I think the higher land count is right because it gets you to Cryptic Command and allows you to trade with your manlands. Card options for me are Liliana of the Veil (I'm testing this in place of Snappy), another Cryptic Command, another piece of equipment, or a couple of Spell Pierce (fantastic against decks that play control of their own). Or something I don't know of yet! The reason I eventually decided Serum Visions is wrong for this deck is partly the crowding of the 1cc slot, and partly that it is better to have the additional manlands.
Is it just me or do the games with 26 lands end up in floods so many times? You draw lands so much that you lose just because of that?
I don't think anyone could criticise a Faeries pilot who chose 25 instead. Sittner did, for example. But to address your question, I did worry that 26 would flood and so I tested each of the following (multiple games, all-comers in TP on MtGO)
A. 23 lands, with and without cantrips, aggro deck version B. 24 lands, with and without cantrips, both versions (I placed 3rd in a local tournament piloting the aggro version with cantrips) C. 25 lands, with and without cantrips, both versions D. 26 lands, no cantrips, control deck version
I found that I wanted to use the manlands to swing with, and in my experience one of those would usually die. Two lands are Tectonic Edge and I found that I frequently wanted to sac one of them. On the costs side, to swing with Creeping Tar Pit is 4 mana; +2 mana if it carries a sword. On balance, I feel like the control version of the deck dislikes missing land drops, is running optimally at 6 mana, and expects to lose one or two lands along the way. The aggro version is okay with 24, but I found 23 too few. Cryptic Command needs a high blue count so it is colourless lands that one ends up cutting when tightening up lands. I rotated Edges with Cavern of Souls which are good in the aggro version but unnecessary in the control version.
That's what I call a good, helpful post! I personally don't feel comfortable with 25 lands. Also, I don't Play land destruction, as it strikes me that we desperately need the coloured mana, even more so if we are planning to play Liliana. 3 Creeping Tar Pit is borderline to me. I woulnd't go above that Count by any means. Since I don't want two of them in my Hand by any means, I Play them as a 2-of.
To extend the talk about lands a bit: I'm currently thinking about playing Faerie Conclave over CTP, as it a)helps SSS and B) can be championned by MC. Black mana is most needed in turn one and CTP doesn't offer that, so I don't think the "only blue mana" is such a drawback. What do you think?
I would advise against the conclave. A conclave and a mutavault in hand would make a hand with a blossom, a removal and a sprite nigh unplayable. Furthermore, there is plenty of faeries already. Black mana is also much needed in turn two..and even three (removal). It opens the opportunities.
I already tried playing with the Conclave and the advantage for being a faerie is downweighed so hard...At four mana in turn four you should be able to play something better than spellstutter sprite with a conclave activitation like...
I agree with Von that 26 lands does allow you to eat a couple removal with your lands providing you back up mana. I personally like 25 I'm only running 2 CTP, but now that I've reintroduced my swords to the list its enough to make me go back to 3 mainly because unblockable tar-pit is a recipe for success. I'm always thinking about Fire n ice because lightening bolts are so blatant in most decks. I just don't think I could warrant it for that purpose alone though because they could just bolt in response to equipping.
I loved how yasooka MB'd just one copy of snap I feel like that was a good move for utility and his deck list is the closest to my own so I like to reference him before sittner. I am currently running caverns with only 10 creatures which might be a little too greedy? I could replace those with 1 creeping and 1 pendelheaven .
Side note has anyone ever thought about etching in signal pest? Just a random thought, I saw it in a ninja fae build and it seemed "ight".
I'd like to talk about everyone's matchup analysis for the current meta and also how you guys are developing your SB to interact with it as well.
...it strikes me that we desperately need the coloured mana, even more so if we are planning to play Liliana. 3 Creeping Tar Pit is borderline to me. I wouldn't go above that Count by any means. Since I don't want two of them in my Hand by any means, I Play them as a 2-of.
It does feel like 2 or 3 CTP is right. Many of our black casts are sorcery speed, so those are covered quite well by the inclusion of River of Tears. There could be a case for 1-2 fetchlands to trigger black in opponent's turn.
To extend the talk about lands a bit: I'm currently thinking about playing Faerie Conclave over CTP, as it a)helps SSS and B) can be championed by MC. Black mana is most needed in turn one and CTP doesn't offer that, so I don't think the "only blue mana" is such a drawback. What do you think?
Metillon makes a good point about Faerie Conclave and SSS. But you mentioned Mistbind Clique. I frequently want to MC on 4 mana, or 5-6 if my opponent has relevant removal or counters that I need to disrupt. Conclave will be relevant to champion on 6-8 mana. You're right of course that there is synergy, but maybe it's a diluted by the timing? An unblockable SoFaF is also pretty good.
@WalksWithThunder I think Signal Pest is incorrect because most of our creatures give us value on entering play, and we keep that value even if the creature is immediately removed. Whereas Signal Pest will only give us value if it stays in play: making our opponent's removal better. In exchange we might gain a bolt-worth of damage. It doesn't feel like a good deal. If Bad Moon buffed black and blue, I'd try that.
So I went to FNM last friday and used the deck above. I went 2-3, but I think I could have gone better. I made some gameplay errors which might have cost me the game. Also I hadn’t played the deck much since our local MTG is quite dead.
Round 1: vs. Burn: Lost 1-2
G1: This was the match I was somewhat prepared. G1 was a nightmare, since I was mana screwed to 3 lands with no blue. Hand was full of answers, but the lack of land cost me the game quickly.
G2: I stabilized at 7 life with chaining Mistbind Cliques while countering everything else.
G3: I think I made some play errors with taking unnecessary damage, trying to clock the opponent a bit faster. This was a mistake from my part which cost me the game.
Sideboard:
-2 Thoughtseize
-3 Dismember
+1 Batterskull
+2 Countersquall
+1 Darkblast
+1 Go for the Throat
Round 2: vs. Greed Devotion: Win 2-0
G1 & G2: This was just some green ramp deck with elves, which really had no real way of interacting. The G1 and G2 were pretty much the same. Ripped his hand with hand disruption and countered the main things that came into mind.
Sideboard:
-2 Spell Snare
-1 Dismember
-2 Shadow of Doubt
+2 Countersquall
+1 Consume the Meek
+1 Thoughtseize
+1 Go for the Throat
Match 3: vs. BG: Lost 1-2
G1: This was the matchup where I noticed that playing 3 Dismembers might have been too much. Not saving a removal for Courser of Kruphix was too much.
G2: Stabilised with Turn 2 Bitterblossom, countering everything and locking the opponent down with Mistbind Clique. Turn 2 BB is really strong.
G3: A 6/7 Tarmogoyf was too much. The game was quickly over with him beating me down with Tarmogoyf and discards.
Sideboard:
-1 Dismember
-2 Shadow of Doubt
+1 Go for the Throat
+1 Batterskull
+1 Consume the Meek
Match 4: vs. U-Tron: Lost 1-2
Nothing to tell about this match. He draw Tron even though I managed to disrupt him with Shadow of Doubt and Ghost Quarter. I found this matchup really hard and really had no way of winning. I won G2 just because he mulliganed to 5 and had nothing. Still had quite intresting game 2, since I think he had Tron up on turn 4. Luckily I had counters for the plays he had and managed to break his tron with Ghost Quarter.
Sideboard:
-3 Dismember
-1 Batterskull
-1 Bitterblossom
+1 Thoughtseize
+2 Countersquall
+2 Liliana of the Veil
Match 5: vs. UR Twin: Win 2-1
G1: I knew what he was playing before we started so it helped me to play the game 1. Turn 1 Thoughtseize, turn 2 Bitterblossom into turn 3 and 4 discards was pretty devastating for him.
G2: I think I struggled a bit with here, bluffing for counters/removal and not being aggressive enough. He just killed me without combo with Pestermites, Snapcasters and Exarchs.
G3: Liliana took control of the game quite quickly. I used it to discard whenever I didn’t have enough answers. Still almost managed to mess things up by forgetting to attack with manlands with empty hands. Luckily I won, even though I made a lot of errors.
Sideboard:
-1 Batterskull
-2 Sword of Feast and Famine
-1 Mistbind Clique
+2 Liliana of the Veil
+1 Thoughtseize
+1 Go for the Throat
Overall, I played really bad. And sideboarding was a bit pain for me since I did not know how to play the deck properly. Shadow of Doubt didn’t do as much work as I though, and it might be something I´m willing to cut. The mainboard Batterskull wasn’t suprising either, might look for something for that aswell.
Liliana of the Veil was suprisingly good on the games where I played it. I didn’t go aggressive for the ultimate, but more of discarded cards when I didn’t have answers myself.
I really need to find the right playstyle for this deck. I played UR Twin before and this is just so different from it, in my opinion. I also think I played too “controllish” games and didn’t pressure the opponent enough. Turn 2 Bitterblossom was really strong and pretty much won me the games when I did that.
...it strikes me that we desperately need the coloured mana, even more so if we are planning to play Liliana. 3 Creeping Tar Pit is borderline to me. I wouldn't go above that Count by any means. Since I don't want two of them in my Hand by any means, I Play them as a 2-of.
It does feel like 2 or 3 CTP is right. Many of our black casts are sorcery speed, so those are covered quite well by the inclusion of River of Tears. There could be a case for 1-2 fetchlands to trigger black in opponent's turn.
To extend the talk about lands a bit: I'm currently thinking about playing Faerie Conclave over CTP, as it a)helps SSS and B) can be championed by MC. Black mana is most needed in turn one and CTP doesn't offer that, so I don't think the "only blue mana" is such a drawback. What do you think?
Metillon makes a good point about Faerie Conclave and SSS. But you mentioned Mistbind Clique. I frequently want to MC on 4 mana, or 5-6 if my opponent has relevant removal or counters that I need to disrupt. Conclave will be relevant to champion on 6-8 mana. You're right of course that there is synergy, but maybe it's a diluted by the timing? An unblockable SoFaF is also pretty good.
@WalksWithThunder I think Signal Pest is incorrect because most of our creatures give us value on entering play, and we keep that value even if the creature is immediately removed. Whereas Signal Pest will only give us value if it stays in play: making our opponent's removal better. In exchange we might gain a bolt-worth of damage. It doesn't feel like a good deal. If Bad Moon buffed black and blue, I'd try that.
Overall, I played really bad. And sideboarding was a bit pain for me since I did not know how to play the deck properly. Shadow of Doubt didn’t do as much work as I though, and it might be something I´m willing to cut. The mainboard Batterskull wasn’t suprising either, might look for something for that as well.
Thank you for the play report. I think aggro-control is hard to play well. But the fact that a better game is always available is big part of my faith that this deck can be good.
Liliana of the Veil was suprisingly good on the games where I played it. I didn’t go aggressive for the ultimate, but more of discarded cards when I didn’t have answers myself.[/quote}
It is interesting to read this: I'm hoping more Faeries pilots will try Liliana.
[quote from="Mitorah" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/established-modern/542105-ub-x-faeries?comment=1320"]played too “controllish” games and didn’t pressure the opponent enough. Turn 2 Bitterblossom was really strong and pretty much won me the games when I did that.
I really feel like yours is the common experience. T2 Bitterblossom, or not, is as night and day. There's an article up that talks about the best decks having 8 enablers (or 16 win conditions). It does feel like we need a few more synergistic win-enablers.
If you can find a place for it in the deck, I would love it if Favorable Winds worked.
