Synopsis : At heart, many of us would love to play a straight forward, fast, resilient, and powerful deck. While mono-green may have some disadvantages, in a format like EDH where we are constantly tutoring and countering spells, playing ridiculous combos, and playing lots of 'tech', it is a welcoming feeling to play a deck that is not only loads of fun, but can win often, sometimes in dramatic fashion, and do so with style. Enter Azusa, Who Seeks Revenge.
History : The deck began life as a Kamahl, Fist of Krosa build which was basically green good-stuff. The deck was laid to rest after most of the cards were stripped from it for my Damia deck. Long story short, after playing many different combo decks, I just wanted a fun and simple deck that could compete and win with brute force. Kamahl was often very slow and clunky, so I made a concerted effort to make this deck as fast as possible. And it is FAST.
Deck Philosophy and play style : Azusa is pissed. Look at her picture! She just wants to ramp. Ramp, baby, yeah. Ramp all day. The typical Azusa hand should start with at least 3 lands in your hand, some form of ramp, an acceleration spell, a fattie creature, and maybe removal of some kind. The key here is to have the acceleration spell. Thus, I present :
Azusa, Lost but Seeking + Mirri's Guile/Sensei's Divining Top/Sylvan Library : Use the library stacking abilities of these permanents to re-order your extra lands on top of your deck to get them and thus play them with Azusa's additional land ability. This allows you to drop your lands much faster and get to your non-land cards. It also allows you to get out of being "stuck" with no lands in your hand and to continually hit at least 2 if not 3 land drops per turn. Since you start the game with 40 life, Sylvan Library really accelerates your draw early on, especially since you're mono-green. Starting the game with one of these acceleration cards in your hand is VERY important to your strategy.
Oracle of Mul Daya plays a huge role in this category as well, allowing you to keep the lands flowing onto the board. With her and Azusa out you can drop 4 lands per turn!! Combine Oracle with the other deck manipulation cards to never miss a land drop!
The heart of the deck:
How to win :
With the help of additional land drops and your acceleration spells, you should have about 7 - 8 lands in play by turn 4, maybe more if you had some kind of god hand. Now is where the fun begins. The most important thing to do at this point is to survey the board. How far ahead are the other players? Is there any threat that needs to be taken care of immediately? Are players starting to gang up on you already? The answers to these questions will lead you down one of the following paths :
Go Aggro : Start dropping large creatures. Attack. Just go for broke. You have so much mana that you can drop your biggest creatures. Every turn. Keep the pressure on.
Start ramping : Forget about creatures, lets get all your lands into play and drop some mana-doublers while we're at it. Big mana. Tons of mana. So that we can play some big time effects.
The win cons :
Genesis Wave : Ah, the ol' one card win con. Don't play this unless you have Akroma's Memorial or Concordant Crossroads in play/in hand OR you know its on or near the top of your library. Or, if you've got, say, 30 mana or more, which is very possible. If you whiff, you run a good chance of your board getting wiped. No bueno. Use with boseiju, who shelters all for added resilience.
Planar portal + beacon of creation : Since beacon gets shuffled into your library after playing it, you can tutor it back up every turn with planar portal. With Seedborn Muse in play, you can tutor up a card EVERY turn, and with Vedalken Orrery in play you can cast beacon every turn as well!!
Greater Good : Draw a ridiculous amount of cards every time you sacrifice an Eldrazi, shuffle your graveyard back into your library, and then use Eye of Ugin to tutor the Eldrazi back to your hand to repeat the process!
Creatures : Simply done. You're going to have way more mana than everyone else. As long as you can keep the card draw flowing, you'll have more creatures too. Most of the large beaters in the deck have at least 8 power. Three of these creatures on the board is 24 damage without any damage modification. Drop in any of the creature enhancers and you're gonna wreck house. Some creatures can pump themselves ( Chameleon Colossus ) , while others like Kamahl, Fist of Krosa can pump the whole team at once. Kamahl makes a good target for a tutor spell the turn before you're ready to attack or the same turn if you have adequat mana. The fact that he can pump even with summoning sickness is cake. Howl of the Night Pack makes for a nice early game win if un-answered.
Special Combos :
Spine of Ish Sah + Phyrexia's Core : destroy a permanent than use phyrexia's core to destroy the spine, thus returning it to your hand and allowing you to repeat the process.
Crucible of Worlds + a fetch land : This let's your thin your library of basic lands for one life per land you need. Combine this with Azusa or oracle to get multiple lands per turn out of your library.
Nim Deathmantle + Greater Good + a creature : Sac your creature to draw cards, than pay 4 mana to get it back into play! Great card filtering, card draw, and perhaps an ETB ability depending on the creature ( primeval titan and eternal witness come to mind ).
Momentous Fall + Eldrazi : Recycle your graveyard and draw a ridiculous amount of cards.
