[CMD] Fully Foil Azor - Dangerously Durdley

Commander / EDH Control Theme/Gimmick WU (Azorius)

thisjourneyends

Land (33)

• 1x Azorius Chancery
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Detection Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 8x Island
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Mistveil Plains
• 1x Nimbus Maze
• 5x Plains
• 1x Prahv, Spires of Order
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Tectonic Edge
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment
• 1x Thawing Glaciers
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Tundra

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Compulsive Research
• 1x Council's Judgment
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Rout
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Terminus
• 1x Wrath of God

Planeswalker (6)

• 1x Jace Beleren
• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils
• 1x Teferi, Time Raveler
• 1x Teyo, the Shieldmage

Instant (19)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Emergency Powers
• 1x Enlightened TutorGC
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Foil
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Return to Dust
• 1x Sphinx's Revelation
• 1x Suspend
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Whir of Invention

Artifact (13)

• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Elixir of Immortality
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Meekstone
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip
• 1x Tormod's Crypt

Commander (1)

Enchantment (13)

• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Compulsion
• 1x Detention Sphere
• 1x Future Sight
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Monastery Siege
• 1x Out of Time
• 1x Parallax Wave
• 1x Rule of Law
• 1x Seal of Cleansing
• 1x Search for Azcanta  ^Flip

Creature (6)

• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Kefnet the Mindful
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Thassa, God of the Sea
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant

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Maybeboard

Instant (12)

• 1x Annul
• 1x Condescend
• 1x Dissolve
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Hieroglyphic Illumination
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Mindbreak Trap
• 1x Mystical TutorGC
• 1x Negate
• 1x Summary Dismissal
• 1x Supreme Will
• 1x Swan Song

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Counterbalance
• 1x Faith's Fetters
• 1x Imperial Mask
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Rhystic StudyGC

Land (11)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Irrigated Farmland
• 1x Lonely Sandbar
• 1x Mage-Ring Network
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 1x New Benalia
• 1x Port Town
• 1x Seachrome Coast
• 1x Secluded Steppe

Planeswalker (4)

• 1x Dovin Baan
• 1x Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
• 1x Narset Transcendent
• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Serum Visions

Creature (7)

• 1x Azor's Elocutors
• 1x Containment Priest
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Senate Guildmage
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Stonecloaker

Artifact (7)

• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x Worn Powerstone

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Here's an album link, current as of 1/3/2017.

This deck is my vision of my personal ideal control deck. For the most part, that makes it a good old-fashioned, straightup, no-nonsense UW control commander deck. I'm not here to combo, I'm not here for stax, Imma just draw cards, control the game, and eventually find a way to win. And I'll look at some sweet foils while I do it.

Yes, I want the deck to be powerful, but when I add/remove cards it's ultimately not about "card X is better than card Y," it's "I want to cast card X more than I want to cast card Y." This deck is at a point where card swaps are not just about power level, they're about making the deck fun for me and fulfilling that vision of my ideal control deck.

This deck is basically my love letter to the RTR-THS Standard UW control decks which aimed to win with a singleton Elixir of Immortality and endless card draw and answers.

Philosophy, Goals, Self-Imposed Rules:

• Limited wincons. No combo kills.
• Lots of card draw and card selection.
• Deliberately not going overboard on countermagic, the focus is using card draw and card selection to locate answers.
• No flashback effects or cards that exile themselves as part of casting. My dream is to cast every single spell in the deck, reshuffle my GY into the library, and do it again.

Current Foil Count: 99 out of a possible 99. Current Non-Foils: Tundra.

Tundra is currently (lol) unavailable in foil. Tundra is an OG dual land and I certainly think it's in-line with the theme of this deck, even if it's not foil. (At other times, I have played a few other nonfoil cards, particularly Propaganda , but it's currently out.)

Signed Cards:

I really like signed cards, to me they add history to a card. When I look at my signed cards, I like to think back to the event where I got each particular card signed, chatting with the artists, etc. It's cool to me to think that this specific piece of cardboard has been with me over time, and signed cards help reinforce that.

Commander selection:

I complained for ages that there wasn't really any 'true' draw-go commander options available in UW. I tried Isperia, Supreme Judge , Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer , Grand Arbiter Augustin IV , and set each of them aside. I played both Ojutai, Soul of Winter and Dragonlord Ojutai for a long time, and had actually gotten pretty fond of the Dragonlord.

But all that is in the past now, because WotC has finally delivered a UW commander that just encapsulates what Azorius is all about. Azor, the Lawbringer , the very founder of the Azorious Senate.

Here's why I went with Azor, the Lawbringer over Dragonlord Ojutai : Show

• While Dragonlord Ojutai comes down a turn sooner, I'm not really looking to cast my commander on curve anyway. The main time that this would be useful is when I am lacking a form of repeated card advantage and just want to cast Ojutai to get the ball rolling, and in those situations I kind of suspect that just drawing 3-4 cards off Azor would be better anyways. (After all, since I'm in this situation, I probably don't have much to spend my mana on.)

• Gaining life is very relevant. I have lost numerous games to having my health get slowly worked down. Prior to Azor, the only ways the deck had to regain life were Sphinx's Revelation , Elixir of Immortality , and Honden of Cleansing Fire (no longer in the deck). Being able to gain a quick 6ish life in the mid-lategame has been very relevant to not just dying to random stuff.

• While the card draw effect requires mana, it doesn't require Azor to connect with a player, or even to connect at all. Planeswalkers can be challenging for my deck to deal with, since I don't have many Oblivion Ring effects or other creatures to attack them with. It was frustrating having Dragonlord Ojutai in play and have to essentially choose between pressuring an enemy planeswalker or drawing cards - Azor sidesteps this issue nicely. And if the opponent has blockers, Azor is both a bigger body and is able to draw cards when he is chumped.

• Against combo decks, it's difficult to decide which is better. Azor's ETB essentially buys at least one turn against any combo player whose combo doesn't fully rely on creatures or artifacts, and all the forms of repeated card advantage I run mean I make good use of that turn. By comparison, Dragonlord Ojutai comes down the turn prior and gives me an Anticipate to try to hit a piece of interaction.

French EDH Alternative build: Show

I've been kicking around trying the 1v1 French EDH commander rules with this deck. Doing so would require these cuts:

• Mana Drain
• Mystical Tutor
• Sensei's Divining Top
• Sol Ring
• Strip Mine

Additionally, I would probably swap in Dragonlord Ojutai for Azor, since while I like Azor more overall, I do think the Dragonlord is better in a strict 1v1 setting.

Current sketch of cards to replace them:

• Losing out on Sol Ring (and a colorless land) makes me want to have more mana sources - add 2 lands (Seachrome Coast, Field of Ruin?)
• Counterspells are better in 1v1, so bring in one to replace Mana Drain
• Sensei's Top and Mystical Tutor are pretty irreplaceable forms of card selection, but maybe slot in some cheap card draw or other cantrips to replace.

Current trial cards: Show

• Out of Time - 3 mana "board wipe" is recurrable by Sun Titan, searchable by Enlightened Tutor, and reminds me of Parallax Wave which I love.

• Suspend - 1 mana interaction that gets rid of almost any annoying creature for at least one complete turn cycle. Seems intriguing

• Emergency Powers - Exiles itself, but immensely flavorful for my deck as a "break glass in case of emergency" type effect. Also services as a backup graveyard reset in case Elixir of Immortality is lost.

Current watchlist cards: Show

• Preordain (Relatively low impact, possibly swap for MDFC card draw/land)

• Austere Command (High mana and slightly awkward but I think I do want an artifact/enchantment sweeper)

• Worn Powerstone (Worst mana rock, possibly replace with Arcane Signet or with more land / MDFC)

• Senate Guildmage (Just an okay creature, here for a nice foil)

• Whir of Invention (Mildly hard to cast and somehow I just don't like this card. I'd love a second copy of Trinket Mage instead of this)

Successful Trial Cards: Show

• Rule of Law . This card makes me feel so much safer when playing against more competitive decks. Limiting the shenanigans anyone can pull is just huge, and it makes my limited pool of countermagic much more effective. It's kind of a "no funny business" card - I've generally felt comfortable that I can navigate a game in which each opponent only does one thing a turn.
• Expedition Map . Lots of solid picks to tutor for, like grabbing Thawing Glaciers , Mistveil Plains , Strip Mine . Bonus synergy with Sun Titan and Trinket Mage . I bumped this from the Trial list after adding Tolaria West to the deck.

Possible Inclusions: Show

• Teferi, Hero of Dominaria . This card offers a lot of value. Teferi can plus every turn to build card advantage, and has a game winning ult. His minus gets rid of nasty effects and buys a lot of time. What's not to like (other than the price tag of a foil)?

In case you've read this far, here's a bonus Imgur album of the 3/9/2017 build.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	3 years
Exclude colors	BRG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 50 - 0 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.81
Tokens	Wall 0/3 W
Folders	Cubes, Commander (Built), Magic the Memening, keith, z. EDH: Brago