Fae Dominion Upgrade Guide: 18 Easy Changes You Can Make

Last updated on April 29, 2024

Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor | Illustration by Ekaterina Burmak

For a time, good faerie decks were the backbone of constructed Magic. I have good news for those who remember those days with fondness instead of dread. Fae Dominion and Wilds of Eldraine are going to make faeries decent in Commander for the first time.

We’re going to need to upgrade this deck out of the box, but the other piece of good news is that there are some fun options to up the power level while still being on theme. As my Commander deckbox shelf gets more and more stuffed, there are more important things to me than raw power as I think of adding to the pile.

Let’s jump into the deck!

Deck Overview

Nightveil Sprite | Illustration by Uriah Voth

One of the two Wilds of Eldraine Commander precons, Fae Dominion is faerie typal, and I’m excited about the possibility of playing a good faerie deck in EDH! This precon features the most popular existing commander for the fae, Oona, Queen of the Fae, but it’s a too-slow 6-drop for a type that used to dominate Constructed formats with speed and tempo.

So, how about we put this thing into high gear and accelerate!

Strengths and Weaknesses

Fae Dominion is reasonably strong out of the box but it suffers a bit from a problem many Commander precon decks have these days: It’s really two decks in one and it needs to be focused in one direction or the other.

The face commander of the deck, Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor wants to go wide with faeries and perhaps sacrifice them for card draw value, similar to zombie precon commander Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver. The best legend in the 99, Alela, Cunning Conqueror, rewards you for playing at instant speed, ideally preventing opponents from damaging you by goading everything.

These two cards can play nice together, but Alela wants to keep the faeries in the air and Tegwyll has, let’s say, darker plans. I think there’s a great Alela deck to be made, but there aren’t enough flash fae in this deck to support that, and the small suite of instants in the deck needs some serious overhaul to be competitive.

So I’m going to lean into Tegwyll by cutting some higher mana value cards and most of the low-powered instant suite to get faster while also adding some faerie flavor heavy hitters. There are loads of awesome Dimir () cards you can add to this deck, from Fierce Guardianship to Demonic Tutor, and I’m going to leave that option to go for a generic power-up to you. My focus is keeping this deck on theme while making it work more consistently.

Of course, you also need to upgrade the mana base that ships with 25 basics, but I’ll leave that in your hands, or you can grab a shopping list by reading through the list of Dimir lands.

Spellstutter Sprite

Suggested Cut: Wayfarer's Bauble

Spellstutter Sprite was the best card in the fae tempo decks of yore and is super welcome in this list. There are too many basics in this precon anyway, and when you upgrade your awesome Dimir manabase, you definitely don’t want Wayfarer's Bauble!

Bitterblossom

Suggested Cut: Nightmare Unmaking

Bitterblossom has always been a key faeires card, and with Tegwyll wanting as many bodies as possible, you’ve got to include it here. The life loss for both will add up, but folks are unlikely to let you keep both on the table. This is much better than overcosted black board wipe Nightmare Unmaking.

Faerie Harbinger

Suggested Cut: Reckless Spite

I didn’t even know Reckless Spite was a card before I saw this list. Hard pass on this terrible piece of spot removal! Instead, let’s use Faerie Harbinger to tutor for something nice.

Notorious Throng

Suggested Cut: Hullbreaker Horror

I love Hullbreaker Horror, but I don’t see this deck hard ramping to it. Notorious Throng does everything this deck wants you to do, and it has a cheeky extra turn in there for the taking if you’re a bit flooded.

Faerie Mastermind

Suggested Cut: Nymris, Oona's Trickster

Look, I am not going to sit down at a Commander table with a faeries deck sleeved up missing the card of the greatest faerie player of all, Yuta Takahashi. Faerie Mastermind is also just good. You can flash it in to draw a card and it will keep working for value until your opponents deal with it.

Alela might be the deck to make slow Nymris, Oona's Trickster work, but I’ve been underwhelmed by it up until now and it doesn’t synergize well with what we’re going in this deck.

Likeness Looter

Suggested Cut: Mocking Sprite

What’s not to like about Likeness Looter? It’s the typal version of Lazav, the Multifarious, which is always good in a Dimir deck with creatures. Mocking Sprite is better in a deck with more spells, like that Alela deck we want to make.

Stolen by the Fae

Suggested Cut: Perplexing Test

Interaction that also fuels your gameplan, Stolen by the Fae is decent bounce, especially against low mana value Voltron attackers, and it can also just make a stack of tokens Tegwyll would love to see. You will always fail the Perplexing Test with this deck and its mix of creatures and tokens.

Skullclamp

Suggested Cut: Run Away Together

You need ways to sac faeries for Tegwyll to draw cards, and the notorious Skullclamp does double duty. I don’t understand why Run Away Together is in this decklist.

Talion’s Messenger

Suggested Cut: Fact or Fiction

Fact or Fiction is fine, but there are lots of card draw spells I would play first these days. And Talion's Messenger supports the plan of drawing cards with your attacking flyers, which is the way this deck has to win.

Mistbind Clique

Suggested Cut: Opt

This deck comes with two 1-mana cantrips, which are fine, but why run two cantrips? And why is neither one Peppersmoke?  So instead of placeholder Opt, let’s try a clique. Mistbind Clique isn’t a card you tend to see in EDH, but it’s a fine on-theme way to protect your commander and it also serves as a source of blink for some of the powerful ETB cards in this deck, like Malleable Imposter

Faerie Dreamthief

Suggested Cut: Consider

Instead of a non-synergistic cantrip like Consider, consider Faerie Dreamthief, arguably the best 1-drop fae there is.

Bident of Thassa

Suggested Cut: Spellscorn Coven

Like Reconnaissance Mission, already in the deck, Bident of Thassa helps us draw cards from our sideways faeries. Don’t sleep on its activated ability in a deck where you can do goading nonsense with cards like Nettling Nuisance. Spellscorn Coven is underwhelming in all ways.

Feywild Visitor

Suggested Cut: Snap

Feywild Visitor is fragile, because it needs your commander out, but for each opponent you hit you’ll make a faerie dragon (which are faeries in their type line and darn cute tokens). I think it's worth more of a shot than Snap, which belongs in a different deck.

Faerie Slumber Party

Suggested Cut: Repulse

Faerie Slumber Party is the kind of nonsense I want to play in my faerie deck! Way better than low-impact Repulse!

Kindred Discovery

Suggested Cut: Frantic Search

There are a lot more synergistic creature typal deck support cards like this to consider, but I think Kindred Discovery and Reflections of Littjara (already in the deck) are the most useful. Frantic Search goes in another deck.

High Market

Suggested Cut: Swamp

I’d also suggest the pretty expensive Phyrexian Tower if you have one. Tegwyll would like to sacrifice your faeries. I don’t think you have to lean too far into this by dropping a lot of sac outlets though. Your opponents won’t be okay with your flying horde and will do the faerie-killing for you, so just a few sac outlets on lands is perfect. Although an Ashnod's Altar never hurt anyone but your opponents!

Talion, the Kindly Lord

Suggested Cut: Island

This seems pretty arch to me. I think Talion, the Kindly Lord is fun, but I think it’s better as a commander in its own right to take advantage of its ability early. Still, I can’t really resist this card and 39 lands is a few too many.

Faerie Artisans

Suggested Cut: Illusionist's Gambit

Speaking of arch, Faerie Artisans seems silly, but it can go off if your opponents are playing powerful ETBs, which they totally are. Illusionist's Gambit can absolutely save you while ending the night for someone else, but this is the poster child for a 4-drop that will rot in your hand while you wait for a better time to cast it.

Wrap Up

Rankle, Master of Pranks | Illustration by Dmitry Burmak

That’s the start. You’ve got to fix the manabase, for sure. And I think I would increase the power level of the deck by losing some of the other high mana value cards like Faerie Formation with interaction designed to protect your commander. But I like some of the goofy stuff like Blightwing Bandit, so I’ll keep them in for a while until I lose enough to want to juice the deck.

But I get tired of every Commander deck in certain colors feeling too samey with the exact menu of 20 powerful auto-includes. For me, a deck like Fae Dominion promises more fun than that.

What other faerie typal stalwarts would you have added? Let us know in the comments or on Discord!