Faerie-shaite

[jaeppel]

Back when Lor came out, there was a bit of chatter about the little beast Spellstutter Sprite.  It seems the little guy could have a home somewhere, or in any case ive been trying to find a home for her.  The decklist below is imtended as a starting point, but i know it needs something...  or maybe the whole idea is terrible.  This isnt intended to be a seious contendor, but something that can have fun and be competitive on the lower tiers.  I'm getting back into the game and trying to put together something with a big stack of ten cent cards to pla some local tourneys.

Perhaps you laugh and say hah, faeries in vintage.  Sprite all by itself counters at 0 and 1.  Already that means countering 40-50% of the spells out there.  With one friend, nearly every vintage worthy critter is counterable.   By a creature, that can be easily returned to hand to lay down a counter-lock.  its mystic snake for half the cost... sounds pretty good.  Bouncers seem like an obvious choice, allowing extra lands and crap dudes in hand to turn into a counterspell.  Ninjas also have an extra bonus teamed with spstsp, you actually want the bounced dude back in your hand, so the tempo loss is tempo gain.   

Playing islands, so FoW, BS, Anc, Walk go without saying.  rounding out the counterspells is Nix, which seems like the perfect addition to he team, since it can counter forces, misd, and friends, which are problematic for the sprite.  and it counters Black Lotus.  Curiousity Is ninja five and six (maybe need more of these).   Chain for removal, since it gives one more broken trick with the sprite.

here is what ive come up with:

Faeries(16):
4  Cloud sprite                   (it costs one)
4  Spellstutter sprite     (our star)
3  Cloud of faeries               (makes mana out of the vial, cycles eot, enables stutter at two)
2  Bitter Blossom               (so i always have a dood)
2  Mutavault    (better than conclave, worse than factory.  factory isnt a faerie)
1  Mistbourne clique            (for the win)

Not Faeries(7):
4  Ninja
3   Waterfront bouncer

Spells (14):
4  FoW
2  Curiousity
2  Nix
2  Chain of Vapor
1   Ancestral
1   timewalk
1   Vamp tutor
1   demonic consultation

Mana (23):
3  LoJetSaph
4  Aether vial
3  Delta
3  Strand
3  U-sea
3  island
1  Stripmine
2  Waste
1  Crucible

As for the side board, that all depends, but as a departure point something like this seems decent:
4  Yxlyd
3   Energy flux
2   Echoing truth
2   Extirpate
3   Sower of Temptation
1   Waterfront Bouncer

The idea here being the roughest matchups would be Ichorid, Shops, and aggro, so the slots are devoted to hating those decks.   The game would be pretty weak against oath as well, but there is lots of bounce available post board.  I really dont know, but Tyrant oath seems like the new tog,  and there needs to be a solid block of hate cards available.  Perhaps chalice (in the main even), since it so nicely compliments the spellstuttererterer.

The black could go either way.  Blossom is nice, but so are swords, ray of rev, moxmonkey, meddling mage, and any number of other fun things.  Those things however, are not faeries, and in redundancy is strength.  the clique is really terrible if you dont have a faerie, and spellstutter alone is just a crappy chalice.

Im looking for any comments or advice on how to make this more competitive.  I cant really offer up playtesting results, sorry, as i dont really get to play so much.  i spend much more time thinking up jank piles than actually ever throwing them together.

chiao and thanks,
moi

[BC]

I've been playing Spellstutter Sprite in URBana Fish for quite a while now.  In my opinion, you really don't have to build a Faerie deck around Sprite with a bunch of crappy creatures, she does just fine on her own.  Her synergy with Ninja is also amazing.

Recently, I've even dropped Red from my list, so here's my "UBana Fish":

3  Underground Sea
2  Swamp
2  Island
2  Flooded Strand
4  Polluted Delta
3  Wasteland
1  Strip Mine
1  Black Lotus
1  Mox Pearl
1  Mox Jet
1  Mox Sapphire
1  Mox Ruby
1  Mox Emerald
= 23 mana

4  Dark Confidant
4  Spellstutter Sprite
3  Waterfront Bouncer
3  Sower of Temptation
3  Ninja of the Deep Hours
= 17 creatures

1  Ancestral Recall
1  Time Walk
1  Demonic Tutor
1  Vampiric Tutor
4  Force of Will
4  Thoughtseize
4  Brainstorm
3  Daze
1  Echoing Truth
= 20 other spells

3  Extirpate
3  Pithing Needle
3  Thorn of Amethyst
3  Energy Flux
3  Slaughter Pact
= 15 sideboard cards


I think you should definitely be running full Moxes.  It is very important to be able to play a 2-drop on turn one.

Dark Confidant is essential in any Fish deck that has Black.  He is strictly better than Curiosity or just about any other draw engine for that matter.

