Dance Magic Dance -- Blue White Fact or Fiction /Spirit of the Labyrinth Control

[The Atog Lord]

Dance Magic Dance

Normally, when I play an interesting, new deck at a tournament with some success, I like to write a tournament report. It tells you about the deck, and explains some of the more interesting card choices. Today was the MVPLS Vintage Invitational. 51 powerful wizards arrived, and there was a cut to the top 16 after six rounds of Swiss. Three people played this deck -- Craig Berry, Brian Coval, and myself. All three of us made top 16.

I developed this deck with Craig Berry, getting in a good number of test games on Cockatrice to help shape it. As a brief aside, while there are certainly some regrettable human beings on there, there are also some genuinely great people playing Vintage on Cockatrice. This deck draws much from the work that Craig has put into Blue Angels, though there are some interesting differences that I'll discuss below. Because I did not keep any notes, I won't be able to go match-by-match through the tournament. Instead, I'd like to discuss some of the card choices in the deck and the logic behind them.

First, I'll present the deck that I played today. Brian and Craig played very similar decks, I believe within 70 cards each -- and we all made top sixteen today. After that, I will discuss various card choices in an attempt to explain why the deck looks the way it does.

Deck List

// Creatures (12)
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Vendilion Clique
4 Restoration Angel
3 Spirit of the Labyrinth

// Control Spells (15)
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Disenchant
3 Mental Misstep
1 Spell Snare

// Draw Spells (8)
4 Fact or Fiction
1 Brainstorm
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall

// Mana (25)
5 Moxen
3 SoLoCrypt
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Karakas
3 Island
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
3 Tundra
1 Plains
2 Cavern of Souls

// Sideboard (15)
SB: 1 Flusterstorm
SB: 3 Rest in Peace
SB: 4 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 1 Disenchant
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 1 Path to Exile
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
SB: 1 Devout Witness
SB: 1 Aven Mindcensor


Purpose of the deck
The purpose of this deck is to be a blue deck capable of handling any matchup, but focusing on fighting a metagame filled with creatures. In particular, the deck is designed to fight through hate cards like Null Rod and various hate bears, while being able to defeat decks based around Jace. As much of the game as possible should be played on the opponent's turn, because Jace decks would often rather be able to use their counters on their opponent's turn. Further, the manabase should be robust and difficult to collapse.

Spirit of the Labyrinth
The name of the deck, of course, is a reference to the movie Labyrinth. Spirit of the Labyrinth, when not stealing small children to frustrate 1980's heroines, is an extremely powerful card that combines Chains of Mephistopheles with Blade of the Sixth Pride. A threat and a lock piece, this card stops Gush, Jace's draw, and cantrips in general. The Spirit makes a number of cards become uncastable for the opponent, and the combination of Spirit and Clique is extremely powerful. The fact that Spirit has enough power to kill a Lodestone Golem means that he's a perfectly fine card against Workshops, even if the ability itself isn't very exciting.

Restoration Angel
The more I tested, the more Restoration Angel stood out in this deck. Yes, she is actually a 3/4 flying creature that I'm casting in Vintage. It turns out that a 3/4 with flying and flash is extremely well situated in today's metagame. She has just enough power to kill Jace in one hit, and her flash ability means that, unlike cards like True-Name Nemesis, she can be cast in response to Jace's Brainstorm ability. Being a 3/4 with Flash means that she can arrive and kill the vast majority of attackers in Vintage, including Delver, Clique, and any number of hate bears. Cavern of Souls makes things even better for Flashing her in. Besides that, having three power makes her a reasonable clock for ending the game. The fact that she can re-buy a Snapcaster or a Click, or save a creature from abruptly decaying, is even better.

Vendilion Clique
Clique is very powerful on its own, and become abusive with Spirit. Three mana for three evasive power represents a quick clock and, as noted above, is a great number of destroying Jaces. Clique can grab the card needed to shut of an opponent, and can cycle a useless card in your hand -- including an extra Clique.

