retort isnt an earlygame counter so much as a lategame hard counter thats easier to play things around IMO. But you can set it up for turn 3 with the ability to hold up a mana for fatal bolt path
Piproberts is streaming his list of Faeries on twitch and he's found that cutting cryptic command is where he wants to be, as far as dealing with the abundance of 4cmc cards; he talks about how you want to be able to race the field and that mistbind helps doing that while jace bounces problem cards and digs for your answers. You have to find the right time to land the jace on the right turn in the faeries deck most times though.
People write how they feel about jace in the discord all the time.
Daut - Today at 11:31 AM
Jace gives us insane draw power in his 0
A pseudo-lock with his +2 to make sure we can interact with our opponents cards
A pseudo-lock with mistbind clique and his -1 ability
As well as a game finisher
Not to mention he can shuffle away bad excess bitterblossoms with a fetch and a 0 activation
NEW MESSAGES
Axel_kh - Today at 11:46 AM
His -1 can work with mistbind, spellstutter, snapcaster...
Daut - Today at 11:46 AM
It also gives us a win condition in the main against infinite lifegain.
i think many of the cards (outside of reprints like opt) are often 1 mana too high for every format in recent sets, so its not a matter of effects not being good for modern, its mana costs, and I wouldnt mind seeing a standard where some of those same cards existed at 1 mana cheaper. This isnt a comment on standard, but modern would be getting cards at a higher rate without the design flaw of intentionally slowing down the game through mana costs. Im sure if you went and looked at the past 2 blocks and cut a mana on most of the stuff thats not seeing play, people would test those variants.
With all the comparison to ponder and preordain i think ancient stirrings would be the ban most likely to happen in the event of an actual ban. But i think it comes down to tempo built in with card design. putting reliable land hate on a tempo body in blue might help make the matchups less crap. Mistbind Clique is one of those cards the faeries crew uses as assistance against the big mana decks but it often comes down too late and is often inconsistent.
the discord crew is starting to discuss the potential of wrench mind in the discard suite in modern faeries.
Update: we are also starting a talk about rise // fall
Aetherwafting Clique 1U
Creature- Faerie Wizard
Flying, Flash
Faerie cards in your hand gain Cycling 1(1, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
2/1
Daut - Today at 11:31 AM
Jace gives us insane draw power in his 0
A pseudo-lock with his +2 to make sure we can interact with our opponents cards
A pseudo-lock with mistbind clique and his -1 ability
As well as a game finisher
Not to mention he can shuffle away bad excess bitterblossoms with a fetch and a 0 activation
NEW MESSAGES
Axel_kh - Today at 11:46 AM
His -1 can work with mistbind, spellstutter, snapcaster...
Daut - Today at 11:46 AM
It also gives us a win condition in the main against infinite lifegain.
Update: we are also starting a talk about rise // fall