Quote from Sheepz »Modern isn't great for this either, but I still think it is better than legacy here.
Except it really isn't, and Standard isn't healthy either.
6 Eldrazi, 2 Affinity isn't ok. 3 Rally, 3 Abzan Blue, 1 Jeskai Black, 1 Rakdos Dragons isn't ok either.
That, of course, unless you're a grinder who wants to play the same match every round in semi-auto mode.
Delver, Shardless and Miracles have won the last 3 big Legacy events. Yes, but what were the second places? Eldrazi, Infect and Burn. And the event before these was won by Lands. Unlike Modern and Standard, Legacy allows decks outside of Tier 1 to title bout and if the match-up is weak (Shardless vs Burn, Miracles vs Eldrazi, Delver vs Infect) or the rogue player is better, the rogue wins.
Modern and Standard don't allow innovation. I started playing Modern as soon as it was created and Burn, my Legacy pet deck at the time was ***** so I played Infect. What happened? Blazing Shoal Banned. I move to Punishing Jund, Banned. I stay Jund without the combo and yes, Bloodbraid Elf and later Deathrite Shaman banned. At this time I wasn't so pissed because Shardless BUG was a very nice thing so I just dropped the non-Burn red cards and bought into 8Rack then Eidolon of the Great Revel and Monastery Swiftspear made Burn viable. What happens next? They ban Cruise and Pod taking away almost all of 8Rack's good matches and shoving Tron my way, then print a *****load of lifegain and a combo enabler for infinite life, followed by taking away 8Rack's last good match and filling the format with Eldrazi.
I had already evolved from Standard WB Eldrazi Processors into Modern Bx Eldrazi by November, but as soon as I saw Thought-Knot Seer I prepared to sell my lands. Now I have Dredge, my 4th Legacy deck and are mother******* exhausted of being constantly punished for noticing the format's weaknesses and trying to win.
**** that *****.
As for standard, well I shuffled Gary so much it ended up white bordered. And why wouldn't I, the few cards that are actually competitive in T2 are so stupidly above everything else there's no real contest. I don't remember losing a single match of the RTR-THS season to anything but Esper Control and the rare Heroic godhand. FRites, Delver and of course CAWBlade, Jund and Faeries, lets just call them "very fair decks".
It's cool if you'd personally like the formats to be 50 minute standard and 15 minute standard. But I really can't be convinced powering down instead of up is any sort of long term solution that won't cost the format all of it's it's non-Spike players and eventually kill it. And yes, I believe if they continue this trend Modern will die before Legacy or even Vintage truly see their last big tournament.
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I actually intentionally choose Darkwater Catacombs and Skycloud Expanse as they make colorless sources more usable. An opening hand with Darkwater Catacombs and Inventors' Fair as lands is a better opening hand than Sunken Ruins and Mystic Gate.
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Another possible combo line for Aminatou could be the Taking Turns route. She goes almost infinite with Archaeomancer/Mnemonic Wall/Possessed Skaab/Salvager of Secrets/The Mirari Conjecture/Scrivener and Capture of Jingzhou/Expropriate/Temporal Manipulation/Time Stretch/Time Warp/Walk the Aeons. You can get three turns with her, and if you can manage two land drops during those three turns, then you get to do it again. Narset the Transcendent extends all these pairings and goes infinite with Time Stretch.
Might be worth looking into as an independent build or as an addon to one of the decks.
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Alternatively, Standard is also an option. Standard tends to be more expensive over time because you're constantly cycle through cards, but if you want to get into the game right away it is an option.
Also, depending on your playstyle, you can pretty easily get away with cheaper dual lands. When I first started Faeries, it didn't need or want fetchlands or shocklands, instead we had River of Tears, Drowned Catacombs, Secluded Glens, and Drowned Catacombs. But after AV got unbanned we had to have a more flexible manabase and the price of the deck went up.
Best of luck and welcome back!
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On the topic of Pongify, I wonder if there will ever be a day we hop on Reality Shift. It might be soon, having a way to deal with dredge creatures would be nice. We never get exile effects... On the topic of dredge, Spontaneous Mutation is interesting tech against them. I could honestly see it as a replacement for disfigure. I plan on playtesting it next tournament. It feels like a blue Vendetta, except instead of nonblack it's non(activated/triggered abilities), and instead of paying life in toughness it's you lose life depending on how long it takes to fill your graveyard.
And suddenly my motivation is lost. I'm actually looking forward to reading it once he finishes it. And no, I'm not going to stop working on mine, I was joking ;). Anyway, I'm fairly certain that Anthony is going to be focusing on his playstyle (which was more control focused, or so it seemed to me). My primer is meant to be more general and meant to give useful information to any approach.
Edit:
Also, I was trying out an Esper Zombie list recently. It was Tempo/Control oriented with Cryptbreaker, Tidehollow Sculler, and Fleshbag Marauder. Real spicy. It's pretty solid, but it lacks the agility that faeries has. Not being able to play around your opponent and exploit instant speed interaction sucked. Having to decide between playing a zombie or leaving mana open for interaction wasn't the greatest. It has potential, but it's not there yet. Anyway I'm done now, so I should be able around more.
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Faeries are making a comeback, just you watch.
I'm hoping for a Splinter Twin unbanning. It might be too soon, but I think it'll happen someday. I hope so anyway.
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Well firstly, Faeries is a tight deck. If we screw too many things up, we usually lose. That said what you described wasn't really tightness; but just lack of power, which Faerie players rarely experience. I think the biggest thing holding you back would probably be the cards you marked as worst. None of those cards are usually played in Faerie decks, except in niche situations. They're not necessarily bad, and I've seen them played before to great effect, but at the moment Faeries doesn't usually want/need them at the moment. I'd recommend taking a look at other people's decklists or our primer in progress, which can be found here. Best of luck, and welcome to the team!
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Full Control Encounter
We aren't a dedicated control deck, and we aren't always able to control every aspect of the late game. That doesn't mean however that we can't control certain aspects of it. Faeries is a disruptive deck, but our disruption does have a target. In a Full Control Encounter (FCE) we aren't trying to control the whole game, we're simply trying to control it's outcome. Every card is a puzzle, and every spell a question; 'Can I beat this?'. If the answer is yes, it hits the field or is swept up by situational counters(Spellstutter Sprite, Spell Snare). But if the answer is no, we reply with our own counters, kill spells, or hand disruption. Decks have redundancy, and we have more hand disruption. Once we know what we're up against we're ready to craft a real FCE. Set your clock, set your opponent's. Do the math. Have a plan for every threat. Don't leave your fate to chance. Control everything.
Inspired by Shiroe from Log Horizon. He's tall, unassuming, and his glasses can make him look a bit fragile. You may think your winning, you may even have the upper hand; but if he's your opponent, you've already lost.
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Maybe a little crazy. We don't really need it I don't think. Looking at your most recent list, you seem to have a lot of control/end game, making your playstyle closer to a control/midrange game (I could be wrong, I don't play Midrange). If your having trouble against Burn there are better options. The new card, Collective Brutality, is going to be great in that matchup. We aren't are perfect control deck, we can't hope to stop everything. If we want to win these matches, we have to win before they get past our kill/counter shield. Paying life for Dismember is rarely a mistake in this matchup. Figure out how much damage you expect a source to do, and way that against the amount of life you plan to pay for dismember.
Maybe. I only run 2 at them moment, compared to your 3. If I had 3 I could see cutting one. In duplicates they aren't good, but my V. Cliques eat a lot of bolts. I might be confusing those bolts from those in other red decks though.
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Bribery seems like interesting, but workable, tech. I wouldn't expect the matchups where it's best, to run much countermagic.
Also, the primer is coming along nicely. I've reorganized it alot and started getting it set up for the final version. It's not done by any means, and there's still a lot of things to be added. But it's starting to look cooler and take shape. Thanks all for the help!
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