Community

Faerie Stompy is a mono-blue aggro-deck built to abuse the best mana accelerants, undercosted creatures and tempo-cards available in Legacy Blue. In other words, it drops a huge dude, equips it up, disables the opponent and beats the living hell out of the unlucky goldfish on the opposing side! The deck has the capability to do well against just about any strategy due to the versatile disruption and powerful, proactive plan the deck packs. The modern variants tend to smash combo-decks of all varieties and be favoured against most aggro-decks with the control-MU depending totally on the control-deck’s vulnerability to the toolbox artifacts FS plays, and pro-red

There’s some variance to the common lists, but they’re usually something to this effect. I’ll go over some alternatives in the individual card-by-card – analysis. Speaking of which:


Card choices

Manabase
Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors
These two cards serve to cheat. Savagely. Basically, having a land that taps for mana allows you to play less lands as having one of these in play is equivalent to having two normal lands in play, generating virtual card advantage. Also, since they tap for two the turn they come into play, they accelerate your playing by a turn. These two cards are the basis for the deck’s operation, as the fellow with the most mana can cast the best cards. Much of the philosophy of Faerie Stompy is based on generating the said mana advantage. Downside is that the deck is forced to run a low number of blue sources, thus making cards with or more blue in their mana cost almost uncastable. That’s what the deck is built around though.

Chrome Mox
Well, first of all it allows casting turn 1 dudes and accelerates you by a turn, costing you a mere card. Also a land you can play with City of Traitors in play without popping the former, and one of the prime means to cheat a Sea Drake into play.

Island
Mono-blue deck. The most broken blue land ever, immune to Wasteland and such. Fairly obvious, no?
Some builds play some Faerie Conclaves to get some extra threats at the cost of some speed. Conclave is a decent card in a control-meta, but in an aggro-meta, it’s just a Wastelandable Island that comes into play tapped most of the time. I prefer Shoreline Ranger as my ‘utility Island’ as it does more stuff like pitching to things.>

Seat of the Synod
[card=Wasteland]Wastelandable[/card] Island that can be fetched via Trinket Mage

Shoreline Ranger
Perhaps the weirdest recent card choice, it’s an Island I can imprint on Chrome Mox, pitch to Force of Will, or just plain cast if I’m manaflooded and draw it. If I have a hand with 2 mana, I can just cycle this for the third.


Creature-base
Sea Drake
The biggest hitter blue has available. If someone hasn’t got it yet, Flying is awesome in a format with billions of creatures, and 4/3 for 3 is just plain nuts. Worth noting that the drawback can actually work in your advantage if you don’t want to destroy a City of Traitors in play (return it to hand instead) or if you are under a Winter Orb (your own post-SB or opponent’s pre-SB) and want to hit your landdrops. Also, if you’d else miss your landdrop on a turn, you can cast Sea Drake, return 2 lands to hand, and play one of them, essentially making Sea Drake just cost either or less. Oh, and often (if you have enough lands in hand) the right play is to play turn 1 City of Traitors, turn 2 tap it for mana, Island/Seat, Sea Drake. This way you aren’t forced to return the Island into hand, saving you from a devastating tempo-hit. If you can at all avoid it, don't cast it so that you go to 0 lands having wasted your landdrop. Occasionally you can do that, especially when opponent has no removal and you have no other business to speak off, but usually it should be avoided to ending the turn with 0 lands in play.

Serendib Efreet
3/4 flyer for 3 is the next best thing. Usually you just deal more damage than your opponent. Occasionally the drawback hurts, but it’s by far the best thing at this cost.

