Spell Queller

Creature — Spirit

Flash

Flying

When this enters the battlefield, exile target spell with converted mana cost/mana value 4 or less.

When this leaves the battlefield, the exiled card's owner may cast that card without paying its mana cost.

Discussion (50)

wallisface on Esper Taxrazi

5 days ago

RNR_Gaming Stoneforge is strong but i’m trying to avoid playing it for the moment. It doesn’t interact well with Spell Queller (as far as they hurt each-others tempo).

Prelate is a new addition to the list, and i’ll be trying to name whatever number hurts the opponent the most, which is usually 1, but comes down to the matchup. If i’m trying to stop a single threat, like Prime Titan, i’ll swap it for Meddling Mage game 2.

zapyourtumor on Simic - Blues Clues

1 month ago

I checked back here and I found this in the comments box, I guess I forgot to send it.

Where's Lonis, Cryptozoologist ? I also suggest cutting Counterspell and adding the Shardless Agent package with Ancestral Vision (which would allow you to cut Serum Visions. You could possibly replace Counterspell with Spell Queller and/or Force of Negation + Subtlety to prevent cascading into a counterspell.

I think you could also consider going Bant colors for Thraben Inspector and the Stoneforge Mystic package (You already got 4 swords...). This would also let you run Path to Exile as actual removal instead of Brazen Borrower since UG is notorious for having no removal. Also gives you access to a bunch of really good sideboard cards.

zapyourtumor on The Modern Eldrazi Aggro/Processor Deck

1 month ago

Are you going tron route or are you going the processor route?

If you're going the processor route, I'd go BW and run 4x Tidehollow Sculler , maybe some Kitesail Freebooter , or go esper to add Delay , Spell Queller , Ulamog's Nullifier , etc.

If you're going the (boring) tron route then idk this will just become eldrazi tron

TheVectornaut on Soulherder Spirits

4 months ago

This deck seems tailor-made for Essence Flux . It could replace or play alongside Cloudshift . As for other flicker effects, I've had moderate success with Eerie Interlude as a Ghostway that lets you keep what you need on the board. Focusing more on spirits, there's Supreme Phantom as another lord or Forbidding Spirit , Geist-Honored Monk , Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit , and Hanged Executioner as cards that might synergize with the exile theme. Less budget-friendly but still powerful includes are Spell Queller and Skyclave Apparition .

wallisface on The New Most Competitive Modern Deck--Dryads

4 months ago

Omniscience_is_life, some examples of how the 5 modern-playable tribes operate, to give you an idea of what you’re up against:

• Humans have creatures that grow very bog very quickly in both Champion of the Parish and Thalia's Lieutenant . Almost every other human is then actively ruining the opponent ability to play (i.e. Meddling Mage , Kitesail Freebooter , Reflector Mage ), or providing backup damage (i.e. Mantis Rider )

• Spirits function down a similar line to humans, except with everything in the air, and lots more lords. They buff with the likes of Drogskol Captain and Selfless Spirit , and disrupt with the likes of Skyclave Apparition , Spell Queller and Mausoleum Wanderer . They even have built in protection in the form of Rattlechains and Selfless Spirit .

• Goblins are a hyper aggressive deck aiming to win by comboing off, or besting you down. Their combo pieces are Conspicuous Snoop and Boggart Harbinger (putting Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker on top then Sling-Gang Lieutenant to win). They can easily assemble their pieces with the likes of Goblin Matron and Goblin Ringleader . They also have a lot of aggressive go-wide threats to try winning without the combo.

• Merfolk are less interactive than the 3 above decks, and because of that, generally weaker. Almost everything they run is a lord and/or grants islandwalk ( Lord of Atlantis , Master of the Pearl Trident etc), and they aim to simply race the opponent by swinging in with lots of 5/5 unblockable merfolk thanks to the likes of Spreading Seas . They basically aim to race the game, so their interaction is just to mess with their opponent, like Merfolk Trickster , Harbinger of the Tides etc.

• Elves are a straightforward deck. They makes a butt-load of elves, generate waaay too much mana, and then win the game through Ezuri, Renegade Leader , Shaman of the Pack , and Elvish Warmaster .

The above decks can all win their games by turn 4 or 5, most of them giving the opponent constant grief while doing so.

As a further example, Slivers are not a modern-viable tribe, because just throwing creatures down on the board and hoping for the best doesn’t cut it in the modern environment.

I think you need to consider what you’re actually getting out of Dryads, and whether you want this to be a competitive deck, or a casual/meme deck.

StopShot on B&R February 15 2021

5 months ago

@DuTogira Personally, I disagree about Splinter Twin stifling diversity in the Modern meta. Before its ban I was running a homebrew Mardu deck that had an incredibly favorable win-rate against Twin. The deck's win-rates also varied amongst the other decks in the format with its worst matchup being burn. Ever since Twin's ban aggro has swarmed the format outpacing my deck harder than before.

My homebrew deck's most defining piece was utilizing an Evershrike in the graveyard and using a Spirit Loop or Rancor to make it a constant presence in the late game. Graveyard strategies weren't as common back then either as I believe Living Death was the only significant graveyard strat at the time, so most decks wouldn't dedicate too much room to graveyard hate. With Twin gone other faster and more efficient graveyard strategies arose and graveyard hate out of sideboard became all the more frequent which made winning games 2 and 3 much more difficult for my deck. Not only that but those graveyard strategies that couldn't exist with Splinter Twin around ended up getting Faithless Looting banned. As a non-blue deck Faithless Looting was the glue that kept my deck together as getting a certain 5-CMC creature in the grave and an aura in hand is difficult and slow enough as it is. My deck could handle Jund/Abzan's hand disruption and their Scavenging Ooze 's, but with much more graveyard hate, more aggressive aggro decks and no Faithless Looting I would argue banning Splinter Twin killed my deck even though I never used that card in the first place.

I feel the banning has only diversified aggro and phased out slower decks like mine that had better win rates against Twin and BGx. I also think it's a false positive as there have been a huge slew of new modern-viable cards that have been printed since Twin's banning. The format was going to grow regardless of if Twin were to be banned or not, the real question was by how much? I also feel like there have been many more cards printed during this time that could be made excellent sideboard cards against Twin than there have been new cards printed to help with Twin's strategies. I remember the times when Combust was one of the answers used at stopping Splinter Twin and then they printed Rending Volley which took countering the strategy even further. Since then I've seen more and more cards printed in Standard that I feel could further help in keeping Twin in check today more than it ever was before. These are cards printed after it's banning that could be used against it now if it were ever unbanned: Sinister Concoction , Thalia, Heretic Cathar , Unsubstantiate , Spell Queller , Authority of the Consuls , Lost Legacy , Fatal Push , Harsh Mentor , Trespasser's Curse , Tocatli Honor Guard , Rampaging Ferocidon , Kinjalli's Sunwing , Kitesail Freebooter , Cast Down , Assassin's Trophy , Unmoored Ego , Dovin's Veto , Force of Negation , Force of Vigor , Veil of Summer , Fry , Aether Gust , Brazen Borrower , Hushbringer , Deafening Silence , Mystical Dispute , Drown in the Loch , Wilt and Necromentia . I've likely missed a couple more due to how many sets have been released since and there will always be more cards that will be printed in future that can disrupt the strategy too. Since there have been many new deck archetypes that have emerged and been developed and improved upon over the many years in a non-Twin environment I'd like to see how they'd stack against Twin now just to see if it really is still an obstacle.

HalbrechtHalbrecht on Blue Ectoplasm

8 months 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.

JacobAGrossman on Glittering Company

8 months ago

Hey, Ursaromg! I can definitely do that :D. What I've begun to notice in the deck, is it can be helpful to have a baddie on the board every now and again, because sometimes the combo does end up getting broken up too much by control, especially in game 1. Steel Leaf Champion is super annoying to deal with, and is well worth it's mana cost for how much of a threat it is the moment it lands. Gives me enough of a reprieve to get to the combo, or can just win on it's own sometimes.

Same with Polukranos, Unchained. Sometimes, by the time I get a Glittering Wish, I have nothing going on the board. Being able to reach for a big bad with a Wish has become a move I realize I need, and Treasured Find wasn't really the power bomb that I thought it was. I changed that slot from passive to aggressive, and it has been awesome. Polukranos, Unchained can exist as a giant body on the board not once but twice. But also, if I've gotten behind in creature power, it can sweep the whole board, not one but twice.

Skyclave Apparition is the card I've always been looking for in this deck. I have tried so many less versions of what this can can do, with things like Leonin Relic-Warder, Kitesail Freebooter, Tidehollow Sculler, and Fairgrounds Warden. None of them end up being that particularly effective, because the opponent gets their card right back most of the time. Skyclave Apparition doesn't give them their stuff back ever, and is more like Spell Queller or Thought-Knot Seer, which are amazing. Skyclave is so good it is being used across all formats. It can get rid of any threat on the board, from creature, to artifact, to planeswalker, or enchantment. That token isn't much to worry about either with the amount of creatures I play throughout the game. Plus, it's only 4/4 at the most.

Fiend Artisan is an all-star. Just like Ggoyf, I wait until I have 3 creatures in the graveyard until I first play him, so he can survive the initial Bolt. Its ability reigns supreme as Birthing Pod on a stick, which is incredibly useful after it survives its summoning sickness. Plus, the passive ability triggers Rhonas the Indomitable, it can be tapped for Chord of Calling, it's never not useful.

I've always had an eye on Voice of Resurgence, since it was first printed. But it seems better as a set of 4, and I don't have room for that at this point. Plus, just a little bit underpowered compared to cards like Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Vexing Shusher, and Grand Abolisher, which tingle my giblets just a bit more.

Thanks for asking! I really appreciate you and others having kept up with and encouraged me over all this years, it's definitely what helps keep this deck firmly my favorite deck in all of Magic.