After reflection, I think that cards like Favorable Winds end up not being great because they reinforce the strategy that already works for us (Bitterblossom). Where I think SoFaF succeeds is because it turns on our manlands so genuinely counts as an additional line of play. For the same reason, I suspect Liliana could turn out to be - while strong - not the perfect card for our deck.
EDIT and then - straight after you write that - she goes and delivers you a couple of wins that would have been losses without her.
If you're running Favourable winds before Scions, i feel like you need a really good justification.
Scions of Oona are (imo) better than mistbind clique or Swords of XandY at turning games around, with the amount of power they can quickly add to the board, they have defensive synergy with bitterblossom, make mistbinds a risk-free play and generally harmonise better with what the deck is trying to do better than just about every sorcery speed card i can think of.
Personally i think the weaknesses of the deck are how dead so many draws can become, ie: late bitterblossoms or thoughtseizes, mistbinds on empty boards, spell snare at irrelevant times or removal against the wrong deck (ie doom blade against bob or GftT against affinity). My solution is to try to find more cantripping/ digging effects (ie remand, telling time, thirst for knowledge)
My bit of crazyness for the next event is putting remand on Isochron Scepter, because it seems terrible and rediculous. Luckily scepter pitches to thirst for the 99% of matchups it will be bad in >_<
Did you see LSV Faeries? I was wondering how could he fit both Jace Beleren and so many creatures until I looked at the land count: just 23, with Pendelhaven among them.
ATTACHMENTS
lsvfaes
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Currently sleeved: WUR Copycat ft. Stoneforge Mystic
Did you see LSV Faeries? I was wondering how could he fit both Jace Beleren and so many creatures until I looked at the land count: just 23, with Pendelhaven among them.
ATTACHMENTS
Thats a pretty interesting list some of my favorite tech choices are pendelhaven and using Vapor Snag as 2 slots of the spot removal for their applicability in both buyback/saving potential for ETB effects or using them to control the opponents mana tempo for time walking them. Little Jace seems like he really fits in this list because he can dig quite well. I do feel like Cryptic might be hard to cast in this version though and I'd almost always like the option to use one of the best cards in the deck.
I ended up cutting my 2 Cavern of Souls for Pendalhaven and another Island in my build earlier this week, using a token to block more effectively is just so nice.
3 Snaps in the MB is also quirky, I wonder why not the whole playset?
Did you see LSV Faeries? I was wondering how could he fit both Jace Beleren and so many creatures until I looked at the land count: just 23, with Pendelhaven among them.
After watching his videos, I'd still rather going with 2 Casters and 3 Mistbind Clique, probably adding a 24th land instead of one of the removal spells (Agony Warp most likely). Snapcaster Mage is never a dead draw, but very few times has the impact of the Clique.
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Who is truer: you who are, or you who are to be?
Currently sleeved: WUR Copycat ft. Stoneforge Mystic
Running 23 lands with no 1 or 2 mana cantrips seems incredibly greedy.
If you look at other decks
UR tempo twin - 23 lands - 6 cards that cost 4 mana - 4x 1 mana cantrips, 4x remands
Jund - 24 lands - 1-2 cards that cost 4 mana
UR Delver (Hoogland) - 23 lands - 0 cards that cost 4 mana
Yeah 23 lands is not an adviseable number of mana sources. Even with Jace; I mean the planeswalker is good, but it feels like it is there to waste a turn to setup a card that digs for your lands instead of slamming in an opneing to draw Gas here. Also, how do you all feel about Slaughter Pact as a 1-2x of? It was mentioned almost in passing earlier and I recently picked one up for the metagame material
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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
LSV tested Faeries on mtgo recently. He went undefeated. There is nothing extremely special about his list or the matches, but I thought I would link this. I think we have already decided that the pros are a few steps behind this thread.
CREATURES (11)
--------------
2x Snapcaster Mage (I believe that these should be cut)
4x Spellstutter Sprite
2x Vendilion Clique
3x Mistbind Clique
SPELLS (23)
-----------
4x Bitterblossom
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Thoughtseize
1x Vendetta
2x Go for the Throat
1x Dismember
2x Spell Snare
3x Mana Leak
3x Cryptic Command
2x Sword of Feast and Famine
LANDS (26)
----------
4x Darkslick Shores
4x River of Tears
4x Secluded Glen
1x Sunken Ruins (could be an Island)
3x Island
1x Swamp
4x Mutavault
3x Creeping Tar Pit
2x Tectonic Edge
I think the higher land count is right because it gets you to Cryptic Command and allows you to trade with your manlands. Card options for me are Liliana of the Veil (I'm testing this in place of Snappy), another Cryptic Command, another piece of equipment, or a couple of Spell Pierce (fantastic against decks that play control of their own). Or something I don't know of yet! The reason I eventually decided Serum Visions is wrong for this deck is partly the crowding of the 1cc slot, and partly that it is better to have the additional manlands.
Mana Curve
1cc = 8 (or 11 counting Creeping Tar Pit)
2cc = 14 (counting Dismember but not Snapcaster Mage)
3cc = 6 (counting Snapcaster Mage)
4cc = 6
I'm not sure that it would be wise to expand the 1cc slot, but I think we could go to 8x 3cc without issue.
B = 17
U = 19
C = 6 (which I believe to be the maximum)
I don't think anyone could criticise a Faeries pilot who chose 25 instead. Sittner did, for example. But to address your question, I did worry that 26 would flood and so I tested each of the following (multiple games, all-comers in TP on MtGO)
A. 23 lands, with and without cantrips, aggro deck version
B. 24 lands, with and without cantrips, both versions (I placed 3rd in a local tournament piloting the aggro version with cantrips)
C. 25 lands, with and without cantrips, both versions
D. 26 lands, no cantrips, control deck version
I found that I wanted to use the manlands to swing with, and in my experience one of those would usually die. Two lands are Tectonic Edge and I found that I frequently wanted to sac one of them. On the costs side, to swing with Creeping Tar Pit is 4 mana; +2 mana if it carries a sword. On balance, I feel like the control version of the deck dislikes missing land drops, is running optimally at 6 mana, and expects to lose one or two lands along the way. The aggro version is okay with 24, but I found 23 too few. Cryptic Command needs a high blue count so it is colourless lands that one ends up cutting when tightening up lands. I rotated Edges with Cavern of Souls which are good in the aggro version but unnecessary in the control version.
To extend the talk about lands a bit: I'm currently thinking about playing Faerie Conclave over CTP, as it a)helps SSS and B) can be championned by MC. Black mana is most needed in turn one and CTP doesn't offer that, so I don't think the "only blue mana" is such a drawback. What do you think?
I already tried playing with the Conclave and the advantage for being a faerie is downweighed so hard...At four mana in turn four you should be able to play something better than spellstutter sprite with a conclave activitation like...
DECKS:
UB Faeries [Midrange/Tempo]
RWUGB Affinity[Aggro]
FAERIES TOO STRONK!!!1111
- Fae Prophecy, 201
5678I loved how yasooka MB'd just one copy of snap I feel like that was a good move for utility and his deck list is the closest to my own so I like to reference him before sittner. I am currently running caverns with only 10 creatures which might be a little too greedy? I could replace those with 1 creeping and 1 pendelheaven .
Side note has anyone ever thought about etching in signal pest? Just a random thought, I saw it in a ninja fae build and it seemed "ight".
I'd like to talk about everyone's matchup analysis for the current meta and also how you guys are developing your SB to interact with it as well.
It does feel like 2 or 3 CTP is right. Many of our black casts are sorcery speed, so those are covered quite well by the inclusion of River of Tears. There could be a case for 1-2 fetchlands to trigger black in opponent's turn.
Metillon makes a good point about Faerie Conclave and SSS. But you mentioned Mistbind Clique. I frequently want to MC on 4 mana, or 5-6 if my opponent has relevant removal or counters that I need to disrupt. Conclave will be relevant to champion on 6-8 mana. You're right of course that there is synergy, but maybe it's a diluted by the timing? An unblockable SoFaF is also pretty good.
@WalksWithThunder I think Signal Pest is incorrect because most of our creatures give us value on entering play, and we keep that value even if the creature is immediately removed. Whereas Signal Pest will only give us value if it stays in play: making our opponent's removal better. In exchange we might gain a bolt-worth of damage. It doesn't feel like a good deal. If Bad Moon buffed black and blue, I'd try that.
EDIT Favorable Winds?
4 Secluded Glen
4 River of Tears
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Island
1 Swamp
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Mutavault
Creatures:
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Mistbind Clique
3 Cryptic Command
3 Mana Leak
2 Spell Snare
3 Dismember
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
2 Shadow of Doubt
Enchantments & Artifacts:
4 Bitterblossom
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Batterskull
3 Phyrexian Crusader
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Countersquall
2 Grafdiggers Cage
1 Consume the Meek
1 Batterskull
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Thoughtseize
1 Go for the Throat
1 Darkblast
So I went to FNM last friday and used the deck above. I went 2-3, but I think I could have gone better. I made some gameplay errors which might have cost me the game. Also I hadn’t played the deck much since our local MTG is quite dead.
Round 1: vs. Burn: Lost 1-2
G1: This was the match I was somewhat prepared. G1 was a nightmare, since I was mana screwed to 3 lands with no blue. Hand was full of answers, but the lack of land cost me the game quickly.
G2: I stabilized at 7 life with chaining Mistbind Cliques while countering everything else.
G3: I think I made some play errors with taking unnecessary damage, trying to clock the opponent a bit faster. This was a mistake from my part which cost me the game.
Sideboard:
-2 Thoughtseize
-3 Dismember
+1 Batterskull
+2 Countersquall
+1 Darkblast
+1 Go for the Throat
Round 2: vs. Greed Devotion: Win 2-0
G1 & G2: This was just some green ramp deck with elves, which really had no real way of interacting. The G1 and G2 were pretty much the same. Ripped his hand with hand disruption and countered the main things that came into mind.
Sideboard:
-2 Spell Snare
-1 Dismember
-2 Shadow of Doubt
+2 Countersquall
+1 Consume the Meek
+1 Thoughtseize
+1 Go for the Throat
Match 3: vs. BG: Lost 1-2
G1: This was the matchup where I noticed that playing 3 Dismembers might have been too much. Not saving a removal for Courser of Kruphix was too much.
G2: Stabilised with Turn 2 Bitterblossom, countering everything and locking the opponent down with Mistbind Clique. Turn 2 BB is really strong.
G3: A 6/7 Tarmogoyf was too much. The game was quickly over with him beating me down with Tarmogoyf and discards.
Sideboard:
-1 Dismember
-2 Shadow of Doubt
+1 Go for the Throat
+1 Batterskull
+1 Consume the Meek
Match 4: vs. U-Tron: Lost 1-2
Nothing to tell about this match. He draw Tron even though I managed to disrupt him with Shadow of Doubt and Ghost Quarter. I found this matchup really hard and really had no way of winning. I won G2 just because he mulliganed to 5 and had nothing. Still had quite intresting game 2, since I think he had Tron up on turn 4. Luckily I had counters for the plays he had and managed to break his tron with Ghost Quarter.
Sideboard:
-3 Dismember
-1 Batterskull
-1 Bitterblossom
+1 Thoughtseize
+2 Countersquall
+2 Liliana of the Veil
Match 5: vs. UR Twin: Win 2-1
G1: I knew what he was playing before we started so it helped me to play the game 1. Turn 1 Thoughtseize, turn 2 Bitterblossom into turn 3 and 4 discards was pretty devastating for him.
G2: I think I struggled a bit with here, bluffing for counters/removal and not being aggressive enough. He just killed me without combo with Pestermites, Snapcasters and Exarchs.
G3: Liliana took control of the game quite quickly. I used it to discard whenever I didn’t have enough answers. Still almost managed to mess things up by forgetting to attack with manlands with empty hands. Luckily I won, even though I made a lot of errors.
Sideboard:
-1 Batterskull
-2 Sword of Feast and Famine
-1 Mistbind Clique
+2 Liliana of the Veil
+1 Thoughtseize
+1 Go for the Throat
Overall, I played really bad. And sideboarding was a bit pain for me since I did not know how to play the deck properly. Shadow of Doubt didn’t do as much work as I though, and it might be something I´m willing to cut. The mainboard Batterskull wasn’t suprising either, might look for something for that aswell.
Liliana of the Veil was suprisingly good on the games where I played it. I didn’t go aggressive for the ultimate, but more of discarded cards when I didn’t have answers myself.
I really need to find the right playstyle for this deck. I played UR Twin before and this is just so different from it, in my opinion. I also think I played too “controllish” games and didn’t pressure the opponent enough. Turn 2 Bitterblossom was really strong and pretty much won me the games when I did that.
If you can find a place for it in the deck, I would love it if Favorable Winds worked.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Thank you for the play report. I think aggro-control is hard to play well. But the fact that a better game is always available is big part of my faith that this deck can be good.
I really feel like yours is the common experience. T2 Bitterblossom, or not, is as night and day. There's an article up that talks about the best decks having 8 enablers (or 16 win conditions). It does feel like we need a few more synergistic win-enablers.
After reflection, I think that cards like Favorable Winds end up not being great because they reinforce the strategy that already works for us (Bitterblossom). Where I think SoFaF succeeds is because it turns on our manlands so genuinely counts as an additional line of play. For the same reason, I suspect Liliana could turn out to be - while strong - not the perfect card for our deck.
EDIT and then - straight after you write that - she goes and delivers you a couple of wins that would have been losses without her.
Scions of Oona are (imo) better than mistbind clique or Swords of XandY at turning games around, with the amount of power they can quickly add to the board, they have defensive synergy with bitterblossom, make mistbinds a risk-free play and generally harmonise better with what the deck is trying to do better than just about every sorcery speed card i can think of.
Personally i think the weaknesses of the deck are how dead so many draws can become, ie: late bitterblossoms or thoughtseizes, mistbinds on empty boards, spell snare at irrelevant times or removal against the wrong deck (ie doom blade against bob or GftT against affinity). My solution is to try to find more cantripping/ digging effects (ie remand, telling time, thirst for knowledge)
My bit of crazyness for the next event is putting remand on Isochron Scepter, because it seems terrible and rediculous. Luckily scepter pitches to thirst for the 99% of matchups it will be bad in >_<
Currently sleeved:
WUR Copycat ft. Stoneforge Mystic
Thats a pretty interesting list some of my favorite tech choices are pendelhaven and using Vapor Snag as 2 slots of the spot removal for their applicability in both buyback/saving potential for ETB effects or using them to control the opponents mana tempo for time walking them. Little Jace seems like he really fits in this list because he can dig quite well. I do feel like Cryptic might be hard to cast in this version though and I'd almost always like the option to use one of the best cards in the deck.
I ended up cutting my 2 Cavern of Souls for Pendalhaven and another Island in my build earlier this week, using a token to block more effectively is just so nice.
3 Snaps in the MB is also quirky, I wonder why not the whole playset?
Wow this is SO oldschool!
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
Currently sleeved:
WUR Copycat ft. Stoneforge Mystic
If you look at other decks
UR tempo twin - 23 lands - 6 cards that cost 4 mana - 4x 1 mana cantrips, 4x remands
Jund - 24 lands - 1-2 cards that cost 4 mana
UR Delver (Hoogland) - 23 lands - 0 cards that cost 4 mana
UB/x Faeries
UR Storm
XURWB Affinity
G Elves
UW control
http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/channel-lsv-modern-faeries/
—Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
—Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver