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The card I am talking about is Lifespinner. Let's look at the card:

I've decided to analyse all of the colours and see what is available for use in a deck with Lifespinner. I am considering the decks and card choices for Kamigawa Block only, and any mention of sideboards etc. are what I think might be faced in Block with Betrayers in the mix; my predictions may be way off. This article will be written in 3 parts:

1. Small spirits and support cards.
2. Legendary spirits that you can search for.
3. Putting it all together with some deck ideas. I will cover weaknesses of the decks core principles and the specific decks here also.

So for this article, I will go through each colour and determine which spirits will fit with a mana cost of 4 or less, and then support cards of that colour that might help a Lifespinner deck. 4 mana for a creature might be a bit high, but remember that we can't use Lifespinner until the turn after we cast him; we can always cast a creature the next turn (triggering spiritcraft if any is active) and then sacrifice it.

General removal and control tools are being left alone to shorten the article; some brief comments may be made about them in certain colours.

As the deck will need to be green-based, we will start there.

Green Spirits

Dripping-Tongue Zubera - Champions gave us a cycle of spirits that want to be sacrificed. This has good synergy with Lifespinner as it can block and give you an extra turn if you need it while leaving another spirit behind. If you sacrifice more than one Zubera with Lifespinner's ability, you should be well ahead, leaving spirits to search for another legendary spirit.

Burr Grafter - At 4 mana, this guy might be a bit expensive to put in a Lifespinner deck. He could be used to save Lifespinner if you need to, or save whatever you've pulled with Lifespinner, but there are probably better cards for that purpose. Soulshift is definitely a redeeming quality however, and can be used when you sacrifice Burr Grafter to Lifespinner.

Feral Deceiver - Again, at 4 mana, this won't really make the deck as it doesn't really have synergy with what Lifespinner is trying to do.

Hana Kami - At only 1 mana, we have an early spirit. If the deck includes enough arcane spells which support the deck, then Hana Kami should be strong.

Kami of the Hunt - 3 mana for a 2/2 for green is slightly expensive, but the deck is likely to be full of spirits and arcane spells.

Kodama of the South Tree - This guy fits my '4 mana or less' profile, and could also be a target for Lifespinner. With a deck full of spirits/arcane this could be included as a creature we intend to hard cast regularly.

Rootrunner - Rootrunner cost 4, the same as Lifespinner. Again the soulshift is pretty strong. Despite its higher casting cost, it might be considered for this reason. If we have enough spirits to cater for Lifespinner, we can put a land on top of the opponent's library to slow them down while we bring in our legendary spirit.

Soilshaper - We'll be playing lots of spirit spells, it is a shame that the land does not become a spirit.

Child of Thorns - Simple 1/1, not a bad ability. We'd probably rather be sacking him to Lifespinner instead of his own ability, but extra utility is nice.

Gnarled Mass - Simple cheap beatstick. If playing other colours might want to be careful because of the 2 green in its mana cost.

Loam Dweller - A bear with a spiritcraft ability. Unfortunately it does not accelerate us any quicker to a Lifespinner (unless we use a Shoal on 2nd turn after playing this). Still playable.

Petalmane Baku - Same cost as Loam Dweller, with one less power. If we intend to sacrifice this creature to Lifespinner, Loam Dweller is a better choice as we are not going to use this creature's spiritcraft ability much. It could be useful in decks with more than 2 colors, but probably not useful in 2.

Traproot Kami - Defender and may block as though it had flying. Its toughness gets bigger as the game progresses, making it a good blocker if Lifespinner does not show up or is removed before it can be used. It loses potential in multicolour decks. If it dies early and can be soulshifted back it can become a big blocker. Could simply be a sideboard answer vs. green beatdown decks.

Green Support

Commune With Nature - Could be playable to pick out creatures we want, particularly if we want to play with Zuberas, or find the all important Lifespinner.

Dosan the Falling Leaf - Playable against control decks.

Glimpse of Nature - Probably unplayable, we are not likely to play more than one creature per turn.

Honden of Life's Web - The Honden itself has good synergy with Lifespinner, in that it generates spirit tokens which can be sacrificed. Unfortunately at 5 mana, it is too slow to be a major source of help here.

Kodama's Reach - If we are playing multi-colour decks this might be played.

Sakura-Tribe Elder - Same as above.

Enshrined Memories - My brief plays with this card tell me it is not useful unless you are searching for probably 6 or more. This will depend on a decks creature ratio, but by the time we are willing to spend that much mana, our deck should already be 'doing its thing'.

Genju of the Cedars - This is playable for some early beatdown or potential blocker, and unlike Soilshaper the land becomes a spirit, and can be sacrificed to Lifepsinner, and then re-used.

Red Spirits

Brutal Deceiver - Nothing earth shattering here. A 2/2 spirit whose ability we are unlikely to use.

Ember-Fist Zubera - As stated above, this has good synergy with Lifespinner, hopefully we can clear the way for whatever we pull out of our library.

Hearth Kami - This is probably a sideboard option against decks which want to use Champions' various artifacts.

Kami of Fire's Roar - Unplayable in this deck. Some of the other 4-cost creatures are playable only because they have soulshift.

Pain Kami - Not bad, can be sacrificed to Lifespinner and is removal in its own right.

Blademane Baku - With a Lifespinner active, this could be thrown into combat if it has a few ki counters on it. If blocked, stack the damage hopefully killing something, then sacrifice. If not blocked, the opponent can take the damage, and then wait until their end of turn step to sacrifice it to Lifespinner.

Frostling - A 1/1 for 1 mana that can trade with an X/2. Everyone already knows about this guy.

Mannichi, the Fevered Dream - It fits the 4 or less cost profile, but it's ability is pretty useless except in dedicated combos, and we will find stuff with better stats and abilities for the same cost or less.

Red Support

Rather than list them all, reds support would mainly come in the form of burn.

Zo-Zu the Punisher - Depending on the development of the deck and what it wants to do, this could be main or sideboarded. If playing red, it definitely goes in the sideboard vs. Meloku and other Moonfolk strategies.

Aura Barbs - This would be a sideboard card against shrine decks, and at instant speed can take out some of the Genju and deal the controller damage.

Blazing Shoal - Assuming the legendary spirit we retrieve is going to beat down, this is an auto-include. Perhaps not if the deck is more control-ish in nature.

Clash of Realities - I don't really know what to make of this card yet. Its symmetry seems hard to break, but could be used with Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens.

Fumiko the Lowblood - Messing with the opponents combat is good. If we pull out a fattie that can block most things easily (or do nasty things when it does), Fumiko is quite good.

Heartless Hidetsugu - Played against this card at the prerelease, might not fit the deck but is still incredibly powerful, if playing red we are already going to have a burn suite which might simply finish off the opponent after an activation of this at the end of their turn.

White Spirits

Harsh Deceiver - Nothing flash here.

Kabuto Moth - Not really constructed worthy.

Kami of Ancient Law - Creature plus removal, playable.

Lantern Kami - Cheap, its only use would be to sac' to Lifespinner, and if lucky get in a point or 2 before it goes. Probably a dead draw late in the game.

Silent-Chant Zubera - Standard Zubera fare.

Hokori, Dust Drinker - This creature would dictate a lot of other stuff in the deck. It would likely mean the cheapest spirits available, and use Lifespinner to search for something the opponent can't easily deal with.

Kami of False Hope - A fog with a creature attached for only 1 mana. If the deck is controlling, this could be playable as a creature to sacrifice early and use its sacrificing ability later if need be.

Moonlit Strider - I can picture plays with this by sacrificing and soulshifting, but it may not be worth it. If we pull out a big fattie, we might be able to make it essentially unblockable for a turn.

Tallowisp - This might give us some useful enchantments before we throw it to Lifespinner.

Waxmane Baku - I doubt much use would come of its ability. That said if it did stick around for a few turns it could force an attack through.

White Support

Eight-and-a-half Tails - Control element. If we cast him turn 2, we aren't going to have mana for his ability while we cast other spirits. Probably unplayable.

Ghostly Prison - Stall mechanism, stops Meloku swarms.

Day of Destiny - If we are going to pull out multiple legendary spirits, this might be okay, but probably unplayable.

Genju of the Fields - This guy can control the ground if the deck stalls, and the life gain can help us stay in the game. Of course like all the Genju, it becomes a spirit which can be sacrificed to Lifespinner.

Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo - This guy could help in a more control-ish route.

Shining Shoal - If playing white, this is an auto-include.

