I don't know how relevant the deck is anymore, but I stumbled across this deck and I really really like the way it plays from what I've seen.
I thought up a variant list that doesn't use delver (because returning a delver to my hand imo is the opposite of value and this deck plays off of gaining value from your cards) and rides more on the faeries side of things, and includes the new faerie from origins:
In testing, returning and replaying Faerie Miscreant is incredible for draw power outside of using ninja of the deep hours. Not to mention it also makes our Spellstutter Sprites much more useful in the main rather than the sideboard. Sleight of Hand imo is also better here since we don't have delvers and we aren't trying to set up to flip them.
Sideboard i'm unsure of, but i'd feel comfortable using a package like this:
I feel like the sideboard is very meta dependent if you're trying to play competitively, but I feel the vedalken shackles and grafdigger's cage, as well as extra counters with spell pierce and remand provide something in any meta that would allow you to go in blind and still have a little bit of an advantage.
(plus grafdigger's cage is pretty good knowing what decks are becoming popular in modern with Collected Company and Goryo's Vengeance running around, even though it shuts off our snapcaster mages. This makes it a bit easier for us to side in straight control magic in snapcaster's spot instead when siding in cage)
I really like the control aspect this deck brings along with a rogue style that people might not exactly expect. Plus, it allows me to play some of my favorite cards in magic and I can't say I dislike that.
One of this decks biggest strengths is being mono-colored because your manabase isn't painful at all. I think Ojutai fits much more naturally into a UW shell, but not so much here.
I originally posted this in the budget thread. I'll post it here simply for sake of trying to move ahead the archetype for anyone who is interested in seeing another take.
So this is my updated list. I play tested this for a few hours a day across three days so not super significant. I played against Merfolk, Grixis control, Burn, etc. I'll only post the worthwhile matches.
vs. Merfolk 0-2
This match up was actually really hard because I hadn't built my sideboard yet. I tried Spell Snare but their own counters plus AEthervial made that obsolete really fast. I've since added Steel Sabotage for Tron and Affinity but it could have been helpful here to **** with the AEthervial. I added Skaab Ruinator to the deck as well and that could have helped as well because Merfolk get kind of big. Judge's Familiar is really bad here because they mostly just dump creatures.
vs. Grixis 1-2
I guess this was a standard non-Delver, non-Twin list. If it wasn't then I didn't see anything to indicate otherwise. I also lost this matchup. It was really close though and I felt like I had the game well in hand all three matches until he managed to get rid of all my creatures with an Angler on board and started drawing tons of lands (even though there are only 20 in the deck). Skaab Ruinator is awesome because you can cast it out of the board so its a safe discard to Kolaghan's Command. Its a good defensive creature as well and of course, its offense is stellar if you can protect it. This matchup showed me just how bad Judge's Familiar is though because they basically played nothing relevant until they could pay for the Judge's tax. However, Boomerang and Vapor Snag are funny against Delve creatures because then they have to pay full price and occasionally just get stuck in their hand. Other than that, there's nothing all that great in the board for this matchup but it is the reason I decided to switch Favorable Winds out for Military Intelligence and Judge's Familiar out for Quickling. I will admit, Quickling can make things very awkward but it has two major benefits. 1) Saves your doods from spot removal, like a counter, or it can save slightly more valuable creatures (I'm looking at your Delver) from sweepers. 2) He puts Spellstutter Sprite in 3cmc range without a Faerie Conclave/multiples of Miscreant or previously used Sprites. He would have also been awesome to save chumps against Gurmag.
vs. Burn 2-0
Btw, this deck has an awesome matchup against Burn because Spellstutter Sprite is good by itself against 1cmc spells (of which burn plays a lot) and with Faerie Miscreant for 2cmc spells. Heck, even Faerie Conclave and Quickening help that out as well. Then you throw in Vapor Snag on their Swiftspears and Guides. Mana Leak and Ruse are always good too. Quickling can save your doods from their removal as well. Its really ridiculous. Out of the board Monastery Siege naming Dragons is brutal. It pretty much shuts them down right there. I mean they have creatures but we have ways of dealing with those.
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vs. Living End 1-2
I just played against Living End. I won the first match fairly easily and should have won the next two but lost due to misplays. The first misplay was countering his Cascade spell. I didn't realize that merely casting the spell triggered Cascade even if the spell didn't resolve. I managed to counter the Living End but he played a red spell that redirects the target of my counter to it. If I hadn't countered his Cascade spell I would have had enough mana to play a second counter and prevent Living End from going off. The second game I played I lost due to another misplay. On my turn he cast Jund Charm to kill a flipped Delver and a Faerie Miscreant. I used Familiar's Ruse to counter it and bounce the Miscreant. During my after combat Main Phase I recast the Miscreant leaving me with 1 open mana (4 - 2 for Ruse -1 for Miscreant). What I should have done was hold up my mana with Spellstutter Sprite in hand to counter Living End (which costs 0 mana and thus is counterable with Sprite even with no other Faeries on board). That said I think even with GY hate we have an awesome matchup against Living End. The list I'm running has 12 Counters capable of stopping Living End. Even if they get to the point where they start hard casting their creatures Vapor Snag REALLY hurt their tempo and bringing in more Boomerangs from the board helps that even more but is truly unnecessary because it hurts the rest of our game but it would be an easy swap for Military Intelligence.
vs. Grixis Control 0-2
This time around was pretty much a massacre. He literally had an answer to everything I tried to do. There were times when he would Bolt Delver, I would counter with Quickling, he would counter Quickling, and then I would counter with Remand, and he would counter my Remand... That went on for two full games. Vapor Snagging an Angler or Tasigur is still good because they occasionally get stuck in their hand. I think I need something stronger in the side to improve this matchup but the only things I can think of requires a Red or White splash.
