Wild Research: Pondering Anew - Faeries with M2010
by Patrick Wild
Editors’ note: If the user feedback is positive, we are considering making “Wild Research” a weekly installment. Make sure to rate the article and express your opinion in the comments section. Thank you.
Spoiler warning: This article contains M2010 spoilers About the author
Patrick Wild is a Swiss Magic player. He began his Magic playing career with Legacy events in 1998 and then moved on to play other formats such as Standard and Extended. Patrick also plays countless Vintage tournaments and won the Swiss Vintage National Championship in 2008. As an experienced tournament player, he has played in several PTQs and Grand Prix, it is his goal to qualify for the Pro Tour, and he pursues that goal with utmost dedication.
Hi everyone! As you have already read in the about the author section my main goal is to qualify for the Pro Tour and the two most common ways of accomplishing that, are either winning a PTQ or qualifying for Worlds through the National championship. A good Grand Prix finish is also a possibility. However, compared to the other two, if you only make top 16 in a Grand Prix you usually still have to pay quite a bit by yourself to get to the Pro Tour - first, there are the expenses for the Grand Prix and second, the costs for the trip to the ProTour location, which can't be ignored unless you finish in the Top 8 or the ProTour is held in your neighborhood.
There are two reasons why I'm writing this article (and hopefully many more to come!). First, I think many players visiting Blackborder.com are in a similar situation as me – players who like the competitive side of the game and who want to break through to the pro level, but haven't gotten there yet. I think you can gain a lot by watching the struggles and experiences of a player in a similar stage as you are in.
Second, by having your feedback, I hope I can improve as a player and as a writer, helping me in my quest to get to the Pro Tour and write articles about it. So feel free to add any comments, critiques and suggestions – everybody will benefit from that.
In the first installment of "Wild Research", I want to talk about Faeries in Standard (Click here for a sample decklist), as Standard is the current PTQ format and is also an integral part of the upcoming Nationals all around the world.
Why Faeries? The deck has been talked about a lot and it is a deck that will rotate out soon, after Zendikar arrives and Lorwyn block rotates out. Still, Faeries remains a flexible deck with a very high power-level, as it plays some of the most powerful cards in the format, built into a synergistic package. The deck is also well-positioned in the post-M2010 metagame, but more on that later. What also drew me to the deck was the ability to outplay others by tactical bluffing. In comparison to other decks, Faeries offers so much psychological advantage by representing a lot of potential options at the same time. As an example, imagine playing against a Faerie player who has a Secluded Glen, two Islands, a Sunken Ruins and a Mutavault untapped, with a Spellstutter Sprite in play. How do you play? The faerie player could either be holding:
Depending on the build, one also has to account for Remove Soul/Terror/Vendilion Clique or other options, increasing the number of possible plays even more. As you can see, it is very hard to play around all these things. Meanwhile, the Faerie player could simply be holding nothing relevant, but the opponent still has to respect the threats that you represent and thus can be “forced” into suboptimal plays. An opponent that has to play around so many cards, that he can easily choose the wrong line of play. The more choices your opponents face, the greater the chance is that they misplay. Faeries is a deck that maximizes this aspect of the game.
When I decided to get serious about qualifying for the Pro Tour, I was thinking how I could improve as a player. While it is important to master the technical aspect of the game, I realized that I needed to do something more. After all, why is it that pros can pilot the same deck to a better finish than an average player?
This is because pros are a lot better at playing the game beyond the game, they are more adept in psychological warfare. They are better at reading the opponent and not revealing information, this helps pros in winning games that an average player who is often not aware of these things wouldn't. Of course, stuff like the often-cited Jedi-Mind Trick, bluffs, counter-bluffs and many more mental maneuvers is just the icing on the cake, with the cake being flawless technical play.
