Calling Spirits W/U/B [Standard, Opinion, Discussion]

Before suggesting any changes I want to discuss certain cards in your current deck and why I think they should be considered for removal. 

Spectral Rider - A 2-mana, Double white creature in a 3-color deck without an amazing land setup is going to sit in your hand often.  That's no good.
Honor of the Pure - Not all of your creatures are white.
Intangible Virtue - You can't make that many tokens.
Spirit Mantle - This card is all-around not good enough for this deck.  You already have plenty of evasion so pro-creatures doesn't help much.  +1/+1 is also not very critical and there are better ways to get it (like equipment).

There are a lot of directions you can go with this deck but, sticking with what's in your inventory, here's an idea; try a Runechanter's Pike build!

So, then, the changes could go something like this:

-3 Spectral Rider
-2 Honor of the Pure
-2 Intangible Virtue
-2 Spirit Mantle
-3 Voiceless Spirit
-3 Niblis of the Breath
-3 Doomed Traveler
-3 Plains

+2 Runechanter's Pike
+1 Tormented Soul
+4 Forbidden Alchemy
+3 Go for the Throat
+3 Faith's Shield
+1 Niblis of the Urn
+2 Swamp
+2 Island

Give it a shot if you're interested and let us know how it works for you.  Also, if you're going to a tournament with it I would try really hard to get a 3rd Runechanter's Pike and lots of dual lands to replace basic lands, Shimmering Grotto and Evolving Wilds.  3 colors is hard to run on basic lands and the other two lands I mentioned are slowing you down a turn which is not good.  I wish you luck!

Ha!  You certainly don't have to gain a bunch of life to be competitive in multi-player but it is a solid strategy in certain cases.  The Soul Sisters deck I play is a good example of that.

As far as making this deck multiplayer, that is simultaneously easy and hard.  In general, any deck can be good in multiplayer and this deck is no exception.  Counterspells, removal and other tricks make it a solid multiplayer deck.  That's the easy answer.  On the other hand, it really depends on the other people you normally play multiplayer with.  If they are all gaining tons of life, this deck may not work very well.  You're better off tailoring a deck to your meta game than anything else.  Although, have you considered Commander decks in multiplayer?  They tend to do pretty well if they are built properly but it can take time to collect all the necessary cards.

With regard to sideboarding, this is also dependant on your local metagame.  If you don't know what your local metagame is like I would search the web for popular standard decks of the moment and sideboard against them.  There really isn't a good answer unless you play in my same geographic area and even then it changes really often...  I hate to leave you with absolutely 0 advice so let me say this:  much like in multiplayer, your opponents greatest weakness is your greatest strength.  If everyone is playing infect, play Melira, Sylvok Outcast.  If everyone is playing with x/1 creatures, play Curse of Death's Hold.  If your deck is slower than theirs, even the odds with Timely Reinforcements.  Find a weakness and exploit it!

Not sure if this suits your play style but, I've been thinking, remove all black cards and add more sorcery/instants that allows you to draw cards and at the same time increasing the effectiveness of Runechanter's Pike

[U/W]

- 3 Tormented Soul
- 3 Tragic Slip
- 3 Go for the Throat
- 1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

+ 1 Mana Leak
+ 3 Vapor Snag
+ 3 Ponder
+ 3 Think Twice

You could also, find space for a few Lantern Spirit, use it for defending non-trample creature and force a tap on attacking creature without losing anything.

Last edited by Archylte (2012-02-17 06:39:59)