I know this comes up a lot and we have debated it a lot, but given the fact that Fatal Push now exists, I want to nail down my final removal spell. I am pretty set on wanting a seventh removal, mostly because of the fact that we only have a 68% chance of having a removal spell by turn three if we run six, yet that jumps to 74% with a seventh. Having just one, quickly means having a second due to snapcaster.
I have the following relevant cards:
25 land:
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Mutavault
4 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats (yes, with only three targets)
1 Flooded Plain
2 Watery Grave
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Island
1 Swamp
1. Most important: it needs to kill all/almost all eldrazi creatures.
2. It needs to be cheap enough to defend against an angry horde of creatures (i.e. 1 or 2 mana)
Secondary criteria:
Being able to kill Primeval Titan, Wurmcoil Engine, etc. is important.
Being able to use it with a snapcaster mage early in the game is important.
Jund, Junk and Grixis all play black creatures, which may prove problematic.
I already have 2 maindeck GFTT, so three is too many.
Extra things (like lifegain, being able to kill a planeswalker etc) are nice but not essential.
Victim seems good, but getting two black mana on turn two isn't exactly guaranteed, especially since I want to usually be using a black mana on turn 1, so can't rely on Creeping Tar Pit. That means we only have 6 Fetch, 1 swamp, 4 Darkslick, 2 Watery Grave to rely on BB on turn 2 - not enough.
I am slightly tempted to run one damnation, but that takes us to seven 4CC spells (and all UUU or BB) in the maindeck which may be an issue. Also, I don't really want to have to use damnation to get rid of a goblin guide or something. Damnation is amazing if I can live long enough to cast it however.
Doom Blade is solid, and is probably what I will end up with, I just wish it could kill Tasigur, Seige Rhino, Dark Confidant, Grim Flayer and a few others (lesser-used cards like Knight of the Reliquary, Doran, Creeping Tar Pit, Olivia Voldaren, any dredge creature etc.)
Slaughter Pact is interesting because it works so well with my two maindeck Khalitas, but requiring me to tap out next turn is a real pain., especially since that turn is usually my turn four.
A second Murderous Cut is likely too slow. Sure, I have six fetchlands, but I also have four snapcaster that don't play well with those other things.
I liked the idea of a sacrifice effect (liliana or the life-gain instant for 2B) but in practice, it's too slow, and often doesn't hit what I need - Eldrazi has too many noble hierarchs and 1/1 spawn tokens. I also almost never want to ditch one of my own cards.
Tragic Slip is pretty interesting - it's one mana, so it's ideal for use with snapcaster and I can presumably block with a sprite or snap if I absolutely must.
Dismember is too much life and doesn't kill the biggest stuff, like Wurmcoil, Titan, a large Tarmogoyf, etc.
Comical mention goes to Evil Twin:
Mana cost: 2UB
Type: Creature — Shapeshifter
Effect of card: You may have Evil Twin enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield except it gains "UB, T: Destroy target creature with the same name as this creature."
Power/Toughness: 0/0
There is also something like Phantasmal Image in the same vein. Late game it could conceivably be used on a snapcaster or a Clique if we absolutely must.
The other option is just to say "**** it" and run a tasigur here. It's a threat and it blocks most stuff that I am worried about, which means that I don't need to worry quite so much about creatureless decks - it's a perfectly good threat late game against control. Late game it comes down for one mana. Early game it comes down for three, but that's okay - I'm only doing that against aggro decks like Burn that find it hard to remove. I had one in for a while and I can't for the life of me remember why I removed it - it was almost always good. It also eats bitterblossoms from the graveyard - important against Jund and Junk. And it gives me another use for the six fetchlands I feel the need to run to support fatal push.
Finally, I could just run the fourth Fatal Push again and like it
I would highly recommend Slaughter Pact as it seems like the card you're really looking for. It misses a few creatures, but is relevant against a lot of the ones that really matter. Being able to flash it back with snap for 0 is an incredible tempo play as well (as long as you can pay for it).
I personally run:
I only run 6 as I run a singleton Shadow of Doubt in the deck as well, but could be easily taken out for removal if the meta proves for the go for the throat being necessary.
My removal package feels solid and haven't run into too many issues with it feeling light (if I would add one more card it'd be a hard decision between another push or gftt). I've also been testing the 4 snap version of the deck and it seems to work well with a majority of these spells are they're all pretty easy to snapcaster back.
What do you guys normally side in and out against elves? Always have trouble with this matchup
I'd side in Engineered Explosives and Damnation/any sweepers. Just be smart when playing as it's definitely winnable as long as they can't give their dudes trample. A well timed sweeper ruins their game and will not pan-out well for them.
If your list looks anything like mine, it's best to take out expensive removal for the sweepers (murderous cut/dismember), and i'd probably remove a shadow of doubt and spell snare from my list to put in my explosives.
since you play kalitas i can see why you justify that as if he is removed the turn you play him you very well may have lost the game.
He's definitely a late-game play more than an early-game play (unless you're against burn in which case he is very crucial to the deck). The thing is, the same could be said about Mistbind Clique if you didn't drop an early Bitterblossom. I've found in testing that mistbind + bb is essential due to the high amount of removal we are seeing everywhere, since they easily interact with one faerie on the board and you end up getting 2-for-1'd super hard. Kalitas at least usually (even with counterspell backup) has a chance at only being 1-for-1'd, which means you aren't taking a huge tempo loss if they immediately remove him.
Note that all my creatures are independent for their abilities as well, and aren't super reliant on eachother (ss-sprite being a mild exception, but still great on it's own) for it to work properly. Mistbind is a card that relies on other cards to do ANYTHING, which is difficult to justify. This is also my reasoning for not using Smuggler's Copter or swords anymore in my lists as they can occasionally be very dead cards. That's my reasoning for using the creatures I do, because they can stand on their own and make an impact in that way.
Vclique is very good at eliminating negative variance in our deck as he is a nice threat, that can give perfect information or loot dead cards and also act as a pseudo counter against sorcery speed threats we don't have answers too. Ultimately Vclique is just better on his own than Spellstutter sprite which is nice but Basically I'm unsure as to if the risk of a low fae count and no threat is better/worse than the power of a Vclique bc obviously once we have a high fae count SSS is superior. Also, seeing Vendilly die instantly is typically what happens but it is still typically valuable as he still sets up future plays by seeing opponents hand or looting for a removal.
I think i will be for sure testing this, but let me know what you guys think. Thanks!
Sorry to immediately knock on your thoughts for creatures but I'll post mine as a counter arguement:
With Fatal Push on the rise and more one drop removal floating around, spellstutter is better than ever. It might be a slower clock, but tempoing your opponent is what really matters with Faeries.
Since you aren't running Kalitas in the main, cliques of both types are pretty great, but I feel like right now a high count of snap and ss-sprite is the most important split to have.
I'm going to be posting an updated list very soon with explanations on each selection, but it's quite a bit of a write-up for explaining my counts and why I'm running what I'm running for my own meta.
So I have to ask. Since almost no run runs secluded glen anymore, is the common consensus that this card isn't good enough? Does it give too much info away?
I'd say so unless you're playing a bitterblossom to follow it immediately.
Otherwise it gives your opponent a lot of information if you're holding a vClique, Spellstutter, or something else. Could spell trouble for you since they now know to properly play around it. If you're looking for a strong untapped land in turns 1-4 you should be looking at darkslick shores & drowned catacomb
Unrelated side note, I'm going to be at GP San Jose on Saturday and will most likely be doing an event or two. If anyone else is going there and would like to talk and or playtest, just let me know. I'm also going to hopefully be getting some alters from rkpost, but we will see if I can get to the front of the line for that to make sure I can get them done quickly.
I'm most likely getting my spellstutters altered, as he's altered stuff in the past for me and I've never been disappointed. If I manage to get them altered, I'll make sure to throw a photo of them on here for all to see.
Anyone care to comment about the Saffi Eriksdotter spike?
