Winged Words: Standard Mono-Blue Fliers

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Before We Start

In Aetherdrift, what surprised me most is that Mu Yanling, Wind Rider got a role in this set, and it’s also her first appearance as a legendary creature. Her ability is well suited as a card-draw engine for a fliers deck, but she looks pale next to the powerful card-refilling ability of the Duskmourn: House of Horror card Enduring Curiosity. The two sets rotate out of Standard together, so it seems Mu Yanling, Wind Rider will never have her day in the sun… is that really so? Let’s try to rescue her!

Card Analysis

First, let’s compare the differences between these two four-mana card-draw engines:

Legendary Creature | Human / Wizard / Pilot
When this creature enters, create a 3/2 colorless Vehicle artifact token with crew 1.
Vehicles you control have flying.
Whenever one or more creatures you control with flying deal combat damage to a player, draw a card.

Enchantment Creature | Cat / Glimmer
Flash
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.
When Enduring Curiosity dies, if it was a creature, return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control. It’s an enchantment. (It is no longer a creature after returning.)

Compared with Enduring Curiosity, the advantages of Mu Yanling, Wind Rider are:

• Toughness 4
• Brings a Vehicle on entering
• Gives the Vehicle flying

Toughness 4 means Mu Yanling won’t die to a bargained Torch the Tower, and even if she herself is removed, a 3/2 Vehicle remains on the battlefield to deal damage. If she survives, she gives the Vehicle flying, which gives it a better chance of drawing cards consistently than the Curiosity that has no evasion.

The weaknesses are:

• Legendary creature
• No flash
• Lower card-draw ceiling

Mu Yanling’s Vehicle on entering and Curiosity’s return on death are both one-for-twos, so let’s call that a tie. But compared with the Curiosity, which has flash, no legendary restriction, and draws a card for however many creatures connect, Mu Yanling pales in comparison. So if you want to find her a stage, the key is probably the following three points:

• Drawing an extra card on your own turn has an additional effect
• Fliers as the main body
• Powerful Vehicles

Cards that meet these criteria are the ones that make a flier when you draw your second card, namely Mischievous Mystic and Thopter Fabricator.

The decklist derived from this foundation is as follows:

Decklist

The first problem this deck has to solve is stabilizing a looting effect every turn, so besides the two thematic card-draw engines, I added Spectral Sailor, Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel and Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator as reinforcements. Among them, Malcolm, which has flash and triggers on hit, is the main looting source, while Kaito, relying on his planeswalker status, uses +1 each turn to loot and grant reliable evasion, and the Ninja token made by his -2, although it can’t fly, can serve as a ground blocker or crew Thopter Fabricator. Spectral Sailor is a backup card-drawer on the one-mana curve, and if you don’t mind the curve you can swap in the better-performing Faerie Mastermind.

As for spells, I chose Bounce Off, an upgraded Unsummon, the flexible counterspell Three Steps Ahead, and Into the Roil, which can boost card draw, to stall and disrupt the opponent’s tempo. Three Steps Ahead can be used as Cancel, and it can also meet the condition of drawing two and making a flier on your opponent’s turn, or copy a creature or Vehicle to further expand your board advantage. Into the Roil has kicker for a draw, and on your main turn it can be used to trigger the draw-two condition.

For the remaining four slots, I put in Possession Engine, Avishkar Raceway and Amonkhet Raceway. Possession Engine’s ability to hijack the opponent’s creature isn’t just a creature answer; its body is decent, it’s usable as a plain beater when the opponent has no creatures, and the key point is that it also gets Mu Yanling’s flying buff. Steal the opponent’s flagship creature, crew it, fly up and hit the opponent to draw cards. Just thinking about it is thrilling. Avishkar Raceway is included as a land that provides looting, and I added one Amonkhet Raceway as well to provide the haste that blue lacks most.

Gameplay Demo

Red aggro is a rather tricky matchup for mono-blue, but in the first game, Mu Yanling not only crewed Thopter Fabricator to attack on entering, but the Vehicle she made also successfully deterred the opponent’s offense. The next turn Possession Engine came in and took the opponent’s Screaming Nemesis, and then a flying Vehicle fought back strongly, winning the game surprisingly easily. The second game was Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator’s turn. The combination with Thopter Fabricator’s self-made Thopters kept the opponent’s creature removal from getting going, Thopter Fabricator directly attacked down a +1 Liliana of the Veil, the mana I held back countered the opponent’s Sheoldred, the True Scriptures, and the opponent’s Pyroclasm sweep was also futile; faced with the re-established air force, they could only concede. Game three, Black-Green graveyard, is a favorable matchup for the fliers deck: the opponent was not only slow to warm up, but their ground creatures could do nothing at all about fliers, and I won without breaking a sweat.

Conclusion

On card stats, Enduring Curiosity looks better overall than Mu Yanling, but in actual testing, Mu Yanling’s built-in 3/2 flying Vehicle lets her handle situations more comprehensively than Enduring Curiosity, and if you pair her further with medium to large Vehicles, chipping away life is surprisingly efficient. I wonder what you readers think?