by Elton Gahr

Created on: November 01, 2009

Sometimes the name of a card is entertaining enough that even though I know it is of average value I want to play it and while outside of casual play this has never really been the reason I have played a card it is worth noting that faerie tauntings is one of those cards. I mean who doesn't like to taunt your opponent and the flavor of this card is nearly perfect even the ability fits well.

Faerie Tauntings is a uncommon faerie tribal enchantment from the Lorwyn expansion set of magic the gathering. It costs one black and two colorless mana to put into play and reads "Whenever you cast a spell during an opponent's turn, you may have each opponent lose 1 life."

This is naturally useful in fairies because they generally have flash as well as being in the color that is most likely to have counter spells, but the question then becomes is this a card which is powerful enough that you can build a deck around it, or alternately are you likely to build a deck in which it is a truly good card. And the general problem with the card is that the answer to both of these is probably no. Fairies are good as is flash, but they tend to be enough extra mana that using them exclusively is unlikely to be a true solution. And unless most of your spells are cast on your opponent's turn you're probably better of with another spell.

There are several reasons ways in which this card could have been great, but likely too good. The first of these would have been to price it one colorless mana less. This may seem minor but putting it into play on the second turn would mean that you wouldn't be missing the third turn creature drop. This may not be a major point for most decks, but for a deck that is based around small creatures it is quite important. In addition it is likely to have to wait even longer than that because if you are basing your strategy around casting spells during your opponent's turn you need to save your mana to do just that.

That is the second way that this could have been improved. By giving this card flash you could have allowed it to be played at the end of the turn allowing you to save mana for cancel up until that point.

In general this is a card with great flavor that is most of the way to tournament playable but not quite. Still, I like taunting people and I may have to build a casual deck that plays this and forty counterspells.

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