Hey there, loyal readers! We’re still having some problems with our email links, and as such, we’re still trying to rebuild our email cache. That means we
need your submissions (sent to DearAzami at gmail dot com) and your patience. In return, we’re going to do our best to keep up the high-quality articles
you’ve come to expect from the Dear Azami brand, drawing on some of our older submissions.
Honestly, it’s a mixed blessing. We’d basically come to the end of our Fate Reforged programming, and we started that almost immediately after doing our
Commander 2014 articles, which themselves came after a run of Khans of Tarkir articles. They’ve all been enjoyable, but I, for one, am looking forward to
focusing more on some of the legends from long ago. That’s why I chose Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind last time, and that’s why I’m
doing another old school commander this week.
Well, that’s assuming you consider Time Spiral block “old school.” Considering how that block was inundated with nostalgia, I do. Plus, what good commanders were printed before the Modern era,
anyway? There are none, and I challenge you to prove me wrong in our email box. If you’ve got a neat list to send our way with a pre-Modern commander, you
can still email us at DearAzami at gmail dot com. It’s the link that doesn’t work, not the mailbox.
Anyway, this week’s letter comes from Sam. Take it away, Sam!
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Dear Azami,
I know that Jhoira of the Ghitu gets a lot of flack because she can be cheap and not fun to play against. Obviously my initial appeal to her was the Sam PS: Not sure how to format the cards to create links… my apologies. PPS: I just sent this email but forgot to add a budget… I’d like to keep the build under $100. Turn//Burn 16 Island 17 Mountain |
This submission jumped out to me because Jhoira of the Ghitu was the first Commander deck that made me feel like a bad person. I was playing Commander when
Rise of the Eldrazi dropped, and I quickly noticed the interaction between thelegendary Eldrazi and Jhoira, particularly when it came to Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. And
yes, I got to live the dream on one occasion and suspended Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. The trick in that game was living for long enough for it to come
crashing into play, but it did, and I won that game brutally. After all, suspend grants haste, and as Sneak and Show players can tell you, the only thing
more game-ending than Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is an Emrakul with haste.
I learned my lesson and took apart that deck even before Emrakul got banned. But I think there’s a way to build a Jhoira of the Ghitu deck that isn’t so
grossly overpowered as to put a target on your back from the start. The key, like you observed in your email, Sam, is to build it around a toolbox instead
of around a bag full of haymakers. Another option is to lean a bit more into the tribal theme, for flavor reasons at the very least.
I decided to split the difference and do both. Let’s get into the card choices, so I can show you what I mean.
Solid Ground
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I think you were right to make this into a 38-land deck. Jhoira, in particular, needs to hit the first four or five land drops without stumbling. But after
that point, drawing lands becomes less and less desirable. That’s why I took your Lonely Sandbar and augmented it with the other three Izzet cycle lands,
plus the oft-overlooked Blasted Landscape. If you draw one of those while you’re digging towards action, you can throw it away and replace it with
something you’re able to suspend.
Izzet Boilerworks is a good land, but it also has utility with the cyclers. It’s perfectly reasonable to play out a cycling land in the earlygame, and this
helps you convert one of those land drops into a card again. Grixis Panorama is an Evolving Wilds that doesn’t cost you the turn. It might be weird seeing
a Grixis card in an Izzet deck, but cards like this are one of the reasons I think the powers that be should reconsider the color identity rules.
Crucible of the Spirit Dragon is in there because enemy color guilds don’t have storage lands yet, and it can help with your dragons (even if you don’t
seem to be able to use it with Flameblast Dragon, which is a shame).
Finally there’s Phyrexia’s Core, and that’s a card I included because it makes for a mono-Mirrodin combo with Spine of Ish Sah. As you’ll see when I get to
removal, Spine is a great addition. It’s pricey enough that you’ll want to suspend it, but once it hits the board it just hangs around looking bored.
Phyrexia’s Core lets you rebuy it, and since we’re not leaning too heavily on the artifact theme, that interaction will often be ignored until you start
going off.
Saving Versus Doing
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I have cut mana rocks from many a deck, but this one in particular does seem to need them. Mana rocks are particularly important when your magic number is
five, and that’s the magic number for a Jhoira deck. You want to be able to drop Jhoira of the Ghitu while holding up two mana for a suspend activation,
even if your opponent can kill her immediately–especially if your opponent can kill her immediately. The key is making sure you get that initial value.
Now, thanks to these mana rocks, you can magical Christmasland out a turn 2 suspend off Sol Ring and Izzet Signet. While that’s the ideal, in most games
they’ll only buy you one turn. Still, since Jhoira is secretly a five-drop–that turn can matter.
Mana Flare is in there for a similar reason, namely that it allows you to get a turn 4 Jhoira with activation. But even beyond that it’s a strong card.
When the main drawback for a lot of the cards in your deck is that they cost a ton, a mana doubler is going to do some serious work. It lets you activate
Jhoira for a single land, like Training Grounds does, plus it means you can cast something grotesque like Colossal Whale on turn 4.
In exchange, I took out two of your cards for protecting your commander: Clout of the Dominus and Swiftfoot Boots. Now, I’m not a fan of Clout or any of
its counterparts. You may, at one point, want to get some value out of that slot when it’s not on your commander, and you’re out of luck if the card you’re
trying to protect doesn’t happen to be the right colors. Plus, what happens if you want to move that protection around? In general, I prefer equipment like
Darksteel Plate or Lightning Greaves for just that reason. All the same, I don’t think you need to be running Swiftfoot Boots either. You’re not going to
be doing a ton of targeting of your own creatures, so hexproof seems worse than shroud here. If you’re dead set on these slots, the best solution is
probably Darksteel Plate and Lightning Greaves, but I really don’t think the deck needs that. Instead, let’s focus on you being able to recast Jhoira if
she gets removed. Thus, ramp.
Finding Stuff to Do
Out
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As a writer, I find it occasionally haunting when Magic cards use real-world quotes to highlight the feel of their cards. At a young age I memorized that
one passage from Rime of the Ancient Mariner because it was on Scathe Zombies, and while I understand the counterarguments against mixing our reality with
that of the game, I’m a sucker for a good quote. That’s one of the things I love about Archivist. It has two of the best flavor-text quotes on Magic cards
to date:
“Words-so innocent and powerless are they, as standing in a dictionary; how potent for good and evil they become to one who knows how to combine them!”
-Nathaniel Hawthorne, on the 8th Edition version
“Sit down and read. Educate yourself for the coming conflicts.”
-Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, on the 9th Edition version
The former is an oft-overlooked truth, the latter is sound advice. I made a point to acquire playsets of both versions, because that’s the type of thing I
want my cards to literally be saying.
Anyway, this is a long digression; the point is that there are many draw engines tied to creatures, and some of those creatures are wizards or dragons. For
that reason I cut the cards that seemed off this theme. Jace, Memory Adept is a decent draw engine, but he primarily should see play in graveyard decks or
planeswalker decks. This one is neither. Charmbreaker Devils can be strong in the right deck, but you don’t have a ton of spells to take advantage of it.
Dictate of Kruphix is solid, since Howling Mine gets a lot better when it’s at instant speed, but you can do better sticking to theme. And Divination,
while a classic spell, isn’t enough card advantage when competing with the entire pool of Commander draw spells.
Archivist though, is a strong card. I don’t believe in running it in every blue Commander deck, but it seems like it would be a good fit for Jhoira’s
flavor. Considering every version has a different line of flavor-text, get the one that most feels like you. I’ve cut Azure Mage from a fair number of
decks, but you’re running Training Grounds for its Jhoira interaction, and we may as well take advantage of that. Same goes for Nivix Guildmage, which gets
pretty good when it gives all your spells a two-mana replicate cost. Mercurial Chemister is generally one of my favorite Izzet draw creatures, but it
absolutely shines in a deck with a bunch of high-converted-mana-cost spells. Sometimes you need to use the removal side of the card. Sometimes you don’t.
Either way, it gives you choices.
Magus of the Jar is an interesting draw spell. I tend to like it in decks that are either trying to fill their graveyards, or are better able to capitalize
on an ephemeral hand. Jhoira falls firmly in the latter camp. Chances are you’ll be able to suspend at least the best three cards in your new hand, and
that number goes up if you have something like Mana Flare in play.
