Hello everyone. When Sean and Cassidy asked me to do a guest spot on Dear Azami, I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to jump as quickly as we had hoped—slotting me in for episode #100. Pro Tour Dragon’s Maze coverage duties delayed me a bit, so here I am on #102.

I love what these guys do in the column. It’s no slight to Bennie, Uriah, or anyone else that I’ve called Sean the best writer about Commander, including myself, and that was even before teaming up with Cass. They have a great feel for Commander, and I think they really understand my commonly spoken mantra "the secret of this format is NOT breaking it."

I like particularly what Sean said in episode #100. While you’d rather not define something by what it’s not, that can still help with a quick understanding of the direction. Although I didn’t necessarily have a destination in mind when founding this format a decade ago, one of the initial purposes was to make it something other than normal, competitive Magic. I truly envisioned "beer and pretzels" Magic, a home for the folks who are a little less serious—or at least serious about other things—than other players. It was about creating a haven for those players, their own little corner of the spell-slinging world where what they felt was important was important. I had no clue that EDH-now-Commander would become what it has, but I’m certainly not sad that it’s reached and touched so many players around the world.

I’m also not sad that it may have outgrown its founding parameters. It doesn’t bother me that there’s Duel Commander or highly competitive environments and tournaments. If everyone is having fun, then I can’t ask for more. Sure, there are times when crossing the streams becomes problematic, but that just means we have to do a little more work to find the folks for whom the format resonates similarly. Sometimes that’s more difficult in places where the player base is small, but if I know one thing about this format, it’s that it sells itself extremely well. The fun you’re having is infectious, and anyone watching or listening to you talk about it is going to catch the bug.

I understand that there are some people for whom the mileage may vary, but to the core group of Commander players winning means having fun, not necessarily being the person who killed everyone. I’d certainly rather lose an epic game than win a boring one. Your Possibility Storm[/author]“][author name="Possibility Storm"]Possibility Storm[/author] is just as entertaining as mine. The deep attraction to this format is being part of the roar of laughter when unexpected things happen, like you dropping Spike Cannibal after I’ve used Vorel of the Hull Clade and Evolution Vat to get 128 counters on Prime Speaker Zegana or killing me with Phthisis after I’ve put a 160/160 Serra Avatar into play. Does it matter that I was the one that died? No—what matters is that it was epic.

Let’s get to this week’s submission and see how we can help:

Hey George.

I hope you don’t mind me sitting in for the regular guys with your deck. One of the reasons I picked it is because it’s quite similar in feel to my own Lavinia of the Tenth, which I modified from Geist of Saint Traft. Like you, I wanted to have plenty of blink and bounce shenanigans going on in order to take advantage of cool enters-the-battlefield abilities. You’ve added a few parameters to your build that I didn’t have, so I’m not going to try to turn yours into another version of mine but instead will head along the path you’re already walking. Let’s look at your three strictures.

First, having gone nearly tutorless myself, I appreciate that you’ve Embraced that particular idea as well. Another one of the attractions of the format is the semi-randomness of it. Every time you draw it’s like opening a Christmas present. The good news is that since you wrapped them yourself you know that it’s never going to be a pair of socks or an ugly sweater. Going tutorless means that card draw becomes even more valuable than it normally is, so we’ll make sure that you have enough.

I’m also a fan of no infinite combos. They always feel cheap to me. There are enough of them that everyone can run them, and then we’re not really interacting with each other—we’re just playing a game of chicken to see who can get theirs in after the first person gets stopped.

Third, you said you don’t want any sweeper effects. This is going to be the trickiest part of the deck to deal with even given the casual nature of the other decks you’ll be playing with. Your friends are going to have giant creatures, and as you’ve mentioned Lavinia doesn’t interact with them particularly well. You’ll need to be able to do something about them. I’ll note that you do have an unintended sweeper effect in the deck. Sure, it involves seven mana and two cards, but you can turn everything into the same creature with Mirrorweave and then cast Detention Sphere. It’s janky, but it works.

I also get the sense that you’d like to keep the cost of the deck reasonable, so we’ll keep card price in mind as we talk. It’s not a budget deck since you have those planeswalkers, but you don’t want the cost of cards to get absurd either. A deck doesn’t need to be super-expensive to play well and be fun. This deck is interesting enough already that it doesn’t need Moat and Tundra to be effective.

