It seems there was a big commotion in the forums over my opinions on the M10 changes. I did not get the chance to reply to every single comment, but basically, my opinion remains the same. I do not like the changes, I wish they hadn’t happened, and I do not in any way understand why the combat and mana burn changes were necessary. I’ve read all the sides of the argument, in what seems like a billion forum pages, and I stand by my point. I’ll not stop playing or anything like that… I’ll play as much as before, and I’m sure I’ll adapt to them just fine. I just don’t like them. You are entitled to like the changes, of course… but please, do not try to take away my right to a different opinion.
That said, here’s the continuation of my Seattle report…
I ended Day 1 at 7-2, which in my mind meant I had to go 5-0 and then ID in to the Top 8. Tough, but doable.
My first Day 2 opponent was a very cool guy who was also playing Faeries. Game 1 we both had Bitterblossom, and he followed it with Loxodon Warhammer, which was pretty good at that point. Before that match, I did not think Warhammer was very good in the Faeries mirror, and though I don’t always board it in nowadays (I do on the draw, when Broken Ambitions is bad and there is more chance you’ll have to recover from a bad board position), I understand that it could be good. I had a Jace Beleren, which he probably made a mistake in not killing the first time, so even though he had the Warhammer I was managing to stay in the game by drawing answers every turn, to the point where I got in a pretty good position. Basically, I had some tokens of my own, a Mistbind Clique, and two manlands, against just his Bitterblossom with Loxodon Warhammer. Then I drew six lands in a row between draw steps and Jace, and lost, which was pretty frustrating because I would have won if I had drawn even something simple, like Peppersmoke.
I boarded -1 Terror, -2 Mistbind Clique, +2 Thoughtseize, +1 Sower of Temptation
I know some people dislike Mistbind Clique after boarding, but I like it. The only reason I even take two out is because I have to take something out. They are even better if everyone plays Agony Warp or takes their Terrors out, by just being a big body, and they give you something to play at the end of the turn to force a Cryptic Command attack.
Game 2 he has Blossom and I don’t, and he again has the Warhammer, but I have Scions, Sowers, and Mistbinds, so I’m managing. At some point he attacks with his Mutavault. I block with mine and he Peppersmokes it, so I again make use of the best kept secret in professional Magic, and just pay one to activate it again. He pauses for a while and mutters “well played,” and both Vaults die. I’m eventually able to just overrun his Blossom with Warhammer because I have double Scion and am attacking for more than he can handle. I believe he should have played differently this game — he was using his Warhammer to attack every turn (I would block, and then next turn he would equip again and attack), but I was racing it. What he should have done was to just equip for one turn and not attack, so that the following turn he could attack and equip a defender, preventing me from swinging back. I’m not sure he was going to win the game that way, since my hand was still good when I won, but I remember being glad he would just not leave the Warhammer on a blocker.
We were pretty short on time for game 3, so I quickly sided in +1 Sower of Temptation and +1 Mistbind Clique for -1 Broken Ambitions and -1 Jace Beleren.
He starts game 3 with a double mulligan, and my hand has double Mutavault, Scion and another spell, so I keep. He Thoughtseizes both my spells away but is stuck on two lands, and I have double Vault. I play a second Scion, which he kills, and then on his turn he plays Secluded Glen, showing Scion. I have four lands in play and Spellstutter in hand, so I just pass and Stutter his Scion with double Vault when he attempts to play it at the end of the turn. He plays another one but fails to draw a fourth land, and when I Sower his Scion I’m able to attack for the win.
2-1
8-2
Round 11: This was a feature match against Antoine Ruel, covered here.
There’s nothing much to say that is not written there, and I sided the same as against Manuel. One interesting point in game 1 was when I did not do anything in his upkeep, and then he attempted to Pulse one of my four tokens, and I had Mistbind Clique to effectively counter the Pulse. He pointed out after the game that that had been a nice play, and that if I had played it in upkeep he had ways to deal with it (I assume Bituminous Blast, or Volcanic Fallout/Jund Charm).
