Mono U Fairies v1.72
The plan is simple: Play Faeries as evasive attackers. Ninjutsu those Faeries out for card drawing Ninjas. Counter every relevant spell from your opponent. Win before they resolve something you can’t beat.
A note on Ponder: I’m one of the only Mono U Fae pilots running cantrips. I have a few reasons for choosing three Ponders in the main deck.
First off, Mono U Fae is a deck with a lot of powerful cards doing very different things. The decks runs best when you draw a mixture of card types that compliment one another. Faerie Seer ninjutsu’d into Moon-Circuit Hacker with Spell Pierce backup is among the strongest plays in the entire format, but it requires a hand with lands, both types of threats and a Counterspell. If your hand is missing a Ninja or a Faerie, it’s significantly worse. Ponder is a card that gives you a chance to find missing pieces early in a game. While it’s reasonable to Ponder on turn 1 or 2, I think it’s much stronger on turn 3 where you can look for missing pieces while bluffing Sprite / Counterspell.
Second, Ponder is a very strong card in grindy matchups. Ponder fixes your draws later in a game, giving you better odds to find an out. Ponder also improves the floor of your draws, giving you the ability to turn three dead draws (say, two islands and a spell Pierce when you already have five lands) into something potentially useful.
Third, Ponder is a better fit than the otherwise superior Preordain. While the ladder gives you reasonable selection without shuffle effects, Mono U Fae is really interested in seeing very specific cards on specific turns. The deck has a use for every card it draws & rarely has “dead draws” in a single matchup. Most of its cards are flexibly applicable or give solid redundancy. Even extra Islands can be discarded to Moon-Circuit Hacker or the odd Foil. Because of these factors, I think seeing that third card is far more important than the granularity of Preordain.
