(Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer | Art by Todd Lockwood)

Mill 'n Chill

For the second Rally the Ancestors' 2024, let's go all the way back to 2009. I was looking at the color combinations I've written about so far and Azorius (blue/white) was missing. Karlov Manor has some Azorius cards I was pretty interested in trying out, so it seemed like the right time to dive into the blue and white world.

...Thing is, a lot of the good Azorius commanders are quite recent, and some of the stronger older ones (Brago, King Eternal and Grand Arbiter Augustin IV come to mind) are still heavily played. I wasn't finding a lot of inspiration in the older, less-played ones at first. So I started looking at some of these creatures and thinking about what types of themes had been printed lately that might synergize well. Eventually I came across one that had never really caught on in any format, from what I can recall:

Yes, Gwafa. Why does it make sense to try Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer out in 2024? Well, Gwafa's ability is an instant, and there has been a few cards printed lately that allow us to benefit from our opponents drawing more than one card in a turn. I was looking for any small spark of inspiration, so this was a good place to start.

At the time of writing this, Gwafa Hazid is the 46th-ranked Azorius commander with just under 500 decks. He's a deep cut and I get why. A three-mana 2/2 with an activated ability that also costs two and has a downside isn't that inspiring at first glace. However, Gwafa's effect is pretty strong, and I think it's better in Commander than it ever was in Standard or Limited formats. Why? Well, bribery counters don't go away when Gwafa dies. So, if we replay him, we can still keep our opponents' bribed creatures locked down. Being able to prevent a creature from attacking or blocking at instant speed also lets us play board politics, which adds a lot to a Commander game and possibly lets us survive when our deck would normally be putting a massive target on our heads. Why is that, you ask? Well, it's no secret that blue and white is one of the better color combinations for control or stax-style decks. Gwafa's ability lends itself to that style as well. That said, to help mitigate the hate, I figured I'd go off the board a bit more and make this into a mill deck. If we can keep big, problematic creatures locked down, there's a chance we can simply mill everyone out than trying to win through damage or sheer frustration (typically a common Azorius win condition). Let's give it a go!

Deck Goals

1. Mill our opponents. This is how we win. While we could play this more combo-style as many mill decks do, I'm looking more to mill over time while controlling the board. Will we have some splashy one-shot combos? Sure. Is that the only way we can win? Not at all.
2. Profit from our opponents drawing cards. Gwafa Hazid IS a profiteer, after all. We'll have to take on that role as well to mitigate the advantage we give opponents by allowing them to draw cards when we lock their threats down.
3. Stay alive! Our creature/blocker count isn't especially high, and our endeavors to control the board will likely make Gwafa a target. We'll have to lean heavily into dissuading attacking and playing table politics to do so. Sounds fun to me.

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Tips For Building And Playing Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer

1. I assume most of you, dear readers, are playing multiplayer commander games more often than not. Therefore I think it's best to generally stick to mill effects that mill each opponent rather than just a single opponent.
2. Gwafa realistically cannot control a board on his own, especially in three or four player games. We'll need other ways to deal with problem creatures than just him. In addition, his ability doesn't do anything about creatures with activated or triggered abilities, which many commanders have. Be selective in who you bribe, and have a backup plan in hand!
3. Try to keep some mana up once Gwafa is on the board. Even if you don't end up bribing a creature with him, having the threat of doing so also means you can threaten having a counterspell in hand, despite the deck actually running very few. I'm running cards like Land Tax and Weathered Wayfarer despite the deck's curve being relatively low to facilitate this, in addition to playing cards that give our spells flash.
4. Initially I underestimated the amount of hate that this deck would get. I was expecting some, but in the games I've played with the deck I've been targeted pretty hard, enough that I opted to include a few more ways to dissuade attacks from coming my way. If you're looking to modify this deck a bit, be mindful of protecting yourself. It's tempting to throw in every mill card under the sun but staying alive is a big part of the game with a deck like this.

I'm admittedly bending one of my deckbuilding rules slightly and putting in a card with a higher Salt Score this time. Smothering Tithe and Narset, Parter of Veils are just too on-theme and too valuable in this deck to skip. I swear I won't do it again! ...Probably.

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The Deck

Before I get into key components, I wanted to break rank from my usual format and take a minute to highlight some of the new cards from Karlov Manor, its Commander cards and one from the odd-but-amusing Ravnica: Clue Edition spinoff.

If I were to make a bold prediction, I could see both Final-Word Phantom and Trouble in Pairs becoming very popular in Commander. They both offer abilities that are almost universally applicable. Being able to cast spells with flash because of a three-mana creature is great, and the downside is negligible. After all, the end step is probably when you want to cast spells anyway. And Trouble in Pairs rewards you with a card when your opponent does, well, almost anything good. I'm into it. Suppressor Skyguard is a quirky creature but it's right at home in this deck and I imagine many other Azorius builds as well. I'll mention dual land Meticulous Archive as well; this is a great land reminiscent of Temple of Enlightenment and its kin from Theros, but a touch more valuable due to its double land type.

Alright, let's get into the deck a little deeper.

