You may have seen Josh Ravitz’s Faeries deck from the Top Standard Lists in the Pro Tour Kyoto coverage on the mother ship (congratulations to the great Gabriel Nassif by the way).
4 Bitterblossom
4 Peppersmoke
3 Thoughtseize
3 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command
2 Jace Beleren
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Sower of Temptation
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Agony Warp
6 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Secluded Glen
4 Sunken Ruins
3 Swamp
4 Underground River
sb:
1 Agony Warp
1 Fathom Trawl
2 Flashfreeze
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Infest
2 Jace Beleren
1 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Puppeteer Clique
1 Thoughtseize
This is how this deck came about:
On Monday when the Star City lists and thereabouts came out online Josh wanted to chat about decks like EsperLark but I told him that I could not imagine playing one of those decks over just Faeries… If I were going to play a Blue deck, it would be Faeries over any of the Blue Reveillark variants (prevous to this the plan was to run Blightning Beatdown with eight Protection from White creatures in the sideboard). Josh was of course coming off of his excellent PTQ finals 9-1-1 in Edison, NJ where he ran circles around every Faeries mirror match opponent that he faced.
Our assumption was that the most popular decks would be Faeries, Boat Brew, and Blightning Beatdown (in that order), and an assumption of a good matchup with Reflecting Pool Control; we got some of the popularity percentages wrong, but at least knew what the top decks were going to be.
My argument was that no version of Fae was going to be advantaged against Blightning Beatdown in Game One… Why not play “all the cards that are good agaisnt other Blue decks?”
So that’s how we got to our version of Faeries.
4 Sower of Temptation
This was a number that I really pushed for: We knew there was going to be a lot of Boat Brew, and we knew that the Boat Brew matchup would improve (in R/W deck’s favor) from a difficult pre-Conflux expectation due to Path to Exile. Mistbind Clique, previously, was the roughest card out of Fae for these decks… but four Sowers is an absolute nightmare out of Fae for Reveillarks.
3 Agony Warp
This looks, I know, like a card that should improve the matchups we decided to throw away main (Blightning Beatdown, nothing spectacular in particular against Kithkin), but we positioned it for one reason: Agony Warp is one of the best cards from getting out from under the other guy’s Bitterblossom.
3 Broken Ambitions
This is the number of and card we selected for the auxiliary permission spell. Basically they all suck, but this one can silence both a Bitterblossom and a whatever else (say Mulldrifter) with flexibility.
2 Jace Beleren
Reflecting Pool Control in particular has issues with active Planeswalkers. I wanted a way to draw cards main, plus there is the curve issue (see Thoughtseize, below).
4 Peppersmoke
Like I just said – we wanted a way to draw some extra cards in this post-Ancestral Visions era. 4 Peppersmoke is the strange cousin of 4 Sower of Temptation… Scanning the entirety of the Top Standard Lists, we were the only ones that ran the quad starting, and certainly the only deck with this doubled up configuration. The reason? We wanted to play all the cards that are awesome against Blue decks… Sower of Temptation is the Reveillark nightmare, 4 Peppersmokes give us an edge against other Faeries decks.
3 Thoughtseize
And this is the finale to our “forget about trying to beat Blightning main but fight Blue” idea… Think about facing this curve with whatever deck…
- Turn 1 Thoughtseize
- Turn 2 Bitterblossom
- Turn 3 Jace Beleren
- Turn 4 Mistbind Clique
Does any other deck have a comparable best curve?
So Josh asked what we are supposed to be sideboarding against beatdown (after chuckling, of course, at our heavy anti-creature main that isn’t supposed to be great against attackers)… The answer was of course… FATHOM TRAWL!
I wanted something to tap out for, under the notion that Blue decks don’t beat decks like Blightning Beatdown with permission. Fathom Trawl is a nice card to tap out for… fills the grip with stuff like Flashfreeze 🙂
We rounded out Agony Warp, Jace, and Thoughtseize; Loxodon Warhammer being the cousin singleton to Fathom Trawl.
