Considering changing the Countersquall in the main for another Liliana of the Veil, or Liliana, the Last Hope in place of 2nd LotV in the board (3 lilis total). Would also like to get another slot for GQ but can't touch surgicals as of now -maybe in the future- and the rest of the slots are pretty tight, can't really play it maindeck.
Not playing Mistbind mostly because Tron is not largely played in my LGS. Kalitas and Tasigur have been great in that spot, as they hose aggro decks pretty well.
The list feels strong, it has a fair game against most decks, although the only deck I have thoroughly tested is Merfolks (a bit over 100 games) with a win rate of 65% pre-board and 75%/80% post-board.
I've seen an uptick in discussion for Liliana of the Veil in the last couple pages. Having played her in faeries since 2014, here's my 2 cents on the card:
For people playing Lili in the main, consider trimming countermagic from your deck. Lili's dominance in the board comes from +1-ing her as much as possible, whether to quickly ultimate vs a Titan Shift deck or to control the board presence of a creature deck. If you can't profitably +1 her, you shouldn't be playing her (at least mainboard), and if you are siding her in, try to trim counterspells for her slots. When Lili is good, counters are generally bad -exception being combo/control, but then you do the same with removal spells- so keep that in mind.
In modern there are more creature based decks than spell based combo or control decks, so that makes our priorities a bit easier:
Removal spell > Counter spell.
Remember: Counters are good as long as there are things on the stack. For things to be on the stack, your opponent has to have cards in hand. Liliana is insanely good at having players go hellbent. So, if you're keeping your hand size in 1 card, keep the card that impacts the board, not the card that has the potential of impacting the stack. This is not really a rule, nor it's restricted to removal spells 100%. Assess the match up, assess your hand, decide what will have more impact before discarding and cursing your topdeck. Lili does not forgive.
Holding up counterspells and discarding value cards or removal to Lili is bad vs decks that want to tap creatures to win, that's why it's a general rule that Lili and counters don't get along (modern is a creature based format after all). Against creature decks it's easier to deal with a resolved creature through removal than having the window open to counter it, and -as where modern stands right now- good counterspells generally cost more mana than good creatures. So if you +1 Lili and you have a Counter and a Removal in hand, discard the counter and play the removal, then compliment with -2 if necessary. Even if you can't play the removal because you tapped out for lili or because you used your black source for a Tseize/IoK, discard the counter and play the removal next turn or when necessary.
The best card to join Lili in your deck is Snapcaster Mage. Always keep the Snapcaster when discarding to Lili's +1 (unless it's strictly necessary to hold something else and being forced to +1 her). Thiago will re-buy what you discarded to her or what you already used and need to re-use, while keeping the beats or protecting her. Don't be afraid of Snapcasting instants in your turn then proceed to +1 lili. If you play serum, you can play snap, target serum, +1 lili, then cast serum. Another great play is going Snap, flashback discard, +1 lili. Snapcaster Mage is the best ally of Liliana of the Veil in UB.
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Being able to cast discard at instant speed is pretty good, as we can cast it during their draw step (if I understand the card correctly).
That being said, I feel like its really hard to evaluate, as it doesn't do anything by itself, but I'm hopeful.
Edit: apparently you can still only cast sorceries as sorceries, so discard doesn't work as well. Still quite interesting nonetheless.
*Used cards that are somewhat mainstream in Faeries as examples.
** Keep reading before pointing out that it's a cumulative effect.
The beauty of the card relies is that it reads [...]with converted mana cost X or less[...], which is a real treat, as it means that all the spells mentioned in the 'turn before' are cumulative in every turn, so if you have 3 counters you can still play a free Vision and keep up a free V clique in draw step. All this while using no mana: up to 2 spells per turn cycle for free.
The card has a high floor (it is a 3CMC sorcery speed spell, only good when you're drawing a good amount of cards) and an even higher ceiling (it can outright win the game if not answered/properly protected).
All in all, I think it's a pretty good card to play in the sideboard to keep up with decks that try to do serious business and our tempo doesn't catch up properly mid-to-late game. It's more of a mainboard material in combo decks.
My issue with scion is the nonbo it has with mistbind. The tommaso list (http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=13636&d=280254&f=MO) seems strange to me since it only runs sprite/cryptic as countermagic. Is this the best list to play right now? I haven't played this deck in awhile but I still own all the cards.
How is Scion a nombo with mistbind? The latter doesn't target... The argument of Scion being a nombo is in sword builds, and even with swords that problem is created in already won games anyway or can be played around easily (attaching a sword before dropping 2nd scion), so not much of a problem in the end.
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Relic of Progenitus only cycles by exiling one card at a time. Which is great early game, but gives the opponent more options in terms of what to cycle.
Either way - to heavily impact the opponent's graveyard, wouldn't Tormod's Crypt be better, considering it also costs 0?
Cycling means 'cost: draw a card', not sure you understood what he meant by that. Long story short: when you wipe the graveyard with Relic, you draw a card (cycling). The card that's between the two (Relic/Crypt) is Nihil Spellbomb: when you need it to wipe a GY it does it, if you have a B available, it also cycles.
I think Liliana, the Last Hope is the planeswalker for us. It is certainly no liliana of the veil but bringing back our creatures like chumping with sprite or snappy is just plain dirty. The +1 hoses so many aggro strategies while LotV makes us discard too and, on rare occasions, mess us up. That being said, any list with 3 or 4 LotV is going to be a strong one especially one that play ancestral vision mainboard.
I agree with Liliana, the Last Hope being great in Faeries. It does everything you need in a Lili: Deals with creatures, provides CA and has a game winning ultimate. The reason why this lili might even be better than LotV (and I love LotV with all my heart), is that this lili does get along with counterspells. Although she's not that great against burn, she's still good as she'll allow you to stop Goblin Guides, kill Grim Lavamancer on the spot, chump with a Stutter after countering something, then get it ready to counter something else and chump again. Faeries often lacks a plan when is trying to come back to the game from being behind without a Bitterblossom out or significant board pressure, and lili fixes this by giving you a 'Protect the Queen' minigame in which if you protect lili for 4 turns you get a game winning ultimate. And if you don't protect her, or see that you'll lose the minigame, you'll just get so much value in the process that it's OK, cause now you know you can start -2ing her for even more value and go over the top.
Lili is perfect for UBx shells, my initial thoughts are that Faeries and Esper are the best shells for the card, as it's the best color combination + strategies to make the card shine.
When I first saw the new lili, my heart wanted me to re-build my beloved faeries, although I still don't believe the metagame is the best for the Fae. Now that I sold a bunch of stuff, I might re build it, as it's the pet deck of my dreams.
I believe that LtlH will serve Faeries well enough, alongisde Collective Brutality, the card that single-handedly wrecks burn and gets aggro and combo decks at bay.
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When I mentioned tarmogoyf, my point was to just use a well known creature that was better than spellskite. Tarmogoyf tends to be. I could have said any number of other creatures, the point is just that sower of temptation is a lot better if we can just kill a spellskite.
I am aware that go for the throat missing spellskite is a useful aspect of that. I would not say that nonartifact is an upside due to dodging spellskite though.
I would say not being able to take a goyf (or any useful creature) because they have a spellskite in play and we have a gftt in hand does not illustrate how good gftt is.
Most kikichord decks tend to trim down on combo against control styled decks anyways. While they're likely to still have some in, you're less likely to just lose on the untap. Past that, you won't always tap out for sower, as games may easily progress to the point where you have more than 4 lands in play. Sower is generally good against decks that play a lot of creatures but don't have too much removal, which is exactly kikichord. If you don't bring it in here, where would you play it?
Going over the top of it's protection with a 0/4 and 2/2 flier is also a pretty poor way to end a game.
As for spellskite against faeries, some of the midrange grixis lists that don't have very many threats may want it to keep their tasigurs or anglers or kalitas alive. Again, its just an example, but the scenario of "Opponent has a spellskite and a creature useful to us in play" is not exactly 1 in a million.
One last note, I don't think go for the throat is bad. I play a copy. My original post was merely pointing out that we don't have terminate. Any two mana removal spell we have access to has drawbacks. That's just a fact. Some games, you will be holding "1B - Instant - Destroy target creature except the one you want to destroy".
Yes, sure. But you are just narrowing down the game to only show cases where it's 'bad' (and even in those cases it is good) and the card is great.
As for where would I play Sower, well.. I just don't think it's a good choice, I wouldn't play Sower at all. I'd rather pack in a Glen Elendra Archmage, and I wouldn't play it unless there is Burn and Combo everywhere.
Anyway, that's enough for that matter, we are not getting anywhere discussing cards in narrow cases. The only real case where it's bad is against affinity. If you're afraid of it's interaction with your sideboard cards that is a problem of sideboarding or deckbuilding(if you can't profitably play your 75 cards or switch them in a way where they are always useful, you have a problem), but has nothing to do with the card.
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Casts Winds of Change
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Last Saturday ended up playing Gamesday and punted in the finals like a chump. But the coming weekend I'll be taking Faeries to a big tournament, hopefully the deck will prove worthy. Still not decided on how many disfigures I want in my 75 (2/0, 1/1, 1/0) and the counters split in the board between Dispel and Countersquall (2/1 at the moment). I don't know what to expect in this metagame though, which makes card choices harder.
