General Choice: Derevi does everything.
Main deck: Toolbox/Combobox where each piece works well on its own. Relies on own graveyard heavily to combo, but does not absolutely need it to win.
Mana base: Focused on having the colors you need while still being able to play through BloodMoon and the like. This means the utility lands are kept at a minimum.
How we plan to win: Combo, lock, beats, or general damage. There is the possibility of other things but they are usually very janky and have to do with stealing other peoples cards.
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Academy Rector: Very powerful tutor that can be part of a Birthing Pod chain. We often tutor for Ephara, God of the Polis early game, late game is situational. Your opponents tend to not want Academy Rector to die, so she is often left unblocked giving us untaps.
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Acidic Slime: One of our few answers to lands, can hold off attackers/get in free damage every now and then.
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Arid Mesa: In color fetch.
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Aven Mindcensor: Keeps opponents fair and has evasion to get all those sweet Derevi, Empyrial Tactician triggers. Note the Bird Wizard typing is very relevant.
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Azorius Chancery: Bounce lands can be risky to play, but Derevi, Empyrial Tactician's untap triggers makes their upside even higher. It also has synergy with Weathered Wayfarer
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Bane of Progress: We do play a few artifacts and enchantments (7) that can be destroyed + Cleric tokens + Clue tokens. But more likely than not if those few artifacts and enchantments that we do play are not quickly answered we will win the game anyway. So Bane of Progress ETB will often net us a huge amount of value, and can often get us out of spots few other cards can. The fact that it synergizes Dusk/Recruiter of the Guard/Reveillark while still becoming a large beater in play is very relevant.
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Beast Within: Best spot removal spell in EDH.
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Birds of Paradise: We play it for the early ramp and fixing (turn one Derevi is nice). But it also has other synergies, like being a bird, being a one drop, and having evasion if we can give it power.
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Birthing Pod: Best card in the 99 bar none. Has synergy with both Derevi, Empyrial Tactician's ability to untap permanents and her ability to keep on coming back to be sacked. Most of our list is built with Birthing Pod in mind.
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Blasting Station: The game ender, we usually try to keep this card out of harms way until we think it is safe/necessary to win. Although that doesn't mean it can't get value sitting in play. It is fine to run out if we are behind sometimes because we need any bit of value we can get.
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Bloom Tender: Mana dork that produces large amounts of mana on it's own, and even more along side Derevi, Empyrial Tactician's untap triggers. A turn two Bloom Tender gives you six mana in your pool when you cast Derevi, Empyrial Tactician on turn three and stack triggers properly.
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Body Double: Powerful clone. Often the most powerful card in play is a lot less powerful than the most powerful card in a graveyard. Also lets us reuse toolbox pieces that have been answered. Can be used alongside Reveillark or Karmic Guide in the graveyard and a sac outlet to go infinite.
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Chord of Calling: Instant speed tutor almost any card in the deck into play, need I say more.
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Command Tower: Best color fixing land.
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Cyclonic Rift: Auto include in all blue decks, even better because we often flood the board.
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Dusk / Dawn: This is a bit of an open slot depending on meta, I chose Dusk / Dawn because I find this list often has issues with decks that flood the board with big creatures, and the list can have issues with decks that attack our hand. It should be noted that of our 43 creatures 33 of them don't die to Dusk assuming they haven't been pumped. And 30 of those creatures can be returned by Dawn. Even Derevi, Empyrial Tactician herself fits nicely under the spell.
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Deadeye Navigator: Combo piece that synergies with a lot of our deck and is one of our three cards currently in the six drop slot. Combos with Derevi + bounce land + Mirari's Wake, Palinchron, or Bloom Tender + Derevi. Deadeye Navigator is also our plan B win condition when we combo off if Blasting Station is answered. We can use infinite mana alongside Venser, Shaper Savant to keep our opponents from doing anything until we can beat them to death. If Venser, Shaper Savant isn't an option we can use Acidic Slime or Titania, Protector of Argoth + Strip Mine to at least take them off off having mana, and Galecaster Colossus to keep them off of other things.
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Eladamri's Call: Tutors most of our deck into our hand at instant speed.
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Eldritch Evolution: Our deck is built around Birthing Pod, so a slightly better one time use is still very strong.
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Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite: One of our key cards if we decide to win with beats. Also has vigilance if we are under a lock effect. Can be used as an board wipe of up to -4/-4 if we use a clone on it. Note that our list struggles to fight against an opposing Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite as it kills most of our creatures with just the -2/-2 effect alone.
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Ephara, God of the Polis: Crazy powerful draw engine that is hard to interact with, can also beat down or block well. Ephara, God of the Polis is our most tutored for card, and is often the first card we tutor for (we may tutor for Academy Rector as part of a pod chain, which in turn will grab Ephara, God of the Polis when it dies). When Ephara, God of the Polis is in play it is very hard for us to run out of gas as our deck is almost all creatures and Derevi, Empyrial Tactician basically has flash. It should be noted that Ephara, God of the Polis gets past Spirit of the Labyrinth on turns that are not our own, as well as Torpor Orb like effects, both of which our list can struggle to fight through.
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Eternal Witness: Green EDH staple that has amazing synergy with our list.
