Hey, folks. I'm updating my paper deck to more closely match my MTGO fae (which is mostly the one I play). As it happens, I have a copy of Engineered Explosives in paper, but have never used it online.
Do you play EE, and what popular/tier decks do you board it in against?
I like Mackl's list. I played something similar to win the FNM last Friday. He is actually 8-1, so should be facing many shadow decks and increasing his score.
Takahashi's feels more like UB Control+Bitterblossom+SSS.
Here is the coverage of Mackl at GP Copenhagen.
Red for Blood Moon to solve our problem of super bad matchup against Edrazi & Tron : "You don't do much under Blood Moon ; with a little luck they'll do less."
I think Blood Moon is for sure a fine card. Definitely like it against the eldrazi tron matchup. That being said, I still don't know whether or not the thought scour or ancestral version is better. I am a strong believer that we need some kind of way to dig through the deck for sure. Figuring out which one that is though is the question.
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Dead at birth as we slowly decay - We're born only to fade away
We got no future, we got no hope
Our life is pain and it's hard to cope.
Good Morning! Here is my tournament for GP Vegas as I remember it. I’ll try to relay the important information, calls, and thoughts. If you would like to know more on a specific matchup, sideboard strategy, or anything I can attempt to elaborate.
TLDR:
My Day 1 record was 7-1-1 (Rank 123 out of 3401) and my Day 2 record was 8-4-1 drop (Rank 560 out 3401)
Won: 17 matches Lost: 11 matches.
I played a variation of Valentin Mackl’s Grixis Faeries with a few changes. Maindeck differences were -1 Vendilion Clique, -1 Spell Snare for +1 Go for the Throat, +1 Collective Brutality. Sideboard differences -1 Countersquall, -1 Collective Brutality, -2 Relic of Progenitus for +2 Ceremonious Rejection, +2 Nihil Spellbomb. I thought I would run into Eldrazi Tron and wanted to shore up that match up and I thought Nihil Spellbomb would be better with 4 Snapcaster Mages than Relic.
Day 1:
Match 1: U/W Control
Game 1: I play a very standard control game, pressuring him with man-land activations and eventually I get there with Bitterblossom tokens. I remember a big swing was countering a detention sphere with Spellstutter Sprite. (Win: 1-0)
Game 2: Starts off slow. I boarded in Blood Moon and drew it in my opening hand. I knew if I land it I am going to pretty much win the game because the first game he was greedy fetching shocklands. Therefore, I attack early with a Mutavault on purpose to get it pathed fetching one of my basics. I Vendilion Clique seeing the coast is pretty clear of counterspells. I attack next with a Creeping Tar Pit hoping to get it ghost quartered and he does. This gets me my next basic and I am set to cast moon on the following turn. I drop a moon and he has no basics in play and scoops. (Win: 2-0)
Record: 1-0
Match 2: Abzan Traverse
Game 1: I keep and he mulls to 6. The game went pretty standard with me controlling the board killing his Grim Flayer and Tarmogoyf with Fatal Push and Snapcaster Mage. (Win: 1-0)
Game 2: This game goes back and forth a bit. I resolve Bitterblossom and start amassing a decent board. I notice my opponent is also being greedy with his fetching and when I resolve Blood Moon he has no answer for it and scoops. (WinL 2-0)
Record: 2-0
Match 3: Jeskai Control
Game 1: The game goes back and forth for the first couple rounds trading counterspells until he resolves a Gideon. It takes me a lot of time to deal with it. The +2 ability was a big deal when I only had a few creatures in play. Luckily I was able to clean it up with my man-lands. Late game he has 2 Celestial Colonnades in play and I was only able to answer 1 of the. He also was able to resolve 3 Sphyinx’s Revelations (2 Hard casts and 1 Snap cast). He basically was able to out tempo me and I didn’t have answers at crucial times. He plays an Ajani Vengeant and I scoop. Final life totals where 4 to 7.
(Lose: 0-1)
Game 2: This game plays similar to game 1 where we trade cards back and forth for the early game. I was able to get rid of the Gideon with a Thoughtseize. The game goes to late game with him being at 4 and me being at 1. My opponent was able to have an electrolyze and kill me with it. (Lose: 0-2)
Record 2-1
Match 4: U/W Control
Game 1: This game goes similar to the other control match ups. Lots of back and forth going on, but I end up getting there. The first match takes around 40 minutes. (Win: 1-0)
Game 2: He drops a turn 1 Leyline of Sanctity and a turn 2 Rest in Peace. During the end of his turn I accidently attempt to target him with a Thought Scour and I get judge called on me since I can’t target him. I get a warning and re-target myself. He drops a Gideon which kills my Vendilion Clique and proceeds to attack me with it the following turns. I have no real answer for it and I scoop. (Lose: 1-1)
Game 3: The game goes back and forth until we go to time. On my last turn of the game my opponent is at 6 life and I have a Snapcaster Mage and a Tasigur, the Golden Fang on board ready to attack for the win. Unfortunately for me my opponent has Cryptic Command and taps them to draw the game. (Draw)
Record: 2-1-1
Match 5: Merfolk
Game 1: I get a turn 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang on board and proceed to win the game by controlling the board and resolving Bitterblossom. (Win: 1-0)
Game 2: He gets a really good double vial start and ends up doing what merfolk does best. I don’t draw Damnation in time and lose. (Lose: 1-1)
Game 3: Being on the play I make a crucial sideboarding decision to board in 2 of my Ceremonious Rejections with the logic that I can try to counter the early Aether Vial and try and one for one his creatures. Turn 1 he plays Aether Vial and I counter it with Ceremonious Rejection. He ends up getting mana screwed and I win with Bitterblossom and Spellsutter Sprite. (Win: 2-1)
Record: 3-1-1
Match 6: U/R Storm
Game 1: I resolve an early Tasigur, the Golden Fang and counter his important spells and win pretty easily. (Win: 1-0)
Game 2: This game goes similar to the first game. I resolve Bitterblossom early and have a grip of counters for his important spells. He attempts to go off, but I Spellsutter Sprite his first ritual and Countersquall the second. (Win: 2-0)
Record: 4-1-1
Match 7: 4C Gifts
Game 1: Standard control game for the early part. He resolves Gifts the Ungiven and then Unburial Rites Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. I kill it with a Go for the Throat and grind him out the rest of the game. (Win: 1-0)
Game 2: My opponent opens with a Leyline of the Void. I resolve an early Bitterblossom and ride it to victory. I end up Thought Scouring my opponent and mill a copy of Gifts the Ungiven. Later on I counter his Gifts and other important spells to win. (Win: 2-0)
Record: 5-1-1
Match 8: Grixis Death’s Shadow
Game 1: He gets himself to a low life total early on and resolves a Death’s Shadow. I am able to answer it and I ride an early Bitterblossom to victory. (Win: 1-0)
Game 2: He strips Bloodmoon from my hand with a turn 1 Thoughtseize and stips a Collected Brutality turn 2 with another Thoughtseize. I’m able to control the board and kill him at 2 life with Kolaghan’s Command. (Win: 2-0)
Record: 6-1-1
Match 9: G/B Control
Game 1: Right off the bat I notice my opponent is either in a bad mood or is one of those super serious magic players because when I look away for a second to listen to a judge ruling that is happening to the players next to us he tells me I need to play faster. I answer a lot of his threats, but Dark Confidant ends up giving him a lot of card advantage. I answer the first Liliana, of the Veil after Snaping in at the end of his turn, but he ends up winning the game because of Liliana, the Last Hope the following turn.
(Lose: 0-1).
Game 2: I answer my opponents Grim Flayer and Tarmogoyf with early Fatal Pushes and Snapcaster Mage. I start aggressively using Creeping Tar Pit and Mutavault and I get there after a few turns.
(Win: 1-1)
Game 3: I get an early Tasigur, the Golden Fang out and pressure him early. He doesn’t really draw an answer that stays on the board for long and I win the game. He is super salty about losing and leaves without saying anything. (Win: 2-1)
Record: 7-1-1 (Qualifying for Day 2)
Day 2:
Match 10: Affinity
Game 1: He draws the nuts and plays out his whole hand turn 1 and turn 2 resolves Cranial Plating. While we were playing one of the judges was watching over our match and for some reason this made me nervous. Turn 2 I fetch with a Scalding Tarn and get a basic Swamp thinking I used the Polluted Delta in my hand. My opponent calls Judge and I get a warning for illegal searching. I spend a good couple turns flashing in chump blockers, but lose when he attaches the Cranial Plating during blockers and kills me. (Lose: 0-1)
Game 2: I spend the game answering his creatures pretty well with an early Bitterblossom. He plays an Etched Champion and I attempt to block with a Mutavault. He Galvanic Blasts it and I get stuck on 3 mana for the next couple of turns. He resolves another Etched Champion and I am in trouble. At this point in the game I am at very low life and I can’t shock to play a land and Damnation due to him having a Blinkmoth Nexus and my Bitterblossom triggers. I fetch at the end of his turn to get a Steam Vents tapped. My opponent shuffles my deck and puts the deck back the wrong way and sloppily. On my turn I untap and try to fix the deck. When I put my hand on it he calls Judge thinking I missed my Bitterblossom trigger. I explain that my opponent didn’t put my deck back nicely and I wanted to fix it before anything. I didn’t draw or do anything to indicate we were past upkeep. She sides with me and we move on. I try to Kolaghan’s Command his Spring Leaf Drum and Steel Overseer to get him off metalcraft and win with a Tasigur, of the Golden Fang, but he smartly floats mana and animates his Inkmoth Nexus. (Lose: 0-2)
Record: 7-2-1
Match 11: G/W Vizier Elves
Game 1: He draws a superfast hand and ends up resolving a turn 2 Elvish Archdruid. At the end of my turn 4 he plays Collected Company getting him an Ezuri, Renegade Leader and over runs the next turn. All I have in my hand that could answer anything is a Kolaghan’s Command; however, the Archdruid saves it with its static +1/+1. (Lose: 0-1)
Game 2: I play an early Bitterblossom and do a good job answering his early cards. He plays two Elvish Archdruids and attacks with a Dwynen’s Elite. I flash in Snapcaster Mage and target my Fatal Push in the graveyard. I block to trigger Revolt and Push one of the Elvish Archdruids it resolves. I attempt to Fatal Push the other Elvish Archdruid in the hopes of having the Dwynen’s Elite also die due to blocking the Snapcaster Mage. In response he Cord of Callings an Ezuri, Renegade Leader to regenerate the Elvish Archdruid. Next turn he taps the Elvish Archdruid and his mana to overrun twice. (Lose: 0-2)
Record: 7-3-1
At this point I am trying to figure out if I should drop or not because I really didn’t want to waste the rest of the day trying to win all of my matches when I could be spending the time with my girlfriend who accompanied me during the trip. We agree that I’ll play till I lose. I figure that at X-4-1 I was probably out of top 180 and I didn’t think I could win ALL of my matches. (Only the top 180 players cashed out).
