Here’s a sweet little deck that recently performed well at a SCG Standard Open:

UW “Spirits” Standard Format Creatures:29 3 Bygone Bishop 4 Eldrazi Skyspawner 3 Hanweir Militia Captain 4 Knight of the White Orchid 4 Rattlechains 3 Reflector Mage 4 Thraben Inspector 1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit 3 Archangel Avacyn Instants:2 2 Ojutai’s Command Enchantments:3 3 Stasis Snare Planeswalkers: 3 3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Lands: 23 12 Plains 2 Meandering River 4 Port Town 4 Prairie Stream 1 Westvale Abbey Sideboard: 3 Archangel of Tithes 1 Felidar Cub 1 Reflector Mage 1 Stratus Dancer 3 Negate 1 Ojutai’s Command 2 Secure the Wastes 1 Archangel Avacyn 2 Declaration in Stone

 

This is definitely a nice twist on the white weenie aggro-style deck. We get the blue splash for some instant-speed Rattlechains that can also come down later in the game to protect our Bygone Bishop from targeted removal and give us a clue token. This is particularly good with Ojutai’s Command as well later on.

Creature types matter, sometimes

Anafenza is also a spirit that can benefit from Rattlechains’ ability.  It’s only a one-of so we won’t be drawing it much. It’s almost a shame there are not many other spirits to toss in here, but that may change with the release of Eldritch Moon. We aslo get Archangel Avacyn as a bonus flash creature (no need to sing her praises over and over). The other creatures in the deck provide us some nice card advantage in their various ways:

Knight of the White Orchid can get us a Prairie Stream if we need that blue mana early on.

Eldrazi Skyspawner can allow us to get a turn 4 end-of-turn Avacyn or barring that play, can allow us to flip her when we want to.

Militia Captain just churns out tokens, ideally.

Thraben Inspector or as we commonly call him “Freddy Spaghetti” gives us that little bit of early aggro and mid-to-late game card advantage. It’s almost a sham there isn’t a copy of Kytheon in this build as he can be a pretty sweet Ojutai’s Command target (assuming we get to trigger his ‘turn into a planeswalker’ clause on our turn.

Bygone Bishop, like Thraben Inspector allows us to crack some clues all the while being a decent-ish attacker.

Finally, Reflector Mage is, well…just really really good (as seen in decks like Bant Company/Humans) even at non-flash speed.

Bouncy bouncy

 

The removal package is rather simple: Counter or exile anything relatively huge/threatening at instant speed. Get that Avacyn, Kalitas, World Breaker, Dragonlord Ojutai and even Ulamog.

In the sideboard we hiave some Archangel of Tithes to slow down the more aggressive decks or tokens strategies as well as Secure the Wastes for a nice end of turn threat. The Negates come in versus some of the more controlish decks or maybe even versus Collected Company decks.

Still a damn fine card

With nothing major really rotating (ok, so Ojutai’s Command leaving in October is a downer), the shell may very well be viable post-rotation as well. So, gather your cards, sleeve it up and give it a whirl at your local gaming store or even your next Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier.