Related to the first question, in a multiplayer game, can a player with Grove of the Burnwillows save a player at exactly 0 life during the resolution of Bone Splinters or before state based actions are checked?
The deck aims to maximize your value out of Explore, Treasure Hunt, and Oracle and win through creature-lands. Explore helps you develop your mana early and draws a card. Treasure Hunt draws potentially huge amounts of cards and is generally good for at least 3. Oracle does a good Magus of the Future impression and potentially "draws" two cards a turn. Oracle can power through your deck and the priority rules mean that even if they have removal immediately you can get 2 lands off the top of your deck.
The deck really wants a Crucible of Worlds or Life from the Loam type card, but alas there isn't one in Standard. Terra Eternal is sort of filling that role right now, protecting your lands proactively rather than recurring them but it's obviously not ideal.
Path to Exile is just great removal and can help break the symmetry of Terra Eternal when fighting opposing creature lands. It also kills Baneslayer Angel which is also nice.
Day of Judgment takes advantage of the fact that your creatures are only creatures when you want them to be. It's also a concession to the fact that you can't reliably animate your lands until turn 4 or 5 while your opponent has been playing creatures since turn 1 or 2.
Trace of Abundance protects your lands from Goblin Ruinblaster and Tectonic Edge as well as removal when they are animated. With Terra Eternal and Trace of Abundance, you can make your land essentially invincible.
Other cards to consider: Vapor Snare: Easier on the mana than Mind Control, also enables a life-gain or plant generating machine. You also have enough ways to play additional lands that you can play it turn 5 and still develop your mana. Wargate: A versatile tutor. It finds any land with X at 0 and can later find Terra Eternal, Trace of Abundance, or Oracle. Knight of the Reliquary: An efficient beater that also tutors for land. Playing it would require reworking the deck, maybe cutting a color, and adding fetch lands to power him up.
So there it is. Comments and suggestions appreciated.
I think you nailed it about Aether Vial and Standstill. Merfolk uses it as pseudo-haste and flash is just as good for that. Vial also cheats mana costs, but Merfolk runs way more creatures than any of the Faerie lists I've seen and with fewer creatures at more varied mana costs, it doesn't seem as good. Without Vial or Ninjas, Standstill just isn't very good as you have Jitte and Cliques that you will want to play without waiting for them to break it.
Faeries is a "slow deck" by legacy standards as it ultimately wants to establish a Riptide Lab/Spellstutter Sprite lock and win with small creatures carrying a Jitte. Unless they can kill it in response to the champion trigger, Clique stops them from playing spells for a turn, puts out a blocker, and puts them on a clock which is a great bargain at 4 mana.
Honestly, the only circumstances in which I would consider dropping Mistbind is if I were playing Tarmogoyf, which is a perfectly acceptable choice.
No such luck. The legend rule is a state based action, so as soon as the second Flagstones enters the battlefield, both are put into their owners graveyards and neither player can respond to it before they're destroyed.
I've been playing around with Mono-U Faeries build based on the pre-rotation extended version and have found it to be pretty good. This list I'm using is:
I've been a merfolk player for a while and this version plays a similar tempo game with mana denial, cheap/free counterspells and efficient beaters. There should probably be a Venser, Shaper Savant in there somewhere but I don't own any.
I played normal UB Faeries a few weeks ago and went 3-1 (losing to Bant in the 3rd round) with maindeck Repeal and Damnation and really like the archetype. Comments and suggestions appreciated.
No Ghost Quarter? I think at least one belongs in the deck somewhere. Unless you're not expecting any other Thopter decks or Dark Depths, running two colorless lands won't hurt as much as having some outs will help.
Other than that, looks great. I prefer Rune Snag to Mana Leak, but each have their merits and it's really a personal preference thing.
The deck is themed around "Kindle" type spells which reward you for playing them in multiples. Ponder and Brainstorm help you find what you need and activate your Ascension. Aether Burst and burn control the board until you can start sending burn to the dome.
I would like some kind of sweeper. I'm leaning towards Starstorm because it doesn't damage players, cycles and is an instant, but other suggestions would be appreciated.
You used to be able to block their Ranger of Eos with your Esper Stormblade, put damage on the stack, and then sacrifice your creature to Thopter Foundry, killing their creature and getting a 1/1 Thopter token from yours that was about to die in combat anyway.
Thopter Foundry is still pretty good, but that ability made it much better.
