Flyin’ High with Dovin Skies

What’s that in the sky? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Dovin, Grand Arbiter, everyone’s favorite artificer/lawyer! Today we are taking a break from exploring the depths of where Icon of Ancestry can take us in search of clear skies. With that said, ladies and gentlemen, we might have stumbled across A FUNCTIONAL DECK!!1!(air horn noises)!!11!1!

This deck looks to take advantage of Dovin’s synergy with evasive creatures, more specifically flying creatures. To begin, our commander can make a thopter and gain life with his -1, adding to our flier count on the board. With an army of fliers, however, we can very easily get the loyalty count on Dovin through the roof, activate his ultimate, and dig ten cards deep for any card we need. The idea is to get ahead on board, hit the face, and stay competitive on card advantage while we peck our opponent’s face to victory.

The aggression

Make no mistake, this is an aggro deck. We want to play our one- and two-drop fliers as early as possible to set up for a healthy uptick on Dovin’s loyalty, preferably on turn 3. The one-drops are fairly obvious as the best fliers available at that cost, while Grateful Apparition and Guildpact Informant both have the ability to proliferate, increasing Dovin’s loyalty even more. Nightveil Sprite is here to smooth our draws while delivering the beats and Cerulean Drake makes the cut for the evasion to red removal and ability to counter spells directed our-facewise. Rally of Wings and Empyrean Eagle round out the core package with the aim of closing out the game.

The value:

Dawn of Hope could probably be replaced, but I found that in a pinch, its synergy with the little bits of lifegain in our deck (and our commander) can really help with stalling out. Cloudkin Seer and Elite Guardmage are here for the card draw on a flier, and more powerful versions of this effect are found in Cavalier of Gales and Faerie Formation. The beauty of this deck is just how much card draw and selection you can get from a rather aggressive strategy. Finishing off our value package are Warden of Evos Isle for cost reduction, Sphinx of Foresight for extra scrying and that sweet, sweet pre-game action to freak your opponent out, and Sephara, Sky's Blade is here to look glorious and make your birds immortal.

The creature-based interaction:

Calling Tomik, Distinguished Advokist interaction might be a bit of a stretch, but just wait until you have this in your opening hand when up against a Nissa, Who Shakes the World deck. Fliers are very fragile, and lose easily to bigger creatures or reach. These creatures all here to tap or bounce enemy creatures, or flash in for surprise blocks. Special mention goes to the adventurous Hypnotic Sprite for being a flying counterspell (delicious) and Deputy of Detention cause that card is just very good, and a Vedalken like our boy.

The noncreature-based interaction:

Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer is perfect in a fliers deck, both making big fliers and making opposing fliers unable to block yours. Teferi, Time Raveler is here too, mostly to double up on some ETB value or if necessary to bounce an annoying blocker. Depose // Deploy and Warrant // Warden are fantastic flex spells in this shell, allowing us to both help allow our little birds to peck in and creating more fliers for us if the coast is clear. Finally, Stolen by the Fae is here to get rid of any big creature while making many more terrifying little faeries to attack next turn.

The Mana Base:

The mana base for this deck seems pretty good as is, though you might be able to tune it a little more. The Castles are very useful for a deck like our that both draws a bunch and could use more creatures to deal chip damage to the opponent. I actually think Mystic Sanctuary can be pretty useful to return our few key spells to the top of our deck. Idyllic Grange is questionable, but I don’t see too much harm in having it on our deck other than moments when you don’t draw that third plains. And once again, we play Arcane Signet because this is Brawl and we are not fools.