After my finish at last weekend’s PTQ playing Reveillark, I obviously felt well-poised to take down the next one. I moved back to Grand Rapids to go to school this week, and so the trip down to Cincinnati was ever further than it would have been from the east side. Nevertheless, I made the six-plus hour trek to Kentucky with immense optimism.
The night before, I spent a great deal of time going over potential changes and sideboarding plans with Gavin Verhey, though I was mostly taking his advice at that point since I had had little time that week to test much out for myself. The list we arrived at, sideboard and all, was this:
Creatures (23)
Lands (26)
Spells (11)
Sideboard
Ponder was cut for Broken Ambitions to give the deck something reactive to do in the early game (and the clash allows you to pseudo-Ponder anyway), and a twenty-sixth land was needed to offset the lack of three-card-deep deck manipulation. The sideboard was geared toward Merfolk (Harm’s Way was the best card for the job) and Five Color, and I think it was as close to spot-on as we felt it could get.
That aside, there isn’t much more to say concerning this deck. I played it in Cincinnati, that’s true. However, I got absolutely wrecked by Faeries in round one (he had double Bitterblossom in game three with Scion and Mistbind back), and then in round four (I had beaten RW Swans and a Baneslayer pseudo-mirror) I drew zero Kitchen Finks versus Blightning and couldn’t draw anything but Path to Exiles when he was chucking burn spells (I also made an error concerning Anathemancer and Gargoyle Castle, but I’m not convinced it really mattered). Awkward, certainly, but overall it was a disappointing day for me anyway. I mean, a second-place finish followed by a 2-2 drop is rough (especially when Blightning is a good match-up), although I’ll admit I’m more than happy with the thought of the month break from PTQs that is ahead of me. I still think that Reveillark is a fantastic deck, but if you want to read more about it I’ll kindly direct you to Gavin’s article going up here on SCG tomorrow, as his PTQ story from this weekend will undoubtedly be more interesting than mine would be.
The real story in my case, though, is what deck I should have played. Friday night, I was sitting in my apartment with my roommate and my friend Jon, and Jon asked me what deck I recommended that he play.
Jon: “What deck should I play? Reveillark feels clunky, and I’m unlucky with Five Color.”
Me: “You should probably just play Faeries.”
Jon: “I don’t think I should play that deck — I’m not good enough to win a PTQ with it.”
Me: “Fair.”
Jon: “Why aren’t you playing it?”
Me: “I felt good about Reveillark last week. I can win a PTQ with it.”
And that’s where I went wrong. You see, the logic behind Faeries being the “deck to play” was threefold:
1. There are drastically reduced numbers of Great Sable Stags in the metagame. Unlike US Nationals, you won’t be seeing thirty-two copies of that card in a Top 8, and you won’t have to fight completely uphill all day long.
2. The most popular decks – Merfolk, UW Baneslayer, and Five Color – are all preyed on by Faeries if prepared for correctly.
3. You get to play Mistbind Clique.
While it’s true that in the past I have played Faeries far too much, and in many cases at time when it clearly wasn’t the correct deck choice, I think that this particular PTQ was the best opportunity for me to play the deck that I’ve had yet. At first I was slightly concerned that the Merfolk match-up was poor, but in time it become apparent that Merfolk still can’t beat a Bitterblossom just like ninety-percent of the other decks in Standard, and other than that a fair amount of tight play from the Fae player’s end is more than enough to make it a favorable match-up for Faeries. Five Color is rarely packing Stag these days, and the UW control decks are just jokes in the face of Bitterblossom and Mistbind Clique. Faeries admittedly still had its awful red match-up, and it still stumbles against a Putrid Leech, but when you’re beating on the popular decks and whipping the Time Warp decks (and their kin) from the tournament without breaking a sweat, I think it’s okay to risk running into Jund and Blightning decks. That risk, however, is vastly reduced in the current state of the format since neither of those decks can reliably deal with a Baneslayer Angel, and obviously that card is seeing a heavy amount of play right now.
So, why didn’t I just play Faeries? I mean, all signs pointed to it. I think part of it had to do with my performance last weekend, but more so I think I was actually a tad scared to play it. That is, it would be “just my luck” to sit down for the first round of a PTQ only to see my opponent lead off with a Mountain. That has happened to me a million times, and although the red match-up is very much winnable it usually feels like you’re a hundred steps behind the entire game. Volcanic Fallout has, to this day, lost me more games than any other card that I’ve ever played against. I’m pretty sure it’s that bad.
Even still, Faeries was correct. And, as fate would have it, it still is. I don’t think there’s any reason at this point to not play Faeries at the last PTQ of the season, and I really mean that. I foolishly was worried that I’d get screwed over by Red decks, and that’s just wrong. Don’t think match-ups, think wins. I should have sleeved up Faeries and stuck with it, because I know I can beat Red decks, and I should have been even more confident about it given that red is being pushed out of the format anyway. If you pick up Faeries, you’ll just simply have an advantage over most decks in Standard. You have strong match-ups against control mirrors, any kind of white-based aggro, and you just can’t lose to the combo decks — period. The hate cards against you are now few and far between, and you don’t even have to splash a third color anymore. The top tables in Cincinnati were filled with Faerie decks, and for good reason!
If I could give the Austin qualifying season one last go, I would undoubtedly battle with this:
Creatures (14)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (26)
Spells (18)
Sideboard
As I said earlier, Great Sable Stag is more or less a nonissue. As always, you can race a 3/3, and you can even race two 3/3s should you draw enough removal and/or Sowers, which isn’t terribly difficult to do. And, again, you can still Clique/Thoughtseize the Stags preemptively, which has proven to be efficient.
