The best faeries in Commander can really bring out some of the most fun MTG decks around. One of the best things about Commander being the most diverse of MTG’s many formats, is that there are a nigh-on-infinite number of decks you can enjoy.
With the release of the Fae Dominion deck in Wilds of Eldraine, we’ve got even more amazing choices for both inside of decks and also to lead them. The best faeries in MTG Commander will allow you to get more out of these cards, and embrace all of their mischief to come out on top.
Following the release of this MTG deck, we’ve seen interest in Faeries shoot right up. So much so that some are even making waves in the secondary financial markets! With all this interest, it seems like a better time than ever before to go over all things Faeries! So, without any further ado, let’s dive right into this list of the best Faeries in MTG for Commander.
The Best Faerie Commanders in MTG
As always, when building a Commander deck you’ve got to start by picking out your Commander. Not only does this define the theme for your deck, but it also sets the color identity you’ll be limited to. When it comes to Faeries, there’s not really all too much of a choice. Outside of a few notable exceptions, Faeries are primarily Dimir (blue/black) which makes choosing somewhat simpler.
Currently, in MTG, there are fifteen different Faerie cards that are capable of being your Commander. While not all of these are excellent options, there are definitely a few standout contenders vying to helm your next deck. Here are our top three picks, as well as a spicy honorable mention for good luck!
Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief
Kicking things off with our honorable mention, Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief isn’t amazing for Faerie Typal decks. With neither their abilities nor colors synergizing with the Typal core, you may well be wondering what they’re doing on this list. Thankfully, we’ve not gone completely mad, was while they’re not the archetypal Faerie, they’re still incredibly strong.
Primarily, Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief is best used within decks built around buffing creatures, especially Enchantment decks. Here, Ivy can potentially copy almost every spell you cast, adding the buffs and enchantments to themselves. As you can imagine, this is an incredibly powerful effect that quickly gets out of control thanks to the added value.
Due to this strength, Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief is a great option for a Commander who just so happens to be a Faerie. If you’re looking to build a Faerie Typal deck, however, then you’d be better off looking at some of the other options below.
Alela, Cunning Conqueror
Moving on from the honorable mention, Alela, Cunning Conqueror is the first true Commander for Faerie Typal. Offering the ideal Dimir color identity, as well as a deeply synergistic ability, it’s no surprise they fill that role. Whether you’re looking to make more Faeries or chaotically Goad your opponents, Alela, Cunning Conqueror is a stellar Commander choice.
Beyond just being good, Alela, Cunning Conqueror is also surprisingly easy to get ahold of. While you can of course buy the card for around $8, they’re notably included within the Fae Dominion deck. Should you purchase this, not only will you have a good starting point, but you’ll also have one of the best Faerie Commanders around.
Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor
As if the Fae Dominion deck wasn’t good enough already, it also includes Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor. Leading the deck as the face Commander, this new Legendary Faerie is undeniably deserving of this important role. To earn that spot, Tegwyll offers a helpful boost to your Faeries, which is more useful than you might otherwise think.
For better or worse, Faerie creatures in MTG are all rather weak. Thanks to this, +1/+1 effects are more useful than ever, as they seriously need the extra juice. As you can see above, Tegwyll handily provides this for just three mana, but that’s not their only ability. The main draw of Tegwyll is their card drawing ability which should keep your hand stocked up.
While this ability only activates when a Faerie you control dies, it’s nonetheless incredibly potent and valuable on a Commander potent. Subsequently, Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor is definitely one of the best choices around to helm your deck.
Alela, Artful Provocateur
Moving up to the top spot, Alela, Artful Provocateur is currently the most popular Commander for Faerie Typal. While there previously hasn’t been much competition for this role, Alela, Artful Provocateur nevertheless stood out as a fantastic option. This is thanks to them being a fairly effective token generator and board buffing presence.
While Alela, Artful Provocateur is capable of generating a lot of Faerie tokens, it does come with a catch. To activate this ability, you need to be casting a lot of artifacts and enchantments. In theory, this is far from a bad thing, as Alela, Artful Provocateur simply provides added value. In reality, however, it does dilute the Faerie-themed core of the deck somewhat, even if it’s for good reason.
Ultimately, Alela, Artful Provocateur is still a fantastic choice to helm a Faerie Typal Commander deck. Especially since they sport an Esper color identity, allowing you access to all manner of white spells.
