Thought on Deprive? In a deck with an absurdly low curve, it actually seems playable here? I also sort of like Faerie Imposter, just because it's really good with Spellstutter Sprite and it's another card that can do something with Ornithopter. Maybe it's too cute though. Why aren't any of the decks running the cantrips like Gitaxian Probe or Sleight of Hand?
Thought on Deprive? In a deck with an absurdly low curve, it actually seems playable here? I also sort of like Faerie Imposter, just because it's really good with Spellstutter Sprite and it's another card that can do something with Ornithopter. Maybe it's too cute though. Why aren't any of the decks running the cantrips like Gitaxian Probe or Sleight of Hand?
The problem with faerie imposter is that you will inevitably end up in the situation where there is no creature to bounce back when you play it. Same problem I ran into with familiar's ruse. deprive is a card that I have been meaning to try out but never got around too. Seems like it should be really good. And about the cantrips. The deck doesn't need them. We would rather draws cards off the ninja and keep the mana up for counters and such.
Thopter Spy Network - Almost surely too slow for any serious competitive use, it does a nice Bitterblossom impression for more casual variations of the deck. And it draws cards!
Pia and Kiran Nalaar is better. It gives us two chumps/turns or two enablers right away, and allows us to turn ornithopters into shocks.
Artificer's Epiphany is not as good as Thirst for Knowledge. Namely because we don't want to put 4 ornithopters in our deck to ensure we take the conditional draw. More likely ornithopter will be a dead card that we want to toss and thirst simply has better synergy with Snapcaster Mage.
combine these two cards with a singleton familiar's ruse, and we may start to get legitimate value out of ornithopter.
Not sure if this has been mentioned, or if enough lists are still running Higure for it to be worthwhile, but have you considered running nameless inversion as a one or two of tutorable removal spell (with Higure, the Still Wind)? I realize the suggestion isn't going to break the deck but it's the kind of interaction I enjoy and so I thought Id bring it to light (if it hasn't already that is)
Cryptic Command is very valuable. I play UR and still throw two cryptic commands in there.
with the amount of 0 and 1 drops that you have, I think you could get away with 2 Ruse's. Ruse is very nice in the graveyard since you can snap it, return snap caster as part of the cost (thereby reusing him) for the same cost of cryptic.
disrupting shoal is best as a surprise counter. you don't need 3 because you're tossing your card advantage out the window.
I have played with remands and simply found that mana leak does a better job in modern.
as far as your general deck direction, I would suggest that you skip the ornithopters all together and keep your ninja in a faerie shell. You'll want to replay faerie miscreant over and over again. Your deck (ninja decks in general) is a tempo deck, so you want to shape your deck to buy you time as your primary resource. I would fill out all your spell stutter slots, remove ornithopter, add 2 snapcasters, add deck manipulation (a few serum visions, telling time, etc.), a few bounce spells, direct damage (psionic blast), add another mutavault (i have won matches with mutavault armies), and spell snares.
I guess I should have mentioned that it's not my deck, it's just a deck that I happened to see on mtgtop8. I tested it some on Forge and I really like the tempo with which the deck plays. I never felt like I needed more power, and the synergy between NotDH and Familiar's Ruse was nice. I agree with your assessment of the lands. Often I ran into issues where I didn't have double blue for Familiar's Ruse, or I had a Cavern on Faeries but needed to cast a Ninja. Certainly an interesting deck though, with 8 1-drop Faeries and the two most powerful cheap Ninjas. Spellstutter Sprite is excellent in this version of the deck.
I played that list above, changed it to 4 vapor snags in the main, added a clique took out the cavern's and 1 dismember and adjusted the counter spell suite.
I played that list above, changed it to 4 vapor snags in the main, added a clique took out the cavern's and 1 dismember and adjusted the counter spell suite.
I love blue, love tribal creature decks, and this one looks like a lot of fun. How competitive do you see this deck? (GPs? SCGs? IQs?) What matchups gave you the most trouble, and lastly can you post your current deck list?
