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Wizard Mentor
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Finland
Posts: 633
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[Official Thread] Faerie Stompy
Faerie Stompy
Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. History and Development 3. Decklists 4a. Card Choices 4b. Splashes 4c. Deck Construction 5a. Strategic Overview 5b. Tactical Overview 5c. Match-up Overview 6. Rules Issues 7. FAQ You can navigate the primer by searching for the title given above complete with the number; each only appears once after the Table of Contents in the entire piece, so you'll jump straight to the part you wish to read. 1. Introduction Faerie Stompy is a usually mono-Blue "big mana" aggro/control-deck. The core of the deck is formed of lands that tap for  mana along with Blue sources to generate a deck that's basically always capable of generating  on the second turn and sometimes even on the first (with the help of Chrome Moxen). The deck is built to maximize the ability to generate ridiculous amounts of mana early on with minimal extra investment - a mere land, few points of life or at worst, a card - and strives to convert that mana into superior threats and restrictive pieces of artifice, with which to further push the early advantage the manabase generates.Essentially, Faerie Stompy is built to cheat on mana and then use those cheats to prevent the opponent from even performing their "fair" gameplan. It's fundamentally a powerful strategy, which goes a long way to making Faerie Stompy a solid choice for just about any meta - the strategy is sound regardless of the opposition. Perhaps the biggest issue is facing a deck that cheats in the same way as then the cards geared to generate the said advantage usually end up doing very little, but usually other decks utilizing the same manabase are even more focused on abusing their mana production capabilities and thus suffer even more of the match-up than Faerie Stompy, meaning that Faerie Stompy's fundamental strategy really works regardless of what you throw at it. Of course, there're few individual cards, as always, which can throw monkeywrenches to this plan, but generally it's sufficient to be aware of their existence to work out means to combat them (more on this in section 5: Match-up Overview). 2. History and Development The origins of Faerie Stompy are buried in the darkness of history, or more accurately, in the depths of my memory, and there they shall stay until I finally decide to write the whole story. For now though, let's look at the near history and the origins of the competitive deck known as Faerie Stompy. The first written records of Faerie Stompy should be somewhere in the Source archives. The deck had existed as my casual creation for a long time, but back then it was hampered by a lack of refinement - it was casual after all - and more importantly, the lack of format to play it in. Sure, there was Vintage, but I wasn't dumb and knew the deck simply would not stand toe-to-toe with the stupid decks that ravaged the format at the time (and would only get more stupid as time went by). So yea, looks like I'm in favour of whichever deity I happen to believe in - or just in favour of the randomness of the universe - since after waiting for a few years and following the 'Type 1.5'-development and thinking "How awesome would it be if Type 1.5 had its own banned-list with stuff like Chrome Mox unbanned and broken crap banned?", exactly that happened. Faerie Stompy got a format. Of course, the Faerie Stompy from that time was merely a Fish-deck with few Tombs thrown in for good measure. Anyway, next I set my eyes on a card I figured would be totally breakable...if it were legal anywhere - Sea Drake. Again, it seems the powers that be had me covered and soon enough, Portal-sets became legal. After the deck in its entirety had become legal, I started building something. First, it was more of a joke. Then I played a bunch of games against many of the topdecks at the time...and won more than my share. At that point, the competitive archetype started its development and I added the now-trademark card of the deck, Chalice of the Void. About around these times, the 'Create a New Good Deck 2'-contest - CaNGD2 for short - started around over at the Source. Of course I decided to enter with this baby since I was convinced that a deck with such results should be able to do well in such a contest, especially looking at the competition. While the contest victory went to some weird Ninja/Survival concoction, this deck got lots of refinement and playtesting. At this point, the deck having thus far been named 'Big Blue' and 'Tidal Wave' got the name suggestion that stuck all the way up until today: Faerie Stompy. Now, it's important to realize that before Lorwyn, Faeries weren't much of a tribe competitively (Homelands had few, but they were much better off without their tribal effects - they were Homelandicapped), so the name had no risk of confusion, and since Faerie Stompy played Faerie Conclaves, 4 Cloud of Faeries and pro-red Sea Sprites, the name was very appropriate. And of course, there's nothing quite as demeaning as getting your face stomped in by a bunch of small, cudly Faeries carrying Swords about thrice their size! Fastforward a couple of years and the deck was actually taken to a tournament by someone other than myself. Around these times, the pure aggressive approach was switched to a bit slower, but more effective one most importantly incorporating Trinket Mages to the deck and using them to not only increase the effective number of Chalice of the Voids in the deck, but also to generate an artifact toolbox making the deck able to play answers preboard and making sideboarding much easier as one only needs 1-2 copies of an artifact on the sideboard with the Trinket Mages to consistently see it in post-board games. These changes were accompanied by dropping out the more expensive cards like Meloku the Clouded Mirror and Serendib Djinn, which had been altering slots in the older versions and performing alright, but inconsistently. I don't remember who was the first to play it in a bigger tournament, but Eric Darland has the first Top 8 finish, and the first record of the deck being played, in the Star City Games database. You can see the Top 8 and his list here. After that, while never becoming absolutely dominant - partly courtesy of the high cost of the Sea Drakes and the lack of other decks utilizing them - it has had lots of success around the world in a number of American tournaments and even more so on the European scene. Recently, it hasn't been putting up quite the numbers on the American scene, probably courtesy of the sexiness of Tarmogoyf and the fact that the traditional Faerie Stompy can't play it, but both, my personal testing and the European finishes show that it hasn't actually made the deck at all worse, so it's probably just suffering of a lack of players right now. The latest additions are indeed from Lorwyn, which gave the deck both, Pestermite and Mulldrifter, both of which have their uses in the deck. 3. Decklists Here's the list I'm presently using myself and the only post-Lorwyn list I've got to provide:
Here's a version from PT: Kobe Legacy side-event
This one is Cody Mannion's from The Mana Leak Open 1
 and it paid off for him.And here's one from 2nd place at Paris Worlds 2006 Legacy Side Event (140 players, Top 8 not played) by Yamaelle - I don't have his real name at hands here, will fill in later if I find it out.
For your amusement, I reconstructed one of the earlier builds from the early parts of the CaNGD2.
You'll find few more lists from the Star City Games deck archive and lots from the old Faerie Stompy-thread over at the Source if you bother to scour it through or search the thread for 'Report' or some such. Just for those interested. 4a. Card Choices Given - Cards Faerie Stompy is built on Sea Drake - Ridiculously big creature with evasion for its cost and the disadvantage can be ignored if you play it with only one land in play, and turned into an advantage if you'd else miss your landdrop. Serendib Efreet - The other huge fat cheap blue flier with a rather trivial drawback. You lose some, they lose much more. Ancient Tomb - Necessary to produce the stupid amounts of mana the deck needs. Without this, the deck would need to play cheaper creatures and nothing good could come out of that. City of Traitors - The same, 4 isn't enough. This is better long-term and can be used to cast turn 2 Sea Drake by going "City-X-go." "Tap City for mana-Island-Sea Drake-go". Chalice of the Void - The thing that allows you to utilize your stupid mana acceleration and to shut down lots of engines, forcing unfair opponents to play fair. It was the addition to this card that truly made the deck a contender in the first place. Force of Will - A way to further increase the gap between you and your opponent by stopping their plays for free while you accelerate into the next millenium. Also a solution to faster decks than you and a generic answer. Free counters are good, who knew? Island - Unwastelandable source of your primary colour, one of the prime reasons the deck doesn't like splashing; you run few coloured sources so you don't want to risk getting Wasted off them entirely. Chrome Mox - Acceleration and a resilient manasource. A resident pain for LD-decks and the card that strives to guarantee you the second turn three-drop. Sword of Fire and Ice - Gives you a stupid-fast clock (you can kill turn 3 with turn 1 Drake, turn 2 SoFI, turn 3 SoFI for a total of 20), card advantage and removal. A superb card. Umezawa's Jitte - Kills opposing Jittes, rapes creatures, counteracts your lifeloss, improves your clock. A superb card. The Common - Not quite as essential, but still good enough to be in basically every Faerie Stompy-build Trinket Mage - A superb tutor that comes with a body. In case you missed, even small bodies are superb in a deck with 7 pieces of equipment. They're small no longer. And this also empowers your sideboarding by allowing you to get by with less copies of each utility artifact thus giving you more effective sideboard space. The only problem is indeed that he's a bit small and lacks evasion. Mulldrifter - A very new card, but I'm completely confident that it should be in almost every build. No longer do people need to choose between draw and threats, you get both. Makes the deck much more consistent and can be an effective 3-for-1 midgame as you get a body and the cards. Cloud of Faeries - A small guy, but he has evasion, he's free, he digs for business when in need and he accelerates into more mana and plays. All in all, absolutely stellar, and the only reason he isn't listed in must-plays is that sometimes you might want to play some cards with bigger impact alone in this slot. With equipment though, those lists are rare. Pithing Needle - The only reason I'm not playing it MD right now is that Engineered Explosives answers most of the problems Needle does and then some, and can be cast through Chalice while Needle can't. Needle stops Maze of Ith from stopping you, it stops Survival of the Fittest from going bonkers, it stops any Pernicious Deeds opponent tries to do on you and so on. At the very least, multiples on the Sideboard. Engineered Explosives - Without any other colours, deals with Needles, Enchantress-nonsense, Lackey, Vial, opposing Engineered Explosives, Nimble Mongeese and any tokens, including those from Empty the Warrens. With another colour, down goes Survival of the Fittest, Goblin Piledriver, Tarmogoyf, Dark Confidant, Umezawa's Jitte, etc. I find it superb and it's the sole reason I'm playing a single Volcanic Island with two Fetches right now. Seat of the Synod - It's a fetchable Blue land. If you need mana, you'll prefer this to Chrome Mox obviously (unless you face LD). Most people find it worth the Wasteability, me included. The Controversial - Cards that are argued back and forth all the time Psionic Blast - Reach, removal and utility at a cost of life. Speeds up your goldfish, kills problematic guys and goes to the face for the finish, but the lifeloss hurts. Recently dropped by yours truly, since it used to kill Werebear, but not Tarmogoyf. That dropped the level of utility by tons. Still speeds up your goldfish though. Sea Sprite - Not so much controversial as a metagame card; lots of red? Play Sprite. Little red? Don't. More precisely, lots of Goblins and Sprite retains a value. I personally prefer the bigger Weatherseed Faeries though as it has some value alone. This blocks Lackey better. Your choice. Weatherseed Faeries - The same as Sprite, more expensive, more powerful. Better against non-Goblin Red Decks, slightly worse against Gobs (although it deters their 'fat' 2/2s from attacking, which can be handy if not staring down Piles). I suggest this over Sea Sprite. Pestermite - The new kid in the block, and a very, very versatile card. Does it all, acts as a mini-Cloud (untaps cards), stops attackers, untaps blockers, taps either a colour or just to keep opponent under a mana threshold, taps cards to force their effect (such as Isochron Scepter), taps Vial before adding counter to make it far, far less useful and has Flash. The most versatile 3-drop by far, but worse against red, so it's still a choice and Weatherseeds retain their value. This guy though has versatility like no other. Brainstorm - Some want it in all Blue decks, this one included. I don't like having dead draw-spells when my deck executes its function though and I don't really see much room for them here either, but it sets up turn 2 plays pretty well and fixes the hand. A solid card, but perhaps the wrong deck, especially since we don't want too many fetches as we like Mox, which means we'll have few manaproducing lands and if opponent plays any LD, we'll need enough to get some after the initial flurry. Serum Visions - The same, without the 'fixes hand' and 'fetches are annoying in numbers here'-stuff. Ponder - The same, without the 'fixes hand', but with the 'fetches are annoying in numbers here'-stuff. Sensei's Divining Top - I occasionally like a singleton to fetch in mono-blue builds where I prefer not having a Chalice at , but it's sort of mana intensive and would want Fetches too. Alright, but nothing to get crazy over.Zuran Orb - I tested it for a while and never fetched it. Sometimes it could've saved me in close races, but those don't occur often enough to really vindicate playing 'em. Option in really burn-heavy metas, but outside that, it doesn't seem very good. Mostly a dead draw, except when flooded. Shoreline Ranger - I love it, but others don't seem to share my passion. Rarely do I find the cycling cost hurting me relevantly when I need a Blue land since that means I don't have any other Blue sources, which means I probably kept because I have a 2-mana land and thus can cycle it without trouble. He also pitches, and I've even won games by hardcasting him since I had no other relevant creatures at hands and the deck can produce stupid amounts of mana. I wouldn't want to have multiples so I'm only playing a singleton, but it's proven worth it time and time again. Flooded Strand/Polluted Delta - Well, I discussed them already, so I'll be brief. If you splash, you'll need them to find either Island or dual. Either way, they act as deckthinning which is nice, but they open you up to Stifles, which is not. With all the lifeloss, the deck might actually hurt itself pretty bad so the life might matter too. Must-have if you have other colours or shuffle-effect requiring cards, otherwise they're consideration-worthy, but only in low numbers. Cursed Scroll - A slow, but powerful and tough-to-answer Trinket that kills small creatures repeatedly and usually finishes off control-decks since emptying the hand in this deck is easy. I added it since I dropped Psionic Blasts and one Blast would be too hard to find when in need, while Scroll is tutorable, and because control is getting more popular. Juggernaut - A great creature, but an artifact. Basically, he fits the curve perfectly as you go turn 2 doubleland, Cloud, Juggernaut pretty often or just off two doublelands, but doesn't pitch to anything with is a big issue (you're usually pitching creatures anyways). Doesn't have evasion, but is huge. If only it was a  creature, I'd be all over it, but as it stands... Consider it if you don't fear having too few Blue cards, otherwise pass.Flying Men - I suggest against this now. I used to play it long ago as a 1-drop to curve out, but unfortunately, Chalice is too much of a hinderance and other creatures frankly give more bang for the buck. Thought Eater - 2/2 doesn't really mean much anymore, it doesn't come with abilities and 3-drops are about as easy to cast due to duallands. So I don't like it. Fact or Fiction - Used to be obsolete, but now with Mulldrifter, might be you want to add more draw for a robust draw-engine. Fact digs the deepest, but can't fix your hand and gives your opponent complete information. In a deck like this, it doesn't feel optimal, since you usually want specific cards and when you cast this, you rarely need more land. Thirst for Knowledge - The prime draw in the past and the prime suspect for complementary draw if such is to be run. You have usually excess artifacts anyways and instant draw 3 is always awesome. Discarding a Mox, Seat of the Synod, excess Chalice after having one in play, or additional Jitte-copies, is always good. Still, pure draw is hard to fit since you need time to cast it and that's one good you're often short on due to lifeloss from various effects. Tormod's Crypt - Well, it's fairly obvious; if graveyard is abused too much, one can be good MD thanks to Trinket Mage. Presently, I don't feel the need, but if Manaless Ichorid gets too popular, I'll consider it again. Sword of Light and Shadow - Additional equipment, comes with superior protections to SoFI, but the abilities are worse. Slower to kill too. Still, it's very strong anyways, generating card advantage and keeping you above the lethal point, while providing two strong protections and power. It's worth consideration, but usually Jittes and SoFIs are enough. Mask of Memory - Cheap draw. I prefer having SoFI for heavy-duty jobs, and non-creature related draw, but this is quite alright too. Bonesplitter/O-Naginata - Trinkets that provide powerboost. Usually they aren't strong enough alone, O-Naginata lacks targets and they conflict with Chalice at . Decent in builds with less Chalice-focus.Phyrexian Marauder - The only decent tutorable creature. It's still pretty bad though so I'd skip it, but sometimes you really want to be able to tutor for a creature. I tested it and found that it wasn't optimal in the slot though so I'm skipping it now. Urza's Bauble/Mishra's Bauble - Turn your Trinket Mage into Merchant of Secrets++. You usually have decent tutor targets though, so this shouldn't be necessary, especially if you only play 3. With 4, you might draw so many that you lack good targets, when this is considerable. Still, again, one has to ask if that slot can't be used better; seeing the card in the next upkeep instead of your draw hurts. Faerie Conclave - An alright manland to increase the creature count. Mulldrifter largely removed that problem though and Shoreline Ranger is a better 'wannabe-land'. Getting a CiPT-land off the top is too much of a burden and it hurts with those turn 2 Drake-plays a lot. Also generally has poor synergy with Drake. The Sideboard - Cards you don't want in the first game, but wouldn't do without in Games 2&3. Pithing Needle/Engineered Explosives/Cursed Scroll/Tormod's Crypt - The same use as their MD variants. The difference is that post-SB, you should have an access to at least some copies of all of them, with the possible exception of Cursed Scroll (it doesn't do anything others can't replicate, while all the others are relatively unique effects for the deck). Control Magic - It's superb. You not only answer a creature, but you take control of it thus generating advantage. Threshold et co. have important creatures you want answers to and this is the best. Binding Grasp - I used to play this over Control Magic, but with Goyf taking over for Werebear, suddenly the +0/+1 isn't so good anymore. Not to mention, thanks to Trinket Mages+Seat of the Synod, Control Magic is very castable nowadays. Winter Orb - A bomb against all control-decks. If they need lots of lands, this absolutely cripples them, especially if you get to counter their follow-up play or they just tapped out for something. Cloud of Faeries, Sea Drake, duallands and Chrome Moxes dictate that you're just fine under it, but your opponents tend to not be quite as alright. Misdirection - Black disruption-decks have their Hymns, Sinkholes, Vindicates, Thoughtseizes, etc. They all target. Hymn is card advantage for you when misdirected, all others break even. It also works great against decks with burn and fights counters. So useful and powerful that I think it belongs in all SBs and maybe even MDs somewhere. Powder Keg - It's like Engineered Explosives, although it blows up manlands and artifact lands, and goes over 2 without needing another colour. It's untutorable and a bit slower though. Worth considering after you've got one copy of Engineered Explosives for tutoring purposes. Might be a better topdeck. Trinisphere - If you need more hate for combo, and some for Thresh, this helps. I don't like it since your combo match-up is already superb and it doesn't really do that much against Threshold and isn't tutorable; you have all the prison-pieces you need in Chalices. Still, it is a powerful card. I find that you've got better options though. Blue Elemental Blast/Hydroblast - Decent for superheavy red metas. I don't like them costing one though. Chalice is still your #1 bomb against Burn-decks and Sligh and on the play, against Goblins too. On the draw, it answers Lackey, but you'll have to ask yourself, how much you want to sacrifice for that, especially with Goblins being played less now. Mind Harness - An interesting card, steals Goblins and Tarmogoyfs. I prefer more generic answers due to the unsettled metagame of Legacy though, but Tarmogoyf might just make this worth playing. Umezawa's Jitte - If you don't play 4 MD, extras can be worth it when you expect opponent to have some or need the lifegain. The same as the MD. Chill - The ultimate hate on red. If you really fear red, pack these and Needles for the Vials. 4b. Splashes As I said earlier, the deck is commonly mono-Blue. However, that hasn't stopped people from trying different splashes anyways. The main hinderance of splashing is the ease for your opponent to cut you off a colour; essentially the deck is already splashing colourless by playing so many colourless-only lands. You can imagine how easy it would be to make Threshold roll over if it ran only 4 cantrips and only 14 Blue sources by just Wasting a land. They also present another problem in your Blue-count; splash has to be light or Chrome Mox cannot be relied on for Blue mana (which completely screws up the manabase as presently, it relies on being able to get Chrome Moxen down just as often as lands) and Forces will often be stranded in hand. Few cards is doable in this sense though; Cody Mannion finished well with Juggernauts in over Blue creatures giving the deck essentially the same amount of 'non-blues' as you'd add in a splash. So, for the daring souls out there (and indeed, with Trinket Mage, you can play enough lands to fight through most Wasteland-formations), this section is for you. So, let's see what each splash colour offers: White Meddling Mage - Hard to cast, but can be very effective if you don't run StP yourself, for banning creature destruction, and further improving the combo match-up. Exalted Angel - A common card to play from white, while it indeed benefits of the manabase, the same manabase usually prevents her from flipping, especially since Mox won't generally produce White. If anything, you'll have to add an Ancient Den along with Trinkets to ever have a chance of flipping her even with fully UW landbase. Swords to Plowshares - The game's best removal is still good even though it hits a bad CC. I wouldn't play it though - Blue has solid removal to play if that's one wants (Control Magic-effects). The reason they aren't mained is because the deck is built to fight anything and they're dead against a lot. StP would have an added disadvantage. Glowrider - An anti-combo/control tool, not very necessary but can be very effective in this deck as it slows down a huge portition of the field. Overall, white offers some minor benefits, but nothing earthshattering (perhaps the best being actual arti/enchantment removal for the SB) and many of the good white cards require multiple colours of mana. I suggest you pass. Black Dark Confidant - The card advantage machine extraordinare is still good here. Of course he hurts you, but that has never stopped Faerie Stompy before, and you've got the equipment for fix that particular problem. Might warrant Sensei's Divining Top and a bit different build overall though. Phyrexian Negator - It's still all-in, but Faerie Stompy likes Big Cheap Men™ and has the uncanny ability of playing lots of Moxes and such without imprints, so you just might be able to pull it off. And Cities die anyways, so give them a purpose by sacrificing. Solid. Phyrexian Scuta - The only castable 5/5 for 4. This card I'd love to have...if it were Blue. I'm not sure if it's worth splashing black for, but it's still a solid huge beater at the cost of little life, one that you can cast turn 2 with the Cloud-play. A better Juggernaut, as it has a bigger ass and thus survives to fight another day, and also comes without the 'must attack into a 5/6 Tarmogoyf'-clause. Shriekmaw - A handy creature with a great ability, and usable when low on mana. Blue still retains its Control Magic-effects though. Snuff Out/Smother/Diabolic Edict/Ashes to Ashes/etc. - Black comes with lots of removal. They are actually castable unlike StP, but that still isn't something Blue doesn't provide already. Black actually offers a lot, but mostly just stuff that artifacts do too, so I don't think the superior creatures compared to artis are worth losing so many games to Wasteland (presently, the deck can handle them very well as if they target a double land, it's fully possible that I just happen to have another one, and even if not, there're enough Islands, Moxes and Trinkets to go around). Mono-black stompy is a different matter, but at the present, I don't think it's worth it. Call me if they unban Mind Twist. Also, the lack of solid UB cards is a pain. Red Flametongue Kavu - A solid beater that comes with a mini-removal attached. Very good and one of the prime reasons to splash. Of course, Tarmogoyf made him much worse as  isn't the sweet spot for Toughness anymore.Fire Imp - Mini-Kavu, mostly against Joblins et al. Since Joblins have lost most of their jobs, I'd consider Fire Imp fired too. Pyroclasm - The classic SB-card and a main reason why people like to splash red; mass removal is something Blue doesn't do, and artifacts are either fairly limited or fairly expensive. This is great for Goblins, but they're still on the decline, so I'd decline this as well. Fire/Ice - A strong card, but the pinging effect is increasingly weak and this is something you really want to MD, which is tough roomwise. A great card, but not worth splashing for. Red is a traditional splash to improve the game against Goblins from good to great. Now Goblins aren't near the peak of their popularity and the lone worthy non-Goblin Killer lost some value, so I'd steer clear of red. Still, the reason I'm playing a lone Volcanic Island as my EE-support is that people know Faerie Stompy occasionally splashes red so I can confuse some opponents. Green Tarmogoyf - It's great, even here. If you'd like to splash green, this is a very good excuse. Call of the Herd - Another solid green option, getting two 3/3s is always good for one card, and it fits the curve. Now, if it only pitched. Likely, if you splash Green, it's for Tarmogoyf, and that's to what you should stick along with the few sideboard cards. Presently it looks like the strongest splash since Tarmogoyf is stupid even at an unwieldy cost like  .So, overall, Black and Green are somewhat worth it so look there if you insist on having another colour cover your back. Me, I'm back to Blue with my new friends. 