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I went with Telling Time still over Serum Visions because I find that its better at flipping Delver and its instant speed. I still like Skaab Ruinator over 1 Ninja. I like the Ninja's enough but they are easily the first creature I would cut if something better came along. Familiar's Ruse rebuys Snapcaster and Faerie Miscreant. Faerie Miscreant is on the chopping block though for two reasons. 1) Its slow. 2) Its tribal mattered with Spellstutter Sprite. Without Spellstutter it doesn't really do enough anymore. The only reason I am still running it is Familiar's Ruse. You have to sacrifice Phantasmal Bear to Ruse. Which, with Skaab Ruinator in the deck that's not so bad and I could even see going up to two Ruinators if I switch to the bear.
More testing!
vs. Jund 1-2
I didn't even know this deck was still a thing. In all three games back-to-back-to-back IoS and Thoughtsiezes tore my hand apart. These were all quickly followed by Lightning Bolts and Abrupt Decays on my early drops. The one win I did have was dropping a Ninja onto a Miscreant and then next turn another Ninja onto a Faerie Conclave and then immediately replaying the Conclave. That's 6 damage on table next turn if he couldn't do anything about it and with 12 life left he just scooped. In the other two matches he easily answered everything I played. In the last match I kept bouncing his Bob in order to slow his card advantage engine. At 7 life he stabilized with a Huntsmaster token, Tarmo, Scooze, and one other thing with me at 20 life. He killed me in 3 swings and I couldn't do anything about it with Thoughtseize taking my Cryptics. I "wasted" all my counters protecting my flipped Delver which ended up being the wrong play because he dropped so many 2 cmc threats onto the table my little Delver didn't mean anything any more.
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I no longer run Spellstutter Sprite. It's too slow and too heavily burdens the 2cmc slot. Also, the advantage of this deck is NOT running any lands that cause damage to you. Unlike white, black, and green which have ways to gain life back or red which is fast enough for it to not matter, our life total is what it starts at and plenty of games come down to the last 7 health. We can't really afford to eat that up with lands that don't really add much to our game plan. I would say the only reason to run Blood Moon is because of Tron and I hear it's not really good there.
Running Mutavault is a decent idea and is recommended in the primer but I like the evasion that Faerie Conclave offers. Also, running 2 Mutavaults with 3 Ghost Quarters would be really rough in the manabase. It's not as tight as Merfolk but it has Cryptic Command and Snapcaster. Snap + Cryptic requires 4 blue sources and you want that a early as turn 6. Also, it can cause awkwardness in deciding between playing a creature with Counter support or doing just one which ruins your tempo. I'm okay with trying Faerie Conclave with Ghost Quarter but not Mutavault and Ghost Quarter. Something definitely needs to be done to be better against Tron.
I never even knew that Miren existed. We are only running 12 creatures with lots of card draw and like 12 counters with Snapcaster acting an additional 4 copies of any spell so I don't know that it's necessary and our creatures are small enough that we wouldn't get a lot out of it. It's an interesting thought though.
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So I've recently been trying out some new things with this deck. Its probably my favorite modern deck to play. It isn't the absolute best deck out there but its at least moderatly competitive against a wide portion of the field and its fun.
I've never been a huge fan of the creature base, its always felt weak. The Kahns block brought a couple of new fun creatures for blue. I always thought this deck needed more evasion or resiliance to get better. Well we got both.
Stratus Dancer is interesting because it flips into Delver, a 3/2 flyer. It takes a lot of resources and at least 2 turns in most cases for it to happen though. In the process you might catch a removal spell or something to gain extra value out of the mana. Its even better when what you are countering is a removal spell aimed at your face down Dancer. In testing, its been great as an evasive beater and I've never used its flip ability to counter a spell though.
Shorecrasher Elemental is also really good. It makes running Mutivault a little harder but if you wait until after you have four mana its a great tempo play. Even if they try and remove it, you can counter it for only a single mana (by exiling it) and if they spend an extra card on it then you at net card advantage (2 of theirs for 1 of yours). 3/3 is a respectible body in modern and you make it more resilant to attackers or pump it to trade all the way up to an X/5 and even X/6 after Megamorph. On an empty board its a respectable clock and its a solid, road block otherwise. Its a great tempo play in a deck that wants that.
The only questions is which to use and what to take out for it. If I were going to make a suggestion I would say drop Ninja for Shorecrasher. The problem is that with Delver you don't want more than 16 creatures and all of the others are too good to cut. Delver and Bear help you keep the low curve so we can't get rid of those. Snapcaster is just WAY to much value to cut. That leaves Ninja. It draws cards but its weak for the mana and has no evasion. It also requires you to tap out only for it to die for a potential tempo loss. Delver on the field with Ninja in hand is not where you want to be. You also don't want to tap 4 for Ninja because if they kill your Delver then all you have is a chump blockable weak 2/2. If they nuke your Delver when you have Shorecrasher then you still have at least 3 power on board that you can easily protect and even use it as a solid road block next turn by blocking and blinking. That's a four mana transaction compared to Dancer. Face down Dancer is 3 mana, countering the removal aimed at Delver is another 2 for 5 mana. That can be hard to do. If you can hold out for 5 mana and dedicate yourself to protecting Delver until then that's okay but may be too slow of a plan against faster decks.
