I think honestly no matter the archetype of Fae, the one thing missing is a card draw creature. The one we have, Faerie Miscreant, is the worst card in the deck and so conditional, it rarely hits when we need it. Ive considered Bident of Thassa or even Thassa herself as a possible way of solving this. Thassa also is tough to remove once Devotion is high enough and smoothing out draws does help.
I'm rather skeptical about Censor as it is so easy to play around so it'll end up being a cantrip (like Reach Through Mists) most of the time
(I'd rather play Peek).
Id caution against abandoning Scion. Its the only lord consistently in the deck and shroud is very relevant with the abundance of removal in Modern. Its also the card you want most when racing aggro or control strats. Copter is great but outside of control faeries, is quite prone to getting pathed or pushed often netting you one draw for two mana.
Ive actually thought about borrowing a trick from another blue tribe , Merfolk and playing a full 4 Spreading Seas and 4 Sea's Claim. The meta seems soft to enchantments and the draw/ disruption on Spreading seas is juicy. Big mana decks like Tron get hosed, can slow decks reliant on a color to finish, and makes Burn a lot more managable.
Help me understand if I'm wrong but I feel like Disrupting Shoal isn't as good as Mana Leak or Rune Snag. Sure, its a 'free' hard counter but it costs us an additional card and it must be a specific costed one at that. In a deck like Faeries we'll only hit spells at CMC 1-3 majority of the time. Sure that's most of Modern's staples/playables but we'll never counter things like Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and other Tron spells, Reality Smasher, opposing Cryptic Commands, Primeval Titan, etc.
I'll agree a bit with Censor but I feel like someone in another thread explained it perfectly -- "Think of Censor mainly as a cantrip with an upside - that it may counter a spell at one point in the game". If you play it I don't think you should rely on its main ability, but instead use it as an instant-speed Serum Visions without the scry or Thought Scour without the mill. And instead it reads "pay additional 1 and counter target spell instead of draw". So I guess my question would be whether Faeries wants a cantrip in the first place and if so, which provides the more appealing upside -- scrying, hand information, buyback (Whispers of the Muse), counterspell, etc. I also think the new Hieroglyphic Illumination could act as a decent 'cantrip'/card draw spell.
If you are not playing Scion of Oona you might as well play the "U/B Control" version.
I don't think that this deck wants cantrips (besides Remand which helps the tempo plan) so the cycle cards don't appeal to me.
I suggested Disrupting Shoal because it is probably the most suitable deck to take advantage of it since it is Mono Blue and relies on tempo rather than card advantage to win games which is exactly what D.Shoal is good at.
The card is rather tricky to play with as you need to asses the situation correctly when deciding to use it and effectively 2-for-1'ing yourself
(in the late game it can even be hardcast).
If you have Mistbind Clique as the decks finisher you can counter 4-cmc spells with D.Shoal.
Regarding Spreading Seas (Sea's Claim is just bad without Islandwalk), it is a very good card right now but I don't think that it fits in the maindick here as it is a sorcery speed spell while we don't want to tap out most of the time and play at instant speed most of our cards
(except for Faerie Miscreant and maybe Smuggler's Copter).
I'd definetely run the full 4x in the SB though.
I think the disruption early game justifies the sorcery speed as well as the card draw with Spreading Seas. Id argue it has significant game as a turn 2 play va any deck not running islands and hitting a nonbasic is very often a backbreaking play.This is less true of Sea's Claim but still disruption equals tempo. Hell, Im thinking of running them with 2 Nykthos to take advantage of the devotion and speed up the deck slightly. Being able to flash in two bodies as opposed to one is attractive. Im also testing a vial fae build which Ill admit seems a bit ridiculous but with the utility of cheating on mana for creatures and going full control with lands, its oppressive almost to the point of being unfun.
4 Quickling
4 Scion of Oona
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Mistbind Clique
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Thassa, God of the sea
4 Faerie Miscreant
4 Aether Vial
4 Cloudstone Curio
4 Vapor Snag
2 Disperse
2 Dismember
4 Darkslick shores
4 Mutavault
12 Island
2 Creeping Tar Pit
Sideboard
3 Familiar's Ruse
2 Relics of Progenitus
4 Spreading Seas
4 Telepathy
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Mistbind Cliique
My current build...Strange but effective. I'll go into card choices and my thinking.
Cloudstone Curio- A bonkers card for a tribe whose Etb abilities are amongst Magic's most powerful. It make every fae into a potential Quickling, making some sweet lines of play. This and Vial do some absolutely absurd things at times. Repeatedly bouncing a Mistbind championing a V. Clique is lulz.
Aether Vial- One of the most unique effects in the game and powerful as hell. It saves you mana which you can then utilize reactively, proactively, and effectively.
Thaasa, God of the Sea- A draw filter attached to an indestructible 5/5 body is good for a control aggro build . While it might appear to be anti-synergistic with the typical single blue cost of the tribe and the bounce effects im exploiting, most of the time, she's a threat that must be answered by combat phase. Her lone vulnerability is Path. Which you can counter...
Sower of Temptation- Grabbing the biggest Eldrazi/ Goyf I can off a Vial wins a good percentage of the time.
Telepathy- I know, I know...noob move, but hear me out. A control build, especially one lighter on true kill spells, requires as much information as possible. Knowing what deck your opponent is playing is not the same thing as knowing exactly what your opponent is playing. It even removes the unknown variable of the topdeck, which can be a monumental advantage to control builds.
Thinking about it...it plays more of a control-bounce game early and switches gears after landing a big effect for recycling. Thoughts, suggestions, advice all appreciated.
I don't really like Cloudstone Curio here as it requires tapping out on turn 3 and does nothing initially or when your creatures get removed.
It is the type of card that works much better in decks which have a lot of spare mana like Elves or Green Devotion and it is not even played there as much anymore.
If you want to have more bounce effects in the deck (but not overloading on them) then cards like: Familiar's Ruse, Ninja of the Deep Hours and Peel from Reality seem like better options which impact the board/stack unlike Cloudstone.C.
4x Quickling also seems a bit much as they are rather bad in multiples.
Disperse is a rather weak bounce spell, Boomerang/Echoing Truth (or Unsubstantiate) are basically strictly better (and more versatile) and I'd not run any of them in the maindeck (E.Truth is fine as a SB card though).
Also, your build doesn't seem to have any maindeck counters which will be a big problem if you don't draw your Spellstutter Sprites and the deck needs to have at least a set of Remand imho (and some more counters like Mana Leak/Spell Snare or Rune Snag) otherwise you are left with an underpowered creature deck with some bounce effects which would not be enough.
Thassa is cute but probably won't be a creature too often, I'd go for a 3rd Mistbind instead.
Telepathy seems like a waste of a slot, you can at least play Peek for this effect (in addition to V.Clique) to not go down on cards
(still not worth the SB slots imho).
I definitely think the synergy is there. Mausoleum wanderer can be replaced with another 1 drop like Judge's Familiar, Zephyr Sprite, Phantasmal Bear, Signal Pest, or even a 0 drop like Ornithopter. So far in my testing the deck is fun, but crumbles hard to midrange and big flyers. Removal really sucks in mono blue, and they are pretty much guaranteed to have a creature slip through counters at one point.
Also, I think Smuggler's Copter is a great addition to a mono blue list. It works well with Ninja of the Deep Hours. There's a pretty cool sequence when you go and attack with your 1 drop, ninja in, replay the 1 drop, and he's ready to crew the copter on the defense. There's also some dirty tricks with flashing a Spellstutter Sprite in to crew the copter for blocking on the swing back. Initially, I thought ninja and copter were overkill, but they actually compliment each other quite well. Since all of the other creatures are already flying, giving the ninja a form of equipment means he can still push through damage with a gummed up board.
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Venser is a pretty good creature (though with a small body), but why not use Mistbind Clique instead ?
The deck is rather low on faeries for a faeries list (most notably Scion of Oona).
Venser is a pretty good creature (though with a small body), but why not use Mistbind Clique instead ?
The deck is rather low on faeries for a faeries (most notably Scion of Oona).
Because the faerie count was so low, I decided against Scion of Oona and Mistbind Clique. I really wanted to fit mistbinds in there, they are an absolute beating. But the low faerie count and already crowded four drop spot (Cryptics, Venser, Snap + Counter) didn't help. I run Venser, Shaper Savant because his synergy with Ninja of the Deep Hours is absolutely bonkers, plus this deck just scoops to un-counterable removal like Abrupt Decay and Supreme Verdict. Venser works as an out for those.
But I think the inclusion of Smuggler's Copter, and in some cases, ninja, serve a similar purpose of "upgrading" our faeries. Scion turns our team into flying bears, where copter does copter things. It's also a different kind of threat which requires instant speed removal, and will survive sweepers. An example would be scion or copter vs wrath effects. A wrathed scion team means you lose your clock. A copter sitting on the board late game turns a top decked Faerie Miscreant into a 3/3 haste flying looter. In this case, we have a different set of threats which each require different kinds of answers. Hope that makes sense.
This is also another reason for running Venser over mistbind. Honestly playing Venser alone is really only good on the opponents turn. Having a coper on the board means I can feel less bad about main phasing a Venser to bounce a fat blocker, have him crew, and open a path for ninja or snap beats.
But I'll definitely play around with numbers and see how things go.
It's very clear that Mistbind Clique is a strong card, much stronger than Venser in my opinion. But it's also a more swingy card. Mistbind creates blowouts for both sides, either basically winning you the game or getting yourself 2-for-1'ed while you tap out. Sure, you could wait until you have 5 lands with a mutavault out, or have extra fae on the board, but this puts us in the crosshair for wraths and sweepers. On the other hand, Ninja is another swingy card which takes over the game if left unchecked. Is he really tempo gain? Turning a Miscreant's 1 damage into 2 and draw a card for 2 mana, as well as requiring you to replay the faerie later (could be both a good and bad thing) is kinda negative tempo. We can always chuck extra snags, snares or pierces at them with the extra 1 or 2 mana and cards lying around, and even more with snaps. Unfortunately we don't have access to Lightning Bolt, so turn-3 snap-bolting them to advance the game isn't an option. But he also has some (three!) requirements: another creature, that is attacking, and isn't blocked.
I'm slightly hesitant to run scions though, since looking at a lot of UB and UR lists often don't run him. He's a bit of a win-more card, and I think the "upgrading your faeries" has already been covered by smuggler's copter (or Mistbind or Ninja). But on the other hand, he is a 1/1 who can crew the copter and never have to risk himself. I just feel iffy playing a mediocre card to make bad cards good, instead of playing just solid cards on their own. Here's my dilemma: Are people going to be playing Abrupt Decay on our sprites and miscreants? If they do, isn't that already advantageous for us? We're trading one to two mana for two, and our Faeries have already done their job through ETB effects. The dream of double scion falls a bit into magical christmas land, and you'd basically have to do nothing on turn 3, flash him in end of their turn, then play another copy main phase of your turn to swing with the team. How is that better than just playing a land and Mistbinding them during their upkeep? The army of 3/3 (which realistically may be only 1 or 2 faeries with the nut draw) which all still die to wraths or sweepers, when a Mistbind instead would lock them out of it. Sure, we can flash a scion to protect a mistbind or vendilion clique, but aren't we already winning at that point? Perhaps scions could be good sideboard tech against decks with targeted removal like bolts, decays, paths, or in matchups where you just want to race faster rather than trying to save your creatures.
The next paragraph is very spikey (for you ultra competitive people):
When looking at Merfolk, they have ridiculous redundancy in their lords, who, by themselves, are actually OK creatures. A Lord of Atlantis on his own is a 2/2 for 2. Not a good card, but its not a liability. He can chump some tokens or trade fairly. The difference here is that merfolk has 8 of these. Scion is a 3 mana 1/1. It's pitiful by itself, dies to everything, and needs another creature to put an additional 1 power and toughness on the field. Compare it to something like Spell Queller or even Dimensional Infiltrator. Queller puts a 2/3 flyer on the board, and delays a spell. Infiltrator puts 2 flying power on the board for 1 mana less. Scion is only really better than these when you go t1 miscreant, t2 spell stutter, t3 scion, where you end up with 5/5 split over 3 bodies. With spirits you could instead go t1 Mausoleum Wanderer, t2 Rattlechains or Selfless Spirit, t3 Drogskol Captain, where you have 7/6 on the board as well as other relevant buffs like flash, indestructible, or being to able to counter stuff even when tapped out. If we want to play a mono blue lord deck, we should just play merfolk, or possibly UW spirits which still functions as a tempo deck, just a more disruptive protective one rather than counter magic based.
I think its quite clear that there are two ways that this deck could be taken: the scion/mistbind route, or the venser/ninja route. It's possible to go ninja/mistbind or ninja/mistbind/scion, but I would think any deck which brings a large amount of single target removal (in addition to the self-bounce with ninja) would brick all of our mistbinds.
Basically, I see it on a scale like this:
Scion + Mistbind = Aggressive, proactive tempo. Plays more linearly like Merfolk.
Venser + Ninja = Value, balanced tempo. Real aggro-control, with more interaction.
Blue-Black Faeries = Controlling, grindy tempo. Plays like a midrange deck.
But of course more opinions and testing are needed. Is Venser, Shaper Savant good enough for modern? Are Scion of Oona and Mistbind Clique too swingy or win-more? I am totally open to feedback and critiques on my thoughts and opinions on these topics.
And a point about Disrupting Shoal: It's a good card, but Fae already has issues with card advantage. Ninja Bear Delver runs 4 shoals, because it's creatures are 1 mana 2/2's or 3/2 flyers who can set a very fast clock on their own. We have an army of 1/1s. NBD also runs 4 Ninjas to to recoup the card disadvantage from shoal. That deck has fallen a bit off recently, especially with the banning of Gitaxian Probe. Knowing their hand means you can know what to pitch to shoal. Peek isn't as good as probe, and I don't think we have space for it either. But I also have not tried it.
