Welcome back! Before we get started today, I want to thank everyone who reached out to me with kind words and comments regarding my recent family issue. It really means a lot to hear the words of encouragement, and I appreciate all of the good karma flowing. It’s just awesome to have such an incredible group of readers. Hopefully by the time you’re reading this, I’ll be exhausted and half-asleep after finally being able to bring my daughter home (at last!) and beginning to experience the utter sleeplessness that comes from having a newborn in the house. (Yay?)

Anyway, before we dive into today’s edition of Dear Azami, I want to take a few paragraphs to discuss a question a reader submitted that deals with the difficulty of molding a playgroup full of likeminded players into people that don’t want to flip tables and kill each other every other game.

From Derrick Paulson:

We’re really looking at the core of the social contract here. This applies across the board from things like deck construction (the dreaded banned list!) to how games themselves actually unfold. Much digital ink has been spilled trying to crack the contract, and the reality is a bit abstract; the Commander social contract is going to be different with each new location you play at and each group of players you sit down at a table with.

The core of the issue is that Commander is a casual format. There are no judges looking over your shoulder to make sure you’re not breaking rules or running off with your deck to check your list in between games. This is precisely why the Rules Committee words things the way they do; just last week in his regular article here on StarCityGames.com, Bennie Smith talked specifically about this when he looked at the phrasing of the banned list announcement itself:

"The trick is to realize that the banned list is meant to light the way and be a learning tool to find the path to real enjoyment playing Commander. It’s right there in the two-sentence preamble to the banned list:

The following is the official banned list for Commander games. These cards (and others like them) should not be played without prior agreement from the other players in the game.

The four words in parentheticals is really the important heart of the matter. It lets you know that the cards on the banned list are markers, like danger signs for unfun. If you see a card on the banned list and think "but card X is nearly as bad as this," then maybe you shouldn’t play that card either. Thinking about why a particular card is on the banned list gives insight into what’s not fun in Commander, and having that knowledge will let you make better decisions when deciding what cards you want to put in your decks."

Those four words really define the spirit of the format as the Rules Committee envisions it. It’s casual, people! Play what you want to! Sit down at a table and (gasp!) talk to the other players to decide what’s acceptable and what’s over the line. Play 120-cards deck if you want or run two commanders at all times. Heck, play "Ironman" rules if you want. (Go ahead and Google "Ironman Magic: The Gathering" and prepare to cringe at the implications.)

So why have an official banned list at all?

Well, the reality is that there are environments that can benefit from all of this legislation. Anyone who plays Magic Online Commander lives under the electronic nanny without choice in the matter to begin with, and when you’re talking about running events at stores that are open to the public, you’ll eventually need to welcome new players into the fold with little to no time for introductions—much less familiarization with the group as a whole.

This is where using some sort of "league rules" list is helpful.

Sheldon Menery and the Armada Games crew have basically pioneered the "points play" system, and I can say firsthand that after working with others to implement and fine tune a similar arrangement at the local shop, it has been largely responsible for the adoption and growth of Commander there.

Now, there are caveats involved; I wouldn’t recommend trying to take Armada’s list, my list, or anyone else’s list and simply implement it right out of the box. It won’t fit because the groups who have had successes with this sort of thing have spent a long time figuring out what works and what doesn’t for the players that are going to actually experience the rules set. It’s like an old baseball hat; at first, it fits terribly and is really uncomfortable, but with a little work and some focus on results, you’ll end up with something familiar and easy to love.

Making changes to make it your own thing is essential; I can’t stress that enough. On the same token, I can’t exactly suggest a few easy options for you because I don’t know a thing about your metagame. I can show you the strategies you can apply to get results though.

To that end, Derrick, here are my suggestions.

1) Try to include a good cross-section of players to help you mold things to your liking. Polling everyone involved or holding town meetings may not be feasible, but throwing feelers out to people interested in providing input is a great way to start. It can be as simple as asking people to suggest a rule ("let’s not use commander damage") or restriction ("no mass land destruction") that they’d like to see. You’ll see patterns start to form, and the players will be happy to see that they’re involved in the process.

2) Set some baselines. You need some basic guidelines to make things run smoothly. Identify starting times, preferred groupings (i.e. no bigger than four-man games), what kinds of prizes are on the line, and methods for choosing seating. I can’t recommend enough that you try to randomize players if you have multiple tables. It encourages people to experience new decks and new players and keeps it fresh while also helping to prevent collusion. In our shop, we "draw straws" to determine tables by choosing Magic cards face down. ("Thallids are at this table, Giant Sharks over there, and Conch Horns in the back!")

3) Lay down the rules. This is the meat of the league play, the decisions that will directly affect the games. The sky is the limit here, but it’s worth it to think about what kinds of games you want to see. Again, this is where you want your players to weigh in because you want games that appeal to them to make sure they keep coming back.

If you have a competitive group, it may be as simple as playing seeded matches in the same way that FNM is run to determine winners and overall standings. If your group is much more casual, you should start to consider using an Armada Games style points system or putting in some functional changes from the ground up.

As an example, our rules did away with commander damage for a very long time (which weeded out the cutthroat Rafiq of the Many Voltron decks), and we adopted points that reward players for things like "first combat damage dealt to a player" and "completing a game without searching your library" as well as deductions for things like infinite combos and mass land destruction. You might want to consider a local banned list that will help to equalize games by removing cards or strategies that have dominated things to the point of stale games and disenfranchised players.

Again, the important takeaway is that you figure out what appeals to your playgroup and work on a list of rules that best enables those types of preferred games.

4) Make sure you print out copies of the rules! It took us a while on this one, and there was more than one occasion where a new player got verbally slapped on the wrist for something they didn’t know was against the rules.

Really what we’re talking about here is a simple implementation of the social contract. In order to play the games you want to play, find a likeminded group and then talk about things. When it comes to the games themselves, you’ll see the differences right off the bat.

Now let’s talk about gaining some life.

After the initial onslaught of Nekusar, the Mindrazer decks following the release of the Commander 2013 precons, the title of "Most Hated New Commander" likely passed to Derevi, Empyrial Tactician. I think Oloro, Ageless Ascetic ends up a close third though. The passive life gain seems to throw everyone off kilter for some reason, making Oloro the most hated commander to not even be played. It seems crazy that a measly two life per turn would make for a really unbalanced commander offering, but a few solid games with or against him will set you straight in a hurry. He’s stronger (and also way more irritating by transitive property) than he initially appears.

Nonetheless, Allan, I’m with you. Esper commander options are pretty limited in scope; they run the gamut as far as strategic focus, but none particularly scream "I’m a blank slate—build me!"  You tend to experience the polar opposites: the busted in half Sharuum the Hegemon and Zur the Enchanter decks and then . . . Chromium and Lady Evangela?

It’s tough to lock in on a good middle of the road commander to build around in these colors.

While I don’t think Oloro particularly breaks the mold here, he does offer a pretty solid and mostly balanced new angle to bring to the table. If you wanted to make an Esper deck and don’t care about the commander but felt kinda bad that you were essentially running a puppet at the helm, you’ve now got a legitimate contributor that will let you chase whatever theme you want while subtly assisting with your goal.

Of course, building specifically around Oloro can yield a powerhouse of a deck. This is the direction I’m generally a fan of; the beauty of the format is that it allows you to feature a single creature to head up your strategy, and the ease of availability means you’re doing yourself a great disservice by ignoring the opportunity. In this case, Oloro can flat out end games and provide life and card advantage all in one tidy package, so passing him up means you’re missing a solid angle of attack.

That pretty much answers your question above as well. I would encourage players to go whatever direction they want with deckbuilding, but I think Oloro is worth incorporating the entire picture. There’s no doubt that he draws hate in a hurry, but stick him and the upsides are completely worth it.

I want to take it a step farther though. (After all, tuck is a thing.) This deck does a good job already of taking good advantage of life as a resource, and the ease that Oloro helps to feed that angle means that we can take a tiered approach. We want this deck to function nearly as well without Oloro as it does with him, so that’s the build direction I’ll look to leverage.

The Strategy: Life Matters

I love this angle. It’s a classic; the average deck uses mana as a resource and life as a measurement of how long it can hang in a game. This deck uses both as equal resources to fuel card advantage and ultimately win the game. Life gain (for you) and life loss (for everyone else) is the ultimate goal, with the ability to utilize your life total to access spells that are more powerful than they would be at retail mana costs a strong added strategy.

It’s almost like playing with an extra deck.

The Colors: White, Black, & Blue

This is one of the most intrinsically powerful color combinations in the game. White offers many of the strong life gain components as well as some unbeatable removal. Black adds additional removal while also providing some great card draw and tutoring (and a few solid game winners as well.)  Blue brings more card draw and a host of flexible answers such as counterspells and bounce like Capsize and Cyclonic Rift. You won’t miss much in these colors . . .

Except for mana ramp and fixing. White has a few options (such as Land Tax and Tithe) available, but nothing comes close to the brutal and explosive efficiency of green in this area. As a result, you’ll find yourself dipping into artifacts to make sure that you aren’t missing out on mana production.

The General: Oloro, Ageless Ascetic

We touched on the ups and the downs of Oloro pretty well up above. You’re going to enjoy a solid two extra life per turn no matter what for the remainder of the game unless he gets tucked or bounced, so enjoy that. If you can get him to stick, he enables a strange blurring of the lines between cards and life; your life gain will draw you cards and slowly take out your opponents, making life gain cards stronger than card draw in most cases. Prepare for two things: resolving complicated stacks and lots of triggers and a lot of hate as soon as people figure out what you’re up to.

Oh, I guess he beats for four in a pinch too.

Related Aside: Where You Can Go Wrong

In the interest of full disclosure, I built an Oloro, Ageless Ascetic myself when the precons were released. A good portion of the tech I’ll be suggesting today comes straight from my personal experience with the deck.

Some of the experiences with the deck I won’t be sharing include the games I played a few weeks back. I decided that things were working so well with the deck that I should pull out a bunch of critical components out and try to shoehorn in a Lich engine—cards like Donate and Soul Conduit to remove life totals completely or stick people with a ticking time bomb coupled with some protective options like Platinum Angel and Platinum Emperion. Who needs control elements, right?

Well, it turns out that getting your Lich targeted with Return to Dust in response to a Soul Conduit activation is a thing. Worse yet, the amount of synergy I pulled out of the deck to shoehorn all this crap in effectively meant that I had nothing to do all game except find one of the combos and hope it worked. There were none of the awesome Oloro fed life gain card draw explosions that happened in the previous games I played with it.

Nope, just sitting around and waiting to knock myself out of the game with my own marquee card. Pretty solid play, eh?

(I maintain that there is a Lich / Donate deck in here somewhere. It has got to work somehow, and I’m going to find it or die trying. And likely a lot since people seem to love enchantment removal.)

The Identified Changes

Allan, you’ve got a good start. A healthy blend of protection, offense, life gain, and a great land count are in place. My goal is just to improve on the situation here, swapping out weaker options for some stronger synergies that will make the deck strong enough to stand up to the hate it gets from your group. Since you’ve said that your games are a bit on the grindy side, with no infinite combos or really spiky plays, that’s where I’ll try to aim as well for the improvements.

I’ve compartmentalized the list for ease of digestion. Let’s take a look.

The Lands

This is a pretty easy place to start. You’ve built this list to about where I think the sweet spot is for a midrange Esper deck, which is about 38 mana-producing lands. There’s a decent balance of basics too, so you’re not going to strike out with your Burnished Hart or your Evolving Wilds at any point. All in all, I like it, so the tweaks will be minimal.

Out: Azorius Guildgate, Esper Panorama, Sheltered Valley, Winding Canyons

I see the other two scry lands, so I have to assume that the Azorius Guildgate is a stand-in there. I’m not a big fan of the panoramas in general simply because I don’t like paying an extra mana for my search, even it if taps for one in a pinch.

Sheltered Valley is cute theme-wise, but it just doesn’t seem like it will pay out in real games. If you have it in your opener, you’ll gain two life before it turns off. (Assuming you plan on continuing hitting land drops anyway.)  Also, it’s terrible late game topdeck.

You know what I find funny about Sheltered Valley? It’s an Alliances rare, so it’s on the reserved list. Yeah, I know. Sorry, everyone out there who has desperately been waiting for a foil copy.

Last but not least, I’m comfortable pulling Winding Canyons. Don’t get me wrong; it’s great card, and I never hate to draw it. In this deck, your creature count is down, and you have a ton of things to be spending your mana on, so I just don’t see the surprise end of turn Serra Avatar block happening all that often.

In: Temple of Enlightenment; Terramorphic Expanse; Orzhova, the Church of Deals; Secluded Steppe

We’re really simply rounding out a few cycles here; you have Barren Moor and Lonely Sandbar, so we’re adding the third cycling land. You have Temple of Deceit and Temple of Silence, so we’re adding Temple of Enlightenment. And you have Evolving Wilds, so the functional reprint (preprint?) comes in to help things along in the fixing department.

This last part is especially important because you aren’t running fetch lands or Revised dual lands. I assume that this is a monetarily driven decision, so I’m not going to make the obvious suggestions here. It should go without saying that your life will be much easier if you can pony up seven or eight hundred bones to add these to the mix, but I’m not blaming you if you don’t.

Last but not least is everyone’s favorite Ravnica block guildhall. It’s not great on its own due to the cost, but it taps for one and when coupled with your commander is worth a four-plus life swing and a card. It can’t hurt to have it lying around.

The Life Gain Package

There’s a very real line that needs to be observed with the raw life gainers in this deck. You have a lot of redundancy in this area already, and your commander is a prime contributor; for that reason, you don’t want to go too heavy on the "vanilla" life gain components. (When I say that, I’m referring to the cards that do nothing else but gain life for the most part, not ones that do so incidentally while performing another function.)

Out: Wall of Reverence, Sun Droplet, Chalice of Life, Vampire Nighthawk

I fully understand the blowout that is running out Wall of Reverence with Serra Avatar in play. However, having to make do with Drogskol Reaver isn’t quite as compelling. Wall of Reverences gets cut due to being too narrow a trick.

Sun Droplet is just the opposite. You need to take a beating in order to get this to work correctly, and even then it’s a pretty minimal reimbursement. I appreciate the card advantage and slow bleed with Oloro in play, but without him this is pretty weak.

Chalice of Life seems like exactly the wrong progression for this deck. You really want it to ping for one point of life loss for a while and then transform over into something that gains five life to get a decent charge out of Oloro. You get the life, the cards, and the same life loss dealt. This way you get incremental life gain in a pretty weak win condition.

Vampire Nighthawk. The right concept, but too small on the scale to compare. It’s at its best as an early defender, and this deck wants to be doing much bigger things overall.

In: Honden of Cleansing Fire, Bloodchief Ascension, Subversion, Polluted Bonds

The return package is mostly either upping the ante for the slot that was just vacated or adding in more utility. Polluted Bonds is a real favorite of mine; the four- life swing is not inconsequential, and man does this thing ever stop the green ramp players cold. Similar to Polluted Bonds is Bloodchief Ascension, which is also there to punish people for doing something integral to the game. Play a land, play a card or two, and feed the Oloro player a bunch of cards and life gain. (This is also a good answer to the Nekusar player running all the Wheel of Fortune effects.)

Subversion is a solid inclusion due to the fact that it hits the whole board all at once, which wasn’t always easy to come by back when this was printed. It represents decent life gain that most other players won’t pay a huge amount of attention to until Oloro hits and starts doubling up the life loss and drawing all the cards.

Finally, Honden of Cleansing Fire, which is admittedly not great. But we’re adding more below, and it gets better in multiples. It’s also really unassuming, so people will tend to leave it alone even though it ends up becoming a personal Font of Mythos with your commander in play.

Card Advantage

This is a surprisingly light category until you realize how much Oloro already makes things happen in the card draw department. It can afford to be light on changes, especially since there are some solid draw spells already in the deck.

Out: Deep Analysis

You can absolutely do better than this card. Six mana and three life for a measly four cards is pretty weak in the grand scheme of things.

In: Honden of Seeing Winds

No surprises here. A personal Phyrexian Arena with no downside that becomes a double shot with its white counterpart in play. End of the story.

Win Conditions

I really can’t stress this enough that this deck doesn’t need many dedicated win conditions to get the job done. Recently I pulled nearly all the creatures out of my build to just rely on the various life loss effects, and it works very efficiently. Still, I’m not imposing that on you, so let’s make a few upgrades and move on.

Out: Plague of Vermin, Cairn Wanderer

I’m guessing there’s a very simple explanation for Plague of Vermin that I’m missing, but I just don’t get it. Symmetrical effect is symmetrical. And Cairn Wanderer seems like it’s an include based on having Sphinx of the Steel Wind in the graveyard. It doesn’t seem very good otherwise.

In: Storm Herd; Kokusho, the Evening Star

Where Plague of Vermin plays to the "life matters" theme but ultimately falls short, Storm Herd just utterly annihilates it. It’s so easy to maintain a high life total in this deck that the line between "solid" and "a little disappointing" is roughly around thirty pegasus. And yes, that’s pretty solid.

Kokusho is still a bit of a point of contention since being let out of the banned list cage. Regardless, this deck isn’t built to abuse it (I suppose there is the chance of a High Market / Phyrexian Reclamation loop, but there are no real tutors to make that happen with any regularity), and I feel fine about a bomb of an include as a result. One Kokusho trigger should blow the board state out of the water and leave you so far ahead on life and cards that you won’t need to rely on recurring it to keep going.

Utility Cards

This is where the fun stuff comes into play. This deck has precious few slots that it can allocate to off-plan options, so it’s really critical to make good use of the slots you can free up to bring the really interesting cards to the table.

Out: Swiftfoot Boots, Cradle of Vitality, Vanishing, Ghastlord of Fugue, Righteous Aura

I don’t particularly like the Boots or Cradle for the same reason I didn’t like Wall of Reverence above; you’re not on the creature plan with this deck, and arguably the most important one you’ll cast doesn’t even need to be in order to be a strong contributor, much less need to attack the turn he arrive. Similarly, Vanishing seems cute (and you get the added bonus of confusing the heck out of the majority of the folks you’ll play with by interjecting phasing), but there are better things to do with this slot than get tricky protecting your commander.

I also like Ghastlord as a way to control the late game by systematically removing key threats and answers, but I’m just not sold on this being the place for it. I think the slot it vacates is better used elsewhere.

Righteous Aura isn’t terrible either in the correct metagame, I suppose. Still, I think you can do much better in protecting yourself with some of the toys this deck already contains.

In: Darksteel Plate; Paradox Haze; Solitary Confinement; Erebos, God of the Dead; Suffer the Past

The easy additions are Darksteel Plate and Suffer the Past. Darksteel Plate accomplishes in a far stronger fashion what Swiftfoot Boots was trying to do above, which is effectively protecting Oloro. This will also be way more potent with Serra Avatar and Sphinx of the Steel Wind then the Boots ever could be.

Suffer the Past is a simple and flavorful addition that fits theme really well and adds some extra (much needed) graveyard hate. It’s instant speed, and it gains you life and dings your opponent at the same time. This is the definition of flexible and widely effective.

Paradox Haze is a fun one. You need a really potent upkeep effect for this card to make a ton of sense; fortunately, I think Oloro fits the bill. Doubling up on everything you get out of him is well worth the slot.

Solitary Confinement is the protection Righteous Aura wants to be. Granted, it is a nombo with Paradox Haze, but the ability to simply shut off all damage is well worth the extra effort. You’ll be left alone to set up whatever you need to. (It’s worth pointing out the "you have shroud" part too. What a great package!)

In order to power Solitary Confinement, you have no shortage of draw effects throughout the deck, but Greed is one of the best, offering a one-stop shop for powering up and drowning in card advantage at the same time. Erebos, God of the Dead is like Greed Evolved; while the activation is a little steeper, the indestructibility advantage makes it very hard to disrupt. And again, there’s also the "opponents can’t gain life" thing too. Nice throw in there, and while I didn’t figure it would have much of an impact, it made a difference in the first game I managed to resolve it in.

Besides, it’s a free upgrade.

Removal

At last we reach the final category. I believe it’s a good thing for a deck like this to be heavy on removal to properly protect itself, but I think you went a bit heavy nonetheless. I’m going to just repurpose a few slots to address some identified deficiencies and tweak a few others with stronger choices.

Out: Nevinyrral’s Disk, Darksteel Mutation, Slaughter, Hythonia the Cruel, Retaliate, Luminate Primordial, Faith’s Fetters, False Prophet

Some of these cuts are just to clear out things that I think fall short in the removal realm. Darksteel Mutation is a great example; it’s interesting and all, but I can spend one mana less to simply exile the creature outright with something like Swords to Plowshares, which also prevents bounce from invalidating it outright.

False Prophet is a card that needs to be built around to exploit. That means ample sacrifice outlets, which this deck does not possess. You’re left with "the onboard trick," which is the worst kind to have. It slows the game down until someone figures how to deal with it and then leaves you getting targeted for your troubles.

Faith’s Fetters falls into another category of cards that drive me nuts: temporary fixes. Cards like this are just stalling tactics, buying you time while your opponent digs for enchantment removal. The four life is on point, but I’d rather just have the stronger outright removal option to begin with.

Nevinyrral’s Disk is a double negative. It doesn’t work at the drop of a hat, leaving the door open for removal or (worse yet) another round of attacks headed potentially in your direction. Also, you have a ton of important permanents that you want to stick around, not blow up in the process of using your removal.

I don’t like needing to take a beating in order to wipe the board because I may not live to do it. I don’t think the deck particularly needs Retaliate as a result, and if it did, you could likely get to the mana to pay for an instant speed Rout or Fated Retribution and pop it off pre-combat instead. Save yourself the hassle and the damage.

Hythonia . . . no thanks. Six to cast and then eight to sweep, only to have that pesky Sisters of Stone Death deck dodge all my effort. I’ll pass.

Slaughter is nice and classic, but that’s a pretty steep buyback for an effect that can’t target black creatures. Maybe I’m just used to my metagame where 85% of all decks run black, but I don’t like the high overall cost and limited scope.

Lastly, I don’t mind Luminate Primordial in a vacuum, and it’s nice that he gets so forgotten. (Having a big green brother currently sitting squarely in the spotlight sure helps.)  Still, in these colors, I’ll trade a triple Swords to Plowshares for a better double play instead.

In: Cyclonic Rift, Angel of Despair, Exsanguinate, Austere Command, Sphinx’s Revelation, Ashen Rider, Chromatic Lantern, Sanguine Bond

Chromatic Lantern is the easiest addition; this deck is decently balanced with land percentage, but there are only a scant few sources of mana acceleration and fixing. Chromatic Lantern will greatly help in both these areas.

Sphinx’s Revelation is a bit of a no-brainer. Sure, it’s expensive right now, but you can very easily find yourself doing some serious damage with this card. With Oloro around, you’re combining Fireball, Braingeyser, and Stream of Life into one card—at instant speed. This is well worth the investment.

Sanguine Bond is part of the unholy duo with Exquisite Blood. With your commander, it’s pretty easy to chain the three into a table-sweeping combo. But we all know that’s no fun, so Exquisite goes while Sanguine stays. (Vizkopa Guildmage is in already, and that combos with Exquisite Blood as well, which is more incentive to stay away.) There’s a certain amount of joy in popping off an Exsanguinate and then triggering this to blow someone completely out of the game with the buckets of damage it brings.

Speaking of which, Exsanguinate is another dirty word in Commander circles. Still, it is a great example of a card that can be played fairly (look, ma, no Cabal Coffers!) and thematically fits the deck. It’s strong, but it won’t be broken and logs a ton of assistance in this list.

When I pulled Luminate Primordial, I had Ashen Rider directly in mind. Sure, that’s a heaping pile of mana expense, but a flying beater with a reasonable body that exiles two permanents with no restriction seems better than Luminate Primordial by a country mile.

While we’re here, let’s also bring back the original. Angel of Despair might not permanently get rid of a permanent, but last I heard Vindicate is still a strong card. Stapling it to a decently sized flyer is icing on the cake and lets this deck have another open-ended answer that doubles as a threat.

Rounding out the deck are Cyclonic Rift and Austere Command. Cyclonic Rift is such an incredible reset button, and while I fear it is a bit more prolific than most, it’s hard to deny that the effect isn’t strong and welcome in the color. Sure, it’s a staple, but it’s the kind of staple that I will often forgive myself for playing because it’s a fantastic and flexible answer. More ways for the deck to deal with opposing threats without removing some of its own components is always welcome.

Austere is nearly in the same boat. The ability to tailor removal that maximizes enemy splash damage while minimizing your own is just too strong. This might be my favorite all-time removal spell as a result, and it gets jammed in all of my white decks for very good reason.

And with that, we’re ready for the summary!

The Final List

There are a few other harder-edged components that I considered but ultimately left aside for space or power level reasons. You might want to think about finding room for the following:

• Phyrexian Arena plays incredibly well with Oloro and goes hand in hand with Bloodgift Demon.
• On the same token, if you want the ultimate turbocharged on-theme draw, there’s always Necropotence.
• Boon Reflection is the enchantment version of Rhox Faithmender.
• If Exsanguinate isn’t quite enough firepower, up the caliber with Debt to the Deathless.
• I might consider backing up Phyrexian Reclamation with Volrath’s Stronghold if you take the deck in a more creature-related direction.
• On that same note, the extort mechanic is pretty solid here too; consider adding Pontiff of Blight, Blind Obedience, and Crypt Ghast.

Again, some things to think about. As always, you’ll receive a $20 store credit to StarCityGames.com for participating in Dear Azami. If you want to get a head start on the changes, individual prices are below:

This breaks down to about $106. That’s probably a little steeper than I’d like to be for this list, but it does do you justice by really putting the screws to your original deck, tightening down many of the looser thematic additions with some stronger and more focused options. Again, I’m not in any way of the opinion that you should back away from Oloro’s second ability; I think building around your commander offers the best opportunity to really nail home a cohesive list and more importantly really lets you explore the design space and theme your commander provides. Still, it’s equally important to make sure that your deck can stand up if the commander gets tucked or isn’t feasible to cast, and this list does that just fine.

I think you’ll find this slots in on the higher end of the "fair" scale as far as power level goes. You shouldn’t have a problem standing up to whatever comes along.

Of course, if you want that Lich / Donate list, just let me know.

Want to submit a deck for consideration to Dear Azami? We’re always accepting deck submissions to consider for use in a future article, like Sean’s Progenitus deck or Matt’s Stonebrow, Krosan Hero deck. 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!

Email us a deck submission using this link here!

Like what you’ve seen? Feel free to explore more of Dear Azami here! Be sure to follow Sean on Facebook; sometimes there are extra surprises and bonus content to be found over on his Facebook Fan Page as well as previews of the next week’s column at the end of the week! Follow Cassidy on his Facebook page here or check out his Commander blog GeneralDamageControl.com!