Birds of Paradise

Creature — Bird

Flying

: Gain one mana of any colour.

Discussion (51)

Kumaisteri on Sultai grind grind (Midrange) (Gerlander)

2 days ago

I have a similar BUG (Sultai) Gerlander deck, but with fewer creatures and slightly "slower" gameplan. Which cards would you add from the Maybeboard, and which ones would you cut based on your experiences in playing with Sultai?

If I were you, I'd add Treasure Cruise and Narset, Parter of Veils into your deck, because both give nice card advantage. Maybe even consider Birds of Paradise to help speed up the early game vs. fast decks.

SideBae on Gruul Werewolves May.12 2019

2 days ago

So I've never built a werewolf tribal deck, but I have seen a hell of a lot of red-and-green decks. So I'll put out what I suggest.

First, you do NOT need rocks -- you need dorks. Being a green deck means you have access to Llanowar Elves , Fyndhorn Elves , Elvish Mystic , Orcish Lumberjack , Birds of Paradise , Priest of Titania , Bloom Tender and Boreal Druid , all in your colors. Green Sun's Zenith for zero can fetch Dryad Arbor as a turn 1 ramp spell as well, and later GSZ can fetch whichever creature is best for you (like Reclamation Sage , if you choose to run it). Having all the mana helps cast fat, important spells.

Running a lot of creatures means you should run Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip, which is a WAY more affordable Gaea's Cradle .

Another bonus of the dorks is that they make things like Slate of Ancestry (which you should run) and Shamanic Revelation (which you do run) much better. Also, if you run something like Overrun or Craterhoof Behemoth , they become efficient beat sticks. If you choose to run Craterhoof, I also suggest Natural Order to get it out for cheap. Overwhelming Stampede is another good choice for a finisher.

Depending on your meta, you may want to alter your land-base to be able to run Ruination or Blood Moon . Flashfires and Choke are also on the table, depending on the colors your friends like to play. Carpet of Flowers is a good way to take advantage of a blue player. Depending on the meta, Stranglehold from your Maybeboard is also a good idea.

With regard to removal of artifacts or enchantments, Nature's Claim is a good choice, as is Krosan Grip . Ancient Grudge , By Force , and Shattering Spree are good artifact hate; Back to Nature and Tranquil Grove are good enchantment hate.

In EDH, many-for-one spells are awesome. Decimate should come in off the Maybeboard, as it's good for blowouts. I also agree with NV_1980 in that Hull Breach is a good card. Eternal Witness is wonderful recursion.

You may want to run Nature's Lore and Farseek . These are very good for finding lands, and the Lore doesn't make the land enter tapped. Further, neither specifies the 'basic' supertype, so they can get your Stomping Ground . If you put Cinder Glade in, you can fetch that too. The Lore and Farseek are better than Kodama's Reach and Cultivate , at least in my experience.

With 31 creatures, you may want to consider Lurking Predators . Also, if you choose to run Sensei's Divining Top , this card becomes even better, and running Into the Wilds becomes better.

Lands can be expensive, but the best two for you are Cavern of Souls and Ancient Tomb . Typically, you don't want your lands to ETB tapped, as that puts you behind a turn. Grove of the Burnwillows and Taiga are also pretty good. Note that, if you choose to run Grove and your meta runs a lot of x/2s or x/1s, you might want to run Punishing Fire as well.

Rhythm of the Wild is a good way to make all your creatures into more immediate threats. Shared Animosity puts pressure on hard.

Running Mana Vault and slamming it turn 1 means you can cast your general turn 2. So... it's a good idea, I think.

If you're running Gruul Turf , I again agree with NV_1980: you should run Exploration . It's a good way to get your lands down fast and efficiently.

SideBae on Derevi Fat Stax

3 days ago

Right off the bat, you should strongly consider Smothering Tithe to run alongside your Stasis . Each turn cycle, all three of your opponents have to pay to cut you off one blue, meaning Stasis is very likely to stay put.

Second, instead of running Bident of Thassa , you should consider running a Green Sun's Zenith to fetch your Edric, Spymaster of Trest . This gives you the redundancy that two of the 'hit OP draw' effect while allowing you to fetch other things with GSZ, including a Dryad Arbor turn 1, if you choose to run that, or Reclamation Sage to take out a pesky artifact/enchantment.

Similarly, I always feel weird running signets or Commander's Sphere in a green deck. If you have access to green, you have access to dorks (which are way better than signets). Avacyn's Pilgrim , Fyndhorn Elves , Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch are all REALLY powerful. Priest of Titania and Bloom Tender are both two-drops that make enough mana to be busted as well. Similarly, I don't think Solemn Simulacrum is ideal in this deck. If you cut the artifact ramp for dork ramp, you can run Kataki, War's Wage or Energy Flux to great effect. Also, Stony Silence becomes just... real good.

Suppression Field is also an excellent card. You aren't running fetches, which is fine, but decks that DO run fetches despise Suppression Field -- AND it hoses 'walkers, which you run 0 of.

Playing lock pieces, you're going to draw a lot of counter magic. I advise Dispel as an efficient piece of counter-counter magic, as well as Flusterstorm if possible. In the vein of counter magic, I don't think Hinder is very good. If you're afraid of an opponent just getting value out of the spell in the graveyard, Void Shatter ensures that your opponent doesn't just tutor it back later.

I think Supreme Verdict is better than Wrath of God , if only because it dodges counter magic. You probably don't want to run two wrath effects (because you're a go-wide creature deck), so I advise just replacing wrath with the verdict.

Tutor-wise, Mystical Tutor and Enlightened Tutor would be great for this deck. Mystical can get any instant or sorcery you need, be it wrath or ramp, while enlightened can find you lock pieces fast. I highly suggest them both.

Brainstorm , Ponder and Preordain are all excellent cards that make a borderline hand into a good hand. I think all blue decks should run these Xerox pieces, as they find lands and/or important spells at a very low cost.

Depending on how prevalent blue is in your meta, consider Carpet of Flowers . It is a REALLY good card.

I'd replace Cultivate and Kodama's Reach with Nature's Lore and Farseek , and Explosive Vegetation with Skyshroud Claim . The suggested cards to not require the 'Basic' supertype, meaning they can grab your duals without a problem. Also, Nature's Lore and Skyshroud Claim allow for your lands to enter untapped, reducing their net mana cost.

I advise running Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth . With Derevi triggers targeting the enchanted land, these produce extra mana. Also, if you run Arbor Elf , they make it tap for extra mana as well. Notably, the sprawl can only target a forest. This isn't really a problem, as I think you should try to make your land base lean green anyways. Early in a game, you want to ramp first, which requires green and then enables you to find your other colors.

Grasp of Fate is probably better than Return to Dust . It has a wider range of targets, and tends to hit more permanents for less mana.

I think people tend to underestimate the power of soft-counters in EDH games. In the late game, when players have ramped their entire decks out, they do tend to be somewhat useless. However, early interaction is invaluable. I recommend at least trying Spell Pierce in a few games, as this can counter an early Sol Ring and make all the difference.

Speaking of odd EDH counterspells, Mental Misstep is another tremendously undervalued card. If your meta is fast, it can be a complete game changer; if your meta is slow, it is indeed useless. That's a meta call, but I put it out there because I've had great success with it.

Mystic Remora is a good way to draw cards if it comes down turn 2 or 3. You should consider running it.

I would suggest running Sower of Temptation over Keiga, the Tide Star . It is vulnerable to removal, but gaining control of a creature and impacting the board right away is worth it, at least in my opinion. Similarly, if you want to lay down some real cash, Gilded Drake is a good option.

You should at least consider running Thalia, Guardian of Thraben . With dorks and the untap abilities from your general, you're likely to have more mana than your opponents, making her ability more and more one-sided.

I think Reflecting Pool is probably better than Meteor Crater . You might also consider running City of Brass and Mana Confluence , as I've had good success with these in 3-color decks. Exotic Orchard and Forbidden Orchard are also considerations for mana fixing.

Mother of Runes is a D&T staple you might want to consider. She's very good for protecting your creatures, although she is a nonbo with the aforementioned Suppression Field .

I feel that Mulldrifter is included because it can be flickered with Roon of the Hidden Realm and Brago, King Eternal . Seeing as the blink effects aren't in the command zone, I think just running Fact or Fiction and/or Dig Through Time would be better, as they are instants and let you leave up counter magic. Treasure Cruise is good too, although this is a sorcery. Chart a Course , Slate of Ancestry and Shamanic Revelation are also good cards for this deck.

You may wish to consider Howling Mine . It will always draw you a card on your draw step, as the untap step comes first. However, if you tap it down with your general's ability, the effect becomes asymmetric.

Good luck with deck building!

Vlasiax on The Ur-Dragon

3 days ago

Unfortunately I didn't have enough occasions to playtest my deck as lately I've been working a lot and acquiring some of the more expensive cards, so I can't tell much about newest version - it looks solid when I goldfish but it might need a little more test-runs in actual play.

About Earthquake - if you want to get rid of dorks then I'd go for Electrickery since it's overload costs just like Earthquake but it can hit Birds of Paradise AND stay away from our creatures. Also when you start paying more it actually might get a little worse since it's for worse Pyroclasm or for worse Anger of the Gods . I'd personally just think about creatures that I'd like to wipe most often with this kind of card and search for better version. The only redeeming quality of Earthquake is it's flexibility so it can be actually tested during games to answer the question "how much damage is enough?". Anyway it's symmetrical so our poor dorks might die from it too. Fire Covenant might be better as an asymmetrical effect.

I think that Chrome Mox is better in more cEDH builds where you can dump a dork early game and just roll with it since these kind of builds run 10+ dorks or redundant draw/tutor effects so players often get rid of extra copies in hand to get more speed.

