Marching of the Fae

Man! What a year it has been since I last wrote. No more. This time I’m back for good (Pinky swear!). Weekly and bi-weekly posts for all of you… unless I’m writing for no one—the ever-present fear of writers the world over. Still, I shall write until my heart is content and my fingers have been turned to blood and bone!

On with the show!

Hey-hum! The Twin is dead! A moment of silence for the ol’ chap that for so long held Modern together. All by his lonesome. Such a warrior. But it had to be done. Modern needed to be thrown off its hinges and made self-aware: You are too volatile for mortals, Modern. It’s why we keep banning things from you year after year (that and the need to keep a PT format in check, not a topic of discussion today, though).

Say what you will, this banning has certainly reinvigorated my desire to brew and experiment with UR decks. Also all my collection has are Blue and Red Modern cards; no choice. And brew I did. This last Sunday, I made a lazy attempt of re-working of an old Splinter Twin shell I had lying around and the result was brought to a local tournament to test. I shed a tear as I inevitably saw my Splinter Twins go back into the box of unplayables and were replaced by… Spellstutter Sprites? Why yes! Counter a Serum Visions here. Counter a Thoughtseize there. Ancient Stirrings? Spellstutter Sprite!

UR Faeries

1 Inferno Titan

2 Vendilion Clique
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Pestermite

Creatures – 15

1 Burst Lightning
1 Eletrolyze
2 Cryptic Command
2 Spell Snare
2 Blood Moon
3 Remand
3 Spreading Seas
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Serum Visions

Spells – 22

1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Stomping Ground
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Mountain
3  Sulfur Falls
3 Steam Vents
4 Scalding Tarn
6 Island

Lands – 23

Sideboard

1 Dispel
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Negate
1 Counterflux
1 Blood Moon
1 Engineered Explosive
1 Relic of Porgenitus
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Flame Slash
2 Rending Volley
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Volcanic Fallout

I think the list is pretty straightforward. A classic Aggro-Control deck predicated on laying down cheap, evasive threats that continuously keep your opponents off-balance. Nearly 97% of the deck operates in instant-speed which provides tactical advantages in the ability to bluff a variety of spells. You could be holding unto Sprites, or Pestermites, Snapcasters, Cliques, burn, or a slew of counterspells waiting to pounce on your enemies. Who knows?! As is, however, the deck needs quite a bit of work as the first run went on a 50% match win, losing to two of the format’s premier Midrange decks: Jund and Abzan. Fortunately went 2-0 before running into them, beating Grixis Control and Goryo’s Vengeance (GriShoalBrand).

Admittedly, I expected a considerable amount of Ramp decks (Tron and Eldrazi) which is why I was packing Spreading Seas. Spreading Seas does seem good against the Midrange decks, unfortunately that wasn’t the case in the games played. Spreading Seas simply underperformed. By Monday, their bags were packed and were waiting for them in front of my apartment along with a taxi to take them to the airport with a plane ticket to Siberia, where they can’t bother honest, hard-working folks anymore.

In all seriousness, what made the card so underwhelming was that (may also just be how the games played out) Jund and Abzan simply shrugged it off. Could potentially be testament to how good their mana bases are these days. Perhaps it is my deck’s fault more so than the Seas’s because my deck could not capitalize on the mana denial. It is possible that pushing the interaction between the Spreading Seas and the Blood Moons make the card much better; main reason being the Seas would push them to search out more of their non-basics in order to maintain a stable mana presence, thus playing right into the Blood Moon.

If that were the case, the Seas still aren’t necessary. My second game against Jund was a grindfest and lost to Jund being the better at topdecking than UR Faeries. It did not feel like it was Blood Moon or bust, even though my Midrange opponents chose to not play around it as I anticipated. Certainly in need of more testing, but the Spreading Seas may not be for this deck. It is better for Merfolk which can be aggressive enough to limit how long Midrange decks have to recover from a stumble.

Another strike against it is that it’s a sorcery-speed card that doesn’t affect the board in any way, shape, or form, really. I’m committing two-mana on my own turn for a what is essentially a non-problem for my opponent. They’ll shrug it off, fetch for their next land, and land a Dark Confidant or Tarmogoyf or what-have-you.

Along the lines of clunky spells I’d like to take out of the deck is Cryptic Command. Cryptic Command just costs too much these days for what it is doing. Even when you counter a Goyf, you feel like you traded down, and while you draw a card, your opponent can still have a follow up. I had a game against GriShoalbrand where the only piece of resistance I had drawn was a Cryptic Command and a Remand. If my opponent had had double Goryo’s Vengeance or Through the Breach into Vengeance, I would have easily lost.

It did hold its own during the Grixis Control match-up, however, not enough to keep it in the deck. The main reason to even play it is its status as one of the best available hard counters to many of the threats in Modern. You can’t Remand Karn Liberated all day, it will eventually stick and take over the game. Remand is great, yet, a lot of the times, it only delays the inevitable. Therefore, an unconditionally hard counter is a necessity. Negate is great, but conditional, so main decking it will only push the deck towards inconsistency. Regrettably, Cryptic Command will also have to go.

Then there’s Pestermite. I love the card, but I’m not terribly impressed by it. Not as much as I am with Inferno Titan, anyway. That said, I may hang onto it for a bit more and only shave one of them. Four was one too many, and I believe three really is the perfect number for them. People have been suggesting Young Pyromancer in that slot, which, to be clear, I like and may be worth a shot, but I’m not particularly fond of the play patterns Pyromancer creates. The Young one asks you to be awkwardly mindful about how you sequence your spells in hopes of getting ‘full value’ for your spells. Additionally, this deck is slightly heavier on the creature count, this, in turn, means that I have to be especially careful about how I spend my non-creature resources in the aforementioned effort to generate as much tocken-y value as possible.

By the same token, the new UR creature on the block, Stormchaser Mage, just won’t work out. This fresh, hot off-the-press heavy hitter surely is powerful, yet, again, makes you want to play in a way that is inconsistent with this deck’s general philosophy. With the Stormchaser Mage, though, you want to play your spells aggressively to make sure that you are attacking with more than a 1/3 every turn. We could be talking about a 2/4, even then, that’s a bit weak. On a positive light, you are rewarded by playing some of your sorcery-spells like Serum Visions and Blood Moon. Regardless, if this deck had been constructed with a different mindset, then the story would have been much different.

I could also be wrong.

As of right now, I don’t believe UR Faeries will head in that direction for the time being. At this moment, there is so much removal in the format that it isn’t entirely unreasonable to play three Vendilion Cliques, not to mention that the legend-rule is such that you can still get usage (even if a tiny amount) from subsequent copies of the Fae. Perhaps playing three Cliques and three Pestermites is perfectly fine.

The last underwhelming card was Tectonic Edge. It did nothing that a Ghost Quarter couldn’t handle better. Tectonic Edge is only there for added protection versus creature lands and to bust up Tron and Eldrazi’s mana base. All of which, Ghost Quarter does better, especially against Tron, because if they have it by turn 3, I can’t stop them with Edge--Ghost Quarter can. Other than that, the mana base performed excellently.

According to my notes, the following is how the deck should look after the changes:

UR Faeries v1.5

1 Inferno Titan

3 Vendilion Clique
3 Pestermite
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Snapcaster Mage

Creatures – 15

1 Burst Lightning
1 Roast
1 Electrolyze
2 Spell Snare
2 Mana Leak
2 Dispel
2 Blood Moon
3 Remand
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Serum Visions

Spells – 22

1 Ghost Quarter
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Stomping Ground
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Mountain
3 Sulfur Falls
3 Steam Vents
4 Scalding Tarn
6 Island

Lands – 23

Sideboard

1 Roast

1 Counterflux
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Engineered Explosive
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Blood Moon
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Negate
2 Rending Volley

The article is running a little long by now, so I’ll make my explanation for some of the changes short.

Cryptic Command became Mana Leak because, as I previously said, Command is a hard counter and we need more of those. Mana Leak fills that niche very well, although not as effective in the later stages of the game, as long as the opponent can’t pay that three mana, you are golden.

For the Spreading Seas, I brought in two Dispels and a Roast. Roast is a concession to 5-toughness creatures like Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Siege Rhino. Anything that doesn’t fly and is below 5-thoughness is still decent collateral. I have to contend with it not being able to kill Restoration Angels or Celestial Colonnades, but Volleys should help with that.

The reason for Dispel is two-fold: 1) I want a cheap way to protect my creatures that can also be used to win counter-wars and such; 2) after a narrow victory against Goryo’s Vengeance, I realized the deck was in dire need of more ways (cheap ways, at that) to interact with combo decks. Vengeance wasn’t the only deck at the tournament, there was also Ad Nauseam Combo floating around. Countering the Lightning Storm at will is a surefire way to win the game, no questions asked.

The sideboard saw some changes as well. I replaced the Flame Slash for the second Roast, and, most noticeably, replaced Volcanic Fallout with Anger of the Gods. In the past, Anger was my go-to for the sideboard, for this tournament, though, I expected the Blue Man Group (Merfolk) to show up. Figured Fallout would have been ideal in that match-up since it is an instant and can’t be countered. Turns out, that is not exactly true. The problem is, the Mermen, are all Lords with base 2-thoughness. As soon as the second one comes in, they are both 3-thoughness rendering Fallout beyond useless. For Anger of the Gods to see a similar fate, they need three Lords which is easier to contain with Bolts, Rending Volleys, and even Roast.

Anger of the Gods also shines against Abzan Company, Kiki-Chord, and the Abzan I faced in the last round of the tournament. He was playing Voice of Resurgences, Lingering Souls, and a host of other small critters that would just get cleaned up by the Anger. Despite the crutch, I don’t believe the match-up is exactly favorable, but we’ll see. Anything to bring the percentages closer to a 50%.

Anyway, that’s all for today! Thank you for reading and hope UR Faeries tickles your fancy.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Yours truly,

Chris

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