 

Mill effects

Still strong: Sphinx's Tutelage, Fraying Sanity, Memory Erosion, Psychic Corrosion, Mesmeric Orb, Mindcrank
"New" hotness: Cut Your Losses, Bruvac the Grandiloquent, Ruin Crab, Teferi's Tutelage, Shadow Kin Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Court of Cunning

There are no shortage of mill effects to look for, but as mentioned I'm prioritizing ones that can hit multiple opponents. I'm using "new" loosely here as many of the new cards are three or four years old, but ones like Ruin Crab and Teferi's Tutelage are straight upgrades of their predecessors, enough so that I've skipped Hedron Crab here entirely. Bruvac the Grandiloquent and Cut Your Losses give us a away to combo into a one-shot victory as well, provided we have the creatures to copy it in multiplayer. Speaking of multiplayer, Mindcrank is great when we have other opponents hitting each other for damage.

 

Gwafa Hazid synergy

Still strong: Narset, Parter of Veils, Smothering Tithe, Consecrated Sphinx, Leyline of Anticipation
New hotness: The Council of Four, Faerie Mastermind, Final-Word Phantom, Tidal Barracuda

Most of these cards give us something whenever an opponent draws cards. Mostly cards. Sometimes treasures. And sometimes we prevent them from drawing a card at all! In addition to these, we have cards that mill our opponents when we draw cards, so when they draw, we draw, and they mill. So, Gwafa's effect not only protects us, it can contribute to our win condition in certain board states. Fun! I've also included a few flash enablers so we can keep mana up for the threat of a Gwafa activation, and still cast spells if we choose not to.

 

Dissuading attacks

Still strong: Riddlekeeper, Propaganda, Sphere of Safety, Thaumatic Compass
New hotness: Suppressor Skyguard, Trouble in Pairs

Our aforementioned new cards shine here, and they have some help from some old staples. I quite like Thaumatic Compass and its flip side. It's an effect we want more as the game goes on, so getting a Maze of Ith that still taps for mana once we hit seven is worth waiting for. It's admittedly kind of a pet card of mine but I think it fits well here. Sphere of Safety can be quite strong in this deck as well. We have 21 enchantments and ways to copy them, so the sphere can put a pretty heavy tax on attacking us. That should dissuade anything but the most desperate attackers.

 

Enchantment synergy

Still strong: Estrid's Invocation, Mirrormade Sun Titan
New hotness: Court of Vantress, Dance of the Manse, Extravagant Replication, Lithoform Engine

Speaking of enchantments, we might as well lean into playing a bunch of them. In this case I didn't think the deck had room for full "enchantress" style effects, so I opted to try to get value another way: copying them! Extravagant Replication takes this to the next level, and it copies other stuff too! Lithoform Engine fills a similar role. While it doesn't have direct enchantment synergy, most of our enchantments or their abilities are great when duplicated. It's also a nice mana sink if we don't end up bribing someone with Gwafa and we've left mana up. In addition, Sun Titan and Dance of the Manse are great insurance policies. Hard to get there with a mill deck with your mill enchantments in the 'yard, after all. We're not running as many of these as one would in a creature-heavy deck, so recursion like these is sure nice to have.

 

Removal and other defensive cards

Still strong: Retribution of the Meek, Time Wipe, Authority of the Consuls, Soul Snare, Darksteel Mutation
New hotness: The Battle of Bywater, Unstable Glyphbridge, Stroke of Midnight, Wash Away, An Offer You Can't Refuse

Because Gwafa himself provides a way to deal with troublesome creatures, I found that this deck is a great home for more conditional board sweepers like The Battle of Bywater and its distant ancestor Retribution of the Meek. I also really like Unstable Glyphbridge here, as its flip side also contributes well to our game plan. Wash Away should see more play than it does; if you're running blue there's very few reasons to exclude it from your 99. Soul Snare is another card I quite like. It's a great political piece for dissuading attacks, is relevant at almost any point in the game and synergizes really well with Sun Titan. If I'm running the titan, I'm packing Soul Snare.

Last thing I wanted to highlight quickly is a few land-related cards. Weathered Wayfarer is quite good here as we're often leaving mana up. It's nice to have things to do with it, and one mana to find a land can really help. I don't like running three-drop mana rocks all that often, but Patriar's Seal is solid with commanders with activated abilities. The deck also has enough enchantments to make Hall of Heliod's Generosity quite valuable. While building mana bases can be tedious and too many utility lands can dilute our ability to cast what we want to cast when we want to cast it, don't ever be afraid to take a bit of time to dig deep on Scryfall or EDHREC's utility land sections for each color.

That covers most of it; here's our list!

 

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How I Used EDHREC To Build This Deck

This was a tough one to nail down! Initially I had a convoluted backup win condition of Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree and a bunch of praetors, but eventually I found it was just too clunky, especially when said praetors got stuck in my hand (looking at you, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur). So I went back to EDHREC and took another look through the mono blue and Azorius mill theme pages, as well as Gwafa's pillow fort page for some defensive options. I highly recommend checking out theme pages for your next deck idea; they can be incredibly helpful.

Until next time!

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