A lot of people seem to think Mistbind Clique has some kind of Provoke and must be played on someone’s upkeep. That’s not true, and you must understand this if you want to play Faeries. LSV said that he can count on one hand the number of times he’s played Clique on upkeep, and I certainly can too. Mostly no one plays spells before combat anyway, so Clique after attackers is going to be the same (unless they play a hasted guy, or Anthem), but it’ll also eat an attacker. Also, there is a reason most people play spells after combat — it’s so much harder to have combat when they have untapped lands than not, and that goes for you too — why would you tap out before their combat? It makes their attacks a lot harder if you might have Agony Warp, Command, Scion, Peppersmoke, or Clique instead of just Clique.
Sometimes you’ll even want to play Clique at the end of the turn, especially in the mirror. There is no formula for knowing when you have to play it. I guess it’s something you get with time, but you have to know what you want from it when you play it. It also depends on the rest of your hand, and on what you know from their hand. Sometimes it’s correct to block with a token and then use it to Champion, and sometimes it’s even correct to play Clique mainphase.
One situation I can think of in which it’s almost always correct to do it at the same particular time (and I believe I have already talked about in one of my 150 Faeries reports, but I’m going to mention again because almost no one knows about it) is when they have something to do with their mana, like Figure of Destiny or Chameleon Colossus. If you play Mistbind on upkeep, they are just going to use the mana to activate their guys, and you will take more damage. Assuming you don’t intend to block, the best time to play it is after damage is on the stack but before combat ends. That way, they cannot use the mana to deal you more damage. If you have four mana open, they will almost never pump pre-damage anyway, and then by Cliquing them at that time you stop yourself from taking more damage. There is also the factor that if they have those guys in play, they will almost never play something pre-combat; they’ll just attack first, so doing it on upkeep is generally just bad.
Another interesting point in the Ruel game was when he had Anathemancer in his graveyard, 6 lands, and no hand, and I was at low life, lethal to the Anathemancer if he ever unearthed it. He knew I had a Mistbind Clique in hand, from a Secluded Glen, but I did not play it on his upkeep — I let him draw, he played the land he drew, Unearthed it and I died. Then he asked me why I had not played the Clique.
The thing is, I’m not going to kill him the following turn anyway, even if I play the Clique — he is at too high life for that. If I play the Clique, he has two turns to draw a land (the Clique turn and the next), and if I don’t draw Command, Puppeteer Clique, or another Mistbind Clique, I die. If I wait one turn, that means he has just this turn to draw a land, and it has to come into play untapped. By playing this way, I decrease his outs a lot — he has to draw an untapped land that turn. If I play differently, unless I draw something else, he has to draw any land this turn or an untapped land the following turn, and in all those scenarios he ends up killing me on the following turn anyway, because the land he drew isn’t going anywhere. Sure, it gives me one more turn to draw Command (if he doesn’t just draw another land that comes into play untapped, anyway) or either Clique if he does draw the untapped land that turn, but I think my play gives me far more chances of living.
2-1
9-2
Round 12 I played against Chris Lachmann, playing Five-Color Control.
I had some idea of what he was playing, since he had played against my friend the round before and I was watching.
My hand is pretty good, with 2 lands and Bitterblossom. I play Blossom turn 2 and fail to draw another land, so I play Blossom #2, which he Broken Ambitions. Three or so turns later he Commands back my Blossom, and next turn I replay it, and surprisingly it resolves. He plays a Fallout, then some turns later a Hallowed Burial, and all the while I’m still on two lands, discarding. I play another Blossom, and he plays Tidings and discards with something like 8 lands in play. I finally draw a third land and play Scion, and then I draw a fourth land. He plays Broodmate Dragon with 6 or so cards in hand and 4 mana open, and I Cryptic it just because, because I’m sure it’s going to resolve, but he just puts it in the graveyard and passes the turn. Two turns later he dies with what I assume is all lands in hand to go with the 10 he had in play already.
I board +2 Thoughtseize, +3 Flashfreeze, +2 Puppeteer Clique, -2 Peppersmoke, -1 Scion, -1 Spellstutter Sprite, -1 Agony Warp, -2 Sower of Temptation. I left the Terrors because of Cloudthresher/Plumeveil.
