Building on a Budget: UW flyers

[Kenny_C.002]

UW Flyers. It shouldn't be THAT hard to buidl something good and plays nicely. I think. So in my hunt for a budget UW flying deck, I went ahead and just randomly slapped something together, chalk full of commons and uncommons. This is the first draft:

Pride of Flyers v1.0

Land:
4 Azorius Chancery
9 Plains
11 Islands

Creatures:
4 Azorius First-Wing
4 Belfry Spirit
2 Student of Elements/Tobita, Master of Winds
4 Azorious Herald
4 Suntail Hawk
2 Sky Hassar
4 Veteran Armorer
2 Thieving Magpie
2 Kitsune Loreweaver

Spells:
4 Halcyon Glaze
4 Flight of Fancy

Well here's the thing. I don't have all flyers in this deck, as I don't want too much inefficiencies in the deck itself. This means that while having flyers is good, I don't want to bog down the deck with weak pow/mana ratios. The First Wing looks real good. 2/2 flyer with a positive ability really is solid at 2 mana. But in order to play this guy, I have to forfeit Leonin Skyhunter, as UW doesn't mix well with the WW cost. I don't mind that, since the first wing's BETTER.

I chose to run Belfry Spirit as my high-end creature due to Sky Hassar's ability. I want to be able to draw a lot to keep up my fuels to power the Glaze. This is also the reason why I included Magpie.

Glaze, I've seen its power, and it's great in creature decks.

Since it's a flying theme, I decided to add the Student of Elements in, with Flight of Fancy to flip this dude. I think it'd be cool to see how that works out.

Herald looks quite stable a card, and 2/2 unblockable for 3 with no drawback is hardly something to complain about. True it's not a flyer, but I don't think it matters. The 4 life gain is showing up again. lol

Match 1: BW Beats

The battle starts off slowly, as I missed a third turn drop, but my first-wing holds the enemy's forces at bay. The opponent plays a Fallen Angel (due to a signet), and puts me on a fast clock, in response to my playing of the herald shortly after my third land drop. He resulkas my herald, and eats away at my life by pillorying my veteran armorer. I drop two Glazes on the field (in two turns), and then drop a Belfry the next turn. He takes 8 with no flying blockers (as the angel was attacking). He then drops me down to 1 before I finish him off.

Verdict: Herald is a life saver! I took 23 damage that game, and if it wasn't for the herald, I would have been toast. Glaze got MVP.

Match 2: BW Clerics

Opening hand had 2 first-wings, 2 armorers, island, plains, glaze. Excellent hand. ;) Opponent, not so happy. Anyway I played Wing, followed with another wing, then armorer and hawk (still no blue), then armorer, then island and glaze. It was also game, as my opponent had no way to deal with my army of flyers (it was 5 damage a turn). Interesting note was that I kill him the turn before the combo is complete (and he wins).

Verdict: Glaze didn't get MVP. First Wing did. That thing was almost like unblockable, and the enchantment gave my opponent fits, when fetters and the like don't work on it.

Match 3: Blaze

Completely hopeless. The air's clogged up by Drift of Phantisms, and I can't do much other than attack, attack, attack with everything I have. Problem is that I'm mana screwed at 2 (I still played most of my opening hand, thank goodness). Volcanic hammers started coming in on my guyss as I gain mana to play everything else. Niv Mizzet hits play soon after, and started blasting everything in sight. Due to mad drawing, my guys started to drop like flies, literally. XD Also, remand's played as well to delay my strikes against him (and my glaze just sits there doing nothing due to the drifts). The match ends with Blaze for 21, and Invoke the Firemind for 19 (he decided to draw 19, and shoot me 19 times with Niv Mizzet. :(). Ouch. XD

Verdict: Hey I survived an extra turn AGAIN due to Herald. It was also shot down like a fly by Niv Mizzet, nonetheless. lol I'm likeing the herald more I play him. First-wing again looks good, except he couldn't break through the drifts, even with a glaze there. Well Blaze + Invoke the Firemind kinda ended that match quickly, though. lol

First three match. Seems promising as a deck so far. I have nothing in terms of playing Sky Hassar, nor magpie in any of the matches so far, but it doesn't seem like I'd need it. Also, it seems that I don't get the student of elements + flight of fancy enough times to warrant play, not to mention flight of fancy just sitting in my hand most of the time.

