So finally after all the stories and all the lore we get the elusive and illustrious Dack Fayden as a card to be printed in the upcoming Conspiracy set. Now while this is not a Standard legal set and he won’t be legal for either Modern or Standard, he will be available for play in Legacy but most especially for the multiplayer formats the set is geared towards in EDH/Commander and Cube.
Looking first at competitive constructed for Legacy it’s not unrealistic to think that he could be played in the right deck given his converted cost coming in at three. While he’s not quite a game breaker in the vein of Jace, the Mind Sculptor or a role player like a Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas there is a sweet spot he could slide in to. The real issue is what sort of deck is it that can use him? In all honest the only of the three modes he is really going to use is likely to be the first as the ultimate would probably be mostly out of reach or even win more at that point and the second is very situational. I don’t think any existing decks are going to look to him but possibly UWR Delver or RUG Delver would give it a shot as a one or two of. If this card was legal for Modern that’s where I think UWR Control would be very happy to run one main and either one or two more in the side, depending on how prevalent Affinity was in the meta.
Then we turn to the casual side of the card. Now this is most likely where Dack is going to find his moment in the sun. Now while these abilities aren’t expressly designed for multiplayer per se it is without a doubt that he’s going to find a place in almost and deck running the colors. I’m already preparing a spot for it in my Nekusar, the Mindrazor deck since the first ability was made for him. And in a format like Commander it will be almost impossible for you to not find a target to steal with his second ability. Once again I’m iffy a little on the ultimate but more because most of your targeted spells are removal unless you build around his ability a little which can get a little loose.
All in all I’m very impressed with this card and very disappointed that I don’t get it as a tool for Standard, especially as I’ve been working on a Blue/Red deck. It will most certainly be fun to see him in action and I’ll hopefully open one up when I’m drafting some conspiracy.
Eric J Seltzer
