I back to you, what kind of magic is doing Smuggler's Copter for you ? More I play it, less I am satisfied strangely

I had a lot of fun with this deck! I put Thalia in my sideboard to substitute smuggler's copter and liked her better. Thalia with Nebelgast Herald really reduced my opponents ability to block. I did not find Gideon to have much value in my match ups so I took him out and played a full set of Always Watching. That card's amazing in this deck! Went 3-1 at FNM last night.

Oh, man, Ragham, you woke me up! I have to disable the tappedout notifications.

Smuggler's Copter is doing 4 great things for Spirits:

1. It is something to play on turn 2 (and lowers our curve).
2. It filters the cards you don't need and allow you to reach the cards you do need faster.
3. It practically grants your Spirits haste.
4. It allows you to punch through defenders (I'm looking at you, Glint-Nest Crane).

It is not as good in Spirits as it is in other aggro strategies (it grants evasion to those), but there is simply no 2 drop you'd rather have over it, Rattlechains and Selfless Spirit.

Thalia, Heretic Cathar, uh? I never really considered her outside of Human-based strategies. I believe she is great against creature based decks, but mostly in a more aggressive deck than this one. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is there against control decks, or as an Anthem, and won me quite a few games by himself. I might just cut the Always Watching for the 4th Gideon.

tried a similar spirit deck at last FNM, although more budget at $150. 3-1 got 4th, cool being only spirit deck they ever had there lol. Deck did well except for when lands were being weird, ran at 23 and I either got mana screwed hard (lost 1 round because all i could hit was spells, and had to mulligan to 5 for 2 games) or flooded when i really needed those creatures. Guess just bad luck those games ._.?

Variance. At 24 lands, I also sometimes get mana screwed or flooded. I thought about going up to 25 at various points, but it seems I flood a bit too much at that point.

I like to say, in limited: "I flood at 15 [lands] and I am screwed at 17. What do I have to do to get a good game?"

Hi @spinifex ! How do you do now in tournaments ? For me this deck is really strong and win easely by himself almost any match-up. I still have only 2 gideon and copter, so I decide to play with 2 negates instead essence flux and cut all Always watching. Essence flux is strong but Negate hits larger threats. And problem of AW is when I play it I'm already ahead and I am not happy to draw it. I need to draw more usefull card. Sure that in comparaison, Gideon is top :D

I would to know again your opinion about this turn one, mausoleum wanderer. I run Thraben Inspector instead because it's a draw with a body. I think that main interest of wanderer is to work as small negate, thanks to flash spirits. He deals mostly only 1 damage and has hidden ability to loose my game when I draw him later in game. Our deck has just loot ability of copter for draw.

Talking about loot, I add 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium. One more tool to have a better answer, especially when we have 0-1 card in hand. As our deck is playing by flash, I find intuitive to use sanitarium's ability on opponent's turn, draw then discard a land and play our answer. It may mill 1 if opponent has 0 cards more.

It's been 3 weeks since I last played this deck, since Magic comes after work, my GF and gym. I intend to play it tomorrow.

I've had a lot of fun with my Delirium deck, playing some very intense games.

I like the little spirit that could! Yeah, Mausoleum Wanderer is actually better in Modern than standard, but I found out people underestimate him and allowed for some blow out, especially if you flash in a spirit and counter a spell that they thought they had enough mana for. It slow down spell heavy deck and especially decks that run Sorcery-based fetches, like Attune with Aether in Energy decks and Traverse the Ulvenwald with Delirium decks (especially if they kept a one-lander, thinking that they would use those spell). That said, I've been thinking about removing one for a maindeck Revolutionary Rebuff. In fact, I might just try that tomorrow.

As for Thraben Inspector, she is better, unless you run Nebelgast Herald. I also havd had a couple of 3x Mausoleum Wanderers hands. You swing for 3 turn 2 and 6 turn 3.

As for utility lands, I don't like Geier Reach Sanitarium unless you have Madness cards. I used to run Blighted Cataract and, while it did save me a couple of times, if you get up to 7 mana, things are going bad for you.

Thank you for your answer Spinifex. That is interesting reflexion about wanderer. You don't care about draw, you prefer counter. And you are still happy to draw him later in game. I totally underestimate him yes -I don't play modern- because it wasn't natural for me to flash a spirit in response to instant, like a Nebelgast, just for a +1/+1 to wanderer and not to use nebelgast's ability (like in situation of end of your turn). In purpose to counter a Traverse or Attune, especially if opponent keep several untapped land, just to slow/freeze him. So doing a action like that is worth... I take notes :)

You consider add Rebuff ? not Negate ? And for players who have not 4 gideon or 3 copter (very expensive cards), should you them to add Rebuff too ?

No standard tonight: finished work too late to make it.

