Spiritdancing

[Silentwolfe94]

How do people feel about Kor Spiritdancer/Mesa Entrantress strategies post M12?

[Magus Jr]

I think you have many better options in M12.

[TribalElfMage]

Angel's Destiny. Enough said.

[WaterSilver]

Aura's tend to be a bad strategy in general. They are the worst type of card.

[TribalElfMage]

Which is why Angel's Destiny will most likely inspire people to look into Spiritdancing as a deck again: T1 Birds, T2 Spiritdancer, T3 Angel's Destiny. You now have a 6/6 flying, first striking Angel on the third turn of the game, almost as good as Caw-Blade's Mystic into Batterskull play. Even better, when the creature dies, Angel's Destiny returns to your hand. Will an Aura-heavy deck be Tier 1? No, but it's an interesting rogue option that I'm sure many people will try out

[Dream Theater]

Spellskite

...nuff said.

Dismember

...nuff said.

*Name your Counterspell*

...nuff said.

Bottom line is auras are inconsistent and easier to deal with than equipments or any other kind of buff. I would much rather have Puresteel Paladin + any equipment than spiritdancer and auras.

[WaterSilver]

The problem with Auras is that if your creature target gets removed in response to casting an Aura, you get 2 for 1'ed. Angelic Destiny doesn't fix that. Bottom line: Auras still suck.

[justactcasual]

Yeah, Spellskite is a pretty awesome response to Spiritdancer.

Heck, Shock leaves you up 6 mana and a card.

[Matteycat]

Yeah I would agree with most of what those on this thread have already mentioned. Bottom line: if Wizards wants Aura's to be constructed playable they are going to have to try MUCH harder than Angelic Destiny. If Angelic Destiny were just a bit more resilient, and there were a couple more aura's like it, then maybe there would be a deck. But as of now I would say it's a no go.

[hotsauce]

I am a huge fan of those types of decks, and have been playing them on and off since Urza's block, when they first got major support.

I even have a solid casual build together now that combines the Spiritdancer and Enchantress with Sigil of the Empty Throne and a bunch of various auras (basically cheap umbras and removal in the form of Pacifism and o-ring). I have played that build against modern Standard decks and can say that it is certainly "FNM good", but nowhere close to being a tier 1 or tier 2 deck.

IMO there are really two things holding it back, at least relative to the old Urza block era versions I ran:

1. No Rancor or Ancestral Mask, or anything on par with that when it comes to pushing through massive damage. Maybe Angelic Destiny steps into this void, but I suspect that it is too slow to do it alone.

2. A lack of explosive mana options. Back in the day the enchantress decks were able to build huge mana advantages through cards like Exploration, Wild Growth, and Fertile Ground (not to mention Serra's Sanctum and Gaea's Cradle)...and then use that mana advantage to use all of those extra cards drawn with the enchantress effects. In the modern builds the mana ramp is limited, and often you get stuck playing 1 or 2 cards a turn, not really capitalizing enough on your card advantage engines.