Magic the Gathering

Constructed

Trial and Error – Fly Swatters

By Sam Feeley ⋅ May 16, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅

The StarCi­tyGames Mega-Weekend has come and gone, and with it, we have learned three valu­able lessons about Type 2: Bit­terblos­som now sees more play than Tar­mogoyf, Alex Bertoncini is pretty good at this game (hav­ing won both the 5K and the 2K), and most impor­tantly, U/B Faeries is the best deck in the for­mat and there’s noth­ing you can do about it.

Or is there?

I have come to the con­clu­sion that if you’re going to beat Faeries, you have two choices: play Faeries, or play green. Since green gives more flex­i­bil­ity (there are many dif­fer­ent green decks rather than the one con­formist Faerie list), I like the lat­ter option. Moat effects do noth­ing for the W/U con­trol player, typ­i­cal aggro decks get coun­tered all day long, and Red Deck Wins play­ers may be forced to waste their burn on the pesky mos­qui­toes rather than their opponent’s face.

Green, on the other hand, in addi­tion to being able to race with Faeries, brings Hur­ri­cane effects to the table. It’s the best-equipped color to fight off the locust inva­sion. Thus, I present to you the top five “fly swat­ters” in Stan­dard – the best Faerie haters in the for­mat, at least in green.

5. Fire­spout
Eat your heart out, Sav­age Twister. If your own crea­tures are big enough, you can safely cast it for 1RG and clear the way for your big dudes. Even if you don’t have red, it’s still a [card title=“Wrath”]Wrath of God[/card] effect against most of the crea­tures in the Faerie deck (save Mist­bind Clique). If you end up run­ning Fire­spout, use two to four in the main deck.

4. Hur­ri­cane
Ah, yes, Hur­ri­cane, the orig­i­nal green burn spell. In addi­tion to tak­ing out his board, it can take out your oppo­nent. With the pain lands and Bit­terblos­som life drain, your oppo­nent becomes an easy tar­get for good ol’ XG. Unfor­tu­nately, there’s the part where it’s a sor­cery. All in all, Hur­ri­cane is good, but not absolutely nec­es­sary. If you run it, play two in the main deck or two in the side­board – unless you have Squall Line (see #3).

3. Squall Line
Hur­ri­cane’s faster, younger cousin Squall Line gets the nod over Hur­ri­cane because of the instant-speed effect. Think about it – Hur­ri­cane can’t respond to Mist­bind Clique, Spell­stut­ter Sprite, or Scion of Oona. It’s good, but because of the sec­ond and first cards on this lit­tle count­down, Squall Line can be in or out. If it’s in, play two in the main deck or two in the sideboard.

2. Rak­ing Canopy
Not only does Rak­ing Canopy eat up every crea­ture in the Faerie deck, it can even stall your Swan Song oppo­nent. If he can’t go off right away, he may be forced to attack you, This is when you bring in Canopy. You may still take four, but you get four cards, and if you’re splash­ing black, you may be lucky enough to hit Ter­ror, Name­less Inver­sion, or the like. Rak­ing Canopy is absolutely nec­es­sary. Play three or four in the side­board (I play three).

1. Cloudthresher
A six-mana 7/7 with no draw­backs never hurt any­body, unless that some­body was play­ing against it. In addi­tion to the built-in two-point Hur­ri­cane, the Evoke abil­ity saves you mana if you don’t need the big body, and it swal­lows up Mist­bind Clique all day. Cloudthresher is a life­saver against Faeries, and a must in any green deck. Play one or two in the main deck, plus an addi­tional one or two in the sideboard.

You’ll notice I ranked the two instant-speed effects ahead of the three sorcery-speed cards. If you’re going to beat Faeries, you need to be able to keep up with the speed of the deck and its tricks – their flash crea­tures, their coun­ter­spells, and their removal. In an aggres­sive metagame, the aggres­sive con­trol deck known as Faeries has risen to the top of the field. Can it be stopped? Pro Tour Hol­ly­wood and U.S. Region­als are right around the cor­ner, so we’ll soon find out. Regard­less of what you play, good luck beat­ing Faeries – you’re going to need it. I’ll see you in Hollywood.

–Sammy Time

Sam Fee­ley is a Timmy-Spike and PTQ semi-regular orig­i­nally from Con­cord, Mass­a­chu­setts. He enjoys Magic, sports, cook­ing, and writ­ing. He maintains two blogs, Samurai Entertainment on news, games, and nonsense; and Samurai Sports, about interior decorating. And by interior decorating he means sports.

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