MTG Salvation

Heyo. This is my old-school themed, mono-blue, all flying, aggro deck; I haven't played it for a while and decided to bring it back and update it. Budget friendly and almost Pauper! Goals are first, then the list, then possible evolution of the deck, then lastly, Tips and Tricks below. Deck did pretty well in a casual environment.

Anything in post-8th frame I haven't tested in this deck yet.

Goals:
- This deck harkens back to earlier Magic times and is well, pretty simple. Beat face with the most efficient (good ratio of P/T to cost) flying critters via Unstable Mutation.
- Try to keep the "old school" Magic flavor.
- Supplement with a little bit of "removal."

Evolution:
- This deck has came a long way from what I had in it back in the day - Wind Zendikon outclassed Spindrift Drake, Zephyr Sprite killed Cloud Sprite, Wasp Lancer is better than Cloud Spirit / Rishadan Airship in mono-blue; all this makes me curious what old cards should stay?
- Your blue removal can vary. I stuck to cheap CMC stuff since I want to win early. Purge I have a soft spot for and it does well in casual since 1/1s are common; it also works to clear out X/1 fliers so your Unstable Mutants hit. Undo is a old standout and I think still holds some nice power. Flood is expensive but helps if you stall and need a bit more time.
- Got money? Psionic Blast and Seredib Efreet should probably go in.
- Other cards which I can't decide to go in or not - Genju of the Falls, Halcyon Glaze...
- Work in card draw? Problem is there is not much cheap card draw, maybe Treasure Hunt.
- How much land?

Tips and Tricks:
- Not a complicated deck; 1st turn Wind Zendikon, 2nd turn Unstable Mutation, 5/5 flier attacking you - just gets there frequently. Play weenies quick, spread out Unstable Mutations, bash face.
- Remove fliers so you can smash.
- Zephyr Falcon is a great UM target since it has vigilance.
- Card draw isn't cheap mana wise, so you have some things that work a bit like draw. Shrieking Drake returns a UM critter that would die next turn (attack with your critter first, of course) "drawing" you a creature to replay; Genju turn extra lands drawn into beats.

Thas it for now. Not as aggro as standard but fun for casual. Comments / suggestions / hate mail ?! welcome.Thanks.

Feels very classic. I like that you play Unstable Mutation and Phantasmal Forces, very very neat!

Isn't Flying Men or any of the other vanilla 1/1 fliers for 1 simply better than Shrieking Drake?

I think you want all your 2cmc creatures to have at least two toughness. Welkin Tern, Gossamer Phantom, and Briarberry Cohort, while newer, are better than a 1/1 vigilance. Thought Eater is a little gross but if you're dumping your hand early might work out for you.

Psionic Blast is a very old, very strong piece of blue removal.

Man you gotta be dropping bigger bombs (pun intended)

goliath sphinx for them late games
serra sphinx
spire golem free card most of the time or 3 mana for 2/4
errant ephemeron
Faerie swarm

phantasmal forces isn't gonna cut it for a win-con

I'll second the "where's the Flying Men?" question. Definitely the Phantasmal Forces are a weak card, I'd go with Mahamoti Djinn instead if you want to stick with old-school flavor. Definitely add in the Serendib Efreet and Psionic Blast, also High Tide never hurt a blue deck.

The deck definitely needs flying men, inkfathom infiltrator and gossamer phantasm for beats. Also you really need some card draw to keep the pressure up.

Yeah baby!

I still have to put mine back together...
But I like the Psionic Blast idea...not sure I've ever used that here, but it looks great!

Warden, I love it...feels oldschool, but the upgrades are tasty.
I particularly like the Zendikon...and how you get double duty out of a Bay Falcon with Unstable Mutation :).

DRum

how about cloud of faeries? a catriping flying men is always nice. and you can cycle it lategame.

Whoa, lots of comments, cool, cool.

domogrue: On Flying Men, they are already in - Zephyr Sprite. On FM versus the Shrieking Drake, maybe - I like how the Drake recurs a dying mutant or fading Cloudskate to give a bit of "draw."

I still debate Zephyr Falcon and they could be replaced - I like the Cohort, nice find there, thanks! They could work. Thought Eater is debatable, but could work too. I still defend Falcon as it works well to chump a nasty since this deck sometimes goes to mid-early game.

