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I realise this post might be broad, but I’m struggling to find cards to beat an Aggro spirit deck. I’m playing green tron and my opponent has a spirit deck which with the flyers is taking me down too much by the time I get my tron lands down.

Are there any modern cards that will help destroy a spirit deck aiming to get many Spirits down which boost each other?

Or if Tron isn’t the right deck, what decks work well vs a spirit deck?

My deck is as follows

Lands

Artifacts

Planeswalker

Sorceries

Instants

Creatures

Sideboard

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  • By the way, I recently put in the instances to try slow him down Dec 13, 2018 at 21:30
  • Best of three normally, we do sideboard.. but I hardly sideboard because I don’t have anything in my side board to help me out vs his spirits.. I’ll add my sideboard to the list Dec 13, 2018 at 21:35
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    Without knowing much about deck building, my immediate thought was Hurricane.
    – Arthur
    Dec 13, 2018 at 23:13
  • Closest modern legal card I can think of is scapeshift, but at 4 times the cost may not be worthwhile
    – Andrew
    Dec 14, 2018 at 16:21
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    Mana Vault isn't legal in anything but Vintage and Commander. If you're playing Vintage, your deck is missing some power 9
    – Zags
    Dec 14, 2018 at 19:50

2 Answers 2

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Disclaimer: not an expert on Modern. The following comes from my understanding of other formats & my reading of Modern strategy articles.

As Hall-of-Famer Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa wrote, Tron is slightly favoured against spirits, especially pre-board. However, your build of Tron is subpar because your payoff cards are less than ideal. Cards like It That Betrays cost so much mana to cast, doesn't immediately impact the board, and even if you survive to attack with it, you might not win (opponent can sacrifice 2 lands and swing back for lethal). You're also running cards like Nature's Claim in the maindeck, which is completely dead against spirits (this is the reason why Nature's Claim is a sideboard card: it's dead against too many strategies; you only bring it in when it's good). As a result, a complete answer would be very big indeed since it'd involve a complete rebuilding of your deck. I'll refer you instead to these two primers on G/X Tron and Eldrazi Tron on MTG Salvation. Note they are different decks and play out differently - you should choose one and build that way, not try to be both.

For cards themselves I'll mention only these, because they're the most critical to the matchup when both decks are well-built.

Oblivion Stone: I see you're already running four, so you should know how good they are.

Wurmcoil Engine: gaining 6 life means they can't kill you, and it's too powerful for them to trade with. They basically need to have Path to Exile or lose.

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon: Ugin's second ability is a one-sided sweeper against Spirits.

Walking Ballista: this lets you snipe off all their X/1's easily and still maybe have a body left over. Remember it also instantly kills Phantasmal Image.

Edit: remembered that spirits runs Aether Vial, so maindeck Nature's Claim aren't dead. However, it's still not worth it. They will have hands which don't contain Vial, and it's not like you auto-win if they don't have Vial either. Nature's Claim is for fighting the likes of Stony Silence (which, if it resolves, almost paralyzes you) and Affinty; the sideboard is the place for these narrow hate cards, not the maindeck.

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  • Thanks Allure, I don't think I'm far off the G/X Tron I have all the Core cards except for Karn Liberated. I'll get rid of It That Betrays and put some wurmcoil Engine and Walking blister in.. Some great directions to go with there thank you! Dec 14, 2018 at 10:13
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Two cards you are already running 1x that you may want more of vs Spirits in particular:

Other cards that often show up in Tron that you may want to consider:

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  • I don't think aggro spirits is Faeries. Aggro spirits is spirits: it uses cards like Selfless Spirit, Drogskul Captain, Supreme Phantom, Geist of Saint Traft ...
    – Allure
    Jan 2, 2019 at 22:13

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