Yeah tried it a couple of years ago, imo we didn't lose life quickly enough to use it well without double bitterblossom or multiple thoughtseize and in that case we're probably already doing great.
The tournament I had yesterday had 69 participants instead of the around 100 I expected. Guess PPTQ and Modern Masters sealed tournaments were more appealing for many players. This meant the metagame was cheaper than I expected, with too many Urza's lands and too few fetchlands with shocklands; closer to a weekday than to a special tournament, so my decklist didn't seem the most suitable.
Round 1 got paired against Eldrazi Tron. Game 1 he missed with his Thought-Knot Seer, removing Sword instead of Fatal Push. I played a useless Spellstutter Sprite eot to turn on revolt next turn, and got rewarded when I drew a second Fatal Push and he played another Thought-Knot Seer after combat, giving me the chance to kill them all. After those gifts, I only had 2 Mutavault to end the game and they obviously fell short when he started casting Endbringers. Game 2 I mulliganed to 5 and got stuck with 2 lands. Turn 3 I decided to pass the turn to play Mana Leak instead of cracking fetchland for Thoughtseize while holding Ceremonious Rejection; he went for Cavern of Souls into Thought-Knot Seer and all of a sudden those three cards became completely useless. 0-2.
Round 2 I got a bye and spent that time scouting, which gave me the advantage of knowing what my opponents would be playing next rounds. 1-1.
Round 3 I got paired against Jund Delirium. Game 1 he stripped my hand with double Thoughtseize turns 1 and 2 and I was screwed of blue mana for almost the whole game. I played too conservative, and in the end had to gamble at him not having Temur Battle Rage nor Tarfire (he didn't when I checked his hand with Vendilion Clique two turns before) to seal the deal chumpblocking with a Mutavault, championing it with Mistbind Clique and hitting back with Creeping Tar Pit. Game 2 I played two Bitterblossoms turns 2 and 3, he didn't draw the third land in time to cast Maelstrom Pulse on them and the stream of Faeries went out of control. 2-1.
Round 4 I got paired against a regular Tron deck. Game 1 he got fast Tron, but I could still kill Karn after him using the -3 just after casting it with a surprise Snapcaster Mage. Then he got stuck with no green mana and I had hopes of finding a Mistbind Clique with Ancestral Vision to end the game, but he countered it with Warping Weil, drew a Forest and slowly took control of the game. Game 2 I probably missed with my first Thoughtseize choosing to remove Sylvan Scrying over an Ulamog that looked too far from being cast. After using Ceremonious Rejection to allow my Ancestral Vision to resolve, I managed to play Bitterblossom and Thoughtseize to remove an Oblivion Ring that could wipe my board away in a single turn. I passed the turn full tapped hoping to play a Mistbind Clique during his next upkeep. Problem was my opponent was only a mana short of casting Ulamog. He drew a Forest, but instead opted to play Ancient Stirrings to find Ugin and crush me with it instead. 2-2.
Round 5 I got paired against Grixis Delver with Inquisitions of Kozilek. I led on the play with untapped Watery Grave to Fatal Push his Delver, but got hit by Inquisition of Kozilek instead, then I topdecked a Bitterblossom. Next turn he played another Inquisition and I drew another Bitterblossom I played. Next turn I gambled a bit with Mistbind Clique, playing it in response to a fetchland at my eot to dodge a possible counterspell. Luckily for me, he didn't have neither Fatal Push nor Terminate and the game was over very soon. Game 2 he found Bitterblossom in my hand with his turn 1 Inquisition, but I drew another one I could play with just Spell Snare back-up (guessed he had to cut Spell Snares to make room to Inquisition of Kozilek in his deck). Then the game was completely stall, with his flipped Delver and my growing army of Faeries standing in front of each other. My opponent didn't play lands nor spells, while I was setting up a Mistbind Clique with double counterspell back-up to protect myself from my own Bitterblossom. The first turn I decided to attack he casted Electrickery, and I proceeded to play Mistbind Clique despite losing 6 tokens, knowing I wouldn't have to fight a counter war that turn and he could only play two removal spells next turn. His attempts met the double counter back-up defense I had prepared, and I ended up killing his Insectile Aberration and countering all of the spells he tried to cast for the rest of the game. 3-2.
