PreModern EDH

There are many ways to play Magic. Some people love a wide open format, while others prefer a more curated experience. Premodern is the latter. I've seen the format really grow recently. For cards that have been around for 20+ years, the format is still diverse and not solved. What I haven't seen though, is a Premodern EDH experience pop up. I've experimented with Pauper EDH and the Pendragon Variant. There's cEDH and tEDH and more, but why not Premodern EDH? I'm here to fill that need this week.

A quick search showed over 130 commanders available to build around. Some are very narrow and lower powered, while others are still terrorizing tables today. I myself have a Silvos, Rogue Elemental deck and a Crosis the Purger deck out there. Any format that lets you play 5 color Slivers is going to have strong decks to compete against. Whenever I jump into a new forma,t I look for a couple of things to keep me engaged in a game. Even if my deck isn't the strongest or I'm not well versed in the format, card draw and removal will keep me engaged in a game.

Card draw, especially in an older format, means I want to play Blue. As for removal, Black and White offer some of the best. Ertai, the Corrupted got my first look. Being 3 colors means I have a larger card pool available to me. His ability to counter spells makes him a versatile style of removal. However, having to sacrifice a creature to counter a spell felt risky to me. These days, everything makes a token, but that was less common years ago. Without a strong board state, his ability isn't guaranteed. Don't get me started on summoning sickness. No, I'm going to fall back on the familiar for this decks: Birds.

I have a strong affinity for our Avian friends in EDH. I have a Bird that leads a clone deck and a Bird that drives a Vehicle deck to victory. I'm going full Bird Law here and playing Azorious colors to keep my draw and removal strong. Say Hello to Kangee, Aerie Keeper. A 4 mana 2/2 flyer is not a great rate by today's standards, but back in the 90's that was a fair card. He stacks his value by turning into a Bird Lord and giving my other birds +1/+1 for each feather counter on him. How do I get Feather counters? With a Kicker ability. It's pricey but can pump a board to victory.

So what birds do I have at my disposal? For starters, Aven Brigadier. At 5 mana he's pricey, but he bumps my Birds and Soldiers +1/+1 for each matching type. So my Aven Archer and Aven Cloudchaser each become 4/4s. That's not to mention any bonuses from Feather counters they get for being birds. Celestial Gatekeeper is a recursion option. Just exile it upon death and get bact 2 other birds. Commander Eesha isn't my commander, but it still commands attention when it hits the board. Creatures can't stop it, so a Fog effect is the only way to slow it down. Glarecaster is a tricky option. It redirects damage from it or me to another creature, or more importantly Player. 6 mana is pricey for Glarecaster's ability, but it could win the game for me.

We'll see more birds along the way, but I want to get back to my 2 main categories that steered me into these colors. They say defense wins championships, but here I say removal wins games. I have some of my favorite spells for taking care of problems. Abolish is a little more than I like to pay to remove an Artifact or Enchantment, but the option to play it for free is too good to pass up. Radiant's Judgment is a great way to deal with a powerful threat on the board, literally power 4 or more. If I'm stuck and removing 1 creature isn't possible or isn't going to cut it to survive another turn I can just cycle it away. Oblation is versatile in a different way. I could remove a powerful card my opponent is planning to use against me with this instant. It's not dead, just tucked away back into the deck. My opponent just so happens to get two cards as compensation. That's better than losing to the permanent I tucked away. The other way to play it on my own permanent. If there's a boardwipe coming, or some targeted removal for that matter, I can save my own card and take those 2 cards of compensation for myself.

Blue offers me a unique type of removal in the form of counterspells. If I'm playing an archetype, it pays to play the card that strategy is named after. All that to say, I'm putting Counterspell on my list. I like Sunken Field because it provides a Force Spike every turn. This keeps my opponents on guard and playing cautiously rather than playing out. Every so often, I catch an opponent off guard and get to counter something important. That's why I added it to this list. Dismiss is a little pricey at 4 mana, but it does replace itself, which is why I added it. Circular Logic is a Force Spike on steroids. 1 mana for each card in my graveyard? That's going to add up when I'm drawing and countering spells at an advanced rate.

Card draw was the other piece of the deck I wanted to be intentional. Coastal Piracy is great with a full board of flyers. My birds are going to be aggressive, so I can accrue incremental or explosive gains. When I'm drawing cards consistently, it increases the likelihood I hit my future land drops and get removal in hand. Airborne Aid rewards me for each bird I put on the field. It's not uncommon to play more defensively once you have a card like this in hand, just to accrue maximum value. I also included Fact or Fiction as part of my draw package. This card is a classic. I've been casting it for years and have no intention of stopping now. These draw options are dependent in some fashion. One needs me to have enough of a board presence to deal combat damage, and one needs an opponent to sort card into piles that are most beneficial for them 1^st and foremost. I knew I needed more potential in my draw suite.

