:w::u: Bird smackdown control.Drop the [c]Soulcatchers' Aerie[/c]s, followed by [c]Emeria Angel[/c], then start throwing birds at [c]Seaside Haven[/c] and [c]High Market[/c] for quick smackdown.Everything else is additional beef or control elements.W
I'll admit it's a bit of a risk with Soulcatchers' Aerie in there as well, but I feel that Dovescape should be used at every possible opportunity.
In the grim future of MtG, there is only DOVES.
Blue/White birds needs [c]Dovescape[/c]!I'll admit it's a bit of a risk with [c]Soulcatchers' Aerie[/c] in there as well, but I feel that Dovescape should be used at every possible opportunity.In the grim future of MtG, there is only DOVES.
I created a Birds deck not to long ago. This link will send you to post#4 (and skips past my whole meta analysis, but also does some in-depth analysis of the cards in the deck) which contains the final deck.
My deck was WUg though for BoP and Flurry of Wings , which was added after the fact. It contained a nice combo in Kangee, Aerie Keeper +Aven Mimeomancer (which is helpful if your Soulcatchers' Aerie gets disenchanted.. It ran Aura of Silence over Disenchant (which any heavy white deck should). Or you should at least run Dismantling Blow for card draw. You are running Windbrisk Raptor which is a major improvement to my deck, and Keeper of the Nine Gales which gives your deck more control.
I think the biggest problem is that you have too many lords, and not enough token creatures. I was using Flurry of Wings (we had a saproling deck in the MP group, and goblins, and elves, etc. It was fun to cast this when those players were attacking someone else, and then swing back at them with an army in the air) and Battle Screech (4 tokens isn't bad). I realize you have the angel, but she only gives you 1 1/1 per turn, if you hit your land drops each turn. You will also have a hard time bringing creatures back from your graveyard with Emeria. You barely have more than 7 plains in the deck anyway. If you had some dual lands it wouldn't be so bad, but it is going to be difficult to draw enough of your deck to get 7 plains into play because you have so few token producers.
You also might want to consider these two new cards from M11... Roc Egg (it is a bird when it is a wall too, so you can sac it to draw a card from Seaside Haven). Squadron Hawk (works well with Elixir of Immortality , its better than Welkin Hawk too)
I am also against the slots you are using for non-creature permanents. I think you would be better off playing with more birds, or more Instant control cards Shelter to protect Soulcatcher maybe, more Disenchant type cards, more WoG effects, etc. 2 x Phyrexian Vault (do you really need this? You already have Seaside Haven.) 2 x Serra's Blessing (is vigilance really necessary? I have found it useful myself sometimes, but you only get lifelink while attacking with the Raptor, and I usually find that my birds are getting wiped by WoG effects anyway. If you really want it Gustcloak Savior (bird soldier) or... Courier Hawk / Skyshroud Falcon / Zephyr Falcon / Bay Falcon
I would personally do something like this...
-1 Elixir of Immortality you only need one. If you want more life gain...Aven Riftwatcher , no one wastes removal on them, so you are actually gaining 4 and prevent X 2/2s from attacking where X is the number of opponents with a 2/2 -2 Phyrexian Vault (you have Seaside Haven for this). -2 Serra's Blessing (you won't be going on the offensive until the late game anyway) -2 Disenchant +2 Aura of Silence / Dismantling Blow -2 Swords to Plow +2 WoG effect of your choice Rout is one of my favorites
Lands -1 Island (you only need one to cast your spells, and you can get from your cip tapped dual lands...I doubt you will be using the Seaside Haven ability more than once a turn as you need to use 3 land to do it and tap the Seaside Haven. I suppose you could use Shoreline Ranger instead of Terramorphic, but I wouldn't)
Possibly consider some of these land in place of Terramorphic Expanse Azorius Chancery to help with mana, triggers Landfall, and make it easier to hit the high mana drops. Calciform Pools mana storage to hit the high mana drops (this kind of sucks because it only produces colorless) Mistveil Plains (to work well with Squadron Hawk)
I created a Birds deck not to long ago. This link will send you to post#4 (and skips past my whole meta analysis, but also does some in-depth analysis of the cards in the deck) which contains the final deck.My deck was WUg though for [c=Birds of Para
My 2 cents: You have limited card drawing ability and no tutors for cards so the chance of drawing powerhouses like Commander Eesha is low. Play more of them or get a tutor or more card draw effects.
I personally love Dawn Charm to protect myself or my creatures and I have played with Hindering Light mainboard for some time in my UWR deck and I loved it (now I play Cunning Wish ).
I agree with capitan on most things. The things I would like to emphasize are:[c]Battle Screech[/c] is a very good card in a birds deck[c]Dismantling Blow[/c] is great[c]Mistveil Plains[/c] is very goodMy 2 cents:You have limited card drawing ability
replace Soraya the Falconer with Honor of the Pure . Get it onto the field faster and cheaper, yet you lose banding (which many multiplayer tables will thank you for).
replace [c]Soraya the Falconer[/c] with [c]Honor of the Pure[/c]. Get it onto the field faster and cheaper, yet you lose banding (which many multiplayer tables will thank you for).
They combat board sweeper heavy environments by being resilient token generators.
Don't forget Pride checks ALL creatures with flying, and Multiplayer is an environment where so many creatures take to the skies. If you ever cast it as less than a 5/5 or 6/6 Flyer for 2 you're probably messing up.
If you stay Blue/White [c]Pride Of The Clouds[/c] and [c]Battle Screech[/c] are worth checking into.They combat board sweeper heavy environments by being resilient token generators.Don't forget Pride checks ALL creatures with flying, and Multiplayer
Lands -1 Island (you only need one to cast your spells, and you can get from your cip tapped dual lands...I doubt you will be using the Seaside Haven ability more than once a turn as you need to use 3 land to do it and tap the Seaside Haven. I suppose you could use Shoreline Ranger instead of Terramorphic, but I wouldn't)
Possibly consider some of these land in place of Terramorphic Expanse Azorius Chancery to help with mana, triggers Landfall, and make it easier to hit the high mana drops. Calciform Pools mana storage to hit the high mana drops (this kind of sucks because it only produces colorless) Mistveil Plains (to work well with Squadron Hawk)
I'm a huge fan of the Worldwake Man Lands and the Time Spiral storage lands for ally-colored decks. I think by removing both islands, all four Terramorphic Expanse s and both Emerias (I don't think you have quite the number of Plains to trigger them at the moment). In their place, I'd suggest 4 Celestial Colonnade and 4 Calciform Pools . That will give you all of the mana fixing that you'll need plus a Serra Angel when you have the mana open for it.
I'm a huge fan of the Worldwake Man Lands and the Time Spiral storage lands for ally-colored decks. I think by removing both islands, all four [c]Terramorphic Expanse[/c]s and both [c=Emeria, the Sky Ruin]Emerias[/c] (I don't think you have quite t
i have a deck which looks a lot like this one. I am still Thinking about including one of the following cards: magus of the moat , moat is a bit to much for my budget stormtide leviathan to reduce the number of attacks. I also put 2 gravitational shift in the deck, more to annoy than to be really effective.
i have looked at dovescape perhaps it is a good card for the sideboard, because of the risk in combination with soulcatchers' aerie .
edit: sry for the messed up links, it seems i am doing something wrong
i have a deck which looks a lot like this one. I am still Thinking about including one of the following cards:[c]magus of the moat[/c] , [c]moat[/c] is a bit to much for my budget[c]stormtide leviathan[/c]to reduce the number of attacks. I also put 2
edit: sry for the messed up links, it seems i am doing something wrong
The boards can't handle copy and paste very well. If you copy and paste from gatherer, it messes up all your tags. Why? Who knows... probably could be blamed on bad coding.
You have to re-write the card title, even though it looks like it should work properly.
The boards can't handle copy and paste very well. If you copy and paste from gatherer, it messes up all your tags. Why? Who knows... probably could be blamed on bad coding.You have to re-write the card title, even though it looks like it should
Great comments all - definitely some things to think about there. It's an interesting conundrum. I can push this deck in one of two directions... either mass Bird token generation, or more control until I get things set up just right. I'm tending to lean more towards the control, simply because of the way my playgroup's meta right now - very creature-destruction heavy, and hard to keep dudes on the board for extended periods. It's for that reason that I've leant away from Battle Screech and Flurry of Wings and towards Keeper of the Nine Gales and other control elements.
So, to reply to a few things: On the merits of vigilance: My sole reason for deciding that vigilance is a good thing here is that it allows the Bird tokens to go for a swing, and then be used by Keeper of the Nine Gales or Crookclaw Elder in opponents' turns. That double-duty strikes me as being worth including. Thoughts? On the deck's card drawing ability: As it stands, this deck can draw cards from Seaside Haven , Crookclaw Elder and Phyrexian Vault . Dismantling Blow would make it even better. Is this heaps? Not enough? Too situational? On the disenchanting: I'd use Dismantling Blow over Aura of Silence . The Aura is indeed awesome - to the point where it tends to get hated on in my playgroup. I'd rather not have to pick a target to disenchant in response to it getting blown up. I'd rather play Seal of Cleansing in that event, so that it didn't have as big a target on its head. On the Bird lords: Yeah, I more than likely have too many here. The Aven Brigadier s should likely be the first cut, due to their high CC. On Terramorphic Expanse : It's in here because I love the fact that it produces a double landfall trigger in a turn. That's nice with a playset of Emeria Angels. On the rest of the land balance: I am concerned about whether I have enough blue mana sources in here. If I have a Seaside Haven available, I want to be able to use it. I want to have as many operational sacrifice outlets as possible, as the more there are, the better Soulcatchers' Aerie becomes. Of course, this then bites into the number of Plains available for Emeria to trigger. It's a subtle balance. If only I had the budget to splash for Hallowed Fountain s! I can easily swap to Calciform Pools , and maybe even Celestial Collonade s, but would I then have enough recursion to make this deck work? Is a singleton Elixir of Immortality enough for the whole deck, and am I valuing recursion too highly again? I dunno.
And wow, I didn't realize Aven Mimeomancer comboed with Kangee and was so cheap! Nice!
Great comments all - definitely some things to think about there.It's an interesting conundrum. I can push this deck in one of two directions... either mass Bird token generation, or more control until I get things set up just right.I'm tending to le
It's an interesting conundrum. I can push this deck in one of two directions... either mass Bird token generation, or more control until I get things set up just right. Absolutely. I was trying to push your deck more towards tokens (because of the high number of lords). It would be an equally good decision to push the deck more towards control. I'm tending to lean more towards the control, simply because of the way my playgroup's meta right now - very creature-destruction heavy, and hard to keep dudes on the board for extended periods. Perhaps a good reason for Pride of the Clouds ? It's for that reason that I've leant away from Battle Screech and Flurry of Wings and towards Keeper of the Nine Gales and other control elements.
So, to reply to a few things: On the merits of vigilance: My sole reason for deciding that vigilance is a good thing here is that it allows the Bird tokens to go for a swing, and then be used by Keeper of the Nine Gales or Crookclaw Elder in opponents' turns. That double-duty strikes me as being worth including. Thoughts? (I understand your reasoning, but I just think the deck needs more birds. It seems to rely too much on your Angel to generate tokens, to give you enough resources to bounce permanents, draw cards, get pumped by lords. That is why I was trying to find Birds that gave you the same effect (I now see Gustcloak Savior doesn't really do that). I get how powerful Vigilance is in MP, and I think I spoke too soon. You should keep the enchantment.) On the deck's card drawing ability: As it stands, this deck can draw cards from Seaside Haven , Crookclaw Elder and Phyrexian Vault . Dismantling Blow would make it even better. Is this heaps? Not enough? Too situational? I think you have too many sac outlets, and not enough tokens/cheap birds to sac to them. I also don't think you have enough mana acceleration to have the mana to sac more than a single creature a turn anyway (I might be wrong here though). The deck doesn't have enough low CMC creatures to make your Soulcatcher formidable. The deck doesn't get going until you hit your 4th land. That is why I like the Roc Egg and Squadron Hawk here. You don't care if they die to board wipes, because you get a 3/3 flyer out of the egg, and you can always hold onto a single Squadron Hawk so that you can shuffle the others back into your deck and get +3 CA when you cast it. Those cards give you an early game stall, until you can bury your opponents in CA and creature advantage from the Angel. On the disenchanting: I'd use Dismantling Blow over Aura of Silence . The Aura is indeed awesome - to the point where it tends to get hated on in my playgroup. I'd rather not have to pick a target to disenchant in response to it getting blown up. I'd rather play Seal of Cleansing in that event, so that it didn't have as big a target on its head. (I would still run Aura of Silence . Wouldn't you rather have them hated on then them disenchanting your Soulcatchers' Aerie? On the Bird lords: Yeah, I more than likely have too many here. The Aven Brigadier s should likely be the first cut, due to their high CC. (the Falconer too, because it isn't a bird. Banding really only makes a difference as anti Trample hate, or if you have Wall type creatures with high toughness values. Your tokens are either trying to die, or are already going to be huge. I would pass on Banding.) On Terramorphic Expanse : It's in here because I love the fact that it produces a double landfall trigger in a turn. That's nice with a playset of Emeria Angels. (I think somehow I missed that.) On the rest of the land balance: I am concerned about whether I have enough blue mana sources in here. If I have a Seaside Haven available, I want to be able to use it (You only have 10 cards that use it. 7 total sources are all you really need, and Terramorphic can kind of make up for that). I want to have as many operational sacrifice outlets as possible (true, but you need actual sacrifice sources too. I just don't like the fact that the deck doesn't have any good 2-3 drops that don't mind dieing.), as the more there are, the better Soulcatchers' Aerie becomes. Of course, this then bites into the number of Plains available for Emeria to trigger. It's a subtle balance. If only I had the budget to splash for Hallowed Fountain s! I can easily swap to Calciform Pools , and maybe even Celestial Collonade s, but would I then have enough recursion to make this deck work? Is a singleton Elixir of Immortality enough for the whole deck (keep 2 copies if you include the Squadron Hawk (also consider Mistveil Plains ). The combination is just too good. If you don't run him though, 1 is enough as it shuffles itself back into your library.), and am I valuing recursion too highly again? I dunno.
In all honesty, I was probably projecting my more aggro Birds deck card choices on your more control Birds deck.
In all honesty, I was probably projecting my more aggro Birds deck card choices on your more control Birds deck.
I'm tending to lean more towards the control, simply because of the way my playgroup's meta right now - very creature-destruction heavy, and hard to keep dudes on the board for extended periods. Perhaps a good reason for Pride of the Clouds ?
I was pondering Flying Kitty. I'm pulling enough lords out that it's worth a look. How bad can it be?
On the deck's card drawing ability: As it stands, this deck can draw cards from Seaside Haven , Crookclaw Elder and Phyrexian Vault . Dismantling Blow would make it even better. Is this heaps? Not enough? Too situational? I think you have too many sac outlets, and not enough tokens/cheap birds to sac to them. I also don't think you have enough mana acceleration to have the mana to sac more than a single creature a turn anyway (I might be wrong here though). The deck doesn't have enough low CMC creatures to make your Soulcatcher formidable. The deck doesn't get going until you hit your 4th land. That is why I like the Roc Egg and Squadron Hawk here. You don't care if they die to board wipes, because you get a 3/3 flyer out of the egg, and you can always hold onto a single Squadron Hawk so that you can shuffle the others back into your deck and get +3 CA when you cast it. Those cards give you an early game stall, until you can bury your opponents in CA and creature advantage from the Angel.
