Speaking of Dredge - what are people's opinion on Extirpate vs Surgical Extraction? I'm not talking general application, but specifically for the dredge match up. I reckon they must be the best way to attack the match up.
It seems like the one mana could matter a lot. With Surgical Extraction you can interact on their turn 1 even on the draw, and you're able to Snapcaster Surgical on turn 2, which should be enough to almost seal most games I imagine.
I haven't gotten around to testing it yet, so has anyone tried either?
I am really interested in this approach. I have 2 Cage, 1 Extirpate now. What is the card to extract in dredge? Amalgam?
Considering the speed, Extirpate always hits bloodghast if you want to. But speed is a great thing. I am leaning towards Extraction now.
Speaking of Dredge - what are people's opinion on Extirpate vs Surgical Extraction? I'm not talking general application, but specifically for the dredge match up. I reckon they must be the best way to attack the match up.
It seems like the one mana could matter a lot. With Surgical Extraction you can interact on their turn 1 even on the draw, and you're able to Snapcaster Surgical on turn 2, which should be enough to almost seal most games I imagine.
I haven't gotten around to testing it yet, so has anyone tried either?
I am really interested in this approach. I have 2 Cage, 1 Extirpate now. What is the card to extract in dredge? Amalgam?
Considering the speed, Extirpate always hits bloodghast if you want to. But speed is a great thing. I am leaning towards Extraction now.
I talked about Extirpate and Surgical Extraction in stream like a week ago and came to conclusion that it doesn't stop it fast enough. I´m confident that cage or Nihil Spellbomb is the way to go if you want to fight it.
Well, Amalgam is their biggest free creature.
Golgari Grave-Troll dredges for 6 and can get huge if they decide to play a fair game, and spot removal options for us don't exactly have much of a way to shut down regen on a 5 mana creature of arbitrary p/t.
Faithless Looting lets them dredge twice and/or set up two future dredges, and can be flashed back on the third mana source, and Ross Merriam pegged it as the card to ban to nerf Dredge.
I think the actual correct move is to board in both boardwipes and something that shuts down the Narcomoeba-Bloodghast-Amalgam parade that'll kill you early. Like, I dunno, a mix of Damnation plus Kalitas sounds like it'd do a number, assuming you can survive long enough to stabilize with 4cmc spells.
Speaking of Dredge - what are people's opinion on Extirpate vs Surgical Extraction? I'm not talking general application, but specifically for the dredge match up. I reckon they must be the best way to attack the match up.
It seems like the one mana could matter a lot. With Surgical Extraction you can interact on their turn 1 even on the draw, and you're able to Snapcaster Surgical on turn 2, which should be enough to almost seal most games I imagine.
I haven't gotten around to testing it yet, so has anyone tried either?
I am really interested in this approach. I have 2 Cage, 1 Extirpate now. What is the card to extract in dredge? Amalgam?
Considering the speed, Extirpate always hits bloodghast if you want to. But speed is a great thing. I am leaning towards Extraction now.
I talked about Extirpate and Surgical Extraction in stream like a week ago and came to conclusion that it doesn't stop it fast enough. I´m confident that cage or Nihil Spellbomb is the way to go if you want to fight it.
Would be great of some people could test the dichotomy between Cage and Pate. Currently, I have little time to actually test it. I will stick with my gravehate for now.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver has proved to be good vs dredge. Why not steal their creatures while also preventing recursion. Plus his ult should win you the game if you make it there. Ashiok us super versatile vs many different decks. Running 2 currently in addition to 3 extirpate and 2 relic. All serve different purposes.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver has proved to be good vs dredge. Why not steal their creatures while also preventing recursion. Plus his ult should win you the game if you make it there. Ashiok us super versatile vs many different decks. Running 2 currently in addition to 3 extirpate and 2 relic. All serve different purposes.
Ain't Ashiok simply too slow? Dredge can have 10 power on board, by turn 3. Ashiok might feel miser there. On the play, I can see its value.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver has proved to be good vs dredge. Why not steal their creatures while also preventing recursion. Plus his ult should win you the game if you make it there. Ashiok us super versatile vs many different decks. Running 2 currently in addition to 3 extirpate and 2 relic. All serve different purposes.
Ain't Ashiok simply too slow? Dredge can have 10 power on board, by turn 3. Ashiok might feel miser there. On the play, I can see its value.
Considering we usually lose game 1, siding him in might be a nice way to put an efficient threat out. Game 3 I can see what you mean about it being too slow.
