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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
This Deck is for the Birds!
December 2, 20
09

Sorry I haven't fixed any new decks in a while. You may have noticed that there was no Card of the Day on Thursday or Friday, because the Pojo staff all live in America, where we had a four-day weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Now it's time to get back to work, but in the spirit of the holiday, I found some "leftover turkey" here to share with you all!

 

~BMoor~

 

I stumbled upon your garage and was delighted to find out that you critique decks.

 

I’ve always wanted a viable Bird deck that wins 60-70 percent of the time. I feel like Birds never get enough credit and have always wanted “that deck” where people would be like, “ …... Wait ……… he just beat me with Birds?”

 

So, I began my quest to build a functional Bird deck that could hold it’s own. It has been over a year now and I am nearly finished (or maybe I’ve just begun) but it is at this point that I am absolutely baffled as to what else could be done with it.                                       

 

So BMoor, I offer up to your scrutinizing hands …

 

This Deck is for the Birds

 

Creatures:

4 x Keeper of the Nine Gales

4 x Soul Catcher

4 x Welkin Hawk

4 x Suntail Hawk

2 x Sage Owl

2 x Thieving Magpie

2 x Pride of the Clouds

 

Other Spells:

4 x Soulcatcher’s Aerie

4 x Battle Screech

4 x Rune Snag

2 x Disenchant

1 x Coat of Arms

1 x Enlightened Tutor

1 x Hour of Reckoning

 

Land:

7 x Plains

5 x Island

4 x Seaside Haven

4 x Adarkar Wastes

1 x Mistveil Plains

 

I built this deck knowing that cards such as Static Orb, Dovescape, and Meek Stone existed, but ultimately do not enjoy playing that sort of control. I have read the other two articles you wrote for the Static Orb and Dovescape Bird decks. I thoroughly enjoyed them, however found that my deck is built to do something completely different. The only thing we have in common is the fact that we are using Birds.

My deck’s best strategy is to simply overwhelm you with small 1/1 flyers that get beefed up by the Aerie or Coat diving in for the kill (Aerie, Keeper, and Battle Screech being the main sort of “combo”).

 

I have thrown some “tricks” in here to help the birds out and keep things interesting. I’d like this deck to in some way be more than Aggro/Pressure. The Soulcatcher’s Aerie is one of the main components. Coupled with the Seaside Haven, I can have a Welkin Hawk in hand at all times. Recently, I discovered the Mistveil Plains and immediately thought about my Welkin Hawk and how that further could add something to this deck.

 

The Rune Snags and Disenchants are there to help save the birds when something nasty is brewing. I chose “counter” over any other sort of protection as I feel nothing says NO! like a good solid Counterspell. I didn’t run the standard Counterspell as this deck is not heavy in blue and the Magpie can sometimes be a chore to cast if the proper lands are not drawn. The Rune Snag is nice later in game after an opponent has enough land to pay for a Mana Leak. The best control card in this deck however is the Keeper. After a good Battle Screech he is a great lock on whatever it is I don’t want on the battlefield. Hour of Reckoning is the restart button and Enlightened Tutor lets me find Coat or an Aerie.

 

I was hesitant about the hefty forecast cost, but ultimately gave in and swapped out my Stormscape Familiars for 2 Pride and 2 Sage Owls. I play casual and have been extremely pleased with how well Pride serves me on turn 5 or 6 when I have already Screech’d once and dropped 2 or 3 birds or an Aerie. By that point I have pretty much emptied out my hand and am waiting to either use a Disenchant or Rune Snag and so if there are no new Birds to summon then I can use the Mana for the Forecast. Also, his casting cost is insane for getting +1+1 for each flyer.

 

I’m thinking about replacing the Adarkar Wastes with Glacial Fortress as the “ping” gets sore after a while. One of my biggest concerns and questions to you is the lands that I have chosen and my Plains to Islands ratio. Are there better lands that I could be using?

 

In a perfect game the turns would run as such:

 

1st turn: Plains, Suntail

2nd turn: Plains, Aerie, Fly at them for 1 (Suntail)

3rd turn: Island , Keeper, Fly at them for 1 (Suntail)

4th turn: Seaside Haven, Battle Screech (Hard Cast and Flashed back with Suntail and the two tokens produced with the spell), Tap Keeper and the two untapped tokens and something is back in hand.

5th turn: Magpie, Welkin Hawk, Coat of Arms …….. (Oddles of Choices) !

 

The only problems I have with this deck are people killing the Aeries and Keepers. I’ve thought of Argivian Find but there are other cards I need more in the deck and I want to keep it at 60 if at all possible. This deck fails miserably to Blue, Red, and Black. Green and White not so much as the colors are typically slower to get going, and my Birds don’t need much time. Between Blue’s Counterspells, Blacks Discard, and Red’s Direct Damage this deck fails miserably.

 

I in no way wish to go to National’s with this deck. It is meant solely to be played amongst friends on a Thursday night.

 

Let me know what you think. I’d really appreciate your opinion and feedback

 

Best,

 

TriK



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Don't worry, TriK. I'll make this flock straighten up and fly right for you.

My first sign that something is amiss here is Welkin Tern. I know technically he's on theme, but... as someone once said about another Bird card last block, "You're just awful outside of limited. And 'decent in limited' is nothing to be bragging about." And he wasn't talking about Welkin Tern, who actually isn't even very good in Limited. Please remove it.

Sage Owl can also come out. The top four is always less useful than you hope it will be, because as often as not, the Owl just confirms for you that you're drawing nothing but trash for four turns. Maybe fewer for you, what with Thieving Magpie and Seaside Haven helping your draw power, but that's no excuse.

So there's six slots, all of which costed 1U, to replace.
With what? Well, Talon Trooper isn't bad as a 2/3 flyer for 1WU. If we're not confining ourselves to Standard, though, it'd be criminal not to include Aven Riftwatcher, one of the most distinguished Birds to see print in quite some time. It's also a 2/3 for three mana, but gains you four life and doesn't require blue mana. And here's a laugh for you-- in your deck, you can use Keeper of the Nine Gales to return it to your hand and replay it to keep it from running out of Vanishing counters, and you'll gain 4 life on each pass! And you can tap the Riftwatcher itself to help pay the Keeper's ability!

That leaves two more slots, but we'll fill them soon enough. First I want to handle your singletons-- Enlightened Tutor, Hour of Reckoning, and Coat of Arms. I don't think you need any of them. And as for replacing Adarkar Wastes? I agree, but not with another U/W dual land. Replace them with Terramorphic Expanse.

Why? Because, TriK, I want you to splash green in this deck. With the Expanses in, you can add two Forests and have a decent hope of seeing one or two. A few Seaside Citadel would help too (and be poetically in theme with Seaside Haven, oddly enough), but I think you want at least a few Forests.

So what's the Green for? Well, two cards in particular. Flurry of Wings, for reasons that should be apparent, and Tromp the Domains, to give all your little fliers the teeth they need to end games and deliver savage beatings. This is why you want at least one Forest to fetch with an Expanse: so that you can resolve a Tromp with the potency of a full Overrun.


This, of course, also leads to other green cards you could run. For example, the quintessential Bird, Birds of Paradise. Or perhaps Wargate, allowing you to pull any Bird you want straight out of your deck. Or a Soulcatchers' Aerie,  if you prefer; it's that flexible.

Now then, as for the specific problems you mentioned. Luckily, there's one card that makes counterspells, discard, and direct damage completely obsolete.

Quagnoth.

It can't be countered due to split second, can't be discarded from your hand without you just picking it back up again, and can't be targeted by direct damage. Get a playset and you'll be fine.

That's all I can do for this Bird deck, TriK. I'm sure if you take my suggestions, you'll find your air force running like a Swiss cuckoo clock!

And.... in case it wasn't clear... that's a good thing.

~BMoor

 


 

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