Game 2 was your standard Faeries versus Five-Color match — I played Thoughtseize, Mistbind, Command and he died.
2-0
10-2
Round 13 was against Rashad Miller, playing Swans.
Game 1 I mulliganed to five. He managed to resolve an Assault, and I have Blossom plus Vaults plus Sower and some creatures. When he is at three life, he attempts a Swans. My only counter is Spellstutter Sprite, but I have 8 Faeries in play. He has six cards in hand. He shoots five of my Faeries, and Swans resolves. He passes, which means he doesn’t have a land in hand, so I have one turn to draw Scion, Sower, Terror, Warp or Command. I don’t and attack him with my two Tokens left — he doesn’t block and goes to 1, so I have to hope against the odds that he doesn’t draw a land. He does draw it, and I die.
I sided -2 Sower, -3 Jace, -2 Peppersmoke, +2 Plumeveil, +2 Thoughtseize, +3 Flashfreeze. I think Plumeveil is really good against them, since their main route to victory after board is Elves and Manlands, and Plumeveil just beats that plan almost by himself.
Game 2 I mulligan again and Thoughtseized him early, seeing a Flame Javelin, which seems to be a good piece of technology. When I first built the deck I had wanted Shriekmaw for Meddling Mage, but Flame Javelin seems just a better card overall that fits the theme of the deck a lot better, though it can’t be Primal Commanded.
It turned out he boarded the LD plan, which I don’t really like against Faeries — it seems to me that it’s hoping they just don’t draw enough lands so you can have a blowout game instead of a real one, and I don’t think the matchup is that bad for you to have to rely on it. I for one know that I’m really glad when Cascade reveals anything that is not Seismic Assault.
He LDs me some, but I’m always able to prevent Assault from coming into play. My Scion means he cannot Fulminator my Mutavault, and in the end he just dies to Mistbind.
I mulligan again in the deciding game, and from the beginning I’m always behind. He has Elves and Manlands, but again I can prevent Assault from hitting. I Plumeveil one of his attackers and we play draw go for a while when I’m at one life. I have a Mistbind and Plumeveil for his two manlands, and when I draw Mutavault I attack. He plays Rain of Tears on my Vault and attacks with both lands, but I have Command to bounce one and I block the other. In his last turn, he attempts Assault, but I have the Flashfreeze for it and he dies. His top card was Flame Javelin. This game was very interesting, and I thought I would lose at a lot of different points, but in the end I won very closely.
2-1
11-2
Round 14 is against BW. I do not remember many details, because I played against BW a lot in that tournament. I’ve just played in GP: São Paulo with the same deck, and I also played against a lot of BW there, so it’s hard to identify what is from each match when nothing stands out in the game, but I remember that in game 1 he just decided he would not play spells when I had untapped lands, which suits me very well. Some people refrain from playing spells when playing against Faeries, but that is usually bad, more so when you don’t have board advantage. BW is a deck that is full of sorceries and expensive cards, so what are you going to do with your Kitchen Finks and Cloudgoat Ranger if you don’t play them? You’ll never be able to play both in the same turn, so your best hope is to play one and let them counter and two-for-one you, and then hope the second (or third or fourth) resolve. As it was, he died with a bunch of cards in hand.
Game 2 I was stuck on lands and he beat me easily with Persecution, and game 3 I blew him out the way Faeries does.
When I was talking to some friends on why Faeries is good, Gaudenis suggested that it was just a good deck because sometimes they blew you out, sometimes you blew them out, and all the other times you just won, and this seems to be a pretty accurate description. I find that I win most of my “fair” games with Faeries (as in, the ones in which both people have reasonable draws).
2-1
12-2
It turned out I was not able to draw, which was pretty awkward — Barcelona was 1500 people, and Sam made it with 12-2-1, and even though Seattle was “only” 1100 no x-2-1s made it.
At least I was going to be paired against some sort of Five-Color, which was good. He had some cascade spells, but it never really proved to be problematic. He also had Mannequin and Shriekmaw, and Jund Charm (probably over Fallout).
Game 1 I just destroyed him the way Faeries destroys those decks. I boarded the same as against Lachmann. Interesting to note that I Thoughtseized him turn 1 and took note of the lands he had, and by the time he died, he had two cards in hand and I knew both were those lands. Apparently he did not pay any attention to which lands I had seen, and just drew and played land every turn, keeping those I knew he had to try to bluff something. Sometimes it’s wise to note down yourself which lands they see if you have plenty, so you know which ones you have to play.
At the end of the game, I consider whether I tell him that or not. If I tell him, he will feel awkward to have done that in a Feature Match (though not a covered one), and maybe he’ll be embarrassed/nervous and will play worse, but it also stops him from doing the same in a future game. I decide that it’s better to just not say anything (every time something like that happens I have the same debate with myself in my head, and I always decide not to say anything) and hope he does it again.
Game 2 we go long while when we are both very flooded, and I managed to survive at two life when he is at something like nine. He has two cards in hand and I have Jace on two and Mutavault. I decide to attack with the Vault, since I figure the worst thing that can happen to me is that he Jund Charms it away, but he has Bituminous Blast which reveals Kitchen Finks, and then I die to it next turn. It was a really bad play to attack there, I think — I had the advantage with Jace, and I should have realized he could be holding Blast, so there was no need to attack. Also right now I realize he might just draw Bloodbraid and kill me, so attacking is bad even if I don’t know about Blast.
Game 3 I have Thoughtseize and Bitterblossom and Mistbind and Counters, and he is stuck on lands on top of that, so he doesn’t do anything (not that he would have if he had more lands, to be honest).
2-1
13-2
So, I had made it! Luis made it too with the same 75, and the same record, which was good because we 13-2s would all play the people who had drawn the previous round. That left Faeries, Mono Red, Five-Color Aggro, and Doran as potential opponents for the four Faeries that won their final rounds.
In this order, I would rather play against Five-Color Aggro, then Doran, then Faeries, then Mono Red. Some people think the matchup against Five-Color Aggro is bad, but I don’t think it is — I think you have the advantage, especially after board — Puppeteer Clique, Plumeveil, Flashfreeze, and Deathmark are all very good against them, the first two especially. I beat two (well, one was Five-Color, the other Jund) and only lost to the third because I played badly, but I had the win in play, and in São Paulo I also beat one, so I don’t think it’s bad at all.
I ended up being paired against Ari Lax, playing Faeries. I hate the Faeries mirror.
My problem with the Faeries mirror is not that there are no opportunities to outplay people or something like that — if both or no one has Bitterlossom, the games become pretty interesting – it’s just that Bitterblossom is so important that some matches just aren’t played. Either someone has Blossom and the other doesn’t, in which case it’s really hard to have a comeback, or someone just mulligans into oblivion trying to find Blossom or a way to deal with it.
So, your hand cannot beat a Blossom — what do you do? Usually you will mulligan, and then you might mulligan again because the same thing might happen or you just had a bad 6, and then you keep 5 and it turns out they didn’t have Blossom and your 7 would just have beaten them, but your 5 can’t. Or it might be that they mulliganed to 5, so you feel safe about keeping a reasonable-but-no-Blossom hand, and their 5 is Thoughtseize, Blossom and three lands and you are never really in the game. Or you keep a hand of 6 lands plus Bitterblossom and they keep a Thoughtseize hand and you just lose, or they keep one of those 1 land, Blossom, Seize hands that you know they shouldn’t keep, and just draw three lands to beat you. If there is one match that is going to be changed by the new mulligan rule, I think it’s the Faeries mirror.
Both my top 8 matches are covered, so I’ll not talk much about them (right, who am I kidding…). In the first one, I should have mulliganed my hand that had no play before turn 3, but I didn’t and lost because he had Bitterblossom. In the second, I mulliganed and he mulliganed to 5, we both had Thoughtseize but I won with Mistbind, and in the third he mulliganed again, and I had Bitterblossom and he didn’t.
I sided +2 Thoughtseize, +1 Sower, -1 Terror, -2 Mistbind Clique on the play, and -1 Broken Ambitions, +1 Loxodon Warhammer on the draw.
I won and got paired against Benjamin Lundquist. I was kind of hoping Michael Jacob would win, since, well, I hate the mirror and I would much rather play against him, but what can you do?
