MtG: Vintage Esper Faeries
About a year ago, Max randomly dropped the bomb that he had started playing Magic the Gathering. Immediately I panicked, scrambling to throw together a working deck that would make up for the head start he had gotten. I had never played or even looked into it, but I guess I was MtG-curious.
FF to one year later: we have semi-annual meetups now to play a few rounds. I guess I have a decent beginner’s understanding of the game and have a few hundred cards and about 10 playable 60-card decks.
Since I’m kind of proud of what I have cobbled together using Moxfield, Cardmarket, Liberproxies and ChatGPT, I’d like to highlight a few decks I have played and note my learnings here.
Last night I got to try out my new deck: Esper Faeries! It was supposed to be a counter to Max’ Goblin deck, but it did perform decently in a variety of matchups (against other noobs).
This is the list. And below are my observations and the performance of individual cards.
Mainboard
| Amount | CI | Mana | Card |
|---|---|---|---|
| White | |||
| 2 | W | 1W | Stoneforge Mystic |
| Blue | |||
| 1 | U | U | Brainstorm |
| 2 | U | 1U | Daze |
| 2 | U | 3UU | Force of Will |
| 1 | U | 3U | Mistbind Clique |
| 4 | U | U | Ponder |
| 1 | U | U | Preordain |
| 1 | U | 2U | Scion of Oona |
| 4 | U | 1U | Spellstutter Sprite |
| 1 | U | 1UU | Vendilion Clique |
| Black | |||
| 1 | B | BB | Bitterbloom Bearer |
| 3 | B | 1B | Bitterblossom |
| 1 | B | 2B | Engineered Plague |
| 3 | B | B | Fatal Push |
| Multicolor | |||
| 1 | UB | 2UB | Alela, Cunning Conqueror |
| 1 | WUB | WUB | Esper Charm |
| 2 | WB | 1WB | Kaya's Guile |
| 1 | WU | 1WU | Spell Queller |
| 1 | UB | 2UB | Talion, the Kindly Lord |
| 1 | UB | 1UB | Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor |
| Colorless | |||
| 1 | C | 5 | Batterskull |
| 2 | C | Brazen Borrower | |
| 1 | C | 3 | Sword of Fire and Ice |
| 2 | C | 2 | Umezawa's Jitte |
Lands
| Amount | CI | Mana | Card |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | UB | Darkslick Shores | |
| 2 | C | Flooded Strand | |
| 1 | WB | Godless Shrine | |
| 1 | WU | Hallowed Fountain | |
| 1 | U | Island | |
| 3 | C | Polluted Delta | |
| 1 | WUB | Raffine's Tower | |
| 1 | WB | Scrubland | |
| 3 | UB | Secluded Glen | |
| 1 | B | Swamp | |
| 1 | WU | Tundra | |
| 1 | UB | Underground Sea | |
| 2 | UB | Watery Grave |
Sideboard
| Amount | CI | Mana | Card |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue | |||
| 1 | U | U | Spell Pierce |
| Black | |||
| 1 | B | 2BB | Crippling Fear |
| 1 | B | 2B | Crypt Incursion |
| 2 | B | 2B | Engineered Plague |
| 1 | B | 1BB | Golden Demise |
| 1 | B | B/P | Surgical Extraction |
| 1 | B | XBB | The Meathook Massacre |
| 1 | B | 2B | Toxic Deluge |
| 1 | B | 1BB | Witch's Vengeance |
| Multicolor | |||
| 1 | WU | WU | Dovin's Veto |
| 1 | UB | UB | Drown in the Loch |
| 1 | WUB | WUB | Esper Charm |
| 1 | WB | 1WB | Kaya's Guile |
| 1 | WB | WB | Zealous Persecution |
I really liked the playstyle with all the Flash interaction: Faeries coming in, cancelling out spells, surprise blocking or just tokens tanking huge damage. The playstyle is awesome because you have a lot of card draw/selection and you can play proactively or reactively, depending on the matchup. It lacks a bit of big creature removal, but I guess at that point you’re supposed to either have won or be dead.
Overperformed: Daze, Ponder, Spellstutter Sprite, Kaya’s Guile, Umezawa’s Jitte, my 3-color manabase
Underperformed: My multicolor cards like Esper Charm and the Faeries. Either they clogged my hand or did nothing.
Meh: Bitterbloom Bearer, Bitterblossom
I’ll keep refining this a bit and change a few cards around, but overall I am totally happy with this. (Don’t forget I don’t know what I’m talking about here).
Response
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