Swords to Plowshares
If you look at recent top-eight lists, you'll see that there are more and more creatures in Vintage. From Dark Confidant to the humble Blightsteel Colossus, Vintage is becoming increasingly creature-heavy. Even Workshop decks are running creatures, from Metalworker to Forgemaster. Swords is an increasingly applicable card in the format -- it isn't just for sideboards any more. Having three copies of Swords is good. Combine with a couple of Snapcaster Mages and Restoration Angels, and we're in good shape to take on the creature-filled world that Vintage is becoming.

Fact or Fiction? Is that even unrestricted?
When I started working on this deck, I was running three copies of Jace and zero copies of this now-unestricted card. The more I tested, though, the more I was unhappy with Jace. Sure, he is an extremely good Magic card. But I was much happier when I was tapping four mana for Restoration Angel. She could be cast on an opponent's end step. She had immediate impact rather than needing to survive a turn. And Restoration Angel tended to be better at handling opposing creatures than Jace; everyone is taking Jace into account when building their decks these days. In other words, in this metagame, keeping Jace alive was becoming more difficult than ever. Plus, Jace is miserable when Spirit is on the Battlefield. But, I wasn't willing to give up on drawing lots of cards.

Enter Fact or Fiction. Fact or Fiction allows you to leave up four mana, casting either Angel or FoF depending on circumstance. FoF has great synergy with Snapcaster Mage, while not being negatively affected by Spirit of the Labyrinth. I started by playing with two copies of this card, and it ended up at four copies as I tested more and was more impressed. It was amazing for me all day today.

Perhaps you are wondering why Factor Fiction has been dormant for so long. After all, if FoF really is a good card, why hasn't anyone played it these past few years in Vintage? The answer is that FoF is at its best only in certain types of decks. Many Vintage decks strongly depending on one or two cards -- Tinker, Yawgmoth's Will, or Time Vault to name a few examples. If you really need Yawgmoth's Will, and it gets revealed as part of a Fact or Fiction, then you're often stuck taking the one-card pile of Yawgmoth's Will, and that Fact or Fiction becomes a four-mana Impulse. This deck, on the other hand, has no such necessary one-ofs. The plan is to kill your opponent by flying in for a lot of damage, and no one card is necessary for this. In this sort of deck, Fact or Fiction lets you get a lot of card advantage very quickly while minimizing the downside of losing your important cards.

That's a lot of land
Finally, the manabase. There are decks in Vintage whose whole purpose is to collapse your manabase. Those decks prey on greedy manabases. This manabase is designed to endure a Wasteland or two and continue playing its spells. In fact, you can cast everything in the main deck using just the basics. The Caverns let you push through your creatures against a wall of counters, and have been extremely good in testing. Karakas lets you bounce your own Clique; and combined with Spirit, Karakas gives you a reasonable way to handle Griselbrand being Oathed onto the table.

Props (as usual, no slops)
Alright, that's a brief report on this deck and its purpose. Huge props to Brian and Craig. Huge props to Gabe McMullen and his family for a place to stay in Lancaster and an awesome home-made breakfast. And of course, props to Calvin for inviting me to his awesome event!

Rich

[Guli]

Rich, this is a very good deck. I have had the pleasure to play against you online and I was impressed. Your recent results also clearly show the deck will be a force to be reckoned with.

I also love the Angels and Spirits. I myself have also been testing Fact or Fiction in some human builds and I was impressed how strong the card actually is. It got unrestricted, the path was cleared for us, so it is time. Fact or Fiction is coming back and will show up more and more.

Teferi? Care to shed more light on that one?

[The Atog Lord]

Thanks, Guli! Teferi fits the theme of being a Flash creature with enough power to kill Jace. He's very strong against Blue decks, shutting off their ability to do much on your turn. He interacts well with both Cavern and Karakas. If you cast him during the opponent's end step, he's immune to removal spells once he resolves until the opponent's next main phase.

[Qube]

That's a beauty of a deck! I can't wait to test this out.

Can you explain some more how you played the deck and if there were any situations in which you've had some problems?

Have you ever thought about Dakra Mystic in combination with Spirit of the Labyrinth? It could provide a small draw-engine as you could draw a card in both of the turns for only {Tap}, stops Mystical and Vampiric. But as I hadn't the chance to test this at all, I don't now if Dakra is good enough on its own (as your other creatures in the deck).

Congratulations on your succes and for brewing an interesting deck. I always like your kind of decks.

 

[TheWhiteDragon]

This looks really close to American Angels in modern...except drops red.  That deck is nearly the same (as close as modern can get) taking out the vintage counters and AR for worse conters like counterflux and izzet charm.  It also swaps plows for path and bolts.  One other card the deck uses is Blade splicer, which is amazing with angels.  Any interest in splicer, or does the lack of flash strike it from consideration?

[Onslaught]

Yikes, the synergy in this build is off the charts. It's so cool to see FoF as a 4 of a in 2014 Vintage deck, well done!

[The Atog Lord]

Thanks for the feedback! I did try the Mystic in early builds of this deck. When she teams up with David Bowie, then she's absolutely awesome -- your own personal howling mine. But at all other times, she was very unimpressive. She wasn't doing enough to justify her inclusion in the deck. Something like Impulse would have paid better dividends. As for Blade Splicer, that is an interesting card because it can stop Lodestone Golem. However, I suspect that card is worse than Stoneforge Mystic, who costs less mana and creatures a much more impressive friend. I realize that Restoration Angel is better with Blade Splicer, but Restoring a Stoneforge isn't exactly a bad play, and 4/4 is much larger than 3/3 against many Vintage decks.

[wiley]

Any thoughts on library or mikokoro in this?  Both can be activated on your opponents turn, and mikokoro gets pure value from spirit being in play.

[jlim17]

Any thoughts on library or mikokoro in this?  Both can be activated on your opponents turn, and mikokoro gets pure value from spirit being in play.

From the initial look, one of this decks strengths is its consistency and resilience, especially to mana denial strategies. Adding additional non-basic lands, especially ones that cannot produce colored mana would diminish that advantage. Those greedy mana bases, common to the big blue decks, are exactly what the current vintage landscape seems to be taking advantage of. I like how this deck takes the simpler is more approach.

Moving on, it was great to catch up with you at that event, Rich! And this was an excellent writeup, thank you for sharing this! My ~2 hour match with Craig at the event was easily my favorite match of the year, even though I ended up losing in a very tightly played Game 3. This deck seems designed impeccably and thoroughly. I think it has all the tools to be very successful even after this weekend. I will say, that I think, like landstill, it takes a higher level of skill to pilot well, compared to other decks. Prioritizing your opponents threats for your counters/cliques/swords, knowing your opponents' available lines of play, and choosing the appropriate time to change roles all become more difficult compared to most other vintage decks as it is a "fair" deck. Although having to split a FoF pile with Snapcaster, Mana Drain, and Force of Will (with Ancestral and Swords in the GY) seemed far from fair! This deck seems like such a great fit for you and any other players who prefer a more skill intensive deck.

FoF is back! And she thinks Jace is going down. Down? She said dowwwwn!?! 

[brianpk80]

I love the deck.  It feels like the 2014 incarnation of "The [Weissman] Deck" that I grew up playing in the 1990's.  The fact that one of your compatriots was running Moat is as nostalgic as it is effective.  Nice job and congrats on the Top 16!

-Brian

[MrGlantz]

Any thoughts on library or mikokoro in this?  Both can be activated on your opponents turn, and mikokoro gets pure value from spirit being in play.

From the initial look, one of this decks strengths is its consistency and resilience, especially to mana denial strategies. Adding additional non-basic lands, especially ones that cannot produce colored mana would diminish that advantage. Those greedy mana bases, common to the big blue decks, are exactly what the current vintage landscape seems to be taking advantage of. I like how this deck takes the simpler is more approach.

I would completely agree. If this is a deck designed to beat creature decks, then keeping a stable mana base is the most important thing I can think of. This deck actually looks unbeatable for many of the more recent hate bear decks.

[The Atog Lord]

Thanks for the great comments!

Joel, your match against Craig was nothing short of epic. It's one of those matches which I'm glad occurred in un-timed rounds so that it could be fought to completion.

The manabase in the deck is designed to cast the spells in the deck, and cast them even in the face of Wasteland. I love Library more than most, and I did indeed consider running the card. In the end, the third Tundra got the nod over Library because of how important casting spells actually is. I'll certainly test Library and see if I can find a way to incorporate it, but I was happy with the manabase as it was.

[wiley]

To me it just seemed that it would be a more powerful engine than top (given no way to tutor for either), and it adds and additional land to the deck.  The color portion matters very little when you are looking to cast things like fact and angel.  The only card that actively dislikes early turn library is drain, and there is plenty of evidence that library still does well in drain decks.

While the deck is designed to beat the creature decks you must remember that they are not the entire meta.

[Stormanimagus]

To me it just seemed that it would be a more powerful engine than top (given no way to tutor for either), and it adds and additional land to the deck.  The color portion matters very little when you are looking to cast things like fact and angel.  The only card that actively dislikes early turn library is drain, and there is plenty of evidence that library still does well in drain decks.

While the deck is designed to beat the creature decks you must remember that they are not the entire meta.

Agreed. I think Storm decks would have their way with this deck.

[Chubby Rain]

To me it just seemed that it would be a more powerful engine than top (given no way to tutor for either), and it adds and additional land to the deck.  The color portion matters very little when you are looking to cast things like fact and angel.  The only card that actively dislikes early turn library is drain, and there is plenty of evidence that library still does well in drain decks.

The deck is already running 17 lands with 25 mana sources. I also think that you are underestimating the effect Sensei's Divining Top can have in this style deck. Games are going to last several turns and while a turn 1 Library is excellent in those situations, Top is good at every stage of the game and capable of generating significant virtual card advantage. It also contributes to Tolarian Academy as otherwise the deck is a little light on artifacts.

While the deck is designed to beat the creature decks you must remember that they are not the entire meta.

Karakas and Cavern of Souls are both very good against Oath decks and Control decks, respectively, as are Spirit of the Labyrinth and Vendilion Clique. I know Rich played against and beat TPS during the Swiss and the collective records of Craig, Brian, and Rich certainly suggest that the deck was well-positioned for the metagame at MVP. If you wanted to make the deck better against non-creature oriented metagames, I would not start with cutting Top for Library.

EDIT:

I think Storm decks would have their way with this deck.

Possibly, but Storm decks have generally been on the decline in the Northeast. Rich has provided a very good primer and explained his reasoning behind certain card choices and what metagame he was expecting. Rather than propose a change to the maindeck based on a different metagame, I think it would be better to ask what the sideboard strategy is against Storm and then tweak the deck to your metagame if you choose to play it.

BTW, phenomenal primer, Rich; great work with deck Rich and Craig; and congrats on the success at MVP Rich, Craig, and Brian.

[The Atog Lord]

Storm is, no doubt, an extremely powerful deck, and was the deck I would have played if I hadn't gotten this deck to the point where I was happy with it. That said, this deck certainly has the tools necessary to fight storm. Spirit itself is a very powerful card against Storm; one of my games against the deck involved a first-turn Spirit, a second-turn Cage, and basically no other spells in the game. Spirit and a  a large counter suite do a lot to combat a deck which is dedicate to casting Cantrips until trying to resolve One Big Spell. Vendilion Clique is quite a powerful card against Storm decks as well, and can be used in response to one or more Dark Rituals. Post-board, Grafdigger's Cage shuts off much of what Storm is trying to do; while they have only one Yawgmoth's Will, much of their deck is designed to trend into that one spell.

As for cutting top. As absurd as this is going to sound, you're better off cutting Brainstorm. Yes, I am stating that Top is better than Brainstorm in this deck. In fact, maintaining a high enough Blue count was the only reason I didn't swap out the Brainstorm for a second Top in the deck.

Where the deck did struggle was against Stoneforge Mystic. Justin used her to defeat both Craig and myself. While it is entirely appropriate that a small girl defeats David Bowie in keeping with the Labyrinth theme, this is the weakness that I'm going to be considering next.

[wiley]

Agreed. I think Storm decks would have their way with this deck.

The deck seems decently prepared for storm, actually.  10 counters, 3 instant speed duress effects (that can get reused) and a way to shut off card draw other than necro.  It is a slow-ish clock, but not more-so than the delver decks that have also been having a decent time against storm.

My thoughts were more towards big blue decks that have answers to spirit and/or run library themselves.

You don't look at library as another land, that is just a bonus.  Instead it is competing for the non-blue draw/filter spot with top.  I think some people might not realize how easily this deck gets back up to 7 cards in hand.  Fact can always put you +2 cards in hand, and karakas can put you +1 at any time.  Given that most of the deck is reactive anyway (that is one of the intents of the deck) you will probably maintain a high hand count unless you are getting into counter wars.

The academy comment is understandable, but I think it is worth trying even if you go from 9 artifacts to 8.  Again, in most situations it adds more than top does.

As for stoneforge, you can always fight fire with fire.  I believe multiple legacy decks have shown that 2 sfm and 1 skull are a viable sideboard option for that format, it may be for vintage as well.

[hashswag]

Have you considered Venser in place of Teferi? 1 mana cheaper, buys some time against tricky permanents/spells in a pinch, puts oath creatures back in their opponent's hands, saves/reuses creatures (albeit in a more expensive way than resto) and works well with Karakas.

2 SFM + Batterskull seems like a reasonable option, but the density of creatures in this deck and the fact that most of them have evasion makes me think just adding a Jitte or something might be a better option.

I also agree on Top being better than Library in this deck. I think Library lends itself more to decks that want to draw extra cards on their own turn (before playing moxen, creatures, etc) than this deck, which wants to draw on their opponent's turn if necessary. I think Top functions similarly to Brainstorm in that it's at its best when you can use it but don't need to. Library also puts you effectively a turn behind if you want to keep drawing cards with it rather than casting Cliques/Restos/FoFs.

How did you find Devout Witness in the board, by the way? I like it in theory, but I've always erred on the side of not playing it because I feel like it could be too clunky. I'd be interested to know how it performed in this deck.

Love the deck, by the way. I always liked the Blue Angels deck in theory, but I felt like its strengths fell to pieces as soon as Jace hit the table. The synergy between FoF and Spirit, as well as between Spirit and Clique is terrific.

[Chubby Rain]

As for cutting top. As absurd as this is going to sound, you're better off cutting Brainstorm. Yes, I am stating that Top is better than Brainstorm in this deck. In fact, maintaining a high enough Blue count was the only reason I didn't swap out the Brainstorm for a second Top in the deck.

Not absurd at all. Kohler has been running two Tops in his Bomberman list for over a year, and while your Angels list does not have Trinket Mage to tutor and shuffle, it still gives the deck a huge advantage in a prolonged game. It is also a phenomenal card against other control decks, which seems contrary to the stated goal of making the deck better against other control decks.

Where the deck did struggle was against Stoneforge Mystic. Justin used her to defeat both Craig and myself. While it is entirely appropriate that a small girl defeats David Bowie in keeping with the Labyrinth theme, this is the weakness that I'm going to be considering next.

Ironically, Justin decided to add in the Stoneforge package on the way to the tournament from Shady Maples. The deck does have a decent amount of tools against her with Swords, Path, Snare, Aven Mindcensor, Disenchant, Vendilion Clique, and Engineered Explosives. You might want to consider Pithing Needle in the sideboard as it's very good against Mystic and also has applications in many other match-ups.

Agreed. I think Storm decks would have their way with this deck.

My thoughts were more towards big blue decks that have answers to spirit and/or run library themselves.

You don't look at library as another land, that is just a bonus.  Instead it is competing for the non-blue draw/filter spot with top.  I think some people might not realize how easily this deck gets back up to 7 cards in hand.  Fact can always put you +2 cards in hand, and karakas can put you +1 at any time.  Given that most of the deck is reactive anyway (that is one of the intents of the deck) you will probably maintain a high hand count unless you are getting into counter wars.

The academy comment is understandable, but I think it is worth trying even if you go from 9 artifacts to 8.  Again, in most situations it adds more than top does.

Again, I think you are criminally underestimating Top, in particular, and the rest of the deck against Big Blue decks. Flash creatures have historically been incredible against control decks and Clique and Angel are no exception. Throw in that Restoration Angel cannot be Bolted or Abrupt Decayed and many control decks will struggle to remove her an protect their Jaces and Tezzerets. Cavern of Souls is a game changer when is drawn as now Cliques or Angels are uncounterable. The deck also has a decent disruption suite of removal and counterspells. Going by the list, I don't think this deck would have a hard time against Big Blue unless they drew Cavern, at which the plan is to go aggro and start jamming dudes until they have to react.

Also, just because the deck is reactive does not mean that it will have a full grip later in the game. Quite the opposite in fact, as you have to react with your opponent from Turn 1, expending counterspells, trading off creatures, and prolonging the game until you take control. The deck is also mana intensive and needs to hit land drops to represent Restoration Angel/Snapcaster Mage + Spell/Fact of Fiction. Traditional Drain decks have Yawgmoth's Will and Tinker as cards that can turn the tables instantaneously. This deck lacks that capability and cannot necessarily sit back with a full grip and accrue advantage with Library, then win the game.  

My opinion on Library in this style deck is based on my experience with UW Bomberman and similar variants. Justin Kohler agrees with me and does not run Library in his builds. Josh Potucek disagrees and runs Library in addition to 2 Caverns in his decks (cutting Tolarian Academy). It should be noted that these decks both run 2 Sensei's Divining Tops - if you want to run Library (and I acknowledge that there is an aspect of personal opinion that goes along with this), I strongly recommended cutting something else other than Top.

[Meddling Mike]

I have purchased 4 Spirits and I look forward to scrubbing out with this thing in the near future.

[Tammit67]

Storm is, no doubt, an extremely powerful deck, and was the deck I would have played if I hadn't gotten this deck to the point where I was happy with it. That said, this deck certainly has the tools necessary to fight storm. Spirit itself is a very powerful card against Storm; one of my games against the deck involved a first-turn Spirit, a second-turn Cage, and basically no other spells in the game. Spirit and a  a large counter suite do a lot to combat a deck which is dedicate to casting Cantrips until trying to resolve One Big Spell. Vendilion Clique is quite a powerful card against Storm decks as well, and can be used in response to one or more Dark Rituals. Post-board, Grafdigger's Cage shuts off much of what Storm is trying to do; while they have only one Yawgmoth's Will, much of their deck is designed to trend into that one spell.

As the storm player in the example, it was very annoying to play against you and Coval this past weekend. While I'm sure I didn't play optimally, my engines were limited to tutor chaining (top deck tutors couldn't be chained thanks to spirit), naturally drawing tendrils, or Mind's desire once spirit and cage found themselves on the battlefield. Spirit disrupts a lot of the flow I want and if you toss in cage/counterspells, then the available paths diminish greatly.

I wouldn't fear the deck without spirit, but as is it feels problematic. I not sure if it was correct of me to not have sideboarded a solution to it in games 2 and 3, such as dismember.

[dangerlinto]

I wouldn't fear the deck without spirit, but as is it feels problematic. I not sure if it was correct of me to not have sideboarded a solution to it in games 2 and 3, such as dismember.

Darkblast is probably much, much better against such a deck, especially since it's dredge ability replaces one of your draws for the turn, leaving you with an open draw.

Depending on your available slots for creature removal, you might even want to run darkblast over dismember, and run Toxic Deluge alongside.

[The Atog Lord]

I wouldn't fear the deck without spirit, but as is it feels problematic. I not sure if it was correct of me to not have sideboarded a solution to it in games 2 and 3, such as dismember.

Darkblast is probably much, much better against such a deck, especially since it's dredge ability replaces one of your draws for the turn, leaving you with an open draw.

Depending on your available slots for creature removal, you might even want to run darkblast over dismember, and run Toxic Deluge alongside.

Honestly, Dread of Night is probably the best overall answer to these sorts of cards, as a single copy hits all Spirits, Thaliae, and Mindcensors.

[dangerlinto]

I wouldn't fear the deck without spirit, but as is it feels problematic. I not sure if it was correct of me to not have sideboarded a solution to it in games 2 and 3, such as dismember.

Darkblast is probably much, much better against such a deck, especially since it's dredge ability replaces one of your draws for the turn, leaving you with an open draw.

Depending on your available slots for creature removal, you might even want to run darkblast over dismember, and run Toxic Deluge alongside.

Honestly, Dread of Night is probably the best overall answer to these sorts of cards, as a single copy hits all Spirits, Thaliae, and Mindcensors.

But it doesn't hit clique, snapcaster or Bob and every other non-white (non-TNN) creature with one toughness ( and 2 if you use it right).  Dread is cute against white trash, but even then they run Relic-warder.  Darkblast is far more versatile in many more matchups.

[The Atog Lord]

I wouldn't fear the deck without spirit, but as is it feels problematic. I not sure if it was correct of me to not have sideboarded a solution to it in games 2 and 3, such as dismember.

Darkblast is probably much, much better against such a deck, especially since it's dredge ability replaces one of your draws for the turn, leaving you with an open draw.

Depending on your available slots for creature removal, you might even want to run darkblast over dismember, and run Toxic Deluge alongside.

Honestly, Dread of Night is probably the best overall answer to these sorts of cards, as a single copy hits all Spirits, Thaliae, and Mindcensors.

But it doesn't hit clique, snapcaster or Bob and every other non-white (non-TNN) creature with one toughness ( and 2 if you use it right).  Dread is cute against white trash, but even then they run Relic-warder.  Darkblast is far more versatile in many more matchups.

For the most part, Storm isn't concerned about removing Clique (the damage is done when she arrives), Snapcaster (Ditto), or Dark Confidant (Storm can race him).

[MTGFan]

This deck screams out for Dark Confidant.

Also, how much value are you actually getting out of Restoration Angel in this deck? You can blink 2 Snapcasters and 3 Vendilion CLiques to extract any kind of value. And if you're not blinking things with Angel, a plain 3/4 flier for 4 mana is really only borderline playable in this format.

[The Atog Lord]

MTGFan,

Flickering a creature with an Enter-The-Battlefield trigger with Restoration Angel certainly provides value. But you can get value in other, interesting ways with her as well. She counters removal spells, including an Abrupt Decay. Restoration Angel provides value when arriving to block a hapless attacker -- she certainly ate a Dark Confidant during the Invitational. She also has the ability to arrive and put an end to Jace. In all those ways, Restoration Angel can general real or virtual card advantage, as well as providing a not-unreasonable clock.

As for Dark Confidant, I'd be hesitant to include him in a deck with 8 four-drops and 4 five-drops. I'd actually be more interested in splashing for Dack, since combined with Spirit he lets you build your very own Hymn to Tourach.

[brianpk80]

Restoration Angel provides value when arriving to block a hapless attacker -- she certainly ate a Dark Confidant during the Invitational.

...causing an immediate concession. 

[vaughnbros]

As for Dark Confidant, I'd be hesitant to include him in a deck with 8 four-drops and 4 five-drops. I'd actually be more interested in splashing for Dack, since combined with Spirit he lets you build your very own Hymn to Tourach.

Spirit only makes dacks ability draw 1 discard 2 on your opponent.  So they aren't discarding at random and they are only losing 1 card.  Not exactly worth splashing a whole color for.

[Chubby Rain]

As for Dark Confidant, I'd be hesitant to include him in a deck with 8 four-drops and 4 five-drops. I'd actually be more interested in splashing for Dack, since combined with Spirit he lets you build your very own Hymn to Tourach.

Spirit only makes dacks ability draw 1 discard 2 on your opponent.  So they aren't discarding at random and they are only losing 1 card.  Not exactly worth splashing a whole color for.

And that's where Notion Thief comes in. Mindculling as a +1 ability is pretty strong on a 3 mana planeswalker.