Round 6 I got paired against Ad Nauseam. A bit too late for me. As you can see, my maindeck is pretty soft to pure combo decks like that, so I was happy to keep an initial hand with no removal spells, but Ancestral Vision, Bitterblossom and Vendilion Clique and mana to cast them all on curve. I executed the plan, and my opponent panicked and cast Ad Nauseam in response to Vendilion Clique with no Unlife nor Angel's Grace. He revealed 3 more Nauseams and an Unlife I sent to the bottom of his library. Game 2 I played a turn 2 Bitterblossom despite having Negate and Leak in hand. My opponent had played Pentad Prism and could potentially go off turn 3, but he didn't have the full combo in hand and could only discard Negate (over Cryptic Command) with Thoughtseize. Next turn I used Mana Leak, and the following one I opted to play Mistbind Clique over Cryptic Command on Phyrexian Unlife, knowing I could bounce it back later but that I wouldn't have too many chances to play the Clique. Then I countered a Laboratory Maniac with Snapcaster Mage, and on the decisive turn in which my opponent expected to win resolving Lotus Bloom with Spoils of the Vault to look for Pact of Negation as defense, I again declined to play Cryptic Command to go with Vendilion Clique and Ceremonious Rejection instead. 4-2.
After checking the standings, I realized that if any of the currently at 12 points players would enter the top8, it would be someone with better tie-breakers than myself, but the organizer had promised some packs to the top16, and even with the low participation he kept his word, so I stayed to try to get them.
Round 7 I got paired against a guy I didn't recognize who happened to be playing an Atarka aggro deck. Game 1 I didn't see any Fatal Push and got crushed. Game 2 he kept a hand that was able to deal 14 damage out of nowhere if he drew a second land. Luckily for me it never happened (or at least not before I bounced the first one back to his hand), although I had to play Bitterblossom to keep in check one of his creatures and race him desperately with Vendilion Clique and Mutavault. Game 3 my opponent kept another greedy one-lander, but this time he had an annoying flow of creatures he could cast. I probably played too conservative, getting to the point of discarding Bitterblossom to Collective Brutality instead of playing it, to then get hit by a 2/3 while I only had a Spellstutter Sprite to race it. Luckily I drew a Batterskull the turn I was going to play my sixth land, so I could play it with Spell Snare back-up to keep the board clear next turn in case he drew a second land, as it happened. Then I used Fatal Push to remove his blocker and that was it. 5-2, and the Chandra I opened looked sexier than a playset of fetchlands I already own in random languages I would've have won if I had lost in quarterfinals.
Overall I played quite far from my best Magic (game 1 of Round 3 and game 3 of Round 7 were awful), yet my result was mainly conditioned by luck. About my deck, I like the maindeck a lot, but it doesn't seem the best against those Eldrazis and big mana decks, and my sideboard yesterday was far from fixing those match-ups.
I am almost positive Smugglers Copter is straight busted in Faeries. Ceremonius Rejection has a ton of good uses. I have this almost put together and am going to run it this coming Saturday.
He's updated a few cards and provides reasons for his choices. While it definitely resembles older lists, its got a consistent game plan, well, consistent for faeries.
He seems a bit more paranoid of dredge than I feel is warranted, but I don't play online much, so maybe it hasn't fallen off as much there as I've seen it do in paper. Are you guys still seeing dredge a lot?
The article doesn't say anything new to anyone who has been playing Faeries in Modern for some time, but there are few things to disagree with. Dredge is definitely a bad match-up, but it's less prevalent than Eldrazis and Tron right now. Probably PV's advice would be to not play Faeries in such a metagame before thinking for the right sideboard to turn those match-ups in our favor without losing too much against the rest of the format.
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Currently sleeved: WUR Copycat ft. Stoneforge Mystic
The article doesn't say anything new to anyone who has been playing Faeries in Modern for some time, but there are few things to disagree with. Dredge is definitely a bad match-up, but it's less prevalent than Eldrazis and Tron right now. Probably PV's advice would be to not play Faeries in such a metagame before thinking for the right sideboard to turn those match-ups in our favor without losing too much against the rest of the format.
Yea I agree. I felt a little snobby watching his video series and thinking that he was like the out of touch old timer compared to a lot of the hardcore fae players. Either way, I'm happy to see faeries getting some of the spotlight and insights can always be taken away from watching a good player. Even if those insights are affirmations of why you won't play his exact list :).
I am almost positive Smugglers Copter is straight busted in Faeries. Ceremonius Rejection has a ton of good uses. I have this almost put together and am going to run it this coming Saturday.
Smug Copter has been tried pretty extensively by several fae players on the discord app, and general feedback is that it doesn't make the cut. Our deck operates mostly at instant speed, and we don't have very many reliable creatures (my list runs 14 including Mutavault, the one you linked runs 15) unless you have a BB in play. Copter also doesn't do anything when it hits the field, and may block something if we already have a blocker in play (could hit flying, I guess).
It also just straight up dies to bolt, which is always a good way to judge a creatures desirability in modern.
The list you linked is interesting, and I'm confident in saying the pilot knows what he's doing, but I think zero cryptic is tantamount to sacrilege in a faeries deck, and I also think 4 copter is too many if you choose to run it. There were 4 combo decks in the top 8 with our fae friend, Living End coming in first. These decks do pretty well against mid range and tron decks, and also happen to be good match ups for us.
I'm always looking for more data and results, even (especially) for cards I don't play with in my 75, so please let us know how you do next Saturday! I also like Ceremonious Rejection, and am currently trying 2 in my sb in place of 2 hurkyls recall.
Copter is good in aggro faeries, but this might actually be a different strategic headspace altogether. You want bodies on the board and Id actually argue that scion is at its best or better here than other faeries decks because the filtering and draw rate is significant, but your plan is racing what you cant beat instead of answering it in the earlygame or keeping pace with the opponent in the midgame. copter felt clunky in testing personally and that might be because I play aggro control so leaving up mana is a part of the gameplan at times. That list has no countermagic so i honestly would play 4 scion of oona somewhere because it looks like its built to race optimally and not interact effectively
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Decks I have in my bag of tricks- Needless to say, someone who wants to play will probably have a deck UB/x Faeries UR Storm XURWB Affinity G Elves UW control
I am almost positive Smugglers Copter is straight busted in Faeries. Ceremonius Rejection has a ton of good uses. I have this almost put together and am going to run it this coming Saturday.
IMO, Smuggler's copter plays like a half-Bitterblossom, half-Ancestral Vision card. You do need to be wary about tapping out main phase too often, but it isn't as if Faeries never taps out main phase (T1 AV or T2 BB, for example). Positioning Copter as a second (and admittedly worse) BB instead of a second Vendilion Clique is important if you want to play it.
I've been taking my fairly standard Faeries list through some friendly and competitive leagues on MTGO, and need some sideboard advice.
My list (from memory, so excuse any minor inconsistencies):
Lands (24): 3 Polluted Delta, 4 Darkslick Shores, 4 Mutavault, 2 Creeping Tar Pit, 4 Watery Grave, 3 Secluded Glen, 3 Island, 1 Swamp
Creatures (12): 4 Spellstutter Sprite, 2 Snapcaster Mage, 2 Vendilion Clique, 2 Mistbind Clique, 2 Gifted Aetherborn (experimenting, and haven't hated it so far)
Spells (24): 2 Ancestral Vision, 4 Inquisition of Kozilek, 2 Surgical Extraction, 3 Fatal Push, 2 Mana Leak, 1 Spell Snare, 1 Remand, 1 Go for the Throat, 1 Murderous Cut, 3 Cryptic Command, 4 Bitterblossom
I've experimented with Scions, Kalitas mainboard, 6 discard rather than 4, Copter, Leyline of the Void, Familiar's Ruse, all the usual suspects.
Over the last four leagues (20 matches), I've been recording my record. The match-ups are more or less what you'd expect - I lost twice to Burn, though it's not an impossible matchup. Lost twice to fish. Fair split for Jund, good win rate vs Storm/Ad Naus/Living End.
The main issue I'm running into is big mana colorless. Over twenty matches, I played 7 (!) decks: beat G/W Tron and U Eldrazi Tron; lost to U Eldrazi Tron (same guy two games in a row, blech), Eldrazi and taxes twice, Tron Eldrazi twice. Depending on the matchup, I'm usually boarding in GQ, Ceremonious Rejection, Thoughtseize, Countersquall (vs. regular Tron), and the occasional Damnation. But I'm running into these decks so frequently, and even with a huge board state advantage am getting my ass kicked sideways most games.
Normally, I'm a big proponent of a generalized sideboard of widely applicable tools, but I've been very tempted to add one each of Surgical, GQ, Ceremonious, and Thoughtseize just for these matches (with the added benefit that three of the four are also applicable against Titan/Scapeshift). Any other tech I should be considering first? Any thoughts on giving up some versatility to have more hate against a common issue?
I've been taking my fairly standard Faeries list through some friendly and competitive leagues on MTGO, and need some sideboard advice.
