Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

Legendary Creature — Spirit

Flying

Creatures you control have "Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability for the first time in a turn, counter that spell or ability."

Discussion (47)

HalbrechtHalbrecht on Blue Ectoplasm

1 month ago

+1 for spirits!

Alright. So my main concern with this deck is that you have nothing to do on turn 1 and very little to do on turn 2. Conversely, you have over half of your spells vying for turn 3. So my main recommendation would be to convert some of your CMC 3 and higher spells into 1 and 2 drops. I know you purposefully stuffed the 3 CMC slot for Drift of Phantasms' transmute ability.... but honestly, you don't need a LOT of cards at 3 CMC for the transmute to matter. You just need the most important cards (notably, Drogskol Captain). Quality vs quantity. :)

So some nominations!

Lands

I'll be blunt on this topic: 20 lands (or even 21 lands counting the double-faced one) is not enough for a deck with these mana requirements. I'd recommend 23. A synergistic land to consider is Moorland Haunt. Since you're primarily blue, the colorless mana shouldn't hamper you too much, and importantly, it gives you a mid- to late-game mana sink that makes creatures out of removed spirits. (Wait.... Is that like giving a second un-life to a being that was the second life of a prior being???)

Another possibility is Celestial Colonnade. It doesn't make a spirit, but a 4/4 flyer is still formidable, and it'll get pumped by Empyrean Eagle. The land also produces both colors of mana, which is nice.

Whichever you choose, I'd only add 2x.

1 Drops

• Mausoleum Wanderer is on-board countermagic. As you play your anthem effects like Supreme Phantom, the Wanderer will naturally get bigger and make it harder for the opponent to pay the cost. But also, when combined with flash spirits, its power can grow out of nowhere, making the calculations not in your opponent's favor.
  
  Now, the downside to an on-board counter is that the opponent knows about it.... but is that actually a complete downside? Unless you're playing against experienced players, an opponent will often durdle and hold back out of fear of your counter. Which is, in effect, allowing you to "cast" the counter for free every single turn that they DON'T play the thing they're worried about you countering. Now, a good player will "bait out" the counter so that they don't have to worry about it anymore.... but that still sometimes means they're playing suboptimally. In addition, the Wanderer will also attract their removal spells, meaning your anthem effects and other important spirits are safer. And you're fine trading a 1 mana spirit for their removal spell!

• Not as awesome, but Spectral Sailor has the important Flash mechanic, which is especially good when it only costs 1 mana. This can be anything from a surprise blocker to a buff for the Wanderer's countermagic to a surprise tap-down with Nebelgast Herald (which is extra good against decks with hasty creatures). Finally, it gives you a mana sink if the game goes long and you need to draw some cards.

• Speaking of drawing cards.... the weakest of the bunch is Dreamcatcher, but since you'll be casting spirit spells all game long, there'll be plenty of chances to trade in this early game blocker for a new card whenever it seems best.

2 Drops

• I would replace Geist of the Archives with Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch. Yes, it has 1 less toughness, but it's 1 mana cheaper than the former, with a potentially more potent ability (gives a small amount of bounce!), and that toughness will easily rise with all the anthem effects you have.

• Not a new recommendation, but I would run the full playset of Supreme Phantom. The anthem effects will be the key to sealing your victory. I would replace your 2x Mindshrieker with the Phantom, since you don't have enough top-deck manipulation to make Mindshrieker reliable.

3 Drops

• Spell Queller is an amazing sideboard card. It can replace one of your counterspells, and notably it "counters" uncounterable spells. Yes, the opponent has a chance to get the spell back, but combine Queller with Drogskol Captain, and good luck with that!

• Geist of Saint Traft doesn't have the acclaim he used to, but I still like him, and combined with p/t boosts, he likely won't die in battle. And he always brings a 4/4 buddy with him! (Which also gets buffed by Empyrean Eagle). The hexproof also makes him hard to remove.

