4 Vendilion Clique is probably 1 too many since its legendary.
2-3 tar pits probably is better since they're tap lands and you're on a tempo plan. This deck really wants at least 2 secluded glens.
I'm not sure you want 4 mana leaks. I would drop at least 2 for hard removal or some card draw. Go for the Throat is the standard hard removal, since push hits everything in affinity that can be hit.
I wouldn't go for too many cryptic commands in a tempo list - a couple to tap the opponent and push through the last bit of damageis reasonable.
Alright, so what do the unbans mean for Faeries? Is the deck dead now, due to BBE? I mean, we rely heavily on Countermagic which is AWFUL against BBE.
Does the JtMS unban help us much? What would a new decklist look like?
Honestly, I think the BBE unban might be terrible for our deck, but I'm not sure.
With Jace, the Mind Sculptor unbanned, we can pretty much go back to what Faeries was in Extended, though with modern card updates like Fatal Push. I’m excited, though really pissed I’ve got to shell out $300-$400 for my Jaces. Now the real question is, do we play 3 or 4?
I ended up 4-0-2 in swiss, and lost in the semifinals to what amounted to a topdeck. The sideboard notes are rough. I will note that I'm also an L2 judge so I was planning to concede the semis anyway, but I did lose it fair and square. (I would want to work the Invitational instead of playing in it, but I wanted to at least try to win and see how far I would have made it)
Round 1: Grixis DS (2-1)
Game 1 we both mulligan (3 Bitterblossom for me!) and he misses his 2nd land for a turn. I'm able to deploy a couple Spellstutter Sprites to hit away at him while he resolves a Death's Shadow (1/1, gets hit with brutality) into two gurmag anglers. Ultimately I find a chump blocker for the second gurmag for a turn so I can deal the last points with Creeping Tar pit and the 2 sprites.
Game 2 He was also on the Angler plan, and I again had a couple SSS to swing in the air with. I ended up one attack short of the kill (I think he drew a removal spell for my blocker).
Game 3 we were low on time so I kept Cryptic, Vendilion, 3 Bitterblossom, Mutavault, Tar Pit. He inquisitions me and takes Clique, and I stick 2 BB and ride cryptic to victory (He concedes on turn 5 after I put him to 4 with ~6 tokens in play and Cryptic still playing backup. Good guy.)
Both games basically came down to drawing enough removal and having an active BB on turn 2. Steel overseer is the highest priority to remove, since it takes away your ability to threaten trades with their x-1 creatures. Game 1 I removed overseeer and forced him to start sacrificing his guys to his 2 arcbound ravagers to avoid trades with my tokens. At one point a Vendilion clique trades with a 3/3 memnite just to get it off the table. Game 2 he kept a slow hand and I eventually ground him out just by tempo-ing. He was kind of unfamiliar with Modern and I think was relying on Affinity to get some free wins, but I think my configuration makes the matchup favorable regardless.
Game 3: Storm (1-1-1)
Game 1 I hit him with a few discard spells and basically gave him a 1-turn window to kill me before I could have my shields up. He was able to just get there with his line. (I think he was scared of countermagic, but I didn't have any)
Game 2 I Thoughtseize on 1, snapcaster on 2, vendilion on 3, and hold up dispel/countersquall for the rest of the game.
Game 3 He mulligans to 5 and I discard his Empty the warrens on turn 1. I run out snapcaster and SSS and hit him for a couple turns. I have Countersquall/extirpate/fatal push/double Cryptic command backup so I feel safe to let him resolve a gifts ungiven main phase, giving him past in flames/ manamorphose and binning grapeshot and noxious revival, and then discarding his PiF (his hand was 2 morphose, 2 pyretic ritual, 1 wipe away). I should have cast Extirpate on his Grapeshot in his draw step, but I didn't and he was able to use his 2 manamorphose to draw into a grapeshot and an empty the warrens, killing my aggression entirely and putting me on a 2-turn clock. I'm a mana short of being able to resolve my topdeck Vendilion clique while still casting cryptic to stay alive (I took the 1st hit), so we eventually end in turns.
This was kind of a miracle. Game 1 I stick BB on 2 and have thoughtseize/mana leak on 3 for his 2 threats (wurmcoil engine and World breaker) and he doesn't draw much else before I kill him.
Game 2 I thoughtseize him and see 3 sylvan scryings, ancient stirrings, collective brutality, and 2 non-tron lands. I take stirrings, and he casts scrying instead of brutality, so I can discard that with a snapcaster mage. He eventually draws a Karn, but I have countersquall up for it, and I have snap/V-clique beats going so the game ends pretty quickly.
I played this guy in the quarters as well, so the games are a bit confused. We both mulliganed a lot and I was usually able to tempo to win where I could. One game in the top 8 involved me sitting back on a mana leak instead of resolving a mistbind (2 mutavault as my only faeires, but I knew he had karn/all is dust) and getting punished by a topdeck TKS that I couldn't mana leak. One game involved sitting back on Kalitas/Damnation/Cryptic for a bunch of turns while a SSS traded beats with a scion token (oblivion stone in play). One game I stuck T2 snapcaster, T3 counter, T4 Kalitas and he just scooped. One game involved trading Mutavault/Faerie token/Snapcaster for Reality Smasher and then Tar Pit/Faerie token for TKS the next turn to stay alive while V-clique and BB raced his last TKS (I won on 1 life that game!). All the games were really close, and having enough action/ ways to answer Smasher/TKS was key.
Haven't played this matchup too much yet, so I'm not sure if we're favored or not. It feels pretty close. I think I like Kalitas and damnation/removal over discard here, and we definitely want EE/ echoing truth to fight souls/blood moon. maybe trim a fatal push and a mistbind as well.
Top8: Eldrazi Tron (2-1)
this was the same guy as in Round 5. See my notes there.
Top4: Esper Control (1-2)
All of these games end up being a little draw-go for a while. Game 1 I attack with mutavault for a few turns into his path to exile, which brings me into range to finish out with Tar pit and Vendilion through his topdeck cryptic.
Game 2 I mulligan to 5, we play draw-go for a while (opt really helps here). I pick an awkward counter war over snapcaster mage that ends with me getting double esper charmed, losing the BB that was going to be the payoff. He plays Azcanta after that with me on no cards, so the game is over.
Game 3: I'm stuck on 2 lands for a while (1 is a mutavault) so I have to echoing truth his Leyline of sancitity on 2, play discard on 3 and 4 (taking push/opt and leaving leyline, celestial purge, and disdainful stroke). He topdecks Geist of Saint traft right on time, and we stare at each other for a few turns with me at 12. Eventually I draw a 3rd and 4th land, and am able to start hitting him back with a snapcaster mage and spellstutter. At the end he topdecks snapcaster to push my blocker and put me to 4 with geist, so I decide to pressure with my Vendilion clique and have to deploy snapcaster/SSS and hope he doesn't draw a removal spell this turn (I'd fall to 2, trading geist for SSS/snap and having mutavault/dispel up to block snap the next turn after that. He topdecks cryptic and the game is over.
Faeries (especially this list) is a tempo deck, not aggro (most 1-drop fae don't do enough) and certainly not control (we don't have enough raw card advantage to keep inevitability against another control list. Knowing when you need to pressure and force action is an important skill piloting this list.
The list is really tight, and I'm really happy with where it is right now. Field of Ruin is much better than Ghost quarter ever was (it even fixes our mana and enables revolt!). The cards that are "lowest" on the list are the dismember (which should be a removal of some sort) and the 2nd damnation in the side (there for the humans decks, but it's in the flex slot). I've long been a proponent of discard being a crutch main, which is why my inquisitions are in the side and 2 brutalities are main. Brutality has more flexibility so it isn't dead late like Inquisition, and I can adjust numbers if I need to. If I had to play a 61st card, it would be a 3rd mana leak. The sweetest SB card that you never see played is definitely To the Slaughter; it has so many applications (answers PW and is a 2-for-1 against of shadow/jund/abzan/tron answers big/hexproof threats out of tron/bogles/geist). It used to be a sower of temptation, and I am not going back.
Now that Jace has been unbanned:
There's really not a lot of room for Jace in this list. I could potentially see cutting a Mistbind for one, but having the second mistbind against tron in particular is critical to be able to find them regularly. I can't cut a discard, since I want to see them early. I can't cut counters because I'm already at the bare minimum for counters. I don't want to cut opt or removal because I think the numbers are about right there too. I think I'm going to try cutting 1 dismember and 1 Mistbind for 2 Jace, and we'll see what happens from there. The theory is that Jace can help me find more removal if I need it, or can be a bounce ("removal") spell in a pinch. Mistbind is the other cut because cryptic is higher-impact and I can't go up to 7 4-drops, but I may try to find room for the 2nd mistbind in the side (maybe over the 2nd damnation). 3-4 Jaces sounds like overkill since we don't need jace to kill their jace anymore and we can pressure their jace/protect ours really well with our flash threats and BB tokens. I expect Jace will make people slow their decks down to play him, so we can take the initiative much more easily while they're just setting up. Bloodbraid is more interesting, since I think it makes Jund unfavorable for us, but potentially we have ways to fight back now since we can lean on Jace going later.
Being able to bounce our own faeries with jace is pretty neat too.
I could see faeries being well positioned post jace, but I'm not actually sure if we want to be playing jace ourselves. Maybe in the board.
Spells (20)
4 Fatal Push
4 Cryptic Command
4 Opt
3 Spell Snare
2 Remand
1 Hero’s Downfall
1 Go for the Throat
1 Logic Knot
Lands (24)
4 Polluted Delta
4 Mutavault
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Island
3 Watery Grave
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Flooded Strand
1 Swamp
1 Bloodstained Mire
I’ve been back and forth on if I want Thoughtseize or other discard, since it’s basically stay alive till Jace comes down. I also took Mistbind clique out so as not to clunk up the 4 drop slot. Maybe I should keep a Mistbind in and cut the 4th Cryptic instead. This has thrown a huge wrench into all the testing I’ve done with this deck, but Jace is fun in EDH, so maybe it’ll be fun in modern
Spells (20)
4 Fatal Push
4 Cryptic Command
4 Opt
3 Spell Snare
2 Remand
1 Hero’s Downfall
1 Go for the Throat
1 Logic Knot
Lands (24)
4 Polluted Delta
4 Mutavault
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Island
3 Watery Grave
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Flooded Strand
1 Swamp
1 Bloodstained Mire
I’ve been back and forth on if I want Thoughtseize or other discard, since it’s basically stay alive till Jace comes down. I also took Mistbind clique out so as not to clunk up the 4 drop slot. Maybe I should keep a Mistbind in and cut the 4th Cryptic instead. This has thrown a huge wrench into all the testing I’ve done with this deck, but Jace is fun in EDH, so maybe it’ll be fun in modern
I think some number of thoughtseize is a little better with Jace, since you can send them back late game when they're dead (they're pretty much the only cards that go dead for us late). I also think 4 fatal push and 3 spell snare is too much small hate, especially since push makes snare less reliable. I also would like to see +1 mistbind -1 cryptic, but I've been a huge Mistbind fanboy even when most other lists were cutting it entirely, so I may not be the most objective on that question.
FWIW, I think the plan of "just stay alive until Jace comes down" is a mistake. Jace is a card advantage engine for us, but our primary gameplan is powerful already, so I don't think it's necessary to compromise that gameplan to try and maximize Jace. I'd much rather be a Bitterblossom deck that happens to run a few copies of Jace than try to be a Jace deck that happens to run 4 copies of Bitterblossom.
discard now becomes significantly better if jace is in the deck letting us pitch it back and shuffle them away late game, or bounce and strip the creature. theres some good possibilities there
discard now becomes significantly better if jace is in the deck letting us pitch it back and shuffle them away late game, or bounce and strip the creature. theres some good possibilities there
So, I definitely agree, but my concern is adding another 4 drop. Do we cut something? Does our curve just look super crazy now? Is Jace going to let us hinge solely on Bitterblossoms as the main wincon? The deck struggles due to the lack of a closer other than Mistbind (that can be punishing to you as well in some cases).
I like having Spell Snares, at least going forward, as I expect a lot of Control decks or Bloodbraid Elf decks. Countering a Search For Azcanta is really good, so is stopping a free Goyf or Dreadbore, or any other thing. Three might've been too much, but it's what I was playing before. I added the Bloodstained Mire as an extra fetch to get value of Brainstorming, as well as adding a little extra delve fuel for Logic Knot. I'm not sure if I want to fully cut Opt, or even if we should shift back towards Ancestral Vision and play a more controlling build.
I think I failed to fully explain what I meant when I said we needed to just survive to land Jace. I don't expect him to be our win condition, but I do believe that if we control the game enough and survive to cast him, it will propel us far enough ahead that we can win with anything. In my head, we basically need to hold the line until our tanks (in this case Jace) come in, after which we can begin to storm ahead (I've been reading a lot of war novels lately). Faeries is a deck that relies heavily on having the right answer at the right moment, and Jace really helps that plan.
I'm slightly worried about how Bloodbraid Elf will effect our desire to control the board. I'm not to worried about the 3/2 body so much as the free value (I never played Modern when it was legal before, and I don't know the best way to fight it). Is it worth trying to hold up counters and stopping what ever free spell they get, or is it too random to be worth trying to stop, and we should just hold our breath and spin the wheel? Should we focus more on cheap hand disruption and counterspells like Remand and such? I can't wait to play with Jace, but man is it getting stressful trying to figure out what to do.
You certainly don't want to Remand a Bloodbraid Elf though. It will be interesting to see how that affects everything. It will definitely be a really difficult card for us to deal with. A counter doesn't stop the cascade, Fatal Push only hits it if you activate Revolt, and you have to deal with the cascaded card as well.
Yea, I don't want to Remand the Elf, no. The Revolt point is another reason for the lone Bloodstained Mire. Maybe we just tune the sideboard for the match, with stuff like Deathmark or other hate. Maybe it's time for Flashfreeze to shine!
So, I definitely agree, but my concern is adding another 4 drop. Do we cut something? Does our curve just look super crazy now? Is Jace going to let us hinge solely on Bitterblossoms as the main wincon? The deck struggles due to the lack of a closer other than Mistbind (that can be punishing to you as well in some cases).
What are everyones thoughts on this?
I agree, i dont know how he would be fit into the deck. Trying to play jace and cryptic and mist bind is a ton of 4 drops. maybe a heavier end than faeries can handle. I was more commenting as an update to myself since it was not even a week ago i made a post about how i think discard is/was the weakest part of faeries and that is might be worth dropping. Now with jace its less of a problem.
So, I definitely agree, but my concern is adding another 4 drop. Do we cut something? Does our curve just look super crazy now? Is Jace going to let us hinge solely on Bitterblossoms as the main wincon? The deck struggles due to the lack of a closer other than Mistbind (that can be punishing to you as well in some cases).
What are everyones thoughts on this?
I agree, i dont know how he would be fit into the deck. Trying to play jace and cryptic and mist bind is a ton of 4 drops. maybe a heavier end than faeries can handle. I was more commenting as an update to myself since it was not even a week ago i made a post about how i think discard is/was the weakest part of faeries and that is might be worth dropping. Now with jace its less of a problem.
What if we go up on lands to 25 or 26? We have the Tar Pits to act as mana sinks, Jace + fetch to shuffle dead ones away. maybe playing a singleton Field of Ruin to help vs utility lands/Tron (I'm not sold on that, I hate having more than the 4 colorless lands).
Even adding the extra Tar Pit gives us game against other control decks. I think Dismember is worth playing in the maindeck, as I have a tingly feeling that Hazoret may be played a bit as a 'Jace Killer' going forward (I know it competes with the Elf, but sometimes you just smash for 5 and activate the ability). I feel the concern about too many 4 drops, and maybe it's correct to cut Cryptic Command before cutting Mistbind, but Cryptic gets us out of tight spots better than Mistbind in my opinion.
Don't underestimate the fixing that field of ruin can provide. I run 2 in my list (25 lands) and my mana is infinitely better now than when they were ghost quarters. Even on 25 lands, I've found that it's virtually impossible for me to flood out with the deck.
Your list does look a bit 4-heavy, especially with no opt. You might consider cutting 1-2 cryptic command to smooth out the curve, maybe adding back in some number of snapcaster, V-clique, and/or mana leak/logic knot. I don't know if anyone is really sure whether to cut into mistbinds or cryptics first, hopefully we'll be able to get some reps in soon to find out.
That's a good point about dismember killing Hazoret. I'll have to try and find room to slot one back into my list.
Not yet, but I was thinking of Disallow instead. Doesn't cantrip or drop a body if needed, but it's pretty flexible.
I don't think we want to be fighting Bloodbraid Elf on that axis. Disallow just seems like a slightly better Cancel, and Faeries isn't chomping at the bit for that right now. If Nimble Obstructionist was a faerie, or was 1U to cycle, I'd like it more, but as it is, it isn't worth it for the edge case of getting someone with it. I don't think trying to stop the cascade trigger will be worth jumping through hoops for.
I'm thinking of hopping on the Disrupting Shoal train, adding a 1 of copy to the maindeck. I think playing a third Vendilion Clique is also good, as it can disrupt other Jace decks (and surprise kill Jace to), as well as be a three drop to pitch to Shoal. It's even cheaper than Bloodbraid Elf, and can take it out of the opponents hand. There's just so many options right now. The other idea is, do we want to move the deck to a more controlling stance, basically UB Control with the Faerie subtheme? Something like this maybe:
I don't know how much we should go in either direction. Is a tempo based strategy, like the current builds, the correct way, or is Faeries now just worse than playing straight UB Control?
I don't know how much we should go in either direction. Is a tempo based strategy, like the current builds, the correct way, or is Faeries now just worse than playing straight UB Control?
I think this might be an arguable opinion, but I think Faeries is definitely a preferential choice and not one based on playing the strongest deck in the archetype or even in the colour pair.
As for the rest of your post, you bring up a good point about Vendilion Clique. It definitely adds another axis of risk in the sense that you don't want to flip their Bloodbraid into something better, or even the case of BBE into Jace. I think the simplest solution is to bring in Thoughtseize, which the lists tend to avoid because we take a lot of incidental damage and life loss already.
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Does the JtMS unban help us much? What would a new decklist look like?
Honestly, I think the BBE unban might be terrible for our deck, but I'm not sure.
4 Polluted Delta
3 creeping tar pit
2 Watery Grave
2 drowned catacomb
1 sunken hollow
1 sunken ruins
1 swamp
5 island
4 mutavault
2 field of ruins
Creatures (12):
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Vendillion clique
3 snapcaster mage
2 Mistbind clique
4 Bitterblossom
3 Opt
3 Cryptic Command
2 Mana Leak
3 Fatal Push
1 Dismember
1 Go for the Throat
1 Murderous cut
2 Collective Brutality
3 Thoughtseize
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Glen elendra archmage
2 damnation
1 Engineered explosives
1 echoing truth
1 surgical extraction
1 extirpate
2 inquisition of kozilek
1 Collective brutality
2 Countersquall
1 dispel
1 To the slaughter
I ended up 4-0-2 in swiss, and lost in the semifinals to what amounted to a topdeck. The sideboard notes are rough. I will note that I'm also an L2 judge so I was planning to concede the semis anyway, but I did lose it fair and square. (I would want to work the Invitational instead of playing in it, but I wanted to at least try to win and see how far I would have made it)
Round 1: Grixis DS (2-1)
Game 1 we both mulligan (3 Bitterblossom for me!) and he misses his 2nd land for a turn. I'm able to deploy a couple Spellstutter Sprites to hit away at him while he resolves a Death's Shadow (1/1, gets hit with brutality) into two gurmag anglers. Ultimately I find a chump blocker for the second gurmag for a turn so I can deal the last points with Creeping Tar pit and the 2 sprites.
Game 2 He was also on the Angler plan, and I again had a couple SSS to swing in the air with. I ended up one attack short of the kill (I think he drew a removal spell for my blocker).
Game 3 we were low on time so I kept Cryptic, Vendilion, 3 Bitterblossom, Mutavault, Tar Pit. He inquisitions me and takes Clique, and I stick 2 BB and ride cryptic to victory (He concedes on turn 5 after I put him to 4 with ~6 tokens in play and Cryptic still playing backup. Good guy.)
Out:
1 Mistbind Clique
2 Collective Brutality
In:
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 To the Slaughter
1 Echoing truth
Round 2: Affinity (2-0)
Both games basically came down to drawing enough removal and having an active BB on turn 2. Steel overseer is the highest priority to remove, since it takes away your ability to threaten trades with their x-1 creatures. Game 1 I removed overseeer and forced him to start sacrificing his guys to his 2 arcbound ravagers to avoid trades with my tokens. At one point a Vendilion clique trades with a 3/3 memnite just to get it off the table. Game 2 he kept a slow hand and I eventually ground him out just by tempo-ing. He was kind of unfamiliar with Modern and I think was relying on Affinity to get some free wins, but I think my configuration makes the matchup favorable regardless.
Out:
1 Go for the throat
3 Thoughseize
1 Mistbind Clique
In:
1 Engineered explosives
1 To the Slaughter
1 Collective Brutality
1 Echoing truth
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Game 3: Storm (1-1-1)
Game 1 I hit him with a few discard spells and basically gave him a 1-turn window to kill me before I could have my shields up. He was able to just get there with his line. (I think he was scared of countermagic, but I didn't have any)
Game 2 I Thoughtseize on 1, snapcaster on 2, vendilion on 3, and hold up dispel/countersquall for the rest of the game.
Game 3 He mulligans to 5 and I discard his Empty the warrens on turn 1. I run out snapcaster and SSS and hit him for a couple turns. I have Countersquall/extirpate/fatal push/double Cryptic command backup so I feel safe to let him resolve a gifts ungiven main phase, giving him past in flames/ manamorphose and binning grapeshot and noxious revival, and then discarding his PiF (his hand was 2 morphose, 2 pyretic ritual, 1 wipe away). I should have cast Extirpate on his Grapeshot in his draw step, but I didn't and he was able to use his 2 manamorphose to draw into a grapeshot and an empty the warrens, killing my aggression entirely and putting me on a 2-turn clock. I'm a mana short of being able to resolve my topdeck Vendilion clique while still casting cryptic to stay alive (I took the 1st hit), so we eventually end in turns.
