This is a PW card of Azor designed for Commander. He could serve as the face card for a Ravnica-themed deck, albeit one with an emphasis on the Azorius Senate.
Azor, Parun of the Senate2WWUU
Legendary Planeswalker - Azor
+2: For each player, exile up to one target nonland permanent that player controls. Return each of the exiled cards to the battlefield under their owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
-X: Draw X cards and you gain X life.
-12: Search your library for an artifact card, a creature card with flying, a non-Aura enchantment card, and a planeswalker card, and put those cards onto the battlefield under your control. Then you may search your library for an instant, sorcery, or Aura card and cast it without paying its mana cost. Then shuffle your library.
~ can be your commander.
5
For the first ability, I liked the idea of him flickering a nonland permanent each player controls, as bouncing felt a little too oppressive. The second ability is of course a nod to Sphinx's Revelation. The ultimate is meant to be a doozy of a tutor, not only tutoring up to four permanents to the battlefield under your control but also letting you cast an instant, sorcery, or Aura card from your library for free, before shuffling your library. The ultimate also references Isperia the Inscrutable's flying tutor, and quite handily can be used to tutor her to the battlefield.
Another option I'd consider for Azor's ultimate is a Balance-esque ability, maybe with some kind of added blue effect. Balance plus Time Spiral?
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
You have the guy who wrote the guild pact and is known almost exclusively for his law writing magic and give him nothing that even remotely looks like law magic? That's an interesting planeswalker but not an interesting Azor.
Unfortunately I don't think they would be played interestingly. Paying 2WWUU for draw 5 gain 5 life is an unreasonably good bargain, Opportunity is far from the best card, but incidental life gain on already decent effects has proven to be dominating. Then the second time he is cast it is a normally costed revelation. To keep the revelation as -X you need to have a starting loyalty equal to or less than the same value of a Sphinx's Revelation, so in this case a starting loyalty of 3. Then you probably need to drop the plus to only +1 so it doesn't grow out of control too fast. Or make the starting loyalty 6 the plus 3 and the revelation -XX.
Well, to be fair with Manite, Azor, the Lawbringer is not very strong in law magic either. But yes, it's too many sphinx's rev abilities associated with Azor, I'd like to see something different.
That ability right after flying is his law magic. He isn't exclusively law magic but not having any is a miss.
Jailing or protecting stuff for a turn isn't law magic?
Alright, here's a second version to try:
Azor, Parun of the Senate2WWUU
Legendary Planeswalker - Azor
+2: Exile another target nonland permanent. If you own that permanent, you may return it to your hand, otherwise return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
0: Until your next turn, players can't cast more than one spell each turn and they can't draw more than one card each turn.
-10: Each player chooses an artifact, a creature, an enchantment, and a planeswalker from among the nonland permanents they control, then puts the rest on top of their library in any order.
4
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Blinking has a number of flavorful explanation, but I can't find one that would reasonably be called law magic or even jailing. As for protecting, that is reasonable but the fact that the ability is both draws away from any kind of focus on law and makes it look more like space magic. This new one feels like a larger Tamiyo, the Moon Sage. Both of Tamiyo's cards have had freezing as a core component of their card so it feels wrong to have another walker also have it as a core component. To move away from Tamiyo's space but keep a similar effect you can bring back the Azorius guild mechanic detain. As a commander walker I think the draw should be more costly because always haven't access to your commander is already a big deal, your commander always giving you access to lots of cards is excessive. I've always assumed Azor is a more restricting law maker than permissive law maker so I would have him have an ability that restricts how the opponent can act.
Azor, Parun of the Senate2WWUU
Legendary Planeswalker - Azor
+2: Detain target permanent an opponent controls.
-3: Choose main phase or combat phase. Target opponent skips their next instance of the chosen phase.
-XX: Draw X cards and gain X life.
5
Meddling Mage is the most law-representing effect in my book, and fits the colors perfectly. A small - ability where you can name several cards would work well for a griefer commander that can lock out other people's commanders or combo pieces. Would combo well with something that reveals hands and/or stuff that bounces, although detain is of course nice as well. Maybe an emblem involving detaining instead.
