If you like fairy tales that are magical but twisted, fairies that are dark and tricky, then faerie tribal is the right deck for you. Let’s see how we can turn a fairy tale to a living nightmare for our opponents.
I love tribal decks because they combine synergy and flavor and of course power. On top of that you can find many unique cards that support a tribe and can be great budget options as those cards work only on a specific tribal deck and are bad to unplayable to any other deck. That’s why I will try building and presenting a series of decks for all those who share the love for tribal decks.
Faerie is creature type used for cards that depict creatures with human appearance, often small stature, magical powers, and a penchant for trickery. They are referred to by many names within various folklore such as “Fae”, “Wee Folk”, “Fair Folk”, “Little People”, and so on. In Magic: The Gathering the term “faerie” is used as an umbrella term for various non-human entities and spirits. (source: MtG Wiki) With the release of Wilds of Eldraine, we got some faerie tribal support and a Faerie Tribal precon, named Fae Dominion.
The Wilds of Eldraine Commander deck Fae Dominion, is a great starting point for building Faerie Tribal since it features many great Faerie cards. Despite that, there is plenty of space for upgrades. Although you can call this article a precon upgrade, you can start from zero and buy singles. The optimal building option depends on the price and availability of the cards.
Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor is a dimir (
) Legendary Faerie Noble that supports Faerie Tribal by both buffing other Faeries with +1/+1 and having tribal synergy, as on Faerie death trigger we draw a card and lose 1 life. In addition he comes with Flying and deathtouch which makes him great for offence and defence.
Synergy Diagram
Let’s analyze the main goals of the deck:
- Add the best Faeries. Our priority is to add the ones that create (or have synergy with) tokens and the ones that have Flash, EtB or Bounce Effects. Faeries with Flash also work well with our commander Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor since we can sacrifice them (on enemy attackers) for instant card draw and potential removal too.
- Add Faerie tribal support. Cards that support Faerie tribal seem a great choice for our build.
- Add flying support/synergy cards. All Faeries have flying, so that cards directly support Faerie tribal.
- Add token support/synergy. Since our build is meant to provide us with many Faerie tokens, some token synergy cards provide us with great value.
- Add cards that synergize with our strategies. To make the best out of our strategies, we can further amplify them by adding cards that support many of our strategies and that is easy since those strategies collide.
For the sake of flavor some of the choices are not optimal, but are (usually budget friendly) alternatives that fit greatly the Faerie tribal theme.
The deck:
Faerie Tribal
Comparative Analysis
Let’s see how the deck compares to the general ratios of my deckbuilding guide.
34 Lands
10 Ramp: Myriad Landscape , Sol Ring , Arcane Signet , Talisman of Dominance , Dimir Signet , Pillar of Origins , Fellwar Stone , Misleading Signpost , Midnight Clock , Cloud of Faeries
12 Target Removal: Rankle, Master of Pranks , Brazen Borrower , Spell Stutter , Spellstutter Sprite , Hypnotic Sprite , Spellscorn Coven , Stolen by the Fae , Faerie Trickery , Faerie Fencing , Violet Pall , Final-Sting Faerie, Stingblade Assassin
3 Board Wipes: Kindred Dominance , Tegwyll’s Scouring , Faerie Slumber Party
2 Graveyard Recursion: Halo Forager , Picklock Prankster
3 Graveyard Hate: Puppeteer Clique, Bojuka Bog, Halo Forager
2 Tutors: Nymris, Oona’s Trickster (mini), Faerie Harbinger
8 Protection: Scion of Oona , Glen Elendra Archmage , Spell Stutter , Spellstutter Sprite , Hypnotic Sprite , Quickling , Spellscorn Coven , Faerie Trickery
14,5 Card Draw: Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor , Rankle, Master of Pranks , Faerie Formation , Distant Melody , Midnight Clock (slow), Blightwing Bandit (kinda), Talion, the Kindly Lord , Talion’s Messenger , Reconnaissance Mission , Likeness Looter , Tome Raider , Latchkey Faerie , Faerie Mastermind , Moonshae Pixie, Cloud of Faeries (1/2)
3 Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions: Shadow Puppeteers , Notorious Throng , Mistbind Clique
As we see form the comparative analysis, the rates per category are very good. There is no score below the optimal low average and we see 4 categories that are above the optimal max average. Card Draw at 14,5 and protection at 8 are the highlights of our deck.
Deck Highlights, synergy and flavor options:
Cloud of Faeries is in worst case a free 1/1 Faerie with Flying which is not half bad, but with a proper setup it can be used with doubling EtB triggers cards and blink cards to get us a ton of (mana) value. It even has Cycling 
so it can help us a bit with card draw in desperate times.
