Everywhere AV, one of th cards should be Ancestral Vision, but I didn't brought them with me. Therefore, I added some more creature hand and grindy stuff instead.
I also noticed that Collected Company decks play less and less Voice of Resurgence nowadays, because Nahiri is still popular. That trend might slide the matchup in our favour (>50%). The coco match (Archangel, no Voices) was surprisingly comfortable. I didn't see any Kalitas or Cages in game 2.
I like the mainboard. Are you not a fan of Liliana, the last hope in the sideboard? It seems like it replaces liliana of the veil in her bad matchups.
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On mtgsalvation people don't want to discuss ideas, so I give people something else to discuss: my controversial opinions.
Everywhere AV, one of th cards should be Ancestral Vision, but I didn't brought them with me. Therefore, I added some more creature hand and grindy stuff instead.
I also noticed that Collected Company decks play less and less Voice of Resurgence nowadays, because Nahiri is still popular. That trend might slide the matchup in our favour (>50%). The coco match (Archangel, no Voices) was surprisingly comfortable. I didn't see any Kalitas or Cages in game 2.
I like the mainboard. Are you not a fan of Liliana, the last hope in the sideboard? It seems like it replaces liliana of the veil in her bad matchups.
Now that is very controversial.
Kidding.
In testing, The Last Hope indeed performed better wherever The Veil lacked, while in matches where The Veil is stronger, The Last Hope fails to impress.
It as a sideboard would be fine if it were better against Zoo. Card is great against affinity, coco and elves. But sadly not much else. It is completely dull in combo matches.
The problem is that there are many more matches where The Veil > Last Hope, which include Burn and Jund. Both are good against Infect, but of course the Last Hope is more appealing there.
I still have one in the tester spot in the sideboard . Note sure if it will last....
For future tweaking, I put together a VERY ROUGH spreadsheet with the current expected metagame and what I imagine our matchup percentages are. These are VERY VERY rough.
I also tested to see if switching in an extirpate for a snapcaster in the main deck would help, as a trial run for other tweaks. It doesn't - snapcaster is clearly the better card.
Updated decklist. Going to GP Indy so if any of you all are going we could do another meet up. Anyway feedback is appreciated as always. Decided removal needed to be more consistent. I think of go for the throat as a terminate. Also, thanks mtgprice for the detailed analysis on our matchups. It was very well put together.
But I am posting mainly to show you guys that my dream happened. I play 1 Bribery SB, and finally,I got their Emrakrul.
Summary
2-0 v. Shadow Aggro/ Don't know what you guys think, but I feel we are extremely favored against this deck. Although they play Wild Nec. the fact that they rely on pump spells instead of direct burn spells makes this match up akin to infect. And i think we are well already positioned against infect.
1-2 v Affinity ( was super close)Honestly, for me this is a favorable matchup. Probably b/c I used to play affinity. I might have played 10 times, and only lost 3. Remember, go for the throat is not a dead spell. If you are racing, and they got the lifelink guy with a plating, block and kill your own creature. That always catches them with surprise. Other than, ofc, go for the throat is total junk.
2-1 v. Elves ( this one was kind of a freebie, we were 1-1 then he timed out)I got lucky this whole game. I was about to die, but I topdecked a damnation, then he/she timed out. This is a tough match up. If you cant stop them early, they just over run you. I am not sure about SSS in this matchup, I think its bad and too slow.
2-1 Eldrazi/Taxes Got this one, but normally i lose to this deck. Do you guys have tips on the eldrazi/taxes fusion deck? Or the eldrazi deck for that matter? I always lose to this. My friend plays it, so I got some practice in, but still, its really tough.
2-1 v Jeskai Nahiri, what can I say, Bribery on Emrakrul is great. however, its hard to do, I had to dissect their hand with IoK, then still relied on a dispel to save bribery. honestly, I recomend one bribery in the SB against various decks, but specficially against jeskai, its really hard to resolve without having knowledge and being prepared to cast it.
>Mefolk - I've heard Merfolk was a counter pick to Faeries. I've personally found this match up really rough due to them blanking our counters through Cavern of Souls and Aether Vial on top of all the unblockable fish. I think our postboard matchup is a bit better if we trim the counters for more sweeper effects, but I had the match up mostly in their favour.
