[Deck] Faerie Stompy

[scrumdogg]

I would really like to avoid all possible conflicts with Chalice @1 & any card I might run. The MD Crypt was reluctantly axed in the Eperzoa experiment but I would not object to one (or more, if warranted) in the SB. Tutorable (and potentially recursive) bullets warm the cockles of an old SotF players heart :cool: Boarding the 4th B2B would be an option, since acquiring any particular card at GP:Chi should not be a problem & the card is very good against a number of decks. The extra EEs allow me the ability to draw them organically (and potentially get multiples) without investing Trinket Mage. This further increases my odds of being able to EE for 2 since I could usually Mage for EE OR Mox Diamond with a singleton, but not both. I would love to run a full set of EE, but that is overkill & courting disaster with a Pithing Needle I couldn't stop... I do worry about Elves! and Goyf (and now Progenitus...) but no Legacy deck can handle every eventuality - although having the correct SB (and the plan on what to use & what to swap) is perhaps the most important overlooked part of Legacy tournament success.

Regarding the Gilded Drakes, as previously discussed, I am unconcerned about having to trade them with one of my other flyers given that A) I have a pretty decent chance to get them both back with SOLAS & B) whatever I stole is going to be bigger & more fearsome than the Drake (which I can often block without issue). There are a number of times where having (6) recursable ways to steal your opponents best critter is game-breaking. I also, fairly often, do a straight swap when the opponent has easy ways to kill the Sower. Drake has been outstanding for me to date & is one of the cards I would cut only reluctantly. My thoughts on Hibernation are also that it allows me to cut off an opponent after I drop a Chalice on something (or many somethings...) that snuck in earlier. Popping back multiple elves, goyfs, Mongeese while I have appropriate Chalice makes a relishing thought. Bouncing a Progenitus to their hand is all sorts of good.... But, as I said, that may be The Fear. Still, it seemed worth discussing. So you plan on being in attendance at the GP, Kuma? Be interesting to see how many FS decks show up & how the different iterations play out.

[Eldariel]

I think you're underestimating your match-up vs. Elves and Goblins. Between Chalice at 1, EE, Jitte, Sword of Fire and Ice and Force, you have very decent tools to beat them even on the draw and you should very rarely lose games on the play. Do note that EE deals with everything that makes chalice mediocre. EE is also the card that stopped Elves in Extended so it can't be totally trivial (although vs. the Survival-builds, Needle obviously takes priority).

But yea, I wouldn't be worried about those two match-ups beyond what you have; what you have is already ridiculously good (although if you added 2-3 BEBs, I'm betting you'd almost never lose the Gobs MU; that's been my experience in post-board games since adding them). Coincidentially, the same package is great against Merfolk and you're fairly well off vs. them as ½ of their mana denial package is dead vs. you and Chalice at 2 almost ends the game. Also, Jitte and Needle are great.


If your two cards are Tormod's Crypts, again, I wouldn't worry about Dredge. With 4 Trinket Mages and 2 Crypts, you already have more Dredge-hate than basically any deck in the format. Add to that Mulldrifters, Forces (no, it's not great midgame, but Forcing their discard outlet can win the game right then right there, and at the very least slow down their explosion vastly) and Chalices and you've got a veritable Dredge-wrecking package. Sure, Propagandas would be nice, but I've frankly never missed them - tight playing and what we've got seems to be enough.

I'm still confused by your experience vs. Landstill; my experience against the deck is far from "nightmare" and indeed, I'd actually welcome 6 rounds vs. UW Landstill in a GP. UWb is pretty much the same as UW as far as we're concerned, and UWbg is much tougher fairly, but scoops to B2B so you lose some and gain some there. Whether it's because of my testing- and tournament-opponents, build, luck or skill, I've got a positive record against Landstill and indeed, my worst numbers come vs. a variety of BGW midrange decks and a variety of Survival/Deed-builds (followed by RGbSA with Bone Shredders; the blocker is a pain - with the addition of SoLS and them switching to Shriekmaws though, the MU shot up ridiculously). Your lack of Glen Elendra Archmages may contribute towards this though.

[scrumdogg]

OK, upon review of the deckbox, it was 2x Tormod's Crypt. 2x Glen Elendra might be a good SB call, although what to pare always rears its ugly head... I do want access to at least 1 Crypt, but is the 4th B2B good for those who run it? How often are you able to side in 6-7 cards? I'm guessing that B2B may be one of the SB All-Stars at the GP, assuming I'm not in the 'Oh Gawd, have to win out versus screwy decks bracket'. Going quietly insane....

[Kuma]

I would really like to avoid all possible conflicts with Chalice @1 & any card I might run.

In the matchups where Pithing Needle is good, you either side out your Chalices or cast them at two. Relic does tend to trip over Chalices, so you've got to be careful when you side this in.


I do worry about Elves! and Goyf (and now Progenitus...)

Glen-Elendra Archmage helps keep Progenitus in your opponent's deck while helping out in the board control and combo matchups.


My thoughts on Hibernation are also that it allows me to cut off an opponent after I drop a Chalice on something (or many somethings...) that snuck in earlier. Popping back multiple elves, goyfs, Mongeese while I have appropriate Chalice makes a relishing thought. Bouncing a Progenitus to their hand is all sorts of good....

You don't need Hibernation to stop Elves! (which I doubt will be there in any great number anyway), the goyf and Mongeese scenario likely won't come up, and there are better options for stopping Progenitus that are useful in more situations.

Don't give in to the fear!


OK, upon review of the deckbox, it was 2x Tormod's Crypt. 2x Glen Elendra might be a good SB call, although what to pare always rears its ugly head... I do want access to at least 1 Crypt, but is the 4th B2B good for those who run it? How often are you able to side in 6-7 cards? I'm guessing that B2B may be one of the SB All-Stars at the GP, assuming I'm not in the 'Oh Gawd, have to win out versus screwy decks bracket'. Going quietly insane....

I've only played in two tournaments with the fourth B2B. In theory there shouldn't be any problems with the fourth since when we board them in we really want to see them. Extras provide insurance and at worst they can be imprinted/pitched.

I often side in 6-7 cards or more. Versus UWbg Landstill, for example, I side -3 Pestermite, -1 Serendib Efreet, -4 Chalice, -3 Sower of Temptation, +3 Glen-Elendra Archmage, +3 Pithing Needle, +4 Back to Basics, +1 Mulldrifter. -1 Pithing Needle +1 Relic of Progenitus if they run goyfs.

Keep your sanity. Have faith in the power of Faerie Stompy! :cool:


So you plan on being in attendance at the GP, Kuma? Be interesting to see how many FS decks show up & how the different iterations play out.

Oh yeah, I'll definitely be there piloting Faerie Stompy. Here's hoping the both of us make day two.

[Aleksandr]

.

[georgjorge]

If you're expecting large number of Merfolk + mirror + Progenitus decks, you could always include some Llawan, Cephalid Empress. Maybe it's overkill though.

[Kuma]

Some final questions before the GP:

1. 1 Tormod's Crypt and 1 Relic of Progenitus or 2 Tormod's Crypt in the sideboard? On one hand I like the diversity of Trinket Mage targets, but I fear that Relic may trip over Chalice at one.

2. Shoreline Ranger or the tenth Island? This one's really a coin toss. I like what Ranger does for the deck late, but at a huge tournament where I may be playing fifteen rounds or so, I may not be able to afford the loss of consistency from running Shoreline.

My list isn't too far back in the thread.

[beastman]

God, I lost round 1 of GP flash to a really good Faerie stompy player, I thought he was retarded, but he stepped on my face, even though I was playing goblins.

[Kuma]

1) I would play 2 Crypts. Really, except for the Loam matchup, Relic is only good against opposing Goyfs - and Goyf is played in the variety of decks that have something common - we need CotV:1 against them. (Thresh, Goyfsligh, Eva Green...) Am I right?

Yeah, you're right. The only exceptions I can think of are Team America (only stops Thoughtseize, Brainstorm, and Ponder/Stifle), ITF (only stops Brainstorm, Top, and StP), and Aggro Loam (Doesn't stop much of anything). Chalice at one isn't great in any of those matchups. I'm not sure if I'd be better with something else in the slot since I'll probably only want two Crypts against Ichorid and maybe Loam.

Relic was generally underwhelming when I ran it. Then again, so was Crypt.


2) Ranger... But see how sure I am about it... IDK, I like how the bird is pitchable to FoW, finds Island, flies, etc. but otoh you are right that this tournament has 15 rounds and every little deckbuilding mistake can cumulate..

I think I'm going to cut the Ranger for the GP. He's really a lategame card, and the early tempo loss plus increased mulligans is enough for me to cut him. Still, I like the guy and he'll probably stay in the deck, but I really need to figure out how often I'm glad to see him and how often I wish he was an Island.

[georgjorge]

Ok, Llawan wasn't really serious. But I found a decent card in Wash Out...it acts as a Hibernation against Survival, Elves, Thresh or Progenitus/Empyrial Archangel, should pretty much beat Goblins on its own, and has a use against non-creature decks with problematic permanents (Magus and Prison in Stax, Humility in Landstill, Elephant Grass or Confinement in Enchantress). Plus, strong against random jank as well.

[Aleksandr]

So, guys...
To all those of you that gonny try their luck at GP:

GL, HF!

[Portland]

Indeed, good luck stompers all. I have a feeling you'll be needing progenitus answers in the first few rounds looking at the trial decks.

[Portland]

Chalice - Stops their preparative spells (also stops Mongeeses, so they lose another NO condition)

FoW + Glendra - Stops NO

fast clock - Stops themselves... (opponents.)

Jitte/SoLS lifegain - Can buy a turn (But dont forget Ancient Tomb, FoW, occasional manaburn...)

Yup, unless they get a god start, it's not the end of the world. Suspect legendary squid in the 'bord might be overkill :wink:

Unless there's a huge weight of numbers, the number of NO thresh decks in the winning brackets will peter out through the day (I was a bit vague in that first post)

Think the fact that there was a Premium SSG article from a certain gent might up the numbers, but many of those players are going to have to read the cards an awful lot - There's little more promising in a large legacy tourney than "What does that do?" :laugh:

[Eldariel]

Indeed, good luck stompers all. I have a feeling you'll be needing progenitus answers in the first few rounds looking at the trial decks.

I'm still of the school, the best plan against Progenitus is to kill its controller. It doesn't have flying and present Progenitus-lists put it out turn 4 the earliest; plenty of time to draw a Force or some such. And if you do manage to Force it, it's such a gigantic beating as they lost 4 mana & their creature.

[Spardantevil]

Main Deck

60 cards

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
9 Island
1 Seat of the Synod

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18 lands


4 Mulldrifter
4 Pestermite
4 Sea Drake
4 Serendib Efreet
2 Sower of Temptation
4 Trinket Mage

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22 creatures 4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Mox Diamond
1 Sigil of Distinction
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Sword of Light and Shadow
3 Trinisphere

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20 other spells
Sideboard


3 Back to Basics
4 Force of Will
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Tormod's Crypt

15 sideboard cards


Won a GP Trial. COME ON !!!!!

[Eldariel]

Won a GP Trial. COME ON !!!!!

He made day two at 7-2, 69th in standings. Time will tell how it holds together for him; those MD Trinispheres are going to cost him matches, but the deck is strong enough to afford that.

[Zach Tartell]

He made day two at 7-2, 69th in standings. Time will tell how it holds together for him; those MD Trinispheres are going to cost him matches, but the deck is strong enough to afford that.

I actually always wondered why you don't play trinisphere. I mean, Force is a great boon, but Trinisphere can randomly lock out so many decks, and it doesn't hurt your curve at all (save Force of Will).

Is Force the only reason that you don't play it? 'Cause I'd think it'd help your storm combo match tremendously, in addition to just screwing over any brand of Thresh ever.

[Spardantevil]

Eldariel -> I forgot the fact that tone can't get through the interwebs. I meant: " COME ON !!! THIS GUY IS F**KING AWESOME"


Edit: If it needs to be mentionned, I'll be playing his list for the next 2 months over every tourney. Maybe even @ BoM3. This list is so much improvement for the deck !!

[Eldariel]

I actually always wondered why you don't play trinisphere. I mean, Force is a great boon, but Trinisphere can randomly lock out so many decks, and it doesn't hurt your curve at all (save Force of Will).

Is Force the only reason that you don't play it? 'Cause I'd think it'd help your storm combo match tremendously, in addition to just screwing over any brand of Thresh ever.

For every time it provides me with a blowout, it's either inconsequential or actively weakens me as I spent a turn playing it instead of doing something useful. The deck usually plays a spell a turn and if opponent is at 3 mana, they can match me with a spell a turn and I'll just run out of cards first as I spent an early turn playing Trini.

Sure, it can be brutal against some decks, but it's just really unreliable. I don't exactly believe Faerie Stompy needs help against combo/any archetype very vulnerable to Chalice (for obvious reasons) and against the rest of the format, Trini is majorly unimpressive as well. Chalice is going to keep the StPs away for good, Trini just until they hit their third landdrop. If the deck packed Wastelands or some form of mana denial to actually lock people out, I'd consider Trini, but as things stand, I find it bad enough that I wouldn't play it even if the deck didn't have FoW.


Eldariel -> I forgot the fact that tone can't get through the interwebs. I meant: " COME ON !!! THIS GUY IS F**KING AWESOME"

I understood as much. Just posted an update on his progress.

[C.P.]

Just got back from GP, and went 5-3. I had bit of bad luck here and there, but the deck was generally awesome, and I was happy to be playing it. BWg Rock is not a good matchup, though. Is there way to improve this?

Report will follow when I can get the time.

[Eldariel]

Just got back from GP, and went 5-3. I had bit of bad luck here and there, but the deck was generally awesome, and I was happy to be playing it. BWg Rock is not a good matchup, though. Is there way to improve this?

Not without hurting other match-ups. In fact, the present build has already gone through motions to greatly improve this MU with Sower of Temptation, Sword of Light and Shadow & Back to Basics. All those were done with BGWx decks (Landstill, Rock, Rec Sur, etc.) in mind.

Will be looking forward to reading all the FS reports. Only one made it Day 2, but it's not all that bad. Too bad he finished one round short of money.

[C.P.]

Mini Report - I may do a full one in the Reports section if I feel like it.

Since this is mini report, I'll not bother searching for my opponent's names and such. I'm still really tired from the trip, so forgive me, my ooponents in the tourney were all great.

Initially, I had Survival elves with progenitus as my plan A, but looking at the grinders made me have a second thought. I also was itching to play FS somewhere, as I just obtained my drakes about 3 weeks ago. So I switch decks last minute, crossing my finger.

My build was similar to Eldariel's, except I cut Rangers for Seat of Synod. As for SB, I had trouble getting SB cards, so It looked like:

3 B2B
1 Needle
1 Cursed Scroll
2 Jitte
2 Crypt
1 Relic
4 Hydroblast
1 EE

It was fine, I missed Archmages in some matchups, but it was ok.


Round 1: vs. Threshold/w

Game 1: I look at hand of Chalice, Bunch of blue cards, and city on play, wondering if this could fly. I wonder what other FS players would have done, but I call mulligan after a pondering. That marks the start of mulling to 4, Which I was forced to keep. The game is over soon.

Game 2: Chalice at 1, which resolved after a FoW war, locked him out of the game. Flyers got there shortly thereafter.

Game 3: I think I mulled once or so, but my memory fails me. Chalice meets daze, Efreet meets swords, and Sower meets FoW. I ran out of gas, and he gets CB with 3 on top. That was the game.

1-2


Round 2: vs. Elf combo / Glimpse

Game 1: I keep that hand of City, Island, Chalice, Force, and some guys. My opponent leads with centinel, wich I let in play, then he sprit guides in another one, which I force. He Guides a Blanchlore Ranger, I'm bit baffled about how rediculous this is. I get my turn, and I get chalice down at 1. He could not deat with it in time, while I find more lands and SoFaI.

Game 2: Chalice got there. Nothing of note.

2-0


Round 3: vs. Wg(?) Stax

Game 1: He's mana screwed, and he stack does not do anything to help it.

Game 2: He opens up with chalice at 1, which made me think he did not what my deck did. I open up with a efreet, then he plays Powder Keg. I hold bak guys and keep gettting there for 3. He saves the keg for some reason and mulldrifter joins the party. He Blows the keg at low life, and the tried to wrath to stay alive, but Force got there.

2-0


Round 4 vs. Dredge

Game 1: It was lopsided, but had I won the die roll, It would have been the other way. Chalice was a turn too late.

Game 2: I bring in Hate, and happy to see Crypt in my opening grip. I drop it and play Mage turn 2, wich gets me Relic. He scoops after Chalice hits for 1.

Game 3: Apperently he kept triple needle hand, but point is moot when Chalice hits for 1 with relic on board.

2-1


Round 5 vs. Bgw Rock w/ Glittering Wish

Game 1: I win the Role, and land a Guy. He swords it. Repeat three times. I land Muldrifter, and he Vidicates it. Repeat three times. I finally get to stick a guy with SoFaI, and he wishes for Deed. Trinket Mage Saves the day.

Game 2: I Chalice, then get to have a Drake with SoFaI Turn 3. That kills Shusher he wished for, then get there for few times. He wishes for deed, but I land chalice at 3. He picks his card up.

2-0

Round 6: vs. Gamekeeper Salvager.

Game 1: He opens with therapy on force, and wiffs. He sees chalice and drops LED. At that point, I realize what he plays, but was afraid of more discard, so I go with Chalice at 1. I topdeck a Mage, wich gets chalice at 0, then my guys started to beat face. The game was over shortly.

Game 2: Similar, but less disruption on my side. I go all in and drop 4 guys, and he goes EE. Thankfully, I have FoW and it gets there.

2-0


Round 7: vs. Faeries? Had some fae and vials.

Game 1: He opens up with vial, and I force it. He lands Standstill, wich I break. He Land another one, and it became rather unfair after that.

Game 2: I started with Chalice and Drake, but the drake takes a while to resolve. When he said go, I drew out of habit, and that is the game.

0-2


Round 8: vs. Rock

Both games, I get my hand stripped and guys killed. I felt there was nothing I can do to win it.

0-2

5-3 overall.

I liked the deck in general, the deck was more consistent than I initially thought. I felt my SB needed work, as well as my playing, but had no issues with maindeck. I will stick to the deck for a while, as I wanted to play deck since forever...

[Kuma]

I went 4-3 at the GP with Faerie Stompy. My wins were a first round bye, Dutch Stax, Merfolk, and Ichorid. I lost to Gb Rock (I think it was an Extended port -- jank and board control in one, woohoo!), A very good and very lucky Dreadstill player, and Uw Landstill. If anyone wants more detail about any of the matches, I'll post some blurbs.

I cut the Shoreline Ranger for a Snow-Covered Island and removed one Mulldrifter, one Needle, and one Glen Elendra Archmage for three Propagandas after seeing tons of Goblins, Ichorid, and Merfolk on Friday.

Running the extra Island saved me two mulligans. My GP would have been a disaster if I ran Shoreline Ranger. I know he only turns 1.5% or so of your openers into mulligans, but I think I'm going to cut him while I gather more information about his usefulness. There were three games where I was glad the slot was an Island, one where I wished I had the Ranger, and two where it didn't matter.


I actually always wondered why you don't play trinisphere. I mean, Force is a great boon, but Trinisphere can randomly lock out so many decks, and it doesn't hurt your curve at all (save Force of Will).

Is Force the only reason that you don't play it? 'Cause I'd think it'd help your storm combo match tremendously, in addition to just screwing over any brand of Thresh ever.

In addition to what Eldariel and sasa_batora have already said, the reason I don't run Trinisphere is that it's nearly useless against every deck in the format except Thresh and combo unless you drop it turn one on the play.

It's not a bad card for the deck, but we don't need the help versus combo. Also it doesn't pitch/imprint. I ran it for a while and it was decent, but ultimately I replaced it with better cards.


If I would be willing to dedicate slots to storm combo (which is by the way redundant, as it is one of our best MUs, except for the infamous Turn1 wins that we can stop with four FoWs only...), I would rather try ITEOC, as scrummdogg does. And even that is strange... not to mention its cost.

Three words: Glen Elendra Archmage. I have never lost to storm when I untapped with one of these. Unlike ITEOC, it's also amazing versus board control.

We're already storm combo's worst nightmare before we sideboard. Running cards solely for that matchup is unnecessary.


Oh, and I just realized that he plays his 3spheres main and FoWs SB! Is that a typo or what?

Of all the stupid things I've seen people try to do in Chalice Aggro decks, this is one of the stupidest. FoW is amazing against the entire format, Trinisphere is only good versus certain decks at certain times. You could run both in the maindeck and avoid the bad synergy most of the time, but there's no excuse for having Force in the board. Name me one deck in Legacy that wants their opponent to run Force of Will.


Game 1: I look at hand of Chalice, Bunch of blue cards, and city on play, wondering if this could fly. I wonder what other FS players would have done

Versus an unknown opponent I would definitely mull that hand. In fact, I'd only keep it if I was on the play versus storm combo.

[Kuma]

This list is so much improvement for the deck !!

Please tell me you didn't realize that list has Force of Will in the sideboard so I don't have to make you the sole member of my ignore list.

If you made that statement fully aware of the ridiculous card choices, I'd like to hear how +3 Trinisphere, +1 Mox Diamond, -4 Force of Will is "so much improvement"

And no, "It won a GP trial" is not an argument, it's a small sample size fallacy.

[Clark Kant]

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss that change. It seems that that same GP trail winning deck managed to finish in the top 5% of decks of the 1300 and made day two of the GP.

I also find it really interesting that the only Fairie Stompy list that made day 2 was that list, the one that subbed out Force of Wills with Trinispheres!!

It couldn't have been for budget reasons. If you can afford Sea Drakes, you sure as hell can afford FoWs. Maybe that was the correct call.

I often find myself having to trade away my one and only threat for Force of Will. And many times, trading two blue cards for your opponent's spells isn't a good trade in Fairie Stompy. But what else could you do. If you don't use the FoW, you essentially have a dead card. And the games where a FoW actually comes in handy are against combo, in which Trinisphere comes in very handy as well, and you already maindeck Chalice already.

So Trini instead of FoW. I think it might make the deck more consistent. Just something to think about.

[JeroenC]

No. There was a moment where I ran the deck with Trini instead of Force. It's rubbish. You. Want. Force.
About the budget reason, sometimes you can find/borrow one card, but not another. As was the case for me. I can only say, Trini is SB at best.

[tsabo_tavoc]

Name me one deck in Legacy that wants their opponent to run Force of Will.


Ichorid, Suiblack, Merfolk, Sligh/Zoo, Burn, etc, namely all decks owning various threats that would like to see you trading 2 for 1.


In addition to what Eldariel and sasa_batora have already said, the reason I don't run Trinisphere is that it's nearly useless against every deck in the format except Thresh and combo unless you drop it turn one on the play.

Trinisphere is far far better than :3: Artifact Each Player cannot play spells unless he or she could add :3: to his or her mana pool.

[Clark Kant]

Yeah, Trini is more than a lock component. It's a tempo piece.

Everything you play costs 3 mana already. This decks opens really strong. But if that early open is answered, your opponent many games overwhelms you simply by playing more spells (removal and threats) while you're stuck playing just one card at a time.

It means that you lose many games simply because you are stuck playing one card per turn while your opponent can lay down more than one card per turn.

You go to all sorts off trobule to resolve a threat. Then your opponent StP's the threat you and plays a Goyf the same turn. You lose a lot of tempo.

Or perhaps they play a Thoughtseize followed by a Smallpox or Sinkhole or Hymn. With a FoW, you're basically trading two business spells to stop the Hymn, if you opt to do so. Either way, you basically lose.

But with Trini, you force your opponent to play as slowly as you do, one spell at a time. It just so happens that your spells are usually more powerful. And you win the game for that reason.

Trinisphere is a one sided Sphere of Resistence x2. If it wasn't a big tempo boost, then it wouldn't have been restricted in Vintage. It's also a great card versus combo.

P.S: I'm not saying that cutting Force for Trini is the right call. All I'm saying is that Trini is a powerful effect, and given the deck fetauring both won the GP trial and then went on to make day two, it might be worth looking into.

[Kuma]

Ichorid, Suiblack, Merfolk, Sligh/Zoo, Burn, etc, namely all decks owning various threats that would like to see you trading 2 for 1.

Believe it or not, Force of Will is an effective card against Ichorid. If you counter their discard outlet, you slow them down immensely. Suiblack hates having their kill conditions countered. Merfolk hates having their Aether Vials and lords countered. Sligh/Zoo hates having their goyfs and removal countered. Even burn hates having their Browbeats and Ensnaring Bridges countered, and I've won games because I Forced lethal burn spells.

Every deck hates having its spells Forced. Granted it's better against some decks than others, but it's never a bad strategy.

From your list, Trinisphere is only good against Ichorid and Burn.


Trinisphere is far far better than :3: Artifact Each Player cannot play spells unless he or she could add :3: to his or her mana pool.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

[tsabo_tavoc]

Believe it or not, Force of Will is an effective card against Ichorid. If you counter their discard outlet, you slow them down immensely. Suiblack hates having their kill conditions countered. Merfolk hates having their Aether Vials and lords countered. Sligh/Zoo hates having their goyfs and removal countered. Even burn hates having their Browbeats and Ensnaring Bridges countered, and I've won games because I Forced lethal burn spells.

Every deck hates having its spells Forced. Granted it's better against some decks than others, but it's never a bad strategy.

I agree that 100% Magic players hate their spells to be countered and countering a spell is always effective. However, the statement alters if you have to remove a Mage/Efreet/Drake/Drifter/Pestermite/Sower from the game.


I have no idea what you're talking about.

To make some concret arguments, I will explain how Trinisphere>Force of Will versus Suiblack, Merfolk, Sligh/Zoo supposing a Trinisphere landed on Turn 3 or a Force of Will in hand after Turn 3.

Suiblack: a Thoughtseize accompanied by a Nantuko Shade makes a FOW awkward while they have to play them in separate turns under 3Sphere.

Merfolk: Under 3Sphere, if they would like to play a threat, they have to give up countering your spell or cantriping. Leaving your threats unattended or stopping their playing threats are better than countering their threats. If they had a Vial, both cards become much worse.

Sligh/Zoo: If you counter a Lightning Bolt on Sea Drake, you save them a Lightning Bolt on Trinket Mage and open your Drake to a Lightning Helix. If you counter a Tarmogoyf, you save them a Lightning Bolt on Trinket Mage and they land a Figure of Destiny. Why not just tell them play 1 spell per turn?

P.S: I'm not saying that cutting FOW for Trinisphere is the right call either. All I'm saying is that there is a reason for Stompy players playing maindeck Trinispheres and (one of them) Top8ing GP.

[Kuma]

I agree that 100% Magic players hate their spells to be countered and countering a spell is always effective. However, the statement alters if you have to remove a Mage/Efreet/Drake/Drifter/Pestermite/Sower from the game.

Which is why you don't Force spot removal unless you really, really need the tempo.

Usually you're forcing mass removal, counterspells on Chalice, big beaters like goyf or Dreadnought, or key spells like Aether Vial, Survival of the Fittest, and Infernal Tutor/Orim's Chant/Burning Wish.

There's little point in rfg-ing a creature to Force spot removal.

Also, if your hand is threat-light, you can just imprint it on a Mox.


<Corner-case arguments for Trinisphere over Force of Will>

That's the problem with Trinisphere: It's only good when cast first turn on the play or versus a narrow subset of decks. Just because there are situations where it's good versus those decks doesn't mean that it is a generally effective card. In my experience, Trinisphere is not very effective versus any of those decks unless it's cast, you guessed it, turn one on the play.


P.S: I'm not saying that cutting FOW for Trinisphere is the right call either. All I'm saying is that there is a reason for Stompy players playing maindeck Trinispheres and (one of them) Top8ing GP.

I understand that. There have been several good posts on why Trinisphere is not a good choice for Faerie Stompy, but you could do far worse. If you're going to run it, cutting Force of Will is a terrible call. Force's merits far outweigh the bad synergy with Trinisphere.

[Clark Kant]

Every deck hates having its spells Forced.

Yes, but everytime you use FoW, you're essentially Hymn to Tourach-ing yourself and in a deck with few ways to recoup that card disadvantage.

Blue cards include most of the very best cards in the deck and you often won't see more than one or two blue cards in your opening hand. Giving up that blue card along with your FoW, to counter their spell isn't worth it in lots of situations, even to stop really good cards. Would you usually FoW a Thoughtseize, or a Hymn? Yet, those are certainly among the top 15 very best cards in the game.

[Portland]

Was a dilemma for me at the weekend too. I went for FoW and ended up 5 - 2 missing on countback. Losses were self destruct no land mull collapses or ironically floods. I did recover one flood with a topdecked mage into sigil, equip mite, swing.

I played a couple of ANT/Iggy decks and FoW backed up the chalices nicely. One particularly evil game (borded) saw me with chalice at zero, one and two. ANT went for EoT Rebuild, FoW said no and that was that. If that had been Trinni, I'd have been dead.

MisD was useful as a backup, especially against GB decks, as it becomes a 2 for 2 with tempo bonus.

[tsabo_tavoc]

<Corner-case arguments for Trinisphere over Force of Will>


Suiblack: a Thoughtseize accompanied by a Nantuko Shade makes a FOW awkward while they have to play them in separate turns under 3Sphere.

Merfolk: Under 3Sphere, if they would like to play a threat, they have to give up countering your spell or cantriping. Leaving your threats unattended or stopping their playing threats are better than countering their threats. If they had a Vial, both cards become much worse.

Sligh/Zoo: If you counter a Lightning Bolt on Sea Drake, you save them a Lightning Bolt on Trinket Mage and open your Drake to a Lightning Helix. If you counter a Tarmogoyf, you save them a Lightning Bolt on Trinket Mage and they land a Figure of Destiny. Why not just tell them play 1 spell per turn?

If you could realize Thoughtseize, Shade, Bolt, Drake, Mage, Helix, Figure of Destiny in the above examples are swapable to their equivalents, e.g., Hymn, Tombstalker, Chain Lightning, Sower, Mulldrifter, S2P, Grim Lavamancer respectively, commen sense would tell you these arguments are general.


In my experience, Trinisphere is not very effective versus any of those decks unless it's cast, you guessed it, turn one on the play.


To make some concret arguments, I will explain how Trinisphere>Force of Will versus Suiblack, Merfolk, Sligh/Zoo supposing a Trinisphere landed on Turn 3 or a Force of Will in hand after Turn 3.

To make it clearer, I meant Turn 3 3rd. Turn of oneself (not the whole game) either on one's play or on the draw.


I dont think that Trini is THAT bad. But...

Very eloquent argument, sir. FOW does do something quite solid. Whether Trinisphere works better or not is dependent on the matchup and the player oneself. FOW won you and others many games, while Trinisphere sent some Stompy players to the GP Day2 and Top8. Trinisphere deserves some respect.

[C.P.]

If 3sphere would be so good, ppl would realize it. On the contrary, 3sphere left the deck some time ago.

While I agree that Trinisphere probably does not belong in the deck(at least in MD), arguements like this can stifle innovation. Note how game changes over the year, and there may be point that 3sphere is actually justifies in the deck.

Personally, I feel it is a justifiable SB material if your meta is flooded with Land light decks with low curve. But, as pointed above, it is awful after midgame unlike chalice.

[Kuma]

To make it clearer, I meant Turn 3 3rd. Turn of oneself (not the whole game) either on one's play or on the draw.

I see. So you're talking about playing Trinisphere on your second turn after the opponent has had one or two turns.

Trinisphere can be useful then, but in all likelihood your opponent will drop land number three and keep playing. Trinisphere will buy you a minimum of one turn if you went first, but it costs you one turn to play it. Sometimes your opponent will get stuck on two land and you'll win the game because of it --- I've had that happen. But even in the early game Trinisphere buys you an average of one turn and it costs you one turn to play it. Turn one on the play Trinisphere buys you a minimum of two turns, which makes it a fantastic turn one play, but even one turn later it loses much of its power versus most decks in Legacy. I think it's a fantastic sideboard card if you have a lot of Threshold, storm, and maybe Team America in your metagame, but that's all.


Suiblack: a Thoughtseize accompanied by a Nantuko Shade makes a FOW awkward while they have to play them in separate turns under 3Sphere.

The thing about Suicide Black is that they'll play more than one spell per turn only once or twice per game. After that their hand is empty and they go into topdeck mode. Also, there's a strong chance they'll make you discard Trinisphere if they go first.


Merfolk: Under 3Sphere, if they would like to play a threat, they have to give up countering your spell or cantriping. Leaving your threats unattended or stopping their playing threats are better than countering their threats. If they had a Vial, both cards become much worse.

Trinisphere is a terrible, terrible card versus Merfolk. Trinisphere is awful against any deck running Aether Vial, because they'll play creatures with Vial and use their land for other spells. Merfolk also runs Wasteland, and having a Tomb or City wasted turns Trinisphere into their best friend instead of yours.


Sligh/Zoo: If you counter a Lightning Bolt on Sea Drake, you save them a Lightning Bolt on Trinket Mage and open your Drake to a Lightning Helix. If you counter a Tarmogoyf, you save them a Lightning Bolt on Trinket Mage and they land a Figure of Destiny. Why not just tell them play 1 spell per turn?

I boarded Trinisphere against Zoo for a while, looking for anything to swing the terrible matchup. Trinisphere was almost useless. Zoo runs around 20 land, and while Trinisphere slows them slightly, one spell per turn is more than enough for them to beat us most of the time.

It's best to save your Forces for their artifact removal. Also Forcing burn when they try to kill your creature in response to equip is huge.


If you could realize Thoughtseize, Shade, Bolt, Drake, Mage, Helix, Figure of Destiny in the above examples are swapable to their equivalents, e.g., Hymn, Tombstalker, Chain Lightning, Sower, Mulldrifter, S2P, Grim Lavamancer respectively, commen sense would tell you these arguments are general.

I wasn't talking about the specific cards as corner cases, I was talking about the situations where multiple spells are being played in a turn.

[tsabo_tavoc]

to Kuma: Excuse me for my poor wording that have baffled you twice. I meant by Turn3 one's third turn after the opponent has had two or three turns. That is to say, my argument was based on the opponent could only play 1 spell each turn (his and yours) and did not suppose him stucking on 2 lands. It is very common for a player to play multiple spells each turn multiple times since Turn3 and Turn3 is actually the turn a player starts to play multiple spells.

Your words on FOWing opponent's spells either to deny theirs or protect your CA generating tools are very appropriate. However, your situations seem to be more corner than mine.

FOW does have many advantages, most of which have been posted in the thread. The reason I started to post here is that I have noticed some misleading statements on Trinisphere from your post.

to sasa_batora: I have no idea what was going on. I would sincerely apologize to you if I have ever hurt you.

[neon_havoc]

Hey i have question why was lotus petal cut?
:X

[JeroenC]

1. We never used it.
2. It's bad, you need mana every turn- this is not a combo deck.

[neon_havoc]

I use four MB it helps me get off turn one sea drakes/anything else in the deck and if i SB in my EEs it works with them aswell. Im not seeing how its bad here.
:>

[JeroenC]

Huge card disadvantage for an effect that's just not worth it? One-shot mana seems like a really bad idea in this deck- I'm tapped out every turn, nearly.

[neon_havoc]

I dont know then my build must differ a lot more than i thought. il post it up in a bit, id also love to see what other ppl are running in the deck :]

[scrumdogg]

Alternate views on the deck are a good way to expand how people approach the archetype, but I'm not convinced that Lotus Petal effects are better than a permanent effect that generates mana - whether that is another Mox, more land, even the Shoreline Ranger. On a side note, I'm shelving the Esperzoa experiment for the moment (as of the GP Chicago GPT, where I went 2-1 beating Thresh variants x2 & losing to Scepter Chant Landstill in a close 3, didn't like the look of the field & ran Grb Aggro-Loam in the main event) for +1 Shoreline Ranger & +1 MD Crypt (missed it a lot). Also, dropped the lone SoFI for a 3rd Jitte, we'll see how this pans out. Also changed the SB to 4x ITEOC, 4x B2B, 3x EE, 3x Crypt, 1x Gilded Drake. Loaned it to a friend last Sunday, 5 rounds, he went 5-0....

[Tacosnape]

@Trinisphere vs. Merfolk:

This is why Trinisphere's a decent sideboard card. Trinisphere is horrible against Merfolk if you're going second. It's fantastic against Merfolk if you're going first. Even if you can't drop it turn one, you can drop it turn two after a Chalice-1 or a Needle on Vial.

Truth be told, this is sort of true of Trinisphere in almost every matchup ever. I think it's why I hate Trinisphere. I never seem to win more than one or two die rolls in an entire tournament.

That said, if you're going to run Trinisphere in FS, it's about 300 times better in conjunction with either Back to Basics or Winter Orb.

[neon_havoc]

Alright well like i said my list is.
lands:
1x flooded strand
4x island
2x seat of the synod
4x city of traitor
4x ancient tomb
Instants:
4x force of will
3x thirst for knowledge
Creatures:
4x pestermite
3x mulldrifter
4x sea drake
4x serendib efreet
4x trinket mage
artifacts:
x4 lotus petal
x2 jitte
x4 Sofi
x1 needle
x4 chalice of the void
x4 chrome mox
I would post my SB but i change it so much that its just meh, any way let me know what you think if anything. (id also love to see other lists aswell)

[scrumdogg]

15 land? And one of them is a fetch? With no off-color dual or any other benefit that I can see? Wow, your opponents have one piece of disruption how do you recover from it? You can afford a playset of Sea Drakes, consider investing in a few more islands :cool:

[neon_havoc]

:P i mean i feel that in adding more lands im giving up speed , im not sure though i guess i could just be geting lucky or somthing but mana has yet to be a problem for me.

[kicks_422]

I'm thinking of selling off all my (relatively cheaper) decks and investing into one good one, prefereably one with Force of Will. I've been keeping an eye on Faerie Stompy as a choice. I'll be a bit short in building the whole deck at first though... So maybe I'll run Glen Elendra Archmages over the Sea Drakes first, while I save up for the Drakes.

In a meta composed of Goblins, Rock, Ichorid, SuiBlack, Affinity, Zoo/Sligh/Burn, Dreadstill, and a whole slew of rogue decks, is Faerie Stompy a good choice?

[Tacosnape]

I'm thinking of selling off all my (relatively cheaper) decks and investing into one good one, prefereably one with Force of Will. I've been keeping an eye on Faerie Stompy as a choice. I'll be a bit short in building the whole deck at first though... So maybe I'll run Glen Elendra Archmages over the Sea Drakes first, while I save up for the Drakes.

In a meta composed of Goblins, Rock, Ichorid, SuiBlack, Affinity, Zoo/Sligh/Burn, Dreadstill, and a whole slew of rogue decks, is Faerie Stompy a good choice?

It's an average choice. Zoo/Sligh/Burn runs pretty well, as does Dreadstill. Goblins isn't too bad either. Rock is a nightmare. Ichorid is inconsistent both for you and for them, but Mulldrifter and Trinket/Crypt makes it okay, and Trinisphere from the board helps a lot. Sui Black is fair to good depending on their build (You hate Snuff Out), but some games you just flat out don't recover from fast Seize/Hymn attacks. And I don't really know how good Affinity is because I hate the deck so so much I refuse to even take the time to test against it. Instead, I carry around a playset of Energy Flux and if I even hear the word Affinity I decide that I'm going to punish everyone who plays it so brutally that they finally give up and get a real deck.

[Eldariel]

The Rock depends on their build a ton too. If their only removal is StP and Pernicious Deed, you're golden. Every removal-spell above that adds to your pissed-off level. Also, every non-basic land they run adds to your ability to punish them with Back to Basics post-board.

So if this Rock-build runs a ton of removal (like 4 StP, 3 Shriekmaw, 3 Diabolic Edict, 3 Krosan Grip, 4 Pernicious Deed or some such) and has enough basics to function perfectly under B2B, you're gonna hate the match. Otherwise, you should be ok.


As far as Affinity goes, that really depends - I'd say you have the advantage, but good Affinity-players are so hard to find that the conclusions are hard to reach. All I can say is that Pithing Needle (Plating, Ravager or Vial if you have Chalice at 2), Chalice at 2 & Sower are fcking huge.

[kicks_422]

Thanks for the replies. My choice is down to Faerie Stompy or Merfolk, with Merfolk being way cheaper and something I could build much easier (edit: or mono-U Dreadstill). I guess I'm off to testing.

Just out of curiosity, what deck would you run in the meta I mentioned?

[Elf_Ascetic]

Faerie Stompy. Merfolk rols over and plays dead versus Goblins, Burn and Zoo and isn't too great with The Rock either.

Merfolk beats Blue consistently, but has a hard(er) time versus the rest.

[Kuma]

In a meta composed of Goblins, Rock, Ichorid, SuiBlack, Affinity, Zoo/Sligh/Burn, Dreadstill, and a whole slew of rogue decks, is Faerie Stompy a good choice?

Faerie Stompy is an okay choice for this metagame. And definitely a better call than Merfolk.

Depending on your build and how much you're willing to sideboard, the Goblins match can swing from 40/60 to 60/40 or so.

Rock is a bad matchup, but you can have success against three color builds on the strength of Back to Basics. I built my sideboard to have 10 or 11 cards to board in against Rock and Landstill, and I'm probably around 45/55 to 50/50. If you're not willing to devote that much sideboard space to it that matchup is going to be ugly.

Ichorid is favorable for us, probably around 60/40. It can go even higher if you know they're playing it before the match. Force of Will slows them down, as do Chalices. Mulldrifter can evoke to remove Bridges, and Trinket Mage makes finding our hate pieces easy. As long as you've got at least two Crypts/Relics somewhere in the list you should be fine.

SuiBlack isn't terrible, but it's not great either. If they get a busted opener or lots of land destruction, you're in trouble. Otherwise you're probably okay.

Affinity is a positive matchup. It's not a great deck, and our weapons against them are legion. Chalices at one and two shut off huge portions of their decks, and Back to Basics can be killer. If you decide to run Trinisphere it's a fantastic weapon as they don't run much mana and they'll have to pay three for their affinity spells no matter how many artifacts they control.

Zoo is an awful matchup, especially if they run lots of artifact hate in their sideboards. You almost have to throw back Ancient Tomb dependant hands because of how fast they can deal you damage. Chalices are your best weapons, and your best gameplan is to drop an early beater and get it equipped before they can burn it. I'm like 0-9 against Zoo, because my local lists have like eight artifact removal spells in the board.

Burn/Sligh is better than Zoo, but it's a little shaky. Ancient Tomb dependant hands are a big no, and you almost always have to play prison to race them. Chalice, Trinisphere, and Jitte are your best weapons.

Dreadstill is very favorable --- probably around 65/35. Chalice at one shuts off their filter, removal, and primary kill condition. They also can't do much to us with Counterbalance. And Sowering a Dreadnought is hilarious.

I'm not sure what you mean by rogue decks. If you mean random jankpiles, then these can often be bad matchups since we're metagames to beat the top decks in Legacy. Jitte is your best card versus jank. If you meant assorted tier two decks, these are usually positive.

[zulander]

How does this build look? It's a bit more aggresive with more creatures and creature control. Seeing how burn is dead I think running 2 shriekmaw/2 snuff out should help clear the way for big negs.

Ub Faerie Stompy

Lands: 17
4 Underground Sea
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Islands
2 Delta


Creatures: 20
4 Sea Drake
4 Serendib
4 Mulldrifter
3 Pestermite
2 Shriekmaw
3 Negator

Instants: 10
4 FoW
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Snuff Out

Artifacts: 13
4 Chrome Mox
4 Chalice
3 Jitte
2 SoFI

[sroncor1]

@Sasa In that meta I would just buy some LEDs and enjoy all the extra time you will have between rounds. But seriously - understand how tough the Rw goblins match is. I have found the black version easier since their removal is at 2 so you can block it with chalice and still use BEB. I have found that an active jitte or SLaS really is what you need. Against the white version I have found that I often side out most of the toolbox artifacts to overload on equipment. I know everyone knows this but equipment and stopping STP would be my focus. I know I am currently running 4 jitte between maindeck and board. Nobody seems to be doing that any more but my meta is a little more random than most. I would also consider submerge for your board. I personally no longer run misdirection bc it doesn't help the landstill and really against evagreen and the like removing a threat for free is usually better than the plus 1 card you get from the misdirection and nobody seems to be running vindicate anymore. Sorry if I was rambling a bit as I'm typing this on my blackberry. I'd be glad to talk more about the matchups as I've been doing some testing recently since med school has finally let for me. I hope this helps, and don't give up on the deck. If it makes you feel better I have had to mulligan into oblivian in the finals of two mox tournaments so shit happens.

[sroncor1]

@Sasa- I guess what I wrote was a little confusing but I did not want to imply that I used the BEB against Rw goblins. But in that matchup chalice coming down turns 3 and later is still really strong which is why it serves as great tutor target. I know this is something that a lot of people don't agree with, but I have some success with siding out FOW or mulldrifter. Mulldrifter is less than amazing in the matchup and anything that is a true threat or slows them down does help. You do lose consistency but sometimes the tempo gain is enough.

[Kuma]

Don't ever side out FoW against Goblins. You have to be able to stop turn one Lackey at all costs. Mulldrifter, on the other hand, is a good card to side out.

[Eldariel]

Don't ever side out FoW against Goblins. You have to be able to stop turn one Lackey at all costs. Mulldrifter, on the other hand, is a good card to side out.

I side out some Mulldrifters & usually SoLS. On the draw Chalices, on the play not.

[kkoie]

I was interested in trying out Faerie Stompy, but I wanted to try something differn't, that included an alternate win-condition. I've been testing this out, and it does great against combo decks, I haven't tested it enough against aggro or control yet to have an adequate opinion. In any event, the following is the list I've been working with, I have not come up with a set sideboard yet, the sideboard is tentative.

4 Painters Servant
4 Trinket Mage
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Mulldrifter
3 Sea Drake
3 Sower of Temptation
4 Chrome Mox
4 Trinisphere
3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Grindstone
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sensei's Divining Top
4 In the Eye of Chaos
10 Island
1 Seat of the Synod
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors

3 Glenn Elendra, Archmage
3 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
3 Winter Orb
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Projenitus
1 Pithing Needle
1 Umesawa's Jitte
1 Sower of Temptation

Ok so card choices:

I included the painter combo because I liked the idea of an alternate win condition, that would take advantage of the tomb's and cities.

I went with In the Eye of Chaos, because I thought it worked well with trinisphere, plus it wrecks combo and should cause control decks some headaches.

I haven't had a chance to try this deck against counter-top yet, I have a feeling that will be very difficult.

The few aggro matches I've had, the painter-combo causes them lots of problems.

The 19 lands instead of 18 is just a personal choice, I was noticing I had to mulligan a lot and added another island out of frustration.

I could probably go down to 2 grindstones (1?) and maybe cut something else to make room for more equipment or creatures. I've been playing around with the idea of including Weatherseed Faeries maindeck to go with the painter's.

Thoughts?

[Tacosnape]

I've kind of always wanted to do this.

What about Fabricate here, and what about 1 maindeck Chalice for matches where getting it down is worth more than having your Painter Combo on? Fabricate, in your curve, lets you hunt up Painters Servant, Grindstone, or any of your disruption pieces (Chalice, 3-Sphere, etc).

I'd also take Force over In The Eye. Even with the Trinispheres. You want Force to save you from early disruption or when you don't have the Trinisphere out.

I'd run something like:

10 Island
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Chrome Mox

4 Painter's Servant
4 Trinket Mage
4 Sea Drake
4 Mulldrifter
4 Sower of Temptation

4 Force of Will
4 Fabricate
4 Trinisphere
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
2 Grindstone

SB:
4 Blue Elemental Blast
4 Hydroblast
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Pithing Needle
1 Umezawa's Jitte

[gamegeek2]

10 Island
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Chrome Mox

4 Painter's Servant
4 Trinket Mage
4 Sea Drake
4 Mulldrifter
4 Sower of Temptation

4 Force of Will
4 Fabricate
4 Trinisphere
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
2 Grindstone

SB:
4 Blue Elemental Blast
4 Hydroblast
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Pithing Needle
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Ah, much better. Blue Blasts are good with Painter. I'd much rather some MD Blasts or Ponder over Fabricate (Brainstorm's worse without fetches)

[kkoie]

Great suggestions thanks! I will sleeve that up and try it out and compary it. I had never thought of fabricate (didn't play much mirrodin block).

[Kuma]

I don't think the deck gains enough from Painter's Servant/Grindstone to justify cutting Chalices and equipment. Is it worth it to take a hit in the board control and combo matchups to have an alternate win condition especially when we only have FoW to protect it? It's not like it's making us any faster either.

[Tacosnape]

I don't think the deck gains enough from Painter's Servant/Grindstone to justify cutting Chalices and equipment. Is it worth it to take a hit in the board control and combo matchups to have an alternate win condition especially when we only have FoW to protect it? It's not like it's making us any faster either.

I sort of agree with this. That said, if I was going to do it, the above list would be my starting point.

[MTG-Fan]

I am trying to build a version of this deck centered around the CotV/Trinisphere package but with more of a focus on Stealing effects:

4 x Chrome Mox

4 x Chalice of the Void
4 x Trinisphere

4 x Mulldrifter
4 x Thirst for Knowledge

4 x Force of Will
3 x Misdirection

4 x Threads of Disloyalty
4 x Sower of Temptation

3 x Glen Elendra Archmage
2 x Sword of Fire and Ice

4 x City of Traitors
4 x Ancient Tomb
12 x Island


What do you guys think? Threads MD seems pretty decent if your meta is 100% goyfs and bobs and such, right?

[3duece]

It's okay, but you have no big beaters and no real explosiveness but turn 1/2 trinisphere. You can't rely that heavily on stealing creatures. Honestly, it looks like you really want to play stax, which is fine. But in my opinion no sea drake or serendib means no faerie stompy.

[MTG-Fan]

It's okay, but you have no big beaters and no real explosiveness but turn 1/2 trinisphere. You can't rely that heavily on stealing creatures. Honestly, it looks like you really want to play stax, which is fine. But in my opinion no sea drake or serendib means no faerie stompy.

I guess I could play Sea Drake or Serendib instead of the stealing effects, but isn't taking a Goyf away from your opponent and beating with him better than just beating with one of your own creatures?

Threads+Sower MD just seem great in the current meta, and couple that with the Trinisphere/Chalice denial and you can hate out alot of decks.

[Elfrago]

isn't taking a Goyf away from your opponent and beating with him better than just beating with one of your own creatures?


Yup, but it won't work against (almost) creatureless Combo/Control decks. And those are matchups where you need some pressure on the early in the game. You can't afford to go to the distance.

[JeroenC]

I am trying to build a version of this deck centered around the CotV/Trinisphere package but with more of a focus on Stealing effects:

4 x Chrome Mox

4 x Chalice of the Void
4 x Trinisphere

4 x Mulldrifter
4 x Thirst for Knowledge

4 x Force of Will
3 x Misdirection

4 x Threads of Disloyalty
4 x Sower of Temptation

3 x Glen Elendra Archmage
2 x Sword of Fire and Ice

4 x City of Traitors
4 x Ancient Tomb
12 x Island


What do you guys think? Threads MD seems pretty decent if your meta is 100% goyfs and bobs and such, right?

You don't want to steal Bob. You never want to steal Bob. This deck hurts itself enough, and we have a superhigh curve. I don't see how stealing Bob would ever help us.
And 4 Mulldrifter and 4 TfK is just too much draw. Drop TfK for Serendib or Sea Drake (if you have them).
Control Magic is also better than Threads for us, 90% of the times. It can steal more (anything) and it's just plain awesome.

It sounds like a fun idea, but it will probably end up being worse almost always. Anybody who understands your deck will either wait with their threats until they have a lot of countermagic in hand, to win the counterwar over your control magic effects or just wait until they have a lot of threats. Everybody will also still have removal for "your" critters. And you can't play Chalice at 2 anymore, because that would remove most of your stealing options.

[MTG-Fan]

It's absolutely true that the approach will not work vs. combo decks, but in my meta it's like 90% countertop/eva/goyf-stuff. I'll shore up the bad matchups with the sideboard, but right now the maindeck is designed to punish anything with a low curve that runs lots of Goyf and Dreadnought and other cheap creatures.

I want more than 4 draw in the deck to support Misdirection, FoW and Mox. TfK is too good with lots of artifacts to cut. If anything, I'd cut Mulldrifter.

In decks where most of the threats I want to steal are 2cc, I would only play Chalice @ 1 and then dump the rest of them to TfK.

[JeroenC]

So, mistakes you made in that post:

dropping TfK before Mulldrifter: this would lower your number of threats even further. Bad plan any way you put it.
Freely discarding your other Chalices: they will find a way to get rid of your Chalice, holding one back is the better idea-especially if you're not running T. Mage.
I've also never been really convinced of the maindeck Misdirection idea, but that might just be personal taste.

[Joon]

I won a small tournament last saturday with the following list:

9 Island
1 Seat of the Synod
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Chrome Mox

4 Sea Drake
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Pestermite (german: Trietzknilch :D)
4 Mulldrifter (german: Grübelschlängler :D)
4 Trinket Mage
3 Sower of Temptation

4 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Force of Will

SB

1 Sower of Temptation (against decks where I really want to steal a critter - Aggro Loam or random decks like Reanimator for example)

1 Pithing Needle (against Control and Survival, both attending quite regular here)

3 Tormod's Crypt (don't leave the house without GY hate)

3 Back to Basics (nuts in the right Matchups, e.g. Loam or TempoThresh)

3 Glenn Elendra, Archmage (against troublesome Matchups which pack a lot of Sweepers; generally there to replace Sowers if they are dead)

4 Propaganda (fast aggro, tokens - reasonable as there are always Merfolks, Elves and a lone VG in my meta)

I won against Staxx (2-1), against Landstill (2-1), lost against ITF (1-2), win against Landstill 2-0 and defeat Canadian Threshold 2-0.
Due no cuts to Top8 and slightly strange oppscores of other players I win the tournament.

The mainboard was great, but I think of testing Sigil of Destinction as a one-off again as I had situations in that I wished that my Mage could have tutored ANYTHING else than Seat or Chalice (and generally tutoring pressure seems nice).

The Sideboard was nice also, I boarded Glenn Elendra in 4 matches (all except against TempoThresh) and it solved me lots of problems (Wrath against Landstill, Geddon against Staxx, Intuition against ITF). I can only recommend to test this little persisting bitch :cool:

Suggestions are welcome, especially what to cut for sigil (I'm tinkering between one SoLaS and one SoFaI).

[kicks_422]

Nice list. Maybe -1 SoFI for 1 Sigil? Also, do the Propagandas in the SB really help? They look really... Weak.

[Maveric78f]

I've always wondered why nobody was playing 1 tutorable creature in FS (Orni is probably the best target).

[Joon]

Nice list. Maybe -1 SoFI for 1 Sigil? Also, do the Propagandas in the SB really help? They look really... Weak.

I agree, but somehow I see always 2-3 Tribal piles running around in my metagame and against those Propaganda is nice.
I could try the Silent Arbiter in place of Propaganda but I dislike how he is affected by both; creature- and artifact removal.

I guess I'll try the Sigil in the slot of another equipment. I'm not sure if Ornithopter is that good - even equiped he's a narrow 2/3 flying guy. In addition to that I do not want another creature along Trinket Mage if I have no other critters on board, but I want pressure. I'll test the Sigil and report how they were.

[MTG-Fan]

The Sideboard was nice also, I boarded Glenn Elendra in 4 matches (all except against TempoThresh) and it solved me lots of problems (Wrath against Landstill, Geddon against Staxx, Intuition against ITF). I can only recommend to test this little persisting bitch :cool:

Suggestions are welcome, especially what to cut for sigil (I'm tinkering between one SoLaS and one SoFaI).

Yes, indeed. Glen Elendra Archmage is one of the best blue creatures ever printed, imho. I loved her from the start, when she was first released in Eventide and I put her in many of my Standard decks.

It's basically two Cancels attached to one card (3U+U+U == 1UUx2) that can attack and block if need be. Not as mana-efficient as two Counterspells on a stick, but it is card advantage compared to running 2 Counterspells instead. So pretty decent. Not necessarily broken, but pretty nice, especially when you can use acceleration to help pay for the colorless part of her casting cost (i.e. in Vintage, with Mana Drain, and in Legacy, with the Tomb/City package)

BTW Nice list, but why no Trinispheres?

[Joon]

I like Force better than Trinisphere. But it's an interesting idea to play Trinisphere in the Sideboard (in the Propaganda slots) to board Force out in Matchups where Sphere just kills the opponent (TempoThresh, against Combo you keep Forces in).

But if I overthink it, not enough decks come to my mind that are completely fucked with Sphere on the table (it would have a nice synergy with B2B though). It may be nice against some decks, but I don't like wasting sideboard slots for nice cards.

[scrumdogg]

Glen-Elendra becomes even better when you can recycle with Sword of Light & Shadow, just sayin' :cool: The major problem (from my perspective) with them from my first bout of using them in the SB was mana. First, getting them dropped with a :u: to utilize them is tough (and hanging them out to dry for a turn tended to get them shanked, hard). That situation becomes even more of a problem when the decks I really wanted to utilize Glen-Elendra versus attacked/controlled the manabase, Landstill/ITF especially. Wasteland, Vindicate, Ruins & EE, counterspells of their own. Decks like MUC & Enchantress were much easier as they tended not to screw with my mana, letting G-E shine. Even the BGW Goodstuff decks (quite popular locally) which had some mana denial/control often failed to stop G-E from coming into play. If I start running FS again (and that will be after Merfolk goes away locally...) G-E will be making a re-appearance in the SB.

[MTG-Fan]

Ideally you want Chalice @ 2 before dropping Archmage to protect it from StP and stuff.

In fact, I can't think of a stronger play than early Chalice @ 2 in Legacy. I might even start running 4 Serum Powder to ensure early Chalice! (not really)

[JeroenC]

Chalice @ 2 for protection against StP? Am I missing something here? Against almost every deck, Chalice @ 1 needs to be dropped before Chalice @ 2, because 2 counters 1.

[MTG-Fan]

Chalice @ 2 for protection against StP? Am I missing something here? Against almost every deck, Chalice @ 1 needs to be dropped before Chalice @ 2, because 2 counters 1.

When I said Chalice @ 2, I meant "cast Chalice for 2 mana, i.e. X=1". My bad.

[kicks_422]

I've always been getting signals that Faerie Stompy is a good choice for a wide-open meta, as Legacy stands now. Is this true? If so, is Faerie Stompy not seeing play just because of the Sea Drakes?

[Kuma]

I've always been getting signals that Faerie Stompy is a good choice for a wide-open meta, as Legacy stands now. Is this true? If so, is Faerie Stompy not seeing play just because of the Sea Drakes?

There are two reasons Faerie Stompy isn't seeing more play. The biggest reason is the price of Sea Drakes. The other big reason is that it forces you to mulligan a lot, and most players hate even the thought of taking a mulligan.

Faerie Stompy is a strong choice for a wide open meta. It's bad against Zoo, Rock/Landstill, and some Thresh lists, but it has the tools to beat all those decks and more. That's the beauty of Faerie Stompy: on a good night it can beat any deck out there.

[C.P.]

I've always been getting signals that Faerie Stompy is a good choice for a wide-open meta, as Legacy stands now. Is this true? If so, is Faerie Stompy not seeing play just because of the Sea Drakes?

Kuma summed it up nicely, but let me add a few cents.

FS is a deck that can have a strong opener that wins the game very quickly, on the back of Chalice and Fast Beaters. Think of Stax, and how it randomly beats everything if it goes 3sphere + Wastelock or something. However, the deck is very inconsitent, and the nature of the deck forces it to be an early game tempo deck, which can be underwhelming in some metagame.

Also, the fact the deck packs no removal other than eqipment makes some matchups hard. So the decks like Zoo or Rock, where they can remove your guys and race at reasonable rate, are very hard on you.

I played at GP: Chicago with the deck with record of 5-3 with no byes, and my loses were either to Mulligan or BGW rock. (not counting Drawing Extra card) So the deck does have reasonable chance against anything if played right, but the deck Mulligans A LOT and topdecks bad at times. It is not the deck to take if you need consistent results, while it does have it share of power and fun.

[coraz86]

One of my friends who (as I'm sure many people do) lacks $150-200 to go get a set of Sea Drakes ran Esperzoas, and I think he compensated by using a full set of Seat of the Synod. Esperzoa has the added benefit of bouncing Chalices if you need to play them at a different mana cost for whatever reason, although Seat/City of Traitors is awkward synergy. :-/
It's clearly not as good as Sea Drake, but it's something to think about.

[C.P.]

Also, most people thinks Sea Drake is a great card, but it is in fact the weakeast chain in the deck in my opinion. Unless you get the dreaded opener of 2mana land + Mox, it get fairly clunky in multiples. If there was 3cc 3/3 with reasonable mana cost, I'd be all over that instead. It is necessary, and does neat things time to time, but they are not end all-be all of the deck.

Esperzoa, however, is awful.

[scrumdogg]

There is also the problem of Merfolk. One of the reasons I am not currently playing FS is the rash of Merfolk decks locally. It is as fast as we are, as disruptive as we are, and can do ridiculous amounts of damage out of nowhere (often unblocakble, but that is merely a bonus). Can we beat Merfolk? Yes, but it is very hard and gets much worse if you lose the die roll.

[MTG-Fan]

All of these reasons are why I think this deck should adopt more of a focus on creature-stealing effects.

[C.P.]

There is also the problem of Merfolk. One of the reasons I am not currently playing FS is the rash of Merfolk decks locally. It is as fast as we are, as disruptive as we are, and can do ridiculous amounts of damage out of nowhere (often unblocakble, but that is merely a bonus). Can we beat Merfolk? Yes, but it is very hard and gets much worse if you lose the die roll.

I find Llawan to be actually really viable SB option, as long as you are willing to spend slots to it. since they only run stealing/equipment as removal, it is really good.

[JeroenC]

All of these reasons are why I think this deck should adopt more of a focus on creature-stealing effects.

Which I really never find that powerful against Merfolk.

[scrumdogg]

The good Merfolk decks run Waterfront Bouncer (errata'd as a merfolk...) for that reason & for the mirror as well any stray problematic critters. I invested in a playset of Llawan & they also serve as answers for MUC (to an extent) and Progenitus (to an extent). Merfolk, however, can still kill you before you find/cast/resolve a Llawan. While I love FS, it is lacking in draw & manipulation if you are looking for anything other than a 0-1cc artifact. 4x Llawan stays in my SB but the deck is still benched until I (with the dynamic help of the Internets!) can solve that particular issue. I'm seriously considering going back up to 4x Seat of the Synod to try and cut off the islandwalking aspect of Merfolk (and then bouncing any islands with a Drake, if necessary). Opening up to more non-basic hate is scary though...

[C.P.]

I'm seriously considering going back up to 4x Seat of the Synod to try and cut off the islandwalking aspect of Merfolk (and then bouncing any islands with a Drake, if necessary). Opening up to more non-basic hate is scary though...

I'd splash black for plague before this.

[Kuma]

I'd splash black for plague before this.

I wouldn't. Not that Seat of the Synod is any kind of gameplan against Merfolk.

In my (somewhat limited) experience against Merfolk, I'm 1-2, but I made an obvious play blunder that would have made me 2-1. It's not much worse than Goblins, especially if you run Jittes in the main and a full compliment of Sowers between the main and the board.

Still, I wouldn't run Faerie Stompy if my meta was infested with Merfolk.

[Benie Bederios]

Hi guys,

I just got my set of Sea Drakes, so I'm gonna build this deck as my second deck...

In testing I win very little though. I was browsing through the thread and looked at the opening post, but couldn't get alot of information about playing the deck. I'm used to play slow-control and am quite bad in aggro decks, but is there any reading material or could someone sum up how to play in different matchups and what to look for in hands and how to play hands out( Like a turn 2 with Sea Drake, Equipment and Perstermite in hand or go for Chalice T1 or Serendib Efreet or Sea Drake.)

Benie

[Kuma]

Which matchups are you interested in? Give me some matchups and/or sample hands and I'll see what I can do.

[Benie Bederios]

Which matchups are you interested in? Give me some matchups and/or sample hands and I'll see what I can do.

Excellent,

Well the the DTB status in my country( The Netherlands) is Merfolk, Dreadstill, The Rock, Eva Green and MUC. So this are the most common matchups. For reference this is the list I'm building right now:


4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
10 Island

3 Sower of Temptation
4 Trinket Mage
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Sea Drake
4 Pestermite
4 Mulldrifter

4 Chrome Mox
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Force of Will
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Pithing Needle

// Sideboard
TBD


I started out with the list Eldarial used on the MTGSalvation tourney #6. I disliked Shoreline Ranger, to many times it slowed my down, or kept hands unkeepable where I might keep them with it beeing an Island. With that I removed an equipment to make sure I kept 23 creatures.

I have no idea what to play in the SB yet. What cards would you suggest for this meta.

Some opening hands, these are all for a G1 against an unknown opponent.

Sample 1:
Island, MullDrifter, Serendib Efreet, Chrome Mox, Pithing Needle, Ancient Tomb, Force of Will.

Seems to me like a keep, but how to play it out. go for Ancient Tomb, Chrome Mox( imprinting what???) and Serendib Efreet or would you play it safe and go for Island-> if it is safe go for the T2 Serendib Efreet?

Sample 2:
Mulldrifter, Trinket Mage, Ancient Tomb, Serendib Efreet, Chrome Mox, 2x Sword of Light and Shadow.

Again what would you imprint? and go for T1 mage to Chalice or Serendib Efreet?

Sample 3:
1 Sword of Light and Shadow, 2x Sower of Temptation, 2x Island, 1 Force of Will, City of Traitors.

I would say mull... Your not doing anything until turn 3, correct?

Sample 4:
Ancient Tomb, Chalice of the Void, Force of Will, Trinket Mage, Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Light and Shadow, Chrome Mox.

Keep right?

Sample 5: 6 cards
Chalice of the Void, Chrome Mox, Island, Force of Will, Pithing Needle

You have to T1 Chalice which will disable a card in your hand, so if you go for it you have 2 cars left in hand, and needing to draw another land before you can operate.

Well that was it for now... There would be more later.

BB

[Arsenal]

If MUC, The Rock, and Dreadstill are major players in your area, I'd definitely main at least 2x Glen Elendra Archmage; she typically comes down turn 2, and that's generally quick enough to start really, really putting a crimp on your opponent's plans.

[Citrus-God]

Excellent,

Well the the DTB status in my country (The Netherlands) is Merfolk, Dreadstill, The Rock, Eva Green and MUC. So this are the most common matchups. For reference this is the list I'm building right now:

You should run Sigil of Distinction. It turns mere Trinket Mages and topdecked Mulldrifters into very powerful threats. I've won games against Landstill while under Humility.

So I'm thinking you should cut a Trinket Mage for a Sigil of Distinction.


Also, I think it's important that we discuss about mulliganing with Faerie Stompy. The only person I know who has mastered the art in playing their opening hand(s) off Faerie Stompy optimally is Eladariel.

[JeroenC]

I'd drop the maindeck Pithing Needle for Sigil of Distinction. I've usually felt it was a lot better in the sideboard and it also makes sure you run no cards in your deck that are dead after Chalice @1 (which is the godplay).

[Joon]

What can we do against Tribal decks? I played a five round tournament yesterday and lost against VG and Merfolk and won against Elves. As you can see, Tribalhate is important in my meta. Currently I have Propaganda in the Side but they are pretty narrow (doing nothing against Islandwalking Wake Thrashers or Elves who tap a Priest and simply pay the cost or Goblins who Grip it). Any suggestions? I'm currently thinking about maindecking Jitte again - extra Removal and faster equiping (Turn 1 Pestermite untap Tomb/City play Jitte is very nice). In the Sideboard I could play that Weatherseed Faerie with Pro:Red again, would help against TempoTresh and Zoo too.

My current sideboard is

1 Needle
1 Sower (3 main)
3 B2B
3 Crypt
3 Glen Elendra
4 Propaganda

My mainboard is exactly the one of Benie Bederios with the minor changes of -1 Island +1 Seat of the Synod and -1 Needle +1 Sigil of Distiction.

[VsTheWorld]

If your meta has a considerable tribal presence, MD Jitte is definitely the way to go. The Sower/SoLaS version is geared more towards an aggro-control and control meta, since it is considerably slower but offers a better late game. Turn 1 guy, turn 2 Jitte + equip just beats any tribal deck though where SoLaS would be slower and largely irrelevant. MD Jitte is definitely the way to go.

[Kuma]

Well the the DTB status in my country( The Netherlands) is Merfolk, Dreadstill, The Rock, Eva Green and MUC. So this are the most common matchups.

Since you don't have a sideboard, I'll tell you how I sideboard.

// Lands
4 [EX] City of Traitors
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
9 [UNH] Island
1 [IA] Snow-Covered Island

// Creatures
4 [P2] Sea Drake
4 [AN] Serendib Efreet
4 [FD] Trinket Mage
3 [LRW] Mulldrifter
3 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
3 [LRW] Pestermite

// Spells
3 [DS] Sword of Fire and Ice
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
4 [MR] Chalice of the Void
4 [AL] Force of Will
3 [DS] Sword of Light and Shadow
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 [SOK] Pithing Needle

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [LRW] Mulldrifter
SB: 1 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
SB: 3 [SOK] Pithing Needle
SB: 2 [DK] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 [FD] Engineered Explosives
SB: 3 [EVE] Glen Elendra Archmage
SB: 4 [US] Back to Basics

Merfolk is a rough but winnable matchup. Umezawa's Jitte is excellent against them as are Sowers of Temptation. Chalice at one only shuts off Aether Vial, Cursecatcher, and Relic of Progenitus, but Chalice at two can wreck their entire deck. You could run Llawan, Cephalid Empress, but it's probably not worth the board slots unless you're expecting a ton of Merfolk.

-2 Chalice, -2 Mulldrifter, +2 Jitte, +1 Sower of Temptation, +1 Pithing Needle.

Dreadstill is a great matchup for us. Chalice at one wrecks them, plus stealing a Dreadnought with a Sower is comic gold.

-1 Pithing Needle, -1 Equipment, +1 Sower of Temptation, +1 Engineered Explosives.

The Rock is also a tough matchup. Their combination of spot removal and board control can be lethal. You're going to need a radical sideboard to have a chance.

-4 Chalice of the Void, -3 Pestermite, -3 Mulldrifter, +3 Pithing Needle, +3 Glen Elendra Archmage, +4 Back to Basics (If they're light on basics. Crypt can be good if they run loam)

I really don't know much about the Eva Green matchup. Maybe someone else can fill you in.

MUC is a positive matchup for us. Know what to Needle (Shackles, Powder Keg, etc.). Your swords will make life hell for them, as they'll have to counter every creature you play or suffer massive card disadvantage. This one can take a while to win, but if you play smart you've got better staying power.

-3 Chalice, -3 Sower of Temptation, -1 Pestermite, +3 Pithing Needle, +3 Glen Elendra Archmage, +1 Mulldrifter


Some opening hands, these are all for a G1 against an unknown opponent.

[B]Sample 1:
Island, MullDrifter, Serendib Efreet, Chrome Mox, Pithing Needle, Ancient Tomb, Force of Will.

Seems to me like a keep, but how to play it out. go for Ancient Tomb, Chrome Mox( imprinting what???) and Serendib Efreet or would you play it safe and go for Island-> if it is safe go for the T2 Serendib Efreet?

Against an unknown opponent (and, actually, just about everyone) I would not play the turn one Serendib. If it gets countered or removed, you'll be staring at a hand of FoW/Pithing Needle or Mulldrifter/Needle, and that's not what you want to be looking at turn two. I would lead with an Island and play the Serendib turn two. This gives you the ability to FoW on the first two turns if need be. Also, since the hand has four mana you don't want to imprint Mulldrifter if you can avoid it.

You should usually play a Sea Drake turn one if you have it. If you wait you'll have to bounce land making the card less appealing.


Sample 2:
Mulldrifter, Trinket Mage, Ancient Tomb, Serendib Efreet, Chrome Mox, 2x Sword of Light and Shadow.

Again what would you imprint? and go for T1 mage to Chalice or Serendib Efreet?

Against an unknown opponent, I'd probably imprint the Trinket Mage and play a turn one Serendib. Since we have an unknown opponent, we're not sure what to search for with the Mage. Also since this hand has SoLS, there is the possibility of Mulldrifter recursion.


Sample 3:
1 Sword of Light and Shadow, 2x Sower of Temptation, 2x Island, 1 Force of Will, City of Traitors.

I would say mull... Your not doing anything until turn 3, correct?

Against an unknown opponent I would mull this. The hand is slow, and you have no idea how useful the Sowers will be. The FoW makes this one tempting to keep, but if you don't draw some 2U creatures quickly, you're in for a long goodbye.


Sample 4:
Ancient Tomb, Chalice of the Void, Force of Will, Trinket Mage, Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Light and Shadow, Chrome Mox.

Keep right?

That depends on how useful Chalice at one is in the matchup. Still, this isn't a great hand by any stretch of the imagination. You'll eat yourself alive with Ancient Tomb damage, you have to choose between Mage and FoW, and you're one Wasteland away from gg. I'm probably going to mull this against an unknown opponent on the draw. On the play, Chalice at one gives you a free turn to hit land or a blue card. On the draw, Chalice at one becomes much worse, making you even more reliant on your topdecks.


Sample 5: 6 cards
Chalice of the Void, Chrome Mox, Island, Force of Will, Pithing Needle

You have to T1 Chalice which will disable a card in your hand, so if you go for it you have 2 cars left in hand, and needing to draw another land before you can operate.

Yuck. Throw this back. It's practically a four card hand and not a good one at that. The card disadvantage from Chrome Mox, the bad synergy of Chalice and Needle, the lack of a threat, and the lack of a blue card for FoW ruin this hand.

[Benie Bederios]

Thanks for the input.

@Arsenal:
In what place would you normally play Glen MD? It's very toight and I rather not up the curve by removing 3CC beaters for her.

@Citrus God and JeroenC:
I removed the Pithing Needle for Sigil of Distinction. I would rather not drop anymore creatures for Equipments in fear of an opponent who can deal with my creatures so my Equipments are dead in play.

@Joon, Vs The World:
I think that is settled, but I would like to see a Faerie Stompy list geared for aggro-decks.

@Kuma:
Before your SB options I have some questions about your MD.

21/9 split between creatures and equipments seems tricky. I only did some goldfishes, but in quite some hands I threw hands back, because I had only equipments. And even the first list I build( 23/7 split) I found the equipments to many. Do you keep hands without creatures?

Thanks for the SB strategies though, it gives me alot more insight in the deck.

Benie

[Arsenal]

I'd probably go -1 Sower, -1 Pestermite, +2 Glen Elendra Archmage. Sower, while good, isn't as good in the matchups where you desperately want to stick an early Archmage. Same goes for Pestermite as the majority of the time, you use 'Mite for combat tricks to gain tempo... combat tricks that don't happen as often in the matchups where Archmage shines.

[Kuma]

In what place would you normally play Glen MD? It's very toight and I rather not up the curve by removing 3CC beaters for her.

I'd only MD it if you'd board it in half your matchups. If so, Arsenal's suggestion seems fine.


I removed the Pithing Needle for Sigil of Distinction. I would rather not drop anymore creatures for Equipments in fear of an opponent who can deal with my creatures so my Equipments are dead in play.

I wouldn't do this especially given your metagame. Pithing Needle is golden versus The Rock, Merfolk, and MUC. I don't like Sigil of Distinction at all. Starting with post #1335 on page 67, I outline my feelings about the card and debate ensues. Required reading before you make up your mind.


Sigil isn't a bad card, but I can't justify the slot in the deck. It's only useful in very narrow situations, such as when you have 6+ mana on the board and a Trinket Mage. I never liked seeing it in my opening hand or in the first few turns of the game. I count almost any opening seven that has a Sigil as a six card hand. Besides, in most matchups we'd rather be Trinketing for a Chalice, Needle, Crypt, or Mox.

Why would you run Sigil over a SoFI, SoLS, or Jitte? All of those cards make Trinket Mage a late game threat. They're also way more versatile.

Also, run Jitte's in the main. They're awesome against Thresh, Merfolk, Landstill, Zoo, and random jank, which are five of our worst matchups.

I'm back to the 3/3 SoFI/SoLS split. What I've come to realize is that SoFI is an early game card and SoLS is a lategame card. When I ran the 2/4 split I'd have the SoLS early and the SoFI late. The 3/3 split also means you're more likely to have both swords over the course of the game instead of multiple SoLS.

I've fought against running eight equipment in the maindeck for a long time, but I've come to the conclusion that more equipment is exactly what Faerie Stompy needs. Equipment turns our 2/2s into scary threats and forces our opponent to deal with every creature we draw.

I don't think anything other than a 3 SoFI, 3 SoLS, 2 Jitte equipment package is correct for the metagame at large.


I think that is settled, but I would like to see a Faerie Stompy list geared for aggro-decks.

Umezawa's Jitte, Umezawa's Jitte, Umezawa's Jitte...

Also, if you want to beat red aggro, Sea Sprite/Weatherseed Faeries and blue blasts.


@Kuma:
Before your SB options I have some questions about your MD.

21/9 split between creatures and equipments seems tricky. I only did some goldfishes, but in quite some hands I threw hands back, because I had only equipments. And even the first list I build( 23/7 split) I found the equipments to many. Do you keep hands without creatures?

You're splitting hairs. It's hard to count Mulldrifter as a creature when you're often evoking it for cards or siding it out versus aggro. What I've come to realize is that it's not about the volume of your creatures but the quality. Being able to equip a 2/1 once or even twice is much more dangerous than having two 2/1s. Versus control they'll have to counter every creature you play when you have equipment on the table. SoFI and Jitte are fantastic against aggro.

Also, I'm actually running a 21/8 creature/equipment ratio. I don't run Sigil. And no, I don't usually keep creatureless hands, but I don't usually have creatureless hands despite running 21 creatures. Creatureless hands are fine when you're the control player providing you have Chalices/Force/Back to Basics/Whatever.


Thanks for the SB strategies though, it gives me alot more insight in the deck.

Benie

You're very welcome. :smile:

[Benie Bederios]

Sry I meant to say 8 equipments... I'll test the Archmage MD. Second I tried Sigil of Distinction and have mixed feelings about it... It wins some games a turn earlier, wich is nice. But as Kuma pointed out Needle MD is good too. I will test some more before I come to the conclusion...

I had some more startinghands:

Pithing Needle, 2x Sea Drake, City of Traitors, Island, Force of Will, Mulldrifter.

Looks nice at first 2 beaters a counter and draw. But how to play it out? Probably first turn Island. What would you do if the opponent plays:

A) Tropical Islan, Sensei's Divining Top.
B) Island, go.
C) Taiga, Wild Nacatl

Or is it a mull anyway?

Sea Drake, 2x Sword of Fire and Ice, City of Traitors, Ancient Tomb, Sower of Temptation, Mulldrifter.

I mulled this one into

City of Traitors, Island, 2 Trinket Mage, Force of Will, Chalice of the Void.

Reasonable? You have the T1 Chalice, but after that it's a bit tricky, if you don't draw lands. Or would you play the Island pass the turn, possibly FoW and play Chalice T2?

Well I'm getting better at it, but are there any tricks or is it just play big flying beats and kill the opponent?

Benie

[Kuma]

I had some more startinghands:

Pithing Needle, 2x Sea Drake, City of Traitors, Island, Force of Will, Mulldrifter.

Looks nice at first 2 beaters a counter and draw. But how to play it out? Probably first turn Island. What would you do if the opponent plays:

A) Tropical Islan, Sensei's Divining Top.
B) Island, go.
C) Taiga, Wild Nacatl

Or is it a mull anyway?

I'd lead with the first turn Island. I wouldn't Force the Nacatl, because forcing small creatures is rarely ever the right play. Force of Will is mostly for protecting your Chalices and equipment, and for stopping board sweepers. Don't force spot removal or counterspells on your creatures unless you really need the tempo.

If I didn't draw another 2U creature, I'd play a turn two Sea Drake. If they Daze or Force it, you're in business because you have another Drake. You're running the risk of having your Drake bolted, but that's a risk you'll have to take with this hand. If they Bolt/StP your Drake, I'd Force it depending on what you drew. The two turn tempo loss might be too much against a Zoo-like deck.


City of Traitors, Island, 2 Trinket Mage, Force of Will, Chalice of the Void.

Reasonable? You have the T1 Chalice, but after that it's a bit tricky, if you don't draw lands. Or would you play the Island pass the turn, possibly FoW and play Chalice T2?

I wouldn't drop the turn one Chalice unless I knew it would really throw a monkey wrench into my opponent's plans. I definitely wouldn't do it if I was on the draw. If you play City turn one, you're relying on topdecking two mana to be able to play Magic. There's no reason to do that with this hand. Depending on what I saw from my opponent, I'd play the Chalice turn two with the Island in case of Daze, or play Trinket Mage, likely looking for a spare Chalice.


Well I'm getting better at it, but are there any tricks or is it just play big flying beats and kill the opponent?

Benie

The trick to Faerie Stompy is to know when to keep your hand and when to throw it back. You also have to be careful at managing your resources or you'll bury yourself in card disadvantage.

[coma]

@ benie boderos :

hand to 7 :
T1 island needle on wasta (it isn't the best cast but if you lose your mana you have lose)
T2 (you have to look what opponent's deck and play ) but you have for 2 turns 2 drake to play with counter in your hand .

hand to 6 :
T1 city cotv
T2 trinket on sinod ( and you have 2 turns to draw a mana source)

bye bye:smile:

[Benie Bederios]

allright,

I have been testing Faerie Stompy and been tinkering alot. To make a good build for my Meta, this are the number s of decks that made top 8/4 in the last month. As you can see, the best suggestion would be to not play Faerie Stompy. But I got the deck next to Landstill and somethimes I don't want to play 40 minutes rounds.


Merfolk 21
The ROck 18
Dreadstill 16
TempoThreshold 12
Domain Zoo 11
UWx Landstill 10
MUC 9
Eva Green 9
Aggro-Loam 8
Ichorid 8
ANT 7
Goyf SLigh 7
Goblins 6
Countertop 6

Well looking at the deck this would be the core


9 Islands
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Chrome Mox

4 Force of Will
4 Chalice of the Void

4 Sea Drake
4 Serendib Efreet
3 Mulldrifters
3 Pestermite
4 Trinket Mage

3 Sword of Fire and Ice

Right? That's 50 cards so room for 25(MD/SB) other cards left. Most of them are quite obvious though.

For the meta mentioned above...

At least 3 Llawan, Cephalid Empress in the SB. They are only good in a single matchup, but it's the only way to keep it winnable.

The discussion about Glen Elendra Archmage against Sower of Temptation. It's a though choice. If I read correctly:

Glen Elandra Archmage better against:

The Rock
UWx Landstill
MUC
Ichorid( possibility to sack and remove bridges?)
ANT

Total number of decks: 52

Sower of Temptation better against:


Merfolk
Dreadstill
Domain Zoo

Total number of decks 48

The rest I don't konw, I would assume they are about 50/50. That's why I would use a 2/2 split between them.

Second point would be the Equipments. With The Rock and Landstill in the top decks I would play only 6 equipments. Jitte would shine against Mefolk I believe and be decent against Zoo and Thresh( being able to race them.) With few Countertop decks I think Jitte would be a decent choice, so in goes 3 Umezawa's Jitte. On top of that, the only time when I could go nuts, with recurring Mulldrifter I was already winning.

Mana 21 mana is to few, so there should be one more. It could be an Island, a Shoreline Ranger or a Seat of the Synod. I never liked Ranger, and without alot of wasteland in the topdecks my choice would go to Seat of the Synod.

After this there are 2 slots left. One goes to an tutorable artifact. The options are Sigil of Distinction, Pithing Needle, Tormod's Crypt and Engineered Explosives. Explosives and Tormod's Crypt are both useless in the meta. Pithing Needle has got alot to do, so the spot would go to it.

The last slot is now filled up with Mulldrifter, I like to draw cards. Without the ablity to recur, I like to have the fourth.

Well that's it for the MD then...

Three spots are filled up with the SB, so 12 left. Back to Basics has to be in there, almost boardable against all decks. A Pithing Needle extra against the Rock, Landstill and MUC. And 2 Tormod's Crypt against Ichorid and Aggro-Loam. A single Explosive seems nice to to beat AEther Vial that lands before Chalice and it can sweep the board of Zoo.

In the last slots 2 Misdirection( nice against the removal of the Rock and winning counterwars against Merfolk) 2 Sower of Temptation and a Glen Elendra Archmage.

So to cut to the point, in theory this would be a quite optimal build for my meta:


9 Island
1 Seat of the Synod
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors

4 Sea Drake
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Mulldrifter
3 Pestermite
4 Trinket Mage
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Sower of Temptation

4 Chrome Mox
4 Force of Will
4 Calice of the Void
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Umuzawa's Jitte
1 Pithing Needle

//Sideboard
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Pithing Needle
3 Back to Basic
3 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Misdirection

Am I close?

Benie

[sroncor1]

@Benie- I would split the crypts with 1 Relic of Progentis. That way you put the dredge player on guessing which one you have in hand or will fetch and then work around it. Back when I was still regularly playing the deck that was my sideboard plan and I can't really ever remember losing a match to dredge. With mulldrifter you just have too many answers. With that much rock in your meta I would def. try to get at least two maybe more SoLS in the build. With a few exceptions I actually prefer it SoFI against almost any deck, with jitte being the other equipment I like to see. I am happy to see someone useing Misdirection as I feel the card can be nuts, and I think your meta is the place where you can really take advantage of it. Another thing to note, don't be afraid to drop chalice for one on the second, third or fourth turn. A blind chalice is typically a great play, but against most decks that matter getting that chalice down on a later turn is still stellar. Try the SoLS, especially in your meta. With the exception of shooting a Bob or a warchief or piledriver, I have found it to be the superior equipment.

[Kuma]

Am I close?

Benie

Yeah, you're close. Given your metagame, I really like the list. You're a little confused about the role of equipment. Equipment, especially SoLS, is mostly for beating control and board control. Jitte is the only equipment that's really for the aggro matchup. The more control, the more equipment you want.

SoFI > SoLS: Merfolk, Dreadstill (most lists), Tempo Thresh (maybe not black Tempo Thresh), Aggro Loam, ANT, Goyf Sligh, and Goblins.

SoLS > SoFI: The Rock, Landstill, MUC, Eva Green, CounterTop.

Both suck versus Ichorid. But we're heavily favored against Ichorid anyway.

If you're going to run six equipment, I'd run a 2/2/2 split. The Rock and Landstill are really bad matchups and SoLS is a huge help. Recurring Glen Elendra Archmages and Mulldrifters is not always 'win more.' Also, it's almost always better to have one of each sword than two of the same sword.


@Benie- I would split the crypts with 1 Relic of Progentis. That way you put the dredge player on guessing which one you have in hand or will fetch and then work around it.

I tried this for a long time, and really there's no difference between one Crypt one Relic and two Crypts. Ichorid is moving away from Pithing Needle and Chalice. The only things I don't like about Relic is that it trips over Chalice at one which has cost me games, and that sometimes versus Ichorid you have to wait a turn to remove their entire yard and they kill you. With Crypt you can play it and immediately shut them down.

[sroncor1]

About the relic, it was just something I found to work for me. I didn't mean to give bad advice. I do think that across the board SoLS and jitte are still the two stronger pieces of equipment. Either way dredge shouldn't be a problem. (Although to be fair I haven't really played this matchup in the past couple months so the newer developments in dredge may make it tougher). I still like the shoreline ranger although I might be in the minority anymore with that selection. On a side note I recently played against a FS deck in a recent match. I was playing Imperial Painter and the guys FS list was basically from pre Flash era. It brought in stifles out of the board with Thirst for Knowledge. Overall I thought the deck to be weaker than most current builds and the pilot did not top 8. !ut it was interesting in that he had no SoLS and was decimated by the numerous rock style decks. I was still rooting for him even though he beat me since the deck is still near and dear to heart. Has anyone considered going back on the lists of a couple years ago. I forgot how fast the deck use to be. And although I think the deck is more solid now it may be intersting to think about with the numerous changes the format has gone through over the past six months.

[coma]

@sasa batora : relic ideais has thoughts against all tarmo decks , because ichorid is already a good mu .

obviously was also used against graveyard deck , but it isn't main reason .

bye:laugh:

[Kuma]

I ran Relic as a 'goyf answer, but it worked better in theory than in practice. Chalice at one is incredibly strong against most decks that run Tarmogoyf. This can make it difficult to know what to Trinket for. I ran a Relic for months, and never was able to use it to shrink goyfs. Either I didn't draw it or I had a Chalice at one out.

If you want to deal with Tarmogoyfs, run more Sowers of Temptation.

[Benie Bederios]

Allright guys I tested my build and it was very very bad...

The split between Glen and Sower didn't work out, I did miss the SOLS.

The changes I'm going to make are:

-1 SOFI, -1 Umezawa's Jitte, +2 Sword of Light and Shadow.

As proposed by you guys, so I don't need explaining.

-2 Glen Elendra Archmage, +1 Sower of Temptation, +1 ???

I just hated Glen... She was always to late and I rarely used her ability. Sure the card is better against MUC, but that's it. Even against Landstill I managed to gain control of an Soldier token, just to buy time... On top of that I always drew the wrong card at the wrong time... So I go for Sower MD.

I quite liked Persermite though, and am thinking of playing it in the final slot, but I'm still unsure. Are there any other options???

Benie

[Kuma]

The 7th piece of equpiment. Maybe SoFI #3. Pestermite #4 isn't bad either, but I'd go with equipment.

[spiritmonger]

Hi everybody, I stop playing a while ago.
To be honest FS always have been my fav arch type since is concept is just so awesome.

I remember that in the old version we were dispiting anything costing 4 mana and having more then 1 U in its mana cost.

I come back after a magic break and all i see is sower 4 mana 2u, 2/3 pestermite and random SoLS over jitte.

None the less i have to say i love the concept of mulldrifter being able to get pitch to blue make you draw card and eventually be a 2/2 flying beater is nice but, did it really prove to be better then TfK.

I can see were pestemite is good, being able to untap a land that could drop a jitte is sure awesome it pitch to FoW but, is it really worth it to put them in the deck in place of pro red creature against 1 of are hardest match up (control).

Would like a little introduction to the new concept since 57 page of tread is a long way 2 go.

Also could someone post a accurated list of the deck so I can see how the deck really evolved.

Thank you.

[Benie Bederios]

Hi everybody, I stop playing a while ago.
To be honest FS always have been my fav arch type since is concept is just so awesome.

I remember that in the old version we were dispiting anything costing 4 mana and having more then 1 U in its mana cost.

I come back after a magic break and all i see is sower 4 mana 2u, 2/3 pestermite and random SoLS over jitte.

Sowers is played as a 3-off so it wouldn't come up to often. The power of the card is huge though, being able to get a Goyf or Phyrexian Dreadnought.


None the less i have to say i love the concept of mulldrifter being able to get pitch to blue make you draw card and eventually be a 2/2 flying beater is nice but, did it really prove to be better then TfK.

TfK draws 3, discards 1, so +1 CA. Mull dirfter draws 2, so +1 CA too. The difference is Mulldrifter does it every time where TfK can "miss". Next to that if you get 5 mana you will get CA+1 and a creature with flying, how cool is that. The argument about TfK is an instant isn't that big, there are no other mana-costing instants in the deck( well now there is Pestermite)


I can see were pestemite is good, being able to untap a land that could drop a jitte is sure awesome it pitch to FoW but, is it really worth it to put them in the deck in place of pro red creature against 1 of are hardest match up (control).

Would like a little introduction to the new concept since 57 page of tread is a long way 2 go.

Also could someone post a accurated list of the deck so I can see how the deck really evolved.

Thank you.

Dunno about Pestermite, it's the new Cloud of Faeries I believe. Nice to cheat som extra mana( T2 with Mox, City Island being able to play 2 3CC cards.) It fogs a Dreadnought/Goyf/Terravore and it can be played T2 in the upkeep of the opponent to their only land.

I believe this MD is the most succesfull:
http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=22749

Eldarial played it too in the 6th Salvation tourney to a second place.

Ow, to you all I had another starthand.

Island, Trinket Mage, 2x Chrome Mox, Sword of Fire and Ice, Force of Will, City of Traitors.

On the draw. Keep or Mull?

He started with Swamp, Sensei's Divining Top.

What would you do T1?

Benie

[scrumdogg]

You have no idea what you're playing against? And you're on the draw? Scary but powerful (and you get a draw). I'd try it. Opp. drops Swamp +Top, I'd play (out of that hand, hope I drew another blue card...) Mox imprinting FoW, CoT, Mage -> CotV. If your opponent has discard, he has to get the Chalice, if you opponent is combo, he is not going off this turn anyway (probably). Leaving you free to T2 either play Chalice:1 or SoFI (or stupid good guy you drew off the top).

[VsTheWorld]

On the draw I'd keep the hand, despite that dreaded 2x Mox. Swamp -> Top most likely means Fetchland Tendrils/Doomsday, so you really want to topdeck consecutive blue cards. Assume you draw a random blue card. Imprint it on Mox, City, Mage finding Chalice. If you don't draw a blue card, then you imprint Force. Chalice will do much more than a single Force. An opening with Top means a slower game, so turn 2 Chalice at 1 is your best bet. This conveniently also eliminates your opponent's protection spells (Duress, Chant, Red Blast). Chalice slows the game down enough that you can hopefully find another blue card for Force, and by that point hopefully Mage is swinging with a SoFI.

[Benie Bederios]

The 7th piece of equpiment. Maybe SoFI #3. Pestermite #4 isn't bad either, but I'd go with equipment.

I found wich card I play in the final slot: Island.

Seriously I played around with the list and was screwed way to many. With 19 lands( 10 Island, 1 Seat, 4 Tombs, 4 City) I found the list alot more consistant.

My SB changed to:


1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
2 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
3 Back to Basics
2 Misdirection

Llawan is very funny, but very narrow and with a Vial it won't always win you the game. I tested yesterday on MWS and it was hilarious in the mirror though.

[Kuma]

Island, Trinket Mage, 2x Chrome Mox, Sword of Fire and Ice, Force of Will, City of Traitors.

On the draw. Keep or Mull?

He started with Swamp, Sensei's Divining Top.

What would you do T1?

Benie

This hand is playable, but awful. Against an unknown opponent I probably keep this, especially if I'm on the draw.

I would start with Island -> pass unless I draw a Sea Drake. This hand isn't strong enough to use all its resources on a turn one Trinket Mage especially if you don't know whether to find a Needle or Chalice. Also, Sensei's Divining Top suggests that your opponent is playing a slower, more controlling deck --- most likely Pox or some form of black CounterTop. If it's the former, you'll really wish you kept the FoW. If it's the latter, you don't want to be pitching useful cards to Chrome Mox.

I don't want to have a hand of Island, Chrome Mox, SoFI, Chalice, random card with a 2/2 and a City of Traitors as my board against an unknown opponent.

[scrumdogg]

I found wich card I play in the final slot: Island.

Seriously I played around with the list and was screwed way to many. With 19 lands( 10 Island, 1 Seat, 4 Tombs, 4 City) I found the list alot more consistant.

My SB changed to:



Llawan is very funny, but very narrow and with a Vial it won't always win you the game. I tested yesterday on MWS and it was hilarious in the mirror though.

You might even consider going to 61 and adding another island, that configuration has treated me very well :cool: Llawan (and boatloads of Jittes...) seem to be our best hope against Merfolk. Yes, they might have Vial, but they are so far behind after a Llawan that you should win handily (in my tournament experience & testing so far). Llawan also has application if you run into any deck trying to drop Progenitus on you. Also bounces back problematic Trygon Predators (I hate that card as a FS player >.<) and Coatls. If it wasn't a 4cc legend I would 4 (maybe 5...) and of course it owns the mirror, as you note :cool:

[coma]

I note a list of fs old style , but with some arrangement to new metagame .
Nimble and low cc to an aggro build .

http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=27223

Side is subjective.:smile:

[sauce]

Eldariel, would you please post the best/current Faerie Stompy list?
I looked on deckcheck... Here is what we got.

Mainboard:
9 Island
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
3 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Pithing Needle
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Force of Will
4 Trinket Mage
3 Sower of Temptation
4 Mulldrifter
3 Pestermite
4 Sea Drake
4 Chrome Mox
4 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Shoreline Ranger
4 Serendib Efreet

# 60

Sideboard:
3 Weatherseed Faeries
3 Winter Orb
3 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Pithing Needle
2 Rushing River
2 Tormod's Crypt


Is this the defacto build these days?

[KillemallCFH]

Eldariel, would you please post the best/current Faerie Stompy list?
I looked on deckcheck... Here is what we got.

Mainboard:
9 Island
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
3 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Pithing Needle
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Force of Will
4 Trinket Mage
3 Sower of Temptation
4 Mulldrifter
3 Pestermite
4 Sea Drake
4 Chrome Mox
4 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Shoreline Ranger
4 Serendib Efreet

# 60

Sideboard:
3 Weatherseed Faeries
3 Winter Orb
3 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Pithing Needle
2 Rushing River
2 Tormod's Crypt


Is this the defacto build these days?-1 SoLaS, +1 Sigil of Distinction in the MD is what I'm playing (and I think what Eldariel is playing, though I may be wrong).

[Citrus-God]

So I think this deck is more than viable right now. Zoo is everywhere, Combo will soon be everywhere and everything else you'd expect is declining. So I'm thinking we bring this deck back from the dead, cuz Chalice is just so cool.

[Kuma]

We're horrible against Zoo.

[sauce]

We're horrible against Zoo.

chalice @ 1 messes zoo up, no nacatl, no lavamancer, no kird ape, no stp, etc.

[Kuma]

chalice @ 1 messes zoo up, no nacatl, no lavamancer, no kird ape, no stp, etc.

What happens if you don't have it right away?

Chalice is never enough especially games two and three since they'll board in Shattering Spree/Smash to Smithereens, and/or Krosan Grip. If you play Chalice on the draw you'll likely be taking hits from one of the above creatures. Combine that with Ancient Tomb damage and you've got a recipe for disaster.

We stand no chance against Zoo without a Chalice or two. Even with Chalice they still run enough two-CMC cards to kill us combined with our self-inflicted wounds from Tombs and Efreets.

You can't just drop a Chalice at one and expect to win.

[Citrus-God]

We have Trinket Mages too, which grabs Chalice, but that only matters pre-board.


DIF talked me out of it; Zoo thrashes us if we dont get Chalice down. If we do, they still have Pridemage, Rift Bolts and such as outs. Post board, they have artifact hate, which is painful. It also doesnt help that our sideboard sucks compared to theirs.

[socialite]

Disclaimer:

I have been trolling the various Faerie Stompy threads since late 2006 so I know what I am about to suggest has been beaten to death, however I believe it to be a warranted aside.

With the recent surge of Tempo based decks such as Team America and low casting cost aggressive decks such as Zoo (consequentially one with which we have issues with) has anyone tried Trinisphere main deck in the current metagame?

I know the initial argument against Trinisphere was that once the opponent reached critical mass of three mana they could match us turn for turn, based on the fact that we typically drop one threat a turn. Based on the way the deck was designed at the time we could not keep up with the superior drawing capabilities of other decks. Initially dropping the Trinisphere would put us a turn behind the opponent. With the addition of Mulldrifter and the ability to recycle his evoked ability under Trinisphere, is the inclusion of this card viable?

My thought is that Trinisphere substantially slows down decks like Zoo and neuters the tempo advantage of decks like Team America, while still being close to or at least on par with Chalice of the Void versus Storm. On top of that all of our spells circumvent Trinisphere and we have the ability to lay the card down first turn which in my honest opinion is nuts on the play. On the draw in game two it can be dropped for Blue Elemental Blasts or Chalice of the Void, assuming you win the initial roll.

I'm thinking we could drop down to one Chalice of the Void main deck in addition to four Trinisphere.

I could also be retarded. Please humor me I would like to hear the thoughts of others.

[JeroenC]

First off, it shuts down Force of Will, which is such an awesome safety button. Also, it pretty much does what Chalice does for us, only worse. And it's not tutorable. If I could Trinket Mage it, I would probably run it as a one-of. But I can't, and I don't.

New question: do we have any insane tech against Merfolk? I decided at the last minute to attend a tournament tomorrow, and this is the only deck I have built at the moment. I hope Rock won't be a huge force there, but I do expect to run head-first into some Merfolk players. Please tech me up.

[Kuma]

Llawan, Cephalid Empress

[sauce]

Propaganda

[JeroenC]

So the tournament was today.. First round
Eva Green with white? Don't really know what this was, didn't see a lot. I win two games on the back of Chalice @ 1, lose one when I have no threats and he has Tombstalker. 2-1 win
Second Round
Ichorid, 0-2 epic loss. I tell myself to add at least one Crypt to my sideboard for future tournaments.
Third Round
Homebrew version of Ultimate Walker, 2-0. Fast flying beats> Soldier tokens. Pithing Needle (post-side)> Mishra's Factory and Planeswalkers.
Fourth Round
Goblins (I think Rb).
First game, Sea Drake turn 1 and turn 2, turn 3 Serendib Efreet. Win it, no sweat. Oh, I also pitched a third Drake to C. Mox. And I think I had equipment in there somewhere.
Second game, I have two threats, he has Weirding twice. Piledriver beats for one for a while, then Matron gets Ringleader, Ringleader becomes Tidings, and I lose.
Third game, I have one threat (and a decent hand otherwise) and he has Weirding again. Don't find anything else. 1-2 loss
Fifth Round
Pox
Win first and third game(they told me Chalice@1 is a good play, momma), lose second game when I'm locked at two mana. No sweat. 2-1 win

At this point, I'm 9th out of everyone(with 9 points out of 15), so I have to win the next round to T8. I breath calmly before I sit down.
I meet Ichorid and probably would've won if he didn't hit the nuts every time. I don't mind if all his Ichorids and Bridges are in one half of his library, but I do mind if they're all in the top half. That was game 1. Game 2, his only dredger was G. Thug, but the first dredge was Icho, P. Imp, blank, Bridge. Oh. Jolly. Also didn't see any blue mana that game. Oh, did I mention that out of 33 other players, 2 were playing Ichorid? 0-2 loss.

Conclusions:I'm dropping Back to Basics from my sideboard(sided it in once. The only thing it did was get pitched to C. Mox), along with the singleton Control Magic, to add 3 Propaganda (good against both Merfolk, which I miraculously dodged all day long, and Ichorid) and a Pithing Needle and Crypt (which are just good).

// Lands
9 [IA] Island (2)
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
4 [EX] City of Traitors
1 [MR] Seat of the Synod

// Creatures
4 [FD] Trinket Mage
4 [P2] Sea Drake
4 [R] Serendib Efreet
4 [LRW] Mulldrifter
3 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
3 [LRW] Pestermite

// Spells
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
4 [MR] Chalice of the Void
3 [DS] Sword of Light and Shadow
3 [DS] Sword of Fire and Ice
1 [ALA] Sigil of Distinction
1 [FD] Engineered Explosives

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
SB: 2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
SB: 3 [10E] Pithing Needle
SB: 3 [CH] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 [EVE] Glen Elendra Archmage
SB: 3 [TE] Propaganda

Some questions:
-take one crypt out for a Relic of Progenitus? That would require me to side Chalice out against Ichorid, I don't know what the stronger card would be.
-Any random comments about the sideboard? I think 3 Propaganda is the right amount, but I might be wrong.

Props:
-myself, for having at least one Legacy deck fully built.
-MC Ghent, for organising the tournament
-the first Ichorid player, for being an awesome opponent, even with a hangover (he had the hangover) and being someone to talk to after every round seeing as I went there alone.
-players playing actually black decks, for losing to me. Ichorid isn't a black deck.

Slops:
-Warren Weirding, for probably being the card that cost me the chance at T8.
-myself, for not listening to things said here and taking B2B over Propaganda anyway. It wouldn't have mattered for Merfolk, but it might've for Ichorid.
-Warren Weirding, for showing up twice in a hugely important game.
-Laws of physics, for forcing me to take two hours from home to tournament scene, ergo waking up too soon.

[Eldariel]

Do we honestly want Propaganda vs. Merfolk? I much prefer just packing Jittes and blasting them to high heavens. With tight play, I haven't had any trouble in the match-up. If Jitte resolves, you win. If SoFI resolves, you still win. If neither resolves, you have to hope they don't draw multiple LoAs but you're still game. Bleh, I can't honestly see at which point we'd want to drop Propaganda vs. them instead of doing something actually useful.

I've also been just fine with 2 Crypt; that's the number I've been running for two years now and I can't see myself needing any more. As long as the deck has 4 Trinket Mages, 2 Crypts is 2 more than a standard deck with 4 has, and you don't need more than two activations to win vs. graveyard decks often enough to vindicate a third copy.


Also, what's your sideboarding vs. Goblins? I'd just like to point out what a gigantic beating Sower is on the builds relying on Weirdings.

And you don't HAVE to side Chalice out vs. Ichorid just to bring Relic in. Use Chalice when you have it in the opener and otherwise make way for Relic; either works. Ichorid is much a game of the opener, so having Chalice+1ccs doesn't really matter.

Finally, last I checked we had a good match-up against Sui Black-variants simply on the back of having big dudes and not spending mana on disruption.

[blacklotus3636]

I suggested this to eldariel through pm but I am interested to hear what everyone thinks. I tried spiketail hatchling yesterday, I was playing 3 of them and always found myself siding in the 4th. I'll admit the metagame was slanted toward combo and and dreadstill but I was surprised at how much I liked the little guy over pestermite. The biggest advantage is that people have to either play around him which gives you more time to add in beats or they just play normally and risk having a spell countered. He abviously isn't very big but I found him to help alot when I wasn't able to bring quick early beats from sea drake and friends. Here is my current list:

4 sea drake
4 serendib efreet
3 mulldrifter
4 spiketail hatchling
3 sower of temptation
4 trinket mage
4 chalice of the void
1 sigil of distinction
1 pithing needle
4 force of will
3 sword of fire and ice
3 umezawa's jitte
3 chrome mox
4 ancient tomb
4 city of traitors
10 islands

I have also been considering esperzoa. I know many people on this thread think he's bad but I think only a few people actually tested him. I don't think he should be a 4 of but I think 1 or 2 would be nice if you run the artifact lands. Bottom line is that with a body as big as his has to be dealt with or they lose. I remember that whenever I got a sea drake in play if they didn't deal with it either that turn or the next then they usually lost. Esperzoa in the same vein has to be dealt with quickly or they lose.

[JeroenC]

Riiiiight. Jitte. Why didn't I think of that. Facepalm.

About the Relic thing: is it a good idea to have just one? I'll test it at any rate. Should I go 2 Crypt 1 Relic, or 1-1?

Against Goblins, on the draw, lose 4 Chalice for Sower, C. Magic and 2 P. Needle. Lose Sigil for another EE. On the draw, remove 2 Pestermite, 2 Mulldrifter to get back my Chalice. Though that should probably be 4 Drifter? I wish I'd seen Sower those games, I'm quite aware of the beating it delivers. :(

And Sui Black is just a lovely matchup. I hope I meet them every time I play this deck, this was my first experience (real life) with it pretty much.

In the SB in my post, I'll go -3 Propaganda, +3 Jitte, -1 Crypt, +1 Relic.


I have also been considering esperzoa. I know many people on this thread think he's bad but I think only a few people actually tested him. I don't think he should be a 4 of but I think 1 or 2 would be nice if you run the artifact lands. Bottom line is that with a body as big as his has to be dealt with or they lose. I remember that whenever I got a sea drake in play if they didn't deal with it either that turn or the next then they usually lost. Esperzoa in the same vein has to be dealt with quickly or they lose.

I run one Artifact Land, to fetch with my T. Mage. I'd never run any more, because Wasteland can be painful enough as it is- I don't like it when it takes away my coloured sources.

[MTG-Fan]

I've tested EsperZoa instead of Sea Drake in my build of Faerie Stompy, and he's an adequate replacement as long as a.) you run 4 Seat of the Synod, which also helps you out if you run Thirst, and b.) 4 Trinket Mage to fetch extra Chalices which you can play @ 0 and bounce back, play again, etc.

Wastelands taking out Seats is annoying, *but* most of their early Wastelands will be taking out your Tombs/Cities anyway, so many games the Seats will just go unmolested.

[blacklotus3636]

I've been goldfishing with this list just to see if the deck adequately supports esperzoa. I feel I can say that almost all the time I had the ability to support at least one every time I drew one and as I mentioned earlier you don't have to keep one out very long before you win the game. I also found that he was about as fast coming out as sea drake and had about the same drawback as he did except for the fact that the penalty is scaled out over multiple turns instead of all at once. Most of the time, I was returning artifact lands or chrome moxes mainly because those are more than one third of your blue mana sources. I did lose some tempo because of this but I don't think I lost anymore than with sea drake. I do have to say though that playing sea drake and esperzoa in the deck makes you play a little differently and alot of the time it can be too great a tempo loss to play esperzoa and sea drake back to back but chances are it would be very similar to playing 2 sea drakes back to back and I don't think anyone would be complaining about that. It also does make you more vulnerable to artifact hate but I think its a worthwhile tradeoff. Here is my current list:

4 sea drake
4 serendib efreet
3 esperzoa
4 spiketail hatchling
3 sower of temptation
4 trinket mage
4 chalice of the void
1 sigil of distinction
1 pithing needle
4 force of will
3 sword of fire and ice
3 umezawa's jitte
3 chrome mox
4 ancient tomb
4 city of traitors
4 seat of the synod
6 islands

I thought the mulldrifters were definately the weakest cards in the deck and didn't care to cut any other cards that were so solid. Any comments are appreciated.

[Tacosnape]

I'm not a huge fan of Esperzoa and I'd much rather have Mulldrifter or Pestermite. Both were a house for me. Pestermite's a seriously underrated little dude in this deck.

(Also, if anyone is interested in picking up Sea Drakes, PM me.:))

[Eldariel]

Just to clarify to everyone possibly new to this thread:
Switch to Sword of Light and Shadow from Jitte was done to better support Sower of Temptation, and to generally improve the harder match-ups in control and Rock-type decks.

Now that Weenie-decks are flourishing (Merfolk, Elves, Goblins, what-have-you) and even Threshold-type decks run lots of creatures that die to Jitte (Confidant, Trygon Predator, Vendilion Clique, etc.), switch back to MD Jittes seems to be in place.

I played in Magic-League Trial today (60 players total), quick tournament report:
// Lands
4 [EX] City of Traitors
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
10 [UNH] Island

// Creatures
1 [SC] Shoreline Ranger
4 [AN] Serendib Efreet
4 [FD] Trinket Mage
4 [P2] Sea Drake
3 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
4 [LRW] Mulldrifter
2 [LRW] Pestermite

// Spells
4 [AL] Force of Will
3 [DS] Sword of Fire and Ice
1 [ALA] Sigil of Distinction
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
4 [MR] Chalice of the Void
1 [SOK] Pithing Needle
3 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte

// Sideboard
SB: 3 [DS] Sword of Light and Shadow
SB: 1 [SOK] Pithing Needle
SB: 2 [DK] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 [US] Back to Basics
SB: 3 [EVE] Glen Elendra Archmage
SB: 1 [FD] Engineered Explosives
SB: 2 [A] Blue Elemental Blast


Round 1 - TasiDux with Dreadstill

I win the roll, G1 I have a nutty hand with turn 1 Sea Drake and 2 Chalices. Instead I opt for Chalice at 1 - Chalice at 2 with mana to play around Daze and he doesn't have Force; game is over on turn 2.

G2 I side EE and Needle for 2 Chalices (I only saw two lands from him so I don't know he's on Dreadstill; put him on Merfolk but sided EE in just in case it's Dreadstill after all). He opens with turn 2 Dreadnought to my land-Jitte-go, but I have the Force for his Stifle. I play turn 2 Trinket Mage to fetch Chalice to put him away. Of course he has a second Dread + Stifle and I'm out in short order (though I do try to race with Mage, Efreet and Jitte).

G3 I have EE at 1 and Island to start with, while he plays two lands and Standstill on which we trade Forces. I have hardcast Mulldrifter turn 3 which resolves, drawing me 2 and him 3 off the Standstill. Mull swings for 6 three times while I keep him busy with two Trinket Mages forcing his FoW and fetching a Chalice (while he Trinkets for EE at 0 to blow up my EE; I also land a Needle). 3 turns later, Mulldrifter goes all the way. Whole match lasted 12 turns.

1-0 (2-1)


Round 2 - Windux with Survival Elves

I lose the roll. G1 he goes turn 1 Quirion Ranger and I opt for turn 1 Drake since I have a Jitte in hand (I also had Chalice). He drops Survival next turn, while I equip Jitte and hit him in the face hard, blasting his Elf. He spends his next turn Survivaling Squee & Anger into grave and Viridian Zealot into hand. I decide it's a good time to drop two Chalices at 1 and 2 and win.

Side Mite and Chalice (worse on the draw here as I really want it on 2 to enable Needles on Survival) out for EE + Needle (he has a lot of 1-drops to build his strategy around and Needle is sorta obvious).

G2 I keep a 1-land+Ranger hand with Force, Jitte, SoFi and 3-drops. I Force his Survival, but don't see the third mana source for three turns and he Natural Orders for Progenitus off 3 Elves and 2 lands (give me a guy and Jitte sweeps 'em all away). I die never seeing the mana source.

G3 I open with a Trinket+Force+Mull+City+EE+Island+Chalice-hand and go for it, he goes to 6. I Chalice at 1 and drop a turn 2 Mage fetching another Chalice (I apparently have land in hand at this point). He drops Priest that I let in (without its 1-drops, Priest isn't very scary) and drop Island > EE at 1 to not waste my turn and for the inevitable destruction of my Chalice.

He tries for Perfect that I Force pitching 'Drifter and I play Island > Drake. His next play is Elvish Archdruid and I keep on beating. Next turn he plays Anger but I'm one turn ahead in the race and he doesn't have much to beat with thanks to the Chalice. His next draw is a blank and I put him to 3. He hits back putting me to 6 and I swing for the win; his top card was his singleton Masticore; whew on that bullet!

2-0 (4-2)


Round 3 - Pekka with Zoo

Annoyingly the pairings machine decided that out of the ~16 remaining guys (these are single elimination), the two remaining Finns had to duke it out. Ah well.

I win the roll and go Needle (naming Strand; I forgot what he was playing - shoulda been Pride-Mage obv) and Chalice at 1 turn 1 in G1. Then I play Serendib Efreet + SoFI and it's over.

I side something trivial.

G2 he has no turn 1 play - I put him on heavy removal and with my opener, Needle his Pride-Mages and Chalice at 1 + Jitte to his Tarmogoyf. He plays some 1-drops to grow his Goyf and swings for 3. Then I toss a Chalice at 2 and he swings. I toss an Efreet in there and he scoops; apparently he's out of outs. Sucks to beat friends.

3-0 (6-2)


Round 4 - Rafakev with Merfolk

Here I'm really, really happy I made the switch (as with Elves). I lose the roll.

G1 he has a Cursecatcher to my Drake (my hand had Mox, Tomb, Drake and 3 Sowers). He drops Adept revealing Reejerey and I Jitte-equip (off a second Tomb) and wipe his board. He doesn't play anything, I swing in and he drops Vendilion, they trade and Jitte is at 2 (I didn't want to risk something random like Stifle from him stopping me from wiping his board hence the early use of Jitte). I draw an Island as he shuffles my Serendib away, and drop a Sower and give it Jitte. He concedes shortly after.

I do some random siding again; IIRC cutting Chalices for Needle + EE (as I don't want Chalice at 1 on the draw, but Needling his Vials and such is cool).

G2 He has turn 1 Catcher, turn 2 Standstill (the Catcher is alone totally trivial, of course, so I can choose to break the Still when it best suits me). I have a relatively lategame hand so I build up lands to 3 Islands, 1 City and Mox in hand.

Then I break his Still with Sea Drake (intending on reusing my City), but he Forces. I Mox, he responds with Vendilion to shuffle my Jitte away. I drop Serendib, he has friggin' Vedalken Shackles with infi Islands (3 or 4) and takes my Efreet. I drop Drake and Chalice at 2, swings in (I decline to block) and takes out my City (frowntown).

He also drops a Reejerey that I Sower, but quickly get run over in the air and of course I topdeck a Jitte after the Chalice at 2; his Lord of Atlantis finishes it as I'm about to stabilize. I'll have to reconsider the relevance of Chalice in this MU with Jitte back in main.

G3 I turn 1 Mage for Chalice as I have Needle in hand. He turn 1 Vials so I Needle it and Chalice at 1. He Wastes my City (I have Island in hand that I declined to play earlier) and I drop Mox (imprinting second mage) + Island into Evoked Mulldrifter to his Lord of Atlantis. Next turn I keep beating and drop Sea Drake (that I evoked into) while he drops Jitte. I Chalice at 2 (as I reason I'll be able to keep Drake in play by trading my Mage for his Lord as long as other Lords stay away; I had Mox, Sower and Chalice in hand so it was the only play I had other than waiting for one more land or blue card) and swing with Drake.

He drops Shackles and I swing in with both (now he's so low from the last Drake-swing that I can force him to use Jitte-counters to gain life meaning I can afford him equipping). He equips Jitte and I swing in, putting him to 1 after he gains 2 life. He's still at 2 Islands and Wasteland so he has to Shackle my Trinket (it's worth noting that as long as Merfolk are denied carddraw, such as by Standstill, they'll have severe mana trouble) and beats in, while I keep putting him to 1, trading with the Jitte-counters and never letting him to 3 so my Drake would go down.

I draw two Tombs and Force over this, so the turn after he Shackles my Trinket, I can hardcast Force on his Reejerey. I drop to 8 to play Mulldrifter next turn and as he declines to untap his Shackles and I decline to block, I surf to victory (with Efreet and Jitte of my own off the Drifter; Jitte was again trivial - had he played it correctly, I would've still won as I had SoFI on the top, but it would've been slightly harder).

4-0 (8-3)


Round 5 - Warninero with BGW Rock ("Tota Rock" - he got it from his friend hence the name)

I lose the roll and proceed to mull to 5 looking for a 2-source hand (after long consideration on a Force+Chalice+blue stuff+City hand). I have solid 5 and I put him on certain BGRW Homebrew he seems to play a lot (Tops, Grim Lavamancers, burn, StP, Maelstorm Pulse, Dark Confi, Tarmo, Sinkhole/Hymn/Duress - sorta weird) and thus didn't keep the first hand as I'll prolly get Duressed/Thoughtseized for my business.

G1 He opens with Duress that whiffs on my 3 land+efreet+ranger hand. I draw a Force and drop land. He drops Goyf that I decline to Force. I drop Efreet and it eats StP, again I decline to Force (as I know he has a lot of removal, and I haven't seen red mana yet). He drops Confi and I force to keep things sane.

He drops a second Confi next turn, while I Sower his Goyf. He has a second StP and some Vindicate tho and I lose.

I bring in Back to Basics & Sword for Jittes and some Chalices. I also bring in extra Needle since I saw Deed G1. I didn't realize I should bring in Glen Elendras, but in retrospect it's obvious.

G2 I keep 7, but am slightly low on business. I drop a dude that gets StPd, B2B and SoFI, but he manages to ramp up to 4 lands (3 untapped) and Vindicate the B2B; I lack Force. He compounds this with Choke while I'm only seeing Islands in addition to a single Mox. Then I die horribly as my next Efreet gets also StPd and he shows a hand of third StP and Maelstorm Pulse. Must. Be. Nice.

I can't begin to describe how much I'd love Misdirection for MUs like this. At the same time, I know they don't come up enough to warrant the SB, but meh. Also, I was horribly unlucky (I had Drake in hand so a simple City/Tomb/Mox/whatever would've allowed me to reset my lands, and Force would've just won the game on his Maelstorm Pulse, not to mention SoLS to force him to waste some removal on my equipment too...oh, and no Mulldrifters or such) and played poorly (those GEAs really needed to be in) so meh.

End result: 4-1 (8-5)


He proceeds to get a walkover in the finals with Countertop-player dropping. You can see the Top 4 here (http://www.magic-league.com/deck/53452/legacy_t15.html#Tota%20Rock10091) and all the decks here (http://www.magic-league.com/tournament/info.php?id=53452&view=decks).

As expected, Jitte makes the game vs. Rockish decks and control harder, but makes Weenies easier. I honestly don't think I would've beat Merfolk with SoLS instead of Jitte, and have similar thoughts on Elves (although Chalices finished the job there). I also like extra 2-drops although I hate it with Chalices.

Still, in modern metas, I think it's time to MD Jittes again with weenie-decks on the rise and a ton of random small creatures in decks that previously had Mongoose, Tarmogoyf and Enforcer/Dragon/Tombstalker.

[Mr. Fix it]

In my collection i have most of what you need faerie stompy and wanted to take faerie stompy for a test drive this weekend but i ran into a hitch. I went to my regular 5 stores looking for Serendib Efreet to finish off the cards for the deck and to my amazement no one had any, can this deck run without them? could 4 Pestermite solves my problem or should i try something else?

[Seb]

I'm far from being an expert on the matter, but I tried FS this weekend, and found Serendib to be particularly underwhelming. You lose so much life from Ancient Tomb + Early beats that Serendib always seemed horrible when I drew it. Always wished it was something else, like Mulldrifter or Pestermite.

Pestermite was a beast for me. Il really like when my opponent taps itself down, then I go EoT Pestermite, then main phase cast and equip Sword/Jitte, attack, get an insane edge cause they're tapped out and can't use removal. Sure, it can go wrong against permission decks, but still...

I'm going to try a version without Serendib, and with Spellstutter Sprite. With Chrome Mox on the play, it's good if you dont get the Chalice, and it enables the "surprise creature + equip trick". And lategame, with Sowers, Pestermites, other Sprites, it can become a good hard counter if you did not play a Chalice at 2.

I found the 4 toughness of Serendib to be irrelevant, since I so often get Chalice at 1 and even 2, that burn gets countered anyways.

[Mr. Fix it]

i was thinging a creature spread like this for my testing without serendib.

4 sea drake
4 pestermite
4 trinket mage
4 mulldrifter
2 looter il kor
2 man o war

my understanding was the deck revolved around a strong set of 8 flyers so i'm not sure how it will do without a serendib efreet.

i think i once saw a build with quicksilver dragon in it, is this to faerie stompy like red akroma is to dragon stompy?

[Eldariel]

You can play the deck without SEfreet, though I'd definitely stick to flyers with more than 1 power over Looter and Man-o'-War. Efreet is at its best (ironically) vs. red decks where they need to expend two burn-spells to kill it before it picks up an equipment and goes to town.

The key point is that Efreet is a fast, efficient flyer and really the best that exists right after Sea Drake itself. It blocks basically everything but the fatty club (Tombstalker/Tarmogoyf/Dreadnought/Aggro Loam dudes) while surviving and kills faster than most win cons. Really, the 4 toughness is quite amazing in a deck so often needing a defensive creature over an offensive one.


Even with the 1-life loss, it's probably stopping more by being a menacing blocker and yeah, 3 power for 3 is good. The deck can function without it, but I definitely prefer the deck with it.

[Mr. Fix it]

i'll just have to go digging for some sort of replacement.

do you guys run lighting greaves at all or am i better leaving that out?

[Eldariel]

i'll just have to go digging for some sort of replacement.

do you guys run lighting greaves at all or am i better leaving that out?

I have never tested the card. My initial reaction is that I'm never going to. There's a reason it's never seen competitive play anywhere.

[JeroenC]

There are way better equipments.
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of Light and Shadow
Umezawa's Jitte
(Sigil of Distinction)
These are the ones you should always look to first. Others that seem a lot better than Greaves:
Loxodon Warhammer
O-Naginata

And I love Serendib Efreet. It's the reason I barely ever take damage from early beats. And it's an awesome clock.

[Mr. Fix it]

i think i found a decent balance in shield sphere and esperzoa till i can get my hands on some effreets.

[Mister Agent]

i'll just have to go digging for some sort of replacement.

do you guys run lighting greaves at all or am i better leaving that out?

It's better to leave greaves out because giving your flyers shroud and haste isn't going to impact the board that much. Depending on what you play against; equipment such as umezawa's jitte can greatly influence the board to your benefit.

[Mr. Fix it]

had to knock on a guys door at midnight last night but i found a set of efreets. the damn drakes were less trouble than serendibs.

so i went into a tourament half cocked with this build.

4 serendib
4 sea drake
3 pestermites
4 trinket mages
2 man o wars
2 shield spheres
1 mulldrifter

3 thirst for knowledge
4 force of will

1 rhystic study

1 relic or progen
1 sigil of distinction
3 sword of fire/ice
2 jitte
4 chalice
2 lotus petal
4 chrome mox

10 island
4 city
4 tomb

like i said i made it in a pinch. forgot shorline rangers at home and my propogandas.

i would of gone cloud of faries but pestermite seemed more strategic and it did work for creating tempo to hold off wrath of god humility, and a vindicate in a match up against landstill, but couldn't get the last 4 life from them in the later games after winding game 1. that match up i would given anything to have remembered to put in cloud of faeries (and sea drake) with back to basics synergy.

goblins was the other bad match up i had as well. i went in with no chalices in hand. lost card advantage to forcing lackey in 1 game as well as couldn't get any flyers going had to shield sphere trinket mage and sword of fire and ice fight this whole game and once the sword got nuked i couldn't get anything going. game 2 i swapped in weatherseed faries but got red blast countered. i ran out of creatures after my serendib got nuked as well 4 turns of just lands in the draw. this whole match up i'm thinking either blue blast would of been better sb or propoganda not quite sure yet.

over all rhystic study was a nice card it kept people tapped out when i had it on the field or when they played something big like wrath and the sort it kept the cards coming, i want to explore the deck with more of these in the thirst for knowledge slot.

a second thing about shield sphere is it kept the goblins hesitant to use warren wierding so quickly.

[Mr. Fix it]

How important is it to drop a creature turn 1 in this deck? i know this greatly depends on the match up as rate of bashing brains out varies from match up to match up. I only see lotus pedal as the second most likely way to pop a creature into play turn 1, off of either city or tomb.

If its a matter of swords turn 2 or 1 in the match up i can understand why sending chalice in first would be more viable play.

Am i looking at the deck wrong based off this or is my concern valid? I could use some input on the first turn plays.

[P.S.]

I'm not a big fan of equipment. :eek:

// Creatures (22)
4 Cloud of Faeries
3 Pestermite
1 Phyrexian Dreadnaught
4 Sea Drake
4 Serendib Efreet
2 Sower of Temptation
4 Trinket Mage

// Spells (18)
3 Curiosity
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
2 Misdirection
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Rushing River
1 Sigil of Distinction

// Land (20)
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
11 Island
1 Seat of the Synod

My sideboard is random and I don't wanna post it as it's unfinished and I have a lot of testing to do, however I currently still have 2x Winter Orb in it! I also still like Boomerang and Man-O-War. I like Chalice of the Void a lot but this is currently a version without it (obviously). Same with Chrome Mox. I'm just experimenting with some card slots. I want to try Legacy's Allure too but I don't want too many double-blue early drops since I cut the Moxes. I compensated by playing a couple more land.

Rip this apart, if you wish! It's just a few ideas.

[JeroenC]

So you're actually just running a U aggro-control deck, with no equipment and no Chalice of the Void? I'm quite certain that's too far from Faerie Stompy to be considered Faerie Stompy.
Anyway,
the reason to play equipment: every creature (even as small as a Pestermite) is suddenly a must-deal-with threat. And if you're running Sword of FI/LS, dealing with it becomes extra hard. I see you're at least running Sigil. Curiosity<Sword of Fire and Ice
the reason to play Chalice of the Void: have you had a good look at 1.5 decklists? For 75% of your opponents, Chalice @ 1 will severely limit their options, and is a must-counter. Burn, Thresh, Combo,... The list goes on. I seriously see no reason to not play this card. Four times.

Boomerang: really? Echoing Truth is so much better.
Cloud of Faeries/Pestermite split: if you're going to do this, you need to do it the other way around. 4 Mite, 3 CoF. Mite is so much better. Not only is it a time walk against a lot of decks (tap land in upkeep, tap creature before attack) but even without equipment, it can at least pressure your opponent a little. CoF can't, drop it.
StifleNaught: you have to play Chalice and if you do, you can't play this.
Misdirection: seems akward maindeck. I never liked this card, but I know others do.
Curiosity: Sword of Fire and Ice is better in a million ways. And this doesn't go well with the Chalices you have to play.
No C. Mox: Really? I can't imagine playing this deck without them. They allow me to do things on my first turn: Chalice @1 in a hand full of islands, or just drop a creature turn 1. I really don't see why you'd drop this?
Legacy's Allure: why would you play this over extra Sowers or Control Magic? Too slow.

[Mister Agent]

I'm not a big fan of equipment. :eek:

// Creatures (22)
4 Cloud of Faeries
3 Pestermite
1 Phyrexian Dreadnaught
4 Sea Drake
4 Serendib Efreet
2 Sower of Temptation
4 Trinket Mage

// Spells (18)
3 Curiosity
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
2 Misdirection
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Rushing River
1 Sigil of Distinction

// Land (20)
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
11 Island
1 Seat of the Synod

My sideboard is random and I don't wanna post it as it's unfinished and I have a lot of testing to do, however I currently still have 2x Winter Orb in it! I also still like Boomerang and Man-O-War. I like Chalice of the Void a lot but this is currently a version without it (obviously). Same with Chrome Mox. I'm just experimenting with some card slots. I want to try Legacy's Allure too but I don't want too many double-blue early drops since I cut the Moxes. I compensated by playing a couple more land.

Rip this apart, if you wish! It's just a few ideas.

Chalice of the void is too strong of a card to not run in this deck. Take out stifle and dreadnought in favor of chalice. They seem out of place and don't really do anything in Faerie stompy except clog up your hand. Also, you should run more equipment since they are essential in this deck.

[Loxodon Baileyarch]

I top 8ed a 40 man tournament tonight with Faerie Stompy. I'll post my list and a little report later.

I love the deck though.

[Mr. Fix it]

i was playing in a 30-40 man tournament last week end and went 3/3. not a good record but the one thing i only put 1 of in the deck that i could of used in so many games in the tournament was rushing river. to me this seemed like it would break any strongly established opposition if the heavy hitting assault of an efreet or sea drake, or the tempo stall of flashed pestermites becomes jepoardized. next time i take the deck out i'm thinking of main boarding 4 rushing rivers.

my idea is it saves out creatures from wrath/vindicate/maelstrom. breaks off veldeckan shackles and much more.

[Seb]

I also use one copy of Rushing River in my main, and 1 Wipe Away in the side.

It can break Humility standoffs, out-tempo opponents, bounce a Chalice that's about to get destroyed, save our creatures, etc.

I really like it so far. Always great to sack a City of Traitors EoT to landdrop next turn.

[Mr. Fix it]

oh ya thats another one, i mean a big one, humility. it cost me a game in another tournament. i would of added it to my list if i had remembered it.

over all though landstill seems like a pretty easy match up for this deck so long as chalice 1 is out. in my testing all they have is a combination of vindicate, wrath, humility, and disk to kill our creatures after being chaliced for 1.

[JeroenC]

Humility cost you a game? Equipment is supposed to make that card good for us. I'm happy to see it 90% of the time.

[Mr. Fix it]

unfortunately i had no equipment out that game. but i was under the impression (would of questioned it if it came up) that equipment bonus's like +x/+x would be negated. same goes for the color protections.

[flrn]

unfortunately i had no equipment out that game. but i was under the impression (would of questioned it if it came up) that equipment bonus's like +x/+x would be negated. same goes for the color protections.

Humility doesnt affect creature enchantments or equipments. It only affects creatures. So the bonus from the cards will still be there.

[Eldariel]

I top 8ed a 40 man tournament tonight with Faerie Stompy. I'll post my list and a little report later.

I love the deck though.

I'd be interested in hearing on this. Any hope of you writing one up any time soon?

[whienot]

I'd be interested in hearing on this. Any hope of you writing one up any time soon?

Seconded. I'm especially interested on the sideboard and how you boarded, since our meta is everthing from Affinity to Zur.

[Loxodon Baileyarch]

Here is my list first before anyone, or rather, the one i was given to run.

10 Island
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors

4 Sea Drake
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Trinket Mage
4 Mulldrifter
3 Sower of Temptaion
3 Pestermite
1 Shoreline Ranger

3 Sword of Light and Shadow(MVP #2)
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sigil of Distinction

4 Force of Will
4 Chalice of the Void(MVP # 1)
4 Chrome Mox

Sideboard:
3 Propaganda
3 Back to Basics
3 Blue Blast
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Umezawa's Jitte

The Blue Blasts should have been something different, it was a mistake on my part seeing as i run Chalice and any aggro deck i would Chalice at 1 and not be able to Blast.

Round one i get paired against RGw Zoo. Game one i set up Chalice at 1 and 2, but he still plays with Sulfuric Vortex and hopes i kill myself from Tombs, Efreet, But i win easily after Chalice number 2 resolves. Game two i mull to 5 and get blown out. I get Sword of Light and Shadow active, but he has Vortex anyway and i lose quick. Game three i play Chalice at 1, he Pridemages it away and plays Nacatl. I Trinket Mage another Chalice, FOW a Pridemage and Chalice at 2. He shows his hand at the end of the game and it was 4 Goyf, 1 Pridemage.

I boarded in Propaganda, i thought about B2B but a smart Zoo player fetches basics anyway and it catches em with their pants down. My opponent was playing with Rav duals so was fetching basics most of the time anyway. I woulda brought blast in but Chalice. Jitte went in for SOFI as well. I wont through Choke game three as well. It doesn't do barely anything.

Round two i get paired against Goyf Sligh. I'm dreading this matchup bc Zoo and Goyf Sligh seem like terrible matchups. Game one I draw Chalice and SOLS and am barely able to race him with Efreet pinging me, i win at 1. Game two he brings in lots of hate, Grudge, Grip, etc. This one was a good game. He has to double Magma Jet my Efreet so i don't equip Jitte next turn, but i FOW the second Jet. He then Fireblasts. I steal his FoD and win shorty after.

I brought in Jitte and Archmage this matchup because they both seemed relevant, and countering 2 burn spells seemed good.

Round three i get paired against Mono Black Aggro. Game one Chalice at 1 and 2 seal the deal. Game two i end up in a race where he is just dropping lands and swinging with Shade. I have Shoreline Ranger with the SOLS engine going, but i lose when i swing for the win when he Eyeblight's Ending my Efreet. I was confused and pissed. Game three he duress my Chalice out of my hand, i land Efreet plus SOFI and SOLS. It's game soon after that.

I draw the next two rounds, but i play my other undefeated buddy anyway to see how the match would go. He is playing GW Enchantress. Game one he gets all his draw engines going and i just lose. I couldn't do anything. Game two i get chalice and am able to win with Sea Drake beats over his Moat. Game three i go Chalice at 1, Chalice at 2, Drake, Efreet, and aggro out with flyers.

I brought in ArchMage for this matchup. Nothing else seems relevant, and he was fetching basics anyway. He is a close friend so i knew his build anyway.

As for the deck i love it, and I'm kinda skeptical about Shoreline Ranger and Sigil, i never wanted to cycle or equip. I always wanted to be casting or equipping Swords. I'm wondering how good Thirst for Knowledge would be in the deck as well.

[Eldariel]

The Blue Blasts should have been something different, it was a mistake on my part seeing as i run Chalice and any aggro deck i would Chalice at 1 and not be able to Blast.

You...misunderstand their function (or at least the reason I play them). They are there for Goblins MU on the draw, primarily. At that point, the way you can lose is getting hit by Lackey. Otherwise you just win. You therefore bring them in on the draw where Chalice at 1 isn't a gameplan.

They're auxillarily used against burn (because you just win if you have chalice; you bring them in 'cause sometimes you don't see Chalice and if you don't, you'll need 'em), Aggro Loam, Dragon Stompy, Imperial Painter and so on. Your metagame does not seem to be too heavy on decks they're good against, so cutting them is just fine.

Also, in your metagame, I'd probably MD Jitte over SoLS. SoLS is mostly there for midrange match-up; in the Zoo matches, Jitte is just better.


I boarded in Propaganda, i thought about B2B but a smart Zoo player fetches basics anyway and it catches em with their pants down. My opponent was playing with Rav duals so was fetching basics most of the time anyway. I woulda brought blast in but Chalice. Jitte went in for SOFI as well. I wont through Choke game three as well. It doesn't do barely anything.

Propaganda is really bad, to be honest; you spend 3 mana and a card to make them spend 2 mana few times. Make no mistake, these match-ups ARE races, but your trumps are Jitte, Chalice, Force & BEB. That and Efreet with its bum of 4. Indeed, trading Efreet for a Nacatl + Lightning Bolt is practically game-win in and of itself.


I brought in Jitte and Archmage this matchup because they both seemed relevant, and countering 2 burn spells seemed good.

Archmage is an interesting pick because of how slow it is, though I can see the rationale. I only use Archmage vs. control and combo-decks, along with single-minded burn and matches where I might need it for chumps, but it does have some good features in this MU again.


Sigil...I can say of experience that I often have hands where I need to kill fast and have only 2-power Creatures and thus have to fetch Sigil. It's a very useful option to have. Shoreline...it's a fringe card and I'm still not sure it's right, but it helps to alleviate manafloods and acts as an extra pitch so I'm keeping it (you only cycle it when you have no other sources of blue mana).

Thirst was tested, but Mulldrifter is just better while being a creature. You might sometimes notice that the deck has a relatively low creature count; Mulldrifter is really needed to alleviate that, especially against heavy removal-focused decks. This is why Thirst for Knowledge is not played anymore. No reason other than Mulldrifter being printed.


As for Enchantress, one surprisingly powerful play vs. them is Chalice at 3 to stop them from using Solitary Confinement/Words of War/Words of Worship/Sacred Mesa to lock you out. Just something to keep in mind. A really weird match-up.

And if I had your meta? I'd definitely sideboard Misdirection. It's incredible vs. any deck with burn, and any black deck (Misdirect Thoughtseizes, Hymns, Sinkholes, etc.). The reason I'm not SBing it anymore is because it's not so amazing vs. Countertop & Threshold-variants, nor Landstill, nor Survival Rock, nor Aggro Loam.


Congratulations on the finish.

[Mr. Fix it]

@Eldariel

i once thought misdirection would be good but like force of will i often find myself short a blue card to pitch to it when i need it the most. did you ever have this same issue?


second how is the following true in the zoo match up?

"That and Efreet with its bum of 4. Indeed, trading Efreet for a Nacatl + Lightning Bolt is practically game-win in and of itself."

[blacklotus3636]

I was curious if anyone has tested esperzoa. It seems like everyone just sort of wrote him off without really seeing how good he is(or isn't). When I tested him he felt alot like sea drake. I could really only afford to play 1 in 2 or 3 turns because in either case you're set back in some way returning things to your hand. However we all know that a sea drake or esperzoa smacking someone with an equipment on it for just a few turns is usually enough to win the game. There is some obvious bad synergy with a few of the cards but I think its a small price to pay for an extra set of 4/3 fliers for 2U. Also if you are playing a full set of moxes along with seats of the synod then that would mean that roughly half of your blue mana sources come from artifacts which means that if you can play esperzoa then you can most likely support it.

I encourage everyone to at least try it without dismissing it out of hand

[Black Mass]

It isn't bad, but it just doesn't belong here. Your manabase is weak enough right now without 4 seat of the synod.

This cards needs something built around it, a deck with more artifacts than this one, because I for one don't want to retract ANY artifact I've put into play with this deck.

[Eldariel]

@Eldariel

i once thought misdirection would be good but like force of will i often find myself short a blue card to pitch to it when i need it the most. did you ever have this same issue?

In short? No. That's one of the reasons the Shoreline Ranger is in there too, and why I invariably side out Pithing Needle vs. Zoo even if there are some nice targets. Misdirection acts in an excellent manner. Sometimes it's right to pitch Force to Misd or the opposite.


second how is the following true in the zoo match up?

"That and Efreet with its bum of 4. Indeed, trading Efreet for a Nacatl + Lightning Bolt is practically game-win in and of itself."

Generally it comes down to who keeps the last threat in play. Being able to 2-for-1 them goes long ways towards that goal while pretty much ensuring that you can't be directly burned out, taking away their early damage AND a burn-spell AND delaying their 2-drop a turn. Obviously you need to have some additional creatures in hand, but you just really took the teeth outta their assault.


@Esperzoa: I don't want conditional threats in the deck. That's really the single reason I'm not playing Esperzoa (well, that and the fact that the alternatives are pretty good too). Esperzoa really ties down my options; I can't side out Chalices in quantities, I need to play Seats (and thus lose substantially more games to Wastelands and make my own Back to Basics worse), sometimes return Moxes with imprints and so on.

The drawback is just so hard to control that I don't want to deal with it. I'm confident in my ability to make the right calls with Needles and Chalices the first time around so I don't need to play them twice.

[Skeggi]

You could try Esperzoa with Tsabo's Web and have yourself a draw engine. Pretty mana-intensive though. I don't think it'll work.

[Mr. Fix it]

something i did that turned heads was i run shield sphere as a fetchable blocker with trinket mage. I think it makes good esperzoa food.

I like shield sphere as it often blocks tarmogoyfs for a few turn and allows our flyers to go strait for the throat so that we are not damage racing as i often find myself doing when sphere isn't present.

thought i think damage racing is just me playing the deck wrong. all and all a 4/3 flyer that doesn't have to block a 3 power or more is a nice set up.

[blaat]

Since I bought my missing 4th BB efreet (the green one is just ugly and I hate n00bs who say my chrome mox only makes green mana when imprinted, yeahh that happend to me 2 times) i'm addicted again to stompy.

What came to mind is running glen elendra main with a few small manabase tweaks (say +2 lands +2 mox d ,-1 chrome mox).
Has anyone tried something before (only found it as sideboard choice)?
She fits the beater role, can do tricks with spare blue mana (have to test how consistent you can play her with {U} open) and makes a sad face on your opponent and even more when eventually SoLaS joins the game (meta choice to run more SoLaS than SoFaI).

[Mr. Fix it]

Since I bought my missing 4th BB efreet (the green one is just ugly and I hate n00bs who say my chrome mox only makes green mana when imprinted, yeahh that happend to me 2 times) i'm addicted again to stompy.

What came to mind is running glen elendra main with a few small manabase tweaks (say +2 lands +2 mox d ,-1 chrome mox).
Has anyone tried something before (only found it as sideboard choice)?
She fits the beater role, can do tricks with spare blue mana (have to test how consistent you can play her with {U} open) and makes a sad face on your opponent and even more when eventually SoLaS joins the game (meta choice to run more SoLaS than SoFaI).

most just ignore glen cause she is 4 and not 3 mana like we like.

what is this SoLaS you speak of? if its a card already in the deck i'm drawing a huge blank.

[Wereodile]

most just ignore glen cause she is 4 and not 3 mana like we like.

what is this SoLaS you speak of? if its a card already in the deck i'm drawing a huge blank.

Sword of Light and Shadow. He just added the an "a" in there, sometimes they're listed as SOLS and SOFI.

[Mr. Fix it]

Sword of Light and Shadow. He just added the an "a" in there, sometimes they're listed as SOLS and SOFI.

wow i can't believe i over looked that. Same as that time i forgot Esg ssg meant. Gunna go bang my head against a desk for being dumb, of course thats only gunna make the huge gap/blank in my head even wider. brobably the reason i would so something counter productive in the first place.

now that i know what he meant. not a bad idea for recurable counter spell element to the deck to run SoLaS over SoFaI. plus u just gotta hate it when they maelstrom your creature or even swords it.

[Mister Agent]

oh ya thats another one, i mean a big one, humility. it cost me a game in another tournament. i would of added it to my list if i had remembered it.

over all though landstill seems like a pretty easy match up for this deck so long as chalice 1 is out. in my testing all they have is a combination of vindicate, wrath, humility, and disk to kill our creatures after being chaliced for 1.

Where were your Glen Elendra Archmages when this happened? Glen counters all of the spells you mentioned and you should definitely board them in against landstill.

Glen Elendra Archmage would help you a great deal if you ever fall behind in the matchup. Also, you can most likely cast and activate Elendra before they get to their fourth land drop anyway.

As for Nevinyrral's Disk you can nullify it with pithing needle. You also have the option of obtaining Pithing Needle through Trinket Mage.

[Mr. Fix it]

I didnt have glens in the tournament i was playing in, that tournament was my first time using faerie stompy. the thing that bothers me about pithing need in this deck is often you have to chalice for 1 before you get to a needle. best to set up the chalice at 1 and follow it with a creature to start the beats. But now that i know more about what i'm doing glens in the sb.

[Humphrey]

Since I bought my missing 4th BB efreet (the green one is just ugly and I hate n00bs who say my chrome mox only makes green mana when imprinted, yeahh that happend to me 2 times) i'm addicted again to stompy.


http://sales.starcitygames.com/cardscans/MAG_ZEN/SerendibEfreet.jpg

:smile:

[blaat]

Glen Elendra Archmage would help you a great deal if you ever fall behind in the matchup. Also, you can most likely cast and activate Elendra before they get to their fourth land drop anyway.


And this is exactly what I want to test.
The possibility to improve matchups pre-board without decreasing beaters.
Of course, board it out against tribal decks with only a few non-creature spells and insert cards that do improve that particular matchup.

My meta lets me try the above plan (pre-zandikar i guess) since I don't face decks where the counter part of her isn't relevant.
And of cource the "I'll be back" part of her is just CA even if you have to block for some reason.



[picture]

:smile:

Yeah very nice art, although foils make me want to pull my eyes out.

[Eldariel]

Ok, could someone please tell me why this deck isn't seeing more play right now? Merfolk, Zoo, Countertop, Canadian Thresh, ANT and Landstill, it seems like the metagame is more favorable to FS than ever.

And yet, it seems like nobody even plays the deck, which could explain why it isn't finishing well, but truly baffles me. Last year it was finishing constantly and now that metagame got better for us, people suddenly stopped playing this? Is there something I'm missing? Maybe people decided that Qasali Pride-Mage makes the deck unplayable or something?


My own experience vs. Zoo is very good; if you Chalice at 1, it still buys you so long that even if they have the Qasali to blow it up without FoW, they're just too far behind to recover, especially given Trinket's ability to get a second Chalice.

Not only that, but Jitte is a fcking beating on them, and SoFI doesn't exactly suck either. And Pestermite and Sower of Temptation play perfect tempo roles and Sower forces removal outta their hands and so on.

Oh, and their Prices of Progress absolutely suck vs. us 'cause Citys self-destruct and we don't run duals leaving us with at most two Tombs for 4 damage and rarely more than 1 if we don't want any. Hell, we could sideboard Submerge if we feel like it.


Did people decide that FS is suddenly too inconsistent or something? 'cause that hasn't seemed to stop it from finishing in the past and with the 15th blue source in the main, it's more consistent than ever. I personally have had very little trouble in terms of mana and very few forced mulligans.

[JeroenC]

I played it yesterday on a 7-round tournament (don't know exactly how many poeple there were). I'll put up a short report later. In short, lost first three rounds against good matchups because my deck was being a fickle bitch and I'd only slept four hours that night. And no testing the week before. MVP Pestermite btw. 2/1 flying timewalks? Sign me up for that gorefest.

[Media314r8]

Ok, could someone please tell me why this deck isn't seeing more play right now? Merfolk, Zoo, Countertop, Canadian Thresh, ANT and Landstill, it seems like the metagame is more favorable to FS than ever.

I played mox diamond FS to a 5-0-1 top four split in a 25ish person tournament recently. Most all the MUs were cake-walks aside from mono-red goblins and an ichorid deck, but 3 silent arbiters, 3 EE, and 3 relic post-board held down the fort while flyers won. I usually leave FS on the sidelines of large tournaments as just like stacks, you'll likely lose at least one match in a tournament with 6+ rounds to your own hands.

Inconsistency + limited card availability = underplayed deck.

[JeroenC]

Care to share a list of that Diamond FS? I was under the impression Mox Diamond lists were usually a little less potent.

[Mr. Fix it]

Compared to the other stompys i was under the impression this was the most consistent in drawing power and creature fighting.

Media why are you using silent arbiter? Is it just to funnel creature combat?

[Eldariel]

Compared to the other stompys i was under the impression this was the most consistent in drawing power and creature fighting.

It is. It wasn't back when the deck first premiered though. Since then, we've gotten a lot more creatures into the deck though (especially Mulldrifter & Sower, which replaced non-creature slots with creatures) and we've added two more mana sources.

As it stands, I rarely find consistency to be a relevant issue; unlike Stax, FS doesn't win or lose by any specific cards but rather by a cohesive plan where all the cards support one another and generate a redundant gameplan that boils down to "Buy time to reduce opponent from 20 to 0."

Any of the creatures in the deck is a sufficient threat on its own right thanks to the existence of equipment (which also doubles as removal) and Chalice doubles as protection in addition to being aggressive disruption, and between 4 Drifters and 4 Trinket Mages, the deck has a lot of redundancy in terms of lock pieces, while also functioning just fine without them (at least against everything but Storm, where you sorta want 'em).


In short, I find most of the inconsistency fears are based on the older versions of the deck. While the deck does mulligan slightly more than average, it doesn't really mulligan into oblivion anymore, and there's a lot of power in the deck to make up for the extra mulligan or two, much like Zoo.

[blaat]

Care to share a list of that Diamond FS? I was under the impression Mox Diamond lists were usually a little less potent.

The way I see it is:
- you run mox diamond so you have to pitch less blue spells, so more power from playable creatures/tools.
- 1-2-3 extra lands makes less mulligans (suddenly 2 ancient tomb + mox diamond in openings hand could be a keeper)
- If I go into mid-game I always have lots of lands in my hand anyway (no need to play lands if you already have all the mana you need), but have to topdeck business spells because I had to pitch them for chrome mox and FoW.

In short: I always felt chrome mox is eating my wincons away and i'm left with no creatures in hand after your opponent is removing/countering the first beater and your own FoW/chalice fails to safe you from this.

I'm not sure if you have to cut chrome mox completely.
For now i'm testing a 2 chrome/3mox-d version.

[JeroenC]

Well, I prefer consistent draws in the later game. So I guess I'll stick to Chrome Mox.

My report:
Mol 20/09(Belgian Legacy Cup Qualifier)
Note before: sorry about not having any sideboarding notes, most notes were quick words I wrote down after the entire match.

Round 1: Joost(Skeggi) with NLU(?)
Game 1: Didn't manage to land a lot of threats and got them all removed. Chalice didn't work out either. Eventually died after a long game by Jötun Grunt beats.
Game 2: 2 Pestermites=2 Time Walks. They bring the beats. Joost tries to come back with a Goyf, but I Sower it and finish the game.
Game 3: Took a lot of damage from 2 Ancient Tomb, double Goyf finishes it off. 0-1 due to bad play(should've focussed on Chalice more) and bad mulligans.

Round 2: Joachim with Zoo
Whoopie, an undoubtably good matchup!
Game 1: I hit Chalice and 1 and bring on the race, but Quasali Pridemage messes it up before he gets his race on and kills me.
Game 2: Pestermite and Jitte keep me on top. Sword of Fire and Ice finishes it off.
Game 3: Kept a hand that let me land Chalice 1 and 2 but didn't have colored mana. Topdeck race put me on top after a couple of turns as I land a threat, but Krosan Grip on Chalice 1 lets him easily overtake me. 0-2 due to bad play. Need to win everything now to have a shot at T8.

Round 3: Eric with Rb Goblins
Game 1: I mull to 5. I keep a decent hand but my only mana source is a Seat of the Synod. Unanswered Lackeys finish the game quickly.
Game 2: Serendib Efreet and Jitte are fast and lethal to green men.
Game 3: Stuck on two Islands after a Wasteland on my City. Rest of the game felt like this: FFFFUUUUUUUU Rishidan Port.
0-3, this time I blame my deck being a fickle bitch. Also, don't be like this guy. All he ever said was "Played with this" when I tried to counter a Vialed dude. Very uncomfortable game.

Round 4: Rachid with UBg landstill
Game 1: I sat down mostly wanting to just have some fun in the last couple of rounds. Game one I opened up with a City into Chalice. Turn three I topdecked an Island and played it for a threat. No removal came, Forced a Tombstalker when it wanted to join the fun. Win.
Game 2: Rachid mulled to 5. He told me that every game he'd play so far, game 2 had opened him with no-landers. I started out Island, Island, Chalice 1. I didn't draw land for a long time, as I took Factory damage. I dropped a City and a Drake, equipped it with Sword of Fire and Ice. I win. 1-3 because his deck didn't do anything.

Round 5: Joep with ANT
Game 1: Sea Drake with Sword of Light and Shadow kicks him to 10 and me to 19(from 16, Ancient Tomb). He ANs with no spare mana and loses all his life.
Game 2: Turn four, I force an AN. In the meantime, Trinket Mage is beating with Sword of Light and Shadow and I have a chalice at 1 and at 0. Needless to say, I win. 2-3 because of an easy matchup.

Round 6: Fabrice with UGr Tempo Thresh
Game 1: Turn 2 Mulldrifter, timewalking with a Pestermite. Chalice 1 and 2 makes him scoop.
Game 2: I have to mull to 5. I keep a mediocre hand and my Pestermite and Sword of Fire and Ice can't keep up with a Goyf. Lose.
Game 3: Turn 1 Chalice for 1. Pestermite Walks, Sword of Fire and Ice speeds up, Sea Drake seals the deal. 3-3 because the deck and I do what we're supposed to.

Round 7: Matthys Baptist with Merfolk
Round 1: I'm tired, I'm sort of sick of it and I keep a hand with only Ancient Tomb that would be awesome if I had any blue sources. He gets 3 lords out and I die.
Game 2: I had some mana issues, which probably decided this game for him. Resolving a Chalice for 1 didn't help as he sides most his ones out. I die when 2 adepts start beating on me when I don't get to play any threats. I tried to steal a lord of his with Sower, but I was too late. Over and out.
3-4 because I was too lazy to mulligan.

My list:
// Lands
9 [IA] Island (2)
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
4 [EX] City of Traitors
1 [MR] Seat of the Synod

// Creatures
4 [FD] Trinket Mage
4 [P2] Sea Drake
4 [R] Serendib Efreet
4 [LRW] Mulldrifter
3 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
3 [LRW] Pestermite

// Spells
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
4 [MR] Chalice of the Void
3 [DS] Sword of Light and Shadow
3 [DS] Sword of Fire and Ice
1 [ALA] Sigil of Distinction
1 [10E] Pithing Needle

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
SB: 2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 [10E] Pithing Needle
SB: 2 [CH] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 [EVE] Glen Elendra Archmage
SB: 3 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 3 [U] Blue Elemental Blast

To be changed: swap one maindeck Sower for a Pestermite. Sower let me down a couple of times, Pestermite was awesome. SB gets one more Sower in lieu of a BEB.

[Kuma]

Ok, could someone please tell me why this deck isn't seeing more play right now? Merfolk, Zoo, Countertop, Canadian Thresh, ANT and Landstill, it seems like the metagame is more favorable to FS than ever.

Because Merfolk, Landstill, and Zoo aren't great matchups. Well, maybe Zoo is, but the lists in my metagame don't look much like the ones in the thread. Also, I don't think we're heavily favored against Tempo Thresh or CounterTop. CounterTop is running more answers to artifacts than ever before, and Progenitus is a beating. Tempo Thresh seems better for us, but it's hard to know what kind of hand to keep against them since Island, Tomb/City, creatures hands are shut down by Wasteland, and land heavy, creature light hands might not be fast enough or resilient enough to get through the countermagic and burn.


And yet, it seems like nobody even plays the deck, which could explain why it isn't finishing well, but truly baffles me.

I kind of burned out on the deck during the first few months of the year. But Media314r8 sold me four FTV: Exiled Efreets and has talked to me about some interesting tech, so I might play Faerie Stompy for a while.


Did people decide that FS is suddenly too inconsistent or something?

Honestly, yes.

I'm not comfortable taking Faerie Stompy to any high stakes and/or big tournaments because there are better decks in the format and when something's at stake there's no reason not to pilot the best deck you can.

[Eldariel]

With Jitte back in MD, I feel the Merfolk MU is very good. Also, Goblins are pretty damn good. My experience is that about half of the top tier (the aggro contingent) is v. good for us, as are their natural predators (combo) and we're still pretty decently off vs. Tempo Thresh, Countertop & Landstill.

Stuff like Rock and midrange Survival that I traditionally have had issues with aren't showing up pretty much at all, it seems. That's the source of my confusion; when MUs were worse, the deck was globally finishing better. That just doesn't make sense to me.

[Mr. Fix it]

Has anyone tried Notorious throng in the deck? It looks plausible and suddenly following up hitting someone for 4 to gain 4 1/1 flyers would put you in very nice board position. plus more creatures encase the big one gets nuked.

[Humphrey]

I stil find the deck very unstable. I think i wont play it on tournaments until we got something like

Fat Owl
2U
Flying
When ~ comes into play, look at the top 4 cards and put them back in any order
1/2 Flying

[JeroenC]

Has anyone tried Notorious throng in the deck? It looks plausible and suddenly following up hitting someone for 4 to gain 4 1/1 flyers would put you in very nice board position. plus more creatures encase the big one gets nuked.

I don't see why. Usually, if you are already swinging with a creature, you're winning. This card is too situational and even then too weak.


I stil find the deck very unstable. I think i wont play it on tournaments until we got something like

Fat Owl
2U
Flying
When ~ comes into play, look at the top 4 cards and put them back in any order
1/2 Flying

I don't think I'd ever play that. I'd prefer something like
2U flying 2/1 When etb, draw a card.
Edit: if only Latchkey Faerie was 2U :(

[Humphrey]

2U flying 2/1 When etb, draw a card.
Edit: if only Latchkey Faerie was 2U :(

Latchkey draws only on prowl and thats 2U

Perfect would have been Slithermuse Evoke 2U

[JeroenC]

Yes, but Latchkey would be playable if it were 2U- Prowl would just be a benefit. A lot of 3/1 fliers are borderline playable for this deck.

[dlg]

btw - I'm still waiting for the mox-splitted-list ;)


just to get some discussion about the drawing:

funny card : Rayne, Academy Chancellor

[Shanghi Knights]

I stil find the deck very unstable. I think i wont play it on tournaments until we got something like

Fat Owl
2U
Flying
When ~ comes into play, look at the top 4 cards and put them back in any order
1/2 Flying

what about raven familiar (http://sales.starcitygames.com//carddisplay.php?product=8194)? very similar to what your looking for there.

[humppa]

what about raven familiar (http://sales.starcitygames.com//carddisplay.php?product=8194)? very similar to what your looking for there.

Spire Owl? Ok, it's only 1/1, but does it really matter?

[BreathWeapon]

what about raven familiar (http://sales.starcitygames.com//carddisplay.php?product=8194)? very similar to what your looking for there.

I tried it awhile back and really liked it, it's especially good with Sword of Light and Shadow too ... it never got any following tho'.

[Humphrey]

nice card, but the echo is bad. i dont want to spend 4 live for it

[dlg]

i dont want to spend two rounds for a 2/1 "ponder" -> he slows the deck!

[Shanghi Knights]

my mistake on that last post, i though you were saying you wanted wizards to make a card like that and i instantly thought of raven familiar. i didn't realize spire owl existed when i posted. if i had i wouldn't have posted like i did.

[Dr. DOOM]

Raven familiar sucks. Pestermite is still a lot better and if you want to manipulate the cards in your library you can play Sensei's top and find it with Trinket Mage. And yes, it can work together with chalice.

[Skeggi]

Round 1: Joost(Skeggi) with NLU(?)
Yeah that was fun. I was playing Supreme Blue, the Japanese UGWr CounterTop list with maindeck Firespouts (and Team ADHD's adeptation of it ofcourse). Because of some strange brainfart I sided them out game 2. Then I sided them back in game 3, I believe it wiped your board.


I'm not comfortable taking Faerie Stompy to any high stakes and/or big tournaments because there are better decks in the format and when something's at stake there's no reason not to pilot the best deck you can.

Excuse me, but that's a shit argument. Are you honestly saying you're going to magic tournaments for the loot? You should be in there for the fun. If Faeries Stompy gives you the most fun then you should play that deck.

Anyway, back on topic, I myself have picked up FS lately and am really enjoying it. I don't find it lacks too much consistency, you just need to know when to mul a hand.

The maindeck was easy to assemble, so I'm running a pretty standard list I think. But I'm having trouble with the sideboard. What are in general the bad match-ups for FS? Becasue I thought Landstill would be tough, but apparently that's a good match-up? So far I only had time to do some rough testing against Eva Green and Meathooks, they were both pretty easy.

[Kuma]

Excuse me, but that's a shit argument. Are you honestly saying you're going to magic tournaments for the loot? You should be in there for the fun. If Faeries Stompy gives you the most fun then you should play that deck.

You know what's not fun? Driving four hours and spending $30-$50 to go 1-2 drop.

I'm not saying that Faerie Stompy isn't fun for me. I'm just saying that it's not a great choice for a large tournament because there are better decks. Faerie Stompy has consistency issues, and that's not a risk I'm willing to take at a large event.

I've played with Faerie Stompy more than most of the people in this thread, and that's largely because I think it's a great deck that I can have fun playing.

I'm not saying that Faerie Stompy can't do well at large events, just that there are other decks I also enjoy playing which are more likely to perform well over six plus rounds.

You know what's fun? Winning.

[Loxodon Baileyarch]

I went 3-2 in a 33 man on Wednesday with the same list i played back a few pages. I lost twice to Countertop. The matchup is miserable. I can't describe how much i hate that deck and the 60 cards sleeve in it.

I was just curious about how to go about the Countertop Matchup. Help?

[Kuma]

I went 3-2 in a 33 man on Wednesday with the same list i played back a few pages. I lost twice to Countertop. The matchup is miserable. I can't describe how much i hate that deck and the 60 cards sleeve in it.

I was just curious about how to go about the Countertop Matchup. Help?

Perhaps you could go into more detail about how you lost?

I assume it wasn't due to Counterbalance because of our mana curve.

I'm guessing you lost to some combination of artifact removal, Swords to Plowshares, countermagic, Tarmogoyf, and mulligans.

The best hands you can keep against CounterTop consist of Island, Tomb/City, 3-4 creatures and 1-2 pieces of equipment. The best thing you can do is try to push creatures through their early countermagic and removal and use equipment in the mid and late game to bury them in card advantage.

Sower of Temptation is a house in this matchup too. Run four between your main and board and make sure you have all four in versus CounterTop.

[Loxodon Baileyarch]

He got Shackles with FOW backup each game, plus some Sowers.

Like i tried to wait until i could play equip but he just kept playing Islands.

Idk it was just miserable.

[Kuma]

I run one Pithing Needle in the main and three in the sideboard. You could try boarding those in. Or, you could bring in some Back to Basics which turn Vedalken Shackles into very expensive creature removal. Glen-Elendra Archmage is also an option.

[dlg]

i usually beat countertop/thresh even with a blacksplash back to hell... try winter orb for these matchups <3 !

it's the same with zoo : challice 1/2 or winter orb kicks them right in their nuts!


but what do you think is an actual sideboard list for the typical Faerie Stompy List ( 22/23 creatures, jitte+sofi, 18 lands+4 chrome, 4 fow+4cotv and sigil+needle )?

[Kuma]

Here's Mine:

1 Engineered Explosives
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Mulldrifter
3 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Pithing Needle
4 Back to Basics

This probably needs some updating since I haven't given it a long look in a while

[dlg]

i'm thinking something like

2-3 pithing needle
3 glen elendras
3 winter orb
3 relics of progenitus
3 weather seeds
(maybe +1 engineered explosives)

[Eldariel]

Eh, I'll write a quick list of SB cards I'd consider in the deck:

- Pithing Needle: Good for all the reasons you MD one; stops Survival, Top, Shackles, Powder Keg, Pernicious Deed, Mishra's Factory, Jitte (opposing), Qasali Pride-Mage, Aether Vial, Wasteland, I needn't continue. In some matches, there simply are more than one of these present and you want multiple Needles. I'd SB 2 maximum due to the presence of Trinket Mage. Note that the MUs in which you want Needles are often ones where you don't care for Chalices either so the apparent lack of synergy is a relatively minor point.

- Tormod's Crypt: Should be bloody obvious; we run Trinket Mages so even just 2 Crypts is enough to give us a favorable match-up vs. Ichorid (as it's practically equivalent to 4 from a cantrip deck) and it's an incredible tool vs. Loam-decks and a great addition to Trinket toolbox vs. any control-deck with graveyard-based engine (hint: that's all of them).

- Relic of Progenitus: Again, bloody obvious. Hits goyf making it almost MD-worthy, conflicts with Chalice and unlike Needle, usually comes in in matches where your plan is Chalice at 1 (such as Tempo Thresh, Zoo, etc.). As such, I'm not using it right now. Note that usually Needle goes in in MUs where Chalice goes at 2 (e.g. Landstill, MUC, Countertop, etc.)

- Engineered Explosives: Maybe slightly less obvious, so I'll just point out how it blows up Aether Vials, Lackeys, Mongeese, Pithing Needles and a thousand pestersome permanents. It also deals with EtW tokens and such in Storm. If you have Mox Diamond or some such, it can also kill Goyfs & al. Yeah, it's worth a slot.

- Cursed Scroll: Last of the trinkets I'm going to cover, this solely exists as a wincon vs. control decks when you think your creatures can't get through. Many such decks have extreme trouble removing this little trinket and they can hardly race it; you can just ping them out.

Things like Sacred Mesa, Humility+Moat, Story Circle & co. can lock up the board pretty well in some control-matches so having access to a repeating pinger is a great trump. That said, I don't have room for it so I'm not playing even one due to such slow control-decks being nearly extinct right now.

- Sword of Light and Shadow/Umezawa's Jitte: Usually one is in the main so I'm just covering the other one. Umezawa's Jitte is an absolute beating on all tribal and aggro-decks (DUH!) while white control, Landstill, Rock and such decks of all varieties absolutely dread SoLS. So it's worth having access to both in a varied metagame, especially if expecting matches where you want more than 6 pieces of equipment (any Humility-control); the incidential hate and ability to versatalize the packet is invaluable.

- Winter Orb: Great tool vs. slow control. Given that such decks don't really exist in the metagame by large right now (and their most frightening answers are 1-mana), I don't like this at the present, but it can certainly have allure in more control-heavy metas.

- Back to Basics: The other mana hate tool, this one taps them out for good, but hurts you too and doesn't hit basics. Much better vs. 3-4c control decks, much worse (obviously) vs. mono decks. I prefer this 'cause it's handy in such a wide variety of MUs, from many varieties of the Rock to obviously Lands and even some Aggro Loam builds.

Being blue and as such pitchable doesn't hurt either. Even great for Stax since the deck is built around laying a lock piece a turn and if it can't accomplish that due to mana, you're pretty damn well off.

- Glen Elendra Archmage: Most recent addition to the board, a doublecounter with body is an absolute bomb vs. combo and control. Given that I feel control-decks can be incredibly problematic, his inclusion should be a total no-brainer. I've actually lived the dream of getting SoLS in play and recurring Glen Elendra...yes, I won that game. If you only expect aggro, this slot is worthless.

- Sower of Temptation: Some of us don't MD 4 so having the access to 4 post-board can be absolutely crucial in some matches. Often it's possible to shut down opponent's removal with Chalice and Sower their threat. Other times, it's possible to draw their removal with other threats and win with Sowers. And occasionally you win by just forcing them to remove your sowers and racing with Drake while their fatto is taking turns not swinging. And some decks don't really pack relevant amounts of removal (think: Dragon Stompy, some Countertop-lists, and perhaps most interestingly, some more recent Goblins-lists with just Weirdings and one Gempalm or so). Can be useful.

- Control Magic: Lately it seems forgotten, but Control Magic is much harder to remove than Sower and in matches where you expect to use either, probably not at a loss for targets unless you're winning anyways. Sower is better MD since it's a creature and thus helps keep the creature count up, but Control Magic I frankly find the better SB option; it's guaranteed beating especially against the ~70% of creature decks that can't remove enchantments vs. you post-board, at least outside Krosans (which should be working overtime already).

- Blue Elemental Blast: I initially overlooked this SB card due to the lack of interaction with Chalice at 1, but I've come to realize that it's actually quite a useful card to have access to. First of all, it's an additional answer to turn 1 Lackey, the principal reason you lose games to Goblins.

Second, it's an additional "answer" to Burn, which works with Chalice 'cause if you have Chalice, chances are you win anyways. When you don't have Chalice, an extra counter/vortex removal/whatever is extremely handy.

Third, it kills Aggro Loam's dudes & Seismics and whatever Dragon Stompy throws at you. Fourth, it further adds to your arsenal vs. red combo decks like Belcher & TES. I keep it around just to safeguard my Goblins MU.

- Rushing River (or Bounce in general): It can be useful to remove any effect, even just for a turn, especially in MUs with problematic, expensive permanents. Rushing River is one of the more manacurve-friendly options for eliminating those while often being kickerable to bounce two Goyfs or whatever. Solid tempo effect for those who believe they can win such MUs on tempo.


And few others, like Psionic Blast (still surprisingly solid), Energy Flux (for those truly fucked-up metagames), Chill (ditto; if you go with lots of mana denial effects, you should pack some additional mana denial), Propaganda (apparently a popular answer to hordes and Ichorid; I never based much on it given how useless it is alone, but it obviously does something right with so many people playing it), Trinisphere ('cause apparently our combo MU isn't good enough...yeah, yeah, it can be situationally great vs. low curve decks too, but I don't like situational card disadvantage-inducing cards; again, more mana denial to make it truly work out), In the Eye of Chaos (lots of instants in the format, shutting 'em down or making them cost infinite is pretty good), Submerge (apparently there are lots of Goyfs in this format and we play Islands and they play Forests...), Powder Keg (blows up practically anything), Tangle Wire (again, tempo effect) and others I'm probably forgetting right now. I haven't played with most of 'em enough to write relevantly about 'em right now, other than I like the cards listed above better by and large.

We have lots of good SB options, not to mention great access to some of them thanks to Trinket Mage (allowing us to cheat on numbers and space), and hammering out the perfect SB for any metagame is gonna take forever. I personally am confident in my ability to win blue MUs so I mostly focus on making sure I don't get lucked out in the others, which leads to me using the following SB right now:

SB: 1 [SOK] Pithing Needle
SB: 3 [DS] Sword of Light and Shadow
SB: 2 [DK] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 [US] Back to Basics
SB: 3 [EVE] Glen Elendra Archmage
SB: 1 [FD] Engineered Explosives
SB: 2 [A] Blue Elemental Blast

It has something for just about everything; works out quite alright, though lacking creature hate sorta sucks.

[Mr. Fix it]

I really never gave cursed scroll much thought in this deck. I'm gunna have to experiment with it at my next tournament.

[Eldariel]

Few more important ones I forgot:

Misdirection: Once upon the time, there was a rather large number of black decks in the format along with this combo-deck known as Reset High Tide. It just so happens that Misdirecting Hymn to Tourach, Sinkhole, Vindicate, Turnabout, Remand, Force (for the uninitiated, you can make the counters target Misdirection effectively "countering" them and thus e.g. denying people card from Remand) & company tends to hurt a lot. Then Thoughtseize just further added to its utility.

Sadly, black decks just aren't much of a metagame presence right now and it's too situational vs. the blue decks in the format. That said, it's also sexcellent vs. red decks because Burn always has (unpleasant) targets and as such, it may be time to reintroduce this bad boy to our SBs. There are also more fringe uses such as vs. Goblins with lots of spot removal or in general, removal & creature-heavy decks (so you can Misdirect the removal to their cards), and protecting key artifacts in some other MUs. But those are pretty fringe and Misd only comes in when you have nothing better in such MUs (which should be rare), or when your winning/losing solely relies on one artifact.

Weatherseed Faeries/Sea Sprite: Well, there was this deck called "Goblins" and it was pretty good so an answer to it was also pretty good and pro-reds make for quite decent equipment carriers as they don't die while you're equipping them. Overall, yeah, Captain Obvious told me pro-red is good vs. red, especially since equipment wins the matches singlehandedly if unchecked.

Mind Harness: Decent alternative to Control Magic; just pesky that it doesn't mesh well with Chalice. The cheaper U cost is a notable advantage tho.

Parallax Tide: Ancient tech vs. control. Yeah, one-sided Armageddon tends to be pretty good vs. them and all you need are few turns to beat through. That said, yeah, control...haven't seen slow forms of that in a while, and there are lots of other cards in line for that job.

[Loxodon Baileyarch]

I found myself boarding out Shoreline Ranger and Sigil again last week. Idk i feel like those cards are lackluster, but i could see where they would be good. I got mana screwed at 1 blue source in the many games I've played with the deck, so i wouldn't be able to cycle him anyway. And in the other games i never wanted to tutor up Sigil, or cast it when i had it in my hand. Idk. I saw myself bringing in Glen Elendra Archmage alot so i might just run her main, but I'm scared of mana screw.

Thoughts?

[Mr. Fix it]

my only complain about misdirection is the blue card pitching. often i end up having to choose between a beater thrown to misdirect or getting hit by something bad and trying to hold on. force alone brings that situation up enough, with an extra blue card eating spell like misdirection, i'm uncomfortable. I mean we should be able to hard cast them mid game but often when you need them they collide with plans of moving equipment, so the mana to hard cast isn't there.

[Eldariel]

I found myself boarding out Shoreline Ranger and Sigil again last week. Idk i feel like those cards are lackluster, but i could see where they would be good. I got mana screwed at 1 blue source in the many games I've played with the deck, so i wouldn't be able to cycle him anyway. And in the other games i never wanted to tutor up Sigil, or cast it when i had it in my hand. Idk. I saw myself bringing in Glen Elendra Archmage alot so i might just run her main, but I'm scared of mana screw.

Thoughts?

Cutting a mana source seems bad; if you cut the Shoreline for anything, cut it for an Island. Those two are the only real options in that slot. And frankly, I wouldn't keep a hand with only 2 Islands for mana sources practically ever anyways, unless on the draw and in a slow MU where I can afford to play slow, with an other excellent hand.

As for Sigil, sure, cut it if you don't think you'll need to use Trinket Mage as a threat. It's there mostly so you can make the Mage grow when you need to beat down with it.

Uh, sure, run Glen Elendra main...just don't cut mana sources for it. I could see playing it over Sowers or Pesters in some metas, for example. It's definitely one of the better MD options.


my only complain about misdirection is the blue card pitching. often i end up having to choose between a beater thrown to misdirect or getting hit by something bad and trying to hold on. force alone brings that situation up enough, with an extra blue card eating spell like misdirection, i'm uncomfortable. I mean we should be able to hard cast them mid game but often when you need them they collide with plans of moving equipment, so the mana to hard cast isn't there.

Uh, you pitch 'em. Better a threat in play and one less threat for opponent (or less life if you're racing), than a threat in hand. Pitch cards are mostly tempo effects that break even cardwise; such effects are absolutely brutal for lowcurve tempo decks like Zoo.

[Skeggi]

I've been thinking of putting Trinisphere in the sideboard, against decks like Zoo: low mana curve, and too many things you want to counter. Obviously Force of Will would be sided out. What do you guys think about this? I suppose someone has tried it already.

[Kuma]

I've been thinking of putting Trinisphere in the sideboard, against decks like Zoo: low mana curve, and too many things you want to counter. Obviously Force of Will would be sided out. What do you guys think about this? I suppose someone has tried it already.

I don't like Trinisphere in Faerie Stompy. Also, my testing has shown Trinisphere to be largely ineffective against Zoo. They run like 20 lands and don't need multiple spells in one turn to beat you.

The debate really comes down to Force of Will or Trinisphere, and I think Force of Will is the much better choice.

Some Trinisphere discussion can be found here and on the next page.

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5467&page=64

[Eldariel]

To extrapolate, Trinisphere really wants to be combined with mana denial. We don't even run Wasteland, let alone Sinkhole or such. In conjuction with B2B, it could work out, but that'd require bringing B2B in vs. Zoo and drawing both and hoping they don't fetch their 3 basics.

As we don't pack mana denial, it's not very effective since we have to burn a turn and a card to cast it, giving up much of the tempo it was supposed to generate, and putting us squarely behind in card advantage. For such a tempo effect, Misdirection is immensely superior. Sure, Trini WILL win some games all by itself, but those are rare and most of the time it will actually be worse than whatever you sided out for it. It's also extremely narrow.

[dlg]

I tried to win a game with Trinisphere against zoo...
trinisphere slows him for 1-2 rounds! if he knows that you'll play trinisphere he'll keep more lands at beginning.
you have to one drop trinisphere to get any speed from it ( round 1 - 2 turns, round 2- 1 turn, round 3 - nothing important! and playing trinisphere costs one turn)

I wish i had misdirection or more forces - would have won this match like misdirect a sword to his own tarmo or just one of his bolts from efreet back to him...

is there any possibility to get misdirection effective in the sideboard? maybe instead of SOLS? it will help against rock/zoo - maybe even merfolk (counterwars) and some weird combo matchups

[Humphrey]

im still 5C

4x Engineered Plague
4x Yxid Jailer
3x Propaganda
2x Sower of Temptation
2x Rushing River

[Eldariel]

I tried to win a game with Trinisphere against zoo...
trinisphere slows him for 1-2 rounds! if he knows that you'll play trinisphere he'll keep more lands at beginning.
you have to one drop trinisphere to get any speed from it ( round 1 - 2 turns, round 2- 1 turn, round 3 - nothing important! and playing trinisphere costs one turn)

I wish i had misdirection or more forces - would have won this match like misdirect a sword to his own tarmo or just one of his bolts from efreet back to him...

is there any possibility to get misdirection effective in the sideboard? maybe instead of SOLS? it will help against rock/zoo - maybe even merfolk (counterwars) and some weird combo matchups

If I wanted to add Misd to my SB as a 3-of, I'd probably cut Blue Elemental Blasts and one-of SoLS or B2B. Alternatively, B2B entirely if I was in a metagame where control is very rare.

[Black Mass]

I thought there would be more discussion here about Living Tsunami.
I know not every 4/* flying for 3/4 mana should be discussed to go in the deck like Esperzoa, but this doesn't seem bad at all. A4/4 flying with a redundant ability.
I'm testing this in a more aggro cancentrated buit in stead of sowers and it seems decent as a 3 off. I wouldn't play 4 since it's a bit heavy on the blue, but he sure is a addition to the pool of creatures to choose from.

[Skeggi]

I think Living Tsunami could be a very good addition. Perhaps partially replace Serendib Efreet. I am not a big fan of this guy; he does not race Kird Ape, Wild Nacatl, Tarmogoyf, Rhox War Monk, Nimble Mongoose, Mutavault, Lord of Atlantis, Merrow Reejerey, Wake Thrasher, Silvergill Adept, Kitchen Finks, Gaddock Teeg, Qasaki Pridemage, Mishra's Factory and so on and so forth. He is weak and needs equipment to be of use. I'm desperately looking for a decent beater next to Sea Drake. I still must try Esperzoa, and I'm willing to give Living Tsunami a shot, although I really hate that he costs :u: more.

I'm also willing to test Thought Devourer.

[Black Mass]

Esperzoa needs a deck that’s supported by many artifacts. If you would do is in a deck like this you would be weakening your manabase by adding artifact land and weakening your plays, I still don’t think that retracting a mox, equipment or chalice is a good thing to have in this deck.

[Eldariel]

You know, there's this card called Waterspout Djinn. We considered him some years ago. We're still not playing him 'cause of the blue cost (or rather, the lack of payoff attached to said cost). I don't see why Living Tsunami would be relevantly better (yeah, yeah, it's less limited with regards to what kind of a land you have to return but...honestly, who gives a fuck?).

[Skeggi]

Yeah, I saw that guy too. Faeries Stompy has a hard time supporting :2::u::u:. For Sower of Temptation it's totally worth it, I agree, but for a simple beatstick it's too much. We really need another decent beater though. Serendib Efreet sucks.

[Eldariel]

Yeah, I saw that guy too. Faeries Stompy has a hard time supporting :2::u::u:. For Sower of Temptation it's totally worth it, I agree, but for a simple beatstick it's too much. We really need another decent beater though. Serendib Efreet sucks.

...what? Efreet is still our best creature vs. any red deck. Frankly, I'd play more 3/4s if I could.

[Skeggi]

Yes, he has a big ass. But he gets raced by any creature with power 2 or higher except Dark Confidant. That's pretty weak for 3 mana. It gets worse if you take damage from Ancient Tombs and Force of Wills.

If red is such an issue, just make sure you have a Chalice@1. Problem solved. Well, mostly anyway. Since decks with red are usually better in the damage race, what you really need it Chalice@1 + Sea Drake, or any creature + SoFI or Jitte.

[Black Mass]

In don't think serendib is in question here, he's way too good for 3 mana and the second best creature in the deck. Sure he needs equipment to strike hards, but that is why we play them right?
Living tsunami took my interest because of the drawback, waterspout djinn is just plain bad, returning an island to your hand is in a lot of cases not even possible. Thought devourers drawback is as severe, we can empty our hand in 2 turns, but with a maximum hand of three you are forced to overextend when he's in play imho.
LT has none of those, returning a land can be beneficial to protect your manabase against decks that play wasteland.
But in all honesty, he didn't strike me as SUPER, but he could be used in (very) agressive builds or as a replacement of big beaters.

[Mr. Fix it]

if racing is a big issue why not run clone? two tarmogoyfs can't kill each other obviously. do you really wanna attack with a nacatl if its only gunna get blocked by nacatl. thing is your left with your flyer to beat on people with ground support.

more realistically deluge shouldn't be under estimated if your having problems creature racing. Its no wrath of god but its does the trick.

i dought you would sacrifice chalice for 1 but tangle kelp would be outrageous as well.


sadly there just isn't much in our favor to improve the creature base than it already is right now.

[Skeggi]

if racing is a big issue why not run clone? two tarmogoyfs can't kill each other obviously.
Right...

So anyway, I've just raced Faerie Stompy to 7th place in a 20-ish people tournament, going 4-2 (losing to The Rock and CounterTop with those damn Pridemages). This is my list:


4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
10 Island
1 Seat of the Synod

4 Serendib Efreet
4 Trinket Mage
4 Sea Drake
3 Sower of Temptation
4 Mulldrifter
2 Pestermite

4 Force of Will
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sigil of Distinction
4 Chrome Mox
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Pithing Needle
3 Umezawa's Jitte

I had a crappy sideboard with no Glen Elendra Archmages (and still went 2-0 against Landstill, woohoo!) that I've just thrown together. I'm very happy with the maindeck. I beat B/U Reanimator twice, Landstill and Tempo Thresh. Because of a play error that I made I lost to Bant CounterTop and because of manascrew and bad muls I lost to The Rock (although that's a pretty hard match-up to begin with). This deck may leck consistency other decks have, but it's awesome to play. I've just played it for the first time at a tournament and really fell in love with it. A Sea Drake with 3 Swords and a Jitte is just too cool :wink:.

I'm considering Control Magic for the sideboard. At least it's a waaay better option than Clone.

[MMogg]

I'm considering Control Magic for the sideboard. At least it's a waaay better option than Clone.

Perhaps consider testing Dominate (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=21303) instead. I guess it really depends on what the average casting cost of the creatures you want to take is. It's less vulnerable than Control Magic due to its instant speed and the fact that it isn't an enchantment. If you were to steal a man land, it would actually be cheaper than Control Magic.

[Skeggi]

Good idea, this can't be removed. I like that. But usually it will result in costing 1-2 mana more, which is a shame. I'll try it at least, thanks for the tip!

[MMogg]

Good idea, this can't be removed. I like that. But usually it will result in costing 1-2 mana more, which is a shame. I'll try it at least, thanks for the tip!

Yeah, it certainly has its downside, but when it was Type 2 legal, I found it very helpful, even as a combat "trick", such as taking one of their attacking creatures and assigning it as a blocker. That often resulted in a 2-for-1. Of course that was Standard, a much slower environment. For Faerie Stompy it seems great as an EOT trick, and then untap, equip, attack. :cool:

Let us know how it works out, please.

[Skeggi]

Yeah, it certainly has its downside, but when it was Type 2 legal, I found it very helpful, even as a combat "trick", such as taking one of their attacking creatures and assigning it as a blocker. That often resulted in a 2-for-1.
I don't see how that works. When a creature attacks it's tapped (unless it has Vigilance) and therefor cannot block. If you take it before attack declaration, the opponent won't let you 3-for-1 him (Dominate is a 2-for-1 by itself: removal, and a creature for you).

[MMogg]

I don't see how that works. When a creature attacks it's tapped (unless it has Vigilance) and therefor cannot block. If you take it before attack declaration, the opponent won't let you 3-for-1 him (Dominate is a 2-for-1 by itself: removal, and a creature for you).

Sorry, I worded that very badly/incorrectly (posting under the influence of tiredness), what I meant was taking one of their untapped creatures (Vigilance is probably not going to happen, but some bad players may play creatures in their first main phase, or some utility creature not sent to attack) and blocking their attacking creature.

Hopefully, and often if played well, it becomes a 2-for-1. Stealing a Goyf, for example, has to be dealt with on their end, either by trading creatures or removal/bounce. In today's environment, even some low casting cost threats can be "must-deal-with" material. The fact that Goyfs cannot trade equally with Goyfs may mean that if you steal theirs, they are forced into a 3-for-1. How cool would that be? :cool:

[Media314r8]

Yeah, I saw that guy too. Faeries Stompy has a hard time supporting :2::u::u:. For Sower of Temptation it's totally worth it, I agree, but for a simple beatstick it's too much. We really need another decent beater though. Serendib Efreet sucks.

I split the finals at a 25ish person event running 3x silkbind faerie and 1x island over my former 4x efreet. (my list also runs 4 sower, 4 mulldrifter, and mox diamond, hence the added land) I found the 'removal' attached to him, coupled with the psuedo vigilance and 3 toughness made him worse at goldfishing combo, but much better against aggro and aggro-control decks. Removing a goyf for 1U every turn isn't a bad deal, and holding back a tribal/zoo deck's biggest guy while threatening with a SOFI equipped 3/5 pro-red to block with is a good way to win a race. He's not ideal by any means, and I'm not totally sold on him just yet, but I think I like him more than pestermite. Less of a blowout ~if~ you get to time walk, but more resiliant to burn, and more reliable overall at holding tarmos at bay. Worth testing if you are considering cutting efreets.

[Mr. Fix it]

I gotta say dominate looks great but i can only see it working best against as you stated man lands and 1 costers from say zoo, tribal, etc. as a sideboard its over all use seems very narrow.

I think multiple rushing rivers would be more effective in any space set aside for domination. that instand steal is nice though, just too mana costly i believe

[socialite]

Ugh. How do you beat Zoo with this deck? Chalice won't stick.

[Kuma]

You don't.

[Eldariel]

Ugh. How do you beat Zoo with this deck? Chalice won't stick.

You throw enough artifacts at them. They only have 4 Qasali Pride-Mages. Chalice at 1, Jitte, SoFI and then Forces...it's pretty easy. I've certainly never had too much trouble in that match.

It takes a bit of defensive playing, particularly Efreets shine in that role. Sowers come as gamebreakers once they've expended their Bolts, PtEs and Lightnings. *shrug* But yeah, I certainly prefer Jittes main when Zoo is a bit meta player.


If I was looking to improve the SB for the match, Misdirections would be the first thing to toss in there (Misding removal is a gamebreaker) followed by extra EEs.

[Media314r8]

Ugh. How do you beat Zoo with this deck? Chalice won't stick.

Tournament Report (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?p=395023#post395023) beat zoo round 1

[socialite]

Thanks guys.

On paper it looks so easy, guess I just need more pratice. Here in the NE we have a pretty decent showing of Zoo.

[Djinn]

Hi there,

I am a big fan of Faerie Stompy, tested it throughout for quite a while already and I am completely decided to play it at GP:Madrid as it's 2 hours from my place and is my only deck. I am posting the version I am lately playing, but I think it is begging for an update:

// Lands
4 [EX] City of Traitors
1 [MR] Seat of the Synod
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
9 [UNH] Island

// Creatures
3 [DD2] Mulldrifter
3 [LRW] Pestermite
4 [P2] Sea Drake
4 [UL] Cloud of Faeries
4 [FD] Trinket Mage
4 [AN] Serendib Efreet

// Spells
4 [AL] Force of Will
3 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
4 [MR] Chalice of the Void
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
1 [M10] Pithing Needle
4 [DS] Sword of Fire and Ice

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [M10] Pithing Needle
SB: 1 [TSB] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 [MM] Misdirection
SB: 3 [EVE] Glen Elendra Archmage
SB: 3 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
SB: 1 [FD] Engineered Explosives
SB: 3 [A] Winter Orb

I shall probably cut the mulldrifters. I never was a big fan of SoLaS and nowadays I consider jitte to be of more relevance. I can see myself going +1 pestermite +1 tormod's crypt +1 island in the maindeck, but that would lessen my total blue cards/beaters count, which I am actually quite concerned about. Maybe I shall try some Sower/Archmage md instead of the drifters, but then the deck would be too slowish (even tho the inclusion of cloud of faeries fuel the possible turn2 glen elendra archmage).

Comments are welcome! :D

[Muenstermagic.de]

I just typed my brain out on a comment for MTGS and our local forum regarding this wonderful Deck. Fairly speaking, I did not read all 78 pages in this primer, merely the first and the last, so forgive me, if there are redundancies. Yet I thought you guys would wanna read this stuff which was inspired by lists in this very primer which were quite different from my own, barely web-based list. After some reasoning I realized to be running some kind of hybrid between FS and Fish with some obvious errors and some interesting suggestions. So have fun being inspired by THIS:

Main Deck:

(manabase)
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
2 Faerie Conclave
8 Islands
4 Chrome Mox

(beatstick base)
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
3 Sea Drake
2 Serendib Efreet
2 Vendilion Clique

(equipment base)
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

(disruption base)
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
1 Misdirection
3 Rushing River

Sideboard:
4 Arcane Laboratory
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Divert

As one can plainly see, some slots are awfully filled. Also, there are some slots containing cards rarely seen in a FS deck. To disclaim again: This is the spontaneous list I tested, not the one I am going to evolve to. A probably more competitive list will be post at the end of this comment.

The reason for me posting the upper list, is to reflect on possible mistakes in the Deckbuilding strategy I lead, and maybe even to find some script errors in usual lists.

Let's start with the manabase as there is an error here already. Apparent is the missing Seat of the Synod, which is due to the Lack of Trinket Mage in this build. Furthermore I tested Faerie Conclave, as my general attitude is fear of the situation where your Deck leaves you alone with a handful of equipment and no beatsticks to carry them. The conclaves seemed a good deal to supply a lategame creature which delivers mana in the early turns. The mistakes in this plan are twofold: First, the early-mana Plan is going to hell if you encounter a wasteland, which is not happening too rarely. Second, this thingy is, like every other creature, killed by most of the removal in the format, but other creatures wouldn't have cost you activation AND equip mana. This is a thing you can cope with by having an active Chalice of the Void, which you always want to have anyway. But the fact that is really going to make the manland lose its slot is its coming-into-play-tapped, which one or the other time stifles your plan of a first-turn Chalice.

The Idea here could be to add the islandcycling guy and another Island instead. As read in the primer, this Shoreline Ranger not only fetches for mana, it is also a random beatstick and a blue card, which Force and Mox really love to see.

Looking at the beatstick base, more errors become apparent. There is no reason for not playing four Sea Drakes and Serendibs. I hat not enough copies so I experimented with lowered ammounts, but it is nonsense. These are the stars of the deck and will have to be played as four-ofs. This part of the deck is, where the fish-hybrid-thing comes into being. I run Spellstutter Sprites and Ninjas as well as some Vendilions as do certain fish decks. I don't run Mulldrifters, Pestermites, Weatherseed Faeries or stuff like that which is more typical for FS.

But there might be a future to those guys I chose. Spellstutter Sprite is incredible. It is a hardcounter against most removal and burn, also against early drops and even against 0-Mana Artifacts as LED, Mox XY, EE=0 to mention the most common. Together with the Cloud of Faeries it even becomes a Hardcounter for everything in the one and two mana slot, which is presumably two thirds of the format. They don't draw cards and they don't have protection. but they are card advantage with wings for only two mana. The 1/1-ness of ther bodies is compensated as soon as they get a weapon to carry. These guys really convinced me during testing.

Ninja of the Deep Hours is also a mean machine. I prefer these above Mulldrifter or Thirst for Knowledge hence they offer a beautiful synergy with the cip'ing Faeries. Like Spellstutter, this one will be granted three to four slots in the maindeck.

Vendilion Clique was the part of the experiment which did not work out that well. I found the scapegoat in the double U in the mana cost. The clique got into the Deck as a replacement for the missing drake and efreet copies, also inspired by fish lists. Once resolved it definetely did a good job, but in most situations I would have prefered Serendib Drake or Sea Efreet, whichever one is available, hence a double U Vendilion rarely hits the desk in the first durn, but the single U threads really can do that frequently.

Talking about equipments, I was astonished yesterday by lists that run six to eight equipments while having eighteen creatures or so at max. As mentioned above, one thing I certainly don't want to run into is a bunch of equipment with no technician to handle it. Four really might turn out to be too few, the number was rather coincidential as, you can guess, I had no more copies available. Still, these things can come rather unahndily and I really do not know whether I want to run more swords. Jitte has the word "legendary" written on its forehead, three might be an appropriate ammount, although I managed to draw both copies of it when running two of them. There's an argumentative weakness, though, as I advocate playing eight 1/1 critters but only four equipments. This possibly has to be balanced out, but I am really not sure how many equipments one should run, yet i'm open for Ideas grounded on reasons. Possibly a two-of-each solution could work out? Or even an experiment with the Sigils? We'll see.

The disruption base comes up with Daze, which is not included in usual FS lists and might me another relic of the fishes. Although one might not want to bounce an Island if this endangers your city of Traitors or you might fail your first-turn-counter plan if you start out with Mox and City, it is most times still the zero mana counter which easily protects early threats of yours. I often found myself very happy having with some Dazes and Spellstutters just the right answer for every question at any time. Other Daze-running Decks run lesser Islands but have Fetchlands. Other Daze-running Decks cannot start out Mox+LandXY to hardcast Daze if it needs to be. This card really convinced me. (which is not hard actually if you spent half a year playing Countertop and were willing to frame this card in gold anyway) I included only three copies, however, to have one slot for Misdirection which is a great deal against handdisruption and creaturehate, which yo gleefully redirect from your Drakes to funkier targets, such as heads and goyfs.

Apart from some Cpt.Obvious occurences, the disruption base features three Rushing River. Not all too many lists run bounce spells for they have an image of carddisadvantage stuck to them. River, however, feeds on Cities you are willing to sac anyway and generates huge speed advantage with you having a thread onboard while Kicking two opposing permanents. This one's not as safely in the saddle as are the Stutters or Ninjas, but is definetely in for further testing with good chances for staying main.

The Sideboard was meta-oriented. Some Tendrils- and Dredge guys were expected to show up, so just added the black Leyline which is supposed to buy enough time to kill before MR.Combo hits the bounce. Diverts are additions to the Misdirection to be better able to cope with removal and disruption. The Arcane Labs resulted from my fear of not fisting the Tendrils guy enough with Chalices and the Blueblasts were intended to deal with Goyfsligh Burn.

Apart from being an inconsistent and random list, it performed fairly, losing totally against merfolk but bashing Tendrils and Loam Pox to bits. Other testings against various other rogue and meta decks showed some fair results, too, yet showing some obvious weaknesses, such as having no equipment for a tiny faerie, or starving with double vendilion on the hand and one blue mana in play. There are three major steps to take right now: I have to tinker this list to a consistent and competitive one, I have to find out about current weak matchups, and I'll have to find solutions against merfolk, which is a nasty thing to deal with, Counter, Aggro and Vial is nuts.

Also, there are some elements to consider, which appear in usual FS lists, but not in mine. First, there are the beatsticks mentioned above, such as Weatherseed Faeries, Mulldrifter and Pestermite. These are all cards I like, but my draw is fixed by Ninjas, my disruption by Stutters and pro red is just not as important as it used to be. At least not in Muenster, Westfalen.

Sower of Temptation is another nice card to ponder about. The major thing that keeps me from adding him is his double-U-ness. His other obvious weakness is his vulnerability, which is strongly compensated by equipment and Chalice / Counter backup in this deck, but the 2UU cost really disgusts me.

The whole Trinket chain could be some useful thing to have, especially if I was to try out that Sigil of Distinction plan. Fetching for Pithing Needle, Relic of Progenitus, Seat of the Synod and Engineered Explosives can really be nice, but I rather prefer to smash something more impressive on the table for three mana than a 2/2 body which loses in about all aspects in direct comparison to Clouds and Stutters. Aside from unwillingness to find room for this chain, I choose to play the deck more straightforward than the Trinket list can do.

So what's left is to conclude my findings with a list which could be my personal FS_2.0.

Main Deck:

(manabase)
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
9 Islands (+)
4 Chrome Mox
1 Shoreline Ranger (+)

(beatstick base)
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Sea Drake (+)
4 Serendib Efreet (+)


(equipment base)
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Sword of Fire and Ice (+)
2 Sword of Light and Shadow (+)

(disruption base)
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
2 Rushing River

Deletions:
-2 Faerie Conclave
-2 Vendilion Clique
-1 Ninja
-1 Misdirection
-1 River

So, what I did, was making the deck more target-oriented by deleting some randomness in exchange for obviously good creatures, more equipment and the Shoreline Ranger trick. What is left is still a hybrid between Fish (Stutter, Ninja, Daze) and Faerie Stompy (now featuring the apropriate ammount of Drakes and Efreets) with two Rushing Rivers remaining as a standalone Idea which serves the overall function of the deck very well.