I don't play cantrips (I still play AVs when I play this deck) but discard is necessary, IMO.
Some people have played things like kalitas, tasigur, gifted aetherborn, looter scooter, batterskull, etc, in the past. Theres nothing wrong with them, but in my opinion, adding creatures like these isn't really improving the deck.
Faeries is not amazing from behind. As you mentioned, we don't have big bodies, nor do we have mainboard sweepers.
We do have chump + tarpit, which is moderately strong (and other evasive creatures) but as you mentioned, we can't fall too far behind early.
I've written posts on this in the past, but the answer then, is not to plan for worst-cast, its to not fall behind early.
We have bitterblossom, which on turn 2 is great. I play AV, which is also great early. Discard is also good for this reason, shreding their hand early gives us a good start.
Yes, these cards are bad if drawn late, but as you noticed, if we accomplish nothing in the first couple turns and fall very far behind, we're probably just losing anyways. Maximize your deck for average to best case, IMO.
People have played vedalken shackles / threads of disloyalty / sower of temptation in the past. (IMO, shackles is the worst as we dont have that many islands). We have entrancing melody now as well. They're fine, if you want to play some in the board, go ahead. I personally am a fan of sower, as it doesn't have restrictions, and we're mostly interested in this effect against things like eldrazi, which doesn't play too many removal spells in the first place.
People have also played thought scour here, but at that point you're just approaching grixis midrange/control, and probably better off dropping the faeries.
People have also tried white splashes. It gets brought up a ton. Search the thread for their results, but to my knowledge, no one who has tried it has stuck to it. It turns out that cutting a bunch of cards for the white splash doesn't make the deck better, just different. Yes vault of the archangel, sorin, and path to exile do solve some of our problems, but you introduce new ones by adding them.
IMO, the deck just needs another good faerie. A 1 drop with a relevant effect would be nice, or something else disruptive with flash, but another creature that deals damage and counts towards SSS/mistbind/scion/etc is probably the most important thing we could get. Don't hold your breath though.
Faerie Miscreant is nice, if it only has flash, it would be great
Faeries seems like a really good deck for the meta right now but there's a few questions i have. Is there a way we can build it so there isn't so much air? Cantrips and 1 mana discard seems like bad draws mid to late game because mana is always in high demand since the deck seems clogged with four drops, essentially there are so many good four drops we can be playing how to do we figure out some good plays on curve? Are there any more high power creatures we could include or is something like vampire nighthawk viable? Could always go grixis and include earthquake too. I like the tempo aspect but it seems like once we get behind on board there are a lot of matchups where we don't have the big beaters to wall the board, and have to end up chump blocking till we lose.
Has anyone tested vedalken shackles? It is a super powerful card I feel is really underrated. How does everyone feel about delve threats, and if so, what are the merits of thought scour in this deck? Faeries is super close to being amazing but I think we are missing ways to gain life and ways to have more deadly threats. has anyone tried to make vault of the archangel or zealous persecution work? In WB tokens it is a huge tempo swing and can often win the game against certain decks. If we add white, esper charm? A card like esper charm is exactly what this deck needs in my opinion.
I'm going to disagree with you slightly about the amount of "air" in the deck. Most lists only play ~3 cantrips (even counting ancestral visions) and they play an important role in smoothing out draws since faeries, like any other midrange or tempo strategy, is very weak to drawing its cards in the wrong order. Discard is kind of a necessary evil, since it does become dead later in the game but it's an important piece of disruption in some matchups where our removal is dead and our counters can be overcome (ad nauseam and Gx Tron come to mind as examples). You can hedge the discard a bit by playing Collective Brutality (can function as a removal spell if needed), and I think the manabase is robust enough to support a few cantrips, since we're already supporting 7 creature-lands, so it's actually almost impossible to flood out with the deck, and 1 mana at instant speed isn't going to change the math that much.
In terms of actual curve, it isn't that bad. For my list (a couple posts from the bottom on the previous page) My curve looks like this (ignoring cipt lands):
1 drop - Opt, Thoughtseize, Fatal push (9)
2 drop - Spellstutter, Bitterblossom, Mana leak, snapcaster, go for the throat, collective brutality (16, 13 if you ignore snapcaster)
3 drop - Vendilion clique (3, but I also frequently 1+2 drop, especially with snapcaster)
4 drop - Jace, mistbind, Cryptic command (6)
The point is, we do have a very low curve, and we can deploy optimally because we have access to the "flash" gameplan so we don't need to do as much guesswork for sequencing our spells. You're correct that we're much less favored if we get behind on board, but that's the big difference between midrange and tempo, midrange has the beefy creatures to stall aggression with and rebuild an overwhelming board, while tempo wants to use its spells to stall the board while its creatures try to win the damage race. Focus on trying to use spells to buy additional attack steps instead of trying to win the card advantage/card quality battles, and see if that makes a difference in how your games play out.
There are several lists that have liked Gifted Aetherborn out of the sideboard, but nighthawk cost a little too much for the effect from my testing. Kalitas, traitor of ghet is a similar effect that also lets us position as more of a midrange strategy (usually I like it in matchups where I side out mistbind, so it rarely raises the curve any). I've also played a lot with vedalken shackles in the past (that's why I still play a relatively high basic count) and I think it just ends up being a little too clunky for us right now. We're not hurting for ways to deal with creatures, and it's a huge blowout if it gets answered (which isn't too hard to do in Modern now, everyone packs some artifact hate). I'll probably try testing it again soon (I have a sideboard flex spot that's a damnation right now) because I love shackles, but I suspect that it will prove a little underwhelming. I'll post an update after I've had a chance to play with it.
Thanks for all the advice Fae, you explained everything really well and put things into perspective a bit better for me. I've put some thought into things, and this is what I came up with.
I chose to put in Drowned Catacombs in place of the Darkslick Shores as I feel they would be less likely to be in my opening hand as a 2 of instead of the 3 it used to be, and less likely to enter tapped later in the game, unlike the Shores which are guaranteed tapped after land #3. Perhaps I am wrong, and will change my mind later after I get the deck and play it. I have cut down my counters a little in favor of adding a pair of Opts. I think I might have too many 1 mana spells now though, and am not sure if I should cut something out of there for something else, or if it should be fine. I cut the Godless Shrine for one of the Colonnades and the other came from the cut darkslick shores.
What do you guys think about unwind? is the power level there to take a spot in faeries? Its nice to think you can counter and clique same turn, too expensive to occupy many slots, and semi restrictive with the non creature clause, but i think its probably good with one in the deck. and good in matchups where we want to not only counter things but be able to get our own clock out as well (burn, ad nauseum, storm...)
What do you guys think about unwind? is the power level there to take a spot in faeries? Its nice to think you can counter and clique same turn, too expensive to occupy many slots, and semi restrictive with the non creature clause, but i think its probably good with one in the deck. and good in matchups where we want to not only counter things but be able to get our own clock out as well (burn, ad nauseum, storm...)
3 mana is too slow for an answer card even if it does untap lands, so unfortunately I dont think so. Modern is getting faster, so many new cards we would play have to be between 1-2 mana to be considered.
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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
What do you guys think about unwind? is the power level there to take a spot in faeries? Its nice to think you can counter and clique same turn, too expensive to occupy many slots, and semi restrictive with the non creature clause, but i think its probably good with one in the deck. and good in matchups where we want to not only counter things but be able to get our own clock out as well (burn, ad nauseum, storm...)
I think that Unwind is playable. It creates interesting sequencing for the opponent, as it encourages them to play a creature before a spell on a turn where they're making two plays. But by doing so that opens them up to a potential blowout as you'll have more information to work off of when deciding on how to deal with a threat.
That said, Unwind is three mana, I think it's a viable 1 of, but any more than that and you're probably pushing things.
I’m also on Shota’s list right now. 25 lands seems a bit much, and I think there is room for another cantrip or some type of ca card like chart a course or AV, though I don’t know how good AV is as a one of.
I replaced the mindsculptor in the side with Kalitas, and am going to test out tendrils in place of LLH. Affinity, humans, and company decks are popular in my area.
