Hey man, last time we talked I was in the process of converting my Temporal build of Azami to a more traditional hard control list. I'm still in the process of making tweaks and changes and the deck is still far from finished, but I've removed all the extra turn spells and cards that synergize with them for more control pieces. I'd like you to take a look at my list now since you've piloted the control build for longer. My temporal build can still be found here Temporal Azami so if you'd like to update your Why Azami tab for Temporal Azami you can. Anyways, I'd love to hear your input.

Ah, okay, I'll update that link. I have my first final tomorrow so I probably won't have a chance to really look at your new build until after that, but I'll definitely check it out as soon as I get the chance.

Sounds good.

Hey, just wondering if you got the chance to check out my list. I'm looking for opinions on certain cards too and how you feel about them. I can explain more later when you're up for it.

I glanced at it, but finals hit me harder than expected and I didn't have the time to write out a good reply. Now that finals are done though I should be able to get some feedback to you later tonight or tomorrow.

I feel that, I have finals next week. Thanks.

Interesting, interesting... always fun to see someone who digs far into the primer of Azami so that I can see a different perspective and angles of thinking that I haven't thought of before. A few thoughts:

Docent of Perfection  ^Flip: It costs so much and only nets you a couple tokens... I've never found it worth it unless you're going for an aggro win in which case you need Door of Destinies and Diviner's Wand. I'd put Glen Elendra Archmage there instead, you can have a 2/2 flying wizard with persist and counter something for the same cost.

Do you like running Tezzeret the Seeker ? I assume you're going to use him to yank out combo pieces which Transmute Artifact will also do, and on top of that Transmute Artifact is more tutorable.

No High Tide?

How do you like your suite of counterspells. There's lots of situational counters and soft counters, I've always played blue with a 'no means no' mentality.

Let me know what you think and stop by my build, it's temporal but what the heck. I'm eventually going to build a full control version as well, if college ever ends. Azami, Lady of Beatin' Yo A**

Yeah, Transmute Artifact probably is better than Tezzeret, I'll have to test it to make sure but the reduced mana cost is probably a good thing.

Docent of Perfection  ^Flip has several interactions that are really fun, including Voidmage Prodigy causing all my spells to create another counterspell, Intruder Alarm letting me dig through a ridiculous amount of cards with Azami, and of course producing infinite tokens off of Dramatic Scepter. I don't know if it's the best thing in the world, but it's silly.

As for High Tide, I actually had that in here at one point (it's still in the list I own/play at my LGS) but I don't really like it because it doesn't feel like it contributes a lot to the overall win. Early game it isn't that great at providing acceleration, and that's where I feel like Azami really needs it. It does give a lot of mana late game though but I don't think that's nearly as useful, and since I'm not running Palinchron combos it doesn't feel worth it to keep High Tide as well.

What I'm trying to do with my counterspell suite is have access to them as early as possible. When I was running more expensive but harder counterspells there were several times where I thought "It's a shame this isn't a 1 mana soft counter right now, I could stop that guy from winning." I primarily aimed my counterspells at a few things:

• Early ramp from opponents - cards like Spell Pierce, Mental Misstep (also hits mana dorks), Ceremonious Rejection, etc
• Dealing with threats - Arcane Denial, Counterspell, Mana Drain, Force of Will, Swan Song, etc
• Protection - Force of Will, Pact of Negation, Dispel, Flusterstorm, Swan Song, etc

The idea with the counterspells is that we don't need to necessarily shut things down forever. Just for long enough to be a nuisance to them and to either win or let someone else find a way to deal with it.

Thanks for the feedback, and I'll check out your list as soon as I get a chance.

I just felt like adding some of my thoughts particularly about Ceremonious Rejection. I feel like Annul is a strictly better early counter than it in cEDH. It's just more versatile and it does the same job of countering early artifact ramp. You'll also be able to hit stuff like Stony Silence, Exploration, Carpet of Flowers, Burgeoning etc.

Funny thing but I just stuck an Annul into my deck the other day.

What would the list look like if you had to build without candelabra, Timetwister and mana drain? (basically everything over 100$), so a budget-ish version of the deck?

That's a question I'm actively working on, because until I graduate I likely won't have the funds for the super expensive things myself. This list is my reference point where I'm tuning what will be the final version of the deck.

Timetwister -> Day's Undoing. This is basically a straight replacement in most situations.

Mana Drain -> Some other counterspell, preferably a 2 mana one. Memory Lapse maybe?

Candelabra of Tawnos -> A decent mana rock, maybe? Possibly also another removal spell like Pongify.

I'm currently testing a couple new things (Impulse, Misdirection, Stifle) and any of those could be subbed in as well. Once I get that sorted, I should have a pretty good idea of what a "budget" list will look like since that's what I'll actually own. I just need to track down a few more cards first. I'll get back to you with a bit more detail (which basically means a copied list without the expensive stuff) once I decide on those three cards.

Which reminds me I need to update the primer soon...

I have a few thoughts as I have done thorough testing with these.

• Day's Undoing: It's a fair replacement for Timetwister, but you won't nearly get the same result if you are doing it early game or want to have good recursion.

• Memory Lapse / another 2 mana counter: It's a solid counterspell, but nowhere near being a replacement for Mana Drain. I'd advise getting an Italian Mana Drain as you can get them for around $100 (maybe even a bit less), which isn't too bad in comparison to the English version.

• Pongify / another rock: Candelabra of Tawnos serves the purpose of amping up your existing landbase or causes your rocks that tap for colorless to give you some blue when needed. That being said I'd recommend running a similar effect like Extraplanar Lens. Really solid and definitely worth investing in Snow-Covered Islands. I still think you should run a Pongify though, as it is excellent removal.

• Impulse: It acts as a mini Dig Through Time and gets you answers when you need them. Solid.

• Misdirection: It generally acts as protection for your spells or permanents and is a budget version of Force of Will in the right scenario. I still think Flusterstorm is a much better option in a competitive meta.

• Stifle: I really, really, really, like this card, but it occupies a slot that I found was better for Pongify. I'm running both Rapid Hybridization and Pongify in my list right now and I must say it is working excellently.

I picked up a Day's Undoing already, that's definitely in until I can afford its big brother.

I've been seriously considering cutting Magus of the Future for Impulse. The Magus is nice for digging but he's very expensive and I'm not liking how it competes with Azami.

Mana Drain pretty much doesn't have a replacement when it comes to 2-mana counters to be honest, I just picked Memory Lapse because it wasn't already in the list.

The more I consider Misdirection the more I like it, and the same goes for Stifle and the second Pongify effect. I'm going to have mess with the list a lot to try to fit everything in.

Update:

I've been working on updating the list and the primer for Aether Revolt, and I'm working on some overviews of matchups as well. I've put together a "budget" list that has been updated for Aether Revolt (I own everything aside from the new cards, the expensive fetches, and the Cavern) and that list can be found here. There's no primer for it yet since most of the card choices are the same, I just cut expensive things from it. This list will be where I keep the primer and have a non-budget list.

I'm like, very late, but has there been any notable changes in the last few months since you played the deck? I'm working on Azami myself. Well, casual/semi-competitive Azami, but I was wondering how well it works without MoM after so long? I'm not going to run MoM because of it's price tag, no, but because it is easily tutorable.

@RedJokr: So I'm really late on replying to this but no I haven't changed the list at all recently. I've still been having a lot of success without the MoM, it's really not necessary to the deck at all anymore. Paradox Engine just sort of values you into winning the game most of the time. Good luck with building your Azami list!

No problem about the late reply! I don't mind at all. I like the thought of MoM, but it's too easy. Paradox Engine even without the Scepter can win games alone. Thanks for building a wonderful list and for the luck!

I went into more detail on this in the description, but I also don't like the risk associated with MoM. You're pitching resources with every step, whereas with Paradox Engine you're gaining resources. It makes it much harder to stop once it gets going, even if it's a little harder to start. And the ease of tutoring (especially the potential to do it at instant speed with Whir of Invention) more than makes up for it in my opinion.

The more and more I looked at MoM, I realized that it was a lot of risk because of the discard. Paradox Engine is ultimately the best wincon. You don't even have to go infinite with it. Just it being on the field alone with at least one castable spell is enough. Like you said, it's easily tutorable.

That's my opinion as well. And odds are you're going to draw into an actual infinite pretty quickly. As long as you don't overextend, you're usually fine (honestly overextending is a problem with MoM too). I've actually won a game by resolving Paradox Engine, casting a Mox Opal, then going off in response to the removal spell that came out with the first Engine trigger on the stack. I didn't need to go infinite, I just needed to produce enough mana and draw enough cards to resolve the real combo afterwards. As long as you can generate enough value in response to removal, you're usually fine.

That's exactly why Paradox Engine is one of the best Artifacts to ever be printed. It's so good and it deserves a spot in any Azami deck. The Dramatic Scepter combo is art for sure, but Engine is the all-star.