MTG Salvation

Hello friends,

I have way too many decks with black/red/green, and not enough white/blue, and I need some help picking out an Azorius commander from the following choices:
- Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage: Flash is the most fun keyword a card can have!
- Dragonlord Ojutai: Hexproof and a steady source of extra draw power seem like good things for these colors.
- Rasputin Dreameeaver: somehow I have a copy of this old and expensive card.
- Ephara, God of the Polis: another steady source of cards, and it’s indestructible.

All strong and fun choices.

Raff seems like draw go control

Ojutai similar, but more voltron focused

Rasputin tends to be ramp and blink

Ephara tends to be token focused although it goes well with flash too.

I think Rasputin will be the most unique. Raff seems like the most fun to me, though. I've played ephara and ojutai and they're also both good and fun too, though.

Rasputin Dreamweaver has style points. All are strong choices but that's also important.

Quote from OCPunisher »

Hello friends,

I have way too many decks with black/red/green, and not enough white/blue, and I need some help picking out an Azorius commander from the following choices:
- Raff Capashen: Flash is the most fun keyword a card can have!
- Dragonlord Ojutai: Hexproof and a steady source of extra draw power seem like good things for these colors.
- Rasputin Dreameeaver: somehow I have a copy of this old and expensive card.
- Ephara, God of the Polis: another steady source of cards, and it’s indestructible.

I personally like Ephara's persistence, since you get to draw cards with tokens also. You can approach her with small creature route or full control while having token producers to keep up the draws. If you can produce creature at instant speed you might even get to draw during each of your opponent's turn.

I agree that all of these are strong choices, and they can be played together as well. The one downside to Rasputin is his casting cost.

My personal pick would probably be Ephara. Ephara works very well with flash creatures (not to mention effects like Raff, Leyline of Anticipation and Vedalken Orrery), flicker/blink enablers and token producers like Heliod, Sacred Mesa, Kjeldoran Outpost and Talrand, Sky Summoner to keep building your board state and drawing cards on opponents' turns. Toss in Thassa or other effects which make things unblockable (there are tons in UW) and Ephara can even take people out with commander damage, if you decide to go that route.

The main reason i'd go for Rasputin Dreamweaver is that he's such a rare sight and if i had such unusual, yet workable, commanders i'd brew the ***** out of them - looking at you 100€ Hazezon Tamar . A CMC 6 commander is always steep, but one that carries 7 can make up for himself unless hit by Sudden Death or Wipe Away.

Of the more common sights i think Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage would be the most fun.
I know several Ephara, God of the Polis decks and while they are pretty efficient at what they're doing i find the decks to be pretty lame.
Dragonlord Ojutai is another example of effiency. Hexproof, flying, a body that can throw and withstand punches and an above average combat damage trigger. I'd play him before Ephara, God of the Polis, but since he's that linear i'd prefer Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage.

I'd like to mention Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper, too, because that's such an unique deck, i always enjoy facing it, despite it being Azorius Control...

I've had a very strong urge to get back to EDH's roots and build a deck helmed by an Elder Dragon, and I had built Ojutai as what was effectively a battlecruiser casual spell-slinger deck, but was convinced by friends after completion that Taigam would helm the deck better. There's something about an elder dragon commander that leads me to suggest it here.

I would go with Ojutai or Ephara.

I also really like Brago, King Eternam and Taigam, Ojutai Master but they aren't on the list.

I love playing Dragonlord Ojutai. I tried a lot of different UW commanders for my deck but those other options weren't one of them.

I think Raff and Ephara are both good though but they
a) Don't kill people as fast/consistently as Ojutai
b) Both are more build around than Ojutai, which can be fun but also gives you less options.

Rasputin is kind of too combo focused for casual.

Quote from NoNeedToBragoBoutIt »

The main reason i'd go for Rasputin Dreamweaver is that he's such a rare sight and if i had such unusual, yet workable, commanders i'd brew the ***** out of them - looking at you 100€ Hazezon Tamar . A CMC 6 commander is always steep, but one that carries 7 can make up for himself unless hit by Sudden Death or Wipe Away.

manA abilities dodge split second. Although ofc if he's removed when you have no use for the mana then it doesn't matter.

I obviously came here to cheer for Ephara. If you want ideas I have a couple of strong concepts brewing that are non-traditional brews (thopters, lifegain).

Quote from Narvuntien »

I love playing Dragonlord Ojutai. I tried a lot of different UW commanders for my deck but those other options weren't one of them.

I think Raff and Ephara are both good though but they
a) Don't kill people as fast/consistently as Ojutai
b) Both are more build around than Ojutai, which can be fun but also gives you less options.

Rasputin is kind of too combo focused for casual.

You make a lot of good points here, and your deck is like 90% of what I would ideally like to play. But, the allure of playing with flash is just so appealing.

The reason I prefer Ephara over Raff for a flashcentric deck is that:
1) she's very resilient
2) provides a source of card advantage, freeing you up from needing to draw card advantage engines

Raff is going to be a bit more inconsistent and require running a lot more "good stuff" as it were.

I like a lot of things about Ojutai but I'm kinda voltronned out from other decks over the years.

My vote most definitely goes to Raff: been wanting to build the guy myself for the longest time and, as you said, Flash is just fun.

I really like Azorius commanders and I've played quite a few including Dragonlord Ojutai and Rasputin Dreamweaver. I really like Ojutai because the built in hexproof makes him easier to play without worrying about removal. The ability to anticipate when he connects is just awesome. You can also include untapping cards to surprise people who try to remove him.

