Hello everyone, I'd like to discuss the future potential of UB Faeries going forward, as I think it's currently well-positioned (I even wrote an article saying so). The first thing I was wondering was how coming up with a consensus list was going - I saw lists with pretty significant differences between them in my research, and I do think a more settled deck would probably put up more consistent results. Secondly, I was puzzled to see that Snapcaster Mage was being favored over Scion of Oona - doesn't having a faster clock that can blow out potential disruption benefit you benefit you more than yet another value engine when you already have Ancestral Vision and Bitterblossom? Thanks for any insight!
Hey, Faeries is not like Merfolk. Merfolk is a true aggro tribe, Elves is a true combo tribe and Faeries is the aggro-control tribe. It's pure aggro strategies aren't that good...(compare Scion of Oona with Lord of Atlantis). I think the Worcester lists are a nice start. They play hand disruption in the main, that is probably more useful for the aggro matchups. AV in the side. The Worcester lists share many cards and approaches to the game. But there isnt really a right or wrong. If Faeries would have been a true Tier 2 deck (for starters), a more settled list would naturally appear.
Would it be possible to add a bit on what to mulligan or keep to the primer? For a deck that often has to mulligan I feel like it's something that should be brought up.
Of course we want at least 2 lands and a bitterblossom that can be cast with said lands, but I feel like it's a bit misleading to people trying to pick up the deck thinking they can do the old extended 6 lands and a bitterblossom. Maybe it's a stretch to say that. But I'm also curious what else would be considered a keepable hand outside of 2 lands and bitterblossom.
I will try and post more screenshots of the games I play on cockatrice.
Quite curious on the maindeck Surgical extractions. What do you need it for? I'd rather move a GC and a thoughtseize to your main and put the extractions in the side. That should give you a bit of an edge against Tron in the maindeck, while not suffering from SE being a dead card often. If you happen to play these decks so often, maybe a Thoughtseize maindeck package is good?
The main deck Surgicals are a new try for me in the last week or two; I found that I was side boarding them in for a ton of matches (all the combo decks, any Tron variant, anything with much GY interaction), and that if I got one early, could often grab incidental value by stripping things out of your hand with them. I'm not married to having them mainboard, but even if they go back to the side, I'm thinking I want three of them for consistency.
I used to run 2 Thoughtseizes main deck (replaced by my 2 Ancestral Visions), but found the 2 life was a steep price for hitting a couple more cards - I may need to reexamine since I'm seeing a lot more big mana decks than before, and IoK only hits 60% of what I want, as opposed to the 80 or 90% a couple of months ago.
Still curious if there are good sideboard options not anywhere in my 75, specifically vs Tron and Eldrazi.
You could consider maindecking Collective Brutality, to get rid of blossoms and thoughtseizes for value. Against Tron, there are plenty of sidecards, especially Rejection, Thoughtseize, Pithing Needle and indeed extraction effects. These also work versus Eldrazi Tron. Versus Bant Eldrazi, I can only think of Damnation and Kalitas so far...
I've been taking my fairly standard Faeries list through some friendly and competitive leagues on MTGO, and need some sideboard advice.
My list (from memory, so excuse any minor inconsistencies):
Lands (24): 3 Polluted Delta, 4 Darkslick Shores, 4 Mutavault, 2 Creeping Tar Pit, 4 Watery Grave, 3 Secluded Glen, 3 Island, 1 Swamp
Creatures (12): 4 Spellstutter Sprite, 2 Snapcaster Mage, 2 Vendilion Clique, 2 Mistbind Clique, 2 Gifted Aetherborn (experimenting, and haven't hated it so far)
Spells (24): 2 Ancestral Vision, 4 Inquisition of Kozilek, 2 Surgical Extraction, 3 Fatal Push, 2 Mana Leak, 1 Spell Snare, 1 Remand, 1 Go for the Throat, 1 Murderous Cut, 3 Cryptic Command, 4 Bitterblossom
I've experimented with Scions, Kalitas mainboard, 6 discard rather than 4, Copter, Leyline of the Void, Familiar's Ruse, all the usual suspects.
Over the last four leagues (20 matches), I've been recording my record. The match-ups are more or less what you'd expect - I lost twice to Burn, though it's not an impossible matchup. Lost twice to fish. Fair split for Jund, good win rate vs Storm/Ad Naus/Living End.
The main issue I'm running into is big mana colorless. Over twenty matches, I played 7 (!) decks: beat G/W Tron and U Eldrazi Tron; lost to U Eldrazi Tron (same guy two games in a row, blech), Eldrazi and taxes twice, Tron Eldrazi twice. Depending on the matchup, I'm usually boarding in GQ, Ceremonious Rejection, Thoughtseize, Countersquall (vs. regular Tron), and the occasional Damnation. But I'm running into these decks so frequently, and even with a huge board state advantage am getting my ass kicked sideways most games.
Normally, I'm a big proponent of a generalized sideboard of widely applicable tools, but I've been very tempted to add one each of Surgical, GQ, Ceremonious, and Thoughtseize just for these matches (with the added benefit that three of the four are also applicable against Titan/Scapeshift). Any other tech I should be considering first? Any thoughts on giving up some versatility to have more hate against a common issue?
Quite curious on the maindeck Surgical extractions. What do you need it for? I'd rather move a GC and a thoughtseize to your main and put the extractions in the side. That should give you a bit of an edge against Tron in the maindeck, while not suffering from SE being a dead card often. If you happen to play these decks so often, maybe a Thoughtseize maindeck package is good?
Hi guys! I got back into Modern a couple of weeks ago after a hiatus thanks to college. Recently I put together a slightly more tempo variant of Faeries with Scion over Swords (budget) and have been enjoying it a lot.
I was wondering what opinions were on Sun Droplet since I saw it in a few top 8 lists I googled. I know it helps with burn but is it useful in any other matchup?
It doesn't. Perhaps Collective Brutality is better?
Went 3-1, losing in the finals :(.
My matches were:
Round 1: Death Shadow Jund 2-0
Easy win, we are geared to smash these kind of MUs. 2-0 not even really close. Opponent flooded 2nd game but still, went quite smoothly.
Round 2: BG home brew 2-0
Not much to say, he mainly had creatures and tried to exploit counters. Won 2-0 on the back of 2 damnations post board.
Round 3: Eldrazi Taxes 2-1
Super close MU. I loved Ceremonious Rejection post board. Could possibly had won 2-0 but he topdecked quite well when I was with only lili on the board.
Round 4: AdNauseum 1-2
Well, lost game 1 relatively easily, didn't draw that well. Game 2 was an easy win with Multiple SSSs. Game 3 was extremely close, he top decked two negation pacts on my 2 land top decks, managed to go through my 2 counters and won eventually. Had I had 1 more counter I would had won cause of lethal BB tokens. I feel confident that the MU is good. Could had played a bit better for sure.
List felt super solid overall. Didn't really drawn too many Gifted Aetherborns so I can't say how useful they were, but with that configuration Lili was pretty sweet. I can see cutting an Aetherborn for something, not sure yet what that something could be.
Does anybody use a more tribally version, using Scion of Oona? I'm going to make that build. Making 2/2's with shroud every turn seems really solid and, it has flash so, they path and i counter it with a creature. It's more control-aggro then all of you guys, I loved my friends Esper Spirits deck and Faeries seem similar. We have a pretty much strictly better lord. I mean shroud can cause issues but flash makes up for it. Any opinions?
There is momo blue Fae thread in the deck creation area and its more aggro/control or tempo based. The big difference is that you run far more creatures than this thread would ever think of as this brand of UB Fae is primarily control.
I know, I want to play U/B for bitterblossom but still have a fair amount of creatures. How many creatures would you all suggest?
I got 3rd at TCGPlayer states California playing UB Faeries and will post an updated list with details tomorrow. I went undefeated until the semis where I picked up my only loss which knocked me out.
This deck is good. Im very happy with its results as of late and this performance was the icing on the cake.
Expect some small writeups and sideboard strats when I get the chance tomorrow.
Had a decent run tonight (2/24/17) My dumb stream cut out twice, so it's in 3 videos. But I ran my list and went 4-1 in the comp league. So, just in case anyone doesn't know, I stream on MTGO now when I can.
Ever considered running a Liliana of the Veil? Fatal push is cheap enough to clear opponent's cheap creatures. It destroys wurmcoil (though not instantly) and is not dead against combo.
