Howdy! Welcome to the definitive thread on Azusa, the best (in my obviously biased opinion) mono-green commander!
I'll be honest: green has never been my favorite color. My other French EDH decks include Geist, Grand Arbiter, Wydwen, Hokori, Numot, and Vendilion Clique. I'm a control player, and I always have been. Besides Bind, green offers little in the way of control. Azusa, however, is unlike many green decks in that it's a combo deck, not an aggro deck - this piqued my interest. I created the deck and immediately fell in love with it. I've had more fun playing this deck than any other I've ever played.
If ramping into Prime Time on turn three or watching your opponent scoop when you cast Emrakul appeals to you, then perhaps you should join Azusa on her journey - this just might be the deck for you.
A little bit about Azusa:
Azusa doesn't care what her opponent is up to; she's too busy doing her own thing. She can go toe-to-toe with control and combo out before they stabilize. She's not essential; the deck can perform without her. She can soak up twenty-nine damage before she starts to care about her life total. Rofellos is her lover and Eternal Witness her best friend.
Reasons to play Azusa:
-You love combo decks.
-You like to play lands.
-The mere notion of recurring Memory Jar arouses you.
-You enjoy playing lands.
-You want to play a "dark horse" deck that's rare in most metas.
-You love playing lands.
-You enjoy not having to worry about how much mana you have at any given time.
-Land is your favorite card type.
Reasons to avoid Azusa:
-You like controlling your opponent's board state.
-You like eating away at your opponent's hand.
-You like countering spells.
-You like playing aggro decks.
-You like having efficient and plentiful spot removal.
++Asceticism: Giving my creatures hexproof prevents them from being killed, as most of them have no natural defenses to kill spells. The regenerate ability for two mana is also helpful. This card's biggest weakness is its mana cost.
++Karn Liberated: I lack removal spells in this deck. Karn solves the problem of a troublesome creature and provides a distraction for my opponent to shoot at for a while. Getting to seven mana is not particularly difficult in this deck.
++Mishra's Helix: I cut this card before; it was in the original draft of the deck. I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss it.
++Concordant Crossroads: There are a lot of times I wish I had this card. It's more or less a dead card against aggro matchups, however.
++Hunter's Insight: Drawing cards is good. It doesn't grant trample, though.
++Slate of Ancestry: I have been toying with the idea of running this card for a while now. Drawing cards is something green is not very efficient at doing. My biggest concern is this card's inconsistency.
++Scavenging Ooze: There's no more graveyard hate in the deck.
Courser of Kruphix & Oracle of Mul Daya: Both of these cards allow us to play lands off the top of our library, which is a valuable ability - it cycles more useful cards to the top.
Thrun, the Last Troll: Thrun smashes the control decks. He's difficult to deal with.
Dryad Arbor: A blocker that can be retrieved at instant speed with Chord or a fetch land is pretty great. It unfortunately suffers from summoning sickness and dies to Wrath of God and similar effects, but conversely, it nets us a huge advantage against cards like Innocent Blood and Diabolic Edict. It also counts as a creature and thus effectively taps for two with Gaea's Cradle.
Fauna Shaman & Survival of the Fittest: Every creature you draw is now every creature in your deck. These two cards are amazing at finding answers as most of our utility lies in the abilities of creatures.
Memory Jar: This card is legal in this format. I was surprised. Using this at the end of your opponent's turn gives you eight cards to play with on your next turn. Since you won't be drawing a lot of cards, this can be a godsend - you'll almost certainly have the mana/land plays to use most of them. Recurring the card multiple times in a single turn is devastating. This card is a lot more broken than it looks at first glance.
Exploration: If you haven't figured it out by now, you can never have enough lands. Also allows a turn two Azusa.
Acidic Slime: Utility creature and an integral part of our pod chain alongside Vorapede.
Rude Awakening: Generally avoid casting this spell unless you plan on entwining it... it either gives us loads of mana with Gaea's Cradle or allows us to unexpectedly alpha-strike an opponent.
