Thoughts on Faerie Conclave

[rmn]

Ok, recently I've started to hate seeing this card when I play fish or Landstill or whatever.  Sure, it's great in the mirror, but against other decks - Workshop, random aggro, and of course all forms of combo - it is a serious liability.

I want to be able to tap my lands for mana when they come into play.
I don't like lands that don't even do anything before they get Wastelanded.
I want to be able to play the one Flying Man in my deck on turn one, no matter what.
I like using all my mana every turn, and if there's one or two extra, it goes to the Factory.
I don't want to tie up blue mana when I want to use my single Voidmage, or when I want to cast Mana Drain.
I don't need to fly over Juggernauts, because if the have Juggernauts, I will be using my mana to find an answer.

I haven't attacked with a Conclave in months, and I have long since removed them for Islands.  So why is it I still see people putting them in their decklists, even ones that are already so packed for mana that they can't even run Wasteland?  Is it habit, or ignorance?

How many times did you actually attack with a Conclave when Fish was good?

[kill doug]

its habit for me i didn't even run them in me wtf build. They are to mana intensive, but i put them in for people won't post about "Why not try conclaves".

[nataz]

How many times did you actually attack with a Conclave when Fish was good?

in both mono-blue and gayred, countless. They were needed to boost the manland count under standstill. In general, 4 factories were not enough, and still aren't enough, if you are playing any of the classic fish decks that I am aware of.

I'd admit it happend less often in GayRed, but thats why one was taken out. Red was just killing the mana base and 4 could not be added.

[pinoy_tech]

My thoughts on the conclave come in negative and positive responses.  
They are:
Positive:
1) Any deck that requires manlands (ie: fish, landstill) needs more than the factories for the beats.

2) Besides being a manland, they tap for U.

3) They fly.

Negative:
1)They come into play tapped. Jeezus, in the early game this is really disheartening when you want UU for drain.

2) They are very mana intensive. There has been many occasions when I did not attack because I wanted UU untapped.

3) They are 2/1's. They can be hit by anything and just die.

Overall, I think they are a necessary evil. Until something else comes along, fish and landstill will be using them.

-tech

[andrewpate]

The only other manlands that Landstill and Fish can really support are Stalking Stones and Blinkmoth Nexus, both of which are horrible in comparison to Faerie Conclave.  Now, I suppose Ghitu Encampment and/or Treetop Village might be feasible in some decks, but these are even worse.  Do you really want a CIPT that doesn't produce blue mana?

I have only one deck built right now that has Conclave, but it's Landstill and they just aren't going anywhere for a while.  Given how careful Wizards has been about manlands lately, I can't imagine anything more powerful coming along anytime soon.  From what I hear, Nexus was basically pushing the limit in terms of what they are willing to print.

[rmn]

Admittedly, all the other available manlands are even worse.  I'm just noticing that with the speed of Type 1 and the incredible use of Wasteland, Conclaves are more of a liability than a boon.  A deck that would otherwise use this card could probably benefit from its removal and the extra mana that frees up, by adding an Intuition engine or more counterspells or something.

Plus, Daze has negative synergy with Conclave as well, since it often means you can't play the Faeries turn one and since returning land to hand makes mana even more tight.