Inheritance seems conditional, but between my birds and the creatures controlled by my opponents, some creature will be dying at any given time. I just have to pay 3 mana and I can profit off the death of that creature. The enchantment is so cheap, I can pay for it at any time and not be set back. Keep Watch also fits into this category of not quite dependent. Someone will be going wide in a game, or at least attacking with a reasonable number of creatures. I can capitalize on that combat step, even if it is my own, and draw multiple cards in one shot. Catalog is simpler, letting me draw two cards but at the cost of discarding a card. It doesn't have to be a card I just drew, either; any card will do.

With all these cards at my disposal, I'm bound to have some dead draws. If only there was a way to use those cards for greater profit? There actually are. I've already mentioned Abolish for its free casting potential and Radiant's Judgment with its cycling ability. I also added Foil. This classic countspell makes tapping out less of a scary outcome. I can avoid the 4 mana and pitch 2 cards away instead. Akroma's Blessing can help me get in for lots of damage or avoid lots of damage thanks to protection. If that's not good enough, I can always cycle it away for the chance at a better card.

One of the last bases I need to cover is ramp. Although there are many flashier options today across colors, there are some great classics still worth playing in premodern. Mind Stone may only make 1 colorless mana, but I can sacrifice it when I need to to draw a card instead. Marble Diamond and Sky Diamond provide colored mana on later turns for the low cost of 2 mana each. I want many early options at my disposal to allow me to cast Kangee and pay into the kicker cost. Retraced Image is one of a handful of ways to put extra lands into play, not in Green. Stormscape Familiar helps me with my White spells. Cost reduction can be key when you want to cast multiple spells in a single turn. I'm looking at you Pearl Medallion and Sapphire Medallion.

Stormscape Familiar reminded me to talk about more of my birds. Sawtooth Loon is a balancing act of a card. It lets me draw 2 cards and pitch away 2 after the fact. It also forces me to return one of my creatures to my hand. That's great if I have something like Junk Diver or Sage Owl just sitting on the field, their best days behind them, just waiting to do a poor job at attacking an opponent. Sawtooth Loon gives them a new lease on life. Or, the Loon lets me do something crazier and return it back to my hand so I can filter out dead cards in hand.

Soulcatcher has the potential to be the hardest hitting of my creatures. When any other flier dies, it gets a +1/+1 counter. The dying creature doesn't even have to be mine. Silver Erne wishes it could be that powerful, and so do I. There are not a lot of flying creatures with Trample in Blue. There's really only one other, and I won't say its name because it's Unspeakable.

My Bird cards don't always come in the form of Bird Creatures. Veil of Birds is an enchantment that sits on the field and becomes a threat or blocker once one of my opponents casts a spell. It can be great for me to set up a board wipe and still have an expected attack on the next turn. Battle Screech is great because it fuels itself. It makes 2 bird tokens, which I can turn around and tap, with the help of another creature, to Flashback the spell and make 2 more birds. I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to creature based decks like this, but I have space for some bird adjacent cards as well. Soraya the Falconer is a bird commander in her own right. She acts as a great lord effect in this deck. I'm not messing with Banding, so don't ask.

How did the list turnout? Like this

Kangee, Aerie Keeper
Celestial Gatekeeper	Circular Logic	Retraced Image
Aven Brigadier	Counterspell	Sky Diamond
Aven Cloudchaser	Sunken Field	Marble Diamond
Aven Fisher	Absorb	Mind Stone
Aven Archer	Arcane Denial	Pearl Medallion
Commander Eesha	Complicate	Sapphire Medallion
Crookclaw Elder	Dismiss	Holy Day
Glarecaster	Abolish	Keep Watch
Junk Diver	Wrath of God	Airborn Aid
Osai Vultures	Disenchant	Bandage
Sage Aven	Afterlife	Blessed Wine
Sage Owl	Akroma's Vengeance	Catalog
Soulcatcher	Boomerang	Fact or Fiction
Stormscape Familiar	Dismantling Blow	Coastal Piracy
Thieving Magpie	Breath of Life	Inheritance
Wild Aesthir	Akroma's Blessing	Ensnare
Sawtooth Loon	Abeyance	Deluge
Silver Erne	Oblation	Battle Screech
Skyshroud Falcon	Radiant's Judgment	Soraya the Falconer
Spire Owl	Gush	Veil of Birds
Soulcatcher's Aerie	Foil	Debt of Loyalty
Daru Encampment	Crystal Vein	Coastal Tower
Seaside Haven	Ardarkar Waste	Winding Canyons
Terrain Generator	Island x14	Plains x15

The deck seems straightforward forward but there is actually a lot of potential. It gets to be aggressive and take on some aspects of control.

I think premodern is worth exploring in EDH and Beyond. As a format, it is immune to many of the criticisms of today, power creep, Universes beyond, or gimmicky mechanics. There's another benefit, this deck automatically ports over to PreDH and regular EDH, so I get added versatility. You get to play some of the most powerful cards in the format in premodern. It might take some explaining to your opponents when you drop a Vampiric Tutor, but you can totally explain that away. Totally.

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