I’ve dabbled in building tribal decks in the past (my Gisa and Geralf Zombie Tribal deck stands out as the prime example), but Tribal decks have generally felt a little too narrow in scope for my liking. The more popular tribes tend to have a strict mechanical focus which dictates the direction the deck should be built in. Take Elves, for example. Elves like to make mana, pump each other up, and swing in for the win. A lot of Elf decks end up looking pretty similar because the Elf lords all reinforce those mechanical focuses. Goblins like swarming, attacking, and blowing things up regardless of the consequences. Zombies are entirely focused on attrition and graveyard recursion. You get the idea. Popular tribes are hard to innovate with due to how focused they are. However, there is room to play around with some of the tribes that have fallen by the wayside.

Today, I want to go south for the winter and build a deck around a tribe that once enjoyed some decent support back in the days of Odyssey. This Cryptic Commander is for the Birds.

I used to have a version of this deck back from before Commander 2013 brought us Derevi, Empyrial Tactician. The deck was fun, taking to the skies and beating people down in the air with an aerial army. I had to include some less than stellar cards in order to maintain as pure a bird tribal experience as possible, and that ultimately led me away from the deck, ultimately retiring it. In recent years, Wizards has printed some birds that have slowly rekindled my desire to play the deck, and the time has finally come to join the flock once again. Derevi, Empyrial Tactician shall once again take the helm of Bird Tribal, and we shall spread the good word of bird once more. With Kangee, Aerie Keeper and Aven Brigadier as seconds-in-command, these fleet-feathered fowl are ready to deliver a Grade A aerial assault.

The Word ? Commander | Robert Burrows

• Commander (1)
• 1 Derevi, Empyrial Tactician

• Creatures (35)
• 1 Aerie Mystics
• 1 Aetherstorm Roc
• 1 Aven Brigadier
• 1 Aven Fateshaper
• 1 Aven Mimeomancer
• 1 Aven Mindcensor
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Celestial Gatekeeper
• 1 Cloudchaser Kestrel
• 1 Coveted Peacock
• 1 Emeria Angel
• 1 Gustcloak Savior
• 1 High Sentinels of Arashin
• 1 Icefeather Aven
• 1 Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker
• 1 Jotun Owl Keeper
• 1 Kangee, Aerie Keeper
• 1 Keeper of the Nine Gales
• 1 Kefnet the Mindful
• 1 Lieutenant Kirtar
• 1 Messenger Falcons
• 1 Messenger Jays
• 1 Mindshrieker
• 1 Mist Raven
• 1 Murder of Crows
• 1 Nimble Obstructionist
• 1 Pride of the Clouds
• 1 Raven Familiar
• 1 River Hoopoe
• 1 Sawtooth Loon
• 1 Soraya the Falconer
• 1 Warden of Evos Isle
• 1 Windbrisk Raptor
• 1 Windreader Sphinx
• 1 Wingmate Roc

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Tamiyo, Field Researcher

• Instants (5)
• 1 Aetherspouts
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Flurry of Wings
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Swan Song

• Sorceries (6)
• 1 Airborne Aid
• 1 Beck // Call
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Idyllic Tutor
• 1 Migratory Route
• 1 Peregrination

• Enchantments (9)
• 1 Cloud Cover
• 1 Cryptolith Rite
• 1 Dovescape
• 1 Fable of Wolf and Owl
• 1 Favorable Winds
• 1 Frontier Siege
• 1 Gravitational Shift
• 1 Serra Aviary
• 1 Soulcatchers' Aerie

• Artifacts (5)
• 1 Akroma's Memorial
• 1 Azorius Keyrune
• 1 Eldrazi Monument
• 1 Portcullis
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (38)
• 4 Forest
• 4 Plains
• 5 Island
• 1 Bant Panorama
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Cavern of Souls
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Irrigated Farmland
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Prahv, Spires of Order
• 1 Prairie Stream
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Scattered Groves
• 1 Seaside Citadel
• 1 Seaside Haven
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Temple of Enlightenment
• 1 Temple of Mystery
• 1 Temple of Plenty
• 1 Windbrisk Heights
• 1 Windswept Heath

Buy This Deck

So, let’s address the non-birds in the room. Emeria Angel, Soraya the Falconer, Windreader Sphinx, Jotun Owl Keeper, and Kefnet the Mindful. Soraya the Falconer’s Oracle Text states that it gives all birds +1/+1, not just Falcons . . .  and we’re gonna ignore that second piece of text about banding (now is not the time or the place for that). Emeria Angel and Jotun Owl Keeper make a bunch of birds, so that’s enough to garner their inclusion in the brood. Kefnet the Mindful may have creature type God, but he’s a bird in spirit. Look at that head! And then there’s Windreader Sphinx. Look, Sphinxes are kind of like big birds; and, in the canon of this deck, the birds learned their mastery of the sky from the Windreader Sphinx! He is their teacher! The Big Bird to their Sesame Street! There’s a story here, and each card has its own justification for inclusion.

Now, let’s move on to the birds proper. Birds have played in some interesting mechanical space during their time as tribe. Unlike some of the more established tribes, there isn’t anything that really holds the birds together mechanically other than Flying. There’s plenty to work with there, and we’ll get to it later, but I think the lack of a focus for the tribe makes some interesting things possible. I’m gonna break my choices down into categories and go over each one by one to explain the reasoning.