• Probably another sideboard card, but Kira, Great Glass-Spinner is a very strong tax against removal-heavy decks.

• Callow Jushi  ^Flip: Probably not as good as the other counterspell options, but kinda fun! Note that you don't have to flip him with just 2 ki counters on him, so you can save up the ki counters until the more crucial turns of the game. You can also have one flipped with a couple ki counters while you build up another one, because the legend rule doesn't apply until it's flipped.

• Anthem effects: Like with Supreme Phantom, I see no reason not to run the full playsets of Drogskol Captain and Empyrean Eagle. The hexproof provided by Drogskol Captain is particularly important, and he would be my first two things to transmute for.

Cards to Cut

I already mentioned Geist of the Archives.

I also already mentioned Mindshrieker, and for a similar reason, I don't feel Callous Deceiver is good in this deck. Without anthem effects, the best it can be is a 2/3 flyer for 3 mana.... not that great. Its abilities don't help with anything else in the deck.

Another 3 drop I'd cut is Uninvited Geist  ^Flip. Its skulk ability doesn't synergize well with anthem effects, as pretty soon most creatures can block it. If it started as a 1/1, skulk might be better.... but then it's 3 mana for a 1/1 that takes 2 turns to transform into an unblockable 3/3. Eh. It also doesn't have flying for the Eagle to buff.

As to higher CMCs, I'm personally not sold on Dungeon Geists. Maybe you have good luck with it, but I'd rather have 4x Nebelgast Herald and cheap flash spirits than the 4 drop.

I'm loathe to suggest cutting Celestial Messenger because I know you like your Yanling package.... but honestly, the Yanling package will work without this over-costed spirit. It's 4 mana for a 4/3 flyer, IF Yanling is out.... and that's it. The only thing it's got going for it is that gorgeous art. Too bad it doesn't have mechanics to match.

Curse of Echoes's inclusion confuses me. If you like to play multiplayer games, this card can actually be BAD (you might not want your other two opponents getting copies!). But even 1v1, it gives too much control to the opponent. First, they have to have a deck with enough instants/sorceries to matter, so at best this would be a sideboard card. But even then, they can play around it too easily by not casting any devastating spells until they've found a way to deal with it.

Also not sold on Sturmgeist. At best it's an 8/8 flyer, but that's if you can keep a full grip of cards. But aside from Mu Yanling, Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip, and Sturmgeist itself (4 cards total), you have no ways of refilling your hand. More likely it'll be a 3/3 or 4/4 flyer that sometimes draws you a card. Not that great for 5 mana. Doesn't feel like the right deck for it.

Keiga, the Tide Star: While stealing a creature is fun, Control Magic-effects usually cost less (4-5 mana), and with Keiga, you don't even get the effect until Keiga dies! If you want this effect in the deck, there's other more efficient ways to achieve it.

Finally, at the top of the CMC charts is Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip. And hey, if it's a pet card, keep it. But hear me out on my concern. As stated above, this deck isn't designed to draw cards, so by the time you have 7 mana (turn 8-9), how many cards do you think you'll have left in hand? I'd bet 2-3, assuming you've been playing out cards on curve. So you'll draw 3-4. Is that worth the 7 mana? That's up to you, but since the going rate on a base draw effect is 4 mana to draw 3, you should be drawing more like 5-6. (This is also comparable to Mind Spring, which would draw you 5 for 7 mana.)

P.S. I am gonna go ahead and state this for the record: Your hunch that the 3-turn idea won't pan out so well is sadly going to be correct. It involves skipping a turn and getting a planeswalker to a (scary) ultimate — the former dangerous, the latter near impossible. It would be easier to spend 1 less mana and cast a 5 CMC extra turn spell or two. That said, the idea of taking THREE turns in a row IS truly fun, so by all means, play around with it until you tire of the strategy!

Summary of Changes

I know that was a lot of words to convey a few additions and cuts, so it was probably easy to get lost in it all. Here's one possible updated decklist; use the explanations above to season to taste!

