Played two games, reminded why this deck isn't competitive anymore. That said, I did beat BUG in three.
If anyone has an updated list that they've been having success with, would love to see it for a future stream.
-T
This is the list that I run. I replaced Standstill with Augury Owl for a few reasons which seem to come down to a matter of philosophy-
1. Augury Owl is another flyer in a deck that wants a lot of them on the field. Whereas normally I would have a field with Pest, CoF, and Standstill on T2 with 3 more cards on the way, I'm now able to set up Pest, CoF, and Owl which is going to be swinging consistently with a clock of 4 unblocked T3. It also makes us less susceptible to removal just by having more things to remove.
2. Because of the increased clock, opponents are quick to waste removal early in the game when it will cost them. On T3, your opponent has 3 lands. RUG can either play Bolt first then Goyf, or Goyf first then Bolt. Either way, he taps out and you get a lot of value out of your daze. And the Owl should have been able to ensure that another Pest or Jitte or Shinobi is on the way to keep the pressure on.
3. Augury Owl can be recurred. Whereas Standstill pops once, you can play Owl over and over to dig almost 6 cards deep into your deck. Getting crucial Jittes has never been easier. Plus, using him with Deep Hours creates a pseudo-top effect.
4. Having 4 more creatures all but guarantees a good opening hand. I hate drawing 2 daze, 1 FoW, 1 Standstill, 2 Island, 1 Deep Hours. I also hate getting hands like this when I'm mulliganning down to 5 with 1 Daze, 2 Island, 1 Standstill, 1 Deep Hours. In both cases, if Standstill was Augury Owl, I would be able to play. This is a deck that needs to have a plan T1. You're taking a huge gamble by relying on your Standstill to go get the kinds of cards that should have been in your opening hand to begin with.
5. Standstill is conditional whereas Augury Owl is an any-time spell. Owl doesn't care if you have board position yet. Standstill is irrelevant against Merfolk and DnT which are going to Vial in threats anyway. And against other fair decks, you need Shinobi usually to set up board position because our guys usually aren't swinging for much until T3 which is too late a lot of the time.
I cannot honestly believe you aren't trolling with this idea. Standstill is a major component of the deck, removing it just makes this deck worse in every way I can imagine.
Please read the opening post if you are looking for 2-mana 1/1s to improve this deck. I mention Thalakos Seer which:
1: Shadow is better than flying in the format
2: Same increased clock, except it draws a card if removed for any reason (including exile)
3: Can also be recurred, which draws a card while ninjutsu-ed.
4: Is a creature
5: Anytime spell
The only downside I can see is that it costs UU to cast.
edit:
-The reason I run Drake and not Faerie Impostor is just because it can be played turn 1. This deck pretty much has to play an enabler T1, and I can't stress enough how much it sucks to mulligan past 6.
Perhaps you are reading the card incorrectly? If there is no other creature to return, you have to return the drake itself. Faerie Impostor is strictly better in the context of this deck (2 power, relevant creature type).
What about the new faerie imposter? Flash it with vial saving a dude, bounce a ninja then ninja her ad nauseam, bounce spellstutter for more counters, AND she's a faerie to boot! Good, bad?
Faerie Imposter U
Creature - Faerie Rogue (U)
Flying
When Faerie Imposter enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you return another creature you control to its owner's hand.
2/1
My first thought: Run more Ornithopter. Otherwise, card looks very solid. Might also push me to testing AEther Vial.
-T
As I mentioned before, if anyone has a list with actual tournament experience (i.e. a proven build), I'd be happy to list it up on the OP. Or, if anyone wants to rewrite it, I'd post it.
I do own the deck (minus Force of Will) on MTGO, but I really haven't tried it out in any tournaments (legacy doesn't fire and I don't have the tix right now to grind two-mans). Once I get some good testing in, it is on my list to redo the OP .
-T
Seems very interesting, but what does it really accomplish? If it copies our guys, it's not going to be very good (Cloud of Faeries just untaps two lands, Spellstutter Sprite doesn't have anything to counter, Ninja of the Deep Hours means it still gets blocked by everything next turn).
If the opponent has good creatures (against Maverick) it's not so bad, I guess.
It's arguably better than Zephyr Sprite, in that it's not a Faerie. However, offering flying to our Ninjas is quite huge. In my build, they will certainly be the replacement.
-T
Without Ninjas, that is a different deck. We run Ninjas not only because they are inherent card advantage, but also because of their synergy with Spellstutter Sprite and Standstill.
While a Hexproof equipment aggro deck would be an interesting concept, it is
not one for this thread.
I do want to get 4x of Favorable Winds, though. I don't think it's so easily dismissed, we have 16+ creatures that can take advantage of it and it does increase our clock significantly.
-T
My first thought is that it doesn't pump the ninjas.
But, with Sprite/Cloud/Zephyr/Thopter/Signal Pest, it might indeed be worth playing. The ultimate problem is, what to cut?
Also, if you are playing that, you have to go much more aggro (to truly take advantage of it), so that means cutting countermagic.
So, I got the deck on MTGO! (Well, mostly. Missing Forces and Cliques).
If anyone here has time and some T2+ Legacy decks on there, I'd love to do some testing to tweak the build.
-T
I'm not so sure Signal Pest is the right choice. Much like vial, it needs a certain amount of other creatures to make it good. In builds with Ornithopter and perhaps Zephyr Sprite, it is much better.
-T
I honestly don't care which list anyone uses. Innovation is always encouraged, of course, but only careful innovation. Slapping 4 Aether Vial in a deck with 8 2-drops and 1-2 3-drops, and 2-3 4-drops doesn't make any sense, at all.
I've ran some goldfishes in Cockatrice with your build. Vial sits there, a lot, doing very little. Yes, sometimes it is the stone nuts, but every other time, it would've been better as a Ponder or even a Zephyr Sprite.
A long time ago, I advocated removing Vial from Affinity, a choice I was derided for (this was pre-Springleaf Drum), because I also thought the curve wasn't good (4 0-drops, 4 1-drops, 4 2-drops, etc). Now, Affinity has an even better curve to abuse vial, and they don't use it.
If you're going to play heavy control (very few creatures, lots of countermagic), please, do so. That's not what this deck is or was. It is pseudo-fish, where we run a lot of weenies that we can abuse using stupid tricks (Ninjutsu and Standstill) and tons of evasion (Flying + Jitte). I'm not even sure if I would run Force of Will in the deck anymore, as it's tempo-disadvantage in most cases.
-T
Aether Vial was used in merfolk because they had many, many creatures that could benefit from it. I still fail to see enough creature density to run it in this deck.
I own them online, so once I get the deck together, I will certainly try them.
-T
Please do innovate, I'd love to see the deck get somewhere.
As for Aether Vial, my thoughts are still much the same as the OP. Unless you have enough 1/2(/3) drops to make it worth it, it's often going to sit dead. And yes, it is bonkers with Cloud of Faeries and Spellstutter Sprite, but it's a nombo with the Ninjas.
I don't have lists in front of me, but my experience with D&T tells me that you need to be running a lot more creatures to get value from it.
TheThirdBardo, do you mind posting a decklist?
I'm coming into a little bit of MTGO credit soon, and I've been tempted to finally build my deck on there to test with. A non-FoW version would be the starting point for me.
That said, I'm still waiting on concrete results from this deck before I'm going to do much with the opening post. Has anyone done better than or equal to 4-2 in a 6+ round tournament?
-T
I was finally able to get all the cards together for this deck. I
'll bewas streaming it for a while.http://www.twitch.tv/dissolution_of_eternity
Played two games, reminded why this deck isn't competitive anymore. That said, I did beat BUG in three.
If anyone has an updated list that they've been having success with, would love to see it for a future stream.
-T
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!
I cannot honestly believe you aren't trolling with this idea. Standstill is a major component of the deck, removing it just makes this deck worse in every way I can imagine.
Please read the opening post if you are looking for 2-mana 1/1s to improve this deck. I mention Thalakos Seer which:
1: Shadow is better than flying in the format
2: Same increased clock, except it draws a card if removed for any reason (including exile)
3: Can also be recurred, which draws a card while ninjutsu-ed.
4: Is a creature
5: Anytime spell
The only downside I can see is that it costs UU to cast.
Perhaps you are reading the card incorrectly? If there is no other creature to return, you have to return the drake itself. Faerie Impostor is strictly better in the context of this deck (2 power, relevant creature type).
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!
My first thought: Run more Ornithopter. Otherwise, card looks very solid. Might also push me to testing AEther Vial.
-T
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!
You can Stifle the ability. Otherwise, no, it cannot be countered traditionally.
-T
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!
I do own the deck (minus Force of Will) on MTGO, but I really haven't tried it out in any tournaments (legacy doesn't fire and I don't have the tix right now to grind two-mans). Once I get some good testing in, it is on my list to redo the OP .
-T
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!
If the opponent has good creatures (against Maverick) it's not so bad, I guess.
As usual, testing.
-T
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!
-T
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!
While a Hexproof equipment aggro deck would be an interesting concept, it is
not one for this thread.
I do want to get 4x of Favorable Winds, though. I don't think it's so easily dismissed, we have 16+ creatures that can take advantage of it and it does increase our clock significantly.
-T
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!
But, with Sprite/Cloud/Zephyr/Thopter/Signal Pest, it might indeed be worth playing. The ultimate problem is, what to cut?
Also, if you are playing that, you have to go much more aggro (to truly take advantage of it), so that means cutting countermagic.
Please do test it, I will be.
-T
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!
If anyone here has time and some T2+ Legacy decks on there, I'd love to do some testing to tweak the build.
-T
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!
-T
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!
I've ran some goldfishes in Cockatrice with your build. Vial sits there, a lot, doing very little. Yes, sometimes it is the stone nuts, but every other time, it would've been better as a Ponder or even a Zephyr Sprite.
A long time ago, I advocated removing Vial from Affinity, a choice I was derided for (this was pre-Springleaf Drum), because I also thought the curve wasn't good (4 0-drops, 4 1-drops, 4 2-drops, etc). Now, Affinity has an even better curve to abuse vial, and they don't use it.
If you're going to play heavy control (very few creatures, lots of countermagic), please, do so. That's not what this deck is or was. It is pseudo-fish, where we run a lot of weenies that we can abuse using stupid tricks (Ninjutsu and Standstill) and tons of evasion (Flying + Jitte). I'm not even sure if I would run Force of Will in the deck anymore, as it's tempo-disadvantage in most cases.
-T
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!
I own them online, so once I get the deck together, I will certainly try them.
-T
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!
As for Aether Vial, my thoughts are still much the same as the OP. Unless you have enough 1/2(/3) drops to make it worth it, it's often going to sit dead. And yes, it is bonkers with Cloud of Faeries and Spellstutter Sprite, but it's a nombo with the Ninjas.
I don't have lists in front of me, but my experience with D&T tells me that you need to be running a lot more creatures to get value from it.
-T
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!
I'm coming into a little bit of MTGO credit soon, and I've been tempted to finally build my deck on there to test with. A non-FoW version would be the starting point for me.
That said, I'm still waiting on concrete results from this deck before I'm going to do much with the opening post. Has anyone done better than or equal to 4-2 in a 6+ round tournament?
-T
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!