The trick with Merfolk is to never play an island unless you absolutely have to - fetch swamps if you need to fetch and prioritize any other land over an island. I sometimes skip land drops entirely if it means skipping an island. Counter their spreading seas too. You need to put a clock on them or they will draw out.
Remember to Vendilion Clique in response to Vial activation - you can sometimes take their only card with that casting cost. Also, very important: Lord of Atlantis makes your Mutavault's 3/3 islandwalkers!
Once you do that, assuming you run 6-7 removal, you can do okay.
Post-board, I size out most but not all my of counterspells for 3xDamnation, 2xEngineered Explosives and a Dismember. I also run three maindeck Kalitas. Mistbind Clique is pretty weak as well because of Vial.
The biggest pre-board issue with Shadow is whether or not they got to Thoughtseize us when we have a disruption-light hand or if they get a double Nactal ahnd.
> 2-1 Eldrazi/Taxes Got this one, but normally i lose to this deck. Do you guys have tips on the eldrazi/taxes fusion deck? Or the eldrazi deck for that matter? I always lose to this. My friend plays it, so I got some practice in, but still, its really tough.
I am up to three damnation in the SB and I find both the elves and the Eldrazi deck much easier to beat.
Kill their hierarch and try to mana leak their first Thought-Knot Seer. Use Bitterblossom to chump their bigger creatures and try to save a random card to discard when you need to kill their reality smasher.
Because of decks like this, I revamped my main deck to run 3xKalitas and seven maindeck removal spells, moving AV to the board. This change, coupled with the three damnation and the extra Disfigure in the board is enough to make the matchup 50/50 or better.
Faeries has a great game against combo and control. We also have a good game against infect and a decent game against affinity - Bitterblossom is a house against those decks. Burn is okay if you are careful to never let your Spellstutter Sprite get Searing Blaze'd (I'd say it's actually slightly favorable now that I run 3xKalitas maindeck) but we tend to lose to the following:
1. Gaveyard-recursion (Dredge, but also Tron with recurring Wurms)
2. Big, efficient creatures, backed with disruption, like Tarmogoyf, Thought-Knot Seer, Seige Rhino (this is why 3x Kalitas and 7 maindeck removal with a snapcaster is good).
3. Decks that go wide (elves, merfolk, allies as well as Lingering Souls and BW Tokens) or have hard to kill creatures (Lotleth Troll, Reality Smasher, Boggles). That is why I am up to 3x Damnation as well as the 2xEE.
i/taxes fusion deck? Or the eldrazi deck for that matter? I always lose to this. My friend plays it, so I got some practice in, but still, its really tough.
I have playtested this MU a ton and I have to say that it is quite hard to win. However a T2 BB usually wins you the game.
My tips are:
If they jam vial in, if you can just EoT play those SSS as they will be good blockers.
Board in as many removals and mass removals as possible, EE is great in the MU.
If you have difigures then great, use those for the small dudes, always hold big removal for their TKS. You can block small dudes with tokens or trade with VC but there is almost no other way for you to kill their TKS and it is one of the greatest threats.
If they have vial at 3 and u have cards in exile, NEVER Mistbind clique without a back up faerie, you will get screwed.
IF you have AV mainboard, board it out.
> 2-1 Eldrazi/Taxes Got this one, but normally i lose to this deck. Do you guys have tips on the eldrazi/taxes fusion deck? Or the eldrazi deck for that matter? I always lose to this. My friend plays it, so I got some practice in, but still, its really tough.
I am up to three damnation in the SB and I find both the elves and the Eldrazi deck much easier to beat.
Kill their hierarch and try to mana leak their first Thought-Knot Seer. Use Bitterblossom to chump their bigger creatures and try to save a random card to discard when you need to kill their reality smasher.
Because of decks like this, I revamped my main deck to run 3xKalitas and seven maindeck removal spells, moving AV to the board. This change, coupled with the three damnation and the extra Disfigure in the board is enough to make the matchup 50/50 or better.
Faeries has a great game against combo and control. We also have a good game against infect and a decent game against affinity - Bitterblossom is a house against those decks. Burn is okay if you are careful to never let your Spellstutter Sprite get Searing Blaze'd (I'd say it's actually slightly favorable now that I run 3xKalitas maindeck) but we tend to lose to the following:
1. Gaveyard-recursion (Dredge, but also Tron with recurring Wurms)
2. Big, efficient creatures, backed with disruption, like Tarmogoyf, Thought-Knot Seer, Seige Rhino (this is why 3x Kalitas and 7 maindeck removal with a snapcaster is good).
