Are you running into too many flyers at your table? Today, I have some decks that have some tricked-out combo elements to help you overcome frisky flyers while rocking your own nonflying (usually) styles. From jumping to Donating to sweeping, we have a trio of tricks for today’s decks.

Here we go!

Deck #1 – Whirlwind and My Own Flyers

"Whirlwind and My Own Flyers"

• Creatures (22)
• 2 Acidic Slime
• 2 Silklash Spider
• 4 Canopy Dragon
• 4 Leaping Lizard
• 4 Skinshifter
• 4 Manor Gargoyle
• 2 Arashi, the Sky Asunder

• Spells (12)
• 4 Cultivate
• 4 Harmonize
• 4 Whirlwind

• Lands (26)
• 22 Forest
• 4 Tranquil Thicket

Buy This Deck

With these eight sweeping removal effects that hate on flyers, the next place to look was at creatures that would gain flying. At first, I was looking at flying Equipment, but that didn’t feel right—if I had equipped a creature already, it would be smashed by my removal. So instead, in went Canopy Dragon, the largely forgotten green Dragon. I mean, look at this thing. You can tell it was designed long ago. You pay 6 mana, and all you acquire is a 4/4 trampler that, for 2 mana, can turn into a nontrampling 4/4 flyer. Ick. Today, you might pay 4 mana for the same card. But in here, it works perfectly! In addition to pulling out Canopy Dragon from the far distance of Magicdom, I also enjoying grabbing Leaping Lizard from that power set of Homelands. It works as a cheap creature than can fly later.

After that, the creatures I could think of were not enticing: Hopping Automaton, Urza's Avenger, and, uh . . . Flowstone Sculpture. Those weren’t exactly winners. So I hit up Gatherer to see what else was out there. I came across Skinshifter—which was perfect for the deck—a nice early drop that could become a 2/2 flyer when needed—or something else. I had also forgotten Manor Gargoyle, and that slides in quite well, too. I like that it’s a strong defender/indestructible blocker mugging up the ground . . . until you need an aerial strike.

Once I had the pieces to the deck, it was a simple matter of fleshing it out. In leaped some typical stuff, such as Harmonize for card-draw, Cultivate for mana-making, and Acidic Slime for taking out things. I felt the deck could use a little more card-sifting, so I even included a quartet of Tranquil Thicket. The result is a fun deck that wants to blast flyers and then leap into the air for itself!

Now get ready for my favorite deck today!

Deck #2 - I Give but Love

"I Give but Love"

• Creatures (16)
• 2 Krosan Tusker
• 2 Mystic Snake
• 2 Rampaging Baloths
• 2 Silklash Spider
• 4 Obstinate Baloth
• 4 Arashi, the Sky Asunder

• Spells (18)
• 2 Mystic Genesis
• 4 Donate
• 4 Tidings
• 4 Whirlwind
• 4 Levitation

• Lands (26)
• 10 Forest
• 10 Island
• 2 Simic Growth Chamber
• 4 Simic Guildgate

Buy This Deck

To begin with, I may not even need the Donate. This deck can play in an identical manner to the one above. I can drop one of my sweeping removal effects for flyers and then play Levitation and swing. None of my creatures have flying, so I can just hammer my foe above any ground-based defense that was summoned. In order to understand the deck, you need to see that it does have that ability.

But that’s not the fun way to play the deck! What you really want to do is smash all of the opponent’s creatures with a Donated Levitation—and then pound the player. That’s the preference. In this deck, the Spider and Arashi are particularly good as creatures. Once I have swept the air with a channeled Arashi, Spider activation, or Whirlwind, I can use the Spider or Arashi to smash any creatures that are subsequently played. As long as the opponent has my Donated Levitation, the player is still vulnerable. I originally had a pair of Vedalken Heretics in this deck, but I pulled them to increase my Arashi count to four. I want to channel them as needed, and I also want to have one out. The legendary status does interfere with having more than one in play, but since they are discarded when activating channel, that seems to be the right number to me.

After that, I wanted some creatures to swing. I looked for Obstinate Baloth first because it is cheap to play, because it brings a strong body to the table, and because the 4 bump in life is nice to keep me alive. This deck certainly has some combo elements to it, so I wanted to ensure I could stay alive to see things through until the end. That life is needed to help to keep me from the danger zone, when I have to block and play differently in order to stay alive. After that, I looked at another baloth in Rampaging Baloths. This is a nice 6-drop because it’s already 6/6, so it can beat hard. Add to that the landfall making 4/4 dudes, and I can have a nice army later.

I tossed in a quartet of Tidings to help me find the key pieces, and I had just a few card slots left. While I initially had two Cultivates in the deck, I changed them to Krosan Tuskers so I could drop them later if I didn’t need the cycle. I wanted some countermagic, so I added two each of Mystic Genesis and Mystic Snake. I’m not sure which is generally better—the 4-mana 2/2 or the 5-mana that could be more. So, I ran both. That adds to my creature count as well.

I fleshed out the deck with the right lands and called it. I think that the Guildgates are perfectly acceptable lands to run in two-colored decks with the enemy pairs. I generally want to stay clear of pain lands such as Yavimaya Coast. While there are a few lands that might be a bit better (such as Ancient Amphitheater or Gilt-Leaf Palace), these are going to be fine. Now, the allied Guildgates aren’t anywhere near the top of the list. I’d rather run guys like the Refuges (Jwar Isle Refuge, et. al) or the Worldwake man lands. In a Simic-colored deck like this, the Simic Guildgate is a fine choice.

Deck #3 – Hurricane Surprise Updated

"Hurricane Surprise Updated"

• Creatures (15)
• 2 Pristine Angel
• 3 Wall of Blossoms
• 4 Kitchen Finks
• 4 Obstinate Baloth
• 2 Darksteel Sentinel

• Spells (20)
• 4 Squall Line
• 2 Kodama's Reach
• 4 Cultivate
• 4 Hurricane
• 2 Rune of Protection Green
• 4 Circle of Protection Green

• Lands (25)
• 9 Forest
• 9 Plains
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 2 Selesnya Sanctuary
• 4 Graypelt Refuge

Buy This Deck

This deck probably cannot run flyers. So instead, it just needs ground-based creatures for both offense and defense. My updated version of Hurricane Surprise seems a bit more of a multiplayer deck, so I pushed that with some cards. For example, a pair of Darksteel Sentinel suggested themselves. They can swing without giving up my defense, they will block virtually anything and live, and they have flash to surprise someone who thought I was open.

Now that I think about it, the deck can run flyers; they just need to survive death from a green-based damage source. I could run Voice of Duty or Voice of All with their protection from green or Dawn Elemental. Hmmm . . . hold on. Pristine Angel is a brilliant flyer at keeping away damage, holding the sky open, and it will untap to protect itself from a Squall Line. That’s perfect, so in goes a pair of those.

With life-gain a pretty useful addition to the deck, in went Kitchen Finks as a great early drop, defensive wall, and life boost. Its ability to play all three roles is well documented. I think this project has been fun considering how in each of these decks contains cards from previous decks are even better in the next one. Here, Obstinate Baloth is just as good at keeping up with appearances with its 4/4 body, and the life-gain is more crucial if I don’t have a CoP: Green. (I also liked the original Cultivate so much that I added two Kodama's Reach!)

While this deck could benefit from more Harmonizes, it also needs more defense. In went Wall of Blossoms (which could just as easily be Wall of Omens). The Wall plays double-duty, drawing a card and stopping early beats. It’s never a dead draw. With the X spells, this deck needed some additional mana. I had the six mana makers as well as two Sanctuaries and a Temple of the False God. With the potential life-loss, Graypelt Refuge seems useful.

The deck originally had a copy of Yavimaya Hollow, but I cut it for the Temple. For some reason, my original run of this deck included Mark of Asylum until I realized that it had no flyers. Maybe I was thinking of an Earthquake version of this deck with CoP: Red.

These three decks reveal three different ways to hate on flyers. Flyers are uber-common in Casual Land, and having some game against them will prove to be quite potent. From Donating Levitation to Hurricaning the board, these decks add some tricks and traps to facing the great devil flyers of Magic. I hope you enjoy!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent