by Johnny Cycles, May 8th, 2026

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Keeping Modern Janky! This month, I’m revisiting a viewer-submitted deck that I played back around the time Final Fantasy released and we got a bunch of non-flying Birds. Thank you to jordanleebc19! Over the months since, jordanlee has kindly kept me appraised of his changes and successes with the deck and I’m excited to try out his latest version!

Decklist – Bird Tribal 3.0

by jordanleebc19
Format: Modern

Creatures (32)

4 Birds of Paradise
4 Mockingbird
4 Sazh’s Chocobo
4 Ledger Shredder
4 Plumecreed Escort
4 Wan Shi Tong, Librarian
4 Traveling Chocobo
4 Bartz and Boko

Instants (10)

4 Into the Flood Maw
2 Dismember	//
4 Flare of Denial

Lands (18)

2 Breeding Pool
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Forest
2 Hedge Maze
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Windswept Heath

Sideboard (15)

4 Consign to Memory
1 Haywire Mite
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
2 Endurance
2 Harbinger of the Tides
2 Mystical Dispute
2 Subtlety

Deck Tech

 

Primary Game Plan

For the initial write-up on this deck, click here. The TL;DR is that we are a tempo deck looking to use the synergies between our Birds to get the edge we need to win. Whether it’s Traveling Chocobo doubling up landfall triggers, or Bartz and Boko clearing the way of problem creatures, our Birds all work together in a way that is greater than the sum of their parts.

Wan Shi Tong, Librarian is our new Bird and it’s a powerful one. If a game goes long, this can be one of our best draws. Early, we can gain some value out of it when our opponent goes to fetch a land or as a Blue creature to sac to Flare of Denial. Late, it can draw us a couple of cards and pressure our opponent’s life total well. All in all, it’s a great addition!

Other than that, jordanlee has tweaked the numbers of his support pieces to go more into the tempo/control route. Into the Flood Maw is now a 4-of, while 2 maindeck Dismembers give us some pretty unconditional removal. The four copies of Flare of Denial help us fight the unfair decks and give us the tools to keep up with just about anything.

Game Play

Overall Record: 2-3

Those were some fun matches! Well, other than Esper Blink, which is an abomination and needs to be banned (looking at you Ephemerate!). All of our games were close and the deck has the tools to compete with both fair and unfair strategies. Wan Shi Tong, Librarian is a powerful addition to the deck, even if it’s not a, I-win-the-game card. It complements what the deck is doing, which is to play a synergistic tempo strategy. Having flash and vigilance is the perfect combination for us, as it allows us to hold up interaction and attack without fear.

Unlike many tempo decks, though, ours is one that needs a big board to be effective. We can’t sit back behind a 2/1 flier and expect to win. We just don’t have that much interaction to hold our opponent off for 10 turns. Rather, the deck shines when it has between three and five Birds on the battlefield and a couple of cards in our hand.

Traveling Chocobo is by far our most important card, even if each of the various Birds are important to our strategy in their own ways. When we untap with this 3-drop out, the deck feels super powerful. When we chain together a few Birds, it feels unstoppable. I think our win rate when untapping with Traveling Chocobo is probably 90% of the time.

Bartz and Boko is the unsung hero of the deck, in my opinion. Sure, it would be way better if it counted itself in the damage it deals, but we also tended to win the games in which we could resolve an effective Bartz and Boko. Nothing like advancing your board while also killing your opponent’s best creature!

The 18 lands was okay. I kind of wish we played a couple of copies of Boseiju, Who Endures.

The sideboard felt fine. I think the one question mark for me is Mystical Dispute. I’m not sure exactly what jordanlee has those in for, but it seems like Counterspell or Force of Negation would be better.

Conclusion

Thanks again to jordanlee for the decklist! My only regret with Bird Tribal is that I didn’t get more matches in! The deck is really fun and combines two things I enjoy about Magic: a go-wide creature strategy with elements of Control. If that combination is appealing to you, then I highly recommend giving this deck a chance! It may not be tier 1, but it can hold its own against the best decks.

Thanks for reading and watching!