage are all great options, but your opponent might have them as well, while Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is a little sub-par.

Death's Shadow

Death's shadow is a deck with a lot of 50/50 matchups. However, I think Spirits has the upper hand. Death's shadow want to get to a low life total and then beat you down with big creatures, while controlling your hand and the board. However, Death's shadow has trouble dealing with the sheer number of creatures Spirits can get down, and due to the evasion, Spirits can punish low life totals heavily. Mausoleum Wanderer has many targets to hit, if your hand is great, countering a Thoughtseize might be worth it, while countering removal is great as well. This is also a matchup where Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Nebelgast Herald shine.

A lot of sideboard card can have a big impact in this matchup. Eidolon of Rhetoric is nice since Death's shadow usually runs lots of cheap cantrips and other spells to assemble the win. Echoing Truth is great against delve creatures. Blessed Alliance can shrink your opponents Death's Shadow, while also letting your opponent sacrifice creatures, as Death's shadow usually attacks with a couple big threats. Unified Will, Remorseful Cleric and Rest in Peace are great sideboard options as well.

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Casual

100% Competitive

Top Ranked	Achieved #16 position overall 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Exclude colors	R
Splash colors	BG
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	0 - 4 Mythic Rares 49 - 5 Rares 6 - 4 Uncommons 0 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.95
Tokens	Spirit 1/1 W
Folders	Possible Updates, Modern Stuff, Modern Meta, test, test, a, Modern, Decks...?, Modern, Modern Decks
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