With Mox Diamond however, I think that if you can afford it then it can certainly go here instead of 1 land. That's because we've got to a point where our ways to draw cards look good so there's no worry in losing 1 land card early and mid/late-game it can be used as a great color fixing artifact. Also counting artifacts as lands we still have 37 total so it looks good in higher CMC decks like our builds.

Tata on Jarad

4 days ago

I think you're playing too many tapped lands. Golgari Guildgate and Jungle Hollow can easily be cut for basic lands. Having more basics also helps you avoid getting absolutely destroyed by things like BloodMoon or Back to Basics , which are commonly played cards.

Your deck's curve is also a little off. I think you need more 1 drops ( Expedition Map , Wayfarer's Bauble , Mana Vault , Vampiric Tutor , Birds of Paradise , Deathrite Shaman , etc). I would cut some of your 6 drops to make room (you have a lot of 6 drops).

I also think you should make use of ramp spells before you play mana rocks. Cultivate , Kodama's Reach , Nature's Lore , Farseek , Sylvan Scrying , Nissa's Pilgrimage , Search for Tomorrow , and Skyshroud Claim are all just so much better than Gilded Lotus or Golgari Signet .

SideBae on Lonely Kong

6 days ago

My first recommendation is Berserk . This is ideal for one-shotting the hell out of someone, although the sac at the end does seem costly unless you're confident you can re-resolve Grunn.

My second recommendation is Concordant Crossroads accompanied by some dorks. I feel that almost every green deck, if not EVERY green deck, benefits from running at least Elvish Mystic , Fyndhorn Elves and Llanowar Elves . Adding Arbor Elf with things like Utopia Sprawl or Wild Growth makes for even more mana. Birds of Paradise is also viable in mono-green, but is less good than in multi-colored decks. Landing a turn one dork means you can cast a turn two Kodama's Reach or Cultivate . Furthermore, if Grunn is repeatedly countered and/or removed, the dorks can hold equipment and swing in.

I do not think the Urza's lands are very good in EDH. This is because there is only one of each in 99 cards; I tried playing them once, and in the months I had playing the deck, I never assembled tron without a LOT of unnecessary effort.

Finally, if you play in a blue-heavy meta, Carpet of Flowers is always a powerhouse.

Good luck.

multimedia on Animar Spaghetti Party

1 week ago

Hey, lots of good cards here, but I think you're taking the Eldrazi theme too far; so far that it's hindering the rest of your deck.

You don't need 45 creatures who are all Eldrazi. The Eldrazi plan is good with Animar since they're colorless creatures, but before you can consistently play good Eldrazi creatures you need a lot of counters on Animar. This is where mana dorks can shine because they can put a counter on Animar and also be used as ramp for Eldrazi. It's also beneficial to play a few low mana cost support creatures who are excellent when you can bounce them or because they give you repeatable value.

• Birds of Paradise
• Elvish Mystic
• Llanowar Elves
• Fyndhorn Elves
• Rattleclaw Mystic
• Paradise Druid

Ancestral Statue is an engine with Animar since it can bounce itself back to your hand and if you have four or more counters on Animar it can be a loop of casting Statue for free and putting a counter on Animar each time, that's good with Eldrazi Titans. Fierce Empath is a very good Eldrazi tutor since most of the best Eldrazi have six CMC or higher. Being able to bounce Empath to then play it again can give you a repeatable Eldrazi tutor.

When casting a lot of creatures then Beast Whisperer is good repeatable draw. Fauna Shaman can be a repeatable creature tutor; discard an Eldrazi Titan who you can't cast yet, shuffle your library and then tutor for any other creature. Eternal Witness is an not Eldrazi, but she's and upgrade for a few cards here and is very good when you can bounce her. Thespian's Stage is another source of colorless mana that can potentially be another Eldrazi Temple .

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Eldrazi to consider cutting:

• Eldrazi Devastator
• Wretched Gryff
• Vile Aggregate
• Tide Drifter
• Ruination Guide
• Nettle Drone
• Kozilek's Channeler
• Eldrazi Obligator
• Deepfathom Skulker
• Brood Monitor
• Breaker of Armies
• Vexing Scuttler
• Mockery of Nature

Happymaster19 on Death and All His Friends

1 week ago

Flutterby415

The creature suite needs to be ironed out. Right now the idea is to cheat Griseldaddy and Ilharg, use Grisels to draw into Emmy, use Ilharg to slam Emmy. But it’s awkward when Emrakul cleans out your graveyard. That could end up bringing down the cost. And of course you can use less ideal fetches. Tarn is stupid expensive.

Of course, a sideboard still needs to be drawn up.

As for cards like Living End and Wheel of Fate , they simply are irreplaceable. They aren’t like downgrading Noble Hierarch to Birds of Paradise .

I’ll keep tweaking the creature suite until I find something I like. So start with downgrading Tarns to something like Shivan Reef .