Ozai, the Phoenix KingOzai, the Phoenix King | Art by Kekai Kotaki

Rising From the Ashes

Welcome to this first deck tech of the year from Yours Truly! Hopefully, the holidays have been kind to everyone.

Today, we have yet another legendary creature from the ATLA set (spoilers: There's one more I want to cover, but that'll be later this month). This time, in true final boss fashion, we have the Big Bad himself. So, let's get on with it.

Phoenix King Rising

Our commander for the day may not have had many appearances in the show, but he certainly left quite an impression. A descendant of Fire Lord Sozin, Ozai aimed to achieve his grandfather's wish of conquering the world.

Initially, he appears as this shadowed figure, but fully revealed in the later seasons. Just as Sozin destroyed the Air Nomads, Ozai attempted this with the Earth Kingdom, only to get defeated by Aang. But, hey, at least he had his pants on for that fight!

Our commander needs us to load up on red mana, then cast some explosive spells and go Kaboom!Kaboom!. He reminds me a bit of Rowan, Scion of WarRowan, Scion of War, but the only difference is that we're trying not to kill ourselves while powering up our massive spells.

We also have mana sinks that'll let us access some other options if we don't have a x-spell handy. I should note that we shouldn't let that mana count dip below six, because we need to keep Ozai indestructible for reasons I'll explain below.

Journey to Ascendancy

While Ozai helps with getting red mana and keeping it, we have a few options that'll help us build up even faster. Firstly, Electro, Assaulting BatteryElectro, Assaulting Battery serves as a redundant effect.

Ozai is not easy to cast, being six mana (four of it being colored), so having something that comes down cheaper is a boon for us. In addition, Braid of FireBraid of Fire lets us build up mana during our upkeeps, but it'll all fizzle unless Ozai or Electro are out to contain it.

If we do keep them around, then we can use Doubling CubeDoubling Cube to double all that red mana, and prepare for something explosive.

Keeping all of that mana is a crucial part of the strategy, so we need ways to protect either of them. Ozai, fortunately, has built-in indestructible as long as we have six or more red mana floating, but a simple Swords to PlowsharesSwords to Plowshares will end him (until you recast him), and you'll have to store up that mana all over again.

The usual suspects, like Swiftfoot BootsSwiftfoot Boots will help with this. Though, we also have the likes of Bolt BendBolt Bend to keep such spells away from our commander.

The Arrival of Sozin's Comet

The question, at this point, is what are we going to do with all of this mana? I'll partially answer that question here, but save some of the more prominent options for a little bit. Gogo, Mysterious MimeGogo, Mysterious Mime will make Ozai slightly bigger, but we'd now have eight mana stored in one combat step.

However, there is one card that could potentially push the below deck list into Bracket 3: Aggravated AssaultAggravated Assault. With enough red mana in our pool, we could attack with Ozai, then use the mana we've been holding on to get a second combat step.

If we had something like Gogo or Avatar Roku, FirebenderAvatar Roku, Firebender, we'd have infinite combat steps! With Ozai starting out as a hefty 7/7, this'll mean we get to bludgeon our opponents to death with commander damage.

Moreover, another good use of all that red mana is Fire Nation TurretFire Nation Turret. It takes 50 red mana to hyper beam an opponent out of existence, and most decks wouldn't run it for that reason.

That said, Ozai can take advantage of this by all the mana he or Electro are storing, making the glacial climb that much easier. Beware that opponents will see this coming from miles away, and will try to remove it. If we blast them for that 50, we deserve it, no matter how salty they get.

The Phoenix's Armada

Go! HYPER BEAM...Wait, Wrong Franchise

Remember what I said above? Our real killing machines are the true wincons of the deck. We can't go wrong with an old-fashioned EarthquakeEarthquake, unless Ozai himself doesn't have flying. As long as we have six unspent red mana, Ozai won't be hit by the spell (unless, of course, he's wearing a Mithril CoatMithril Coat).

In addition, Torment of HailfireTorment of Hailfire is another good one, though perhaps a tad more salt-inducing. Another classic is ExsanguinateExsanguinate, which will also help pad our life total.

Failing these options, Ozai comes in as a 7/7. Stats we can certainly exploit for commander damage. Both The Spear of LeonidasThe Spear of Leonidas and Chaos Terminator LordChaos Terminator Lord will make our commander into a two-hit threat, making our opponents sweat.

Furthermore, like with Aggravated Assault, we have more ways to initiate extra combat phases to make the most of both Ozai's stats, and his firebending. Lastly, it doesn't take much for Fated FirepowerFated Firepower to be a major threat. Cast it for seven, and Ozai will be one-shotting opponents.

Conquering the Multiverse

When we open up our card pool to in-universe cards, our options go above and beyond (har har). Firstly, Leyline TyrantLeyline Tyrant acts as yet another red mana storage unit to protect. Like Electro, though, it allows you to remove something when it does.

It'd still be better to protect it, however. As of Ozai and all that firebending isn't enough, Neheb, the EternalNeheb, the Eternal will dump red mana equal to the amount of life an opponent lost this turn.

With Aggravated Assault, this becomes a two-card infinite combo (note that The Reaver CleaverThe Reaver Cleaver does this, too), so be wary of this. Unless, of course, we intend on playing at a higher bracket.

Even or x-spell options open up, plus more ritual spells to fuel them. Both Seething SongSeething Song and Mana GeyserMana Geyser will give Ozai a load of red mana to play with. Speaking of x-spells, while we do get some good ones like Comet StormComet Storm, very few rival the powerhouse that is Crackle with PowerCrackle with Power.

Just spending one mana for each of the X in the cost will deal five damage to something. The more we pump into the spell, the more lethal it becomes. This, alongside Torment of Hailfire, becomes our most powerful finisher.

Phoenix Down

With this first deck tech done, and since I wrote the first draft of this article (which was last year!), lots of stuff have been spoiled. One in particular has me excited, and I wasn't doing to do deck techs for the Marvel sets without covering perhaps my favorite character from the franchise. Tune in next week to see exactly who I'm planning to cover.