We’re left with the dragons, and I love them both. Dragon Mage, like Niv-Mizzet, is both a dragon and a wizard, and thus it’s going to feel like a great
fit from a flavor perspective. Like Magus of the Jar, you’re probably going to get more advantage of dumping your hand for a new one, and the communal
nature of the ability means there is almost always going to be someone who lets it hit them. Suspend it on turn 4 and when it comes into play, you’ll be
able to reload after suspending everything of value in the interim. Spellbound Dragon is less bonkers, but once you’ve reached a certain point in the game,
lands aren’t going to be particularly valuable, and it loots them away while also providing a reasonably cheap finisher in case you no longer have access
to Jhoira.
Outside the Fishbowl
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While some people like to goldfish in Commander, other people like more of a give and take. Personally, I tend to fall in the middle: not a ton of
interaction, but if there’s interaction on theme, I’ll put it in. Here, I’ve applied that philosophy to your deck. It turns out there are a fair number of
dragons–and a couple of wizards–that have some way to replicate the effects of some of your more generic spells.
Which is not to say I completely eschewed the generic; I think Spine of Ish Sah is much better than Argentum Armor, and I also think it’s relevant to have
a colorless way to get rid of trouble permanents. This is particularly true in an Izzet deck, since otherwise you have few options to deal with
enchantments. While Argentum Armor can kill more things in an ideal world, if you are facing any opposition to your plans, the Spine is a better choice.
Argentum Armor costs six mana to equip even if you cheat it in, and it doesn’t Vindicate a permanent until the equipped creature attacks. There are plenty
of ways for your opponents to prevent this from happening, and if they don’t, you’re going to be the big threat at the table. See how many attack steps you
get after that!
I hate cards like Bearer of the Heavens. The dream, with this or with any of its analogues, is to tap your mana, trigger it, and then be left with the only
permanents in the game, as your opponents desperately try to rebuild. It ends the game without winning the game, and that’s annoying for all parties. The
problem is that if your opponent kills the thing before you’re ready to take advantage of the trigger, you’re left with a slower path to rebuild. Jhoira is
going to cost at least five mana, and you’ve got to wait at least five turns after that to start cheating things out again. Add in the catastrophe that
happens if you drop this after Colossal Whale has Jonah’d any number of opposing creatures, and generally you have an easy cut.
Sage-Eye Avengers is good, but you’re not really a prowess deck. Supplant Form gives you a similar bounce effect but tied to a clone and at instant speed.
Shockmaw Dragon is good in Limited, but in Commander you’ve got options like Balefire Dragon. And Balefire Dragon is just… better. Perhaps there’s an
argument to run both in a deathtouch pinger deck, but if you’ve only got room for one, Balefire gets the slot. Counterflux is a fine Izzet counterspell,
but it’s almost never overloaded. Glen Elendra Archmage can be just as difficult for your opponents to handle, since you can counter their counter with the
same card (unless their sequencing is perfect, and let’s face it, it’s usually not). On top of that though, it’s a wizard, and as it sits out there forcing
your opponents to tread around the threat it clearly implies you can tap it for cards thanks to Azami, Lady of Scrolls. Nin, the Pain Artist can offer a
very similar effect, only with removal being the threat, not negation. Either way, they’re both wizards, so go tribal!
Tribal Flames is less good though. Full domain is hard to achieve in Commander unless you’re in a five-color deck. It’s not impossible, but short of
stealing an opponent’s Prismatic Omen, that’s going to be a shock. An expensive Shock too! Instead, let’s go for the dragon theme again. Bogardan Hellkite
does five points of damage when it enters the battlefield, and it’s not restricted to a single target. And, just in case you want some more burn, let’s
also add in Scourge of Valkas. Not only is it more support for the minor dragon subtheme, but the thing has firebreathing as well, giving you yet another
way to end the game. Hoard-Smelter Dragon offers a similar advantage. Sure, it’s in there because it’s artifact removal (and because its ability goes well
with both Training Grounds and Crucible of the Spirit Dragon), but in the right scenario it can kill the heck out of your opponents. It’s even more brutal
if your own Spine of Ish Sah is on the battlefield as well.
While I don’t like Cyclonic Rift in general, I specifically dislike it in a Jhoira deck, since unlike kicker or entwine, you can’t overload it off a Jhoira
suspend. Shipbreaker Kraken is a good card in the right deck, but if you’re resorting to cheating the card into play, how are you going to have the eight
mana needed to use its ability? The same goes for Thousand Winds, which does basically nothing when suspended via Jhoira. Its ability is a morph trigger,
and it’s super hard to cheat with those.
