Hello,
This is my first attempt at creating a almost mono-owl blue/black deck that attempts to control the board. The main strategy is to swarm the opponent with owls and to boost them with Favorable Winds and Aven Mimeomancer and deal as much damage as possible whilst attempting to hold off any threats the opponent presents.
I've been tweaking it for a while and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions and ideas for my deck.
Thank you for your time.
The deck is too small-ball. You're not going to beat the table down with a slew of 1/1s and so you need significantly more ways to buff your team. The primary cards that comes to mind for this are things like Soulcatchers' Aerie, Door of Destinies and Coat of Arms. I'd run them en-masse in this type of shell. I'd cut the Unsummons for them personally since you're going to need a significantly more reliable way to pummel your adversaries into submission.
Baleful Strix is a fantastic Magic card who just so happen to be an owl. It trades with anything and draws a card both of which are sweet abilities. I highly recommend playing 4 as it's better than and could replace any of your other creatures.
Your instants are very low impact and could use some help. The Unsummons should be cut for Door of Destinies and Essence Scatters should be Counterspells. Doom Blades should be Curtains' Calls if your meta has enough players. If you do want bounce then Cyclonic Rift is definitely the way to go, but Kindred Dominance could also work. Avoid cheap tempo plays like Unsummon that don't scale well with the increased number of players as much as humanely possible. Even something like Coastal Breach would be vastly superior since your spells are cheap and most have relevant ETB triggers. Just try not to field Soulcatchers' Aerie and Coastal Breach in the same deck.
For the manabase you should consider fielding 4x Exotic Orchard and 4x Arcane Sanctum over your dual lands and Swamps. You want your splash lands to tap for all of your colors whenever possible since you don't want your splash cards to be stranded in your hand.
I tried making an owl deck a while back, just for a laugh. It wasn't good....
I ended up with blue/black/green. Baleful Strix is a must have.
I splashed green for Beastmaster Ascension and Edric, Spymaster of Trest.
It was okay, but was still lacklustre compared to a dedicated Edric-deck.
What I learned;
Owls set up your manabase and hand, help your early turns with their scry ability, but little else against a good set of opponents.
You need some number of shuffle effects to make the most of all that scry, I used Evolving Wilds.
This is my first attempt at creating a almost mono-owl blue/black deck that attempts to control the board. The main strategy is to swarm the opponent with owls and to boost them with Favorable Winds and Aven Mimeomancer and deal as much damage as possible whilst attempting to hold off any threats the opponent presents.
I've been tweaking it for a while and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions and ideas for my deck.
Thank you for your time.
4 Sage Owl
3 Stormscape Familiar
4 Augury Owl
4 Judge's Familiar
3 Palace Familiar
2 Warden of Evos Isle
2 Jötun Owl Keeper
2 Aven Mimeomancer
Enchantment
1 Fable of Wolf and Owl
2 Favorable Winds
10 Island
4 Swamp
2 Dismal Backwater
4 Tranquil Cove
Instant
3 Doom Blade
3 Essence Scatter
4 Negate
4 Unsummon
2 Tempest Owl
1 Ringwarden Owl
2 Tidehollow Strix
2 Mana Leak
2 Deluge
2 Hydrosurge
2 Touch of Moonglove
2 Spell Pierce
Baleful Strix is a fantastic Magic card who just so happen to be an owl. It trades with anything and draws a card both of which are sweet abilities. I highly recommend playing 4 as it's better than and could replace any of your other creatures.
Your instants are very low impact and could use some help. The Unsummons should be cut for Door of Destinies and Essence Scatters should be Counterspells. Doom Blades should be Curtains' Calls if your meta has enough players. If you do want bounce then Cyclonic Rift is definitely the way to go, but Kindred Dominance could also work. Avoid cheap tempo plays like Unsummon that don't scale well with the increased number of players as much as humanely possible. Even something like Coastal Breach would be vastly superior since your spells are cheap and most have relevant ETB triggers. Just try not to field Soulcatchers' Aerie and Coastal Breach in the same deck.
For card draw you may may want to consider adding some cards like Mystic Remora, Rhystic Study, Manifold Insights, Syphon Mind, Kindred Discovery and/or Recurring Insight. Even a couple can go a long way when you're playing a grindy multiplayer match. Kindred Discovery is especially awesome in a deck full of cheap fliers and cost reduction effects. You can draw a ton of cards off of it.
For the manabase you should consider fielding 4x Exotic Orchard and 4x Arcane Sanctum over your dual lands and Swamps. You want your splash lands to tap for all of your colors whenever possible since you don't want your splash cards to be stranded in your hand.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
I ended up with blue/black/green. Baleful Strix is a must have.
I splashed green for Beastmaster Ascension and Edric, Spymaster of Trest.
It was okay, but was still lacklustre compared to a dedicated Edric-deck.
What I learned;
Owls set up your manabase and hand, help your early turns with their scry ability, but little else against a good set of opponents.
You need some number of shuffle effects to make the most of all that scry, I used Evolving Wilds.
In addition to your previous suggestions, do you have any cards that will work in modern?
Thanks
I do not. None of the cool multiplayer cards are modern legal.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold