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Enchantment (4)
Artifact (2)
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Sorcery (1)
Artifact (3)
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One of the most rage-inducing (and most expensive) decks I have ever built, Lock-Down with Fae is my pride and joy, and it is disgustingly hard to beat in 1v1 games while holding its own very well in multiplayer. It is very reactionary and abuses the stack with numerous Flash creatures to keep the opponent locked down and hesitant on every play they make.
Be warned: Lock-Down with Fae is not for novice players, The skillcap is very high. An expert level of understanding and comprehension of the technical rules revolving around "the stack" is highly recommended if you wish to maximize this deck's potential to dominate your opponents.
Aggro:
Though I prefer playing Lock-Down with Fae in Attrition mode, it can very easily become a beatdown Aggro deck by switching out Sword of Feast and Famine,
Sword of Light and Shadow
, both Glen Elendra Archmages, and in there place dropping in the entire playset of
Scion of Oona
.
My reasons for switching out the Swords should be obvious; the Scions grant Shroud to your creatures, effectively making the Swords illegal to equip. As for the Glen Elendra Archmage, it is only my experienced preference to side board them because you have plenty of other counter options (Spell Pierce, Cryptic Command, and
Spellstutter Sprite
). Playing the Aggro version of this deck does merit a little bit of cut back to the still-present Control aspects. The Archmage is a Control creature with a CMC of 4 while Cryptic Command is much more versatile at the same mana cost. You may keep the Archmages if you prefer; although, you will be making harsh sacrifices by side boarding something else, whether it's out of consideration of mana costs or versatility.
The
Scion of Oona
s provide amazing bonuses for Aggro. Your Faerie cards gain Shroud, including your Bitterblossoms, and your growing army of measly 1/1 tokens become a dangerously boosted swarm that can't be targeted, not to mention the nontoken creatures that will be benefiting from Shroud and the static +1/+1 bonus as well. Mistbind Clique and Vendilion Clique both become powerful beatsticks that have to be blocked or they will bash off some serious life points. Swing with these two fatties along with your swarm of tokens, and your opponent is going to be hard-pressed to block all of those Flyers. More often than not, a lot of damage is going to go through. Also, having Shroud still legally allows you to Champion a Faerie with Mistbind Clique and return creatures to your hand with Quickling because there is an absence of the keyword, "target" in their ability texts. In other words, there is no card in Lock-Down with Fae's main board, except for Sword of Feast and Famine and
Sword of Light and Shadow
, that contradict having
Scion of Oona
's provided Shroud. Just make sure the Swords are in the side board and Lock-Down with Fae will run brutally aggressive.
What's not to love about a board of boosted Flyers with Shroud and protection for Bitterblossom? This may sound to you like Aggro is the obvious choice to go with, and maybe it is if you prefer the simplicity of the Aggro playstyle and the safety of Shroud. However, you would be a fool to not read on and discover why Attrition can be just as deadly, if not even more threatening to your opponents.
Attrition requires more comprehensive understanding of what you are playing against, as well as a good player-intuition to make the right decision (and i do so love the challenge). When played correctly, the Attrition version is more dominating and versatile than the Aggro version ever could be.
The Swords are two excellent cards to go with when playing my preferred style as they each provide great utility for Attrition. Sword of Feast and Famine provides great Control mechanics to menace your opponents with. It provides a nice boost and protection that could potentially mean an unblockable trigger. That trigger being forced discard, and best of all, it untaps all of your lands. This enables you to safely play your Main Phase cards and still have all of your mana to counter and flash with afterward on your opponent's turn.
Sword of Light and Shadow
provides great utility in other aspects. Not only does it provide the same boost and slightly different protection, but it also grants health. This is very desirable when both, your opponent and your own Bitterblossoms are trying to kill you. However, the best mechanic of the card is its triggered ability to let you recycle important creatures out of your graveyard. It applies great usage to literally every nontoken creature in the main deck, making it a prime reason to chump with a
Spellstutter Sprite
when you have to, not hesitate to sac your Glen Elendra Archmage whose Persist ability has already triggered once, swing like a madman with your Mistbind Cliques and Vendilion Cliques, and reclaim your Oona's Blackguard that were savagely punished with Lightning Bolt for their versatility with Bitterblossom. Every creature you cast becomes expendable and thus, reusable.For this reason, I almost always equip the swords to tokens, leaving my nontoken creatures to chump-block with, so I can reuse them with
Sword of Light and Shadow
. Not to mention people generally dislike having to waste removal cards on a token with a base stat of 1/1 that I'll be replacing next turn. It induces more frustration, and that always makes me smile.
For all these reasons and so many more that you can imagine with some critical thinking, these swords go hand-in-hand perfectly in Lock-Down with Fae, and their incredible versatility and amazing compatibility with Cryptic Command's option to tap all opposing creatures are the main reason I enjoy and prefer the Attrition Faeries over
Scion of Oona
's Aggro Faeries.
The Strategy They Share
The main concept in either version of the deck is to use and abuse
Spellstutter Sprite
in conjunction with numerous Faerie tokens (provided by Bitterblossom, your other nontoken Faeries, and your man-lands, Mutavault, and using traditional counter and discard cards to lock down casting. The secondary focus is forcing your opponent's to pass their turn with Mistbind Clique while wisely selecting your Faerie card to champion, whether its a
Spellstutter Sprite
or Vendilion Clique you plan to retrigger, or a Bitterblossom that's become a tad too "bitter" for your health. Their are numerous options. No matter what you choose to champion and manipulate, it's the amazing ability to land-lock your opponent and force a turn-pass that you're usually going for(Just remember to flash it in at your opponent's upkeep). Keep your opponent locked down and constantly off-balance while your swarm of Faeries builds up to overwhelming numbers.
Creatures:
Spellstutter Sprite
- The staple creature of any playable Fae deck, when you pair this counter-on-legs with Bitterblossom, just about any card becomes counterable within short time. Even without your Enchantment, she is very functionable with the nontoken creatures and playset of Mutavault. When in combat, she is my blocker of choice, even above the tokens you pay for. I block with her over tokens for two reasons. The first is that
Sword of Light and Shadow
enables you to recycle her for future countering. The second is that unlike your tokens, she isn't a Rogue. This inhibits you from playing Knowledge Exploitation or Notorious Throng for their Prowl costs. So once you've popped her out, feel free to chump with her, unless you want to use Quickling or Familiar's Ruse to bounce her back and repeat. Just remember, she is first in line to block with.
- Another well known face in the book of Fae, this is the biggest creature you'll be using. Once cast during your opponent's Upkeep, the Mistbind Clique has the amazing ability to lock your opponents out of casting anything short of a 0 drop (or if they draw a land, then a 1 drop). This is HUGE in terms of control. Even if it is hit with removal, the Champion a Faerie ability still triggers, and so long as you exile something (which would unfortunately be permanent exile in this case because the way the stack would resolve), the trigger will still go through and tap all of their lands. If they tap all their land in response to you playing it, rest assured, they lose all their mana as soon as the Upkeep step ends and Draw step begins. During upkeep, only Instant and Flash cards, as well as ability activations can occur. So the potential responses are limited and few permanents are going to be put down as a result.
Even better, tapping an opponent's lands isn't the only benefit the Mistbind Clique offers! You can also use its ability to dodge incoming removal at your other Faerie permanents, being able to reclaim them when you pick up your Clique with Quickling or Familiar's Ruse.
You also don't have to worry about his Champion ability interfering with the Shroud that
Scion of Oona
provides. This is because the Oracle text of "Champion a Faerie" doesn't use the word, "target."
Another great option is to Champion your Bitterblossom when your health starts to get low, saving precious life points until you can get healthier with
Sword of Light and Shadow
.
One of the most solid plays is to Champion the Mistbind's other namesake, the Vendilion Clique. This is a great incentive for your opponent to not remove Mistbind Clique for fear of the resulting "discard v2.0" that Vendilion Clique would trigger upon reentry. I've even Championed other Mistbind Cliques. Lining your cards up right, you can keep your opponent land-locked for numerous turns in a row. Last but definitely not least, you can Champion a
Spellstutter Sprite
and sit on a counter to trigger with Quickling or another Mistbind Clique in the future.
- This 3/1 Flyer costs a pretty penny, and with good reason! There are very few cards that put cards on the bottom of your opponent's library, effectively erasing them from potential reanimation or from being Reclaimed. Furthermore, it may be the only card that retrieves the buried card of your choice from your opponents hand. It's certainly the only creature that can do it.
It's incredibly cost-efficient at only 3 mana, and is your second hardest-hitting Faerie, though he'll die just as easily as your
Spellstutter Sprite
will, so keep him safe if you're depending on the damage, and reuse him often with
Sword of Light and Shadow
when you're not. He's your number one choice to Champion with Mistbind Clique assuming things are going well, as repeatedly picking apart your opponent's hand is a very punishing tactic, and having him Championed will keep him safe, as well as provide punishment to those who would remove your Mistbind Clique. (If you are low on health though, Championing Bitterblossom takes priority over Vendilion Clique to conserve your health.)
Another worthy point in the Vendilion Clique's favor is he can be used on the dead cards in your hand when you desperately need to draw a different card. Rest assured, your opponents won't see your hand, just the card you choose to put at the bottom of your deck. Best of luck in your draw chances if your ever in a hairy enough situation that Vendilion Clique's ability needs to be used on yourself. I only have to do this maybe one out of every 50ish games I play. Still, it is a decent defensive play, basically equivalent to "discard one, draw one." It is a lot more devastating when used on your opponents obviously.
- The second counter with legs in this deck, she literally gets one counter for each leg she stands on. Knock one leg out from under her, and she still has one left to counter with (a dry joke pertaining to her Persist ability).
I enjoy running her because she can counter twice for one a piece, and if I champion her with Mistbind Clique or return her to my hand with Quickling or Familiar's Ruse, then I can potenetially just keep countering over and over with her until I can only recycle her with
Sword of Light and Shadow
. When facing aggro, I drop her into the side board for
Scion of Oona
because aggro decks feature a lot of creatures. That makes her inefficient as she can only counter noncreature spells. However, in any other match up, she performs very well, and I love to use her... twice or more.
- This piece of bolt-bait can be very dangerous for your opponent. And they'll realize it immediately when you play it alongside Bitterblossom. All of your tokens now enter as 2/2s and if Oona's Blackguard goes unchecked, your opponent will soon be playing blind with only the top card of their library to depend on. She does attract some heat due to her powerful on-going ability, so you'll have to protect her well. Reclaim her immediately from the graveyard with
Sword of Light and Shadow
or throw down your
Scion of Oona
immediately after (or before) her. The two boosting fairies work very well together in making your tokens Beast-sized, so running all four
Oona's Blackguard
alongside 4
Scion of Oona
in Aggro is definitely recommended.
- This card can provide some much needed early game defense or offense, depending on which way you are geared towards. It also helps with Spellstutter Sprite s ability to counter, as well as triggering Knowledge Exploitation for a fantastic Prowl Cost of 4. Be warned though, you cannot reclaim a Mutavualt with Sword of Light and Shadow , as it is only a land when it sits in your graveyard.
Stay tuned for the in-depth card-by-card analysis soon to come on the rest of the deck!
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| Date added | 9 years |
| Last updated | 8 years |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 2 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 13 Rares 7 - 2 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.54 |
| Tokens | Faerie Rogue 1/1 B |
| Folders | deckks, yumm, Modern, Damn, good variations of modern archtypes, Sweet Tribal Decks, faerie examples, Vintage, Fun Decks, Fae |
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