I wouldn't run Vendetta. Not only is there the whole self-injury thing going against it, it has the Doom Blade color restriction.
I'd give Pongify / Rapid Hybridization a chance before Vendetta.
I wouldn't run Vendetta. Not only is there the whole self-injury thing going against it, it has the color restriction.
I'd give Pongify / a chance before .
I can't wait to Pongify a Nacatl. Vendetta is here because i need a 1 cmc removal for cheap creatures in the firsts turns and Pongify is useless for this.
Without fetch/shocks the life loss doesn't matter too much in the long run.
- L
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"The problem isn't when Scissors says Rock is overpowered, it's when Paper says it is."
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Fair enough, but it's all fun and games until you've got a Bob to kill or some big fatty's applying relevant pressure on you.
I just wouldn't condone pissing life away in Faeries, it's a precious resource.
Plus I'd think the vanilla 3/3 is something you could chump for days if need be.
But hey, if it works, it works. Sometimes Vendetta really is more resource efficient than Dismember, for what it's worth.
What does Vendetta kill T1 that Disfigure doesn't? Even if Zoo is on the play, and gets Nacatl up to a 3/3 before you draw Disfigure T2, at that point you can just Go for the Throat/Agony Warp/Smother it. I don't see the benefit to Vendetta.
I did some more solo testing against Lantern's fast zoo list (shown below). I did 10 preboard games with Zoo on the play (I already did 10 preboard games with Faeries on the play and went 5-5). Faeries only won 3 times, and 1 of those times was after a mulligan to 2 from Zoo (1 land and a bunch of two-drops in the first hand, no lands in the next 4 hands, and 2 lands in the final hand). I'm going to try some postboard games next and see if I can beat Zoo with the Gifts Ungiven/Unburial Rites combo and Hibernation.
I noticed a few things that were different from when I was on the play.
1. Countermagic wasn't good enough. I think that I need to have Mana Tithe in there or possibly add some maindeck removal (maindeck Deathmarks don't look horrible in this meta).
2. Engineered Explosives was still good, even if it is worse on the draw. It saved me in at least 3 of the games. I have to recommend it in the maindeck of every faeries deck that isn't playing red.
3. Mistbind Clique was good, but it usually only stalled the Zoo player for a few turns and it couldn't attack since it was the one thing big enough to block the Zoo creatures.
4. Running 4 Mutavaults was much more useful than running Creeping Tar Pit.
5. Cryptic Command wasn't very good. It usually saved me for a turn (bounce+tap), but that wasn't good enough.
What does Vendetta kill T1 that Disfigure doesn't? Even if Zoo is on the play, and gets Nacatl up to a 3/3 before you draw Disfigure T2, at that point you can just Go for the Throat/Agony Warp/Smother it. I don't see the benefit to Vendetta.
I tested also Disfigure.
Tbh the main reason is that Vendetta is not dead after like 3-4 turns, when KotR and Resto start to happen.
All in all Disfigure is better than Vendetta in some spots, exactly as Dismember in some other spots, but Vendetta is, overall, better in more situations than the others two taken singly imho.
- L
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"The problem isn't when Scissors says Rock is overpowered, it's when Paper says it is."
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What does Vendetta kill T1 that Disfigure doesn't? Even if Zoo is on the play, and gets Nacatl up to a 3/3 before you draw Disfigure T2, at that point you can just Go for the Throat/Agony Warp/Smother it. I don't see the benefit to Vendetta.
I tested also Disfigure.
Tbh the main reason is that Vendetta is not dead after like 3-4 turns, when KotR and Resto start to happen.
All in all Disfigure is better than Vendetta in some spots, exactly as Dismember in some other spots, but Vendetta is, overall, better in more situations than the others two taken singly imho.
- L
You really don't want to be paying 4 life to kill Restoration Angel and possibly 5 or more to kill Knight of the Reliquary. I'd just run Dismember.
This is the same list I posted in the previous thread, still working very well.
This list is almost completely identical to the one I threw together when the unbanning was announced. I tweaked it a bit and came to almost entirely this list with about 4-5 cards different, pretty crazy that you and me are like 95% on the same page with faeries. I've decided to cut the edges and run 25 lands total. I haven't felt a need for tec edge yet and with 26 I always flood beyond my ability to attack with my man lands. I'm also running a single temple of deceit and a Pendelhaven. The pendelhaven may seem like it's a little too cute or a non-bo with scions, but I have been extremely impressed with it, especially in my opener. It allows your 1/1s to block a kird ape without dying and can double up to just eat them. It also gives you random value when attacking walkers like liliana and gives your opponent yet another random trick to keep in mind when playing.
For the mana base I've been in love with 4 river of tears and have not once been happy with the filter lands. I also agree that shocks/fetches are completely unecessary with only 2 colors.
On the topic of removal I hate having disfigures in the deck since there is almost nothing on turn 1 that you can kill with it of relevence since DRS is gone. And if you think that disfigure will ever actually kill a wild nacatl, you must be mistaken. I've been running a mix of GFtT, doom blade, and smother. The creatures I feel we should be most worried about are potentially wurm coils, resto angels, bobby, and everything from zoo. While GFtT is a dead card against affinity, I don't think having 2-3 is that bad since BB is so insane against them game 1 it almost doesn't matter. Almost.
I've also been trying bile blight lately as a 2-of and it's been about average. i think that it can eat all of the wurm coil engine tokens and can trash a heavy BTE draw makes me like it probably mroe than I should. But running it with "proper" removal like doom blade and GFtT may make them worth it. However the utility and "tricksy-ness" of agony warp is also worth talking about as it can sometimes be considered our pseudo lightning helix.
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figured I might as well post another list here, see what yall think. Ive been playing this as a more attrition based list, with a few suggestions for other styles after the list
Currently running
tragic slip has been super good. When bitterblossom is making chumpers, it kills anything. When you are on the offensive, you are doing well anyway. Think twice is the mid-late game draw engine I wanted to try in these lists for a while. It keeps with the control aspect of the deck, and can be cashed in early to hit land drops. As far as cryptic command goes, it just doesnt feel like (at least in my list) that i need it as a 4-of so one got trimmed.
Cards I've been thinking about vapor snag especially in more tempo based, snapcaster heavy decks this card seems really dumb.
bident of thassa Not too many, but as a singleton it seems really good sticking this and pushing your opponent to answer every creature. Similar to a sword, but 4 mana investment then nothing. On the same note, sword of fire and ice how about this as another draw engine? Seems good in the mirror and against naya as their bolts are no longer effective vs your weenies if it gets equipped.
You really don't want to be paying 4 life to kill Restoration Angel and possibly 5 or more to kill Knight of the Reliquary. I'd just run Dismember.
You totally miss my point. I'm not saying that vendetta is good at kill Resto i say that disfigure can't.
Dismember is better, sure, but in some spots it's pretty similar, i.e. if you have to maintain the land untapped for a counter war.
