MTG Salvation

This is my first attempt at a Azusa list so I may be lacking some of the basic components like Storm cauldron Oracle of Mul daya. I dropped my mana ramp because I dont think i will need it since im running the basic 50-56 mana range for azusa. If the list functions better with less mana and more ramp feel free to let me know and why. other than that, I feel its alright for what I have but it can use improvements. Any suggestions or thoughts are welcome and appreciated. Thank you

Card drawing artifacts i.e howling mine, font of mythos, temple bell, well of knowledge, horn of greed, are all absurd with Azusa. I run 46 land and just a few cards that seek out lands (seek the horizon, Gaea's bounty, journey of discovery).

46 mana is kinda slow for Azusa she is meant to get you mana fast, this much I know to be true. Although mana grab is very useful it only works if you have a consistent ratio in your deck to draw from. Card advantage is always a good idea. the key is to draw your answers, plays, or heck your game, or lack there of if your card advantage is sub par. Ive come to find that there are a couple ways you can run azusa. There is Mana saturation or Mana ramp. I find saturation to be a more consistent method so far. Running mana disruption also works well with Azusa, Lost but Seeking couple her with Storm Cauldron rites of flourishing Oracle of Mul Daya and you can force your oppenents to lose there mana. I can also run Crucible of Worlds while using that synergy. That is just my perspective on Azusa there is always going to be different ideas on deck construction though Considering its all based on theory and what not.

Saturation doesn't help you if Azusa gets tucked and you draw 6 land in a row while gettin pounded on. I started with over 50 land and have worked it down to 46 and it is consistent. Playing card draw artifacts allows you to get more lands to play and draw more threats. Playing 5 player games I am at 10 mana while others are stuck at 4 and discarding cards due to max hand size because of my howling mine/font of mythos. My build is consistent and explosive. You are also just running forests, running utility lands is important. But it depends on your budget and playgroup I suppose

Link your build so I can take a look at it then. Id like to see what kinds of synergies you run along with your choice in utility spells. If I can get Azusa Hexproof tucking becomes more difficult, they have to boomerang my artifact/enchant then tuck Azusa. Again These are all theoretical scenarios we are assuming will happen In a consistent framework.

You also want to run different cards if you are using the deck in 1v1 or multiplayer. I don't have my list on the forums as to do it correctly is more time than I normally have to bother typing that much

If you're list was consistent, as you claim, you shouldn't run into situations where you need to discard. Card Draw accelerates your game. I have never run into a time where I have to discard. I get 5 mana turn 3 and start pounding on people turn 5 with a huge creature i.e. Terra Stomper Primalcrux, etc. Albeit I need more quality creatures to get more bang for my mana. I would very much appreciate someone else to give their opinion on this list. My mana is solid all I need are better creature choices. So pretty much creatures with CMC 6 or lower are what I'm looking for.

Quote from Anarson

If you're list was consistent, as you claim, you shouldn't run into situations where you need to discard. Card Draw accelerates your game. I have never run into a time where I have to discard. I get 5 mana turn 3 and start pounding on people turn 5 with a huge creature i.e. Terra Stomper Primalcrux, etc. Albeit I need more quality creatures to get more bang for my mana. I would very much appreciate someone else to give their opinion on this list. My mana is solid all I need are better creature choices. So pretty much creatures with CMC 6 or lower are what I'm looking for.

Re-read my post. All the other players are stuck discarding due to max hand size not myself. I'm drawing 4 or 5 cards a turn and playing 3 lands a turn while they maybe play 1 and discard down to 7. You should be playing landfall creatures like avenger of zendikar and rampaging baloths. Any fetch that goes for a forest should be I the deck as well along with crucible of worlds. Getting 4 or six landfall triggers a turn is absurd. Rofellos llanowar emmisary should be in your deck as well. Tooth and nail, rude awakening, mana reflection, vernal bloom, vorinclex should have a home here as well

@dexter5112

Lots of your cards in the decklist are poorly choiced. So you posted it in the Multiplayer forum. Hmmm...

