I've been experimenting with Smuggler's Copter as a 2-of in Merfolk, and I love it there.
Merfolk tends to do a bit more tap-out aggro than Faeries does, and it's one of the reasons why I like Quickling so much in the role of the fast beater, because the 2/2 body is a decent clock, and it doesn't make me take down countermagic for the opponent's turn.
That said, I think that Smuggler's Copter fills a similar role as Ninja of the Deep Hours in that it's an aggro piece that is aggressive, and we need to tap out for it on our turn. I don't know how I feel about the Copter in this role. The best thing about Ninja is that it draws us a card the turn that it comes in, and we get to bounce a creature (hopefully a Miscreant or a Spellstutter) back to our hand. Smuggler's Copter doesn't do either of those, but it is a faster clock, and the large flier body means we can reliably crunch in against many board states where the Ninja would be locked out against ground blockers. This feels like the sort of card that would be good in the late game after a board stall, as a way to help gain a bit of card advantage and push through for that final tempo swing.
I'm intrigued. I would consider playing it as a 2-of for starters to see.
Admittedly this list isn't super relevant to the thread, but I am interested in the four copies of Annul in the sideboard. Why no Dispel?
You're right -- it's a deep question that doesn't directly pertain to the Modern format, but I'll do my best to bring it back around and talk about aspects of the deck that are important for Modern as well as Budget Vintage.
It's a very meta-dependent decision. I used to play with Dispel, but that was replaced by Spell Pierce when it got reprinted in Modern Masters (which dropped the price). It's a far better card in most situations. My build is an aggro/tempo build, not a hard-lock/finisher-based build with something like Mistbind Clique. There is no single piece of this deck that we care about protecting, and we just want to outpace them.
As is true for all Faerie decks (whether Vintage or Modern), Faeries tends to "run" on even numbers of mana cost. Most of our countermagic is 2 CMC. Most of our "development" in the deck is 2 CMC (Ninja of the Deep Hours, Favorable Winds). I feel like Faeries decks (across all formats) tends to have an odd "pacing" to it where it first really wants to get to 2 mana, then it really wants to get to 4 mana, etc. Every time I hit an even number of lands with Faeries, I feel like I breathe a sigh of relief with the deck, because that's an extra counterspell I can leave up, or I can now safely deploy a Ninja while keeping up one layer of counter protection.
As such, 1 CMC spells are really valuable for breaking that up, and giving us power and flexibility to use up those odd numbers of mana.
But all of that still applies to Dispel. It's a powerful 1 CMC counter -- why don't I run it?
And that is purely a meta decision. I've found that most of the unfair decks in the format are built around some sort of artifact or enchantment, and it really helps to have a 1 CMC counterspell against them. And again, this is purely a meta-based decision. Animate Dead is a stupid-good card, Oath of Druids is ridiculously difficult to deal with, Shuko is absolutely nuts in Cephalid Breakfast, Fecundity Storm is a thing, Noetic Scales repeatedly bouncing Gary in a hand-destruction deck, and assorted other strong finishers / lockers like Stasis, Demonic Rising, Lost in the Woods, etc. Bringing in Dispel against these decks wouldn't help me, since most of those decks don't run any Instants to speak of. However, last time I did play against a really busted toolbox deck built around Mystical Teachings, and that was a very tough match. I might need to change up my sideboard to add in more Dispel if that deck sticks around.
tldr; I run Spell Pierce over Dispel, and I need Annul to deal with all of the unfair decks. Specifically I needed a way to counter a turn-2 Oath of Druids.
Not sure how relevant this is to the current thread, but even though it's in a different format, I thought I would post about my favorable results with Favorable Winds in this deck.
My local game store has been rocking a new format lately, and I adapted mono-blue faeries list to the format where it has done remarkably well. It's a mix between vintage and pauper, entitled "Cheapo Supremo" where we use the Vintage ban list, but the entire deck may not cost more than $25.
Anyways, I was initially extremely skeptical about Favorable Winds, but after playing a few months with the card, holy cats, that card is a house. I still think Scion of Oona is likely better if one doesn't have budget restrictions, but I must admit that Favorable Winds is completely worth the slot and really takes this deck over the top in terms of making it an aggro/beatdown tempo deck. The two mana vs. 3 mana is extremely relevant, and it being an enchantment makes it much more resilient. Even after a board wipe, having 2 or 3 of the enchantment out on the field means that any top-decked 1-1 still represents a very real threat / clock.
That card by itself really shifts the deck into feeling like a very aggro deck, and it gives the deck the feeling that faeries are really just goblins with wings.
Anyways, I know it doesn't have a ton of relevance to this thread, but still thought people might be interested in seeing how faeries are doing in other formats, and really offer a lot of value for the money.
Yes, there will be times when you won't be able to proc revolt, that's why I think it could be good maybe as 2-off
Keep in mind that Greenbelt Rampager isn't just a 3 mana 3/4. It's 3 mana spread over a flexible number of turns, so you can very easily get him as a 3/4 on turn 2. While Greenwheel Liberator can (in the right circumstances) get E1 to a 4/4, it requires you to already have a 3/3 E1 :and: have Revolt active. Rampager can take a 1/1 E1 up to 4/4 all by himself so long as you have 3 mana open. That's very low overhead, and the sort of consistency that this deck thrives on.
Kessig Prowler is fine, costing 1cmc help us to keep mana available to protect our dudes, it never flipped. Im not sure if I attack with Kessig, I can flip it after the declaration of blockers.
Yes, you can activate his flip ability any time you could cast an instant. So you can do it after blockers, but before damage.
I really like Pulse of Murasa -- it's similar to Feed the Clan but I love how it lets us keep up the pressure while keeping life totals high. How was Kessig Prowler for you? Did it see much play? If it did, I'm assuming you never flipped it?
This deck is getting some attention lately from the recent Budget Magic episode from MTGGoldfish featuring a mono-blue faeries build.
Another series I really like is Corbin Hoster on TCGPlayer. He was showing off a new deck and his final match was against mono-blue faeries -- very interesting list very similar to the lists in this thread. It was an excellent match -- definitely recommend checking that game out, since it's hilarious to watch Corbin encounter this deck for the first time and see his reactions to it.
I'm still very much enjoying running mono-blue ninja/faeries in Modern, and am planning on running it in an upcoming tournament that my LGS is running on Labor Day weekend, where the format is Vintage, but there is a $25 limit on the cost of the deck (according to TCGMid). It's resulted in some hilarious brews being cooked up, and I'm really excited. Affinity, Infect, Burn, Goblins, G/W Hexproof, High Tide / Storm, Slivers, etc -- lots of fun options available, and I'm currently planning on bringing Mono-Blue Ninja/Faeries. Really fun deck, very similar to my build that I play in Modern except I get to add goodies like Cloud of Faeries and Sea Sprite. Not sure what's best to add in the mirror match -- I'm considering Favorable Winds though. Very difficult to sideboard effectively, since the spending limit is already so tight. That said, Favorable Winds is less than a dollar for the playset, and I'm pretty sure I'll have at least one opponent running the same deck as me. Being able to trade up my 2/2's for his 1/1's seems like a really strong game, and I like the idea of adding it in the sideboard. Heck, maybe I should even just maindeck it.
Which decks is Mistblade good against in your opinion?
I've seen it put in some good work vs. Infect as a 1/1, but without a way to make it threatening (I.E., Ronin Warclub) then I agree that it's generally very lackluster. I'm running it for very specific meta reasons for my upcoming $25-deck-limit tournament, and that's primarily to deal with Infect. Without access to Inkmoth Nexus, Infect is very vulnerable to sorcery-speed removal, and they either have to pump / protect their 1/1's on my turn when I swing in with Mistblade, or risk getting tempo'd when I bounce them back to their hand. They either spend their precious pump resources on my turn, or they lose a creature, or they get time walked. No matter which they choose, I win.
After the initial ninjitsu it's basically just a vanilla 1/1. It requires so much back up to work every turn. I cut them completely from the deck. It was a sad day.
This is a tough realization indeed. NotDH being a 2/2 is actually relevant -- it's amazing how much worse it is for it to be a 1/1.
On ninja of the deep hours. I love this card so much. I've been pairing it value creatures for years. It's fantastic and is the glue that holds a ninja deck together. It's also not a great magic card. The turn 2 ninja plan is not great in competitive modern I found. Leaving your ninja exposed for an entire turn is just asking for it to be killed. And most opponents know to kill it on sight. I slow roll my ninjas now. I'm not going to ninjitsu until I have enough mana and cards to at least look like I can defend it. Because of this I have more time to actually draw the ninja so I only play 3. My "competitive" ninja deck only plays 3 ninjas.
Even worse than my opponents killing my NotDH is when they learn that they need to kill my 1/1's. That's the roughest part for me -- being stuck with three faeries in the graveyard and two ninjas in hand -- feels really bad to have to hard cast a ninja on turn 4 because you have nothing else to do.
Enter red. Ninja is not the win condition in the deck. It's a value creature to gain even more value off of spellstuter Sprite and snapcaster mage. Bolt snap bolt is how I win games now. Ninja is just the engine that gets me there. I'm now running UR ninja faeries with the basic faerie shell. 4 miscrent 4 spellstuter 2 vendillion clique 2 mistbind clique. The mistbinds are also on the verge off getting the axe for more interaction. But they made the cut for this weekend based on some last minute testing.
I'm really enjoying the deck so far and I finished 2-1 at modern night with it last week. I should have been 3-0 but I misplayed against UW control and lost a counter war when I knew he had an extra dispel in hand.
This makes a lot of sense. I originally came to NotDH + Spellstutter because I wanted to be able to recycle spells without having to shell out for Snapcaster Mage. I love the idea of pairing Ninja with Snapcaster -- that's an awesome idea.
Regarding your list, only a couple of thoughts:
I like the green splash for Ancient Grudge. Any room for Jeskia for Path to Exile? Maybe too edge-case.
Against Tron, one thing you might consider is Spreading Seas -- that's a card I've been planning to experiment with, but haven't gotten it in a game against them yet.
Also, Mistbind Clique is really stellar against Tron -- I would definitely board in the full playset against them, provided we can tempo them off of Tron until turn 4 (Boomerang helps with that, since it can bounce their land drop for a turn).
Anyways, I love your list -- reminds me of a blue/red delver list, but uses ninja and faeries as value creatures instead of trying to rely too hard on flipping an early delver.
Sorry to hear about the rough showing at SCG NJ -- it would be one thing if it felt like a fair showing for the deck, but it's disappointing when it feels like the deck didn't have a decent representation for itself.
I am taking UR ninja to deck SCG NJ this weekend and have been playing various ninja decks for a long time. If anyone is interested I will do a write up before the weekend on my experience with the deck. This thread is pretty dead so I dont want to waste my time.
I'm still subscribed, and would be very interested! I'm still actively experimenting with this deck, and I would love to hear your experiences with the Izzet version! I think the UB and UW lists are interesting, but they haven't ever appealed to me enough to want to build one beyond mono-blue. Blue / red intrigues me though, and it never really occurred to me to do tempo/control with anything other than Delver in that shell. Color me intrigued -- I would love to hear how the tournament goes for you!
As for my own experimentation with Ninjas, I was just testing with a new Ninja yesterday. My LGS is running an interesting tournament format on Labor Day weekend -- it's fairly wide open with a Vintage banlist, but the main restriction is that the price tag of the deck can't be more than $25 (according to TCGMid). So far in testing: decks like Affinity (Cranial Plating is banned in pauper but legal here), Infect (Invigorate being legal has given me 14 infect on turn 2) and High Tide are all super cheap and effective -- but I think the best answer in the format might be ninjas. Mistblade Shinobi is :incredibly: good against infect (because they can't afford Inkmoth Nexus, and protecting their creatures requires them to burn an Apostle's Blessing or Vines of Vastwood on my turn rather than theirs), Ninja of the Deep Hours keeps up card advantage, and the classic combo of Spellstutter Sprite + Familiar's Ruse does such a great job of locking down against combo in the later turns. Normally I've been a proponent for builds heavier on "faerie" rather than "ninja", but this deck will be the first time I'm running a full complement of 8 ninjas (4 Mistblade + 4 Deep Hours). Both Sea Sprite and Cloud of Faeries will be great additions to the version of the deck that I play in Modern. I'll post my full list after the tournament.
I don't yet know how it will fare against burn / goblins (I'm counting on you, Sea Sprite!), but I still love this shell of a deck, and love tinkering with it to find new angles with it.
All that to say, I would love hearing your experiences with an Izzet version!
A new LGS opened up this month and they've been doing a weekly Wednesday modern event. I wasn't sure what to play for my first time there, so rather than take any of my tier 1 or tier 2 decks, I decided to bust out my experimental Faerie Ninja deck and see how it fared in the metagame.
I was scrambling to get my sideboard assembled (since this shares a few cards with my Merfolk deck), and in hindsight I should have played fewer Echoing Truth and more Vapor Snag. Bah. Ah well. I'll fix it next time.
I was also experimenting with my Mutavault / Faerie Conclave split here. With all of the heavy blue that this deck runs, having three colorless sources crimped me on colors more than once. It wasn't too bad, but I definitely wouldn't go above three colorless sources -- especially running only 20 lands like this.
Normally I think a deck like this would want around 22 lands, but running 3 Gitaxian Probe lets me feel a bit more confident in keeping land-light hands. I also run Cloud Sprite as a 9th 1-drop creature, which helps smooth my curve out a bit more as well.
Plus, the look on people's faces when I drop a Cloud Sprite on turn 1 is pretty priceless -- they can't believe they're playing someone as amateur-hour as me. This deck definitely caught more than one opponent off guard, though I will note that this time at least some people were vaguely familiar with the build thanks to Saffron Olive's recent feature on a similar mono-blue faerie deck. I think Saffron's build really could have benefited from NotDH, and would have loved for it to get more time in the spotlight.
Match 1: Norin's Sisters
Speaking of obscure decks, I'm not sure how many people are familiar with Soul Sisters, but there is a crazy variant of that deck running around now that not only plays the standard 8 Soul Warden + Soul's Attendant, but it also splashes red for Norin the Wary and Impact Tremors, and adds a whole 'nother level of craziness with Genesis Chamber. It gets seriously insane. Norin cycling in and out every turn to trigger the Soul Sisters and create more Myr tokens and just pinging you to death with Genesis Chamber... ugh. It's unreal.
Anyways, our games took absolutely forever. I was playing a control deck whose plan is to stall the opponent long enough to peck them to death with 1/1 fliers. And we has playing a dedicated lifegain deck whose goal was to survive by gaining 2 or 3 life per turn and grind out the opponent.
Game 1 I was able to get some early card advantage and keep up the pressure. He was able to resolve two sisters, but I was able to keep his life total hovering between 10 and 20 by continually pecking in with my fliers. I had decent card advantage from my Ninja and Miscreants, but I didn't have enough counterspells to get sloppy. Eventually I was able to keep enough card advantage and enough counterspells to keep his critical threats off the board and was able to grind out a win, but it took forever.
Game 2 was similarly grindy, though he got a much faster start. He got down a Norin the Wary on turn 1, and it was incredibly tough to deal with as my deck doesn't have any answers to it. He kept on trying to resolve an Impact Tremors, but I was able to either remand them, counter them, or use [card]Echoing Truth[/url] to send them back to his hand to keep them from doing too much damage.
Late in the game I had him down to 7 life while I was at 5. I had a slight edge on the upper hand, and he only had a Norin on the battlefield. Foolishly I let him resolve a copy of Worship, because I thought if I could keep his creature count low enough, it wouldn't matter so long as he only had a Norin on the field. However, I didn't have enough colored mana to leave open the proper counterspells and he was able to resolve a Genesis Chamber to start churning out Myr tokens. Sadly I didn't have any more Echoing Truth, and even though I could have gotten him down to 0 life, I couldn't deal with the Worship. By this point we were on turns, so I left my guys back as blockers and survived through turn 5. He would have ground me out in the long run, so I was due to lose the game, but I was able win the match overall 1-0-1.
Match 2: Quest for the Holy Argentum Armor
If you played Standard several years ago, you might remember a deck based around the cards Quest for the Holy Relic and Argentum Armor. Its goal is to stick a Quest for the Holy Relic on turn 1, then play free creatures like Ornithopter and Memnite and recycle them with Glint Hawk in order to fire off a Quest as early as turn 2. Generally tutor up a copy of Argentum Armor and go to town blowing up their lands.
Game 1, I played T1 Miscreant into T2 Ninja to get card advantage. He managed to land a T1 Quest and get it to fire off on T2 in order to blow up my second land and hit me for 7 damage or so. I took the hit, then calmly Vapor Snag'd his ornithopter back to his hand on my next turn. Even so, being land cramped really hurt me, and I wasn't able to come back from that.
Game 2, he wasn't able to get his combo entirely rolling, and I controlled the game state long enough to tap down his team with Cryptic Command and swing for lethal on the last turn.
Game 3, he combo'd me off again, and there wasn't much I could do.
So far, I'm 1-1 in matches.
Match 3, Melira CoCo
This was a really spicy build of Melira Combo that splashed white for Anafenza the Foremost and Path to Exile type stuff. Anafenza the Foremost is really strong in this deck, since it's a large beater that can be snagged off of Collected Company and its exile effect also nicely turns off the opponent's ability to combo off in the mirror.
Game 1 I was able to bounce his Birds of Paradise on turns 1 and 2 and slow down his mana a bit, but I wasn't advancing my own board state in the meantime, and by the time we advanced to turns 3 he was able to resolve a Collected Company and steamroll me from there. I had a crucial misplay at the end where I could have countered one of his combo pieces but didn't, and as a result I lost the game. I think I was still going to lose, but it would have perhaps given me another turn.
Game 2 I took out all of my copies of Mistbind Clique since they can just CoCo in response to it and combo off as if I'm not even there. I brought in Engulf the Shore instead but never saw it to cast it. His deck was just very fast with the mana acceleration and my deck isn't set up to cope with that -- he rolled face over yet again.
Match 4: RG Tron
This was a player who I played briefly before the tournament started. This is a really excellent matchup for our deck since we run so many counterspells and them goldfishing for the first 2 or 3 turns really lets us get our card advantage engine online. His goal was to play Simian Spirit Guide and Through the Breach to get out an early Emrakul, which he very nearly did -- except that I was always prepared with the appropriate counterspell on hand when the time came.
It was a beating, not gonna' lie. I did a good job of countering his Ancient Stirrings in game 1 and game 2, and he wasn't able to find tron in either game. The Ninjas were hitting strong and drawing so many cards, it was unreal. I had counterspells for days, and by the end of game 2 I was even countering stupid things like Chromatic Star just because I didn't want him to cycle cards and possibly draw into Tron. I felt bad for the guy.
Overall I went 2-2 in my matches, which was better than I expected to do with the deck. In the end, I would play fewer copies of Echoing Truth in the maindeck -- maybe 1 or 2 is a good number. Boomerang and Glen Elendra Archmage may be coming out of the sideboard, since I don't think Glen Elendra is fast enough. I'm having a hard time imagining the sort of matchup where I would want to bring in that card. And as much as I hate to admit it, Peel from Reality was underwhelming and I would almost always want Vapor Snag or Unsummon in its place. Familiar's Ruse is still the all-star of the deck, and I'm always glad to see it. I still think there's room to put Mistblade Shinobi into this deck, and I think I'll start experimenting with it.
Having a nice variety of counterspells is really valuable. Soft counters like Mana Leak, hard counters like Familiar's Ruse, tempo counters like Remand and conditional counters like Spellstutter Sprite are all great to have access to, and this was a very enjoyable build to play. I might consider running Ancestral Vision as a 1-of or 2-of in this deck, but I don't know how much we want it, since we already have so many good engines for card advantage.
If you want to deal damage with two different Ninjas by using ninjitsu in between the first and second combat damage steps, you don't need double strike for that -- you would only need first strike. Hanweir Lancer would suffice for this. The relaxed mana requirements make it slightly easier to use than Silverblade Paladin -- it's a nice card, but that double-white is tough to hit on a splash.
If we're looking at Soulbond cards, I think Wingcrafter might be more useful since it launches our team of ninjas into the air for only 1 mana -- very cheap "fodder" creature to get onto the battlefield and use for ninjitsu. Even so, I don't like the conditional-ness of the flying, and I see something like Faerie Miscreant as being more consistent.
Oh and FWIW, I love 1-drops in this sort of deck, and I think Faerie Miscreant is a necessity. I also run Zephyr Sprite as a 4-of.
I don't run it, but I've seen Pestermite put in some work as a way to lock down larger creatures from your opponent -- it fits really well into the aggro / tempo archetype since you can play it to set them back from attacking for a turn and add another 2-power flier to the board.
Merfolk tends to do a bit more tap-out aggro than Faeries does, and it's one of the reasons why I like Quickling so much in the role of the fast beater, because the 2/2 body is a decent clock, and it doesn't make me take down countermagic for the opponent's turn.
That said, I think that Smuggler's Copter fills a similar role as Ninja of the Deep Hours in that it's an aggro piece that is aggressive, and we need to tap out for it on our turn. I don't know how I feel about the Copter in this role. The best thing about Ninja is that it draws us a card the turn that it comes in, and we get to bounce a creature (hopefully a Miscreant or a Spellstutter) back to our hand. Smuggler's Copter doesn't do either of those, but it is a faster clock, and the large flier body means we can reliably crunch in against many board states where the Ninja would be locked out against ground blockers. This feels like the sort of card that would be good in the late game after a board stall, as a way to help gain a bit of card advantage and push through for that final tempo swing.
I'm intrigued. I would consider playing it as a 2-of for starters to see.
You're right -- it's a deep question that doesn't directly pertain to the Modern format, but I'll do my best to bring it back around and talk about aspects of the deck that are important for Modern as well as Budget Vintage.
It's a very meta-dependent decision. I used to play with Dispel, but that was replaced by Spell Pierce when it got reprinted in Modern Masters (which dropped the price). It's a far better card in most situations. My build is an aggro/tempo build, not a hard-lock/finisher-based build with something like Mistbind Clique. There is no single piece of this deck that we care about protecting, and we just want to outpace them.
As is true for all Faerie decks (whether Vintage or Modern), Faeries tends to "run" on even numbers of mana cost. Most of our countermagic is 2 CMC. Most of our "development" in the deck is 2 CMC (Ninja of the Deep Hours, Favorable Winds). I feel like Faeries decks (across all formats) tends to have an odd "pacing" to it where it first really wants to get to 2 mana, then it really wants to get to 4 mana, etc. Every time I hit an even number of lands with Faeries, I feel like I breathe a sigh of relief with the deck, because that's an extra counterspell I can leave up, or I can now safely deploy a Ninja while keeping up one layer of counter protection.
As such, 1 CMC spells are really valuable for breaking that up, and giving us power and flexibility to use up those odd numbers of mana.
But all of that still applies to Dispel. It's a powerful 1 CMC counter -- why don't I run it?
And that is purely a meta decision. I've found that most of the unfair decks in the format are built around some sort of artifact or enchantment, and it really helps to have a 1 CMC counterspell against them. And again, this is purely a meta-based decision. Animate Dead is a stupid-good card, Oath of Druids is ridiculously difficult to deal with, Shuko is absolutely nuts in Cephalid Breakfast, Fecundity Storm is a thing, Noetic Scales repeatedly bouncing Gary in a hand-destruction deck, and assorted other strong finishers / lockers like Stasis, Demonic Rising, Lost in the Woods, etc. Bringing in Dispel against these decks wouldn't help me, since most of those decks don't run any Instants to speak of. However, last time I did play against a really busted toolbox deck built around Mystical Teachings, and that was a very tough match. I might need to change up my sideboard to add in more Dispel if that deck sticks around.
tldr; I run Spell Pierce over Dispel, and I need Annul to deal with all of the unfair decks. Specifically I needed a way to counter a turn-2 Oath of Druids.
My local game store has been rocking a new format lately, and I adapted mono-blue faeries list to the format where it has done remarkably well. It's a mix between vintage and pauper, entitled "Cheapo Supremo" where we use the Vintage ban list, but the entire deck may not cost more than $25.
Anyways, I was initially extremely skeptical about Favorable Winds, but after playing a few months with the card, holy cats, that card is a house. I still think Scion of Oona is likely better if one doesn't have budget restrictions, but I must admit that Favorable Winds is completely worth the slot and really takes this deck over the top in terms of making it an aggro/beatdown tempo deck. The two mana vs. 3 mana is extremely relevant, and it being an enchantment makes it much more resilient. Even after a board wipe, having 2 or 3 of the enchantment out on the field means that any top-decked 1-1 still represents a very real threat / clock.
That card by itself really shifts the deck into feeling like a very aggro deck, and it gives the deck the feeling that faeries are really just goblins with wings.
$25 Vintage Mono-Blue Faeries
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
2 Quickling
4 Faerie Miscreant
4 Zephyr Sprite
4 Cloud of Faeries
Utility
4 Favorable Winds
2 Curfew
2 Echoing Truth
3 Familiar's Ruse
4 Counterspell
2 Spell Pierce
Lands
1 Faerie Conclave
20 Island
3 Faerie Macabre
4 Annul
2 Echoing Truth
3 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Chill
Anyways, I know it doesn't have a ton of relevance to this thread, but still thought people might be interested in seeing how faeries are doing in other formats, and really offer a lot of value for the money.
Rabid Elephant
"When in doubt, stomp."
Rallying cry of the deck, right there.
Keep in mind that Greenbelt Rampager isn't just a 3 mana 3/4. It's 3 mana spread over a flexible number of turns, so you can very easily get him as a 3/4 on turn 2. While Greenwheel Liberator can (in the right circumstances) get E1 to a 4/4, it requires you to already have a 3/3 E1 :and: have Revolt active. Rampager can take a 1/1 E1 up to 4/4 all by himself so long as you have 3 mana open. That's very low overhead, and the sort of consistency that this deck thrives on.
Yes, you can activate his flip ability any time you could cast an instant. So you can do it after blockers, but before damage.
I really like Pulse of Murasa -- it's similar to Feed the Clan but I love how it lets us keep up the pressure while keeping life totals high. How was Kessig Prowler for you? Did it see much play? If it did, I'm assuming you never flipped it?
Very nice showing -- loved the videos, as always.
And once again, Corbin Hostler faces off against mono-blue faeries in his recorded games -- this time while piloting his dredge / Valakut mashup deck (which is very cool, btw)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhK5QyKLEkk&list=PLxg8UAfS2YJanKHil5RQnUdTB3ZiZ-BFn&index=5
I'm still very much enjoying running mono-blue ninja/faeries in Modern, and am planning on running it in an upcoming tournament that my LGS is running on Labor Day weekend, where the format is Vintage, but there is a $25 limit on the cost of the deck (according to TCGMid). It's resulted in some hilarious brews being cooked up, and I'm really excited. Affinity, Infect, Burn, Goblins, G/W Hexproof, High Tide / Storm, Slivers, etc -- lots of fun options available, and I'm currently planning on bringing Mono-Blue Ninja/Faeries. Really fun deck, very similar to my build that I play in Modern except I get to add goodies like Cloud of Faeries and Sea Sprite. Not sure what's best to add in the mirror match -- I'm considering Favorable Winds though. Very difficult to sideboard effectively, since the spending limit is already so tight. That said, Favorable Winds is less than a dollar for the playset, and I'm pretty sure I'll have at least one opponent running the same deck as me. Being able to trade up my 2/2's for his 1/1's seems like a really strong game, and I like the idea of adding it in the sideboard. Heck, maybe I should even just maindeck it.
I've seen it put in some good work vs. Infect as a 1/1, but without a way to make it threatening (I.E., Ronin Warclub) then I agree that it's generally very lackluster. I'm running it for very specific meta reasons for my upcoming $25-deck-limit tournament, and that's primarily to deal with Infect. Without access to Inkmoth Nexus, Infect is very vulnerable to sorcery-speed removal, and they either have to pump / protect their 1/1's on my turn when I swing in with Mistblade, or risk getting tempo'd when I bounce them back to their hand. They either spend their precious pump resources on my turn, or they lose a creature, or they get time walked. No matter which they choose, I win.
This is a tough realization indeed. NotDH being a 2/2 is actually relevant -- it's amazing how much worse it is for it to be a 1/1.
That said, I think that Ronin Warclub + Mistblade Shinobi has a place, but it's tough to take 3 mana for the warclub. I'm still intrigued by that plan though -- at that point, they're like a disposable 1-mana Unsummon that you use to recycle your Spellstutter Sprites and Faerie Miscreants.
Even worse than my opponents killing my NotDH is when they learn that they need to kill my 1/1's. That's the roughest part for me -- being stuck with three faeries in the graveyard and two ninjas in hand -- feels really bad to have to hard cast a ninja on turn 4 because you have nothing else to do.
This makes a lot of sense. I originally came to NotDH + Spellstutter because I wanted to be able to recycle spells without having to shell out for Snapcaster Mage. I love the idea of pairing Ninja with Snapcaster -- that's an awesome idea.
Regarding your list, only a couple of thoughts:
I like the green splash for Ancient Grudge. Any room for Jeskia for Path to Exile? Maybe too edge-case.
Against Tron, one thing you might consider is Spreading Seas -- that's a card I've been planning to experiment with, but haven't gotten it in a game against them yet.
Also, Mistbind Clique is really stellar against Tron -- I would definitely board in the full playset against them, provided we can tempo them off of Tron until turn 4 (Boomerang helps with that, since it can bounce their land drop for a turn).
Anyways, I love your list -- reminds me of a blue/red delver list, but uses ninja and faeries as value creatures instead of trying to rely too hard on flipping an early delver.
Sorry to hear about the rough showing at SCG NJ -- it would be one thing if it felt like a fair showing for the deck, but it's disappointing when it feels like the deck didn't have a decent representation for itself.
I'm still subscribed, and would be very interested!
As for my own experimentation with Ninjas, I was just testing with a new Ninja yesterday. My LGS is running an interesting tournament format on Labor Day weekend -- it's fairly wide open with a Vintage banlist, but the main restriction is that the price tag of the deck can't be more than $25 (according to TCGMid). So far in testing: decks like Affinity (Cranial Plating is banned in pauper but legal here), Infect (Invigorate being legal has given me 14 infect on turn 2) and High Tide are all super cheap and effective -- but I think the best answer in the format might be ninjas. Mistblade Shinobi is :incredibly: good against infect (because they can't afford Inkmoth Nexus, and protecting their creatures requires them to burn an Apostle's Blessing or Vines of Vastwood on my turn rather than theirs), Ninja of the Deep Hours keeps up card advantage, and the classic combo of Spellstutter Sprite + Familiar's Ruse does such a great job of locking down against combo in the later turns. Normally I've been a proponent for builds heavier on "faerie" rather than "ninja", but this deck will be the first time I'm running a full complement of 8 ninjas (4 Mistblade + 4 Deep Hours). Both Sea Sprite and Cloud of Faeries will be great additions to the version of the deck that I play in Modern. I'll post my full list after the tournament.
I don't yet know how it will fare against burn / goblins (I'm counting on you, Sea Sprite!), but I still love this shell of a deck, and love tinkering with it to find new angles with it.
All that to say, I would love hearing your experiences with an Izzet version!
4 Faerie Miscreant
4 Zephyr Sprite
1 Cloud Sprite
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Quickling
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
3 Mistbind Clique
Spells:
3 Gitaxian Probe
1 Vapor Snag
1 Peel from Reality
4 Familiar's Ruse
3 Echoing Truth
1 Boomerang
1 Mana Leak
2 Remand
1 Cryptic Command
2 Faerie Conclave
2 Mutavault
1 Ghost Quarter
15 Island
3 Engulf the Shore
2 Scion of Oona
1 Quickling
1 Echoing Truth
2 Boomerang
2 Spell Pierce
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Peel from Reality
1 Negate
1 Sower of Temptation
I was scrambling to get my sideboard assembled (since this shares a few cards with my Merfolk deck), and in hindsight I should have played fewer Echoing Truth and more Vapor Snag. Bah. Ah well. I'll fix it next time.
I was also experimenting with my Mutavault / Faerie Conclave split here. With all of the heavy blue that this deck runs, having three colorless sources crimped me on colors more than once. It wasn't too bad, but I definitely wouldn't go above three colorless sources -- especially running only 20 lands like this.
Normally I think a deck like this would want around 22 lands, but running 3 Gitaxian Probe lets me feel a bit more confident in keeping land-light hands. I also run Cloud Sprite as a 9th 1-drop creature, which helps smooth my curve out a bit more as well.
Plus, the look on people's faces when I drop a Cloud Sprite on turn 1 is pretty priceless -- they can't believe they're playing someone as amateur-hour as me.
Match 1: Norin's Sisters
Speaking of obscure decks, I'm not sure how many people are familiar with Soul Sisters, but there is a crazy variant of that deck running around now that not only plays the standard 8 Soul Warden + Soul's Attendant, but it also splashes red for Norin the Wary and Impact Tremors, and adds a whole 'nother level of craziness with Genesis Chamber. It gets seriously insane. Norin cycling in and out every turn to trigger the Soul Sisters and create more Myr tokens and just pinging you to death with Genesis Chamber... ugh. It's unreal.
Anyways, our games took absolutely forever. I was playing a control deck whose plan is to stall the opponent long enough to peck them to death with 1/1 fliers. And we has playing a dedicated lifegain deck whose goal was to survive by gaining 2 or 3 life per turn and grind out the opponent.
Game 1 I was able to get some early card advantage and keep up the pressure. He was able to resolve two sisters, but I was able to keep his life total hovering between 10 and 20 by continually pecking in with my fliers. I had decent card advantage from my Ninja and Miscreants, but I didn't have enough counterspells to get sloppy. Eventually I was able to keep enough card advantage and enough counterspells to keep his critical threats off the board and was able to grind out a win, but it took forever.
Game 2 was similarly grindy, though he got a much faster start. He got down a Norin the Wary on turn 1, and it was incredibly tough to deal with as my deck doesn't have any answers to it. He kept on trying to resolve an Impact Tremors, but I was able to either remand them, counter them, or use [card]Echoing Truth[/url] to send them back to his hand to keep them from doing too much damage.
Late in the game I had him down to 7 life while I was at 5. I had a slight edge on the upper hand, and he only had a Norin on the battlefield. Foolishly I let him resolve a copy of Worship, because I thought if I could keep his creature count low enough, it wouldn't matter so long as he only had a Norin on the field. However, I didn't have enough colored mana to leave open the proper counterspells and he was able to resolve a Genesis Chamber to start churning out Myr tokens. Sadly I didn't have any more Echoing Truth, and even though I could have gotten him down to 0 life, I couldn't deal with the Worship. By this point we were on turns, so I left my guys back as blockers and survived through turn 5. He would have ground me out in the long run, so I was due to lose the game, but I was able win the match overall 1-0-1.
Match 2: Quest for the Holy Argentum Armor
If you played Standard several years ago, you might remember a deck based around the cards Quest for the Holy Relic and Argentum Armor. Its goal is to stick a Quest for the Holy Relic on turn 1, then play free creatures like Ornithopter and Memnite and recycle them with Glint Hawk in order to fire off a Quest as early as turn 2. Generally tutor up a copy of Argentum Armor and go to town blowing up their lands.
Game 1, I played T1 Miscreant into T2 Ninja to get card advantage. He managed to land a T1 Quest and get it to fire off on T2 in order to blow up my second land and hit me for 7 damage or so. I took the hit, then calmly Vapor Snag'd his ornithopter back to his hand on my next turn. Even so, being land cramped really hurt me, and I wasn't able to come back from that.
Game 2, he wasn't able to get his combo entirely rolling, and I controlled the game state long enough to tap down his team with Cryptic Command and swing for lethal on the last turn.
Game 3, he combo'd me off again, and there wasn't much I could do.
So far, I'm 1-1 in matches.
Match 3, Melira CoCo
This was a really spicy build of Melira Combo that splashed white for Anafenza the Foremost and Path to Exile type stuff. Anafenza the Foremost is really strong in this deck, since it's a large beater that can be snagged off of Collected Company and its exile effect also nicely turns off the opponent's ability to combo off in the mirror.
Game 1 I was able to bounce his Birds of Paradise on turns 1 and 2 and slow down his mana a bit, but I wasn't advancing my own board state in the meantime, and by the time we advanced to turns 3 he was able to resolve a Collected Company and steamroll me from there. I had a crucial misplay at the end where I could have countered one of his combo pieces but didn't, and as a result I lost the game. I think I was still going to lose, but it would have perhaps given me another turn.
Game 2 I took out all of my copies of Mistbind Clique since they can just CoCo in response to it and combo off as if I'm not even there. I brought in Engulf the Shore instead but never saw it to cast it. His deck was just very fast with the mana acceleration and my deck isn't set up to cope with that -- he rolled face over yet again.
Match 4: RG Tron
This was a player who I played briefly before the tournament started. This is a really excellent matchup for our deck since we run so many counterspells and them goldfishing for the first 2 or 3 turns really lets us get our card advantage engine online. His goal was to play Simian Spirit Guide and Through the Breach to get out an early Emrakul, which he very nearly did -- except that I was always prepared with the appropriate counterspell on hand when the time came.
It was a beating, not gonna' lie. I did a good job of countering his Ancient Stirrings in game 1 and game 2, and he wasn't able to find tron in either game. The Ninjas were hitting strong and drawing so many cards, it was unreal. I had counterspells for days, and by the end of game 2 I was even countering stupid things like Chromatic Star just because I didn't want him to cycle cards and possibly draw into Tron. I felt bad for the guy.
Overall I went 2-2 in my matches, which was better than I expected to do with the deck. In the end, I would play fewer copies of Echoing Truth in the maindeck -- maybe 1 or 2 is a good number. Boomerang and Glen Elendra Archmage may be coming out of the sideboard, since I don't think Glen Elendra is fast enough. I'm having a hard time imagining the sort of matchup where I would want to bring in that card. And as much as I hate to admit it, Peel from Reality was underwhelming and I would almost always want Vapor Snag or Unsummon in its place. Familiar's Ruse is still the all-star of the deck, and I'm always glad to see it. I still think there's room to put Mistblade Shinobi into this deck, and I think I'll start experimenting with it.
Having a nice variety of counterspells is really valuable. Soft counters like Mana Leak, hard counters like Familiar's Ruse, tempo counters like Remand and conditional counters like Spellstutter Sprite are all great to have access to, and this was a very enjoyable build to play. I might consider running Ancestral Vision as a 1-of or 2-of in this deck, but I don't know how much we want it, since we already have so many good engines for card advantage.
If we're looking at Soulbond cards, I think Wingcrafter might be more useful since it launches our team of ninjas into the air for only 1 mana -- very cheap "fodder" creature to get onto the battlefield and use for ninjitsu. Even so, I don't like the conditional-ness of the flying, and I see something like Faerie Miscreant as being more consistent.
I don't run it, but I've seen Pestermite put in some work as a way to lock down larger creatures from your opponent -- it fits really well into the aggro / tempo archetype since you can play it to set them back from attacking for a turn and add another 2-power flier to the board.