- L
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oooh, i actually kind of like think twice, this deck already sort of feels like previous standards uw flash lists(resto angel wincons, etc etc) and it does feel like it needs a cantrip of some sort, that fits in with the rest of the deck. i may try those.
Just got back from a GPT for Richmond. 23 players, 5 rounds. I took a UB Fae list I've been tweaking since the unbanning. Before the start I decided to drop the maindeck Scions I had been playing for 2 Swords and an Agony Warp. I also didn't get my River of Tears in time, so I threw in Watery Graves to make sure I could cast t1 discard. Registered the following:
Game 1: Get a pretty good opening, 3 lands, Bitterblossom, Spellstutter, double Mistbind. On the play, drop the turn 2 Bitterblossom when he only plays a Forest turn one. He plays an Elvish Visionary t2. I draw an Inquisition, look at his hand and see 2 Garruks, an E-Witness, and some inconsequential spells. Pull the E-Witness. Next turn draw a 3rd Mistbind with 4 mana up. Pretty easy lockout from there.
Game 2: Mulligan to 6. He drops a turn 2 Utopia Sprawl, which I promptly Spreading Seas (value!). Next turn I V-Clique to see among other things a Garruk, Genesis Wave, E-Witness. Throw back the Garruk. He gets stuck on 4 mana for a couple of turns while I run out a Bitterblossom and a Sword of Light and Shadow. I draw a second V-Clique and actually wind up looping them thanks to Sword of Light and Shadow, and I won the game because of it. 4 V-Clique triggers throw back a Genesis Wave, a Primeval Titan, a Garruk, and a Craterhoof. Win the game with a few tokens and a sworded-up V-Clique.
Overall 1-0
Round 2 - Splinter Twin
Game 1: Mulligan to 6. Keep a decent hand with 3 lands, Spellstutter, V-Clique, and Mistbind. My opponent plays out a fetch to a Steam Vents, into a Steam Vents, into an Island. I mess this game up by playing a Tar Pit turn 3, thinking I'm against UWR Control (had seen the guy going through a UWR Control list earlier). He EOTs a Pestermite to tap my Glen, then follows it up with a Splinter Twin. Lesson learned.
Sideboard: +2 Spellskite, +2 Negate, -1 Sword of Light and Shadow, -1 Agony Warp, -1 Agony Warp, -1 Spellstutter Sprite
Game 2: Get t1 discard, t2 Bitterblossom, curving into a Mistbind+Sword of Feast and Famine. He makes it close with burn and snapcasters, but Mistbind isn't really something the deck can deal with. Get there pretty quickly.
Game 3: Fairly close to game 2. No Mistbind to start with, and an overall slower start, but early discard and a V-Clique gets rid of the Twin combo and it turns into a grindy game. This is honestly in our favor, because once we land a Bitterblossom, they have no real outs and we only have to worry about the combo or being burned out. Towards the end I have 6 Faerie tokens (1 with SoFaF) and Mistbind out, down to only 4 life. He flashes in Pester to join his board of Pester+Deceiver at my attack phase phase, I respond with a Smother on his Pester and am tapped. He blocks sworded token and drops to 5, then draws an Electrolyze, shoots, me, then blanks. Very close game and emphasized that a) this matchup is one where they can just go for the face instead of the combo and b)SoFaF should be SoFaI.
Overall 2-0
Round 3 - UWR Control
Cocky local player. Knew he was on Control, wasn't worried before the match though as it's a pretty good matchup. Turns out, it feels pretty unloseable.
Game 1: Wind up mulling to 4. 7 was close to keepable, but 2 lands and double Mistbind is too shaky for my liking. 6 and 5 have no lands. Keep a 4 of Mutavault, Blossom, Thoughtseize, and Spellstutter to his 6 card hand. He plays a fetch, I draw a swamp and play Thoughtseize. He only has lands, a bolt, and a Cryptic. Rip the cryptic, next turn slam Blossom. He has literally nothing to interact with it and all I have to worry about is boardwipes, so I sit back and load the hand up. Beat him without much difficulty even with him drawing a load of cards off cantrips.
Sideboard: +2 Negate, -1 Mana Leak, -1 Vapor Snag
Game 2: Keep an opener of double Blossom, double V-Clique, double Glen, Mutavault. I know that his only outs to blossom are boardwipes and probably wear/tear in the board. Drop a t2 Blossom, he Spell Snares. EOT turn 3, V-Clique to make sure the coast is clear, then slam the second Blossom t4. At this point he and I both know he has to get to his answers or it's over. Unfortunately for him, Cryptic, Negate, and Spellstutter are all pretty good against him. I counter the wear/tear and Anger he draws, and he scoops em up.
Overall, I think this matchups is pretty much a free-roll unless they are running maindeck GosT, and I expect less of that with Zoo being a deck.
Round 4 - Grixis Delver
I get paired down as the 3rd undefeated, so I have to play. No idea what my opponent is playing though.
Game 1: Mull to 6 out of a junky hand. Play a Tar Pit turn 1, opponent plays a Delver off of a Watery Grave. Well crap. Draw, play a land and pass. opponent swings and plays a second Delver. I have no removal in hand and stall out at 2 land for a turn or two. My opponent doesn't flip his Delvers til turn 5, but it doesn't matter. His entire deck is under 3 mana, so he has a stocked hand of burn, kill spells, and counters.
Game 2: Get a t1 Inquisition, t2 Blossom with Spellstutter and Clique in hand. He doesn't have nearly as much of an explosive start, so I can play the grindy game against him. Once I draw into a SoLaS and a Spellskite he's pretty much done, as his deck is SUPER soft to Spellskites short of Terminate.
Game 3: Pretty much a mirror of game 2. Not even really close. I have the Smother for his Young Pyromancer and just play draw-go after resolving a t2 Bitterblossom.
This was the matchup I was scared of besides Zoo, simply because his entire deck is burn. I think we're fine here as long as they don't have a massively aggro start.
Overall 4-0
Round 5 - vs Kiki Pod (ID)
Top seed going into top 8 at 13 points. Rest of the top 8 is: 1 Kiki Pod, 1 Splinter Twin, 1 Jund, 1 GW Hatebears, 1 Zoo, 1 Mono-G Devotion, 1 unknown
Overall 4-0-1
Top 8 - vs Hatebears
Game 1: Get a nuts opening on the play, t2 blossom, t3 SoFaF, t4 equip+swing. Unfortunately, two things happen: t3 he has Leonin Arbiter+ double tec edge, so I wind up with 2 mana on t4. Whatever, equip and start swinging right? Solid plan, except over the course of three turns he discards 2 wilt-leaf lieges and a smiter. I wind up getting a SoLaS online as well, but he actually wins a turn before me thanks to just getting free value from SoFaF.
Game 2: I mull to 5, he mulls to 6. I turn 1 Inquisition and manage to rip a Hierach, he's soft until a t3 Smiter. I have blossom+Mistbinds+Smother, and wind up Mistbinding him 3 turns in a row and then Cryptic tapping his team for the kill.