Shota is a hell of a player, and that’s why I picked fae back up. I never liked lily in the deck, but JtMS provides a much needed ca engine, and if Shota is sleeveing it up I would like to believe there is something to the list.
I came across a similar list to his that topped in an event on the 4th, but replaced the JtMS and LLH in the side with tendrils and countersquall, which may be good. Kalitas seems great vs midrange and burn so I’ll try him out.
3 mana is too slow for an answer card even if it does untap lands, so unfortunately I dont think so. Modern is getting faster, so many new cards we would play have to be between 1-2 mana to be considered.
I agree, we need our interactivity to be as low to the ground as possible, but for the argument of we need 1-2 cost cards, well, unwind is 0 with the heavy caveat that its only playable after we have 3 lands to cast it. I think as a one of its worth exploring because of the tempo it buys us. the ability to not only counter but apply pressure in the same turn (and at 3 lands) should be beneficial to faeries game plan as opposed to having to hold up interaction each turn until we have ~5 lands in which we are aiming to do the same interaction-tempo plays
I took the following list to Modern night and went 1-2 drop sadly. I've played this list for a few weeks now, and I'll explain the changes I want to make at the end.
I'm fairly sure this would be a good matchup for me, but it was an interesting deck to play against. Rampaging Ferocidon would be killer vs Bitterblossom.
Round 2, I played against someone who never played modern before. They had a deck that could best be described as draft chaff from Ixalan and Kaledesh blocks, tossed in a blender and poured into some really bad quality sleeves, with a couple of Nix Fleece Rams and Ball Lightnings sprinkled to taste. It wasn't particularly close. I didn't even bother sideboarding, as he didn't have a sideboard for his deck (keeping it fair).
Round 3 was against BR Hollow One. I kept a hand that would be good against their slow draws, while he mulligans to 5 on the play. One Burning Inquiry later, I'm facing 2 Hollow Ones and a Flamewake Pheonix in the graveyard, while my hand improved, but wasn't fast enough. It's not often a deck can say it won a game turn one on a mull to 5 I guess. Game two, he had a slower draw, but still had a pair of Hollow Ones and a Bloodghast off Burning Inquiry turn 4, but drew me into Cryptic Command with 4 lands open (I ended up discarding a Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Mistbind Clique along with land #5), so I bounced a Hollow One and drew Ravenous Trap. I then draw for turn and hit Damnation, so I wipe his board and Trap him, getting a fairly stocked graveyard. He doesn't get back from that, and I manage to crawl back with Jace into the game and win. Game 3, was close to start with. I managed to exile his graveyard twice with Nihil Spellbombs and kept him off early creatures, but I hadn't been able to fetch basic lands, and he dropped a Blood Moon down mid game, and was able to walk it in after that. I did draw my second basic Island, but by then it was too late. What makes it even worse was the fact that I considered boarding in Engineered Explosives, but decided against it.
This is a matchup I hate playing, mostly due to the random 'Oops it's a non game' games, and I also think it's a tough matchup for such a synergy based deck to fight.
All in all, I've been liking this build of Faeries, though I don't love the maindeck Liliana of the Veils. They've done just enough work against combo style decks, but they've been problematic for me, as it's tough to hold instant speed stuff as you start to discard. I also want to run one more 'non-conditional' removal spell to complement the one's I have, as I feel Hero's Downfall is a little slow sometimes, but it's killed enough planeswalkers to earn it's spot. i'm thinking Cast Down as a one of. I'm also thinking of testing a singleton copy of Wizard's Retort, even though I'm trying for a less counterspell centric build.
I think this is the build I'm going with for the time being:
I'm testing Retort as I'd rather have a full stop counterspell. This isn't the most aggressive build of Faeries that can take advantage of the tempo from Remand, so I thought an actual counterspell might be better. i struggle a lot with Tron/Big mana decks, and Remanding their spell doesn't do a whole lot unless you can kill them right away.