3. Decks that go wide (elves, merfolk, allies as well as Lingering Souls and BW Tokens) or have hard to kill creatures (Lotleth Troll, Reality Smasher, Boggles). That is why I am up to 3x Damnation as well as the 2xEE.
> 2-1 Eldrazi/Taxes Got this one, but normally i lose to this deck. Do you guys have tips on the eldrazi/taxes fusion deck? Or the eldrazi deck for that matter? I always lose to this. My friend plays it, so I got some practice in, but still, its really tough.
I am up to three damnation in the SB and I find both the elves and the Eldrazi deck much easier to beat.
Kill their hierarch and try to mana leak their first Thought-Knot Seer. Use Bitterblossom to chump their bigger creatures and try to save a random card to discard when you need to kill their reality smasher.
Because of decks like this, I revamped my main deck to run 3xKalitas and seven maindeck removal spells, moving AV to the board. This change, coupled with the three damnation and the extra Disfigure in the board is enough to make the matchup 50/50 or better.
Faeries has a great game against combo and control. We also have a good game against infect and a decent game against affinity - Bitterblossom is a house against those decks. Burn is okay if you are careful to never let your Spellstutter Sprite get Searing Blaze'd (I'd say it's actually slightly favorable now that I run 3xKalitas maindeck) but we tend to lose to the following:
1. Gaveyard-recursion (Dredge, but also Tron with recurring Wurms)
2. Big, efficient creatures, backed with disruption, like Tarmogoyf, Thought-Knot Seer, Seige Rhino (this is why 3x Kalitas and 7 maindeck removal with a snapcaster is good).
3. Decks that go wide (elves, merfolk, allies as well as Lingering Souls and BW Tokens) or have hard to kill creatures (Lotleth Troll, Reality Smasher, Boggles). That is why I am up to 3x Damnation as well as the 2xEE.
I am using 3x Negate against decks like Scapeshift and Ad Nauseum that have a spell that simply needs to be countered.
I love that simple sideboard game. Please share how it does in future games.
Agreed. Great looking board.
mtgprice - do you have your current 75 posted anywhere that we could take a look at? Three maindeck Kalitas sounds a little greedy to me, but hey, whatever works.
3 Mutavault (!)
3 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Polluted Delta
2 Island
2 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
2 River of Tears
3 Ghost Quarter (!)
1 "must control swamp or island or comes into play tapped" land
This is not a normal Faeries build, obviously. The three maindeck Kalitas are in there as a result of a LOT of playtesting where I found myself wanting more and more mainboard Kalitas in almost every matchup. Once I'd decided on three, adding a seventh removal spell seemed important to maximize his utility. With this many Kalitas, I both ant to, and can afford to, run three Thoughtseize since the lifegain is often helpful and because I only want to tap out on turn four if my opponent lacks a removal spell, so discard is extra-important.
AV belongs in the side right now - just look over the current metagame % and make this descision for yourself. You want it maindeck against Jund, Junk, Nahiri and a few others, but you want Kalitas in against most of the rest of the field, and even against Jund and Junk, Kalitas is pretty good.
I am running a Tasigur over the second Mistbind. The reason for this is that I am running fewer faeries than before and I hate having Mistbind stuck in my hand. In addition, so many decks have instant removal that Mistbind can almost never be case on turn four. Tasigur is a cheap threat (often one mana later in the game) that can block most of our biggest threats (Thought-Knot, Tarmogoyf, Seige Rhino, THRUN, THE LAST TROLL etc.) forever, as well as generating card advantage if we need it and it's a fine topdeck on an empty board.
The reduction to one Mistbind got me worried about the Tron matchup. I sometimes ran a third Ghost quarter in the SB bit I was both running out of room and kind of wanted it maindeck so I pulled a mutavault for a third GQ. This may be crazy, but with only one Mistbind, the only other use for Mutavault except for beating face is Spellstutter. It's also good against affinity and infect and, comically, against DnT - nothing like going first, having them play a leonin arbiter on turn two after you play a BB and then double stripmining the prison deck
I'm sold on seven maindeck removal spells - I want five hard removal for things like Tarmogoyf and Thought-Knot seer, especially in a Kalitas deck. I kind of want and eighth but I felt Snapcaster was better. NOTE: If you are trying to choose between snapcaster and a 7th removal spell, go with removal - too often I didn't have a removal spell to target with snapcaster when I only had six spells.
