A Thread for Modern Faeries
Modern forum
Posted on March 14, 2016, 12:31 a.m. by Sceadugenga
Here's a thread for those interested in discussing playing Faeries in Modern. Faeries is an aggro-control deck reliant on tribal synergies. The deck uses a flexible core of Spellstutter Sprite, Scion of Oona, Vendilion Clique, Mistbind Clique, and Mutavault powered by Bitterblossom. What do you think about straight UB? Needs a third color or can play the field? Esper, Grixis, or Sultai?
I think faeries should drop Scion of Oona. Replace it with Snapcaster Mage. Also add a Sword of War and Peace. I believe that faeries should stay U/B and stay away from shocks and fetches in there mana base. The U/B mana base is great with out it and you really don't want to be shocking yourself when you have a Bitterblossom in play. If you need Blood Moon protection that you could run Chromatic Lantern. There might be a better answer but that is what I have come up with.
March 14, 2016 12:42 a.m.
JexInfinite says... #4
Could go Grixis Faeries with Kolaghan's Command. Don't go full on faeries. You need the full 4 Spellstutter Sprites, 2 Vendilion Cliques, 4 Snaps, and 3-4 Mutavault. Scion of Oona and Mistbind Clique are not worth it.
March 14, 2016 12:50 a.m.
I think that Snapcaster Mage is interesting in Faeries, but I don't think its inclusion should come at the expense of Scion of Oona. That card turns Bitterblossom from a nuisance into a real threat, and I can't really see much reason to restrict myself to a tribe if I'm not running it. I think you take the lessons from tempo decks past (because that's what Faeries is - tempo) and you cut the 4+ drops. Keep everything at 1-3 mana, include a 1-drop such as Faerie Miscreant so that a T2 Spellstutter Sprite on the play has real bite to it, and the deck should be quick enough to get there against most foes in a post-Eldrazi meta. You're soft to sweepers, but you run counterspells, so that's fine.
March 14, 2016 1:23 a.m.
Ironically, the best versions of faeries I've seen or played against de-emphasis the tribal aspects - playing just Bitterblossoms, Vendilion Cliques, and just a few Spellstutter Sprite and Mistbind Clique. The nature of the cards that are good in the shell push you towards being controlling, and honestly if you want to play a tempo deck cards like Delver of Secrets Flip or Young Pyromancer are way better threats.
The issue has always been that quite frankly, with the exception of Bitterblossom and Vendilion Clique, the faerie cards don't stand up well on their own. The older extended deck could take the risks of drawing its cards out of order or in bad sequences simply because Thoughtseize+Bitterblossom was so good and could single-handedly win games, but that has been proven to not be as resilient and powerful in Modern. Most Modern decks are either playing with a bunch of independently strong cards or at least looking to combine a few mediocre ones to win on the spot. Something like say Tarmogoyf is almost never a bad top deck, but a lot of the faeries ask way too much out of your boardstate and the conditions of the game. And if the situation is wrong, you've basically drawn 1/4th a Lingering Souls instead of a real card.
March 14, 2016 2:30 a.m.
Sceadugenga says... #7
:D I'm glad to see there's interest in the deck. I've worked on Esper and Grixis variants to see what and how they can play in Modern. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but I don't compromise on the creature base and play minimalist faeries with a heavier control element. Results in testing to this point haven't been discouraging. Grixis list (Resurrection F) is better in metas with heavy low cmc creature builds (Affinity, for example) and Esper Esper Fae is generally better in metas with lots of combo and BG/x decks.
I don't think UB is correct with the current Modern cardpool we can access. The color pool has a decent range of options, but in most cases those options are not as flexible as they could or should be for the deck. I strongly suspect that an Ancestral Vision unbanning or an Innocent Blood printing will make UB playable, but not without one, the other, or a spell in colors of equivalent power.
APPLE01DOJ says... #2
What about a lower to the ground curve. There has been 2 1-drop fairies printed in recent sets that seem like they would be playable. Sorry I don't remember the names, 1 was from Ravnica and I forget what set the 2nd was from. Seems like a more Aggro build could work.
Also just saying, would be nice if we get an U/B sword.
March 14, 2016 12:37 a.m.