Faeries is a deck that maximizes the psychological aspects of the game, with all the different options the deck has or more importantly, can represent. While you can certainly bluff with an aggro deck, such situations are a lot less frequent, and the gains you get from bluffing are also not that important. When playing an aggro deck, there is (Editor's note: most of the time) no benefit in bluffing a Path to Exile by not playing an additional creature, you need to deploy your threats and follow your game-plan. The Flash ability on Faeries allows it to simultaneously wait to deploy threats at the end of the opponents turn or answer your opponents plays. Simply put, you give your opponents more opportunities to misplay, while you give yourself more opportunities to do the right play. Since I wanted to improve my mental game, I felt that choosing Faeries was the right thing to do. The M2010 Metagame From a metagame standpoint, Faeries seems to be in an unfavorable position right now. The rotation of 10th Edition and Seismic Assault means Swans, a good match-up for Faeries, disappears completely. To make matters worse, decks that had a bad match-up against Swans were often aggressive strategies, which Faeries can sometimes struggle with. The removal of Wrath of God from the Core Set is also a major incentive to run an aggressive deck. Red decks, your worst matchup, also will get played, as Lightning Bolt and Ball Lightning will undeniably lure some players into sleeving up Mountains.
In addition to all those new cards entering the format, a few important cards rotate out, namely:
BW Tokens and GB Elves, two difficult matchups for Faeries, take major hits with the rotation. While they won't vanish entirely, their manabase will be a lot worse since there are no new enemy-colored duals. Without Treetop Village, the threat density of BG Elves will also go down. Mogg Fanatic has long been the bane for Faeries. If players switch from Mogg Fanatic to Ball Lightning, that is a change I welcome, since Ball Lightning is a lot easier to handle and can't interfere with Scion of Oona or Spellstutter Sprite. Lightning Bolt is dangerous, but can be handled nicely with Spellstutter Sprite. Of all the existing decks, Faeries can probably integrate the new duals the best, alongside UW Reveillark decks. The pain from Underground River was a real drawback because you were already losing life to Bitterblossom and Thoughtseize, so a non-damaging dual is very welcome. Faeries also runs enough basic lands to reliably play Drowned Catacombs untapped.
Doran and Dark Bant decks are also a casualty of the M2010 fallout, since they don't have enough basics for the new duals. Those decks were really reliant on the painlands.
Apart from Faeries, I expect the following decks to play a major role in the new metagame:
Monowhite Kithkin (with Honor of the Pure)
Cascade (Jund Aggro)
G/W Tokens
Combo Elves (with Elvish Archdruid: 1GG, Other Elf creatures you control get +1+1, Tap: Add G to your mana pool for each Elf you control)
BG Elves, BW Tokens and UW Reveillark might get played in lesser numbers. There is also the chance that people want to play rogue decks in a new format. This is good for you since many new decks don't pass the "Faerie-test". The loss of Wrath of God will result in an upswing in aggressive strategies, which you can handle with a well-constructed sideboard.
The Maindeck Speaking of well-constructed, let's get to the deckbuilding aspects. When analyzing and comparing the maindecks of various Fae lists, you notice pretty quickly that the following cards are often included as a four-of:
In the remaining slots, we find the cards that show up in varying quantities, and sometimes are entirely omitted: Agony Warp Terror Jace Beleren Thoughtseize Sower of Temptation Vendilion Clique Remove Soul Puppeteer Clique Peppersmoke Loxodon Warhammer Plumeveil Soul Manipulation The most interesting aspect from a deckbuilder's point of view is this category. We need removal to survive the early rush of aggressive decks, and the options are Agony Warp, Terror and Peppersmoke.My removal of choice is Agony Warp. You can often make favorable 2 for 1 trades in combat, which is important because of the increasing number of Bloodbraid Elves. Agony Warp is the only removal that allows you to reasonably deal with a Bloodbraid Elf into Boggart Ram-Gang opening. Terror is often a 1 for 1 trade, and has the disadvantage of not being able to deal with black creatures, most importantly Putrid Leech. I first ran a split of both removal spells to have an out to any creature my opponents may play, but after testing I gradually increased the number of Agony Warps while decreasing the number of Terrors. Especially against aggressive swarm strategies, Agony Warp is better, while Terror is better against fatties, which is something you can handle with Broken Ambitions or Cryptic Command.
M2010 Additions - But Not M2010 brings a new removal spell in the form of Doom Blade. My first impression is that it is slightly better than Terror, because regeneration is less common than artifact creatures. Still, I think Agony Warp is better because of the reasons outlined above.
There is one creature which sees heavy play and can not be handled neither by Agony Warp nor by Terror/Doom Blade. That creature is Chameleon Colossus. Since you will lose most of the games where a Chameleon Colossus goes unhandled, you need to have a maindeck solution. The solution I chose is Sower of Temptation. If you can't kill it, why not use it against your opponent? Besides the obvious tribal synergies, Sower is a powerful tool in fighting aggro decks, especially when backed up by Scion of Oona. Some lists eschew Sower of Temptation entirely, which I don't think is a good thing. With the metagame moving more towards aggressive strategies, Sower of Temptation seems to be the correct choice. I run two – you don't want them to clog up your starting hand, but you still want to have a good chance of drawing them in the midgame.
Peppersmoke might seem weak at first glance, but is useful in quite a few situations and complicates combat math for your opponent. In the new metagame, it is also the perfect answer to Ball Lightning and to a first turn mana-accelerator that might accelerate into Great Sable Stag, the new bane of Faeries. With the exception of Cascade, Peppersmoke is good against every deck I expect in the new metagame (see the list above). Peppersmoke also forms an effective one-two punch with Sower of Temptation – Peppersmoke nukes the small guys, while Sower takes care of the big ones. Currently, I found two copies to be optimal.
Now we get to the unusual choices. You'll see them in my current maindeck:
Article by Patrick Wild on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 07:54
4.42857
In the first installment of "Wild Research" you are given firsthand information about Faeries in the current Standard format, as well as the impact of M2010 on the deck. Patrick makes an amazing feature writer debut and this is an article you definitely will not want to miss out on!
Why Ponder? It is very important for Faeries to have the right card at the right time. It is no secret that turn 2 Bitterblossom is one of the best plays if not the best play in the current Standard format, which Ponder helps dig into. But there's a lot more:
Ponder smoothes out your mana by preventing screw and flood and helps in playing Drowned Catacomb untapped, because 8 basic lands are not that much. It allows you to run 24 lands and still get 4 mana on turn 4 consistently.
Ponder also helps you to find the right answers, which is important in strengthening your tactical bluffing position. To use a poker analogy, when your opponent “calls” you and plays into a solution you might have, it is better when you have that solution. Granted, you might have the solution already without Ponder, but you're relying on topdecks for that. I rather increase my chances than rely on lady luck.
Ponder will allow you to make more decisions, giving your greater control over the game. It is useful in the early-game to dig into the needed card and can prevent you from drawing lands in the late-game.
Ponder gives you better access to your sideboard cards.
In a vacuum, Jace Beleren is certainly stronger than Ponder. However, I expect a metagame with a lot of aggro decks where Jace Beleren is suboptimal. Even before M2010, Jace Beleren was the card I sided out the most. Tapping three lands in your main phase is a lot, and compromises your ability for tactical bluffing.
Like the metagame, my sideboard is still in flux. The sideboard is geared against aggressive decks, since the maindeck already has a good matchup against control decks like Reveillark or 5 Color Control. Thoughtseize only cements your advantage by taking out their key cards. Thoughtseize will also be key against Great Sable Stag! Infest is the closest equivalent to Damnation you will find, and it should help you to stabilize against Kithkin and Combo Elves. Puppeteer Clique is a great answer to Anathemancer, as the decks that play Anathemancer are ironically pretty vulnerable to it themselves. Plumeveil has been pure gold against aggressive strategies, since they often have to expend multiple cards to get rid of it. Deathmark and Flashfreeze are against the popular Jund Cascade decks and Elves (both BG and the combo variant). Wren's Run Vanquisher and Putrid Leech are some of the best cards against you, and both cards allow you to handle them efficiently.
To conclude, I have to say that Faeries is still a force to be reckoned with - despite obvious anti-Faerie cards like Volcanic Fallout and Great Sable Stag.
I hope you liked this article and you were able to profit a lot from it. Please leave your feedback in the comments section, where I would also be happy to answer all your questions. Thank you for reading.
