Ferngully (Help Wanted!)

Modern Competitive Control Counterspell Discard Faeries Flash Tempo UB (Dimir)

Balaam__

Land (20)

• 2x Cavern of Souls
• 3x Island
• 2x Mutavault
• 2x Polluted Delta
• 3x River of Tears
• 4x Secluded Glen
• 2x Swamp
• 2x Watery Grave

Creature (16)

• 4x Brazen Borrower
• 4x Scion of Oona
• 4x Spellstutter Sprite
• 4x Vendilion Clique

Sorcery (8)

• 4x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4x Thoughtseize

Instant (12)

• 4x Drown in the Loch
• 2x Fatal Push
• 4x Force of Negation
• 2x Surgical Extraction

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Bitterblossom

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Sideboard

Instant (10)

• 4x Cling to Dust
• 2x Fatal Push
• 2x Mana Leak
• 2x Remand

Creature (4)

• 4x Snapcaster Mage

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana of the Veil

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Maybeboard

Instant (11)

• 1x Archmage's Charm
• 1x Blue Elemental Blast
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Dismember
• 1x Fading Hope
• 1x Familiar's Ruse
• 1x Infernal Grasp
• 1x Shadow of Doubt
• 1x Spell Snare
• 1x Test of Talents
• 1x Vapor Snag

Creature (8)

• 1x Fae of Wishes
• 1x Glasspool Mimic  ^Flip
• 1x Grief
• 1x Mistbind Clique
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Quickling
• 1x Rankle, Master of Pranks
• 1x Subtlety

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Ashiok, Dream Render

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Bloodchief's Thirst

Artifact (7)

• 1x Aether Spellbomb
• 4x Aether Vial
• 1x Engineered Explosives
• 1x Shadowspear

Land (4)

• 2x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Urza's Saga

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Spreading Seas

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Note: I’d very much like to revisit this deck and perfect it as much as is possible. I’ve had tremendous enjoyment playing this among friends (using proxies in lieu of some of the pricier cards I don’t yet own), and would like to invest in the finished version to own in paper. I’d appreciate any and all help perfecting this build, although no radical departures will be accepted. I like the core gameplay loop and would prefer to keep that intact. Thank you in advance to all that comment, and I’ll be updating the description after finalizing the build.

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Modern Faeries, yay!

The Mana Base

•Islands and Swamps are our bread and butter. Dimir colors suit the theme and intent of our deck quite well.

•River of Tears is the epitome of a tactical play. In the early game, when we want to be Inquisiting and Seizing our way to advantage, River of Tears will predominantly be a source of black mana on our turn. Perfect, since that’s when we’ll be playing the aforementioned sorceries. If we decide to leave it untapped on our turn and held in reserve for control purposes, it becomes a source of blue mana—handy for our counterspells or flashing in one of our Faerie mischief makers. You’d be hard pressed to find a more versatile land.

•Secluded Glen, our Great Fairy Fountain, is home to our little sprites. Odds are good you’ll have a faerie in hand so it enters untapped.

•Polluted Delta will let us fetch either basic land type from our deck; the life point ping hurts but as this build aims to control the playing field, it shouldn’t prove catastrophic.

•Watery Grave has both our bases covered. Whether it’s black or blue mana we require, simply tap and we’re good.

•Mutavault will produce 1, yes, but it’s primary purpose for inclusion is it’s ability. For a mere 1 mana of either color, we can transform it into a 2/2 faerie that can still tap for 1. This often proves invaluable.

•Cavern of Souls is being added on a trial basis. The idea is to protect our faerie spells while they’re on the stack. Sadly, it cannot be used to cast Bitterblossom. Since it falls under the umbrella of being a Tribal card, it adds the faerie creature type to the enchantment card type, but it is not a creature spell and thus cannot be cast with Cavern of Souls’ secondary function. This land would be an automatic no-questions-asked inclusion if it worked that way, but alas...No.

The Fae

Below we shall go over the individual constituents of our faerie conclave, and discuss their relevant uses.

•Spellstutter Sprite is our cheapest flying friend, but by no means is it throwaway fodder like many early game creatures may be. For only 2 mana, we have a 1/1 flyer with beautiful mid- to late game removal potential—-all due to it inherently possessing the Flash keyword ability. That’s right, the majority of cards in this deck may be played at any time we could play an instant; this allows us to lean heavily into the control archetype.

•Vendilion Clique is our next little sprite. It retains the same characteristics as our first faerie, namely flying and flash, but in addition gives us a superb opportunity to preemptively control the board. Once played, choose whichever non land card in your opponent’s hand that might cause the most annoyance, and it’s relegated to the bottom of their library. Elegant and effective.

•Scion of Oona is our lord, commanding the respect and admiration of its fellow faeries. Not only does it act as a personal trainer, buffing them +1/+1, but it bestows Shroud which will make it a headache for our opponent to interact with our flying friends.

•Brazen Borrower rounds out our creature list, and boy does it ever. If you aren’t aware of this fearsome fiend, you’re either brand new to MtG or haven’t played in years. What we have is a brutal catch all, of sorts. The Adventure half may be played first to disrupt the tempo, then be followed up later by the actual creature coming into play—at any time. Precariously treading the OP line, it’s included “drawback” isn’t much of one. Yes, it can only block other flying creatures. No, that will hardly ever prove problematic. Win-win.

Control the Board

Our creatures alone are not nearly powerful enough to either dominate the board or even have that big an impact upon it. Ergo, what they are unable to achieve we must find a way to compensate for. To that end, we have a plethora of spells at our disposal with the express aim of controlling the board to a point where we can systematically whittle down the opposing player.

Preemptive Control Show

What’s better than responding to our opponent’s plays? Not allowing them the opportunity to make said plays in the first place.

•Thoughtseize lets us derail our opponent’s strategy before it can manifest itself. This card is the very definition of “preemptive”. Four copies, no question.

•Inquisition of Kozilek is Thoughtseize’s baby brother. Think of a little brother always chiming in after you say something, and that’s basically what we have here.

“Oh yeah?”

”Yeah!”

Reactive Removal Show

Trying to anticipate everything will prove an exercise in futility. Enter: Reactive Removal. With these cards we will be able to effectively respond to plays our opponent makes that might otherwise catch us off guard.

•Drown in the Loch is a personal favorite of mine. The artwork is...simply gorgeous. It reminds me of when MtG used to have consistently beautiful art, such as the Mirage block or other earlier sets. Anyway, this card not only looks good but performs good. For only two mana we will essentially be countering a spell of our choice or eliminating a creature of our choice. Our opposing player’s graveyard will invariably fill up with the plethora of removal and discard type spells, so this card’s faux ‘requirement’ isn’t much of one. An easy four copies.

•Surgical Extraction earns that (technically) 0 mana casting cost. Simply Seize or Inquisite away a potential threat, then follow up by removing all copies of said threat. Brilliant.

•Fatal Push is fast and brutally effective creature removal at its finest. Between fetchlands and faerie tokens, the odds of a permanent leaving the battlefield are high—perfect to trigger Fatal Push’s full potential. Say goodbye to that problematic Stoneforge Mystic or Craterhoof Behemoth. Follow up with the aforementioned card for a true sigh of relief.

•Force of Negation is our ace in the hole. 24 cards in this deck qualify as Blue; the alternative casting cost shouldn’t be an issue. This card can and will save your butt.

Board Presence

Being small, diminutive creatures, sometimes our faeries need help. To bolster the morale of our little rogues, we have one last card to discuss.

•Bitterblossom helps get the ball rolling. Each turn we generate a 1/1 token with flying, at the cost of a point of life. These fuel Spellstutter Sprite’s requirement to successfully counter a spell, and also handily get buffed by Scion of Oona.

To be ready and able to block a ramped-in 6/6 on turn 3, that’s a possibility we need to be able to achieve. This card will provide a steady stream of damage reducers until we can be in a position suitable to control the board. Yes, it keeps the pressure on once it’s been cast; but really, if you were expecting to weather repeated beatings from 6/6’s or Eldrazi using a bunch of flying pixies, then you’re playing the wrong deck.

So there you have it. We essentially want to have Bitterblossom in play as early as possible, generating chump blockers, while we play hand/board control through the mid game. If all goes well, we can whittle down our opponent’s life total throughout this process and then it’s a hearty handshake and GG.

Special thanks to tacolover25 for suggesting (and properly explaining!) River of Tears. It opens up quite a few options, and seems custom designed for a deck of this type.

The sideboard is tentative; it looked good at the time but with constantly changing metas...you never know. Any help, mainboard or sideboard, is appreciated. Leave a comment if this needs desperate attention, or an upvote if you like what you see.

Top Ranked	Achieved #8 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern 4 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 1 Mythic Rares 31 - 4 Rares 6 - 8 Uncommons 4 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.10
Tokens	Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, On an Adventure
Folders	Modern, ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), Modern Decks, This looks dope., Faeries, Do You Play Modern?, Baator's Collection