And a point about Smuggler's Copter: Don't run less than 3 of these. Ideally, 4. You want these every game, and seeing multiples of them isn't a problem. Just loot them away with the triggers. On a bunch of my games, I've gone turn t1 island, t2 mutavault + copter, t3 vault goes in the copter and bashes, drop an island with spell snare/pierce/snag as backup. It's not a great draw by any means, but it establishes a clock and can really hurt slower decks who stumble on mana or with clunky draws.
Cloudstone is less a liability than you'd think. Its effect does blank a lot of removal. As i mentioned, i do play a bit more of a control role, thus Telepathy. I like the fact that Telepathy isn't a temporary effect and often is a psychological play. Its surprising how even experinced pilots get rattled having their every card in plain view. The tradeoff of being down a card is worth it to me.
Does no one use the Quickling infinite block chain? I can't be the only one aware of it. Its the reason to play them in multiplea. Block with one, bounce with another to save the first.
I will admit the lack of maindeck counters is odd. But Im finding in the current meta, most of my matches are fast aggro decks that dont swarm as much as beating down with one to three threats. We don't have the creature firepower to take a game in four turns barring our opponent running horribly. By default, we are more or less midrange. Thua, my gameplan is simple: prevent my opponents from sticking more than one creature for four turns. At that point, usually i've drawn into either Mistind, V. Clique, or Scion ( or some combination thereof) allowing me to close thw game. Its a far more patient playstyle with most turns early being a land play and pass, Curio is dropped turn four or later, almost without exception, bluffing a 1 mana counter, which works a better percentage of the time than not. Obviously Vial goes pretty much when drawn.
The inclusion of more counters i feel, would be better postboard. I can't be the only one playing this deck who bluffs counters. Its one of the advantages of playing a deck without an established list. You can go lighter on counters simply due to the expectation of their appearance. Also this gameplan creates pressure on your opponent to make every land drop for the first four turns.
Otherwise, you'll typically draw into one of your better fae and beat down. I appreciate the feedback though.
P.S. My list seems more creature heavy as well. Is that wherw we need to go? If so, why not splash black for BB and Push?
Hitek, your list is really different and if it's working for you well then don't change it! That being said, it does seem like your list leans much more towards the control side, and generally should be beating midrange decks (Control > Midrange > Aggro > Control). And with that in mind, it could be a good idea to go UB and grab BB and push. But really, if you're going to do that, you might as well drop telepathy and run 6+ mainboard discard like traditional UB Faeries lists.
I think quickling and curio are solid and possibly underrated as you have mentioned. The amount of value you can get with repeated use of all of your ETB effects produces an insane amount of value, which is exactly what a control deck wants: value. I don't think its wrong by any means (it is winning, right?), but more that I think this deck is actually very flexible and can be built in a number of different ways to suit the pilot as well as the local meta. If anything curio sounds crazy good with snaps, and could even replace the ninja's in my list.
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I actually went 4-1 last night vs. Death's Shadow, R/G Tron, a rather degenerate homebrew with Panharmonicon and Emeria, and R/B Vampires in my LGS. My loss was to Merfolk ( which as a Merfolk player as well, I knew I was going to lose; island wrecks us). The lack of hard removal is risky but the amount of bounce seems to cripple Death's Shadow on offense and defense, bouncing Shadow only to counter it on the way back down. Its working ...though i am going to invest in BB and Pushs to experiment further. As a brewer, this is as exciting a deck as ive built. I think the swiss army knife utility may be extendable to the point of being able to appear mono blue game one and splashing black postboard dependent on what you're facing. Itd require a super tight 75 but I think its wortb pursuit.
I ran Faeries at my local FNM this week. As I've said earlier, I've been experimenting with running Unsubstantiate over Spell Snare. A couple times, it came in handy. It bought me an extra turn against an Abrubt Decay to beat in with a Mistbind, and very well could've been the reason I won the game. That being said, there were a couple instances during the night where the ability to counter a 2-drop for 1 mana would've been very useful. I do like the versatility of if never being a dead card, but I'm still not certain where I stand on it replacing Spell Snare. Mutavault has put in work for me - tapping it to itself when I have only 3 lands so I can make a Spellstutter more powerful came into play. That being said, running a 22 land deck with 3 Mutavaults and 3 Ghost Quarter gives me only 16 blue sources. I would like to run Cryptic Command, but I think it would be better in a Faerie Conclave build than a Mutavault build, and I'm not sure if it's worth dropping the Mutavaults so I can mainboard 1-3 Cryptic? Especially since Conclave entering tapped ruins the ability to curve easily. I'm also currently running 3x Quickling and 2x Vendilion Clique. I'm debating dropping down to 2 Quickling for a 3rd Clique, because when the board is empty, Quickling is a dead card. Although sometimes the ability to bounce my own faeries has saved blockers, and with Vendilion being a legendary, it's not necessarily something I want to see in multiples? I'm also debating replacing Quickling with Snapcaster, when I can budget it. But I'd need 4 open mana to make snapcaster useful, and can't save blockers. Although it isn't a dead card when my board is empty. In my experience, it feels like every tweak to this deck adds something, but takes something else away. It seems like it is really hard to get a set list, so I'd appreciate any help I can in tuning. My other decks, BW tokens and Burn, are both decks with relatively tight lists, so this is my first deck I've played with this much variance.
Would Censor be useful instead of a few of hte mana leaks? I'm currently looking at 2 spell snare/2 mana leak/2 censor in addition to the remands and perhaps a couple of cryptics.
As an actual counterspell (rather than a cantrip) Mana Leak is much better.
If you want a better late game application going with 4x Rune Snag can be a good option.
Rune Snag is good, but it's also really limiting in the fact that you NEED to run 4 of them, and you CANNOT run them with snaps. This makes sideboarding awkward when you might need to cut 1 or 2, but in doing so makes them significantly weaker. It also fails horribly to GY hate. Mana Leak is much more flexible and allows you to play with numbers and not be locked in to any specific card count. Spell Snare is amazing, and gives you things to do turn 1 on the draw. It's also got some solid synergy with snaps in on turn 3.
Mutavault is necessary in non-budget builds. You could honestly probably cut Ghost Quarter and run some Spreading Seas in the side to fight against manlands, tron, and valakut. In my lists, I run something like 21 lands, with them being 15 islands, 4 vaults, and 2 Faerie Conclave. The power of mutavault cannot be understated. Being able to tap one and activate itself to resolve a Mistbind Clique, or add extra reach to your SSS counters. It can help against blowouts when you trigger SSS's ETB effect, only to have your opponent respond by bolting it turning your trigger into "counter spell with cmc 0 or less." An extra vault on the field turns that into 1 or less, even after your faerie dies.
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Thanks for all of the great info. I'm starting with this as my base build and taking it out for the first time to the LGS on Friday. Looking forward to Modern after trying to start with Standard to come back to the game.
