Faeries Never Dies!

Faeries is dead. Dead as a doornail, dead as Elvis, dead as the dinosaurs. Right?

I seem to remember this stuff being said before. Oh that's right. It was after Conflux, when Volcanic Fallout came out. Of course, Great Sable Stag is in a whole new level. Faeries can still survive. But it has to change a bit. It has to give a little to get a little. And that little is a little thing called Lightning Bolt.

As Wizards probably intended, Lightning Bolt is the perfect answer to Great Sable Stag. For one mana, it kills it. And in this world where playing UUU, WW, GG and RR in the same deck is perfectly reasonable, we can pretty easily make a splash for some of Red's greatest.

Here's the list that came 5th at France's Nationals. (Two other Fae decks placed higher, but they used Time Warp, and we're going with a tried and true build here.)

Creatures
4 Mistbind Clique
3 Scion Of Oona
2 Sower Of Temptation
4 Spellstutter Sprite

Instants
4 Agony Warp
3 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command

Legendary Creatures
2 Vendilion Clique

Planeswalkers
2 Jace Beleren

Tribal Enchantments
4 Bitterblossom

Tribal Instants
3 Peppersmoke

Basic Lands
5 Island
3 Swamp

Lands
4 Drowned Catacomb
1 Gargoyle Castle
4 Mutavault
4 Secluded Glen
4 Sunken Ruins

Sideboard:
2 Puppeteer Clique
1 Sower Of Temptation
3 Stillmoon Cavalier
3 Countersquall
3 Flashfreeze
3 Thoughtseize

Not bad, but with 3 Fae decks in the Top 8, I think that GSS is more popular in America than France. Since most of my readers are American, we need to tune it to the GSS-stuffed metagame.

Here's my proposed list:

Next Level Faeries:

Creatures
4 Mistbind Clique
3 Scion Of Oona
2 Sower Of Temptation
4 Spellstutter Sprite

Instants

3 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command

4 Lightning Bolt

3 Terminate

Legendary Creatures
2 Vendilion Clique

Planeswalkers
2 Jace Beleren

Tribal Enchantments
4 Bitterblossom

Basic Lands
2 Island
2 Swamp
1 Mountain

Lands

3 Cascade Bluffs

4 Crumbling Necropolis

4 Drowned Catacomb
1 Mutavault

4 Secluded Glen
4 Sunken Ruins

Sideboard:
2 Puppeteer Clique
4 Anathemancer

3 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Flashfreeze
3 Double Negative

I haven't actually tested this list yet, but I intend to once Magic Workstation decides to be nice. Sometime in the next few days I'll post a report of the testing. I'm sure I'll come into direct contact with Great Sable Stags. In the meantime, feel free to test and adjust the decklist yourselves. The sideboard of this deck is tuned towards Jund and Five-Color decks specifically, since they'll show up in big numbers at PTQ's and other events, which is what this list is aimed towards. I hope it does well for you.

I like Faeries. I think it has it's place in the metagame. It's a good foil to Five-Color, which has now risen to dominance. Hopefully this can bring it back as a Tier 1 strategy.

Until next time, may what you thought was dead rise from the grave.

Lessons I've Learnt Today:

I intend to make this a regular posting whenever I learn something about Magic, so I can share it with all of you. Some of these lessons aren't from today, but I'm catching up.

Never, ever, play Cruel if you even think the opponent might have a possibility of having a counter. Especially if he plays 5CC better than you.

Ajani Goldmane gaining life is actually good against Blightning. Especially if you defend him with Harm's Way. Eventually, they'll run out of gas and you can play a big-ass Avatar. Or a token generator and give the tokens +1/+1 countery goodness.

Figure of Destiny is absolutely nuts against 5CC. If you're at 6 mana, you have an 8/8 in 2 turns for one card.

Goldmeadow Stalwart isn't that good in a 14 Kithkin deck. Path to Exile and HW are better draws.

See you tomorrow!