Puppeteer Clique was Josh’s idea. Seemed pretty awesome. I’ll have to ask Josh how this worked out against cards like Mulldrifter and Reveillark.
Did I mention “congratulations Yellow Hat?” What a great finals with LSV meeting Nassif in a battle of two of the game’s best.
I’m sure you guys have your own takes on how you should build a Faeries deck… But these were the ideas behind our approach.
LOVE
MIKE
15 comments ↓
Turn 1 Flamekin Harbinger
Turn 2 Smokebraider
Turn 3 Thunderblust
Turn 4 Rage Forger/Another Thunderblust/Burn away your blocker
There’s a better curve 😀
I really like the idea of Unsummon in a Fae deck, but every other card you would want to play is just better. Still, think about this curve…
Turn 1 Thoughtseize
Turn 2 Bitterblossom
Turn 3 Jace Beleren
Turn 4 Mistbind Clique
Turn 5 Unsummon Mistbind Clique, Play Mistbind Clique?
I just love the idea of needing a counterspell, and playing Unsummon on Mistbind Clique to bring Spellstutter Sprite back into play, countering the spell, and then playing Mistbind Clique again.
I really like snakeform in fae, and it would work great in this one that uses peppersmokes. You can also just block with tokens. Snakeform also hoses creatures like lark or colossus when they resolve. Oh how I miss desert. Anyhow, I would probably get rid of the agony warp for snake form. I think that if you don’t like snakeform over warp that terror is probably a better meta call.
@ReeceP
We both know that’s not a better curve.
@Joe
I don’t hate Unsummon… But what is it better than? I think for what you’re using it for, Turn to Mist is probably better.
@mpace
Agony Warp is there go get out from under Bitterblossom. You can’t 2-for-1 your way out of a Bitterblossom disadvantage with Snakeform. It costs too much mana and you’re going to end up trading on the board anyway. Cute against Reveillark, sure, but cuter than stealing it? 🙂
I guess I’m just not as afraid of the mirror blossom with all the smokes and hopeful measures to prevent their’s resolving (seize/ambitions). I would be more resigned to throw agony warp to the SB if its inclusion over other choices is decided for the mirror. I don’t mind TRADING 1/1’s on the board in a deck without scion’s, especially if I’m cantriping.
For reveillark, I would rather steal it, but I like having additional options. Plus, if I am without counter backup when I play sower, there’s nothing I can do about an incinerate, and I’m back to square one. With snakeform played optimally, lark is done for (and I draw a card, everybody dance!). Added to it’s tech against other meta threats (doran, figure, war monk, blah blah) I think it is worthy of considering over warp.
Where’s the Diabolic Edict!
First I want to say that I am no Pro I havent even managed to get a Pro Point yet. However some of these comments are just proposterous! I am not trying to single anyone out or bash on anyone in any way but c’mon you got to be kidding me. Unsummon is good in certain situations but just to use it in combination with mistbind clique to time walk again is not good enough. It takes 2 cards to complete the transaction. Wouldnt you rather play peppersmoke kill something on the board and draw a card? 2 for 1’s man! Unsummon is definately not a 2 for 1. If you are just trying to bounce mistbind to time walk again then I think “CALL TO HEEL” would be a better card in that it does the same thing and also lets you draw a card. Yes it cost 1 more mana but I would pay 1 mana for 1 card anyday. We all know that the MONO RED Elementals deck has a crazy curve sometimes but c’mon Volacanic Fallout = GG.
One thing I noticed about this version of fae is that it is a little black heavy with the 4 peppersmokes in the main board. You mentioned something worth tapping out for against blightning beatdown and I had a crazy idea. How many times when you play fae you havent seemed to be able to win yet and have tons of mana on the board? It happens quite often and sometimes you need something to tap out for weather it be oona queen of the fae, or a fathom trawl etc. I know this does not seem like a PROFESSIONAL Players Idea, but what about splashing some graven cairns in the deck or cascade bluffs and throwing in a Cruel Ultamatium? I know it will mess up the mana base a bit but there is a way to figure the mana base out to the T. I just think it would be insane to be playing fae and your oppenent being all worried about getting all his spells countered and keeps passing his turns. Draw-Go as some call it. Then all of a Sudden WHAM BAM THANK YOU MAAM! Cruel Ultamatium!
Keep up the good work Michael,
Sean
I don’t think that Turn to Mists would be better because I would think the main focus of Unsummon would be Mistbind Clique for the time walk effect. So you would want to play it again during the opponent’s upkeep to get another turn of them playing nothing hopefully.
@Joe
Champion is a comes into play ability. Why wouldn’t you just Turn to Mist on the opponent’s turn? Doesn’t Time Walk their upkeep, but gives you a free past on their end of turn… Or you can do it your own turn post combat or whatever. Not 100% what you want, but generally more flexible and a savings of 3 mana.
@admin
Yeah I see what you’re saying there. It does make more sense to use Turn to Mist on their turn especially if Spellstutter Sprite is Championed, and even if it isn’t, it still saves the 3 mana. In summation, you are correct sir.
It would be awesome if the Edison PTQ top 8 lists are ever posted. The only list I am interested in to be honest is Ravitz’s build of Faeries/Wizards. If you have it that would be swell!
Fae is one of those decks that will never hit a version that is the best because people refuse to play it. I don’t know why people don’t like winning. Ok now that Ive said the totally obvious. I think that unsummon is more flexible than turn so it should get the nod…….. if you were going to play a card of that nature. I understand where mike is coming from but i think if you narrow yourself to only targeting your own fae then you lose the ability to unsummon a creature that you missed and recounter it. But over all i think that you would be better off just killing it with a terror/eyeblights/aggonywarp.
As an aside i think this site need more tranformers content 😛 at least a picture of you betting someone down in an epic game of magic whilst wearing the “You got the touch” shirt. Viva Megatron
Any chance you could post a list for your martyr-proc extended deck soon? The only list i can find seems pretty out of date.
I have a PTQ coming up and would be interested in giving it a try.
1.) Over the past few expansions, Wizards has cast its spell against Faeries. How bad was that spell? I would say… -3/-3.
2.) That list seems straight up terrible. I have nothing against Faeries. The fundamental idea is beautiful (flash + counter? Sheet, that’s a control player’s wet dream). My point is that the list seems STRETCHED. This list is REACTING to the field, instead of CREATING an ultimatum.
I think Faeries needs Scion. I’ve seen these cute lists without Scions, but it seems like AT THE VERY LEAST 1-2 Scions is absolutely necessary.
– Any deck with 4 Bitterblossom should have 1 Lox main deck. Can I get a HELL YEAH?
– Peppersmoke sucks. It doesn’t matter if you draw a card. IT STILL SUCKS. Sheesh.
– I like the idea of 4 Sowers.
Anyways, my point is that Faeries needs something radical. It seems that contemporary lists make a change HERE AND THERE without taking it all the way. What should those changes be? I’m not sure, but here’s a preliminary list:
4 Bitterblossom
3 Thoughtseize
3 Broken Ambitions
1 Cancel
4 Cryptic Command
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Scion of Oona
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Sower of Temptation
1 Wydwen, the Biting Gale
1 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Agony Warp
I’m not sure why people were so terrified of playing fae post-fallout. YES, it can wreck faeries. Sure, it can’t be countered. But really? it’s only so hot if they’ve got a bitterblossom out. Even then, they’re gonna recover unless you use this pause to play something that hoses them.
It’s strange that people see this card and think, wow, this kills faeries, enough to not play the fae, and yet it, and even more so pyroclasm, wrecks BW tokens, and thats still played. alot. Faeries has the same chance as BW tokens to snag the sweeper from the other players hand, maybe even more in some versions. Faeries already either dominates the decks that can pack fallout (5cc) or gets pwned, fallout or no (blightning/rdw).
To sum up: BW tokens is wrecked even more than faeries by fallout, and it doesn’t scare those players away.
I believe faeries is, in a vaccuum (i know this doesn’t exist, but just for comparatice purposes), still easily the strongest deck in standard.
anyways, thats my rant on why people are silly.
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