We'll see how it goes, but the first set of upgrades, besides tuning the sideboard for the LGS, will be replacing the Ghost Quarters and at least some of the Faerie Conclaves with Mutavaults. At the same time, I'll likely drop Faerie Impostor and a Mistbind Clique for 2 Cryptic Commands, and may end up dropping more Conclaves for Islands just to have more untapped blue sources. We'll see on later upgrades, but Snapcaster Mage and probably an extra Cryptic Command in place of the Quicklings and/or Pestermites is one possible direction.
Several people have suggested slotting in Smuggler's Copter, and I have 3 available. Any suggestions what I'd put them in place of in either the current deck or as part of later upgrades?
Rules-related question on Copter along with Quickling (and Mistbind). Assume that Copter is on the battlefield with no faeries available and your opponent attacks. Can you flash in Quickling or Mistbind, puts it's ETB sacrifice effect on the stack, hold priority and crew Copter with Quickling before Quickling is sacrificed by its ETB trigger?
I think you are correct in that ruling regarding Copter + Quickling. But you'd have to return the copter to your hand at the end of the effects.
Also, I think you could slot in 3 Copter's in your list in the meantime by dropping 1 Faerie Impostor, and maybe 1 or 2 pestermites or quicklings depending on your taste.
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That's what I'm doing and going to run tonight (drop imposter, pestermite, quickling for 3 copters).
In terms of the rules, I don't have to pick up Copter - instead I could choose to sacrifice Quickling once it had crewed the Copter if I really needed the loot and/or 3/3 blocker. There's obviously a blowout risk, but it would be interesting...
I identified a few opportunities in the mana base. Most decks seem to fun as many as 18 basic Islands which doesn't seem to be leveraging that prime real estate like it could. Of course you want to avoid getting hit too hard by Blood Moon, but the spells in the deck are not too mana intensive and even with 14 basics I have a lot more than the average modern deck and should be able to play around a Moon (testing will have to be done to confirm this though).
In order to hit a blue mana source regularly on turn 1 you need to have 14 sources (obviously untapped) according to this awesome article. This deck (like many decks posted here) really only has an insanely low four first turn spells, Faerie Miscreant, but has 16 turn 1 blue sources. Turn two usually doesn't require UU, as Remand, Mana Leak and Spellstutter Sprite are all single U. On turn 3 we want to have the capacity to play UU for Vendilion Clique and so we can cast two spells if need be. According to the article you need 19 sources to have a 90% chance to do so, and we have 18 (Faerie Conclave is a bit dodgy because it etbs tapped but will come into play before or after turn 3 more often than on turn 3). Like most of us I decided to trade a slight amount of consistency for Mutavault. The deck actually has a reasonably high curve, but having too many lands can lead to mana flooding so 23 felt like just about right. I might put a basic Island back in if I find myself with too many cards in hand.
As for the other choices, Oboro, Palace in the Clouds can filter for blue from Pendelhaven and Mutavault. This is actually deceptively useful because often we don't hit every land drop so we can use this to spend a U and then bounce Oboro, replay it, and have one U up for counters. Also, you can use Oboro in a pinch to protect yourself from non-selective discard like Liliana of the Veil.
It occurred to me that Pendelhaven is great tech against a very popular utility in modern right now, Collective Brutality. It's good against Tarfire too which is popular because of Death's Shadow, and also Gut Shot. It is especially useful in keeping Scion of Oona alive which can be very important when you're trying to go wide (although it is a nonbo with Scion otherwise). Pendelhaven can give weenies a butt to help swing them into blockers or for deterring attacks. You can also use Minamo, School at Water's Edge to untap it to give two weenies a buff, which can be relevant especially in long games.
One of the main reasons I'm looking at running Minamo, School at Water's Edge is because I already own one and I can't see much reason not to. It's good with Pendelhaven, and it can untap Vendilion Clique as well. I also like to think that opponents spend time contemplating its significance when they could be concerning themselves with more important tactical questions
None of these cards do damage to us, so they keep that particular advantage of the deck intact. Although none of these cards have spectacular abilities they don't harm the deck's consistency, effectiveness or strategy in any significant way. To me it seems that just using basic Islands incurs an unnecessary opportunity cost.
As for some of the other suggestions going around, I decided against the ninjas as they are too tempo negative for my game plan while also being fairly conditional. I do like being able to recycle cards but having a smattering of bounce through Vapor Snag and 2 copies of Quickling is enough to get some recycling happening without compromising our clock a great deal.
I have Spell Snare in the sideboard. Although it's really quite strong it is narrow and I'd rather board it in while on the draw and against against non-creature decks for Vapor Snag. I might chuck a couple in the main if I find in testing that I need them.
Ghost Quarter is another card I'm keeping my eye on, for the moment I have Spreading Seas in the sideboard as too much colourless would compromise consistency and GQ is just not as important to our plan as Mutavault. I might eventually chuck one in the sideboard to board in for Pendelhaven against decks like UW control.
I've definitely gone for a playset of Mistbind Clique over running any Cryptic Command. Cryptic is an amazing card but it isn't a clock, and we want clocks at the top of our curve. It also is UUU, which according to that article requires 22 sources to cast @90% consistency. I only have 18 and so it could definitely spend time sitting in my hand for nought. Cryptic for me is a control card and doesn't do what I need it to here.
I'd be pretty keen to give Aether Vial a run, especially given that it is a sensational turn one play and we desperately lack any of those. Unfortunately I sold my playset a while back for $100 like a chump. I do wonder how they'd go with our critters' cmcs being quite spread out.
I am also considering Smuggler's Copter as a possible 2 of, I like the looting and the aggro nature of the card but needing to be piloted has me wondering if it could end up becoming nasty tempo loss when someone fatal Pushes the only driver and it sits there like a lump. Worth a crack though it absolutely lit up standard!
I'd love to hear peoples' ideas about how to sideboard with the deck, and whether I've gone off the rails with my land choices.
I identified a few opportunities in the mana base. Most decks seem to fun as many as 18 basic Islands which doesn't seem to be leveraging that prime real estate like it could. Of course you want to avoid getting hit too hard by Blood Moon, but the spells in the deck are not too mana intensive and even with 14 basics I have a lot more than the average modern deck and should be able to play around a Moon (testing will have to be done to confirm this though).
In order to hit a blue mana source regularly on turn 1 you need to have 14 sources (obviously untapped) according to this awesome article. This deck (like many decks posted here) really only has an insanely low four first turn spells, Faerie Miscreant, but has 16 turn 1 blue sources. Turn two usually doesn't require UU, as Remand, Mana Leak and Spellstutter Sprite are all single U. On turn 3 we want to have the capacity to play UU for Vendilion Clique and so we can cast two spells if need be. According to the article you need 19 sources to have a 90% chance to do so, and we have 18 (Faerie Conclave is a bit dodgy because it etbs tapped but will come into play before or after turn 3 more often than on turn 3). Like most of us I decided to trade a slight amount of consistency for Mutavault. The deck actually has a reasonably high curve, but having too many lands can lead to mana flooding so 23 felt like just about right. I might put a basic Island back in if I find myself with too many cards in hand.
As for the other choices, Oboro, Palace in the Clouds can filter for blue from Pendelhaven and Mutavault. This is actually deceptively useful because often we don't hit every land drop so we can use this to spend a U and then bounce Oboro, replay it, and have one U up for counters. Also, you can use Oboro in a pinch to protect yourself from non-selective discard like Liliana of the Veil.
It occurred to me that Pendelhaven is great tech against a very popular utility in modern right now, Collective Brutality. It's good against Tarfire too which is popular because of Death's Shadow, and also Gut Shot. It is especially useful in keeping Scion of Oona alive which can be very important when you're trying to go wide (although it is a nonbo with Scion otherwise). Pendelhaven can give weenies a butt to help swing them into blockers or for deterring attacks. You can also use Minamo, School at Water's Edge to untap it to give two weenies a buff, which can be relevant especially in long games.
One of the main reasons I'm looking at running Minamo, School at Water's Edge is because I already own one and I can't see much reason not to. It's good with Pendelhaven, and it can untap Vendilion Clique as well. I also like to think that opponents spend time contemplating its significance when they could be concerning themselves with more important tactical questions
None of the cards do damage to us, so they keep that particular advantage of the deck intact. Although one of these cards have spectacular abilities they don't harm the deck's consistency, effectiveness or strategy in any significant way. To me it seems that just using basic Islands incurs an unnecessary opportunity cost.
As for some of the other suggestions going around, I decided against the ninjas as they are too tempo negative for my game plan while also being fairly conditional. I do like being able to recycle cards but having a smattering of bounce through Vapor Snag and 2 copies of Quickling is enough to get some recycling happening without compromising our clock a great deal.
I have Spell Snare in the sideboard. Although it's really quite strong it is narrow and I'd rather board it in while on the draw and against against non-creature decks for Vapor Snag. I might chuck a couple in the main if I find in testing that I need them.
Ghost Quarter is another card I'm keeping my eye on, for the moment I have Spreading Seas in the sideboard as too much colourless would compromise consistency and GQ is just not as important to our plan as Mutavault. I might eventually chuck one in the sideboard to board in for Pendelhaven against decks like UW control.
I've definitely gone for a playset of Mistbind Clique over running any Cryptic Command. Cryptic is an amazing card but it isn't a clock, and we want clocks at the top of our curve. It also is UUU, which according to that article requires 22 sources to cast @90% consistency. I only have 18 and so it could definitely spend time sitting in my hand for nought. Cryptic for me is a control card and doesn't do what I need it to here.
I'd be pretty keen to give Aether Vial a run, especially given that it is a sensational turn one play and we desperately lack any of those. Unfortunately I sold my playset a while back for $100 like a chump. I do wonder how they'd go with our critters' cmcs being quite spread out.
I am also considering Smuggler's Copter as a possible 2 of, I like the looting and the aggro nature of the card but needing to be piloted has me wondering if it could end up becoming nasty tempo loss when someone fatal Pushes the only driver and it sits there like a lump. Worth a crack though it absolutely lit up standard!
I'd love to hear peoples' ideas about how to sideboard with the deck, and whether I've gone off the rails with my land choices.
This actually makes a valid point about hitting UU by turn 3, and the fact that we run Spreading Seas in the side for land hate. I've been running a 22 land build,with 6 colorless. 3 Mutavault, 3 Ghost Quarter. Would I be better off taking the Ghost Quarter out for 3x Conclave? And even then, would 2x Conclave and an Island or just 3x Island be better, since they don't enter tapped and I already have manlands in the deck?
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Military Intelligence (like a cheaper version of Bident) is another option and also Mask of Memory (a cheaper Sword of Fire and Ice for the card draw aspect) but Smuggler's Copter seems like the best one as it helps with pressure and filters.
Has anyone tested Disrupting Shoal in this deck ?
It can be the second best counter for this deck after Remand (over Mana Leak or Rune Snag).
I'm rather skeptical about Censor as it is so easy to play around so it'll end up being a cantrip (like Reach Through Mists) most of the time
(I'd rather play Peek).
Ive actually thought about borrowing a trick from another blue tribe , Merfolk and playing a full 4 Spreading Seas and 4 Sea's Claim. The meta seems soft to enchantments and the draw/ disruption on Spreading seas is juicy. Big mana decks like Tron get hosed, can slow decks reliant on a color to finish, and makes Burn a lot more managable.
I'll agree a bit with Censor but I feel like someone in another thread explained it perfectly -- "Think of Censor mainly as a cantrip with an upside - that it may counter a spell at one point in the game". If you play it I don't think you should rely on its main ability, but instead use it as an instant-speed Serum Visions without the scry or Thought Scour without the mill. And instead it reads "pay additional 1 and counter target spell instead of draw". So I guess my question would be whether Faeries wants a cantrip in the first place and if so, which provides the more appealing upside -- scrying, hand information, buyback (Whispers of the Muse), counterspell, etc. I also think the new Hieroglyphic Illumination could act as a decent 'cantrip'/card draw spell.
I don't think that this deck wants cantrips (besides Remand which helps the tempo plan) so the cycle cards don't appeal to me.
I suggested Disrupting Shoal because it is probably the most suitable deck to take advantage of it since it is Mono Blue and relies on tempo rather than card advantage to win games which is exactly what D.Shoal is good at.
The card is rather tricky to play with as you need to asses the situation correctly when deciding to use it and effectively 2-for-1'ing yourself
(in the late game it can even be hardcast).
If you have Mistbind Clique as the decks finisher you can counter 4-cmc spells with D.Shoal.
Regarding Spreading Seas (Sea's Claim is just bad without Islandwalk), it is a very good card right now but I don't think that it fits in the maindick here as it is a sorcery speed spell while we don't want to tap out most of the time and play at instant speed most of our cards
(except for Faerie Miscreant and maybe Smuggler's Copter).
I'd definetely run the full 4x in the SB though.
Nykthos won't work well imho, it would need more blue mana symbols to really ramp.
Aether Vial is very good and I play it in my version to avoid flooding on lands and playing faeries for free while having counters mana up.
4 Scion of Oona
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Mistbind Clique
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Thassa, God of the sea
4 Faerie Miscreant
4 Aether Vial
4 Cloudstone Curio
4 Vapor Snag
2 Disperse
2 Dismember
4 Darkslick shores
4 Mutavault
12 Island
2 Creeping Tar Pit
Sideboard
3 Familiar's Ruse
2 Relics of Progenitus
4 Spreading Seas
4 Telepathy
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Mistbind Cliique
My current build...Strange but effective. I'll go into card choices and my thinking.
Cloudstone Curio- A bonkers card for a tribe whose Etb abilities are amongst Magic's most powerful. It make every fae into a potential Quickling, making some sweet lines of play. This and Vial do some absolutely absurd things at times. Repeatedly bouncing a Mistbind championing a V. Clique is lulz.
