Derevi, Empyrial Tactician

Legendary Creature — Bird Wizard

Flying

Whenever Derevi, Empyrial Tactician enters the battlefield or a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, you may tap or untap target permanent.

: Put Derevi onto the battlefield from the command zone.

Discussion (50)

Skinken on

1 day ago

Birds is a surprisingly well supported tribe, and flying tribal has been getting a fair bit of support recently. So building birds in commander can be both fun and powerful because you can combine old and new cards.

A creature has to be a Legendary creature to be legal as your commander. The classic option for birds would be Kangee, Aerie Keeper . Some other options that are more "Flying tribal" than bird tribal could be Kangee, Sky Warden (a very budget-friendly option), Isperia the Inscrutable , Akim, the Soaring Wind , Derevi, Empyrial Tactician or Alela, Artful Provocateur .

Now you should decide whether you want cards that support having Birds specifically: Aven Brigadier , Celestial Gatekeeper , Crookclaw Elder , Seaside Haven , Soulcatchers' Aerie , Airborne Aid , Migratory Route , Animal Sanctuary etc. Or if you just want cheap flyers that may or may not be birds and just play flying tribal: Battle Screech , Favorable Winds , Gravitational Shift , Gust of Wind , Island Sanctuary , Kangee's Lieutenant , Lofty Denial , Pride of the Clouds , Rally of Wings , Sephara, Sky's Blade , Siani, Eye of the Storm , Skycat Sovereign , Soulcatcher , The Raven's Warning , Thunderclap Wyvern , Tide Skimmer , Warden of Evos Isle , Watcher of the Spheres , Waterkin Shaman , Windstorm Drake , Winged Words , Battle Screech .

Your list has a lot of pretty bad cards that don't support your strategy. I would cut Healing Salve , Resupply , Take Up Arms , Call to Mind , Survival Cache , Refurbish (has 4 targets in your deck and no matter what you get you pay more mana than you should), Siegecraft etc. Pure lifegain spells are bad unless you build around them, and this is supposed to be a bird/flying deck right? Cards that make tokens without flying are not great because your lords and synergy don't make them better. So even though Raise the Alarm is a solid magic card, you would prolly rather have like a Mistral Charger because you can build synergy around it.

Removal is always good. You can almost never have too much of it. However, if you are really cool, you can try to play removal and card draw that is flavorful and synergistic as well: Ravenform , Wing Shards , Aerial Assault , Swan Song , Winged Words , Gust of Wind , Lofty Denial . Also, sol ring is great but more ramp is usually a good idea in commander, and Azorius Keyrune is also a bird!

Good luck with the screechy dudes!

Metagrossle on Sisay’s Legendary Legends

1 month ago

Why aren't you playing Najeela, the Blade-Blossom , Derevi, Empyrial Tactician , and Jegantha, the Wellspring ?

gavriel1136 on Moving Back To EDH, Looking …

1 month ago

Personally, my two most flexible commander decks that never play quite the same each game are my Derevi, Empyrial Tactician Exalted/equipment unblockable deck, and my Obeka, Brute Chronologist Reanimator deck. Both have a wide variety of options involved, and present plenty of choice for experienced players.

Archaeosis on The prismatic bridge to friendship

2 months ago

Mana base: I see you're running a lot of modal lands, I'd recommend switching these out for basic lands or more named lands (Forest, Plains etc). The modal lands aren't searchable off of your ramp spells like Spoils of Victory or Farseek. I really like having a named land focus in Esika's mana base - shock lands ( Overgrown Tomb , Sacred Foundry etc.) should replace the snow dual lands if your budget allows for them. If not (understandable, shock lands for a 5 colour deck eat your wallet) then I'd play all 5 Triomes, and all 5 named lands that enter untapped if you control 2 or more basic lands ( Prairie Stream , Smoldering Marsh etc.) along with 2-4 of each basic land and some basic land ramp alongside your named land ramp such as Rampant Growth , Cultivate & Kodama's Reach . Land Tax is also a solid option if you run at least a couple of each basic land as it can colour fix you very early on so you can play The Prismatic Bridge asap. I know you're running counter increasers like Vorinclex, but I'd also remove the 2 counter based lands you have as well, without something like Vorinclex or Doubling Season out they're sub-optimal.

I'd take out the mana rocks you have in there, and replace them with more ramp sorceries like Three Visits , Ranger's Path , Skyshroud Claim , and Nature's Lore . Yes, they search specifically for Forests, but with enough named dual lands or Triomes they'll still allow you to search for the colour you need. If you didn't want to add in more ramp sorceries, low cmc legendary creatures that you can tap for mana via Esika's ability are viable (this would require you to have cards that allow you to bounce Esika back to hand ideally so you could cast her enchantment side when needed). Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy is an absolute beast in this deck, even if you whiff on his ability a lot being able to tap any legendary creature for 2 mana of any colour from turn 2 onwards is dummy strong. If you go down this route untap cards like Derevi, Empyrial Tactician , Dramatic Reversal , Samut, Voice of Dissent and Kiora's Follower can help to give you buckets of mana each turn.