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i really like this deck but can i ask a Question why no Oona Queen of the fae ?
@ltm041985: oona is insanely slow and does not help the overall goal of the deck.
@ author: just a few questions for you Pat
1) i think g/b elves can still survive. they are not hit as hard as b/w tokens by the loss of painlands since they still have their tribal land
2) you talked about additions to faeries with m10, but great sable stag is still very hard to deal, and will be widely plaed due to the variety of the tier 1 decks he can be played in (g/w tokens, g/b elves, cascade aggro). because of this guy, i think it would be correct to play 4 thoughtseizes maindeck, also adding 2 jace, and removing the ponders and peppersmokes (in order to prevent too many 1 casting cost spells). most faeries deck already run some amount of thoughtseizes main because they are just good against so many decks. even against RDW, thoughtseizing away a ball lightning saves you 4 points of damage.
all in all, a great debut article. since i find myself in the same "trying to Q for the PT" situation as you, i would love to see more of your articles up
Thanks for the feedback!
@ltm041985: like baldr7 said, Oona costs too much to be viable and has no flash. She doesn't make any bad matchups better.
@baldr7:
1. You're right, GB Elves will survive the rotation. However, the loss of Llanowar Wastes and Civic Wayfinder will affect their consistency, which can only help you. I still take GB Elves seriously, as evidenced by the Deathmarks and Flashfreeze's in the SB (and to a lesser extent Plumeveil).
2. While Great Sable Stag is undeniably one of the best anti-Faerie cards, I don't think it is worth a maindeck spot in the decks you mentioned. The Stag is still pretty vulnerable to Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, Chameleon Colossus, Bloodbraid Elf, Wren's Run Vanquisher, Boggart Ram-Gang and all of the Kithkin cards. I think it's sufficient to board in Thoughtseize if you expect the Stag.
Thoughtseize in the maindeck is something I wouldn't advocate, as the lifeloss is pretty relevant in every matchup and you can handle pretty much all the game 1 threats with your maindeck cards. Thoughtseize is at its best when it takes cards that you normally can't handle, especially Great Sable Stag and Volcanic Fallout. You'll see these cards more often in sideboards than in maindecks. Peppersmoke is also a lot better at handling Ball Lightning than Thoughtseize.
Hope this helps!
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Patrick
I think you make really great points about thoughtseize being a sideboard card. I think most players underestimate the sideboard to begin with and think that if they win game 1 they have the match. With my particular standard deck my sideboard will often change my deck from a game 1 aggro/combo to a game 2 control/combo. Good sideboards give a deck an incredible edge.
Think about this also, if you win game one but don't play any thoughtseize your opponent won't worry about it as much in game 2. If you lose game 1 and DO play thoughtseize your opponent will know you are playing it and that will affect his or her game greatly. If your opponent knows you are running thoughtseize they will try and keep only lands in their hand, or subpar cards, if they don't know you are running thoughtseize you have a good chance of taking away some valuable parts of their deck. Besides, game two is ALWAYS more important than game 1.
I also happen to agree with the ponder decision and stated so in the forum post about fairies, not really much to say there other than how can you turn down FOUR chances to get the card you need three of them being a direct decision.
Good article and very well thought out, I didn't know that they weren't printing enemy duals, that really sucks.
Nice article, but I would really like to have more ideas then thoughtseize von great sable stag. I dont have any but I think they are needed. The Stag is so much overrated at the moment and I think it will appear in a lot of sideboards.
I really like the rest of the article, your analysis of a metagame change which is good for faeries is right in my eyes. Doran and B/W Tokens are nearly unplayable, non-combo elves lose a lot of power and jund aggro also loses treetop.
I also really like to see ponder beeing played! In the late game, the power of the deck is usually determined by the amount of crypitc commands you got and ponder really helps to find them!
