Welcome to Stardew_Vale's guide to build Dragonlord Ojutai. Naming this deck "Sky Emperor Ojutai" may seem a bit pretentious, but it's only because we will try to control the game just long enough so that our mighty flyers can dominate the battlefield and swing for victory.
GAMEPLAN
Piloting this deck is really, really simple. We just have to deploy carefully our flyer, through which we can draw cards and gather enough resources to control the game, and then drop a couple of anthems and swing for the last, fatal damages. We have many ways to protect our board and refute all the major threats that could prevent us from winning or, more often, that will make someone else win. This deck is extremely fun to play, as it requires a lot of thinking and decision making on the control side, while it also gives some good old in-the-face beating satisfaction with some massive flyign swings. Simple enough, right? That's precisely what makes it good.
WHAT ROLE DOES OJUTAI PLAY?
Almost all the different builds you can find revolving around Dragonlord Ojutai are voltron-based strategies, and for good reasons: 5/6 flyer with conditional protection (Hexproof if untapped) in the command zone is already enough, and if you add that spicy filter+draw effect on an attack trigger, it gets really interesting, really fast. But here, our dear Dragonlord is serving us a different purpose. He can give us access to 2 colors, white and blue, which are the best ones for both control and flyers, and also gives us a card selection/card draw engine which wants both to attack and to fly, the main mechanics around which this deck revolves. As such, this commander is not in any way essential, but it's a truely amazing support to make the deck function better. And, of course, there are ways to take out an opponent through some commander damage, as we want to attack with flyers anyways, and so we will pump them and give them some edge in combat. In summary, we have a perfect support for our strategy and an alternative win condition directly in the command zone. Pretty solid, as you will see.
COVERING THE BASICS - RAMP & DRAW
We have 11 sources of ramp, but to be precise: we have 7 mana rocks ranging from the classic Sol Ring and Arcane Signet to the more utility-oriented Thought Vessel, then we have a couple of mana-discounters like Watcher of the Spheres and Warden of Evos Isle and we close the package with something more combat-oriented as Sword of the Animist and Explorer's Scope which are pretty easy to use and efficient in a deck full of evasive creatures.
Speaking of card draw, we have 15 sources in total, 16 if we also count our commander among them. Exactly as for ramp, we have different types of card draw (differentiation always pays off, so you are very adaptable to any circumstances). Firstly we have many creatures like Vanguard Suppressor or Dream Trawler which give us card when dealing damage, then we also carry more widespread surces of draw-on-damage like Reconnaissance Mission or Windreader Sphinx. To close up on some other synergistic way of drawing cards, we have equipments like Goggles of Night or auras like Staggering Insight. As you can see, attacking is very synergistic throughout all of the deck "compartments". We still pack some enter-the-battlefield effects like Cloudblazer or Sphinx of Enlightment to keep our hands full when we are not in a good position to swing freely.
SECURING A DOMINANT POSITION - PROTECTION & ANTHEMS
The main way we can consistently win is to build a strong board presence through strong and useful evasive creatures, so we need ways to keep them safe and help them deal more damage. Protection is the most important of the two strategies here, as its vital that our boards remains stable throughout the game. So we carry many cards like Selfless Spirit, Kira, Great Glass-Spinner or Sephara, Sky's Blade which also happen to be fliers (synergies always too good to pass on) while also having more traditional protection in the form of Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves.
Anthems are what usually allows us to close the game, or at least make every creature we play way more relevant if we are a bit behind. We run straight up good ones for flyers like Gravitational Shift or Kangee, Sky Warden, but cards like Thraben Watcher and Always Watching are always even better as they allow us to attack without having the usual drawbacks. They also synergize with Ojutai, which is a plus if we have to switch to a voltron strategy at a certain point in the game. True Convivtion is usually a straight up game ender if dropped at the right time.
CONTROL THE ENVIRONMENT - INTERACTION & PILLOWFORTH
We have a pretty solid package to respond to enemy threats aas well as protect our key pieces or plays to fly towards victory. We are not super heavy on counterspells, packing only 5 of them but all aggresively mana-costed and very efficient, like Dovin's Veto or Swan Song. These are here mainly to prevent game-winning plays from the opponents, as usuallu we are well equipped in other ways to deal with targeted removal and boardwhipes (see protection section).
And speaking of boardwipes, we have 4 solid options, as the unmatchable Cyclonic Rift, the flexible Clensing Nova, Time Wipe or some more niche options like Descend upon the Sifnul for when the board is really, really unmanagable or putting stuff into the graveyard is not the best play.
We are also packing some graveyard hate in the form of Angel of Finality and Remorseful Cleric.
We are closing this section with solid removal staples as Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exhile, Generous Gift and many others.
Lastly, we are taking advantage of some pillowfort techniques as we are trying to control the pace of the game and also attack without punishments (mainly other attacks towards us). So we are packing Windborne Muse, Magus of the Moat, Archon of Absolution and the very powerful, but very mana intensive, Stormtide Leviathan.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
This decklist is very powerful, interactive and overall fun to play, but is of course a bit dependent on my meta and with some limitation on budget. That's why many powerful staples are not included, or why some important no-brainer cards like Avacyn, Archangel of Hope are missing entirely. I will update this section with some out of budget alternatives in the future, but for now, I think that's all.
My job here is done. Salutations from Stardew_Vale!
