Spirit of the Labrynth

[StanleyAugust]

Some thoughts:

You could probably use some more acceleration. Having only Mox Pearl and Black Lotus as accelerants isn't a lot. Sure you play Judge's Familiar as a decent one drop, but I would certainly consider more acceleration anyway.

No Stony Silence maindeck is a mistake in my opinion. I'm usually an advocate for Grafdigger's Cage maindeck but with 4 Arbiter, 2 Mindcensors and Dryad Militant maindeck, I'm not sure it's that important. I would probably try cutting the 3 Cage's for 3 Stony.

This leads me to the next point: Dryad Militant or Rest in Peace maindeck? There are pros and cons to both, and I must admit that I haven't tested Militant that much. How has it been working out?

Other than that, I think the list looks very solid.

I have not played White Trash since mid 2011-2012 when I originally top 4'd with it, this list is my buddy's. I think the deck seems much better than the list I used to play, and that had Full Moxen, Sol Ring and Mana Crypt! This deck doesn't need that much Accel. You might not always have a turn one play, so what? The 2 drops are so good that it makes up for it. I'm liking the main deck Cages, as an out to Yawgmoth's Win, Tinker and Oath, as well as Dredge. Stony Silence was moved to the board because you only want it against the most broken decks, which don't make up too much of our meta. Thank you for your questions and other thoughts, that is why I posted the list and Sideboard Plan, to have a discussion about the deck, especially now that Spirit of the Labyrinth exists.

I'm a big fan of Grafdigger's Cage as well, I'm just not sure if it's really needed here with 6 maindeck anti-search critters as well as 3 Dryad Militant (or potentially Rest in Peace).

[TheWhiteDragon]

Cages aren't for snapcasters or tinker (though they stop those too), but for oath and dredge mainly.  Even if you get rid of the returns with dryad, they can still ichorid/zombie token you to death easily.  Oath laughs at militant and aven, and if even you have relic-warder, it is the ONLY spell they have to counter.  Cage can come down turn 1 and just solve your problems before they are ever a problem.  The fact that they hit spells already in the bin before militant hits and stop tinker are just bonuses.  With this style of deck, oath and dredge are clearly more troublesome than tinker/snapcaster/yawg will.

[gkraigher]

I play maindeck cages in my mud deck because it stops cards in almost all match ups.  Really, the only decks that are unaffected are creature based decks.

Yawgmoth's Will
Kutholda Forgemaster
Dredge (entire deck)
Oath of Druids
Tinker
Snapcaster Mage

[lord_garfio]

Helo to all:

I was reading this post during last weeks, taking ideas. After a few weeks testing a mono white deck, i would like to share with you the list i have played at last LMV in Madrid (Spain), where i made top 8 (6 th position). The deck list is :

MAIN

Criaturas [24]

4X Spirit of the Labyrinth
4X Leonin Arbiter
4X Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2X Glowrider
3X Aven Mindcensor
3X Phyrexian Revoker
2X Grand Abolisher
2X Fiend Hunter

Instantaneos [4]
4X Swords to Plowshares

Artefactos [10]
1X Black Lotus
1X Mox Pearl
1X Mox Emerald
1X Mox Sapphire
1X Mox Ruby
1X Mox Jet
1X Lotus Petal
3X Grafdigger's Cage


Encantamientos [3]
3X Stony Silence

Tierras [19]
1X Strip Mine
6X Plain
1X Karakas
4X Wasteland
3X Ghost Quarter
4X Cavern of Souls

SIDE

3X True Beleiever
3X Ethersworn Canonist
2X  Serenity
2X Kataki, War's Wage
1X Hero of Bladehold
1X Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2X Umezawa's Jitte
1X Sword of Body & Mind

I won versus Young Pyromancer, Merfolks, Dredge and Bomberman and lost versus Oath and Pack Rat deck (twice, once at top).

The Choice of the cards and experience with Spirit of the Labyrinth:

- No words needed: Thalia, Leonin arbiter, Grand Abolisher, Aven
- Revoker: to stop Jace, Time vault, etc...
- Glowrider: i think Thalia is enough, thinking about change for something more useful)
- Fiend Hunter: here are to much aggro decks.
- All jewelry: turn 1 and 2 acceleration
- Cages: Oath, dredge, Snap, etc..

And finally Spirit of the Labyrinth.
Well, i believed in his potencial. Great complement to the deck, but not definitive. The rivals spent lots of counters and removal on it. This is good, less resources for other menaces.

Works nice versus dredge slowing down bazaar.

Summarizing, great complement, objetive for counters and removal opning the way for thalia, arbiter, etc.. and if finally stay on play, the oponent can't draw extra cards and hits 3. Very useful.

The side:

- True Believer: Mainly Oath
- Canonist: versus all blue-based
- Kataki: MUD
- Hero & Brimaz: versus aggro. Brimaz works fine
- Jitte and Sword of Body & Mind: versus aggro and sword versus blue-based too. 10 cards to graveyard is cool

Well, that was my experience yesterday. The deck works fine, perhaps some adjustment. Spirit is a great inclusion.

Lord Garfio

[Vennie]

True believer does not work VS True-Name Nemesis.

TNN does not target!

[lord_garfio]

Thats true. Sorry for the mistake 

[MaximumCDawg]

Now that Labyrinth lady has been legal for awhile, has anyone actually done anything in the real world with her?

[msg67183]

Now that Labyrinth lady has been legal for awhile, has anyone actually done anything in the real world with her?

2 decks were just in a top 8 recently at a TDG event, both were Junk Hatebears.

[xouman]

Well, I'm pretty aware that this is necrophilia because more than 500 days have passed since last post, but let's recover it.


For a couple of tournaments I have fit Spirit of the Labyrinth in a Uwr bomberman shell. This was my last list:
http://tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=18284&iddeck=138216

Bomberman is a fabulous deck that often gets punished by faster blue decks, able to play a swarm of tokens before I can go infinite, often overdrawing me. The idea is to abandon sorcery cantrips, brainstorm, thirst... and play a Spirit to punish the rest of blue decks, slow griselbrand a bit, annoy bazaar when looking for answers and being able to block golems, revokers and factories, as well as fish creatures. There is also a decent combination with Fayden, but nothing spectacular.

To be honest, Spirit is not being the awesome effect I was hoping it to be. Despite playing 3, it often comes after several cantrips, so it's not as effective as it could be. It eats creature removal or countermagic (it is ok for me, spirit is not the masterplan), but it usually dies too early.

What I like from spirit

-Early deployable.
-Easy colors to play.
-Nice attack being able to chumblock some menaces or attack undefended players/pws.
-Really slows blue decks, true tempo. Some decks get 8-10 dead cards, specially without DTT.
-I expect lots of decks playing thirst, and spirit preys on that.
-I can play my semi-cantrips (spellbombs, repeal, rebuild, sdt...) or my combo unnaffected
-Not dead in any match
-Does not interfere in any of my win conditions.

What I don't like

-Not a human, bad synergy with cavern
-very easy to kill or bounce
-It makes creature hate alive (i'm ok to see my opponents bolting a trinket, but bolting spirit hurts)
-opponents can store cantrips in hand until getting rid of it
-having CC2 is annoying when playing explosives.
-Avoiding cantrips often means suboptimal builds.


So my question to the TMD community is: how can I get the most of SotL in current metagame?

-My first approach is to play 3/4 copies, so I can play it as soon as possible. The biggest advantage from spirit compared with notion thief is the cost, and to a lesser extent, the color.

-I already play 3 caverns, and while most of the time they go for Human, I have choosen Spirit more than once. Once in play, some decks have problems getting rid of it. And when you face a deck with salvagers combo and key+vault, packing hate for spirit seems a bad idea.

-I'm replacing 1 mentor, 1 auriok, 1 dtt and 1 misdirection for 3 missteps (and 1 balance), in order to stop bolts and swords, and possibly claims. Decay is not common nowadays, but spirit still gets bounced more than once with jace. However, bouncing a creature makes jace vulnerable to Pyrite.

-Should I drop some Faydens? Without a spirit in battlefield fayden fetches it (or the combo). With a spirit in play, fayden is a -1 for the opponent (or just steal some artifact), despite I lose my own looting. I love fayden and besides it often attracts countermagic, which is ok for me.

-Any other advices? I have tested canonist on this place, and I also considered meddling mages (that would involve probes and maybe playing black over red for discard effects). Spirit seems the best placed in a world without DTT, thirsts and gushes.

Thanks!