Some time ago I worked on creating a deck for Legacy called Angry Birds. I spent several years developing it right here on MtG Salvation, actually. Few people probably remember that deck these days but it is easily my favorite deck to pilot of all-time. Yes, this is my pet deck. Toward the end of my time working on it for the Legacy format, I was top 4'ing most local FNMs I took it to, beating out Miracles, D&T, Dredge, etc. Then the Legacy meta around me all but died out (although I am noticing a recent resurgence). After attending multiple Legacy tournaments that just never fired, due to too few players, I hit a dry spot in my MTG hobby and quit playing for a couple years, outside of my playgroup's monthly kitchen table gatherings.
Fast forward to 2019 and a good friend of mine not only started playing Modern but managed to get me into the format too. Having a desire to play more competitively again, I've been doing a ton of play testing, researching the meta, listening to podcasts and crafting some home brews. At one point a few years ago, I wondered about porting Angry Birds to Modern and a few others actually started some threads here and tried. My thought at the time was that the deck just lost way too much to become legal in the Modern format. That said, now that I actually have investment in Modern, I am way more interested in seeing if Angry Birds actually could be competitive in the format. Quite a bit has changed since I last tried also. There are new cards in Modern that actually fit perfectly in an AGB (Angry Birds) list. I have been quietly testing and brewing the deck with my friend for the past couple months but now I feel it has reached a point that it is worth sharing.
The Angry Birds deck functions off a few key cards that synergize strongly with each other. The deck uses cheap flyers in combination with Sky Hussar as a cheap, hard to disrupt draw engine while hiding behind prison cards for protection. In the Legacy version we used something like Island Sanctuary. In Modern, I have found that Ghostly Prison performs a similar function and is quite effective. The deck is able to use the mass amount of cheap creatures to grind card advantage and wins out of games the deck looks like it has no business winning. Finally the deck can power out wins by dropping a large Pride of the Clouds or using Aven Mimeomancer to accelerate your damage clock. The forecast ability of Pride of the Clouds also comes in handy more often than you think, pairing with Moorland Haunt and Sky Hussar to grind longer games against control for the win.
The strength of Angry Birds is synergy and flexibility to adapt its game plan against various types of other decks. It rewards the player for smart game play which is one of the reasons it is so fun to pilot. Piloting games with this deck often feel pretty intense too, because you have to be comfortable taking damage in the early turns to give the deck time to stabilize. Angry Birds often looks like a punching bag in the early game before turning the game around and ultimately winning. One person once described the deck as a cross between Death and Taxes and Merfolk and I feel that gives a pretty good picture for how this deck likes to play.
Card Choices
One of the great things about a utility flyers deck like this one, is that you also have a wide selection of potentially viable card choices which let you tailor the deck to your meta. I'll speak to some of my key card choices here.
Pride of the Clouds - This is your beat stick. With so many cheap flyers and good synergy with Squadron Hawk, this guy gets big and closes out games quickly, unless the opponent has an answer to it. He is great in "mirror matchups" against other flyers because his size factors in all flying creatures in play. He will often be bigger than your opponent's Arclight Phoenix or Mantis Rider. Pride of the Clouds also lets you slow down and play around hate such as mass removal that you might see from Blue/White Control with his forecast ability. Unless the opponent can sweep your field and lay down fast pressure, forecasting tokens in with Sky Hussar grabbing extra cards all while hiding behind a couple Ghostly Prison can be pretty tough to deal with.
Sky Hussar - This is the amazing card advantage engine of the deck. Most people disregard this card's forecast draw ability because of it's cost. Tapping two creatures? It seems a little rough at first but you will quickly find that drawing two cards a turn often results in you ultimately outpacing your opponent for the win. The sheer number of creatures Angry Birds can play allows you to spare two creatures for your draw engine while keeping additional creatures out as blockers until you can stabilize your board presence against the opponent. A Ghostly Prison on the field only sweetens the deal. Plus, the forecast ability is very difficult to deal with. Many of Modern's discard cards can't hit Hussar and the forecast ability isn't a cast spell. The opponent's best chance of stopping your draw engine is keeping you off of two creatures which is often difficult to do with this deck. With a Stormscape Familiar or two in play, extra Hussars in your hand often become completely castable, allowing you to swing for big damage in your combat step but then untapping your creatures to block against your opponent's threats.
Ghostly Prison - Another very key card to the deck. Ghostly Prison lets you play the grindy game against your opponent. This stops decks that like to kill you by going wide and forces your opponents to make difficult choices about whether to play that spell in their hand or conserve the mana to attack you. The sheer amount of card draw that AGB has means you will often find multiples, allowing you to stack the effect. With even just one Ghostly Prison in play, your opponent is often only able to attack with one or two creatures. Some decks are hurt by this effect more than others. Some of the lands in Humans' decks do not play well with Ghostly Prison. =)
Stormscape Familiar - Stormscape is a cheap accelerator for the deck. This flyer comes down on turn two, chumps to fatty's, functions as a tappable creature for your Hussar draw engine, and makes all your stuff cheap. One mana Squadron Hawks and two-mana Teferi's, Ghostly Prisons and Mimeomancers is good stuff, especially when you are drawing two cards a turn.
Aven Mimeomancer - This is the all-purpose utility creature in your deck. He is not a lord per se' but he accelerates your damage clock by putting feather counters on your 1/1 birds. He's better than an actual lord, however, like that new Empyrean Eagle in Core Set 2020. The reason is for his utility. Put a feather counter on Death's Shadow and it dies. Put a feather counter on Phantasmal Image and it dies. Put a feather counter on Arclight Phoenix, and it dies when you chump a 1/1 flyer. Put a feather counter on Crackling Drake and it is just a measly 3/1. Put a feather counter on Hogaak... They sac and recast? Put a feather counter on Hogaak again. There are so many scenarios where, if Mimeomancer sticks, his feather counter ability just rocks. He often functions as "pseudo removal". Plus, you can forecast tokens with Pride of the Clouds then put a feather counter on them. Making a 3/1 flyer every turn without burning a single card in hand is just awesome.
Judge's Familiar - This is one of the deck's awesome 1 drop utility creatures. Saccing him let's you wipe Bridge from Below from the grave and his counter ability forces opponents to wait an additional turn to get their important sorcery or instant through. I chose him over Mausoleum Wanderer for his dual color cost. Although Mausoleum Wanderer pairs with Mimeomancer and Moorland Haunt, I felt this was ultimately not enough to justify him over Judge's Familiar
Giver of Runes - This is the new Mom for Modern and it is a great substitute for the Mother of Runes run in Legacy AGB. This card protects your other key creatures but demanding your opponent burns some of their removal on GoR instead. Giver of Runes also gives your creatures protection to get in for extra damage or to chump block with.
Faerie Seer - This is a new one-drop flyer I am coming to really love! The scry 2 is great and if you are playing a list with Spellstutter Sprite (as I often will), there is good synergy here.
Teferi, Time Raveler - An excellent utility Planeswalker. While his +1 ability is mostly irrelevant for AGB, Teferi's static ability and -3 abilities provide fantastic toolbox utility to the deck against control matchups or for when you need to bounce a problematic permanent.
Matchups (under construction)
This is an area that I will work to expand on but I have been testing this deck against several prominent decks in the format over the past couple months. The list has evolved since my initial build and I feel at this point that Angry Birds has a pretty fair chance of winning a match against some common archetypes including:
Humans
Izzet Phoenix (tested against classic and Pyromancer Ascension builds, thus far)
Grixis Death's Shadow
Spirits (all color variations, Bant, Esper, Blue/White)
U/W Control
Bridgevine is a tough match but I am hoping, with proper sideboarding that this won't be a completely unwinnable pairing. Further testing needs to be done against Vizier combo, Esper Death's Shadow, Tron, Dredge and Affinity.
I'll be working on adding more to this and finishing it out to be a full primer. Check back soon!
Why not play Favorable Winds as the payoff for an all-flying deck ?
I'd prefer this to Aven Mimeomancer which is rather slow as a pseudo-lord and very situational against opposing creatures and dies to basically anything.
Smuggler's Copter is also a decent option to upgrade the 1/1 flyers into a looting 3/3.
Winged Words, the new 2-mana Divination for flyers, seems pretty good here, maybe over Sky Hussar which is pretty slow. Faerie Miscreant can potentially be decent here as well and replace it self.
I'd probably replace Ghostly Prison as it is a rather situational and slow card.
You can go with Path to Exile for "hard" removal or Vapor Snag as a tempo option that doesn't ramp the opponent.
# Spell Queller is one of your best options for the 3-drop flyer spot, it also dodges Lightning Bolt with Favorable Winds in play.
# Remorseful Cleric is a very good flyer which is even maindeckable now.
# Vendilion Clique is always good either to remove a key card from the opponent or cycle a useless card from your hand.
Lectrys, I am definitely interested in doing some testing with Empyrean Eagle. I see this taking the spot of Mimeomancer. My hesitation from buying 100% into switching over to the new lord is that I have found Mimeomancer's situational strengths come up far more often than even I initially anticipated. In recent testing I went up from 3x to 4x, because there were so many times where the feather counter was very useful to winning the game. I definitely want to do more testing with Empyrean Eagle however as just having a good lord would be something I'd like to find slots for in the deck.
D90Dennis,
Thanks for the detailed feedback and suggestions. The one card I am not running in the deck right now because I need to still pick up a playset of Seachrome Coast. I think upping the dual land count and adjusting the manabase will be the final push to smooth out my early mana and make it easy to run Mauseleaum Wanderer over Judge's Familiar. At that point, I'll likely make the switch to running the Wanderer in here.
Angry Birds is definitely more of a tempo deck than an aggressive aggro deck and I believe it wants to see more of a utility card in this slot. The same applies to Ghostly Prison which allows this deck to play the tempo game and lets the deck reach into the mid-late game where it starts to take control of the board. I do also run Path to Exile in the main, however, as my spot removal.
I am not in love with Winged Words here for a similar reason. I feel like Sky Hussar ends up being more powerful here because it grinds out card advantage every turn, often from turn two into the late game. Ghostly Prison and Sky Hussar really go hand in hand. In the end, I think if you try to build a more aggressive aggro flyers deck, Ghostly Prison should go and then also Sky Hussar for something like the Winged Words. Sky Hussar is really underrated. Sky Hussar is also one of the primary reasons why I think Squadron Hawk is big here. It keeps up creature density to enable the Sky Hussar. If I were to take out Squadron Hawk, I think it really needs to be replaced with something like Lingering Souls. I have considered throwing in light, black splash to run Lingering Souls over Squadron Hawk in this spot.
I do love Remorseful Cleric, especially given the current meta. I have also playtested with Spell Quellers in the past and liked them.
If running Vendilion Clique, I think maindecking Spellstutter Sprites and running the full playset of Faerie Seer starts making a lot of sense.
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Force of Will is kind of like duct tape. Stick it in a deck and it will fix all your problems.
What would a game of Magic between Harry Potter and Voldemort look like?
Have you considered Serra the Benevolent? All habilities are rather relevant. Also, Teferi, Time Raveler and Spell Queller can win you some matches all by themselves. With Teferi out, if you return Queller to the hand the spell just stays in exile, since your opponent can't cast it as part of the trigger resolution.
UW control sounds like a serious problem for this deck. This list seems more on the grindy side, but your only real anti-control options are Teferi and forecast triggers. Sky Hussar's card draw is dependent on maintaining a boardstate, which isn't a guarantee against control. Any deck with Lingering Souls is going to be big trouble as well due to how few creature you have with more than 1 toughness.
How does angry birds fare against the burn or 8 whack matchup? In legacy, I believed burn to be the gold standard for fair, but fast decks that don't have a strong combo win, and I believe this to be true in modern as well. Jund and tron will also give you the acid test and they come up quite a lot. Unfortunately, I don't see a lot of your maindeck options doing very well against tron or all that much against jund. I think you will yourself missing Island sanctuary (and in my build, back to basics) quite a lot.