I have my playset so I'm not super concerned, but I'm curious why it is spiking out of nowhere.
If Renegade Rallier is really the reasoning for it, i'd be interested to see it in action.
I tried putting together a Saffi combo deck with Eldritch Evolution before, but if people are thinking this is a thing with legitimate proof I'd really like to see.
Little update from FNM, I feel like 2 push was the right call. I didn't go up against normal decks as there were a lot of people testing new things, but Esper Tokens was probably the worst that I went up against, it was near unbeatable.
I never got the chance to use my dismember in any of my games, but I think I'm going to leave it in for the time being. I see no point in dropping it for the gftt just yet.
I can do a little more of a write-up at a later time, I'm just feeling a bit sick and am trying to recall everything right now.
Hope everyone else who had the chance to test also found positive results from push or anything else they were testing.
I did end up getting to trade for a foil push by the way and it is quite stunning. Looking forward to getting my copies signed next weekend.
And finally @daut, I think I'd rather play another GftT over dismember. The life loss is just so brutal in our deck, otherwise it's a 3 mana spell. The only time I'd prefer dismember would be against wurmcoil, but even then I'd need a blocker. Just my opinion
It does take away Bitterblossom tokens which can be a pain (quite literally), but it's still important to consider that putting in another GftT would make us even weaker to Tron/Affinity in the main, which I think will be a deck we will see often.
I'm sticking with my removal package for now and if I find that dismember is honestly that bad, then I'll let you know what I make the switch towards (most likely GftT though, since it hits all the delve creatures and is pretty great against spellskites and a few other misc decks that are low on creature count.)
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
3 Fatal Push
1 Go for the Throat
1 Murderous Cut
1 Slaughter Pact
2 Mana Leak
3 Cryptic Command
4 Bitterblossom
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
4 Mutavault
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Tectonic Edge
4 Polluted Delta
4 Island
1 Swamp
1 River of Tears
4 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Watery Grave
4 Darkslick Shores
SB:
3 Ancestral Vision
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Damnation
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Rain of Tears
2 Negate
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Fatal Push or Doom Blade or Dismember or Echoing Truth or Familiar's Ruse or GFTT.
Current "to test": Add an Echoin Truth and a Fatal Push to the board, remove the third Rain of Tears. Replace the Tectonic Edge with the second Ghost Quarter since it can fix mana in a pinch and even help against blood moon too, as well as killing early but scary manlands and breaking up a turn three tron. Oh, it doesn't even need mana to activate, which seems important.
EDIT: Completely forgot Echoing Truth can also stop Lingering Souls tokens with a single card - one of the best cards against us usually. Okay, I'm sold.
Glad to see someone settle on a list so close to my own. I am having a difficult time justifying Mistbinds in my own list, as they occasionally feel very clunky and i'd maybe like something else in it's place. I was thinking about taking that opportunity to remove the two in my list, move 1 Shadow of Doubt to the main, along with something else like a Liliana, the Last Hope or maybe swords as I already own them, but haven't tested them in the main like you seem to be trying out. I'll let you know how my side of things works as I most likely will be playing this on Friday.
For your maindeck, my only suggestion would be to keep in Dismember. I know only two Push sounds like it might not be much...but your counter package combined with other things makes it worth it. When you run into Tasigurs, Anglers, and Mandrills in the future that you can't kill with Push, some you can't kill with Slaughter Pact, and you're stuck with only 2 options, you start to get desperate quickly. Dismember still will do the job of Push for one mana if you need it to, but it can be used to also kill the stuff that gets around Push which we still need to highly take into consideration.
Anyways...regarding your sideboard choices:
3x Ancestral - I think they're great, and I could easily borrow some from a friend of mine, but I still just don't like the card that much. I feel like it's one of the cards you would want already in the maindeck so you can turn 1 it in the first game, and then side it out accordingly later.
2x Explosives - I run the same and think that this is a slot that should probably be in every faeries list as it's diverse and hits important things.