The sideboard Extirpate is against Dredge although they are also good against Tron to stop recurring Wurms and (equally important) with the three maindeck Ghost Quarter to completely remove their ability to hit Tron. I put 2-3 in against decks like Grixis Control and CoCo as well. They are also spectacular against combo decks like Ad Nauseum and Scapeshift. It's sometimes good to bring them in against Valakult decks in general as well, especially if you can use them with Ghost Quarter.
3x Negate is in over 1 Dispel, 2 Negate because sometimes there are decks that simply need a hard counterspell (Scapeshift is one example).
3x Damnation is for all the reasons I mentioned above.
3 Mutavault (!)
3 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Polluted Delta
2 Island
2 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
2 River of Tears
3 Ghost Quarter (!)
1 "must control swamp or island or comes into play tapped" land
This is not a normal Faeries build, obviously. The three maindeck Kalitas are in there as a result of a LOT of playtesting where I found myself wanting more and more mainboard Kalitas in almost every matchup. Once I'd decided on three, adding a seventh removal spell seemed important to maximize his utility. With this many Kalitas, I both ant to, and can afford to, run three Thoughtseize since the lifegain is often helpful and because I only want to tap out on turn four if my opponent lacks a removal spell, so discard is extra-important.
AV belongs in the side right now - just look over the current metagame % and make this descision for yourself. You want it maindeck against Jund, Junk, Nahiri and a few others, but you want Kalitas in against most of the rest of the field, and even against Jund and Junk, Kalitas is pretty good.
I am running a Tasigur over the second Mistbind. The reason for this is that I am running fewer faeries than before and I hate having Mistbind stuck in my hand. In addition, so many decks have instant removal that Mistbind can almost never be case on turn four. Tasigur is a cheap threat (often one mana later in the game) that can block most of our biggest threats (Thought-Knot, Tarmogoyf, Seige Rhino, THRUN, THE LAST TROLL etc.) forever, as well as generating card advantage if we need it and it's a fine topdeck on an empty board.
The reduction to one Mistbind got me worried about the Tron matchup. I sometimes ran a third Ghost quarter in the SB bit I was both running out of room and kind of wanted it maindeck so I pulled a mutavault for a third GQ. This may be crazy, but with only one Mistbind, the only other use for Mutavault except for beating face is Spellstutter. It's also good against affinity and infect and, comically, against DnT - nothing like going first, having them play a leonin arbiter on turn two after you play a BB and then double stripmining the prison deck
I'm sold on seven maindeck removal spells - I want five hard removal for things like Tarmogoyf and Thought-Knot seer, especially in a Kalitas deck. I kind of want and eighth but I felt Snapcaster was better. NOTE: If you are trying to choose between snapcaster and a 7th removal spell, go with removal - too often I didn't have a removal spell to target with snapcaster when I only had six spells.
The sideboard Extirpate is against Dredge although they are also good against Tron to stop recurring Wurms and (equally important) with the three maindeck Ghost Quarter to completely remove their ability to hit Tron. I put 2-3 in against decks like Grixis Control and CoCo as well. They are also spectacular against combo decks like Ad Nauseum and Scapeshift. It's sometimes good to bring them in against Valakult decks in general as well, especially if you can use them with Ghost Quarter.
3x Negate is in over 1 Dispel, 2 Negate because sometimes there are decks that simply need a hard counterspell (Scapeshift is one example).
3x Damnation is for all the reasons I mentioned above.
Absolutely fantastic write up here - thank you! I don't know that I'll run all of these numbers in exactly the same way, but it's great that this community feels willing to challenge preconceived notions about how the deck 'should' be.
I am running a Tasigur over the second Mistbind. The reason for this is that I am running fewer faeries than before and I hate having Mistbind stuck in my hand. In addition, so many decks have instant removal that Mistbind can almost never be case on turn four. Tasigur is a cheap threat (often one mana later in the game) that can block most of our biggest threats (Thought-Knot, Tarmogoyf, Seige Rhino, THRUN, THE LAST TROLL etc.) forever, as well as generating card advantage if we need it and it's a fine topdeck on an empty board.
The reduction to one Mistbind got me worried about the Tron matchup.
