MTG Faeries and Dragons soar into Standard through Wilds of Eldraine Arena launch

Wizards of the Coast dropped Wilds of Eldraine into Magic: The Gathering Arena and Online today with the Standard-legal set’s digital launch, featuring new cards that support Faerie and Dragon typal decks. 

Slated to go live through MTG Arena and Magic Online on Sept. 5 is Wilds of Eldraine (WOE), the first Standard-legal set of the 2023-2024 Magic season. Adventures return through the set, while new mechanics like Roles and Bargain provide a fun experience through gameplay in the Limited Draft and Sealed formats. The Standard format is getting a boost as well, as rotation won’t take place until next year, showcasing a format with a wide pool of cards that could impact the Standard meta. 

The MTG Arena Early Access event last week hyped up the WOE set, where the typal Faerie deck succeeded against a variety of builds while also pulling on the heartstrings of players. A basic best-of-one build was showcased by CovertGoBlue using new Faerie cards like Talion, the Kindly Lord, Faerie Fencing, Opera, Dreaming Duelist, and Sleep-Cursed Faerie. 

The Faerie Standard deck in WOE contains enough low-rarity cards to keep the deck within a mid-price range, especially when using Wildcards to craft cards for the build. It’s also a fast-paced build that can overrun opponents quickly if the board state isn’t controlled. Talion, the Kindly Lord lives up to expectations, taxing opponents for casting spells with a specific mana cost while Obyra, Dreaming Duelist pinged away at their life total. 

Faeries weren’t the only typal build to shine during the MTG Arena Early Access event, with CVDMTG creating a four-color Dragon deck. Using new WOE cards like The Irencrag for mana fixing and Decadent Dragon//Expensive Taste as a solid Adventure, body, and Treasure token creator, the Dragon deck was able to run multicolor Standard legal dragons like Rith, Liberated Primeval, and Rivaz of the Claw. 

I was fortunate to play both decks at the Wilds of Eldraine MTG Arena Early Access event and had success with both builds. Faeries can take over a match quickly and keep opponents at a disadvantage through cards like Faerie Fencing and Ego Drain. And The End is a great card against Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. But the deck can fall apart if Faerie Mastermind doesn’t draw cards and the go-wide faerie strategy is dismantled through a well-played board wipe. 

The Dragon deck isn’t budget-friendly, but it also doesn’t contain a bunch of new cards from WOE either. Mana is always a concern with four-color builds and The Ironcrag helps, as does Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea. The deck is packed with big stompy dragons in the air and can quickly overpower an opponent through combos and direct damage. 

Players can test both typal MTG decks through the digital launch of Wilds of Eldraine on Sept. 5.