While it’s a decent deck right out of the box, there’s still plenty of room for improvement in the new Lorehold Spirit precon deck. The deck’s unique blend of Boros Tokens with graveyard elements is dampened by some low-synergy cards, and others just aren’t efficient enough for today’s game. By cutting these cards for better options, you can make it a much richer deck to play, and maybe even bump it up a bracket. If you’re planning to pick up Lorehold Spirit when the set releases this Friday, then consider grabbing these MTG upgrades as well.
Spiritual Synergy
The first step towards making Lorehold Spirit a better deck is to trim the cards that don’t synergize with its core game plan. Thanks to Quintorius, History Chaser, this is a deck that wants to lean into ‘cards leaving your graveyard’ synergies and some light Spirit Typal.
With this in mind, newcomer Fateful Tempest is a pretty generic and underwhelming draw spell in the starting deck. While it’s a fun political card, it effectively offers nothing on the synergy front. Swapping that out for Will of the Jeskai will give you better, more reliable draw and extra graveyard synergy to boot.
As for the deck’s suite of reprints, both Balefire Liege and Kami of Ancient Law are easy cuts here. For its mana cost, Liege feels very underwhelming, even with its relevant Spirit typing. Bringing in Warstorm Surge or Terror of the Peaks instead will let you take advantage of all the Spirit tokens you’re producing much more effectively. Kami, meanwhile, offers decent removal on a relevant body, but not much else. Something like Banon, the Returners’ Leader would be preferable in this slot, letting you make better use of Quintorius’ ability.
While they’re both fairly popular cards, notable reprints Secret Rendezvous and Bitterthorn, Nissa’s Animus are weak fits in this deck. Rendezvous just isn’t the best card draw you could be playing, especially in a deck that wants cards in its graveyard this badly. Instead, something like Cathartic Reunion or the new Ark of Hunger will give you more synergy. While it may feel odd to sub out Bitterthorn given its $20 price tag, it’s a pretty slow ramp piece overall. A card that supports your graveyard synergy, like Bag of Holding or Lion Sash, would be a better pick in this slot.
Upping The Power
Once you’ve weeded out the cards that don’t support your game plan, you’ll want to sub out cards that just aren’t very good on-rate. As you’d expect from a precon, there are plenty of sub-optimal cards here that can easily be switched for higher-power versions.
The board wipe suite here is in particular need of attention, with Wave of Reckoning and Tragic Arrogance both feeling fairly weak. Instead, Blasphemous Act and Vanquish the Horde are reliable options, great in general but also capable of scaling with your Spirits in a pinch. Alternatively, you can get funkier and bring in Crisis of Conscience, a white wipe that leaves your Spirit army intact.
Some of the deck’s discard synergy is lacking as well, with Naktamun Lorespinner and Seize the Spoils both being underwhelming on rate. Cutting these and bringing in higher-impact options like Cool but Rude or Joshua, Phoenix’s Dominant is likely a good move. If you expand the discard suite this way, Library of Leng is a great addition for extra Spirit tokens.
There’s also a ‘ramp from behind’ sub-theme in Lorehold Spirit that feels a bit undercooked, using cards like Claim Jumper, Archaeomancer’s Map, and Lotus Field. While this can work in some cases, it feels unreliable as-is. Some more traditional artifact-based ramp, like Talisman of Conviction and Boros Signet, will likely serve you better overall.
In terms of the deck’s mana base, Study Hall is the one major miss, and can easily be switched out for a better utility land. Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance is an ideal pick, offering an untapped red source as well as Spirit and discard synergy. Alternatively, Abandoned Air Temple is a nice additional finisher, capable of buffing a wide board of Spirits for a lethal swing.
The Next Level
If you want to push Lorehold Spirit even further, investing in some pricey staples and combo enablers is a great way to do so. As long as you don’t mind making the deck bracket three, it can make excellent use of cards on the Game Changers list.
Underworld Breach is the first obvious choice, giving you two Spirits for each spell cast from the ‘yard. You can easily swap this in for one of the weaker synergy pieces in the deck, like Relic Retriever or Kirol, History Buff. This plays well with all the discarding the deck wants to do, but it also opens up combo lines with Altar of Dementia and a zero-mana artifact like Mishra’s Bauble. If you want to pursue this combo plan, Perpetual Timepiece is an easy swap-out for Altar, and something clunky like Squee, Goblin Nabob can be cut for Bauble.
Altar of Dementia also unlocks additional combo wins with Karmic Guide if you throw in Reveillark, and with Sun Titan and either Gift of Immortality or Angelic Renewal. Again, these are easy cards to swap in, with Reveillark replacing the much weaker Primary Research. Gift of Immortality, similarly, can replace the solid-but-generic Drumbellower.
As for other great Game Changer options, Gamble is an easy sub for Venerable Warsinger, given how much the deck loves discarding. Teferi’s Protection is also great for keeping your Spirit army around, and can replace Augusta, Order Returned without much trouble.
Smothering Tithe is also just generically great, and an easy replacement for Monologue Tax if you have the budget. Finally, if you really want to splash the cash, original Wheel of Fortune is one of the best upgrades you can make here at around $340. While it’s expensive, it’ll fill its role infinitely better than its new retrain Naktamun Lorespinner, so that’s a simple swap to make.
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