Well seeing as this list is using cards I actually own I can agree that some of my choices are of a weak caliber. I posted on the multiplayer forum because EDH was made to be a Multiplayer game back when it was first developed. EDH has been around long before the Commander set was even a thought to Wotc as well.

Most of your instants and enchantments needs to be REEVALUATED. I mean what the hell are those cards???

Lure - great for synergy with Vigor and a Engulfing Slagwurm or any creature really.

Beastmaster Ascension- my creatures get +5/+5??

Primal Rage - Trample in green? yes

Blanchwood Armor - Do you not see where this card gains its power from? its forests, this is a mono green list, a creature enchanted with this will only get bigger with Azusa allowing me to Throw 3 mana out a turn.

Rites of Flourishing - One thing about multiplayer some people fail to understand is sometimes you need to be political in order to take aggro off yourself. also whats wrong with wanting to get an extra land, thats 4 a turn for me now, and some card advantage.

Leyline of lifeforce - what part of creature spells cant be countered dont you understand? one of the banes of a green mage is that annoying blue mage that counters his biggest creature.

In the artifacts, why the !@$!$%% will you play a Torpor Orb. Most of the best green creatures uses ETB so why play Torpor?

I can only partly agree with you here because some of the best green creatures are just huge with trample i.e. Molimo, moro sorcerer Vigor Primalcrux Living Hive etc........

You need mana ramp plain and simple. Oracle of Mul Daya helps to filter your decks which runs a ton of land cards. If you really want good beaters Multani, Kamahl and Woodfall may help you.[/QUOTE]
Mana ramp with 55 mana? I get 5 mana turn 3 after that my game is pretty much set up for me. also Ive got a sideboard with ramp if I decide i need it. Those creatures you posted are in fact good cards, woodfall primus was one of my favorites back in the Shadowmoor block. Kamahl fist of Korsa is indeed effective, in token decks. Multani, Maro-Sorcerer

I am aware this list needs revision even the best decks need to be revised. I posted to get suggestions not to have people posting to make themselves look smart when they clearly dont know what they are talking about. Albeit most people on this site do know their stuff though.

I will argue for the inclusion of Kamahl in Azusa. He makes wrath effects horrible for your opponents (animate their lands in response). And with a boatload of mana and lands in play he can kill someone very easily. I suggest cutting down on some lands and run some mana "doublers" like vernal bloom, heartbeat of spring, etc. these will let you put large amounts of mana into stuff like Kamahl, Ant Queen, Nemata, Grove Guardian, kicking Wolfbriar Elemental 16 times, genesis wave for X=20 etc

The big issue with playing a land saturated build is getting hung up drawing lands after someone wipes the board. If you run some mana doublers and mana dumps like ant queen and Kamahl, you can make a huge comeback after getting your board wiped.

What about the extremely boring but awesome Avenger of Zendikar. I would run as many lands, that do things besides just tap for green, as you can. [CARDMulch[/CARD] is a good card in your deck. Regrowth, recollect, and restock.

I also agree with the creature mana sinks.

(Just saw your sideboard, some of those cards are main-deck worthy)

Yeah My only Avenger is in my Kresh, the bloodbraided list but I can afford to drop Avenger for something else for the time being. He is nice not just for his Token spam but Avenger's landfall ability will be extra deadly with Azusa. ON my Sideboard, yeah I tend to swap my sideboard in and out as I feel. Creature mana sinks make sense because if you have mana why not just throw out giant creatures, within reason of course.

The biggest thing I'd suggest is switching out one shot effects for reusable ones. As it's multiplayer, the more times you can use something the better. Some suggestions:

Fog -> Moment's Peace. Flashback makes this much nicer than Fog.

Might of the Masses -> Elder of Laurels. Useable multiple times, even in one turn.

Glissa's Scorn -> Relic Crush. The one life generally won't matter much, but being able to take out two targets will.

Primal Rage -> Triumph of the Hordes. This can easily let you kill at least one or more players.

Blanchwood Armor -> Genesis Wave. Blanchwood just paints a giant target on a creature that will get it removed right away, two-for-one'ing you.

All of those cards are quite inexpensive, but very useful.

