Core of Faeries
Modern forum
Posted on Oct. 25, 2017, 1:20 p.m. by Xica
I recently looked into faeries, more specifically lists that managed to score high in some tournament.
And to my surprise i found that only 4x "creature" cards are played in them:
Mistbind Clique
Vendilion Clique
Spellstutter Sprite
Bitterblossom
Of course there tend to be 25 land (including 6+ manlands), and a lot of controll spells played along them.
Sometimes a Smuggler's Copter or two.
However to my astonishment, Quickling & Snapcaster Mage are often missing from these lists.
So what would be the ideal core of faerie decks in modern?
im not a faerie expert or all that competitive in general but i personally enjoy abusing the ETB effects from faeries and pairing them with Ninjas like Ninja of the Deep Hours/Mistblade Shinobi to get combat damage perks off the evasion of faeries and return them to your hand for recycling ETB effect from Thieving Sprite/Spellstutter Sprite....Triton Shorestalker is an epic evasion enabler if going this route and pairs well with Oona's Blackguard due to the rouge typing... same as Bitterblossom
October 25, 2017 2:02 p.m.
If you're Mono-Blue Fae, you go with Scion of Oona, Mistbind Clique, Vendilion Clique, Spellstutter Sprite, Pestermite, and Faerie Miscreant, with a few Snapcaster Mages and Ninja of the Deep Hours.
If you're in U/B, you start running out of room to play creatures because you have so many other good cards (Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Fatal Push). It becomes much easier to only play creatures with flash and tempo your opponent out of the game.
I'm also curious about why we don't see more Elder Deep-Fiends in Faerie lists. When you have a Mistbind Clique, Elder Deep-Fiend actually costs less than playing a second Mistbind Clique. But more importantly, it's like having 8 Mistbind Cliques, giving you the ability to TimeWarp at instant speed 8 times in your deck.
October 25, 2017 6:08 p.m.
Elder Deep-Fiend taps permanents, which is a significantly stronger effect than tapping lands.
Imho Mistbind Clique is more popular for 2 (maybe 3) reasons:
1 - it can champion Bitterblossom, thus preventing it from killing its owner.
2 - the deck plays a lot of counterspells, thus the player is likely aware the akward situation, that sacrificing creatures to cast a spell can lead to, if its countered.
(3 - its not a fearie, hence those who wish to play "pure tribal" will likely not play it over a faerie)
October 25, 2017 7:57 p.m.
It's mostly 1. Being able to tuck the Blossom away so it doesn't kill you is pretty important. Another reason why that wasn't mentioned is that you champion a token in the situation that Blossom is doing well, which basically makes it cost 4 all the time.
October 25, 2017 9:46 p.m.
NapoleonBonaparte says... #7
Snapcaster is a must imo for faeries. I played it as a 4 of when I use to play faeries and it was always the best card in my deck
October 26, 2017 1:35 a.m.
I don't mean playing Elder Deep-Fiend instead of Mistbind Clique...I mean playing Elder Deep-Fiend and Mistbind Clique. The only issue is that it's not a faerie. However, the potential benefits seem worth the risk.
October 26, 2017 3:35 a.m.
Faerie lists tend to limit themselves to 3x Mistbind Clique, as its mana cost is high for the tempo gameplan.
I have doubts about the validity of playing 8x such high costed creatures.
October 26, 2017 5:39 a.m.
NapoleonBonaparte says... #10
I agree that Elder Deep Fiend is terrible in faeries. Mistbind clique is an amazing card but not a 4 of. It should be 2-3 copies. Don't forget youre playing cryptic command, so elder deep fiend tapping creatures is irrelevant.
October 26, 2017 6:24 a.m.
NapoleonBonaparte says... #11
Mistbind is better than elder deep fiend in faeries for many reasons. First off it is a 4/4 flyer, secondly it has many niche champion things like exiling bitterblossom or another mistbind that had already championed a spellstutter sprite so you can get spellstutter back to counter the opponents spell. Also you can use it to champion a Vendilion Clique so you can play another copy from your hand.
also why would you want to sacrifice a creature with elder deep fiend when you dont necessarily have to with mistbind clique? Faeries already has to grind every bit of value to win the game and sacrificing something other than a token to get a psuedo cryptic command/mistbind cliqe effect isnt what you want to be doing
October 26, 2017 6:30 a.m.
hwagner
Elder Deep-Fiend isnt that bad.
Its just that the faerie decks need to have a low mana curve, and the Cryptic Command & Mistbind Clique package is demanding on the manabase in itself without adding other high cmc cards.
In other shells Elder Deep-Fiend can be really nice, for example its interaction with Sanctum of Ugin is insane.
(And there may be a deck that has both faeries and deep-fiend in it. But its not been created yet - at least to my knowledge. And such a deck certainly will be very different from the classic UB faeries, maybe it could snatch some place in the ninja faerie lists, but then it reduces the value of Disrupting Shoal)
October 26, 2017 6:44 a.m.
NapoleonBonaparte says... #13
When adding a card to a deck the questions asked should be "Does this card help the deck? Does this card fix the deck's problems? Is this the best option for the deck?" Elder Deep-Fiend doesn't do anything to make faeries a better deck. It doesn't fix what we need it to. So why would you suggest adding it? Sure it is a good card but it has no reason to be in faeries. I noticed you mentioned Sanctum of Ugin, what does that have to do with faeries? Is there a list that plays it? If so, why? The faeries manabase as you mentioned is already incredibly taxing. Im sorry if I come off sounding harsh or like an a**hole. Im not meaning to I just really don't understand why elder deep fiend is being considered for faeries lol
October 26, 2017 6:51 a.m.
I guess my point is that with Faeries, it's not a solved list. We should be critical of which choices made and question exactly what a deck is trying to do.
With Faeries, there aren't many low-mana cost creatures to choose from. So does it become more feasible to just play Spellstutter Sprite backed up by removal, then just lock your opponent out from doing anything once you have access to 4+ mana?
October 26, 2017 9:04 a.m.
Most Modern decks just aren't capable of the level of lockdown you describe, and attempting to do so seems foolhardy to me. Faeries is all about getting ahead - you want to get set up with an advantage engine (Ancestral Vision, Bitterblossom, or if you're really lucky, both), then aggressively trade cards 1-for-1 whenever possible, preferably while establishing a board presence to chip your opponent to death. It doesn't matter if the opponent gets a thing or two past your defenses as long as your board is doing better than theirs. Elder Deep-Fiend fits in with this plan at first glance. The problem is casting the darn thing is almost impossible for a typical Faeries deck - the deck has few creatures it can sacrifice, and those creatures have a low mana cost. Furthermore, the opportunity cost of playing means you'd have to either cut Mistbind Clique or shave Cryptic Command in order to make the curve work, and EDF isn't better than either card. What the deck needs (and what WotC has refused to print) is, as you noted, better things to do at the bottom end of the curve.
October 26, 2017 12:27 p.m. Edited.
rothgar13
There is nothing forbidding slyvannos, from going off the beaten path, and building a list that has faeries, and is not a tempo deck.
Obviously in the archetypal faerie tempo decks, Elder Deep-Fiend doesn't have a place.
Still that is no reason not to experiment with the card.
sylvannos
If i would wan't to include Elder Deep-Fiend in a list, i would take a look at evoke creatures, since they can be cast for their evoke cost (and their ETB effect), then in response to their sacrifice trigger from evoke, you can cast Elder Deep-Fiend, and sacrifice them to it.
Which is real nice, because they tend to have mana costs that are a lot higher then their evoke cost, and Elder Deep-Fiend only cares for their nominal cmc, not for how much you have cast them.
Mulldrifter, AEthersnipe, Shriekmaw are all real nice for this purpose.
October 26, 2017 3:01 p.m.
rothgar13
There is nothing forbidding slyvannos, from going off the beaten path, and building a list that has faeries, and is not a tempo deck.
Obviously in the archetypal faerie tempo decks, Elder Deep-Fiend doesn't have a place.
Still that is no reason not to experiment with the card.
sylvannos
If i would wan't to include Elder Deep-Fiend in a list, i would take a look at evoke creatures, since they can be cast for their evoke cost (and their ETB effect), then in response to their sacrifice trigger from evoke, you can cast Elder Deep-Fiend, and sacrifice them to it.
Which is real nice, because they tend to have mana costs that are a lot higher then their evoke cost, and Elder Deep-Fiend only cares for their nominal cmc, not for how much you have cast them.
Mulldrifter, AEthersnipe, Shriekmaw are all real nice for this purpose.
October 26, 2017 3:02 p.m.
elementalheroflamewingman says... #18
rothgar13 I'm playing a monoblue ninja-fae list that runs Elder Deep-Fiend along with Mistbind Clique. You really only have to do a 1-2 punch tapping down their lands once and you get way ahead in tempo, especially with the counterspells you probably play. Spellstutter Sprite is probably the card that allows you to stave off your opponent building up a great start too fast, while giving you a champion target.
October 28, 2017 4:37 p.m.
And what have you done with this deck? Be an FNM end boss? 5-0 an MTGO league? Spike a PPTQ? Because let's be real here - you can DO pretty much anything in Modern. The question that I care about is, will you WIN with it?
rothgar13 says... #2
Snapcaster could probably stand to be added to the list. But that's about it. Because WotC has steadfastly refused to print good Faerie support over the years (seriously, the best Faerie printed after Lorwyn/Shadowmoor is Faerie Miscreant), the deck has basically become Control with a dash of tribal synergies on the side.
October 25, 2017 1:56 p.m. Edited.