Against burn: If you can survive their first onslaught, I am positive you can grind them out. Creatures you can stall out well enough, but burn can still use reach against you.
Srongest cards: leyline of sanctity, ghostly prison (to an extent. any taxing effects hose them pretty well)
8 whack: If you can survive their first onslaught, I am positive you can grind them out. However, this is 100% dependent on finding ghostly prison and sticking it.
Srongest cards: leyline of sanctity, ghostly prison.
Jund: Sort of the fairest of the fair, really. Angry birds biggest problem has always been having their hand ripped apart and this is no exception. Top it off with some excellent multi purpose removal and it's not looking too good. Fortunately, you have lots of fliers game 1 to kill liliana of the veil with, so there is that. Forecast will certainly be helpful, but here you're probably the aggro, not the control. Game 2 in comes leyline of sanctity, and you're probably sitting pretty if it hits turn 0.
Tron: Modern's nemesis, or so some say. It is a strong big mana deck and their late game is better than yours. I also notice a distinct lack of hate for this seemingly ubiquitous matchup. Worse, angry birds clock isn't the fastest (unless it's 1 drop into pride of the clouds x4). No ghost quarters or field of ruins to kill tron lands with, no stony silence to stop the cantripping, no chalice of the void, or no damping sphere, etc.
Strongest cards: uhhh, aggro and pray?
I could see how some of your listed matchups could be pretty good. That said, I also know modern is chuck full of graveyard.deck right now and you have no grave hate main. If the London Mulligan becomes a thing, it will be even worse. I think rest in peace is stronger than leyline of the void, and I would run at least 2 maindeck and 1 or 2 more in the board. If you're preferential of targeted graveyard removal, then remorseful cleric is a good option, too.
Various white brews have come out in the past, and one thing I have noticed is that leyline of sanctity main has an awful lot of uses sometimes. It's meta dependent, but stopping discard and burn cold is something to consider. I would be tempted by 3 main and a 4th sideboard.
Splashing other colors: You already mentioned a possible black splash for lingering souls. It's an excellent idea. If this becomes an option, then I would likewise be tempted with spectral procession over something else (take your pick). A lot of bodies can be problematic for some decks to deal with.
However, I would likewise consider a red splash. Blood moon is a legitimate card choice, and I like lightning bolt over path to exile most of the time. Being able to choose between an opponent, a planswalker, and a creature threat is a pretty good choice to have. Blood moon combined with your clock (and a few counters) also gives you a better than fair chance against tron. Of course, as always, this depends on your meta.
I am not in love with Winged Words here for a similar reason. I feel like Sky Hussar ends up being more powerful here because it grinds out card advantage every turn, often from turn two into the late game. Ghostly Prison and Sky Hussar really go hand in hand. In the end, I think if you try to build a more aggressive aggro flyers deck, Ghostly Prison should go and then also Sky Hussar for something like the Winged Words. Sky Hussar is really underrated. Sky Hussar is also one of the primary reasons why I think Squadron Hawk is big here. It keeps up creature density to enable the Sky Hussar. If I were to take out Squadron Hawk, I think it really needs to be replaced with something like Lingering Souls. I have considered throwing in light, black splash to run Lingering Souls over Squadron Hawk in this spot.
I do love Remorseful Cleric, especially given the current meta. I have also playtested with Spell Quellers in the past and liked them.
If running Vendilion Clique, I think maindecking Spellstutter Sprites and running the full playset of Faerie Seer starts making a lot of sense.
I still partly remember a few of your legacy fnm's, and the hussar did good there. Maybe because it's card advantage, and also a threat mid-late game.
For board wipe heavy decks, Selfless Spirit looks like a good sideboard card.
The more spirits get mentioned here the more apparent it is that"UW Spirits" is the superior deck.
I don’t agree with this sentiment. I have been playing U/W spirits for about a year now. Although the decks have similar win rates against decks and look similar on paper, they play completely differently. I think the most interesting thing about AGB is the fact that it has the most room to grow. Also, the card advantage that it creates is awesome and the fact that you don’t have the restriction of just playing spirit creatures.
The more spirits get mentioned here the more apparent it is that"UW Spirits" is the superior deck.
I don’t agree with this sentiment. I have been playing U/W spirits for about a year now. Although the decks have similar win rates against decks and look similar on paper, they play completely differently. I think the most interesting thing about AGB is the fact that it has the most room to grow. Also, the card advantage that it creates is awesome and the fact that you don’t have the restriction of just playing spirit creatures.
What does this have over the Spirits deck ? Probably only Pride of the Clouds, and this isn't really enough.
Spirits can play anything this deck can play and have way more synergy/lords/payoff cards for playing their tribe/theme.
The best flying creatures with utility (Cleric, Queller, Wanderer, Selfless) are spirits anyway (besides some Faeries like: Seer, Spellstutter and Clique).
The more spirits get mentioned here the more apparent it is that"UW Spirits" is the superior deck.
I don’t agree with this sentiment. I have been playing U/W spirits for about a year now. Although the decks have similar win rates against decks and look similar on paper, they play completely differently. I think the most interesting thing about AGB is the fact that it has the most room to grow. Also, the card advantage that it creates is awesome and the fact that you don’t have the restriction of just playing spirit creatures.
What does this have over the Spirits deck ? Probably only Pride of the Clouds, and this isn't really enough.
Spirits can play anything this deck can play and have way more synergy/lords/payoff cards for playing their tribe/theme.
The best flying creatures with utility (Cleric, Queller, Wanderer, Selfless) are spirits anyway (besides some Faeries like: Seer, Spellstutter and Clique).
The more spirits get mentioned here the more apparent it is that"UW Spirits" is the superior deck.
I don’t agree with this sentiment. I have been playing U/W spirits for about a year now. Although the decks have similar win rates against decks and look similar on paper, they play completely differently. I think the most interesting thing about AGB is the fact that it has the most room to grow. Also, the card advantage that it creates is awesome and the fact that you don’t have the restriction of just playing spirit creatures.
What does this have over the Spirits deck ? Probably only Pride of the Clouds, and this isn't really enough.
Spirits can play anything this deck can play and have way more synergy/lords/payoff cards for playing their tribe/theme.
The best flying creatures with utility (Cleric, Queller, Wanderer, Selfless) are spirits anyway (besides some Faeries like: Seer, Spellstutter and Clique).
I hear what you are saying and that is probably why I am currently still playing U/W spirits but I think this deck has potential. It is hard to quantify just how much work Shy Hussar and Ghostly Prison actually do until you play AGB or play against it. So to answer your question I think the 4 things this deck has over Spirits are: 1, card advantage, this is something spirits has always lacked. 2, Pride of the Clouds 3, Shy Hussar, and 4, Ghostly Prison. With all of this said, Spirits has its advantages as well, I just think that AGB is definitely worth exploring.
Angry birds in legacy was always more about tempo/card advantage with a tad bit of stax thrown in. Spirits is tribal with some disruption thrown in (in the form of counters). Angry birds will gain more with a few more stax elements where spirits doesn't have the room. That is going to make for a very different game.
Hey, I remember this deck. My brother ran it for a long while. After seeing this thread, I asked him what he thought of your list, and a couple of things stuck out to him.
sky hussar is a card you want for grindier matches. You don't need so many, because in grindier matches, you'll see more cards, so you'll see sky hussar more often. You can safely cut down on one or two of those. In the legacy deck, you needed the draw for island sanctuary, but ghostly prison doesnt force you to skip your draw.
Last thing is more personal preference, but is still a good thing to mention. Aether vial and empyrial plate are good for a tempo/aggro strategy. The equipment is really good with squadron hawks, because you'll often have a full hand, and it turns even single 1/1s into a fast clock control players needs to deal with.
If you want to quickly kill the opponent quickly, rather than grind them out, take out ghostly prison and stormscape familiar, and replace them with aether vial and empyrial plate. Actually, I realize that all my suggestions are for a faster, more aggro version of the deck. I might even come up with a list for it.
My brother and I liked the deck a lot. I'm glad to see it getting some attention again.
Wow! First off, thanks to everyone for all of the feedback. I definitely did not expect to get so many responses on the deck so quickly. That is awesome and it gives me a lot to think about. Deck building in a vacuum can take you to a point but feedback from the community really helps because there are ideas given I may not have thought about as well as areas of the deck that are challenged and push me to look closely at the card choices.
I have to agree with energizerzax and Weltkrieg on this; I put this deck in the deck creation forum because it is very much in 'developing' status. I believe every good and competitive deck starts from somewhere and is honed and refined into its best form until it becomes something competitive (and maybe even tier level) at some point or, when taken to its furthest point is determined not competitive enough. The cool bit here is that quite a bit of thought has already gone into the idea from the Legacy version, at least in terms of the base elements so it already feels, to me, pretty solid when I've been playing it.
Although Angry Birds does lose some in the transition to Modern, I feel that the introduction of several new solid, Modern legal flyers and even things like Giver of Runes, is the window I was looking for to give it a try here.
I agree also with energizerzax and Weltkrieg that plays quite a bit differently than the established u/w flying deck in Modern--Spirits. They are enough different that I'd want to own both. They have very different strategies and playstyles involved. Both bring their own strengths.
Weltkrieg, you contributed so much to helping me build the Legacy version of the deck and you always have incredible feedback that is on point. Thank you! I have not play tested extensively against Jund or Tron yet so they are definitely going on my test Gauntlet. I have seen neither in my local meta so far, but know they have presence in Modern as a whole so I am probably going to need to consider what I need to bring up my match-ups against those decks. In particular, I am concerned Tron could be a pretty tough pairing for the current list.
One piece I want to look at and give a closer look to is the mana base. Should I try and go up one Moorland Haunt? Is a 1-of Mistveil Plains worth consideration if I keep Squadron Hawk in the deck? I definitely want to slide playset of Seachrome Coast in the deck. Once I do that, I'll probably make the switch to Mausoleum Wanderer from Judge's Familiar.
As far as tax elements, I definitely can think of a few things I might like to test.
Aven Mindcensor is bomb. If I get the Seachrome's, I can probably also go down on basics and slip in some Field of Ruin without much trouble. Aven Mindcensor becomes even more valuable with cards like Field of Ruin. All of this paired with Ghostly Prison can be mean because if the opponent misses out on a land drop, that really sets them behind when Ghostly Prison is out on the field.
Although it is probably too slow, I thought about using Worship combined with something like Cloudform or Wall of Denial to create a lock. I have always wanted to run Suppression Field in Angry Birds but it does not play nice with our own fetches or forecast abilities. :/
Weltkrieg, the thought of splashing red intrigues me. Not sure how to make Blood Moon work with just a like red splash and heavy white/blue demands. The mana base would have to be strongly re-worked. That said, I love the idea of running lightning bolt. Path to Exile is not ultra synergistic with Ghostly Prison here. I wonder if Alpine Moon could be used here?
Ro ro ro, that is awesome that your brother used to play AGB. I love your ideas as well. Weltkrieg was a huge proponent of Empyrial Plate in this deck.
I do agree that I can likely go down to 3x Hussar without too much trouble. I love Aether Vial and have extensively tested a birds build with it. That said, at the moment, I am liking Stormscape Familiar a little more. Stormscape is not as bad to see multiples of because the ability stacks, plus he is another creature to use towards the Sky Hussar tap/draw engine.
Also! Stormscape Familiar is a beast with Lingering Souls. Think about it. With Stormscape on the field, you cast Lingering for 1W and then can Flashback for B. Three mana in total to cast and flashback Lingering Souls!
PS: Fluff, I'm looking forward to running this deck in Modern also. I should be able to get to some tournaments here with it soon. It'll be the first time piloting it in the Modern competitive environment so that should be very informative to me for what the deck's strengths and weaknesses are in the format.
PPS: Everyone has given me a lot to think about and test. Time to start grinding some test matches and putting together some data. I'll be back later with updates!
So, I stumbled upon this thread while searching for modern decks with Pride of Clouds as a maindeck card. Until now I'm really impressed. this decks have a lot of similarities to UW spirits, but as many here have said already, it plays and functions VERY differently.
The other route, which is more similar to the one this thread's creator wrote on, a Grindy, value oriented midrange list. with extremely grindy cards, a draw engine and some lock pieces. Stormscape familiar is a REAL find, the fact that it stacks its effects are just insane. Battle Screech and lingering souls can be both cast and flashbacked in the same turn VERY easily, creating insane preassure out of NOWHERE. this against control is GAS, against DS is almost a guaranteed win (be on the watch for Battle Rage Though). A list like this could benefit GREATLY from the new Sephara, Sky's Blade. Explosive turns with loads of flyiers + the mana cost reduction from Stormscape Familia + the protection and pressure from the new legend... seems quite insane to me.
I'll be testing both approaches soon, and WILL be posting results and lists. I hope this thread in specific does not flop, as I really belive this deck has true potential. thanks for reading guys, I'll be back soon.
Worship? Good card, but maybe serra the benevolent will be worth a shot? This is the one deck I could see her as a 1 or 2 of. However, it is only really good against burn/zoo decks (worship, that is). Serra has a relevant -3 and her +2 is also a win condition in this deck, or gets you closer. All in all, a bit more versatile.
If you use my red splash idea, then I think seachrome coast is no good. Instead I would probably run a fetch/shock manabase with heavy basics and maybe also prismatic vista. With 6 to 8 maindeck red cards, you really don't need many sources of red.
Moorland haunt is a 2 of at most. You really don't want to see more than one of these any given game in this deck.
I don't know how I feel about empyrial plate in this deck in modern. The ability to keep your hand full with land tax and your opponent slow with island sanctuary/back to basics is gone in modern. Instead, you're running ghostly prison which is generally a lot worse.
Dredge variants, including hogaak dredgevine are all over right now, as well as tons of other graveyard decks. The more I think about it, the more I like remorseful cleric main and maybe rest in peace in the board. It's that prevalent. Unlike mausoleum wanderer/judge's familiar, remorseful cleric can sacrifice at will in order to clear out bridge from below.
I think the scry ability on the 1 drop faerie is insane. It's good enough that I think I would consider it a 4 of and up to 4 spellstutter sprite. Even these faeries is enough to disrupt your opponents severely.
I made these awhile back but I haven't optimized them in ages and since the new upcoming cards are not in the deck builder yet I cant alter them to what I really want without hassle.
cards I'm looking at:
The biggest issue is one card that isn't totally on par: skyknight vanguard. The creatures it creates don't fly but it does basically say attack and get another creature, which isn't horrible. I will admit my decks really need polish and cards changed in and out but yeah here's my so far take on it.
A card that hasn't been mentioned here but can be a decent payoff for the deck is Rally of Wings which can either:
# Create a blowout during blocking (like a mini wrath).
# Speed up the clock to quickly close out the game (a better 2- mana Guardians' Pledge or a Pride of Conquerors with "Ascend" can be pretty good).
# It helps protect against damage/toughness based sweepers.
I'm glad to see a skies deck forming. This was one of my favorite decks from back in the day. Ribbon Snake era. Lol. Can't wait to see what comes of this.
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Angry Birds for Modern!
Intro
Hey modern brewers!
Some time ago I worked on creating a deck for Legacy called Angry Birds. I spent several years developing it right here on MtG Salvation, actually. Few people probably remember that deck these days but it is easily my favorite deck to pilot of all-time. Yes, this is my pet deck. Toward the end of my time working on it for the Legacy format, I was top 4'ing most local FNMs I took it to, beating out Miracles, D&T, Dredge, etc. Then the Legacy meta around me all but died out (although I am noticing a recent resurgence). After attending multiple Legacy tournaments that just never fired, due to too few players, I hit a dry spot in my MTG hobby and quit playing for a couple years, outside of my playgroup's monthly kitchen table gatherings.
Fast forward to 2019 and a good friend of mine not only started playing Modern but managed to get me into the format too. Having a desire to play more competitively again, I've been doing a ton of play testing, researching the meta, listening to podcasts and crafting some home brews. At one point a few years ago, I wondered about porting Angry Birds to Modern and a few others actually started some threads here and tried. My thought at the time was that the deck just lost way too much to become legal in the Modern format. That said, now that I actually have investment in Modern, I am way more interested in seeing if Angry Birds actually could be competitive in the format. Quite a bit has changed since I last tried also. There are new cards in Modern that actually fit perfectly in an AGB (Angry Birds) list. I have been quietly testing and brewing the deck with my friend for the past couple months but now I feel it has reached a point that it is worth sharing.
Here is the list I am currently running:
4x Aven Mimeomancer
3x Faerie Seer
4x Giver of Runes
4x Judge's Familiar
4x Pride of the Clouds
4x Sky Hussar
4x Squadron Hawk
4x Stormscape Familiar
4x Flooded Strand
2x Glacial Fortress
4x Hallowed Fountain
3x Island
2x Moorland Haunt
6x Plains
Instant (3)
3x Path to Exile
Planeswalker (2)
2x Teferi, Time Raveler
4x Ghostly Prison
2x Deputy of Detention
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3x Hushwing Gryff
4x Leyline of Sanctity
4x Leyline of the Void
1x Path to Exile
About the Deck
The Angry Birds deck functions off a few key cards that synergize strongly with each other. The deck uses cheap flyers in combination with Sky Hussar as a cheap, hard to disrupt draw engine while hiding behind prison cards for protection. In the Legacy version we used something like Island Sanctuary. In Modern, I have found that Ghostly Prison performs a similar function and is quite effective. The deck is able to use the mass amount of cheap creatures to grind card advantage and wins out of games the deck looks like it has no business winning. Finally the deck can power out wins by dropping a large Pride of the Clouds or using Aven Mimeomancer to accelerate your damage clock. The forecast ability of Pride of the Clouds also comes in handy more often than you think, pairing with Moorland Haunt and Sky Hussar to grind longer games against control for the win.
The strength of Angry Birds is synergy and flexibility to adapt its game plan against various types of other decks. It rewards the player for smart game play which is one of the reasons it is so fun to pilot. Piloting games with this deck often feel pretty intense too, because you have to be comfortable taking damage in the early turns to give the deck time to stabilize. Angry Birds often looks like a punching bag in the early game before turning the game around and ultimately winning. One person once described the deck as a cross between Death and Taxes and Merfolk and I feel that gives a pretty good picture for how this deck likes to play.
Card Choices
One of the great things about a utility flyers deck like this one, is that you also have a wide selection of potentially viable card choices which let you tailor the deck to your meta. I'll speak to some of my key card choices here.
Matchups (under construction)
This is an area that I will work to expand on but I have been testing this deck against several prominent decks in the format over the past couple months. The list has evolved since my initial build and I feel at this point that Angry Birds has a pretty fair chance of winning a match against some common archetypes including:
Bridgevine is a tough match but I am hoping, with proper sideboarding that this won't be a completely unwinnable pairing. Further testing needs to be done against Vizier combo, Esper Death's Shadow, Tron, Dredge and Affinity.
I'll be working on adding more to this and finishing it out to be a full primer. Check back soon!
BGSpanish InquisitionGB
GFood Chain ElvesG
WUAngry BirdsUW
BUThe Four Horsemen (RIP)UB
I'd prefer this to Aven Mimeomancer which is rather slow as a pseudo-lord and very situational against opposing creatures and dies to basically anything.
Smuggler's Copter is also a decent option to upgrade the 1/1 flyers into a looting 3/3.
Winged Words, the new 2-mana Divination for flyers, seems pretty good here, maybe over Sky Hussar which is pretty slow.
Faerie Miscreant can potentially be decent here as well and replace it self.
I'd probably prefer Spellstutter Sprite for interaction over Stormscape Familiar which doesn't seem good enough.
I'd also consider more disruptive 1-drops like Mausoleum Wanderer and Siren Stormtamer to Squadron Hawk which seems rather poor outside of Martyr decks.
I'd probably replace Ghostly Prison as it is a rather situational and slow card.
You can go with Path to Exile for "hard" removal or Vapor Snag as a tempo option that doesn't ramp the opponent.
# Spell Queller is one of your best options for the 3-drop flyer spot, it also dodges Lightning Bolt with Favorable Winds in play.
# Remorseful Cleric is a very good flyer which is even maindeckable now.
# Vendilion Clique is always good either to remove a key card from the opponent or cycle a useless card from your hand.
Other random utility flyers which might be of some use:
Spectral Sailor, Cerulean Drake, Nimble Obstructionist.
I think this deck has the potential to do better in modern than legacy.
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Lectrys, I am definitely interested in doing some testing with Empyrean Eagle. I see this taking the spot of Mimeomancer. My hesitation from buying 100% into switching over to the new lord is that I have found Mimeomancer's situational strengths come up far more often than even I initially anticipated. In recent testing I went up from 3x to 4x, because there were so many times where the feather counter was very useful to winning the game. I definitely want to do more testing with Empyrean Eagle however as just having a good lord would be something I'd like to find slots for in the deck.
D90Dennis,
Thanks for the detailed feedback and suggestions. The one card I am not running in the deck right now because I need to still pick up a playset of Seachrome Coast. I think upping the dual land count and adjusting the manabase will be the final push to smooth out my early mana and make it easy to run Mauseleaum Wanderer over Judge's Familiar. At that point, I'll likely make the switch to running the Wanderer in here.
I definitely can see running the new Empyrean Eagle in Mimeomancer's place, but not too sure about Favorable Winds here. I have tested with Favorable Winds pretty extensively and have not loved it here. I think it is better suited to a more aggro-oriented flyers deck like this one: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/budget-magic-81-24-tix-favorable-winds-modern
Angry Birds is definitely more of a tempo deck than an aggressive aggro deck and I believe it wants to see more of a utility card in this slot. The same applies to Ghostly Prison which allows this deck to play the tempo game and lets the deck reach into the mid-late game where it starts to take control of the board. I do also run Path to Exile in the main, however, as my spot removal.
I am not in love with Winged Words here for a similar reason. I feel like Sky Hussar ends up being more powerful here because it grinds out card advantage every turn, often from turn two into the late game. Ghostly Prison and Sky Hussar really go hand in hand. In the end, I think if you try to build a more aggressive aggro flyers deck, Ghostly Prison should go and then also Sky Hussar for something like the Winged Words. Sky Hussar is really underrated. Sky Hussar is also one of the primary reasons why I think Squadron Hawk is big here. It keeps up creature density to enable the Sky Hussar. If I were to take out Squadron Hawk, I think it really needs to be replaced with something like Lingering Souls. I have considered throwing in light, black splash to run Lingering Souls over Squadron Hawk in this spot.
I do love Remorseful Cleric, especially given the current meta. I have also playtested with Spell Quellers in the past and liked them.
If running Vendilion Clique, I think maindecking Spellstutter Sprites and running the full playset of Faerie Seer starts making a lot of sense.
BGSpanish InquisitionGB
GFood Chain ElvesG
WUAngry BirdsUW
BUThe Four Horsemen (RIP)UB
Against burn: If you can survive their first onslaught, I am positive you can grind them out. Creatures you can stall out well enough, but burn can still use reach against you.
Srongest cards: leyline of sanctity, ghostly prison (to an extent. any taxing effects hose them pretty well)
8 whack: If you can survive their first onslaught, I am positive you can grind them out. However, this is 100% dependent on finding ghostly prison and sticking it.
Srongest cards: leyline of sanctity, ghostly prison.
Jund: Sort of the fairest of the fair, really. Angry birds biggest problem has always been having their hand ripped apart and this is no exception. Top it off with some excellent multi purpose removal and it's not looking too good. Fortunately, you have lots of fliers game 1 to kill liliana of the veil with, so there is that. Forecast will certainly be helpful, but here you're probably the aggro, not the control. Game 2 in comes leyline of sanctity, and you're probably sitting pretty if it hits turn 0.
