Azorius Spirits (Modern)

This is the current iteration of my UW spirits deck. I will make it a point to update this write up as I change cards. as of 2-17-2020 I will be adding a small sideboard section at the bottom of this section. It is likely to fall behind from time to time, as the sideboard can change week to week. But I will do my best to keep it up to date, and as informative as the rest of this write up.

The deck is a tempo build, as opposed to a pure aggro strategy like goblins, humans, or even this deck's sister build; Bant Spirits.

-THE BREAKDOWN:
This deck runs 19-21 lands, 10-12 non-creature spells, and 28-33 creature spells in the main board, depending on how the meta is looking at the time. My numbers will fluctuate as time goes on. This deck's game plan is to set the pace. We do so by slowing down decks like burn and humans, while being faster than things like Tron, or Control.

-THE MAIN SHELL:

4x Rattlechains: I made the mistake of cutting this at one point when I first picked up my Aether Vial playset. While still leaving in a playset of Vapor snag. This was a mistake, as rattlechains gives us the ability to grant almost all of our creatures flash. Basically giving the same effect as Vial, just without cheating on mana.

4x Spell Queller: this card is just insanely useful, we can't get another card to replace it period.

4x Mausoleum wanderer: This guy could theoretically be replaced with judges familiar, or cursecatcher, but the fact that it gets pumped so easily, and nearly every turn makes it invaluable.

3x Unsettled Mariner: This card is absolutely wonderful in matchups where our opponents want to try and 1 for 1, or 2 for 1 us by taxing them for each instance.

2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: This card is absolutely essential to our game plan. It allows us to tax our opponents, while not really affecting us since we have almost all creature spells.

4x Drogskol captain & Supreme Phantom. These are our lords, captain giving other spirits hexproof.

3x Selfless Spirit: Phenomenal against sweepers, and an out to protect things like spell queller in a pinch against targeted removal

4x Path to Exile: Very good removal. Plain and simple

-THE FLEX SLOTS:

3x Teferi, Time Raveler: This card synergizes with Spell Queller insanely well. Preventing our opponents from casting their spells out from under queller, means that we can essentially permanently remove spells from the game with Queller's ETB ability.

2x Deputy of Detention: This is our best way to deal with permanents that we can't queller, or that our opponent has multiples of on board

-THE MANA BASE
So the mana base seems to vary from build to build, but what I have found works for me personally is the following:

4x Flooded Strand

2x Hallowed Fountain

4x Seachrome Coast

2x Mutavault.

2x Cavern of Souls (Optional)

2x Island

1x Plains

1x Waterlogged Grove

1x Sunbaked Canyon

Seacrome coast: Fast lands. Almost always good, unless our opponent has a blood moon,

Cavern of souls is an awesome addition if you can, though I wouldn't run more than 2 copies personally since we do have 6 colored non-creature spells that we want to be able to cast at all times.

Mutavault has been amazing, it can help punch damage through when we need a little extra reach, as well as be a last stand for using Worship to keep us alive.

Moorland Haunt: Great in matchups that are filling our graveyard for us. Like Jund or Mill. Gets us the value of 2 bodies for each creature card that we play.

Basics: Basic lands are what they are, easy fetch targets at all times, a good thing to have for an opponent's path to exile, and a way to play around blood moon.

Horizon Lands: These were used to replace an island and plains respectively. Keeping our mana base essentially the same as far as color production, while granting a little bit of card draw.

That's my version of the deck! If you like it, feel free to build it and give it a try, or to download it and run it on Cockatrice or some other program.

-THE SIDEBOARD: (last updated 5-30-19)
My sideboard is ever changing, due to switching between local, and tournament play, as well as the ever shifting Modern Meta-game. As I listed at the top of this article, this section may fall out of date from time to time, but I will do my best to keep it updated.

2x Spell Pierce. very good when we are on the draw game 2 or 3. Especially against decks like Jund.

1x Deputy of Detention: Nice to bring in as a 3rd copy when we need it.

2x Geist of Saint Traft: This card is amazing against control. Especially early game.

2x Pithing Needle: A bit of a catchall card, though it's very good against Ad Nauseam since we can target their Lightning Storm. Also allows us to hit various planeswalkers in decks like UW Control and Jund.

2x Rest In Peace: Very good card against Dredge, as well as Urza decks.

2x Kor Firewalker: Very good against burn and Mono R prowess decks.

2x Worship: This is a great way to cover our butts if need be, also phenomenal against Burn

2x Damping Sphere: Tron and Storm.

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Hope this helps someone out with the deck. I wish you the best, and hope you enjoy the archetype as much as I have all these years!