But, i tested this card a lot, and it didnt work how i imagine
Against abzan company we can take the pieces to do the infinite combo, but if we put in the game on turn 3 hurts a lot when they use birds and play Collected in answer.
and against dredge i think they exile just three cards while they dredge a lot.
i'm new player, so, if a say something wrong....sorry
Could Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver be seen as a "win more" card. I've had the card in my sideboard since day 1 but I've just recently removed him due to being at odds with the game plan of winning by combat damage. He's so good against so many decks but when I really think hard about it, I probably could of won those match ups without him. He was a resilient, attrition based threat for me, but Bitterblossom is kind of a resilient, attrition based threat too. He's really hard to evaluate and I'm not sure if he actually does provide something to my game plan other than being another win con. Don't get me wrong, he's insane when you can stick him after a Thoughtseize and rips some decks apart, but when I think really deep about it, I might be winning those match ups anyway due to tight technical play and that's where I'm getting that "win more" feeling from him, but I'm probably just stupid...
I've since added some Countersquall in place of him which has been really nice against the same decks I'd bring Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver in against, which has led to me tightening up my play and not diluting my general game plan of winning through combat damage. Countersquall also doubles up as a good card against my harder match ups, Burn and Tron where Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver isn't at his best.
I have brought Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver in against Dredge before, taking out some dead cards against them and he wasn't bad. It's just the game plan against Dredge is to kill of their combo with grave yard hate and you just win after. Whether he made a difference or not, I'm not sure, but once I'd extracted their key cards, it didn't really matter what finished Dredge off.
I actually really like Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver but I'm just thinking about him from a different perspective since my sideboard slots are getting really tight these days and am looking at cards that do double duty in a variety of match ups, especially my weaker ones. I feel Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver improves my already even to good match ups, but doesn't do too much work in my weaker match ups. I don't know...
This is where I'm at with Ashiok as well - everything I'd want to bring it in against I already feel favored in the matchup OR I could be bringing in more effective cards.
Also, I'd be wary of Countersquall - it's definitely come up that the mana cost has gotten sticky in conjunction with snapcaster mage - negate is often the same card (the 2 damage is nice often enough but is negligible many times) but easier to cast.
Ashiok has his good matchups, and is definitely my favorite planeswalker, but I'd have to agree that his not well placed at the moment. I pulled mine from my sideboard a long time ago.
He's great against midrange, which is somewhat negligible for us. Except against Abzan, he makes that a much more manageable matchup. Combo he's decent. Randomly eats combo pieces and makes it more difficult for them to reach them. Hitting a Pact of Negation can win us the game even if Ad Nauseaum resolves. However, Combo is also a good matchup for us.
Control he's mediocre. Wiping out their hand is back breaking, but that's about it. Aggro, he's semi useful. turn 3 is often too late, but after that he'll provide blockers for days.
I haven't used him in a while, but he's a solid card. Just not where we need him.
I've never had trouble with Countersquall, but if the mana is a trouble Negate is an option.
Hypothetical question 3:
Would we play Stunt Double if we could?
Ashiok has his good matchups, and is definitely my favorite planeswalker, but I'd have to agree that his not well placed at the moment. I pulled mine from my sideboard a long time ago.
He's great against midrange, which is somewhat negligible for us. Except against Abzan, he makes that a much more manageable matchup. Combo he's decent. Randomly eats combo pieces and makes it more difficult for them to reach them. Hitting a Pact of Negation can win us the game even if Ad Nauseaum resolves. However, Combo is also a good matchup for us.
Control he's mediocre. Wiping out their hand is back breaking, but that's about it. Aggro, he's semi useful. turn 3 is often too late, but after that he'll provide blockers for days.
I haven't used him in a while, but he's a solid card. Just not where we need him.
I've never had trouble with Countersquall, but if the mana is a trouble Negate is an option.
Hypothetical question 3:
Would we play Stunt Double if we could?
As I saw stunt double I thought of it as a pseudo faerie. It can enter as another mistbind or vendilion which is very useful. 4 mana is a lot though and we need the creature to be out already. We can also copy our opponent's value creatures or create profitable blocks. Flash on a clone is a super powerful effect.
Don't sleep on Flaying Tendrils, folks. It's quite the card against Dredge and other annoying decks like robots, burn/zoo, D&T, merfolk, etc. And it can even kill Prized Amalgam in conjunction with Disfigure.
Dang, you guys get to go against mirror matches? Everywhere I go I am the "Faerie guy" which was endearing at first but always ends up sounding wrong when I think about it.