My list (from memory, so excuse any minor inconsistencies):
Lands (24): 3 Polluted Delta, 4 Darkslick Shores, 4 Mutavault, 2 Creeping Tar Pit, 4 Watery Grave, 3 Secluded Glen, 3 Island, 1 Swamp
Creatures (12): 4 Spellstutter Sprite, 2 Snapcaster Mage, 2 Vendilion Clique, 2 Mistbind Clique, 2 Gifted Aetherborn (experimenting, and haven't hated it so far)
Spells (24): 2 Ancestral Vision, 4 Inquisition of Kozilek, 2 Surgical Extraction, 3 Fatal Push, 2 Mana Leak, 1 Spell Snare, 1 Remand, 1 Go for the Throat, 1 Murderous Cut, 3 Cryptic Command, 4 Bitterblossom
I've experimented with Scions, Kalitas mainboard, 6 discard rather than 4, Copter, Leyline of the Void, Familiar's Ruse, all the usual suspects.
Over the last four leagues (20 matches), I've been recording my record. The match-ups are more or less what you'd expect - I lost twice to Burn, though it's not an impossible matchup. Lost twice to fish. Fair split for Jund, good win rate vs Storm/Ad Naus/Living End.
The main issue I'm running into is big mana colorless. Over twenty matches, I played 7 (!) decks: beat G/W Tron and U Eldrazi Tron; lost to U Eldrazi Tron (same guy two games in a row, blech), Eldrazi and taxes twice, Tron Eldrazi twice. Depending on the matchup, I'm usually boarding in GQ, Ceremonious Rejection, Thoughtseize, Countersquall (vs. regular Tron), and the occasional Damnation. But I'm running into these decks so frequently, and even with a huge board state advantage am getting my ass kicked sideways most games.
Normally, I'm a big proponent of a generalized sideboard of widely applicable tools, but I've been very tempted to add one each of Surgical, GQ, Ceremonious, and Thoughtseize just for these matches (with the added benefit that three of the four are also applicable against Titan/Scapeshift). Any other tech I should be considering first? Any thoughts on giving up some versatility to have more hate against a common issue?
Quite curious on the maindeck Surgical extractions. What do you need it for? I'd rather move a GC and a thoughtseize to your main and put the extractions in the side. That should give you a bit of an edge against Tron in the maindeck, while not suffering from SE being a dead card often. If you happen to play these decks so often, maybe a Thoughtseize maindeck package is good?
Quite curious on the maindeck Surgical extractions. What do you need it for? I'd rather move a GC and a thoughtseize to your main and put the extractions in the side. That should give you a bit of an edge against Tron in the maindeck, while not suffering from SE being a dead card often. If you happen to play these decks so often, maybe a Thoughtseize maindeck package is good?
The main deck Surgicals are a new try for me in the last week or two; I found that I was side boarding them in for a ton of matches (all the combo decks, any Tron variant, anything with much GY interaction), and that if I got one early, could often grab incidental value by stripping things out of your hand with them. I'm not married to having them mainboard, but even if they go back to the side, I'm thinking I want three of them for consistency.
I used to run 2 Thoughtseizes main deck (replaced by my 2 Ancestral Visions), but found the 2 life was a steep price for hitting a couple more cards - I may need to reexamine since I'm seeing a lot more big mana decks than before, and IoK only hits 60% of what I want, as opposed to the 80 or 90% a couple of months ago.
Still curious if there are good sideboard options not anywhere in my 75, specifically vs Tron and Eldrazi.
Quite curious on the maindeck Surgical extractions. What do you need it for? I'd rather move a GC and a thoughtseize to your main and put the extractions in the side. That should give you a bit of an edge against Tron in the maindeck, while not suffering from SE being a dead card often. If you happen to play these decks so often, maybe a Thoughtseize maindeck package is good?
The main deck Surgicals are a new try for me in the last week or two; I found that I was side boarding them in for a ton of matches (all the combo decks, any Tron variant, anything with much GY interaction), and that if I got one early, could often grab incidental value by stripping things out of your hand with them. I'm not married to having them mainboard, but even if they go back to the side, I'm thinking I want three of them for consistency.
I used to run 2 Thoughtseizes main deck (replaced by my 2 Ancestral Visions), but found the 2 life was a steep price for hitting a couple more cards - I may need to reexamine since I'm seeing a lot more big mana decks than before, and IoK only hits 60% of what I want, as opposed to the 80 or 90% a couple of months ago.
Still curious if there are good sideboard options not anywhere in my 75, specifically vs Tron and Eldrazi.
