Near instant speed, tribal, faerie deck
This is my battle tested faerie deck, which can hold its own against the big boys. I'm hoping that other faerie players can be inspired or might have some ideas for me :)
Why play faeries?Ever tired of having to make the choice between saving mana for countermagic or risk playing important stuff with sorcery speed? With faeries you get to cast (almost) everything with instant speed!This deck is for the control player who would like the ability to play as reactively as you feel like. Ideally the deck puts pressure on the opponont for you, while you sit back ready to answer any threat he might want to cast. Blue/Black is one of the few combinations that let you truly mess with both the opponent's hand, stack and board. Blue provides countermagic and black provides discard and effective spot removal.
Faeries employ great versatility in almost every card and they synergize in multiple ways. Our cards are strong alone but even stronger together.
The Corehttps://es.magiccardmarket.eu/Cards/img/3fff01d7151edb8d41a074558abd4b67/cards/Judge_Rewards_Promos/bitterblossom.jpg
Bitterblossom is the card that puts us in a pleasant position as a control deck. We save our mana for control spells while the 1/1 fliers put a slow clock on the opponent. It's possible to win without it but it just makes things easier.
The Faerie tribal is an amazing bonus as it lets us champion Bitterblossom with Mistbind Clique and it improves the effectiveness of Spellstutter Sprite.
Beware of the life loss. Bitterblossom takes some time to build an advantage. We have to be careful of when we attack or block with the tokens. We need 4 turns before the tokens have dealt more damage than Bitterblossom has. And 7 turns before the tokens have dealt 21 damage for lethal. Ideally we can prevent the opponent from interacting, but if not we can remove Bitterblossom with either Mistbind Clique or Cryptic Command.
http://i.tcgplayer.com/15456.jpgCryptic Command is a powerhouse for blue and an all-in-one for faeries. Here is where it shows most potential. It fills the most important roles: denying attacks, countering spells, (soft)removal and stopping Bittterblossom suicide.
Tapping their creatures is invaluable when they have an overwhelming force as it buys us a turn. In the reverse it can open up an attack route for us if they have flying blockers.
The bounce ability provides us with an answer for stuff like planeswalkers and enchantments which we normally don't have. Ideally we can bounce and then counter, but buying time can also be crucial.
Naturally the counter effect is also a life saver. It lets us hardcounter big bad spells that a lategame Mana Leak could not have.
The CreaturesAll the faeries are not particularly durable but they all have a great impact just by resolving. This plays well into winning with an attrition strategy. They all fly which makes them unblockable for many decktypes and they have flash to make them playable whenever you need.
Mistbind Clique with a 4/4 flying body forces the opponent to do something and fast. We often want to resolve this in the opponent's beginning phase. He can only cast instants then. When the Mistbind dies we can potentially regain a Vendilion Clique.
Beware. We want make sure that we have a faerie to champion, or else Mistbind will fizzle. If the opponent can interact it might be too dangerous to cast.
Spellstutter Sprite is a lovely double barrel gun. Played right it can often work as well a Mana Leak and all the while provide a 1/1 faerie.
Vendilion Clique is so good that most blue control decks play up to 4. Getting a 3 power flier is good bang for the buck. But we also get the chance to spy on and manage the opponent's hand or cycle a card from out own hand. And with Scion he's protected and hits for 4.
Scion of Oona is the leader we need. With a few tokens we can quickly ramp up some damage. And having flash he can be played as a combat trick. Not only that. Providing shroud he can fizzle spot removal and debuffs on other faeries. Remember that Bitterblossom is also a faerie, which means that he can also save Bitterblossom from stuff like the uncounterable Abrupt Decay. However he's not cheap and can easily be removed and we don't want him unless we have other faeries for synergy. Hence I never play more than 2.
Batterskull can do a lot on it's own but is heavy to maintain. Hence I only play 1. It's offense and defense at the same time and importantly it counteracts Bitterblossom damage. It can maintain itself by bouncing and coming back or it can buff the faeries.
The ControlLiliana of the Veil is one of the few spells worth going sorcery speed for. She can control the whole situation incredibly well especially along with Bitterblossom. When you have your token generator you can afford to go without a hand as long as the opponent doesn't have one either. You can do this securely by going T1: Thoughtseize - T2: Bitterblossom - T3: Liliana. The sacrifice ability is invaluable for controlling the board especially against Bogle.
Countermagic
This is why we play flashy faeries. We want to keep up mana for countermagic. Countering is what makes us able to stop comboes and all kinds of cards besides creatures. We can counter really dangerous creatures but we can just use removal otherwise. We want to save countermagic for big baddies, at least if playing against combo. The nice thing about countering creatures is making sure that any "enter the battlefield" effects don't trigger.
1x Remand is not shining so bright in this deck but I like having one. We don't want to give our opponent certainty that our two mana counter magic is always a Mana Leak.2x Mana Leak these are important for early and midgame. in some matchups they can be played around but generally they are pretty strong.1x Condescend it lacks a bit in the early but it it great to have when games draw out.4x Cryptic Command the versatility! Apart from countering, you can buy yourself an extra turn to hit with the faerie rouges.Removal
Removal spells is our clean up for creatures that fell though our counter net. This happens a lot against aggro when the opponent throws down creatures before we have mana for countermagic. The fist 3 removal spells below are aggro oriented and the other 2 are everything else.
1x Bile Blight as a bit conditional and subpar as spot removal. But it is amazing when you have the chance to clear the board with it. Aggro can be a tough matcthup.2x Disfigure the deck doesn't offer many one mana spells. It can be very important to kill creatures early on. Or it can mean a great deal if you can squeeze in some removal with another spell.1x Dismember great removal. Very important that we're able to play this for at low mana cost. On the flip side it's a one off due the life cost.1x Victim of Night under appreciated removal. This hits almost anything played in Modern.Discard
Faeries are short on good one drops but spot discard fits in here nicely. Against Bogle you can win the game by discarding their hexproof creature. It's also invaluable to get to see their entire hand. However these lose potency as the game goes on.
2x Thoughtseize though the 2 life may hurt, we need something to pick off what Inquisition can't.3x Inquisition of Kozilek a lot of threats are under 4 mana cost. Not losing 2 life from Thoughtseize is important in this deck.The ManabaseIn my opinion faeries can't afford to pay life for fetchlands and shocklands nor do they need to. The deck is only two colors and allied colors have a lot of land options. I like to go for 24-26 lands including 6-8 man lands. This way you always get enough lands and they are less often dead cards. River of Tears is perfect, black mana on your turn (Liliana and discard) and blue on the opponent's (countermagic and faeries).
1x Cavern of Souls is not the most exciting when you don't have a lot of creatures. But just having one will not cause a lot of trouble for us and it might enable a late game Mistbind Clique against control.4x Creeping Tar Pit really pulls its own weight. Coming into play tapped we can be play around. Otherwise it just provides the right mana and can deal winning amounts of damage in standstill situations.3x Mutavault most people play 4, but i like 3. The colorless can be a big problem sometimes. That said Mutavault is really good especially in faeries. It gets buffed by Scion of Oona and can get championed by Mistbind Clique.
Sideboard2x Damnation you don't want too much mass removal as the deck has a fair amount of creatures. When needed I'd rather have Damnation than Drown in Sorrow as it reallt gets the job done.2x hurkyl's recall Affinity can be tough for faeries, so stalling for just one turn can be crucial.2x Ratchet Bomb mass removal is used reluctantly in a token deck. Ratchet Bomb is good since you can tailor it to take down specific cards, that can evade target removal.2x Relic of Progenitus versatile graveyard hate. The Relic does okay when you don't have access to Rest in Peace2x Sower of Temptation with Scion of Oona in the mix, this has more potential. It can nick bigger creatures than Threads of Disloyalty and turn the tide.2x Spellskite Makes a mess out of Splinter Twin decks. And it's always nice to nick their auras vs. Bogle and Infect.2x Surgical Extraction A stellar supplement to target discard. With this and say a Thoughtseize you can have a combo peice completely removed on turn 1. Also a good follow-up to counterspells.1x Sword of Feast and Famine untapping all lands is a huge advantage. You get to tap out to cast stuff with sorcery speed and then have mana up for control on the opponent's turn. Swap in for Batterskull.
