Might I Suggest a Celestial Colonnade?

By Mike Flores

Josh Ravitz's White-Blue Faeries

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Planeswalker (5)

2 Gideon Jura 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Creature (11)

4 Spellstutter Sprite 4 Stoneforge Mystic 3 Vendilion Clique

Sorcery (4)

4 Preordain

Instant (11)

4 Cryptic Command 3 Mana Leak 4 Path to Exile

Artifact (3)

1 Sword of Body and Mind 2 Sword of Feast and Famine

Land (26)

4 Celestial Colonnade 6 Island 4 Mutavault 4 Mystic Gate 4 Plains 4 Seachrome Coast

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

2 Burrenton Forge-Tender 3 Day of Judgment 2 Flashfreeze 2 Oust 3 Sower of Temptation 3 War Priest of Thune

Deal Another Hand

The West deck is different from many of the white-blue Extended decks we have looked at previously. The new inclusions—or old inclusions?—are Spellstutter Sprite and Vendilion Clique.

Spellstutter Sprite, forgotten favorite of legitimate Faeries decks, takes the place of Squadron Hawk in this deck. The cards are quite similar of course: both 1/1 flyers for two mana, both theoretically sources of card advantage. Squadron Hawk is perhaps Magic's premier un-mulligan-er. Spellstutter Sprite—especially with so few players thinking about the card in the context of a White-Blue Sword deck—has potential surprise value... and gets to gobble up a bit of the opponent's mana. Most of Josh's Spellstutter Sprites stopped the Thoughtseizes that would have turned his key-card-driven opening hands to mush, and got somebody's Stoneforge Mystic along the way.

The best loot for Stuttering Sprite, though, was back-to-back Qasali Pridemages out of a Naya opponent. For all their elegance when running hot, absent their Equipment, the Caw-Blade family starts to look like an underpowered dimwit cousin of a "real" white-blue deck. Best keep those exalted kitty cats off the battlefield! Playing against a deck like Boros, countering "only" a Goblin Guide or Lightning Bolt can easily be the difference between winning a close one and being completely blown out. So, though Spellstutter Sprite lacks Squadron Hawk's initial tonnage of card advantage, its tempo burglary and ability to trade up in the world make it quite an interesting—if not universally compelling—option in this kind of deck.

The other main member of the Fae family was Vendilion Clique. Vendilion Clique needs very little justification... Just know that it is taking up a spot generally occupied by Mirran Crusader in parallel decks. While it doesn't hit nearly as hard as Mirran Crusader (especially one carrying one of the many Swords), Vendilion Clique makes for a better threat against other methodical decks, combo, and so on.

But of all these cards—Mister "the Mind Sculptor" included—Josh picked Gideon Jura as his best spell on the day.

"Gideon adds another dimension to the deck. It's like a Chimeric Mass sometimes, like a Solitary Confinement sometimes... and Gideon wields a Sword of Feast and Famine quite well."

Speaking of Caw-Blade, as we move back to Standard (with precious few Extended PTQs left on the schedule), Edgar Flores took down the most recent StarCityGames.com Open Series event... with Caw-Blade. This other Flores has been a monster across Star City's almost-weekly tournament series, racking up a number of Top 8 finishes... though this is his first win.

Edgar Flores's White-Blue Caw-Blade

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Planeswalker (7)

3 Gideon Jura 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Creature (8)

4 Squadron Hawk 4 Stoneforge Mystic

Sorcery (7)

3 Day of Judgment 4 Preordain

Instant (8)

2 Into the Roil 3 Mana Leak 3 Spell Pierce

Artifact (4)

2 Sword of Feast and Famine 2 Tumble Magnet