Information is Ammunition *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH Artifact Crew Tokens Vehicle WU (Azorius)

NV_1980

Artifact (28)

• 1x Aerial Surveyor
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Imposter Mech
• 1x Jeweled Lotus
• 1x Knight Paladin
• 1x Library of Leng
• 1x Mechtitan Core
• 1x Mobilizer Mech
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Nautiloid Ship
• 1x Parhelion II
• 1x Peacewalker Colossus
• 1x Prodigy's Prototype
• 1x Reaver Titan
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sculpting Steel
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• 1x Smuggler's Copter
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x The Indomitable
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Thunderhawk Gunship
• 1x Thundersteel Colossus
• 1x Weatherlight
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Instant (9)

• 1x Armed and Armored
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection

Land (36)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Blast Zone
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 5x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mech Hangar
• 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 5x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment
• 1x The Mycosynth Gardens
• 1x Windswept Heath

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

Commander (1)

Creature (16)

• 1x Bronze Guardian
• 1x Cityscape Leveler
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Etherium Sculptor
• 1x Ethersworn Canonist
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Kotori, Pilot Prodigy
• 1x Lita, Mechanical Engineer
• 1x Losheel, Clockwork Scholar
• 1x Mondrak, Glory Dominus
• 1x Padeem, Consul of Innovation
• 1x Palladium Myr
• 1x Sai, Master Thopterist
• 1x Sharding Sphinx
• 1x Sram, Senior Edificer
• 1x Vedalken Engineer

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Tempered Steel
• 1x Thopter Spy Network

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Welcome to Information is Ammunition {W}{U}!

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of my Azorius, vehicle-tribe deck; commanded by Shorikai, Genesis Engine. Suit up, pilots. Prepare your neural uplinks and plug into your vehicle of choice. Activate enhanced imaging! If that’s not enough for clear targeting, engage thermal optics as well. Maintain formation, keep track of your heat and for Kerensky’s sake, don’t get yourself killed! And always remember, INFORMATION IS AMMUNITION! This deck is meant to be played casually. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course I welcome anyone to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; I hope you will enjoy it!

Why Shorikai?

Because he’s clearly been designed to command a vehicle army. For a next-to-nothing cost, he generates his own, very effective pilots (while allowing me to draw two cards!). This gives me the resources to either turn him into a gigantic engine of destruction (at power 8, toughness 8!), or pilot any of my other machines of death.

Strengths and Weaknesses

I use the following ten parameters to determine the strength of the deck. For each, I allocate a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad); when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck (maximum score is 50 points).

• Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
• Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
• Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
• Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
• Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
• Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
• Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
• Interaction: indicates how much this deck can mess with opponents’ board states and turn-phases.
• Resilience: indicates whether the deck can prevent and take punches.
• Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.

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Mana: 4

Quite a healthy dose of mana can be generated by this deck. Aside from its lands, an arsenal of seven rocks can be used for this purpose. Two creatures that can generate mana for artifacts, a mana sac altar and one enchantment that provides me with the occasional treasure token completes the deck’s energy generation potential.

Ramp: 2

A strong enchantment and a single vehicle allow me to find some additional lands in case I come up short.

Card Advantage: 5

Well let’s see. This deck contains no fewer than eleven direct draw resources, of which most require a trigger event (the vast majority of which I control myself). Then there’s one powerful filtering mechanism, one creature that allows me to steal opposing creatures, three cards that allow me infinite hand-size as well as three tutors for artifacts/enchantments.

Overall speed: 4

Plenty of mana, even more card-advantage options and an average CMC just under three, means this deck has the means to take off with a vengeance in most cases and wreak some serious havoc.

Combo: 1

Nope! None of those in here; this deck is combo-free.

Army: 5

Combat strength for this deck, resides mostly in its impressive vehicle army. The army’s power resides in more than pure combat-strength; most vehicles grant me special boons upon attacking/damaging opponents as well. To activate these vehicles, the deck needs to be able to produce pilots. My commander obviously excels at this, but I’ve included some back-up for him in case he becomes unavailable.

Commander: 5

Whenever Shorikai becomes available, this deck has the best possible performance potential. However, he is not essential at all in order for me to pull out wins. The deck contains plenty of secondary options to produce pilots as well as additional draw.

Interaction: 4

This is not the deck’s primary focus, but in some ways it can still pack an interaction-wallop. In terms of outright denial to opposition, the deck features four destruction/exile options, three damage/spell-casting inhibitors, three counter-spells, one bounce spell and a permanent that allows me to steal stuff.

Resilience: 2

Not that much in here to provide protection. Four options in total that can prevent damage and inhibit spell-casting against my artifacts. One option that can phase my entire field has been added. The deck is able to recover fast from wipes though, due to extensive token generation options (ten).

Spellpower: 1

A few wipes and some overall boosting of vehicles make up the deck’s pure-casting arsenal.

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Total power score: 34

Before this commander came out, I never would have thought Azorius would ever feature one quite like it. Truth be told, Shorikai still feels like more of a Boros commander to me. He turns this collection into something powerful, especially for a deck that I really just meant to create as a fun experience. It’s got plenty of resources, it’s reasonably fast and its army really packs a serious punch.

