MTG Salvation

I was on discard faeries for many years. I don't fault anyone for playing it over the version I posted in my video. I think the most important thing we can acknowledge as a faeries community is that the deck is a lot more flexible and able to adapt to the tastes and the love of the pilots than most other decks on here which are largely solved. I know many people that play faeries with discard or without, or that play no snaps or play 4 or play no mistbinds or play 4 or play no scions or play 4 or play no serums or 4 and it's pretty safe to say that neither are right or wrong. As for the removal that belongs in the SB, it's mostly just a matter of guessing what you'll play against. Smother could have been anything

Hey everyone. I made a 50 minute deck primer on the faeries deck I will be playing at GP Vegas. I've been playing faeries for a long time at my local store and after Paulos CFB videos came out my friends wanted me to make a video for my channel going much deeper into the deck so they can see my take on his version he played that I have also largely played. In the video I go pretty deep into everything from card choices mana choices creature selection choices and all of the tricks the deck runs as well as some advanced help on triggers and strategy. Feel free to watch if you're interested https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CVhrOPjyOyc

Lots of abzan in the feature matches at GP Indy one with dark confidants and no grim flayer or siege rhino and then one without flayer but more traditional and then one with flayer. Abzan definitely seems like it's a good call to make right now over Jund

I think you want specifics that I just can't answer, discarding a siege rhino as part of escalate or a land that could play a rhino to escalate Vs burn is very much dependent on so many factors, did I lead with an discard and see that I need to escalate or can I wait a turn and see. I would almost always escalate vs CoCo decks and burn decks when on the play to get their mana dorks but I would have to consider escalating to get rid of a voice of resurgence, but I would escalate vs any of their combo pieces outside of say a finks unless I knew I needed to. My advise is asking for specifics this detailed will be nearly impossible to answer because so much can happen or be changed based on my opening hand. In general I would do the most aggressive play vs decks trying to race you and I would do the most controlling thing vs the decks that want to grind with you for a little bit. Knowing who is the beat down deck answers 99% of what you have asked

Abzan is a good choice when Jund is one of the best decks in the format by a large margin, is the most played deck in the format and when path is more optimal, and he believes rightly all of those conditions are met. As to Collective Brutality it's a great 2/2 vs and decks playing turn one mana dorks and CoCo, Evolutions or Chords as well as any decks hoping to play a creature and pump it to victory. It's also good vs all the burn creatures. On paper it seems like a 2 for 2 but in reality it is a big tempo swing as we get two modes on one card and with the right conditions we trade a card like lingering souls or a useless land or spell for their best spell which might kill us or even generate a 2-1 against us. The second reason I love it is it solves the age old problem of I really don't want to path this birds or paradise we have that Jund doesn't

Abzan is better vs Jund this has been born out by numerous statistical experience, something like 68% I read is the Junk vs Jund matchup. I think Grim Flayer is a really exciting card that has the potential to redefine this archetype similar to how Siege Rhino created new space for this deck. I can say personally I just don't know quite yet how I want to build it optimally. It took Jund a really long time before Kalitas just became standard and my guess is that Grim Flayer to be a 3-4 of would require a huge shakeup in the deck. You can't just take out 3 cards and put them in you might have to completely change multiple parts of the deck. I like what majors did I've also seen others play and talk about their work and IMO collective brutality is the real deal more so than flayer. The problem I foresee with grim flayer is that in a vacuum do we play it before Tarmogoyf. There is always a lot of context to that question but in theory is abzan a Tarmogoyf deck or a flayer deck and idk what that answer would be yet

If you are on the play it all depends on the texture of your hand. Me saying "always lead off with inquisition" assumes nothing about the rest of your hand. My advise would be that you bring in the 1 cost graveyard hate in for a reason. The graffdiggers cage would almost always be my main priority on the play or draw to get it out there as it slows down most of their flood the board with ghasts amalgams and moebas draws. My philosophy is always if you bring a haymaker SB card in you need a very good reason not to lay it on curve. If you're up against affinity and you draw stony silence on curve do you not play it because you "think" I can take an unknown etched champion with this Thoughtseize? No you play your haymaker SB card. Hand disruption will almost never be the reason you win a game vs dredge but spellbomb and cage will. So play them even if it's mana inefficient and do it on curve

Spellbomb 100% the dredge deck can get out of hand incredibly fast. Inquisition against them on the draw can be a complete miss the fact that they lead with neonate means they don't have a faithless looting on hand so your likely cards you strip from them are not at all appealing or cards you can't even take. In the second scenario cage is better as it slows them down as you prepare for the spellbomb on the follow up turn.

So I have been doing a ton of testing for the modern GP in Lille. I am not 100% sure on the specific build of Junk I want to run but it will come down to a traditional version with noble hierarchs and one without, similar to the decks played by Efro and Hefner in pro tour Fate reforged. Anyways, in both versions the SB card I have been having a lot of success with vs Dredge that isn't a narrow card with huge peaks and valleys like leyline has been Ghostly Prison. It has served a great role vs other decks too like affinity infect merfolk elves and deaths shadow aggro and isn't so narrow as leyline that is really only in for one kind of deck and has to be in your opening hand.

Anthony came in third at the SCG Open

Does anyone think spell queller will be a playable card anywhere in the 75?

I'm playing 3 vendilion clique instead of the second cryptic command and playing a 4th serum visions over lighthouse. Been on that list since the eye unbanning. So we have a similar 58. My solution to the Tron and Valakut decks (also hits nahiri and chord) is I play 2 Aven mindcensor in my sideboard so I'm not drawing as you say bad LD, while also on a proactive flash fliers build

Yeah I totally agree on remand being a 4 of. I feel like the deck runs enough removal that the matchups where remand is "bad" like in infect or affinity you can still get a small time walk while you hope to aggro them out. No need to convince me there. I also like Gideon as a Grixis Trump, I've always played Elspeth Knight Errant for the ability to jump my Geist into a 5/5 flier, or any creature, But I can see the line of 2/2 knights and then Gideon beats also being good. The thing I actually loved most about your SB which I have now incorporated was the double engineered explosives. We don't need to go into when and where it's good but since moving up from playing one to now a second I've seen my more even matchups become a bit more favored, and also some slightly unflavored become even, so thanks for that inclusion.

Hey congrats on the solid finish. I am preparing for the GP in Lille in a couple months and I wanted your take on specifically if this Geist list you played to a second place finish was with a specific knowledge of the Metagame in your area. Also I wanted your take on desolate lighthouse and how it performed for you? Was it specifically used because of the sometimes clunky hands with multiple legendary creatures?

If you believe Tron and or Nahiri Jeskai/mardu to be bad matchups a haymaker SB card is Bribery to steal emrakul or Ulamog