Faerie Swarm MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	4
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Creature — Faerie
Abilities	Flying
Released	2008-05-02
Set symbol
Set name	Shadowmoor
Set code	SHM
Power	*
Toughness	*
Number	37
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai

Key Takeaways

Card advantage grows with the swarm’s synergy, enhancing strategic battlefield presence.
Instant speed play allows Faerie Swarm to outmaneuver opponents unexpectedly.
The requirement to discard a faerie can limit strategic hand options.

Text of card

Flying Faerie Swarm's power and toughness are each equal to the number of blue permanents you control.

Untouched by the Aurora, Oona's faeries greeted the night like any other day.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: With the Faerie Swarm card, you’ll often find yourself gathering a multitude of faerie creatures that collectively enhance your battlefield presence. This, over time, can translate to a substantial card advantage, as each faerie plays off the others, creating a more robust and persistent threat for your opponents to deal with.

Resource Acceleration: Faerie Swarm’s intrinsic synergy with blue mana can lead to a formidable strategy of resource acceleration. As you cast more spells that align with the swarm’s allegiance, your ability to summon and empower these mystical beings grows, propelling you ahead in the resource game and allowing a faster deployment of your strategic plays.

Instant Speed: The ability to deploy Faerie Swarm at instant speed provides unrivaled flexibility in gameplay. This allows savvy players to outmaneuver opponents by waiting for the ideal moment to spring the swarm into action, often when the enemy least expects it, thereby protecting your tactics and preserving the element of surprise.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Faerie Swarm demands that you discard another Faerie card to cast it, which can be highly restricting when your hand is scant on faeries or strategic options.

Specific Mana Cost: This card requires blue mana to play, limiting its inclusion to decks that run this color or have a reliable mana base to accommodate splashing blue.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The investment in mana to summon Faerie Swarm is significant, particularly when you compare it to other creatures in the game that may provide immediate board presence or effects for the same or lower cost.

Reasons to Include Faerie Swarm in Your Collection

Versatility: Faerie Swarm offers flexibility to players with its scalable power and toughness. It can slide into various blue-centric decks, adapting its role from early defense to a late-game flying threat based on the number of blue permanents you control.

Combo Potential: The card thrives in synergistic strategies that increase the count of blue symbols in play. Pair it with proliferation mechanics or clone-effects for a board presence that can swiftly spiral out of opponents’ control.

Meta-Relevance: Given that blue decks often play a significant role in the competitive scene, Faerie Swarm’s utility can be a considerable asset. Especially in metas dominated by creature-based strategies, its potential as an aerial blocker or attacker makes it a timely inclusion to confront various challenges on the battlefield.

How to Beat

Encounters with Faerie Swarm in the plane of Magic: The Gathering are as tricky as the creatures themselves. This enchanting card from the Shadowmoor expansion grows stronger with each blue mana symbol in the spells you cast. If left unchecked, it swiftly becomes an overwhelming threat on board through its power-scaling ability.

To mitigate the threat of a burgeoning Faerie Swarm, it’s essential to have removal at the ready. Counterspelling early on can prevent it from ever taking flight. Should the Swarm make it onto the battlefield, instant-speed removal like Path to Exile or the flexible Abrupt Decay are effective at dealing with it before it grows out of control. Managing your own blue spells is also vital; limiting their number curbs the growth of the Swarm and helps maintain a manageable battlefield.

An often-understated strategy involves pressuring your opponent’s life total, forcing them to allocate resources defensively rather than committing to their Faerie Swarm. Balancing careful play with timely removal and pressure can tip the scales in your favor against the otherwise formidable Faerie Swarm.

Cards like Faerie Swarm

Faerie Swarm joins the ranks of tribal-focused cards in MTG that leverage the number of creatures sharing a type on the battlefield. Much like Scion of the Wild from the Ravnica set, Faerie Swarm’s strength is dynamic and grows with the number of Faeries you control. Scion of the Wild harnesses this same mechanic with creatures in general, making it a bit more versatile in different deck builds.

There’s also Drove of Elves from the Shadowmoor expansion, which has hexproof and also gains strength from the number of green permanents you control. While Drove of Elves is not limited to a particular creature type, it is constrained by color. Faerie Swarm’s reliance on Faerie creatures specifically could be seen as a limitation. However, in a dedicated Faerie deck, it could outshine Drove of Elves due to the proliferous nature of Faerie tokens and synergies.

Tallying up the benefits and drawing comparisons, Faerie Swarm has the potential to be a considerable threat in a creature-type centric deck, especially when you’re piloting a deck that teems with these mischievous sprites. Mastery in leveraging the synergistic power of tribal cards makes Faerie Swarm a unique choice for players looking to capitalize on numbers.

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Faerie Swarm MTG card by a specific set like Shadowmoor, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Faerie Swarm and other MTG cards: