[DTW] Faerie Stompy

I'm going to try looter in Cloud's spot. I always seem to run into not having what I want in my hand when I need it (a psi blast to finish off a combo player about to go off on me, binding grasp on akroma when i'm at 3, etc etc.)

Another note:

I've lost count of the number of times trinket mage has saved me. They cast a pernicious deed or some other lame card and the trinket mage is there to fetch me a needle or something, and it's all over. I <3 trinket mage. The synergy in this deck is perfect.

Looter il-Kor doesn't seem a bad card in this deck. On attack at least as good as Cloud of Faeries and Sea Sprite and it digs your deck. You can then discard those extra moxes, lands and anything else you don't need. It can't block so it will never work at defence unless you draw something from it's attacking. It obviously doesn't replace Cloud of Faeries because of it's untapping lands effect but it's a better card than Sea Sprite unless you are facing Goblins.

I really think we should give this guy a try as it has great potential. Put a jitte or a sword on it and it will kick ass (like all or creatures but this one surely can't be blocked). Also the only way to kill it is removal as shadow is rarely seen (I doubt you'll ever see any shadow creature).

So what spot can this card take? Maybe the lone Sea Sprite in MD but I think at least 3 are needed.

I'll repost my list so you can help me finding a place for it:
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
6 Island
2 Seat of the Synod
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Sea Drake
1 Sea Sprite
3 Trinket Mage
2 Shoreline Ranger
4 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Chrome Mox
3 Psionic Blast
4 Force of Will
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Sea Sprite
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives
SB: 3 Misdirection
SB: 3 Binding Grasp
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 Winter Orb

Also Engineered Explosives has never come in handy for me. Anyone thinks it's a necessary card?

Finally, someone else is willing to try Looter-il-Kor. It really is a very effective card. Your opponent doesn't want to use removal on it either because they would rather save the removal for your Sea Drakes. You could replace the Sea Sprite and possibly a single Thirst for Knowledge. I haven't been completely happy with Thirst. I'm not sure on the Shoreline Ranger either. You could go back to 9 blue sources and 0 Rangers.

How good has Ranger been. It eats up mana to fetchlands with isn't good in a deck that's meant to be very fast. It pitchable but so is Looter. And it just a 3/4 for a whooping 6 mana so I don't see myself hardcastign it. Like Cloud of Fairies it serves many functions. But unlike Cloud, I don't think any of those functions are all that powerful or unique. But I could be wrong.

Explosives I think should always be in the side atleast as a 1 of. It kills Vial, Lackey, Mongoose, Pithing Needle, tons of stuff for something you can fetch for as needed.

I think I'll try this list:

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
7 Island
2 Seat of the Synod
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Sea Drake
3 Looter il-Kor
3 Trinket Mage
4 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Chrome Mox
3 Psionic Blast
4 Force of Will
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Sea Sprite
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives
SB: 3 Misdirection
SB: 3 Binding Grasp
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 Winter Orb

How I have a question: should I take 1 Binding Grasp out of the SB to add one more Sea Sprite?

Awesome, the looks identical to my current list with the only acception being that I run 2 Looter and 4 Trinket Mages (I'm a big fan of Mages though) and on occasion run 1 Rushing River in place of a Jitte or Psionic Blast or something.

I don't know if I would go below 3 Binding Grasp. Your SB might be fine as is, or you can cut something else for the Sea Sprite if you want.

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Originally Posted by Clark Kant

Awesome, the looks identical to my current list with the only acception being that I run 2 Looter and 4 Trinket Mages (I'm a big fan of Mages though) and on occasion run 1 Rushing River in place of a Jitte or Psionic Blast or something.

I don't know if I would go below 3 Binding Grasp. Your SB might be fine as is, or you can cut something else for the Sea Sprite if you want.

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Maybe looters are better than thirst because this way you have more creatures for equipments... About Graps... It seems for me that its upkeep could be some troublesome to pay it...

