Pteramander

Creature — Salamander

Flying

: Adapt 4. This ability costs less to activate for each instant and sorcery card in your graveyard. (If this creature has no +1/+1 counters on it, put four +1/+1 counters on it.)

Discussion (51)

Magnanimous on U Can't Block This

23 hours ago

Remove most of your creatures. Most of these decks focus on using small evasive threats to pressure and gain card advantage, by the time you cast your 4+ CMC creatures (or Bident of Thassa ) it will likely be too late to really make an impact, especially for such underwhelming threats compared to Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet , Questing Beast , etc. If you do want bombs, I'd suggest 6 at most that should all be castable on 4 lands or fewer without Thassa, God of the Sea like weaknesses. Your three drop creatures ( Uninvited Geist  ^Flip and Thassa, God of the Sea ) are at best a 3/3 unblockable and an easily disrupted threat that will most likely not be a creature for most of the game. Departed Deckhand is also way to fragile in my opinion, but if the downside doesn't factor into gameplay often then it could be fine.

This format has two competitive mono-blue decks that I know of, Mono-Blue Devotion in Theros (starring Master of Waves ) and "Burchett Blue"/Mono-Blue Aggro from a relatively recent set. I recommend basing your deck off of one of those lists and adding more powerful cards, making the deck cheaper/faster (standard allows for slower games), and/or changing the deck to suit your metagame ( AEtherize might be a great sideboard card).

I'd prefer to play the Burchett Blue variant but heavier on control with few threats and tons of instants. The threats would likely be a total of around 8 Pteramander , Thing in the Ice  ^Flip, and Baral, Chief of Compliance . The other direction is a more creature heavy version that wants to end the game quickly with Tempest Djinn and Master of Waves , using tempo creatures and Curious Obsession for value. That version would have few non-creature spells, likely just 4 Curious Obsession and up to 8 counters/interaction cards. This is the only deck where I think Leyline of Anticipation could be good, but I generally dislike the card as most of your threats are cheap (allowing you to easily keep mana up anyway) and there's not a huge advantage to playing creatures at instant speed. You could also do something in the middle, but try to have some idea which side you fall on, spell heavy or creature heavy.

Suggestions/Cards to think about: - Chart a Course - Spectral Sailor - Pteramander - AEtherize - Tempest Djinn - Master of Waves - Tidebinder Mage - Mausoleum Wanderer - Merfolk Trickster - Siren Stormtamer

Kjartan on UW Flyers

1 day ago

FOkay, I have some ideas for upgrades.

First off. You overall playstyle is pretty aggressive, but you have some cards that are geared to a very slow playstyle.

Perhaps you could do with fewer lands, and cutting the Absorb s, and like I said earlier, the Vensers.

Absorb forces you to keep mana open while you would really rather be committing to the board, growing your forces. If it's not too expensive, you could play SpellQueller instead. Otherwise, a couple Spell Pierce would be a fine replacement. They allow you to commit power to the taple, while just keeping a single mana up when needed. Personally, I would only play 2 counters, though.

Venser, the Sojourner is easily your worst card, though. Other than being pretty expensive compared to your relatively fast playstyle, his abilities just don't work too great with your cards. Making your team unblockable is not that valuable in a flyers deck, where most your team can't be blocked anyways, and you only have 2 cards in the deck that you would really like to flicker, so his +2 is not powerful either. A lot of the time, he's going to just sit there and do nothing.

Pteramander is a fine card. Nothing much wrong with it, but you're only ever going to grow it when the game goes really long. So you could possibly find a replacement for them. I recommend at least a few Spectral Sailor

Some other random suggestions that are not insanely expensive would be Pride of the Clouds and Supreme Phantom

Also, unless you specifically wish to play modern, which I don't knock, modern is awesome, you could easily make this a Pioneer deck.

Mdmaster13 on Golgari Scales Aggro

3 weeks ago

One of the toughest things to learn in Magic is printed costs are often not their actual cost lol and yes Avatar of the Resolute is one of them. One of the cards I had to learn it for was Pteramander . Some cards need settup. Although, leading T1 with a Pelt Collector or E1 means a t2 Avatar would at least drop as a 2 mana 4/3 which is nothing to sneeze at. Remember you can stack your evolve and Avatar triggers

Gekix on Izzet Burning Delver

1 month ago

I think Dreadhorde Arcanist is very good in this deck, especially if you add some more cantrips ( you're not using alot of them, but they're really helpfull because they translate into land drops early and your threats are low costed in a way you can find them easily by chaining cantrips ). Also, instead of going full burn, try to play some soft counterspells like remand or spell pierce. That way your threats can stay longer and generate more value than the burn spell you'd cast with the same amount of mana. And one last thing is that playing some Young Pyromancer 's in the main is a good idea because that way you are not too punished by single target removal and you have alot of bodies to either chump block until you can find lethal or just get past blockers so that you can find lethal.

