[Deck] Faerie Stompy

[frafen]

What do you think about Ensoul Artifact (the new enchantment from m15)? It's a 5/5 for with haste on turn 2 if on turn one you play a Chalice, a Trinisphere or a Mox.

[H]

What do you think about Ensoul Artifact (the new enchantment from m15)? It's a 5/5 for with haste on turn 2 if on turn one you play a Chalice, a Trinisphere or a Mox.

Putting that on to a Trinisphere is going to make you sad, even if they don't two for one you.

I don't think this helps this deck at all, since Abrupt Decay is still a problem and this only makes it even better against you.

[frafen]

Putting that on to a Trinisphere is going to make you sad, even if they don't two for one you.

I don't think this helps this deck at all, since Abrupt Decay is still a problem and this only makes it even better against you.

You are right, I should have read Trinisphere. If Abrupt Decay is a big problem, what about Gathan Raiders?

[GoblinZ]

You are right, I should have read Trinisphere. If Abrupt Decay is a big problem, what about Gathan Raiders?

what do you mean by Gathan Raiders?

[frafen]

what do you mean by Gathan Raiders?

I mean Gathan Raiders. I know that they seems a bit awkward (they are not blue, and you can't cast them without morph) but they are a 3 drop that's a fast clock and dodge decay (also bolt if you are hellbent).

[TArceneaux]

Every year I return to this thread to read the new posts. I don't think the deck has changed much since my last SCG Top 8 with it. This is what I'm currently playng.

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
2 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of War and Peace
2 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Illusory Angel
4 Cloud of Faeries
3 Mulldrifter
3 True-name Nemsis
1 Venser, Shaper Savant (Local meta)
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Spellstutter Sprite

4 Force of Will
1 Daze
2 Misdirection

4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
11 Island

[ForlornEgoist]

I've never played Faerie Stompy before but I've been an avid player of Dragon Stompy and, as I feel like sometimes DS lacks sufficient answers later on unless it can resolve it's initial locks, I figured I'd stop by to check out Faerie Stompy.

I'm curious as to whether or not Sower of Temptation is played regularly. It seems like it'd be conditionally useful and as such may be SB material but with the prevalent of S&T/SA decks as of late being able to nix their cheated creature seems powerful enough. I'm also unsure if the deck archetype was Faerie Stompy but I seem to remember some lists running Riptide Laboratory which had a more heavy focus on Sower.

Forlorn

[TArceneaux]

I've never played Faerie Stompy before but I've been an avid player of Dragon Stompy and, as I feel like sometimes DS lacks sufficient answers later on unless it can resolve it's initial locks, I figured I'd stop by to check out Faerie Stompy.

I'm curious as to whether or not Sower of Temptation is played regularly. It seems like it'd be conditionally useful and as such may be SB material but with the prevalent of S&T/SA decks as of late being able to nix their cheated creature seems powerful enough. I'm also unsure if the deck archetype was Faerie Stompy but I seem to remember some lists running Riptide Laboratory which had a more heavy focus on Sower.

Forlorn

I normally always play a copy or two of Sower in the board. It's really good against BUG. Sometimes it's good against Show and Tell.

[MGB]

So here's a thought. If Chalice of the Void @ 1 is the reason to play this deck, and it's one of the best plays on Turn 1 that this deck has... what are some ways to ensure we get it as often as possible?

What about Serum Powder? If you play Misthollow Griffin, you get another way to put it into exile for later casting. And with Powder, you can almost ensure that you can play Chalice of the Void @ 1 if you need to in any given game. And while Powder is a bad draw for the deck later, you can play 4 Thirst for Knowledge and lessen its deadness by pitching to Thirst.

Here's a list I've been testing that is "all in" on Chalice of the Void @ 1 as often as possible:


10 Island
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors

4 Chrome Mox
4 Serum Powder
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Sword of Fire and Ice

4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Misthollow Griffin
4 Sea Drake
4 Trinket Mage

4 Force of Will
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Misdirection

[Zirath]

So here's a thought. If Chalice of the Void @ 1 is the reason to play this deck, and it's one of the best plays on Turn 1 that this deck has... what are some ways to ensure we get it as often as possible?

What about Serum Powder? If you play Misthollow Griffin, you get another way to put it into exile for later casting. And with Powder, you can almost ensure that you can play Chalice of the Void @ 1 if you need to in any given game. And while Powder is a bad draw for the deck later, you can play 4 Thirst for Knowledge and lessen its deadness by pitching to Thirst.

Here's a list I've been testing that is "all in" on Chalice of the Void @ 1 as often as possible:


10 Island
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors

4 Chrome Mox
4 Serum Powder
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Sword of Fire and Ice

4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Misthollow Griffin
4 Sea Drake
4 Trinket Mage

4 Force of Will
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Misdirection

This is a really interesting list. Any reason you aren't playing Manipulate Fate? That card is kinda bonkers with the Griffin.

Also is Sea Drake the best option?

[MGB]

This is a really interesting list. Any reason you aren't playing Manipulate Fate? That card is kinda bonkers with the Griffin.

Also is Sea Drake the best option?

I felt that Manipulate Fate is overkill with 4 Chrome Mox, 4 Force of Will, 2 Misdirection, and 4 Serum Powder in terms of "Exile target Misthollow Griffin" effects. I'm sure you could play it, but if you Manipulate Fate once, the next Manipulate Fates are just 1U cycling cards and Force of Will / Chrome Mox becomes more traditional and less asymmetric. If you were to run Manipulate Fate I'd probably run no more than 2.

Sea Drake just seems like the 2U beater with the least drawback at this point. I play a variant of this deck in Vintage and Illusory Angel is an absolute All-Star there, but I fear that in Legacy there just aren't enough cheap artifacts (like the Moxen in Vintage) to enable it. I guess you could play Fettergeist, or Serendib Efreet, or something else? But the 4 power on the Sea Drake is pretty crucial, and the 3 toughness is not as much of a problem (wrt vulnerability to Lightning Bolt) when the goal here is to get Chalice @ 1 90%+ of the time.

[Jon]

Serenedib is massive, The ability to block a flipped delver if need be, as well as dodge bolt is Chalice isn't on is super relevant. Not sure I like the Serum Powders in the deck at all, you want great threats like Illusory Angel, Serendib Efreet, Drake, and your choice of Mulldrifters, Clouds, or Psionic Blast.

[MGB]

Serenedib is massive, The ability to block a flipped delver if need be, as well as dodge bolt is Chalice isn't on is super relevant. Not sure I like the Serum Powders in the deck at all, you want great threats like Illusory Angel, Serendib Efreet, Drake, and your choice of Mulldrifters, Clouds, or Psionic Blast.

I feel that doing 4 damage a turn is usually more relevant in more games than blocking flipped delver or dodging bolt. And the 1 damage a turn from Efreet really adds up in a deck that plays 4 Ancient Tomb. I hate the feeling of losing to my own creatures.

Serum Powder is the only reason I am even thinking of revisiting this deck. Every time I've played Stompy decks in the past, I've found that they were great if they had Chalice @ 1 in play early, and very mediocre without it. Without Chalice @ 1, all of these decks are just inferior to the more efficient Delver decks in the format. So my thought here was... find a way to get Chalice @ 1 as often as possible, at any cost. Serum Powder is the only way to get it more consistently in the opening hand, and the blue faerie stompy shell is the best in which to play Powder because it interacts favorably with Misthollow Griffin.

[Zirath]

I feel that doing 4 damage a turn is usually more relevant in more games than blocking flipped delver or dodging bolt. And the 1 damage a turn from Efreet really adds up in a deck that plays 4 Ancient Tomb. I hate the feeling of losing to my own creatures.

Serum Powder is the only reason I am even thinking of revisiting this deck. Every time I've played Stompy decks in the past, I've found that they were great if they had Chalice @ 1 in play early, and very mediocre without it. Without Chalice @ 1, all of these decks are just inferior to the more efficient Delver decks in the format. So my thought here was... find a way to get Chalice @ 1 as often as possible, at any cost. Serum Powder is the only way to get it more consistently in the opening hand, and the blue faerie stompy shell is the best in which to play Powder because it interacts favorably with Misthollow Griffin.

I think you assume you will always be the aggro deck. Against Delver, you will not. Remember that every blend of Delver has tools against you. BUG has Decay, UWR has TNN and RUG has Stifle. While you probably have the most strength against RUG, the other two can be insurmountable if you try to go aggressive because of their easy answers. I feel like you are required to play Serendib or Fettergeist if you don't want to die to the turn 1 Delver hand.

[FoolofaTook]

This is a really interesting list. Any reason you aren't playing Manipulate Fate? That card is kinda bonkers with the Griffin.

Also is Sea Drake the best option?

Faerie Stompy lists without Sea Drake make me sad. That would be true even if there was a better evasive 3-drop which I don't believe there is.

The benefit of Sea Drake is that it lets you play an extremely fast clock on turn 1 and return City of Traitors to your hand for later use instead of having it hang out for a sacrifice. I could have just stopped after turn 1 in the last sentence but the additional ability is very strong also.

The real question is why Jace, the Mind Sculptor in not in the list at least 2 times and probably 3. He's a major win in the context of what the list does naturally.

[Bobmans]

Where the Faeries at anyway? Was expecting more stuff like Bitterblossom, Vendilion Clique, Spellstutter Sprite, etc.
I guess this is more like Seabird Stompy.

[FoolofaTook]

Where the Faeries at anyway? Was expecting more stuff like Bitterblossom, Vendilion Clique, Spellstutter Sprite, etc.
I guess this is more like Seabird Stompy.

When the list was originally put together it had a few interchangeable slots for different matchups that were Faeries.

Sower of Temptation to grab large creatures (often Goyf) in the mid game and swing things.

Spellstutter Sprite to add an additional counter against 1cc spells against control in the event they managed the chalices.

Pestermite to further the taxing strategy in Trinisphere and generally disrupt things.

Vendilion Clique to further the list against mid-range and combo, etc.

You'd have like 3 or 4 of these guys in the main list depending on how you saw the meta that day and another 4 in the SB for when you wanted to switch things up.

[MGB]

So I've been testing this list and have been getting some really good results against the field:


10 Island
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
1 Seat of the Synod

4 Chrome Mox
4 Serum Powder
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Relic of Progenitus

4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Misthollow Griffin
4 Sea Drake
4 Trinket Mage
1 Mulldrifter

4 Force of Will
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Misdirection

SB:
4 Sower of Temptation
4 Winter Orb
3 Trinisphere
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Misdirection


Serum Powder is insane in this deck. I don't know why people haven't tried this combination more often, because it solves most of the problems that Stompy decks like this tend to have: bad draws and too much mulliganing. Getting Serum Powder in your opening hand means you basically get a free mulligan to try to get a Tomb/City + Chalice hand once again. Additionally, if you have SB silver bullets (like Sower of Temptation vs. Show and Tell or Tormod's Crypt vs. Reanimator), your chances of getting them in G2 and G3 are much increased with Serum Powder.

If you play Misthollow Griffin, Serum Powder and Force of Will are even more powerful because with Powder, you basically get an extra card in hand if you exile Misthollow because the Griffin becomes another 2UU creature you can play once you get the mana for it. If you Serum Powder with a Griffin in hand and keep your second hand, you start with 8 cards in hand, essentially. Force of Will becomes a free counter if you pitch Griffin to it.

The key to making Serum Powder work is playing 4 Thirst of Knowledge. Playing Thirst makes Powder much better in the mid-game as a draw, because pitching Powder to Thirst is perfectly acceptable play in terms of card advantage whereas without Thirst you have no way to get rid of dead Powders that you draw.

Another thing of note is 4 Winter Orb as a sideboard card. These artifacts essentially win you the game by themselves vs. mana-hungry control decks like Miracles, Lands, and BUG Shardless type decks.

Honestly I don't think this deck has any really bad matchups if you play Powder (almost guaranteeing you Chalice of the Void against the decks it hoses) and Winter Orb in the sideboard. You guys should really revisit Powder+Griffin+Thirst. It feels really powerful and I think I am going to take this deck to GP: New Jersey if I go.

[Demonic_Attorney]

Although not "stompy" per say, this deck that I am playing when I am not playing BUG and RUG variants is still, nevertheless, Faeries and uses a lot of the same cards and still fits within the permissible scope of this thread's parameters.

It seems to blend in quite well with the current legacy metagame and has a lot of very favourable matches.

3x Mutavault
3x Tropical Island
4x Misty Rainforest
3x Polluted Delta
2x Underground Sea
2x Bayou
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Island
1x Forest
1x Dryad Arbor

1x Umezawa's Jitte
3x Bitterblossom
2x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Abrupt Decay
4x Force of Will
3x Spell Pierce
4x Brainstorm
2x Ponder

4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Spellstutter Sprite
2x Scryb Ranger
2x Quickling
2x Vendilion Clique
1x Sower of Temptation
1x Edric, Spymaster of Trest

Sideboard

3x Engineered Plague (Elves, Goblins, Merfolk)
2x Submerge (Elves, RUG, BUG, Rock, Maverick, Infect)
2x Flusterstorm (Storm, Reanimator, most combo)
2x Grafdigger's Cage (Elves, Dredge, Reanimator)
1x Thrun, the Last Troll (Miracles and any type of control)
1x Krosan Grip (Miracles, Counter Balance, Stoneblade, Affinity, MUD)
2x Chill (Burn, U/R Delver)
2x Dread of Night (Death and Taxes)

Note

I typically do not like Swan Song; however, against Treasure Cruise it is better than spell pierce and Flusterstorm and go get sideboard slots.

[TArceneaux]

I retuned my top 8 open list and made a couple IQ top 8s recently with the following:

4 Chalice
4 Chrome Mox
3 Sword of War//Peace
2 Umezawa's Jitte

3 Thirst For Knowledge
4 Force of Will
1 Daze
1 Misdirection

2 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Illusory Angel
3 Mulldrifter
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Cloud of Faeries
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
3 Serendib Efreet

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
11 Island

2 Flusterstorm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
3 Submerge
2 Back to Basics
1 Misdirection
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Chill