Birds of Paradise

Creature — Bird

Flying

{T}: Add one mana of any colour.

Discussion (50)

Octrate on It's Tough to be Xenagod

1 week ago

Hey again Profet93! To answer your questions:

1. I've not yet wiffed on Reflecting Pool, though I can see how that could be an issue at some point. Thankfully, the high prevalence of fetchlands at my disposal allows me to very consistently get the colors I need rather easily.

2. Urza's Saga is purely here to get Sol Ring to get a fast Xenagos into play on turn 3. Shadowspear is a nice worst case, but I've only had to grab it a handful of times.

3. Wheel of Fortune (and by extension, Wheel of Misfortune), are extremely good. I usually save it for when I'm low on gas or have a TON of mana to abuse. I'll try and avoid casting it if someone has a portion of mana untapped as well, but... I don't mind playing risky at times. The circumstances vary, but if you can proxy it or have access to it, I recommend giving it a spin.

As for your suggestions, I am still running Rancor at the moment. It has hilariously gotten me a win or two with a Birds of Paradise and an extra combat spell. As for the others, I'll keep a few in mind. I've been thinking about Heroic Intervention, as well as Tibalt's Trickery, but for now, I am satisfied with my current spells.

Always appreciate your feedback. Thanks again.

DreadKhan on Tiamat semi-competitive

1 week ago

I tend to run a higher land count in my 5 colour decks (37-39 feels 'normal', your more competitive mana base would allow you to run less and still fix reliably, but I'd hesitate to go below 34 with a 7 MV Commander). As you're not at the full size for your deck, you have room to throw in some lands, and since opponents sometimes run effects that have 'find a Basic', you might want one of each Basic. Rampant Growth (and Expedition) has to find a Basic Land, so you should either add basics or switch it with Nature's Lore or Wood Elves.

I feel like a few more creatures would help, Birds of Paradise is a good ramp source, Ignoble Hierarch is a slightly worse one, and Tireless Provisioner offers a potentially better Lotus Cobra (you could use both IMHO). Very good if you run enough Fetch lands obviously. If you run both, you probably want all 10 Fetch lands, and might even run Krosan Verge, which is great with Triomes anyways. Really $$, but Urza's Incubator is a strong card in Dragons, even your Commander benefits. Really weird, but I guess Herald's Horn and Descendants' Path are pretty sweet. If you can get your creature count in general high enough, Lurking Predators can bring out multiple dragons per turn cycle, and when it doesn't find a creature you still get to scry. Dragon's Hoard, and Dragonspeaker Shaman are probably solid includes.

You probably want some card draw in here, but if you use Tiamat as your Commander over Ur-Dragon, you probably don't need Rush of Knowledge, but Stinging Study still draws a hand's worth of cards for 5 almost regardless of where your Commander is. Garruk's Uprising would probably fit. Due to having lots of big creatures, Return of the Wildspeaker is probably not bad, and Overwhelming Stampede might be good enough to close games for you.

You probably don't want to run stuff like Land Tax or Gift of Estates with actual Green ramp, if you have access to Green, you usually are better off running Green ramp over Gift of Estates type spells. YMMV!

Counterspell is a risky card to run in a 5 colour deck, it's hard to have UU mana up to cast it. Does it mostly deal with creatures, or protect vs wipes? Swan Song and Arcane Denial are both cards worth a look, the new An Offer You Can't Refuse might be interesting as well. I personally like 1-3 counters in my 5 colour decks, with competitive decks running more, overly Casual ones might run just 1 as a wildcard. Negate is much easier to cast I expect, and thus you're more likely to have the mana up.

If you are interested, Tyrite Sanctum can give Tiamat an Indestructible counter right away since she's already a God. Not sure if you care about keeping her out though!

AstroAA on Hamza +1/+1 counters

1 week ago

Looking a lot better. I'd playtest it to see how it goes if I were you. You're now at 25 creatures, and with a creature-based deck you run a risk of not having enough creatures to play. As I said, playtest it and see if you're getting to play enough creatures, and if you aren't you could potentially go down one more land for something like Birds of Paradise or Elvish Mystic. However, then you're starting to tread a fine line on not having enough lands.

Ultimately, play and test the deck to see if it's to your liking and adjust from there.

AscendedLandfalls on Zaxara, The Exemplary

2 weeks ago

I personally would not use any ramp over two in this deck. My suggestions:

OUT: Skyshroud Claim, lower land count to 35, Elementalist's Palette, The Great Henge

IN: Nature's Lore, Three Visits, Birds of Paradise, Wild Growth

For card draw and removal:

OUT: Negate, Krosan Grip, Stinging Study,

IN: Counterspell, Nature's Claim, Opt

Two other cards I would suggest to add but I don't know which cards you would be willing to take out for them:

IN: Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor

DrkNinja on Blue/green token

3 weeks ago

Alrund's Epiphany Arachnogenesis Awakening Zone Bane of Progress Barkchannel Pathway  ^Flip Beacon of Creation Birds of Paradise Circle of Dreams Druid Crafty Cutpurse Craterhoof Behemoth Cryptolith Rite Deep Forest Hermit Dreamroot Cascade Fabled Passage Fierce Guardianship Garruk, Primal Hunter Idol of Oblivion Junk Winder Koma, Cosmos Serpent Master of Waves Misty Rainforest Mystic Reflection Mystic Sanctuary Nissa, Voice of Zendikar Oko, Thief of Crowns Otawara, Soaring City Priest of Titania Prismatic Vista Reality Shift Reef Worm Replicating Ring Repudiate / Replicate Rite of Replication Sakashima of a Thousand Faces Second Harvest Shamanic Revelation Sublime Epiphany Sylvan Library Theoretical Duplication Timestream Navigator Treasure Vault Tropical Island Waterlogged Grove Worldly Tutor Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury

AstroAA on Maya Angels

3 weeks ago

So first things first - I see you swapped the commander to Atla Palani, Nest Tender, and I do think that she is stronger for cheating things into play as her plus her ability costs the same as a single Mayael the Anima activation, her ability triggers whenever an egg dies, and besides her you only have one egg producer in the deck - Nesting Dragon - and you aren't running any token doublers, I'd advise running something like Rings of Brighthearth or Illusionist's Bracers to copy her ability, allowing you to potentially cheat in multiple things a turn. However, her ability only triggers when something dies. I see you have Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar in the maybeboard, and they're definitely probably your best options to accomplish this as that mana can also be used to cast angels in your hand.

Also, your CMC is 4.03, which is ridiculously high. You also aren't running any mana ramp outside of artifacts, which while your commanders ability is based around cheating things into play - if you don't have access to your commander or sac outlets than you're screwed. Things like Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Migration Path, or cards like Birds of Paradise, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Fyndhorn Elves, or even cost-reducer cards like Starnheim Aspirant, Pearl Medallion all can make a big impact. Or, even just swapping some of the higher CMC angels out for lower-costed ones, like Angel of Vitality, Angel of Jubilation, Resplendent Angel and Righteous Valkyrie can go a long way towards a smoother game.

AstroAA on Hamza +1/+1 counters

3 weeks ago

Victory's Herald is kind of meh and overcosted for it's effect, as Cathars' Crusade does the same thing as many times a turn as it can, whereas Victory's Herald can only do it once. Replace it with like a Birds of Paradise or something like that to help both your curve and ramp.

While I do like Wayward Swordtooth, I'm not sure it does you much good here as I prefer it as a redundancy card. If you wanted a 1:1 replacement and are looking specifically for land-based ramp cards, Azusa, Lost but Seeking is infinitely better, and Wayward Swordtooth should only ever be ran in land-based decks that are wanting additional land plays per turn, such as a general that revolves around lands like Titania, Protector of Argoth. However, I would personally recommend cutting lands as 37 is a bit much, especially for a green/white deck. I'd recommend cutting down to around 34, but in place of those three lands I'd add in cheap creatures that still try and deal with your gameplan, like Fertilid, Incubation Druid, or Esper Sentinel.

AstroAA on need to speed things up …

3 weeks ago

To start, your average converted mana cost is 3.44, which is kind of high. I would definitely work on lowering that. In addition, while you are running things like Somberwald Sage, Heronblade Elite, and Gyre Sage - things that can tap for lots of mana - they are all three CMC, which is a lot for ramp that you cannot even use that turn. You'd want to look at things like Elvish Mystic, Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves and Birds of Paradise.

You're also running a lot of lands, but no way to ramp via lands besides Cultivate. Things like Exploration, Kodama's Reach, Burgeoning, etc can help with this.

Also, general suggestion - if you want to do things with counters, run Doubling Season and/or Anointed Procession; they're too good in counter-based decks. You also need a Cathars' Crusade, as it can easily distribute multiple counters in a single turn to every single creature you control.