Let’s run through some sideboard plans:
Five-Color Control
-1 Agony Warp
-1 Spellstutter Sprite
-4 Scion of Oona
+3 Negate
+1 Jace Beleren
+2 Thoughtseize
This is basically the same as it always has been: Scion loses value because of Volcanic Fallout, and with Negates coming in alongside more Jaces and Thoughtseizes you shouldn’t be worried about relying on Gargoyles, Mistbinds, and Faerie tokens to win the game for you. This sideboard configuration leaves you in a very favored position after game one, regardless of whether or not they have Stags. If they do, Seize them or race. Because, well, let’s be honest — Five Color still can’t race Faeries.
UW Baneslayer
-1 Agony Warp
-2 Broken Ambitions
-2 Scion of Oona
-2 Vendilion Clique
+3 Sower of Temptation
+2 Deathmark
+2 Essence Scatter
There are probably a lot of other ways to sideboard in this match-up, but I personally feel that this strategy works fairly well. Vendilion Clique is a fine creature and everything, but you can be pretty reactive against this deck because its threats are more or less expensive and you can usually deal with them after they’ve resolved rather than before. I take out Vendilion Cliques before Thoughtseizes only because they’re playing their own Vendilion Cliques, and in most cases when they have one in play you don’t want to burn yours as a removal spell on a creature that you could just block and kill with a token anyway. If they take out their Cliques, though, I could definitely see taking out Thoughtseize instead.
They’re most likely going to have Essence Scatters for you, and if they do you might want to consider bringing in a copy or two of Negate, perhaps over the Jaces you have maindeck. Jace is fine against them, but isn’t really all that drastically needed either. Taking out the rest of the Scions is probably reasonable, too, although they’re nice to have as a two- or three-of after sideboarding so you can close the life total gap should they have kept a Baneslayer online for too long.
Merfolk
-1 Broken Ambitions
-2 Thoughtseize
-2 Jace Beleren
+3 Sower of Temptation
+2 Essence Scatter
Basically, treat Merfolk just like any other aggro deck, but with the exception that they can counter your spells and they have no way to clear your board. That being said, dealing with Sygg whenever you can and just laying Sowers is the best way to win. Your biggest concern from them aside from Sygg would be their Islandwalkers or unblockable Wake Thrashers (via Sovereign), but all of those are easily dealt with should you deal with Sygg. And, luckily, Sygg is fairly easy to handle regardless if you’re on the play or the draw, since if they play it early when you haven’t had a second turn yet it’ll just eat a Doom Blade and if they wait it’ll just get countered anyway.
You can safely take out Jace in this match-up, since it’s pretty hard to keep him alive due to their Islandwalkers. Thoughtseize is a bit awkward, and Broken Ambitions number four isn’t as good as Essence Scatter, so that’s also an easy switch. All in all, simple stuff. Merfolk can be a tough match-up, but I think it’s generally Fae’s match to win.
Jund
-4 Scion of Oona
-2 Jace Beleren
+3 Deathmark
+2 Flashfreeze
+1 Thoughtseize
You can also bring in Essence Scatter here, though there are many times where I’ve found myself holding it up on turn two and had them just lay a third land to cast Stag, which is incredibly awkward. I’d much rather have the Thoughtseize or Bitterblossom on turn two, and so I think Scatter might be a little weak in this match-up. Other than that, things are pretty straight-forward here — basically hope you don’t play this match-up. It’s not even close to as bad as Blightning is, but it’s still hell. Bloodbraif Elf into Great Sable Stag? Mise that Gargoyle Castle.
-2 Scion of Oona
-2 Thoughtseize
-2 Jace Beleren
+3 Negate
+2 Flashfreeze
+1 Essence Scatter
Pray, etc etc.
Kithkin
-2 Thoughtseize
-2 Vendilion Clique
-1 Spellstutter Sprite
-1 Mistbind Clique
+3 Sower of Temptation
+3 Deathmark
As usual, Kithkin is very much in your favor. Take their creatures, kill what you can’t, and use Scion of Oona and Bitterblossom to race them. Easy. But you already knew that.
The Mirror
-4 Mistbind Clique
-2 Vendilion Clique
-2 Doom Blade
-1 Broken Ambitions
+3 Sower of Temptation
+2 Thoughtseize (+1 on the play)
+2 Essence Scatter
+2 Negate (+3 on the play)
Ah, the mirror. There was a time in Standard when this match-up occurred three to four times a tournament, and there’s reason to believe that something similar could happen for this last week of PTQs. It’s as based on luck as much as it used to be, but Sower is as good as ever. Just play smart, and get a turn two Bitterblossom.
I think the sideboarding against the remaining decks (like the combo decks) is more or less common sense, but if there is a match-up I didn’t cover that you want to hear my take on, feel free to say something in the forums.
Faeries is, by far, the deck to play this weekend. As I said before, I’m upset that I can’t grind with it one last time, but some of you still can…and you should. As long as you get in a lot of games against the red decks in testing, you should be able to win any match-up. Faeries just won the PTQ in Vancouver this weekend, and I’m sure it will take a handful next weekend as well. Be one of them! The best of luck to everyone this weekend, and next week you can look forward to something a little less…Standard from me. (See what I did there?)
Until next time…
Chris Jobin
Team RIW
Shinjutsei on MTGO and everywhere else