Well, I am the only competitive Faerie player in my country (NL). At cockatrice I have played the matchup very often. Faeries have become my trademark. The last time I brought Affinity, it felt like the entire FNM community was hostile and disappointed, lol.
It is always a disappointment when you don't play Faeries.
Allright. I went to SNM last weekend and went 3-2. Won 2 burns and Esper Gifts. Lost on first round to Tribal Zoo and Eldrazi.
Eldrazi is something I haven't played much and it felt really bad match for me. Any advices how should I approach the deck? Seemed like he just slammed
more and more threats on the table without me unable to keep up.
Hiya!
I ended up running Faeries at the SCG Somerset open this past weekend. I played what I normally play (BTL Scapeshift) in the invi and did really bad despite good matchups so I wanted to change. My buddies only extra deck that sounded fun was Faeries and I said **** it, why not live the dream I never got to live and curve visions into bitterblossom. Below is the list I ran:
A few Quick things about the list from what I learned talking to him. I basically deferred to him on all decisions since this was his pet deck and I knew very little about it. We basically tuned the deck to be slanted towards Infect, Burn, Affinity, Dredge, Jund, Nahiri, and GWx decks. That’s why we have cheap fast removal like dismember, only 2 cryptics, and 2 Kalitas’s in the main. The way he talked about it Kalitas was the godsend the deck needed, a powerful tool for medium to bad matchups like burn, dredge and Abzan Coco that was pretty much always okay. He wanted 15 Faeries for Glen which is why there is a nameless inversion, very important because post board we go down to 13 Faeries which is still fine. We started with 3 leylines in the board but I talked him down to 2 Nihil because I was not THAT afraid of dredge. Ashiok was my card, I love it so much. Its great against all the Gx decks and the control decks and to be honest I bring it in vs most of the bad MU’s (Tron, Bant Eldrazi) because it is just another plan that might do something sweet. Here is a very basic synopsis of the Matchups:
Round 1: GW Tron (Longer than the rest because game 2 and 3 were GREAT!!!!)
G1: Keep an okay hand of removal spells, sprite and lands. Get tron’ed on turn 3. He casts world breaker wrecking a land. I am on the play so I set up turn 5 Kalitas into Go for the throat to hopefully beat him down with. He casts path on Ulamog and that’s that.
G2: This game is super sweet. I get turn 2 Blossom into turn 3 counter something with sprite into Clique away the ulamog he was gonna cast on 4. From here he resolves Wurmcoil and I spend the next 6 turns hitting for 6 and blocking it with a token. Except while I am doing this I am also ticking up Ashiok. When Ashiok hits 11 I cryptic bounce the wurm and ult her. That’s the game.
G3: I mull to 4. You might ask, what game versus tron is sweet when you mull to 4? The one where your keep is Mutavault, BitterBlossom, Visions, Thoughseize and you scry delta to the top. I cast visions into Blossom into thoughtseize with his only actions being drawing cards and turn 4 ugin. His hand was cantrips and Path to Exiles. He warping Wails my Visons and I proceed to chain Cliques and Mistbinds until he dies.
1-0
Round 2: Jund
G1: His hand is the nuts (Bolt Lili Huntmaster Decay Bob). I am still able to trade resources with hand disruption and counters to the point I resolve a blossom and counter Lili. I try to trap him with 1 token, blossom, 1 Mutavault and sprite in hand to counter the huntmaster but he is smart and decays the Blossom EOT saying he played Faeries back in the day. I topdeck Nameless for the huntmaster and Mistbind to end the game.
G2. He plays lots of creatures and I mull to 5. I play to drawing the 1 damnation, I don’t.
G3: Super close game. I resolve an early blossom but gets a lily to resolve and shreads my hand. I eventually deal with lily but I am behind on board. I am faced with countering a bob or not countering it and trying to go for Bob flips to be lethal. Given the 2 goyfs on the board and the active blossom I go for the race. Hit him down to 7, leaving 2 blockers for 5/6 goyfs and hope that he takes 4 damage from bob over 2 turns. He hits K command, draws terminate and kills me.
1-1
Round 3: RG Titanshift
G1: Mull to 6 and keep 3 lands nameless kalitas dismember. Die to turn 4 titan.
G2: Go Blossom into vault sprite to counter a courser. He casts 2 summoning traps, 1 for prime time and 1 for Baloth. I die.
1-2
Round 4: UW control:
G1 & G2: Games were not close. He had clunky hands with Gideon Elspeth Hallowed Burial Timely Reinforcements and I just killed Bitterblossomed him a bunch. Got to counted a Gideon with Spellstutter which was sweet.
2-2
Round 5: Abzan Doran
G1: Super odd game, he cast 2 treefolk harbingers for lands and never drew any dorans/Assault formations. HE did draw lingering souls. After about 17 turns I eventually killed him with Faeries.
G2: Mulled to 5 died to double tower defense with assault formation out.
G3: Ashiok did work. I just held him back with Faeries, countered and milled all his dorans and eventually killed him with flyers.
3-2
Round 6: Taking Turns
G1: Mulled to 5 and both go for the throats and disfigure in hand. I conceded to elixir for time.
G2: He can’t Beat Vendilion Clique.
G3: Still can’t Beat Vendilion Clique
4-2
Round 7: Bant Eldrazi
G1 & G2: I truly felt outclassed in this Matchups. It feels really really hopless. They are fast, Sprites are dead cards, all my counters are dead cards, displacer counter blossom, Displacer also counters ashiok (Bounce their creatures back to their side of the board). I do not see my list ever winning a reasonable game.
4-3 ()
Round 8: Burn
G1: He wins the die roll and has a guide on turn one. I die pretty fast.
G2: I have IOK into Blossom into sprite into mistbind to beat him down
G3: I have Blossom (Gets Destroyed my Revelry) into clique beats. I end up at 6 life staring down a mentor with a monk. He draws and main phases a helix., I counter tap the team, untap and rev up tar pit and mutavault for lethal.
5-3
Round 9: Bant Eldrazi (Sam Pardee)
G1 & G2: I was super siked to play a very skilled player but I was sad it had to be Sam. I knew going in he was on Bant and I knew that this was not going to be close. It wasn’t. I tried to lean on Kalitas but it always died before it could take over. He Drowns me in Scions.
5-4 ENDING RECORD
Kinda garbage ending record but I played almost none of the matchups I planned for and 2 UNWINABLE matchups. All in all the deck felt pretty great, it was by far the most fun I have had playing magic in a very long time. Going forward I think I am actually going to build this deck and test it some more, it did some pretty impressive things that I was not aware it could do. The second Kalitas main should be either a removal spell or a hand disruption spell. The kalitas should be moved to the SB, there should also be a second Damnation there. Other than that I need to find a reasonable way to beat bant eldrazi.
I think Ashiok deserves to be a 2 of. Faeries is a deck full of removal spells, small creatures and other disruption. Normally your plan in a game is to either slowly ping them to death and then finish them with lands, resolve bitterblossom , or outgrind them with visions. With my original list there was also the chance to have the kalitas game plan of resolving him and killing everything. Ashiok is yet another gameplan that synergy's well with all the blockers and disruption we have, but is great versus decks that are better in combat than us.
Honestly I have no idea how to beat Eldrazi. Damnation seems like it would have been great at any point. I feel like there has to be A card that wrecks them, I just have to find it. More removal that is good versus them might also be an answer, stuff like doom blade. I intend to work on it and at least attempt to figure it out.
I think Ashiok deserves to be a 2 of. Faeries is a deck full of removal spells, small creatures and other disruption. Normally your plan in a game is to either slowly ping them to death and then finish them with lands, resolve bitterblossom , or outgrind them with visions. With my original list there was also the chance to have the kalitas game plan of resolving him and killing everything. Ashiok is yet another gameplan that synergy's well with all the blockers and disruption we have, but is great versus decks that are better in combat than us.
Honestly I have no idea how to beat Eldrazi. Damnation seems like it would have been great at any point. I feel like there has to be A card that wrecks them, I just have to find it. More removal that is good versus them might also be an answer, stuff like doom blade. I intend to work on it and at least attempt to figure it out.
Great write up and list! I'm considering changing up my list to be a bit less controlly and up the faerie count from 12 to 14 ish with the same creatures as you. I actually feel like ashiok can beat eldrazi at least in my experience as long as you don't let them resolve displacer or kill it before it can blink itself. I feel game 1 is a bit helpless considering nearly all our counters are dead cards but removal is better and damnation definitely crushes their deck. Eldrazi feels like an aggro midrange deck in that the threats that it plays are big enough for us not to ignore but can also be played quickly and efficiently which is frustrating.
Edit: By the way, how did ancestral vision hold up for you? I'm still torn whether I want to run 3 main, side or any at all?
Went 2-1 at Channelfireball's Modern evening tonight (I'm in San Jose for work) and I'd say it went pretty well.
Round 1 - Elves - 2-1
Game 1 I'm almost able to stabilize with a Kalitas and am able to slaughter pact something, block with Kalitas and the token, and then sac the token to kalitas to make it through a big elf ball swing, but my opponent ends up lead the stampeding into all gas and I fall behind.
