[CMD] Fully Foil Azor - Dangerously Durdley

Commander / EDH thisjourneyends

SCORE: 11 | 19 COMMENTS | 4561 VIEWS | IN 5 FOLDERS

Dec 2017 - Iconic Masters —Nov. 30, 2017

Iconic Masters had a good number of cards I have kept my eye on. When the Black Friday promotions came out, I pulled the trigger on a number of big ticket cards.

I'm starting to have a more coherent concept of what I want this deck to be: a control deck that plays exactly the way I WANT it to play. I want the deck to be powerful, but when I add/remove cards it's ultimately not about "card X is better than card Y," it's "I want to cast card X more than I want to cast card Y." This deck is at a point where card swaps are not just about power level, they're about making the deck fun for me and fulfilling that vision of my ideal control deck.

With that in mind...

• IN: Mana Drain (IMA foil). With IMA, I no longer have an excuse to not run the best counterspell ever printed. The IMA printing has awesome new artwork and looks stunning in foil. I don't care for the Judge promo artwork, though that does give a watermark (which I like). In my head, this (plus Pact of Negation further down) goes a long way to making my counter suite "finalized."
• IN: Cryptic Command (IMA foil). Similar to Mana Drain, this was a card I sort of knew would eventually work its way into the deck. 4 mana is a lot, but this is a truly versatile card that I have a lot of history with from playing UW/x in Modern. The outstanding new artwork in IMA pushed it over the edge for me though, and I fully expect this card won't ever leave the deck.
• IN: Consecrated Sphinx (NPH foil). Conc Sphinx got reprinted in IMA also. I prefer the NPH printing so I can have the phyrexian watermark, but I went ahead and bought it along with the rest of these cards because I figure it won't get much cheaper than right after a reprint. Conc Sphinx is a great wincon, and I kind of wanted an additional big threat now that I am bringing in Mana Drain. Consecrated Sphinx, Sun Titan, and Aetherling are now a trio of 6 mana wincons, and that appeals to me.
• IN: Venser, Shaper Savant (FUT foil). Since seeing Venser in a friend's UW commander deck, I was pretty set on picking up a copy for myself. Wonderfully versatile answer - I'm excited to run Venser because he's basically always an answer for the most threatening thing going on at the table, be it a combo player's spell or a nasty permanent. I particularly enjoy that Venser is capable of doing things and stopping spells that (almost) no other card can, like Supreme Verdict. I was really annoyed to have to pay a premium for the FUT artwork, but I am so glad I did - the foiling around his hands and the floating magical glyphs looks sweet, and let's face it, the FTV artwork is honestly lame.
• IN: Pact of Negation (MMA foil). As mentioned above, I'm thinking this round of upgrades will more or less finalize my countermagic suite. I am interested in having a secondary "free" counterspell to supplement the fact that I won't be running Force of Will (due to exile clause), and Pact is definitely much better than stuff like Foil (though there's a great pun there). The fact that I'm bringing in Tolaria West pushed this one over the edge.
• IN: Whir of Invention (AER foil). I ran this card for a while and took it out, but it keeps coming up in my mind. I want to give this card a second try. It's not that I have more things to tutor up or anything, I just want to push this card a little further. The base level for this card seems to be "3 mana instant, go get an artifact land", and if it's either that or "4 mana instant, go get Sensei's Top" then that sounds appealing.
• IN: Tolaria West (FUT foil). As I upgrade my mana base and add Pact of Negation, Tolaria West only becomes better and better. I dig that this gives me an extra bullet to search for with Expedition Map, and I like that this will soon be able to transmute for Minamo.

• IN: Minamo, School at Water's Edge (CHK foil). This land was well overdue for my deck. It's stellar at protecting my commander, and it makes my Expedition Map / Trinket Mage that much better. No more excuses, I coughed up for a foil copy.

• OUT: Dissolve. With my countermagic suite getting several upgrades (Mana Drain, Cryptic Command, Pact of Negation) I decided to cut my worst counterspell. I'll miss Dissolve, as it's a nice nod to UW control from RTR/THS standard, but it's clearly the weakest of my counters.

• OUT: Hieroglyphic Illumination. This card was always in there for fun while I had an empty slot to play with. I'm more than happy to remove it in favor of more versatile cards like Cryptic Command or Whir of Invention.
• OUT: Jace, Unraveller of Secrets. In my head, this card got cut to make room for Venser, Shaper Savant. I was interested in Jace Unraveller in large part because of his creature bounce - imo, it made him a solid card in just about any board state, able to either get rid of a scary permanent with his minus or accumulate card advantage with his plus. Venser doesn't accumulate card advantage in the same way, but I do view him as a similarly "always a good topdeck" card where it's quite rare that he will be unhelpful on a given board state. I'm also thinking that cutting this Jace would leave the door open for squeezing in Jace AoT (which I have a lot of history with) or Narset Transcendent.
• OUT: Compulsive Research. We're starting to get to the point where I don't have many obvious cuts. The cards in the deck are good, and it's just a matter of trimming the weakest or the least fun cards. Compulsive Research is fun to cast, but is honestly on the weaker side of 3 mana plays I could be doing in the deck.
• OUT: Rhystic Study. Cutting Rhystic Study is likely a mistake in the context of the deck's power level, but I honestly think that the resulting deck will be more fun for me. I simply don't like having this card in play, even if I'm the one controlling it. It's annoying to constantly remind people about the trigger, and I understand the frustration the card causes when some players pay for it and others don't. At the end of the day, my aim for this deck is to make a control deck that plays the way I want to play, and Rhystic Study doesn't fit that vision.
• OUT: Faith's Fetters. 4 mana to answer any one permanent is good, and I've gotten a lot of mileage from this card. But, when I'm bringing in other 4 mana "answer any permanent" cards like Cryptic Command and Venser, Shaper Savant, this card becomes worse by comparison.
• OUT: Arcane Lighthouse. I'm really not sure about this cut, Arcane Lighthouse is a great hedge against some very difficult to answer threats. But, I needed to make land cuts somewhere, and I have to be honest that in my local player group, Arcane Lighthouse is rarely worth the slot. There's only one or two consistent voltron players, and I do at least have Terminus plus cards like Cryptic Command, etc to buy time.
• OUT: New Benalia. I needed to cut a second land to make room for Minamo. As my manabase slowly gets more and more tuned, I have to make some tough cuts. Starting with the assumption that I don't want to cut a dual for a nondual, my options are either a colorless land or a tapland. I decided I wasn't willing to cut any of my 4 colorless lands, so I'm left with the 7 taplands. Four of those lands only produce a single color; Mistveil Plains is a backdoor way to reset my graveyard that doesn't rely on Elixir of Immortality, I decided I didn't want to cut either of Secluded Steppe or Lonely Sandbar unless I cut the other, so that leaves New Benalia.