I would say, if you go for 1 Mistbind Clique then you might as well go for 0 and up the number of Vendilion Clique to 3. That way you have higher chances to have a proper beater for the Tron MU and even more disruption. It pairs better with SSS as well. Mistbind could potentially move to the SB or even removed completely.
Upping the number of VCs also allows you to remove the added thoughtseize and add another removal, in my opinion a Damnation. Damnation mainboard is just the best thing and I will keep saying that everytime. It just solves so many of our problems and balances our % that it is absolutely worth its spot. If you don't agree with the MB Damnation, you can always add the 2nd Snapcaster Mage.
3 Mutavault (!)
3 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Polluted Delta
2 Island
2 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
2 River of Tears
3 Ghost Quarter (!)
1 "must control swamp or island or comes into play tapped" land
This is not a normal Faeries build, obviously. The three maindeck Kalitas are in there as a result of a LOT of playtesting where I found myself wanting more and more mainboard Kalitas in almost every matchup. Once I'd decided on three, adding a seventh removal spell seemed important to maximize his utility. With this many Kalitas, I both ant to, and can afford to, run three Thoughtseize since the lifegain is often helpful and because I only want to tap out on turn four if my opponent lacks a removal spell, so discard is extra-important.
AV belongs in the side right now - just look over the current metagame % and make this descision for yourself. You want it maindeck against Jund, Junk, Nahiri and a few others, but you want Kalitas in against most of the rest of the field, and even against Jund and Junk, Kalitas is pretty good.
I am running a Tasigur over the second Mistbind. The reason for this is that I am running fewer faeries than before and I hate having Mistbind stuck in my hand. In addition, so many decks have instant removal that Mistbind can almost never be case on turn four. Tasigur is a cheap threat (often one mana later in the game) that can block most of our biggest threats (Thought-Knot, Tarmogoyf, Seige Rhino, THRUN, THE LAST TROLL etc.) forever, as well as generating card advantage if we need it and it's a fine topdeck on an empty board.
The reduction to one Mistbind got me worried about the Tron matchup. I sometimes ran a third Ghost quarter in the SB bit I was both running out of room and kind of wanted it maindeck so I pulled a mutavault for a third GQ. This may be crazy, but with only one Mistbind, the only other use for Mutavault except for beating face is Spellstutter. It's also good against affinity and infect and, comically, against DnT - nothing like going first, having them play a leonin arbiter on turn two after you play a BB and then double stripmining the prison deck
I'm sold on seven maindeck removal spells - I want five hard removal for things like Tarmogoyf and Thought-Knot seer, especially in a Kalitas deck. I kind of want and eighth but I felt Snapcaster was better. NOTE: If you are trying to choose between snapcaster and a 7th removal spell, go with removal - too often I didn't have a removal spell to target with snapcaster when I only had six spells.
The sideboard Extirpate is against Dredge although they are also good against Tron to stop recurring Wurms and (equally important) with the three maindeck Ghost Quarter to completely remove their ability to hit Tron. I put 2-3 in against decks like Grixis Control and CoCo as well. They are also spectacular against combo decks like Ad Nauseum and Scapeshift. It's sometimes good to bring them in against Valakult decks in general as well, especially if you can use them with Ghost Quarter.
3x Negate is in over 1 Dispel, 2 Negate because sometimes there are decks that simply need a hard counterspell (Scapeshift is one example).
3x Damnation is for all the reasons I mentioned above.
I would agree with everything in your list except for the 3 ghost quarter and 3 mutavault (I would do 4 muta/2 GQ), and only playing 1x mistbind. I am under the impression that mistbind clique is probably one of the best cards in our deck. I have had not too many problems resolving it since you can check their hand with clique or thoughtseize before hand. I would recommend playing at least 2 mistbinds just because of the sheer power it has on a 4/4 flying body which is important in closing out games. I love your sideboard and the 3 main deck kalitas has done wonders for me as well. It can win the game on its own. Anyway, great write up and hope testing continues to go well.
EDIT: @Ym1r I will definitely try a mb damnation with 2 in the side. It seems very good game 1. Similarly to how esper plays supreme verdict when things go bad.
I've been loving 1 damnation mb with 2 in the side. It makes CoCo, and merfolk stronger game 1 matchups in addition to other aggro. Plus we have the combo with kalitas right off the bat too.