You're right. Now that I've goldfished this a bit better... a playset of Squadron Hawk s + Soulcatchers' Aerie + sac outlet + Mistveil Plains or the Elixir... And Roc Egg 's a pretty good deal too. I've pulled out the Phyrexian Vaults, thrown in a High Market just to be safe, and things look pretty good. Seem to have a good mix of cheap meat shields and sac outlets after that.
Is a singleton Elixir of Immortality enough for the whole deck (keep 2 copies if you include the Squadron Hawk (also consider Mistveil Plains ). The combination is just too good. If you don't run him though, 1 is enough as it shuffles itself back into your library.)
Yah, now I've goldfished with Mistveil Plains , it's in for sure. Nice combo!
Okay, updated build in the top post. Seems to play a lot nicer now - good early drops, decent card draw (adding Distant Melody appears to more than cover that base!), nice recursion, decent threat handling... I like it!
I was pondering Flying Kitty. I'm pulling enough lords out that it's worth a look. How bad can it be? :)You're right. Now that I've goldfished this a bit better... a playset of [c]Squadron Hawk[/c]s + [c]Soulcatchers' Aerie[/c] + sac outlet + [c]Mist
perhaps is airborne aid better then the distant melody the cost are the same. I have it in my deck, with the combination of battle screech you can easily draw 5 cards. my only problem with this card is that it gives to many cards in hand.
I have a pride of the clouds it is really good, perhaps i should buy another one for the deck.
perhaps is [c]airborne aid[/c] better then the [c]distant melody[/c] the cost are the same. I have it in my deck, with the combination of [c] battle screech[/c] you can easily draw 5 cards. my only problem with this card is that it gives to many card
I try to get out some propaganda 's or GP's, and a trumpet. If I have a soulcatchers' aerie out, then that is enough to pump my birds up. gravitational shift is another addition that makes the trumpet awesome. And, to top it all off, I'll toss out dovescape to have maximum protection...and no matter how many birds they have, I can use gustcloak savior to save mine.
But, the best thing in my entire deck is glarecaster . It takes your opponents damage and says, "no." Seriously, look at the gatherer rulings for this card! It takes ALL damage done to you, or it, and redirects it to whatever you want!!!
I have a bird deck as well. Mine, however, uses [c]propaganda[/c], [c]ghostly prison[/c], [c]stormscape familiar[/c], [c]copy enchantment[/c], and [c]angel's trumpet[/c].I try to get out some [c]propaganda[/c]'s or GP's, and a trumpet. If I have a [c
Keino, I used [c]Raking Canopy[/c] and [c]Vigor[/c] with my [c]Dovescape[/c] to kill their attacking birds and buff mine but the [c]Glarecaster[/c]+[c]Angel's Trumpet[/c] certainly looks fun! :D
Airborne Aid is actually strictly better than Distant Melody in this deck... wow... not that I think I'm going to be seeing too many Birds on the other side of the table, short of one guy in my group also currently running Emeria Angel , but still... knowing my collection, might have to stick with Distant Melody for now, and source some Airborne Aid s to replace them in the coming month or two.
Glarecaster is tempting... I can see that being the type of creature not immediately axed in the head by Path to Exile in my playgroup, and thereby being allowed to annoy people late. That said, it's got a high CMC and a costly ability... and what the heck do I swap out for one? Though it's cheap, and I probably only need a singleton here... tough choice!
And yeah, to answer the Dovescape quandry.... far too risky in my playgroup. There are going to be combo players who would simply turn their gameplan into "make lots of birds, swing with them, who cares if they die, build up an army to scalp the Dovescape player so that I can get back to my usual gameplan". Sticking that next to Soulcatchers' Aerie will be a death warrant for me.
