Azusa, Lost but Seeking is hands-down the most fun commander I have ever played in a multiplayer environment. Her ability to let you play 3 lands per turn just breaks the game in half in your favor, and allows you to make some incredibly powerful plays. If ever there was a commander that could allow you to play the archenemy and win, I believe it is Azusa.
As anyone who has played Azusa knows, however, drawing enough cards to continue to hit your land drops is both the most crucial and perhaps the most difficult thing to do in an Azusa deck. This is due in large part, in my opinion, to the fact that much of green's draw spells are somewhat "win more," in that they require you to already have a decent board presence to use (see: Momentous Fall, Garruk, Primal Hunter, Soul's Majesty, Regal Force). If you get tripped up in that stage of the game before you can land a fatty or two, it can be really hard for you to regain that lost momentum.
Now, there are a few pieces of tech that allow you to work around this issue. Horn of Greed is perhaps the best-known. It's downside, of course, is that it also benefits your opponents. But as an Azusa player, it benefits you way more. Well of Knowledge performs a similar role, and some even go so far as to run Howling Mine. I won't say that they are wrong to do so. And then of course there is Mind's Eye, and an ever-so-awesome card in Azusa in Recycle. The problem with all of these cards, unfortunately, is that green lacks a way to tutor for any of them, outside of junk like Planar Portal, which is just way to slow even for an Azusa deck.
So for a long time I've been trying to think of a way to improve upon the weaknesses of Azusa, which might be summarized as a reliance on huge card draw and the inability to tutor for anything outside of creatures or lands. Damia, Sage of Stone presented herself as what seems like the best solution. She brings blue and black to the table, which offer the best draw in the game, along with universal tutors in black and tutors for artifacts and instants/sorceries in blue. Moreover, Damia herself functions as a huge, repeatable draw spell sitting in the command zone should we ever need her. I'm not convinced that this experiment will ever prove to be better than just running Azusa herself in mono green, but I think it's worth a shot.
Now, the idea here is for this deck to play out much like an Azusa deck would, just with draw and tutors to add consistency. There are a few counterspells for good measure, too. We have enough tutors that we should be able to grab Azusa herself fairly quickly (ideally to drop on turn 2 or 3), or perhaps Exploration and/or Oracle of Mul Daya will show up in our hand instead. They are serviceable replacements. If Azusa or another "you may play an additional land" effect sticks through a handful of our turns we are going to be in very good shape. The most obvious weakness here, of course, is that if Azusa gets removed we can't just recast her from the command zone. That may prove to be the fatal flaw.
Anywho, the two legendary Eldrazi are the primary wincons. An added benefit of running blue is that we can flash them in off of Alchemist's Refuge or Prophet of Kruphix, giving them pseudo-haste, which is always nice. Tooth and Nail for Avenger of Zendikar and Craterhoof Behemoth can also send a humongous, hasty, trampling behemoth straight at someone's face. Other than that, I like to beat on people's resources with Acidic Slime, Sylvan Primordial, and Woodfall Primus triggers, putting them further behind while I get further ahead.
I suppose one last thing I should mention is that a huge plus of being able to get artifacts more readily is being able to dig up Crucible of Worlds on command. With 9 fetches in the deck, having Crucible in play with Exploration, Oracle, or Azusa means a guaranteed 2-3 land drops per turn. Strip Mine and Wasteland shenanigans are also highly encouraged.
Anywho, this concept is still pretty raw in my mind, and the decklist below is far from whatever "optimized" would look like. I would love to hear what ideas people might have for individual card selections that I overlooked, or other synergies I could include.
Its risky but manabond can be especially good in this kind of deck. You run 54 lands so you will likely have times where they're crowding up your hand, and if your general is out when it gets back to you pitching cards won't matter as you'll draw 7 more and the eldrazi will prevent you from milling yourself out
Its risky but manabond can be especially good in this kind of deck. You run 54 lands so you will likely have times where they're crowding up your hand, and if your general is out when it gets back to you pitching cards won't matter as you'll draw 7 more and the eldrazi will prevent you from milling yourself out
Definitely worth considering. I'll put that on a short list of cards that I absolutely need to try out. Thanks!
