I've done dozens of articles to date. I've even made multiple attempts at certain colors and combinations. One day I went through and compiled a list of all my decks and I noticed I had some gaps. I made a concerted effort at that point to address some of those underrepresented combinations. The first one I tackled is an old favorite of mine, Azorious. It's gotten a bad wrap in the last few years. People haven't been building it in record numbers, pushed legendaries haven't been coming out on a regular basis, and and there are complaints of the unique identity of Blue and White together. I don't care about any of that. I just want to get weird.
There is a specific legend I've been trying to make work for some time, Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper. The problem is, there just wasn't enough to the deck to make it work. My idea was to animate my lands, then exchange control of them with opponent's lands and kill my own land creatures to get ahead on mana. Confusing, right? Here's an an example. I have a land that is a creature with 2 +1/+1 counters on it. I cast Political Trickery and steal an opponent's best land and hand over my 2/2. Then I kill it. If that happens to be a Drownyard Temple I'll just pay the 3 and get my land back. If not, a bounce spell like Consuming Vortex will just put the land back to my hand for me to play later. I pushed heavily into Arcane just to make Shifting Borders work repeatedly. I was really scraping the bottom of the barrel, looking to cards like Shifting Loyalties, Vedalkan Plotter, and even Conjured Currency. I kept expecting more Arcane spells to open up the idea, but they never came, even after going back to Kamigawa.
So the idea sat dormant for quite some time. At some point I just asked myself, “Isn't Noyan Dar weird enough on his own? Do I really need to go this far out in left field?” The short answer is no. No other legend cares about the Awaken mechanic like he does. Who else reliably animates lands? This realization also made putting the deck together a little simpler and streamlined.
What a better spot to start than with the lands. I leaned into the aggressive lands idea, so I wanted ones that would survive combat. Razortide Bridge, Cascading Cataracts, and Darksteel Citadel all have Indestructible. I can survive a lot of combats with that key word. There just aren't a lot of lands with that ability so I want to find these early and take care of them. Noyan doesn't force me to choose a new land every time so I can stack multiple counters on the same land over and over again. I do have some additional ways of extending the ability to other lands as well. Consecrate Land is a cheap enchantment that not only extends indestructibility but also keeps the land safe from other auras. Darksteel Garrison is a one of a kind Artifact. It's like an equipment for lands. It also pumps a creature when that land gets tapped. Even with vigilance I can still tap the land for mana and get the bonus. Terra Eternal makes it easy and makes all lands indestructible. Sacred Ground works well with my more fragile lands. If an opponent happens to kill one, I just get it back.
I took a lot of lessons for this deck from my Kykar Vehicles deck. Here it is if you want a refresher. That deck used a lot of boardwipes to advance my plan. Here I want to tailor my removal to exclude destroying lands. Other permanents are fair game. If I can save Noyan in the mean time even better. Urza's Ruinous Blast fits both these categories. It leavers my legendaries and lands unscathed. It's been great when dealing with token strategies and graveyard decks. Planar Cleansing is a little more aggressive, taking every nonland off the board. If my commander isn't on the field I feel less bad about firing this off. Crush of Tentacles is a little more forgiving, sending permanents back to hand. I keep my land creatures and can cast my commander again without the tax. If I had already cast a creature I benefit even more from the reduced cost and the 8/8 token left over. Planar Outburst will help me keep my more fragile land creatures on the board and maybe make one on its own. I also added in Mirrorweave for fun. Making all my opponent's creatures 0/0 is a great way to clear the board.
My targeted removal is a little more forgiving. Sheer Drop is a little more restrictive since it only hits tapped creatures, but the Awaken ability makes it more beneficial. Don't look at it as 6 mana removal, it's 6 mana removal and 3 counters to my indestructible land creature. Clutch of Currents and Roil Spout are good tempo plays, if not a little slow. Awaken just makes them that much more valuable in the late game. Cancel isn't great in this format, but plenty of people play it. So Scatter to the Winds is a strictly better version. I'll only pay the awaken cost on the turn before my mine. I don't usually have 6 mana open at the end of the turn cycle, but if I do I'll gladly play it on the opponent on my right. Sometimes even if it's unnecessary.
Once I have all these counters on my lands, what else could I do with them? They do more than just power up my creatures, they open doors for other abilities that make them more effective in combat. Cards like Abzan Falconer and Abzan Battle Priest just reward my land creatures for existing. Am I playing Abzan colors? No. But the cards are still killer in Azorious. Blue provides Skatewing Spy to make my lands fly. Evasion is very welcome in a combat centered strategy. Herald of Secret Streams goes a step further and just makes them unblockable.