Game 2 was brutalllll. I land an early blossom and go back and forth with my opponent - they rebuild through an Engineered Explosives, Languish and 2 Damnations. The last sequence went kind of like this: I'm at 3 life - Damnation to wipe their board and pass - they top deck a land and pass the turn - I take 1 to a bitterblossom trigger, draw a crypticand pass (I have an uncracked fetch that I need for triple blue) - they topdeck an archdruid and play it - I crack the fetch going to 1, counter the archdruid and bounce BB and they pass - I topdeck kalitas and ride it all the way to victory. ALWAYS play to your outs.
Game 3 I see an early languish after some early key spot removal - land a Kalitas and it's a similar story to game 2. Kalitas is stupid good in so many ways.
Match 2 - Merfolk - 0-2
I personally think merfolk is unwinnable. There's not much less I want to see less on turn one than Island Vial go. Not really too much to say about these games as my opponent was both INCREDIBLY good with the deck (apparently he was a WMCQ finalist last year with the deck) and I drew the wrong half of my deck (and should probably practice the matchup more).
Match 3 - Jeskai Flash (running a miser's Kiki-Jiki) - 2-1
Game 1 I draw 6 lands in a row into an already fairly land heavy hand.
Games 2 and 3 I grossly out tempo the opponent with early blossoms and misbinds. No problems at all.
Overall, good night.
______
As for the above conversations, I'm still not sure I'm sold on Ashiok. I don't necessarily think it's win more, but I think it's sitting in a spot that any number of cards would be good in, so for me and my playstyle I think I'd just rather run something else. It being at 3cmc I think is actually fairly decent because we're able to overload opposing Abrupt Decay or artifact/enchantment removal, which is actually fairly powerful. Batterskull fits in this spot (not the 3cmc part though), the swords, new Lily, etc. I think I'm going to try to run a one of Sword of Light and Shadow in the board. I keep finding myself going way late with the deck and nothing to spend the mana on. If I can suit something up with the sword and even hit once to start getting creatures and some life back then that's gravy. This also helps with the abzan matchup because the sword protects so well from Path(which I feel is much much worse than Jund due to Lingering Souls). Just something I'm going to try.
@unity - I run the same creature suite as Surfkatt but with a Tasigur instead of the third Vendilion Clique and I've been incredibly happy with it. Two Kalitas in the main help win games that we have no business winning way more often than not.
I've also got a flex spot that I was thinking about putting an Unsubstantiate into due to it's versatility in pretty much every matchup - anyone tried it out?
Hey guys, how would you deal with opposing lingering souls tokens?
I was facing a mardu Nahiri deck.
The board was clogged up with Spirit tokens, so only way of taking down a resolved Nahiri is Tar Pit and one Hero's Downfall.
And the Tar Pit just gets killed immediately when I activate it lol.
I added two Engineered Explosives to my sideboard, not sure if it will be good.
I am new to the world of Fae, If you keep reading I say "I have no idea but I am at least going to attempt to figure it out". Sudden Spoiling is A++ Great. Seems SUPER sweet versus Eldrazi and Merfolk.
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I am really interested in this approach. I have 2 Cage, 1 Extirpate now. What is the card to extract in dredge? Amalgam?
Considering the speed, Extirpate always hits bloodghast if you want to. But speed is a great thing. I am leaning towards Extraction now.
DECKS:
UB Faeries [Midrange/Tempo]
RWUGB Affinity[Aggro]
FAERIES TOO STRONK!!!1111
- Fae Prophecy, 201
5678I talked about Extirpate and Surgical Extraction in stream like a week ago and came to conclusion that it doesn't stop it fast enough. I´m confident that cage or Nihil Spellbomb is the way to go if you want to fight it.
Golgari Grave-Troll dredges for 6 and can get huge if they decide to play a fair game, and spot removal options for us don't exactly have much of a way to shut down regen on a 5 mana creature of arbitrary p/t.
Faithless Looting lets them dredge twice and/or set up two future dredges, and can be flashed back on the third mana source, and Ross Merriam pegged it as the card to ban to nerf Dredge.
I think the actual correct move is to board in both boardwipes and something that shuts down the Narcomoeba-Bloodghast-Amalgam parade that'll kill you early. Like, I dunno, a mix of Damnation plus Kalitas sounds like it'd do a number, assuming you can survive long enough to stabilize with 4cmc spells.
