This deck has several different win conditions. Swing with a massive army of 2/2 flying drakes? Sure. Mill out an opponent over the course of the game? Sure. Insta-mill via Tunnel Vision or Keening Stone? Sure. Make someone draw their entire library +1? Yep. Counter the spells and control the board during the process? Indeedily-Doodily.
The lynch pin for this deck is Deadeye Navigator soulbonded to Peregrine Drake. This is the infinite mana combo. Yes, it can easily win without it, but it's definitely fun. Yes, I know about Palinchron, but the drake is two mana cheaper and fits the flavor of the deck much better.
THE COMBOS
01 Hinder, then drop Tunnel Vision
02 Spell Crumple, followed by Tunnel Vision
Due to only having one of each card, there won't be anything to stop Tunnel Vision once it goes off.
03 Keening Stone on the field. Cast Traumatize. Use Keening Stone to double the cards milled.
Mill half their remaining library, then mill the remaining half. Boom!
04 Deadeye Navigator soulbonded to Peregrine Drake, then cast Blue Sun's Zenith
This one is my personal favorite. Tap five land, soulbond the drake, untap five land. Tap three for mana, tap two to exile the drake and bring it back soulbonded again, untapping all five land. Three mana is now floating. Repeat until you have enough mana to use the zenith to make your opponent draw their whole library.
05 Altar of the Brood with Deadeye Navigator soulbonded to Peregrine Drake
Infinite mill combo, one card at a time.
06
Sage's Row Denizen
with Deadeye Navigator soulbonded to Peregrine Drake
Infinite mill combo, two cards at a time. Or have all four cards in place to mill three every time.
07 Deadeye Navigator, Peregrine Drake and
Jace's Mindseeker
Infinite ETB effects from the mindseeker mill quickly, get a bunch of instant/sorcery spells, each of which makes a 2/2 drake with Talrand.
08 Deadeye Navigator, Peregrine Drake, and Capsize
Return every single permanent on the battlefield to their owner's hand. Massive land loss, and discarding at their end step. Another favorite combo of mine.
09 Hedron Crab with Myriad Landscape and/or
Terrain Generator
Worthless lands you draw late game are suddenly gold. With Peregrine Drake, continually untap the generator to bring out every land in your hand. Altar of the Brood and/or
Sage's Row Denizen
could mill for up to six cards per land dropped.
10 Deadeye Navigator, Peregrine Drake, Jace, Memory Adept, Capsize
Infinite mana in place, capsize Jace, put him back out, mill ten, return him, drop him, mill ten. Forever. FOR. EV. VER.
11 Temple Bell and Mind Over Matter. (Special thanks to abominableslyvo for this one!)
Make the table draw themselves to death. Since you should have the largest library of the group, it's particularly potent.
These are just the combos I've pulled off/thought of. If you think of any others let me know in the comments!
Every card fits into one (or more) of seven categories: Mana, Draw, Counter, Control, Mill, Search, and Instant/Sorcery interaction.
MANA (37 cards)
On top of the twenty-five Islands, we have a dozen others mana generators. Myriad Landscape, Sapphire Medallion, Sky Diamond, Sol Ring, and
Terrain Generator
all mana ramp. Turn 1, Island, Sol Ring, Medallion. Turn 2, Island, almost everything in the deck is playable now. If you have enough mana,
Remote Isle
, Lonely Sandbar, and
Blasted Landscape
let you draw cards. Reliquary Tower lets you keep those cards you drew. Halimar Depths lets you see what's coming. Minamo, School at Water's Edge untaps any legendary permanent on the battlefield at your will. And finally, since half of the creatures in this deck are wizards, Riptide Laboratory adds some extra protection to your creatures.
DRAW/SCRY (24 cards)
On top of the five lands that let you draw/keep cards, we have many other goodies to dig through. Like Dig Through Time for example, along with Blue Sun's Zenith, Brainstorm, Jace's Ingenuity,
Keep Watch
, Opt, Ponder, Preordain, Telling Time, and
Recurring Insight
(which counts for two spells/drakes with rebound, especially good right after a board wipe when hands are stuffed with cards). Frantic Search pays for itself. Temple Bell lets the table draw a card. Also,
Ring of Three Wishes
and Fabricate let you choose which card you draw. Dissolve, Arcane Denial, and
Interdict
all counter stuff while letting you draw/scry as a bonus. Jace, Memory Adept lets you draw a card and mill one while Relic of Progenitus handles graveyard shenanigans while drawing a card.
In general, given the number of winning combos and the amount of card draw, you should never be without the cards you need after a few turns.
