It was said in the articles linked in the first page too. I think rg blitz is much more consistent than zoo, and even if we run damantion, it's surely our worst MU cause if they want to win they can just add grat sable, blood moon, thrun, blood moon, volcanic fallout, combust/destructive revelry/cloudthresher... For the record I'm testing 1 urborg tomb of yawgmoth md
Apparently I managed to miss that some how O.o And yes there are a ton of options for people to bring in against us, but expecting 10+ hate cards is irrational, it just means that we (like every other deck in the format) has a number of thing to potentially play around. And if they're running that many they're sacrificing a ton for other matches and I don't think that any serious player would intentionally cripple themselves that much.
Quick post of something I thought faeries players might find a bit important. I decided to play a gold fish game and see just how long it takes to kill somebody from 20 life with just a bitterblossom in play and no other game actions from you or the opponent. Here's the turn by turn sequence of how it plays out and the tl;dr version. Please correct me if there are any mistakes.
Turn 1
Tokens in play: 1
Life lost: 1
Damage done: 0
Turn 2
Tokens in play: 2
Life lost: 2
Damage done: 1
Turn 3
Tokens in play: 3
Life lost: 3
Damage done: 3
Turn 4
Tokens in play: 4
Life lost: 4
Damage done: 6
Turn 5
Tokens in play: 5
Life lost: 5
Damage done: 10
Turn 6
Tokens in play: 6
Life lost: 6
Damage done: 15
Turn 7
Tokens in play: 7
Life lost: 7
Damage done: 21
TL;DR
The kill will take 7 turns, losing you a total of 7 life.
The tokens will deal a total of 21 damage.
It will take 4 turns to have dealt more damage to your opponent than you have lost to bitterblossom.
On the last turn there will be a total of 7 faerie tokens in play, 6 that can attack and 1 with summoning sickness.
Bottom line: If you have at least 8 life left and can stop your opponent from interacting through counters or other means, you can kill them with just a bitterblossom in play.
The most effective way to both stop Blood Moon and be able to cast our spells consistently is playing fetchlands. However, since we don't want to inflict more damage to ourselves, we must choose between one or the other option, and I prefer playing 3 basic lands than 10.
I haven't really though of it that way before thanks a ton for posting that, time to retool my mana base a tad. My current blood moon fear level has gone from a 6 to #yolo
As for scion+sower I don't think that's even realistic. Sower is a 4 mana sorcery for something that dies to a bolt. If you want to protect it with a scion that's SEVEN mana spent on your turn, definitely not something I'm interested in. If you want to steal creatures, use threads of disloyalty against zoo but that's as far as it goes I'd think. And I completely agree with using cages before you adding the first relic, but even though loam decks aren't popular I do believe they are very powerful.
What about spell pierce in the 75 guys? It helps counter war gives window vs fast liliana, pod, blood moon, cranial plating, bitterblossom, also good vs 3cc higher threats (command electrolyze) I'm also thinking about ratchet bomb, cause it can do things explosives doesn't and it has same playability vs aggro. Also adding 1 more hibernation is nice to be in a better place vs mono g devotion bogle and rg, also zoo pod...
I was actually thinking about spell pierce a bit ago and it's place in our list. But then I thought "what does spell pierce do/stop that everything in our deck does not?" and I couldn't come up with anything. Again, since DRS is banned and a t2 liliana on the play isn't so terrifying we can rely on a t2 discard spell or a mana leak. Meanwhile pierce doesn't stop goyf, bob, or snap caster. Can you think of anything in our deck that pierce does a better job of? It's better than leak for stopping a turn 2 spell, but snare does that as well and later in the game leak is more likely to stop something.
Thank you very much for your replies. It seems that Spell Snare will be my replacement for Scion of Oona. I'd like to bring another Sword, but I really don't know what to cut and running a single Snare does not seems so useful. I think I'll make a decision after some other tournaments under my belt.
As for the report, this is what I remember.
Match 1: Vs Affinity (0-2).
Game 1: I mull to 5 after two one-land hands and screwed anyway.
Game 2: I stabilize a little, but 2 Etched Champions and with no counters/SB cards seen, I die quickly.
Game 2: Basically he makes the same opening as before, the difference here is that I put a Blossom T2, chump block T3 and cast Damnation after his Thrun. Then he drew mostly lands and I win with a lot of Faerie Rogues.
Game 3: I don't remember well this game, we had a lot of turning points. I see both of my Deathmark to kills his creatures, in the end 2 Mistbind Cliques seal the deal.
Match 3: Vs Splinter Twin (2-1)
Game 1: I play a Blossom T2, but he wins all our counter wars. So between Bolts, Electrolyze and Snapcaster Mage I die faster than him.
Game 2: Another Blossom T2. I counter his turn 3 Bloon Moon. When he's tapped out, I play Sword of Light and Shadow. Now I'm tapped out and he play another Blood Moon. I see no basics until the end of the game, but Faerie Rogues + Sword eventually win me the game.
Game 3: Once more, Blossom T2. This time I have no counters to his turn 3 Blood Moon, but with the Sword and 2 Mistbind Cliques (and my basic Island) I'm able to lock the game.
Top 4: Vs Zoo (2-0)
Game 1: I mull to six a one lander, but I'm really lucky. Turn 1 Inquisition takes away his Nacatl. Turn 2 Blossom, Turn 3 Smother on Loxodon Smither and then I've countered every other threat.
Game 2: Another very good hand (and a lucky one). Turn 1 EE for his Nacatl, Turn 2 Blossom, Turn 3 I blow up EE. I cannot see my third land. I counter his Scavenging Ooze but my Spellstutter take a Path to Exile. Now I'm at 4 land, with 2 tokens and Blossom on the field. I play Mistbind Clique at his upkeep championing Blossom and chump-block his Smither with a token. I see another Mistbind, trading for his Smither. If I survive this turn is done. He plays Molten Rain, I counter it with another Spellstutter and it's done.
This is about how my games tend to go in tests. Against affinity if you can't stop a champion or find a mutavault to jump in the way things get rough, but with so many ways to handle them I don't worry too much. If they struggle against lingering souls, BB is terrifying. Twin is the same, it's just a race against how much burn they're capable of drawing which is why I wanted the extra sword and batterskull in the main. And as per usual, if you stick a t2 blossom most decks just end up completely folding. I can't suggest what to cut because I don't know your exact list, but if you're running 5 discard spells I'd cut one of them for an extra sword and turn the two scions into snares.
The only comment I really have on the manabases people seem to prefer playing is that they are literally asking to be blown out by Blood Moon. Sleeper's list includes 6 basics, which is a pretty good number.
That can reasonably be said for every mana base in modern. Nobody wants to see a blood moon that isn't two colors with a very heavy bias towards one. That being said only having a pile of duals is a mistake. I'm personally running 5 basics right now (4 island, 1 swamp) and would like another, but can't afford any more to cast things on curve.
Hi guys. First of all I'd like to thank you all for your efforts in this thread.
After playing at my FNM with Faeries (splitted in final), I've realized (as many of you has already said) that Scion of Oona is really not a good card in this deck. I played it as a 2x, and it was always killed bringing no value/advantage at all on my board.
So now I have 2 free slot in the deck. What do you suggest to board in? I have a Sword of Light and Shadow MD, and I've really liked it. I was thinking about Spell Snare. The other option was another Sword + 1 more spell (counter or removal).
Let me know what you think, any suggestion is appreciated.
Congrats on this nice finish! Even though it's an FNM, any form of a tournament run down is worthwhile, so think you can remember enough to give us a quick play by play of the night? I highly recommend running two swords in the deck and really like sofi as the second one as it's a big clock if you're shooting the opponent and only need a few hits to pull in the lead if it gets blown up. But if you think UWR will be all over the place, resolve a war and peace and you'll never lose outside of their 1 of wear/tear because once it's equipped they literally can't remove it without wasting a cryptic. I've had a number of test games where my opponent was at 12-15 life and I was hanging on with a sprite and BB tokens then put sofi on them and announced "all of a sudden a wild 3-turn clock appears! stokpile casts cryptic/tap/draw, it's super effective!"