Would be great of some people could test the dichotomy between Cage and Pate. Currently, I have little time to actually test it. I will stick with my gravehate for now.
DECKS:
UB Faeries [Midrange/Tempo]
RWUGB Affinity[Aggro]
FAERIES TOO STRONK!!!1111
- Fae Prophecy, 201
5678UB 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 MageAin't Ashiok simply too slow? Dredge can have 10 power on board, by turn 3. Ashiok might feel miser there. On the play, I can see its value.
DECKS:
UB Faeries [Midrange/Tempo]
RWUGB Affinity[Aggro]
FAERIES TOO STRONK!!!1111
- Fae Prophecy, 201
5678Considering we usually lose game 1, siding him in might be a nice way to put an efficient threat out. Game 3 I can see what you mean about it being too slow.
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 tested this card a lot, and it didnt work how i imagine
Against abzan company we can take the pieces to do the infinite combo, but if we put in the game on turn 3 hurts a lot when they use birds and play Collected in answer.
and against dredge i think they exile just three cards while they dredge a lot.
i'm new player, so, if a say something wrong....sorry
This is where I'm at with Ashiok as well - everything I'd want to bring it in against I already feel favored in the matchup OR I could be bringing in more effective cards.
Also, I'd be wary of Countersquall - it's definitely come up that the mana cost has gotten sticky in conjunction with snapcaster mage - negate is often the same card (the 2 damage is nice often enough but is negligible many times) but easier to cast.
He's great against midrange, which is somewhat negligible for us. Except against Abzan, he makes that a much more manageable matchup. Combo he's decent. Randomly eats combo pieces and makes it more difficult for them to reach them. Hitting a Pact of Negation can win us the game even if Ad Nauseaum resolves. However, Combo is also a good matchup for us.
Control he's mediocre. Wiping out their hand is back breaking, but that's about it. Aggro, he's semi useful. turn 3 is often too late, but after that he'll provide blockers for days.
I haven't used him in a while, but he's a solid card. Just not where we need him.
I've never had trouble with Countersquall, but if the mana is a trouble Negate is an option.
Hypothetical question 3:
Would we play Stunt Double if we could?
As I saw stunt double I thought of it as a pseudo faerie. It can enter as another mistbind or vendilion which is very useful. 4 mana is a lot though and we need the creature to be out already. We can also copy our opponent's value creatures or create profitable blocks. Flash on a clone is a super powerful effect.
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 (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
Eldrazi is something I haven't played much and it felt really bad match for me. Any advices how should I approach the deck? Seemed like he just slammed
more and more threats on the table without me unable to keep up.
I ended up running Faeries at the SCG Somerset open this past weekend. I played what I normally play (BTL Scapeshift) in the invi and did really bad despite good matchups so I wanted to change. My buddies only extra deck that sounded fun was Faeries and I said **** it, why not live the dream I never got to live and curve visions into bitterblossom. Below is the list I ran:
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Mistbind Clique
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
4 Bitterblossom
1 Nameless Inversion
3 Ancestral Vision
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
1 Disfigure
2 Dismember
2 Spell Snare
1 Mana Leak
2 Go for the Throat
2 Cryptic Command
4 Secluded Glen
3 Darkslick Shores
1 River of Tears
3 Polluted Delta
2 Watery Grave
4 Mutavault
4 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Island
1 Swamp
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Disfigure
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Damnation
1 Duress
1 Dispel
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Darkblast
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Flaying Tendrils
1 Negate
A few Quick things about the list from what I learned talking to him. I basically deferred to him on all decisions since this was his pet deck and I knew very little about it. We basically tuned the deck to be slanted towards Infect, Burn, Affinity, Dredge, Jund, Nahiri, and GWx decks. That’s why we have cheap fast removal like dismember, only 2 cryptics, and 2 Kalitas’s in the main. The way he talked about it Kalitas was the godsend the deck needed, a powerful tool for medium to bad matchups like burn, dredge and Abzan Coco that was pretty much always okay. He wanted 15 Faeries for Glen which is why there is a nameless inversion, very important because post board we go down to 13 Faeries which is still fine. We started with 3 leylines in the board but I talked him down to 2 Nihil because I was not THAT afraid of dredge. Ashiok was my card, I love it so much. Its great against all the Gx decks and the control decks and to be honest I bring it in vs most of the bad MU’s (Tron, Bant Eldrazi) because it is just another plan that might do something sweet. Here is a very basic synopsis of the Matchups:
Round 1: GW Tron (Longer than the rest because game 2 and 3 were GREAT!!!!)
