I have a time-honored tradition of posting my Regionals deck online every year. Sometimes they are good, sometimes they are bad, most of the time they are ugly. This year is no different.
So there I was – it was 3 a.m. I had just got back home from Hobart Street, where all the best Magic players live in Pittsburgh. Gary Wise is visiting us, and we were having fun playing the Magical cards until the wee hours of the morning.
You would think I was tired – but not really. What did I do? Turned to the computer, of course! I had just finished writing about the Elfball deck for the Magic Online site, and liked some of the interactions of the other cards in it, so I decided to make a more Standard-worthy version of the deck.
The first thing to go was the infinite combo – the real power of the deck, strangely enough, seemed to come from Timberwatch Elf, Wirewood Herald, and Seeker of Skybreak. Why? I don’t really know. I guess making stuff big with Timberwatch is good outside of Limited, too.
So I finished my deck and wanted to play. I was doing well in the casual rooms, but that doesn’t always mean much – I wanted to enter a tournament. The 8-man queue had one person in it, so I turned to the Worlds Qualifier qualifier tournaments.
At 9 a.m., I had lost only one game and decided to split in the finals. Somehow, my Elf deck had gone undefeated.
The best part of the deck is making big Birds of Paradise and swinging with them for obscene amount for damage, hence the name of the deck: Big Bird. My current record for biggest Bird is 65/66. If anyone breaks it, be sure to tell me!
Big Bird
4 Wirewood Lodge
7 Forest
4 Plains
4 Brushland
4 Windswept Heath
2 Ravenous Baloth
2 Phantom Centaur
3 Sylvan Safekeeper
2 Caller of the Claw
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Exalted Angel
4 Seeker of Skybreak
4 Wellwisher
4 Wirewood Herald
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Timberwatch Elf
Sideboard:
2 Naturalize
2 Nantuko Vigilante
2 Ravenous Baloth
2 Phantom Centaur
2 Caller of the Claw
3 Compost
2 Whipcorder
Bad Matchups: Red/Green, Slide, And Wake
Red/Green will destroy you with Violent Eruption and Grim Lavamancer, and sometimes Sparksmith. If you ever get a Timberwatch active, it really helps a ton. Your main plan of attack is to cast Exalted Angel face up or unmorph it on turn 4 with protection from the turn 1 Safekeeper.
Wake and Slide will sit around killing all of your guys until you say uncle. Sometimes you can sneak in a win with Caller of the Claw and fatties, but it is tough.
Even Matchups: Blue/Green Decks
Most of this match-up depends on their draw. Sometimes you just destroy them with Timberwatch, sometimes you create a stalemate with Wellwisher. Using Timberwatch on Birds on defense is a big part of the matchup, and if they don’t have Wonder then you are in really good shape.
Good Matchups: Tog, MBC, Reanimator, Just About Everything Else
Why is Tog a good matchup? You have so many threats, and the Heralds will protect you from Chainer’s Edict-style effects; just keep fetching up Heralds. Once you sneak an Angel or Centaur through, that’s pretty much the end for them.
MBC is just like playing against a bad Tog deck. The Heralds smash some serious face in this matchup – and if they Mutilate, fetch up Caller and let the bears get angry. Protecting Phantom Centaur helps, but you can win this matchup pretty easily. Just watch out for Haunting Echoes – it is really the only way they can beat you. Compost puts the nail in the coffin.
Reanimator is a really strange matchup – sometimes you need to Caller from a Wrath of God effect, or sometimes you need to continually sacrifice lands to protect your men from Visara. As long as you have Composts in the sideboard, I wouldn’t sweat this one too much.
I will most likely be playing this deck in Regionals, or some variant of it – it is a ton of fun! Some changes are in order, however, as some of the CMU people pointed out that the Wellwishers are not great in any matchups except for Tog, U/G, and Burning Bridges. They may be better replaced with something else. Same goes for the Safekeeper; he should probably move to the sideboard. Lastly, the deck probably wants one Elvish Soultiller just so it has one fatty to search up with the Heralds. Tribal Forcemage wouldn’t be a bad addition either.
On the sideboard, I was using Whipcorders, which were working out really well with the Seeker of Skybreak, and I suggest moving them to the maindeck. Also be sure to have at least four ways to remove enchantments or artifacts in the sideboard; Engineered Plague, Ensnaring Bridge, and a few others can be really annoying. Krosan Reclamation isn’t bad at handling the whole Wonder or”Quiet Speculation for Roar of the Wurm” situation.
That’s all I really have to say about the deck; thanks to everyone who messaged me saying they liked it.
Nate Heiss
Team CMU
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