Commander Deck Tech: Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might

I was seriously concerned with the predatory state the game could take on ever since the first time I saw Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might. I was worried that eventually every new set would just bring cards more oppressive than the last one and would ruin eternal formats.

However, after I examined Caverns of Ixalan thoroughly and understood its power level was quite fair and self-contained (with a few exceptions), I was more calm, and I started to admire this commander. Today, I consider it one of the best, if not the best, Burn commander of all time.

In today's article, we'll showcase this incredible card. We'll discuss the goal of building a deck around Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might capable of transforming Burn into a much more viable strategy in Commander.

Burn is nothing more, nothing less than a strategy that uses several low-cost spells that deal direct damage to opponents and cheap creatures that deal a lot of damage despite their cost. In standard formats, with 20 base health, in which you can have four copies of Lightning Bolt, Lava Spike and Monastery Swiftspear in your deck, deal direct damage to your single opponent and finish with a Price of Progress, Burn is a great strategy. It is always a very competent deck and is a true health indicator in these formats.

However, everything I said above isn't applicable to Commander. Not only do we have more opponents to take down, they also have more health points that need to be hit. And, of course, we can't count on redundancy or recursion, two concepts that are common in 75-card formats. In Commander, a Lightning Bolt, a mighty card that is very present in any deck with Red in traditional 1v1 formats, is as dangerous as a capybara with narcolepsy.

Enters Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might, a card with the unique ability of equating its power to any non-combat damage you deal to a player, as long as it comes from a red source.

In other words, a Thermo-Alchemist, a creature that can be tapped to deal 1 damage to each opponent, can now be tapped to deal damage equal to Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might's power, which is usually 4, but we can also modify it with effects, auras and equipments. Oh, and our commander also has Trample, which is a relevant form of evasion, particularly if he ends up getting quite tall.

Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might also counts with a very interesting tool released in this set for all gods that inhabit the Lost Caverns of Ixalan: the ability to transform itself into a land when it is destroyed. At first, this ability might seem counter-intuitive, once it removes from our commander its ability of returning to the command zone. However, this ability is more a protection than a delay, once it is possible for Ojer Axonil to return to the board activating its land's second ability, which will transform it into a creature again.

In this article, we'll use a few tricks that will make our commander grow considerably, and deal ridiculous amounts of damage with our red sources, which will help us finish multiple opponents at the same time and even prove that Burn isn't only alive in Commander; it can handle itself very well too.

I started this list by researching a few ideas I considered valuable on the internet. One list that inspired me a lot was created by a Chinese player called Shiuebeshico, but, still, there was something missing in it; auras, equipment, and other means of growing our commander, intensifying the damage it would be able to provide our to red sources.

Hence, our build ended up like this:

Pingers are creatures that deal small amounts of damage, usually just 1, in constant intervals. Usually, we refer to creatures with activated abilities that require you to tap them to deal 1 damage as pingers. But, if we want to make this term more inclusive and embrace all possible options, we can consider pingers creatures like Erebor Flamesmith, which have triggered abilities that deal 1 damage. The same goes to Guttersnipe and Defiler of Instinct, among others.

We also count on Thermo-Alchemist, Spear Spewer and Goblin Fireslinger. Fallen Ferromancer is a great find for this deck because it is a pinger that has the Infect ability and can easily end the game.

In particular, I'll highlight Flame Fusillade, a card that gives the "tap me to deal 1 damage" ability to all creatures present on your board at the moment this spell resolves, like so transforming all your creatures into great sources of damage and allowing you to take down more than one opponent at the same time. It is a wonderful card to finish matches.

Among the pingers that lean on triggered abilities, we can highlight creatures such as Harsh Mentor, Firebrand Archer, Electrostatic Field or Tunneling Geopede, which can deal damage throughout the game when a few conditions are met.

Thanks to these cards, that are responsible for dealing small amounts of damage, we can deal much more relevant amounts when our commander is present on the board.

Considering the damage dealt by red sources depends on Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might's power, the best way to boost this damage is precisely by increasing our commander's power. We'll use several strategies to do this.

In the equipment section, we have Champion's Helm, which will grow our commander and give it Hexproof, similar to Commander's Plate, which can grow its status even more and guarantee it protection against any color that isn't Red. Commander's Plate is a very expensive card, but we'll explain this more thoroughly when we mention this deck's budget version.

Blackblade Reforged and Ring of Valkas are the true main characters when it comes to scaling our Ojer Axonil. Both scale our commander in a way, making its status even bigger and intensifying the damage dealt by your red sources.

In the aura-type enchantment section, there's a discussion about their usefulness. We use this type of card less than we use enchantments because they are easily discarded when the creatures to which they're attached are destroyed, preventing us from reusing them, a problem that equipment cards don't have. Even then, there are some very interesting auras that can be used in this list that really help Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might.

Granite Grip helps Ojer Axonil grow considerably, due to the high number of mountains present in this deck. This is a great enchantment to finish matches and increase our commander's power exponentially. Volcanic Strength doesn't grow our deck's star that much, but it can help it deal direct damage by granting Ojer Axonil "Mountainwalk", something that is very dangerous when combined with a Magus of the Moon, a card that is present in this deck.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Mono Red Burn deck without the cards that intensify the damage dealt by red permanents.

Torbran, Thane of Red Fell was included in this deck - this creature isn't necessarily a great Burn commander, even though it is the most obvious one, but it is a great support card, something I have recognized, considering I added it to this deck. Fiery Emancipation helps you by multiplying your damage by 3, which can many times be fatal if you have a very tall Ojer Axonil dealing commander damage. The same can be said for Solphim, Mayhem Dominus, which can double the non-combat damage you deal through any of your sources.

Cards such as Burning Earth are incredible because they completely break the game symmetry by creating a situation in which you will take very little damage from your few non-basic lands and your opponents will take a lot of damage from their own. Your opponents will have to make the correct decision regarding when to play their resources, because you'll be somewhat locking their game plan down.

Speaking of lands, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is a good addition for this deck, which mostly uses more mountains than anything. However, we should be careful. Valakut is a colorless source, not a red one, and, like so, its damage won't be boosted by your commander. Still, using it in this deck is very interesting, considering it grants us the ability to deal 3 damage to a target when our mountains enter the game.

War Room helps us draw cards for a low cost and Tyrite Sanctum helps us by granting Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might an Indestructible counter.

There are several costly cards included in this deck that are only useful to enhance the player's quality of life, and, therefore, can be removed. Chandra, Dressed to Kill and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx are good examples of cards that perform well in other formats, and because of this are expensive.

Commander's Plate is also a mighty card in EDH, and is therefore very costly, representing almost a third of this deck's cost.

The budget version ended up like this:

Unfortunately, I was only able to mention Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might's greatest feature in this section of this article, at the bottom. I'm talking about its amazing appearance. Ojer is represented by an incredible skeleton head that stands many miles tall, featuring golden details and an arm that is the head of a Dinosaur. It is really the realization of the inner dreams of many players across the world.

See you next time!