Stellar logic. All decks that will ever be tier 1 or 2 have already been discovered. Might as well lock up the forum here and stop brewing everyone. Format solved.
4 Faerie Miscreant
3 Mistblade Shinobi
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Zephyr Sprite
2 Dismember
4 Remand
2 Ghost Quarter
16 Island
3 Mutavault
4 Vapor Snag
1 Vendilion Clique
3 Signal Pest
2 Disrupting Shoal
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Quickling
2 Spell Snare
SB: 3 Dispel
SB: 2 Hibernation
SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 2 Negate
SB: 2 Spreading Seas
SB: 1 Batterskull
SB: 1 Spell Pierce
SB: 2 Reality Shift
Decklist ^^^^
Sideboard wise i change it up alot because i havent attended many events with it but I plan on bringing this list to Gp Pittsburgh. The mainboard has a lot of flexibility with clique/quickling as the 1 ofs and sword of fire and ice, or sword of card and adv. as i call it. Went to change the list to 3 signal pest to provide a quicker clock and just having something to do on t1 is a great play, it may go back down to 2 in favor of either another quickling or a unknown 1 of that i have not decided yet.
MATCHUPS
The ones i love seeing...
Jund: Cake walk, havent lost any match vs it yet..like 7-0? Jund wants to take away and gain card adv, by playing remands/ninja of the deep/vapor snag its to much for them to keep up with.
Twin: We are a tempo deck, they are a tempo deck with a combo, we out tempo them 90% of the time. Dont over extend games 2-3 because of anger otherwise should be a breeze.
Elves: On the play this is a fairly easy match like 65/35 remands/vapor snag/spellstutter are your best cards. Also dont be afraid to jam disrpupting shoal on the draw on their t1 play. Sideboard we have hibernation...and other juicy targets.
UWx: Any control decks i find easy as they dont wanna spend resources killing a 1/1 flyer but in the end they have to and by that time im at 20, there at 10 or below and ive developed my board with spellstutters etc.
Affinity: Our flyers are really rough for them, mutavault can block etched champion, ghost quarter there inkmoths, just know what to counter and what counter to use on it.
Tron: Ive actually found tron easy unless they have the nut of t3 karn and fight through remands etc then obviously that what tron does... but sideboard we get spreading seas and negates, watch out for sweepers, dont over-extend.
50/50 Matchups
Burn: We dont have any fetches/shocks so taking life from ourselves never happens (unless dismember) spellstutter counters everything they play as their curve is usually 2. Eidolon is a real beating so that can be hard to comeback from. Games 2/3 should be easy with 3 dispels and batterskull if you get to 5 mana usually seals it up.
Infect: I may say this is more than 50/50 but sometimes they have the nuts of t2 kill or something, otherwise pretty straight forward, bounce their creatures on your turn to avoid getting blown out by protection spells.
Scapeshift: Sometimes they durdle, we have alot of cheap counter magic, dont over-extend because some lists main deck clasm/firespout
Hexproof: Meh boggles are boggles, its essentially a race that you normally wont win game 1...but games 2/3 hibernation can be a blowout, negates are good batterskull can also be good here to race.
Living End: on the play it gets pretty easy, disrupting shoal really helps since we do have some 3 drops to counter their cascade spells. Remand their living ends dont tap out.
Matchups that are tough
Grixis Delver: They basically are a tempo deck with ALOT of 2-1 with electrolyze forked bolt etc. They also play big black zombie fish and tasigur banana man, my brother pilots this deck so ive played against it alot, 30/70 matchup.
Grixis Control: A little more favorable then grixis delver but still rough because of all the removal and Jace/lilly. 40/60
Merfolk: We play islands. 25/75
Zoo: Sometimes they go t1 Nacatal, t2 goyf, turn 3 kotr or some non-sense but its not unbeatable, bouncing with vapor snag and mistblade sets them back if u draw well its easily 50/50. but overall 45/55
Overall this deck is Good, me and my friend are religious legacy players but when we saw this deck had to build it. It can compete, no doubt in my mind. It takes skill to pilot, sometimes you jam the ninja t2 and start drawing. Othertimes you just hold up remand wait for them to play/tap out before its safe. Knowing other decks is really helpful to what they may/have. This is a tempo/aggro deck you want to be aggressive but smart. Knowing tricks like Spellstutter/mutavault is a common occurence. Bouncing my own Spellstutter with vapor snag to counter a twin or another threat has happened multiple times.
Sideboarding is the biggest issue has blue doesnt have the greatest threats/answers. I am looking for a solid finisher as a 1 of either in the sideboard or mainboard. Ive gone 4-0 at FMN and 3-1 so far vs other tiered decks, lots of jund/affinity so... hopefully that meta stays this way.
I played that list above, changed it to 4 vapor snags in the main, added a clique took out the cavern's and 1 dismember and adjusted the counter spell suite.
I love blue, love tribal creature decks, and this one looks like a lot of fun. How competitive do you see this deck? (GPs? SCGs? IQs?) What matchups gave you the most trouble, and lastly can you post your current deck list?
I played that list above, changed it to 4 vapor snags in the main, added a clique took out the cavern's and 1 dismember and adjusted the counter spell suite.
I love blue, love tribal creature decks, and this one looks like a lot of fun. How competitive do you see this deck? (GPs? SCGs? IQs?) What matchups gave you the most trouble, and lastly can you post your current deck list?
Read my last comment, forgot to quote.
Any idea on whether or not aether vial would help this deck improve?
Stellar logic. All decks that will ever be tier 1 or 2 have already been discovered. Might as well lock up the forum here and stop brewing everyone. Format solved.
4 Faerie Miscreant
Living End: on the play it gets pretty easy, disrupting shoal really helps since we do have some 3 drops to counter their cascade spells. Remand their living ends dont tap out.
Why would you counter their Cascade spells? Countering the Cascade spell does absolutely nothing except allow them to play Living End because the trigger of cascade happens upon casting not resolution.
Im saying if all i have is disrupting shoal and a 3 drop ill counter the cascade spell but obviously ill remand the living end.
I too have been experimenting with a ninja/faerie deck. Mine has been mono-blue, which I think is plenty strong enough without needing to splash for black. Mine has a stronger focus on "Faeries" rather than "Ninjas", but here is the deck list that I've been using:
One thing that I love about the interaction of Ninjitsu and Scion of Oona is that Ninjitsu doesn't "target", so it can get around Shroud.
I have tested with Mutavault and it works really well, but I haven't yet bought a playset of my own. I'm going to be experimenting with Faerie Conclave, but I expect that I won't like the coming-into-play-tapped aspect, as well as the two-mana activation cost (whereas Mutavault can "activate" itself). Right not it performs reasonably well with just islands, but I do find myself missing Mutavault.
I could possibly have Mistblade Shinobi replace Faerie Impostor since they both have a 1-mana "bounce" cost, but Imposter pumps up Spellstutter, and Mistblade bounces their creatures. I'm on the fence about this one.
I think I'm going to go +1 NotDH and -1 Mistbind Clique, but I need to get ahold of another Ninja first.
The sideboard isn't fully nailed down, but I think that Remand and possibly Mana Leak / Force Spike would very much be at home in it. Boomerang is such an important card, since it lets us bounce everything from enchantments, to planeswalkers, to lands. It's so incredibly versatile, and the version with Rebecca Guay's artwork is just so beautiful -- it makes my inner Vorthos incredibly happy.
Overall the card that I'm most happy with is Peel from Reality -- that card just pulls so much weight in any matchup against anyone that plays creatures.
Thought on Deprive? In a deck with an absurdly low curve, it actually seems playable here? I also sort of like Faerie Imposter, just because it's really good with Spellstutter Sprite and it's another card that can do something with Ornithopter. Maybe it's too cute though. Why aren't any of the decks running the cantrips like Gitaxian Probe or Sleight of Hand?
The problem with faerie imposter is that you will inevitably end up in the situation where there is no creature to bounce back when you play it. Same problem I ran into with familiar's ruse. deprive is a card that I have been meaning to try out but never got around too. Seems like it should be really good. And about the cantrips. The deck doesn't need them. We would rather draws cards off the ninja and keep the mana up for counters and such.
This is exactly the situation that I've run into with my testing on Faerie Impostor. I'm considering swapping it out in place of Mistblade Shinobi, but otherwise I'm just going to add in a couple of Cloud Sprite to go along with my 4x Faerie Miscreant and 4x Zephyr Sprite. What I've found is that this deck needs fodder creatures to cycle in and out. Otherwise we just really struggle.
I don't "get" the hate on Familiar's Ruse -- as long as you run enough fodder creatures, that card basically feels like a Counterspell with upside. My entire deck feels like it's built around NotDH + Spellstutter + Familiar's Ruse -- that's the power trio right there.
If you're having trouble getting your fodder creatures to "stick" because of removal, I've found Surveilling Sprite to be nicely resilient -- people tend to not want to waste a lightning bolt on it when they know you're going to draw a card.
So far, I think that there are enough 1-drop faeries that we don't need to use Ornithopter, and we really need the fodder creatues to have the Faerie subtype to pump up Spellstutter to at least 2 or 3 faeries on board.
I'm surprised I don't see more people running Peel from Reality in their decks -- that card is straight gas, and always feels like a two-for-one -- especially at instant speed. I used to use a mixture of Vapor Snag and Boomerang, but now I vastly prefer Peel + Boomerang.
Me and my friend are both playing this deck at Gp Pittsburgh, we've gotten a strong following at our local scene as we've made it we feel like tier 2 competitive at least, and being able to beat jund/twin is nice. Affinity is rough because of ornithopter none the less. But heres the list im currently running.
4 Faerie Miscreant
3 Mistblade Shinobi
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Zephyr Sprite
2 Dismember
4 Remand
2 Ghost Quarter
16 Island
3 Mutavault
4 Vapor Snag
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Disrupting Shoal
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Spell Snare
3 Judge's Familiar
1 Skaab Ruinator
SB: 3 Dispel
SB: 2 Hibernation
SB: 3 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 3 Negate
SB: 2 Spreading Seas
SB: 2 Threads of Disloyalty
Me and my friend are both playing this deck at Gp Pittsburgh, we've gotten a strong following at our local scene as we've made it we feel like tier 2 competitive at least, and being able to beat jund/twin is nice. Affinity is rough because of ornithopter none the less. But heres the list im currently running.
4 Faerie Miscreant
3 Mistblade Shinobi
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Zephyr Sprite
2 Dismember
4 Remand
2 Ghost Quarter
16 Island
3 Mutavault
4 Vapor Snag
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Disrupting Shoal
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Spell Snare
3 Judge's Familiar
1 Skaab Ruinator
SB: 3 Dispel
SB: 2 Hibernation
SB: 3 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 3 Negate
SB: 2 Spreading Seas
SB: 2 Threads of Disloyalty
Do you ever feel like there's too much bounce with both 4 vapor snag and 3 mist blade shinobis? It seems like a lot to me.
And about the familiars ruse discussion. The card is fine. And I do love how most of the time it's counterspell with upside. But there are times where is a dead card because I have no creatures. The card really doesn't do much when we are behind and there situations where it is a tempo loss for us to bounce a ninja back to our hand leaving an empty board. I've replaced the ruse with a mix of mana leak, disrupting shoal and spell pierce based on what I think I'm going to see that week.
Regards to the bounce, vapor snag does more than just bounce their creatures, sometimes you use it to bounce a ninja back to your hand during combat to re-ninjustu, or vapor snag spellstutter to counter something. Mistblade sometimes is also the best card in the deck.
Regards to the bounce, vapor snag does more than just bounce their creatures, sometimes you use it to bounce a ninja back to your hand during combat to re-ninjustu, or vapor snag spellstutter to counter something. Mistblade sometimes is also the best card in the deck.
I guess that's why I like Peel from Reality so much -- I feel like it serves both purposes of Vapor Snag, and rarely do I not want both of them at the same time.
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Martyr Proc Thread
Esper Relicblade Thread
Standard:
Mardu Superfriends
Turbofog
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
The problem with faerie imposter is that you will inevitably end up in the situation where there is no creature to bounce back when you play it. Same problem I ran into with familiar's ruse. deprive is a card that I have been meaning to try out but never got around too. Seems like it should be really good. And about the cantrips. The deck doesn't need them. We would rather draws cards off the ninja and keep the mana up for counters and such.
Pia and Kiran Nalaar is better. It gives us two chumps/turns or two enablers right away, and allows us to turn ornithopters into shocks.
Artificer's Epiphany is not as good as Thirst for Knowledge. Namely because we don't want to put 4 ornithopters in our deck to ensure we take the conditional draw. More likely ornithopter will be a dead card that we want to toss and thirst simply has better synergy with Snapcaster Mage.
combine these two cards with a singleton familiar's ruse, and we may start to get legitimate value out of ornithopter.
in addition to ornithopter, you can use engineered explosives to trigger the combo as well.
one of the main problems with this deck in modern is that erayo and ornithopter don't do much as creatures.
the original list used BoP to reduce the amount of lands to 19. you have three less action cards and can't trigger on turn two by avoiding green.
i can't find a stock list here to start building the deck.
So i throw together some parts that may result in a basic starting point
for building the deck:
4 Ornithopter
1 Zephyr Sprite
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
2 Vendilion Clique
3 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Mistbind Clique
3 Disrupting Shoal
2 Repeal
2 Mutavault
17 Islands
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
Some players in my LGS claim that Cryptic Command is a must-include here because
it's the main reason to stay Mono-U.
Also Disrupting Shoal is tough to consider.
Is it a T2 protection for my Ninja or rather be a dead card?
I'm too unsure about the right amount of Remand, Ruse and Shoal.
Have someone an idea in which direction this kind of deck should aim?
Green @ it's best
with the amount of 0 and 1 drops that you have, I think you could get away with 2 Ruse's. Ruse is very nice in the graveyard since you can snap it, return snap caster as part of the cost (thereby reusing him) for the same cost of cryptic.
disrupting shoal is best as a surprise counter. you don't need 3 because you're tossing your card advantage out the window.
I have played with remands and simply found that mana leak does a better job in modern.
as far as your general deck direction, I would suggest that you skip the ornithopters all together and keep your ninja in a faerie shell. You'll want to replay faerie miscreant over and over again. Your deck (ninja decks in general) is a tempo deck, so you want to shape your deck to buy you time as your primary resource. I would fill out all your spell stutter slots, remove ornithopter, add 2 snapcasters, add deck manipulation (a few serum visions, telling time, etc.), a few bounce spells, direct damage (psionic blast), add another mutavault (i have won matches with mutavault armies), and spell snares.
lotta work.
http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=10545&d=260339&f=MO
I love blue, love tribal creature decks, and this one looks like a lot of fun. How competitive do you see this deck? (GPs? SCGs? IQs?) What matchups gave you the most trouble, and lastly can you post your current deck list?
3 Mistblade Shinobi
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Zephyr Sprite
2 Dismember
4 Remand
2 Ghost Quarter
16 Island
3 Mutavault
4 Vapor Snag
1 Vendilion Clique
3 Signal Pest
2 Disrupting Shoal
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Quickling
2 Spell Snare
SB: 3 Dispel
SB: 2 Hibernation
SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 2 Negate
SB: 2 Spreading Seas
SB: 1 Batterskull
SB: 1 Spell Pierce
SB: 2 Reality Shift
Decklist ^^^^
Sideboard wise i change it up alot because i havent attended many events with it but I plan on bringing this list to Gp Pittsburgh. The mainboard has a lot of flexibility with clique/quickling as the 1 ofs and sword of fire and ice, or sword of card and adv. as i call it. Went to change the list to 3 signal pest to provide a quicker clock and just having something to do on t1 is a great play, it may go back down to 2 in favor of either another quickling or a unknown 1 of that i have not decided yet.
MATCHUPS
The ones i love seeing...
Jund: Cake walk, havent lost any match vs it yet..like 7-0? Jund wants to take away and gain card adv, by playing remands/ninja of the deep/vapor snag its to much for them to keep up with.
Twin: We are a tempo deck, they are a tempo deck with a combo, we out tempo them 90% of the time. Dont over extend games 2-3 because of anger otherwise should be a breeze.
Elves: On the play this is a fairly easy match like 65/35 remands/vapor snag/spellstutter are your best cards. Also dont be afraid to jam disrpupting shoal on the draw on their t1 play. Sideboard we have hibernation...and other juicy targets.
UWx: Any control decks i find easy as they dont wanna spend resources killing a 1/1 flyer but in the end they have to and by that time im at 20, there at 10 or below and ive developed my board with spellstutters etc.
Affinity: Our flyers are really rough for them, mutavault can block etched champion, ghost quarter there inkmoths, just know what to counter and what counter to use on it.
Tron: Ive actually found tron easy unless they have the nut of t3 karn and fight through remands etc then obviously that what tron does... but sideboard we get spreading seas and negates, watch out for sweepers, dont over-extend.
50/50 Matchups
Burn: We dont have any fetches/shocks so taking life from ourselves never happens (unless dismember) spellstutter counters everything they play as their curve is usually 2. Eidolon is a real beating so that can be hard to comeback from. Games 2/3 should be easy with 3 dispels and batterskull if you get to 5 mana usually seals it up.
Infect: I may say this is more than 50/50 but sometimes they have the nuts of t2 kill or something, otherwise pretty straight forward, bounce their creatures on your turn to avoid getting blown out by protection spells.
Scapeshift: Sometimes they durdle, we have alot of cheap counter magic, dont over-extend because some lists main deck clasm/firespout
Hexproof: Meh boggles are boggles, its essentially a race that you normally wont win game 1...but games 2/3 hibernation can be a blowout, negates are good batterskull can also be good here to race.
Living End: on the play it gets pretty easy, disrupting shoal really helps since we do have some 3 drops to counter their cascade spells. Remand their living ends dont tap out.
Matchups that are tough
Grixis Delver: They basically are a tempo deck with ALOT of 2-1 with electrolyze forked bolt etc. They also play big black zombie fish and tasigur banana man, my brother pilots this deck so ive played against it alot, 30/70 matchup.
Grixis Control: A little more favorable then grixis delver but still rough because of all the removal and Jace/lilly. 40/60
Merfolk: We play islands. 25/75
Zoo: Sometimes they go t1 Nacatal, t2 goyf, turn 3 kotr or some non-sense but its not unbeatable, bouncing with vapor snag and mistblade sets them back if u draw well its easily 50/50. but overall 45/55
Overall this deck is Good, me and my friend are religious legacy players but when we saw this deck had to build it. It can compete, no doubt in my mind. It takes skill to pilot, sometimes you jam the ninja t2 and start drawing. Othertimes you just hold up remand wait for them to play/tap out before its safe. Knowing other decks is really helpful to what they may/have. This is a tempo/aggro deck you want to be aggressive but smart. Knowing tricks like Spellstutter/mutavault is a common occurence. Bouncing my own Spellstutter with vapor snag to counter a twin or another threat has happened multiple times.
Sideboarding is the biggest issue has blue doesnt have the greatest threats/answers. I am looking for a solid finisher as a 1 of either in the sideboard or mainboard. Ive gone 4-0 at FMN and 3-1 so far vs other tiered decks, lots of jund/affinity so... hopefully that meta stays this way.
Read my last comment, forgot to quote.
Any idea on whether or not aether vial would help this deck improve?
Im saying if all i have is disrupting shoal and a 3 drop ill counter the cascade spell but obviously ill remand the living end.
