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Athenian Legacy

Commander / EDH Attrition Blink Combo Control Multiplayer Value Engine WU (Azorius)

Archon_Bel

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Creature (31)

Instant (19)

Artifact (10)

Sorcery (1)

Commander (1)

Commander: Ephara, God of the Polis

Land (36)

Enchantment (2)

I've always liked the Azorius colors and wanted to build a well-working Azorius deck for a long time, but I always had issues with mana ramp and effectively using the colors' typical playstyle of being very reactive with "draw-go" and playing a low amount of creatures. Thankfully, Ephara, God of the Polis encourages taking Blue/White in a different direction by focusing on playing creatures and amassing advantage and control through them. For that reason, I chose her to be my commander, and with her, I've been able to feel like I'm actually doing things throughout the game instead of just waiting to respond at a particular moment or slowing down the game with an excessive amount of counter spells and stax effects.

The main strategy is to play a lot of good EtB value and board control creatures and then flicker them for their own effects and Ephara's draw on the following turn. By playing this way, I can accrue an insane amount of value; keep opponents in check by preventing them from attacking me, increasing their board presence, or dissuading them from focusing on me; and dig for my wincon. Winning is done through the classic Altar of Dementia + Karmic Guide + Reveillark to mill out all of my opponents. Even if they did happen to have something like an original Eldrazi Titan in their decks, doing the combo with Venser, Shaper Savant in tow ensures everyone but me will be set back to turn 0.

While perhaps less effective, another way to win is through combat damage AND commander damage. It's fairly easy to turn Ephara into a creature, and with 6/5 stats, she is rather threatening, especially when I'm bouncing away the opponent's defenses. My other creatures, even while their stats are less impressive, will collectively rack up a lot of damage over time as well.

As fun as this deck is to play, it's unfortunately rather slow in getting started. Comes with the territory of being an Azorius player, I suppose, but it's easy to find myself on a backfoot for a good part of the early and early-mid game. However, that can potentially be used as an advantage if the table is open to politicking and playing "fairly"; a slow start can be used as leverage to let me fly under the radar and build up my board without much resistance, after which I can sneak up and establish myself as a pretty notable threat while keeping a tightening hold on the flow of the game.

Thanks for reading! Comments and suggestions appreciated!

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