4c. Deck Construction Basic decklist composition should be: 13-14 Blue sources 8 Double sources 18-22+ Creatures 8 Chalice&Force 6-8 Pieces of Equipment 0-3 Utility Artifacts 0-6 Draw-spells 0-4 Other All the decks listed earlier follow that mold. The only reason there aren't more creatures is that adding more would require removing some essential components or losing something important. That's why Mulldrifter is so huge, you get to keep the same amount of draw, but have additional creatures for the times your draws go awry. That's why I also like Shoreline Ranger, a land that pitches to Force and Mox when I need no actual lands. Important things to remember when making card choices: -Doublelands should be integrated into your deck construction. They mean you can produce almost as easily as you can produce , and is the same as . Basically, they place limits on coloured costs and encourage heavy colourless components.-The deck is aggressive and wants to remain that way. The goldfish needs to be fast and the beaters evasive, to minimize the amount of things the opponent can do against you. The prime reason the deck is succesful in the first place is that it has lots of evasive beaters and ways to make them deal serious damage so few aggro-decks can race it and even those that can usually have all 60 dedicated towards beatdown while you've got control-elements mixed in. -Avoid 1-drops MD. Post-SB, you might have Chalices going out against some decks, but pre-SB, you want to be able to cast a blind Chalice at against unknown opponents. Needle and Scroll are potential exceptions due to their raw power, but even there, it always has to be weighted whether the costs outweight the rewards. Topdecking 1-drops midgame really sucks, and normally the deck topdecks very well due to the high individual cardpower.-Utilize the Trinket Mages. They allow you to play only few copies of cards on the SB and still see them consistently. They're very integral to the deck's design and should be used as such. -Unless you're working against very specific metagame, keep the broad picture in mind. The deck doesn't fold against anything and you should strive to not give that up. It does it by having a strong proactive plan and disruption capable of hitting any decks. When those features are lost, the deck loses much of its potency in an open field. Also, because of the unique build of the manabase, many cards other decks couldn't even start to consider can be great here. Everything with in its cost comes with a discount, so it's much more powerful here than normally. That's why it's Faerie Stompy and nothing else that's looking at Mulldrifter and saying 'Yummy!'5a. Strategic Overview I already touched upon the subject earlier, but to recap, the strategic aim of the deck is to generate mana faster than the opponent and to leverage that extra mana production with maximally efficient threats, while setting opponent back. Basically, using lowcost accelerants to pump out undercosted creatures and using Chalice/Needle/Force/Jitte/SoFI-package to keep opponent behind once you get ahead, or indeed, to get ahead by setting the opponent back. The two parts of the strategy are basically built to dismantle whatever you're fighting and to build up pressure fast. If opponent cannot properly execute his plan, it will be hard for him to save himself. For this to work, you'll want to be aware of your opponent's plan; it's generally very useful to know what your opponent is playing even more so than normally, since how you should use your Chalices, Needles, Forces et al all depends very much on the opposition. However, due to the amount of Legacy-decks which share heavy concentration on one-drops, a blind Chalice at still usually serves to at least help achieving this goal, especially on the play, which is why it's so important to maximize the ability to make that play.When the opponent is a big unknown, if Chalice is denied from you, it's of course a return to the first principle; the best defense is a strong offense. That is, if you don't know how to disrupt your opponent efficiently and are denied the all-comprehensive method of doing it, your best plan is to kill him before any of that matters. At this point, all the disruptive cards take a secondary place and you'll focus on casting threats and enhancing them. If opponent's plan becomes apparent, as it soon should, you'll of course be able to adjust your strategy accordingly, but often that simple beatdown-path will bring you victory. Finally, there're of course some hands that only come with one part of the plan. Usually you shouldn't ship those back, both of the plans are strong enough to support archetypes by themselves (see Stax, Blue Skies), so they'll often be enough to bring the victory home, provided that you don't happen to know your opponent is playing something where you need one or another (beatdown for Goblins, prison for Storm-combo, etc.). 5b. Tactical Overview The tactical aims of the deck are really quite simple: in the start of the game, if possible, get a Chalice at down, or use your mana for a Jitte or maybe Cycling if you've got a double land, but no Chalice (or know that you should play Chalice at ). The next tactical goal is to succesfully land a piece of equipment and creature(s), depending on whether you're facing relevant sweepers or not.The creature plays should put pressure on the opponent to keep him from being able to do what he wants. You'll obviously want to play the creatures with minimal losses, so turn 2 Sea Drake is rarely a good play, unless you either drew into a Mox, or played turn 1 City. You'll want 3 mana available every turn since that's the deck's threshold. Under 3 you'll function poorly, but at 3, every card will be playable already. Therefore, if you have to play turn 1 Island, turn 2 City/Tomb, you should prefer any other play to playing your Drake, since a Drake at that point means that you'll miss turn 3 plays entirely, unless you drop Tomb/City>Chalice/Jitte. The first two turns of the game are critical, you'll want to get at least one relevant card played at that time, and having two is of course superb. Against decks with LD-elements, consider your Trinket Mages with twice the usual care. A Seat of the Synod might just serve you better than Chalice, or maybe you'll even need a Chrome Mox for LD immunity. Thanks to Chrome Moxen, the deck effectively has 12 completely Wasteland-immune mana sources. That's something to utilize. If your opponent is disrupting your plan, use your engines to keep yourself going and outlast them. 5c. Match-up Overview I don't have hard numbers from 100-game serieses against these decks, but I do have the feeling from playing against them in tournaments and I do have earlier testing data, so I can make pretty good synopsis for most of these. UGx Threshold: The colour changes the match-ups a bit; Dark Confidant can be really annoying even if it can't attack, Swords is decidedly better than Bolt/Fire/Ice against us and Ancient Grudge from the sideboard can be rather huge. The tune is the same though; get down a Chalice with basically any backup and you'll win. Also, a fast beatdown start will generally trump theirs thanks to equipment, evasion and higher creature count. The way you lose these match-ups is if they can grab the edge in the tempo with Dazes and Forces and get down beats before you can. Backpedaling sucks when taking lots of damage from your own sources, giving you a considerably shorter window to find answers (not that it'd be very big to start with; the decks beat with huge guys and usually add one per turn once they get going so you'll be eating good ~10 damage per turn). Control Magic-effects are huge against these decks, too bad they're generally rather unwieldy here. Still, they only run few creatures and if you can turn one against them, you not only get a solid threat yourself, you kill one of their precious few. After sideboard, it depends much on what they've got to bring in. Notably though, Tormod's Crypt lost much of its potency with the printing of Tarmogoyf so it may not be worth it anymore. I don't personally bring it in. Engineered Explosives and any removal is obviously superb here, but it's tough to decide whether the right strategy is to go allout in the early game with Misdirections to protect your bombs, or to aim to win in the midgame by packing removal. Usually, simply due to the power