After extensive playtesting, I've found the deck to be quite powerful in single player as well as multiplayer. Since there are so many routes to go down for the win, I have chosen to increase the ramp in the deck, and increase the land destruction by including a few key cards that can help. Glacial Chasm is REALLY NUTS in this deck and basically once you have it and either life from the loam or crucible, your opponent has to exile it somehow otherwise they are on the road to losing very quickly. It is really really really good. Crop rotation helps you get it early on otherwise prime time titan and friends can fetch it. There are so many ways to get a non-basic land of your choice that you shouldn't have a problem getting it when needed. Oh man I love this deck. Vedalken Orrery makes it's return, as does tajuru preserver. I was having some trouble dealing with eldrazi, and well, little ole' tajuru preserver seems dumb, but he does work! He also help against a lot of black decks, and against all is dust too! Yavimaya hollow is a powerhouse, allowing you to swing out or block without sweating it. Seedborn muse also makes her return to the deck! Creeping renaissance replaces praetor's counsel, since you can use it twice and although the return selection is limited to card type, it is still a champ and costs a lot less. Took out realms uncharted for yavimaya elder instead ( he's bomb! ). I also cut horn of greed, as it was helping my opponents more than it was helping me! Ack. Not sure what happened to my rofellos :-(
December 4, 2011
I have decided on checking out other Azusa lists and the comments on this thread that mana/resource denial seems to be a good sub-theme to the deck. There are already many land destruction abilities in the deck but I would like to further increase their abilities or effectiveness. I am going to work on adding more game affecting characteristics, such as null rod or cursed totem. I may also add some more sweeper spells like creeping corrosion.
removed mana doublers to test their effectiveness. It testing, the deck still ramped out very quickly without them. I understand that it may be better to be more pro-active / have more answers than just regular ramp. I did particularly like caged sun and gauntlet of power's +1/+1 effect so they may be under consideration still. I left Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger in as a solitary doubler as his ability merits his inclusion. Seer's Sundial seemed way too slow and ineffective at draw, does anyone have a different opinion? Rude awakening seems like a win out of nowhere card so I'm gonna give that a shot. It should be awesome with akroma's memorial or eldrazi monument. Took out cultivate for the more efficient skyshroud claim. Horn of greedhas already proven it's worth in the few games I've played since it's inclusion. Drawing 2-3 extra cards per turn helped so much. This deck is hungry for card draw, so I also added soul's majesty . More forests can't hurt.
Took out the more "vanilla" creatures for token creation from rampaging baloths , steel hellkite which can destroy lots of good targets, and omnath, locus of mana to store my extra mana and be another large creature when needed.
Too many tutor cards and not enough lands. Needed a way to get my stolen creatures back. More forests.
In closing, I hope you have enjoyed this primer and decklist. I'm sure that I will add/change the deck as it evolves and I figure out how to make it play better and win more consistently. I would appreciate all input, be it positive or negative, as that is the great thing about these forums! Thank you for reading.
It's no secret that I am not exactly in love with simple beaters like Chameleon Colossus Silvos, Rogue Elemental and Wurmcoil Engine. I prefer something with utility, say, Duplicant or even Steel Hellkite.
P.S.: You should probably try to reserve another post so that you can have space to amend your primer if necessary
Rhys the Redeemed
:symbw::symu: Sharuum, the Hegemon :symu::symbw: Grimgrin, Corpse-Born Olivia Voldaren Lovisa Coldeyes
:symwr::symu: Zedruu the Greathearted :symu::symwr:
It's no secret that I am not exactly in love with simple beaters like Chameleon Colossus Silvos, Rogue Elemental and Wurmcoil Engine. I prefer something with utility, say, Duplicant or even Steel Hellkite.
P.S.: You should probably try to reserve another post so that you can have space to amend your primer if necessary
Yea idk what happened. My list had both steel hellkiye and . Also, I seem to have forgotten rampaging baloths! Will work on squeeIng those in.
Chameleon Colossus, and Silvos, Rogue Elemental are really close to vanilla creatures, they don't really do much for your deck. Wurmcoil Engine, in a deck like this, falls into the almost vanilla creature catagory...you don't really have a way to make good use of it, so all you're getting is a 6/6 that turns into 2 3/3s. Fauna Shaman is good in plenty of decks, but I don't think it's really shining here as you're only way to make use of the pitched creatures is shuffling them back into the deck, same with Greater Good really.
Have you thought about cards like Horn of Greed, Recycle, or Regal Force for draw engines? They're all off the hook for this deck. Woodfall Primus, Duplicant, and Steel Hellkite are all great destruction that you're not making use of. Oracle of Mul Daya and Exploration give more land drops, and help out when Azusa isn't around, more land is more mana that's hard for people to disrupt. Omnath, Locus of Mana gives you a way to save that mana, and makes one great beater to boot.
Genesis and Life from the Loam both help with recursion if you want to keep some of the discard spells/abilities you have in the deck. Natural Order is just insane in a deck like yours, you can boot a token for Terastodon or Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger at 4 a mana tutor...lol.
Other than all that I could only suggest upping the land count to better make use of your general, and get some more utility that people will have a hard time disrupting. Check out technogeek5000's Azusa, Lost but Seeking deck, or the one in my sig for some ideas. Hope some of that helped, or at least got you thinking.
Chameleon Colossus, and Silvos, Rogue Elemental are really close to vanilla creatures, they don't really do much for your deck. Wurmcoil Engine, in a deck like this, falls into the almost vanilla creature catagory...you don't really have a way to make good use of it, so all you're getting is a 6/6 that turns into 2 3/3s. Fauna Shaman is good in plenty of decks, but I don't think it's really shining here as you're only way to make use of the pitched creatures is shuffling them back into the deck, same with Greater Good really.
Have you thought about cards like Horn of Greed, Recycle, or Regal Force for draw engines? They're all off the hook for this deck. Woodfall Primus, Duplicant, and Steel Hellkite are all great destruction that you're not making use of. Oracle of Mul Daya and Exploration give more land drops, and help out when Azusa isn't around, more land is more mana that's hard for people to disrupt. Omnath, Locus of Mana gives you a way to save that mana, and makes one great beater to boot.
Genesis and Life from the Loam both help with recursion if you want to keep some of the discard spells/abilities you have in the deck. Natural Order is just insane in a deck like yours, you can boot a token for Terastodon or Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger at 4 a mana tutor...lol.
Other than all that I could only suggest upping the land count to better make use of your general, and get some more utility that people will have a hard time disrupting. Check out technogeek5000's Azusa, Lost but Seeking deck, or the one in my sig for some ideas. Hope some of that helped, or at least got you thinking.
Thank you for the feedback! Some explanations:
Genesis seems like a card I really need in this deck.
Concordant crossroads, akromas memorial, and eldrazi monument win the game son, if you don't agree you're not using them properly.
The mana doublers let you ramp faster, especially when you have a hand full of big creatures and eldrazi, you can cast your whole hand and win that turn. You can't do that on regular mana, you simply won't have enough. I can add ant queen and nemata to take more advantage of big mana.
I had life from the loam and it was often a dead card.
I already have oracle of mul daya.
As for the vanilla creatures, the point is that their power is greater than their cost. I would like to add regal force. What better creatures are there? Chameleon colossus can win the game by himself and he has pro black. That's a pretty big deal. I still need to add rampaging baloth and steel hellkite.
I think recycle is interesting.. Does that trigger on playing lands? If it does that seems like an auto include!!
Horn of greed gives my opponents cards. I play with all blue mages mostly, so that means I lose. I can see that being good against non-blue players.
Yes, it does. All cards you play, including lands. So go find room for it
You are playing much more lands than opponents, so you will benefit faaar more than your opponents. If not, then something is going wrong.
I would also cut all manadoublers expect Vorinlex, since he is just too good to pass + does something else too than doubles your mana. Is mana crypt out of your budget? Getting 1st turn Azusa is something you wanna get as often as possible
I can probably snag a mana crypt, that's a great idea. I thought second turn Azusa was nuts so first turn is prolly bonkers.
Ok I will try horn of greed ( and definitely recycle )
What do you guys think about storm cauldron? It seems good on paper.
Glad I could help, Techno's deck was what made me want to build Azusa, then his input helped me fine tune it a lot. Storm Cauldron was in my deck for a while but when I looked at what it was really getting used with I had to cut it. Storm Cauldron kills your tempo, while you can deal with it better than your opponents you're decks main advantage is normally your tempo.
I have to ask how much use you're getting out of Azusa with your land count being where it is, I run 54 lands and am never land flooded with the deck, and I run a ton of techy utility lands in those slots.
I have decided on checking out other Azusa lists and the comments on this thread that mana/resource denial seems to be a good sub-theme to the deck. There are already many land destruction abilities in the deck but I would like to further increase their abilities or effectiveness. I am going to work on adding more game affecting characteristics, such as null rod or cursed totem. I may also add some more sweeper spells like creeping corrosion.
removed mana doublers to test their effectiveness. It testing, the deck still ramped out very quickly without them. I understand that it may be better to be more pro-active / have more answers than just regular ramp. I did particularly like caged sun and gauntlet of power's +1/+1 effect so they may be under consideration still. I left Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger in as a solitary doubler as his ability merits his inclusion. Seer's Sundial seemed way too slow and ineffective at draw, does anyone have a different opinion? Rude awakening seems like a win out of nowhere card so I'm gonna give that a shot. It should be awesome with akroma's memorial or eldrazi monument. Took out cultivate for the more efficient skyshroud claim. Horn of greedhas already proven it's worth in the few games I've played since it's inclusion. Drawing 2-3 extra cards per turn helped so much. This deck is hungry for card draw, so I also added soul's majesty . More forests can't hurt.
Took out the more "vanilla" creatures for token creation from rampaging baloths , steel hellkite which can destroy lots of good targets, and omnath, locus of mana to store my extra mana and be another large creature when needed.
Too many tutor cards and not enough lands. Need a way to get my stolen creatures back. More forests.
I still need to add way more lands be it utility or forests. I don't know what to cut next or what to concentrate on. Any advice/comments on the changes I've made or where to go from here? I also updated the decklist in the opening post to reflect my changes, and added a changelog spoiler section with date.
