Birds of Paradise

Creature — Bird

Flying

: Gain one mana of any colour.

Discussion (49)

griffstick on Rashmi

1 week ago

Spawning grounds is still a bad card. I think you could use some more fast ramp. You should add 4-5 one mana ramp. Think Elvish Mystic , Fyndhorn Elves , Llanowar Elves , and Birds of Paradise , Boreal Druid

Mochitoki on Zaxara's Infinite Death

2 weeks ago

BeeZak

Ok so the changes i made are-

Out- Birds of Paradise , Manaweft Sliver , Leyline Prowler , Yavimaya Elder , Capricopian , Seedborn Muse , Chromatic Lantern , Darksteel Ingot , Replicating Ring , Gilded Lotus , Opulent Palace , Winged Temple of Orazca

In- Forest , Island , Swamp , Farseek , Nature's Lore , Sakura-Tribe Elder , Dimir Signet , Golgari Signet , Simic Signet , Worldly Tutor , Parallel Lives , Assassin's Trophy

I forgot i wanted Worldly tutor and Parallel Lives in the deck.

Check the new build/stats and gimme yer thoughts.

BeeZak on Zaxara's Infinite Death

2 weeks ago

All aboard the Selvala, Heart of the Wilds / Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy train! Choo choo!

Seriously though, this looks sweet as hell. The infinite mana angle seems nasty, but not overly pushed, which should lead to good gameplay. Freed from the Real tends to be a surprisingly loud threat and my guess is that it's likely going to be a bit too greedy, especially considering you have fairly limited protection. Pemmin's Aura is good enough because the protection is built-in, and the added evasion will help you close some games. I've also found that cards like this tend to suffer quite a bit to the Chaos Orb s in our meta but YMMV.

The first thing that stood out to me was that you have significantly less interaction than you typically play, and I'd bet that it'll feel a bit uncomfortable having to be so selective with your answers. I'd recommend adding Windgrace's Judgment and Assassin's Trophy to improve your flexible removal, and some number of Erebos's Intervention , Battle at the Bridge , Profane Command , and Black Sun's Zenith to up your creature removal and creature count (Hydra tokens) at the same time. Also, these do really well against indestructible threats (cough Blightsteel Colossus + Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger cough) like gods and such.

You could probably also use another counterspell or two, but if you don't want to lean too hard that direction, that's understandable.

The second main thing I noticed is your mana ramp package—I'd look at it fairly critically and consider your goals. For example, I'd keep all creatures that tap for 2 or more mana ( Bloom Tender , Incubation Druid , Selvala, Heart of the Wilds ) as they give you more paths to going infinite. I'd cut the ones that only make 1 mana ( Birds of Paradise , Manaweft Sliver , Leyline Prowler ) as they tend to be a bit of a liability compared to land fetch spells and you aren't inherently taking advantage of the fact that they are creatures.

I'd also focus on the curve of your mana ramp. I think you should prioritize 2 cost spells like the three on-color signets, and the land fetch spells Nature's Lore , Farseek , Rampant Growth , and Sakura-Tribe Elder . Swapping these for your 3-5 cost mana ramp will give you more chances to cast Zaxara on turn 3 and get the ball rolling on both bigger mana and generating hydras. The way I see it, you could have a signet + Zaxara to use on turn 5 or spend that same turn casting a Gilded Lotus which is the same mana output but a turn slower. Basalt Monolith is the exception here as it goes infinite.

The final thing I'd encourage is to play more land. You really need to always hit Zaxara early for your deck to do it's thing, and maximizing your potential to consistently hit 4 mana on curve is going to pay dividends. At 34 I'd say you're 2-3 short of what I'd recommend for a mana-hungry deck like this, and you're actually at 33 right now because Winged Temple of Orazca starts as a Hadana's Climb  ^Flip and likely shouldn't be counted as a land.

Here are the baseline swaps I'd recommend:

Out - Birds of Paradise - Manaweft Sliver - Leyline Prowler - Yavimaya Elder - Freed from the Real - Capricopian - Seedborn Muse - Chromatic Lantern - Darksteel Ingot - Replicating Ring - Gilded Lotus - Opulent Palace

In + 2 Forest + 1 Island + 1 Swamp + Farseek + Nature's Lore + Sakura-Tribe Elder + Golgari Signet + Simic Signet + Dimir Signet + Profane Command / Erebos's Intervention + Windgrace's Judgment / Assassin's Trophy

These aren't super exciting changes but they'll massively help your initial consistency. I'd play the deck a buch before deciding what swaps would be best beyond this.

Stoked to see the deck in action!