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Tarmogoyf is an example here. But say against grixis, where they have a tasigur and skite.
As for "There is no 'stealing goyf would have been better', you don't play aggro, you want to win slowly and effectively." Jund plays goyf because it wins the game effectively. A large ******* creature a pretty solid way to win, especially since sower takes their creature to use for yourself. Thats about as effective as it gets.
Besides, faeries is not a hard control deck. You aren't going to beat control decks designed for a long game by letting the game go long and trying to fight them on their turf.
Kikichord, for exmaple, plays restoration angel and spellskite mainboard. I would say that sower tends to be a good card against them. If you can help it, you'd love to just kill the spellskite and take their angel, because that speeds up your clock against a combo deck. Taking the spellskite is significantly worse here.
Sure, but you're just switching examples to make valid your concept of Go for the Throat being bad. I just told you that the very reason to play the card is that it misses Spellskite, and the example you just gave proves how good it is. Who cares about stealing something from a Combo deck when you can just kill the combo piece and go over the top of its protection? Sower is not a good play against that deck anyway, as you can't flash it in. If you dare playing it you open yourself to an EoT angel -> untap -> Chord FTW.
EDIT: Why on earth would Grixis sideboard in Spellskite against Faeries? That's a burn/bogles/infect tech.
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Courser of kruphix is very much a card I'd love to run in faeries but 1GG is too much to splash for.
As for go for the throat missing on spellskite, you're usually right, but sitting across from a skite and a goyf, with an empty board and nothing but a go for the throat and a sower of temptation in hand, well, sometimes doom blade is the better card.
Why? You just target the goyf and kill it. If your opponent activates spellskites he just loses mana/life, as the ability fails to resolve because it's an illegal target. Then you steal the skite and protect the Sower, not like you're losing in that scenario anyway.
i think the better line is cast the sower first and target the goyf, make your opponent pay 2 life to switch to the skite, THEN kill the goyf.
This is too trivial, you need 6 mana to do this in the same turn and the activation will most likely be irrelevant. I'd rather Throat EoT, untap and steal setting up a clock and protection for it, rather than try the cute route and have no untapped mana to keep interaction up.
Yea but using a spellskite to protect a sower isn't as good as just generally taking the tarmogoyf.
There are several things wrong with this. To begin with, decks playing Tarmogoyf don't play Spellskite anyway. But, if you were to face one, there is no shame in killing the goyf and stealing the Skite, it's a 2 for 1 anyway, as they need to kill their own kite before taking down your threat. There is no 'stealing goyf would have been better', you don't play aggro, you want to win slowly and effectively. Make amends with that or you'll be disappointed with the deck.
I like mana leak better than remand right now. The format is to fast and decks are to linear and cheap to try to tempo them with remands. I like to have mana leak as its just a hard counter more than 80% of the time. With all the burn and zoo decks now remand is just not good and remanding a collected company unless you are attacking for lethal is just not good enough
I feel like it's better to have more removal and discard than 'hard' counters like Leak right now, but maybe that's just me. It's giving me good results so don't plan on changing it.
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Courser of kruphix is very much a card I'd love to run in faeries but 1GG is too much to splash for.
As for go for the throat missing on spellskite, you're usually right, but sitting across from a skite and a goyf, with an empty board and nothing but a go for the throat and a sower of temptation in hand, well, sometimes doom blade is the better card.
Why? You just target the goyf and kill it. If your opponent activates spellskites he just loses mana/life, as the ability fails to resolve because it's an illegal target. Then you steal the skite and protect the Sower, not like you're losing in that scenario anyway.
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Just wanted to mention that after playing a dozen games with Abrupt Decay, I'm not sure we need it - the splash causes too much harm for too little gain.
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If you're to splash green, it shouldn't be only for Decay. You could also benefit from some number of these cards:
I don't even play Mana Leak. I just remand stuff I don't want to or can't deal with in the relevant turns, then remove it or discard it. I'll be testing my new build this sat:
Edit: still trying to figure out where to place that 2nd Disfigure in the main (which I believe should be there) and trying to sort the need of the SB 3 split among Dispel and Countersquall
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There isn't any two mana removal spell in our colors that kills everything we want.
Go for the throat still misses affinity, spellskite, etc. Doom blade misses basically everything victim does (and more besides, tasigur, rhino, etc).
Ultimate price misses rhinos, olivia, huntmaster, etc.
Smother misses most of those as well.