Game 3: Again, t1 discard hits a non-nuts card, slows him down. Get to counter a Hierarch with a Spellstutter Sprite, then when he attempts to Pridemage a Bitterblossom I champion it with Mistbing and go to town with it and a Tar Pit.
I feel like this is a pretty good matchup for us. The deck is slower than Zoo or Affinity, and we can crush them down. If I had SoFaI in game 1 like I wanted, it wouldn't have been close either, even with him having a Vial online.
Overall 5-0-1
Top 4 - Splinter Twin (round 2 opponent)
Game 1: I know the matchup now and get the Blosssom out after a t1 discard. Get to control the game thanks to him only really getting Snaps and Serum Visions, while I sit on counter magic. Cryptic and Mana Leak show up big by keeping his combo pieces down.
Sideboard: Same as round 2
Game 2: Pretty much a repeat of game 1. He doesn't get any absurd starts, and on a mull to 6 I get V-Clique+Blossom and draw Thoughtseize on t1 to clear the way. Negate+maindeck counters is too much for him to fight through, and a single faerie token just holds off all his x/1s. After the match we both agree that this is a very good Faerie matchup, and his best bet is honestly to try to lavamancer+burn spell me out. The Twin combo is just too hard to try to get while fighting through all of Faeries removal and counters.
Overall 6-0-1
Finals - vs Kiki Pod (split)
My opponent already had his buys for the GP, so he agrees to split. We talked briefly about the match and I think it would be a good one for Fae, since its a bit more susceptible to interruption than Melira Pod. I definitely want to test the matchup though, seems fun.
Final Record - 6-0-2
Thoughts
For one, I really liked the list. As I said above, the only thing I really didn't like were the Sword of Feast and Famine and the two Watery Grave, and all 3 were there simply because I didn't have the things I wanted. I felt like the deck was tuned pretty well, and I never really felt cold to anything. Mistbind Clique is still utterly insane, and if Bitterblossom wasn't so broken it would hands-down be the best card in the deck. I think running less than 4 is a giant mistake. Overall I liked the removal suite. Agony Warp might be dropable for a third Smother, but I still thinks it a good call for Zoo matchups as it lets you effectively trade 2 for 1. I got to test against two different Zoo decks in between rounds, and I only dropped one game out of about 5. That game he went turn 1 Nacatl, t 2 Nacatl+Guide, t3 Ghor-Clan and second Guide. I think they have an edge game 1 if they're on the play, but post-board we have good stuff to bring in between EE and Damnation. This is the only matchup where I think we take out a Mistbind or two, since the tapout doesn't really effect them and Cryptic is just better against them.
I know most people disagree, but I still think that splashing a 3rd color is the way to go.
Not sure if it's useful for the primer, but here the color splashes I have playtested. The decks are by no means perfect, but they have been tested and refined. The most refined one is the Grixis one.
i'm thinking about dropping my scions (from the list posted in the op) to 2. 3 isn't where i want to be, and i'd rather play a full suite of mistbinds. I had dropped from 4 mistbinds to 3 to fit in a singleton snapcaster. reading eyron's report, i'm inclined to drop scions all together, but i still think the protection it gives our entire deck is too good to neglect completely. however, people running swords AND scion are doing it wrong.
my match report from FNM. My list is in the op of the primer, again, -1 mistbind, +1 snapcaster.
Round 1 - WUR Control. I agree 100% with Eyron's assessment that this matchup is basically a bye for this deck. they have no answer to blossom game 1 (short of snare, if they run it) and we ride it to victory.
Game 1 - Don't exactly remember too much from this match, but i inquisitioned something away (looking at my notes.. haha) landed a turn 2 blossom, high fived the guys around me, since i've been waiting more than 2 years to do that in this format, then rode it to victory.
Board out: Disfigures, board in Crusaders, smothers (for colonnades)
Game 2 - Something along the same lines as game 1. He kept a land heavy hand and couldn't do much against the waves of tokens and mistbinds.
1-0
Round 2 - Infect. I was a tiny bit worried about this, because hyper "aggro" is where this deck supposedly is weak. Not the case in this match up...
Game 1 - I keep blossom, discard, and other things in my hand. Inquisition on turn 1 shows 1 creature, lots of pump. creature goes away, he doesn't draw anything for the rest of the game.
Game 2 - More of the same. i take a hit after playing a tap land turn 1 for 3 infect. Turn 3, he tries to pump for the win and i geth's verdict it away. a few more turns of non-development (no blossom), he swings with his inkmoth + rancor and i snapcaster back the verdict. beat down with snapcaster and clique while holding counter mana.
2-0
Round 3 - WUR Control. Same comments as before: easily a bye for us. Electrolyze is their only real threat against us.
Won in 2 games. pretty uneventful, except game 2 was a bit closer when he could swing with colonnade and started to burn me out.
3-0
Round 4: GW Hatebears. My experiment was completely opposite to eryon's. Granted, the hands i kept were weak and probably wouldn't get there anyways.
game 1 - no blossom in my opener, but there's discard and disruption. i take his hierarch, and try to draw into something good. he lands a smiter and it goes downhill from there. not too much i could do.
game 2 - i mull to 4 to keep something acceptable. i put up a decent fight actually, but starting with that much disadvantage is pretty bad.
3-1
notes: I'm pretty sure with above average hands, even with an average hand, this match up would be pretty simple. I never saw any hard removal (smother, go fors) which would have easily pooped on the deck. my board is also non-optimal for this (and zoo), because i don't have damnations or deathmarks. a card i'm giving consideration to (in conjunction with deathmark) is consume the meek. budget alternative to damnation, but instant speed for 1 more mana. yeah, it doesn't hit thrun, but with blossom out, i don't fear it nearly as much as when i was playing WUR, UR or anything else. plus we have sac effects if we really want them.
now that i'm actually looking at my board, its absolutely miserable. haha. its currently:
its actually a little embarrassing that i'm admitting i can Despise.. haha. Changes to make when cards get here: 2 consume the meek, 2 deathmark. Consumes take the place of BSZ and Despise (which was here for tron). Deathmark takes a 1 surgical and the phyrexian crusader (which was insurance against WUR).
I just want to elaborate my board choices again:
Geth's verdict - necessary card to deal with things we can't typical deal with in this deck. resolved geist, thrun, and has splash damage against infect/boggles and other voltron type decks.
Surgical - we need some graveyard hate. no idea if 'yard strategies will be a part of the meta or not.
Phyrexian crusader - insurance against WUR. not needed. match up is so easy.
Peppersmoke - just a value card. against dorks, affinity, even in WUR control, hitting their colonnade with one draws us a card and lets us win combat with a mistbind. anything running snapcasters and cliques also die to this.
Smother - Alternate and additional hard removal. relevant reminder that it hits manlands.
