MTG Salvation

Hey all, I was looking at Isperia earlier today, and I thought she might make an excellent toolbox-type general. So I immediately looked up all the blue/white flying creatures with helpful abilities. Problem is, there's a whole ton of them. Well over 70 that I want to put in this deck. So I'm looking for some assistance on what creatures to cut. Likewise, as I was looking at my creature choices, I'm running a fair amount of creatures that use CIPs and CIP-bounce, and I think I can abuse some of that for some serious shenanigans, but it would require a ton of mana per turn, so if anyone has any suggestions for that, please let me know.

Firstly, are those cards which I feel I could not do without. Whatever they are, unless given a very good reason, I don't think I could do without them, although I am open to suggestion.


Apart from these "essentials", there are plenty other creatures that are potentially effective, including a number of enchantment removal fliers, scryers/draw-fixers, repeatable foggers, etc., etc. A few of the more noteworthy are listed below


Again, I think this deck has some serious potential, but it's still being brainstormed. Any ideas are mucho appreciated!

Hokay, took another look, this time with a more critical eye, and I think I've got a tentative decklist set up. I'm going to use some of the same combos I picked up in my Patron of the Moon EDH, seeing as I can use a few more Karoos and all the artifacts/arti-fetching from my Patron deck, not to mention easily tutoring the Patron. Much as I enjoy being incredibly unoriginal, I was compelled to add some new stuff. But not too much! Anyways, please take a look at this new and far improved decklist.



There are 101 cards in the deck, and I guarantee I need more counters, and maybe need to drop the Gauntlet/Extraplanar Lens/High Tide, as I'm not playing monoblue and Palinchron won't be as helpful for Inf-mana. He still has his uses, but I may need to drop those.

Card Explanations and Synergies

Cloudstone Curio - I was running this in my Patron EDH as part of the main combo, and you might be thinking that it is here just for that. Wrong. My object is not merely to bring in some creatures that have great abilities, but to be able to recur these abilities at will, and this will permit me to play multiple abilities consistently. Combos with Cloud of Faeries and Palinchron, permitting me to basically play two creatures for the price of one, and bounce 'em so I can keep doing so. Hoverguard Sweepers and Tidespout Tyrant are giggling to themselves over this one.

Artificer's Intuition, Trinket Mage, Fabricate, Dizzy Spell, Drift of Phantasms, Tezzeret the Seeker, and Muddle the Mixture all seek out various things in my deck, predominantly Amulet of Vigor, Cloudstone Curio, Storm Cauldron, or my Generalshields - Lightning Greaves or Neurok Stealthsuit. The thing about this particular deck's tutoring is that one particular piece of tutoring, Drift of Phantasms, is itself tutorable with my general's ability.

Multiple playing of creatures is facilitated by repeatable bouncing, preferrably through the use of Cloudstone Curio, but there are other engines available. Silver Drake, Sawtooth Loon, Riftwing Cloudskate, Stormfront Riders, Tidespout Tyrant, or Hoverguard Sweepers all bounce things to my hand, and with either the Stormfront or Hoverguard, I can keep the loop moving as much as I want.

Most of my recursion comes from being able to play creatures multiple times, but sometimes a guy's gonna die and there's nothing you can do about it. Except... you can :D. Adarkar Valkyrie, Reya Dawnbringer, Guiding Spirit, Karmic Guide, Razor Hippogriff, Reveillark, and Twilight Shepherd all grab stuff from the GY.

Expedition Map, Tolaria West, and Weathered Wayfarer seek out certain lands that are particularly useful to any strategy I might be cooking up, and if I use them enough, Palinchron might just cook up enough to go infinite, i.e., Karoo, Coral Atoll, Azorius Chancery, Lotus Vale, Scorched Ruins...

Another change I am considering is removing Magma Mine. It is the only wincon to my Infinite Mana combos put in this deck, and is somewhat difficult to tutor for. It makes Palinchron and all my lands combined work better, but in return adds an untutorable element to it. What I am considering now is the Soratami Mindsweeper, which can be fetched with my general very easily.

So that's my deck! Sorry for the wall of text there, and thanks to all who took the time to look through it all. Any thoughts or suggestions, especially on the Extraplanar/Gauntlet/High Tide issue and on the question of Magma Mine or Soratami Mindsweeper are especially welcome!

I made a list a while ago with a TON of artifact acceleration and used Esperia to find game ending fliers like Iona, Shield of Emeria, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Tidespout Tyrant, and Blazing Archon along with a few utility fliers in case I really need an answer (Sower, Glen-Elendra, Aven Cloudchaser, Soratami Savant). I filled the rest of the deck with control cards because the thing is, you're not really going to be connecting with Isperia all that much so there's no need to pack it full of 20+ flying creatures, just the ones you really need.

I remember I inluded Palinchron, but I can't remember how good it was, I also included a Yosei combo but wasn't all too happy with it.

Yeah, I think you're right. I've taken out a lot of the less utilizable fliers, but I'm leaving in the bounce. Helps Isperia's ability. So you'd suggest more of a control/accel build? I've already done some fishing for replacements and taken out the more borderline fliers, but how many pieces of accel should I run, and what should they be? Specifically, are the Diamonds, Ramos's paraphernalia, and Totems any good? Likewise, should I run more counterspells? As far as this deck's strategy goes, It's a combo deck, my two main combos being Patron+Amulet+Curio/Cauldron and Karoo+Curio+any two of Palinchron/Cloud of Faeries/Peregrine Drake, both providing infinite mana. Each can segue into it's own wincon: Magma Mine works for both, Soratami Mindsweeper for Patron, and Tidespout Tyrant for Palinchron. Sadly, to fetch each combo itself requires at least 3 rounds of hitting the opponent. Also, Yosei and High Tide/Gauntlet of Power/Extraplanar Lens have not worked out, so those are gone as well. I've thrown out some of the least utilizable lands, and I'm considering removing the Lotus Vale/Scorched Ruins. Any thoughts?