I wouldn't drop Grasps, especially with an increasing amount of different 'big critters'-decks being played. It's a simple 2-for-1 against many creature-decks and you can even get incredible quality-advantage by stealing something like Exalted Angel or Loxodon Hierarch (it'll be a 4/5, which makes all the difference in the world against a deck with 4/4s as the big guns). Less than 3 is too few, definately not the way to go. Grasps are really good, just stick to 'em. Heck, occasionally, if VERY rarely, you might even want to cast one on your own guy to pump the toughness out of Bolt-range.

I know the power of Grasps but it's just that I think I only boarded them in one game! Maybe it's just that in MWS no one uses those big creature decks.

I'm having tons of issues with any deck running astral slide vs. Faerie Stompy. Anything to do about this? I lose all the big beats and equipment, I can't FoW them with only 4 in the deck oftentimes, and I certainly can't chalice for 3.

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Originally Posted by DrogbaPT

I know the power of Grasps but it's just that I think I only boarded them in one game! Maybe it's just that in MWS no one uses those big creature decks.

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MWS might not represent the meta accurately and especially after big tournaments, people are just playing the big decks from those tourneys. Here's a short list of what Grasp is good against:
Angel Stompy
Mirror
Zilla Stompy
EBA
Thres (if they run Mystics/Dragons and perhaps Pikulas)
Survival-builds (the ones not dependant on Survival itself)
BW Conf (I usually side some in and steal Nantuko Shades, Confidants and stuff like that if something goes horribly wrong and the games goes very long)
Any sort of deck that swings with dudes really, unless they're really cheap dudes, like in Goblins.

Yeah I know MWS isn't good to get to know the metagame. It's only good to learn how to play the deck and get to know some decks you will face. But most players are very bad. Once I was playing against goblins. He had vial untapped and on his turn he played Goblin Matron and got a goblin that costed 2. He had 2 counters on vial. At eot he didn't play the goblin and on his turn he played it paying it's mana cost. I was like WTF??? And it would matter because it was the goblin that you pay R and tap and destroys target artifact and I had jitte in play with no counters (had to use them to kill a even more important goblin he had in play and I though my jitte would get killed!).

Now on looter: I tested it and it's amazing! When you seem you can't draw the right cards and you really need a jitte or a sword with one or 2 looters it gets much easier to get those equipments.

And about Trinket Mage. It's a great card in this deck but I don't want for of them. If it actually could get artifacts with converted mana cost 2 or less I would put 4 because they could tutor jitte but it will never get us a threat so I think 3 is the best option.

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Originally Posted by DrogbaPT

And about Trinket Mage. It's a great card in this deck but I don't want for of them. If it actually could get artifacts with converted mana cost 2 or less I would put 4 because they could tutor jitte but it will never get us a threat so I think 3 is the best option.

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The whole point of trinket mage is to fetch you needle, seat of the synod, chalice of the void or chrome mox, depening on what you need. I've never had a problem finding equipment even without drawing into it - there are at least 7 in my deck.

Well MWS shuffler is not exactly the same as shuffling yourself and sometimes I have 2 or 3 creatures in play but no equipment. Trinket Mage isn't going to solve anything in the late game (sometimes it will bring you the needle but if you want something to win the game you'll have to draw it. That's why I don't run 4 Trinket Mages. And I like having 3 Looters (even wanted 4 but I guess it would be worse if I cutted anything else).

Last sunday I went to a 25 people tournament with this list:

//NAME: Faerie Stompy
// Mana
7 Island
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Chrome Mox
2 Seat of the Synod
// Creatures
4 Sea Drake
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Trinket Mage
2 Phyrexian War Beast
// Others
4 Force of Will
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Psionic Blast
1 Pithing Needle
// Sideboard
SB: 3 Misdirection
SB: 3 Binding Grasp
SB: 3 Trinisphere
SB: 3 Winter Orb
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Pithing Needle

I have to say that is an awesome deck, but I think that we need to improve its land count. I losed 2 rounds (of 5) because I didn't draw lands. In one match against some angel stompy deck I mulliganed to 4 with a single island in each mulligan!

In another match I losed because I didn't draw creatures with a single chalice @1.