Match 12: Mardu Control
Game 1: I resolve an early Bitterblossom. He plays a Liliana, of the Veil and I am able to answer it eventually. He then resolves a Nahiri, the Harbinger and removes my Bitterblossom. He casts Lingering Souls and I counter it. Next turn I kill Nahiri with Creeping Tar Pit and counter his Flashback of Lingering Souls with Spellstutter Sprite. I am able to grind out a win with a Kolaghan’s Command hitting him for 2. (Win: 1-0)
Game 2: My opponent castsI play another early Bitterblossom and Thoughtseize his Liliana, of the Veil. He plays double Relic of Progenitus which cuts me off of playing the Tasigur, the Golden Fang in my hand. At the end of his turn I Thought Scour him and mill two copies of Nahiri, the Harbinger. He tries to cast a Liliana, of the Viel and I counter it with Spellsutter Sprite. He casts Lingering Souls and I counter it with Countersquall. Next turn I play a Blood Moon and my opponent has no basic lands in play. He tries to cash in his Relics to draw a basic and fails. He wipes my board twice over the following turns with Anger of the Gods. I win eventually with tokens. (Win: 2-0)
Record: 8-3-1
Match 13: Naya Vizier Combo
Game 1: He starts off by playing Noble Hierarch. I play a Bitterblossom and pass. He casts Knight of the Reliquary. I end up killing it and he plays an Eternal Witness the following turn getting back the Knight. Next turn he resolves the Knight again. I kill the Knight once again, but he activates to search for a Gavony Township. He plays a Courser of Kruphix revealing Kessig Wolf Run and plays it. He At this point I don’t have an answer for Township activations plus Wolf Run. After attempting to kill the creatures he is targeting with the Wolf Run activations he starts to use the Township activation. He plays Collected Company and gets his Devoted Druid and Vizeier of Remedies combo to make his next Wolf Run activation infinite and I scoop. (Lose: 0-1)
Game 2: I cast Thoughtseize and see that he has a Collected Company, Walking Ballista, Knight of the Reliquary, Misty Rainforest, Noble Hierarch, and a Gavony Township. I have a Collective Brutality in my hand and figure I can answer rip the company on another turn, but no answer to the Knight because of the Misty Rainforest. He only has 2 lands in hand so I decide to take the Noble Hierarch in hopes he bricks on the third land. On my opponents turn 1 he draws and casts a Birds of Paradise. Next turn he tries to Knight of the Reliquary which I Mana Leak. I cast Bitterblossom and pass. He casts Walking Ballista for 1. On my turn I escalate Collective Brutality and get rid of the Collected Company. He then plays Secure the Wastes for 3. I play Tasigur, the Golden Fang and spend the next couple turns passing. After each endstep the tokens get larger due to the Gavony Township. He plays a Devoted Druid and another creature and Courser of Kruphix which also continue to grow. I Cryptic Command and tap his guys and hope to draw a land so I can Snap Cryptic and Win over the next couple turns with attacks. I fail to draw it and lose. (Lose: 0-2)
Record: 8-4-1 Drop
Conclusions
I end up deciding to drop and check out the Las Vegas Strip with my girlfriend. I was very impressed with the deck. Every opening hand I had was keepable and justifiable vs an unknown opponent. Tasigur was an absolute house in the games where he showed up and Bitterblossom did work. My deck was designed to beat Death’s Shadow and I only played it once. I didn’t play Eldrazi Tron either which was probably a good thing even with the additional sideboard slots devoted to beating it. However this did mean that I did not have the best matchups vs straight control decks. Planswalkers were a lot harder to beat for me then maybe they should have been. If I drew a Blood Moon vs the Jeskai loss or the U/W Control draw I would have won instantly. The losses to Affinity and Elves were due to really explosive turn 1-2 starts and not drawing damnation post board. I think I may have needed to board in the Blood Moons vs the Elves deck and the Naya Vizier deck because they both played a greedy mana base.
Overall, I think the minor red splash helps out the deck a lot. Blood Moon can win you so many unexpected wins when it resolves. People really are not expecting it game 2 and they can get really punished for not playing around it. My goal was to make Day 2 and I did. I’m happy I was able to compete, meet magic pros, new friends, and have a load of custom artwork on my playmat.
Special thanks to the Faeries Discord sever for the continual support. Team Faeries for life.
So I ended up putting together Yuta's list. I like the build, and it seems super consistent. There may be changes to the sideboard, depending on my specific meta. I will be play testing all this week, and keep chat informed as to how matches go. For reference, here is the build. https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/676401#paper
How hs your testing with Yutas list been going?
I love the heroes downfalls in his SB. Planeswalkers seem to be a real weakness. I am however puzzled with tec edge and wurmcoil engine. What are those used against?
I play it. It's good for aggressive matchups like Naya Burn/Aggro because almost all their creatures are 1CMC. Good against affinity to take out a large chunk of the deck. Good at dealing with things like chalice/aether vial.
How is remand good against 1 cmc threats?? They just replay it and another threat the next turn. I recently tried remand and dropped it for mana leak, again, because it's just awful against low cmc threats like DS and Goyf. It's good against combo and big mana like tron, but otherwise requires a decent lead in board state to be good, imo. And vial? How do you counter T1 vial with remand??
I am also a bit surprised by Yuuta's choice to play 4x Remand. I understand that the card is a solid tempo play and doesn't rot in one's hand as much as, say, Mana Leak (which is particularly relevant with 4x Liliana of the Veil), but I can't imagine running the card in a meta full of Death's Shadow, Affinity, Burn, etc. where, as jeremy4050 noted, the opponent can just recast whatever card was remanded. I have been testing combinations of Mana Leak, Countersquall, and Logic Knot, and have found these cards to be pretty effective.
I was also surprised by how threat-light Yuuta's list was. I run the 8x creature lands, 4x Spellstutter, 3x Snapcaster, 3x Vendilion, and 1x Tasigur, and still feel like I can't always close out games. I used to run 3x Mistbind, but am trying to run a more control-oriented list without it. Has anyone else run into this problem?
Thank you for your interest. The testing has gone well so far. The deck seems good to me, with one kind of... "questionable" card choice, and that's the playset of Remand. Feels kind of bad if you aren't able to chain the Remands into Cryptic Command constantly. Perhaps a combination of Countersquall, and Mana Leak might feel a little better. I'll be trying those out today. I REALLY like the Lilly of the Veils so far. They have over performed in every match I've played her in. A suspended ancestral vision breaks the symmetry with Lilly's +1, and is sometimes enough to put the game away. I do feel like the death possibly wants a maindeck way to deal with bigger threats, like a Go for the Throat or Murderous Cut. Eldrazi Tron seems to be a fairly rough match, unless you curve out perfectly, and even then the fact that they play cavern makes it a little rough. All is Dust can cause quite the blowout, leading me back to the idea that Remand may not possibly be where I want to be. Overall the deck as performed as well as expected, especially when playing against Death's Shadow. I will continue my testing all day today, and keep the forum updated in changes I feel that I want to make to the deck. And to everyone... ALWAYS KEEP THE FAE! (reference to band Warzone... cheezy I know)
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Any idea why Yuta was playing wurmcoil engine and tec edges in the sideboard?
Can you post your list that your testing?
The list that I am testing is identical to Yuta's. I playtested today against Living End, Jund and Jeskai Control. The Living End matchup was completely depended on one thing and one thing alone. Counter the Living End or die. Other than that not too much to say about that matchup. The Nihil Spellbomb out of the board were enough to keep my opponent honest for the most part. The Jund matchup was interesting. Resolving and keeping a Bitterblossom in play was priority number 1. Whenever I had an opening an consisting of Ancestral Vision and Inquisition of Kozilek, I often opted to Inquistion on 1. Despite how powerful a resolved Ancestral can be in that matchup, I still felt that I needed to make sure Blossom was safe to hit the field. That may seem wrong, but it worked fairly well in that matchup. The Jeskai Control matchup was probably the easiest matchup of them all. He was playing a Geist variant, so the Lilly's were clutch. Once again Blossom was an all star, and by the end of the day the deck ended up 5-0 against Jeskai Control alone. As far as Yuta's sideboard, I am overall pretty happy with it. The Tec Edge's could definitely be Fulminator Mage or Rain of Tears as far as I'm concerned. I believe that the rational for Tec Edge was simply to combat the tron lands without investing more than two mana. However, starting tomorrow I will be testing those as 2x Fulminator mage for sure. And as far as the spiciest card in the board, Wurmcoil Engine , that card has been amazing. Against any of the grindy matches, the fact that your opponent has to waste multiple spells to kill it puts you in a fairly strong position to win. Against Eldrazi Tron ("Eltronzi") it straight up stands up a Reality Smasher. After playing with Wurmcoil in the side, to be quite honest, I probably wouldn't even play the deck without it in the board in the current meta. I will continue testing and keep you guys up to date! Here is Yuta's list for reference:
I am also a bit surprised by Yuuta's choice to play 4x Remand. I understand that the card is a solid tempo play and doesn't rot in one's hand as much as, say, Mana Leak (which is particularly relevant with 4x Liliana of the Veil), but I can't imagine running the card in a meta full of Death's Shadow, Affinity, Burn, etc. where, as jeremy4050 noted, the opponent can just recast whatever card was remanded. I have been testing combinations of Mana Leak, Countersquall, and Logic Knot, and have found these cards to be pretty effective.
I was also surprised by how threat-light Yuuta's list was. I run the 8x creature lands, 4x Spellstutter, 3x Snapcaster, 3x Vendilion, and 1x Tasigur, and still feel like I can't always close out games. I used to run 3x Mistbind, but am trying to run a more control-oriented list without it. Has anyone else run into this problem?
Remand is great against shadow decks. Have you ever remanded a Tasigur/Angler? They have to re-delve their graveyard to cast it again. Remand is also very good against big mana decks because it often time walks them.
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On mtgsalvation people don't want to discuss ideas, so I give people something else to discuss: my controversial opinions.
First of all, I haven't found yet the 4th Bitterblossom, and it's definitely on my shortlist. I picked white to lean mostly on the SB and Path for the bigger creatures from Eldrazi Tron and the Delve threats (and esper charm). So far the only card that hasn't performed as well as I'd like is the queller which is the spot of the 4th blossom, so either way that's not that much of an issue for now. I really like esper charm and you can lean on all 3 modes of it and combined with discard you can easily shred the opponents hand. Also, the combination of Vault and bitterblossom tokens is insane.
What I wanted advice on was how do you play against the Vizier combo and swarm decks, because so far that's the ones I've had problem with. Of course general advice is always welcome!
After the last week of testing Yuta's deck, overall I was pretty happy with it. The consistency was always there, due to the nature of having 4 copies of just about every card in your deck. Sometimes, however, I had wished that the Remand were ANYTHING but that. There of course were situations where it was better than something like mana leak, but often times, I just needed the card actually... well.. gone, and not just back in the opponents hand. I still like his list though and will probably keep it sleeved up. That being said, for this week, I am going to be testing a different variation of the deck. I feel like having the option of a fast Tasigur can do a lot to stem the bleeding on our life loss from Blossom. This is the list I am going to be testing. Feel free to critique... Thanks dudes!
Triple post, not sure how that happened. That aside, I think Thought Scour delve builds are definitely the way to go if we want to be more aggressive, since I've never been fond of Scion of Oona. How has the Gurmag Angler been performing? is the extra power relevant, or did you just need another, non-legendary delve threat?
Triple post, not sure how that happened. That aside, I think Thought Scour delve builds are definitely the way to go if we want to be more aggressive, since I've never been fond of Scion of Oona. How has the Gurmag Angler been performing? is the extra power relevant, or did you just need another, non-legendary delve threat?
Oops double post. Guess it's just a multi post kind of day.
I too am trying out tasigur at the moment. Not had any real games yet so will report on it later but looks good in testing. Ive considered gurmag myself purely to trade with reality smasher
if you want to trade with reality smasher you should look at gifted aetherborn as something much earlier in the curve. It gets under the timeperiod before smasher can come down if you make manabase concessions for it
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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
Triple post, not sure how that happened. That aside, I think Thought Scour delve builds are definitely the way to go if we want to be more aggressive, since I've never been fond of Scion of Oona. How has the Gurmag Angler been performing? is the extra power relevant, or did you just need another, non-legendary delve threat?
Oops double post. Guess it's just a multi post kind of day.
Not sure how I triple posted, my bad mustve gotten a little excited haha. Anyways, yeh, the ability to power out a turn 2 Tasigur is definitely something more intriguing to me than Scion as well. I've played plenty of variants with Mistbind Clique in them, too, and as much as I love that card it might just be too slow for the current meta. To answer your question, Gurmag was exactly how I thought he was going to be... a 1-2 mana 5/5 haha. There were a TON of instances, while playing a triple Tasigur variant that I had a Tasigur in hand and Tasigur on the field and it was essentially a dead card. Gurmag allows to me to not have to deal with that situation. Playtested yesterday against Living End. Turns out Spellstutter Sprite is a hell of a magic card against that deck haha. Anyways, I'll be at my shop doing more testing for the entire rest of the week. This weekend sometime I'll give an updated "Results" post and let you guys know how the deck is performing.
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Dead at birth as we slowly decay - We're born only to fade away
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Do you play EE, and what popular/tier decks do you board it in against?
I think Blood Moon is for sure a fine card. Definitely like it against the eldrazi tron matchup. That being said, I still don't know whether or not the thought scour or ancestral version is better. I am a strong believer that we need some kind of way to dig through the deck for sure. Figuring out which one that is though is the question.
We got no future, we got no hope
Our life is pain and it's hard to cope.
TLDR:
Won: 17 matches Lost: 11 matches.
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Creature 13
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Vendilion Clique
Spell 23
4 Bitterblossom
1 Collective Brutality
3 Cryptic Command
4 Fatal Push
2 Go for the Throat
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Mana Leak
1 Murderous Cut
4 Thought Scour
2 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Darkslick Shores
1 Flooded Strand
4 Island
2 Mutavault
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
--------------------
4 Blood Moon
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Collective Brutality
2 Countersquall
2 Damnation
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Thoughtseize
Card Choices
Day 1:
Match 1: U/W Control
Game 2: Starts off slow. I boarded in Blood Moon and drew it in my opening hand. I knew if I land it I am going to pretty much win the game because the first game he was greedy fetching shocklands. Therefore, I attack early with a Mutavault on purpose to get it pathed fetching one of my basics. I Vendilion Clique seeing the coast is pretty clear of counterspells. I attack next with a Creeping Tar Pit hoping to get it ghost quartered and he does. This gets me my next basic and I am set to cast moon on the following turn. I drop a moon and he has no basics in play and scoops. (Win: 2-0)
Record: 1-0
Match 2: Abzan Traverse
Game 2: This game goes back and forth a bit. I resolve Bitterblossom and start amassing a decent board. I notice my opponent is also being greedy with his fetching and when I resolve Blood Moon he has no answer for it and scoops. (WinL 2-0)
Record: 2-0
Match 3: Jeskai Control
(Lose: 0-1)
Game 2: This game plays similar to game 1 where we trade cards back and forth for the early game. I was able to get rid of the Gideon with a Thoughtseize. The game goes to late game with him being at 4 and me being at 1. My opponent was able to have an electrolyze and kill me with it. (Lose: 0-2)
Record 2-1
Match 4: U/W Control
Game 2: He drops a turn 1 Leyline of Sanctity and a turn 2 Rest in Peace. During the end of his turn I accidently attempt to target him with a Thought Scour and I get judge called on me since I can’t target him. I get a warning and re-target myself. He drops a Gideon which kills my Vendilion Clique and proceeds to attack me with it the following turns. I have no real answer for it and I scoop. (Lose: 1-1)
Game 3: The game goes back and forth until we go to time. On my last turn of the game my opponent is at 6 life and I have a Snapcaster Mage and a Tasigur, the Golden Fang on board ready to attack for the win. Unfortunately for me my opponent has Cryptic Command and taps them to draw the game. (Draw)
Record: 2-1-1
Match 5: Merfolk
Game 2: He gets a really good double vial start and ends up doing what merfolk does best. I don’t draw Damnation in time and lose. (Lose: 1-1)
Game 3: Being on the play I make a crucial sideboarding decision to board in 2 of my Ceremonious Rejections with the logic that I can try to counter the early Aether Vial and try and one for one his creatures. Turn 1 he plays Aether Vial and I counter it with Ceremonious Rejection. He ends up getting mana screwed and I win with Bitterblossom and Spellsutter Sprite. (Win: 2-1)
Record: 3-1-1
Match 6: U/R Storm
Game 2: This game goes similar to the first game. I resolve Bitterblossom early and have a grip of counters for his important spells. He attempts to go off, but I Spellsutter Sprite his first ritual and Countersquall the second. (Win: 2-0)
Record: 4-1-1
Match 7: 4C Gifts
Game 2: My opponent opens with a Leyline of the Void. I resolve an early Bitterblossom and ride it to victory. I end up Thought Scouring my opponent and mill a copy of Gifts the Ungiven. Later on I counter his Gifts and other important spells to win. (Win: 2-0)
Record: 5-1-1
Match 8: Grixis Death’s Shadow
Game 2: He strips Bloodmoon from my hand with a turn 1 Thoughtseize and stips a Collected Brutality turn 2 with another Thoughtseize. I’m able to control the board and kill him at 2 life with Kolaghan’s Command. (Win: 2-0)
Record: 6-1-1
Match 9: G/B Control
(Lose: 0-1).
Game 2: I answer my opponents Grim Flayer and Tarmogoyf with early Fatal Pushes and Snapcaster Mage. I start aggressively using Creeping Tar Pit and Mutavault and I get there after a few turns.
(Win: 1-1)
Game 3: I get an early Tasigur, the Golden Fang out and pressure him early. He doesn’t really draw an answer that stays on the board for long and I win the game. He is super salty about losing and leaves without saying anything. (Win: 2-1)
Record: 7-1-1 (Qualifying for Day 2)
Day 2:
Match 10: Affinity
Game 2: I spend the game answering his creatures pretty well with an early Bitterblossom. He plays an Etched Champion and I attempt to block with a Mutavault. He Galvanic Blasts it and I get stuck on 3 mana for the next couple of turns. He resolves another Etched Champion and I am in trouble. At this point in the game I am at very low life and I can’t shock to play a land and Damnation due to him having a Blinkmoth Nexus and my Bitterblossom triggers. I fetch at the end of his turn to get a Steam Vents tapped. My opponent shuffles my deck and puts the deck back the wrong way and sloppily. On my turn I untap and try to fix the deck. When I put my hand on it he calls Judge thinking I missed my Bitterblossom trigger. I explain that my opponent didn’t put my deck back nicely and I wanted to fix it before anything. I didn’t draw or do anything to indicate we were past upkeep. She sides with me and we move on. I try to Kolaghan’s Command his Spring Leaf Drum and Steel Overseer to get him off metalcraft and win with a Tasigur, of the Golden Fang, but he smartly floats mana and animates his Inkmoth Nexus. (Lose: 0-2)
Record: 7-2-1
Match 11: G/W Vizier Elves
Game 2: I play an early Bitterblossom and do a good job answering his early cards. He plays two Elvish Archdruids and attacks with a Dwynen’s Elite. I flash in Snapcaster Mage and target my Fatal Push in the graveyard. I block to trigger Revolt and Push one of the Elvish Archdruids it resolves. I attempt to Fatal Push the other Elvish Archdruid in the hopes of having the Dwynen’s Elite also die due to blocking the Snapcaster Mage. In response he Cord of Callings an Ezuri, Renegade Leader to regenerate the Elvish Archdruid. Next turn he taps the Elvish Archdruid and his mana to overrun twice. (Lose: 0-2)
Record: 7-3-1
At this point I am trying to figure out if I should drop or not because I really didn’t want to waste the rest of the day trying to win all of my matches when I could be spending the time with my girlfriend who accompanied me during the trip. We agree that I’ll play till I lose. I figure that at X-4-1 I was probably out of top 180 and I didn’t think I could win ALL of my matches. (Only the top 180 players cashed out).
