Fae Dominion precon upgrade guide

Three cards in this box pay you for casting a spell on someone else's turn, and 28 of its 60 nonland cards can supply one, so the upgrade starts with removal that fits that habit.

Alela, Cunning Conqueror makes a 1/1 flying Faerie Rogue the first time you cast a spell during each opponent's turn. Nymris, Oona's Trickster looks at your top two cards on the same trigger and keeps one. Blightwing Bandit exiles the top card of that opponent's library face down and lets you play it with mana of any type. The box backs the habit up: 28 of the 60 nonland cards besides Tegwyll have an instant-speed mode, counting flash creatures, instants and the instant half of an Adventure. Six of them are flash Faeries, and Misleading Signpost is a flash mana rock, so even that counts as your spell for the turn.

The weak points sit around that plan. Only two cards remove a targeted creature for good, Reality Shift and Reckless Spite, and Spite costs 5 life. Black has 28 sources and six cards print {B}{B}. Hullbreaker Horror is the only creature in the box that isn't a Faerie, which matters more than it sounds once you read what Kindred Dominance does. No card in the box is a Game Changer, so it sits at Bracket 1 and stays there.

What are the best Fae Dominion upgrades?

Answers first, then Kindred Discovery and the flash Faeries, then the lands. Prices are October 2026 market prices at the cheapest released printing, which can be a promo or special-guest card, and the eight together come to $14.06.

1. Infernal Grasp ($0.26). Destroy target creature for two mana at instant speed, and you lose 2 life. It's an instant, so casting it on their turn is a first spell for Alela, Nymris and the Bandit.
2. Go for the Throat ($0.29). The same price and the same speed with no life payment, except it can't target artifact creatures.
3. Kindred Discovery ($4.96). Name Faerie and draw a card whenever a Faerie enters under your control or attacks. All 31 creature cards in the upgraded list are Faeries, and Tegwyll's Scouring and Oona both make tokens on top of that.
4. Spellstutter Sprite ($3.68). A two-mana flash flier that counters a spell with mana value up to the number of Faeries you control. It counts itself, so X is at least 1, and with five Faeries out it stops any spell with mana value 5 or less.
5. Vendilion Clique ($3.76). A three-mana flash 3/1 flier that becomes a 4/4 under Tegwyll, and its enter trigger puts a nonland card you choose from a hand on the bottom of that library, so they draw a replacement. It's legendary, so you only want one on the table.
6. Pestermite ($0.25). A three-mana flash flier that taps or untaps a permanent. Tap a blocker, tap down a land on their upkeep, or untap one of your own after a flash play.
7. Drowned Catacomb ($0.39) and Underground River ($0.47). Two lands that replace two that don't earn their slot, argued in the mana section.

A sweeper in this deck is a draw spell

Tegwyll's last line says that whenever another Faerie you control dies, you draw a card and lose 1 life. The ruling on it is the useful part. If Tegwyll dies at the same time as other Faeries, his ability triggers once for each of the others. So Tegwyll's Scouring, which destroys all creatures and then makes three 1/1 flying Faerie Rogues, pays you a card for every other Faerie you lose to it. Cast it with five other Faeries on your side and you draw five and lose 5 life, then you have three fresh fliers and a hand. You can also cast the Scouring as though it had flash by tapping three untapped creatures you control with flying as an extra cost, and the tapped creatures still die and still pay out.

Kindred Dominance is the cleaner version once the swaps are in. It destroys every creature that isn't of the type you choose. Name Faerie and the deck's own board survives, so nothing of yours dies and Tegwyll draws nothing, but every non-Faerie creature at the table is gone. In the box that sentence has one footnote, because Hullbreaker Horror is a Kraken Horror and dies to its own deck's wipe. After the swaps all 31 creature cards are Faeries, and the footnote goes away.

The same trigger turns the persist creatures into engines. Glen Elendra Archmage can sacrifice itself for {U} to counter a noncreature spell, which is a death, so Tegwyll draws. Persist then brings it back with a -1/-1 counter, and the second sacrifice is a second counter and a second card. That's two noncreature spells countered and two cards drawn for {U}{U}, and the life cost is 2. Puppeteer Clique dies twice the same way, and its enter trigger takes a creature from an opponent's graveyard each time it arrives.

Rankle, Master of Pranks has a version too. Its third mode makes each player sacrifice a creature, and your sacrifice can be a Faerie token that pays you a card. None of this is touched by the cuts below. They go after cards that do nothing for a Faerie count or for the instant-speed plan.

What leaves, starting with the one creature that isn't a Faerie

Hullbreaker Horror is the hardest cut to defend on power. It costs seven, has flash, can't be countered, and each spell you cast afterwards can bounce a spell or a nonland permanent. That fits a flash deck. It goes because it's the only non-Faerie creature, which keeps Kindred Dominance from being one-sided, and because the box has four cards that cost seven or more and the swaps leave three. I'd understand keeping it if your table never plays Dominance.

Perplexing Test is a five-mana instant that returns either all tokens or all nontoken creatures to their owners' hands. The first mode bounces the Faerie Rogue tokens you make, which are gone for good once they leave. The second sends your own fliers home along with theirs, and a deck that already has Scouring, Dominance and Nightmare Unmaking for a reset doesn't need a fourth.

Thrilling Encore puts onto the battlefield under your control every creature card in every graveyard that went there from the battlefield this turn. It needs something to die first. The cheapest partner is Reckless Spite at three mana, which makes it an eight-mana line to kill two nonblack creatures and take them, and Spite does the killing for three without it. After Tegwyll's Scouring the line costs eleven. It's a real combo and a slow one, and the slot does more as a creature that can be cast at flash speed.

Theoretical Duplication only does something if an opponent puts a nontoken creature onto the battlefield after you cast it this turn, and then you get a token copy of that creature. You're paying three mana to hold up a trick that might do nothing. Spellstutter Sprite costs two and can stop the creature spell outright.

Reflections of Littjara asks you to choose a type as it enters and copies each spell you cast of that type. Choose Faerie and it copies Faerie spells, but Archmage of Echoes already does that for Faerie and Wizard permanent spells at five mana with a flying body. Kindred Discovery takes the slot and the type choice, and turns it into cards rather than copies.

Midnight Clock is a three-mana artifact that taps for {U}. It gets a counter at every upkeep, so in a four-player pod it takes about three rounds to reach twelve, and when it does it shuffles your hand and graveyard back into the library and draws seven. That's a slow reset that also shuffles away a graveyard you're using. Eight other artifacts that ramp or fix stay.

The last two cuts are lands, and they're next.

Two lands out for two that make the right colours

Bojuka Bog enters tapped, taps for {B} only, and exiles a graveyard when it enters. This deck uses graveyards. Puppeteer Clique takes a creature from an opponent's, Halo Forager can cast an instant or sorcery from any graveyard, and Dig Through Time delves from your own. Temple of the False God is untapped but taps for {C}{C} only once you control five lands, and it makes no colour at all. Six cards print {B}{B} and eight print {U}{U}, so a land that can't help either is the one to give up.

Drowned Catacomb enters untapped if you control an Island or a Swamp, and the deck runs 25 basics, so it's untapped whenever a basic Island or Swamp is already out. Underground River always enters untapped, taps for {C} for free, and deals 1 damage to you when it makes {U} or {B}. That's a cost in a deck that already pays life to Tegwyll, to Reckless Spite and now to Infernal Grasp, so I'd call it the weaker of the two, but untapped on turn two is what keeps a flash plan on schedule. Both prices are from Reality Fracture Commander, which released on 2 October 2026, so they may still be settling.

The tapped lands that stay each do a job. Temple of Deceit scries on entering. Faerie Conclave becomes a 2/1 flying Faerie for {1}{U}, which means it gets Tegwyll's bonus and draws a card if it dies. Path of Ancestry scries 1 when its mana casts a creature that shares a type with your commander, and every creature card here is a Faerie like him. Dimir Aqueduct returns a land to your hand but taps for {U}{B}, so replaying the land puts you a mana ahead by your next turn. Myriad Landscape sacrifices for two basics that share a land type, so it thickens one colour and doesn't fix the other. Always-tapped lands go from six to five, and the conditional ones from three to four.

Black goes from 28 sources to 29, and the odds of two black sources by turn three on the play go from 78.5% to 80.4%. Blue goes from 31 to 32, and its odds of two sources by turn three from 83.9% to 85.5%. Neither number reaches 90%. Trading a basic Island for Watery Grave ($9.72) would take black to 30 sources and 82.2%, which is 1.8 points for most of what the other eight cards cost together, so it isn't in the list. If the {B}{B} cards (Tegwyll's Scouring, Kindred Dominance, Nightmare Unmaking, Puppeteer Clique, Rankle, Master of Pranks and Reckless Spite) are where your games stall, it's the land to buy.

Two answers become four, and the rest are bounce

The box answers one creature permanently with Reality Shift (two mana, exile, they manifest the top card of their library) and Reckless Spite (three mana, two nonblack creatures, 5 life). Sower of Temptation steals one for as long as it lives. The other cards that deal with a creature on the table are bounce: Petty Theft on Brazen Borrower, Repulse, Snap and Run Away Together. Infernal Grasp and Go for the Throat make four ways to remove a creature for good, three of them at two mana, and all four are instants. Go for the Throat is the only one that can't hit an artifact creature.

Puppeteer Clique and Dig Through Time stay

Puppeteer Clique is a five-mana creature that needs {B}{B}, which is two reasons to doubt it. It's a flier that takes the best creature from an opponent's graveyard for a turn, comes back once with persist, and each death draws a card under Tegwyll. Dig Through Time costs eight on paper and delve pays for it from a graveyard that Consider, Frantic Search and Free the Fae fill, along with every spell you cast and every death under Tegwyll. It sits in an instant-speed deck and finds Kindred Discovery or Scouring on the turn you need them.

What I left out, and what it costs

Cyclonic Rift ($29.75) is a Game Changer, and any one of them puts a deck in Bracket 3 at the least. Bitterblossom ($29.68, cheapest printing from Wilds of Eldraine Enchanting Tales) makes a Faerie Rogue every upkeep for 1 life each time, and every token is a Faerie that gets Tegwyll's +1/+1 and draws a card when it dies. It costs more than the eight adds put together. If you can spare the money, it's the next card to buy. Mistbind Clique ($3.03) is cheap, but champion exiles another Faerie rather than killing it, so Tegwyll draws you nothing, and it costs you a body. Nothing I did add is a Game Changer. I also searched the sets that haven't released yet and found none of the eight adds in them, so I don't expect a reprint to move those prices soon.

The numbers after eight swaps

Average mana value falls from 3.42 to 3.23, and cards costing five or more go from 14 to 11. Creature cards go from 29 to 31 with Tegwyll counted, and Faeries from 28 to 31, so 100% of them. Cards with an instant-speed mode go from 28 to 29 (not counting Tegwyll's Scouring), with five added and four cut. The deck stays at 39 lands, always-tapped lands drop from six to five, black rises from 28 sources to 29 and blue from 31 to 32, and the bracket floor stays at 1.

The upgraded decklist

Tegwyll and the 99 with all eight swaps made, sorted by card type. Hovering any name shows the card.

Load into the deck builder Copy decklist Playtest the upgraded deck

“Load into the deck builder” opens this list in your account, pinned to the printings the box shipped, ready to edit or save. “Copy decklist” gives you plain text for Moxfield, Archidekt or Arena, with no account needed.

FAQ

Does Tegwyll draw a card for every Faerie when Tegwyll's Scouring resolves?

Yes. When Tegwyll dies at the same time as other Faeries you control, his ability triggers once for each of the others, so you draw a card and lose 1 life per Faerie, tokens included. With five other Faeries that's five cards and 5 life. The three Faerie Rogue tokens the Scouring makes arrive after the destruction, so they survive.

Can Tegwyll's Scouring be cast on an opponent's turn?

Yes, as an extra cost you can tap three untapped creatures you control with flying and cast it as though it had flash. It still costs six mana, the tapped creatures still die with everything else, and a Scouring cast on their turn is a first spell for Alela, Nymris and Blightwing Bandit.

Which creature type should Kindred Dominance name?

Faerie. After the eight swaps all 31 creature cards in the list are Faeries, so naming Faerie keeps every creature you own and destroys everything else. In the box Hullbreaker Horror is a Kraken Horror and would die to its own deck's wipe, and naming any other type, such as Rogue or Wizard, would destroy Faeries that aren't of it.

Can Glen Elendra Archmage draw two cards off Tegwyll?

Yes, while Tegwyll is on the battlefield and there are two noncreature spells to counter. Sacrificing it for {U} is a death, so Tegwyll draws a card. Persist returns it with a -1/-1 counter, and sacrificing it again is a second death and a second card. That's {U}{U}, two cards and 2 life for two counterspells.

How much life does the upgraded Fae Dominion list pay?

Tegwyll costs 1 life each time another Faerie dies, Reckless Spite costs 5, Infernal Grasp costs 2, and Underground River and Talisman of Dominance each deal 1 damage when they make a coloured mana. Go for the Throat and Drowned Catacomb cost none. Watch the life total before a sweeper, since Tegwyll's Scouring charges 1 per Faerie.

What does upgrading Fae Dominion cost?

$14.06 for all eight adds at October 2026 market prices, using the cheapest released printing of each. Kindred Discovery ($4.96), Vendilion Clique ($3.76) and Spellstutter Sprite ($3.68) are $12.40 of that, and the other five together are $1.66.

Why isn't Cyclonic Rift in the Fae Dominion upgrade?

It's a Game Changer at $29.75, and a single Game Changer puts a deck in Bracket 3 at the least. Fae Dominion has none today. If your table already plays Bracket 3, Cyclonic Rift is a two-mana instant that returns one nonland permanent you don't control, or seven mana to return all of them, and it fits an instant-speed deck.