People write how they feel about jace in the discord all the time.
Daut - Today at 11:31 AM
Jace gives us insane draw power in his 0
A pseudo-lock with his +2 to make sure we can interact with our opponents cards
A pseudo-lock with mistbind clique and his -1 ability
As well as a game finisher
Not to mention he can shuffle away bad excess bitterblossoms with a fetch and a 0 activation
NEW MESSAGES
Axel_kh - Today at 11:46 AM
His -1 can work with mistbind, spellstutter, snapcaster...
Daut - Today at 11:46 AM
It also gives us a win condition in the main against infinite lifegain.
They're not wrong. The problem we have is that Faeries lacks an endgame finisher other than Mistbind (if it can even be considered that). The question is not "is Jace strong?", that's undeniable. The question is whether adding another card into our 4 slot that isn't a closer, worth it for this deck. If it is, what modifications are needed? Faeries disrupts very well. It delays very well. But does it finish games well? In my experience, if it wins, it's been a long game and you win by slowly chipping at the opponent. This is precisely why the deck is not among the top of the format, because the longer your game plan (without any form of lock on the opponent) the more time the opponent has to find answers and recover.
I know I sound like a broken record, but Ancestral Vision is so divisive for me. We're a deck that either plays a delay game until you win via tokens, or maybe you stall long enough to get a Vendilion/Mistbind on the board and protect it the rest of the game. They aren't a "slam win" closer like most successful decks have, and come with some downsides of their own. I love Ancestral turn 1. If it's my turn 2 play, I would have prefered Bitterblossom or leaving up mana for Spellstutter which can turn into Opt + Push if there is nothing to counter (if you're on the draw for example). Turn 3 I would prefer to play nearly anything else: a counter, removal, Vendilion, Liliana (if you play her). Turn 4 or ahead, it's a death sentence to draw when needing answers. Maybe my meta is too aggressive and my experience is different, but when I always have to side out a card game 2 against all matchups, I begin to question whether it deserves a slot. There's that turn 1 AV that really feels good though.
I don't know how much we should go in either direction. Is a tempo based strategy, like the current builds, the correct way, or is Faeries now just worse than playing straight UB Control?
I think this might be an arguable opinion, but I think Faeries is definitely a preferential choice and not one based on playing the strongest deck in the archetype or even in the colour pair.
As for the rest of your post, you bring up a good point about Vendilion Clique. It definitely adds another axis of risk in the sense that you don't want to flip their Bloodbraid into something better, or even the case of BBE into Jace. I think the simplest solution is to bring in Thoughtseize, which the lists tend to avoid because we take a lot of incidental damage and life loss already.
You certainly don't want to Remand a Bloodbraid Elf though. It will be interesting to see how that affects everything. It will definitely be a really difficult card for us to deal with. A counter doesn't stop the cascade, Fatal Push only hits it if you activate Revolt, and you have to deal with the cascaded card as well.
discard now becomes significantly better if jace is in the deck letting us pitch it back and shuffle them away late game, or bounce and strip the creature. theres some good possibilities there
So, I definitely agree, but my concern is adding another 4 drop. Do we cut something? Does our curve just look super crazy now? Is Jace going to let us hinge solely on Bitterblossoms as the main wincon? The deck struggles due to the lack of a closer other than Mistbind (that can be punishing to you as well in some cases).
I think it's more of a case that Bontu is not even openly considered to be of a modern playable power level, and this deck is already not even tiered. So adding in suboptimal cards really waters down your power level overall. Also, yes, Cryptic is very important, the flexibility and variety of solutions is pretty much unmatched in the deck. Just yesterday I was facing merfolk at 3 life and was able to stall with Cryptic long enough to draw Damnation and win the game.
I don't disagree with you when you're basically saying that we're playing faeries because we want to, because there are obviously stronger decks to choose from. Maybe this is meta dependant, but Ancestral Vision is barely playable in my meta against Grixis Shadow, Affinity, Infect, Burn, Storm, and Zoo being prevalent decks. I need my topdecks to be more efficient and provide me solutions, and topdecking AV at any point after T3 is pretty much a death sentence.
I'll be trying out Sorin + Path + Blessed Alliance this weekend. I've been finding immense success whenever I manage to stick a Liliana, the Last Hope. She helps delay attacks, kill off a Noble Hierarch every once in a while, and return a Spellstutter Sprite from the GY or something else if needed.
I think there's definitely some exploring to be done in Esper. Bitterblossom can be a big clock on yourself if you're on the back foot and your token dies each turn chumping while other attackers do get in. I've done some fooling around with Sorin, Solemn Visitor for the +1, and Shambling Vent. It might just be my meta or my experience that usually by the time I start to turn the game in my direction, I am at 4 life with a Bitterblossom out, so I brought in some ways of gaining life. I've also been considering Blessed Alliance for this same reason + the flexibility of working as removal.
Riddlesmith got some attention when Ovalchase Daredevil came along, but I don't think any serious testing was done with it. With the addition of Sram, maybe a non-paladin version can be tried; without double white in the casting cost it might losen the manabase enough to go full Esper?
Paladin does way too much to take out. Non-legendary, and reduces equip costs to 0 for mantle and for golem gauntlets if you're going that route
Hi guys, new to the board, but I've been playing around with this deck for a while now. The biggest problem is definitely games 2/3, and keeping in mind that the meta is not currently sideboarded against the deck per sé. Has anyone tested Judge's Familiar in the 1 drop spot? I'm finding that the deck generally wins by surprise if you go the entire glass cannon combo route, but post sideboard, the opponent is generally well prepared and the combo is quite fragile. The familiars have allowed protection for the combo, and in cases where the combo just can't get there, I'm testing either Monastery Mentor or Myth Realized. Thoughts?
They're not wrong. The problem we have is that Faeries lacks an endgame finisher other than Mistbind (if it can even be considered that). The question is not "is Jace strong?", that's undeniable. The question is whether adding another card into our 4 slot that isn't a closer, worth it for this deck. If it is, what modifications are needed? Faeries disrupts very well. It delays very well. But does it finish games well? In my experience, if it wins, it's been a long game and you win by slowly chipping at the opponent. This is precisely why the deck is not among the top of the format, because the longer your game plan (without any form of lock on the opponent) the more time the opponent has to find answers and recover.
I think this might be an arguable opinion, but I think Faeries is definitely a preferential choice and not one based on playing the strongest deck in the archetype or even in the colour pair.
As for the rest of your post, you bring up a good point about Vendilion Clique. It definitely adds another axis of risk in the sense that you don't want to flip their Bloodbraid into something better, or even the case of BBE into Jace. I think the simplest solution is to bring in Thoughtseize, which the lists tend to avoid because we take a lot of incidental damage and life loss already.
So, I definitely agree, but my concern is adding another 4 drop. Do we cut something? Does our curve just look super crazy now? Is Jace going to let us hinge solely on Bitterblossoms as the main wincon? The deck struggles due to the lack of a closer other than Mistbind (that can be punishing to you as well in some cases).
What are everyones thoughts on this?
I'll be trying out Sorin + Path + Blessed Alliance this weekend. I've been finding immense success whenever I manage to stick a Liliana, the Last Hope. She helps delay attacks, kill off a Noble Hierarch every once in a while, and return a Spellstutter Sprite from the GY or something else if needed.
Paladin does way too much to take out. Non-legendary, and reduces equip costs to 0 for mantle and for golem gauntlets if you're going that route