That makes sense. In my mind I want to win without having to attack if I go through the trouble of combing off, but it looks like the lists can be tweaked to do that. Looking forward to trying and figure out what the best way to do that is for me. I play Tin Fins in legacy so I'm really happy to loop my library for a win.
I haven't played the deck before and I was wondering if someone could explain the "combo" part of it. I get that we can tutor up Seasons Past and get a ton of cards over and over, but is there an infinite damage loop or something too, or is it the infinite counters from Refuge? I guess once you get infinite mana you can recur Collective Brutality to drain them. I'm more familiar with the Dakmor Salvage combo variants so I'm wondering if I'm missing something.
The mountain is mostly there for when something of mine gets Ghost Quartered or Ruhan gets Pathed and I need to get a red source off it.
I have no idea how Supreme Verdict didn't make it into my list. I even bought a copy, but I guess I misplaced it in my haste to get to the event There are worse cards to lose though.
Do either of you folks have experience with Field of Ruin? I considered it myself and thought it may be too slow, but I haven't actually tried
it.
I like the idea of Cast Out. I'm not nuts about the higher CMC, but instant is great and my 3 drop slot has felt cluttered.
I have both Slagstorm and Radiant Flames. The reach of Storm has been relevant, but the double red could be a problem some games.
Treachery is a great suggestion. Hadn't thought of how great an Academy Rector target it is until now.
Cavern of Souls is probably fine. I didn't think it was necessary given how few creatures we run, but the opportunity cost is fairly low. I'm not running a lot of lands that don't produce colored mana. This could push me more towards Radiant Flames.
I plan on running Ruhan at an event this week. I'll try out some of the changes and let you know if I have any significant insights. Thanks again!
I've posted my list below. Sorry for the formatting. Don't know if anyone else is having problem with deck tags, but I couldn't get them to work for the life of me. I've only been able to play six matches with it (current record is 4-1-1) so there is still a lot of tuning to go. I have my eyes on a few cards I'm not sure about (the land destruction package), but it's been performing pretty well as a first draft. It's slow as heck which can be an issue if I'm not conscious of it. The combo pieces were included to give me another quick way to end a game other than Ruhan, They may be too cute though. You have the instant win of Rest in Peace plus Helm and the soft lock of RIP and Energy Field. I'm happy to hear any feedback or answer any questions anyone might have. Hope everyone else is having as much fun as me getting a 7/7 for 4
Thought about trying Ruhan as a combo build, but then it seemed like it would be more consistent as a control shell. That, and you can build in a couple small instant win combos if the game happens to stall out or you draw them just right. I'm thinking Rest in piece and Helm of Obedience. There are a lot of graveyard based grindy decks in my meta now so RIP is great. Helm is only one card of opportunity cost and both are tutorable. The other thing I'm dying to do (not really an instant win, but should be close) is floating mana, casting Teferi's Protection and following it up with Balance, Armageddon, etc. Once I get a list finished and have some results to share I'll let you know how it goes.
When I saw Yuta's list originally it seemed so fairy lite that I wasn't sure spellstutter would be very effective. How did you feel having only the 8 fae?
Even though I just got wrecked by Edgar tonight at my LGS's Duel night, I would second the opinion that the deck may be good for the format. It preys on the grindier midrange decks, and gets beaten by the hard control decks. It makes things a cyclical meta which usually helps make things less stale. Granted there will be some growing pains, as a Leovold player I am terrified, but it may not be as awful as it seems at first. Can't be good against every deck.
After the Vial ban Grixis took a serious hit, but Kess, Dissident Mage is where I would be looking if I wanted to play those colors now. She will be a lot grindier than Vial/Kraum because the latter had this amazing ability to kill in a turn or two once it stabilized, but you could play control with a combo finish to emulate that feel.
I've played lists with one or two basics and it's ok, but it can really make some early draws into mulligans that otherwise wouldn't have been. If your meta is full of wasteland decks you could always try it. We are just a very greedy deck in regards to mana. Most of our spells have fairly hefty color requirements.
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 :).
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?
