While Commander is pretty much an anything-goes format even as far up as bracket four, cEDH is a different matter entirely. There’s a clear suite of top decks at this level, almost akin to the kind of metagame you see in formats like Standard and Modern. This makes it harder for offbeat strategies to shine, and, by extension, all the more exciting when they do. In a major cEDH event this week, one such strategy, an Azami, Lady of Scrolls deck, put in a surprisingly strong performance.
Azami, Lady Of Scrolls In cEDH
With MTG player Troy Sakai at the helm, this Azami, Lady of Scrolls list claimed 5th-8th place in a 112-player cEDH event in Nashville. As is the case for most Azami strategies, this is a Thassa’s Oracle combo deck. Azami goes infinite with Mind Over Matter, tapping itself to draw, then discarding a card to the enchantment to untap and repeat. This lets you dig through your whole deck before finishing on Oracle or Laboratory Maniac.
This is the deck’s simplest route to victory, but it has a range of other options, too. The Valley Floodcaller/Retraction Helix combo also features here, letting you recast something like Mox Amber over and over. This, in turn, can give you an infinitely large Floodcaller to swing with, or just loot through your deck with Kitsa, Otterball Elite for a Thoracle win. The deck also includes the legendary Isochron Scepter/Dramatic Reversal line, which can make infinite mana and draw your deck with ease.
What makes Azami particularly well-suited to this style of deck, despite its lack of colors, is how many of the creatures involved are incidentally Wizards. Thoracle, Laboratory Maniac, Kitsa, Floodcaller and more all have the type line, letting them serve as free draw with Azami. This draw is incredibly difficult to interact with, too, making it more reliable than other card advantage Commanders in cEDH like Tymna, the Weaver.
With so much card advantage available out of the command zone, Azami can get to its combo pieces very quickly indeed. Once it has everything ready, it also runs a surprisingly deep suite of protection and interaction. The classic free counterspells like Force of Will and Pact of Negation let you pop off without a care, while removal like Pongify and Sink into Stupor gets rid of opposing stax pieces.
Artifice And Enchantment
Sakai’s Azami list is primarily a Wizard-based combo brew, but it also has a significant sideline in artifacts and enchantments. As with many cEDH lists right now, it leans heavily into draw engines like Rhystic Study and Mystic Remora to supplement Azami itself. Not only does Sakai run both of these cards, but also multiple ways to snatch them from opponents, like Mirrormade and Steal Enchantment.
With this setup, it’s easy to set up an absurd card advantage engine even if Azami catches removal. Factor in The One Ring with the Voltaic Key/Manifold Key untap suite, and you’ve got several routes to total hand size domination.
These untap effects also allow for explosive mana turns using rocks like Gilded Lotus and Grim Monolith, which helps get around blue’s lack of access to top-tier ramp. You can even get Liquimetal Torque involved to start untapping your Wizards for more draw, or to make an opposing Rhystic Study a valid target for Copy Artifact.
In addition to advancing Sakai’s own game plan, the artifact and enchantment suite here also serves to set back opponents. There are plenty of potent stax pieces here, with cards like Trinisphere and Counterbalance taking starring roles. Together with disruptive creatures such as Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, the deck can absolutely stall games when it needs to.
While Mono-Blue doesn’t have the best traditional tutor suite to grab these key cards, it does still have some surprisingly solid options. Muddle the Mixture, for example, can grab many of your key pieces while also being a decent Counterspell when needed. Vedalken Aethermage and Step Through are in a similar space, opening up access to your Wizard suite at all times.
Strengths And Weaknesses
Though it’s undeniably novel for the current cEDH metagame, Sakai’s Azami, Lady of Scrolls list isn’t a new player based on one result alone. It’ll need to prove itself in more events for that, which means contending with top dogs like Tymna/Kraum and Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy.
Against these decks, Azami’s biggest weakness is its speed. While it can have strong starts mana-wise, it lacks the tools other decks have that make these happen consistently. This can leave Azami flailing somewhat in the early game, especially if it fails to get a draw engine going quickly. The deck’s disruption suite and stax pieces can certainly help here, but you won’t be able to hold off multiple fast opponents for long.
That said, it’s not all bad news for Azami, as it actually excels at grindier tables when players aren’t running Turbo decks. With a bit more room to breathe, Azami can easily take control of a game and pull ahead on cards thanks to its broad range of draw options. Thanks to its novel Stax elements, it can often slow things down to a speed it’s comfortable with, too.
Overall, Azami, Lady of Scrolls is an intriguing cEDH deck indeed. It’s a blend of playstyles we don’t see too often in the format, under a Commander we pretty much never see there. Whether it’ll go on to establish a niche for itself in cEDH remains to be seen, but it’s great to see innovation like this regardless.
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