Azorius Fliers has a long history in this Standard season. It emerged from the release of Momo, Friendly Flier and turned into an archetype that took advantage of Cosmogrand Zenith and Warp and Bounce effects to play two spells per turn. When Secrets of Strixhaven came out, it adopted the interaction between Daydream and Quantum Riddler to cheat mana costs and became a reliable competitor with both packages.With the release of The Hobbit, the archetype gained a tool in The Lord of the Eagles, and a version that drops the Cosmogrand Zenith package entirely to focus on the "combo" between Lord and Practiced Offense has emerged in recent weeks!The DecklistMaindeckThe Azorius Fliers base relies on two engines. At their core are Momo, Friendly Flier and Springleaf Drum to speed up how quickly we sequence our creatures.In the first interaction, we have Nurturing Pixie and Sage of the Skies. Pixie can return a permanent to hand, allowing us to reuse its ETBs, but it synergizes with Sage of the Skies by creating a copy of it by bouncing it back to cast again. Sage is an excellent card in Aggro matchups and perhaps one of the archetype's core pieces today.The second engine involves the Warp ability with Daydream, which works similarly to Ephemerate and Evoke in Modern or Pauper. We pay the alternate cost of Quantum Riddler or Starfield Shepherd and, before the end of the turn, cast Daydream to exile it and return it to the battlefield. Since the creature is a new object on board, it no longer has the Warp trigger.Due to the ease of cheating power on board, we can easily reduce The Lord of the Eagles' cost, and an 8/8 with Flying on board on turn three or four puts pressure on the opponent, especially if we follow up with Practiced Offense, increasing the power of the entire board and granting Double Strike to a creature, adding up to 18 damage from Lord of the Eagles alone.To complement the flying creatures, we run Steamcore Scholar, whose ability interacts with Quantum Riddler if we empty our hand, removes less useful cards from hand, or can have its drawback "negated" with Practiced Offense, while also providing another Flying body on board.For interaction with the opponent, we rely on Erode to handle any creature or Planeswalker unconditionally, along with Spider-Sense to answer troublesome triggers or spells, while also allowing us to reuse our creatures' ETBs.Our mana base does not need much explanation, but Abandoned Air Temple is another key piece for maintaining pressure on board, especially in grindy matches.SideboardDisdainful Stroke remains relevant after the bans as long as Jeskai/Four-Color Control and Dimir Excruciator are present in the Metagame, while also answering Spellementals' bombs. Flashfreeze comes in against Jeskai, but its matchups today are Dragons and Landfall.Spectacular Spider-Man protects our creatures from sweepers or a key removal spell while we continue to pressure the board. Rest in Peace answers Reanimator's problems and slows the game against Spellementals if it resolves.Seam Rip is our tool against Mardu Discard and Red Aggro. It can come in against Landfall, but without Badgermole Cub, it loses the potential it used to have in that matchup. If the opponent's board gets wide, we can make plays with Split Up to clear their battlefield while preserving ours, and the fact that our creatures fly makes it easier to turn it into a one-sided sweeper.Sideboard GuideMono Green LandfallINOUTMardu DiscardINOUTJeskai/Four-Color ControlINOUTDimir ExcruciatorINOUTIzzet SpellementalsINOUTOrzhov LifegainINOUTWrapping UpThat's all for today!If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!Thanks for reading!
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