Post SoA: Ubx Faeries

You know them, you love them or you hate them, either way they're still here!

UBw Bitches

4 Mistbind Clique
4 Scion of Oona
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Vendillion Clique

4 Agony Warp
4 Bitterblossom
4 Cryptic Command
4 Esper Charm (This is Ben's tech.)
2 Negate
3 Remove Soul

Manabase is incomplete!
4 Mutavault
4 Secluded Glen
Reflecting Pool
Vivids
Etc.

Fuck! I think this deck got better!

UBW Fags

4 Terror
1 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Cryptic Command
4 Bitterblossom
4 Esper Charm
4 Remove Soul

4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Scion of Oona
4 Mistbind Clique

2 Fetid Heath
4 Secluded Glen
4 Mystic Gate
4 Vivid Marsh
3 Mutavault
4 Vivid Creek
4 Reflecting Pool

Sideboard:
3 Wrath of God
2 Runed Halo (kinda ambitious but should be fine)
3 Consign to Dream
2 Razormane Masticore
4 Thoughtseize
1 Mind Shatter (might be a better option somewhere)

Also of interest to me is UBWG Merfolk/Fae/Wizards hybrid with Colossus and both the UBW and UGW Charms.

Actually that list needs 3-4 painlands and preferably fewer Vivids, maybe 1-2 Faerie Conclaves if you like them (I don't). But you get the idea.

I like the Hammer! I'm not so sure about the Terror. I guess it depends on how popular the Esper Shard is. 4x Remove Soul should be good, especially at first since Aggro will be played out the ass! Also, your SB seems cool since Damnation is gone. Runed Halo should work.

4 Agony Warp
1 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Cryptic Command
4 Bitterblossom
4 Esper Charm
4 Condemn

4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Vendilion Clique
4 Mistbind Clique
2 Sower of Temptation

4 Underground River
4 Secluded Glen
4 Mystic Gate
4 Mutavault
2 Vivid Creek
4 Arcane Sanctum
4 Reflecting Pool

Sideboard:
4 Wrath of God
2 Runed Halo
2 Razormane Masticore
1 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Thoughtseize
2 Mind Shatter

I might try a list with Green for Bant Charm and Doran, I dunno yet. I hated Doran in Lark but you might be able to leverage him better in Faeries. Not sure how good Scion and Sower are yet. I like Scion more now that he protects Blossom from Esper Charm. Also might play Guttural Response for that purpose if I have green. I really like the idea of having Condemn, Wrath, and Halo in Faeries to improve the aggro matchups. You're still really solid against control, and Condemn even helps against Kitchen Finks or whatever. I'll try this out tonight and see what goes.

I think this is my 75 for States.

// Lands
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Vivid Creek
4 Secluded Glen
3 Mutavault
3 Sunken Ruins
1 Underground River
3 Adarkar Wastes
4 Arcane Sanctum

// Creatures
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Mistbind Clique
3 Vendilion Clique

// Spells
4 Condemn
4 Agony Warp
4 Bitterblossom
4 Esper Charm
4 Cryptic Command
3 Remove Soul
1 Loxodon Warhammer

// Aggro board
SB: 4 Wrath of God
SB: 3 Runed Halo
SB: 1 Loxodon Warhammer
// Control board
SB: 2 Glen Elendra Archmage
SB: 1 Mind Shatter
SB: 4 Thoughtseize

ran the edits, Sower sucked and I tweaked the mana.

Hammer might be alright in the mirror. It's hard to get these numbers to work out.
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Vivid Creek
4 Secluded Glen
4 Mutavault
3 Mystic Gate
3 Underground River
4 Arcane Sanctum

4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Mistbind Clique
3 Vendilion Clique

1 Oona’s Grace
3 Wrath of God
4 Condemn
4 Bitterblossom
4 Esper Charm
4 Cryptic Command
2 Remove Soul
1 Loxodon Warhammer

Sideboard:
1 Wrath of God
3 Runed Halo
1 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Thoughtseize
2 Wispmare
2 Jace Beleren

Kithkin
-1 Esper Charm
-1 Vendilion Clique
+1 Wrath of God
+1 Loxodon Warhammer

Monored
-4 Esper Charm
+3 Runed Halo
+1 Loxodon Warhammer

Mirror
-3 Wrath
-4 Condemn
-1 Warhammer
+4 Thoughtseize
+2 Glen Elendra Archmage
+2 Wispmare

5cc
-3 Wrath
-4 Condemn
-1 Warhammer
+4 Thoughtseize
+2 Glen Elendra Archmage
+2 Jace

That looks really good! Wrath md?! Cool!

I actually tried Wrath main last night and hated it. -1 Vendilion Clique -3 Wrath +4 Agony Warp, -1 Vivid Creek +1 Underground River. I need to redo the SB now.

I'm also considering straight UB Faeries:

4 Mistbind Clique
3 Scion of Oona
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Vendilion Clique

4 Agony Warp
4 Cryptic Command
2 Remove Soul
1 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Terror
2 Jace Beleren
3 Thoughtseize
4 Bitterblossom

5 Island
3 Swamp
1 Faerie Conclave
4 Mutavault
4 Secluded Glen
4 Sunken Ruins
4 Underground River

Sideboard:
1 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Infest
2 Flashfreeze
2 Terror
2 Oona, Queen Of The Fae
2 Mind Shatter
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Thoughtseize

I would definitely play the fourth Infest, probably instead of the fourth Terror. Other than your aidsy Conclave and one too many Swamps, it looks good.