General strategy

The aim of this deck is to just have fun with a vehicle army and stomp the opposing players with it. In order to accomplish this, I need three things: casting resources, pilots and vehicles (preferably in that order).

Starting hand

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a cheap-to-cast rock like Arcane Signet, Jeweled Lotus, Mox Opal, Sol Ring or Talisman of Progress). This is a must; I’m not going to start a game without this hand (even if I have to mulligan down to three cards). The ideal hand would also contain some additional ramp and/or low-cost draw options.

Early game

Vehicles require fuel and pilots in order to function. In this game, that means getting my mana- and card advantage resources in order first. Aside from mana rocks mentioned earlier, focus will be on cards that make summoning (other) artifacts easier, like Etherium Sculptor, Palladium Myr and Vedalken Engineer. An early Land Tax can also perform some miracles in terms of available lands. My casting options during this stage ought to be increased by cards like Esper Sentinel, Ponder, Preordain, Rhystic Study and Scroll Rack. Other such options include cards that trigger upon artifacts doing something (ETB’ing, for the most part). These include Losheel, Clockwork Scholar, Padeem, Consul of Innovation and Sram, Senior Edificer. Once some of these resources have appeared, casting a pilot-generator gets top priority. My favorite options during this stage include Sai, Master Thopterist, Thopter Spy Network and of course Shorikai, Genesis Engine itself. Also, this is a crucial stage during which I don’t want opponents to walk away from me in terms of battlefield advantage. To prevent this from happening, this is the phase during which I will deploy spells like the deck’s bounce/counters (Cyclonic Rift, Dovin's Veto, Mana Drain and Render Silent) or its exile spells (Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares). Now it's time to generate pilots and letting some light into the mech/vehicle-hangar.

Mid/End-game

On to the most fun part of using this deck; summoning my vehicles and putting them to use. By now, the opposition has had some time to build defenses (or even an attacking force) and I need to get my advantage back. To do this, I need to bring in vehicles that either take away opposing advantage or drastically increase my own resources in short order. These include vehicles that can quickly activate others amongst them or summon more resources (like Lita, Mechanical Engineer, Mobilizer Mech, Parhelion II, Peacewalker Colossus, Prodigy's Prototype and Thunderhawk Gunship) and vehicles that can disrupt opposing permanents (like Nautiloid Ship and Skysovereign, Consul Flagship).

While gathering my army together (and starting my main thrust into enemy territory), I want to make sure they get onto the field without mishaps. My favorite option to ensure this would be Grand Abolisher, though any of the aforementioned counter-spells could be used for this purpose as well. Once my vehicles have arrived, I’ll use Losheel and Padeem to keep them whole. Bronze Guardian could also prove very helpful for this. To finish things off, some truly powerful vehicles can be used. Options include Knight Paladin, Mechtitan Core, Reaver Titan and Thundersteel Colossus.

Card Choices

Lands

Reliable sources of mana, and some utility:

• Academy Ruins: helps me to recover lost vehicles from my graveyard.
• Ancient Tomb: major colorless mana for a small price in life-points; excellent land to start games with.
• Arid Mesa/Flooded Strand/Marsh Flats/Misty Rainforest/Polluted Delta/Scalding Tarn/Windswept Heath: the lands I use to filter through my deck, which enables me to find the cards that matter to my strategy quicker.
• Blast Zone: just a nice wipe in case the situation calls for one.
• Command Tower/Exotic Orchard/Mana Confluence/Reflecting Pool: great all-color mana lands that have very few disadvantages in their use.
• Glacial Fortress/Hallowed Fountain/Mystic Gate/Sea of Clouds/Temple of Enlightenment: lands that provide Azorius mana, that depending in circumstances enter the battlefield tapped or untapped. I’ve tried to incorporate the best MTG has to offer on this front, except for the original dual lands which are outside my (and most players’) price-range.
• Mech Hangar: helps me to generate useful mana for vehicles/pilots and allows me to activate vehicles for relatively little.
• Mikokoro, Center of the Sea: provides draw (but not card advantage) at a cheap price.
• Reliquary Tower: I hate to discard; this helps me retain my hand no matter its size.
• The Mycosynth Gardens: can become a copy of my most dangerous vehicle on the field.

Mana and ramp

The cards I use to accelerate mana-availability:

• Aerial Surveyor: you seem to have more lands than I. Alright, here he comes!
• Arcane Signet: love this card. I’m still thoroughly surprised that this versatile mana rock is so cheap to acquire these days.
• Etherium Sculptor: helps me to conserve resources when casting from the deck’s artifact arsenal.
• Jeweled Lotus/Mox Opal: at zero cost, these are extremely useful artifacts to use to summon Shorikai very early.
• Land Tax: so powerful in the early game, because when carefully timed this doesn’t just allow me to catch up to the opposition, in terms of land-count, but will often allow me to leap ahead!
• Palladium Myr: great artifact mana source that can also act as a decent pilot, in case the situation calls for it.
• Smothering Tithe: pay taxes for drawing! You don’t want to? Thank you for the mana!
• Sol Ring: are there EDH decks without this card?
• Talisman of Progress: excellent source of Azorius mana.
• Thought Vessel: cheap colorless mana and because discarding sucks.
• Thran Dynamo: classic but fantastic source of colorless mana.
• Vedalken Engineer: in a deck with this many artifacts, including a mana-source like this seemed to make sense.
• Worn Powerstone: enters tapped but acts as another Sol Ring afterwards.

Card Advantage

The mechanisms that provide me with card advantage:

• Enlightened Tutor/Fabricate: success with this deck can depend a great deal on its artifacts, so it’s a good thing we have some tutoring options for these.
• Esper Sentinel: I get to draw unless you pay tax; most decide not to pay.
• Library of Leng: I’ve got better uses for my cards than just discarding them.
• Nautiloid Ship: get ready to have your critters stolen from your graveyard.
• Ponder/Preordain: cheap-to-cast filter and draw; always useful.
• Rhystic Study: unless you pay an extra mana for EVERY spell, I get to draw.
• Scroll Rack: gets me to keep a much larger (virtual) hand-size.
• Skullclamp: ideally utilized through saccing tokens for draw.
• Smuggler's Copter: just a simple vehicle that allows for some more draw.
• Sram, Senior Edificer: in here to provide draw when vehicles ETB.
• Tezzeret the Seeker: mostly in here to tutor for useful artifacts.
• The Indomitable: a new addition to the deck that provides tremendous card-advantage and can be returned easily to the field should it perish.
• Thopter Spy Network: my vehicles damaging your stuff will increase my casting options! And let’s not forget its excellent token-generation ability.
• Weatherlight: good combatant that allows me the pick of the five top-decked artifacts.

Bounce- and Destructive Interaction

Here are some things I use to get rid of permanents:

• Cityscape Leveler: mobile, trampling engine of pure destruction that fits well in an artifact-heavy deck.
• Cyclonic Rift: bounce all that I don’t control; such an amazing control piece.
• Dovin's Veto: countering without you getting an opportunity to fight back.
• Fierce Guardianship: Shorikai’s presence allows me to cast this while tapped out.
• Knight Paladin: strong vehicle that makes its appearance known through the mouth of its multi-barreled cannon.
• Mana Drain: countering your spell and gaining a step-up for my own casting.
• Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares: cheap anti-creature exile that’s just mandatory material for an Azorius deck.
• Reaver Titan: immune to small fries, deadly to anything that even attempts to go up against it.

Protection

The sentinel-spells that protect my permanents.

• Bronze Guardian: targeting my stuff is gonna cost ya! Ow, and this thing hits like a ton of bricks too. Twice!
• Ethersworn Canonist: artifacts are favored!
• Grand Abolisher: you’re responding with a counterspell? In my turn? I think not.
• Losheel, Clockwork Scholar: attacking vehicles cannot be harmed by opposing defenders; noice! And he allows for a draw upon one artifact ETB a turn; double-noice!
• Padeem, Consul of Innovation: targeting my artifacts with your spells is going to be a problem.
• Teferi's Protection: your spell destroys/exiles all permanents? What permanents?

Tokens and Boosts

My sources of pilots and empowerment of its grand vehicle force.

• Anointed Procession: token doubler.
• Armed and Armored: turn all vehicles into creatures at next to nothing cost.
• Kotori, Pilot Prodigy: replaces the heavier pilot-requirements with lighter ones and grants some really nice combat bonuses to a single vehicle each combat.
• Lita, Mechanical Engineer: doesn’t create pilot-tokens, but vehicle tokens instead!
• Mondrak, Glory Dominus: an excellent combatant, potentially indestructible, that doubles the creation of all my tokens.
• Parhelion II: most powerful token generator in the deck, though also the most expensive to cast.
• Prodigy's Prototype: every vehicle-attack increases my pilot-pool.
• Sai, Master Thopterist: gets me some nice thopter tokens and functions as an emergency draw engine.
• Sharding Sphinx: damaging opponents with vehicles creates a catalyst effect as more thopters are created that can pilot more vehicles that can damage more opponents.
• Tempered Steel: an anthem, specifically meant for my vehicles, though it works really well for my artifact-pilot-creatures too.
• Thunderhawk Gunship: the Space Marines have arrived!

Utility

And then there are these cards I also enjoy using in this deck.

• Imposter Mech: time to vehicle-ize a copy of your most powerful creature!
• Sculpting Steel: one of the best multi-purpose copiers in my artifact-heavy arsenal.
• Thundersteel Colossus: just an amazingly easy to pilot high-powered vehicle.

Thank you for reading!

I appreciate the time you took to read my primer. Hopefully it was entertaining and useful to you. If so, feel free to leave a +1 and/or feedback of any kind in the comments below. Thanks again!

Date added	11 months
Last updated	1 month
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	19 - 0 Mythic Rares 49 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.98
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Astartes Warrior 2/2 W, Mechtitan, Pilot 1/1 C, Powerstone, Thopter 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 U, Treasure