Engineered Explosives - Deals with stuff. I don't think its good enough to mainboard, though i can see the argument for it if your meta is zoo. all the time. but i don't think zoo is that good vs the other decks in the format, so its numbers will be fairly low.
Despise - I'd rather not talk about this. Should probably be a Duress, but whatever.
Batterskull - lifegain is pretty relevant. If i drop scions completely, this probably becomes a sword of light and shadow. but batterskull is really good...
Hibernation - trump against green decks of all sorts. lol 'hoof..
BSZ - stop gap for aggro strats. not really mana efficient until you hit 6 though. I wouldn't run it again.
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I speak in sarcasm because calling people ******* ******** is not allowed.
Just got back from a GPT for Richmond. 23 players, 5 rounds. I took a UB Fae list I've been tweaking since the unbanning. Before the start I decided to drop the maindeck Scions I had been playing for 2 Swords and an Agony Warp. I also didn't get my River of Tears in time, so I threw in Watery Graves to make sure I could cast t1 discard. Registered the following:
Thoughts
For one, I really liked the list. As I said above, the only thing I really didn't like were the Sword of Feast and Famine and the two Watery Grave, and all 3 were there simply because I didn't have the things I wanted. I felt like the deck was tuned pretty well, and I never really felt cold to anything. Mistbind Clique is still utterly insane, and if Bitterblossom wasn't so broken it would hands-down be the best card in the deck. I think running less than 4 is a giant mistake. Overall I liked the removal suite. Agony Warp might be dropable for a third Smother, but I still thinks it a good call for Zoo matchups as it lets you effectively trade 2 for 1. I got to test against two different Zoo decks in between rounds, and I only dropped one game out of about 5. That game he went turn 1 Nacatl, t 2 Nacatl+Guide, t3 Ghor-Clan and second Guide. I think they have an edge game 1 if they're on the play, but post-board we have good stuff to bring in between EE and Damnation. This is the only matchup where I think we take out a Mistbind or two, since the tapout doesn't really effect them and Cryptic is just better against them.
Congrats for the result!
I like you list and i think we are on a similar page on this, just a couple of question since i don't have tournament experience with the deck yet.
- SoFaF is so bad? for the good ol' play and equip --> untap was always vey good... i agree that SoFaI both ability are pretty relevant though.
- Turn 1 play: you have only the 5 discard spells that can be played on turn 1, i always had the feelings that especcialy on the draw we need something more --> vendetta over your go for the throat (which however i like very much) and the spell snare (plenty of target from LE to BB, tarmo, snappy and so on...).
- I like Remand more than mana leak, in the late turns both could be soft but at least remand cycle itself.
- Agony warp is a meta call if zoo became a real thing, in your MU i imagine it wasn't an all star, but i'd like to play 2 in the right meta.
- How was vapor snag? Did you ever use it as a tech for your own creatures in some spots?
- L
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"The problem isn't when Scissors says Rock is overpowered, it's when Paper says it is."
-Mark Rosewater
I generally have to agree with germanturkey and Eyron about the matchups. After all the horrible stories about Zoo I felt pretty relieved after playing quite a few matches now. It clearly is an uphill battle, but it's far from unwinnable, at least as long as you play tight. I lost one game I had basically safe because I was to greedy and slammed down a batterskull which resulted in Boros Charm winning that game, but oh well lesson learned
My list looks somewhat like Eyrons at the moment, as I felt the Scions weren't worth their mana most of the time. For reference:
Would want to run 3 Spell Snare again, maybe at the cost of the 2 Snapcasters. I didn't really drew them, so not much to say if they are worth their slots or not. Sideboard seemed natural is way in my given meta (Zoo, Affinity, Tron and Merfolks mostly). I still like the dismember over anything situational (like Tragic Slip or Agony Warp) simply because you know what you get. Taking 2 from it isn't that bad most of the time, because you at least killed what you wanted to. Thoughts?
Congrats for the result!
I like you list and i think we are on a similar page on this, just a couple of question since i don't have tournament experience with the deck yet.
- SoFaF is so bad? for the good ol' play and equip --> untap was always vey good... i agree that SoFaI both ability are pretty relevant though.
- Turn 1 play: you have only the 5 discard spells that can be played on turn 1, i always had the feelings that especcialy on the draw we need something more --> vendetta over your go for the throat (which however i like very much) and the spell snare (plenty of target from LE to BB, tarmo, snappy and so on...).
- I like Remand more than mana leak, in the late turns both could be soft but at least remand cycle itself.
- Agony warp is a meta call if zoo became a real thing, in your MU i imagine it wasn't an all star, but i'd like to play 2 in the right meta.
- How was vapor snag? Did you ever use it as a tech for your own creatures in some spots?
- L
- I didn't think SoFaF was bad per-se. I actually REALLY liked it against Splinter Twin, because if we get to go turn 4 Mistbind, t5 Sword and equip, the game is over right there. However I think SoFaI will pull its weight more than FaF, hence why I want to put it in.
- Personally I'm a fan of 5 discard. Inquisition does have the potential to whiff in some matchups, and I'm very hesitant to run 4 Thoughtseize with so many Lightning Bolts being played. Vendetta would be nice to play, but again, the life loss is a definite hurt for us. Needs more testing to see how fine a line we can ride.
- Here's my issue with Remand (and why I don't put it in). Remand is best in a tempo-oriented deck that likes the cantrip, since it buys you a turn for a few more points of damage and let's you dig deeper for more counters/burn/whatever. UB Faeries aren't a deck that needs that though. We're a very grindy tempo deck, and we have permanent card advantage with Blossom. I would rather have Leaks to hard counter something and not have to deal with it again than get the draw. I think people can play either in the 2 mana counter slot, I just prefer Leak.
- Snag and Agony Warp were good. Think I only got to play Warp one time, but Snag was actually sweet in the Delver and Twin matchups on my opponents stuff and I used it to rebuy SSS and Mistbind multiple times. Someone told me I should just play Unsummon, but I think I prefer getting the 1 damage in when possible. Also, Smother is SUPER good right now, glad I bought a foil set.
Still can't tell how I feel about Spell Snare in the meta. Some games it would've been sweet, some it would've just been super dead. Feels really hit-and-miss, so for now it's not in my 75, but I can definitely see it getting two slots in the board.Also might up the Skite count if mono red becomes a big thing, just since it's such a beating.
