Alela, Cunning Conqueror Flash Faeries Deck Tech
Stand up! ….Commander? Wait, that’s not right! Let’s try that again!
What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?
Hey guys, it’s Serena, back with another article. This time, we’re doing something a little different, as this article will be on my absolute favorite Magic: the Gathering tribe, faeries, in Commander. Here’s what I’m using through Wilds of Eldraine.
Faeries have been in the game since Alpha with Scryb Sprites, but didn’t gain an identity until Lorwyn and Shadowmoor. Here, they became centered in blue and black, and have two main strategies they excel in: mill and flash. Previously, I played faeries as a control deck with some mill, which turned into a Flash-focused build. Wilds of Eldraine gives us two strong commanders, but this uses Alela, Cunning Conqueror. Alela makes a faerie token every time we cast our first spell on an opponent’s turn. Additionally, when one of our faeries hit a player, we get to goad one of their creatures. This gives us another layer of defense while we set up. If you would rather gain card advantage, you can use Nymris, Oona’s Trickster. Nymris is a Faerie Knight with Flash and Flying that lets you look at the top 2 cards of your deck and put one into the discard and one into your hand when you cast your first spell on someone else’s turn.
To further enable Alela and Nymris, we have Leyline of Anticipation and Vedalken Orrery. Both of these have a similar effect, namely letting us play spells as if they have Flash. Cunning Nightbonder has flash and reduces the cost of our cards with Flash and makes them uncounterable. This doesn’t apply to cards cast with either Leyline or Orrery, since they don’t grant the Flash keyword. Wavebreak Hippocamp draws us a card the same time we trigger Alela or Nymris. We have other things that trigger when we cast on someone else’s turn, with cards like Dreamspoiler Witches and its functional reprint, Dream Spoilers. Creatures like the classic, Spellstutter Sprite, Faerie Harbinger, and Mistbind Clique can be super impactful. Cloud of Faeries lets us deploy a blocker for basically free. The same could be said for card like Snap, Unwind, and Rewind, which leaves us mana for more interaction.
On the tribal side of things, we have the other new commander from the precon, Tygwell, Duke of Splendor, and Scion of Oona and Instruments of War both have flash and can give our faeries +1/+1 and the Scion also gives them shroud. Kindred Discovery and Vanquisher’s Banner both draw us cards when we cast faeries. Door of Destinies can make our small faeries very tall. Finally, two cards from the new precon let us make copies of our faeries: the reprinted Reflections of Littjara and the new Archmage of Echos!
Now for some threats, we have some nice ways to deal with other, more aggressive creature decks in particular. Raise the Palisade from the Lord of the Rings Elf commander deck, Kindred Dominance which is also in this the faerie precon can remove all your opponent’s creatures and leaving all your faeries ready to go, and Tygwell’s Scouring and Faerie Slumber Party get rid of all creatures, but then leave you with some more flying faerie tokens!
Speaking of tokens, we of course include the ever popular Bitterblossom. Shadow Puppeteers make all our attacking flyers 4/4 red dragons plus their other types and colors. Malleable Imposter lets us flash it is as a clone of one of our opponent’s creatures but it’s a Faerie Shapeshifter in addition to it’s other types and has flying. Another faerie shapeshifter is Likeness Looter, a looter that can also turn itself into a copy of a creature in our graveyard. Favorable Winds just buffs our flyers. Glen Elendra Archmage is another classic, as are Brazen Borrower and Vendilion Clique. Obyra, Dreaming Duelist saps our opponent’s life every time we get a faerie.
Our instant line up has a couple more we haven’t mentioned to this point, like Spell Stutter, Dissipate, Whirlwind Denial, Negate and Wash Away, the last of which might as well read as ‘counter target commander spell’. We also have some removal in Hero’s Downfall, Rapid Hybridization and Faerie Fencing, and while not an instant we have Feed the Swarm to take care of pesky enchantments. To help us cantrip we have Opt, Consider and Mystical Tutor, the latter of which also has flashback, and a Vampiric Tutor I was lucky enough to pull.
Rounding out our artifacts are 4 mana rocks: Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Talisman of Dominance, and Commander’s Sphere. If you feel this is too few, feel free to cut some of the spells you find less than useful in your usual pods.
We have 37 lands with my current build, most being Dimir lands that have the chance to enter untapped. We have 2 manlands in Creeping Tar Pit and Faerie Conclave. One of the more notable lands is Emergence Zone, which lets us cast something on someone else’s turn. I also want to highlight a personal favorite in Secluded Glen which not only gets it’s first reprint in the commander precon, but also gets new art!
I think that’s about all for now, but I’ll be back soon, most likely with another Vanguard deck! We will see you soon!
Faeries away!
We shall chide downright, if I longer stay!