Rule of Law + Spirit of the Labyrinth is a pretty good rule setting ability too though.
Blinking has a number of flavorful explanation, but I can't find one that would reasonably be called law magic or even jailing. As for protecting, that is reasonable but the fact that the ability is both draws away from any kind of focus on law and makes it look more like space magic. This new one feels like a larger Tamiyo, the Moon Sage. Both of Tamiyo's cards have had freezing as a core component of their card so it feels wrong to have another walker also have it as a core component. To move away from Tamiyo's space but keep a similar effect you can bring back the Azorius guild mechanic detain. As a commander walker I think the draw should be more costly because always haven't access to your commander is already a big deal, your commander always giving you access to lots of cards is excessive. I've always assumed Azor is a more restricting law maker than permissive law maker so I would have him have an ability that restricts how the opponent can act.
Azor, Parun of the Senate2WWUU
Legendary Planeswalker - Azor
+2: Detain target permanent an opponent controls.
-3: Choose main phase or combat phase. Target opponent skips their next instance of the chosen phase.
-XX: Draw X cards and gain X life.
5
How about "we're locking you up temporarily" or "we're taking you down to the station for some questioning"? Flickering is easy to flavor as law magic. And when they finally introduce an ice-themed planeswalker, Tamiyo won't be the main freeze PW, that I can assure you.
As for your design: Detain is an interesting mechanic for Azor to use directly, but they would restrict it to "nonland", and possibly just "creature" so Azor can't detain other CPWs. Forcing a player to skip either their main casting phase or their combat phase is intriguing, but I would opt for an Orim's Chant variant that makes it so your opponents have to choose one or the other. A -XX cost is a novel concept, and it fits considering you're getting two X benefits.
Meddling Mage is the most law-representing effect in my book, and fits the colors perfectly. A small - ability where you can name several cards would work well for a griefer commander that can lock out other people's commanders or combo pieces. Would combo well with something that reveals hands and/or stuff that bounces, although detain is of course nice as well. Maybe an emblem involving detaining instead.
Rule of Law + Spirit of the Labyrinth is a pretty good rule setting ability too though.
I don't think a hard lockout like that would be very fun, therefore not very good for the game. And going forward Wizards won't be putting emblems on CPWs because, according to research from C14, they were hard to cope with.
Yeah, I kinda like the idea of Azor functioning like a pseudo enchantment. Maybe all three of his abilities could reference control-oriented enchantments? Shoot, maybe his ultimate can create an artifact or enchantment token, maybe even a legendary token?
Another option comes to mind: A short while ago, I'd suggested ideas for plane-themed commander decks, and I posited that if Jace couldn't be the CPW for a WUBRG Ravnica deck, then Azor could be the CPW of an Azorius-centric Ravnica deck, though WUBRG is still a possibility. Making Azor care about multicolor would be highly fitting when addresing his status as founder of the Azorius.
Azor, Parun of the Senate2WWUU
Legendary Planeswalker - Azor
+2: Each player draws X cards and gains X life, where X is the number of colors among permanents that player controls.
-X: Detain each nonland permanent your opponents control with converted mana cost X or less.
0: Create a legendary enchantment token named The Guildpact with "You may pay WUBRG rather than pay the mana cost for spells that you cast."
~ can be your commander.
5
Though if the Guildpact token feels a bit too at odds with Azor's heavy WU cost, then it could be changed to something more Azorius-y. I mean, heck, that -X Detain ability could qualify as his ultimate.
Azor, Parun of the Senate2WWUU
Legendary Planeswalker - Azor
+2: Exile another target nonland permanent. If you own that permanent, you may return it to your hand, otherwise return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
0: Until your next turn, your opponents can't cast more than one spell each turn and they can't draw more than one card.
-X: Detain each nonland permanent your opponents control with converted mana cost X or less.
~ can be your commander.
