Azorius Awakening - Now With Extra "Nope"!

Commander / EDH Awaken Control Counterspell Lands WU (Azorius)

loricatuslupus

Instant (23)

• 1x Archmage's Charm
• 1x Beyeen Veil  ^Flip
• 1x Boomerang
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Disallow
• 1x Experimental Augury
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Jwari Disruption  ^Flip
• 1x Mindbreak Trap
• 1x Mirrorweave
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Opt
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Scatter to the Winds
• 1x Silence
• 1x Silundi Vision  ^Flip
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Teferi's Response
• 1x View from Above

Enchantment (10)

• 1x Confounding Conundrum
• 1x Felidar Retreat
• 1x Imprisoned in the Moon
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Retreat to Coralhelm
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Sacred Ground
• 1x Search for Azcanta  ^Flip
• 1x Shark Typhoon
• 1x Terra Eternal

Land (35)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Celestial Colonnade
• 1x Crawling Barrens
• 1x Deserted Beach
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Flagstones of Trokair
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 10x Island
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Nimbus Maze
• 5x Plains
• 1x Port Town
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Seachrome Coast
• 1x Sejiri Steppe
• 1x Skycloud Expanse
• 1x Terrain Generator

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Crush of Tentacles
• 1x Devastation Tide
• 1x Ondu Inversion  ^Flip
• 1x Part the Waterveil
• 1x Planar Outburst
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip

Planeswalker (5)

• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils
• 1x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
• 1x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
• 1x Teferi, Time Raveler
• 1x Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset

Commander (1)

Creature (14)

• 1x Admonition Angel
• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Drumbellower
• 1x Emeria Angel
• 1x Flux Channeler
• 1x Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
• 1x Halimar Tidecaller
• 1x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
• 1x Master of Waves
• 1x Murmuring Mystic
• 1x Roil Elemental
• 1x Ruin Ghost
• 1x Talrand, Sky Summoner
• 1x Tomik, Distinguished Advokist

Artifact (5)

• 1x Archaeomancer's Map
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Sapphire Medallion
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip

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Maybeboard

Instant (10)

• 1x Desertion
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Energy Arc
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Render Silent
• 1x Sejiri Shelter  ^Flip
• 1x Steady Progress
• 1x Submerge
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x To Arms!

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Approach of the Second Sun
• 1x Coastal Breach
• 1x Consuming Tide
• 1x Flood of Tears
• 1x Mystic Speculation

Creature (5)

• 1x Chrome Host Seedshark
• 1x Godhead of Awe
• 1x Herald of Secret Streams
• 1x Lullmage Mentor
• 1x Tidespout Tyrant

Enchantment (10)

• 1x As Foretold
• 1x Back to Basics
• 1x Cloud Cover
• 1x Embargo
• 1x Equinox
• 1x Frozen Aether
• 1x Inexorable Tide
• 1x Land Equilibrium
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Smothering Tithe

Artifact (5)

• 1x Darksteel Garrison
• 1x Explorer's Scope
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Veilstone Amulet

Land (10)

• 1x Cascading Cataracts
• 1x Castle Vantress
• 1x Detection Tower
• 1x Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1x Forbidding Watchtower
• 1x Irrigated Farmland
• 1x Otawara, Soaring City
• 1x Sandstone Bridge
• 1x Skyline Cascade
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment

Planeswalker (5)

• 1x Dovin Baan
• 1x Gideon, Martial Paragon
• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Narset Transcendent
• 1x Teferi, Temporal Archmage

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Back when it was new I had a pretty fun mono-blue Awaken deck that utilised irritatingly recurrable one-casts to lock things down until a Brain in a Jar could power out a big Crush of Tentacles or Part the Waterveil. Then Standard moved on, so I had a little think and adapted it for Commander. I considered going for an all-out "land matters" style deck but that would have ended up as Gruul or Jund colours, completely ruining the seaside flavour I wanted to keep. In the end, Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper let me continue playing an Awakening deck with a bit of Landfall still in there. In fact, if you can get out Retreat to Coralhelm + Ruin Ghost with a white source that enters untapped on the field then congratulations: infinite Landfall! Abuse at will.

Until you can build a good-sized army of elementals then you are the fun police, with lots of counterspells (which are modal where possible) and planar wipes to clear the board of anything that isn't a land. Cantrips help to filter and find what is needed. Playing too Azorius will irritate everyone else who's trying to have fun and lead to you getting removed first, so I've avoided going too far down the stax route. It's also important to remember that you'll never be able to counter everything, but this can be played politically by "allowing" things to resolve in exchange for favours. The key is to just seem non-threatening and convince everyone you're not worth the hassle...until you wash away the tides of filth and reclaim Zendikar. While many of the instant and sorcery cards have been chosen on the assumption that Noyan will be on the field, there's always a risk with decks that are too commander-reliant that they'll eat a Darksteel Mutation or the like and become dysfunctional. Accordingly, I've got a higher than average number of creatures than most Noyan decks to make sure it still has game without him and some alternate win-cons.

In the interest of fairness, however, I should be honest: this deck isn't very good in many pods despite having some excellent cards in. The commander costing five is a BIG drawback nowadays - especially when the deck really needs him out to function optimally - and Azorious is awful for ramp. Most precons can get their commander out turn three or four even without the 2CMC mana rocks provided, which in this deck would be completely dead draws later because they don't trigger Noyan. I think I may be forced to add some in regardless because I just keep not being able to reliably cast him, and commander tax becomes backbreaking. Things change in a more relaxed environment with other any commanders looking to play a slower game, where you can set up some enchantments and use your counters to politic without having to immediately worry about being pressured by everyone else simply because you don't have a board. If that sounds like your group then give him a go, otherwise you may be disappointed. You can also build this competitively and I've seen some killer decks but that was not ever my vision for the way I wanted to play this out.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 months
Key combos	Retreat to Coralhelm + Ruin Ghost
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.17
Tokens	Bird 1/1 W, Bird Illusion 1/1 U, Cat Beast 2/2 W, Drake 2/2 U, Elemental 1/0 U, Elephant 3/3 G, Emblem Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Emblem Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Emblem Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset, Octopus 8/8 U, Shark */* U
Folders	W.I.P