Trinket Mage
It isn’t the biggest thing around, but it can get any of the relevant artifacts (Chalice of the Void, Seat of the Synod, Chrome Mox, Pithing Needle and post-SB Tormod’s Crypt and Engineered Explosives (occasionally met in the main too)) to shut down opponent’s cards, generates me an extra card and still carries equipment just fine.
Some builds play full 4. Most varied point in the deck, some play other MD artifacts (Engineered Explosives, Tormod’s Crypt, even Phyrexian Marauder to get an attacker out of it)>

Cloud of Faeries
It’s a 1/1 flyer for 2, but it’s actually free. If it’s cast off a Tomb/City, it actually provides you extra mana and can actually get you 7 turn 2 (with Mox, and any combination of two Tombs/Cities in play). Basically, it’s used to enable the equipment, Chalice and to play multiple dudes in a turn. It also has cycling, which isn’t trivial as it can dig for lands early on and in midgame it digs for bigger bombs like equipment, Force or big creatures. Also, if there’s a Chalice at 2 out, you can cycle it, so it’s never dead. Versatility incarnate.

Sea Sprite
Might look underwhelming, but against Goblins, there’s no more reliable blocker. Also, it’s an incredible creature to equip against red decks and since it’s naturally pro-red, it’s exactly what I want against Devastating Dreams and the like. And it’s a 2-drop.
The count and their necessity are both questionable, but I prefer solid Goblin-MU and these help. Some people use Thought Eater as a 2/2 for 2 instead and some use the Weatherseed Faeries to get by Chalice at 2 and to just have more punch against non-red decks. Weatherseed also kills the bigger Goblins, but I prefer the early stability as in midgame, my Needles and Chalices along with equipment kick in and usually allow me to pull through as long as their Lackey doesn’t connect into Siege-Gang.>

Looter il-Kor
Recent addition, it’s a creature that also optimises hand, allowing me to rid myself of pure draw spells, getting something that bears equipment instead. Shadow is also huge against decks with flyers, as getting Sword of Fire and Ice through is very important.
Some builds use actual draw like Fact or Fiction or Thirst for Knowledge. Thirst optimises hand while Fact is pure muscle in drawing. I might try coupling Looter with Fact as I can optimise what I drew and Fact gives me the most raw cards to work with.>


The rest
Force of Will , so for example Trinisphere still forces you to pay 3 more for it, and it gets past Chalice at 0.>
The deck has tons of blue cards. This is just about the best blue card in the format and allows FS to capitalise on the tempo advantage generated by the extra mana as it nullifies opposing plays for no mana. Also makes the deck a lot more resilient by giving me an answer to pretty much anything and is a key piece in combating combo-decks, giving me relevance already on turn 0.

Psionic Blast
One of the most contested slots in the deck, this speeds up our goldfish (the deck is very adept at dealing 16, so this often speeds the kill up by a full turn). Also is used as creature control, it kills Goblin Warchief on opponent’s turn when Goblin tries to Alpha you into oblivion and is a general answer to everything annoying like Platinum Angel, Spike Weaver, Spore Frog (if they try to lock you out), allows getting damage past Glacial Chasm-recursion, etc. Basically all the threats in the format save Exalted Angel have a butt of 4 or smaller too, so this kills ‘em all. Reach never hurts against control either.

Sword of Fire and Ice Humility is applied in timestamp order with the equipment. If you equipped your equipment before Humility comes into play, Humility negates the bonuses. However, it’s simple enough to just re-equip your equipment to gain the bonuses regardless.>
Crazy equipment, essentially gives the equipped creature 4 more power to smash face, makes it much harder to kill or deal with in general and kills opposing dudes, pro-blue or otherwise. Worth noting that Sworded Sea Drake can even attack into Simic Sky Swallower or a threshed Mystic Enforcer. The extra cards are superb and the protections rock. It’s the card that facilitates the deck’s turn 3 kills, in one word, amazing.

Umezawa’s Jitte Sakura-Tribe Elder blocking Trinket Mage with Sword), Jitte gets no counters. Also, counter-bonuses are applied the moment you use the counters so this card is completely immune to Humility.>
It kills creatures and pumps creatures, albeit with a one-turn delay. It’s a fine killing machine still and it’s cheap too, but unfortunately a subject to Pithing Needle and Chalice at 2 (not to mention the Legend-rule). The lifegain is really useful in a deck this reckless about its lifetotal and that’s the one ability that gives it anything on Sword of Fire and Ice. Generally, you’ll prefer the extra card and protection from Sword, but occasionally, you’ll want the lifegain from Jitte. A good second.

