Embracing Treasures with Vazi!

Posted on May 11, 2022

Hello Folks and Happy Day to You and Yours! Today I want to build aroud another popular leader from the Streets of New Capenna set. This is the seventh deck I've built around one of the leaders here!

My first deck was a Jund build featuring the powerful Ziatora, the Incinerator, the leader of the Riviteers Family. I tossed in Ball Lightnings that swing out of nowhere and die anyway, so they can be sacrificed for 6 damage with Ziatora's ability. I also packed the list with Threaten effects like Zealous Conscripts that can steal creatures for a turn for Ziatora to snack on. I also included temporary token copy effects like Feldon of the Third Path that provide more bodies to be sacrificed, as well as damage increasers like Fiery Emancipation. You can check out the deck here!

Next, I built a Esper colored deck around Queza, Augur of Agonies. I included Group Hug cards like Howling Mine and Temple Bell to get loads of card drawing fun times as well as winning triggers like Psychosis Crawler and Underworld Dreams. I even snuck in the winning Approach of the Second Sun that will be able to be cast twice, and the trio of game winners like Thassa's Oracle and Laboratory Maniac. Check it out here!

Third, I built a Commander deck around the Naya token loving Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second! I tossed in loads of cards that care about making Food, Treasure, Clue and Blood tokens like Tireless Tracker and Old Gnawbone that you can convert into 2/2 or 3/1 swingers with Jinnie. We have ramp that plays into this like Growth Spasm and removal like Root Out and synergetic lands like Kher Keep. We have a double-digit number of cards from Streets of New Capenna. Good stuff!

My fourth deck was built around Bess, Soul Nourisher. This Selensya colored lover of 1/1 dorks was built around life gain from the Soul Sisters archetype like Auriok Champion and Essence Warden, as well as hate bears like Esper Sentinel, life gain matters like Well of Lost Dreams and going wide effects like Decree of Justice as game winners alongside things like Test of Endurance and Voltron to win with a giant Bess like Rogue's Passage and Light of Promise. Love it loads - check out my Bess Brew here.

For my fifth deck I built a Grixis Vampires deck around Evelyn, the Covetous which is the first Grixis Vampires matter Commander. Since she can exile opposing cards from all libraries when Vampires arrive, I tossed in a ton of mana matters cards like Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth; a bunch of cheap instants to cast one on each turn like Vampiric Tutor and Swan Song; a bunch of Vampires like Anje, Maid of Dishonor and Midnight Arsonist. Nice stuff! You can check out my 5th deck here.

For my next deck, I built an Azorius Counters Matter build around Denry Klin, Editor in Chief (which you can find here) around whom I built a deck to give Denry flying counters with cards like Avian Oddity and Spontaneous Flight and then a bunch of combat damage triggers like Augury Adept and Cephalid Constable. I also have some Ninjas here like Ninja of the Deep Hours and Mist-Syndicate Naga. Good synergy here!

Next up is the eagerly anticipated Vazi!

Vazi, Keen Negotiator is a 5-drop 3/3 in Jund that brings haste to the battlefield and has two abilities. The first will tap and then give a target opponent Treasures equal to your Treasures created this turn. Then when an opponent casts or activates an ability that came from a Treasure you draw a card and place a +1/+1 on a dork you control. Nice card draw! Note that the trigger will hit off any Treasures they use, from their stuff and yours equally. This is a great equalizer of Treasures! Since we are making tons of Treasures in masse but just once per turn in a four-player game, we'll lean into sorcery speed Treasure making or you could use Treasures that are from instants to play into this stuff. Vazi is beloved in Commander circles with triple digit decks over at EDHREC.com already in just a short period of time after spoilage. Hopefully we'll do her justice! Play note with Vazi, please target the mana screwed player - there's usually one at each multiplayer game and they aren't drawing mana - so target that player with your Vazi's tap ability.

Ready? Let's do it to it, with Treasure making for you and for others!

Most of my mass Treasure-making is obvious, but not Ol' Sawbones! This on-curve 7 mana 7/7 flyer can turn your combat damage to a player into that many Treasures, and it doesn't just count Ol' Sawbones herself. All combat damage makes the trigger work!

Remember that Vazi will tap and give Treasures away to just one player equal to your Treasures created count, so if you can find other ways to give them away you could be drawing way more cards! The Purse taps for one and gives you Treasures and heads to the player on your right for them to use and make Treasures and send around the table. The Contract is a 4-drop and in your upkeep you'll give everyone else a Treasure and if they take one you get one as well. Nice pair!

Ramp

Most of my ramp cards are obvious, but not this 3-drop red cost and red tapping mana rock that counts as a Treasure. When you tap this for R, you toss a stash counter here, and in a future turn you can sacrifice this Treasure for X mana of one color equal to the stash count!! Nice building of mana over time and triggers Vazi.

