MTG Salvation

Well, it has been a while since I have posted, and there have been a lot of developments therein.

I have actually come to a conclusion about Fae, despite my stubborn commitment to the once infamous "winged-blue menace". I have vehemently stuck by them up until to the point when people told me about a U/B version of Dark Depths + Hexmage. I had seen the combo, and thought peoples builds were inconsistent and not very competitive. Then I saw the U/B shell and was like, "Gosh that looks like my Fae list, but with a potential turn 2 combo and Chalice and tutors to be resilient to Path to Exile and Repeal. S**t!!"

If it isn't painfully obv to anyone at this point, Fae seems to lack a catch all to the early game the way it did last season. Combo decks are running rampant, but I do not attribute this to mere coincidence. The utter lack of decent recently printed countermagic and the rotation of Riptide Laboratory have kind of kicked this deck in the nuts. Not to mention there are at least 3 decks that can go off before turn 3. Hexmage, Dredge, and Hypergenesis are all viable competitors this year, and resilient to boot. I have seen a comment in a forum somewhere (I read so many) that said something like this, "When counter spells get the hose, combo is able to run rampant/dominate". I don't know if this is an altruistic statement, but it seems very profound.

Hexmage + Depths is essentially a Fae deck w/out Sower and Spellstutter. It also mixes a few other newer interactions, such as Bob, bunch of 0 cmc artifacts (Chalice, EE, Chrome Mox) and transmute tutors (Muddle The Mixture and Tolaria West), and Beseech the Queen. This deck can either slow roll the combo to ensure a one-turn-swing-kill or it can just go off as early as turn 2 with a 20/20 flyer in play.
Seems good...

Dredge got new tools in Hedron Crab and Bloodghast. I didn't see this deck doing well to be honest because there are so many ways to deal with their GY in Extended. However, I eat my thoughts/words here because Hedron Crab is a sick enabler, and at first glance, one has to decide whether killing the bastard is worth it. We all know how dredge wins, I think. Put a bunch of cards in the 'yard, including 2-3 Bridge from Below, sac free Narcomoebas to cast Dread Return, make a bunch of Zombies, target Flame-Kin Zealot, win. Yay. Mogg Fanatic wrecks this deck because Bridge gets removed from their graveyard when one of my creatures hits my graveyard. Anyway....

Hypergenesis is a MU I would gladly play all day long with my last build of Fae. I seriously would mull into at least a Leak and a Spellstutter. The only dead counterspell in my deck against this is Spell Snare. Herein lies the problem. I want to run Spell Snare because there are a TON of relevant targets for it in Extended. However, Spell Pierce would be better in this and Dredge contexts (to an extent), buit Spell Snare helps counter Hexmage in the Dark Depths build. Kind of a catch 22.

So with these and even a combo enabled Zoo deck with Baneslayer Angel (which wasn't a good MU for us anyway) lead me to believe that this deck may not be the best option for now until there is a serious overhaul in terms of spells. I am not the most innovative deck designer, so if you have a list to combat this field, please PM me or leave a comment.

For the time being, I am still testing with Affinity. I will not give up on that deck because there are still a ton of unbeatable draw situations and I feel the format will naturally evolve to be more control-oriented in the near future, which means it will be time for a quick aggro deck to beat face.

The other thing is, by the time there are any PTQs in my area, Worldwake will be released, which will maybe affect the format again.

Until next time....

This episode brought to you by: Some other Corporate Overlord Piglet of Satan. Probably Mickey Mouse or something hugely iconic like that. We can say GI Joes cause Hasbro owns those too, and those are the corporate pigs pockets who I line.

Hello everyone. Let me start by introducing myself.

Name: Andrew
Age:quasi-30 (this December)
Marital Status:Married, toddler daughter, one on the way
Education: BA in Linguistics from the University of Oregon with a minor in Social & Political Phliosophy.. Studying for my AA in Business Administration.
Occupation: Admin. of Operations for the Oregon Food Bank.
Political Views: Non Interventionalist Libertarian (more Democratic than Republican, but they are semantically "bleached" at this point, yeah?).
Other Interests: Punk rock. You know the real stuff (i.e. The Misfits [Glenn Danzig era, Jerry Only is cool, too], Crass, The Ramones, The Stooges, The Dead Kennedys [or anything by Jello Biafra]).

