Fire Lord OzaiFire Lord Ozai | Illustrated by Ryuichi Sakuma

Welcome back to Plot Twist, the series where we build a Commander deck that looks like it's going to tell one kind of story only to throw out a twist for our opponents mid-game.

Last time, we built a "Everything Kindred" deck with Spider-Ham, Peter PorkerSpider-Ham, Peter Porker that ran a whole bunch of different creature types, +1/+1 counter synergies to buff our team up, and Maskwood NexusMaskwood Nexus to tie the whole thing together. This week, we're diving into our first commander from Avatar: The Last Airbender in Fire Lord OzaiFire Lord Ozai and seeing what sort of trouble we can get into with ThreatenThreaten-style effects.

How Does Fire Lord OzaiFire Lord Ozai Work?

Fire Lord Ozai's first ability reads "Whenever Fire Lord Ozai attacks, you may sacrifice another creature. If you do, add an amount of equal to the sacrificed creature’s power. Until end of combat, you don’t lose this mana as steps end."

He then has a second ability baked right into him that acts as a mana sink: ": Exile the top card of each opponent’s library. Until end of turn, you may play one of those cards without paying its mana cost." So if we sacrifice a creature with at least six power, we can immediately sink that mana into an activation of Fire Lord OzaiFire Lord Ozai's ability without having to pay any additional mana. We can even activate this ability multiple times a turn.

In looking at Fire Lord Ozai's EDHREC Page, we can see brewers are already leaning heavily into creatures with high power and low mana cost like Kalakscion, Hunger TyrantKalakscion, Hunger Tyrant, Phyrexian SoulgorgerPhyrexian Soulgorger, and Cosmic LarvaCosmic Larva. Fire Lord Ozai turns them into a mana-positive ritual by sacrificing them to make more mana than they cost and even lets us avoid their downsides.

They're then turning that extra mana generated by our commander into extra cards or value with instants like Blood for the Blood God!Blood for the Blood God! and Commune with LavaCommune with Lava or even more mana with effects like Doubling CubeDoubling Cube and Seething SongSeething Song. It all builds into something of a Storm-y deck that can close the game with Comet StormComet Storm and Final FortuneFinal Fortune.

But this is Plot Twist, where we zig where others zag, so we'll instead look at how we can sacrifice our opponents' creatures for value instead.

Doing the Twist

That's right, this week's deck is going to leverage ThreatenThreaten effects, especially those that come on a creature like Zealous ConscriptsZealous Conscripts or Firbolg FlutistFirbolg Flutist, to steal our opponents' creatures so we can sacrifice them to Fire Lord OzaiFire Lord Ozai to generate extra mana while also removing potential blockers. We'll then turn that mana into extra combats with effects like Aggravated AssaultAggravated Assault and Hellkite ChargerHellkite Charger that we can trigger during combat to allow us to get another combat step! Dolmen GateDolmen Gate, Mithril CoatMithril Coat, and friends help keep our commander alive while we try to piece together enough combat steps to win the game.

Finally, we have a handful of mana sinks, like Bhaal's InvokerBhaal's Invoker, Engine RatEngine Rat, and Geth, Lord of the VaultGeth, Lord of the Vault to put all of our extra mana into that can also help us close out the game. Plus, Horizon StoneHorizon Stone even helps us keep any mana we don't use around for later turns. It's a different style of combat-focused deck than we've done on Plot Twist before. Let's dive into it!

Creatures That Steal Creatures

These ThreatenThreaten-style creatures compose the core of our deck this week. They both act as removal, since we can use them to steal an opponent's creature (ideally one that we'll sacrifice to Fire Lord OzaiFire Lord Ozai's ability and turn into mana and permanent removal), and as additional fodder for our commander if we need it as well. We're running less removal than we might otherwise normally because we have so many ways to bring creatures to our side for a turn.

Captivating CrewCaptivating Crew is great as a repeatable way for us to steal a creature or several, albeit at sorcery speed, every turn. Olivia VoldarenOlivia Voldaren can do the same thing at instant speed but for more mana, and we'll get to keep the creature for as long as we control Oliviva. We also get to pretend we're playing Modern in 2013 if we want to! Helm of PossessionHelm of Possession can also steal a creature every turn and is less easy to interact with since it's an artifact.

InsurrectionInsurrection will let us gain control of all of our opponents' creatures one time and is an absolute blast every time we resolve it. Hideous TaskmasterHideous Taskmaster and Molten PrimordialMolten Primordial will let us "borrow" one creature from each of our opponents, which can usually be more than enough for us to swing the tide in our favor. Firbolg FlutistFirbolg Flutist is a somewhat similar effect since it gives whatever creature it threatens the myriad ability.

There are additionally a handful of single-target versions of this effect in our deck, like Zealous ConscriptsZealous Conscripts. Sauron, the Lidless EyeSauron, the Lidless Eye seems the most intriguing since it also gives us an ability to sink the extra mana our commander generates into. You could replace some of these more limited, single-target effects with instants like Act of AggressionAct of Aggression, but having an extra body to sacrifice to our commander could be relevant on occasion.

Extra Combats Galore

Our deck this week is running a whopping eight extra combat effects. Several of them can be triggered multiple times or generate multiple combats. While extra combats aren't designated to a higher bracket the same way extra turns are, in our deck this week they'll probably play out pretty similarly in reality so you might want to run this deck in Bracket 3 pods or be clear about how it can chain extra combats during your Rule Zero discussion.

Aggravated AssaultAggravated Assault and Hellkite ChargerHellkite Charger are our strongest extra combat effects because we could in theory chain quite a few combat steps together using them and the red mana that Fire Lord OzaiFire Lord Ozai generates each combat. We don't have a guaranteed way to generate infinite combats this way like a Najeela, the Blade-BlossomNajeela, the Blade-Blossom deck might, but we can get close under the right circumstances.

The next tier of these effects can grant multiple extra combats in a single turn: BloodthirsterBloodthirster, Full ThrottleFull Throttle, and Moraug, Fury of AkoumMoraug, Fury of Akoum. Their main downside is that they're sorcery-speed effects, so we can't use our commander to help pay for them. Still, two extra combats will often be more than enough, especially if we can steal a bunch of our opponents' would-be blockers and turn them into attackers instead before combat.

Lastly, we have a few instant-speed, single extra combat effects in Great Train HeistGreat Train Heist and Savage BeatingSavage Beating, both of which will also add some lethality to our creatures for a bit of extra spice. Karlach, Fury of AvernusKarlach, Fury of Avernus rounds out the extra combat effects because she's too good not to ruin in our decklist this week!

But What Do We Do With the Extra Mana, Jeff?

Great question! Since we'll ideally be stealing and sacrificing a creature each turn/combat, we'll want to make sure we have reliable mana sinks to put the extra mana we generate into. Cue the Invokers! This quirky cycle of creatures have expensive activated abilities that are great in the end game of Limited matches or if you have about eight excess mana to spend.

Bhaal's InvokerBhaal's Invoker and Myrkul's InvokerMyrkul's Invoker made the cut in our final list since they'll help us either directly apply pressure to our opponents' life totals, or will give our creatures a power boost and evasion. Engine RatEngine Rat is an honorary Invoker since its ability only costs six mana, but it gives us a functional second copy of Myrkul's Invoker in the deck.

Staff of DominationStaff of Domination is more flexible since it has a variety of effects that we can use depending on exactly how much mana we have left over, letting us pay for an extra combat effect and also eke out a little extra value. Geth, Lord of the VaultGeth, Lord of the Vault might be the best of all of our mana sinks though since it can help us get back a creature to later sacrifice again to our commander.

Other Fun Instant-Speed Effects

While our mana sinks are there to help us have a reliable way to spend the mana our commander generates, we do have a handful of nifty instant-speed effects in the list, too. Vedalken OrreryVedalken Orrery was one of the first cards in this week's list because it lets us cast most of our deck at instant speed.

Silver Shroud CostumeSilver Shroud Costume and Mithril CoatMithril Coat can help us protect our commander from removal or even survive combat unscathed and ready to attack again. Gerrard's Hourglass PendantGerrard's Hourglass Pendant does the same thing for our whole team if we have to make a bad attack, and I use it in a very similar way in my personal Yeva, Nature's Herald list.

Necron DeathmarkNecron Deathmark and Dictate of ErebosDictate of Erebos are both instant-speed removal effects that lean into the self-sacrificing effects our deck wants to do anyway. Dictate can be a rather salt-inducing card, so it can always been replaced with an effect like Puppeteer CliquePuppeteer Clique instead.

Last but not least, we're running EmbercleaveEmbercleave because sometimes a surprise double strike attack from a token made by Rite of the Raging StormRite of the Raging Storm or Urabrask's ForgeUrabrask's Forge will be exactly what we need to get the job done.

Winning the Game with Fire Lord OzaiFire Lord Ozai

While our primary win condition is going to be stealing all of our opponents' blockers, attacking with them, and then getting extra combats in to do it all over again, that's not the only way for us to win.

Dictate of the Twin GodsDictate of the Twin Gods and Fated FirepowerFated Firepower are both damage-enhancers that we can cast at instant speed, so we'll be able to attack, sacrifice a creature to Fire Lord OzaiFire Lord Ozai's ability, and then use that mana to do extra damage after blockers are (or aren't) declared. While this trick will only really work once a game, it'll certainly keep our opponents guessing in future matches.

Ayara, Widow of the RealmAyara, Widow of the Realm gives us a bit of extra reach, allowing us to essentially FlingFling a creature we steal at an opponent and gain life while we're at it. Sometimes an opponent might have too many blockers or a board full of tokens and Ayara will give us just a little bit more damage when we need it.

Similarly, SoulblastSoulblast is a great way to finish off the last opponent, ideally after we've stolen a bunch of creatures with InsurrectionInsurrection and attacked with them. Since it's an instant, we can even pay for it with our extra mana in combat and after damage has been dealt but before moving to our second main phase. Talk about a combat trick!

A Few Additional Twists for Good Measure

As always, the best part of Plot Twist is the strange cards we uncover in our Scryfall searches. Illicit MasqueradeIllicit Masquerade certainly fits that effect, allowing us to essentially reanimate a creature whenever one of our creatures on the board dies. This card feels like the child of NecromancyNecromancy and Heroic InterventionHeroic Intervention, and given how quickly we'll churn through creatures we should be able to take advantage of it nicely.

SoulblastSoulblast is a very fun wincon (shout out to my friend Lee who taught me how to lose against this card), especially in combination with something like InsurrectionInsurrection if we happen to have enough mana to cast both in one turn. This feels like a fantastic effect to have after our final extra combat of the turn.

While we might not always hit the dream of three counterspells with Mysterious StrangerMysterious Stranger, we can reasonably expect to find three removal spells that we can exile with it, getting removal and removing cards from our opponents' graveyards, too.

Last but not least, Bladed Battle-FanBladed Battle-Fan and Blessing of LeechesBlessing of Leeches are both strange combat tricks that work well in a black Voltron deck. In particular Blessing of Leeches is amazing because it can be triggered multiple times a turn if necessary, which is particularly handy since we can use an extra combat effect to untap Fire Lord OzaiFire Lord Ozai and attack again, even after it regenerates. Yell at me in the comments below if that's wrong!

Fire Lord Ozai Commander Decklist

Here's the full list for you to peruse:

Roll the Credits

I hope you enjoyed reading the latest edition of Plot Twist featuring Fire Lord Ozai. Next time you sit down for a game of Commander, see what sort of plot twists you can add to take the game's narrative in a new direction.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on today's deck and what cards could find a home in it in the comments below or on Archidekt. The Maybeboards of my deck lists are always filled with cards I thought could work but didn't make the final decklist.

You can check out my other articles here or see what decks I'm currently playing here. I finally got around to assembling a Bracket 4, colorless combo deck that I'm trying (and failing) to make work and having a blast.

My inner Timmy also seems to be back in full force as I've been playing my Yeva, Mono-Green Stompy list again lately and falling in love with it all over again.

Stay tuned to see what other twists and turns are headed your way in the next edition of Plot Twist.