When March of the Machine was finally fully announced, Faerie Mastermind looked absolutely incredible. I was shocked that Yuuta Takahashi’s World Championship card wasn’t going for more. Offering a body at instant speed that draws cards, Faerie Mastermind seemed powerful in formats as old as even Legacy.
Now, Faerie Mastermind is all over Standard and isn’t a threat to be messed with in Commander, either. As a result, the card’s price has been skyrocketing, and it absolutely deserves it.
Massive Card Advantage
Faerie Mastermind is the perfect card for the current Standard environment. It provides card advantage in grindy matchups and acts as a small body in faster ones. This versatility makes Faerie Mastermind hard to beat, and hard to replace.
Primarily seeing play in the top-tier Dimir Midrange archetype, Faerie Mastermind plays tons of different roles. Whether you want to pressure opponents, draw cards, remove creatures, or Ninjutsu in Kaito, Bane of Nightmares, Faerie Mastermind does it all.
Of course, Faerie Mastermind is also very powerful in Commander. Because you have three opponents, the draw potential that Faerie Mastermind provides is absolutely ludicrous. In two-player formats, Faerie Mastermind only offers two extra cards per turn cycle. In Commander, that potential multiplies! This means that, in a perfect world, you can draw twelve extra cards off of Faerie Mastermind in a turn cycle. Good luck accomplishing that, since each opponent would need to draw two cards every single turn, but the potential is there, and you’re likely to draw at least a couple of cards off of this two-drop every turn cycle.
Sadly, Orcish Bowmasters keeps Faerie Mastermind out of older formats. The card single-handedly slays the Faerie whenever it wants. If it doesn’t kill the Faerie on entry, Orcish Bowmasters can take out the Mastermind in response to its own trigger.
The Spike
Primarily thanks to a lack of reprints and a surge in Standard play, Faerie Mastermind has climbed from $11 to $30 since mid-October. The percentage hike isn’t too impressive, but this does mean that Dimir Midrange players need to drop about $120 on a playset of Faerie Mastermind. For Standard, this is incredibly expensive.
Normally, there’s an opportunity for savvy shoppers to find cards at lower prices, but frankly, that seems a lot more difficult with this card. You can occasionally find foil copies of Faerie Mastermind going for about $25 since those are unpopular in competitive Magic, but most copies of this card that aren’t damaged will go for $30ish.
If you ask me, this spike isn’t surprising at all. Faerie Mastermind seems like the perfect MTG card to see play in any format where tempo/midrange decks are popular. The card also has absurd Commander potential, which only makes the demand for Faerie Mastermind even more intense.
If you want Faerie Mastermind for Commander, but don’t need it any time soon, we would recommend waiting for the card to rotate out of Standard. That’s scheduled to happen next year, though, so you’ll have to wait for some time. Otherwise, Faerie Mastermind could wane in popularity as new cards come out, which could also cause the card’s price to decrease slightly. Until then, Faerie Mastermind is going to be expensive.