1x Damnation - See above explanation for explosives
2x Surgical - I have a love/hate relationship with this card. It's great (and I already own 4 so I don't have to worry about picking them up post-spike) but it's great in the right situations and horrible in others. Definitely great against dredge, and great against decks like Tron if you're on a ghost quarter-esque package which you seem to be on.
3x Rain of Tears - I see you don't like tron at all. I agree with this being strong with Snap and really needing to take into consideration if this is better than Fulminator Mage at all. 3 seems like a lot though, I'm sure you can shave it down to 2 copies and maybe include extra hate that might be more general (like Ceremonious Rejection if you play a lot of Tron/Affinity, gives you a 1 mana counter that could be very powerful for you that can save you pretty well)
2x Negate - This is my tough one as Dispel is amazing in my meta of a lot of Delver/Control strats, and with Push coming up I think we need Dispel more than ever as a quick 1 mana answer to our faeries potentially dying. Again an argument can be made for negate though if you play against a lot of tron, or like you mentioned, scapeshift, which can be a problem. I feel like early game disruption against scapeshift will win you the game a large majority of the time though, especially if they're on the Summoner's Pact version which you can just eat with a Spellstutter Sprite on 0.
1x Kalitas - I don't know how I feel about him since you already have 2 in the main. I feel like 2 is strong and against a match-up like Burn I can see where this is a justified choice.
1x Misc Removal - I'm going to justify your choice of Echoing Truth in this spot. Echoing Truth my far is one of my favorite blue spells in all of magic, as it punishes people extremely hard for playing too deeply into it. Like you mentioned, it wrecks tokens. It is powerful against bridge locks. Think about it against the inevitable Tasigurs, Anglers, and Mandrills we are about to see though since Fatal Push was printed. Imagine them delving away their entire graveyard for a fatty, and then bouncing it back with the utility of being able to use it for relatively cheap on a flashback with snapcaster. It feels great, trust me.
@duat I like your spread of removal and counter spells, and have also decided to only play 2 push main. I think so much dredge hate in your sb is really unnecessary. I like hurkyls recall for affinity and lantern, but have been testing ceremonious rejection lately to some success.
I dislike the notion of dropping 1 mana discard. I still play 6, 3 of each. It hurts to have TS in your opener against what you find out is burn, and it sucks to IoK Tron, but the consistency discard offers against the vast majority of the meta is too valuable.
If you're going for a tempo list, or even the mono blue list from yester-year looks like it can be really good, then dropping discard may not be a bad option. Remand has also been a classic staple in tempo lists, but I still wouldn't touch it in my control list-with or without push. I want permanent answers and don't mind the game going long. Remand is nice to buy an extra turn or temporarily disrupt their plan, but I would rather have a hard counter.
(Daut*, it's cool though. I have people mistake the name ALL the time.)
It's more-so 4 pieces of my sideboard for the dredge match-up. I know it gets a bit easier coming up, but the tendrils are still good against affinity and other smaller creature decks which is really powerful.
Recall and Rejection are cards I own but have yet to test, it probably would be a good idea to try those out as well.
I didn't drop any 1 mana discard, I've got a full 6 there and I feel like that's the perfect split.
I generalize the deck as tempo because that's what it is. Remand is obviously good but like I mentioned I would really like to see how the format shapes up and go from there.
Does anyone else have an updated list?
I have a few things I've been testing out and I think I found the right split for fatal push + other removal.
I'm wanting to test a few sideboard cards, like people mentioned the format is slowing down and everyone is wanting to play fatal push, so I think we should try and play that to our advantage.
I'm thinking it might be a good option to switch to remands instead of leaks depending on what the meta shifts to, I think everything else still feels right. What's nice is having the availability now to react with 1 mana to a goyf/kalitas/etc but not going overboard and just running 4 because it's the new "talk of the town" so to speak.
As for the sideboard, i've been experimenting with a number of things:
So explaining choices:
Explosives should be obvious for early clears against affinity, burn (their creatures), and a few decks I play against locally (goblins/8rack).
Flaying Tendrils basically holds the same role as explosives but it's better for the dredge match-up simply for it's exiling ability.
