archive - My Run In with Spirits!!!!

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

My "run in" with spirits (Casual Decks)


Ho ho it is the seventh month when spirits are released to run on the earth lol

Any ways this is just a short account of my brush with the spirits of Kamigawa.


Some first thoughts about Kamigawa.



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My initial experience with Kamigawa was that it was a very fun and colourful, abeit weak set.

It was'nt that it was weak, but it was more subtle. Which all seem very inline with the theme which was very japanese in nature.

Rather than bold strokes of pastel, kamigawa was more like a work of water colours. Translucent and subtle, yet distinctive.

I liked the idea of legends. Though at the time many were thinking that magic was going to go highlander stlye.

But in the end it all worked out I guess :)


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Back to spirits :)

I did'nt really like Spiritcraft and splicing at first. Actually I I am still not that strong on soul shift and splice.

I tried to make a deck that had soul shift as its focus, but that kinda fell flat, I had hoped the promised Kannushi might do something... but .. maybe that will require more thought. Ditto for splice... though evermind and the channels do look very interesting.

But I like the idea of spirits and stuff triggering on the playing of spirits and arcane. That was much easier to work with :D

anyways so I got three decks built, I don't really play that much but I like put decks together, and deck construction is what fascinates me.

The first "spirit" deck I made came from the white weenie builds at the beginning of the Regionals?? It used celestial kirin to clear the board. It was actually quite a smart idea to put it in ww, as the samurais do not trigger the kirin.

So I decided to make a "spirit" deck version, but keeping the kirin as the focus now. The deck looked like this:


// Spirit Fury

// Lands
13 Forest
9 Plains

// Creatures
2 Promised Kannushi
4 Celestial Kirin
3 Elder Pine of Jukai
1 Loam Dweller
3 Kodama of the North Tree
1 Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo
1 Ghost-Lit Redeemer
1 Jugan, the Rising Star
3 Shinen of Life's Roar
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

// Spells
1 O-Naginata
3 Otherworldly Journey
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Inner Calm, Outer Strength
4 Kodama's Reach
2 Manriki-Gusari





The promised Kannushi are there to have a way to bring back the kirin, while every spirit and arcane acts as a bomb.

The kirin is really quite fun, due to the wording being, whenever a spirit or arcane card is played, the trigger to blow everything up is before the creature comes into play. (Someone correct me if I am wrong).

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I found this on starcitygames:

Q: If I have Celestial Kirin in play and I play another Celestial Kirin will both Kirin die due to the Legendary Rule? Or, will the first die by its own ability after the second comes into play?

A: You'll end up with one Celestial Kirin in play. When you play this second Celestial Kirin, the ability of the first Kirin in play will trigger and go on the stack on top of this Celestial Kirin spell. This triggered ability will resolve first and destroy all permanents with a converted mana cost of four in play, including the Celestial Kirin in play. Then the Celestial Kirin spell on the stack will resolve and enter play. Because there are never two Legendary permanents with the same name in play at one time, the Legend rule is not applied.


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I 've always liked the shinen, despite what ppl say ;p I used it in play mostly during the prerelease. Most times it did not get zapped, I'm lucky I guess :)

Things to note:
Elder Pine is a monster at filling your hand. Sometimes you see good cards go to the bottom, but together with the sensei's divining top, it is quite good.

Loam dweller is iffy, good if you got the Elder Pine running, grizzly if you don't. So just one.

The Opal eye is just there to have a defense that does not trigger the Kirin. As I have many 3cc plays

Inner Calm Outer strength is amzing when your hand fills up.

As to whether manriki Gusari or O Naginata. This deck is not that fast and the critters are small, so GUsari is a bit better.
But I really like the trample :) and the extra power!

The North Trees are for smashing. Nuff said.


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The second deck I built was largely an effort to use Erayo, strangely...




// All Consuming Spirits

// Lands
7 Swamp
10 Island
4 Tendo Ice Bridge

// Creatures
1 Soramaro, First to Dream
1 Kagemaro, First to Suffer
3 Razorjaw Oni
3 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
1 Kuon, Ogre Ascendant
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Horobi, Death's Wail
3 Jushi Apprentice--Tomaya the Revealer

// Spells
3 Disrupting Shoal
1 Neverending Torment
4 Mana Leak
3 Manriki-Gusari
1 Scroll of Origins
2 Journeyer's Kite
1 Rule of Law
4 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Threads of Disloyalty
2 Serum Visions
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Rod of Ruin



And again it was influenced by the wizards.com site. 3rd week of the regionals when the was a deludge of blue in France and black in Italy. (hoho i will be making a black Rat deck soon lol.. too bad skull snatchers seem to be out of vogue... was hoping for some ninjas)


One of the blue decks used Erayo, to be specific, this deck was influenced by londes.com . One of the authors mentioned that it would be fun to build a Erayo + Rule of Law deck.

This deck is not focusing on that lock, rather the lock is an after thought, a win condition available if you have Erayo cemented on board. It is also about here that i realise why people liked Jushi and Tendo.

For along time I kept thinking that Tendo was legendary. Till I looked at it carefully.

I had wanted to build a blue deck involving Kira, so that was nice.

Hand fill is done using Jushi. And the Manriki Gusari is just amazing with Jushi, turn 2 Jushi, turn 3 manriki.

I like the razor jaw oni :) the jushis and Threads act as defense. Horobi + Kira is some good. But not reliable :) so just one off.

Scroll of origin feels like overkill at the moment.

Kuon is there .... I have no idea... seriously... I like Kuon... plus he looks like a smart ogre compared to is sharp toothed friends... no wait those are demons... hmmm well. ho hum.

Never ending Torment was placed there for an alternate kill should Kuon lock things up.

Rod of ruin is there as Manriki cannot target your oppoent's creatures... would have been swell if it did :)

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The last deck was again inspired by the wizards.com site.. just a few days ago actually.. using blood clock...



// Favour of the Spirits

// Lands
8 Swamp
15 Forest

// Creatures
2 Hana Kami
1 Haru-Onna
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Elder Pine of Jukai
3 Kagemaro, First to Suffer
1 Loam Dweller
1 Thief of Hope
4 Traproot Kami

// Spells
3 Blood Clock
4 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Journeyer's Kite
1 Death Denied
1 Rend Flesh
1 Exile into Darkness
1 Uproot
1 Sosuke's Summons
1 Wear Away
1 Ivory Crane Netsuke
3 Kodama's Reach


Looking at the analysis done by the writer i decided to go green black. The blue bounce plus ebony owl netsuke seems abit too passive to me. I like the infinity offered by the hana kami and death denied. And black provided much needed removal. The blood clocks are used to abuse the spirit craft more. Sosuke Summons actually works quite nicely with the sakura tribe elders and death denied.

2 Hana Kami so I can use one to bring back uproot. Kagemaro to blow everything up. And Traproot for defense. Again the Elder Pine is amzing when it comes to filling your hand. Making the Exile into darkness really good late game.

Th deck seeks to take control slowly and I think is the slowest among the three. BUt i like the synergy. :)



And that kinda concudes my little rant. Just some thoughts on spirit decks


In the meantime I will dream of poison in Ravnica !!



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