My current Azami list - 3/7/18
Deck is aimed for a competitive environment.
Winning:
Mind Over Matter + Azami, Lady of Scrolls - Cycle deck, keeping the rocks. Use draw cards when you draw them so you can increase hand size. Play Laboratory Maniac with rocks you draw and win.
Paradox Engine + Azami, Lady of Scrolls + Wizards/Rocks - Won't win on the spot, but hard to fizzle. Just draw, play and keep going until you get to Laboratory Maniac.
Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal + Azami, Lady of Scrolls - Same as above combo, just assemble Iso Rev and use rocks to cast Azami. Once you have Azami, you have infinite draw and can get Labman for win.
Gameplan
Typically the plan is to not turbo out Azami, Lady of Scrolls out right away. She costs way too much and you basically have to keep mana open each turn to police the table. Instead cast value Wizards so that on the turn you do cast Azami, you can draw 3-4 cards. The deck is really a late game control deck that wins with a combo once you have enough backup to go for it. Early/mid game is just making sure no one else is winning while you slowly build board and gain value. If the board is open, then casting Azami early isn't wrong. This really is dependent on the situation and your call.
Laboratory Maniac is the a wincon. Don't let it get exiled, don't let it go to grave if you can help it. You lose if it gets exiled, you have to twist if it goes to grave. You can also win with Blue Sun's Zenith when you have IsoRev active.
Muddle the Mixture is typically used to look for Isochron Scepter or Dramatic Reversal.
Baral, Chief of Compliance and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
, are all pseudo draw methods that do other things. Baral makes things cheaper and Jace gives you flashback.
Minamo, School at Water's Edge used to be paired with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx for value, but Nykthos is only good if you have several wizards out - not always the case. I rather have an island for Nykthos and use Minamo to get extra Azami, JVP draws.
High Tide is used like a dark ritual mostly in this deck. I usually don't force the High Tide Candelabra of Tawnos combo, but let it come naturally.
Fabricate - Use it to get Paradox / Isochron normally. Adding Transmute Artifact as well as other artifact tutors is probably a good idea as well. You want to be able to get Paradox or Isochron out. Whir of Invention and Reshape aren't bad either.
Timetwister + Time Spiral is for getting my win cons back into the deck if they get pitched somehow. If I can't cast them early, then I don't cast at all. You won't get value like your opponents will off the wheels because the deck is about pushing micro advantages and your opponents will just refuel off of them. I normally cast blindly on my combo turns.
Candelabra of Tawnos is another way to get blue mana. I can't stress enough how island dependent the deck is. This filters your rocks into color and obviously works well with High Tide
Back to Basics Azami isn't a stax deck, but this card works too well with our mana base. It slows opponents down enough on it's own, and will save our need to play counterspells. It also draws out removal.
Trinket Mage Normally used to get Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Grafdigger's Cage or Candelabra of Tawnos. Maybe Sensei's Divining Top
Gush is something I took out and put back in. It really allows you go off with just Mind Over Matter + Azami. Otherwise you need your hand-size to be larger when comboing and sometimes not possible. You need to be able to cycle your hand into enough cards to cast lab man. Sometimes this means several rocks and lab man. Other times you have the mana available already and just need to start the combo with two cards, three if you want protection. Gush nets you four cards to discard.
Cut
Sage of Fables, Glen Elendra Archmage, Vedalken AEthermage - This combo too much work to get online and it's slow. Takes up too much mana sorcery speed to set up. Spending 4 mana to play Glen Elendra with one more mana for a counter means you are already ahead.
Venser, Shaper Savant - Cost too much mana. Almost never play it on our own turn. Rather spend the mana on two counters instead.
Long-Term Plans gets the needed combo piece. Can most likely draw whatever you search the next turn with the amount of draw you have. Its however very slow without Azami in play and dead until then.
Turnabout - 4 mana do nothing spell for most of game but can be good randomly for tapping down opponents or comboing on your turn. Just costs too much.
Stonybrook Banneret - Our wizard count is so low that this doesn't help often. It's also not a wizard itself.
Stern Proctor - Mostly used to get rid of artifact Stax pieces on winning turn. Also a wizard.
Vedalken Shackles is nice because you can keep changing targets. Mostly used to gain value or take away cards like Linvala, Keeper of Silence. Right now rather have cheap spell removal instead.
Lightning Greaves - Only really useful on Azami, dead in all other situations.
Stroke of Genius - Alternate wincon if you should lose Laboratory Maniac. You'll have to go infinite with Iso-rev, stroke 1, twist, stroke 2, snap, and stroke 3. At the moment, we have Blue Sun's Zenith
Chain of Vapor - Great bounce spell, but sucks when they sacrifice a land to bounce Azami.
Ethereal Usher - Tutor for Mind Over Matter feels extra clunky. Mind Over Matter itself is already super clunky and many people don't even bother playing this and stick to IsoRev + Paradox.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - Used to play this, but there just isn't enough blue permanents to support it. The colorless hurts surprisingly often.
Flip