TheVectornaut on Red Green Dinos

1 month ago

It's worth noting that when transitioning from standard to modern, a lot of cards that seem like powerful contributors to a tribe end up being worse than non-tribal counterparts. For instance, Thunderherd Migration is probably better than the standard alternative Beneath the Sands , but it's probably worse than Rampant Growth , Cultivate , or maybe Sylvan Scrying with the right nonbasic to fetch. Drover of the Mighty is another that seems strong as a 3/3, but if you're tapping it for mana most of the time anyway, something like Birds of Paradise , Arbor Elf , Joraga Treespeaker , Incubation Druid , Whisperer of the Wilds , or Ilysian Caryatid might be more efficient. The only other suggestion I have is to consider adding ways to recurrently trigger enrage. Forerunner of the Empire is a pretty common option, but I can also see Pyrohemia , Harbinger of the Hunt , Raging Regisaur , Spikeshot Elder , or Power of Fire being used with varying pros and cons. Some enrage lists I see also make use of damage trigger shenanigans on cards like Arcbond and Rite of Passage . A possible cut could be Shifting Ceratops since it's generally more of a sideboard card. Otherwise, I'd cut any enrage trigger that isn't either repeatable or very cheap. Reckless Rage is great, but Tilonalli's Crown could just as easily be Dual Shot or something to that effect. A final note I'd make is that you may be able to take advantage of some of the bigger enrage dinos like Snapping Sailback and Silverclad Ferocidons . I wouldn't normally recommend them, however, Etali and a lot of ramp go a long way toward making them viable.

gatotempo on The New Most Competitive Modern Deck--Dryads

1 month ago

I know we've gotten down to one explore, but even that is too many. Basically, explore in modern on two allows you to play a four-drop on three. In a deck where the only four is a pump spell that requires you to have developed a board presence, explore doesn't make sense. If you want to play more small creatures with four mana, then use a mana dork that develops your board presence (at least somewhat), such as Birds of Paradise or the cheaper Llanowar Elves .

Cravv on The Mimeoplasm [Competitive] EDH

1 month ago

Here is some cards that i think are must have: Insidious Dreams , It That Betrays , Emrakul, the Promised End , Void Winnower , Krosan Cloudscraper , Consuming Aberration , Kozilek, the Great Distortion , Frantic Search , Lim-Dul's Vault , Putrefax , Dark Ritual , Bane of Progress , Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord (great alternative wincon with Lord of Extinction [that is one instainclude too]), Toxic Deluge , Fathom Mage , Cavern of Souls , Assassin's Trophy , Abrupt Decay , Alchemist's Refuge , Pernicious Deed , Phyrexian Dreadnought , Hermit Druid , Rise of the Dark Realms , Reanimate . Those are of the hat that come to mind first when thinking whats missing here. Eldrazis are mainly for counters, Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon and Putrefax are for swinging and Fathom Mage (another zegana) and Bane of Progress are for utility. Also you are in promised land of green ramp so i would take out heavy mana cost artifact ramps and change them to Mana Crypt and green ramp like Birds of Paradise and other 1 mana dorks. And if you want to dig for lands, Nature's Lore and Three Visits are just better Farseek s. Search for Tomorrow is also great. As enchantment ramp i would suggest Exploration , Burgeoning , Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl . I'm more than glad to answer if you have questions.

Grimgrinner on Toski's Happy Tree Friends

1 month ago

Optional upgrades!! - I will only recommend cards that stay on the theme of small creatures getting big or overwhelming. If you want a Toski deck full of big threats, look at another build.

- Hall of Triumph pretty solid honestly. I just had trouble finding the deck slot for it. Run it if you like!

- Birds of Paradise - sure it's a worse Scryb Sprites in this deck but its also another Scryb Sprites and ramps so eh?

- Hope of Ghirapur better than scryb sprites and comes in for free off our Helm of Awakening but doesn't benefit from our green buff spells. Also that ability will probably draw some ire when people can't cast their turn 2 Arcane Signet or Rampant Growth or whatever.

- Skullclamp ill let you figure this one out

- Commander's Plate Toski get big and protection from 4 colors. What's not to like?

- Bow of Nylea The static deathtouch alone is worth the CMC. $6+ though, not as budget friendly. If you played during theros though, you probably opened about 3-4 of these and they're sitting in chaff boxes.

- Exploration I mean, yeah. look at it.

- Azusa, Lost but Seeking Its pretty good. Hard to drop the lands consistently. Make sure you got the draw to fuel her and something to spend all that mana on. She's better in landfall decks, really, and our only landfall in here is Scute Swarm .

- Heroic Intervention great for board wipes or combat tricks. Not so smug with your 1-mana Blasphemous Act eh?

Polaris on Stack questions

1 month ago

Yes, he can, for two reasons. One is that all players can cast instants and activate abilities in response to a spell or ability, even if that spell is an instant. For example, if you were targeting a Spore Frog with your Lightning Bolt , the opponent could respond by sacrificing it before Bolt resolved.

The second reason is that abilities that produce mana (mana abilities) don't use the stack at all. They can be used at pretty much any time and there's almost no way to disrupt them. However, mana drains from your mana pool at the end of each step, so the opponent only has that untap step to use the mana Birds of Paradise produced (meaning they can probably only use it for an instant or instant-speed ability).

As a side note, you typically can't take any actions during the untap step, barring something triggering during untap. Normally you'd have to wait until you got priority during their upkeep to Bolt the Bird.