You could consider maindecking Collective Brutality, to get rid of blossoms and thoughtseizes for value. Against Tron, there are plenty of sidecards, especially Rejection, Thoughtseize, Pithing Needle and indeed extraction effects. These also work versus Eldrazi Tron. Versus Bant Eldrazi, I can only think of Damnation and Kalitas so far...
The main deck Surgicals are a new try for me in the last week or two; I found that I was side boarding them in for a ton of matches (all the combo decks, any Tron variant, anything with much GY interaction), and that if I got one early, could often grab incidental value by stripping things out of your hand with them. I'm not married to having them mainboard, but even if they go back to the side, I'm thinking I want three of them for consistency.
I used to run 2 Thoughtseizes main deck (replaced by my 2 Ancestral Visions), but found the 2 life was a steep price for hitting a couple more cards - I may need to reexamine since I'm seeing a lot more big mana decks than before, and IoK only hits 60% of what I want, as opposed to the 80 or 90% a couple of months ago.
My meta is filthy with Tron, and I'm running a 3/2 Thoughtseize/Inqusition of Kozilek split maindeck. I also have 3 Surgicals in my board, and wouldn't consider it crazy to run up to 4 depending on your meta. I would cut one or both Spellbombs.
Some folks have had luck with Ensnaring Bridge against Bant Eldrazi. While it is flexible, I don't know how effective it will be against Tron variants (Eldrazi and otherwise).
I'd also consider cutting Spell Snare for anothere Countersquall or Negate. And if you're not already, I suggest bringing them in against Burn. I'm running a 2/1 Countersquall/Negate split in my side.
I think it'd be great to see more of your match-up data when your sample size increases.
Would it be possible to add a bit on what to mulligan or keep to the primer? For a deck that often has to mulligan I feel like it's something that should be brought up.
Of course we want at least 2 lands and a bitterblossom that can be cast with said lands, but I feel like it's a bit misleading to people trying to pick up the deck thinking they can do the old extended 6 lands and a bitterblossom. Maybe it's a stretch to say that. But I'm also curious what else would be considered a keepable hand outside of 2 lands and bitterblossom.
Would it be possible to add a bit on what to mulligan or keep to the primer? For a deck that often has to mulligan I feel like it's something that should be brought up.
Of course we want at least 2 lands and a bitterblossom that can be cast with said lands, but I feel like it's a bit misleading to people trying to pick up the deck thinking they can do the old extended 6 lands and a bitterblossom. Maybe it's a stretch to say that. But I'm also curious what else would be considered a keepable hand outside of 2 lands and bitterblossom.
A hand with a certain amount of disruption, counter magic and a good curve. For example, a hand of 2 land, snare, SSS, clique, leak and visions would be a keep. No BB is ok.
I agree with burningeffigy, BB is nice in an opening hand, and can offer an entire game strategy by itself, but is absolutely not necessary. Imo and experience its not even necessary to see one in the entire match if you sb well and pilot correctly. One of the articles on the first page, though dated, talks about looking for a "game plan" in your opening hand. I generally like at least 3 lands with some form of interaction at 2 or 1 mana. Mana leak, fatal push, discard, gftt, and even snapcaster in cases are good in an opening hand. Take a moment to plan out your first few turns, and make sure your mana meshes. I've kept an appealing 3 land hand with good interaction, only to realize I had a tar pit, a drowned catacomb and a darcklaick shores. In this case, it's usually better to drop tar pit turn one and leave untapped mana turn 2 onward. If you have a tar pit, drowned catacomb, and a mutavault, that may be worth mulliganning over.
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Legacy - LED Dredge, ANT & WDnT
Bridge in action last night.
Did 2 leagues.
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Mistbind Clique
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Fatal Push
1 Spell Snare
2 Mana Leak
2 Go for the Throat
2 Collective Brutality
3 Cryptic Command
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Mutavault
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Polluted Delta
2 Watery Grave
4 Island
1 Swamp
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Secluded Glen
1 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Negate
1 Spell Snare
2 Damnation
3 Thoughtseize
Round 1 got paired against Eldrazi Tron. Game 1 he missed with his Thought-Knot Seer, removing Sword instead of Fatal Push. I played a useless Spellstutter Sprite eot to turn on revolt next turn, and got rewarded when I drew a second Fatal Push and he played another Thought-Knot Seer after combat, giving me the chance to kill them all. After those gifts, I only had 2 Mutavault to end the game and they obviously fell short when he started casting Endbringers. Game 2 I mulliganed to 5 and got stuck with 2 lands. Turn 3 I decided to pass the turn to play Mana Leak instead of cracking fetchland for Thoughtseize while holding Ceremonious Rejection; he went for Cavern of Souls into Thought-Knot Seer and all of a sudden those three cards became completely useless. 0-2.