If I'm paying BB for a removal spell, I damn want terminate, but there's no terminate to play. Victim of night is the closest, broadest removal spell we have, its just (maybe) not worth the difficulty to cast over go for the throat (or what have you).
My thoughts on removal suite: Go for the Throat missing on Spellskite is the very reason to play it (it dodges skite's activations ). Apart from that, Doom Blade is the best 2 CMC removal we can play. Apart from those Dismember and Murderous Cut are the best removal pieces we have access to, while also being the best at mana efficiency. Disfigures HAVE to see play in a meta with like 4/10 hits in the bests decks of the format (Except for combo and UWx Control decks).
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I'd straight up start by chopping Overwhelming Denial, Quickling, both Scion of Oona and Repeal. Replace them with a 3/2 split of TS/IoK and test for a couple weeks. If you find yourself lost at the time of picking cards just think of how those cards will interact with the board, your hand or the stack in the development of the game and how can you react to them with the resources you CURRENTLY have (don't hope for the top deck or AV to resolve to have answers, analyze the situation with what you actually have), then pick the one card that creates the most trouble. Otherwise, if you can keep up with his hand, pick the card that gives them the most value.
Cards like Overwhelming Denial and Repeal are better off in the sideboard, than mainboard. Especially the counterspell, as if you don't have the 4 mana or a second spell to cast it's useless. Don't get tricked by those trap cards. Repeal is decent, but it's better off SB against things like Leylines and pesky cards you can Bounce EoT and then discard or counter, which mostly show up G2/3. Quickling and Scion of Oona are more sophisticated, but require deckbuilding around them. When AV became unbanned, my Scion slots became AV slots instantly, as we can use those slots to fight better the weak MUs than to try and go aggro. Quickling has always been a trap, I wouldn't recomend it EVER.
Remember that countering T1/2/3 plays is not always profitable. Countering cantrips, for instance,unless heavy mulliganed, stuck on lands, or corner cases like that is not a good play, as they will eventually get the threat or the resource to cast it and you won't have an answer to it. Don't waste counters or discard in enablers unless you are loaded with answers and ready to go to fight on the stack with the actual bomb, save your mana and cards for those.
Understanding how to play discard is really hard, even harder than counterspells, as the cards you pick with discard are not directly threatening the game state. You need to polish your discard ability before deciding to walk away from it.
I played against black zoo and in 4 games I got crushed every time. Harder than affinity. I couldn't keep up with the threats. The one game I may have been stable, he used goreclan rampager after I blocked with my spellskite... I had snare, remand, spellskite redirect.... No good. A good ol vapor snag would have helped though.
How many discard spells do you play? I bet you play somewhere around 5/6 between discard + Cliques. Can you share the list you used when you saw those problems?
This are my general thoughts on Faeries, maybe you can find some of them helpful:
We play a deck that interacts better with threats in hand and stack rather than on the battlefield. You can't profitably run more than 8 removal spells in the deck, because you will fold often to good MUs like Combo and Control. This is the reason why Discard slots can't be trimmed, because they are also better removal or better counterspells (they kill hexproof and 'counter' the uncounterable), they are the best answer to a not-yet-asked question. Discard spells impact the development of the game so much better than counters and removals, because they take out the ability of an answer. Once the spell is on the stack it can be affected by 'can't be countered' clauses or opposing and more effective counters (Dispel/Spell Snare/Spell Pierce), once they are on the battlefield you have less cards to interact with them (as only removal takes them out). This is what concerns me the most when I see people posting lists trimmed on discard in favor of Ancestral Vision. This may not be your case though.
The way I see it in the early turns discard is great because it takes out the threatening spells or the answers to our counters/removal. But later in the game they become even better because, unlike jund, we don't aim to get people hellbent with lili and kill them with a goyf. People usually rebuilds their hands and try to go again, so that's when drawing more hand disruption becomes better, you force them to play their counters to 'protect' the threat (but leave the window open for you to counter in their turn) or you can take their pump spell, combo piece, wrath effect, whatever would blow you out at sorcery speed or that would work better in their turn. Basically, late game discard can force a resource exchange that is more profitable for you even it being 1 for 1. Especially against decks like Zooicide, which need some specific cards to win through your permission/BB tokens/removal. Discard outplays the 'rebuild' plan.
In my list my breakdown goes: 9 Cards are hand dirsuption (6 discard + 3 V Cliques), 11 are permisson (7 counterspells +4 Stutters) and 7 are removal spells. So I got 20 cards that work better with cards in Hand/Stack (7 of which come with a body) and 7 cards that fight resolved threats. This is what you have to keep in mind when choosing what to discard from your opponent, which spells to counter and which to let resolve. I consider more valuable to take your threats from your hand than take your outs to removal/counters. Counterspells are better to fight things you can't kill, or to fight bomb spells. If you have the kill spell, then take the 'comeback' card and let the threat resolve, then kill it EoT and kinda timewalk them. You can stonewall any Zooicide threat with Bitterblossom until you find your out to the situation.
Attacking the hand gives you the information you need to make your game plan, what to counter, what to kill, how to handle each situation.
Anyway, that experience is a sample of 4 matches agaisnt Zooicide, it's not enough to get a proper determination of the MU and it's not a deck that currently is considered a contender, I don't think you should add any cards for that MU in particular, but any card that plays well against aggro should suffice your sideboard plan. My advice is to get better at playing the discard game and to tune the discard/counter/removal trifecta that defines this deck. Find your metagame angles of attack, look for your best options to fight it and adjust the amount of spells to do so (MB and SB).
4x Fatal Push
3x Thoughtseize
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Bitterblossom
4x Spellstutter Sprite
3x Snapcaster Mage
1x Go for the Throat
1x Collective Brutality
1x Countersquall
2x Vendilion Clique
1x Dismember
3x Cryptic Command
1x Murderous Cut
1x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4x Mutavault
4x Polluted Delta
4x Darkslick Shores
2x Creeping Tar Pit
2x Secluded Glen
1x Watery Grave
1x Ghost Quarter
4x Island
1x Swamp
1x Ghost Quarter
4x Surgical Extraction
1x Dispel
2x Ceremonious Rejection
1x Echoing Truth
1x Collective Brutality
1x Countersquall
2x Liliana of the Veil
2x Damnation
Considering changing the Countersquall in the main for another Liliana of the Veil, or Liliana, the Last Hope in place of 2nd LotV in the board (3 lilis total). Would also like to get another slot for GQ but can't touch surgicals as of now -maybe in the future- and the rest of the slots are pretty tight, can't really play it maindeck.
Not playing Mistbind mostly because Tron is not largely played in my LGS. Kalitas and Tasigur have been great in that spot, as they hose aggro decks pretty well.
The list feels strong, it has a fair game against most decks, although the only deck I have thoroughly tested is Merfolks (a bit over 100 games) with a win rate of 65% pre-board and 75%/80% post-board.
I've seen an uptick in discussion for Liliana of the Veil in the last couple pages. Having played her in faeries since 2014, here's my 2 cents on the card:
For people playing Lili in the main, consider trimming countermagic from your deck. Lili's dominance in the board comes from +1-ing her as much as possible, whether to quickly ultimate vs a Titan Shift deck or to control the board presence of a creature deck. If you can't profitably +1 her, you shouldn't be playing her (at least mainboard), and if you are siding her in, try to trim counterspells for her slots. When Lili is good, counters are generally bad -exception being combo/control, but then you do the same with removal spells- so keep that in mind.
In modern there are more creature based decks than spell based combo or control decks, so that makes our priorities a bit easier:
Removal spell > Counter spell.
Remember: Counters are good as long as there are things on the stack. For things to be on the stack, your opponent has to have cards in hand. Liliana is insanely good at having players go hellbent. So, if you're keeping your hand size in 1 card, keep the card that impacts the board, not the card that has the potential of impacting the stack. This is not really a rule, nor it's restricted to removal spells 100%. Assess the match up, assess your hand, decide what will have more impact before discarding and cursing your topdeck. Lili does not forgive.
Holding up counterspells and discarding value cards or removal to Lili is bad vs decks that want to tap creatures to win, that's why it's a general rule that Lili and counters don't get along (modern is a creature based format after all). Against creature decks it's easier to deal with a resolved creature through removal than having the window open to counter it, and -as where modern stands right now- good counterspells generally cost more mana than good creatures. So if you +1 Lili and you have a Counter and a Removal in hand, discard the counter and play the removal, then compliment with -2 if necessary. Even if you can't play the removal because you tapped out for lili or because you used your black source for a Tseize/IoK, discard the counter and play the removal next turn or when necessary.
The best card to join Lili in your deck is Snapcaster Mage. Always keep the Snapcaster when discarding to Lili's +1 (unless it's strictly necessary to hold something else and being forced to +1 her). Thiago will re-buy what you discarded to her or what you already used and need to re-use, while keeping the beats or protecting her. Don't be afraid of Snapcasting instants in your turn then proceed to +1 lili. If you play serum, you can play snap, target serum, +1 lili, then cast serum. Another great play is going Snap, flashback discard, +1 lili. Snapcaster Mage is the best ally of Liliana of the Veil in UB.
