Ozai, the Phoenix KingOzai, the Phoenix King | Art by Kekai Kotaki

Greetings and salutations, my fellow brewers, and welcome to the third article in the Inside Out series, where I try building a commander deck using the least played colors for a specific theme.

As usual, a huge thanks to the fantastic Philomène Gatien, who graciously agreed to let me take over her Do Your Worst series. You should definitely check out her articles if you haven't already: she's a skilled brewer and a great storyteller.

Moving on, let's have a look at today's theme: Enchantress.

With 58,037 decks at the time of writing, this is a much loved archetype, currently ranking 16th. For those of you unfamiliar with the idea, Enchantress decks usually revolve around playing cheap enchantments, reaping benefits from each cast/ETB, with cards such as the namesake Verduran EnchantressVerduran Enchantress, Setessan ChampionSetessan Champion, or Mesa EnchantressMesa Enchantress.

In three colors, (9.6K decks), (4.5K), and (3.4K) lead the way.

When looking at two colors, is clearly ahead (6.6K), followed by (4.1K), and (3.5K).

In monocolor, reigns supreme (1.9K), followed by (699).

At the other end of the scale, colorless closes the march, with a grandiose two decks. Not quite surprising, given the lack of colorless enchantments altogether. follows suit (214), then comes (332).

Despite not quite being at the very bottom of the scale, I chose Rakdos for a couple of reasons:

• Blue has the easiest time drawing cards, and while support enchantments may be a bit lacking, it's rather easy to generate value therein.
• The most popular commanders don't really need massive support to win the game, and look like they could swap enchantments for anything else.

Plus, Philomène also covered Rakdos back in her day, and I thought it'd be fun to try building something radically different in the same colors.

A Three-Way Conundrum

I thereafter had to choose a commander, and I faced a similar dilemma, as there were several candidates quite worthy. Back then, Philo chose Mogis, God of Slaughter, with a dashing group-slug strategy.

My first choice was Ob Nixilis, Captive KingpinOb Nixilis, Captive Kingpin. This is a very fun commander to tinker with, and with the right setup he can grow impressively huge in no time. However, this was too close to the other article's premise for my taste. Strike one.

Second, I looked at Blim, Comedic GeniusBlim, Comedic Genius: gifting all sorts of nasty enchantments to your opponents looks rather fun on paper. However, there are two problems: it's dreadfully slow, and it makes you the prime target faster than you can say prank. Strike two.

Then I saw Ozai, the Phoenix KingOzai, the Phoenix King, and a devious plan started to grow in my head. With a puny three decks in the theme, he looked like the perfect candidate.

It is no secret by now that I despise the very concept of Universes Beyond. The Avatar set is among the very few that almost changed my mind. I believe this is the one set — possibly alongside Lord of the Rings — that feels like it could potentially belong in the Magic-verse.

Also, I really loved the cartoon when I watched it a few years ago.

A Branching Idea

My first impulse was to look at the commander's Enchantress page on EDHREC: a lot of rather classic stuff, with few outlets that really appealed to me.

I then went through all of the enchantments in Rakdos — 1,175 cards, yay! — to see if there were any pointers. I actually found two.

The first idea was to build around sagas, using the mana from firebending to cast a bunch of these. There are currently 74 such cards available, enough to make for a solid base. However, Sagas require some kind of support to be actually relevant, usually revolving around toying around with lore counters. This was a no-go in Rakdos.

Then came the Big Mana, and this made me really excited. There are several enchantments, creatures and artifacts that give a massive boost to your mana production. That, coupled with Ozai's ability to accumulate more and more red, sounded like a great recipe for a big badaboom.

While browsing the enchantments, I also noticed a batch of interesting FirebreathingFirebreathing auras that all basically do the same thing: pay one red, get +1/+0. There are a lot of these out there, most of which are rather cheap to cast. What's beautiful is that they really speed up the threat Ozai represents on the board.

The idea is simple: attack with Ozai, get four red in the pool, sink them into the pump. Suddenly your commander hits for 11. That's half the commander damage needed to kill a player. Add to the mix a few outlets that either double damage or give double strike, and you've got a killing machine on the loose.

I also liked that all these pieces were closely related to the idea of fire, a fitting theme for the leader of the Fire Nation.

The stage was set, now to assemble the pieces.

Step One: How Much Is the Fish

I'll keep this section rather short, as it's usually the most boring part. A few considerations, though:

• Ramp has to be rather high, as the curve is going to average 3.5-ish. I settled for 16 such spells, with a good assortment of mana rocks, mana-doublers and Treasure-makers. Here are the most fun pieces:
  • Braid of FireBraid of Fire: Granted, without Ozai it doesn't do much. But even so, it's still a ticking bomb, accumulating mana until you can put it to good use.
  • Descent into AvernusDescent into Avernus: One of the most fun cards to play in Commander, period.
  • Mana FlareMana Flare and LavaleaperLavaleaper: Mana for everyone, yay!
  • Avatar Roku, FirebenderAvatar Roku, Firebender: Another powerhouse, and potential plan B.
• Sadly, card draw got the short end of the stick. I really wanted to focus strongly on enchantments here, with classics like Phyrexian ArenaPhyrexian Arena, Sagas like The Legend of RokuThe Legend of Roku, and monarch with Court of IreCourt of Ire. In the end, there are 10 card advantage outlets. A bit low for my taste, but at least flavour is safe.
• I kept six targeted removal pieces, almost all enchantments, save for Flameblast DragonFlameblast Dragon. Three board wipes complete the mix.
• Finally, Protection. SmokeSmoke and Silent ArbiterSilent Arbiter are here to make sure Ozai can go through rather unimpeded. The rest are classic ways to prevent your commander from being targeted.

Step Two: Pump Up the Jam

In this section, I focused on power sinks and damage doublers.

I kept nine such power sinks, as they are rather redundant and don't provide any additional benefits if stacked. I really like the recursive Dragon BreathDragon Breath, Fiery MantleFiery Mantle, and Draconic DestinyDraconic Destiny here. And a special mention for Endless ScreamEndless Scream. With a decent amount of mana, this can turn any creature into a killer.

Damage doublers got a rather similar treatment, with eight of those in the mix. I had more initially, but I figured that keeping stuff that doubled your opponents' damage output as well was a recipe for disaster. All of these spells serve one single purpose: turn Ozai into Saitama, making him a one-hit machine.

Step Three: Set the World on Fire

Let's do the finishing touches.

First, the finishers. You can smack people with your commander, or you can accumulate a massive amount of mana. The question is, what then? Let's begin with the usual suspects: Crackle with PowerCrackle with Power, ExsanguinateExsanguinate, and Jaya's Immolating InfernoJaya's Immolating Inferno will all make quick work of your opponents. The new Stensian SanguinistStensian Sanguinist also works rather well in that regard.

Then you have two outsiders:

• Captive AudienceCaptive Audience is an impossible gift. It's not so much choosing the best outcome as settling for the lesser evil.
• Full ThrottleFull Throttle basically triples the mana Ozai makes attacking. Oh, and I suppose he can three-punch your opponents while he's at it.

Add a couple more recursion outlets, and voilà, Ozai is ready to burn the midnight oil.

All this leads to a deck with more than a third of its cards being enchantments.

The Deck List

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this attempt at recreating this popular archetype without any of the namesakes.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this build.

See you in a month with another wild attempt!