Bant Spirits (Modern) (Modern) [Revision 25]

Welcome! My name is Alden, and this is a bit of a primer for Bant spirits, with an emphasis on the list that I am personally running, and a couple instances of touching on the UW variant! I'll be breaking this up into a few sections; The creatures, the Spells, and the Mana base!

Spirits is a creature based tempo deck in nearly all its' builds. Taking advantage of the abilities on creatures like Mausoleum Wanderer and Spell Queller to restrict our opponent's resources and put pressure on their life total at the same time. Modern is a format that asks its' players to utilize their mana in a very efficient manner, which is why cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben are so good, and decks like Death and Taxes are playable, and on the right tournament weekend, capable of taking down the whole tournament. Its' strength comes from the fact that we are able to essentially use as spells in a similar manner to how the adventure cards work, and why they are so strong! A Spell Queller on board is great. It's a 2/3 flyer that gets pumped by the lords. But a Spell Queller that ate our opponent's key card is even better!

-CREATURES
...The creatures in this deck are the key focus. But we're going to talk about each of them to some extent, how they are useful, and how the coordinate with the other creatures in the deck. The first creatures of note, are Noble Hierarch and Deputy of Detention, since they are our non-spirit creatures. Noble is one of the creatures that helps bring this deck together in a playable 3-color form. Being able to help fix our mana, as well as the exalted trigger are great benefits. But more importantly, a Turn 2 Spell Queller is devastating for our opponent. Turn 2 is where many decks either gain or lose tempo in a big way, so being able to either ramp into a strong threat while disrupting their game plan can be game winning on its' own. That, or the Noble will eat a removal spell that is one less we have to worry about later. Deputy on the other hand, is a bit of a catch up card for me personally. Being able to eat a large number of tokens, or a key permanent on the other side of the board is a strong ability. Being a 3cmc card, so it can partially dodge Fatal Push also helps add to the strength of this creature. It is a flex slot, but it is one that will likely be held for a good while.
...Next we get into our actual Spirit cards. We'll start with Mausoleum Wanderer, as it is our 1 drop other than Noble. Wanderer is great in a couple scenarios. One being that we can play it Turn 1 on the play, and protect our hand against things like Thoughtseize to make sure our key Turn 2 and Turn 3 cards are safe for an additional turn. The other is being able to play it later in the game for the threat of a Tax which they have to play around. This is a really strong effect in conjunction with 2 other cards: Collected Company where we can get 2 other spirits, which if they are both lords, can be an additional 4 mana on the tax! And Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in the UW version. This leads into our 2 cmc cards one of which is Unsettled Mariner. Being able to add onto the tax of Wanderer, as well as stack with multiple copies is incredibly valuable. Our other 2 cmc creatures of note are Rattlechains as well as Selfless Spirit. Rattlechains' abilities are equally important, The hexproof ability to blank a piece of removal from our opponent, but also granting every Spirit in our hand flash is very good, and something that should never be overlooked in a Spirits deck. The usefullness of Selfless spirit is slightly less since it is not as versatile, but the fact that it applies to ALL of our creatures, not just our Spirits is nothing to ignore. Being able to blank mass removal like Wrath of God or Anger of the Gods can be the thing that gets us one last turn to close out the game, especially against control. Moving forward we have Spell Queller, which we touched on earlier. Being able to eat a key spell from our opponent when they are attempting to combo off, or land a walker that would otherwise end the game makes it one of the largest single threats in the deck. This also means it will often be the first thing to eat a removal spell, or be stripped away from a Turn 1 Thoughtseize.
...The lords get their own section. With the printing of Supreme Phantom, we now get a full 8 lords to play with, and we do play all 8 of them! Some lists will run a copy or two of Phantasmal Image to get an additional lord or two, usually copying Drogskol Captain, Which is our 3 cmc lord. Supreme Phantom's strength is that it is in fact 2 cmc, but also that it allows a Wanderer to swing for 3 on Turn 2, as well as it gets out of Lightning Bolt range with 2 copies. Drogskol Captain is a little weaker coming in at a 2/2 body, but the trade off here is that it grants Hexproof to all other Spirits we control. Turning the need for 1 removal spell into the need for 2, as well as if we can get 2 copies on the board creates a soft lock of sorts against targeted removal.

-SPELLS
...The non-creature spells that we run in this list are few in number, but are just as important in their slots as the creature spells! We are playing Path to Exile, Collected Company, and Teferi, Time Raveler. Path to Exile is simply the best removal spell we have access to, and because of that we are going to play a full playset. Teferi is unique because it changes the game that our opponents are playing. We continue playing Magic, while they begin playing Hearthstone. This card is likely the most eligible for a banning in the deck. It completely breaks the symmetry of the game, but when we get to play all of our creatures at instant speed with either Rattlechains or Collected Company, while preventing our opponent from playing on our turn, There is simply no reason not to occupy the flex slots with this card until it is either no longer playable, or it gets banned. Then we add the interaction with Spell Queller into the mix, and we have a VERY strong engine. Being able to bounce our own Queller back to our hand in order to blank another spell that our opponent tries to cast, while also permanently leaving the previously exiled spell since it can no longer be cast due to Teferi's static ability, is something that we do not want to leave on the table. Then, we have Collected Company. This card is THE reason why we play Green in this list. The deck only plays 2 different Green cards at 4 copies a piece, but the ability to have a card in our hand that lets us dig 6 cards deep for either an answer, a threat, or a creature that can do both depending on what we need in that particular moment is phenomenal, and we want to be able to cast this on Turn 3 at all possible.

-MANA
...The Mana base for this deck may look a little all over the place at first glance, but this is the base that works for me personally. We want to be able to cast our spells when we want/need to. Avoiding getting denied a color as often as possible. So, I'll focus on the utility lands. The Horizon lands are great because they add card draw to a deck that really only has card selection from Collected Company and the two copies of Teferi. So being able to turn an unnecessary land into another card is a much appreciated addition to the list. Cavern of souls is essential in the Control Matchup. Moorland haunt is good in matchups that get incredibly grindy. Games against decks that are aiming to strip our hand of non-land cards with Moorland Haunt become MUCH less painful, as we are able to get value out of the cards that our stripped from our hand, as well getting EXTRA value out of the creatures that we are able to land on the board. I personally believe that no Spirits deck, regardless of color, is complete without a copy or two of Moorland Haunt.