MTG Salvation

The Administrator of the Guildpact
Azorius Guildmage

Introduction

The eighth published of my Ravnica Block Guildmage lists, Azorius Guildmage is arguably one of the most powerful in this cycle and the new one and saw widespread play in standard and block as a result. For this deck, I chose a heavy control theme based on blinking to a small degree and heavily utilising auras.

There may be few counterspells, with a simple six, but there is considerable other removal and creatures offer the advantage of a body and enter the battlefield effect. The goal of this deck is to establish a threat and to make sure it sticks and then utilise your spells and card advantage to retain control, which the guildmage also facilitates.

Due to this deck being blue one could emphasise or deemphasise different aspects and achieved a similar result, so I encourage those interested in this general to experiment and find what works.


What is Pauper Commander?
1. Same rules as Commander.
2. Commander is an uncommon. It can be any uncommon, not just a legend.
3. Rest of deck must be common in a non-Magic Online (Masters Editions come to mind) printing!

To be strong a Pauper Commander deck must use or have an answer to the 'Four Pillars':
1. Fireball and variants - Red and black have them, be able to survive it.
2. Capsize - Banned in some places, you need to be able to disrupt the buyback.
3. Pestilence and its variants - board sweepers, be ready.
4. Alabaster Potion and variants - Lifegain, the opposite of Fireball.

This deck runs the second pillars, through Capsize.



(*) Represents a card being shown in multiple categories.


Change Log

New Inclusions
Haunted Fengraf - Very useful when every creature in this deck is value.

Return to Ravnica
Azorius Guildgate - A great common land, even if we did care about speed.
Transguild Promenade - Rupture Spire number two.
Voidwielder - A further bounce enter the battlefield trigger.

Dragon's Maze
Azorius Cluestone - A superior Darksteel Ingot due to late game options.


Cards I need or am on fence about:

Cut Cards that could return
1. Cloud of Fairies
2. Spellstutter Sprite

In my experience this deck has a strong one on one and multiplayer presence, with it winning the last set of games two to one, and many before I started recording.

Feedback as always is welcome.

Interesting deck. I like the mechanic around bouncing your creatures. Why did you put Trinket Mage? I think this card is great but as far as I see there are only two targets for the mage. Is that right? Maybe you want at least to add more artifacts like aether spellbomb and a leonin squire and the sanctum gargoyle for using your bounce to recure you artifacts.

Quote from Korhal

Interesting deck. I like the mechanic around bouncing your creatures. Why did you put Trinket Mage? I think this card is great but as far as I see there are only two targets for the mage. Is that right? Maybe you want at least to add more artifacts like aether spellbomb and a leonin squire and the sanctum gargoyle for using your bounce to recure you artifacts.

I've edited it slightly to be further up to date, as with all of your comments, thank you for making the effort, Korhal. You're likely correct on Trinket Mage, I used to run it whenever I could, but here the benefit is minimal. I'll likely try Rishadan Cutthroat. I'm adverse to using artifacts over auras when playing white I think, even if it does hurt with blinking, which is countered by reusing Auramancer, but as always artifacts or auras is a preference. I'll just cut TM, but one could turn to artifacts instead.

Seems super solid. When I heard about pauper EDH and the Uncommon general rule, I knew this would be my guy. Glad to have a base to start from.

Quote from Rinin

Seems super solid. When I heard about pauper EDH and the Uncommon general rule, I knew this would be my guy. Glad to have a base to start from.

Thanks, the deck can do anything and recover from most situations without going as all in or being as overtly threatening as Mistmeadow Witch, the arguably most played WU pauper general.

Archaeomancer is another great recursion dude.

Quote from imheretomomir

Archaeomancer is another great recursion dude.

Ah, I must have ommitted that in last update, thank you very much it is truly a must include.

With all your utility wizards, Vedalken Aethermage seems like a pretty good inclusion.

Here's my suggestions:

-You can free up a slot by taking out Flood; your Commander already does what Flood does.

-In this format, I've been extremely impressed with Coalition Honor Guard. It's extremely hilarious when someone else has Flood and can only target the honor guard.

-Dreamscape Artist is a good way to ramp.

-Seraph of Dawn and Dawnstrike Paladin are two super-defensive lifelink threats. I'm also a fan of Noble Templar's flexibility.

-I've been putting Alexi's Cloak in all my Blue Pauper EDH decks, and it's been extremely good.

-If you're running Aura removal spells, Can't go wrong with Curse of Chains. I think Eternity Snare might be too expensive at 6 mana, but it does cantrip, as does Hobble (which is an insane card for Pauper). Cessation and Cage of Hands are also extremely good at locking down the board and never going away. I like Mystic Restraints due to having Flash; it's very much a fire and forget kind of spell. Temporal Isolation for the same reason. Recumbent Bliss is also nice since it helps pad your life to surviving into the late game.

-I like Encrust, as it also shuts down equipment in addition to Commanders with activated abilities.

-I think Traumatic Visions should be included as a flexible counterspell that also grabs a land in a pinch.

-Allay I think is important to include as reusable enchantment hate.

@iamafanboy: Thank you I'll consider that, I do have a few wizards.

@Comicalflop: I agree Flood might not be needed should Commander not die. I'm unsure the deck needs the Dreamscape ramp and removal is currently adequate, although I should prioritize this deck to test the need for the other suggestions.

I will include Traumatic Visions as that is a great idea and I'll keep Allay in mind should metagame shift to warrant it, as no one in my shop builds more pauper decks than me, so I play more Pestilence than I oppose.