[Deck] Dreadnought is a Fairy

[SuckerPunch]

If you recall, I posted a standard Fairie Stompy list running a single Dreadnought along with 4 Trickbind a few months ago. The Dreadnoughts worked so well in that deck that I wish I saw that combo every game. That's what led me to create the below deck.

The below deck is absolutely incredible and I wouldn't be even the tiniest bit surprised to see it win a major tournament or two in the next few months. A Dreadnought with either FoW or Misdirection backing it up is often an autowin.

The only decks that have a shot of racing such a clock are fast combo, but fast combo decks have an incredibly difficult time against Trickbind/Stifle/Pithing Needle effects.

So here's my most up to date build of the deck...

// Mana
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
4 [TS] Island
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
3 [EX] City of Traitors
3 [ON] Polluted Delta
3 [ON] Flooded Strand
1 [MR] Seat of the Synod

// Beatsticks
4 [RV] Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 [FS] Infiltrator il-Kor
4 [RV] Serendib Efreet
4 [PR] Sea Drake

// Utility
4 [MM] Brainstorm
4 [ST] Stifle
4 [TS] Trickbind
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [FD] Trinket Mage
1 [SK] Pithing Needle
1 [FD] Sensei's Divining Top

//Sideboard
SB: 4 Chalice of the Void
SB: 3 Misdirection*
SB: 3 Maelstrom Djinn**
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 Bonesplitter
SB: 1 Pithing Needle

*Would work rather well in the maindeck.

**Should be replaced with Weatherseed Fairies if you expect to see a lot of goblins.

The sideboard is designed so that the deck can readily transform into a standard build of Fairie Stompy when facing a matchup such as Threshold that is extremely vulnerable to a Chalice set to one, or has numerous ways to counter or kill Dreadnought. Against certain thresh builds for example, I side out...

-4 Brainstorm
-4 Stifle
-3 Phyrexian Dreadnought
-1 Sensei's Divining Top

and side in...

+4 Chalice of the Void
+3 Maelstrom Djinn
+2 Misdirection
+2 Tormod's Crypt
+1 Engineered Explosives

Thats why the Djinn are in the board, to ensure that your threat count stays high enough to apply pressure even after siding out Dreadnought. For a while, I also ran 2 Umezawe's Jitte in the board for this reason, but didn't find them useful often enough. They may end up going back in if they are found to be needed as a way to deal with Goyf.

Another option that is worth considering as a way to deal with Goyf is to run a single fetchable dual land along with a maindeck Engineered Explosives. What do you guys think, should I be running Volcanic Island (Bluffs Pyroclasm, PoP) or Tundra (Bluffs StP, Armageddon) as my one of?

The one thing that probably sticks out the most is that so many of the one of Trinket Mage targets wound up in the sideboard. Initially, the idea of resolving a Dreadnought, then fetching a Chalice and setting it at one to stop StP was very appealing. So was setting Chalice at zero to stop storm's LEDs, setting EE at zero to blow up Matron tokens, fetching Tormod's Crypt to empty the thresh player's yard, or using Bonesplitter to put the control player on a three turn clock even after they managed to kill off your Dreadnought. But in my particular meta, these situations seem to either come up fairly rarely or were overkill. The deck had plenty of tools against storm based decks without Chalice and EE. And it usually had little difficulty racing Threshold without Tormod's Crypt. For the most part, the only cards that I ever fetched with Trinket Mage were either Dreadnought, or Sensei's Divining Top to help me find a Stifle/Trickbind. The Pithing Needle sometimes proved to be a life saver against Wastelands and such so they stayed. But EE, Bonesplitter, Tormod's Crypt and Chalice of the Void all eventually got booted to the board.

Tormod's Crypt, Chalice of the Void, Bonesplitter and Engineered Explosives (accompanied by a Volcanic Island) probably deserve to be in the maindeck as one ofs in a more competitive environment, as maindeck tools against control, threshold and combo respectively, but they just weren't being fetched often enough in my particular meta and I just couldn't figure out what to cut to make room for them. Cutting threats seems to only make the deck overly dependent on Dreadnought. Misdirection (and arguably Psionic Blast) create a similar problem. Misdirection especially seems very viable in order to protect Dreadnought from removal, but there just doesn't seem to be anything that can be cut without making the deck inconsistent and overly dependent on Dreadnought to go the distance.

Even the current number of threats sometimes seems inadequate. This is why I keep going back and forth between Brainstorm and a 2/2 split between Misdirection and Maelstrom Djinn in that slot. Some days, the deck feels too vulnerable to removal and too light on threats multiple games in a row and I end up replacing the Brainstorm with Misdirection and Maelstrom Djinn. Then, the deck starts feeling too threat heavy, and I end up switching back to Brainstorm.

As for why Juggernaut wasn't considered. A part of me used to support running Juggernaut over Maelstrom Djinn before Tarmogoyf took over legacy. But Goyf has a way of making a 4cc vanilla 5/3 that is required to attack each turn and can't be pitched to either FoW or Chrome Mox obselete. In fact, Goyf has a way of making any creature without evasion (with the notable exception of Dreadnought) obselete.

This is all very meta dependent though. Depending on the decks that show up the most often in your meta, of if you plan to take this list to a competitive tourney, going...

-6 Infiltrator il-Kor/Brainstorm
-1 Island

+1 Volcanic Island
+1 Tormod's Crypt
+1 Bonesplitter
+1 Chalice of the Void
+1 Engineered Explosives
+2 Misdirection

might well be the correct call.

Props to ParkerLewis for suggesting the second part of the name.