I think that maybe we can quit the 4 TfK and add the 4 Looters, this way we have more creatures and don't lose the digging function of Thirst thanks to looters.

Anyway, I see me a lot of times with only 3-4 mana and drawing a thirst, then if I play it I have to wait another turn to play the cards I draw with it, with looters we draw without spending mana.

Thougths?

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... I think that we need to improve its land count. I losed 2 rounds (of 5) because I didn't draw lands. In one match against some angel stompy deck I mulliganed to 4 with a single island in each mulligan!

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I totally agree. I ran 23 mana sources at TMLO and 22 at DFD. And I think 22 is low.

I've been running the below decklist for a while and i'm prety happy with it.

4 Cloud of Faeries
3 Looter il-Kor
4 Sea Drake
4 Serendib Efreet
3 Trinket Mage


Spells
4 Force of Will
3 Psionic Blast
2 Thirst for Knowledge


Artifacts
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
1 Pithing Needle
4 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Umezawa's Jitte


Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
7 Island
2 Seat of the Synod

I guess I could see cutting 1 psi blast for an island, but then all we are doing is lowering the # of blue cards we have in the deck to ditch to FoW and Chrome. Also, I've been doing a lot of testing with looter and I'm still not sure how much I like it. The casting cost of 1U is quite awkward because most of the time we will have 2U or U. Cloud of faeries works because it untaps the lands and allows us to play something else, but more often then not I've just ditched looter to a FoW or a Mox. Games where it wasn't a hastle to play and I started attacking, it was excellent. I just loved the look on my opponents face when I equiped it with a SoFI and drew 2 cards. The kind of card advantage you get from that situation is just nutts.

I think my final result is that it's good, but not great. I think it has a place in this deck somewhere, but just maybe not a 3-of. I'll probably lower the count to 2 once I do some more testing.

@Kronicler: I like your list, but I would be extremely careful about cutting Sea Sprites in the current meta. If the D4D results proved anything, it's that Goblins is still the best and most played deck in Legacy. We do not want our matchup to with Goblins to slip closer to 50/50, which I know it will if we drop Sea Sprite.

Also, I really like running 3 TfKs, but dropping to 2 isn't a huge deal.

So, am I the only one who thinks that Academy Ruins is very good in this deck?

Cryptlock against Threshold can only be labelled "fun"
It can also give you an excellent out against Solidarity for a turn or two.
Jittes, Needles, etc. all come back at your leisure.

Can this deck manage any more nonblue mana sources? If it can, this card is quite brilliant.

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Originally Posted by Finn

So, am I the only one who thinks that Academy Ruins is very good in this deck?

Cryptlock against Threshold can only be labelled "fun"
It can also give you an excellent out against Solidarity for a turn or two.
Jittes, Needles, etc. all come back at your leisure.

Can this deck manage any more nonblue mana sources? If it can, this card is quite brilliant.

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It can't, but I've been thinking of the card too. I've come to the conclusion that it alone might be worth going to 23 or even 24 lands for, except that they don't solve the 'coloured'-issue. It makes me want artifact-creatures all the more though :/ Also, going up in lands takes out other cards. I don't know, perhaps the card is more suited for 5/3 with blue, since that deck needs less blue sources, plays more lands overall (and is able to utilize them), and has artifact creatures to recycle. I'll have to look into trying to fit it in. But as said, the big problem is that we'd really want to increase the number of blu sources, not decrease it.

I did a little testing with it (Academy Ruins) when I first found out about the card. I agree that it is very good, but not great without artifact creatures (I would guess at least 8). I would say that lack of creatures is a much bigger problem in our losses than lack of equipment or other artifacts.

It was pretty incredible post board bringing back Crypts, Needles, and even more amazingly, Explosives.

Brainstorming, Juggernaut has already proven effective. Ornithopter was previosly discarded because it couldn't get a Jitte going (that's why I went with Rotothopter), and Eladriel has had some success with Phyrexian Maurader. War Beast is also a thought.

It's an interesting idea, but it's also a huge change to a successful deck and would bring about some more problems. Namely, even fewer cards to pitch to FoW and Mox.