Here's a thing I've learned from playing my Rogues Tribal deck these last few weeks.

When you want to win with Creatures, evasion is good.

This ought to work.

In Magic, Birds fly. There may be some weird corner case from way back in the day, but if it has wings, it can fly. (I'm here for Ostrich Tribal, though.) Bird Tribal, therefore, will be full of evasion, since all our creatures will fly. I'm consistently surprised at how unprepared for fliers many Commander tables are, and playing a deck full of them should give us a great chance to win the old-fashioned way: until people are dead from combat damage.

We have a four-mana Commander who's actually more like a seven or 9 mana Commander, so (unsurprisingly for one of my decks) we'll start with mana and ramp. We've got our reliable 40 lands. Many of them are simply to fix our colors, since we have a fairly even split of Blue and White. We do have some fun stuff in the event we have extra mana to use; Castle Vantress is a great example. Animal Sanctuary turns three unused mana into a counter on a Bird. Access Tunnel joins Rogue's Passage as a way to sneak in some damage. And Karn's Bastion adds Feather Counters to Kangee. Tweet.

Additionally, we're running a number of mana rocks, none of which should come as a surprise if you've played a game of Commander before. Most of them were obvious - Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Everflowing Chalice - but there was one slot left and I went with Strixhaven Stadium. When we're regularly attacking with several evasive creatures, we may catch the Snitch actually get a win with the Stadium, so why not?

It's worth noting we're also running a few ways to reduce costs. Warden of Evos Isle is a great example. These Birds can be pricey, and we have a lot we want to do, so reducing the cost will be very helpful.

Since we're definitely attacking and doing damage, tying our card draw to that is a solid way to insure a regular flow of cards. Bident of Thassa and Reconnaissance Mission are great for this. We also have Crookclaw Elder, who lets us use Birds with summoning sickness or are outmatched in combat (if someone is running Dragons or something) to draw more. Call to the Kindred puts a Bird straight onto the Battlefield for us, and Airborne Aid and Distant Melody will both draw us a bunch.

We win by attacking. It helps when we can cast Kangee for X=3 and our 3/3 Birds are 6/6s, but just in case we need it, we have some other Lords kicking around. Empyrean Eagle, Kangee's Lieutenant, Kangee, Sky Warden, and Steel-Plume Marshal all give power/toughness boosts, and Sephara, Sky's Blade gives all our fliers Indestructible. Cathars' Crusade has always felt broken to me, Favorable Winds, Gravitational Shift, Radiant Destiny, Icon of Ancestry, and Vanquisher's Banner all boost us up too, and Soulcatcher's Aerie is the Enchantment version of Kangee. Rally of Wings can be backbreaking for an opponent, whether attacking or defending, and can be a sort of Overrun for us.

As I play and build more, the more I like choices on my cards, so we've got the new Farewell in the deck, which gives us a great deal of flexibility in what happens. Azorius Charm and Ojutai's Command both give us great options as well. Judge's Familiar is a bit narrow but could be useful, and Jubilant Skybonder at least makes targeting our stuff more difficult. Keeper of the Nine Gales can keep a big attacker off our back. Cloudchaser Kestrel gets rid of an Enchantment. Nimble Obstructionist is another flexible spell; if we need a 3/1, we've got one, but if we need to stop someone from activating Strionic Resonator or whatever, we can do that too.

Thrummingbird Proliferates for us, mostly for Feather counters. We have some weird specific Birds like Skyway Robber or Gustcloak Savior. Celestial Gatekeeper will buy us back a couple of Birds. Aerial Extortionist is a fun way to remove things and draw some cards, or just Exile some tokens. Aven Mindcensor is really powerful, especially when someone tries to cast Demonic Tutor or Scapeshift. It's often good to wait to cast it for the right moment, but an early Mindcensor can wreck the person who needs to use fetch lands.

Skycat Sovereign isn't a Bird, but it makes Birds for us. Reflections of Littjara makes copies of all our Bird spells. Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer can remove a problematic flying blocker and eventually make big Birds for us, and Serra the Benevolent serves as a pseudo-Lord, giving all our creatures +1/+1 every turn she's in play. Alrund's Epiphany makes us two Bird tokens, which is great, but it also gives us another turn, which is better. (Remind people it's in there as a Bird token maker - you don't control that it happens to give you an extra turn!)

For the Birds | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Kangee, Aerie Keeper

• Creatures (25)
• 1 Aerial Extortionist
• 1 Augury Owl
• 1 Aven Mindcensor
• 1 Cartographer's Hawk
• 1 Celestial Gatekeeper
• 1 Cloudchaser Kestrel
• 1 Crookclaw Elder
• 1 Curiosity Crafter
• 1 Emeria Angel
• 1 Empyrean Eagle
• 1 Gustcloak Savior
• 1 Jubilant Skybonder
• 1 Judge's Familiar
• 1 Kangee, Sky Warden
• 1 Kangee's Lieutenant
• 1 Keeper of the Nine Gales
• 1 Nimble Obstructionist
• 1 Sephara, Sky's Blade
• 1 Skycat Sovereign
• 1 Skyway Robber
• 1 Steel-Plume Marshal
• 1 Thrummingbird
• 1 Warden of Evos Isle
• 1 Watcher of the Spheres
• 1 Wingmate Roc

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

• Instants (4)
• 1 Azorius Charm
• 1 Ojutai's Command
• 1 Rally of Wings
• 1 Unbreakable Formation

• Sorceries (6)
• 1 Airborne Aid
• 1 Alrund's Epiphany
• 1 Battle Screech
• 1 Distant Melody
• 1 Farewell
• 1 Migratory Route

• Enchantments (10)
• 1 Call to the Kindred
• 1 Cathars' Crusade
• 1 Coastal Piracy
• 1 Favorable Winds
• 1 Gravitational Shift
• 1 Kindred Discovery
• 1 Radiant Destiny
• 1 Reconnaissance Mission
• 1 Reflections of Littjara
• 1 Soulcatchers' Aerie

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Azorius Keyrune
• 1 Azorius Signet
• 1 Bident of Thassa
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Icon of Ancestry
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Strixhaven Stadium
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Vanquisher's Banner

• Lands (40)
• 8 Island
• 8 Plains
• 1 Access Tunnel
• 1 Animal Sanctuary
• 1 Calciform Pools
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Castle Vantress
• 1 Celestial Colonnade
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Deserted Beach
• 1 Flood Plain
• 1 Glacial Floodplain
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Karn's Bastion
• 1 Nimbus Maze
• 1 Path of Ancestry
• 1 Port Town
• 1 Prairie Stream
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sea of Clouds
• 1 Seaside Haven
• 1 Secluded Courtyard
• 1 Temple of Enlightenment
• 1 Unclaimed Territory
• 1 Windbrisk Heights

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I'll acknowledge when building decks like this I often get excited by all the support stuff and don't run enough actual Creatures; I suspect this deck is riding that line. With a couple of turns and a couple of creatures, this deck should be able to do a lot of damage, but the nature of random draws means sometimes we'll draw a whole bunch of mana and support cards but no creatures. The numbers may need to be adjusted. In addition, this deck would be absolutely ruined by a card like Sandwurm Convergence, Raking Canopy, or Torpor Orb, so it's possible a couple more catch-all answers like Oblivion Ring and Banishing Light would be useful.

On the other hand, the first time you play a Wingmate Roc for five mana and get two 8/9s or whatever should be pretty fun.

Who's your favorite Bird commander? Is Alrund's Epiphany fair in Commander? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks for reading.