Hello Awesome MTG Aficionados! Today I have something special for you. Nine years ago I built two decks representing a Zoo and an Aquarium - The Zoo and the Aquarium | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com) - which you can check out here. Last week, I was inspired by these two and built The Arboretum around the tribes of Plants, Treefolk, and Fungi and then cards that fit that theme. If the card didn't fit one of those themes, it didn't make the cut. For example, I didn't run classic Mono-Green staples in Commander like Beast Within, Krosan Grip, or Kodama's Reach. My removal was Roots, Rootgrapple, and Creeping Mold. My ramp was Nature's Lore, Explore, and Cultivate. You can check it out here - Abe's Arboretum | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com). The idea was to build a deck around Yedora, Grave Gardener and all of my tribes that I added had to be on flavor for an Arboretum. As an example, we included the three Treefolk that have X/X equal to your Forest count since they all were on theme of an Arboretum, but not Mold Shambler which is a Plant Beast that talks about nature's revenge in the flavor text and isn't just a plant shaped like something in a Beast shape.

It was a lot of fun to put together, and I want to try it again with The Aviary. My idea is to run a Commander deck that only uses things with wings and Birds that you would expect to see in an actual Aviary on Dominaria. The idea of a supporting council still holds, and here we have people on our Council like Serra, Mu Yanling, Kangee, Akim, Soraya and Derevi and many could be potential Presidents. I do like Kangee because they have a tribal synergy in the Command Zone, but it's just two colors. I also like Derevi since it opens up a third color which lets us play the rare Green Birds, but people don't really like Derevi at the kitchen table thanks to Stax brews, so that might get some hate. There are 339 Birds in the game according to Gatherer. 66 are Black, Red, or Green, and two Green ones - Birds of Paradise and Whippoorwill are actual options here. Black loses Wake of Vultures, and Gruul Windreaper Falcon and then nice things like Messenger Falcons, Hunting Moa and Crow of Dark Tidings, but that's not that many.

I did add some generic card flow that works with the core concept of an Aviary (Ponder, Think Twice) that represent what is happening with your guests, as they ponder the awesomeness of Birds and think anew again about how cool they are. In a forced exhibit like this, you wouldn't lock up intelligent life, which is why my Zoo and Aquarium brews didn't have it, like the Aven tribe and it's Aven Brigadier. However, there are people that would keep order like Shepherds of the Sky such as Kangee and others that are here and there.

Let's go with Kangee!

As you can see, Kangee is a 5-drop 3/3 with flying and vigilance that pumps our attackers with flying by 2 power and our blockers with flying with 2 toughness. He is a flying enabler...ready for my heavily themed brew?

Key Birds of Note

Check out this Azorius colored uncommon pair. The first is a 3-drop 1/1 with flying that, when it attacks, gives your attackers with flying +1/+1, and that's nice since it goes along with the flying pump boost of Kangee proper. It also has encore to finish off someone. The Eagle is a 3-drop 2/3 with flying that pumps your other flyers with +1/+1, which is a nice Glorious Anthem effect on legs. Or wings in this case.

Check out this pair! The Raptor is a 7-drop 5/7 with flying that gives your attackers lifelink. Just like Kangee and their Lieutanent, this wants you to swing to get that boost, so it plays into the same space. The Raven is a 4-drop 2/2 common with flying that enters the battlefield and returns a dork to its owner's hand. This is basically a flying Man-o'-War for one more Blue mana and the crucial Bird type. I am also running the on-flavor Gust of Wind as a bounce spell.

There are three Birds in my colors that cost two mana have a 1/1 body, and then add in protection from an enemy color, and I've included all three. The first is the Falcon, a pro Black option, the next is the Watcher, a protection from Green dork, and then Freewind Falcon is a protection from Red option. I like this trilogy combining flying with protection to help slip through flying and breaching defenses in these colors, or to block a big attack from them without dying, and they can also survive damage based sweepers like Blasphemous Act or Pestilence or cannot be targeted by Chaos Warp or Beast Within for removal. I doubt you'd get much of a desire for that on a 1/1 flyer, but with pumps from Kangee and another source, that'd be likely a 4/2 flyer when it attacked.

Tribal Stuff

Now, let's turn to some on flavor tribal stuff. Soulcatchers' Aerie is a 2-drop that has a death trigger for your Birds. When they die, you can put a feather counter on it and then your birds get +1/+1 for each feather counter on the Aerie. As you can see, this does work for token Birds and you could see a rock formation Aerie at an Aviary. Soraya is a 3-drop 2/2 that is on the Advisory Council of the Aviary and thus is here, and she can give all Birds +1/+1 and then can spend two mana to give a Bird banding for the turn, which is a very valuable in gang blocking, or attacking with a pair that can be blocked as one. It's confounding to modern audiences, so you want to run it all day and long!

Synergies and Win-Cons and Flavor

Now, let's turn away from Tribal stuff to flavor and synergies. Denying Wind is a powerful win-con in a nine-mana sorcery since it exiles seven cards from your target foe's library, choose the Archenemy and then grab seven win cons to spike their chance of winning into the ground. Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer is a 3-drop, two-loyalty planeswalker that can +2 to remove flying and drop an opposing dork's power by 2, which is helpful since you can do it to attack a player with your flying team. And then you can -3 her to make a flying 4/4 Bird and Elemental. She is on the Council as well as...

Serra! Check out her Aviary that gives all flyers (not just yours) +1/+1, which is awesome here. Then her planeswalker costs four mana for four-loyalty with a +2 to make your flyers get +1/+1 this turn, and she can make a 4/4 flying vigilance Angel to guard your Aviary from hostile influences for her -3. Her -6 for Worship on an emblem can be hard to stop.

Check out this pair. Serra is again one of our Council and she provides Wings to one of our leaders to give them +1/+1, vigilance, lifelink, and flying if they don't have it. It's here for Kangee, our Commander. Nice flavorful aura! Migratory Route is a five-cost sorcery that makes four 1/1 Bird tokens, and then we also have some of the other token makers here like Eyes in the Skies and Battle Screech, but not Alrund's Epiphany or Scour the Desert which are not flavored for us. (And Rise of Eagles is here too) Then this can also basic landcycle for two mana if you need to grab a land, but I hope not since it's our best token maker.

Answers

I tossed in two obvious Bird and Aviary flavored answers that are commonly played at the Commander table (Ravenform, Swan Song). Wing Shards is a three-cost instant that forces your foe to sacrifice their worst attacker and it has storm. It's very flavorful here. Cloud Kestrel is a three-mana 2/2 flying Bird that destroys an enchantment on arrival to the battlefield which is pretty good rate for an on-curve Wind Drake that's tribal and gives you removal. I also have Cloudchaser Eagle here as well, and note that they must destroy on arrival to the battlefield, so you might want to hold onto them, if you control your Serra Aviary or Favorable Winds and there is nothing else to target.

Check out this pair of "Wind" flavored answers! The common is a three-cost counter that can counter an opposing spell equal to your graveyard count, and it has cycling as well. The rare is a 5-drop sorcery that steals an opposing artifact or dork and untaps it, gaining control of their best card or their Commander so that it cannot be used against you and others. I do have some other flavored removal like Lofty Denial for counters and Aeriel Assault to kill a dork.

Card Flow

Let's move on to some flavored card flow, just like the aforementioned Ponder and Think Twice. We have Honden of Seeing Winds here, flavored with Winds and can't you see it in an Aviary? I think so as well! Then in your upkeep you'll draw a free card each of your turns. Very strong. Then Winged Words is a three-cost sorcery, also flavored, that'll draw you two cards and costs just two mana if you control a flyer. That's quite likely in this deck.

Thieving Magpie is a 4-drop 1/3 Bird with a combat damage trigger to draw a card. Since we want to be attacking and this is a 3/3 when it swings with Kangee, and a 4/4 with one Anthem effect, it'll do a decent chunk of damage while drawing a card. Airborne Aid is a powerhouse, since "Airborne" fits flavorfully and it'll draw a card for each Bird you control which could easily take you from one or two cards in hand to six or eight. It's very strong, but the equally strong Distant Melody (Birds do sing, but look at the art...) doesn't feel quite on flavor, so it is not here. But hey, your milage may vary.

Mana, Rocks, and Lands

Let's finish by looking at some mana rocks and lands. Heraldic Banner is a 3-drop mana rock that makes the color you chose on arrival to the battlefield. It's also an anthem effect for your dorks of that color, which feels in-line with Kangee's power pumping. Most of my Birds are White, so choose that. Can't you see it hanging from the ceiling in an Aviary or hanging at the entrance? Azorius Keyrune is a 3-drop maker of both of my colors and for two-mana can turn into a flying Bird for the turn!

Azorius Locket is another mana rock, 3-drop, makes both of my colors, and then can be sacrificed for four to draw two cards after my mana is set. Why is it here? How is this flavored? I envisioned a gift shop where you could purchase jewelry that's on sale, so I have only jewel themed mana rocks, like this, Sky and Marble Diamond, Talisman of Dominance, and then two Medallions. The Canyons are a place where Birds can fly over and around and get away, that's their flavor. As you can see, they can tap for two and then cast dorks with flash this turn, which helps build up Wing Shards and cast things end of your foe's turn.

Seaside Haven is home to Birds, so it makes flavor sense here. You can tap it and two mana and sacrifice a Bird and draw a card, which is strong with your token makers or in response to removal of one of your Birds. The Sanctuary is also a clear flavor win that can tap with two mana to put a +1/+1 counter on a Bird we control, which is great on Kangee for Commander Damage or on one of your other Birds as a combat trick to keep them alive after being blocked. Or to trade your 1/1 Suntail Hawk with the Mulldrifter that blocked it.

Check out these two lands. Temple of Enlightenment arrives tapped, scries you one, and then taps for your two colors, and I see this as the place that teaching sessions happen, since it's Enlightenment and look at the art. Hallowed Fountain taps for your two colors, arrives untapped if you spend two life, and fits perfectly in an Aviary. I also tossed in Radiant Fountain as well. Many of the dual tapping lands like Skycloud Expanse also fit our Bird and Aviary theme so they are here.

Let's take a look at the final deck!

The Aviary | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Kangee, Sky Warden

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Augury Owl
• 1 Battlefield Raptor
• 1 Bay Falcon
• 1 Cartographer's Hawk
• 1 Cloudchaser Eagle
• 1 Cloudchaser Kestrel
• 1 Coast Watcher
• 1 Duskrider Falcon
• 1 Empyrean Eagle
• 1 Freewind Falcon
• 1 Healer's Flock
• 1 Healer's Hawk
• 1 Judge's Familiar
• 1 Kangee, Aerie Keeper
• 1 Kangee's Lieutenant
• 1 Keeper of the Nine Gales
• 1 Messenger Jays
• 1 Mist Raven
• 1 Murder of Crows
• 1 Raven Familiar
• 1 Rustwing Falcon
• 1 Sage Owl
• 1 Soraya the Falconer
• 1 Suntail Hawk
• 1 Thieving Magpie
• 1 Warden of Evos isle
• 1 Windbrisk Raptor

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer
• 1 Serra the Benevolent

• Instants (9)
• 1 Countervailing Winds
• 1 Eyes in the Skies
• 1 Lofty Denial
• 1 Rally of Wings
• 1 Release to the Wind
• 1 Scatter to the Winds
• 1 Swan Song
• 1 Think Twice
• 1 Wing Shards

• Sorceries (12)
• 1 Aerial Assault
• 1 Airborne Aid
• 1 Battle Screech
• 1 Denying Wind
• 1 Gust of Wind
• 1 Invoke the Winds
• 1 Migratory Route
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Ravenform
• 1 Rise of Eagles
• 1 Windfall
• 1 Winged Words

• Enchantments (5)
• 1 Favorable Winds
• 1 Honden of Seeing Winds
• 1 On Serra's Wings
• 1 Serra Aviary
• 1 Soulcatchers' Aerie

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Azorius Keyrune
• 1 Azorius Locket
• 1 Azorius Signet
• 1 Heraldic Banner
• 1 Marble Diamond
• 1 Pearl Medallion
• 1 Sapphire Medallion
• 1 Sky Diamond
• 1 Talisman of Dominance

• Lands (36)
• 12 Island
• 12 Plains
• 1 Animal Sanctuary
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Nimbus Maze
• 1 Radiant Fountain
• 1 Sea of Clouds
• 1 Seaside Haven
• 1 Secluded Steppe
• 1 Skycloud Expanse
• 1 Temple of Enlightenment
• 1 Windbrisk Heights
• 1 Winding Canyons

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And there we are...so what did you think of my flavorful Aviary deck? I wish The Raven's Warning was an option, but since its Chapter III grabs something outside of the game like the Living Wish cycle it's a no go. Anything obvious that I missed? Anything that you would add in or add to your own take? Just let me know!