Round 2 I got a bye and spent that time scouting, which gave me the advantage of knowing what my opponents would be playing next rounds. 1-1.
Round 3 I got paired against Jund Delirium. Game 1 he stripped my hand with double Thoughtseize turns 1 and 2 and I was screwed of blue mana for almost the whole game. I played too conservative, and in the end had to gamble at him not having Temur Battle Rage nor Tarfire (he didn't when I checked his hand with Vendilion Clique two turns before) to seal the deal chumpblocking with a Mutavault, championing it with Mistbind Clique and hitting back with Creeping Tar Pit. Game 2 I played two Bitterblossoms turns 2 and 3, he didn't draw the third land in time to cast Maelstrom Pulse on them and the stream of Faeries went out of control. 2-1.
Round 4 I got paired against a regular Tron deck. Game 1 he got fast Tron, but I could still kill Karn after him using the -3 just after casting it with a surprise Snapcaster Mage. Then he got stuck with no green mana and I had hopes of finding a Mistbind Clique with Ancestral Vision to end the game, but he countered it with Warping Weil, drew a Forest and slowly took control of the game. Game 2 I probably missed with my first Thoughtseize choosing to remove Sylvan Scrying over an Ulamog that looked too far from being cast. After using Ceremonious Rejection to allow my Ancestral Vision to resolve, I managed to play Bitterblossom and Thoughtseize to remove an Oblivion Ring that could wipe my board away in a single turn. I passed the turn full tapped hoping to play a Mistbind Clique during his next upkeep. Problem was my opponent was only a mana short of casting Ulamog. He drew a Forest, but instead opted to play Ancient Stirrings to find Ugin and crush me with it instead. 2-2.
Round 5 I got paired against Grixis Delver with Inquisitions of Kozilek. I led on the play with untapped Watery Grave to Fatal Push his Delver, but got hit by Inquisition of Kozilek instead, then I topdecked a Bitterblossom. Next turn he played another Inquisition and I drew another Bitterblossom I played. Next turn I gambled a bit with Mistbind Clique, playing it in response to a fetchland at my eot to dodge a possible counterspell. Luckily for me, he didn't have neither Fatal Push nor Terminate and the game was over very soon. Game 2 he found Bitterblossom in my hand with his turn 1 Inquisition, but I drew another one I could play with just Spell Snare back-up (guessed he had to cut Spell Snares to make room to Inquisition of Kozilek in his deck). Then the game was completely stall, with his flipped Delver and my growing army of Faeries standing in front of each other. My opponent didn't play lands nor spells, while I was setting up a Mistbind Clique with double counterspell back-up to protect myself from my own Bitterblossom. The first turn I decided to attack he casted Electrickery, and I proceeded to play Mistbind Clique despite losing 6 tokens, knowing I wouldn't have to fight a counter war that turn and he could only play two removal spells next turn. His attempts met the double counter back-up defense I had prepared, and I ended up killing his Insectile Aberration and countering all of the spells he tried to cast for the rest of the game. 3-2.
Round 6 I got paired against Ad Nauseam. A bit too late for me. As you can see, my maindeck is pretty soft to pure combo decks like that, so I was happy to keep an initial hand with no removal spells, but Ancestral Vision, Bitterblossom and Vendilion Clique and mana to cast them all on curve. I executed the plan, and my opponent panicked and cast Ad Nauseam in response to Vendilion Clique with no Unlife nor Angel's Grace. He revealed 3 more Nauseams and an Unlife I sent to the bottom of his library. Game 2 I played a turn 2 Bitterblossom despite having Negate and Leak in hand. My opponent had played Pentad Prism and could potentially go off turn 3, but he didn't have the full combo in hand and could only discard Negate (over Cryptic Command) with Thoughtseize. Next turn I used Mana Leak, and the following one I opted to play Mistbind Clique over Cryptic Command on Phyrexian Unlife, knowing I could bounce it back later but that I wouldn't have too many chances to play the Clique. Then I countered a Laboratory Maniac with Snapcaster Mage, and on the decisive turn in which my opponent expected to win resolving Lotus Bloom with Spoils of the Vault to look for Pact of Negation as defense, I again declined to play Cryptic Command to go with Vendilion Clique and Ceremonious Rejection instead. 4-2.
After checking the standings, I realized that if any of the currently at 12 points players would enter the top8, it would be someone with better tie-breakers than myself, but the organizer had promised some packs to the top16, and even with the low participation he kept his word, so I stayed to try to get them.
Round 7 I got paired against a guy I didn't recognize who happened to be playing an Atarka aggro deck. Game 1 I didn't see any Fatal Push and got crushed. Game 2 he kept a hand that was able to deal 14 damage out of nowhere if he drew a second land. Luckily for me it never happened (or at least not before I bounced the first one back to his hand), although I had to play Bitterblossom to keep in check one of his creatures and race him desperately with Vendilion Clique and Mutavault. Game 3 my opponent kept another greedy one-lander, but this time he had an annoying flow of creatures he could cast. I probably played too conservative, getting to the point of discarding Bitterblossom to Collective Brutality instead of playing it, to then get hit by a 2/3 while I only had a Spellstutter Sprite to race it. Luckily I drew a Batterskull the turn I was going to play my sixth land, so I could play it with Spell Snare back-up to keep the board clear next turn in case he drew a second land, as it happened. Then I used Fatal Push to remove his blocker and that was it. 5-2, and the Chandra I opened looked sexier than a playset of fetchlands I already own in random languages I would've have won if I had lost in quarterfinals.
Overall I played quite far from my best Magic (game 1 of Round 3 and game 3 of Round 7 were awful), yet my result was mainly conditioned by luck. About my deck, I like the maindeck a lot, but it doesn't seem the best against those Eldrazis and big mana decks, and my sideboard yesterday was far from fixing those match-ups.
Currently sleeved:
WUR Copycat ft. Stoneforge Mystic
I am almost positive Smugglers Copter is straight busted in Faeries. Ceremonius Rejection has a ton of good uses. I have this almost put together and am going to run it this coming Saturday.
He's updated a few cards and provides reasons for his choices. While it definitely resembles older lists, its got a consistent game plan, well, consistent for faeries.
He seems a bit more paranoid of dredge than I feel is warranted, but I don't play online much, so maybe it hasn't fallen off as much there as I've seen it do in paper. Are you guys still seeing dredge a lot?
Currently sleeved:
WUR Copycat ft. Stoneforge Mystic
Yea I agree. I felt a little snobby watching his video series and thinking that he was like the out of touch old timer compared to a lot of the hardcore fae players. Either way, I'm happy to see faeries getting some of the spotlight and insights can always be taken away from watching a good player. Even if those insights are affirmations of why you won't play his exact list :).
Smug Copter has been tried pretty extensively by several fae players on the discord app, and general feedback is that it doesn't make the cut. Our deck operates mostly at instant speed, and we don't have very many reliable creatures (my list runs 14 including Mutavault, the one you linked runs 15) unless you have a BB in play. Copter also doesn't do anything when it hits the field, and may block something if we already have a blocker in play (could hit flying, I guess).
It also just straight up dies to bolt, which is always a good way to judge a creatures desirability in modern.
The list you linked is interesting, and I'm confident in saying the pilot knows what he's doing, but I think zero cryptic is tantamount to sacrilege in a faeries deck, and I also think 4 copter is too many if you choose to run it. There were 4 combo decks in the top 8 with our fae friend, Living End coming in first. These decks do pretty well against mid range and tron decks, and also happen to be good match ups for us.
I'm always looking for more data and results, even (especially) for cards I don't play with in my 75, so please let us know how you do next Saturday! I also like Ceremonious Rejection, and am currently trying 2 in my sb in place of 2 hurkyls recall.
UB/x Faeries
UR Storm
XURWB Affinity
G Elves
UW control
Make sure to let us know how it goes!
My list (from memory, so excuse any minor inconsistencies):
Lands (24): 3 Polluted Delta, 4 Darkslick Shores, 4 Mutavault, 2 Creeping Tar Pit, 4 Watery Grave, 3 Secluded Glen, 3 Island, 1 Swamp
Creatures (12): 4 Spellstutter Sprite, 2 Snapcaster Mage, 2 Vendilion Clique, 2 Mistbind Clique, 2 Gifted Aetherborn (experimenting, and haven't hated it so far)
Spells (24): 2 Ancestral Vision, 4 Inquisition of Kozilek, 2 Surgical Extraction, 3 Fatal Push, 2 Mana Leak, 1 Spell Snare, 1 Remand, 1 Go for the Throat, 1 Murderous Cut, 3 Cryptic Command, 4 Bitterblossom
Sideboard (15): 2 Ghost Quarter, 2 Damnation, 2 Ceremonious Rejection, 1 Spell Snare, 1 Remand, 1 Countersquall, 2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, 2 Thoughtseize, 2 Nihil Spellbomb
I've experimented with Scions, Kalitas mainboard, 6 discard rather than 4, Copter, Leyline of the Void, Familiar's Ruse, all the usual suspects.