Blue Spirits

Callous Deceiver - Nothing special here.

Floating-Dream Zubera - Standard Zubera fare. However, if we sacrifice it to Lifespinner, the card drawing happens first, it would be a shame to draw into the spirits we want to search for.

Guardian of Solitude - Nothing special here.

Kami of Twisted Reflection - Can save Lifespinner if necessary. Probably unplayable though.

River Kaijin - Probably want something better than this.

Wandering Ones - Vanilla 1/1 for 1. Yuck!

Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch - Probably useless in constructed.

Kira, Great Glass-Spinner - This fits the profile of a spirit for 4 or less, but would actually be a great way to help keep our creatures alive, particularly whatever we pull with Lifespinner.

Shimmering Glasskite - This ability is probably not needed; the main creatures of the deck (Lifespinner and whatever we pull) will be the main targets for spells once the opponent knows the deck.

Teardrop Kami - Strictly better than Wandering Ones, but still not a huge ability.

Blue Support

Consuming Vortex along with Hinder and other counters can provide control support.

Gifts Ungiven - This would be dependant on the deck. It might be useful with soulshift.

Meloku the Clouded Mirror - This doesn't have synergy with Lifespinner but is so strong it may be included regardless.

Genju of the Falls - This one has evasion, so should get in for a few hits.

Black Spirits

Ashen-Skin Zubera - I like this one as it can hold your opponent back from playing too many early spells if it will leave them with one or two bombs like Kokusho in their hand, knowing you can sacrifice or block and force them to discard.

Cruel Deceiver - Not too hot for a constructed deck.

Gibbering Kami - Not too bad with evasion and soulshift.

Horobi, Death's Wail - Fits our profile, and can enhance most of the single cost sac spirits... except the black one which is a shame. With enough stuff around though to target creatures, this is probably a no-go.

Kami of the Waning Moon - Too small and doesn't really do a lot for us.

Thief of Hope - Probably the best small critter out of the lot so far, with a decent spiritcraft ability and the ability to soulshift someone back out if he gets killed or sacrificed.

Wicked Akuba - Has the ability to really hurt the opponent, but double black makes it hard to cast early.

Bile Urchin - Can be sacked to Lifespinner or block and make opponent lose 1 life. A bit worse than the others because of lack of flexibility.

Scourge of Numai - Possibly okay, more at home elsewhere.

Yukora, The Prisoner - This creature is excellent, but doesn't really fit the deck, he would be great early but we don't really want him to be taking Lifespinner when he goes.

Black Support

Distress is probably the best control from black, other discards have potential as well.

Devouring Greed - This gives us another outlet for all of our spirits, but it basically 'splits' the deck, taking us away from our intended use of the spirits.

Nezumi Graverobber - Lets you get your spirits out for another go at Lifespinner, unflipped version can keep decks that rely on the graveyard locked out.

Soulless Revival - We are going to have plenty of targets for this, brings back a Lifespinner if killed, can be spliced if we have something else to cast, or could bring back our big creature if we are going to have mana later to hard cast it.

Blessing of Leeches - I thought this had potential for our big creature, but regeneration can easily be trumped. Eradicate, Final Judgement and other remove from game effects, Befoul etc. Unplayable.

Genju of the Fens - A bit more at home in a mono-black deck, still a playable.

Goryo's Vengeance - May have potential with our big creature.

Horobi's Whisper - This might actually be really playable if we have stuff to splice it to. We are going to have creatures in the graveyard, it comes down to whether we want to soulshift them or use them with Horobi's Whisper.

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker - Before beginning this article, this was one of the most exciting options I thought about. Unfortunately while I remembered what this did, I had the casting cost confused with Toshiro's (thinking this cost BB1). At 5 mana, it is probably not cheap enough to fit the deck. At 3 it would have been ideal for when Lifespinner went off, and any of the 1 casting cost sac'-ables become excellent deals. At 5... playable, but does not shine.

Sickening Shoal - Almost an auto-include.

Now don't get me wrong, there is a lot of stuff there that simply won't make a deck when it comes time to build, but I wanted to be thorough in thinking it out, and if you have a small collection it gives you some other options than what might be the 'optimum' creatures/support to include.

So in the next article, I'll look at all the legendary spirit creatures that are on offer, and see what grabs the most attention.

Michael Howell

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