Updated on 4st April 2007
The build I'm presently playing:
22 Mana
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
9 Island
4 Chrome Mox
1 Seat of the Synod
18 Creatures
1 Shoreline Ranger
3 Cloud of Faeries
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Sea Drake
4 Trinket Mage
2 Weatherseed Faeries
20 Other Spells
4 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Force of Will
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Pithing Needle
2 Psionic Blast
Sideboard
3 Winter Orb
3 Misdirection
2 Pithing Needle
3 Binding Grasp
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Weatherseed Faeries
1 Engineered Explosives
Rules issues:
-If you have only one land in play when you cast Sea Drake, the ability fizzles! The ability returns two target lands to my hand, and if it doesn't have enough legal targets when it's put on the stack, it is countered! This comes up a lot with Chrome Mox+Tomb/City>Drake or turn 1 City-Chalice at 1, turn 2 tap City for mana, Island, Drake.
-Chalice of the Void's manacost is 0 in everywhere but on the Stack! That means that a Chalice at 0 does not counter Chalice at 1 or Chalice at 2 cast afterwards. It also means that Chalice at 2 will counter Chalice at 1. Furthermore, it means that Engineered Explosives at 1 will not touch any of your Chalices, but Engineered Explosives at 0 will blow them all up regardless of the number of counters on them!
-Misdirection can counter Counterspells on an empty stack! Simply announce Misdirection, make the Counterspell target the Misdirection itself and the Counter will fizzle on resolution. Heck, you can even counter Last Word in this fashion!
-Auras are also targeted spells, so they’re perfectly Misdirectable. Stealing Rancors can be a great play.
Card-by-card explanation:
Ancient Tomb: The best fast mana available in the format. This is 1 land that taps for 2 mana, in other words, I get virtual card advantage out of needing less lands than my opponent as my lands tap for more mana. Note that the deck is crafted to have low blue mana consumption, so that one can make the most out of the colourless acceleration.
City of Traitors: Painless variant of Tomb, quite often Sea Drakes allow getting around the self destruction-part, occasionally opponent will waste them and every now and then, you've got enough lands in hand to be able to afford the self destruction, especially if you went 'turn 1 City of Traitors, Chalice of the Void for 1, turn 2 Island, Sea Drake'. It's also worth noticing that if you've got Cloud of Faeries off City/Tomb and an Island, you can untap them resulting in one mana floating in the pool, allowing for turn 2 Facts, Chalice for 2s, Jitte-equips and such with far higher consistency. Also, it makes turn 3 SoFI-equips easier.
Chrome Mox: Even more acceleration, makes those turn 3 kills happen. Of course costing a card is annoying, but generally the speed it grants you makes up for such nonsense as card advantage. It also allows you to start drawing a bit earlier with Fact or Fictions and Sword of Fire and Ices. These 3 fast-mana cards (Tomb, City and Mox) form the core of the deck that makes it faster than the competitors, allowing it to play a much higher curve than any normal deck could get away with.
Islands: Unwastelandable mana sources. Opponent generally targets the 2-mana lands anyways though. Oh well, still nice to have something.
Seat of the Synod: Trinket Mage-able Island.
Weatherseed Faeries: Bit bigger than Sea Sprite at the cost of costing 3. At the present, I've found the power of 2 more important to the creature worth a bit more against non-red decks.
Cloud of Faeries: Cycles to dig for land or business (Psionic Blast, equipment, FoW, whatever I need), provides me with a flying body while untapping my lands, also accelerating my mana. I presently only play 3 since I couldn’t just fit all 4 when trying to cram all the stuff I want in the deck.
Serendib Efreet: 3/4 flyer for 3. Bolt-proof and all that, nice card to equip up.
Sea Drake: 4/3 flyer for 3. Makes those turn 3 kills happen. Also allows playing all sorts of landtricks and comes in turn 1 without returning any lands to hand off a Mox and a 2-mana land. Superb.
Trinket Mage: I didn't think much of these at first, but as the deck evolved, the Mages have quickly proven themselves. Finding a Chalice at any point against a combo-deck or Threshold is always nice, they allow for locking people out of games, find me that elusive mana, fetch me Needle for everyone-knows-how-many-purposes, etc. Solid? Oh, right, there's that whole 2/2 body thing too. They just love to be equipped.
Shoreline Ranger: Some consider it a weird inclusion, but it's really an Island in disguise. The main use is to have an additional Island that can be pitched to FoW and Mox when need be. My landcount is already rather high with 23 dedicated mana sources, so I might have to cut a bit there, but at least this gives the deck good colour- and mana consistency.
Sword of Fire and Ice: All creatures but Trinket Mages have evasion. My lands tap for 2. This draws cards, kills threats, gives pro-the-most-played-colour-in-the-format, etc. Any questions?
Umezawa's Jitte: Kills anything that plays creatures. Otherwise it's mere +4/+4. Oh, it gains me life too, and as this deck tends to pay a lot of life, that doesn't hurt at all.
Force of Will: 0 mana. Counter target spell. Any questions? Sure, it costs me cards, but it counters whatever would give the opponent a glimmer of hope. It also tends to be combo decks' problem #1.
