Fire Lord AzulaFire Lord Azula | Illustrated by Fahmi Fauzi

Fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender, this news is for you! Fire Lord AzulaFire Lord Azula, one of the primary antagonists of the beloved animated Nickelodeon series, has breached the Top 100 Commanders list on EDHREC! More specifically, at the time of writing, Azula is at spot #96 and is poised to climb even higher. How did Azula get this popular? Read on, and perhaps we can shed some light on this "lightning-fast" rise to dominance!

What Does Fire Lord Azula Do?

Fire Lord Azula is a blue-black-red (or Grixis, using colloquial Magic terminology) commander. She specializes in casting spells during combat, which all of her abilities allow her to capitalize upon. She has firebending 2, allowing her to generate when you declare her as an attacker. Furthermore, she copies any spell you cast during combat, provided she is attacking at the time.

What this suite of abilities does is shocking, if you'll pardon the continued use of electric puns (as Azula can also bend lightning). Put simply, many spells are easy to exploit with Fire Lord Azula's copying ability. This includes spells like Narset's ReversalNarset's Reversal, SnapSnap, and many spells with additional costs, like Thrill of PossibilityThrill of Possibility or Big ScoreBig Score. These spells only need you to pay the additional cost once, on cast; copies need not apply.

There are also plenty of support cards in this deck's top cards that will soup up what Azula is manipulating. High Fae TricksterHigh Fae Trickster and Leyline of AnticipationLeyline of Anticipation are fantastic additions to a Fire Lord Azula deck, since they facilitate any non-instant, non-flash spells cast to have instant-speed interactivity. For Azula, this means more copies of whatever you cast while she's attacking. Suddenly, your opponents are facing so many more threats than they're generally prepared to deal with. Victory ends up trivial for Azula; she can annihilate an entire pod in this way, completely and utterly.

Where is Azula Now?

At this time, as mentioned earlier in this article, Fire Lord Azula is trending at rank #96 in the Top 100 Most Popular Commanders of the past 2 years. Avatar: The Last Airbender came out only a couple of weeks ago, meaning that Azula will probably remain on this list for that long unless, in the next 2 years, some extremely dynamic commanders come out that depose her. She currently outranks the following four commanders on the Top 100 list:

• #97. Magus Lucea KaneMagus Lucea Kane
• #98. Morophon, the BoundlessMorophon, the Boundless
• #99. Anikthea, Hand of ErebosAnikthea, Hand of Erebos
• #100. Etali, Primal ConquerorEtali, Primal Conqueror

As for her competition (of which I mean the current commanders that outrank Azula), none seem to pose a great threat to her climb until you reach rank #85, held by Hearthhull, the WorldseedHearthhull, the Worldseed. This is because, unless any of these commanders get some special attention or cards that utterly break them, the commanders above Azula to Hearthhull's rank are pretty much old hat. They were released long enough ago to be out of the limelight, which can give Azula the chance to outrank them at basically any time before Lorwyn Eclipsed begins any serious preview season.

For whatever it's worth, the next obstacle in Azula's climb is Fynn, the FangbearerFynn, the Fangbearer, an uncommon commander from Kaldheim that deals with the much-maligned niche of poison counters. This legendary creature currently commands fewer than 60 more decks than Azula, and that measure is certainly going to drop as Azula gains more of a player base.

Other Avatar-Themed Success

In related news, Toph, the First MetalbenderToph, the First Metalbender, is potentially going to breach the Top 100 list as well. However, it'll be a bit longer before we can confirm that , since right now she's only at a rank of #124. This puts her just above Marrow-GnawerMarrow-Gnawer and just under Kibo, Uktabi PrinceKibo, Uktabi Prince.

It's entirely possible that Toph doesn't break 100. But, we must consider the current trajectory that Fire Lord Azula possesses and the relative age of the Avatar: The Last Airbender set. With that information on hand, it doesn't seem at all unlikely that Toph will also get there soon.

Now, we'd like to open the floor to you, dear readers! How far do you see Fire Lord Azula (or Toph, the First Metalbender) getting on EDHREC's Top 100 Commanders list? Do you have these commander decks at this time? How do you like them, and are there any hidden gems you're using in either? Sound off in the comments below!