UL's Better Deckbuilding: Isperia's Winged Toolbox

Heya Zoners!

Better Deckbuilding returns with another neat little brew I've been toying around with- Isperia, and her fair-feathered flying friends.

WHY ISPERIA?

I built an Isperia deck dedicated to the kind of cutthroat card playing required back in the days when I battled Grandpa Growth every other day. The deck featured a heavy Isochron package and as many Instants 2 or lower that I could cram into it. Coupled with big flying threats and a handful of ugly ol' staples, the deck played didn't play well because it required serious precision, and I ended up taking it apart.

Several months ago I had the bright idea to get Isperia back into a deck again, where it was the best part of a Treva deck that wasn't going to work. And with Daxos around, Isperia was going to have to go back to the bench.

She sat there until a month or so ago when I decided I wanted to make a "more fun" update with a little bit better design. With a few lingering mechanics on my mind, I found a nice way to combine them with Isperia to make a very resilient "Training Wheels" style deck that I could bring out against new players and the more experienced folks at the table.

THE STRATEGY

There's not a whole lot we have to cover to get to what Isperia can do.While the free flyer is dependent on the information you know about someone's hand, both are dependent on actually getting the damage through.

Fortunately for us, there is a way to get more birds with one metaphorical "stone"- we bring the bounce spells and all their friends. Coupling these with an aggressively costed creature base driven by evasion and ETB effects, Isperia has the capacity to create an excellent interactive engine that can be a handful to deal with.

THE TECH

Unsummon and Vapor Snag are definitely more superior cards to Peel From Reality, but there is inherent value to be found in creating 2-for-1 opportunities with this in EDH. Just let your opponents try to point removal at your stuff to get damage through. Barring some hexproof/shroud, or split-second, this little piece of Pauper magic is a bit of a wunderkind for any blink/bounce-driven deck. Even better is the fact that we have a little bit of redundancy with access to Withdraw, Curfew, and Aether Tradewinds, the latter with a little more versatility in terms of legal targets.

I mentioned this a couple weeks ago in the re-vamped version of Spin It Into Myth, and this is where one of my copies found a great home.

Even though Clairvoyance, Gitaxian Probe, and Peek all replace themselves as a card in your hand, the inherent advantage of Urza's Specs is that you can plan around people's stuff. And if you sneak it into the game early on, the value is nuts- specifically in multiplayer. Even without a mana investment in its cost to activate, there's not really a need to see one extra card your opponent might draw every turn. However, in a multiplayer matchup, this could be activated every turn targeting a different player.

Most of the time, this is going to do wonders in calling an opponent's bluff. Just remember to keep track of everything your opponent has, especially creatures, lands, and sorceries, which are less likely to be cast on your turn when you're trying to get an Isperia trigger.

While I don't run Trinket Mage because he doesn't fly, I found that Talas Explorer and Ingenious Thief were solid replacements if I couldn't find Urza's Glasses. Coupled with the blink'n'bounce spells, they can be utilized more than once.

One of the more casual cards I played in Daxos was this piece of chaff, Sawtooth Loon. It was good because I needed card draw, but it also wasn't good because, well...you see what it does.

However, I found out during playtests with Isperia that Restoration Angel and Sawtooth Loon are a disgustingly great card advantage engine. Not only does it make Resto economically profitable, Sawtooth Loon helps to create massive amounts of looting to help me get ahead. And because the cards go back into my library, I have no problems tucking creatures back in for Isperia to find later.

Archon of Redemption is a pretty cool card that will enjoy the Magical Christmas Land from our engine above.

Even without it though- our deck does really well for itself with Archon of Redemption. There's always creatures getting flicked and bounced around, and most of them don't have enough of a life total to arouse suspicion.

Additionally, this is a card I enjoy particularly because it was a mainstay back when I played kitchen table 60-card. Several of my friends bought the white preconstructed Worldwake deck, and abused our Archonic friend's ability by casting as many Sphinx of Jwar Isle as they could draw.

Lyev Skyknight has been a cool addition for several reasons. Number one, he's low on the mana curve, which is great when we want to re-cast creatures we may have to bounce. Two, he's got an aggressive 3/1 body, which is nice when you look at the deck and notice that we need to be able to get as much damage as we can get.

Finally, he's one of the few detainees who can hit nonland permanents. Though a majority of the time, he will be hitting creatures to time lock our opponents and get in with Isperia for extra damage and another creature. It's just nice value at a budget price.

Now, I've already talked about Resolute Archangel in terms of M15- but that was before I got to see it in action.

My prediction is that, much like a Ron Burgundy News Team Battle Royale, this will get out of hand very quickly. Tutoring for it with Isperia is particularly strong, even without blink effects.

Combining this with Deadeye Navigator also makes it impossible to win. Short of Commander Damage, milling, or a huge 50+ power Overrun, beating this card is going to be tough. Much like the cards the EDHRC has banned because they "take over the game," I have a feeling Resolute Archangel is definitely in the danger zone. And if they could ban Sylvan Primordial, this could go too.

I am very curious to hear what people think about this card in terms of its ban-ability. Here's the Isperia list: Isperia the Inscrutable

Your comments and +1s are always appreciated.

Pass Turn!
-UL