Some cards whose price had raised too much in the last two years have been reprinted as well. In this category we find Fulminator Mage, Noble Hierarch, Spellskite, Remand, Splinter Twin and Daybreak Coronet. In the case of the later two, these cards have appeared in the collection without the combo cards that make them work in Modern (Deceiver Exarch for Twin, and any other aura for Coronet). Kiki-Jiki+Pestermite was a combo that was very present in the first Modern Masters format, and probably they wanted to avoid it; however, not making room to cards like Rancor and some totem armors and/or hybrid mana auras from Shadowmoor/Eventide to make Daybreak Coronnet playable in the format is a clear mistake. The conclusion is clear: if you get a money rare, don't expect to win Limited games with it.
Finally, there are the missing cards from this set. There are many cards that were printed in the first Modern Masters edition that didn't appear in this new edition, like Blood Moon, Engineered Explosives and Vedalken Shackles. In order to make room to new additions, specially if they're rare cards, you need to cut older cards, so there's little to complain about it. However, after two editions there are some cards that haven't been printed yet. The most flagrant case is Serum Visions. With the scry ability being present in Theros, we all thought (or hoped) that the card would be reprinted in that block; we didn't only get the original one, but nothing remotely similar. Now it hasn't been reprinted in Modern Masters again, and its price is skyrocketing.
Once the understanding of the game has improved, Wizards have realized the best decks are both consistent and versatile, something you can only achieve with the control of what you draw via cantrips. Modern is a format in which you can't have it all and you are forced to make a choice: the consistent deck that has a very streamlined plan but can be easily hated, or the versatile deck that has reactive cards that can be useful in a large amount of match-ups, but will still have some unwinnable pairings and, since there aren't completely versatile answers against the full metagame, can still draw the wrong ones against a given opponent.
Other effects that Wizards seem to dislike are stealing creatures (not only Shackles disappear, but Sower of Temptation and Threads of Disloyalty haven't been reprinted), preventing players from searching their libraries (Shadow of Doubt and Aven Mindcensor haven't made the cut twice, while Leonin Arbiter could have been reprinted this year but it wasn't as well) and cheating fatties into play (Goryo's Vengeance and Through the Breach). Inquisition of Kozilek hasn't been printed too, but it appeared in the Modern event deck a year ago.
Overall, the selection of cards in Modern Masters 2015 is pretty good, and if we only look at money cards even better than in the previous Modern Masters edition (something we should already expect from the price increase). The price of some of the reprinted cards is already falling down, so May is a good month to start building or completing your Modern pool, before there is the rebound effect that we observed with the original Modern Masters edition.
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May 10, 2015spellcheck posted a message on modern masters spoiler is completePosted in: spellcheck
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Jan 8, 2015spellcheck posted a message on on future modern banningsWhen comparing Preordain to Dig Through Time in the decks that are currently using the instant, Preordain is a weaker card. However, I missed the (very important) point that the card would be played in more archetypes, and not only replacing Treasure Cruise in Delver and the combo decks that currently feature it (but not in Burn), but also in some decks that try to challenge the turn 4 rule like Reanimator or Amulet, so it probably would be risky. Here is where comes my personal bias of not liking Scapeshift and wanting it weakened in case the deck that keeps it in check right now (Delver) gets its most powerful card banned.Posted in: spellcheck
About other choices, Bloodbraid Elf is still better than the Rhino and I'm unsure about having it and Ancestral Vision together (and Vision seems like the safer choice if you can only pick one); don't think that many people care about Golgari Grave-Troll being or not on the banlist, while Sword of the Meek is a card I've honestly never played with or against and don't have a formed opinion. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Mistbind Clique
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Fatal Push
1 Spell Snare
2 Mana Leak
2 Go for the Throat
2 Collective Brutality
3 Cryptic Command
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Mutavault
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Polluted Delta
2 Watery Grave
4 Island
1 Swamp
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Secluded Glen
1 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Negate
1 Spell Snare
2 Damnation
3 Thoughtseize
Round 1 got paired against Eldrazi Tron. Game 1 he missed with his Thought-Knot Seer, removing Sword instead of Fatal Push. I played a useless Spellstutter Sprite eot to turn on revolt next turn, and got rewarded when I drew a second Fatal Push and he played another Thought-Knot Seer after combat, giving me the chance to kill them all. After those gifts, I only had 2 Mutavault to end the game and they obviously fell short when he started casting Endbringers. Game 2 I mulliganed to 5 and got stuck with 2 lands. Turn 3 I decided to pass the turn to play Mana Leak instead of cracking fetchland for Thoughtseize while holding Ceremonious Rejection; he went for Cavern of Souls into Thought-Knot Seer and all of a sudden those three cards became completely useless. 0-2.
Round 2 I got a bye and spent that time scouting, which gave me the advantage of knowing what my opponents would be playing next rounds. 1-1.
Round 3 I got paired against Jund Delirium. Game 1 he stripped my hand with double Thoughtseize turns 1 and 2 and I was screwed of blue mana for almost the whole game. I played too conservative, and in the end had to gamble at him not having Temur Battle Rage nor Tarfire (he didn't when I checked his hand with Vendilion Clique two turns before) to seal the deal chumpblocking with a Mutavault, championing it with Mistbind Clique and hitting back with Creeping Tar Pit. Game 2 I played two Bitterblossoms turns 2 and 3, he didn't draw the third land in time to cast Maelstrom Pulse on them and the stream of Faeries went out of control. 2-1.
Round 4 I got paired against a regular Tron deck. Game 1 he got fast Tron, but I could still kill Karn after him using the -3 just after casting it with a surprise Snapcaster Mage. Then he got stuck with no green mana and I had hopes of finding a Mistbind Clique with Ancestral Vision to end the game, but he countered it with Warping Weil, drew a Forest and slowly took control of the game. Game 2 I probably missed with my first Thoughtseize choosing to remove Sylvan Scrying over an Ulamog that looked too far from being cast. After using Ceremonious Rejection to allow my Ancestral Vision to resolve, I managed to play Bitterblossom and Thoughtseize to remove an Oblivion Ring that could wipe my board away in a single turn. I passed the turn full tapped hoping to play a Mistbind Clique during his next upkeep. Problem was my opponent was only a mana short of casting Ulamog. He drew a Forest, but instead opted to play Ancient Stirrings to find Ugin and crush me with it instead. 2-2.
Round 5 I got paired against Grixis Delver with Inquisitions of Kozilek. I led on the play with untapped Watery Grave to Fatal Push his Delver, but got hit by Inquisition of Kozilek instead, then I topdecked a Bitterblossom. Next turn he played another Inquisition and I drew another Bitterblossom I played. Next turn I gambled a bit with Mistbind Clique, playing it in response to a fetchland at my eot to dodge a possible counterspell. Luckily for me, he didn't have neither Fatal Push nor Terminate and the game was over very soon. Game 2 he found Bitterblossom in my hand with his turn 1 Inquisition, but I drew another one I could play with just Spell Snare back-up (guessed he had to cut Spell Snares to make room to Inquisition of Kozilek in his deck). Then the game was completely stall, with his flipped Delver and my growing army of Faeries standing in front of each other. My opponent didn't play lands nor spells, while I was setting up a Mistbind Clique with double counterspell back-up to protect myself from my own Bitterblossom. The first turn I decided to attack he casted Electrickery, and I proceeded to play Mistbind Clique despite losing 6 tokens, knowing I wouldn't have to fight a counter war that turn and he could only play two removal spells next turn. His attempts met the double counter back-up defense I had prepared, and I ended up killing his Insectile Aberration and countering all of the spells he tried to cast for the rest of the game. 3-2.
Round 6 I got paired against Ad Nauseam. A bit too late for me. As you can see, my maindeck is pretty soft to pure combo decks like that, so I was happy to keep an initial hand with no removal spells, but Ancestral Vision, Bitterblossom and Vendilion Clique and mana to cast them all on curve. I executed the plan, and my opponent panicked and cast Ad Nauseam in response to Vendilion Clique with no Unlife nor Angel's Grace. He revealed 3 more Nauseams and an Unlife I sent to the bottom of his library. Game 2 I played a turn 2 Bitterblossom despite having Negate and Leak in hand. My opponent had played Pentad Prism and could potentially go off turn 3, but he didn't have the full combo in hand and could only discard Negate (over Cryptic Command) with Thoughtseize. Next turn I used Mana Leak, and the following one I opted to play Mistbind Clique over Cryptic Command on Phyrexian Unlife, knowing I could bounce it back later but that I wouldn't have too many chances to play the Clique. Then I countered a Laboratory Maniac with Snapcaster Mage, and on the decisive turn in which my opponent expected to win resolving Lotus Bloom with Spoils of the Vault to look for Pact of Negation as defense, I again declined to play Cryptic Command to go with Vendilion Clique and Ceremonious Rejection instead. 4-2.
After checking the standings, I realized that if any of the currently at 12 points players would enter the top8, it would be someone with better tie-breakers than myself, but the organizer had promised some packs to the top16, and even with the low participation he kept his word, so I stayed to try to get them.
Round 7 I got paired against a guy I didn't recognize who happened to be playing an Atarka aggro deck. Game 1 I didn't see any Fatal Push and got crushed. Game 2 he kept a hand that was able to deal 14 damage out of nowhere if he drew a second land. Luckily for me it never happened (or at least not before I bounced the first one back to his hand), although I had to play Bitterblossom to keep in check one of his creatures and race him desperately with Vendilion Clique and Mutavault. Game 3 my opponent kept another greedy one-lander, but this time he had an annoying flow of creatures he could cast. I probably played too conservative, getting to the point of discarding Bitterblossom to Collective Brutality instead of playing it, to then get hit by a 2/3 while I only had a Spellstutter Sprite to race it. Luckily I drew a Batterskull the turn I was going to play my sixth land, so I could play it with Spell Snare back-up to keep the board clear next turn in case he drew a second land, as it happened. Then I used Fatal Push to remove his blocker and that was it. 5-2, and the Chandra I opened looked sexier than a playset of fetchlands I already own in random languages I would've have won if I had lost in quarterfinals.
Overall I played quite far from my best Magic (game 1 of Round 3 and game 3 of Round 7 were awful), yet my result was mainly conditioned by luck. About my deck, I like the maindeck a lot, but it doesn't seem the best against those Eldrazis and big mana decks, and my sideboard yesterday was far from fixing those match-ups.
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Mistbind Clique
4 Bitterblossom
3 Fatal Push
2 Go for the Throat
2 Spell Snare
2 Mana Leak
3 Cryptic Command
2 Collective Brutality
3 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Mutavault
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Polluted Delta
2 Watery Grave
4 Island
1 Swamp
4 Darkslick Shores
1 River of Tears
1 Secluded Glen
1 Fatal Push
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Damnation
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Batterskull
3 Thoughtseize
2 Negate
2 Rain of Tears
I took it today to a tournament. I managed to beat Naya Landfall thanks to all the love from my sideboard plus a timely Mistbind Clique game 3, sneaked a draw against Grixis Control (I think it's a bad match-up, but since they cut Gurmag Angler to make room to Ancestral Vision it's better), beat UWR Control in three games and a BUG deck in two, before drawing into top8 to then lose to Elves... sometimes you don't draw well, tilt, misplay and lose badly.
Probably I played too many basic Islands. Besides this turn 3 combo attempt from an empty board, you also need three out of four lands to produce red if you want to play Electromancer, Ritual, and play a second one if your opponent either kills Electromancer or counters the first ritual.
I also found interesting your advice on Gifts; that's not an easy to use card, and we must go beyond the Rituals, Manamorphose, Past in Flames pile, which is not that much more complicated than Unburial Rites piles. Thinking about my particular game situation now, fetching the two creatures, Grapeshot and Remand (my opponent was pretty tilted by it and could have perfectly send it to the graveyard) would've been the right pile; Empty the Warrens would've come a turn too late, but it should work in most situations.
A few more questions on Gifts Ungiven: is 4 the right number or 3 are enough? And with so many situations in which we are looking for creatures for it, how useful might be Noxious Revival?
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
2 Steam Vents
1 Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Island
3 Island
2 Sulfur Falls
2 Spirebluff Canal
4 Goblin Electromancer
4 Baral, Chief of Compliance
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Peer Through Depths
3 Remand
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Manamorphose
3 Gifts Ungiven
3 Past in Flames
2 Grapeshot
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Empty the Warrens
2 Dispel
2 Blood Moon
2 Echoing Truth
2 Shatterstorm
Drew against Faeries (with hand full of rituals and Past in Flames I got via Peer Through Depths, I don't know if using Gifts Ungiven for lands in response to Mistbind Clique game 1 was the best idea or I should have looked for the creatures and 2 powerful spells, but can't think of any that would have forced my opponent to give me a creature), and then beat Sultai Control, Bant Eldrazi and a tribal Human deck 2-0 each. Blood Moon was the best card in the sideboard today.
I particularly like this decklist. Just googling this guy, it looks that he's been playing similar lists for some time, so he knows what he's doing.
My latest decklist is pretty close to it. I'm still seeing enough Eldrazis to not play 4 maindeck Fatal Push (but I have the full playset split among the 75), and then I've made room to some of my pet cards (third Mistbind Clique, and singleton Sword of Light and Shadow), which I don't know if will be as effective as they are for me for everyone else. However, playing only 2 Snapcaster Mage seems correct, and I certainly prefer the raw card advantage of Ancestral Vision over flashbacking Inquisition of Kozilek. I always seem to struggle when I play 6 colorless lands, but guess that I'm being biased on this. However, after losing today to double Izzet Staticaster, I might consider getting a Pendelhaven (which is also a very biased reasoning). Guess the extra fetchlands are just to turn on revolt on Fatal Push more often; I'm not sure they're necessary.
I wouldn't recommend to anyone feeling comfortable and having success with his personal configuration to switch to this one, but if that's not the case, then this would be a good starting point to get familiar with Faeries.
Against Snapcaster Mage decks, you should wait for your opponent to cast it and try to give flashback to a spell to play Surgical Extraction targeting that spell; this way your Surgical Extraction acts as a counterspell and there is no card disadvantage.
You can also play Surgical Extraction during your opponent's draw step as if it was a Vendilion Clique to prevent him from drawing a very powerful sorcery-speed spell. If you miss, you won't have a 3/1 flying on the battlefield and will have generated card disadvantage, but at least you'll know what your opponent has in his hand and he won't be able to cast that spell for the rest of the game.
4 Mutavault
3 Creeping Tar Pit
1 River of Tears
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Secluded Glen
3 Polluted Delta
3 Island
1 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Mistbind Clique
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Bitterblossom
3 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
2 Go for the Throat
2 Dismember
2 Spell Snare
2 Mana Leak
3 Cryptic Command
1 Batterskull
1 Damnation
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Disfigure
2 Dispel
2 Negate
I managed to beat three blue decks 2-0 in a row, but eventually Naya Company and Dredge stopped me. That particular match-up seems extremely hard. We can choose Disfigure or Go for the Throat depending on whether we want to beat Affinity or Eldrazis; we can run more Snapcaster Mages and cheap answers to become the most reactive deck in Modern, or Ancestral Vision to be better suited against slow decks, but Dredge plays in a completely different axis. We need very specific answers and very few of the ones we already play are as broad as cards like Inquisition of Kozilek or Spell Snare, which make unnecessary Hurkyl's Recall against Affinity and are still good against opposing Snapcaster Mage decks and many combo decks. But definitely my choice of 3 Surgical Extraction was pretty poor; they took too many sideboard slots and without more Snapcaster Mages they weren't impactful enough.