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Ninja is the engine that keeps your hand full. If you remove it you need to adjust the deck to add cantrips or draw, neither of which protect your early threats.
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Modern UB Tezzerator UBW Gifts B 8Rack
Legacy RB Goblins
I haven't missed the Ninja at all. It was easily the weakest link in the deck. I also don't run Shoal so I don't require two cards in hand to discard to counter a spell. I still don't run out of cards. You can always Snap Serum visions and Gitaxian Probes to gain additional draw.
The other option would be to replace Bear with Shorecrasher and that's a bad idea. Having those good 1-drops is really what makes this deck work. The only thing I could see replacing Bear with is the new Frost Walker but 2 mana is a lot more than 1 in this deck. I always hated playing Ninja. Never felt good and most of the time it rotted in my hand because I didn't want to tap out of counter mana to play it. Unlike Ninja it also shores up one of this decks biggest weaknesses which was its miserable combat interactions. Eventually something is going to get through your counter wall. Even with Shoal and Ninja, you can't counter everything. Vapor Snag is ok but it isn't always the answer you want or need such as against haste creatures. Its basically a crappy burn spell there. Shorecrasher help a lot of the more creature based matchups and gives us a much faster clock against Tron and other decks where being able to close the game out quickly matters.
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It seems that mono-blue does not have access to great 3 CMC midrange-control or midrange-beatdown cards. Headless Skaab , Hour of Need, and Skaab Ruinator are the tech suggestions that I've found for midrange board presence. What are other folks doing to interact more profitably on the board with Zoo and/or Infect? Also watch out for Bx Eldrazi Processors. It seems like NBD is positioned for an even matchup pre-board and a good postboard with Vedalken Shackles, but their fatties have ETB effects that make our lives hard (read: Vapor Snag and Remand are bad) and they maindeck a good deal of graveyard hate.
Midrange creatures are slim for blue. Once you get later there's top end finishers that rock like consecrated sphynx and frost titan. A sooner option might be icefall regent.
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Modern UB Tezzerator UBW Gifts B 8Rack
Legacy RB Goblins
I saw another take on NBD, that seemed to have a good budget angle. 4 Redirect are main deck for the Burn heavy metagame, but are still applicable to a lot of T1 and T2 decks besides Tron. This deck is $23.
I know everyone wants to run Ninja, the deck's namesake, but I really think it is the weakest card in the deck. I replaced it with Shorecrasher Elmental and never looked back. The Elemental is a four drop and provides its own card advantage by single handedly having its own built in counter spell. It also is an extremely efficient beater and can close out games quite well on its own. A big issue with this deck is its lack of late game power. Shorecrasher solves that. Just don't ever play it with only 3 mana up. Always play it with 4 or 5 mana available to protect it. If you can do that, the card will win you games.
The thing is that everyone who looks at this deck always assumes that "Card Advantage" just means drawing cards but that isn't all that card advantage is. Its a comparison of how many cards you use vs. how many cards your opponent uses. If an opponent as to use two cards to your 1 then you have card advantage. Shorecrasher Elemental is one card that costs your opponent 2 to kill. That is card advantage even if it dies. Card advantage can also be gained by trading card quality. For example, if your opponent uses a Path to Exile or Lightning Bolt on a Phantasmal Bear. That is overkill. Darkblast on a Phantasmal Bear is trading up. That is more "psuedo" card advantage than anything but still, the point stands. This deck wins games based on card advantage, that doesn't mean you have to use weak or sub-par cards just to get card draw. For that reason I don't like Faerie Miscreant or Ninja of the Deep Hours in Modern. For Pauper, sure but not for competitive Modern. They are individually weak and aren't much better in conjunction. The interaction is far to easy to interrupt and it does happen. People will bolt your Miscreant in response to playing a Miscreant, Stutter, or Ninja just to keep you from getting the card.
I don't like Faerie Miscreants or Spellstutter in this deck. Its cute in Pauper Mono-U Delver but not in Modern. This just aren't high impact enough. I would play only 4 creatures, and as much as I like Bear, I think the line up should be:
Delver for obvious reasons. Dimensional Infiltrator is a card I've been wishing for in this deck. Its a flying, flash, two power, 2cmc. That means you can hold up counter magic starting on turn 2 and drop your next threat on their end step so you don't have to tap out for it. Snaps is Snaps. Shorecrasher, again, is an extremely efficient beater with a built in counter spell and can hit for as much as 7 damage on his own and still protect himself with 4 mana. If you are doing that kind of damage you would have to have access to at least 5 mana (to pay his Megamorph) so you could pump him 3 times and still hold a Leak or Remand to protect him. He is so disgustingly underrated. Also, blue now has access to a decent removal spell in Reality Shift which is great out of the board vs. certain matchups. Mono-U doesn't have all the tools it needs yet to succeed in Modern but its coming along.
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I really like this deck! Once I have 4 snapcasters and 4 cryptics I plan on building it. But has anyone tested out Blistercoil Weird from return to ravnica in this deck before? It has a suto prowess that could make it close to a Monastery Swiftspear in mono blue delver builds...
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Modern UMerfolk WDeath and Taxes BRBliztkrieg GStompy
- - -
"Rock is overpowered. Paper is fine."
-Scissors
I know everyone wants to run Ninja, the deck's namesake, but I really think it is the weakest card in the deck. I replaced it with Shorecrasher Elmental and never looked back. The Elemental is a four drop and provides its own card advantage by single handedly having its own built in counter spell. It also is an extremely efficient beater and can close out games quite well on its own. A big issue with this deck is its lack of late game power. Shorecrasher solves that. Just don't ever play it with only 3 mana up. Always play it with 4 or 5 mana available to protect it. If you can do that, the card will win you games.
The thing is that everyone who looks at this deck always assumes that "Card Advantage" just means drawing cards but that isn't all that card advantage is. Its a comparison of how many cards you use vs. how many cards your opponent uses. If an opponent as to use two cards to your 1 then you have card advantage. Shorecrasher Elemental is one card that costs your opponent 2 to kill. That is card advantage even if it dies. Card advantage can also be gained by trading card quality. For example, if your opponent uses a Path to Exile or Lightning Bolt on a Phantasmal Bear. That is overkill. Darkblast on a Phantasmal Bear is trading up. That is more "psuedo" card advantage than anything but still, the point stands. This deck wins games based on card advantage, that doesn't mean you have to use weak or sub-par cards just to get card draw. For that reason I don't like Faerie Miscreant or Ninja of the Deep Hours in Modern. For Pauper, sure but not for competitive Modern. They are individually weak and aren't much better in conjunction. The interaction is far to easy to interrupt and it does happen. People will bolt your Miscreant in response to playing a Miscreant, Stutter, or Ninja just to keep you from getting the card.
I don't like Faerie Miscreants or Spellstutter in this deck. Its cute in Pauper Mono-U Delver but not in Modern. This just aren't high impact enough. I would play only 4 creatures, and as much as I like Bear, I think the line up should be:
Delver for obvious reasons. Dimensional Infiltrator is a card I've been wishing for in this deck. Its a flying, flash, two power, 2cmc. That means you can hold up counter magic starting on turn 2 and drop your next threat on their end step so you don't have to tap out for it. Snaps is Snaps. Shorecrasher, again, is an extremely efficient beater with a built in counter spell and can hit for as much as 7 damage on his own and still protect himself with 4 mana. If you are doing that kind of damage you would have to have access to at least 5 mana (to pay his Megamorph) so you could pump him 3 times and still hold a Leak or Remand to protect him. He is so disgustingly underrated. Also, blue now has access to a decent removal spell in Reality Shift which is great out of the board vs. certain matchups. Mono-U doesn't have all the tools it needs yet to succeed in Modern but its coming along.
I always love coming back to this deck and this post is spot on - do you have any semblance of an up to date list? With shorecrasher, is Thassa a good idea?
I really like this deck! Once I have 4 snapcasters and 4 cryptics I plan on building it. But has anyone tested out Blistercoil Weird from return to ravnica in this deck before? It has a suto prowess that could make it close to a Monastery Swiftspear in mono blue delver builds...
There are a couple of posts on other threads, namely the budget ones, that have tried it. It never worked out very well. You would be better off just completely transitioning into a U/R Prowess deck.
Why is Spellstutter Sprite not played? Counters a lot of stuff these days and is great with Ninja.
Because it really is bad and is very easy to disrupt. In order to make it really worth it you need to run another fairy. There aren't any other fairies that are worth playing. Faerie Miscreant seems good but you have very limited creature slots and every creature needs to be as high impact as possible and a 1/1 flyer is WAY too slow.
I always love coming back to this deck and this post is spot on - do you have any semblance of an up to date list? With shorecrasher, is Thassa a good idea?
Thassa might not be bad as a 1 or 2-of but the deck list is so tight it is really hard to find space for another 2 creatures. The chances that you achieve high enough Devotion to turn her into a legitimate finisher are also very slim. If I were gonna run the list today I'd probably do something like:
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I really like this deck! Once I have 4 snapcasters and 4 cryptics I plan on building it. But has anyone tested out Blistercoil Weird from return to ravnica in this deck before? It has a suto prowess that could make it close to a Monastery Swiftspear in mono blue delver builds...
There are a couple of posts on other threads, namely the budget ones, that have tried it. It never worked out very well. You would be better off just completely transitioning into a U/R Prowess deck.
Why is Spellstutter Sprite not played? Counters a lot of stuff these days and is great with Ninja.
Because it really is bad and is very easy to disrupt. In order to make it really worth it you need to run another fairy. There aren't any other fairies that are worth playing. Faerie Miscreant seems good but you have very limited creature slots and every creature needs to be as high impact as possible and a 1/1 flyer is WAY too slow.
I always love coming back to this deck and this post is spot on - do you have any semblance of an up to date list? With shorecrasher, is Thassa a good idea?
Thassa might not be bad as a 1 or 2-of but the deck list is so tight it is really hard to find space for another 2 creatures. The chances that you achieve high enough Devotion to turn her into a legitimate finisher are also very slim. If I were gonna run the list today I'd probably do something like:
- I've LOVED Psionic Blast - helps with reach, it's been great with Snapcaster, great to eliminate a problem creature out of the main, etc.
- I think I like Mutavault more than Faerie Conclave if only because it comes into play untapped - in a tempo shell that's been really important.
- I'm DEFINITELY trying out Thing in the Ice when it drops, probably in shorecrasher's spot. Other than bouncing delvers which is a bummer, bouncing snaps or infiltrators back to hand seems pretty sweet and in this deck it's really easy to protect.
- I probably need to try out reality shift - where do you like it?
- I think Echoing Truth (or boomerang) is pretty essential - I found myself having a REALLY hard time against Lingering Souls and other really wide decks without it.
Ultimately though, I REALLY think this deck is much better than Ninja Bear delver was, both the bears and the ninjas were awful and it was SO hard to get back in the game with both of them.
I like Reality Shift in the board against decks with creatures that I just cannot win against or hope to block profitably. They work well against decks like Jund/Abzan, even Tron to some degree (for Wurmcoil). Really any deck where I think "If X creature gets resolved I will lose the game". Sometimes just having counter magic alone isn't enough.
Echoing Truth should be in the side I agree.
Mutavault is fine but it REALLY hurts trying drop a face up Shorecrasher with enough mana to protect it. To be able to cast and protect it in the same turn you have to have UUUU available. Mutavault makes that very hard, if not impossible, to do within the first 5 or so turns of the game.
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I thought up a variant list that doesn't use delver (because returning a delver to my hand imo is the opposite of value and this deck plays off of gaining value from your cards) and rides more on the faeries side of things, and includes the new faerie from origins:
4 Faerie Miscreant
4 Phantasmal Bear
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Sleight of Hand
4 Vapor Snag
4 Disrupting Shoal
3 Cryptic Command
2 Remand
18 Island
2 Mutavault
In testing, returning and replaying Faerie Miscreant is incredible for draw power outside of using ninja of the deep hours. Not to mention it also makes our Spellstutter Sprites much more useful in the main rather than the sideboard. Sleight of Hand imo is also better here since we don't have delvers and we aren't trying to set up to flip them.
Sideboard i'm unsure of, but i'd feel comfortable using a package like this:
2 Hibernation
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Spell Pierce
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Annul
2 Remand
1 ?
I feel like the sideboard is very meta dependent if you're trying to play competitively, but I feel the vedalken shackles and grafdigger's cage, as well as extra counters with spell pierce and remand provide something in any meta that would allow you to go in blind and still have a little bit of an advantage.
(plus grafdigger's cage is pretty good knowing what decks are becoming popular in modern with Collected Company and Goryo's Vengeance running around, even though it shuts off our snapcaster mages. This makes it a bit easier for us to side in straight control magic in snapcaster's spot instead when siding in cage)
I really like the control aspect this deck brings along with a rogue style that people might not exactly expect. Plus, it allows me to play some of my favorite cards in magic and I can't say I dislike that.
FULL TIME FAERIES
Selvala
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
4x Faerie Miscreant
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Quickling
4x Spellstutter Sprite
1x Skaab Ruinator
4x Ninja of the Deep Hours
4x Vapor Snag
4x Mana Leak
4x Familiar's Ruse
4x Telling Time
3x Military Intelligence
LANDS (20)
2x Faerie Conclave
18x Island
4x Kiora's Dismissal
4x Steel Sabotage
4x Boomerang
3x Monastery Siege
So this is my updated list. I play tested this for a few hours a day across three days so not super significant. I played against Merfolk, Grixis control, Burn, etc. I'll only post the worthwhile matches.
vs. Merfolk 0-2
This match up was actually really hard because I hadn't built my sideboard yet. I tried Spell Snare but their own counters plus AEthervial made that obsolete really fast. I've since added Steel Sabotage for Tron and Affinity but it could have been helpful here to **** with the AEthervial. I added Skaab Ruinator to the deck as well and that could have helped as well because Merfolk get kind of big. Judge's Familiar is really bad here because they mostly just dump creatures.
vs. Grixis 1-2
I guess this was a standard non-Delver, non-Twin list. If it wasn't then I didn't see anything to indicate otherwise. I also lost this matchup. It was really close though and I felt like I had the game well in hand all three matches until he managed to get rid of all my creatures with an Angler on board and started drawing tons of lands (even though there are only 20 in the deck). Skaab Ruinator is awesome because you can cast it out of the board so its a safe discard to Kolaghan's Command. Its a good defensive creature as well and of course, its offense is stellar if you can protect it. This matchup showed me just how bad Judge's Familiar is though because they basically played nothing relevant until they could pay for the Judge's tax. However, Boomerang and Vapor Snag are funny against Delve creatures because then they have to pay full price and occasionally just get stuck in their hand. Other than that, there's nothing all that great in the board for this matchup but it is the reason I decided to switch Favorable Winds out for Military Intelligence and Judge's Familiar out for Quickling. I will admit, Quickling can make things very awkward but it has two major benefits. 1) Saves your doods from spot removal, like a counter, or it can save slightly more valuable creatures (I'm looking at your Delver) from sweepers. 2) He puts Spellstutter Sprite in 3cmc range without a Faerie Conclave/multiples of Miscreant or previously used Sprites. He would have also been awesome to save chumps against Gurmag.
vs. Burn 2-0
Btw, this deck has an awesome matchup against Burn because Spellstutter Sprite is good by itself against 1cmc spells (of which burn plays a lot) and with Faerie Miscreant for 2cmc spells. Heck, even Faerie Conclave and Quickening help that out as well. Then you throw in Vapor Snag on their Swiftspears and Guides. Mana Leak and Ruse are always good too. Quickling can save your doods from their removal as well. Its really ridiculous. Out of the board Monastery Siege naming Dragons is brutal. It pretty much shuts them down right there. I mean they have creatures but we have ways of dealing with those.