CONTROL (22 cards)
Curfew
, Disperse, and Riptide Laboratory let you bounce permanents. Wash Out and Devastation Tide are board wipes. Cyclonic Rift and Capsize are both, either bouncing a single permanent or an entire board. Sleep and Blustersquall tap creatures like nobody's business. Hands of Binding and
Hidden Strings
both cipher, each trigger counts as a sorcery and thus makes another drake. Peregrine Drake and Minamo, School at Water's Edge both untap permanents. Relic of Progenitus,
Dissipate
, and Deadeye Navigator all exile spells.
Desertion
lets you gain control of a permanent (especially a commander) Rapid Hybridization smokes a specific thorn in your side.
Jace's Mindseeker
potentially lets you drop a free instant/sorcery and get another drake.
Jester's Cap
and Bribery both let you nab cards straight from an opponent's library. And finally, Mind Over Matter keeps things tapped or untapped.
COUNTER (17 cards)
Besides Counterspell, we have another one in the form of Familiar's Ruse since the sacrificed creature is replaced. Same with
Abjure
, making a one drop counter spell.
Deprive
lets you use Hedron Crab again. Hinder and Spell Crumple tuck commanders and set up Tunnel Vision.
Dissipate
exiles the countered card.
Desertion
lets you gain control of the card, particulary awesome if you nab someone's commander with it. Dissolve, Arcane Denial, and
Interdict
let you draw/scry as a bonus. Pact of Negation is a zero drop counter spell, enough said. Dispel, Swan Song, Negate, and Muddle the Mixture all have cheap mana price tags. And then there's Ertai, Wizard Adept. This guy is amazing. It seems like he would be a crazy target for board hate, but between his ability and other control mechanisms, he's pretty easy to protect. Murder? Counter. Abrupt Decay? Return him with Riptide Laboratory. Seriously, Ertai is a boss and earns his paycheck every game. Shoot, he should get a bonus.
MILL (10 cards)
Between Altar of the Brood,
Sage's Row Denizen
, and Hedron Crab, every permanent dropped mills a little bit. And with Talrand out, each instant and sorcery creates another permanent. It's like it was planned out or something!
Memory Erosion
hits your opponent's spells, making them even more nervous to cast their next card. Jace, Memory Adept mills ten each turn, and has drakes/control for protection. Traumatize hits half of a library, and it hits hard. Keening Stone and Tunnel Vision are both game winning final pieces to combos. If there are any Eldrazi creatures or an Elixir of Immortality, exiling Relic of Progenitus keeps them from being used twice. And finally,
Jace's Mindseeker
mills five, and lets you cast an instant/sorcery AND makes another drake. I know, right?
SEARCH (8 cards)
Polymorph and
Jalira, Master Polymorphist
both let you dig deep into your library for creature cards. Especially useful since Jalira only triggers four cards, and if they all go off, it's game over. Polymorph can nab the legendary creatures (including Jalira)!
Ring of Three Wishes
and Long-Term Plans let you look for any card from your library you wish, while Fabricate looks for an artifact (usually the ring) and Mystical Tutor searches for an instant or sorcery (usually another tutor or board wipe). Finally,
Jester's Cap
lets you search for anything that might keep you from hitting combos (like Eldrazi and graveyard shuffling) while Bribery simply lets you take any creature from an opponent's library.
INSTANT/SORCERY (7 cards)
With forty-five instant and sorcery card in here, each of which can make a 2/2 flier on top of original effects, it's important to have additional benefits/taxes for instant and sorcery spells.
Hidden Strings
and Hands of Binding both have cipher, stacking additional triggers and additional drakes for each hit. Isochron Scepter has twenty cards that it can exile, most of which are counter spells. Each use of it triggers another drake.
Eyes of the Watcher
lets you scry 2 almost every turn, giving you that much more advantage.
Jace's Mindseeker
lets you cast an instant or sorcery for free, plus the drake. Mixed with the infinite mana combo, it is also a game ending card. Mystic Remora draws cards for you whenever an opponent casts an instant or sorcery.
Finally, the ultimate, the legend, the commander,
Talrand, Sky Summoner
. The guy that single-handedly brings forth your army of drakes; he is your recruiter, your second-in-command on the battlefield. He makes almost half the cards in your deck that much more amazing. A 2/2 flying creature usually costs three or four mana, but with Talrand, it's a freebie! This guy is my buddy.
This deck has been honed and refined to be as efficient and controlling as possible, while still being a load of fun to play as many win conditions are possible. At this point, the only changes would be swapping Dissolve for Force of Will and
Deprive
for
Mana Drain
; however, those two cards by themselves nearly cost twice what the whole deck costs, making it nowhere near worth the money. But maybe someday over a trade...
I really, really like this deck. Milling is my favorite win condition and swinging with tons of tokens comes in at a close second. This deck is as close to perfect as I can make it as far as I know. Every single card has been pondered over and came at the cost of other, nearly equally awesome cards. Nonetheless, if you have any suggestions I am open to hearing them.
Thanks for checking this out! Give it a +1 if you like it!