Card Advantage

There are a surprising number of birds that deal in card selection and card filtering, I’ve found. As the newest bird, and Magic: The Amateuring approved cutest card from Hour of Devastation, River Hoopoe was a shoo-in for inclusion in the deck. Having a good outlet for mana when you’re running low on cards is invaluable, and River Hoopoe is happy to help you stock back up and gain a little life. Raven Familiar does a decent Impulse impression and has done good work for me in the past. There are quite a few birds that like to loot, like Murder of Crows and relative newcomer Messenger Jays. Even Sawtooth Loon has a form of looting, as well as letting you re-buy any ETB effects you might be interested in using. Of course, the most swingy form of card advantage in the deck comes in the form of Airborne Aid, letting you draw a card for each bird you control. Sometimes, you’ll draw 2-3 cards off this, and other times . . .  well, the sky’s the limit. Not to mention Beck // Call, letting you net four birds and four cards for one card. Honorary birds Windreader Sphinx and Kefnet also help out on the card advantage front.

Utility

I mentioned how diverse the mechanics that appear on Birds are. This is just a sampling. Nimble Obstructionist is a Stifle on a stick, Keeper of the Nine Gales is a repeatable bounce effect for permanents, and Aerie Mystics gives your birds Shroud so they can’t be picked off by targeted removal. Coveted Peacock goads your opponents into attacking someone else. Celestial Gatekeeper brings back two birds when it dies. Cloudchaser Kestrel destroys an enchantment when it enters the battlefield. We have bounce effects from Mist Raven and Icefeather Aven, we can manipulate the top of our library with Aven Fateshaper, we can save our creatures from combat damage with Gustcloak Savior. There are so many options. While none of these abilities points us in a direction, it gives us a lot of flexibility to react to the current board state and mood of the game. Diversity is good in this case!

Tricks

I know what you’re thinking. You’re just playing Cyclonic Rift because it’s a good card. Well, you’re not wrong. However, I do have a flavor justification for including it, along with Aetherspouts. You see, when all the birds work together, they can do some pretty powerful things, things like using their mastery of the wind and sky to create vortexes that sweep up everything except them and remove them from the picture. Also, I needed board wipes that left my birds alone . . . 

Flurry of Wings does some interesting double duty as both a pseudo-Fog effect as well as a way to buff up our army unexpectedly. If the player before you attacks someone else with a large force, your forces can swell to an overwhelming size in response. Cloud Cover gives our birds some protection, allowing us to return them to our hand instead of having them be killed. Then we have some small instant-speed tricks in the form of Swan Song and Path to Exile. I headcanon Path to Exile as the birds picking something up and carrying it away, a la James and the Giant Peach. Swan Song speaks for itself.

Flavor and Combos

There is some fun synergy in the deck beyond just making a bunch of birds and attacking in the air. Kangee, Aerie Keeper and Aven Mimeomancer do a fun dance to power up your whole army. Kangee, Aerie Keeper has kicker for to put feather counters on it. For each feather counter on Kangee, all birds get +1/+1. With Aven Mimeomancer in play, you may place a feather counter on target creature at the beginning of your upkeep. You can continue to place the feather counters from Mimeomancer on Kangee to increase the buff from Kangee’s ability. Both are good birds on their own, but the cute synergy between them can be powerful.

Then there’s the Dovescape/Portcullis combo. Dovescape is a nice little insurance policy against board wipes for our deck. We’re pretty vulnerable to mass removal, so having a way to keep that from resolving seems like a good idea. Plus, every once and a while we’ll be able to drop Portcullis as well, which does some interesting things with Dovescape. Dovescape will counter all noncreature spells and give that spell’s controller 1/1 bird tokens equal to its converted mana cost. Portcullis exiles creatures when they enter the battlefield if there are two or more creatures in play already. Those creatures come back if Portcullis leaves; but, if those creatures are 1/1 bird tokens, they never come back. With both in play, you end up with a soft lock situation which benefits you greatly if you’re ahead on board. A good every-once-and-a-while way to secure your boardstate.

We have some flavor considerations as well! The deck needed some ramp, so I’ve included the aptly named Peregrination, Cultivate, and Sol Ring along with Birds of Paradise. Some birds do like shiny objects, and what’s shinier than a Sol Ring? Birds are also a force for spreading plant seeds, eating berries and fruits and dropping the seeds elsewhere. Thus, Cultivate felt like a good include via flavor justifications. And what self-respecting bird deck would be incomplete without perches and fountains for your birds to roost on? Akroma's Memorial and Eldrazi Monument are here and ready to be covered in bird droppings and feathers (as well as making our birds indestructible or generally hard to deal with). And, I really wanted to include Tamiyo, Field Researcher in this deck because her abilities work real well with evasive creatures. Bet you didn’t know Tamiyo was an avid Ornithologist, huh?

Wrapping Up

Add in some anthem effects for fliers, like Favorable Winds, Gravitational Shift, and Serra Aviary, and you’ve got yourself a deck! How good is it? That’s an excellent question. You’ve got quite an airforce going for you in this deck, and flying has always been a good way to poke damage through. The deck is vulnerable to mass removal, has little direct interaction, and could be very inconsistent (though, there is a decent amount of card advantage/filtering). It has weak points, sure, but that’s a sacrifice I made for theme. This is a thematic tribal deck! We make some sacrifices in this house!

I look forward to reconstructing the deck and putting it through its paces. It’ll be nice having a low-key deck to play for fun every once and a while. That’s the nice thing about themed decks: they’re just kind of fun to play and get in the spirit of. And I leave you with that!

What sort of weird tribal decks have you thought about building? With Commander 2017 coming up, what tribes are you hoping get more support? What sort of cards would fit in a bird themed Commander deck that I didn’t include? Leave comments, and I’ll see you next time!

Robert Burrows

@ironmanphoenix on Twitter