As for Naru Meha, I don't think she's good enough for modern. If you could copy any instant or sorcery, maybe. As is though, we aren't taking advantage of the +1/+1 pump, and there's no spells in the deck that I'd want to double at a 4 mana premium.
Did a lot of playtesting last night with my friends- I'm still pretty new to playing faeries after being a long time jeskai/grixis control player. I was actually really impressed with how good faeries feels right now- here is my list. It's very similar to some of the 5-0 lists that have popped up on MTGO the past month or so.
My friends played jund and mardu mostly, so wasn't playing against anything unfair at all- I went 4-2 against my friend on jund, 2-1 against the one playing on mardu. I wanted to comment a little bit on the strengths of this deck right now:
a. Cutting some amount of cryptic commands to up your colorless land count --> I actually think this deck has basically "perfect" mana. Being only in 2 colors without too many cards that have insane mana requirements is not only very good against blood moon but also against a lot of decks in the field. I thought the 3/3 mutavault to field of ruin split was exactly where I wanted to be- and having access to 6 manlands meant that usually if I could maintain parody on board that I was actually always ahead. This mana base was among the strongest I think I've played with in modern. Previously I had tried out 3x snapcaster mage, but found there weren't enough optimal targets to make it quite as useful in this deck. I think that faeries plays a lot lower to the ground than most blue decks do- so trying to be on a "snap-cryptic" gameplan isn't quite as good as it usually is.
b. The high end threats have gotten a big buff in faeries recently- JtMS feels more at home in this deck than any other blue deck I've played. He is much easier to protect with a bunch of tiny fae running around than he is in 4x snapcaster mage.dec. Scarab god is also a nice addition as a 1-of finisher- I think he's replaceable if you wanted to play some other kind of big threat to end the game.
c. Cast down is terminate. Outside of random creatures like baral, tasigur, and azusa, cast down is definitely a great addition to the deck- and maybe could be bumped up to a 2-of. For now, I think 1x cast down and 1x dismember is fine alongside the playset of fatal pushes for big creatures. I'll consider adding in another "big creature" removal spell in the board for eldrazi, humans, hollow one, and the like.
d. The 1 mana discard/cantrip suite is weird, but somehow it works out. When I looked at these lists- I was really confused to see a split of opt/serum visions as well as 5 discard spells. I was perfectly happy playing this split- the discard seems necessary to make sure you can interact with some of the more unfair things that are happening in modern (i.e. blood moon). Cantrips to smooth out draws in a blue tempo deck are also a no-brainer. sometimes it was nice to have opt at instant speed, sometimes it was nice to set up additional turns with serum visions. Overall, I'm comfortable right now with the 1-drops in the deck.
Anyway- those are some initial thoughts, i'm going to try to put a sideboard guide together- would like your guys' advice on how you think it's best to side for the humans and hollow one matchups.
Is anyone still messing about with smuggler's copter? i see its not really being explored with anymore. what was the general feeling as to its strengths, weaknesses, and reason it inevitably hasn't made the cut?
Faeries is so close to being strong. A faerie that bounced opponents creatures or if faerie miscreant just drew if you had another faerie instead of another copy of it could take us to the next level.
Would be surprised to see anything in M19 though, probably have to pray to go back to lorwyn eventually.
you will want engineered explosives and ratchet bomb if budget is a huge concern. Damnation is a big necessity for the match more often than not so the overall money for 2 Modern Masters versions may be well spent. otherwise up your spot removal count between maindeck and sideboard
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
By the way, I can see scarab god being played right now. Is he that usefel?
As for The Scarab God, I've found that it isn't that great when behind, as it's just too slow and not overly large/cheap for it's size. It does leverage a game into your favor when at parity, and just seals it up when you're ahead. I've tested it as both a single main deck copy and a single side board copy.
Hey guys I've for a long time been interested in playing faeries and last week a guy came and played our local modern weekly with sultai faeries. I was wondering as I cant find anything on the net that isn't severkanyears old about a bug list. Is anyone still going with these or is it just not worth the splash now.