5
Ooh, I like this one. The + ability works with Forecast and Detain, the 0 functions like an enchantment, and the ultimate actually uses Detain to lock down your opponents' stuff for a turn. Although, what if the 0 ability actually created a white enchantment token named Azor's Law with "Your opponents can't cast more than one spell each turn" and "Your opponents can't draw more than one card each turn"?
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
The last version looks good. If you wanted him to make rule of law tokens then it can't be a 0 ability. If it does both of those things -3 might be the right price. Though I like the idea of him sitting their exerting his will making sure they follow his rules.
The final version is completely unplayable outside of blink decks imo. And even if you want another blink deck, I think yours is a less interesting choice then the current ones.
At 6 CMC the + ability should give you some sort of CA. Blinking at sorcery speed is simply too weak and borderline useless outside of a blinking deck.
The 0 ability can be rough sometimes but ultimately if you plan to use that every turn you are playing 6 cmc for a more fragile version of the same enchantments. It makes no sense.
The "ult" is very weak. It's just conditional fog, you are not changing the game state in any way. Anyone with any of the MANY great CMC 5+ creatures commonly played in commander will simply bash him or even your face and ignore it because in the end Azor doesn't do much.
The last version looks good. If you wanted him to make rule of law tokens then it can't be a 0 ability. If it does both of those things -3 might be the right price. Though I like the idea of him sitting their exerting his will making sure they follow his rules.
The token could be legendary, since you only need one out anyway.
The final version is completely unplayable outside of blink decks imo. And even if you want another blink deck, I think yours is a less interesting choice then the current ones.
At 6 CMC the + ability should give you some sort of CA. Blinking at sorcery speed is simply too weak and borderline useless outside of a blinking deck.
The 0 ability can be rough sometimes but ultimately if you plan to use that every turn you are playing 6 cmc for a more fragile version of the same enchantments. It makes no sense.
The "ult" is very weak. It's just conditional fog, you are not changing the game state in any way. Anyone with any of the MANY great CMC 5+ creatures commonly played in commander will simply bash him or even your face and ignore it because in the end Azor doesn't do much.
Part of the point is to work with the Azorius guild's mechanics since, y'know, Azor founded it and all. I wouldn't call the ability to shut down mana dorks and rocks for a full round of turns a "conditional fog". And Azor can't have an answer for everything.
But, I'll try another design.
How about this:
Azor, Parun of the Senate2WWUU
Legendary Planeswalker - Azor
+3: Until your next turn, whenever one or more creatures attack you or a planeswalker you control, untap all creatures you control and you may draw a card.
0: Create Azor's Law, a legendary white enchantment token with "Your opponents can't cast more than one spell each turn" and "Your opponents can't draw more than one card each turn."
-XX: Return up to X target nonland permanents to their owner's hand. Create a 4/4 blue Sphinx creature token with flying for each card returned to a player's hand this way.
~ can be your commander.
4
Now Azor's + functions like a security alarm of sorts. The 0 is still the Azor's Law enchantment token. And now the ultimate is not only an X-cost bounce, it also gives you a Sphinx token for each card bounced that way.
As a bonus, this version also happens to play well with many of the other white or blue guilds. Attack with white Boros creatures or tap a bunch of creatures to convoke a Selesnya spell, then untap them all if so much as a Goblin tries to attack you. Bounce blue Simic creatures with Graft, or possibly retrigger creatures with Evolve. Recast bounced cards to trigger Extort. Populate Sphinx tokens. And you can still cast a bunch of Izzet spells and draw a bunch of cards.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
The '+' ability alarm effect is a very fun idea but the Spikes in me hates it's a punisher effect. Ultimately, if you get just one creature with a serious tap ability like Archivist, your opponents will attack someone else. So in the end, with enough build up this protects itself and your board pretty well which is the point, right ?
The +0 looks perfect. You don't have to use it all the time ultimately rendering your commander useless but unlike emblems the tokens can be destroyed and you might choose to remake then eventually. Pretty great.
The ult feels appropriate in power level as well. I really like how the mass bounce from the ult and the Azor's Law tokens plays well together.