Okay with the pleasantries out of the way, I can talk about Magic.

I am a frequenter of Magical knowledge on the plethora of websites available, and thouroughly enjoy reading the many thoughts and opinions of the collective conscious. I generally play Constructed, with no preference of format. I will be the first to admit that my Limited game needs work.

Anyone reading this who knows me is probably from one of the Competitive Faerie Threads (1.x and Standard). I have gained quite a bit of knowledge of playing the deck by posting my thoughts, engaging in discussions, and getting just straight up frustrated with people sometimes to the point where I just concede and try their suggestions. I have learned much from some of the posters in those rooms (you know who you are :wink:).

I have decided to keep a blog for this Extended season because I want to gather comments within this forum to help me further understand this deck so I might actually win a PTQ.

Right now, I am in the process of testing a deck before cards are spoiled from Zendikar, which will no doubt affect the format. It is also because of that I am not building a sideboard yet.

This is my Ground-Zero.

Now at first glance it seems like I got some 'splainin' to do, so I will go into an individual choice breakdown of certain elements:

27 land?

Yes. It has sparked some debate among my test group and others, but I feel comfortable with it. It is a control deck, yeah? Dropping land every turn seems really good right now, especially because of the Landfall mechanic coming soon to a Magic Geek near you. I usually win arguments by just asking, "Would you rather lose to land flood or land screw? At least we have Mutavault." Trump, sir.

3 Shackles are better than 2. Sower is more susceptible to removal, etc.

Uhh, actually 3 is not. I have a fine Sower/Shackle ratio at this point. My argument for this is that, although Sower eats more removal, he is less of a mana investment allowing for better t6+ survival rate (cause we have counter spell backup :wink:), and he is a catch all whereas Shackles might not be. Most of the time he is another opportunity for ridiculous interaction and removal bait. Take these scenarios:

Oppwnent:Uuhh, in your declare attackers, Bolt/Path/Trap/Whatever target your Sower?
Me: Okay, sac your dude with Miren, gain life.

or

Me: Not care, Second Main Phase cast Shackles.

or

Me: No (if it is important)

or

Me:

Path + Miren is obviously the best case for me here, and the worst. Let us hope I get to go down the Miren Path a few times this season (How corny!). The point is that 3 out of 4 of these are in your favor, and I can't imagine many situations where one of the 3 isn't plausible if you play tight enough.

Dude, Why do you have 3 Jitte's? Isn't that too many?

Well, sometimes it is, to be frank. However, it is not totally dead against aggro. You know the decks that turn dudes sideways and like equipment that provides card advantage too? You can actually save your Spell Snares for Tarmogoyfs if you kill their Jitte with yours. Also, if you count the creature theft spells in my deck you get 5 total. 11 "hard" creatures and 5 "soft" ones is enough for me to justify playing 3 for now.

Isn't this build bad against other control decks?

This one I don't really have an answer for. The truth is I haven't seen many other control decks (ROFLThopter looks fun though) in my testing as of yet. The reason for that could be varied and also obviously inextricably linked to the fact that THERE ARE MORE CARDS TO BE SPOILED (ie unknown quantities). I get reminded of this almost every time I post something. I realize that I sound very bold when I post, but I don't always just blurt ideas that I WANT to try. My boldness gradiently increases as I test something. Plus there is that inherent psychological need for "comfort zones" and "consistent rewards" which is a topic that warrants its own article, I'm afraid.

I do know that Shackles and possibly Sower would come out in those matchups though, and I just got that from my noodle. Probably for graveyard, artifact, or hand hate if I had to guess.

I think these are the only controversial things that have been brought up about my list (to my face anyway). If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment.

Again, I do not have a SB yet. There is a list of cards I am considering, which are:

Meloku
Venser
Extirpate
Tormod's Crypt
Trickbind
Negate/Spell Pierce
Mindbreak Trap
Ancient Grudge
Teferi
Threads of Disloyalty

That is all for now kiddies. Tune in next week, where I'll do some match up walkthroughs and sideboard development.

Apaulogy- The futuristic, linguistic, Magic fabric, which is a mixture of Abbot Sanskrit.

This episode brought to you by:Silly String