Faerie Miscreant is nice, if it only has flash, it would be great
I'm going to disagree with you slightly about the amount of "air" in the deck. Most lists only play ~3 cantrips (even counting ancestral visions) and they play an important role in smoothing out draws since faeries, like any other midrange or tempo strategy, is very weak to drawing its cards in the wrong order. Discard is kind of a necessary evil, since it does become dead later in the game but it's an important piece of disruption in some matchups where our removal is dead and our counters can be overcome (ad nauseam and Gx Tron come to mind as examples). You can hedge the discard a bit by playing Collective Brutality (can function as a removal spell if needed), and I think the manabase is robust enough to support a few cantrips, since we're already supporting 7 creature-lands, so it's actually almost impossible to flood out with the deck, and 1 mana at instant speed isn't going to change the math that much.
In terms of actual curve, it isn't that bad. For my list (a couple posts from the bottom on the previous page) My curve looks like this (ignoring cipt lands):
1 drop - Opt, Thoughtseize, Fatal push (9)
2 drop - Spellstutter, Bitterblossom, Mana leak, snapcaster, go for the throat, collective brutality (16, 13 if you ignore snapcaster)
3 drop - Vendilion clique (3, but I also frequently 1+2 drop, especially with snapcaster)
4 drop - Jace, mistbind, Cryptic command (6)
The point is, we do have a very low curve, and we can deploy optimally because we have access to the "flash" gameplan so we don't need to do as much guesswork for sequencing our spells. You're correct that we're much less favored if we get behind on board, but that's the big difference between midrange and tempo, midrange has the beefy creatures to stall aggression with and rebuild an overwhelming board, while tempo wants to use its spells to stall the board while its creatures try to win the damage race. Focus on trying to use spells to buy additional attack steps instead of trying to win the card advantage/card quality battles, and see if that makes a difference in how your games play out.
There are several lists that have liked Gifted Aetherborn out of the sideboard, but nighthawk cost a little too much for the effect from my testing. Kalitas, traitor of ghet is a similar effect that also lets us position as more of a midrange strategy (usually I like it in matchups where I side out mistbind, so it rarely raises the curve any). I've also played a lot with vedalken shackles in the past (that's why I still play a relatively high basic count) and I think it just ends up being a little too clunky for us right now. We're not hurting for ways to deal with creatures, and it's a huge blowout if it gets answered (which isn't too hard to do in Modern now, everyone packs some artifact hate). I'll probably try testing it again soon (I have a sideboard flex spot that's a damnation right now) because I love shackles, but I suspect that it will prove a little underwhelming. I'll post an update after I've had a chance to play with it.
4x Spellstutter Sprite
2x Mistbind Clique
2x Vendillion Clique
3x Snapcaster Mage
INSTANTS (14)
2x Cryptic Command
2x Mana Leak
2x Spell Pierce
3x Fatal Push
3x Path to Exile
2x Opt
SORCERY (6)
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
2x Collective Brutality
4x Bitterblossom
LAND (25)
4x Polluted Delta
3x Flooded Strand
1x Marsh Flats
2x Watery Grave
1x Hallowed Fountain
2x Celestial Colonnade
1x Plains
1x Swamp
3x Island
3x Mutavault
2x Creeping Tar Pit
2x Drowned Catacomb
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
2x Blessed Alliance
1x Batterskull
3x Ceremonious Rejection
2x Countersquall
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1x Damnation
1x Hurkyl's Recall
I chose to put in Drowned Catacombs in place of the Darkslick Shores as I feel they would be less likely to be in my opening hand as a 2 of instead of the 3 it used to be, and less likely to enter tapped later in the game, unlike the Shores which are guaranteed tapped after land #3. Perhaps I am wrong, and will change my mind later after I get the deck and play it. I have cut down my counters a little in favor of adding a pair of Opts. I think I might have too many 1 mana spells now though, and am not sure if I should cut something out of there for something else, or if it should be fine. I cut the Godless Shrine for one of the Colonnades and the other came from the cut darkslick shores.
3 mana is too slow for an answer card even if it does untap lands, so unfortunately I dont think so. Modern is getting faster, so many new cards we would play have to be between 1-2 mana to be considered.
UB/x Faeries
UR Storm
XURWB Affinity
G Elves
UW control
I think that Unwind is playable. It creates interesting sequencing for the opponent, as it encourages them to play a creature before a spell on a turn where they're making two plays. But by doing so that opens them up to a potential blowout as you'll have more information to work off of when deciding on how to deal with a threat.
That said, Unwind is three mana, I think it's a viable 1 of, but any more than that and you're probably pushing things.
I replaced the mindsculptor in the side with Kalitas, and am going to test out tendrils in place of LLH. Affinity, humans, and company decks are popular in my area.
Shota is a hell of a player, and that’s why I picked fae back up. I never liked lily in the deck, but JtMS provides a much needed ca engine, and if Shota is sleeveing it up I would like to believe there is something to the list.
I came across a similar list to his that topped in an event on the 4th, but replaced the JtMS and LLH in the side with tendrils and countersquall, which may be good. Kalitas seems great vs midrange and burn so I’ll try him out.
I agree, we need our interactivity to be as low to the ground as possible, but for the argument of we need 1-2 cost cards, well, unwind is 0 with the heavy caveat that its only playable after we have 3 lands to cast it. I think as a one of its worth exploring because of the tempo it buys us. the ability to not only counter but apply pressure in the same turn (and at 3 lands) should be beneficial to faeries game plan as opposed to having to hold up interaction each turn until we have ~5 lands in which we are aiming to do the same interaction-tempo plays
limited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkfx2kA8gok&feature=emb_logo
limited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3RYiZJFCK0
limited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j18HlKybrm8&feature=emb_logo
standard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiAEzfAgpbI
standard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vNr_4ubfMg
standard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJcwpxraL-g
modern - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8MyVNLVYNw
modern - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-M5ffoArnY
modern - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_yQEBOPi_w&feature=emb_logo
extended - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLpUB9zpyr4&feature=emb_logo
RIP Riptide Laboratory. Maybe in the next set we'll see a reprint.
my "modern" brew:
25 lands:
4 darkslick shores
4 island
4 mutavault
4 polluted delta
3 riptide laboratory
3 scalding tarn
2 watery grave
1 swamp
9 wizard creatures:
4 spellstutter sprite
3 vendilion clique
2 venser, shaper savant (catch all)
4 enchantments:
4 bitterblossom
6 instants:
4 fatal push
2 murderous cut
4 planeswalkers:
4 jace, the mind sculptor
12 sorceries:
4 ancestral visions
4 collective brutality
4 inquisition of kozilek
SB:
4 ceremonious rejection
4 engineered explosives
4 leyline of the void
3 sower of temptation
limited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkfx2kA8gok&feature=emb_logo
limited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3RYiZJFCK0
limited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j18HlKybrm8&feature=emb_logo
standard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiAEzfAgpbI
standard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vNr_4ubfMg
standard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJcwpxraL-g
modern - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8MyVNLVYNw
modern - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-M5ffoArnY
modern - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_yQEBOPi_w&feature=emb_logo
extended - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLpUB9zpyr4&feature=emb_logo
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Mistbind Clique
Enchantment
4 Bitterblossom
Land
2 Watery Grave
1 Secluded Glen
4 Mutavault
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Darkslick Shores
4 Island
2 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Swamp
3 Opt
1 Hero's Downfall
4 Cryptic Command
4 Fatal Push
Sorcery
2 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
Planeswalker
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Countersquall
1 Ravenous Trap
1 Dispel
1 Disdainful Stroke
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Jace's Defeat
2 Collective Brutality
1 Damnation
Round 1, I played against a Naya Dinosaur deck, piloted by the resident brewer at my store. I won game one off the back of removal and Jace, the Mind Sculptor fairly easily, so I underestimated the quality of the deck.
Game two, he came out to a fast start, though I managed to stabilize at around 7 life. He had a large amount of lands and a Kessig Wolf Run, so I had to answer every creature he played, with us both top decking. I hit a land when he got a Rampaging Ferocidon and it was over.
Game three, I kept Island, Darkslick Shores, Watery Grave, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Inquisition of Kozilek, Opt, Snapcaster Mage while he mulliganed down to 6. I took Birds of Paradise with the Inquisition, leaving Collected Company, Deathgorge Scavenger, Kinjalli's Sunwing, and a pair of fetchlands. He plays his land and passes, I draw Fatal Push, play the island, and pass. He plays a Relentless Raptor, which get's Fatal Pushed, then I Opt, keeping Thoughtseize. I draw another Jace, play my third land (no more in hand), and Thoughtseize away the Deathgorge Scavenger (leaving the Collected Company, a Sunwing, and a Temple Garden, thinking I'm still in a good spot with the Snapcaster in my hand and a Fatal Push in the graveyard. I didn't want him to eat the Fatal Push, figuring that I still had a turn to worry about the CoCo. Unfortunately, the top of his deck favored him, and he found a second Deathgorge Scavenger. I found a second Jace, the Mind Sculptor on the top of mine, and fell behind, as even though I took the CoCo with a flashed back Thoughtseize, I ended up missing land #4 for a second turn in a row.
I'm fairly sure this would be a good matchup for me, but it was an interesting deck to play against. Rampaging Ferocidon would be killer vs Bitterblossom.
Sideboard Plan: -1 Liliana, the Last Hope, -1 Cryptic Command, +1 Deathmark, +1 Damnation
Round 2, I played against someone who never played modern before. They had a deck that could best be described as draft chaff from Ixalan and Kaledesh blocks, tossed in a blender and poured into some really bad quality sleeves, with a couple of Nix Fleece Rams and Ball Lightnings sprinkled to taste. It wasn't particularly close. I didn't even bother sideboarding, as he didn't have a sideboard for his deck (keeping it fair).
Round 3 was against BR Hollow One. I kept a hand that would be good against their slow draws, while he mulligans to 5 on the play. One Burning Inquiry later, I'm facing 2 Hollow Ones and a Flamewake Pheonix in the graveyard, while my hand improved, but wasn't fast enough. It's not often a deck can say it won a game turn one on a mull to 5 I guess.
Game two, he had a slower draw, but still had a pair of Hollow Ones and a Bloodghast off Burning Inquiry turn 4, but drew me into Cryptic Command with 4 lands open (I ended up discarding a Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Mistbind Clique along with land #5), so I bounced a Hollow One and drew Ravenous Trap. I then draw for turn and hit Damnation, so I wipe his board and Trap him, getting a fairly stocked graveyard. He doesn't get back from that, and I manage to crawl back with Jace into the game and win.
Game 3, was close to start with. I managed to exile his graveyard twice with Nihil Spellbombs and kept him off early creatures, but I hadn't been able to fetch basic lands, and he dropped a Blood Moon down mid game, and was able to walk it in after that. I did draw my second basic Island, but by then it was too late. What makes it even worse was the fact that I considered boarding in Engineered Explosives, but decided against it.
This is a matchup I hate playing, mostly due to the random 'Oops it's a non game' games, and I also think it's a tough matchup for such a synergy based deck to fight.
Sideboard Plan: -2 Cryptic Command, -1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor, -1 Liliana, the Last Hope, +2 Nihil Spellbomb, +1 Damnation, +1 Ravenous Trap
All in all, I've been liking this build of Faeries, though I don't love the maindeck Liliana of the Veils. They've done just enough work against combo style decks, but they've been problematic for me, as it's tough to hold instant speed stuff as you start to discard. I also want to run one more 'non-conditional' removal spell to complement the one's I have, as I feel Hero's Downfall is a little slow sometimes, but it's killed enough planeswalkers to earn it's spot. i'm thinking Cast Down as a one of. I'm also thinking of testing a singleton copy of Wizard's Retort, even though I'm trying for a less counterspell centric build.
I think this is the build I'm going with for the time being:
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Mistbind Clique
Enchantment
4 Bitterblossom
Land
2 Watery Grave
1 Secluded Glen
4 Mutavault
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Darkslick Shores
4 Island
2 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Swamp
2 Opt
1 Hero's Downfall
4 Cryptic Command
4 Fatal Push
1 Wizard's Retort
1 Cast Down
Sorcery
2 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Collective Brutality
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Countersquall
1 Ravenous Trap
1 Dispel
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Jace's Defeat
1 Deathmark
1 Collective Brutality
1 Damnation
2 Liliana of the Veil
As for Naru Meha, I don't think she's good enough for modern. If you could copy any instant or sorcery, maybe. As is though, we aren't taking advantage of the +1/+1 pump, and there's no spells in the deck that I'd want to double at a 4 mana premium.
3x Creeping Tar Pit
3x Darkslick Shores
1x Drowned Catacomb
3x Field of Ruin
3x Island
3x Mutavault
4x Polluted Delta
2x Swamp
2x Watery Grave
1x Cast Down
2x Cryptic Command
1x Dismember
4x Fatal Push
2x Mana Leak
2x Opt
Enchantment (4)
4x Bitterblossom
Planeswalker (2)
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2x Mistbind Clique
2x Snapcaster Mage
4x Spellstutter Sprite
1x The Scarab God
2x Vendilion Clique
Sorcery (7)
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Serum Visions
2x Thoughtseize
My friends played jund and mardu mostly, so wasn't playing against anything unfair at all- I went 4-2 against my friend on jund, 2-1 against the one playing on mardu. I wanted to comment a little bit on the strengths of this deck right now:
a. Cutting some amount of cryptic commands to up your colorless land count --> I actually think this deck has basically "perfect" mana. Being only in 2 colors without too many cards that have insane mana requirements is not only very good against blood moon but also against a lot of decks in the field. I thought the 3/3 mutavault to field of ruin split was exactly where I wanted to be- and having access to 6 manlands meant that usually if I could maintain parody on board that I was actually always ahead. This mana base was among the strongest I think I've played with in modern. Previously I had tried out 3x snapcaster mage, but found there weren't enough optimal targets to make it quite as useful in this deck. I think that faeries plays a lot lower to the ground than most blue decks do- so trying to be on a "snap-cryptic" gameplan isn't quite as good as it usually is.
b. The high end threats have gotten a big buff in faeries recently- JtMS feels more at home in this deck than any other blue deck I've played. He is much easier to protect with a bunch of tiny fae running around than he is in 4x snapcaster mage.dec. Scarab god is also a nice addition as a 1-of finisher- I think he's replaceable if you wanted to play some other kind of big threat to end the game.
c. Cast down is terminate. Outside of random creatures like baral, tasigur, and azusa, cast down is definitely a great addition to the deck- and maybe could be bumped up to a 2-of. For now, I think 1x cast down and 1x dismember is fine alongside the playset of fatal pushes for big creatures. I'll consider adding in another "big creature" removal spell in the board for eldrazi, humans, hollow one, and the like.
d. The 1 mana discard/cantrip suite is weird, but somehow it works out. When I looked at these lists- I was really confused to see a split of opt/serum visions as well as 5 discard spells. I was perfectly happy playing this split- the discard seems necessary to make sure you can interact with some of the more unfair things that are happening in modern (i.e. blood moon). Cantrips to smooth out draws in a blue tempo deck are also a no-brainer. sometimes it was nice to have opt at instant speed, sometimes it was nice to set up additional turns with serum visions. Overall, I'm comfortable right now with the 1-drops in the deck.
Anyway- those are some initial thoughts, i'm going to try to put a sideboard guide together- would like your guys' advice on how you think it's best to side for the humans and hollow one matchups.
Faeries is so close to being strong. A faerie that bounced opponents creatures or if faerie miscreant just drew if you had another faerie instead of another copy of it could take us to the next level.
Would be surprised to see anything in M19 though, probably have to pray to go back to lorwyn eventually.
UB/x Faeries
UR Storm
XURWB Affinity
G Elves
UW control
As for The Scarab God, I've found that it isn't that great when behind, as it's just too slow and not overly large/cheap for it's size. It does leverage a game into your favor when at parity, and just seals it up when you're ahead. I've tested it as both a single main deck copy and a single side board copy.