I'm getting to the point where I may cut Puzzle Box too because it seems more cute than powerful, but I have still been liking Time Spiral. There are few times when I'm wheeling my opponents hand with it and it's a "free" draw seven once we've traded all our resources away one for one. I'm also still on a tempo shell and haven't had a chance to go full control.
First off, I wouldn't stress too much about not having access to one or two cards if you decide to go with the "good stuff" version. Sure, better cards are better cards, but learning a deck that is 98% optimized is still time well spent.
As far as how to play this version, it can be kind of tricky. You're a tempo deck, and that means learning to identify roll assignment in each of your games and even switching within a game. Sometimes you will be the aggressor, sometimes you'll be the control deck. A general rule of thumb is that this deck can't out control the control decks and we aren't faster than the aggro decks, so you will usually take the opposing role. What we have going for us is raw power in card quality and the draw our general provide us. Most of the time trading resources with our opponent should be in our favor either mana investment wise or card count wise.
All that aside, our best starts are landing a proactive threat (Leo, Confidant, Clique, etc.) and then protecting it with counter magic and hand disruption. This is why the mana dorks are so important. They let us get out our game winning threats early before our opponent has time to have counter magic up or a board state. This will usually force our opponent to react to what we are doing rather than progress their game plan. We won't often be ahead by a lot, but it's enough to win. Leovold is perfect for keeping us ahead on cards. If that line isn't available, we can fall back on our discard package and try to empty our opponent's hand. Being a "good stuff" deck, our top decks are usually better than the opponent's. It can also give us time to assemble the appropriate win con, be it a puzzle box, a loam cephalid lock, a time spiral or depths.
The windfall effects are very effective in a majority of matches. If you are able to turn two Leo into turn three Windfall/Day's Undoing it often feels like a free win.
As far as hymn vs duress, I've only played duress in the deck so far, but my gut feeling is that the information, the pinpoint disruption and one less mana fit better within the tempo shell. I could be wrong though. Hymn is incredibly powerful, and there is nothing like a card that literally reads "two for one your opponent."
I have to give credit to FearDReaper for their original list, which I started off of.
I was able to go 3-0 at my LGS duel commander tournament today. In fact, I didn't lose a single game. So yea... that feels pretty good. Another thanks for the advice about SoFaF and Jitte. I Cut SoFI and Complicate from my original list to make room for both of them today, and they really did work.
Round 1 vs. Krenko, Mob Boss
My opponent kept some suboptimal hands and I was able to capitalize on him stumbling a bit. I drew Jitte both games, allowing me to control the amount of goblins he was able to keep in play. Not sure what to take away from this one since the aggro plan did not really get to be executed.
Round 2 vs. Narset, Enlightened Master
Game one I was on the play and was able to turn two a Leo into turn 3 Windfall. Leo is able to ride counter magic for a victory. Game two was much more what I expect from a blue deck where we trade resources one for one until I bait out a counter with neonatal Jace (Vryn's Prodigy) and stick a Liliana of the Veil. His list is very creature lite, so I am able to just tick up Lili until she ultimates and decimate his lands. Then Leo comes down and it's lights out.
Round 3 vs. Teferi, Temporal Archmage
I've played this match before and I mulligan to five to find a more aggressive hand. I settle on one that has three land a windfall and a Vendilion Clique. It's not great, but going to four seems miserable. I get my break when I cast clique and find only one counterspell in his hand at the end of his turn. An argument could be made for countering the clique and not giving me the info, because when I untapped I jammed Leo as fast as possible. I didn't really draw any counter magic the rest of the game so it was really tight worrying about Cyclonic Rift, but I did draw SoFaF, which shone like a beautiful star against a deck trying to hold cards in its hand and wait to combo. That clock was able to put him away. Game two went much more in line with the plan where a dork was able to power out Leo on turn two and I countered the important spells. I let him resolve a lot of mana acceleration, but countered the business spells. It was still close, but I was able to clock him fast enough to get the kill a turn before he could have generated infinite mana after top decking The Chain Veil.
I know that this is a pretty superficial summary, but thanks for reading, and if anyone has any questions I'd be happy to reply.
I agree that triple blue is a real strain. I also wasn't nuts about having to hold four mana up.
Thanks for chiming in about FaF and Jitte. I'll give them a try.