Cloud Sprite, Cloud of Faeries, and Mistbind Clique are all very underwhelming for Vintage.  The only thing they have going for them is that they are Faeries and they fly.  Not nearly good enough.  Same with Mutavault.

Bitterblossom is a card that has a lot of interest for me.  It might be very good in Vintage, and definitely deserves some testing.

Nix is not playable.  If you are interested in countering FOW or Misdirection, packing your own Mis-D is the way to go.  If you want a more versatile counter, then Daze or even Spell Snare is better than Nix.

Your board looks ok.  I much prefer Pithing Needle over Yixlid Jailer.  Needle will come in against more than 1 matchup, and will stick on the board even better than Jailer against Ichorid.

The Shops matchup with this deck is a little rough.  Workshop Aggro should actually be a good matchup once you have Sowers and maybe Slaughter Pact in the deck.  Stax (or Staxless) is rough, though.

[TopSecret]

Oh man, I totally have Faeries built!

This was my original Faerie deck.
I played it once, in the most recent Manaclash.
I top 8'd, but Ray has yet to post the results, so here it is:

UR Faeries!

4 Cloud Sprite
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Sower of Temptation

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
3 Sudden Shock
2 Fire // Ice
2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Curiosity
3 Stifle
2 Shattering Spree
3 Daze
4 Force of Will

4 Volcanic Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
4 Island
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

Sideboard:

4 Mind Harness
4 Echoing Truth
2 Shattering Spree
4 Energy Flux
1 Stifle

The deck played well all day, but it could probably have used some fine tuning.

I ended up siding in Mind Harness every game,
since most of the field was made up of Welder decks, Dryad decks, Goyf decks, and goblin decks.
Maindecking some number of Harnesses might have been the right call, since worse case they can be pitched to Force.

I played against:

Mono-Red Workshop W
Mono-Red Workshop W
Three-Color Keeper W
ID
ID
Goblins L

The advantage of UR Faeries is the MonoRed-Workshop Aggro matchup, which is pretty good.
In case you're wondering why I played Shattering Spree maindeck,
Shops were everywhere that day, and worst case it's a one mana Stone Rain on a Mox.

Recently, I've been testing UB Faeries instead, to see if it has some more raw power.

This is more or less the base list:

UB Faeries

4 Bitterblossom
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Cloud Sprite

4 Force of Will
4 Seal of Removal
4 Daze

4 Curiosity
1 Ancestral
1 Time Walk

4 Stifle

4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Swamp/Island/Fetchland (Not sure what this should be)
2 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
4 Island

Sideboard:

4 Yxlid Jailer
4 Energy Flux
4 Mind Harness
3 ???

Lotus is not good enough to make the cut in this build.
Maze of Ith is a good sideboard (maindeck??) candidate.
I've been considering taking out Stifles and Seals to add in 4 Ninja of Deep Hours and 4 Mistblade Shinobi.

I've considered Duress/Thoughtseize, but I'm leaning towards not playing them.
They don't buy tempo like some other cards can, so I'm hesitant.
They may end up making it in at some point, though, if Stifles prove unimpressive.

I've toyed around with Confidant. He's definitely a good maindeck candidate.
The problem, though, is two fold:

1) He doesn't fly.
2) Confidant + Bitterblossom = Ouch.

I'll continue to test him off and on, but I have yet to be convinced that he's better than Ninja (synergy with Spellstutter!).

[Dr_Tongue]

I've been toying with a few versions myself with alot of similair cards but a few different one's as well. The UR one I'm testing uses my personal favorite faerie, Wee Dragonaut, for random broken attack phases sometimes, although the UB has a strong early game with all the denial aspects. I'm still looking for a good finisher,but in the meantime it's Negator. Originally I've tried E. Flux main over the Null Rods to help fight Shops.dec but Rod seems to fight other decks mana as Wastelands can't do it alone.

UB
Mana 20
4x Underground Sea
4x Island
4x Polluted Delta
4x Wasteland
R Strip Mine
R Mox Jet
R Mox Sapphire
R Black Lotus

Win Conditions 10
4x Spellstutter
2x Phyrexian Negator
4x Bitterblossom

Control Elements 15
4x Duress
2x Thoughtseize
4x Force of Will
2x Misdirection
3x Null Rod

Draw/Search 13
4x Brainstorm
4x Ponder
R Ancestral Recall
R Vampiric Tutor
R Demonic Tutor
2x Merchant Scroll

Other 2
1x Chain of Vapor
R Time Walk

My SB has the usual suspects like: E Flux, Hurkyl's, Smother, BEB, Submerge (Tarmo usually), Echoing and some randomness like: Arcane Lab for combo and Peppersmoke for flavor only

[Ulthrion]

I've been toying with a few versions myself with alot of similair cards but a few different one's as well. The UR one I'm testing uses my personal favorite faerie, Wee Dragonaut, for random broken attack phases sometimes, although the UB has a strong early game with all the denial aspects. I'm still looking for a good finisher,but in the meantime it's Negator. Originally I've tried E. Flux main over the Null Rods to help fight Shops.dec but Rod seems to fight other decks mana as Wastelands can't do it alone.

Have you tried Sword of Fire and Ice or Umezawa's Jitte as a finisher? With 4 bitterblossoms, you're pretty much garantueed an evasive beater, and both are good finishers. Where Jitte is better as a creature control tool, and the sword gives you additional card advantage. Maybe you could even try Sword of Light and Shadow here? The switch in protections are less of a matter as the sprites are replacable, and it would allow you to use spellstutters to chump goyf etc. while the sword-wielding tokens reclaim your sprites from the grave. The lifegain could help offset the bitterblossom lifeloss if you get multiple, so it allows you to try and overwhelm in the skies. In the end I think that Light and Shadow is inferior, because it's much more narrow in it's use, but the other equipment seems like it could be of great help if you get them online.
Which is of course the problem. You have plenty of digging to find it if you need it, but the initial tempo-loss could be difficult to overcome in a deck like this. Still, Jitte is only 1 mana more expensive than negator, and can make an immediate impact if you already have a faerie on the board.

[ash_ketchum]

I believe that you are forgeting about vendillion clique . It's a duress affect on legs !

[Mantis]

Mutavault + Spellstutter Sprite is good times, if you get those out you can counter just about everything.

[Nevermore]

Ive been fooling around with fairies for a while and have had some success.  I am wondering what people think about building the spellstutter deck around standstill, since its a fairly slow deck to play and especially because of cloud of fairies?

Cloud of fairy => standstill

You can either ninja the fairy out or have a spellstutter for 2 coming into play, seems decent to me.  Mutavault/Mishras factories would have to be included obv.

I also have tested bitterblossom for a while and while its won games, I barely can find a turn to play it on, there is always something else more important to play.  I am thinking only 0-2 would be worthwhile to run, if any at all.  Dark confidant may be better, but both arent a good idea.

I also think Jitte>SOFI in this deck, SOFI is tough to get out in this deck.

[TopSecret]

I am wondering if Bitterblossom is worth it.
It's very good at pumping the range of Spellstutter,
but as Nevermore mentioned, there's often something more important to play.

Playing four, I often get a second Bitterblossom stuck in my hand during games.
I am considering playing three.
I think that it's a tradeoff between the increased consistency of turn two Bitterblossom
and the virtual card disadvantage of drawing a second Bitterblossom.
I think it's a tough call, since Bitterblossom isn't very good after turn 2-3.
Then again, I wasn't playing Brainstorm in my list, so that could be important.

I am between playing 3 or 4 Bitterblossom right now.
I think playing any less may not be worth it.
Late game, I think there are cards I would be better off playing.

[extarbags]

This got me thinking about playing a mono-blue version, to try to avoid some of the nonbasic land hate floating around. Also, Vendillion Clique just seems wayyyy too good to not play in this. So something like:

Mana (17)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Crypt
14 Island

Creatures (17)
4 Ninja of Deep Hours
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Vendillion Clique
1 Darksteel Colossus

Other Spells (26)
4 Aether Vial
4 Umezawa's Jitte/SoFI
4 Force of Will
3 Curiosity
4 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Snapback
1 Trinisphere
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker

...as a rough starting point, naturally. I could see the case for more mana artifacts/Academy/Mutavault, but I like the idea of being immune to Magus and Wasteland and so forth and so on, and I also think Thorn of Amethyst is a pretty decent inclusion in a deck like this. Snapback seems possibly good as an out against the creature decks that are happening these days, and Tinker is just for the obvious random win. Scion of Oona actually might be decent too?

EDIT: After thinking about it just a little more, I think getting to two mana or more first turn is pretty vital, to enable a Spellstutter Sprite immediately afterward. In for a penny, in for a pound...

Mana (17)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Seat of the Synod
7 Island

Creatures (17)
4 Ninja of Deep Hours
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Vendillion Clique
1 Darksteel Colossus

Other Spells (26)
4 Aether Vial
4 Umezawa's Jitte/SoFI
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection (Daze?)
3 Curiosity
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker

This should get a second first turn mana more easily, and also enable some decent enough Academy shenanigans. Also I don't know what I was thinking about Snapback, forget I said anything; I think that slot is probably better as another free counter, either Misdirection or Daze, not sure which is better. Thorn could probably become something else too, I guess. Mutavault is still not in because I worry that with that replacing four Islands, hitting blue mana reliably might start to be a problem.

