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Dragon's Eye Sanctuary | Dragonlord Ojutai EDH

Commander / EDH* Competitive Control Primer Stax Voltron WU (Azorius)

Olde_English


"Any who deviate from the teachings of Ojutai and his disciples are seen not as political dissidents, but as heretics following a false path to enlightenment. Such sacrilege is swiftly and brutally punished."

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Planeswalker's Guide to Dragons of Tarkir


Deck Synopsis:

Threatening wins consistently in Commander with a combat-oriented strategy, especially at competitive tables, is a tough task. Voltron, in competitive circles at least, is viewed as more of a meme strategy than a respected archetype. This deck aims to to change that narrative by blending the best elements of a fast, aggressive Voltron strategy with the balance and control spells of a sinister stax package.

The central theme of this strategy is pressure. The stax effects I utilize are meant to work in tandem with Dragonlord Ojutai, ideally forcing my opponents to respond to multiple threats simultaneously. Facing down hate-pieces like Cursed Totem and an evasive, five power commander forces players to make quick decisions and prioritize their removal spells. Piloting this deck at a high level requires a high degree of both patience and precision.

Why Ojutai?

Dragonlord Ojutai is card advantage from the command zone and an evasive, powerful threat. Hexproof provides Dragonlord Ojutai protection from targeted removal and flying puts him over the heads of most would be blockers. However, Dragonlord Ojutai's Anticipate-strike is what truly sets him apart from other Azorius commanders.

Dragonlord Ojutai's Anticipate-strike ability is highly underrated. It can even be stacked with effects that give him double-strike, such as Battle Mastery, which will turn his Anticipate-strike into essentially a Dig Through Time-strike. Anticipating multiple times over the course of a long game grinds me into tremendous amounts of value and puts win-conditions such as Helm of Obedience + Rest in Peace directly into my hand.

Welcome to Dragon's Eye Sanctuary.


Deck Guide

Opening Hand:

Cavern of Souls, Hallowed Fountain, Ancient Tomb, Mana Vault, Windfall, Enlightened Tutor, Force of Will


Turn One: Play Cavern of Souls naming Dragons, Cast Mana Vault

Turn Two: Play Hallowed Fountain, Pay , Cast an uncounterable Dragonlord Ojutai

Hands like this lead directly to quick commander damage and card advantage. Ideally, I draw into potent auras or relevant stax pieces such as All That Glitters and Hushbringer. Having Enlightened Tutor at my disposal opens up the ability to find ramp like Mana Crypt, a Smothering Tithe to work off the Windfall in my hand, or whatever relevant stax hate I might need like Blind Obedience or Cursed Totem.


Protecting Dragonlord Ojutai from harm is essential for generating as much advantage as possible and grinding out victories. Here are some examples of great protection cards:

A blue deck that runs an absurd amount of counter spells and interaction, what is this madness?? Ojutai, for very obvious and aggressive reasons, always ends up being a high priority target for removal spells so I have to have a plethora of ways to prevent him, and my other important pieces, from being removed. Cards like Fierce Guardianship and Force of Will are particularly powerful ways to prevent opposing Toxic Deluge's from ruining my day.



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"Human enlightenment is a firefly that sparks in the night. Dragon enlightenment is a beacon that disperses all darkness."

You don't need $5000 to build a solid Dragonlord Ojutai deck, if you follow the basic template I've set up with my list you'll be opening up your own monastery in no time!

The first place you can cut costs is the artifact ramp. Over the course of five years I've been able to invest into cards like Mana Crypt, Chrome Mox and Mana Vault. They can easily be swapped with cards like Marble Diamond, Sky Diamond, or Everflowing Chalice. Lands also tend to be obnoxiously expensive. Ancient Tomb is a fantastic card but Temple of the False God or additional basic lands are far cheaper. You can make similar changes with pricey counter spells like Force of Will and Mana Drain, substituting them for cheaper options such as Arcane Denial or Misdirection is an easy way to spare your wallet a lot of heartache.

The general rule is: if a card is out of your price range, replace it with a lower priced option that has relatively the same effect. Each card in this deck has a specific purpose so whatever you replace make sure the new additions stay true to the original pieces. It does becomes tricky with cards like Enlightened Tutor or Mystical Tutor. There really aren't replacements for tutors so instead fill those spots with utility cards that work well in your specific meta. Run extra card draw, removal, or Voltron enchantments instead.

This build could be very effective on a $50-$100 budget so don't be put off by the price tag that's listed here. Dragon's Eye Sanctuary is open to everyone!

Thank you to everyone who's offered constructive feedback and helped make this the #1 Dragonlord Ojutai deck on TappedOut!

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Suggestions

Updates Add

I've made some sweeping changes to this deck in an effort to optimize its two main themes, stax and voltron, to the highest degree. I cut out the Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal combo lines. I found that when I would draw into these pieces they were slowing me down and trying to utilize spells like Blind Obedience to chain infinite mana into wins was clunky and unreliable. Ojutai is such a high-priority removal target that I needed to make room for a much interaction as possible and new stax pieces that I want to playtest.

Zendikar has gifted this deck some new goodies, Confounding Conundrum and Archon of Emeria, both seem solid at face value and will be play-tested extensively. Archon is sort of a cross between Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Rule of Law on a flying body. Having the ability to slow down oppents while simultaneously being able to block out small creatures like Tymna is fantastic. Confounding Conundrum is a card I'm a bit torn over, I think it can be good at the right table but isn't always the optimal choice. I've been facing obnoxious, mono-green commanders lately that spam Exploration like effects and I feel like Confounding Conundrum can hurt them in a significant way. There's also fetch-lands everywhere at high power/ competitive tables and CC hits those particularly hard as well. We'll see how these cards pan out.

There's still a lot of work to be done on the primer itself but that's nothing new. See you all with another update in a few months.

Comments

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Casual

94% Competitive

Revision 26 See all

(3 years ago)

-1 Adarkar Wastes main
+1 Apostle's Blessing main
+1 Archon of Emeria main
+1 Arid Mesa main
-1 Blind Obedience main
+1 Chain of Vapor main
+1 Confounding Conundrum main
-1 Deafening Silence main
+1 Delay main
-1 Dramatic Reversal main
+1 Fellwar Stone main
-1 Glacial Fortress main
-1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV main
+2 Island main
-1 Isochron Scepter main
+1 Jeweled Amulet main
+1 Lotus Petal main
+1 Mental Misstep main
+1 Miscast main
-1 Mox Opal main
and 27 other change(s)
Top Ranked
  • Achieved #1 position overall 4 years ago
Date added 4 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

5 - 0 Mythic Rares

39 - 0 Rares

25 - 0 Uncommons

15 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 1.88
Tokens Bird 2/2 U, Treasure
Folders decks i like, LEGIT IDEAS, Liked decks, 75% Optimized EDH Decks, jesus christ, Commander, EDH, Ideas, Ojati competitive, Copied Deck Orig.
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