Welcome to another installment of Precon Recon here at Pojo.com, where I look at reconstructed decks and reconstruct them. This Precon Recon ties into another Precon Recon I did, the Power of Prophecy. I decided to do two similar decks, since reader Timothy Liberty originally wanted the Power of Prophecy deck to be standard. In order to maintain the rares of Power of Prophecy, that would not be possible, so I look at this white blue deck from Innistrad and keep it standard instead. For Spectral Legions’ original deck list, be sure to check here:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/productarticle.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/innistrad/intropacks#deck1

Main Deck

60 cards

10 Island
14 Plains

1 Angel of Flight Alabaster
1 Battleground Geist
2 Chapel Geist
2 Doomed Traveler
1 Gallows Warden
1 Geist-Honored Monk
2 Lantern Spirit
2 Mausoleum Guard
3 Moon Heron
2 Spectral Rider
2 Voiceless Spirit

1 Curiosity
2 Divine Favor
1 Ghostly Possession
1 Lifelink
1 Lost in the Mist
2 Midnight Haunting
1 Moment of Heroism
1 Negate
2 Pacifism
2 Rebuke
1 Spirit Mantle
2 Unsummon

I must say that Spectral Legions is one of the best reconstructed decks I have seen in a long time. It I mechanically sound, and functions quite well. There are only a few areas where I questioned what the deck should be doing. The first thing I must say is that I believe for the first time in my Precon Recons, not one single creature will be removed from the original deck list. That’s right! Each and every creature that was placed in this deck has a purpose, and I believe that they should remain in. However, at the end of the article I will offer up some suggestions on things that may be better options for some of those creatures, though not a necessity.

That means that the majority of the pulls comes from the spell side, where I do feel that several things could have been better done. Let me start off with a card that I mentioned in the Power of Prophecy article, Negate. It drives me nuts that with counter spells like Mana Leak and Dissipate that I continue to see Negate in there instead. Negate is limited so much in what you can do, and your limitations are just another advantage an opponent would gain. There is no reason better counter spells should not exist in these decks. 90% of the blue decks the run use counter spells, but the wrong one. So we begin by removing Negate. I also feel that Unsummon is just not the right card in here either, so we will remove that as well, and replace it later on with something so much better. With a certain card from Innistrad that I will get to later, Pacifism just is not worth it, so they should be removed. Lost in the Mist is another counter spell in this deck, ad while it does have a secondary function, its just not worth the mana. Using other counters, you could counter two spells for the price of this one, and even return something to it’s owner’s hand! An obvious removal. I also feel that Divine Favor is just a waste of potential in this deck. And the ghostly Possesion is kinda silly. The creatures in this deck are all about beating down hard and fast, and then they through a card that would really either halt your assault, or stop one of there creatures and yours from really doing anything. Another obvious pull.

That is nine cards out. Like I said, quite simple fixes to this one. For starters, this deck wants to hit hard and fast. Spirits in the truest pass through things that they want to, and Spirit Mantle was a genious card, and to only have one is an insult, please for the love of humanity up this to four! What is better that a creature that has protection from other creatures! It cannot be blocked, and if it blocks something bigger, it will not die! This one should not be a hard choice. Counter spells in blue is just the norm, and Innistrad offered up one of the best, Dissipate. Counter target spell, and then exile it. This is just so nice when something that could have come back no longer can. Four copies. Already that brings us up to seven cards, so what could the last two possibly be? I said they related to pacifism but were from Innistrad. They are none other than the Bonds of Faith. If you put it on a non-human creature, it does the same as Pacifism, but if you were to put it onto one of your humans, it gains +2/+2. And there are some very decent humans in this deck, including on e of the rares, Geist honored Monk.

Now while I said it is not necessary to remove any of the creatures, there are some creatures that may better suit this decks strategy. As I stated, this deck hits hard. So possibly adding in another Battleground Geist instead f a Gallows Warden would pump your creatures further. Fiend Hunter could get rid of a creature that may have landed in your fliers way.

Rare cards that could help out include Divine Reckoning, destroying some of your creatures replace them with spirits anyways, so just choose whatever will help them out the most, and blow up the rest. Mikaeus, the Lunarch is probably the main card I would suggest from the rares though. The fact that he could continue to pump up your spirits is amazing, and definitely worth it in the end. And since he can replenish his counters, its certainly worth using often.

The main thing to remember is to keep the assault up. If even one creature gains the lifelink, it is just beneficial. And since your assault is primarily in the air, they will have to try and muster an attakc force as quick as you are, too bad that some of your blockers dying off only makes your air assault even bigger!

So command your Spectral Legions to a swift and fierce victory!

Until next time, keep safe and keep gaming!