I like the mainboard. Are you not a fan of Liliana, the last hope in the sideboard? It seems like it replaces liliana of the veil in her bad matchups.
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
Now that is very controversial.
Kidding.
In testing, The Last Hope indeed performed better wherever The Veil lacked, while in matches where The Veil is stronger, The Last Hope fails to impress.
It as a sideboard would be fine if it were better against Zoo. Card is great against affinity, coco and elves. But sadly not much else. It is completely dull in combo matches.
The problem is that there are many more matches where The Veil > Last Hope, which include Burn and Jund. Both are good against Infect, but of course the Last Hope is more appealing there.
I still have one in the tester spot in the sideboard
DECKS:
UB Faeries [Midrange/Tempo]
RWUGB Affinity[Aggro]
FAERIES TOO STRONK!!!1111
- Fae Prophecy, 201
5678I also tested to see if switching in an extirpate for a snapcaster in the main deck would help, as a trial run for other tweaks. It doesn't - snapcaster is clearly the better card.
Spreadsheet is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11c6sE_ust8CvyGdsI4D5lnbf6HXn_q2YZJ4unDnrDYg/edit#gid=1364926616
It's a good tool to use before making any further tweaks to you deck.
Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1365447257/magic-the-gathering-mtg-pricing-trading-and-collec
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Mistbind Clique
1 Snapcaster Mage
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Cryptic Command
3 Mana Leak
3 Go for the Throat
1 Smother
1 Murderous Cut
1 Dismember
1 Disfigure
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Bitterblossom
3 Island
1 Swamp
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Secluded Glen
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Polluted Delta
2 Watery Grave
4 Mutavault
2 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Ancestral Vision
3 Extirpate
2 Negate
2 Damnation
2 Engineered Explosives
UB Faeries
U Taking Turns
BGW Abzan Midrange
EDH Decks
MonoU Sakashima the Impostor and the Clone Army
UG Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
Dralnu, Lich LordUBR Kess, Dissident MageBut I am posting mainly to show you guys that my dream happened. I play 1 Bribery SB, and finally,I got their Emrakrul.
Summary
2-0 v. Shadow Aggro/ Don't know what you guys think, but I feel we are extremely favored against this deck. Although they play Wild Nec. the fact that they rely on pump spells instead of direct burn spells makes this match up akin to infect. And i think we are well already positioned against infect.
1-2 v Affinity ( was super close)Honestly, for me this is a favorable matchup. Probably b/c I used to play affinity. I might have played 10 times, and only lost 3. Remember, go for the throat is not a dead spell. If you are racing, and they got the lifelink guy with a plating, block and kill your own creature. That always catches them with surprise. Other than, ofc, go for the throat is total junk.
2-1 v. Elves ( this one was kind of a freebie, we were 1-1 then he timed out)I got lucky this whole game. I was about to die, but I topdecked a damnation, then he/she timed out. This is a tough match up. If you cant stop them early, they just over run you. I am not sure about SSS in this matchup, I think its bad and too slow.
2-1 Eldrazi/Taxes Got this one, but normally i lose to this deck. Do you guys have tips on the eldrazi/taxes fusion deck? Or the eldrazi deck for that matter? I always lose to this. My friend plays it, so I got some practice in, but still, its really tough.
2-1 v Jeskai Nahiri, what can I say, Bribery on Emrakrul is great. however, its hard to do, I had to dissect their hand with IoK, then still relied on a dispel to save bribery. honestly, I recomend one bribery in the SB against various decks, but specficially against jeskai, its really hard to resolve without having knowledge and being prepared to cast it.
The trick with Merfolk is to never play an island unless you absolutely have to - fetch swamps if you need to fetch and prioritize any other land over an island. I sometimes skip land drops entirely if it means skipping an island. Counter their spreading seas too. You need to put a clock on them or they will draw out.
Remember to Vendilion Clique in response to Vial activation - you can sometimes take their only card with that casting cost. Also, very important: Lord of Atlantis makes your Mutavault's 3/3 islandwalkers!
Once you do that, assuming you run 6-7 removal, you can do okay.
Post-board, I size out most but not all my of counterspells for 3xDamnation, 2xEngineered Explosives and a Dismember. I also run three maindeck Kalitas. Mistbind Clique is pretty weak as well because of Vial.
Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1365447257/magic-the-gathering-mtg-pricing-trading-and-collec
Post-board, watch out for Hooting Mandrills.