Midnight Clock is average for our deck but our deck is about 75% blue mana based so we get a cheap ramp that can potentially lead us to a hand reset if we stall the game enough, which is possible enough with all our Faerie Tribal tricks.
Misleading Signpost is a great ace up our sleeve to manipulate the battle on our opponents turn and on top of that it can be used as a mana rock.
Brazen Borrower // Petty Theft is a great Faerie since we can cast it as a Disperse variant to return target nonland permanent an opponent controls to it’s owner’s hand and cast it later as a creature even in our opponent’s turn. One of the iconic mythics of the first Eldraine set and one of the best cards for Faerie Tribal. It also has great synergy with our bounce strategy since we can bring it back to our hand to use the removal again!
Faerie Trickery and Spell Stutter are our counterspells and they have Faerie Tribal synergy. Faerie Trickery count as a Faerie and that means that it can be fetched by Faerie tutors like Faerie Harbinger . It counters target non-Faerie spell and it exiles it. Spell Stutter counters target spell unless its controller pays plus an additional 
for each Faerie we control. In our Faerie Tribal build we run plenty of Faeries so it becomes almost a Counterspell with less color intensity.
Hypnotic Sprite, Spellscorn Coven and Spellstutter Sprite are also kinda counterspells that have great Faerie Tribal synergy. Spellstutter Sprite is a Faerie with Flash so it can be played at instant speed and has an EtB counterspell effect, while Hypnotic Sprite is a Faerie that has an Instant-Adventure counterspell. Spellscorn Coven has a very useful Instant-Adventure: Take it Back can be used as a kind of counterspell that “counters” (in fact return to hand is not a counter but just works in a similar way) even spells that can’t be countered. Spellscorn Coven can be cast later and each opponent discards a card on EtB.They are all Faeries so they can be fetched by Faerie tutors like Faerie Harbinger and they also have great synergy with our bounce strategy since we can bring them back to our hand to use the counterspells again!
Stolen by the Fae is great for Faerie Tribal since it combines target removal and Faerie token creation. We can also bounce our own creatures if needed, in case we want to cast them again for extra value (like powerful EtB effects).
Faerie Fencing is an Instant removal that has Fearie Tribal synergy. It costs 
and target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn plus an additional -3/-3 if we control a Faerie as we cast this spell.
Violet Pall is not an optimal removal since its cost is very high, but we include it because of its synergy and flavor. It counts as a Faerie so it can be fetched by Faerie Tutors like Faerie Harbinger , it destroys target nonblack creature and we put a 1/1 black Faerie Rogue token with flying into play. It synergizes well with Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor since we have token synergy too.
Rankle, Master of Pranks is a great flexible Faerie Rogue that on dealing player combat damage let us choose among three different options that affect all players. Sacrificing a creature can be a great option for repeatable removal since we could often just sarifice a token for 3 enemy creatures. Card draw for everyone is not optimal but can save us if we struggle with card draw and discard is a minor subtheme in Faerie tribal and when it becomes repeatitive can be very powerful. Having Flying and Haste makes Rankle very powerful since we can get instant value at most times.
Stingblade Assassin and Final-Sting Faerie are our assassins that destroy target creature that was dealt damage this turn. Alone they sound below average, but synergy can make them powerful tools in our build. They have Faerie Tribal synergy since they are Faeries, they have kinda token synergy since our tokens make it easy to deal tiny damage, but that damage is enough to trigger their removal abiility. They also have bounce synergy since we can bring them back to hand only to cast them again for repeatable removal! Stingblade Assassin has Flash which makes it even better!
Kindred Dominance is the ultimate removal for all tribal decks that have black in their color identity, since it is an one sided board wipe, destroying all other creatures and leaving our board intact.
Tegwyll’s Scouring is a great board wipe for Faerie Tribal since it has synergy with both tokens and Faeries. Our Faeries have flying so we can easily cast it at instant speed that is huge for a board wipe. Moreover, it creates three 1/1 black Faerie tokens with flying which leave us with a nice advantage.
Faerie Slumber Party is also a great board wipe for Faerie Tribal since it has synergy with both tokens and Faeries. It returns all creatures to their owners’ hands and for each opponent who controlled a creature returned this way we create two 1/1 blue Faerie creature tokens with flying and “This creature can block only creatures with flying”. We can create an army of Faeries in a 4 player commander game and Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor alone can make them a forbidable force.
Halo Forager is a Faerie Rogue that on EtB trigger let us pay to cast target instant or sorcery with mana value X from a graveyard without paying its mana cost. It is a great tool for bringing back our best instants or sorceries and has great synergy with our bounce strategy. Because it can return even a card from our opponent’s graveyard, it can even be played as a graveyard hate card.