Shadow of Doubt is new to me but I'm testing it for the people who are trying to trigger revolt. This deck already is a lot of reactionary "gotcha" kind of cards, and I feel like this would be a wonderful tempo swing depending on the deck you're up against.
Grafdigger's is for obvious graveyard centric decks, slightly neuters our snapcasters but it's worth it to win the game
Dispel is the most obvious cheap counter
Damnation is there for a clear boardwipe with no drawback. Great against the go-wide decks like affinity, elves, etc.
Echoing Truth is there in testing against decks that run dredge creatures, it's pretty hilarious to see someone delve out for tasigur on turn 2 and get it bounced immediately back.
Liliana is for grindy matchups. I hardly ever use the ultimate but it's great against affinity early game, snapcasters, elves, other faeries decks, infect, etc.
Lost Legacy is for Tron, mainly. Getting rid of Karn is pretty nice. It's also pretty great in matchups like scapeshift to just take 4 potential wincons out of the deck. This was also very strong against TITI/Pyromancer's Ascension and other decks that are pretty reliant off of one card.
Pithing Needle is my catch-all, I always try and run 1 to 2 as it's great in almost every match-up.
I'm a bit of a faeries player, but I have a feeling that with Push, Path, and Bolt being in the format, that Spellstutter Sprite could be a very powerful "gotcha" kind of card for Sultai.
I've been looking into a build for Sultai that's got spellstutters for dealing with pesky 1 drop removal, but I'd also be playing bitterblossom for the synergy and how powerful it can be to take away the game (plus I don't own Lilianas yet), as well as feed delirium for Grim Flayer and Tarmogoyf.
Just a bit of an outside opinion, not to mention even a spellstutter on 0 counters AV which seems to be picking up (at least in my local meta).
Energy Prison 3
Artifact
Creatures can't attack unless their controller pays E for each creature he or she controls that's attacking.
Gremlin Guide R
Creature - Gremlin
Haste
Whenever ~ attacks, defending player gains E
2/2
As a prison player and someone who enjoys aggro decks, these seem busted. I feel like a drawback such as giving your opponent a use for the energy on the card as well would balance it out a bit.
(This is something that would be interesting to expand upon. Things that give your opponent energy so that your opponent has the option to give your own card a drawback)
But that artifact is beautiful, and the guide would easily replace every guide in modern burn/goblins/etc
Both the main and the side feel super consistent and I love the inclusion of crucible since we have inventor's fair. Everything has been going well so far for me and I can't wait to continue playing this version.
My friend borrow me.lantern yesterday (I had to play merfolks ) . He went 3-1 and he hasnt been playing modern for a year
His only lost was against buswacker zoo. In g1 no bridge.first 30 cards, g2 he easy wins. In g3 he kept this hand:
Glimmer,BG fastland, inquisition, bridge, 3 ancient stirrings.
Do you keep that hand? He lost because of landing bridge with 3 cards in hand. I think he missplayed because he could have played stirrings hoping to catch an opal and the cast bridge, but maybe the problem is in that hand...
Did he turn 1 inquisition or did he turn 1 stirrings? With stirrings they would be able to find a land, opal, or they can even fail to find to keep their hand clear. Keep in mind that they could have also chosen to inquisition themselves to get an ancient stirrings out of their own hand...it's saved me before in a game to target myself with discard and I'm sure it will happen more in the future.
I would highly recommend Slaughter Pact as it seems like the card you're really looking for. It misses a few creatures, but is relevant against a lot of the ones that really matter. Being able to flash it back with snap for 0 is an incredible tempo play as well (as long as you can pay for it).
I personally run:
I only run 6 as I run a singleton Shadow of Doubt in the deck as well, but could be easily taken out for removal if the meta proves for the go for the throat being necessary.
My removal package feels solid and haven't run into too many issues with it feeling light (if I would add one more card it'd be a hard decision between another push or gftt). I've also been testing the 4 snap version of the deck and it seems to work well with a majority of these spells are they're all pretty easy to snapcaster back.
I'd side in Engineered Explosives and Damnation/any sweepers. Just be smart when playing as it's definitely winnable as long as they can't give their dudes trample. A well timed sweeper ruins their game and will not pan-out well for them.
If your list looks anything like mine, it's best to take out expensive removal for the sweepers (murderous cut/dismember), and i'd probably remove a shadow of doubt and spell snare from my list to put in my explosives.
He's definitely a late-game play more than an early-game play (unless you're against burn in which case he is very crucial to the deck). The thing is, the same could be said about Mistbind Clique if you didn't drop an early Bitterblossom. I've found in testing that mistbind + bb is essential due to the high amount of removal we are seeing everywhere, since they easily interact with one faerie on the board and you end up getting 2-for-1'd super hard. Kalitas at least usually (even with counterspell backup) has a chance at only being 1-for-1'd, which means you aren't taking a huge tempo loss if they immediately remove him.
Note that all my creatures are independent for their abilities as well, and aren't super reliant on eachother (ss-sprite being a mild exception, but still great on it's own) for it to work properly. Mistbind is a card that relies on other cards to do ANYTHING, which is difficult to justify. This is also my reasoning for not using Smuggler's Copter or swords anymore in my lists as they can occasionally be very dead cards. That's my reasoning for using the creatures I do, because they can stand on their own and make an impact in that way.
Sorry to immediately knock on your thoughts for creatures but I'll post mine as a counter arguement:
With Fatal Push on the rise and more one drop removal floating around, spellstutter is better than ever. It might be a slower clock, but tempoing your opponent is what really matters with Faeries.
Since you aren't running Kalitas in the main, cliques of both types are pretty great, but I feel like right now a high count of snap and ss-sprite is the most important split to have.
I'm going to be posting an updated list very soon with explanations on each selection, but it's quite a bit of a write-up for explaining my counts and why I'm running what I'm running for my own meta.
I'd say so unless you're playing a bitterblossom to follow it immediately.
Otherwise it gives your opponent a lot of information if you're holding a vClique, Spellstutter, or something else. Could spell trouble for you since they now know to properly play around it. If you're looking for a strong untapped land in turns 1-4 you should be looking at darkslick shores & drowned catacomb
Unrelated side note, I'm going to be at GP San Jose on Saturday and will most likely be doing an event or two. If anyone else is going there and would like to talk and or playtest, just let me know. I'm also going to hopefully be getting some alters from rkpost, but we will see if I can get to the front of the line for that to make sure I can get them done quickly.
I'm most likely getting my spellstutters altered, as he's altered stuff in the past for me and I've never been disappointed. If I manage to get them altered, I'll make sure to throw a photo of them on here for all to see.
I have my playset so I'm not super concerned, but I'm curious why it is spiking out of nowhere.
If Renegade Rallier is really the reasoning for it, i'd be interested to see it in action.
I tried putting together a Saffi combo deck with Eldritch Evolution before, but if people are thinking this is a thing with legitimate proof I'd really like to see.
I never got the chance to use my dismember in any of my games, but I think I'm going to leave it in for the time being. I see no point in dropping it for the gftt just yet.
I can do a little more of a write-up at a later time, I'm just feeling a bit sick and am trying to recall everything right now.
Hope everyone else who had the chance to test also found positive results from push or anything else they were testing.
I did end up getting to trade for a foil push by the way and it is quite stunning. Looking forward to getting my copies signed next weekend.
It does take away Bitterblossom tokens which can be a pain (quite literally), but it's still important to consider that putting in another GftT would make us even weaker to Tron/Affinity in the main, which I think will be a deck we will see often.
I'm sticking with my removal package for now and if I find that dismember is honestly that bad, then I'll let you know what I make the switch towards (most likely GftT though, since it hits all the delve creatures and is pretty great against spellskites and a few other misc decks that are low on creature count.)
