Card Spotlight - Windborne Champion

Card Spotlight - Windborne Champion

The Card Spotlight series reviews cards that we don’t typically see in competitive play. In the spotlight I'll talk about each card’s strengths and what decks could use them.

Windborne Champion

Windborne Champions once ruled the skies when Yellow Control was a tier one deck. It's been a long time since Yellow Control has seen competitive play, over-shadowed by it's event based counterpart. It's a shame the card doesn't see play because it offers great mobility. Windborne Champion has enormous board presence thanks to it's Charge ability. As a Flying creature it can move around the board freely. The Gift ability is very powerful and can help Windborne Champion create tricky mobility plays. The main reason it doesn't see play is because of more efficient Windstorm Colossus.

Windstorm Colossus is a fast threat that isn't weighed down by a heavy land requirement. Yellow Control uses mobility tricks and event based cards like the popular Yellow Events. You could even argue that Yellow Events is a faster, more evolved version of Yellow Control.

Windborne Champion isn’t restricted to Yellow Control. The Flying keyword allows the card to be ran in Flier lists. Drakkar Skycaptain can power it up and Iona's Smile can tutor it. The card hasn’t seen much play in recent Flying decks because they tend to go for a more tempo based build.

Why play Windborne Champion?

Windborne Champion is a strong control card when playing a mono Yellow deck. The five Desert cost does restrict the card to Yellow only. Windborne Champion’s built in mobility gives you enormous range. It’s Gift ability is a welcome mobility trick that can move both your own and your opponents creature. Windborne Champion is often your win condition and has huge influence on board. A common addition to help with the land cost is Air Elemental. This card is a great Faeria harvester and accelerates your land to a quicker Champion.

Windborne Champion doesn’t force event synergy for Windstorm Colossus. This grants more flexibility when designing your deck. You can direct the deck into a traditional Yellow Control style but could also splash some Flying creatures.

Potential Decks

Yellow Control is the standard for Windborne Champion. The deck relies on heavy board control and it’s win condition is to starve your opponent of Faeria. Windborne Champion is the perfect finisher because it can control the board from afar.

This Yellow Flyers list was created by Cappuccino before Iona’s Smile. It’s a control deck that builds land around your Orb and using Flying and mobility to get around the board. You won’t need to build lands towards your opponent thanks to Celestial Tower and Windborne Champion.

Conclusion

Windborne Champion isn’t the top dog of Yellow any more but it is still a great card. Hopefully Yellow will receive support for Control in the upcoming expansion. As a huge fan of the old Yellow Control decks I’d strongly recommend trying it. It’s a fun and highly rewarding deck with great mobility plays.