Nice article, but I wanted to voice my opinion about Ponder in Faeries. It has been discussed at length whether Ponder increases your chances of hitting BB on turn two, and the fact is it doesn't. Simply put, the hands you'd keep with Ponder you'd probably mulligan without, giving you better odds of seeing BB. The other arguments you gave for including Ponder are however valid. As I am no Fae expert, I won't delve any further upon the matter, I just wanted to point out that your very first argument is somewhat missinformed.
I really hope your metagame predictions will materialize, but I'm afraid that in Switzerland, the competitive level is such that many people keep the same deck throughout the season, due to card availability, budget or just plain lazyness. Combined this to the fact that the losses of Doran, Reveillark and Elves are exaggerated: Doran has its tribal lands, Reveillark can play Borderpost+Knight of the White Orchid and Hallowed Burial to make up for the loss of Mind Stone and Wrath (plus it has gained a major finisher in Baneslayer Angel) and Elves can just be less Elves-centric, more Rock-like. They remain real decks to take into account.
Apart from Ponder, I like your maindeck and your sideboard even more. Good explanation of card choices too. Congratulations on the article, hope to see a follow-up (matchups after Nats aka post M10 for instance). It's good to have somebody who, as you said it, is the typical (Swiss) ptq player as it caters to the target audience of this type of site.
However, I was wondering if you have been to the extended season ptqs? I only took part in two, but since I didn't see you there I was questioning the "his goal is to qualify for the Pro Tour, and he pursues that goal with utmost dedication" part of your profile. No diss, just wondering.
@Anonymous1: The only cards besides Thoughtseize that can deal with Stag is Vendilion Clique and Gargoyle Castle. A combination of the three is certainly the best way to fight the Stag. However, I don't expect many Stags running around once players figure out that it is a very narrow sideboard card. That's why I think Thoughtseize is enough. Vendilion Clique is a card I really like, but with the amount of Spectral Processions being played, I don't think it's good enough.
@Anonymous2: Excellent reply. "Simply put, the hands you'd keep with Ponder you'd probably mulligan without, giving you better odds of seeing BB." I dont agree with this - you don't keep one-land hands (or other suboptimal hands) because it has Ponder. Rather, Ponder ensures that the deck runs smoothly. If you take a mulligan, your chances of mulliganing into BB is slightly less than the chance to draw BB in the opening hand - probability doesn't have a memory. Instead of aggressively mulliganing into BB, I think it's better to sculpt a good hand with Ponder (this doesn't apply in the mirror).
Doran, Reveillark and Elves may still exist, but I don't think they're problematic for Faeries. Reveillark was a good matchup anyway, and a more Rock-like Elves should be less problematic than the versions before. Doran might be a sleeper, but I suspect that it loses to Combo Elves, GW Tokens and any good control lists, so I don't think it will get played much. I have been to most of the extended season ptqs, but scrubbed out early. I plan to change this in the future.
I truly believe that great stable stag is not going to be the bomb everyone expects it to be. Sure it's pro blue/black but it doesn't have flying and what do all fairies have? Flying. So yes it's unblockable vs fairies and it can't be countered or doombladed but how many are you going to get into play? One maybe two? So you need to get it out wait the turn for summoning sickness and then tap it every turn so you need atleast six turns plus the time to get it out and if fairies doesn't have enough tokens and creatures to swarm you by this point they are doing something wrong.
no vendillion...shame...men mainboard thoughtseize
In the newer meta of M10 I don't think you necessarily have to main deck Seize. The reason is that the Fae builds I've seen keeping the deck alive are splashing red for Bolts that kill Stags so what's to be scared of? A lot of Fae decks can win before Banefire matters and chances are you aren't going to face main deck Fallout since a lot of people still consider Fae dead or don't expect them (sort of like the didn't expect 5cc because of Anathemancer, see US Nats for how that worked out).
Game 2 you board in Seize and you steal the Fallout turn 2 or you steal the Stag. If there is no threat of Stags in your meta you could be a cheap-o like me and just run Duress. The main thing Fae can't deal with is a spell that can't be countered. If I'm not worried about a Stag then I can save $15 and just take your uncounterables. I also don't run the Clique. I didn't have it in my Tenth Edition build and I still don't see the need for it. Seize or Duress can answer the same problems at only one mana.
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