Glad to see someone settle on a list so close to my own. I am having a difficult time justifying Mistbinds in my own list, as they occasionally feel very clunky and i'd maybe like something else in it's place. I was thinking about taking that opportunity to remove the two in my list, move 1 Shadow of Doubt to the main, along with something else like a Liliana, the Last Hope or maybe swords as I already own them, but haven't tested them in the main like you seem to be trying out. I'll let you know how my side of things works as I most likely will be playing this on Friday.
For your maindeck, my only suggestion would be to keep in Dismember. I know only two Push sounds like it might not be much...but your counter package combined with other things makes it worth it. When you run into Tasigurs, Anglers, and Mandrills in the future that you can't kill with Push, some you can't kill with Slaughter Pact, and you're stuck with only 2 options, you start to get desperate quickly. Dismember still will do the job of Push for one mana if you need it to, but it can be used to also kill the stuff that gets around Push which we still need to highly take into consideration.
Anyways...regarding your sideboard choices:
3x Ancestral - I think they're great, and I could easily borrow some from a friend of mine, but I still just don't like the card that much. I feel like it's one of the cards you would want already in the maindeck so you can turn 1 it in the first game, and then side it out accordingly later.
2x Explosives - I run the same and think that this is a slot that should probably be in every faeries list as it's diverse and hits important things.
1x Damnation - See above explanation for explosives
2x Surgical - I have a love/hate relationship with this card. It's great (and I already own 4 so I don't have to worry about picking them up post-spike) but it's great in the right situations and horrible in others. Definitely great against dredge, and great against decks like Tron if you're on a ghost quarter-esque package which you seem to be on.
3x Rain of Tears - I see you don't like tron at all. I agree with this being strong with Snap and really needing to take into consideration if this is better than Fulminator Mage at all. 3 seems like a lot though, I'm sure you can shave it down to 2 copies and maybe include extra hate that might be more general (like Ceremonious Rejection if you play a lot of Tron/Affinity, gives you a 1 mana counter that could be very powerful for you that can save you pretty well)
2x Negate - This is my tough one as Dispel is amazing in my meta of a lot of Delver/Control strats, and with Push coming up I think we need Dispel more than ever as a quick 1 mana answer to our faeries potentially dying. Again an argument can be made for negate though if you play against a lot of tron, or like you mentioned, scapeshift, which can be a problem. I feel like early game disruption against scapeshift will win you the game a large majority of the time though, especially if they're on the Summoner's Pact version which you can just eat with a Spellstutter Sprite on 0.
1x Kalitas - I don't know how I feel about him since you already have 2 in the main. I feel like 2 is strong and against a match-up like Burn I can see where this is a justified choice.
1x Misc Removal - I'm going to justify your choice of Echoing Truth in this spot. Echoing Truth my far is one of my favorite blue spells in all of magic, as it punishes people extremely hard for playing too deeply into it. Like you mentioned, it wrecks tokens. It is powerful against bridge locks. Think about it against the inevitable Tasigurs, Anglers, and Mandrills we are about to see though since Fatal Push was printed. Imagine them delving away their entire graveyard for a fatty, and then bouncing it back with the utility of being able to use it for relatively cheap on a flashback with snapcaster. It feels great, trust me.
(Daut*, it's cool though. I have people mistake the name ALL the time.)
It's more-so 4 pieces of my sideboard for the dredge match-up. I know it gets a bit easier coming up, but the tendrils are still good against affinity and other smaller creature decks which is really powerful.
Recall and Rejection are cards I own but have yet to test, it probably would be a good idea to try those out as well.
I didn't drop any 1 mana discard, I've got a full 6 there and I feel like that's the perfect split.
I generalize the deck as tempo because that's what it is. Remand is obviously good but like I mentioned I would really like to see how the format shapes up and go from there.
I have a few things I've been testing out and I think I found the right split for fatal push + other removal.
I'm wanting to test a few sideboard cards, like people mentioned the format is slowing down and everyone is wanting to play fatal push, so I think we should try and play that to our advantage.