Cheating out Magmatic Force, on the other hand, is exactly the type of high value play that makes good use of Jhoira’s discount. Since it’s a Force, and
thus triggers on every player’s upkeep, it’s going to do somewhere between three and twelve damage before it becomes your turn again. That’s a lot of
advantage, even before you get into the complicated mechanics involved in cloning Force users.
Simply the Best
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Speaking of clones, let’s talk Clone. Generally, there are two tiers of clone effects. The second, and weaker, tier of clones only can copy creatures you
have on your side of the board. Clones with this restriction are good when you’re already ahead, and bad when you’re behind. Mercurial Pretender is a good
example of a clone crippled by this drawback, since that card would be almost as good as Sakashima the Impostor if it weren’t for its homosocial nature.
Fated Infatuation definitely falls into that category, and that’s before acknowledging the fact that triple blue may as well be 3UUU in a two-color
Commander deck.
Instead, let’s put in two clones from tier one: Clever Impersonator and Rite of Replication. Clever Impersonator is boring but powerful. Your opponents’
best permanents might not be creatures, after all, and this way you can even keep up with the planeswalker deck. Rite of Replication, on the other hand, is
specifically good with Jhoira. Since the spell gets better when it’s kicked, and it kicks for five mana, you can easily suspend this card and then kick it
when it comes time to cast it from exile. That can lead to some gross gamestates; can you imagine not winning a game where you have six copies of Magmatic
Force on the board?
Engines Run Games
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Some games you won’t be able to win off Jhoira alone. Sometimes Jhoira will get tucked or killed on sight, or otherwise not be able to finish the game.
That’s when backup engines are important. While I may be stretching the definition a bit with Paradox Haze, which is more of a Force/Jhoira enabler,
Braids, Jalira, and the metal minotaur all give you different ways to take advantage of the gamestate.
Take Braids, for example. Blue Braids is generally seen as a group hugs card, since the ability is theoretically symmetrical. But! Your deck is already
built to cheat expensive things into play. You have more ways to dig for fuel than your opponents, and generally, some nastier things to cheat into play
when it’s your turn to do so. It’s basically similar to Arbiter of the Ideal, only faster, and not vulnerable due to a need to turn sideways to get the
effect.
Jalira’s another way to cheat things into play. Admittedly, Jalira is more random than Braids, but she’s less random than Arbiter of the Ideal; at the very
least she’s going to spit out a wizard, if not the dragon or leviathan you were hoping she’d hit. Finally, there’s Etherium-Horn Sorcerer. If possible,
this is going to be the type of card you’d want to initially suspend off Jhoira, since when it comes off suspend you’ll get two pieces of action for the
price of one. Then, since you can bounce it and replay it whenever it tickles your fancy, you basically have a five-mana loop that lets you play a
CMC-five-or-less card out of your deck every four turns. That’s not amazing, but it’s the type of sustained card advantage that wins games.
Finishing Up
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Speaking of winning games, I think you had too many cards in your deck for solely that purpose. Chaos Imps, Bloodfray Giant, Dominus of Fealty, the two
Eldrazi, Ripscale Predator, and Tromokratis all are in that deck because of their ability to turn sideways. But, as you can see above, we’ve already added
in a bunch of creatures who can end games but with the added utility of generating card advantage when they hit the table. These creatures can’t, so
they’re cut.
Then there’s the set of cards with hidden costs. For example, let’s look at Hellkite Charger. The initial logic for it is good, since it makes sense that
by the time it comes out from its suspended hiatus you’ll probably have enough mana to pay for the extra attack. But that’s seven mana. That’s an entire
turn’s worth of stuff to do. Instead, let’s put in Scourge of the Throne. It’s a dragon, which is on theme, plus it gets the secondary attack for free.
Sure, there will be times when you have the highest life total, rendering the card less useful, but it’s still, on the whole, a better version of that
effect. The same goes for Hedron Matrix, which requires a not-insignificant equip cost, while potentially being useless if you can’t get a creature to stay
alive and equipped over the course of a full turn cycle.
