Overview
I made this deck because I was running real low on rare wildcards in Arena. It's a pretty simple construction of instants, creatures, and lands, but it proves to be fairly strong against a number of meta decks despite the lack of rares. I managed to climb from Silver 3 to Platinum 3 in Bo1 Ranked over a couple of hours shortly after the August season ended so it's been working pretty well.
The main synergies in this deck involve card draw and casting from the graveyard. Academy Wall, Combat Courier, Faithful Mending, Overwhelmed Archivist
, Raff, Weatherlight Stalwart, and Skybridge Towers can all draw cards to buff Faerie Vandal, the deck's win condition. Academy Wall, Faithful Mending, and Overwhelmed Archivist
also allow you to discard card. Chaplain of Alms
, Combat Courier, Faithful Mending, and Overwhelmed Archivist
can all be cast from the graveyard for additional value and card advantage.
Any recommendations are greatly appreciated!
Cards
Faerie Vandal is this deck's win condition. This deck is loaded with ways to draw additional cards. Faerie Vandal's flash is especially useful if we've left any lands untapped at the end of our opponent's turn.
Raff is one of the deck's most consistent ways to get card advantage. We cast a ton of instants and there are many cheap creatures we can tap to draw cards. Since Raff is so strong in this deck, you'll often want to use Fading Hope, Valorous Stance, or Ertai's Scorn to protect him.
Academy Wall is great for getting our footing early in the game. It can stop a lot of damage while allowing us to clean up our hand so we're not flooded with only one card type. The deck also includes Faithful Mending, Combat Courier, and Chaplain of Alms
so our discards don't go to waste.
Combat Courier is a great card for getting that second draw on our own turn. We can pay three mana to draw a card and buff Faerie Vandal, even if Combat Courier is in the graveyard.
Chaplain of Alms is the only creature that doesn't help Faerie Vandal directly, but it plays a very important defensive role. It can get away with blocking small creatures with Deathtouch (and commonly Toxic) along with tokens from Urabrask's Forge thanks to first strike.
Faithful Mending is the only instant in this deck that directly helps Faerie Vandal. It can buff Faerie Vandal without assistance from any other card, even on the opponent's turn. Since Faithful Mending isn't very good when cast from the hand, we'll often want to discard it with Academy Wall or another Faithful Mending. We can also use the discards to get Combat Courier and Chaplain of Alms
into the graveyard.
Valorous Stance is a great multipurpose card. We'll mainly use it to protect Faerie Vandal and Raff, Weatherlight Stalwart and remove creatures powerful enough to kill Academy Wall.
Elspeth's Smite is in this deck to cover creatures with three toughness. Chaplain of Alms
can stop two or less and Valorous Stance can stop four or more, but the deck has previously struggled against cards like Skystrike Officer and Glissa Sunslayer. Elspeth's Smite is the only way to deal with these cards if they aren't countered on turn two or three.
Like Valorous Stance, Fading Hope is useful on both defense and offense. We'll use it to return important creatures like Raff, Weatherlight Stalwart to our own hand when we're in danger, but we can also use it to remove counters, abilities, or enchantments from our opponent's creatures. It's particularly useful against incubate.
This deck runs two copies of Disenchant in case there are any artifacts or enchantments we need to remove.
Essence Scatter provides us with some additional defense against strong creatures and we can hold both Essence Scatter and Faerie Vandal in hand on turn two or three so we have two different options.
