Welcome to the Nitpicking Nerds Precon Upgrade Guide for the Spirit Squadron deck, where we cut the chaff and add synergy, power, and consistency so that this deck can generate a formidable Spirit army!

When upgrading any Commander precon, it’s important to stick pretty closely to this basic checklist:

• Focus on the strengths of your commander.
• Stick to one main strategy to avoid having an unfocused final product.
• Cut the cards that belong to other strategies altogether.
• Increase the deck’s overall power by including win conditions that don’t rely solely on combat.

The Spirit Squadron deck wants to get onto the board early with nontoken Spirits that will reduce the cost of Millicent and connect for even more Spirit tokens, creating a chain that will lead to lethal attacks, especially with pump effects.

Knowing the deck’s strategy, we can now cut some of the cards from this precon that don’t fit our game plan at all.

• The precon has a subtheme of tapping creatures, and that might work as a separate deck, but Spirit tribal has no interest in this, so Rhoda, Geist Avenger, Timin, Youthful Geist, Verity Circle, and Breath of the Sleepless can be cut.
• Kami of the Crescent Moon and Disorder in the Court are decent cards, but serve virtually no purpose for this particular deck.
• Ghostly Prison and Windborn Muse don’t progress our game plan and aren’t very good anyway.

While this is a Spirit tribal deck first and foremost, some of the Spirits in the precon just aren’t at the power level we’re looking for.

• Nebelgast Herald and Shacklegeist belong to this other deck that wants to tap creatures. We’re going to have plenty of chump blockers to deter giant monsters.
• Angel of Flight Alabaster is super slow and isn’t a Spirit.
• Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens is a decent effect, but is just too expensive.

What about other Spirit cards that don’t quite make the cut?

• Haunting Imitation and Custodi Squire are bad cards in our opinion, and we’re going to avoid them.
• Geist of Saint Traft has no evasion and we can’t reliably protect him enough.
• Custodi Soulbinders and Promise of Bunrei make Spirit tokens at a rate slightly below what we can make with the upgrades we’ll be adding.

Next on the chopping block are ramp, removal, and card draw.

• Sky Diamond, Marble Diamond, Boreas Charger, Commander’s Sphere, and Azorius Locket are below par for ramp, and Knight of the White Orchid was cut in favor of more Spirits, but is a decent card. Sudden Salvation can serve as ramp or board wipe protection in some scenarios, but is too clunky either way.
• Crush Contraband falls off when your budget increases, so we don’t need it. Flood of Tears actively works against our token strategy, so that should go. Fell the Mighty is a terrible board wipe, since you can’t always hit everything you want, and it can be fizzled by removal. Kirtar’s Wrath does offer Spirit tokens, but we can do better.
• Distant Melody is fine, but nowhere near as efficient as other card draw payoffs for having Spirits.

The last thing to look at is the lands, and we have trimmed quite a few of them.

• Unclaimed Territory is a classic trap in tribal precon decks; sure it colorfixes for Spirits, but there are literally dozens of dual lands that do that for every spell we cast. The tribal payoff isn’t enough to make this playable.
• Temple of the False God is a classic Commander relic of old times and doesn’t cut it anymore due to its unreliability.
• Azorius Chancery has no synergy and enters tapped, so it can be cut.
• We also cut four Plains and three Islands!

Now that we’ve freed up 39 slots in the deck, we can fill them with strong Spirits that fit our game plan, awesome card draw, and reliable board state protection!

The first and most exciting additions will come in the form of Spirits and tribal synergies.

• Lantern Bearer, Topplegeist, Lantern Kami, and Mausoleum Wanderer might look terrible, but they’re all extremely cheap Spirits that will be crucial for getting on the board quickly and powering out Millicent, which will allow more Spirit tokens to be made that same turn when these tiny dorks connect.
• Skyclave Apparition, Spectral Adversary, Cemetery Protector, Selfless Spirit, and Mirrorhall Mimic are effective sources of removal, card draw, and advantage that all have the Spirit type.
• Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr, along with Urza’s Incubator and Kindred Discovery, help tie things together and pay off our Spirits. Kindred Discovery might be the best card in this deck, and will easily draw almost your entire deck if left unchecked.

Let’s see how much the ramp, removal, and card draw can really be improved.

• Bident of Thassa and Reconnaissance Mission will keep your hand full at all times, and provide even more incentive to pack this deck full of tiny Lantern Bearers. Skullclamp will be a well of almost infinite card draw, since this deck will produce more 1/1 Spirits than it knows what to do with.
• Wayfarer’s Bauble, Mind Stone, and Sword of the Animist help round out the ramp package, and are all much better than the clunky rocks we cut.
• Generous Gift is a catch-all answer, and we can use Fierce Guardianship and Flawless Maneuver to protect our army without investing any mana. Heliod’s Intervention puts Crush Contraband to shame, and Hour of Reckoning and Austere Command serve as board wipes that won’t level our own creatures, unlike the ones we cut.

Since Spirits aren’t the most supported tribe in the world, and we can’t just rely on lords and anthems to close out games, we packed a few win conditions into this deck for more guaranteed wins.

• Doubling our Spirit output with Anointed Procession is going to produce a clock twice as fast, letting us close out games before players get a chance to answer our threats.
• Cathars’ Crusade and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite are going to rack up massive amounts of damage. One attack after landing one of these cards will almost assuredly be lethal damage on at least one opponent.
• Since Millicent has a combat damage trigger to make even more spirits, taking an extra turn will allow for a huge damage boost, and even more Spirits afterwards. Time Warp and its twin brother Temporal Manipulation are going to pull serious weight to help turn a solid turn into a game-ending sequence.

Lastly, we have to make sure to upgrade the land base!

• MDFC lands help us prevent flooding and screw, so we’ve added Sea Gate Restoration, Emeria’s Call, and Kabira Takedown, which are all very powerful and versatile. Never forget about MDFC’s when deckbuilding!
• There’s plenty of dual lands to go around to replace the basic lands in the precon, and we’ve chosen to include Flooded Strand, Sea of Clouds, Hallowed Fountain, Nimbus Maze, Deserted Beach, Irrigated Farmland, and Glacial Fortress. Now, the mana will be much more consistent!

That does it for our Spirit Squadron precon guide! Make these changes, and you’ll have a fully functional tribal deck that will overwhelm your opponents!