If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of thousands of plates of humble pie being munched down worldwide. Many Magic players dismissed Bloomburrow on power level grounds right out of the gate. Now however, once the dust has settled and cards are actually in decks, the set isn’t looking too shabby after all. Combined with rotation, Bloomburrow has ushered in a Standard format full of interesting new decks. One of the most interesting among these MTG creations is Fae Blade; an Orzhov Control-type list with some off-the-wall inclusions.
What Is Fae Blade In MTG?
Fae Blade, also known as Orzhov Pixie, is a bit of an enigma when it comes to MTG lists. In many ways, it resembles the Orzhov Sacrifice lists we saw earlier in the format. The deck plays plenty of cards that create tokens, like Novice Inspector and The Witch’s Vanity, and pairs them with Nurturing Pixie for value. That’s where the ‘Fae’ part of the deck name comes from.
As for the ‘Blade,’ that’s all down to Tithing Blade. This is one of the cards that uses The Lost Caverns of Ixalan’s ill-fated Craft mechanic. Despite how cool the mechanic is in theory, most of these cards have seen very little play so far. Tithing Blade is proving itself the exception, however, as an Edict effect that flips into a very, very slow win condition later on.
Slow is the name of the game with Fae Blade. While you can get a fast start and power out a Rottenmouth Viper for a lucky win, most games will be utter grindfests. In the best possible way, of course. Tithing Blade helps you attack your opponent’s board, and then cheap enchantments like Hopeless Nightmare and Tinybones Joins Up swoop in to hit their hand. Since these stick around, you can pick them up with Pixie or sacrifice them to Viper for extra value.
Once your opponent’s hand is empty and their board is under control, Fae Blade wins slowly through Tithing Blade and Bandit’s Talent. The latter also helps empty their hand in the first place, so it pulls double duty. Outside of this core gameplan, a few value creatures like Braids, Arisen Nightmare and Zoraline, Cosmos Caller round things out nicely. Overall, it’s a fairly straightforward strategy built with some rather unconventional pieces.
A New Meta Player?
Fae Blade is a relatively new deck in MTG Standard, only really showing up in the last few weeks. It’s made quite the first impression in that short time, however. The deck has claimed multiple 5-0 Standard League finishes on MTGO, including one with the above list from Sapoa. It clearly has legs in the format, then. Will that last as things develop further? That’s an interesting question.
Looking at the rest of the Standard metagame, it appears to be a mixed bag for Fae Blade. Golgari Midrange is the top dog at the moment, and, despite its name, it features an instant-win combo that can go way over the top of Fae Blade. It’s possible for Fae Blade to strip the combo pieces from the Golgari player’s hand, but Innkeeper’s Talent is easy enough to stick early that this shouldn’t be a real problem.
Domain, the second most popular Standard deck currently, is a much better matchup. Fae Blade doesn’t really care about Sunfall or Leyline Binding, since it can afford to wait Domain out. Big threats like Atraxa, Grand Unifier are very susceptible to Tithing Blade’s Edict effect, too. You do need to watch out for Temporary Lockdown, however, since that can sweep away your Blades and Bandit’s Talents.
Unfortunately, early doom may be on the horizon for Fae Blade. Decks running Urabrask’s Forge are on the rise, and Fae Blade has no good answer to that card. With the additional token synergies and value that Caretaker’s Talent provides such decks, it’s hard to grind them out, too. Those sideboard copies of Loran of the Third Path the deck is playing may need to become main deck copies if Fae Blade wants to address these issues.
Read More: The Best MTG Standard Decks – August 2024
