Building a High Power Fire Lord Azula Deck

Fire Lord Azula | Art by Fahmi Fauzi

Hello and welcome to another Avatar: The Last Airbender Commander deck tech! I'm excited to write up what I view as the most powerful commander from this set: Fire Lord Azula.

This Human Noble is strong, with the potential to take over games if she stays on the board for long enough. We'll be brewing up a Bracket 4 version of Azula today, making sure to maximize the effectiveness of this super interesting design.

What Does Fire Lord Azula Do?

For , Fire Lord Azula is a 4/4 legendary creature with firebending 2 (when she attacks, we add , and we can use that mana until end of combat). We also get to copy any spells that we cast while she's attacking.

This is a ridiculous combination of abilities, to be quite frank. She helps us cast spells by giving us two mana, and lets us effectively double the effectiveness of our spells. Plus, her color identity gives us access to some of the best flash enablers available to Commander players.

But how will we turn these powerful lines of text into victory? That's a great question, and I'm so glad you asked. We'll build value by flashing in permanents and casting removal spells while Azula is attacking. Then, once we've got access to enough mana, we'll close out the game by copying a few high-impact finisher spells.

Key Cards for Fire Lord Azula

Azula's copying ability lets us do some pretty messed up things during the combat step. For example, we can flash in an Orcish Bowmasters and wind up with two of them! That represents a ton of damage to our opponents (or their board state), and an Orc Army that'll get really big. Plus, with their ETB abilities, these Bowmasters can pick off a surprisingly high number of opposing creatures.

Speaking of two-mana creatures that we can cast during combat, there's Faerie Mastermind. Although this Rogue won't have an immediate impact when we cast it, it'll provide us with a huge amount of card advantage over the course of a game. In high power games like the ones we'll be playing, two Faerie Masterminds can serve as a potent draw engine.

And, if we're willing to spend just more, we can even cast and copy Aboleth Spawn. With Dockside Extortionist out of the format, this card is certainly not as powerful as it used to be. But, we can still copy triggers from Imperial Recruiter, Ranger-Captain of Eos, and even ping off an opponent's Orcish Bowmasters by copying its ETB.

There's a few ways to cast other spells during combat. Cards like Thief of Sanity and Tinybones, the Pickpocket have "saboteur" effects that let us steal a card and cast it during combat, meaning we can use our opponents' best game pieces against them. Buster Sword lets us cast one of our own spells for free during combat, enabling us to cheat out a spell that costs or less if we're able to swing in with an equipped Azula.

Finally, there's a few spells that let us cast cascade for more value. Trumpeting Carnosaur, Throes of Chaos, and even the flip side of Brass's Tunnel-Grinder let us dig in our library for more cards to copy with our commander. You'll notice that many of these cards aren't able to be cast during combat on their own, but we'll get to our flash enablers soon.

As a Grixis () deck, we've gotta play the villain once in a while. That means casting mana-positive Snaps, clearing out four blockers for Azula with Untimely Malfunction, and clearing out six creatures with Sheoldred's Edict. Our commander accelerates our game plan well, but she also gives us the ability to seriously hinder our opponents' plans by copying our removal spells.

My favorite removal spell in the deck is Petty Theft (the Adventure attached to Brazen Borrower). For we can get rid of two problematic permanents, and for an additional we can get two 3/1 creatures. That's a fantastic play to make during combat, and it's easily achievable the turn after we cast our commander.

How Does This Commander Deck Win?

After we establish a powerful board presence, we'll have to end the game. We've got a trio of spells to help us do just that. Crackle with Power, Torment of Hailfire, and Jaya's Immolating Inferno will each let us wipe our opponents out in one go.

To get maximum value from these spells, using the from our commander for their costs and copying them with her ability, we need to cast these sorceries during combat. Luckily, Valley Floodcaller, High Fae Trickster, and Tidal Barracuda can help us do just that.

Tidal Barracuda is the best of the bunch, as this Fish essentially makes our spells uncounterable. It's true that it lets our opponents cast spells as though they had flash too, but that's a price that I'm more than willing to pay for protection on our best plays. If this were a cEDH deck, I'd caution against this card. But given that we'll be playing at Bracket 4 tables, this creature is a sweet include.

All these flash enablers mean that Necropotence is one of the best cards in this deck. We can pay as much life as we want to draw a ton of cards before dumping our hand onto the board in our end step. We won't be copying these spells with Azula, as we're casting them outside of combat, but the sheer volume of card advantage that Necro provides makes the juice worth the squeeze.

And, if Plan A doesn't work out, we do have a few combos included in this list. Isochron Scepter and Kitsa, Otterball Elite allow us access to infinite spell copies.

Fire Lord Azula Commander Deck List

Conclusion

Despite the shiny new coat of paint, Azula is the most recent iteration on a classic Magic formula. She lets us double something once we meet a specific condition. Cards like Katara, the Fearless, Starfield Vocalist, and The Masamune have all released this year, showing that Wizards of the Coast has been more willing to print doubler cards lately. Mark Rosewater has dedicated podcast segments and mothership articles to this sort of design, and it's clear that it's here to stay.

Some players are fans of these cards, simply for the power boost they provide to gameplay. After all, if you're able to double your token production with a copy of Exalted Sunborn, double your +1/+1 counter availability with Loading Zone, or even double your lifegain with The Wind Crystal, why wouldn't you? Notably, each of these cards released this year!

Very soon, there'll be a way to double something for nearly every strategy in Magic. From burn decks to ramp decks, every deckbuilder will be able to include a doubler in their 99 (or even in their command zone). Is this really a good thing? Sure, it allows Commander players to snowball into splashy wins, but these cards can be problematic in less casual formats (looking at you, Leyline of Resonance).

Outside of this deck tech, I almost never include these cards in my own lists. I just don't think it makes for fun gameplay. But some of the strongest Commander decks that I've ever played against had cards like Teysa Karlov or Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy at the helm. I know my choice to exclude doubling cards doesn't make me morally superior, nor does my opponents' choice to include them make them any worse of a deckbuilder. But I do wonder how the constant stream of these effects will impact the format we all know and love.

I'd love to know your thoughts. Do you think these cards are good or bad for Commander? Do you play them in your decks? Let me know in the comments below.