Win-Cons

Check out these two literal win cons. The enchantment is a 5-drop that gives you Treasures when your foe's creatures die. In your upkeep, if you control 10 or more Treasures, you'll win the game! The creature is a flying trample 6/5 dork. When it punches face to a foe, you gain control of all artifacts. Attack the person you just gave a ton of Treasures too and steal them plus the other stuff they have. In your upkeep if you have 20 or more artifacts of many sorts, you win the game!

Check out this brand new 4-drop enchantment from Streets of New Capenna. This can make two Treasures on arrival to the battlefield. It turns Treasures into 1/1 dorks so you could easily make 4 or 5 dorks a turn with your mass Treasures making and then tapping Vazi to give them prior to sacrificing them to the Package.

Since we'll be making Treasures in large doses at a time, all three of these are nice win-cons over time. The Fireweaver is a 1/3 that will shoot your foes for damage each time artifacts arrive to your battlefield. The Master will force a target foe to lose life when your artifacts die equal to his power. Place the counters on him to have a 4/6 and that's a 4 life loss to one foe for each Treasure you sacrifice. Nasty. The Nightblade is a 3-drop that will drain a life from each foe when your tokens leave the battlefield, just as getting sacrificed like a Treasure. Good trio of game winnery.

Check out this on-curve 3/3 with forestwalk. When you would create some tokens, instead you can also make some 1/1 Squirrels equal to the token counter. Make a few Treasures with your maker of fun things? Make a ton with your Brass's Bounty or Ol' Sawbones? Instant army! You can also sacrifice part of your army to kill opposing stuff by giving it +X/-X and remember that will kill something with indestructible.

My final addition to the deck is Crackle with Power! It's a bit math-y. It deals five times X damage to X targets, so the idea is to select your three foes in a four-player multiplayer game and then send here all of your Treasures and ramp mana like Cabal Coffers, Cabal Stronghold and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to kill in one hit.

Answers

Many of my answers are obvious like Beast Within, but check out these two common sorceries. The former will destroy a planeswalker or creature and then leave behind a nifty Treasure for Vazi. The latter one will destroy an artifact or enchantment and leave behind a single Treasure as well. Nice removal options that are 1 mana more than their normal card (and sorcery speed) to trigger Vazi and give away another Treasure and to work with your deck's stuff.

This synergetic 4-drop 3/2 is a bit behind the mana curve. Whenever your stuff deals combat damage to a foe, make two Treasures. Nice! And then you can sacrifice X Treasures, at sorcery speed and then -X/-X for another removal option that dodges indestructible but not hexproof. Note that you cannot gain more than 2 Treasures from its combat damage trigger unless one has first or double strike. Awesome synergy here!

Check out this twosome that was recently printed 2-drops in Green. The Fight will let your dork fight with an opposing dork at instant speed and leave behind a Treasure. Nice! The Ring will let you (it's not required) fight each time a dork of yours arrives, and if you did this turn you can tap it for a Treasure token. Nice removal over time as well as Treasure making!

Sometimes you need answers that are removal and sometimes they are answers to removal from your foes. Fake Your Own Death will let you bring back a key creature you control tapped, pump it +2/+0 and then make a Treasure token! Nice! Note that the Treasure will only come if the creature returns. Good combat trick and saving for a destruction effect targeting a key dork like Ol' Sawbones or Vazi.

Card Draw Not Named "Vazi"

These common spells will force you to discard a card and then draw two. Discard big stuff early and lands later after you are settled. Then the 3-drop will make one Treasure and the 4-drop a pair. We have some other discard to draw effects that make Treasures here as well.

Let's move from Red card draw to Black. The common is a..."commonly" played card (sorry) at the kitchen table. Two cost instant, sacrifice an artifact or a dork, draw two cards, and make a Treasure. That means you can sacrifice a Treasure to make a Treasure (which Vazi likes) and draw two instantly. You can also sacrifice a past-its-date mana rock or something targeted or getting caught up in mass removal like your Commander or a key dork. The uncommon is a smaller 1/4 for 3 mana. Ugh. This fun dork brings a Treasure token to the battlefield on arrival, and you can spend 2 mana to sacrifice Treasures or dorks for cards. Sacrificing the Squirrels or Treasures can draw you loads of cards. It's very strong here.

Check out this pair! The Revel is a powerful 3-drop enchantment. When your foes' artifacts hit the graveyard from play, you draw a card. Each Treasure? That's a lot of card flow for you. That's also good for their Commander's Spheres and Expedition Maps and Armillary Spheres and rocks and Burnished Harts. And Clues, Bloods, and Foods. Given how strongly people love controlling their own Treasures with things like Smothering Tithe, this is quite valuable in a lot of metagames even outside of Vazi. Nice!

The Face-Breaker is a 3-drop 2/3 with menace. When your stuff deals combat damage to a player, create a Treasure. Just one per combat damage. Then you can sacrifice Treasures for the impulsive card draw of red (exile, play this turn). It doesn't tap or use up any resources, so if you trade one into a impulsive card and it was just a land, then drop it and do it again! Or a 1-drop. Nice duo of love!

Synergies

Check out this powerhouse that works for all players. Whenever anyone makes tokens, double it. Whenever anyone puts +1/+1 counters on stuff, double it. Since we are putting a +1/+1 counter with Vazi, that's now another. Also note that this is downright nasty with Vazi. Here let me show you. You control a 4/4 and drop Ol' Sawbones. You would make 4 Treasures from attacking the open player, now make 8. Then tap Vazi and give your targeted foe 8 Treasures...nope...16 Treasures! And that's a lot. That's basically a one turn kill with your two absolute win-cons. Giving away 16 Treasures at once is likely to draw you a ton of cards since they will love you. It also doubles some other game winners. Imagine this with the enchantment that turns Treasures into 1/1s. You get two Treasures from each Treasure maker, and then turn one Treasure (mana free) into two 1/1s so you make 4 1/1s per iteration. That is just nasty! I also tossed in the less synergetic but just as powerful Doubling Season.

Two dorks with awesome synergies. The first will turn Treasures that arrive to the battlefield into Clues and Foods, which is good for the sacrificing into cards and life. Seeing tokens arrive will amp up your Squirrel army and get turned into 6 tokens with a doubler and that's a lot of fodder for your sacrifice edicts and plans. The second 3-drop rare is a much bigger 3/2 and will give you an extra Treasure each time you make them. Again, that's great synergy with your doublers and token makers and sacrificial outlets.

Check out these two legendary creatures with all three colors in my brew. Jolene is a bit behind the curve for her Gruul colors, but you get three abilities. As anyone (yourself included) swings at one or more of your foes, they make a Treasure. This only makes one and encourages your foes to swing at each other and gives them Treasures to crack. When you would make a Treasure, make another one just like Xorn above. Then you can sacrifice five Treasures (again, without any costs like tapping, mana or life) and add 5 +1/+1 counters to Jolene, which is a nice way to get in a bigger hit. Powerful stuff!

Fain is awesome here. This Black dork is a bigger 3/3 with three tap abilities. His first is to tap, sacrifice a dork and place two +1/+1 counters on someone. This is good for Squirrels and Citizens, but generally meaningless here. Then you can pull a counter from a dork to make a Treasure. Since you are placing counters on dorks with Vazi just happenstance, you can really up your Treasure game here. Then you can sacrifice an artifact and turn it into a 2/1 with flying, which is really nice with the evasion and bigger size. Sacrifice Treasure, Clues and Foods. And you can untap it for 4 mana and tap again and again which is easier with your ramp and Cabal Coffers-esque mana making. It's massively synergetic here!

Now let's turn to a pair of lands! The Vault is an artifact land that you can sacrifice for XX mana to make X Treasures, and you can do this anytime! You could easily get 3-5 Treasures from this without even trying to copy and send over with Vazi. Nice! And then check out the other land. In your upkeep you gain a life or you control at least three artifacts - quite easy here. Then you can sacrifice it to tutor up an artifact, reveal, and shuffle. I don't have that many powerful artifacts, but I do have some graveyard hosers (Nihil Spellbomb; Relic of Progenitus) and a broken 6-drop in here.

More Recently Printed Cards in Streets of New Capenna!

The Stash lets you tap lands for Treasures, which will let you go big with Vazi! You could easily drop 2-4 Treasures normally, and then a few more with the Stash and then make a ton of Treasures for giving away and allowing spells to be cast with them. It's very strong here and a key card to tutor for with the Fair land.

The Hauler is a 5/5 trampling vehicle. When this evasive dork smashes face you make a Treasure token for each artifact they control which, from where I am sitting, could be quite a lot. If your foe you Vazi'ed last turn didn't use their Treasures, then attack them, make that many plus however many you made from other effects, and then Vazi someone else for a literal "Ton of Treasures!"

Check out this pair of Red dorks. The Ogre is a nice sized 4/3. When another dorks arrives to your party, like tokens, then you make a Treasure if it's the first or second time this has happened this turn. Then you can pay X and deal X damage to a target for removal. The Rhino is a fatter 5/4. You can sacrifice two Treasures for 2 mana and cost any spell in your hand for that mana. Love its potential here since you could be drawing many cards with Vazi. Great pair!

Rain of Awesomeness? This enchantment makes you two Treasures on arrival. Then you can give the first spell cast each turn cascade if you spent a Treasure on it, just one is needed. That seems like great power here! Cascade away my friends! Note that you cannot do this the turn you drop Rain since it counts itself.