Talrand, Sky Summoner - Cantrip Drakes

[BlackbirdPlaysMTG]

Hey everyone😀,

I have been playing my Enchantress deck a lot in my local LGS, but in some pods its power level is a bit too high. That is why I wanted to put back together a blast from the past: good ol' Talrand. The deck got disassembled a few years ago but the time has come to put it back together. I am not an archtypical blue player, but for some reason I really like the way Talrand plays. This time, I opted for a cantrip-heavy build to create an army of drakes more quickly. Great plus for me is that the deck is really cheap, although a few (non-essential) cards like Rhystic Study and Fierce Guardianship drive the price up a bit.

The gameplan is simple: get to four mana, play Talrand, and then churn through the deck with your cantrips and draw spells to create an army of drakes at instant speed. The deck plays all the 'whenever you attack/deal combat damage, draw a card' enchantments like Reconnaissance to capitalise on turning your drakes sideways every turn. The deck plays quite a bit of countermagic. This is used mainly to protect your own boardstate (screw boardwipes), not necessarily to police the table. The deck plays Favorable Winds, Gravitational Shift and Coat of Arms to make your drakes more lethal. Obvious weakness of the deck is Talrand getting removed on turn 4 - been considering to run Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots.

Without further ado, here is the current list:

Talrand, Sky Summoner - Cantrip Drakes

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander

1 Talrand, Sky Summoner

Cantrips (23)

1 Chilling Trap

1 Consider

1 Fleeting Distraction

1 Gitaxian Probe

1 Leap

1 Obsessive Search

1 Opt

1 Peek

1 Ponder

1 Preordain

1 Quicken

1 Reach Through Mists

1 Serum Visions

1 Sleight of Hand

1 Twisted Image

1 Whispers of the Muse

1 A Little Chat

1 Anticipate

1 Deliberate

1 Experimental Augury

1 Impulse

1 Telling Time

1 Think Twice

Interaction (20)

1 An Offer You Can't Refuse

1 Pongify

1 Rapid Hybridization

1 Swan Song

1 Arcane Denial

1 Blink of an Eye

1 Counterspell

1 Into the Roil

1 Muddle the Mixture

1 Narset's Reversal

1 Negate

1 Reality Shift

1 Thassa's Intervention

1 Archmage's Charm

1 Disallow

1 Exclude

1 Fierce Guardianship

1 Unwind

1 Wizard's Retort

1 Rewind

Finisher (3)

1 Favorable Winds

1 Coat of Arms

1 Gravitational Shift

Draw (14)

1 Mystic Remora

1 Military Intelligence

1 Pull from Tomorrow

1 Blue Sun's Zenith

1 Rhystic Study

1 Wavebreak Hippocamp

1 Windfall

1 Archmage Emeritus

1 Behold the Multiverse

1 Bident of Thassa

1 Coastal Piracy

1 Fact or Fiction

1 Reconnaissance Mission

1 Kindred Discovery

Other (4)

1 High Tide

1 Sol Ring

1 Expedition Map

1 Frantic Search

Land (35)

31 Island

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Riptide Laboratory

1 Terrain Generator

1 War Room

Approximate Total Cost:

Advice or recommendations are very welcome!

[Toshi]

A fellow (counterfree) Talrand, Sky Summoner player myself, i am always happy to see people building the ol' wizzy.

How do you deal with opponents building up their own board states? No Cyclonic Rift, Inundate, Spectral Deluge or Perplexing Test?

From my experience playing Talrand, Sky Summoner on turn 4 will likely get him killed most of the time. Other than Sol Ring i would run a few more two mana rocks to get him out a turn early, when people tend to develop their game over removing Talrand, Sky Summoner. You'll have a lot more mana to work with throughout the game as well. Arcane Signet and Fellwar Stone often grant you blue mana untapped. If you want to splash the cash, Sapphire Medallion is nuts.

In terms of card draw Curiosity Crafter and Teferi's Ageless Insight have been stellar for me!

On another note; Call to Mind, Flood of Recollection, Mission Briefing, Relearn and Said // Done will all grant extra utility while churning out more drakes.

Anyhow good solid list. Will keep an eye on its development!

[duducrash]

Talrand, Sky Summoner always a classic!

Discover the Impossible has both the best recent foil printing of a normal card and a sweet effect! the ammount of 2> cmc instants on your deck is super high so it's almost guarantee that it will be 2 casts for 3 mana . And the answer is always in the top 5!