Picklock Prankster // Free the Fae is actually like a card draw in Faerie Tribal, but due to the fact that it return the cards from the graveyard, the Adventure oart kinda counts as a grave recursion. It also has bounce synergy since we can recast the Adventure for more value.
Puppeteer Clique has Faerie Tribal synergy since it is a Faerie and it is a great tool for removing on EtB the best creatures of our opponent graveyards and putting them on the battlefield under our control with haste until end of turn. It also has great bounce strategy synergy as we can get multiple value by many EtB triggers.
Faerie Harbinger is an excellent Faerie tutor that can tutor on top of our library every Fearie card and that includes Faerie Tribal spells. It has Flash and can lead to some great plays. A must-have for Faerie Tribal!
Nymris, Oona’s Trickster acts like a mini tutor whenever we cast the fist spell during each opponent’s turn, letting us look at the top two cards of our library and put one of those cards in our hand and the other to the graveyard. In our build, we have many cards we can play at instant speed so we can get much value out of that ability.
Scion of Oona is a great Faerie Tribal lord that buffs our other Faeries with +1/+1 and provides them with shroud. Flash is very important as against target removal, it acts like a counterspell.
Glen Elendra Archmage let us pay and sacrifice it to counter target noncreature spell. Having persist means we can use it twice and if we bounce her we can multiply that value. Sacrificing her means we trigger Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor if he is on board, so we also get card draw. One of the best protection cards for Faerie Tribal.
All our counterspells also act as protection spells too if needed and that is very important since with our build focusing on both tokens and Faeries we should have a strong board presence.
Quickling is great for our build since on EtB it can return to our hand another creature we control giving us the chance to recast creatures with powerful EtB triggers and protecting those from target removal.
Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor is our main card draw engine since our Faerie Tribal is build to create many Faeries and we can either use them for board domination, or throw them on enemy attackers to get a ton of card draw. A win-win scenario! Although many prefer Alela, Cunning Conqueror to build on playing on each opponent’s turn, Tegwyll plays actually good on that strategy too, since with Flash we can sacrifice our Faeries at instant speed on enemy attackers and get instant card draw and value!
Faerie Formation is a great inclusion for our Faerie tribal since at instant speed, it let us pay 
to create a 1/1 blue Faerie creature token with flying and draw a card. It also comes with a respectable body, as a 5/4 flyer for 
is not terrible on its own.
Distant Melody is great in any creature tribal deck with blue color as all of them run a good number of creatures, thus providing us a good number of card draw.
Blightwing Bandit let us exile the top card of target player’s library whenever we cast our first spell during that player’s turn and we can cast it spending mana of any type as long as it remains exiled. Although it is not card draw, it gives us card advantage so we kinda count it as card draw.
Talion, the Kindly Lord can be an amazing card draw engine if we choose wisely a number that is important for our opponents. Low numbers such as 2 and 3 are safe options that in most cases will get us a ton of value.
Talion’s Messenger has draw a card, discard a card whenever we attack with one or more Faeries and on discarding a card this way it let us put a +1/+1 counter on target Faerie we control. Nice utility!
Reconnaissance Mission is an enchantment that greatly help us with card draw since we can expect to attack with many creatures and deal many times damage to a player and thus draw many cards from it.
Likeness Looter with 
let us at draw a card and then discard a card. In addition by paying it becomes a copy of target creature in our graveyard with mana value X, except it has flying and this ability. Interesting ability that may prove powerful in mid to late game.
Latchkey Faerie and Tome Raider have card draw on EtB (but Latchkey Faerie needs the Prowl cost to be paid). Moonshae Pixie reward us for attacking multiple opponents as on EtB we draw cards equal to the number of opponents who were dealt damage this turn. They work well with our bounce strategy since we can get multiple card draw from them.
Faerie Mastermind is a powerful draw tool on commander as we card get free card draw each time an opponent draws their second card each turn. With Flash and an instant speed ability to pay and let every player draw a card, he can get us some serious card advantage.
Shadow Puppeteers is an amazing card for Faerie Tribal since it creates two 1/1 black Faerie Rogue tokens with flying on EtB and it has “Whenever a creature you control with flying attacks, you may have it become a red Dragon with base power and toughness 4/4 in addition to its other colors and types until end of turn”. Ward gives it self-protection wich is a nice bonus. Turning our small Faeries into 4/4 Dragon Faeries can be a finisher move. With Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor they become minimum 5/5 flyers!
Notorious Throng can be a finisher if we can pay its Prowl cost. Many of our Faeries are Rogues so that is quite possible. If we get a descent amount of Faerie tokens plus and additional turn, that could prove fatal to our opponents. Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor can greatly help by buffing those tokens.
