RPTQ Prep Week 1 and 2: Bad Cards and Good Cards

Building decks in formats like Modern and Legacy is different than Standard. When building for Standard, it is mainly about trying to figure out which cards are actually Good Cards, and then play as many of them as possible. In the older formats, there are so many Good Cards that it is fairly simple to play a deck full of them. Jund and Jeskai Midrange would be examples of decks entirely made of Good Cards.

Having a deck full of Good Cards in the older formats isn't good enough. It is advantageous in certain games, especially midrange mirrors, but you can do better. The opportunities for incredible synergy are almost infinite. Just compare Jund Midrange with Jund Death's Shadow. By replacing some Good Cards with some Bad Cards with synergy, your deck becomes more than a pile of good cards, but a machine with a goal. Street Wraith and Death's Shadow aren't exactly Good Cards. Opt and Terminus are also not Good Cards, but the UWx control decks began winning much more often when they added that package.

Hopefully this illustrates my point about what a Good Card is. It's somewhat hard to define, and probably just my arbitrary opinion. A Good Card is something that has a proven pedigree as one of the pillars of the format. A good card is consistently powerful and doesn't require other cards to perform. A Good Card goes in multiple decks with different strategies.

The general deckbuilding process is something like this:

• Identify a synergy or strategy to exploit
• Include enough sufficiently synergistic cards to acheive a critical mass for your strategy
• Fill the deck with Good Cards to ensure a baseline power level and the ability to play games when things aren't going according to plan

It's the third point that many decks skip on. They go all-in on plan A and leave themselves vulnerable to disruption. They have to backup plan for when things go wrong. This is a legitimate strategy, but one I prefer to avoid when possible.

Bad Cards in Spirits

Most of the cards with Spirit type are probably Bad Cards. They do very little on their own (but a lot more that other tribes like Merfolk). The best two are Spell Queller and Mausoleum Wanderer. Once you include those in your deck you probably want to play the Supreme Phantom and Drogskol Captain. Selfless Spirit helps protect your army. The synergy is building. You add Rattlechains for more protection, Phantasmal Image for rendundancy. You could fill out the list with even more spirits. Nebelgast Herald is reasonable, as are Remorseful Cleric, Geist of Saint Traft, Kira, Great Glass-spinner, etc. 

But the decks don't play all Bad Cards. You want Aether Vial, a Good Card that syngergizes with your strategy. You want Path to Exile, the cheapest and most flexible removal spell available in your colors. The Bant version plays Noble Hierarch and Collected Company, two cards that scream Good Card when compared with any of the Spirits already in the deck.

I've build lists with different combinations of Bad Cards instead of Good Cards. Here is some feedback:

I tried a UW only list with Curious Obsession. This card was much better than I thought it would be. The same goes with Smuggler's Copter. To enable these cards, I played two Judge's Familiar, which also overperformed. Despite the good results, they still aren't on the Noble Hierarch and Collected Company level. The only advantage to running a UW only list at this point would be to play the Good Card Mutavault, but I believe it to have negative synergy with the cards already in the deck.

Additional Good Cards in Spirits

I also tried a version with a four-color mana base to support Collected Company and Lingering Souls. I played Birds of Paradise instead of Aether Vial, but had to cut Path to Exile to keep enough creatures in the deck for CoCo. Lingering Souls is a Good Card, but it wasn't needed, just nice to have. Whenever I find a card is "just nice to have" in Modern, I always try to replace it with a much more impactful card.

I've also been playing one Jace, the Mind-Sculptor in the sideboard. One of the kings of Good Cards, he definitely performs when he is in play. Whether or not I will have room in the sideboard for him at the end of testing remains to be seen.

Some Metagame Considerations

I really hate Remorseful Cleric. I've lost several games that I would have won if it had been the 3rd or 4th Selfless Spirit. When it has been useful, it's only been fine. Against Snapcaster Mage, Selfless Spirit is often just as good.

However, Dredge is real. I've finally played a few matches and I am worried. I don't think Spirits is favored to win unless it draws a hate card of some kind. I will certainly be playing three Rest in Peace in the sideboard, and probably consider playing the fourth. Perhaps the Cleric makes it's way back into the list to save sideboard space eventually.

Knight of Autumn is probably needed. While Reclamation Sage is a card that I've always found to be "just nice to have", Knight does enough that it can be actually a Good Card. When I cast Collected Company and saw my two Blessed Alliance against Burn, I decided to reconsider Knight. It can't do everything you want it to (I don't think it is very good against Death's Shadow for instance), but if enough situation come up where it is better than "just nice to have" I'll play one or two.

Next Weeks

While I'm not quite locked in, there is a lot of benefit to playing Spirits. It will probably still be good in the metagame. It will be hard to hate out. I have all the cards already. Maybe I'll find more time over Thanksgiving to get some more hours in with anything to finally lock in to something.