Feeble Faeries and How to Fizzlepop Them

Faeries are one of the most evasive types of character in the game. With brilliant evade and superb signatures they can often evade most damage and melee engagements.

They also possess huge energy stockpiles which means lots of reaction steps to get in and out of position as well as additional melee cards for more reliable signatures. So how can these winged pests be best dealt with? Here are five tips and tricks to help all factions and troupes deal with these malicious menaces!

Don't Target Them

It might sound counter-intuitive but not targetting faeries is often the best chance to hit them. If a faerie is not targeted directly they have no chance to use their signature moves or great evade stat. One of the best examples of this is the 'Foul gases' ability found on Beaky Bobby and Doug the Flatulent. With no target, this active ability will not have to draw any cards and will deal 2 unavoidable damage to the flimsy faeries. There are also some abilities that draw cards but still don't target faeries too. Fritz and Joanna for example can indirectly attack models in their melee ranges using their signatures which deal damage to any model, including faeries not initially targetted, in their melee zones. In terms of arcane attacks, the Gnomish Airship can start 'Dropping bombs'. This acts similarly to 'Foul gases', picking no targets and damaging everyone nearby.

Use High Arcane Attacks

“Carry bug spray everywhere. Stops pesky faeries.”

Despite having a great evade, faeries aren't impervious to ranged arcane attacks. With their tragically low wound count, any arcane attacks that do hit will cause lots of damage. Arcane attacks also have the advantage of getting around troublesome signatures. Therefore, another great way to attack the faeries is to use high arcane models or arcane abilities which otherwise have a great chance to hit. The Firespitter for example will be able to still draw 3 cards against an evade of -2 and with 2X damage, even a blue 1 can remove a third of a faeries health. Fittingly another model with great arcane is the aptly named Gertrude the faerie hunter. With 5 arcane she can brute force her way through the -2 evade and can use her 'Blunderbuss' to deal reliable damage. The 'Blunderbuss', also found on Boom Boom McBoom, has the great advantage of also hitting on two colours instead of one making it extremely accurate. A less brute force way to get around the high evade is to use a model that ignores evade such as Graddock and Grub with 'Snare taps' and 'Bug spray' respectively. 

Attack Them in Melee

Whilst faeries can often be tricksy in melee they will often suffer quite badly if some of their weaknesses in this area are exploited. Mainly, a pretty abysmal melee range of 1" on the vast majority of faeries coupled with dreadful damage output. Characters on the receiving end of a faerie attack often won't take much damage. Outside some melee focussed faeries, 'Weakling' and 'Feeble' will often reduce the damage they actually deal a paltry amount. Furthermore, this can be reduced to nil if you just stand outside their puny melee ranges. This can be exploited pretty well by humans and goblins primarily with their easy access to 2" melee characters. However, any model with a range greater than 1" can simply wait until a faerie activates, uses most of its energy, and then attack them in melee afterwards.

The added benefit of staying outside 1" is that a lot of end step effects, such as Belladonna's push and energy drain, won't activate as well. Checking a faeries signature before attacking them in melee is also usually a good idea as this is where a lot of their survivability up close comes from. It can also help you to work around specific signatures. For example, against Silvertongue and Gwendoline, the knowledge of their signature will let you plan one big attack against them or have a second target ready for when they stop you attacking them. For some particularly troubling signatures like Fraya's 'Can't hit me!' you can try to reduce their likelihood by ganging up on the faerie defender. In the case of Fraya, if one more model engages them whilst you're attacking, she will have to rely on only a single card to get her signature off!

Steal Their Cards

“I don’t dislike the fae, I like chaos more.”

Although the faeries arcane abilities are incredibly good, they have one hidden weakness. Outside a couple of arcane abilities like Fraya's 'Healing' and Wasp's 'Throw Javelin', the faeries mostly use exclusively pink arcane cards. Therefore, any abilities which manipulate the arcane deck in any way can have a hugely detrimental effect on them. For example, Young Jack's 'Lucky' can rearrange the top few cards of the arcane deck. This definitely isn't a permanent solution, but it can be very useful if a hard-hitting faerie like Foxglove or Diana is about to activate. For a more permanent solution, models like Gwendoline and Danica can be used who can remove cards from the deck for the whole game with abilities like 'Scry' and 'Meddle with fate'. As well as stopping these abilities in their track, the knowledge of fewer pinks in the deck can enable more you to call bluff more against the faeries. This can be especially potent in stopping them from utilising abilities like 'Trickster' and 'Faerie Mischief'.

Resist Their Magic

“You’d like me to take care of some faeries? I’d be more than delighted!”

Finally, a more head-on approach to avoiding their arcane abilities is to simply reduce the damage. Most faerie arcane abilities as well as a few melee attacks have two traits, mediocre damage and magical type damage. This means faeries usually have to get kills with death by a thousand magical cuts. Damage reduction is superb against low damage attacks so you can counter a lot of their damage by bringing characters that resist magical damage.

For Dominion, this could be someone like Bristlenose, who also brings an excellent 2" melee, or even Beaky Bobby with his magic damage pulses. Commonwealth by comparison is even more spoilt for choice! With Mama Gimble's 'Luck charms' you can bring an entire troupe who resists magic damage, or if you fancy just one faerie assassin Gertrude could be the one for you!