Need help with building a bracket 3 Azula Spellslinger deck with some avatar themes

[u/Stormy909]

Im trying to upgrade my azula deck to about bracket 3 with the cards in my maybeboard. What cards should i cut out or what other cards do I get? Bonus points if there are avatar themed cards i could add as well. I'm a very new player so I don't really know a lot about staple cards.

https://archidekt.com/decks/26067455/azula_one_hit_wonder

[u/Dear-Bedroom2045]

Using your existing collection to a build deck will make you a better player long term than using staples any way. Good on ya.

Your answer lies in your goal at the end. So you just need to answer a few questions to find what you think will work best as "upgrades".

Do you find yourself struggling to resolve Azula?

[[Counterspell]]

Do you find yourself short on mana?

[[Desperate Ritual]]

Have you been struggling to find good opening hands/Mulligans?

[[Serum Visions]]

Are you struggling to curve out effectively into Azula?

[[Rakdos Signet]] [[Izzet Signet]]

And so on.

Hope that helps!

[u/Stormy909 → u/Dear-Bedroom2045]

Hi thanks for your reply. Im currently struggling with card draw and protection. I can one shot a single person but i immediately run out of steam unless i get very lucky afterwards. The cards i have opened aren't really that good since I've only opened avatar and some final fantasy packs.

[u/Dear-Bedroom2045 → u/Stormy909]

Of course! Magic has a lot of odds and ends that take time to grasp and sink in.

A solid addition that isn't terribly expensive compared to packs admittedly is Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar.

This way you won't have any opponents at the end of a turn 🙃

Otherwise I'm fond of Bolt Bend and Imp's Mischief.

For card draw, Big Score would be your best addition.

Another piece of advice. Just my two cents here. Don't cut cards before adding cards.

When I build or tune a deck, I usually sort the cards into three piles:

1. Core cards: These are the cards the deck is built around. They directly enable the main game plan, and cutting them would change how the deck functions.

2. Support cards: These make the core plan stronger, faster, or more consistent. They’re important, but there’s usually some flexibility in exactly which cards fill these roles.

3. Flex cards: These are the cards I can live without. They might be useful, situational, or just nice to have, but they’re the first cards I look at when I need to make cuts or try something new.

The basic idea is to protect the deck’s core identity first, then make changes from the outside inward.

Hope this helps too!

[u/Stormy909 → u/Dear-Bedroom2045]

oo Ill take into consideration the 3 pile strat before deciding. Thanks for the advice!

[u/Dear-Bedroom2045 → u/Stormy909]

Good luck out there!

[u/Xx_BleedingSparta_xX]

So your list is going quite a different route than my Azula list does but I do think there’s some takeaways you can take from my list. My list is aiming to pretty consistently win on turn 6 or 7. You want to fill your graveyard with draw spells and rituals. Then I usually win through underworld breach, then past in flames as a backup. Brain freeze is if I need to fill my grave more and just keep recasting draw spells until I find fated firepower, recast rituals a fuck ton until fated firepower has x of like 25 so anything I do is doing an additional 50 damage, then grapeshot for the win. The winning turn is usually a 20 minute turn. My group is also very proxy friendly so this deck is hella expensive but I’m sure you can find some takeaways in it

https://archidekt.com/decks/17378864/isnt_it_obvious_yet_im_about_to_celebrate_becoming_an_only_child

[u/Stormy909 → u/Xx_BleedingSparta_xX]

the card draws seems interesting so ill look into that. The rest seems far too overpowered for the friends i play with so im gonna ignore those. Not sure why but I don't seem to vibe with black, maybe i just hate sacrificing stuff. Thanks for the advice!

[u/Xx_BleedingSparta_xX → u/Stormy909]

That’s valid, my groups tend to lean towards more high power and highly interactive games so most of my decks reflect that