My first game against Ben I mulliganed to four. Still, it was about the most interesting game of the entire tournament. It is hard to explain why it was so interesting if you weren’t playing it, but I could clearly see that each of the plays we both made were taking the game to a completely different direction. There were also a lot of swings — I thought he was going to win at a lot of points, and then that I was going to win at some others.
One interesting point was when he mainphased Mistbind Clique off a Mutavault when I was tapped out. When they do that, you know they are either terrible or pretty good, and I think Ben is on the pretty good side. You also have to have played a lot with Faeries to do something like that, because instinctively it just isn’t right, but at that point it was clearly right. I had two Commands in hand, so I bounce / drew it once and he replayed it mainphase. I draw, and my hand is Command, Broken Ambitions, and something irrelevant. I decide that my best shot is to Command it back again, draw a land and hope he doesn’t draw a land, so I can Broken Ambitions it for exact — I do that, draw a land and he doesn’t, so I’m able to counter it. He plays a Jace, which I’m able to kill with a Conclave because he -1’s instead of +2ing, and then we go draw-go for a while.
At one point, he has two Manlands, and I have my own. He activates both his lands and asks “attack,” to which I say “okay.” Then he says “no attack” and passes the turn. This is a pretty interesting play that tries to bait a Command out of my hand for no real cost (other than his lands).
At another point, my hand is Mistbind Clique and Command, and I have one Mutavault and one Spellstutter in play, to his Mutavault plus Conclave, I’m at two and he is at ten. I can play Mistbind Clique on Upkeep when he doesn’t have anything, but I decide against it since if I do that we are just going to look at each other until either draws something, since I can’t attack. Instead, I attack with my Spellstutter hoping to bring him to 8, the point where I can finish him with two Mistbind attacks instead of 3, and he cannot attack back because then I’ll just play Mistbind and block.
Then he plays a Jace, and I have the choice to Command it or not. If I Command it, I’ll be slightly ahead. If I don’t Command it, he will have two or three extra draws to top my Command with his Jace. I decide not to counter it, hoping to end the game soon — basically by doing that I place all the blame on his draws, instead of in both draws — he has to draw something that impacts the board and something to deal with my Command. In the end, he draws his own Command and then Broken Ambitions for mine, so I die.
In retrospect, I think I should just have countered the Jace with the Command there, leaving me slightly ahead in the topdeck war because I was going to draw one extra card from the Command. At the time it was a tough decision to make, and I believe I made the wrong one, but I also believe there are merits to my decision — it is not something I can point and say that is clear-cut wrong. If the same situation happened again, though, I would counter the Jace.
Game 2 was not nearly as exciting, though it was not bad. We don’t have Blossom again, and we are both kind of flooded, but he is flooded with lands that attack and I’m flooded with lands that add mana. He also has Jace, which I’m unable to kill, so he just outdraws me and eventually kills me with his lands and, unlike the previous game where I had a lot of chances to change the outcome, I cannot do much other than dying.
After the match, I tell him those had been good games, and I think he thought I was being sarcastic — “you mulliganed to 4,” he replied — but I honestly think those were good games, and I enjoyed them. I think we both played well in a lot of difficult situations, and we both made some mistakes here and there, but mine ended up costing me the game. It’s hard to see a game so swingy as the one we had, especially when there is a mulligan to 4 involved, so I do believe it was a good game — I do not say that lightly, and if you’ve ever played against me chances are I did not say anything like that.
I was obviously happy with my result, regardless of what some naysayers in the Brazilian forums posted. This tournament led me to having the biggest amount of Pro Points I’ve ever had at this point of the year, so it could not be any different.
I played Faeries in GP: São Paulo last weekend — I’m going to write about it too (after Honolulu, since I’m going in chronological order, and before I could not write as fast as the tournaments were happening), but here is the list I played:
Creatures (12)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (25)
Spells (20)
Sideboard
This is almost the same, but I like my changes. Anyway, I’ll talk about this list when the time comes, but, as of now, my Faeries list would be exactly that.
I hope you’ve enjoyed it, and thanks for reading!
PV