Pioneer: Mono Blue Spirits Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

In today's article, we'll talk about Mono Blue Spirits, Pioneer's new Tempo deck, which has been gaining a lot of space in recent months — not only for its value, but also for its ability to handle some archetypes very well within the current Metagame, as well as the addition of great new cards from Crimson Vow and Streets of New Cappena.

Spirits is ideal for that type of player who usually has mastery over a deck, rewarding very well your understanding of your list and of the format as a whole.

This deck follows the perfect concept of Tempo - at the same time as it puts threats on the board by being aggressive, also has several counterspells and some card advantage mechanics inside it - such as, for example, Curious Obsession, which allied with its flying creatures, manages to have a good plan, imposing a clock and dealing with opponents' key cards.

Along with this strategy, it also has a Spirits tribal theme, which brings many aggressive plays with quick finishes. We count on Supreme Phantom to increase the clock, Shacklegeist to favor the Tempo strategy and Rattlechains as protection for your creatures, thus having a very complete strategy even on a monocolored build.

The deck we will be using in this article is the Pioneer Showcase's Winning List on May 7, 2022.

Despite having been considerably Budget, the list has undergone some important changes. In fact, before it was considered as a deck to be built and then changed to its UW or Bant version — but over time, the monocolored strategy has proven itself.

This deck basically has two play lines. One of them is more aggressive, where you will use your flying creatures with as much speed as possible allied to Supreme Phantom, finishing the game quickly while countering your opponent's key spells.

The other plan is more disruptive, where you use your card advantage mechanic with Curious Obsession combined with your spells to always stay ahead in plays and in the race. Key to this strategy are bounce cards, such as Brazen Borrower // Petty Theft. Allied to this, we have on the sideboard cards that protect your creatures, such as Slip Out the Back or Dive Down.

Azorius Control

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To face Azorius Control, we must always prioritize the fastest strategy combined with Curious Obsession. We should avoid going to the late-game, as we have fewer resources. So, we should take advantage of our flash cards, like Rattlechains and Spectral Sailor, making threats on our opponents' turn.

Be cautious with Supreme Verdict, as we can't counter it, so we'll aim to keep a few creatures on board, seeking to deplete their targeted removals.

Post-side, we must improve the tempo strategy. For this, we remove cards that interact badly against Azorius. As it doesn't have creatures we took the Shacklegeist, and Brazen Borrower // Petty Theft is also not very advantageous since Azorius has better card advantage, so we need more resilience.

Some newer versions of the deck run Slip Out the Back, which works very well, as it evades both Supreme Verdict and spot removals, while increasing the power of our creatures.

Mono Green Ramp

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This is a favorable matchup when we can quickly put pressure on the board in a short time, so very reactive hands are not good, as we need to be fast. For that, we only need one or two counters throughout the game, to deal with key cards like Cavalier of Thorns or Elder Gargaroth, which prevent our aggression.

Post-side, we improved our gameplay in this sense. We have increased our interactions against these key cards, being able to always cast Witness Protection on our opponents' mana dorks to prevent them from advancing quickly. In the mid/late game, we use it to disable creatures with reach. Aether Gust has this same purpose, to give us time to win.

Remember to keep an aggressive hand, and mulligan if you don't have quick threats on the early turns.

Rakdos Midrange

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This is a highly interactive game, so your resource management is critical to your success in the game. We shouldn't offer bad trades, taking full advantage of tools like Rattlechains and Mausoleum Wanderer to protect fundamental creatures like Supreme Phantom or some creature enchanted with Curious Obsession.

Remember to counter the opponent's main threats, such as Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, as this is a speed matchup - we can't let the opponent generate too much value, and their can't finish the game before ours if we manage to control them.

Post-side our strategy doesn't change much, and here we still have to improve our resources as much as possible. It's not good to spend our resources on “counter wars” that we're going to lose, so we've reduced our counter mana curve and taken Ascendant Spirit, as we can't invest mana into creatures.

A key card in this game is Faceless Haven — as it becomes our main threat after players' resources are depleted.

Lotus Combo

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This is a game where we must seek victory with speed, avoiding too reactive hands, prioritizing our early drop allied to Supreme Phantom. In this matchup, preventing our opponents' combo for one turn should be enough for our victory.

Post-side, even small creatures have the function of serving as threats, and reactive hands are a sure mulligan. We need to focus more on our speed than stopping our opponent's plans.

If your version has Damping Sphere, it should be enough to buy time for our victory.

Mono Blue Spirits (Mirror)

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In this matchup, whoever becomes the most controlling and most reactive wins, considering that the counterattack is the best way to win.

We should look for more reactive hands, or try to grow our creatures more than our opponents. The Curious Obsession plan becomes quite obsolete, as our opponent has means to block our creatures.

Using Shacklegeist and Brazen Borrower // Petty Theft becomes essential to contain the opponent's plan and go for lethal.

Post-side, we must stick to the plan to disrupt the opponent's play before establishing our board. Note that in all games with the deck we should have a more proactive stance, except on the mirror - because here, whoever tries to be faster is controlled first.

Conclusion

If you have any questions about the deck, I'm available in the comments. Until the next time!