Wel true, 4 mana is quite a bit I can imagine, but its such a big spell that it can realy do quite a bit at times... being able to either counter, bounce any permanent or tap down creatures if needed and it can also replace itself with a draw, imo its overall to powerfull not to run it, but I guess others feel it's not worth the effort, I don't own unsubstantiate that would prolly be my replacement if I had it. (they arent realy the same, but that is the closest card to it imo..)
And yeah, Jitte costs less to cast and overall can do more impactfull things, kill tokens, turn the counters into life vs red as example or just downright pump stoof... I have both SoFaF and Jitte right now, am playing Jitte, cut SoFaF, cause was imo just little to mana intencive/slow, though the untap clause is realy powerfull... (might add it again, am a bit in dubio about what to play...)
So far my control version seemed to overall work better then the one I have made it into with the more mana accel and more creature heavy one.
I'm glad to hear you're having success with your build!
All your points about Cryptic are valid. It felt very strange when I cut it from my list because of how flexible and powerful it was. I'll try to keep it in mind during my rounds today. Another complication is that my meta is very blue combo oriented so I've found that being more aggressive is the way to go, since my list is not optimized to out control them. Looking back at your previous posts it seems like you are more blue heavy with Teferi so the triple blue is probably not an issue for you where I've had trouble with it.
That makes sense. In my mind I want to win without having to attack if I go through the trouble of combing off, but it looks like the lists can be tweaked to do that. Looking forward to trying and figure out what the best way to do that is for me. I play Tin Fins in legacy so I'm really happy to loop my library for a win.
I haven't played the deck before and I was wondering if someone could explain the "combo" part of it. I get that we can tutor up Seasons Past and get a ton of cards over and over, but is there an infinite damage loop or something too, or is it the infinite counters from Refuge? I guess once you get infinite mana you can recur Collective Brutality to drain them. I'm more familiar with the Dakmor Salvage combo variants so I'm wondering if I'm missing something.
Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback!
The mountain is mostly there for when something of mine gets Ghost Quartered or Ruhan gets Pathed and I need to get a red source off it.
I have no idea how Supreme Verdict didn't make it into my list. I even bought a copy, but I guess I misplaced it in my haste to get to the event There are worse cards to lose though.
Do either of you folks have experience with Field of Ruin? I considered it myself and thought it may be too slow, but I haven't actually tried
it.
I like the idea of Cast Out. I'm not nuts about the higher CMC, but instant is great and my 3 drop slot has felt cluttered.
I have both Slagstorm and Radiant Flames. The reach of Storm has been relevant, but the double red could be a problem some games.
Treachery is a great suggestion. Hadn't thought of how great an Academy Rector target it is until now.
Cavern of Souls is probably fine. I didn't think it was necessary given how few creatures we run, but the opportunity cost is fairly low. I'm not running a lot of lands that don't produce colored mana. This could push me more towards Radiant Flames.
I plan on running Ruhan at an event this week. I'll try out some of the changes and let you know if I have any significant insights. Thanks again!
Ruhan of the Fomori
Land
Instant
Sorcery
Creature
Planeswalker
Enchantment
Artifact
Helm of Obedience[/cards]
When I saw Yuta's list originally it seemed so fairy lite that I wasn't sure spellstutter would be very effective. How did you feel having only the 8 fae?
EDIT: Marchesa, the Black Rose is also worth considering.
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 :).
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?
1 Bayou
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Breeding Pool
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 City of Brass
1 Command Tower
1 Dark Depths
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Island
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Mana Confluence
1 Marsh Flats
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Pollted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Tolaria West
1 Tropical Island
1 Twilight MIre
1 Underground River
1 Underground Sea
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
1 Watery Grave
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Dark Confidant
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Primeval Titan
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 True-Name Nemesis
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Counterspell
1 Countersquall
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Daze
1 Delay
1 Dismember
1 Force of Will
1 Force Spike
1 Go for the Throat
1 Mana Leak
1 Memory Lapse
1 Negate
1 Putrefy
1 Remand
1 Remove Soul
1 Spell Pierce
1 Sultai Charm
1 Unsubstantiate
1 Damnation
1 Day's Undoing
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Duress
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Life from the Loam
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Thoughtseize
1 Time Spiral
1 Windfall
1 Bitterblossom
1 Exploration
1 Sylvan Library
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Teferi's Puzzle Box
1 Umezawa's Jitte
First off, I wouldn't stress too much about not having access to one or two cards if you decide to go with the "good stuff" version. Sure, better cards are better cards, but learning a deck that is 98% optimized is still time well spent.