Planeswalkers/counter generation: Unless you decide to add flicker/sac & reanimate/ability copyers, I'd cut Deepglow Skate as it's a one-time-only version of Doubling Season for the same mana cost. Pir, Imaginative Rascal is brilliant in this kind of deck as his ability a) increases both starting loyalty and uptick loyalty gain and b) stacks with Vorinclex & Doubling Season. Having Pir & either Doubling Season or Vorinclex out will turn a +1 uptick into +4, a starting loyalty count of 5 becomes 12. Inexorable Tide & Contagion Engine are worth considering too, I can understand not adding Tide as you're free-dropping a good chunk of your Planesalkers/creatures with The Prismatic Bridge rather than casting them, but Contagion Engine is non-targeted creature removal as well 2 instances of proliferate per turn (Pir & proliferate = happy Planeswalker noises). Estrid, the Masked , Oath of Jace & Sphere of Safety would be a good group of cards to add - Estrid allows you to untap any enchanted permanent, her second ability will let you enchant any permanent (not just creatures) and increase your enchantment count for Sphere of Safety, and her ult is one of your only ways of recurring enchantments should they get destroyed (this won't allow you to recur The Prismatic Bridge though). Oath of Jace is great for filtering through your topdeck during your upkeep to choose your Bridge targets. Kaya the Inexorable is incredible in a superfriends deck - with your counter generation you'll have no problem getting her ult off straight away, which will allow you to free cast any legendary card once a turn, so if people kill (or even exile) your Planeswalkers or important legendary cards like Vorinclex/Chain Veil etc. you can always get them back. She also has removal, and recursion for your creatures. Samut, the Tested . Samut, the Tested . Samut, the Tested . For the love of all that is holy, play Samut because dropping her with Doubling Season or Vorinclex out can end games there and then. I have a combo in my Esika deck that will guarantee you first place unless Samut gets countered on the stack. Lithoform Engine , Strionic Resonator & Rings of Brighthearth will help you capitalize on important abilities like Planeswalker ults, The Prismatic Bridge and proliferate. Getting off an emblem and then going Lithoform Engine > Rings of Brighthearth to get 3 of those emblems instead of one is pretty explosive.

Creatures: Captain Sisay would work quite well here as she can search any legendary card in your deck which is invaluable in Esika and isn't as pricey/colour dependant as Sisay, Weatherlight Captain (I'm not saying cut her, but 2 Sisays are better than one). Kodama of the East Tree will let you chuck out Planeswalkers like nobody's business, The Prismatic Bridge now doubles its usefulness per turn. Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire is a great tutor in Esika as he's cheap, he can swing without tapping due to Esika giving him Vigilance, search something using his boast ability and put it on top of your library (something something Prismatic Bridge shenanigans) and then tap for mana in your 2nd main phase.

I hope what I've said helps, I love building Superfriends and all the whacky stuff you can do with it

Inuyashaninja on Warriors come out to play!

2 months ago

Seems like a fun deck. Though I feel the draw wincons are not that necessary. Probably best to primarily go for combat victories. Cards I suggest for this are Cathars' Crusade through making your warriors large quickly. Beastmaster Ascension is also a pretty good card to run. When going for infinite combat combo wins, use Derevi, Empyrial Tactician. The combat phase is split into parts and the last part is called the end of combat phase, where you still have priority to do stuff before your creatures are removed from combat. Basically you just use Derevi's ability to untap your lands after your warriors hit and then pay Najeela's ability and keep repeating till you win. I also think you need to be very careful when using Kindred Discovery. It can very easily make you lose if you try going infinite with it up, or otherwise make you hesitant to go infinite and prevent you from winning because of it. You instead use the other combat based draw spells like Reconnaissance Mission, Coastal Piracy, Bident of Thassa and Raiders' Spoils, which also is a combat booster. You shouldn't be running all of them as you have other means of drawing, but at least one or two is good Edric, Spymaster of Trest is also a good choice, though its prone to removal. I also recommend Blood-Chin Rager, Brutal Hordechief and Mindblade Render as they all are very useful for their abilities (menace to all your warriors, making your opponents lose life even quicker, and draw power, albeit a bit limited compared to others). Also, Rubblebelt Raiders is a really good growing warrior.

gavriel1136 on Tapdown Tokens

3 months ago

I would argue that Derevi, Empyrial Tactician is even better, since her abilities synergize very well with tap/untap shenanigans.

Sultai_Sir on New deck ideas

3 months ago

Big Mana, but in an actual interesting way. No more of that namby-pamby, Omnath, Locus of Mana/Regal Behemoth/Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma nonsense. Might as well hit me with a wet noodle. No, I'm talking Derevi, Empyrial Tactician Elfball Flash Enablers Big Boi Destruction Time™ . Let's break it down. You've got your Elfball base, with the rote one-mana nerds, and some more spicy meatballs, like Priest of Titania or Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy. Then, the standard non-stax Derevi package. I'm talking Unblockable Slimy Bois for the untaps, Willbreaker for all the creatures, and the best untap triggers money can buy. Skyshroud Poacher is broken, and can tutor up whatever you want, Azor's Gateway  ^Flip for all the mana, etc. And then, the super-spicy meatballs. Yes, this means the flash enablers. With Derevi's broken untap ability, if you have a flash enabler, you can untap something like Faeburrow Elder 4 times, have twelve mana, and be able to cast twelve mana worth of stuff, because you can use your mana during your combat step, that means if you get 6 untap triggers, with a Wirewood Channeler tapping for 8 mana, you can cast 48 mana worth of stuff. No longer are Elesh Norns and Avacyns of the world are no longer confined to the oblivion of Turns 7 and 8, you can cast them on turn Three! Trust me, no one will see this coming. DESTRUCTION

0rc on

3 months ago

Add Derevi, Empyrial Tactician for added value to untap bigger dorks/lands (should you include them) during combat. A 3cmc evasive attacker 2/3 with her ability is incredible value for your build. It’s essentially free with Bloom Tender!!!