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I just played against Living End. I won the first match fairly easily and should have won the next two but lost due to misplays. The first misplay was countering his Cascade spell. I didn't realize that merely casting the spell triggered Cascade even if the spell didn't resolve. I managed to counter the Living End but he played a red spell that redirects the target of my counter to it. If I hadn't countered his Cascade spell I would have had enough mana to play a second counter and prevent Living End from going off. The second game I played I lost due to another misplay. On my turn he cast Jund Charm to kill a flipped Delver and a Faerie Miscreant. I used Familiar's Ruse to counter it and bounce the Miscreant. During my after combat Main Phase I recast the Miscreant leaving me with 1 open mana (4 - 2 for Ruse -1 for Miscreant). What I should have done was hold up my mana with Spellstutter Sprite in hand to counter Living End (which costs 0 mana and thus is counterable with Sprite even with no other Faeries on board). That said I think even with GY hate we have an awesome matchup against Living End. The list I'm running has 12 Counters capable of stopping Living End. Even if they get to the point where they start hard casting their creatures Vapor Snag REALLY hurt their tempo and bringing in more Boomerangs from the board helps that even more but is truly unnecessary because it hurts the rest of our game but it would be an easy swap for Military Intelligence.
vs. Grixis Control 0-2
This time around was pretty much a massacre. He literally had an answer to everything I tried to do. There were times when he would Bolt Delver, I would counter with Quickling, he would counter Quickling, and then I would counter with Remand, and he would counter my Remand... That went on for two full games. Vapor Snagging an Angler or Tasigur is still good because they occasionally get stuck in their hand. I think I need something stronger in the side to improve this matchup but the only things I can think of requires a Red or White splash.
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2x Faerie Conclave
18x Islands
CREATURES (16)
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Faerie Miscreant
4x Snapcaster Mage
1x Skaab Ruinator
3x Ninja of the Deep Hours
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Vapor Snag
4x Telling Time
4x Remand
4x Familiar's Ruse
4x Cryptic Command
I went with Telling Time still over Serum Visions because I find that its better at flipping Delver and its instant speed. I still like Skaab Ruinator over 1 Ninja. I like the Ninja's enough but they are easily the first creature I would cut if something better came along. Familiar's Ruse rebuys Snapcaster and Faerie Miscreant. Faerie Miscreant is on the chopping block though for two reasons. 1) Its slow. 2) Its tribal mattered with Spellstutter Sprite. Without Spellstutter it doesn't really do enough anymore. The only reason I am still running it is Familiar's Ruse. You have to sacrifice Phantasmal Bear to Ruse. Which, with Skaab Ruinator in the deck that's not so bad and I could even see going up to two Ruinators if I switch to the bear.
More testing!
vs. Jund 1-2
I didn't even know this deck was still a thing. In all three games back-to-back-to-back IoS and Thoughtsiezes tore my hand apart. These were all quickly followed by Lightning Bolts and Abrupt Decays on my early drops. The one win I did have was dropping a Ninja onto a Miscreant and then next turn another Ninja onto a Faerie Conclave and then immediately replaying the Conclave. That's 6 damage on table next turn if he couldn't do anything about it and with 12 life left he just scooped. In the other two matches he easily answered everything I played. In the last match I kept bouncing his Bob in order to slow his card advantage engine. At 7 life he stabilized with a Huntsmaster token, Tarmo, Scooze, and one other thing with me at 20 life. He killed me in 3 swings and I couldn't do anything about it with Thoughtseize taking my Cryptics. I "wasted" all my counters protecting my flipped Delver which ended up being the wrong play because he dropped so many 2 cmc threats onto the table my little Delver didn't mean anything any more.
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Running Mutavault is a decent idea and is recommended in the primer but I like the evasion that Faerie Conclave offers. Also, running 2 Mutavaults with 3 Ghost Quarters would be really rough in the manabase. It's not as tight as Merfolk but it has Cryptic Command and Snapcaster. Snap + Cryptic requires 4 blue sources and you want that a early as turn 6. Also, it can cause awkwardness in deciding between playing a creature with Counter support or doing just one which ruins your tempo. I'm okay with trying Faerie Conclave with Ghost Quarter but not Mutavault and Ghost Quarter. Something definitely needs to be done to be better against Tron.
I never even knew that Miren existed. We are only running 12 creatures with lots of card draw and like 12 counters with Snapcaster acting an additional 4 copies of any spell so I don't know that it's necessary and our creatures are small enough that we wouldn't get a lot out of it. It's an interesting thought though.
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3 Phantasmal Bear
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Serum Visions
3 Gitaxian Probe
3 Vapor Snag
4 Remand
4 Disrupting Shoal
2 Psionic Blast
4 Cryptic Command
2 Mutavault
1 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Flashfreeze
2 Dispel
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Annul
2 Dismember
2 Pithing Needle
Probably no Tron (it's rare there), but Grixis, Co-Co, Living End, Burn, Boggles (Ratchet Bomb is for that, mainly).
Mostly creature decks. Will post a report here.
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
I've never been a huge fan of the creature base, its always felt weak. The Kahns block brought a couple of new fun creatures for blue. I always thought this deck needed more evasion or resiliance to get better. Well we got both.
Stratus Dancer is interesting because it flips into Delver, a 3/2 flyer. It takes a lot of resources and at least 2 turns in most cases for it to happen though. In the process you might catch a removal spell or something to gain extra value out of the mana. Its even better when what you are countering is a removal spell aimed at your face down Dancer. In testing, its been great as an evasive beater and I've never used its flip ability to counter a spell though.
Shorecrasher Elemental is also really good. It makes running Mutivault a little harder but if you wait until after you have four mana its a great tempo play. Even if they try and remove it, you can counter it for only a single mana (by exiling it) and if they spend an extra card on it then you at net card advantage (2 of theirs for 1 of yours). 3/3 is a respectible body in modern and you make it more resilant to attackers or pump it to trade all the way up to an X/5 and even X/6 after Megamorph. On an empty board its a respectable clock and its a solid, road block otherwise. Its a great tempo play in a deck that wants that.
The only questions is which to use and what to take out for it. If I were going to make a suggestion I would say drop Ninja for Shorecrasher. The problem is that with Delver you don't want more than 16 creatures and all of the others are too good to cut. Delver and Bear help you keep the low curve so we can't get rid of those. Snapcaster is just WAY to much value to cut. That leaves Ninja. It draws cards but its weak for the mana and has no evasion. It also requires you to tap out only for it to die for a potential tempo loss. Delver on the field with Ninja in hand is not where you want to be. You also don't want to tap 4 for Ninja because if they kill your Delver then all you have is a chump blockable weak 2/2. If they nuke your Delver when you have Shorecrasher then you still have at least 3 power on board that you can easily protect and even use it as a solid road block next turn by blocking and blinking. That's a four mana transaction compared to Dancer. Face down Dancer is 3 mana, countering the removal aimed at Delver is another 2 for 5 mana. That can be hard to do. If you can hold out for 5 mana and dedicate yourself to protecting Delver until then that's okay but may be too slow of a plan against faster decks.
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UB Tezzerator
UBW Gifts
B 8Rack
Legacy
RB Goblins
The other option would be to replace Bear with Shorecrasher and that's a bad idea. Having those good 1-drops is really what makes this deck work. The only thing I could see replacing Bear with is the new Frost Walker but 2 mana is a lot more than 1 in this deck. I always hated playing Ninja. Never felt good and most of the time it rotted in my hand because I didn't want to tap out of counter mana to play it. Unlike Ninja it also shores up one of this decks biggest weaknesses which was its miserable combat interactions. Eventually something is going to get through your counter wall. Even with Shoal and Ninja, you can't counter everything. Vapor Snag is ok but it isn't always the answer you want or need such as against haste creatures. Its basically a crappy burn spell there. Shorecrasher help a lot of the more creature based matchups and gives us a much faster clock against Tron and other decks where being able to close the game out quickly matters.
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4 Delver of Secrets
4 Phantasmal Bear
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
2 Vendilion Clique
Instants/Sorceries (22)
3 Vapor Snag
4 Serum Visions
1 Remand
4 Disrupting Shoal
2 Exhaustion
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Cryptic Command
16 Island
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
2 Mutavault
1 Vapor Snag
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Remand
2 Spellstutter Sprite
1 Echoing Truth
4 Vedalken Shackles
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Negate
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Spell Pierce
1 Hour of Need
1 Headless Skaab
1 Skaab Ruinator
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Psionic Blast
1 Flashfreeze
1 Hibernation
1 Unsummon
It seems that mono-blue does not have access to great 3 CMC midrange-control or midrange-beatdown cards. Headless Skaab , Hour of Need, and Skaab Ruinator are the tech suggestions that I've found for midrange board presence. What are other folks doing to interact more profitably on the board with Zoo and/or Infect? Also watch out for Bx Eldrazi Processors. It seems like NBD is positioned for an even matchup pre-board and a good postboard with Vedalken Shackles, but their fatties have ETB effects that make our lives hard (read: Vapor Snag and Remand are bad) and they maindeck a good deal of graveyard hate.
CETronC
WUBGRHumansWUBGR
UMerfolkU
GU
InfectGURBGx
DredgeRBGxUB Tezzerator
UBW Gifts
B 8Rack
Legacy
RB Goblins
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Phantasmal Bear
Enchantments (8)
4 Unstable Mutation
4 Spreading Seas
3 Vapor Snag
4 Redirect
4 Eye of Nowhere
4 Boomerang
4 Mana Leak
4 Rune Snag
17 Island
I saw another take on NBD, that seemed to have a good budget angle. 4 Redirect are main deck for the Burn heavy metagame, but are still applicable to a lot of T1 and T2 decks besides Tron. This deck is $23.
CETronC
WUBGRHumansWUBGR
UMerfolkU
GU
InfectGURBGx
DredgeRBGxhttp://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=95895
Altho I think it's recorded wrong.
Why play Jeskai Sage?
