Derevi, Empyrial Tactician leads a Bird-heavy evasive tempo deck with a stax backbone. It floods the board with cheap flyers and mana creatures, then turns every point of combat damage into value: card draw from saboteur engines, and Derevi's tap/untap trigger used to untap mana rocks and dorks or tap down blockers and key opposing permanents. A stax-and-control shell keeps opponents slow while the swarm and draw engines take over. That shell is built from flash flyers, sorcery-speed locks, anti-tutor effects, taxing draw pieces and cheap counterspells. Birthing Pod and Eldritch Evolution chain into key pieces, and Seedborn Muse and Deadeye Navigator add repeatable untap and blink value. How it wins: Wide flying Bird attacks, pumped by anthems and Kangee, chip opponents out while stax pieces keep them stumbling and every hit draws cards and generates tap/untap advantage until the board overwhelms the table. Key roles: - Evasive Bird swarm: Cheap flyers and Bird lords form the attacking body, made cheaper by flyer cost reducers and grown by anthems and attack pumps so many small hits add up (Empyrean Eagle, Kangee, Sky Warden, Murmuration). - Combat-damage card engines: Each creature connecting draws extra cards, and Delney doubles triggers from small creatures, Derevi's included (Edric, Spymaster of Trest, Enduring Curiosity, Delney, Streetwise Lookout). - Tap/untap value: Derevi's hit triggers and Seedborn Muse untap mana rocks, dorks and blink-ready creatures for extra mana, or tap down opposing blockers and mana sources, while Verity Circle rewards tapping opponents' creatures (Seedborn Muse, Basalt Monolith, Verity Circle). - Bird recursion and card advantage: Kastral and Jackdaw Savior return or deploy Birds as they hit or die, and Choco digs lands and cards off Bird attacks (Kastral, the Windcrested, Jackdaw Savior, Choco, Seeker of Paradise). - Creature tutor chains and blink: Pod and evolution effects climb the curve into engines, while Navigator and Emiel blink enter-the-battlefield creatures such as Eternal Witness and Aven Interrupter for repeat value (Birthing Pod, Eldritch Evolution, Deadeye Navigator). - Stax and taxing interaction: This package locks opponents into sorcery speed and shrinks their library searches into weak top-four looks. Their graveyard and exile casts cost more, and their spells are taxed by draw pieces that either cost them mana or hand over cards. Cheap counters and flash flyers stop whatever still gets through, buying time for the flyers to finish the job (Teferi, Time Raveler, Aven Mindcensor, Rhystic Study).

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician decklist

• Arcane Signet
• Basalt Monolith
• Bident of Thassa
• Birthing Pod
• Sol Ring
• Swiftfoot Boots
• The One Ring
• Adarkar Wastes
• Azorius Chancery
• Bountiful Promenade
• Breeding Pool
• Command Tower
• Exotic Orchard
• Flooded Strand
• 5× Forest
• Glacial Fortress
• Hallowed Fountain
• Hinterland Harbor
• 4× Island
• Misty Rainforest
• 4× Plains
• Prairie Stream
• Rejuvenating Springs
• Reliquary Tower
• Sea of Clouds
• Seaside Citadel
• Selesnya Sanctuary
• Simic Growth Chamber
• Spara's Headquarters
• Sunpetal Grove
• Temple Garden
• Windswept Heath
• Yavimaya Coast
• Avacyn's Pilgrim
• Aven Interrupter
• Aven Mindcensor
• Birds of Paradise
• Bloom Tender
• Choco, Seeker of Paradise
• Deadeye Navigator
• Delighted Halfling
• Delney, Streetwise Lookout
• Edric, Spymaster of Trest
• Emiel the Blessed
• Empyrean Eagle
• Enduring Curiosity
• Esper Sentinel
• Eternal Witness
• Faeburrow Elder
• Faerie Mastermind
• Jackdaw Savior
• Judge's Familiar
• Kangee, Sky Warden
• Kastral, the Windcrested
• Ledger Shredder
• Llanowar Elves
• Mockingbird
• Noble Hierarch
• Seedborn Muse
• Toski, Bearer of Secrets
• Wan Shi Tong, Librarian
• Warden of Evos Isle
• Watcher of the Spheres
• Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun
• Murmuration
• Mystic Remora
• Reconnaissance Mission
• Rhystic Study
• Utopia Sprawl
• Verity Circle
• Wild Growth
• An Offer You Can't Refuse
• Arcane Denial
• Beast Within
• Counterspell
• Dovin's Veto
• Eladamri's Call
• Heroic Intervention
• Path to Exile
• Swan Song
• Swords to Plowshares
• Teferi, Time Raveler
• Cultivate
• Eldritch Evolution
• Farseek
• Nature's Lore
• Supreme Verdict
• Three Visits
• Boseiju, Who Endures