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.
The major change that I liked more than anything else from Anthony's list was the removal of Mistbind in favor of swords. After playing 20 MTGO matches last night, I'm sold - Mistbind is for another deck that can put more early pressure on people.
With Dredge weakened by the bannings and the sword giving us lifegain, I took it back down to two maindeck Kalitas with the third in the SB.
My current list is closer to Anothy's list than my own. While I had run a single sword (SoLaS) in the past, I failed to realize how important they were for us to have a late game - something that always bothered me about the deck was that I often needed to turn up the pressure and a couple of slow 1/1 creatures weren't enough to get me there before I ran out of counters.
I'm sold on the third Cryptic again, as well as three snapcaster mages. I used to hate Snapcaster but with Fatal Push, Snapcaster deserves all threee slots. It's like a Spell Snare for black, that also hit 1CC creatures.
I tested four fatal push originally (actually, I did three disfigure and a GFTT but I asked myself each time they cam up how I'd play a push in the same position. After playing against a lot of Tron and Grixis, I've decided that the correct number is three in the main and possibly the last one in the board for all the decks it's good against.
Notable card observations that differ from Anthony's conclusions:
1. In a deck with six discard spells that we almost always want to cast on turn one, I significantly prefer River of Tears to Drowned Catacomb. I tested both for ten matches each and far prefer the river (just as I did in the past).
2. With six colorless lands (and eight more that potentially come into play tapped), I found myself losing games that I would have won if the counterqualls had been Remands. If you scroll back to around page 340 or so, you'll see that I had the same observations in the past. Don't get me wrong - I love the idea of Countersquall and Snapping it back to win the game but, so far, I lose to two different decks that I should have won and it's all because I drew two mutavaults, which never help with casting Counterquall.
3. I want the second maindeck Kalitas. It's just too good - I want to see it against almost any deck in game one and the different effects (exile, lifegain, tokens, pumnping) are all spectacular. If I no longer need to keep the Faerie count high for Mistbind, I'm happy to run two of these instead. (Three maindeck was only really a reaction to dredge). The three Snapcasters obvious help Kalitas here as well.
4. I'm happy with three Cryptic. My deck was focusing too much on the early game and was neglecting the later. I want the inevitability that swords, Cryptics and Bitterblossom provide. Having a third way to get rid of BB is also pretty important.
5. I find myself sometimes wanting a third mana leak, or somethign else than can stop a Tasigur, Khalitas, Wurmcoin etc. Familiar's ruse may be good here but it's probably not fast enough for the times that it really matters (e.g. again turn 3 tron -> Wurmcoin when I am on the draw). Echoin Truth may be quite good here, especially with six discard, but I wouldn't maindeck it - it's not very good against basic decks like Burn.
6. The Rain of Tears are obviously against Tron. I had two and upped it to three since Tron is such a pain in the ass. The Rains work spectacularly well with the Surgical Extraction (coupled with the Ghost Quarter and Tectonic Edge, I have fix land-kill spells). I THINK it's better than fulminator Mage since later in teh game we can snap it back (if we want to spend five main in our mainphase).
7. Surgical Extraction needs to stay. A long time ago I tested Extirpate instead, when Copter was unbanned and people thought it would be a great deck. It's fantasic in very limited scenarios but Surgical is far more useful in general terms, especially with three Snapcaster in the deck. I wouldn't play Rain of Tears without Surgical Extraction.
8. Like last time, I started with a couple of dispels in the board but they are out right now - Negate is far more important against someone randomly casting a topdecked Scapeshift or other "I win" card on turn five. Mana Leak obviously doesn't help here.
9. I want to test Echoing Truth in the board. Another bounce effect means that we can more easily deal with the unexpected, like Ensnaring Bridge locks, but it's less good against Tasigur and Wurmcoin Engine since it doesn't really kill them (important for Kalitas). This is often a good thing in the case of Wurmcoil however. In addition, Echoing Truth seems great against Grixis if my opponent is about to K-Command my snapcaster, Clique or Sprite. Definitely worth testing.
10. Three Fatal Push is likely correct. I really, really want to run a fourth in the maindeck but there are a few matchups like Tron and Grixis that even the more powerful version of the spell won't affect much. I'd love to find a space in the board for it however, as well as that echoing truth. It's possible I'll go back to two land descruction spells if I run an Echoing Truth in the board, since that comes in for Tron anyway.
11. Slaughter Pact in the main is because it works so well with Kalitas (and to a lesser extent, with Snapcaster). Casting Kalitas on turn four AND killing their best guy AND getting a token that may or may not be able to kill another creature is really good.
12. The one Tectonic Edge and one Ghost Quarter is a test. Later in the game, I hate having to lose a land while my opponent gets a new one so the Tectonic Edge may still be somewhat useful. That being said, Ghost Quarter can stop a turn three tron and it can stop a giant Inkmoth Nexus - neither of which Tectonic Edge can do. In addition, I like that Ghost Quarter can trigger revolt for Fatal Push much more easily than Tec Edge can (in the early game).
13. The three AV in the board are more for Jund than anything else. Sure, they are good against Grixis too, and Nahiri Control, and maybe some other control decks (scapeshift?) but I don't know the meta well enough to be certain these will stay.
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.
I like the list. Just wondering whether Tasigur would have a place here. It is immune to Push .
Instead of Truth, I am more inclined to look at Damnation. Eldrazi is still a deck.
Not sure if you're forgetting Go for the Throat, but I think I'll just be replacing the 2 mb disfigure for this, 2 gftt, 1 pact, 1 cut. GftT is dead against affinity, but cannot be redirected to Skite. Depends on what you're expecting, I guess!
I would try never to include more than one in your mb. The disadvantage is real.
Hey, Faeries is not like Merfolk. Merfolk is a true aggro tribe, Elves is a true combo tribe and Faeries is the aggro-control tribe. It's pure aggro strategies aren't that good...(compare Scion of Oona with Lord of Atlantis). I think the Worcester lists are a nice start. They play hand disruption in the main, that is probably more useful for the aggro matchups. AV in the side. The Worcester lists share many cards and approaches to the game. But there isnt really a right or wrong. If Faeries would have been a true Tier 2 deck (for starters), a more settled list would naturally appear.
I will try and post more screenshots of the games I play on cockatrice.
You could consider maindecking Collective Brutality, to get rid of blossoms and thoughtseizes for value. Against Tron, there are plenty of sidecards, especially Rejection, Thoughtseize, Pithing Needle and indeed extraction effects. These also work versus Eldrazi Tron. Versus Bant Eldrazi, I can only think of Damnation and Kalitas so far...
Quite curious on the maindeck Surgical extractions. What do you need it for? I'd rather move a GC and a thoughtseize to your main and put the extractions in the side. That should give you a bit of an edge against Tron in the maindeck, while not suffering from SE being a dead card often. If you happen to play these decks so often, maybe a Thoughtseize maindeck package is good?
It doesn't. Perhaps Collective Brutality is better?
Nice man! What did Walter bring to the FNM?
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Mistbind Clique
4 Spellstutter sprite
2 Snapcaster Mage
0-1x Kalitas
You're a hero!
Well, you clearly never bounced a Batterskull and pressed the discard button Liliana in the same turn
Ever considered running a Liliana of the Veil? Fatal push is cheap enough to clear opponent's cheap creatures. It destroys wurmcoil (though not instantly) and is not dead against combo.
I like the list. Just wondering whether Tasigur would have a place here. It is immune to Push
Instead of Truth, I am more inclined to look at Damnation. Eldrazi is still a deck.
Back to MBC?
2x Vendilion Clique
2x Mistbind Clique
3x Snapcaster Mage
4x Bitterblossom
3x Fatal Push
3x Collective Brutality
1x Murderous Cut
3x Inquisiton of Kozilek
2x Liliana of the Veil
3x Cryptic Command
3x Ancestral Vision
2x Spell Snare
2x Mana Leak
4x Polluted Delta
4x Darkslick Shores
4x Mutavault
4x Secluded Glen
3x Creeping Tar Pit
3x Island
1x Swamp
1x Watery Grave
//
2x Damnation
2x Countersquall
2x Slaughter Pact
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Geth
4x Surgical Extraction
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Thoughtseize
------
Let's roll. Push's gonna be fun, guys.
I would try never to include more than one in your mb. The disadvantage is real.