Avatar: The Last Airbender has flooded the field with a swath of awesome legendary creatures to helm our commander decks. Toph, the First Metalbender and the Earthbending mechanic piqued my interest as spoilers started flowing. I was dead set on building something Red and Green where I could smash my opponents to smithereens. Little did I know that everyone's favorite uncle would inspire me to take that Red and Green concept in another direction.

Iroh, Grand Lotus put me in an inspired, yet uncomfortable brewing situation. I'm a HUGE fan of the Temur design space, but most of the decks I built in the past ended up being silly gimmicks or didn't satiate my brewers mentality. Uncle Iroh put me in a position I wasn't quite prepared for. I loved his interaction with the returning Lesson cards and having Past In Flames in the Command Zone is absolutely wild! So, I did something out of my comfort zone, I brewed Temur Spell Slinger.

Slinging Hot Tea | Commander | Mike Cummings

• Commander (1)
• 1 Iroh, Grand Lotus

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Archmage Emeritus
• 1 Archmage of Runes
• 1 Ashling, Flame Dancer
• 1 Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty
• 1 Coruscation Mage
• 1 Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius
• 1 Dragon's Rage Channeler
• 1 Electrostatic Field
• 1 Firebrand Archer
• 1 Goblin Electromancer
• 1 Guttersnipe
• 1 Kessig Flamebreather
• 1 Ledger Shredder
• 1 Murmuring Mystic
• 1 Rootcoil Creeper
• 1 Stormcatch Mentor
• 1 Storm-Kiln Artist
• 1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
• 1 Thunderclap Drake
• 1 Uncle Iroh
• 1 Urabrask // The Great Work
• 1 Veyran, Voice of Duality
• 1 Vivi Ornitier
• 1 Young Pyromancer

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Ral, Storm Conduit

• Instants (17)
• 1 Abandon Attachments
• 1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cycle of Renewal
• 1 Desperate Ritual
• 1 Energybending
• 1 Harrow
• 1 How to Start a Riot
• 1 It'll Quench Ya!
• 1 Manamorphose
• 1 Octopus Form
• 1 Origin of Metalbending
• 1 Pyretic Ritual
• 1 Redirect Lightning
• 1 Seething Song
• 1 Snap
• 1 Vivi's Persistence

• Sorceries (13)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Containment Breach
• 1 Expressive Iteration
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Grapeshot
• 1 Introduction to Prophecy
• 1 Mana Geyser
• 1 Price of Freedom
• 1 Start from Scratch
• 1 Strike It Rich
• 1 Three Visits
• 1 True Ancestry
• 1 Waterbending Lesson

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Case of the Ransacked Lab
• 1 Fiery Inscription
• 1 Shark Typhoon

• Artifacts (3)
• 1 Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (38)
• 6 Forest
• 6 Island
• 6 Mountain
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Commercial District
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Hedge Maze
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Ketria Triome
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Rejuvenating Springs
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 1 Spire Garden
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 1 Thundering Falls
• 1 Training Center
• 1 Wooded Foothills

Buy This Deck Export text

Every Commander deck needs a little bit of ramp. This deck will split the difference by grabbing us lands and reducing the cost of our instant and sorcery spells. Uncle Iroh is perfect here as he pairs with Iroh, Grand Lotus to make all of our lessons free from the graveyard. Thunderclap Drake pulls double duty by reducing costs and giving us the option to double or even triple down on a single spell with its sacrifice ability. Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius ends up being a powerhouse for our deck as it reduces costs from our graveyard. Who doesn't love free spells?

From what I gather, generating hand advantage in MTG is really good. In fact, "draw a card" is the most powerful phrase in the game. Generating advantage with a simple creature like Archmage Emeritus will keep our hand full and Case of the Ransacked Lab will do the same thing while making our spells cheaper. Energybending is a lesson that gains all the benefits of Iroh, Grand Lotus and gives the cards we so crave. Keeping a consistent cycle of card draw will push us into our big storm turns and allow us to secure a victory.

All these mana discounts and cards in our hand won't help us if we can't win the game, so lets deal some damage. Aetherflux Reservoir will pad our life total and allow us to blast our opponents into dust! Vivi Ornitier, the standard banned Black mage, helps out our "death by a thousand cuts" strategy while giving us more mana than we need. Cards like Fiery Inscription, Electrostatic Field and Guttersnipe will continue the pain train as Uncle Iroh teaches our opponents a lesson. Incremental damage is the key here. We want a long turn where we cast as much as we can with as many damage dealers as we can.

Iroh, Grand Lotus pushed me to try something I don't normally do. Typically I like to swing in for big creature damage or drain the board with some Aristocrats shenanigans. Ultimately this was a great exercise in pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I know I'm not well versed in this archetype, so please feel free to use my deck as a shell, or throw it out and build something fresh! Either way, I appreciate you and thanks for reading!