Standard U/R Flyers

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

There was an interesting standard format decklist recently on MTGO which had done rather nicely and had captured our attention.  In truth, we were looking at making some improvements on a Blue / White list chocked full of flyers with that lovely 2-drop blue enchantment Favorable Winds (Creatures you control with flying get +1/+1) at its core.  Instead, we found this nice list from gamer 'slapjackson' who went with a Blue / Red build and our initial thoughts are 'favorable'.  Here is the list now -

MTGO Competitive Standard League
Standard U/R Flyers by slapjackson

Creature 20
4 Glorybringer
2 Hope of Ghirapur
4 Maverick Thopterist
2 Pia Nalaar
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Whirler Virtuoso

Spell 16
4 Aethersphere Harvester
4 Favorable Winds
2 Heart of Kiran
4 Lightning Strike
2 Shock

Land 24
2 Ipnu Rivulet
8 Island
4 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
2 Spire of Industry
4 Spirebluff Canal

SIDEBOARD 13
4 Abrade
4 Negate
3 Scavenger Grounds
2 Shock

This list does pack some of the better flying creatures available in standard right now such as Glorybringer, or provides flyers as is the case with Whirler Virtuoso.  We had very early on dismissed Maverick Thopterist as not being a rather good choice for standard play but may now be re-evaluating our hasty judgement.  A 2/2 Artificer for five mana better have some good text.  He does bring along two 1/1 Thopters and does more importantly have the 'Improvise' key word to assist in reducing that steep mana cost.  Given the artifact sub-theme to this list, we should think that one would be able to play this on the cheap in most games.

Supporting this are two important Vehicles - two Heart of Kiran and a full deck-set of four Aethersphere Harvester which provides the option to pay an energy to give it lifelink until end of turn.  The blue one-drop Siren Stormtamer provides a level of assurance that protects more valuable assets and is a welcome card even late-game.  Two Pia Nalaar packs some utility to pump an artifact creature as well as some control to prevent an opponent's creature from blocking, which sounds like a good addition in this list.  We had been fond of Hope of Ghirapur since it was previewed but have literally never seen anyone play this.  

Lightning Strike and Shock round out the list with some nice burn and in the sideboard two very decent inclusions are deck sets of Abrade and Negate, all of which seems to lend itself appropriately to a robust list.  Looking forward to using this to build upon and modify slightly to personal taste and local metagame.

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