Overall, we are reasonably well equipped however.
Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1365447257/magic-the-gathering-mtg-pricing-trading-and-collec
I am up to three damnation in the SB and I find both the elves and the Eldrazi deck much easier to beat.
Kill their hierarch and try to mana leak their first Thought-Knot Seer. Use Bitterblossom to chump their bigger creatures and try to save a random card to discard when you need to kill their reality smasher.
Because of decks like this, I revamped my main deck to run 3xKalitas and seven maindeck removal spells, moving AV to the board. This change, coupled with the three damnation and the extra Disfigure in the board is enough to make the matchup 50/50 or better.
Faeries has a great game against combo and control. We also have a good game against infect and a decent game against affinity - Bitterblossom is a house against those decks. Burn is okay if you are careful to never let your Spellstutter Sprite get Searing Blaze'd (I'd say it's actually slightly favorable now that I run 3xKalitas maindeck) but we tend to lose to the following:
1. Gaveyard-recursion (Dredge, but also Tron with recurring Wurms)
2. Big, efficient creatures, backed with disruption, like Tarmogoyf, Thought-Knot Seer, Seige Rhino (this is why 3x Kalitas and 7 maindeck removal with a snapcaster is good).
3. Decks that go wide (elves, merfolk, allies as well as Lingering Souls and BW Tokens) or have hard to kill creatures (Lotleth Troll, Reality Smasher, Boggles). That is why I am up to 3x Damnation as well as the 2xEE.
My sideboard is remarkably simple now:
3x Negate
3x Extirpate
3x Damnation
3x Ancestral Vision
2x EE
1x Disfigure
I am using 3x Negate against decks like Scapeshift and Ad Nauseum that have a spell that simply needs to be countered.
Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1365447257/magic-the-gathering-mtg-pricing-trading-and-collec
I have playtested this MU a ton and I have to say that it is quite hard to win. However a T2 BB usually wins you the game.
My tips are:
If they jam vial in, if you can just EoT play those SSS as they will be good blockers.
Board in as many removals and mass removals as possible, EE is great in the MU.
If you have difigures then great, use those for the small dudes, always hold big removal for their TKS. You can block small dudes with tokens or trade with VC but there is almost no other way for you to kill their TKS and it is one of the greatest threats.
If they have vial at 3 and u have cards in exile, NEVER Mistbind clique without a back up faerie, you will get screwed.
IF you have AV mainboard, board it out.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
I love that simple sideboard game. Please share how it does in future games.
DECKS:
UB Faeries [Midrange/Tempo]
RWUGB Affinity[Aggro]
FAERIES TOO STRONK!!!1111
- Fae Prophecy, 201
5678Agreed. Great looking board.
mtgprice - do you have your current 75 posted anywhere that we could take a look at? Three maindeck Kalitas sounds a little greedy to me, but hey, whatever works.
3 Mutavault (!)
3 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Polluted Delta
2 Island
2 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
2 River of Tears
3 Ghost Quarter (!)
1 "must control swamp or island or comes into play tapped" land
3 Kalitas (!)
1 Mistbind (!)
1 Tasigur
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Spellstutter
1 Snapcaster Mage
3 IoK
3 Thoughtseize (!)
3 Mana Leak
2 Cryptic Command
4 Bitterblossom
2 Disfigure
2 Go For The Throat
1 Dismember
1 Murderous Cut
1 Slaughter Pact
SB:
3 Negate
3 Damnation
2 EE
1 Disfigure
3 Extirpate
3 Ancestral Vision
Weird choices have been marked with a (!).
This is not a normal Faeries build, obviously. The three maindeck Kalitas are in there as a result of a LOT of playtesting where I found myself wanting more and more mainboard Kalitas in almost every matchup. Once I'd decided on three, adding a seventh removal spell seemed important to maximize his utility. With this many Kalitas, I both ant to, and can afford to, run three Thoughtseize since the lifegain is often helpful and because I only want to tap out on turn four if my opponent lacks a removal spell, so discard is extra-important.
AV belongs in the side right now - just look over the current metagame % and make this descision for yourself. You want it maindeck against Jund, Junk, Nahiri and a few others, but you want Kalitas in against most of the rest of the field, and even against Jund and Junk, Kalitas is pretty good.