Have you considered March of Swirling Mist ? I like it that it has both defensive and ofensive uses

[PrimevalCommander]

I have a no creature Talrand, Sky Summoner deck. My deck plays much larger MV draw spells. Quantity over Quality as it were.

Look at Heraldic Banner as a way to pump your Drakes and make mana at the same time. I have come to really like the Banner in mono color. It's like a Favorable Winds that taps for mana.

I also play a few Time Warps as "extra combat steps" to close out games once my drake army is large enough.

[Tevesh]

I had a Talrand deck. I took it apart for a reason I can't remember...

Anyway, you've got to play Abjure because what other Commander can and it's a 1 drop hard counter.

I ran Proteus Staff and used my Drakes to cheat-in ridiculous bombs like Stormtide Leviathan, Tidespout Tyrant or Guile.

[BlackbirdPlaysMTG]

A fellow (counterfree) Talrand, Sky Summoner player myself, i am always happy to see people building the ol' wizzy.

How do you deal with opponents building up their own board states? No Cyclonic Rift, Inundate, Spectral Deluge or Perplexing Test?

From my experience playing Talrand, Sky Summoner on turn 4 will likely get him killed most of the time. Other than Sol Ring i would run a few more two mana rocks to get him out a turn early, when people tend to develop their game over removing Talrand, Sky Summoner. You'll have a lot more mana to work with throughout the game as well. Arcane Signet and Fellwar Stone often grant you blue mana untapped. If you want to splash the cash, Sapphire Medallion is nuts.

In terms of card draw Curiosity Crafter and Teferi's Ageless Insight have been stellar for me!

On another note; Call to Mind, Flood of Recollection, Mission Briefing, Relearn and Said // Done will all grant extra utility while churning out more drakes.

Anyhow good solid list. Will keep an eye on its development!

I considered Cyclonic rift, and I probably should just put it in. It might just be flexible enough when you can also 'just' cast it for two mana. Gotta add it in and see how it performs. Mana rocks I tried in earlier builds, but I didn't like them. They were basically only good when you cast them exactly on a turn before Talrand comes down. Mission Briefing is great! It was in my deck before I dissambled it. Got to find a spot for it.

Curiosity Crafter and Teferi's Ageless Insight seem pretty good too. Might add them in if I find that I run out of cards too often.

Talrand, Sky Summoner always a classic!

Discover the Impossible has both the best recent foil printing of a normal card and a sweet effect! the ammount of 2> cmc instants on your deck is super high so it's almost guarantee that it will be 2 casts for 3 mana . And the answer is always in the top 5!

Have you considered March of Swirling Mist ? I like it that it has both defensive and ofensive uses

Discover the Impossible is a pretty spicy cantrip-like card. It is a bit more expensive mana-wise though, but I can see it doing work. March of Swirling Mist seems pretty solid at first glance, but I think I'd rather run my counterspells over it. They have just a little bit more utility than a boardwipe/removal dodger.

[BlackbirdPlaysMTG]

I have a no creature Talrand, Sky Summoner deck. My deck plays much larger MV draw spells. Quantity over Quality as it were.

Look at Heraldic Banner as a way to pump your Drakes and make mana at the same time. I have come to really like the Banner in mono color. It's like a Favorable Winds that taps for mana.

I also play a few Time Warps as "extra combat steps" to close out games once my drake army is large enough.

That's a pretty cool build! I think my build before I dissambled it did not run any other creatures either. I think the Archmage is solid enough to include. Not so sure about the Wavebreak Hippocamp though. Heraldic Banner is pretty good and maybe better than Favorable Winds overall, but I might stick to the Favorable Winds just because it is such a flavourful classic . Extra combat steps are a neat way to finish an opponent off. In the finisher spots I am running the Coat of Arms and Gravitational Shift currently.

I had a Talrand deck. I took it apart for a reason I can't remember...

Anyway, you've got to play Abjure because what other Commander can and it's a 1 drop hard counter.

I ran Proteus Staff and used my Drakes to cheat-in ridiculous bombs like Stormtide Leviathan, Tidespout Tyrant or Guile.

Abjure is a good call! Might take out my Negate or Muddle the Mixture (if I for some reason don't put in Cyclonic Rift) for it. I actually included a Proteus Staff/Polymorph package when I was building the deck! However, I wanted to keep the deck as simple as possible in the end.