Showcasing Fairy tale Sagas and bringing back Food tokens, the Wilds of Eldraine MTG set has a lot to offer and appears to be living up to the hype. This set is also providing support for multiple exciting typal strategies, including Rats and Faeries. While the main set certainly has a lot going for it, there’s even more to look forward to from beyond the main set. One of those products is none other than the Faerie typal Commander deck that should offer a ton of additional support for those who enjoy building around the Creature type.
Very recently, the Faerie typal Commander deck was previewed for the world to see. Known as the “Fae Dominion” Commander deck, this deck is full of powerful new cards and Commander options as well as elite, pricey reprints. For a Creature type that isn’t super abundant but is absolutely beloved and iconic, the new cards should help provide some massive upgrades to Faerie Commander decks everywhere. Let’s start by taking a look at some of the excellent new Commander cards.
Swarming Faeries
Both the primary and secondary Commanders are extremely strong. Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor not only provides a substantial buff to your Faerie Creatures, many of which are likely very small to begin with, but it also provides you with card advantage when your other Faeries die. While Tegwyll helps make your Faeries individually a lot stronger, Alela, Cunning Conqueror helps you create a Faerie army over time. All you have to do is cast spells on your opponent’s turn, which is quite easy for a deck with lots of Instants and Creatures with Flash.
Alela does have another very unique ability, though. Whenever you deal combat damage to a player with one or more Faeries, you get to Goad an opposing Creature that player controls. This provides a unique incentive to keep attacking, and lots of the new cards play into this theme as well.
Faerie Bladecrafter has the ability to grow over time as long as you keep attacking with your evasive threats. Nettling Nuisance is a super unique card that actually gives your opponents Creatures when you hit them, but those Creatures are forced to attack someone else in a multiplayer game. Pair this with Alela, and you can end up having a lot of control over combat.
Shadow Puppeteers, while expensive, does provide a ton of value. First, it’s a massive Flier that’s tough to kill. It also makes two additional Faeries when it enters the battlefield. From there, whenever you attack with a Flier, you can have it become a four-power Dragon until end of turn. Notably, this is in addition to its other types, so your Faeries that attack will still trigger Alela.
Read More: Virtue and Valor Offers Cogent Cards that Cheat in MTG Auras!
A Flash Subtheme
Beyond Alela encouraging you to keep attacking, the card also incentivizes you to cast lots of spells at Instant speed. Luckily, many of the new cards fit this theme as well. Malleable Impostor is an excellent Clone variant, allowing you to copy any Creature an opponent controls at Instant speed. However, Malleable Impostor maintains it Faerie Creature type and Flying. Given the number of massive Creatures players tend to play in Commander, this card should be very strong.
Blightwing Bandit, much like Alela, provides another bonus for playing cards at Instant speed. Each time you cast your first spell during an opponent’s turn, you can exile the top card of that opponent’s library, exile it, and play it for as long as it remains exiled. Notably, you can pay mana of any type to cast it, and you can also play Lands exiled with Blightwing Bandit as well.
Misleading Signpost, at minimum, is a mana rock with Flash to help trigger Alela. However, it also can help manipulate combat in your favor by forcing an attacking Creature to attack a different player or Planeswalker. This can not only help keep your life total higher if an opponent attacks you, but it can also potentially send the attacking Creature to its doom if another opponent has a big blocker at the ready.
Read More: Top 10 Most Expensive MTG Cards on The List for Wilds of Eldraine
The Best of the Best
Each and every new card featured in the Fae Dominion Commander deck is quite strong and synergistic. These last two cards in particular, though, are perhaps the best of the bunch with Tegwyll in the mix. Archmage of Echoes copies any Faerie permanent spell you cast, which should help you flood the board with Faeries in short order. Tegwyll’s Scouring is a board wipe that leaves behind three Faerie tokens. Thanks to Tegwyll itself, even if you have a strong board presence, you can use Tegwyll’s Scouring to reset the board at Instant speed, draw a bunch of cards with Tegwyll, and untap with a handful of fresh cards and three Faerie tokens.
Both Alela and Tegwyll are strong choices to wield your Faerie Commander battalion. Each and every new Faerie card is strong in its own right. If the Fae Dominion Commander deck weren’t a slam dunk already, there are some excellent reprints that come along with it!
Read More: Beadle and Grimm’s Releases New MTG Tokens Despite Ongoing Delays
Top Tier Reprints
Brazen Borrower is a great card. It serves as both interaction and a Flash threat. Alongside Alela, you can cast Petty Theft on one opponent’s turn, making a Faerie token, then cast Brazen Borrower from exile on the next opponent’s turn, creating yet another Faerie token. In addition to being a powerful reprint, it’s also one of the pricier reprints, sitting at roughly $8 on TCGplayer’s market price.
Glen Elendra Archmage is yet another $8 Faerie seeing a reprint. It not only acts as a Creature with persist, but it also allows you to pay a mana to counter a non-Creature spell. This allows you to potentially counter two problematic non-Creature spells before Glen Elendra Archmage is in the graveyard for good. This works quite well with Tegwyll, letting you draw a card whenever you sacrifice Glen Elendra Archmage to counter a spell.
Scion of Oona is an extremely powerful card to include in any Faeries deck. Not only does the card act as a Flash lord for all your other Faeries, but your other Faeries gain Shroud. This means that you can Flash Scion of Oona into play in response to someone casting a removal spell on your Commander and blow them out. Scion currently sits at roughly $7, and it will absolutely make its presence felt.
Read More: Wilds of Eldraine Jumpstart Cards Receive Abnormal Product Treatment
Total Reprint Value
Unfortunately, while the total reprint value from the set is still decent, some of the value has dropped thanks to Commander Masters. For example, Kindred Dominance was a very valuable card before being reprinted in Commander Masters, but its value plummeted to nearly $5. As a result, the total reprint value has dwindled a bit since the Command Zone reported it at close to $107. $107 was notably more than the average total reprint value of both the Brother’s War and March of the Machine Commander decks, which were also reported under the same circumstance.
Taking into account the big price drop of Kindred Dominance and the minor price fluctuations of the top tier reprints listed above, the reprint value has dropped from roughly $107 to $86, which is a significant difference. It’s important to recognize that reprint prices are likely to move even further, so definitely keep this in mind.
While the big price fall of Kindred Discovery definitely hurts the Fae Dominion Commander deck’s value overall, it still may absolutely be worth buying, depending on how much the Commander deck itself is being sold for. This is especially true given how powerful the 10 new cards are for the archetype, which are not included in the above reprint value. Alela and Tegwyll are some of the best Faerie Commanders we’ve seen, so for anyone looking to build or upgrade their Faerie Commander deck, now’s your chance.
Read More: Top 10 Best MTG Adventure Cards for Commander
