Hello and welcome to this primer of Talrand, Sky Summoner, the M13 legendary whom has captured my attention as of late, over the course of the article i'll be talking about how this particular general works as well as a look at a few different archetypes in which he can be built, without further ado let's begin.
Before we begin, let's take a look at his trademark ability, which is the following "Whenever you cast a instant or sorcery spell, put a 2/2 blue Drake creature token with flying onto the battlefield" this ability makes Talrand a unique general to play as, since spells while he is out reward you with 2/2 blue drakes that fly.
He starts with a base power of 2 and a base toughness of 2, costs 2, Blue, Blue and is classified as a Merfolk Wizard, which has been seen before in magic's history, he's suited to fit into almost any style of deck regardless of general, since most blue generals are wizard's, except for a select few.
Reasons to run Talrand
#1) You love casting spells, being a blue mage since you have access to some of the best spells in the game of EDH.
#2) Your a blue mage at heart, controlling stuff is your forte and you love being able to make a small army out of virtually zero investment.
#3) You want to play a unique general, with a unique ability which rewards casting spells on a moment's notice.
Reasons NOT to run Talrand
#1) You aren't a blue mage at heart and prefer to beat your opponent senseless.
#2) You dislike the color blue period in magic, since it is easily hated out.
#3) Card drawing on a whim, what's that?
Unlike other blue generals such as Azami, Lady of the Scrolls and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, this one is unique as he can basically revolve around a single ideal, spell slinging, which is what magic is all about. He can be suited to either a casual style of play or a competitive style of play, since he sees play in both and myself personally i've taken a liking to playing Talrand as of late, since he's one of my two EDH generals currently. Let's take a look at a few of the many strategies which you can base Talrand around, regardless if it is competitive or not.
Strategies
#1) Casual - In most instances of Talrand, the budget can be set to 300 dollars, depending on the player, with Talrand himself being the most expensive piece of the deck, most casual players have set limits to builds, but the majority agrees that 35% or even 40% of the deck should be the spell base alone. Most players find it is easy to control the game state even with the cheapest of spells such as Arcane Denial, Counterspell and even a classic blue spell, Cancel.
#2) Competitive - Though this is a choice many players have, the budget for the competitive race would have to be set at a very high price point, dropping $1000 dollars minimum for stuff such as Force of Will, Pact of Negation, even the new guy, Snapcaster Mage is required for this build, overall if you want to go this route, be prepared to defend yourself, with this type of deck it's often recommended that at least 45% of the deck be spells.
#3) Midrange - This is a completely possible option for Talrand, though i've not tested it as of late, mid game spells like Future Sight help a lot when it comes to playing spells, since the top card is essentially another card in your hand, stuff like Sensei's Divining Top help sight be more effective in the late since you can sculpt the top 3 to any form you like, giving it a sort of Midrange feel.
Let's take a look at some of those Talrand lists which feel completely casual, but not too casual, we are going to be looking at a deck which i think explains the whole Casual meets Competitive feel here, with a list provided by MTGSalvation's own ISBPathfinder.
ISBPathfinder's Mono Blue Talrand Aggro
General
Talrand, Sky Summoner
Creatures
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
Snapcaster Mage
Vedalken Aethermage
Trinket Mage
Magus of the Future
Artifacts
Sol Ring
Wayfarer's Bauble
Mind Stone
Isochron Scepter
Torpor Orb
Vedalken Shackles
Enchantments
Coastal Piracy
Future Sight
Opposition
Spellweaver Volute
Cast Through Time
Instants
Pact of Negation
Brainstorm
Mind Games
Mystical Tutor
Opt
Pongify
Visions of Beyond
Arcane Denial
Counterspell
Cyclonic Rift
Daze
Impulse
Mana Drain
Peer Through Depths
Telling Time
Think Twice
Twincast
Blue Sun's Zenith
Hinder
Keep Watch
Long-Term Plans
Spell Crumple
Thirst for Knowledge
Cryptic Command
Fact or Fiction
Force of Will
Misdirection
Sunder
Sorceries
Mystic Speculation
Ponder
Preordain
Serum Visions
Merchant Scroll
Fabricate
Capture of Jingzhou
Temporal Manipulation
Time Warp
Mind's Desire
Recurring Insight
Walk the Aeons
Temporal Mastery
Planeswalkers
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Lands
Academy Ruins
High Market
29 Island
Mystifiying Maze
Reliquary Tower
Strip Mine
Tectonic Edge
Tolaria West
As you can see this deck runs a total of 41 spells, which is plenty in a Talrand, Sky Summoner deck, part of what makes him so strong is the deck is solely revolved around playing him, but your opponents don't suspect him at all till it is too late, when you start taking extra turns, as well as countering most of their good offense in 1 vs 1 situations, but it also works somewhat the same in Multiplayer based situations, where you have a bunch of drakes, take a bunch of extra turns with things like Temporal Mastery, Time Warp and the like and literally blast them all with a bunch of flying 2/2's in the air, but the problem is how do you keep the skies clear enough for those drakes to slip past, well let's break this into 3 categories.
1) Offensive Spells
2) Defensive Spells
3) Midrange Spells
With Offensive spells you can keep the skies clear long enough so pesky flyers such as Karmic Guide, Reveillark and the like don't block the path and kill the drakes you make playing the spells, spells such as Into the Roil or the new bad boy on the block, Cyclonic Rift work like a charm here since they are instant speed bounce spells and send them back to the hand, along with rewarding you with another drake or 2 at your leisure.
Defensive spells are a bit different, they are basically counter spells, which stop all threats from ever hitting the board, so stuff like Avenger of Zendikar and Kokusho, the Evening Star don't interrupt the game plan overall, allowing you to not worry about those types of spells, an example of a defensive spell is stuff like Arcane Denial, Counterspell and even the most powerful counter in all of legacy, Force of Will are prime examples of the defensive variety of spells.
Midrange spells are a bit different then what your used to, these spells essentially let you do additional things, make copies of extra things, do a bit of shenigans with your general and of course make the game more interesting in the later turns, an example of mid range type spells are Time Warp, Temporal Mastery and of course my favorite blue spell of choice, Rite of Replication, which I highly advise blue EDH players to obtain somehow.
Now that we have a idea of what different types of spells we have at our disposal, let's start working on building a Talrand list of our own, starting with the lands. The optimal amount of lands in a mono blue deck should be around the 35-37 range, with additional lands obtained for measures, obviously such EDH staples as Temple of the False God and Reliquary Tower are welcome here, along with land destruction like Strip Mine, Tectonic Edge and even the old favorite, Wasteland. However that is not all we can use for the deck, we can use on color lands such as Riptide Laboratory to protect our general and lands that recycle specific artifacts like Academy Ruins to ensure if we lose a artifact or two, we can use it again on our next draw. In terms of basic lands however, often enough since the deck is going to be churning out spells at a rapid pace once Talrand arrives on the battlefield, often 29-30 islands is more then sufficent for his build, since we need maybe 3-4 blue sources per turn, it should be noted that Strip Mine is illegal for competitive, so i'd suggest Wasteland instead.
So, naturally after the land front has been established, it should look a little something like this.
Lands
Temple of the False God
Reliquary Tower
Riptide Laboratory
Tectonic Edge
Strip Mine
Academy Ruins
31 Island
In reality, this if often enough the best possible land base with the current ban list enforced by the rules committee with the single color we are using, Blue, now you can have the creature base as low as 6 for this deck i find, with Snapcaster Mage, Trinket Mage being the 2 required cards of choice, snappy just to flashback counter spells on a whim in combination with Riptide Laboratory, if your playing casual that is, if your not playing casual and it's a competitive deck, then Snapcaster is the only one creature really required, since he makes all our spells doubled essentially, So in most casual cases, i'd suggest the maximum number of creatures is 8/10 for casual and 4-5 for competitive, depending on situations. With that let's take a look at the creatures i often recommend.
