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Birds! Birds! Birds!

Commander / EDH* GWU (Bant)

Jimlad

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Creature (27)

Instant (8)

Land (34)

Sorcery (10)

Commander (1)

Commander: Derevi, Empyrial Tactician

Enchantment (11)

Artifact (8)

Planeswalker (1)

Maybeboard

Creature (15)

Instant (5)

Enchantment (1)

Sorcery (3)

Planeswalker (2)

A deck about Birds! Derevi, Empyrial Tactician is a super good bird that keeps coming back for no extra mana! Lots of birds that fly! Birds that make you draw cards! BIRDS THAT MAKE BIRDS! Play Dovescape to force everyone to play birds! Evolutionary Leap lets you turn birds INTO OTHER BIRDS! Aven Mimeomancer turns non-birds into birds! Don't like a bird? Sacrifice it to Seaside Haven to draw more birds and make your birds stronger with Soulcatcher or Soulcatchers' Aerie! BIRDS!

So here's my attempt at a primer for this bird-based monstrosity...

The Tribe

Birds have had a surprising amount of tribal support, going all the way back to the early days of Magic, way before I started. Birds are small, weak, yet most come with built-in Flying (for obvious reasons) paired with a very low casting cost. Birds are meant to come out fast in large numbers, and for the most part can be built as token swarm or plain-old aggro. I decided to go the aggro route just because I like to have a lot of different birds with different abilities rather than a bunch of the same 1/1 flyer, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with going the token route; this deck just won't be much help.

The Cards

BIRDS

Aetherstorm Roc: Probably one of the better birds to come out recently. While the deck does not rely on Energy in any way, it does spit out creatures pretty quickly, so you'll most probably be able to trigger his ability every turn. A 3/3 in a Bird deck is pretty beefy, and he'll only get bigger.
Aven Mimeomancer: One of my absolute favorite birds. Once a turn he can turn something into a 3/1 Bird with flying. Forever. The newly-minted bird still keeps all of its original abilities, but it's really nice to turn someone's dragon into something significantly more killable, or add two extra power to one of your own 1/1s. Keep note that this does also add the Bird creature type, which ties in to Soulcatchers' Aerie.
Aven Mindcensor: A great card overall for controlling tutors. Also just so happens to be a Bird!
Birds of Paradise: The deck isn't too starving for ramp, but if one of the best mana dorks in Magic happens to be a Bird, he's going right in.
Celestial Gatekeeper: Great, unexpected recursion. Take note this guy brings back TWO birds when he dies, and they go straight to the battlefield. I've turned around quite a few games with this guy and a decent number of choices in my graveyard.
Cloudchaser Kestrel: Not a fantastically unique bird by any means, but the enchantment removal on ETB can be useful. Could also be used to blow up Dovescape if you've found yourself in too deep...
Commander Eesha: Won't exactly win games, but flying with protection from creatures means you'll always have a blocker.
Gustcloak Savior: Reconnaissance! Allows you to go all-out with attackers and pull back anything that would die in the process.
Judge's Familiar: Not a game-winning effect but it's still deterred a number of otherwise game-winning spells from being cast.
Keeper of the Nine Gales: Can really screw up someone's board once you have enough Birds out.
Lieutenant Kirtar: My friends HATE this guy. A rattlesnake that exiles while only sacrificing himself, so you can bring him back again later!
Mindshrieker: Will probably be replaced once a better Bird comes out, but he can still become unexpectedly large or screw up someone's scry.
Mirror Entity: A bird, technically! Can turn all your normally-dinky Birds into X/X flying powerhouses to win the game.
Nimble Obstructionist: A fun, new bird! Though you may not ever actually play her as a creature, the counter ability cycling thing is usually unexpected.
Raven Familiar: A pretty useful filter/draw ETB. I'll usually pay the echo cost afterwards.
River Hoopoe: Another new Bird! Yay! The activated ability cost is steep but screw it man, I'll take what I can get.
Sawtooth Loon: Immensely useful draw effect, can also just bounce himself to do it again!
Skymark Roc: I'll usually use this guy to bounce any annoying low-toughness threats that are annoying me.
Soulcatcher: Kinda lame late game, but can really snowball if you get him on the field early.
Thieving Magpie: The deck has a lot of Curiosity effects, but this one is tied directly to a Bird!
Warden of Evos Isle: Kind of a weird mana dork, only works for other flying creatures (read: Birds).
Wingmate Roc: Super cool bird with some decently-hefty P/T. Still need to get my hands on the creature token.

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