Crookclaw Elder

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Crookclaw Elder

Creature — Bird Wizard

Flying

Tap two untapped Birds you control: Draw a card.

Tap two untapped Wizards you control: Target creature gains flying until end of turn.

Skinken on

2 years ago

Birds is a surprisingly well supported tribe, and flying tribal has been getting a fair bit of support recently. So building birds in commander can be both fun and powerful because you can combine old and new cards.

A creature has to be a Legendary creature to be legal as your commander. The classic option for birds would be Kangee, Aerie Keeper . Some other options that are more "Flying tribal" than bird tribal could be Kangee, Sky Warden (a very budget-friendly option), Isperia the Inscrutable , Akim, the Soaring Wind , Derevi, Empyrial Tactician or Alela, Artful Provocateur .

Now you should decide whether you want cards that support having Birds specifically: Aven Brigadier , Celestial Gatekeeper , Crookclaw Elder , Seaside Haven , Soulcatchers' Aerie , Airborne Aid , Migratory Route , Animal Sanctuary etc. Or if you just want cheap flyers that may or may not be birds and just play flying tribal: Battle Screech , Favorable Winds , Gravitational Shift , Gust of Wind , Island Sanctuary , Kangee's Lieutenant , Lofty Denial , Pride of the Clouds , Rally of Wings , Sephara, Sky's Blade , Siani, Eye of the Storm , Skycat Sovereign , Soulcatcher , The Raven's Warning , Thunderclap Wyvern , Tide Skimmer , Warden of Evos Isle , Watcher of the Spheres , Waterkin Shaman , Windstorm Drake , Winged Words , Battle Screech .

Your list has a lot of pretty bad cards that don't support your strategy. I would cut Healing Salve , Resupply , Take Up Arms , Call to Mind , Survival Cache , Refurbish (has 4 targets in your deck and no matter what you get you pay more mana than you should), Siegecraft etc. Pure lifegain spells are bad unless you build around them, and this is supposed to be a bird/flying deck right? Cards that make tokens without flying are not great because your lords and synergy don't make them better. So even though Raise the Alarm is a solid magic card, you would prolly rather have like a Mistral Charger because you can build synergy around it.

Removal is always good. You can almost never have too much of it. However, if you are really cool, you can try to play removal and card draw that is flavorful and synergistic as well: Ravenform , Wing Shards , Aerial Assault , Swan Song , Winged Words , Gust of Wind , Lofty Denial . Also, sol ring is great but more ramp is usually a good idea in commander, and Azorius Keyrune is also a bird!

Good luck with the screechy dudes!

MagicMarc on Legendary Falcon Lord??

3 years ago

Birds however, give you way better options. Maybe not super competitive but fun for kitchen table play. Stuff like Pride of the Clouds and Battle Screech get you birds and then Soulcatchers' Aerie, Aven Brigadier and Kangee, Aerie Keeper get you some fat. Crookclaw Elder, Seaside Haven & Keeper of the Nine Gales give you something to do with the birds while you arent bashing face.

Not so Old School there are now other good options as well in White & Blue; Murmuring Mystic, Jotun Owl Keeper, Animal Sanctuary, Airborne Aid, Emeria Angel, Migratory Route.

My new personal favorite is Skycat Sovereign. Because the only thing better than birds are Cat Birds!

hkhssweiss on Fiesty Peckers

4 years ago

Yo DanTheBear, have you ever consider using these cards?

Aside from that direct straight upgrades for the rocks will definitely help Kangee out, as he is pretty mana hungry. So the fast acceleration rocks like Fellwar Stone, Talisman of Progress, Azorius Signet, Arcane Signet, and Coalition Relic really helps to bring him out faster with the feather counters. Hope that helps!

Gadianten on Bird Tribal Attempt with +1/+1 counters

4 years ago

I love tribal decks and I have only seen a couple of bird decks but not any that build around counters and with the built in evasion that seems a pretty viable way to run them; I think a few of the picks are sub optimal so I compiled a some bird choices that might be interesting depending on how your meta is built. I also think you could stand to some more card draw to help fuel the tribal beat down, all in all I think this looks fun and I will enjoy seeing it evolve as you tweak it over time. +1

Cheap useful birds: Baleful Strix , Judge's Familiar , River Hoopoe , Sage Owl , Spire Owl , Stormscape Familiar , Thrummingbird

Interesting and useful birds: Aven Sunstriker , Wingmate Roc , Kathari Remnant , Lieutenant Kirtar , Nimble Obstructionist

Birds matter: Kangee, Aerie Keeper , Keeper of the Nine Gales , Crookclaw Elder

Tribal stuff: Door of Destinies

Non creature draw: Guardian Project , Greater Good

Fun stuff: Battle Screech , Beck / Call

goldlion on

5 years ago

Oh man, I just saw the art for Aven Brigadier . Such a winner! And Commander Eesha is incredible! Crookclaw Elder and Gustcloak Savior are sweet value too. Bird Tribal has some fun value.

In terms of mana, some other ideas are Dreamscape Artist .... he alllllmost counts as a bird? Technically he does, he's a shapeshifter, but maybe not a flavour win, haha. Probably not good enough. Also, I'd say Paradise Mantle which has a flavour win as it's off the Birds of Paradise idea and, even if only in imagery, gives "wings" (see picture) ;). I was going to recommend Dream Thrush over a signet if you had one, for fixing mana on theme, but you don't have one.

I really like Opt , Brainstorm , and Ponder in my blue decks cause they help me make sure I hit my landrops, or later on get me the cards I need (or skip the cards I don't need). In this awesome bird theme your building up, I think Augury Owl is a great way to fill that niche. Brilliant, in my own mind :). Aven Fateshaper does that too, but he's a little more pricey... except, when he comes out he can keep doing it for ! Awesome.