Chalice of the Void is 0 in every place but the Stack. That means that Pernicious Deed or Engineered Explosives for 0 will always destroy all Chalices, but that also means that Chalice of the Void at 1 will prevent any Repeals from ever bouncing a Chalice as they have to cast it for 1 to hit the 0-cost Chalices, and a Chalice at 1 counters all spells costing one. Also, a Chalice at 2 will prevent you from casting a Chalice at 1, since Chalice at 1 has the converted casting cost of when on the stack.>
A bomb, Chalice of the Void is one of the main strengths of the deck. At 0, it often slows down Storm-combo using Lion’s Eye Diamond, Lotus Petal, etc. long enough to win. At 1, it hurts down High Tide-combo as well as removal like Swords to Plowshares or Red Elemental Blast and at 2, it shuts down most key artifact removal spells, Life from the Loam and company. Many matches come down to knowing, where to lay Chalice at in it. I’ll give a list for that among the match-up analyses. Against aggressive decks, you’ll usually have better things to do midgame than laying Chalices though, so you might want to consider the other fetch-options at that point. Also, against combo, lay a Chalice at 0 if they’re going off next turn, it’s better than doing nothing.

Pithing Needle Polluted Delta with them having it in play, they can’t use it in response anymore. They must use such before the Needle resolves without knowing what it’ll name, or they won’t have the chance anymore.>
Basically, a 1-of general solution in the MD. It shuts down Wasteland, Aether Vial, Maze of Ith (key to winning against Lands.dec), Umezawa’s Jitte (if opponent gets the Jitte-superiority), general equipment, Parallax Wave (key to beating Angel Stompy), fetchlands (if they let it resolve), Engineered Explosives (which can be very painful as it can always be cast past Chalices to blow ‘em up), Pernicious Deed (extremely important), Survival of the Fittest (potent archetype against us), Recurring Nightmare (a power-card), cycling and dozens of other things. Basically, activated ability is anything with a colon, “:”, in it, and Needle can hit all those.


Sideboard
Pithing Needle
The same as in main, comes in against decks with lots of harmful activated abilities.

Engineered Explosives as anything, it’ll only get counters equal to the number of colours used to play it. In Faerie Stompy, it’s basically always 1 or 0.>
0.>
At first, it might look like an odd card in a mono-coloured deck, but it isn’t all that odd seeing that the deck has Trinket Mage and Chalice. Engineered Explosives can be cast past Chalices to handle problems that got into play before the Chalices resolved, and to sweep 1-CC of problematic permanents (Nimble Mongoose with Worship in play, Pithing Needle on our equipment, Aether Vial, Goblin Lackey, etc.) and be used to kill all tokens (it will kill Chalices too, but at least you’ve got the option). Very relevant against combo-decks using Empty the Warrens. It’s the only card really good for this job and thus an irreplaceable component for the sideboard.

Tormod’s Crypt
A tutorable piece of graveyard-removal, comes in against graveyard-reliant decks like Life from the Loam- and Terravore-variants, Ill-Gotten Gains-combo, [card=Werebear]Threshold[/card], Ichorid, et cetera. A necessary part of the SB as else the deck is unarmed against graveyard.

Binding Grasp
Legacy has lots of decks that play creatures. Many of them play big creatures to fight the horde of Goblins. This comes in against basically any creature-deck save Goblins. I bring them in in some quantity against Threshold too, to avoid Worship-lock and to steal Mystic Enforcers, but most importantly, decks like Survival, Angel Stompy, RG Beats, 5/3, UW(b) Fish, EBA, mirror and your usual midrange fare. Most importantly, it’s an absolutely crippling card in the mirror. Chosen over Control Magic due to castability issues and the fact that the +0/+1 on a 4/4 allows it to stop a whole bunch of 4/4s on an opponent’s side. The upkeep is affordable, the card is superb. I’d only take it out if I knew I was going to a meta devoid of creature-decks.