Out:
1 dismember
1 Go for the throat
2 mistbind clique
1 murderous cut
1 Thoughtseize
2 Field of ruins
In:
2 countersquall
1 dispel
1 echoing truth
2 inquisition of Kozilek
1 surgical extraction
1 extirpate
Round 4: GB Tron (2-0)
This was kind of a miracle. Game 1 I stick BB on 2 and have thoughtseize/mana leak on 3 for his 2 threats (wurmcoil engine and World breaker) and he doesn't draw much else before I kill him.
Game 2 I thoughtseize him and see 3 sylvan scryings, ancient stirrings, collective brutality, and 2 non-tron lands. I take stirrings, and he casts scrying instead of brutality, so I can discard that with a snapcaster mage. He eventually draws a Karn, but I have countersquall up for it, and I have snap/V-clique beats going so the game ends pretty quickly.
Out:
3 fatal push
2 collective brutality
In:
1 To the slaughter
1 glen elendra archmage
1 echoing truth
2 countersquall
Round 5: Eldrazi Tron (2-1)
I played this guy in the quarters as well, so the games are a bit confused. We both mulliganed a lot and I was usually able to tempo to win where I could. One game in the top 8 involved me sitting back on a mana leak instead of resolving a mistbind (2 mutavault as my only faeires, but I knew he had karn/all is dust) and getting punished by a topdeck TKS that I couldn't mana leak. One game involved sitting back on Kalitas/Damnation/Cryptic for a bunch of turns while a SSS traded beats with a scion token (oblivion stone in play). One game I stuck T2 snapcaster, T3 counter, T4 Kalitas and he just scooped. One game involved trading Mutavault/Faerie token/Snapcaster for Reality Smasher and then Tar Pit/Faerie token for TKS the next turn to stay alive while V-clique and BB raced his last TKS (I won on 1 life that game!). All the games were really close, and having enough action/ ways to answer Smasher/TKS was key.
Out:
3 thoughtseize
2 collective Brutality
In:
1 Kalitas, trator of Ghet
2 Damnation
1 To the Slaughter
1 Echoing truth
Round 6: Mardu Pyromancer (ID)
Haven't played this matchup too much yet, so I'm not sure if we're favored or not. It feels pretty close. I think I like Kalitas and damnation/removal over discard here, and we definitely want EE/ echoing truth to fight souls/blood moon. maybe trim a fatal push and a mistbind as well.
Top8: Eldrazi Tron (2-1)
this was the same guy as in Round 5. See my notes there.
Top4: Esper Control (1-2)
All of these games end up being a little draw-go for a while. Game 1 I attack with mutavault for a few turns into his path to exile, which brings me into range to finish out with Tar pit and Vendilion through his topdeck cryptic.
Game 2 I mulligan to 5, we play draw-go for a while (opt really helps here). I pick an awkward counter war over snapcaster mage that ends with me getting double esper charmed, losing the BB that was going to be the payoff. He plays Azcanta after that with me on no cards, so the game is over.
Game 3: I'm stuck on 2 lands for a while (1 is a mutavault) so I have to echoing truth his Leyline of sancitity on 2, play discard on 3 and 4 (taking push/opt and leaving leyline, celestial purge, and disdainful stroke). He topdecks Geist of Saint traft right on time, and we stare at each other for a few turns with me at 12. Eventually I draw a 3rd and 4th land, and am able to start hitting him back with a snapcaster mage and spellstutter. At the end he topdecks snapcaster to push my blocker and put me to 4 with geist, so I decide to pressure with my Vendilion clique and have to deploy snapcaster/SSS and hope he doesn't draw a removal spell this turn (I'd fall to 2, trading geist for SSS/snap and having mutavault/dispel up to block snap the next turn after that. He topdecks cryptic and the game is over.
Out:
2 Mistbind Clique
3 fatal push
2 Collective brutality
In:
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 countersquall
1 dispel
1 Glen Elendra archmage
1 Echoing truth
A few quick hits on the list:
Faeries (especially this list) is a tempo deck, not aggro (most 1-drop fae don't do enough) and certainly not control (we don't have enough raw card advantage to keep inevitability against another control list. Knowing when you need to pressure and force action is an important skill piloting this list.
The list is really tight, and I'm really happy with where it is right now. Field of Ruin is much better than Ghost quarter ever was (it even fixes our mana and enables revolt!). The cards that are "lowest" on the list are the dismember (which should be a removal of some sort) and the 2nd damnation in the side (there for the humans decks, but it's in the flex slot). I've long been a proponent of discard being a crutch main, which is why my inquisitions are in the side and 2 brutalities are main. Brutality has more flexibility so it isn't dead late like Inquisition, and I can adjust numbers if I need to. If I had to play a 61st card, it would be a 3rd mana leak. The sweetest SB card that you never see played is definitely To the Slaughter; it has so many applications (answers PW and is a 2-for-1 against of shadow/jund/abzan/tron answers big/hexproof threats out of tron/bogles/geist). It used to be a sower of temptation, and I am not going back.