[c]Airborne Aid[/c] is actually strictly better than [c]Distant Melody[/c] in this deck... wow... not that I think I'm going to be seeing too many Birds on the other side of the table, short of one guy in my group also currently running [c]Emeria Ang
I'm not familiar enough with your meta, but I wouldn't think that this deck would necesarilly need recursion. At the very least, I think that Emeria, the Sky Ruin isn't the route for this deck to take. Maybe if you're set on recursion you could try Marshal's Anthem -- it'll boost your birds while recurring the major players. It might be worth a shot.
Is a singleton Elixir of Immortality enough for the whole deck, and am I valuing recursion too highly again? I dunno.
You might be valuing recursion a bit too much. I'm just now starting to use a single Elixir of Immortality in my favorite W/U control deck (I nearly mill myself through card-draw and extended game-states) to restock my library. It really depends on the exact kind of recursion you're looking for.
And yeah, to answer the Dovescape quandry.... far too risky in my playgroup. There are going to be combo players who would simply turn their gameplan into "make lots of birds, swing with them, who cares if they die, build up an army to scalp the Dovescape player so that I can get back to my usual gameplan". Sticking that next to Soulcatchers' Aerie will be a death warrant for me.
Yeah, Dovescape seems like it would be pretty risky here, especially alongside Soulcatchers' Aerie . The "kill him till he's dead and then go back to business as usual" scenario wouldn't happen in my playgroup, though, simply because of our house rule that killing off a player doesn't remove their permanents from the battlefield. I can see that happening elsewhere, though, just to get rid of something esceptionally annoying.
I know the feeling! With them out of Extended, at least for the time being, perhaps their price will fall to far more reasonable levels.I'm not familiar enough with your meta, but I wouldn't think that this deck would necesarilly need recursion.
Vigor and Raking Canopy look amazing together, (not to mention the birds in the art of vigor,) But the main point with angel's trumpet isn't glarecaster , it is propaganda and ghostly prison . Players simply cannot attack me with their hoards of bird tokens, (made by dovescape ,) so they have to tap them all. Then, I swing with my birds for the kill.
Also, a better sac outlet that I use is martyr's cause . It is a great early defense from the pesky burn spell. Funny story, btw, I was playing a 2 headed giant match. My partner played dovescape and I was playing my elf-ball deck. I cast a 30 point fireball that gave me 30 bird tokens...next turn, we totally won!.......well...not that funny...but definitely relevant.
[c]Vigor[/c] and [c]Raking Canopy[/c] look amazing together, (not to mention the birds in the art of vigor,) But the main point with [c]angel's trumpet[/c] isn't [c]glarecaster[/c], it is [c]propaganda[/c] and [c]ghostly prison[/c]. Players simply ca
My partner played dovescape and I was playing my elf-ball deck. I cast a 30 point fireball that gave me 30 bird tokens...next turn, we totally won!.......well...not that funny...but definitely relevant.
Wow... that actually works. I was about to comment about X being zero when calculating converted mana cost (so it would only produce 1 token) but then I discovered rule 202.3b (X = the number paid for X when calculating the converted mana cost of a spell when it's on the stack). So... yeah, sounds like a fantastic win!
Wow... that actually works. I was about to comment about X being zero when calculating converted mana cost (so it would only produce 1 token) but then I discovered rule 202.3b (X = the number paid for X when calculating the converted mana cost of a
Altered this decklist to fit my playgroup's Tribal format (as referenced in other posts... master post regarding how well this went when I have time).
This is very much not the finished version - I'm still short two Soulcatchers and two Aeries, as well as the Seaside Havens. But take one thing away from this... Aeries + Soulcatchers + Thrummingbird = INSANITY. The Thrummingbirds actually got through far more than I had anticipated they would have. The current decklist actually got three Thrummingbirds through for damage in one turn. With Kangee on the board. That was fun!
:bump:Altered this decklist to fit my playgroup's Tribal format (as referenced in other posts... master post regarding how well this went when I have time).This is very much not the finished version - I'm still short two Soulcatchers and two Aeries,
Bird smackdown control.