Catchy title! So tutor for Azusa, play Azusa. Get to 7 mana and play Damia. Crush the table. Look forward to seeing how you are going to do that!
Thanks!
Yeah, Damia is just such a great draw spell if you can basically play out at least half of your hand every turn and keep up counterspell backup. We'll see how it actually works. I think it could either be really cool or a total flop.
I pretty much use Azusa as the general of my 5 color stasis and play a zillion damia decks Azusa is indeed good and fun in the build I highly recommended use of time twister time spiral and recurring insight as better faster damia stand ins. One cut is fact it fiction is looks pretty weak here. There is no reason to use 54 lands you can easily puke like your playing mono G Azusa on less lands and more draw / tutors. You can probly cut 15 lands easy
Honestly I'd have gone with Prime Speaker Zegana as the general, given the fact that Damia needs to last until your upkeep for any gain. Sure she'll stock your hand, but if I kill her before then you're probably stalling out, if not the first than the second death without draw will stop you.
It's not exactly like no one could see that coming either, they see your hand getting low, see you get 7 mana, and might not even let you get to your end step with her in play.
That's my 2 cents.
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My Decks:
Aggro: WUBRGHorde of Notions Goodstuff, RUBCheesy Aggro, GR Xenagod Gruul Goodstuff
Control: GWBGhave, Guru of Adaptability, UBWrexial, Milling Deep UAzami, Lady of No Infinite Combos GWU Derevi, Tempo Beats
Other: URGRiku of Too Much Mana, WUBRG Sliver Queen Enchantress
Honestly I'd have gone with Prime Speaker Zegana as the general, given the fact that Damia needs to last until your upkeep for any gain. Sure she'll stock your hand, but if I kill her before then you're probably stalling out, if not the first than the second death without draw will stop you.
It's not exactly like no one could see that coming either, they see your hand getting low, see you get 7 mana, and might not even let you get to your end step with her in play.
That's my 2 cents.
This is why free counter magic and flash enablers / seedborn etc are vital to the build. Damia dying to STP sucks damia drawing you 2 extra cards off you force of willing the only removal spell in your oppents hands is gravy. This is also why using the other refills in your deck that only get answered by counters is so strong. Not only are they faster and better if you are trying to power through multiple removal. In black these cards are easy to tutor for. I feel like this list really needs to cut lands
I used to have a Damia deck I remember casting her for 21...yes there's no reason that a general should cost 21 but I was able to do it. So keep damia and just say screw the risks I have mana!
As anyone who has played Azusa knows, however, drawing enough cards to continue to hit your land drops is both the most crucial and perhaps the most difficult thing to do in an Azusa deck. This is due in large part, in my opinion, to the fact that much of green's draw spells are somewhat "win more," in that they require you to already have a decent board presence to use (see: Momentous Fall, Garruk, Primal Hunter, Soul's Majesty, Regal Force). If you get tripped up in that stage of the game before you can land a fatty or two, it can be really hard for you to regain that lost momentum.
Now, there are a few pieces of tech that allow you to work around this issue. Horn of Greed is perhaps the best-known. It's downside, of course, is that it also benefits your opponents. But as an Azusa player, it benefits you way more. Well of Knowledge performs a similar role, and some even go so far as to run Howling Mine. I won't say that they are wrong to do so. And then of course there is Mind's Eye, and an ever-so-awesome card in Azusa in Recycle. The problem with all of these cards, unfortunately, is that green lacks a way to tutor for any of them, outside of junk like Planar Portal, which is just way to slow even for an Azusa deck.
So for a long time I've been trying to think of a way to improve upon the weaknesses of Azusa, which might be summarized as a reliance on huge card draw and the inability to tutor for anything outside of creatures or lands. Damia, Sage of Stone presented herself as what seems like the best solution. She brings blue and black to the table, which offer the best draw in the game, along with universal tutors in black and tutors for artifacts and instants/sorceries in blue. Moreover, Damia herself functions as a huge, repeatable draw spell sitting in the command zone should we ever need her. I'm not convinced that this experiment will ever prove to be better than just running Azusa herself in mono green, but I think it's worth a shot.