Misdirection Counterspells (any counters really; remember that countering Remand also deprives them of the card they’d get off it) by forcing them to target Misdirection instead of the spell they were originally targeting.>

Brought in against blue combo to fight the counterwars and derail their win conditions (Turnabout, Stroke of Genius, Echoing Truth, Brain Freeze-copies, Remand), against black disruption to aim their Sinkholes, [card=Hymn to Tourach]Hymns[/card] and Vindicates to better places, against white aggro to make their Disenchants and Swords to Plowshares miss (if there are only 8 targets, you might want to only bring 2 or so in though) and even against Rw Goblins and their StPs, Disenchants and Shattering Spree-copies. An extremely versatile card only getting better as decks pack more and more spells.

Winter Orb
This comes in against control-decks and decks like 43 Lands.dec and your usual multi-land mana-hungry affair. With Clouds, Sea Drakes, Cities of Traitors, Ancient Tombs and Chrome Moxes, you can easily cheat past it, but your opponent will be casting a spell an aeon. Let alone you counter their big spell, that buys you ~6-7 extra turns to reduce them to smithereens. Incredible, but removable if you expect no lands.


That covers the standard SB- and MD-fare, there are other alternatives but I’m not going to go into those as they’re highly specific, while this is a rounded all-around solid list with something for everything, usually enough to be the favourite. Feel free to try out different cards, but remember the restrictions (no if at all possible, castable off about 2-3 lands, blue-card count must stay high enough for Chrome Moxes, Force of Wills and SB Misdirections (hence why I’m not crazy about Trinisphere, coupled with the fact that with no Wastelands, it’s not even that good here as aggro just develops out of it if they can just StP our early threats))


Match-up overview

Vial Goblins
This is usually the most important match-up in any metagame as they’re cheap, strong and relatively simple to do relatively well with (excellent players of course do much better). The problem is, since it’s played so much, there’s an enormous amount of variety between the different lists. Here’s how it usually goes:
-Mono-red build with no MD tech or stuff like Jitte or Crypt is rather easy to beat unless they get nuts against a slow hand from you. Basically, your aim is to not let them cheat on mana with [card=Aether Vial]Vials[/card] and [card=Goblin Lackey]Lackeys[/card], so drop Sea Sprites, Serendib Efreets, Sea Drakes, the guys they have trouble removing. Then suit one up with Jitte or Sword and kill them while keeping their army in check. Important to know when to go all-out to the head as some boards not only make it possible, but require you to aim all damage to their head and win before they can get going. Important to know that if they get their mana going, you can’t keep up as then they’ve got even more than you. On the play, Chalice at 1 is devastating from you, but on the draw, you usually need to Needle their Vial and block their Lackeys and such before dropping it. Mana denial is something you should take into account when keeping hands and playing Mages (fetching Seat of the Synod or Mox is often the right call over business) as they play Wastes and Rishadan Ports. The good news is, you don’t usually get stuck playing land-go, so you can drop guys before their denial comes online, making using the denial in the first place a bad idea. And then there’s the whole ‘my deck can operate off 2 lands while yours require 5’-thing going on.

Post-SB, you get access to any possible extra Jittes and Sprites you’ve got on the SB, as well as Pithing Needles and Engineered Explosives (I usually take out a Looter il-Kor on the play, Chalice on the draw, as Chalice is much weaker if they get a cheater in play. Of course, if you have the nutty turn 0 Force+turn 1 Chalice, you’re a happy camper, but doesn’t happen often enough to rely on). They unfortunately get Red Elemental Blasts, Hydroblasts and Shattering Sprees along with any extra artifact-hating Goblins, which are all bad news. The good news is that Chalice at 1 is all the more devastating, especially if you can FoW the replicate-copy from Spree aimed at it. They also weaken their gameplan game 2 to fit the hate in, so if you can handle their early game, you should be fine.
-Rw Goblins contain some good and some bad news. Good news is that they are more suspectible to SB Misdirections (StPs and Disenchants are much easier to Misdirect than Red Elemental Blasts and Shattering Sprees, as REBs can’t hit their cards and there’s a whole lot of Sprees to Misdirect, but StP and Disenchant have no such problems) and Chalice at 1, the bad news is that without a Chalice, Swords to Plowshares is a major headache and Disenchant hurts too. You should be favoured, but this MU gets better post-board (take out some draw-cards and perhaps Psionic Blast or two for Misdirections, EEs, Needles and company). Just be careful not to side out too many Chalices on the draw as the StPs are painful and they may have Blasts on the SB too, although it’s less likely here.
-Rg Goblins are the worst; Tin-Street Hooligan is MD artifact hate and has an immediate effect unlike the usual Goblin Tinkerer, and can only be stopped by Force of Will. Krosan Grip is unstoppable and Pendelhaven can be an annoyance. The good news is, they don’t usually have much SB against you besides Grips as they’re busy playing anti-combo instead, but some Blasts may still come in.