of the removal available, I go with the plan B. However, especially on the play, a protected Chalice is very considerable. Oh, and I just realized it as of late, but against UGr, you actually want to aim your Chalices at 2. A Mongoose isn't going to kill you, nor are the bolts, but Ancient Grudges and Goyfs are really, really mean. Of course, if you can get an early Chalice at 1, you screw up their digging engine, but if that plan fails, you'll probably want to aim at 2. Also, a redundant Chalice at 2 doesn't hurt if you get the chance to play one since they usually have a Krosan Grip or two, and if you have multiples, uncounterability does them little good. White has the annoying Worship, but if you get an equipment going, you should be able to keep the control until they deck, or alternatively until you get Chalices down and then EE their remaining Mongeese. Basically, Worship alone won't stop you, but it definitely skews races. If it comes down, you'll need to go for a total control of the game. Of course, since it costs 4, it rarely comes down in time for race. Pre-board: Slightly favourable Post-board: Favourable to slightly unfavourable (against artifact destruction-heavy UGrw builds with 8 removal-spells, Ancient Grudges and Krosan Grips) Cephalid Breakfast: I haven't had too much experience against this deck, but the ones I did play I won quite easily. Aether Vial appears to be the keycard, and Chalice is once again your A-gun, one of the few pieces of disruption that work through Abeyance. Engineered Explosives on their Vial+1-drop or their 2-drop is superb. Fortunately your aggro-plan is robust, so you won't lose games to Tarmogoyf beats generally; you'll be strong enough to beat their aggro-plan even when focusing on stop their combo. Of course, that's the true danger too. Chalices can end the game, but sometimes you just have to gamble. This is just as much a Chalice-fest as any other combo-match but even more so since the Chalices also counter their disruption and trump. If Vial comes down and you can't find an EE, Trinket, Keg or Needle fast, things can get ugly. But yea, don't fret about their aggro-plan, it just isn't very good. Oh, and Umezawa's Jitte is an incredible trump since their damage redirection tricks do squat there and it kills their guys in response to the other one coming into play and has two counters so you can respond to playing one and Vialing another. Of course, if they have both in hand AND enough mana to Abeyance AND the means to cast both in one turn, you're boned. Notice that it requires a lot though, especially since generally it's stopped if they don't have a Vial in play and/or you have a Chalice at 1 (generally they need the Vial to bring in their Illusionist since casting it and Abeyance is 4 mana). After sideboard, not much changes. You may bring in few Needles and maybe some extra removal for slower, unwieldier parts and some pieces of the beatdown machine, while they'll probably bring in some more bounce or some such, Stern Proctor or something to that effect. It still revolves around their Vial and your Chalices&Jittes&Booms. You can bring in Tormod's Crypts if you insist, but I suggest only one since it isn't very good actually due to being a passive hatecard and you basically always would rather want a Chalice to stop the pieces and hate from getting into play in the first place, or removal to blow up something that got into play. One might be alright if you have to tap out for a Mage and know you need an answer for their next turn; it's better than nothing. Pre-board: Favourable Post-board: Favourable Goblins: They come in so many different flavours that it's very hard to make a concise analysis. Basically, the classic mono-red build is in your favour, although die roll means a lot as it's beatdown mirror with few spices that are extra hot turn 1 (Lackey, Vial, Chalice) and 2 (Jitte, SoFI). Obviously, it comes down to beating them down before they beat you down and using your equipment to keeping them from beating you down. Obviously Aether Vial is huge as it lets them cheat on mana almost as much as you can. Obviously their mana disruption lands can win some games for them, but often your hands are so explosive that they can't spare the time. Rw can be slightly annoying with their StPs and Disenchants, but I've found that you're a favourite there. Same applies to mono-red. Rg is the nightmare combo since they have heavy instant artifact removal in the MD and more on the SB. If you didn't pay attention, I'll repeat: Artifacts allow you to control them while you beat for the kill. Now, if those artifacts are removed, it's very possible that you can't do a darn thing about it, especially since Piledriver is pro-blue so stopping their big gun is impossible without your artifacts. While it's 'nightmare', even my own build of Rg running 3 Tin Street Hooligans in the main didn't actually stomp Faerie Stompy since the deck plays far more threatening artifacts than Goblins play answers, but it's a matter of drawing them. On good news, Matron-tutors often come too late, so they'll mostly be relying on what they can actually draw. It's annoying how easily a Lackey can deter you from attacking though. In some hands, you just have to go for it and pray, but usually it's correct to not let it connect. Notice that black splash does basically nothing special against you, Wort's far too slow to matter and Therapy isn't very efficient against a redundant beatdown deck. Oh, and Stingscourger is bad for you, Goblin Goon isn't too friendly, Sharpshooter is a laughing stock, Ib Halfheart is fairly trivial as are most of the expensive guys. Generally their landhate hurts you more than an accelerated Goblins-manabase, but accelerated manabase makes their big drops more dangerous. All in all, interesting and close. Sideboarding is a messy business on both sides and involves whatever Goblins-hate and Needles/such you've got lying around there versus whatever artifact/enchantment hate and possibly creature hate they have sitting on theirs. Then just go and duke it out. It rarely changes too much since you can generally compensate for what they bring in, but it's worth noting that they badly hurt their Goblin-synergies to fit in their SB-cards, so you can gamble a bit more on them not having X available. White obviously brings in either Disenchants or Swords, red brings in some artifact removal and in the worst case, Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast. Those are luckily rare nowadays, and Chalice still solves them (just goes to show how great it is to cast one on the play on turn 1). Pyrokinesis can come in, but it isn't stellar against you, and I personally wouldn't bring it in as a Goblins-player, since it's sacrificing a lot for little gain. Artifact-removal feels more important. Black generally has nothing worthwhile to bring in so the Black variant tends to be rather easy here; at worst as bad as mono-red if they pack artifact removal and Pyrokinesis, and at best they have absolutely nothing. Pre-board: Slightly favourable (stupid coin) to slightly unfavourable, depending on the build. Post-board: Slightly favourable (coin is my nemesis) to slightly unfavourable, depending on the amount of hate they can bring in. Fast Storm-combo: They're all pretty much the same to you. You're a heavy favourite. Belcher also fits to this category. Basically, they absolutel loathe Chalice. With passion. Their eyes off. You also have a good number of answers to their prime anti-anti-stuff-stuff, Empty the Warrens, since you have EE that's fetchable. Also, Force is obviously great here. There's a reason I don't pack any sideboard for these decks; you should be able to handle them without. Their alternate plans generally fold to your beatdown efficiency and artifacts. Generally you bring in even more Warrens-answers and whatever hate happens to apply (Misdirections, Elemental Blasts, Needles, Crypts whatever) with them bringing in some random anti-control measures. Neither are generally very relevant (Dark Confidant is one common SB-card you should be aware of; make sure you have the means to make it die. Luckily Warrens-answers usually work here too), so it's about the same post-board. I just won against Belcher from a mulligan to 1 today with Chalice at 0 ****ing up his mana totally. So...yea (to be fair, he mulled to 4). Knowing how to play your Chalices and what to FoW is what makes or breaks this match-up. Too hard to make any rules since it depends entirely on the board and what you know of their hand, but some very general guideslines: Belcher 0, TES 1, SI 0, Iggy 1. Oh, and don't forget that Cloud of Faeries cycles...the Force might just be on the top. And you tend to get some extra time just because you're blue; they usually try to prepare to fight through Force, which serves to give you the time you need to find Chalices even on bad hands. Of course, don't forget to mulligan aggressively, you're not the beatdown here. Oh, and don't forget to watch your blue count when SBing, Forces are one of the keys here. Pre-board: Favourable Post-board: Favourable Slow Storm-combo: Not very common, so I'll be brief. You shouldn't lose. They give you all the time in the world to set up your Chalices and beatdown and need a few turns to recover after one, so just beat them to bloody pulp while at it. The fact that their clock is 3 turns slower than fast Storm-combo really gives you a room for error here. Not much to say, bring in Misdirections to fight their counters and have a party. They even fizzle on their own occasionally. Pre-board: Very favourable Post-board: Very favourable Burn: The resident badboy. Unfortunately, with the printing of Rift Bolt, Chalice became less powerful against them. Also unfortunately, you