Brewing a Fire Lord Azula Commander Deck on a Budget

<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fire Lord Azula" href="#" target="_blank">Fire Lord Azula</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Illustrated by <a href="https://www.artstation.com/mangamie">Fahmi Fauzi</a></em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Fans of <em>Avatar: The Last Airbender</em>, this news is for you! <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fire Lord Azula" href="#" target="_blank">Fire Lord Azula</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, one of the primary antagonists of the beloved animated Nickelodeon series, has breached the <a href="https://edhrec.com/commanders">Top 100 Commanders</a> 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!</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Fire Lord Azula"></div></div>
<h2>What Does Fire Lord Azula Do?</h2>
<p>Fire Lord Azula is a blue-black-red (or Grixis, using colloquial <em>Magic</em> 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 <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-r" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-r" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span> when you declare her as an attacker. Furthermore, she copies any spell you cast during combat, provided she is attacking at the time.</p>
<p>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 <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Narset&#039;s Reversal" href="#" target="_blank">Narset&#039;s Reversal</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Snap" href="#" target="_blank">Snap</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and many spells with additional costs, like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thrill of Possibility" href="#" target="_blank">Thrill of Possibility</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> or <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Big Score" href="#" target="_blank">Big Score</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. These spells only need you to pay the additional cost once, on cast; copies need not apply.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Narset&#039;s Reversal"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Big Score"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Snap"></div></div>
<p>There are also plenty of support cards in this deck's top cards that will soup up what Azula is manipulating. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="High Fae Trickster" href="#" target="_blank">High Fae Trickster</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Leyline of Anticipation" href="#" target="_blank">Leyline of Anticipation</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> 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.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="High Fae Trickster"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Thrill of Possibility"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Leyline of Anticipation"></div></div>
<h2>Where is Azula Now?</h2>
<p>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. <em>Avatar: The Last Airbender</em> 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:</p>
<ul>
<li>#97. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Magus Lucea Kane" href="#" target="_blank">Magus Lucea Kane</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span></li>
<li>#98. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Morophon, the Boundless" href="#" target="_blank">Morophon, the Boundless</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span></li>
<li>#99. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Anikthea, Hand of Erebos" href="#" target="_blank">Anikthea, Hand of Erebos</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span></li>
<li>#100. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Etali, Primal Conqueror" href="#" target="_blank">Etali, Primal Conqueror</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span></li>
</ul>
<p>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 <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hearthhull, the Worldseed" href="#" target="_blank">Hearthhull, the Worldseed</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. 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 <em>Lorwyn Eclipsed</em> begins any serious preview season.</p>
<p>For whatever it's worth, the next obstacle in Azula's climb is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fynn, the Fangbearer" href="#" target="_blank">Fynn, the Fangbearer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, an uncommon commander from <em>Kaldheim</em> 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.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Magus Lucea Kane"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Fynn, the Fangbearer"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Hearthhull, the Worldseed"></div></div>
<h2>Other <em>Avatar</em>-Themed Success</h2>
<p>In related news, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Toph, the First Metalbender" href="#" target="_blank">Toph, the First Metalbender</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, 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 <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Marrow-Gnawer" href="#" target="_blank">Marrow-Gnawer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and just under <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kibo, Uktabi Prince" href="#" target="_blank">Kibo, Uktabi Prince</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Kibo, Uktabi Prince"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Toph, the First Metalbender"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Marrow-Gnawer"></div></div>
<p>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 <em>Avatar: The Last Airbender</em> set. With that information on hand, it doesn't seem at all unlikely that Toph will also get there soon.</p>
<p>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!</p>


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