Spirit Squadron Upgrade Guide

spirit squadron edh commander upgrade

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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!

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!

The Nitpicking Nerds are two Commander-loving best friends who make awesome Youtube videos. Every fiber of their being is committed to helping people power up their decks, gain percentage points, and have more fun playing the best format in the world!

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