Here's hoping everyone had a great holiday!  The new year promises to bring lots of great surprises, most likely starting with Morningtide.

I know that I haven't fixed a deck in about a week, but I'd say the last week of December is a justified week to take off, what with the various solstice-timed holidays and all.  Besides, our webmasters also took the week off to spend time with family, so even if I'd been slaving away all week, you wouldn't get the benefit until now.  But the new year is upon us, and it's time to quit griping about holiday spirit and get back into the swing!

Dear BMoor,

 
            Big hello from New Jersey!  Spirits have been my favorite tribe now for a long time and I have been on a quest now to make a competitive Spirit deck for the tribal format classic.  Ghost Dad could easily be adapted to fit 20 spirits as per the requirement, but that has been done already and what's the fun in that!  Well, from my legacy experience I tried to make an original spirit build similar to Suicide Black with all the acceleration and discard.  My goal is to be able to keep a spirit theme, without getting destroyed by mean ole' cliché tribal decks in a tournament such as goblins and elves. 

 
Creatures

 
4x Graveborn Muse

2x  Infernal Kirin

4x Lavaborn Muse

4x Thief of Hope

4x Wicked Akuba

 

Non Creatures

 
4x Horobi's Whisper

4x Hymn to Tourach

3x Long-Forgotten Gohei

2x Three Tragedies

4x Waking Nightmare

 

Mana

 
3x Chrome Mox

4x Dark Ritual

4x Badlands

4x Bloodstained Mire

2x Polluted Delta

8x Swamp

 

Side Board

 
3x Hearth Kami

4x Hideous Laughter

4x Leyline of the Void

4x Rend Flesh

 
            I started with the good old acceleration package of Dark Ritual and Chrome Mox (MVP).  Well hopefully that means I won't get steam rolled.  Than I have my mana base which I definitely don't have the money for...  Still I think on paper that is as good as it gets.  Graveborn Muse gives me a spirit Bob, while Lava Born Muse gives me a Spirit rack that loves all my discard.  Thief of Hope is definitely pulling his weight, while Infernal Kirin and Wicked Akuba are a bit more situational.  Still, I do not think anyone wants to leave Akuba unblocked!  The Gohei has synergy with everything and pumps my critters while making my arcane spells cost less.
           Anyway, on to the problems...  For one I only have 18 spirit creatures so I need to somehow shoehorn two more spirits to make it Tribal legal while not comprising on the quality of the deck.  Maybe the Three Tragedies is overkills?  I was first thinking Kokusho could fill the last two slots, but he is a tad slow....  Please tell me your thoughts on the deck, and if it could have a competitive go.  In friendly matches it has been doing quite well.  It even destroyed my legacy Burn deck a few times! 
 

 -Jared a.k.a EvilTeaCup

P.S.  Got any snazzy deck name ideas?  Ghost Aunt?

Hmmm.... let's worry about deck contents first and deck names second, Jared.  Although I do have some cool ideas for names...

At any rate, your main issue is that you need this deck to be competitive with other tribal decks.  Let me let you in on a little trick to beating tribal decks, Jared: tribal decks can only operate if they have a critical mass of creatures.  One elf is a mana accelerant at best.  Seven elves is a threat.  And you, my friend, are playing black and red, the two colors most adept at shortening lifespans on command.  More importantly, having eight Goblins is not in and of itself impressive.  If they're all Raging Goblin, who cares?  But as soon as even one Siege-Gang Commander comes down, then yes, a Raging Goblin becomes a concern.  So it's not the creature type that grants a creature power, it's the one "lord" on the field.  Kill the Goblin King, and suddenly your opponent is attacking you with mere 1/1 tokens.

Currently, your main creature kill is Horobi's Whisper, and nothing else except in the sideboard.  That's not so much of a problem, since you've instead chosen to focus on the twin guns of discard and direct life drain via Thief of Hope and Lavaborn Muse.  Making an opponent discard a lord is just as good as killing it, except when the discard is of their choice or random.  No tribal player will willingly pitch their lord.  Whereas if you can make them play it, you can target it directly-- and you probably won't need to encourage them to play their lord.

That said, is Horobi's Whisper even the correct choice for creature kill?  With your Vintage-budget mana base, you may well have the mana to cast it but not the "if you control a Swamp" requirement.  But I guess I understand why you want to run it-- it's an Arcane spell, so it triggers Thief of Hope.

But Spirit spells trigger the Thief just as well, right?  And it just so happens, there is a kill spell that's also a Spirit... as well as an Elf, a Faerie, a Goblin-- I'm taking of course about Nameless Inversion!  Replacing Whisper with Inversion not only reduces your Swamp requirement, but it gives you a cheaper card (two mana vs. three) AND when your Thief dies, its Soulshift will have the option of bringing back an Inversion!

Speaking of your mana requirements, for all the money it's going to cost you to splash Red for Lavaborn Muse and still optimize Wicked Akuba, don't you think it would be easier to just take out Lavaborn Muse?  Doesn't The Rack do the exact same thing?  For less mana?  And not damage you as well?

But if you remove the Muse, that means you have to add in four more Spirit cards to make up the deficit.  And since we've already discussed your need to be able to kill off creatures that hit the board, I'm quite fond of Kagemaro, First to Suffer in this role.  Especially given Graveborn Muse's ability to keep your hand full, Kagemaro can come down and swing for a decent amount, then wipe the board clean of those meddlesome tokens.  I also like the fact that when players see a permanent that can kill creatures en masse, they start holding back creature cards in their hand.  Meanwhile, you're already poised to wipe out opposing hands, so you can use this to not only kill their army, but eliminate their options for recovery.  Meanwhile, you've got a full hand and Soulshift triggers to bring back an Akuba or two.

If you don't like Kagemaro, or just aren't sold on running four of a legend, you could also go with Kokusho as you suggested.  I'd also like to suggest Kyoki, Sanity's Eclipse for more discard power, Seizan, Perverter of Truth for more draw power and more ways to make your opponent lose life (and with Lavaborn gone, you don't much care that they get to keep their hand size above three), or newcomer Nether Traitor to help you win wars of attrition and recover from any board wipes an opponent may be packing.  Don't worry about Nether Traitor's price tag too much, since removing red from the deck eliminates the need for that tricked out land base.  Heck, after Dark Ritual, basic Swamps should do you proper.  Maybe a Shizo in there for good measure?  Or a Desert if you anticipate a lot of X/1 attackers.

And finally, in answer to your question about Three Tragedies: yes, I do think it's overkill.  Discard works best when it comes early in the game.  Cheap discard like Distress, Duress, and most recently Thoughtseize is worth its weight in Mizzium because that early in the game, a player's hand is still full and ripe for the picking.  By the time Three Tragedies get sonline, thetrigger from Infernal Kirin will likely take out whatever they were holding back and the spell itself will get squat.  I'd say that's what should get pulled in favor of The Rack.

So, that's all I can do for "Spirited Away" here.  Or "In One Kirin Out the Other".  Or "Ghostly Wail"?  "Haunting Refrain"?  "Spiritual Strength"?

"The Black Banshee"?

~BMoor