Mistbind Clique is a combo material card and it can work wonders in Faerie tribal. It can combo with cards like Quickling or Faerie Impostor and cards that duplicate creatures to soft lock target player by tapping all his lands every turn. Even in worst case it can lock an apponent for a turn which is not bad at all, but when we create a combo, that can be brutal for our opponent.
Other synergy pieces
Obyra, Dreaming Duelist is a great inclusion for our Faerie Tribal deck, since we are creating many Faerie tokens and have many non-token creatures so we can constantly drain our opponents.
Faerie Seer is a cheap Faerie with scry 2 on EtB that can help us do some card filtering which is always very important.
Oona’s Blackguard buffs our Faerie Rogues with a +1/+1 counter on EtB (which are no few if we count both the creatures and the token creation cards) and also has “Whenever a creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card”. With many Faerie Rogues around it can be terrifying since all Faeries have flying which is a form of evasion.
Faerie Bladecrafter works wonders in Faerie Tribal since it can easily get huge and then either we can have a heavy hitter or on death trigger it will drain all our opponents for X damage while will will get X life where X is its power.
Nettling Nuisance is a true nuisance for our opponents and a very interesting card for commander since it can create an army of 4/2 red Pirates for the opponent we deal damage to, and let them spread havoc in the battlefield as they cannot block and are goaded for the rest of the game. If you play Faeries and you like tricks and fun, you should definitely run this card!
Sprite Noble is a flying lord and a Faerie and since all Faeries have fying, it is like a Faerie lord. It gives other creatures we control with flying +0/+1 and on it gives other creatures we control with flying +1/+0 until end of turn. Glen Elendra Liege is a Faerie Knight that acts as a lord for blue and black creatures giving a buff of +1/+1 to other creatures of that color and our multicolored Faeries get both (+2/+2). Both are important is our deck since we expect to have a mass Faerie army and every buff counts!
Thieving Sprite has a powerful EtB and on our Faerie Tribal it can get its full potential since we can control enough Faeries to reveal all cards of target player’s hand and choose one to be discarded. It also synergises greatly with bounce strategy.
Alela, Cunning Conqueror is a great card for our Faerie Tribal since it synergizes with our instant tricks strategy to create 1/1 black Faerie Rogue tokens and whenever one or more Faeries we control deal player combat damage it let us goad target creature that player controls. She is the alternative commander of the Fae Domination precon and a very powerful card!
Malleable Impostor can copy the best enemy creature but it is still a flying Faerie too and that makes it a true menace.
Sower of Temptation is a poweful Faerie as it let us gain control of target creature for as long as it remains on the battlefield. Amazing with cards that create extra copies like Reflections of Littjara and Archmage of Echoes.
Wydwen, the Biting Gale has , Pay 1 life: Return Wydwen, the Biting Gale to its owner’s hand. Her self bounce can protect her and we can get extra value with all our bounce synergy and Instant tricks strategy.
Archmage of Echoes is a great card for our Faerie Tribal deck since it doubles all our casted Faeries. It has ward which makes it hard to remove and a 4/4 body with flying. One of the best cards of the deck!
Oona, Queen of the Fae is an amazing repeatable Faerie token creator. By paying 
at instant speed, we choose a color and target opponent exiles the top X cards of his/her library and for each card of the choosen color we create that many 1/1 blue and black Faerie Rogue tokens.
These cards help us return other creatures we control to our hand and synergize greatly with powerful EtB triggers. Glen Elendra Pranksters can give us repeatable value as it synergizes greatly with our Instant tricks strategy.
Let’s see some more statistics about our deck. Some important info to care about is the mana curve and the card type distribution, as it can help us understand better our deck and may indicate where there is space for improving it.
Mana Curve
The mana curve is close to average with the exception of 4 mana drops where we see a huge spike that shows us that we have double the average drops on that position. Moreover, we notice an absence of high mana drops ( positions 8+).
Card Type Distribution
The Faerie Tribal Card Type Distribution shows the dominant tribal creature-heavy theme with 44 creatures. All other categories have a small presence with Artifacts at 9, Sorceries at 6, Instants at 4, and Enchantments at 3. No Planeswalkers or Battles are present for the time.
Of course statistics and comparative analysis are great tools but they don’t always tell the whole truth, since many factors like synergy and combo pieces are hard to be measured numerically. For example in this deck, statistics are tricky because if we count Adventures and our Instant tricks (Flash, Bounce strategies), our deck has numerous Spells that can be played at instant speed and that shows its great potential.
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If you liked the deck, don’t forget to revisit the article after every major new release as I will try to keep my decks updated and examine any potential upgrades. If you want to keep being updated, you can follow mtgbudgetcommander.com on social media (facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, linkedin, reddit, tumblr, medium).
If you like my tribal series, you can check my other tribal decks.
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