Seeing as I love it when brand new cards make an appearance in Modern, this week I’m thrilled to be trying out a deck that has four copies of the already ubiquitous vehicle from Kaladesh, Smuggler’s Copter. In addition, the list also has four copies of the (relatively) newly unbanned Ancestral Vision, and a couple copies of things like Collective Brutality and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet in the sideboard, new cards all of them!
One thing you might not glean from all of the aforementioned cards, is that the list we’re looking at today is of the U/B Faeries persuasion. It was piloted by Magic Online user Danker to a 5-0 finish, which we’re going to try and emulate here today. Take a look.
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Bitterblossom
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Cryptic Command
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Dismember
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Island
3 Mistbind Clique
1 Murderous Cut
4 Mutavault
4 Polluted Delta
4 Secluded Glen
2 Smother
4 Smuggler’s Copter
3 Spell Snare
4 Spellstutter Sprite
1 Swamp
3 Vendilion Clique
1 Watery Grave
Sideboard
2 Collective Brutality
2 Countersquall
1 Disfigure
1 Dispel
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
4 Leyline of the Void
It’s interesting to also be playing Bitterblossom in a Modern deck, as that makes two cards that were previously banned in the format that can fit into the same shell, yet still aren’t making that big of a splash in the format in general. It really makes you wonder how many other cards on the Modern banned list might incorrectly be there.
Wow, that Nahiri Jeskai match…talk about the luck of the Irish. And I don’t even know if my opponent was Irish! That was an insane amount of burn spells for a deck that isn’t even really a burn deck. We were sure feeling the burn though, if you know what I mean. (I mean they used a lot of burn spells against us.)
Unfortunately we played against Jund twice and I don’t actually think Jund is a great matchup for us. They have a ton of main deck trump cards for some of our best threats, like Abrupt Decay and Kolaghan’s Command for things like our Smuggler’s Copter and Bitterblossom. They also have cards like Dark Confidant and Tarmogoyf, and while it seems like we have a lot of removal and Spell Snares, if they’re also to sneak under our defenses, perhaps by being on the play, they can pull pretty far ahead.
One thing the deck really felt like it was lacking was a Damnation type effect in the sideboard. This is a pretty key card for the deck and I think even something like Flaying Tendrils (or Drown in Sorrow) would help a ton. We just don’t have many ways to sweep up multiple creatures at once. Another thing was card draw. While we do have the four copies of Ancestral Vision, something it simply doesn’t feel like enough, and something like Serum Visions might be completely necessary.
Ultimately, I’m not sure convinced Faeries has what it takes to be as good in Modern as it once was in Standard. I just never feel blown away by the deck and I was much more impressed with the U/B Control deck we played in Modern a few weeks back. There were also times where it felt like we weren’t drawing enough lands, and as a control deck, you really want to make sure you’re hitting an appropriate number of lands. I wonder if my experience with the deck is typical, or if anyone else out there has had a different experience. Let me know in the comments, and let me know if you think we’re just missing something. Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you next week!
Frank Lepore
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