In general I play Izzet Delver at my LGS and these are the main differences i can spot between our decks ( usually some slots are up to preferance... for instance I like running Pteramander s because I have more cantrips, or I try to abuse more spectacle cards like Light Up the Stage because it becomes a 1 mana draw 2, but you can add other cards if you feel otherwise in those slots )

Hexaflexagon on Is it Pioneer Drakes?

1 month ago

Hey man!

I saw your deck while looking for some Pioneer deck ideas. Really good deck, my dad used to play Izzet Drakes while it was still in Standard. Have you considered Spellheart Chimera and Steam Vents ? In my opinion, Spellheart is better than Enigma Drake , as it has trample, but you could replace Pteramander for it too. You only have 10 lands that make Sulfur Falls enter the battlefield untapped, and I think you need more to make it more consistent. Steam Vents fits that bill perfectly, as it's a duel land while also having basic land types. I think you should replace the Temples because you want to be using up all your lands to cast spells and creatures. You could also take out a Shivan Reef to make space for a playset of Steam Vents.

Good Luck,

Hexaflexagon

dingusdingo on Mono blue tempo wincing

1 month ago

I have a pet theory that Sarkhan420X shitposts under new accounts that contain an X at the end, like Liliana69X and this new one Uchiha9001X. Also lol @ RedPowerRanger9001 and Uchiha9001X both joined tappedout 24 hours ago with a 9001 in their name, and both decided to jump right into aggressive postings in the modern forum before any decklists, neat coincidence.

I think its extremely obvious what Toolmaster was getting at, and its unfortunate that we are caught up on definitions instead of reading the entire message for comprehension. No one is saying Lightning Bolt doesn't win games, but when your deck is 20 mountains and 40 bolt variants, calling all of them a wincon isn't really giving you any new information.

As far as cards for your deck, I think Curator of Mysteries is criminally underrated, especially for budget builds. 4/4 flyer for 4 that can cycle away if you're flush with them early, and gives extra utility from running other cycle cards. An updated version of the classic Air Elemental . Works well with the cycle lands if you want to draw on the cheap while still holding up control during your opponents turn.

Pteramander is also an excellent choice. You get your flying beats earlier than with Curator but you still have the option of adapting later in the game to keep up pressure.

RZKS on Monoblue Flash/Tempo

2 months ago

I think I've got to a point where I'm satisfied with how the deck plays. Warrant / Warden is a very good tempo spell, and it definitely works well. Also, I've completely removed both Faerie Vandal and Pteramander from the deck. While playtesting, I felt like I was holding Winged Words in my hand without really wanting to cast it unless my opponent managed to stall me and force the long game, at the point that I would be able to cast a sorcery without worrying about leaving Mana open to work on their turn.

But probably the best addition I've made was Hallowed Fountain as having just 2 of them is enough for me to be able to use the other side of the split cards, giving me more versatility if the game drags on.

pistolpeteiii on Hush Little Baby...

2 months ago

I think you should define the route you plan to take the deck. Two ways I can see building would be to play Control, OR play aggressive fliers. Melding the two might make it harder to achieve what you're going for. With that being said, I have a few suggestions:

• If going the aggressive fliers route, I would definitely be sure to include cards such as Healer's Hawk , Faerie Miscreant , Hanged Executioner and Spectral Sailor . The value these add is pretty good on their own, and combo with your "lords" or anthem effects of Empyrean Eagle and Sephara, Sky's Blade . Casting Sephara, Sky's Blade for 1 mana is the main goal in this style of build, and packing the deck full of cheap fliers is your best chance of success. Consider cards like Winged Words and Rally of Wings to keep up the pressure. On my profile I have an example of this type of build intended to be budget for playing in paper if you need some inspiration.

• If planning to play a more control route, I would focus more on playing counter magic. Cards like Absorb , Negate , and Essence Capture all help you proactively stay ahead on board, allowing you to slowly get in chip damage over time. Cards like Teferi, Time Raveler , Narset, Parter of Veils and Hushbringer serve to hinder your opponent's ability to interact with your game plan as well. I would ditch some of the lower curve plays such as Healer's Hawk and Faerie Miscreant in favor of Pteramander and Spectral Sailor . The later two provide you with something to do with your mana on your opponents turn, as in this control shell you would be ideally be holding up mana for counter spells. Now to finish off the game, you would ideally like to play something you opponent will have a hard time stopping. Cutting Sephara, Sky's Blade in favor of Angel of Grace or Dream Eater will allow you to hold up mana to flash a creature in on your opponents turn, and effectively provide the same benefits that Sephara, Sky's Blade would at a discounted mana cost. In this style of build, prioritize removal such as Prison Realm over anthem effects as they will provide less of an overall benefit to the strategy.

I hope this helps guide your deck building into a more focused direction. Let me know if you need any more help!