Looks like I'll need a bit of removal. What better than our fav. Rav common, Faith's Fetters. As I've said before, this thing is amazing, and quite frankly I'd play this dude for removal many of the times. ;)

-4 flight of fancy
-2 Student of Elements
-2 Thieving Magpie
+4 faith's fetters
+2 Kitsune Lorewaver
+2 Master Decoy

Well the reasoning behind the moves are to support my airborne fighters rather than making more of them. This means adding in loreweavers (high toughness if I activate ability, good power for early beats) and decoys to clog up the ground as much as possible. I've kept the Belfry + Hassar combo, to see if that's any good.

Pride of Flyers v1.2

Land:
4 Azorius Chancery
9 Plains
11 Islands

Creatures:
4 Azorius First-Wing
4 Belfry Spirit
4 Azorious Herald
4 Suntail Hawk
2 Sky Hassar
4 Veteran Armorer
2 Master Decoy
4 Kitsune Loreweaver

Spells:
4 Halcyon Glaze
4 Faith's Fetters

Comments, etc. Just post. ;)

[Kenny_C.002]

Match 4: UB mill

Almost perfect curve! Hawk turn 1, glaze turn 3, herald turn 4. Just a smack fest as I continued to put the pressure on, and the mill dude died rather quickly to the onslaught.

Again, the Glaze helps a lot. <3 it. XD

[Kenny_C.002]

Match 5: Broken Creature Slide

Tell me how a deck that is mana screwed for the first 5 turns can come back and win? Okay, it's quite possible after 2 balances (burning wish to sideboard) and a starstorm (in deck). -.- Hahaha, I ran out of steam when the dude's at 2, and control is established. It was game.

Current record:
3-2 Not too shabby. Hassar reminded me or nothing, as it hopelessly sits in my hand, not being able to net me cards at all. This means that experiment with Hassar is toast. However, I might want to think differently, and just think that the hassar is a budget version of serra angel instead, and see how that goes. Belfry still might play a role, as I noticed that 3/3 flying for 3 that potentially can put out 2 more tokens can help quite a bit (puts them in a more complex situation, at least). So that means a bit of tweaking again.

Also, I noted that I didn't even draw a loreweaver, nor a master decoy.

-2 master decoy
+2 Sky Hassar

When it rains, it pours. I want to get 4 copies of Hassar to test my theory. Conclive Equanaut's been eyeing me for a while, though. lol

Match 6: Presence

Close game. I pump out some early 2-mana beats, which got clogged up by a gatherer of graces backed by saporling tokens (fists of ironwood). He starts drawing like a madman with 2 prescences on the field, having to discard like every turn. I then pumpout Belfry spirits (2 of them), which start beating on him, and putting him on a fast clock, while I use my own Hassar's drawing power with my early clogged up beaters. The game ends with a 20-damage run, with 4 saporling tokens, 2 gatherer of graces, and a trampling thaumatog (which is the problem). The dual seal of fires didn't help either, nor the wake. XD He was at 5, and I had 5 flyers pointing in his face, too. :(

Verdict: Hassar shined in this matchup, as I raced card advantage with my opponent using otherwise worthless ground beaters. I would have preferred to actually play the Hassar, and it was a mistake that costed the game (or rather, I thought I didn't have to deal with a 20-damage run. lol). :(


Pride of Flyers v1.3

Land:
4 Azorius Chancery
9 Plains
11 Islands

Creatures:
4 Azorius First-Wing
4 Belfry Spirit
4 Azorious Herald
4 Suntail Hawk
4 Sky Hassar
4 Veteran Armorer
4 Kitsune Loreweaver

Spells:
4 Halcyon Glaze
4 Faith's Fetters

This deck is actually quite competitive already, as there are enough beaters and the like to deal with anything that pops up. If the ground's clogged up, the air can take the lead. Glaze, with 4 damage on the table by turn 4 can really power out some massive damage, and Hassar's a good combat trick after going "all in", not to mention a bit of cashing in on a 4/3 flyer for 5. I think I can actually start liking to play that dude, since at LEAST he's a cantip (draw, then play him to untap your tapped creatures used to forecast him).