For graveyard hate I prefer cage to relic because cage hits persist/undying and pod (a tough match) while relic stops things that we can easily counter with a sprite like living end or goryo's vengeance. I'm sticking with this logic unless some loam deck suddenly becomes a top contender in the meta which might not be too surprising. So if that ends up happening ask me again. With DRS being gone I don't really like relic as an option unless a "piss scared of rest in peace" graveyard deck comes out on top. And then I still just might want nihil spellbomb instead.
As for spell snare, I think it's a necessary evil. It's a type of card that you hate when you have it and cry when you don't. It's a way to stop scary 2 drops on the draw and prevent a snapcaster or voice from getting value which is something removal spells can't do. That being said, any more than 2 is VERY questionable. The main logic behind people wanting snares is that with DRS gone more decks will have good 2 drops instead of just skipping that part on the curve all together. But liliana, karn, and birthing pod don't cost 2. And while every deck has some kind of great card at the 2 drop spot they usually aren't overflowing with so many to make it worth risking a pair of dead cards in your hand half of the game. So with that I'm just running 2 and think that's the correct number for any fae list unless the meta changes.
EDIT:
Also incase some people forgot, don't expect to spell snare any pyroclasm's or whip flares any time soon. The decks that used to run those are now using firespout, slagstorm, or anger of the gods to deal with all of the x/3s from zoo. As such volcanic fallout isn't that great as it ONLY hurts us and is dead against a lot of other decks.
Ok I'm just going to admit on the interwebs that I'm a total idiot. For some bizarre reason I was certain that scion of oona was a 3/1 and never noticed that it was actually just a 1 power creature since I don't any in paper. So now I'm 100% convinced that scion absolutely does not belong in the deck or sideboard.
Scion is used not only to buff the power of your tokens and other faeries but used to also protect them. For example someone trys to destroy Bitterblossom you play scion now they need to deal with scion first making them waste another spell.
That is what the rules text of the card says and how shroud interacts with flash, but isn't really an argument for the same reason that saying lightning bolt is good because it can deal 3 damage to a creature and kill it or if you opponent is at 3 life you can kill them. That's just reading what the card does but not explaining why it's a good choice in the current environment. Also I have experienced many times in playing against B/G/value that it is very rare that you get the full blow out with scion "countering" an abrupt decay in a way that would effect the game in any meaningful way. In other words, I know what it does, but what does it do?
@udrew:I played Scion in mono blue and ur fae and although it can add quite some value it often costs too much with too little impact. Granted Bitterblossom might add something to the equation but I wouldn't waste 4 slots.
@stokpile: our lists are quite alike minus the batterskull and switched removal spells. As far as it goes i think its near to optimum
Yeah like I said I'm just trying a MD batterskull because I side it in against almost every deck aside from tron. It isn't the type of sideboard card that is strictly a game 2 or 3 card (aside from twin, but game 1 is very good already) like extra discard or extra counter magic. Faeries is very good at grinding, but doesn't have anything really high impact so that's why I have the sword package and the skull. What's your removal suite and what do you think of doom blade vs go for the throat? Does the spellskite interaction and hitting bob on two come up enough to warrant not hitting wurm coils and assorted robots?
Ok I'm just going to admit on the interwebs that I'm a total idiot. For some bizarre reason I was certain that scion of oona was a 3/1 and never noticed that it was actually just a 1 power creature since I don't any in paper. So now I'm 100% convinced that scion absolutely does not belong in the deck or sideboard.
You didn't even know its stats, at least try it you will see how much raw power adds to the deck
No I think you're misunderstanding me. When I was trying it in my initial list I was running it as a 3/1 body. Since it was a proxy and I was the only person working on a faeries list, nobody caught it since they hadn't played against scion of oona before. After the first few games they knew all of the cards in my deck list and what they may (or may not) have to play around, but just took my word for it that scion was a 3/1 body. Heh, yeah I looked like an ass when I told them. I liked it then because it plus a mutavault was a serious clock on their own, but as JUST a 1/1 and BB tokens being used as chumpers or eating electrolyzes the scion is just so underwhelming in the mid game or without a good board presence. And if I have a bunch of fae tokens flying over I'm already winning so it doesn't really add much to the deck. That and the fact that 3 mana is a lot to counter a removal spell, I just don't like it that much.