4x Faerie Miscreant
2x Surveilling Sprite
4x Zephyr Sprite
Countermagic
4x Spellstutter Sprite
4x Familiar's Ruse
Bouncing creatures
2x Faerie Impostor
3x Ninja of the Deep Hours
4x Mistbind Clique
2x Quickling
3x Boomerang
2x Evacuation
4x Peel from Reality
Land
22x Island
1x Boomerang
2x Quickling
4x Scion of Oona
One thing that I love about the interaction of Ninjitsu and Scion of Oona is that Ninjitsu doesn't "target", so it can get around Shroud.
I have tested with Mutavault and it works really well, but I haven't yet bought a playset of my own. I'm going to be experimenting with Faerie Conclave, but I expect that I won't like the coming-into-play-tapped aspect, as well as the two-mana activation cost (whereas Mutavault can "activate" itself). Right not it performs reasonably well with just islands, but I do find myself missing Mutavault.
I could possibly have Mistblade Shinobi replace Faerie Impostor since they both have a 1-mana "bounce" cost, but Imposter pumps up Spellstutter, and Mistblade bounces their creatures. I'm on the fence about this one.
I think I'm going to go +1 NotDH and -1 Mistbind Clique, but I need to get ahold of another Ninja first.
The sideboard isn't fully nailed down, but I think that Remand and possibly Mana Leak / Force Spike would very much be at home in it. Boomerang is such an important card, since it lets us bounce everything from enchantments, to planeswalkers, to lands. It's so incredibly versatile, and the version with Rebecca Guay's artwork is just so beautiful -- it makes my inner Vorthos incredibly happy.
Overall the card that I'm most happy with is Peel from Reality -- that card just pulls so much weight in any matchup against anyone that plays creatures.
This is exactly the situation that I've run into with my testing on Faerie Impostor. I'm considering swapping it out in place of Mistblade Shinobi, but otherwise I'm just going to add in a couple of Cloud Sprite to go along with my 4x Faerie Miscreant and 4x Zephyr Sprite. What I've found is that this deck needs fodder creatures to cycle in and out. Otherwise we just really struggle.
I don't "get" the hate on Familiar's Ruse -- as long as you run enough fodder creatures, that card basically feels like a Counterspell with upside. My entire deck feels like it's built around NotDH + Spellstutter + Familiar's Ruse -- that's the power trio right there.
If you're having trouble getting your fodder creatures to "stick" because of removal, I've found Surveilling Sprite to be nicely resilient -- people tend to not want to waste a lightning bolt on it when they know you're going to draw a card.
So far, I think that there are enough 1-drop faeries that we don't need to use Ornithopter, and we really need the fodder creatues to have the Faerie subtype to pump up Spellstutter to at least 2 or 3 faeries on board.
I also just realized that Ornithopter + Ninja of the Deep Hours is a really nice way to get around an opponent who has you locked down with Ensnaring Bridge.
4 Faerie Miscreant
3 Mistblade Shinobi
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Zephyr Sprite
2 Dismember
4 Remand
2 Ghost Quarter
16 Island
3 Mutavault
4 Vapor Snag
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Disrupting Shoal
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Spell Snare
3 Judge's Familiar
1 Skaab Ruinator
SB: 3 Dispel
SB: 2 Hibernation
SB: 3 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 3 Negate
SB: 2 Spreading Seas
SB: 2 Threads of Disloyalty
Do you ever feel like there's too much bounce with both 4 vapor snag and 3 mist blade shinobis? It seems like a lot to me.
And about the familiars ruse discussion. The card is fine. And I do love how most of the time it's counterspell with upside. But there are times where is a dead card because I have no creatures. The card really doesn't do much when we are behind and there situations where it is a tempo loss for us to bounce a ninja back to our hand leaving an empty board. I've replaced the ruse with a mix of mana leak, disrupting shoal and spell pierce based on what I think I'm going to see that week.
I guess that's why I like Peel from Reality so much -- I feel like it serves both purposes of Vapor Snag, and rarely do I not want both of them at the same time.