Now, the idea here is for this deck to play out much like an Azusa deck would, just with draw and tutors to add consistency. There are a few counterspells for good measure, too. We have enough tutors that we should be able to grab Azusa herself fairly quickly (ideally to drop on turn 2 or 3), or perhaps Exploration and/or Oracle of Mul Daya will show up in our hand instead. They are serviceable replacements. If Azusa or another "you may play an additional land" effect sticks through a handful of our turns we are going to be in very good shape. The most obvious weakness here, of course, is that if Azusa gets removed we can't just recast her from the command zone. That may prove to be the fatal flaw.
Anywho, the two legendary Eldrazi are the primary wincons. An added benefit of running blue is that we can flash them in off of Alchemist's Refuge or Prophet of Kruphix, giving them pseudo-haste, which is always nice. Tooth and Nail for Avenger of Zendikar and Craterhoof Behemoth can also send a humongous, hasty, trampling behemoth straight at someone's face. Other than that, I like to beat on people's resources with Acidic Slime, Sylvan Primordial, and Woodfall Primus triggers, putting them further behind while I get further ahead.
I suppose one last thing I should mention is that a huge plus of being able to get artifacts more readily is being able to dig up Crucible of Worlds on command. With 9 fetches in the deck, having Crucible in play with Exploration, Oracle, or Azusa means a guaranteed 2-3 land drops per turn. Strip Mine and Wasteland shenanigans are also highly encouraged.
Anywho, this concept is still pretty raw in my mind, and the decklist below is far from whatever "optimized" would look like. I would love to hear what ideas people might have for individual card selections that I overlooked, or other synergies I could include.
1 Damia, Sage of Stone
//Creatures (17)
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fierce Empath
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Acidic Slime
1 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Rampaging Baloths
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
//Instants (11)
1 Pact of Negation
1 Brainstorm
1 Crop Rotation
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Putrefy
1 Voidslime
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fabricate
1 Life from the Loam
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Damnation
1 Tooth and Nail
//Artifacts (6)
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Seer's Sundial
1 Mind's Eye
//Enchantments (4)
1 Exploration
1 Sylvan Library
1 Recycle
1 Necropotence
//Land (54)
1 Academy Ruins
1 Alchemist's Refuge
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Bayou
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Breeding Pool
1 Command Tower
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Eldrazi Temple
1 Eye of Ugin
1 Flooded Grove
1 Flooded Strand
7 Forest
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 High Market
5 Island
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Strip Mine
1 Sunken Ruins
3 Swamp
1 Tolaria West
1 Temple of the False God
1 Tropical Island
1 Twilight Mire
1 Underground Sea
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Wasteland
1 Watery Grave
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
BRGrenzo, Dungeon Warden EDH
GAzusa, Always in a Rush EDH
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Warlord EDH
Trade thread on MOTL
Definitely worth considering. I'll put that on a short list of cards that I absolutely need to try out. Thanks!
Thanks!
Yeah, Damia is just such a great draw spell if you can basically play out at least half of your hand every turn and keep up counterspell backup. We'll see how it actually works. I think it could either be really cool or a total flop.
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
Damia http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=410191
DDFT Legacyhttp://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=505247
Domain Zoo http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=10212429#post10212429
It's not exactly like no one could see that coming either, they see your hand getting low, see you get 7 mana, and might not even let you get to your end step with her in play.
That's my 2 cents.
Aggro: WUBRGHorde of Notions Goodstuff, RUB Cheesy Aggro, GR Xenagod Gruul Goodstuff
Control: GWBGhave, Guru of Adaptability, UBWrexial, Milling Deep UAzami, Lady of No Infinite Combos GWU Derevi, Tempo Beats
Other: URGRiku of Too Much Mana, WUBRG Sliver Queen Enchantress
This is why free counter magic and flash enablers / seedborn etc are vital to the build. Damia dying to STP sucks damia drawing you 2 extra cards off you force of willing the only removal spell in your oppents hands is gravy. This is also why using the other refills in your deck that only get answered by counters is so strong. Not only are they faster and better if you are trying to power through multiple removal. In black these cards are easy to tutor for. I feel like this list really needs to cut lands
Damia http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=410191
DDFT Legacyhttp://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=505247
Domain Zoo http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=10212429#post10212429