SUPER cheap Bird deck, and it does work pretty darned well against non-flying decks. The most expensive cards are two $1 Emeria Angels, one $.85 Judge's Familiar that I happened to have, (I had another, but I traded or sold it to a friend before finding out I needed it) a couple of $.50 rares and a couple of older lands. It's great against non-flying decks, although I've been suggested to throw in Archetype of Imagination as to prevent my opponents from having flying and stopping my roll. The mana curve is nice and low so I don't need quite as much mana as usual, leaving more room for creatures, and I can just get whatever I have in my hand out on the battlefield at all times without worrying about mana.
One major theme of the deck is that many of the birds look at the top cards of my library and let me rearrange them to give me a better game plan. This works great, as I'm able to move mana around to when I need it, and place the nest scry or peek bird at the end of the peek. The mana chain works great with Emeria Angel, since I'm able to put her in front of my lands that are on the way so she triggers, and I don't waste lands needlessly. (Unless I need her to be later so that I can have the mana for her)
I swapped out two of
Rise of Eagles
for Beck / Call to use the call part of it instead. The four 1/1 birds are FAR more useful than two 2/2 birds. (Or really 4 2/2 birds vs 2 3/3 birds, since Path of Bravery helps boost them a little.It's also more efficient with four birds than just two, since the total boost is +4/+4 instead of +2/+2)
Also, I have one
Stormtide Leviathan
as a clincher, since he doesn't allow anything but flying to attack. And, not that it matters, but to go with how many older birds are in the deck, and how there's an older land or two, I decided to use the oldest and coolest islands and plains that I managed to have laying around. Forget $3 full art lands, the old ones are what I like best! Now, for the sorta wonky setup with so many more islands than plains, that's due to how I need them before the plains, and how all of the white cards need just one devotion, while a few of the blues need more than that. The dual lands were put in to replace plains to help alleviate some of these issues, so it's still fairly even between islands and white mana, though there is more blue.
Anyway, enjoy! And as always, comments and suggestions are more than welcome!