Private Mod Note
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Standard - Serious BGU Control R Aggro
Standard - For Fun BG Auras
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Azor, Parun of the Senate 2WWUU
Legendary Planeswalker - Azor
+2: For each player, exile up to one target nonland permanent that player controls. Return each of the exiled cards to the battlefield under their owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
-X: Draw X cards and you gain X life.
-12: Search your library for an artifact card, a creature card with flying, a non-Aura enchantment card, and a planeswalker card, and put those cards onto the battlefield under your control. Then you may search your library for an instant, sorcery, or Aura card and cast it without paying its mana cost. Then shuffle your library.
~ can be your commander.
5
For the first ability, I liked the idea of him flickering a nonland permanent each player controls, as bouncing felt a little too oppressive. The second ability is of course a nod to Sphinx's Revelation. The ultimate is meant to be a doozy of a tutor, not only tutoring up to four permanents to the battlefield under your control but also letting you cast an instant, sorcery, or Aura card from your library for free, before shuffling your library. The ultimate also references Isperia the Inscrutable's flying tutor, and quite handily can be used to tutor her to the battlefield.
Another option I'd consider for Azor's ultimate is a Balance-esque ability, maybe with some kind of added blue effect. Balance plus Time Spiral?
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Unfortunately I don't think they would be played interestingly. Paying 2WWUU for draw 5 gain 5 life is an unreasonably good bargain, Opportunity is far from the best card, but incidental life gain on already decent effects has proven to be dominating. Then the second time he is cast it is a normally costed revelation. To keep the revelation as -X you need to have a starting loyalty equal to or less than the same value of a Sphinx's Revelation, so in this case a starting loyalty of 3. Then you probably need to drop the plus to only +1 so it doesn't grow out of control too fast. Or make the starting loyalty 6 the plus 3 and the revelation -XX.
Alright, here's a second version to try:
Azor, Parun of the Senate 2WWUU
Legendary Planeswalker - Azor
+2: Exile another target nonland permanent. If you own that permanent, you may return it to your hand, otherwise return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
0: Until your next turn, players can't cast more than one spell each turn and they can't draw more than one card each turn.
-10: Each player chooses an artifact, a creature, an enchantment, and a planeswalker from among the nonland permanents they control, then puts the rest on top of their library in any order.
4
I kinda like the idea of Azor having a semi-continuous Rule of Law + Spirit of the Labyrinth effect for his second ability.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Azor, Parun of the Senate 2WWUU
Legendary Planeswalker - Azor
+2: Detain target permanent an opponent controls.
-3: Choose main phase or combat phase. Target opponent skips their next instance of the chosen phase.
-XX: Draw X cards and gain X life.
5
Rule of Law + Spirit of the Labyrinth is a pretty good rule setting ability too though.
How about "we're locking you up temporarily" or "we're taking you down to the station for some questioning"? Flickering is easy to flavor as law magic. And when they finally introduce an ice-themed planeswalker, Tamiyo won't be the main freeze PW, that I can assure you.
As for your design: Detain is an interesting mechanic for Azor to use directly, but they would restrict it to "nonland", and possibly just "creature" so Azor can't detain other CPWs. Forcing a player to skip either their main casting phase or their combat phase is intriguing, but I would opt for an Orim's Chant variant that makes it so your opponents have to choose one or the other. A -XX cost is a novel concept, and it fits considering you're getting two X benefits.
I don't think a hard lockout like that would be very fun, therefore not very good for the game. And going forward Wizards won't be putting emblems on CPWs because, according to research from C14, they were hard to cope with.
Yeah, I kinda like the idea of Azor functioning like a pseudo enchantment. Maybe all three of his abilities could reference control-oriented enchantments? Shoot, maybe his ultimate can create an artifact or enchantment token, maybe even a legendary token?
Another option comes to mind: A short while ago, I'd suggested ideas for plane-themed commander decks, and I posited that if Jace couldn't be the CPW for a WUBRG Ravnica deck, then Azor could be the CPW of an Azorius-centric Ravnica deck, though WUBRG is still a possibility. Making Azor care about multicolor would be highly fitting when addresing his status as founder of the Azorius.