G1: Keep an okay hand of removal spells, sprite and lands. Get tron’ed on turn 3. He casts world breaker wrecking a land. I am on the play so I set up turn 5 Kalitas into Go for the throat to hopefully beat him down with. He casts path on Ulamog and that’s that.
G2: This game is super sweet. I get turn 2 Blossom into turn 3 counter something with sprite into Clique away the ulamog he was gonna cast on 4. From here he resolves Wurmcoil and I spend the next 6 turns hitting for 6 and blocking it with a token. Except while I am doing this I am also ticking up Ashiok. When Ashiok hits 11 I cryptic bounce the wurm and ult her. That’s the game.
G3: I mull to 4. You might ask, what game versus tron is sweet when you mull to 4? The one where your keep is Mutavault, BitterBlossom, Visions, Thoughseize and you scry delta to the top. I cast visions into Blossom into thoughtseize with his only actions being drawing cards and turn 4 ugin. His hand was cantrips and Path to Exiles. He warping Wails my Visons and I proceed to chain Cliques and Mistbinds until he dies.
1-0
Round 2: Jund
G1: His hand is the nuts (Bolt Lili Huntmaster Decay Bob). I am still able to trade resources with hand disruption and counters to the point I resolve a blossom and counter Lili. I try to trap him with 1 token, blossom, 1 Mutavault and sprite in hand to counter the huntmaster but he is smart and decays the Blossom EOT saying he played Faeries back in the day. I topdeck Nameless for the huntmaster and Mistbind to end the game.
G2. He plays lots of creatures and I mull to 5. I play to drawing the 1 damnation, I don’t.
G3: Super close game. I resolve an early blossom but gets a lily to resolve and shreads my hand. I eventually deal with lily but I am behind on board. I am faced with countering a bob or not countering it and trying to go for Bob flips to be lethal. Given the 2 goyfs on the board and the active blossom I go for the race. Hit him down to 7, leaving 2 blockers for 5/6 goyfs and hope that he takes 4 damage from bob over 2 turns. He hits K command, draws terminate and kills me.
1-1
Round 3: RG Titanshift
G1: Mull to 6 and keep 3 lands nameless kalitas dismember. Die to turn 4 titan.
G2: Go Blossom into vault sprite to counter a courser. He casts 2 summoning traps, 1 for prime time and 1 for Baloth. I die.
1-2
Round 4: UW control:
G1 & G2: Games were not close. He had clunky hands with Gideon Elspeth Hallowed Burial Timely Reinforcements and I just killed Bitterblossomed him a bunch. Got to counted a Gideon with Spellstutter which was sweet.
2-2
Round 5: Abzan Doran
G1: Super odd game, he cast 2 treefolk harbingers for lands and never drew any dorans/Assault formations. HE did draw lingering souls. After about 17 turns I eventually killed him with Faeries.
G2: Mulled to 5 died to double tower defense with assault formation out.
G3: Ashiok did work. I just held him back with Faeries, countered and milled all his dorans and eventually killed him with flyers.
3-2
Round 6: Taking Turns
G1: Mulled to 5 and both go for the throats and disfigure in hand. I conceded to elixir for time.
G2: He can’t Beat Vendilion Clique.
G3: Still can’t Beat Vendilion Clique
4-2
Round 7: Bant Eldrazi
G1 & G2: I truly felt outclassed in this Matchups. It feels really really hopless. They are fast, Sprites are dead cards, all my counters are dead cards, displacer counter blossom, Displacer also counters ashiok (Bounce their creatures back to their side of the board). I do not see my list ever winning a reasonable game.
4-3 ()
Round 8: Burn
G1: He wins the die roll and has a guide on turn one. I die pretty fast.
G2: I have IOK into Blossom into sprite into mistbind to beat him down
G3: I have Blossom (Gets Destroyed my Revelry) into clique beats. I end up at 6 life staring down a mentor with a monk. He draws and main phases a helix., I counter tap the team, untap and rev up tar pit and mutavault for lethal.
5-3
Round 9: Bant Eldrazi (Sam Pardee)
G1 & G2: I was super siked to play a very skilled player but I was sad it had to be Sam. I knew going in he was on Bant and I knew that this was not going to be close. It wasn’t. I tried to lean on Kalitas but it always died before it could take over. He Drowns me in Scions.
5-4 ENDING RECORD
Kinda garbage ending record but I played almost none of the matchups I planned for and 2 UNWINABLE matchups. All in all the deck felt pretty great, it was by far the most fun I have had playing magic in a very long time. Going forward I think I am actually going to build this deck and test it some more, it did some pretty impressive things that I was not aware it could do. The second Kalitas main should be either a removal spell or a hand disruption spell. The kalitas should be moved to the SB, there should also be a second Damnation there. Other than that I need to find a reasonable way to beat bant eldrazi.