It goes like this:
T3:You resolve it, then you can play a free Ancestral Vision. Opponent's Turn, you get nothing.
T4: You tick it up, then you can play a free Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Serum Visions or Fatal Push. Opp's turn, you can play a free Fatal Push, Spell Snare or Dispel.
T5: You tick it up, then you can play a free Bitterblossom, Spellstutter Sprite, Go for the Throat, Mana Leak, Remand or Collective Brutality. Opp's turn, you can play a free Spellstutter Sprite, Go for the Throat, Mana Leak, Remand, Countersquall or Echoing Truth.
T6: You tick it up, then you can play a free Vendilion Clique, Dismember, Liliana of the Veil, Liliana, the Last Hope, Scion of Oona, Sword[/sword] [card=Sword of Light and Shadow]of X and [card=Sword of Body and Mind]Y or Hero's Downfall. Opp's turn, you can play a free Vendilion Clique, Dismember, Scion of Oona or Hero's Downfall.
T7: You tick it up, then you can play a free Damnation, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Mistbind Clique, Cryptic Command. Opp's turn, you can play a free Mistbind Clique or Cryptic Command.
T8+ is redundant.
*Used cards that are somewhat mainstream in Faeries as examples.
** Keep reading before pointing out that it's a cumulative effect.
The beauty of the card relies is that it reads [...]with converted mana cost X or less[...], which is a real treat, as it means that all the spells mentioned in the 'turn before' are cumulative in every turn, so if you have 3 counters you can still play a free Vision and keep up a free V clique in draw step. All this while using no mana: up to 2 spells per turn cycle for free.
The card has a high floor (it is a 3CMC sorcery speed spell, only good when you're drawing a good amount of cards) and an even higher ceiling (it can outright win the game if not answered/properly protected).
All in all, I think it's a pretty good card to play in the sideboard to keep up with decks that try to do serious business and our tempo doesn't catch up properly mid-to-late game. It's more of a mainboard material in combo decks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfuwO0kUtsw
How is Scion a nombo with mistbind? The latter doesn't target... The argument of Scion being a nombo is in sword builds, and even with swords that problem is created in already won games anyway or can be played around easily (attaching a sword before dropping 2nd scion), so not much of a problem in the end.
Cycling means 'cost: draw a card', not sure you understood what he meant by that. Long story short: when you wipe the graveyard with Relic, you draw a card (cycling). The card that's between the two (Relic/Crypt) is Nihil Spellbomb: when you need it to wipe a GY it does it, if you have a B available, it also cycles.
Grafdigger's Cage is great against dredge because it doesn't allow them to cast Conflagrate, keeps Bloodghast and Prized Amalgam at bay and kind of forces them to not build a graveyard if they don't have an answer to it in hand (Abrupt Decay or Engineered Explosives). Cage also hits Collected Company, Chord of Calling, Eldritch Evolution, Snapcaster Mage, Nahiri, the Harbinger, Goryo's Vengeance and Lingering Souls' true value. The cage is quite good in general in the metagame.
I agree with Liliana, the Last Hope being great in Faeries. It does everything you need in a Lili: Deals with creatures, provides CA and has a game winning ultimate. The reason why this lili might even be better than LotV (and I love LotV with all my heart), is that this lili does get along with counterspells. Although she's not that great against burn, she's still good as she'll allow you to stop Goblin Guides, kill Grim Lavamancer on the spot, chump with a Stutter after countering something, then get it ready to counter something else and chump again. Faeries often lacks a plan when is trying to come back to the game from being behind without a Bitterblossom out or significant board pressure, and lili fixes this by giving you a 'Protect the Queen' minigame in which if you protect lili for 4 turns you get a game winning ultimate. And if you don't protect her, or see that you'll lose the minigame, you'll just get so much value in the process that it's OK, cause now you know you can start -2ing her for even more value and go over the top.
Lili is perfect for UBx shells, my initial thoughts are that Faeries and Esper are the best shells for the card, as it's the best color combination + strategies to make the card shine.
When I first saw the new lili, my heart wanted me to re-build my beloved faeries, although I still don't believe the metagame is the best for the Fae. Now that I sold a bunch of stuff, I might re build it, as it's the pet deck of my dreams.
I believe that LtlH will serve Faeries well enough, alongisde Collective Brutality, the card that single-handedly wrecks burn and gets aggro and combo decks at bay.
Yes, sure. But you are just narrowing down the game to only show cases where it's 'bad' (and even in those cases it is good) and the card is great.
