Real Life Commander '95: Selesnya Anti-Flying

Posted on August 11, 2021

Hello happy people! I hope that you are having a kicking day today! Today I want to take a dive into one of my current Real Life Commander decks I just finished, an anti-flying brew in the Selesnya colors in the Commander '95 (C95) subvariant of the format.

What is C95? It only allows cards printed up through the end of 1995, so that's Alpha - Homelands, including the promo cards like Arena and Nalathni Dragon. It's a deeper format than you might think and you are encouraged to run cards that are not printed during this era, like a Time Spiral Psionic Blast or a Commander Control Magic. Run the cheap stuff! We don't run proxies, but if you did, I wouldn't lose any sleep, and I created the format. The banned list for Commander is banned here.

I have recently given you a number of my Real Life Commander '95 decks and I'll link them to you here.

My other four decks are:

Chromium Steal N' Sac - You steal cards with creatures like Old Man of the Sea and Ray of Command and sacrifice them to Fallen Angel and Diamond Valley. You can check out this Esper deck here.

Skeleton Ship - This Dimir deck is built around Skeleton Ship. We have every tap for damage ability printed in these two colors in the deck (like Prodigal Sorcerer and Pirate Ship) as well as every -X/-X one (like Grandmother Sengir and Minion of Tevesh Szat). The result is a fun and interesting concoction. Check it out here.

Relentlessly Eron - This mono-red build is around Eron the Relentless which is in the deepest color in the format. It features loads of burn like Incinerate and Fireball, loads of other removal like Fissure and Detonate, and loads of dorks like Nalathni Dragon and Clockwork Avian. You can see that brew here.

Adun Oakenshield's Reanimation - This is a Jund colored reanimation build that runs cards like All Hallow's Eve and Animate Dead as well as discard like Wheel of Fortune and Jalum Tome and Bazaar of Baghdad. It runs powerful creatures to reanimate like Scaled Wurm and Shivan Dragon. Enjoy it here!

There you go!

So, what deck and creature inspired me today?

Gabriel Angelfire did! As you can see, he is a 4/4 that can get flying, first strike, trample or rampage 3 during your upkeep until your next one. The idea behind this deck is: what if I could wipe the sky clear with Hurricane or Ith-Bifh Efreet? Then I could give Gabriel flying and fly over my denuded foes. Flying is run in big measure, so you would have the only one! Also check out Leaping Lizard which does the same thing.

What would that deck look like?

Take a look at Circle of Protection: Green! As you can see, it will protect you from damage from Hurricane as well as the Efreet. This was a common deck during this era, 4 Hurricanes and a few COP: Greens. Another deck during this era would run Force of Nature in a deck with COP: Green and you could just pay 1 each upkeep rather than to prevent the damage. Let's toss in all of that synergy, shall we? The Force is the biggest creature in the format that's typically playable. I'll toss in Colossus of Sardia as well which is bigger but has a nastier untap, since I have 40 lands plus 2 mana Elves and mana rocks.

Take a look at Whiteout. All creatures with flying (yours and your foes') lose it at instant speed. Then you can sacrifice a Snow-Covered Land to return this to your hand and keep on going. I want to cast this at instant speed to drop all of the flyers and then gang block them with Force of Nature, Craw Giant, Scaled Wurm, and Elder Land Wurm and loads more. This card was a combo with Stormbind as you'd discard it to shoot a foe for teo mana and then sac a land and recur it for free and then repeat. Is it usable in modern shells today? I am also running Radjan Spirit to tap and drop a flyer.

Part of this brew is to keep myself alive from attacking threats when I don't have flyers available or sweepers around. Although I am running Altar of Bone to Tutor for the Efreet if you need it. Enter this Bodyguard and Tree. The Tree can tap to drop an attacker's power to 0 which helps against flyers or other foes that have swung over my blockers. I can also take that combat damage and send it to the Bodyguard if he is untapped. Both work very well! I am also running Maze of Ith, and I wish that I had a free copy of Island of Wak-Wak.

Take a look at this Ice Age rare that reminds me of the Veteran Bodyguard. He's another 2/5 for five mana. You can tap him to send all unblocked combat damage to him, which is very similar in feel to the Bodyguard. I also am running Martyrs of Korlis to help redirect damage from artifact creatures as well.

There is a Will-o'-the-Wisp in Green for two more mana called Yavimaya Gnats. They are an 0/1 that regenerates for a mana. They are pricier but worth it here as my only flyer. They can jump in front of a flyer and regenerate and save themselves from damage from a Hurricane or an Efreet. Love them here! I also have Giant Spider to block flyers without worrying about sweepers as well as Web to block flyers as well. I really want to toss it on a nasty blocker.

Wow, do I have the flying answer to you. Check out the first Scarecrow ever printed! It's even called "Scarecrow." When you control this fun 2/2 artifact creature you can tap it and six mana to prevent all combat damage from flyers that would be dealt to you! I also have Icy Manipulator to tap a flyer prior to swinging and Horn of Deafening to prevent it's combat damage.

And there we go! Want to see the entire build? Sure thing!