13 Decks for MTG Arena’s Festival of the Fae Standard Artisan Event

Right now there’s a special Standard event on Magic Arena: the Festival of the Fae where you can win a bunch of promo versions of some of the standard’s most-played adventure cards.

The rules are simple: build a Standard deck consisting of only commons and uncommons and battle other opponents in a best-of-1 format. There are 4 banned cards: Persistent Petitioners, Cauldron Familiar, Cavalcade of Calamity and Gates Ablaze. The format lasts only a few days, through Nov. 6.

Finally, a format where Oko isn’t legal? Sign me up! I thought the format was fun enough that I spent a good amount of time brewing various decks and running them through the event. There is no win or loss limit, and once you enter the event you can keep playing for as long as you want even if you have already cleared all the rewards. This reminds me of Pauper, but given that the pool of cards on Arena is not that large yet, I wouldn’t be surprised if we got a similar format in the future as a fixture.

One thing to keep in mind when approaching this format is that the mana isn’t great if you want to play two colors, as the only real dual lands are Guildgates, the “lifegain” lands and Evolving Wilds. There is also Tournament Grounds, but there really aren’t that many Knights and it doesn’t let you cast the adventure part of the card.

These decks might also be worth looking at if you are building Standard decks on a budget or don’t have enough Wild cards to get the rares and Mythics.

Here are some decks that I enjoyed the most

1. Mono-Red

21 Mountain (343)
4 Ember Hauler
4 Scorch Spitter
4 Burning Prophet
4 Tin Street Dodger
4 Rimrock Knight/Boulder Rush
3 Chandra's Pyrohelix
3 Shock
4 Slaying Fire
4 Light Up the Stage
3 Skewer the Critics
2 Tibalt, Rakish Instigator

Unsurprisingly enough, the first deck I built was Mono-Red and it was a quick run through the event with a score of 5-1. It probably took less than 20 minutes, so if your goal is to get the promo versions of the cards, this is a deck that I would recommend. I thought it ran very smoothly and the only other card I was really considering was Goblin Banneret. You can also make a more burn heavy version centered around Electrostatic Field.

2. Dimir Reanimator

10 Swamp (339)
10 Island (335)
4 Dimir Guildgate
1 Cloudkin Seer
4 Tomebound Lich
4 Merfolk Secretkeeper/Venture Deeper
1 Meteor Golem
1 Foulmire Knight/Profane Insight
1 Gorging Vulture
4 Howling Giant
4 Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor
4 Thought Erasure
4 Discovery/Dispersal
1 Tyrant's Scorn
4 Bond of Revival
2 Blood for Bones
1 Disfigure

Afterwards, I decided to have a little bit more fun and build something more interesting. The next deck I tried was Reanimator, which has a lot of available synergistic cards. Blood for Bones and Bond of Revival let you return anything from your graveyard into play and you can discard anything from your hand with Tomebound Lich or Kasmina. Merfolk Secretkeeper, Discovery/Dispersal and Thought Erasure are more ways to help you get a big creature into your graveyard. The only problem is, once you take the rares and mythics out of the equation, creatures get a lot less powerful. Howling Giant is as best as it gets and there is also one Meteor Golem in case you need to get rid of a problematic noncreature permanent. You can play red instead of blue for Thrill of Possibility and Honor the God-Pharaoh, but Kasmina, Tomebound Lich and Thought Erasure seem better.

3. Simic Flash

4 Thornwood Falls
2 Simic Guildgate
10 Island (335)
8 Forest (347)
4 Spectral Sailor
4 Hypnotic Sprite/Mesmeric Glare
4 Frilled Mystic
4 Brineborn Cutthroat
2 Faerie Duelist
4 Quenchable Fire
2 Unsummon
2 Essence Capture
4 Growth Spiral
4 Sinister Sabotage
2 Opt

Simic Flash has almost everything available from its regular version, except for Nightpack Ambusher and Brazen Borrower. It is a big loss, but remember that other decks are missing cards too. This deck is much better against control and midrange decks than aggro. Faerie Duelist is a pseudo-removal spell against the early drops from the fast decks. It looks like this deck might be better off just being mono-blue, but Frilled Mystic is one of my favorite cards and I love me some value.

4. Dimir Control

9 Island (335)
2 Dimir Guildgate
9 Swamp (339)
4 Dismal Backwater
4 Nightveil Predator
4 Cry of the Carnarium
2 Narset, Parter of Veils
4 Discovery/Dispersal
4 Thought Erasure
4 Disinformation Campaign
2 Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
4 Disfigure
4 Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor
4 Tyrant's Scorn

I kept playing against a lot of aggro decks, so the next deck I built was Dimir Control that takes advantage of Cry of the Carnarium, one of the few sweepers in the format. The idea here is to blank your opponent’s removal while playing plenty of it yourself. Nightveil Predator is a nice finisher that I believe only dies to Liliana’s Triumph.

If you prefer creatures over planeswalkers, you can give this a try, but it’s going to be much worse against removal.

Dimir Control 2.0

9 Island (335)
1 Dimir Guildgate
9 Swamp (339)
4 Dismal Backwater
4 Thoughtbound Phantasm
4 Nightveil Sprite
4 Nightveil Predator
2 Price of Fame
3 Discovery/Dispersal
4 Thought Erasure
4 Disinformation Campaign
2 Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
4 Disfigure
2 Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor
4 Tyrant's Scorn

5. Azorius Flyers

4 Tranquil Cove
8 Plains (331)
8 Island (335)
4 Healer's Hawk
4 Faerie Guidemother/Gift of the Fae
4 Loyal Pegasus
4 Empyrean Eagle
4 Faerie Miscreant
4 Pteramander
4 Spectral Sailor
2 Faerie Duelist
2 Nightveil Sprite
4 Rally of Wings
2 Winged Words
2 Conclave Tribunal

This was actually a deck that I was trying out in Standard for a little while. Rally of Wings is absolutely broken here. The only problem is the manabase, so be ready to mulligan aggressively. If you do want to give this a try in Standard, you can improve the deck a lot by adding Hallowed Fountain, Unbreakable Formation, Venerated Loxodon and Hanged Executioner.

6. Izzet Spells

10 Island (335)
4 Swiftwater Cliffs
10 Mountain (343)
4 Pteramander
4 Augur of Bolas
2 Cloudkin Seer
4 Crackling Drake
2 Wee Dragonauts
4 Shock
4 Jaya's Greeting
4 Chandra's Pyrohelix
4 Ral's Outburst
4 Opt

There are a lot of ways to build Izzet, but unfortunately Arclight Phoenix is not available. You can go for a more controlling version with Brineborn Cutthroat and counters and only use Pteramander and Crackling Drake as finishers or you can go for a more aggressive version with Lightning Stormkin and cards like Skewer the Critics. You can also go with Improbable Alliance, Thrill of Possibility and more flash stuff, but I’m not really sure what you would be drawing into or discarding into the Thrill.

7. Green decks

Mono-Green Counters

23 Forest
4 Barkhide Troll
4 Wildwood Tracker
4 Syr Faren, the Hengehammer
3 Rampart Smasher
4 Clockwork Servant
4 Bloom Hulk
4 Pollenbright Druid
4 Henge Walker
4 Giant Growth
2 Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter

Gruul Aggro

9 Forest (347)
9 Mountain (343)
4 Rugged Highlands
1 Gruul Guildgate
4 Paradise Druid
4 Zhur-Taa Goblin
4 Grumgully, the Generous
4 Sunder Shaman
2 District Guide
3 Rubblebelt Rioters
4 Rampart Smasher
4 Shock
2 Chandra's Pyrohelix
2 Domri's Ambush
2 Collision/Colossus
2 Rhythm of the Wild

Golgari

9 Swamp (339)
4 Jungle Hollow
9 Forest (347)
1 Witch's Cottage
4 Foulmire Knight/Profane Insight
2 Order of Midnight/Alter Fate
4 Molderhulk
4 Glowspore Shaman
1 Leyline Prowler
4 Savvy Hunter
4 Golgari Findbroker
4 Gorging Vulture
4 Paradise Druid
4 Disfigure
1 Deathsprout
1 Status/Statue

I really liked the idea of curving out Wildwood Tracker into Barkhide Troll, but after that the options aren’t as hot if you want to keep the deck mono-green. I couldn’t find enough aggro cards (you would kill for a Yorvo here), so I went with a little bit of a proliferate subtheme.

The Gruul deck is more about bigger creatures and could really use a Charging Monstrosaur. The only available replacements are Trollbread Guardian or Challenger Troll.

The Golgari deck is more about value and there are a ton of ways to build it, including an adventure version with Edgewall Innkeeper. There are some nice little combos here, including an essentially unkillable Molderhulk + Witch’s Cottage.

When you look at Paradise Druid, Growth Spiral, District Guide, Beanstalk Giant, Circuitous Route and so on, green’s options are almost endless when it comes to fixing and getting ahead on mana. Wilderness Reclamation is a way to get even more mana, but I couldn’t really figure out what to do with it without Expansion/Explosion.

8. White Decks

Mono-White

20 Plains (331)
4 Healer's Hawk
4 Hunted Witness
4 Law-Rune Enforcer
4 Loyal Pegasus
4 Faerie Guidemother/Gift of the Fae
4 Venerable Knight
4 Sunhome Stalwart
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Conclave Tribunal
4 Heraldic Banner

Some other cards to consider here are Arrester’s Zeal, Pacifism, Fencing Ace and Ancestral Blade. This deck really needs Venerated Loxodon, though, as Heraldic Banner is just not a good replacement.

Orzhov Knights

7 Swamp (339)
7 Plains (331)
4 Tournament Grounds
4 Scoured Barrens
4 Venerable Knight
4 Foulmire Knight/Profane Insight
4 Order of Midnight/Alter Fate
4 Smitten Swordmaster/Curry Favor
4 Youthful Knight
4 Corpse Knight
4 Wintermoor Commander
4 Belle of the Brawl
4 Disfigure
2 Mortify

Orzhov Midrange

9 Plains (331)
9 Swamp (339)
4 Scoured Barrens
1 Orzhov Guildgate
4 Imperious Oligarch
4 Pitiless Pontiff
3 Blade Juggler
4 Basilica Bell-Haunt
4 Venerable Knight
4 Foulmire Knight/Profane Insight
4 Order of Midnight/Alter Fate
4 Corpse Knight
3 Mortify
3 Disfigure

The white decks didn’t seem good enough to me–it’s just a bunch of mediocre creatures and forced synergy, but I’ll admit I wasn’t trying very hard.

Other decks I couldn’t seem to make work include Rakdos Knights and Aggro, Gates, Elementals and Lucky Clover. Edgewall Innkeeper decks also seemed pretty medium in a format with a lot of Shock/Disfigure and without Once Upon a Time.

Let me know which deck you used to play in the event or what was your favorite. As usual, here is where you can find me streaming/posting about Magic!

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