Now that Jace has been unbanned:
There's really not a lot of room for Jace in this list. I could potentially see cutting a Mistbind for one, but having the second mistbind against tron in particular is critical to be able to find them regularly. I can't cut a discard, since I want to see them early. I can't cut counters because I'm already at the bare minimum for counters. I don't want to cut opt or removal because I think the numbers are about right there too. I think I'm going to try cutting 1 dismember and 1 Mistbind for 2 Jace, and we'll see what happens from there. The theory is that Jace can help me find more removal if I need it, or can be a bounce ("removal") spell in a pinch. Mistbind is the other cut because cryptic is higher-impact and I can't go up to 7 4-drops, but I may try to find room for the 2nd mistbind in the side (maybe over the 2nd damnation). 3-4 Jaces sounds like overkill since we don't need jace to kill their jace anymore and we can pressure their jace/protect ours really well with our flash threats and BB tokens. I expect Jace will make people slow their decks down to play him, so we can take the initiative much more easily while they're just setting up. Bloodbraid is more interesting, since I think it makes Jund unfavorable for us, but potentially we have ways to fight back now since we can lean on Jace going later.
I could see faeries being well positioned post jace, but I'm not actually sure if we want to be playing jace ourselves. Maybe in the board.
Jace Faeries
4 Bitterblossom
Planeswalkers (3)
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Creatures (9)
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
Spells (20)
4 Fatal Push
4 Cryptic Command
4 Opt
3 Spell Snare
2 Remand
1 Hero’s Downfall
1 Go for the Throat
1 Logic Knot
Lands (24)
4 Polluted Delta
4 Mutavault
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Island
3 Watery Grave
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Flooded Strand
1 Swamp
1 Bloodstained Mire
I’ve been back and forth on if I want Thoughtseize or other discard, since it’s basically stay alive till Jace comes down. I also took Mistbind clique out so as not to clunk up the 4 drop slot. Maybe I should keep a Mistbind in and cut the 4th Cryptic instead. This has thrown a huge wrench into all the testing I’ve done with this deck, but Jace is fun in EDH, so maybe it’ll be fun in modern
Jace Faeries
4 Bitterblossom
Planeswalkers (3)
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Creatures (9)
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
Spells (20)
4 Fatal Push
4 Cryptic Command
4 Opt
3 Spell Snare
2 Remand
1 Hero’s Downfall
1 Go for the Throat
1 Logic Knot
Lands (24)
4 Polluted Delta
4 Mutavault
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Island
3 Watery Grave
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Flooded Strand
1 Swamp
1 Bloodstained Mire
I’ve been back and forth on if I want Thoughtseize or other discard, since it’s basically stay alive till Jace comes down. I also took Mistbind clique out so as not to clunk up the 4 drop slot. Maybe I should keep a Mistbind in and cut the 4th Cryptic instead. This has thrown a huge wrench into all the testing I’ve done with this deck, but Jace is fun in EDH, so maybe it’ll be fun in modern
FWIW, I think the plan of "just stay alive until Jace comes down" is a mistake. Jace is a card advantage engine for us, but our primary gameplan is powerful already, so I don't think it's necessary to compromise that gameplan to try and maximize Jace. I'd much rather be a Bitterblossom deck that happens to run a few copies of Jace than try to be a Jace deck that happens to run 4 copies of Bitterblossom.
So, I definitely agree, but my concern is adding another 4 drop. Do we cut something? Does our curve just look super crazy now? Is Jace going to let us hinge solely on Bitterblossoms as the main wincon? The deck struggles due to the lack of a closer other than Mistbind (that can be punishing to you as well in some cases).
What are everyones thoughts on this?
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Mistbind Clique
4 Fatal Push
4 Cryptic Command
4 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Spell Snare
1 Hero’s Downfall
2 Go for the Throat
1 Logic Knot
4 Mutavault
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Island
3 Watery Grave
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Flooded Strand
1 Swamp
1 Bloodstained Mire
I like having Spell Snares, at least going forward, as I expect a lot of Control decks or Bloodbraid Elf decks. Countering a Search For Azcanta is really good, so is stopping a free Goyf or Dreadbore, or any other thing. Three might've been too much, but it's what I was playing before. I added the Bloodstained Mire as an extra fetch to get value of Brainstorming, as well as adding a little extra delve fuel for Logic Knot. I'm not sure if I want to fully cut Opt, or even if we should shift back towards Ancestral Vision and play a more controlling build.
