Commander Deck Tech: Azami, Lady of Scrolls

Azami, Lady of Scrolls, is a classic commander released in Kamigawa's first block, Champions of Kamigawa. Her interaction with other Wizards promotes the exchange of knowledge, that is, card draw, which made her stand out as one of the main blue commanders at casual and competitive tables.

The proposal is a draw-go control deck, which aims to establish a card-drawing mechanism to neutralize the characteristic disadvantage that highly interactive and reactive decks share, which is the scarcity of resources in the medium term. Azami tries to reach 13 cards and finishes the game with Triskaidekaphile or Elite Arcanist + Dramatic Reversal followed by the effect of Laboratory Maniac to end the game.

Young Azami Ozu grew up in Kawabe, the daughter of a military man and a researcher of Soratami traditions. She was fascinated by magical texts, although her mother had forbidden her to read them, she would discreetly pick them up and read them near the river. One day during her reading, she was surprised by a kami she bargained with.

Then, Azami became the head librarian for Kamigawa's largest library at Minamo. However, she lost friends and loved ones. Tragedies and success followed her throughout her life, but time made her wise and maturity made her realize that nothing has been done by the river spirit, everything that happened in her life was the result of her choices.

Azami, Lady of Scrolls is a powerful creature, capable of generating card advantage quickly, but has a weak 0/2 body, being easily compensated by the enormous value generated with the draws provided by it.

We built a list based on the advantage generated by Azami. To control the game, after interacting with opponents, we use our wizards to draw cards, always recovering our gas. The wizards selected to compose the deck have fully triggered abilities or activated abilities seeking to increase the advantage generated by Azami, either recovering or generating additional resources. Although the deck is not combo centered, it does allow for several powerful interactions and some combos that serve as a form of alternative victory, generating mana or draw loops. Triskaidekaphile and Deekah, Fractal Theorist and Laboratory Maniac are the most common winconditions.

Mono colored decks use in their predominance basic lands, and in this deck we have 23 islands and some utility lands. Svyelunite Temple, Coral Atoll, and Saprazzan Skerry have the characteristic of generating more than one mana. Halimar Depths assists with card selection. Riptide Laboratory and Mystic Sanctuary work by recovering cards. Jwari Disruption is an additional counterspell.

We selected Mind Stone, Spell Satchel and Midnight Clock to boost our purchases while developing our mana curve. The tutors who make up our mana base are Moonsilver Key, Surveyor's Scope that allow you to recover the advantage imposed by your opponents' ramp.

The use of artifacts to accelerate the mana curve is an important part, so cards like Springleaf Drum, Sol Ring, Prismatic Lens and Sky Diamond set the pace on the first turns.

Our large mana stones: Astral Cornucopia and Everflowing Chalice are very relevant in allowing us to generate huge amounts of mana, especially combined with High Tide, which allows you to pay large amounts for “X” or multikicker. Dramatic Reversal and Aphetto Alchemist can also be great mana generators with our artifacts.

Our draws feature Azami, Lady of Scrolls which draws cards when tapping our Wizards, thus generating a high amount of new cards in hand. Some creatures assist in this task directly, such as Triskaidekaphile which has an activated ability that allows extra draws, Fallowsage which when tapped draws a card, Archmage Emeritus which draws one card every time you cast an instant or sorcery.

Some spells expand our draw options. They are, Treasure Cruise which in most games guarantees the draw of three cards for one blue mana, Gush is similar, having the possibility to be played without paying the mana cost and drawing two cards. Deep Analysis draws two cards and can be played from the graveyard. Another interesting spell is Whispers of the Muse which allows for powerful draw loops. We also run Verity Circle, although it provides a strong interaction with the opponent, has in its main function to draw cards.

Card selection is one of the most powerful ways to interact with the library. The most iconic card of this type is Brainstorm, however we have numerous other tricks to interact with our deck, and we've selected a few like Sleight of Hand, Impulse, Frantic Search, Omen and Faerie Seer.

Tutors are important cards in any deck, and here we use tutors of different types and functions. Tutors with transmute ability are Dizzy Spell, Muddle the Mixture, and Drift of Phantasms who searches for spells costing 1, 2, and 3 respectively. The Wizard tutors are the Step Through and Vedalken Aethermage cards that have Wizardscycling. Trinket Mage and Moonsilver Key searches for mana rocks. Solve the Equation finds an instant or sorcery in the deck.

Recursion is up to our utility lands, along with Archaeomancer and Salvager of Secrets.

This is one of blue ways of dealing with threats, preventing them from resolving. For that, we selected a significant number of counterspells. The first group manipulates mana by increasing the cost of spells: Spell Pierce, Mana Leak, Lose Focus, and Quench. Unsubstantiate is an exception, as it can return the target spell to the owner's hand, essentially doubling the cost of the spell.

Other spells counters under specific conditions: Dispel, Spell Snare, Muddle the Mixture, Negate, and Prohibit. We chose these because they have a low mana cost.

Finally, we have unconditional counterspells, each of them with their own pecularities.

The blue way to deal with troublesome permanents that have made it through counterspells is to return those permanents to their owner's hand, a mechanic known as bounce. The Into the Roil, Blink of an Eye, and Winds of Rebuke spells return any nonland permanents to their owner's hands. Capsize and Boomerang returns any permanent.

In addition to bounce, blue has a peculiar way of dealing with creatures, transforming it into something else, Pongify transforms the creature into an Ape Rapid Hybridization into a Lizard, Resculpt into an elemental, Reality Shift into a manifestation of the unknown.

Multiple Choice is a wild card because it generates card draws and manipulates the top, or returns a creature, or creates an elemental, or all of the above.

The other two very different cards represent the characteristics of blue well: Legacy's Allure with mind control and Suspend with time control.

Using Azami as a draw engine, reaching the win condition of Triskaidekaphile is simple, just draw cards on your opponent's turn until you have 13 cards in your hand and win the game.

When you can't win with 13 cards, resetting the deck is a viable option through Elite Arcanist and Dramatic Reversal untapping Azami and all Wizards and drawing cards until you reach the replacement effect of Laboratory Maniac and win the game.

Elite Arcanist exiles Dramatic Reversal and can play the spell for two mana. Upon resolving the spell's copy, it and all nonland permanents will untap, allowing extra draws with Azami, and re-using artifacts to generate mana, and repeat. We can substitute Elite Arcanist for Sigil Tracer with the same results, as long as we have at least one more wizard on the battlefield.

Deekah, Fractal Theorist is a strong addition to spellslingers as well as Draw-Go, as each spell creates a Fractal, quickly creating an army.

Instant-Speed ​​Spell Copy Combos using Naru Meha, Master Wizard creating infinite interactions with Ghostly Flicker, allow you to trigger infinite times Deekah, Fractal Theorist or other Magecraft cards. While not the primary goal, it is possible to perform similar interactions with Archaeomancer and Salvager of Secrets.

Possible additions include the Glen Elendra Archmage and Malevolent Hermit. For stronger control, we can also add other faster or more efficient counterspells. Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, which in its planeswalker version (Jace, Telepath Unbound) is an alternate version of the famous Snapcaster Mage, might be a reinforcement to consider. Isochron Scepter is a quick win condition that can be added. Venser, Shaper Savant is one of my favorite wizards. Another possible finisher is Thassa's Oracle's combo with Paradigm Shift.

This year, we are all waiting for news from Kamigawa, and we remember the best of this controversial block, with countless fans and critics, that undoubtedly marked Magic's History. Azami is one of the best blue commanders and a solid figure at competitive and casual tables.

I also recommend you to read Vinicius's Satoru Umezawa deck tech, with infinite Ninjutsu interactions

Thanks for reading and good games!