Azir, the God of Shurima

### **General Playstyle** This page is still WIP but open to feedback (usually am discussing things in the Azir thread on the community discord). I will be continuously updating this as I playtest and see how the meta ultimately shakes out. Your main goal early game is to get as many soldiers and equipment by playing on tempo (we want to be weary of over committing to the board if we are playing against Fury due to Thermobeam). Get some early conquers and continue to build the board. Mid game we can afford to hold up combat tricks like Deathgrip, Thwonk!, Discipline etc which really helps us to get an occasional hold point to put the opponent down. We are primarily trying to play for the conquer similar to Viktor, however, our units are usually much bigger than the 1M recruits with equips. Late game we have Green Azir and a bunch of equips to where we can very easily trade soldiers into their larger units by equipping with Brutalizer + BF sword for 8 might swings. And if we get the soldier to trade, even better so those equips fall off and then we just reuse. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO USE ALL OF YOUR RUNES FOR EQUIPS IN THE LATE GAME. IT CAN WIN YOU GAMES! *Small caveat of just try to think ahead to what your next turn plays would/could be before recycling all of your runes and consider whether you can win or not on this current turn.* ### Battlefield Choices I think that Trifarian War Camp and Ornn's Forge are non-negotiables for Azir. We are really able to abuse these much more than most decks. I don't think there will be many equipment focused decks that will be able to utilize this as much as we can. Similar case with Trifarian although Viktor is 100% better at using this one than us. The third battlefield is still a bit of a tossup and I would argue depends on your preference and playstyle. I chose Candelit Sanctum because of how often we conquer. This decklist is low on card draw so Candelit helps that a bit. It is easily abusable by other common decklists but whether you decide to keep Candelit or choose something like Hall of Legends or Vilemaw's Lair, that should still be fine. ### Ramblings and General Thoughts I think Azir can be a really strong deck when played and built correctly. We have a lot of tricky plays that we are able to make that scale well into the later portions of the game. I played a lot of Viktor for Origins and I think that Azir is just a better Viktor in nearly every way. We do not go as wide as Viktor however, we are still able to create more units than other decks while also having them be big bodies that can put up a good trade. As far as match-ups go, I want more data before I can conclusively say for sure, BUT I do think we are able to put up fighting chances against the Annie and Kaisa decks that are out there. The big thresholds to reach into these matchups are 5 might and 7 might (for things like falling star and Darius) which we can feasibly do on our sand soldiers by just equipping Brutalizers/BF Swords. We have extremely good reconquer potential as well as enough tricks to be able to save units with cards like Emperor's Divide. Learned today that playing Azir into a Rumble matchup is extremely difficult. It requires a lot for us to surpass the might of their large units. This will also likely be the case with Ahrio, Ornn, Irelia and other big body focused decks. Some of our kill spells will help as well as Thwonk! but Imperial Decree might be the solution to this. See notes on this at the bottom of the cards list below. I could honestly talk for hours on this deck as a whole and a lot more of the minor decisions but no one wants to read that. ## **Green Azir vs Yellow Azir (vs Renata)** Both of these units are very solid. For YAzir, having a 4 might unit we can accelerate and then move a bunch of tokens with is really good for double conquers. It also allows for some extra recruit tokens to be generated if you have an Eye of the Herald on a sand soldier. For GAzir, this card has gives you so many options and not to mention that it's a 6 might body. It has pseudo-accelerate by being able to switch with a unit the turn you play him AND you get to equip from that unit. This can make Azir a 9 might beast on the turn he gets played. And by this point in the game, this unit will likely be the largest on the field. I ultimately decided to go with GAzir over YAzir for the sheer versatility of GAzir. I think that playing YAzir in the main deck as a 0-3 of is also really good. However, I think you have to make the choice of do you want to run YAzir or do you want to run Renata. Renata enables smaller more noncommittal plays compared to YAzir but I think the choice ultimately comes down to playstyle. If you want to play it slightly safer, go with Renata. Want to be more aggressive? Then YAzir. I honestly don't think there is a true better vs worse when it comes to YAzir or Renata. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Card Choice Breakdown ### **Renata Glasc** Another highly debated card. I think the tempo this card can create with cards like Brutalizer is pretty disgusting. Paying 3 for Brutalizer + soldier then a 5 might swing is really good rate of return. There seems to be 2 overall paths with Azir in general and thats Renata or YAzir. Both are viable but just slightly different lines of play. ### **Deathgrip** Overall a really strong combat trick. Being able to do this at reaction speed to kill a unit that is likely equipped just to buff one guy up is really solid. Not to mention that it replaces itself in hand. Only reason I considered removing this card is the value we get off of having a lot of units. Sand Soldiers aren't really dispensable in the early game. It's the late game when we can really start to throw them at enemy battlefields without care. ### **Guardian Angel** GA is just really good protection. Less good on our smaller sand soldiers but is EXTREMELY good on Green Azir. Being able to swap him in for some kind of trade just for the GA to be destroyed and our Azir living is extremely valuable. Not to mention that it puts us at 7 might so we can avoid a Singularity. Additional note: You can also play Deathgrip targeting your unit that is equipped with the GA, still get the might boost and card draw, and then that unit is recalled to base and you are fine. ### **Grand Stratagem** I don't see many other people running stratagem in their Azir builds and I can understand why. I think the big attraction I have with it is based on my playstyle of liking big finishers to close out games and nothing hits that harder than a Stratagem while having 5+ units. The one big concern is going to be the higher prevalence of counter spells. Windwall was the main counter but now purple has cheap ways of denying this as well. I think the overall meta will determine how useful this card actually is. Will continue to evaluate. ### **Thwonk!** This is a card I am considering main boarding because I think its just such a good combat trick. Since we primarily play for the retake, we need to be able to have some options to protect our units from their next attempt at a conquer. Especially not having a power cost like Rune Prison has, this card is just really good. I don't think the limitations of only on an attacking unit matters all that much for our use case. Not to mention the repeat cost stunning an additional unit. ### **Guards!** Another good combat trick where we can hide this, reveal it, then equip a Brutalizer all at reaction speed for a 5 might swing is really strong. It also will force our opponent to think because of our other hidden options being a Hidden Blade and Emperor's Divide. You can also just play this on turn 2 for the optional ready cost to get a double capture for tempo. You have to be careful with this though so that you don't punish yourself on future turns. ### Emperor's Divide Honestly one of my favorite cards in the deck due to the versatility. We have a lot of things that rely on movement (especially if you run Stellacorn Herder) to where it more often than not just benefits us to go down a point to set us up for the retake next turn. ### Desert's Call I adore this card due to how well it curves out. Draw it early? Cool, 1 cheap body. Draw it late? Cool, 2 cheap bodies. It also really helps the case that you don't draw equipment because you still get more units in play. ### Legion Quartermaster Another really good tempo card. Unlike some decks, we actually WANT to be able to replay our equipment so we can get our legend trigger. Not to mention its a 3 drop for 4M without a power cost. Not a whole lot else to say ### Arise! Our signature spell and one of our late game finishers. Hopefully you have atleast 3 equipment out by the time you drop this but this card allows for a lot of quick plays should we need it. Being able to ready 2 of them even if you don't run Renata allows for some big swings after equipping up your Sand Soldier. Definitely a 2 or 3 of card. ### Hidden Blade Really solid removal with the added benefit of being able to use it on ourselves for the draw. Your line of thinking if you are torn between using this on your own unit or the enemy unit should revolve around: "What is more valuable to me? Drawing the 2 cards and giving up a unit + point OR maintaining the hold to reach your point thresholds?" You should also consider your hand size vs your opponents. There is a huge difference in your opponent going from 1 to 3 cards compared to 6 to 8 cards. If they already have 6 in hand, 2 more isn't all that big of a deal. But only having 1 really puts them in a tight spot. ### Defy Just a fantastic tempo card to slow down your opponent. It doesn't counter things like falling star or switcheroo, but there are plenty of other combat tricks and kill spells that you CAN counter. ## Cards NOT in the Deck ### Corina I just don't think this card is all that good compared to a Grand Stratagem. Do I think it can be strong? Yes I do but only in particular circumstances. At best you play Corina accelerated for 8 and 2 power, then you have a 9M swing. Meanwhile, if you play a Grand Stratagem and have 2 units, thats a 10M swing + base power of those units. I realize you can also do fancy tricks with swapping her and Azir but it really just feels like a "win more" type of card. ### Sacred Shears The power cost of this just makes it so steep. You really need the tempo of ramping up to your big late game plays and this only sets you back. You also don't want your Sand Soldiers just dying all the time as they are not as readily available as a Viktor recruit. ### Blade of the Ruined King Similar reason to Shears, power cost is steep and the added cost of a dead unit isn't worth the 4 might boost you get. Sure you get +4 for 2 (if you kill a Sand Soldier) but with how often you want to be reequipping in the later stages of the game, you don't have all of that many disposable units to both equip BORK and attack in. ### Fiora (Origins version) Fiora is more of a try and hold type of unit which doesn't work well with our game plan. Yes the unit becomes very strong with the ganking and Deflect but I just don't think it is worth trading this over Renata for our 4 cost slot. ### **Stellacorn Herder** As a 4 drop, this feels a bit disappointing. It almost seems like a wasted turn when we could be doing numerous other things. I am still worried about draw without it, but I imagine this will continue to stay as a point of debate. This card CAN get you many more draws with Green Azir and plays like Emperor's Divide but it seemed to me that I am usually disappointed with playing it due to the frailty of the unit and losing tempo when I would rather play something like a Desert's Call for its Repeat cost. ### Seals Seals are bad with this decklist. I think you can only run seals if you intentionally build around it. If you wanted to run Shears then I think its valid to run Yellow seals but when we already have problems with card draw, adding seals just adds to that pain. ### Imperial Decree Honestly strongly considering main boarding this card over Grand Stratagem. It will vary heavily by what is meta but we really struggle to take out the very large units such as a Mundo, Ornn, or Rumble when he has formed a board. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Notes/Changelog I think this list still has room to be further refined to have more 3 ofs rather than 2 ofs. 12-28 @ 3:20 - Went back to Defy because I think its just more consistent. Dropped 1 BF Sword to go up to 3 Renata as well. Also testing Vilemaw's 12-21 @ 1:20 - Changed Candelit to test Emporer's Daise. Added Not So Fast! instead of Defy. Think this is just better than Defy. Removed Windwall and added 2 Janna to sideboard. 12-4 @ 8:50 - Removed Royal entourage to increase Corina and Brutalizer to 3 12-4 @ 1:00 - Removed shears and bork for 3 stellacorn herder 12-8 @ 9:00 - Changed Battlefields. Added FotF. Added Sideboard. Removed one Corina and 1 Guards! Added 2 Hidden Blade. Removed 2 Guards! Added 2 Discipline. 12-8 @ 11 - Changed sideboard, added equips, a not so fast, and another fiora 12-8 @ 8:30 - Removed GA, added Shears, Added Jax to sideboard. Added 3rd fiora 12-9 @ 7:15 - Removed Fiora,1 yellow Azir and shears, added grand stratagem, 1 hidden blade, 2 Discipline. Changed to Candlelit Sanctum 12-10 @ 9 - Went back to 1 Azir, removed Shears. Want this deck to go faster overall and rely on Arise and Stratagem as late game win cons. Added Renata to try 12-12 @ 10 - Updated sideboard to include another Yazir and a Blitzcrank for cheese 12-14 @ 3 - Added additional Thwonk to sideboard as well as removed Blitz albeit a funny cheese. Also removed 1 arise and 1 Legionare for 2 stellacorn 12-15 @ 9 am - Removed 1 YAzir and 2 Stellacorn to add 2 Deathgrips and 1 to BF sword. Thought process is 1 YAzir I still feel is a little underwhelming and I don't think I'd have enough room for 2 when running Renata. 12-16 @ 1 pm - Trialing Imperial Decree instead of Stratagem