Garruk, Caller of Beasts: This Garruk cheats fatties into play and lets us dig for creatures, the second of which is especially useful.
Tectonic Edge, Wasteland, and Dust Bowl: These can keep an opponent from having the correct (or even enough) mana to cast what they need to cast and keeps them away from powerful utility lands.
Garruk Wildspeaker: Generally used for his incredible +1 ability. The -3 is useful for an alpha strike.
Birthing Pod: Especially great with Wurmcoil Engine and Vorapede. Never be afraid to throw our commander at the pod - once we've played our lands, she's done her job. The chain goes from zero all the way to ten.
Although I've been playing and tweaking this deck for the past six months, I've only taken it to a tournament once, where it took second place - it lost a match 1-2 to Marath, Will of the Wild and lost a single game to Xenagos, God of Revels, going otherwise undefeated.
There was a time when I ran Horn of Greed and Recycle... they just aren't as good in practice as they are on paper. Recycle costs too much mana to make it worth playing and Horn of Green gives your opponent just as many cards as it gives you. Thanks for reminding me; I knew I was missing a few cards from my original draft.
So what are your thoughts on Nissa, Worldwaker? Also I'm a bit surprised you don't run Sundering Titan or Sylvan Primordial, as those both provide huge set backs for opponents. And with all the mana dorks and Birthing Pod, would you consider Skullclamp?
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Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
I love Nissa in this deck. She takes me from five to nine mana most of the time, which is incredible. I used to run Sylvan Primordial, but I felt that it was the weakest of the big creatures in the deck. It's really only great in multiplayer EDH. I hadn't considered Skullclamp before but I don't think it has a place in the deck as I have no way of tutoring for it. I've thought about Sundering Titan before and I just think it's too slow for what it does.
I'm surprised to see no Horn of Greed in this list. It seems perfect with Azusa, and the "symmetrical" effect is anything but.
EDIT: Pfuuuuuuuuuhhh, of course Horn of Greed has already been mentioned. I did a thread search, and "Horn of Greed" never came up. What gives?
Anyway, what would the Horn do for you in an average game? Did it consistently help you draw into relevant spells? Keep your hand stocked after dropping a ton of lands? Give your opponent too many cards for your liking? All of the above?
I'm genuinely curious, because it seems like an amazing engine with Azusa, but after seeing that you've willingly kept it out of the list, I'm starting to have second thoughts about it.
The problem with defining this format by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
I'm surprised to see no Horn of Greed in this list. It seems perfect with Azusa, and the "symmetrical" effect is anything but.
EDIT: Pfuuuuuuuuuhhh, of course Horn of Greed has already been mentioned. I did a thread search, and "Horn of Greed" never came up. What gives?
Anyway, what would the Horn do for you in an average game? Did it consistently help you draw into relevant spells? Keep your hand stocked after dropping a ton of lands? Give your opponent too many cards for your liking? All of the above?
I'm genuinely curious, because it seems like an amazing engine with Azusa, but after seeing that you've willingly kept it out of the list, I'm starting to have second thoughts about it.
My three-drop in this deck needs to be a threat or ramp. I was also short on card slots. There are just better choices.
Also, giving the control decks and extra card every turn is garbage.
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Do you think Horn of Greed is worth testing? It's one cmc less than portal and potentially a million more draws.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
EDIT: Pfuuuuuuuuuhhh, of course Horn of Greed has already been mentioned. I did a thread search, and "Horn of Greed" never came up. What gives?
Anyway, what would the Horn do for you in an average game? Did it consistently help you draw into relevant spells? Keep your hand stocked after dropping a ton of lands? Give your opponent too many cards for your liking? All of the above?
I'm genuinely curious, because it seems like an amazing engine with Azusa, but after seeing that you've willingly kept it out of the list, I'm starting to have second thoughts about it.
My three-drop in this deck needs to be a threat or ramp. I was also short on card slots. There are just better choices.
Also, giving the control decks and extra card every turn is garbage.