MTG Salvation

Yeah but considering it as a give and take perspective you would probably have an easier time hitting double black on turn 4 for damnation or getting ratchet bomb/Engineered Explosives to 1 or 2 counters than splashing white, and still be comfortably positioned to continue using your removal spells and creatures to stay ahead.

I feel like the archetype really gets there when it is pretty much kept simple. Knowing what your opponent is trying to do and using each of your card slots to slow your opponent enough to kill said opponent feels like the better way to look at things. It feels like batterskull is very slow, but useful if you can consistently get it into play and get an attack in (It seems that I cannot). Some of the gimmicky angles are completely unnecessary also. 24 lands was agreed to be the optimal land amount, and some run 25 to make sure they see lands, and a lot of the time you can be stuck with these cards in your hand, but the cards you want to play can come down in a timely manner or create such an advantage just by your opponent knowing you are casting it or resolving it. Pack Rat definitely sat there as a 1/1 on the ground, so unless you were dumping cards into it the card was outclassed very easily (which isnt saying much because spellstutter sprite gets outclassed easily, but it produces value and holds swords or gets pumped by pendelhaven). I'm really not impressed by the cards in white outside of azorius charm or even batterskull here personally (bigger fan of it in things like Gifts Tron and Scapeshift because they guarantee lands).

I like simple things like reducing my opponent's options and killing my opponent with more subtle cards, and it really feels like Mistbind Clique and Cryptic Command are all the haymaker-like effects we need, but we might need to find ways to make them more consistent (not counting matchup-specific tech, which batterskull can be...just not for me), or have cards that turn on until they become active (which is where my interest in liliana of the veil came from i think).

I feel like the burn matchup can be made more comfortable knowing that the burn player might be top decking faster than other decks. When i play sgainst burn its basically liliana's job to pitch their cards and kill their goblin guides mainly. If you manage to handle the permenant sources of damage like goblin guide with removal and could counter a few of the 3 damage sources with spell stutter; mitigating the threat of top deck burn is easier.

Spellstutter sprite just got the bump to be a good card again and someone already is thinking about cutting it because mutavault gets in the way of effectively going tri-color (thats basically what it boils down to)? lol sorry I wasnt buying into the tri-color debate much from the get-go, but I understood and agreed that it was a viable option when I wrote the primer. But the "verbal PvP matches" have done nothing to get us anywhere, and I think the direction of the deck is being lost.

On the discard issue, I have found that the information which the 1cmc spells give you is what makes the deck run so well. Information is one of the tools the player of the deck uses to maneuver around the opponent and go on an offensive. Even in the aggressive matchups inquisition rips a few of the earlier plays out of the opponent's hand while still leaving mana open to interact with whatever card is topdecked in turns 1-3
Its a tool I cant see myself not using. As a UWR player and an Ex-UR faeries player I cant tell you how often bolt has been the card to see, but with regard to the other red cards you really have to understand what the card does for the deck it is in, and that includes what effort is being put forth to accomodate the card. Honestly the deck cant be perfect so its a decision of IF you can use the cards you are considering to create advantage in your environment. When my environment becomes overly aggressive I will probably consider grixis myself honestly, but right now I am completely okay with Disfigure because playing the card leaves me with more breathing room and time in the form of bitterblossom tokens.

But I would like to bring attention to another frame of the discussion. I am a player who considers psychological effect of an opponent seeing a card very important when building a deck (which is why I have been reconsidering Secluded Glen as a part of my manabase, but that is a different discussion)
ANYWAY. How many cards do you all believe this deck has which have the potential to take over a game? And how many do you feel the deck needs? This question disregards the effect of Creeping Tar Pit as it takes up a land slot, but it should be included with regard to the aggressive capabilities of the deck...as it puts games away very well. Shouta Yasooka played two Liliana of the veil and two sword of feast and famine in his list to compliment Mistbind Clique and Vendilion Clique. Our more common lists have gone the route of swords like Fire and Ice and Light and Shadow to race and produce more options to consider in our hand of cards, but the strong question in my wordy explanation would be "how many threatening cards do you think compliment tight play without hindering it?"

Minor oversight, people in the past have made it before, so whatever. Please dont insult his intelligence on it. Anyway, speaking of decks where Grafdiggers Cage may be good, is there anyone here who has any insight into playing against the gifts control/rock strategy (Seems pretty good)? It feels like the deck attacks from too many minor angles that can put a wrench in our lines of play at certain stages of the game. Lingering Souls tokens pretty much cause problems for your aggressive gameplan with bitterblossom tokens, a well-timed liliana strips your hand and Elesh Norn/Iona CAN basially wipe our board or stop us in our tracks. It really feels like sword of light and shadow is really good here though because the big issue is the lingering souls tokens basically buying them a boatload of time to set up. I am trying to look at all the angles but correct/enlighten me if I am missing something

Just to let you know, you have Mistbind Clique posted in your lands section as well as your dudes section. But other than that our lists do look very similar lol I have been planning on just playing 1 sword 1 batterskull for the longest time though so you might like trying it as is

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=379200 I would suggest reading through some of this thread to get a better idea on what you want your deck to do (there are many versions) then when you get an idea post there and most of the people who believe faeries can get there will be able to give you some real advice. Off the bat I would say you want 1 more spellstutter sprite and switch unsummon for vapor snag, and you'll probably have a better understanding of why if you take a look at the link.

The elf isnt the point, but i'll chime in here...as i think it is a matter of perspective. Bloodbraid Elf is a dynamic advantage (comparative to most other effects and cards pushed to make the game interesting with power creep as an assistant principle). It seems that modern is becoming a format where dynamic advantage of the 'cards they used to create interest in the game' causes problems. Remember thopter foundry+sword of the meek? imagine if that deck had $600 worth of card value in it before they banned it. The dynamic advantage that made the deck what it was, and worth investing $600 in is gone...even though the card itself only reached 3$.

The difference here is that jund had no obvious deck edit or sideboard plan to defeat it,like the original copter control decks did...but both decks apparently made the game unfun, so Im not against them doing something to lessen the dominance of jund, but the way they did this was out of left field. I thought it would have been better to give us more power to play with

I swear rumor season makes me hate this game a little bit, but im still rolling up my sleeves. And people complaining in the rumor mill always gives that bad taste in my mouth when cards i do like come out (even some of the non-blue cards even...because blue players can use some of them to our advantage too)
I think abrupt decay is going to give me a fairly large headache in this format. And im not seeing much that I am psyched for (nothing psyches me anymore lol, new jace is interesting izzet charm in storm yada yada)

I guess my opinion will change when i find cards good in naya pod or something that makes me want to build with heartbeat of spring. Control does seem to be a friendlier concept in modern but most of the good ones are pushed towards midrange, the new jace and abrupt decay make me think a bug control deck could be really good in modern but tarmogoyf is a serious problem because he seems to be the only relevant threat.

Also i would really like to see return to ravnica split apart the melding of the delver deck and the zoo deck because they are getting too friendly lol tribal flames midrange just seems to be the best direction for both in all honesty, and that kinda scares my bank account ($400 on 4 cards doesnt sound fun)

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A whole bunch of people in the beginning of this thread suggested cards that were disregarded with a whim (Scion, Aether Vial, Lily, etc) only to be brought up again by the same people who denied their playability in the first place. As magic players and participants in competitive play everyone shouldn't be such bandwagon **** riders. We all know some cards die to bolt, most everything dies to abrupt decay, thoughtseize messes up plans, and aven mindcensor and blood moon are going to school you at some point in your life. Having said that all threads, not just this one should take a different avenue in how they call so many ideas rubish. Just because someone placed with a certain build doesn't make it the definitive version, it means that they are on the right track (or one of many right tracks). All roads connect and it is up to players who have time to test certain ideas who end up becoming victorious. I've piloted many of the versions of the deck (with scion tempo, sword/lily control, rat at various numbers, time warp, UB, UW, UR, UBw gift fae) all in all I think the deck can go in any of those directions and with the proper build could top and win, the main thing is if we want to be T1 we should adapt the core to whatever the meta call is. We aren't going to win against burn and affinity regularly with control UB list we have a shot, but it is typically a long shot beating them each round when they are naturally faster then us. UR fae would have an easier matchup against those expected decks due to sideboard option and overall card selection represented in those colors. If you want to get willy nilly and just swing flying with a sword then UG with a ramp into timewarp is probably your best plan to win fast.

Overall I think the perfect version of this deck has yet to be found or that the perfect version of this deck varies from tournament to tournament designed to specifically target the decks we'd expect to be highly represented. Being that faeries are glass cannons we won't always have perfect matchups and alot of stuff can shut our main strategy down so finding a backup plan is of the upmost importance. Bitterblossom can't be our only crutch whenever abrupt decay is running rampant unless we play a scion version to protect said enchantment. Also lingering souls in Rock, Junk, and BW are always gonna give us a run for our money. We should spend our time better constructing a list of cards that absolutely scare us then from that list find cards that would give us more of an upperhand or at least a fighting chance when we encounter those expected threats.

Having said that I currently feel the strongest color combo would be UG though we'd lose Blossom, seize, etc. We'd allow for quicker play and options for artifact decks Fracturing Gust could be pumped out fast against affinity, we'd have access to a ground beater like Goyf, a graveyard and life manipulator in ooze from sideboard, and a good manabase that could still support mutavault and tec edges. UR is also an option for racing and land hate molten rain and could abuse tectonic as well as other mana denial with snapcaster providing quick face damage, White is another option for pretty much the strongest hate cards in the game (though no one has been attempting the UW build at all)

I play currently with Control Fae (lily and sword) and have a great time saying "No" then pecking at the enemy until they are dead while at the same time dwindling my own life total via Blossom. However sometimes I wish I could say "No" a couple of times and then just take their life in a couple of swings which is how I felt when playing UG. The deck is subject to change because it has such an amazing core of tribal ETB effects and now that Hushwing Gryff is a card we can expect anything with white to have access to such a oppressing force.

So now that my rant is over, what are some cards that you all fear in your matchups against specific decks? Lets build a list of things that need attention and then offer suggestions on how to avoid or deal with those problematic situations. I would love to see us come together and try to make the strongest deck rather then listen to the same ideas get tossed back and forth and hear the same "dies to this, losses to that" argument every card has a kryptonite so just saying it losses out to one card is a weak argument and stand point. We run blue and almost everything in the format losses to blue and or black a couple times each match, still I never hear "That cards great but mana leak is a card" "Liliana is alright but dang it loses to thoughtseize" "Oh yeah, Tarmo would be good but spell snare eats it" "why are you playing affinity? Stoney Silence Krosan grip Naturalize Ancient Grudge and Hurkyl's Recall just wreck us" Still people continue suite. So I ask you fellow faerie pilots which list do you feel has the most comfortable matchup against not just most of the field, but which list would provide us a equal opportunity in all of our matchups?

I won mine via trial by combat.

Time Warp in the place of Sword of Feast and Famine is the next technology we should be adopting. However, I don't like Matignon's list having so many 4+ drops and so few removal, and the timewalk ftw plan only works if after two free hits you're ahead in the race, something that will rarely be true against Affinity.

As I see the Swords topic, the Sword of Light and Shadow I'm playing plays in a completely different league. For racing, it's worse than Time Warp, Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of Feast and Famine (and I'd dare to include even Loxodon Warhammer), but its purpose is completely different: it's a card advantage engine to solve attrition games or gains life against aggro decks; I also like the protections because the vast majority of flying creatures are white (Restoration Angel, Pod fliers, Celestial Colonnade, Lingering Souls tokens), so that's a point. However, I wouldn't play more than one because the card isn't at its best in the mid-game, and wouldn't play it without some Snapcaster Mages in my deck. Don't know if Batterskull would be better for that purpose.

But if you want to avoid long games and win easier and faster, Mistbind Clique+Time Warp is your combo, and those who are playing with Scion of Oona now have the slots to make room to the Time Warps.

Can somebody elaborate on WHY Time Warp is considered this "awesome" (for instance spellcheck, as you advocated right above me :P)? A 5 mana sorcery does not sound that good, especially if the only way you are going to resolve it against blue decks is a resolved Mistbind Clique beforehand. I mean, I can see the blowout potential the card has but is it really neccessary to fill your deck with sorcery speed that costs a fortune when you are basically taking a mulligan everytime it's in your opener?

Because I read it in another thread and I hope germanturkey does read it here: I don't really see the big problem with Tron, which shall not mean it's an easy matchup. The game against Tron is at least 50/50 as I see it, whereas you have to find the perfect balance between pressure and control. If you know what you're up against check your opener if it's able to prevent Karn (so discard or mana leak is appreciated) AND is able to put on a little pressure (for instance Vendilion Clique), if not mulligan. Depending on the board state it's a valid choice to counter their landsearch (Ancient Stirrings, Sylvan Scrying and so on). It's your job to win as fast as possible, don't let them play the long game as this are the games you are likely to loose. Sideboarded Sower of Temptation is tech here!

Which leads me the questions above:
Pack Rat as a 2 of or 4.
I like them as a two of, but wouldn't play 4. The reason is simple: It's considered a back up plan for games without blossoms/games that go long so you can ditch unneeded copies of discard and so on. So basically you have 6 "blossoms" now which should be enough to warrant a nice turn 2 play without watering down your lategame too much where you may want 1 rat, but drawing multiples seems bad here, as you can convert everything into another rat, so why bother with a simple creature?

Mistbind Clique as a 2, 3 or 4.
Highly depends on your play style, but I wouldn't go under 3. It's basically how you are closing games out, so you want to draw at least one. Against Tron chaining Mistbinds simply wins the game as well. 4 Might be too much (at least for me) because of it's ETB trigger dependency.

Time Warp
Well, I guess I said everything above, but I would love to see the potential some here see in it explained a bit further. On the first look it seems to be win more and/or magical christmas land scenarios?

Sword of FaF and/or FaI
I would opt for FaI because it has a WAY higher impact on the board. In my latest games I wasn't that happy to have it though, so I am looking for something to replace it with because the 3+2 mana is hard at times. I was playing 1.

Scion of Oona
Still think it has to less impact most of the times. When it's good, it's because of Blossom, but then you are probably going to win anyways, so I don't really know here.

Snapcaster Mage
Don't really like him anymore. The ambush viper mode is way to fragile in modern most of the time and the flashback of counterspells/discard doesn't seem worth it. Still can understand people that are playing him though, at least as a 2-of.

Sower of Temptation seems a common sideboard card now, what are our experiences with it?
I really love my 2 Sower of Temptation out of the board especially against Tron but it won me a few games against Pod as well.