Match 12: Mardu Control
Game 2: My opponent castsI play another early Bitterblossom and Thoughtseize his Liliana, of the Veil. He plays double Relic of Progenitus which cuts me off of playing the Tasigur, the Golden Fang in my hand. At the end of his turn I Thought Scour him and mill two copies of Nahiri, the Harbinger. He tries to cast a Liliana, of the Viel and I counter it with Spellsutter Sprite. He casts Lingering Souls and I counter it with Countersquall. Next turn I play a Blood Moon and my opponent has no basic lands in play. He tries to cash in his Relics to draw a basic and fails. He wipes my board twice over the following turns with Anger of the Gods. I win eventually with tokens. (Win: 2-0)
Record: 8-3-1
Match 13: Naya Vizier Combo
Game 2: I cast Thoughtseize and see that he has a Collected Company, Walking Ballista, Knight of the Reliquary, Misty Rainforest, Noble Hierarch, and a Gavony Township. I have a Collective Brutality in my hand and figure I can answer rip the company on another turn, but no answer to the Knight because of the Misty Rainforest. He only has 2 lands in hand so I decide to take the Noble Hierarch in hopes he bricks on the third land. On my opponents turn 1 he draws and casts a Birds of Paradise. Next turn he tries to Knight of the Reliquary which I Mana Leak. I cast Bitterblossom and pass. He casts Walking Ballista for 1. On my turn I escalate Collective Brutality and get rid of the Collected Company. He then plays Secure the Wastes for 3. I play Tasigur, the Golden Fang and spend the next couple turns passing. After each endstep the tokens get larger due to the Gavony Township. He plays a Devoted Druid and another creature and Courser of Kruphix which also continue to grow. I Cryptic Command and tap his guys and hope to draw a land so I can Snap Cryptic and Win over the next couple turns with attacks. I fail to draw it and lose. (Lose: 0-2)
Record: 8-4-1 Drop
Conclusions
Overall, I think the minor red splash helps out the deck a lot. Blood Moon can win you so many unexpected wins when it resolves. People really are not expecting it game 2 and they can get really punished for not playing around it. My goal was to make Day 2 and I did. I’m happy I was able to compete, meet magic pros, new friends, and have a load of custom artwork on my playmat.
Special thanks to the Faeries Discord sever for the continual support. Team Faeries for life.
How hs your testing with Yutas list been going?
I love the heroes downfalls in his SB. Planeswalkers seem to be a real weakness. I am however puzzled with tec edge and wurmcoil engine. What are those used against?
I play it. It's good for aggressive matchups like Naya Burn/Aggro because almost all their creatures are 1CMC. Good against affinity to take out a large chunk of the deck. Good at dealing with things like chalice/aether vial.
Play it.
I was also surprised by how threat-light Yuuta's list was. I run the 8x creature lands, 4x Spellstutter, 3x Snapcaster, 3x Vendilion, and 1x Tasigur, and still feel like I can't always close out games. I used to run 3x Mistbind, but am trying to run a more control-oriented list without it. Has anyone else run into this problem?
Remand also buys you time to allow your ancestral visions to go off.
We got no future, we got no hope
Our life is pain and it's hard to cope.
Any idea why Yuta was playing wurmcoil engine and tec edges in the sideboard?
Can you post your list that your testing?