Best Faerie Cards in MTG for Commander
Now that we’ve covered the top picks for Faerie Commanders, it’s time to move on to bulk out the rest of the deck. Since we’re building a Typal deck here, you may well want to include many of the best Typal cards for all situations. Alongside these powerhouse MTG cards, you’ll, obviously, also need plenty of Faeries to fill out the rest of the deck!
Thankfully, since their first appearance in Legends, Faeries have been a fairly common occurrence in MTG sets. Subsequently, to date, we have 145 Faerie cards in MTG to choose from when building our decks. Since this is far too many to fit into the 99, we’ll have to do some trimming to ensure we’re only using the best of the best. To help in that process, below are 10 of the best Faerie cards in MTG for Commander!
Vendilion Clique
Kicking off the best Faeire cards in MTG, we have another honorable mention of Vendilion Clique. When talking about Faeries, it would be downright rude not to mention this MTG card, since they’re utterly iconic. For many MTG players, as soon as you mention Faeries, this will be the card they’re thinking of.
Offering a potent source of hand disruption, as well as a potentially dangerous body, Venilion Clique is a stellar MTG card. Or rather, it was when it was first released back in Morningtide. Now, Vendilion Clique has fallen off the radar somewhat thanks to the power of modern MTG cards. Despite this change, however, Vendilion Clique is still an excellent choice to include within the a Faerie Typal deck, at least in competitive games.
Because Vendilion Clique only impacts one player in Commander, the card’s power level ends up being rather diluted. That said, it is still a powerful inclusion that is particularly good at ruining a Vampiric Tutor during the draw step when they draw their tutor target.
Brazen Borrower
One of the many Faerie cards released during 2019’s Throne of Eldraine, Brazen Borrower is just all-around strong. Boasting the same 3/1 for 3 stats as Vendilion Clique, Brazen Borrower is already a threatening presence. Alongside this, however, they also feature the Petty Theft Adventure, allowing you to bounce a nonland permanent.
Whether you’re looking to make an opponent cast a massive threat again or remove a token entirely, this effect is always strong. So much so, in fact, that Brazen Borrower is arguably even stronger than Vendilion Clique! Thankfully, since both cards can easily fit into the 99 of a Commander deck, we don’t have to get into that argument today.
Rankle, Master of Pranks
Similarly hailing from Throne of Eldraine, Rankle, Master of Pranks has the potential to be an absolute menace in Commander. This is thanks to their ability affecting every player, rather than just one unlucky soul. For better or worse, you are included within this count of everybody, however, the disruption is typically still worthwhile.
Rather than just offering this troublesome trio of abilities once, Rankle pops off every time they attack. As you might expect, this makes them a hugely oppressive threat so long as they can keep attacking. If you can manage that, Rankle, Master of Pranks may be the star of your deck, provided they don’t get swiftly removed.
Oona, Queen of the Fae
When everything goes exactly according to plan, Oona, Queen of the Fae can be one of the most deadly Faeries in MTG. Not only is Oona a potent token generator and mill engine, but they could even be a game-winning threat. Admittedly, this would require almost 400 mana to deck out all your opponents, but still, think of the possibilities!
Even if we ignore the infinite mana win condition, Oona, Queen of the Fae is still very much worth playing. Even if you can only put a few mana into them each turn, you’ll likely gain a few tokens. You’ll also be disrupting your opponent’s deck, which is always useful. Well… So long as you’re not playing against a self-mill deck, at least.
Hushbringer
Capable of utterly hosing an opponent’s deck, Hushbringer can be an absolute menace in Commander. So long as you can protect them, if your opponents care about cards entering the battlefield and dying, your opponents’ theme can be completely nullified, leaving them helpless. Obviously, this makes Hushbringer a very good choice if you’re trying to win games.
Should you be trying to keep your friends, however, Hushbringer might not be the best card to play. Similarly to other Stax effects, this card will likely paint a massive target on your back. This will likely be resolved by someone simply tossing a removal spell at Hushbringer since it dies to a gentle breeze, but should it stick around a while and shut down a player at your table, they may opt for player removal instead.
As if this downside wasn’t problematic enough, Hushbringer also requires you to have white in your color identity. This severely limits you to just playing Alela, Artful Provocateur or Rubinia Soulsinger as your Commander. Provided you’re committed to the theme, that is.
Archmage of Echoes
Released as part of Wilds of Eldraine Commander, Archmage of Echoes is an utterly incredible Faerie Typal card. Offering purpose-built support for the archetype, Archmage of Echoes gives each Faerie spell more value. Double the value, in fact, as it’s able to create token copies of any Faerie of Wizard permanent spell.
Considering Archmage of Echoes offers free value once in play, they’re an obvious inclusion within a Faerie Typal deck. The real trouble, however, is keeping them around. Since their effect is so strong, they’ll be a high-priority target for removal spells. Thankfully, they do have Ward 2 to assist in this, however, you might want to keep a few counterspells up your sleeves just in case.
As a note, Archmage of Echoes is one of the many new Faerie Typal cards released in the Fae Dominion preconstructed deck.
Spellstutter Sprite
Similarly to Vendilion Clique from earlier, Spellstutter Sprite is an utterly iconic Faerie in MTG. Heavily synergizing with other Faeries, Spellstutter Sprite has the potential to be a rather potent counterspell. In fact, with enough Faeries on the board, they can counter pretty much anything!
Since a Faerie Typal Commander deck plays a whole lot of Faeries, it’s not hard to see why Spellstutter Sprite is useful. Subsequently, they’re more than deserving of a spot within the 99 of your deck.
Bitterblossom
If we’re talking about iconic Faerie cards in MTG, Bitterblossom definitely more than deserves a mention. Able to generate one Faerie token on each one of your upkeeps, Bitterblossom provides consistent value for a low cost. While having an army of Faeries is always useful, especially once buffed, the real benefit is synergy. This card has dominated multiple competitive formats in its history, and now looks to dominate Wilds of Eldraine Limited as part of the new bonus sheet.
Whether you’re looking to counter something huge with Spellstutter Sprite or keep drawing cards with Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor, you’ll need Faeries aplenty. Bitterblossom provides exactly that, ensuring that your deck is always running in the optimum conditions.
Faerie Mastermind
Since Wilds of Eldraine technically hasn’t been released yet, Faerie Mastermind currently holds the crown as the best recently released Faerie. Appearing in March of the Machine, this card is already a multi-format all-star thanks to providing oodles of draw. While powerful in Standard, Pioneer, and even seeing Legacy play, Faerie Mastermind is on another level in Commander.
Thanks to having four opponents, in Commander games, Faerie Mastermind can ideally provide four times the draw. While this would require your opponents to be drawing all the time, thankfully, that’s hardly uncommon in Commander. Subsequently, Faerie Mastermind is able to provide insane value, even without activating their ability.
Scion of Oona
Last but not least, we have one of the most useful Faeries in all of MTG; Scion of Oona. When looking at this card they may seem rather underwhelming, as they may seem like just a fairly basic lord. While this isn’t an unfair assessment, their ability to give all other Faeries Shroud shouldn’t be dismissed.
While it won’t mitigate the looming threat of a board wipe, the Shroud provided by Scion of Oona is an incredibly useful added layer of protection. Considering many Faeries are exceptionally weak, with only one toughness, it’s clear why this is needed. Unfortunately, one downside with Scion of Oona is that they’re incredibly weak themselves.
Since Scion of Oona doesn’t get Shroud themselves, they’ll likely be removed incredibly quickly. All the more so nowadays with Orcish Bowmasters causing havoc. Despite this drawback, however, Scion of Oona is definitely still worth playing and including within the 99.
The Best of the Rest
While above are ten of the best cards that you’d absolutely want to include in your deck where possible, they can’t fill the 99 on their own. Thankfully, as we mentioned before, there are still plenty more Faeries in MTG to do exactly that. There are so many, in fact, that we could go on and on about them all day. Luckily for you, however, we won’t be subjecting you to that.
Instead of going on and on about every Faerie in existence, to close out this article, we’ll only be highlighting the best of the rest in a quick bullet-point list. This should hopefully help bulk out and refine your deck, with a few more powerful cards that aren’t to be scoffed at!
- Faerie Harbinger
- Puppeteer Clique
- Glen Elendra Liege
- Malleable Imposter
- Shadow Puppeteers
If you’re looking not rigidly stuck to the Faerie agenda, there are also a few combo options for you to explore. The most prominent of these revolves around Cloud of Faeries. When played alongside Deadeye Navigator and Sage’s Row Denizen, this recursive combo can mill out your opponents!
Ultimately, while there are numerous awesome Faerie cards to consider building your deck around, the new Fae Dominion preconstructed deck seems like the perfect starting point. Offering new cards, reprints, and some of the best Commander options, this deck is a stellar choice for Faerie fans. For everyone else, you’re not out of luck, as Commander has Typal archetypes galore. No matter what you’re interested in playing or building a deck around, Commander has something for you. Whether you want to build around Cats, Dogs, Dinosaurs, Angels, Zombies, Eldrazi, or Frogs, each deck is just a click away!