I think I failed to fully explain what I meant when I said we needed to just survive to land Jace. I don't expect him to be our win condition, but I do believe that if we control the game enough and survive to cast him, it will propel us far enough ahead that we can win with anything. In my head, we basically need to hold the line until our tanks (in this case Jace) come in, after which we can begin to storm ahead (I've been reading a lot of war novels lately). Faeries is a deck that relies heavily on having the right answer at the right moment, and Jace really helps that plan.
I'm slightly worried about how Bloodbraid Elf will effect our desire to control the board. I'm not to worried about the 3/2 body so much as the free value (I never played Modern when it was legal before, and I don't know the best way to fight it). Is it worth trying to hold up counters and stopping what ever free spell they get, or is it too random to be worth trying to stop, and we should just hold our breath and spin the wheel? Should we focus more on cheap hand disruption and counterspells like Remand and such? I can't wait to play with Jace, but man is it getting stressful trying to figure out what to do.
I agree, i dont know how he would be fit into the deck. Trying to play jace and cryptic and mist bind is a ton of 4 drops. maybe a heavier end than faeries can handle. I was more commenting as an update to myself since it was not even a week ago i made a post about how i think discard is/was the weakest part of faeries and that is might be worth dropping. Now with jace its less of a problem.
What if we go up on lands to 25 or 26? We have the Tar Pits to act as mana sinks, Jace + fetch to shuffle dead ones away. maybe playing a singleton Field of Ruin to help vs utility lands/Tron (I'm not sold on that, I hate having more than the 4 colorless lands).
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Mistbind Clique
4 Fatal Push
4 Cryptic Command
3 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Spell Snare
1 Hero’s Downfall
1 Go for the Throat
1 Logic Knot
1 Dismember
4 Mutavault
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Island
3 Watery Grave
3 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Flooded Strand
1 Swamp
1 Bloodstained Mire
Even adding the extra Tar Pit gives us game against other control decks. I think Dismember is worth playing in the maindeck, as I have a tingly feeling that Hazoret may be played a bit as a 'Jace Killer' going forward (I know it competes with the Elf, but sometimes you just smash for 5 and activate the ability). I feel the concern about too many 4 drops, and maybe it's correct to cut Cryptic Command before cutting Mistbind, but Cryptic gets us out of tight spots better than Mistbind in my opinion.
Your list does look a bit 4-heavy, especially with no opt. You might consider cutting 1-2 cryptic command to smooth out the curve, maybe adding back in some number of snapcaster, V-clique, and/or mana leak/logic knot. I don't know if anyone is really sure whether to cut into mistbinds or cryptics first, hopefully we'll be able to get some reps in soon to find out.
That's a good point about dismember killing Hazoret. I'll have to try and find room to slot one back into my list.
Jeskai Control
Mardu Pyromancer
RIP GU Infect
I don't think we want to be fighting Bloodbraid Elf on that axis. Disallow just seems like a slightly better Cancel, and Faeries isn't chomping at the bit for that right now. If Nimble Obstructionist was a faerie, or was 1U to cycle, I'd like it more, but as it is, it isn't worth it for the edge case of getting someone with it. I don't think trying to stop the cascade trigger will be worth jumping through hoops for.
I'm thinking of hopping on the Disrupting Shoal train, adding a 1 of copy to the maindeck. I think playing a third Vendilion Clique is also good, as it can disrupt other Jace decks (and surprise kill Jace to), as well as be a three drop to pitch to Shoal. It's even cheaper than Bloodbraid Elf, and can take it out of the opponents hand. There's just so many options right now. The other idea is, do we want to move the deck to a more controlling stance, basically UB Control with the Faerie subtheme? Something like this maybe:
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Fatal Push
4 Cryptic Command
3 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Spell Snare
2 Mana Leak
1 Logic Knot
1 Hero’s Downfall
1 Go for the Throat
1 Dismember
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Island
3 Watery Grave
3 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Flooded Strand
2 Swamp
2 Field of Ruin
1 Bloodstained Mire
I don't know how much we should go in either direction. Is a tempo based strategy, like the current builds, the correct way, or is Faeries now just worse than playing straight UB Control?
I think this might be an arguable opinion, but I think Faeries is definitely a preferential choice and not one based on playing the strongest deck in the archetype or even in the colour pair.
As for the rest of your post, you bring up a good point about Vendilion Clique. It definitely adds another axis of risk in the sense that you don't want to flip their Bloodbraid into something better, or even the case of BBE into Jace. I think the simplest solution is to bring in Thoughtseize, which the lists tend to avoid because we take a lot of incidental damage and life loss already.