The list that I am testing is identical to Yuta's. I playtested today against Living End, Jund and Jeskai Control. The Living End matchup was completely depended on one thing and one thing alone. Counter the Living End or die. Other than that not too much to say about that matchup. The Nihil Spellbomb out of the board were enough to keep my opponent honest for the most part. The Jund matchup was interesting. Resolving and keeping a Bitterblossom in play was priority number 1. Whenever I had an opening an consisting of Ancestral Vision and Inquisition of Kozilek, I often opted to Inquistion on 1. Despite how powerful a resolved Ancestral can be in that matchup, I still felt that I needed to make sure Blossom was safe to hit the field. That may seem wrong, but it worked fairly well in that matchup. The Jeskai Control matchup was probably the easiest matchup of them all. He was playing a Geist variant, so the Lilly's were clutch. Once again Blossom was an all star, and by the end of the day the deck ended up 5-0 against Jeskai Control alone. As far as Yuta's sideboard, I am overall pretty happy with it. The Tec Edge's could definitely be Fulminator Mage or Rain of Tears as far as I'm concerned. I believe that the rational for Tec Edge was simply to combat the tron lands without investing more than two mana. However, starting tomorrow I will be testing those as 2x Fulminator mage for sure. And as far as the spiciest card in the board, Wurmcoil Engine , that card has been amazing. Against any of the grindy matches, the fact that your opponent has to waste multiple spells to kill it puts you in a fairly strong position to win. Against Eldrazi Tron ("Eltronzi") it straight up stands up a Reality Smasher. After playing with Wurmcoil in the side, to be quite honest, I probably wouldn't even play the deck without it in the board in the current meta. I will continue testing and keep you guys up to date! Here is Yuta's list for reference:
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Spellstutter Sprite
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
VALUE CARDS:
4 Bitterblossom
4 Liliana of the Veil
COUNTER MAGIC:
4 Remand
4 Cryptic Command
4 Ancestral Vision
DISCARD SPELLS:
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
REMOVAL:
4 Fatal Push
LANDS:
4 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Flooded Strand
3 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
We got no future, we got no hope
Our life is pain and it's hard to cope.
Remand is great against shadow decks. Have you ever remanded a Tasigur/Angler? They have to re-delve their graveyard to cast it again. Remand is also very good against big mana decks because it often time walks them.
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
2x Creeping Tar Pit
3x Darkslick Shores
2x Flooded Strand
2x Hallowed Fountain
3x Island
3x Mutavault
1x Plains
4x Polluted Delta
1x Swamp
1x Vault of the Archangel
2x Watery Grave
Enchantment (3)
3x Bitterblossom
2x Countersquall
2x Cryptic Command
2x Esper Charm
4x Fatal Push
3x Path to Exile
3x Remand
Creature (13)
1x Mistbind Clique
4x Snapcaster Mage
1x Spell Queller
4x Spellstutter Sprite
1x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2x Vendilion Clique
1x Collective Brutality
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Anguished Unmaking
1x Collective Brutality
1x Damnation
2x Geist of Saint Traft
1x Relic of Progenitus
2x Rest in Peace
3x Spreading Seas
1x Stony Silence
1x Supreme Verdict
2x Thoughtseize
First of all, I haven't found yet the 4th Bitterblossom, and it's definitely on my shortlist. I picked white to lean mostly on the SB and Path for the bigger creatures from Eldrazi Tron and the Delve threats (and esper charm). So far the only card that hasn't performed as well as I'd like is the queller which is the spot of the 4th blossom, so either way that's not that much of an issue for now. I really like esper charm and you can lean on all 3 modes of it and combined with discard you can easily shred the opponents hand. Also, the combination of Vault and bitterblossom tokens is insane.
What I wanted advice on was how do you play against the Vizier combo and swarm decks, because so far that's the ones I've had problem with. Of course general advice is always welcome!
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Gurmag Angler
CANTRIPS:
4 Thought Scour
COUNTERMAGIC:
2 Mana Leak
3 Cryptic Command
4 Fatal Push
2 Go for the Throat
1 Murderous Cut
UTILITY:
4 Bitterblossom
1 Collective Brutality
2 Liliana of the Veil
LANDS
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Watery Grave
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Mutavault
3 Island
1 Swamp
The side board is yet to be decided. I will be working the details of that out today. It will look something like...
2 Collective Brutality
2 Hero's Downfall
1 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Damnation
2 Countersquall
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Engineered Explosives
We got no future, we got no hope
Our life is pain and it's hard to cope.
Oops double post. Guess it's just a multi post kind of day.
if you want to trade with reality smasher you should look at gifted aetherborn as something much earlier in the curve. It gets under the timeperiod before smasher can come down if you make manabase concessions for it
UB/x Faeries
UR Storm
XURWB Affinity
G Elves
UW control
Not sure how I triple posted, my bad mustve gotten a little excited haha. Anyways, yeh, the ability to power out a turn 2 Tasigur is definitely something more intriguing to me than Scion as well. I've played plenty of variants with Mistbind Clique in them, too, and as much as I love that card it might just be too slow for the current meta. To answer your question, Gurmag was exactly how I thought he was going to be... a 1-2 mana 5/5 haha. There were a TON of instances, while playing a triple Tasigur variant that I had a Tasigur in hand and Tasigur on the field and it was essentially a dead card. Gurmag allows to me to not have to deal with that situation. Playtested yesterday against Living End. Turns out Spellstutter Sprite is a hell of a magic card against that deck haha. Anyways, I'll be at my shop doing more testing for the entire rest of the week. This weekend sometime I'll give an updated "Results" post and let you guys know how the deck is performing.
We got no future, we got no hope
Our life is pain and it's hard to cope.