Threshold
If Goblins are the #1 MU in any meta, this is usually the #2. The bad news is, the deck is extremely consistent and has extremely large dudes for their cost. The good news is, Chalice of the Void is a nuclear bomb against them and Sword of Fire and Ice + Umezawa’s Jitte make your guys just too large for them. Against the red variant, an active Sword is pretty much game, against the white variant, there’s always StP. If you land Chalice, their landcount of 17 basically makes their 4-cost finishers unplayable as they can’t cantrip into lands. Your Forces are best left for either Swords or to force through spells. Play around Dazes if possible, but if you’re stuck at three mana, don’t avoid casting spells just because. Most importantly, resolve creatures StPs can only handle so many and your creatures with flying can generally trump theirs. Post-SB, things get better with the useless Needle gone, the Binding Grasps to answer their 4-drops and steal Werebears, the Tormod’s Crypts to make races utterly unfair and the Engineered Explosives to smash their Needles and Nimble Mongoose. Worship is the only thing you need to fear from them, the best answer to that is to kill all their dudes. Overall, slightly favourable thanks to Chalices.

Solidarity/Spring Tide
There isn’t much to say about this MU. You’re about as fast as them, faster on nuts-draw, you have basically 11 cards worth of relevant disruption and you get Misdirections post-SB (instead of Pithing Needle and Umezawa’s Jittes in my build as the life is useless and the additional damage is kinda slow in this MU). Drop Chalice at 1 and enjoy, follow up with one at 2 for a game against most builds (some run Rebuild though, so beware). Oh yeah, don’t hold back, feel free to knock yourself down to 1 life as long as Efreet doesn’t kill you. I have, in all honesty, dealt 19 points to myself with Clouds, Psionic Blast, Ancient Tomb, Serendib Efreet, etc. Very favourable. Heck, if you feel like it, as long as you have a creature in play, play a Chalice at 3 to shut down Cunning Wish. Usually you’ll just want to FoW their bounce though. Remember that even though they have FoWs, it sets them back a bit as they need cards to go off, so don’t fear them while casting disruption. Just beware of Remands, try to cast spells through them (with enough mana to cast a spell twice a turn). Spring Tide is a bit faster, but doesn’t have Remands. You should do them in easily too.

Iggy-Pop
Like Solidarity, except you can’t race them usually. Chalice at 0, 1 and 2 are all good, but 0 is the easiest to play and thus the one you should usually cast. If they Infernal Tutor for something, try to Chalice the CC, the card was. Cast Chalice at 0 if you have mana for no more. Force their Infernal Tutor only if they pop LEDs in response, else you should just counter their Ill-Gotten Gains and win. Be careful with self-damaging, occasionally they can just go off and cast Tendrils from their hand to win. Post-SB, bring in Tormod’s Crypts and perhaps some Misds for bounce, instead of Sea Sprites usually as they’re pretty bad here (and the useless Needle), and perhaps a SoFI or such if you’re worried about the white-count. Remember, they might try the Confidant-plan. If so, either go for the head, utilizing the Confidant, or kill the Confidant. Very favourable match-up.

