Can anyone help design a tier 2 Faeries deck using Faerie, Faerie, Rad cards

[Clark Kant]

My wife loves Faeries, and she absolutely loves the art on the 3x Faerie, Faerie, Rad Secret Lairs that I ordered, especially the Tinkerbell art on Spellstutter Sprite (that I now have 4x copies of). I want to build her a deck that uses those cards, and is viable enough to not get steamrolled by competitive legacy decks.

I was thinking...
? Glen Elendra Archmage
? Cloud of Faeries
3 Mistbind Clique
3 Vendilion Clique
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Brazen Borrower
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will

as a core, but I am flexible and could cut weaker Faeries or add lower cc Faeries if needed. Do you think that Cloud of Faeries + Mistbind Clique shenanigans are worth exploring? Clouds can always be cycled away EOT when you don't have a need for them and if your opponent didn't play anything their turn that you wanted to react to.

I would prefer to stay monoblue, but splashing is fine if essential. Assuming that we can stay monoblue, what threats and answers do you think the deck should play beyond Petty Theft, FoW and Clique? Jitte? Jace? Vial+Wasteland+Daze+Flusterstorm? Stifle+Dreadnought+Misdirection? TNN? Standstill+Factory? Predict+Counterbalance?

[FTW]

I had a Legacy casual (tier 4-5?) Faeries deck a while back, after trying out different versions. No idea how it would fare in the current meta, but I can share my observations from that.

Spellstutter Sprite is the best part of the deck, an easy 2-for-1 that counters most Legacy spells. You want to play "Draw go" passing the turn with 2 mana up. That means the deck has to play at instant speed.

Cavern of Souls and Mutavault are natural inclusions if you stay mono U. You could try Aether Vial.

Mistbind Clique is slow. This isn't Modern or Standard. Unfair decks play under it. Fair decks that don't play under it will run mana denial, counters, or can cast instant speed removal to 2-for-1 you on Champion. There are just too many ways to get blown out. Legacy is not a format for 4 cmc "cute effect". The effect isn't strong enough for how many vulnerabilities it comes with.

Riptide Laboratory was fun to brew with a decade ago, but it may be too slow for today's meta. Basically by the lategame you can keep bouncing Spellstutter (or another value creature) and recasting it every turn. That demands a high land count and only really provides inevitability at around 5-6 lands. Early game it clashes with other colorless lands that provide earlier value (Caverns & Mutavault). It was easier to find room for this before Cavern was printed.

Quickling can enable some of the same tricks, recycling Spellstutters and BrazenBois and protecting you from removal, but you can get 2-for-1d easily.

Sower of Temptation used to be good, but it suffers from the 4 mana problem. Used to be a hilarious SB vs Show and Tell, though maindeck Petty Theft is a more versatile answer now.

Scion of Oona is a lord that acts as "ETB counter target removal spell" (even Abrupt Decay). Strong. If you can stick 2 (or bait removal on one and respond with a 2nd), it makes you immune to spot removal. Creatures like this and Spellstutter are unique effects that provide card advantage and justify playing this tribe over something better. With 4 of these and counters, you may feel comfortable risking cards like Quickling, Sower or Mistbind. If you think how good Crystalline Sliver was in Slivers, this is a similar effect combined with Muscle Sliver with flying and flash all on one card.

Vendilion Clique was strong as a 2-of but now Brazen Borrower may take that spot. You don't want too many things at 3 mana.

Snapcaster Mage is off tribe but a strong card and fits with the gameplan of playing draw-go with 2-for-1 flash creatures. Snapcaster gets much better if you add a splash color for removal (Swords to Plowshares, Fatal Push. UR for Lightning Bolt is not worth it b/c Faeries are not aggressive). If you stay in Mono U, Snapcaster isn't as good and the removal is worse too.

I used to maindeck Counterspell because of the draw-go plan. Could be too weak now. With a splash color this could be Dovin's Veto or Drown in the Loch.

The problem with monoblue is it lacks permanent answers to permanents. Petty Theft is a temporary answer, but you don't have enough clock to win before they replay it. What do you do when opponent resolves a permanent? Either white or black help cover that weakness and would bump you up a tier over monoblue.

UB Faeries example


//Creatures: 18
4 Faerie Miscreant
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Scion of Oona
3 Brazen Borrower

//Enchantment: 2
2 Bitterblossom

//Spells: 19
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Thoughtseize
3 Fatal Push
2 Spell Pierce
3 Drown in the Loch

//Lands: 21
3 Cavern of Souls
3 Mutavault
4 Polluted Delta
4 Prismatic Vista
2 Underground Sea
3 Snow-Covered Island
2 Snow-Covered Swamp

//Sideboard: 15
3 Glen Elendra Liege
2 Faerie Macabre
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Cling to Dust
1 Flusterstorm
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Liliana's Triumph
1 Force of Negation
1 Dismember


All 20 threats are potential 2-for-1s. On their own the bodies are tiny and outclassed by other fair creatures, but if you can get a card's worth of value from the abilities then you can have a chance at winning with the "free" bodies.