The thing is that everyone who looks at this deck always assumes that "Card Advantage" just means drawing cards but that isn't all that card advantage is. Its a comparison of how many cards you use vs. how many cards your opponent uses. If an opponent as to use two cards to your 1 then you have card advantage. Shorecrasher Elemental is one card that costs your opponent 2 to kill. That is card advantage even if it dies. Card advantage can also be gained by trading card quality. For example, if your opponent uses a Path to Exile or Lightning Bolt on a Phantasmal Bear. That is overkill. Darkblast on a Phantasmal Bear is trading up. That is more "psuedo" card advantage than anything but still, the point stands. This deck wins games based on card advantage, that doesn't mean you have to use weak or sub-par cards just to get card draw. For that reason I don't like Faerie Miscreant or Ninja of the Deep Hours in Modern. For Pauper, sure but not for competitive Modern. They are individually weak and aren't much better in conjunction. The interaction is far to easy to interrupt and it does happen. People will bolt your Miscreant in response to playing a Miscreant, Stutter, or Ninja just to keep you from getting the card.
I don't like Faerie Miscreants or Spellstutter in this deck. Its cute in Pauper Mono-U Delver but not in Modern. This just aren't high impact enough. I would play only 4 creatures, and as much as I like Bear, I think the line up should be:
4x Dimensional Infiltrator
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Shorecrasher Elemental
Delver for obvious reasons. Dimensional Infiltrator is a card I've been wishing for in this deck. Its a flying, flash, two power, 2cmc. That means you can hold up counter magic starting on turn 2 and drop your next threat on their end step so you don't have to tap out for it. Snaps is Snaps. Shorecrasher, again, is an extremely efficient beater with a built in counter spell and can hit for as much as 7 damage on his own and still protect himself with 4 mana. If you are doing that kind of damage you would have to have access to at least 5 mana (to pay his Megamorph) so you could pump him 3 times and still hold a Leak or Remand to protect him. He is so disgustingly underrated. Also, blue now has access to a decent removal spell in Reality Shift which is great out of the board vs. certain matchups. Mono-U doesn't have all the tools it needs yet to succeed in Modern but its coming along.
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Some other three 3-drop options that might work here:
Vexing Sphinx, Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest, Crag Puca, Wake Thrasher, Stitched Drake and Stormbound Geist.
With enough 1-drops and Gitaxian Probes Illusory Angel might work too.
Here are some 2-drops which might be playable as well:
Elusive Spellfist, Grimoire Thief, Jeskai Elder/Umara Entangler and Sygg, River Cutthroat.
UB Tezzerator
UBW Gifts
B 8Rack
Legacy
RB Goblins
UMerfolk
WDeath and Taxes
BRBliztkrieg
GStompy
- - -
"Rock is overpowered. Paper is fine."
-Scissors
I always love coming back to this deck and this post is spot on - do you have any semblance of an up to date list? With shorecrasher, is Thassa a good idea?
There are a couple of posts on other threads, namely the budget ones, that have tried it. It never worked out very well. You would be better off just completely transitioning into a U/R Prowess deck.
Because it really is bad and is very easy to disrupt. In order to make it really worth it you need to run another fairy. There aren't any other fairies that are worth playing. Faerie Miscreant seems good but you have very limited creature slots and every creature needs to be as high impact as possible and a 1/1 flyer is WAY too slow.
Thassa might not be bad as a 1 or 2-of but the deck list is so tight it is really hard to find space for another 2 creatures. The chances that you achieve high enough Devotion to turn her into a legitimate finisher are also very slim. If I were gonna run the list today I'd probably do something like:
2x Faerie Conclave
18x Islands
CREATURES (16)
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Dimensional Infiltrator
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Shorecrasher Elemental
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Vapor Snag
4x Serum Visions
4x Remand
4x Mana Leak
4x Cryptic Command
3x Spellskite
3x Hyrkul's Recall
3x Reality Shift
3x Relic of Progenitus
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Since my post I've been experimenting a lot and this is the list I'm currently running -
4 Dimensional Infiltrator
3 Shorecrasher Elemental
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Cryptic Command
4 Disrupting Shoal
3 Gitaxian Probe
2 Psionic Blast
4 Remand
4 Serum Visions
4 Vapor Snag
18 Island
2 Mutavault
1 Dismember
2 Dispel
3 Echoing Truth
2 Hibernation
3 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Vedalken Shackles
2 Vendilion Clique
A few things -
- I've LOVED Psionic Blast - helps with reach, it's been great with Snapcaster, great to eliminate a problem creature out of the main, etc.
- I think I like Mutavault more than Faerie Conclave if only because it comes into play untapped - in a tempo shell that's been really important.
- I'm DEFINITELY trying out Thing in the Ice when it drops, probably in shorecrasher's spot. Other than bouncing delvers which is a bummer, bouncing snaps or infiltrators back to hand seems pretty sweet and in this deck it's really easy to protect.
- I probably need to try out reality shift - where do you like it?
- I think Echoing Truth (or boomerang) is pretty essential - I found myself having a REALLY hard time against Lingering Souls and other really wide decks without it.
Ultimately though, I REALLY think this deck is much better than Ninja Bear delver was, both the bears and the ninjas were awful and it was SO hard to get back in the game with both of them.
Echoing Truth should be in the side I agree.
Mutavault is fine but it REALLY hurts trying drop a face up Shorecrasher with enough mana to protect it. To be able to cast and protect it in the same turn you have to have UUUU available. Mutavault makes that very hard, if not impossible, to do within the first 5 or so turns of the game.
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