Cord of Calling is soooo good, try cutting Worldy Tutor over it. Worldly Tutor is card disadvantage and is completely outclassed by the advantage Chord of Calling provides.
Cord of Calling is soooo good, try cutting Worldy Tutor over it. Worldly Tutor is card disadvantage and is completely outclassed by the advantage Chord of Calling provides.
I have a few card ideas I wanted to see what you guys thought of in this deck :
Sakiko, mother of summer : this seems like it could generate a ton of mana, either with a ton of tokens out or a few huge creatures. It also combos really well with omnath. I'm wondering if it is inherently the same problem as the mana DOUBLERS though and maybe those are just outright better anyway?
and the enchantment version, mark of sakiko: this is much cheaper and could generate some early game mana, but is more fragile and only works on one creature.
I think both cards listed aren't going to do much for this deck, like the doublers I would just assume more land. When I get Azusa on the table I'm always primed for 2 more lands, and can usually keep that up for a while with my engins, so if she hits turn 3 I have 5 lands, turn 5 I will have 11 at the least which is why I say more land/utility land is the way to go.
No but seriously I think people put too much resources into utility lands. I run fourty three forests myself and have never had a problem with not having all those fancy utility lands.
Just a quick tip, you don't wanna cut Rofellos. Play it turn 2, play 3rd turn azusa, play couple more lands, tap rofellos for 5 mana. Yeah, it's nuts. Here's some cards i would cut for just forests or couple utility lands:
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Beacon of Creation
1 Wolfbriar Elemental
1 Verdeloth the Ancient
1 Scroll Rack
CREATURE ENHANCERS (3) <- i'm not sure about these, haven't ever played them, but haven't either feel i needed them either. They could be sweet when hitted by big Genesis Wave and hitting enought creatures but then meh.
I changed some card around ipp update the list soon.. And aromas memorial and eldrazi monument have won me quite a few games!! Yea
LD subtheme makes the deck pretty dangerous.. Especially in 1 on 1 matches. But in multi Player it's great to slow down someone else ramping away and a lot of the ld spells can hit artifacts also.. Very awesome
Oracle of Mul Daya plays a huge role in this category as well, allowing you to keep the lands flowing onto the board. With her and Azusa out you can drop 4 lands per turn!!
Holy crap, I always thought that Oracle of Mul Daya was a guy! What am I missing?
Anyway, Azusa, Lost but Seeking is such an AWESOME Commander general! You are talking about getting an effect close to Fastbond - a card which is banned in Commander. Having said that, while I think that the core of the deck is more or less set in stone so far, there are several different directions that the rest of the deck can go in, which is up to each player to choose for themselves.
I've been looking for a Commander deck to make for a while and I think I've found one that I finally like to be my first deck. True, I want to make a few Commander decks, but I wanted to find one that caught my eye to start off with as I love green so much.
Hi Shadow, I am building an Azusa deck for my girlfriend and looked on here for inspiration, and I really like your build out of all the Azusa decks listed in the database.
I'm looking at including Realms Uncharted. It seems really good with Azusa.
Worldly lets you get those important early game creatures set up in the first few turns, like Oracle of Mul Daya or Primeval Titan. Chord lets you get that late game fat. Less important than getting a strong early game ramp and thinning out your deck to draw into that fat.
Agreed, I started with fourty nine and am up to fifty three now. I would suggest never going below fifty as a golden rule.
I'm pretty happy with 40 lands, and can't really see myself going over 45 without changing the focus of the deck. A lot of it depends on how easily you can grab Primeval Titan, how much you rely on token swarms, and how much you focus on draw, ramp, and mana doublers.
@Shadowmage - My general advice to people building Azusa is to make sure you can tutor for Primeval Titan early and reliably, use him to grab Eye of Ugin, and make sure your Eye targets can handle many different situations. This will give you a lot of versatility and free up card slots for other things. Any creature or land tutor should be able to grab an answer to almost any problem. Once you have versatility settled, focus the rest of your deck on drawing cards and generating mana, with the goal of destroying an opponent's manabase or outright killing him or her by turn 8 at the latest, without depleting your resources. In Azusa, it pays to be proactive.
Synopsis : At heart, many of us would love to play a straight forward, fast, resilient, and powerful deck. While mono-green may have some disadvantages, in a format like EDH where we are constantly tutoring and countering spells, playing ridiculous combos, and playing lots of 'tech', it is a welcoming feeling to play a deck that is not only loads of fun, but can win often, sometimes in dramatic fashion, and do so with style. Enter Azusa, Who Seeks Revenge.
History : The deck began life as a Kamahl, Fist of Krosa build which was basically green good-stuff. The deck was laid to rest after most of the cards were stripped from it for my Damia deck. Long story short, after playing many different combo decks, I just wanted a fun and simple deck that could compete and win with brute force. Kamahl was often very slow and clunky, so I made a concerted effort to make this deck as fast as possible. And it is FAST.