It's things like this why I really like Frank Karsten's deckbuilding style:

Karsten's Faeries deck ... featured some unusual choices. Lots of head turning one-ofs, basically: Vendilion Clique, Broken Ambitions, Jace Beleren, Loxodon Warhammer, and Ponder all. Of these, I find Ponder to be the most interesting. Frank wanted another land but he didn't actually want to play another land ... Hence splitting the difference with a singleton Ponder, which is sometimes a land, sometimes a legitimate spell.

Here is his list:

Frank Karsten's Faeries
2008 Worlds Top 8

Main Deck
60 cards

2 Faerie Conclave
5 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Secluded Glen
4 Sunken Ruins
2 Swamp
4 Underground River
(25 lands)

4 Mistbind Clique
4 Scion of Oona
2 Sower of Temptation
4 Spellstutter Sprite
1 Vendilion Clique
(15 creatures)

4 Agony Warp
4 Bitterblossom
1 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command
1 Jace Beleren
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Ponder
2 Remove Soul
2 Thoughtseize
(20 other spells)

Sideboard
1 Fathom Trawl
2 Flashfreeze
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Infest
1 Negate
1 Peppersmoke
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Terror
2 Thoughtseize

Karsten is known for his scientific approach to deck building and play. He computed all the data he could muster from various States list and other major events to find his "average list". Pretty cool and it worked for him this time.

He could just play some games or think about what cards he actually wants in what matchups and then cut the bad cards, or he could do some math that makes no sense in regards to deckbuilding.

True, true. He said he didn't have the time to "test" hence he used his data crunching to build a deck. Most def not a substitute for actual play testing.

I've been scouring some different forums and doing some reading and I've come to realize that even with all the hate for this deck, it is still quite possibly the best in standard. I've been trying to figure out a way to make u/b/w fae work, as I believe mark of the asylum is a fairly decent answer to what the 'fae hate' cards try to do. Since I'm not a deck building mastermind, or a high level player I'm kind of hoping that ben, sam, or even kiwi can chime in here and help a cracker out..

I've heard that U/B is still the way to go. Nyxathid is probably pretty good vs RDW. You usually have enough things to kill their guys and often counter enough spells, but it's hard to actually kill them if you don't draw enough Mistbind Cliques (and manage to keep guys to champion alive).

You could certainly try some splashes, but I don't think they do anything you need them to do. Edit: I don't know why you like that card so much, but honestly Mark of the Asylum doesn't sound half bad. Depending on how good Path to Exile is I could be convinced of the white splash.

I kind of think you need some serious card advantage spells to keep up with 5cc, so Tidings or something sounds good. They are probably going to have 6-8 Volcanic Fallouts and Cloudthreshers postboard, so you need to have a lot of threats probably. A problem I see with the matchup is that you don't do enough proactive things. You normally have to be pretty patient with many of your cards and find times to use them when they'll be most effective. That means you're not going to empty your hand fast enough to take advantage of Tidings a lot of times. A solution I could see would be proactive things like as many Thoughtseize as possible, and even Vendilion Clique, since even though I'm not really in love with the ability it at least does something and is a pretty decent threat on its own. I'm looking for cards that you can play out pretty soon after you draw them, yet do something relevant.

Puppeteer Clique could possibly be used instead of Tidings, since when you think about current 5c lists, they usually have 4 Mulldrifters and Cloudthreshers after board. Glen Elendra Archmage is certainly still good. I think Terror should be at least a 3-of since it kills Plumeveil, which is seriously annoying. Not sure about the right number of Conclaves or a singleton Reflecting Pool, but a Pool seems better if you have the 4th Underground River to reduce pain among other things. I'm going to say "fuck Scion" for now, but I've probably been playing too much Extended (and that's not very much). I almost always scrap Scions only to come back to them after playing some games.

4 Secluded Glen
4 Underground River
4 Sunken Ruins
4 Mutavault
2 Faerie Conclave
4 Island
2 Swamp
1 Reflecting Pool

4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Mistbind Clique
3 Sower of Temptation
2 Vendilion Clique

2 Agony Warp
4 Terror
4 Cryptic Command
4 Bitterblossom
3 Broken Ambitions
3 Thoughtseize
2 Tidings/Fathom Trawl

Rundown of SB options:
Flashfreeze: RDW, 5cc, midrange
Puppeteer Clique, Jace: 5cc
Tidings, Fathom Trawl, extra Thoughtseizes, extra Vendilion Cliques, Negate: 5cc, mirror
Glen Elendra Archmage: 5cc. I probably wouldn't want these for the mirror due to Sower
Nyxathid: RDW
Infest: White decks
Extra Sowers: White decks, midrange trash, mirror
Peppersmoke: Mirror, don't know if these are good vs White, probably fine vs RDW especially BDW w/Blossom
Plumeveil: might be fine in the mirror or vs RDW. Especially decent vs midrange with manlands.
Extra Terrors/Agony Warps: I don't like these but they could be fine vs random dude decks
Oona: what we had to resort to pre-Nyxathid. Seems unneccessary now.
Curse of Chains: I mean, if you really can't Sower a Colossus...
Liliana Vess: I guess 5cc/mirror. I'm not a fan, but some Japs had 1 at Worlds.
Loxodon Warhammer: Probably too clunky, and much worse if your opponent is good.

Hopefully that's exhaustive enough for you.