Thanks for reading my word Vomit :)
Honestly I have no idea how to beat Eldrazi. Damnation seems like it would have been great at any point. I feel like there has to be A card that wrecks them, I just have to find it. More removal that is good versus them might also be an answer, stuff like doom blade. I intend to work on it and at least attempt to figure it out.
Great write up and list! I'm considering changing up my list to be a bit less controlly and up the faerie count from 12 to 14 ish with the same creatures as you. I actually feel like ashiok can beat eldrazi at least in my experience as long as you don't let them resolve displacer or kill it before it can blink itself. I feel game 1 is a bit helpless considering nearly all our counters are dead cards but removal is better and damnation definitely crushes their deck. Eldrazi feels like an aggro midrange deck in that the threats that it plays are big enough for us not to ignore but can also be played quickly and efficiently which is frustrating.
Edit: By the way, how did ancestral vision hold up for you? I'm still torn whether I want to run 3 main, side or any at all?
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 MageRound 1 - Elves - 2-1
Game 1 I'm almost able to stabilize with a Kalitas and am able to slaughter pact something, block with Kalitas and the token, and then sac the token to kalitas to make it through a big elf ball swing, but my opponent ends up lead the stampeding into all gas and I fall behind.
Game 2 was brutalllll. I land an early blossom and go back and forth with my opponent - they rebuild through an Engineered Explosives, Languish and 2 Damnations. The last sequence went kind of like this: I'm at 3 life - Damnation to wipe their board and pass - they top deck a land and pass the turn - I take 1 to a bitterblossom trigger, draw a crypticand pass (I have an uncracked fetch that I need for triple blue) - they topdeck an archdruid and play it - I crack the fetch going to 1, counter the archdruid and bounce BB and they pass - I topdeck kalitas and ride it all the way to victory. ALWAYS play to your outs.
Game 3 I see an early languish after some early key spot removal - land a Kalitas and it's a similar story to game 2. Kalitas is stupid good in so many ways.
Match 2 - Merfolk - 0-2
I personally think merfolk is unwinnable. There's not much less I want to see less on turn one than Island Vial go. Not really too much to say about these games as my opponent was both INCREDIBLY good with the deck (apparently he was a WMCQ finalist last year with the deck) and I drew the wrong half of my deck (and should probably practice the matchup more).
Match 3 - Jeskai Flash (running a miser's Kiki-Jiki) - 2-1
Game 1 I draw 6 lands in a row into an already fairly land heavy hand.
Games 2 and 3 I grossly out tempo the opponent with early blossoms and misbinds. No problems at all.
Overall, good night.
______
As for the above conversations, I'm still not sure I'm sold on Ashiok. I don't necessarily think it's win more, but I think it's sitting in a spot that any number of cards would be good in, so for me and my playstyle I think I'd just rather run something else. It being at 3cmc I think is actually fairly decent because we're able to overload opposing Abrupt Decay or artifact/enchantment removal, which is actually fairly powerful. Batterskull fits in this spot (not the 3cmc part though), the swords, new Lily, etc. I think I'm going to try to run a one of Sword of Light and Shadow in the board. I keep finding myself going way late with the deck and nothing to spend the mana on. If I can suit something up with the sword and even hit once to start getting creatures and some life back then that's gravy. This also helps with the abzan matchup because the sword protects so well from Path(which I feel is much much worse than Jund due to Lingering Souls). Just something I'm going to try.
@unity - I run the same creature suite as Surfkatt but with a Tasigur instead of the third Vendilion Clique and I've been incredibly happy with it. Two Kalitas in the main help win games that we have no business winning way more often than not.
I've also got a flex spot that I was thinking about putting an Unsubstantiate into due to it's versatility in pretty much every matchup - anyone tried it out?
I was facing a mardu Nahiri deck.
The board was clogged up with Spirit tokens, so only way of taking down a resolved Nahiri is Tar Pit and one Hero's Downfall.
And the Tar Pit just gets killed immediately when I activate it lol.
I added two Engineered Explosives to my sideboard, not sure if it will be good.
This is my current deck: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/463718#paper
Legacy: U Merfolk U
I am new to the world of Fae, If you keep reading I say "I have no idea but I am at least going to attempt to figure it out". Sudden Spoiling is A++ Great. Seems SUPER sweet versus Eldrazi and Merfolk.