Strongest cards: Moorland haunt (Jund WILL kill all of the everything, so this gives inevitability), and leyline of sanctity.
Tron: Modern's nemesis, or so some say. It is a strong big mana deck and their late game is better than yours. I also notice a distinct lack of hate for this seemingly ubiquitous matchup. Worse, angry birds clock isn't the fastest (unless it's 1 drop into pride of the clouds x4). No ghost quarters or field of ruins to kill tron lands with, no stony silence to stop the cantripping, no chalice of the void, or no damping sphere, etc.
Strongest cards: uhhh, aggro and pray?
I could see how some of your listed matchups could be pretty good. That said, I also know modern is chuck full of graveyard.deck right now and you have no grave hate main. If the London Mulligan becomes a thing, it will be even worse. I think rest in peace is stronger than leyline of the void, and I would run at least 2 maindeck and 1 or 2 more in the board. If you're preferential of targeted graveyard removal, then remorseful cleric is a good option, too.
Various white brews have come out in the past, and one thing I have noticed is that leyline of sanctity main has an awful lot of uses sometimes. It's meta dependent, but stopping discard and burn cold is something to consider. I would be tempted by 3 main and a 4th sideboard.
Splashing other colors: You already mentioned a possible black splash for lingering souls. It's an excellent idea. If this becomes an option, then I would likewise be tempted with spectral procession over something else (take your pick). A lot of bodies can be problematic for some decks to deal with.
However, I would likewise consider a red splash. Blood moon is a legitimate card choice, and I like lightning bolt over path to exile most of the time. Being able to choose between an opponent, a planswalker, and a creature threat is a pretty good choice to have. Blood moon combined with your clock (and a few counters) also gives you a better than fair chance against tron. Of course, as always, this depends on your meta.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
I still partly remember a few of your legacy fnm's, and the hussar did good there. Maybe because it's card advantage, and also a threat mid-late game.
For board wipe heavy decks, Selfless Spirit looks like a good sideboard card.
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I don’t agree with this sentiment. I have been playing U/W spirits for about a year now. Although the decks have similar win rates against decks and look similar on paper, they play completely differently. I think the most interesting thing about AGB is the fact that it has the most room to grow. Also, the card advantage that it creates is awesome and the fact that you don’t have the restriction of just playing spirit creatures.
i think u should also consider playing Depose // Deploy as a one or two of
What does this have over the Spirits deck ? Probably only Pride of the Clouds, and this isn't really enough.
Spirits can play anything this deck can play and have way more synergy/lords/payoff cards for playing their tribe/theme.
The best flying creatures with utility (Cleric, Queller, Wanderer, Selfless) are spirits anyway (besides some Faeries like: Seer, Spellstutter and Clique).
I hear what you are saying and that is probably why I am currently still playing U/W spirits but I think this deck has potential. It is hard to quantify just how much work Shy Hussar and Ghostly Prison actually do until you play AGB or play against it. So to answer your question I think the 4 things this deck has over Spirits are: 1, card advantage, this is something spirits has always lacked. 2, Pride of the Clouds 3, Shy Hussar, and 4, Ghostly Prison. With all of this said, Spirits has its advantages as well, I just think that AGB is definitely worth exploring.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
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cloudfin raptor is a really fast clock and has amazing synergy with aven mimeomancer. I think I would run it over faerie seer.
sky hussar is a card you want for grindier matches. You don't need so many, because in grindier matches, you'll see more cards, so you'll see sky hussar more often. You can safely cut down on one or two of those. In the legacy deck, you needed the draw for island sanctuary, but ghostly prison doesnt force you to skip your draw.
Last thing is more personal preference, but is still a good thing to mention. Aether vial and empyrial plate are good for a tempo/aggro strategy. The equipment is really good with squadron hawks, because you'll often have a full hand, and it turns even single 1/1s into a fast clock control players needs to deal with.
If you want to quickly kill the opponent quickly, rather than grind them out, take out ghostly prison and stormscape familiar, and replace them with aether vial and empyrial plate. Actually, I realize that all my suggestions are for a faster, more aggro version of the deck. I might even come up with a list for it.
My brother and I liked the deck a lot. I'm glad to see it getting some attention again.
I have to agree with energizerzax and Weltkrieg on this; I put this deck in the deck creation forum because it is very much in 'developing' status. I believe every good and competitive deck starts from somewhere and is honed and refined into its best form until it becomes something competitive (and maybe even tier level) at some point or, when taken to its furthest point is determined not competitive enough. The cool bit here is that quite a bit of thought has already gone into the idea from the Legacy version, at least in terms of the base elements so it already feels, to me, pretty solid when I've been playing it.
Although Angry Birds does lose some in the transition to Modern, I feel that the introduction of several new solid, Modern legal flyers and even things like Giver of Runes, is the window I was looking for to give it a try here.
I agree also with energizerzax and Weltkrieg that plays quite a bit differently than the established u/w flying deck in Modern--Spirits. They are enough different that I'd want to own both. They have very different strategies and playstyles involved. Both bring their own strengths.
Weltkrieg, you contributed so much to helping me build the Legacy version of the deck and you always have incredible feedback that is on point. Thank you! I have not play tested extensively against Jund or Tron yet so they are definitely going on my test Gauntlet. I have seen neither in my local meta so far, but know they have presence in Modern as a whole so I am probably going to need to consider what I need to bring up my match-ups against those decks. In particular, I am concerned Tron could be a pretty tough pairing for the current list.
One piece I want to look at and give a closer look to is the mana base. Should I try and go up one Moorland Haunt? Is a 1-of Mistveil Plains worth consideration if I keep Squadron Hawk in the deck? I definitely want to slide playset of Seachrome Coast in the deck. Once I do that, I'll probably make the switch to Mausoleum Wanderer from Judge's Familiar.
As far as tax elements, I definitely can think of a few things I might like to test.
Aven Mindcensor is bomb. If I get the Seachrome's, I can probably also go down on basics and slip in some Field of Ruin without much trouble. Aven Mindcensor becomes even more valuable with cards like Field of Ruin. All of this paired with Ghostly Prison can be mean because if the opponent misses out on a land drop, that really sets them behind when Ghostly Prison is out on the field.
Although it is probably too slow, I thought about using Worship combined with something like Cloudform or Wall of Denial to create a lock. I have always wanted to run Suppression Field in Angry Birds but it does not play nice with our own fetches or forecast abilities. :/
Weltkrieg, the thought of splashing red intrigues me. Not sure how to make Blood Moon work with just a like red splash and heavy white/blue demands. The mana base would have to be strongly re-worked. That said, I love the idea of running lightning bolt. Path to Exile is not ultra synergistic with Ghostly Prison here. I wonder if Alpine Moon could be used here?
Ro ro ro, that is awesome that your brother used to play AGB. I love your ideas as well. Weltkrieg was a huge proponent of Empyrial Plate in this deck.
I do agree that I can likely go down to 3x Hussar without too much trouble. I love Aether Vial and have extensively tested a birds build with it. That said, at the moment, I am liking Stormscape Familiar a little more. Stormscape is not as bad to see multiples of because the ability stacks, plus he is another creature to use towards the Sky Hussar tap/draw engine.
Also! Stormscape Familiar is a beast with Lingering Souls. Think about it. With Stormscape on the field, you cast Lingering for 1W and then can Flashback for B. Three mana in total to cast and flashback Lingering Souls!
PS: Fluff, I'm looking forward to running this deck in Modern also. I should be able to get to some tournaments here with it soon. It'll be the first time piloting it in the Modern competitive environment so that should be very informative to me for what the deck's strengths and weaknesses are in the format.
PPS: Everyone has given me a lot to think about and test. Time to start grinding some test matches and putting together some data. I'll be back later with updates!
BGSpanish InquisitionGB
GFood Chain ElvesG
WUAngry BirdsUW
BUThe Four Horsemen (RIP)UB
That being said, we have options on how we approach deckbuilding, we can go for the tempo route, Aether Vials, Pride of clouds, Lords and anthems couples with very aggressively costed and disruptive Flyers, down the Hussars and up the cheap Card Advantage cards like Chart a Course and Winged Words. Possible cards that COULD be in this list are: Smuggler's copter, Phantasmal Image, Selfless Spirit, Empyrian Eagle, Lingering Souls, Battle Screech, Kitesail Freebooter, Spell Queller.
The other route, which is more similar to the one this thread's creator wrote on, a Grindy, value oriented midrange list. with extremely grindy cards, a draw engine and some lock pieces. Stormscape familiar is a REAL find, the fact that it stacks its effects are just insane. Battle Screech and lingering souls can be both cast and flashbacked in the same turn VERY easily, creating insane preassure out of NOWHERE. this against control is GAS, against DS is almost a guaranteed win (be on the watch for Battle Rage Though). A list like this could benefit GREATLY from the new Sephara, Sky's Blade. Explosive turns with loads of flyiers + the mana cost reduction from Stormscape Familia + the protection and pressure from the new legend... seems quite insane to me.
I'll be testing both approaches soon, and WILL be posting results and lists. I hope this thread in specific does not flop, as I really belive this deck has true potential. thanks for reading guys, I'll be back soon.
If you use my red splash idea, then I think seachrome coast is no good. Instead I would probably run a fetch/shock manabase with heavy basics and maybe also prismatic vista. With 6 to 8 maindeck red cards, you really don't need many sources of red.
Moorland haunt is a 2 of at most. You really don't want to see more than one of these any given game in this deck.
I don't know how I feel about empyrial plate in this deck in modern. The ability to keep your hand full with land tax and your opponent slow with island sanctuary/back to basics is gone in modern. Instead, you're running ghostly prison which is generally a lot worse.
Dredge variants, including hogaak dredgevine are all over right now, as well as tons of other graveyard decks. The more I think about it, the more I like remorseful cleric main and maybe rest in peace in the board. It's that prevalent. Unlike mausoleum wanderer/judge's familiar, remorseful cleric can sacrifice at will in order to clear out bridge from below.
I think the scry ability on the 1 drop faerie is insane. It's good enough that I think I would consider it a 4 of and up to 4 spellstutter sprite. Even these faeries is enough to disrupt your opponents severely.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
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Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
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4 Pride of the Clouds
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Selfless Spirit
2 Serra Avenger
3 Nimble Obstructionist
Enchantment
4 Unstable Mutation
4 Favorable Winds
Land
2 Plains
3 Watery Grave
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
1 Swamp
3 Seachrome Coast
2 Moorland Haunt
4 Flooded Strand
3 Path to Exile
Sorcery
3 Chart a Course
3 Lingering Souls
2 Magus of the Moat
3 Spiketail Drakeling
3 Warkite Marauder
2 Hope of Ghirapur
2 Celestial Purge
1 Spell Pierce
2 Azorius Charm
4 Pride of the Clouds
4 Judge's Familiar
1 Stormchaser Mage
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Selfless Spirit
2 Spell Queller
4 Mantis Rider
Enchantment
4 Favorable Winds
Land
3 Sacred Foundry
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Arid Mesa
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Moorland Haunt
2 Steam Vents
4 Flooded Strand
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Boros Charm
3 Path to Exile
3 Siren Stormtamer
2 Hope of Ghirapur
2 Disenchant
2 Holy Day
3 Spell Pierce
3 Midnight Haunting
I made these awhile back but I haven't optimized them in ages and since the new upcoming cards are not in the deck builder yet I cant alter them to what I really want without hassle.
cards I'm looking at:
The biggest issue is one card that isn't totally on par: skyknight vanguard. The creatures it creates don't fly but it does basically say attack and get another creature, which isn't horrible. I will admit my decks really need polish and cards changed in and out but yeah here's my so far take on it.
# Create a blowout during blocking (like a mini wrath).
# Speed up the clock to quickly close out the game (a better 2- mana Guardians' Pledge or a Pride of Conquerors with "Ascend" can be pretty good).
# It helps protect against damage/toughness based sweepers.