As for where would I play Sower, well.. I just don't think it's a good choice, I wouldn't play Sower at all. I'd rather pack in a Glen Elendra Archmage, and I wouldn't play it unless there is Burn and Combo everywhere.
Anyway, that's enough for that matter, we are not getting anywhere discussing cards in narrow cases. The only real case where it's bad is against affinity. If you're afraid of it's interaction with your sideboard cards that is a problem of sideboarding or deckbuilding(if you can't profitably play your 75 cards or switch them in a way where they are always useful, you have a problem), but has nothing to do with the card.
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Casts Winds of Change
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Last Saturday ended up playing Gamesday and punted in the finals like a chump. But the coming weekend I'll be taking Faeries to a big tournament, hopefully the deck will prove worthy. Still not decided on how many disfigures I want in my 75 (2/0, 1/1, 1/0) and the counters split in the board between Dispel and Countersquall (2/1 at the moment). I don't know what to expect in this metagame though, which makes card choices harder.
Sure, but you're just switching examples to make valid your concept of Go for the Throat being bad. I just told you that the very reason to play the card is that it misses Spellskite, and the example you just gave proves how good it is. Who cares about stealing something from a Combo deck when you can just kill the combo piece and go over the top of its protection? Sower is not a good play against that deck anyway, as you can't flash it in. If you dare playing it you open yourself to an EoT angel -> untap -> Chord FTW.
EDIT: Why on earth would Grixis sideboard in Spellskite against Faeries? That's a burn/bogles/infect tech.
This is too trivial, you need 6 mana to do this in the same turn and the activation will most likely be irrelevant. I'd rather Throat EoT, untap and steal setting up a clock and protection for it, rather than try the cute route and have no untapped mana to keep interaction up.
There are several things wrong with this. To begin with, decks playing Tarmogoyf don't play Spellskite anyway. But, if you were to face one, there is no shame in killing the goyf and stealing the Skite, it's a 2 for 1 anyway, as they need to kill their own kite before taking down your threat. There is no 'stealing goyf would have been better', you don't play aggro, you want to win slowly and effectively. Make amends with that or you'll be disappointed with the deck.
I feel like it's better to have more removal and discard than 'hard' counters like Leak right now, but maybe that's just me. It's giving me good results so don't plan on changing it.
Why? You just target the goyf and kill it. If your opponent activates spellskites he just loses mana/life, as the ability fails to resolve because it's an illegal target. Then you steal the skite and protect the Sower, not like you're losing in that scenario anyway.
If you're to splash green, it shouldn't be only for Decay. You could also benefit from some number of these cards:
0-4 Tarmogoyf (MB or SB)
0-2 Maelstrom Pulse (MB/SB)
0-2 Pulse of Murasa (SB)
0-1 Painful Truths (MB/SB)
0-2 Kiora, Master of the Depths (MB/SB)
0-1 Creeping Corrosion (SB)
0-2 Thragtusk (MB/SB)
I have tried the splash in the past, and figured is just not good enough. I'd rather plainly play BUG Midrange with thopters.
3x Ancestral Vision
2x Spell Snare
4x Thoughtseize
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Disfigure
3x Remand
4x Spellstutter Sprite
4x Bitterblossom
2x Doom Blade
1x Go for the Throat
3x Vendilion Clique
1x Dismember
1x Liliana of the Veil
2x Mistbind Clique
1x Murderous Cut
Lands:
1x Cavern of Souls
4x Mutavault
3x Creeping Tar Pit
3x Secluded Glen
4x Darkslick Shores
4x Polluted Delta
4x Island
1x Swamp
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Dispel
1x Countersquall
3x Liliana of the Veil
2x Damnation
1x Mindbreak Trap
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1x Batterskull
Edit: still trying to figure out where to place that 2nd Disfigure in the main (which I believe should be there) and trying to sort the need of the SB 3 split among Dispel and Countersquall
My thoughts on removal suite:
Go for the Throat missing on Spellskite is the very reason to play it (it dodges skite's activations ). Apart from that, Doom Blade is the best 2 CMC removal we can play. Apart from those Dismember and Murderous Cut are the best removal pieces we have access to, while also being the best at mana efficiency. Disfigures HAVE to see play in a meta with like 4/10 hits in the bests decks of the format (Except for combo and UWx Control decks).
Cards like Overwhelming Denial and Repeal are better off in the sideboard, than mainboard. Especially the counterspell, as if you don't have the 4 mana or a second spell to cast it's useless. Don't get tricked by those trap cards. Repeal is decent, but it's better off SB against things like Leylines and pesky cards you can Bounce EoT and then discard or counter, which mostly show up G2/3.