Here's the list I'm going to be playing:
2 Mistbind Clique
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Fatal Push
1 Dismember
1 Go for the Throat
1 Murderous Cut
1 Slaughter Pact
2 Mana Leak
2 Spell Snare
3 Cryptic Command
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
4 Mutavault
4 Polluted Delta
4 Island
1 Swamp
1 Drowned Catacomb
4 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Watery Grave
3 Darkslick Shores
1 Pendelhaven
I'm thinking it might be a good option to switch to remands instead of leaks depending on what the meta shifts to, I think everything else still feels right. What's nice is having the availability now to react with 1 mana to a goyf/kalitas/etc but not going overboard and just running 4 because it's the new "talk of the town" so to speak.
As for the sideboard, i've been experimenting with a number of things:
2 Flaying Tendrils
2 Shadow of Doubt
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Dispel
1 Damnation
1 Echoing Truth
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Lost Legacy
1 Pithing Needle
So explaining choices:
Explosives should be obvious for early clears against affinity, burn (their creatures), and a few decks I play against locally (goblins/8rack).
Flaying Tendrils basically holds the same role as explosives but it's better for the dredge match-up simply for it's exiling ability.
Shadow of Doubt is new to me but I'm testing it for the people who are trying to trigger revolt. This deck already is a lot of reactionary "gotcha" kind of cards, and I feel like this would be a wonderful tempo swing depending on the deck you're up against.
Grafdigger's is for obvious graveyard centric decks, slightly neuters our snapcasters but it's worth it to win the game
Dispel is the most obvious cheap counter
Damnation is there for a clear boardwipe with no drawback. Great against the go-wide decks like affinity, elves, etc.
Echoing Truth is there in testing against decks that run dredge creatures, it's pretty hilarious to see someone delve out for tasigur on turn 2 and get it bounced immediately back.
Liliana is for grindy matchups. I hardly ever use the ultimate but it's great against affinity early game, snapcasters, elves, other faeries decks, infect, etc.
Lost Legacy is for Tron, mainly. Getting rid of Karn is pretty nice. It's also pretty great in matchups like scapeshift to just take 4 potential wincons out of the deck. This was also very strong against TITI/Pyromancer's Ascension and other decks that are pretty reliant off of one card.
Pithing Needle is my catch-all, I always try and run 1 to 2 as it's great in almost every match-up.
I've been looking into a build for Sultai that's got spellstutters for dealing with pesky 1 drop removal, but I'd also be playing bitterblossom for the synergy and how powerful it can be to take away the game (plus I don't own Lilianas yet), as well as feed delirium for Grim Flayer and Tarmogoyf.
Just a bit of an outside opinion, not to mention even a spellstutter on 0 counters AV which seems to be picking up (at least in my local meta).
As a prison player and someone who enjoys aggro decks, these seem busted. I feel like a drawback such as giving your opponent a use for the energy on the card as well would balance it out a bit.
(This is something that would be interesting to expand upon. Things that give your opponent energy so that your opponent has the option to give your own card a drawback)
But that artifact is beautiful, and the guide would easily replace every guide in modern burn/goblins/etc
2 Inventors' Fair
4 Glimmervoid
4 Blooming Marsh
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Botanical Sanctum
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Tendo Ice Bridge
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Codex Shredder
3 Ghoulcaller's Bell
1 Pyxis of Pandemonium
4 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Crucible of Worlds
3 Pithing Needle
4 Ancient Stirrings
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Collective Brutality
Sideboard:
2 Welding Jar
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Nature's Claim
1 Pithing Needle
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Thoughtseize
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Seal of Primordium
2 Spellskite
1 Sun Droplet
1 Witchbane Orb
Both the main and the side feel super consistent and I love the inclusion of crucible since we have inventor's fair. Everything has been going well so far for me and I can't wait to continue playing this version.
Did he turn 1 inquisition or did he turn 1 stirrings? With stirrings they would be able to find a land, opal, or they can even fail to find to keep their hand clear. Keep in mind that they could have also chosen to inquisition themselves to get an ancient stirrings out of their own hand...it's saved me before in a game to target myself with discard and I'm sure it will happen more in the future.