[Nevermore]

Has anyone else tested this deck with standstill?  I have found it very powerful in this deck, and I am suprised to see no other mention of it.  I recently came into a cross roads because I feel like moxes or some kind of acceleration is essential to have an early game.  Bitter blossom/ cloud of fairy/ mishra factory and standstill are very powerful.  The mox strategy is good for getting these out early, but I question there synergy of moxes with standstill, it seems poor at best.  I would like to know what other people think about standstill versus acceleration, and perhaps both of them are viable.  Also a lot of people are including 4 vials, however there are only 8 2 mana creatures, and only the spellstutters are worth using with it.  With bitterblossoms, I dont think vial is very good.  I will probably post my current decklist after a little more testing.

Also to Top Secret, I tested 3 bitter blossoms as you had mentioned, and I like them a lot better than 4.  I side them out for flash and oath, but for any other kind deck they have been amazing.

[extarbags]

Also a lot of people are including 4 vials, however there are only 8 2 mana creatures, and only the spellstutters are worth using with it.

Cloud of Faeries gives you two free mana if you play it off Vial, so that's kinda worth it.

[Mantis]

EDIT: double post.

[Mantis]

@extarbags:
I really hate Thorn of Amethyst here. Without any other manadisruption, you are spending so much resources for so little disruption and so little synergy with the rest of the deck. Standstill is much better here. It's great with Ninja and Vial.
I also never really liked Curiosity, though Vintage is very removal light. I can't imagine you would want Curiosity over Brainstorm or Dark Confidant.
Trinisphere seems kind of random, albeit crushing to some decks.

I've always been a pretty big fan of running a random singleton Daze and the same goes for Misdirection. It makes a deck really unpredictable. If an opponent has seen a Misdirection in Game 1, he will think twice before playing an Ancestral Recall without counterbackup in game 2, when in fact you have Daze in hand this time. This works two ways, if the opponent has seen Daze game 1, he will wait another turn to get 2 manaup for his Recall, only to find out you Misdirection it this time.
That said, I think the Daze is more synergistic with the Spellstutter Sprites, because bluffing a Daze gives you more time to set up the Sprite. Also, Daze works against al lot more cards you are afraid of (Oath of Druids, Triskelion, Yawgmoths Will etc.). I think it's really a matter of personal preference and metagaming, but don't rule out the split when you like both as much.

@Bitterblossom:
I don't think this card is worth it. I mean how is it any better than Tarmogoyf? It doesn't put any pressure on your opponent (I don't call a 5 turn clock pressure). While it does prove to be a huge roadblock to decks that are attacking with one big creature, like GAT does, it doesn't bring you any closer to winning the game, it merely extends the time you don't lose. It's also useless against; Oath, Stormcombo and Ichorid (it's going to wipe you out anyway).
In short, it's useless against a part of the field and mediocre against the rest. That, and it also costs you life.

[Vegeta2711]

Here you guys go.

// Land
        4 Mutavault
        3 Polluted Delta
        4 Flooded Strand
        3 Underground Sea
        5 Island
// Mana
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Mox Pearl
        1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Mox Jet
// Other
        1 Time Walk
        1 Ancestral Recall
        4 Brainstorm
// Counters
        4 Force of Will
        4 Stifle
// Creatures
        3 Mistblind Clique
        4 Vendilion Clique
        4 Spellstutter Sprite
        4 Scion of Oona
// Other
        4 Duress
        4 Bitterblossom
//  Sideboard:
SB:  3 Energy Flux
SB:  3 Hurkyl's Recall
SB:  4 Leyline of the Void
SB:  3 Tormod's Crypt
SB:  2 Trickbind

It was basically designed just to beat a Flash / Stax / Ichorid heavy metagame, although if you expect a ton of the latter Leyline should be maindeck somewhere. BB is ridic and the best offensive tool you have.

[kaos42069]

Have you thought about adding scion? to make your dudes untargetable? And the extra pump? Have you thought about Notorius throng? yeah its exspensive...but with mana crypt and moxen u could play it on turn 3 as an extra timewalk...

mistbind clique while expensive is another helpful card.

Sideboard I wouldn't run both leyline and tormad's but you could run tormads and extirpate...

[madmanmike25]

Vegeta,

I'm not sure that you should run 4 Vendilion Clique since they are legendary.

I hope that 4 Mutavaults are all it takes to make Spellstutter work for you.  That would eliminate the need for those lame 1cc 1/1's.  I really like the 4 Stifles in there too.

Also, how great has Mistbind been?  Doesn't seem so hot vs. Flash since the win costs 1U.  I know he's a fattie, but I wonder if a Sower or two could fit in there. 

Sidenote:  Notorious Throng seems great as a 1-2 of for a closer.  Mana Drain Faeries anyone?

Mike

[the boogie man]

the only thing I don't like about mutavault is that you have to spend mana on it to make it a fairy.

I think that the deck could do without one vendilion clique, because they're legendary.

I am also very underwhelmed (I know we are talking about a fairy deck, but still) by the draw engine. Where is it? I think that for a blue deck, this needs more card advantage. If one of your threats is removed, The spellstutter loses its usefulness as a 1/1 sitting on the field. Or the scion has no one to help out. Ninja seems like the natural choice, but he is easily blocked. He does, however, have great synergy with a lot of the creatures. What else is there, though?

[Sextiger]

The draw engines that come to mind for this deck are Standstill and Skullclamp.

With Bitterblossoms and Mutavaults, you can pretty much play the deck like Landstill, if they sit back and wait to pop your Standstill end of turn, then you can actually drop some guys since they are all Flash. 

Since almost all your guys have 1 toughness and Bitterblossoms give you tons of creatures, Skullclamp can definitely draw you a lot of cards.  Although skullclamp kills your guys and dampens the effectiveness of Sprites, the card drawing potential is definitely there.  There is also the problem where Scion can pump your guys out of clamp range, but then again, if that is going on, you should be winning. 

[Outlaw]

The draw engines that come to mind for this deck are Standstill and Skullclamp.

With Bitterblossoms and Mutavaults, you can pretty much play the deck like Landstill, if they sit back and wait to pop your Standstill end of turn, then you can actually drop some guys since they are all Flash. 

Since almost all your guys have 1 toughness and Bitterblossoms give you tons of creatures, Skullclamp can definitely draw you a lot of cards.  Although skullclamp kills your guys and dampens the effectiveness of Sprites, the card drawing potential is definitely there.  There is also the problem where Scion can pump your guys out of clamp range, but then again, if that is going on, you should be winning. 

Scion says NO to skullclamp, perhaps the strongest card in the deck sans for Stutters would make the draw engine fail I imagine.

[the boogie man]

I really like nevermore's idea of the standstill draw engine. Both cloud of faeries and bitterblossom have good synergy with them, and mutavault can be played right from under it. The scion can be played in response to damage on the stack, and also in response to removal, even enchantment removal. With a jitte or something, you can get lethal pretty quick. and the longer you wait under the standstill, the better bitterblossom gets.

Here is a preliminary list:

3 mutavaults
3 strip
4 underground sea
4 polluted delta
2 island
1 swamp
2 strand

1 lotus
1 lotus petal
3 mox

4 spellstutter
4 cloud of faeries
3 bitterblossom
3 scion

4 stifle
4 force
4 duress effects

4 brainstorm
4 standstill
2 ancestral walk

I'm not sure if the cliques are needed, they seem superfluous and expensive. At least they are instants. Don't get me wrong, they seem useful. just not as useful as other cards.

[Nevermore]

I’m glad you like the standstills, they have been amazing for me, and since I have not been playing much competitive vintage I hope other people take this deck to the true training grounds.  This thread has a lot of good ideas, and my friend and I have come up and playtested a TON online with our version of faeries, and made a ton of tweaks, but there is still room for improvement.  Let me know what you think, here is the build we came up with descriptions.  Our build is a lot different than the other builds I’ve seen which seem a lot slower with less draw engine, but I have not tested the other decks out.

Deck:  Fairy Jutsu: (or as co-creator makes insists I say he calls it Smenemen Stompeh, don’t ask me)

Creatures:
4 Spellstutter Sprite - The deck is built off this guy
4 Cloud of Faeries - This card is ESSENTIAL to the deck.  Play it for free, so you can counter for 2 with spell stutter.  Get it out first turn, and you can use it to activate ninjas.  Also play it then standstill, and you have the advantage, especially because you will eventually draw ninjas
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours - Critical for the draw engine, and more importantly, it recurs your hard counter Spellstutter Sprite and is playable under Standstill
2 Mistblade Shinobi - This card at first looks questionable, but was recommended to me online and it has been amazing.  Originally this slot had Waterfront Bouncer.  However bouncer was always way too slow for me, and very hard to get out.  If someone got early house out, or broke Standstill and still did, I’d be screwed.  This guy is a great answer.  Cloud of Faeries has trumped Darksteel Colossus in many games for me.  Additionally, the ninjutsu ability bounces back Spellstutter Sprites to your hand to recur counters.

Enchantments
3 Bitterblossoms - Although this is the bread and butter of the deck, my co-creator and I debated many times whether its even worth it.  It’s been brought up on this thread by top secret that it might not be worth including.  It sucks vs oath and often flash, however it is amazing versus almost everything else.  It is perms advantage against stax and will block Tarmogoyfs all day.  In the end we tweaked the deck to help include it.  Casting it on turn 2 often seems weak, however with acceleration, this is a house.  It’s also incredibly synergistic with =>
4 Standstill - With Ninjas and Standstill, (and Ancestral Recall later (and Brainstorms)) this deck has a very solid draw engine.  Standstill is easy to get out and great to get out after anything is played, or even to play like Landstill under Mishra’s Factory.

Sorceries:
1 Time Walk - Obvious choice. 

I did not choose to put any Duress or tutors in this deck.  I did not have much free room for Duress, and it doesn’t necessarily help the deck do what it wants to do, especially under Standstill, however I do miss it at times.  This deck has a lot of redundancy so no tutors are included, though I think Kobefan for urbana fish likes including 1 demonic tutor.  It may be a good choice.

Instants-
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Force of Will
4 Daze - This slot we had trouble coming up with.  I love Misdirection, and Spell Snares, however with Bitterblossoms or casting a spell, with someone then casting oath or flash this deck became too vulnerable.  I was always afraid to tap mana.  With 4 Daze, and Force, it is much safer to tap out turn 1 or 2 to get a bitter or still or any kind of spell without worry.  Daze has won me the game many times, and I think is essential for a deck like this.  It is also good with all the mana denial.  Also, Snare gets shut off by the frequent play of COTV @ 1.  The inclusion of Daze allows the deck to play as aggro unless you are saving 1U for a sprite.
2 Brainstorm - My friend and I always argue about brainstorm.  I don’t like them too much in Standstill decks.  I’d rather have more land or Misdirections, however they do come in handy.  I don’t think 4 is useful in this deck, there is not enough free mana early to be casting it, and it’s also near useless after casting Standstill.  This is debatable though.
Addendum:  Brainstorm is great after your opponent breaks through a Standstill to dig for that extra counter.  This is of course assuming that Spellstutter Sprite will not handle the threat already.  Brainstorm also pitches to force. 

Artifcacts -
3 Chalice of the Void - I liked this in Urbana fish and its amazing for tempo with this deck.  Casted at 1 or 2 it has locked opponents out of games
Addendum:  Usually it is cast at 0 to turn off Moxes (as part of the mana denial strategy) but can be EASILY set at 1 to shut off half the spells in the current meta.
2 Umezawa's Jitte  - We used one for a while but versus most decks, this card is simply too good not to include 2.  With fairies all over the place it will do its share of damage, is great vs the mirror, and if you somehow get it out early it can actually hold flash back by double pinging carrior feeder or slivers.  It also helps ride Mishra’s Factory to the win in the oath matchup (this is very rare though).
4 Mox - This deck needs acceleration early or its sunk.  Although moxes arent too synergistic with Chalice and Standstill, without a fast start you are screwed.  Moxes allow you to first turn cloud of fairy, 2nd turn Standstill or Ninja.  They also allow for first turn Bitterblossom, and also allow for a first turn Daze without setting you back 2 turns worth of mana availability.
1 Lotus Petal - additional acceleration.  This card is debatable for a 5th mox or just land.
Addendum:  colored mana is usually very helpful in a deck that wants to tap out just about every turn.  The lotus petal allows for explosive starts and provides an additional black source under Magus of the Moon.
1 Black lotus

Land -
2 Islands
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Mishra's Factory - Mutavault seems natural choice for a fairy deck, however this guy is bigger, and I’m rarely short on fairies and if
I am I can rarely afford the extra mana to activate a Mutavault.  4 Might be too many in this deck

Addendum:  the potential 3/3 body is more of a game-changer than a counter+1 for Spellstutter Sprite, especially because you wind up paying 2U instead of 1U for the counter.  If Aether Vial was being used, the Mutavault might be better.

SB:
4 Leyline of the Void - Flash, Ichroid
4 Spell Snares - Fish, Oath, Flash
1 echoing truth - Empty the warrens, Ichorid, Oath
1 Jitte - random stuff (any form of aggro)
3 Energy Flux - Stax/ MUD
2 Chain of Vapor - Oath, Flash

Cards NOT included
Aether Vial - while amazing synergy with this deck, it was either moxes or this, and moxes seemed better.  I love Vials, I just cannot find a place for them in the deck, if anyone finds a way with moxes let me know!
Vendillion Clique - I feel its too slow
Sower of Temptation - Again too slow, doesnt stop (tyrant) oath
Stifle - I love this card, I just couldn’t find room
Addendum:  horrible synergy with chalice 1
Misdireciton - goes great with the deck, but no room.  I want this in very much.  Great for Thoughtseize
Scion of Oona - very strong card, not sure where to fit in though
Addendum:  horrible synergy with Umezawa’s Jitte
Skullclamp - while this might be amazing, I like my draw engine as is.  Needs more testing.

In my testing this deck has been crushing flash.  It has a very good record.  Lots of counter magic and chalice helps.  Post board is even better!
Oath is incredible right now, I admit I have trouble.  I have beaten it but it is very difficult.  I think most decks have this problem right now
Ichorid - should have enough hate after side board with counter backup
Fish - I have a great time generally with fish, with Jitte and Bitterblossoms.
Aggro - This deck is surpsingly resilient versus aggro and has a good matchup.  Jitte wins
Stax - Whoever go first generally wins ;/

I have tested a lot and this deck is lots of fun to play, I hope people take it seriously.  Please critique, but from my testing this is the most competitive I could make the deck.

Additionally, my friend and I were trying to break these cards to beat oath after seeing success with earwig with the goblines

Using:
4 Bitterblossoms
4 Oona's Blackguard Bad Moon Plus a Hippy for all other fairies!
4 Earwig Squad
4 Frogtosser Banneret
   
We are still fooling around with this.
Thanks.

[TopSecret]

For the lists without Scions, would Curiosity be a good consideration?
Given, with all the extra draw, be it Standstill, Brainstorm, and/or Ninjas, there may not be room.

When I tested Fairies with 4 Ninja of Deep Hours and 2 Mistblade Shinobis (lol, I like that someone else has come up with it)
I found that a Ninja of Deep Hours would often get stuck in my hand at some point.
I didn't have Standstills for the synergy, but is 4 ever too many?
I often felt that 3 was a better number.

In lists where they weren't the central role (I love Curiosity <3), I often played only 2 Ninja of Deep Hours.

I always go back and forth on the numbers though,
so I'd really like to know others' opinions on it.

PS: I've never had the chance to test Scion, but he seems like a serious beating.
Even worst case, he's very good sideboard material for removal heavy decks.
Perhaps for versions that have a low mana curve, 2 maindeck could be nice as a finisher?
I'm leaning that it's better as a two of than Jitte if Bitterblossoms are maindeck.
EOT = Surprise!

PPS: Nevermore, I didn't see Ancestral in your list.
Is it a typo, or did you leave it out due to Misdirections?
If it's left out because of Misdirections, I think that it might still be worth it, since you have maindeck Dazes.

[eightywpm]

Gee, thanks for letting our cat out of the box gramps.  This thing is a monster and the only thing i've consistently lost to is control slaver.  But that's a little bit off topic.

Curiosity went through our minds for about 3 seconds, but it has odd synergy with the rest of the deck.  The idea behind the build is to build pressure under Standstill.  In fact, the deck plays a lot like Landstill.  Standstill is what drives this build.
The faeries from BB//Cloud of Faeries//Spellstutter Sprite can be ninja'd out for additional advantage without triggering Standstill and, more importantly, to recur Spellstutter Sprite and up the counter-count for the build. 

@ Curiosity:  Gramps always hated drawing Brainstorm under Standstill becuase it was dead in his hand.  I think with 4 FoW it is far from dead but allowing you to dig into 6 cards at the first sign of a broken Standstill make them worth running as a 2of- especially to balance out your opening hands.  Curiosity does not give this ability.  Additionally, the Ninjas were probably stuck in your hand because you didn't want to bounce a flying beater with Curiosity attached already.  Flyer + Curiosity > Ninja, however its still 2 cards.  Ninja being playable under Standstill is a house - the pressure adds up so fast and being able to bounce any creatures they've resolved by turning a Spellstutter Sprite into a Mistblade Shinobi and still not triggering Standstill is amazing.

@ Ninja:  I don't know if anybody's noticed but I pretty much love Standstill.  This guy is never dead in your hand - he pitched to force, he turns a Bitterblossom token into a draw engine for 1U, he doesn't trigger Standstill, and he's pretty much never dead.  While there have been situations where a faerie with Curiosity would have been better than him, I don't think that you can really argue with improving your draw engine under a Standstill while your opponent sweats.  I believe 4 is the right number because I am never upset to see him. 

@Scion of Oona:  it seems like it might be viable until you check the Jitte count.  Shroud = no equip (unless I have grossly misread the rule) and Jitte wins games and dominates the board.  This might be more viable if Jitte was pulled from the build and a Curiosity based draw engine for flying fearies was implemented.  We have not tested this - it seems to have bad synergy with Standstill and we are in love with Standstill.  Jitte has been amazing - I'm rarely upset to see it and with the draw engine I usually see one.  Scion shutting it off (except for the manlands and ninjas) would neuter this card.  The life gain (Bitterblossom hurts in a long game) and creature killing (Welder) has been great.

Ancestral was listed as the (appropriately) first card under "Instants."  Blue decks not playing Ancestral need headchecks.  So does gramps for giving this away to the TMDers!  But since I don't play competitively and he spawned the beginnings of this, I guess its his right.

Since it's up and available, let me go ahead and list off some of the deck's weaknesses.
Merchant scroll - or lack thereof.  It has no real answers.  We were at one point running a lone Echoing Truth that seemed to show up at good moments from time to time, but with no tutoring (scroll, dt, etc) and no redundancy it became something better (acceleration!).

Aether vial - This card is nuts.  The idea behind our counterspell base is that we want everythign to be free and we love cards that are playable under standstill.  Vial @ 2 with Cloud of Faeries is a +2 mana swing for the turn, its another 0 mana counter with Spellstutter Sprite, and it puts stuff into play under Standstill.  This card has great synergy with the deck and its use would probably prompt for the use of Mutavault but 2 turns away is too far away.  There really isn't anything great to cut to allow them to come in.  The Ninjas are too important as the sole (reliable) draw engine.  Sometimes you have to break your own Standstills, usually if you're facing down opposing factories and wastelands.

Manabse - It's kinda shaky.  A well placed wasteland can cripple you.  We only run 3 sea because Bitterblossom is the only maindecked black card in the deck - this is a conscious choice to try to help wasteproof ourselves.  If you don't fetch basics, you will lose games to Wasteland.  The USea count is up because we wanted the ability to use black cards in the sb (Extirpate) but since this is not happening that might change.  This is also why Lotus Petal takes the place of the 5th mox.

Sundering Titan has won the game against me every time it has resolved.  I hate to say it, but Spellstutter Sprite cant hit Tinker a lot of the time.  It always seems to hit drains, oaths and goyfs, but for some reason Tinker usually powers through.  Maybe its the counter backup that Tinker usually has - I dont know.  Either way, as gramps said above, Stifle would be a great addition but has horrible synergy with chalice (usually @ 1)

The deck is by no means optimized, but it has gone through many changes.  I believe that looking at it through Landstill's eyes is the way to go.  Bitterblossom is disgusting under Standstill, and your opponent cannot afford to wait you out.

Since the cat is out of the box, I too welcome any inputs and criticisms.

[Vegeta2711]

Vegeta,

I'm not sure that you should run 4 Vendilion Clique since they are legendary.

I hope that 4 Mutavaults are all it takes to make Spellstutter work for you.  That would eliminate the need for those lame 1cc 1/1's.  I really like the 4 Stifles in there too.

Also, how great has Mistbind been?  Doesn't seem so hot vs. Flash since the win costs 1U.  I know he's a fattie, but I wonder if a Sower or two could fit in there. 

Sidenote:  Notorious Throng seems great as a 1-2 of for a closer.  Mana Drain Faeries anyone?

Mike

4 Clique isn't exactly the greatest feeling or choice in the world, but Duress + 3/1 is hard to overlook when you don't really want to ever tap out in the main phase. Going down to three is reasonable, but usually you can pitch one to FoW or cycle it with the Neo-Duress ability (which is actually not terrible depending on the deck you're playing against). Bitterblossom also counts as a Faerie so thankfully it isn't as much of an issue getting SSprite online.

Mistbind Clique is meh, I liked having it against Oath, Stax and other odd creature decks, but after further games I think it might just be better running a different Faerie simply due to the cost involved.

Like I said, this is for a very specific metagame, I would run Sower if I wanted to beat up on decks with decent sized mens.

Anyway, you don't actually need a draw engine in the deck simply because most decks have terrible recovery, also if you take the time to get something like Ninja or that stuff online you probably already lost.

[extarbags]

So, I picked this up again, synthesized the basic elements of the new/old way Phyrexian Dreadnought works, lightened the faeries theme a good deal, and came up with a list that's done pretty well in MWS testing (I know, I know, MWS, blah blah blah, but that's what I've had a chance to do as of now), is a blast to play, and just very satisfying overall:

Land
9 Snow-Covered Island
4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta

Other Mana
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring

Creatures
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Vendilion Clique

Spells
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
4 Trickbind
4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

Wasteland immunity is awesome. Dreadnought is awesome. The faeries in this are awesome, even with no other tribal support. Eight Stifles maindeck are awesome. Basically, this is a non-fish-style aggro-control deck, that has a lot of disruption, a fairly high number of counters, and a lot of power in the Dreadnoughts but also a solid game plan without them. I'm frankly shocked at how resilient it actually is; for the first time in this format, I'm playing a deck with no really meaningful first-turn plays most of the time, and if I have at least an island, I'm generally not afraid to pass the turn; this deck also preys on the slow recovery of a lot of decks in the format right now, as a well-placed Stifle or Daze can often throw the opponent off for several turns, allowing us to build up a little bit.

Edit: so I guess four Brainstorm is out. The other three turn into what, one Ponder and two Impulse, maybe?