You can replace Gideon with Always Watching . As for the copter, it does something unique (that I listed above). There are Spirits or equipment you could run instead (I'm partial to Stitcher's Graft), but there's no direct replacement.

As for Revolutionary Rebuff, it's great against our main enemy, Ishkanah, Grafwidow and useful against most spells. Negate is a good choice as well, but not good against all decks, unlike Rebuff.

And two problems of Always watching is that you play it when you are already only ahead, bringing nothing special, except for wanderer. And you break your initial gameplay to play at opponent's turn, again for greed play. Also you are not happy to draw it later. I think for that this card is not good enough in competitive environment.

Negates hits removals, copters and co, Liliana and co, it's a strong card. I also like Essence Flux when I played it. If you find really worth to play Mausoleum Wanderer and do kinda play like above, I take out Thraben inspector and yes, we can run some counters. But for rebuff I am not sure at all. It punishes only a opponent playing on curve and in competition with so much azorius decks played, it rarely happens (and it's also for that I am underestimate wanderer). Most powerful counter for me is Void Shatter as it exiles the spell. Spell shrivel is alternative but in this deck and with our mana base balanced between 2 colors we are not worry about double occurency of blue, as many others in white. Then I can understand that you are reticent to up your 3 manas curve, I am also but this card is a real deal.

But you really don't want to play some draw ? xD Jace, glimmer, Ongoing Investigation something (troll, but this last card does magic :D)

Are you satisfied by your sideboard ? I feel like some cards are redondant. Blessed alliance and Declaration in stone and Void shatter. When I use my side, I feel like I need more Void shatter to counter a Ishkanah than a declaration, same feeling about Avacyn. Against aggro our main deck is already excellent. Against Vehicle (like boros) Fragmentize is quite bad idea because opponent will side Skysovereign to snipe our spirits. Blessed alliance is usefull against mono-red burn and Gruul stompy. Declaration I still wonder me, maybe reanimator. Ceremonious rejection is well at 2 copies to anticipate Eldrazi match-up or Marvel. Summary dismissal is also good at 2 copies, against madness, reanimator (Prized amalgram and co) and Emrakul decks. I know it's a bit redundant with Mausoleum wanderer but I like a 2 copies of Dispel and Negates against control.

Honestly I say all that and insist too much about stability of the deck, it's because I am convinced by your list that is so strong and I would be glad to play it on next grand prix. My goal is to do day 2 and this deck can do it, even with huge amount of other azorius deck around. I want to thank you Spinifex, this is a wonderfull list

What do you think about all that ?

Given how many spirits you have, Drogskol Captain might be nice for the hexproof.

The main reason for Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is for the Anthem effect: it protects your spirits against Liliana, the Last Hope and Archangel Avacyn  ^Flip from Grasp of Darkness. Thus, it can be replaced, on budget, by Always Watching . Is it as good? No, of course not: Always Watching is very poor against control decks, while Gideon shines there.

Don't forget this is a tempo deck: countering a play on curve is exactly what we want to do. Yes, Negate is a great choice, no questions about it, but it was better in a time when Languish was the card we were afraid of. I want to counter both Liliana, the Last Hope AND Ishkanah, Grafwidow. If you manage the latter on turn 5, you probably have won the game. 3 mana counterspells and Negates are available in the side. Void Shatter is better than Spell Shrivel, except for the mana requirement.

According to this very handy reference, I would need 19 and 18 sources to hit Void Shatter on turn 3 and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar on turn 4. I have 15 and 17 respectively. You can't play both reliably without resorting to taplands, Evolving Wilds or Aether Hub, which I do not want to do.

I could see a single Jace on the side, but then I would want more mana sources to hit my 5-drops more reliably. Ongoing Investigation could be nice, but I think Key to the City is a better choice: it lets us attack through all the Ishkanahs in the world and allows us to draw more cards when we are in top deck mode. In any case, I simply don't want to devote space for card draws: counters are better than draws in a tempo deck, IMHO.

The sideboard works fairly well:

-Delirium: Spell Shrivel, Negate and Declaration in Stone instead of Stasis Snare and Selfless Spirit (he doesn't save us from their removal).

-Aggro: Declaration in Stone and Blessed Alliance (also some Fragmentize if vehicles based) instead of Mausoleum Wanderer and probably a couple of Gideon, Ally of Zendikar or Archangel Avacyn  ^Flip.

-Control: Negate against Reflector Mage. Maybe Spell Shrivel and/or Ceremonious Rejection, depending on the deck.

-Mirror: Spell Shrivel against Mausoleum Wanderer.

The sideboard is always a work in progress, since the metagame always shifts around.

@ cornpie987387: Drogskol Captain is not in Standard.

Thank your very much for these explanations, and this article linked. I understand better now. You are really good. I will train myself thanks these advices :)