Shoutout to SaffronOlive and Sam Black for giving me inspiration. Love you guys!
Leave up counter-magic without losing efficiency, play everything in response to your opponent to gain even more efficiency - this deck is all about efficiency. The individual cards may not seem too strong (with the possible exception of Mistbind Clique), but in combination they slow your opponent's gameplan down to a crawl, all while you're pecking them to death with little evasive Faeries. Notably, this deck is not for people who want a straightforward gameplan - everything you do depends on the situation, and the deck is not forgiving of misplays. Every game is a close game with this deck, since you don't really stop your foe, just slow them down while your faeries stab them in one-damage intervals, so one misplay that makes you a little less efficient can be the difference between winning and losing. But it is extremely fun, and rewards good play.
Faerie Miscreant is one of two nonlands that can't be played at instant speed. The deck just reeeeeeeeeeeally needs a one-drop; if Wizards decided to print a card that was for a 1/1 faerie with flash and flying, It would replace Miscreant in a second. C'est la vie. Sometimes it draws you cards; it's a nice little advantage, but not worth losing flash.
Technically,
Mistblade Shinobi
doesn't have flash - but it sorta does. This guy is one faerie subtype of being our ideal card; it can pick up our creatures so we can re-use their ETB effects (this will probably mostly be Spellstutter Sprite), and it bounces one of our opponents' creatures too, messing up their tempo. I used to run Phantasmal Image in this slot, and you still can, but I really like the tempo plays the Shinobi allows more than just increasing your raw DPS. It is worth noting that returning your creature is part of the cost of Ninjutsu, so it cannot be responded to; that means you can't get 2-for-1'd by having your opponent kill your only creature before he resolved, the way Quickling and Mistbind Clique can. I can't decide if I prefer this guy or
Ninja of the Deep Hours
, so you can try both and see what you think.
Spellstutter Sprite is an extraordinarily good card. It'll counter things early game, and leaves you with a little evasive faerie? Sign me up! Sometimes you have to play this without countering anything just to get a body down - sometimes it's because you need to Mistbind Clique but they killed your other creatures, sometimes it's because your opponent probably will never play anything that's small enough to be countered by it, and sometimes you just need a clock but they didn't play anything you can counter. Either way, it should always be on the end of your foe's turn if you do - that way you still have counters up if necessary.
Pestermite is mainly famous for being a combo with Splinter Twin (may it rest in peace), but we're just using it because it's pure value. This card has loads of uses; you can tap an attacker, tap one of your opponents' lands, untap one of your lands, etc. The thing about a card like this is that none of the individual effects are hugely gamechanging, but it makes your opponent play less efficiently, while you play more efficiently (since it has flash). Don't be afraid to play this at the end of your opponents' turn and just tap a land of theirs (probably the color with the most removal) to facilitate leaving up countermagic - an opponents' turn where you play nothing is a turn wasted.
Mistbind Clique is the top of our curve, and boy is it a kick in the pants when it works well. Flash it in on your opponents' upkeep, tap all their lands, and get a 4/4 flier?! Sign me the hell up! Championing a faerie is sometimes a downside (if you only have one other creature and your opponent kills it, you're gonna be really sad), most of the time it's not too bad - and sometimes you can make it an upside, since when it leaves the battlefield the championed creature (a Spellstutter Sprite, for example) re-enters. Just be wary of that blowout.
Quickling is a funny card. It lets your reuse any ETB effects you have (and don't forget it'll make a creature championed by Mistbind Clique re-enter), save your creatures, or even permablock with one in your hand and one on the field. But sometimes, it's just a dead card when you have 0 creatures on the field. It can also fall victim to the same 2-for-1 that Mistbind Clique does, though less often (since one of the biggest uses for it is to fizzle removal). That's okay though, since it's so useful and versatile. One thing worth noting is that this card works fine through the shroud that Scion of Oona gives.
Vapor Snag is the closest thing to blue removal, and it's really really good. Any time they try to attack, just put the dude straight back to their hand and Gut Shot your opponent for having the audacity to attack you. Sometimes used on your own creatures too (most often a Spellstutter Sprite or Mistbind Clique), though try to do that with Quickling instead, when possible.
Familiar's Ruse, Mana Leak, and Remand are our package of counters (Cryptic Command isn't in the budget and costs too much mana for this deck anyways, in my opinion). Familiar's Ruse may sound bad at first, but in a deck like ours returning a creature to our hand is often a good thing. I counter your spell, and get to pick my Spellstutter Sprite or Misbind Clique up as a bonus? Hell yeah! Leak is a hard counter early game, but way late into a game it can start to just be a taxing effect - either way, it's good. And Remand may not ever hard counter, but it'll always slow your opponent down and draw you cards (unless, say you're vs. storm and they have a Pyromancer's Ascension - don't remand then!). The great thing about Faeries is you can always flash something in on the end of your opponents turn if you don't get to counter anything.
The land base is literally just islands and Mutavaults. Mutavault is a super good card, it benefits from all the faerie synergies.
First, -2
Mistblade Shinobi
+2 Vendilion Clique; Vendilion Clique is excellent at messing up our opponents' gameplan, just like we want, but they're just way too expensive for me to justify putting into the mainboard (maybe they'll get reprinted someday in Return to Lorwyn? If only, if only, the woodpecker cries...)
Second, I'd do -1 Mana Leak -1 Familiar's Ruse +2 Spell Snare. Spell Snare is a great, versatile card in general (who doesn't run 2-drops?), but it's especially good for stopping your foe sticking a big 2-CMC creature (like Tarmogoyf, for example) on turn 2 when they get to go first. Also really good in a counter war, since three of the five most common counterspells (Mana Leak, Remand, and Negate) cost 2 mana - the other two are Cryptic Command, which I don't like for this deck, and Spell Snare itself.
The next logical step would be -3 Quickling +3 Snapcaster Mage - Snapcaster's too good a card to pass up, even if he doesn't benefit from our faerie synergies, if you've got the money for a few.
Some people would tell you to do -2 Remand +2 Cryptic Command, but I am not one of those people; I think the mana cost is too high. Crpytic is a really good card, but I think it slows down the deck too much, and would probably require another land to use reliably.
First, I'd do -4 Mutavault +4 Ghost Quarter. Ghost quarter won't beat your opponents over the head like Mutavault does, but it'll stop you from getting whooped by their manlands (or
Pendelhaven
, for example) If you really needed to, you could just add islands instead.
Next, you might want to go -2 Hurkyl's Recall -2 Relic of Progenitus for +2 Tormod's Crypt +2 Ceremonious Rejection - it makes your sideboard significantly worse, but it's usable.
Most of the time, Vapor Snag is a strictly-better Unsummon - we have other ways to bounce our own creatures, so these are almost always directed at our opponent - but -4 Vapor Snag +4 Unsummon won't kill the deck, just make it a little bit slower.
Mistbind Clique is pretty necessary for winning games, but you can afford to go -1 Mistbind Clique +1
Mistblade Shinobi
if you need to while still having it most of the time you need it.
Finally, I'd do -3 Remand +3 Unsubstantiate. Remand is a great card in this deck, but you can replace it with Unsubstantiate - Unsubstantiate is sometimes Remand without card draw, sometimes a more expensive Unsummon - but it's versatile, so this swap isn't killer.