First of all, I want to say that I like and would be happy to play the deck just as it is. The tweaks I’ll suggest don’t change the mood or theme of the deck. Some of them are just personal taste, and some of them are a little outside the box thinking.

There are a few excellent elements to this deck. Its mana curve is pretty tight, which is necessary in the colors since Azorius doesn’t really ramp that well. You’re also quite true to the theme. You have creatures with excellent enters-the-battlefield triggered abilities, and the blink elements are going to let you have them multiple times. I like that it’s a deck that you have to know and do some work to play, which will make you a better player. You can’t be too sloppy with it or you’ll get into trouble, which in the long run keeps you engaged in the game.

In & Out: Let’s Dream A Little

The first thing I’ll address is your pillow fort mini-theme. Propaganda effects are pretty good at keeping armies off your back, from the Storm Herd Luftwaffe to the Panzer blitz of Avenger of Zendikar tokens, but that’s not really one of your problems. Lavinia herself is going to deal with them for the most part, but I’d like to extend the theme just a little into something that will keep even larger creatures tapped down: Dream Tides.

The swarms that you’re most afraid of are green. Dream Tides means you don’t have to worry about them at all, giving you a little redundancy. Your creature count is low enough that you won’t need to spend too much mana too often to untap anything you want to, and we might talk later about some creatures with vigilance. Additionally, Dream Tides will help you play into Sunblast Angel—either they spend all their mana untapping their creatures or they leave them subject to the inevitable Sunblast. Finally, propaganda effects (except for Sphere of Safety) don’t protect your planeswalkers, so Dream Tides helps with them.

Let’s take this one step further Copy Enchantment. It gives you the flexibility to either copy your own Sphere of Safety, someone else’s Propaganda, or something even more impactful like Grave Pact, Lurking Predators, or even Greater Good. Getting first shot at copying and then blowup up someone else’s Aura Shards would be quite saucy.

In: Dream Tides, Copy Enchantment  Out: Detention Sphere, Flicker

Besides the techy Detention Sphere / Mirrorweave trick, most of what D-Sphere does in the format is deal with tokens. I think we have a good enough handle on them to not have to worry. Flicker is on theme, but you have enough other blink stuff to be able to cut it—and now you can say you’re not running any sorceries.

I have one major and two minor areas of concern. The biggest one is, as we mentioned earlier, dealing with fatties. The small ones are your own threat density and the mana base. Let’s hit them one at a time.

If you only had one opponent, you’d be in great shape with the bounce and blink. Since you have multiple opponents, you’re not going to be able to keep all the huge monsters under control. Eventually, there will be more of them than you have answers to. There are a few choices here.

You can go further than Dream Tides with Meekstone. That might head in a direction that violates the casual nature of the group you intend to play the deck with, so let’s go elsewhere. You can do a reasonable job of keeping just a few creatures from attacking you, so Stormtide Leviathan will help trim the numbers even more. I also like it because it addresses the other concern about your own threats. Your biggest creatures—Angel of Serenity; Sunblast Angel; and Isperia, Supreme Judge—all fly, so you’re safe.

With Sunblast Angel, it pays for your creatures to not tap. We can look into a suite of creatures with vigilance, but that would rob us of some of the utility in the deck. Let’s just give it to everyone. We have two choices here: Serra’s Blessing and Akroma’s Memorial. The mana cost difference is the significant factor. Playing the Memorial is likely going to tap you out, which means you won’t have mana for your other tricks, but the Memorial is also going to protect you from big, fat, flyers, many of which are black or red. Akroma’s Memorial also adds an offensive nature to the deck that it wouldn’t otherwise have, solving another problem. It gets your creatures around two of your own biggest creature control limitations, Sunblast Angel and Stormtide Leviathan.

The third leg in this tripod is Sun Titan. At first, I didn’t want to go with it, but I absolutely love your choice of Soul Snare so much that it deserves to be used over and over again. Pointing attackers in the other direction is a great idea. Sometimes, you’ll get attacked with midrange creatures because they think you won’t waste Soul Snare on them. With Sun Titan, you can use it more freely. Sun Titan also brings back relevant cards like Oblivion Ring (which I would have taken out without having multiple uses for it), Lyev Skyknight—freeing you up to battle or block with him for value trades—Auramancer, Snapcaster Mage, and a host of other things, including lands like Ghost Quarter and Evolving Wilds. Blinking Sun Titan with any of your effects—Conjurer’s Closet; Venser, Shaper Savant—gives you the kind of extra value you want and need.

I think large creatures and changing your own threat density are effectively dealt with.

In: Akroma’s Memorial, Stormtide Leviathan, Sun Titan Out: Redirect, Cache Raiders, Counterspell

Redirect is a lonely one-off effect that I think you’re not going to need much. We’re moving around some of what Cache Raiders will do for you, and we need to take out some of the more expensive things to make room for other expensive things. Vanilla Counterspell is a one-for-one that I simply think isn’t worth it. I believe in Commander that your counterspells need to do more than just counter a spell—like Desertion, Overwhelming Intellect, and the outrageously expensive Mana Drain.

My third area of concern is the mana base. Your card draw is reasonable enough (we’ll make a change below to help it a little) to get you into enough lands, but I think you have too many enters-the-battlefield tapped lands: Azorius Chancery, Azorius Guildgate, Boreal Shelf, Celestial Colonnade, Coastal Tower, Emeria the Sky Ruin, (possibly) Hallowed Fountain, Lonely Sandbar, Secluded Steppe, and Sejiri Refuge. I think we need to cut three or four of those ten. Unless the folks you play with are really wrath-happy, Celestial Colonnade can go. I don’t think you’ll have a sufficient amount of mana to activate it and do the other things you want to. You have the Coastal Tower upgrade in Sejiri Refuge, so the Tower can go.

Then it’s either the Guildgate or Boreal Shelf. You don’t have any real reason to keep a Snow permanent, so that’s the one I’d toss, and I’d replace the other one with Exotic Orchard. For the early part of the game, there will be enough players playing your colors that it will have value. Alternately, now that there are premium versions of Command Tower, the price of regular ones has dropped so they’re affordable. Your original design with twelve Plains (eleven basics plus Hallowed Fountain) meant that you’d need more than half of your Plains in play to get anything out of Emeria. We really need to bump the Plains count up. Here’s hoping that you get a Tundra for your birthday!

Out: Celestial Colonnade, Coastal Tower, Boreal Shelf, Azorius Guildgate. In: Plains x3, Exotic Orchard or Command Tower  

The cycling lands are another matter. If you were playing 37 or fewer lands, I’d definitely drop them. At 38, they’re right on the cusp. Because you’re not ramping at all, you need to consistently hit land drops. If you’re using the cycling lands as actual lands more than a quarter of the time, I’d cut them as vastly inferior, so I’ll propose a second scenario.

Out: Celestial Colonnade, Lonely Sandbar, Secluded Steppe, Boreal Shelf In: Plains x3, Command Tower (or Exotic Orchard)

If your group is heavily into ramp strategies, you need something to help you keep up. I’d suggest Land Tax (although that’s a little spendy) and/or Weathered Wayfarer. If they’re not, I wouldn’t worry about it.

As far as mana goes, although it’s not directly correlative, I think I’d upgrade Mind Stone to Azorius Cluestone. The colored mana is more important to you, especially in the early-to-midgame.

One other tweak I noticed is that you have no artifact removal of any kind. The card that will give you a little flexibility as well as some card draw later on is Dismantling Blow.

Out: Path to Exile In: Dismantling Blow

I’m going to suggest taking out Path to Exile. It’s another one-for-one that doesn’t keep you up with everyone at the table. That will still leave you with Swords to Plowshares, which you can get extra use out of with Snapcaster Mage.

Straight Upgrades

There are three cards that I think have similar versions that are better at doing what you want to do.

Out: Faerie Impostor  In: Shrieking Drake

Sure, the Faerie is a 2/1, but the sacrifice clause can make him awkward. With Shrieking Drake, Equilibrium becomes a much more effective weapon at bouncing annoying creatures back to their owners’ hands for the low cost of 1U, with the option to do it again if need be.

Out: Reparations In: Rhystic Study

I love Reparations as a card (not to mention the awesome flavor text), but in this deck I don’t think your stuff will be getting targeted by your opponents all that much. Rhystic Study is simply going to give you more cards. Since you’ll be playing in a more casual environment, I suggest reminding your friends about the extra mana. It’s not "you didn’t pay one, I get to draw," it’s "while you’re casting that, don’t forget about Rhystic Study." 

Out: Cloudgoat Ranger In: Knight-Captain of Eos

For the same converted mana cost, the Knight-Captain brings along friends just like the Cloudgoat Ranger does—except the Knight-Captain’s friends help you stay alive.