Deck Philosophy and play style : Azusa is pissed. Look at her picture! She just wants to ramp. Ramp, baby, yeah. Ramp all day. The typical Azusa hand should start with at least 3 lands in your hand, some form of ramp, an acceleration spell, a fattie creature, and maybe removal of some kind. The key here is to have the acceleration spell. Thus, I present :
Azusa, Lost but Seeking + Mirri's Guile/Sensei's Divining Top/Sylvan Library : Use the library stacking abilities of these permanents to re-order your extra lands on top of your deck to get them and thus play them with Azusa's additional land ability. This allows you to drop your lands much faster and get to your non-land cards. It also allows you to get out of being "stuck" with no lands in your hand and to continually hit at least 2 if not 3 land drops per turn. Since you start the game with 40 life, Sylvan Library really accelerates your draw early on, especially since you're mono-green. Starting the game with one of these acceleration cards in your hand is VERY important to your strategy.
Oracle of Mul Daya plays a huge role in this category as well, allowing you to keep the lands flowing onto the board. With her and Azusa out you can drop 4 lands per turn!! Combine Oracle with the other deck manipulation cards to never miss a land drop!
The heart of the deck:
How to win :
The win cons :
Genesis Wave : Ah, the ol' one card win con. Don't play this unless you have Akroma's Memorial or Concordant Crossroads in play/in hand OR you know its on or near the top of your library. Or, if you've got, say, 30 mana or more, which is very possible. If you whiff, you run a good chance of your board getting wiped. No bueno. Use with boseiju, who shelters all for added resilience.
Planar portal + beacon of creation : Since beacon gets shuffled into your library after playing it, you can tutor it back up every turn with planar portal. With Seedborn Muse in play, you can tutor up a card EVERY turn, and with Vedalken Orrery in play you can cast beacon every turn as well!!
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre / Kozilek, Butcher of Truth + Eye of Ugin + a sacrifice outlet :
Tooth and Nail targeting Primeval Titan + Avenger of Zendikar : If you have Akroma'a memorial or Concordant Crossroads out there's a very large chance you're about to win. Classic green win con.
Creatures : Simply done. You're going to have way more mana than everyone else. As long as you can keep the card draw flowing, you'll have more creatures too. Most of the large beaters in the deck have at least 8 power. Three of these creatures on the board is 24 damage without any damage modification. Drop in any of the creature enhancers and you're gonna wreck house. Some creatures can pump themselves ( Chameleon Colossus ) , while others like Kamahl, Fist of Krosa can pump the whole team at once. Kamahl makes a good target for a tutor spell the turn before you're ready to attack or the same turn if you have adequat mana. The fact that he can pump even with summoning sickness is cake. Howl of the Night Pack makes for a nice early game win if un-answered.
Special Combos :
Spine of Ish Sah + Phyrexia's Core : destroy a permanent than use phyrexia's core to destroy the spine, thus returning it to your hand and allowing you to repeat the process.
Crucible of Worlds + a fetch land : This let's your thin your library of basic lands for one life per land you need. Combine this with Azusa or oracle to get multiple lands per turn out of your library.
Crucible of Worlds + Azusa + strip mine/Tectonic Edge: The big NO-NO play. Don't do this or your friends probably won't play with you anymore. In a tournament, this will most likely win you the game! Search for your specialty lands with expedition map, sylvan scrying, reap and sow, or planar portal.
Scrying Sheets + Snow-Covered Forests : Additional card filtering. The snow-covered forests also prevent your opponents from using your gauntlet of power.
Nim Deathmantle + Greater Good + a creature : Sac your creature to draw cards, than pay 4 mana to get it back into play! Great card filtering, card draw, and perhaps an ETB ability depending on the creature ( primeval titan and eternal witness come to mind ).
Momentous Fall + Eldrazi : Recycle your graveyard and draw a ridiculous amount of cards.
Crucible of Worlds + Constant Mists : Fog effect every turn for the rest of the game. No ones gonna attack you, buddy. Use with boseiju, who shelters all for added resilience.
Card Ideas / would like to add:
Ant Queen: Keeps jumping in and out of the deck. Can be a hero or a complete dud.
Aluren, Cloudstone Curio, Elvish Visionary, Wall of Blossoms, Wood Elves, Sylvan Ranger : The deck could be converted to combo, though I don't know if there's enough card draw or tutoring for this to be reliable.
Defense of the Heart : Take two Eldrazi? Don't mind if I do.
Changelog
February 27, 2012
After extensive playtesting, I've found the deck to be quite powerful in single player as well as multiplayer. Since there are so many routes to go down for the win, I have chosen to increase the ramp in the deck, and increase the land destruction by including a few key cards that can help. Glacial Chasm is REALLY NUTS in this deck and basically once you have it and either life from the loam or crucible, your opponent has to exile it somehow otherwise they are on the road to losing very quickly. It is really really really good. Crop rotation helps you get it early on otherwise prime time titan and friends can fetch it. There are so many ways to get a non-basic land of your choice that you shouldn't have a problem getting it when needed. Oh man I love this deck. Vedalken Orrery makes it's return, as does tajuru preserver. I was having some trouble dealing with eldrazi, and well, little ole' tajuru preserver seems dumb, but he does work! He also help against a lot of black decks, and against all is dust too! Yavimaya hollow is a powerhouse, allowing you to swing out or block without sweating it. Seedborn muse also makes her return to the deck! Creeping renaissance replaces praetor's counsel, since you can use it twice and although the return selection is limited to card type, it is still a champ and costs a lot less. Took out realms uncharted for yavimaya elder instead ( he's bomb! ). I also cut horn of greed, as it was helping my opponents more than it was helping me! Ack. Not sure what happened to my rofellos :-(
December 4, 2011
I have decided on checking out other Azusa lists and the comments on this thread that mana/resource denial seems to be a good sub-theme to the deck. There are already many land destruction abilities in the deck but I would like to further increase their abilities or effectiveness. I am going to work on adding more game affecting characteristics, such as null rod or cursed totem. I may also add some more sweeper spells like creeping corrosion.
- Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
- gauntlet of power
- caged sun
- vernal bloom
- mana reflection
- caged sun
- cultivate
- Seer's Sundial
+ horn of greed
+ scroll rack
+ rude awakening
+ skyshround claim
+ soul's majesty
+ 3 Forest
removed mana doublers to test their effectiveness. It testing, the deck still ramped out very quickly without them. I understand that it may be better to be more pro-active / have more answers than just regular ramp. I did particularly like caged sun and gauntlet of power's +1/+1 effect so they may be under consideration still. I left Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger in as a solitary doubler as his ability merits his inclusion. Seer's Sundial seemed way too slow and ineffective at draw, does anyone have a different opinion? Rude awakening seems like a win out of nowhere card so I'm gonna give that a shot. It should be awesome with akroma's memorial or eldrazi monument. Took out cultivate for the more efficient skyshroud claim. Horn of greedhas already proven it's worth in the few games I've played since it's inclusion. Drawing 2-3 extra cards per turn helped so much. This deck is hungry for card draw, so I also added soul's majesty . More forests can't hurt.
- silvos, rogue elemental
- wurmcoil engine
- chameleon colossus
+ omnath, locus of mana
+ rampaging baloths
+ steel hellkite
Took out the more "vanilla" creatures for token creation from rampaging baloths , steel hellkite which can destroy lots of good targets, and omnath, locus of mana to store my extra mana and be another large creature when needed.
- Fauna Shaman
- Chord of Calling
- Terrain Generator
+ Homeward Path
+ Temple of the False God
+ Forest
Too many tutor cards and not enough lands. Needed a way to get my stolen creatures back. More forests.
In closing, I hope you have enjoyed this primer and decklist. I'm sure that I will add/change the deck as it evolves and I figure out how to make it play better and win more consistently. I would appreciate all input, be it positive or negative, as that is the great thing about these forums! Thank you for reading.
- Shadowmage
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
THE CORE (3)
1 Mirri's guile
1 Sensei's diving top
1 Sylvan library
POWER SPELLS (4)
1 Constant mists
1 Genesis wave
1 Life from the loam
1 Crucible of worlds
TEMPO (4)
1 Sol ring
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Plow under
1 Mana reflection
ENHANCERS (2)
1 Eldrazi monument
1 Akroma's memorial
RECURSION (2)
1 Creeping Renaissance
1 Eternal witness
CREATURES (7)
1 Tajuru Preserver
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Kamahl, fist of Krosa
1 Vorinclex, voice of hunger
1 Kozilek, butcher of truth
1 Ulamog the infinite gyre
1 Crop rotation
1 Sylvan scrying
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's reach
1 Skyshroud claim
1 Seek the horizon
1 Garruk wildspeaker
1 Reap and sow
1 Primeval Titan
BOARD CONTROL (8)
1 Beast within
1 Krosan grip
1 Acidic slime
1 Oblivion stone
1 Steel hellkite
1 Spine of ish sah
1 All is dust
1 Terastodon
TUTORS (4)
1 Fierce empath
1 Green sun's zenith
1 Brutalizer exarch
1 Planar portal
1 Harmonize
1 Momentous fall
1 Greater good
1 Soul's majesty
NON BASIC LANDS (14)
1 Strip mine
1 Tectonic edge
1 Misty rainforest
1 Verdant catacombs
1 Phyrexia's core
1 Boseiju, who shelters all
1 Oren-rief, the vastwood
1 Mystifying maze
1 Buried ruin
1 Temple of the false god
1 Eldrazi temple
1 Eye of ugin
1 Glacial chasm
1 Yavimaya Hollow
BASIC LANDS (38)
38 forests
P.S.: You should probably try to reserve another post so that you can have space to amend your primer if necessary
:symbw::symu: Sharuum, the Hegemon :symu::symbw:
:symwr::symu: Zedruu the Greathearted :symu::symwr:
Yea idk what happened. My list had both steel hellkiye and . Also, I seem to have forgotten rampaging baloths! Will work on squeeIng those in.
Gauntlet of Power, Vernal Bloom, Mana Reflection, and Caged Sun all feel like misplaced enthusiasm for mana. If you ever had any 2 of them on the field at once you wouldn't have much to do with them. Concordant Crossroads, and Akroma's Memorial are fun and all, but outside of a really crazy Genesis Wave aren't really that useful, and Eldrazi Monument feels like it's doing less than those.
Have you thought about cards like Horn of Greed, Recycle, or Regal Force for draw engines? They're all off the hook for this deck. Woodfall Primus, Duplicant, and Steel Hellkite are all great destruction that you're not making use of. Oracle of Mul Daya and Exploration give more land drops, and help out when Azusa isn't around, more land is more mana that's hard for people to disrupt. Omnath, Locus of Mana gives you a way to save that mana, and makes one great beater to boot.
Genesis and Life from the Loam both help with recursion if you want to keep some of the discard spells/abilities you have in the deck. Natural Order is just insane in a deck like yours, you can boot a token for Terastodon or Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger at 4 a mana tutor...lol.
Other than all that I could only suggest upping the land count to better make use of your general, and get some more utility that people will have a hard time disrupting. Check out technogeek5000's Azusa, Lost but Seeking deck, or the one in my sig for some ideas. Hope some of that helped, or at least got you thinking.
UWGrand Arbiter Augustin IV-Last edit 12/02/11
RStarke of Rath - Last edit 11/30/11
GAzusa, Lost but Seeking - Last Edit 11/29/11
BPatron of the Nezumi - Last edit 11/29/11
Thank you for the feedback! Some explanations:
Genesis seems like a card I really need in this deck.
Concordant crossroads, akromas memorial, and eldrazi monument win the game son, if you don't agree you're not using them properly.
The mana doublers let you ramp faster, especially when you have a hand full of big creatures and eldrazi, you can cast your whole hand and win that turn. You can't do that on regular mana, you simply won't have enough. I can add ant queen and nemata to take more advantage of big mana.
I had life from the loam and it was often a dead card.
I already have oracle of mul daya.
As for the vanilla creatures, the point is that their power is greater than their cost. I would like to add regal force. What better creatures are there? Chameleon colossus can win the game by himself and he has pro black. That's a pretty big deal. I still need to add rampaging baloth and steel hellkite.
I think recycle is interesting.. Does that trigger on playing lands? If it does that seems like an auto include!!
Horn of greed gives my opponents cards. I play with all blue mages mostly, so that means I lose. I can see that being good against non-blue players.
I can probably snag a mana crypt, that's a great idea. I thought second turn Azusa was nuts so first turn is prolly bonkers.
Ok I will try horn of greed ( and definitely recycle )
What do you guys think about storm cauldron? It seems good on paper.
Also, how about erratic portal ?
I have to ask how much use you're getting out of Azusa with your land count being where it is, I run 54 lands and am never land flooded with the deck, and I run a ton of techy utility lands in those slots.
UWGrand Arbiter Augustin IV-Last edit 12/02/11
RStarke of Rath - Last edit 11/30/11
GAzusa, Lost but Seeking - Last Edit 11/29/11
BPatron of the Nezumi - Last edit 11/29/11
- Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
- gauntlet of power
- caged sun
- vernal bloom
- mana reflection
- caged sun
- cultivate
- Seer's Sundial
+ horn of greed
+ scroll rack
+ rude awakening
+ skyshround claim
+ soul's majesty
+ 3 Forest
removed mana doublers to test their effectiveness. It testing, the deck still ramped out very quickly without them. I understand that it may be better to be more pro-active / have more answers than just regular ramp. I did particularly like caged sun and gauntlet of power's +1/+1 effect so they may be under consideration still. I left Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger in as a solitary doubler as his ability merits his inclusion. Seer's Sundial seemed way too slow and ineffective at draw, does anyone have a different opinion? Rude awakening seems like a win out of nowhere card so I'm gonna give that a shot. It should be awesome with akroma's memorial or eldrazi monument. Took out cultivate for the more efficient skyshroud claim. Horn of greedhas already proven it's worth in the few games I've played since it's inclusion. Drawing 2-3 extra cards per turn helped so much. This deck is hungry for card draw, so I also added soul's majesty . More forests can't hurt.
- silvos, rogue elemental
- wurmcoil engine
- chameleon colossus
+ omnath, locus of mana
+ rampaging baloths
+ steel hellkite
Took out the more "vanilla" creatures for token creation from rampaging baloths , steel hellkite which can destroy lots of good targets, and omnath, locus of mana to store my extra mana and be another large creature when needed.
- Fauna Shaman
- Chord of Calling
- Terrain Generator
+ Homeward Path
+ Temple of the False God
+ Forest
Too many tutor cards and not enough lands. Need a way to get my stolen creatures back. More forests.
I still need to add way more lands be it utility or forests. I don't know what to cut next or what to concentrate on. Any advice/comments on the changes I've made or where to go from here? I also updated the decklist in the opening post to reflect my changes, and added a changelog spoiler section with date.
Maybe I should have both?
What do you think about nullmage shepherd in this deck?
I have a few card ideas I wanted to see what you guys thought of in this deck :
Sakiko, mother of summer : this seems like it could generate a ton of mana, either with a ton of tokens out or a few huge creatures. It also combos really well with omnath. I'm wondering if it is inherently the same problem as the mana DOUBLERS though and maybe those are just outright better anyway?
and the enchantment version, mark of sakiko: this is much cheaper and could generate some early game mana, but is more fragile and only works on one creature.
Thoughts ?
Double post merged. -viper
UWGrand Arbiter Augustin IV-Last edit 12/02/11
RStarke of Rath - Last edit 11/30/11
GAzusa, Lost but Seeking - Last Edit 11/29/11
BPatron of the Nezumi - Last edit 11/29/11
Forest, it's the techiest of all tech.
No but seriously I think people put too much resources into utility lands. I run fourty three forests myself and have never had a problem with not having all those fancy utility lands.
I changed some card around ipp update the list soon.. And aromas memorial and eldrazi monument have won me quite a few games!! Yea
LD subtheme makes the deck pretty dangerous.. Especially in 1 on 1 matches. But in multi Player it's great to slow down someone else ramping away and a lot of the ld spells can hit artifacts also.. Very awesome
Holy crap, I always thought that Oracle of Mul Daya was a guy! What am I missing?
Anyway, Azusa, Lost but Seeking is such an AWESOME Commander general! You are talking about getting an effect close to Fastbond - a card which is banned in Commander. Having said that, while I think that the core of the deck is more or less set in stone so far, there are several different directions that the rest of the deck can go in, which is up to each player to choose for themselves.
I've been looking for a Commander deck to make for a while and I think I've found one that I finally like to be my first deck. True, I want to make a few Commander decks, but I wanted to find one that caught my eye to start off with as I love green so much.
I'm looking at including Realms Uncharted. It seems really good with Azusa.
BUWRG My Trade List BUWRG
Worldly lets you get those important early game creatures set up in the first few turns, like Oracle of Mul Daya or Primeval Titan. Chord lets you get that late game fat. Less important than getting a strong early game ramp and thinning out your deck to draw into that fat.
GAzusa, Lost but SeekingG
WBVish Kal, Blood ArbiterWB
WBRKaalia of the VastWBR
UBGVorosh, the HunterUBG
WRGisela, Blade of GoldnightWR
WUGJenara, Asura of WarWUG
WBGTeneb, The HarvesterWBG
WUBRGHorde of NotionsWUBRG
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
THE CORE (3)
1 Mirri's guile
1 Sensei's diving top
1 Sylvan library
POWER SPELLS (4)
1 Constant mists
1 Genesis wave
1 Life from the loam
1 Crucible of worlds
TEMPO (4)
1 Sol ring
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Plow under
1 Mana reflection
ENHANCERS (2)
1 Eldrazi monument
1 Akroma's memorial
RECURSION (2)
1 Creeping Renaissance
1 Eternal witness
CREATURES (7)
1 Tajuru Preserver
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Kamahl, fist of Krosa
1 Vorinclex, voice of hunger
1 Kozilek, butcher of truth
1 Ulamog the infinite gyre
1 Crop rotation
1 Sylvan scrying
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's reach
1 Skyshroud claim
1 Seek the horizon
1 Garruk wildspeaker
1 Reap and sow
1 Primeval Titan
BOARD CONTROL (8)
1 Beast within
1 Krosan grip
1 Acidic slime
1 Oblivion stone
1 Steel hellkite
1 Spine of ish sah
1 All is dust
1 Terastodon
TUTORS (4)
1 Fierce empath
1 Green sun's zenith
1 Brutalizer exarch
1 Planar portal
1 Harmonize
1 Momentous fall
1 Greater good
1 Soul's majesty
NON BASIC LANDS (14)
1 Strip mine
1 Tectonic edge
1 Misty rainforest
1 Verdant catacombs
1 Phyrexia's core
1 Boseiju, who shelters all
1 Oren-rief, the vastwood
1 Mystifying maze
1 Buried ruin
1 Temple of the false god
1 Eldrazi temple
1 Eye of ugin
1 Glacial chasm
1 Yavimaya Hollow
BASIC LANDS (38)
38 forests
I'm pretty happy with 40 lands, and can't really see myself going over 45 without changing the focus of the deck. A lot of it depends on how easily you can grab Primeval Titan, how much you rely on token swarms, and how much you focus on draw, ramp, and mana doublers.
@Shadowmage - My general advice to people building Azusa is to make sure you can tutor for Primeval Titan early and reliably, use him to grab Eye of Ugin, and make sure your Eye targets can handle many different situations. This will give you a lot of versatility and free up card slots for other things. Any creature or land tutor should be able to grab an answer to almost any problem. Once you have versatility settled, focus the rest of your deck on drawing cards and generating mana, with the goal of destroying an opponent's manabase or outright killing him or her by turn 8 at the latest, without depleting your resources. In Azusa, it pays to be proactive.
Mono Red's Strengths and Mono White's Strengths