You played JESUS?!?! I heard none of his guys stay in the graveyard, and once you think you have him beat he ALWAYS comes back to win within three turns. I like...WORSHIP him.
spell snares are definately a meta call, and i'm pretty sure that's going to be a thing with this deck anyways. it looks like the basic core of this deck is pretty well set up anyways, little things like maindeck spell snares, etc are prolly going to get lumped into just meta call decisions anyways.
so far, as much as i still think batterskull deserves a spot, i've finally moved my main deck one to sideboard(it lost me a game, where as a sword of light and shadow would have instead won me the game. the entire 'do nothing the turn i played it' wasn't worth tapping out on turn 5. where as sword at 5 mana woulda translated into lifegain that turn.) i don't want to tap out on my turn unless it's for tangible results right now, i think skull will stay in the board though, as it's an amazing blocker against aggro, but maindeck i think sword is going to be more versatile all around.
spell snares are definately a meta call, and i'm pretty sure that's going to be a thing with this deck anyways. it looks like the basic core of this deck is pretty well set up anyways, little things like maindeck spell snares, etc are prolly going to get lumped into just meta call decisions anyways.
so far, as much as i still think batterskull deserves a spot, i've finally moved my main deck one to sideboard(it lost me a game, where as a sword of light and shadow would have instead won me the game. the entire 'do nothing the turn i played it' wasn't worth tapping out on turn 5. where as sword at 5 mana woulda translated into lifegain that turn.) i don't want to tap out on my turn unless it's for tangible results right now, i think skull will stay in the board though, as it's an amazing blocker against aggro, but maindeck i think sword is going to be more versatile all around.
I wouldn't run Vendetta. Not only is there the whole self-injury thing going against it, it has the Doom Blade color restriction.
I'd give Pongify / Rapid Hybridization a chance before Vendetta.
I can't wait to Pongify a Nacatl.
Vendetta is here because i need a 1 cmc removal for cheap creatures in the firsts turns and Pongify is useless for this.
Without fetch/shocks the life loss doesn't matter too much in the long run.
- L
"The problem isn't when Scissors says Rock is overpowered, it's when Paper says it is."
-Mark Rosewater
I just wouldn't condone pissing life away in Faeries, it's a precious resource.
Plus I'd think the vanilla 3/3 is something you could chump for days if need be.
But hey, if it works, it works. Sometimes Vendetta really is more resource efficient than Dismember, for what it's worth.
[s]
SUPER FAST:
4 Kird Ape
4 Goblin Guide
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Experiment One
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
2 Vexing Devil
4 Arid Mesa
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Forest
3 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Temple Garden
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Rancor
2 Pillar of Flame
Side
3 Boros Charm
2 Stony Silence
2 Destructive Revelry
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Molten Rain
2 Vines of Vastwood
I noticed a few things that were different from when I was on the play.
1. Countermagic wasn't good enough. I think that I need to have Mana Tithe in there or possibly add some maindeck removal (maindeck Deathmarks don't look horrible in this meta).
2. Engineered Explosives was still good, even if it is worse on the draw. It saved me in at least 3 of the games. I have to recommend it in the maindeck of every faeries deck that isn't playing red.
3. Mistbind Clique was good, but it usually only stalled the Zoo player for a few turns and it couldn't attack since it was the one thing big enough to block the Zoo creatures.
4. Running 4 Mutavaults was much more useful than running Creeping Tar Pit.
5. Cryptic Command wasn't very good. It usually saved me for a turn (bounce+tap), but that wasn't good enough.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
I tested also Disfigure.
Tbh the main reason is that Vendetta is not dead after like 3-4 turns, when KotR and Resto start to happen.
All in all Disfigure is better than Vendetta in some spots, exactly as Dismember in some other spots, but Vendetta is, overall, better in more situations than the others two taken singly imho.
- L
"The problem isn't when Scissors says Rock is overpowered, it's when Paper says it is."
-Mark Rosewater
You really don't want to be paying 4 life to kill Restoration Angel and possibly 5 or more to kill Knight of the Reliquary. I'd just run Dismember.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
This list is almost completely identical to the one I threw together when the unbanning was announced. I tweaked it a bit and came to almost entirely this list with about 4-5 cards different, pretty crazy that you and me are like 95% on the same page with faeries. I've decided to cut the edges and run 25 lands total. I haven't felt a need for tec edge yet and with 26 I always flood beyond my ability to attack with my man lands. I'm also running a single temple of deceit and a Pendelhaven. The pendelhaven may seem like it's a little too cute or a non-bo with scions, but I have been extremely impressed with it, especially in my opener. It allows your 1/1s to block a kird ape without dying and can double up to just eat them. It also gives you random value when attacking walkers like liliana and gives your opponent yet another random trick to keep in mind when playing.
For the mana base I've been in love with 4 river of tears and have not once been happy with the filter lands. I also agree that shocks/fetches are completely unecessary with only 2 colors.
On the topic of removal I hate having disfigures in the deck since there is almost nothing on turn 1 that you can kill with it of relevence since DRS is gone. And if you think that disfigure will ever actually kill a wild nacatl, you must be mistaken. I've been running a mix of GFtT, doom blade, and smother. The creatures I feel we should be most worried about are potentially wurm coils, resto angels, bobby, and everything from zoo. While GFtT is a dead card against affinity, I don't think having 2-3 is that bad since BB is so insane against them game 1 it almost doesn't matter. Almost.
I've also been trying bile blight lately as a 2-of and it's been about average. i think that it can eat all of the wurm coil engine tokens and can trash a heavy BTE draw makes me like it probably mroe than I should. But running it with "proper" removal like doom blade and GFtT may make them worth it. However the utility and "tricksy-ness" of agony warp is also worth talking about as it can sometimes be considered our pseudo lightning helix.
figured I might as well post another list here, see what yall think. Ive been playing this as a more attrition based list, with a few suggestions for other styles after the list
Currently running
4 scion of oona
1 vendilion clique
4 mistbind clique
4 bitterblossom
3 thoughtseize
1 inquisition of kozilek
2 tragic slip
1 disfigure
2 spell snare
3 mana leak
2 think twice
3 cryptic command
4 secluded glen
4 darkslick shores
4 mutavault
2 creeping tar pit
3 river of tears
2 drowned catacombs
5 island
1 swamp
so a few things different
tragic slip has been super good. When bitterblossom is making chumpers, it kills anything. When you are on the offensive, you are doing well anyway. Think twice is the mid-late game draw engine I wanted to try in these lists for a while. It keeps with the control aspect of the deck, and can be cashed in early to hit land drops. As far as cryptic command goes, it just doesnt feel like (at least in my list) that i need it as a 4-of so one got trimmed.
Cards I've been thinking about
vapor snag especially in more tempo based, snapcaster heavy decks this card seems really dumb.
bident of thassa Not too many, but as a singleton it seems really good sticking this and pushing your opponent to answer every creature. Similar to a sword, but 4 mana investment then nothing. On the same note, sword of fire and ice how about this as another draw engine? Seems good in the mirror and against naya as their bolts are no longer effective vs your weenies if it gets equipped.
You totally miss my point. I'm not saying that vendetta is good at kill Resto i say that disfigure can't.
Dismember is better, sure, but in some spots it's pretty similar, i.e. if you have to maintain the land untapped for a counter war.
- L
"The problem isn't when Scissors says Rock is overpowered, it's when Paper says it is."
-Mark Rosewater
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Mistbind Clique
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Snapcaster Mage
Spells
4 Bitterblossom
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
3 Thoughtseize
3 Mana Leak
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Smother
1 Go for the Throat
1 Agony Warp
1 Vapor Snag
4 Cryptic Command
4 Secluded Glen
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Mutavault
3 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Watery Grave
5 Island
2 Swamp
2 Spellskite
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Negate
2 Damnation
2 Deathmark
2 Spreading Seas
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Surgical Extraction
Round 1 - Mono-G Devotion
Game 1: Get a pretty good opening, 3 lands, Bitterblossom, Spellstutter, double Mistbind. On the play, drop the turn 2 Bitterblossom when he only plays a Forest turn one. He plays an Elvish Visionary t2. I draw an Inquisition, look at his hand and see 2 Garruks, an E-Witness, and some inconsequential spells. Pull the E-Witness. Next turn draw a 3rd Mistbind with 4 mana up. Pretty easy lockout from there.
Sideboard: +2 Spreading Seas, +2 Deathmark, +1 Damnation
Game 2: Mulligan to 6. He drops a turn 2 Utopia Sprawl, which I promptly Spreading Seas (value!). Next turn I V-Clique to see among other things a Garruk, Genesis Wave, E-Witness. Throw back the Garruk. He gets stuck on 4 mana for a couple of turns while I run out a Bitterblossom and a Sword of Light and Shadow. I draw a second V-Clique and actually wind up looping them thanks to Sword of Light and Shadow, and I won the game because of it. 4 V-Clique triggers throw back a Genesis Wave, a Primeval Titan, a Garruk, and a Craterhoof. Win the game with a few tokens and a sworded-up V-Clique.
Overall 1-0
Round 2 - Splinter Twin
Game 1: Mulligan to 6. Keep a decent hand with 3 lands, Spellstutter, V-Clique, and Mistbind. My opponent plays out a fetch to a Steam Vents, into a Steam Vents, into an Island. I mess this game up by playing a Tar Pit turn 3, thinking I'm against UWR Control (had seen the guy going through a UWR Control list earlier). He EOTs a Pestermite to tap my Glen, then follows it up with a Splinter Twin. Lesson learned.
Sideboard: +2 Spellskite, +2 Negate, -1 Sword of Light and Shadow, -1 Agony Warp, -1 Agony Warp, -1 Spellstutter Sprite
Game 2: Get t1 discard, t2 Bitterblossom, curving into a Mistbind+Sword of Feast and Famine. He makes it close with burn and snapcasters, but Mistbind isn't really something the deck can deal with. Get there pretty quickly.
Game 3: Fairly close to game 2. No Mistbind to start with, and an overall slower start, but early discard and a V-Clique gets rid of the Twin combo and it turns into a grindy game. This is honestly in our favor, because once we land a Bitterblossom, they have no real outs and we only have to worry about the combo or being burned out. Towards the end I have 6 Faerie tokens (1 with SoFaF) and Mistbind out, down to only 4 life. He flashes in Pester to join his board of Pester+Deceiver at my attack phase phase, I respond with a Smother on his Pester and am tapped. He blocks sworded token and drops to 5, then draws an Electrolyze, shoots, me, then blanks. Very close game and emphasized that a) this matchup is one where they can just go for the face instead of the combo and b)SoFaF should be SoFaI.
Overall 2-0
Round 3 - UWR Control
Cocky local player. Knew he was on Control, wasn't worried before the match though as it's a pretty good matchup. Turns out, it feels pretty unloseable.
Game 1: Wind up mulling to 4. 7 was close to keepable, but 2 lands and double Mistbind is too shaky for my liking. 6 and 5 have no lands. Keep a 4 of Mutavault, Blossom, Thoughtseize, and Spellstutter to his 6 card hand. He plays a fetch, I draw a swamp and play Thoughtseize. He only has lands, a bolt, and a Cryptic. Rip the cryptic, next turn slam Blossom. He has literally nothing to interact with it and all I have to worry about is boardwipes, so I sit back and load the hand up. Beat him without much difficulty even with him drawing a load of cards off cantrips.
Sideboard: +2 Negate, -1 Mana Leak, -1 Vapor Snag
Game 2: Keep an opener of double Blossom, double V-Clique, double Glen, Mutavault. I know that his only outs to blossom are boardwipes and probably wear/tear in the board. Drop a t2 Blossom, he Spell Snares. EOT turn 3, V-Clique to make sure the coast is clear, then slam the second Blossom t4. At this point he and I both know he has to get to his answers or it's over. Unfortunately for him, Cryptic, Negate, and Spellstutter are all pretty good against him. I counter the wear/tear and Anger he draws, and he scoops em up.
Overall, I think this matchups is pretty much a free-roll unless they are running maindeck GosT, and I expect less of that with Zoo being a deck.
Round 4 - Grixis Delver
I get paired down as the 3rd undefeated, so I have to play. No idea what my opponent is playing though.
Game 1: Mull to 6 out of a junky hand. Play a Tar Pit turn 1, opponent plays a Delver off of a Watery Grave. Well crap. Draw, play a land and pass. opponent swings and plays a second Delver. I have no removal in hand and stall out at 2 land for a turn or two. My opponent doesn't flip his Delvers til turn 5, but it doesn't matter. His entire deck is under 3 mana, so he has a stocked hand of burn, kill spells, and counters.
Sideboard: +2 Spellskite,+1 Negate, +1 Engineered Explosives, -2 Mana Leak, -1 Mistbind Clique, -1 SoFaF
Game 2: Get a t1 Inquisition, t2 Blossom with Spellstutter and Clique in hand. He doesn't have nearly as much of an explosive start, so I can play the grindy game against him. Once I draw into a SoLaS and a Spellskite he's pretty much done, as his deck is SUPER soft to Spellskites short of Terminate.
Game 3: Pretty much a mirror of game 2. Not even really close. I have the Smother for his Young Pyromancer and just play draw-go after resolving a t2 Bitterblossom.
This was the matchup I was scared of besides Zoo, simply because his entire deck is burn. I think we're fine here as long as they don't have a massively aggro start.
Overall 4-0
Round 5 - vs Kiki Pod (ID)
Top seed going into top 8 at 13 points. Rest of the top 8 is: 1 Kiki Pod, 1 Splinter Twin, 1 Jund, 1 GW Hatebears, 1 Zoo, 1 Mono-G Devotion, 1 unknown
Overall 4-0-1
Top 8 - vs Hatebears
Game 1: Get a nuts opening on the play, t2 blossom, t3 SoFaF, t4 equip+swing. Unfortunately, two things happen: t3 he has Leonin Arbiter+ double tec edge, so I wind up with 2 mana on t4. Whatever, equip and start swinging right? Solid plan, except over the course of three turns he discards 2 wilt-leaf lieges and a smiter. I wind up getting a SoLaS online as well, but he actually wins a turn before me thanks to just getting free value from SoFaF.
Sideboard: -3 Thoughtseize, -1 Inquisition, -1 SoFaF, +2 Deathmark, +2 Damnation, +1 Engineered Explosives
Game 2: I mull to 5, he mulls to 6. I turn 1 Inquisition and manage to rip a Hierach, he's soft until a t3 Smiter. I have blossom+Mistbinds+Smother, and wind up Mistbinding him 3 turns in a row and then Cryptic tapping his team for the kill.
Game 3: Again, t1 discard hits a non-nuts card, slows him down. Get to counter a Hierarch with a Spellstutter Sprite, then when he attempts to Pridemage a Bitterblossom I champion it with Mistbing and go to town with it and a Tar Pit.
I feel like this is a pretty good matchup for us. The deck is slower than Zoo or Affinity, and we can crush them down. If I had SoFaI in game 1 like I wanted, it wouldn't have been close either, even with him having a Vial online.
Overall 5-0-1
Top 4 - Splinter Twin (round 2 opponent)
Game 1: I know the matchup now and get the Blosssom out after a t1 discard. Get to control the game thanks to him only really getting Snaps and Serum Visions, while I sit on counter magic. Cryptic and Mana Leak show up big by keeping his combo pieces down.
Sideboard: Same as round 2
Game 2: Pretty much a repeat of game 1. He doesn't get any absurd starts, and on a mull to 6 I get V-Clique+Blossom and draw Thoughtseize on t1 to clear the way. Negate+maindeck counters is too much for him to fight through, and a single faerie token just holds off all his x/1s. After the match we both agree that this is a very good Faerie matchup, and his best bet is honestly to try to lavamancer+burn spell me out. The Twin combo is just too hard to try to get while fighting through all of Faeries removal and counters.
Overall 6-0-1
Finals - vs Kiki Pod (split)
My opponent already had his buys for the GP, so he agrees to split. We talked briefly about the match and I think it would be a good one for Fae, since its a bit more susceptible to interruption than Melira Pod. I definitely want to test the matchup though, seems fun.
Final Record - 6-0-2
Thoughts
For one, I really liked the list. As I said above, the only thing I really didn't like were the Sword of Feast and Famine and the two Watery Grave, and all 3 were there simply because I didn't have the things I wanted. I felt like the deck was tuned pretty well, and I never really felt cold to anything. Mistbind Clique is still utterly insane, and if Bitterblossom wasn't so broken it would hands-down be the best card in the deck. I think running less than 4 is a giant mistake. Overall I liked the removal suite. Agony Warp might be dropable for a third Smother, but I still thinks it a good call for Zoo matchups as it lets you effectively trade 2 for 1. I got to test against two different Zoo decks in between rounds, and I only dropped one game out of about 5. That game he went turn 1 Nacatl, t 2 Nacatl+Guide, t3 Ghor-Clan and second Guide. I think they have an edge game 1 if they're on the play, but post-board we have good stuff to bring in between EE and Damnation. This is the only matchup where I think we take out a Mistbind or two, since the tapout doesn't really effect them and Cryptic is just better against them.
UB Faeries GP Record - 22/9/2, 1 Top 64
Not sure if it's useful for the primer, but here the color splashes I have playtested. The decks are by no means perfect, but they have been tested and refined. The most refined one is the Grixis one.
BUG:
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Scion of Oona
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Mistbind Clique
Spells:21
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Bitterblossom
4 Remand
2 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Cryptic Command
1 Breeding Pool
2 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Forest
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Mutavault
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Watery Grave
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Thoughtseize
2 Countersquall
2 Doom Blade
2 Shadow of Doubt
4 Fulminator Mage
Grixis:
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Scion of Oona
3 Vendilion Clique
4 Mistbind Clique
Spells:20
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Thoughtseize
4 Bitterblossom
4 Remand
2 Electrolyze
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Blood Crypt
4 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Island
2 Marsh Flats
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Mutavault
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Thoughtseize
2 Combust
2 Countersquall
1 Counterflux
2 Firespout
4 Fulminator Mage
1 Damnation
Esper:
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Scion of Oona
3 Vendilion Clique
4 Mistbind Clique
Spells:19
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Path to Exile
3 Thoughtseize
4 Bitterblossom
2 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Cryptic Command
Lands:26
3 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Darkslick Shores
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
4 Marsh Flats
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Mutavault
1 Plains
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
1 Path to Exile
1 Thoughtseize
2 Celestial Purge
2 Countersquall
2 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Damnation
Modern: Jund Legacy: RUG Delver EDH: Captain Sisay
my match report from FNM. My list is in the op of the primer, again, -1 mistbind, +1 snapcaster.
Round 1 - WUR Control. I agree 100% with Eyron's assessment that this matchup is basically a bye for this deck. they have no answer to blossom game 1 (short of snare, if they run it) and we ride it to victory.
Game 1 - Don't exactly remember too much from this match, but i inquisitioned something away (looking at my notes.. haha) landed a turn 2 blossom, high fived the guys around me, since i've been waiting more than 2 years to do that in this format, then rode it to victory.
Board out: Disfigures, board in Crusaders, smothers (for colonnades)
Game 2 - Something along the same lines as game 1. He kept a land heavy hand and couldn't do much against the waves of tokens and mistbinds.
1-0
Round 2 - Infect. I was a tiny bit worried about this, because hyper "aggro" is where this deck supposedly is weak. Not the case in this match up...
Game 1 - I keep blossom, discard, and other things in my hand. Inquisition on turn 1 shows 1 creature, lots of pump. creature goes away, he doesn't draw anything for the rest of the game.
Board - Hibernation, verdicts, explosives. out: disfigures, scions.
Game 2 - More of the same. i take a hit after playing a tap land turn 1 for 3 infect. Turn 3, he tries to pump for the win and i geth's verdict it away. a few more turns of non-development (no blossom), he swings with his inkmoth + rancor and i snapcaster back the verdict. beat down with snapcaster and clique while holding counter mana.
2-0
Round 3 - WUR Control. Same comments as before: easily a bye for us. Electrolyze is their only real threat against us.
Won in 2 games. pretty uneventful, except game 2 was a bit closer when he could swing with colonnade and started to burn me out.
3-0
Round 4: GW Hatebears. My experiment was completely opposite to eryon's. Granted, the hands i kept were weak and probably wouldn't get there anyways.
game 1 - no blossom in my opener, but there's discard and disruption. i take his hierarch, and try to draw into something good. he lands a smiter and it goes downhill from there. not too much i could do.
game 2 - i mull to 4 to keep something acceptable. i put up a decent fight actually, but starting with that much disadvantage is pretty bad.
3-1
notes: I'm pretty sure with above average hands, even with an average hand, this match up would be pretty simple. I never saw any hard removal (smother, go fors) which would have easily pooped on the deck. my board is also non-optimal for this (and zoo), because i don't have damnations or deathmarks. a card i'm giving consideration to (in conjunction with deathmark) is consume the meek. budget alternative to damnation, but instant speed for 1 more mana. yeah, it doesn't hit thrun, but with blossom out, i don't fear it nearly as much as when i was playing WUR, UR or anything else. plus we have sac effects if we really want them.
now that i'm actually looking at my board, its absolutely miserable. haha. its currently:
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Phyrexian Crusader
2 Peppersmoke
2 Smother
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Despise
1 Batterskull
1 Hibernation
1 Black Sun's Zenith
its actually a little embarrassing that i'm admitting i can Despise.. haha. Changes to make when cards get here: 2 consume the meek, 2 deathmark. Consumes take the place of BSZ and Despise (which was here for tron). Deathmark takes a 1 surgical and the phyrexian crusader (which was insurance against WUR).
I just want to elaborate my board choices again:
Geth's verdict - necessary card to deal with things we can't typical deal with in this deck. resolved geist, thrun, and has splash damage against infect/boggles and other voltron type decks.
Surgical - we need some graveyard hate. no idea if 'yard strategies will be a part of the meta or not.
Phyrexian crusader - insurance against WUR. not needed. match up is so easy.
Peppersmoke - just a value card. against dorks, affinity, even in WUR control, hitting their colonnade with one draws us a card and lets us win combat with a mistbind. anything running snapcasters and cliques also die to this.
Smother - Alternate and additional hard removal. relevant reminder that it hits manlands.
Engineered Explosives - Deals with stuff. I don't think its good enough to mainboard, though i can see the argument for it if your meta is zoo. all the time. but i don't think zoo is that good vs the other decks in the format, so its numbers will be fairly low.
Despise - I'd rather not talk about this. Should probably be a Duress, but whatever.
Batterskull - lifegain is pretty relevant. If i drop scions completely, this probably becomes a sword of light and shadow. but batterskull is really good...
Hibernation - trump against green decks of all sorts. lol 'hoof..
BSZ - stop gap for aggro strats. not really mana efficient until you hit 6 though. I wouldn't run it again.
Congrats for the result!
I like you list and i think we are on a similar page on this, just a couple of question since i don't have tournament experience with the deck yet.
- SoFaF is so bad? for the good ol' play and equip --> untap was always vey good... i agree that SoFaI both ability are pretty relevant though.
- Turn 1 play: you have only the 5 discard spells that can be played on turn 1, i always had the feelings that especcialy on the draw we need something more --> vendetta over your go for the throat (which however i like very much) and the spell snare (plenty of target from LE to BB, tarmo, snappy and so on...).
- I like Remand more than mana leak, in the late turns both could be soft but at least remand cycle itself.
- Agony warp is a meta call if zoo became a real thing, in your MU i imagine it wasn't an all star, but i'd like to play 2 in the right meta.
- How was vapor snag? Did you ever use it as a tech for your own creatures in some spots?
- L
"The problem isn't when Scissors says Rock is overpowered, it's when Paper says it is."
-Mark Rosewater
I generally have to agree with germanturkey and Eyron about the matchups. After all the horrible stories about Zoo I felt pretty relieved after playing quite a few matches now. It clearly is an uphill battle, but it's far from unwinnable, at least as long as you play tight. I lost one game I had basically safe because I was to greedy and slammed down a batterskull which resulted in Boros Charm winning that game, but oh well lesson learned
My list looks somewhat like Eyrons at the moment, as I felt the Scions weren't worth their mana most of the time. For reference:
2 Darkslick Shores
4 Mutavault
1 Cavern of Souls
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Sunken Ruins
2 Creeping Tar Pit
3 River of Tears
4 Secluded Glen
5 Island
1 Swamp
//Creatures
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Mistbind Clique
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Mana Leak
4 Cryptic Command
3 Dismember
2 Thoughtseize
2 Spell Snare
2 Smother
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
//Enchantments
4 Bitterblossom
//Artifacts
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
2 Spellskite
3 Deathmark
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
2 Countersquall
1 Thoughtseize
3 Engineered Explosives
2 Geth's Verdict
Would want to run 3 Spell Snare again, maybe at the cost of the 2 Snapcasters. I didn't really drew them, so not much to say if they are worth their slots or not. Sideboard seemed natural is way in my given meta (Zoo, Affinity, Tron and Merfolks mostly). I still like the dismember over anything situational (like Tragic Slip or Agony Warp) simply because you know what you get. Taking 2 from it isn't that bad most of the time, because you at least killed what you wanted to. Thoughts?
- I didn't think SoFaF was bad per-se. I actually REALLY liked it against Splinter Twin, because if we get to go turn 4 Mistbind, t5 Sword and equip, the game is over right there. However I think SoFaI will pull its weight more than FaF, hence why I want to put it in.
- Personally I'm a fan of 5 discard. Inquisition does have the potential to whiff in some matchups, and I'm very hesitant to run 4 Thoughtseize with so many Lightning Bolts being played. Vendetta would be nice to play, but again, the life loss is a definite hurt for us. Needs more testing to see how fine a line we can ride.
- Here's my issue with Remand (and why I don't put it in). Remand is best in a tempo-oriented deck that likes the cantrip, since it buys you a turn for a few more points of damage and let's you dig deeper for more counters/burn/whatever. UB Faeries aren't a deck that needs that though. We're a very grindy tempo deck, and we have permanent card advantage with Blossom. I would rather have Leaks to hard counter something and not have to deal with it again than get the draw. I think people can play either in the 2 mana counter slot, I just prefer Leak.
- Snag and Agony Warp were good. Think I only got to play Warp one time, but Snag was actually sweet in the Delver and Twin matchups on my opponents stuff and I used it to rebuy SSS and Mistbind multiple times. Someone told me I should just play Unsummon, but I think I prefer getting the 1 damage in when possible. Also, Smother is SUPER good right now, glad I bought a foil set.
Still can't tell how I feel about Spell Snare in the meta. Some games it would've been sweet, some it would've just been super dead. Feels really hit-and-miss, so for now it's not in my 75, but I can definitely see it getting two slots in the board.Also might up the Skite count if mono red becomes a big thing, just since it's such a beating.
UB Faeries GP Record - 22/9/2, 1 Top 64
My 180 Modern Bordered Only Cube
so far, as much as i still think batterskull deserves a spot, i've finally moved my main deck one to sideboard(it lost me a game, where as a sword of light and shadow would have instead won me the game. the entire 'do nothing the turn i played it' wasn't worth tapping out on turn 5. where as sword at 5 mana woulda translated into lifegain that turn.) i don't want to tap out on my turn unless it's for tangible results right now, i think skull will stay in the board though, as it's an amazing blocker against aggro, but maindeck i think sword is going to be more versatile all around.
W/o SFM Wurmcoil Engine is better than batterskull
- L
"The problem isn't when Scissors says Rock is overpowered, it's when Paper says it is."
-Mark Rosewater