Birds

Commander / EDH*

Sigismond0

Background Birds (36)

• 1x Abjure
• 1x Angel of Invention
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Coastal Piracy
• 1x Edric, Spymaster of Trest
• 3x Forest
• 1x Howling Mine
• 7x Island
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Opposition
• 1x Part the Waterveil
• 8x Plains
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Seal Away
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Tectonic Edge
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment
• 1x Temple of Plenty
• 1x Vigor

Bird Tokens (8)

• 1x Battle Screech
• 1x Beck / Call
• 1x Crow Storm
• 1x Emeria Angel
• 1x Flurry of Wings
• 1x Migratory Route
• 1x Scion of Vitu-Ghazi
• 1x Swan Song

Technicality (4)

• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Crib Swap
• 1x Kefnet the Mindful
• 1x Mirror Entity

Birds (20)

• 1x Aerie Mystics
• 1x Aven Brigadier
• 1x Aven Cloudchaser
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Celestial Gatekeeper
• 1x Cloudchaser Kestrel
• 1x Crookclaw Elder
• 1x Glarecaster
• 1x Impaler Shrike
• 1x Kangee, Aerie Keeper
• 1x Keeper of the Nine Gales
• 1x Lieutenant Kirtar
• 1x Major Teroh
• 1x Mindshrieker
• 1x Nimble Obstructionist *f-pre*
• 1x River Hoopoe
• 1x Thieving Magpie
• 1x Windbrisk Raptor
• 1x Wingmate Roc

Tiny Background Birds (11)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Grow from the Ashes
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 1x Nature's Spiral
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Tempt with Discovery

Commander (1)

Prominent BirdIn Art (13)

• 1x Blatant Thievery
• 1x Broken Bond
• 1x Cast Out
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Crushing Vines
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Disenchant
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Gather Specimens
• 1x Ojutai's Command
• 1x Time Stop
• 1x Wing Shards

Explicitly Bird Related (6)

• 1x Airborne Aid
• 1x Azorius Keyrune
• 1x Kirtar's Wrath
• 1x Seaside Haven
• 1x Soulcatchers' Aerie
• 1x Windbrisk Heights

Cheater (1)

• 1x Thawing Glaciers

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The deck started out as a humble budget deck, and cost like $60. Back then it didn't have such strict stipulations, and was just what you'd expect of a budget bird tribal deck. It had a flying tribal sub theme as well. As time went on, I decided to make a joke of it, and pimped it out. All foils on the crappy budget bird deck. Then, I got the brilliant idea of going all-out and only using cards that have birds in the art, even down to the basic lands. It was a fun little project, and a good exercise in building with constraints. It was still a budget deck, just a really blingy one. And then Battle for Zendikar came out. And almost all the expedition lands had birds in the art. That was the point where all hope was lost, and the deck was no longer a budget deck.

All of the bird creatures are obviously birds, and there are a handful of non-birds that make bird tokens. Other creature like Edric at least have birds in their art, if not in their flavor. Instants, sorceries, enchantments, and so on all have a strict requirement of being bird-related or having bird art. Every single land, down to the basics, has birds in the art with the sole exception of Thawing Glaciers. Because of its synergy with Derevi and ability to go bonkers with Emeria Angel, it gets a pass until I can find something to help make up for it. Kirtar's Wrath may not seem to feature birds, buy Lieutenant Kirtar is himself a bird! Mirror Entity and Crib Swap may technicalities, but I'll take it. I don't know why the AMonkhet gods didn't get their animal types on the creature lines (probably because Bontu's crocodile type made it too long), but Kefnet is clearly a bird. And he has birds in the background, to be safe. Cavern of Souls requires me to actually say "bird" as I play it, so it's in for now. But probably not long. All maybeboard cards listed are cards that were in the deck at some point, but were cut.

The deck plays like a pretty straightforward W/U skies deck, that has the upside of either being able to untap its lands or give its creatures pseudo-vigilance. There are a few pretty great synergies to note:

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician + Thawing Glaciers is an incredible ramp package. Since Glaciers doesn't return to hand until end of turn, you can attack with a few tokens, then use Derevi's trigger to untap and re-activate it multiple times in a single combat step. This is the reason for the high concentration of basic lands in the deck. Throw in Emeria Angel for an army.

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician + Howling Mine just asks you to spend one of your combat triggers to make everyone else sad.

Kangee, Aerie Keeper + Windbrisk Heights isn't always going to happen, but when it does, you can spend X2W to pump your entire team to absolutely lethal levels post-blockers.

Chord of Calling + Vigor lets you tank a Blasphemous Act or block a huge attack, and come out on top. Chord of Calling + Glarecaster lets you turn a lethal attack aimed at you into an instant death for one of your opponents. Chord also plays nicely with silver bullets like the Cloudchaser Kestrel, Windbrisk Raptor, Celestial Gatekeeper, Major Teroh, or Aerie Mystics.

Soulcatchers' Aerie + Wing Shards isn't exactly fun to do to yourself, but there's been more than one occasion where I've dropped 2-3 cheap spells pre-combat, swung in with an army of tokens, and then Sharded myself to pump them to lethal. This is especially nice if you can throw a Flurry of Wings into the mix to make sure you get even more tokens out of the deal.

And for anyone doubting my commitment to this super-tribal bird theme, here's a link to all the cards that I've had in the deck at one point or another (and are lovingly kept in remembrance), along with a list of a ton of not-so-great cards that could theoretically be playable in the deck at some point. There are a ton of total garbage cards that I know will never make the cut, so I haven't bothered tracking literally everything I've ever come across with birds in the art, but it's a good start.

Date added	10 years
Last updated	6 years
Key combos	Derevi, Empyrial Tactician + Thawing Glaciers Kangee, Aerie Keeper + Windbrisk Heights Chord of Calling + Vigor Chord of Calling + Glarecaster Soulcatchers' Aerie + Wing Shards Derevi, Empyrial Tactician + Howling Mine
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 37 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.97
Tokens	Bird 1/1 W, Bird 2/2 U, Bird 3/4 W, Bird Soldier 1/1 W, Servo 1/1 C, Shapeshifter 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 W, Bird 1/2 U
Folders	edh, birbs, Interesting Decks, bird decks, refs, dx