Deck & Commander Strategies
Fire Lord Azula
Utilizes artifact ramp, rituals, and instant-speed spells to generate multiple triggers from the commander’s abilities, creating tokens and enabling storm-style combos that mill opponents and deal damage through repeated spellcasting.
Katara, Waterbending Master
A monoblue control and draw deck focused on infinite turns combos using cards like Beacon of Tomorrows and Nexus of Fate to take repeated extra turns, drawing extensively and finishing with large attackers or damage spells.
Iroh, Grand Lotus
A flashback-oriented spellslinger deck that doubles the value of instants and sorceries, enabling powerful recursion and combo interactions based on rituals and card advantage, relying on careful mana acceleration and spell sequencing.
Sokka, Tenacious Tactician
A red-based stax and control deck focusing on incremental ping damage, mana generation, and disruption to slow opponents while gradually building board presence and storming out with infinite mana or damage combos.
Gameplay Insights
- 1
Azula’s player used their commander’s ability to repeatedly copy instant-speed rituals and spells, generating multiple tokens and mana to fuel a storm combo that mills opponents and creates lethal damage quickly.
- 2
The use of Brain Freeze in combination with artifact mana and token sacrifices allowed for a massive self-mill and opponent mill, quickly raising the storm count and enabling a fast win.
- 3
Iroh’s deck heavily depended on flashback synergy and rituals but struggled to find the right acceleration initially, highlighting the importance of fast mana and tutors in cEDH.
- 4
Katara’s plan focused on drawing into infinite turn spells and leveraging extra turns to outvalue opponents, but the game ended before this could fully develop.
- 5
Sokka’s build aimed at incremental control and mana ramp with ping damage, but was overwhelmed by Azula’s explosive combo before establishing a long-term game plan.
Notable Cards
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Brain Freeze
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Frantic Search
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Mox Opal
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Lion's Eye Diamond
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Beacon of Tomorrows
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Nexus of Fate
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Mystic Remora
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Vampiric Tutor
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Infernal Plunge
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Underworld Breach
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Fierce Empath
Gameplay Summary
The game features four competitive commanders with distinct strategies: Azula leveraging Grixis artifact and instant synergies to create multiple combat triggers, Katara aiming for an infinite turns combo through massive card draw and Nexus of Fate, Iroh focusing on flashback-enabled instants and rituals for value and recursion, and Sokka utilizing a red-based stax/control build with ping damage and mana generation.
Early turns involve careful mulligans and ramp development, with players seeking to establish their key combos.
A pivotal moment occurs when Azula casts Brain Freeze repeatedly in conjunction with a token-generating commander ability and a Frantic Search/ritual package, milling a large portion of their deck and opponents' libraries to set up a lethal storm count.
Azula uses the synergy between artifact mana sources, token creation, and ritual recursion to overwhelm opponents quickly.
The game ends swiftly after this combo execution, showcasing the power of explosive artifact-ritual combos combined with milling and damage triggers.
