Let's go over the SB shall we:
2 Dark Betrayal Pretty obvious removal against MBD. It is pretty hard to decide what you don't want against MBD but cutting from anger of the gods is a good start
2 Doom Blade Great against pretty much any creature deck except MBD. Comes in against aggro and Jund/Gr, you should cut against aggro Thoughtseizes and Gr/Jund maybe an AotG or Ratchet bomb
2 Duress Comes in against control, burn and MBD in my plays
1 Erebos, God of the Dead Comes in against MBD and control as well. Denies life and gives you the ability to draw some cards
2 Gild Comes in mainly against Jund/Gr. Haven't tried it against aggro but it feels kinda slow. Helps you ramp up though.
1 Mizzium Mortars This is the more questionable card for me. Jund/Gr don't REALLY have creatures that we could hit (except Coursher now that he is popular but still) but that is what I board it in against and of course aggro decks
1 Pithing Needle Against MBD (naming swamp most likely to shut down Connections) and Control
1 Sire of Insanity Against control and burn cause if you can stick him in T5 he can outrace them probably.
2 Slaughter Games Against control and maybe burn?
1 Whip of Erebos Against burn and maybe aggro
As you see there are at least 6 cards we should board in against MBD since it is not a favorable MU but we can make it post board. Boarding out depends on the opponents build and preference
Against control we have 7 cards to board in and it is easy to board out since we cut on AotG bile blights and Mizzium Mortars (7 cards)
Against Jund/Gr we have 4 or 5 cards (depends on whether you want Mortars in) and we can board out the bile blights (they only hit multiple elves) the ratchet bomb I guess and the other 2 depends on preference.
Against aggro we need 2 or 5 cards depends on preference, we cut thoughtseize ofcourse and if needed read the bones.
Against burn we bring in Whip and Sire, Duresses and maybe slaughter games. We bring out thoughtseizes and AotG but the latter depends on their build (heavy burn of aggro/burn).
Hope that gives some food for thought and I would love the feedback.
Well, I just got back from my local fnm playing the exact list that got top 8 and went 4-0. I will probably write a report tomorrow if there is any interest
What did you think of the split of dreadbore and hero's downfall?
Would be interested to get your opinion on sideboard tech.
Congratulations!
The dreadbore/downfall was extremely fine. At first I was very skeptical about the 3/1 split but in the end it was perfect. For all planeswalkers you don't mind THAT much about instant speed (unless your opponent is noobish). Dreadbore is cheaper and hits the same targets. With that mana base RB is also easier.
Also I played the exact same SB and it was very very flexible. I found myself boarding enough cards. Gild is crazy expacially if you follow it up with a rakdos return and it also help you if you have some mana issues against more creature strategies and you can't slam down a dragon for example. I don't know if I would run them mainboard though.
My matches were against Jund, mono black, esper control and boros burn. All went 2-0 except the boros burn which went 2-1 (some times you can't stand against such a race). The MBD used to be a very bad MU before BotG but for some reason now it was pretty easy. I am not sure what has changed or maybe I was too lucky but I didn't feel that much of a pressure. Jund was very easy with all the main board removal and with SB it just was a piece of cake. Esper control was kind of hard G1 but the sideboard makes it also pretty easy with Erebos, slaughter games, duress and pithing needle. Boros Burn is kind of a coin toss, I would say it is about 50-50 G1 and G2 with duress and some good heavy creature draws they are dead. I can go into more details if you want for a specific match.
I don't know if this deck is back to its full power but it definitely is a sound choice. Last time when I got the deck to a PTQ before the Born of the Gods release I wasn't really happy. Got some bad MU and went the unimpressive 4-4. I was playing the deck for a couple of months already and had been winning more local or smaller events but large scale it was pretty hard and narrow w/o flexible MUs. The scry lands make it much much much easier to play (even though I was already running 4 but off color) and bile blight is also a good addition. I think more people need to play this deck and test it out but I am not 100% sure if I would take it again to a PTQ instead of MBD. I will play it for a a month though before I come to a conclusion.
Well, I just got back from my local fnm playing the exact list that got top 8 and went 4-0. I will probably write a report tomorrow if there is any interest
1) Stuff like, I have a BB on my opening hand, do I always want to slam it down T2? It certainly is temping and is my reflects from std. But it just feels awkward to tap out T2. How much value can we get from a T2 BB especially on game 1 where we don't know what we are facing? How much we expect to get in terms of board control with it? Make a list of the direct counters to BB and see how we can handle them based on the MU and stuff like that.
3) Well, for once, to keep the playerbase we already have we must stop this mentality of "Faeries are T1 deck and I don't care what you say". Cause people WILL fail with this deck a lot (I fail a lot and everyone inexperienced will fail a lot because it is a VERY hard deck to play). If we make an environment where we simply state that the deck is good w/o background, articles, analyses etc. people will expect to pick up the deck and win but this will simply not happen. So we need to create more fuss, we need to ask people who play the deck on higher levels if they are willing to write some stuff about it etc.
4) Well, just check the latest GP Richmond top 16. The deck is somewhat dominant and that will give an increase to its percentage atleast for the near future
Edit: These are the day 2 percentages of GP richmond
Affinity 13.54%
MeliraPod 10.38%
Storm 5.64%
Jund 5.19%
Merfolk 4.74%
R/W/U Control 4.29%
B/G Obliterator Rock 4.06%
U/R Twin 4.06%
Tarmo-Twin 4.06%
I am going to make a post of general observations after a couple of weeks playing the deck. Feel free to (constructively) disagree
1) I feel like a big part of the problem this deck has is that we were (at least whoever was playing the deck in standard) too used with the mindset "resolved BB is win". In the modern format this is absolutely NOT the case. Maybe that's just my stubborn mind of loving BB, but I feel like many people tend to see BB as win. However there are 3 decks which play mainboard answers (Melira pod, Rock and Jund), blue decks with spell snare which can answer it T1 (that was never the case before, at least not as popular) and an aggro deck that can easily outrace it if it draws well. The hype is slowly toning done around the BB unban but we still have some way to go before we can appreciate BB for what it is in the current format.
2) I don't know if it would of any value but there are a couple of dimir control decks going around, maybe we could learn something from them.
3) UR faeries have been doing well lately. The UR fae version, because I've played a lot with it (with minimal success, like 4-3 on GP, a couple of 4-0s in FNMs but generally never making any major wins for me like top8 PTQ or GPT wins) is much more fragile as a deck than the UB. UB can be more solid and more consistent. However UR is the one with the more consistent appearences in MODOs etc. and I think that's because it took time to grow to the playrs. I have a friend in my store who just didn't want to abandon his UR fae even with BB. He is definitely outperforming me (well he is a better player as well, I am not gonna argue that I am any sort of high skilled player) with UR even though when I was playing UR we were kind of the same. So yeah, I know everybody been saying that but we need to give the deck some time. And by time I don't mean a month but 5-6 months and see where we go. The only thing is that people must not abandon the deck like what has happened with cruel control. Cruel control is my other deck of choice and I think it is one of the best decks for the current meta but literally NO major players play the deck so you won't see results.
4) Melira Pod MU feels very awkward. There are times where I just CRASH them like no problem. But if they get the slightest chance of resolving a voice or a Pod then I am simply dead. And you can't always draw the exact answers. Melira pod is the best combo-ish deck around to the current meta and if we can't stomp it (which we should) we might need to consider a build more focused on such a MU. Generally modern is more creature heavy than what std or extended was back then and maybe we need to adapt. Just for consideration.
These are just some random thought I've been having lately about the deck. I don't know if they are of any value but if anyone finds any point relevant please discuss. Sorry for the long post
TL;DR 1) we need to re-evaluate BB
2) check out dimir control maybe?
3) the deck needs more time and more players, we shouldn't just w8 and see
4) we possibly need to work more towards a better melira pod MU
Ok i will -2 remand +1 Shadow of doubt +1 ???????? In my meta there are not much aggro decks, so I dont think I need the second damnation, at least damnation deal with geist,will try, other cards to consider are tribute the hunger, Suffer the Past( can it help me a bit against RDW?).Anger of the gods is not worth because of my actual meta( no pod/no zoo at the moment)
Well, you can go +1 Mana Leak or +1 Cruel Ultimatum (if you face controls all the time it might secure you more resolves) or +1 Forbidden Alchemy or +1 IoK/thoughtseize
Has anyone tried Grixis Charm in this deck? I feel like it would do to many things not to have it. I have not tested it yet but it seems good. I don't know how viable a turn 3 Charm is though.
Grixis charm is not flexible enough. Its 3rd ability is completely useless to us and for the other 2 we have way better cards to use.
@kyshio
Playing 2 remands and 2 think twice is probably not the best cause you are basically covering the same spot (credits to xJosh for that remark). I would suggest you to remove the 2 remands and go +1 Shadow of doubt (the cards is bananas and none gives enough credit I think) and maybe 1 more damnation or an anger of the gods
Hey guys, so this is my new list after playtesting Faeries for a couple of weeks. I'd like some feedback. I like the article posted above, it is not very explanatory but has some good points.
So I guess we don't have anyone who reached d2 with the deck on GP Richmond? I know there was a guy who at some point was 5-2 but idk what happened in the end.
Just a heads up, I know Sittner; he owns Oasis Games in Salt Lake City. I stopped by the shop and though he wasn't there, I talked to one of the guys who works for him and mentioned how much attention his deck was getting here and that people would like him to comment on it. His associate agreed and was going to talk to him about it. I don't know if he'll get into a lot of detail on here, but he may write something up on his shop's blog soon.
If you could ask him to comment that would be great. We have been discussing for so long but we didn't yet have any serious comments by higher level players which had success with the deck. Generally I think, if anyone has any friends/people who know which compete in higher levels should ask for some feedback, it would be invaluable to our discussion. 4-0ing a MODO or and FNM is great but day 2 and top 16 or top 32 GP is a different thing
Chalice of the void needs to be tried more, don't be scared.
Removal package I'm still against disfigure (tragic slip seems better even if I wouldn't run it over vendetta either) so I'm sticking to bile blight, smother and doom blade/GfT (considering both equals depending on meta and personal preference). I'm using as removals:
1 Bile
2 Smother
1 Doom Blade
1 Explosives
Not sold on Glen elendra, still liking the annul, I'll maybe add 1 tec edge and I don't like the new infest if we have explosives and damnation as options.
I do agree on Chalice and I still run a 1 of in my SB and it's just great.
I haven't tried Tragic Slip yet and I am really willing to do so. Additionally in my local store there aren't any affinity decks so I am willing to give this package a shot.
2 Dark Betrayal Pretty obvious removal against MBD. It is pretty hard to decide what you don't want against MBD but cutting from anger of the gods is a good start
2 Doom Blade Great against pretty much any creature deck except MBD. Comes in against aggro and Jund/Gr, you should cut against aggro Thoughtseizes and Gr/Jund maybe an AotG or Ratchet bomb
2 Duress Comes in against control, burn and MBD in my plays
1 Erebos, God of the Dead Comes in against MBD and control as well. Denies life and gives you the ability to draw some cards
2 Gild Comes in mainly against Jund/Gr. Haven't tried it against aggro but it feels kinda slow. Helps you ramp up though.
1 Mizzium Mortars This is the more questionable card for me. Jund/Gr don't REALLY have creatures that we could hit (except Coursher now that he is popular but still) but that is what I board it in against and of course aggro decks
1 Pithing Needle Against MBD (naming swamp most likely to shut down Connections) and Control
1 Sire of Insanity Against control and burn cause if you can stick him in T5 he can outrace them probably.
2 Slaughter Games Against control and maybe burn?
1 Whip of Erebos Against burn and maybe aggro
As you see there are at least 6 cards we should board in against MBD since it is not a favorable MU but we can make it post board. Boarding out depends on the opponents build and preference
Against control we have 7 cards to board in and it is easy to board out since we cut on AotG bile blights and Mizzium Mortars (7 cards)
Against Jund/Gr we have 4 or 5 cards (depends on whether you want Mortars in) and we can board out the bile blights (they only hit multiple elves) the ratchet bomb I guess and the other 2 depends on preference.
Against aggro we need 2 or 5 cards depends on preference, we cut thoughtseize ofcourse and if needed read the bones.
Against burn we bring in Whip and Sire, Duresses and maybe slaughter games. We bring out thoughtseizes and AotG but the latter depends on their build (heavy burn of aggro/burn).
Hope that gives some food for thought and I would love the feedback.
Also I played the exact same SB and it was very very flexible. I found myself boarding enough cards. Gild is crazy expacially if you follow it up with a rakdos return and it also help you if you have some mana issues against more creature strategies and you can't slam down a dragon for example. I don't know if I would run them mainboard though.
My matches were against Jund, mono black, esper control and boros burn. All went 2-0 except the boros burn which went 2-1 (some times you can't stand against such a race). The MBD used to be a very bad MU before BotG but for some reason now it was pretty easy. I am not sure what has changed or maybe I was too lucky but I didn't feel that much of a pressure. Jund was very easy with all the main board removal and with SB it just was a piece of cake. Esper control was kind of hard G1 but the sideboard makes it also pretty easy with Erebos, slaughter games, duress and pithing needle. Boros Burn is kind of a coin toss, I would say it is about 50-50 G1 and G2 with duress and some good heavy creature draws they are dead. I can go into more details if you want for a specific match.
I don't know if this deck is back to its full power but it definitely is a sound choice. Last time when I got the deck to a PTQ before the Born of the Gods release I wasn't really happy. Got some bad MU and went the unimpressive 4-4. I was playing the deck for a couple of months already and had been winning more local or smaller events but large scale it was pretty hard and narrow w/o flexible MUs. The scry lands make it much much much easier to play (even though I was already running 4 but off color) and bile blight is also a good addition. I think more people need to play this deck and test it out but I am not 100% sure if I would take it again to a PTQ instead of MBD. I will play it for a a month though before I come to a conclusion.
1) Stuff like, I have a BB on my opening hand, do I always want to slam it down T2? It certainly is temping and is my reflects from std. But it just feels awkward to tap out T2. How much value can we get from a T2 BB especially on game 1 where we don't know what we are facing? How much we expect to get in terms of board control with it? Make a list of the direct counters to BB and see how we can handle them based on the MU and stuff like that.
2) http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1191255
3) Well, for once, to keep the playerbase we already have we must stop this mentality of "Faeries are T1 deck and I don't care what you say". Cause people WILL fail with this deck a lot (I fail a lot and everyone inexperienced will fail a lot because it is a VERY hard deck to play). If we make an environment where we simply state that the deck is good w/o background, articles, analyses etc. people will expect to pick up the deck and win but this will simply not happen. So we need to create more fuss, we need to ask people who play the deck on higher levels if they are willing to write some stuff about it etc.
4) Well, just check the latest GP Richmond top 16. The deck is somewhat dominant and that will give an increase to its percentage atleast for the near future
Edit: These are the day 2 percentages of GP richmond
Affinity 13.54%
MeliraPod 10.38%
Storm 5.64%
Jund 5.19%
Merfolk 4.74%
R/W/U Control 4.29%
B/G Obliterator Rock 4.06%
U/R Twin 4.06%
Tarmo-Twin 4.06%
1) I feel like a big part of the problem this deck has is that we were (at least whoever was playing the deck in standard) too used with the mindset "resolved BB is win". In the modern format this is absolutely NOT the case. Maybe that's just my stubborn mind of loving BB, but I feel like many people tend to see BB as win. However there are 3 decks which play mainboard answers (Melira pod, Rock and Jund), blue decks with spell snare which can answer it T1 (that was never the case before, at least not as popular) and an aggro deck that can easily outrace it if it draws well. The hype is slowly toning done around the BB unban but we still have some way to go before we can appreciate BB for what it is in the current format.
2) I don't know if it would of any value but there are a couple of dimir control decks going around, maybe we could learn something from them.
3) UR faeries have been doing well lately. The UR fae version, because I've played a lot with it (with minimal success, like 4-3 on GP, a couple of 4-0s in FNMs but generally never making any major wins for me like top8 PTQ or GPT wins) is much more fragile as a deck than the UB. UB can be more solid and more consistent. However UR is the one with the more consistent appearences in MODOs etc. and I think that's because it took time to grow to the playrs. I have a friend in my store who just didn't want to abandon his UR fae even with BB. He is definitely outperforming me (well he is a better player as well, I am not gonna argue that I am any sort of high skilled player) with UR even though when I was playing UR we were kind of the same. So yeah, I know everybody been saying that but we need to give the deck some time. And by time I don't mean a month but 5-6 months and see where we go. The only thing is that people must not abandon the deck like what has happened with cruel control. Cruel control is my other deck of choice and I think it is one of the best decks for the current meta but literally NO major players play the deck so you won't see results.
4) Melira Pod MU feels very awkward. There are times where I just CRASH them like no problem. But if they get the slightest chance of resolving a voice or a Pod then I am simply dead. And you can't always draw the exact answers. Melira pod is the best combo-ish deck around to the current meta and if we can't stomp it (which we should) we might need to consider a build more focused on such a MU. Generally modern is more creature heavy than what std or extended was back then and maybe we need to adapt. Just for consideration.
These are just some random thought I've been having lately about the deck. I don't know if they are of any value but if anyone finds any point relevant please discuss. Sorry for the long post
TL;DR 1) we need to re-evaluate BB
2) check out dimir control maybe?
3) the deck needs more time and more players, we shouldn't just w8 and see
4) we possibly need to work more towards a better melira pod MU
Well, you can go +1 Mana Leak or +1 Cruel Ultimatum (if you face controls all the time it might secure you more resolves) or +1 Forbidden Alchemy or +1 IoK/thoughtseize
@kyshio
Playing 2 remands and 2 think twice is probably not the best cause you are basically covering the same spot (credits to xJosh for that remark). I would suggest you to remove the 2 remands and go +1 Shadow of doubt (the cards is bananas and none gives enough credit I think) and maybe 1 more damnation or an anger of the gods
2 Snapcaster Mage
Planeswalkers
1 Jace Beleren
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
3 Mana Leak
1 Spell Snare
3 Cryptic Command
2 Remand
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Shadow of Doubt
2 Think Twice
1 Forbidden Alchemy
2 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Damnation
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Electrolyze
2 Terminate
1 Far // Away
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Reflecting Pool
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Dreadship Reef
1 Sunken Ruins
1 River of Tears
2 Lavaclaw Reaches
2 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Steam Vents
2 Blood Crypt
2 Watery Grave
1 Mountain
3 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Counterflux
2 Combust
2 Deathmark
2 Duress
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 Rakdos Charm
2 Spellskite
If you could ask him to comment that would be great. We have been discussing for so long but we didn't yet have any serious comments by higher level players which had success with the deck. Generally I think, if anyone has any friends/people who know which compete in higher levels should ask for some feedback, it would be invaluable to our discussion. 4-0ing a MODO or and FNM is great but day 2 and top 16 or top 32 GP is a different thing
My removal package currently consists of:
I haven't tried Tragic Slip yet and I am really willing to do so. Additionally in my local store there aren't any affinity decks so I am willing to give this package a shot.