Lavinia of the Tenth has long been a favorite, even if I keep forgetting she has protection from red.

Quote from XeroxedFool »

I really like Ojutai because the built in hexproof makes him easier to play without worrying about removal. The ability to anticipate when he connects is just awesome.

Yeah, he reminds me a lot of Lord Windgrace in terms of the reliable draw power. He's definitely the front-runner right now, probably in a deck with a lot of cheap counters, removal, and ways to protect him so he can keep on doing his thing.

Welp, I finally managed to get a game in with Ojutai last night (darn kids!) and I actually won the game!

The last turn was nuts:
- my opponent (Kess) was at 2 life.
- I casting a Gilded Drake to eat the opponent's Counterspell/, the cast a Sun Titan to get it back, targeting his Niv-Mizzet.
- Finally, I cracked a Blighted Cataract to draw two cards for the win.

That being said, Ojutai itself (herself?) was largely unimpressive. The hexproof keyword was mostly useless in a field full of wraths and Grave Pacts. She lasted an average of about one untap step, got a total of two hits in against a table of three opponents, and was otherwise stuck in the command zone. Unfortunately, this is mostly a normal set of circumstances for my group.

On the other hand, Theros gods are usually either left alone or just harder to deal with. So, I think I'm going to try out Ephara next time, whenever that is.

I had a Raff build that I really liked. It was basically all historic or instant speed, so it was flashing in things like Karn’s Temporal Sundering while holding up countermagic.

However, it made games last forever...

Quote from OCPunisher »

Welp, I finally managed to get a game in with Ojutai last night (darn kids!) and I actually won the game!

The last turn was nuts:
- my opponent (Kess) was at 2 life.
- I casting a Gilded Drake to eat the opponent's Counterspell/, the cast a Sun Titan to get it back, targeting his Niv-Mizzet.
- Finally, I cracked a Blighted Cataract to draw two cards for the win.

That being said, Ojutai itself (herself?) was largely unimpressive. The hexproof keyword was mostly useless in a field full of wraths and Grave Pacts. She lasted an average of about one untap step, got a total of two hits in against a table of three opponents, and was otherwise stuck in the command zone. Unfortunately, this is mostly a normal set of circumstances for my group.

On the other hand, Theros gods are usually either left alone or just harder to deal with. So, I think I'm going to try out Ephara next time, whenever that is.

If that is your meta, I would recommend Raff. It is very hard for you to fall behind on tempo as a result of playing out Raff. He'll get at least one other extra orbit before dying to a Grave Pact or Wrath, and whatever you cast with his flash-granting ability gets a similar benefit. It wouldn't appear so at first, but there are a lot of synergies with him that are strong enough to define a deck. Vehicles are very strong with him, and dodge wraths as well. Also, just cards like Duplicant and Meteor Golem along with Sword of Light and Shadow tends to lock up the combat step with a Raff out. The threat of the cards in hand is enough.

Honestly, I am in a meta where there are a lot of strong synergies played, and not a lot of tempo resetting tools like Wraths, so I would initially tend more toward a general like Ojutai. But if I were in a back-and-forth meta like the one you are describing, definitely would go with Raff. In my experience, the short list of cards that play well with Ephara is the same and mostly functional in the area of disruption, but there is a lot longer of a list that plays well with Raff, and enough card-advantage and card-saving tools with him to potentially make up for reliable draw in the command zone.

I would second Raff, but also in your meta it sounds like Ephara might work well. If you keep off devotion then you have a draw engine in the command zone that can't be edicted out, and then when you're ready you can devotion her up and swing if you want. Honestly she probably belongs in Raff rather than the other way around as she can be flashed out, but when I ran my Ephara deck I had a lot of fun.

Since no one has mentioned it yet, I'll put in a word for Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun. It's a cool, different sort of token deck that wants individual big tokens rather than token swarm.

I'll drop another vote for Raff. Being able to play almost entirely at instant speed is just so much fun.

Quote from PhroX »

I'll drop another vote for Raff. Being able to play almost entirely at instant speed is just so much fun.

This I can definitely appreciate. My longest running deck is Yeva, and it is the most fun keyword ever.

Quick aside on Raff: as much fun as it is to flash things in, I've always found that the artifact theme was either too combo-y for my group's collective stomach, or it lacked the muscle to stand up to a table full of demons, dragons, and other large things that commander decks often have. I'm aware of a few big guys, but I'm concerned that there might not be enough of them overall to make up a deck, and they all have the added weakness of being vulnerable to Shatters on top of the creature removals.

Quote from OCPunisher »

Quote from PhroX »

I'll drop another vote for Raff. Being able to play almost entirely at instant speed is just so much fun.

This I can definitely appreciate. My longest running deck is Yeva, and it is the most fun keyword ever.

Quick aside on Raff: as much fun as it is to flash things in, I've always found that the artifact theme was either too combo-y for my group's collective stomach, or it lacked the muscle to stand up to a table full of demons, dragons, and other large things that commander decks often have. I'm aware of a few big guys, but I'm concerned that there might not be enough of them overall to make up a deck, and they all have the added weakness of being vulnerable to Shatters on top of the creature removals.

Aside from artifacts there are plenty of legendaries that have impact. Flashing in Eldrazi before your turn and then swinging with annihilator is pretty good. Nezahal and some of the other big blue legendary beaters. Flashing in og Avacyn in response to a wipe and then swinging with her next turn... not bad. Elesh Norn.