Hey Olde_English :) I really like your deck idea and now I am about to build it myself ;) The Takir Dragonlords are one of the last cycles I want to build to have a deck for each legendary dragon. That’s why I stumbled over your list and got hooked. But I have some questions concerning your card choices and would appreciate if you could give me some insight: 1. First off the manabase. Why are running City of Brass, Exotic Orchard, Forbidden Orchard, Mana Confluence or Reflecting Pool over Fetchlands or even more Basics (e.g. to support Back to Basics as additional Stax piece)? 2. Is there a reason you don’t run Grim Monolith to advance the possibility of a turn two/three Ojutai? 3. Then I was wondering why you don’t run Force of Will or Mana Drain. After all your aiming for a cEDH Level of game aren’t you?

Thanks in advance:)

StefanKaminski: Glad you like the deck! Thank you for all the great suggestions, several months ago I updated my list and it reflects many of the ideas you pitched I just haven't updated the actual deck list to reflect the changes yet. I'll be updating this list soon so stay tuned.

Hey Olde_English, Thanks for your reply :) As I‘ve been toying around with your list and started playtesting more questions came up. Perhaps you could find some time to answer them as well...

1. Auras vs. Equipment I see how you’ve chosen your auras to grant Ojutai especially doublestrike for more anticipate triggers or vigilance to give him protection. The downside of course is that if Ojutai is somehow removed the auras will be gone as well. So I was wondering if a Stoneforge Mystic, Umezawa's Jitte, Batterskull and Sword of Feast and Famine package would be better?Batterskull is good on its own and can give Ojutai the needed vigilance, Jitte is an incredible control piece handling e.g. mana dorks and the sword gives not only protection to Ojutai but also helps keeping mana open. What are your thoughts on this topic?

2. Stax vs. Interaction I see that you’ve updated your control package and I like it very much :) One card to also consider is Muddle the Mixture as it can also function as an universal tutor for all of your wincon pieces. You could swap out Delay for it as it seems to be the weakest of your counterspells. But my main question is about your choice of stax pieces especially the exclusion of some. Is there a reason you’re not running Arcane Laboratory, Rule of Law or Deafening Silence effects? I find them very useful against most combo strategies without them hurting our plans too much. While you are running Winter Orb why not also Static Orb at least for redundancy. I’m Very unsure about Sphere of Resistance: While it can mean a near perfect lockout for our opponents when our mana denial plan is working it is a dead piece if not. The last stax pieces I thought of are Linvala, Keeper of Silence and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale to shut down opposing mana dorks. I know the last one is very pricey but also very efficient :D

3. Wincons I see that you took out Approach of the Second Sun which makes me a little bit sad as it is such a unique way of winning and totally synergistic with Ojutai but you will have your reasons ;) What you kept in on the other side is Helm of Obedience which seems weird to me as it doesn’t win you the game on the spot. Why did you do so and what is or was your experience with both cards? And while we’re on it, with Approach gone is it still necessary Or worth it to keep the Scroll Rack? One more question: you mentioned Blind Obedience as a wincon in combination with dramatic scepter but you would also need white mana producing rock to produce to pull this off, aren’t you?

Thanks in advance :)

StefanKaminski: Please excuse the essay XD

My main gripe with equipment is that they tend to be a lot more mana intensive than auras and you have to run extra pieces, like Sigarda's Aid or Stoneforge Mystic, to cheat those high costs, which takes away valuable spots that could be dedicated to better cards. I chose auras over equipment after extensive play-testing and although auras are more brittle than equipment, being able to attach them early and generate huge advantage is very powerful.

I do really like Umezawa's Jitte seeing as it pumps up Ojutai and can effectively eliminate opposing mana dorks and hate-bears, I'll test it out and see how it plays. This deck is shooting for optimization, while equipment like Sword of Feast and Famine are very solid pieces in high or mid-powered metas, in competitive games they take too long to set up or are disrupted before you can generate any value from them. Voltron is just one way to win with this deck, mostly Ojutai serves as a massive distraction piece who also generates card advantage.

Muddle the Mixture is very spicy, thanks for the suggestion! As far as specific stax pieces go, I really like Deafening Silence style effects their only downside is that they are a non-bo with combos I play like Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter + Blind Obedience. I can run Disenchant effects to break parity with my own stax pieces, I just worry that I'll lock myself out of potential wins. You are right though, one spell per turn effects really hose quick combo decks and I should include one, it's just tough to identify exactly what I could swap for it.

Winter Orb and Back to Basics have been great "no untapping allowed" pieces so I haven't felt the need to have another. I'd like to play-test Static Orb and see if I prefer it over any of my other pieces.

I have play-tested both Sphere of Resistance and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and didn't like how either performed. Usually they slowed me down as much as my opponents and didn't cause enough disruption to warrant including in the main board.

In this particular list, Cursed Totem functions as a better version of Linvala, Keeper of Silence and is easier to tutor up in Azorius colors. The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is similar to Timetwister, great cards and I'd run them if I had several thousand dollars to spend on them, unfortunately I don't have that kind of cash lying around.

I love Approach of the Second Sun and if I was ever powering down this list it would go right back in right alongside a ton of crazy equipment. Trying to optimize things though makes keeping a seven mana spell that doesn't win the game on the spot tough.

I imagine you already know but just in case, Helm of Obedience is meant to pair with Rest in Peace to kill off one person at a time, it isn't the most streamlined combo but Azorius in general suffers from a lack of ultra-efficient game winning combos. The best way to navigate it is to play Rest in Peace early on, then use something like Whir of Invention to put Helm of Obedience into play on the end-step before my turn begins, kill a player, start my next turn, untap and kill another player. I go back and forth a lot on whether or not to remove Helm and add effects like Luminarch Ascension (which can also win with Dramatic Scepter combo), extra mana rocks or hate pieces. It's a never ending tinkering process.

Scroll Rack pairs incredibly well with Land Tax and is a solid way to get out of dead hands. I can also use it to put two or three dead cards on top of my library, deal damage with Ojutai, filter the top three and set myself up for fresh draws. It might not be an optimal card choice but it always performs well when I need it too and is a versatile tool to have at my disposal.

And yes Blind Obedience does need a white or black producing mana rock in order to stack infinite extort triggers. Six out of my ten mana rocks can produce white mana, seven if you count Copy Artifact. It's not perfect but sometimes when you're trying to make a fringe strategy work you've got to bank on a bit of luck.

Thank you for all your feedback, I appreciate it!

Hey Olde_English,

Thanks again answering my questions. Your insight and experience are of huge value for someone like me who tries to get a grip of the deck :)

My thoughts on the equipment package came from the (I guess now outdated) Caw Blade decks that were played in legacy some time ago. The sword was mostly used as disruptive control piece along with the jitte. The whole idea came up when I saw Serra Ascendant in your list :D But you are definitely right that auras are a lot faster then equipments, as long as we have Ojutai out. I don’t want to be too blunt but if Ojutai is mainly a card advantage creating distraction, why use so many resources on him at all?

Thanks for your feedback on all the stax pieces I’ve mentioned. Most of them came up when I went through an old mono-white Stax list I played in legacy. Wild times :P You’re right, as long as dramatic scepter is in the deck one-spell-per-turn enchantments harm as as much as an opponent. I oversaw that one :D Linvala, Keeper of Silence is a meta decision I believe. I encounter Najeela, Thrasios, Urza, Tasigur and Heliod lists a lot. Most of them run excessive amounts of mana dorks and all of them are shut down by Linvala or similar effects so I want to have as many of them as possible.

Yes I played the helm combo in miracles when it was still viable. I guess you made the point against this combo in your statement about Approach of the Second Sun: in your scenario it’s an eight mana combo that doesn’t win on the spot. Luminarch Ascension is quite interesting though I’m not a big fan of combat based wincons but as you already said: we don’t have many options...

Yes I forgot that you’re running Land Tax. Actually that was one of my first cuts mostly because of my meta. I never found my opponents having more lands than me so it was always a dead card. I tried out As Foretold instead which works really good for me!

Thank you for all your time. I will also keep you updated on my further experience with this deck. I’m sure there will be more questions in the future and your knowledge is worth so much. Thank you!

Hey hey StefanKaminski,

I appreciate you being blunt, it helps me refine this list.

I don't want Ojutai to be just a big distraction, but from a purely strategic standpoint I don't mind if he absorbs removal because my opponents are scared of the threat he presents. Ojutai is the centerpiece of this deck and I don't want to drift too far away from that, the idea is to harmonize the commander damage threat with a stax package.

I'm not super familiar with legacy decks but I looked up Caw Blade just to get an idea of it and my god is it spicy! Serra Ascendant is such a gimmicky card and I'm a huge fan of how cheesy it can be. A lot of lists don't run it because it's not the most efficient spell but personally I think the threat of a 6/6 lifelink, flyer is great. It's a huge removal target and can significantly reduce the life total of filthy mages who are trying to spam cards like Ad Nauseam and Necropotence.

I'm going to give Deafening Silence another chance, yes it can be a non-bo, but it can also absolutely hose decks that are looking to spam spells. One of the hardest things about piloting stax decks is timing certain stax pieces, I get a little better every time I pilot this deck but I still have a long way to go.

I'm curious about Storage Matrix, it's a wacky piece but can shut off opposing aggro if my opponents value their mana more than their creatures. If Deafening Silence is too much of a hindrance I'll swap it for Storage Matrix and see how it performs.

I also swapped Delay for Muddle the Mixture and added in Fierce Guardianship, gotta keep my counter game strong!