4 Dimir Infiltrator
2 Circu, Dimir Lobotomist
2 Kiri-Onna
4 Cloudhoof Kirin
3 Zephyr Spirit
4 Reach Through Mists
4 Dampen Thought
4 Consuming Vortex
3 Disrupting Shoal
2 Hideous Laughter
2 Rend Flesh
1 Death of a Thousand Stings
9 Island
8 Swamp
4 Watery Grave
1 Duskmantle, House of Shadow
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse |
  Exhibit
Z.
Description of deck by its author (quoted):
One of the things you may not have noticed -
perhaps due to legal blindness or a bad case of the crazies - is that
Zephyr Spirit is a Spirit. Don't think I didn't see your socks getting
knocked off with that revelation, because I did. I know what you're
thinking, “A Spirit, eh? Didn't we just have a whole block centered
around Spirits and their Arcane magic?”
Hey, you're right! Good call. Zephyr Spirit's Spirit-status, combined
with its tendency to be returned to your hand, would be perfect in a
deck with some (non-Anaba) Spiritcraft-ers. That's one drawback out of
the way. What about the fact that it costs six mana? Luckily, Saviors of
Kamigawa brought with it a series of creatures whose Spiritcraft
abilities care about the converted mana cost of the Spirit or Arcane
Spell. I'm talking about the Kirin cycle. Cloudhoof Kirin, in
particular. I can't believe I thought of this crazy combo, after
shamelessly stealing it from Tony Bologna and a character who goes by
the name of Vyolynce in the forums.
With the Cloudhooved one on the board, play your Zephyr Spirit of
Victory and mill six cards off your opponent's deck. If your opponent
foolishly decides to attack you with a non-flying creature, just block
with ol' Zephy and return him or her to your hand. On your next turn,
replay it and mill six more cards! Cloudhoof Kirin is so important to
the deck that four is simply not enough. What could I use to supplement
the Kirin's milling abilities, while still working well with Zephyr
Spirit? How about Circu, Ravnica's favourite back-alley lobotomist? Now
whenever you play big Z, you can mill six cards and remove the top card
of your opponent's library. Kiri-Onna lets you do the same thing,
without being so terrible otherwise. With a Cloudhoof in play, you can
just use the Kiri-Onna's ability to return itself, if you have nothing
better to do, milling five cards in the process. Dimir Infiltrator was a
late addition, but it's a card I love for its versatility. It can block
an early Isamaru, Hound of Konda or Savannah Lions, it can Transmute for
a key card like Dampen Thought, it works well with both Circu and
Cloudhoof Kirin (since it's a Blue and Black Spirit), and it can get in
for some damage if the need arises. I particularly enjoyed the time I
had Circu in play, and I kept bouncing my Infiltrator with Kiri-Onna,
then replaying it, which allows me to return the Kiri-Onna to my hand
only to bounce the Infiltrator back. I got to remove three cards off the
top of my opponent's library per cycle. It's hard to win after you've
been lobotomized so many times. Just ask the Toronto Raptors.
Death of a Thousand Stings could very easily be Petals of Insight. They
are both Arcane spells that can be played repeatedly and they both cost
five mana. I went with Death of a Thousand Stings because it's an
Instant, so I could wait until the opponent's end of turn step to use it
and, hopefully, Splice a Dampen Thought on to it.
The two things that I most enjoyed doing with this deck:
1. Neutralizing Umezawa's Jitte with Zephyr Spirit. The Jitte won't get
counters if the creature wielding it doesn't deal any damage, and the
creature won't deal any damage if it's been blocked but the blocker
isn't around during combat damage. If the creature you block with Zephyr
Spirit has Trample, then this doesn't apply. Your opponent can just
assign all the damage to you.
2. Countering a Keiga, the Tide Star by pitching Zephyr Spirit to
Disrupting Shoal. The look on the face of the opponent that I couldn't
see was priceless. I pretended that he was very embarrassed.
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