Well I think my experiments with this deck is pretty much complete. I'll do a bit of "adding money" later on in another post. Also, I'm thinking about going away from the beatdown themes I've been doing (last time it was Gruul, and that thing didn't work out too well. Though the one I'm using right now isn't too shabby. lol), and start doing some combo or control decks for the next budget build. We'll see how things go. Suggestions and whatnot for the next build or on this build, post about. ;)

[Kenny_C.002]

+$

Painlands/Shocklands: No brainer here. Just smoother mana draws, less random colour screw.

Celestial Ancient: We have 8 enchantments in the deck. This might be something to look into, as 1 enchantment casting gives much more than the price tag. Besides, it's a flyer, so it fits well with the theme.

Isperia the Inscrutable: Well the jury's out on this guy. I for one would prefer the hassar due to the extra power. Some people might like the search function or something.

Isamaru: You might want to go the pure weenie route. In that case, he'll show up with savannah lions, leonin skyhunter (replacing first-wings), etc. But where's the fun in that? XD

Hunted Lammasu: well a 5/5 flyer for 4 is hardly something to sneeze at. If you think the ground can clog up easily with an extra 4/4 on the other end, this might be something to look into.

Dragon Spirits: If for some reason you think you need high-end dragons, the two offered in white and blue are good choices. Expensive little buggers, though.

Kira, Great Glass Spinner: Actually, I noticed my lack of stuff that target my own creatures. Kira's a good small flyer that has an awesome ability. ;)

Meloku, the Clouded Mirror of Victory: More expensive high-end crap. What's next Windreaver (that's coming -.-)? Again, end gamers if you want. I don't see a big need for them aside from replacing belfrys with them.

Pride of the Clouds: Something about a creature that grows with more flyers that gets to me. Maybe it's because it costs 2. -.-

Serra Angel: Iconic Maiden of Death. she can take the place of Hassars or belfrys. But if you're using Pride of the Clouds, why would you bother replacing 3 flyers with 1?

Windreaver: more 5-mana creatures. Seems like 5-mana creatures are popular, and easy to replace in the rare slots.

Azorius Guildmage: Actually a very strong 2/2 for 2, better than that of say Loreweavers. Also, note that she can tap. ;)

Mistral Charger: I'm not sure if this thing's budget or not, but seeing that it's not mana intensive and has 2 power flying for 2, I thought it's probably more expensive than herald (I'm probably wrong, herald's darn amazingly unblockable). Try this thing out if you have the time/see that it's cheap or something.

Things to consider:
I didn't go to a tapping theme in this deck, but surely this can be done with master decoy, puppeteer, and azorius guildmage. Certainly the mana costs on those I feel may e a little too much on the higher-end later on, and you probably need sandsower to tap more stuff out. I decided not to deal with those problems, as the easy solution is to go out of type 2, and play opposition (or in type 2, add green and add glare of subdual, which gives access to plaxmanta, also).

Also, thie deck can also go around into a student of elements/flight of fancy combo deck still (which I failed to do in the beginning). You can probably go for tallowisp to look up what enchant creature you need, anyway. Might be something to look for.

Pride of the Clouds beatdown is also a choice to be had. It often can work well with the student of elements combo, too.

Well, this about wraps up this edition of "Building on a Budget". I'll probably have random game logs of this deck if I happen to be playing with this. Oh well. Also, suggestions for the next building on a budget would be appreciated. ;)

[Kenny_C.002]

Well an idea popped up on trying to build decks around single cards or card combos. I happened to find myself attracted to the Gelectrode, and found that he's a mini-combo engine in himself (i.e. all instants and sorceries combo with it). Thinking about doing a deck basing around him. Suggestions/ideas/etc. post (not like it's gonna happen, as 95% of pe2kers haven't even HEARD of mtg. lol). XD