Sullivan Library - Reflecting on This Weekend’s Faeries, by Adria... http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/print.php?

Article=15896

Sullivan Library - Reflecting on This Weekend’s Faeries

by Adrian Sullivan

Well, ladies and gentleman, if nothing else, we have a Faeries list for
standard that is vetted. In the $7,000 of tournaments this weekend, held by
StarCityGames.com, out of two Top 8s, we have seven Faerie lists. Even
more notably, we have the same champion of both tournaments, beating
out several hundred people to take home a fair chunk of change.

My I present to you his doubly-winning decklist.

U/B Faeries
A Standard deck, by Alex Bertoncini
1st place at a Star City ,000 Standard Open tournament in
Richmond, Virginia, United States on 2008-05-11
As reported at http://www.starcitygames.com
Print this deck!

Maindeck: Sideboard:
Basic Snow Lands
4 Bottle Gnomes
Creatures 4 Snow-covered Island
2 Slaughter Pact
4 Mistbind Clique Lands
3 Damnation
2 Pestermite 4 Thoughtseize
4 Faerie Conclave
2 Peppersmoke
4 Scion Of Oona 4 Mutavault
4 River Of Tears
3 Sower Of 4 Secluded Glen
Stats:
Temptation Average mana: 1.47
4 Underground River
Average creature mana
4 Spellstutter cost: 3.17
Legendary Lands
Sprite 1 Pendelhaven
Average creature power:
2.00
Average creature
Instants toughness: 1.88
3 Cryptic
Command Deck Composition:
Basic Snow Lands: 6.67%
4 Rune Snag Creatures: 28.33%
3 Terror Instants: 16.67%
Lands: 33.33%
Legendary Lands: 1.67%
Sorceries Sorceries: 6.67%
4 Ancestral Vision Tribal Enchantments: 6.67%

Tribal
Enchantments

1 of 7 5/16/2008 12:06 AM
Sullivan Library - Reflecting on This Weekend’s Faeries, by Adria... http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/print.php?Article=15896

4 Bitterblossom

Download this Download this deck

Download this
deck in in
deck in
Magic Workstation Magic Online Text
Apprentice format!
format! format!

The $2,000 list shares 73 of the 75 cards, exchanging two Peppersmoke for
2 Flashfreeze. I’m sure the vast majority of you have already seen this list,
but what is it about this list that is different than the other prominent lists. If
we were to perform an amalgamation of the remaining lists with maybe one
or two other prominent lists, what would we get? How is Alex’s list different
than these others.

Here are those others:

Brett Ben Brett Jim Gerry Yuuta

Blackman Weinburg Piazza Davis Thompson Takahashi
Ancestral
4 4 4 4 4 4
Visions

Bitterblossom 4 4 4 4 4 4
Spellstutter
4 4 4 4 4 4
Sprite
Pestermite 3 3 4 4
Scion of
4 4 4 4 4 4
Oona
Mistbind
4 4 3 4 4 4
Clique
Sower of
3 3
Temptation

Rune Snag 4 4 4 4 4

2 of 7 5/16/2008 12:06 AM
Sullivan Library - Reflecting on This Weekend’s Faeries, by Adria... http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/print.php?Article=15896

Cryptic
4 4 3 4 4 4
Command
Terror 4 4 3 3 4
Nameless
3 3 4
Inversion

Island 5 5 5 4 5 4
Faerie
2 2 3 3 2 3
Conclave
Mutavault 4 4 3 4 4 4
River of Tears 4 4 2 4 4 4
Secluded
4 4 4 4 4 4
Glen
Underground
4 4 4 4 4 4
River
Pendelhaven 2 2 2 2
Swamp 2 2 2
Sunken Ruins 2
(Total Land) 25 25 25 25 25 25

Performing a quick amalgamation gives us some clear spaces of

agreement. Clearly, 25 lands, and four of Ancestral Visions, Bitterblossom,
Spellstutter Sprite, Scion of Oona, Mistbind Clique, Rune Snag, and Cryptic
Command are largely the consensus, giving us 28 more cards, for a total of
53. Alex only disagrees with this consensus on one count – he prefers only
three Cryptic Command.

The contested slots are Pestermite, Sower of Temptation, Terror, and

Nameless Inversion. All of these perform a kind of removal function, or
pseudo-removal function. The Ben Weinburg/Gerry Thompson lists go
crazy with seven targeted pure removal. A quick count of the various lists
places the “removal" package at, on average, 7.5 removal spells of some
kind, at least if we’re counting Pestermite on that list.

What is Alex doing, then? His “removal" package, slightly higher than the
average, sits at an eight-count. With only three Terror, he adds three Sower
of Temptation, and sits two Pestermite in between them on the mana curve
to fill out his eight slots. To make room for this “extra" eighth card, he cuts a
Cryptic Command.

I don’t know about you, but I was pretty shocked when I saw this choice. In
all of my playtesting, the Cryptic Command was one of those cards that you
feared. I’ve talked to a number of people, and none of them have anything
good to say about this change. But, then again, none of them won around
$3,000 this weekend by taking two tournaments with essentially the same
deck. Also, it is worth noting that one of the other competitors, Brett Piazza,

3 of 7 5/16/2008 12:06 AM
Sullivan Library - Reflecting on This Weekend’s Faeries, by Adria... http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/print.php?Article=15896

also placed in the Top 8, with essentially the same list as Alex Bertoncini,
substituting a Pestermite for a Mistbind Clique. Perhaps there is something
to this change… Even as my gut suggests no, I think that there is still a
possibility that I’m wrong.

Looking back, then, to the amalgamation, Terror seems to be the card of

choice for removal, and since Yuuta’s finish, it looks like there is an average
of 3.5 of them included, with some other choice, of varying types, for the
other 3.5 cards. Pestermite does appear to be the common choice. All told,
then, this gives us this deck, representing the non-Alex Bertoncini view:

Amalgamated Faeries

4 Mistbind Clique
3 Pestermite
4 Scion Of Oona
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Cryptic Command
4 Rune Snag
4 Terror
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Bitterblossom

5 Island
2 Faerie Conclave
4 Mutavault
4 River Of Tears
4 Secluded Glen
4 Underground River
2 Pendelhaven

How different, then, is this from Alex? Alex removes one Pestermite, one
Cryptic Command, and one Terror, making room for three Sower of
Temptation. He removes an Island and a Pendelhaven for two more Faerie
Conclaves, making up the full set of four. Essentially, he seems to be giving
up a little bit of instant speed for the ability to have more man-lands and
creature stealing potential.

Is this really enough to make up the difference, though, in a mirror match?

The more significant difference might be found in the sideboards. Again, his
board:

4 Bottle Gnomes
2 Slaughter Pact
3 Damnation
4 Thoughtseize
2 Peppersmoke

Of these, the cards that seem like they might be a starting point for him in
the Faerie Mirror are those 4 Thoughtseize. Aside from that, a slight touch
of targeted removal in the form of Peppersmoke and Slaughter Pact seems
to be Alex’s plan.

4 of 7 5/16/2008 12:06 AM
Sullivan Library - Reflecting on This Weekend’s Faeries, by Adria... http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/print.php?Article=15896

Compare that, then, to the others at those events:

Brett Ben Brett Jim Gerry

Blackman Weinburg Piazza Davis Thompson
Fledgling
3 4 4
Mawcor
Flashfreeze 2 3 4 2 3
Damnation 3 3 3
Thoughtseize 4 4 3 4 4
Nameless 1 (to go to
3 1 (to go to 4)
Inversion 4)
Sower of
3 2
Temptation
Deathmark 4
Peppersmoke 4
Bottle Gnomes 4

Everyone, though, was running those Thoughtseize. For most of them,

Fledgling Mawcor seemed to be a huge part of the plan. On the play, a
Fledgling Mawcor seems like a great response to an opponent’s turn 2
Bitterblossom. In a late game, Fledgling Mawcor, if joined by another, can
totally dominate a table. It does have that nagging problem of being a
slow-to-cast spell, and easily killed by removal.

In the end, it seems to me that one of the things that Alex’s deck can do is
best handle a Scion of Oona. Its answers are cheap (0 and 1 mana) on the
play, and can easily through a counterspell war. While a Mawcor does
seem ultimately more powerful, it is also cumbersome, and easily
answerable by a single card.

Cryptic Command, from Alex’s perception, perhaps, suffers the same

problem as the Mawcor – it is expensive. He can expect that the game will
involve Thoughtseize, Rune Snag, and Spellstutter Sprite, and a four mana
control spell, even if it does answer an opposing Bitterblossom already on
board, could be problematic. Playing the full delegate of man-lands mean
that in a clear board, he will have an uncounterable attacker. Answerable,
certainly, but these answers will all start a counter war.

Ultimately, one of the limitations of this analysis is that we can’t see how he
sideboarded for the mirror match. Clearly, we can watch him play just a
little, but his dominance of Scott Jeltima’s RG/w beatdown deck doesn’t
give us any real insight into his win in the finals over Brett Blackman, whose
deck was only three Sower different than Alex’s, and whose sideboard ran
the popular Mawcor option. It is even possible that the finals, a prize split,
resulted in Alex being declared the victor rather than actually simply
defeating Blackman. Anyone who actually was at the event, your comments
in the forums, answering these questions, would very deeply be
appreciated, I’m sure.

5 of 7 5/16/2008 12:06 AM
Sullivan Library - Reflecting on This Weekend’s Faeries, by Adria... http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/print.php?Article=15896

What is perhaps most interesting, is that in the seven lists from Richmond,
out of all of the 525 cards, there are only two cards from Shadowmoor. Can
that be right? Isn’t there anything in Shadowmoor that helps someone out?
Brett Piazza dipped into Sunken Ruins. What else might there be to think
about?

A big problem for a lot of the cards that might seem to be really effective is
that they are simply too expensive. Take a spell like Dire Undercurrents. If
every time that your Bitterblossom plopped out a man, you got to make your
opponent discard, that would be fantastic. And it would, except that it is a
five casting-cost spell that you’ll have to put into play on your main phase.
Almost certainly, you’re going to be opening yourself up to being totally
destroyed, if it isn’t simply taken away by a Thoughtseize because you don’t
have anything better to take away. A card like Ghostlord of the Fugue
seems similarly problematic, able to chip away huge amounts of life and
disrupting the opponent, but seeming unlikely to actually make it to the
table.

Here are some ideas that might be useful, though I must say that they are
pure brainstorming:

Inkfathom Infiltrator: Unblockable, though still certainly killable by a

Nameless Inversion, or worse, Peppersmoke, the Infiltrator can at least put
a small clock on that might be relevant as Bitterblossoms race.

Ghastly Discovery: While only offering a smidge of card advantage, getting

to the point where you can conspire it seems very doable. This does eat up
three of your mana during your main phase, but in a mid-game situation,
perhaps three of these could turn a game around.

Memory Plunder: At four mana, this card is pretty expensive. It does mean,
though, that you can have extra copies of cards that you think are relevant
in the mirror match. Potentially, this means Ancestral Visions and Cryptic
Command copies 5 through 8. It does run the risk of being stranded in your
hand, but that isn’t likely to last long. And since it is an instant, this also
means that those sideboarded Thoughtseize that you’re liable to see can be
played at very inconvenient times.

Oona, Queen of the Fae: Resolving this card could be incredibly hard. If you
do, though, it is an absolute monster of a card for Faeries to deal with.
Unterrorable, uninvertable (at least not without duplicates), Sower is the
only real answer to it. In short time, it can outrun a Bitterblossom, but
unfortunately, that pesky casting cost is there to hold it down… Maybe with
Thoughtseize protection, though, it might make the cut.

Leechridden Swamp: While dependent upon Bitterblossom, this idea comes

from inspiration by Alex Bertoncini. If his uncounterable man-lands did
indeed provide him a distinct advantage in the mirror, Leechridden Swamps
is a way to take advantage of the same space, but not being so tied down
to needing to use the attack phase.

Overall, I think that the sixteen decklists that showed up this weekend are

6 of 7 5/16/2008 12:06 AM
Sullivan Library - Reflecting on This Weekend’s Faeries, by Adria... http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/print.php?Article=15896

going to give us all a lot of data to mine. I know I’ll be looking at and
relooking at them, hoping to find some edge for the big event. This has
been an incredibly frustrating time for me as I look to the Tour. As the luck
of timing would have it, school and the Pro Tour are just in direct conflict.
My last final will be Friday night, and I leave for Hollywood on Wednesday.
While I’m going to try to fit in as much good testing as I possibly can, I do
know that I’m feeling the squeeze, big time. And, furthermore, as luck would
have it, my summer session for school starts the day after I get back into
town. Yikes. What I wouldn’t give to be a little bit of a Hiro.

Wish me luck. Time’s a tickin’ down, and between my finals and prep for the
Pro Tour, there just isn’t much time…

Adrian Sullivan

7 of 7 5/16/2008 12:06 AM