inflict pain on yourself. Fortunately, Chalice and Jitte are still huge and you still have a clock that can rival theirs. Also fortunately, their most common sweeper doesn't hit anything but Mages (and their second-most-common sweeper tends to be too small to take down anything of importance), and their common 1-drop, Fanatic, doesn't connect very often. Just block it. They'll probably bring in something which makes their deck worse while you bring in Misdirections to help your Forces. You should be right at home in this MU, although your self-damage combined with their speed can hurt at times. Don't forget about Price of Progress, you have no excuse for letting it hit you for above 4, and often, you can just ignore it with Sea Drakes, Moxes et al. Oh, if they bring in Ensnaring Bridge, don't forget to tell them to screw themselves. Also, try to Misdirection them out, while keeping them busy with Chalices. If they're out of Misdirection-range, you could try to just shut them out while building up Powder Keg. It gets hairy if they have Bridge though. Pre-board: Favourable Post-board: Favourable Zoo: Usually, this is a Chalice-game with some combat involved. Chalice breaks them in half, but if it doesn't come up, things get interesting with tons of combat math, big equipment swinging things and them trying to get you to burn-range, you helping them and going right back up. You're usually the favourite, but don't underestimate your opponent. I've beaten Faerie Stompy myself a number of times with simple RDW2k5 with Bolts, usually at 1-6 life, because my opponent took some unnecessary risk. So tight playing is what makes or breaks the match. That and a fast start; we're talking an aggro-mirror after all. Oh yeah, and the Chalice. Post-board, their artifact removal is again a bitch, so things get tougher, but your beats are still strong and fat, and you get Misdirections, and against more midrange builds, Control Magic. Pre-board: Favourable Post-board: Slightly favourable to even Landstill: I don't really know what to make of this match-up. Sometimes it's ridiculously easy, other times it just feels unwinnable. Sometimes they have all the answers and others they have all the wrong ones, or you've got the answers to their answers. You don't like BG since Pernicious Deed blows up your precious artifacts. You most prefer UW since they often rely on Humility which your equipment completely trumps. Tight playing, breaking Standstill at tactical times (optimally it never comes down, of course), generally their EoT, playing around or through sweepers, using equipment to make every guy a threat, the normal control-treatment. Luckily they don't play anything like Morphling as a kill condition so they can rarely trump your flying beaters with their own kill condition, making them mostly defensive here. Chalice at 2 is awesome, and it's alright at 1 too, again depending on the build and what removal they're using. After sideboard, you get decisively better tools; they generally can't focus on hating one niché of aggro-decks and need to rely on board cards which rarely hit you too hard. Pithing Needle is absolutely huge against them (especially Deed), Powder Keg has uses and most importantly, you get Winter Orb, which opens up entirely new strategic avenues. You can also bring in Misdirection to protect your Winter Orbs. Generally some number of artifacts like Chalice, equipment and random 1-ofs leave. Get them to tap down and Winter Orb should GG them most of the time. They usually have instant artifact removal though so beware. Pre-board: Even...? Post-board: Slightly favourable Base-white control: As I already touched upon, Humility isn't that big against you. It's usually the main reason to go straight white, and since they don't pack counters, you can usually stop anything too threatening. They're actually pretty easy and I've got a good record against white control-decks playing Faerie Stompy, even more so with Cursed Scroll in the main. The same stuff applies as against Landstill, except remove all stuff about 'their counters' and 'tactically playing around Standstill'. You should be very able to beat these decks with proper playing, especially since they can't counter your draw without Humility, and Winter Orb nails them even worse as they can't counter it and play lots of expensive sorceries. Pre-board: Slightly favourable Post-board: Favourable Lands!: This can be very easy if you know what you're doing. If you don't, you won't win. Basically, the key is to waste Force as soon as possible on their first accelerant, while going for a Chalice at 2 with as many basics and Moxes as possible. Even if you don't get it down, few creatures are always great. A simple Needle on Maze of Ith and you're fine. Of course, since I removed the MD Needle, this match-up got a lot worse. On the other hand, you've got good defenses if you can't attack so Cursed Scroll becomes an option provided that they don't get Loam-engine with Barbarian Ring going. Sideboarding gives you a lot more than you'd ever need. All you want is Needles to answer their #1 threat. Winter Orb is über, of course, Tormod's Crypt hits them where it hurts and so on, but it's hard to fit all the goodies in. Basically though, they tend to get jack squat out of the board (you don't give a damn about Zuran Orbs, Glacial Chasms or such since you hit their actual engine and all those need their engine to be effective) while you get a bunch of 'I win'-cards that they lack proper answers to. There're very few match-ups I'd rather play than this. Of course, you'll lose few to them taking your manabase apart, but judicious use of fetches and Trinket Mages often gets you a strong Moxy manabase. In this match-up, Moxes are truly your best friends. Remember that you can use Ported lands to pay for Tabernacles. So do so. Pre-board: Even Post-board: Favourable Ux Fish: They're usually better off than you on individual card-by-card basis, while you're usually better off speed-wise and have the stupid bomb known as Chalice. You can often outbeat them, but unlike many others similar decks, some of these run flyers which is a huge bummer. They have annoying amounts of removal and counters, along with their own Jittes, but you fight back with more equipment and bigger guys along with game-enders. Good news is that they don't usually pack R and G for Ancient Grudge. The bad news is that they may have Serenity or something randomally stupid like that. Either way, not a fan. You'll probably want to keep going for the Chalice-plan post-board with Misdirections coming in, along with maybe Needles, Explosives, Control Magics, etc. depending on their build. Wasteland hurts if they play it, but not enough to generally Needle. Pre-board: Slightly favourable to slightly unfavourable, depending on their build Post-board: Slightly favourable to unfavourable, depending on the build I'm aware that I should cover decks X, Y and Z, but I simply don't have experience against every deck in the format and I'm too tired to write about every single existing match-up. I'll probably add black disruption-decks, WWs, Aluren and more different control-decks later, but I hope this gives you the idea against the most relevant opposition. 6. Rules Issues The deck has few things regarding the rules which aren't quite intuitive or just simply cannot be deducted through logic. Therefore, I'm including a section which covers the most common Rules-related issues. Sea Drake - When Sea Drake comes into play, if there's only one land in play on your side, the ability just fizzles. Since there's no clause that forces you to sacrifice it, you won't have to sacrifice it, you just get to keep it without drawbacks. This is one of the prime tactical aims of the deck and mostly achieved either through having a double land and Chrome Mox to play turn 1, or through having a turn 1 City of Traitors into turn 2 Island-Sea Drake, tapping City for mana before sacrificing it (this is only done when you've got enough mana to function without the City though, or when you need turn 1 Chalice at and have to gamble).Chalice of the Void - It has a converted mana cost of  in every other place but the stack, where its converted mana cost is the amount of mana equal to twice what you chose the X to be. In other words 2*X. That means that if you have a Chalice of the Void at down, it will counter Chalice of the Void for , since Chalice of the Void for has a converted mana cost of (2*X, where X=1) on the stack. Likewise, Chalice at will counter another Chalice at . In play, they all have converted mana cost of , so one Engineered Explosives at destroys them all.Misdirection - You cannot Misdirect a counterspell to target itself, since effects cannot target themselves. You can, however, make it target Misdirection as long as it's a normal Counterspell for which Misdirection is a legal target. Therefore, you can use Misdirection to "counter" Counterspells of all kinds (and remember, if Remand, Disrupt or such has no legal targets and is countered, it's no cards for them). Humility+Sword of Fire and Ice/Umezawa's Jitte - These are applied in the Time Stamp-order, in other words, the one which was in place first is applied first. However, equip is considered to be active from the moment you equip something, so simply equipping Sword of Fire and Ice again will get you the protections and pump back. The 'damage dealing'-part is an ability of the Sword and thus unaffected by Humility. All Umezawa's Jitte's abilities are abilities of the Jitte itself so none are affected by Humility (although if you pump your creature on the same turn when Humility comes into play before it does, Humility will overwrite them. Any future pumps will work normally though). Force of Will/Misdirection+Chalice of