Cloud of Faeries is weak because it's "free" the wrong way. It costs no mana but it costs you a card for a 1/1 dork. Flying Memnite isn't worth it, and you risk walking into Daze.

Miscreant could arguably be replaced by better 1 cmc spells like Ponder or IoK, though Scion gets worse with a low Faerie count (play Clique instead) and then it's less of a Faeries deck, just UB control splashing Spellstutter.

Edit: Added Liege to fight Plague Engineer

[Clark Kant]

Awesome feedback. Thanks FTW!

[Mr. Safety]

I actually think UR Splinter Twin faeries would be pretty decent. Your primary plan would be to stick a pestermite, protect it, and combo out with Splinter Twin. Your secondary route would be a decent mid-range deck, maybe playing something like Blood Moon for an extra edge. There are a lot of options going this way. I played UR Faeries way back in old Extended, but it was severely outclassed by Thopter/Depths.

There is still an old thread about UB Faeries in legacy. One of the pieces of tech you could play was Ancestral Visions, but I don't know if that would even be viable. I think the toughest part about building it is that it doesn't have t1 pressure. You can try to play Delver in there, but it's pretty hard to flip once you get all the faeries in you want to play. I'll try and find the old thread and drop a link here.

EDIT:

Tempo Faeries thread:

https://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/...-Tempo-Faeries

Old Faerie Aggro thread:

https://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/...0-Deck-Faeries

[Clark Kant]

Awesome. Thanks. It looks like everyone was playing UB with Bitterblossom.

Not sure Bitterblossom is any good these days.

[Mr. Safety]

Awesome. Thanks. It looks like everyone was playing UB with Bitterblossom.

Not sure Bitterblossom is any good these days.

Plague Engineer is a big feel-bad to any tribal deck, and it singlehandedly hoses Bitterblossom without Scions. I think Faeries naturally falls into a mid-range type of deck, just based on its best cards. I don't think this is a bad thing, but it has to have enough synergy to compete with things like Czech-Pile style decks, Bant Miracles, and Death and Taxes. The best place to start is to figure out what the best cards for Faeries are, and then decide if there is enough support to make those cards competitive.

In my opinion, the best good stuff cards for faeries are:

Bitterblossom
Brazen Borrower
Spellstutter Sprite
Vendilion Clique


All of those do significant things in the legacy metagame. The secondary cards that are only good with in Faeries are:

Mutavault
Mistbind Clique
Scion of Oona


The last category of cards to evaluate are the legacy staples that would be detrimental to avoid:

Brainstorm
Force of Will
Fatal Push
Thoughtseize


If I were to build Faeries right now, I think I would want something big to finish games. Spellstutter and BB tokens just don't fit that bill, but they do other important things. I think if you have Underground Seas then Gurmag Angler could really be an option, maybe alongside 1-2 Umezawa's Jitte to make your anemic threats better. If you don't have USeas, then there is always Death's Shadow. Bitterblossom is already a life-loss resource that supports your plan (making dudes) so Death's Shadow synergies could be used to make something big to finish games. Fatal Push/Dismember/Snuff Out/Brazen Borrower clears blockers and lets you close games. Thoughtseize, Spellstutter, Daze, Force of Will control the early game. Bitterblossom provides inevitability. I don't know what that would look like, probably a heavier emphasis on fetchlands/shocklands and maybe even Street Wraiths, but Wraiths aren't absolutely crucial.

Just a thought experiment, it looks fun.

[FTW]

I'd avoid Delver unless you run a high spell count (which means few Faeries, maybe just 4 Spellstutter + 2 Clique + 2 Borrower). Is that what your wife wants? I thought she was looking for a more Faerie-themed tribal deck. If so, Delver doesn't work.

The Faerie tribe does lack any aggressive turn 1 plays. Even the turn 2 play is slow and controlling (Spellstutter). That pushes you to be a control deck, not a tempo deck. Faeries lack the tools to apply the pressure "tempo" requires in Legacy. That's another reason not to run Delver. Faeries can't play into the aggressive tempo plan. So you want counterspells and card advantage over things like Daze, Wasteland, Stifle. I think Shadow would be the same mistake. It's a tempo threat, not a control threat. If Shadow is killed, you have no way to generate comparable pressure to finish the plan and you've just suicided your life total for nothing. Angler could work as a control finisher.

Ancestral Vision used to be good as control card advantage that doesn't conflict with leaving 1U open all game. Is it still good enough? I couldn't think of a good instant-speed card draw engine. (Ponder is not ideal here because you don't want to be tapping out at sorcery speed past turn 1). Predict is a bit worse without more cantrips to control your top card. Accumulated Knowledge is OK but slow and walks into grave hate. Impulse is card selection but not card advantage. This deck would love Dig Through Time if it was legal. Maybe you still want Visions as a turn 1 play.

CounterTop was good with Faeries but without Top Faeries lacks the tools to support Counterbalance.

Bitterblossom is definitely too slow for tempo. In a vacuum, it's probably not Legacy playable anymore. With tribal or token synergies though I think it can be good enough in a controlling deck. Scion makes the tokens 2/2s. Spellstutter counts both Bitterblossom and the tokens. That pushes the card above its usual value. It fits into the general control strategy of generating card advantage (free 1/1 flyers). Edit: Bitterblossom is awkward post-board vs Plague Engineer, and unfortunately Scion dies to Plague Engineer. Maybe you need more lord effects out of the board or more answers to Plague Engineer.

Some strategies in those old threads (Mistbind, Sower of Temptation) I used to play back in those days. They were playable circa 2009, when Sowering their Goyf was enough to win games, but imho became too slow after Delver sped up the format. If you think of Sower of Temptation as a Vedalken Shackles effect and look at when blue control stopped playing Shackles to steal Goyfs, I think that's when Sower became irrelevant too (other than out of the SB to troll Show and Tell).

Going UR for Twin combo is an option. But Splinter Twin never really made it in Legacy, so you have to ask yourself if splashing the combo is actually improving the deck's power level or just diluting 2 different low-tier strategies (less support slots for A+B combo). Would splashing any other A+B combo or non-Faerie win condition work as well or better?

Edit: Faeries do carry equipment well. If you splash white for StP, you might want Stoneforge Mystic into Swords and Jitte. There's your clock.

Edit2: To fight Plague Engineer out of the board, you could run SB lord effects like Glen Elendra Liege or Thunderclap Wyvern (maybe Empyrean Eagle though not having flash is a drawback). More lord effects also act as a win condition and make Bitterblossom tokens better.

Edit3: With Ancestral Visions added, taking out Miscreant and then swapping Scion for Clique (too low Faerie count for Scion to be good) and taking out Mutavault (no lords anymore and minimal tribal synergy)


//Creatures: 13
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Brazen Borrower
3 Vendilion Clique

//Enchantment: 2
2 Bitterblossom

//Artifact: 1
1 Umezawa's Jitte

//Spells: 23
4 Force of Will
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Brainstorm
3 Thoughtseize
3 Fatal Push
2 Spell Pierce
3 Drown in the Loch

//Lands: 21
1 Riptide Laboratory
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Polluted Delta
4 Prismatic Vista
2 Underground Sea
4 Island
2 Swamp

//Sideboard: 15
2 Faerie Macabre
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Cling to Dust
1 Force of Negation
1 Flusterstorm
1 Dismember
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Liliana's Triumph
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Plague Engineer

[Weapon X]

Honestly you could probably just play the stock standard lists and replace some with better cards because of the legacy pool. That’s probably the easiest route.

[FTW]

Honestly you could probably just play the stock standard lists and replace some with better cards because of the legacy pool. That’s probably the easiest route.

That's where I started with ~10 years ago, shortly after it was in Standard.

Have you tested a stock Standard list in Legacy? It's not good. The above reflects Legacy-relevant changes. Mainly that 4x Spellstutter is the best part of the deck and the 4cmc cards (Mistbind, Sower, Cryptic) are too slow for Legacy. Borrower and Drown didn't exist then but are clear maindeck choices now. Some ideas also come from the Pauper UB Faeries deck.

Edit: See this 1st place UB Faeries deck from 2019 (very small event) http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=21939&d=347841&f=LE
Very similar shell of Spellstutter, Bitterblossom, Snapcaster, Clique, FoW, Brainstorm, Thoughtseize, Push, Spell Pierce, Counterspell (replaced by Drown now), Jitte. Manabase looks suboptimal (and illegal with 7 Deltas!).

[Horto]

How come no one hasn't mentioned Sprite Noble yet? Legacy staple and a faerie aswell. Minor red splash for it and Bolts maybe?

[Reeplcheep]

Well you are in luck, faeries won the challenge today.

I would just copy his list.

Matchups:
R1：hoga oo
R2：BUcon oo
R3：prisn oxo
R4：BGdepth xx
R5：omni xox
R6：hoga xoo
R7：gobline xoo

SE1：RUGdel xoo
SE2：URdel xoo
SE3：BGdepth xoo
Winner!!!!!!!!

https://twitter.com/UUUUUmeck/status...13382295932928

[Clark Kant]

Wow, damn impressive. And the list looks excellent. Thank you!