I am running a Tasigur over the second Mistbind. The reason for this is that I am running fewer faeries than before and I hate having Mistbind stuck in my hand. In addition, so many decks have instant removal that Mistbind can almost never be case on turn four. Tasigur is a cheap threat (often one mana later in the game) that can block most of our biggest threats (Thought-Knot, Tarmogoyf, Seige Rhino, THRUN, THE LAST TROLL etc.) forever, as well as generating card advantage if we need it and it's a fine topdeck on an empty board.
The reduction to one Mistbind got me worried about the Tron matchup. I sometimes ran a third Ghost quarter in the SB bit I was both running out of room and kind of wanted it maindeck so I pulled a mutavault for a third GQ. This may be crazy, but with only one Mistbind, the only other use for Mutavault except for beating face is Spellstutter. It's also good against affinity and infect and, comically, against DnT - nothing like going first, having them play a leonin arbiter on turn two after you play a BB and then double stripmining the prison deck
I'm sold on seven maindeck removal spells - I want five hard removal for things like Tarmogoyf and Thought-Knot seer, especially in a Kalitas deck. I kind of want and eighth but I felt Snapcaster was better. NOTE: If you are trying to choose between snapcaster and a 7th removal spell, go with removal - too often I didn't have a removal spell to target with snapcaster when I only had six spells.
The sideboard Extirpate is against Dredge although they are also good against Tron to stop recurring Wurms and (equally important) with the three maindeck Ghost Quarter to completely remove their ability to hit Tron. I put 2-3 in against decks like Grixis Control and CoCo as well. They are also spectacular against combo decks like Ad Nauseum and Scapeshift. It's sometimes good to bring them in against Valakult decks in general as well, especially if you can use them with Ghost Quarter.
3x Negate is in over 1 Dispel, 2 Negate because sometimes there are decks that simply need a hard counterspell (Scapeshift is one example).
3x Damnation is for all the reasons I mentioned above.
Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1365447257/magic-the-gathering-mtg-pricing-trading-and-collec
Absolutely fantastic write up here - thank you! I don't know that I'll run all of these numbers in exactly the same way, but it's great that this community feels willing to challenge preconceived notions about how the deck 'should' be.
Upping the number of VCs also allows you to remove the added thoughtseize and add another removal, in my opinion a Damnation. Damnation mainboard is just the best thing and I will keep saying that everytime. It just solves so many of our problems and balances our % that it is absolutely worth its spot. If you don't agree with the MB Damnation, you can always add the 2nd Snapcaster Mage.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
I would agree with everything in your list except for the 3 ghost quarter and 3 mutavault (I would do 4 muta/2 GQ), and only playing 1x mistbind. I am under the impression that mistbind clique is probably one of the best cards in our deck. I have had not too many problems resolving it since you can check their hand with clique or thoughtseize before hand. I would recommend playing at least 2 mistbinds just because of the sheer power it has on a 4/4 flying body which is important in closing out games. I love your sideboard and the 3 main deck kalitas has done wonders for me as well. It can win the game on its own. Anyway, great write up and hope testing continues to go well.
EDIT: @Ym1r I will definitely try a mb damnation with 2 in the side. It seems very good game 1. Similarly to how esper plays supreme verdict when things go bad.
UB Faeries
U Taking Turns
BGW Abzan Midrange
EDH Decks
MonoU Sakashima the Impostor and the Clone Army
UG Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
Dralnu, Lich LordUBR Kess, Dissident MageUB Faeries
U Taking Turns
BGW Abzan Midrange
EDH Decks
MonoU Sakashima the Impostor and the Clone Army
UG Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
Dralnu, Lich LordUBR Kess, Dissident MageKickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1365447257/magic-the-gathering-mtg-pricing-trading-and-collec
UB Faeries
U Taking Turns
BGW Abzan Midrange
EDH Decks
MonoU Sakashima the Impostor and the Clone Army
UG Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
Dralnu, Lich LordUBR Kess, Dissident MageKickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1365447257/magic-the-gathering-mtg-pricing-trading-and-collec
I run 7 removal and a snappy. 2 throat, 2 dismember, 1 disfigure, 1 slaughter pact, and 1 murderous cut.
UB Faeries
U Taking Turns
BGW Abzan Midrange
EDH Decks
MonoU Sakashima the Impostor and the Clone Army
UG Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
Dralnu, Lich LordUBR Kess, Dissident Mage