As far as how to play this version, it can be kind of tricky. You're a tempo deck, and that means learning to identify roll assignment in each of your games and even switching within a game. Sometimes you will be the aggressor, sometimes you'll be the control deck. A general rule of thumb is that this deck can't out control the control decks and we aren't faster than the aggro decks, so you will usually take the opposing role. What we have going for us is raw power in card quality and the draw our general provide us. Most of the time trading resources with our opponent should be in our favor either mana investment wise or card count wise.
All that aside, our best starts are landing a proactive threat (Leo, Confidant, Clique, etc.) and then protecting it with counter magic and hand disruption. This is why the mana dorks are so important. They let us get out our game winning threats early before our opponent has time to have counter magic up or a board state. This will usually force our opponent to react to what we are doing rather than progress their game plan. We won't often be ahead by a lot, but it's enough to win. Leovold is perfect for keeping us ahead on cards. If that line isn't available, we can fall back on our discard package and try to empty our opponent's hand. Being a "good stuff" deck, our top decks are usually better than the opponent's. It can also give us time to assemble the appropriate win con, be it a puzzle box, a loam cephalid lock, a time spiral or depths.
The windfall effects are very effective in a majority of matches. If you are able to turn two Leo into turn three Windfall/Day's Undoing it often feels like a free win.
As far as hymn vs duress, I've only played duress in the deck so far, but my gut feeling is that the information, the pinpoint disruption and one less mana fit better within the tempo shell. I could be wrong though. Hymn is incredibly powerful, and there is nothing like a card that literally reads "two for one your opponent."
I have to give credit to FearDReaper for their original list, which I started off of.
Round 1 vs. Krenko, Mob Boss
My opponent kept some suboptimal hands and I was able to capitalize on him stumbling a bit. I drew Jitte both games, allowing me to control the amount of goblins he was able to keep in play. Not sure what to take away from this one since the aggro plan did not really get to be executed.
Round 2 vs. Narset, Enlightened Master
Game one I was on the play and was able to turn two a Leo into turn 3 Windfall. Leo is able to ride counter magic for a victory. Game two was much more what I expect from a blue deck where we trade resources one for one until I bait out a counter with neonatal Jace (Vryn's Prodigy) and stick a Liliana of the Veil. His list is very creature lite, so I am able to just tick up Lili until she ultimates and decimate his lands. Then Leo comes down and it's lights out.
Round 3 vs. Teferi, Temporal Archmage
I've played this match before and I mulligan to five to find a more aggressive hand. I settle on one that has three land a windfall and a Vendilion Clique. It's not great, but going to four seems miserable. I get my break when I cast clique and find only one counterspell in his hand at the end of his turn. An argument could be made for countering the clique and not giving me the info, because when I untapped I jammed Leo as fast as possible. I didn't really draw any counter magic the rest of the game so it was really tight worrying about Cyclonic Rift, but I did draw SoFaF, which shone like a beautiful star against a deck trying to hold cards in its hand and wait to combo. That clock was able to put him away. Game two went much more in line with the plan where a dork was able to power out Leo on turn two and I countered the important spells. I let him resolve a lot of mana acceleration, but countered the business spells. It was still close, but I was able to clock him fast enough to get the kill a turn before he could have generated infinite mana after top decking The Chain Veil.
I know that this is a pretty superficial summary, but thanks for reading, and if anyone has any questions I'd be happy to reply.
All your points about Cryptic are valid. It felt very strange when I cut it from my list because of how flexible and powerful it was. I'll try to keep it in mind during my rounds today. Another complication is that my meta is very blue combo oriented so I've found that being more aggressive is the way to go, since my list is not optimized to out control them. Looking back at your previous posts it seems like you are more blue heavy with Teferi so the triple blue is probably not an issue for you where I've had trouble with it.