I'm going to be honest, this deck can be slow if you don't play it right. Once I have an indestructible land things move a little smoother, but there is still an issue here. If I use my lands to attack I don't have them to cast spells. I can ramp harder, and I do what I can in White. Weathered Wayfarer, Deep Gnome Terramancer, even Druidic Satchel all have a part to play here. I have even more I can do though, I can untap my creatures. If those creatures happen to be lands too I can recoup the mana. Think Drum Bellower and To Arms! I also have a couple great counter spells that do this in a surprise fashion. Rewind and Unwind allow me to untap lands after my initial investment. I can catch an opponent off guard with these, ruin his turn with the counterspell, and be able to block and prevent the crack back.
I have a key finisher to highlight. It wins games. Inkmoth Nexus. This little land turns into an evasive creature with a killer keyword, Infect. A 1/1 isn't that scary. The fact that it dodges a lot of removal increases that scare factor. All of a sudden I get to throw some counters on it and what was once a 1/1 crashes into my opponent and gives 4 or 5 poison counters. The +1/+1 counters will just wait there for me until the time is right to attack again in the future. I stretch that strategy with cards like Tezzeret's Gambit to proliferate when I draw. I have a pair of powerhouse creatures that play their part here too. Thrummingbird and Viral Drake are key Proliferators. These are great at adding more counters to my lands, whether they are animated at the time or not. The drake has the added threat of infect. I don't need a lot of ways to give poison counters but I've found one or two sources are important. This keeps a life gain player on the ropes. I like to slip in an attack against a token player before he can chump block all my threats and put pressure on him throughout the game. My opponents are just as guilty or proliferating those poison counters as I am. I'm not the only villain at the table.
Before I wrap up I want to highlight a couple more lands, man lands. These take a little investment and turn into a creature for that turn. The they return to safety as a land. If I can put counters on them they'll get a boost when they animate. There is a fun interaction with Noyan Dar and Awaken here. I have Celestial Colonade, Cave of the Frost Dragon, and Hall of Storm Giants in the deck. Say I use Noyan or Awaken to make the creature a 0/0 with some counters on. That land is online permanently. So I'll attack with say Hall of Storm Giants and everyone thinks its just a 2/2. All of a sudden I use the ability, pay 6, and make the land a 7/7 with those counters on it. Opponents don't account for that kind of power boost the first time. I have caught people off guard and and swung for lethal more than once this way.
Here's how the deck stacks up now.
Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper
Hamilar Tidecaller Terra Eternal Tomik, Distinguished Advokist
Herald of Secret Streams Annex Planar Outburst
Abzan Falconer Sacred Ground Scatter to the Winds
Abzan Battle Priest Darksteel Garrison Encircling Fissure
Walking Atlas Consecrate Land Part the Waterveil
Deep Gnome Terramancer Ensoul Artifact Roil Spout
Ainok Bond-Kin To Arms! Coastal Discovery
Skatewing Spy Frantic Search Ondu Rising
Kor Cartographer Unwind Sheer Drop
Magus of the Balance Drumbellower Clutch of Currents
Druidic Satchel Rewind Crush Contraband
Felidat Retreat Reject Imperfection Unbreakable Formation
Weathered Wayfarer Political Trickery Slip Out the Back
Snap Shifting Borders Pearl Medallion
Consuming Tide Vedalken Plotter Saphire Medallion
Hour of Revelation Consuming Vortex Experimental Augury
Mirrorweave Veil of Secrecy Flux Channeler
Crush of Tentacles Eye of Nowhere Thrumming Bird
Tragic Arrogance Reach Through Mists Viral Drake
Planar Cleansing Terashi's Grasp Greatful Apparition
Urza's Ruinous Blast Scaretiller Tezzeret's Gambit
Planar Birth
Razortide Bridge Buried Ruin Cascading Cataracts
Darksteel Citadel Drownyard Temple Cave of the Frost Dragon
Mishra's Factory Crawling Barrens Celestial Colonade
Karn's Bastion Inkmoth Nexu Evolving Wilds
Terramorphic Expanse Plains x11 Island x11
The deck has been surprisingly fun to play. Even though it started in a totally wacky place, then turned into a more straight forward build. As straight forward as using lands to attack in Azorious colors can be. My favorite thing to do has been to play a deck with a land destruction component first and then this deck. If the conversation around the table goes to anti land destruction or lands being off limits in some way I break this out and see how far that protective bubble around lands really extends.
What do you think? Was this weird enough for #MEDHWA? Or do I need to go further in my next build?
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