Aether Vial- One of the most unique effects in the game and powerful as hell. It saves you mana which you can then utilize reactively, proactively, and effectively.
Thaasa, God of the Sea- A draw filter attached to an indestructible 5/5 body is good for a control aggro build . While it might appear to be anti-synergistic with the typical single blue cost of the tribe and the bounce effects im exploiting, most of the time, she's a threat that must be answered by combat phase. Her lone vulnerability is Path. Which you can counter...
Sower of Temptation- Grabbing the biggest Eldrazi/ Goyf I can off a Vial wins a good percentage of the time.
Telepathy- I know, I know...noob move, but hear me out. A control build, especially one lighter on true kill spells, requires as much information as possible. Knowing what deck your opponent is playing is not the same thing as knowing exactly what your opponent is playing. It even removes the unknown variable of the topdeck, which can be a monumental advantage to control builds.
Thinking about it...it plays more of a control-bounce game early and switches gears after landing a big effect for recycling. Thoughts, suggestions, advice all appreciated.
It is the type of card that works much better in decks which have a lot of spare mana like Elves or Green Devotion and it is not even played there as much anymore.
If you want to have more bounce effects in the deck (but not overloading on them) then cards like: Familiar's Ruse, Ninja of the Deep Hours and Peel from Reality seem like better options which impact the board/stack unlike Cloudstone.C.
4x Quickling also seems a bit much as they are rather bad in multiples.
Disperse is a rather weak bounce spell, Boomerang/Echoing Truth (or Unsubstantiate) are basically strictly better (and more versatile) and I'd not run any of them in the maindeck (E.Truth is fine as a SB card though).
Also, your build doesn't seem to have any maindeck counters which will be a big problem if you don't draw your Spellstutter Sprites and the deck needs to have at least a set of Remand imho (and some more counters like Mana Leak/Spell Snare or Rune Snag) otherwise you are left with an underpowered creature deck with some bounce effects which would not be enough.
Thassa is cute but probably won't be a creature too often, I'd go for a 3rd Mistbind instead.
Telepathy seems like a waste of a slot, you can at least play Peek for this effect (in addition to V.Clique) to not go down on cards
(still not worth the SB slots imho).
4x Faerie Miscreant
3x Mausoleum Wanderer
3x Ninja of the Deep Hours
3x Snapcaster Mage
4x Spellstutter Sprite
2x Vendilion Clique
2x Venser, Shaper Savant
2x Cryptic Command
3x Mana Leak
3x Remand
3x Smuggler's Copter
2x Spell Snare
4x Vapor Snag
Land
18x Island
4x Mutavault
2x Dispel
2x Echoing Truth
1x Mana Leak
2x Negate
2x Pithing Needle
1x Remand
3x Spreading Seas
2x Unsubstantiate
I definitely think the synergy is there. Mausoleum wanderer can be replaced with another 1 drop like Judge's Familiar, Zephyr Sprite, Phantasmal Bear, Signal Pest, or even a 0 drop like Ornithopter. So far in my testing the deck is fun, but crumbles hard to midrange and big flyers. Removal really sucks in mono blue, and they are pretty much guaranteed to have a creature slip through counters at one point.
Also, I think Smuggler's Copter is a great addition to a mono blue list. It works well with Ninja of the Deep Hours. There's a pretty cool sequence when you go and attack with your 1 drop, ninja in, replay the 1 drop, and he's ready to crew the copter on the defense. There's also some dirty tricks with flashing a Spellstutter Sprite in to crew the copter for blocking on the swing back. Initially, I thought ninja and copter were overkill, but they actually compliment each other quite well. Since all of the other creatures are already flying, giving the ninja a form of equipment means he can still push through damage with a gummed up board.
Requesting drafts and feedback, both good and bad.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/65652
Playing: Modern UB Fae
The deck is rather low on faeries for a faeries list (most notably Scion of Oona).
Because the faerie count was so low, I decided against Scion of Oona and Mistbind Clique. I really wanted to fit mistbinds in there, they are an absolute beating. But the low faerie count and already crowded four drop spot (Cryptics, Venser, Snap + Counter) didn't help. I run Venser, Shaper Savant because his synergy with Ninja of the Deep Hours is absolutely bonkers, plus this deck just scoops to un-counterable removal like Abrupt Decay and Supreme Verdict. Venser works as an out for those.
But I think the inclusion of Smuggler's Copter, and in some cases, ninja, serve a similar purpose of "upgrading" our faeries. Scion turns our team into flying bears, where copter does copter things. It's also a different kind of threat which requires instant speed removal, and will survive sweepers. An example would be scion or copter vs wrath effects. A wrathed scion team means you lose your clock. A copter sitting on the board late game turns a top decked Faerie Miscreant into a 3/3 haste flying looter. In this case, we have a different set of threats which each require different kinds of answers. Hope that makes sense.
This is also another reason for running Venser over mistbind. Honestly playing Venser alone is really only good on the opponents turn. Having a coper on the board means I can feel less bad about main phasing a Venser to bounce a fat blocker, have him crew, and open a path for ninja or snap beats.
But I'll definitely play around with numbers and see how things go.
Requesting drafts and feedback, both good and bad.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/65652
Playing: Modern UB Fae
4x Faerie Miscreant
3x Mistbind Clique
3x Scion of Oona
3x Snapcaster Mage
4x Spellstutter Sprite
2x Vendilion Clique
2x Cryptic Command
3x Mana Leak
4x Remand
4x Smuggler's Copter
2x Spell Snare
4x Vapor Snag
3x Faerie Conclave
15x Island
4x Mutavault
It's very clear that Mistbind Clique is a strong card, much stronger than Venser in my opinion. But it's also a more swingy card. Mistbind creates blowouts for both sides, either basically winning you the game or getting yourself 2-for-1'ed while you tap out. Sure, you could wait until you have 5 lands with a mutavault out, or have extra fae on the board, but this puts us in the crosshair for wraths and sweepers. On the other hand, Ninja is another swingy card which takes over the game if left unchecked. Is he really tempo gain? Turning a Miscreant's 1 damage into 2 and draw a card for 2 mana, as well as requiring you to replay the faerie later (could be both a good and bad thing) is kinda negative tempo. We can always chuck extra snags, snares or pierces at them with the extra 1 or 2 mana and cards lying around, and even more with snaps. Unfortunately we don't have access to Lightning Bolt, so turn-3 snap-bolting them to advance the game isn't an option. But he also has some (three!) requirements: another creature, that is attacking, and isn't blocked.
I'm slightly hesitant to run scions though, since looking at a lot of UB and UR lists often don't run him. He's a bit of a win-more card, and I think the "upgrading your faeries" has already been covered by smuggler's copter (or Mistbind or Ninja). But on the other hand, he is a 1/1 who can crew the copter and never have to risk himself. I just feel iffy playing a mediocre card to make bad cards good, instead of playing just solid cards on their own. Here's my dilemma: Are people going to be playing Abrupt Decay on our sprites and miscreants? If they do, isn't that already advantageous for us? We're trading one to two mana for two, and our Faeries have already done their job through ETB effects. The dream of double scion falls a bit into magical christmas land, and you'd basically have to do nothing on turn 3, flash him in end of their turn, then play another copy main phase of your turn to swing with the team. How is that better than just playing a land and Mistbinding them during their upkeep? The army of 3/3 (which realistically may be only 1 or 2 faeries with the nut draw) which all still die to wraths or sweepers, when a Mistbind instead would lock them out of it. Sure, we can flash a scion to protect a mistbind or vendilion clique, but aren't we already winning at that point? Perhaps scions could be good sideboard tech against decks with targeted removal like bolts, decays, paths, or in matchups where you just want to race faster rather than trying to save your creatures.
The next paragraph is very spikey (for you ultra competitive people):
When looking at Merfolk, they have ridiculous redundancy in their lords, who, by themselves, are actually OK creatures. A Lord of Atlantis on his own is a 2/2 for 2. Not a good card, but its not a liability. He can chump some tokens or trade fairly. The difference here is that merfolk has 8 of these. Scion is a 3 mana 1/1. It's pitiful by itself, dies to everything, and needs another creature to put an additional 1 power and toughness on the field. Compare it to something like Spell Queller or even Dimensional Infiltrator. Queller puts a 2/3 flyer on the board, and delays a spell. Infiltrator puts 2 flying power on the board for 1 mana less. Scion is only really better than these when you go t1 miscreant, t2 spell stutter, t3 scion, where you end up with 5/5 split over 3 bodies. With spirits you could instead go t1 Mausoleum Wanderer, t2 Rattlechains or Selfless Spirit, t3 Drogskol Captain, where you have 7/6 on the board as well as other relevant buffs like flash, indestructible, or being to able to counter stuff even when tapped out. If we want to play a mono blue lord deck, we should just play merfolk, or possibly UW spirits which still functions as a tempo deck, just a more disruptive protective one rather than counter magic based.
I think its quite clear that there are two ways that this deck could be taken: the scion/mistbind route, or the venser/ninja route. It's possible to go ninja/mistbind or ninja/mistbind/scion, but I would think any deck which brings a large amount of single target removal (in addition to the self-bounce with ninja) would brick all of our mistbinds.
Basically, I see it on a scale like this:
Scion + Mistbind = Aggressive, proactive tempo. Plays more linearly like Merfolk.
Venser + Ninja = Value, balanced tempo. Real aggro-control, with more interaction.
Blue-Black Faeries = Controlling, grindy tempo. Plays like a midrange deck.
But of course more opinions and testing are needed. Is Venser, Shaper Savant good enough for modern? Are Scion of Oona and Mistbind Clique too swingy or win-more? I am totally open to feedback and critiques on my thoughts and opinions on these topics.
And a point about Disrupting Shoal: It's a good card, but Fae already has issues with card advantage. Ninja Bear Delver runs 4 shoals, because it's creatures are 1 mana 2/2's or 3/2 flyers who can set a very fast clock on their own. We have an army of 1/1s. NBD also runs 4 Ninjas to to recoup the card disadvantage from shoal. That deck has fallen a bit off recently, especially with the banning of Gitaxian Probe. Knowing their hand means you can know what to pitch to shoal. Peek isn't as good as probe, and I don't think we have space for it either. But I also have not tried it.
And a point about Smuggler's Copter: Don't run less than 3 of these. Ideally, 4. You want these every game, and seeing multiples of them isn't a problem. Just loot them away with the triggers. On a bunch of my games, I've gone turn t1 island, t2 mutavault + copter, t3 vault goes in the copter and bashes, drop an island with spell snare/pierce/snag as backup. It's not a great draw by any means, but it establishes a clock and can really hurt slower decks who stumble on mana or with clunky draws.
Requesting drafts and feedback, both good and bad.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/65652
Playing: Modern UB Fae
Does no one use the Quickling infinite block chain? I can't be the only one aware of it. Its the reason to play them in multiplea. Block with one, bounce with another to save the first.
I will admit the lack of maindeck counters is odd. But Im finding in the current meta, most of my matches are fast aggro decks that dont swarm as much as beating down with one to three threats. We don't have the creature firepower to take a game in four turns barring our opponent running horribly. By default, we are more or less midrange. Thua, my gameplan is simple: prevent my opponents from sticking more than one creature for four turns. At that point, usually i've drawn into either Mistind, V. Clique, or Scion ( or some combination thereof) allowing me to close thw game. Its a far more patient playstyle with most turns early being a land play and pass, Curio is dropped turn four or later, almost without exception, bluffing a 1 mana counter, which works a better percentage of the time than not. Obviously Vial goes pretty much when drawn.
The inclusion of more counters i feel, would be better postboard. I can't be the only one playing this deck who bluffs counters. Its one of the advantages of playing a deck without an established list. You can go lighter on counters simply due to the expectation of their appearance. Also this gameplan creates pressure on your opponent to make every land drop for the first four turns.
Otherwise, you'll typically draw into one of your better fae and beat down. I appreciate the feedback though.
P.S. My list seems more creature heavy as well. Is that wherw we need to go? If so, why not splash black for BB and Push?
I think quickling and curio are solid and possibly underrated as you have mentioned. The amount of value you can get with repeated use of all of your ETB effects produces an insane amount of value, which is exactly what a control deck wants: value. I don't think its wrong by any means (it is winning, right?), but more that I think this deck is actually very flexible and can be built in a number of different ways to suit the pilot as well as the local meta. If anything curio sounds crazy good with snaps, and could even replace the ninja's in my list.
Requesting drafts and feedback, both good and bad.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/65652
Playing: Modern UB Fae
BWTokensBW
RWBurnRW
UFaeriesU
If you want a better late game application going with 4x Rune Snag can be a good option.
Rune Snag is good, but it's also really limiting in the fact that you NEED to run 4 of them, and you CANNOT run them with snaps. This makes sideboarding awkward when you might need to cut 1 or 2, but in doing so makes them significantly weaker. It also fails horribly to GY hate. Mana Leak is much more flexible and allows you to play with numbers and not be locked in to any specific card count. Spell Snare is amazing, and gives you things to do turn 1 on the draw. It's also got some solid synergy with snaps in on turn 3.
Mutavault is necessary in non-budget builds. You could honestly probably cut Ghost Quarter and run some Spreading Seas in the side to fight against manlands, tron, and valakut. In my lists, I run something like 21 lands, with them being 15 islands, 4 vaults, and 2 Faerie Conclave. The power of mutavault cannot be understated. Being able to tap one and activate itself to resolve a Mistbind Clique, or add extra reach to your SSS counters. It can help against blowouts when you trigger SSS's ETB effect, only to have your opponent respond by bolting it turning your trigger into "counter spell with cmc 0 or less." An extra vault on the field turns that into 1 or less, even after your faerie dies.