Creatures
Snapcaster Mage
Palinchron
Phantasmal Image
Phyrexian Metamorph
Trinket Mage
Treasure Mage
These 6 are the ones i most often recommended of course, considering we are merely playing the best color in magic. Now that the creature base is out of the way, let's get onto the meat and potatoes of a Talrand deck, the spells, the recommended minimum for a Talrand build is 40, yes, 40 spells in a deck is possible with this particular general. Some of these I've already mentioned including specific staple spells such as Force of Will, Pact of Negation and the like, here's the most suggested spells for a Talrand deck.
Spells
Force of Will
Pact of Negation
Capsize
Hinder
Counterspell
Cylonic Rift
Brainstorm
Arcane Denial
Spell Crumple
Daze
Think Twice
Cryptic Command
Gitaxian Probe
Ponder
Preordain
This particular list of spells is perhaps the best package you can use for talrand's base and you can slot in any other blue spell you want afterwards, but the recommend list is a sort of requirement for Talrand. Normally the base package is all you would want, since this base package costs roughly around 120 dollars with the big two being Force of Will and Pact, but with that out of the way, there are few artifacts that you can use for Talrand, but the two i most often commonly recommend for him are both Lightning Greaves and Isochron Scepter, since most of the spells in the deck are 1-2 CMC and are instant speed, except for a select few. Now let's take a look at another Talrand List and let's see how it's done in a casual perspective.
DonRoyale's Talrand, Sky Summoner
General
Talrand, Sky Summoner
Creatures
Guile
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
Stormtide Leviathan
Tidespout Tyrant
Sorceries
Deep Analysis
Fabricate
Inundate
Ponder
Portent
Preordain
Serum Visions
Wash Out
Sleight of Hand
Instants
Annul
Arcane Denial
Brainstorm
Cancel
Capsize
Cyclonic Rift
Dissipate
Essence Scatter
Faerie Trickery
Familiar's Ruse
Forbid
Frantic Search
Grip of Amnesia
Hinder
Long-Term Plans
Memory Lapse
Muddle the Mixture
Negate
Oona's Grace
Pongify
Psychic Barrier
Remove Soul
Rewind
Spell Crumple
Spin into Myth
Steel Sabotage
Stoic Rebuttal
Thirst for Knowledge
Whispers of the Muse
Artifacts
Caged Sun
Elixir of Immortality
Expedition Map
Gauntlet of Power
Neurok Stealthsuit
Nevinyrral's Disk
Proteus Staff
Sphinx-Bone Wand
Swiftfoot Boots
Venser's Journal
Planeswalkers
Karn Liberated
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Enchantments
Coastal Piracy
Mind Unbound
Mystic Remora
Propaganda
Rhystic Study
Lands
Lonely Sandbar
Maze of Ith
Mystifying Maze
Reliquary Tower
Remote Isle
Tectonic Edge
Temple of the False God
Terrain Generator
31 Island
As you can clearly see, the deck runs a whole assortment of good things, enchantments, lands and of course the best thing of all, a good load of spells, which shows talrand is a decent deck in both multiplayer and 1 vs 1. The overall thing to remember here is the load of 1-2 drop spells in this deck, which indcates the cost effective nature that you want to build talrand around.
Now there isn't very many changes we can make aside from the basic rules changes of 1 vs 1 format or French Ban list, in the most common terms, but the main thing to remember here, most of the blue walkers are good for this build, regardless of anything else, so obvious things like Jace, the Mind Sculptor is viable for the format, even in multi player which it still gets off 1-2 activations before it's targeted down and sent packing.
Helpful Hints to Building Talrand, Sky Summoner
#1) Spells are key - You want to pack the deck full of spells that are cheap, effective and can be used within a few turns of you casting Talrand.
#2) Save all your best spells after you cast talrand, you can use tutors to fetch the necessary spells and draw into them, but don't abuse the spells too often.
In essence, Talrand is a unique general which is not that versatile compared to other generals, since it's mono blue and doesn't have access to a lot of the other colors in magic, so if you are looking for a general to start out with and you've got a decent budget, then give this bad boy a shot, till next time this is vergil signing off.
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