Over the last four leagues (20 matches), I've been recording my record. The match-ups are more or less what you'd expect - I lost twice to Burn, though it's not an impossible matchup. Lost twice to fish. Fair split for Jund, good win rate vs Storm/Ad Naus/Living End.
The main issue I'm running into is big mana colorless. Over twenty matches, I played 7 (!) decks: beat G/W Tron and U Eldrazi Tron; lost to U Eldrazi Tron (same guy two games in a row, blech), Eldrazi and taxes twice, Tron Eldrazi twice. Depending on the matchup, I'm usually boarding in GQ, Ceremonious Rejection, Thoughtseize, Countersquall (vs. regular Tron), and the occasional Damnation. But I'm running into these decks so frequently, and even with a huge board state advantage am getting my ass kicked sideways most games.
Normally, I'm a big proponent of a generalized sideboard of widely applicable tools, but I've been very tempted to add one each of Surgical, GQ, Ceremonious, and Thoughtseize just for these matches (with the added benefit that three of the four are also applicable against Titan/Scapeshift). Any other tech I should be considering first? Any thoughts on giving up some versatility to have more hate against a common issue?
Quite curious on the maindeck Surgical extractions. What do you need it for? I'd rather move a GC and a thoughtseize to your main and put the extractions in the side. That should give you a bit of an edge against Tron in the maindeck, while not suffering from SE being a dead card often. If you happen to play these decks so often, maybe a Thoughtseize maindeck package is good?
DECKS:
UB Faeries [Midrange/Tempo]
RWUGB Affinity[Aggro]
FAERIES TOO STRONK!!!1111
- Fae Prophecy, 201
5678The main deck Surgicals are a new try for me in the last week or two; I found that I was side boarding them in for a ton of matches (all the combo decks, any Tron variant, anything with much GY interaction), and that if I got one early, could often grab incidental value by stripping things out of your hand with them. I'm not married to having them mainboard, but even if they go back to the side, I'm thinking I want three of them for consistency.
I used to run 2 Thoughtseizes main deck (replaced by my 2 Ancestral Visions), but found the 2 life was a steep price for hitting a couple more cards - I may need to reexamine since I'm seeing a lot more big mana decks than before, and IoK only hits 60% of what I want, as opposed to the 80 or 90% a couple of months ago.
Still curious if there are good sideboard options not anywhere in my 75, specifically vs Tron and Eldrazi.
You could consider maindecking Collective Brutality, to get rid of blossoms and thoughtseizes for value. Against Tron, there are plenty of sidecards, especially Rejection, Thoughtseize, Pithing Needle and indeed extraction effects. These also work versus Eldrazi Tron. Versus Bant Eldrazi, I can only think of Damnation and Kalitas so far...
DECKS:
UB Faeries [Midrange/Tempo]
RWUGB Affinity[Aggro]
FAERIES TOO STRONK!!!1111
- Fae Prophecy, 201
5678My meta is filthy with Tron, and I'm running a 3/2 Thoughtseize/Inqusition of Kozilek split maindeck. I also have 3 Surgicals in my board, and wouldn't consider it crazy to run up to 4 depending on your meta. I would cut one or both Spellbombs.
Some folks have had luck with Ensnaring Bridge against Bant Eldrazi. While it is flexible, I don't know how effective it will be against Tron variants (Eldrazi and otherwise).
I'd also consider cutting Spell Snare for anothere Countersquall or Negate. And if you're not already, I suggest bringing them in against Burn. I'm running a 2/1 Countersquall/Negate split in my side.
I think it'd be great to see more of your match-up data when your sample size increases.
Of course we want at least 2 lands and a bitterblossom that can be cast with said lands, but I feel like it's a bit misleading to people trying to pick up the deck thinking they can do the old extended 6 lands and a bitterblossom. Maybe it's a stretch to say that. But I'm also curious what else would be considered a keepable hand outside of 2 lands and bitterblossom.
A hand with a certain amount of disruption, counter magic and a good curve. For example, a hand of 2 land, snare, SSS, clique, leak and visions would be a keep. No BB is ok.