If you ever find that infinite combo, Apex Hawks might be good in here!

Cloudchaser Eagle is almost like bird tribals very own Acidic Slime ... note quite, but almost. I see you got Kestrel in there, his cheaper counter part (though I guess classified "equal" as kestrel requires two vs. the extra for eagle.

If your playgroup combos off, goes Voltron, or has some crazy creatures that end games, Aven Augur seems like cool utility. If you playgroup is just "good times" though, I do think you should put in Carnivorous Death-Parrot for fun or Cardpecker ;). My playgroup allows 1 unhinged type card, unless it's absolutely broken.

It's too bad Aven Warhawk is so pricey, or else his effect would be great!

This would be fun to play, I can tell. Nice work! So cool to see a tribe with such a tool box.

multimedia on the flock

5 years ago

Hey, interesting concept for a tribal deck. Consider expanding on the strategy of Soulcatchers' Aerie? What makes this card shine with Birds and Derevi are sac outlets. With sac outlets you can sac Derevi to put a counter on Arie and then using Derevi's activated ability to put her back into play without playing Commander tax. This is one reason sac outlets are pretty busted with Derevi. Sac outlets to consider adding:

Skullclamp is great with sac outlets and is also good with all the 1/1 Owls/Familiars/Tokens.

Consider Reveillark + Guide combo? It's excellent with sac outlets as a reanimation engine. There's many Birds here who when in the graveyard have 2 or less power who Reveillark can reanimate. This combo by reanimating and sacing Birds can put a lot of counters on Aerie or draw a lot of cards with Skullclamp. Sacing and reanimating Reveillark and Guide can put a lot of counters on Soulcatcher since both have flying.

Mimeomancer + Kangee, Aerie Keeper is a good Bird interaction. Kangee cares about feather counters; Mimeomancer can at your upkeep put a feather counter on Kangee. Quest is good with Crookclaw Elder and Keeper of the Nine Gales. Tap two Birds to draw a card or bounce a permanent; when have four counters on Quest untap all your Birds during your opponents turns.

Witness can recur any card and be reanimated with Reveillark; it's a powerful card with Reveillark. Consider Yisan? Because of the low budget you can't play a lot of expensive price creature tutors. Yisan is a budget repeatable creature tutor that puts the creature right onto the battlefield. Birds have a nice curve of CMC creatures (1 drop all the way up to six drop).

As far as the five nonBird creatures you're allowed to play I suggest: Emeria Angel, Reveillark, Karmic Guide, Eternal Witness and Yisan.


Other Birds to consider adding:

Budget lands to consider:


Cards to consider cutting:

  • Coat of Arms
  • Illusionist's Bracers
  • Crystal Ball
  • Fable of Wolf and Owl
  • Gravitational Shift
  • Favorable Winds
  • Sphinx's Revelation
  • Explosive Vegetation
  • Wing Shards
  • Cloudfin Raptor
  • Skymark Roc
  • Oketra's Attendant
  • Aerie Mystics
  • Aven Wind Guide
  • Windbrisk Raptor
  • Arctic Aven
  • Sunpetal Grove
  • Glacial Fortress
  • Temple of Enlightenment
  • Temple of Plenty

Good luck with your deck.


Dumgoldfish124 on Bird Token/Tribal

5 years ago

47552 Love the idea, really creative! I have some recommendations for you though. Onto the birds!

First, if your play group doesn't mind un-cards, then Crow Storm is quite good. Other then that, Storm Crow itself, despite the memes, is not a bad card and is great in bird tribal. Murder of Crows is a really good finisher as it will deter board wipes and swing for 4 a turn. Mindshrieker is another good finsher. Swan Song and Essence Scatter are both great bird themed counterspells and Wing Shards is a great bird themed spell. Crookclaw Elder is a good draw engine and Impaler Shrike and/or Thieving Magpie add a good bit of draw. Keeper of the Nine Gales adds some great board control and helps disrupt the tempo of your opponent. Augury Owl gives some nice foresight to what is coming up and allows you to change the order or throw away the cards that are not needed. Finally, while not a 'bird bird', Soulcatcher is awesome at killing the opponent after some sacrifice shenanigans.

I also have some general recommendations for the deck. Firstly, Culling Dais is awesome. It can tap and sacrifice a bird if that bird is destroyed, turning it into another card for later on. It gets even more ridiculous with Thrummingbird increasing counters. Deluge gives all of your birds pseudo-unblockable and Gravitational Shift beefs up your birds while your opponent's ground troops get weaker. Kangee, Aerie Keeper pumps the power and toughness of all your birds while Aven Mimeomancer makes your tokens bigger. Door of Destinies does similar things to Kangee. Tezzeret's Gambit is a nice draw spell that also adds counters. Glory stops damage cold. In this deck Grafted Wargear is better then Barbed Battlegear, despite the synergy with Soulcatchers' Aerie. Cataclysm is an awesome board wipe, especially with Soulcatchers' Aerie. Masako the Humorless is nasty surprise for your opponent, especially with Glory chilling in the graveyard. Finally, with land I recommend using Nimbus Maze and Sejiri Refuge. I also recommend having 20 lands, but if 18 works, by all means, keep using 18.

I hope this helps! If you would like any help with cuts, just ask, I'll be happy to help!

cklise on Help me make this work: …

6 years ago

Some other options: Supreme Inquisitor, Kyren Negotiations, Crackleburr (can potentially both tap or untap your creatures, and return choice wizards to hand), Springleaf Drum, Crookclaw Elder, Sigil Tracer, Mothdust Changeling (a sneaky wizard), Aphetto Grifter. That should cover the most fitting cards for tapping your stuff.

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