the Void/Trinisphere - Even when cast for their alternative costs, Force and Misdirection retain their original converted mana cost (nothing really modifies that) so Chalice at  is the only way to counter them with it. Trinisphere, on the other hand, looks at how much mana you actually spent to cast them so under Trinisphere, the alternative casting cost requires you to pitch a card and to pay .Pithing Needle - You name the card as it comes into play. That is, you don't name it before it enters the game. Therefore, when opponent is given a chance to respond to Needle, he can't know what you're going to name, so unless he wants to risk you disabling them, he'll have to use his Top, Pernicious Deed, Jitte and fetches in response. Something very handy at times. Umezawa's Jitte - If Jitte'd guy is blocked and the blocker sacrificed before damage, Jitte gets no counters as the creature deals no damage (well, unless it tramples over of course). That's why you should strive to equip it to evasive creatures to make counters more likely and to avoid losing the creature before you get some counters on it. Obvious, but still bears mentioning. Engineered Explosives - Engineered Explosives can be cast past Chalice of the Void at any number, since the number of counters Engineered Explosives recieves is determined by Sunburst, not X. Same also applies against Counterbalance, the converted mana cost of Engineered Explosives on the stack will be X, whatever you want the X to be (so as long as you only spend colourless mana, or no mana at all, to pay for X, it comes into play with 0 counters, if you only use blue and colourless, it comes into play with 1 counter and if you spend blue and another colour, it comes in with 2 counters). This of course makes it useful beyond words. 7. FAQ Q: Can I build Faerie Stompy without Sea Drakes? A: Yes, you can. There are many decent 3-drops, most common replacement being Phyrexian War Beast. The deck still has tons of power and a good amount of evasion without Sea Drakes, so the deck is fully viable. However, make no mistake, Sea Drake is very powerful and you will play with a weaker deck if it has none. But yes, it's still competitive without them. Q: The deck seems horribly inconsistent. Is it? A: Inconsistent in the terms that it only plays 14 coloured lands, yes, sure. Inconsistent in the terms that you need two lands to get things done, sure. However, the deck has sufficient consistency at least comparing to historical lists; 14 coloured sources is enough when you only need a single mana of the given colour, which is exactly why the deck is built like it is. Comparatively, it shouldn't be relevantly less consistent than most of the decks in the format working off coloured lands simply because it needs less colours than those decks. The new builds with 22 creatures, 7 pieces of equipment and the traditional package are actually very redundant since whatever you lose, you'll probably have a backup, all thanks to the double duty cards like Mulldrifter, Trinket Mage and Shoreline Ranger. Q: How reliant is the deck on Chalice of the Void? A: No question, it's one of the cards the deck triumphs with. The card kills many recursive engines and can shut down half of an opponent's deck in a format with such low manacurves. However, turn 1 4/3s aren't to be underestimated; often games are won through simple beatdown and the deck is designed to be good at that. Match-ups against decks that don't mind Chalice are still fairly good since the beatdown is efficient and those decks immune to Chalice often lose a lot of power against Faerie Stompy's structure as well. Force of Will is often enough to defeat combo with beats without needing Chalice. So the deck isn't totally reliant on Chalice, but the card is certainly very powerful here. Useful, not necessary. Q: The deck is rather expensive. Is it worth it? A: The deck has quite a few money cards, that's true. However, you can comfort yourself with the fact that Force of Will, Umezawa's Jitte and Chrome Mox are all universally playable in Legacy and besides Sea Drakes, they're the only really expensive cards. When building Faerie Stompy, the manabase will save you a pretty penny compared to anything dual-heavy, so spend that on those Sea Drakes. While those lists aren't presently very popular, Sea Drake still has its uses outside Faerie Stompy too, mostly in blue-based beatdown decks and even some Threshold-builds can use an evasive, non-graveyard reliant beater. I'd say it's worth the money you pay for it, although many might get better returns from a Sea Drakeless build. Q: Where may I find more information about the deck? A: I'll be honest, this is probably the most complete primer I've written about the deck to the date. However, that doesn't mean there weren't alternative sources of information, it just means that they're mostly in forms of discussions. Some that may interest you: The old Faerie Stompy-thread here at MTGS The present Faerie Stompy-thread over at the Source The old Faerie Stompy-thread over at the Source I'd start there. I've seen few good discussions in other places (most recently in a French Legacy-forum), but those are the most relevant ones to the work at hands. Of course, if you're looking to actually discuss the deck, this very thread is the place for that. Those should act to satisfy your curiousity about different aspects on the deck, if you wish to find out what's been tried, different results, et cetera. Q: Will you ever write an article about the deck? A: I know I've promised to do that a billion times so I'm obliged to do so. I like this new build so I may just find the energy to actually test the match-ups for some hard numbers, which would be required for the article. Still, this is rather complete. The only things I haven't really went indepth on are all the possible card choices and the earlier history of the deck, but all in due time. So yes, I will write one eventually, but I make no promises regarding a deadline. Q: Why should I play Faerie Stompy? A: Well, a multitude of reasons. If you're a Timmy, you might like beating with the biggest creatures (with help from equipment) you really get to play in the format, and simply by playing spells that comparatively cost a lot with ease, and enjoy the thrill of the blazing speed the deck plays at. If you're a Johnny, you might enjoy the fact that the deck is incredibly customizable, as those builds showed, and that you'll have lots of room to tinker around with everything. Splash something for more interesting options. If you're a Spike, it probably helps that the deck is very good. It has a solid plan for winning the game and it's capable of doing that while screwing the opposition up. Having a number of relevant choices to make from the way you build your manabase to the way you use your Clouds, Trinket Mages, Sea Drakes, Forces, Chalices and mana give you some leeway for outplaying the opponent. Regardless of your archetype, the deck will have something to offer for you. It's very fun to play as long as you like swinging with Big Cheap Men™, it has some Rogue-factor, it's different, it's doesn't cantrip around doing nothing like Threshold and it has lots of power along with a bunch of solid match-ups and nothing unwinnable. So, pick it up and enjoy! Last edited by Eldariel : 12-12-2007 at 10:59 AM. |
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10-30-2007, 08:21 PM
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smokin' toadz
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Paris, France
Posts: 2,607
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Absolutly amazing primer, particularly the history section. I found that really interesting. Can't wait until the rest.
I'm gonna have to try out mulldrifter at my next tournament in the place of TfK. Seems like some serious tech  I also like the idea of expanding the trinket mageable cards MD, notably Cursed Scroll. However, i dont like the 2 fech, one dual + explosives configuration. Seems like it just makes the mana base too fragile, maybe not :/ But is a second explosives needed SB when you have one main? Is having two post board that good? Just curious as i havn't tested out much with the explosives.
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10-30-2007, 08:47 PM
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Wizard Mentor
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Finland
Posts: 633
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Well, it's just a single Volcanic. Fetches go for Islands in match-ups where you fear Wasteland, so it's basically one less basic Island. It shouldn't hurt too much, although it can be annoying since it shows up at the most inopportune moments. I've found it worth it though, else I'd still have to keep Needle in the MD, but with this, I can most importantly blow up Survivals and Jittes, which puts my mind at ease.
Oh, I added some more to the Primer, only Strategic and Match-Up Overview left, but those I'll have to do tomorrow. |
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10-31-2007, 03:09 AM
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MTGS Design Idol Grandfather
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Belgium
Posts: 1,081
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I'm not really such a fan of Cursed Scroll because it gets completely useless when you plant a Chalice at 1(which is pretty much my main plan) but I'm testing out the splash for Explosives. I'm testing a build with 3 Mulldrifters and 3 TfK's at the moment and the huge amount of carddraw is really nice in this deck. This makes my build nearly the same as yours but with a Pithing Needle instead of Scroll and TfK instead of Pestermite, for whom I've simply got no more room.
Great Primer by the way, I loved the read! Keep up the good work!
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  Omg I love you mister Stuff!!! Thanks for the great siggy!
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10-31-2007, 10:44 AM
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Your God and Saviour
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Making love with his Ego
Posts: 3,693
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Nice primer,
This is enough that I'll take away the old thread. |
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10-31-2007, 12:52 PM
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smokin' toadz
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Paris, France
Posts: 2,607
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Having two cards that you cant cast after you play a card that isnt always out, really is not a huge disadvantage. tl;dr It will help more than it will be useless.
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10-31-2007, 01:35 PM
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MTGS Design Idol Grandfather
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Belgium
Posts: 1,081
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Omg I love you mister Stuff!!! Thanks for the great siggy!
Last edited by JeroenC : 11-02-2007 at 03:59 AM. |
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10-31-2007, 05:53 PM
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smokin' toadz
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Paris, France
Posts: 2,607
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Also, what you said about pithing needle is not entirely true. I almost always will mage for a needle and cast it in the LATE game to shut down what my offonent is using to win (survival, glare, or anything else). It's actually not as strong of an early play as it is a late one because playing it late means you can make a more informed choice for what to name, rather than naming a fetch or something, slowing down your opp, only to have them win with a later played activated ability, and yes, this has happenes to me before. So in actuality, they are both strong late game plays, or at least, theyre both alot stronger late game. As for finding an empty slot, why woult you ruun crypt over scroll when debating the two? Crypt is usless against alot of decks whereas scroll can always be used to zap your opponent once topdeck mode has been engaged. On the flip side though, the scroll does require a low CiH as well as mana each activation. While our 2 mana lands facilitate the cost to acticvate it, were still tapping two mana sources. But i still stand that its better to have it than not in the control or other slow MU's and can be dropped if youre going to be wither chalice-ing for one, or fetching a chalice with the mage, (which i didnt even know i could do when i firts played the deck  )
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10-31-2007, 09:10 PM
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Wizard Mentor
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Finland
Posts: 633
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Alright, the primer is finished for now. While I may periodically add some more match-ups and cards (stupid format with its 75 000 000 options...), this is the core of it and this should contain all of the relevant information. Tell me if you think there's something I haven't covered that I should, or if there's some information that you find needs to be covered in more depth, or if there's something that you don't find to be correct. Either way, glad that's over with, it's one heckuva job when one puts one's mind to it. 55610 characters without spaces, 11722 words, 1067 lines and 24 pages (font 12, Times New Roman) according to Word. Phew. And that's before counting all the tags that just blend in.
EDIT: And only one single censored word! Woohoo! Last edited by Eldariel : 10-31-2007 at 09:17 PM. |
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11-01-2007, 02:30 PM
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Ascended Mage
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: NJ
Posts: 269
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Awesome primer. Really great job. I'm just wondering about the choice of Chrome Mox over Mox Diamond for decks hoping to use Engineered Explosives for 2. I know the diamond can be a pain in a land-light deck, but it seems like it might be worth it to open up the sideboard to splashes.
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11-01-2007, 03:03 PM
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Wizard Mentor
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Finland
Posts: 633
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The simple issue there is that Mox Diamond isn't a mana source while Chrome Mox is. To extrapolate, if your hand contains Mox Diamond and one land, or two Moxes, you have to ship it back, while you'll keep Mox/Land and occasionally even double Mox (there're few sitiuations where it's right, but they mostly involve Chalice). If there was room for 24 mana sources in the deck, you'd be fine running two Diamonds, but even then, their utility over actual lands is questionable. Engineered Explosives is rather minor a benefit so it hardly makes it worth it alone.
5/3, on the contrary, can run it since it runs 22 lands. It might be something to look into, Faerie Stompy with more lands including some manlands or Wasteland and perhaps Crucible of Worlds, but the fact remains that while both have existed in Legacy for a long time, Faerie Stompy is constantly putting up results while 5/3 has had maybe two Top 8s in bigger-than-20-player tournaments throughout its existence, so as it stands, Faerie Stompy's approach looks superior. The issue with the plan is that it would probably cost the deck the blues to support Force of Will, which is huge. |
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11-02-2007, 03:59 AM
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MTGS Design Idol Grandfather
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Belgium
Posts: 1,081
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Omg I love you mister Stuff!!! Thanks for the great siggy!
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11-13-2007, 03:29 AM
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Ascended Mage
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 179
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Hi, I picked up a playset of Drakes so I thought I build Stompy completely than. I have some questions though about mulligans and openings. In my testing these where some hard hands.
City of Traitors Seat of the Synod Cloud of Faeries Chrome Mox Sword of Fire and Ice Serendib Efreet Chalice of the Void What would you do on the play against an unknown opponent. go with the first turn creature with Traitors and Mox or with the turn 1 Chalice. Or after mulligan to six Flametongue Kavu( I play the red splash(duh)) Cloud of Faeries Chalice of the Void Ancient Tomb Chrome Mox Force of Will Keep or mull again And the last one Island Island Chalice of the Void Chalice of the Void Force of Will Mull Drifter Serendib Efreet Decent hand, but not really explosive. I don't like Scroll at all. For zapping you already got Sword of Fire and Ice and Umezawa's Jitte. I play 1 Needle and a Engineered Explosive main and it's all I need. BB |
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11-13-2007, 05:18 AM
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Wizard Mentor
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Finland
Posts: 633
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The first of those hands is great. Against unknown opponent, on the play, I'd go Seat-Mox-Chalice. Usually, Chalice at 1 on the play is more than devastating enough, and if it's something like Goblins, you've just practically won the game. Even if it's control (where you'd obviously want Serendib first), you've still got a good shot left as you probably cut away some of their spot removal and are able to resolve that Efreet turn 2 unless they have the Force. Further, this play has the advantage that if you happen to topdeck another Cloud of Faeries OR land, you can play/equip SoFI on the following turn (turn 3, that is). But yea, I'd play Chalice first in that hand, unless I knew the meta was horribly Loam- and general Control-centric.
That second hand is the very reason I don't like the idea of a splash. You'll have to keep that hand, but you won't be happy. You'll probably end up going Chalice and hoping that Chalice and FoW will buy you enough time to get out of that screw. If you can at all afford it, imprint the FoW, see if you could cycle the Cloud into a red source (or if you've drawn equipment, simply cast the Cloud; you'll draw the red source eventually, Cloud is enough pressure with Jitte or SoFI, forcing removal for which you again have Chalice). That third hand feels a bit weak. I'd probably mulligan it on the draw, but on the play, it seems possibly keepable. Still, the Chalice at 1 will be 1 turn too late to stop everything. However, it'll still hit any removal-spells they have and such, and the fact that you have another Chalice and Force along with beaters means you're in a superb shape against aggro/control. Against control, you just might have the time to win, and against aggro, you've got the Force. If I knew what I was playing against, everything would change, but in the big blind, Force and double Chalice is usually compelling enough reason to keep it on the play even if it IS a gamble. In this particular case, all you need to do is to hit a land in 2-3 draws and you'll be in a great shape. As long as you don't have a very strong draw from a nightmare pairing, you should be fine. |
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11-13-2007, 04:08 PM
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Ascended Mage
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 179
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Well thanks,
The reason I splashed was I already needed another color to play Engineered Explosives for two. After that I couldn't find enough blue beaters. With already four Cloud of Faeries, four Mulldrifter( this card is really insane) and three Trinket Mage I have eleven creatures that have a power of two or less. Pestermite is reasonable, but still only a 2/1. The only big creatures I found where Juggernaut and Flametongue Kavu. The Kavu is simply better than the Juggernaut because it is a two for one card. It burns almost anything away up to small Goyfs and has can deal quite some damage without the need of equipments. It can also deal the final damage to big Goyfs or Exalted Angel or Tombstalker after combat. I only play two of them so they rarely clog up my hand. BB |
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