Here's my current list if anybody wants to give it a whirl. Still trying one or two new cards (namely a MD batterskull) that I've been fairly happy with. Currently modo broke so I can only test in paper a couple times a week with my play group.
Ok I'm just going to admit on the interwebs that I'm a total idiot. For some bizarre reason I was certain that scion of oona was a 3/1 and never noticed that it was actually just a 1 power creature since I don't any in paper. So now I'm 100% convinced that scion absolutely does not belong in the deck or sideboard.
So I have been trying an even more controlling version of the list with 3 mainboard Blue Sun's Zenith and 3 Think Twice and I've got to say I like how it has been testing. My issue with more standard Scion builds and even most control builds was the issue of running out of cards without the ability to cantrip and filter easily. I originally tried 1 copy of BSZ and found myself wanting to draw it quite often, to the point where 3 copies felt right.
Don't take this as me being rude, but this list seems like it's just a much worse version of UWR control. Blue zenith is far worse than sphinx's revelation, celestial colonnade is a better late game man land than tar pit, and if you want be be full on control lightning bolt is the best removal spell at your disposal. So I'm not entirely sure why you would want to go in this direction.
That being said, I'm still not against playing some type of wrath in the main as a 1 of. I'd like EE more than BSZ or damnation personally since we can't actually remove permanents once they resolve other than cryptic bounce + counter.
Would you really attend a ptq/gp/pt where jund is still a tier 1 with doom blade main deck? Why people is so scared about zoo?
Sure I would. On the play I have 4 discard spells, 2 spell snares, 3 smothers, and 3 mana leaks. On the draw I have all of that minus leaks which means I have 9-12 total answers for their 4 bobs on turn two. Also without DRS the card draw is no longer as "free" as it was before. Besides bob is the only creature, outside of the odd olivia, that doom blade misses from them while a resolved wurmcoil is basically lights out. Granted it shouldn't resolve, but assuming you always have the answer is foolish.
And we're so afraid of zoo because it's our worst match up and, unless the deck is actually unplayable for some reason, it will be very popular and we need a solid plan for it.
I'm currently testing Jace(s) (Jace Beleren and Jace, Architect of Thought). Haven't played enough games to say which one, if any, is a good choice for the deck but my starting point was the thought that I didn't want do lean to heavily on the top of my deck to get me out of things.
Mt first choice for card draw in the deck was jace beleren instead of think twice because it has the ability to do far more than just draw a bonus card like think twice. But playing with beleren in our deck is completely different than how you would play it in another deck. Loosely quoting PVDDR here, "since we are a tribal based deck, our cards are worth less individually, but more together. Because of that each card that we can draw is going to be slightly more valuable than what our opponents will be drawing." Also you have to think about what effect he'll have in a game. You cast it against zoo, draw a card, he gets bolted. That's a two for one right there, gain 3 life and draw a card. But against lightning bolt decks you typically want to plus him first and then minus him all the way down.
Cast jace (1 card for you, 0 cards for opponent)
Plus jace, 5 loyalty (2 cards for you, 1 card for opponent)
Wild nacatl hits jace, 2 loyalty (2 cards for you, 1 card for opponent) 3 life gained
Opponent bolts jace (1 cards for you, 0 cards for opponent) 6 life gained
This is worst case scenario against zoo since you had zero way of interacting with them and protecting jace. and If you're not able to stop a single attack on jace you're dead anyways. If you don't care if he dies, then you're winning anyway. Average situation is that you have jace out and have some defense which means if you plus right away you'll be up at least 2-4 cards while jace eats burn and attack steps. All in all I think he's the best option we have for card draw even as a 3 mana sorcery. But as per usual, wtf do you cut for it? I've tried him before and was happy with it, but i wanted to make room for other things that I felt were a little more important.
As for jace 4 and bident, I don't think they're playable in modern. Modern is a turn 4 format which means you deck has to do one of three things (preferably more) to be considered viable in any tier:
A) Be capable of a consistent goldfish win on turn 4. We cannot do this.
B) Be casting something on turn 4 that is so powerful it either prevents any kind of a win or puts you insanely far ahead. Cryptic and mistbind clique both fit the bill incredibly well here while jace 4 and bident do not. 4 mana sorceries are very hard to protect, there's a reason scapeshift decks run a decent amount of countermagic.
C) Be Incredibly disruptive and win in the mid game. This is sort of the point of faeries.
Engineered Explosives is going to be golden! The majority of creatures in zoo cost of 1 Mana 2 tops. Merfolk mainly around 2 Mana as well. Oh yeah, and it's a great way to dealwith tokens.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the splinter twin tokens all have a CMC of 3 (same as exarch/pestermite? Or is that a different type of copy effect that I'm thinking of.
The point of GftT over Doom Blade has nothing to do with Blade being bad against the meta, it's because GftT can't be redirected to Spellskite while Doom Blade can.
How relevant has that actually been? I'm sure it comes up a non-zero amount, but is it often enough to be scary? I've been using the classic doom blade because a wurmcoil slipping through the cracks has happened enough times that I'd like to have some form of answer to it main deck other than just hope (I sideboard in hope in all game 3's when I'm on the draw). For some reason I've been seeing the 6th titan show up in the damnedest of places from merfolk to UWR control and midrange, to even jund.
So you tried 6 removals? How did it go? I'm toying with this idea quite a bit, so i'd like to hear impression from people who tried it.
I'm sold to Doom Blade completely over gftt, but my removal suite right now is 2 warp 2 smother and 1 blade. What can i say i'm a sucker for potential two-for-one
- L
Actually it was 7 removal heh. I cut my 2 spell snares for slips in addition to my standard 5 removal and it went as you would expect it to, creature matches got way easier (even pod felt alright) while twin and UWR got far worse because I couldn't stop a snap caster from coming down and I wasn't able to stop a late game 6/7 goyf without losing something.
By the way whoever mentioned Rune Snag some time ago: Theoretically it's better than 'leak running 4x, but I've found there are more times where the +2 mana from snag and +3 from leak difference has made a bigger deal than in the late game where the +3 from leak was worse than +4 / +6 from snag.
I personally think that rune snag is completely unplayable in modern just because of the card remand. That card is very popular and if they have it and need to protect a spell with it they'll be leaving open 2 mana anyways and your rune snag does nothing. Mana leak is just much more reliable and I strongly believe that reliability is what the deck needs.
the morbid trigger is pretty dependent on having blossom online. if not, we're pretty much 2 for 1ing ourselves. we want cards that pull their weight even if we're not in the optimal scenario.
Tragic slip isn't as bad as you might think. I've tried it out as a 6th piece of removal and never had to 2 for 1 myself to get it to work from either trading or pairing it with another removal spell to snag two things. But that being said, it's a terrible top deck and does nothing when we're behind. So if you want slips I believe it's best to play them in addition to your preferred base 5 spot removal spells because the more removal yo have the better they get.
Right now the only commonly played black creature (that I can think of) is bob and murderous red cap. or maybe olivia voldaren. Red cap is a 2/2 with no text once it's out and is usually going to combo off when it shows up. And bob only needs to dies asap in the early game. Later on it is perfectly fine to just ignore him while your tar pits do their thing since DRS isn't around to make his draws mostly free. So with that in mind is there anything else aside from bobby that would make us not want doom blades?
If I had to play a GP tomorrow I'd run 3 smother and 2 doom blades with another option in the side.
EDIT:
And we deal with persist creatures the same way every other deck does: we get very annoyed that they exist and try to eat them in combat.
Apparently I managed to miss that some how O.o And yes there are a ton of options for people to bring in against us, but expecting 10+ hate cards is irrational, it just means that we (like every other deck in the format) has a number of thing to potentially play around. And if they're running that many they're sacrificing a ton for other matches and I don't think that any serious player would intentionally cripple themselves that much.
Tokens in play: 1
Life lost: 1
Damage done: 0
Turn 2
Tokens in play: 2
Life lost: 2
Damage done: 1
Turn 3
Tokens in play: 3
Life lost: 3
Damage done: 3
Turn 4
Tokens in play: 4
Life lost: 4
Damage done: 6
Turn 5
Tokens in play: 5
Life lost: 5
Damage done: 10
Turn 6
Tokens in play: 6
Life lost: 6
Damage done: 15
Turn 7
Tokens in play: 7
Life lost: 7
Damage done: 21
TL;DR
The kill will take 7 turns, losing you a total of 7 life.
The tokens will deal a total of 21 damage.
It will take 4 turns to have dealt more damage to your opponent than you have lost to bitterblossom.
On the last turn there will be a total of 7 faerie tokens in play, 6 that can attack and 1 with summoning sickness.
Bottom line: If you have at least 8 life left and can stop your opponent from interacting through counters or other means, you can kill them with just a bitterblossom in play.
I haven't really though of it that way before thanks a ton for posting that, time to retool my mana base a tad. My current blood moon fear level has gone from a 6 to #yolo
As for scion+sower I don't think that's even realistic. Sower is a 4 mana sorcery for something that dies to a bolt. If you want to protect it with a scion that's SEVEN mana spent on your turn, definitely not something I'm interested in. If you want to steal creatures, use threads of disloyalty against zoo but that's as far as it goes I'd think. And I completely agree with using cages before you adding the first relic, but even though loam decks aren't popular I do believe they are very powerful.
I was actually thinking about spell pierce a bit ago and it's place in our list. But then I thought "what does spell pierce do/stop that everything in our deck does not?" and I couldn't come up with anything. Again, since DRS is banned and a t2 liliana on the play isn't so terrifying we can rely on a t2 discard spell or a mana leak. Meanwhile pierce doesn't stop goyf, bob, or snap caster. Can you think of anything in our deck that pierce does a better job of? It's better than leak for stopping a turn 2 spell, but snare does that as well and later in the game leak is more likely to stop something.
This is about how my games tend to go in tests. Against affinity if you can't stop a champion or find a mutavault to jump in the way things get rough, but with so many ways to handle them I don't worry too much. If they struggle against lingering souls, BB is terrifying. Twin is the same, it's just a race against how much burn they're capable of drawing which is why I wanted the extra sword and batterskull in the main. And as per usual, if you stick a t2 blossom most decks just end up completely folding. I can't suggest what to cut because I don't know your exact list, but if you're running 5 discard spells I'd cut one of them for an extra sword and turn the two scions into snares.
That can reasonably be said for every mana base in modern. Nobody wants to see a blood moon that isn't two colors with a very heavy bias towards one. That being said only having a pile of duals is a mistake. I'm personally running 5 basics right now (4 island, 1 swamp) and would like another, but can't afford any more to cast things on curve.
Congrats on this nice finish! Even though it's an FNM, any form of a tournament run down is worthwhile, so think you can remember enough to give us a quick play by play of the night? I highly recommend running two swords in the deck and really like sofi as the second one as it's a big clock if you're shooting the opponent and only need a few hits to pull in the lead if it gets blown up. But if you think UWR will be all over the place, resolve a war and peace and you'll never lose outside of their 1 of wear/tear because once it's equipped they literally can't remove it without wasting a cryptic. I've had a number of test games where my opponent was at 12-15 life and I was hanging on with a sprite and BB tokens then put sofi on them and announced "all of a sudden a wild 3-turn clock appears! stokpile casts cryptic/tap/draw, it's super effective!"
For graveyard hate I prefer cage to relic because cage hits persist/undying and pod (a tough match) while relic stops things that we can easily counter with a sprite like living end or goryo's vengeance. I'm sticking with this logic unless some loam deck suddenly becomes a top contender in the meta which might not be too surprising. So if that ends up happening ask me again. With DRS being gone I don't really like relic as an option unless a "piss scared of rest in peace" graveyard deck comes out on top. And then I still just might want nihil spellbomb instead.
As for spell snare, I think it's a necessary evil. It's a type of card that you hate when you have it and cry when you don't. It's a way to stop scary 2 drops on the draw and prevent a snapcaster or voice from getting value which is something removal spells can't do. That being said, any more than 2 is VERY questionable. The main logic behind people wanting snares is that with DRS gone more decks will have good 2 drops instead of just skipping that part on the curve all together. But liliana, karn, and birthing pod don't cost 2. And while every deck has some kind of great card at the 2 drop spot they usually aren't overflowing with so many to make it worth risking a pair of dead cards in your hand half of the game. So with that I'm just running 2 and think that's the correct number for any fae list unless the meta changes.
EDIT:
Also incase some people forgot, don't expect to spell snare any pyroclasm's or whip flares any time soon. The decks that used to run those are now using firespout, slagstorm, or anger of the gods to deal with all of the x/3s from zoo. As such volcanic fallout isn't that great as it ONLY hurts us and is dead against a lot of other decks.
That is what the rules text of the card says and how shroud interacts with flash, but isn't really an argument for the same reason that saying lightning bolt is good because it can deal 3 damage to a creature and kill it or if you opponent is at 3 life you can kill them. That's just reading what the card does but not explaining why it's a good choice in the current environment. Also I have experienced many times in playing against B/G/value that it is very rare that you get the full blow out with scion "countering" an abrupt decay in a way that would effect the game in any meaningful way. In other words, I know what it does, but what does it do?
Yeah like I said I'm just trying a MD batterskull because I side it in against almost every deck aside from tron. It isn't the type of sideboard card that is strictly a game 2 or 3 card (aside from twin, but game 1 is very good already) like extra discard or extra counter magic. Faeries is very good at grinding, but doesn't have anything really high impact so that's why I have the sword package and the skull. What's your removal suite and what do you think of doom blade vs go for the throat? Does the spellskite interaction and hitting bob on two come up enough to warrant not hitting wurm coils and assorted robots?
No I think you're misunderstanding me. When I was trying it in my initial list I was running it as a 3/1 body. Since it was a proxy and I was the only person working on a faeries list, nobody caught it since they hadn't played against scion of oona before. After the first few games they knew all of the cards in my deck list and what they may (or may not) have to play around, but just took my word for it that scion was a 3/1 body. Heh, yeah I looked like an ass when I told them. I liked it then because it plus a mutavault was a serious clock on their own, but as JUST a 1/1 and BB tokens being used as chumpers or eating electrolyzes the scion is just so underwhelming in the mid game or without a good board presence. And if I have a bunch of fae tokens flying over I'm already winning so it doesn't really add much to the deck. That and the fact that 3 mana is a lot to counter a removal spell, I just don't like it that much.
Here's my current list if anybody wants to give it a whirl. Still trying one or two new cards (namely a MD batterskull) that I've been fairly happy with. Currently modo broke so I can only test in paper a couple times a week with my play group.
4 bitter blossom
4 mistbind clique
4 spellstutter sprite
2 vendilion clique
1 batterskull
1 sword of fire and ice
1 sword of light and shadow
Interaction:
4 cryptic command
3 mana leak
2 spell snare
3 smother
2 doom blade
3 thoughtseize
1 inquisition of kozilek
4 mutavault
3 creeping tar pit
1 pendelhaven
4 darkslick shores
4 secluded glen
3 river of tears
1 sunken ruins
4 island
1 swamp
2 engineered explosives
2 damnation
3 spreading seas
3 deathmark
2 countersquall
2 spellskite
1 thoughtseize
Don't take this as me being rude, but this list seems like it's just a much worse version of UWR control. Blue zenith is far worse than sphinx's revelation, celestial colonnade is a better late game man land than tar pit, and if you want be be full on control lightning bolt is the best removal spell at your disposal. So I'm not entirely sure why you would want to go in this direction.
That being said, I'm still not against playing some type of wrath in the main as a 1 of. I'd like EE more than BSZ or damnation personally since we can't actually remove permanents once they resolve other than cryptic bounce + counter.
Sure I would. On the play I have 4 discard spells, 2 spell snares, 3 smothers, and 3 mana leaks. On the draw I have all of that minus leaks which means I have 9-12 total answers for their 4 bobs on turn two. Also without DRS the card draw is no longer as "free" as it was before. Besides bob is the only creature, outside of the odd olivia, that doom blade misses from them while a resolved wurmcoil is basically lights out. Granted it shouldn't resolve, but assuming you always have the answer is foolish.
And we're so afraid of zoo because it's our worst match up and, unless the deck is actually unplayable for some reason, it will be very popular and we need a solid plan for it.
Mt first choice for card draw in the deck was jace beleren instead of think twice because it has the ability to do far more than just draw a bonus card like think twice. But playing with beleren in our deck is completely different than how you would play it in another deck. Loosely quoting PVDDR here, "since we are a tribal based deck, our cards are worth less individually, but more together. Because of that each card that we can draw is going to be slightly more valuable than what our opponents will be drawing." Also you have to think about what effect he'll have in a game. You cast it against zoo, draw a card, he gets bolted. That's a two for one right there, gain 3 life and draw a card. But against lightning bolt decks you typically want to plus him first and then minus him all the way down.
Cast jace (1 card for you, 0 cards for opponent)
Plus jace, 5 loyalty (2 cards for you, 1 card for opponent)
Wild nacatl hits jace, 2 loyalty (2 cards for you, 1 card for opponent) 3 life gained
Opponent bolts jace (1 cards for you, 0 cards for opponent) 6 life gained
This is worst case scenario against zoo since you had zero way of interacting with them and protecting jace. and If you're not able to stop a single attack on jace you're dead anyways. If you don't care if he dies, then you're winning anyway. Average situation is that you have jace out and have some defense which means if you plus right away you'll be up at least 2-4 cards while jace eats burn and attack steps. All in all I think he's the best option we have for card draw even as a 3 mana sorcery. But as per usual, wtf do you cut for it? I've tried him before and was happy with it, but i wanted to make room for other things that I felt were a little more important.
As for jace 4 and bident, I don't think they're playable in modern. Modern is a turn 4 format which means you deck has to do one of three things (preferably more) to be considered viable in any tier:
A) Be capable of a consistent goldfish win on turn 4. We cannot do this.
B) Be casting something on turn 4 that is so powerful it either prevents any kind of a win or puts you insanely far ahead. Cryptic and mistbind clique both fit the bill incredibly well here while jace 4 and bident do not. 4 mana sorceries are very hard to protect, there's a reason scapeshift decks run a decent amount of countermagic.
C) Be Incredibly disruptive and win in the mid game. This is sort of the point of faeries.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the splinter twin tokens all have a CMC of 3 (same as exarch/pestermite? Or is that a different type of copy effect that I'm thinking of.
How relevant has that actually been? I'm sure it comes up a non-zero amount, but is it often enough to be scary? I've been using the classic doom blade because a wurmcoil slipping through the cracks has happened enough times that I'd like to have some form of answer to it main deck other than just hope (I sideboard in hope in all game 3's when I'm on the draw). For some reason I've been seeing the 6th titan show up in the damnedest of places from merfolk to UWR control and midrange, to even jund.
Actually it was 7 removal heh. I cut my 2 spell snares for slips in addition to my standard 5 removal and it went as you would expect it to, creature matches got way easier (even pod felt alright) while twin and UWR got far worse because I couldn't stop a snap caster from coming down and I wasn't able to stop a late game 6/7 goyf without losing something.
I personally think that rune snag is completely unplayable in modern just because of the card remand. That card is very popular and if they have it and need to protect a spell with it they'll be leaving open 2 mana anyways and your rune snag does nothing. Mana leak is just much more reliable and I strongly believe that reliability is what the deck needs.
Tragic slip isn't as bad as you might think. I've tried it out as a 6th piece of removal and never had to 2 for 1 myself to get it to work from either trading or pairing it with another removal spell to snag two things. But that being said, it's a terrible top deck and does nothing when we're behind. So if you want slips I believe it's best to play them in addition to your preferred base 5 spot removal spells because the more removal yo have the better they get.
Right now the only commonly played black creature (that I can think of) is bob and murderous red cap. or maybe olivia voldaren. Red cap is a 2/2 with no text once it's out and is usually going to combo off when it shows up. And bob only needs to dies asap in the early game. Later on it is perfectly fine to just ignore him while your tar pits do their thing since DRS isn't around to make his draws mostly free. So with that in mind is there anything else aside from bobby that would make us not want doom blades?
If I had to play a GP tomorrow I'd run 3 smother and 2 doom blades with another option in the side.
EDIT:
And we deal with persist creatures the same way every other deck does: we get very annoyed that they exist and try to eat them in combat.