Quickling and Scion of Oona are more sophisticated, but require deckbuilding around them. When AV became unbanned, my Scion slots became AV slots instantly, as we can use those slots to fight better the weak MUs than to try and go aggro. Quickling has always been a trap, I wouldn't recomend it EVER.
Remember that countering T1/2/3 plays is not always profitable. Countering cantrips, for instance,unless heavy mulliganed, stuck on lands, or corner cases like that is not a good play, as they will eventually get the threat or the resource to cast it and you won't have an answer to it. Don't waste counters or discard in enablers unless you are loaded with answers and ready to go to fight on the stack with the actual bomb, save your mana and cards for those.
Understanding how to play discard is really hard, even harder than counterspells, as the cards you pick with discard are not directly threatening the game state. You need to polish your discard ability before deciding to walk away from it.
How many discard spells do you play? I bet you play somewhere around 5/6 between discard + Cliques. Can you share the list you used when you saw those problems?
This are my general thoughts on Faeries, maybe you can find some of them helpful:
We play a deck that interacts better with threats in hand and stack rather than on the battlefield. You can't profitably run more than 8 removal spells in the deck, because you will fold often to good MUs like Combo and Control. This is the reason why Discard slots can't be trimmed, because they are also better removal or better counterspells (they kill hexproof and 'counter' the uncounterable), they are the best answer to a not-yet-asked question. Discard spells impact the development of the game so much better than counters and removals, because they take out the ability of an answer. Once the spell is on the stack it can be affected by 'can't be countered' clauses or opposing and more effective counters (Dispel/Spell Snare/Spell Pierce), once they are on the battlefield you have less cards to interact with them (as only removal takes them out). This is what concerns me the most when I see people posting lists trimmed on discard in favor of Ancestral Vision. This may not be your case though.
The way I see it in the early turns discard is great because it takes out the threatening spells or the answers to our counters/removal. But later in the game they become even better because, unlike jund, we don't aim to get people hellbent with lili and kill them with a goyf. People usually rebuilds their hands and try to go again, so that's when drawing more hand disruption becomes better, you force them to play their counters to 'protect' the threat (but leave the window open for you to counter in their turn) or you can take their pump spell, combo piece, wrath effect, whatever would blow you out at sorcery speed or that would work better in their turn. Basically, late game discard can force a resource exchange that is more profitable for you even it being 1 for 1. Especially against decks like Zooicide, which need some specific cards to win through your permission/BB tokens/removal. Discard outplays the 'rebuild' plan.
In my list my breakdown goes: 9 Cards are hand dirsuption (6 discard + 3 V Cliques), 11 are permisson (7 counterspells +4 Stutters) and 7 are removal spells. So I got 20 cards that work better with cards in Hand/Stack (7 of which come with a body) and 7 cards that fight resolved threats. This is what you have to keep in mind when choosing what to discard from your opponent, which spells to counter and which to let resolve. I consider more valuable to take your threats from your hand than take your outs to removal/counters. Counterspells are better to fight things you can't kill, or to fight bomb spells. If you have the kill spell, then take the 'comeback' card and let the threat resolve, then kill it EoT and kinda timewalk them. You can stonewall any Zooicide threat with Bitterblossom until you find your out to the situation.
Attacking the hand gives you the information you need to make your game plan, what to counter, what to kill, how to handle each situation.
Anyway, that experience is a sample of 4 matches agaisnt Zooicide, it's not enough to get a proper determination of the MU and it's not a deck that currently is considered a contender, I don't think you should add any cards for that MU in particular, but any card that plays well against aggro should suffice your sideboard plan. My advice is to get better at playing the discard game and to tune the discard/counter/removal trifecta that defines this deck. Find your metagame angles of attack, look for your best options to fight it and adjust the amount of spells to do so (MB and SB).
EDIT: As a reference, here's my list:
4x Thoughtseize
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Disfigure
3x Ancestral Vision
2x Spell Snare
4x Bitterblossom
2x Doom Blade
1x Go for the Throat
4x Spellstutter Sprite
3x Remand
1x Dismember
3x Vendilion Clique
2x Mistbind Clique
1x Murderous Cut
Lands:
4x Mutavault
3x Creeping Tar Pit
4x Darkslick Shores
4x Polluted Delta
3x Secluded Glen
1x Cavern of Souls
4x Island
1x Swamp
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Duress
2x Dispel
2x Hurkyl's Recall
2x Countersquall
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2x Damnation
1x Batterskull
I'm toying with Liliana of the Veil (1 MB and 2/3 SB), bounce cards (Wipe Away/Repeal/Echoing Truth) SB and Mindbreak Trap SB as well.