Other Ideas

While I won’t include them in the rebuild, there are other cards I’d like you to give some thought to.

Aetherize: While it’s most likely to serve you when you’re getting attacked, there are scenarios where saving someone else might be a good idea too. I might see a super corner case where you attack, deal damage, and the Aetherize your own creatures during end of combat in order to recast one or more of them for defense or to reuse their triggered abilities.

Dawn Charm: In a world where Craterhoof Behemoth lives, the occasional Fog is a good idea. That there are additional uses is just gravy.

Equal Treatment: A hidden gem from a long time ago, it also provides some help—and card draw—in a world where swarms of giant creatures sometimes attack. Or if you really want to blow someone out when an army of 1/1s attack, you can make them deal two each instead.

Frost Titan: Tapping down bothersome monsters is a good idea. If you’re going the Dream Tides route, the downside is that Dream Tides gives them the opportunity to pay to untap.

Keep Watch: I play this in my Phelddagrif deck, and I’m always happy with the results. Note that the creatures don’t have to be attacking you.

Phyrexian Metamorph: With all your blink tricks, you can bring Metamorph out early to copy something small, like Solemn Simulacrum, then have it copy something much larger later on.

Here is the reimagined deck:

Lavinia of the Tenth

Sheldon Menery

0th Place at Test deck on 06-09-2013

Standard

Creatures (29)

• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Clone
• 1 Duplicant
• 1 Shrieking Drake
• 1 Auramancer
• 1 Azorius Guildmage
• 1 Whitemane Lion
• 1 Mistmeadow Witch
• 1 Venser, Shaper Savant
• 1 Galepowder Mage
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Knight-Captain of Eos
• 1 Sea Gate Oracle
• 1 Wall of Omens
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 War Priest of Thune
• 1 Stormtide Leviathan
• 1 Sunblast Angel
• 1 Snapcaster Mage
• 1 Restoration Angel
• 1 Deadeye Navigator
• 1 Archaeomancer
• 1 Lyev Skyknight
• 1 Isperia, Supreme Judge
• 1 Angel of Serenity
• 1 Diluvian Primordial
• 1 Luminate Primordial
• 1 Deputy of Acquittals
• 1 Lavinia of the Tenth

Planeswalkers (4)

• 1 Venser, the Sojourner
• 1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
• 1 Jace, Architect of Thought
• 1 Gideon, Champion of Justice

Lands (38)

• 14 Plains
• 1 Adarkar Wastes
• 1 Kor Haven
• 6 Island
• 1 Skycloud Expanse
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Secluded Steppe
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Flood Plain
• 1 Azorius Chancery
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Nimbus Maze
• 1 Mystic Gate
• 1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1 Sejiri Refuge
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Command Tower

Spells (29)

• 1 Ghostly Prison
• 1 Propaganda
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Equilibrium
• 1 Otherworldly Journey
• 1 Crystal Shard
• 1 Dream Tides
• 1 Erratic Portal
• 1 Parallax Wave
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Liberate
• 1 Dismantling Blow
• 1 Copy Enchantment
• 1 Ghostway
• 1 Vanish into Memory
• 1 Momentary Blink
• 1 Akroma's Memorial
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Mirrorweave
• 1 Turn to Mist
• 1 Spell Crumple
• 1 Soul Snare
• 1 Saving Grasp
• 1 Cloudshift
• 1 Ghostly Flicker
• 1 Conjurer's Closet
• 1 Sphere of Safety
• 1 Azorius Cluestone

As always, for participating in this week’s Dear Azami, you’ll receive $20 store credit to StarCityGames.com, redeemable for a hefty portion of the changes I’ve made. Let’s take a look at what that might run you:

Thanks to Sean and Cassidy for the chance to sit in. I had a good time helping out with an already fun deck, so thanks to George as well. I’ll be back on Wednesday with my normal column; it may include some Armada Games EDH League play-by-play and a brief discussion of my own Lavinia build, which is similar in style to George’s but has only 20ish cards in common.

Embracing the Chaos,

Sheldon

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Want to submit a deck for consideration to Dear Azami? We’re always accepting deck submissions to consider for use in a future article, like Kristjan’s Scion of the Ur-Dragon deck. Only one deck submission will be chosen per article, but being selected for the next edition of Dear Azami includes not just deck advice but also a $20 coupon to StarCityGames.com!

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