The Top of the Fae Vial

[thesilentpyro]

One of my favorite cards in Legacy is Aether Vial. It gets around mana issues, gets around counters, gets around sorcery-speed, and gets round that whole pesky I-don't-have-enough-mana-to-play-my-cards thing. I also think that Spellstutter Sprite is an underrated card; it's a 2-mana semi-hard counter that can't be Duressed, has a body, can be Vial'd, and can be bounced for re-use. With those two cards, I built the following list:

Fae
4x Cloud of Fairies
4x Spellstutter Sprite
4x Pestermite
2x Sower of Temptation
3x Vendilion Clique

Backup
3x Counterbalance
3x Sensei's Divining Top
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will

Artifacts
3x Sword of Fire and Ice
2x Umezawa's Jitte
4x Aether Vial

Manabase
3x Chrome Mox
2x Riptide Laboratory
4x Mutavault
11x Island

Card choices
Cloud of Fairies and Spellstutter Sprite - two of the best Vial targets in the game. For this reason, I would always leave a Vial on 2 if at all possible; it becomes much more threatening.

Pestermite - Disruption, flash, and the ability to untap a Vial. Beautiful.

Sower of Temptation - The deck lacks beef. The Sower is a way around that that contributes to the Fae theme and can be bounced and re-used with Riptide Laboratory.

Vendilion Clique - More Flash, disruption, and an aggressive body that contributes to the theme.

NOTE: No Scion of Oona. The Shroud hurts us decently. Can't equip, untap for an extra block with Pestermite, or bounce with Riptide Laboratory with Shroud. Also, only one lord in the deck doesn't help much; Fallout and such will still sweep most of the time.


CounterTop - quite simply the best permission package in the format, and we run a decent curve for it:
0 cmc: 20
1 cmc: 11
2 cmc: 13
3 cmc: 10
4 cmc: 2
5 cmc: 4

Brainstorm - Aids CounterTop, and the deck could use the moderate draw filtering. Still looking for a shuffle effect that would fit, though.

Force of Will - I'm running Blue.


Sword of Fire and Ice and Umezawa's Jitte - these are what enable us to win. Jitte is the utility, Sword is the beef. All of our creatures have evasion, so you should be able to get in with a Sword.

Aether Vial - See the top of the post.


Chrome Mox - Accel, pure and simple. Only 3 to lessen the chance of the dreaded two-Mox hand.

Riptide Laboratory - bounces our three best utility creatures, Spellstutter Sprite, Sower of Temptation, and Vendilion Clique.

Mutavault - I wanted more Fae for the Sprite but was low on slots, and the Vault fit the bill while dodging removal.

Island - You are only allowed to run these if you use the Unhinged version.




I need suggestions. I am currently unable to test this in my normal meta as I am home for the summer. I feel like the deck is low on CA, which could cause problems - if we don't find a Top for filtering or get a SoFI active, we can run out of steam rather quickly, although Riptide Lab's bounce should be able to help. I'm also looking for some decent shuffle effects for Top and Brainstorm help, and I'm hesitant to run Fetches, as I believe the deck may be mana-hungry and lowering the lands you draw could be dangerous, but I haven't tested. I'm up in the air over whether or not Chrome Mox is necessary, as the deck has a pretty low curve (and fun tricks with vial/Cloud of Fairies).

[Shanghi Knights]

i tried this deck once and i found it definitely needs speed like chrome mox so you can hit those crucial 1 drops (if the match up has them) with say spellshutter or counterbalance

just as a suggestion as a decent aggro deterant but put in Oona's gate warden its a strong one drop and can deal a creature a strong wither wound. (ex. goyf) plus adds to the faries count for spellshutter.

[Citrus-God]

If you're running Aether Vial, that means it needs moar Tarmogoyf and Trygon Predator.

[ScatmanX]

Ancestral Visions to provide CA have been tested? (I would suggest Standstill, but no MD bounce, kill or wasteland make it less than optimal)
Ponder istead of Brainstorm?

I guess that there isn´t much more you can add in the deck there.

[thesilentpyro]

I was seriously considering Standstill, as I run Vial and Mutavault, but I dunno what to take out for it.

And Brainstorm over Ponder 'cause it plays nicer with Counterbalance at instant speed. If Ponder were an instant, I'd run it in a heartbeat, but it's not.

[MTG-Fan]

a.) You have too many SoFis. SoFi is very expensive to use, and I really haven't found it efficient enough outside of decks that run Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors. In testing with my Faeries deck, Jitte has proven to be all you really need anyway. I wouldn't run more than 1-2 SoFi, max, and I'd run at least 3 Jitte.

b.) I really like Bitterblossom in Faeries because it turns Spellstutter into a hard counter, and if left unchecked it just wins the game for you. However, it seems like you don't want to splash black, so I guess you don't want Blossom.

c.) Engineered Plague kind of eats this deck alive. Faeries is good, and I've won some games with it, but if they ever land Plague, you just scoop it up on the spot.

[Citrus-God]

b.) I really like Bitterblossom in Faeries because it turns Spellstutter into a hard counter, and if left unchecked it just wins the game for you. However, it seems like you don't want to splash black, so I guess you don't want Blossom.

Why be reactive when you can just win? Play Goyf.


c.) Engineered Plague kind of eats this deck alive. Faeries is good, and I've won some games with it, but if they ever land Plague, you just scoop it up on the spot.

Goyf doesnt scoop to Plague.

[MTG-Fan]

Why be reactive when you can just win? Play Goyf.


The one reason to play Blossom over Goyf is that Goyf folds to lots of spot removal, whereas recurring Faerie tokens do not. It takes something like Pernicious Deed or Plague to effectively get rid of Blossom, and most of the stuff that affects Blossom is in the sideboards of most decks, and not maindeck like your typical spot removal suite.

And splashing green in a Faeries deck for one card is annoying.

[thesilentpyro]

No, but everything else in the deck does. Goyf is good, and can win games, but will not do it by himself when the other deck has Goyf AND active cards. MTG-Fan has a point. Also, Goyf weakens the manabase and makes it much more vulnerable to nonbasic hate (which is everywhere), and the deck has little synergy with Goyf as far as dumping shit in the graveyard goes. Goyf would probably still be a decent addition to the deck, but I'm hesitant to shift that many cards away from the base before I get the deck stable. (@MTG-Fan, if I were to splash Green, I'd also put some Grips in the board to get some more oomph out of the splash)

I see what you mean about SoFI, but I have a couple concerns about dropping it in favor of more Jittes: SoFI not being legendary means I can have multiple beaters wearing good equipment at the same time; with Jitte, I'd only have one, meaning a removal spell a turn, no matter how much mana I have, will keep me from getting it active, and Jitte is only slightly less mana-intensive (costs one less to get out, same to equip). Also, getting rid of the Sword does get rid of a bit of the draw in the deck, although I guess that would automatically open up some slots for me to start putting in Standstills, or maybe fill out CounterTop to the full 8 cards, as I don't have a way to tutor it up like Trinket Mage.

I'm not a fan of Bitterblossom in the deck; it helps the Sprite, but it can't be Vial'd in, requires a splash (see Goyf argument), and takes a turn to go active, and even then you've most likely spent a turn and a life to get one 1/1 flier with minor synergy IF the Blossom doesn't get Gripped in the meantime. Worthy of thought, but would be much better if I was running Scion.