Wash Away The Tears
This is a Monoblue combo deck for Commander. This is a tuned-up version of an older decklist, and I feel like this is a flexible and effective deck in a 4-player game.
Getting The Flow Going
Azami, Lady of Scrolls and her school of Wizards provide most of the gas in this deck.
Ponder
,
Think Twice
,
Sea Gate Oracle
, and your tutors provide some early game gas that will get you to your crucial pieces more quickly. Thassa, God of the Sea also helps with its Scry 1 each turn.
Soap
The business in this deck are the following:
Mind Over Matter
Time Stretch
Blue Sun's Zenith
Laboratory Maniac
Empyrial Plate
Nameless One
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Psychosis Crawler
These are all either major combo pieces, ways to protect yourself and your combo, or are win conditions. Azami's combo with MOM is simple and infuriating for your opponents. More on that later.
Scrubbing Bubbles
To make Suds, you need Water:
Caged Sun
Gauntlet of Power
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
Stonybrook Banneret
Apprentice Wizard
These are all ways to facilitate the infinite mana combo that can happen with MOM on the table.
High Tide
and
Palinchron
can be added at the expense of some gas. The Wiz is amazing in conjunction with MOM at making a huge Zenith.
Ride The Wave
So, how do you win once you've got your Soap Tsunami rolling? This deck features several win conditions that revolve around your combo, or can be used if you lose a piece or get disrupted:
Azami + MOM + Laboratory Maniac: This is the main win condition and the most braindead one. Most opponents with any removal or counter at all won't let you hit this one if they can see your combo coming. You can do this even without the aid of infinite mana or Time Stretch, although it becomes very difficult.
Azami + MOM + Time Stretch + Elixir of Immortality: This combo is much more disjointed but is a way to win via stacking infinite turns relentlessly. Nykthos and
Caged Sun
/Gauntlet makes incredible amounts of mana barring a sweeper, so you can cast Time Stretch multiple times in a turn if you keep reshuffling it. This gives you ways to draw your deck out in case Maniac gets taken away.
Echo Mage
is also a funny way to cast Stretch three times in one turn on yourself.
Azami + Reliquary Tower +
Empyrial Plate
: Get to 21 cards in hand and figure out a way to get Azami in for 21 damage in one shot. Goes well with the above combo as you can kill each other opponent with three consecutive turns. There is plenty of bounce and tap effects in this deck, an Cyclonic Rift should make your opponents scoop immediately.
Azami + Psychosis Crawler: MOM is optional in this one as having a ton of wizards out makes this one effective. MOM makes it something your opponents are forced to scoop to if they can't remove one of the three.
A giant
Nameless One
: If all else fails, it can become an aggro deck, using your bounce and tap effects to get a massive Nameless One into your opponent's grill.
Mana combo + Blue Sun's Zenith: This one is really satisfying, as you can use
Boseiju, Who Shelters All
to make it uncounterable. Pay as much mana is needed to kill your opponent in one shot. You can also use max level
Echo Mage
to copy it twice to target the other two opponents if it is big enough to kill everyone at the table. Keep in mind this same combo also works for your Maniac win condition, or for Crawler as well.
Other: There are more straightforward ways to win, such as by sheer aggro numbers or by stealing all of the creatures with Beguiler of Wills. Commandeer can also win you the game when cast on the right spell. Go crazy!
Cleaning Up
I have been able to trigger the 1st win condition by turn 7 and left my opponents unable to win on my Stretched turns. This deck is not foolproof, however, and has several weaknesses/negative traits.
This is the Worst Political Deck Ever - Everyone who plays Commander hates this deck, and they should. Commander is a format for fun and enjoyment, and making friends. This deck has no friends. You could easily rename it nerds.dec; This deck is simply an old-school monoblue deck. You deny everyone at the table their opportunities to hurt you, and you durdle away until you win without touching anyone (in theory). People pretty much gun for you immediately after seeing who your Commander is, so set yourself up ahead of time mentally and be prepared to be in 3v1s almost constantly.
Poor Board Position Means Death - Despite Elixir as backup, this deck has a very hard time recovering from early damage, and is generally bad at disrupting an early board state. Cyclonic Rift with overload is key to surviving these situations. Remember, you need to find a way to live long enough to go infinite, so don't pick battles where they don't need to be picked.
Pithing Needle - Needle, and especially one that gets copied by Shaped Steel or something, is a real bear for this deck. You can bounce it, sure, but since it's 1 mana you're mostly aiding your opponent. Declaring Azami or MOM makes your life much harder unless you can get rid of it. I am currently looking into blue/colorless options for artifact removal.
Conclusions
Overall, for my first commander deck, I enjoy the build I've made of this archetype. I feel like it's as solid as a monoblue deck can be against non-Black Commanders, and still has a good game in 1v1. If you decide to play this deck, remember that having a Commander with UUU in the cost doesn't win you any friends, and that the first counterspell can always be your last. People absolutely hate this deck when it wins, and knowing you have several ways to do it against huge odds makes it very satisfying to see out. Enjoy!