Other Tendrils-builds
They share weakness to Chalice. Chalice at 2 against Burning Wish/Infernal Tutor-variants, and Engineered Explosives comes in against Empty the Warrens-using versions (for Pithing Needle). If they play heavy Ill-Gotten Gains-plan, bring in Crypts. Just 1 doesn’t equal to heavy.

Burn
Nothing to see here, move along. Chalice at 1 rapes them, Jitte rapes them (you have pro-red and huge dudes to equip), low landcount>Price of Progress, your clock>their clock. Post-SB, Misdirection and you’re pretty much autowinning.

Angel Stompy
A decent match-up. Their Parallax Waves and Exalted Angels are the biggest problems. Try to Psionic Blast, Sword of Fire and Ice or Umezawa’s Jitte the Morph, before it comes online. That makes things a world easier. Chalice should be laid at 2 first. It stops their Disenchants, the bulk of their creatures, Jittes, Mask of Memory and overall evens the playing field. Pithing Needle should name Parallax Wave to beat it, else Wave is one-sided Wrath that should smash you most of the time. Their 1-drops are scary, but 2-drops are scarier including artifact removal, hence the priority on Chalice at 2. Post-board, they usually have a full set of Disenchants. You should bring in Binding Grasps in any case. Misdirections comes in if they play Disenchant over Seal of Cleansing, and the second Needle comes in in any case. Engineered Explosives is also a good card, things you should remove: Sea Sprite, Umezawa’s Jitte (you aim to Needle theirs if they resolve it, and Chalice at 2 is still a priority, even more so with their extra Disenchants). You should be the slight favourite here, but definitely not by lots and their build-variance might affect the MU a lot (things like Seal of Cleansing are harder than Disenchant post-board, their Ramosian Sergeants, Aether Vials and such can hurt if they play them).

Uw Fish, UWb Fish, Ugw Gro, etc.
These usually have advantage over you on individual card basis, but you have Chalice. Basically, if you don’t resolve Chalice, they’re the favourites to win and if you do, you should do well. Their removal is usually at 1, so Chalice at 1 first. Chalice at 2 after should allow you to basically just win, but 1 is the first priority. Misdirections need to come in along with an assortment of Needles and EEs (see the pattern?) and Binding Grasps (3/4 Serra Avenger is nuts). Usually you’ll go for the 2-Chalice plan, but you’ll win your share of normal games. Wasteland hurts if they play it, but usually not enough to be worth Pithing Needling. Slightly favourable to slightly unfavourable, depending on their build.

Loam-based control
I group these all together (yes, even Tog) since it’s basically Chalice at 2 through their discard or problems. You can win, especially against red variant relying on Devastating Dreams since your pro-red goes a long way, but Chalice at 2 shuts down their Wishes and Loam and in general, their game. Needle is also good, on fetches or on Seismic Assault. Cards you bring in are Tormod’s Crypt (especially against Terravore-variants) and any additional pro-red dudes you’ve got, taking out perhaps Clouds, a Psionic Blast and maybe Looter. These are all favourable, since a single resolved Chalice is generally GG.

GBx control
Game 1 is tough. You should just cast dudes and keep swinging as they play discard you don’t want to be hit with. Chalice at 2 generally as it is strong against Pox-variants with Smallpox and Edicts, but 1 is good occasionally too as it stops Innocent Blood and the bulk of their discard. You need a Needle on Pernicious Deed though. Game 2, you get to bring in Misdirections (they generally have Hymns, Sinkholes, Putrefys and in white, Vindicates) and Winter Orbs (you can usually take out some Sword of Fire and Ices as long as they don’t play red) over some Swords (leaving few in), few Chalices and company. If they use grave, bring in a Crypt, second Needle for their Deeds, Tops, etc. and overall just to smash them. Post-SB game is good as you suddenly have a deckful of bombs against them, Misdirections, Winter Orbs, Chalices and such all capable of sealing games. You should split with them.

Rifter
Your equipment trumps their Humility, your Sea Sprites are great before that (as well as big guys immune to their removal, and equipment in general), Needles usually name Decree of Justice or Eternal Dragon. Chalice at 2 if you can cast it before they lay down Rift. If not, at 1. Try to force them to Vengeance, let it resolve then follow up with Chalice at 2. Force of Wills should go for their big spells as that sets them back the most. Post-SB, you usually bring in Winter Orbs for something. Perhaps one Chalice and Cloud of Faeries and Psionic Blast or such, but overall, you need a number of Chalices in, but not too many and you want the reach Psionics provide as they lack LD. Favourable.

Landstill
Pretty much the same as Rifter, except their removal is relevant. Needle their manlands, try to prevent Crucible from resolving if you’re still in early game and don’t rely on Psionic Blasts too much. Misdirection to fight counter-wars maybe and screw their Disenchants and occasionally even StPs. A worse MU. Oh, and take out Psionic Blasts, they’re bad here as this deck runs counters. Winter Orb comes in again, but this time second Needle comes in too as you want to take out their manlands and perhaps Decrees.

43 Lands.dec
The reason I keep mentioning this in the card explanations is, people don’t seem to get how to play this MU. Here’s a rundown: Never cast Chalice at 1! Needle is the most important card against them. Their Maze of Ith is amazing; it not only stops an attacker, it stops your equipment too. Without it, they’re helpless against your flyers and equipment.  Remember that you can use their Mazes to help you out a bit, it untaps an attacker and thus gives you a blocker. Force of Wills should primarily hit their Manabonds and Explorations, secondarily their Lifes before you drop Chalice at 2, and if they play it, Burning Wish and Crucible. Post-SB, if they run Glacial Chasm, bring in Tormod’s Crypt. Anyways, bring in second Needle and Winter Orbs. Generally a Chalice can go, Sea Sprites are pretty weak and so on. Oh, and remember, paying for the Tabernacle is very easy as Rishadan Port can’t prevent floating mana in upkeep and they’re helpless against your Chrome Moxes. You might want to avoid letting Burning Wish resolve as they might have Shattering Spree SB. But yea, first use FoWs as tempo-cards to get Chalices down before they get going (=GG) and only later, if that fails, use them as surgical removal against the important cards. But if you play it well, you basically can’t lose. Needle on Maze and punish them for their lack of flyers. Careful on their Burning Wish recursion. And Needle has priority over Chalice at 2 unless they have Glacial Chasm online.

R(g) Beats, Mono-G Stompy, etc.
Cropping these together since it’s simply a matter of Chalice at 1 here. They’re so weak against it I should write a book about it. Make sure you don’t get crushed by their Jittes and you should be well off with your huge guys, equipment and FoWs. and post-SB Misdirections against their pump/burn further helps. You’re the control here, but you should still be able to finish them off quickly. If their plan is more midgame, Binding Grasp should come in. Else, it’s not worth it against Sligh/Stompy. All these MUs are favourable unless they specifically hate you with blasts and sprees and such.


Afterwords
The deck’s biggest strength is that it’s rounded out to be able to beat anything on the field. No match-up in the present metagame is total nightmare (Trix is closest to a problem MU out of all the decks I can imagine, as it’s a 2-card combo where both of the combo-pieces are outside Chalice-range. Other decks help to keep it out though). It’s a solid choice anywhere, but the deck is also very expensive thanks to Sea Drake, Forces and company. The landbase is cheap though. Something for someone who enjoys aggro-decks with though included. Manabase can be a bit shakey, but I prefer shakey to floody. I want to fit in as much business as possible. Sometimes it’s possible to keep a hand without blue mana as long as it has enough Clouds, and Chalice. Chalice wins so many games it’s not even funny, and I’ve even been toying with renaming the deck ‘Faerie Chalice’. To make things clear, yes I did create the deck and yes, the original version did have a better game against Goblins, but this new version is more synergistic and better against everything else, and more stable. Tons of thanks to ‘Superhead’ and ‘Phantom’ from SCG and The Source for helping with the development, along with dozens of other Sourcers whose contributions have helped the deck to become the machine it is today.

Enjoy!