The current iteration of my most infamous deck, which I've been playing for at least 12 years now in various capacities. This deck is all about putting birds or creatures that identify as birds into play, then pecking people to death in an avalanche of value. Some notes:
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"Why don't you have
Keeper of the Nine Gales
/
Crookclaw Elder
/[other tap card]?" Over time, I've found that you really don't want to tap your creatures in a way that doesn't involve pecking your opponents. You want to get as many combat damage triggers as possible, and untap as many lands as possible with Derevi.
-
"Why so many cheap birdos with small effects instead of
Gustcloak Savior
/
Glarecaster
/
Aven Brigadier
/
Windbrisk Raptor
/[other expensive bird]?" Again, quantity over quality is key in this deck. It's particularly important to note that, while you can produce plenty of mana in this deck, it comes in two separate before/after combat chunks, so you can't go too top-heavy on the CMC. Also, low-CMC fliers are pretty useful as pre-Derevi plays, since you can immediately untap one land with Derevi and more with whatever you already have out.
-
"Why no
Door of Destinies
/
Herald's Horn
/
Vanquisher's Banner
?" These cards, while usually good in tribal decks, don't really work that well when a large number of your tribal-generating cards are not actually creatures.
-
Most powerful card #1:
True Conviction
. It doubles all combat damage triggers, allowing you to generate obscene amounts of mana at instant speed with multi-mana lands. Also acts as an anthem and bolsters your life so you don't have to chump with birds.
-
Most powerful card #2:
Kindred Discovery
. This draws a bonkers amount of cards, between bird tokens/Derevi entering the battlefield and birds attacking.
-
Most powerful card #3:
Sacred Mesa
. This generates a snowball effect, where more tokens mean more mana mean more tokens. Also works great with multi-mana lands! Just don't forget to make a fresh pegasus on your upkeep to sac so that you don't have to sac one that isn't summoning sick. Also, keep in mind that while these are totally bird horses, they won't count as birds for tribal effects.
-
Don't forget that
Gavony Township
is also an excellent target for Derevi triggers. It won't get your creatures big on the same turn, but next turn they'll hit like flying trucks. Just be mindful of power-based effects like
Meekstone
and
Dusk
.
-
Try to always cast
Beck / Call
on your first main phase. The card draw effect will still be active in your second main phase when you've got more mana to put more birds into play.
-
Mindshrieker
has a very minor effect in this deck, but don't forget that you can use it to snipe certain top-of-library tutors! You can also activate it on your first main phase for damage purposes if the mana in your second main phase is sufficient for everything else you want to do.
-
Crown of Doom
vs
Gravitational Shift
: Gravitational Shift is perfect for this deck, but I lean towards the crown for a few reasons, despite both functioning as 5-mana anthem effects. For one, the crown is colorless and the 5 mana can be paid in installments over your main phases. For two, I value the crown's aggro redirection ability over shift's power reduction ability. For three, crown can only really help you, while shift can power up opposing fliers. Fourth and finally, I have a house rule that if a bird would attack and it can do so without dying, it attacks the person with the crown. Birds do love their shiny things, after all.
-
Don't focus one person down at first; spread the pecks as evenly as possible until you've either achieved critical mass or a specific player has become a threat. People will usually forgive a few small pecks over time.
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Try not to play your expensive artifacts and enchantments until you can get a good amount of value immediately. Most of them are extremely powerful, making them lightning rods for removal.
-
Always try to hold some birds in your hand so you can recover from board wipes. Even one can be enough, when paired with Derevi's immortality.