Thirst for Knowledge: Eventually the 3-caster drawing machine won out for me. It just makes sculpting hand with low landcount a breeze and can be cast in lieu of your other spells. It's also easy to leave mana open for (it generally takes only 2 sources, Fact was easier to cast with Cloud of Faeries, which made reactive use much more difficult) to dig for FoW if you suspect you need it soon (like if you're playing against Solidarity and it looks like they're planning to go off this turn). It also allows you to actually keep the rest of the cards if you hit FoW. Drawbacks, it doesn't dig as deep and it can't get 4 cards, but it increases card quality, which is always nice (often I just end up discarding excess lands when flooded, even if I have artifacts in hand, since they're dead cards).
Psionic Blast: Kills creatures, kills players (especially control-players who stabilize at 8), finishes the game turn 3. And pitches to FoW and Mox. Me likey.
Chalice of the Void: Chalice...of...the...friggin'...VOID! C'mon, even the name tells you the card is insane! This is more or less the heart of the deck. The number of decks in the format that get demolished by Chalice at 1 is innumerable and it's always at least mildly useful. Chalice at 2 is also often very powerful, especially vs. Fish, Angel Stompy, Threshold and such and such. It's also good for 0 against TES, IGGy Pop, etc. making my combo match-up good already pre-board.
Pithing Needle: At first I didn't want any 1-casters in the deck, but few points changed that. First, the chances of actually drawing into it are about 2%, so it's a rare problem to draw it when unneeded. Also, if a Chalice at 1 is in play, I'm usually winning so the dead draw is rarely an issue (occasionally a problem with blind Chalice though). It stops Survival, Vial, Recurring Nightmare, Maze of Ith Eternal Dragon, Decree of Justice, Belcher, Parallax Wave, Seal of Cleansing and so many other issues. It's definately earned its spot in the maindeck, although it comes out vs. a bunch of decks with no real targets for it.
Sideboard choices:
Winter Orb: Comes in vs. control. Not only does it hurt them, but Faerie Stompy is fairly resilient to the Orb. I have lands that tap for 2, I have Moxes that untap regardless and I have Sea Drake that can return tapped lands to my hand to let me play them untapped. It could even be in the main if the format contained sufficient amounts of control. As it is, I'd rather have it only come in when need be.
Misdirection: I used to have a dedicated anti-combo slot here, but I realized that I just need to resolve and protect a Chalice against most combo-decks, while beating them to oblivion. Hence I opted for a more generic card rather than a specific combo-hate. This comes in to complement my Force of Wills in protecting my Chalices/Needles/company, to fight counter wars and then some. The good thing about this card is, it's very useful in a few match-ups. It comes in vs. Pikula (Vindicate, Sinkhole, Hymn to Tourach, Swords to Plowshares, the deck is ripe with targets and they can't hope to win without resolving any of those spells), Burn (Fireblast them FTW), occasionally vs. Angel Stompy (Disenchants and StPs give a good amount of targets if they're running sets of both) and lots of randomness (anything with 12-16 burn spells is generally a fair game and if they run artifact removal and artifacts of their own, it's a plus too).
Pithing Needle: Because sometimes they're really good and I want more than 1 (Goblins, Affinity, Survival, etc.).
Binding Grasp: Great catch-all answer in an open metagame, works about basically all creature-decks save Goblins. Control Magic is arguably better, but I like the ease of casting this off just one blue, and the +0/+1 allowing a single Myr Enforcer/Werebear/such stall the whole ground against the respective decks.
Tormod's Crypt: Well, it's nice to be able to fight graveyard strategies. Only 2 because it's technically card disadvantage and I prefer to tutor for one with Trinket Mage. I definately like to have these on the SB though with the rise of not only Threshold, but also all the Life from the Loam-decks, Friggorid, reanimator, etc. It's good to have something to hit that zone too, especially since it's usually something, blue has a hard time touching.
Weatherseed Faeries: The third copy comes in against anything playing red creatures. Easy to equip (can't be burned in response), can block anything ad nauseum, overall very useful.
Engineered Explosives: It can be dropped past Chalices (I can state that X is 2 and pay UU or U1 for it to drop it with 1 counter, or just state that X is different from 0 and pay colourless mana to blast the Chalice at 0) and it takes out those frustrating problem-cards like all the Goblin-means of cheating (Vial, Lackey), opposing Needles, Zoo beaters and it can be used to blow up tokens and such too. All-around solid. Been thinking of playing around with fetches and duals to drop it at 2, but I like un-Wasteable lands.
Match-up Analysis
Vial Goblins
This is usually the most important match-up in any metagame as they’re cheap, strong and relatively simple to do relatively well with (excellent players of course do much better). The problem is, since it’s played so much, there’s an enormous amount of variety between the different lists. Here’s how it usually goes:
-Mono-red build with no MD tech or stuff like Jitte or Crypt is rather easy to beat unless they get nuts against a slow hand from you. Basically, your aim is to not let them cheat on mana with Vials and Lackeys, so drop Weatherseed Faeries, Serendib Efreets, Sea Drakes, the guys they have trouble removing. Then suit one up with Jitte or Sword and kill them while keeping their army in check. Important to know when to go all-out to the head as some boards not only make it possible, but require you to aim all damage to their head and win before they can get going. Important to know that if they get their mana going, you can’t keep up as then they’ve got even more than you. On the play, Chalice at 1 is devastating from you, but on the draw, you usually need to Needle their Vial and block their Lackeys and such before dropping it. Mana denial is something you should take into account when keeping hands and playing Mages (fetching Seat of the Synod or Mox is often the right call over business) as they play Wastes and Rishadan Ports. The good news is, you don’t usually get stuck playing land-go, so you can drop guys before their denial comes online, making using the denial in the first place a bad idea. And then there’s the whole ‘my deck can operate off 2 lands while yours require 5’-thing going on.
Post-SB, you get access to any possible extra Jittes and Sprites you’ve got on the SB, as well as Pithing Needles and Engineered Explosives (I usually take out a Looter il-Kor on the play, Chalice on the draw, as Chalice is much weaker if they get a cheater in play. Of course, if you have the nutty turn 0 Force+turn 1 Chalice, you’re a happy camper, but doesn’t happen often enough to rely on). They unfortunately get Red Elemental Blasts, Hydroblasts and Shattering Sprees along with any extra artifact-hating Goblins, which are all bad news. The good news is that Chalice at 1 is all the more devastating, especially if you can FoW the replicate-copy from Spree aimed at it. They also weaken their gameplan game 2 to fit the hate in, so if you can handle their early game, you should be fine.
-Rw Goblins contain some good and some bad news. Good news is that they are more suspectible to SB Misdirections (StPs and Disenchants are much easier to Misdirect than Red Elemental Blasts and Shattering Sprees, as REBs can’t hit their cards and there’s a whole lot of Sprees to Misdirect, but StP and Disenchant have no such problems) and Chalice at 1, the bad news is that without a Chalice, Swords to Plowshares is a major headache and Disenchant hurts too. You should be favoured, but this MU gets better post-board (take out some draw-cards and perhaps Psionic Blast or two for Misdirections, EEs, Needles and company). Just be careful not to side out too many Chalices on the draw as the StPs are painful and they may have Blasts on the SB too, although it’s less likely here.
-Rg Goblins are the worst; Tin-Street Hooligan is MD artifact hate and has an immediate effect unlike the usual Goblin Tinkerer, and can only be stopped by Force of Will. Krosan Grip is unstoppable and Pendelhaven can be an annoyance. The good news is, they don’t usually have much SB against you besides Grips as they’re busy playing anti-combo instead, but some Blasts may still come in.
Threshold
If Goblins are the #1 MU in any meta, this is usually the #2. The bad news is, the deck is extremely consistent and has extremely large dudes for their cost. The good news is, Chalice of the Void is a nuclear bomb against them and Sword of Fire and Ice + Umezawa’s Jitte make your guys just too large for them. Against the red variant, an active Sword is pretty much game, against the white variant, there’s always StP. If you land Chalice, their landcount of 17 basically makes their 4-cost finishers unplayable as they can’t cantrip into lands. Your Forces are best left for either Swords or to force through spells. Play around Dazes if possible, but if you’re stuck at three mana, don’t avoid casting spells just because. Most importantly, resolve creatures StPs can only handle so many and your creatures with flying can generally trump theirs. Post-SB, things get better with the useless Needle gone, the Binding Grasps to answer their 4-drops and steal Werebears, the Tormod’s Crypts to make races utterly unfair and the Engineered Explosives to smash their Needles and Nimble Mongoose. Worship is the only thing you need to fear from them, the best answer to that is to kill all their dudes. Overall, slightly favourable thanks to Chalices.
Solidarity/Spring Tide
There isn’t much to say about this MU. You’re about as fast as them, faster on nuts-draw, you have basically 11 cards worth of relevant disruption and you get Misdirections post-SB (instead of Pithing Needle and Umezawa’s Jittes in my build as the life is useless and the additional damage is kinda slow in this MU). Drop Chalice at 1 and enjoy, follow up with one at 2 for a game against most builds (some run Rebuild though, so beware). Oh yeah, don’t hold back, feel free to knock yourself down to 1 life as long as Efreet doesn’t kill you. I have, in all honesty, dealt 19 points to myself with Clouds, Psionic Blast, Ancient Tomb, Serendib Efreet, etc. Very favourable. Heck, if you feel like it, as long as you have a creature in play, play a Chalice at 3 to shut down Cunning Wish. Usually you’ll just want to FoW their bounce though. Remember that even though they have FoWs, it sets them back a bit as they need cards to go off, so don’t fear them while casting disruption. Just beware of Remands, try to cast spells through them (with enough mana to cast a spell twice a turn). Spring Tide is a bit faster, but doesn’t have Remands. You should do them in easily too.
Iggy-Pop
Like Solidarity, except you can’t race them usually. Chalice at 0, 1 and 2 are all good, but 0 is the easiest to play and thus the one you should usually cast. If they Infernal Tutor for something, try to Chalice the CC, the card was. Cast Chalice at 0 if you have mana for no more. Force their Infernal Tutor only if they pop LEDs in response, else you should just counter their Ill-Gotten Gains and win. Be careful with self-damaging, occasionally they can just go off and cast Tendrils from their hand to win. Post-SB, bring in Tormod’s Crypts and perhaps some Misds for bounce, instead of Weatherseed Faeries usually as they’re pretty bad here (and the useless Needle), and perhaps a SoFI or such if you’re worried about the white-count. Remember, they might try the Confidant-plan. If so, either go for the head, utilizing the Confidant, or kill the Confidant. Very favourable match-up.
TES
Iggy-Poppish, but slightly faster and has the capability to plop out a bunch of Goblins to try and kill you. The bad news is that Goblins might very well take G1 if they come out early enough. The good news is that post-board, your Engineered Explosives give you a cheap, tutorable answer to the Goblin-horde and going off with Tendrils in the face of all your Chalices and FoWs would be a feat of a lifetime (meaning it won’t happen very often). Very favourable match-up as well.
Other Tendrils-builds
They share weakness to Chalice. Chalice at 2 against Burning Wish/Infernal Tutor-variants, and Engineered Explosives comes in against Empty the Warrens-using versions (for Pithing Needle). If they play heavy Ill-Gotten Gains-plan, bring in Crypts. Just 1 doesn’t equal to heavy.
Burn
Nothing to see here, move along. Chalice at 1 rapes them, Jitte rapes them (you have pro-red and huge dudes to equip), low landcount>Price of Progress, your clock>their clock. Post-SB, Misdirection and you’re pretty much autowinning.
Angel Stompy
A decent match-up. Their Parallax Waves and Exalted Angels are the biggest problems. Try to Psionic Blast, Sword of Fire and Ice or Umezawa’s Jitte the Morph, before it comes online. That makes things a world easier. Chalice should be laid at 2 first. It stops their Disenchants, the bulk of their creatures, Jittes, Mask of Memory and overall evens the playing field. Pithing Needle should name Parallax Wave to beat it, else Wave is one-sided Wrath that should smash you most of the time. Their 1-drops are scary, but 2-drops are scarier including artifact removal, hence the priority on Chalice at 2. Post-board, they usually have a full set of Disenchants. You should bring in Binding Grasps in any case. Misdirections comes in if they play Disenchant over Seal of Cleansing, and the second Needle comes in in any case. Engineered Explosives is also a good card, things you should remove: Weatherseed Faeries, Umezawa’s Jitte (you aim to Needle theirs if they resolve it, and Chalice at 2 is still a priority, even more so with their extra Disenchants). You should be the slight favourite here, but definitely not by lots and their build-variance might affect the MU a lot (things like Seal of Cleansing are harder than Disenchant post-board, their Ramosian Sergeants, Aether Vials and such can hurt if they play them).
Uw Fish, UWb Fish, Ugw Gro, etc.
These usually have advantage over you on individual card basis, but you have Chalice. Basically, if you don’t resolve Chalice, they’re the favourites to win and if you do, you should do well. Their removal is usually at 1, so Chalice at 1 first. Chalice at 2 after should allow you to basically just win, but 1 is the first priority. Misdirections need to come in along with an assortment of Needles and EEs (see the pattern?) and Binding Grasps (3/4 Serra Avenger is nuts). Usually you’ll go for the 2-Chalice plan, but you’ll win your share of normal games. Wasteland hurts if they play it, but usually not enough to be worth Pithing Needling. Slightly favourable to slightly unfavourable, depending on their build.
Loam-based control
I group these all together (yes, even Tog) since it’s basically Chalice at 2 through their discard or problems. You can win, especially against red variant relying on Devastating Dreams since your pro-red goes a long way, but Chalice at 2 shuts down their Wishes and Loam and in general, their game. Needle is also good, on fetches or on Seismic Assault. Cards you bring in are Tormod’s Crypt (especially against Terravore-variants) and any additional pro-red dudes you’ve got, taking out perhaps Clouds, a Psionic Blast and maybe Looter. These are all favourable, since a single resolved Chalice is generally GG.
GBx control
Game 1 is tough. You should just cast dudes and keep swinging as they play discard you don’t want to be hit with. Chalice at 2 generally as it is strong against Pox-variants with Smallpox and Edicts, but 1 is good occasionally too as it stops Innocent Blood and the bulk of their discard. You need a Needle on Pernicious Deed though. Game 2, you get to bring in Misdirections (they generally have Hymns, Sinkholes, Putrefys and in white, Vindicates) and Winter Orbs (you can usually take out some Sword of Fire and Ices as long as they don’t play red) over some Swords (leaving few in), few Chalices and company. If they use grave, bring in a Crypt, second Needle for their Deeds, Tops, etc. and overall just to smash them. Post-SB game is good as you suddenly have a deckful of bombs against them, Misdirections, Winter Orbs, Chalices and such all capable of sealing games. You should split with them.
Rifter
Your equipment trumps their Humility, your Weatherseed Faeries are great before that (as well as big guys immune to their removal, and equipment in general), Needles usually name Decree of Justice or Eternal Dragon. Chalice at 2 if you can cast it before they lay down Rift. If not, at 1. Try to force them to Vengeance, let it resolve then follow up with Chalice at 2. Force of Wills should go for their big spells as that sets them back the most. Post-SB, you usually bring in Winter Orbs for something. Perhaps one Chalice and Cloud of Faeries and Psionic Blast or such, but overall, you need a number of Chalices in, but not too many and you want the reach Psionics provide as they lack LD. Favourable.
Landstill
Pretty much the same as Rifter, except their removal is relevant. Needle their manlands, try to prevent Crucible from resolving if you’re still in early game and don’t rely on Psionic Blasts too much. Misdirection to fight counter-wars maybe and screw their Disenchants and occasionally even StPs. A worse MU. Oh, and take out Psionic Blasts, they’re bad here as this deck runs counters. Winter Orb comes in again, but this time second Needle comes in too as you want to take out their manlands and perhaps Decrees.
43 Lands.dec
The reason I keep mentioning this in the card explanations is, people don’t seem to get how to play this MU. Here’s a rundown: Never cast Chalice at 1! Needle is the most important card against them. Their Maze of Ith is amazing; it not only stops an attacker, it stops your equipment too. Without it, they’re helpless against your flyers and equipment. Remember that you can use their Mazes to help you out a bit, it untaps an attacker and thus gives you a blocker. Force of Wills should primarily hit their Manabonds and Explorations, secondarily their Lifes before you drop Chalice at 2, and if they play it, Burning Wish and Crucible. Post-SB, if they run Glacial Chasm, bring in Tormod’s Crypt. Anyways, bring in second Needle and Winter Orbs. Generally a Chalice can go, Weatherseed Faeries are pretty weak and so on. Oh, and remember, paying for the Tabernacle is very easy as Rishadan Port can’t prevent floating mana in upkeep and they’re helpless against your Chrome Moxes. You might want to avoid letting Burning Wish resolve as they might have Shattering Spree SB. But yea, first use FoWs as tempo-cards to get Chalices down before they get going (=GG) and only later, if that fails, use them as surgical removal against the important cards. But if you play it well, you basically can’t lose. Needle on Maze and punish them for their lack of flyers. Careful on their Burning Wish recursion. And Needle has priority over Chalice at 2 unless they have Glacial Chasm online.
R(g) Beats, Mono-G Stompy, etc.
Cropping these together since it’s simply a matter of Chalice at 1 here. They’re so weak against it I should write a book about it. Make sure you don’t get crushed by their Jittes and you should be well off with your huge guys, equipment and FoWs. and post-SB Misdirections against their pump/burn further helps. You’re the control here, but you should still be able to finish them off quickly. If their plan is more midgame, Binding Grasp should come in. Else, it’s not worth it against Sligh/Stompy. All these MUs are favourable unless they specifically hate you with blasts and sprees and such.
Why I play Faerie Stompy, and why you should too!
Faerie Stompy is a deck that doesn’t really have any horrible MUs. Thanks to the generic nature of the reactive cards in the deck (Force of Will, Chalice of the Void, Pithing Needle), you’ve got cards that are basically good against anything. Better somewhere, worse somewhere, but still in all relevant cases with some use. Also, the fact that FS is a fast, aggressive deck means that it’ll always have a functional gameplan even against decks that do something you aren’t expecting. The fact that all the creatures have evasion is a god-sent against aggro-decks of all kinds and makes all the equipment stronger too. Also, the equipment turns every creature into a threat, keeping even removal-heavy opponents busy. And thanks to the Cloud of Faeries, Trinket Mages, 2-mana lands and Moxes, no other deck in the format is really quite adept at finding and playing early Chalices at relevant casting costs. That’s the secret behind the deck’s awesome combo-MUs. So yea, if you want a deck that’s got an advantage over the most aggro-decks, and combo to boot along with even Loam-control and generic red control, you’ve got your option right here!
Strikes against our friend here.
The deck really wants to draw one of the Ancient Tombs, Chrome Moxes or City of Traitors in the opening grip. Without those, it can be painfully slow with only FoW slowing the opponent down. That means that you have to be a bit picky about what hands to keep in what MUs. Also, you might lose few games to not drawing enough creatures thanks to the creature count of only 18. Thirst alleviates this somewhat, but I’m always actively seeking means to add more creatures to the deck. Looter il-Kor might be good, but at the present I like the raw card advantage, Thirst provides. Also, the deck burns cards out real fast. Yes, it can make up for the lost cards with SoFI, Thirst and Trinket Mage, but that usually only gets it even. Dedicated removal-decks with fast kills can be big issues. Also, Faerie Stompy is still a creature-deck so the most common hate in the format applies. Finally, it might deal lots of damage to itself with Ancient Tombs and Serendib Efreets, which is always something to look out for if possible.
Top 8s and tournament reports
I’ll list some when I’ve managed to locate the ones on my mind. In the meanwhile, feel free to check this particular thread, there are at least a few of them here, and a search at the SCG Deck Database should reveal a bunch of the well-finishing lists.
Last edited by Eldariel; 04-04-2007 at 11:55 AM.
Well, what can i say, this looks really nice. I can't really point my finger on something, but i have a few things to say:
1) As you say yourself, this deck is based around tempo. Fairy Conclave is NOT tempo. They also have bad synergy with Sea Drake and Meloku. Me don't like much. I think you should cut em.
2) Have drawing 2 Jittes been bad to you? I would only run 3 as it's legendary, but this more of a personal taste.
3) The 2 Flying Men seems random to me. Randomness=Bad, Consistensy=Good. Therefore, you should either cut em, og squeze in more of them.
So the changes that i would make would be:
-2 Fairy Conclave (also random number, btw)
-1 Jitte
+1 Flying Men
+2 Island
Oh, btw, how have those Shield Spheres in the SB been treating you? How about going with good old BEB?
- Mordenkain
Originally Posted by Nihil
This is debatable depending on how big my boobs feel in the morning.
I don't think this convention allows the unrelated card to share a color with the deck. Blue decks should be named after a White card. Try naming the deck Planar Birth. I'm kidding. Don't hurt me, Anusien.Continuing the classic Legacy-deck naming tradition, the deck actually has nothing to do with the card Tidal Wave except a shared colour.
I think the deck is very strong. I wonder if each color couldn't use an Ancient Tomb-wielding Stompy deck. Tomb + Equipment is so good. I nominate Faerie Stompy for this deck's name. It's just so demeaning to everyone you beat.
The only card choices that look questionable to me are Faerie Conclave and the Shield Spheres in the side. You have so few Blue sources, I'd think that coming into play tapped and being vulnerable to Wasteland would hurt a lot. Against Goblins, you may never get to untap a Conclave.
As for Shield Sphere, the only deck you bring it in against is Goblins, which you correctly identify as the control deck in this match-up. Why bring in such a defensive card when you are the beatdown? Kira would be perfect if it weren't for double Blue. Anyway, I think you want a more aggressive card in this slot.
I wouldn't consider 2 a 'random' number, more of a 'complimential' number. With Conclaves, I have 22 creatures total. They've been winning quite a few attrition games for me, it's just brutal when I get to the 5 mana to equip a Sword on a Conclave and swing. They especially help against Rifter and Threshold, which like to try and kill all my guys. I'm DEFINATELY going to test more about them, but for now, it seems like they're about right.
Also, the reason for the 2-of Flying Men, no matter how ugly it looks, is that I'm a firm believer in the 'right is better than pretty'. I'm going to have a certain percentage of hands where I'm only going to have an Island for turn 1, Flying Men gives me 2 more cards which allow turn 1 plays (others being Chrome Moxes, Tombs, "Conclaves" (it's a "play") and Cities). I don't really see a reason to drop them as they're pretty much just another weaponbearer, opponents will want to deal with. Anyhow, I'll see if Conclaves really deserve to be cut or not, but so far I'm kinda leaning on the 'no'-side. The synergy with Sea Drakes isn't usually bad really, as I'm not usually forced to return a Conclave and even if that happens, unless I have some relevant plays off the other land, I can drop the Conclave and get the CiPT over with. I don't really find the 2-of problematic as running any more would risk drawing multiples, which I don't want, but a singleton is often pretty helpful.
4 Jittes have been working pretty fine thus far. I've actually rarely drawn multiples and the lifegain of the Jittes is surprisingly helpful in a deck like this. The deck actually USED to run a 4/3 in Swords/Jittes, but the 4th Jitte was crammed in at the expense of a Psionic Blast as, as the equipment is what truly wins those games against Goblins, Burn, Thres and Rifter. Also, 1/1 protectionless creatures are pretty fragile, so I'd rather not run too many of them (I've got 6 if you count Clouds).
Shield Spheres have been rather good actually, although I'm definately considering BEB. The thing is, I like to try and drop a Chalice for 1, which will neutralize BEB, but will not affect Sphere and the Sphere does a surprisingly good job keeping the Lackeys, Piledrivers and company out, so I don't know if there really is a reason to switch to BEB (they're both pretty much limited to this MU, although BEB could perhaps be used against Burn too). As I said, I haven't yet concluded, what's right for this slot in the SB, but BEB is definately a candidate. Still, Shield Sphere seems pretty decent. BEB is a blue card though, which is a definitive plus (well, it can be countered by REBs, but still, it's pitchable to FoW and Mox). The thing I'm most iffy about BEB is that the deck is pretty tight on blue mana, so casting BEB will generally mean not casting a threat. As it is right now, I would not make the changes, you suggested.
Actually, Flying Men used to be a 3-of when I had a 2-of Thought Eater (2-of because the drawback isn't bad when there's only one in play, but multiple Thought Eaters are lethal to me), but a Flying Men made room for third Sea Sprite when I added those as I realized just how good they can be against the red decks.
EDIT: Faerie Stompy sounds awesome :D I've got a Faerie-deck, but...what the heck, that name is AWESOME!
EDIT2: Actually, I've considered Trinket Mage but haven't actually tried him yet. I kinda like the fact that all my guys fly, and thus can easily wear Sword, but the Mage could be superb utility as it can fetch Chrome Mox, Chalice, Needle, etc. I'd need to modify the hull of the deck a bit to fit it in though, and it'd be yet another card at 2U, making my draws without Tombs or Cities further weaker. I here and now vow to give it a shot though. I like the prospect of tutoring up a Tormod's Crypt/Chalice, or the elusive land (I guess I'd have to play a singleton Seat of the Synod, since tutoring up a Mox just doesn't sound too appealing) to play Meloku.
Last edited by Eldariel; 03-29-2006 at 10:27 AM.
I still don't agree. When you consider a card for your deck, your considering it because it's good and it fulfills a role in your deck. When you then cram it into your deck, it's because you want have this. You want to draw the card. Without card draw, tutors or any kind of search, you WONT draw a card which is a 2-of, reliable. It's a fact, it's statestics.
Playing cards as a 2-of IS random. It's only not random in a very few scenarios, like: You got tutors to get the card, in which time you would normally play it as a 1-of, but it can be a very important card, so getting them all stopped by a single counter is not acceptable. You got card draw, and you got a freaking lot of it. Landstill could play Decree of Justice as a 2-of for this reason. The card is a compliment to another VERY similiar card (like 4x Llanowar Elves, 2x Fyndhorn Elves).