Cut

-2 Mindshrieker
-2 Geist of the Archives
-2 Uninvited Geist
-1 Callous Deceiver
-3 Celestial Messenger
-3 Dungeon Geists
-1 Curse of Echoes
-1 Sturmgeist
-1 Keiga, the Tide Star
-1 Sea Gate Restoration

Add

+1 Prairie Stream
+2 Moorland Haunt
+4 Mausoleum Wanderer
+4 Spectral Sailor
+2 Supreme Phantom
+2 Drogskol Captain
+2 Empyrean Eagle

Sideboard

+2 Spell Queller
+2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

(Sideboard cuts up to you)

I'd personally replace some of the mainboard counters with Spell Queller and Kira, since they're also spirits. But there's obviously pros to running unconditional counters like Dissolve.

I know that was quite a lot, but the more I dug into the available spirits, the more things I came up with! LoL. I hope at least something in all that helped.

abby315 on Sakashima, of a thousand faces …

2 months ago

Are you committed to the colors/partners? I feel like the new Kodama of the East Tree would be a very good partner choice. You lose black, but Kodama is busted and very good in multiples!

As for some ETB legendaries that could be fun:
Kaho, Minamo Historian
Keruga, the Macrosage
God-Eternal Rhonas
Kogla, the Titan Ape
Prime Speaker Zegana
Tishana, Voice of Thunder

And here are some legendaries that don't have ETBs, but are good in multiples:
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner (SHEESH)
Rayne, Academy Chancellor
Reki, the History of Kamigawa
Nylea, Keen-Eyed
Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

And final note: If you could find a way to make Linessa, Zephyr Mage work in commander, it'd automatically be a fantastic deck.

mlequesne on Illusory Transformation - *Advice Wanted!*

2 months ago

I once built a similar deck, long time ago, I'm glad someone is making illusions thrive once again. Maybe you can check my deck for inspiration Gayllusion

Kira, Great Glass-Spinner is definetly a great addition to your deck

Denver_Dudes on merfolk bois

4 months ago

Not sure if this helps, but you should only need 1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner in Merfolk. You can substitute 1 Kira for 1 Merrow Reejerey.

I would also suggest removing the 4 Opt for 1 Merfolk Trickster, 1 Merrow Reejerey, and 2 Vapor Snag. You could also add in some Harbinger of the Tides, if you so choose.

Alternatively, you could also look into 8 seas variations and run 4 Sea's Claim along with Spreading Seas. It’s a really fun way to mess with your opponent.

All and all looks like a good starting point for Merfolk.

magictimebois on Reyhan & Kira countering abilities

4 months ago

ah ok, thank you! Follow up question: if there were another card that also died at the same time let’s say Tireless Tracker and Reyhan, Last of the Abzan both have 3 +1/+1 counters on them, and Kira, Great Glass-Spinner is on the field. If Tireless Tracker and Reyhan, Last of the Abzan both die in combat, do they both target Kira, Great Glass-Spinner with Reyhan’s ability? Resulting in Kira, Great Glass-Spinner getting 3 +1/+1 counters? Or does Kira, Great Glass-Spinner counter the ability? Thanks again!

Gidgetimer on Reyhan & Kira countering abilities

4 months ago

Assuming Reyhan, Last of the Abzan's ability is the first spell or ability to target Kira, Great Glass-Spinner that turn, it will be countered.

magictimebois on Reyhan & Kira countering abilities

4 months ago

Hi there, I have a question regarding the following abilities; My battlefield consists of Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, then Reyhan is killed. Would Reyhan, Last of the Abzan’s ability would go off and her +1/+1 counters would go on to Kira, Great Glass-Spinner? Or would that ability be countered by Kira? I’m running both of them in my Tiny Leaders deck and I would just like to know how this interaction works. Thank you!

Reynan on

5 months ago

PS: Kira, Great Glass-Spinner can help you to bother more the others, if you like the idea.