Welcome all to the Daily Dose of Throne of Eldraine. Today I’m going to talk to you about the return of Faeries into Standard. Three of the Faeries I’m going to be talking to you about today are not made great just because they're creatures. Most of them have an instant or sorcery built into them in the form of an Adventure! The more cards I see where you can go on an adventure, the more impressed I am of these cards. Being able to get two spells for the price of one give you more options. I’ll also be talking about the black Mythic Faerie that looks quite impressive. Although there are plenty of Faerie creatures in Throne of Eldraine, the set isn’t dominated with them as first thought when early marketing material came out for the set during the summer.
To start off, I want to talk about a black Faerie that wants to hurt or help both players. Here is Rankle, Master of Pranks.
What an interesting creature and ability that this has. On it’s base you get a 3/3 Flying, haste creature for only four mana which is strong by itself. If you can damage your opponent with it, you choose any or all 3 of the abilities listed. Some things to note about these abilities is that they do resolve in the order you see on the card. So if you choose all three, they will discard first, followed by losing 1 life and drawing a card. Sacrificing a creature will always be the last thing you do. I like the versatility of this card even it all the abilities affect both players. Usually you can manipulate your hand to make sure you are discarding a card you don’t want. This applies as well for having creatures on the battlefield to sacrifice. I think the hardest thing to do will be to make each player draw a card. Remember though that each player would lose 1 life, which could have an impact based on life totals.
Now it’s time to talk about some of the blue Faerie creatures that want you to go on an adventure. As a blue player you often want to hold up your mana to counter a spell and this creature acts as that counterspell. Here is Hypnotic Sprite.
This card is great! I will always treat this as a counterspell first and a creature that I will cast from exile. I can’t really think of any scenario in which you would want to play this as a creature on turn two unless there is some threat that just needs to be blocked. There will be so many threats that your opponent will cast that have a converted mana cost of 3 or less that you will want to keep this in your hand with mana open to cast it. I can see this working well in a revamped Simic Flash deck. Even when you do cast it as a creature, you get a solid 2/1 Flying creature for two mana that might be able to get some damage in through the air.
Next is a Faerie that lets you wish for the best card in your sideboard. Here is Fae of Wishes.
This is one of those cards that I’m excited to put into my Grixis control deck. If needed early in the game, it can act as a blocker with 4 toughness. If you don’t need it right away, you can hold onto it for an Adventure. Thanks to its ability as well, if you have cards you don’t need later in the game, you can return Fae of Wishes to your hand so that you can go on the Adventure Granted one more time. I think this will be a staple 1 or 2 of in any Control deck.
Finally, I have a mythic Faerie that has an Adventure that curves out well. Here is Brazen Borrower.
There is currently some talk that this shouldn’t be a Mythic and instead be a rare. Let’s begin by going on the Adventure that is Petty Theft. This card acts like a Disperse for your opponents nonland permanents. The key here is noting that you are not able to bounce your own permanents which is unfortunate. Either way, this is still a powerful spell that curves very well into casting the creature part of the spell the following turn. This works very well in a Simic Flash deck if they can put some threats onto the battlefield before you get a chance to counter them with cards like Hypnotic Sprite. Now on turn three, you have the option of countering something or playing a 3/1 Flash Flying creature EOT. Brazen Borrower will help keep the battlefield clear and be a quick clock against your opponent as well.
Faeries are back in a big way thanks to Throne of Eldraine and these are just four of the ones you must choose from. Thanks again for reading the Daily Dose of Throne of Eldraine. Join me again tomorrow as I end the week talking about some of the new lands from the set and the new Standard mana base post-rotation.
