In the past, I tried to make an Isperia EDH deck, but I didn’t quite get it to work. In theory its fine; Get attacked, draw a card, hope it is instant removal or a fog effect (Settle the Wreckage, Wing Shards or Angelsong maybe) and don’t be attacked anymore.
The problem was not getting to in time, maybe. Maybe I was too all-in on flavour things and my deck was just bad. Too much other Sphinxes as a tribal thing or something, even though Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign has been printed since. But now that we get to see the Parun (founder) of the Azorius guild, maybe it’s time to revisit the idea.
I think I still prefer Isperia, but Azor has some nice upsides too, and making a deck where I can switch out commanders from time to time might not be a bad idea. Azor has some upsides though. At least he stops wrath effects for a turn. I don’t know how good stopping instants is, since, well, they are instants and typically not played in the players’ own turn. Blinking Azor can stop a lot bad things from happening.
Time has passed since I last tried Isperia. Time for a retry, I think. Some notes:
- Approach of the Second Sun is a thing now, and a fitting endgame for these lawmage-sphinxes.
- I was planning an Alexi, Zephyr Mage EDH deck, but she is also cool here in the 99, as are some of the other Spellshapers. Avenger en-Dal makes excess lands I draw into Path to Exile. Overtaker is especially evil, by stealing an extra blocker from someone.
It’s weird to see the Azorius Parun on Ixalan, just when Jace ended up there who happens to be the living Guiltpact (because of a spell Azor created) and Jace having a shady past involving Sphinxes, but hey, if a cool commander deck comes out of this, I won’t complain.