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Felidar Guardian: Value card with other ETB. Lets us skip up a Birthing Pod chain by flickering Birthing Pod. Can also let us answer auras that negatively effect our creatures such as Song of the Dryads. Can act as a combo piece along side a sac outlet and Reveillark/Karmic Guide.
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Fiend Hunter: Creature removal on a stick allows us to use our tutors to find it. Can also be used to hide our own creatures under, or permanently answer creatures by sacking Fiend Hunter with his first ability on the stack. Can act as a combo piece along side a sac outlet and Reveillark/Karmic Guide.
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Flooded Strand: In color fetch.
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Forest: In color basic.
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Gaddock Teeg: Very few cards in our deck can't be played while Gaddock Teeg is in play, making him a very powerful hatebear in our list.
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Gaea's Cradle: We are a green deck that floods the board, that is already enough to run this insane card. The fact that we can untap Gaea's Cradle using Derevi, Empyrial Tactician's untap triggers makes it one very broken, unfair, unfun card.
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Galecaster Colossus: Been trying him out and he has preformed well, but I'm not sold on him just yet. We have wizards and untap triggers, so he can do a lot if left unchecked.
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Glen Elendra Archmage: What a card, it does pretty much everything this deck is trying to do, the only part of the creature we don't take advantage of is that it is a Faerie. So let's start from the top and work our way down. Four cmc means that we can sac Derevi to Birthing Pod to find Glen Elendra Archmage. Wizard means it synergizes the couple of wizard synergies we play. Flying lets us get Derevi triggers. We are currently a bit light on counter spell effects, and a creature deck, a bit weak to board clears. Being able to counter noncreature spells is exactly what we need. Persist is the nuts and usually grantees we get at least some value. Persist means that we can Birthing Pod Glen Elendra Archmage up to twice, or more commonly, sacrifice her to Birthing Pod once and then use her to protect our board state. Persist together with the creature type wizard means that Glen Elendra Archmage can go infinite with Sage of Fables and a sac outlet, or even just freely counter noncreature spells for one blue if we don't have an outlet. Finally the 2/2 body synergizes with Dusk/Recruiter of the Guard/Reveillark.
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Heliod, God of the Sun: Vigilance + Derevi + Stasis can often win the game, although we often want another creature or two to make sure of it. Without Stasis vigilance frees up the untaps that we would normally use to give our creatures pseudo-vigilance. The ability to make tokens at instant speed gives us use for mana inside combat, and if there is an opponent without much of a defense the more clerics we have, the more we can make. Finally Heliod, God of the Sun just like Ephara, God of the Polis is very hard for the opponents to interact with, so it is likely we will get value out of him as the game progresses.
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Hokori, Dust Drinker: Winter Orb is a better card alongside Derevi, but being able to tutor/pod/reanimate Hokori, Dust Drinker makes him better in our build of Derevi.
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Horizon Canopy: Because we tap our lands so many times in this deck land that hurt when they become tapped are not good. Because of this Horizon Canopy would not be worth it by itself, but synergies with Titania, Protector of Argoth/Sun Titan/Renegade Rallier make it a lot more powerful in our list. Note the synergy with Titania, Protector of Argoth is especially good, and we can use Deadeye Navigator and infinite mana to draw as many cards as we need.
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Island: In color basic.
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Karmic Guide: This is another card that really pulls it's own weight. It's one of our few ways of reanimating creatures, and it goes infinite with a sac outlet and Felidar Guardian/Fiend Hunter/Reveillark/Saffi Eriksdotter. Against black decks paying the echo cost is often worth it, remember if Karmic Guide can attack safely on the turn you pay echo, and Derevi is in play, it really has an echo cost of 4.
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Kefnet the Mindful: If this card never attacks or blocks it still is worth it, this is because it is one of the best creatures that have (Mana Cost):Draw a card, written on them. I have found we really want at least two of this effect in our deck, as he like to be able to use up excess mana inside combat, and if we get infinite mana, they usually let us win easily. I have found that Kefnet the Mindful does get to attack and block (or at least threaten to block) a fair amount, making it not only a resilient mana sink, but also one of our heaviest hitters and best defenders.
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Manglehorn: Almost every EDH deck plays good artifacts, meaning that not being able to hit enchantments often isn't relevant. The second ability is just gravy. There is an argument that Trygon Predator is better in this slot, but I have found too often the person with the stuff I want to answer has their own answer to Trygon Predator by the time I can attack with it, leaving me with no value. This could be wrong as the deck may just want more evasive creatures. I plan to test both cards in this slot until I feel like I can definitively answer which of the two is better.
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Marsh Flats: In color fetch.
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Mirari's Wake: A powerhouse in our deck. The mana doubling effect combos with Deadeye Navigator + Derevi, Empyrial Tactician + a bounce land or Palinchron. And the anthem synergizes well with our deck full of small creatures. There are several other cards that have a similar mana doubling ability that compete for this slot, but I have found that Mirari's Wake's mana cost being the lowest among them is what sets it a step above the rest, even if it is an enchantment and not a creature.
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Misty Rainforest: In color fetch.
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Mystic Snake: Our list is light on the counter magic right now. And the reason we play Mystic Snake instead of any other
Lines of play.
