How to Play Inspirit Flagship Vessel Commander Deck in Magic: The Gathering

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Inspirit, Flagship Vessel is the main figurehead of the Magic: The Gathering’s Counter Intelligence preconstructed Commander deck. Like many recent pre-made decks, Counter Intelligence works well straight out of the box, and Inspirit is a solid commander choice. However, Inspirit shines brightest when used to lead a unique Commander deck rather than just in the Counter Intelligence setup.

An Inspirit, Flagship Vessel commander deck primarily focuses on artifacts, especially supporting those that benefit from charge counters. The best color combination for this theme is Jeskai—blue, red, and white—because it allows you to include all the top support cards needed to build a powerful and competitive Commander deck.

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### Decklist
The deck includes 30 creatures, five sorceries, eight instants, 19 artifacts, three enchantments, and 34 lands. Most creatures are artifact creatures, and the non-creature spells mainly support proliferating counters or interacting with opponents.

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### Key Cards

#### Inspirit, Flagship Vessel
Inspirit is a spacecraft that you want to quickly fill with eight charge counters. Once it reaches this maximum, it protects all your other artifacts, forcing opponents to deal with Inspirit before attacking your other permanents. It’s important to note that Inspirit grants hexproof and indestructible only to other artifacts—not to itself, meaning it can still be targeted and destroyed. If Inspirit is removed, it’s fairly easy to reassemble with additional charge counters. Because you can only tap one creature at a time to place charge counters, having a creature with high power, like an 8/8, allows you to instantly activate Inspirit’s full potential.

#### Lux Artillery
While Lux Artillery can give your artifact creatures sunburst—adding counters when they enter the battlefield—its real strength lies in its ability to deal 10 damage to all opponents at the end of each turn. To activate this effect, you need to spread 30 counters among your permanents, which the deck facilitates with cards that allow you to put counters on multiple permanents easily. As a result, without opponents removing it or gaining life, you can use Lux Artillery to gradually burn all opponents out over a few turns.

#### Alibou, Ancient Witness
Alibou supports artifact strategies by giving your artifact creatures haste and dealing additional burn damage. Since you will be attacking with many artifact creatures, Alibou’s ability allows you to match a high X-value for dealing massive damage and helps you scry cards from the top of your library. A key tip is to tap artifact lands before regular lands if Alibou is on the battlefield, because they count toward its effect. It’s important to note that Alibou’s effect triggers even if it doesn’t attack itself—attacking with at least one artifact creature is enough. It also affects all tapped artifacts you control, including artifact lands and mana rocks, adding to its power.

#### Simulacrum Synthesizer
This card is a research staple in artifact decks, including Inspirit-based ones. It helps flood the battlefield with large artifact creatures by letting you put artifacts—costing three or more mana—directly onto the battlefield. The effect is triggered just by entering the battlefield, not necessarily being cast, which means you can play artifacts directly from your hand or other ways, and gain a creature token as a bonus. This helps ramp up your board presence significantly.

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### How To Play The Deck

#### General Game Plan
The main goal is to get as many artifacts onto the battlefield as possible, while quickly filling Inspirit with charge counters to activate its protective abilities. Once your artifacts are in play, you can boost them with various counters using permanents like Tezzeret’s Gambit, Inexorable Tide, or Kilo, Apogee Mind—spreading counters easily through your deck. It’s best to build up multiple counters before proliferating.

Since Jeskai isn’t naturally fast for ramp, most of the deck relies on artifacts to reduce mana costs and get ahead. Cards like Enthusiast Mechanist, Etherium Sculptor, and Foundry Inspector help discount the cost of your artifacts, letting you cast them more quickly and get your board developed.

Initially, the deck develops slowly—focusing on setting up your battlefield rather than rushing to play big creatures. Once established, it can snowball and secure victory through overwhelming combat, burn damage, or alternative win conditions.

#### Win Conditions And Flaws
Winning largely comes through combat by making your artifact creatures powerful enough to attack directly to drain your opponents’ life totals. Alternatively, you can win with the Darksteel Reactor, which needs 20 or more charge counters during your upkeep. You can also secure victory through burn damage with Alibou, Ancient Witness, or Lux Artillery, which complements your combat strategy.

A major drawback is the deck’s speed; Jeskai is a slow color combination and might leave you vulnerable early on. You’ll typically have a weaker defense in the opening turns, making it hard to block against aggressive decks. However, the deck’s late-game can be very explosive, allowing you to stabilize quickly and come out on top—especially against slower opponents. Surviving the early game is crucial for your combination of setup and powerful finish.