Azorius (Blue-White) is one of MTG's top color combinations, boasting a variety of different archetypes you can play in Commander. Ranging from Creature-based strategies to Artifact and flicker synergies, Azorius has options that can suit any playstyle.

When it comes to picking an Azorius Commander for your EDH deck it's important to understand what type of Commander you want to build around. Blue-White is historically known for strategies such as Spirits, Birds, Wizards, mill, control, and more!

You'll usually want to include some sort of way to draw cards, counter your opponents' spells, and out-tempo whatever the other players at the table are trying to do. This color combo offers tons of ways to achieve that.

Best Azorius Commanders

• 1. Brago, King Eternal
• 2. Millicent, Restless Revenant
• 3. Hope Estheim
• 4. Mendicant Core, Guidelight

While there are over a hundred different Azorius Commanders to choose from, today we'll be looking at some of the most popular and most powerful Blue-White Commanders to build around.

Brago, King Eternal

Brago, King Eternal, from 2014's Conspiracy is arguably EDH's most iconic Azorius Commander. Brago's inherent strategy is all about blinking or exiling and returning to the battlefield your permanents with powerful enter-the-battlefield abilities, in order to accrue an advantage over your opponents.

In conjunction with cards like Sun Titan and Agent of Treachery, you can keep flickering your powerful permanents, as long as you can keep attacking with Brago, that is. This means you can also incorporate other ways to flicker your cards, without having to rely solely on Brago to attack. Creatures like Yorion, the Sky Nomad, can do the job of giving you another big blink turn, while Enchantments like Teleportation Circle can give you a flicker effect at each of your end steps.

Some of my favorite Creatures to include in a Brago, King Eternal deck are Restoration Angel, Aether Channeler, Displacer Kitten, and Riptide Gearhulk.

I also really like secret mana accelerators, like Cloud of Faeries and Peregrine Drake. You can have some pretty insane turns if you can multiply your Enter-the-Battlefield triggers with cards like Panharmonicon and Strionic Resonator, especially if you have an Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines already in play.

It's worth noting that even though Brago, King Eternal is a card from 2014, there are multiple cards from more recent sets that synergize nicely with him. In Secrets of Strixhaven, Creatures that enter prepared, so that you can cast their prepared spell, are the perfect cards to pair with Brago, King Eternal.

First and foremost is Emeritus of Ideation, an Ancestral Recall on a stick that you can keep resetting, without having to attack with it.

Emeritus of Truce is another prepared Creature that is a pretty solid flicker target. Since lots of Creatures will be in play in a multiplayer game, you'll have no issue resetting this Creature so to net you a Swords to Plowshares multiple turns in a row.

Overall, Brago is a very versatile Commander that won't go out of style anytime soon. As long as Creatures with powerful ETB abilities are printed, Brago will have his time in the sun. With each new set you'll find new and exciting ways to amass advantages over your opponents with new powerful Creatures to blink.

Millicent, Restless Revenant

Unlike Brago, which is a strategy that can incorporate a variety of solid Enter-the-Battlefield Creatures, Millicent, Restless Revenant is a unique Azorius Commander in that she focuses primarily on one Creature type - Spirits.

Millicent, Restless Revenant is an expensive Blue-White Commander on the surface. However, if you're able to amass a Spirit army, you can keep playing her repeatedly. I also appreciate the fact that Millicent inherently makes more Spirits in combat and gives you insurance against any sort of sweeper effects. By making so many Spirits, Millicent, Restless Revenant is the threat that keeps coming back, again and again.

To build an effective Blue-White Millicent deck your best bet is to just play the best Spirits in the game. You have "lords" in Drogskol Captain and Supreme Phantom, with Drogskol Reinforcements being one of your best Creatures if you can generate enough 1/1 Flying Spirit tokens with Millicent or other cards.

You get a couple of cool tech cards in a Millicent, Restless Revenant deck as well. Spectral Arcanist is an interesting Spirit Snapcaster Mage that notably can target an Instant or Sorcery in any graveyard, not just your own.

You can especially catch opponents by surprise if you already have Rattlechains in play or waiting in the wings. Selfless Spirit, Windborn Muse, and Remorseful Cleric all give you protection or ways to disrupt your opponents in the form of Spirit Creatures.

To keep the pressure on, I'd recommend cards like Abandoned Air Temple and Moorland Haunt to buff up your Spirit army, even after you've played a few lords. If you have a cost reducer in play, like Sapphire Medallion, you'll want card draw to ensure you can keep putting spirits into play. Cards like Reconnaissance Mission and Distant Melody can refill your hand while you amass your Spirit army.

Overall, Millicent, Restless Revenant provides a fun and niche Creature archetype that centers around the best of the best spirits in all of Magic: the Gathering. What I like so much about this Blue-White deck is that you get access to so many unique Creatures with different effects that you probably wouldn't play in any other Azorius EDH deck.

Hope Estheim

Another more niche Azorius EDH strategy, Hope Estheim is a win condition in her own right, providing a way to potentially mill out all your Commander opponents. Just based on her own ability, Hope Estheim decks seek to mill out their opponents while naturally gaining life, hopefully putting them out of range of their opponents gameplan.

Hope Estheim provides a way for pretty niche lifegain cards to go the extra mile, such as Authority of the Consuls. Since Hope herself is so cheap to play, you can keep returning her from the Command Zone pretty consistently, to pressure your opponents' library count. Cards like Fumigate and Riot Control can stave off annoying Creatures, to hopefully buy you enough time to enact your combos. Utilizing cards like The One Ring and Teleportation Circle, you can continuously protect yourself.

With so many lifegain cards inherent to your strategy, you can play lots of ways to benefit from these cards. The Gaffer and Drogskol Reaver give you access to repeatable card draw. Felidar Sovereign and Test of Endurance can win the game outright, if you can protect them for a turn. Even if you can't win just by milling your opponents, Heliod, Sun-Crowned can buff up your Creatures, turning them into lethal attackers.

Hope Estheim might not be the most exciting Azorius Commander, but I do think there's something to be said about building her combos and protecting them, while under the watchful guise of your opponents. While Creatures like Bruvac the Grandiloquent might have a big target on their back, if you can cast an uncounterable Space-Time Anomaly or Beacon of Immortality you might be able to win the game on the spot. I also just like the slower way of resolving an Approach of the Second Sun, using fast card draw to win the game in a matter of a turn or two.

You can build a Hope Estheim deck to be more aggressive or spell-based, but all in all she remains one of the cheaper and more unique Commanders, with an effect that can end games fast.

Mendicant Core, Guidelight

Another cheap, but more aggressive Azorius Commander you can play is Mendicant Core, Guidelight. Mendicant Core, Guidelight focuses on hitting max speed fast, so that you can start copying powerful Artifact spells to drown your opponents in value. Because this Creature has the Start your engines! mechanic, you'll want to find cheap Creatures that can chip in damage unchallenged, so you can hit max speed as soon as possible.

With Creatures like Hope of Ghirapur, Gingerbrute, Nesting Bot, and Gold-Forged Thopterxyx, you can pressure your opponents early to hit max speed.

If you don't have one or two-drop Creatures, you can ramp out cards like Kappa Cannoneer, a threat that can get you to max speed unchecked. While not every game will net you a fast start, especially if you're met with early interaction from your opponents, this deck can also play the long game once you start copying your Artifact spells.

Once you get to max speed, you'll want to find ways to bridge the gap between your cheap Creatures and your more powerful spells above five or six mana. Utilizing Muraganda Raceway, in conjunction with other ramp effects like Etherium Sculptor, Foundry Inspector, and Solemn Simulacrum, you can start unlocking Mendicant Core, Guidelight's full potential.

Once you're at nine or more mana, you can start casting, and copying cards like Portal to Phyrexia, Reaver Titan, and Darksteel Forge. You can also copy cards like Simularcum Synthesizer to pump out even larger Creature tokens, while using Worldwalker Helm to continuously copy your Mendicant Core copy tokens.

With cards like Thopter Spy Network, Padeem, Consul of Innovation, and Sai, Master Thopterist, you can keep drawing towards your powerful spells. One true advantage to playing an Azorius Commander like Mendicant Core, is that you can play backbreaking spells like Organic Extinction, which if resolved will wipe your opponents' boards while keeping yours intact.

Mendicant Core, Guidelight is a solid engine, that like Hope Estheim, can be cast repeatedly for cheap. Mendicant Core, Guidelight is a means to an end, and if you can achieve max speed early on in a game, you'll have no trouble burying your opponents as you accrue massive value with powerful Artifact spells.

Honorable Mentions

While there are a ton of other Azorius Commanders to mention in this article, there is only room to talk about so many. Looking at Azorius as a whole, there are some more niche strategies to be found, but on average most decks seem to fall into archetypes relating to Flying Creatures, blink effects, Artifact synergies, and casting noncreature spells.

As I mentioned at the start of this article, finding the best Azorius Commander will mean something for different players. Commander, in general, is all about finding what strategies resonate with you. If you like Blue-White flyers as a general strategy, you could build a Kastral, the Windcrested deck, if you feel a bit too creeped out by Millicent and her spirit adversaries.

Grand Arbiter Augustin IV is another popular Azorius Commander, one that's been around since near the inception of the format. However, this Creature is so versatile that it feels more like a general inclusion in any Blue-White EDH deck, rather than being its own deck. If you do want to play this as your Commander just be wary your opponents might see you as just a bit more threatening than anyone else at the table.

Elminster is probably the top of these honorable mentions, however. Focusing on discounting your Instants and Sorceries, Elminster can be a challenging, but rewarding Azorius Commander to build around, especially if your deck isn't as Creature-focused. This means you can find alternate ways to win the game, either by creating a massive number of tokens with cards like Pegasus Herd, or just by winning the game outright with Approach of the Second Sun.

While I do like Elminster in theory, I think I have more fun casting Y'shtola, Night's Blessed if I'm focusing on Instants and Sorceries.

Conclusion

Overall, Azorius as an EDH color combination has a variety of different Commanders to choose from. Whether you like making spirit tokens or flickering your permanents, casting Artifacts or milling your opponents, there are many different key strategies to build around in this color pair.

While I do think Azorius can be a bit limited in some ways, due to it being only a two-color combination, you can find rewarding Commanders to build around and make your own.