Psionic Blast I mentioned as "if you have $, add these" section - when I'm employed again I will definitely look into them.

raver: I fear you miss the point. This deck is aggro and those are control finishers. My curve tops off at four and those guys are way too expensive. I win before then or won't ever.

LilianaVess33: Yeah, PB is perfect, it's in the "$" section for now.

boinknet: Read first comment. Djinn is too slow. Effreet is in the $ section above. Tide doesn't seem like it does enough early game to warrant the slot.

themilkman: What would you suggest for cheap card draw? I was thinking Treasure Hunt at merely 1U could work...

DrDRum: Thanks!

hyugafan: Ah, thanks for reminding me; I am debating on Cloud of Faeries. Since it's free* it's good since you can drop more critters early, but it's small for the cost. I could test them.

Anymore thoughts? Can't decide on the 4CMC slots; Phantasmal Forces is not great, but it's a 4 power for 4 so it's on the curve; alternatives?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Alternatives to Phantasmal Forces that are efficient: Living Tsunami, Seredib Djinn (for the rich folks out there), Swans of Bryn Argoll (little $), Waterspout Djinn (pretty much inferior to Living Tsunami)

Treasure hunt has to run alongside either Ponder or halimar depths. I say halimar, cuz it's a land.

Chisei, heart of oceans. I love this card, and it breaks unstable.

Curiosity for card draw?

Would the Drake recur an unstable mutation to your hand?
I thought that if any bounce happened to a critter in play, the enchantments on him/her/it went to the gy...:confused:

DRum

If you guys are going old school, where's brainstorm? *First Turn* "Oh darn, I have a one cmc, a three cmc, a four cmc, and three lands! *Brainstorm* Oh look! A two cmc, an unstable mutation and another land! *Puts the four cmc and the land on top* Perfect!

well then i do believe the bottom 3 cards on the list fit the description, i'm including spire golem because in this deck it is at most below 4cmc. I cant see how phantasmal force is a good card. It's a 4/1 that makes you pay U every turn. If you say your deck is aggro why not switch it with faerie swarm a 4cmc and in this case a rather high number power/toughness, plus you dont have to pay U every turn

For cheap card draw, I would recommend any of these spells(none of which cost over 2 mana):

ancestral vision
ponder
serum visions
brainstorm
portent
accumulated knowledge
courier's capsule
lat-nam's legacy
scarscale ritual
standstill
words of wisdom

If you wanted to slightly splash in Green, Quillspike would enjoy the Unstable Mutations...

After seeing this, I threw together a blue flyer/unblockable deck. A few good cards I got are:

Noggle Bandit combo with Clout of the Dominus
Cunning on a fading Cloudskate
Sleep for that final attack or two

Well, I finally got around to putting my version of this back together. My sincere apologies if this is too far down to bump…but I just got done playing the revised deck over the weekend, and had to report back to Warden how things went

For reference…here's the original, from back in the day (circa. 2000...ish)



A month ago, this thread popped up, and I did some diggin' to see what new stuff might be better for ye olde blue flyer...
So, I got inspired...whipped it out (my debit card, that is), and got some new cards.

Here is my redeux.


Changes and thoughts :
Coral Atoll (out) – Halimar Depths (in)
Sky Diamond & Sol Ring (out) – More Islands (in)
Sunken City (out) – Boomerang (in)
Illusionary Forces – Vexing Sphinx (in)
Psionic Blast (in)
Cloud Spirit (out) – Wasp Lancer (in)


Thoughts after a few games:
First and foremost, Psionic Blast is indeed great here, and is just as great as any redburn would be for utility, or directed at the other player.

I expected great things out of Depths, and I’m pleased to say it lives up to expectations, and has been helpful in finding Mutations, Boomerangs and Psionic Blasts…draw fixing is a goooood thing *grin* While the CIP is a detriment, I treat it more like a “free scry with a great bonus” than a land with an added effect. I think I like it better than Atoll, which was a good long-term decent accelerant, but sometimes stalls me in turns 2-5. However, I may be a touch (like, 1) too low on land (though I never got mana screwed in a dozen games)

Vexing Sphinx…Brings my curve down a hair, and by the point he becomes a real problem I should either be close to winning, or ready to lose. There’s only one…so it doesn’t change the deck much. Better than Illusionary Forces, I think. Also, Wasp Lancer is simply the new Cloud Spirit.

I cleared a couple mana sources, including nixing the Sky Diamonds, and Sol Ring which is likely not very helpful anymore, with all the striaght U requirements. The Ring used to make for quick Mutated Serendibs (both), which is cool, but I only own 2 of each and I don’t think it fits for the rest of the U heavy deck (plus now I can use it in another deck). I don’t miss the Diamond’s too much, as I’ve less “pay U” critters / Sunken Citys than before

I had reservations about getting rid of the Sunken Citys, as their purpose is obvious, and it gets through extra damage…also netting me one more turn before a Mutated bugger kicks the bucket. Sometimes, though, I either had one in hand before I wanted one, or played one and then regretted not having the mana a couple turns later…it is pretty mana intensive :-\. I thought for a while what to put in in the 2CC slot, and Boomerang made the cut (over Counterspell or Memory Lapse). Boomerang plays well with plenty of the deck, from resetting Cloudskate or Unstable Mutation, to saving a flyer from removal, to clearing the sky for my attackers, to bouncing a Pacifism’d Serendib Djinn (yes, this happened). EDIT: Gravitational Shift looks to be a great (and more costly, intially) replacement for Sunken City...being able to slow the weenie rush is normally a problem, but pumping the flyer...a two in one card...could be good here. F's the mana curve pretty well, though.

I think I want some card draw in here too…either Ponder (cheap), Lat-Nam’s Legacy (more deck fixing, and cheap) or maybe Deep Analysis (double dip, and it kinda’ fits the “suicide” theme).

Overall, it did okay…about 50% wins, against: B Necropotence/Ivory Tower (with power), Thallids, Aggro Kavu, UrzaBurn. Most important, it was hella’ fun.


I’m also thinking the deck with Drake Familiar and more enchantments might be interesting…get more legs out of the Unstable Mutation. I also like...Clout of the Dominus, Cunning (Blue Giant Growth), Infiltrator's Magemark.

DRum

Thanks for the update, Dr.

I've actually built my decklist (in real life) and it's going to return this weekend probably.

I agree with your assumptions so far. I used to run accel but I don't think I need it now. Each CC slot has something effienct enough for now.

Vexing Sphinx! How did I forget that? I may try these instead of Forces.

Used to run Sunken City in the past too, but was consintiently disappointed, maybe I just played wrong though.

I'm testing Undo for 3x for my bounce, sweeping away two critters of theirs for 3 (if two flyers then you just got through a lot of damage) for now. You can also bounce one of theirs and a dying mutant.

Drake Familiar looks great; you'd need to add more enchantments for sure make 6 min total. Maybe 4x Unstable and 3x-4x Sigil of Sleep - it'd bounce their stuff and it's cheap to replay! But, it's mostly for returning Unstables that would die next turn, that is great.

Thanks for the help. If there are no other forum comments, keep in touch via PM.

Quote from DrDRum

Would the Drake recur an unstable mutation to your hand?
I thought that if any bounce happened to a critter in play, the enchantments on him/her/it went to the gy...:confused:

DRum

he's saying he recurs the critter that is going to die to Unstable Mutation not the Unstable Mutation itself.

^^^ Ah! Right. *grin*

Warden:
I forgot to make include a note about Undo in my post :o...
Undo is a very underated card. I've all 4 in my MUC deck right now, so I didn't play test it...but I'm sure you'll be happy with it. It (obviously) plays like an Icy Manipulator or Burn to clear the way for your Air Force...

I was very closely considering Undo instead of Boomerang, from your post (I love undo, love it)...and I'm still not sure. Boomerang serves multiple porpoises, but costs UU to do it, and for 1 more I could bounce two critters...but I think I liked the flexibility of bouncing a avariety of things...Unstable Mutation (expensive just to bounce a U casting cost thing, but gets me extra legs out of it..."saving" a flyer in the process, almost-kinda-sorta-maybe like having 8 Unstable Muts in the deck), Halimar Depths (its an expensive scry), or any of the other tings noted in my previous post...

It really is kinda' expensive though, but the flexibility might be worth it. It kinda' takes a little aggro out of the deck vs Undo though...which is the other side of the argument...and actually changes the strategy of the deck a tad.

I dunno'. I think I might playtest Undo at next week's guy's night, and see how I like it. Lemme' know how you like Undo after you play it out again :).

DRum
PS. 10-4 re: PMs here out.

Faerie Squadron is 1/1 1cc and has kicker if u get at late game, but only has flying if u kicker him... dunno if it has a place