@aDubiousNotion

The cool thing is I would only have to get Moment's peace I own a few copies of the other cards you posted thanks for the suggestions.

Ok I updated my list with the suggestions I got. Its looking better so far. I am still sold on my 55 mana base though. I still want to fit a Storm Cauldron and a Oracle of Mul Daya in my list I cant decide what to drop for my Oracle. I am thinking on dropping Torpor Orb[/CARD] for Storm Cauldron though

You should definitely get rid of the Torpor Orb. Things in your deck it shuts off:

Tornado Elemental
Avenger of Zendikar
Acidic Slime
Terastodon
Fierce Empath
Woodfall Primus

Almost all of those cards serve as your answers to problem situations. You don't want to die to someone's artifacts or enchantments because your Terastodon's ETB trigger can't activate.

Agreed the Orb is getting dropped as soon as I get my hands on a couple Storm Cauldron, getting more for a legacy deck.

So, what do you do in an Azusa deck if she gets countered or tucked the first time you try to cast her. Getting countered would set you back pretty badly on tempo, and you're trying to explode out of the gates way faster than everyone else. Getting tucked... well... are you just boned at that point? Is it worth running Dosan the Falling Leaf and/or whatever the enchantment is that does the same thing to keep stuff from getting countered?

well considering that's a hypothetical question based on a situation that wont happen that often, basically when your Azusa gets countered you do this.....summon her again and try your best to recover. you can say a early game Force of Will or Foil mana leak ect can screw an Azusa of this build up rather easily. if that happens I would suggest running Dosan the Falling leaf, my anti-blue mage general of choice, as well as tossing out enough land to sideboard in that mana ramp.

Quote from Anarson

well considering that's a hypothetical question based on a situation that wont happen that often, basically when your Azusa gets countered you do this.....summon her again and try your best to recover. you can say a early game Force of Will or Foil mana leak ect can screw an Azusa of this build up rather easily. if that happens I would suggest running Dosan the Falling leaf, my anti-blue mage general of choice, as well as tossing out enough land to sideboard in that mana ramp.

Apologies. In my playgroup pretty much everyone's general gets countered the first couple times they try to cast it, unless they very carefully play around it somehow. Spell Crumple, Hinder, Chaos Warp, Oblation, and the like are very popular, and if you don't have a counter in hand, your general is bound to get hit with one sooner or later. In some decks, that's not such a big problem, but it seems like in Azusa, you're going to be pretty screwed if she isn't out there to keep you ramping ahead of your opponents. I only ask because I'd really like to build Azusa in the near future, and this would be one of my primary concerns.

Well Azusa drops turn 3, so they need a counter fast. I've yet to see her get countered. I've seen her destroyed before the player's next turn, but at that point she's already dropped two extra lands.

Yeah if you get Azusa out turn 3 and have 2 extra forests, that's pretty much setting you up to play almost everything in the deck. I have almost always had lands to drop turn 3 with the amount of mana I currently run. so I start getting my big stuff out turn 4 pretty much. Azusa is very fast and she can get deadly very fast if your opponents cant keep up on their own mana drops.

Another thing I thought for my List is Bellowing tanglewurm. Intimidate would be a very nice seasoning to this list although from only one creature. I am not sure how useful it would be in the long run at the moment.

For a deck like this whose goal is to crazy ramp into big guys, Troll Ascetic seems very underwhelming. Instead of running one creature with Hexproof and regeneration, why not just give it to all of your guys with Asceticism?

Also, at least in my experience with her, Azusa's creature tend to die a lot. Because of that, a bit more recursion would probably be useful. How about Creeping Renaissance? It can even be used twice.

Yeah I actually Pulled Asceticism out for my Standard G/B deck but now I am finding it not so great in that list. I can just throw Asceticism back into Azusa. On Creeping Renaissance That actually sounds amazing because my creatures will get targeted almost immediately as they enter the field.

Troll Ascetic does seem kinda wimpy in this list, seeing as I get 5 mana turn 3. I should mainly focus things with about CMC > 4 or 5ish. The troll's spot is better filled with a Bellowing Tanglewurm I am thinking