I'd recommend adding a full set of the Alara charms and the Planeshift dragon charms, as flexibility is always a plus. Bant Charm is a house, and the others all have their uses. Also, the dragon Lairs are good mana fixing for a 5 color deck on the cheap. I also second running the full set Ravnica block karoos. They're pretty awesome. I would cut the borderposts as they're worse than the Ravnica karoos and are awkward without a lot of basic lands. The invasion and coldsnap tap duals and the new gain life duals are also probably worth a spot.
Fertile ground and trace of abundance are just not very good and you can fine better cards to fil their spot. Hull Breech and return to dust both come highly recomended.
Anyways, good luck with the deck and see you on Tuesday,
Adam, aka the guy who should never ever split a box with anyone ever again.
So there's no such thing as a storm counter, but you can increase the number of spells played in a turn, and thus the number of copies from Storm by doing what you suggest.
With a spell on the stack, let's say Fog, you can Twincast targeting Fog. You then cast your Twincast targeting the first Twincast. Your first Twincast resolves, creating a copy of its target (which is also Twincast) so now you have a copy of Twincast which you tell to target the first Twincast (the one targeting Fog), your copy resolves and copies Twincast again and so on. Each time you do this you add one to your Storm count.
To end the loop, just tell your copy of Twincast to target the original spell.
My local store does a weekly EDH night. Hopefully I won't be killed for running such a disruptive general. If it's an issue, I think I could change it to either Mangara or Crovax with minor modifications.
The goal is to Wrath often and then use Mageta himself, wrath-proof creatures like Colossus or Crovax, or token generators to quickly rebuild an army post-wrath and smash.
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Raging Ravine
4 Stirring Wildwood
4 Jungle Shrine
4 Seaside Citadel
3 Khalni Garden
3 Kabira Crossroads
3 Plains
3 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
Spells:
4 Explore
4 Trace of Abundance
4 Treasure Hunt
4 Path to Exile
3 Terra Eternal
3 Day of Judgement
The deck aims to maximize your value out of Explore, Treasure Hunt, and Oracle and win through creature-lands. Explore helps you develop your mana early and draws a card. Treasure Hunt draws potentially huge amounts of cards and is generally good for at least 3. Oracle does a good Magus of the Future impression and potentially "draws" two cards a turn. Oracle can power through your deck and the priority rules mean that even if they have removal immediately you can get 2 lands off the top of your deck.
The deck really wants a Crucible of Worlds or Life from the Loam type card, but alas there isn't one in Standard. Terra Eternal is sort of filling that role right now, protecting your lands proactively rather than recurring them but it's obviously not ideal.
Path to Exile is just great removal and can help break the symmetry of Terra Eternal when fighting opposing creature lands. It also kills Baneslayer Angel which is also nice.
Day of Judgment takes advantage of the fact that your creatures are only creatures when you want them to be. It's also a concession to the fact that you can't reliably animate your lands until turn 4 or 5 while your opponent has been playing creatures since turn 1 or 2.
Trace of Abundance protects your lands from Goblin Ruinblaster and Tectonic Edge as well as removal when they are animated. With Terra Eternal and Trace of Abundance, you can make your land essentially invincible.
Other cards to consider:
Vapor Snare: Easier on the mana than Mind Control, also enables a life-gain or plant generating machine. You also have enough ways to play additional lands that you can play it turn 5 and still develop your mana.
Wargate: A versatile tutor. It finds any land with X at 0 and can later find Terra Eternal, Trace of Abundance, or Oracle.
Knight of the Reliquary: An efficient beater that also tutors for land. Playing it would require reworking the deck, maybe cutting a color, and adding fetch lands to power him up.
So there it is. Comments and suggestions appreciated.
I'm not that keen on Ancestral Visions, having played it a lot in extended. Brainstorm with fetchlands or even Accumulated Knowledge would probably be better.
Faeries is a "slow deck" by legacy standards as it ultimately wants to establish a Riptide Lab/Spellstutter Sprite lock and win with small creatures carrying a Jitte. Unless they can kill it in response to the champion trigger, Clique stops them from playing spells for a turn, puts out a blocker, and puts them on a clock which is a great bargain at 4 mana.
Honestly, the only circumstances in which I would consider dropping Mistbind is if I were playing Tarmogoyf, which is a perfectly acceptable choice.
2 Riptide Laboratory
3 Mutavault
4 Wasteland
13 Island
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Vendilion Clique
4 Spellstutter Sprites
4 Mana Leak
3 Cryptic Command
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Stifle
3 Umezawa's Jitte
I've been a merfolk player for a while and this version plays a similar tempo game with mana denial, cheap/free counterspells and efficient beaters. There should probably be a Venser, Shaper Savant in there somewhere but I don't own any.
4 Secluded Glen
3 Steam Vents
3 Watery Grave
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Mutavault
4 Island
1 Swamp
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Vendilion Clique
Spells:
4 Bitterblossom
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Rune Snag
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Cryptic Command
3 Grixis Charm
3 Umezawa's Jitte
I played normal UB Faeries a few weeks ago and went 3-1 (losing to Bant in the 3rd round) with maindeck Repeal and Damnation and really like the archetype. Comments and suggestions appreciated.
Other than that, looks great. I prefer Rune Snag to Mana Leak, but each have their merits and it's really a personal preference thing.
4 Pyromancer's Ascension
4 Kindle
4 Flame Burst
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Aether Burst
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Rune Snag
4 Brain Storm
4 Ponder
1 Banefire
1 Call of the Skybreaker
4 Steam Vents
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Arid Mesa
2 Misty Rainforest
5 Island
5 Mountain
The deck is themed around "Kindle" type spells which reward you for playing them in multiples. Ponder and Brainstorm help you find what you need and activate your Ascension. Aether Burst and burn control the board until you can start sending burn to the dome.
I would like some kind of sweeper. I'm leaning towards Starstorm because it doesn't damage players, cycles and is an instant, but other suggestions would be appreciated.
Comments and constructive criticism appreciated.
Thopter Foundry is still pretty good, but that ability made it much better.
I'd recommend adding a full set of the Alara charms and the Planeshift dragon charms, as flexibility is always a plus. Bant Charm is a house, and the others all have their uses. Also, the dragon Lairs are good mana fixing for a 5 color deck on the cheap. I also second running the full set Ravnica block karoos. They're pretty awesome. I would cut the borderposts as they're worse than the Ravnica karoos and are awkward without a lot of basic lands. The invasion and coldsnap tap duals and the new gain life duals are also probably worth a spot.
Fertile ground and trace of abundance are just not very good and you can fine better cards to fil their spot. Hull Breech and return to dust both come highly recomended.
Adam, aka the guy who should never ever split a box with anyone ever again.
With a spell on the stack, let's say Fog, you can Twincast targeting Fog. You then cast your Twincast targeting the first Twincast. Your first Twincast resolves, creating a copy of its target (which is also Twincast) so now you have a copy of Twincast which you tell to target the first Twincast (the one targeting Fog), your copy resolves and copies Twincast again and so on. Each time you do this you add one to your Storm count.
To end the loop, just tell your copy of Twincast to target the original spell.
Seem's like a cool combo.
Wow! I had never seen Ghostway before. That is perfect for the deck. Thank you!
The goal is to Wrath often and then use Mageta himself, wrath-proof creatures like Colossus or Crovax, or token generators to quickly rebuild an army post-wrath and smash.
Any advice on cards to add or remove?
1 Mageta the Lion
Creatures
1 Mangara of Corondor
1 Devout Witness
1 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
1 Stonecloaker
1 Stonehewer Giant
1 Valor
1 Glory
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Archon of Justice
1 Eight-and-a-half Tails
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Pentarch Paladin
1 Eternal Dragon
1 Yosei, the Morning Star
1 Myojin of Cleansing Fire
1 Dust Elemental
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Twilight Shepherd
Enchantments
1 Divine Sacrament
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Honor of the Pure
1 Sacred Mesa
1 Mobilization
1 Land Tax
1 Faith's Fetters
1 Flickerform
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Reconnaissance
1 Indestructibility
1 Spirit Mirror
1 Mind's Eye
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Myr Matrix
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Thunder Totem
1 Extraplanar Lense
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Lightning Greeves
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Skullclamp
1 Thousand-year Elixir
1 Loxodon Warhammer
Instants
1 Condemn
1 Oblation
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Last Breath
1 Reverent Mantra
1 Argivian Find
1 Abolish
1 Return to Dust
1 Crib Swap
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ghostway
Sorcery
1 Wrath of God
1 Sunscour
1 Austere Command
1 Spectral Procession
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Storm Herd
21 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Scrying Sheets
1 Mouth of Ronom
1 Windbrisk Heights
1 Forbidding Watchtower
1 Mutavault
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Urza's Factory
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Kor Haven
1 Maze of Ith
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Winding Canyons
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
1 Ghost Quarter
1 High Market
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
EDIT: Replaced Shields of Velis Vel with Ghostway. The Shields/Spirit Mirror combo is cool, but Ghostway fits the goal of the deck way better.