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Gurmag Angler
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Serum Visions
4 Thought Scour
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Terminate
1 Go for the Throat
3 Kolaghan's Command
3 Spell Snare
3 Mana Leak
1 Dispel
1 Remand
2 Cryptic Command
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Watery Grave
2 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt
3 Island
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Sulfur Falls
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Dispel
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Damnation
1 extra card for grindy match-ups
The sideboard definitely needs some work; I thought Dredge would be more played and, despite seeing it at tournaments, I never played against it. Reading lugger's report, it seems that just with Anger of the Gods, Izzet Staticaster and just a specific hate card the job is done, so this could free two sideboard slots.
My initial idea with the sideboard was to cover what I thought would be bad match-ups and trust in the power of Kolaghan's Command and Snapcaster Mage to fight fair decks. The experience I've had with the deck however tells me that there are still fair decks that can easily grind me out with raw card draw and/or planeswalkers. In order to solve those problems, I'm thinking of playing a version with maindeck Ancestral Vision, probably something very similar to a video I found of Gerry Thompson.
It would be also interesting to make some room to specific removal for planeswalkers. I'm playing with Go for the Throat just to have a non-red removal spell to deal with creatures with protection from red. Hero's Downfall can hit both pro-red creatures and planeswalkers, but it has an awkward mana cost. Dreadbore has an easier mana cost, but it's a sorcery, thus it doesn't hit manlands, and it's red. My question is, despite Hero's Downfall accomplishing all the tasks, is it worth paying 1BB for this effect in Modern?
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Gurmag Angler
4 Serum Visions
4 Thought Scour
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Terminate
1 Go for the Throat
2 Kolaghan's Command
4 Spell Snare
4 Mana Leak
2 Remand
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Darkslick Shores
4 Ancestral Vision
2 Magma Spray
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Countersquall
2 Dispel
2 Thoughtseize
1 Hero's Downfall
I'm also pretty disappointed with Ancestral Vision in the sideboard: it takes too many slots, and is a card with no immediate effect. I know that with Delver you're usually pretty short on mana, so being able to play your threats and protect them with double counterspell back up with just 4 lands against other blue decks is the spot where we would like to be, so my suggestion costing three mana at sorcery speed might be not the best solution, but wouldn't Painful Truths be a good card for the sideboard in grindy match-ups? I think that just as a singleton it would make a great difference, since it can be replayed with Snapcaster Mage, though I wouldn't mind playing the second copy. This would free some sideboard slots to try to improve the unfair match-ups still not covered by the current sideboard. However, I don't know how bad is the card. Three mana against other blue decks is a lot (against Jund I guess it's fine), and the three life shouldn't be neglected as well. If someone has tested the card, I would appreciate the feedback.
What I've realized playing Faeries is that one of the main strengths of the archetype (and a very overlooked one) is its early game interaction, with both cheap discard, removal and counterspells. Playing turn 1 Inquisition of Kozilek into turn 2 Mana Leak is an opposite plan to suspending turn 1 Ancestral Vision and playing turn 2 Bitterblossom, and despite the later being an ideal start against many reactive decks, the former is an overall better strategy in this format. We still have the possibility of being smart and starting reactively against fast decks, but we will have lower chances of having such a hand if we cut cheap disruption to make room to Visions.
One of the most natural cuts to make is Snapcaster Mage, which served a similar role to Ancestral Vision and can't flashback it. However, in those fast matches, we can get value from Snapcaster Mage turn 3, while Ancestral Vision should be boarded out. If Faeries has another strength is its post-board game. Once you've identified which disruption elements are better, you can add more from your sideboard cutting the bad ones, and Snapcaster Mage becomes better.
Obviously, now we don't need so many late game cards, because Ancestral Vision should find them in the late game, so redundant copies of Cryptic Command and Mistbind Clique can be cut with little pain, even if chaining Mistbind Cliques with discard in the middle is one of the most elegant ways to close games in Modern.
Regarding the topic of lands, I don't know why people find Choked Estuary better than Darkslick Shores, nor why there are so many lists with 3 Watery Graves. Another comment I read regarding Vedalken Shackles, playing a more painful mana base (which doesn't let you interact comfortably with your opponent the first two turns of the game) and Vedalken Shackles (an awful turn 3 play that leaves you completely vulnerable) doesn't make you better against aggro, but actually worse.