It's really your decision, but I hope I can talk you to play it at least as a 3-of.
This is debatable depending on how big my boobs feel in the morning.
Well, in testing, I've often been in a sitiuation where I just need a piece of equipment to win. Cutting any would lessen the chances of drawing them when in need. I just don't think there's anything in the deck I could happily cut to add a third Flying Men. While it's true that I won't draw it consistently, it still lessens the number of opening hands without turn 1 plays. It's kind of redundant with Cloud of Faeries in that they're both lowcost 1/1 flyers, Cloud just does a billion other things as well. The likeliest candidate to cut for a third Flying Men would be either Cloud or Sprite, but both are better most of the time. I think, in a bizarre way, Flying Men is a parallel to Chrome Mox in this deck, both let you utilize your turn 1 efficiently. That said, I'm willing to try the deck with 3 Flying Men and 3 Jittes, but I just think, Jitte is the better card of these 2 so I'd rather run more of it.
Btw, I just realized I might come off as unappreciative, but that's not it. Thanks for the help, your questions help me to arrange my thoughts related to some parts of the deck I'm not certain of yet. I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep the 2-Flying Men config for now, but then again, I might want to try and squeeze a third in. The big problem is, it's extremely hard to take anything out really. Technically I could take out a Meloku for them, as drawing multiples suck and it's not always castable, but it's so damn powerful, the polar opposite of Flying Men.
Last edited by Eldariel; 03-29-2006 at 11:18 AM.
Have you given any thought to running Wastelands of your own? Possibly over some/all of the City of Traitors, which aren't nearly as good as Tomb.
Yea, but since the deck is pretty much built on explosiveness, I've so far discarded the idea. I like the fact that I have 8 2-producing lands, since it gives me much better access to that elusive turn 1 3 mana, turn 2 5 mana. If I dropped Cities, I'd probably drop them for Islands to enable the deck to play cards with UU-casting cost, since they offer a good deal of power (stuff like Waterspout Djinn, Control Magic, etc.), but in the creation of this, I opted for the explosiveness of an 8-2 mana landbase. Also, on another note, it's really helpful to have 12 cards (Moxes and two-mana lands) to drop a turn 1 Chalice for 1. Also, City's downside is helped by Sea Drake and Meloku, as they both can be used to play around it and utilize it simply as 'a land that taps for 2'.
Actually, I'm greatly intrigued by the idea of using Mox Diamond, Crucible of Worlds and maintaining an access to UU. That deck could play the card this deck was originally built around, the ultimate fatto, Serendib Djinn.
Absolutey love the deck. Just a thought. Since Winter Orb is not so great against the decks that can easily kill your Men and Cloud, perhaps you could side them out, and replace Orb with Trinishpere? In addition to hurting those decks,(Goblins, Burn, Zoo varients) it crushes Belcher, or Solidarity and Thresh if it resolves. Your curve runs past it, and Orb dosen't do much against those anyway. It will weaken you against Rifter/Wombat, but your the overall applications against the field may outweigh this.
~ Team Unicorn Motto
Well actually i´m playing Mono U Beatdown too. It´s nice to see Chalice Of The Void for 1 Counter against Threshold. When you get the Chalice for 2 Counters into play they will scoop. I´m running 4 Thirst For Knowledge instead of 4 Psionic Blast and only 3 Jitte. I´m playing no Flying Men and no Sprites. My deck looks like this:
// Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
5 Island (2)
1 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
2 Faerie Conclave
// Creatures
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Sea Drake
3 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
2 Waterspout Djinn
2 Trinket Mage
// Spells
4 Chrome Mox
4 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Force of Will
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Fact or Fiction
Why is this deck better than Angel Stompy other than it can Force something every once in a while?
You´ve got Chalices and a Chalice=1 is deadly for most Deck. Chalice=2 can wreck everything. You got good Beaters with high Toughness. And Heavy Equip. I constructed my Deck this way, so i can get my Chalice out. A Chalice can´t wreck me. My Mana Curve is higher than 1 and higher than 2. I can discard the Jitte for my Thirst and the Faeries can be cycled. So Chalice=1 and Chalice=2 don´t hurt me at all. I played AS/u and had a bad Matchup against NQG the best MUs were against Goblins and Rift. Rock is also easy to win.
I have to agree with Roopey.... but if I were to work on this deck, I would take out the Chalice in replace of Aether Vial. If your trying to be aggro, what would be a better 2nd turn than to tap 2, play Jitte, vial in cloud of faries, untap lands, tap 2 and equip Jitte. Thats pretty boss!
Or how about Curiosity in this deck? It's good in fish after all.
Team Solo
I thought it was fairly obvious at the latest by the match-up analysis, so I didn't elaborate on it in the mainpost. Unlike with stompy, my match-ups against combo are positive and control is fairly winnable too. Stompy is good against aggro and tends to struggle against anything else. This still maintains a decent game against aggro while gaining pretty good game against combo and control. Being able to play Chalice is of course a bomb, and the big blue beatdown creatures only require U instead of the UU of the good white ones, so I can afford far more colourless sources. Also, Cloud of Faeries gives me an additional accelerant compared to Angel Stompy, meaning that it's not uncommon at all to play-equip Sword or Jitte turn 2 and swing. Also, Psionic Blast gives me reach, something Stompy lacks.
I don't think, this deck even has many similarities to Angel Stompy. Good match-ups are totally different and the whole gameplan is totally different. Not to mention, I have bigger guys on average, and all my big guys have evasion. Of course, all that comes at the cost of artifact/enchantment removal, Tithe, StP and Parallax Wave. Oh, blue can support a coloured manland (although I'm still not sure if that's the right thing to do). Blue also offers different Sideboard options, although presently I'm only utilizing Misdirection.
EDIT: There's simply no room for Vial. I don't have problems with mass removal or counters anyways. I want to use all possible slots for the important creatures and to support them. Btw, Cloud of Faeries has been erratad to only untap cards if played from hand, so Vialing it in doesn't untap lands. Chalice is just a bomb. It stops decks cold (a large portition of the positive combo match-ups, and a huge bomb against both, Goblins and Threshold) and most importantly, it hits the frustrating removal-spells like Lightning Bolt and StP. It also obliterates Burn. Curiosity is a card I'm on the fence with, but it's a creature enchantment. I have enough problems with removal as it is, I don't need 2-for-1s, not to mention, I want a Chalice at 1 most of the time, so I'm staying away from 1-casters (the 2 Flying Men find their way to Mox/FoW baits if I resolve a Chalice, I don't really want more cards for that role). Mask of Memory is an option, but I don't know if it's worth making room for yet. It'd hurt Chalice for 2 too, and it'd require removing some non-creature spells, something wouldn't do too readily.
Last edited by Eldariel; 03-29-2006 at 03:00 PM.
It´s a Beatdown Deck we want to make Damage and don´t want to draw X Cards. And Curiosity draws cards if you got a Creature in play. If the Creature leaves play -> No Curiosity anymore. The Sword of Fire and Ice is better because you can usw it on all Monsters and reequip it. And you can untap only 2 lands, if you play the Cloud of Faeries from your hand. It has an errata.
Serendib Djinn should be in this list somewhere, probably over some of the equipment. 8 is at least two too many pieces - far too often I'm finding I'm just drawing dead equipment when my opponents are gaining ground on the board. 5/6 fliers for UU2 are awfully good.
Also, I'd run Genju of the Falls long before I'd run Faerie Conclave.
Yup, but you can't cast it pretty often. Also, the fact that the deck runs as few lands as this (17 actual lands) turns it into a troublesome card. Trust me, I tested the card. I played it for aeons and I really wanted it to be good. I built the whole friggin' deck around it originally. Harsh reality struck though. The deck would need at least 4 more blue sources to support it and it'd need some land recursion like Crucible. As I said, a version capable of supporting UU would certainly be an interesting idea, and the Djinn would be the first card I'd add, but I don't have the time to work on such a deck for this contest. It doesn't co-exist with Sea Drake or Meloku either. It's a great card for blue aggro, but not for this deck. For record, in the beginning of the recreation of this deck it was a 4-of, but it quickly became clear that it can't be more than a 2-of. Finally, it was dropped entirely as I lost one game too many for not being able to cast it yet again. Also, it's incredibly frustrating to play it, sacrifice a land and only see it StPd/REBbed.
Genju is another card I'd run if I could support UU (playing it and attacking the same turn gives me a 'hasty' creature, something that's wonderful in a deck like this). For now though, I can't, so I'd gain a mere 3/2 enchantment that's really horrible against StP (if the enchanted Island is removed, the Genju is lost too as the land isn't put to grave, hurting my manabase and costing me a card). I also only would run 9 Islands even without Conclaves, which isn't sufficient by any means to support an Enchant Island. Conclave is a land, so it doesn't take a spell/creature slot and therefore, it only contests with Islands, although I'm not sure if it's better than a basic Island here. I'm sure that it helps in a somewhat difficult match-up, Rifter, though and that seems like a good reason to run it.
The Serendib Djinn should be in the Deck but:
The Djinn makes your Manabase instable so your Base has Problems against Wasteland. With the Djinn you have to run Non Basics like Tolaria, Oboro, Minamo, Seat Of The Synod.. etc...
Correction: Serendib Djinn shouldn't be in this deck. Yes, it's possible that a very strong blue aggro could be built around Serendib Djinn, but it's not this deck. This is fundamentally incapable of supporting it. Just because we take a concept like 'Blue beatdown' doesn't mean there's only one right path. No, there are many choices with different advantages. We could choose to run enough blue mana to support UU-costs, at the cost of our speed, which would result in an entirely different deck. We could also choose to switch to more controllish approach through altering our landbase into including Wastelands and adding Crucible, turning the deck more into the Stackish direction. However, the present choices made are:
-Heavy acceleration
-Light blue requirements
-Light control elements
Changing any of those would require lots of fundamental shifts in the deck, but creating a manabase that supports UU would definately be a viable path, I don't deny that, nor the fact that it could potentially be very good, perhaps better than what I have here, but it'd lose lots of the speed advantage, so things like turn 3 kills would be reduced to dreams.
I saw the Deck already on Starcitygames.com in the legacy part of the forum. the guy ran serendib djinns first. so i began building the deck and changed the serendib djinns against waterspout djinns. then the psionic blasts against thirsts. and now it´s working more consistent. i also threw out the flying men and replaced them with trinket mages. they can find me a chrome mox or mostly the chalice.
here´s the thread: http://www.starcitygames.com/phpBB2/...c.php?t=285871
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