Any tips or finishing touches?
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Dec. 21, 2017, 9:29 p.m. by Shadowdarkraity
Hello, I was just wondering if there are any finishing touches that you suggest or anything of the sort, thank you.
Spirits From The Bright Sun to The Dark Ocean
Spirits From The Bright Sun to The Dark Ocean
Modern*
SCORE: 1 | 25 COMMENTS | 408 VIEWS
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/spirits-from-the-bright-sun-to-the-dark-ocean/
You for sure need 4x Spell Quellers. I'd also recommend 4x Rattlechains and 4x Selfless Spirit. To make room, I'd cut Anointed Procession, Intangible Virtue, Not Forgotten,Beckon Apparition, and Midnight Haunting. Aether Vial in place of Doomed Traveler would be ideal, but you're working on a budget.
You'll also want to bump up your copies of Path to Exile to 4. The same is likely true for Favorable Winds and Geist of Saint Traft, but only if you have the room.
Is a green or black splash within your budget? Lingering Souls and Vault of the Archangel would be worth the black. Green gives Collected Company, Elder Pine of Jukai, and Gavony Township. Green also gives mana dorks, which can be helpful in place of Aether Vial.
December 22, 2017 7:49 p.m.
Shadowdarkraity says... #4
I like the ideas but it seems to be going away from the token theme of the deck. Intangible Virtue I could see get replaced. But Midnight Haunting and Beckon Apparition are kinda stables in the deck. Now one card which I really like Aether Vial. Now what I most likely do is (when I buy the deck) I will buy doomed traveler first. Then when I can, replace it with the Aether Vial. Spell Queller seems like a really good card. It's just for the theme of the deck I have A hard time figuring out where to put it, or what to replace it with. But Splashing with Black seems like a really good Idea. Actually, this deck used to be B/W. But a person at fnm said it might be a good idea to which from Blac to blue. Which I really liked the Idea of. So I know how good Lingering Souls can be. Especially on the theme of this deck. But Collected Company is a card I have heard of before, and now looking at it in correlation to my deck seems really good. As well as Gavony Township. If you have a good way of implementing Black or Green while still keeping the token theme then let me know (I honestly have no Idea how to spash very well.
December 23, 2017 10:52 a.m.
@Shadowdarkraity: The problem with Midnight Haunting and Beckon Apparition is they aren't very mana efficient. Both cards shine when you have Intangible Virtue or Favorable Winds on the table, because you basically pay 3 mana for a 4/4 flying, flash creature split in two.
If you don't have an anthem or lord on the table, you're paying a lot of mana and a card for a 2/2 flyer with flash. The same goes for Beckon Apparition, which is a 1/1 flyer with flash...and that's it.
This makes it hard to race against decks with more mama-effecient creatures. Burn, for example, will match your Midnight Haunting with Goblin Guide.
So when you're ahead, Beckon Apparition/Midnight Haunting are really good. But so is having a Rattlechains. When you're behind, Beckon Apparition/Midnight Haunting aren't that great, whereas Rattlechains/Selfless Spirit/some other spirit can help you stabilize the board or protect something important (like a Geist of Saint Traft).
What makes Spectral Procession and Lingering Souls so good is how much power/toughness they put on the table in comparison to their mana cost.
Which brings me to another question: have you ever thought about B/W Tokens? It benefits from the cards you're wanting to play more effectively. You can also add some blue to the deck so you can Polymorph a token into something huge (like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn) since you don't play any creatures in the deck (all of your stuff comes from instants/sorceries).
As for splashing other colors, what you'd do is play 8+ fetchlands and one of each shockland that's in your colors. So to splash green, let's say, you'd play something like:
4x Flooded Strand
2x Misty Rainforest
2x Windswept Heath
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Breeding Pool
1x Temple Garden
2+ Plains
2+ Island
1x Forest
...this would let you play 4x Collected Company, 1+ Elder Pine of Jukai, and 2+ Gavony Township. If you up the fetchland count to 10 (4x Flooded Strand, 2x Misty Rainforest, 4x Windswept Heath), you could also play Noble Hierarch, Avacyn's Pilgrim, or Arbor Elf. Chord of Calling also becomes easier to cast when you go for more fetchlands, with the downside being there's not too many green spirits to help convoke it out faster.
In other words, you have very few green cards/abilities, but you always have the mana to use them, without mana screwing yourself out of your main color combination of U/W.
To splash black, it's mostly the same:
4x Flooded Strand
2x Polluted Delta
2x Marsh Flats
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Godless Shrine
1x Watery Grave
2+ Plains
2+ Island
1x Swamp
This gives the mana needed to play 4x Lingering Souls, 1~2x Vault of the Archangel, black planeswalkers (something like Sorin, Solemn Visitor), and/or Inquisition of Kozilek.
December 23, 2017 6:17 p.m.
Shadowdarkraity says... #6
Ok. So after some playtesting, I do really like the outcome. It plays very well. The only problem I had was not with playability. It's with the price with the Mana Base. Is there any way I could reduce the price?
And the B/W idea. Was the original Idea for the deck. I can send you the old decklist if you would like
December 24, 2017 3:15 p.m.
@Shadowdarkraity: Do you have the deck already here on Tapped Out? If not, I'm pretty familiar with the archetype so no need to take the effort if you don't want to.
The cheapest way to keep a consistent mana base is to drop down to the bare number of fetches and shock lands that you can afford, then use basics and the check lands cycle. If you were to go completely bare without fetches + shocks, it'd look something like:
4x Glacial Fortress
2x Isolated Chapel
2x Drowned Catacomb
7x Plains
5x Island
2x Swamp
1x Vault of the Archangel
Pain lands are also viable on a budget, but (as the name implies) can set you back against aggro decks. Adarkar Wastes, Underground River, and Caves of Koilos replace the above check lands. Shambling Vent isn't a terrible land to have either, but they're stronger in Midrange and Control (whereas Spirits leans more towards tempo).
To go even more budget, Tango lands are reasonable (Prairie Stream, Sunken Hollow), but aren't reliable as plain old fetches + basics. They really aren't that great until you have fetches already. I'd use them as the 24th. and 25th. land in the above example (instead of 23 lands total).
Oloro_Magic says... #2
If budget is not too much of a concern, Spell Queller is a great card to have, also dipping in to black given your subtheme of tokens could be a good shout simply for the power of Lingering Souls
December 22, 2017 10:35 a.m.