Finally, there’s Molten Primordial. It’s a solid card. But really, it’s a hybrid of Insurrection and a Craw Wurm. That’s not atrocious, but unless you have
specific means of reusing the ability, there are better overruns. Archetype of Imagination is one of them. Not only is it a wizard, but it means that your
team is unblockable by everything except for ground-pounders with reach. That’s pretty cool, and it plays well with the Jhoira suspension effect. If you
want to go more defensive though, Stormtide Leviathan is one of the best big things you can do in blue or red. It’s Moat, plus mana fixing, all on an
unblockable 8/8. If you don’t have to pay full price at checkout, that’s a pretty sweet deal.
The Deck
So here’s how the deck looked when I got finished with it:
Creatures (41)
- 1 Clone
- 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
- 1 Dragon Mage
- 1 Archivist
- 1 Sakashima the Impostor
- 1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
- 1 Bogardan Hellkite
- 1 Jhoira's Timebug
- 1 Magus of the Jar
- 1 Braids, Conjurer Adept
- 1 Jhoira of the Ghitu
- 1 Rift Elemental
- 1 Glen Elendra Archmage
- 1 Flameblast Dragon
- 1 Inkwell Leviathan
- 1 Spellbound Dragon
- 1 Wall of Frost
- 1 Artisan of Kozilek
- 1 Guard Gomazoa
- 1 Stormtide Leviathan
- 1 Steel Hellkite
- 1 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
- 1 Nin, the Pain Artist
- 1 Magmatic Force
- 1 Azure Mage
- 1 Jace's Archivist
- 1 Balefire Dragon
- 1 Etherium-Horn Sorcerer
- 1 Nivix Guildmage
- 1 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
- 1 Mercurial Chemister
- 1 Utvara Hellkite
- 1 Colossal Whale
- 1 Scourge of Valkas
- 1 Tidal Force
- 1 Keranos, God of Storms
- 1 Scourge of Fleets
- 1 Scourge of the Throne
- 1 Dack's Duplicate
- 1 Jalira, Master Polymorphist
- 1 Clever Impersonator
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (38)
Spells (19)
As you can see, it’s mostly creatures now, which makes for a more entertaining deck, in my opinion. You get to play things and have them killed, because
you can always get more things. That’s true in life, and that’s true in Commander as well.
I kept the changes well below $100, although more by happenstance than design. It turns out a few of the cards I assumed were still dollar rares have
climbed over the years. I was particularly surprised by Nin and Balefire Dragon, but on the whole this isn’t a high-octane set of changes.
I’m more of a regular unleaded type of lady.
|
Card |
Price |
|
0.15 |
|
|
0.15 |
|
|
0.15 |
|
|
0.15 |
|
|
0.15 |
|
|
0.25 |
|
|
0.25 |
|
|
0.25 |
|
|
0.25 |
|
|
0.25 |
|
|
0.29 |
|
|
0.35 |
|
|
0.49 |
|
|
0.49 |
|
|
0.49 |
|
|
0.49 |
|
|
0.49 |
|
|
0.49 |
|
|
0.49 |
|
|
0.49 |
|
|
0.49 |
|
|
0.55 |
|
|
0.69 |
|
|
0.89 |
|
|
1.35 |
|
|
1.49 |
|
|
1.79 |
|
|
1.79 |
|
|
2.09 |
|
|
3.25 |
|
|
3.29 |
|
|
3.75 |
|
|
5.49 |
|
|
6.89 |
|
|
7.29 |
|
|
7.79 |
|
|
7.99 |
|
|
63.43 |
That’s it for this week, Sam. I hope you’ve enjoyed the changes. I feel like I’ve delivered a deck that’s a bit more themed, and a bit less “random power,”
and I hope you’ll agree. I know I have more fun when my cards synergize, and I strongly suspect you’ll have more fun this way as well.
Thanks for playing! And if anyone else wants to email us a decklist at DearAzami at gmail dot com, we are still accepting submissions. It just might take
us a little while to get back to you. Be patient and this problem will eventually be fixed; then, it will be back to business as usual for the whole Dear
Azami team.
We await that day with bated breath!
Want to submit a deck for consideration to Dear Azami? We’re always accepting deck submissions to consider for use in a future article. Only one deck submission will be chosen per article, but being selected for the next edition of Dear Azami includes not just deck advice but also a $20 coupon to StarCityGames.com!
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