Squadron Faeries

[miko]

I think this deck is going to have some good results in the future:

Lands:

2 Karakas
4 Wastelands
2 Plains
3 Islands
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
= 19

Creatures:
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Serra Avenger
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Vendilion Clique
=19

Other spells:
4 Spell Pierce
4 Brainstorm
2 Path to Exile
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Aether Vial
=18

Equipments:
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire/Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
=4

Sideboard:
3 Leonin Relic-Warden
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Path to Exile
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Dispel
1 Sword of Body and Mind

Why should one play that deck?

The idea of this deck is to abuse both: Squadron Hawk and Stoneforge Mystic and the card advantage created by their cip-triggers. I agree that the deck looks pretty similar to Death and Taxes but I chose the Faeries subtype because it supports our equiped creatures. Spellstutter Sprites protect them from removal (Swords, etc.) and wear equipments at the same time. (That makes them better than Mothers, I argue.)

I chose to play Clique, too, because of several reasons: 1. Synergies: a) Sprite b) Karakass 2. Makes decisions easier: I usually play Clique before I need to do something of great importance. I dont like to run into counters or being caught by surprise.

Squadron Hawk actually is very good! While testing, he used to be like an Ancestral Recall. (Holding back Brainstorm drawing three Hawks, cast BS, put back two hawks, fetch - 2 more cards in your hand.)

We also have to advantage of not playing green. This is really important since more and more players (especially because of Green Sun's Zenith) play Perrish in their boards.

Playing a lot of basics and a relatively low number of fetchlands is good agains tempo decks and decks abusing Life from the Loam. (Stifle, Wasteland, etc...)

The sideboard is pretty straightforward: Removals, Relic-Warden, gy-hate (we do not need the GY at all) and Dispel (against removal and storm as well, ...). I added a Sword of Body and Mind, too just to beat Goyf and Knight of the Reliquary.

[sco0ter]

Why no Force of Will?

Other than that I'd play Meddling Mage somewhere in the 75, and maybe I'd try Pride of the Clouds instead of Serra Avenger.

I don't think you need that much removal, if you already play 2 Jitte and SoFaI.

[miko]

I don't have enough blue cards that I could pitch ;)
Pride looks pretty interesting. But I'm not sure if it has the same power level that Avenger has. Meddling Mage might be a substitution for Ethersworn Canonist, but I cannot play Meddling Mage due to my prediction skills.

[forsmark]

I've been down this road before, playing UW fish with flying, quick disruption and equipment to beef them up. But in the end, it's hard to argue not running green. Green gives you efficient beaters that don't need a Jitte or a Sword to smash face, but does it better than everything else when they have it. Long story short, as long as Tarmogoyf, Qasali Pridemage and Knight of the Reliquary is available, you'll be hard pressed to make up for not playing them in these kinds of agro control strategies.

[sco0ter]

I don't have enough blue cards that I could pitch ;)


You have 15 blue cards... + 4 FoW is 19, which should be enough. Usually 17 are enough already. Cut 2 Path, 1 Stoneforge and something else.

[ivanpei]

I agree with Forsmark, Flyers + equipment are not very good in legacy. Sometimes, standard beefy dudes like Goyf/KOTR are just simpler and better. To really get going, you are too heavily dependent on equipment. A well timed removal spell on a creature in response to equip- GG. You just lost too much tempo. In legacy, equipment should be viewed as a "back up" plan and not be depended on. Half the decks in legacy plays pridemage too. Stoneforge-> Jitte-> Equip is 6 mana and can be stopped by 1 mana STP or a Pridemage. The tempo you lose is just insane. Some constructive suggestions: Play mother of runes. This helps you protect your dudes from removal when equipping. You also should have mutavaults instead of wastes. Most probably you will be the control deck. You are slower than almost every single aggro deck in legacy so you likely won't be wastelanding and will be using the mana to play equipment and equipping. Vaults at least assist the spellstutter plan. Cheers!

[Mr. Safety]

I'm not sure if anyone will agree with me, but I feel the only way to use Spellstutter Sprite in legacy is with Bitterblossom and Mutavault. *virtual shrug* my opinion, take it or leave it.

[LegacyInferno]

I'm not sure if anyone will agree with me, but I feel the only way to use Spellstutter Sprite in legacy is with Bitterblossom and Mutavault. *virtual shrug* my opinion, take it or leave it.

I completely agree. A buddy of mine had a Fae CounterTop deck, it was janky at best, but when I suggested to him he add bitterblossom it totally turned around his deck from blah to smack down.

[Parax]

I completely agree. A buddy of mine had a Fae CounterTop deck, it was janky at best, but when I suggested to him he add bitterblossom it totally turned around his deck from blah to smack down.

You just made Safety's day :P

[miko]

I actually tested the list today. There were 50 people attending and i went 4-1-1 being 5th after the Swiss. My matchups: TEPS 2-1, a friend of mine (we IDed just because of the good weather), Counterrebells 2-1, Dredge 2-1, Goblins 2-1, Green and Taxes 0-2. I got a revised Plateau.

All in all I really liked the deck a lot, but I would definitely bring in Grunts.

[Mr. Safety]

You just made Safety's day :P

Yeah, it did! ;)

I've also tried doing fae countertop...and I HATED it. Just too much distraction from what faeries does best, which is sit on the card advantage of Bitterblossom and Standstill while keeping mana open for control. Too often it came down to: Bitterblossom turn 2 or Counterbalance turn 2...if you stop and think about it, pretty much all CounterTop players will do turn 2 CB (hopefully with Daze/FoW backup if they need it) but Bitterblossom gets incrementally WORSE as the game moves forward, so you basically HAVE to play Bitterblossom turn 2. Now that turn 3 CB doesn't look so hot because your opponent has gotten a decent opportunity to get some plays in. I felt it had to be one or the other, and if you're talking faeries, the choice HAS to be Bitterblossom. So CB/Top had to go. When you have Brainstorm and Stanstill available, you really don't need the manipulation of Top either. You also get to drop Trinket Mage (which further distracts the faeries strategy) for more counterspells like Spell Snare/Spell Pierce.

I know many people will disagree with this, but faeries is a hard-control strategy in legacy, not aggro control. Mistbind Clique is too overcosted for the format, and Oona's Prowler is just asking for trouble vs. Dredge/Reanimator/graveyard based decks. I tried CounterTop, Thopter/Sword, Tombstalker/Tempo, and even Scepter/Chant with faeries...and it just never did what I wanted it to do, which is create inevitability. There are better decks at taking advantage of tempo (Tempo Thresh, Deadguy Ale, Death and Taxes, UWTempo), CounterTop has it's own established list that does just fine so adding in Spellstutter and other less powerful options actually weakens the deck, Thopter/Sword actually works best with CounterTop and a really cool Enlightened Tutor synergy, and Scepter/Chant is a fairly weak option in legacy right now due to the amount of maindeck Pridemages and sideboarded hate for the resurgance of Affinity.

One last thought on Tombstalker: sure he's awesome, but the BB was always difficult for me to muster while still trying to keep my Island count high enough for early Daze to be effective. If you're playing only 2 colors, it is smart to keep a high basic count to be resilient to Wasteland.

*virtual shrug* Just my opinion, take it or leave it...