Requesting drafts and feedback, both good and bad.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/65652
Playing: Modern UB Fae
4 Faerie Conclave
3 Ghost Quarter
15 Island
Instants (12)
2 Mana Leak
4 Remand
2 Spell Snare
4 Vapor Snag
1 Faerie Impostor
4 Faerie Miscreant
4 Mistbind Clique
3 Pestermite
4 Quickling
4 Scion of Oona
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Dispel
2 Dragon's Claw
1 Echoing Truth
3 Negate
2 Pithing Needle
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Spreading Seas
We'll see how it goes, but the first set of upgrades, besides tuning the sideboard for the LGS, will be replacing the Ghost Quarters and at least some of the Faerie Conclaves with Mutavaults. At the same time, I'll likely drop Faerie Impostor and a Mistbind Clique for 2 Cryptic Commands, and may end up dropping more Conclaves for Islands just to have more untapped blue sources. We'll see on later upgrades, but Snapcaster Mage and probably an extra Cryptic Command in place of the Quicklings and/or Pestermites is one possible direction.
Several people have suggested slotting in Smuggler's Copter, and I have 3 available. Any suggestions what I'd put them in place of in either the current deck or as part of later upgrades?
I think you are correct in that ruling regarding Copter + Quickling. But you'd have to return the copter to your hand at the end of the effects.
Also, I think you could slot in 3 Copter's in your list in the meantime by dropping 1 Faerie Impostor, and maybe 1 or 2 pestermites or quicklings depending on your taste.
Requesting drafts and feedback, both good and bad.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/65652
Playing: Modern UB Fae
In terms of the rules, I don't have to pick up Copter - instead I could choose to sacrifice Quickling once it had crewed the Copter if I really needed the loot and/or 3/3 blocker. There's obviously a blowout risk, but it would be interesting...
14 Island
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
4 Mutavault
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Pendelhaven
2 Faerie Conclave
Creatures
4 Faerie Miscreant
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Scion of Oona
3 Pestermite
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Quickling
4 Remand
4 Mana Leak
4 Vapor Snag
1 Disrupting Shoal
1 Dismember
4 Spreading Seas
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Spellskite
2 Dispel
2 Spell Snare
I identified a few opportunities in the mana base. Most decks seem to fun as many as 18 basic Islands which doesn't seem to be leveraging that prime real estate like it could. Of course you want to avoid getting hit too hard by Blood Moon, but the spells in the deck are not too mana intensive and even with 14 basics I have a lot more than the average modern deck and should be able to play around a Moon (testing will have to be done to confirm this though).
In order to hit a blue mana source regularly on turn 1 you need to have 14 sources (obviously untapped) according to this awesome article. This deck (like many decks posted here) really only has an insanely low four first turn spells, Faerie Miscreant, but has 16 turn 1 blue sources. Turn two usually doesn't require UU, as Remand, Mana Leak and Spellstutter Sprite are all single U. On turn 3 we want to have the capacity to play UU for Vendilion Clique and so we can cast two spells if need be. According to the article you need 19 sources to have a 90% chance to do so, and we have 18 (Faerie Conclave is a bit dodgy because it etbs tapped but will come into play before or after turn 3 more often than on turn 3). Like most of us I decided to trade a slight amount of consistency for Mutavault. The deck actually has a reasonably high curve, but having too many lands can lead to mana flooding so 23 felt like just about right. I might put a basic Island back in if I find myself with too many cards in hand.
As for the other choices, Oboro, Palace in the Clouds can filter for blue from Pendelhaven and Mutavault. This is actually deceptively useful because often we don't hit every land drop so we can use this to spend a U and then bounce Oboro, replay it, and have one U up for counters. Also, you can use Oboro in a pinch to protect yourself from non-selective discard like Liliana of the Veil.
It occurred to me that Pendelhaven is great tech against a very popular utility in modern right now, Collective Brutality. It's good against Tarfire too which is popular because of Death's Shadow, and also Gut Shot. It is especially useful in keeping Scion of Oona alive which can be very important when you're trying to go wide (although it is a nonbo with Scion otherwise). Pendelhaven can give weenies a butt to help swing them into blockers or for deterring attacks. You can also use Minamo, School at Water's Edge to untap it to give two weenies a buff, which can be relevant especially in long games.
One of the main reasons I'm looking at running Minamo, School at Water's Edge is because I already own one and I can't see much reason not to. It's good with Pendelhaven, and it can untap Vendilion Clique as well. I also like to think that opponents spend time contemplating its significance when they could be concerning themselves with more important tactical questions
None of these cards do damage to us, so they keep that particular advantage of the deck intact. Although none of these cards have spectacular abilities they don't harm the deck's consistency, effectiveness or strategy in any significant way. To me it seems that just using basic Islands incurs an unnecessary opportunity cost.
As for some of the other suggestions going around, I decided against the ninjas as they are too tempo negative for my game plan while also being fairly conditional. I do like being able to recycle cards but having a smattering of bounce through Vapor Snag and 2 copies of Quickling is enough to get some recycling happening without compromising our clock a great deal.
I have Spell Snare in the sideboard. Although it's really quite strong it is narrow and I'd rather board it in while on the draw and against against non-creature decks for Vapor Snag. I might chuck a couple in the main if I find in testing that I need them.
Ghost Quarter is another card I'm keeping my eye on, for the moment I have Spreading Seas in the sideboard as too much colourless would compromise consistency and GQ is just not as important to our plan as Mutavault. I might eventually chuck one in the sideboard to board in for Pendelhaven against decks like UW control.
I've definitely gone for a playset of Mistbind Clique over running any Cryptic Command. Cryptic is an amazing card but it isn't a clock, and we want clocks at the top of our curve. It also is UUU, which according to that article requires 22 sources to cast @90% consistency. I only have 18 and so it could definitely spend time sitting in my hand for nought. Cryptic for me is a control card and doesn't do what I need it to here.
I'd be pretty keen to give Aether Vial a run, especially given that it is a sensational turn one play and we desperately lack any of those. Unfortunately I sold my playset a while back for $100 like a chump. I do wonder how they'd go with our critters' cmcs being quite spread out.
I am also considering Smuggler's Copter as a possible 2 of, I like the looting and the aggro nature of the card but needing to be piloted has me wondering if it could end up becoming nasty tempo loss when someone fatal Pushes the only driver and it sits there like a lump. Worth a crack though it absolutely lit up standard!
I'd love to hear peoples' ideas about how to sideboard with the deck, and whether I've gone off the rails with my land choices.
This actually makes a valid point about hitting UU by turn 3, and the fact that we run Spreading Seas in the side for land hate. I've been running a 22 land build,with 6 colorless. 3 Mutavault, 3 Ghost Quarter. Would I be better off taking the Ghost Quarter out for 3x Conclave? And even then, would 2x Conclave and an Island or just 3x Island be better, since they don't enter tapped and I already have manlands in the deck?
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