Azor, Parun of the Senate 2WWUU
Legendary Planeswalker - Azor
+2: Each player draws X cards and gains X life, where X is the number of colors among permanents that player controls.
-X: Detain each nonland permanent your opponents control with converted mana cost X or less.
0: Create a legendary enchantment token named The Guildpact with "You may pay WUBRG rather than pay the mana cost for spells that you cast."
~ can be your commander.
5
Though if the Guildpact token feels a bit too at odds with Azor's heavy WU cost, then it could be changed to something more Azorius-y. I mean, heck, that -X Detain ability could qualify as his ultimate.
Azor, Parun of the Senate 2WWUU
Legendary Planeswalker - Azor
+2: Exile another target nonland permanent. If you own that permanent, you may return it to your hand, otherwise return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
0: Until your next turn, your opponents can't cast more than one spell each turn and they can't draw more than one card.
-X: Detain each nonland permanent your opponents control with converted mana cost X or less.
~ can be your commander.
5
Ooh, I like this one. The + ability works with Forecast and Detain, the 0 functions like an enchantment, and the ultimate actually uses Detain to lock down your opponents' stuff for a turn. Although, what if the 0 ability actually created a white enchantment token named Azor's Law with "Your opponents can't cast more than one spell each turn" and "Your opponents can't draw more than one card each turn"?
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
At 6 CMC the + ability should give you some sort of CA. Blinking at sorcery speed is simply too weak and borderline useless outside of a blinking deck.
The 0 ability can be rough sometimes but ultimately if you plan to use that every turn you are playing 6 cmc for a more fragile version of the same enchantments. It makes no sense.
The "ult" is very weak. It's just conditional fog, you are not changing the game state in any way. Anyone with any of the MANY great CMC 5+ creatures commonly played in commander will simply bash him or even your face and ignore it because in the end Azor doesn't do much.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
The token could be legendary, since you only need one out anyway.
Part of the point is to work with the Azorius guild's mechanics since, y'know, Azor founded it and all. I wouldn't call the ability to shut down mana dorks and rocks for a full round of turns a "conditional fog". And Azor can't have an answer for everything.
But, I'll try another design.
How about this:
Azor, Parun of the Senate 2WWUU
Legendary Planeswalker - Azor
+3: Until your next turn, whenever one or more creatures attack you or a planeswalker you control, untap all creatures you control and you may draw a card.
0: Create Azor's Law, a legendary white enchantment token with "Your opponents can't cast more than one spell each turn" and "Your opponents can't draw more than one card each turn."
-XX: Return up to X target nonland permanents to their owner's hand. Create a 4/4 blue Sphinx creature token with flying for each card returned to a player's hand this way.
~ can be your commander.
4
Now Azor's + functions like a security alarm of sorts. The 0 is still the Azor's Law enchantment token. And now the ultimate is not only an X-cost bounce, it also gives you a Sphinx token for each card bounced that way.
As a bonus, this version also happens to play well with many of the other white or blue guilds. Attack with white Boros creatures or tap a bunch of creatures to convoke a Selesnya spell, then untap them all if so much as a Goblin tries to attack you. Bounce blue Simic creatures with Graft, or possibly retrigger creatures with Evolve. Recast bounced cards to trigger Extort. Populate Sphinx tokens. And you can still cast a bunch of Izzet spells and draw a bunch of cards.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
The '+' ability alarm effect is a very fun idea but the Spikes in me hates it's a punisher effect. Ultimately, if you get just one creature with a serious tap ability like Archivist, your opponents will attack someone else. So in the end, with enough build up this protects itself and your board pretty well which is the point, right ?
The +0 looks perfect. You don't have to use it all the time ultimately rendering your commander useless but unlike emblems the tokens can be destroyed and you might choose to remake then eventually. Pretty great.
The ult feels appropriate in power level as well. I really like how the mass bounce from the ult and the Azor's Law tokens plays well together.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras