Paradoxical Azami- Pre Paradox Engine Ban

Commander / EDH* Mono-Blue

Aggronomics

Instant (35)

• 1x Anticipate
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Daze
• 1x Delay
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Gush
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Lazotep Plating
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Misdirection
• 1x Mission Briefing
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Narset's Reversal *f-pre*
• 1x Opt
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Paradoxical Outcome
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Remand
• 1x Repeal
• 1x Snap
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Supreme Will
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Turnabout
• 1x Whir of Invention

Artifact (14)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Paradox Engine
• 1x Sapphire Medallion
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel

Creature (9)

• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Siren Stormtamer
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Tribute Mage
• 1x Walking Ballista

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Sleight of Hand
• 1x Treasure Cruise

Commander (1)

Land (30)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 17x Island
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Seat of the Synod

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils *f-pre*

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Mystic Remora

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Paradoxical Azami: A Primer

A Sad Goodbye

With the banning of Paradox Engine , the deck is no longer viable. Untapping our wizards and mana rocks with any of our spells was only possible because of Paradox Engine. It is possible to go into a more creature-based Azami deck with Intruder Alarm or go and focus on Mind Over Matter , but there is no other card in magic that allows for the same playstyle that Paradox Engine allowed this version of Azami to be viable.

It's a terrible feeling knowing that the deck I've spent the last two years refining and perfecting to be able to compete in a competitive setting is no longer viable. I used to goldfish the deck three times a day to make sure I understood it and so I could keep discovering new lines of play, but I haven't even touched the deck, or any of my other decks that I'd frequently work on, since the banning of Paradox Engine. I honestly have no clue of what to do with the deck, and I still cannot bring myself to take it apart yet.

Despite this deck no longer being viable, I'm going to leave the primer as is so that if anybody would like to play Azami, hopefully I am able to inspire them just a bit.

Good luck my friends, and thank you for taking the time to read this primer.

An Introduction: The Inspiration, Creation, and History Behind Paradoxical Azami

Paradox Engine

Paradox Engine . It’s notorious for the broken strategies it enables in the format, and it’s been a card that people have been clamoring about ever since the Masterpiece version of it was spoiled back in December 2016. It quickly found a home in EDH decks all around, and it helped breathe life into commanders such as Arcum Dagsson . At this point in time I had not yet delved into anything cEDH and I was still fairly new to Magic as a whole. When I saw Paradox Engine, something sparked within me and I knew that I wanted to build a deck that abused Paradox Engine to its absolute limit. After some research, I was reminded that Azami, Lady of Scrolls existed. Thus this deck was born.

I quickly realized that the synergy between Paradox Engine and Azami was amazingly strong, but extremely fragile and tough to pull off because it was so mana-intensive. Then one day when I was watching a vintage stream, I happened to watch Luis-Scott Vargas piloting a deck that played a card from Kaladesh called Paradoxical Outcome. The deck revolved around casting as many artifacts as you could, bouncing them back to your hand via Paradoxical Outcome, then recasting them again to increase your storm count even more while also drawing you into your win-condition or more draw spells to find your win-conditions. It gave more consistency to the deck, but even more so, it created a direction for the deck to go which helped lead it to what it is today.

The deck’s game plan is to obtain as much value from each spell via Paradox Engine’s untap trigger and the card advantage Azami provides by making it so that each spell has, “Draw X cards where X is the number of Wizards you control.” With that being the case, we only care about a certain number of spells resolving (win-conditions, mana rocks, Azami, Paradox Engine, Isochron Scepter) because Paradox Engine only cares about whether or not a spell is cast, not if the spell actually resolves. In doing so, we’ll eventually begin to net mana off each spell and drawing enough cards to find our win-conditions to close out the game.

This has been a fun deck to create, pilot, and fine tune for the past two years (which has been a feat in itself due to college), and it’s been incredibly rewarding working on this deck from scratch into something that’s been able to set the pace for my meta’s competitive scene. In any case, I hope that you all enjoy reading this primer! If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to comment below or message me on reddit at /u/Thunder_Farts! :)

Philosophy Behind Paradoxical Azami

Philosophy of Paradox Azami

The deck is fairly straightforward, but here are a few of the key things about the deck that should be kept in mind when you’re playing it:

• Azami is how we’re able to get the most value from our spells. We want to have her on the battlefield by turn 4 at the very latest.
• Even though the deck has tribal synergies that help with our overall gameplan, the tribal synergies that Azami provides are not the focus of the deck. Those tribal synergies are just another way for us to assemble our win-conditions.
• Always have a spell in hand when Paradox Engine is on the field. If somebody attempts to remove Paradox Engine or Azami, we should either be casting a draw spell to find an answer to their removal, or we should be countering it.
  • We have 35 instants- 13 draw spells, 6 bounce spells, and 15 counterspells- as well as two Wizards we can cast at instant speed ( Snapcaster Mage and Merfolk Trickster ) to help us draw more cards. We will usually be able to draw into an answer.
• Each spell in our deck has, “Draw X cards where X is the number of Wizards you control.” If Paradox Engine is on the field, don’t be afraid to tap your Wizards to draw more cards. Since we’re in mono-blue and we don’t have access to the amount of tutors that black has, drawing cards is how we find our combo pieces, win-conditions, tutors, untap effects, etc.

Should you play Azami?

Why you should

If you’re wondering why you should play Azami, here are a couple of reasons why you should:

• You enjoy commander-centered decks
• You enjoy drawing cards
• You enjoy tribal synergies
• You enjoy navigating complicated stacks
• You enjoy combo decks
• You enjoy making Harry Potter references in the middle of games

If you’re wondering why you shouldn’t play Azami, here are a couple of reasons why you shouldn’t:

Why you shouldn’t

• You don’t enjoy commander-centered decks
• You don’t care about drawing cards
• You don’t care for tribal synergies
• Combo decks just aren’t your thing
• You thoroughly dislike anything Harry Potter and/or don’t understand it

The Game Plan

What are we trying to do?

The general game plan with this version of Azami is to try and get as much mana on the board as possible in turns 1-3, then hopefully cast Azami by turn 4 at the latest. We’re usually able to accomplish this pretty early with the help of any of the mana rocks we play, cards such as High Tide , and any of the countless draw spells that we play in the deck.

Once we have Azami out, our next goal is to find the pieces to our win-condition. We have a few different routes we can do this. We can either land a Paradox Engine and draw cards each time we cast one of our mana rocks with Azami, or we can just dig through our deck with the draw spells we already have in the deck.

Once we do find one of our win-conditions, which one we go for sometimes depends on whether or not we have infinite mana available (but if we have infinite untaps, that usually means we’re also able to get infinite mana):

Win Conditions

1. Laboratory Maniac : A classic win-condition for a lot of cEDH decks. We go ahead and draw our entire deck, cast Laboratory Maniac, draw another card with an empty library, then we win! (Also Laboratory Maniac is a wizard as well so we can cast it to draw another card with Azami out if need be, although that’s only happened once in my years of playing the deck.)
2. Jace, Wielder of Mysteries : I was skeptical about this card at first, but after testing I’ve found that having another way to win by decking ourselves is really amazing since that’s how we oftentimes win whenever we go infinite. I’m definitely impressed and despite Jace’s restrictive mana cost, is definitely worth playing in this deck.
3. Walking Ballista : This is a newer card that I’ve been including into a lot of my decks that have infinite mana as one of the win-conditions. Once we create infinite mana, we’re able to cast this for whatever amount is necessary to kill everybody in our pod for the win.

Counterintuitive Lines of Play

With this deck, since a large portion of our game plan resolves around Paradox Engine to untap Azami and friends to draw cards off of each spell that we cast. There are going to be niche situations where we have one draw/bounce spell in our hand with a number of counterspells. In this scenario we have to ask ourselves, “How necessary is it for the single non-counterspell in our hand to resolve?” and, ”Should we counter our own spell to draw more cards?” Let’s look at a scenario where this might come up.

The Scenario

On the Battlefield

• Azami, Siren Stormtamer, a Paradox Engine we just got to resolve, Mana Crypt, Chrome Mox, and two Islands

In our hand

A Gitaxian Probe and three counterspells with about 80~ish cards in our library.

We know…

• If we pass the turn, we know that Paradox Engine or Azami will be destroyed which means we won’t be able to win if we end up having to recast Azami or losing Paradox Engine.
• In this scenario we have no other option but to go for it and try to combo off, and that means we might need to counter our own spells to get the untap trigger off of Paradox Engine.

Since we only have one chance to win, it’s necessary that we cast counterspells targeting our Probe since we need to draw as many cards as possible in order to not fizzle out and lose our chance at winning. The reason for this being that with Azami, each counterspell has, “Draw X cards where X cards is the number of Wizards you control” stapled to each one, which means that we could draw 6 new cards with our counterspells, which means we’ll probably draw into either:

• More counterspells to draw cards with
• Instant speed spells we can cast with everything else on the stack
• Win-conditions and/or combo pieces that will ensure we can win

Even though it’s not a scenario that will come up often, it’s still a scenario we need to consider since it can be the difference between winning and losing. In those situations, we need to do whatever we need to in order to win- even if it’s a counterintuitive line of play.

Single Card Choices

In this section, I’ll go ahead and discuss some inclusions, exclusions, and flex spots.

Notable Inclusions

Noncreature Spells

• Paradoxical Outcome : The card that is responsible for the deck’s namesake. This card is one of, if not the, most powerful cards in the deck. With Paradox Engine and Azami, Paradoxical Outcome allows us to bounce our mana rocks to our hand, recast them, draw X cards where X is the number of Wizards we control multiplied by however many mana rocks we’re recasting. This card has allowed me to win games that I had no chance of winning simply because of the raw power it brings to the deck.
• Paradox Engine : Even though Paradoxical Outcome brings raw power to the deck, Paradox Engine is the card which can be considered the enabler. It enables us to cast and recast our mana rocks and draw cards each time we cast them with Azami. In a broader sense, Paradox Engine essentially adds, “Draw X cards where X is the number of Wizards you control” to every single spell in our deck. Paradox Engine is an enabler in this deck. This deck would not exist if Paradox Engine was never printed.
• Chain of Vapor : This is one card I want to briefly discuss because not only does it offer protection for our mana rocks and/or Azami, but it can also be considered “Paradoxical Outcome-lite”. Our entire game plan revolves around casting cheap mana rocks and spells to continually untap Azami (and whatever wizards are on the battlefield) to draw cards off of each spell we cast. Save for the “Draw a card for each card returned to your hand this way” portion of Paradoxical Outcome, Chain of Vapor can fulfill the same role that Paradoxical Outcome does.

Creature Spells

In our deck we have to consider not only the viability of a creature, but also it’s creature type since we do have an underlying tribal theme with Azami. A general rule of thumb is that if the creature we’re playing is not a Wizard, it’s either a win-condition(Walking Ballista) or it can become a Wizard( Phantasmal Image ).

• Glen Elendra Archmage : Firstly, Glen Elendra is a wizard, and that means we can draw cards with her via Azami. Even though she costs four, she can be included because of her ability. Being able to counter noncreature spells for a single blue that can only be countered with a Stifle (or something to that extent), on top of having persist, is incredibly powerful.
• Siren Stormtamer : Very similar reasoning as to why Glen Elendra Archmage is included. The main difference being that Siren Stormtamer costs less, is only able to counter spells targeting us or a creature we control, and that it has flying. Even though it’s more narrow than Glen Elendra, it’s justifiable at 1cmc and it offers some redundant protection in the form of a cheap creature we can draw cards with via Azami.
• Merfolk Trickster : Merfolk Trickster doesn’t offer protection for our creatures, but rather it has the ability to stop a creature-based combo from going off at instant speed. It’s quite an incredible effect that I’ve found that’s bought us one more turn- which is often just what we need in order to combo out. Then there’s also that Merfolk Trickster is a creature we can draw cards off of via Azami.
• Spellseeker : As is with the others, Spellseeker is a wizard that allows us to draw cards off of it via Azami. Even more so, Spellseeker also allows us to tutor for an instant or sorcery with 2cmc or less from our deck. This adds consistency to the deck since we can tutor for Dramatic Reversal, Muddle the Mixture that we can transmute to grab Isochron Sceptor (or any 2 drop we might want), or whatever other instant or sorcery that we might need at the time.

Lands

This deck is starving for colored mana, the reason for that being that we want to be able to cast Azami as soon as possible, but it’s sometimes tough because her mana cost is quite restrictive. This means that the lands we play that don’t produce colored mana fill a role that we have troubles reaching as is.

• Ancient Tomb : Ancient Tomb is an excellent piece of ramp for us, and since we’re in mono-blue, we don’t have much outside of lands like Ancient Tomb and artifacts. Even though Ancient Tomb doesn’t produce blue at all, it can propel us forward quite a lot in the early game.
• Buried Ruin : We don’t have too much in the deck that helps us with getting back an artifact if it gets destroyed or countered, so Buried Ruin helps us with that by allowing us to get it back from the graveyard in a way that’s hard for our opponents to counter.
• Inventors' Fair : This is another card that helps us tutor for whatever artifact we might need at that moment in time. Although the tutor is dependent on us having 3+ artifacts in play, it’s still feel as though it’s worth the land slot.
• Scavenger Grounds : We really lack grave hate in the deck, so any amount is good. I’ve also always been a big fan of utility lands and I feel that since we lack grave hate, that Scavenger Grounds is good enough to warrant a slot.
• Seat of the Synod : The main reason we’re running this is to help us reach metalcraft with Mox Opal and Inventor’s Fair so that we’re able to use them to the best of their abilities. Even though we never really want to, it’s nice being able to tutor for it via Fabricate , Whir of Invention , and/or Inventor’s Fair.
• Blue Fetches: Even though we’re a mono-colored deck and we really don’t need the fetches, they help with giving us a fresh topdeck when we’re using Sensei's Divining Top or Brainstorm .

Notable Exclusions

Noncreature Spells

• Mind Over Matter : This is a card that has been in almost every Azami list for a while now. When Azami and Mind over Matter are on the field together, we’re able to cycle through our entire library for Laboratory Maniac and win the game right there. The reason that it’s not in this list is because over the years, Mind Over Matter has become outclassed by cheaper and easier to cast options.
  1. Costing means that Mind over Matter is an extremely mana-intensive card. As it is, the deck already starves for colored-mana since we want to cast Azami before turn 4, that casting Mind Over Matter the turn after is quite tough to do. Not to mention that there are easier to cast cards, like Paradox Engine and Dramatic Reversal+Isochron Scepter, that accomplish the same goal as Mind Over Matter, but are easier to cast and are not as mana intensive.
  2. Mind Over Matter is an enchantment. We are mono-blue. There are not many ways for us to reliably tutor up Mind Over Matter every single game. There are cards such as Long-Term Plans and Ethereal Usher that we could use, but there’s no point in us hopping through more hoops to win when we could tutor up Paradox Engine or the Dramatic+Isochron combo instead.
• Intruder Alarm : Even though Intruder Alarm does untap Azami and friends, we’re only playing a total of 10 creatures, no reliable token producers, and nothing that flickers. Even though Intruder Alarm might be better in an Azami deck that’s more creature-heavy, it would not perform as well as it could in this iteration of the deck.
• Timetwister : Timetwister is a wonderful card that we could definitely play, but the only thing which bars it from being in this deck is the cost. The list you see is the list I’ve built on paper and what I bring to my local cEDH scene, even though I’ve spent a fair amount on single Magic cards, I cannot (currently) justify dropping over $1,000 on a single card- no matter how much I may want to. Regardless, I don’t believe Timetwister is necessary for the deck to win, but I would not say no to adding it to the deck if given the chance.
• Codex Shredder : I’ve seen some lists running Codex Shredder as an alternative win-condition instead of Aetherflux Reservoir, but I haven’t seen it as of late. At this point I believe the deck does well without it, but I will definitely look into adding Codex Shredder as a win-condition.
• Extra Turn Spells: Even though extra turn spells are nice, I don’t feel as though they have a place in Azami lists. The deck is capable of winning in a single turn, casting an extra turn spell would just be a win-more move and would dilute our overall gameplan.
• Candelabra of Tawnos :This is definitely a card that’d help us with our deck, but the reason for its exclusion is almost identical to the reason for the exclusion of Timetwister. If given the opportunity to include it in the deck, I would definitely play it.
• Aetherflux Reservoir : Aetherflux Reservoir is an incredibly powerful card and it’s one of the main incentives to play storm in mono-U, but with the printing of JWoM and the progression of time, it’s become outclassed by better, more efficient win conditions. This is not to say it isn’t powerful, but rather that there are more efficient winconditions.

Creature Spells

• There are a lot of Wizards that I could have included that would work well with the tribal synergies that Azami creates, but that is not the focus of this iteration of the deck. The tribal synergies that Azami creates are to be used as a support to help us find the pieces in our deck in order to win. Making the deck focus more heavily on those tribal synergies would dilute our game plan, and lead to the deck not being as efficient as it could be.

Lands

• Riptide Laboratory : Even though Riptide Laboratory offers a good amount of utility in that it could bounce Snapcaster Mage to our hand to flashback another spell, or bounce Azami to our hand to protect it, or any other Wizard we play in order to get another untap trigger off of Paradox Engine; that is not crucial to the deck running smoothly. Not to mention that it does not produce colored mana when that is something that this deck starves for.

Flex Spots

Noncreature Spells

• Thought Vessel : This isn’t a necessary mana rock in the deck and it can be cut if a better option is found. I’d rather have a mana rock that produces colored mana, but I’d also want the mana rock to cost , if I’m able to find one. It could also be replaced with something like Grim Monolith .

Creature Spells

No creature flex spots for the time being.

Lands

• Cephalid Coliseum : This is a land that I’ve been experimenting with for a while, and I just cannot get a feel for if it’s worth the land slot in this deck or not. It taps for colored mana, and it does allow us to dig deeper into our deck if we need to. Since I can’t decide if it’s worth the slot or not, it’s a land that could easily be replaced with an Island or another land if need be.

Ending Thoughts

That’s the primer everybody! This deck has been a blast to create, fine tune, play for the time I’ve been working on it, and I’m excited to share it with you all in the form of this primer! There’s still a good amount of stuff I want to work on this primer, but it’s at a point that I feel comfortable sharing it and asking for opinions on it!

I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it! :)

Date added	7 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 32 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 23 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.16
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Manifest 2/2 C, Zombie Army 0/0 B
Folders	edh, DAMN, cEDH, cEDH, Resources, Want to Build